The rack room hums like a struck bell. White sanctified light pours through the bulkhead seams, and the dark seam at the threshold tightens under it.
The Priest
Hold him where he is. Use your strength to pin the anchor, Sabien. If the body shifts, the thing follows.
The Shadow Entity flickers and flinches in the glare, its outline thinning, then knotting back around the unconscious Borrower at the frame.
The Weapons Master
Keep pressure on the door line. Do not let it breathe room into the vault.
Sabien
The seam is nearly sealed. The Borrower is the hinge.
Sabien braces in the threshold, heavy frame locked against the floor, forcing the Borrower into stillness as the holy light crawls over the crack.
The Priest
Good. Now wait for my cast to finish, and do not yield an inch. When the binding takes, the threshold will have nowhere left to open.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the Borrower pinned until the binding takes
“I reverse the thoughts, patterns and numbers in my head and act outside it, i cast hold/freeze being like ive seen the priest do”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Sabien turns the pattern inward, crushing thought into a cold, ordered knot. The threshold answers at once, and the Borrower locks rigid in his grip as the Shadow Entity snaps still around it.
The white seam flares hard across the frame, then settles into a thin, sealed line. The measured knocking behind the vault door falls silent.
The Weapons Master
It takes. Hold it there.
A sharp pulse runs through Sabien's eye implant, and black fluid beads at the rim before it closes again.
The Shadow Entity
...still. Bearable.
The Borrower remains pinned, motionless, while the darkness beyond the line no longer reaches for the room.
The Priest
Binding is set. Keep the anchor under your hand.
Quest Complete
Keep the Borrower pinned until the binding takes
“I hold the hold on the shadow entity”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Sabien keeps the pressure in place, and the hold answers him. The Shadow Entity stays bound tight against the sealed line, no longer straining for the room.
The Shadow Entity
Held. Stable.
The Borrower’s weight slackens in Sabien’s grip, but the stasis does not break. The threshold remains shut, the cold beyond it cut off cleanly.
The Weapons Master
Good. Do not ease it yet.
A thin bead of black fluid gathers again at Sabien’s eye rim, then stills. The white seam holds its shape without shuddering.
The Priest
The seal stands. Maintain the anchor until I release you.
For the first time, the pressure at the threshold feels captive instead of hungry. Something on the far side presses once, finds no opening, and stops.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the threshold sealed until the Priest releases you
“I maintain the hold”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Sabien holds steady, and the seal accepts the strain as if it recognizes him. The white line stays thin, but it no longer trembles under his hand.
The Weapons Master
That’s it. Don’t give it an inch.
The Borrower sags heavier into stillness, turned from a hinge into dead weight. The Shadow Entity remains pinned at the seam, obedient and quiet.
The Shadow Entity
Held... by choice.
A faint ribbon of black fluid wets Sabien’s eye rim, then stops. The pressure beyond the vault does not return.
The Priest
Release is not yet given. Continue to maintain the anchor.
At the far side of the seal, something tests the boundary once more, finds only silence, and withdraws.