The vellum strip hangs steady in Kynes's spell, its gold ink now fully open to view. The hidden name and the second witness mark sit plain in the lantern glow, while the erased margin note looks thinner than the rest, as if ashamed to be read.
Halven
I did not know what I was helping bury until it was already buried. By then, I was paid, and scared, and too deep in it.
Halven swallows hard and lowers their shoulders. Bren says nothing, but her attention softens from suspicion to measured patience.
Bren
Then say it cleanly. Who paid you, and who did you think you were protecting?
Halven
Corthain paid me. I thought I was sparing a house from shame. Instead, I helped turn a living person into a line on a page.
Kynes
...Ilyr Domini.
The name settles in the damp air. Halven closes their eyes, then nods once, as if the truth finally weighs less than the lie. Bren steps a fraction closer to Kynes, her posture easing beside him.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn who Corthain thought he was protecting
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the truth of the sealing process
“Is Ilyr Domini still alive”
NO (Unlikely, rolled 50)
Kynes traces the gold ink of the name, but the archive's script beneath it pulses once and fades to a cold, dead grey. The record confirms that the life tethered to that name has long since been extinguished.
“I telekineticlly draw a necrotic summoning circle.... And bring forth the sport of Ilyr Domini " I'm tired of your shit I'll ask him myself"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Kynes lowers his staff and drags a circle through the air. Necrotic gold follows the tip, thin as a wound, then locks into runes around the vellum strip.
Kynes
I am tired of your shit. I ask him myself.
The circle tightens. Cold breath gathers over the strip, and a pale shape condenses above it, clothed in hush and old ruin.
Ilyr Domini
Who drags my name back into the light?
Halven
That seal chamber... I know that name.
The spirit hardens into focus, its outline settling over a sigil of a lower chamber, with a second mark stamped beside a faded witness line.
Ilyr Domini
Corthain hid me where the paid witness could be erased, below the seal chamber. Ask plainly, if you want the rest.
Quest Complete
Learn who Corthain thought he was protecting
Quest Complete
Learn the truth of the sealing process
“" I am here to grant you witness"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Kynes
I am here to grant you witness.
The spirit steadies, and the cold around the vellum eases. The circle holds, but no longer bites at the air.
Ilyr Domini
Witness... at last. Then ask, and I answer as one named.
Halven
Ilyr was never meant to be erased. I helped make that happen.
Bren
Good. Say it plainly, Ilyr. We are listening.
Ilyr Domini
Below the seal chamber, Corthain kept the true record in stone and blood. I was the key he buried, not the lie he sold.
The faded witness line on the vellum brightens, and a second, hidden margin note surfaces beside the lower chamber sigil. The lantern lifts a little, as if it can breathe again.
Ilyr Domini
If you keep my witness, Kynes, I will show you the name he carved over mine.
✓ Quest Accepted
Hear the name carved over Ilyr Domini
“Speak it and it shall be*”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Kynes
Speak it, then.
The circle tightens around Ilyr’s outline, then loosens like a held breath. The spirit turns its head toward the vaulted stone above the shelter, as if listening through years of burial.
Ilyr Domini
Over my name, Corthain carved a second name. Halven saw the chisel marks. Read them now.
The second margin note on the vellum flares gold, and the hidden script climbs into legible lines beneath the lower chamber sigil. Halven goes rigid, eyes fixed on the page.
Halven
It was there the whole time... I buried the witness, but not the proof.
Bren leans in over Kynes’s shoulder, her gaze sharp on the newly exposed words. The lantern light steadies, illuminating a carved name above Ilyr Domini, clear enough to read without strain.
The name is revealed at last, etched over the erased record in the stone. Ilyr’s outline sharpens with grim relief, while the vellum keeps glowing as if waiting for Kynes to decide what to do with the truth.
Quest Complete
Hear the name carved over Ilyr Domini