Kynes raises his staff and drives the strike into the junction. Violet light cracks across the mirror wall like split ice.
The surface shivers, then opens inward. Under the calm reflection, House Xar claimwork crawls over Domini lines, exposed at last.
Bren
Now. Cut it before it learns your shape again.
Kynes
I cut it.
The lattice jerks hard, trying to cling to Kynes's blood-mark. Red script flashes, then starts to peel away from the wall.
Bren shifts her stance, blade ready, as the mirror clears into a stable map of the feeder route. The path to the core stands exposed, and the harvest hook begins to fail.
✓ Quest Accepted
Sever the House Xar claimwork from the mirror wall
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the vault core
“Using Xar-Lattice Severing Insight, House-Xar Exposure Insight, Domini Seal-Master's Mastery, Mark-Bearer's Sovereignty, and his newly unified understanding of Xar architecture, Kynes cuts the exposed Xar claimwork at the identified choke point, stripping the hunting mask and harvest feeder from the mirror while leaving the original Domini bearer-channel and route-map intact.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled -1)
Kynes drags the blade of his power through the choke point. The exposed Xar claimwork splits with a dry, ugly flicker, and the hunting mask loses its grip.
The feeder thread sloughs off the mirror wall in black strips, peeling away without taking the Domini route-map with it.
Red script spasms once, then folds inward like a snuffed alarm. The wall steadies, clear and cold, holding only the original bearer-channel beneath the glassy surface.
Kynes
The parasite is gone. The route is still there.
Bren
That part held. Good. Don’t let it bite back.
The void-surge stabilizer hums a low, lingering note as the last scraps of Xar work wither away.
The mirror now shows a calm, intact map toward deeper stone, while the vibration in the passage keeps thudding from ahead.
Bren
The way forward is open. Do we press on, or do we check that map before it changes?
Quest Complete
Sever the House Xar claimwork from the mirror wall
Quest Complete
Destroy the clerk-line harvest lattice
New Gift: Lattice-Breaker's Arcane Insight