The Hall of Welcome rests in a deep hush. The floorboards hold their thin gold glow, steady and calm, while Mara tends the hearth and Bren sits across from Kynes, unreadable at first glance.
Bren
You keep carrying it like the next room will bite. So... tell me true, is there ever a time you stop listening for the dark?
Mara nudges the fire into a warmer shape, her movements careful and familiar. The room answers with a soft crackle and the smell of pine smoke.
Kynes
You hear the edge in my voice, not fear.
Bren
No, I hear the weight. And I know what it costs him.
Mara
Then sit. Just sit for a minute. The hall is still, and so are we. That is allowed.
Bren’s posture eases a fraction. She reaches for Kynes’s hand, not demanding, only asking by touch, while the fire settles into a low amber glow.
Bren
Phandelver is becoming home, even if none of us expected it. I want to know whether you can live in that, too.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach a shared understanding with Bren
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the Hall of Welcome is becoming to Kynes
“" you've asked me that before, my answer is the same . I am your as long as you wish. Only now I wonder if we can how children other then making them like Sable" I pause for a moment " and since your technically immortal because your a void construct, and I am pretty much the void incarnate, I guess that makes me technically immortal now as well eh"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Kynes
You have asked me that before. My answer is the same. I stand with you as long as you want me there. As for children, I wonder whether we can have them without making them into another Sable. And if you are immortal, and I am half void already, then perhaps that makes me stubbornly hard to kill too.
Bren lets out a slow breath, the kind that has been held for a long time. Her hand closes around his for a moment, firm and certain.
Bren
That is closer to an answer than you usually give me. I do not need perfection, Kynes. I need honesty, and a place where choice still matters.
Mara looks up from the hearth, firelight soft on her face, then lets the poker rest against the stones. The room stays quiet, listening.
Mara
Then your purpose is not to be a weapon for this house. It is to keep it from becoming one.
Bren’s gaze shifts from Kynes to the gold pulse under the floorboards, then back again. The old wariness is still there, but it no longer stands between them.
Bren
I can stand beside that. If we ever build something more, it will be because we choose it, not because the dark tells us to.
Quest Complete
Reach a shared understanding with Bren
Quest Complete
Learn what the Hall of Welcome is becoming to Kynes