The High Pass wind claws at cloaks and stone, but the same low hum from the Hall of Welcome keeps riding Kynes's ribs. For one breath, it sounds distant. Then it matches the beat under his skin exactly.
Bren slows beside him, eyes narrowing as the rhythm answers her footsteps too. The truth lands hard, the house's pulse is not following Kynes, it is training him, thread by thread, to follow it.
Venom
That frequency was never background. It was a key, a slow fit of body to beam.
Kynes
We keep moving. We find somewhere the Architects cannot reach.
Kynes presses on, staff planted against the frozen track. Each step dulls the echo for a moment, but the pulse keeps returning, patient as a counted spell.
Bren
Then we leave more than a town behind. We leave the house's rhythm behind too.
Ahead, the pass opens into blank white distance. Behind them, the hum fades and returns, as if measuring how far Kynes can still hear it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Dampen the Hall of Welcome’s resonance
✓ Quest Accepted
Separate the Hall of Welcome’s influence from Kynes
“I focus on my own heartbeat, forcing it to ignore the house's cadence.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +2)
Kynes stops on the frozen track and draws one slow breath. He does not fight the hum, he measures it against his own pulse and lets his heartbeat set the pace.
The cadence in his ribs falters, then slips aside. For the first time in days, the house's rhythm does not answer him.
Kynes
Still mine.
Bren
There. It loses you when you stop listening for it.
Venom
The pattern is loosening. Not gone, but no longer in step with his body.
Bren's shoulders ease a fraction, and the white wind runs between the three of them without finding purchase. Venom hovers lower, their outline no longer tugged toward Kynes's chest.
Bren
Say the word if you want to keep walking. Or stand here a moment longer.
Quest Complete
Dampen the Hall of Welcome’s resonance