The wind knifes over the ridge, but under the stone canopy the air is still and close. Bren shifts the ledger between them, its page marked on Nezznar, and waits without pushing.
Bren
You keep saying the mage is the point. In Phandalin, what else are you looking for?
Bren asks it plainly, almost gently. Moonlight catches in her hair as she studies Kynes, not hunting for a flaw this time, only listening.
Kynes
What waits there is more than a lead. A road, maybe. A place to test whether this choice can become a life.
Bren’s shoulders ease at the silence that follows. She folds one hand over the ledger, keeping it steady against the gusts that reach no farther than the edge of the hollow.
Bren
Then tell me straight. If Phandalin is not just another stop, what does your future look like?
“" part vengeance, part justice. Nezznar is apart of a house that brought about the entire end of my house except for myself. That took place in the under dark. " Looks to Bren " I also want you as my companion. You have my back, you've become my lover. I want you in my live completely"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +2)
Kynes
Part vengeance, part justice. Nezznar is part of the house that ended my house in the Underdark. I am the one who remains.
The words settle in the hollow like dropped stones. Bren does not interrupt. The ledger stays open between them, but her attention moves to Kynes instead of the page.
Kynes
I want you with me, Bren. You have my back. You have become my lover. I want you in my life completely.
Bren
Her throat tightens, then she smiles with shining eyes, careful as if the moment is fragile.
Bren
Then I am not standing outside that life. I am in it, Kynes.
She reaches across the ledger and lays her hand over his for a heartbeat, steady and sure. The wind worries the hollow’s edge, but nothing between them breaks.
Bren
Tell me what you need from me in Phandalin, and I will hear it.
“" watch my back as you do"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Kynes
Watch my back as you do.
Bren
Always. In Phandalin, in the road there, in every door you open.
Bren
Her fingers tighten once over his hand, then ease, like she is making the promise settle into place.
Bren
If you move ahead, I will be behind you. If you speak, I will listen. If the surface turns sharp, I will still be here.
The ledger remains open, but Bren’s other hand slides from the page to his wrist, a quiet seal on the promise.
Bren
You do not have to carry every edge alone, Kynes.
Outside, the wind presses at the hollow and fails. Inside, the moonlight holds steady on the name Nezznar, while Bren looks up at him and waits for the next thing he will ask of her.
“" I need you to rest before our journey" I cast a sleep spell over Bren with out gesture or spoken words. I hum the words as if is a lullaby”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Kynes lowers his staff and lets the hum slip out, soft and steady, braided into the wind outside the hollow.
The moonlit page with Nezznar dims as his spell settles over Bren, and her shoulders loosen on a slow breath.
Bren
Her eyes flutter once, then stay on him, heavy-lidded and calm.
Bren’s hand releases his wrist and drifts back to the stone, fingers uncurling as if the promise itself has gone warm.
Bren
That sounds like home, when you do it like that.
She leans sideways, guided by the spell, and settles against the rock with an almost embarrassed smile.
Bren
If I sleep, wake me when you need me. I would rather meet the road at your side than dream through it.
Her breathing deepens. The ledger stays open between them, the name Nezznar still glowing faintly while the hollow grows quieter.
“I now perform a ritual to see what kind of magic is binding Bren and the ledger. Then I attempt to remove the binding on her and the ledger.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +1)
Kynes sets the ledger flat and opens both hands above it. The dim glyph-work along the page shivers, then stretches into thin threads that only he can see.
A tether spell, braided through the ink and into Bren’s breath.
He speaks the binding’s shape in old, precise syllables, and the threads answer by loosening from her shadow.
The glow gutters. One strand snaps free from Bren, another unknots from the ledger’s spine, and the page goes dark as dead ash.
Bren
That felt... distant. Like a hand let go.
She straightens fully, awake now, and stares at the open book with new caution instead of sleepiness.
Bren
What was it tied to, Kynes? The page, or me?
“Is there any tether remaining between Bren and the ledger?”
EXCEPTIONAL NO (Unlikely, rolled 87)
Kynes traces the empty space where the violet threads once anchored into the parchment. The air between them is still, devoid of the unnatural hum that previously linked the woman to the artifact.
Kynes
It was tied to both, Bren. But the connection is severed completely now. There is nothing left of it in you.
Bren
The silence in my chest is absolute. No pull, no echo, just the wind.
“" in short my little shadow asp, I freed you."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Bren
You did. I can feel the difference now, clean as cold water.
Bren lowers her hands from her chest and draws a careful breath, as if testing the air inside herself.
Bren
No tug. No whisper. Just me.
The ledger lies mute between them, its pages catching the moonlight without answering it. Kynes's words settle in the hollow, small but certain.
Bren
Then whatever I was to that thing, it is gone now. You actually did it, Kynes.
She lets out a shaky laugh and looks from the book to him, relief softening the tension in her shoulders.
Bren
So... what do we do next, together?
“" we head to phandelver" ... He looks at the book " we take the book because we can still gain knowledge from the pages. Not because it is our master."”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +0)