The Domini saga

Cold air spills across the ravine as Slaan, Bren, and Nhal reach Talon Tower’s gate. Behind them, the portal’s dark arch shivers in the night wind.

The arch contracts by a handspan, its edges wavering without sound. Talon Tower’s closed gate offers no movement, no sign, and no welcome.

A weathered service stair descends beside the gate, its uneven stones vanishing beneath the tower into the outer foundations. Dust lies undisturbed across the first steps.

The portal narrows again behind the companions, leaving the ravine visible through a shrinking black frame. The stair remains open before them, while Kynes still stands at the threshold.

Kynes steps through the narrowing arch. Cold folds around him for a breath, then releases him beside Bren, Slaan, and Nhal at Talon Tower’s gate.

The portal seals behind him without a flash or sound, leaving only ordinary night wind across the ravine. The service stair remains open beneath the tower.

At the stairhead, dust shows a clear set of recent bootprints descending below the gate. Beside them, a loose stone bears a faint chalk arrow pointing downward.

The words leave Kynes quietly. His expression tightens with confused recognition as the dusty stair settles into a familiar arrangement beneath the tower.

Kynes descends first. The old stones answer under his boots, and the party follows without haste. Dust gives way to packed earth and the faint smell of rain-soaked roots.

Kynes studies the packed earth, the worn edges of the steps, and the shallow niches where hands once steadied against the wall. Familiarity gathers into a route.

His gaze settles on a low lintel marked by three shallow scratches. The pattern matches an old clerk’s habit, and the memory resolves: Sil’thal passed here, carrying records toward the lower road.

Kynes brushes dust from the scratches, revealing a narrow strip of faded ink beneath the lintel. The effort sends a sharp ache through his eyes, and a drop of blood darkens the dust.

Kynes reaches through the stone with arcana, tracing breath, warmth, and the faint disturbance of recent passage. The passage answers in layers of silence.

The spell succeeds, but the effort drives a sharp pulse behind Kynes’s eyes. Blood slips from his nose and spots the faded ink beneath the lintel.

The party stands in the cramped stairwell, with the quiet records passage open below. The fresh knowledge costs Kynes blood and focus, but leaves the route safely understood.

Kynes reaches through the void, letting it pass beyond the lower bend and spread across the buried city. The darkness answers with impressions rather than voices.

His awareness follows abandoned rooms, cold hearths, and doors left open. The inhabitants gathered what they could, moved below the streets, and vanished through passages leading toward the crypt.

Blood still marks Kynes’s lip as the void separates old traces from recent ones. No living crowd remains beneath the tower, but one small group passed through within the last day.

The answer settles clearly: the city’s people abandoned it long ago, driven out by fear and pressure from the crypt. The recent travelers were outsiders, carrying a narrow bundle toward the lower chambers.

Kynes heads down the steps of Talon Tower. His boot dislodges a stone, and it clatters through the stairwell, spending the quiet they had preserved.

The stairs descend into a buried street lined with shuttered doorways. Dust covers the thresholds, but recent bootprints cross the central path toward the lower chambers.

The party follows the bootprints through the buried street. Shuttered homes give way to a broad square, where a toppled well and scattered crates mark a hurried departure.

Slaan kneels beside the tracks. Several sets of prints converge near the square, but only two continue toward a low archway beneath the next row of buildings.

A faint scrape sounds beyond the archway, followed by the careful shift of a boot. The party stops in the square as a covered lantern briefly glows below.

Kynes advances beneath the archway, placing each boot carefully on the dusty stones. The covered lantern brightens as he enters the lower chamber, revealing two cloaked travelers beside stacked crates.

The chamber is a former storehouse, plain and dry, with oil jars, folded blankets, and a narrow bundle resting on a crate. No wards stir, and no hidden mechanism answers Kynes's arrival.

Bren, Slaan, and Nhal reach the arch behind Kynes, quietly filling the entrance without drawing steel. The travelers glance between them and the abandoned city beyond.

Kynes extends one hand. Invisible force closes around both travelers and pulls them across the storehouse floor, dragging them from the crates to the edge of the archway.

The bundle-bearer’s boots scrape through dust as he stops before Kynes. The second traveler is drawn alongside him, their hands raised and their escape cut off.

Bren steps beside Kynes while Slaan guards the chamber entrance. Nhal circles the crates, studying the wrapped bundle without disturbing it.

Kynes’s invisible grip tightens around both travelers. Their cloaks strain, boots lift from the dust, and the bundle-bearer’s resistance vanishes beneath the pressure.

Nhal slides the wrapped bundle from the crate and cuts its cord with a small knife. Inside rests a wax-sealed ledger, three route tokens, and a charcoal map.

Kynes gives the restrained travelers a quick squeeze. Their boots scrape the dust as his warning settles over the storehouse.

The bundle-bearer’s face tightens as the pressure eases by a fraction. The ledger remains on the crate, its wax seal unbroken, while the travelers wait for Kynes’s decision.

The question hangs over the storehouse. The restrained travelers remain suspended just above the dust, while Bren, Slaan, and Nhal glance between the ledger and the dark passage.

The invisible force holds both travelers steadily above the dust. Kynes draws the sealed ledger from the crate, breaks the wax, and opens it beneath the lantern’s muted glow.

Columns of names, dates, payments, and route marks fill the pages. The entries trace Gray Glove handoffs from Baldur’s Gate to the Three Ashes wayhouse and beyond.

Several pages describe Odran Pell’s forged reports, including false sightings designed to steer pursuers toward the crypt. A newer entry marks Kynes as a living witness, not the bearer of any name.

The final page lists payments in fresh ink, all routed through Maelin’s seal. One line names an unnamed patron, followed by a destination: Warlock’s Crypt.

Beneath the payment line, a cramped notation bears Maelin’s personal cipher: three hooked strokes around a split circle. Beside it, a clerk has written a meeting place and hour.

The note identifies a private packet kept in Maelin’s hand, marked for delivery from the Three Ashes wayhouse to an unnamed patron at Warlock’s Crypt.

The lantern flame bends as the bundle-bearer studies the ledger’s final line. No spell answers, only the quiet pressure of Kynes’s question and the travelers’ guarded attention.

The ledger’s route marks place the meeting beyond the crypt gate, near a collapsed watch post overlooking the outer road. The packet is meant to reach the patron there.

Kynes releases the spell into both restrained travelers. Drowsiness overtakes them at once; the invisible grip loosens, and they sink safely onto the storehouse floor beside the crates.

The effort barely takes hold before fading, leaving Kynes with a sharp ache behind his eyes and fresh blood slipping from his nose. The ledger remains open beneath the lantern.

Bren kneels to secure the sleepers with ordinary cord while Slaan checks the chamber entrance. Nhal opens the travelers’ packs, and the muted lantern throws long shadows across the ledger’s fresh ink.