The silver route carries Mara upward through dry stone as the crypt’s boundaries close behind her. Ilyd and the sealed letter remain beyond, under lawful custody; nothing follows.
At the Hall of Welcome, Kynes waits beneath the open lattice with Slaan and Nhal. Mara’s raw throat and warded journal mark the cost of the passage.
Kynes
You returned safely. I will witness what you brought, but I will not accept custody of the letter or its question without your consent.
Slaan lays a clean slate beside Kynes’s journals, while Nhal takes a mist-thin shape near the silver arch. The Hall brightens, offering space without drawing anything from Mara.
Slaan
We can preserve the protected promise, Ilyd’s testimony, and the witnessed conditions as separate records. Nothing unopened will be made to speak.
Nhal
The Hall can hold an invitation without turning it into a summons. Custody, consultation, and refusal may each remain distinct.
The lattice opens three empty places: one for Mara’s witnessed evidence, one for the protected promise, and one for any refusal or silence. The sealed letter remains absent and untouched.
“I share my witness of the Tower and up to the entrance to the city of the dead, I also share my experience with Ilyd and the difference between him and Ilyr's necromancy and lichedom”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +2)
Mara
I share my witness of the Tower and the lawful path to the entrance of the city of the dead. Ilyd met me there.
Mara places her warded journal beside Slaan’s clean slate. The Hall receives her account in separate strands, preserving the Tower’s boundaries, the crypt’s permitted way, and every refusal.
Mara
Ilyd’s continuation is his own memory, will, and body, without a claim upon another. Ilyr’s necromancy depends on an anchor, host, or prepared vessel.
Kynes
I witness the distinction. Ilyd preserves himself without ownership, while Ilyr seeks dependency that threatens another’s choice.
Slaan
And your Tower testimony remains separate from the city’s dead. Observation, passage, and necromantic practice are recorded without turning into possession.
Nhal
The Hall preserves what you freely offered, Mara. It does not claim your journal, complete your conclusions, or make silence answer.
Three lights settle into the lattice: Tower witness, city threshold, and Ilyd’s testimony beside the evidence of Ilyr’s vessel-dependent craft. The records close faithfully, leaving Mara’s choices her own.
Three lights settled into the Hall's lattice, each finding its place without sealing Mara's words behind it.
Kynes
The testimony is preserved. Nothing of yours is taken.
Slaan
The promise remains protected, and the letter remains unopened.
Nhal
Silence has its place here too.
Mara
Then let the truth stand, and let what is not mine remain free.
No hand reached for her journal. No seal was broken. In the quiet that followed, the Hall held witness without possession.
Mara had returned safely, and Ilyd and the sealed letter rested under lawful custody in the crypt. The Hall preserved the Tower, the city threshold, and Ilyd's testimony beside the traces of Ilyr's craft, while consent guarded every future consultation. Thus the dead kept their promise, and the living kept their freedom.