Three weeks pass. Near Phandelver’s market green, stalls bustle beneath clear afternoon light, and Mara stands amid ordinary voices, healed and unburdened by her former shoulder injury.
Kynes approaches without haste, carrying no satchel of evidence or sealed message. He stops several paces away, leaving the space between them plainly hers.
Kynes
I arranged for your safe house to receive no further interruptions. No watchers, requests, or unexpected visitors will trouble you there.
Kynes
I have no summons today, Mara, and no crisis disguised as an invitation. I only bring news.
Market bells chime near the well. Kynes glances toward a bookseller’s awning, where a few young apprentices linger over ink-stained notes and whispered arguments.
Kynes
Young spellworkers have begun asking practical questions: how freedom changes magic, how to practice safely, and how to live without masters deciding who they are.
Kynes
Some of us will gather informally this evening. You may attend if you choose. You may also decline, arrive late, leave early, or simply remain uninvolved. The choice is entirely yours.
✓ Quest Accepted
Attend the informal gathering of young spellworkers
“" dear, I would be delighted. Did you bump your head, you know slaan shut the damnable archive off now going on three months" I say pleasently”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Mara
Dear, I would be delighted. Did you bump your head? Slaan shut the damnable archive off nearly three months ago.
Mara delivers the correction pleasantly, with the same mild smile she might offer over tea. Market voices flow around them, unconcerned with old dangers finally ended.
Kynes
I did not bump my head, though I may have trusted an outdated report. Three months, you say?
Mara
The archive has been inert since Slaan ended it.
Kynes accepts the rebuke without defensiveness. He glances toward the apprentices beneath the awning, then returns his attention to Mara.
Kynes
Then my news is simpler than I thought. No archive, no summons, and no hidden complication. Only young people asking how to practice freely.
Kynes
I will tell them you accepted. Come this evening as yourself, Mara, and leave whenever you wish.
“" he bumped his head" I mutter to myself”
Mara
He bumped his head.
Mara mutters the words beneath the market bells, her pleasant expression unchanged. Kynes hears her clearly over the surrounding trade and turns one eyebrow upward.
Kynes
That remains possible, despite my assurances. I will amend the report before I speak to anyone this evening.
A bookseller’s apprentice, a young adult man with a slim build, freckled cheeks, tousled brown hair, and a faded blue vest, drops a quill, and the small clatter briefly interrupts the market’s murmur. No hidden message follows, and no old danger presses into the afternoon.
Kynes
You should expect practical questions, not reverence. They want to learn how to stand on their own feet, and I think they will listen to you.
Kynes inclines his head toward the awning, then steps aside, leaving Mara the clear path and the unhurried choice of when to join the evening gathering.