The passage drops into a cramped chamber where a cracked wardstone fills the far wall. Pre-cataclysmic tool marks cross its surface, and pale light leaks through widening seams.
As Flint approaches, the heavy scraping resumes below. Dust trickles from the ceiling, and the wardstone answers with a voice that comes from the stone itself, not from any visible body.
Edris
I am Edris, last voice of the wardens. Hear this, witness: the seal was not fashioned to hold Vaelith alone.
A crack splits across the wardstone with a brittle report. Beneath the chamber, something massive drags itself against buried stone, each scrape followed by a muted tremor.
Edris
Vaelith is the mind within the prison. Behind it wait the others, bound beneath the roots, and this stone is the final brace between them and the world.
The silver binding along Flint’s armor flares in answer. Three fresh fractures crawl toward the wardstone’s base as the scraping halts, then begins again much closer below.
Edris
Witness, the prison is testing its remaining strength. If the stone breaks, the pact will demand an answer from you now.
The chamber shudders. A dark line opens beneath the wardstone, and cold air rises through it carrying a distant, deliberate breath.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reinforce the wardstone