“The Shrouded Vale”
Episode 4: Speaking to Shadows
March 22, 2025
Tavi Falconheart swallows his fear and takes a step closer to the basin. The glow pulses slowly, like the rhythm of a slow heartbeat. He doesn't raise his weapon. Instead, he speaks—quietly, carefully.
Who are you?
The whisper returns—clearer this time, closer.
A voice… a wound… a memory lost to roots and stone. You are not ready.
The chamber trembles slightly, dust falling from the ceiling above. Tavi steadies himself. The basin's glow shifts, flickering between green and violet.
Then help me understand,
he says, his voice firm now. What happened here?
Another pause. Then, a sound—not quite a word, not quite a laugh. It slithers through his thoughts like smoke.
The veil was sealed… but time unravels. The Circle sleeps. The Root wakes. And your blood remembers.
Tavi stiffens. My blood?
Before he can ask more, the basin flares. A torrent of visions crash through him—hooded figures chanting in a grove, fire consuming trees, a ring of stones breaking open, and beneath it all… a twisting mass of roots, pulsing like a heartbeat.
He stumbles back, gasping. The light dims. The whisper is gone.
But something stirs behind him—
Soft footsteps. Something—or someone—has entered the chamber.