"Focus," Vex said, not unkindly. "You want to save them? Do the job. The Guild pays. You buy freedom-slips. That's the system."
He unspooled it.
For one breath, there was silence.
But underneath, in a script so fine only a Dorei eye could read it, someone had scratched a reply:
The gate didn't break. It wept . The iron softened, rust flaking like dried blood, then liquefied into a waterfall of red mud. The guards stared. Their screams died when the mud rose and swallowed them whole. Kaelen walked through the slurry, his skin cracking with the effort, old wounds reopening. He was bleeding from a hundred places that had healed years ago. tal 39-dorei campaign setting reborn
The collar shattered.
Lirien smiled. It was not a nice smile. "I'm not taking it off. I'm giving it back." "Focus," Vex said, not unkindly
Kaelen had freed twelve so far. Twelve names carved into the underside of his tongue where no one could see. Twelve small embers.