Twilight's Edge
The sky at dusk was blurred by industrial fog, remnants of old factories scattered across the southern region.
In the small town of Ravellan, nestled at the shadowed border between the Empire's reach and the Free Zones,
Jainal made a brief stop—before venturing into the heart of Karsia.
Here, rumors whispered of the Tongue Without a Mouth—an independent intelligence group that served no nation,
and trusted no one. Yet, if one could solve their riddles, they would become your eyes and ears…
for a price, and a set of terms no one truly understood.
---
I. A Test Without Questions
Jainal entered an old tea house bearing a symbol of a broken coral stone on its ceiling.
There was no waiter. Only an old man stirring hot water without sugar.
On the wooden table sat a rune-inscribed puzzle, dim and lifeless.
"Drink or purpose?"
the old man asked, without looking up.
Jainal placed a chipped rune token—a fragment from an experimental device he found in Else'slab.
The old man paused.
Then spoke softly:
"...You speak through scars.
Your tongue need not move."
---
II. A Trial in the Shadows
Jainal was not accepted outright.
He was sent into Ravellan's shadow circuit,
where the Tongue tested those seeking trust.
The mission was simple—but dangerous:
"Retrieve our lost script, stolen by imperial agents disguised as refugee monks."
The target was hidden within the ruins of an old temple—now a covert observation post.
Jainal had to infiltrate, deceive, and if necessary, kill—without revealing who he truly was.
---
III. Not Killing, But Unraveling.
Instead of killing the impostors, Jainal dismantled their arcane defense system.
He then cast a hallucinatory illusion that caused them to suspect one another.
By dawn, the entire covert post had imploded from within.
Amid the chaos, Jainal retrieved a small scroll with a single line inscribed:
"Whoever knows where runes are born, knows how to unmake them."
The script was a hidden fragment from Else's writings—secretly copied
before the Council destroyed all known versions.
---
IV. Silent Acceptance
Back in Ravellan, the old man was no longer alone.
Three others stood beside him:
A masked woman with a mechanical hand.
A quiet teenage boy whose eyes never stopped shifting.
And a blind poet who spoke only in coded verse.
One of them said:
"The Tongue Without a Mouth does not trust words.But we trust action.
And you, shadow-walker… have spoken more than enough."
---
V. Aid That Never Comes Free
Instead of coin, Jainal paid with knowledge:
a hand-drawn map marking the location of a Karsian lab an experimental ruin unknown to anyone else.
"Take it. I ask only one thing."
"Get me into Karsinium.
No trace. No questions."
"And if I fail… don't remember me."
The masked woman gave a soft laugh.
"You're not the type who fails.
You're the type who disappears…
and comes back with a different world behind you."
---
Epilogue.
Before Jainal left, the old man handed him a nameless rune-stamp—
a mark that would grant him passage through the underground network of Ravellan, Kurtub,and even the innermost tunnels of Karsinium—unnoticed by any conventional arcane detection.
As Jainal stepped out into the misted street,
the blind poet whispered behind him:
"Our tongues are long gone.
But through you…
perhaps the world will finally hear the screams we've kept buried."