The Blood-Quill Oath
Draw a lie, bleed your life—but the truth might cost you everything.
You are an oathbound cartographer, sworn to map only the truth or die by your own ink. When your brother is taken hostage by the Mapmaker's Guild, you're forced to create a decoy map hiding a legendary treasure—a lie that could kill you. Your only ally is the rival cartographer you once loved, who wants the guild's deepest secret in exchange for her help. Will you break your oath to save your brother, and betray the one you love to keep the world's truths hidden?
The story begins
The quill scratched against the vellum, each stroke a small betrayal. The ink was the same deep blue-black as the blood that bound your oath, and you could feel it stirring in your veins, restless, angry. The decoy map was nearly done—a false coastline, a phantom bay, a treasure that didn't exist. Corvus's voice echoed in your skull: Three days, cartographer. Then your brother's blood washes the floor.
The atelier door opened without a knock. You didn't look up. "The tide's wrong," you said, your hand steady over the lie. "Whoever follows this map will drown."
"Good." Liora's voice, low and familiar, cut through the lamplight. You finally raised your head. She stood in the threshold, rain-wet and fierce, a roll of parchment under her arm. "Then they won't live to see what you've drawn."
You set the quill down. The ink on your fingertip hadn't dried—it smeared against the vellum, a red-black bloom. "You shouldn't be here."
"I'm here to save you from yourself." She stepped closer, and the lamplight caught the hunger in her eyes. "I know what Corvus promised. I know what he's holding. And I know what's really buried beneath that decoy—the secret he'd kill the world to keep." She placed the parchment on your desk. "Help me take it, and I'll help you break the oath. Save your brother. Burn the guild."
What happens next is up to you.
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