WWW #54: There Is a Path and We are On It

Hey team, it's Brennan.

The final episode of chapter four of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One is coming out the week of August 11th.

That's the end of our first book of adventure in the world of Umora.

But don't worry, that world isn't going away, and neither are we.

Isn't that right, famed producer and composer of Worlds Beyond Number, Taylor Moore?

Hey, it's me, producer Taylor.

Brennan, I sound a little like you, but worse.

Our regular every other Tuesday release schedule continues this fall with some new things what are those things you're thinking and screaming at the inside of your car and or hospital waiting room right now well brennan all i can say is take a break and be a player in the game for once huh I'm so excited.

Abria will kick off the new year with a brand new campaign that will take us to the stars.

Lots more to come on that.

So make sure you're following us on Instagram or even better, Patreon, which is chock full of bonus content, notifications about merch drops, bone cone classes, etc.

Everything your heart could desire and more.

Truly, Worlds Beyond Number of content.

And now, Brennan, I'm still speaking to you.

Enjoy the episode.

I will.

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

the sword of the citadel

there she is in shadows

She's leaning against the post like she was in the Pyrrhion dome when she applauded your report

She's still exhausted

But she stands there

Null Clef, huh?

Little trace of a shattered Aerith ring around.

I gave you that ring a couple times.

World holding truths.

Truth, world, the world holds the truth.

That's Yorin, right?

How did you open this?

How did we not find this?

Remind me

when I asked

a little six-year-old entirely in your care.

What'd you tell me when I asked you how you got those scars?

I don't remember.

It's hard to keep track.

You have no idea.

I

loved

them,

and they lost their minds.

We chased the league for years,

and their pride

made them go mad.

We were wrong,

Suvi.

It was not a corruption.

It was

a

protection of a department that

they

would rather burn this place

down

than admit that they were wrong.

And you would rather burn down

a thousand lives than consider for a minute that maybe you were too

I

did

everything

I had to do

I did everything I had to do.

I followed them to hell and back

And when it came time to admit that

Jorin was going to leave, and

we had been pardoned, and they said it's not good enough.

And I said, how can it not be good enough?

We are going to trade away our home, everything we had, everything we are?

You were always more than this.

This place is amazing.

It's all I've ever had.

Or

the lie

that I believed my whole life

was that this was all

there would ever be.

But you were better than that.

You still are.

You're better than this.

Give me

persuasion.

Give me insight,

give me both with advantage.

Persuasion is a 19

and insight's a 22.

Steele looks at you.

She could never have anticipated in years that this moment she has dreaded has arrived.

And for you to say, in discovering

her greatest treachery, that she is better than the place she has devoted her life to.

You see gears grinding against each other deep inside her.

She looks at you and says,

I met Chandry

in cupboards.

It's a part of banners you wouldn't know.

It's where they get get put the kids that get here fresh.

And there's this thing called slumber.

It's like a milk.

It has some herbal,

some honey.

And it just helps

the sting.

When you get to coverage, you're usually crying so hard that you get sick.

And the slumber helps settle your stomach.

Six years old, homesick.

You understand that this is important, but

six-year-olds can't understand the weight of what we're doing here.

You need to start your education then, but you can't.

You can't feel the weight of it.

Slumber would make me...

Uh...

I don't know if I was allergic to it or what it was, but I couldn't keep it down.

And so

I

wasn't.

I just couldn't stop thinking about my mom and dad.

And

Chandri came over

and she got into bed with me because I couldn't stop crying.

She wrapped her arms around me

and said something

magic

that was gonna keep me safe.

She was the best of us.

And then something happened

that

I couldn't.

She and Soft were out on these missions and they

touched something out there in the world that

I don't know.

There's just something out there that drives people crazy.

It did for you.

What happened that

summer?

What happened when you went back two months ago?

You weren't like this.

Is it them?

Is it a spell?

Did Ahme do something?

Did Ursulan...

Even if I said yes,

what would you do?

You cannot burn away all the parts of the world that can affect me, that can affect us.

Touching the world changes you.

No.

We touch the world.

We change it.

Listen to me.

It took

everything.

I gave everything.

I looked at the woman I loved most

and I did what had to be done.

She was a sister to me.

I

saved her.

Her legacy.

Her memory.

She is a hero here forever.

You are the child of heroes here forever.

It's a lie.

It's a lie.

I've shown you everything we're doing here.

Doesn't that matter?

Doesn't any of this the

I love you.

I love you so much.

But take a step back.

What have you done?

What have you made me do?

Did you think at all

about

that last moment

when Silver,

free of the gaias

that you had put on him,

saw, understood what he had done

before he was obliterated?

I will do whatever it takes

to defend this citadel and make the world that you and her

deserve.

On that 22 insight,

you look into the eyes of the sword of the citadel.

Symmetry, geometry, language, mathematics,

Glorious machinery of light and logic, sound and reason, meaning and magic.

She has a machine in her heart

that made killing your mother and her best friend the act of a hero.

What can't that machine do?

I think Sevi takes a step back

like she's been hit

and puts her hand over her own heart.

A little machine that's already so

good.

I'm your daughter.

So believe me when I say we are the same in this.

There is nothing I won't do to save my home

from anyone that would see its purpose corrupted.

If you don't kill me exactly right now.

I don't have to kill you.

I just have to make you different.

I spent my life

turning you into the woman she should have been.

And not you, not anybody gets to throw that away.

She raises her hand, her emerald ring glows, and she calls on the deepest magic she can to sunder all the magic in this place.

The pendant, the books, the memory of softened stone.

Task and the fox both look out ahead of you in horror, hiding under your seat that you stand before.

And in her left hand,

she summons

the ability to modify memories.

You see her lunge towards you, and in her eyes, though she does not speak it aloud, you see the language written plain.

That witch and that wild one

took you from me.

And if I have to break every facet of your mind to rid you of them, I will do so.

Ursulan and Ame,

moving forward on the broom,

you head to Caterwall Lane to rendezvous with Subi.

Uh, Ame flying, you hear the fox.

Boss, boss, boss, boss, something bad, something bad, something bad.

Subi's in danger.

I blink my eyes for a moment and see what the fox sees.

You see steel in her last few words shared, preparing to lunge.

Ame, I would love a acrobatics check.

Or actually, no, this is gonna be of flying vehicles to see how fast you can fly.

Um, So, it's wisdom plus proficiency.

25 means you are there immediately.

20 means you are there in the immediate aftermath.

15 means you make it there

in time.

I don't need to be there physically because my familiar is there and he is a part of me.

In that case, roll because your physical presence may still be useful, but you may also act through your familiar if you wish.

Uh, Ursulan, I'm also gonna need a dexterity saving throw from you.

The pilot of this broom has just left her conscious mind.

Seven

twenty-three,

Ursulan.

You on a seven uh sort of drop, and Amay's body lilts out of one side.

You can keep her on the broom, but at the expense of you having to hang on with one hand.

That'll be the case.

Um, you grab, hold her with one clawed hand, hang on with another as you begin to spin down.

right.

Look at that 23.

23 is so good, but it means that we are going to resolve this moment only with the fox acting and Suvi in this place.

So I'm going to need just everyone here roll initiative, but there will be effectively a surprise round of just those present in the room.

17.

19.

22.

Steel is going to launch with a ninth level spell.

You see the lights of Haverwort dim.

Steel should not be reaching into the Aerith depositories to do this.

She is going to cast a disjunction, a ninth level spell, to destroy and disanimate all of the magical objects that she can.

This disjunction also would unravel the magic of Task

and destroy every memory he has recorded of softened stone and it would render the fox lifeless unmagical unspeaking what does subi do and what do we behold

i have never raised my hand against steel i've talked back i've made choices

I have never raised my hand against her.

But I raise my hand against her.

and in a voice that rumbles in the sand under my feet like zero, the first time I heard it, I say, worth it.

And I cast for the first time Counterspell.

Hell yes.

Okay, task is giving you advantage on this roll.

You are adding your intelligence modifier.

You are trying to beat a 19.

Oui!

Okay, it's a plus five.

17 plus five.

22.

Oh!

The sword.

Bria, I have to give, I'm giving full narrative reins to you.

The sword of the citadel is casting the most powerful disenchantment spell that she can possibly cast.

It is coming right for you to unmake your pendant, which she still cannot see.

It's coming to unmake the Joran's Fang, the sea glass rune, every just fully humiliate and magically undress you in this moment before her to remove from you the ability to cast magic.

I don't know if it will ever work like this again.

But the intention behind it in this place that I've already poured so much of my magic in, and I remember something Steele told me a very long time ago when I still believed and trusted her, that the things you put your magic into,

that part of the world you put your magic in, it stays a part of you.

And this place is a part of me by blood and by magic.

And I choose it, and I'm looking at her.

She is throwing violence at me because she is afraid to consider a world

where things

aren't what she decided they were when she made the hardest choice she's ever made.

She is what I would be

if

I didn't remember

that before everything else I was curious.

And even in this, I have never seen this spell before.

And I'm curious about it.

The secret of warp and weft that runs through this place, I run it through her magic.

I want to see it, the build of it.

All of that bloat,

all of the unnecessary things tacked on to make it trackable, traceable, homogenized.

That's what's draining the Aerith in this spell.

But she puts her hand into it like a stream

and lets all of that wasted Aerith run over

until a bright little trout,

the spell itself, she snatches

and in her hand crushes it,

scattering the heart and the point of that spell

and letting the Aerith be wasted to nothing.

Vast,

powerful, dominating, and overwhelming is the effort of the Empire to control

what is limitless,

miraculous, unbound, and magical.

That effort has raised armies and flags.

It has laid low enemies.

And that effort is,

as the memory of your father said, a waste.

Curiosity, love,

joy rushing through.

Your magic is so much more agile than this thing which is, in addition to being cruel and destructive, inefficient and reckless and stupid, a misunderstanding of the core principles, and swinging like two young wizards in love through the grammar of this awful spell, your counter-magic scatters by seeking to understand and coming to the conclusion that this spell doesn't have a good reason to be here.

It is gone.

You know, in this moment,

the corruption of this place runs deep.

The sword of the citadel is bent on an unworthy task.

You are a truer heir to what this place should

and could mean than she.

That legacy of which you are not alone lives on in you.

Looking at the spell fail, she must continue on with the second

to modify your memory in this moment.

Erica.

We'll actually move out to you guys descending.

You look and see the roof of 28 Caterwall Lane, see the light building.

And

Ursulan, your divine sense, as you hang from the broom,

your divine sense is open.

You see the fiery forest, the place that you discovered when you first went looking for Kallia.

You see that there is a room that is only here in spirit.

You see it plain before you.

Ame, you and Ursulan are, I would say, 40 feet from the window looking in through that study.

Inside the fox's mind.

I scream, no!

Counter spell.

The fox leaps forward as an extension of your will and is going to give you the help action on this spell check.

Modify memory's lower level, so it is only a fifth-level spell that is coming because she doesn't have access to her higher-level spell slots.

You need one of these two to be a 10 or higher.

Oh, we can do that.

I know we can.

There's a 14.

Let's go.

Thank the good Lord.

As Suvi scatters the most powerful magic that she has ever witnessed, at least this close, right?

12th works are pretty intense.

But as you scatter a ninth level spell, you scatter a disjunction.

The true twisted knife.

For that would have brought you low.

This would have changed you.

You see in Steele's eyes the panic.

Because if you were changed by the love that was shown to you, then why wasn't she?

And so she needs to rob you of it.

Needs to take

people that loved you when they didn't have a reason to.

No flag to walk under.

No service that you could provide for them.

The reason they loved you was because of who you were

and what you and you alone meant to them.

She cannot let that stand.

And as it comes towards you, your joyful ringing counterspell is matched by a magic you recognize as equally deserving in the splendor of the magic world.

Get her

as a fox bites her hand as hard as he can,

Vermin!

Throws him!

As he skids across the rug towards your feet, the window crashes

as Ursulan and Ahmed jump through the study, landing on either side.

Steel has used her legendary actions to cast that modified memory, and

that is going to be all three of you taking your turn together.

Whoa,

I think Ursulan is going to make an inside check on Suvi.

Give me an inside check.

11.

What are you looking for?

I think Ursulan looks to Suvi.

I mean, this is a mere, this is like a.

I think it's truly a glance.

You watch Ursulan's hand reach for Wavebreaker and unsheath it.

And I think in a glance to you,

with his eyes, he attempts to ask the question:

fight or flee

You get back

the strongest flea you've ever gotten.

Like, this is a look

that maybe has been mirrored from the first time you saw her when we got into the garrison, right before she told you about what Steel is capable of.

You are seeing her know exactly who the wizard Steel is, and there is no part of her that thinks we go toe-to-toe and walk away from this.

Ursulan raises the shield

and thinks of his friend Amen.

There is a gust of wind,

the sound

of leaves from a red tree shaking.

And I think that the wind stands with Ursulan in protecting Amen.

The spirit is here.

Your green cloak billows.

Tree of blue and red red on your shield as you stand before your friends.

Steel looking at you, the bleeding hand.

The other clutching her ring and reaches to grab her sword.

Bonus action.

I'll close with Steel

and attempt to make a shove attack.

Hell yes.

Go ahead.

She rolls a 21.

Not even close.

Ursula looks, goes, is,

remembers,

remembers training with steel.

Turns back to Sufi.

Whenever you're ready,

you do something incredibly brave as she brings her sword up, exhausted beyond measure.

She has not slept since she ended the house of Rounsa.

She

gets a sword up.

You are so much bigger than her.

Hit her, and she is a brick wall.

In my tower, I won't be moved.

You're going straight to the back of the gallery, kid.

And she is,

as a legendary action, is going to swing out with a sword attack on you.

Does a 17 hit.

Yes, it does.

No, no, no.

In a single stroke of her blade, she steps in behind your shield, knees you in the gut gut to get you back far enough that she can extend and deals 32 points of damage with one stroke of her sword.

Blood scatters throughout the library.

Steel steps forward, ready to finish the job as she stands here.

It says,

I won't have it.

Ame lands, snatches her broom, places it on her back, points a finger at Steel, the sword of the Citadel, and whispers, liar.

And in that word is imbued

the wrong

that Steele has done.

Every kindness that Grandmother Ren and Ahme have ever extended to her is turned against her.

Ah says,

Every word from your lips has been a lie.

Delay, delay, delay, always deferring what was right well now you can only speak truth you will only ever be able to say the truth of the citadel and of yourself

and a wizard is known by their secrets and you no longer have any

and i use tongue tie

incredible also This is the first time you have seen the sword of the citadel since you learned that she cursed you.

So, she will be rolling the saving throw at this advantage as your retributive curse comes too.

You may also pick one of your retributive curse effects that you want on her in this moment as well.

I say, may the light of the tower always shine, and

she's wreathed in fox fire.

She gleams with light and

cannot hide that she has been marked by a witch.

As she resists the spell,

you see the curse that you cast on her to speak the truth.

She needs a five or higher on the die to save against this.

But she is rolling with disadvantage.

That's a 19 on the die.

Fuck.

And another 19 on the die.

You go to tongue-tie steel

to force her to speak the truth.

And Amay, you see why the spell does not take effect.

Steele no longer lives in a world with truth.

All she has is saying those things

which may advance the cause of the tower.

She believes that she has saved

her friend, Stone, by killing her.

She believes that she has made Suvi the woman she should have been.

And what is the tower?

Well, the tower is the Erian, unless it's not.

Because sometimes the tower is the five Arc Magi, unless it's not.

Because sometimes it's the Empire, unless it's not.

The Citadel is whatever Steel needs it to be in the moment of her doing.

And she can't even see that that's what's happening.

It all feels so true to her already

at the end of your turn, Amy.

She is going to race forward

and attempt to attack you.

Does a twenty-seven hit?

Yes, it does.

You take 38 points of damage.

Ame, are you still up?

No.

She looks at you, Ame, striding forward in this moment, in this library of softened stone, leveling her sword.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thumps into Ursulon.

More spirits, more curses.

I know a thing or two about curses, Ame.

You tried to take my daughter from me.

I don't take kindly to that.

Put any curse you want on the citadel, and we will rise above with time.

And she sinks her sword into your stomach.

We win.

Subi, you watch Ame slide off of Steel's sword.

What kind of curse you gonna put on me for killing you?

Breathing raggedly, dying on the ground.

Amy, give me your first death saving throw.

Six.

She is losing the light.

Darkness comes.

Everything slows down.

And I'm in this place that for a second

was mine.

A place of power and a place of home.

And now it is filled with blood and screams.

I will sunder it

for my friends.

I will break my home to save it.

Brennan, I would like to cast Shatter.

My intention here, if you will allow it, is to destroy the surroundings, but also shatter the seaglass teleporter

in hopes to use the effect to get us out of here.

I fucking love it.

And I'm thinking back,

I just haven't been able to leave that thought that Jorin put in my head.

He became something monstrous, even to those he is here to save.

Steel is one of the things in my home that I would save, but I must become a monster to do it.

So I lean into everything in me that is not a wizard of the citadel, and I will use Secret of the Twilight Crown.

I pull the darkness of this place and the fire from outside.

I command

all of it to flee from me and drop this place into shadow.

Except for my eyes and the sigil over my head and the fox fire wreathing my mother as the sound of this shatter

is not loud it is a whisper in her ears and her heart you're right with time

i will win

the moment before steel regains enough composure to be able to counter any magic you might do in the last moment you have you raise up your hands shatter the the windows of this place, crash.

As the teleportation begins to take effect, the fire, the forest, it's surrounding you, Ursulan, Ame, the fox, Task,

whisking you away.

She can't get rid of it.

And in the last moment, before she can press her mind to seeing where you are going,

you hear

an explosion

the last thing you hear

as the roof of the casov collection

goes up in light

laughing fairies singing spirits a massive dragon

Sprinting towards the class of the Erian followed by a parade of flying screaming singing things that have been bound but will be free.

A questing beast charging forward on air.

The dragon roaring back in a language of spirits.

As the glass ripples, opening to a forest of fire as well.

In ages from now, if scholars can parse the language of that mighty beast,

perhaps they will say some version of,

We gotta go.

The three of you are suddenly in the rain as you appear in a flash

of gray, salty sea wind magic.

Standing in the rain, Cavender Court.

The city of Caro.

Gargoyles loom on massive spires gazing down

at the entrance to a squat industrial-looking building.

Ugly place,

and yet with elegant calligraphy and wrought iron over the gate.

The Commissary at Cavender Court

Ame is prostrate on the ground, bleeding to death.

Ursulan throws Wavebreaker from his hands and runs.

Amen, Ame.

And places both of his hands over her wound.

Breathe.

And is going to push spirit from himself

into her.

Honey, rosemary, pine, deep forest, healing slumber.

How much do you heal Ame for?

20 hit points.

With a mighty use of your breath, Aame is healed, but the injury is still there.

It is large and scabbed over, Ame.

You can feel yourself not fully restored.

As you look at each other, the three of you.

You are no longer in the citadel, but you are in a city with a massive gate to it.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

Do you believe she could find us here?

I.

Something happened.

Did you hear

there was another explosion?

Oh,

so did it.

May not know.

I'll ask later.

Uh, she will have bigger problems than us.

You look at the Carnissarian in front of you.

Time is of the essence.

However long it takes for her to dispatch with whatever's just happened at Zhao Court and the Casov Collection.

You need to move quickly.

You, by virtue of escape, happen to have come to this place.

You...

The thought in your weakened state, how exhausted you are, the thought of facing whatever is in this building is a daunting one.

But who knows when you will ever be here again?

If you guys think you can manage, this is our best chance of getting ghost out.

Let's go.

Thank you.

You walk up through the gate.

The wizard, the witch, and the wild one.

You approach the doors of the Carnissary.

Large pair of double doors.

It's late at night here.

Seems that there might be a skeleton crew inside.

It looks to be shuttered for the night for the most part.

Maybe there's some custodians, but it is not the busy work of the day here at the Guild Hall.

You approach and see a locked door in front of you.

Stealth or fight?

I'm not sure

that my breath can muster us through the door.

I'll do cure wounds at a second level for Ursulan and uh

cure wounds on myself.

What does Amay's healing look like in return to Ursula?

I go into one of my pouches and I and I pop

two pieces of bark out and I start chewing on them.

I can feel

the some of the scab starts closing over.

I go over to Ursulan

and I take one of his paws in mine, and he can feel a warmth like that summer sun.

The nights we spent together, all of us, at Grandma Wren's cottage.

You can feel it travel up from your hands,

up your arm, into your body, and it just feels like

you've stepped out of the cottage on a warm summer day.

You heal 39 hit points.

Oh, wow.

What?

Uh, because of uh

heart's gift.

Oh, wow.

I'm back at full.

Yeah.

Reinvigorated by that feeling,

Ursulan looks to Suvi.

Quick and dirty.

I mean, I'm going to attack the door.

Hell yeah.

Ursulan, go ahead and roll your attack roll.

24.

That is a hit.

Go ahead and roll damage.

23 points of damage with a first-level smite.

Golly.

You watch Ursulan, Wild One and Spirit of Freedom, walk up to the door of this wicked place and bring the wrath of the spirit world to it.

These doors fly off the hinges in a single stroke of Wave Breaker as Ursula strides into the darkness.

Dog, I thought you were gonna just be like, I talked to the spirit of the door and asked you to let me in.

No, I'm bleeding too much for that.

Let's go.

Okay, okay.

You guys begin to stride through the guild hall.

As you do, it is abandoned, but there is noise elsewhere of some late night work or labors happening here.

Far distantly, you hear a door open way down another passageway of some night custodian who a giant locked double door in a city where this is a respected guild.

Some night custodian is walking towards the front door.

That doesn't matter.

You're surging down a hallway towards where you hear effort.

You walk through these crenellations, torches of alchemical light that have been diminished at night here in the darkness.

You see a steel vault door with a drain in front of it.

It is unlocked.

It can be opened normally.

You open it.

Two hunched pale guild mages with cruel faces, their lips pulled back by hooks to expose their teeth are carving into a massive antlered giraffe.

It is filled with tubes extracting blood and bile.

It has an open segment of its stomach and you see both these guild mages are sucking blood from this massive beast.

They each turn to regard you and you see that

Some of them have like nearby food and you see that they have some implements it seems to keep the creature awake with electric prods.

You see that one of them turns and goes,

Hello?

Everything all right?

No.

I introduced myself to them sword first.

I would like to participate in this as Ursulan's familiar and provide the help action.

Incredible.

Roll in the ship, Ursulan.

Nine.

Wait, I provide the help action.

Oh, go for it.

Roll back.

Yeah, really good.

Worse.

That's about as helpful as CBS.

I'm quite injured.

Yeah.

You, you,

no, I'm not quite injured, but I have

remember.

You, you start

walking across at this point, and you see that one of the these two guild mages have not anticipated battle at all, have spent their spells, but each

turn to look at you as you just walk across the room and go, hey, hey, stop!

They're gonna take attacks against you with firebolt cantrips.

Does a 14 hit?

No.

Does a 13?

Well, 13 does not hit.

So Ursulan, you just stride across the room as they each go, aye, aye!

One of them's up on a ladder and they wreathe their hands and fire these extremely weak little fiery cantrips.

Suvi, these, these are the guild mages that are working the graveyard shift at the Spirit Blood Factory.

And they have not seen combat.

They have not had anyone other than prostrate on an operating table in front of them.

Ursulan, you lift your shield, effortlessly bat a couple of these across,

and one of the guild mages on the ground level with the tube in this creature's stomach is across from you, and you close with him.

Does a 24 hit?

Yes, it absolutely does.

Does a 21 end this man's life?

21 damage?

Yes.

Describe, describe a way.

Ursulan does not take pleasure.

in ending this man's life

but there is an intensity with which he grabs the back of this man's neck, holds it in place, and brings Wavebreaker across with a surgical precision

that might make you question

whether or not

he takes glee.

Wavebreaker moves across,

and this guild mage dies.

You are not seeking an ideal outcome, merely one where this spirit is free.

That's your first attack.

You have another.

Does a 25 hit the second?

He's up on a ladder.

Yeah, it does.

Well,

yes.

22 points of damage.

Ursulon, how does this second guy go?

Ursulan uses his one of his legs to break the ladder in half

beneath where the man is holding on

and catches him on the way down with his sword.

And decapitated as he falls through the air.

Ursulan, that is your turn.

This room is free of guild mages of the glass coronet.

Ame and Suvi.

I want to run over to the creature on the table and try and stabilize it and do a medicine check or spare the dying.

Give me a nature or survival check as you do so.

that's a 27 survival

ame as you cast spare the dying

you are the bridge

the circle of salt around this table can be scuffed easily with one foot

I take one arm and I sweep the salt circle away I reach out to the creature ahead of me and making soothing noises, I place my hands gently on it.

I can feel

some of what I have

my spirit flow into this creature.

Beautiful forests.

For a moment, this horrible room fades away.

The creature breathes easy,

opens its eyes.

And the last thing it sees of the mortal world before it returns to spirit is the Witch of the World's Heart, bidding it safe travel.

You restore this spirit to the spirit world.

I watch Ahme and Ursulan work, leaning into their abilities.

CV does not know where Ghost is, but like every six seconds, again and again, she is making a beat under her feet

as she casts over and over messages in every cardinal direction, 120 feet.

Ghost waiting for a ping.

Ghost waiting for a ping.

If it hits her, it doesn't, I don't have to see her.

It's in just, I'm blindfiring messages trying to see which direction to go in to find ghost.

With that strategy, you get your ping and know exactly where she is here in the guild hall.

I point, I move.

The three of you fall in.

You find another vault, this one in in a series of vaults, most of which are unlocked and slightly ajar, but one of which is locked.

The keys rest on a guard stand.

The guard rests forever more a few feet behind you.

Yeah,

I'll get it.

I don't think it's trapped.

I walk in.

I touch keys.

You touch keys.

All right.

Cool.

Swing them.

We keep it pushing.

You open the vault.

Subi, what is the thing you most fear to see on the other side of this door

that she is awake

and in agony

and recognizes me

immediately

You have sacrificed so much,

suffered,

lost.

What tortures could they have visited on this young girl whose only crime was taking your word?

We're telling a story of a wizard, a witch, and a wild one.

And it falls to me from time to time to tell you truths of Umora,

which sometimes are unkind.

In this instance, they are not

unconscious,

riddled with injuries, but healed.

Tubes entering her body, one above the clavicle, another in the abdomen, but alive,

not dismembered,

Not destroyed.

Breathing weakly in slumber.

Strapped to an iron chair.

His ghost.

I immediately move in and want to make a medicine check to know how best to remove the tubes

with minimal damage.

Give me medicine.

Also, looking at it and from what I could see of the other one,

I

give data to Suvi and help her.

Great.

Oh, thank you.

The help is a natural 20.

With Ahme's guidance,

you rush forward, Ursulan.

You stand in the door, and Suvi, carefully looking at the arcane marks on the wall, looking at where this is going, you see that some of these tubes are leading in and are sustaining her, others leading out.

You see, there are schematics for

ways to do this process

after having removed a creature's head

such that their escape is less likely.

That technology, for the moment, eludes the grasp of the glass coronet, and you have made it here in time.

You remove this wicked apparatus.

You see the blood, white and milky, leaving her body, off to some corner of a factory, where it will arm the soldiers of empire, saving countless lives.

It is undone in this moment.

The moment she is free of the tubes,

I'll move to unstrap her from the chair and like tag Ursulan in to grab her.

And with a series of those selfsame weak but infinite

fire cantrips lay waste to this machine and its damned research.

The schematics destroyed.

Chair warped and bent.

And I want to be clear.

I do not use the null clef.

I sign my fucking work.

You leave your signature proudly on this one.

Ame, you watch Sufi's face lit,

much like yours was lit by lightning in that basement when Keen made you his target.

Your true friend and sister is by your side, calling magic to work as you have.

You have saved this girl,

healed her,

and now you remove the weapon that would be raised against her once and for all.

If she allows, I slide my hand into Sevis once more.

I think even as like one hand does the working, the hand you grab is hot,

but not like fire hot, like standing

underneath the sun on the Arulean sand at noon.

You

hold her.

You move from this room.

You notice in one of the vault areas that is opened,

seated,

hugging its legs to its chest, is a stone construct covered in candles.

What do you do?

I slip my hand from Suvi's.

I go to Flickr,

placing the artificer's glove on my other hand.

I reach out towards Flickr.

I snap my fingers and light the candles.

Flicker begins to animate.

You put your artificer's glove on him.

What do you say?

She's safe now.

Give me persuasion.

15.

15.

Flickr.

Schultz up.

Moves through the vault door.

Salon is holding ghosts.

Yes.

In this brief moment, Ame, before you can say anything, Flickr turns to regard you, Suvi.

No facial expression, but the body language is enough to let you know that Flicker recognizes you and is terrified.

This is who we spoke to before the world turned bad.

Raises a fist up to defend Ghost.

No, no, please.

They saved her.

Flickr turns.

I want to tag in Task.

Can you help?

Task skitters up.

Shows the light of Suvi.

Saving Ghost.

Flickr looks.

Doesn't understand, but knows that things beyond his grasp have happened here.

All he can do is nod in understanding.

He steps forward, holding his hands out for Ghost.

I pass her from my arms to his.

He looks around, unsure if he should trust you or if he should flee with his person.

Would you come with us

to somewhere where she can be safe and heal?

Give me one last persuasion with advantage.

It's gonna be a DC-20.

You got this?

You got this?

You have this.

I had seven, so I need at least a thirteen.

That's an 18 on the die.

Oh, yeah.

Hell yeah.

25.

Let's go.

Artificer's glove comfortingly on the shin of this mighty construct.

As you touch him, you realize

there's no way

for something to be alive without the spirit.

This artificer's glove is letting you talk to what was always there:

spirit, a flicker,

a candle, a light of hope, a guardian and protector.

Hears the voice of a witch speaking comfort.

And seeing a cold and rainy sky, he knows that the best chance for his girl is to come with you.

Where will you go?

A door?

A door.

We seek a door.

You find one.

A small wooden door.

With a sign on it.

The sign reads, under repairs.

You see the name Keen has been scraped off.

You change the doorknob.

Open the door.

The Wizard Keen's office is not here.

No.

It is Toma.

and the sun is shining bright.

You walk through.

Zumi, her salon.

Ame.

If you all walk through together, the doorknobs will be left here in the Carnissairi.

Oh, it's all right.

Uh, you go on ahead.

I'll go the traditional way.

Grim.

Grim.

Ghost being carried to lie in rest

in the living room of Grandmother Wren, Flicker scraping and crawling down the hallway, trying as hard as he can not to let his candles go out, but being so large as to barely fit in the cottage, pulling one arm, then the other, down the hall, past the kitchen, and finally to the farmhouse door where he can pull himself out of the cottage, standing to his full height.

Hannah and Galt, sitting at the kitchen island in stunned silence, politely put down their tiny saucers of breakfast cake.

Ursulan, you are the last through the door and look out and see Ame in the hallway of this hateful place.

Travel safely.

We will see you soon.

Thank you.

You close the door.

Ame.

You're a witch standing in a dark hallway

looking at a pair of magic doorknobs.

I remove them, not taking too much care.

I just yank them out.

As I leave,

I trail

some of the oil I have in my bag behind me.

I get out to the

tacky wrought iron gates.

I snap my fingers.

Flame springs from my hands, igniting the trail of oil.

Fire races behind you.

Tint of green.

You can almost see the laughing faces of foxes

there within the flickering fire.

The fox jumps into your bag.

You walk out to that warped gate and see the fire start to spread.

They will know that Subi was here.

They will see and smell the Rosemary and pine, the spirit that came to blast the doors off its hinges.

What do they hear that night when the fire starts to spread?

The good people of Caro begin to smell smoke,

see the licking flames and cinders of fire,

and they hear disappearing into the night sky.

A few days later, when Ame lands,

the ghost

is resting, sleeping much of the day.

But a few days later, maybe there's a smile.

Flicker stands in the yard,

very preoccupied with chickens and how they work.

Spirits once again have a young girl to tend to.

The morning that Ame lands in the yard, just like Ren used to,

Ghost

has, on her crutches, made her way to sit at the kitchen counter for the first time.

This tea is really so lovely,

and

it's good to be back in a couple.

Ame!

Hi!

I walk in my hair absolutely wild.

Just the light and the light of flight still on my face.

Ghost,

you alright?

How are you feeling?

I'm okay.

I've been resting for a few days and Flickers here.

It's been

good.

Um.

I think I've had enough of adventure.

Do you need

a housekeeper?

I would love if you stayed with us here at the cottage.

This is your home now.

And she just leans her head

into your shoulder.

There's some interesting gadgets and stuff.

The weather vane, I've never seen a rooster like that with a snake's tail.

If I can fix anything up or grease any hinges, I'd be happy to do it.

If it would give you pleasure to do so, then absolutely.

There.

Oh,

I don't imagine you've even been into the attic yet.

What?

Is there stuff up there?

Oh, there's so much stuff.

You see, as you smiles,

you see that

Flickr outside waves a massive stone hand at a cart of people with some hay bales headed to Tatatoma.

And you see they go

and put the reins of the horses at this massive candle-covered construct displays.

And they're like, young witch, things have gotten strange at the cottage again.

In the day or two that follows, Ghost excitedly takes up learning artificing from Hana and Gult, who know everything there is to know about artificing and can teach all of it to her.

She immediately has people looking after her, and they excitedly get to work fixing hinges on cabinets and looking after old wheelbarrows and one or two gadgets that maybe escaped Grandmother Wren's notice.

But this trio of artificers, as Hannah and Golt welcome Ghost, get straight to work.

Looks like in the journeys that now face Suvi, Amay, and Ursulan, the cottage will be well cared for by these people in desperate need of safety and home.

As night comes, it's a foggy, foggy night.

Ursulan, you see mist pouring out of the forest.

You can smell the sea.

You all can.

It is time.

I'm still unsure of who Naram has sent, but they have come to take me to Gauthmai to see Kaliha.

I know you were headed that way

when I called you to help me in the Shroud Mountains.

Yes.

I don't want to interrupt it again.

Do you want to go alone?

No.

She has to meet you both.

She'd like to come.

Really?

Really?

Yeah, I'd like to go.

Ame smiles and then rushes back and starts grabbing everything she can and stuffing it into a sack oh you have to bring you have to bring some sort of a a gift like a burrow warming gift and uh okay we'll probably need this one and

i think urslan waits for ame and suvi outside kind of i think anxious and wanting to go

suvi's very like is happy that ame's like excited energy makes her bustle and go grab things

But the moment Suvi was allowed to, she's just on, she's just at your side.

If you look anxious at all, she's just gonna kind of hook her arm into the crook of your elbow and put her head on your shoulder.

The mist beckons,

assembling in the yard to bid farewell.

The spirits of the house.

Elbeth, Dr.

Yagi, Hennehena Mohe, and Dalma appear,

waving cheerfully, with once again people to look after.

Hana and Gult, a young ghost.

Ghost turns around smiling.

Flicker also helps light the yard, his candles burning bright.

This gorgeous little home,

this magical place.

Ghost waves.

The mist forms.

Begins to open like the massive maw of a mighty whale.

And you hear a voice from within saying,

I have been called

to carry forth

those friends of the Lord of waves

he of the gentle sea,

let those approach the forest who would come.

Anyone who wants to give me a perception check?

God, yes.

A natural 20 for you, girl.

We're back, baby.

22.

12.

12.

As you stride into the mist,

you look over and see a shape an emissary of naram

the person who calls the mist you see enshrouds you each with a

piece of naram's mist from his cloak and it wraps you like a cloak and see that it emboldens and makes stronger

the magic of Enzo's rune

hiding you from the detection of the citadel.

And as you step further into the mist on that NAT 20 perception, there is a figure

you recognize in the last moment before it vanishes.

A Sufi, you see a mage

made of coral.

And you see

a familiar voice says, Welcome.

Archmage Apprentice.

And Moro

guides you through and says, I've had time to think about mistakes I made

and beckons you through

and you

vanish and are in the jungles of Gautama.

Stepping out of the mist

and smell pancakes.

I immediately like walk through clock Morrow and then just going from like the overly emotional and sort of like inner own ahead head moment, Suvi just turns and slaps like your arm like, what?

What?

What?

You said, you said he was gone.

Death was too kind for him.

He's coral.

I pinned him to the bottom of the ocean and Naram gave him the ability to breathe.

As the mist fades, you see Maru goes, goes, we had weekly conversations down there.

I improved as a person, I think.

Naram is very gentle.

Wow.

Okay.

This way.

You move through the jungle.

And Suvi and Ame, you behold

a

tree in a deep canyon, just like the one painted on Ursulan's shield.

The doors open, and Ursulan's family pours out.

Sufi, they look like you.

They look like soft and stone.

Ursulan, why do they look like me?

As they rush out, you hear Uncle Ursulan!

Roll, roll.

Up in his arms.

Bella comes running out.

And you see people are laughing.

Only one or two people are crying.

You see, Maharaj starts crying for some reason.

Even she's like, I don't know why I'm crying.

I just didn't know that he'd come back.

Sorry, I was way late.

This one is to blame.

Yeah, sorry.

This is the wizard Sky.

Sky!

Hands go up, and you are embraced and hugged.

You see, Adi looks at you and says, Oh,

oh,

you're okay.

Come inside, have a pancake.

Does it make sense to you?

It does not make sense to me.

Well, time.

And that's all she says.

And walks inside.

Pancakes!

And this is the witch of Toma, Abe.

Pancakes!

Rocky says, yeah, we got pancakes, come inside.

The fox goes, now, a big tree with pancakes.

We should only adventure in places like this.

And this is the fox.

Hello, I'm the fox.

And you see that this, Rocky says, you ain't got a name?

And you see the fox on someone who says, I have a name.

And then walks into the house.

You have a name?

He sees.

He's just saying that because he doesn't want to feel left out.

I have a vote, I have a name, and what I now have is a pancake.

Hello.

You see that Task comes inside and immediately

just like projecting light on everything and is immediately picked up by one of the kids.

He goes, This broken watch can talk, kind of.

Yep.

And you see that as the kids start running around,

the family is all pouring over you.

And you see, walking out with a tiny cane, looking so old and so sleepy, but suddenly beaming, is Kalia.

You see, she looks out and goes,

Ursula, your your friends.

I give the deepest and most respectful bow

I know

and greet.

Hello.

Sister of my brother.

Sister of my brother.

Daughter of my friends.

And she bows deeply.

We're having a big party tonight.

It's wonderful.

You see, she squeezes your arm and says,

Were it not for your old man, I never would have found my way here with this family.

And if it were never for that tower, I never would have found my brother.

She smiles.

Wait, did you did you have sex with my dad?

Is that why they all look like me?

Hmm?

Oh, no, it's because of Ursulan.

I think he wanted to look like you and

time.

Okay, okay.

He got to the future before I got to the past, and that's all I'm going to say about it.

I am on her just.

If there's any soft cookies, I'm getting them.

She says, she says, I knew the water and the streams were very clear that tonight was going to be a big night, a celebration.

I'm so glad we're having such a big party.

We've got everything started.

We didn't know you were going to be here, but we were told, we were told to get a big party ready.

You were told?

Who is?

Well, a sort of uncle of yours is here as well.

You see, sly in the kitchen.

God.

I wang a corner of pancake at him.

He goes, BAY!

You see that?

He, without looking, catches it in a hand and says, I knew that was going to happen.

I tackle him.

He goes, huh?

He gives a big hug.

You see, he gives you a huge hug.

And he goes, told you you were on the right track.

Big, big hug.

I didn't die.

Oh!

I love it when the people like Tell Warnings 2 don't die.

Suzy, he bursts into tears and starts crying.

All right, light the lights and spread the cake and get some jam on these pancakes.

We're gonna have ourselves a shindig.

And

polite celebration wonder.

And

I will ask:

how long do you spend here in the borough feeling and knowing joy?

I'd say about.

I think it's on the third day that I think Ursulan gathers his friends.

At the beginning of the third day before your friends are up, Suvi, you've had days of looking over.

So Goliath's borough is filled with texts, and you see texts from branches of wizardry that predate the Accordati and the Antivole.

You see old things she saved from an older version of the citadel.

You see scripts and scrolls from wizards of old, of Gauthmai and Ruve, and you see elements of the Antipolists who are not only in the free roads.

You see

some

texts seem to imply that there are antibalists working in the empire itself.

All of these spirits gather you and shower you with love, and you see a wide, wide world of wizardry is just beyond this doorstep.

Ame,

you spend days communing with the spirits of a new land as the witch of the world's heart, and every and playing with children and all these young, magical

badger children, these little badger sorcerers, and the fox is so fat and happy and hunting weird things out in the jungle.

And at the end of that second day before the third,

you see

Sly comes and finds you, Ursulan, putting his flat cap on his head.

Oh,

I'll be

heading off.

Goodbyes are not much my style.

I sort of find them hard to believe in unless they're very specific.

But

your sister needs you tomorrow.

Tomorrow?

Tomorrow.

He puts a hand on your shoulder.

I will be there.

I'll be out there in the world, my friend.

You're never alone.

There are many, beyond what we can see, working towards the will of good.

Our world is lucky for you and your companions.

You see that he dons his cap, walks off.

Sly.

To a brighter tomorrow.

That's my favorite one.

And he vanishes.

The next morning,

Ursulan.

Kallias' breathing is very shallow.

I think, Amay, with a medicine check, you can tell that the time for this mortal body has come to its conclusion.

Ursulan,

you should bid your sister farewell.

Thank you, Oman.

Kaliya has spent these days with you, Ursulan, in a depth of warmth and light and love.

It has been three days of holiday, of holy days, sacred in the love of this family and its embrace of your true friends friends who are family here

on that day

what does ursulan do

ursalan spends the day reveling in memory

of the days when he and kaliah were young

complaining about nari and

chasing and being chased

Telling stories

of the life they shared together.

But at some point,

Ursulana asks,

Kalia,

I believe I need to go home.

Alright,

let me come with you.

And you see Kalia stands up

away from her body

with you and starts walking towards a forest that only you and she can see.

Ahead of her, you see a path through the woods,

the far distant cottage,

and the spirit of a man who has been waiting there for her.

And to the left, you see a path through the woods

where you can hear the distant marching and singing of those amidst the company of the great bear.

She stands at the fork in the road with you, looking unsure.

This world is a wonderful one,

is it not?

I have loved it with every part of me.

I as well.

What would you do in my stead?

We had a lifetime of play together.

It was beautiful.

But this world has taught me one thing:

that there is also a beauty in growing up,

in changing,

in becoming new.

She looks down and sees

the marching of the bear and the children singing.

It's so joyful.

She looks to the right and sees a man who loves her,

waiting,

hoping beyond anything to see her again.

She looks to her brother.

who has given her permission to follow her heart.

She smiles.

I could never run and play

like I once did,

knowing he was still out there, somewhere waiting.

She kisses you on the cheek.

I hope I see you one day.

You will.

But not so soon.

She kisses you on the cheek.

and walks down the road.

And the look of love and joy on her face is matched only by the face that waits for her.

In answer to this choice, the path on the left grows suddenly wide.

A choice like this is not made lightly and deep in the woods

A bear

greater than mountains turns

and for the first time since you were young beholds you

seeth

and growls low

my

son

father

You have been

way shadowed

have you found your breath?

I have.

Not only that,

I have named it.

You are not my cub

anymore.

You are my son, full grown.

You have undone

the mistakes you have made.

You have completed the quest and found honor.

Let me rid you of this meddlesome thing.

And he stamps a paw and a door of iony grows in front of you.

Come home.

Come home, my son.

Where the sun never sets if it does not wish.

Come home

to life joyful and unending.

I am sorry you have been long lost.

It is a kind offer, Father.

But one that is no longer true.

The wars of this world

have reached the edges of spirit

and will soon engulf our world as well.

I would make you

the same offer,

but ask that you pass through the door.

He turns.

Give me a persuasion check with advantage.

Natural funny.

The pilgrim understars, the man in black,

he raises an army of great spirits.

I would raise a banner as well.

One that seeks to end the war.

Not join it, not win it.

The citadel is a knife in the heart of the world, but to destroy the knife is not my aim.

Only those who wield it.

Grey Bear looks at his son.

To

march

under my son's banner.

His children stop dancing and marching as they look at their father.

Begin to shake his mighty shoulders.

To march under my son's banner

would be...

And as he steps, he stumbles and wears, for the first time you have seen in an age, a glamour

of a nine-foot tall man wreathed in leaves, tunic of gold, a war club like that of a tree trunk itself across his shoulder.

To march under my son's banner would be

an honor.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulan, Erika Ishii as Ahme, Abria Iyengar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan as Everyone and Everything Else.

Worlds Beyond Numbered is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with additional sound design from Michael Gelfie Studios.

For even more like this, join us on our Patreon.

We'll see you there.

In a dark castle of shattered ramparts,

ruined stairs, crumbling towers.

Lightning races across a horizon over a sea of nightmare.

Shadow,

darkness.

Waves of pure void lap against rocks of ebony and onyx.

High in the crumbling castle,

a shattered throne,

ancient beyond words,

wreathed in shadow.

Feet approach.

Hand in hand,

do Naram and Orima,

bedecked and resplendent in garb of war,

approach through the ruins.

Are you alright, my love?

This is the only way,

Naram says to his wife.

King of Night,

we tread before you in honor of your station to fight beneath your banner.

A voice slithers out from the darkness.

It is not

my banner you will fight under.

Fire erupts in braziers.

Reposed across the throne, legs dangling over the arm.

A jester's mask over his face, held on an extended wand.

Obelfin spreads his inky wings.

What is this?

says Naram

I'm keeping the chair of my liege lord warm in his absence the king of night sends his regards

I am Uberfin

most faithful servant the king of night

and it is good to see you Orima of the reaching green Naram the wave lord

Does the king of storms come with you?

Naram furrows his brow in distaste at the fiend he now perceives.

My father is busy with work set out for him by the pilgrim understars.

Oh, I'm sorry to miss him then.

Speak, fiend, Orima says.

Where is the king of night?

Indisposed, I am afraid.

And yet he has thought fit for me to entertain you as we wait for him.

Would you like some entertainment?

Boys!

Flitting from the shadows, Enzo, Cyril, and Vandal alight.

We are very pleased to see you.

It has been some time since we have beheld the world of spirits.

I don't know if we ever beheld it.

We were born in bottles.

Yeah.

This is

fucking something else.

Or perhaps you would like a jester.

Obelvind points a finger, crawling miserably out from the shadows.

A warped, beaten, maimed, and injured spider.

Its silky white fur blowing in an unseen wind.

Pomeroy, make our guests feel welcome as we wait.

Deep in the forests of the Shroud Mountains

Arcane fire rains down,

driving the last of the forces of Gauthmai from these shores.

Deep in the shadows, loping as fast as possible, panting, heavily breath, ragged, bleeding from an untold number of injuries, Yorin runs as fast as he can.

Good to safety!

Take to the sea, swim deep.

We have done all we can.

The lights of skyships

open,

pinning him to the side of the mountain.

Raise your claws, Shape Changer.

It's done.

Surrender now, or

the lights extinguish.

Yorin's eyes go wide.

No doing of his.

What is this?

Darkness.

Darkness everywhere.

Troops nearby.

Press in through the darkness.

Find him if you can.

He is their leader, the leader of them.

No, don't do that.

An antlered form moves through the darkness, followed by wolves, panthers, bears.

And injured Yorin can only look on in amazement as the forces of Empire fall

holding his wound.

Is this his final moment?

Has death finally caught him?

No rest for you yet, my handsome friend.

Vines grow.

A smell of pollen.

The touch of Hakea, witch of the woodland green, on Yorin's chest.

Look alive, my boy.

Look alive.

The game is only getting started.

A porcelain mask from the dark emerges over Hakea's shoulder.

You have much to learn.

And an antlered visage, mouth filled with blood.

There is much we can discuss.

Uran.

The light of Toma falls on an Imperial battalion.

At their front, a war wizard, green cloak waving.

Soldiers, today we march on the cottage of a witch, a traitor to the Empire.

We have been given our orders.

Keep your wits about you.

Witches can be cunning and dangerous.

We march to deliver justice.

May the light of the citadel ever shine.

Forward!

March!

Heading out upon the road, given their orders to burn the cottage of the witch of Tomla to the ground.

Boots ring out.

Villagers weep.

Lohan looks in disbelief

that anyone

would have harmed their heart for their village's gentle witch.

It is with even more disbelief that he looks

as the sun begins to set so suddenly.

The soldiers upon the road

suddenly seem

shocked.

or scared or frightened.

How can they have lost so much of the day upon the road?

Uh,

Captain?

Everyone, careful.

This could be a piece of witchcraft, perhaps an illusion.

As the sun fully sets, a voice from the road ahead.

No illusion,

brave captain.

The sun has truly set

for you most of all

say your name

I have never done so and I will not do so now for you

know only

that I keep my word

I promised a witch that I would be at her door in one year's time

that means that door must stand for that year's time.

A promise to a witch is never lightly broken.

Snap of bones, scatter of blood.

Fear so deep, it cannot be said to have an ending.

When the sun rises,

there is nothing there to find.

Deep in a cellar, stacked with wine barrels, some two or three stories tall, deep in the recesses of an ancient castle.

Tears of joy as families are reunited.

Warriors and witches of the Grineau gathered here in this place, trying to make sense of a world after the death of the great bullfrog.

Torchlight, boxes of treasure, maps, sharing of information, and suddenly all is right with the world.

Lifted up on their shoulders, the witch Neif can only blush and admonish the cheers that go up for her in Turoi over and over again

as her elk bellows.

Turning around, she says,

It is not me who saved them, it was Bear, the strongest man in Silbury, who journeyed there, who's

who is the spirit Ursulan.

He is a friend, a friend to the Grineau, and Ame,

the witch of the world's heart,

rescued me from certain and

the wizard Skye,

who opposed the citadel that trained her.

It was them who saved the children.

I merely

completed their journey home.

Did you say Bear,

the strongest man in Silbree?

Neath turns to regard the shadows, turning to a Grineau wise woman.

You should meet this man.

We reached out to him for help as soon as we realized how wide the problem was.

This is a friend of ours from across the sea.

A dead man strides from the shadows to regard the young witch.

Neith,

I'd like you to meet Will Gallows.

Did you say Bear of Silbury

is an honored friend?

Well,

now I have seen everything.

Deep in a palace of ice,

An observatory filled with the light of all the stars, a crowned woman beholds

a group of three friends traveling by ship from Gauthmai.

On the deck of the ship, she beholds them and sees

their wizard wearing a finally mended cloak of blue, reflecting the constellations of the vast sky.

Indry Witch of of the Wind and Stars furrows her brow, scowling as Costa hides sheepishly in a corner.

Five days left.

I don't think she's getting me a gift at all.

I hate her.

I really hate her.

Come, Costa.

We have business to attend to.

In a dusty gulch, guarded by a solitary dead tree,

the rusty tin roof

of a lone train station with but a single counter behind glass

stands baking in the sun,

the rails riding to the horizon in both directions.

The wind picks up the creak of the sign on its post

as the sleepy ticket seller completes a crossword on a printed broadsheet.

Looking up from the page, he beholds

a wizard, a witch, and a wild one.

Welcome.

Can I help any of you with anything?

Passage for three.

Ursulan produces the ticket given to him by Teflin.

Uh, to where?

Anywhere.