WWW #51: The Endeavor

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

Early morning.

Orange light.

Stepping through.

In a a second, the color of light changes.

The smell is different.

Surging past you, donkeys pulling carts, oxen with wagons.

Ame, you step through.

Two citadel wizards step up.

Very well.

Take a look.

Very well.

Continue.

Move through the gate here.

Follow through.

Yes.

You two, you're together?

Very good.

This way.

Follow through.

And you see, Ahmed, you, Enzo, and Cyril.

You pass through the gate.

your passes are scanned, and you see

an enormous ox to mourn.

Scans over with the divination spell

and catches nothing protected by Enzo's non-detections.

I fidget with the hem of my cloak where there's some smears of calligraphy.

You move through and are once again in the busy streets of Haverward, looking at a massive highway.

This is sort of a huge two-part.

There's a sort of deriver perimeter with these crystalline, twinkling,

they're sculptures almost like trees, but they're actually just floating pieces of crystal like telekinetic mobiles through this central promenade, big highway moving right through Haverward in a straight line, going to another massive orange gate on the far side of the neighborhood.

Far up ahead, your eyes follow the eyes of Enzo and Cyril in their glamours as Malacanth is ascending high, high, high overhead to arrive at the very top of the Erian at midday.

So the court that they are looking at is far, far from here.

However, all of you walk and suddenly are just in Haverward, past the guards at the gate.

Your passes have worked and you are free to do what you will as Enzo and Cyril look to you.

I look at the gentleman.

Are the target of your letters up in Malacanth?

Um, no, but they soon will be.

When the Epiphany arrives, it will do at the Tower of the Sword.

I see.

Do you have leave to get there?

I believe so.

Now that we have arrived here, perhaps best to shed our glamours.

Ink demons with missives on behalf of a Wizard of the Citadel, we need not say who, will certainly be allowed passage.

You see that Enzo Enzo turns to Cyril and they nod, and they say, Perhaps best for us to alight to Malakanth as quickly as possible.

Do you require anything from us before we go?

If I'm to be there when Suvi arrives at Malakanth,

how difficult would it be for me to follow you up, Enzo?

Hmm.

Flying by broom, I think you will likely be spotted.

Yes.

And the Galathopters require scanning and

identification.

Well, perhaps best to send you on your way to deliver your messages.

Thank you so much for all your help so far.

Keep an eye out for us.

If we can, we will be at your service.

And you see that both of them step around a corner and the two uh you see that Enzo uh oh one last thing.

Hmm?

Uh uh Cyril this is, I had composed this for you upon your uh freeing, but but I don't know if you

please recite it for me.

Oh, loudly so people know you wrote it.

Oh

to whomever it may concern, mark well this Cerulean urn.

He has a literary bent, twould be time quite well spent to listen to his words that so yearn.

My words words do yearn.

Yes.

A perfect poem.

You're perfect.

Goodbye, gentlemen.

Goodbye, Armé.

You're the most important person in the world.

And he flies away.

And I would like to strike out for Tilliver Mill.

Walking through the streets of Haverward,

you arrive back at Tilliver Mill.

The familiar scent of hot metal and smoke.

You see the door lies before you,

and you see that opens as some people cart in and out.

You see Rin in the little cage on your hip.

It sort of lights up again.

And you see that Rin looks over at tasks.

Both of these little, a little gem bug and a little mirror arachnid both kind of regard each other and turn around and look as Rin realizes the place where you first got Rin.

Don't even think about it.

I slip a little rhinestone in there.

Keep them.

I think disguised I would like to go and try to track down

Golt the artificer.

Great.

You approach Tilliver Mill.

Do you announce yourself?

Do you enter?

Or do you

wait outside?

I think I'll wait for lunch and hope that enough of them are able to take a lunch break in order to slip in unnoticed.

Waiting for a lunch break, you hear a whistle blow and can hear the noise of people inside breaking to eat, but it sounds like they're going to be eating mostly indoors.

You also, I think, see, if you're waiting a little while for that, go ahead and roll me a perception check, and we'll also kind of treat this as a luck check.

16.

On a 16,

you don't see see Gult, but you see that there is a delivery of raw materials.

It looks like big bags of some kind of arcane salt that arrive being moved on a pair of hand trucks by these two sort of dock workers that come over, sort of like, almost like sky dock workers, move this salt in.

As they do so,

you see that uh

Hana comes to the door.

It's partially injured, blonde hair wrapped up in a bandana, and begins to talk.

And you see that one of them asks for someone and points inside.

She shakes her head no and signs for it and begins to move it indoors.

I wait until the deliverers have stepped away, and I'd like to try and slip in behind her.

Great.

The door is unlocked.

It's during business hours, so you open it up.

Go ahead and give me a stealth check.

Only a 10.

You walk into the mill

and see faces look up at you.

You said you're disguised.

Yes.

What are you disguised as?

I wear the costume of a courier.

I've seen some around in Haverward.

There's just so much coming and going.

So I want it to appear as if I've come from Cairo.

I'm just here to deliver something.

And I walk purposefully and with my my brow furrowed, and I have a satchel in my hands.

When you walk holding something and you look worried and walk with purpose, people tend not to question it.

On a 10-stealth check, as you enter, someone looks up from their workstation and says,

Afternoon, can I help you?

I have a...

I check inside the satchel.

Is there a

Hannah?

Hannah, yes, she's in the main office.

Ah, thank you.

You walk down the familiar hallway leading away from the hot workshop to the office across from the storeroom where you found Ursulan's shield.

Give me a little perception check as you're walking through here.

Natural 20.

Holy shit!

The work has drastically diminished in Tilliver Mill.

There are piles and piles of half-completed projects, components.

There are like panes of glass that almost look like elements of the Derrick from Port Talon, but they're sitting there in these sort of like triangle blocks, not having anything done to them.

You see there are half-inscribed ceramic discs like the one that Sly had that got you to the North Pole, but the inlays that's supposed to be filled with some kind of metal have nothing in them, and it's kind of cluttered in the workshop.

It looks like something there, there's a bunch of half-completed work here.

Oh no,

I quicken my pace to the office.

You walk in and you see Hanna inside of the office.

She looks up and says, Uh, hello, can I help you?

Uh, yes, I have something here for uh, Mr.

Galt.

Uh

yes, uh Galt is no is not uh available.

I can take it.

I'm I'm I'm in charge of the mill.

Oh, I'm supposed to deliver this uh personally.

I don't know where Galt is.

So he's not here anymore.

Is he?

So uh what is it you have to deliver to him?

Uh what's your name?

Oh, uh

Lila.

It's something from

someone who says they're a friend of his,

an Ame?

You're bringing a message from Karo from

Ame?

Yes.

Uh, very well.

Let me see it.

Um,

I pull out from my bag just a piece of the stationery, um, and I

would like to try and prestige it

to be addressed and sealed, labeled to Galt.

Okay.

She takes the letter magically that appears written in your hand, takes it, and says,

Very well.

Did the woman who gave this to you give you any other instructions?

She said to deliver it to Galt directly?

Yes.

It's supposed to be for him.

Very urgent.

Okay.

I'll see that it gets to him.

Uh, give me an insight check.

19.

Hana is on the verge of tears.

Uh, she is terrified, panicked.

Something terrible has happened to Galt.

Hey, Miss.

Are you alright?

I'm sorry, I didn't mean

is

perhaps the person who I'm supposed to be delivering this to

I'm sorry,

I don't know you, so thank you for delivering the letter.

Have a nice day.

I lean in a little closer and I say

Ame is a friend of mine.

Maybe

if you're in need of some sort of help, I know that she promised you all a boon.

And then it seems like maybe from the state of the work here, you could use some help.

Give me a persuasion check.

Call it difficulty 20.

19.

God damn it!

On that 19, you say you are a friend of Ames.

The fox can also give a help action here.

That's another 19.

Oh,

brutal.

You know what?

I open

up

the satchel for the fox to poke his head up.

The fox pokes his head out.

You see Hana goes, haha!

And you see the fox goes,

be

calm.

Don't do anything rash.

You see the fox gets up and kicks the door shut and jumps back up on the desk and says, look here, my friend is a friend of the Witch of Toma.

He's trying to help you out.

You could ask for a boon for the Witch of the World's Heart if you wanted to.

Seems like a good idea.

It seems like things aren't going good here.

All right, that's enough.

Thank you.

Hana whips around and looks at you and says, I don't know anything.

I don't know where he is.

I don't know where he was taken.

He was taken?

She just starts weeping.

Hey, hey, hey.

I'm sorry.

Listen,

you were promised a boon from a witch.

That is no small thing.

Witches always fulfill their promises.

Is there anything that I can pass on to the witch of the world's heart?

She can help to find your father.

Please.

Please find him and free him.

Please.

Tell me everything you know.

Tell me everything.

I, I, I,

the last,

this was a while ago that the

friends of

my friend

Skye, the wizard Sky, she's a, she's an Archmage apprentice in the city.

She came by with the witch and this fox and and a man named Bear of Silbury.

And they were looking for a shield and we gifted a shield to them And he talked a little bit about a history that he'd had.

He'd known her mother, and he'd worked with a woman that I think was the mentor of the witch.

Yes, yes, I'm familiar with her history.

He had worked for that, and then people came asking about a sapphire.

They came asking about a perfect sapphire.

And after that, they said that he needed to tell them where he had gotten it from.

And he didn't have the records left.

He didn't have the archives left.

And the next day, he was gone.

He was just gone.

Where did they take him from?

He...

I said goodbye to him at home.

I came in to work early and he never showed up and he wasn't at the house.

Alright.

Speak of this to no one.

I was never here.

Okay.

We will find him.

Okay.

If the witch's boon can be to free him, then

I will...

I-I-I- Just carry on with the business.

Don't worry.

Is there anything I can do for you that would make this easier?

That would make the witch's boon more likely to come true.

Do you have something of his

something perhaps

that he would carry with him?

Something personal.

She opens the desk and takes out a small clay pipe.

All right.

Uh, Fox?

Fox goes.

Got it.

All right.

I'm deeply, deeply, deeply sorry for this.

Let's hope it's just an inconvenience, but

be strong.

Continue on with your work.

I swear to you that the Witch of Toma will make things right.

Thank you.

We're likely gonna be shut down in a little while.

We

have had a work stoppage because of a materials problem, and the so if there's anything that

we're about to lose it all anyway, so if there's any materials you need, let me know.

And anything that can help get my father back.

All right.

Fox, please help me search the room.

Yes, do go ahead.

15.

On a 15, you see a large pair of artificers gloves, heavy leather gloves, but with a kind of iridescent, rainbowy silver in little panels on the inside of the fingers and the palm.

You see that there is a small citadel symbol on the back of them with a sort of wrench underneath it.

There's some kind of connection here that you feel like you've seen them before or seen someone use them before.

Was Colt using them the day that we came and visited?

Colt was wearing them the the day that you came and visited.

May I borrow these as well?

Was the artificers' clubs?

Yes.

Yes, by all means.

Yes, you may borrow them.

Thinking about the different, the ways that

resources are allocated in the Citadel and

how normally artificers are asked to pay for their own supplies,

is there any way that I can

redirect resources to the mill for the time being,

and this is out loud verbally, as this person, right?

No, yeah.

So you see, Hannah says, Well,

our issue is a city-wide issue.

The reserves of Quicksilver have just dried up.

We're just not getting deliveries anymore.

Quicksilver.

What do I know about that?

Give me history.

Dirty 20.

On Dirty 20,

Task shows you the inside of a smuggler's cave

and a map sitting on a table.

There are areas that Yorin was hidden in the war.

What you see here in Tilliver Mill

is the result of Yorin's efforts.

A secret war within the Shroud Mountains to do what?

To stop the citadel.

Cut off the supply chains.

Alright.

Thank you very much.

We all have a lot of work ahead of us.

Thank you.

Is there any way for me to know that I'll hear from you again?

Well, with any luck, the Witch of Toma will work fast, and

you'll have word directly from your father.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Don't thank me yet.

And I head out.

The fox walks out with you to the street, and you have this pair of gloves on you.

I'm gonna examine the gloves a little bit,

but I want the fox to pick up the scent.

Go ahead and give me survival with advantage.

Dirty 20

on a dirty 20,

you

follow the scent back to Galt's home, which is not too far from Tillerville Mill,

and follow a scent that the fox admits is a couple, like maybe like a week or two old at this point.

Oh,

fear sweat.

They got him here right outside his house.

Who was it?

Beats me.

Um,

incense and nice places.

Ooh,

oh, oh, oh, marshmallow.

Someone that arrested him ate marshmallow.

Oh my goodness.

Okay, here, hold on.

Run him out again.

And you see, he wanders over.

As he does so, he arrives closer to the inner ring of security where the quartz actually land.

But before you get to the landing pad of the great quartz, there are several gallithopter stations.

There are the big sort of regal ones with the broad wings and everything else like that.

And you see wizards putting their hands on that little orb in the center to head up and off in their Galithopters.

You also see off to one side some that are a little bit stouter and a little bit clumsier that have wrenches on their sides.

The artificers.

All of the things in all of those courts that might break or need repair.

And those those wizards are not going to want to wait long for their things to be fixed.

Task, give me a little brief on anything you have about artificers.

Task scans a series of codes from the wall of Hana's office about activating gallithopters and gives you like one or two command keys.

You see, the way these gloves work essentially is the wizards don't actually want to know the inner workings of what the artificers have to deal with.

They just want whatever gear monkey down in Haverwork can come up and fix what they have to fix right away.

So they print the codes out, put them down there.

Someone puts on the gloves and they get to work fixing it.

Alright.

I put on the gloves, using whatever mending or press digitation I can to make them look like they fit me.

I think I duck around a corner momentarily to take on the guise of...

a repair workman.

A little bit of fox magic covers you and you look like a gruff and surly citadel artificer.

I head towards the Galithopter.

Striding aboard an unclaimed Galithopter, you put out your hand, speak the command keys as projected by task.

Little Fox has crept into this hen house of mighty magic.

And Ahme, Witch of Toma, cunning and kind, takes to the sky.

Illuminated in a ghostly golden light.

Hair swaying above his head,

as though underwater.

His visage,

captured at the moment of his death.

This is not the body, hail and hearty, that you saw, it is his spirit,

his soul.

Something of the dead, summoned forth to walk the world.

He was human, and now

he is spirit.

He is young.

Your age.

Not far off.

What you saw as a mortal man was always

a young warrior

riding on his way to die.

Curran

approaches,

standing at the ditch by the side of the road.

Bare feet in moss, golden greaves and shining plate.

Ursulan, you see yourself reflected in that armor.

At his hip is the sword of night.

His shield is on his back.

He smiles at you in recognition.

A haunted look of sorrow on his face.

What is Ursulan feeling in this moment?

I think Ursulan feels himself go rigid,

tense,

confused, scared.

And then, in hearing his voice,

there's a coldness in the pit of his stomach,

a sense of hopelessness.

Sir Kurin?

Sir Kurin of the Hawthorne?

Ursulan takes a step back and trips a little bit.

As you stumble, you see

reflexively Curran

reaches out as though to catch your stumbling

and stops at the ditch at the edge of the road.

You hear the voice from the man in black.

Step onto the road, restless spirit of the dead.

You see Curran

lowers his head in shame and sorrow,

steps across the ditch, puts a foot on the road and winces in pain as blood begins to spill from the bottom of his feet.

The road will not be kind

to this spirit, Brother Ursula.

I believe his boots he once removed to walk with respect

on the forest floor.

He is without them now because as he lay dead at the bottom of the river, the scavengers of war came and picked him clean.

And while his armor they could not remove for the ferocity of the water or its golden weight, they got those boots off him real quick.

Why have you done this?

I needed a champion and you refused.

Why him?

The son.

of a great bear, a tree astride his shield.

It is not for me to question prophecy, Brother Ursulan,

but I will see my purpose met.

This spirit of the dead was not my first choice.

I would not have entertained to bring so close into my company

the spirit of one who had lived a mortal life such as he.

But we make do.

You were free to make the choice you did,

and from that choice rippled out many others,

like the splashing of waters in a great stream.

I played the hand I was dealt.

And this

is he.

Curran

stands shaking

under

his power as blood seeps into the road from his feet.

His,

again, almost illuminated.

It's not that translucent ghostliness.

It's not white or smoky.

It is illuminated as if giving off light, like the golden light of that distant day.

He seems almost out of place, like the quality of light that he casts is though even here in the dark of night, some unseen sun is shining on him.

But that light falls on the blood seeping from under his feet as his toes curl, hurting at the touch of the road.

He looks up at you, tears streaming down his face.

Brother,

the soles of his feet won't wear the sting of the road well.

Roads have a magic all their own.

This one, in particular, I frequented often.

I sought the soul of a mortal girl on this road.

And a very

clever witch kept me trapped here for a time.

Until I felt it.

Her boot touching the road.

And once again, I was free.

I waited too long,

Brother Ursulan.

I had a long time to dwell on the mistakes I made and I will not make them again.

This one made some mistakes as well.

Didn't you?

You told this young spirit a tale of honor.

Saw my brother trapped and way shadowed in this road.

You see, Curran

looks forward and meets your eyes, Ursulan, shakes his head side to side.

That was not my intention.

Tell

Ursulon

how you died.

He looks at you.

I came here to fight for honor, Ursulan.

And a quest.

I came here

because I served my father.

My father sent us here

and held back in reserve

his forces

other than me

to betray his king.

He sent me here knowing I would die

to position himself for greater land and title

in the aftermath of his betrayal.

I didn't know.

I thought

tell Ursula what you thought.

I thought that there was honor here.

My champion stands before you, the sword of knight at his side.

Great purpose have I.

You know it's feeling well.

Great Bullfrog lies dead, and that glass tower, as I have said and meant,

is plunged into the heart of this world.

I will see those children delivered to their home.

I will see the the great spirits of the world beyond

reckon with their own eyes what fate has befallen one of our own.

And I will see them stride with me

towards the retribution that is coming to the world of mortals.

I cannot let you do that,

Curran.

get the children.

Ursulan moves quickly to place himself

between Sir Curran and the children,

holding his shield aloft

in one hand and his sword in the other.

Brother, please.

Curran

weeps,

but at the command of the man in black, he draws the sword of knight.

Brother, you should run.

Roll initiative.

4.

Stepping forward, Sir Curran lunges with the sword of knight, sweeping towards your midsection at top speed.

At the last possible moment, the sword hidden by Sir Curran's body from the man in black astride his raft.

He twists the wrist,

striking you instead with the flat of the blade.

Even the flat of that blade connects with your body for 16 points of damage, and I'm going to need a strength-saving throw.

11.

An 11 strength saving throw.

Pick your shield or your sword.

One of them is flying out of your hands.

My sword.

Even as Sir Curran

pulls the blow to keep it from being truly lethal, the magic of this blade, wrought of night and shadow, thunders into your stomach with a sickening ripple of force, and you feel your connection to your blade, Wavebreaker, severed magically,

as though a song has been forgotten.

Wavebreaker flies out of your hand.

Thunk into the road beside you.

That is your turn.

You look, having deferred their initiative to see what you are going to do.

Terrified Neif, bellowing elk, all of these children.

Look and see Curran advancing on you, the road pitch black behind them, Wavebreaker standing there.

Neif looks to you with horror of what she should do, not knowing what to do.

You've never seen her cast a spell.

Ursulan, this situation is, in all of the adventures you have had in the mortal world, the darkest and most dangerous you have ever faced.

You cannot see hope in this moment.

What do you do?

Looking back at Wavebreaker,

Ursulan looks to Neif.

Through the woods, now!

Neif, her turn deferred, calls to the children and pours into the woods with them, led by the elk

on the other side from where Curran came.

You see the man in black says, A waste of time alone.

Curran will hunt them down.

Ursulan is going to turn back to Curran, leaving Wavebreaker for now, and is just going to make a shove attack on Sir Curran.

Push him back five feet.

Go ahead and make a shove attack.

You are standing, you are standing quite close to the water, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

That is an 18 on the dive for a 26.

Roll your first attack.

It's a 9 on the die for a 17.

Okay.

Second attack?

16 for 24.

9 again for 17.

You go twice with the shield.

Clang, clang against him.

Each time he sets himself against it, leaning with his

right shoulder, the still armored pauldron, into the golden shield.

Any bonus action from you?

Ursulan understands this is not a moment to hide, so is going to forego using his hidden step or turning invisible and just continue to put himself between Sir Curran and the fleeing children.

You put yourself between Sir Curran and them, and you see the man in black from the river calls to Curran.

The children.

Your task is the children.

Indoor Ursulan.

It comes back to Curran's turn.

He is going to turn to bolt into the woods after the kids.

It's going to be an attack of opportunity from you.

Can I use it to grapple?

In this instance, I will allow you to grapple because you are unarmed.

You have your hands free.

With a roll of a six on the die, you are trying to beat a 14, 14 or higher.

With a 19 on the die,

Ursulan puts everything he has into holding Curran.

You leap, grab Curran, slam him to the ground of the road,

holding on to him with all of your might.

You feel

him whip around and

lashing out, he is going to attack you twice with his sword, with the sword of knight.

With a three on the die, that's a miss.

With a seven on the die, that's a miss.

Clang, clang!

Twice off of your pauldron rings the sound of steel.

Looking into the gleaming eyes

of this luminescent ghost of a long dead knight before you.

The sword of night flashing forward faster and faster.

His face set in sorrow and determination.

His expression reaching out to you and telling you that he does not want to do this,

but he will.

Ursulan, it is your turn.

Think Ursulan holding Curran,

his muscles tense,

his mind terrified, is gonna make a perception check for the environment, is looking for this

what he has

available to him.

Give me perception.

Dirty 20.

Curran is struggling against you mightily.

Your sword wave breaker is behind you, there on the road.

You see the pommel in the moonlight, a seven-fingered fist.

You hear the rushing of the river behind you.

Coming from the green forest, headed to the sea.

This is the road by which the rain rides to the sea.

The song of the people of Akam.

The gentle rain sent by Naran to his lady wife Orima,

who something told you last night to speak to, even when

a plan had been laid before your feet

the chances you see here

Naram's fist and the hilt of that sword

the river rushing down from here

the road

the road of the man in black and the road the rain rides to the sea

Curran wrestling underneath you in this moment and you feel in yourself as well the children crying out

for some

gift, some

presence.

The bullfrog is dead, gone from this world, and they cannot find their gift.

And the last thing I will say: looking across the river,

past the man in black, this impossible figure of night and dread,

the road on the other side is not darkened.

And even though in this moment you do not see

Ahme or Suvi waiting for you there or some other symbol of hope or promise, the fact that you can see that road at all

gives some strange semblance of hope in this moment.

There must be a way out.

As Ursulan struggles

and fights against the feelings of hopelessness, his mind is drawn to his friends

and the songs they sang together

and the place that they found him in

and the place that he stands now,

terrified and desperate,

Ursulan

lets go of Curran,

knowing that if this does not work,

he will reach those children.

He's going to

rush to grab Wavebreaker and then make for the water.

You leave the night.

His hands and face bleeding from their contact with the road.

You grab Wavebreaker in your hand, and in a single mighty bound, roaring through the air,

you land in the water,

the sword submerged.

Far distant, you hear

Ursula,

are you alright?

No, brother.

I need help.

Those under my charge

are in danger.

You feel a hand on the back of your cloak as Curran pulls you out of the water,

raises his sword, preparing to strike deep into your back.

His eyes in a rictus of horror at what he must not do but is compelled to.

The man in Mac, as still as ever.

You see Neif upriver, some small ways at the river's bank, pleading with the spirit of this river.

With both hands clasped in the children behind her, she pleads with it.

And you can see some small and gentle river spirit looking up at her, explaining,

I cannot treat with you.

One much greater comes.

I cannot, sir.

The man in black turns,

facing downstream

as mountains of water come crashing up the river, as the sea rides up the road

and Naram.

His long-flowing hair and long ears, robe, the spear sea calmer at his side, stands some 200 feet tall,

waves cresting about his waist, galloping like a chariot up the river, deep inland,

towering over the man in black.

King of Night.

My brother has called me here.

Your servant does him harm.

This does not please me.

The man in black is silent.

Raises one hand to stay Curran.

What

would please you, Wave Lord?

Naram turns to look at you, Ursulan.

Whatsoever my brother wishes would please me, Pilgrim under stars.

Man in black turns to regard you, Ursulan, in this moment and waits for you to speak your heart's desire.

You will depart from this place.

You will not harm these children.

The man in black turns to Naram.

This

spirit

of freedom and of the wild.

The young bear who smells of rosemary and pine.

Wave shadow wanderer and night-errant.

His wish is yours,

oh that lord of the gentle sea.

Naram smiles, looks down at you, Ursulan.

He seems so sad.

His wish is mine,

King of Night.

And what

of my wish, Neram?

Grant it

and I will walk by your side, King of Night.

It's done.

The man in black is gone.

Curran

vanishes with a gasp of pain.

And there is mist only, and you see his face for a moment drowning in blood under the water before he is gone.

And Naram is still standing.

diminishing and diminishing until he is your height and lifts you up and embraces you standing here in the stream.

Thank you, brother.

Though I do not understand

what is it he wishes of you.

The King of Night wishes for all of the great spirits to march to war.

To march to war

against the world of mortals.

The citadel is his aim, Ursulan.

But you can see it.

You can hear it in his voice.

The gifts of man.

They stirred in the hearts of mortals long before that tower was built.

And it is not that tower alone that he seeks to undo,

but the strength to ever build one such as that again.

Give me an insight to check, Ursulan, if you would be so kind, and you can do so with advantage.

15

Naram is weeping in this moment,

and you see that he has held off for as long as he can.

There is some part of him that felt that perhaps this could not be avoided.

He looks to you.

I love them so much.

There is so much good in this world.

And

if it is to stand,

it will not be me who finds the way.

I am not

given to great tellings of prophecy, nor do I see the fate of men and spirits written in the stars.

But I know this.

He

grasps your face in his hand and regards you with all of the love that a brother and fellow spirit can muster.

You are of our world, a spirit true.

And you lived in their world alongside them.

If any can speak to the world of spirits on the hearts of mortals

and why they may earn

a new day and a bright sun with gentle seas,

I believe as young as you are

that it is you who are on that path to speak that truth.

I will do as I must, but keep the hope of your quest in my heart.

He looks up the river

at the

children gathered there.

Do you wish, Ursulan, in my last night before I join my wife and father,

for some aid with those young ones in your charge?

You have done so much for me, brother.

And that would be my final request.

Could you deliver them to Varik on Rhymers Bay?

I will.

Is there anywhere you need to tread that you wish for me to take you?

To Gauthmai.

To see my sister once more before I set off on

my path.

These children I will take across the sea.

Wait for the coming of one who bears my cloak at the cottage of of the Witch of the World's Heart, and they will shepherd you to Gauthmai, my brother.

Business will call me elsewhere before then.

I am glad to have saved you

from the wrath and power of the King of Night.

I have bought it dearly.

I have dreaded long to say it, but when next we meet, we may meet as foes.

In that battle, I hope that my sword and not my spear strikes true.

Thank you, brother.

Water surrounding the children, floating and bubbling in the nighttime river.

The spirit of the river acknowledges the spirit of the gentle sea.

And in a chariot of waves and foam,

Neath

are familiar.

and the children wave to the night who bought their freedom and fought for a world that they could call home.

Following the parade, witnessing that strange little trophy through the Dossett, the Dawset girl's window,

it is, sadly, only three hours, so not enough to do anything useful like get your spells back.

As the epiphany clears over a beautiful dawn morning in the Arulean Desert, white sands blowing throughout and the massive tower of the Erian approaching.

You,

exhausted with a very tired crew and a ship whose illusions of being whole are no longer there, sort of some light smoke still skimming off of an area of damage.

I hear a knock at the door.

I couldn't stop you from coming in.

The door opens,

and you see Sworn at the door.

Oh.

You're wanted on the deck.

Okay.

He turns and begins to escort you down the hall.

Inside check?

What is the energy?

I'm only getting bad energy.

I don't know why I keep checking, but.

Give me an inside check.

Yeah.

That's a dirty 20.

Bad energy.

Yeah.

A man who

arrested you back in 12 Brooks.

And

on a dirty 20, you see a man who believes that your relationship has concluded.

Yeah.

But on a dirty 20, I'll also say that.

that he looks disappointed in that.

That he looks hurt by that.

Suvi.

Yeah, we'll just risk sort of whispering.

It's like...

Okay, I didn't like the second hold.

It wasn't as...

Wasn't as useful to me as the first.

And just tries to crack a little joke.

Second whole person.

It's a long, uncomfortable silence.

And as you get towards the stairs up out of here,

complete unwillingness, but also an inability to stop himself.

His chin turns to the side and he goes, it's because the second one worked.

And

I'll go ahead and cough on my way.

You walk up.

and there is a small ceremony gathered here.

For what?

Drummers, spectral, summoned, sort of magical drummers, just drum kits

in the air, and smiling in her armor, still injured and look with a visible level of exhaustion, is the sword of the Citadel.

Wizard Sky,

Archmage Apprentice of the Wizard Silence,

for bravery in the face of battle, cleverness deep behind enemy lines, for covert accomplishment embedded with the enemy to secure a critical intelligence victory for the Citadel, I hereby commend you with this Medal of Valor

and

with promotion in the field of duty to your new role as Sage of the Prenumbra.

This is the coolest thing

that I hate with every fiber of my being.

Fuck.

Sage of the Prenumbra is so tight.

Ugh, Suvi,

everything

is

being like, whatever,

like

cylinders are being fired are all just for not looking surprised, confused,

and then like

contemptful and disappointed with what's happening in that order.

Give me a constitution saving throw and then give me a deception check.

3020 20 on the constitution save.

Cool.

You've been up for more than a day, but there's no exhaustion level.

You've honestly practice makes perfect.

There you go.

She has one actual skill and it's be awake right in the sweet spot before you have a full meltdown.

And deception?

13 plus 2 for a 15.

Your face is a confused one that is visible and legible, but the confusion doesn't register as inappropriate.

It actually kind of registers as grateful and amazed.

Even though there is some derivative that you're like, huh?

I know this is not true.

We're doing a fun, flirty little lie.

Okay.

Yeah, Suvi's going to look around.

Who else is here and witnessing this?

Most of the crew's senior officership.

Slate is here.

Sworn is here.

You see,

a fixed visage is a badly injured silver who is here.

Who you see also has been field promoted.

It looks like someone above him got promoted with the death of Slain, and he is now

two days after joining, is a junior officer in the former Slain circle of War Mages.

Wild.

This is a guy you saved from a lumber mill like a week and a half ago.

Well,

cool.

Here's hoping he earned his at least.

You see, steal smiles and pins to your Imperial wizard's jacket, a beautiful emblem of a crescent moon with several stars hanging from them in tiny silver chains.

This crest of the seventh star denotes your valor and bravery in the line of duty.

And to you, Wizard Sky, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude.

The assembled soldiers will grant a moment of impropriety, and you see that she gives you a big hug.

I hug her back.

Alright, that's our last field promotion.

You're all dismissed.

Look alive.

We need to bring this to the Tower of the Sword, and then after that, bring it down to Haverwork for some pretty extensive repairs.

I'll just stand

back, and if it looks like everyone's clearing the deck, I'll head back to the room.

Steele looks at you and says,

Hey, hey,

you want to stay with me and see the sights?

See home again?

Yeah,

I really would.

Let's do it.

I'm very capable, even though I'm quite sleepy.

I can keep you under arrest.

Don't worry.

I have it in me.

I don't know.

I think you did the coolest thing you'll ever do already.

I got it.

That's so mean that I don't have a rhetoric.

How dare you?

How dare you suggest I won't do something cooler?

And she puts her armored hand over your shoulder.

You feel the weight of the golden armor

as the epiphany sails through.

And there's Malacanth, and there's Candle Street Bakery, and there's the Tower of the Glove.

There's your tower.

And Steele looks and says,

Tower of the Glove can stay yours.

You don't lose your apprentice position just because of a promotion.

So, but the Sage's towers are nice.

It basically, it depends on if you want to keep an eye on silence or not, to a certain degree.

He killed the great bullfrog.

He can get his own fucking cookies, I think.

See, when you kill the great bullfrog, you don't have to get your own cookies.

Okay, well, you know what?

I'll stay on cookie duty.

All right.

I think that's the shrewd move.

And she wakes a year.

It's always good to keep an eye on your mentors.

Yeah.

And I do think that, like,

Suvi is not weeping, but there are tears going down her cheeks.

Like, this is.

There's so much complicated

feeling

around

what home means as a place and as like an actor on the world.

But you can't help being so happy to be home again.

And she's just going to

not bury.

the complicated feelings and just let it read however it reads.

And it's good to be home.

Steel rubs your back.

Your effects are being delivered to the Tower of the Glove, and

we're not gonna stop there first.

We're actually going to.

The timing is pretty good, actually.

We have an appointment at noon.

No more secrets.

No more secrets other than the ones that you, you and I keep together.

I want to bring you in.

Trust has been broken, and she whispers here, but not beyond repair.

Okay?

Okay.

So there are things I need to show you, because I think once you know what all of this is,

it will

help explain some of the things that

don't sit easily in the stomach.

Okay?

Okay.

Is this like you and me talking in too big of a room, or

we kind of call in all the corners on this one?

Well, I have some people I want to introduce you to, and I have some places I want to show you, but uh, it's it's gonna be

we can have as any any private conversations you want.

Look, you know, you you saw me talking to the Wizard Grey.

Look, actually,

I would love to call all of the Ark Magi together.

I have something I can say.

No more secrets except for ours.

Great.

Actually, as Sage of the Penumbra,

which, by the way, new station.

What is that?

A new station for you.

Oh, it matches my vibe.

I wasn't looking when you put it on.

As the Wizard Sky,

specifically, we're fighting a war against the most powerful witches in the world while we're fighting all the other wars that we're fighting.

So you're going to be in charge of that war.

Oh, this is great.

I have thought.

Oh, yeah, great, great.

And Subi, like, does the thing where like she gets a little too expansive, like, elbows out.

Uh,

and

there has been a lot of things like churning in her for the last few weeks that, like,

despite all of the strange feelings and divided loyalties she has,

At the end of the day, she does not and will not see this tower fall

from the hands of the witches or the man in black.

Absolutely not.

So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, great, great, great.

You are,

of any wizard in the citadel, after the adventures you've just had on our behalf, one of the most well-versed in theory and the most well-versed in practice at

handling witchcraft.

So, huh.

that, okay, that feels like it should make me feel good, but it should make everyone else in this tower feel terrible.

Don't I know it.

As you fly in, the epiphany begins to dark, and you see tons of new construction in Malakanth.

There are covered walkways everywhere.

You look out and you see that people aren't walking under them.

It looks like the covered walkways are, there's a lot of them around, but you don't see anyone.

The people are sort of out and about enjoying the day.

Oh?

For night walks.

We stay undercover at night.

I understand.

You just see dealing with Indry's star library.

Yeah.

The wizards were happy to steal it and then immediately tried to make it not as useful anymore.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Sue was going to like snap and point to the top of her tower and be like, oh, I did an illusion to see the sky.

I don't want.

We got got to get rid of that.

Call your niece,

make it stop.

And actually, as the Epiphany pulls up to the Tower of the Sword, you see Steele's home, you see Sonder and Cadillah and their siblings waving down from below.

Yulia is waiting for you at the dock in her vest.

And you see, says, Congratulations, and pops a little thing of shit.

It's a champagne bottle, but just confetti comes out of it.

Oh, that's great.

Thank you.

And you see, she says, I'd be so delighted to give you a hand.

Steel comes out and says, hang here for one second.

Stay in the tower.

And goes off to handle people coming to and fro from the Epiphany.

But Yulia comes and says,

I've been so excited to be in touch.

You got the information about.

I haven't been able to track down past Caro anything about a ghost or a flicker.

Wait.

What do you okay?

Okay.

Oh, God.

And again, Suvi's doing the like moving through a lot of emotions and trying to like eat them quickly.

Uh understood.

Yeah.

And

it's on

Caro,

Glass Coronet.

Uh, yes.

Okay.

Good to know.

So that's the last place that we were able to trace that.

Um, but uh I sent out some missives asking for information.

I haven't received anything back, but I'm happy to follow up.

Oh good.

You can let that one go.

I got that.

And then I was thinking about ways to show more initiative as your apprentice and as Sage of the Penumbra.

And I know that we're dealing with

stars and star magic.

So I took the liberty of preparing this.

And it is a list.

I went through every single library in all 12 courts and

the big ones in Haverward as well, the public one, and the ones, the Citadel ones in Haverward.

Yeah.

This is every book on starlight, stars, constellations, star magic,

cross-indexed for your review.

Oh.

How good of a job did she do?

Give me investigation with advantage.

22.

Oh, she didn't do a good job.

Immediately you see that there's one missing.

Stars of the southern skies?

Missing.

Not there.

Yeah, okay.

Something is not right here.

Because this list is so thorough.

There's libraries you haven't heard of here.

She's had had the weeks that you've been gone in the Shroud Mountains to make up a job for her to do so she's not spinning out and going insane in the Tower of the Glove.

And the one thing she knew from the Witch War was

the stars.

So that's what she went off of.

This list is exhaustive.

It's not only stars in the title, it's any books that tangentially reference stars.

Jesus.

It's like, but you're looking at the top sheet of them, which is the ones that reference them in the title.

It goes for pages and pages and pages.

And that would be a book that's basic enough that there would be several copies floating around.

You don't know that it's that basic.

You hadn't seen it before it was given to you.

You knew it's like an intermediate astronomy book, but you hadn't seen it before it was handed to you.

Okay.

Just trying to figure out why it is missing beyond, I know the copy of it is with Ame because I'm the one that transported it.

Like, why wouldn't it be referenced or if there was another copy?

That's exactly the thing that Suvi needs.

Okay.

Is everything all right?

Yes.

Is anything wrong with the list?

No.

We'll, uh, we'll talk.

That's not in a, like, scary way for later, but exhausted.

It's been a big day.

Okay.

I appreciate the diligence of your work.

Okay.

If there's a mistake, I will amend it.

I know.

You're great.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

No, you're.

Oh, God.

Yeah.

I know that energy.

You're good.

Thank you.

Okay, I'll be waiting at the the Tower of the Glove if you need me.

Great.

Thanks.

You turn around.

You know, business concludes.

People leave.

You don't see...

It looks like Sworn and Silver actually took off flying under their own power.

Sure.

And you see Slate walk off into the Tower of the Sword.

Steele turns around, and as the Epiphany heads down to Haverward, she sits in her chair in her sanctum in the top story.

And it's like just a few short minutes till high noon where you will have that momentary pause at the top of the Erie and she looks at you and goes,

oh, I'm sleepy.

Is there, what can I do?

The last time I tried to help you, you did counterspell it.

I did because I thought you might be a traitor.

And so I.

And you thought.

You thought me with all of my big, cool magic, was going to flick

whatever I've got in the chamber at you.

With all the love I've got, I don't count on you for good judgment all the time, Suvi.

Okay, let's be clear.

I make very good calls, they're just not predictable.

Boy, that ain't that the truth.

Oh, you must be tired.

You are not fighting back like I need.

Can I get you some coffee?

No, I hate Saunders coffee.

Just.

Yeah.

Here, let's head to the the Skybridge.

Okay.

You walk out to the Skybridge where the Epiphany just docked, and it juts out a good 50 feet from the top of the Tower of the Sword.

She waits, and she says, this is going to be really fun.

Do you believe in the power of magic, Wizard Skye?

What are you saying?

Do you believe?

I don't get to do this stuff.

I read about this in stories.

It seems like spirits get to do this all the time.

I believe in the power of magic.

I do.

Very well.

I really do.

There's a momentary pause as Malakanth settles.

She says, step forward with me.

Okay.

You step, and your feet touch solid air underneath you.

She holds out an elbow for you to link arms.

Yeah, immediately.

You look and see that both of you aren't invisible on exiting from this thing and begin to ascend a force staircase invisible in the sky that perfectly aligns with where her balcony rests at the topmost position and begin to

and begin to ascend into the place where the sort of geode prism crystal of the Erian

inflects at an angle and converges to a single point and begin to walk up an invisible staircase in the sky towards the very top.

Shut up!

This rocks!

Sorry, invisible, invisible, discreet, discreet.

This

looking rocks.

No more secrets.

It is time,

young penumbra sage, sage of the penumbra.

It is time that you beheld

the endeavor.

The great endeavor.

Which we don't leave lying around just anywhere.

We uh we keep that for uh last but not least

welcome to the court of lucent

in a 25th court of the citadel uh

appears before you

you step onto a balustrade and as you step forward shimmering like the heat over a hot stove on a summer's day

Shimmering force

reflecting sky and crystal begins to come into shape like an optical illusion, suddenly realizing that you are seeing walls of glass and a glass court with walls all around you and a wide swinging set of glass doors opens up to reveal the openings of a hall made of reflected glassy sky.

But there is a carpet laid out and some side tables made of wood that appear to just be hanging in open sky.

But what you see is there are rooms beyond this room, but walls are not invisible in such a way that you can see the rooms past them.

They are invisible in such a way that you see all the way out of the Erian.

So it is a labyrinth of strange sky glass and sand mirror hanging at the very top of Erian.

I lied, I lied, I lied.

I live here now.

Yo, you don't want to live in Lucent.

Lucent is.

And you see, you hear a voice go,

Wizard Steel.

And you turn and see a nine-foot-tall glass person with a bald head and white, very comfortable-looking robes with fine chains of floating glass around them.

Turn around.

They are a fully transmuted.

First, you think you're looking at a spirit.

This is a transmuted human.

Steel nods and says, Wizard F.

Shess.

It is a pleasure to see you.

Oh, Wizard Steel, it is a pleasure.

The newly promoted siege of the Penumbra.

And a glassy hand extends to grasp yours.

Oh, no hesitation.

A nice firm handshake with a glass hand that is as cool and clean to the touch.

You can feel your fingerprints like peel off the oil of your hand.

I'm sorry about that.

I should have wiped my hands off first.

Every hand is somewhat oily to me.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Fear not, not at all, not at all.

A pleasure to meet you, Wizard.

Steele turns to you and says,

Abjurrs, all of them.

Understood.

We are deep within the magic of the magic of the magic of magic here.

before we are

commenced to the tour?

Actually, F Shas, anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of the sage of the penumbra.

And that's so sweet because Subi had immediately gone into, like, got it, step away,

and then kind of stops.

Yes,

Sage.

Very well.

The depletion of the Aerith resources has come at a most unfortunate time for our workings here in Lucent.

I understand, Fshas.

I'm sorry to hear that.

The battles were necessary both for military and political reasons, so the work I know will have to be delayed for a day.

And you see, Evshas says, Not a day.

The repairs needed were of an urgent nature.

We will have our abilities here diminished for quite some time.

You see, she says, Really?

That was...

things deteriorated just in that short amount of time?

Well, our safeguards against them depended on supplies that have not come up from the ground.

See, Steele nods.

Yeah, okay, I'm aware.

I'm aware.

F Sha says, when can we expect resupply of

these necessary materials?

Steele says,

I don't know.

The Faridi Consortium did not make clear to me how

extremely narrow their abilities to procure Quicksilver were.

It was a military failure due to their guild secrecy.

It cannot be overstated how critical the need for resupply is.

Even the simple magic of the Archmage Silence's spell cannot be recreated without Musi-She raises a hand and says, I understand.

It has been made clear to the Emperor, to the Imperium,

to the Consortium, most of all, that no expense is too great to ensure that the procurement of this resource not be spread out militarily in the future.

In the middle of this, like the moment I hear Quicksilver, what do I know the like applications of that to be?

Quicksilver is a pretty rare mineral.

It's incredibly magically potent.

You know, it's useful in some

magic.

Give me an Arcana check.

Fuck it.

Give me Arcana and history.

Arcana check is a 21.

History is 14.

On an Arcana 21, Quicksilver is

used in a variety of things, but it is

really what it is, is it's alive, it's malleable.

The quick in Quicksilver doesn't mean fast, it means alive.

And

what you do know actually right away is you can't make Tamori without it.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, it's just the like, where would I immediately go?

Like, great.

It's inside like...

three thermometers.

Mostly what kind of, like just trying to triangulate off of like what kind of magic takes like has a high frequency of that you can't yeah you can make 99 of a tamori but that last one percent is the thing that brings them to life copy quicksilver is what you need for that okay

on that history check

you just connect the dots between what steel is saying about narrow range of procurement and that map of yorans in that smuggler's cave.

Yeah.

Okay.

Steele turns and says, but I think showing some of the amazing work that we're doing here in Lucent to the Wizard Sky would be wonderful.

Of course, follow me.

Moving through arcane workshops, some of which are like tranquil meditation rooms where like a single glass wizard will be focusing on space and creating shapes of illusion in front of them over and over again.

You see another room where a wizard takes a tapestry, unravels all the strings, and remakes it into abstract so that it is visual gibberish, but attempts to summon what was the spirit of that small piece of carpet.

In other words, can you undo a tapestry and still summon the spirit of it?

Oh

Yeah, Suvis,

that's a full body shudder.

This is as close as I think Suvis felt to that awful

twin

repulsion and fascination when she first beheld the Calibel non-omantic apparatus of just, oh no, but also, oh shit.

You walk through a chamber.

There's a long hallway where you see there are hanging schematics on the sky glass with these glass wizards moving throughout it, all of whom are looking, and you see representations of a double-headed phoenix, which is a symbol of the house of Saraz.

And you see that it is depicted over and over, and there are anatomical drawings, but they're all different over and over and over again.

You walk through another room.

They are constructing long pieces of wire, this beautiful sort of copper wire, and barbing it with spell energy, like warping it with their fingers.

And you recognize a little piece of metal fencing.

You see images over and over again in another area of the gates of the sun.

Yeah, okay, okay.

And you see a wizard lying very still as their temples are rubbed by two other glass wizards just over and over

as the wizard is attempting to

lucid dream a chunk of stone in front of them.

And you see that there is another

non-glass wizard, but a conjuration specialist who you see looks very kind of pale and hungry, who is holding up a hand and attempting to hit the illusory dream of the sleeping glass wizard with a conjuration spell and every time he fails to do so, writing something down in a ledger book.

Steele turns to you saying,

this is something else, isn't it?

Yeah.

What?

No, sorry.

I'm good.

Sage.

So sage-like.

Well, you don't have to be a sage about this.

I'm not a sage about this.

This is fucking crazy.

I don't think anyone's a sage about this except F-shess.

That person is trying to imagine something and then affect magic on the imagining?

That is correct.

CV's hands are,

by the way,

behind her back, clasped at the elbow.

And she's trying to hide in the fabric.

Like her fingers are just working to recall all of this.

And, oh, god yeah and just like one hand is working to like somatically like lock all of this in her memory so she can walk past like past this hall again later and remember everything she's overstimulated about right now and the other is truly grabbing like the skin of her elbow and her nails have pierced through and she is just bleeding a little bit in one arm the realization that like whatever tefmet was talking about even the like shoddy,

like second, third degree version of the story is borne out here.

Steele smiles and says,

all of this,

this whole thing,

if you can believe it, started with Mr.

Callum.

My sandwich guy?

The sandwich guy, one in the same.

Well, you'll have to keep explaining.

Well, I don't know how to.

We...

You pour pour endless resources and finance into the areas of deepest interest for Arc Mages, but the Arc Magi got good at mastering a kind of magic that exists.

The magics that don't exist tend to come from places you don't expect.

And in this case,

someone thought that spells were of the spirit, and if spells are of the spirit, then

in some ways, are spells spirits.

Well, let's find out.

What would happen if I took a little quicksilver, made a little diagram, burned a couple gems to make smoke, turned that smoke into spells, gathered the spells around its seven torches, and boom, a living Mr.

Callum, a spell that helps.

Every wizard knows how to perform minor telekinesis, but to give it agency of some kind, it seemed like a trick.

At first,

the things that detected spirits didn't detect the Tamori as spirits, and they're not spirits, but they kind of are, because what is a spell?

And these categories are

sometimes the spells confirm a category because that's how the spell was crafted to confirm a category.

And

sometimes you're not getting the best data that you can get back, regardless.

And you see that she walks out.

And you can see that there are images in this room floating, all reproduced from Starlight.

You see, this is like images taken from the music box.

And she looks and says,

we keep the resource back down on Malakanth, though.

Its military usage is much greater than its theoretical usage.

Sure.

You see that she looking at all these images of Starlight that these wizards are working on.

She just looks and says,

Any questions for me, Wizard Sky?

I think Suvi's a little blanked out and still looking at the like

star images and thinking about

she's just lost in thought and I think she just kind of mutters under her breath

This world has a hard time remembering what's true

Huh?

Huh?

Huh?

You said this world has a hard time remembering what's true.

Yeah, sorry.

Weird things you hear in the woods.

Give me an insight check.

Ten

steel nods.

So

this is

the great

work

of

what I mistakenly once upon a time believed to be a thing called the League of Whispers.

F Chess smiles and gestures and says,

The magic here is of a rare designation.

The utmost point between the schools of abjuration and conjuration.

Yeah.

Steele squeezes your arm here, knowing what those two schools mean to you.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that's what this is.

I...

No.

I'm gonna be quiet and continue to listen.

I'm okay.

Let's keep going.

Yes.

Well, you've seen some of the incredible work and magic happening here.

And here she can see that you're look a little sickly.

And you see that her eyes narrow a little bit and says,

F-shess,

is there an actual...

It's hard to tell, but is there an actual balcony with like some fresh air?

And F Sha says,

of course, of course, right this way.

Can we, is there a water or

no consumables?

Right, right, right.

We'll get you some water when we get back down.

Um,

you are led out to a glassy, translucent balcony overlooking, and you see malacanth starting to descend back down to the ground.

You look down and see the miles down below to Haverward, far beneath, and sort of the tunnel, like the irises of your eyes closing as you look from a perspective of seeing the Erian as a cylinder that you are seeing the whole of just sort of narrow down to Haverward word beneath you?

Oh god.

This has made me somehow way more nauseous, but okay, okay, okay.

Just try to breathe.

We are

very close

to winning not only this war,

but

war.

No article, no the war, no a war.

We're very close, Suvi.

The

The bullfrog, the Grineau,

that was a stupid

trick.

The Emperor and mostly the Wizard Grey wanted to see a return on an investment from a lot of theoretical work.

So they wanted to see a field test, and the Emperor's mind is very fixated on destructive capabilities.

So we wanted to prove that a mortal had the power to kill a great spirit, and so prove prove it we did.

Okay.

Susie just bites her lip.

Well, I'm just gonna let it bleed.

But that's not.

that's not what this is.

You know, that.

If you can make a spell and then make a spirit from the spell.

No need for a collection when you have a factory.

Am I close?

Kid, you're right on target.

This is a riddle as old as time.

Back at the first College of Summoners before they even all called themselves wizards.

You make a well in a field.

And one day you come out and you talk to the spirit of the well.

Was that spirit always there?

Did it come to be when the well was built?

Was it waiting out there far past the near spirit?

Even the great spirits who live in palaces of the sun and deep ocean kingdoms, none of them have seen the end of spirit.

Maybe it's endless and maybe all the things that there could ever be are out there.

You make a well, and in some ways you make it spirit.

That's why they're afraid of us.

Because what we make real,

they must become.

And all you have to do is speak the language of the interplay,

the language of magic itself.

And all of a sudden, you can make a spirit of a spirit of a well.

And you can make a well that makes a certain kind of spirit.

And you can make a thing that's only the idea of a well that makes the idea of a spirit.

Yeah.

When we make

our own great spirits,

we make the new world.

That's the world I want for you.

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

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