WWW #50: Axis Mundi

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

Cold night wind.

A spirit stands

and a spirit walks.

The two

coming closer together.

Ursulan, you see the road winding.

Up ahead,

a little patch of moonlight illuminates

the crossroads that you face.

Past them, the first buildings of the village of Toma.

To the right, the road leads to Silbury, to the left, farther north,

towards Port Talon.

As the crossroad lies

dim and silvery,

your wild one's eyes perceive the forest.

No crickets sing, no twigs snap.

It is still and windy here as boots approach behind you.

The hair and fur of your body begins to stand.

It can't be helped.

No matter how much you have honored each other,

those footfalls are the approach

of something final.

Your body knows it.

Perhaps every living thing spends its days running from those footfalls.

Brother, I cannot help but be reminded of our first meeting when when I thought you fall.

Brother, it is good to hear your voice.

You walk with purpose.

I am glad to see.

You may keep treading if you wish.

I do not tarry on the road.

But if you wish

to speak,

I will stand for a spell at the crossroads as I often do.

It would do you well

to move in advance, lest I catch you here in the dark.

I take a few more steps forward.

You take a few steps across

closer towards

the small road that goes to Talma.

You're quite near the first buildings, and you move still a few paces ahead of the King of Night, whose

ominous warning seemed given in earnest care

to not let him draw too close.

You have seen him stand before, once at a well,

Another on a ferry,

but never on a road

Except here,

where under the swinging shadows of moonlight-dappled leaves,

he stops right at the corner, the back of his boots up against the grass.

Knowing that he will not return the way he came, but neither will he commit to which road he walks down until he's had his words with you.

The shadow cast from his wide-brimmed hat.

Honor is owed to you, Brother Ursula,

for the great deeds you won.

Walking down the path by the cottage of the witch,

I could not help but see the lights and hear the voices of those happy villagers.

and those young children who have seen already too much of war.

They are free because of you.

They are.

They're not yet home.

So my quest is not complete.

What means have you to find a home for these children?

None of my own.

I seek the aid of others.

Right now I'm headed to hopefully speak to Arima of the Reaching Green.

She once provided me transport,

and I hope that she might again

are there many gifts given.

White steeds of the sun,

fatted calves from deep within the woods.

Many weapons does Arima hold, and yet yet

to journey across the wide, wide sea

and to tend so carefully to young children may well be beyond her.

Do you wish for some aid, Brother Ursula?

Yes,

tomorrow

some

hour or so before the gloaming,

set forth with those children down the road away from Toma.

Head thou towards the river Lindtree, wherein you will find a boat.

On that boat will be the ferryman, who is I, one and the same.

Rivers touch the sea.

Seas connect the rivers.

And these children of the river may yet find a path.

Come then with the children,

and we will see it done.

I thank you, brother.

My only question is: what it will cost me.

For such matters, it is wise to bring a witch to speak to the mediation between the world and the spirit.

See that one is brought with you.

We will will speak of cost then.

To you, I wish

only the best.

It had been my desire for you to walk by my side.

Know that in the days to come.

In a gust of wind,

the King of Night is gone.

Ursulan stands at the crossroads a moment,

ruminating on the final words of the King of Night

and the idea of standing by his side.

You feel

the small domestic bliss of Toma behind you.

Hear the wind rustling, that hanging sign of the great bear over the summer stage, the tinkling of clay tiles in the shrine, depicting all those wild ones and honored friends that populate the woodlands and pastoral glades of Akam.

To the left, the road to Silbury,

the place in which it is said you are the strongest man.

And the right, the long, punishing road to Port Tallinn.

The road that first broke your spirit when you were way shadowed here in the world of mortals

in the middle of that crossroads, cottage ahead, Toma behind, Silbree to your left, Port Talon to your right.

There is a single moment where the wind blows

and asks for clarity and purpose,

questioning your certainty.

Does it find you double back and rethink your choice?

Or does it find you committed but doubtful?

Ursulant sets himself

to walking back to the cottage.

Feels that

question.

I think is going to

turn around and set himself to his original idea.

Fuck yeah.

Of going to the shrine.

You take your step to head back to the cottage and on the exact axis mundi of that crossroads, this first crossroads that you remember coming to when your glamour was that of a 12-year-old boy.

And turn back around and walk with the purpose you had towards that shrine.

The wind picks up, the moonlight cast over Toma.

The town, even for nighttime, is strangely empty.

It is early night, it is the early hours of night, but the town has emptied out to go to the cottage to tend to the children.

So you see a strange sort of deserted feeling in the town, and you approach the center of town.

Lohan's bakery, the summer stage, the Maypole, and the shrine.

Clay tiles painted with the images and icons of spirits, great and small.

What do you do?

Ursulan reaches back into his memory of

Ahme's processes at these

places of worship

and I think feels kind of confused as to how he interacts with them.

I think because these are

these are spaces where the spirit meets the real but I feel like often Ame has taken kind of lead in terms of establishing communication.

So I think Ursulan is going to take Wavebreaker off of his belt, place it on the shrine,

light incense if there are any,

clasp his hands together,

bow,

Orima of the Reaching Great.

It is I,

Ursulon.

Give me a religion check.

17.

The incense curls.

Your trepidation is that of a wayshadowed spirit who has slept in stables and barn floors, and you wear a sword, and for all intents and purposes, have probably been walking down the road, at least in Toma, in your glamour, I imagine, like this far away from the cottage.

Or at least once you get to the crossroads, right?

As the incense

swirls,

you see on the wall ahead of you, a little bit higher up, is an icon of a beautiful woman with talons for feet, surrounded by glowing vines.

The incense curls, and that single point of red light on the stick of incense sparks.

And the two sparks lazily float up to rest, glowing like embers on the eyes of Arima's icon.

Her voice

sighs, but you do not see her here.

You know that a great spirit can see through the eyes of its own icons and idols.

But you hear her voice:

Ursulan,

spirit of the wild,

spirit of freedom

Yes,

I have found my breath and named it

You have

found your breath

When first I beheld you you were a cub

no longer

Young bear

you have found it

it is

an honor to treat with you

though you kneel at the shrine like a mortal

I'm not familiar I mean Kalih was there to help in Gauthmai

kick off those shoes let your feet spread and claws scratch Sit on the floor of the shrine some of this offering is for you spirit and you see a small bowl of cooked rice with some little sort of scallions that have dried, sort of being here during the day.

Help yourself to a mouthful.

I mean,

just one.

Ursulan

scoops a bit of food into his mouth.

The incense continues to curl with smoke, and as it curls around, it gives the faint outline or indication of a woman much smaller than you sitting across the offering altar from you.

But still those embers glow in the icon's eyes.

You see, Orima speaks and says,

Did you wish to come and speak with me?

I sense

your footsteps on the ground of a calm once more.

Yes.

In naming my breath, in finding my purpose,

it took me across the sea

to

free

a number of children,

some

eighty,

who were captured by the citadel.

And with the aid of

Ahme and Suvi, I have brought them here.

And yet now

I would not say my job is finished until I see them returned home.

And I seek the means to do so.

And as you once aided me by introducing me to Hollyman,

I thought to speak to you again.

However, on the way here,

I was made an offer by the King of Night.

And while he has shown me many kindnesses in the past,

there sits a day on the horizon

at which we will cease to be friends and become foes.

Arima sort of pauses here and says,

You are spirit true.

You no longer

stink of liquor, nor do you call to me with familiarity as you did the first time you wandered into my reaching vines in a moment where I was wroth

and not liable to hear words of softness or kindness.

And then you took great pains to save my husband.

My kindness was repaid to you then, the horse Hollimon.

For you in my heart do I have tender affection, but I feel our debts are settled.

You ask for new aid in this moment, unless I am much mistaken.

And you are a curious thing to me, Ursula.

You are a spirit of freedom.

These children are free.

You have done what your breath demands,

and yet you seek to do more.

Curious.

You are curious.

I sense your heart troubled, your mind astir.

You come with more than one desire.

You desire for these children.

And there is also some part of you

that dwells upon the King of Night.

Yes.

I understand that you and him

are aligned.

I have sworn to his cause.

Why?

Because he is right.

Because the world of mortals seeks our undoing.

The game has gone on far enough.

For war and ruin was I ready, my talons sharpened, my teeth bared at the thought

that the mortals might have trapped my husband.

The Rape Bull Frog lies dead.

It cannot be suffered, Ursulan.

It cannot.

But there must be other means.

I travel with Ahme and Sufi.

The wonders they show me, the openness of their minds.

Other means.

Other ways, other roads, other paths.

There was one

who spoke of other means and other ways

It was she who fashioned this clay tile with my image

It was she who left a bowl of rice much like this one on an altar in the village of Lamry

Wren spoke of other means and she spoke of them for years

on end

until that tower's shadow crossed the whole of this world

How much longer are we given to wait?

If you ask me to give you a timeline on which these tasks would be complete, I could not give you one.

But there are those somewhere in the free roads,

a place called Nuara,

who seek to change the world.

There is the witch.

The witch Ame,

who is not like Renzo,

who is cunning,

who pursues action.

There is a way.

There is a road, and I am on it.

Give me a persuasion, check,

neither with advantage nor disadvantage.

16

Orima, of the many things she is a spirit of, is a spirit of battle and ferocity, only ever tamed by the love of her

husband, he of the gentle sea.

You see her sigh and soften,

the smoke of the incense now even partially outlining a face,

though featureless, her eyes still looking from her icon over the smoke woman's shoulder.

She softens and says

what i cannot deny is the strength of your conviction my young brother

i have never said that i was sorry

for denying you as my brother when first we spoke i could not see it

Your breath was so far from you.

But it is true.

We are one, as all of the world of spirits are

you walk a road that is wild and free

and I suppose you are not as alone on that road as I would have thought

no

the witch Ahme was

cunning enough wasn't she

and seems to be so

but her love for the citadel,

and yours, even if you would balk at my insistence that it is there,

troubles me.

No.

I cannot believe in you.

But I honor your belief in yourself.

If the man in black has offered aid, it is his aid you will seek.

Our affairs are settled, and I have matters to attend to of my own that call upon my realm.

But

if it please you,

I will mention the road you walk to my husband.

For at the insistence of his father, King of Storms, and the entreaties of his lady wife, who is persuasive,

he has not

sworn himself to the cause of the king of night.

I will mention you to him.

It would mean a great deal to me, sister.

Travel well, young bear.

Remain free.

I have

my doubts.

And yet,

You have surpassed some already.

The smoke dissipates,

the sparks go out.

Wild hair, chapped lips, bleary eyes with tears streaking towards the hair, Ahme has been flying at top speed for hours.

As many things of myth and legend end up being explained by matters almost mundane, a witch's wild hair is often attributable to what it actually means to fly from one end of the world to the other.

You descend having flown in early night.

Now it is early morning, perhaps only an hour or two of darkness remaining by the time you make your way to Caro.

The fox sleeps in your bag, nestled around a safely folded task the spider, who has taken the sharpest portions of himself and oriented towards the middle of himself, sort of like a little folded disc of mirror glass,

nestled in the fox's soft underbelly.

You feel his breathing even at top speed and have the white-knuckled

head-buzzing focus of someone driving a wagon train hour after hour after hour, simply focused on a destination.

Like the steady beating of a drum, come the wing beats, almost infrequent in how fast and gliding this travel has been, how high on the thermals you are.

The inky bat-like wings of Enzo, whose wingspan is almost some eight feet.

Long, inky legs tucked up under his navel, a long nose of ink, long bat-like ears that stretch behind him.

His eyes pointed towards the horizon as he travels.

And behind him, only able to keep up at his and your speed because of the wake of Enzo is Cyril a little blue porcine tusked pot bellied ink demon his bat like wings actually much smaller than can reasonably said to support his weight who instead flaps much more quickly to stay aloft and in every beating of Enzo's wings he actually gets sucked forward in the wake tumbling forward and batting around and having to reorient himself to once again be facing your destination destination.

In the night sky, the lights of Caro

come into view.

Caro,

largest and greatest city of the Empire.

Tall spires, oppressive stone, architecture both gothic and absurd in arcane history of the first city to know a wizard's war.

There are statues holding aloft leaning buildings that for some time were supported in their top heaviness by arcane magic suddenly dispelled.

During the years of the Wizard's War between the Acordati and the Antibole,

the thousand, thousand gargoyles of this city were animated to service by the wizards here, and when that war concluded, many of the gargoyles returned to stone in the midst of their endeavors, meaning that while the spiring architecture towering some 30, 40, 50 stories over the streets is crenellated with imposing beaked grotesques and gothic figures of monsters, it is just as likely to find a gargoyle sprinting on all fours down the street that has been frozen there for some hundred or more years.

Lurking demons, visages of stone griffins, lion-headed sphinxes carved of obsidian basalt, granite, and gray stone, sometimes peer huddled behind alleyways, unmoving in the living memory of those within this city.

Caro

towers overhead.

It is a city that lives beyond the upper periphery of the vision of its inhabitants, who trudge from place to place, busy with the work of the trade hub of the empire, this port city, this place

where money and power and intrigue and skullduggery connect, where sputtering gaslight, flickering candles, and all manner of guild mages, sinister folk, imperial bureaucrats come to the beating economic heart of the Khemsarazen Empire.

The city ascends to a cliffside overlooking crashing waves, and along that cliffside hang row after row of gallows nooses to give give the message of the Empire's law to all those trading vessels from realms abroad to know the power and might of the Imperium as they approach.

Far distant as Ame flies, you see the outlying towns that support and surround Kiro.

Stony bridges, cathedral-esque mercantile bazaars, spiring bell towers, and off some distance, away from the truly colossal structures, some of which are held aloft by 80-foot stone colossi, monstrous gargoyles, holding the buildings from collapsing as sky bridges connect.

Some of the sky bridges have connected the buildings so much that there are entire neighborhoods or city squares where the sky cannot be seen by the crisscrossing skybridges overhead.

Some distance where the buildings become a a little more humble, a little bit more genteel, you see a circular court with the name of Cavender and a large building dedicated to some industrial purpose there.

Industry, warehousing, and trade is the

almost religious fixation of this city.

And where the people of it dwell, you cannot say, for the burrows of Caro run deep.

You fly

past the sputtering lights and dim lamps towards a singular orange glow.

The gate of Caro.

Some

almost two miles from the harbor, through marketplace bazaar, warehouse, and trading company, there lies the large glowing orange gate to Haverward and the Citadel.

Ami, as you approach, what do you do?

I've touched down to a discreet location

so as not to be seen in the air traffic above the city.

With the towering colossi,

it's fairly easy to find an

unattended skybridge to duck under.

I

feel

the city

just in the way that Ursulan can go into a forest and hear its spirits and feel its breath.

A city is

where I

am given to understand the way that the rivers of people flow.

I want to know what the city has to say, how best to duck around in it and appear inconspicuous.

I need to find the gate, get to it.

But there is also a part of me that remembers

there is a little half-spirit girl

in the carnissary

of Karo

as you land on this skybridge and look towards Cavender Court, you see that Enzo and Cyril are fixated on the orange light of the gate through spires and buildings farther away.

You see in them that they must fulfill this task given to them by Suvi.

It is magical compulsion, so any attempt on Cavender would be done alone and without help.

Give me any roles you want to make for the city in this moment here

i'll do survival and can it be with assistance from

all present yeah yeah yeah

22 survival

you reach out

your insight your perception your survival it is early morning

There is too much activity in this city for early morning.

There are sailors coming from the dock.

Fish markets are already setting up so that they are ready by dawn to be able to provide services here.

You look and see a ship in the harbor unloading boxes.

Your sight almost fans out across the city.

You see boxes.

There's some ice.

And they're loading.

Oh, they're lifting.

Those sailors are lifting something huge.

What is that?

It's a clam.

It's an absolutely enormous clam being loaded into a box.

As much

as I want to run down

and just kick open a door and free

ghost,

I know this is my chance.

This is my only shot.

Okay, boys, we can get back into the citadel.

I think I have our ticket.

Well, a ticket.

Oh, splendid.

I'll be happy to help

forge names on it.

You see that the fox looks and says,

this might be one of those, what do you call them?

Metaphors.

That's true.

Oh, I got it.

You're starting to understand

literary phrases.

Look at you.

Must be these boys rubbing off on you.

You see the fox lifts up his white underbelly to show a bunch of ink stains.

They are rubbing off on me.

You see, Cyril looks over and says, I don't care for metaphors.

I'm sorry?

Hmm?

You're a poet.

Surely metaphor is a large part of your work.

Is it?

Should I be doing that more?

Well, it it is far be it from me to prescribe your art to you.

No, what I mean is that I believe that clam could be going nowhere other than Haverward's Trures Chowder.

See the foxes.

We have to go.

It's our only way in.

True as chowder.

Don't even think about another way.

It won't work.

Whatever the other way other than Trua's Chowder is, it won't work.

Well, listen, if Enzo or Cyril have any better ideas of how to go in undetected, I would be open to those, but

you know,

I suppose

that the giant clam is a very attractive possibility.

Go ahead and give me insight with advantage.

That's a 10 total.

10 total.

So I don't know if what Ah feels or thinks about this moment.

There are wizards that are scanning at the gate,

looking for things.

You know that you have the non-detection rune from...

Enzo that will defeat some forms of divination.

But I don't know if Ahme, to what degree Ahme has confidence, your insight

does not grant you any other information in that regard.

The crates that are being packed up with seafood at the dock.

Do I detect any magic on them?

You'd have to get closer.

All right.

I'd like to stealthily head towards the boat and examine the crates.

Awesome.

Go ahead and give me a stealth check.

As you land, the fox stays in your bag, and you see that Enzo and Cyril both don human glamours.

15.

15.

Walking down the street, Ame, you move in disguise along with the two human glamours of these ink demons.

You see that Enzo takes on the guise of a tall, greedy, bespectacled black man, shaved head, mustache, professorial, distinguished, but also very nondescript.

He looks fussy and like he teaches some Byzantine form of

accounting or ledger book management.

And you see, Cyril looks like a short, down-on-his-luck lush.

He appears to be some sort of poet or bohemian with a sort of journal by his side, with the sort of ill-kempt, like brandy-stained tweed jacket of a cafe poet,

as the two of a sort of pale, sort of a little bit damp skin and the most intense, unflattering middle part of all time in his hair as the two of them walk side by side behind you.

I feel that this is his truest form somehow.

Though it be a glamour.

Ame is in perfectly ordinary

common clothes, but there's something extra

that allows people's eyes to slide right off of me.

Not even just a nondescript,

but

something almost in the way that Ursulan

remains hidden.

Yeah.

You become anonymous.

You arrived at the fish market, and it's starting to get a little bit busier as the sun is rising.

Or at least in the eastern edge of the sky over the land you see that there are little hints of the sky lightening a little bit um as you get down here to the harbor go ahead and investigate especially the ship that you see beginning to unload these giant clams

16.

You don't see any magic going on them.

I mean, you see stuff moving towards the gate.

It looks like a day's amount of supplies are all feeding up out of the harbor and moving towards Haverward.

The Citadel is a massive city, and not only a city, a city filled with luxuries and so many goods and services and raw materials.

Everything funneling towards the Orange Gate, and it's in the middle of the desert.

There is no road that goes to the Citadel.

So everything comes through one of these gates.

So you're looking at a tremendous amount of raw material that is all beginning to feed towards that gate.

And these boxes are basically being packaged up with ice and being ready to get sent forward.

How about the couriers and the fishmongers?

Are they also going with their goods to the citadel?

It looks like it.

It looks, and you

even see that some of the sailors and the fishmongers, well, the sailors are staying on the ships, but these local Caro fishmongers you see are wearing what looks like some form of

papers in little, these sort of red wax folders on lanyards around their neck that appear to have some kind of citadel marking on them.

Like they will be the ones to go through the gate into the city.

Are those just mundane papers, you know, sort of a pass?

There are minor bits of magic on those, but you would recognize them as effectively cantrips.

Can I tell the chemtrip?

Yes, you can.

Go ahead and give me Arcana with advantage.

12.

12?

Well, actually, 10 plus spell level is enough for a cantrip.

You recognize these as arcane marks.

These are a sort of citadel-specific,

it's a form of like a signature cantrip.

And there are a lot of them, and you see that all of them are different because it seems that, you know...

And let me actually ask here for this too.

Go ahead and give me...

History.

Give me a history check and the fox can help you here.

Nine.

Nine.

All right.

You look at these arcane marks, and they look to all come from different sources.

There are a lot of different.

They are not all coming from the same wizard.

It looks like there is probably a bureau of different wizard

authorities that are giving different businesses the means to come and approach the gate and go through to Haverward.

Right.

There's different things requisitioned by different departments, perhaps.

Well, it looks like I need to get one of those

letters.

And I think I'm going to see how, number one, how well attended they are.

Or number two, if there's anybody that is looking around as if they might be looking for assistance.

Absolutely.

Go ahead and give me perception or insight.

21 Insight.

21 Insight?

You have the busy marketplace in the morning.

There will never be more of these letters out and about than there are right now.

And as important as they are, there's so many of them.

The Citadel, and you begin to see

something like an organism at work here.

Because the Citadel wants security.

Does it want security more than it wants food?

Does it want security more than it wants things done quickly?

There is an empire of people working to provide the things that the Citadel needs.

And they have taken some pains to create these identifications and these papers and these sort of little arcane tabs.

But the arcane tabs are not a powerful third-level spell.

It's a cantrip.

It is because the point at the end of the day is not to prevent any possible threat.

If you prevent any possible threat at the expense of eating, it won't matter.

It would be terribly inconvenient to have to procure more of those if they were harder to uh break so i think uh

i am

going to ask uh ask my compatriots to help me in uh stealing one i think

fantastic

you see that uh uh enzo actually looks up at you

you know

which of the worlds hard

if you so required, um, do you have any journaling material or other papers of

oh yes, of course?

Might I have some

I rummage through my packs and I pull out a little matching stationery set that I had gotten while we were in Port Talon.

Yes, it seems what we require is some citadel writing.

And you see that he walks over.

The fox scoots over to find a couple of fishmongers loading up some some giant grouper.

He's a huge, huge, massive fish.

The fox walks up and says, Excuse me, Seurat.

I'm sorry to bother you.

I am a talking fox, as well you can be aware.

And I was wondering if I could trouble you because I would like to procure some fish.

And you see that both the fishmongers go,

and you see he goes, now now.

Now now, calm yourselves.

I'm a simple business fox, and I've come here to make a trade.

My companion is a spider.

He can't speak, but he'd be more than happy.

Ame runs over and starts mouthing along with the fox, like lip matching his lip flap.

You see, the fox looks up and says, Young woman, what are you doing?

Yes, and as you can see, I am a master ventriloquist.

I'm not talking, me being me, the woman.

That's who's talking.

I'm a puppet.

A fox of a puppet.

You know, ventriloquism.

Ta-da!

Both of the fishmongers just look stunned and panicked.

Behind them the entire time, you see that Enzo has slinked over as Cyril has like walked backwards and hit one with his butt and turned around and been like, I'm so sorry to have troubled you.

And that allows Enzo to slink the papers out of the red folder.

You see that Enzo

whips them around and perfectly copies them with a piece of illusory script.

And he creates several passes for you, pushes them back.

The monger turns around and says, Look, we got no time for shows.

I'm so sorry.

I was just trying out my act.

You know, I'm new to Carrie Z, and I thought maybe that I could be in the town.

Do you know, is there a pub or a tavern nearby that perhaps could have use of such ventriloquist acts?

Lady, this is Caro.

If you want to get into ventriloquism, you gotta go to Strings and Handles, the ventriloquism pub.

Oh, it's on Birch Lane.

Thank you so much.

We had no ventriloquism in the harbor.

Well, well, very little.

Uh, well,

thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

Uh, if you're ever there, go by.

Uh, and lady, I'll be there Friday.

Okay, uh, I'll see you then, sir.

All right, have a good one.

You do, you do.

That's pretty incredible that you can move that puppet without touching it.

You see, Enzo,

you see, you see that Enzo circles up with you, having made multiple copies of the papers from your basically like using illusory scripts to transmute your stationery supplies into traveling papers for the gate.

Excellent.

All right, everyone.

Next stop, Haverward.

The epiphany

changes course bound east for the capital city of Sarazmir.

And from the gorgeous windows, gilded frames of her beautiful chambers, guarded from the outside.

Suvi looks and sees the approaching capital city.

It is

a short few hours into the night, but gorgeous stars overhead quickly give way to much brighter lights coming from the ground.

Looking down, you see

that the capital city of Sarazvir,

in

transformed lush greenery,

a golden paradise, Sarazmir under starlight is more illuminated by alchemical torches of blue and green and purple, heatless fires burning from sconces, and you see paved roads flecked with mica and white stone on which construct carriages like the ones you saw in Bracken, but these designed by wagonwrights with family crests and sigils atop them that trundle along autonomously under enchantment with families astride them merely speaking to globes of arcane magic in the front dressed in finery, tall hats and cravats, brocade, fine hoop skirts as families laugh and delight to get quickly to viewing boxes aside the many lakes of Sarazmir.

But where from from the lakes of Sarazmir?

Why so studded with lakes?

This place that was once a verdant plain or partially arid jungle nearby in some areas?

Well, the lakes came after the appearance of the courts of the citadel, the flying courts, so wondrous to behold, and those lords of the imperium stated, wherefore our floating platforms?

Wherefore our ancient villas and ancestral manses taking to the sky, and to the sky they took?

Pock marked all around the landscape of Sarazmu, a city which,

in its true urban wonder, is about 12 miles in diameter, but whose attendant towns and

semi-urban spread throughout is some 40 miles in width.

Parks and greenery abound.

All of our roads tree-lined and festooned with fruit.

We see that there are incredible multicolored long-limbed striding birds with toucan-like beaks that walk throughout the parks collecting fruit at night.

Small striped-tailed squirrel monkeys gliding from tree to tree.

We see also here in this place that

the main thing that bedecks Serazmir between the lakes are long, wide paved roads through giant archways of glittering arcane light celebrating the victories of the Empire.

Hanging lush vines, arcane moths that leave a trail of sparkling dust in their wake, fly throughout, and the many lakes all equally mapped in geographical size to a floating platform of stone and earth somewhere nearby floating.

Of course,

the attendant needs of a floating platform done for its ostentatiousness alone were immediately countermanded by the lack of utility to be suddenly floating.

So raised highways float, connecting the platforms back to the ground they just left.

So what Saraznir looks like from the sky are floating platforms flying, immediately disregarded in their ability to fly because they need to be attached to the ground and reattached with highways suspended on which these wooden carriages go to and fro, creating a multi-level capital city of hanging gardens, decorated palaces,

beautiful flickering, heatless arcane lamps of every color of fire imaginable, headed towards the central city, wherein the grand palace of the House of Saraz stands.

Golden, spiring in defiance of gravity, the most powerful arcane spells ever brought to bear on its grand balustrades, the high viewing platform with the royal family holding a scepter aloft as the emperor shouts, Victory!

As a parade of skyships marches overhead and a floating highway suspended over a massive loop of the central city that connects to the ground only outside the western edge of the city and outside the southern edge of the city, but spirals through neighborhood after neighborhood, untouching of the ground,

has a massive parade.

Dancers, bands, tamori musicians, war steeds of species of pachyderm and equine type, innumerable and never before seen by Suvi's eyes, confetti

and wizards flying to and fro with illusions scintillating through the air, and skyship after skyship after skyship after skyship, at the end of which the epiphany

freshly repaired with, of course, illusion magic.

As the epiphany wends its way in between two of the spires of the inner city and actually begins to be visible, you can look out your window and see

noble families from within their spirit towers, actually eye to eye,

much like a float looking at the windows of skyscrapers.

So you see that there are a gaggle of extremely wealthy young noble teenage girls who are all having a sleepover to celebrate the parade and they look in and see you and they just shake little imperial flags and throw some confetti and point at you excitedly.

What?

Nepipany!

Whepipany!

I salute

and just sort of back away from the window.

You

perceived fishbowl.

Get out, get out.

Quickly draw the curtains, open the door, and

you look into it.

give me actually what your passive investigation is what 21.

you see in that little noble home of those young girls

there is a little golden

uh miniature of the citadel that has some award behind it but it's an award you've never seen before.

It has to do with the citadel, but you just you've never seen it.

And it has the name of a noble family on it.

uh

how fast are we going past

like if we're going slowly enough see we will reopen the curtains and be like hold on what was that

you see it has the family name dosset on it

it basically says like

awarded for exemplary ability to the standard and caliber of the citadel

Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

Yeah, you don't know exactly what the deals with it.

But as you're looking at it, the door opens and you see the wizard slate

enters the chamber.

Oh, cool.

Immediate insight check.

No insight check required.

She does not look,

she does not look like she's licking her lips.

Cool.

Wizard Slate.

Wizard Sky.

Your.

The sword of the Citadel

apologizes for having to cut the meeting abrupt business in the aftermath of the Battle of Twelve Brooks,

but she sent me to collect your effects such that they may be returned to the Tower of the Glove, so that you may accompany her to the Pyrrian Dome upon landing.

Oh, uh,

sure.

Um,

yeah.

Yuka?

This is formal, and I'm kind of looking like has she stepped into this room at all?

She stepped into the room, yeah.

Okay.

She closes the door behind her.

Do I have your permission to effect a search of your quarters?

Oh, uh, yeah, why?

Yes?

Wonderful.

Uh, she casts Arcane Sight and begins to collect anything of yours that is magical and unattended.

Oh, the fuck?

Okay, what are you?

Why are you up sh um what?

We're returning your effects to the tower of the glove.

Yeah, okay.

Um

got it.

I can give them to you.

Why?

Oh, wonderful.

Yeah.

Okay, this energy is fucked, and I think we both know that.

What's going on right now?

Hmm?

Oh, you don't like my energy?

I.

It's not my favorite.

Got it.

She raises both her fists up and smashes the table in the room in half.

Do you like that energy?

Less than before, so if we can.

Give me your gear,

Because I know whatever the sword says happened is what happened.

But until then, I'm afraid I know what I know.

Do you want to give me your things, or do you want me to take them?

Okay,

go ahead.

Do your job.

She goes to work

and is going to remove any magical effects from you.

That I'm that's unattended, yeah.

She gets the ones that are unattended and then moves to your body.

Oh, incredible.

Uh, and is going to go, uh,

you offered to give me uh anything that you were, uh,

that you didn't wish me to take.

Yes, uh, and anything on my person I do not wish for you to take.

Got it.

Well, it's coming with me.

Okay.

Anything not physically on my person is yours to take and return to my tower.

Anything on my person, you will have to beat off of me and then explain to my mother, your boss, why you beat me within an inch of my life to take my necklace off of me.

Is that good for you?

Go ahead and give me intimidation.

I've never had an intimidation rule go well before.

21.

I didn't know.

I didn't know I could do that.

She looks at you.

The magical items that you have on you that I'm aware of.

Can you confirm for me which magical items are still on your person?

She would have a

fang in her pocket, like close interior pocket.

Gotcha.

Necklaces under all of her clothes.

Not worried about Vandal, but like personal spellbook would be on her, and she would have, I think, a reasonable expectation of like that should stay with me.

Gotcha.

And

Suvi is wearing her gloves that have Ame's

like token

talisman stitched in, so she would hold on to those two.

Gotcha.

You hit a 21 Intimidate.

Slate looks at you, glances up and down.

Give me insight with advantage.

13.

13.

She glances you up and down and goes,

you could have just said you didn't have anything.

And then goes and collects the things other than what you've listed and says, these will be waiting for you in your tower, Archmage Apprentice.

And turns around,

leaves the shattered table.

Tell your wife, you have a temper problem.

She turns around and leaves.

But at that intimidation you think it stopped her enough that she scanned you yeah and you

don't think she saw anything you don't think that the pendant or the dagger or yoran's fang enzo

enzo the non-detection he when we i let him break the ball we broke the bottle and he cast non-detection on me and ursulan and ame oh god i miss him so much not in a way that his transaction that was cool.

Oh, he's so cool.

I should have let him out of the bottle earlier.

Letters.

He was supposed to deliver Silver's letter.

I wonder if he did it.

Fuck.

As you wonder, you know that the recipients of those letters either received them at some point in the last

what, 12 hours?

Or you suddenly realize Enzo and Cyril are chasing down this ship.

Oh, God.

The Epiphany finishes its parade.

And through your window, you see the balcony.

Emperor Aroshman dear, his arm around his son, Kamari.

Through the window, you see Kamari turn,

salute proudly at your ship.

Give me an inside check, DC20, to see where he's looking at on the ship.

Perception, DC20.

Perception?

Perception.

Okay, okay.

Please, please, guys.

18 o'clocked eye.

18 o'clock to die.

Plus three for a 21.

Through the window, Prince Kamari salutes, looking directly at you.

The ship turns, and over at the loudspeakers, you hear the voice of steel, sword of the citadel, say,

Two victories won for the glory of the Khansarazen Empire.

Long live the Saraz Imperium.

May the light of the citadel ever shine!

The Epiphany glows, cascading sunlight over the city here in the middle of the night as the Epiphany glow brightly and all its arcane spell engines fire

to head it south and for a moment project the distant citadel on the horizon for all within the city to see

a voice on a whispered cam trip comes to you and you alone.

We're going home.

We're going home, Sumi.

The birds chirping with early dawn light, mist rising off of the grass outside outside of Ahme's cottage.

What corner of the house, or perhaps what area of the yard, does Ursulan awaken in that morning?

I'm assuming he's long past now, but I believe that Ursulan is likely sleeping in the same place that a goat by the name of Nicholas once slept in.

Out in the goat shed,

surrounded by some other goats, though Nicholas has has long since passed ursulan you awaken to also find yourself absolutely covered in sleeping children

ursalon's going to do his best to stand while allowing as many of the children to sleep kind of maybe doing a gentle picking up and placing of one

and then just a gentle tiptoe out of the goat shed

gently placing the snoozing children around where they can be safe,

you head out in the early morning light to see the upper half of the two-part farmhouse door open.

Elsbeth is already up and preparing breakfast.

You see that in the early morning light, Dalma is peeling some potatoes on the stoop and nods good morning to you as well.

There are wheelbarrows and supplies and a lot of things left here by townsfolk who all traveled together back to Toma at a late hour of the night after clothing and feeding as many of the children as possible.

Dauma nods to you as you approach.

The last of the

villagers who left last night made it clear that should we need any more assistance today, they're going and gathering more supplies should we need them.

Through kindness, but I believe I've secured passage for these children.

Well done.

Were you able to speak with Orima last night?

I did.

However, it is another great spirit who will provide them passage.

Lucio's Fairy.

Lucio's Fairy.

The name carries weight, but

I don't know that I've heard it.

Fairyman.

This is a name of a spirit that I do know.

He has many names.

Very well.

You have treated with him before?

Several times.

Well,

you have come quite some way from the cub that wandered into that yard over the little footbridge.

Oh,

I'll gather up the house spirits.

Please, and Neif as well.

Young Neif?

Young Neif.

Very well.

Seated at the kitchen table, a few chipped cups of tea and beautiful little teacups from a lifetime of collecting them.

You, the other four spirits, and Neif sit at the kitchen table,

looking to you.

There's some sleeping kids off in the living room somewhere.

You see that Dalma speaks to Neif and says,

Ursulan has secured passage for the children of the Grineau to go home

but

the four of us

though we

have wiles and ways here amongst the cottage we are

tied to the land and tied to this place

Ursulan is not and I believe has some need of your help you see Neif turns to you and says oh

yes Neif

one One, I wanted to see how you and Buckles fared in gathering the home locations of these children.

Yes, so I talked with Buckles, and

there were a lot of pieces of information that I was able to find, but I talked to every single kid

and know the names for those that remembered names, and some of the kids couldn't or didn't remember, but they knew the name of some grown-ups or their parents.

But the biggest thing I found is some of the kids got taken after some of their parents were already helping to look for other lost kids.

And there's a place where the Grenot are meeting to try and make a big push to find the missing kids.

And it's in a city called Varik on Rheimers Bay to the far west of

the Shroud Mountains.

That city, there's a place deep under the city,

there's an old wine cellar that you can get to by riverway, and it's called the Singer's Cellar.

The family that used to have that castle doesn't live there anymore, but the Grenot basically use it as a long hall, a place to store secrets and stories and treasures and spells that they can find, and there's wise women and some Grenot witches that live there and other things like that.

And there's a lot of...

That apparently is where they're meeting to not only get together, but also arm themselves.

They're ready to head.

You know, in the last few weeks, some of the kids mentioned that they knew parents or aunts and uncles that were headed to the singer's cellar to try to mount some kind of

some kind of effort.

So,

even in other words, the children that don't have somewhere to go,

their people are waiting for them there.

Well done, Neve.

Thanks.

I was happy to do it.

I hope it's not too much to impose, but I believe we'll need your aid again.

Oh?

I need to get these children to the River Lindry by the gloaming hour today.

There will be a ferry there to hopefully take them, perhaps even just to this destination, Verik on Ramers Bay.

Oh,

a

magic fairy?

Yes, sir.

A great spirit will help them.

I think it will also be necessary as

he has requested a witch.

Neif?

I.

And you see, Neif fully

has stopped breathing.

It's just like eyes go wide.

And she goes, I, I, I, I, I, I.

Neif, um,

Ame once to ask me to do this.

Will you breathe with me?

Okay, okay.

Uh, in

and out.

I, um,

I'm very, I'm very dedicated to, to, to, to helping these children because, because I, I,

you know, I, I, I, I,

many of them don't have um

parents.

I grew up in, in, before injury, um, adopt adopted me.

Is that what she did?

Yeah, no, I don't know.

But she had a

I was in an orphanage, and

I felt very strong yesterday.

I felt very strong, and I said, I'm going to help these children.

But I can help these children because I'm just talking to them and writing down what they say in a book, which is the kind of managerial task record-keeping that I feel confident in.

You, a great spirit asked for a witch, and your thought,

your first thought would be me and not

yes.

Well, I'm a is helping Suvi

I don't

I don't have a familiar.

I don't have a I don't know I don't catch I have it I don't know how to do magic.

I don't know how to I don't know I don't know I don't know how to do anything.

I'm not good.

So if I'm not good then I can't I

but you are good.

Look at all the good that you've done

you helped us

find these children.

You've helped us find their homes.

If anything, this is simply completing the task you already have begun.

Go ahead and give me a persuasion check.

23.

You see

a look of

whatever the opposite of grim determination is,

Horrified determination, reluctant determination, fingers scratching the floorboard determination as you realize that your life's purpose is actually going to drag your heart down the road to what you need to do.

And she goes, well,

right, because we've started.

So in some ways, it's too late.

We already started and you can't leave a task like this

half-finished.

The

so what did you say the hour was?

We have it tomorrow or the day after?

Today.

Oh, the gloaming hour.

Oh, oh, so today.

Yes, well, yes, well.

I'm going.

I'm going to, I'm going to have,

I'm going to have to,

and you see Delma goes, get ready.

And she stands up and goes, okay,

witch, I've never cast a spell.

I don't have uh familiar.

I don't have I don't even have a hat.

Uh uh

I mean as I understand witches, it's it is not the hat or the small animal that makes them a witch.

It is in your very nature.

But if you'd like to bring a small animal, you can.

Small animal.

Okay.

If i i i i i if if I can if I can ask that, um I will let let's do this.

I we are in a beautiful woodland.

There are many animals nearby.

There's a

warren, there's a small warren of rabbits on the embankment by the road.

And I'm going to go and I'm going to go talk to the rabbits

because the injury told me one time that I shivered like a rabbit and that that would probably be my familiar.

And so I think that I will go.

And what I would ask is: if

something's wrong with me and I can't get a rabbit by the time we need to go, please don't make me go because I'm clearly not ready.

So if I um if I don't have a familiar, could you just say that if I don't have a familiar that I don't have to go?

No.

No to my request?

Yes.

Ah, ah, well, very well.

But to be clear, you do not have to go.

Oh.

Okay.

Um.

I will.

Um.

I will just get ready.

And you see, she stands up and walks towards the doorknobs of common cause, opens the closet, sees that there's not a door to somewhere far away on the other side, and it's just the closet.

And she goes, hmm?

And then closes it

and goes, hmm?

Okay, time to get ready.

Ursula's going to turn to the other caretaker spirits.

I'm nervous.

You see, they all nod and say, we are as well.

All right, as long as I'm not alone in that.

You are not alone, Ursulan.

So

that day, Ursulan,

the kids start to get excited.

Word of a fairy, which is something they know.

It's a fairy man.

It's familiar to all of them.

They all start to get ready.

They're packing their goods.

They're packing supplies.

You know, Buckles, you see the young kid, Buckles starts talking to everybody and comes up and says, okay,

so everyone everyone is still nervous because we can't jump anymore and we can't change anymore, but we have food and a lot of us have been to the singer's cellar.

So we'll know what to do when we get there.

Well, good, good.

As to the nature of when you will be able to jump again, I'm not sure.

But perhaps returning you home is a star.

A lot of these kids have homes to go back to, and I know they'll be really happy and their parents will too.

Thank you.

Thank you, honored friend.

Of course, Buckles.

Thank you.

As the morning gets a little bit later and you're gonna have to head out to get there by the gloaming hour, you're gonna have to head out like right after these kids eat up sort of probably like an early lunch.

Great.

You look and see a small hillside.

It's not the hill with the shrine.

It's actually sort of on the other side of the little dusty embankment.

There's like a stone bench near the road, but a little ways away from that there's a small hillock and there is a there are the openings of a rabbit warren there and you see Neif, she's been kneeling near the opening across from there's like a little glade across from the woodline

and she's been kneeling towards one end of this glade.

Her back is to the glade and to the woodline looking at this little hillock with a rabbit warren in it

and you just see she's been kneeling with

a shaking hand of sliced carrots.

Jesus Christ, Neif!

Don't get the sense there's another entrance to the den that Neif perhaps couldn't see.

Give me a perception.

Give me survival.

19.

19.

There's a bunch of rabbits right in in that hole and you can hear what they're saying with the speech of beast and leaf uh can i listen in

as you listen in and you're just like standing away so you haven't mentioned that you're walking towards her yet so this is at a little bit of a distance but you can hear neath going please please please please gossip neither

please please please

and you can hear the rabbits you know rabbits rabbits are frightened creatures they are a very scared type of animal

You see that they're going,

There's something wrong out there.

Something's near the entrance to the hole.

It's shaking.

It smells like fear.

We can't go out there.

It's afraid of something.

There's something bad out there.

Ursulan is going to quietly approach Neif.

How's it going?

As she sort of like leaps at your approach, you can hear the rabbits all run deep underground.

Oh, God, no.

Oh.

I'm so sorry, Ursula.

I'm so sorry.

I don't know what's wrong.

Indry taught me very little about witchcraft, but I always thought that,

you know,

she always talked about how scared I was, and she would laugh about it and just say,

you're shaking like a hare or a rabbit.

And she said, one day you'll have a rabbit of your own, and it'll be the only thing more scared than you, you.

one

that is very rude of entry to say,

and two,

as I understand familiars,

are they not meant to be a part of you?

That

I may always describe Wren as having a kind of stubborn rooster because Wren was so pleasant and easygoing.

Is

it not a matter of opposites

In this moment, give me, like,

any skill you want.

Call it nature, call it survival.

Whatever.

If you want to connect to the magic of this moment, give me nature or survival.

I will give you survival.

Let's do it.

18.

What would I understand about...

Like, I've seen...

I've watched Ame

and the Fox.

Or no, I didn't.

I've never seen

a witch find a familiar.

But you heard Ame's story about how she found it would I understand that to be that the the I guess in understanding the nature of familiar magic or or finding familiars like there's a part of Ursulan that thinks that based on what he understands about familiars is that a rabbit would not be Neif's familiar and so in that I think is

thinking about essentially walking Neif into the forest to find a familiar but I think is

I...

I, Lou, and I guess in some ways Ursulant,

is wondering if that...

If that's how this works.

I think.

On that...

Well, you got an 18 survival.

18 survival.

I think as you take her hand, the wind kicks up and blows your green cloak.

A spirit of nature and freedom and a guardian spirit walking a young girl into the forest to find her familiar is not a way to do this, it's fucking the way to do this.

You are on your way, you are on the right track.

This is exactly your position.

This young witch is looking for familiar,

and in some ways, she is asking for the wisdom of the spirits.

Though you grew up in the world of mortals and, in many ways carry

that perspective with you,

perhaps some part of Ursulan seeing a young witch look for the wisdom of the spirits would have a mortal's reaction, which would be some version of good luck with that.

And I hope you find the spirit's wisdom.

But all of a sudden, you realize that this young witch is looking at a wild one standing in a glade, tell her something about the nature of magic that he knows for a fact.

And I think you feel

that it would not be inappropriate for you to help her here.

After all,

giving gifts and guidance to witches is also

your role, and it is not wrong for you to take it.

Ursulan is going to stand up

and extend his hand to Neif.

Can I help you?

Um, yeah,

yeah, yes.

And she reaches out and takes your hand.

Ursulan will open his divine sense.

And I think in the speech of Beast and Leaf,

call out to the forest.

There is a witch in need of assistance.

You call out in that speech.

Neif looks up, amazed that she can understand that, because what all of the kids in the yard hear is a mighty bear-like roar.

Moment of silence, wind in the babbling stream, bird song, the buzzing of bees.

Something huge in the woodline.

Lows.

Cresting through the branches with the snapping of twigs,

lowering a massive shaggy head, a full-grown bull elk steps from the woodline,

ten-point antlers spreading wide.

Neith

looks and is just trembling staring at this massive

primeval forest god of an elk that is some eight and a half feet tall at the shoulder, its antlers like ten feet up in the air, walks forward.

The elk turns to you in the speech of beast and leaf and says,

I've heard your call.

Is this the young girl?

Indeed, it is.

Neif.

I'm going to take a

You take a step back.

The wind kicks up.

It is effortless.

Second nature.

You've done exactly as you should.

She reaches up with a shaking hand to touch this massive elk.

The elk sees the hand,

lowers his head, and presses

forehead and the length of his snout right against her chest in an embrace so that she can wrap her arms around his soft furry muzzle.

and

breathes out.

Blades of grass and leaves scatter the foot as she suddenly doesn't just have to tentatively touch him, but is fully embracing this massive elk.

And goes,

and you can see touching this animal with this warm fur.

Her breathing slows down, and you see the elk speaks in Imperial and says,

Everything's going to be all right.

Whoa,

everything.

Wow, wow.

What am I doing?

What am I doing?

And Leif just

starts giggling, holding the head of this elk.

And you see the elk turns to you, or someone says, Is this the same?

Is this the same as what I was doing before?

No, it's quite different.

There's so much to explain.

Consequences, voting.

all will be made clear in time we cut from here to the road as a massive elk

meath the children and ursulan stride away from the cottage towards the riverland tree

several hours of walking kids taking turns riding in the elk's massive antlers you can see your

the wisdom, what you knew of witchcraft has saved this young girl.

Neith with the elk by her side, a walking stick in her hand, and one of many corduroy witches' hats from inside the cottage.

Now firmly on her head, a nice toasty, sort of burnt orange corduroy witch's hat with a little purple patch on it.

As she walks by this massive elk with a feeling of pride and confidence, she has this massive, powerful, familiar beside her.

It goes, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Yes.

And the Ellic goes, okay.

And you see,

after hours of traveling, early moments of dusk arrive, and you can hear water up ahead of you.

As the water comes, you come around to see

the banks of the river Lindry.

The gloaming is coming.

It will soon be night.

And in fact, night is coming quickly.

Night is coming very quickly.

And you look out at the river.

Give me a perception check as you see the river here.

22.

This river is running over

a

stone riverbed made of many, many smaller stones.

The river is incredibly shallow here, and you realize you're looking at a ford.

This is a place where the shallowness of the river means you could walk over it even potentially by foot.

Only some two feet of depth, you know, go a little bit above your knees.

Children are a little bit shorter than that, obviously, but

you realize you're looking at a fort.

You hear the chirping of starlings nearby.

A boat,

a flat raft,

broad and long,

moves down the river.

Fireflies and a glass lamp, and a man in a wide-brimmed hat with a pole

moving down the river.

He stops in the middle of the water,

looks out at you.

Brother Ursulan,

I see that you have brought a young witch and the children of the Grinault.

See, the children start going, Lucio's fairy, it's Lucio's fairy, Lucio's fairy.

Hello, children who sing my songs.

It is well to see you here.

You see, he looks up at you, Ursulan.

You are standing

slightly above the dip down into the water because this road actually goes.

This is a weird place, and you suddenly realize you're at a crossroads because it's the road going down into the river, and the river is the road for the ferry.

So it's where river and road cross and intersect.

You're standing up a little bit away from the water,

and the man in black turns and says,

You have done well, Ursulan.

Send them forth to me.

Ursulan's going to turn to the children.

Everyone,

this is the great spirit, Lucio's fairy.

He will see that you are brought home.

Neif looks up

and looks at you and says,

The

man in black

from the vote at the conclave?

Mr Salon is going to silently nod.

He agreed to bring them home.

Yes.

The children get ready, and some of them look at the big river that they want to go swim in.

And as they

do,

as they go down, you see Neif

get sharp.

That elk beside her snorts.

And as the first little kid begins to want to run down to the water, Neif's hand shoots out in front of the kid, puts on the chest, and says,

A home.

Sorry, sorry.

Hi, hi.

I'm Neif.

I am the witch of

getting these kids home.

I am

a new witch, honored spirit, honored friend.

You see, the man in black just turns to is gazing wordlessly at Neif.

Um,

it is an honor for you to ferry these children home.

Where, may I ask, is home, precisely.

And I do hate to be a bother, but it is a witch's job to manage these agreements between mortal children and great spirits.

The man in black turns to Neve

and changes his bearing to a posture you haven't seen before.

You see, he says,

It is my task to bear these children home, and home I will bear them.

Right.

The home we have in mind is the singer's cellar in the city of Varik, on Rhymers Bay, across the sea from here.

Is that is that your understanding, great spirit and honored friend, of home?

No,

it is not,

Brother?

Brother Ursulan.

Where is it you...

Where is it you intend to take them?

Home.

Where they sing the songs of the great bullfrog still.

Home.

Where their grandfathers, grandmothers, their ancestors dwell.

I intend to ferry these children home to the world of spirits.

Is that not a fit place for them, Brother Ursulan?

I see how.

I see how you came to that conclusion, but it was not my intention.

The children,

especially those who have homes,

that is where they need to be.

Of the home I see

are the rivers ever full of fireflies,

the nights long and warm.

The home I see for them in the world of spirits would see some justice done

for the slaying

of that spirit which gave them legs to leap and voices to sing.

Forces muster in realms beyond this world.

These children

will be ample proof for them to see what has been laid low by the magic of that tower.

Their songs,

joining their family's songs,

will give the truth that is needed

to let

the spirit rise

against the sickness of this world,

there is a home in spirit for them, Ursulon.

Next to you, you see Neve

looks out, tears in her eyes,

and looks up to you, Ursulan, saying what she knows you already know but needs to say aloud.

There's a very simple way

to take mortal beings to the spirit world

It's the simplest way of all

Ursula's going to look to Neif

get the children off the road.

I'm gonna draw my sword pull my shield and step forward

Neith begins to corral the children The man in black looks at you as you stand in between him and these children.

Do you think, Brother Ursulan, the woods are safe?

Do you not know what waits for you in them?

Ursulan,

you stand

with golden armor on your shoulder, sword and shield in hand, on the road to Starling's Ford.

And you hear the approach

of bare feet in the woods to your left approaching the ditch on the side of the road

golden armor radiating in ghostly light

shield on his back

sword of night at his hip

missing only one pauldron on his left shoulder

and with an arrow jutting from the flesh where his neck meets his chest.

In all of the ghostly radiance of the saintly dead is Sir Curran.

It's good to see you, little brother.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulan, Erika 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.

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