WWW #49: The New World

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

The very first time the word cackle was used in Umora

was not only to describe the general pitch of laughter from a witch, wicked or otherwise, it is actually intimately tied to the history of broom riding.

The easiest household object to enchant with the capability of carrying its rider aloft into the skies of the world of Umora.

Flying brooms have been a source of strength for the witches of this world for time immemorial.

And in the very first instances of flight, certain commonalities were discovered.

Ah, the witch of Toma, having flown many times before as a passenger aboard Grandmother Ran's broom, discovers that the experience of flying is nothing like being a passenger.

For indeed, as the broom

shoots across the kitchen into her hand, grasping the hawthorn,

Ahme feels what the very first witches felt.

A

gleeful, tickling, nauseating rise of the stomach deep in the cockles of the gut.

And the levitating magic raising the hackles of the neck.

The hackles and cockles rising simultaneously etymologically created the first usage of the word cackle from a confused and giddy witch attempting to describe her physical state to her amazed friends on the ground, some ancient sum of years in the foggy past of this world.

Ame,

the broom in your hand,

already raising the hairs of your arm as it snaps across the room

fills you with an ebullience, a levity, a joyfulness that does not match the horror of the burnt sky outside nor the menacing of the wizard's slate who now beholds you and has no spell to counter.

This magic of witchcraft being much deeper and older than any summoning of spell energy.

The broom that you are holding in contact with with your body, its bristles of twigs alighting underneath you, first removes weight from the center of your stomach, as though rushing quickly in travel over a bump or sudden rise in elevation.

As the stomach goes weightless, the rest of the torso starting low, deep in the saddle, rises as well, such that one's toes or feet have to kick for purchase on a ground that they are rapidly departing.

Even as you feel the weightlessness, some part of your legs is summoned to want to still have ground to stand on.

Moving to the window to escape sudden death, the feeling of glee as the fox leaps into the satchel of your bag.

And you can see that even the fox, by virtue of being your familiar, feels some weightlessness in this moment.

To ride a broom as the witch holding the broom herself is to be well and fully weightless.

There is no sense of sitting on the broom, but you suddenly realize that for the need to maintain contact with this thing that is now the sole thing holding you suddenly some hundred feet in the sky, you leave the window of the castle and suddenly a lethal fall is underneath you.

You realize wrapping your legs around it and holding on with both hands is not necessary for weight distribution.

It is just a pretty good idea given how significant this magical object is to your continued safety.

Could you please describe what Ahme is feeling in this moment as she takes to the sky?

The wind rushes past you.

The broom you are holding, the fox also cackling next to you.

uh you tear off into the sky the visual reality burnt sky no longer fire coming from arcane cannons but instead shattered stone and rubble the sort of shimmering force fields of arcane shields nearby calm because they are no longer under direct attack all of this

hellish wasteland around you is in stark contrast to the feeling of weightlessness, utter control,

the feeling of panic as some part of you goes, too high, too high, too high.

But as you try to counteract that and dip down, suddenly you're approaching the ground and that doesn't feel safe either.

Nothing about this feels safe and everything about it feels joyful.

Holding onto the broom with both hands, there is a sudden rush.

You are doing this for the very first time and at this moment you are soaring.

You are headed straight out and away from the wizard's slate.

It is dark under cloud cover, but you are visible to anyone that would think to try to spot you.

And you are learning how to fly a broom for the first time.

Go ahead and give me an air vehicle proficiency check.

This will be wisdom plus proficiency.

25.

Unbelievable.

Ahm, what are the first things you do to test out the broom as you fly it?

It's hard to think in three dimensions like this.

It's almost like swimming, but with less control.

In a lot of ways, it feels like the broom is not the thing that's floating.

It's just the ballast for me.

And so as I figure that out, I figure out the direction that I should be pointing it and the velocity at which I could.

If I were Suvi, I'd be able to make the calculations in my head about the optimal way to fly this, but for now, this just feels like

a deep

visceral welling up from my soul, like

I'm meant to be flying, and this whole time I've just been living, walking on the ground somehow.

Doing your best to get an intuitive grasp of the broom.

The first tests are very simple in terms of understanding that the broom is ballast.

The broom is the source of the magic.

No, no, the broom is channeling.

It's channeling.

You feel stories and histories from this broom.

You feel a scullery maid dancing with this broom in the castle kitchens, trying to build the courage to tell her true love, another scullery maid down the hall, how she truly felt.

You feel the leather wrappings around the twigs, adding in cinnamon to make the sweeping smell sweeter.

All of the long years of this broom's humble service rush towards you.

You feel this broom can move at a quick pace.

For those that wish to know, it can move

at a speed of 50, but taking a bunch of extra weight on it, it would still fly, but it would fly much more slowly.

You sense that the broom can basically lift you effortlessly, but to add another rider onto it other than your familiar would dramatically lower the speed of the broom, almost slower than running.

Perhaps able to save someone's life if they were falling, but not really make two-person travel on here feasible.

You can also feel

you can

uncross your ankles and push the broomstick a little bit away from you as you're flying, and you're still flying.

You can maybe even let go with one hand and hold on with one hand because it doesn't feel too risky.

okay

i do some tests i'm still trying to cover ground

but i still want to make sure that i can maneuver it efficiently and cleverly yes as you look and see the object of your investigation the lights of the epiphany the capital ship of the Citadel's fleet and the Khemsarazen Empire pulling off into the clouds.

You know that you have a great task ahead of you, but your task will require expert piloting.

So, as quickly as you can, you push the broom away from you.

You see that you can stay weightless with just one hand on this broom.

You can hang in the sky holding onto the broom if you want, but tilting it in a direction or other, you feel very imbalanced.

You feel that you want the control that knees and hands can give you.

It's very interesting how a broom itself

does not do the sweeping.

It is the user that has to do the work and has to guide it.

And that is somehow inside my head as I fly and the broom channels.

As you fly, you get back into that riding position and feel yourself wanting more speed and feel yourself basically

all you need to do is move your torso away from the broomstick to slow down.

It's very intuitive.

There's already a wind resistance of exposing your chest to the direction that you're flying, but it's actually the separation from the broomstick itself that seems to create that sudden slowness.

And to pick up speed, all you have to do is hug that broomstick tighter to the point where you are almost wrapped around it.

Your sternum pressed to the wood of the broomstick, your eyes peeling ahead, feeling the shaft of it up around your jawline, your legs wrapped around it.

That is when you pick up the utmost speed, surging ahead like an arrow in flight.

You see the fox who has gotten himself now seeing the the degree of danger even though the weightlessness is making him giggle he has actually like opened and gotten into your satchel so he's in a little side car which is your sort of like traveling bag.

His little head pokes out, and you see, he goes, This is absolutely amazing!

Oh, oh, what are we doing?

We escaped.

What, boss, what's the plan?

Woo!

Oh,

yes.

Uh,

the plan.

Well, we gotta go after Subi.

You have a plan, right?

Yeah.

What's your plan, though?

Oh,

spirits, you don't have a plan at all.

There's no plan.

Oh, we're doomed.

We're dead.

Come on.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Here.

Listen.

Listen.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

This is actually kind of easy, right?

This is kind of easy.

Because all you have to do is come up with a plan, but not a plan that a wizard could guess, because they're the best at plans.

So don't do too much of a plan.

Do enough of a plan that there's a plan, but not so much of a plan that they can guess your plan.

You have to be a hero.

You have to save Sufi.

You love her.

You have to be kind.

Oh, but don't actually be like kind, kind, because you know, you don't want to do a trap.

Yes.

So, and that ship is a trap.

So don't do that.

But that, because that's, you have to be cunning.

So remember to be cunning.

Do everything smart.

And remember, you're the witch of the world's heart.

So you have friends everywhere.

But don't just trust everybody.

Thank you, Fox.

I hope that was clear.

That was a very good rundown of all the important pieces.

Yeah.

whatever i whenever you do this okay don't freeze up you have to follow your heart all right don't freeze up follow your heart just don't make any mistakes box

all right

i think to myself

what is my plan i didn't really have much beyond

we get the kids through the door

I take the doorknobs.

I

don't abandon Suvi, but she told me to...

She told me this was a trap.

She told me I should run.

This is the opposite of that.

But,

oh,

I don't know.

I said I wouldn't leave her again.

The fox looks up and says, boss, listen, that's a giant airship.

We have no idea where Suvi is.

And you hear.

And there's a projection of an arrow in light on the front of your broom as Task pokes his head up out of your bag and makes the little arrow magician point towards the epiphany.

You see the fox looking at the giant cannonade of the ship, whips around and looks at Task and says, Who asked you?

Task,

do you can you sense Suvi and where she is?

Little mirrored spider head nodding enthusiastically.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Are you able to contact her?

You see, Task

reaches out and feels a wall.

You see that Task projects the word wall in front of you in light and

once again gestures with an arrow to the epiphany.

You wonder if the wall is actually magical in nature, some kind of block barrier or otherwise prevention of Task's ability.

But sensing the direction to his mistress is no challenge to him.

Okay,

uh, so I

am, uh, I had a plan before, but I'm amending it.

And we are going to go follow the directions to Suvi.

We're going to get close to her, see if we can knock down a potential wall that's blocking Task's ability to communicate with her.

Because

maybe I don't have a plan, but I can almost guarantee that Suvi will.

Task nods enthusiastically.

And I'm going to need a stealth check from you.

Difficulty 15, 20 would be great.

Oh, okay.

Can I get assistance from the fox?

Help from the fox.

16 plus 3 is a 19.

Incredible.

You

peel off.

You can look down and see yourself getting scoped by some members of the Imperial Army, but there's so much chaos immediately post-battle.

Remember, this is in the first 20 minutes after the conclusion of the the battle, that they just see something flying smudged against the sky, but it as easily could be a wizard as anything else.

From the distance you're flying already, to make out a broom with the level of haze and fog of war in this place would be very, very challenging.

But you do see some

beings below, maybe Tamori or wizards or other things, spot you as you go, and you see the Epiphany pulling up into the cloud cover.

If you go into the cloud cover, you'll lose visibility.

Maybe you'll see the lights of the ship up ahead of you.

But

you will, if you stay under the clouds, you will have to contend with maybe being spotted by anyone below you.

I move above the clouds, sure that I can have Task

be my guide.

Are you going to go all the way fully above the clouds?

Yes.

All right.

You pull up through that space.

Night.

Stars.

sky.

For the first time, and you don't even know how long you're not under the orange, burnt clouds of the Shroud Mountains.

I didn't realize that I had been breathing so shallow, but now above the clouds.

I take a deep breath.

It's calming.

I follow tasks, directions, trailing behind the epiphany.

As you begin to trail behind the epiphany, sailing over the clouds, the fox and task passengers in your bag both take a moment to look out over the starlit cloudscape.

It is a countryside of vapor that

perhaps neither of them, a woodland creature, an artifact of magic, ever thought that they would see.

Looking down, you can feel the doorknobs of common cause, knowing that Ursulan and the Grineau children are on the other side of that door.

They are there in that bag, waiting for you.

Task continues to point the direction to the epiphany.

How long do you keep flying, and is there anything else you do in mid-flight?

Mid-flight, if Task is able to multitask,

I would like to ask him about if not blueprints most likely

layout and information about Imperial skyships

give me Arcana with advantage

on my own I know next to nothing about skyships or Imperial or otherwise but with task's help

and a 19 total

I

think

that I can

keep up with whatever task throws at me

on that arcana

you get a sinking feeling in your stomach

the

gunnels of the epiphany are inscribed with powerful runes

massive magical lanterns capable of having an iris focused into spotlights adorn the back of the vessel.

Those are the lights that you're literally allowing you to follow it before a task could point the direction.

On a 19 arcana,

Aame

can rule out

the ability

to arrive on the deck of the ship in mid-flight.

One of several things would happen, probably simultaneously.

Powerful divinations would

auto-fire on you to glean your name, see invisibility, cast out any potential of approaching under disguise or illusion.

It is possible that even your name would attempt to be discerned by that, and your location would quickly be fixated on by those lanterns.

Now, even if you could dispel one component of these or another, you don't think you'd be fast enough to dispel them all simultaneously.

And those cannons on the back of the ship were manned as Task and Sufi approached the ship.

And I think there's a part of you, too, even in asking this, a very

different Aame, perhaps an Aame of some week or two ago, would have seen the goal of alighting on the deck of the ship as being so worthy and noble that it should just be attempted.

And yet, a cunningness to go, this thing that I wish to do may well be impossible, now surrounds you as you think about how paranoid wizards are.

They will have taken great pains to make what you wish to do impossible.

With this wisdom that comes to you as you review tasks memory, I want you to make a perception check with advantage as well.

17.

You look at some of the runes on the back of the Epiphany as Task lays them out before you.

You are the Witch of the World's Heart, and

you have to amend some of your image of yourself because all of a sudden you realize something which is very true.

You've seen more of Imperial magic than not only the vast majority of the world, but probably the vast majority of witches.

You've been in the heart of the Citadel.

One of your closest true friends is an Archmage apprentice.

You have seen great battle unfold.

You have seen the sword of the Citadel in combat.

And you get a sense of what the outer periphery

of the Epiphany's divination magic would be.

And on a 17th perception, you become suddenly aware that there are two spirits flying underneath you in the clouds who do not know that they are about to trip the defenses of the Epiphany as they begin to close in on it.

I immediately dive down to observe the spirits with cloud cover.

Diving back into the clouds, one

is about the size of a human being, the other much smaller, flying in its wake.

Both of them winged.

Flying ahead of you as fast as they can, their wings beating.

Enzo and Cyril pursue the epiphany.

Enzo, Cyril!

Twirling around, you see Enzo, you see Cyril goes,

It's the young witch of the world's heart!

And you see Enzo turns and goes,

Mr.

Sami.

Grabbing Cyril in his hands to protect his little blue brother, Enzo,

of the world's heart,

what are you doing here?

What are you doing here?

You see, he turns to continue to pursue the epiphany, but suddenly goes, do they know we are here?

No, no, and we do not want them to know that because Subi is on there and she has been arrested.

What?

So the wizard sky is aboard that vessel?

He begins flying after it and you say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we need to be smart about this.

You see, the fox looks up, and a tear forms in his eye, and he goes, That's my boss.

You see, all right, you know what?

That feels patronizing.

I don't know what that means.

You see, he looks up, and uh, you see that Enzo

whips around at the fox and goes, in the manner of a patron, paternalistic, condescending, and then turns back and looks at you as you stop pursuing the epitome for a second to hang here in the clouds.

He flaps his wings, holding himself aloft, but you can perfectly hover on your broom.

Within the fog, he turns and says, The Wizard Sky is aboard the Epiphany?

She is,

well, why didn't she take these letters to those wizards herself?

Well, I don't think that she knew she was going to be on the ship today or to see them today or possibly ever again.

Did you not deliver them yet?

We're trying.

The wizards are aboard that ship.

You see, Cyril goes, My mine too.

Interesting.

Interesting.

Well, I'm trying to pursue the ship and not be caught, and I think perhaps it's to our advantage if you also are not detected by them.

I understand that you were given this missive as your final request, but

perhaps could you hold out a little longer and

well

help me figure out how to get to Suvi?

Give me a persuasion check.

That's a nat 20, baby!

On a nat 20, as you look, you see that Enzo, his long, pointed nose and long, pointed ears, turns and says,

For the witch

who saved our brother Vandal,

we would perform any service asked.

Freely.

And you see both of them bow in mid-air.

Oh, thank you.

I hope that little fart nugget is doing all right with Suvi.

He'd love to be called that.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Enzo turns to you and says, where is our brother?

Oh, Task here.

Uh, do you know Task?

See, Task shows Suvi walking aboard with Vandal's book.

He can guide us.

Task can guide us to Suvi.

But can't seem to be able to communicate with her right now.

Enzo turns and says,

the ship travels away at top speed.

But

it is worth mentioning now, I think, that

if the ship

has defenses,

pursuing it makes sense.

But understand this.

Before the ship arrives at its destination, this cloud cover will end, and we will be pure and plainly visible.

We need to remain hidden.

But I don't believe that there's a way that we could make ourselves undetectable to all of the

wizardy

runes and divinations.

Enzo sort of cocks his head and says

I have some

magic of my own, now that I am unbound.

But

I am not a creature of that ship.

Were we

once again in the citadel, the place of my birth, I might be a little bit more useful than I am here.

But the truth is, I would have to approach that ship before I knew how to undo any of its writings.

C.

Cyril turns and says,

We chase many treasures aboard the ship.

But in point of fact, we do not chase the ship itself.

That's true.

We don't need to get aboard the ship

if

for some reason they take Suvi off of it.

You see, the fox looks up and says, Well, boss, they'll take her off eventually, right?

They're not gonna let her live the rest of her life there.

No, yes, I realize, but

ooh, are they?

Do I know?

Does it look like they are going to the citadel?

Directionally, yes.

Our best bet would be to somehow meet them

or intercept them

at the Citadel, but that seems like it'd be even more difficult to get into.

Go ahead

and give me a history check.

No help on this one.

Call it DC-15.

That is a 15 on the die.

You see that Cyril begins to weep and goes,

It is hopeless.

Companions four.

You see Task chirps and goes, Companions five.

A bitter end.

A loss of letters, loss of friend.

The ship that soon will leave the clouds.

Abandons hope, abandons shrouds.

And you see Enzo turns to him and says, Yes, once it leaves the cloud cover, to think that the ship will head over the Arulean desert.

There will be zero humidity or moisture in the atmosphere.

Two demons, a witch, a fox, and a mirror spider will be visible even to the most lackluster sentry aboard the back of the Epiphany.

You see, the fox goes, Yeah,

if only there was some way to beat them to the citadel and not have to cross the desert,

Amay,

your favorite neighborhood

in the citadel, Haverward.

And you remember, where did that orange glow come from in Haverward?

Four gates.

Four permanent teleportation gates.

Do I know where the gates came out?

I know that there's one

in Cairo.

There's one in Cairo, and Cairo is a hell of a lot closer than the Citadel.

Beautiful bambling brook,

clucking of chickens, the buzzing of bees,

the shouting and splashing of young children.

Amay's cottage is

alive.

Children splashing in down the stream.

Children chasing a loose chicken.

Children in a fight.

Some of the older boys hitting each other in the dusty patch outside of the weaving room.

Inside the house,

some others

seated together eating.

Some have overeaten due to a level of starvation or hunger.

Some are catatonic,

in a corner, having been in captivity for too long.

The responses of these children to the traumatizing events that they have been through

varies.

It varies based on their temperament.

It varies based on the circumstances that they arrived.

Some of the children

know where they can go to find their parents should they somehow be returned across the sea to the Shroud Mountains.

Some have only been in captivity for a very short time, perhaps less than a month.

Others it's been longer.

There are others who, even before the Empire found them,

did not have parents to return to.

There are

some 80 children here, varying ages, each of their stories is their own.

But what they all share in common, as Ursulan beholds them, is that now,

under his eye, they are free and they are safe.

Ursulan,

there are friends here as well that you have.

Dr.

Yagi in the kitchen is

carefully, you know, after sort of the triage of seeing any immediate injuries, of which there were blessedly very few, is now more in-depth going about tending to and healing the children here.

A lot of the younger kids are sort of playing with Henna Hena Mohe, who's got this sort of wooden scarecrow staff around.

Elbeth is feeding any kids that have not gotten a chance to eat yet,

as is Dalma, who is cutting up stalks of scallions for a big stew.

Nearby, I think you also see Neif

seated on a stoop

reading a letter from Ame to her, the note that Ahmé penned.

And she reads it aloud so that you can hear, I think.

These are the children of the Grinnell.

They are scared and have been through hell.

Please care for them.

Be gentle.

And he will take them to their families or find homes for them.

You're doing great.

How does she know I'm doing great?

I might not be doing great.

Neif, you are doing well.

Neif turns up to look at you and goes,

How did all this

happen like this?

You

is Amy okay?

Is everything is.

I mean,

oh God, this is really tough.

This is really really tough.

This is really tough.

It is.

It is all quite immense.

And that's why I believe we should focus on what is in front of us.

These children.

And what we can do for them today.

You see that two of the older boys walk over and approach you.

Are you wearing your glamour in this moment or no?

No.

You stay at just beautiful sunlight standing in this yard.

You look over and see there's that beehive that you ate that honey from all those years ago.

It's just, and now these kids all threw out.

Um, and you see that these two kids walk up, one of them looks

at you and points to the sword on your waist and goes, That your sword?

Uh, uh, it is.

Uh, one of them says, I didn't get to see he killed a guy with it, he killed him.

And you see, he looks up and says,

That's are you, are you a warrior?

I

am.

You see that the other kid says,

the other kids like picks up a stick nearby and goes, like, I'm going to learn to sword fight.

And you see that.

Ursulan is immediately overwhelmed.

I think there is, I think, as he stands here, like surveying this group, I think in bringing the children to safety, there is now the managing of this group of young,

young people that is like not,

has always been the domain of his friend Ame.

And there is something as these children, as a child picks up a stick, that Ursulan

kind of

freezes up and is just,

don't do that.

Don't do that.

Put the stick down.

What?

Okay.

A warrior's greatest asset is not his sword, but his shield.

You see that a little kid comes up, and this young little girl says, I can't jump anymore

and just starts to cry.

She's like seven years old.

She's going, I can't jump anymore.

Oh, you know, Ursulan's going to pick her up and just hold her.

You pick her up.

Another little kid who's about five comes over and is crying and just has grass all over their hands because they were eating so much honey that they got a bunch of grass on their hands.

And you see that the older boy says, man, I can pick up a stick because you, I didn't, you, you, you did, you fought those guys.

It was great.

He killed and there's blood

everywhere.

And the other guy died.

And you see that another kid who is hearing this and is not as callous as this like young teenage boy is being reminded of the epic violence that just freed them all and just falls into a hole in his head and goes and and sits against the stoop with his back against the house.

Enough, enough, enough of that.

What I did

to those gods,

I wish I had not had to do.

I'm not proud of what I did.

You see that the little the younger boy, who looked sort of more disturbed, looks up and you can see feels safer in your presence

our world

is scary

and filled with people

who do not

understand

each other

who do not understand me and who do not understand you

I wish for other means to deal with those

But in certain times and moments,

yes,

we must fight.

But it is never the ideal.

You see that the younger boy looks up and says, Are we going to get to go home?

You are.

You see, he nods and just goes and puts a hand on your

your cloak and just stays close to you.

See, the older boy is about like 14.

One of the older ones who's here goes, I'm not scared of fighting.

I want to stay here.

This place is nice.

I'm from Caro.

Cairo's not nice.

I don't even live with other Grineau.

I don't speak the Grineau language.

I don't even do any of that stuff.

I was all right.

I was on the street.

I did lots of fights.

I killed people.

I'm sorry you had to do that.

You immediately see the lie that he has told that he has killed people sort of break on his face with the weight of your response, which is the true response you would give to someone that had had to do that.

You see, he goes,

Fine, I should get to stay here if I want.

This place is nice.

I can go where I want.

And you see that he walks off.

The little girl nearby, who you're holding, is just sort of crying, these sort of long sort of whimpers in your arms.

Neith looks over, and you see Neif turns to that younger boy and walks after him for a moment.

And you see, she goes,

You don't, you don't have any

parents

in Cairo.

And you see, he turns and says,

No, I don't even remember my parents.

I grew up, I grew up in a hard part of Cairo.

I was raised by some older kids, and they put me in, there was a school I was in for a little bit of time, but that place was that place stunk.

I got out of there.

And you see that Neif,

who's only a few years older than this this boy, goes,

well,

I think that Ame would be happy with you staying here

if you want it.

Are there other?

There are others like you here that don't have parents to go home to, aren't there?

Musi turns and says,

Yeah.

Yeah,

there's like a bunch of us.

Yeah.

And you see that Neif looks up.

Ursula, give me a perception check.

Only a six.

You look and see Neif,

her eyes kind of darting back and forth.

Something.

Not sure what.

She turns and says, huh?

Okay.

Okay.

And you see that Neif kind of walks with determination into the cottage.

I'm going to put the young girl down that I'm holding.

If you sit here, I'll come back.

Would you like water?

Cake?

I'll see if we have cake.

And you see that she sits there with her hands crossed, and you see another little kid comes and sits next to her

in a strange, little, odd act of child kindness and just starts putting dandelion heads in her lap as some some kind of gesture of a childlike solidarity with no words spoken between them.

I'm gonna turn and walk into the house.

You see Neif

bounds up the stairs.

Elbeth and Dalma have a bunch of kids in the kitchen.

Elbeth is giving little sweet treats as Dalma makes the soup.

Dalma turns to look at you and says

busy in the cottage, eh, Ersalam?

Yes,

AD

children, it's a lot of children.

It's a lot.

We're packed to the rafters.

And as he says that, you see a bowl, a full ceramic bowl, falls from the rafters, smashes on the ground in the shards.

There's like three kids up in the rafters.

Please come down from the rafters.

I'm going to reach you up and try and bring them down.

Give me an attack roll.

Natural one.

You jump up, and another bowl, this one filled with cream, falls on your head.

We had to climb up here.

We can't jump anymore.

You had to climb up there?

Are you gonna fix it?

I'm going to try.

Uh, okay, try.

I will try later.

Did you kill that guy?

All right.

Elpeth, do you have more cake?

What?

Do you have more cake?

I don't have any cake.

I'll make a cake.

I'll make a cake.

You can make a cake.

I'll try.

Okay, there.

That's right.

All right, I'm going to head up the stairs.

You head up the stairs,

and you see

in Grandma Wren's study with all the sort of books that Neif has organized absolutely beautifully

that there are

papers that she's arranging and she's making a little journal book for herself.

And she takes it and takes a little pen and looks up and says,

too many kids.

This is so many children.

Yes, 80 children is too many children.

So I'm going to start to interview them.

We need to get this.

This has to be, we need to learn where they're all from, and we need to start to compile.

And some of them are too little, and they might not know the name of their town.

So we need to get the other kids together to help explain.

And some of these children are young enough that they don't speak any Imperial.

They only speak Teroy, and I don't speak to Roy.

So we need to

figure this out.

I'm going to get started.

Great.

This is excellent, Neif.

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

I saw you speaking with the um the young boy from Carol.

I think you being closer to their age, it means something to them.

Thank you.

I just understand.

I think.

I just understand because I know, um.

Before Andre found me, I...

I didn't have a home to go to.

And even when I was with Andre, I didn't have a home to go to.

And now I'm almost an adult.

And this is the first home I ever had.

And the person whose home it is isn't around because she's out

doing very important things.

I think I'm about to turn 18 and I'll have not had a home.

But

there are many children here and they have years in front of them.

And most of these children have parents who are desperately looking for them, and they have you to thank for a chance to be reunited.

But there are some here that that work is not gonna be finished easily, and that work matters.

And if it didn't,

and you see that she just starts shaking and goes,

If it didn't happen for me,

maybe something close enough would be happening for someone else.

Ursulan is going to walk up to Neith,

kneel down to be at her height, and put

both his hands, paws on her shoulders.

You are doing great.

This

is great work.

For the first time, under your

hands,

your breath, all around you,

there is a feeling of certainty which you have been carrying for some time.

And at your touch,

you can share that certainty with her.

And there is a break and blessed relief, and her nervousness collapses into tears.

And she falls forward with a face

on your chest and shakes and cries.

For a brief moment,

she just needs a second.

She gets up and wipes the tears from her eyes and says,

I don't know what the plan is, and that makes me scared, but I know that you

have a purpose, and if you'll have me, I'll help.

I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that these kids, especially the ones that don't have somewhere that they need to get back to, they find somewhere to get back to.

I will have your help.

And it means a great deal to me.

Okay,

I'm going to get started talking to these kids.

And you see that she hustles downstairs with the journal clasped to her chest.

I think Ursulan stands for a moment,

feeling the cream drying

on his fur,

thinking of this idea of home,

and

thinks back to that summer

When this place,

albeit for one summer, was his home.

And the sense of belonging and place that he found here.

I think moves back downstairs to give that same feeling to these children.

You walk downstairs.

Soup is on.

Everyone's gonna get like a little teacup of soup.

And you see, you walk downstairs to give people a feeling of home.

Elbeth looks up and says,

I don't know that we have the cake.

I don't know that we have what we need to make a cake.

I'm going to go into town.

See if I can't get more supplies.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes.

And you see that

they look at you.

He says, well, we'll manage them here.

There's a little bit of soup to go around, but as much as you can get.

And I think you see Neif goes, and she's talking to another another boy who's also a little bit younger than that boy from Caro.

You see, he's about like 11 or so, but he looks really bright, little sort of blonde-headed boy.

She looks over and says,

He's going to help me.

He's going to help me

talk to everybody because he speaks to Roy and Imperial.

And the little boy looks up and says, Hi, I'm Buckles.

Nice to meet you.

Ursulon.

Hi, nice to meet you.

I'll give everybody a hand if I can.

Thank you, Buckles.

I'm eager to see you all return to your homes.

And Neifa's but one person.

So it means a great deal to me that you are assisting her.

Thank you.

And you see that,

once again with your words, you

find yourself centered in that feeling of home.

And as rattled as you were mere minutes before,

Wow,

how confident does one feel when imparting confidence to another?

It's holding a line together, side by side.

You see Buckles turn to Neif, they get to work, and you head into town.

We, I think for the first time in the camp, or close to, no, except for Batsuri, but we see Toma.

A beautiful water mill spinning over in the corner.

Down the little lane, there's a cluster of buildings all together

with a smithy and a little summer stage for festivals or music, a small shrine in the center populated with images and idols of many of the great spirits of Akam

and those honored friends that hold places of high virtue and esteem amongst its peoples.

Among their number, you see hidden away some of the great bear, some of Naram, some of the king of storms, the merry hunter,

and even one to Orima in the corner.

And as you walk forward through Toma, which you've been in many years ago, but maybe didn't, I don't know if you left this way when you left Grandma Ren's cottage, you look

to the summer stage where the little festivals are held and out beyond it in a field of small,

sort of easy pastoral flowers blowing in the breeze.

There is a tall may pole, and hanging from the summer stage, you see that there is an emblem of a spirit there, and you see an emblem of the great bear hanging over the stage.

You depart, walking forward, and up ahead you smell the wonderful smell of fresh-baked bread.

Well, it seems we both know where I'm headed.

Walking forward, Lohan steps out.

A A little bit more crow's feet around his eyes and some gray around the temples.

Looks up and goes,

Bear!

Lohan, good to see you!

Good to see you.

How are you doing?

I'm well.

Um,

two baguettes and some fresh butter.

Um,

I'm going to need much more than that, friend.

I don't know

quite how to say this.

There are

four score children at the cottage.

I've brought them here from war.

They are under my care

and they need to be fed.

I can

pay you as much as I have.

Um,

your turn

just stares and says,

Uh, all right,

we can talk of coin later.

I have a ran well, Amay's tab

running.

Uh, but she is, of course, the witch of the village, so mostly that's a that's a kindness.

Four score children.

Yes, some eighty.

Did they come up through Silbrey?

I haven't seen anyone traveling all day.

No, it was the great workings of the witch of the world's heart that brought them here.

What?

Yes, what, like medicine hmm like a little medicine like a little medicine what do you mean workings of the great witch of the world's heart oh

um

ame has her ways oh

oh a witch's ways never mind i don't need to know i don't need to know what uh bread um muffins um do you want cake we'll take anything.

Alright, I'll make it a wheelbarrow.

Do you need I'll get word out into town?

Yo, yes, if toys, if other children would like to come by and play with them.

I mean,

truly, anything that anyone can provide, we will have.

I'll see it done.

Anything for the Witch of Toma?

He looks around at his bakery and he goes, Okay, this.

We may have to talk of coin.

And then

of course.

And I can help.

Yes.

All right.

We'll speak it all out.

I'll go get help.

Buzzing bees fade to twinkling fireflies as an impromptu

festival occurs in the yard of Grandmother Wren's cottage.

There is bread, townsfolk have come up with other forms of food, people are bringing clothing, and people are bathing and you see that people are talking and

a bunch of the townsfolk have come up.

Toma has leapt into action at this strange and wondrous sight.

And you see that people look around.

Some of them are going,

children appeared out of nowhere.

No, the witch's ways are mysterious.

And you see someone says, but with Ren at Never.

And you see someone else turns and says, You weren't around when my grandmother told me stories of when Wren first came to Toma.

Those were strange times.

A young witch is much more tempest than teapot.

I'll tell you that right now.

And you see that the children are out, and there's a moment as these adults are sort of moving around helping that you see Neif is still sitting with buckles talking and she's filling this journal up.

And there's a moment that it is just

you,

Dr.

Yagi, Hana Hanamohe, Elbeth, and Dalma.

all kind of standing a ways maybe like a little bit up the hill towards the shrine just to keep an eye on everything.

And you look to your right and see these four

spirits to the side of you.

Give me perception or insight in this moment.

14 perception.

This is the first time you've seen them since

you spoke with the man in black on the river.

Since you dedicated your breath to something

great.

I think standing here, you look at Dalma,

who's in his old man glamour, but even when you saw him in his spirit form, he was a little porcine green man.

But you look at him and see something

infinite stretching behind him.

A stream that has run for centuries.

You see water and life and growing things.

And you look at Elbeth and see not only the buzzing of bees, but you see

industry, labor, effort.

You see

the making of something, flower to flower, busy, busy, busy, buzzing.

You look at Dr.

Yagi and see a goat, but also behind that wisdom.

Healing, medicine, something ancient and profound.

And you look at Hana Henahana Mohe, this silly scarecrow with a wooden stick.

And you can feel ringing from behind him something like the ringing of a sword and shield as you look at a guardian spirit.

And for the first time, you see that there is no such thing as a lesser spirit.

Each one of these spirits has come from a world eternal and unending.

And though they aspire to humbleness here, they are every bit as infinite as any spirit which would be regarded as great.

Ursulan turns to

behold these four

caretaker spirits.

Thank you.

I know this moment was thrust upon you, but

you have all handled it beautifully, and it means a great deal to me.

It was one thing to free these children, but I feel that there is much work to be done in getting them home.

And I'm thankful to not do that alone.

Your companions here on the low side of the hill

turn and all smile at you.

You see Penna Anamohe goes, Well, thanks so much.

That's very kind of you to say.

And

Dalma looks and says,

Brother, don't

lessen the effort it took to free these children.

And

if I'm not much mistaken,

I

hadn't really seen you before.

And you see that the other three that hear Dalma say that turn to look at you.

and go, oh.

And you can see they are seeing what you are seeing seeing in them.

Dalma smiles and says,

I need no shrine or offering to tell me

when I see a spirit dedicated

to something

so virtuous and good.

I am happy to tend to my stream and caretakers are we all, but rare and mighty are those spirits who work great change upon the surface of the world

Thank you, Mr.

Soup.

You see Dalma laughs and sort of spins in the air for a second unseen by any of the humans below and goes

Look at that.

Well

old Mr.

Soup never minded a joke.

And you see that he turns and says, well, but

to speak of the business at hand, I think you are right.

There is much work cut out ahead of you.

How do you intend to

get these children home?

You see that Elbert says, we would help you if we could, but we are spirits of this land and place.

It is Ame's cottage.

to which our breath is tied.

The same is not so for you.

Well, it's my hope that when Neif is able to find where these children come from,

I will be able to transport them home or request aid.

Orima,

once

I once encountered Orima in the near spirit, and she gifted me a great steed.

I

thought to pay a visit to her shrine

and perhaps ask if she could aid me again.

Dalma nods and says, I think it a wise choice.

A wise choice and true.

You'll need more than a steed, even a great beast, to carry this many children.

It's hard to think of how one might do it safely.

You see that Yagi sort of nods and says,

a vessel is what's needed now.

Something that can take them.

They are from lands far, far removed from a calm, that is to be sure.

Elbeth look up and goes,

Harima is the right one to talk to.

I think she has a shrine

in Toma, and

it would

be well for you to go, I think, Ursulan.

And Neif has offered to help you with this endeavor.

Yes, she is

creating a catalogue, a record of where each of the children are from, and she has a young one named Buckles who speaks to Roy, assisting her.

Elvis nods and says, Well,

we'll keep an eye on things here and tend to the cottage.

But

I think with the villagers here,

none of them will mean harm, but word will get out, and it.

I think there is some urgency.

Very well.

Then, do you intend to speak to Arima tonight, or

I thought so.

When we've gotten most of the children to bed, or as many as we could.

To bed, to bed.

Actually, that's quite an endeavor.

We should talk to some of the people that brought clothes to see if they can leave and we can pack some bedding, or if maybe some can stay to sew.

It may be a while, Ursulan.

I think if you want to go, you'd best go.

If you believe it best, I trust you.

It It will stay busy here for some time getting everything ready.

It will be likely a later night.

I think we'll want you back at the cottage when all of the grown-ups return to Toma.

Agreed.

I think Ursulan is going to make a point of thanking villagers who have come to the cottage as he moves through the crowd and then back down into Toma.

After saying goodbye, you head on the road and start to head back to Toma, your boots crunching here and there.

It's not a gravel road, but there's enough little stones that every once in a while.

You get that little scraping noise of stones in the dust.

As you head down the road,

give me a perception check.

19.

As you are walking down the road, about halfway to Toma, it's about a 45-minute walk.

There are boots walking down the road behind you.

Ursulon stops

to listen and see if the boots also stop.

They don't.

They never do.

The captain's quarters of the Epiphany.

Bedecked in gold.

A massive desk.

Marble.

Rich, warm wood.

Golden pen.

Behind it.

Fleets of windows

surveying the retreating skyline of 12 Brooks.

Highest most and raised in the aft of the ship, surrounded by windows on all sides, this massive quarter.

Behind a door, the actual bedroom of the captain, but here in the stateroom, so to speak, the desk, and behind it, a massive spinning orrey,

transmitting energy of abjuration across the back of the ship.

Grand carpets.

A small table adorned with fine liquors and glassware.

Much like a university's moving chalkboards.

Slate and spell chalk.

hanging from a basket suspended in mid-air, a glowing rune underneath it to be moved and left at arm's reach.

Maps and maps and maps unfurling.

A

small helixing private library of spellbooks

at the behest of the sword of the citadel.

To one side, a working fireplace, a small low-raised table,

two sets of sofas and four armchairs around it to have a staff of no less than a dozen come to make meeting in this place, this palatial captain's quarters.

Smells of rich

incense,

burning cedar, a deep floral of a jasmine, or perhaps some rarer flower, a hidden orchid deep in a jungle, capable of granting wishes, used instead to simply sweeten the air of the quarters of one who can grant wishes for herself.

The Sword of the Citadel sits at her desk, uncomfortably pivoted outwards, a sleeve of her armor removed as a busy Citadel doctor tends to her.

She writes furiously several missives, each missive not being handed to anyone in particular, but instead being rolled rolled up, placed into a helix of six emeralds, flashing in light and vanishing as the smell of Aerith fills the cabin.

Arrayed before her are Citadel staff only,

all name-cloaked, all wizards of the Citadel, as well as several Tamori attendants and one or two you recognize bound spirits in the service of Citadel Wizards here who do not tend to walk the Citadel grounds with these bound spirits visible.

You

are

marched into this room to see this sight unfolding by two war mages behind you

who bring you to attention in this place.

As you march in,

where does your attention go to?

Am I still

gagged and bound?

You are

no longer gagged and bound.

I think

her eyes immediately go for the like the windows in the back.

and can't leave

her understanding of Twelve Brooks.

And it's that weird

your eyes are looking because you're thinking about the thing you just experienced, and then there's the dissonance of that like scent in the room, the incense.

When she knows, based on what she's seeing, we're not far enough away yet.

We should still be able to smell the burning and the mud

and that dankness

and the blood.

And I hate that this room doesn't smell like the thing I still see behind my eyes.

But I work very hard to not make eye contact with any person in this room.

You

look and are the last one to observe the ruined fields of Twelve Brooks,

the quickly rotting corpses of Kashifi Dreadnoughts,

the castle.

Give me a perception check.

DC is 20.

Dirty 20.

17 on the dice.

On a dirty 20, you look out.

And as the clouds envelop the epiphany in that ruin

is racing away from you,

something

darts from a window of the castle into the sky.

And then clouds.

Orange vapor.

And it vanishes.

i think there's just

it's noticeable enough like without recognition or hope or understanding like a couple of her fingers just drum against the side of her leg as her brain just goes remember that for whatever reason

one of the wizards speaking If the other houses, marshal quickly, but by all accounts, this will come as a surprise.

And you see that

Steele does not make eye contact with you, but points in your direction as she finishes writing something and says, Move her to the corner.

And you are moved to a corner of the room near some of the spell books lining the wall.

And

there is a small

war mages put their hands on you and move you to the corner physically.

Okay.

Noted.

You are standing in a circle of golden runes in the lingua arcana, and you see that Steele snaps her fingers,

and a cylinder of silence.

Okay.

I can still read mouths.

Observant, what are we talking about?

This is my favorite feat I've ever taken.

And I will do my best to school my face to like neutrality while trying to watch as much conversation that's being directed at Steele as possible.

In her presence, nobody here is speaking to each other.

So it's easy to follow the conversation.

This is a room not of jocularity or familiarity.

This is a room.

Steele continues to write, proffering her left arm to the doctor.

You see the doctor sort of behind her, so you can see both of their mouths at the same time.

Goes,

sword,

this is a heart seeker curse.

I, I, it, it is beyond my, she absentmindedly says, stop, stop, stop touching me, stop.

And you see that the doctor lets go and she goes, it's fine, it won't find it.

Is there anything else?

You've bandaged what you need to.

You're dismissed.

You are preventing more important conversation from happening from being here.

Thank you, doctor.

The doctor looks stunned, walks quickly out of the room, closes the door,

and Steele looks up.

Shut up to the wizard who is currently speaking to her.

Unimportant.

Leave.

You make a report later.

And

another wizard says,

waiting for that dismissed party to leave,

turns and says,

Wizard Steele,

you are badly injured.

Do you not think that perhaps you should

adjourn yourself to the Tower of the Sword back in the Citadel.

She puts her now reclaimed elbow unarmored on the desk, massages her eyes.

Blood is caked around one of her ears.

She has a wound bleeding that's been bandaged around her midsection.

That arm, now that you can see it, there is a clear angular red veins.

Her veins in her arm are changing to become geometric and rising to the surface of her skin like arrows pointing up as it crawls up her arm.

And every time it gets to her elbow, you see that it turns around and the veins disassemble and fall apart.

And then the curse starts working its way back up her left arm.

Oh,

God, I hate that identify as in the fucking touch spell.

I've never seen anything like that before, have I?

No.

Fucking dope.

So, Suvi's experience with curses is what she's seen, flashes of what she's seen Ahme is capable of, and the ones that

Ren and Ame have suffered under that both were accompanied by the like wisp of smoke in the mouth.

Is there anything like that in and around her?

Yeah, you see that there are wisps of smoke coming out of her mouth.

There's some intense curse that's been placed on her.

Okay, okay.

Is it even worth it to try to suss anything out at this distance?

Give me an Arcana check.

16.

The spell is beyond your reckoning.

Yeah.

Your guesses are sorcery, but it also could be shape changer magic.

It's like visceral body stuff.

There's something going on.

You wonder if the geometrical veins...

are what the spell normally wants to do or if something that steel is doing is turning the veins geometrical.

Dope.

Dope.

Yeah, that bit of specific abjuration is fascinating.

I think, yeah, Suvi getting lost in the like, what is this?

What's making it turn back at the elbow?

Why did she say it won't find it

context?

Like,

my grasp of Imperial would suggest that that meant her heart.

What?

And I think she's just actively, openly agog, staring at Steele's, like, forearm.

You see, the wizard trends,

I think it wise that you teleport back to this.

I can't, she says.

I'm all but spelt out.

Um,

I have used almost all of my magic in this battle defeating uh Rounza.

So, no, I will be accompanying.

And you see that one of them says, the uh, well, I might call, I similarly have, have

used my ability to do so, but, and you see one of them proffers a Aerith ring over to Steele, and Steele says, no, no, no, no.

Give the order actually on the boat.

No one use their Aerith.

Our victories today are not confined to this continent.

We have much to celebrate.

Everything left in the citadel will be kept for the Citadel's defenses.

And you see that, he says, you don't imagine, Wizard Steel.

And she says, I don't.

I don't imagine.

And if our enemies do, they should know that there will be doom waiting for them.

We will be safe.

We will take things one step at a time.

I can wait a couple hours to be home.

All right.

And you see that there's a knock at the door and she says, what?

And and the door opens and you see a black-clad imperial bureaucrat enters and says, Uh, Wizard Steel, we have received missive.

The Emperor wishes to speak with you.

Is there, and you see the bureaucrat says, it is pressing, Wizard Steel.

Thank you very much.

Please close the door.

The door closes, and she mage hands a what looks like what you think of, you think of like the door to Grandma Wren's attic in the ceiling, but is actually a almost

even in a place this palatial, it's still a ship and space is still significant.

A hinged, beautiful door in the ceiling hinges down and swings low to extend a full speaking mirror in front of steel.

Do I have eyes on the reflective side of this mirror or or no?

Give me Perception DC 15.

Okay.

It's a 19 on the die.

22.

Uh, you don't have eyes on the mirror, but you do on the windows behind it.

Perfect.

I love it here.

I turn,

I hit zoom and enhance on my little contacts.

In a flash, a face that you have seen in portraits and murals throughout all of your time at the Citadel appears before you.

A thick, manicured salt and pepper beard and a widow's peak, glorious gold brocade on a vast chest.

Emperor, Arochman Dir, Kabe, Saraz!

You see that this howling man who...

The mirror lights up and you can see a balcony behind him.

You can't see color because you're seeing it reflected in glass, but you can see the sparks of fireworks behind him as he goes,

There she is, there!

She is the woman of the hour!

Wizard steel,

you dog, you sly dog!

And you see that she goes, Emperor, you honor me with your words.

He goes, Well, listen, what a victory.

What an achievement.

My God.

And they thought 12 Brooks would be a skirmish.

Tell that to those rounds of dogs.

Oh, wait, you can't.

One down, eleven to go.

You see that she says, Your Majesty, your joy is all the reward that we require.

Well,

listen, I know that you have wounds to lick, I'm sure, and

you know, gems to tally or however it's done.

But I'll tell you this.

My nephew, Kamari, who was a boon and I think did an exemplary job in the Shroud Mountains.

He absolutely did, Your Majesty.

Well, he's back home in Sarazmir, and we're gearing up the celebrations, and we've lit the fireworks, and the parade is starting.

We would love, and I think it would be very special for him to see the Epiphany.

Would you mind flying it by

just this once?

Your Majesty, your wish is my command.

The Epiphany has just been through pitched combat, and many aboard are wounded.

The cannons have been firing.

The ship has taken damage.

It will take some time.

It is not in parade form, shall we say.

Oh!

Of course, of course.

Well, I imagine you're some hours away, so the parade can wait until you get here.

And if you can repair it on the way, given the time, then I'm sure.

And you see that she goes,

a capital idea, Your Majesty.

We'll change our trajectory.

We're en route.

Bully, bully, bully.

Very well.

Well, I believe Telniket has some business for you, and I'll let him handle it.

I'm off to pop the champagne and prepare for the festivities.

They'll get my balcony ready.

And you see that the Emperor strides off,

and a man who bears a striking resemblance to the Lady Iramin, you believe her father, enters the frame.

This is the Lord Varroway Telniket.

Sword, a pleasure.

We appreciate you accommodating the prince's request.

More than happy to do so, Lord Telniket.

This is

more than, I think, simple courtesy.

Lau, Dawset, and Adasami have been

back-channeling with some of our other lords and ladies, and

apparently they've reached out to some welcoming ears in the Faradi Consortium.

I think a show of force would be helpful for mustering loyalty and morale in this extremely critical Imperial victory.

She nods and says,

We serve at the pleasure of the Emperor.

Do you have any ideas about what comes next with Roundza?

You see that Steele cocks her head and says,

Laws of the Conterranaut being what they are, there are

lesser houses, vassals that will move into a position, into the open seat.

It's not like it hasn't happened before.

It's just never happened because of an outside force.

So

I have thoughts.

Do you have more than thoughts?

The Citadel has more than thoughts.

We have friends.

You can always be relied upon, sort.

I'll leave you to the Wizard Grey.

And you see that he turns to follow the Emperor.

The Wizard Grey enters and is the last person standing in the Imperial Chamber.

The Wizard Grey looks and says,

Exceptional spellcraft on the battlefield, the Wizard Steele.

Are you indisposed at the moment?

Are you alone in your chambers?

Steele

looks to the windows windows behind her.

You see, she just quit cataclysm in her head and realizes that Gray can't see the audience of exclusively Citadel wizards in front of her and lies.

She says, I'm alone, Gray.

Gray looks at her and says,

A spell that kills bloodlines.

It's pretty cute.

Steele looks at her and goes,

I was asked to kill a house of Gauthmai.

I assumed you didn't mean physical structures.

That's what a house is, Gray.

It's a family.

I am certain the Emperor will be very interested to know how long you've been working on a spell capable of doing what it did today.

I did what I was asked to do.

You accomplished what you were asked to accomplish.

The means, Steele, as ever, matter quite a bit.

There is a long pause.

Steele goes,

get the fuck out of my mirror, you guildmage trash.

And Gray

dispels the speaking mirror, and Steele raises it back up.

And you see there is a little bit of laughter and some light claps from the Citadel Wizards in front of Steele.

You see that Steele looks out at the Citadel Wizards in front of her and says,

I can't seem to help these people.

And

you know what?

No, I think Suvi laughs inside of the.

Yeah, that's the point she gives herself away.

If anyone's looking,

Steele looks up, sees that you can understand every word that's been said.

Can't help herself, smiles out of the corner of her mouth, and goes,

All right, everyone out.

I have to execute my daughter.

And all of them turn and leave.

The two war mages stay, and Steele looks and says, You both too.

I shoe them also.

Yeah, you shoe them.

You see that they leave.

Steele stands up, one of her arms unarmored.

She shakes.

You can see that standing up makes her lightheaded.

She gets up

and dispels the silence after the door closes.

I immediately cast.

Oh, nope, can't cast.

Never mind.

Strike that.

Fuck!

No!

It's a reaction.

This is not a thought.

It is the thing to do when someone you love is hurting.

She sees the woman who is in all but blood, her mother, in pain, and without thinking, casts protection from evil and good on her.

Steel counterspells it.

Looking shocked as you go to protect her and you see Steele's impulse is a sudden incoming spell and goes,

sorry, sorry.

Sorry.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

I'm.

Sorry.

I'm jumpy.

No, I know.

She walks over,

gets to like within arm's reach, but stays there and goes.

Do you see that spell I cast back there?

Yeah, how about that?

Holy shit

Not bad for an old bra, right?

Girl, you still got it

You telling me she puts a hand on your shoulder brings you in embraces you

and gets her Face in the crook of your neck and just starts crying shaking and crying.

I think Suvi immediately like,

she was so ready to fall into Steele's arms.

She's so used to it.

But like, in that moment, feels herself take on the like contraposition of like, I'm going to hold her up.

And

does.

And just like

is trying not to cry.

And is feeling herself at the edge of breaking down or being exhausted or letting something go or something drop.

but

is honestly really grateful for whatever this is.

A couple more seconds

before

a conversation that needs to happen,

and I get to just comfort my mom,

and that's really nice.

I thought you were dead.

I also thought I was dead.

Who cursed you?

I don't know.

Somebody's still alive out there.

You see that she

peels back?

Because.

Feels like, I don't know, shape changer magic, probably.

Meet any shape changers recently?

I mean, the ones that tried to kill me?

Yeah, found your dad's ring in a sigil of blood.

You found it?

Yeah, right away.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's the first time I've been able to find it.

Why?

All this time,

you've never been able to.

And I think

back, I know.

I know now.

My necklace.

I've given so much away.

And I don't want to lie.

But I can't give up anything else.

Can I make an insight check?

Yeah, go for it.

Yeah, there's Susie.

12.

The pendant.

When you cast that divination...

In Indri's palace and saw all the scrying spells swirling around you.

Orima being unable to hear you, the pendant gulp, Wren, your mother stone.

Stone's pendant.

Her putting it around your neck in the back of that carriage,

trying to protect you.

You look and see Steele looking at you.

With this look of confusion and dread.

Like she's looking at something that should be second nature, and instead, it's a riddle or a puzzle.

This anger from not understanding something that she thought there's so much that she has to think about, and she's looking at something that she thought she could rely on, and it's gotten complicated.

Why did you dare get complicated?

Thanks for that flare, by the way, on the battlefield.

You saw.

Oh, sure.

I

fought like a woman who suddenly realized that she still had a chance to save her daughter.

We have to talk,

but like a real conversation.

Please,

you are my mother, and I love you

so much.

But I've seen a lot

and I just need to know if we can

talk

not as mother and daughter

but just

we both are wizards of the citadel

and there is a lot going on

And everything is much more complicated than I thought.

It does my heart good to hear you refer to yourself as a Wizard of the Citadel.

That is not the impression that

the

headstrong wizard silver

held even as early as this morning.

You see that she walks

over to

the liquor area, pours you a stiff drink, pours herself a stiff drink, sits quite near the fire in the fireplace.

One of the arcane cannons on the back of the ship fires.

It's like the longest-range gun,

and you see through the back windows it, and there's a little blast of something.

Steele barely even notices it.

Steel notices you noticing it.

And he goes, That's someone's familiar shape changer or something.

Who knows?

Wow, okay.

All right.

Mopping up is always a huge pain in the ass.

It's this, you know, there's gonna be shape changers hiding out in the woods here.

It's gonna take a long time to mop all this up.

Okay.

The wizard silver

held the notion that you had

departed after being told to remain in Bracken.

to

help.

Okay, I know we just talked about doing a sort of wizard-to-wizard and not mom-to-daughter thing, but I don't think anyone told me to stay in Bracken.

Hmm?

Hmm?

I said I'd be there in a few days.

Yeah.

All right, continue.

Suvi, look at me.

This is not a joking matter.

Did you do anything today

that you must never have done?

Yes.

How many

one

just one

why?

He fired first.

Why?

Because you were infiltrating his position?

You were helping a witch and a wild one?

Would you have fired first, Wizard Sky?

Yes.

Got it.

So here's where we're at.

If that happened

in a way that someone important can find out,

if that happened in a way that I can't dismiss,

they're gonna make me kill you.

I know.

Where we're at today

is I'm gonna take the wizard silver and send him to a rock at the farthest edge of our empire.

Because what he thinks about you can hurt you and hurt me as a result.

He had a promising military career in front of him and because you told him what was on your mind, now his life's over.

He did what he thought he had to do.

He did exactly what he was supposed to do.

And because you're my daughter, now he's fucked.

Where's the loyalty?

Where is the sense?

Where's the self-preservation?

I wanted to see for myself.

I know it's not an excuse.

I know.

I know.

What did you want to see for yourself?

Why

were those Shape Changer children

still being kept in the central garrison

after the destruction of the Great Bullfrog?

The

silence's spell was supposed to happen under more optimal conditions.

The garrison got pinned down in Twelve Brooks.

The

timing, the calendar timing of it was a part of the spell.

We had to go when we had to go.

The children's parents are who knows where returning them to their parents is...

Why don't you know?

They're kids.

They're just kids.

Stop saying that.

Do you know the choices?

I have to make.

Do you know the responsibilities I shoulder?

The things I've seen?

The things I've had to do?

Trying to make all these sacrifices matter.

Trying to make all of this matter.

I'm gonna hug her.

She accepts and does not return the embrace.

That's okay.

I only have an inkling.

And I'm sorry.

It's so hard.

So.

So yeah.

You know, the...

I...

I...

There was an Imperial officer that was tasked with finding the kids and, you know, the task of keeping a track of the parents.

It didn't...

Have enough on my mind.

Have enough on my mind.

With with...

this, this project, the shape changers of attacking the Shroud Mountains, what what this has all actually been about we're so

close

we are so close to being able to end this once and for all so yeah i don't know what was gonna happen to the kids suvy they got taken from their homes they got taken from their homes like we all did except you

i got taken

No one came to rescue me.

No one came to find me.

And I was happy for it because I made my whole village proud.

I made my father proud.

When they brought him home with his fucking war staff next to him and they buried him in the ground, and I didn't get to go home and see him, I was proud too.

Not everybody gets to go home, not everybody gets to see their parents.

And if we fight, we make it worth it.

Why did you forget that?

I haven't forgotten anything.

I started off not knowing anything.

You were there the last time I saw my parents.

I didn't know I was a newel until a month ago.

I was raised in your home under the best of intentions.

And do you think for one minute they didn't take me from a home, but I had no other home?

If I had failed you, if I had failed one fucking test,

I would have walked off of Malacanth at noon before living with the shame of failing the great potential of my parents, you included.

So I know a little something about fucking pressure.

It's not an excuse.

But don't you ever look at me like I did not pay in blood and sweat and tears

like every one of us.

I know.

I know.

And maybe this talk has been a long time coming.

Suvi,

you mean everything to me.

My

kids are

cruising straight to be

half-rate fucking wizards.

They take everything for granted.

Even Kadila is...

She has the skills, but there's not a fire.

There's not something to prove.

And I look at you and I see the fire.

I see the potential.

You hate that I put you on the leadership tracks because I didn't want you blasted apart on some battlefield somewhere.

There's great things afoot for you.

There's a world that comes after this.

We are so close.

We are so close.

The world that comes after is gonna need you.

It's not gonna need me.

And

if I could set that up, then it would all be worth it.

And yes, there are hard costs to pay.

There are costs that break your fucking heart.

There are costs that make people think you're a monster.

And the kindest thing I do is I pay those costs so that other people don't have to.

And I'll keep doing it as long as I have to because I believe in this

and us.

And the question I keep having to ask myself is:

where did I go wrong?

Because I know you believe it too.

But it's not the only thing in there,

is it?

No.

Then what is it, and how did it find a home in your heart?

I do

the best work I can do when I have all of the information

and when I

when I can feel

the absence

of something important

I can't do what I need to do.

And there have been a lot of little holes

in the grand tapestry that is the citadel and the empire and the future we are trying to build.

And I want to believe.

But I don't understand.

Cards on the table.

What happened after the judge told you that you were pardoned

after finding the League of Whispers?

What happened after the night that sent you to Silbury?

Why did they keep running and why did you go home?

It destroyed me.

We're gonna get home to the citadel, and I'm gonna tell you all about the past.

I am.

I'm gonna tell you about the Accadetor

and what our work meant, why we trusted Yorin,

Ren,

your mom and dad.

I'm gonna tell you everything I can as well as I can remember remember it.

But before we can talk about the past, we have to talk about the future.

I

need

you to be there.

I need you to take this when I can't carry it anymore.

We're going to talk about what

you did and what people might know and how to protect you from it.

And then I need to tell you what we're doing.

What we're really doing.

What we've been really doing.

Because we were wrong.

The League of Whispers,

whatever we thought that was,

opened a door.

And on the other side of it is a world without want or fear or war.

And that's the world I want to show you.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulan, Erika Ishii as Ahme, Abriya 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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