WWW #35: Different Days

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

Mountains

grow small as they grow old.

Time wears down the stone and the more stories that a mountain has, the more hidden in earth and pine, lichen and moss,

foliage and the coming and goings of ancient glaciers, boulders dotting the rolling shroud mountains.

One of the oldest mountain ranges in Umora,

there are no craggy towering peaks.

Wind and rain has worn them down.

The scars and wrinkles of the ancient mountain faces filled with alpine flowers, vines, and moss,

covered

by cloud.

Roiling,

angry violet, almost with a shade of red to them, storm clouds hover over this part of the world.

The storm with a minor reddish hue, some pollution from the comings and goings of this place and time.

Small dotted fortresses.

The Shroud Mountains have existed for such a long, long time

that the ancient histories of Umora are written in stony ruins, watchtowers and fortresses of a different age fallen into much disrepair.

What were once the

signaling beacons or banner-flying ramparts of some ancient feudal dynasty are now

way stops for traveling rangers or mountain shepherds chasing some

lost ram or sheep that's gotten away from the pen.

The landscape is beautiful and

rugged and filled with

the love and care and attention of the natural world.

Hovering under the menacing clouds over the Shroud Mountains, we see a ship

of black

approaching through the sky.

Slow, methodical, careful, hugging the bottom of the cloud line.

The gondola of the meridian, its central deck and cabins, peeks out from beneath the clouds enough to provide some visibility to the landscape below.

Awaking

from a medically necessary sleep, Captain Skye, you come to to see your destination through the window of your captain's quarters as the meridian patrols the shroud mountains

you can remove your levels of exhaustion

before you collapsed in your attempts you were not able to reach the wizard's silence or the wizard's steel really

uh no the uh you you attempted it but in whatever is happening in the sort of outbreak of war

you there are a million explanations for why i mean you know this there there are no answering machines.

You know, essentially, it's like if the Wizards feel the Wizard Silence were doing anything, then they were occupied.

Standing here, you see your sending scroll.

You have your staff, your ring, your sapphire amulet, the bottles of your various ink demons, and your life, which you have managed to wrest.

from the Coven of Elders and the Witch of Wind and Stars.

Looking far to the north, you wonder if these storm clouds are not some meteorological effect of that lone witch covering the very top of your world in icy fury.

If I wasn't able to get in touch with Silence and Steel, I would have left.

I would have left word.

Was I able to reach Yulia?

I think you awaken with a voice sounding from your mirror saying, Wizard Sky, I've come as soon as I can.

And you can hear Yulia's voice coming from the mirror.

I would assume also that you are probably sleeping with your boots on, like ready to

stand up and are once again ready for battle.

I mean, the manner in which Suvi left the palace, she never went back for her effects.

So all the clothes she brought for this trip are inside the palace.

So she kind of only has what she's wearing right now, anyway.

So that's fine.

Oh, fuck.

Uh, and I'm gonna try to press the digitate,

a semblance, like it's like get the sleep off of you, like the crease of pillowcase off of your face, and look like you've been awake for more than 30 seconds before going to the mirror to go touch base with Yulia.

A flash of magic, a jolt of energy.

You feel your ring dip into the Aerith of the Citadel for a moment, giving you enough vitality of the thrum and beat of your fellow wizards to

steal the sleep from your eyes and give you some alertness and vigilance in this moment.

Uh, Wizard Sky.

Uh, Yulia, hi, what?

Why

do you seem stressed?

Um, the the Citadel is uh quite uh agitated and busy.

Um, I believe that it is possible possible that we are preparing to launch an offensive.

Oh.

Details.

30 seconds.

The forces of Gauthmai that have attacked the north of the Empire have left Gauthmai itself vulnerable in a way that has not been described to me, but may leave a opening for Imperial forces to make a headway in Gauthmai that they have not been able to before.

Gotcha.

Ambitious.

Okay.

And I'm just going to quickly relay

Silver's salvo.

And just as I'm telling Yulia, does this look like new information to her?

Give me a inside check.

21.

As you say to Yulia, like Silver is in danger, you see a look on her face of

this being new information and unsurprising.

He is in Abyssin.

That is,

to my understanding, now,

Captain Sky, well behind enemy lines.

And I think you

recognize in the way that she says, oh, that's well behind enemy lines,

that

silver is a priority to you.

Okay.

I can

would you like me?

I can rush to the Pyrrian Dome and try to locate

Steel and see if she

can't see.

Leave messages.

Do not disrupt them.

It's possible I could petition the Council of Arc Magi to

you think you got that?

No.

Do you want to try anyway?

If you will it.

Can I do one more insight check on her?

14.

What are you trying to glean?

I just want to see how, like, this is like an ambition check.

She is

eager to

make you happy.

And...

Isn't aware

that

I think you're in trying to see if she is punching above her weight.

Become aware that she's not aware if you're punching above your weight.

Can you ask the military of the Kemsarazan Empire to prioritize the Wizard Silver?

What reason strategically would you be able to give them that that is a worthwhile endeavor?

Gotcha.

Yulia,

I need you to go to Steel and silence and make sure they know

that my mission was a success and it will be only a true and unalloyed success if I make it back and I'm going to Abyssin.

Does that make sense?

It will be communicated exactly as you have said it to me, Wizard Sky.

Good.

Let me know when the ships are coming.

Are there any other things you need done at the Tower of the Glove in your absence?

Oh, God.

no.

Were you able to apprehend the?

I know very little about your mission, only that you were after the Witch of the World's Heart.

Oh.

Oh.

I was able to aid her.

Not arrest.

What do you.

Oh.

It was handled.

Wonderful.

Congratulations, Mistress.

Thank you, Julia.

She bows, and

the mirror goes stark as you hear.

Come in, Sworn.

Sworn opens the door and goes, uncanny.

Sworn walks in, unfurling parchment on the table in front of you.

Our listeners can't see this, but he plops this in front of you.

It's a map.

Oh my god.

Oh my God.

Oh, I get a little map.

Oh my God.

It's a map.

It's a map of the Shroud Mountains.

This parchment is,

by and large, devoid of topographical information.

It mostly has rivers, roads, population centers.

The Shroud Mountains exist at the northernmost part of the empire, right before it goes into the Arctic Circle.

The landmass of the continent actually does extend up all the way towards, like, the North Pole of this world is not ocean, but is land.

There are mountains in the North Pole.

And

you see that there to the west is Reimer's Bay, which is where the forces of Gauthmai have landed.

So you can see, as Sworn begins to point out, he says,

Essentially, everything to the west of the River Lithwin has been retaken by forces from Gauthmai.

Our understanding is that the forces consisting of shape changers and their allies have now been bolstered by reinforcements from House Bahadi.

Bahadi is a house you would be well aware of.

It's one of the major noble houses of Gauthmai.

It's a sorcerer's house.

Bahadi comes from Bahad, which is the Gauth word for nightmare.

They don't categorize magic in the same way you do.

They would say that they wield the magic of dream or the magic of nightmare,

but you understand that they are a house that wields illusion, enchantment, necromancy, conjuration.

And when you think about the kind of support that shape changers would need,

it seems like that is actually a pairing that would you know what i'm saying like like shape changers do not need physical assistance.

Yes.

Looking at the map, you see that the Shroud Mountains move from south to north with a little bit of an eastern trajectory as they move north.

The mountains are old and ancient.

The tallest peak, Mount Korhai, is

very farthest towards what is called the Saluhi Taiga, which taiga is a sub-Arctic pine forest, like a basically a frozen pine forest.

The taiga moves from Reimers, from the northern coast of Reimers Bay, all the way across the top of the Shroud Mountains.

And past the taiga where the trees end is where you've just escaped from.

Where the trees end is where the influence of the witch and wind and stars begins, right?

That like there is literally a solid point at which the temperature drops enough and the sunlight diminishes enough that the pine trees do not grow.

And that is where her domain begins.

The river Lithwin is the main river that goes through the Shroud Mountains down to a region, a country known, and countries within the empire, the borders of country have almost become a little bit irrelevant in this incarnation of the Kemsar as an empire.

Like the countries are just constituent states of this larger empire, essentially.

So Some would call them countries, others would just call them regions.

Like that's the term you've heard imperial bureaucrats used to refer to them as.

And the region to the south of these mountains is Memerajas.

The river Lithwin moves all the way from the mountains, all the way down.

And

Fort Kieran is in almost the exact center of these mountains.

And it's right up the river from the coast city of Varek.

So the Gauthmai landed there, surged up the river, took Fort Kieran,

and Abyssin is to the northwest of Fort Kieran.

You are flying in right now.

You were headed to the Citadel, so you were way east of here.

The close, you see that Sworn shows the map to you and basically says,

as we approach the Shroud Mountains, the first

port of the first place that I have on this map that we could attempt to

garrison, dock, resupply would be Fort Marlon.

It's the farthest east and therefore is likely to be very

understaffed.

It'll be a way station, if anything.

It's far from the lines.

Everything will be, you know, far ahead from there.

And if you can see on the map here that I've drawn that an inch is about 50 miles.

So the mountains themselves are at their widest about like

150 miles to 200 miles wide, but they stretch about like 600 or 700 miles.

Or maybe not even that, maybe more like 350 mile long mountain range.

As you fly, he says,

Flying west as we are, we'll approach Fort

Fort Marlon,

and directly in our path from there is Mount Korhai, and past that is Abison.

But everything to the west of Mount Karhai is behind enemy lines, to our understanding.

Stopping at Fort Marlon.

How are we supply-wise?

I know we would have made it back to the Citadel, but we're light on armament anyway.

What will we pick up there?

Ammunition, we need none, but

ration,

food supply, we need to resupply.

If Fort Marlon is...

Fort Marlon may not have anything in the way of information.

If we want that, we should advance probably south to Emnol, which is the headquarters of Empire

operations in the Shroud Mountains.

Information, we have we have the ability to communicate, so I need someone trying to touch base with anyone around here that can get us up to speed.

But let's fly for Fort Marlon.

Rations

as fast as we can.

We need to go back them up and wait this out.

I don't know

what will be coming to support in Abyssin

because according to my sources at home, we're going to be pressing in,

pressing our advantage

in another part of Gauthmai while they're distracted at skirmishing at our border.

So I don't know what resources will be coming here beside us.

Understood.

Aye, aye, Captain.

We'll make for Fort Marlon at once.

We'll await you on deck.

You see, he clicks his heel, salutes, and leaves the map in here with you and turns out to give orders to the rest of the crew.

CV definitely takes that moment of like finally being well rested and caught up with like not panicking about escaping, but like

she was trained for a lot of this, but in that way that she

probably was never going to have to use it.

She's not a wartime leader.

It's okay.

She's smart.

She can figure this out.

We can win.

We just have to not be rash.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

Nothing hasty.

Get information.

She takes a breath and heads up.

You head up to the deck, see your companions there.

You are traveling.

The crew you have here are 12

Citadel Wizards and then Sworn and Maddie as well with you here.

These are not Azure Battalion.

These are not Fighters with the Magic Initiated Feet.

These are true wizards.

Oh, okay.

All of whom have graduated to the Citadel, right?

Yeah.

And then Rasper is on board as well.

But again, the Meridian does not fly with...

The larger airships of the Citadel will fly with lay people crews, the ones that need like 200 sailors to man them.

This is like an explorer vessel it's like basically like the sort of antarctic station with the like only scientist like yeah the person like cleaning the toilets and washing things is also a scientist because only we only have room for scientists right yeah

you as you arrive on deck see the sort of menacing clouds give me an arcana chip

14.

The color of the clouds is unnatural.

You're not sure why.

It doesn't seem like there's an active spell effect here, but

that is not supposed to be like that.

Okay.

Lou has only been shaking his head at me in this episode so far.

It's the one.

He's been shaking his head non-stop from the start of the episode.

We've been playing DD together a long time.

And if my man's describing the clouds, you're fucked up, bro.

Turn around.

Turn around.

If my man's making you make our context on the clouds, turn around.

He's telling you the number of wizards you have on your ship, turn around.

Wait, you're saying detail is bad?

Detail is deeply bad.

He wants you to know what he's going to take away from you

in a second.

As another GM, I do know I only get specific when I want to be extremely clear about what's about to happen.

Exactly.

What do I know about the like level and expertise of the wizards that are with me?

Do I have a like a gaggle of nerds?

Do I have shooters?

Like, what do do I have?

You know that Sworn

Sworn walks with a certain degree of swagger that you've only seen in wizards that have extinguished multiple lives at the same time.

He is

a combat veteran.

He's a sailor.

He was on this mission particularly and especially to provide protection with you.

It's one of the reasons that he came into the palace with you.

The rest of the wizards that are on here have seen some form of service, if not active combat.

Everyone here has been on the ground, but not everyone necessarily has

Sworn's level of experience.

Sworn is the only person that you think might actually be maybe

as potent or more than you.

Oh, no.

Alright, I have a very high opinion of myself.

That did not engender a lot of confidence in this crew.

Okay.

Uh, everyone, the name of the game is the more we know about what we're walking into, the better chance we have of getting our people out and surviving it.

We have payload that we need to get back to the citadel intact.

And at this, I'm going to like scan the room for Rasper.

Oh, Rasper's on deck.

You see, he nods.

Cool.

But we are not going to leave our people to die if we can help it.

So let's do our best to not fucking help it.

How far out are we from Fort Marlon?

Probably an hour.

Okay.

We have an hour to know as much as we can.

Then we're going to grab a resupply

and we're heading into it.

Does anyone have anything they want to put out there before shit gets real?

Go ahead and give me a like persuasion check.

13.

On a 13,

no one's an open mutiny, but everyone looks at your

command to like learn more.

They don't know what you mean by that, and they don't know

what they are doing here.

They have faith in you because they know the mission was just successful.

But you can see a lot of people here having an attitude of like

honor bound to serve, following a direct order.

Nothing is unclear about this, but I am being asked to learn about a situation I don't already, I don't understand.

You see that they don't know, they don't know silver, they don't know the stakes, they don't know any of it.

You see, Sworn looks to you, nods, and says,

Eyes at vantage point,

one scout in the crow's nest, anyone with divination spells, cast them.

See, does her best to not be like,

and you see, yeah, you see that that um there's like they span out give me an insight check

19.

you see it like maddie

goes out to the deck of the ship looks looks around sort of confused

casts detect magic

the ground the ground is like a mile away

Just sort of casts it and then gets us you can see she almost becomes like physically nauseous standing this close to the edge of the ship like looking hard at at the ground whizzing by, casting a spell that can't reach that far, that wouldn't provide a lot of information, even if it could, just to casting detect magic on the ground.

And

looking over, she realizes that she's cast half the spells she'll be able to cast that day.

Hey, Maddie, coming here, bud.

Captain.

All right.

One.

Do you not know the ritual?

to cast detect magic without burning out your Aerith?

Oh, I thought time would have been of the essence.

We have an hour.

So I'm going to give you a specific task.

And now you have lots of time to cover it, so don't use your juice yet.

Those clouds seem bad.

I don't have a meteorological explanation for whatever the fuck that is, and I would love to know what the fuck that is before we're inside it.

Does that make more sense?

Yes, Captain.

If you can figure it out, that's great.

If not,

just take a breath, bud.

We're going to be okay.

Naroll and Arcana check for the wizard Maddie.

Please, Maddie.

She says,

on it.

You can count on me.

And you see that she calms down, opens her spell book, goes, you can see her move her spell book to a page of indices for different arcane words for cloud formations like cumulus, nimbus, strata, you know, like all that stuff.

And you see that she starts to look for

like individual clouds in a full blanket of cloud.

You see Sworn standing by the door says, we'll be at Marlon in a moment.

Captain, do you want to

go over the supplies we need or is your time better served?

I can handle that myself.

No, I'll come with you.

Great.

You go over to him and he begins to walk through the

basically everything you'll need to requisition.

You have a citadel mark on it, so everything's going to go over just fine.

CV's hands are behind her back.

She is trying to remember all of the steps of someone who is better at this than her, that, like, what he is doing to cover his bases and engender confidence with the crew.

You see Sworn walking you through it

has a

the status that he is giving to you as your second in command

you can feel him

like as he walks through everything that you need to that you need to requisition.

You can see that he, there's almost something in the energy that he's giving that is

acknowledging your youth, and rather than turning, turning it back on you as

something that you need to be like apologetic for, feels like someone who's getting in at the beginning of an incredible story

Coming into vision, Fort Marlon,

built into the ruins of an old watchtower, you see this chimera of a fortress.

Ancient

lichen-covered stone, glacial boulders, granite flecked with strands of pyrite.

And on top of that,

conjured stone.

A wizard created.

You can tell that this fortress was created almost as if by preselection by some archmage of the citadel who came to these mountains some generation or two ago to spend a month making 10 and 20 fortresses throughout the mountains.

The conjured stone is flat and smooth as the counter of a fine palatial dining hall.

And it is slate gray, marbled with sort of a rippling fluid pattern, but has the symbol of the citadel carven by magic into its vast walls.

A landing platform extends from it as the airship approaches.

And you see the flag of the Empire and under it, the flag of the Citadel, both flying here at Fort Marlon,

as a signal flares flies up to announce itself to the meridian that you are recognized, your banner is red, and you are welcomed to land, that there is safety here.

Pulling down, you see two commanders waiting for you on deck with squadrons of soldiers that have been called in to array themselves.

You see that there is a lieutenant of the Azure Battalion standing with four soldiers behind her, and there is a captain of the Imperial Infantry wearing black brocade, gold epaulettes, tall military cap.

You can see a war staff on his back that's sort of like a special custom design and make walks up.

And you see, to the other side, there's the Azure Battalion.

But you see that the captain walks up and says, Captain Bose, pleasure to meet you.

See if he's going to shake his hand.

Archmage Apprentice Sky.

Arkmage Apprentice.

Well, well, well.

Welcome then to Fort Marlon.

I am the captain of this establishment.

We welcome you.

We have been needing resupply for some time.

What?

We are the supply trains from the east have stopped.

We've sent missives down south to Emril, but are you here?

Did you receive our missive for resupply?

I did not.

Ah!

Oh, very

uh, uh, you see that the lieutenant steps up and says, you'll have to forgive Captain Bose, he's of a singular focus.

I am Lieutenant Catal.

Subi shakes her hand.

What brings you to Fort Marlon?

Citadel business?

Unfortunately, I was here hoping to resupply my own ship before heading on to Addison.

How large is your crew?

Sixteen?

Sixteen.

How many days resupply do you require?

Five.

You see, she looks over at Captain Bose.

Captain Bose shrugs.

You see she says,

we can supply five days' supply for 16.

That's not a problem.

I need to make my way to Abison to

help

back up some of our soldiers that are caught behind enemy lines.

The lieutenant looks at the captain and they both sort of say, you're headed to Abison.

I am.

What do you know?

Do we need to go take this conversation somewhere else?

I mean, around.

You see that she nods and she's like, uh, yes.

Um, if you're crew- you see that uh Captain Bo says, Austin, then go ahead and get the uh the captain's uh the Wizard Skies

retinue and uh soldiers uh to stop their resupply.

You need ammunition and food and water,

mostly just the last two, yeah.

Ah,

all right, well that's that's good we need all the ammunition we can get and you see that um why uh you see that uh

you head out with them you walk into a courtyard

you see that there are a couple of platoons

sworn makes a face that you see looks a little bit grim as he looks at the platoons.

And you see that they're running drills.

The drills look perfectly fine to you in the courtyard, but they're just running some drills.

Kind of, you imagine maybe like at your approach, but you see that uh sworn just makes a sour look that you don't know what it means.

I'm gonna do my best to cast message under my breath.

Okay, what was that face about?

He messages back to you.

He says,

Different squads within the platoons.

I'm just looking at their uniforms.

Very few of the men in this garrison are here with the men they started this operation with.

What

are we?

What is happening right now?

Well,

you are looking at a.

what looks like maybe half of a regiment of soldiers made up of what was a regiment not too long ago.

And they're learning to do these drills together because they've lost half the people that they learned how to do them with.

As you walk, Captain Bose says,

find some private area.

area.

My quarters have a place for us to get a look at where you'll need to be flying next, and

we'll be able to discuss exactly how likely your mission's chance of success is and what support you might need.

You walk along, and you see that

at the front of the area, sort of by the gate, you see it says, like, Scouts returning, raise the port colors,

and you see that

there is a

stone colossus, a construct that was originally some 16 feet tall, but you see that it is missing its legs.

It was a humanoid shape.

It's seated in a wagon, this massive like wooden and iron reinforced wagon.

And it looks like just half of a colossus that's being pulled in a horse-drawn wagon.

But it reaches up and just by itself begins to pull these massive chains and open the portcullis of the floor

as a couple of Azure Battalion scouts on like white horses ride in.

You see that they are

that as they ride in, there are three Azure Battalion soldiers with four horses.

And you see that they have one of the horses by the reins and begin to go up and talk to another commander.

You walk into the captain's quarters.

Sort of military tables spread out.

He's got some maps there.

And he goes, I was given command of Marlon,

I'd say,

probably, you know, a week ago, if that.

Congratulations.

Well, thank you.

It's a rear position.

We're mainly covering the supply train.

But the supplies have abruptly stopped.

So we have nothing to move forward to the front lines.

My understanding is that there is fierce fighting happening on Korhai, the central mountain.

Command of that lower part of the ridge is currently between Gautmai forces and Imperial Advance Infantry.

The Azure Battalion has been instrumental in passing messages, couriers.

You see that the Lieutenant speaks and says, We have been doing the most we can to help keep communication going in the mountains, but the clouds have made things very challenging.

What's going going on with those clouds?

There are

debris being kicked up in some of the most heated skirmishes.

The debris is

possibly intentional, possibly offensive magic.

Whether it is unintentional pollution or an intentional act of war, it is obscuring a fair amount of divination and a fair amount of our ability to correspond and communicate magically.

The speaking mirrors are working fine.

Things that are dedicated artifacts appear to be working fine.

It's more the

sending spells, things of the like.

Things that are a little bit more,

well, frankly, versatile.

Those are the ones that are a little more fragile.

You see, the captain says,

Wizard Sky, Archmage Apprentice,

your

mission is your own.

You need only ask the Empire for support, and the Citadel will be supported in its endeavor.

Abyssin is well behind enemy lines.

Um, I'm not sure what forces even remain there, and if they do, they're certainly not

announced to myself.

The Empire would have

to the Empire's knowledge, Abyssin's been fallen, and has been fallen since the initial attack

For the first time,

Suvi considers a world

in which that communication

was a trick or a trap.

Would I have reason to believe that that APB would have gone out to a mirror down here?

Yes, quite possibly.

Are you aware of in the last

nine hours a message from

the Wizard Silver in Avison.

That's what I'm responding to, and it's my understanding that anyone in this area would have also seen it.

You see that they look at each other, and

you see that the captain shrugs and says, Well, I would that we had a speaking mirror here, we would have, but of course,

you'll understand, of course, Archmage Apprentice, that

even in matters of war, the Citadel's business is occasionally its own.

Yeah.

Is it possible that the information you retrieved is old?

Perhaps Abison was momentarily taken and the missive.

I don't know how the speaking mirrors work, but if there was a.

The doors swing open and Sworn runs into the room.

He says, Captain, Captain!

Uh, Wizard Sky, are you?

You see, he looks at you, looks out, and says.

Fucking Rasper!

And you see, he rushes out.

Dead spring.

Rushing out through the door, you pass from the candlelight and well-appointed furnishings of an Imperial captain's quarters, overseeing an entire fortress in the Shroud Mountains, to under the dim red glow of these strange clouds, as your ship

vanishes into the red mist and is gone.

Is Rasper headed in the direction of the citadel?

Yes.

Okay.

You

watch as Sworn walks up.

You see the wizard Maddie approaches holding a

scroll, holding a piece of parchment,

just cream-colored imperial parchment.

And you see Swarm walks up and says, what happened?

See, Matt, he goes, I mean, the

Raspberry told me to gather my

effects and that

the Empire, the Meridian needed to take off at once.

You see that you can hear the captain behind you saying,

what do you mean they're gone?

You see that Hughes, one of his subordinates, is like,

the gentleman had an imperial seal, a seal of the Emperor.

And you see that he says, So we took our engineers?

We don't have any engineers in the fort?

And you see that uh, this captain is just looking as Rasper has just like hollowed out this fortress

and taken off.

You see that Matt, you see Sworn lay into Maddie, being like, What were you thinking?

Why didn't you stop him?

And you see Maddie goes, I, I, I, I, I, I,

and she just holds up this scroll.

I am going to let Sworn unload on Maddie.

Because sometimes you need to know the level of fuck-up that you have enabled.

He lays into Maddie and says,

like, you weren't in the room watching our captain tell this Empire Rat.

And you see as he yells Empire Rat, you see a lot of Imperial soldiers turn around to look at...

Sworn say this.

And I'm going to stare down every one of those black clad motherfuckers like, as you fucking were.

you see that he turns around and says so i mean next time some bureaucrat tries to steal our ship from out out from under us you'll find a spine worth standing up with and uh suvy agrees and he snatches the scroll from maddie and walks over to you and says

my failure in this regard no not you you're good

We'll figure this out.

Let's go read this somewhere else.

He nods and turns around.

He barks to the other wizards, and you see he just goes.

The supplies that we were preparing can be returned to the needs of Fort Marlon.

We'll be staying for some time.

Any wizards without a job, see to the magical defenses of this place.

Magic detected.

Any sorceress, spies, spells, cantrips put on here by those Gauthmai scum, let's draw them out by the root.

And he turns around and walks off with you to the shaft.

Yeah.

He unfurls the message and hands it to you.

Yeah.

Immediately open it.

What does it say?

Archmage Apprentice Sky.

Missive having arrived to me from Imperial magistrates themselves.

The urgency with which the cargo needed to be returned to the citadel was impressed upon me to the utmost, such that not a moment was left to spare.

The Meridian will be returned to you within 48 hours.

Its commandeering is a temporary one to see this cargo made swiftly and securely put into the hands of the Sword of the Citadel.

My understanding is: if you require extraction before then, you are outfitted with a scroll of sending and may ask your mother for an extraction whensoever you wish.

I'm going to put that man in the ground with my fucking bare hands.

Okay, I'm gonna hand the scroll to Sworn.

I'm processing a lot

right now.

We need a game plan.

We lost our ship.

I lost our ship.

I'm gonna go for a walk.

I will be back.

And Suvi just walks away.

She's gotta do a lap.

This is too much.

And she wants to freak the fuck out.

You walk away.

Are you going to

stay within the ramparts and courtyards of the fortress?

Yeah, I just need to get out of like...

I'm not trying to walk into a weird corner and get stabbed in the neck by one of the assholes here.

I just...

need to be able to walk far enough away from the wizards that listened to and trusted me to have a quick little rage cry because that went so fucking badly.

And I know exactly why he did it, but the fact that he punctuated it with my mother,

and I know that's a bad reaction, and I'm going to kill him.

I just want to kill him so much.

And I can't, it's that feeling of like, oh, I think I've been massively outplayed while trying to do the right thing.

And I didn't see it coming, and that sucks the most.

So, can I go cry in the corner?

Is there a role for that, Brennan?

Give me a stealth check.

Oh, thanks.

Oh, no.

Natural 20!

Oh, thank God.

No, not for that.

Um, what's the secret you took of crepuscular shadow or shadow touches?

The twilight crown.

Subi's gonna get under, like into the shadow of a little alcove

someplace where the light is different here

and she reaches towards something in the center of her head and there is no one else to perceive it but the outline of like the symbol of a sun but below a horizon appears on her forehead and as she touches it all of the shadow in this alcove gets pulled to her

and just everything gets a little dimmer and a little darker and she's not not at like a disadvantage seeing in this darkness but she is holding a little bit of shadow to her for cover

to just

flip out

you are perfectly concealed in the moment where your inner life can no longer be

held within you

Your body fails as a boundary to hold these feelings, so you call shadow itself to hold them instead

oh god

he's gonna die

because i'm an idiot

i don't know what to do

oh i don't want him to get hurt and i don't want anyone else to get hurt

okay

you get

One minute

and I'm going to press digitate a little like hourglass full of the like pure white sand of the in of the Irian in front of myself.

And I get one minute to feel as bad as I want and wallow and freak out.

And

my brain begins to reach towards the way I left things with my true friends in the north and being harried down

here by

the witch of the wind and stars.

And that becomes too much, and that's a little bit more than the minute I have.

So I have to put that away for another minute later.

But we're just gonna feel it really quick

and then go back and try to be better

because if you're better this doesn't happen the next time

invisibility cloaks you

a piece of magic that comes as second nature

So many secrets you've learned, so much magic that you have been taught to wield.

In this moment of feeling like you are coming apart, you also call upon a magic that

is not just imparted, but maybe in some way earned.

Hidden things, feelings stowed away, secrets buried within your own mind, an amulet hiding you from the eyes of things that would want to hurt you, a name cloak hiding who and what you are and the name that was given to you by your parents.

So much of Suvi has learned to hide, and this is a piece of magic that, even for one as studied as a wizard, comes so

naturally.

You see Swarn waiting dutifully for you in the courtyard as you approach.

I wipe the sigil,

let the shadows return, and walk out.

Okay,

we need a game plan.

Absolutely.

If the goal is Abison and we don't have the ship, then time is of the essence and we'll have to head out as soon as we can.

We can talk and see what the issue is if you want, but

if you deem we have 48 hours to spare,

then we can attempt to spare it.

Making it on horseback through the mountains,

we would probably get to Abison

before

48 hours.

So, if the importance is to get there as fast as possible, we shouldn't march there with the infantry.

We should take what we can on horseback.

I've checked in with the Azure Battalion, and there are

enough available horses.

Okay,

you, me,

pick your favorite four.

I want to be out the door in an hour.

We're heading to Abyssin.

The Wizard Sky.

Sworn at your side.

Four wizards with you.

The Wizard Maddie, three others of your crew.

Maddie.

You want to leave Maddie?

You can leave Maddie if you want.

Yeah, I'll take

any other

wizard but Maddie.

Okay, great.

She got half her spells.

Can I get a bitch with a name cloak, perhaps?

Perhaps.

Yes, you get all name-cloaked wizards with you

from the Citadel.

I I need someone who doesn't blow their load

shooting a detect magic a mile up in the sky.

As you are getting ready, you see that Lieutenant Catal comes out and says, Do you wish for an escort from the Azure Battalion?

I want two.

Two?

Two we can supply.

I would have been willing to give more, but if two is all you wish for, then yes, absolutely.

Trying to be light and fast.

Either there's a way we can help and be discreet getting there, or it's just trying to find out what happened.

If you're looking for discretion,

maybe the thing to do, you see, she says, I can provide a couple of tools for you from our armory, especially now that if we're keeping those supplies, you see that she brings two

small vials of a white substance, sort of capped with the Imperial symbol, hands them to you, and says, This is a dispelling agent.

So if you find a fixed symbol or other kind of arcane trap, this should be able to be applied directly and dispel it.

And

in terms of moving stealthily, if you feel that you are coming to an area of extremely pitched combat that you wish to move around or through,

you see, she looks and says, if you have two, you're traveling with yourself, the wizard sworn,

four others.

That's eight.

She's like, eight is actually perfect.

And you see that she hands a scroll to one of her two scouts and says

at a time of need um you can use this scroll um and you see it nods and says uh

wizard sky this will uh call up a fog to surround us uh the fog can do a little bit more than that if we need it to but uh it might not come up and you see sort of smiles and says just if we uh if we get to uh a river this might help us ford it um thank you

with that you see that the half-a-construct

opens the gate.

Sworn looks back and looks at the other wizards and says,

Wizard Sky, do we intend to return here for the return of the Meridian?

Do I have a sense of how long it would take us on horseback to make it to Abison?

If you push these horses to their absolute limit, you can make it to Abison in about 24 hours.

Okay, that makes it worth it.

You know what?

Let me go run down Maddie really quick.

Let me give her a chance.

Hey, Jim.

Wizard Sky.

So,

if

Rasper

is accurate in his assessment, he will return the meridian here in 48 hours.

Yes.

she gets closer and tries to drop a little bit of the like captain of this all and remembers that maddie is just a year like she's just an underclassman to suvie like they're a year apart

okay i'm gonna level with you

it's been a long crazy day

everything in me wants to tell you that when the Meridian gets back, fly to Abbason to back us up and bail us out.

The fact of the matter is:

the mission we were assigned to is over and done.

And I do

want you all to make it home safe.

So when the Meridian gets back,

lock it down, keep it here, keep it on ice until I get back.

I'm coming back.

Yes, Wizard Sky.

Okay.

Understood.

You're doing a good job.

She salutes.

All right.

Um, it's worn.

All right,

mount up, head out.

And you see the horses take off through the gate.

And as you journey west as fast as you can, towards the edge of light, illuminating the red clouds past the mountain's peaks, you see the portcullis behind you,

rumble closed as you journey into night.

Bees buzz in the lawn.

The stream babbles.

And at a kitchen table,

Ame,

Witch of the World's Heart.

Her fox, the fox,

Dr.

Yagi,

Dauma, the shrine guardian,

Elbeth, Henahena Mohe,

all sit around a table as Elbeth polishes a pair of doorknobs and keeps feeding little spoonfuls of beeswax polish to a lion head knocker who greedily eats it, going into no stomach of any kind.

He's a flat knocker and goes, oh, delightful, delightful.

Ah, this polish is quite wonderful.

It is two days since your return.

Outside on the road, heading up to your kitchen, coming up from Toma, is Lohan the baker and next to him looking a little bit hale and hearty and still unsure of herself, but holding a big arm full of a basket full of bread and buns and baked things, is Neif walking up the road with Lohan as he smiles and tells her about the village of Toma.

My question in this moment is: where is Ame and where is Ursulan?

Ursulan is in the forest by the cottage.

Ahme is bustling in the kitchen,

creating a couple of different things at the same time and trying not to get them confused.

Right now, there is a pot of stew bubbling, but there's also a tincture

going on another burner.

That one is,

it smells of

juniper berries and some other kind of

savory herb.

And

there's another experiment going in the sink.

Something is being dyed there.

It's starting to turn like a pinkish color

with purple already rimming the basin of the sink.

Ami, you have been back home for two days.

The two days have been a flurry of activity.

Neif, upon realizing that she had been kidnapped, had a moment of heartbreak and then realized that probably a new and better life is beginning for herself.

The spirits are happy to see you.

You know, all things being equal, you were only gone for a short span of time in the north.

You know, the conclave happened over several days.

And then before, it was not nearly as long as your time in the citadel, right?

And

back here in this place, the brass knocker, the lionhead knocker on the table, having been fed this magical little tincture that you and Elbeth have created together out of like beeswax polish.

finally, I feel myself again.

Okay, so now can we have a little bit more than just:

I am the lion that once beheld the witch of the world,

yes, and I did once behold her, and I behind, I behold, I behold her again.

Oh, well, thank you.

It's nice to be beholden.

I am beholden to know.

Well, wait.

I ah, no, I be well.

Beauty is it.

Ha ha ha.

I don't.

Well, interesting point.

I am the guardian of

these most potent artifacts.

These talismans of your station.

The doorknobs of common cause.

These were crafted some

aeons ago.

And you see that Dr.

Yagi looks over at Elbeth and says, Aeons?

I don't think aeons, probably.

How long have doorknobs been around for?

And you see that

the lion looks and says,

Had you but taken these doorknobs, their use may never have been explained to you.

But more than simply being their guardian and able to explain their use, I am also an integral part of the magic of the doorknobs of common cause.

I may

claps a little bit.

Thank you for clapping.

It is appropriate whenever I speak.

Oh my my god, smarter!

You see, Albert goes, don't encourage this.

And you see, the fox goes, I don't want to clap.

And you see that the lion says,

the doorknobs of common cause are linked, as in fact, all beings of the world are linked.

The station of the world's heart understands that in each hearth there is an open embrace, a smile awaiting for those that would work together to see a world made richer in our unison and harmony.

The harmony of the doorknobs is such that wherever one is attached, the way can be opened to the other.

And I can create portals?

Well, only one at a time.

But yes!

You see, he says, well, you see that Dr.

Yagi says, for a woman who's out of town about as much as her predecessor, that seems like a very useful thing to be able to do.

Why did she ever give these away?

As you say that, you sort of smell a slick flowery smell out coming from the garden.

Give me an insight check.

18.

You smell a deep, floral-rich scent, almost like you smelled in Hakea's garden back in her keep in the palace of the witch of wind and stars.

The lion says, Yes, indeed, wherever they are made fast, the magic of the doorknobs will see those two doors linked.

Be careful where you put them, because if they're working, then whatever the door actually leads to, you can't get to.

Does that make sense?

Like if you put it in a closet,

you can't get to that closet anymore.

The closet goes to some fanciful location where the other one is.

Yes, exactly.

So the one side of the other.

So if you put one in a hall closet, if you open it, it'll be one side of wherever the other one is.

And if someone's in the closet and they open it and walk through, it'd be the other side of the other one.

It's funny, I can put one on the bathroom door and then one in the

North Pole.

That would be so funny.

Oh, let me be clear.

You can absolutely trap someone with this if you're fast enough.

But it takes about an hour to, I mean, they're very finicky.

And you have to just kind of destroy the door to do it.

You have to take the other doorknob out.

So

it's not a fast thing.

You have to really...

I want to be clear: the magic of the witch of the world's heart, a potent and ever-present thing that rewards the craft and cunning of witches.

Part of that craft is...

Patience, yes, that's right.

Patience.

Part of that craft is knowing how to install a doorknob.

I need to be incredibly clear that you have to actually make the doorknob work in the door for the...

The magic works on its own, but the doorknob doesn't.

If you can't close and open the door, then it won't work.

However, this magic is trivial in comparison to when I am included in such installation.

For, indeed, if I am affixed to one of the doors,

then

my name must be spoken, else the door will work as normal.

So I could keep my closet.

Well, I don't think I really belong on a door in the house.

You know, I've belonged facing the world as a guardian.

Don't install me on a closet.

Ah, please.

Doesn't it?

I mean, just use your head.

Doesn't it make much more sense?

No, no, I know, I know, but you know.

How many guests are gonna be walking down your hallway in your house and need to knock to go to some other place?

My friend, if we are going to be hanging out, you need to learn yourself a sense of humor.

A sense of humor?

Why?

I am a proud and regal beast, forged in brass, made of magic.

Still, you think that you'd know at least a couple of knock-knock jokes.

Okay.

You see, the fox goes, Woo!

Fox nightmare.

The fox goes, got him.

The lion door knocker says, knock, knock, jokes.

Mm-hmm.

Well, I'm sure I don't know what that is.

There's nothing funny about knocking.

Okay, so

where have you?

So have you just been up in the storage closet for a while?

Freezing and unused.

That's terrible, Rob.

And you see that Albeth goes, shh, don't speak ill of witches.

And you see, he says, I'll speak ill of anyone that leaves me under a glass cloch

to never be used.

I am incredible.

You see, Elbeth turns over and says, Well,

this feels a little bit less significant than and gestures to the wand of covenant that is also on the table.

You see, he says, We're all artifacts.

Some of us are doorknobs, and others of us are wands of covenant, but everything's magic.

It's all magical.

Yeah, the wand can't talk to us.

Well, you're not mine.

The wand wand can't learn knock-knock jokes.

Oh,

so I'm gonna look at

the wand.

I'm gonna study it a bit.

I trace my hand over the braided half of it

and kind of sniff it a little bit.

So this makes more witches.

Well,

this can appoint more witches to the coven.

The spirits gathered at your table,

your attendant spirits of your cottage, look

at this statement with a kind of reverence and excitement.

Even as spirits, they understand that this is

something outside of their domain that nevertheless has some deep implications.

Spirits are eternal, and there is a fascination that they have with change.

Once there were 13 of us,

and then the numbers have dwindled.

And

I think the strength of our numbers would be, in fact,

very

useful in these

dire days.

Dalma looks at you and goes,

Well,

if there used to be more, those were brighter times, and it makes sense that Witch of Wind and Stars has just been sitting on it.

It seems like she wants that number to move in the other direction.

It's a good thing the wands come to you.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You see that Hana Henamohe goes.

Speaking of this one person that has a magic stick and he waggles his pole that he uses as his quarter-stamp and thing, he sort of gets, he goes,

What's stopping you from going and naming a hundred witches or a thousand?

Could you just make everyone a witch?

Well, it would at the very least have to be an odd number.

But yeah, I could do a thousand and one witches if I wanted to, but they would just be part of the coven.

I don't think I can

make new witches.

I can't make new people that are in tune with the

spirit world in the same way as people who are born to witchcraft.

You see that Dr.

Yagi says, begging your pardon, but

even someone that wants there to be more witches on the coven, do you think that

does it strike you as worthwhile to do, just name every witch that you could find into the coven?

So that that we would have to be in concord together.

And I I I think perhaps the disparate opinions would prevent the coven from sort of moving as one to amass power as a coven.

I think that it would behoove me to seek out new witches to bring into the fold, to create more balance.

I think a lot of the witches that had stations involving humanity or really kind of anything useful to help out the spirit and human worlds

had been

disposed of.

I've never really met many other witches besides the coven.

The knocker, the lion knocker, looks and says,

Many worthy witches are there in the world.

I think,

at least, of the one that I knew in the north, was not a representative sample, cold and frigid and hostile.

Not

able to see true talent in front of her, if I'm being honest.

Outside in the dusty lot outside of your sort of study door, you hear footsteps and you hear Lohan say,

Is there a witch inside?

I have buns and some paste.

I'm all right.

Fox out with you.

See the other spirits come out.

Neith looks up and goes,

mommy.

Tom is

beautiful.

It's really, really beautiful there.

There's a lot of,

I've never seen a town like that before.

See, Lohan says, here we go.

And you see, he takes a little apple turnover and puts it in your hand.

And you see that the fox runs up and he goes, hey, now, who's this fella here?

And you see, the fox looks up and says, I'm the fox.

And you see Lohan goes, ah, and sort of can't believe it.

And he goes, wow.

He looks up at you and says, that's,

that's a, you see, he knew Grandmother Wren for so long, but never saw her do like magic like this.

So you see a look on his face of like, oh, the generation's changing, these young witches and they're talking foxes.

And you see that he says, he says, things are getting kind of,

that's a wild thing, Miss Ame.

He sure is.

You see that Lohan looks up to see a small peregrine falcon who's perched on the roof, the thatched roof of the cottage.

As the falcon adjusts its wings,

a breeze like a hurricane

rolls past and shakes the trees.

Whoa, whoa, summer wind is getting crazier than I remember it.

And you look up at the glamour that the rock is wearing.

This,

um,

you see that Neath looks up and he says, Yeah, talking fox is crazy.

And

you look up, the rock is a hard time fitting on the cottage.

It is only because the cottage is one of the most powerful magical institutions on the, like in Umora, that this bird is not crushing it under its own weight.

Its head like towers over the tree line.

If this thing was not wearing a glamour, it would be visible from like towns over.

Dalma goes, We gotta get you back to the spirit world.

The rock sort of settles its wings, looks down down at you, so hungry, and goes.

This is this enormous shriek.

I'm a peregrine falcon.

Very loud falcons in the part of the world that I was visiting.

Lohan goes, it's not too loud.

And you see a branch breaks nearby.

Oh!

God!

I guess we haven't had a good windstorm in a while.

The branches are dead, need to fall.

You see, he says, well, I'll leave the bread for you.

It's great to have you back.

Is Neif going to be staying with him for a while?

That's up to Neif, really.

Neith looks and says,

I'd be, I'd be delighted.

I'd be delighted.

Do you...

I don't know what your plans are, but I know that you're very busy.

You're a member of the Elder Coven.

If you need a house sitter or someone to

look after your house,

I'd be so happy to...

i i can i can clean and i can sweep and i can dust and if you if there's any farm chores i'd i i'd be so so happy to do them

oh may thinking back to all her her childhood is spent in this beautiful wonderful little cottage doing all the chores and and receiving all the care and guidance and there's something something alights inside her heart and she says i would love for you to stay Oh my goodness, it would be so wonderful.

Uh, yes, uh, there is quite a lot of uh chores to do here, but

we could, you know, maybe in a year or so help get you started on maybe learning some uh witchcraft and

bursts into tears, just falls to her knees, her little striped stockings, dust.

No, it's just really nice to have

The fact that you even call me a witch is so nice.

I can't even do one spell.

You see, the fox just goes,

let's all cry together.

You see that Dr.

Yagi looks and says, well, there's plenty of, there's plenty of drawers to go around, but Neif, we'll be happy to catch you up to speed.

You see, Elbeth says, and I'm sure that some of the herbs

of our forest will need some explaining.

You see, Neif goes, got it.

Well, I have a list of the chores that I did in the palace.

And she takes out a small notebook that thunks onto the table.

This one girl was cleaning a palace.

No, no, no, no, that's not going to be entirely necessary.

You'll have assistance, you know, from

like, for instance, see here, I flip it open and I say, um,

chamber pots for the West Wing.

We don't have a Western wing to this cottage.

It's, um,

the caretakers of the cottage will help you, and Lohan will help introduce you to the people of Toma.

Oh,

people like people like the people that are there in the town.

I can, like, meet them.

What should I say to them?

Uh,

well,

be always uh a witch is always polite and um uh it is ready to help offer her assistance if needed.

Um but mostly uh you should treat them like your neighbors.

Oh, you don't you didn't you didn't ever have before I was the apprentice of the witch of wind and stars.

I was um

and I I don't want to alarm you,

I was aging out of my ability to stay at the orphanage.

But

that is just a fact, and it doesn't have to make anyone

sad.

You see that there's just a moment of these spirits looking around.

And once again,

the rock shifts its wings and another

blast of wind comes along as it looks around so hungry.

like you can tell it's like looking for whales to eat it's like it's like look at it it's like there's not coastline near it's like a far flight to any kind of coast

you see the fox looks around henna henamohe looks around

and

you can you see Elbeth sort of turns and says

Ame

my bees are

smelling something over in the garden

I'm I'm getting something as well.

I'm going to go check it out.

But yes.

We'll We'll take care of Neif.

I'll walk her around.

We'll get her settled.

We can move her out of the little makeshift infirmary in the library and put her up.

And should we put her up in.

You see, she gets her somber or sad here.

She's like, do you want your things moved to

Grandmother Wren's room?

Um,

yes.

Uh, unless Neif would prefer to stay there.

Oh, I don't need to stay in the, in the, the main

I don't need to stay in the main bedroom.

I can stay in the smaller smaller room well you go in and you settle into whichever room calls to you all right you see she walks in spirits smile fox looks up and says Ursulant's still out there do you want me to go look for him yeah I think maybe you should uh uh at least go go let him know that it's time for us to help see our feathered friend

back home.

So maybe he might want to say goodbye.

Yeah.

And also, you know, kind of

see if he's doing all right.

Dalma looks over to you and says,

I didn't get the name of the spirit that you had befriended, but you asked me to look for some

Toph.

Yeah, you mentioned...

Yes.

Toph was

a.

Well, I think he'd like to be remembered as a humble coal spirit, but I think that he was

born into this realm as a diamond spirit.

And my guess is that he was part of a great horn that was an artifact I saw up near where our lion friend is from.

Just a just a guess, though.

See, he nods and says, I'll

look into it.

Anything I can find.

I can speak to the spirits of stream and brook and see if anyone's ever heard of a toff who might have been set into some horn.

you see the fox scampers off down a pathway that he scampered off now

a couple months ago right after you awakened him to go find the person he's now attempting to find again

where in the forest do we find ursulan running

ursulan is shirtless with wave breaker sheathed in his right hand and the ame shield on his left doing what Steele would describe as conditioning and sprinting through the forest, kind of up to Daomai's shrine.

Incredible.

You get up to Daoma's shrine.

You've been through the forest and back and running around and sprinting.

What are the feelings that are going through Ursulan being back at Grandmother Wren's cottage?

I think Ursulan has been trying to have been using conditioning training as a way of

not processing as much how he feels being here.

I think he has been, he has not wanted to put back on his glamour for the people visiting the cottage now that Ame is back.

He's been sleeping in the barn, waking up early and going into the forest

and training.

I think that his, like, he's returned to the cottage, like he hasn't been like

so aloof.

He's not like avoiding people, but he is avoiding like being in the cottage while the sun is up and ame is keeping hours it's a busy cottage once again and i think you can even feel something it's very different feeling it's not just because of ame it's not like oh ame is a young witch and that has a different energy than grandmother wren but what you kind of realize it's like maybe in a way the grandmother wren that you knew was in a simpler chapter of her life as well, and that Aame is heading into the most complex chapters of her life.

This cottage may be bumping in a way that Grandmother Wrens was when she was a young woman.

That, like, Ahme has a world of allies to make, a world of friends to meet, a world of problems to solve.

Her chapter as Witch of the World's Heart is literally just beginning as she has survived her first conclave.

And that means that the energy in the cottage is a very different one.

Spirits awakened, visitors coming, Neif here.

You walk up to Dalma's shrine.

You see the little stone bowl, the statue of Dalma here in this place.

What does Arcelon do as he approaches?

Ursulan, charging up the steps, gets to the top.

All right.

Push-ups.

And it's going to do a series of push-ups and planking.

Is really just working out

in this space.

You have become

your

taught, you've always been strong,

but you've been as strong as like a strong young man.

And you've pushed yourself to a new place where you're actually kind of a pretty considerable warrior.

And

whether it's the training in the Citadel, all the things that Steele taught you that were in a weird way, kind of a...

perfect like you were an active physical guy but you also when you were in like traveling with adelaide's caravan you were drinking, you were partying, there was not a lot of consistency or discipline.

Steel gave you all of this like intense

scientific rigor for how to take care of your body and have it serve you.

And then in the conclave, you saw real combat.

You fought spirits.

You had to fight to live and survive.

And for some reason, that the strongest man in Silbri is...

Like a lot of magical things, the more it is said, perhaps the more it becomes true.

I think every time Ursulan feels himself kind of reach his limits, he just imagines himself folding in half as he was consumed by Spotse

and finds the will to do a few more push-ups.

You feel

strong.

These trees smell

like

reflections of the trees you knew in childhood.

There's something about being back in a calm and back in this place.

And as you do these push-ups, you hear a voice going, Is everything all right?

You see, the fox kind of scatters up the steps.

Oh, fox.

I'm exercising.

Oh,

great.

Do you need help?

No, it's the sort of thing you do.

You can do it with other people, but you do it for yourself.

Ah, all right.

Boss wants you to know that it might be time to say goodbye to the bird.

Makes sense.

I think he's getting kind of sad because he's so hungry.

You see, the fox looks over, and both of you see blotting out the sky

the bird perched on the cottage.

That you're like, you know, the shrine is like up the hill from the cottage, and you look, and the bird just looks right at you.

It's like, it doesn't matter that you're far away.

It's A, a bird of prey.

It's like a raptor.

It's got incredible eyesight.

But then B, it's just, its head is right up there it's just up in the sky looks down

hello

hey we gotta get rid of this bird uh i i you don't like the bird no i don't like the bird either the bird saved your life

if the bird hadn't been there i would have flown out of there myself how i don't know if we found a bird and done what flown the bird

I don't know.

You see, this is the problem with plants, is you start to pick apart every single detail and, you know, it doesn't, it all falls apart.

It doesn't work.

Fox, the day I see you fly a bird of your own volition,

I'll eat my hat.

Something I've heard people say.

I don't know exactly what it means.

If you think you're going to eat your hat before I eat your hat, you're out of your mind.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Oh, you think you'll eat my hat?

I'll eat your hat right now.

Okay, I'm going to pick up the fox.

Give me athletics versus acrobatics.

We're having different days.

We're having different days from Sue.

16.

Fox got a 17 acrobatics.

Oh, he left.

He goes and runs down.

This is actually great conditioning.

Come here.

The fox tears off into the forest.

Amen.

You walk into the garden and the flowers sort of part.

And you see a buzzing of bees and sort of moths and a couple of butterflies begin to land on an outstretched sunflower.

And as they sort of sun their wings, these beautiful multicolored butterfly wings, they begin to sun them in a kind of harmony, moving together until you see, composed of butterfly wings, Hakea's face smiling out at you.

Sister.

Oh,

hello, sister Hakea.

I trust your return to the cottage

has been without worry or concern.

Why would you trust that?

Well,

seems like I can feel a sun on these butterflies' wings.

The green and

beauty of Toma is never

in question, no.

And I aim to keep it that way.

Um,

Intree has reached out to me, saying that a member of our coven has stolen from her, and that she demands justice.

Again?

Well, that's actually what I said.

It is not a formal rule, but it is at least a part of our decorum that a matter that has been taken up before the council will not be brought up again for at least a year.

So regardless of the theft, I sort of dismissed it out of hand.

I don't want to consider killing you.

We just had that vote.

But she is quite cross

with you.

Before she moves against you, I said that I would attempt to mediate.

She said that you stole the Wand of Covenant.

I reminded her that that is not possible as it belongs to all of us.

But she feels

hurt that you did not inform her you would be taking it into your custody.

Also, did you steal some brass doorknobs and a knocker in the shape of a lion?

Did she say that?

Well, there were a scattering of keys on a staircase, and her apprentice is missing.

That's what I'm given to understand.

And they are gone.

Well, Well, I imagine that she would

come to the same conclusion that you or I would, were we to have those pieces of data?

Oh!

Right?

So, her conclusion that you stole them is inaccurate.

Well, no, I'm saying, why would if her assistant

was missing and there were a bunch of keys and the

doorknobs that have gone missing, wouldn't you also come to the conclusion that

your apprentice had taken it?

Yes.

Is this my question?

Why would she assume that it was me?

Amen.

Do you wish for Neif to take the blame?

No.

No, I don't.

If Neif takes the blame, her life is for you.

No, I know, I know.

But I'm just saying.

No, no, no, no, no.

Far be it.

Listen, kill Neif.

What do I care?

The important thing is just this.

If you did it, all you have to do is return them.

And if you can't return them, then you just have to give something of equal value.

Equal value.

Well,

he doesn't know knock-knock jokes, so that kind of dings the value a bit.

Oh, it's true.

I suppose that

originally it seems that the doorknobs were a gift from the witch of the world's heart.

Um, so perhaps you're right.

Perhaps I could gift her something else.

Very well.

See it done before the moon returns to its state from the night you stole.

That's all.

I'll tell her the matter's resolved and she can expect the return of the gift or something equivalent if you cannot return the gift.

Is it true that you cannot return the gift, Amy?

I mean, the gift, I feel, really does not wish to be returned.

Oh!

Well, there's nothing you can do about that.

Yeah.

Um,

Hakea?

Yes.

Do you really think that

going to war and uh

wiping out humanity is really

the way to go about

healing

the spirit world?

Oh, Ami.

Give me more faith than that.

I've saved the human world more times than I can count.

I'm not going to war against humanity.

Well, you're not, but it seems that there are others that in the coven and in the world that would benefit greatly from Ruve and

the Citadel wiping each other out.

Life

in all things,

Amy,

do I have the utmost faith in life?

Forests burn and are regrown.

A hundred years from now, the vast hosts of people that now live and breathe, the plants that drink the water, the animals that frolic in the forest, they will all be dead.

And new animals will take their place in new things.

You cannot speak to me in my domain of fear of change and torment, storm and uprooting.

Life will continue after this turmoil is concluded.

If you are worried of the fate of humanity,

I don't fault you.

That is your domain.

See to it, little witch.

You know I will.

Your predecessor was wise, but stalled and stalled and stalled for time, and at the end came to a loss.

Learn what she could not.

I do not know what that is, but it is not my place to, so see that you learn it.

And if you are worried about what I might do, then I know you're more worried about what he might do.

The road is long and winding, but he is eight months from your door, little army.

And she

dispels the butterflies as they fly away.

Ursuline, rushing through the woods with the fox,

you arrive

at a

clearing with a rotting tree on its side.

Fox eventually just puffing.

Okay.

Okay.

You can keep your hat.

Nice.

We should do this.

We should do this more often.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's good.

It's good for me.

If you don't mind being chased.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

For sure, for sure.

Yeah.

Oh, God.

There we go.

I think I ate.

I ate one of those breads.

Breads are bad for a fucking bread?

Bread.

Oh.

Oh, is Lo hunting you?

Yeah,

he came up with Neif.

Ooh.

Who is this little place?

You see, he jumps up under the rotten tree and sniffs around.

Ursulan kind of smiles, looks around.

Are there still mushrooms here?

You do see mushrooms here.

I'm going to unsheath Wave Breaker

and use it to cut one from its

from where it's rooted.

Cut a little white-capped mushroom.

Fox,

this

is where I met Armé and Suvi.

Oh,

you met them here in this little part of the wood?

Right here.

This is where I came from spirit world into the real.

Wow.

Just looks like a nice little piece of woods.

And that's all it is.

That seems odd.

This place is special,

but you wouldn't know it unless you knew it.

Exactly.

Huh.

Alright, I'm gonna go back to the cottage.

Let me see.

He trots off.

I'll meet you there.

Okay.

I'm gonna look around.

Has much changed since I was last year.

Smaller.

You thought these trees were enormous.

They're not.

They're like, they're fine.

They're healthy trees.

Healthy, healthy trees that have been here for maybe like

a century or two.

Not ancient, not forest primeval, but beautiful.

But they seemed enormous when you were here as a child.

And the mushroom circle seemed so defined and potent.

And you look at it, and it's like there's just a couple little mushrooms that follow the natural dip of this glade.

It just

seemed more

mythical and legendary, but you're here now with a magic shield that has your sister's burrow tree on it and the sword of the wave lord.

And all of a sudden, you just wonder how much legend can accrue on a person before they look at something that was like a dream in the light of just another day.

Ursulan takes a moment in the clearing

before popping the mushroom in his mouth and making his way back to the cottage.

I don't remember how often Ursulan's ever gotten to eat one of his mushrooms, but this one tastes good.

Ami, you see Ursulan walk up as the late afternoon winds on

and

you all look up and see the rock up on top of the cottage.

I've heard he needs to be on his way soon.

I don't really have enough food here to feed him, and he seems like he's ready.

Oh,

it was really cool, though.

It was fun.

Great rock.

I'll use commune with beast and leaf.

I hunger.

Long have I been mice.

That

false friend of spirit stole the wind from my wings.

I was happy to bear you here away from her cold clutches.

Brother, I am glad you are free.

Can I ask you one more favor?

Would you bear me to my home?

It stands near an entrance to our world.

The creature nods and looks and says,

I do not wish to be seen by the beings of this world.

When night has fallen, I will bear you aloft, traveler.

nods and you see as he nods a feather of his down like under his wing floats to the ground and it floats to the ground with a thud.

It's about the size of like a crib.

It's like just this enormous little.

And it's like a small little downfest.

Oh, he scurries over.

The fox looks and says, hey, your first piece of witch junk.

Oh, witch junk, all right.

I mean, that's the stuff in the cottage, right?

There's a bathtub full of armor and swords up in there.

Well, I mean, it's all very important.

Oh, may I keep this?

I speak with animals.

Oh, may I keep this?

She who I bore to her cottage.

Yes!

You may keep it.

It would not have even occurred to me to keep it.

I didn't even know it fell.

Ame,

I believe I will be leaving with the rock.

Oh,

I will return to Gauthmai and to Kalia.

There is an entrance to the spirit world there that I believe the rock will be able to pass through.

Oh, yes.

Um,

can I come?

Neifa's gonna stay with the cottage for a bit, and um,

I'd really love to meet your family, if that's okay.

Of course.

From inside the cottage, you hear and wheresoever you travel, a door shall be open to you to return home.

Someone bring me outside.

Who is that?

I don't want to look at him.

I still have the scars.

You see, there's just a bunch of nibble marks

all around Ursulan's right hand.

Let that be a lesson not to tender with a fierce scarlet.

So you see, as you get that affirmation, Neif says, Yes, Amy,

I'm happy to look after the cottage for you.

And

yeah, if you

the lion is shouting, but he's right.

If you want, if you can't, if you can, I mean, and then there's, you know, you have

a doorway.

If you.

yes, absolutely.

I'll put on it on some.

I mean, I suppose it has to be a door.

Let me see what doors do I have that I can

I think there's like probably a extra pantry closet.

Oh, no, I'll put it on the on the closet door in my room.

Great.

Uh, give me a uh tool proficiency check.

This is actually gonna be like carpentry tools.

Oh, that's a 20.

Wait, is that a nat 20?

NAT 20.

Nat 20!

Let's go!

It's the best door!

You install one of the doorknobs in your bedroom closet.

And as you go in, you see that Neif has picked her room.

Her room is a broom cupboard in a...

Neath.

Neif, come on.

Please fix one, baby.

But you see, so the question.

So, do you move your belongings to Grandmother Wren's room or

keep your room sort of by the staircase down on the first floor?

I move many of my things to Grandmother Wren's room.

I don't clear away many of her things, though.

It's not that the room makes me sad, it's not that it makes me feel her absence.

It too feels

homey, like part of my childhood.

But,

well, to be honest, the green man bed was never my favorite.

I'm most comfortable in a little nest.

And I do leave in my old room

maybe

the guest bed

ready, just in case.

Just in case.

But

I create the doorway in Grandmother N's closet.

And I think in the process of that, I spend a bit of time, a couple of hours,

going through the closet and making sure that there's

nothing that I need or that Neep would get me to have access to while it has become a doorway to another location.

You

clear out anything of immediate need from the closet.

Affix the doorknob.

Take the knocker and the other doorknob with you.

As the sun sets,

no longer with the bridle needed, the rock, knowing that a way is being shown home, lowers his head as you climb into the massive feathers.

Each feather, when you put a hand, like the central spoke of the feather is a full handhold for each of you in the feathers of his neck.

You feel yourself able to like hunker down under the feathers almost to avoid the wind.

This is how big this bird is.

You, the fox, you see, the fox you have like now you don't need your arctic stuff you have like new clothes new gear cottages already you see that uh there's a little like traveling satchel that uh grandmother wren had for flying with taro and you see the fox jumps up into this little like messenger bag over the shoulder flight uh saddle uh baby bjorn little baby bjorn he's like ready and ursalan you get up there as well uh out in the yard you see a smiling

Neif,

Dalma, Elbeth, Hena Henamohe,

Dr.

Yagi all sort of smile as they gather, almost like waving like an airplane departure.

And you see Neif says,

thank you again, so, so, so, so, so much.

Thank you so much.

Oh,

and make sure that your weekly sessions with Dolma are,

you know, you think you do what he says.

You know, I'm essentially introducing her to therapy.

And the pantry door,

it creaks at night.

And,

oh, oh, self-defense with Henhana Mohe is not optional.

You got it.

Dalma says, best of luck.

We'll see you soon.

And all of them wave, bye, bye, all of them.

Bye, bye.

Freeze Freeze quince

as the bird of legend tapes to the sky once more.

Vanishing into the night where its massive form will be disguised as merely a passing shadow between the stars and the earth below.

In passing shadow, a wizard that now can call those shadows to herself moves

on horseback horseback through the night

you have arrived at the base of Mount Korai

traveling as fast as you can to Abbas

you arrive at a location

some

trenches dug

fortifications

You see a broken haft of something

a standard.

You smell smoke.

Sworn gets off his horse.

Wizard Sky.

This is the Path Least Resistance.

I think these forces maybe fell here, but some time ago, I think they've moved off since then.

And I

you hear

deeper in the forest.

I'm going to need you to roll initiative.

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

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

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