WWW #29: The Spy

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

A high-vaulted hall of ice and a table some 50 feet long, set with candelabras glittering in Arctic icy white light.

The table itself is made of rich dark wood, and high-backed wooden chairs carved in geometrical tableau with northern figures of bearded warriors and axe-wielding giants, populate scenes on the backs of these tall wooden chairs.

The table itself is set with an extravagant feast.

Enormous roasted birds and beasts.

Wild boar that takes up like an eight-foot-long boar sits in the middle of the table with some enormous like bushel of apples in its maw that kind of can't close because its roasted tusks are pointed up.

Scintillating music fills this space, sort of

melodic and charming and ethereal in a way that

suggests that you are simply here to

eat, enjoy yourself, be at rest, be at peace, and continue on your way.

Ara, the sort of tall spirit in the retinue of Indri the Witch of Wind and Stars, moves hither into

directing

small ice fairies to bring certain things back and forth from the table.

The hall is filled with predatory animals, lion, panther, pack of wolves.

Hakea's retinue is here as well.

You see that Hakea and Grimoire are already at the table.

Marara is nowhere to be seen.

At the head of the table sits Indry,

and the now even smaller retinue of the Witch of the World's Heart enters the dinner hall with the Wizard Sworn and the Wizard Maddie having been relieved to return to the ship.

Walking into this space, how do the three of you enter into this hall knowing that you are about to break bread with someone who has murdered a member of your party?

Question: Did Ahmed change anything about herself

before coming to dinner, or is it just like what you've been wearing all day long?

I definitely went and,

especially after all of that, I went and

took a bath and I have a change of clothes on.

Okay.

And yeah, Suvi

will be in like

jet black, super formal gear,

but will have made no effort to wash the blood off of her face.

We all know what one day.

Incredible.

Go ahead, actually,

and

make an

intimidation roll.

This will not be read but as an insult if it is low.

Eight.

We're back.

You walk into this space with some blood staining your face.

And do you all walk in as a quartet, the three of you and the fox?

Or do you sort of file?

Like, in other words, do you check in with each other before coming to dinner?

Ursulan definitely would have looked to Ahme as to how

she would like to enter, Or if she would like to be announced, or just in any way we can kind of, you know, presentations in situations like these are important.

Or they can be.

I am.

I have been racked with nerves and anxiety, trying to conform to any

traditions and rituals and ceremonies that I know are important.

This is, we're going to dinner, and I will not be

bullied into making a big deal out of it.

That being said, I am dressed a little nicer.

My robes and my gown are

the snowy white to blend in with my surroundings,

but have a bit of a sheen to reflect the Aurora Borealis.

What's your like vibe going in?

Do you want us to do anything?

Yes, are we behind you, Arme, or do you just want to walk in as three friends just here for dinner?

I'm not doing three friends here for dinner.

Okay, fine.

I've got the wizard straw in my hair.

We

walk in as a united front.

Suvi, are you certain that you are alright to go in here?

Oh, yeah.

What do you mean all that?

Well,

one of your retinue is currently still splattered on your face.

I'm good.

Sounds like everyone's good, boss.

Let's get to stepping.

You all enter the room.

As you're walking down as a united front, you have your protector, you know, shield at the ready,

and a black-clad wizard of the citadel with you.

Your fox, sort of.

You see, as he's going,

you heard a sort of humming in the halls earlier, and you can see the fox seems to sort of have a little has the rain road like stuck in his head, and he's running along going, like, When the green has reached the green of green,

and the woodbye gentleman, we, we, what did he do?

Count the coming of

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I remember it.

Got it.

Subie was humming just a little bit, but trying not to be audible.

As you arrive in the

Great Hall, Indri stands up in deference and respect to your station and says, Witch of the world's heart, thank you for joining us.

Uh, please, and you see that she looks at Grimoire, uh, who is sort of kicked back in a chair, and Grimoire barks a command because all of the seats at this massive table are taken up with animals and otherwise like soiled and occupied.

And you see that a couple of the animals leap off at her barking command and clear a small space at the corner of the table.

I think Ahme and Suvi exchange a look.

Like, what the fuck?

Sufi is trying to do the subtlest.

Like, this is disrespectful, but we're following your lead.

And then I look over at Ursulon, too.

Like,

Ursula's just holding his shield, also looking at Sufi and wondering if he's supposed to be doing something.

But knowing in his heart that it's we're following Ahmed's lead.

Sufi knows

as the protector?

Am I supposed to?

But

he hopes Ahme will do something soon, because otherwise Ursula is going to step forward.

I walk towards the vacated spots and I spread my hands wide in a press and I press to digitate

clean place settings and it dusts off the chair dusts itself off a little bit and if I may also

puts a cushion on the seat where Suvi would sit and it is a little blue silk cushion.

And there is

the chair, expand, almost seems to expand a bit for Ursulan.

So you go sit in that area that Animals kind of cleared off from, which is a little bit farther away from the other witches, from Hakeea, Grimoire, and Indry.

You look up and see Indry turn to Neif and hand her a plate that has some food on it and say,

please bring this to the antipolist.

And Neif turns around and takes off,

walking down the hallway.

Ame again and Subi again look at each other.

I think it's just like the like when you put your knee against your friend, when you're like, you hear hot gossip and you're like, we are being, we're like ducks on a pond, baby.

Super cool above the height of the table and below, like, oh, my God, oh my, my God, my God, I've got to go, I know, yeah, yeah.

Indry turns and says, Will the rest of your retinue be joining us?

They will be dining in their own quarters.

Ah, understood.

You see that Grimoire looks up and says, one of them ran.

Understood.

My condolences.

And

I hope that

there are no such future incidents during your time here.

Hakea looks and says, looks down at her plate and says, Miserable fare you've accumulated here, Intree.

Absolute rubbish.

And you see that Indry looks up and says, I am so sorry it is not to your taste, Hakea.

I shall return to my quarters and make my own food.

And you see that she just, again, leans back and disappears into moss and vanishes.

Could I have made a little inside check on that?

Yeah.

I just want to see if she's just a grumpy old lady that doesn't like the food.

Hold on, a pretty good roll.

18.

Nice.

Huh.

On 18, you know that that like extreme disdain for the food in this place.

There.

I got an old guy that I look after.

Is he being a normal old guy.

Yeah.

You believe so.

Yeah.

And you do think that there is some magical component of Hakeea being the eldest of the coven that allows her to speak this way to other.

Like, you guys know if one of you did that, you'd like burst into flame or something.

Like, it would be, it's like, there are some advantages that come with age in this place, and being able to be like, I don't like your food is one of them.

But all of you are able to grab some grub while you're here.

Indri looks up uh and says, I believe I heard some notes of music on your way here.

Yes, it's from one of our travels.

A beautiful seaside town and a beautiful moment of swelling song.

Would you care to sing it for me?

I'm not the best singer, but I think that, yes, if

my friends will accompany me.

Of course.

Give me a performance check.

We should have practiced.

We should have.

We should have warmed this up.

19.

A wizard cannot sing.

10.

Okay.

Five.

Ah!

And I'm just mouthing it.

I think Sufi knows she's tone deaf.

Oh, yeah.

Ursulot's giving it a little gusto.

The fox on a 12 belts it out badly.

So loud.

I think Ursula's definitely trying to meet or beat the Fox's volume.

Once that happens,

I decide

with my 19 that it's become a drinking song.

So I raise a tankard and I start belting it out with the Fox.

Rise to the sea.

By the road,

the rain rise

to

the sea.

Give me.

Because Suvi's not singing, go ahead and give me an Arcana chip.

13.

You see that Ame is just singing a little drinking song, but in the moment that she gets lost singing with the fox and Ursulan,

you give me insight as well.

9.

I think that on a 13 and a 9, you actually don't get information.

Yeah, that's fair.

That's all.

No.

I think, like, there's a reason behind Subi doesn't want to speak out loud or sing.

Like she is trying to keep it together.

And I think that's making her a little bit worse at noticing everything that's happening.

You see that Injury looks at you and says,

utterly, utterly charming.

Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for asking.

I think that raising our voices together in song is one of the best things that you can do to

keep

spirits up.

You see that Grimoire says,

your wizard didn't sing.

Well, Suvi is her own wizard.

But also,

I think that perhaps Suvi's

just a little shy when it comes to singing.

I just stare down Grimoire and don't say anything and just take another slow bite of food.

Once she warms up to you, though, you should hear her when

we're at the tavern.

It's quite charming.

Will she warm up to you when you sign her contract?

Hmm.

The contract

that she brought from the citadel

to compel you to do their bidding.

Oh,

are you unaware?

I

am

certain that there is a misunderstanding.

Well,

I

know not of the trickery of the written word or those things that clever minds do to ensorce with sounds and shapes upon the page.

That is not my domain to tend to.

And you see that Grimoire stands up and goes,

and the animals sort of fall in behind her and take off.

And dinner sort of abruptly concludes.

Heinruhl looks at you, Ursulan, and as he gets ready to head out, goes,

Shall I meet you at your quarters?

I'm happy to come to yours.

Very well.

We We will take care of you there.

Uh, and walks away.

I was going to have a conversation with you later about just maybe getting some guarantees that

just making sure advocacy on behalf of the wizards was a priority for the witch of the world's heart.

I would have talked to you about it later.

You don't need to make me sign a contract to have you be a priority, Suvi.

I hear you and I appreciate you, but the manner of your leaving didn't confer a lot of confidence in

our working relationship on my arrival.

And I think this is the first moment that, like, Suvi sort of

gets uncomfortable enough to, like, kind of touch her face and, like, touch this that dried blood, and then just sorts of like, is like weirdly, like, wiping it off while she's talking, while trying to, like, maintain a sense of chill.

Andre stands from the table and says, Ame,

you wish to speak with me after dinner.

If you'd be so kind as to offer me an audience, I would be grateful.

Um,

Suvi, and I

pick up a napkin and

hold it toward you, unsure if the instinct is to help you to wipe it off, but

Suvi will immediately like just do a little bit of a jerk back, but gratefully accept the napkin and then avert her eyes and doesn't really make eye contact with you.

Bear,

please enjoy your evening's festivities.

If you will have no need of your guardian, then I shall busy myself.

You see, the fox speaks in your mind, Ahme, and goes, Boss, where do you want me?

Follow at a discreet distance.

Follow at a disc.

Follow at a.

Just

a little behind us.

Okay, I'll be a little bit behind you.

Here we go.

And you see, the fox sniffs around at a lot of the animal waste that is in the room now and busies himself.

And

Ame and the fox depart with entry,

and we are left with Suvi and Ursulan at the table together.

Wizard Sky, would you like accompaniment back to your lodgings?

When Ursulan offers, can I make an insight check to see

if any of the like weirdness that just transpired, like, I just want to get a vibe check off of the homie.

Yeah, give me insight and would you have, would you be trying to be deceptive?

No.

Then just set a DC for me.

Seven?

Seven, great.

I made it.

An 18.

Great.

Uh, yeah, what's going on on Ursulan's face?

And you're not wearing your glamour in this palace.

Absolutely not.

Ursulan is registering all of it, right?

He is seeing both the moment in which his divine sense saw the inherent connection between Suvi and Ahmed.

and is also reading the awkwardness as understandable that Suvi is experiencing great tragedy.

I think Ursulan, in his presentness, in his struggle to not struggle, but like often choice not to hold on to past grudges, old wounds, to live in that with you, I think just sees somebody who sees his friend not have any of their little their little posse that they showed up with and is offering to be your posse in this moment and to be with you so that you don't have to feel as alone.

I don't think there's any sort of like

Ursulan refuses to choose sides in the Ahmed V Suvi for himself, though I'm sure that could

Ursulan's place in that would register differently for each of them as individuals.

Suvi

just can't keep the like super stiff facade and just kind of gives a little smirk

of relief.

Thank you.

Yeah, yes, thank you.

And I'll offer offer my arm for you.

Under the northern sky, the Aurora Borealis twinkles on a high skybridge in between two towers.

Walking along this causeway of ice.

Indri towers over Amé, a resplendent Arctic queen, holding your hand in hers.

And going across this tall skybridge, you hear the fox

in your mind go,

I'm back in the stairwell.

I don't know how discreet I can be on this bridge.

I think if I pop out, she's going to see me.

Well, it's okay if she sees you, I think.

Oh, great.

All right.

Just be cool.

Just be cool, though.

See, the fox sort of stops for a second and goes, and just starts saying out loud, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Ooh, here I go.

Here I go.

There it is.

Abria really likes how the fox thinks you be cool.

I'm in hell.

Clashme is in hell.

My whole station is ridiculous.

My hand and injuries walking along beside this queen, this idea of a queen with my hand clasped in hers.

It's a deeply uncomfortable sensation of being a child being led along by an adult.

Indri looks down to you and says,

The conclave meeting this morning, I know, must have come as a shock.

And

knowing

Ren,

it would not strike me as terribly impossible that she may not have prepared you

for

the depths and profundity of some elements of witchcraft.

The taking of life in the service of great magical cause is not something any witch should do lightly, lest she fear for the very nature of her magic itself.

But

from time to time, the spilling of blood is required for the sustaining and preservation of great magic.

It is not a slight or a grievance against you personally.

Of course, nothing comes without a cost.

And as wonderful and thorough a mentor as Grandmother Wren was, there were just some particulars that she couldn't teach without me experiencing them on my own.

And it's just so unfortunate that

she left us before I believe her time

grandmother Wren

was a powerful steward of her station and

I know that she would have chosen her apprentice with great care

this morning I'm sure is

not the direction of conversation you might have hoped for upon ascending to the coven and claiming the station of the world's heart for your own.

You asked to speak with me that I might have some advice or perspective or clarity to grant you, and I would be more than happy to do so.

You need but ask, and I will do my best to answer.

And give me an insight

here.

I would like to do an insight jack.

17.

She's so tall.

It's hard to read.

It's just hard to read her face.

It's way up there.

It's way up there.

But I think that what you're struck by is

you saw her through the fox's eyes talking about how Marara, by trying to force the conversation quickly, had effectively like...

tipped the hand that this was gonna happen and then Hakeia got cranky and didn't want to have the vote then Was like, I don't want to do this in a rushed way.

And now she's here talking to you, being like, what can I offer you?

And it's a weird thing because you're not sure how, like, in a schoolyard sense, you are being lied to.

There's like fakeness here.

But the world of this witch is so alien.

There's almost a thing where if you were to like, confront her and be like, you want me dead, that she might just like look sorrowful and be like, it is a pity.

Yes, I want you.

Like, you don't know.

Like, you don't know what the mood, like,

you can't read her face to see, like, did you catch her in a conspiracy?

Is there a contradiction in her behavior?

Or would she just argue that there is no contradiction in any of the behavior you've seen, either in your familiar's eyes or your own?

It's hard to say on that 17.

I do understand that there is

no good without great sacrifice.

And if I

must needs be sacrificed,

then so be it.

Magic and my station is far more important than my own life.

I do wonder, though, without the station of the Witch of the World's Heart,

how

the vast realms of human and spirit and collaboration will be tended to.

Do you and the rest of our sisters not already have full enough plates?

Indri

muses.

She stops here at the zenith of the bridge, looking out over the vast icy palace with so many keeps and towers.

You see the meridian, this black skyship of the Empire out on the pier of snow.

You look way off in the corner, you see like a little edge of the keep of the world's world's heart out there,

and you see Indri

muses, touching a long, beautiful fingernail to her chin,

and drops the hand and turns to you and says,

When

Uruna,

my sister,

passed,

a great

magic was lost from this world,

and

a great many things to which she tended were

lost.

I believe that there were passageways in the deep sea between the world of spirits and the world of mortals that may have become

untended to in her absence.

But the seas did not vanish, the oceans did not dry.

And

a thing that is untended to has its magic become unruly, not non-existent.

In the absence of the station of the world's heart, the truth of the world's heart will simply not be spoken for, but that does not mean it will vanish.

No, but it seems to me that the nature of my station

facilitates

the

what is the opposite of unruliness?

It facilitates the ruliness of the rest of the dynames.

Certainly.

I can well imagine that it might.

But the truth is these

stations do not tend to anything.

These stations hold witches, and the witches tend to them.

And

if a witch is not

capable of tending to her station, then it is as good as unfilled, perhaps in some cases worse.

Ah, yes, that would be a shame.

Well,

to have the to have the conclave reduced from five to three

would indeed be

cause for some concern, I should should think.

Terrible, it would be to see the coven reduced in size at all, and I'm hoping it does not come to that.

The concerns of the council are merely that

this magic be maintained.

And as you said yourself this morning,

the station of the world's heart comes ever more into conflict with the stations of the rest of the Coven of Elders.

But

correct me if I'm wrong, Amay, you asked for my advice here.

Did you wish to ask me anything, or

is this more that you seek audience with me?

In truth, I am a bit reluctant to ask some of the questions I had, as they are of a more personal nature.

For instance, I know that

you advised Grandmother Wren in her youth.

What was she like?

What was Wren like?

Yes.

You saw the changing of

the station of the Witch of the World's heart from Wren's predecessor to her

and from her to me.

I'm told that my transition was not the messiest.

No,

no, no, no.

Um, my transition was far messier.

Um, oh,

yes, yes.

Surely not as messy as.

Well, it's a long story, but

you go first.

Well, to answer your question, Grandmother Wren,

first

and above all else,

eternally, unyieldingly,

infinitely optimistic.

And

of a characteristic behind that,

I would say that Ren was, and I mean this,

neither as insult nor compliment, but merely truth.

Stubborn.

Intractable.

Unmoving.

Oh,

and of course, kind.

Very kind.

The only member of our coven that she ever

truly shared cross words with was Marara, who they rarely saw eye to eye on their time together.

I do have a recollection of that from when I was younger.

Of

our sister of the Waning Moon visiting us at the cottage

and

foretelling dire circumstances.

And

speaking of a vote,

Marara spoke to Grandmother Wren of a vote.

Yes.

Did you, in your apprenticeship, overhear the nature of this vote?

No, not at all.

I was

a child and more concerned with the fact that Marara had taken my favorite mug.

Hmm I know

she stole a mug.

Well,

she

did not return it once it had been emptied of its contents.

I could speak to her about that.

About my mug?

About your mug.

Oh, well, I wouldn't want to bring up old business.

Well, that's one thing you and Marara have in common.

You love to bring up old business.

I don't wish to cut our time short, but uh, and there's a twinkling of light.

She says, there is some business that I need to attend to with my apprentice.

But

oh, yes, Neif.

Neif is so lovely and has been so helpful to all of us in our retinue.

She has?

Yes.

How far along is she in her studies?

Oh, well, Neif has only just begun.

But I am glad to hear that she has been helpful.

How, may I ask, has she been helpful?

Oh, well, just making...

Just making the quarters of all of us feel so homey and

oh,

and she gave the Wizard Sky a beautiful item of clothing.

Just truly there

accommodating to our every need at every turn.

Did you have to do chores like that when you were an apprentice?

I know I certainly had a lot more goat wrangling than it seems Neif does.

Give me one last insight, Jack.

18.

You look at Indry, and on her beautiful, icy face, she looks at you, and you are starting to read.

Like, every time you've traveled all over the world with Grandmother Wren, faces are different.

Like the faces people make to communicate different emotions are cultural, they're generational, they're based on groups and subgroups and subcultures and all kinds of different things.

It's like it's not, there's not a lot of like, there are very few things that are universal.

So you're often trying to translate.

And with injury, her impassivity is so taught and structured.

And when she smiles, it's a smile of beauty.

She smiles in a way not to overly wrinkle her face.

So, which is not how you can't achieve a deep smile without wrinkling your face.

So everything is set and poised and geometrical, much like her palace.

But you watch a smile

that...

Look, the corners of her eye are a little bit smoother than normal and her eyes are a little wider than normal.

And now you know what her rage looks like.

She, as you ask the question, did you you have to do chores like that?

Like Neif does, she said,

Yes,

I had many, many chores to do.

I bid you a good evening, Ame, Witch of the World's Heart.

It is an honor to have you here.

And

though I hope there are many Witches of the World's Heart to come, if you are the last, you will have earned that honor.

And she turns around and

strides down another staircase.

And the fox trots up beside you.

Hey,

watch her go, they say in the fox's mind.

Bitch.

He says, You're telling me.

Sufi and Ursulan,

to where do you walk?

Which is sort of a question because Ursulan's accompanying you.

So, where is Suvi walking to?

Sufi's making a feint and walking back towards her

tower and where she's being kept.

Yeah, trying to catch Ursulan up on the lips that we read at dinner.

But doing it the worst wizard way of just, okay.

So, history lesson.

There were two factions before the Citadel was even raised.

We had the like

Antivolians and the Acrodati.

Yeah.

And it was like a whole thing back and forth about, like, do you want to accept the Empire's help?

And the Antivolians were like, no, we don't want to.

And the Acrodati were like, and then there was like a civil war.

And

the an I mean, the Acrodati won.

So that was kind of a thing.

But uh, she said that there was one of the others that faction's been gone for hundreds of years, so who was she talking to, and what was she talking about?

Was that interesting?

Does that make any sense to you?

I'm uh

a little keyed up.

I didn't hear or understand most of it, but I understand that a person you think was gone

is here.

She's feeding another wizard

in the palace,

but like very specifically an ant

and someone who opposed the citadel.

Antivolists are the but they don't exist anymore.

They were defeated and that is why the citadel is what it is.

Yes, okay.

There was a whole big civil war in Cairo

over it,

so that's weird.

Is it the sort of thing we would simply ask injury about?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Um, also, I'm not really on anyone's good list right now, so we're gonna kind of keep it on ice and just make sure Ami's taken care of.

Just hope Ame didn't play her hand too soon about

you know the whole idea of how do you convince them to not destroy her station and having to just destroy another one like you bring that to the group so then they start to fight about it

rather than sectioning it off exactly and then they have time to think about how to respond to it.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

That's, I mean, I know I'm not the strategist here, but I think in spending time with Heinrule this evening, perhaps I will be able to acquire information with regard to Grimoire.

I don't like her.

That's right, you have to go to that.

I do.

Why don't you go?

I got it the rest of the way here.

I've got to go stop at a library.

Of course.

Well,

Skye, I'm sorry about the day that you've had.

Thank you.

And Suvi's gonna hug him.

When, um,

when you were with Arme before dinner,

there was a moment of connection between you two.

Something truly,

truly special.

I just wanted you to know that.

Thank you.

Well, I'm going to go drink until I'm sick.

Don't die.

I'm going to try not to.

Ursulan.

You stride out through one of the keeps, walking through one of the snowy courtyards, approaching a copse of evergreen trees.

You see that the trees climb up, and you were told this is the keep of the woodland green, but you don't actually see a building here.

You just see heavy snow-covered evergreen trees, but you smell

smoke kind of like oozing out of some of the branches.

But then you, you smell, it's like a wet smell, it's like a peat smoke.

It's like not, they wouldn't let like an open flame in here.

So there's like peat or something like that burning inside.

It's a musky herbal aroma coming from these trees.

Give me an investigation check.

Difficulty of five.

A ten.

You root around and you see that there is a kind of burrow in the side of the snow that you can feel warmth coming out of in this copse of trees.

I've had good luck with burrows in the past, so in I go.

Going inside, the snow eventually gives way to

moist, wet earth, and pulling yourself out, the keep of the woodland green is this

wild, almost like

100 foot tall.

It has like a conical structure to it, like almost a teepee or some other kind of conical tent.

And there is a little bit of snow coming in from an opening way high above, but there is activity all throughout the sides.

You see that there are like flowers blooming and fairies moving back and forth, tiny little two inch tall floral fairies that alight from branch to branch.

You see that there are a number of grottos here.

And within this enormous cavernous opening, there are sort of more normal-sized trees.

Off in the corner, you actually see this giant mossy agate gemstone throne where Hakeia is slumbering.

With each exhalation, moths are kind of like coming out of her mouth and re-entering as she breathes in again.

And this massive serpent familiar is all over her.

Her hands have grown roots into the arms of the chair that she's in.

And her dress has just become the ground.

Her dress might be the entire

sort of flora landscape of this tent.

If she gets up,

the whole landscape might like come up with her.

But you see that there are a couple members of Grimoire's retinue here, although you don't see Grimoire personally.

But you see, there's like the lion is like asleep in a massive bed of like violets and jasmine, just

sort of little tail flapping back and forth.

There is a grotto of some sort of hot spring, a little bit of like water coming up, bubbling amongst some mossy stones.

And you see that Badze and Sokoro, the firefly spirit, is there, and the wood spirits, or tree spirit, are there.

And

beside them with a

just

bed sheet filled with bottles is Heinruhl, who looks up.

He is fully naked.

And Sokoro and Badze are both naked here as well.

This is a...

It is wild here.

This is...

You are in a space that feels magically aligned with your birth in a way that you haven't felt since being a cub in the world of spirits.

You look at the grotto.

It's quite removed from Hakea's throne.

It seems they're giving her some respectful distance in this space.

And Heinru looks over, just turns around, full frontal nudity, holds up a bunch of bottles, and goes,

Ursulan, you've come to die!

Um,

we agreed earlier that those were not the stakes.

Uh, you see that Sakoro says,

perhaps die to be reborn.

And he holds a bottle of liquor over his head.

Yes, brother, yes.

Uh, Ursula is gonna, I think, stab Wavebreaker into the ground, like at the entrance, keep the shield, uh, and bound over to the hot springs.

Uh, you bet over the hot spring.

Uh, you see that as they do, you, as you, uh, do you just leap into the hot spring?

I, um

no i don't i think i don't think ursalon is that ursalon can feel that kind of push and pull of what you're saying he has been at the citadel like he you know the last like community larger community he was in was the citadel where things were proper and i think he can feel himself wanting to connect with that energy from his youth that and i think sees this group of people and wants to bound into it but goes but what if that's not their custom and just kind of excitedly runs over uh you You run over excitedly and Heinruhl says,

you see that Heinruhl just shoves a bottle into your chest and says, Let's get started.

And

as you do, you see that Sakoro and Badze look up and say, Badze goes, Will you join us in the waters?

It would be an honor.

Sokoro says,

Come then, brother, join us in the water.

Ursulan is going to get undressed.

Just, yeah, fully...

You get down to your birthday suit and you look like a big wild beast.

Yes, and ease himself into

the water, which everyone.

I think as you get into the water, you see that Heinruhl leaves his...

His glamour drops and he drops to all fours as a massive dire wolf.

And you see that he splashes into the water with you and rolls a bottle over that just begins to guzzle out into the hot spring and wraps his wolf mouth around it and just starts to swallow this

icy clear liquor down his gullet.

And you see that Sakoro and Badze move to either side of you as you sit here in this hot pool.

And we cut to an icy hallway as the Wizard Sky marches towards the Library of Stars.

Suvi feels better

in this moment than she has the entire time she's been here.

It's like a weight

has been taken off her chest in a way that she can't really fathom or can't quite place.

Like something...

It's not that she's forgotten about what happened like two hours ago, but like it feels like some things are coming into alignment.

And then she thinks about grimoire

and

dropping the sort of contract at dinner again just a couple hours after the reveal and the death of the wizard straw and grimoire is a very fearsome creature but i think without like arrogance suvi has a like that was too quick That was ungraceful.

You didn't sit on like that piece of ammo for long enough.

Unclever.

I'm not worried about you like this.

If I walk, I win.

So there's like a lot of that like spinning up in her head.

Like, all right, cool.

You approach the library of the stars

and find the doors closed as you arrive here.

Can I run a little detect magic to see, like before even interacting with the handle,

like if this is a guarded and warded sort of closing?

You

see

that it is magically locked.

There is a magical lock on the door.

But having reached for your magical training within the detect magic, as you're looking at the powerful lattice of the lock here on the door, you realize that these doors have a latch on the other side.

So they are, in other words, you need a key to get in from the outside, but on the inside, because it doesn't lead anywhere else, it's

a little turn latch to just lock and deadbolt the doors to the library.

And as it does so,

you feel in the detect magic

a pulse of clarion trumpet calls, the tinkling of glass, and feel an emblem of the citadel keyed to your name cloak on the far side of this door.

Yeah, Suvi remembering the little music box, a secret gift, and now knowing what she knows about injury and the ways in which

Injury is at the heart of a lot of this, has that little indignation of like, oh, that was naive of me.

Injury isn't sort of worthy of the like budding affection that I've shown to her.

I need to.

On top of everything else that needs to happen, I need to get that and get out.

Um, is there any

like would it be as simple as like a little mage hand cast with an understanding of what the other side like I've been on the other side, so casting something without being able to see where it is as a cantrip, could that be a simple enough solution to get the door open?

100%.

Go ahead and give me an Arcana check with advantage.

Natural 20.

Oh!

Let's go!

You stand in front of the door.

What you see as when you walk, you win.

Wizards are known by their secrets, and when they have time, they conquer all.

You reach out.

You would need line of sight to what you're interacting with.

The music box had mirrors lined in it, and it's keyed to your name.

So because you are pregnant by a name cloak, you are your name.

And the top of the dome, cracked open to see the sky, can see the sky, which means when it has your name cloak embedded within it, it can see the wizard sky.

You can see it.

The mage hand appears

and you may open the music box inside of the room without being inside.

Okay, uh,

there's a lot going on, so I guess I'm just gonna ask really quickly.

So, did Ahm explain what the fox saw in how

injuries, like, star well, works?

Yes, yes.

And you did ask specifically, like, can you get a little eye line on

maybe like some past coven stuff?

Yes.

So, there's a little moment where Subi's like, great, I'm going to go grab my little music box.

But while I'm here.

Your mage hand, so a perfect recreation of your own grasp made out of that erulean glass force,

opens up the music box.

Subie,

she hears that.

And it's not just the comfort of hearing a song that she's heard before or that her friends were singing.

There is something again underneath that of like profound and tremendous relief that she can't quite put a name to,

but like she can like she like sort of heard herself exhale a breath she wasn't sure she was holding or why.

You exhale.

Some part beneath your consciousness

knows that everything is going according to plan.

And

there is, I think, a moment where you think of Grimoire,

who

knew this information and is endlessly fearsome.

When you move with cleverness, you move at angles that no one else can see coming.

And I think that you feel the music open, the music box open, and you

hear a kind of like

skittering noise of things moving within the library.

And as the music plays, you suddenly hear the door unlatch.

Cool.

And I just enter.

You enter inside and a tiny scorpion made of mirror glass

scuttles from the door where it just came from the music box.

You see the music box no longer has mirror inside it.

Okay.

The library has probably a dozen small mirrored scorpions made of fractured glass skittering around.

And several of them jumped down these wells and vanished down them.

And one came over to the door, unlocked it.

You enter into the space.

And

as you close the door behind you, the little mirrored scorpion relocks the door and scuttles back about eight feet, turns one of the panes of mirror glass in itself and puts a projection of the broken knock spell back on the door.

Man, this is so fucking cool.

Yeah, I think Suvi has this sense of like, oh, they're cute, but the a big difference between, between Suvi and Ahme is like, they are doing their job.

Suvi doesn't have like a sort of like pet or infantilization to them.

Like she doesn't want to go over and like like, oh, what a little buddy.

Like, you're doing your job.

I'm doing my job.

We're doing what we need to do.

And I think there's just that little bit of like, as

the one that unlocked the door kind of skittered back, Suvi gets just that little bit of scent of

the desert, her home in this place that like is so cold that there is not a lot of scent.

That like is very reassuring.

And she's going to make her way over to the well.

What they do is not her business.

And you see that the scorpions also

in their disregard of you pay you the same respect.

Yeah.

Sitting on top of the music box, which you briefly see,

because you hit it well, but you get to the center of the room and take a look to make sure that it's still where you left it.

And in this moment, suddenly, I think there's a...

Little bit of a jerk as you're like, why did I leave that here?

I did leave that here.

I guess I'm, I guess, you know, like there's that, that butting up against the things you don't remember.

But you see that on top of the music box, knitting scorpions out of broken glass is a mirrored spider that's like making them and shunting them off into the room.

And the tiny little silvery dancer in the music box as the rainroad plays.

And

you enter, you approach the central well as that one lone mirrored scorpion projects injury's knock spell back on the door.

Yes, Subi will make her way over, and I think to try to familiarize herself.

Like, is there a way to know what the stars on the shelves are without having to physically interact?

Give me, honestly, give me Arcana, but also just investigation is fine too.

The Arcana is a 15.

15.

Looking at it,

you can tell that this witchcraft is very potent, and you can tell that the organization of the stars that are on the shelves is personal and not

systemic.

Copy.

But give me an investigation check as well.

That's a 24.

You look around and gazing at the stars, you see images and flashes.

Everything is always outdoors, and everything is always at night.

There is a limitation of the magic.

This is what the stars can see, which means that they cannot see during the day and they cannot see inside or through buildings.

So every scene you see is some externality, something happening at night, something you know around.

And even like it seems like the weather can also block some of the sight.

That being said,

each of these is concerned with witchcraft, but also

citadel there's a lot of citadel here uh you i think you actually literally go and see one on the nearest shelf to the central well there's where the where the wall kind of come juts out a little bit you see you drunk as hell in a bathroom in gavrill uh

you know yeah all right so what you think is this isn't this system is actually quite practical.

These are the nearest memories, most relevant.

It's like a workbench.

It's like this is what the Witch of Wind and Stars has at her fingertips.

Everything in the wells, and as you look down in the well, it is bottomless.

Not only are you in a tall tower, you think this goes into the heart of the mountain.

This goes deep, deep, deep, deep, deep.

So, whatever this archival system is, anything in here has to be called up by name.

She said

Morning Wren song, which is Grandmother Wren's full name.

And so, like, anything that's not, it's like

something has to be on the shelves for her to like chance upon it and remember something.

Copy.

Then the question is: the one that's got me drunk as hell in the bathroom in Gravreil, does that look centered on me,

whose name she should not know, or on Ahmed, who she could reasonably know?

Ame.

Copy.

You caught a stray there.

It's not centered on you.

Totally fine.

Okay.

Well, I got a couple minutes because this went very well.

Before I do the coven thing that Ahme needs,

I remember back to what Steele said

about when she was searching for information and how she thought that a witch's magic might allow something to happen in a way that the wizards couldn't.

I think Steele just thought of the wrong witch, and I'm gonna try to pull up Yorin.

Speaking Yorin's name aloud,

stars rush from the well in front of you, and from other wells around you, too.

And whatever magic Yorin has been using to avoid detection from the citadel is well bypassed by this magic here.

And you can see why, Because this magic cannot detect Yorin where he is now, which is always the thing the Citadel is trying to do.

It's saying, show me Yorin, show me Yorin, show me Yorin.

Bypassing it by simply saying, what do the stars remember of the one known as Yorin?

They remember much.

And it paints a picture of the life of this individual.

Stars rush in front of you.

You see

memories of him walking the halls of the Citadel.

You see him standing in the firelight as the bombs fell in Silbri on your night that you went up towards Toma in your youth.

And as you collect these memories,

the spider stops knitting, scorpions, looks over, leaps to your side, and just begins to, with its eight different eyes, point eyes at all the stars of Yorin.

And as it blinks, you see each eye glows with a reflection of the light of the star, capturing everything.

I love wizards so much.

Give me a pure wisdom check.

17.

In the memories of Yorin, you see one of...

And also...

For the first time, you see that we've seen in the podcast, that we have seen here in this story of the Wizard, Witch and the Wild One, you see a table in Gavril

with your mother and father sharing a tankard.

A

slender, wiry, muscular man, Asian features.

He has salt and pepper hair, a full like Toshiro Mufuni style beard,

who smiles grimly, but does laugh at a joke told by Stone in this moment.

And you, for the first time, we have described the human form of Yorin in this place.

He

sort of smiles ruefully, but I think you, on that 17,

you see that the spider collects all these,

and you're seeing Soft and Stone.

And had you come here even a month earlier,

the heartbreak is you would not have known what to say because their name cloaks would have protected them.

Uh

I back away.

I'll let the spider collect it.

I think that's a little too much

in a big day.

And just gonna look around and do my best to get a really like snapshot, like thin slice of the nature of the like wizard

intel that Injury is collecting.

I don't know exactly what the witches have

to do with the Citadel specifically.

So that's stuff that can be like thought about and considered later.

But like, let's get it, let's get a snapshot.

Let's let that happen and kind of move on.

And

I think there's something inside of like how personal that felt that is keeping Suvi from wanting to pry more.

Like there's a lot of, oh, I could, I could see more of my parents, Or I could check and see if Steele's

how she's handling all of the war, if Silver's alive and well and thinking of me, and all of that gets shut down in a way of, ah, it's too personal and it's too close.

And then when

enough time has passed with the Yorin Star,

I will go back.

What's the easiest way?

Oh, the coven.

Oh, I know what Ame wanted, and I just can't help trying to be a little clever.

And I'm gonna ask to see anything of what the stars have seen of the King of Night.

You say the King of Night and experience the same thing you would say saying steel or silver, which is that he's held his breath and he doesn't, you don't have his name.

So you say the king of night and the stars do not produce anything because he is protected by what he is known as.

I'm gonna figure out your name

and what your fucking deal is.

But this is a good start.

Uh, and yeah, can I look for some micro fiche on how the last coven went?

You absolutely can, but I think that there's a trick here.

Um,

morning wren song at a conclave with her sisters.

Uh, so here's something interesting, right?

Uh, so you can say morning wren song, and I think that you can like, as you think about that, you actually can narrow that down somewhat.

So, as you say morning wren song, a bunch of stars pop up.

Okay, Boolean modifiers for the sky.

Plus, minus

Toma plus

Conclave plus.

As Sumi sort of trial and errors, go ahead and give me an investigation check with advantage.

19.

19, great.

You begin to pop things up and as you do, what you quickly realize is you scan through, you're doing this very quickly.

You're like, here's the ones with Wren, where she's not in Toma.

Here's, and the easiest one you realize is the names of people.

So you're like,

you know, you go like, oh, Ren, Hakeea, injury.

And a very small number of stars comes up, right?

Like, when were those three all seen by the same stars together?

And then you realize as you're looking through, you're looking for a coven stuff, but you realize for a moment that

Hakeea

is the only witch who's been here since the beginning.

She is the only witch of the woodland green there's ever been.

Oh shit.

That's dope.

So she has been here from the start of the Coven of Elders.

Pulling that,

you go to memories of Hakea that were seen by the stars, and you see an image

of a verdant prime evil forest.

Hakeia looks 16 years old.

She is young.

The manner of dress is like a primal one.

She is wearing, she's existed for centuries.

So she is wearing like this beautiful cape of feathers.

She is like has a painted face, a crown of like twined beads around her head and it falls in like a veil of beads.

She has a giant like like curved bladed weapon on her back and it's crawling to the branches of a tree.

And at the top, you see that she reaches up, and you can see the stars, and she's speaking with the tree in this moment.

And you can hear this language that you're, but you can, it's like you can't understand literally like the meaning of the language you're hearing.

But you have the spider is still recording this, and you see that she whispers to the tree.

She is weeping.

You see that there are some injuries.

She's like fought her way to this place.

You realize you're seeing the end of some kind of quest.

And there is a wand

that she rests from the tree, pulling this like charred place where the tree has been struck by lightning and pulls this thing from it and holds it.

And you see that appears and all of the stars in the library gleam.

And you look through the dome.

in a tall tower elsewhere in the palace.

The gleam of this wand in memory is matched by whatever is up in the top of that tower.

Ursulan,

how drunk does Ursulan get?

So, I mean, we could roll a consei for it, but the intention is so drunk.

You are under the poisoned control.

Hell yes.

He trained his whole life for this.

What are you talking about?

You see, off on a corner, Sokoro and Badze are in a lover's embrace, flowers blooming around them.

Heinruhl is looking at you.

He's like wrestled you so many times that he's exhausted.

You see, he vomits in a corner and immediately begins to drink more liquor.

You are so gone.

You're gone, gone, gone.

You see that little fairies flit around.

Heinruhl swats lazily with paws at fairies that sort of go by him

He goes

great bear the great bear

How many children he sire and I knew

I knew some of his children you knew the great bear

you knew

you knew the great bear

knew him

Well, I once saw him sleeping in the hoard of his spawn dancing and tumbling hither hither and yon.

I wonder if I was there.

I was probably there.

I was there.

So Koro and Badze sort of roll off of each other.

Badze yawns and stretches at her rib cage opens and bugs fly out.

And you see, she looks and says,

But you did not come of age there in our world.

I was here

with grandmother Ren

you know Ren

you know red you see Sokoro goes

Ren,

the grandmother, yeah

He

she raised me

she raised oh, she didn't raise me it was

we spent

Heinruhl sort of uh uh flops over and was more on his stomach and says

so

when was the last that you tread the world of spirits brother?

So long

so long ago

I was close.

I was close a few days ago

when I met Hollyman

you know Hollima

You see, uh, they look at each other and you see Sakoro goes, I do not know Hollimon.

He's fast.

He's very fast.

You see that Heinrule looks and says, and sort of sniffs at you.

Badze smiles, sort of fangs in her mouth, and she goes, Oh.

Are you then way shadowed?

Yes.

Oh, I am sorry.

And you see that she rolls up and kind of sits behind you and wraps her legs around your waist and her arms around your chest and says, I am so sorry, Ursula.

I grab, I like reach up and grab her hand.

It's okay.

I have

true friends.

And that makes it...

Okay.

You see that Sokor...

There's a long pause here.

Heinruhl kind of licks his lips, looking sleepy.

Sakoro sort of nods and says,

It is

good

to have true friends.

We have true friends as well.

You see, Badze smiles and whispers in your ear, Sikoro is my true friend.

He seems like a good true friend.

Badze looks at Heinruhl and says,

Heinruhl, do you want to go get us more liquor?

I think we're out.

You see, Heinru looks and says, How is that, Bod?

No, I have some more here.

He pulls some out, and you see that Sakoro goes, Oh, good.

There's a bit of a pause here,

and Sakoro looks at Heinruhl and you and says, Heinruhl, do you have true friends?

And you see, Heinrule goes,

My love is Grimor, witch of the wild hunt.

I have no need for friends.

I have my back,

my mate, and prey.

And you see that Sekoro

puts a hand on your knee, Ursulan, and goes,

Well,

spirits walk the world,

and we serve and protect

the witches of these realms, it is true.

But it is important to have true friends of our own kind, too.

Don't you think so, Ursulan?

So much.

I've met

Arima.

You know Arima?

As you say, Orima, you can hear a buzzing of insects around Hakea, and she kind of stirs in her sleep.

I

called her

sister,

and she

got mad at me.

No,

we are all brothers and sisters.

That's what I thought.

You see, Badze says,

brothers, sisters, siblings, all Ursulon.

There is

a brother of ours.

And she turns to Heinrule here, too.

That should be a brother of all of ours, I think.

Yeah.

You see, Sakoro looks and says

there is

a man in black who walks the road.

I met him

We talked

You see Heinrule kind of looks up at both of them and you see that Sakoro goes

he wishes

to speak with you

Ursulon

now

Badze says

as soon as you'd like

It is hard because he walks the road, and in this far-off place, there are few roads to tread at the ending of the world.

You see, Heinruhl looks and says,

And you see that Sakoro goes,

Not all of our friends are in this retinue.

There's another long pause here, and Badze turns to Heinrule and says,

It would serve you, too, Heinruhl,

to accept his friendship.

Heinrule sort of sways a little bit and looks at Sakoro and goes,

Does the witch of the woodland green

know that you speak on behalf of the King of night in this place?

You see Socorro goes, Calm yourself, Heinrule.

Badze, who's still wrapped, has like hugging you from behind.

Uh, Ursulan goes, Heinrule,

lighten up, and light comes from her eyes and twinkles around, kind of dazzling Heinruhl, just long enough for Sakoro to lift the axe and chop his head off.

Whoa!

Um,

Sakoro goes, now!

And you see Badze constricts around you pulling you down and says

it would do to be his friend Ursulan

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

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