WWW #28: The Staff

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

Fire in the Keep of the World's Heart lit.

Our companions now gathered around a window pushed open by Ursulon, protector of the wizard sky and guardian of the witch of the world's heart.

The scarf received from the apprentice of injury, witch of wind and stars, has been tossed into the snow, and the ringing in your ears, Suvi, is gone.

Shit, I should have seen that coming.

I mean,

just seems to be the

only thing that's changed.

It was a gift from Neif,

who I would like to kill right now.

Was it from Neith or was it from

her mistress?

Yes.

Her mistress.

Okay, well.

Her mistress is part of the conspiracy to eradicate me and my station.

Apparently, I just saw

through the fox's eyes.

Oh!

I saw her shouting at Marara, had her push up against the wall, wagging that pretty manicured finger in her face.

And she said,

Did this give you any pause at all?

Obviously, she had some idea.

And I can't read Marara's lips because it's a mask.

And then Indri says, Well, who knows?

Perhaps she knew more about your plan than you had let on.

And she did come here with those citadel wizards who are walking around the halls.

Maybe she knows something from them.

And then Marara said something.

And then

she said, Well, I don't know about you, Marara, but a hundred years ago,

their tricks were paltry.

And then 50 years ago, their tricks were paltry.

And 20 years ago, their tricks were paltry.

I keep saying as I finger quotes it.

But that

they are getting closer every time she turns around and time is running out.

And then they walked off, and then a fox's following injury.

Okay, they all want.

Okay.

Did she give you the scarf

herself and everything?

Uh, Neif gave it to me when I was walking back to my room.

She said that it was with her mistress's permission.

Look, I understand that that was an oversight on my end, and

my desire to give a witch a chance was immediately thrown in my face, and I've learned a lesson here.

What uh, is that that was your take?

Uh, okay, but that was happening right now.

Uh, yes, yes, so that means Indry isn't listening right now to the scarf, and there was something about it feeling like it was going somewhere, but unless it was recorded or someone's listening.

I want to find Neith right now, and I want to be very honest about what I want to do when I find her.

Well, let's just talk first.

We can just find her to talk.

But yes, let's go find Neif.

And what is it that's the explicit thing you'll be doing to Neif?

I want to snap her neck.

When you find her?

Yeah.

Well, we can't.

But after, after,

after, we...

After we talk.

And also, wait, you made a promise that you.

I know.

I said I want to, not I'm going to.

Okay, well, Ursulon can snap her neck.

No, I will not be snapping anyone's neck.

Why don't you do it?

I'll give you some leverage leverage going back to the okay.

You're not gonna keep it.

Hospitality rules.

So we'll seek out Neath.

That can be on the list.

It isn't important now.

Why was the Wizard Straw crying?

When?

When?

When

we first met, myself and the Wizard Straw.

Oh.

Oh, I didn't.

I must have missed that.

Maybe I should go check in with my people and see if there's anything new to add to the pile of what's going on right now.

Yes.

I mean, I will be unavailable after dinner as I do have arrangements that I've made.

That's right.

If you need me, it's not a date.

I'm going to drink until I'm sick.

Yeah, okay.

The thing is, you, Ame, you didn't get to see what it was like when Heinrolls, like, when he was a wolf, but his, like, mouth was on Ursulan's neck, and it was, like, kind of, like, please, oh no, but also like

It was a little it wasn't it was intimate, but in the way that like death is sort of intimate.

That's why he kept trying to get me to bet my life on the wrestling match.

Hey, does that feel?

Does that feel like a like a cool spirit thing that you guys do, or

give me a stealth check for the fox?

Uh-oh.

That's a 23.

You sneaky little guy.

You sneaky.

You hear in your mind, Ame.

Boss, you are not going to believe what I am seeing right now.

Uh, yes.

Uh, go for Fox.

This

lady is in a room.

Yeah.

Is that good?

What el anything else of interest?

Uh, yes.

Okay, I really can't move.

If I move, she's going to see me.

I saw where she was heading, and I ran over here and I hid under some stuff.

And if I move, the stuff moves.

Oh, I blink into the fox.

It is

blinding white.

You see something you haven't seen before, but that I, your dungeon master, have described before.

The fox is hiding under a pile of stars.

The light fills this place, and because he is in one of the shelves, there is no shadow being cast, and because he's under a thing that's creating a lot of light, it's almost impossible to see.

It's almost like he's behind a source of light, so he can see stuff, but he's totally hidden and has scrounged up and is like, it's,

it's perfectly irreverent and sacrilegious in the manner most keeping with the trickery of the fox, in that he has found a beautiful magical wonder and jammed his little body in there with its dirty paws.

And looking out, you warg into him and see injury.

The doors of the Library of Stars are closed.

She stands above a central well and raises her hand.

The telescope moves.

The dome opens and starlight pools into the room.

You see a number of new stars are pulled from the sky and when she pulls them you see the star they are pulled from remains and the light moves and rejoins some of the stars on the ground as though she is drawing water from a well or pulling

silk from a cocoon.

More light continues to come down into this place and as the ceiling shifts the telescope moves and the glass is resealed such that the snow stops falling into the library she raises a hand and says

morning wren song

and stars begin to float up from the wells

a huge assortment of stars surrounds her as she moves them in space, moving over to a central well filled with stars, she begins to pluck them from the air and suspend them perfectly in the center of the well.

And look down as snow covers it, and you see

a

beautiful young woman with a

patched blue corduroy witch's hat.

She is

gorgeous and

young, and you see that she is in a courtyard surrounded with icy statues, and you see that Indry, looking exactly the same, is walking alongside her.

The vantage point of this interaction is from on high, looking down.

It gives you a memory as you watch through the fox's eyes of the starlight over the skylight in the lavatory in Gavril, of how the ice fairies came down to the citadel.

And you see this young woman with the blue corduroy patched witch's hat walking up, and you see there's something tucked into her coat as she approaches through this courtyard of statues.

Injury in this memory of starlight goes,

Well,

my deepest condolences about my sweet sister.

And you see that the woman looks up and says, Um, oh,

that's very kind of you, and I hope just to commit myself well to her memory.

And a little rooster's head pops out of her coat

as

morning wren song

in the memory of starlight first comes to the keep of the world's heart.

You see that Indri watches the short conversation and touches a finger to the image of starlight flickering on the surface of the well opening.

And as she does, you see she studies it somewhat, looking at this moment.

Her looking exactly as she does now, and a young wren on her first coming to this place.

She picks up that star again, and the image fades from the opening of the well.

She moves it between her fingers as if in thought.

She waves her hand with dismissal, and the stars return to their place within the room.

She moves to the doors and walks out.

Fox goes, Do you get all that?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, well,

all right.

Do I know if...

Does it look like in this scrying or this

library of memories,

if the wells there are integral to

retrieving them, to playing the memories?

What you looked at in this place is that it doesn't look like this was a memory of injuries.

Or I'm sorry, memory from the stars.

Yes, this is a recording of the memory of the stars.

And

the power of that is

so vast, and yet must have its limitations.

You wonder if there are indeed any memories in this place of what occurred in times of day, or deep in dungeons, or underground, or in places like that.

And yet, herein this library is recorded everything the stars have viewed in the long history of Umora.

The wells themselves seem integral to it, but it seemed quite simple, and it seemed like there were two unrelated things that happened.

It seemed like Indri

in some way called upon new starlight into this place, that without her act of intervention, these memories could not be

improved upon.

That she called new light into the room of what the stars had seen since the last time she had been in the library was.

And

she

said

a name in full, a full name, to call a certain group of memories to her.

And the vast amount of stars that were there, you wonder if that is due to the long and prodigious life, and the fact that Grandmother Wren was in many places of the globe and many different stars under many strange skies could have been known to see her at one time in her life or another.

Fox goes,

Well, boss,

I can try to follow her, but I kind of had to cut across from her to get here before she got in.

So,

yeah, that's okay.

Um, you did so good.

I got some fish stew here for you.

Come on back, be careful, okay?

You got it.

I'll be there soon.

He was crying,

and it felt like I had betrayed or in some way given up the secret by even suggesting that he might like the pancakes?

No, okay.

And it was just very strange.

I haven't spent much time with children.

Yeah.

But he I did like Roro a lot.

He seems really nice.

I'm sorry.

Oh, Ames back.

Oh, oh, hey.

I think we need to go to a library of stars.

Why?

I think there's memories there

that we need to see.

Okay.

Uh, vague, but sure, I know exactly where that is.

Oh.

Is it a place we can go without offending our host?

Hey, if we get caught walking somewhere in the castle that we shouldn't be in, what are they gonna do?

Fucking kill you?

Do you think that because I'm supposed to be meeting with Indri

to ask her about what she knows,

that I could meet with her elsewhere, and that you could return since you know where that room is and maybe look up what that North Star might have seen during some of the conclaves.

Oh,

yeah, yeah, oh, okay.

Do you want to go to a library?

I feel so bad for so long.

Yeah, I want to do that really badly.

badly.

Oh, Suvi.

I'm going to go figure out everything that's going on.

Yeah, I'm going to figure it out.

Thank you.

Okay.

That's really nice.

I'll go into any library ever.

Suvi, overcome with emotion at the possibility of this incredible library having opened its secrets to you.

You depart headed for the Library of the Stars.

The scarf in the snow, do you leave it there in the snow?

Do you take it?

Is there anything else that you do?

I'm absolutely going to go back and get it.

And then just feed in some bullshit, see if I can't.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll take it and put it back on.

Great.

Go ahead and give me a deception check with advantage.

11.

Okay.

You put it on and, you know, basically like have a little short conversation

with your friends as you're departing.

And you're, are you headed straight for the library?

Or are you headed elsewhere first?

Right now, my game plan is I need to go check in with the other wizards.

Great.

You head towards the silver rampart chambers where your wizards are being housed.

Before I leave, like, just as I was leaving,

I think

Subi's just got a little bit of an earworm

and is humming the rain road as she goes and heads back.

That's all.

It's beautiful.

Still a little reminder.

Um, Ursula, where are you headed off to?

I'm gonna stay.

I'll stay at the.

I'll stay at the keep with Ahmed.

You stay at the keep with Ahme.

Ame, and you're just sort of kicking it at the keep before dinner.

Um, are there in the keep, there are there are multiple rooms.

Can I go explore them?

Can I

find out if

just in the way that the first witch of the world's heart left

writing on the cobblestones,

can I explore the words?

The symbology of our station.

Just in the way that the first Witch of the World's Heart left

symbology of our station in the cobblestones,

what other things have been left behind by the different witches that were in this keep?

Give me an investigation check.

Ooh,

14.

You look through the keep for clues that could have been left behind or messages from previous witches of the world's heart.

And you do feel

as though this keep is very sparse.

It is kept, after all, in the palace of the witch of the wind and stars.

It is her sanctum.

And even these keeps that are

kept for you

are houses for guests.

It is not your sanctum, truly, but rather a place

to hold you

in a palace devoted to an order of its mistress's choosing.

And I think you look out at all the other towers and keeps and wonder how old this palace is,

and if maybe

there were other keeps

in times before there were only five thrones in that chamber.

Looking at this place,

you see that there is a small hanging hook for a wreath, though the wreath is long gone.

And you see that beside it are a number of drawers that have some sewing supplies in them and mostly unclear, but you see a few pins, a bobbin of thread.

And And I think

seeing the thread and the pins, a little cushion for holding, you know, a little pin cushion for sewing kit,

it occurs to you in some way

that,

as humble as you are,

what the world's heart means,

the coming together of disparate things that seem to oppose one another.

If this coven itself

were in a domain, whose domain would it be in?

Perhaps there is some power here for you to work after all.

Ahme goes to wander the castle as Suvi heads on business to her imperial cohort.

Ursulin, with Ahme no longer staying in the keep, where do you go?

I'm going to stay in the keep.

Great.

And I'm going to go rubbaging through Ahme's stuff.

And see if I can find some paint.

Ooh,

I love that.

Sufi, you arrive at the Silver Rampart chambers.

You see Maddie, Straw, and Sworn are the three wizards that are here.

Maddie, the young girl, Straw, sort of stout helmswoman of the Meridian.

And Sworn is a

lanky, gawky, older sort of wizard.

He is, I'm going to say,

a transmutation specialist.

I will, as I finish humming and walk in,

you're like, oh, warm in here.

And take off the scarf and make a bit of a

sonic display of like taking it off, folding up, and I'm going to bury it under as much shit shit in the front of this room as possible just to dampen it.

From hell yeah.

Okay, catch me up.

What have I missed?

Strauss is

our sky.

We kept to our own in that room with the spirits as the conclave was occurring, but there was some talk of conversation between our honored friends, spirits of

woodland lantern and that tree speaking to the

wolf spirit that spoke to your friend and companion,

your protector.

However,

in our investigations of this place, go ahead and give me an insight check.

Yeah.

18.

Straw is really rattled and

messed up.

Maddie, you can see in this moment, is blushing pretty ferociously.

And you see that Sworn

looks okay for the the moment as well, but largely seems a little bit perturbed by some of what's happened between Straw and Maddie.

There's like a weird vibe in the room.

Yeah.

Okay, good to know.

Hold on.

What is happening?

Straw, what?

Are you crying?

What are you doing?

It's a heavy pause here.

Am I what?

No, what's going on?

You both look weird.

Did something happen?

Maddie turns her face down.

Sworn puts his tongue in his cheek, and she says, nothing of any sort happened.

I need you to talk to me.

Whatever's going on now, I don't have time nor the empathetic impulse of my friend the witch to suss this out slowly.

Fill me the fuck in or get back on the ship

I won't be I won't be spoken to in this way in this way.

And you see that

Straw whips around and Misty steps out of the room.

She vanishes.

And you can hear footsteps running down the hallway.

Sworn turns to you and says, She's lost it.

She's lost it.

Maddie saw her with the Witch of the Winted Stars.

Oh, what?

Hold on.

Immediately bust out, and I'm going to try to run her down.

Okay, hell yeah.

Give me a wisdom saving throw.

Seven.

Okay,

you fling wide the doors and begin to run her down.

As you do so, I think that behind you, you see

Sworn whip around and he is going to cast a spell on you.

I'm going to need you to make a wisdom saving throw again.

DC is 16.

Natural 20.

Natural 20.

Okay, he is casting hold person on you.

In this moment, as you fling the doors open and Sworn has cast hold person on you, what is your response right now?

It is trying to figure out, is this trying to stop me?

Like, is he trying to stop me for my sake or for

Straw's?

In the moment of hesitation as you look at him, bat the spell away effortlessly, hear that Straw is getting away as she sprints down the corridor, you hear.

There is a flash and Straw is eviscerated.

Grimoire has her fangs in her neck, tears her apart head off the body.

Limbs torn, uniform dismantled.

Grimoire picks up her torso and slams it to the ceiling above her to let the blood drain down into her mouth and gulp it down her throat.

Sworn is shaking in terror.

The frightened condition returns to you in this moment,

and the whole person was to save your life.

Thank you.

And I think there is

just...

That fear, the racing heart, the tunnel vision, ears ringing, like full fight or flight, a panic Suvi didn't even feel when she was almost choked to death by an undre.

This is something different and so much worse.

And I will spend my time composing myself.

And I will leave Grimoire to her awful work.

And I will resolve myself

quietly in my own heart to seeing her destroyed.

But I want to watch because she is a monster.

Do you step into the hallway to behold

fully what is happening?

Or

do you remain in your quarters with Sworn and Maddie?

I give a small nod to Sworn

and turn.

and from the doorway watch.

Even like soaked with fear, I will watch and understand her a little bit better.

Give me an investigation check.

24.

You watch blood drain down her chest.

Body hits the floor.

On a 24,

you watch the horror.

So pointedly

that at some point in the future, should Gromoir ever prompt a roll from you, you may choose to re-roll at one time.

Gazing at the horror, the force of Suvi's curiosity gives her a bravery to watch the unspeakable to know how to prevent it in the future.

If you give her enough time to finish,

I think there is a moment

where Gromoir

stands.

You see from behind,

she drags her forearm across the front of her mouth, wiping the blood from it.

You can see the stain across her arm as it moves down to her claws.

She turns her head just enough to catch you from the corner of her eye, not fully facing you.

She

fills the hallway.

With the force of her spirit,

there is a long shadow, deep darkness.

The feeling of eyes watching you from the tall grass.

Of knowing the power of something that is near you.

Of the worship you give to something when you know that it can destroy you.

She picks up the staff from the ground

and turns to prowl towards you.

She locks her gaze in your gaze.

Do you hold it?

I want to try with everything in me.

I am not a prey animal.

I will not look away.

I will allow you, separate from that success on that investigation, to re-roll your wisdom saving throw in this moment.

14.

You are

not a prey animal, and you are not a predator.

You are standing in this moment

with the bravery of conviction and of proving a point.

Something that is

in defiance of the world of prey and predator.

You are showing bravery, which

that type of bravery is

adjacent to, but not deeply within, the world of beasts that is Grimora's domain.

You are not challenging her, but you are not running from her.

And so like oil and water, you glide off of each other.

She approaches with the staff in hand.

kneels in front of you, holds it in both hands,

and screws the top off as a bloody contract falls out of it.

She gingerly deposits them,

gets up,

turns, falls to all fours, and lopes into the shadows and is gone.

Reach down, grab the contract,

leave the staff, return to the room.

as you walk back in uh maddie vomits um

sworn uh massages his forehead and says uh as you close the door says i am i am so sorry wizard's guy no no you have nothing to apologize for you

were correct and you have saved my life thank you

on that high investigation role you have seen creatures moving at their at like a fast gate like you saw the fox like trotting down the hall you think it was the fact that

you think it was the fact that straw was fleeing from you like you terrified her and she ran and you think that you think it would be dangerous to run at all it's quite dangerous at all it is a guarantee of death to flee within who knows a mile of this witch

um

you

hold the contract in your hand and cannot be certain how Grimoire knew it was there, but you see that Maddie looks up shaking and weeping.

She's an adult, she's 19 years old, but God, 19 is young, young child.

Yeah, and so you see Sworn,

whatever heroic Sworn has, he is not a warm man, so he does not interact with Maddie, who is shaking like a leaf and fucking terrified.

He goes,

Maddie,

has the wizard, Maddie, the apprentice, has been

has been smitten

by the Witch of the Wind and Stars and was approaching her with a poem that she had written.

Upon arriving at a small alcove above the Grand Hall, she beheld

the Wizard Straw weeping and promising her eternal service to the Witch of Wind and Stars.

That's our Nat one for folks listening at home.

Promising her eternal service, promising

the betrayal of the citadel, i.e.,

all of the various secrets.

And I believe the

contract, yes.

I don't believe there is anything left

for you two to do here within these walls.

Maddie, just shaking, goes, we're surrounded by monsters.

We're surrounded by monsters.

We're going to die in this castle.

I'm going to immediately.

I think it's while making eye contact with Sworn,

just sort of walk over and like catch Maddie up and hold her and just pat her back while she's crying.

Sworn like stiffens up in the strangeness of this like

military, like in the ways in which the citadel is a military, but it is a school, but it is also a home.

Yeah.

He has a moment where he doesn't reproach anything you're doing, but Maddie just sobs into your chest.

And you can feel it too.

Even sitting here in this moment, you still think the Witch of the Wind is dark the most beautiful face you've ever beheld.

And Grimoire, the most terrifying.

They are monsters, but you will not die here.

I want you to compose yourself on your own time.

Pack your things, and when you are ready,

I am ordering you to return to to the ship to wait for me there.

She looks at you, and in this moment where you can see that she has fallen in love with the Witch of the Wind and Stars, you have picked a perfect moment to make this order because she is more terrified of Grimoire based on what just happened.

She

heaves sort of a raggedy sigh, salutes, takes her sort of Imperial War staff, and gets up and is just going to march and takes the other direction turn out of your door.

Sworn stands there as well with you and says,

Wizard Sky, I am at your command.

I I

I am terrified of the Witch of the Wild Hunt for extremely rational reasons, but I maintain my composure in this moment.

I need you to go back to the ship.

I need you to use the telemet.

Report to home.

Let them know what you've seen and what has occurred thus far.

And if I am not back at the ship in three days,

leave

with the express hope from me that if I do not come back to the ship, I want you to return with as much firepower as possible and scorch this earth.

Your wish is my command, Wizard Sky.

He salutes, takes his staff, and marches out the door.

And I'm just gonna sit down, and once it's quiet,

just throw up.

Just

wait and barf.

Ame, you are perusing the palace.

Give me some kind of skill check, if you can, about what it is you're

attempting to do in this moment.

like, what are you, are you, if it's totally just you're ambling around, we can do a different check.

But, uh, where are you sort of headed?

What's do you have?

And do you have an intention in mind?

I'm going to give you a survival check.

In this moment, I'm

thinking about the message that the sewing kid gave to me.

I'm holding the bobbin in one hand,

holding the bobbin in one hand and the needle in the other, and I'm kind of wandering around

what is what is the thread that connects us and I

am

i i in much in the way that in a in a normal town I would go around and take the temperature of things and go to a bakery and listen to the local gossip and just

understand

this place.

It's so old and there's so many witches that have come and gone through here.

Grandma Wren was here.

In the citadel, I learned that there are not just nature spirits.

There are spirits of places and feelings and items.

And in some ways, I want to get to know the spirits of this place.

You can give me a survival check, a nature check, or an insight check.

You choose which one.

Nature would be like looking for the spirits of this place.

Survival would be looking for like the current denizens of this place,

like the other witches and their retinues.

And then insight might be looking for

the spirits of like the palace more than like the natural terrain that it is on.

Oh, I'd like to meet the spirits of the palace.

I've already met the

little ice fellas.

22.

On a 22, as you're moving around, is the fox accompanying you now at this point?

Mm-hmm.

If he wants to.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You see that there's a sudden

little click, and you hear,

and your jewel hopper jumps out of its little cage

and bounds over to a bucket of coal

that is near a fireplace that at least looks like Neif has not yet had a chance to clean out.

It's like a small fire in this like little antechamber.

There's like a small two-seat sofa, sort of at the base of like a spiral staircase, like a weird little waiting area at the base of a tower.

And there's a small fireplace keeping it warm, and a little bucket of coal kept there to burn.

And you see that the jewel hopper goes

and jumps onto a piece of coal and begins to rub its legs together.

And there's a tense moment, and then you hear,

get off!

And a chunk of coal rolls out of the basket, and you see the cricket has licked at the coal, and there's a big chunk that's come off, revealing a diamond center of this chunk of coal.

And you see,

and two tiny little carbon legs, and two little arms.

The legs have only two claw-like toes, and the hands have only two little claw-like fingers.

Two beady diamond eyes open up on the top of the lump of coal, and a

cough as carbon filings, almost almost like those magnetic draw face of a beard pops out of this little coal spirit.

Get off of me, you just

think try to do.

Oh, I stick another couple of really shiny looking rhinestones into the little vial for Rin.

Oh, you've named the jewel hopper Rin?

Rin jumps back in.

I love that.

He starts eating the starts sucking the color out of the rhinestones.

I stop her at Baka.

And you see the little coal spirit looks down and says, oh, that's embarrassing.

And goes over to the fire and starts to rub ash over the like rub ash and soot over the coal that reveals the kind of diamond interior.

Sorry, sorry, that's embarrassing.

Oh,

that's all right.

You know, they say what's on the inside that counts anyway.

No, I don't.

I'm just a humble coal spirit.

I don't want anyone to know.

Oh, well, your secret's safe with me.

I'm Ahme.

Tough.

Tough?

Tough.

Tough?

Tough.

Tough.

Like cough.

Or a tea.

So.

Oh, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Top.

Well, I better get back in the bucket so I get burned alive.

Is that something that you enjoy?

Huh?

This is a job for coal.

True.

What happens to you after you get burned alive?

Um.

Do you become a soot spirit?

Probably just the top part would burn, and then I gotta go find more

coal to rub on me.

But, you know, it's it's for work.

It's a living.

Say, I haven't seen you around these parts before.

Uh, no, this is my first time here.

I'm the new Witch of the Worlds, Heart.

My my grand my mentor, Grandmother Ren, uh, passed away, and so now I'm here, and the conclave is meeting in order to uh uh

discuss

removing me and my station from the world.

Removing your station from the world?

Yeah, that's one less job.

I know

There should be more jobs.

Is that right?

Yes, that's what I'm always saying.

You see, he goes, Well,

I'm going to tell you, I'll tell you a secret.

I'm a

well,

someone in the palace is a gem,

but you know, there's not anything gems do.

They sit on hilt of sword or up on a jeweled dagger.

And what good is that?

Just sit there and do no good for for nobody?

So,

so I've been, I've been, I, I've been a piece of coal, I've been burning in fires here for

a couple hundred years.

Did you ever meet Grandma Wren?

She was, uh, I suppose back in the day, she was a pretty witch with a corduroy, patched corduroy,

like mine.

Yes, yes, rooster,

yes.

Oh, Taro, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, well,

I knew Ren.

She was very kind.

She found my secret out, too, and she never told anybody.

Oh,

that's Grandma Ren for you.

Well, she was always very nice to me.

She's she,

you know, some spirits don't get as much reverence as the others and cold spirits the witch of well, the mistress of this place, she's

never goes out of her way to be rude, but you know,

sort of everything's just in its place, and it's how it goes.

But I don't know, we kept Grandma Wren warm her first night here, and she seemed awful grateful for it.

And it's not, it's not why you do it, but it was nice that someone appreciated it.

I don't know.

Yeah, of course.

You should take pride in a job well done.

And, you know, yeah,

it's nice when other people appreciate it it too.

And that's exactly right.

And we talked with her and she, you know, but

well, she had a hard time of it, that's for sure.

Yeah?

What was hard about it for her?

Well,

I reckon if your job is everybody working together

and there's less everybody,

then that job gets harder.

Back, oh, I remember.

I remember.

This was I was a young, young spirit.

This was actually when

the witch of the wind and stars had just become the witch of the wind and stars.

Oh, how long ago is that?

Oh, centuries ago.

Long, long time.

Yeah, she looks pretty good for her age.

Yes, well, she there's the only I've been here long enough that I've seen all the witches change except one.

Which one?

Hakea.

She's never changed.

Yeah, she seems so old.

Not a polite thing to say.

Oh, no, honestly.

No, we're just talking here and

we're just talking.

We're just talking.

No judgment attached to that.

Oh, yes, yes, looks old.

Yeah,

but uh

when she was first here, the witch of the wind and stars was uh had a hard time

because you know there were so many voices in the coven.

And with all those voices, the witch of the world's heart had a lot of speaking to do.

Because when you speak for everybody and there's a lot of everybody to speak for, then the speaking for everybody speaks quite loud.

And I imagine that

if you're the person who doesn't like a lot of people speaking together and prefers just speaking on your own in a empty castle, castle.

That it's uh you'd prefer it if there were fewer people, huh?

Well,

maybe so.

Some prefer their solitude, and others

like to

keep with a friend by the fire, I guess.

I'm in the latter category.

You can count me in.

You shouldn't have a fire unattended.

That's dangerous.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, but I but I trust at least for apprentice, uh, keeps you well-fed or keeps you helping with helping you with your job.

Which one?

I'm sorry, what?

Can't even learn their names anymore.

She goes through them fast enough.

Why does she go through them so quickly?

Well,

you didn't hear from me, but.

Oh, yeah, I look like I'm zipping my lip.

Wait, actually, I look like I'm sewing up my lip.

As you do, the the fox looks up for a second.

It's almost like there's a little line of thread that follows just the motion, almost like the little gold of a goldfish swimming up a staircase.

Toph goes,

Well,

some are here for a while and some are here real quick, but I'd say if I was an apprentice to the Witch of the Wind and Studies, there's one thing I wouldn't want to do,

and that's look like I'm learning magic.

She doesn't

want an apprentice taking over for her because

I mean, because why would she?

She serves

herself

alone.

Well,

the Witch of the Wind and Stars doesn't have to be that way.

The last Witch of the Wind and Stars did a great job of training her apprentice.

Clearly.

Yeah, it was injury.

Yes, yes, I.

I yeah.

She killed her.

Well, I'm

yeah, killed her old mentor.

I better get back to the bucket.

Actually, can you get and you see the fox says, oh, no doubt, here you go.

And then

gets his nose under Top's butt and hucks him back into the bucket.

It was so nice talking to you.

Nice to get a little bit of conversation.

I just, you know, this staircase doesn't see a lot of use, especially ever since the keep up above stopped being used.

Which one was up above here?

Oh,

take three guesses.

It was the watching fire.

Well, you didn't give me a chance to guess, but

I would have guessed it.

You gotta be quick with a cold story.

You gotta be quick.

Thank you so much.

It was really lovely to meet you, Toph.

It was lovely to meet you.

Well,

come by sometime, maybe, and,

you know,

make sure that your fire keeps going.

Oh!

You see, here it gets very.

He looks up and sort of his little sooty cheeks kind of beam.

He says, if you wouldn't mind,

that's an awful kindness of you.

I really appreciate that.

What can I call you again?

Ame.

Ame, you can count on old Tough with his two fingers any time you want.

Thank you, Tuff, with the two fingers.

He smiles and sort of closes his little arms on himself, and there's just a little lump of coal on top of the bucket again.

Fuck your cute scene.

What a total shift from six seat to fucking Amade Skeet.

Woo, baby.

Wiping off fear, terrifying.

It's a big castle, you know?

We are in different ghibli movies.

I want to be in your one.

I'm over here, full-spirited away.

You got fucking Mona Nokate nightmares

going on over here.

Ursulan, you do find a small series of paints here in the keep of the world's heart.

What do you do?

I'm going to just

work on my perspective and draw a small stack of pancakes just on the back side of the shield.

Give me like a performance check.

16.

I think we can say you have an established gift for painting.

You're actually quite a lovely artist.

You render this beautiful golden brown stack of pancakes with little.

Describe it for me.

What does it look like?

I think it's pretty simple.

Honestly, probably closer to like a...

and small.

Small, and on the back of the shield, it's just

a light outline with some a little bit of shading of just a stack of three pancakes on a plate.

I think the three of you converge again.

And Ahme, you realize that you don't really have time to go upstairs right now because dinner is about to start.

You hear it being called.

You get to the Grand Hall, and you see Suvi leaving the chambers, the silver rampart chambers, which, given the gruesome mess that is here, you are glad that you have

relieved your other soldiers so you don't have to fucking come back to this place of nightmares.

But you do see, as you walk through the ramparts, the golden light of the massive doorway fall across the cliff's edge along the pier with the meridian and see Sworn and actually see him taking a little bit of his commander's

cue from his commander as he wraps Maddie in a cloak and they rush across the pier together safely to the meridian.

Hey, what?

Is that

this really okay?

I've sent my last two wizards.

Your last two

Grimoire

slaughtered

straw in front of me.

Oh my god, I'm so sorry.

Oh my god.

Oh, Suvi.

Did she.

Why?

She ran.

Well, yeah, but but

why was she fleeing?

You see Suvie fighting back the things she wants to spit

about

the witches here.

It was all a lot,

and the pressure they exert

on us is not insignificant.

Oh, Subi, I'm so sorry.

Is there anything...

Is there any way I can support you?

Hey.

I slip my hand into yours if you allow it.

Yeah, Subi squeezes your hand back.

You're supposed to be

the bridge

in both directions.

Yeah.

To spirit and to people.

It doesn't feel

like

your coven cares much about us at all.

No.

No, I don't know that they care much about anything outside of their

purviews.

It seems to me like Grandma Ren was the only one that

really cared about that.

Give me an arcana check, Suvi.

3020.

There was a time in the summer at the cottage.

When you were kids, where you found some of Grandma Wren's boots and walked around in them, as little kids always do when they stomp around in big, big shoes.

And you're just looking at Amay,

so,

you know, physically much less in stature than you, standing here with her fox.

Her throne is an armchair, her keep at the edge of the palace, swallowed up by the mountainside.

And as she talks about purview, and you look and have this spitting venom that you're holding on to because composure means your life in this place,

you

see

the shoes of the world's heart are enormous.

And you see that Ame is teeny tiny.

And you, I think, realize you perfect in perfect arcane geometry, you see the relationship that witches have to witchcraft and that the Coven of Elders has to its stations so clearly.

And it's so different from wizardry and it doesn't click for you until this moment where you go, oh, if a station has

not even a bad witch, but of course it's possible to be a bad.

Like you know the consequences of being a bad wizard.

You get drummed out and you're in a shitty guild.

What are the consequences of being a bad witch?

What if one of these witches trains a bad apprentice?

And all of a sudden an entire aspect of the world is tended to by someone who maybe has good intentions, but is incompetent or unwise, or maybe they're just new.

And you think about Ame with all of the skills and golden heart that you know from a long lifetime that she has as being

no one has asked you to run the citadel.

And I think that whatever your emotional reaction to the screwiness of this system is, you're suddenly like, oh,

the relationship of a witch to a station is of a pilot to a ship, and the size of the witch is so small in comparison to the size of the station, unless that witch does what you know wizards can do, which is claw across a whole lifetime to develop the skills you need to actually be worthy of what you have been given to represent.

I think as all of that hits, Subi kind of squeezes your hand again and pulls you into a hug.

Less for her, and less for you, like even though it feels encapsulating, but absolutely for her.

And I can feel that.

And I just hold her back.

In the middle of an attack, you led them in a song.

how did you know

I didn't

you don't ever know

you just have to trust

and I trust you

to trust me

despite

you know

yeah

I trust you

I'm gonna try to work be worthy of that trust

I won't let them hurt you.

I believe that.

You see the fox looks up at you, Ame.

Looks over to you, Suvi, trots over and nuzzles your leg, says, we won't let them hurt you.

We shouldn't run.

Ursulan, as you approach the two of them standing in the hallway near the keep,

on the way to the great dining hall, as you turn the corner, the fox in between them, their two toes pointed to each other in this embrace.

A perfect cat's cradle of golden thread connects Sufi and Ame in this moment.

That was Lou Wilson as Ursulan, Erika Ishi-e 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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