WWW #22: Bring Them to Me

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number.

Bright morning light cascades through the windows of the Tower of the Clove.

The number of skyships has decreased slightly.

Some Some half dozen have taken off from the citadel during the hours of your rest, leaving still roughly 40 skyships.

Some remain within the Erian docked at various courts.

You see others, and this is the first time, Suvi, I think you've seen this since childhood, patrolling the desert.

out beyond the Erian.

As you awaken, I think you awaken quite early.

So it's not the sort of burning, hot, bright desert day yet.

There's still a little bit of that

crispness or newness of a sun that is low in the sky at the beginning of the day.

It is coming up and casting long shadows in that dawnlight.

You see groups of wizards, even here in Malacanth, marching.

You see that there are noises of

shouts from other areas as people are getting saddled up.

It looks like the Citadel is being very activated.

Down below, you still see that there are a number of skyships docked in Haverward.

You do not see a glow.

And by the way, at the beginning of the day, you're like halfway up the area, and so Haverward is far, far below, but there is no gleam of orange in the gates.

As

you awaken, Yulia the page knocks on the door of your bedroom, Suvi.

Immediately opened.

She's been up.

Wizard Sky,

you are summoned to the Tower of the Sword.

Noted.

Thank you.

I'm going to go run and find the squad.

I think Ursulan is in the kitchen and ready.

It takes me a long time.

I keep forgetting I have a kitchen, so

you hear steps downward, then steps upward,

and then back downward again.

Ursulan's just sipping an espresso, like his eyes looking up as you're above,

down,

just, but knowing you're on the way.

Yeah, you hear kitchen right before.

I'm like, hey.

Hi.

We've been summoned by Steel.

All right.

Ursulan is going to saddle the shield on his back, Wavebreaker at his hilt or at his hip, and is ready to go.

Amy!

I bust down the stairs.

You hear,

really quick.

Hold on.

Are you going like fully packed and ready to leave?

Like you're bringing your luggage.

Yes.

Hey, do you...

Real quick,

do you want to telegraph that you're about to leave right now?

Uh, no,

we can always come back here.

Can we?

To my tower?

Yes.

I do believe Ahme may have a point in terms of the amount of eyes that will be on us coming and going from.

I mean, we do have to pass through the Archmage Silences Tower.

Fair.

Could we.

And I know this may seem strange.

What if we asked Mr.

Callum to hold on to her things?

That's a great idea.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You guys swing by Candle Street Bakery.

I'm also very hungry.

You see, Mr.

Callum looks up and says, Oh, are they?

Welcome back to Candle Street Bakery.

Could we have

six zucchini sandwiches?

And could we leave this here?

I'd be more than happy to look after it for you.

Just I'll store it here behind the bar.

You see, he grabs the bags and stows them off in a corner.

Thank you so much.

Please ensure that nothing happens to it.

Mr.

Callum,

do you know anything about this, the taboo of passage?

Not rightly, I don't think.

No.

Okay.

Do you have any taboos as a spirit that you must abide by?

Am I a spirit?

Oh, uh,

I think so.

Uh, you can't look at me.

I have a strong sense of uh

in my mental list, I do not qualify this as a spirit and more of just like a supercharged spell.

Oh, but that's on me.

Okay.

Uh,

what do you consider yourself?

Loop?

A biker.

Oh.

Hmm.

How long do you keep your meringues in the oven for?

You see that he has become very quiet.

Sort of looks at you.

Damn it, she broke my favorite baker.

Mr.

Callum says,

Well, it depends on the size of the meringue and the type.

Oh, okay.

A Gauthmai meringue and a Kemsarazan meringue, baked for different amounts of time, different qualities of sugar in them.

And you see, he goes and sort of softly sort of starts speaking to himself as he wanders back into the kitchen to sort of look at

the various baked goods back here.

Six zucchini sandwiches coming right up.

Mommy, did you break my baker?

I don't know.

Why?

I will say, Ama, if you've prevented us from receiving any more marshmallow and chocolate croissants,

I will be angry.

Sorry.

Mr.

Callum walks back out and says, I says, all right, sandwiches are here, ready to go.

If you want any croissants or any of the baked goods here,

the tartar citron have just come fresh out of the oven.

Break me off a piece of that, please, sir.

He cuts you a little slice of this massive Tartar Citron.

I don't rightly think I am a spirit.

Oh.

Spirits have always existed, haven't they?

Sure,

yes.

Their world has always

been there.

Well, then that can't be me, can it?

Well, I don't know.

Do you want to be a spirit?

What would you like me to call you?

If it's Baker, a baker, then that's what you can be.

Well, my name is Mr.

Callum.

He looks at you and squints his eyes and says, if I know the time of day and the place of my birth,

and I know

why I was made, then I can't rightly be a spirit, can I?

More a spell than a spirit.

Oh,

I'm sorry if

I've upset you.

I'm not cross.

I can't be cross.

I don't want to be cross.

Can I get you anything else?

I'm going to do an insight check on

him.

Just to see if there's anything that I can do or say that might

sort of

ameliorate what seems to have been a misstep on my part.

24.

I think on a 24 insight check, you remember conversations that Grandmother Wren would have with different members of the community in Toma.

And there were some people that would come up and talk to Grandmother Wren about her adventures and the wide goings on of the world because they were curious.

And with some people,

she would share that she knew much.

And other people

only knew her as the witch of Toma.

And there were people,

once or twice

that would enter a conversation that was at a different depth than they were used to seeing Grandmother Wren in.

A county fair where someone who was a little bit more traveled or a little bit more wise would be speaking to Grandmother Wren about matters of the Empire's presence in Akam

or what was happening at Port Talon or at Joris.

And you would watch the discomfort when someone who knew Grandma Ren from the shallow end of the pool suddenly discovered that she was actually standing in the deep end the whole time and was just taller than they thought.

And

talking to Mr.

Callum in this way,

Ahme,

you realize you're a creature of the deep end of the pool and you are constantly starting deep conversations in a way that to lots of people will be really distressing.

Your

glib invitation for this Tamori to have a panic attack existential crisis is because there's no part of the universe you don't feel interested in looking at.

And that suddenly you realize is an immense gift.

It's a superpower.

You're tough and your heart is strong.

And there's lots and lots of people who will never want to join you there.

Is that good for a 24?

God damn.

Brennan Lee Mulligan.

That was for my character.

That 24.

I need to

sit

with

this

a minute.

Mr.

Callum,

have you you ever, and I'm just trying to like, haha, a thing has happened, and I think the witch has temporarily gone offline.

Let me try to save this.

Mr.

Callum, have you ever met

another Tamori of a like more concentrated Aerith than yourself?

I have, yes, that's true.

Okay.

Adina.

Adina's come by every once in a while.

Sometimes when wizards come and Adina is escorting them,

she is of a more concentrated era than I.

And there's others too.

So maybe

whatever you are and however you see yourself,

you are a part of a type of thing that exists and it exists in a broader way than maybe you were given to know before.

And

I think

all things that live hope mostly for community and worry little about taxonomy, unless you're a wizard.

That's kind of our weird thing.

Community.

Yeah, that's it.

And has done something simple in his mind that allowed him to feel good.

Yes,

that's it.

Community.

And he's like, I got him.

The feeling of belonging.

Yeah, a little

hi-fi.

See, he shrugs and says, Spirits and birds, all hibbledy-hobbledy.

The important thing is everyone loves a good sandwich.

And Mr.

Callum, I must say, these are some of your best yet.

Oh, thank thank you kindly.

Bear, the strongest man in Silbrid.

That's me.

Bear, you have to try this tart.

It's so good.

Oh, just a bite?

Yeah, there you go.

You guys leave from this extremely charged bakery interaction.

How's Ame looking?

You know,

this is helpful.

I think

Amy is thinking, as we're processing this as she goes along, and she thinks, oh, I just can't

start out with deep stuff with people all the time.

I have to learn small talk.

Ah, okay.

I think

helpful, helpful, helpful, helpful.

You suddenly, now that you have recovered your memories, you remember Grandma Wren, who occasionally would come back and be like, I was flung into an endless pit.

And then the next day would be like, these goats are more rambunctious than the older goats.

Like, you realize, like, oh, a huge skill, a huge part of the job.

I have fucking vastly overlooked.

Because you were always just flanking her, and she would take the charge on small talk and then would talk to you later about the heavy stuff.

Like, do you remember, Amy, how I went in there and sutured that wound?

There was an infection that was spreading more than just the flesh, but in the spirit as well.

So she was always using.

It's honestly

as perfect as Grandma Ren was, just maybe actually a small oversight on her part that she was very good about giving you the heavy stuff and then actually was not great at clocking her own skills like bedside manner, easing people in, being different people for different people in an interaction.

Yeah,

you don't know what you don't know.

And it's hard to teach something that

you have acquired not through learning necessarily, but through experience.

Oh boy, oh boy.

Okay, okay, Okay.

I'm excited.

I'm gonna learn to talk about the weather.

See, the fox looks up at you and goes, am I a spirit?

Uh.

Okay.

And you see, he has cut off.

You arrive at the Tower of the Sword.

Up on the balcony.

Where Subi you first spoke with Steele upon arriving back in the citadel this time.

You see Steele

looking tired but not haggard.

She does okay on like three hours of sleep.

You see that she's awake and she's got her golden armor on,

has some sort of schematics and stuff out that she closes up in a book as you all arrive.

She looks and says,

Huh, Suvi, good to see you.

How are you holding up?

Hey, been better.

I don't care for these,

you know, gold threads running all over the citadel like this, but ultimately,

it is what it is.

Oh, Slate mentioned that you came by.

Snitch.

Mm-hmm.

Did you?

You wanted to know about Fort Kieran.

I did.

She wants to know about silver.

Oh, great.

So we're just going to blow up all of our fucking spots right now.

Cool, cool, cool, cool.

She looks at you and says, we don't have reports back yet.

Subi, I don't know but but losses suffered by the reinforcements have been minimal i'll take that

i just kick on a shoe a little bit

um

yoran was there

what what

at fort kieran

oh

it's being held by

sorcerers of the red fleet right now but the beasts that attacked

they weren't beasts.

Okay.

Do you have any sense of what there...

Was this a purely

military move to reactivate?

Why?

Why are they doing?

Why now?

Why him?

I don't know.

What I know is that Fort Kieran

is where

I would attack if I wanted to get a foothold in a part of the empire where I could attack a lot of different places next.

So,

Fort Kieran doesn't, it's not in a part of the empire that produces a lot of our wealth or a lot of our resources, but it is a strategically significant place for them to

cloak where they are next.

So, if you think about it, like a boxing match, it's not a blow that's going to send us to our knees, but it does mean that they've they've got a lot of choices about the next punch they throw.

Copy.

Okay.

So we're trying to figure out

what the ultimate ambition is, but it's a good first move for keeping us in the dark about what their ambition is.

I apologize for my ignorance, but you said they were not beasts.

Do you mean that they were men who could turn into beasts?

Shape changers.

In the information we got back,

you know, I don't have definitive proof, but one of the beasts that attacked smelled of iron and was able to overcome

some

resistances on some summoned creatures.

There were a lot of conjuration specialists at Fort Kieran who summoned some spirits to the aid of Fort Kieran, and one of the beasts went through them like tissue paper.

And moreover, took a familiar form based on reports.

There was no, you know, there were limited survivors, and the visuals that we got, you know, they attacked at night, visibility was low, but I'm certain.

Or, or

if it's not Yorin, it's someone that had that exact.

It was Yorin.

It was Yorin.

I'm going to look over

at Ursulan.

And I think the look on Suvi's face

has everything to do with, like, do we tell her what we've talked about over the diagrams?

I think Ursulan will nod to Suvi.

I do not know if you already know this, but I have seen beasts like Yorin

from my time in the spirit world.

He takes the form of something known as a Garan.

You know this creature?

I do.

You have not seen these creatures in the forests or fields of Umora, I take it.

No.

Okay.

Where did you acquire the charts of those creatures?

Well, we didn't know that they were.

The chart was based on urine.

The chart was based on shape changers from Gauthmai.

And did you make the page artificially smell as he does?

She

looks at you here and narrows her eyes.

Like your tampering with the page is what allowed you to come into that knowledge.

And she goes,

yes,

the smell of the bile and the iron and everything else like that was a part of alerting any possible

soldiers to those ends.

And

ultimately, I wanted Grandmother Wren to remember because Grandmother Wren's associations with Yorin had been very limited.

Yorin had never worn that form in front of Grandmother Wren.

But they'd met.

He's a shape changer.

Had I known that Grandmother Wren had had meetings with Yorin?

No.

She mentioned, I mean, she mentioned, in talking about the Akatator and stuff like that, she never said that Jorn was in the Akatator, but she mentioned when she talked about the night Suvi came, she would have said that Yorin was there.

You You know, she knew that much.

She knew that the night Suvi first came to the cottage, that it had been Yorin, Steele soft and stone altogether.

And

you see that she

looks up and says, Thank you for telling me this, Ursula.

I appreciate it.

Of course.

Steele,

I did not know about Grandmother Wren's dealings with Yorin, but it seems that that smell is specific to him and not to other shapeshifters of his kind.

Also, his name

means son of Garin

and his iron,

the iron smell about him.

Traditionally, iron is used to ward against spirits or bind them in some way.

Well, that holds out.

Plenty of us have fought other shapeshifters before, but that iron smell I've only ever smelled on one man.

I appreciate your counsel in this regard, Ame.

Suvi, you see, she turns to you and says,

So, Fort Kieran is one element of what's going on.

The more harrowing element,

the Citadel has to be very careful right now.

This is the opening of a new gambit, and

where and how

we commit ourselves ourselves

will

define the next

five years,

ten futures of the empire.

So we need to make choices and we need to make them swiftly.

But

for the moment, we're fighting in the dark.

You said that we are at the precipice of either a slow or quick ramp up.

In your estimation, what is

better for us

we're wizards

given time we win

slow is better fast is bad

is there anything that we can do to stall them out and get more information

that's what we're looking into but it's a it's

right now what's happening is we're just trying to suck up as much information from every part of the empire as we can And what's happening right now over in the dome is everyone is attempting as fast as possible to separate

truth from fact.

What is essential, what matters.

And within all of that intelligence, knowing that there is shifting ground, what you saw occurring here at the Citadel is

following the attack on Fort Kieran,

We were able to isolate three possibilities of how the fort fell so swiftly.

So even in defeat, there is opportunity, always.

The only way we were able to isolate how the fort could have been taken, followed those avenues and discovered a thread of espionage and betrayal in one of them.

And pulling at it led us not only to the Citadel, but to many other places as well.

But to the Citadel, one thread led.

Hence the raids in Haverward.

Correct.

Well, let's get to the hard part.

Ame has to leave.

We have to go with her.

What's the best way out?

Steele sits back.

As of this morning, you have two days before disaster falls.

And it's not just to get to Toma.

From Toma, I must go to

a very far away location.

You are moving with a certainty

that

doom will befall you.

Doom will befall you if you do not join a meeting of, you said, this coven of witches to which you belong, presumably against your will?

A council, and it's a role I have inherited.

That I am magically compelled to do.

That I understand.

You were contacted by this coven and threatened with destruction if you were not able to make this meeting.

No, they would never be so crass as to do that.

We were contacted and told in no uncertain terms that I was to meet with them.

A diviner from the court of Kobani was the one to tell me

that certain destruction would follow if I were not to go in three days.

Do you have which diviner of the Court of Kabani?

A trusted friend of Grandmother Wren's.

A trusted friend of Grandmother Wren's, as I

was?

Do we?

Yes.

Okay.

And we're saying a trusted friend of Grandmother Wren's rather than

what they are called.

Oh, gosh, so tired.

I'm so sorry.

I will do it.

You know what we consider a great diviner?

Someone whose prophecies are true 51% of the time.

That's a diviner that is of incredible use to the Empire.

Now, I don't know who this friend of Grandmother Wren's is, whose name you don't wish to divulge here,

but

I will say, I would love to go and speak to the diviners of the court of Kabani to see if there is any

evidence of this coming to pass.

Again,

you must know, even as a young witch, how trivially easy it is to fool anybody with an illusion, especially those wizards so fond of peering out unguardedly into the endless expanse of creation.

I heard once it was a mistake to see the serenity of witches and mistake that for

inexperience.

It sounds like we're not doubting the serenity of witches.

It sounds like we're doubting wizardcraft, which, as the sword of the citadel, I maintain the authority to do.

Yeah, okay.

Diviners can be wrong.

Right.

And they can especially be wrong if they are being fed information, perhaps by powerful witches with an agenda,

to see certain things that are to their advantage.

Let me be clear.

I'm talking about taking an hour or two to go get a second opinion.

Ame looks to Suvi.

Look, you heard it here.

More information, the ability to prepare, to know,

is how we find victory.

You are quick to act, and we are quick to check and check again.

Thank you for trusting and waiting for this conversation.

And I'm saying that with a bit of an emotional lean towards steel to be like, she wanted to dip yesterday.

Take the dub.

You've given me what I've asked for.

Anything more, I leave at your feet.

I can wait two hours at most.

Let's go discuss this

with the wizards of Kabani.

Perfect.

Uh, you see that she uh gets up

before we go

Suvi?

Yes,

Suvi?

What?

What?

The

oh, oh, okay.

So you left.

Uh, thank you for the names.

You did leave them in a book with other pages in it.

What can you tell us of the wizard's stripe?

Okay, I thought

if you can't say Suvi and then not wait for me to take too long to explain, what do you know about the Wizard's Stripe?

You had Badger written in there, too.

Snooping

in my journal

that I left with a note for you in the middle of it in a ribbon.

She smiles and looks at you, Ursula, and says, not my most protected spell book of all time, more of a to-do list.

The notes I was looking for were based on the favor I offered to do for you or to attempt to do for you, Ursulan.

I,

knowing your name

very carefully and guardedly and through back channels, such as not to tip off anybody that otherwise would be tipped off,

looked for any instances of your name in the the record of the Citadel.

There was no recording of it.

My understanding is that you came to this world as a child and

were not,

you know,

did not have great

writings of your name in the world of spirits prior to your adolescence here in Umora.

So I didn't find any wizards having previously bound you.

I didn't find a diagram with any of your information in it.

You can hear a tone in Steele's voice here, by the way, that like Ursulan is a minor spirit.

You know, he's not like, you know, there's not big treatises being written.

Prime, rude.

It is what it is, man.

It started first level like everybody else.

But you see, she says, so I found no evidence, I found no primary sources concerning your

name.

What I did find

were records of other wizards making the same search I was making.

The wizard Stripe spent many years searching for a spirit called Ursulon.

Really?

Yes.

The Wizard Stripe came here

and,

you know, joined as a young person in a far-off, you know, the history of the Citadel when it was very different than it is today, but joined the Citadel when it was much younger

and became a diviner and was searching

for

you know I mean no one knew it at the time she business was her own but

she

trained in the art of finding spirits and became very adept at piercing abjurations she a lot of her research was concerned with the fact that sorcerers or other you know, agents and the magical agents in the world could hide spirits and sequester them away somewhere.

She was really good at,

for lack of a better word,

knowing what eventually.

Do you know of

how much do you know of the Wizard's Tripe?

She is my sister.

You see, you watched Steele in an instant put it all together.

We shared a father

and grew up together.

Then you know of the Kasov Collection.

And she was released during an oversight?

The, yes, a young friend of mine almost got drummed out of the Citadel for

his recklessness.

And here she winks at Suvi.

His recklessness in that moment.

Sloppy.

Incredibly sloppy.

Careless.

Incredibly sloppy, how he sloppily slopped up during the hours where the collection was closed and there were no bystanders and etc., etc, etc.

In any case, the point being being

the wizard's stripe

I did not, there was no record of her being your sister.

That I would have brought to you immediately.

There was merely a record of her being a spirit disguised as a wizard who

spent long years learning how to search for hidden and captured spirits.

One of her appellations was the burrower.

She went to many deep places of the earth, believing that something very precious precious had been hidden away in there.

But

she was

released.

You know, aging is a very complicated thing, and

over time, her glamour

moved farther and farther away from the fact that she was not actually aging at the same rate as everybody else.

So...

In searching for you,

I found out other people who had searched for you, and I now discovered that one of them was your sister.

She herself was a badger spirit.

She had searched for other badger spirits.

She had searched for

bear and owl.

She had searched for panther.

She had searched for fire and leaf.

A number of different spirits she had searched for.

And

other siblings, I'm assuming.

Did others come through?

Not that I don't believe so.

Steele shrugs as well.

It says,

I just started to make a note of everything of interest that she had searched for that felt outside the purview of spellcraft.

I mean, obviously, 80% of her research was just learning how to be better at spellcasting, but for our purposes,

the one other thing I'll say that she looked for was, you know, many, many years before my time, was

heraldic histories.

Histories of different battles that occurred within a com.

One of them, the Battle of Starling's Ford.

She

made a lot of searches in the armories of the Citadel, specifically looking for a golden pauldron.

Ursulan feels the pauldron, but makes no move to indicate it.

So,

I am very sorry that you discovered my...

It's a wizardly habit to hold on to secrets, and obviously that's very much concerned with your business, Ursulan.

But also, it was a favor that you had for the moment refused, and so I was sort of just sitting on it anyway, because giving you

not knowing that she was your sister, an ancient wizard who ended up being a spirit searching feverishly for you, didn't seem like a comforting bit of news to give, nor one that is relevant given that that was more than two decades ago.

Of course.

I'm assuming there is no indication of where she went when released.

If there was, the Citadel would have used it to track her down.

Well then, good.

I am going to

head to Kabani

and talk to the diviners there.

And

I will see you at the Tower of the Glove and we'll hopefully have an answer for you as soon as possible.

She stands up, claps a shoulder on you, says, much appreciated.

And we are going to take take care of this, I swear.

G,

do mention doors out?

Gotta learn that someday.

Hey, Amy, how you doing?

I'm in the middle of having a conversation telepathically with Fox.

I don't say that out loud.

Yeah, I just am.

This feels like Port Talon.

We want to go.

We need to go.

And we are waiting.

And to be honest, it might have been better if we waited while we were at Port Talon.

Steel would have helped take care of that.

But I just can't shake the feeling that

we're wasting time, that we have to get back

to take action.

Trust your brain.

Trust your gut.

If I still have a vote, which is unclear.

You're not there.

My vote's always going to be to follow your gut.

We didn't listen to steal import talent, and as a result, we freed a really big great spirit.

Ursulan learned magic, and you brought a song back to all the people there who started singing it to reconnect to the spirits.

And a lot of people died, but that's okay.

Well, I was gonna add that.

That's kind of important.

Okay,

well.

I literally don't see a way that we can physically run away from this one, though.

Unless you know of some way back to silbary

you telling me

you think i can't find a way out of a place yeah that's what i'm saying i bet you couldn't do it even if we wanted to the fox is gone

ducks down beneath the table skitters away and uh you don't know if he like ran around the other side of the balcony or went back inside or whatever but the fox i switched to familiar vision

you see he's in the bottom of the Tower of the Sword and you see that he starts scratching at the door.

You see Sonder walks up with a sort of little bronze goblet with some kind of thick smoothie in it and you see he goes, hey there little guy.

Oh, you need to go outside pee-pee.

And you see he

opens the door and the fox takes off onto the street.

All right.

What do the rest of you do after Steele's departure here in the Tower of the Sword?

So we're just watching Ahme warg.

Yeah, or like, oh, yeah, Ame has sort of like warged out and is looking to the fox's eyes.

I'm gonna tap Ahme on the shoulder.

Ame, you come too out of your fox vision.

Where did the fox go?

I don't know.

I think he's going out for a peepee.

Oh,

well, is it time to go?

This is on you.

Is it time to go?

Yeah, yeah, it's time to go.

Are we going to wait for Steele's return?

No.

Is that what the fox is doing?

Yes.

Okay.

I need a minute, and I'm just going to leave a note for Steele thanking her for

all of the care and time that she allocated in the midst of

a crisis to look into this for us.

But as ever,

the comings and goings of witches cannot be predicted or controlled.

And I'll return as soon as I can.

Give me

a

performance check.

12.

You write the note.

You place on the desk.

You hear the noise of Kadila and Ishra.

You hear the running little stomps of Ovi,

you know, Steele and Saunders' nine-year-old son.

You leave the note on Steele's desk by the journal where you found it, in her

study in her residence, not at the sanctum upstairs, which is locked and guarded.

As you rejoin your friends, where do you go and what do you do?

I'm going to go back to the tower to get my pack.

Or you go back to the bakery to get your pack.

Yes, yes.

You

go back to the bakery

and approach, and you see Mr.

Callum smiling and talking to two young wizards.

You see the two young wizards have their arms around each other, clearly in love, as they order from the bakery together.

See Mr.

Callum's smile as he sort of raises an eyebrow and gives a little heart-shaped tray of bond-bonds.

You look at Mr.

Callum's smile, and I think go back to your earlier question of asking him if he was a spirit.

And I think there's something

interesting that you sort of swirl around in that moment of

whether

he ever could have been a true spirit or what a true spirit is, what the Tamori are, what people are.

You know, there's these deep sort of questions hanging in the air around you.

But ultimately, Mr.

Callum is friendly, smiled at you.

He was a part of your world.

And extending that honor to him is just something that I think is very instinctive to Ahme.

The door jingles the little bell.

You walk in through the candles that are flickering.

Even in the daylight, they sort of stay here and flicker.

You can see the flame in the broad daylight.

As you walk in, you see Mr.

Callum looks up and says, Oh, young Ahme, here you are.

Goes and grabs the packs from behind it.

Here you go, and uh

wishing you all the best.

Not sure where you're off to in such a hurry, but

hope you don't mind.

I've snuck a few scones,

some marshmallow and chocolate croissants into the bag.

Oh, thank you so much, sir.

Good on you, Mr.

Callum.

An honor and a pleasure, as always.

Syvie is just staring at the wizard couple.

You see, the wizard couple takes the bonbons and goes to sit at one of the little tables outside.

Two little cups of lattes and little chocolates between them.

You see that one of them out by their chair has a pack as well and is getting ready to head out.

You leave the Candlestreak Bakery.

Where do you head to now?

I check where the fox is.

The fox

is

slinking around

the

part of Zhao Court with the traveling doors in it, seeing soldiers everywhere.

You see that he's looking out underneath some fabric that you realize is clearly a tablecloth at some sort of restaurant or eatery where he has eyes to the traveling doors, but sees soldiers everywhere.

As you warg into his eyes, you hear his voice

grounds full of snares over here, boss.

I don't know.

And here I thought that you never got caught, that you were always able to avoid the snares and that you could find a way out of anything.

Why don't you stay out of my eyes and watch this?

And he takes off down the street, says, You want to see a great escape?

Here's a great escape.

And

begins to tear off through Zhao Court.

Both of you see Ahme has taken a moment to pause outside of the Cam Street Bakery and look through the fox's eyes, but time is sort of moving along.

As it gets to the end, you see the fox just goes,

Better head to Zhao Court.

I'm going to be done soon.

Zhao Court.

That's where all the gates are.

I set off towards there.

Yeah, I would have taken the time to head towards the like Galathopter request kiosk.

You head to the Galathopter, Request Kiosk.

All of you go to sit in the little gondola of the Galathopter.

It is probably now 11 o'clock in the morning.

Hot daylight here in the Citadel.

A little bit oppressive.

Strange.

Could be cooler.

Citadel doesn't like to let it get this hot.

You...

Go to the kiosk, you put in Zhao court, and you see

the arcane mark of the citadel appears over the kiosk, and you see it says,

Please announce your title and business.

This is not normal, yeah.

CV's gonna pause and go

the wizard's guy

with an appointment

at

the cast off collection.

I like it, Amy nods encouragingly.

Yeah.

I'm going to need a deception check.

I'm going to let you know right now the numbers ahead of time.

Yeah.

So that you do not call me cruel when consequence comes to visit.

All right.

Settle down.

Okay.

15

avoids dire catastrophe.

Jesus.

20

avoids what we will just call disaster.

A 25 deception succeeds.

So interesting.

What's your bonus to deception?

I know the number, but I checked again.

It's a plus two.

Plus two to deception.

Okay.

Oh, you said that in a way that made me so sad.

It's okay.

I'm just gonna crit.

You want to roll guidance first?

Yeah.

Roll the guidance.

A one.

I'm gonna die.

You wanna give the health action?

Will you let me?

I'll let you go.

Okay, great.

Okay.

So you got two chances, Suvi.

You're adding three.

You need at least a...

You need

at least a 12

to avoid dire catastrophe.

And 17 gets us to

avoiding disaster.

It's life, but you're gonna need a Nat 20 to actually fool.

Yeah, sure.

Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.

She did not make it, ladies and gentlemen, with a seven higher.

Gal Factor

takes wing

and begins to head for Zhao Court.

Flying through the air,

you see the red and white

approaching

halfway to Zhao court.

You hear a sending in your mind, Suvi.

Suvi, this is Steel.

Finishing up at Cabani now.

She meets you at the Tower of the Glove.

Change of plans.

Ame

needs to leave now, so we're headed to Zhao.

What?

Remain in Zhao court at the Galica station.

Do not leave from the station.

That is an order.

Done.

I think you all see that something in Suvi goes dark.

Give me insight checks, Ahme and Ursula.

Fuck!

Fuck!

Ten.

16.

Give me a deception check, Suvi.

Ha!

Natural one!

Each of you watches Subi's countenance fall, and you can tell that she is being spoken to by Steel in her mind.

What did she say?

We have to stay at the Gallithopter

station

until Steel shows up.

What did she find out?

We'll find out when she meets us

in Jiao.

You were told that you would not be allowed to go.

Do you think that was for the witches?

Or do you think it was from Steel?

I have no way of knowing because Sly was not more specific.

I am very infrequently given a direct order.

Then you have to do what you have to do.

Galathopter descends and lands at one of

eight piers in Zhao court, the most that any platform of the Citadel has.

You

land and can see that two Imperial skyships are headed towards Zhao court.

One up from Haverward, one down from one of the other courts.

This is in addition

to the two that are already here.

Ursula, the hair stands up on the back of your neck.

You

moor the gallithopter and an attendant helps you step up onto the platform

you see

off in the distance gossamer plaza and those butterflies moving around

and off towards the corner you see maybe like the next pier over has all of the traveling doors on it all of these big they're like large hangars that you know will have the major traveling door to silbury that is inside this massive rotating circles and dials of stone within the ground, the constellations of the stars overhead that can send you anywhere in the world that they have built a traveling door.

You, Ahme, on your passive perception, can see soldiers closing in

on

the area of Zhao that holds the traveling door gateways.

An area that you know your fox has run away from.

You disembark and stand here at the platform's edge.

I'm going to lean over to Ahbe.

Where is the fox?

I close my eyes.

Fox, where are you?

The fox is somewhere dark, and you see he is straining with all his might.

There's a little bit of light, and you hear,

and then

the falling barrels.

He's like, I'm doing my part.

Get back to the station near Gossemer Plaza,

the cookout area.

I

start

power walking over.

I grab Ahme.

I keep going.

That's an athletics check.

4.22.

As you grab Ahme, Suvi, give me a perception check.

I just don't trust any of my dice.

You really shouldn't.

Your dice are turning me into the people who yell at me about my dice.

And it's like unsettling.

Seven.

Suvi,

you get a hand on Ame as your skin touches her arm of the palm of your hand.

You feel

cold, afraid, and naked as Ame quickly just shoulders past you.

But in that touch of your hand on her skin, you become magically aware that Ame can choose to punish you for that in a hundred years from now.

Aame, as you push past, and again,

Suvi loves you.

The effort of this is not

destructive, but in that effort to control you,

the name Suvi flashes over your eyes.

And

there are a number of the protections you've cast over her anytimes you've healed her or cast guidance on her Basically in the moment that her hand touches your arm and she attempts to control you the weight of every kindness you have done for her Settles into your hand like the heft of a sword

I shoulder past

But as I feel that, I spin around and my eyes flash at her and you see for a second something terrible and much greater and older than Ame.

And then it's gone, and I also look scared and frightened, and I start running.

Ursulan, we need an action from you, unless you're not acting.

I look at Sufi.

She looks startled and terrified, and is a little too frozen to react as Ame begins to sprint.

I put a hand on you.

We knew it would be this way.

And I'm going to take off after Ahmed.

Okay, I'm going to ask

just for these purposes because actions are so tight and narrow to roll initiative.

Fucking 10.

Dirty, 20.

20 as well.

Oh, God.

No.

Ah, and Ursulan, you're taking off in the direction of the fox, yes?

I need to ask you: is your consideration right now speed or stealth?

Stealth.

I go as fast as I can, but it's, but it's,

it is a run, but in that way that it looks like you're just kind of jogging along to get to something.

You know, you furrow your brow and you look like you have business.

You're not, this is nothing out of the ordinary, but we're moving quickly.

I will actually allow for it's either stealth if you're using structures and obstacles, or it's it's deception

if you are trying to move normally and look like you're supposed to be here.

But you have to tell me, are you relying on shadows, movement, obstacle, secrecy, or are you trying to walk openly and deceive anyone looking for you that you are supposed to be here?

I would be using deception.

We are supposed to be here and that we are walking with the energy that's currently in the citadel toward business that needs to be taken care of.

There's no way that I'm never, that I'm going to look normal.

I'm a witch.

I have a traveling pack on.

I

use obstacles and alleyways.

So you're going to split up.

This is between deceiving people by looking like walking in broad daylight, stealthing, like getting to where the fox is by secret ways, or sprinting.

So stealth is not sprinting.

Stealth is not tearing ass down the middle of the road.

Stealth is getting out of the way and finding some other way to get there to avoid soldiers.

Of those,

what are you choosing?

And you can choose different.

I'm actually gonna count down from three, and I want each of you to tell me what it is you're gonna do.

There's no, if you're booking ass from the Galathopter,

you might just split up by accident if you're doing trying to do two different things.

So, go ahead and

three,

two, one.

Deceit.

Stealth.

You guys separate.

Ahme,

I'm going to need you to pick your lucky number on a D4.

Three.

Two.

Great.

I'm going to need a stealth check from Ahme, and I'm going to need a deception check from Ursulan.

We're going to call this a DC-12.

Oh, God.

13.

23.

Beating the roll by more than 10.

Ursulan, I'm going to allow you to roll a D4 twice.

Ahme, you're going to roll it once.

That's a two.

Okay.

That's a three.

A second three.

Each got each other's lucky numbers.

Ursulan, you separate from Ahme quickly.

Stop sprinting once you are out of sight of the Galathopter's place and just begin to walk like you are supposed to be here.

Like this is normal.

Aame, You quickly, with your large pack, knowing how easy it will be to find you, stick to the shadows.

You hear the fox's voice in your heart, uh, moving through the shadows of Zhao Court.

Suvi, we come back to you standing here by the Galathopters.

You see your friends run off, they split after they round a corner, so you assume that they're together still, wherever, but leave you here in the magical aftermath of the thundering of that witch's magic, but you are standing here.

I don't understand that that had anything to do with what I did.

I don't understand how Amay's magic works.

I do understand

that I was given a direct order, and they never respect when I am at my wit's end.

They don't listen.

They love being on my tab.

They love having fun.

They love being protected by me, but they never listen to me and and they don't care.

But I am the wizard's sky.

So as they sprint away, I turn and get the eyes of a soldier of the citadel point behind them and say, Bring them to me.

And I wait.

Give me persuasion with advantage.

18 and 19 on the dash.

21.

I'm going to need Ahme and Ursulan to pick an unlucky number on D4.

Four.

Four as well.

Give me another stealth check and another deception check.

16.

18.

The DC for that role had moved up to a 15.

You both succeed yet again.

Ahme, you stay in the shadows.

Ursulan, you move with a quiet grace, believing that there is nothing out of the ordinary here.

I am going to need D4 rolls from you both.

Neither of you beat the roll by 10 or more, so you're going to roll one time.

Ursuline looking for a two,

and Ame looking for a three.

But we also have an unlucky number now?

Which is four.

Three!

Three!

Three as well.

Ursulan.

Slow pace keeps eyes off of you.

Before that, you realize that there are certain ways that you are trying to get to where you're going, but also only Ame can feel the fox.

And it's off.

So you're trying to get back to where you went before, but you're taking the same route.

So you're going to be going by the Kasov collection to get to where you were before.

You stay walking.

It's a farther trip for you.

Ame is able to find a shortcut by just following the sense of the fox directly.

Ame, you succeed on your stealth and you get to your lucky number.

You roll up and see that really short-range teleportation.

It was the thing that opened up the place for you to get to Kabani from Zhao Court, if you remember.

There's the sort of shirtless apron-wearing wizards.

They have like headbands on, long, heavy iron staves that are lit with fires at the end.

They're pouring colored sand into these charred, like half a foot down pits, opening up this wet, humid, colorful fire that people walk through to get...

It's a dimension door spell.

It's exclusively to other parts of the citadel.

What do you do as you approach this place?

Fox,

where are you?

I'm kind of tied up

right now, boss.

So you just got to get ready to jump and you tell me, and we'll make it happen.

Sufi and Narcelon aren't with me.

They're not here yet.

We got one shot.

You got to tell me whether to go or not.

Go.

Yep.

And you hear, boom, boom, boom, boom.

And all of the guys working at this say, oh, no, no, as barrels begin to fall stacked up off of a roof bouncing off of a cloth awning rolling scattering huge barrels of magical sand

uh the i'll roll a dexterity stick

that's a natural one

One of the guys has his iron staff out.

He goes to interpose it so that he is not struck by a barrel rolling towards him.

The fox is like up on the roof, having kicked the barrels over.

You remember him like pushing in that like attic to get these barrels to fall down?

And boom, boom, boom.

The guy puts the staff, and as he puts the staff in front of him to interpose and defend himself, the staff cracks the barrel, and the sand alights.

Four of these wizards are flung somewhere in Umora.

It alights the other barrels, sand erupt.

A bonfire taller than the tallest building in this court sends a signal flare up into the sky as

purple, green, silver, iridescent, shimmering flame.

You look around and you know, you can feel it on your face.

You look around and see people are sweating purple, green, and gold as just beads of the stuff appear on their face.

The fox leaps off into your arms and says, Here we go.

Amy, what do you do?

So, these are two places in Amora.

You have no idea where those other wizards just went.

This is a short-range teleportation that these guys do to ferry people off of Zhao Court.

And you can see that your little familiar has done some quick little fuzzy math and gone, more sand equals more magic equals go farther.

A

skyscraper iridescent rainbow bonfire rockets into the sky, almost scorching like the platform above it in lime.

And

you

have to make the call of whether you will jump through this fire, which you

again, you entrusted your fox.

You said, find a way out.

The fox, in all of his wiliness, has found a way out.

He has found how a wild animal would escape from a trap.

And it is a fire flinging you elsewhere in the world.

Perhaps by some

wicked witchcraft, you would find a way to orient yourself and get back to Toma.

Perhaps there is some way to wield this wild magic, but it is wild magic.

And it would require your focus and concentration to wield it right.

I open that third eye.

I look in the chaos around me and I count down

the senses, the smells.

I think of Toma.

I think of home.

I think of my sanctum and my cottage in which I am not just safe emotionally, but or physically, but magically.

And I step forward with my fox.

Surrounded

incredible heat, potent magic.

You feel that you are drowning, that your soul might sweat out through your pores and you might simply wither and vanish.

I am going to need

an insight check, and if you'd like to double down and be a little extra dangerous, you can throw a wisdom saving throw on there for me.

Your fox will help you with one of those rolls, either insight or the saving throw.

Insight is 15.

That's a two

on the die for a total of eight.

Insight,

reaching out, understanding.

Are you thinking of

the cottage?

Are you thinking of Silbrey?

What is the clearest vision in your mind as you step into the flame?

I step forward, and in my mind's eye is the perfect picture of the cottage in summer.

The hearth is quiet because it's far too hot for a fire.

The sound of the cicadas

in the evening.

The smell of the wildflowers.

The cottage in Toma, my home.

Ursula,

I'm gonna need one last deception.

The difficulty has gone up to 18, and you need to roll a d4.

You're looking for a 2 as your lucky number and a 4 as your unlucky number.

23 deception.

Unbelievable.

It's another 3 on the die.

Okay.

You get to Gossamer Plaza.

You see the bulwark of the Kasov Collection.

You are still several blocks away as fire roars up and you see it.

Immediately knowing

this.

You hear screams, wizards go running.

This is

impossible, but you know that this is what it is.

Potentially, it will still be going by the time you get there, but you know that Ahme has gotten there and had to do something.

Other than a hope, break into a sprint.

Hell yeah.

Um,

Sufi, uh, the soldiers take off into Zhao court.

As they

do,

you see

fire going.

I think a single tear rolls down her cheek.

They have never cared about the cost of their will.

They didn't notice

the heat in this place,

resources being

reallocated to war.

Something terrible is happening, and they don't care.

I've been pushed twice in two days,

and of course, there is an inferno because

that follows where they lead.

And I stand and I wait.

Ursulan,

the fire roars.

You break into a sprint.

I need you to pick another unlucky number.

Ah, one.

Go ahead and give me an athletics or acrobatics roll.

The DC is now 21.

17 on athletics.

Okay.

You run

and you feel your body covered by butterflies as you run through Gossamer Plaza.

And you can feel them

clinging to your body as you move.

You feel as you attempt to spring as fast as possible, but feel somehow that your power is being drained as you run.

Spirits running through the streets of Zhao Court is exactly what the magic of this place has been designed to prevent.

You wonder if Kaliah ran just like this through these same streets.

You wonder if her escape is why they thought to bring the butterflies here at all.

Barreling down,

make me a final luck check.

You have two unlucky numbers: one

and four.

You have a single lucky number that means you will close before soldiers of the citadel arrive.

Go ahead and roll.

That's a two.

Oh my god.

Let's go.

In defiance of this place, I think Ursulan drops his glamour.

And knowing that

either this insane plan they concocted works,

or like his sister, he may be trapped here.

Ursulan, you hear voices behind you saying,

Lose spirit!

Lose spirit in the streets!

Escaped!

You hear soldiers barreling down.

Wavebreaker.

A shield.

Blue fruit.

Red leaves.

A mushroom at its base.

You arrive at the fire as it still roars.

Ahme is vanished.

Do you leap into it?

This torrent of flame, I'm assuming, is the result of Ahme's and the fox's plan.

Is there any indication that Ahme would have jumped?

Like, I guess there is something.

Ursula, I think, sprinting toward this thing, I think, as he gets closer, is trying to make sense of what it is he's looking at.

You can give me insight, you can give me perception, you can give me arcana.

Go for it.

You can give me both.

Give me a perception and an arcana.

You know what?

Why not?

Nine insight.

Six arcana.

Ursulan.

For another time in a line of times in this world,

you look at something strange and horrifying and are faced with one more impossible choice.

I sprint right into it.

Leaping in, you hear the sound of cantrips being cast behind you, as voices of soldiers say, stop!

Hold!

I'm going to need, once again, as you dive into the fire, an insight and a wisdom.

To one of these, you may add a d10 of inspiration.

So I have a 16 and a 19 on the die.

Oh my.

Oh, God!

The wisdom saving throw is going to stay a flat 20.

Okay.

The insight check becomes another 31.

Oh my god!

Oh my god!

Ursulan,

you

long way shadowed,

trapped in this world,

leap into the flame,

not knowing

if you will survive or if you will be punished by a punishing and cruel world.

But you do know

what you have always known when you have chosen to face the impossible.

You cannot remain where you have been.

Danger always lies ahead

when where you are has always been laid as a trap.

Surging into the fire,

doubt,

fear,

uncertainty vanishes from you in an instant.

Flames roaring around you in all sides.

Purple, green, silver, mist.

You are for a moment shaken.

And then, on those incredible rolls, on a 20 wisdom saving throw, and on a 31 insight, as you feel a spiritual energy, you realize that you can't see because flames are blasting into your face.

They're moist and hot and choking.

You're breathing them in.

And suddenly, your breath, it's just that it's ragged.

It's not fire.

It's wind.

It's just too much for you.

And your shield comes up in front of your face.

And suddenly, as you fall through flame,

you can breathe.

And as you can breathe,

what is the danger?

You've hurled yourself into magic?

You've hurled yourself into what these people wield?

Magic is what you are,

is what you have always been.

The thing that you most worried would harm you is home, and more than home, it is you, and you are it.

Your body is flame,

purple, green, iridescent, silver,

Shield glows brightly.

Wavebreaker gleams and leaps with giddy eagerness to your hand.

You feel the power in this moment to dispel a nearby tether of magic.

There is a magic near here that is attempting to take beings that are scared and afraid and make them lost forever.

I think confidently, Ursulan holds Wakebreaker out

and

cuts the tether.

Leather aprons, sweaty headbands, and the wizards reappear on the platform of Zhao as you cut loose the magic that was casting them away and send them back safely to their home.

I think Ursulan,

like only the sound of his heart pumping in his ears, now just turns to find Ame.

On a 31,

this fire

had to be kept small for these wizards to wield it.

How many beings of this world will they attempt to keep small to make them useful?

Let this fire grow as large as the wide forests of your birth.

You are home here and may go wherever you wish.

You do not even sense urgency, the pounding of your heart, centered on your breath.

You move with utter confidence in this moment.

On a 31,

the fire flickers into the shape of a forest made of wreathing flame.

You know the way to Amay's cottage.

You know the way to Port Talon.

You know the way to Chura's Chowder.

All ways

are open to you here within the world of Umora.

The fire will die soon,

but your clarity of movement,

the evenness,

and steady rhythm of your breath lets you know

that a moment is an hour and and an hour infinity in the breadth and span of the world of spirits.

On a 31,

you sense behind you

being created by your steps is a road

in the flame.

Far behind you on the road is a shadow that can see you now.

Long and plenty of time

to catch a piece.

Brother Ursula,

I can't believe

I haven't had my eye on you.

In this moment, Ursulan, turning to see the shadow, oh so distant, on the road behind you,

like a traveler at the far edge of a horizon, but whose steady footsteps never falter.

You see

something

not of witches or of wizards, nor the stranger on the road behind, but something as small and clever and funny

as a mushroom painted on a shield.

In the fire,

near the base of a flaming, wisping trunk of raging inferno,

there is

a hole,

what some might call a burrow.

Who can say how long it's been there in the flame?

But small and humble, you notice it all the same.

Ame ahead,

stranger behind,

and off the path,

something that you haven't seen in a long, long time, but know

you've seen before.

It's the honor of a dungeon master to ask this question, and I can't think of a more important time I've ever asked it.

Ursulan,

what do you want to do?