Session 17 covered 7 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, in Argentum. Rhysaene, Luma and Hazel cast Luma’s scroll of locate object together and traced Lathiel’s ledger to the Footlight Theater. The party caught a man who had been following them, and learned that Daisy had hired him. At the Dragoon barracks, Rhea Larnas told Temerity what purification means. At the theater, two of the Candlelight Players, under a magical compulsion, tried to stop the party searching the prop room, and Luma took the ledger from under its floor: Lathiel’s record of crimes by House Sterling.
Synopsis
Morning
The party woke at Rhysaene's apartment on the morning of 7 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF.1 Luma and Beepo were in the living room in matching pajamas, each with a tub of ice cream, reading a book.2 Luma had mixed whiskey into hers, which she said helped with being fired. She had left it out of Beepo’s, since she was not sure how old he was.345 “Okay, I fucking like you,” said Rhysaene.6
Luma had finished the scroll overnight, and Rhysaene told her she thought the ledger was in a theater.78 Only Rhysaene had seen it, so she would cast the spell.9 Cast by her alone, it would find the ledger within a thousand feet. Luma thought each extra caster would add another thousand, enough from Rhysaene’s living room to cover almost the whole city.101112 Luma had once watched a group cast a spell together, but only Hazel had done it.1314 The spell would last ten minutes, and show only which way the ledger lay, not how far.1516 The city is about four thousand feet across from gate to gate, a little under twenty minutes’ walk, and the way through its center crosses bridges, which would mean smuggling Hazel.171819
Hazel was asleep at the foot of Rhysaene’s bed, lying on top of Sage.20 She offered to show them how to cast the way witches do, and Luma ran to fetch her hat.2122 Iva was asleep on the couch under a blanket, and Hazel woke her by banging a pan: “No sleeping on the job.”232425 Temerity had already left for the barracks.26 Hazel had been taught this kind of casting but had never taught it, and had never been warned of any real risks.2728 Rhysaene asked whether they should wait for Temerity. This was one of those things, said Hazel, where Temerity would be glad not to be there.2930
The Scroll
The scroll held the energy for the spell. As Rhysaene cast it, Luma and Hazel joined in, mirroring her words and gestures.3132 The ink began to vibrate, and the scroll burst into deep crimson flames and vanished from her hands, leaving its words and diagrams hanging in the air in liquid ink.3334 The ink drew together into a ball and then into an arrow about a foot long, which turned in the air and began to point.3536 Only Rhysaene could see it.37 Hazel and Luma could sense magic there when they concentrated, but could not tell where it pointed, and Iva sensed nothing.3839 Iva, who had stood in the circle holding her hands out, said she had done her best.4041
The Footlight Theater
They followed the arrow along the canal.42 At one point it pointed due east, and a little further on, due north.4344 From how quickly it turned, they knew the ledger was close: it had been within reach of Rhysaene’s house even without the circle, though only just.45 Luma found the spot on her map, a building marked the Footlight Theater.46 It stands 940 feet from Rhysaene’s house.47
Argentum has a couple of little theaters in the Hearth Wall, but the Footlight is the Synod-sponsored center for the performing arts, the city’s largest theater and the one that gets the funding.4849 Much of that funding is public money from the Synod, but the theater is owned by House Draken. Dorian Draken had turned away from the family’s theater roots to run the Dancing Sword.5051 Rhysaene knew it well. Lathiel had taken her there many times, to watch or because she was in the production herself.52 Rhysaene had not been back since Lathiel died: theater had been more Lathiel’s interest than hers, and it held too many memories.535455
The Tail
Hazel and Luma noticed a man following them through the side streets. When the party turned back north, so did he.5657 Hazel shouted “Hey, you!” and he ran.58 He had been about a hundred feet off, in streets full of people, and could hardly have overheard them.59 Iva ran after him, and the others followed.60
Rhysaene, first after him, slipped on a puddle frozen overnight and fell. There were no lava lamps in that part of the city to warm it as the inner city was warmed.6162 Rounding a corner, the man ran into a big, mustached man carrying a crate, who tried to punch him, and he dodged.636465 The party lost sight of him.66 Rhysaene, running after him, grazed the same man, and talked him out of punching her too.676869 Later she tripped through the crates and barrels he had been loading onto a wagon.7071
Iva came round a corner and saw him: about five foot ten, of average build, with short sandy brown hair and a five o’clock shadow, in plain dark wool clothes and a heavy wool coat.7273 He slipped past her, and Hazel called to Luma in Elvish that he had gone south.7475 Passers-by were already watching. Violence would have made it a much bigger matter, and any sign of magic would have brought the full Inquisition.7677
Hazel hid against a building, her cloak picking up its dust until she blended into it, then turned into a cat and climbed the two stories to its roof, where she could see him.78798081 Below, a man taking out his trash flung a door open into Sage’s path, and Sage leapt clear and began barking.828384 Iva followed the barking, caught up with the man and grabbed him. “Where are you going, handsome? I wasn’t done talking to you.”858687 He was too wiry for her to throw down.88
“Let me go right now, or I’ll call for the guards,” he said. Since he had run, Iva told him, that would be a bad choice for him too.8990 People in the street stopped to watch, and a man stood staring from his doorway.91 Iva told them he had been stalking four pretty women.92 He called to the man at the door for help, but never shouted for the guards.9394 Asked whether he would run if she let go, he said he would not, and he was lying.959697 Iva put her mage manacles on him. They leave the wearer unable to use their hands at all, and only someone else can unlock them.9899 “This is not necessary and a little weird. I thought you just wanted to talk.”100
Luma pointed out that he would not want to be taken for a mage on the run: “They’ll shoot you in the streets.”101 Nobody would think he was a mage, he said, and he would not go with them to a second location.102 A threat from Rhysaene made him give in.103104 To clear the man at the door, Sage ran into his house. “Hey, you mangy mutt, get back here!” He chased Sage inside, where Sage hid until Hazel dismissed her familiar. The man spent the next half hour searching his house for the dog.105106107108 The party walked their prisoner into the alley, and a calico cat dropped from a roof onto Rhysaene’s back.109110
Pell
“Who sent you?” asked Rhysaene. No one, he said: they were a strange-looking group, and he had been curious.111112 He was probably lying.113 He did not know who they were, and wanted nothing to do with them.114 One of them was half horse, he said.115 Rhysaene asked whether he had ever been kicked in the chest by a horse. He had not, and most horses were not so dainty.116117 He offered them his money to let him go.118 Under his large grey wool coat, which hid no armor, they found a hand crossbow, a shortsword and a pouch on his belt, but nothing to say who he was or where he came from.119120 He carried them, he said, to handle himself if he got into trouble.121
Rhysaene asked whether he knew the name Daisy. “Daisy? Is that a flower? What? I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anyone called Daisy.” He was shaking. There was no way he did not know her.122123 Rhysaene slapped him.124125 Hazel jumped onto his head and clung there while he tried to shake her off. “Guys, get this cat off me, please!”126127128 He would tell them nothing, and told them to kill him or let him go.129 They had him pinned, but he was not afraid for his life, and had nothing to gain by talking.130131
Iva covered his mouth, and Rhysaene pressed a finger to his temple and cast mind sliver.132133 His nose began to bleed. “You’re some kind of witch.”134135 Under Rhysaene’s cold stare he understood that she was a mage who could hurt him with a word, and begged her not to.136137
Now he talked. Someone had paid him to keep tabs on them and report back: a woman whose name he did not know, with a daisy tattooed on her face.138139 She had paid him ten crowns, with five more for every day he kept it up and fifty when the job was done, to tell her everywhere they went.140 He was to meet her late on the 10th, in an alley straight south of the Canal Markets, near the wall.141142143 He gave his name as Pell.144
He was terrified now, and would agree to anything and mean it. Whether that would last once he was free, nobody could tell.145146 It had been fine by him until magic was involved, Hazel judged, and now he wanted nothing to do with them.147148 She scratched him.149 Rhysaene asked what it would cost for him to stay away. “Ten crowns and I’ll never bother you again.”150151 She paid him about seven, and Iva unlocked the manacles.152153 He bolted south, straight past Luma, who sat on a corner coloring in her book, without paying her any attention.154155156157 Rhysaene hugged Hazel close.158
The Wetscales
Temerity’s seventh day of training brought more Draconic, drills and physical work, and the gaps within the cohort grew clearer.159 Temerity and Emeric Vael were probably the strongest fighters, but others were close to them in fitness.160 Mika Voss and Maren Frostburn were sparring with wooden longswords. Temerity was stronger than either, but both were far more disciplined.161162 Talk had it that both came from the Light Wardens. They and a couple of others would probably make it, and almost everyone else would not.163
At lunch in the mess hall, Rhea asked how training was going.164165 Maren had lost her mother, also a Light Warden, to a Sorrowsworn, which was why she had signed up. Mika is the sister of the High Censor at Candlehold.166167 In both cases, Rhea said, it ran in the family, and many cadets came from the Light Wardens with eyes already on them. Gianna Kirrane had distinguished herself there. Rhea began to say something of Kyren Lenara, and stopped.168169 The two dark horses were Temerity and Emeric, and Emeric more for his attitude, since he had been a Light Warden too. That left Temerity the standout, with no record like the others’.169170
Asked why she was doing this, Temerity said the Flame had given her a second chance, and her duty with it was to fight the Sorrow.171172 She was from Crick's Bend, the farm town up the old road, which Rhea had passed through once or twice on patrols.173174175 Was it worth leaving? Whether someone is ready is immaterial when destiny calls, said Temerity. “And you hear the call of destiny.”176177178 Rhea had seen her fight, and thought that by the end of the month they would be handing her a fang.179
Purification
Temerity asked whether what people said about purification was true: did they just kill mages? Rhea sighed. They were not supposed to discuss it with anyone outside the Order of the Lantern or the Dragoons.180181 She looked troubled, as if struggling with herself.182 What people said was not true, she said, but it was simple, and believing that they executed anyone who used magic kept people from pursuing it. She asked for Temerity’s word that it would not leave the conversation, and Temerity gave it.183184185
Purification does not mean purifying the mage, Rhea said, but purifying the Silver Vale. There is no way to remove magic, and executing every child born with a natural inclination for it would be cruel, and, more importantly, wasteful.186 Mages are conscripted, given a choice to fight the Sorrow with everything they have. Those who accept get no rank or title, but fight beside the Order, and sometimes the Dragoons, beyond the borders when it is needed.187188 Of those who refuse, she said, “In the fight against the Sorrow, you cannot take its side.”189 Magic hastens the Sorrow, but used correctly it is a weapon against it.189
Magic is incredibly rare. In all her time as a Dragoon Rhea had met one or two mages, and she trailed off before saying more of them. Both, she said, were loyal comrades who fought the Sorrow in its home as fiercely as any Dragoon.190191192 She should not have told her, but she could see the question was eating at Temerity, and did not want to lose her over it.193194
Had Temerity ever fought a Sorrowsworn? Temerity nodded.195196 An average trained knight would probably fall to one, Rhea said. The purifiers of the Order wield the blessing of the Silver Flame against them, which gets past their corrupted regeneration, and are trained to endure their psychic attacks. Most Sorrowsworn could not stand against a single purifier.197198199200 A Sorrowsworn is nowhere near the worst thing the Sorrow has to offer, and the worse things are what the Dragoons are for. She could say no more until Temerity was sworn in.200201 “I won’t pretend like any of this is ideal, but it is all necessary.”202 She believed every word.203 Training ended in the afternoon.204
Afternoon
The others waited for Temerity at Rhysaene’s apartment.205206 Rhysaene poured red wine, and a bowl for Hazel, who was still a cat.207208209 Luma was trying not to show how pleased she was that the ritual had worked.210211 They could cast it again to find Daisy, Hazel said.212 Luma worried the man might report them for using magic. If he did, said Hazel, it would be the last thing he did.213214
Temerity arrived about an hour later.215 She reached down to pet the cat before learning it was Hazel. “I didn’t realize you could turn small.”216217 “We jumped the guy in an alley,” Iva told her, and Rhysaene explained that Daisy had been paying someone to follow her.218219 “Did you kill him?” “God, no! What do you think we are, monsters?”220221 Then Temerity realized: “Wait. You used magic.”222 Hazel had means to find Daisy if they needed to.223 Hearing about the ritual, Temerity said, “All my friends are casting magic without me.”224 Hazel could stay a cat for two hours. Temerity asked whether she turned into one every night. “By the dead gods, I would never transform into a cat willingly.”225226227
Hazel rode across the bridge in Luma’s hat.228229 Luma had thought of making it an air hole, but did not want to poke a hole in her new hat. It reminded Hazel of home.230231
The Candlelight Players
They crossed the Turnstone Bridge and followed the road down to the Footlight Theater, a large building of white stone two or three stories tall, with a doorway as wide as a double door.232233234 Hazel changed back in a quiet spot.235 Nobody knew for certain that Lathiel was dead. There had been no obituary, and her old friends supposed she had died, or had left.236237 The only mutual friend who could have told them for certain was Rhysaene.238
Rhysaene would go in as an up-and-coming actress picking something up from a friend, with the others as her secretaries.239240 Luma put a pair of glasses with plain lenses on Hazel, Iva shifted into the look of a librarian, and Temerity came as security. Luma had a clipboard full of fake schedules.241242243244245
An entryway led through a wide opening into the auditorium.246 The acoustics are excellent.247 The Candlelight Players were on the stage preparing, with stagehands moving through the seats and backstage.248 Rhysaene knew all four at the front. Cassius Vane is the troupe’s director. Iados, known as Iados the Poet, is its lead actor, fairly new compared to the rest.249250 She knew Donella Daergel, the stage manager, very well, and Sera Siannodel, the troupe’s main playwright, best of all, because Sera and Lathiel had been incredibly close.251 Hazel took a seat, since the acoustics made her uncomfortable.252
“Rhysaene? My goodness!” Sera ran over and hugged her, and took her to a dressing room to talk.253254255 Cassius told the others that friends of Rhysaene’s were welcome, so long as they did not touch anything without asking. Donella glared at him and told them not to touch anything without permission.256257 Sage was allowed. Sage was better behaved than most people, said Hazel, and better behaved than Iva.258259260 Donella told Iva to stay out of the prop room, and said she would have anyone she saw on her stage dragged out.261262 Cassius reminded her they had no security. Iados drew a rapier and said he would remove anyone who caused trouble, but it was a prop, blunted, with its tip welded.263264265 “Iados, stop showboating. We have to run lines.”266
Sera
It had been more than a year since they had heard from Rhysaene or Lathiel, Sera said. Was Lathiel all right?267 It was complicated, Rhysaene told her: they were taking a little time, but they were still friends.268 Sera believed her, and was relieved. She had been worried about them both.269 The theater was growing every year. Iados was new, and Donella and Cassius were the same as ever. Sera had written a couple of plays since they last spoke, and the troupe had put on one of them.270271 Now and then the Synod sent an angry letter demanding changes to a play, but mostly it left them alone, and the funding was good.272 There was always room in the lobby for local artists, and Rhysaene’s work was welcome there.273
Then Rhysaene said Lathiel had sent her to look for something she had left behind, a book.274275 Sera’s eyes widened. There was nothing like that there, she said, and members of the public could not go rummaging through their things.276 The warmth had gone from her voice, but she was neither nervous nor angry, only flat.277 “Yes, I’m sorry it’s not allowed, Rhys. Don’t ask again.”278 When Rhysaene let it drop, she brightened again. Donella did not like people going through the props, she explained, in case they broke something.279280 She was fine, she insisted: “I’m not stressed. I’m great.”281282
Lathiel had had an on-again, off-again fling with Sera before she and Rhysaene grew close. It was no secret, and it had never seemed to bother Sera, who was always happy to see them together.283284285 Rhysaene had never seen any tension between them. Lathiel never talked about Sera, and outside the theater nobody would have known they knew each other.286287 As Rhysaene left, Sera splashed water on her face from a basin and took a deep breath.288 She did not seem upset.289
Cassius stopped Rhysaene on the stage. Their background painter was not very good, and he asked her to paint their scenery, for pay. He would send for her once the art direction of their new production was settled.290291292293
The Prop Room
Iva challenged Iados: “You, sir, have insulted me. I accept your duel.”294295 He called her a contemptuous wench.296 Hazel asked Rhysaene whether she had got what she came for, and Rhysaene said she had been turned away.297298 Luma pulled a prop sword from her bag and threw it to Iva. “En garde, fiend!” said Iados.299300 If the troupe barred Rhysaene from what she needed, Hazel said, perhaps they were not worth saving. Rhysaene would not hurt them: they had been close to her friend.301302 Iados and Iva fell into a fight that looked choreographed. Cassius asked Sera to add a sword fight to the next play, and when she said it was a romance, suggested a duel with a jilted ex-lover, and she agreed.303304305
While everyone watched, Luma cast locate object for the nearest ledger. The troupe’s office and a second place were almost the same distance away.306307 Rhysaene’s vision had led to a prop room, and Donella had waved toward one behind the stage.308309310 Luma slipped through the dim backstage unseen.311312 The prop room was locked. As she turned the handle, Sera and Donella turned toward her in unison: “Members of the public are not permitted in the prop room. Get away from there.” Then they looked at each other, and said there was no one there.313314
Luma looked through the keyhole, teleported to the other side, and sealed the door with arcane lock.315316317 Sera and Donella ran to the door, and when Donella’s key would not work, both began pounding on it.318319 “Open the door! Open the door!” they screamed in unison, and did not stop when Cassius ordered them to.320321 In the dark, Luma’s spell pointed below the floor, under costume coats and prop barrels, and her wand of secrets found the loose floorboard.320322 Sera’s hands were bleeding from the pounding. Iva grabbed her to stop her, and she screamed to be let go.323324325 Under the floorboards Luma found a simple leather-bound book, and put it in her bag of holding.326327
Rhysaene went over and sensed a magical compulsion driving the two women. She could feel it as heat burning off them both, and in her own chest, and felt that she could reach out and touch it.328329330331 When she did, it felt like holding the crimson fire she often conjures. She could try to remove the magic, which might fail, or override it, which felt trivial, and the heat in her chest leaned toward using it.332333334335 She overrode it: “Y’all should stop and take a break.” Both stopped at once and relaxed, as she felt herself cast charm person.336337 Hazel sensed a current of magic connecting the three of them.338 Sera went to get a drink of water.339
Luma put the floor back as it had been, took a painted wooden shortsword from the props, and knocked on the door, saying it was stuck.340341342 Donella’s key would not open it, so Luma ended her lock.343344 Donella opened the door. “I wanted to get a sword to join in on the fun,” said Luma. “You should have just asked, dear.”345346347
Hazel treated and bandaged Sera’s hands.348349 Sera felt hot and a little dizzy. She remembered thinking someone was in the prop room who should not be, then deciding it did not matter, and going for a drink.350 Rhysaene suggested to Iados that red tassels could show blood in the fight, and he said they had some in the prop room. When Luma warned that its door sometimes trapped people, he said he had never understood why they kept it locked.351352353354 Hazel wanted to leave. She did not want to be part of “Lathiel’s weird charm person brigade”.355 The book was latched but not locked.356 Hazel took an animal shape again to cross back over the bridge.357
The Ledger
At the apartment, Luma gave the book to Rhysaene.358 Rhysaene thought the troupe had been charmed. “Then why was your word the thing that called them off?” asked Hazel. Rhysaene had only tried to take it over, she said, to stop it.359360361 Luma hoped it would have something on House Sterling: her parents had signed a contract with them.362363 Someone had been willing to kill Rhysaene for it.364 “I’ve already killed to guarantee your safety,” said Hazel. “We are bound.” “We ate the friendship bread,” said Luma.365366
The book is written in Common, in Lathiel’s elegant hand.367368 Among tax figures and notes on infrastructure, it records House Sterling businesses underpaying their taxes and bribing clerks, with names and sums.369370 It records Sterling requests for preferential installation of lava lamps around their businesses, to get first access to Everfire as it spread through the Lantern Wards. The Sterling Sovereign has lava lamps out front, where many places in the Hearth Wall do not.371372 For the Sovereign, it records how the tenants of the apartments that once stood on its ground were forced out. Some were paid off, and for others the Sterlings hired criminals to break into their homes again and again until they gave up their leases. The owners were forced to sell, and the apartments were torn down to build the Sovereign.373374
The book is Lathiel’s record, not Sterling’s own papers: evidence rather than proof, pointing at wrongdoing for which proof probably exists.375376377 It covers House Sterling alone, and is a little over a year out of date. It covers the building of the Sovereign, but says nothing of the contract between Sterling and the Drace Logging Company.378
The last line is written in Infernal, which only Rhysaene and Luma could read: “House Sterling seems to have an uncanny run of good luck. There must be more to it than that. I smell sulfur.”379380381 Luma had taught herself the script from a book she once found, because it looked cool, without knowing what it was, and uses it when she is frustrated.382383 Hazel and Temerity knew sulfur, or brimstone, as a sign of the Hells and of devils, who in legend make deals with mortals for dire prices, up to and including the soul.384385386 The Silver Vale has no law against dealing with devils, because it is unheard of, but it would bring the full force of the Synod.387 Hazel knew little about devils. The most she had heard was a jab from Circe at one of her sisters: if she was so bad at turning into animals, maybe she could make a deal with a devil.388389 The line records Lathiel’s suspicion that House Sterling was dealing with devils.390 “We got to do something about those guys,” said Temerity.391
Temerity told Iva she expected to join the Dragoons by the end of the month, as Rhea had assured her.392393 Iva teased her about becoming a Sorrowsworn murderer. Hazel pointed out that Temerity had already killed Sorrowsworn and was no murderer, and Temerity said nobody calls hunters murderers.394395396 Some Sorrowsworn had been people once, said Iva. “It is sad. You’re not wrong,” said Temerity.397398
Luma wrote to her family, warning them about House Sterling, though what she had was circumstantial. A ship would take it within the next couple of days.399400401 She also wrote a reply to the letter from her grandfather, Mathas Drace.402403
Featured Characters
Player Characters
New
Returning
Mentioned
Quotations
- “Okay, I fucking like you.” Rhysaene to Luma.6
- “Where are you going, handsome? I wasn’t done talking to you.” Iva to Pell.87
- “Daisy? Is that a flower? What? I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anyone called Daisy.” Pell.123
- “The first thing you have to understand is purification does not mean purification of the mage. [It] means purification of the Silver Vale.” Rhea Larnas to Temerity.186
- “In the fight against the Sorrow, you cannot take its side.” Rhea Larnas.189
- “God, no! What do you think we are, monsters?” Iva to Temerity.221
- “By the dead gods, I would never transform into a cat willingly.” Hazel.227
- “Yes, I’m sorry it’s not allowed, Rhys. Don’t ask again.” Sera Siannodel to Rhysaene.278
- “You should have just asked, dear.” Donella Daergel to Luma.347
- “Then why was your word the thing that called them off?” Hazel to Rhysaene.360
- “House Sterling seems to have an uncanny run of good luck. There must be more to it than that. I smell sulfur.” Lathiel's ledger.381
Inventory
- The scroll of locate object that Luma made, used up by Rhysaene.
- About seven crowns, from Rhysaene to Pell.
- Lathiel's ledger, taken by Luma from under the floor of the Footlight Theater’s prop room and given to Rhysaene.
Speaking Time
| Speaker | Time | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dungeon Master | 2:18:18 | 43% |
| Rhysaene | 45:11 | 14% |
| Hazel | 39:17 | 12% |
| Luma | 35:32 | 11% |
| Iva | 33:22 | 10% |
| Temerity | 26:26 | 8% |
Gallery
