Session 18 covered 8 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, in Argentum. Temerity’s Dragoon training was put on hold while the Dragoons were away on an operation. A spell glyph in Iva’s dead drop carried Silas Wintermist’s next task for her: to survey the barracks of the Order of the Lantern and the Stone Shields, and the routes between them. At the Silver Archives, Luma and Rhysaene found that House Sterling’s official records contradicted Lathiel's ledger. Praying at Rhysaene's apartment, Temerity had a vision of a towering winged figure she took to be the embodiment of the Silver Flame. That evening Rhysaene told the party that Lathiel had been a devil, and that a Dragoon had killed her.
Synopsis
The Barracks
The party slept at Rhysaene’s apartment, and on the morning of 8 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, Temerity went to the Dragoon barracks early.12 Every morning of her training so far, Rhea Larnas had been in the courtyard waiting for the cohort. That day she was not there, and only Kyren Lenara and a couple of other wetscales were.34 Temerity and Kyren went over the study plan for Draconic that Luma had written for her, with Kyren holding the book straight out in front of him to work his shoulders, as they had agreed.56 Luma signs everything she writes, and the plan was signed Luma Drace.78
Emeric Vael came out of the barracks and asked why they spent so much time on the thing their lives depended on least, when they would learn enough of it from the Dragoons.9 Kyren, he said, ought to be preparing for the physical demands of the role. Temerity pointed to Kyren, holding the book at arm’s length.1011 That might not be enough, said Emeric. He glanced at the study plan for a second or two, and his eyes went wide with something like shock. Then he turned and walked off.1213 Temerity did not know what had set him off.14 The rest of the cohort filed in over the next twenty minutes, and by then Emeric had left the grounds.1516
After fifteen minutes with no sign of Rhea, Cassia Brightshield came out of the barracks and called the wetscales over.17 Their training and evaluations were on indefinite hold, she said. Rhea and the other Dragoons were indisposed with an operation that needed their full attention, and could spare no one to train them.1819 The candidates were to check in every morning to see whether training would resume. It would be at least a few days, if not a few weeks.20 It had come out of nowhere, she said, and she had nothing more to tell them.21
Temerity stayed to help Cassia put away the training equipment, which had been left out for a few days.2223 Cassia thanked her, and said she knew Temerity had been very invested in all of it. Temerity hoped no one would get hurt. Cassia did not think anyone was likely to, though she could not say it was impossible.242526 She opened her mouth as if to say more, then stopped herself and went back to putting the wooden swords in their barrel.26 She was not afraid, and did not look like someone whose life was in danger: whatever it was, the Sorrowsworn were not at the walls. But she was very nervous.27 There was nothing to be concerned about, she said. If more help were needed it would probably fall to the Order of the Lantern, though using the Dragoon recruits might not be a terrible idea. Then she said she could not say more.2829 Temerity tried to draw her out without asking outright, and she added nothing.3031
The Sending Glyph
At the apartment, Hazel was up early for her morning rituals and seances, and Rhysaene worked on her painting, which was going well.3233 Luma had written a letter to her grandfather, Mathas Drace, the night before, and kept it short on purpose, because it was so important.3435 She took it to the lumberyard and left it with a logging shipment that had come in. Going upriver takes longer than coming down, and it would take a couple of days to reach him.36373839
Iva went out as Emilio, in more masculine clothes, to check her dead drops.40 Two were empty. In the potted plant was a note, and a disc like a coin, of rough dried clay, painted with a symbol in black ink with a bluish sheen.4142 She pocketed both without reading the note and took a long walk back.4344
Temerity got back at the same time, found Emilio outside the door, and asked what he was doing at the house. “I was going in to hang out with people.” She went in and closed the door behind her.45464748 Emilio followed her in and shifted back into Iva: “That was weird.” Temerity had forgotten Iva could do that. “It’s like my whole thing, Temerity.”495051 Temerity apologized, and Iva said she understood Temerity was on edge.5253
Temerity told the others her training had been put off for a few days to a couple of weeks, because the Dragoons had been called away on an operation.5455 Luma said that gave her more time for her study book, and Temerity asked for it two pounds heavier next time, with lead in the covers.565758 “Temerity, I’m unemployed,” said Luma.59
Iva showed them the clay coin and the note.60 Luma had never seen anything like the coin or the intricate rune on it, but she knew the ink. The special ink for inscribing magic is expensive because it is made by mixing ground gemstone into ink, and this was black ink with ground sapphire.6162 Luma ritual cast identify on it.63 It held the sending spell, embedded the way a spell is held in a scroll, and could be used once.646566 The rune was so intricate because it was several glyphs layered onto each other to contain the spell.67 Luma had always thought it would be cool to send words into people’s heads, but had never worked out how.68 The note read: “Break this glyph, say my name, and tell me where you are.” It was from Silas.6970
Hazel and Luma thought she should not do it in the apartment.7172 Iva did not want to do it in public either, since it would be strange to break a coin, say someone’s name aloud and announce where she was.7374 Hazel thought that a bit paranoid even for her.75 Iva did not want to get anyone else in trouble. “Seems like the only one in trouble here is you,” said Hazel. If the Syndicate was not afraid to meet her in public, cracking the coin in public would probably be fine.767778
Luma knew the spell itself needed neither the name nor anything said aloud, only that the caster know whom the message was for and keep it to twenty-five words or fewer.79 The note’s instructions were the surest way Silas could make sure Iva had the right intention when she broke it.8081 Luma told her to break it and think the words she wanted him to hear.8283 Then she took out a map of the city’s libraries, which are all around where she used to work. The first she pointed to was her favorite, and then she remembered it was where she had been fired.84858687
Luma offered to break the coin for her. Iva refused: the whole point was to keep the others further away from the Syndicate.888990 “Working with them is not going to keep them further away from us,” said Hazel.91 If anyone should get in trouble with the Tarnar Syndicate, Iva said, it should be her.92 Hazel said the person who had conscripted her into the Tarnars was named Iva D’Aquino, and she was not around any more. Iva said she would be around a little longer, and then she would die. She had been told to fake her death.939495 Temerity went into the pantry so as not to hear.9697
Luma, Rhysaene and Iva set out for a library, and Hazel stayed to keep Temerity company on her day off.9899100101 The main library is the Silver Archives. Luma meant to avoid it for its magic detectors, but she had been there plenty of times and never seen anyone like that on the ground floor or the upper levels. Those are more like a public library, and anything restricted is below.102103104105
The Silver Archives
The Silver Archives are a fair-sized stone library, three or four stories of shelves. Much of what they hold is archival records rather than books, such as business and construction records, though there are sections of fiction and history.106107 Early in the day the building was quiet. It is more archive than library, and though it is open to the public, people go there when they need to look up a record.108
Iva found a secluded spot between the shelves at the far back.109110 Luma and Rhysaene went looking for House Sterling’s business records.111112 Luma wrote “I’m very good at corporate espionage” on her palm and gave herself guidance, and the words vanished as the spell was used.113114 It took some digging, but they found numerous ledgers and records of Sterling construction in the city: the Sterling Sovereign, the Sterling lumber yard, and a few of the family’s other businesses.115 Everything looked incredibly above board and boring, and it contradicted Lathiel’s ledger. The official records inflated what land had cost and what had been paid for labor.116117
Luma did not know what to do with that.118 Brought before a judge side by side, the official record would have Lathiel laughed at. They trusted Lathiel more, which meant the records lied, but Luma did not know how to prove it.119120121 “We have baselines, so now we have to find discrepancies and prove them.”122
In the back of the library, Iva broke the coin. Told she only had to think it, but not confident, she said aloud, “Silas. I’m at the Silver Archives.”123124 For a second nothing happened. Then she heard Silas’s voice very clearly, though not out loud: “Survey the Order barracks, the Stone Shield barracks, and the routes between them. Pay close attention to watches and patrols, report or questions in dead drop.”125126
She found Rhysaene and Luma and told them she was going for a walk to people-watch. She was lying, and neither of them noticed.127128129 Luma took it that Iva was going to meet Silas, and did not question it.130 Iva gave her the two halves of the coin. “I’m going to do science to it.”131132
Luma and Rhysaene kept searching. Luma wanted to know whether the Sterlings had ever failed, as every business sometimes does, and whether their unnatural luck showed in the records.133134135 In the past ten years or so the family had opened a lot of businesses: a lumber mill, a general store, the Sterling Sovereign, an apothecary, and a business building carriages and renting out horses.136 None had failed. All were wildly successful, and most had opened near a competitor and hurt its business badly.137 The Sterlings seem to go out of their way to take over a market by undercutting prices without lowering quality, and in a few cases they raised prices once the competitor had gone out of business.138139
Most of the records carry no signature, only the seal of the Silver Archives. Some bear the seal of the Lexicon of Civil Notaries, the legal guild, and a few the guild seal of the Circuit Registrars, the census and statistics arm of the Archives. None bears a personal mark of any kind.140141 Luma knew they were likely government copies of legal documents, notarized and stored for record keeping. Sterling would hold the originals.142143 She guessed that the Sterlings had an accountant who sent their papers in, and that the clerks had no reason to disbelieve them.144
Breakfast
At the apartment, Temerity had an actual breakfast for the first time in about seven days: a stale honey cake from Rhysaene’s pantry and a little of her good meat.145146147 She left an ember on Rhysaene’s bed to pay for it.147148 Hazel asked why she was paying. Temerity had taken the food without asking.149150 If this were Temerity’s house, Hazel asked, would she expect Rhysaene to pay her back? She would not, but that was different: it was her own standard, and she did not know Rhysaene’s.151152153 Rhysaene had never charged them for anything, said Hazel. Rhysaene could give her the coin back, said Temerity.154155
“You’re always questioning my decisions, Hazel.” Hazel thought it was always good to question things.156157 She did not question the others like this, she said, because the others respected themselves more than Temerity respected herself.158159 Temerity said she respected herself plenty. “Well, you respect yourself as Temerity, but do you respect yourself as a human being? Or as a living being?”160161 Temerity thought she did. Did she seem not to value her personhood? Hazel wiggled her hand: a little bit.162163164165 Temerity looked at her breakfast and bit into the stale honey cake.166
Temerity’s Prayer
With the day free, Temerity took time for the prayer she had been putting off.167 She asked Hazel whether praying in the living room would make her uncomfortable. “I’m more offended that you felt the need to ask, frankly.”168169 Temerity had no incense. She sat cross-legged on the floor holding her holy emblem, a necklace, and closed her eyes to reflect on everything that had happened since she came to Argentum.170171172 She opened herself up and sought guidance on what to do next. She had many questions about conscription, and felt she was getting a little lost.173174175
It was dark and quiet. She could not hear the city or Hazel moving about, only blackness and silence, and then running water trickling behind her.176177178179 She knew instinctively that it was not Rhysaene’s house leaking.180 A cool breeze crossed her face, and she felt she could open her eyes and keep them closed at the same time.181182 When she opened her senses to that inner place, she was standing in a beautiful grove. Behind her a little stream trickled out of the ground like a natural spring and ran across open ground, splitting at one point into a puddle.183184185 Tall pines stood at the edges of the grove. In the middle was a massive tree like an oak, with leaves all of silver.186187188
Temerity walked toward the tree, hearing her footsteps on the grass. Almost at once she felt she was really there, and her sense of being in Rhysaene’s house was gone. To Hazel she looked deep in meditation.189190191 Near the tree the air was not warmer, but her hair stood on end, as if the air were charged with electricity, and on the other side of the tree a figure shifted.192193194 She called out hello. A voice answered with an echo, neither feminine nor masculine but hardened, deep and resonant, and she felt it in her bones as well as her ears. “Come forth.”195196197198
Around the tree stood a massive humanoid figure, about twelve feet tall.199200 It wore gleaming full plate armor with a dragon’s spread wings on the front, and had massive silver-feathered wings of its own, curled back behind it. At its side hung a gleaming silver sword that in Temerity’s hands would be bigger than a greatsword.201202203 Its skin was pale silver, and it had no hair. A crown of burning silver fire hovered around its head.204205 One arm was gauntleted and armored all the way up. The other was bare: an arm and hand of solid, almost liquid platinum, covered in dragon scale, the hand draconic with a dragon’s claw at the end of each finger.206207208209 Its ears were more pointed than an elf’s, and its eyes were two orbs of glowing silver light with no pupils or irises.210211
Its gaze fell on her with the weight of a presence she had never felt before, and yet it was somehow familiar. It felt very much like what resides within her.212213214 Temerity dropped to one knee.215 The figure’s face went from a cold, stoic slate, like a statue carved of marble, to a softer smile. “You do not have to kneel, child. Stand.”216217 She stood, a bit shaken.218 The figure was hard to look at, and very classically angelic. She suspected its overwhelming spiritual presence would have been unbearable had it not been confined to the back of her mind.219220221222
“I have watched you for a long time, child, but this is the first time you’ve called out to me. I sense you come here with questions and trepidations.”223224225 Temerity had many, and nowhere else to turn with them.226227 The figure would answer what it could, but there was much it could not say. “The path before you is not one I can walk for you.”228229
The Questions
Temerity asked first whether the way her friends use magic was harmful.230 What her kind call the Starfall, the figure said, disrupted the fundamental nature of the world. It changed what dwells upon its surface, and brought out the darkness within the hearts of all mortal kind.231232233234 Such things can be drawn to concentrations of magic, and certain magic could be devastating to the protections within the Silver Vale, but nothing it had sensed since it began watching her rose to that level.235236237 Temerity closed her eyes, her face full of relief.238
Then she asked about purification, which had troubled her greatly since she had been confronted with someone destined for it. Were such people ill-fated, or was what Rhea had told her true, that they are only conscripted?239240241 The figure could not say whether what someone had told her was true, since it was not present for all her conversations.242243 It considered, and said: “It was said of old, before the star fell: Do not seek the counsel of the divine, for they will say both no and yes.”244245 Purification is not divine edict, it said, but nor is it wholly uncalled for. The maintenance of order in dire times is necessary to keep the dark at bay, but the method is not for the figure to decide. It is for mortal kind to devise how they comport themselves in troubled times.246247248249250 It could not answer as forthrightly as she wished, because that would do too much to shape a path she must carve herself.251252
If she was to ask questions, the figure said, it was only fair that it ask some as well.253 When she sprang back to life those many years ago in the cold of winter, she had come back with what it suspected was a belief that she was chosen for a great purpose. Did she still hold that belief? “Yes. Yes, of course.” It smiled, and told her to ask her next question.254255256257
She asked whether there was a way to better control what the figure called the flame that burns within her.258259 There was no trick, it said. The flame was, and always had been, her birthright to wield, a part of her and hers to do with as she would. It could no more tell her how to control it than how to control her arm or her lungs.260261262263
She wanted to know that she was not making a mistake in joining the Dragoons.264265 “Fate has ever been a fickle thing, and in these times of sorrow more so than ever. I cannot see the end of all paths. But if you walk yours with righteousness, it is within your power to bend what isn’t righteous towards the light.”266267268269
Temerity said the conversation had quelled many of her doubts. “Doubt is a weakness one cannot afford to carry in a war with darkness itself.”270271272 The figure saw the doubts she carried, and told her: “Your enemy is not the child mage. Your enemy is not the witch who dwells in the woods, nor the shapeshifter, nor the petty criminal, nor the monstrous Sorrowsworn that rise from those too consumed by grief to live as human any longer. Your enemy is the Sorrow itself. You were chosen by divine providence to be a champion against it. And ere all comes to end, the Silver Flame will be your blade.”273274275276277278279280281282
Last, she asked whether the Fardrimm was the road she must walk down to fight the Sorrow.283284285 The figure did not concern itself with ancient roads carved by mortal men. She should walk whichever path she deemed best, for they all lead to the same end.286287288289 She had been chosen by divine providence and the Silver Flame, and all else was secondary. But whichever way she went would shape how she wielded that providence when the time came.290291292293294
Then it asked whether she had chosen the name Temerity for herself. She had. “Would that I could have chosen it for you, for there is no better word to describe what dwells within your heart.” And she woke.295296297298299
Her necklace was burning. It did not hurt, though she felt it should have, and it had burned through her clothes. It began to cool the moment she opened her eyes.300301 Hazel had a cup of water ready for her, and food, and told her she had taken the liberty of paying for it. She was lying.302303304 It was the most praying had ever taken out of Temerity. “I think I saw the embodiment of the Silver Flame.” Hazel suggested they save it for when everyone was there.305306307
The Two Barracks
Iva went first to the nearer barracks, the Stone Shields’, across the bridge to the east and straight south along the river.308309 She went as a woman none of the others had met, and found a place to watch the entrance.310311312 Around it are market stalls and little stands, on open ground.313 She blended in with the people and the stalls, and no one took any notice of her.314 Stone Shields went in and out, and kept watch from the walls.314 The barracks is a fairly barren little stone keep, walled, with four watchtowers and the barracks proper inside. It is very like the Order of the Lantern’s barracks, but smaller and less well kept, and Stone Shields train in combat in its front yard. It is hard to see inside from outside, but Iva learned the watch pattern on the walls.315316 To the south is a market. Along the wall are planted grass and trees, with a line of shrubs along the road and the wall, part of an effort to make the area more hospitable.317318
From her time in the Order, Iva knew that Argentum’s prison is a basement complex under the Stone Shield barracks, entered from inside the barracks. Miles Quickstep was not held there: the Order of the Lantern still had him in a holding cell.319320321 She noted the guard patterns on the walls and at the entrance, and walked on toward the Lantern barracks, passing Rhysaene’s house. The walk took about twenty minutes.322323324325 On the way she saw patrols of Stone Shields and Light Wardens going back and forth, and an Order of the Lantern wagon, a covered carriage rather than a goods wagon, drawn by a horse, with four guards walking beside it.326327328
The Order’s barracks were far more familiar. Iva had spent a lot of time there, and had been in the basement, where Brundun had been held.329330331 No one noticed her there either.332 The Order’s outgoing patrols are more relaxed, since a Light Warden’s role has always been more like community outreach, but the watch on the barracks is more disciplined than the Stone Shields’: more guards per tower, and tighter timings with more overlap.333334 The two barracks are built much alike. The outer walls of each have one main gate, wide enough for wagons two abreast, and each watchtower has an outer door that can only be opened from the inside.334335 They are patrolled inside as well.336 Iva knew from her time in the Order that a covered transport like the one she had seen was almost certainly a prisoner transfer.337 Order members do not ride in style between the barracks. They walk, or perhaps take a horse, though riding is not common in the city, and even a high-ranking officer would probably walk. A covered wagon is for keeping something secure.338339 The watch rotation was basically the same as when she had left, and she spent a while noting it down.340341
The Canal Markets
With no food in the house, Luma asked Rhysaene to go shopping.342343 The Canal Markets have a lot of fruit stands, and general stores as well.344 With more people staying with her, Rhysaene bought basics in bulk, and vegetables, with friendship bread in mind.345346347348 Luma had helped her mother cook for five, six and sometimes nine, and offered to show her how to make a big stew that is cheap and keeps forever.349350351352 A few anvils buy enough food to nourish someone, and more money buys something more elaborate or tasty. Rhysaene spent a crown, enough ingredients for a nice little feast for five.353354355356
Luma had not been to her own apartment for days, and checked it for mail.357358 Among the ordinary post were coupons from Sterling Outfitters & Expeditionary, offering two longswords for twenty crowns.359360361
Back at Rhysaene’s apartment, Beepo shadowed Temerity and copied her every move. “Why is this thing copying me?”362363 Mimicry, said Hazel, is a survival technique and a way of communicating.364 Temerity knelt and offered him a fist bump, and he headbutted it.365366 She was learning not to judge him, she said, but his being artificial life still perturbed her a little.367 Some people believe, said Hazel, that people were created by divine beings. Did that make them artificial creations? Temerity said it did not, and Hazel agreed.368369370371
After a while Beepo wrote on a little piece of paper and handed it to Temerity: “Do you want anything from the store?”372373 Temerity asked for meat, and Hazel for sweets.374 Luma found someone selling meat-filled buns. A little pastry stand called Vada's Otherworldly Goods, run by Vada, a little old halfling woman, sells pastries and desserts at an ember each, sticky buns among them.375376377378379380 Rhysaene bought one and Luma two. They were coated in a vanilla glaze.381382
Iva’s Report
When Luma and Rhysaene got back, Temerity asked whether that was why Beepo had written the note. Luma had found out that she and Beepo could talk, and Hazel said she and Sage could do the same.383384385 It is like thinking, said Luma, but in a different voice.386
Iva came back not long after, walked in the door in that stranger’s shape, and shifted back.387312388 Temerity put down her hammer.389 Iva asked for help with the watching Silas had set her, since she was not very sneaky.390391392 Luma pointed out that she could turn into literally anybody. Anybody could get caught, said Iva, and people act differently when they see someone watching them, as the man following them had.393394395 “The difference being is that when you run, you can turn into somebody else around the corner.”396 Temerity was not keen to give the Tarnar information, and Luma remembered it was illegal besides.397398 Iva had said she would not involve them, Luma added, and the first thing she had done was come back to involve them.399 It would be poor planning on the Syndicate’s part, said Hazel, to hire someone for a job she could not do.400
Iva wrote down everything she had gathered: the patrol timings, the wall rotations at both barracks, and the covered wagon with its four guards, going from the Lantern barracks to the Stone Shields’, with the route it took.401402403404 She added that she had not seen what was in it, but knew such wagons carry important transfers or people.405
Lathiel
From the moment she got home, Rhysaene had felt something like fight or flight, a real anxiety she could not put a finger on.406 While they put the shopping away she told the others they had to be careful. She did not know why. She just felt it.407408 Hazel saw that she took comfort in knowing where the feeling came from, and that though she told herself its source did not matter, perhaps it did.409410 Hazel did not disagree that they should be careful, but was not sure they should change how they operated on a hunch.411
Rhysaene thought her friend was trying to tell her something.412 Luma had thought that friend was dead, and Rhysaene said she was, in a way, but not a ghost.413414415 Hazel knows of spirits, and of magic for communing with the dead, which is not unknown to her coven. Magic to speak with the dead needs the body.416417418419 Rhysaene did not think it worked that way. She felt it in her chest.420421 Iva asked whether it was like the heart she had pulled her sword out of, and Rhysaene said it was, kind of.422423 Temerity put a hand on her shoulder and nodded, and Rhysaene recoiled slightly.424425 Temerity checked the windows and doors in case Daisy was back, and saw nothing suspicious.426427
Hazel told Rhysaene she need not give her any details, and that she believed her.428 Luma asked whether she could hunt Rhysaene’s house for ghosts.429 Rhysaene thanked Hazel for at least trying to trust her.430 Rhysaene had not given her a good enough reason to stop trusting her, said Hazel.431 Something still felt wrong to Rhysaene, and she cast armor of Agathys on herself. She waved a hand, and blue flames trickled over her body and vanished.432433 Iva fetched her axe, and Luma held her gun.434435 Rhysaene tried to cook, but kept slipping and cutting things wrong, so Temerity took over the chopping.436437 To the others nothing seemed amiss.406
Luma cast locate object for the nearest dead body. There was none in the house, and nothing within range that a graveyard or a recent death would not explain.438439440 Rhysaene had an unexplained missing dead friend, Luma said, so she had crossed off the obvious. “Rhys, did you kill Lathiel?”441442443 Temerity said that was not an appropriate question, and Rhysaene said she had not.444445
Rhysaene went to the bathroom.446 Luma knew she had said something wrong, and Temerity thought Rhysaene’s friend was a sensitive subject.447448 Hazel was fairly sure the friend and the voice in Rhysaene’s heart were one and the same. People who die with unfinished business sometimes remain in a certain way, she said, and creatures with particularly large grudges have kept their physical form after death, though she did not think this was one of those.449450451452 It might be something else of Lathiel’s living on, rather than her spirit.453
Rhysaene came back a few minutes later, her hair a little messier. She had not killed Lathiel, she said. A Dragoon had.454455456 Iva looked at Temerity with wide eyes. Temerity stopped chopping for a moment, then slowly and quietly carried on.457458459 Hazel told Rhysaene she was sorry for her loss, and that it seemed Lathiel had not been entirely taken from her. “In a way, no.”460461462
Hazel came over, sheepish and red in the face, and held a hand out toward Rhysaene’s chest without touching it. Was it Lathiel’s heart, she asked, and could she feel the magic?463464465 Rhysaene leaned into it, and knelt down a little.466 Her chest was very warm, much warmer than a person should be. Under it Hazel felt a magic unfamiliar to her as a witch of the Sisters of the Shattered Mother: hot, messy, and dark in a way, not a kind of magic she had ever dealt in. Something about it felt infernal.467468469
Rhysaene had seen the kind of people Hazel was brought up around, and Hazel hoped she knew where she stood on such things. What was Lathiel, exactly?470471 Anxious, but stern, Rhysaene told her: “She was a devil.”472473474 Temerity stopped chopping again.475 Hazel looked very surprised, for the first time in a while. “I didn’t know those were still around.”476477 Rhysaene told her to be careful, and Hazel took her hand away.478479
Lathiel had been kind to her, Rhysaene said. They had had fun, and Lathiel had the same passion she did. She made Rhysaene happy.479480481 Hazel said she would find no judgment from her.482 Rhysaene had not wanted to air it, and had not wanted to push it on Temerity, who was nice. But she was scared. “I don’t want to lose her again.”483484485 Hazel, not usually a hugger, hugged her. She would have loved to meet Lathiel, she said, and she would not let Rhysaene lose her.486487488 Lathiel had brought them all into a big mess, said Rhysaene. “And yet she still watches over you,” said Hazel. She had felt it.489490
They were a team, said Hazel, and as a team they ought to confide in each other when the time was right. In Rhysaene’s circumstances she would have kept the secret close as well. They were more tolerant than most, but even a devil was something to think about.491492493 Rhysaene asked her to keep it secret, and Hazel said she would never tell a soul.494495 Iva, crying, hugged Rhysaene too, and Luma peered round a corner, hiding.496
Temerity set her knife aside and looked back at Rhysaene, whose red and golden eyes were on her.497498 The Sorrow does not discriminate, said Hazel, and she did not believe they should either.499500 “You’re not my enemy, Rhys,” said Temerity. She was sorry Rhysaene had lost a dear friend, and hoped she did not make her uncomfortable.501502 The worst part, Rhysaene said, was that she did not think Temerity could help it, and she was sorry for that. She knew Temerity was trying, and had not wanted to make her think twice.503504 Temerity was not thinking twice. Rhysaene was still her friend, and she hoped to make her more comfortable in future, despite the path she was on.505506 Rhysaene said she would try to tread the path with her too.507
Temerity began to wonder whether Rhysaene’s sense of danger had come from her. While the others were out, she said, she had prayed, and she believed she had spoken with the embodiment of the Silver Flame. She hoped bringing that into the house had not made it uncomfortable for Rhysaene, and offered to go away for a while to see whether the feeling passed.508509510511 That made sense to Rhysaene, and she asked for warning next time. It had been very unexpected, said Temerity, and she would try to give warning, and perhaps not pray in Rhysaene’s home.512513514 “You’re my ally,” she said.515 Rhysaene read no sign that Temerity meant her harm or was thinking of turning her in, and looked at her with a little pity.516517
Rhysaene’s sense of danger had not gone, but it began to die down, and she sat down to cuddle some pillows.518519 Luma eventually worked up the courage to bring her a little piece of bread and apologize for making light of her friend. Rhysaene pulled her into a cuddle. “Your crimes are forgiven.”520521522523 Through the evening the feeling kept fading. It was, Rhysaene imagined, how a rabbit feels in the presence of a lion.524
Changelings
Late that night Iva sat down beside Hazel and asked whether she knew where Iva came from.525 Hazel had heard of changelings, and her first guess was some kind of fey.526 Hecate had mentioned the idea of a changeling, a humanoid-shaped shapeshifter, in passing while teaching her, but if she knew where they came from or what their nature was, she never shared it.526527 Shapeshifting and transformation, and Iva’s very nature, suggested to Hazel something to do with fey creatures. Her own turning into animals was different: she draws on the magic of nature and the moon.528529 One of her sisters, Circe, is quite the expert in magic that has to do with changing, but Hazel, with a thousand-yard stare, was not sure talking to her would bear much fruit.529530531
Hazel asked whether Iva was thinking of finding her birth parents.532 Iva had met elves and tieflings, and Rhysaene was the only centaur she knew, though others knew of them. But she had never even heard of another person like her, and hearing about Lathiel had made her realize she was a little lonely sometimes.533534 Iva could fit into any community, said Hazel, though she understood. What she knew of changelings was mostly folklore and hunches.535536 It was much the same for Rhysaene, she said, though her nature was a little less nebulous.537538 People like Iva, she said, are only found when they want to be seen, and the world does not encourage that.539 Hazel patted her awkwardly on the back, and Iva hugged her.540541542
Iva went out in the dark to leave her notes in the dead drop and check the others. There were no new messages.543544545 Temerity had wanted Hazel to find Daisy by magic, but after everything that had happened they needed rest, and Hazel would need the spell prepared.546547548
Featured Characters
Player Characters
New
Returning
Mentioned
Quotations
- “It’s like my whole thing, Temerity.” Iva to Temerity.51
- “Seems like the only one in trouble here is you.” Hazel to Iva.77
- “We have baselines, so now we have to find discrepancies and prove them.” Luma to Rhysaene.122
- “Well, you respect yourself as Temerity, but do you respect yourself as a human being? Or as a living being?” Hazel to Temerity.161
- “I’m more offended that you felt the need to ask, frankly.” Hazel to Temerity.169
- “You do not have to kneel, child. Stand.” The figure in Temerity’s vision.217
- “Fate has ever been a fickle thing, and in these times of sorrow more so than ever.” The figure in Temerity’s vision.266
- “Your enemy is not the child mage. Your enemy is not the witch who dwells in the woods, nor the shapeshifter, nor the petty criminal, nor the monstrous Sorrowsworn that rise from those too consumed by grief to live as human any longer. Your enemy is the Sorrow itself.” The figure in Temerity’s vision.274
- “And ere all comes to end, the Silver Flame will be your blade.” The figure in Temerity’s vision.282
- “Would that I could have chosen it for you, for there is no better word to describe what dwells within your heart.” The figure in Temerity’s vision.298
- “I didn’t know those were still around.” Hazel, on devils.477
- “I don’t want to lose her again.” Rhysaene.485
- “You’re not my enemy, Rhys.” Temerity to Rhysaene.501
- “Your crimes are forgiven.” Rhysaene to Luma.523
Inventory
- A spell glyph holding the sending spell, left for Iva in her dead drop by Silas Wintermist, with a note. Iva broke it, and gave the halves to Luma.
- An ember from Temerity, left on Rhysaene’s bed for her breakfast.
- A crown’s worth of groceries, bought by Rhysaene at the Canal Markets.
- Three buns from Vada's Otherworldly Goods at an ember each, one bought by Rhysaene and two by Luma.
- Coupons from Sterling Outfitters & Expeditionary, in Luma’s mail.
- Iva’s notes on the two barracks, left in a dead drop.
- Luma’s letter to Mathas Drace, sent upriver with a logging shipment.
Speaking Time
| Speaker | Time | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dungeon Master | 1:16:43 | 32% |
| Temerity | 52:45 | 22% |
| Iva | 32:31 | 14% |
| Luma | 30:29 | 13% |
| Hazel | 26:28 | 11% |
| Rhysaene | 19:06 | 8% |
Gallery
