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• Rhyme and Lya exchange names
  • They will talk more later, some of Lya’s associates are..
    • “Criminals?”
      “Tied to other responsibilities”
  • The duo leaves, Rhyme’s departure is a bit of a head scratcher, the air around him harden and tighten and splits and turns like a jaleikdosclope and several versions of himself split as he goes (cast mirror image)
• Crowd thins, guards lead prisoners back to their room, possessions requested are delivered (i.e. books)
  • Astraella stay up to read their respective books
    • Con saves for exhaustion
      • Aster 14
      • Aella 21
    • Both save
    • Aster Dream Sequence happens [see section below]

• Third day passes uneventfully
  • Construction goes well
  • Dorian asks Lya to send the Emissary to him, after work (Lya shows up regularly at the last break of the day)
  • Yesterday got a lot of the beams up, today is roof and space between the wall, will come together in a couple more days at this rate
  • Aella brought her book to work and reads during breaks (enough to make it through some but not enough to notably speed up process)
    • Attempt to slack off during work
      • Has her book on her while shes physically there, find little corners to read and Do A Labor when seen
        • Nat 1 on sleight of hand for hiding the book (gets caught by supervisor, she is keeping an eye on her, seems a touch smug)
        • 12 performance check to do a labor (fine i guess; adequately looking like she might be busy and occasionally doing actual work)
        • Dorian has been handed the wrong hammer (dirty 20 dex save)
          • “Aella?” “uh huh” hands another hammer
    • Collectively everyone takes 2 bludgeoning and 3 slashing  (Aella takes 3x that and gets pinned under a beam for 10 minutes)
    • Dorian stars futzing around with his machinery to be aware of whats going on
• Lya attempts to obtain employment
  • Crestmoon is the guy in charge
  • Appointment is today
• Dorian gets his finger underneath his armplate and hears a knock at the door
  • “Come in!” “It’s locked”
  • Omg emissary
  • Time to learn teleportation
  • Camp is also nearly set up
  • Some are holding up better, one is worse emissary
  • “Which one?” -D
    • “It would not be a surprise if I told you”
    • “The girl on fire”
    • She would have left if she could have
    • Maeve is not constantly on fire and setting everything ablaze (explained by emissary
    • Complicates being on island and on ship with her Dorian
      • “Im sure we’ll burn taht bridge when we get to it” Dorian
  • Discussing their internals
    • It is just as hard to open us up as it is for them
    • Dorian explains vivisection
    • Perhaps when ??? findsout how to make more of us (Newvoke???)
    • Start somewhere more simple, to disconnect the recall core is more complicated
    • Start by turning off the anachronistic navigation
    • More access at the back of the neck than any other place without causing undue damage
    • Some panels are best removed
• Next day: the drill starts to run against something solid, teeth-rattling sound of grinding, pulsing irregularly (this is zao, mid morning)
  • Drive engine disengaged after a whole vigil
  • Escorting guards do not take us back, we are each individually then together rled bak  to temple?? Near center of town uh god hELP:P
  • New lodgings; our stuff is still not with us besides what we has previously
    • A drafty house share a few blocks from the drill; 3 bedrooms, common area, and surprisingly furnished
    • Aella found the largest bedroom: the living room
    • She makes a little throne for herself to remind her of home; loudly pushes chairs together towards a wall, grabs some ottomans
  • Its time for Lyas appointment
    • Lya stands by the desk
    • Crestmoon comes in from door looking more haggard than usual (worse than getting off a horse, which is hard)
    • Things are going on, he gets parchment, Lya sits (her standing is interpreted as having a little experience with etiquette)
    • Tell me about yourself
      • She was a guard for a royal family and spent …. A lot of time there
      • The kingdom is in the feywild (AH-suh sher-AHS) Aysa Shaeras
      • “Why are you no longer employed there” “I am no longer in the feywild”
    • Interacting with the criminals is not a good look
    • Lya isn't mandated to do anything but she doesn't want to do nothing, she can separate her life from her duties very well
    • She took her promotion from reconnaissance to royal guard despite her disliking staying in one place; she was able to stay content
    • Mage hand demonstration; when not invisible it is the standard translucent hand glowing a color that matches Lya’s current season, it wears a ring
    • There is a guard shortage between the new criminals and the coming online of the project, not as picky as normal; however Lya’s relation to these people and the timing of the application is sus
    • She will hear from them again this time tomorrow, she thanks him with a little bow and leaves
  • Lya goes back to camp; more of a settlement tbh
    • Things are on fire
• Maeve time going back in time
  • Feels the timer ticking down
  • Maeve does not wait til last second to deal with fire things
  • Shes been channeling divinity to make things
  • After a while she would try to magically heal herself
  • A little bit before she knows that the timer is running out (nighttime), she’s gonna find something else to burn, probably a small animal
    • Not a whole lot, immediate area has too much activity going on, wander around for a while trying to find anything and comes across is a low mound in the ground with a foot diameter hole, and another, and another (more moleslaughter)
    • Maeve stays quiet and waits, after a few minutes two small mammals poke out of the hole, notice her, and freeze
    • Maeve strikes the match, creatures retreat, kindling in hole, fire is called, it burns down into the burrow with little restraint, she feels as she eats away first one, first the fur, then the eyes the flesh the bones, again nine times, each a different size
    • A burning pain on her back; it dredges up old terrible memories and they too are ringed in fire; wings are present, not going away anymore, and are made of flame, as at that moment she feels one more thing: the bandages of dust and cloth and ash are back; she feels better if cold, another latches to the end of her left wing and fastens tight, another wraps around her left calf, and finally from her right shoulder down to her left hip
    • Where they lay she feels cool not burning, but when she pokes at them her finger almost goes through where they are almost as if what lies beneath is no thicker than dusty air; she gets 4.6 ish days
  • 4th night, Surtasdan <- day of week
    • Astraea awkwardly offering to share a bed
    • Loud noise
      • Aella tries to read and then fails because noise
      • Aella becomes curious and wants to leave to investigate (she knows the guards are gone)
        • All the options are not really worth it she is not good at lockpicking
        • She goes back to her tasks and does not let herself sleep; she seemed like she wanted to join Aster but actively didn’t
• Day 5 <- Thermisdan
  • Cloudy day, swirling rumors during work and travel
    • Lya is called back to the town hall and on the way back its mentioned master ironthread has gone missing from his quarters
      • Nila is looking extra nervous behind the desk today
      • Mr crestmoon told her to tell Lya that they can’t currently offer her employment with the guard; can enroll in training maybe but he encouraged her to look elsewhere if interested in employment
      • Lya: ok yea thank u :) and then she leaves womp womp
    • Aster hears that Tolmos Storsk has called for the removal of Master Wardim Wun.
    • Aella hears something or other that takes her back to her time in Auvreanddare, and thinks about gambling
    • Rhyme and Reason also both eavesdrop
  • Day goes largely uneventfully
    • Lya wants to find and go undetected by either Rhyme or Reason, whoever she finds first
      • Reason is looking for people important in the drill unveiling and talk to them if able
        • Also contacting people
        • Requesting info on aella and dorian from rhyme??
        • He is listening for the talk of the town especially given whatever info he does know
      • Lya easily finds Reason first; she walks around town like a normal civilian until she sees him, she does sort of the same thing but moving a good distance behind and stalking him
      • She sees Reason look at the door to the horns and moves out of the way so she remains unseen
      • Reason talks to a rock gnome, asking for the head of the horns (mr crestmoon), she can schedule a meeting
        • Things are busy and theres a situation that she wasnt supposed to say
        • Thoughts are being detected
        • There is an opening later today in wan
        • Apparently Reason’s matter should be dealt with in some haste
      • As he passes where Lya was, he says while still looking at the door, “It’s good to see a friend” and keep walking
      • Lya has bad insight and doesn’t know it was directed at her, continues her following endeavors as Reason heads over to the academic building
  • Maeve time
    • Back to last night she is trying to find Harbormaster
    • She and Emissary are awake at a makeshift table with pieces of parchment with a map and some other info on it
    • Lya is also awake its like early evening
    • Harbormaster greets Maeve, “you look worse for wear”
      • She asks to talk about the sword
      • She asks for a favor, “you can ask it, i might not deliver”
      • Maeve doesn't know what will become of her; if it comes to a point where… it is hard to say
      • Emissary leaves to give her space
      • Harbormaster understands Maeve’s request, no need to say it
      • “If I cannot control myself and everyone around me, everyone that I know here, if I can’t control the fire, do what you have to.”
      • Maeve doesn’t trust that her humanity will completely stay intact
      • Harbormaster will do what she can if she is present
      • Harbormaster offers to look into what happened to Maeve
  • Work concludes
    • Aster notices something weird in the night sky; there are 3 luminous serpentine forms twisting and streaking above the town: one a verdant green one a cobalt blue and the last a vibrant violet (not purple)
    • Faintly visible from camp, just points of light
    • Aster has never seen something like this before, the violet and blue.. Were the third one like an orange this would be the 3 moons but it’s not that, the glow is weird, seen that glow before but not like this, in a different context
      • Seen glow from faerie fire, but it’s never whatever that is; looking at 3 individual living faerie fires or something?? They seem to be twisting and dancing above the town
      • Alive isn’t really the right word but they’re animate, don’t seem illusory or controlled, not really a creation, they are something of their own, like a golem but not made/under direct control now
      • Aster calls the roomies over
      • “oooOOH! OH GOODNESS”- dorian
      • Lya is at the window
        • AAA -aella
        • Oh hello!! -aster
        • Lya knows kinda what those are: 3 weiss but glowing (3 faerie fires or they got snaked)
      • Lya is checking out the drill with Clara, also theory that drilling into weird solid leyline magic could be causing magical effects like 3 faerie fires
        • Approaching the drill and passes more people than usual because sky
        • 2 guards, talking to them
          • The faerie fires came up the hole, no clue why
          • Drill’s gone
          • Last night it just broke and fell down there
          • Not allowing her to look in the hole, it’s not safe, it’s an unstable construction into a drop who knows how deep and things are coming out of it
          • They don’t want to look down the hole
          • Lya walks away and leaves Clara to look down the hole

Idle chatter flits about. Astraea’s legs swing freely as they relax on the branch of a tree. Across from them, Reavers sit atop the Armide. Whether it stands upright or on its side they cannot remember. The important thing is the companions surrounding them, and the tall grass swaying peacefully in the distance. It’s home and it’s the island and it’s the old intact ship.

 

Then came the gray branches, thick and gnarled, bursting from the ground. Aster jumps from their perch in fright and by the time they land, the other trees are all gone. Only the bare, gray branches remain.

 

Looking around, they see fire spread. From where? And what color? No matter, it’s spreading. People are running about. Astraea recites a familiar encantation to quell the flames with an icy ray.

 

The wind picks up.

 

What burst from their hand instead was a horribly blinding ray of light. In the chaos, it strikes Aella. Dorian and Meph see this. Meph laments that this is what became of the Digit’s potential. Aster runs to Aella, inspecting her face, but she assures them she is alright. They find it hard to believe with the one blinded eye. Aella hugs them in an attempt to bring comfort. It only half works, as looking down Aster sees their freckles begin to glow impossibly bright.

 

The branches tower higher, bringing destruction. Aster panics aloud about what to do. In front of them stands Quill, completely resolute.

“What are you talking about?” he asks. “The obvious choice is right in front of us.” He disappears, engulfed entirely by shadow.

 

Astraea tries to go after him but he is gone in a puff of smoke. Instead they find Lya and Reldan. The former is simply giggling at the sight before her. Aster turns to Reldan, hoping he might know how to fix this. Before he can reply, his face morphs into horror. “You are one of them,” he says.

 

Looking down, patches of Aster’s skin have turned a deep purple.

 

The patches keep growing. “I don’t understand… what…?”

 

“Darling, your eyes…” Aella shows them their reflection from their old compact mirror. Both their eyes are purple and moonstruck.

 

The Magi is in the distance. “It’s a gift,” their voice echoes. Whether it’s the present or a memory is unclear.

Astraea looks up at them. “What sort of gift is this, anyways?” Silence. “Answer me!” they yell.

 

A white light shines from above. The chaos stills. Aster turns and sees a slender, elven, masculine figure, hair a flicked bob reminiscent of a crescent, robes pearlescent and pure white.

 

 “So, it is yours?  What do I make of it?” They ask Sehanine the Nomad.

 

He gives no answer, but Aella takes Aster’s hand and leads them towards him. A path carves itself towards him as everything else seems to fall away. Astraea looks up at the god in wonder, and any remnants of an old hesitation disappear. They follow, picking up pace, getting ahead of Aella.

 

They’re getting closer when they hear a yell from behind, then a thump. Chains of lightning shackle Aella and pull her to the ground. The Nomad looks on with a sad face.

 

Chaos still roars in the distance.

 

“I am lost.”

 

And the last thing they remember is a glowing hand on their shoulder and a wind blowing through.