Original subtitles

TALIESIN: A dark bargain is struck

from a place of anguish,

and a wandering innocence aims to even the score,

losing itself in the process.

Curfew now falls on the streets of Groundswell

as the Periphery aim to snuff out a local uprising.

And though it's true that many assignments

have violent beginnings,

violent ends rarely bring a satisfying resolution.

A wise investigator knows when it's best

to sheathe the blade and bear the heart.

The Circle of Tide and Bone.

Assignment Number 37-13: Guardian of Groundswell.

♪ (tense mysterious music) ♪

AABRIA: A curfew has been issued

in the district of Groundswell.

It is 10 o'clock and even though the last workers

from the Steel are probably trickling their way home

from a late shift in the factories,

tired, covered in soot, it's a curfew.

Officer Eunice Park has all of the right in the world

to stop anyone she sees,

detain, interrogate.

As she walks her beat through the cobblestone streets,

she keeps hearing soft-soled footsteps around corners

and yet when she peeks her head around,

she never finds anyone, but she hears them and she knows.

With a shaky breath, she shakes it off.

It's all for the best, it's fine.

The curfew should help the unrest

over that stupid fucking well in the market.

She coughs, clears her throat a little anxiously.

All the rumors of the surge in cullet,

in these and some of the other poorer neighborhoods

on the west side of the river has her a little skittish.

The sooner the Periphery calls off whatever this is,

restores the peace and she can get back

to her Silverslip beat, the better.

Rounding a corner, she spots a lone girl,

couldn't be more than 13,

standing hunched over, panting,

bracing herself on a streetlight.

"Citizen, what are you doing out? There is a curfew."

The girl doesn't look up.

"Do you need help?"

She begins to draw closer.

The girl pants, trying desperately to catch her breath.

(Girl) "I was right, you can always tell when you're coming.

"The boots, they're too loud.

"You don't go here."

She begins to hyperventilate harder.

She drops to her knees on all fours

and begins retching up water.

She screams with the effort of it.

It pours out in gallons across the street.

More than any one set of lungs or stomach could hold.

It runs through rivulets,

between the cobblestones in the direction of Officer Park,

who, forgetting any of the

deep belief that she has

as an officer of the Periphery

to protect and serve, backs away

instead of offering more aid.

She backs farther, beginning to speed up,

and the rivulets begin to give chase

in a way that becomes undeniable.

She turns, running, and it's only after a few steps

when she rounds the corner

that she hears pursuit by something.

The footsteps are so fast

and she can hear it gaining on her.

It sounds like someone running through a puddle.

She's overrun, suddenly knocked over

and dragged back in the direction from whence she came.

It reminds her of spending summers

in the water in the normally so pleasant coast

of the Glass Sea that every now and then

you get surprised by a wave and pulled out by the riptide.

But she remembers her training,

she rolls onto her back,

brandishing her pistol

at what she sees is a humanoid figure

made entirely of seawater.

But the training's there, she unloads

the contents of her pistol, four shots into the torso.

And this thing is unfazed.

It holds the bullets within it.

In her gasp of alarm and shock and confusion,

it lunges, filling her mouth and her nose,

rushing in, pushing into her lungs, drowning her in seconds.

The girl eventually makes her way

over to the corpse,

still panting, pale and wan.

She gets her breath together.

She looks down at the face, shocked, surprised.

Mouth just a little agape.

The girl remembers the old ways,

what she was taught as a child.

Respect for the dead here and always

involves breath binding, close the mouth, cover the nose.

Do not let the soul escape,

lest it wander haunted, haunting.

She slowly drops to a knee,

reaches forward and tugs lightly at the officer's chin.

A little burble of salt water spills out.

She doesn't notice, doesn't care.

As she kneels, contemplating her kill,

a pair of soft-soled shoes round the corner.

A worker making his way home after a long day.

Slinking, having to hide in the streets of his home

because of a curfew put on him by the people

that they are protesting against.

He sees the girl, he sees the officer,

and there is no change in the speed

of his gait or the sternness of his gaze.

"Could've happened to any mother's child."

The girl nods in agreement,

"Anyone at all,"

and takes her time and walks away.

We come back then to a week after

our first adventure, our first assignment.

You returned The Serious Man to The Antiquarian,

to your chapter house where Lightkeeper Nokari

took over the situation, immediately tending his wounds,

looking at all of you and your various states.

There's something to a little bit of protocol.

Candela is a distributed network, yes, but there are rules.

Some of you with the looks on your faces,

he knows, they know

that you're a little too close to this.

Maybe some of you, the ones that live here

shouldn't be around while this figure recovers.

They send you off.

They will call for you, summon you back here

if and when there's sufficient recovery,

so that you may conduct an interrogation.

You are owed answers, but so is Candela,

and they will take the time needed to get what they need.

So you have some days now.

Where do you go?

What do you do to recover?

I think in this moment it's important to note

that we did all of our Illumination Keys

and circle advancement off-camera.

So we do have three iterations of stitch

between Cosmo, Elsie, and Rajan,

and one refresh from Oscar.

While we're talking mechanics,

you want to let me know what action point did you move

as a result of your scar in the first assignment?

NOSHIR: So due to the integrity of my upper shoulder

and chest being compromised, I'm removing one from control.

However, the compound eye

that has started to develop

has given me a bonus to sight.

AABRIA: Nice.

NOSHIR: So I'll add that to survey.

AABRIA: Love it.

Your time is your own and I cannot imagine

that you don't all have a lot to talk about.

So I will step back for the moment and leave you to it.

SAM: We're good. (laughter)

AABRIA: Great!

GINA: We're all right. I'm tired, honestly.

LIAM: Well, a point of clarification,

Nokari has tended to this gentleman

at The Antiquarian, correct?

AABRIA: Yes. LIAM: And sent us away.

AABRIA: Yes. LIAM: So I would venture to guess

that we'd be staying with you

for the time being. GINA: Of course, of course.

I've welcomed all of you

into my home, I suppose.

Madam Glask is back in her office keeping herself busy

so that she could take her mind off of this

as much as she possibly can.

She's been counting money, she's been checking on the girls.

Just anything she can to keep herself busy.

You're all welcomed to stay in any of my extra rooms

for as long as you need.

Please make yourself at home.

SAM: Well, you've got a bunch of houses.

Maybe you want to use one of them

or are you going to stay with us in the red light?

NOSHIR: My appearance is a bit discomforting

to those who work on your premises.

Perhaps it's best if I stay apart for a while.

LIAM: I would suggest that--

That night was so dramatic

that perhaps everyone took some time to themselves

to collect their own thoughts before speaking.

Correct me if that is wrong,

but eventually after a day or two,

Cosmo would've summoned you all

and arranged a meeting to clear the air.

Too many secrets.

SAM: I feel guilty

about not telling you, Madam Glask,

about what I knew and about the dangers.

You hired me to protect you and to protect your business.

I just didn't think it was my place

to share other people's business, that's all.

GINA: Of all people, I think I would understand that the most.

So you're not entirely to blame

However, from now on, no more.

SAM: I mean, I have no more secrets.

ASHLY: Would you care to explain the one

that was revealed before?

SAM: Oh,

I mean, I can try,

but honestly I don't really understand it myself.

LIAM: I might be able to fill in any gaps.

SAM: Yeah, that would help.

A while ago, a long while ago.

LIAM: 87 years ago.

SAM: There was a different life and a different time.

We were on a trip, returning from--

I don't remember anymore,

but we were on a boat,

a ship at sea and--

LIAM: You had been performing with the circus.

SAM: That's right.

That's right, I was something of a performer.

That's right, I was the Great Grimm.

Our family name had been something else,

but I changed it to be on stage.

I was there with my family,

my wife and son,

and maybe some others.

LIAM: Yes, your daughter, Iris,

and your brother, Quentin.

SAM: I guess so.

LIAM: And me.

SAM: You, I remember.

ASHLY: Your son.

GINA: Cosmo.

SAM: My son, Cosmo.

GINA: How is this possible?

LIAM: Well, I was a boy that day.

I had not been 10 for very long.

It was nice traveling with my father, our family.

I liked to watch all the performers,

you and the jugglers

and tumblers and magicians.

It was a good life. Another one, another life.

SAM: Something happened, something with that man.

It was late, it was dark.

He looked the same age.

His face pulled tight.

His skin

too-- too clean,

too healthy, like a mask.

He did something,

some of that magick

that Candela's always talking about.

LIAM: Yes, he appeared on the ship out of nowhere at sea,

it wasn't a very large boat at all.

He performed some sort of ritual that day.

SAM: That's right, you were there, right?

LIAM: Do you really not remember?

AABRIA: Take a brain.

SAM: A brain? Okay.

AABRIA: The strain and stress of feeling around

like a loose tooth,

of things that you don't remember anymore.

SAM: There were symbols, runes,

drawn with salt and sand.

I don't remember it all, but what I do, I don't understand.

LIAM: Whatever he did sundered the ship.

It split down the middle and began to sink.

You tumbled down toward the center

of whatever he was doing, and pushed me back.

Something happened to you

and we lost Mother,

and Iris, and your brother.

SAM: What was her name?

LIAM: Cora, your wife was Cora.

NOSHIR: You don't remember?

SAM: There's a lot of me I don't remember anymore

or has been taken from me.

GINA: Is this the reason why you came back

after what Elsie did?

SAM: Ever since that day, that event, whatever he did,

it filled me with a great feeling of,

I don't know, but it felt wrong,

and it felt good.

NOSHIR: Yes, a great power.

When my sister was thralled to Maw,

I found her digging.

Maw used my twin sister and I to try to open

a gate.

A serious man

saved my mother.

She was on death's door and

he brought her Oldfaire artifacts

that saved her life, but

at great cost.

It sounds like you have also paid

a terrible price for his meddling.

SAM: I don't think whatever he did was intentional to me.

Maybe I was just in the wrong place at the right time.

But ever since then,

I keep coming back,

and I never change.

LIAM: I have spent many decades studying antiquity

and the pages of history are riddled,

if you look hard enough,

with stories that suggest

people like you, like you,

even like you.

I do not believe in coincidence.

Take that for what you will.

ASHLY: I don't have any right to be angry.

But why didn't you tell me?

Why didn't either of you tell me?

SAM: I mean, to be honest,

and the boy doesn't like to hear this,

but I'm done.

I've given up.

ASHLY: What do you mean?

SAM: We've been trying for a century to fix me

and it's just not going to happen.

ASHLY: You don't know that.

LIAM: I'm convinced that there are others like him.

Obviously, the gentleman at The Antiquarian

who looks not a day older than when we first saw him,

and in history as well.

SAM: I should have...

When you have a son, you should not outlive them.

I've been a burden to my boy and I just want his,

I want this burden to end.

But at the same time,

he's the only part of myself that I remember anymore.

LIAM: Elsie, Miss Glask.

A very large reason why I never shared this

is because I am all but positive that Candela

will lock him away.

It is only because of my years of service

that they have tolerated his freedom as long as they have.

I have used these decades trying to find something,

anything to help him.

And though I am not

afflicted with his condition,

I, too, feel stretched.

I was also tired and I have tried for a very long time

to honor my father.

And perhaps that is foolish. Perhaps a fool's errand.

NOSHIR: Well, one thing's for certain, if the Ascendancy

or the Periphery were to learn about your gifts--

GINA: And Oscar, if life is your curse

then perhaps living is the cure.

SAM: I mean, I've tried that,

but every joy that I've ever had is taken from me.

Every love that I've ever had,

every family I've ever known,

they just-- I outlast them,

I forget them, or they die.

LIAM: There's just me, for a little while longer at least.

SAM: But, you know,

turns out I'm not the biggest freak of our group,

no offense.

NOSHIR: Oh, none taken.

SAM: I mean, you've got all sorts of problems,

but also supernatural ones.

ASHLY: Hold on, Raj.

NOSHIR: It would appear that most of our secrets

are out in the open now.

SAM: Yeah, just buzzing around.

AABRIA: (laughs)

ASHLY: Was it?

Were you always...

since I've known you?

NOSHIR: I didn't know how to broach the subject,

and I'm sorry that I kept it from you,

but it seems that everyone here had good reason

for keeping their secrets to themselves.

ASHLY: I don't understand yours.

SAM: I don't either.

AABRIA: Go ahead and take a beast pool token for me.

SAM: You two were together, right?

ASHLY: For a time.

SAM: This never came up?

ASHLY: I always asked,

everything he shared with me

was like a knife in him.

NOSHIR: What was I going to say?

What was I going to show you that would make this all right?

ASHLY: Then why-- NOSHIR: That wouldn't send you

running screaming?

ASHLY: Then why did you get close to me at all?

I could've...

I could've helped you.

NOSHIR: Little bird, a good doctor,

always looking to fix the things she loves,

but sometimes your subjects don't want to be fixed.

And that's just a hard truth

that some of us have to live with.

I wish it were different,

but it's not.

LIAM: Miss Glask, you're awfully quiet.

GINA: I want to know, Oscar,

this sea god that you came about meeting.

SAM: Sea god? GINA: The gods of the sea

that gave and taken away from you.

SAM: Oh, I don't know anything about that, it was a man.

GINA: I do. Where I'm from we worship the gods of the sea.

The fine establishment that I have

was a gift from them, well--

LIAM: From the gods? GINA: Yes.

With a fair trade. LIAM: Delightful.

GINA: And the reason why I'm alone now.

ASHLY: What did you trade?

GINA: Any sense of home,

my family, all of them,

with the promise of riches.

So again, I say perhaps living is the cure,

because the gods of the sea are fair.

SAM: You gave up your family for all this?

GINA: Not knowingly.

I prayed for peaceful waters and wealth in a new world,

but I didn't know that that came with the price.

NOSHIR: And that price seems fair to you?

GINA: Who am I to question a god?

LIAM: Well, here we all are

ripe with secrets

and heavy with baggage.

We ought to form a circle.

SAM: Yeah, it's a pretty fucked up circle.

You brought us together, Cosmo,

but you must have known,

what about us? What about them?

LIAM: Well, you and I knew about Dr. Roberts.

SAM: Yeah.

LIAM: I always knew this lad was a little trouble,

but you managed to hold your cards close to the vest, son.

ASHLY: He's good at that.

NOSHIR: I'm not the only one here

who kept their fair share of secrets.

LIAM: My mind always comes back to fate.

There is no reason,

no logical reason why we should be bound together like this.

It's undeniable.

AABRIA: You hear a small knock, very quiet at the door,

faint enough that anyone else might miss it

in the throes of serious conversation,

but you and Quinni have an understanding.

You know when she seeks to interrupt you,

it's important.

GINA: I answer. Quinni.

AABRIA: She pushes the door open

and is holding a small letter sealed

with a little lighthouse and a flame.

"This is for, this is for all of you.

"I'm just going to--" GINA: Thank you.

AABRIA: She lays it on a table beside the door

and closes the doorway.

She's not going to cross to come into the room.

SAM: They have a little stamp? That's cute.

GINA: I go over to the table

and open up the letter that I read aloud.

AABRIA: Yep, it is a very brief missive

from Lightkeeper Nokari, on behalf of Candela,

simply stating that though it had only been a day,

The Serious Man,

and here they use the name, Toren Gevni, is awake.

Before he is to be transported to the Fourth Pharos,

he can give you an hour to make your peace with him.

SAM: Oh boy.

I mean, we've been looking for this guy forever.

I trust you have as well.

NOSHIR: Not nearly as long as you.

SAM: Well, should we go find out

if he's a magician, or a bug, or a god?

NOSHIR: Oh yes, I think we can learn a lot in an hour.

SAM: If you're going to do that thing,

will you give us a warning

because it's really fucking creepy.

NOSHIR: I don't think I'll need to.

LIAM: Strangely beautiful, though.

ASHLY: Strangely.

GINA: Oscar, if you don't get answers or a solution,

what will happen to you, to Cosmo?

SAM: I, I can only hope that whatever happens to me

is fast and painless,

and that he gets to live some of his life without me.

AABRIA: And from there, we cut.

It takes you 20 minutes to cross through the districts,

cross the river, get back to The Antiquarian.

Your home, your chapter house,

the sight of this interrogation.

It begins to rain outside a little bit.

The weather turning gray, and same, and oppressive.

You walk into the back rooms.

Everything else is shut down.

Eloise is tidying up the front edifice

though the sign is closed.

This is as close as you get to a lockdown here.

Sitting in front of you, in the little room,

in a plush green velvet chair,

the back wall, sits The Serious Man, Toren Gevni,

who regards you all and seems constrained somehow.

There's no fight in him, no urge to flee

out of the back door or the front.

He seems stuck, like a cat.

SAM: Is he bound?

AABRIA: No.

Lightkeeper Nokari greets you in the front.

"You don't have very much time,

"and I've done what I can to

"usher his compliance in."

I think it's very easy to see

that they look very strained,

as though weariness has taken over,

and whatever workings were required

to get The Serious Man's compliance wear heavily

on a Lightkeeper who was already so close

to being pushed too far.

They take a seat in the front

and keep an eye out of the window

for the approach of a car to take Toren away.

"Good luck."

NOSHIR: Lightkeeper, Professor,

this Toren Gevni appears to have not aged

for almost a century.

Have you ever encountered anything of the such?

AABRIA: "I'm happy to speak to that,

"unless you would like to."

LIAM: I've read of accounts

from centuries past,

I have reason to believe

that people like this gentleman walk

amongst us, possibly.

AABRIA: "It is a rare thing.

"We call them what they call themselves,

"Unabridged,

"through great and terrible alchemical workings

"of unknown cost.

"They extend their lives indefinitely.

"They can be killed.

"But other than that, if left uninterrupted,

"they will not perish of age or disease.

"An important differentiator

"between some other interesting phenomena

"that Candela has encountered."

With that, they scan the group to see

if anything was given away.

It is very obvious to all of you looking at them

that Lightkeeper Nokari is aware of Oscar's condition,

but they don't know how much you know.

LIAM: I'm fairly certain

that there have been

these folk walking this world at least as far back

as the height of Oldfaire and beyond.

AABRIA: "Yes."

SAM: Well, there's no need in talking around it.

He's right here.

AABRIA: "Please, I cannot hand off a corpse,

"but I think, given what I know

"of some of your connections,

"anything short of that is just, you know,

"rough passage across the city."

With that, Nokari, who has been so cold to you,

gives you just a little nod, as if to say

were it not for the thing I have to be here for all of you,

I'd understand where you're coming from a little bit more.

Then regains their composure, and again,

retakes their seat in the front,

keeping an eye out for the approach of Candela vehicles.

SAM: So they're out of the room?

AABRIA: They are out of the room.

LIAM: Doctor Savarimuthu, I have a lifetime of questions

and wouldn't mind a few more moments to select

the ones I'll ask in this short amount of time.

So if you would like to begin.

NOSHIR: You've been waiting much longer than I have,

and I think before we begin, I need to ask one thing.

LIAM: Yes.

NOSHIR: I don't understand the connection

between The Serious Man

and Director Greenvale at Grayslate.

Oscar and I were outside. Did you find anything of use?

SAM: Oh, that's right.

ASHLY: I did.

I am going to say that maybe I shared it with Cosmo already.

AABRIA: Yeah, okay. ASHLY: In the intervening time.

AABRIA: Yes. If you had a day to share those letters,

you would've seen

that there was a stack of three of them.

They were written in Ancient Fairen,

and the interesting thing

is the stack of what's happening.

Literally translated,

the letters speak very plainly and succinctly

about another shipment of Nighthawk being delivered

in order to prolong the director's vigilance.

ASHLY: Do I know what Nighthawk is?

Is that a drug or--

AABRIA: Yeah, you know what, give me

a little Focus roll on that.

ASHLY: Okay. SAM: Come on.

NOSHIR: Are we all allowed to-- ASHLY: Come on!

SAM: Come on! ASHLY: Come on!

AABRIA: If you want to-- There's no group checks here.

If you want to bolster Elsie's roll--

LIAM: I will, yes, because we discussed it.

ASHLY: Okay. LIAM: Yes,

if that's okay. AABRIA: I'll allow it.

ASHLY: I did make a shitty roll,

so I'm going to add one of yours.

LIAM: One drive. SAM: Come on.

AABRIA: If you want to add to this roll, too,

I will allow you to tag on.

NOSHIR: I realize I have no drives to give.

ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: Oh no!

LIAM: I'm all out of drives to give, baby.

GINA: What are you rolling? ASHLY: Fails, fails, fails

across the board.

LIAM: But we get our drives back.

ASHLY: We do get our drives back, yes!

SAM: Oh, because you helped. AABRIA: That's fun.

ASHLY: Oh good. Thank god.

AABRIA: Forged in Fire is so cute.

ASHLY: ♪ Mama needed a drive ♪ AABRIA: (laughs)

NOSHIR: While this is being discussed,

I will take a moment

to step aside and remind Lightkeeper Nokari

that someone should secure Grayslate.

Director Greenvale is a person of great interest,

and if I'm not mistaken, action will be taken

to secure whatever intelligence is there,

and if we don't move quickly, it will be lost to us.

AABRIA: "Understood."

LIAM: Not to mention the fact

that they were trying to hammer

their way into some sort of passage

with a human cannonball.

GINA: The thrall.

NOSHIR: Dark days indeed.

ASHLY: Is there anything else in the papers?

AABRIA: Yes. So,

that substance draws a tidy blank,

because it is so obscured it's not in the normal lexicon

of chemist's tinctures and potions.

But they're very matter of fact.

"I will return at the end of the week.

"I require two more bodies.

"The frailty is a problem."

But the thing that's layered on top,

because you felt it, too, without having to understand

the Ancient Fairen, is that reading them,

your eyes glancing across the words,

you felt a different kind of story, very racy,

note of love and longing and passion

that inspires in your mind

trysts that never occurred,

memories planted as you read.

ASHLY: In my mind?

AABRIA: Mm-hmm. Anyone that reads the letter.

ASHLY: With a specific person?

AABRIA: Very specifically the beautiful version of the nun.

ASHLY: Right. AABRIA: Sister Iovar.

SAM: Well, who wants to begin?

Time is ticking. We have 55 minutes left.

NOSHIR: I suggest that you begin, because when I begin,

I don't know that The Serious Man

will be able to give you the answers that you seek.

SAM: Ah.

LIAM: Note taken.

Godot, come, come. Sit in Pop-Pop's lap.

AABRIA: Scooches over. LIAM: (moans)

AABRIA: Hops up, isn't really reading

the vibe of the room, so happy to be here,

tugging on your tweed, licking your face.

ASHLY: I actually have some questions for The Serious Man,

if no one else is prepared to speak.

SAM: Please, I'm not good at this. LIAM: Have at it, Doctor.

ASHLY: I'm going to approach him,

visibly nervous.

How have you

elongated your life in this way?

AABRIA: "A series of rituals

"known only to those

"with access to the old ways."

ASHLY: What do you mean, the old ways?

AABRIA: "(groans)

"In Oldfaire,

"long ago,

"there were many alchemists of great renown.

"The secrets began with them,

"perfected by the Empress herself."

ASHLY: The Empress?

AABRIA: "Iomene the Everlasting."

ASHLY: How-- LIAM: Yes.

ASHLY:-- did you get access to this information?

AABRIA: "A book." ASHLY: What book?

AABRIA: "One that you have no hope of reaching.

"Sorry." ASHLY: What book?

AABRIA: "The Auric Tome.

"(sharp breath)"

LIAM: Watching this questioning,

picking up on Toren's

hunger or brimming rage,

are they on the verge of attacking us?

AABRIA: Give me a Read roll.

LIAM: Yes, yes, that's what I was poking for.

AABRIA: Yeah. (laughs) SAM: (laughs)

LIAM: All right, come on.

That's a big fail.

AABRIA: Okay. ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: You-- LIAM: But--

AABRIA: Ah? ASHLY: Ah?

GINA: Mm?

LIAM: No, I'll let it fail.

I'll let it fail.

AABRIA: Okay. I think I know what you were going for,

and I'm happy to oblige.

As you lean in, trying to figure out what's going on,

what is this mood, you're getting closer to a person

who has stacked so much magick on themselves

that they are a phenomena in and of themselves.

Please take one bleed.

LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: As you search--

LIAM: Yes.

AABRIA:-- for the truth of this man.

GINA: Madam Glask wants to approach him.

She wants to understand if it really was her gods

that helped, I mean, that took from her,

or was this just the magick,

the same magick that's here that affected everyone else?

AABRIA: Are you trying to interrogate him

or get a sense of it

via a connection with the occult?

GINA: I want to ask him a question.

AABRIA: Oh, sure.

He sits there, continuing to writhe.

GINA: Was it you that night?

The one that spoke back?

The one that took

everything from me?

AABRIA: "From you?"

GINA: Yes.

AABRIA: You watch him as he wants to spit

something cruel and mocking,

but can't.

"I don't know you.

"I've never met you."

GINA: Madam Glask sinks back, heartbroken.

ASHLY: This tome, where is it?

AABRIA: "I don't know.

"I am not its keeper."

ASHLY: But you know its secrets. How?

AABRIA: "I know a lot of secrets."

LIAM: GM, I did not want to interrupt anyone, but--

AABRIA: Yeah! Yeah, you want to come back?

LIAM: One of my weird abilities is whenever you take

one or more bleed marks, you also gain

additional information

about the phenomenon that harmed you.

GINA: Mm! ASHLY: Ooh!

LIAM: Ask Aabria one question about the source--

AABRIA: It's so specific. (laughter)

LIAM: That's what it says. AABRIA: Wild.

SAM: It's in the book. LIAM:-- the source of the bleed.

AABRIA: Spenser, what? LIAM: My one question is--

AABRIA: Yes?

LIAM: How old is this individual before me?

AABRIA: When you get this kind of information,

you've done this before, this is a part of who you are,

how does it come to you?

Is it a whisper or a vision?

LIAM: My eyes roll a little bit,

and I cease to sense the room around me,

and I have flashes.

AABRIA: A flash. LIAM: Visions.

AABRIA: A flash, and he walks

beside the architect

of the Last Great War.

A flash, and there he walks

in another war, a civil war

before that.

Again and again, he was there

when circumstance forced humanity

to flee circumstance and flood back into the Fairelands,

to flood back in and rebuild Newfaire

on the bones of the old.

A flash, older still,

a time between modernity,

when the memory of Oldfaire

still rang in this part of the world.

There was no hope of a return to glory.

Close enough to remember

if the stories were spread.

Closer to Iomene than to now.

500 Common Era.

LIAM: Oh.

NOSHIR: Three times you have been involved

in some sort of cursed events.

My sister, whatever's happening at Grayslate,

and on Oscar's ship.

AABRIA: "Mm." NOSHIR: What is it you seek?

What are you trying to achieve or find?

AABRIA: He fights,

and that's the truth of it.

You see it in this moment.

He is not a snake trying to strike.

That, a little bit, but he is fighting

with everything in him

from long millennia of life

to resist the compulsion to divulge the secrets

that he has kept longer than Newfaire has existed.

He can't fight it.

Some magicks are too strong.

"I seek

"the rituals of Iomene.

"Five.

"If held, a new empire

"that will not fall as the old did.

"Calinus, in his stupidity,

"dethroned her, cast her,

"locked her away, and in two years, Oldfaire,

"the greatest empire this world has seen, was gone."

LIAM: Locked her where? GINA: Empress?

AABRIA: "Below the caves.

"A secret place of forgetting."

ASHLY: That's why you were digging?

AABRIA: "Mm-hmm."

GINA: This is the Empress you spoke of earlier?

AABRIA: "Iomene."

LIAM: You think you've found her resting place, do you?

AABRIA: "If she was like me,

"she did not die.

"If she was like you,

"she could not.

"So she lies there still,

"eternal, unblinking, waiting.

"She served a purpose.

"She held her world together,

"took the bleed that rotted her kingdom into herself,

"and her empire flourished

"at great cost.

"But we know more now.

"Electricity can do what alchemy cannot,

"and I would see myself emperor of a better world."

ASHLY: Is she the one that made you like this?

AABRIA: "No, I have never met her."

LIAM: The history does not line up.

He would have to be far older

to be Iomene's contemporary.

Tell me,

it has been almost a century

since you and I last laid eyes on each other.

Do you remember me?

My appearance has changed some.

AABRIA: "I don't know you."

LIAM: Do you remember him?

SAM: I'm just seething in the corner,

just clenching my fists with anger.

AABRIA: "You, I know.

"You...

"spoiled a great gift,

"wasted on you."

SAM: A gift.

I'm going to step forward and throw out my overcoat a bit

and reach in and pull out a length of chain

that I keep tucked in the lining,

it's about four and a half feet long,

and I'm going to stride over to this man.

Unless he resists,

I'm going to whip it around his neck and pull tight.

AABRIA: He cannot resist.

ASHLY: Oscar.

GINA: Think about what you're doing.

SAM: I'll loosen it just enough

so that he can get out words.

LIAM: Easy, boy. Easy.

SAM: All of this is fascinating for you Candela people,

but I could give two shits about empresses and caves.

All I want to know is how to fix me,

and it seems like you're under some sort of magickal spell.

If you don't know the answer, I'll know.

And then I have no more use for you.

AABRIA: "Then do it."

SAM: Tell me how to fix me.

AABRIA: "I do not know."

SAM: Then I'll hold tight, as tight as I can,

and start to strangle him.

ASHLY: Oscar? AABRIA: Yeah.

Give me...

I'll let you decide,

is this Strike or Control?

SAM: Strike seems fun.

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: I'll put in a drive.

ASHLY: I'm going to move to try to stop him.

I don't think I'm going to be able to, but--

AABRIA: I will say, knowing your particular kit,

you do have an ability that could bolster.

SAM: Oh, I do, because I'm using this chain.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

SAM: You're goddamn right!

Okay.

Yes, we modified an ability from the soldier page

called Sharpshooter.

But now let's call it Hard Hitter.

AABRIA: Yeah. (laughs)

SAM: It gives me an extra two dice

when I do some chain shit.

So I got a five.

AABRIA: A mixed success.

I need you to take a brain.

SAM: Okay. AABRIA: Mark.

Because this feels so right,

so good.

33 scars,

a life too long lived.

32 avenged.

What's the last one?

SAM: The last one is a scar I do not wear on my skin,

but it is part of me and has been for 90-ish years,

and this man is responsible for it.

Every scar hurts,

but they hurt a little less when you get revenge.

And so, I will squeeze tighter still.

ASHLY: Can I try to speak to him?

AABRIA: Go ahead.

ASHLY: Oscar, he doesn't know how to fix you.

That doesn't mean he did it.

SAM: He caused this.

ASHLY: You don't know that.

He said it was a gift. SAM: He was there.

ASHLY: He's jealous of your gift!

That means he didn't give it.

NOSHIR: I want him to suffer just as much as you do.

But Candela has access to resources that we do not.

Perhaps if we keep him alive,

we can find information on these rituals of Iomene,

and find a way to cure you.

LIAM: You can't kill him, anyway.

AABRIA: He throws himself forward out of the chair.

He cannot hurt any of you.

He must answer your questions.

But what he seeks in this moment

has nothing to do with hurting any of you.

He will throw himself forward violently

in hopes you have held your chain tight enough

to allow him to choose his own end.

SAM: I mean, I'm holding it pretty tight.

AABRIA: Yeah?

(chuckles)

No roll required.

He throws himself forward as you reflexively hold firm,

trying not to lose a grip on him.

It's just enough.

The angle's just right.

You hear a little crack,

and he goes slack in your arms.

The Unabridged, you remember now.

It's not that they can't die;

they can die,

just not without a little help.

LIAM: Meaning what?

AABRIA: They can be killed.

LIAM: Yes.

AABRIA: If they are left to their own devices,

they'll live indefinitely. LIAM: Yes.

AABRIA: But if an act of violence is enacted on them--

LIAM: Oh! AABRIA:-- they can be killed.

That's the fundamental difference.

That, and the shadow between what they are

and what your father is.

LIAM: I think I'm stunned, then,

because the only real world evidence I've had is my father.

AABRIA: You can put it together now,

why Candela watched without intervention,

why they took advantage of moments of his fury

and foolishness

to get him caught,

locked in the brink under watchful eyes,

brokering deals so that you would be responsible for him

and they could watch him because he is not a known factor.

The rituals that made him are different

than the ones that made the Unabridged.

LIAM: Oh.

Oh, Oscar.

ASHLY: Oscar.

LIAM: Oh.

SAM: Still locked in,

I'm just still holding the chains as tight as I can,

and I step on his back.

LIAM: Oh no.

SAM: To just pull it even tighter.

AABRIA: Yeah. GINA: I lay my hand on him.

Oscar.

SAM: I just reflexively turn and then stop,

because I don't want to hurt her.

LIAM: No, no.

GINA: I'm sorry you didn't get your answers, Oscar,

but you need to let go.

He's dead.

ASHLY: He had more information to give Oscar,

and not just for you.

SAM: What? What information? AABRIA: Take a token.

SAM: He didn't know shit.

ASHLY: He's lived for centuries.

LIAM: Oh no.

SAM: He didn't know anything.

He was talking about emperors

and bullshit in the past

and a book.

You heard him.

He said he didn't know where the book is.

LIAM: He had dealings

with this Iovar,

he had dealings with Rajan.

Oh.

Oh, dear.

ASHLY: Goddamn it.

NOSHIR: So we'll have to hope

that Greenvale can provide some insight.

GINA: What's done is done, at least,

but we do know somewhere below the sanatorium,

perhaps there's more answers there.

LIAM: It was the only lead--

AABRIA: Take a brain.

LIAM:-- in 90 years.

Oh!

AABRIA: In this room, as everything goes quiet,

as all of the focus on The Serious Man, this Gevni,

is dissipating as he leaves this room

and this world and this life,

you notice that on a side table

normally covered in

a well-polished pewter tea service

and flowers and various objects

that Eloise carefully maintains,

all that's been cleared away.

There are three objects sitting there.

It stands to reason that perhaps

these were the contents of

Mr. Gevni's person

when you brought him in.

I think because you had him

literally slung over your shoulder,

one of the objects, a ornate gold, solid gold doorknob,

covered in symbols and strange geometries and markings

makes sense now

because you couldn't help but feel it in a pocket.

But besides that,

are a little syringe

that reminds you vaguely of a bleed containment vial,

but with a needle and a plunger.

And the third, an ornate knife

that reminds you, with only minor differences in detail,

of your decorative dagger that you keep in your chair.

GINA: What was the first one again? LIAM: They found it.

AABRIA: A doorknob. GINA: A doorknob.

ASHLY: Can I see if, in my studies,

I notice that any of these objects

might be in some way related to his longevity?

AABRIA: Mm.

Go ahead.

In your study?

So give me a Focus roll.

GINA: Did you say there were markings on them?

Runes of some sort?

AABRIA: Runes all over the doorknob,

nothing on the syringe,

and the knife is decorative,

but doesn't have anything

that would appear to be writing on it.

ASHLY: She got a crit.

AABRIA: (gasps)

SAM: Oh! AABRIA: What?

LIAM: Oh yes.

SAM: Is that two sixes?

ASHLY: Well, oh, I guess no, huh?

AABRIA: If it's just one six-- ASHLY: I keep forgetting

what a crit is. AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: Sorry. AABRIA: If it's just one six,

it's a full success. ASHLY: I got excited.

AABRIA: That's okay. ASHLY: It was a full success.

AABRIA: I know it. LIAM: What were you examining?

ASHLY: I was just trying to see if any of the objects

relate to how he has such long life.

AABRIA: Going through

and thinking back to anything you've ever heard,

even back to maybe things that you and Raj

in better times would discuss,

because he's a big, old nerd for archeology,

none of these objects seem to line up

to anything that you've heard

or would know are associated with a long life.

But I will say that they do feel,

the weight of them, even as you inspect them,

they are deeply magickal,

but maybe not tethered to that,

and more the things you can acquire over a very long life.

And out of all of the things you could acquire,

what are the things that you keep on you?

ASHLY: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: I am going to wheel over

and see if I recognize any of the markings

on either the knob or the familiar-looking knife.

AABRIA: Go ahead and give me a Sense roll

if you're trying to use your occult abilities

or Focus if this is just a sort of academic study.

But I will say as you take this up,

you hear a tinkle of the small bell

that signals that the door to the shop is being opened.

LIAM: I'll use Sense because it is quicker.

AABRIA: Yeah! LIAM: I will burn two--

SAM: Jesus. LIAM:-- drives.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: Great. LIAM: Oh dear.

It's a six, not on the gilded.

AABRIA: Okay.

With a six...

You're just trying to get a general sense of what these are,

yeah? LIAM: Yes, yes.

AABRIA: It's easier to start with

the one that lines up with a thing you are familiar with.

Your knife, for as long as you've had it,

has always seemed ornate and beautiful, if mundane.

You feel it, you can see it,

the way the blade seems to have the edge that you know,

a dagger,

and some, almost an after image,

your eye blurring out of focus,

a second edge that's meant to cut into something else.

Not to harm, but more like a stylus,

and you think of Oldfairen, before paper was developed,

they would carve sigils and words and tallies and marks

into warm wax to keep them.

Something here and around that,

but there's nothing in this room here and now,

save for the symbols on that doorknob

that you think would interact with the stylus.

Second, I'll give you.

The syringe that looks like a bleed containment vial

becomes quite apparent that

in the same way that you have a little vial

to grab something,

to hold bleed to protect it from getting out,

the addition is very old technology

of the ability to suck something up or out.

It gives a sense of the medicine of it all.

You see it.

You plunge this needle into you,

and when you would incur a bleed,

it gets transferred to the vial instead.

ASHLY: Ooh. AABRIA: Now you have

a loaded vial of bleed you can put somewhere else.

LIAM: This is an old thing, you're saying?

AABRIA: An old thing. LIAM: Oh.

AABRIA: Perhaps it is the design of that

that was taken and changed and turned into what Candela

and EONS and other esoterica used to contain,

but they never quite figured out the trick

of pulling bleed and pushing it.

LIAM: Just a fresh bit of antiquity for you, Doctor.

NOSHIR: Perhaps a wonderful bit of first aid

for our doctor here.

May I use a Focus check to see if, on the doorknob,

I remember any

old nursery rhymes,

songs, poems, or folklore

involving travel or tessering,

anything of the sort?

AABRIA: Go ahead and give me a Focus roll.

NOSHIR: So if it's gilded,

I immediately take a gilded for one of those?

AABRIA: Yes, and

if you take the gilded result, you get a drive back;

if you've used a drive in the roll.

NOSHIR: It's a six on the gilded.

GINA: Nice! AABRIA: Let's go!

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: Amazing.

Yeah, with that,

you cycle through hundreds of stories

and lores and snippets.

There's lots of stories about ways to travel

through the world of knobs and doors

that can be opened to move into places between places.

But the more you stare at it, the more you focus,

sometimes it's not about travel.

Sometimes it's about a place to be,

and the ornateness of the knob

reminds you of some of the expeditions you made,

especially when you were a student,

going down to the more well- trodden places in Oldfaire,

the homes and buildings of high officials

and arcanists and alchemists and magicians.

That they would have a doorknob much like this

that would open into private studies

and places to hold things.

And then your mind aligns.

Centuries of life,

and you only carry three things.

What if you weren't only carrying three things?

NOSHIR: Hmm.

AABRIA: What if you had everything you ever needed

the whole time?

NOSHIR: Powerful tool.

AABRIA: It's at this point that Nokari peeks their head in.

"It seems that the--

"I asked for one thing."

GINA: Hmm.

SAM: I'm just coiling up the chain and putting it away.

And just seeing everyone's face,

and especially Cosmo's,

I just turn away and face the wall, ashamed.

GINA: Our apologies, Nokari.

AABRIA: "(sighs)"

Give me, just in the quietness of that,

in the lack of spinning up a story or an excuse,

a raw moment and respecting a person's intelligence enough

to not try to bullshit them

into misinterpreting what is obvious and true,

a Sway roll.

GINA: Sway roll.

Okay, two and a gilded.

AABRIA: I will say, oh--

GINA: Oh, yes?

AABRIA: I will add on if you want to add on another die,

that this is a high stakes roll.

ASHLY: Oh. GINA: Ah.

AABRIA: How this goes will determine

the next few minutes,

so if you wanted to use a drive,

I will allow you to add it now,

because I didn't quite get that out before you rolled.

GINA: I don't need it.

I have a six.

AABRIA: Okay.

GINA: On a non-gilded.

AABRIA: Okay.

With a full success, Nokari pauses,

takes you in,

and settles something in the back of their mind.

They knew what might happen with this group.

And again, all of this snaps back to the last great favor

they could offer a very old friend.

LIAM: Nokari, please.

AABRIA: "Yes." LIAM: Please, don't lock--

AABRIA: "No, no, yes." LIAM:-- my boy away.

We found out enough.

We will find out more.

AABRIA: "It's okay, hey.

"If asked,

"things happen, and

"a being like this,

"likely could not be held long by my wards.

"Strong though they once were.

"You acted in self defense.

"And (sighs)

"unfortunately,

"he was recovered without anything of consequence on him."

Their eyes flash over to the table.

LIAM: You are too kind to me, Nokari.

AABRIA: "I owe you more than I can repay.

"But with this now being less of a, sort of extrac--

"Now that we're disposing a body,

"I must inform you that something has happened

"and I know you all are in the middle

"of something desperately important to yourselves.

"But I have an assignment."

They go into an explanation of Groundswell

and the protests that have been happening

because of the surge of cullet.

There's been rumors that the ground water,

the water that's being sent there,

and some of the poorer districts, is tainted

by something in Westwreck.

So they want access to clean water

and the only clean water in this district

is found at the bottom of an ancient well

that has stood at the far edge of Calinus Market

since Oldfaire was above ground and unflooded.

This is a great tourist destination

and area of note and acclaim for Newfaire.

The fact that now it's being used by the public,

by a certain kind of public.

There are people higher up in this city

who do not enjoy that the beautiful history

of Newfaire is being despoiled by such base use as

access to clean water.

GINA: This affliction, what was it, again?

AABRIA: It's conventionally called cullet.

GINA: That's the same one, Elsie?

ASHLY: Yes.

NOSHIR: Elsie, in your studies,

is there any connection to the onset of the disease

with tarnished water?

ASHLY: Was there?

AABRIA: You, in your studies, when you discovered

and eventually got sickened by cullet,

it was because you were one of the first people

to link it to a poisoned ground.

Westwreck was the closest the Last Great War

ever got to the city and it's where

the electric event that ended the war took place.

But you were the one that realized Otherwhere

had their own kind of weapons, biological, gasses,

and whatever they were using in the throes of war

sunk into the dirt and made its way down.

Especially lately, now that the Sidle itself,

the western most portion of the city

has been expanding ever outward in order

to sprawl out to accommodate a new and rising middle class.

Turned earth reaching groundwater.

It's why it only hits a certain part of the population.

And when it doesn't,

when someone of note and of status gets it,

if you don't have a better reason for why you got cullet,

you have to explain where you were and how you caught it.

So a lot of bad questions that come

with the truth that you discovered.

So, you may have kept it to yourself,

moved on with your research.

You knew.

But all of that to say,

protests have been breaking out now

for about a week.

People that believe

that they should have access to fresh water,

that the Triumvirate should do more

to support all people in the city.

The Periphery, doing what it does best,

which is restore order at any cost,

instilling a curfew.

Doing their best to bar access,

and blood has been spilled over this water.

Nokari tells you that

the third Periphery officer in as many days

has been found on the street, drowned,

with no other sign of salt damage

to their clothing or person.

That every now and then,

that body has "A.M.C." carved

into the ground next to it.

SAM: A.M.C.

AABRIA: Any Mother's Child.

SAM: Oh.

AABRIA: A popular slogan used often during

peace protests during the Last Great War.

That casualties on both sides,

any mother's child could die.

Why not have mercy?

What would the mother do?

What would she say?

And now it is used with derision.

That if they could die because of the carelessness

of their government that should protect them,

of a religion that does not serve them,

then anything that happens to anyone

can happen to any mother's child.

ASHLY: Do I know that there's a connection between?

Does any of this seem familiar to me?

Obviously, I've been changed

by my research around cullet.

Is the method of death

and the strangeness around the death,

is any of that familiar to me?

AABRIA: It's very specifically drowning.

I don't think that rings anything

to you, specifically.

ASHLY: Just drowning in the street, though?

AABRIA: It's drowning in the street,

but no sense of like, there's no proximity to saltwater.

ASHLY: Right. AABRIA: These people were

drowned in their bodies and that feels so far away from

your scope and your beast,

and the things that've been happening around you

that it doesn't ring any bells.

Anyone in Groundswell that's ever interrogated about it

claims to know nothing

because they were observing the curfew.

So whatever's happening,

the locals, the angry locals, do not care.

But it is a phenomenon, so Candela must act.

GINA: Where is this well?

AABRIA: "The Calinus Market sits at the

"far end of the city,

"facing out over the harbor."

It's a popular tourist attraction.

Like everyone that has spent maybe more than six months--

Like, if you come to visit Newfaire,

you know the Calinus Market is one of the things

to go and see.

This market has existed in some form

almost unchanged since Oldfaire.

It's one of the things that never had to be uncovered

and re-excavated.

It simply has existed since then.

In use the whole time.

LIAM: Is this the area still over the years

where parts of it continue to sink in and reveal

more of Oldfaire?

AABRIA: Other parts of Groundswell, specifically.

There's a lot of tide work that reveals more of Oldfaire.

Calinus Market has just been this thing

that seemed untouched by the fall of Oldfaire writ large.

LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: Which is why

it's so important.

If you're circling around the name Calinus,

that is the last emperor of Oldfaire.

LIAM: The one who took over after Iomene?

AABRIA: Yes.

ASHLY: Usurped her, according to homie.

NOSHIR: Gevni said. AABRIA: Yes.

SAM: Yeah, the guy said Calinus dethroned her, right?

LIAM: I think for anyone who knows

the history of this region,

Calinus was in charge

when their alchemic dealings

got out of control and caused the Vastchasm.

AABRIA: Yes.

NOSHIR: So he was the last emperor of Oldfaire?

AABRIA: He lasted two years.

LIAM: Yes, he really screwed the pooch.

ASHLY: (chuckles)

NOSHIR: It would seem.

LIAM: Well.

AABRIA: "It's a lot on your plate,

"but I would ask that in this moment

"you set aside, temporarily,

"your individual lines of inquiry

"and get to the source

"of whatever is causing these deaths in Groundswell."

LIAM: Of course, Candela circles take care of Candela business.

AABRIA: "Thank you.

"I appreciate it."

LIAM: I can only return the favor you have given me today.

AABRIA: "You--" NOSHIR: Obviously, the well

deserves researching.

But I think our best chance of catching this attacker

will happen after curfew.

LIAM: Yes. NOSHIR: Perhaps we can draw them out.

LIAM: (sighs) I like it.

I mean, I don't, but I see the sense.

SAM: What time is it right now?

AABRIA: I would say, despite the gray skies,

you have clocks, it's probably 2:00 in the afternoon.

GINA: Where was the last body found?

AABRIA: The last body was found in a random street.

There's lots of patrols that happen

because of the curfew.

So every night, there has been a Periphery beat cop

discovered somewhere.

ASHLY: Just before Nokari leaves,

whenever they're on their way out.

Which doesn't have to be now,

but Elsie's going to sidle up to them before they leave.

AABRIA: Yeah, I think it's sort of a, like,

they've delivered the assignment,

they've done their Lightkeeper duty.

You see that they are still very like,

drawn and exhausted by whatever working they did,

and are happy to escort out the corpse now

for whatever disposal is deemed important.

You see that they are trying to scoot off,

within 10 minutes of delivering this.

So, yeah, you can sidle up.

ASHLY: So, yeah, as they're leaving,

or as it seems like they're ready to depart.

I'm going to approach and say.

AABRIA: "Dr. Roberts."

ASHLY: You said you wouldn't lock him up now.

But you will.

Won't you? AABRIA: "Mr. Grimm."

ASHLY: Both of us.

As soon as Cosmo retires from the field, I'm assuming.

How long do we have?

AABRIA: "I do not endeavor to lie to you, Doctor."

ASHLY: I would ask that you don't.

AABRIA: "I do not speak--

"I would not presume to speak for Candela as a whole.

"I can only guess as to what their aims are.

"I do not wish for either of you to be locked away."

ASHLY: How long, Nokari?

AABRIA: "That has everything to do with the two of you.

"Cosmo, my very good friend,

"has tied himself, bound himself to Candela

"in order to smooth over

"a great deal of things

"that Candela would not otherwise overlook.

"I do not mean this as a threat, or anything snide.

"I don't believe our organization

"behaves with ill intent, simply doing what it must.

"If you or Mr. Grimm proves themselves a threat,

"then you must be dealt with.

"Cosmo has avoided retirement,

"not because, to my understanding,

"not because he thinks his time in the field

"is the only thing protecting you from

"the long arm of our organization's law.

"He's trying to find answers.

"Becoming a Lightkeeper means that your time,

"your focused intention is not your own.

"I can sit and read books all day long.

"But there I things I wish to know, too,

"that I will never, ever have the fortitude

"to return to the field to find answers.

"The working I did today

"to compel the Unabridged to speak to you,

"has pushed me closer to death

"than I have ever felt.

"I do not have much time left.

"That is the way of Lightkeepers.

"They're there to usher, to hand off

"things that our areas of purview find important.

"But if Cosmo were to become a Lightkeeper,

"he couldn't send a circle of his choosing out

"to find answers for his questions,

"for your questions, for Mr. Grimm's question.

"No.

"We serve the people that we live among,

"and that must always be the priority.

"I do not wish to see you in anyway curtailed.

"I think your work is important."

ASHLY: But you know that I am a threat.

AABRIA: "If it is any consolation,

"and I know it is not,

"most people are threats.

"In the same way that you approach

"any new person you meet with the hope

"that they are good and the knowledge

"that you will do what you must

"if they prove themselves otherwise,

"so does Candela treat the two of you

"and anyone else

"that they work with,

"that they come across."

ASHLY: So our fate is at your discretion?

AABRIA: "Your fate is at your discretion.

"It will just be harder to smudge,

"once Cosmo is no longer in the field."

ASHLY: Thank you as ever for your service, Nokari.

AABRIA: "I fear I have upset you."

ASHLY: (exhales) AABRIA: "(exhales)

"(heavy exhale)"

You see them compose themselves away,

as you walk away.

There was great strain and great effort.

Maybe they are a little afraid of you,

but they're doing their best.

Not just for their sake, but for yours.

And they leave.

GINA: From what we know,

it's affecting the less fortunate.

Is that what Nokari said?

AABRIA: The cullet is, yes. GINA: Yes.

So I suppose,

South Soffit would be a good place to start.

SAM: Oh, wait, where is the well again?

AABRIA: The well is in Groundswell

where all of these murders are happening.

GINA: I'm going to assume that it's someone of...

A more unfortunate part of town is apart of this.

South Soffit sounds like that's where they might be.

We can possibly search for some clues there?

NOSHIR: The inciting incident seems to be the commoners

getting access to the well at Groundswell,

and all the murders are happening at Groundswell.

But you want to search elsewhere?

GINA: Was it all the murders?

You said it was at random parts, right?

AABRIA: They're all within the district of Groundswell.

GINA: Ah, I see. AABRIA: Yeah.

GINA: Okay, then Groundswell it is.

LIAM: I think we're-- Hmm.

We need to while away some time and then choose

one of us to be the bait.

ASHLY: (sighs)

SAM: If you--

Do you guys even want me to come with you?

I'm sorry, I mean, I know I fucked that up,

but I'm sorry, Cosmo.

LIAM: Well.

SAM: But if you need bait.

ASHLY: Have any more vendettas you feel the need to

(sighs) resolve?

Or will you be able to keep your head?

SAM: Being questioned about that from you is...

ironic and I accept it.

No, I'm happy to make some

(hard candy clacking against teeth)

new vendettas.

LIAM: Miss Glask? GINA: Yes.

LIAM: Do you think you could supply us

with a Periphery officer's uniform

in about Oscar's size?

GINA: I suppose there's been some pieces

of clothing left behind.

I'll have to check with my girls.

But I think I remember there are some.

AABRIA: From that, we are going to smash,

jump forward in time.

You are able via your girls and your sundry connections

throughout Red Lamp,

to acquire a Periphery uniform,

a beat cop, a normal officer in roughly Oscar's size.

We find you, then, walking the streets.

Do you wait for curfew to kick in?

SAM: I guess so, yeah.

AABRIA: It's 10:30. NOSHIR: Makes sense.

SAM: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: You make your way through the city.

You can hear the harbor and the ocean not too far away.

Where are the rest of you

while the good Mr. Grim is being bait?

ASHLY: Somewhere within

viewing distance. LIAM: We're in

a marketplace, right?

That's the scene?

AABRIA: Mm-hmm, yeah, you can hang out in the marketplace.

It's off and popping in some way, 24 hours.

There's late-night food and stalls

and some people still plying wares.

The market never really shuts down.

It's part of this perpetual,

it has always been in business since the days of Oldfaire.

So you can absolutely blend in

and stay there-- ASHLY: Even with the curfew?

AABRIA: Even with the curfew.

Mostly because the people that

love to attend Calinus Market late at night

are not those who have to toil away long hours

and get their rest for shifts at factory jobs that drain them.

It's where people come,

have a little fun on the other side of town.

ASHLY: Eaves people?

AABRIA: Eaves people.

Silverslip.

The Varnish.

Lots of people come here.

They bring their friends when they're visiting town.

They would not shut down

such a lucrative business opportunity.

So, yes, Calinus Market is the exception.

But there are

some plain-clothes Periphery officers

around the well, just to make sure

that no one breaking curfew would dare

to come out and seek fresh water.

GINA: I'd say I'm at a safe distance away,

sitting in the backseat of one of my cars,

just watching him with an eye on him.

(laughter)

AABRIA: ♪ A prop! ♪

ASHLY: Perfect.

LIAM: Finally get to use it.

ASHLY: I'm going to be sitting at an outside table,

"drinking wine," acting as if I'm

a fancy gal on a night out.

AABRIA: Nice. Okay.

NOSHIR: I'll try to find a relatively low rooftop

from which I can have oversight.

I lift the eyepatch that I'm using

to avoid unwanted attention,

so that hopefully my compound eye can give me a better view,

and upon removing my eyepatch,

find that my eyelid has fallen off.

(groaning)

LIAM: Nice touch.

AABRIA: I think it's right about that time,

you feel the dead tissue fall away

and not the stress of what your eye will do

to self-lubricate,

as a little locust lands--

SAM: (groans) AABRIA:-- on your eyeball.

SAM: ♪ Gross! ♪

ASHLY: (laughs) GINA: Ugh!

AABRIA: Even if you had an eyelid to blink,

you would not.

In the same way that you wouldn't freak out

if a tendril of your own hair landed in your mouth.

Your hive is rebuilding and this is of you,

so why would you worry about it?

NOSHIR: I subtly open the collar of my shirt

and simply whisper: Welcome home.

AABRIA: A happy buzz as it nestles in

with the scant dozens

rebuilding you from the inside out.

NOSHIR: Mm-hmm.

GINA: Honestly, kind of cute, you know?

AABRIA: Weirdly hot. GINA: Yeah.

AABRIA: I don't know. ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: Doctor, do you mind if I serve as your plus one?

ASHLY: (sighs) No, you're more than welcome.

LIAM: I'll wheel my chair next to the table.

Enjoy some wine as well.

Just a scoche.

AABRIA: Without a roll,

I think you see people

that you knew in your earlier life, growing up,

families of great stature and good breeding

from the Eaves and from Briar Green,

that notice you.

They see who you are, your clothing fine,

but you look a little worse for wear,

and more importantly,

you have a little

radioactivity to you, socially.

They are quick to let their eyes glide off of you

and continue their merriment elsewhere.

LIAM: I think in my free hand, not holding a glass of wine,

under the table, I am clutching

a familiar jawbone,

and waiting for a ping.

AABRIA: Yeah. NOSHIR: Can I ask,

were we allowed to keep the items on the side table?

AABRIA: Yes, Nokari, in a last little favor,

was like, "Welp, they found an Unabridged.

"He had nothing on him, and then he died!"

ASHLY: (chuckles)

AABRIA: "Ugh, you hate to see it."

(chuckling) AABRIA: "Anyway.

"Then I got yelled at

"by a lady that turns into a monster,

"so I'm kind of having a rough day.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: "I'm going to take a little bubble bath."

GINA: (chuckles)

AABRIA: So, yes. NOSHIR: Excellent.

SAM: Doorknob, dagger...

AABRIA: Doorknob, yeah. ASHLY: Syringe.

SAM: Syringe. AABRIA: Doorknob, dagger, syringe.

ASHLY: Maybe I would've taken the syringe, presumably?

SAM: You seem like a syringe-y type.

ASHLY: Seem like the syringe-y type?

SAM: Sure.

AABRIA: If you don't quite feel--

This isn't quite how circle gear works,

but I'm happy to live in the space of:

These live in the common pool and

unless someone wants something specifically now,

they can appear when the need arises.

ASHLY: Okay. LIAM: Yeah,

just like the rest of the gear.

AABRIA: Exactly. LIAM: Yes.

ASHLY: Cool. AABRIA: Exactly.

NOSHIR: I will say that, at some point,

I gave the doorknob to Madam Glask.

These are often used in places of magick,

and perhaps her history and intuition

could be of some service.

GINA: I keep it for safekeeping,

since I feel like I'm the furthest distance away,

and in a car.

AABRIA: Yeah.

Oscar, you walk through the streets,

a little ways away from Calinus,

but you can still hear everything.

You feel the filter of the light falling on you

as you move towards the quiet that's interrupted

only by the occasional soft footsteps

that you can never quite line a person up to,

and the low, soothing tide

moving in and out of Groundswell.

Is there anything you're doing

to try to-- yeah. SAM: I'm--

I'm itching this awful costume that I'm wearing.

ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: Squirming in it because my shoulders are very broad.

This is just a little too small.

AABRIA: Okay. (laughs)

GINA: It's a large.

ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM: I'm going to just try to act like a cop,

so just acting real dumb.

Just wandering around like an idiot.

AABRIA: Give me a Sway roll

with delightfully low stakes. LIAM: Jeepers creepers.

GINA: Madam Glask just whispers to herself:

What is wrong with him?

SAM: (laughs) I bump into something.

(laughter)

SAM: Five.

AABRIA: Mixed suc-- SAM: Oh,

it's at disadvantage, four.

Still, still pretty good. AABRIA: Oh, yeah.

Still a mixed success.

Yeah.

You are weaving around.

The read on you from anyone that was looking at you,

though, of course, no one is,

because who would break curfew?

Is less of, "I'm a big, dumb oaf,"

and more of, "Is this cop blitzed?"

I think glancing off of

the corner of a building,

you lose just a little bit of your vision

with this mixed success.

You sell the lie, but you don't quite catch

a little girl peeking out down the street at you

until you spin back to yourself.

She's facing you.

Maybe 60, 70 feet away.

ASHLY: Can we say that maybe we decided

that if Madam Glask sees something,

she's going to pop her headlights a couple of times?

GINA: Oh, I got you, don't worry. SAM: Ooh.

ASHLY: Okay, just wanted to establish.

GINA: I'm keeping a very close eye on him.

ASHLY: Okay. SAM: There's a signal.

LIAM: (horn honking)

(laughter)

GINA: That's exactly what I was going to do.

AABRIA: We barely have flashlights. Is there a horn?

When was that invented?

LIAM: (horn honking)

GINA: Madam Glask--

ASHLY: (horn honking)

GINA: She's keeping a very, very close eye.

AABRIA: "La Cucaracha,"

honestly the national anthem of Hale.

Sorry.

ASHLY: We sing it during our baseball games.

AABRIA: We do! (laughs)

No! SAM: Yep.

AABRIA: I was waiting for the first one.

Please, I will take a brain mark for that.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: Go ahead and give me a Survey roll.

GINA: Sure.

AABRIA: To see

if you can see-- GINA: Aw, shit.

ASHLY: Ooh. AABRIA:-- a subtle child.

ASHLY: Mm. AABRIA: There is--

SAM: Does she get a bonus because she's got--

ASHLY: The fun peepers? GINA: I know, right?

Come on,

I've kept a very close eye. SAM: Spy glasses?

AABRIA: I don't know-- LIAM: There's resistances,

you can reroll if you have one.

AABRIA: What part of the book says if you got a little prop,

you're better at shit? (laughter)

AABRIA: Absolutely not.

SAM: Go for it. GINA: All right.

(sighs) Shit, I'm going to burn two drives then.

AABRIA: Okay.

GINA: Because I have nothing in it.

AABRIA: Before you roll,

I will say that the expectations for this roll

is this is a young child whose home this is

and is very good at being not seen.

This curfew's been happening for a while.

This is not a kid stumbling out,

this is a kid trying not to be seen.

So it will take a full success for you to spot this.

So just to manage your expectations

and you can decide how much of your economy

you want to play with.

GINA: Yeah, I think I'm going to spend both of them.

AABRIA: Okay. GINA: Yeah.

ASHLY: (sharp inhale) LIAM: (groans)

AABRIA: How'd you do? GINA: Hey! Um.

AABRIA: How's it going?

GINA: It's crazy, a one and a three.

AABRIA: A one and a three? It's okay.

You get to take the higher one,

and it's still a failure.

GINA: Bah.

Madam Glask is leaning into

the front seat from the back seat while--

AABRIA: You're in the back of your--

GINA: Yeah, I'm leaning over.

I don't drive myself.

AABRIA: Sorry, that was just for Aabria.

I'm imagined that slightly differently. NOSHIR: Thank you!

AABRIA: That's great.

GINA: But my hand is ready, just on the horn.

AABRIA: Yeah. GINA: While watching him.

AABRIA: Great. GINA: As this is going down.

AABRIA: You stare and you squint,

and you can't shake that idea,

you're missing something.

(sighs) The streets are hard to read.

The light is poor.

You're too close to things that are well-lit,

so as things get darker, it's hard, you can't adjust.

You know that he's a little too far away,

and if you catch something, you just might not catch it.

I want you to take one brain,

as you begin to spin up, worried,

because all of a sudden, you see Oscar pause.

GINA: He's too far. SAM: (hard candy clacking)

AABRIA: Maybe for just a moment--

GINA and ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: But I think there is at least a moment of

change in vector

when you see the little girl and she looks back at you.

SAM: Good evening. NOSHIR: Did we establish

some sort of physicality that you might do

if you thought that you were in danger?

SAM: Seems reasonable, but

you've got eyes on me, I know that.

You've got eyes on me, I know that.

ASHLY: Do we have eyes from where we are?

LIAM: (sighs)

AABRIA: I think you are approaching

the same kind of problem,

where you're in a very well-lit area,

and this is moving to just enough dark

that you're having that struggle of

there's a lot of light and you're looking down

to where there's not a lot of light.

LIAM: The only thing I would add is I'm holding my jawbone.

Not my jawbone. AABRIA: Ooh.

LIAM: That jawbone.

AABRIA: Fair.

Yeah, no roll required.

I can give you that.

You feel that beginning buzz before it becomes pain.

It's just numbing through your fingers

that touch the bone.

ASHLY: Cosmo? AABRIA: It's so light.

LIAM: I think the show's about to begin.

ASHLY: I'm going to get up then and go take his handles

and start moving casually,

but toward where we know Oscar is.

LIAM: I finish my wine really quick.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Pound that.

Why is there not a stat for chug?

This is ridiculous.

GINA: Waste not, want not. AABRIA: Focus.

I need a Survey roll from you,

with eyes at a different angle.

NOSHIR: Two fives and a three.

AABRIA: Mixed success.

You see it.

Something, someone a little far away.

I don't presume to tell you what you think about it,

but there is something off-putting

about the posture of a child peeking around a corner.

But they are breaking curfew.

But is the curfew just?

I think you begin to sit in that a little bit.

You can do whatever you do next,

but I think the mixed success comes with an alarm

at seeing something, and then a mind

that very easily dismisses it.

Do what you will with that,

but it's an easy thing

if you search for a reason to not be worried about that,

to find a reason to not be worried about that.

NOSHIR: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: Cosmo, what do you do when you see this little girl?

SAM: I just say: Hey.

It's curfew, you should get home.

AABRIA: She slides out a little farther.

SAM: You want a candy?

I guess that sounds creepy, huh?

Forget it, don't worry about it.

Just go home.

AABRIA: "Do you actually have a candy?"

SAM: Lots.

But you shouldn't take candy from strangers.

AABRIA: Give me a Sway roll.

ASHLY: How's your Sway, bud?

SAM: My Sway is terrible.

ASHLY: Okay. AABRIA: Yay!

ASHLY: Oh. SAM: That's okay, though.

Sway!

GINA: Oh, I was going to give you a drive.

SAM: You're not even near me,

right? GINA: Oh, I can't,

even if I'm not near him?

SAM: Got to be in the same scene.

AABRIA: Yeah. GINA: Oh, okay, never mind.

AABRIA: You're in the back of a car.

ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: A really nice car. AABRIA: Leaning to the front

of the car.

GINA: And I look fabulous doing it.

AABRIA: Yeah, fair.

SAM: One.

AABRIA: One? GINA: (groans)

ASHLY: How far are me and Cosmo at this juncture?

GINA: Oh my god!

AABRIA: I think you can be wheeling yourselves

down the street, yeah.

We're now setting up a little bit of a western standoff.

ASHLY: Sure, sure. AABRIA: Girl far away.

A police officer not fully shouting,

but speaking loudly.

And a woman and a man moving

from the well-tended, safe part of Groundswell

to the real part of Groundswell.

GINA: Can I say that as he's getting further and further,

I'm getting more concerned

because I can't see him very well,

that I decide to leave my car?

Start making my way-- AABRIA: I will say that the way

this is all-- I was just about to come to that,

when you see that some of your cohort

is also getting up and moving, you see the pause.

You don't see the girl,

but you see all the things around it

that would suggest that something has been spotted.

So if you want to exit the car also.

SAM: You try to drive the car closer,

but then you realize you don't know how to drive.

(laughter)

ASHLY: Immediately crash. LIAM: (car lurches)

GINA: Driving is for the poors.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: I don't know where this is happening

relative to my rooftop access?

AABRIA: Let's call it a big, beautiful triangle.

SAM: Okay. AABRIA: Child, cop,

approaching pair, and you above,

splitting the difference with eyes down.

NOSHIR: I'm going to, under the cover of the roof,

light a candle and prepare a vial of oil.

GINA: Ooh.

AABRIA: Okay.

ASHLY: As I'm approaching, can I lean into Cosmo

and say: How do you want to play this?

Do you want to keep quiet?

Do you want to act as if--

LIAM: I just want to be closer,

in case things go upside down on my father.

How are you feeling?

ASHLY: Not particularly at ease.

LIAM: Okay, well, maybe that's okay.

Maybe not.

ASHLY: Just,

I'm guessing that we're not making a distraction,

we're trying to close distance?

We're not trying to let--

LIAM: For now.

ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: You hear a cough,

and the little girl staring at you...

"(coughing)

"(heavy breathing)"

SAM: You okay?

"(heavy breathing)"

SAM: What's wrong with you?

AABRIA: She begins panting.

SAM: You should call your parents

or something. AABRIA: And doubling down.

One last question.

You were given the uniform of an officer.

What shoes are you wearing?

SAM: I'm not going to wear somebody else's shoes.

They're my shoes.

AABRIA: Yeah.

She doubles down, seeks to brace herself

on the steps of a home stoop,

and as she begin to spin up more,

she's doubling and hacking,

and then you can hear it deep in her chest,

something's being picked up.

She pauses mid-hack, looking at your feet.

"That's not right. (coughing)

"Not right.

"(heavy breathing)"

And that is where we're going to take a break.

SAM: Oh! LIAM: Oh.

GINA: I told you to wear the shoes!

There's so many of them.

LIAM: It's about to pop off!

(laughter)

LIAM: I hope you're wearing what Sam Riegel is wearing,

which is red Crocs.

(laughter)

AABRIA: She looks at your sorry red Crocs!

SAM: We're breaking the illusion.

(laughter)

AABRIA: My immersion!

(laughter)

AABRIA: We'll be back in just a moment with more Candela.

See you soon.

AABRIA: And we return now

on a quiet street in Groundswell

a block and a half from the lights

and sounds and merriment of Calinus Market

left open to the revelry of the upper class

while the rest, the people here who are suffering

under the boot of Triumvirate indignation,

begin to make their moves,

have their thoughts and feelings

and resistance be known.

To paint a picture of a quiet street, at the far end

is a small girl, no older than 12 or 13.

She's doubled over in pain, coughing, retching.

You can hear the sounds

of water being pulled deep from her lungs.

It sounds sickening, it sounds horrifying.

And yet, even in that moment, she's stammering through it,

trying to call something back because she noticed something

in that last moment doubled over.

That the Periphery officer that you are pretending

to be, Oscar Grimm,

the illusion was not quite complete,

because the shoes, the boots are important.

Hard, heavy boots that always sell the point.

You hear a Periphery officer coming.

The people here that have to wade through

rising and ebbing tides all the time

have soft, waterproof shoes.

She could tell the difference

and she knew in that moment that somehow,

for whatever reason, you were different.

She wants to know more, she wants to call it back,

but she doesn't know if she can.

High on a roof a little farther back,

we have Dr. Rajan. You are eyes down,

observing all of this.

Candle out, oil out, preparing some working

yet unknown to us.

Farther still, back down on the street,

we have our other doctor, Roberts,

pushing our dear, dear Cosmo

up the street, engaging with and coming into view

with everything that's breaking forward.

Then behind that, bringing up the rear,

having missed something before,

but catching up rapidly now,

we have you, Madam Glask.

All of our players are in place,

and now in a moment of great strain,

we resume as she tries desperately

to pull herself together.

"(sickly coughs) What are you?

"What are you?"

SAM: What do you mean?

I'm an officer of the law.

Are you all right?

Come here, let me see you.

AABRIA: "(sickly coughs)" You hear the first

loud splatter of water. SAM: Oh no.

AABRIA: It sounds like it's a pitcher being spilled out.

It's too much all at once

as she gives herself over to it

as you have told her one more time who you are,

and caught in the throes

of whatever phenomenon holds her,

she submits to it and lets forth her monster.

More water pours from her mouth.

You all see it now.

You hear the splashing, you see the rivulets

coming through the cobblestone.

The entire city of Newfaire exists at a bit of a slant.

Another legacy of the destruction of Oldfaire,

the creation of the Vastchasm,

the cataclysm that killed the empire that sat here before.

But the ocean is behind her,

so the tilt would suggest that the water should run

under her feet and away.

But no, it's coming for you, slowly but surely.

Whatever it is,

whatever she is or has or does

is coming for you.

I need you to take a point of bleed.

SAM: Bleed, okay. AABRIA: I want you to tell me

what it feels like when Oscar

is in the presence of strong, irrefutable bleed.

SAM: It's two feelings at the same time.

There's a sense of when the bleed hits me,

all of my scars, scrapes, imperfections,

they just feel better. AABRIA: Mm.

SAM: Everything feels just a little bit more vital,

more healthy.

It feels good.

It feels really good, and that causes me great shame.

AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: Mm.

AABRIA: I think you feel that wash,

that flow of relaxation,

of endorphins, of dopamine

as all of you comes into alignment

in the face of something wrong.

GINA: I want to intervene upon seeing this.

I want to use my Prestige.

AABRIA: Tell me more.

GINA: Madam Glask runs up to see Oscar.

Is the water hitting him already?

It is clearly affecting him. AABRIA: No, at this point,

you've not moved.

SAM: I still don't really know what's going on.

AABRIA: Yeah. SAM: It seems weird.

AABRIA: Yeah, all you see is a girl retching

and the water coming from her stomach and lungs

is flowing a little against expectations

of physics towards Oscar.

GINA: Madam Glask is very familiar

with what she's seeing,

so she runs up next to Oscar,

reaches into her coat,

and starts rubbing the stone that she has in her coat.

She holds out her hand

and starts gripping in the air.

A mist fills the air and everything

is unusually silent suddenly.

As her fist closes tighter,

her eyes flick to the back of her head.

I want to use my Prestige to control the water

that's coming out of her.

AABRIA: You reach forward.

SAM: Checking things. AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: (laughs)

NOSHIR: That's always a good sign. AABRIA: I need you, to begin,

you're going to roll Sense. GINA: Mm.

AABRIA: That's how we start.

GINA: I might be screwed here, guys.

ASHLY: Oh no. SAM: Sure.

GINA: Because I used my two drives earlier

and I only have one in Sense.

ASHLY: Uh-oh. SAM: Straight roller.

ASHLY: Straight roll. GINA: So.

Here we go to the sea gods.

Hey. AABRIA: Hey.

GINA: Hey. AABRIA: How you doing?

GINA: Girl, how you doing?

AABRIA: I'm actually doing really well, thank you.

ASHLY: (laughs) GINA: Awesome.

I wish I could relate.

AABRIA: I'm so sorry. Tell me more.

GINA: That's a three.

AABRIA: Now, in this system, we normally treat a result

of a one to a three as a miss,

and this moment will be no fucking different.

You're going to take a bleed

for entering into proximity to this.

In the same way that Oscar took a bleed

being in proximity to a great phenomenon.

You feel it wash over you,

and even though you recognize it,

even though it resonates, you feel like your ear

is up to a shell, you hear the ocean more loudly

and clearly than if you were standing beside the sea.

You reach out to grab that water,

to call it to heel,

but it's not yours.

This one, specifically, is not yours.

You will take another bleed

for attempting to interact

with a phenomenon using a parlor trick.

GINA: With the deafening sound in her ear,

she covers both (groans sharply)

and crumples into herself

next to Oscar.

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: I try to catch her as she falls,

and now I'm sort of distracted

between the water and Madam Glask.

AABRIA: The water continues to move slowly,

creeping towards you as this girl continues to vomit

out more and more and she's coughing and hacking

and the stench of brine is overwhelming.

ASHLY: Do we see this at this point?

AABRIA: Absolutely.

ASHLY: May I use Occult Researcher

to take a brain

and ask Aabria for an important occult detail--

AABRIA: Why is it always written about me? ASHLY:-- that I would recognize

from my studies?

AABRIA: Yes, please do.

You take a brain mark as you strain to understand,

and I think this lands inside of

less of anything you researched,

but in your time in Candela, you've gone on missions

with Oscar and Cosmo, you've seen things.

What could I offer you?

There are lots of different phenomenon,

different phenomena types in the world.

Some are things that have transformed someone,

or there are things that have been called

into this world through a thinning,

or created as successful or terrible deviations

of magick beyond the ken of the caster.

This feels a little different.

It feels in harmony in a way that I think you

are starting to understand now

given your recent interactions

with your own beast.

ASHLY: I'm detecting that there is a symbiotic

relationship between-- AABRIA: Yes.

ASHLY:-- this girl and whatever else in there.

AABRIA: You know very specifically and very overtly.

You are looking at a human girl

who has a phenomenon

that she's expressing right now

that is tremendously powerful,

that is giving off terrible

amounts of bleed around as it happens,

and yet what is happening is not an aberration.

This is exactly what it was supposed to be.

This is synergy, this is cooperation.

ASHLY: So it seems like the one needs the other.

AABRIA: Yes.

ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: Needs might be a little strong,

but they are working together.

ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: Is there anything else you would--

Is there any specific edge to your inquiry?

Because I want to be sure that I'm answering the thing

that Elsie would be asking.

ASHLY: Because I could see that the water

is going the wrong way. AABRIA: Yes.

ASHLY: I can see that this is--

I can see that Madam Glask is reacting--

AABRIA: Yes. ASHLY: I'm sure the jaw bone

is going nuts.

AABRIA: Yes. ASHLY: So I'm trying

to suss out if the girl is interrupted,

sorry for the reference, unintentional.

If I interrupt her, if someone interrupts her,

if whatever the phenomenon is will stop.

That's what I'm trying to determine.

GINA: You should tackle her.

ASHLY: If I can determine that.

AABRIA: I think yes.

You know that this is something

being spun up by her action,

so interrupting the action

will interrupt the expression.

Absolutely.

ASHLY: Okay. AABRIA: The last thing I'll add,

just as a little benny, is that there's something

very specific about the slow creep of this

and the fact that no one's done anything yet.

You heard a bit of that yelled conversation

because it happened with them being far enough apart

that other people could hear it, too,

that she tried to call something,

she called something out,

began to try to call something back.

Oscar's words

finished her resolve,

but nothing has popped off in a way yet,

so this creep gives you all of the slow,

careful consideration of an apex predator

trying to figure out when the prey will bolt.

ASHLY: Cosmo?

LIAM: As we get closer--

Cosmo! (laughter)

GINA: I was like, what the fuck?

ASHLY: Where did it go?

SAM: What the hell was that? GINA: Who are you?

Who are you? AABRIA: Who was that?

I don't like it! LIAM: I'm back!

ASHLY: You sound exactly like TTRPG star, Liam O'Brien!

(laughter) LIAM: I know.

That hack? Okay. ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: I use Speak Their Language.

I begin to intone

Ancient Fairen syllables,

and you hear a slight reverberation

in your ears with every word spoken,

and in that ancient language that I have spent

my lifetime learning a piece of, I say:

Wait, who are you?

What would you hear?

AABRIA: I'm going to jump to that,

but you mentioned getting a little closer,

so I do want to ask,

for tactics and consequences sake,

how close did you come to Glask and Oscar?

LIAM: 20 feet is what I was thinking.

ASHLY: Not in the mix, but within eyesight

and shouting distance.

AABRIA: Okay.

One of you, doesn't matter who, give me a Sense roll.

LIAM: Oh, let me do it!

ASHLY: Oh, please god. AABRIA: Understanding that

the stakes of this, regular stakes,

but a failure will--

You'll be in range.

LIAM: I'm burning a drive. ASHLY: Okay.

LIAM: Gilded roll. ASHLY: Do you feel good enough

like that or do you want another one?

LIAM: I'm feeling good. ASHLY: Okay, great.

LIAM: Oh, it's shit.

GINA: Oh, the wine came in. AABRIA: Wait, really?

LIAM: Yes. GINA: You shouldn't

have chugged that wine. AABRIA: Do you get your drive back

if you use the gilded die?

LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: Okay.

You can get your drive back.

Both of you are going to take a bleed.

AABRIA: Oh. ASHLY: Okay, all right,

that's fine. LIAM: Okay.

AABRIA: Four of the five of you are in range.

ASHLY: That's fine, that's fine.

AABRIA: With every syllable you speak,

you see the water on the ground,

every part of it as though there is no central place

from where the ripple would form from,

but all of it is the epicenter.

Down this long street

reverberates with every syllable.

I think you realize, before you even get a response,

that the thing that you're talking to in this moment

is not the little girl, but the thing coming out of it.

LIAM: I am so old, older than...

I shouldn't be alive anymore,

I think that my proximity to what happened long ago

on that vessel has stretched me out longer.

When I come in contact with this bleed,

I can feel it arching across my weathered,

thinned out skull.

Creeping from the front to the back.

AABRIA: Yeah. LIAM: Just a little flavor.

AABRIA: I like that, I like that.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Bud, if I could give you inspo,

I absolutely would.

ASHLY: Does it respond to him?

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah. ASHLY: Oh, okay.

AABRIA: So what you hear after the ripples of your voice

is something, and I'll give it to everyone,

because you're all in range, you're all taking this damage

so you're all a part of the epicenter of this.

As a low voice,

it sounds like crashing waves

and a stone scraping against salt responds.

"My name is Arterax,

"and I have been charged to serve the child.

"Who are you?"

SAM: We all hear that voice, but only he can understand it,

or we all telepathically-- AABRIA: You all hear it

and understand it.

I think it's just--

It's not quite telepathically, but you hear it in your ears

and you feel the blood

and water inside you

tremoring with it.

LIAM: I reply in the same ancient language:

Tide & Bone,

keepers of the light.

AABRIA: "You were known to me

"in my time.

"Yes.

"What do you want?

"I must protect the girl.

"And she deems that one--"

Here you see the water shoots forward a half a foot.

ASHLY: He's not who you think. AABRIA: "-- a threat."

ASHLY: He's not a threat.

AABRIA: In this, you feel the pause.

This girl heaving water is able to catch herself

for just a second.

"(gasping breaths)

"He is with them. You're a cop.

"He is a problem."

ASHLY: He's not. AABRIA: "(coughing)

"Let him say it. Prove it."

GINA: Tell her.

AABRIA: "(deep cough) She begins to spew more water out.

Now this thing begins to retreat

back a little at a time,

not to flee,

but to coalesce into a puddle.

ASHLY: Oscar. SAM: If I represent something

that you don't like,

believe me it's just an act,

I don't like them either.

AABRIA: At this,

the girl sputters out.

There's enough water here called down and collected

and the puddle resolves

into a large, tall humanoid figure.

Those of you with any curiosity

about the mythology

and history of Oldfaire

recognize the array

of spikes and feathers

that look like a helm

of the ancient sentries of Oldfaire.

The figure stands at attention and waits.

The girl eventually pushes herself up to standing.

"(breath of relief)

"(coughs)

"Why, why would you--

"Why would you come here

"and pretend to be one of them?

"Why?"

SAM: To talk to you.

AABRIA: "Wha--

"What?

"Doesn't make any sense."

SAM: Are you okay?

AABRIA: "No, no, no.

"No, of course not."

ASHLY: What's going on? AABRIA: "My brother's--

"They're dead. They're--" GINA: Your mother?

AABRIA: "-- attacking us we--

"No! No, I'm not all right!

"Who are you?"

GINA: We want to help, but you have to tell us

what's going on here.

AABRIA: "I don't have to tell you anything!"

ASHLY: Is this the girl speaking?

AABRIA: Yes. ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: "You're in my home,

"and I'm the only one that can protect it,

"and I will because I don't know you.

"You look like, you look like an officer,

"and you look like one of them--

ASHLY: I'm like you. AABRIA: "-- and none of them care."

ASHLY: Little one, look at me. AABRIA: "No, what is--"

ASHLY: I'm like you.

I have something in me like you do.

AABRIA: "You made a deal, too?"

GINA: A deal? ASHLY: I don't know.

Is that what you did?

AABRIA: "Yeah, yeah."

ASHLY: Who did you make a deal with?

AABRIA: "I was standing, I was standing on the shore

"a couple days ago.

"My brother, my brother died.

"They killed him at the well

"for disrupting the peace. Oh god."

You see she staggers back

and falls onto the ground,

more dizzy and faint and a little overwhelmed

than anything else.

ASHLY: It's okay, just take,

take slower breaths.

AABRIA: "(intentional breathing)"

ASHLY: You're okay.

AABRIA: "Okay. Okay."

ASHLY: You're okay.

AABRIA: "I was at the shore.

"I asked for a miracle.

"Something answered."

GINA: Something answered. AABRIA: "It asked me what I wanted.

"I said revenge.

"It asked for a price."

ASHLY: What was the price?

AABRIA: "I offered anything, myself, I don't know."

GINA: A loved one?

Madam Glask says sternly to her:

A loved one is what you offered.

AABRIA: "That's not what I offered,

"but it's what it took."

GINA: Of course.

AABRIA: "It said it couldn't be me.

"But it said--

"It kept saying Any Mother's Child,

"and then a mother.

"Then it said that the price was paid.

"My brother was at the well

"because my mom has been dying of cullet for years.

"I don't know if it killed her

"or if she was just going."

GINA: Going?

SAM: Did she die-- GINA: Going?

SAM:-- in the last few days?

AABRIA: "She was dead when I got home.

"She was dead when I got home,

"and then I had this."

She gestures at the figure in front of her.

"I don't have anything left,

"just this."

SAM: Is the water figure doing anything, watching us?

Does it have eyes?

AABRIA: There are no eyes

and there's no firmness to the figure,

just the rough shape, like a shadow made of water,

and it holds.

You reached your hand out toward her

and you felt its attention shift slightly.

But unless you move,

it will simply hold position, interposing itself.

GINA: Oh, I see. SAM: Interposing,

like it's between us and the girl?

AABRIA: Yes. SAM: Oh.

AABRIA: She was behind it because vomited the water out,

the water flowed forward-- SAM: Got it.

AABRIA:-- then it formed and resolved in front of her.

So she's sitting on the ground--

SAM: If I take a step forward--

AABRIA: It will match you.

SAM: Oh. Okay, got it.

GINA: That water figure, was that Arterax?

AABRIA: Yeah. GINA: Arterax.

So it does speak.

AABRIA: Yes, but-- GINA: Somewhat.

AABRIA:-- very specifically as a interaction

of the casting that Cosmo did.

I want to know what you're doing up on the roof.

NOSHIR: I don't know if I'm in range

and therefore able to hear

everything that has transpired.

AABRIA: I think you are. Because of the gap

that the girl has left, that the water sentry

has enforced, there's still a bit of yelling.

I think you're having trouble making her out,

but you hear your circle

and you feel the words of the sentry.

What are you doing with your oil and your candle, Rajan?

NOSHIR: As I tear a piece of my cravat

and wrap it around the oil flask,

I put my hand to the claw embedded in my body

and look to see if I can tell

where a master begins and drone ends,

if they are actually linked

or if there is one that serves the other.

AABRIA: Give me a Sense roll.

ASHLY: How's your Sense? NOSHIR: Of course.

ASHLY and GINA: (laugh) NOSHIR: Yeah.

AABRIA: Oh, does no one got good Sense?

NOSHIR: (laughs) GINA: Aw.

AABRIA: That's so interesting in a game about spooky stuff.

GINA: (laughs) NOSHIR: So,

if it's a Sense roll and I have nothing in it,

but I add a drive--

AABRIA: Then you're rolling one die.

SAM: One die. NOSHIR: One die.

LIAM: Straight roll. AABRIA: Straight roll.

ASHLY: Come on, baby. LIAM: Giddy-up.

NOSHIR: Five. ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: Mixed success.

Take a bleed.

SAM: Oof. ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: You understand with perfect clarity

as someone who has both known

the dynamic of master

and servant from both sides and then found synergy.

Whatever you and your hive now are, they are in unison.

It's very clear the tether.

She has called this thing, she's paid a price.

This sentry, this thing,

this piece of breath found form

in deep briny water serves at her command.

If this is the thing that has killed those officers

then it was doing so at her express order.

ASHLY: Are you alone?

AABRIA: "There's no one, there's no one else.

"They're gone."

ASHLY: Would you like a soft bed

and a safe place?

AABRIA: You have described before

the importance of your dress

that you still hold yourself in the trappings

of your old life.

You look like a doctor, yes,

but a woman of the Eaves,

of the nicer parts of the city.

You can make a Sway roll,

but know that the expectation here

is that it will take tremendous--

It will take a full success to begin to convince her

against everything she's seen and experienced,

the callousness from people dressed like you,

and you, and you.

It's a lot to overcome, even in an act of kindness.

GINA and ASHLY: I'm-- GINA: Go ahead.

ASHLY: I'm going to take off my coat--

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

ASHLY:-- and lay it down, basically as an offering

if she wants to take it.

I'm going to spend both of my drives.

SAM: Oh boy. LIAM: Oh shit.

SAM: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ASHLY: Where's my thing? AABRIA: Okay!

ASHLY: See what happens.

I got a mixed success.

AABRIA: Okay.

She looks down at the coat

and up at you,

and this group, that again,

it's confusing.

You wrap yourselves in these glamours, you lie.

God, she's been around so many people that lie.

You've made no move to harm her.

So she doesn't take the coat, she doesn't move further.

But you also don't see her back away or shut down,

call the sentry forth or back to her.

She's listening, but she is not convinced.

There's something about a person

who has lived a harsh life

that knows better than to give away

what little power she has wrested from a cruel world

in a moment of kindness

that she cannot say is genuine

or will continue.

GINA: Glask kneels down next to the child.

AABRIA: If you move forward-- GINA: Ah.

AABRIA:-- the sentry will interpose itself

and try to stop you. GINA: Right, okay.

Glask speaks to the child and--

AABRIA: Yeah. Do you want to step forward?

It's not going to bum rush you and try to hit you,

but if your instinct is to move forward

just know that at the first step,

this thing is sliding with the same bearing

to interpose.

GINA: I take one step forward cautiously,

keeping an eye on that watery figure.

I look at the child and I say:

As a worshiper, I know what the sea beckons,

and pulls out the sea glass that she has

in her hand, and shows it to the watery figure.

I understand, child, you can trust me.

Although, I look like them, I come from your roots.

Have no fear.

AABRIA: "What do you mean?

"Worshiper? Worshiper of what?"

GINA: The gods that gave you this power.

AABRIA: "A god? A god did this?"

GINA: Yes, they took away everything

and gave you something in return, yes?

As they did for me.

Trust me, child.

AABRIA: "I don't know, I don't know what I made a deal with.

"I don't know what I've done, I don't know.

"I was raised in the Ascendancy:

"Mother, Father, Child.

"I don't, I don't know other gods."

GINA: Can I slowly reach out to her to take her hand?

AABRIA: Make a Sway roll.

GINA: Yeah.

AABRIA: (laughs)

GINA: Maybe a drive, yeah, let's go crazy.

ASHLY: Oof.

AABRIA: How you doing?

GINA: Hey, baby!

LIAM: Get your drive back.

ASHLY: Yeah, you get the drive back, at least.

AABRIA: Hey, you get the drive back.

GINA: Hey, that's awesome. AABRIA: We love that.

Was it a mixed success? Crit?

GINA: I really would love new dice.

AABRIA: Okay. That's so interesting.

GINA: So maybe I wasn't that great of a worshiper.

It's three ones and a three.

AABRIA: Golly. GINA: Huh?

AABRIA: You reach forward-- GINA: Wait, wait.

Crap. No resistance.

AABRIA: Do you want to burn your resistance to try again?

GINA: Yes. AABRIA: That's exactly

what this is for. GINA: Yeah.

I do want to use a resistance, then.

AABRIA: Okay, you can't reroll the drive that you spent,

but all the other dice, you reroll.

You reroll the base stats, so reroll your--

GINA: Oh, the base stats, no gilded?

AABRIA: You don't get the drive, yeah.

GINA: Come on, little one.

A four.

ASHLY: Better than a one. AABRIA: We move from a miss

to success, mixed though it may be.

I think in that mixed success,

it is the understanding.

You know, more specifically than anyone else here

who this little girl is.

Even if you don't,

even if she doesn't know the gods of your home,

she's treated in the same way that you did.

She's the same age you were when you shouted your rage

and indignation at being abandoned

in this new world alone.

Your family did not make the crossing with you.

Your ship was lost at sea and somehow you wound up here.

You had to make a life for yourself.

You hid from the waves and the gods of your home

until one day you found yourself standing at a shore.

You screamed and wept tears as salty as the ocean itself,

pleaded for something,

a way to make it in the world,

and something spoke back,

offered you a desire,

said that the price had been paid

a mother claimed by dark water.

GINA: And what is worth that price?

AABRIA: "You tell me.

"It is a heavy price,

"and I am a fair thing."

GINA: We wished for safe passage

and riches and wealth in this new world

for us, not for me.

That was the price?

AABRIA: "I cannot speak to the deal unstruck,

"but what you ask of me now,

"I will grant.

"The price has been paid.

"What do you want?"

This thing reaches into you, sees your heart,

the stormy sea

that is your spirit,

and speaks your name.

"Cordelia.

"What do you want?

"If it is in my power to give it, I will.

"You are not forgotten,

"and the gods they worship there

"are not the only ones that walk this world."

GINA: I want them back.

AABRIA: "I cannot give them."

GINA: Then if I can't have them,

give me what they wanted

when they chose to come to this new world.

AABRIA: "That is within my power and purview.

"You are not forgotten here in a strange land,

"sweet child.

"It will not be easy,

"but it will be."

You feel the tide ebbing away from you.

Your connection to whatever this was,

the gods of this world, the demons of Candela,

something in between or something more,

recedes from you.

A few years later,

we see you, Madam Glask,

walking through this world

without the fear and starvation,

without the suffering.

You have a place and a way for yourself,

and you will never be hungry or scared like that again.

You have your girls, the people that you have found

that were like you on the streets,

and you found a way for them,

to take care of them, to protect them,

for them to make a way in this world for themselves.

Then you come back to yourself in this moment

with this girl who's at the beginning of a path

that you have lived for the last three decades.

In this moment, she is your girl too.

She's not different than you.

She is scared and alone.

GINA: I hold her hand gently and tell her:

Do not go down this path, child.

It is lonely, and I know you want to hurt those

who have taken from you,

but it will never give you a home.

AABRIA: As the final part of that mixed success,

as you reach out and reach her and she accepts your grip,

the standing orders of this sentry hold.

Protect the girl. She's vulnerable, she's weak.

You will take a point of--

No, you will take two points of body

as this thing pushes through you,

water formed hard like a dagger

slicing through your forearm.

Reaching out to make a connection with this girl,

you feel the blade of it slide between the bones,

cutting cleanly, so precisely. But you control water, too.

This is not unknown to you,

and it burns, but it does not deter you.

This little girl who sees what you have risked,

sees the blade through you, salty water on one end

and bright red with your lifeblood on the other side.

She grabs your hand and then your elbow,

and she wraps herself around you,

because maybe you understand.

GINA: I take her into my cloak

and I wrap her close.

AABRIA: She sobs

tears as salty as the ocean itself

into your beautiful beaded gown,

and the sentry withdraws its blade and holds.

What do the rest of you do?

SAM: Seeing blood-- It's real blood that we can see, right?

AABRIA: Real blood, and when it withdraws the blade,

she is bleeding down her forearm.

SAM: I'm wrapping my hand around my chain

and just getting it ready,

but looking to Madam Glask for--

If she's okay, I guess.

GINA: I look at Oscar and I just:

Shh. It's fine.

She knows that she's bleeding,

but to not disturb the girl

wrapped in her arms. It's okay.

AABRIA: You hear her mutter into your sequins and beading.

It shifts and tinkles.

You just hear her sob, "My name is Mina."

GINA: Mina, such a beautiful girl.

I run my fingers through her hair.

LIAM: The being of water is doing what now?

AABRIA: Standing at attention,

but has opened its posture up

so that it's no longer

between you and the two of them.

ASHLY: I'm going to get Oscar up, slowly and cautiously.

(laughs) AABRIA: (laughs)

GINA: I give you all a knowing look,

and I let you know it's safe.

It's okay now, I have her.

I'm assuming so, yeah. AABRIA: Yeah.

GINA: But I want to ask her

if she knows anything about

where we can find the source

of the poisoned water.

AABRIA: She sobs and tries to pull herself together,

moves away from you,

realizing that none of her close fit jumpsuit

is good for daubing a nose

that's absolutely shooting boogers.

GINA: I'm wiping it with my cloak. AABRIA: She wipes her hand.

Yeah, she accepts it gratefully.

GINA: (laughs)

AABRIA: "I-- They--

"They say that west,

"Westwreck, west of the city,

"the ground is bad.

"They keep building new things

"and it poisoned the water,

"but we're the only ones.

"It touched our water.

"I don't know what that means, but--

"It only runs to us and South Soffit,

"so we're the only ones that get sick, and they don't care.

"We could've gone to the well

"until they figured something out,

"but they'd rather protect history than people.

"Then they put in a curfew,

"and I know other people are hurting,

"and I'm the only one that has that.

"I will kill them.

"I won't stop."

GINA: This isn't the way.

That won't save everyone, it won't bring--

It won't bring them back.

I'm sorry.

AABRIA: "I know.

"I know. I'm not naive, I know.

"It doesn't matter, you can't get back the things you lose.

"But you can make them pay for taking it."

She looks around at the comfort in your eyes

and the concern in yours and the fatherly understanding,

and then she alights on yours.

SAM: I know what you mean.

It does feel good.

AABRIA: She sees a thing in you.

It steels her in a way that compassion can't, always.

AABRIA: "Yeah." SAM: But maybe for now,

you can let us get you some revenge,

and you could just take a break and rest.

AABRIA: "Okay. Okay.

"Okay."

SAM: Doc? Cosmo?

LIAM: Yeah.

SAM: Do you two have any idea how we might, you know,

split these two apart,

or someone who can?

AABRIA: You definitely drop back

to have this conversation. (laughter)

LIAM: It's still just hovering?

AABRIA: Yeah, it's just standing at attention,

but now there's no sense of--

It's not tracking your movements

and the minute changes in your physicality

in the way it was before when it seemed so on alert.

But it still remains at the ready.

SAM: Is there some Candela bigwigs

that know how to do this stuff,

or a big towel or something

that we can soak it up with? AABRIA: (laughs)

LIAM: A bleed containment vial

is just for trace amounts, right?

To bring a little bit home?

AABRIA: Usually, but if you haven't told me

what your bleed containment vial is,

then a bleed containment unit can be

whatever you decide in this moment.

SAM: Mine is a gigantic 40-gallon tank.

GINA and ASHLY: (laugh) AABRIA: Yeah, okay, okay, okay.

You have three Sparkletts containers ready to go.

But truly, if there's something that doesn't care

about volume, that simply seeks to soak up

as much of one thing as possible,

that is absolutely within the realm of what can be done.

GINA: Can we ask her to maybe absorb it back into her?

She can control it. AABRIA: You can just ask her.

You don't have to ask me to do that.

GINA: Yeah, but she can control it. SAM: Didn't we want it without her?

ASHLY: I might-- Well, so I don't know

if what is happening with her is like what happens with me.

SAM: Mm.

ASHLY: But I don't know

how either of them would fare

at this point if they were separated.

GINA: Mm-hmm. SAM: Ah.

GINA: I don't think we can.

Not the gods that I know.

If we tried, it would just get worse.

SAM: (sighs)

Well, then what do we do?

I mean, god, I wish the--

I wish the fancy lad were down here to consult.

He just pissed off somewhere else.

ASHLY and AABRIA: (laugh)

AABRIA: Hey, fancy lad.

NOSHIR: The threat through the individual

seems to have abated,

and the circle seems secure.

I put the vial down and I blow out the candle.

Perhaps we're trying to treat the symptom

without treating the cause. SAM: Ah! There you are!

(laughter)

SAM: Jesus. (laughs) AABRIA: Truly out of shadow.

(laughs) GINA: (laughs)

ASHLY: I knew.

When I was researching cullet,

I knew where it came from, and I--

My wealthy clients didn't want people to know,

and I didn't say anything.

GINA: I turn Mina away so she doesn't hear this.

But I do look at Elsie again.

More secrets?

ASHLY: You're a better woman than me.

GINA: You should've said something sooner, Elsie.

ASHLY: Yeah, I should've.

LIAM: I'm going to wheel a little closer to the being

and begin to speak in Ancient Fairen again.

This is not your when.

This is not your where.

Will you part with this child?

AABRIA: "If I am released,

"I will go and resume my wandering,

"but only if she decrees it."

GINA: I look at Mina, and I say: Mina,

let us do this the right way so you don't have to.

You're just a child.

Let the sea reclaim him and put trust in us.

We'll find a way.

AABRIA: She nods,

and she looks across all of you so kindly.

She looks at you,

the one that understands differently,

and you, as you approach.

"So fancy.

"You are nice.

"You understand.

"You said you worship the same god?"

GINA: Yes.

AABRIA: "Did you make a deal?"

GINA: Yes.

AABRIA: "What did you ask for?"

GINA: Wealth and riches in a new world.

AABRIA: "Would you give it back?"

GINA: I didn't give, child. It was taken.

My mother and my father.

AABRIA: "I lost my mother and my brother."

GINA: Then you understand.

AABRIA: "A steep price."

GINA: Yes. AABRIA: "You didn't give yours back.

"You didn't give yours back.

"Why do I have to give mine back?

"I already paid for it.

"I lost everything for it, and you--

"You want me to what?

"Be powerless again?"

GINA: I don't use my power to hurt, child.

AABRIA: "I use my power to protect my people."

GINA: If you want to protect them,

you find a way to help them, to cure them.

AABRIA: "I have! What have you done?"

ASHLY: You don't have to give it back.

AABRIA: "I won't. I won't."

ASHLY: But let us help you.

AABRIA: "What do you mean by help?"

ASHLY: Let us keep you safe.

Help us understand. We won't take it away.

AABRIA: "If you try to part it from me,

"I will drown you."

GINA: We promise you we won't. We won't.

AABRIA: "I do not know you,

"and I have had so many promises broken already.

"I trust you for now.

"But if you abandon me,

"(sniffs)

"if you take me away

"and leave my people,

"the people here to suffer

"like everyone else does,

"I will kill you."

GINA: Then how about I make another deal, then?

AABRIA: "You don't have anything else to give."

GINA: My life.

AABRIA: "It doesn't want our lives, I offered that first.

"So we're just going to have to trust each other for now."

Mina will very specifically push herself up to standing

and she holds herself so tightly

and she unsummons the water.

It splashes, the massive pile on the ground,

still mingled with a bit of your blood

and it runs away back down towards the sea.

And she stands.

ASHLY: I'm going to pick up my coat one more time

and offer it to her.

It's cold.

GINA: Such a strong girl.

AABRIA: She walks over and takes it.

I think even in that gesture,

you can see the difference in size between you.

That here, without that protector, without the magick,

the bond, the curse, the deal she made,

she's so small, but warmer now

because of you.

NOSHIR: There are different ways to protect your people.

If you can't have the vengeance that you so desire,

perhaps we can find a way

to get fresh water to those in need.

This well is not the only source.

Briar Green has it, for sure.

If necessary, I'll fill tankards

and send it to those you care about.

I can't help everyone, but it's certainly a start.

AABRIA: "Okay. Okay."

ASHLY: Can we take her back to the chapter house?

SAM: Would she even go?

AABRIA: "I have a home here."

ASHLY: But there's no one there.

AABRIA: "Yeah, (sniffles) with you is fine."

GINA: I can put her in my car.

AABRIA: "Okay." GINA: Yeah, how small is she?

AABRIA: She is a 12 year old,

so she's right around--

I'll say 4'9" or 4'10",

but very scrawny, but being stretched out by puberty

before everything else hits.

Beginning in the growth spurts,

has not eaten enough to even begin to fill out.

So gangly preteen.

LIAM: I have been allowing everyone to do such an excellent job

deescalating the situation.

But I also want to know if she's fucking us.

ASHLY: (laughs) LIAM: So can I

give her the eagle eye?

AABRIA: Yeah. LIAM: All right.

AABRIA: You tell me what you're rolling.

LIAM: I'm rolling Read, I'm trying to read.

AABRIA: Yeah!

LIAM: To see if any one of us

is going to get a mouthful of water.

AABRIA: I will say that she's trying to play it

very close to the vest,

but you've been watching her this whole time.

So the stakes of this are pretty low.

You're going to get a lot of good information.

LIAM: Come on.

No, but I'll take the gilded two to get a drive back.

AABRIA: The thing you know

is that you understand--

you're looking for a way of for sure,

like she's lying and will do something drastic

or for sure she's reaching out for someone

or something to trust and you get neither.

She's true to her word.

She will trust for now because she has no other choice.

But because of the nature of her power,

the trust comes from knowing

that if worse comes to worst,

she will drown you.

She will kill you with all the surety

of someone who has killed before

and understood what she did and will do it again.

LIAM: Well, the good news is, child,

this is a group of cracked vessels,

so you may just fit right in.

AABRIA: "Okay."

SAM: Are we headed back to the spot?

AABRIA: Yeah, is there anything else you want to--

GINA: Either that or do you want to go to the well?

SAM: Oh, we got to take her back?

NOSHIR: I think the chance of encountering actual guards

who give us pushback

is not what Mina needs at this moment.

ASHLY: I think we should go back to The Antiquarian.

AABRIA: I will say, just as a little mental image

for the group of you, that yes, this is a little girl

breaking curfew,

but all of you-- all of you look like

it is fine for you to be out at night

and you are escorting a child

who may look like a little ragamuffin,

but no one's going to ask you questions or stop you.

GINA: She has her nice coat on.

AABRIA: There is no rush to whisk her off,

she's fine because she's with you.

GINA: She might be useful.

AABRIA: But you can do what you want.

SAM: I mean, yeah, I don't know.

What's our next play?

We can take her back and put her away

and then go off to Westwreck?

LIAM: Yeah, let's just review.

AABRIA: Yeah. LIAM: Right.

There was the well here.

That is all the clean water

which was what set this girl off

on her journey with her friend.

AABRIA: Yeah.

LIAM: And Westwreck, which is really on the outside of town.

AABRIA: Yeah, you are on one side,

you're on the far side of the Sidle,

towards the city center to the east.

Then on the other side of the district

that you all call home is Westwreck,

the edge of the city, this blasted landscape.

It's now maybe 11:00pm.

What you know about the well before

and without having to go to it

is that it is a surprising source of clean water.

The well is incredibly deep and has been in use

since the time of Oldfaire.

So it's touching an incredibly deep water source.

Things have been built up to,

you can draw water up and out,

but every time they build a structure around it,

usually historical societies will come and break it down

to put something like a little gazebo around it

or treat it like a historical site

instead of an actual, functional part of the city.

But whatever you want to do.

You have deescalated the situation,

and she is well in hand. LIAM: We were tasked with

finding a murderer,

and we found her.

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLY: I think maybe we should go back and regroup.

SAM: Sure. ASHLY: Get her to bed.

She seems like she needs a good night's rest.

GINA: Sure.

NOSHIR: She's powerful and unpredictable.

I think perhaps the Lightkeeper would have access

to resources that we don't have.

LIAM: Correct.

ASHLY: I don't know if she would trust the Lightkeeper.

She barely trusts us.

SAM: Right now, she just needs a place to sleep and rest,

and we can give her that easily.

So I'll fire up the car. (laughter)

LIAM: Do we will pile in and drive to The Antiquarian?

SAM: Yeah. ASHLY: Why not.

SAM: Everyone pile in.

I'll drive you, Your Highness.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: I wouldn't have it any other way.

SAM: I know, because you don't have a license.

NSOHIR: This is also true. (laughter)

GINA: It's for poor people. (laughter)

AABRIA: You get in the car.

Mina at this point, still wary, complies

and is happy to be swept along.

I think across a not-too-long drive,

she begins to forget a little of her wariness.

At some point, I think she is looking out of the window

over your lap, Cosmo, and leans more and more,

and gets elbows up on the window,

and is just watching the streets go by.

She's never been in a car before.

She's enjoying her time,

and eventually you make your way back to The Antiquarian.

LIAM: You know, on the drive, just a little touch.

As she leans past, I watch her gazing out for a bit

and I look at my father,

and over at Ms. Glask riding shotgun.

Look to you and I look to you. I don't say anything.

I'm just feeling my age

and marveling at all the things I've seen in my life,

including today.

That's it, should be pretty good.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Your reverie brings you

across a lot of thoughts and recollections.

I think there is one last little touch.

Remembering the name of this bookshop

before you purchased it and made it The Antiquarian.

It was called Any Mother's Child.

A phrase taken from Ascendancy scripture

that speaks to the mercy that is expected to be shown

to any other person that you meet.

because who are they

if not another precious child

of the Mother goddess.

So much of that meaning has fallen away now,

and it's been taken up in slogans

and used in acts of defiance and peace.

You lose yourself in your musings

because again, who, other than you and your father

would remember a phrase that's meant

so many things for so long?

You make it back to the bookshop.

She's fallen asleep,

her face smushed against the glass, exhausted.

got her face smushed against the glass, exhausted.

What are your plans with her?

What do you want to do?

You come up to The Antiquarian.

Eloise and your sweet puppy

are waiting for you by the door to let you in,

usher you back, offer you tea and refreshments.

Eloise looks deeply confused

to where you acquired a child from.

LIAM: I think we've skirted the line

with the members of this very circle.

I propose we give her a few days,

keep an eye on her, and then

probably discuss with Nokari what would be best.

ASHLY: I think, yeah, maybe we can

put her to bed.

Then there's a moment where

I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror,

with all of these outdated fineries

I've tried so hard to maintain

and

they feel tight and wrong.

And

I'm going to give myself a token.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: Because, at this point,

Elsie doesn't know

what the fuck she's been doing.

The choice to

be so selective

about her research around this disease

and who it's impacting and how it's impacting them,

and her choice to keep it secret,

to serve wealthy and auspicious masters,

has finally come into clear focus the human cost.

AABRIA: I like that you gave yourself a token,

I appreciate that.

But I do think moments of tremendous self-reflection

and realization and growth,

they don't always come with a breath of fresh air

and the euphoria of

phenomenal realization,

sometimes they come at the blade of a knife of realization

of who you were and how much it stings

to know the ways in which you have failed

the version of yourself you wish to be.

I think, Dr. Roberts, you have worked and worried

that your experimentation turned you into a monster.

I think the realization

that maybe a part of you was monstrous

far before the beast ever became a part of you

is there.

So why don't you to take a brain.

ASHLY: A brain. AABRIA: Yeah.

Know that sometimes growth comes through stress.

But you see it and you realize it.

But that's good.

It's okay.

Sometimes the only way out is through.

I think, with that-- SAM: Ke-- Before you--

AABRIA: Yeah?

SAM: I don't know if you're wrapping up--

AABRIA: No, go ahead. SAM: But I was just,

if we're wrapping up the evening and all laying down

to rest I was going to knock on Cosmo's door real quick--

AABRIA: Yeah. SAM:-- before I go back

to The Glass Cat and have a quick moment with him.

AABRIA: Yeah, please go for it.

You're good.

SAM: Cosmo, it was a weird day.

I feel like we got some sort of closure,

but I kind of blew it like I always do,

and, I don't know.

Would it be very strange if I were to tuck you in?

LIAM: You can help me, yes.

I can do it on my own,

but it's easier with some help, yes.

SAM: I'll help him into his pajamas

and get his bed the way he likes it

and shove a pillow behind his back

and another one in his front.

LIAM: Would you scoop up Godot and put him by my feet?

SAM: Of course. LIAM: Thank you.

SAM: I'll do so and I'll wait 'til--

I'll turn out the lights and wait 'til

I hear him snoring

and maybe sit there a while

and listen and put a hard candy

on the side table next to his bed.

LIAM: Oscar.

I'm very tired.

SAM: (sighs)

I know.

I wish I were, too.

Good night, sweet boy.

AABRIA: Can't resist it.

I think sitting in the quiet

and in the dark

next to the one thing you still have left

feels enough like that place you go when you go.

You take a brain mark

because I think you have the shape of it now.

Every time you die,

you go somewhere,

you accept

that something must be given,

a part of a bargain you didn't make

and you've heard a lot of that tonight.

Maybe for the first time in waking memory

you have a sense of that space,

of the things you've traded away,

and the thing that you still have left.

That's all.

You go back to The Glass Cat?

SAM: Yeah. GINA: Oh.

SAM: With you, if you want me to.

(laughter) GINA: Yeah,

I don't drive, Oscar. SAM: Oh yeah.

I drove her there, drove back, tucked him in,

go back to again. (laughter)

GINA: You think gas is free around here?

Cordelia has been sitting

next to Mina, watching her sleep.

This is the first time she's ever

had such a strong connection to anyone

since she's left her home.

This really is her all over again

and it breaks her heart to see

this poor child

going down the same path that she did.

It's an odd sense of

family connection,

a home, perhaps.

She feels it in her soul that she will do

everything she possibly can to help this child,

because in a way it's helping herself, too.

AABRIA: Yeah.

GINA: I think she tries to stay for as long as she can,

almost not wanting to go back to The Glass Cat, but--

AABRIA: Eventually, you have to go back.

GINA: Yeah.

AABRIA: I think there is another realization

inside of that,

that you have to acknowledge

that she's firm in her purpose.

That if you are to claim her as family,

it comes with more than just the joy of connection.

It comes with duty and responsibility

and expectation,

and having to accept someone

when they make you proud,

when they disappoint you,

and you don't know her.

You don't know if she's going to disappoint you.

But if that's a risk you want to take,

if anyone was primed in this circle to take it,

it is you.

I think that is the energy you leave with

when you go back to The Glass Cat.

GINA: Come now, Oscar.

SAM: I get back to The Glass Cat--

AABRIA: Yeah. SAM:-- realize

she's not in the car--

AABRIA: Yes! SAM:-- go back,

get her again. GINA: I'm standing outside like--

SAM: Sorry, sorry. GINA: What do I pay him for?

SAM: There's lots of emotions.

I'll go back again. (laughter)

ASHLY: Does Raj want an ending scene?

GINA: Do you want a ride? SAM: (buzzing)

(laughter)

SAM: Fade to black.

(laughter)

LIAM: "The Little Rascals."

(laughter)

NOSHIR: A success without any bloodshed.

GINA: Well.

NOSHIR: What do you think they'll do with her?

Do you think they'll actually try to fix her?

To keep her safe?

ASHLY: Seems like a loaded question, Raj.

What do you want to say to me?

NOSHIR: I just wonder

if we're actually doing the right thing.

ASHLY: For her?

Or for any of us?

NOSHIR: We're all monsters here, it appears.

Candela's modus operandi seems to be

containing or neutralizing,

and we refuse to be contained.

ASHLY: So they only have one other option.

Is that what you mean?

NOSHIR: I just hope that Mina has the happy ending

we're hoping for.

ASHLY: What about you, Raj?

What kind of ending are you looking for?

NOSHIR: We're not concerned with the ending,

more the journey.

AABRIA: Please take a point of your beast pool

because that creeped me the fuck out.

ASHLY: (laughs)

NOSHIR: Good night, Elsie.

ASHLY: Good night, Raj.

AABRIA: You move out into the night.

An interesting win for the Circle of Tide & Bone,

but tomorrow's always a new day.

But it could be a brighter one for all of you,

for the person you saved.

Not so much for the person you lost.

But that's okay.

You're all monsters,

but all the best stories are about monsters.

So we'll see what you make of the next assignment

when we meet again.

SAM: Mm! Hmm hmm hmm!

AABRIA: Before we finish up officially,

we have time to do some of our circle--

SAM: Circle stuff. AABRIA: Circle stuff.

LIAM: Circle stuff. AABRIA: Circle stuff.

We are headed into the finale.

You have four resources left to spend

in a manner of your choosing

as was our dark bargain when we first began.

ASHLY: Right. AABRIA: So,

what do you want to buy?

LIAM: Stitch, refresh, and training.

AABRIA: And training.

SAM: Training does what?

LIAM: Gives you one die for a little extra juice.

(laughter)

GINA: Just one.

SAM: Can you get back resistances with any of these?

AABRIA: Yes, with your refresh.

SAM: With refresh.

AABRIA: Refresh gives back

all your drives and resistances.

GINA: I just realized my strongest power,

and I only have one thing in Sense.

AABRIA: Oop. SAM: Oh well.

GINA: That I should probably save.

I am fucked. LIAM: Back to one, everybody.

ASHLY: I think I'm going to use a refresh,

if that's okay with everyone.

SAM: Sure, yeah.

Doctor heal thyself. ASHLY: Doctor heal thyself.

AABRIA: Hey. LIAM: This is the last

time to use it. AABRIA: This is it.

SAM: We got to use them up.

AABRIA: Smoke 'em if you got 'em. LIAM: What's left?

Four more?

SAM: We got four things. ASHLY: Four more.

GINA: Oh, so you used one on refresh? LIAM: I'll take a refresh as well.

GINA: Okay. AABRIA: Yeah.

NOSHIR: Madam Glask, you have

body marks, don't you?

Is it something that the doctor can help you with?

GINA: I have two body marks. AABRIA: Leave them, leave them.

(shushing) Leave them, leave them.

NOSHIR: Oh. ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: I didn't kill anyone. (laughter)

AABRIA: No one hit my baby.

GINA: I have two body, two brain, two bleed, I'm hurting.

AABRIA: Fuck, I was so close.

ASHLY: Two body, two brain, and two bleed?

Yeah, you should just take-- AABRIA: So close.

GINA: Right?

SAM: Stitch clears all your marks?

ASHLY: Mm-hmm. GINA: Mm-hmm.

NOSHIR: Enjoy.

GINA: So yes, I'll take a stitch.

SAM: So did you take a stitch and a refresh?

GINA: Uh-uh. SAM: Oh.

GINA: I mean-- ASHLY: So refresh, refresh, stitch.

AABRIA: Yes. ASHLY: Oh, we only have one

more to play with then.

AABRIA: One more. SAM: Do you want something?

NOSHIR: I only have one mark.

AABRIA: Damn it.

It's okay. It's okay.

NOSHIR: I can fill the drives if I need to, so.

ASHLY: Do you need stuff?

SAM: I've got one body, one bleed, three brain.

ASHLY: Ooh! SAM: But--

LIAM: Ooh baby. AABRIA: Just leave it.

ASHLY: (laughs) SAM: Just leave it?

AABRIA: You should leave it. GINA: You need a fourth one,

two more scars.

LIAM: I think you should use it. GINA: That's what I'm figuring.

AABRIA: Everyone's got so much more room, don't use it.

SAM: I know, right?

AABRIA: Why doesn't someone-- Someone should train.

LIAM: You can never use it again!

NOSHIR: We have nobody else to use it. ASHLY: Yeah, it's a bit of a smoke 'em

if you got it, though.

LIAM: This is it. AABRIA: Well, you could have--

What if you had--

1d6. (laughter)

AABRIA: Just for whatever. LIAM: And it failed!

(laughter)

LIAM: Wasted!

(laughter)

GINA: I mean, if we-- SAM: Or would you

rather have drive? You can take the--

GINA: I know.

Yeah. ASHLY: Are you low on drive?

GINA: A refresh. ASHLY: Ooh.

GINA: Because I can take a few more hits and some scars.

ASHLY: Well, you could take a stitch and a refresh,

if you wanted, though. GINA: I don't want to

waste it all on me.

ASHLY: It wouldn't be wasting it. SAM: Little old me?

ASHLY: (laughs) GINA: Little old me.

NOSHIR: If Oscar takes one more brain, he's scarred.

SAM: So at the beginning of the next session,

just somebody brain me, I go down,

then I'll be up for the rest of the session.

AABRIA: There you go. (laughter)

ASHLY: That's true. AABRIA: That's how it works.

GINA: That is true. ASHLY: Just resuscitate you

then you'll be good. SAM: Uh-huh.

GINA: Oh god, that is really crazy. ASHLY: I mean we do have--

NOSHIR: I never pictured you as an optimist.

(laughter)

ASHLY: Presumably we all have, apart from you,

we all have three more scars we could take

before we die-die.

AABRIA: Oh, got a big episode.

That's okay, that's okay. I love a challenge.

ASHLY: So you're going to have to work pretty hard.

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah.

I'm not going to be a sympathetic baby. SAM: You take it, Madam Glask.

I work for you. ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Oh. ASHLY: Yeah, refresh yourself.

GINA: Okay, I'll refresh myself--

ASHLY: ♪ Refresh yourself ♪ GINA:-- and stitch also.

AABRIA: Ah!

Sorry, that was exactly-- ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: All right, refresh and a stitch.

AABRIA: We are in the tone.

It's so spooky. GINA: Thank you, my darlings.

AABRIA: I will say now that all resources are spoken for,

if anyone wanted to call a scene

to go through any of this

in a narrative way, there is time and space for that.

But if not, we can come back

for the finale and get what we get.

You do also have some little guys, some little toys.

SAM: Oh yeah. ASHLY: Oh, that's right,

we never fucked with the toys. SAM: Do you want to do that now?

AABRIA: (noncommittal mumble)

I don't know what your refresh feels like.

SAM: I mean, we had talked at the break about maybe fiddling

around with the doorknob. GINA: Mm-hmm.

ASHLY: That's right. That's true, we did.

SAM: You want to doorknob it up or do we want to

do that next time?

GINA: I do have the doorknob.

I mean, I don't even know what to do with this thing

so I grab it and I start twisting it.

AABRIA: Is it in the open air?

GINA: Just in open air-- ASHLY: As you're driving back

to The Glass Cat. AABRIA: Yeah, you're driving.

You're just driving along with it.

GINA: I'm just fidgeting.

SAM: Whatcha doing back there?

GINA: Nothing! I'm quietly fidgeting with this thing.

I'm trying to figure out how this works

and starts knocking. SAM: Well, you're magick.

Can't you do magick with it?

GINA: I'm not exactly a real magician.

SAM: What? Don't tell people that!

That's your whole thing.

I thought the whole thing with magick is this--

GINA: This is in the car, it stays in the car with us.

AABRIA: Ooh, car talk.

GINA: Car talk.

Yeah, I mean, I'm just knocking it.

SAM: Can you say some magickal words or something?

I don't know how this shit works.

AABRIA: Just dead-ass doing this in the back of the car

is the funniest thing I can think about.

That's so good.

LIAM: Maybe you have to suction cup of to wall and--

SAM: Put it on the side of the car where the doorknob goes.

Do cars-- Cars in Candela have doorknobs.

AABRIA: No headlights, just candles in the front.

But doorknobs. ASHLY: (creaking)

GINA: Who else has what piece?

You have the knife, yeah?

AABRIA: The idea is until someone calls the shot,

it stays in the communal pile.

LIAM: So you could also have it. GINA: Oh!

ASHLY: You could have it all, if you want.

LIAM: What if in the downtime I take the dagger

and I drew a little drawing on the doorknob?

AABRIA: Do you want to do that?

LIAM: Yeah!

(laughter)

AABRIA: That was the cutest thing I've ever seen!

So, yeah.

SAM: We all meet for brunch the next day.

(laughter)

LIAM: Bagels and lox.

AABRIA: Cosmo, as you are fiddling with both the knife,

are you using their knife or your knife?

LIAM: I'm using their knife.

AABRIA: Okay.

Their knife.

This doorknob.

You start moving through it, just as a test,

you cut a little bit of some bread

that you're eating at the brunch I think you're at.

Great, it's still a knife.

Then, again, you have that intersection,

that interaction

as you move over alchemical symbols,

it feels like you are carving something

without disrupting the doorknob and the sigils on it

that you're carving into the idea of the magick

that could sit on top of it.

Make a Sense roll.

LIAM: All right. Here we go.

Where is my character sheet? It's gone.

(laughter)

LIAM: I will use one drive.

Yep, okay. Here we go.

(laughter)

AABRIA: So cute.

This is how I kill you.

LIAM: Oh.

ASHLY: Oh. Oh. LIAM: Oh.

I'm going to take the--

ASHLY: (laughs) LIAM: I can do a gilded five

or a regular six.

I'll take the six. ASHLY: He takes the six.

LIAM: Door number one or door number two.

AABRIA: Yeah.

You carve into it, carve onto it,

and you feel it, that sense of stacking of layers,

and the analogy I'll give next sits a little higher

in the air and is more for Liam and the table

and the audience than the abstract understanding

that Cosmo comes to.

You think about what the difference in complexity

and beauty of a painting you could make

in the difference between building layers of color,

adding form on top, layer after layer after layer,

versus if you only had one layer of pigment,

and you had to get every pixel correct.

You realize that this knife, this stylus,

allows you to carve new alchemical symbols

onto existing ones.

If you completed a thought and it made sense

in the context of what this doorknob does,

you could add new orders, add layers of complexity,

and with a full success,

you understand that that's the difference.

This right here, all of the modern alchemists,

they can't make anything that even approaches

what Oldfaire did, because they have to work so wide

to get all of the complexity, all of the thought

that you can get now by carving on top of a symbol,

letting that coalesce, stacking another idea,

more magick, more alchemy, more choice.

You could build things of infinite complexity

that could change the world.

The stylus is the idea of a new dimensionality to magick

that had been long forgotten,

and that you hold now in your hand and in your chair.

The doorknob, I'll just give it to you for free.

Put it in a wall, is the thing that you get.

(laughter)

GINA: I'm the dumbass. AABRIA: You know,

like you would do with a doorknob.

LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: Where you

would put a door.

LIAM: Any old wall, right? AABRIA: Any old wall.

LIAM: I'll start with my own wall.

I put it, yeah.

ASHLY: Are we with you as you do this?

LIAM: Yeah. ASHLY: Okay.

GINA: Brunch? AABRIA: You're at brunch.

SAM: I'm eating a bagel.

GINA: Are we doing this at an IHOP?

SAM: What are you doing?

LIAM: Bagel and lox.

GINA: Bagel and lox. (laughter)

ASHLY: Take a brain. I've decided.

LIAM: No, you take a brain.

ASHLY: Honestly, I should take a brain. I have a scar.

AABRIA: You plug it into the wall, and it resolves

into a beautiful, high-arched, nine-foot-tall,

four-foot-wide door of

gilded gold carved-in symbols

of both magick and decoration,

patterns repeating,

tessellations, mathematical, fractal rotations

that you have seen in texts or

depictions of the ruins of Oldfaire.

It's just right here in your house.

Turn the knob and open the door,

and you alight on a

12x12-foot office

full of bookcases covered in objects and correspondence

and plants,

and all of the walls around are covered

in symbols, and every symbol is full of text,

and you with that understanding now

of the dimensionality of building on top of that,

you can feel and understand a little more,

the layers that are built here.

Anyone that looks in or walks in, you can see over the door

where the roof meets the wall at a 90-degree angle,

there's a set of symbols that look

like a sun rising over that 90-degree angle

and gentle golden light pours from it,

illuminating everything.

You don't feel the bleed of it.

You're not sure why, but here in this little space

that belonged to The Serious Man,

there is magick of the size and scale

and breathtaking beauty

that was always talked about in Oldfaire

or hinted at.

Not the grandest workings,

no, but farther than most have gotten.

There are notes here.

For all of the things covering all of the surfaces

of this place of the busyness of it,

the pale yellow wooden desk

at the center of the room is pristine and uncovered,

shined to a polish with a small scrap of paper

at the head where someone would sit at it.

LIAM: Well, there's a lot to sift through in here,

and I will do it, but I will start with that slip of paper.

AABRIA: You go, so you pick it up and scratch at it.

It's connected to the table. LIAM: Oh.

Am I able to read it?

AABRIA: There's nothing written on it.

LIAM: Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

GINA: Where is the syringe?

AABRIA: In the hammerspace of whoever grabbed it.

GINA: Would it be crazy to, I don't know,

use a syringe on the paper to reveal something?

SAM: Or the dagger. LIAM: The dagger. Yeah.

GINA: Or that.

AABRIA: What do you do?

ASHLY: I think the syringe just contains bleed.

GINA: Mm. ASHLY: That's my understanding.

Is that right? AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

ASHLY: It's like a bleed extraction.

AABRIA: Yes, and it very specifically interacts

like it's a syringe interacts with flesh.

GINA: Okay. AABRIA: You stab it in something

while it's empty.

It tanks a point of bleed, and then you have a nasty,

little bleed guy.

SAM: Is everything in this room-- I'm poking my head in.

AABRIA: Yeah. SAM: Getting crumbs

all over the floor.

AABRIA: What kind of bagel?

SAM: Is everything in the room a facade?

Are the shelves just flat?

AABRIA: You want to make a roll about it

or physically interact with it?

SAM: I'm just going to touch the wall.

Are they books or are they pictures of books?

AABRIA: They're books. SAM: Oh, okay. Okay.

It's not all a facade.

AABRIA: Yes.

SAM: Well then, yeah, I got shit.

I mean, you want to use your fucking dagger on it?

ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: I will write one or two Ancient Fairen runes

on that piece of paper just to test what happens.

AABRIA: What do you use to write the runes?

LIAM: (blade ringing)

The same blade I used to enter.

AABRIA: You cut into the paper and

just with the first nick,

you realize you've cut the paper.

LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: This stylus dagger

is behaving as a dagger right now.

LIAM: Ah. AABRIA: Because the trick of it

is it layers alchemy

on top of existing symbols.

So it's a blade until it interacts specifically

with alchemy symbols, which is why you've been able to hold

onto that dagger of yours for decades

and never see its true form

because at what point would you have thought to do that.

LIAM: Let's try this.

(slicing sound)

SAM: Ooh.

AABRIA: Oh.

ASHLY: Oh no. AABRIA: Now that's something

I didn't expect to happen.

We got to honor a big flex.

You put your blood on the paper

and the desk does what it does,

researches,

goes into the files, deep within it,

and searches for anything that matches the query.

This was a person whose great working,

in the moment of triumph, failed.

As he jumped overboard to save himself

from the sinking ship that he caused,

he saw you.

And you as a boy.

But the blood will out, and he knew, if I wait,

either this man will pop up again,

or he will die in obscurity, and the ritual

was never going to work anyway.

But he spotted you again in the city

and again when, like him, you hadn't aged.

So a file comes up.

Grim.

Grimmok.

Oscar.

Cary.

Cosmo.

Everything he's been able to find about your family

appears in ink across the desk written out

like a story of your life for you to see.

Any news of the sinking of the ship,

references to the fact that you are the survivors,

he's found Candela members and interrogated them.

The people that came and took your statement

after the ship sank, he has their reports,

what you said about it.

Then, over time over the last 80-some odd years,

everything that he has of you, when you went to jail,

when you joined Candela, he's been keeping track of you,

waiting to meet you again to figure out the secret

of what went right and what went wrong,

and if he could take the gift

that he was so close to giving himself back.

Your blood sinks into the paper and fades.

With that, the ink begins to slowly fade.

LIAM: What do you know about that?

Bring the bagels in.

ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: We've got a lot to sort through.

SAM: Yeah. I'll get seconds.

AABRIA: So I think with that, now having literally unlocked

the door of The Serious Man's secret

and his stash and his storage,

that is where we will end tonight's episode,

and we will see you again one last time

for the finale of The Circle of Tide & Bone.

LIAM: Boy, oh boy.

AABRIA: Breath is so important in this world.

Let's take a deep breath in and out,

and we will see you again next week.

And until then, is it Thursday yet?

SAM: Yay!

AABRIA: Yay!