All language subtitles for Candela.Obscura.S03E02.1080p.BEAC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-FFG_track3_[eng]

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!