10 - ... and Severed Threads
Date & Time (ET): 2024-04-11T20:15:00.000-04:00
Summary
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Notes
- Aboard the Solstice, the Fellowship and the crew reckon with Serrico's revelations. Emilia & Theo and Lei & Runato quietly discuss the merits of turning Serrico over to the Watch. She's eavesdropping and isn't exactly happy about the immediate betrayal.
- Lei tries to convince her to help free Alise, kind of; she refuses, saying there's nothing in it for her and she'll just deny everything if they turn her over. Lei decides, if they're to use her for anything, it will have to be as bait to provoke a response from the Unicorns, and suggests to Runato waiting until Altawiya is released and seeing what she does.
- Sylo suppresses his connection with Xsinbi briefly, hiding his tell from Aphodii and playing dumb about the source of their magic. He tentatively asks her about the possibility of severing or removing a deva; she plays coy but suggests that it would be within her power, assuming he helps her in turn. Nothing comes free in Kesh. As he leaves the manor, he still gets the feeling he's being stalked by something beyond the mirror...
- Lei and Runato run down Cheshire, who is on their way to a bar after work. The pair - mostly Lei - obliquely ask after information that could free Alise; Cheshire offers an exchange of dirt on Sarit Aldegund, the Magister on the case, if the duo will collect dirt on Rotri Nunzia. When Lei agrees and asks for an "advance" on the info, Cheshire agrees but says they want to hold the Solstice's papers so the Fellowship can't jump port without paying them back.
- Meanwhile, Emilia - after consulting her uncle - decides to just turn in Serrico and see if she can finagle Alise's release. She brings along a few crewmates and takes Serrico, bound, to the jail where Alise is held. Her desires are frustrated, perhaps not unexpectedly...
- ...but she finds a note among her effects when leaving the station. She's given a time and a location; she goes there and meets Zilna, a Bovid Unicorn, who offers her a deal: leave Kesh by dawn and Alise can be freed immediately. Emilia agrees and rejoins her crew, finding that Alise has been set free after Serrico's sudden and unexpected confession.
- Sylo has a chat with Scrum, a pretty cool guy, who tells him a little about Jivan, the deva bound to Aphodii, who lives behind the mirror and - according to Scrum, at least - shouldn't be around at all. Sylo turns into a pigeon and delivers a note to Orr Dradesh about Aphodii's search for a scintillack Heartstone.
- Runato goes off alone to find Antoun Harras at the Haulers' Guild Kesh branch. After a minute of frustrated miscommunication with Tibault, the Nymphaliid secretary, they are eventually told Antoun left the city a week back... after making a scheduled delivery to one Runato Lo. Runato is given a note left for them by a Unicorn, thanking him for delivering Antoun and their cargo safely to the city.
- Sylo deceives Orr into believing that Aphodii plans to make use of the in the Bay of Kesh, and convinces them to reinstate the tradition of blasting the ocean floor this year.
- Lei returns to the ship to collect the manifest, only to find Alise already free, a haunted look on her face. After very little prodding from Lei, she admits to having a conversation with Serrico right before she confessed - wherein Serrico told her that Alise "would've killed Kifle anyway" had the Unicorns not interfered, and it was only an act of mercy that she was allowed to escape justice.
- Runato, meanwhile, went off to meet with Nunzia, the Mustelid councilor, assuming that's still the plan. Having no instinct for subterfuge, they immediately and voluntarily reveal all the details of Cheshire's request to them. Lei arrives just late enough to get a dirty look from Nunzia. She collects Runato and they prepare to depart.
- Most of the crew is happy to put Kesh in the rearview, but Runato has to be convinced, especially knowing that it was at the Unicorns' insistence that the Fellowship leaves the city. They eventually relent, and the Solstice sets off into the night, planning to make one final stop at the Temple of Hanno before their time expires.
As the Solstice sails away, a galleon, bright as burning brass, grows on the horizon: an Anatolian warship, light of the Eversmoulder burning deep inside...
Notable People
- Theo, a Human and Emilia's uncle
- Serrico Andel, the Murid thief that Emilia and Theo turned over to the Watch
- Aphodii Cantel, the Human witch and merchant-aristocrat who has no ulterior motives and has never done anything wrong in her life
- Alise, a Human crewmember of the Requiem currently suffering an existential crisis
- Cheshire, the Human information broker who definitely isn't going to hold a grudge
- Scrum, the deva of Kesh sewer rats and a gourmand in their own right
- Jivan, a deva who has bound themself - or been bound - to Aphodii
- Orr Dradesh, the Varanid councilor who tasked Sylo with spying on Aphodii
- Rotri Nunzia, the Mustelid councilor who caught a real lucky break that Runato was the one who came knocking