Tylendel is lying in his bed in his room in Tamolyn Pahórek. The fire is burning merrily in the fireplace, and he’s sitting in his underclothes with Red Dancer belted on. He’s focussing on getting to the between, and on a hunch he tries to get back not only where he left the between, but when. He closes his eyes, starts meditating and...
Tylendel: “Now the time doesn’t work in the Between as it does here… Can try to arrive at the Ghostweave just after I left?”
Tylendel finds himself on the deck of the Ghostweave, Muqad Fevre’s ship still following them. Ipeshtir looks at Tylendel, looks forward, then looks back quickly. Pábes is still clutching the railing.
Tylendel: “It actually worked!”
Tylendel chuckles to himself.
Tylendel: “Could I have come back before I left? Curious…”
Tylendel looks back at the ship following them. There is activity on the deck. He also spots things that look like a cross between a crossbow and a ballista. Ghostweave seems to be rising faster than their followers – perhaps because the other ship is still turning.
Tylendel: “We’re smaller than them. Are we faster?”
Ipeshtir: “I hope so. Yes.”
Ipeshtir leans on the rudder, as if trying to will Ghostweave to go faster. The crew on the other ship are readying the large crossbow. Pábes is down in his knees, looking scared. Qulluqu works hard, tireless, managing the sails.
Tylendel: “Ipeshtir, are there any obstacles ahead of us?”
Ipeshtir: “What do you mean? What do you mean? Like rocks?”
Tylendel: “If we go faster, will we hit anything?”
Ipeshtir: “I have to be very careful to navigate between debris.”
Tylendel: “Shit.”
Ipeshtir: “It’s the way of Ilk.”
Tylendel turns and looks where they are going. In front of them are several floating rocks, small and large, and in the distance he can see massive, floating islands. He concentrates, trying to will the Ghostweave to go faster.
He feels his will working on the world around him, and Ghostweave speeds up – a little. Ipeshtir looks surprised and glances at Tylendel, but doesn’t say anything. The following ship has managed to turn and follows them. Tylendel looks around, shakes his head, and grips the railing. As Muqad’s ship aims at them, Tylendel hears a rattling sound, and he sees the propellers on the other ship turning faster. Pábes is mumbling a prayer.
Tylendel thinks for a moment, then starts casting a spell to set the other ship alight. He sings a wordless chant and does a small dance to help him focus his magic energy. Pábes looks worried as Tylendel starts, then worried as he starts singing and dancing. He focusses his will on the other ship, and … nothing happens. The other ship has come closer, apparently trying to come up on their side.
Tylendel: “Well, fuck. Fuck you.”
Frustrated, he tries willing Muqad Fevre’s ship to drop from the sky. He focusses, but only mange to drop the ship 20-30 yards. He hears some screams from the other ship, making him smile, but they soon regain order and start gaining on them again.
Tylendel: “Hey! It worked!”
Pábes: “What worked?!”
Ipeshtir: “What are you doing?”
Tylendel: “I’m trying to stop them killing us!”
Ipeshtir: “Qulluqu, come here!”
Qulluqu comes running, taking the rudder, and Ipeshtir comes over to Tylendel.
Ipeshtir: “Your sorcery works here?”
Tylendel: “Well, that wasn’t sorcery.”
Ipeshtir: “Then what was it?”
Tylendel: “It was… this.”
Tylendel tries making the ship drop again. The following ship has gained about ten yards altitude, then suddenly drops again. Ipeshtir and Pábes looks at each other, at Tylendel, at each other.
Ipeshtir: “I’m impressed.”
He looks at Pábes.
Ipeshtir: “See? I told you.”
Tylendel: “They’re still catching up, though.”
Ipeshtir: “We’re getting good wind now. We’ll get out of this. It is good we have someone who has such strength of will with us.”
Tylendel leans over the railing, first looking for Muqad Fevre, then, realizing the master wouldn’t leave the safety of his walls, he starts looking for someone who looks to be in charge. He spots two men who look leaderish by the rudder, and then focusses on one of them. He holds out his arm and wills him to come to him.
Tylendel: “Come here.”
The man twitches a little and looks at Tylendel, then starts walking towards Tylendel – straight off the ship. He plummets, screaming.
Tylendel: “Shit. Oh, fuck.”
Ipeshtir: “More food for the fishes of the Endless Sea! Did you do that as well?”
Tylendel: “Well, I didn’t intend to, but… Or, that’s not what I intended to do. Fuck.”
The others look at each other, raised eyebrows.
Suddenly, Muqad Fevre’s ship turns and follows, very, very fast.
Ipeshtir: “Whoa, risky manoeuvre.”
Tylendel: “What?”
Ipeshtir: “They might be able to save him.”
Tylendel: “Why was the ship smoking? I didn’t manage to put it on fire.”
Ipeshtir: “The smoke comes from its engine.”
Tylendel: “It’s what?”
Ipeshtir: “It’s like a… Construction that is built to help a ship make better speed. Wheels and thingamajigs inside. It’s no matter. Decent people use sailing ships. We have no reason to be that hurried, eh?”
Tylendel: “Well, not any longer.”
Ipeshtir: “It seems you got us out of this mess, though. We’re thankful for that.”
Pábes: “Very thankful.”
Ipeshtir: “It seemed as if you flickered away there for a second.”
Tylendel: “Yes, I had to take care of some things in Eras.”
Ipeshtir and Pábes look at each other again.
Ipeshtir: “And you managed to return here without losing time...”
Tylendel: “I actually did! I thought that since time seems to pass differently I could just come back to where I was.”
Ipeshtir: “This is truly astonishing. Because the time in the Between, it… It is unpredictable. Yet you… You brought order into this chaos. You chose a time and place.”
Tylendel: “Isn’t that how you’re supposed to do it?”
Ipeshtir: “Are you not subject to the whims of the Between? How can this be?”
Tylendel: “I don’t know. You’re the one with the answers!”
Ipeshtir: “That’s the guys with the answers.”
He points at Pábes and Tylendel looks down at the little monk.
Tylendel: “Well, I had to go back and reveal the Crow-king’s spies and assassins at the Holy Hill and make sure they were executed, then I attended a funeral, and then I had a chat with, well… The Highlord’s spies and then I came back here.”
Ipeshtir: “All that in less than a second. Ah, that is more like it. It’s always been like this in the Between. If you go from here to any other place, you can never be sure when you arrive. When you return. But there is one place. I have been talking to Pábes about it. A safe place. A place where maybe the two of you can get the peace and quiet you need to solve this mystery.”
Tylendel: “A safe place. Sounds very desirable.”
Ipeshtir: “I made it myself. Carved it out of a corner of the Between.”
They sail on for a while then come upon a small rock with a lonely tree. On top of the rock a lonely man stands, waving a white cloth.
Man: “Help! Heeelp!”
Ipeshtir: “What is this now?!”
Pábes: “Looks like someone is in trouble.”
Ipeshtir sighs.
Pábes: “We can’t leave him there. Poor guy!”
Ipeshtir looks sceptical.
Tylendel: “A trap?”
Ipeshtir: “Don’t you need the time?”
Pábes: “Yes, but we can’t leave the fellow alone. Poor guy.”
Ipeshtir: “Oh, all right.”
They steer to the rock, and the man jumps aboard.
Man: “Thank you! Thank you!”
Ipeshtir: “What’s your problem, man? What happened?”
Man: “There was a mutiny, and I and three others were put on this island. Now I’m the only one left. Thank you. I only need a ride to the closest place where I can get some water and food.”
Ipeshtir: “Yes, yes. Where are your three fellow crewmembers?”
Man: “Well, as you can see the island is kind of small, and… One of us he turned crazy. He jumped off. Hoping to, I don’t know, survive? The two others were picked up by a ship, but they left me behind. I was sleeping.”
Tylendel can see the man is clearly starved and dehydrated. He doubts the man’s story, but he seems honest.
Man: “Maybe you have some water and food to share? Sorry for asking, but…”
Ipeshtir: “Yes, yes. Qulluqu, find some food.”
Qulluqu goes below deck, grunting his usual universal answer.
Man: “Aaah. Thank all the gods of the Between.”
Pábes: “What a strange fellow. But I have seen stranger things in the Between. Oh yes.”
Tylendel: “So have I.”
Qulluqu returns with some fish and water, and the man thanks him profusely and starts eating.
Ipeshtir: “Not so fast, young man.”
Tylendel: “Ipeshtir.”
Ipeshtir: “Yes?”
Tylendel: “Are the giants in Eras from the Between, or are the giants in the Between from Eras?”
Ipeshtir: “What giants?”
Tylendel: “Muqad Fevre.”
Ipeshtir: “You think him a giant? I think of him more as an overgrown, pompous, self-righteous thief! But yes, he is quite big.”
Tylendel: “Well, he is twice my height, so… Giant.”
Ipeshtir: “Well you who has travelled the Between, have you ever been to Bin Gront?”
Tylendel: “No.”
Ipeshtir: “He hehe. The [unintelligible] are so large that people live in them. So, it’s all about the definition of the word giant, is it not?””
Tylendel: “Yeah.”
Ipeshtir: “But I don’t think Muqad Fevre is from this place, from Ilk itself. But I know there are strange peoples occupying many places in the Between. Some are short and some are tall, some are broad, some are not.”
Tylendel: “Well, when I saw him the first thing I thought about was the legends of the giants on Eras.”
Ipeshtir: “I see. Well, from what little I know of your world, a world I would very much like to see, mind you, is that it was the world of the giants. Until someone else came along.”
Tylendel: “Yeah.”
Pábes: “Yes, I believe that too.”
Ipeshtir: “Our oldest myths speak of a great land of giants, and they were all slain, all but one.”
Tylendel: “By the Brentoni.”
Ipeshtir: “Yes.”
Tylendel: “Led by Ruis.”
Ipeshtir: “That I’m not sure about.”
Pábes: “But things are getting clearer. The more I study the Codex, the more I talk to you and Ipeshtir and… I think we’ll figure this out my friend, once we get to the safe place.”
Tylendel: “well, what you might have found out is how mahy7. How many came to Eras from here? In Ruis and Parafor’s company.”
Pábes: “Ah. These tales, my friend, are so old, but many of them, even from the most distant places or cultures, there are a lot of stories telling tales about nine.”
Tylendel: “That’s what I thought. The problem is I have over twenty names.”
Pábes: “Maybe there were more. Maybe the stories talk about one time, and there were other times when more arrived.”
Tylendel: “Or they are the same people using different names, or worshipped under different names.”
Pábes: “Yes! Clever, Lord Greyoak. I think such cleverness, Ipeshtir, calls for some wine.”
Ipeshtir: “Yes, I believe you think so.”
He smiles, and asks Qulluqu to fetch four wine glasses and a decanter of wine.
Qulluqu: “Qwull?”
Ipeshtir: “No, no, no. Not that one. We’ll take wine from Abji Dallaquarra.”
Tylendel: “How about the Brentoni dragons. Did they come from the Between as well?”
Ipeshtir: “Aha! That is an interesting thought. Have you ever heard of the graveyard of the Yaz Drasha?”
Tylendel: “Ipeshtir, the only people on all my visits I’ve met here in the Between, are you, the Crow-king and the people in that city. Everywhere else I’ve visited has been deserted.”
Ipeshtir: “Oh. My apologies if I have offended you, but you seem so knowledgeable. I feel I have to ask. I mean no harm in the question.”
Tylendel: “I haven’t heard about… That thing.”
Ipeshtir: “Maybe you’ve seen it? You have travelled to many places, have you not?.”
Tylendel: “That I have.”
Ipeshtir: “Well, tell me, tell me! What have you seen? Maybe I’ve been there too.”
Tylendel: “I’ve seen a curtain of light stretching across the horizon.”
Ipeshtir: “Ah. You’ve been to Brightshedding.”
Tylendel: “What is it?”
Ipeshtir: “It is a place that belongs to a world called Ether. A vast plain of dark grey rock, covered in black… You say you’ve been there. Whys should I tell you what it looks like?”
Tylendel: “I didn’t ask what it looks like; I asked what it is.”
Ipeshtir: “Oh, I’m sorry! Then tell me again, please. What it is? It is the remnants, a part of Ether. That light you speak of, yes?”
Tylendel: “There are things in it.”
Ipeshtir: “That place is heavily guarded by forces, I suppose you know. I can’t tell you much, but I believe after discussing this with some of my, let’s call them friends, that there is some, um… Well, you see, the reason that the Between isn’t falling apart is because it is held together with ancient and powerful sorcery, yes? Great bands, weaves, webs, of sorcery. Keeping us not whole, but at least together. But what has happened there is that someone has been able to siphon light from another place, through the webs of sorcery, to Brightshedding. And they are using it for something.”
Tylendel: “I rode that light. Down into the Crow-king’s fortress, where he’s mining Candathi ore.”
Pábes: “The Crow-king? He’s here? B-but… But… He’s from Eras! Is he here too?”
Tylendel: “He’s not here as much as I am, I think, but he can travel here.”
Ipeshtir and Pábes are quiet, thinking.
Ipeshtir: “You have rode the weave of sorcery? Impossible.”
Pábes: “Not for him.”
Tylendel: “I wasn’t the only one riding it. There are… Things, in there. Is that where the light---”
Ipeshtir: “Are you sure?”
Tylendel: “Well, it felt that way when I was in it.”
Ipeshtir: “Maybe you passed through other places.”
Tylendel: “Possibly.”
Ipeshtir: “The stream of sorcery permeates all.”
Pábes: “The Twilight Gate… The Twilight Gate, it leaked sorcery to us. That’s how it all began!”
He looks excited.
Tylendel: “I thought the gift followed the blood.”
Pábes: “Yes. But sorcery awakens it.”
Tylendel: “Then where did the gift come from? How did it get infused into the blood?”
Pábes: “From those who come from the world where sorcery is. Yes?”
Tylendel: “So did Ruis sire the first God-king?”
Pábes: “Yes.”
Tylendel: “So I’m a descendant of Ruis.”
Pábes: “Yes!”
Ipeshtir: “That’s what I told you!”
Tylendel: “I see.”
Pábes: “Maybe.”
Tylendel: “Sired with whom?”
Pábes: “The thing is, Tylendel, can you take this thought a little further? If you carry the blood of Ruis, your friend carries the blood of Parafor.”
Tylendel: “Well, I knew that. That’s not a surprise. That’s what made me thing about me carrying the blood of Ruis. That the Camreys were carrying Parafor’s taint.”
Pábes: “It is more than a taint. It’s his blood.”
Tylendel: “So that’s why the Cult but a bastard on the throne. It was the blood that was important, not the seed. That’s what it means.”
Pábes: “But, one more thing. If Ruis, in some way or other, sired Mítron, Parafor sired someone far back in your companion’s bloodline. It stands to reason that others may have, let’s call it blood from the Between as well.”
Tylendel: “Who was Mítron’s mother? Was she from the Between as well?”
Pábes: “We do not know. But what I have figured out is that there are, if we’re going to take these ancient stories and myths, well… I’ve found out in the Codex, for… Truth, then we can say that we have a pretty divided kind of family. We have the Elders, then you have their offspring, then you have their bastards. Those who… It’s complicated, my friend, but I think we’ll get there. There’s more to find out. But I think there’s a difference between those who were pure blooded from the Between and the descendants of blood and those who, in some old stories, there are tales of Dragon-kings consorting with gods and the other way around. We may be dealing with what I would call … demigods? Maybe.”
Tylendel: “Are Ruis and Parafor brothers?”
Pábes: “In a sense, I would say. But I think they were more like brothers in, as in close friends once.”
Tylendel: “Like me and Eld.”
Pábes: “Yes, Like Night and Day. The Lord of the Night and the Bright, Burning, All-seeing god chained below the Doomed City.”
Tylendel: “But Braek and Loronë are sisters.”
Pábes: “If you believe some of the myths, you could say that. I do not know.”
Tylendel: “Well, Loronë did call Braek her sister when I spoke to her.”
Pábes: “Yes, but sister in blood or sister in sisterhood?”
Tylendel: “Mmm, there is that.”
Qulluqu comes and give each of them a glass, then pours for them.
Tylendel: “Oh, deary, deary me.”
After a while Ghostweave docks at a small island to let off the cast-away. There is a small village there. He thanks them profusely and offers them his service if it is ever needed. They cast off from the small island and sail off into the sky, heading for Ipeshtir’s hideout. Tylendel stands in the bow looking at the scenery, the wind in his hair. The sea is far, far blow them, and small and large rocks sail through the sky with them.
Tylendel: “I could get used to this.”
Pábes: “It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”
Pábes sounds like an excited kid.
Tylendel: “Would it fly if we brought a ship back to Eras?”
Pábes: “Now that’s a question I can’t answer. I don’t know. Would you like to try?”
Tylendel: “well, there is a ship crashed into the mountainside far up in the Remhecks. I’m thinking that’s the ship the Elders came on.”
Pábes: “That ship would be thousands of years old. But it was frozen?”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Pábes: “And it crashed. Maybe they already tried. Tried to fly it on Eras.”
Tylendel: “Well, the question is: Did they crash because they can’t fly it on Eras, or did they crash because the winds of Remheck were unexpected?”
Pábes: “The ice-winds of Remheck. Braek would like those. She’s the Lady of Winter, isn’t she?”
Tylendel: “I think we can safely call her ‘was’ for the time being.”
Pábes: “So much power you have gained, Greyoak. So much power… Especially here.”
Tylendel: “Exciting, isn’t it?”
Pábes: “Well, it’s both exciting and scary, my friend.”
Tylendel: “Do I scare you, Pábes?”
Pábes: “No, but the reason you need to be so powerful do.”
Tylendel: “Yes. Sometimes my wife was frightened of me.”
Pábes: “Your wife? You had a wife? When did you have a wife?”
Tylendel: “Although I’d never harm her. Hmm. She’s gone.”
Pábes: “I’m sorry to hear that.”
He makes the sign of the Lost God Found.
Pábes: “So you married some time after all the things that happened with the Cult and the book and…Everything.”
Tylendel: “After Parafor awoke I ran away. Ran west. Got married. Sired a child that was never born.”
Pábes looks really sad.
Pábes: “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
Tylendel: “And then my powers awoke. Well. Has Ipeshtir told you how he learns of events on Eras?”
Pábes: “How he knows about these things, you mean? I think he is a kind of sorcerer, but very different in a way. He’s not like you, he’s not… Well, he’s powerful in his way, but it’s more like he can... He is… I believe he is limited in some way to having the power to look through the sorcery, or something. He tried to explain it to me, but to be honest it’s hard to pay attention. When he gets going it can be quite boring and I was eager to study more in the book.”
Pábes blushes.
They stand together, looking at the strange sunset.
Tylendel: “So what does Artan Camrey’s armour do? Have you learned that yet?”
Pábes tells Tylendel that he believes that the Codex is Lug’s private book, where he made notes about how he crafted items. The book contain instructions on how to build a portal between Eras and the Between that he had made sometime for the Night Lord. Ruis wanted to use it to trick assorted brothers and sisters back to the Between. He also tells him that some of the diagrams show how Lug made some large stone circles – the Seals of the Night. That was part of the assignment about the Twilight Gate.
Tylendel: “Are the Norochtí from the Between?”
Pábes doesn’t think so. He doesn’t know, but he thinks that maybe their ancestors came from the Between. He also thinks they may have come from Amburiath.
Tylendel: “But why are they called the Children of the First City?”
He thinks for a while, and then suggests that it may be because that’s where they gathered around Parafor.
While listening to Pábes, Tylendel materialise an orange. He starts peeling it and notice Pábes looking at him, not with amazement, but scepticism.
Pábes: “Why didn’t you summon two? Or three?”
Tylendel: “Oh! Sorry! My apologies.”
He summons an orange for Pábes as well.
Tylendel asks Pábes about Artan Camrey’s armour.
Pábes: “They are described in the Codex. I haven’t read too much about them because it didn’t feel that necessary at the moment. But we’ll find out more. But what I have found out is that Blacksteel is highly resistant to magic, unless you know a way to work it like Lug did. It can also repel other forms of steel found in the Between. When it’s worked. Or when the forges something with it chooses to use certain formulae to make it repel or not. And I think the most important property of Blacksteel is that it can pierce light.”
Tylendel: “You what now?”
Pábes: “Yes. I think Blacksteel is able to penetrate light, hence its utter darkness.”
Tylendel: “But everything can penetrate light, that’s what causes shadows.”
Pábes: “Well I guess you understand what kind of light I’m talking about. The fiery kind.”
Tylendel: “Parafor.”
Pábes: “Yes. I assume that is what Lug was trying to achieve, at any rate.”
Tylendel: “When I faced Parafor I burned.”
Pábes: “Maybe that armour, then, would protect you against that burning. Sounds plausible to me.”
Tylendel: “But Parafor spoke of the Tombs of Light.”
Ipeshtir: “That would be where the siphon the light to Brightshedding from.”
Tylendel: “But what is it?”
Ipeshtir: “Who knows? Some kind of sorcerous energy, I suppose.”
Tylendel: “And… But… Parafor asked me who had granted me access to the Tombs of Light.”
Ipeshtir: “You have been there?”
Tylendel: “I don’t know!”
Ipeshtir: “You don’t know?!”
Tylendel: “I don’t know what the Tombs of Light are!”
Ipeshtir: “I’ve heard of them. I can’t they you what they look like or anything. I guess they look like tombs?”
Pábes: “Well they don’t have to in this place, do they.”
Tylendel: “Yes, but tombs can look wildly different.”
Ipeshtir: “True.”
Tylendel: “But when I rode the light of the… That curtain. One of the Crow-king’s servants fished me out of it. So did it... Does it go past the Crow-king’s fortress?”
Ipeshtir: “All I know is there is this bright curtain or wall of light that kind of cuts Brightshedding in two.”
Tylendel: “But… What is… I still don’t understand what the Tombs of Light are.”
Ipeshtir: “I am not sure myself. There are always daring travellers and adventurers in Djungul Goz. Some of them leave tales of their explorations, and I’ve heard of a place called the Tombs of Light, and they’re supposedly stone tombs that hold light, or energy of some kind? I am sorry, I cannot offer you more on that place.”
Tylendel: “I have seen stone spires with carvings of the Lost God Found, I’ve been in a metal tube with strange beast men in them, I’ve been in a fortress with, well… Metal men. I’ve been in pulsating mountains of flesh.”
Ipeshtir: “Ah, Mortalthrone. That is a strange place.”
Tylendel: “I’d call it creepy.”
Ipeshtir: “Great energies were unleased upon that land. Turned stone to flesh. Water to blood. Rivers to veins.”
Tylendel: “I have seen water like blood somewhere else as well. Coming out of some giant stone cubes littering the landscape. I walked across an arch spanning between two mountains.”
Ipeshtir: “Like a great bridge.”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Ipeshtir:” I do not know the name of the place, but I know it exists.”
Tylendel: “And I’ve been on floating rocks in the sky.”
Ipeshtir: “Well, then you have been in Ilk for most of the time. But they do spread across Candath and Serbath end Ether as well. Most of them are in Ilk.”
Tylendel: “How about a big, floating rock, bare except for a massive statue.”
Ipeshtir: “Ah, the Idol’s Abode. Yes. We’re actually not that far from it. Well, as you understand, and I understand that you understand, there are many places in the Between, but all these lands are torn from each other and only held together by sorcery, so the manners for travelling between these places are only for those who have a certain power, or those who know the way to certain still functioning gateways.”
Tylendel: “So how do you know about what’s happening in Eras, Ipeshtir?”
Ipeshtir: “Some, I’ve been told, by our friend here, but most of it… You’ll see when we get to my special place. I have a… special mirror.”
He chuckles.
Tylendel: “You have one of Loronë’s mirrors?”
Ipeshtir: “I like to call it mine, but who knows, maybe she has once upon the time been the proud owner? She certainly hasn’t come asking for it.”
Tylendel: “Does yours have a spirit imprisoned in it as well? Mine does.”
Ipeshtir: ”A spirit inside a mirror? Now you’re talking gibberish my friend.”
Tylendel: “No, the Crow-king stole Loronë’s mirrors. He stripped spirits of all their emotions except hate and placed them to guard the mirrors.”
Ipeshtir: “This Crow-king of yours is a feisty one. Very daring and… I do hope that he will get his comeuppance.”
Tylendel: “well, I’ve started. I broke all his mirrors.”
Ipeshtir: “I hope [unintelligible] into too much trouble. You broke all his mirrors? Were they seeing mirrors?”
Tylendel: “Yes. Well, I broke all except one. I brought one with me.”
Ipeshtir: “I’d say it’s a good thing that you did. Such powerful artefacts from old don’t belong in a beautiful world as yours.”
Tylendel: “Oh, they weren’t in my world. Or, the first ones I broke were. The last ones I broke were in this world.”
Ipeshtir: “Here in the Between? I know all the mirrors and their owners. Whose did you…? Are you saying that the Crow-king has… Had mirrors in the Between?”
Tylendel: “He had eight of them. I broke seven and took the last one. Brought it back to Eras.”
Ipeshtir: “If you could bring that back to Eras that is more proof of your growing powers. You far surpass anyone in Ilk, I’ll tell you that. Most of us cannot bend the Between to our will. But then both you and Pábes you have both traversed through sorcerous streams, right. It is something we cannot do. We must use gateways or other means. Maybe that has something to do with it, I do not know.”
Tylendel: “But why can’t Parafor be killed in Eras?”
Ipeshtir: “Because the energy surrounding him, within him, they are too strong. Your world should not be sorcerous. It never was, to begin with. It has been infected, you might say. If you can get him back to this side he will not be any more powerful than the mightiest among us. Though I do believe that he once upon a time, from whichever of the world in the Between he came from, was a great figure.”
Tylendel: “Well, there are statues with eight arms all over the place, so…”
Ipeshtir: “And that is him?”
Tylendel looks at Pábes.
Tylendel: “That is what you said, wasn’t it?”
Pábes: “I think so, yes, that is what I believe. Everything in the Codex seems to point to that conclusion, yes.”
Ipeshtir: “Hmm… That is very interesting.”
Tylendel: “It was in a room where I found the. .. What should I say it, portals to other places in the Between.”
Ipeshtir: “You have been to the chamber with many alcoves, with wisps of smoky light?”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Ipeshtir: “Aaah!”
Tylendel: “I didn’t know what was going on, so I just tried one and it took me somewhere else.”
Ipeshtir: “So the sorcery took you there, the weave.”
Tylendel: “Yes. “
Ipeshtir: “Yes, cause, because you are somehow able to traverse the Between even when you don’t know where you are going.”
Tylendel: “Yes. Well that’s the bloody problem; I don’t know where I’m going!”
Ipeshtir: “Well. I can understand your point of view.”
Tylendel: “I was trying to will that room to make a portal back to Eras. Instead it opened; well it was like a spider web of light growing out of some blue smoke.”
Ipeshtir: “Seems like your willpower, then, wasn’t strong enough maybe, but you still were moved somewhere else. Where did you go?”
Tylendel: “Well, a dead swamp.”
Ipeshtir: “Oh. Swamps can be found almost everywhere in the Between.”
Tylendel: “There was a city above the swamp. Rising, a tiered city. Similar, in a way, to the Doomed City. On the top there were some strange cylinders with markings on them. And one of those living rock people. There was a woman there as well.”
Ipeshtir: “A woman?”
Tylendel: “She was clothes in the swamp. The same clothes I was wearing.”
Ipeshtir: “I am not entirely sure, but it sounds like you have been to Hauntmire. Bubbling waters, and trees with long roots.”
Tylendel: “And fog. Dense fog.”
Ipeshtir: “It sounds like Hauntmire. So there are people there; I thought it was abandoned a long time ago.”
Tylendel: “But why was the woman washing the same clothes I was wearing?”
Ipeshtir: “Perhaps it was part of your trance, your mind’s tricks playing on yourself. Remember, always, remember, there are parts of the Between that are more dream than real.”
Tylendel: “I imagine that was one of them.”
Ipeshtir: “Which can be a good thing.”
Tylendel: “But you know of this ruin?”
Ipeshtir: “In Yungul Goz we call it the Hub. It connects to many of the places in the Between. Many who like to hunt exotic animals, for example, they travel through these to other places and bring back their trophies to Yungul Goz. And the skins and meat to sell on the market.”
Tylendel: “Well, the next ones are in for a surprise.”
Ipeshtir: “How so, young master?”
Tylendel: “Well, the mural on the floor was faded, so I willed it to be as it was when it was new. I didn’t see what it was.”
Ipeshtir: “I see.”
Pábes: “And that was the painting of the Creeping God?”
Tylendel: “Yes, a man with eight arms. Holding daggers. Standing on a throne of bones.”
Pábes: “Sounds more like a death god to me. I wasn’t aware he had that aspect.”
Tylendel: “Well, he did say that he didn’t want to conquer the Empyre. He just wanted to destroy everything.”
Pábes: “That sounds like a god of death.”
Tylendel: “Yeah. But, about the armour. Can we replicate what Lug did? Because I think the hauberk is destroyed.”
Pábes: “Now we’re talking. You see, the Codex of the Lost does indeed go into some detail on Blacksteel, and also on the forging of those artefacts that we have come to believe belonged to that ancient Highlord. And I think that if we do indeed get some peace and quiet, that we can figure it out. I mean, after all, I figured out the formulae that he used to build these gates. How hard can it be to build a piece of armour?”
Tylendel: “Good.”
Qulluqu offers Tylendel some more wine.
Ipeshtir: “He wishes you to drink more?”
Tylendel: “Oh, I still have some.”
Tylendel drinks some of his wine, thinking for a while.
Tylendel: “So. We have to remake the armour Lug made, so I can get close to Parafor. We have to rebuild the gate between Eras and the Between. And I have to, somehow, incapacitate Parafor and toss him through the gate.”
Pábes: “Somehow we must get him through the gate. I don’t think you sh- I don’t know. Could we trick him there? Or… Well, we’ve got to do something. I’ll help you all I can!”
Tylendel: “But won’t he just travel back?”
Pábes: “He would, but I’ll stay on this side and break the seal.”
Tylendel: “No, but I mean, when I faced him, I faced him here, in the Between.”
Pábes: ”I don’t think so.”
Tylendel: “Then who was I talking to?”
Pábes: “Well, if the Crow-king can be here without being here… You are here without being here. I am here without being here.”
Tylendel: “So he brought the fire with him?”
Pábes: “I’ve…”
Ipeshtir: “He is fire, is he not?”
Tylendel: “Was he fire before he left the Between?”
Ipeshtir: “I don’t know. He is a spicy fellow. Very hot.”
He laughs at his own joke. Tylendel doesn’t laugh.
Tylendel: “I guess… He melted my armour into my flesh, I know.”
Ipeshtir: “And yet you seem to have taken no damage from it. I think we are good without.”
Tylendel: “He made me stronger.”
Ipeshtir: “Stronger, you say…”
They keep talking as they travel along. Pábes keeps insisting that he’s only talking about his thoughts, that he may be wrong. Eventually they reach a small, flat piece of rock floating in the air, and they slow down and tie up Ghostweave. There are two stacks of stone on the top of the rock, reminding Tylendel of a doorway. Qulluqu anchors the ship and lays down a walking plank.
Ipeshtir: “Ah, here we are.”
Tylendel: “I must admit, pardon me for saying so, but it doesn’t look like much.”
Ipeshtir: “It doesn’t.”
Tylendel: “I guess that’s the idea?”
Ipeshtir: “Yes. It looks like some forlorn, forgotten place, right? That helps. Muqad Fevre has a thousand eyes. The only thing is that sometimes the way changes. Sometimes it’s longer, sometimes it’s shorter. I get there eventually, but that is perhaps not a problem with you at our side. I do not know. I call it my refuge.”
Ipeshtir disembarks, Tylendel and Pábes following, the latter nervously.
Ipeshtir: “Qulluqu, will you guard the Ghostweave?”
Qulluqu grunts and Ipeshtir lays a hand on his shoulder.
Ipeshtir: “What would I do without you, my loyal friend? Ah, you know I’m actually thinking about giving you a raise.”
Qulluqu: “Ghu?”
Ipeshtir: “Yes, yes, we’ll talk about it later.”
He turns around and walks between the two stones and disappears.
Tylendel: “Now that’s a neat trick.”
Tylendel follows Ipeshtir.
Pábes: “See you on the other si-“
For Tylendel it feels as if stepping over any ordinary doorstep, but suddenly he finds himself inside a room. There are various items and furniture in the room, with two things standing out: a lectern, and a large image on the wall. The image looks like a window, but it shows a night sky with moving auroras. Ipeshtir sits in a sofa.
Ipeshtir: “Welcome! What took you so long? I’m kidding!”
Pábes walks over to the lectern and lays the Codex of the Lost on it.
Tylendel: “So what were you really doing at Bojaqi?”
Ipeshtir: “Now that is a good question. I’ve been waiting for it. But the truth is that it’s not very interesting. Well… I mean. I was there to visit the keep. Because there are places around Ilk that hold secrets and interesting things to people like me, who are interested in history or how things are. And that’s one of the places I used to sail by to give it another look. And as it happened, that time, I came while you were there. And you.”
He looks at Pábes.
Tylendel: “Forgive me if I find it a bit far-fetched that you happened to be there the first time I was pulled to the Between.”
Ipeshtir: “It sounds far-fetched, doesn’t it.”
Tylendel: “Yes, It does.”
Ipeshtir: “Maybe, then, we could attribute it to destiny.”
Tylendel: “And who was throwing rocks at us?”
Ipeshtir: “Oh! Well, it’s one of the dangers of Ilk. Sudden pelts of rocks that loosen from the skystone ring. I don’t think there was any malice behind that. Do you think so?”
Tylendel: “You happened to visit Bojaqi at the same time I was pulled to the Between, at the same time I found Pábes, at the same time rocks started falling on the keep.”
Pábes looks worried.
Ipeshtir: “It is, as you say it is almost an impossibility. But if it is true that you say that the Crow-king hang around in the Between, could he have arranged it? I assure you, and I swear on my two hearts, that I do not wish you any harm or ill. I am certain that you are meant to solve a number of problems both in the Between and on Eras. I’m helping you. Maybe I… Maybe I kind of… Helped you along a little bit. Get you pulled to the right place. Maybe. Who knows?” Maybe I saw you.”
Tylendel: “How did you know I was the son of the God-king?”
Ipeshtir: “As I said before on the boat…”
He makes a gesture to the image on the wall.
Ipeshtir: “I can see things.”
Tylendel turns to the image, and now it shows the Hall of the Watchers. Tylendel looks at it for a while, looking for signs of life, memories awakening. He then wills the mirror to show the Holy Hill. This mirror changes the image immediately, unlike Tylendel’s mirror that transitions slowly.
Tylendel: “This one so much better than mine.”
Ipeshtir: “If you brought it to Eras it might perhaps not function as it should? I’m only suggesting. I’ve not been to your world.”
Tylendel: “No, it was the same when I used it here. I think it’s the spirit that does it. I have to find a way to remove that spirit. It gave me the mark of Death.”
He feels his jaw where the spirit left its mark.
Ipeshtir: “Tell you what, the next time, bring it here? Then you have two more people with some knowledge that could help you figure it out.”
Tylendel focusses his will to try and summon his mirror to Ipeshtir’s room. As it appears in his hands, the other two gasp.
Ipeshtir: “Well, there you go.”
Tylendel walks over to the table and lay down the mirror. Ipeshtir turns to Pábes.
Ipeshtir: “I’m telling you, we may be on to something here, but I’m not ready to believe you just yet.”
Pábes: “You just wait and see.”
Ipeshtir starts studying the mirror.
Tylendel: “Be careful: It’s heavy. It used to be as big as your, but I made it smaller so I could carry it along.”
Ipeshtir: “You are changing the world around you, my friend.”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Ipeshtir: “It is the bleeding of sorcery. It has found you blood. And it has mixed, oh so very well.”
Pábes: “It’s not just that. It’s more, I’m sure of it.”
Tylendel: “My mother that granddaughter of a Skygg-lander king. Do they have a line that goes back to a god as well?”
Ipeshtir: “The Skygg-landers? I know little of them.”
Tylendel: “They worship a winged wolf.”
Ipeshtir: “A winged wolf? We’ll put it in our list of questions we want to find answers to, yes?”
Tylendel: “What’s the sigil of Arakin?”
Ipeshtir: “The Lord of the Hunt?”
Pábes: “He is often represented, in old stories and legends, as a man’s head with antlers.”
Tylendel: “I see.”
Pábes: “Sometimes you see a face, and sometimes the entity wears a helmet or a mask, a visor. It’s different in different traditions and cultures. Also different names.”
Tylendel: “While we’re talking about symbols… Why does the Moon Guard oath say that we honour the wolf and that the moon is our mistress?”
Pábes says that he knows several myths and legends that point to a Lady of the Moon, and that the Brentoni called her Loronë.
Tylendel: “Yoronin. Yoronin the Bright.”
Pábes knows the name. He further explains that the Lady of the Moon is the mother of the Lord of the Wolves, and that the father is Ruis, which makes the Lord of the Wolves into a young Aspect.
Tylendel: “So I’m of the blood of Ruis and I’m sworn to Loronë? That’s funny.”
Pábes: “Well the tales speak of the first God-king, Mítron, being granted the blood of Ruis. Sometimes the spirit of Ruis or the soul of Ruis, yes? So either Mítron was a young Aspect born of, for example Loronë and Ruis, and Mítron found a woman of Eras and formed the bloodline. Or a woman Aspect that descended from Ruis, somehow.”
Tylendel: “Was that Ruis’ betrayal?”
Pábes: “To… Mingle with humanity?”
Tylendel: “No, no! Not that! He and Braek was a couple. And Ruis fucked her sister!”
Pábes blushes.
Pábes: “It’s called having intercourse, Lord Greyoak.”
Tylendel: “Well, Braek hated Parafor, but she and Ruis were lovers, and the only thing I found out is that Ruis betrayed her. So was that betrayal that he fucked her sister? That he had intercourse with her sister, pardon my Oxosthian?”
Ipeshtir: “If you ask me, you may be totally right. It’s not like people in the Between forget how to so certain things that are enjoyable.”
Pábes: “Now, now!”
Tylendel: “Maybe that’s why Parafor is so angry. He’s too bright to find a woman:”
Pábes: “I don’t know about that. Remember, after all, there is a bloodline.”
Tylendel: “Yeah, the Camrey bloodline, of course. But yes, spirit. Try not to make it touch you.”
Ipeshtir: “So far I’ve only given it a cursory glance. I feel uncomfortable in its presence. That’s a good sign, in a bad way.”
Ipeshtir is sitting, studying the mirror. Pábes goes back to his study of the Codex of the Lost. While the others are working, Tylendel starts making himself a new armour, a scaled mail suit.
Pábes: “Tylendel, my friend. What we were talking about, about the Lady of the Moon and the Seals of the Night. Is that a link between the two? Night… Moon…”
Tylendel: “But you said that Lug wrote about those seals, how they’ve been made.”
Pábes: “They are shaped like the moon. Round!”
Tylendel: “Everything circular is shaped like the moon. Apples are shaped like the moon.”
Pábes: “But… Ah. But I look at the image here, it looks like one of the moons of the Between?”
Tylendel: “What?”
Pábes: “Come over.”
Pábes shows him the drawing in the book, and he sees that the drawing does kind of look like one of the moons.
Pábes: “To me it looks like the surface, of Gar, one of the moons. I’m sorry, it was just a thought. I was looking and thinking about what we talked about, about nights and Night and moon and… Could the two of them have been planning things together for Lug to make? I don’t know.”
Tylendel: “That Ruis and Loronë were planning this. That they were working with Lug.”
Pábes: “That’s what I’m thinking.”
Tylendel: “But Lug was a prisoner.”
Pábes: “A prisoner?”
Tylendel: “Of the Brentoni kings.”
Pábes: “I think… Maybe you’re right?”
Tylendel: “The Brentoni kings killed the giants and the last king of the giants was held a prisoner and he built the Moonstone Forge, and his name was Gablug Maístor.”
Pábes: “Ah, Gablug Maístor. I believe that is Lug. But my impression is that he, in fact, served willingly, but perhaps not.”
Tylendel: “He became a friend of the king. And while he served the king, Gaffon, Nysal and Pentarlys came, and they tricked him into making Creeping God’s Bane.”
Ipeshtir: “They are on Eras as well?”
Tylendel: “Yes, I may have released Gaffon from his prison by accident. That’s… Foolish of me.”
Ipeshtir: “We all make mistakes.”
He turns back to the mirror.
They keep talking some more, and suddenly there is a gasp from Pábes.
Pábes: “You know what I think? I think that when those seals broke, sorcery was unleashed. Some spilling of energy. Could that be…? When I travelled with your companion he said that he had some strange dreams.”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Pábes: “And that he had been receiving wounds from others. Was this before or after the breaking of the Seals?”
Tylendel: “Before.”
Pábes: “Hmm. Then it can’t be that.”
Tylendel: “The Áhar used magic.”
Pábes: “Mmm. Truly?”
Tylendel tells Pábes about what happened to Eld beneath the Raventhrone. Pábes keeps leafing through the Codex and suddenly Tylendel noticed some symbols he has seen before, the same that he saw on the cylinders in Hauntmire.
Tylendel: “What are those symbols?”
Pábes: “Let me see.”
He starts deciphering the page using different tolls he has made himself. While he does that Tylendel keeps working on his armour.
Eventually Pábes tells Tylendel that the symbols belong to something Lug has made. The cylinders are placed on discs, and when matching the symbols on different rods, you can use them to teleport.
Tylendel: “I have seen those rods. They were in that place I told you about.”
Pábes: “What place? You’ve talked about so many places.”
Tylendel: “The one I ended up in when I took the portal from the chamber.”
Ipeshtir: “Hauntmire.”
Tylendel: “That’s the one.”
Pábes: “So Lug has been there?”
Tylendel: “Is Lug’s tomb on Eras empty? Did he make the Twilight Gate and passed through it?”
None of the others know anything about that.
Ipeshtir: “Tell me about this tomb. There is a tomb to Lug on Eras?”
Tylendel: “I’ve only heard about it. The king of the Brentoni built a tomb for Lug, the most magnificent tomb ever built, and it was turned into a temple.”
Ipeshtir: “It seems like they honoured him, then.”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Ipeshtir: “But did he… There is something wrong in this tale, if you ask me. Well, not that I have tales that can’t be thought of as convenient. At some point he must have, either he came into the embrace of the Betweeners after the Dragon-kings died out, or it happened at the same time.”
Tylendel: “According to legend the Brentoni made his tomb into a temple.”
Ipeshtir: “Oh yes, that would answer that question, of course.”
Tylendel: “The city of Talanthár was the city of Light. The great temple was there. I don’t know if it’s the same one, but…”
Ipeshtir: “Yes. No, I was trying to connect some dots, but I think I’m on the wrong pathway. I was just thinking it sounded to me, first, that perhaps the gods freed him from his service to the Dragon-kings, either against his will or not, I don’t know. Since he made so many things for them, is my thought. But as you say, maybe it was the other way around, maybe they made him a slave.”
Tylendel: “Maybe they faked his death.”
Ipeshtir: “Also a possibility.”
Tylendel: “Lug built the Moonstone Forge. That’s where Nysal, Pentarlys and Gaffon found him. That’s where he made Creeping God’s Bane.”
Pábes: “And that forge… Moonstone is infused with the power of the Lady. So she must have been willing to… She must have been part of the creation of that forge.”
Tylendel: “And the Brentoni worshipped Ruis.”
Pábes: “I thought they worshipped their dragons. Have you found any-“
Tylendel: “Ruis gave them the dragons.”
Pábes: “That sounds… That’s not something I’ve come across. What have you seen? What have you read?”
Tylendel: “I might be wrong. I might have misunderstood. The Brentoni priests had the gold and silver masks. They were called the Watchers of Old.”
Pábes shows Tylendel a page with drawings of masks.
Pábes: “Like this?”
Ipeshtir: “He was quite productive, Lug.”
Pábes: “I’m not sure that he built those, but he mentions them here.”
There are eight masks.
Tylendel: “The Eight Watchers.”
Pábes: “I have translated some of this, because I saw one of the Cultists with a mask similar to this one. It says worshippers of Shadow. Have you heard of them? Is that the Cult?”
Tylendel: “That’s the Cult of the Lost. One Brentoni was given the Key to the Underworld by a god, whom I think is Ruis. And the priests of the Brentoni they mimicked the masks of the Watchers of Old. They were said to have the key to the Otherworld.”
Pábes: “Hmm. The Otherworld. The Between?”
Tylendel: “That’s my guess. Or they thought it was the afterlife.”
Pábes: “I just don’t understand if this is a piece of the puzzle or not, because yes, it has to be, because the Cult wears masks. But this feels…”
Tylendel: “But the Moon Guard, they were the Watchers of Old. Merbus said that the Watchers came and showed him a copy of the Codex of the Lost. Of this book.”
Pábes: “The fortress is called the Hall of the Watchers.”
Tylendel: “Yes. And that’s where the mirrors were. Mirrors like this one. That’s why it was called the Hall of the Watches. The Watchers of Old were the keepers of the mirrors.”
Pábes: “Loronë. She was the Lady of the Mirrors, I believe.”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Pábes: “Albeit under a different name: Alghea:”
Tylendel: “And Loronë was also honoured as the goddess of sight and hearing and speech, I think. But both of the mirrors and the moon? It does make sense if the Hall of the Watchers was the Hall of Mirrors. The Watchers of Old were the servants of Loronë that kept the mirrors, and they honoured the moon. Well, shit. Pardon my Oxosthian.”
Pábes: “You really should do something about that mouth of yours, my friend.”
Tylendel: “Yes, I know.”
Pábes: “It feels like we are this close to some revelation. But it just slips my mind. Something here.”
Pábes starts leafing through the Codex again.
Tylendel: “Where do the manwolves come from? If it was a rebellion amongst the Brentoni and they turned into manwolves because they defied the gods, and the manwolves can only be killed by moonstone, or moonstone steel.”
Pábes: “There is something about those daggers in the book. I told you that, didn’t I? Let’s see.”
Pábes finds a drawing that looks like one of the daggers.
Pábes: “I am not sure how this. I know little of the threads here, but it is my suspicion that these manwolves, in some way or another, descend from the Queen of Winter.”
Tylendel: “Well, she did have them as he pets.”
Pábes: “You said something about the Lord of the Night and the Lady of the Moon, and something about betraying the Queen of Winter?”
Tylendel: “Well I read that Ruis and Braek were lovers, and that she started fighting him because he betrayed her. When I talked to her about it she said that I didn’t know… Well, I asked her about it, and she said that I didn’t know anything about love, so that implies that it was something like that.”
Pábes: “The Lady of Ice said that to you?”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Ipeshtir chuckles.
Ipeshtir: “How ironic.”
Pábes: “I was thinking… She was the Queen of Winter. The texts here imply that the daggers were made to defeat these manwolves, beasts white of fur. And if they, maybe Ruis betrayed Braek, yet Ruis and the Lady of the moon, texts do imply that they birthed the Lord of Wolves. Wolves! There might be a link there. If the Lost God and the Queen of Winter had a child, could the manwolves descent from that line? I’m just thinking out loud, I’m not trying to make you feel uncomfortable.”
Tylendel: “Or Braek created the manwolves to mock Ruis and Loronë and their son, the Lord of Wolves.”
Ipeshtir: “To create life, even they have to do it the old way.”
Tylendel: “Oh, I didn’t mean create them from nothing. That she changed people. Or wolves.”
Ipeshtir: “Ah, yes.”
Tylendel: “Buuut… Wait a minute. But the Brentoni fought wolves. King Aethelmon took war to the wolf lord. Great Thovis was a sworn enemy to the wolf. He who served night.”
Pábes: “Wolves or… Well, it did say that the Queen of Winter also had wolves? Does that make sense?”
Tylendel: “Well, she did bring a mist wolf when she attacked Starfall.”
Pábes: “And an army of wolves.”
Tylendel: “Yeah. When the Norochtí attacked me and Eld at the Chapel of the Rotting Saint we were saved by an army of wolves. When I trapped Braek in a sarcophagus of Blacksteel an army of wolves, led by a manwolf, attacked the Arganhold.”
Pábes: “So this Dragon-king could have been fighting the Queen of Winter.”
Tylendel: “Yeah, but he was the sworn enemy of the wolf, and if the Wolf Lord was the son of Ruis and Loronë. This doesn’t make sense.”
Pábes: I have to read more. Perhaps I’m wrong. It’s not easy translating this stuff. Perhaps I got it the wrong way around. Could Ruis and Braek have sired the Lord of Wolves.”
Tylendel: “That seems more plausible. And Ruis and Loronë sired the line of the God-kings. Cause I read somewhere that a goddess fled with a child to the west, and that was the birth of the Empyre.”
Pábes: “Ah, so many mysteries.”
He looks very satisfied.
Pábes: “Is that the same sword you had before, that was given to you by the Lord Commander?”
Tylendel: “Given, well… He was dead when I took it. I’ve modified it slightly.”
When he draws the sword he can’t help but notice that the blade is a light pink, and that the flames are gone.
Tylendel: “Well, that was unexpected. It’s supposed to be red. It’s supposed to be blood red and have flames surround it.”
Pábes: “Flames too?”
Tylendel: “Well, I needed to make it look more frightful.”
Pábes: “It’s a bloodsword.”
Tylendel: “Yeah, I thought as much.”
Pábes: “You’re carrying the sword of a Dragon-king.”
Tylendel: “I suspect that the umberstone hilt is within this one, hidden. Why would the colour of a bloodsword fade in the Between?”
Pábes: “Has it been a long time since it has drunk?”
Tylendel: “We killed a bear that was, well four times the size of a horse, a few weeks ago. Didn’t kill it, re4alkly just stabbed it a bit.”
Pábes: “It isn’t much I know, but it is mentioned in the Codex that he was inspired by the bloodsword when he tried to forge the sword, and he says that there are three types. Young, old and swords that are neither young nor old. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but it also mentions that they drink, and that the more blood it drinks the darker its red becomes. But that might of course just be the legend.”
Tylendel: “Thom Mollíon wore this sword at his side for years, and he never used it. And it kept its colour.”
Pábes: “Then it would have been an old one, but if it’s still the same blade. It doesn’t make sense.”
Tylendel: “no.”
Pábes: “Well, if I find anything else in the book about it, I’ll tell you.”
Tylendel sheaths Red Dancer, scowling at it for not burning. Eventually Ipeshtir announces that it is time for dinner. Tylendel notices that he has good control of his presence in the Between this time. While Ipeshtir fixes dinner, Tylendel makes use of the mirror.
First he looks for the woman without legs. He sees her crawling through a dark forest, scraped and bruised. She looks terrified. She has her Moonsteel dagger between her teeth, and she looks very determined.
Tylendel then asks to see Highlord Ionathan’s army. The army looks smaller than the last time he saw them. They are still outside the darkness enveloping Barosía, and they are marching north.
Tylendel: “Show me Nathyn.”
The image shifts, and he sees an army about the same size as the last one. Nathyn is riding in front together with, Tylendel assumes, Lady Rhëie. Syr Izar rides close. Nathyn is not in charge. They move slowly through difficult terrain, through a snowy forest. Tylendel is quite certain they are somewhere in the western edge of the Breywoods.
Tylendel: “Show me that army from a mile above.”
Tylendel determines that Nathyn is about 25 miles into the Breywoods, and he estimates that it would take them a couple of months to reach Byrkburgh. After thinking a while, Tylendel determines that the section of the army marching north is heading for the Empty Road.
Tylendel: “Show me the Crow-king’s army, a mile above.”
He sees an encamped army on the Great Plain. He estimates that they are about eight to ten days from the Riverlands.
Tylendel: “Show me any mirror still in the Crow-king’s possession.”
He is shown a large, columned hall. In the end he can see the outline of a large mirror under a curtain. The room is empty and cleared of furniture.
Tylendel: “So the bastard has one hidden away. Well, Kandarov, I’ve learned a new trick today.”
He starts thinking about summoning the mirror, then realizes that it is too large for Ipeshtir’s room. Changing tactics, he first thinks about using a stone to break the mirror, but there are no loose stones on the floor. He then casts a spell to shrink the mirror to a quarter of its size. A frame falls out from beneath the curtain, and he sees the mirror almost falling over. After catching his breath, he then summons the mirror to the Between. Just as he summons the mirror, he notices a light coming into the hall. A hooded shadow precedes a hooded man. He lifts his arm and the mirror disappears.
Tylendel: “Show me my father’s tomb!”
Tylendel hurriedly changes the view before the Crow-king can find him, then turn around to catch the mirror, laughing. The others turn around, looking horrified. Ipeshtir stands up.
Ipeshtir: “What in the name of the Drash-kinlan are you doing!”
Tylendel: “Ipeshtir! This is the Crow-king’s last mirror.”
He lowers the mirror to the ground.
Ipeshtir: “B-b-but… But.. But… How?!”
Tylendel: “I stole it!
Tylendel is still laughing.
Pábes: “I think he’s turning mad!”
Tylendel: “That was great! That was awesome! He’s going to be so angry!”
Pábes: “Yeees.”
Both the other look nervous and sceptical, looking from Tylendel to each other to the mirror.
Pábes: “Are you all right?”
Tylendel: “Oh, yeah. That was… That was great. That… Oh. I’ve taken all his mirrors.”
Ipeshtir: “Cover it with something! Now!”
Tylendel: “Oh shit!”
Suddenly the mirror starts shaking. Ipeshtir takes off his robe and tosses it over the mirror – a moment too late, as a large wraith escapes it. This one is larger than the one Tylendel usually encounter. Pábes dives behind his lectern. Tylendel reacts quickly and wills the wraith to be locked onto a hook lying in a pile of junk in the corner. There is some resistance, but it is drawn away from them. Ipeshtir throws himself on top of the mirror, trying to hide it, and Tylendel wills the mirror to break into a million pieces. The mirror explodes, and the wraith slowly disappears, fading into nothingness.
Tylendel stands up, pieces of glass falling off of him.
Tylendel: “So, do you like my new armour?”
Ipeshtir: “I hope that you’re as good with a broom as you are with your sorcery.”
He doesn’t sound happy. Tylendel is still feeling elated, and he wills all the pieces of the broken mirror into the corner with the junk.
Ipeshtir: “Okay. This is truly something to behold. This kind of power…”
Tylendel: “I just wanted to make it clear that several unintended things happened there.”
Ipeshtir: “And yet there you stand. And if I’m not mistaken you have removed the last mirror from the enemy.”
Tylendel: “Yes.”
Ipeshtir: “You have blinded them.”
Tylendel: “Hopefully.”
Ipeshtir: “It will make it easier, then, to close in on the Creeping God. You can rise, Pábes, my friend.”
Tylendel sees a butt and two sandal-clad feet behind the lectern. He hears whimpering.
Tylendel: “If that was the Crow-king I saw… He has moved two thousand miles since yesterday.”
Ipeshtir: “Well, that’s nothing compared to you movements this day.”
Tylendel: “No, but he moved from one place in Eras to another place in Eras. Yesterday I saw him on the Great Plain. Now I saw him, I think I saw him, in the Doomed City.”
Pábes: “That sounds illogical.”
Tylendel: “Can he fly?”
Pábes: “He is a Crow-king.”
Tylendel: “Well, I know I can make myself fly here in the Between.”
Ipeshtir: “Is there anything you can’t do in the Between?”
Tylendel: “Not sure. I’m still figuring out my limits. And I can lift items using magic… Can I use magic in Eras to lift myself? Oh, the implications! Oooh my, sh-”
Pábes: “Mind your language!”
Ipeshtir: “What are you thinking, my friend? It looks like you had an epiphany.”
Tylendel: “I can use magic to lift things in Eras. I lifted a ship out of the Novíla yesterday. And I know that I can make myself fly here. Can I use making in Eras to fly in Eras? Can I use making in Eras to make a ship fly?”
Pábes: “I don’t know.”
Ipeshtir: “But your world, it works different from here, yes? I’m not sure if your seemingly limitless powers here are as limited over there.”
Tylendel: “No, no, no. It’s much harder over there. Here I just think. In Eras I have to work for it. I have to, how should I say it: I have to use my mind to focus my power, to make the power do what I want to. Here, I just do it.”
Ipeshtir: “That is because here you are inside the sorcery, yes? You are in a sea of magic.”
Tylendel: “And in Eras I’m outside of the sorcery. I-“
Ipeshtir: “You have to draw it.”
Tylendel: “I have to draw it. But… If that was the Crow-king, he must have done something similar as well.”
Ipeshtir: “Potentially. He is a dangerous foe, is he not? Allied with the Creeping God.”
Tylendel: “That explains how the Cult has been able to move around so much. If they have… If the Crow-king can make one of his messengers fly. Well, he does make his messengers fly, he uses his fucking crows. Sorry, Pábes.”
Pábes harrumphs.
Tylendel: “The God-king’s armies are still the best part of a month, at least one month, away from us. The Crow-king’s army, a week, ten days. Two weeks if we are lucky. We just pulled a ship out of the Novíla to sail to the Empyre, not to get help, it’s too late for that, but… To give word of what’s happened. Can I make my own Ghostweave? My oh my.”
Ipeshtir: “Before all this power goes to your head, would you two be interested in sharing a meal. My stomach is rumbling. Look.”
The table is decked with silverware and food.
Tylendel: “I’d be delighted.”
Ipeshtir: “And I would be honoured and delighted to let you taste some of the delicacies of Ilk.”
Tylendel: “You didn’t say what you thought of my new armour.”
Pábes: “Where did you find that? It’s beautiful.”
Tylendel: “I made it.”
Ipeshtir: “Yes. Very beautiful. But is it real?”
Tylendel: “Real what?”
Ipeshtir: “But Is the armour real? Or is it woven of strands of sorcery?”
Tylendel: “Changes I’ve done with my mind in the Between have stayed when I brought the items back to Eras.”
Ipeshtir: “Then the flow of sorcery must be great now. I fear that if we do not act quickly, Pábes, with the gate and all, that your world may end up like ours. Broken and shattered. Cold and dark, except from the heat of the spider in the midst of its web.”
Tylendel: “Then you better teach me how to build a gate.”
Pábes: “I’m working on it. I think we can do it, but there is one obstacle. But what I see now, from you, maybe you can do it easy. We need a Seal.”
Tylendel: “A Seal of the Night?”
Pábes: “Yes. Here, in the Between. It doesn’t matter if it’s broken; we just need some of it, some material. I don’t think I know any other material where the concentration of Moonstone is high enough. Look here.”
Pábes shows Tylendel some diagrams from the books.
Pábes: “Lug tried to make notes on how he worked it. I think I’ve got it figured out. It was never a Codex of the Lost. It’s Lug’s work! It’s his writing!”
Tylendel: “So why did Merbus say that he felt an aura of darkness from it?”
Pábes: “Can you imagine how long it has been in the possession of the Crow-king?”
Tylendel: “There is that…”
Tylendel looks at Ipeshtir’s mirror and wills it to show him the broken seal beneath Askalant. It shows darkness, so Tylendel wills it to illuminate the scene, and he can see the pieces of a broken Seal. He tried summoning a piece of it into his hands, but fails.
Tylendel: “Let’s try again after I’ve eaten.”
Ipeshtir: “Yes, let’s eat.”
Subject: Online Session Recap - 25.01.2019 
Wed 13 Mar 2019, 17:39
