High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #107 | Stand With Aerois (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

What will the Stormchasers do to combat the Valkyrian threat in Aerois? Maybe meeting Nova's family will help! We're sponsored by D&D Beyond! The ultimate Dungeons and Dragons toolset. Clean up your dungeon delving life and speed up your games here: http://bit.ly/HRDNDBeyond2021 Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. summer is like a cocktail it has to be mixed just right start with a handful of great friends now add your favorite music and then finally add Bacardi rum and there you have it the perfect summer mix Bacardi do what moves you live passionately drink responsibly copyright 2024 Bacardi it's trade dress and the bat device are trademarks of Bacardi and Company Limited. Rum 40% alcohol by volume. Hello, welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois. We're sponsored by D&D Beyond, the ultimate online D&D toolset for both players and DMs. Make your dungeon-delving life a million times easier with D&D Beyond using the link in the episode description. Last time, a shadow falls over the world of Erois.

The planar-spanning empire of Valkalis Valkyrian that attacked the magical Genesis Relic at the heart of Erois is the only thing capable of stopping the ex-god-turned-elder-evil, Hadar, from consuming the multiverse. With fleets of astral ships and armies of angels, devils, elementals, eladrin, and orcs at his command, Kallus cannot be ignored. orcs at his command. Calus cannot be ignored. The leaders and representatives of Erois are gathered together in the grand sky city of Horizon to discuss this threat. Our party, officers of the airship the Stormchaser, join to tell their experience with Valkyrian's forces and the threat of Hadar. During the meeting, Kallus himself surprises all by delivering a message across Erois. He offers each individual an opportunity to surrender to his forces and be folded into his empire, given new homes and rights to citizens. Shocking everyone, he reveals that two of Erois's major factions, the Commonwealth of Gisela and the Ganassi city of Vortensar,

have already agreed to join him. He warns Erois that the barrier that protects them from planar assault will fail in less than one year, and that when he does, when it does, he will bring the might of his empire to bear against anyone who still opposes him. In a private meeting with Horizon's leader, the powerful sorceress Danica Bloodfire, the party discusses this revelation, and Kelek uses his ability to glimpse the future to witness what will happen if Calus succeeds and uses the world engine against Hadar. A nightmare scenario unfolds in Quill's mind. Hadar only grows infinitely stronger and consumes everything across all planes in existence until there is absolutely

nothing left. The party must now decide their path as war looms their own time short and many still needing their help. That was a little... That's a general catch-up to where we are now in this lovely campaign.

Yeah. Yeah. It's all going really well. catch up to where we are now in this lovely campaign yeah oh well oh well everything is awesome everything is cool which team there are

which team that's a good point I believe that the general consensus certainly with danica and sky prince aradan of the sky city of gust haven is that they stand against callous which they believe is where the storm chasers also currently stand uh but there are still many um unknowns many of the leaders and representatives you don't know where they stand. You don't know on which side of the line they will fall. There was also a couple of small other things to mention. Nova had received a message that her family were in danger

or being transported. You weren't quite clear on the messaging, but they have been teleported into Horizon by her old professor, Professor Whitsong, and a request has been made of the city to find them. You also have Petal, Sentry's long

lost I'm trying to think of the right word here, ward, I guess you would call Petal, a princess, a former princess of the lost kingdom of Solvyn, who has now been discovered, who's grown up a little bit, but has been discovered here in Horizon

and is now residing within the Citadel. And there's a few old friends lurking around as well, including Arval Dagus, a dwarven merchant whom you are all quite close with. And that is fully everyone pretty much caught up on what's going on nice so my friends

I personally think we should start with Nova sure you got nothing to say where are we what are we doing send me a same DM You got nothing to say? Where are we? What are we doing? Send me a same DM. Well, you are... The last thing we left was that you were still in the Citadel of the Reborn,

the kind of headquarters of Horizon, the seat of Danica's kind of government. You have suites there. My assumption is that after meeting with Danica and having these very intense discussions, you may probably have retreated to your suites to decide what you want to do next.

The plan is that Danica will bring back all of the representatives and the leaders to continue the discussion that was ongoing before Calus' interruption. But there's definitely been some time set aside

for people to kind of collect their thoughts, gather their thoughts. And the plan is for those talks to resume tomorrow morning, which gives you about half a day. Yes, Chris Trott. We don't know about Quill's vision yet, do we?

He did tell you. Yeah we he did tell you yeah it was when we met with correct we were with Danica because he told Danica what he saw he basically yeah Tom did the thing where he says everything mark just said I tell you that it doesn't work yeah that's true actually you kind of just said it doesn't work Yeah that's true actually You kind of It don't work To set the scene for Nova Who's going to go first definitely Lucius is sat on a table

Sounds like Lucius is going first Rubbing his temples In stress Thinking about the next step That Nova's about to blurt out. Hmm, yeah. I'm looking directly at Nova. And then where a watch would be... Well, I mean, the family just popped up in the city,

so I think everyone would kind of be like, you're good, you're going gonna go in there you know do the thing well yeah people i guess um in between going from the danica's chambers to our chambers nova would be asking rain you know can she go and look for her family but i'm guessing they'd be like no you gotta sit here and wait so So... Yeah, I think Rain would... You know, when you ask that, Rain says, Ah, Miss Vida, I have sent... I've dispatched the word.

As we discussed, I've sent word to all of our guard posts to be on the lookout. They will be brought here. I very strongly advise you not to leave the Citadel, given the statement that has just been made and the current situation with the Summit. I do not believe it to be advisable for you to leave you are not prisoners i am not going to stop you leaving

my concern would be how this would look to perhaps the other dignitaries to the other representatives there may be an element of favoritism we are keeping the others currently confined to the citadel i understand that yourselves and Miss Danica, Steward Danica, have a bit more of an understanding, but I really would not like you to leave. But I assure you, all of our guards will be

alerted and we'll bring them here as soon as they're found. Titan and River, are they still here? The last time we checked, yes. Again, Danica will not keep them prisoner if they wish to go back to Vortensar, but they are here for now.

If I could request, can one of your guard ask them to return my letters to me? Thank you very much. I don't think I should ask them in person because I'm going to say some very unkind things and probably cause a diplomatic incident. I will have that requested, yes. But you'll tell me, right?

Other than that... You'll tell me as soon as you hear from my family. Of course, of course, Miss Veja. We will have them brought here. They will be guarded, protected. We will have them brought to this very suite for you as soon as we know exactly where they are in the city. Normally around the evening times,

there is a general check-in from all of our guard posts. We will know where they are by this evening. I am certain. Okay. Rain, just one last thing. I was really unkind to you before when we first met and i want to apologize for that it turns out i'm really bad at figuring out who isn't trying to lie to us and i thought you were trying to lie to us and then you're not and then it turns out the people

that were lying to us were my own people and elected representatives and yes i'm really bad at this and i'm i'm i'm sorry i i know you're doing your best um thank you it's part of the job it's part of the job miss vija my my role here is to ask questions a lot of people do not like being pried their private lives being pried into i've long since accepted that I can understand that to a certain extent myself, but it is also my job and we never know who we can really trust. We can make our best guess. We must deal with the consequences and move on. It's the only way that we can move forward. I will let you know as soon as I know. If the rest of you require anything, please contact me. The guards outside will be able to reach me immediately or send word for me if necessary.

But I must please, for the moment, stay here until the conversations can be resumed. I have a feeling that many will not return for the second round of discussions, but my hope is that we can retain as many as possible. Okay. This is good, Nova. This is good. We know your family's safe, at least. Were there any other siblings or anything like that?

Well, I guess there's Tornado, who's out doing skyjousting, but I don't know if he was... I don't know where... Whoever knows where he is. He never checks in. He never checks in. I thought maybe he could be around, but at least definitely it'll be my mom, my dad, my sister, my professor. They're here. They're here. It's okay. I'm okay. I'm fine. It's fine. Everything's fine.

That's something. We need to grasp onto what hope we have right now and forge a plan ahead. Have you had any thoughts? Quill, Sentry, Aayla, anything? Well, we need to somehow let Starbane know that his plan will not work at all. We also need to find a way to make him believe us. How the hell do we do that?

Someone so hell-bent on taking the world engine. Yeah, he's a bit of a dick, so I don't really know how that's going to work. Anyone want to have any suggestions on making friends? Making friends with the, you know, the big bad?

We already are friends with the thing he cares most about. And that's his daughter. Valor. If we can get to her, she can get to him. Great. So, get Valor back. Step one.

Not necessarily even getting her back. Maybe we go to her as well. Okay. I mean, Valor will believe us. If any harm came to us, you could try and cast Dream. However, I think it would be potent if we arrived

as ourselves in the presence of Starbane dream. However, I think it would be potent if we arrived as ourselves in the presence of Starbane. Anything happen to us in front of Valor? I don't think that would work in his favor, trying to sway her. If we just turn up on his ship,

his gang of horrible people will try and just kill us though how do we just appear to talk to Vala and him without you know

getting killed maybe the dream will be useful there so Vala could maybe open up an invitation we also have the wings of Ishtar remember? maybe will be useful there. Valor could maybe open up an invitation. We also have the wings of Ishtar, remember? Maybe. True.

Yeah, we... We need to protect them. I'm very aware that I've just handed out data pads to people we thought we could trust and at least two of those nations have sided with Starbane and now they have

what we know so he knows what they know what we know about him could we ask Rayne to go and you know like yoink the yoink not yours anymore maybe let's take that back

I mean he already knows that we know about Project Vanguard. If Democles knows, Starbane most likely knows. So it's no surprise to him. He doesn't know that we know that they know, but that he knows that, yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on here. That's the thing. We need to hold on to the things that we know that he doesn't know that we know about him knowing, you know?

But anyway, you need to remember on to the things that we know that he doesn't know that we know about him knowing, you know? But anyway, you need to remember... He doesn't know his temples. Either way... But he doesn't know what we know about the Ysilishtar. What Starbane doesn't know is what we know, and that is that he's going to take the world engine from Arois and crumble it. And when he feeds the world engine to Hadar,

and that's all he's doing, feeding Hadar, it will destroy everything. He doesn't know that, but we know that. But he knows that we were talking about Valor. So it's going to be even harder to contact Valor now. But if Valor is anything more than a tool for him, he won't crumble a rowis with her on it. So do we get Valar back here?

You have to, right? Yes, but also I think there is a point about you know confronting him with Valor there and you know she can maybe make him see more reason than us given that he hates us quite a bit

this is the man who killed Siaska remember the woman he loved he killed her for what he believed in. Who knows what he could do? Very true. Very true. He don't care about no one. Certainly not us.

Maybe not Vela. We don't know. I'm gonna go ahead and say it. I think he might be Hadar-touched. If he was driven to the point that he would kill someone he loved, if he's driven to the point that he's closed off his ears, his eyes, his heart to everyone, we've seen that before, right?

We've seen that single-mindedness. During centuries. we've seen that before, right? We've seen that single-mindedness. True. In centuries, if he was Hadar-touched, he would have been something else by now. Not retaining his his normal person of what we know.

Everything that we've seen that's Hadar-touched is has a form of the red but he's incredibly powerful maybe he can control it let's not rule it out I guess but how would that help us just try and figure out how to cleanse it

if it is true, we've cleansed it before, do we want to try to get Starbane on our side? I mean, Century, after what he did, what do you want to do with him? I think you know.

Exactly. I think you know exactly he would be a powerful ally we've got a lot of powerful allies down here that we need to now work even harder to recruit because you know he sent that message to them telling them that he was going to destroy the world yada yada

chance for survival so we now have an even more difficult job of making those people like us instead of him maybe if we get them all on our side and then go to him for Vala and be like

hey we got all these people. Can't have them. Bitch. Or something. You know? We maybe not say bitch, but close enough. But he is, though. He is. Also, we potentially have to worry about the

unification of Erois in this entire process, too. Two continents joining his side That's Civil War That's that's could be disastrous splitting forces between defending from the skies and defending in the land against their own Well against themselves essentially Maybe we try and convince those leaders of what we know

Get them to rejoin Eros. But how do we do that? Well, if you could just work out a way to get the things that you've seen in your brain from the eye, just, you know, on a data thing like Nova has,

that'd be so much easier. Just, you know, here you go. I can doodle it. I have huge drawings. They're not as good as Nova's. Nova could doodle it. How about... How about...

We have the dream spell, do we not? You can invoke someone into that dream. And with that dream, you can conjure imagery, can you not? Yes. Quill, can you conjure the memory of what you saw in a dream to someone else and because it's a dream and a spell can that be put into something possibly but i mean you can conjure pretty much anything in a dream i could make up right anything as i go right and they'd probably know that maybe they wouldn't you're right uh just a thought either way away though

a way to recreate it like a holographic project projection maybe if there's a way that i channel the spell through technology some of this data crystal or something like that. There must be a way. It's worth looking at because, you know, at the moment, Quill is the only one, and you know, we trust Quill, obviously, but nobody else has any reason to trust him. Except us. Hey, what if I've been lying this entire time?

Whoa! Lot twist there, buddy! I'm the good guy. I'm the good guy. I'm the good guy. Don't even. Don't even. Not the time for that. Sorry. Sorry.

Nevertheless. Maybe if there was a way to cast Zone of Truth, something like Dream and Major Image, and channel what is in Quill's head, there would be a way to pull the image out, make it real, but also cast Zone of Truth so you know that what he's projecting is the truth. Oh, there's got to be a way to do that.

Get them to cast Zone of Truth on me. Yes. I can't lie. There you go. Yeah. And they know when you resist it or not exactly that's a step however we need a first step in our grand scheme of winning a row spec for the people of against starbane's propaganda and also convincing starbane

that his entire plan is going to destroy all of reality. As we know it. Where do we begin? I think the Guardians is probably a good place to start. Sentry, they're all waiting for you. You've got a whole little chunk of

Guardians sitting and waiting for, you know, the prime. In potentially enemy territory now. Exactly. I think that might be a good first step, you know? Get in there, get them out

before that continent goes to shit. Yeah. Yeah, I really need to get over there and help. I've kind of left Herald to their own devices, admittedly,

but I thought it would be safe. It's been a bit of a busy time though, hasn't it? You know, world's a bit on fire. On the way, perhaps, Nova, you could try reaching out to Valor again, as you did before. And we can make our way with that.

Yeah. I'll check in with her, see what we can do. The people we care about are here, under protection. I think they're as safe as they can be. So we can move, basically, is what I'm saying. And in fact, all of Horizon can move! Did we forget that?

Yes. That's pretty badass. You can move the entire Sky City, yeah. I forgot that. That's wild. I just remembered. Sky City, yeah. I forgot that.

That's wild. I just remembered. Should we figure out what allies we actually have for this raid on Tassadar? Yeah, the Wings of Ishtar, obviously. Potentially the Dragonborn. I mean, almost definitely the Dragonborn. Definitely the Dragonborn. But, you know, they will not do what we want them to do. They might just, you know, go in all guns blazing

and really make everything bad for us. Who knows? Because, you know, it's them. I don't think that they would let Tassadar free. I feel like they would perhaps use Tassadar for their own means. I don't think they'd really care what we wanted to get out of it. Because, you know, they're very... One-track mind.

However, if we can claim the Tassadar... That's another Tiangong. Huge. Very powerful. Either way... Quill's right, we should know who our allies are. In the grand scheme of things as well. On horizon.

The people in that meeting. We need to know who stands with Valkyrian after today. And who stands with the Rose. We'll probably talk about that when everyone sort of reconvenes after stuff's kind of died down a little bit. Is there another section of the meeting happening? Is it over?

Rain did say they're going to resume the conversations tomorrow. They said tomorrow morning they're going to resume the summit with this new information. That's when we find out then. We'll make sure we know where everybody stands. Zone of truth. The biggest.

I would absolutely expect other nations to join Starbane it's too good an offer well then we just need to tell them that they're wrong and they're dumb and stuff you know such great

diplomacy you're not wrong don't be a dumbass bitch done yes the meeting zone of truth on you yeah by a representative

anyone and you speak your truth about what you saw to everyone at that meeting yeah I can do that And you speak your truth about what you saw to everyone at that meeting. Yeah, I can do that. That could be a start. Whether they believe it or not, it could be a powerful tool to sway people back against Starbane. Let me just go through my mind of how zone of truth works real quick

while you do that i'm sure she like go on nova no i was just going to say that i'm sure that there's other people at the meeting that can cast it and maybe it would be best to get a neutral third party to cast it like the siaska um siaska lady i feel like it would be a Starcaller. Starcaller Navarine. That one. For diplomacy, I'm sure it's common, right? To have someone capable of Zone of Truth. Yep. I believe that the last time Danica

just had somebody else cast it, she has attendants there that can cast a variety of spells if people don't trust Danica. They cast it on us when we got to the city. They cast it on all of us anyway, so they'll have people who can do it. Yep, absolutely. The only complication I can think of,

everyone will then know about the Eye of the Storm. I think it's worth the risk, considering all of reality is at stake, if people side with Starbane. Okay. However, it does paint a target on us. It's up to you, Quill. Maybe it's something that we establish people's loyalties

before we even talk about the magic eye, because I feel like there's an initiation to get to that knowledge. We already have a target painted on us and if people that are sided with Valkyrian, if they hear what I say to be true, maybe they'll change their minds. Who knows? Either way, there's a target on us. There's already a target on me. Why not make it a little bit bigger? Unless there's anything else,

I'm assuming you guys have been having this conversation for a while. Some food is brought to you. You guys eat and have moments to relax and things like that in the evening you hear uh armored boots coming from the door uh rain enters um sorry to disturb you but i thought i should let you know that miss vega's family is on their way now uh they're being brought here uh i don't believe your suite has enough rooms but i have set up a similar suite just down the hall uh we're currently in the process of warding it um so give us a few hours and we should have that finished but they are on their way here now uh i

thought i should let you know so you can be prepared oh is this how you all felt when you saw my mother coming over? Oh, this is delightful! Yeah, it's very exciting. Maybe if there's space. How many of your family coming over? How many is it? Is my brother there?

Three that we have accounted for. We can put Quill's mum in there. We can put Petal in that room. Everyone can be nearby. She already has a suite, my mother. But, I mean... I think it best not to have... Not to overpopulate these suites.

If there was anything to happen, we don't want anything to happen to everyone at once, after all. Oh. Is that possible oh right it's my whether it or not is possible mr lanasto it's my duty to be cautious of the possibility of it um still it shouldn't be too much longer now over and with that rain just bows his head uh kind of you know strokes the very scrappy thin beard uh and then makes his way out of the room and heads off um and sure enough you know maybe five ten minutes later you hear kind of more armored footsteps uh but this time it's accompanied by voices like voices echoing down the hallways um you hear uh obviously i'm not

going to be able to sound like kim but imagine a kind of older kind of more uh kind of mature sounding nova um what is going on where are you taking us why can't why can i not speak with my daughter i want to speak with her immediately and like people and then you just hear like calm down dear they're taking us to a you know we, we should just relax. It's been very stressful. Let's just, let's just take it easy. No, I'm with mom. We should, we should fight our way out of here. Like, how do we know we can even trust these guys?

Like there's these kind of like all these different voices. The last one being a younger girl's voice. And then soon enough, you hear like one of the guards cough, please, this way. And then the door opens and being led into the room are three ganassi the first one to step through is uh probably the uh who would appear to be she's not too she's about as tall as nova is but looks younger. But where Nova has a kind of very scholarly, nerdy look, this, and it's strange,

she almost looks like a combination of air and water Ganassi. So she kind of has like these kind of like bright water blue eyes, but then her hair is almost like a kind of like cloud. There's almost like raindrops coming out of her hair that spill onto like her shoulders. All the clothing is tailored to kind of be water resistant and things like that um but she looks much more athletic uh all kind of dressed in light blue and she kind of comes in with her fists up and she's like looking

around like ready to start a fight um and he's like almost scoping the room out closely followed behind her is a uh much taller will-like water ganassi man. He has this really long hair that almost flows like water down his back, but it's tied back by this kind of braided headband, basically. He's wearing shorts and sandals and a loose kind of paint-splattered shirt that he appears to be wearing. And he's carrying like a little kind of bag that he's got with him and he's kind of looking around a bit more nervously but

also kind of relaxed he's kind of just like checking everything out and then kind of pushing her way past the two of them is a short uh old older looking nova like a mature looking nova dressed in yellow she has a chef's apron on still over her clothes. She's carrying a small bag. She has a kitchen knife that's been obviously given back to her, tucked into her waistband. And she's kind of looking around in a huff and then she sees Nova.

And you just hear her kind of just like, Nova, what is going on? And she kind of rushes forward with you and like, Aurora, your sister also bounds up. It's just like, hey, everything's going on and she kind of rushes forward uh with you and like aurora your sister also bounds up uh it's just like hey what's going on and like they kind of wrap their arms both around you your dad kind of just follows like plodding along behind and eventually joins in in this group hug but it's much slower and he's just kind of like oh it's good to see you and he just kind of like wraps his hands around um yeah it's just it's a mess like for a minute

you see nova take a deep breath and try and compose herself but as soon as she sees her mom she loses it and runs over massive hug and it's just a blurb of like oh my gosh mom i missed you so much oh my god my stupid sister i missed you so dad dad dad get over here oh my god and just like dissolves in like a puddle of just like trying to get as many hugs and kisses in and yeah you see that where um where nova is kind of blobbing and and being very emotional her mom is kind of just like oh yes like patting her back but it's very kind of matter of fact the sister is kind of just like i'm not stupid and it's like kind of like you know playfully kind of hugging but the dad is a mess like as soon as nova starts crying the dad is

just like i don't know what's been going on it's been so scary it's just kind of like like tears um his tears almost like flow and then they kind of get pulled into his hair like these tears kind of flow down his cheeks and get sucked into his uh watery long flowing hair um uh but yeah there's this this very big reunion oh it's okay yes it's just like it's fine now it's fine it's fine um your mother's just like oh enough of that both of you come on we're here now things i don't know what's been going on, but we're all here together. Oh, Jocelyn. And then she turns and stood in the doorway is another figure, not a Ganassi this time, but an elf woman, a high elf,

similar to Lucius, a kind of a high elven woman, pure blue, sky blue eyes, long dark hair. She looks a little bit older than some of the others. She looks like a more mature woman dressed in very scholarly robes.

And she looks a lot more tired and maybe a little beaten up compared to the parents. She actually looks like she's been through some stuff. And she just nods her head in your direction over

I'm glad that we could get everyone together again professor what happened you that is a very long story i think we should not um a very long discussion over and i'm still not entirely sure of exactly who we can trust around here. Take it. But I think that once we're all settled in, we should have a conversation. Your parents have some information as well. Welcome.

It was. Hello to the rest of you. She just kind of nods her head at each of you. The parents here are kind of like suddenly realize that you're being watched and stuff and composed themselves. I'm so pleased to meet all of you. This one is very forceful. Lovely to meet you. The mother is very kind of like, you know,

you don't know her name yet, but Nova's mom is kind of just like very nice to meet you and is offering a hand and is being very sort of like, you know, not respectful, but very kind of like, you know, you don't know her name yet, but Nova's mum is kind of just like very nice to meet you and is offering a hand and is being very sort of like, you know, not respectful, but very kind of more serious. The dad is just like, hello, yes, lovely to meet you. And he's like, I'm a hugger, come in. And he's like, oh, sorry about the water. And he's like, you're getting splashed by his hair,

but he tightens you into a hug. Quite warm. Hi. And yeah, like he pulls you in a people should do introductions. I should do Okay, yeah, mom this is everyone everyone this is mom Um, this is my mom and this is my dad and this is my sister Aurora and this is my professor professor wit song She taught me everything that I know and What's your name? I don't know you're just mum to me what's your name? I don't know This is my professor, Professor Whitsong. She taught me everything that I know. Nova! Nova!

What's your name? I don't actually know your name. You're just mum to me. What's your name? I don't know. How do I introduce you, Mrs. Ejai? I don't know. She introduces herself. She's just like, hello, my name is Breeze. I am Nova's mother. I'm a chef in Vortensar.

Pleasure to meet you all. We know a little bit about you from some messages that we received from Nova that you've been travelling together and very grateful for you keeping Nova safe but yes it seems that things have gotten a little bit more complicated of late this is Wade my husband hello everyone yes

hello I'm Wade I'm an artist you can probably tell by all the paint on me. I do watercolors. Very, very bewildering. I do, yes. It's straight from me.

That's part of my whole thing. It's marvelous, isn't it? The sister steps forward like, she didn't properly introduce me because I'm clearly the best sibling and she's jealous of how cool I am I'm Aurora

I'm half air ganassi and half water ganassi which makes me super special and this nerd and she grabs Nova into a headlock and is just like and she's like can't do anything that I didn't like. She's like wrestling her around and you can see she's pretty burly.

Because you called me a loser! And then she's like ruffling her like cloud hair and stuff. I'm her little sister. Not that you could really believe that. It's lovely to meet you, Aurora, Breeze, and Wade. I really hope Nova's been keeping in contact with you

while we've been gone. To an extent, yes, a little bit. Yes, she sends us the occasional messages and she's recently learned to send us magical messages, I suppose. Some bizarre magic. I'm afraid we're not a very magical family. Nova's really the only one who's had these sort of powers before. I'm just a chef wade's an artist um uh aurora does do a bit of fighting we there's a bit of a sport in vorten

sarge she's quite good um and then well our our son cloud um i'm sorry tornado i keep forgetting to use his stupid jousting name uh he's a bit more of a sort of athletic type he does sky jousting name. He's a bit more of a sort of athletic type. He does sky jousting and things like that. Yeah, I haven't been able to find him. I've tried. Apparently he was here but we just missed him but I'll see if we can send a message to him and let him know that everyone's here.

If you can, over yes. I will. Go on. Not to stop you when you're in your thing. This is Lucius, and he's a high elf, and he's awesome. And he's captain of our ship, and he's amazing. And he's the best human. Best human?

Best high elf. Oh, my God. Yeah. And then this is Ayla. She is so strong. Ayla, flex. Aurora's definitely just like, like, oh, cool.

Like, Aurora's looking at you like, I'm meeting somebody who's like, you know, it's like, you know, you go to the gym and you see somebody who's like mega ripped and you're like, man, I want to be like them. She's like... Ayla's like always,

when everyone does all this hugging stuff and like really emotional stuff it was just kind of like I'm just gonna stand over here and like yeah you just you get on with that I'll talk to you later yeah well they were kind of like good my you Wade comes up Wade does offer hot like Wade comes up to hug you I don't know if you are going to stop him, but he's just like, I'm, I'm a hugger.

I'm sorry. And he goes to like reach, reach for, I feel like she just, she'd accept it, but she's like, thank, thank you.

Yeah. You get like splashed like water. Like you come away, like your cheek is all wet. Like part of your hair is damp. You're like, you know where he's left this impression. Um, but he's you on the back he's like it's lovely to meet you great vibes great vibes from you uh and then he kind of steps away uh and lets nova continue

um and and this this is uh quill um he's an arakro croak croak I can't speak I'm so excited and and and and he's we know what our Cobra over we can tell You got it, you got it. Quill, who are you? Who am I? I'm Quill, I'm an Arakrokra, and I'm a priestess of Hespa, like you said. Priestess? Priestess? Priestess?

Priestess? Priestess? Priestess? Priestess? Priestess? Priestess? Priestess? Priestess? Priestess? I'm not sure if... My apologies. Sorry, I got a little bit distracted. And Quill's amazing. And I made that wing.

You see that wing? I made that. Yeah, look at it. Look. Nova made this. All three of them look like... They don't understand. They're looking at it like, Oh, yes.

Oh, so... They have no idea. They like well okay they don't seem to understand it this is the one she made see incredible marvelous we always knew that how our little our nova was was very clever we always knew i mean did you design that how does it work is this magic we don't i decided from scratch using, yeah, the sketching techniques dad that you taught me, and then the professor... Oh, good! I'm glad that your art lessons paid off.

Even if you hated them, I'm glad. You get the impression, by the way, it's very obvious if you've ever hung out with somebody who's got, like, really weird interests or, like, does a cool hobby, and then you meet their super normie parents, this is that. Like Nova's parents are the most normal people you have probably encountered in your adventures. Like they are, he's wearing shorts and sandals and they just seem completely unfazed and completely bewildered by everything and then yeah when you turn to

century they're just like what what they're just looking at century like they don't understand uh how this person this this person can be and this is century and she's a guardian she's thousands of years old she's pretty sundering and um she's amazing and she keeps me so safe really safe and she likes plants and warm plates does she speak does she speak comment like did you do you understand i'm sorry we just oh yeah when you do yes lovely to meet you as well thank you for keeping my daughter safe and breeze like offers her hand like she goes to shake your hand basically oh oh wade's more of the hug really yes thank you thank you and she kind of like pats you and then wade is just like come here yes and like i pick up wade and like members of nova's family oh she's kept us safe many times as well.

Don't you worry about it. She's quite the strong fighter. Aurora's just like, yeah, right. Come on. How does she really... What, does she use a bow or something? What does she really do? She saved us from a spaceship. She saved us in the middle of space.

It was amazing. Yeah, but by doing maths or something, right? She didn't actually fight anybody. I mean, she has a pen. No, no like by doing maths or something right she didn't actually fight anybody I mean Actually magic You know Technically there was a little bit of a quadratic equation in there technically there was a little bit of a quadratic equation in there

I don't know what you're talking about exactly I'm with this one and Aurora points at Ayla like yeah she goes to stand next to Ayla like cool squad over here Ayla doesn't understand why she's coming over to her yeah she's just like cool

like you know it's like a little kid who's just like I want to be like you I'm gonna now focus all of my attention on you um jocelyn whitsong the high elf professor while you guys have been doing this kind of walks into the room you can see she walks with a bit of a limp she slumps down into a chair and for the first time she like takes some food and water and she just seems to kind of like quietly just try and recover some energy while all of this is going on but stays quite uh distant throughout the whole affair um the guards kind of look at you all nod uh and shut the door leaving you to this kind of more familial reunion whilst the other rooms are being prepared okay professor are you okay do you need medical assistance i know just a little um just a little bruised and a bit tired uh i've not really had i've not really been able to sleep and i've not

had much food in the last few days um is it safe to speak here no uh they said it's warded against scrying. They've been good. I mean, there is a risk that they may be listening in, but they've told us that the room is warded. I'm just very cautious over everything that's been happening. Everything that's happened in Vortensar, I just don't know who we can trust. I know that you care for your families.

And at this point, Nova's family are just like, what has happened, Nova? Vortensar's been fine. Just that they shut down travel in and out of the city for a while. They said that there was some rising tensions going on with some of the nearby city states and the sky cities and they were just going to close things off for a little bit but everything's been really good in the city i mean there's well i mean you would have loved it there's all this talk

about all this planar magic and and all this talk about the you you sent me that information about the homeworld that they were already talking about it. It's all been extremely exciting. It's all been good. Jocelyn kind of... What? Yes, for some it's certainly been good. Why didn't you tell me, Mum, if you knew there was stuff about... I didn't have a way of contacting you.

I didn't have a way of... I didn't know where you were. I spoke to you. It was all so quick. You said that it was only a few words and that I had to pass a message on to Justin. I thought you knew about it. It's just that it all seemed to be connected

to the things you were telling me. It seemed like it was just stuff to pass on to the Atlas Academy. They're the ones who told us all about it. They're the ones who made the revelation. What revelation? About the homeworld, about this ganass, and about knowing a way to get back to it. And then there was the snap election.

We had to vote for our new councillor again on all of the decisions. What? Yes, yes, yes. Talk to me about about voting i need you to tell me exactly what happened we have been told that there was a vote yes yes there was it was uh maybe a couple of weeks ago after the atlas academy made this big breakthrough through planar magic they they said that they'd been able to discover a way to uh that would that would be able to help vorten sar and and that they they believed that this would be the the pathway forward and maybe make even you know get us to returning back to the world that we all

came from or that the ganassi people come from and and then there was um there was a lot of talk you know me i don't follow the magic and politics that much. We just, we trust our local council. And I spoke to River and she said that it was good for Vought and Saar. And there was another candidate, there was a few other candidates, but they all dropped out of the running. And there was a snap election. They wanted us to re-elect our district councillors.

And the things they were talking about, they were saying that, you know, there might be war here on Erois. And if we would, you know, want, what would we want to do? And they were campaigning for us to focus on the people of Vortensar and make sure that we were safe and that we could return home one day. And I voted for River. She's done our districts for the last 20 30 years she's represented us and she's been fantastic i just trusted her to do what was what was what everyone else was talking about and dad who did you vote for well i did what your mother river she's she's always been a good patron of the arts, and they were, you know, talking about safety and security.

I mean, you know how worried we were about you coming out here into the other world. It's not like Vortensar, and we were a bit worried, and they were telling us that, yes, there might be war in the future, and that we should... It was very confusing. It was a lot of things, and they were saying all different things. There was all these music concerts and talking about Planar Magic being the future for Vortensar and things like that. Well, that's rich.

That's rich that suddenly they're talking about Planar Magic because it's accepted. Because it's not accepted, as far as I was concerned. Do you not remember what happened to me about Planar Magic? Well, but we thought that's why. That's exactly why we thought. We thought maybe you might be able to get reintroduced into the atlas academy with this the sudden change we thought that maybe that might be a route for you back in nova do not they expelled me because of it

nova don't be too harsh on your parents a lot of people in Vortensar have been told the same things. The Atlas Academy is firmly in the palm of this callous, this Valkyrian, as is another organization that I think may be responsible for much of the propaganda and many of the, shall we say, opposition voices, oppositional voices. My research was taken a few weeks ago, just before this announcement by the Atlas Academy. They've been keeping me in my quarters.

They've taken everything. They were spying on me. I managed to get away, but I've had a few encounters with a group calling themselves the Cypher Academy, a sort of dark shadow to the Atlas Academy. It's interesting that you should say that, considering we've had a few run-ins with the Cypher Academy. They are agents of... I don't believe that they were i don't believe that the council is

fully aware of their actions but they definitely influence vortensar society with the city locked off there's been more and more going on trade has been happening they've been i think that they may have constructed an active planar gateway. They've been bringing in outsiders, people who have been influencing things. The regular people of Vortensar would have no idea about all of this.

Mom? Dad? Do you know who you have voted for? Do you know? We voted for River to represent the best interests of the city. You voted for Calus Starbane. You voted for the Valkyrian Empire. What does that mean? You know your history.

You know, history. You know pre-Sundering. Yes, but... But that's all a Rosian history. So much of it's been blotted out from everything going on. I mean, are we... What do you mean we voted for him? There's nothing... As far as we know, there's just a potential for a war

and we voted for our councillor. That's all that we voted for. He is the one bringing war here. He's the one bringing war here. He is the reason there is going to be a war. Well, then why would our councillors agree to that? They said that they found a way back to our home world. Isn't that a good thing?

Because his empire... Remember when I showed you the map? His empire includes Ganas. It includes the homeworld where we were. Nova, you seem to know a lot that we don't. Why is that a bad thing? It's our homeworld. If we're part of something...

We know that there's this history of him attacking Arois, but if he has this whole empire and it's successful, home world if we're part of something we know that there's this history of him attacking arois but if he has this whole empire and it's successful is that such a bad thing that we'd be part of that isn't that where our people are from tater he's a dictator mom so but so was so were the people of arois they they prevented us from leaving isn't that the isn't that what happened with siasca she forbid us from leaving and trapped us here isn't that what happened with siaska she forbid us from leaving and trapped us here that's what they've all been telling that's what they've been talking about in the city that is that is true that is true i was working on a way to get

us home everything that i sent to you... You're one person, Nova. This is the whole... This is the whole academy in the council. They can do far more. Like, you have good intentions, my dear, but you're one person.

This is our whole city united. For the first time in a long time, you know how things have been in Vortensar. The districts are always at each other's throats, but now they're united. Everyone's believing in this one thing. It's

never been better. She wants a popcorn bag. You know what, Mum? I'm jealous. I want popcorn. Yeah, I do. I want popcorn too. You know what, Mum? I understand. I really do.

But to say... I'm glad you do because we don't. To say that Vortensar isn't what it is today because of Arois is naive. Arois needs us and we shouldn't turn our back on them. Well, you say that, but it's a case of it's not. That's a very nice idea, Nova, but, you know, we've had trade restrictions. The people

of Eroba still don't fully trust Ganassi. They still restrict our trade. We can't really trade with the Sky Cities. We're not... We've not been welcome here. We're still just refugees of a sort, aren't we?

If... But if there's one thing that being on Aroas has brought us, it's that we, as Ganassi, were stronger together. Mum, I wouldn't exist if it wasn't for our life on Eros look at you you're an air ganassi married to a water ganassi

I'm well yes and that's and now we're hopefully gonna see more of that this wouldn't have happened before on ganass this happened because we pulled together here on Eros well we don't know that we don't know that that wouldn't happen we've never known what life is like on back on our home world and like i said you'll misunderstand you're not under hearing me nova the four the four elements have never been more united in these last few weeks you've not seen the city it's a celebration it's people are excited people are happy for the first time in a long time. Look, there's clearly something more going on here. You're clearly more aware of these greater threats, but you can't be mad at us for making the decision that we did.

You can't be mad at us for making the decision that we did. We had to look at our lives about what was happening in our city, and we voted for who we thought represented that best, based on the information that we had. Now, Jocelyn, I bumped into her and gave her the information you asked for, and she told me all sorts of things, and then all we knew is she grabbed the three of us and and vanished us away to this new place and told us that we were in danger and that there were people that our lives were at threat and now we find ourselves in in a sky city with guards that we

don't know asking us all sorts of questions and and and now you're asking us all these things, but we don't understand, Nova. I'm trying not to lose my temper. I'm trying to try and keep calm here. But as far as I'm aware, we're very tired. Here's something really simple for you to understand, Mom. Calus Starbane wants me dead. He wants all of these people in this room dead. Now that seems a bit

extreme. How can you know that? He's literally told us that a few times, so just sorry to interject there. I'll back out again. She's completely stumped. She doesn't know how to respond to that.

It's such an unfathomable idea uh to her uh that her daughter who you know she you know you you know she's she doesn't she still sees you as like the kid that got expelled from school you know she doesn't see you as this world-saving hero um mom the last time i spoke with callous starbane he told me that the next time i would meet him he would kill me now if you don't believe me if you don't believe me maybe it's not that i don't believe you clever than me mum please just listen for a second tiangong, please help Of course Nova How would you like me to assist you? Where is that voice coming from?

It's looking around Mom, I met Tiangong when I left Fort Nsar Tiangong is a powerful being an ancient race of sentient energy and magic I am bonded with Tiangong is a powerful being, an ancient race of sentient energy and magic. I am bonded with Tiangong. Mum kind of like stumbles back and takes a seat down on like the edge of like a sofa or something. It just looks very confused.

Wade at this point is just stood there looking silently. Aurora is kind of looking around confused. That is correct, Miss Vija. I am Tiangong, one of the triumvirate of the eterna i have bonded in some symbiosis with your daughter we now share a powerful magical pact what she says is correct calistar bane has indeed threatened her life as well as the lives of her companions and now poses to invade a rois to obtain a device known as the genesis relic the world engine this creates life from planets that are dead and create tiango and goes on a

long kind of like technical explanation of like and he wants and this is what this is and this is this and blah blah like it's all very kind of techno-speak and speaking of magic and stuff like that. And it goes on for a little bit. Breeze just looks kind of overwhelmed. She just has head in her hands, rubbing her temples, looking very, very confused. And doesn't really know what to say. If you don't believe that, Sentry has direct experience fighting Kalala starbane nova this is it's too much right now it's too much it's not that we disbelieve you it's not that i don't believe you it's it's that this is you're saying things that i can't comprehend the idea that you're speaking to this mythical figure of arois's past that that that that vortensar is somehow some sort of uh enemy

i i can't comprehend it we're not as smart as you are we it's not that we disbelieve you we've clearly done something wrong. Go on, Tom. Well, Nova, I have to ask, and I mean no disrespect, the Vigiers. What do you expect them to do with this information? That is actually a good question. I don't know what you want from us, my dear. What do you want? I wanted to see if I could convince you that you have been lied to, that you have voted for something that was not explained to you,

that you... More clearly. You haven't been told the full fact, because the fact is we need to go to Vortensar and talk to everyone about this, and if I can't convince my own family of the truth, how can I convince Vortensar I mean that that's maybe that's that sounds like yes we don't know we didn't know all the facts what's done is done the vote happened we clearly didn't know what we would what we were

voting for we clearly didn't understand the the situation. That's on the council. That's on the Atlas Academy. But I also want you to understand that the city you knew has never been better. Right now, there are ganas from all four quarters working together, spending time together laughing together things are prosperous businesses are flourishing so you are going to have a hard time convincing people because the life they've known on this world the life that you've grown up with it's not always been easy we've had to rely on each other not anybody else on eros and now the first time, we're prospering under this promise that we've been given. Now maybe we're wrong, maybe everyone else is wrong. I don't know.

You've certainly convinced me that clearly there's more going on than we realized. But you've got to remember a lot of people in that city are just like me and your father. We're not, we don't have magic. We don't have these ancient beings that we've bonded with. We're just chefs or tailors or artists. They're not going to be thinking about these bigger pictures. They're going to be thinking about their lives right now. Do I want to go out to war or do I want to be reunited with my home world and see my city, my people flourish?

That's what's going on in their minds. So maybe you're right. Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe there's more to all this than we ever understood. But to a lot of people, you can't think of it the way that you are. You have to think of it like we are. you can't think of it in the way that you are you have to think of it like we are you have to remember that the atlas academy the counselors they have so much influence the academy especially everyone adores it and looks up to that as an institute of

ganassi excellence and if they say that this is a good thing, a lot of people are going to follow. There was a time that if you hadn't... if you hadn't been removed from the curriculum, maybe you would have been one of those people telling us this was a good idea. Well, I think it's somewhat hypocritical that the Academy removed me for reasons that they are now using very hypocritical nova you know as well as i that i also researched a lot of planar magic a lot of my research was dubious or considered unfavorable but things have changed something changed whether it was in the academy itself or within the council but the last maybe month two months they've been feverishly devouring everything they can about planar magic i've been consulted more in the last two

months than i have been in decades of my tenure. It's reached a fever pitch. Something happened. Well, Starbane is very charismatic, and I get it. Everyone here can attest that there was a time when I believed what he... I believed what he said to. I believed in his way. I've just seen that there are strings attached to that. I've seen his empire. I've seen people who have also been promised new worlds or a return to the homeworld. I get it. I really do.

Mom, I don't want you to think I'm angry at you. I just... Nova, we're tired. There's a lot going on here. The magic bringing us here, the day that we've had, we're tired and we feel a little lost. Let's...

Let us get some sleep and I'm just glad that you're safe i'm glad that we can see you that we're here with you that's what matters to me at the minute you are safe we are all together everything else i think that that is perhaps best left to people beyond the station of a chef and an artist but if i'm just glad that we're here and she just kind of comes over and like does give you a hug uh a kind of very breeze mum you know no nonsense um but soft hug uh uh she kind of backs off um and yeah one of the guards will probably kind of come in and say like we do have accommodations

ready if any of you wish to retire they've been warded we will need to keep it up keep the protections every 24 hours will need to be renewed Danica has instructed us to help you as best we can Professor obviously you need some rest for now but i i do feel everyone here would love to hear your insights um when you're ready i think you could be really valuable um in in figuring out

what's going on i wish that i could be uh nova but i'm afraid I might not be as useful as you think. I've been kept in my quarters, in my room, in the dormitories for weeks now. I have a small understanding of what's happening in Vortensar, but not much. But yes, I will be able to provide you with that once I've had some rest. She just kind of nods. Everyone, if you don't mind, I am probably going to go spend some time with my family now, if that's okay. I just, I want to catch up and maybe not have a raging argument

about the full thing. Of course! By all means. Do what you have to do. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Messenger ring. Sure. Don't blame them, Nova. They didn't know what they were voting for. I... I don't.

I know how charismatic Starbane is and the machinations he has in work. I'm just... sad. Sure. Your family are there for you, ultimately. Be there for them, too. They're tired.

We're all tired. Just enjoy being them, too. They're tired. We're all tired. Just enjoy being in their presence. Just for now. Thanks, Lucius. Have a good night, everyone. I'll see you tomorrow. Sure. Have a good rest.

Nova retreats back to a new suite with her family. The conversation turns to more normal matters and no more big talk of incorrect voting or referendums occurs within the Vigran household. What about the rest of you? Anything that anybody else wants to do or talk about while you guys have the time? Sentry, Lucius, Aayla, Kweel.

I think during that whole thing, by the way, Arvel and Petal just kind of kept in another room and were like, let's just leave them to it. And then after Nova's family all leave, they kind of like, Arvel creaks the door open, Petal's kind of luring over his head because he's a dwarf.

And they're just like, is it okay if we... We didn't want to interrupt. We didn't want to interrupt. We didn't want to interrupt. It seemed like that was quite an intense family party. I'll make some drinks for everybody. Oh, no, you take it easy. You take it easy there, Captain. Leave old Arval Dagus

to handle this. And he kind of comes out and he starts clattering about in the kitchen like pots and pans. Thank you, Arval. He goes into dad mode. Oh, you're welcome. It's good to keep busy. I think this is a good learning experience for us all, perhaps.

This isn't going to be easy. We can't just go and convince people. And you know what? They had a lot of great points from their perspective. They're getting everything they want back to them all the things that oppressed them in the past they've been giving it it's not the only way they can get that right like we could potentially get them back to their world a different way if we're talking

about playing our travel and all that fancy stuff that Nova knows about already and has basically just been waiting for permission to do in the first place. They can do it themselves. They don't need him. That's the thing. They can get it without the war. If everything that

we say comes with war on top of it, how are we going to convince them that oh you get the same by the way but we have to go to war with calisthabane first it's going to be difficult giving people the chance to write their own story not have it be told or told to them by someone who believes that they can give it to them. The trouble is the truth is not always the thing that people want to hear as well. Starbane has convinced them quite charismatically that everything is going to be great.

Or there'll be war. That's quite a simple thing to choose, is it not? He also thinks that his plan's going to work, which it doesn't, so... I don't want to... I don't want to convince people out of fear

as well. That's exactly what Starbane would do. If we convince them that, oh, by the way, all your plans are for naught because reality as we know it will end, that's not exactly inspiring, is it? And even if his plan did

work, Erois would be destroyed in the process. Starbane is just telling them exactly what they want to hear. We can't offer them any more than that. No. But we have to prove words do something. We have to prove ourselves.

We need to find a new plan for you know, destroying Hadar and all of the evil stuff without using the world engine. And we need to then convince people that that plan works and then maybe how do we if if we learned anything from what just happened we

can't go into the middle of a town and say there's a big red star that is devouring everything and starbane is on one side of the scale and we're in the middle of it and by the way a roast is made of a world engine yes they aren't aware of the greater concepts well at least from this one situation I don't want to assume for everybody I've been the naive

little boy myself I've learnt a lot and it's taken a long time for me to get used to that we've only got less than a year to convince all of our rows to band together against him. You guys are having this conversation. You know, it's getting to evening time. Pethal's probably kind of sat next to Sentry, just kind of leaning against her. Arvel comes over with steaming hot mugs of some sort of beverage smells sweet and sweet

and milky and chocolatey uh kind of lays them all down uh puts like a little flask a hip flask in the middle uh kind of looks probably towards ayla the most kind of gives you a nod of like add some of that to it um i i don't know much more than well nova's folks from what i overheard but uh i have i have faith that you the smart people of this summit i have faith that you can figure something out and if you you can't, well, maybe he looks up. You can see out the window the kind of cradle, the kind of merging of the multicolors and the stars beyond that just twinkle. She's still up there. Maybe she'll give you a little bit of wisdom and help figure it out.

Oh. You're right. Siaska's at the core of everything. Maybe that's our final push that we need to convince everybody. There's a lot more people. Important people that are already here. And important people, as Arvel says, you know, up there,

that we could potentially have an etch with. We gotta try. What's that that's going in your drink there? Out of interest. Ooh, that's the good stuff. It is the good stuff, but I don't know if Lucius could handle it though to be honest let the boy try

I'm up for watching that happen liquor thank you sure you can okay I'll hand it to Lucius I'm an elf this is fine pour into the hot hot hot hot cocos

biggest wig it certainly adds a kind of bite This is fine. Bloop, bloop, bloop. Pour it into the hot, hot, hot cocos. Mmm. Biggest wig. It certainly adds a kind of bite to it that is, you know, Lucius drank a lot of wine. I don't know how many spirits Lucius has really consumed in his life. It's not very many.

That definitely doesn't make it taste good. This is disgusting. I don't know why you'd put it in this drink and tarnish it yep i figured see i'm fine yeah it definitely feels warm kind of tips of the pointed ears are getting a little little hot lucius i feel a bit warm tingly um and yeah just uh alvo kind of just nods he's like you'll figure something out i have faith but also let's all take a note out of nova's book and get some rest i think that uh we all have got to talk to these leaders again tomorrow uh that's going to be a

another day of surprises i'm sure well hopefully Well, hopefully not, because that surprise sucked. Like a lot. Yeah. Maybe good surprises. I think they're good surprises. Yes. Turns out everyone else is not a traitor. Everybody's on our side. Best surprise ever. Done.

Maybe. And yeah. With that, we can probably take a break here and then when we'll come back we'll jump into the next day as the talks resume yeah everyone every leader has had 24 hours to think

about Starbane's message and now they're all like you know what sure it is it is a choice yeah easy choice