Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #15: Hold On Tight

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Everything that rises must converge, and baby, we are FLYING. It's good to be back.Miss us? We missed you! Look, we got you something: The Witch Class for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Yeah, the one Erika plays! You HAVE been listening! It's really fun, it's beautifully put together and it's one of the many, many incredible things you'll get when you join our Patreon. Come on in comrades, the water (Witch Class for D&D 5e) is fiiiine.Worlds Beyond Number is:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson and is produced, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse.Transcript of this episode coming soon! You can find transcripts of all our episodes here, for free, on our Patreon.Our album art is by the great Corey BrickleySome additional ambient sound design comes from Michael Ghelfi Studios. You can get their sounds and music for your home games and VTT as well, which we enthusiastically recommend. .

This is the sound of worlds beyond number. Autumn. Leaves of gold and crimson. Deep orange and bright yellow. Bob and float on the little stream, cascading over waterfalls, piling up amongst the smooth stones. The noise of suns.

songbirds bidding the day farewell as the shadows lengthen, deep golden haze of sunlight. As the day draws to an end, it is quiet. It has been quiet for a time both short and yet so, so long, by a tiny little four-plank dock solely to dip one's feet into the water, too shallow for even the most modest boat other than the boats made by the little leaves scurrying to and fro. Sits Amme, warmth of the sun sinks into the fabric of your clothes, where your skin touches your shirt, you can feel it almost like the top of a stove, and yet it sinks into your skin as the sun soothes.

Whatever now moves upon your heart. A voice moves across field and garden from wooden door. Mommy, I'd love some help setting the table, darling. Give myself just... a moment more to take this all in, to sit, eyes closed, feeling the warmth, hearing the crackling of the leaves. They crunch underfoot with little critters running around. Coming, Grandma, Ren. Make sure to check the pen is closed on your way in.

Mm-hmm. The door closes, and you... turn and can see at the eastern edge of the sky, the gold has already receded, giving way to lavender and indigo as the sky darkens. My feet so that the water droplets, sprinkle, dry my feet, slip them back into my little boots, and I start walking back towards the cottage. As you walk, you hear not, a single unfamiliar noise. The smell of leaves of wet earth. Familiar smell of from the goat pen and scat from the chicken coop and dust on the wind and the

oncoming cool of night. And there it is faintly. A little smell of juk. You've been getting it a lot lately. It's always very tasty, very kind and conscientious of Grandmother Wren to think about your favorite meal and cook it for breakfast and dinner sometimes on the same day. It's nice, too, that it provides such a good base and that if you gather different seasonal items, it can just completely change the flavor. Like, she-so leaves in mostly spring and And in autumn, there's a certain kind of mushroom that looks like fingers, and kind of reaching out of a log that I like putting in there. And I'm excited about what we can add tonight.

I have a little foraging basket with me. You walk into the house and you hear a voice say, very good, marked and proof. But that voice isn't here in Grandmother Wren's house. The first promising son you've seen. Grandma Wren, can you hear that? Go to say that, but you don't say it because you didn't say it. Not here, not in this memory, slips away into darkness and murkiness once more.

You feel yourself shivering until a warm weight. sinks into your chest and helps to soothe the movement of your extremities, bring some warmth into your body, but it's still all darkness. Memories. Memories keep coming back. It's cold as I move between. What are the memories Amea is searching for? It's a couple of summers after my friends have left, and I come first.

into the kitchen, practically kicking down the bottom door of the farmhouse-style doors. The summer festival, summer festival's coming! Oh my gosh, I've got to win a goldfish! You see, Grandmother Wrense, um, um, I am very, very sorry, but, uh, we are not going to be able to attend the summer festival this year. Oh, come on! It's the best part of the summer. Um, you know, I didn't get to show them, but, oh my gosh, uh, I'm gonna get so many fried

foods, I'm going to see if I can bring some foods, and then they'll fry them for me. I don't get to fry anything there. Grandmother Wren says, take this lantern, go and stand by the road. Okay. I can tell in her tone of voice. Something is wrong.

The brook's no argument. I grabbed the lantern, and I go running down to the lane. How old is Amé in this memory? About nine. You hear the croaking of spring peepers. frogs out by the waterside, they go silent. Their celebration of the return of spring is calmed.

You hear a rustle of some rabbits moving away from their warren, looking down the road in either direction. You don't see anyone approaching. But it's not always about seeing. I listen for the sounds. Perhaps there's a traveler coming, or should I be listening for hoofs? I smell. Is there something around?

Is there fires? Smell, you listen. You feel at first the wind blow and then hear until there is a sussarice of rattling, rustling leaves and branches, the trees bending. The wind, bending. The wind almost. almost overpowering you, the lantern flowing. As the lantern blows in the wind, you see that the light flickers on the verge of going out. I remember your own through my pockets.

I'm pretty sure I have some sort of spare bit of candle or something that can help bolster the flame. As you go to help us to the flame, you get an extra candle. You move your cloak up around to light this second candle. And as you light it and drop your cloak, A figure is standing looming over you in the road. Hello, I'm Amay. And I put up my other hand that's not holding the lantern.

Um, Andy, um, to shake. I put it down. And then I end up just nodding my head instead. The figure looming over you is exceptional height. A black gown extends to the dust of the road, shimmering gossamer with lines of pure reflection that fade away into the thick blackness of the gown. Like a spider's web spun of mirror glass

throughout the jet black cover of night itself. No shoe or slipper can. be seen indeed the gown seems to stretch all the way to the woman's shadow cast by the lantern behind her endlessly into the forest on the other side of the road tall hard hard to tell what angle or curve of her movement are knees or waist or back or spine as two long sleeves of an ancient cloak With something like fingers extending from in the shadows. Illuminated by the lantern, you see a headdress or crown of many spines of shadowy black, like the quills of some deep-sea monster.

And a face that you wonder. whether it is regarding you in neutral impassivity until you recognize that it is a mask. A white porcelain mask with jet-black eyes and jet-black mouth only slightly open in the whisper of the beginning of an expression that you cannot count at some strange angles. she brings this unmoving face of inorganic matter close to you. You offer me something, little one. Your help. I think Grandmother Rand must be expecting you. Um, may I ask what you are called?

She cocks her head to one side and says, inside the house you feel Grandma Rand's voice in your mind. You offered her a compliment, Amme. Oh, uh, I offered you a compliment of get a little closer to her. Are you, um, I don't know the protocol for this. Um, should I, should I call you that too? And do you, do I invite you in? Or can you not step off the road?

And also, where did you get your mask? And also, um, do you need the lantern? Is this your lantern? And then do you know grandmother run? She? She regards you. Once again, there is no face for her to move. There is no point of light within the openings of the mask's eyes.

She says, you have come to light my way from the road to the door of Wren's abode. I am imagining this grand lady. of shadow and darkness, just sitting in the cozy tiny kitchen, drinking tea with grammar and her. Please, uh, right this way, uh, Miss Marara. As you say Miss Marara, you hear some spring peepers start to peep again. Just Mirara. And she stands. And Amay, you, uh, head into the cottage. Grandmother Wren stands at the door. Very good, Amay. Go fetch us

some tea. I must talk with my sister. Your sister. I'm out. I'm after her. Grandmother Wren says, We are sisters of a coven. She and I, little Amay. Go fetch us some tea. Oh, gosh. Are you older?

Or is she the older one? She leans in and says, Amay, we're not that kind of sister. I don't know how old she is. Oh, my God, is it rude to ask, or can I ask her? Tadjustee! And I go back into the cottage, and I start, I climb off on my little step-y stool,

and I start rummaging through the tea cabinet. It is absolutely jam-packed. There are jars, glass jars, canisters and like bags and different kinds of teapots in there. Nothing is labeled per se in a way that, you know, with writing or anything of the sort, but definitely, you know, different shapes and pictures and scratches and colored wires on things. And I'm going to choose one that I think, is a nice tea for guests and not too much caffeine in it because it's kind of late.

You busy yourself baking tea. You can hear them talking. You hear her grandmother Wren say, Marara, thank you so much for coming all this way to see me. It is very kind of you. I appreciate the effort, Marara says. Not a kindness, Wren. Obligation.

Certainly the obligation. to meet, but I appreciate you acquiescing to my desire to meet here. And you see that Marara sits in a chair with a patchwork quilt and carved pig's heads on the armrest and, you know, this like musty old seat that you would like watch Ursulaan fall asleep in in the time that he like spent here. you see here in this place how the visitor looks, and it is made manageable by the comfort of Wren's home. Mirara does look out of place here.

Her crown barely sort of avoids scratching the like various hanging sages and rosemary bundles. She is not on her home turf here, but she does not appear to be uncomfortable in this space. Wren sits down. You bring them tea. I give her the nice cup. It is the one that has, it looks like a cat's face and it's got little ears on it. And I tell her, don't put, don't drink with it with the ears facing away from you.

You'll poke your eyes out. You watch as a skeletally thin, a hand that appears to be claded in a glove that covers claw-like fingers and extends all the way up as the hand and arm emerges from the center of her chest, takes the cup and the cup and tea vanish into within the center of her being. Grandma Wren looks at you

with a look like we might not see that cup again. Get another cup then. As you go, you hear them speaking. You hear Mirara say to Ren. Time does not appear to be on our side, Ren.

The world moves. Whether we will it or know, not always can the comings and goings of great happenings dwell pleasantly in your realm. A decision must be made. You see, Iran goes, Well, I think you know my decision, Marara, and I think you know where I stand. If these tidings cannot sway you, what event possibly could.

You see, Wren leans forward, Grandma Wren, says, Perhaps none could sway me. There is a long pause here, and Marara turns to regard you, Amé. The voice emerges from the mask, and again, you can't tell if there are lips moving behind fabric under the mask or not, or if instead this is simply who and what she is. But you see her turn to regard you. Your little apprentice offered her hand to me on the road, Wren. An offer of friendship.

Or an offer of a hand. Marara. Murara turns back to Graham of the Wren saying, Do I seem cross to you? For you, Marara, this is positively irate. I am forced by circumstance. to act at the boundaries of what is mine to do and undo, to see my obligations fulfilled.

These are desperate times, Wren. And if I am offered something as special as the hand of a great apprentice, if you will deny me other tools to address these problems... Marara, I've never... never known you to refrain from a fight you thought you could win.

It's a long silence and Grandma Wren says, if you start to laugh, Grandma Wren whips her eyes over you. Grandma Wren stands up and says, Amme, go to your room. Renn, I have, yes, Grandma Renn.

As you turn to leave, Mara turns to look at you and grandmother, Wren, one of that thinking just kicks the ground as she turns, that Marara can't complete her look to you, Ami, and looks back at Ren. Ren says, just an observation about your character to Marara, different from my own. I refrain from fights I can win all the time. Ami, police, like, tea, tea in mouth, like, shaking.

Shaking with her hand, the cup is shaking in her hand. I scamper over to my room, and I whip behind the door and crack it a little bit. Are you trying to get a look at Marara as she leaves? Just a little bit. Give me a wisdom saving throw. Oh, no. That's an 18. Okay, not bad, not bad.

My mind is not blown. You catch just the barest flash of black as Marara moves to the doorway. As on the lawn, Marara turns to say, There is much the coven can do Without full unanimity We can act if need be Of course That's your business

If you and the others see fit to act in a certain way You are welcome to do so As you've said It will not be Best of luck Marara I trust that you will see to yours As I shall see to mine There is a strong noise of wind

trees shaking and you hear Grandmother Wren at the door for a long moment you hear her go into the kitchen there's a cabinet open that you don't hear open that much

and you hear a little of a flask opening and a long drag of a pull from a flask and a I wait for the sigh to almost completely be done and then I come

bounding down stairs. Hello, Amé. Very well done. Thank you. I'm sorry. You had to send me to my room. I just... Was that? Uh, coven? Sisters? Um, dire times. Uh, am I in a coven? No. Do I have sisters? No. But... Uh, one day you will. Ammy, go ahead and take a seat

And she gestures to a little place by the fire She says throw another log on there This is going to be a while I throw a log on there Grandma Wren comes over to you and says Can I have a drink too? You heard that No, you cannot have a drink

These are dire times Grandma Wren You don't repeat things she said Times listen Times are always dire people are always dying around saying, times are dire. We have to take drastic measures. Times are dire. Let's do some unconscionable, absolutely ill-fated, fool. I don't, ooh, ooh, I am vexed. You see Tarot, sort of peers and flutters off to his side. That was my sister, one of four. And, And she is called Marara, as I am called Grandmother Wren.

Ami, you are not part of a coven. You see here she actually goes and she makes tea and puts a little cup in front of you and sits down with her own teacup. Across all of Umura, there are many, many witches in a vast and broad tapestry of those of us called upon to see to the ways and bridges and paths between the world of spirits and the world of Umura. Our earth, our home is blessed and fortunate to be tied forever to the world of spirits. It is within a moment. It is within a moment. beyond, between all places.

And there are many parts of managing two worlds together that are, in fact, one. Are you saying that they're all, there's a free flow between spirit world and our world, and we have to help that interaction? Yes. It's about as complicated as it could be. It is useful to think of a world of spirits and a world of people, for indeed, that is how they most often regard themselves. But the truth I feel after many long years is that it is one, that we are all one. And that these distinctions, we accept these. distinctions for their utility and often do not see the price we pay for that usefulness. You will have a coven one day. You are almost 10 years old, which is very young, but old enough perhaps to know that for fate or fortune, the coven you will inherit from me one day, is the coven of elders.

Coven of... Is that why you're a grandma? Will I become a grandma why I inherited it? Um, you can't... Is he going to be my sister? Grandma's sort of a nickname that I like. Um, what you will be, Amé, is the witch of the world's heart.

And you see that she takes a lovely little wooden, polished, varnished thing of warm, yellow-brown wood up off the mantle and sort of dust it and there's some old writing on it in this like beautiful sort of flourishing script with little roses around it. And you see it says, there's like a little poem on it

that you've seen sort of your whole life. It just reads of open hand and trusting face, a home of homes does all embrace. She says, Of the coven of elders, there have been many witches. Of these witches,

have there each been many people. I am not the first witch of the world's heart. there were others before me. But for the past 172 years have a... Hey, relax. All right? It's not that old.

There's older witches than me, considerably older witches than me. Witches have areas that they steward, that they tend to. And the areas of a witch's care, are in some ways her domain, although that word I have never quite enjoyed, because there is no...

Whatever response... A witch does not have authority, she has responsibility, and you are responsible to what you represent. And I will say it is your freedom to refuse this coven in this position... No, no, no, I want a steward something. All right.

Well, I'm glad because, you know, I'm getting older. And I put off finding an apprentice for a long, long time. And I think, honestly, there are risks with bringing on an apprentice, I think, too early. No one wants to be an apprentice for a hundred years. But I also am cutting it a little bit close. but the witch of the world's heart. Of the elder coven, there are five. You see that she gets sad here as she says there are five.

You almost wonder if there have always been five. Have there always been five? Um, when I was young and first succeeded to the hearth and home of the world's heart, there were seven, and I believe there have been as many as 13. Many great witches have been lost. The witch that you saw here earlier tonight was one of my sisters. She is the witch of the waning moon, Marara. of my sisters who remain, there is Gromor, the Witch of the Wild Hunt, and there is Hakea, the Witch of the Woodland Green, and there is Indry, the Witch of the Wind and Stars. And each of us...

Whoa, whoa, whoa, was there, the other, there's a lot of Ws, is that, did you name it? Because it just alliterates with witches. You know, wild hunt, woodland green, wind and stars, a world's heart, waning moon. are the naming convention is secondary to the auspices of these various positions but yes an observation well made there is a strength in names and those names were selected for those reasons but truth be told the categories of our coven do not seem to the names didn't come first in other words. Oh. So then why did the other, which is that are no longer on the council, the ones that you lost, didn't they have heirs or apprentices?

They did not. One of them never took an apprentice, though she was made aware many times of the danger in not doing so. And the other's apprentice betrayed her. and forswore witchcraft. Do you that? Of course. In my life, I have watched the coven diminish.

Uruna, the witch of the wide blue sea, and Scalvi, the witch of the watching fire. Both departed, their seats, unsucceeded and unfilled. Is that what this is about? Is Marara worried that there's going to be? another loss of an elder? No, no, that's not what Marara's worried about. Marara, I will point out, does not have an apprentice.

Oh, and who drank the tea inside her stomach? I don't know what she does with the tea. Oh. The point is this, Amay, you don't need to worry about... Marara is going to... There's always some problem, But as far as I'm concerned, when Marara's got a problem, we're all doing better. The important thing to know about the Coven of Elders, Amé, is that witches are those who practice witchcraft.

And witchcraft is about understanding. Witchcraft and magic itself flourishes when we understand. And there is much in the world. to understand. There is value in the truths that we are all able to speak to. And though I don't like Marara's truths, and she definitely does not like mine, they are there. How can they be both truths if you guys disagree that they're truths? Because our world cares about what is true, and people care about what they want.

And unfortunately, in some ways, which is, for the moment, have to be people too. So each of us is responsible for observing and understanding the nature of our world, for tending to it, for speaking to something that could unfold in a catastrophic way. But also each of us, probably on some level, wants to see more of what we care about in the world. That second part is a, I don't know, call it a personal ambition. I think the world would be nice if it were nice. Some people feel differently and witchcraft in its beneficent wisdom. In its beneficence!

She stands up and waves her broom and the shutters. In its beneficent wisdom! I also stand up and I get on my chair! Beneficent wisdom! Yes, ami. Remember always that some portion of magic is yours to wield, and that the world contains many, many truths.

And the hope, I suppose, of a good witch, is that there are enough things that are good that are also true that your magic might flourish at its utmost. How do you only know that the truth that I stand for are the right beneficent ones. How do you know if you're doing the right thing? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Um, great question. Let's spend the rest of our lives figuring it out. Don't give me that sigh, young army. It's a very worthwhile endeavor. Yeah, but can I just get to be, like, what you are and just know? A little tear comes to grandmother Wren's eye. Well, I know nobody's perfect, but you do a really good job of it. I mean, you always seem to know.

She leans down, puts her sort of, like, puts her nose at, like, the edge of your, like, hair and just closes her eyes and puts her head against your head and goes, You're coming in at the end of my story. And whatever wisdom you think I have, I can only assure you that my ledger is filled with the mistakes that bought that wisdom. Feel her breath of my little bowl cut, ruffling the hairs. And I can smell her warm, smell. It's already warm on this hot summer night, but her different, her kind of warm smell

is different. It's cozier. You said 170 isn't that old and that there are many witches that are much older than you. That seems like there's a lot of time for a lot more mistakes and we can make them together. There is more time on me. We will be together. Over The coming days and weeks as memories flood through your mind. Grandmother Wren trains you in all the ways of the witch of the world's heart. And you begin to understand how strange and fluid these domains of witchcraft are. For the world's heart seems to be not a physical thing, but rather the magical tapestry of all of the ways.

in which parts of the world move together. There is a magic to passion, understanding, insightfulness, moments where a choice to grind and dissolve and dismember instead becomes a choice to come together, to grow, to have two things join and become more than the sum of of their parts. It is an idea almost impossible to articulate,

but you begin to feel it working in the world. The idea that within the domain of this witch of the world's heart are all of those moments where a creature, a category, a concept, things large and small, and things, that might not even be said by most folk to have the ability to make a choice. Make the choice instead of being afraid and moving away and dissolving and disintegrating to make the braver choice to instead connect and move as one. You see all of the ways in which Grandmother Wren in communicating begins to talk

you about the adventures of her life, what she does. You remember the first night that she puts you on the front of her broom in her lap? Once again, it's pre-dawn light, early sunrise. She's got a huge bag of food and snacks. Taros in your lap. You're in her lap. All right, this is our first little outing. Hold on. Tight! Wind in the trees. The fog clears as she takes off into the sky. And at first, It's tree tops! It's moving! It's wind and it's everything! And then it's even higher! And then, oh my god, you're seeing farmland. You can't even see buildings anymore. Oh, you're way too high. You're in the clouds! This is too high! Put your scarf on! You'll catch pneumonia!

Just fully, fully like shouting at the joy and the pier. It's freedom of movement and sky and air and stars and... Oh, I just, oh, it's wonderful. I close my eyes and it really, I feel, I can't explain just the joy. I feel like my heart is soaring. She takes you on some very simple, minor adventures, mostly things where she has to go somewhere to retrieve something, find something that was stored away a long time ago.

Many of her adventures at this time have to do with old friends and allies dying, passing away, that there is a moment of ages changing. She communicates to you how vulnerable the transition will be on her passing, which as painful as it is she talks about with some regularity, especially as you get later into your teenage years. She just has to be honest. And specifically, that you will come into a great power that you will not have her experience or wisdom and wielding. And there will be a very fragile time for essentially the office, the station of the witch of the world's heart will have moved to new and inexperienced hands.

And with no judgment or castigation, she just has to warn you how dangerous a time that will be for the world. And over these years, you realize essentially that in this coven of elders, and of those elders, you don't even meet the other witches. She doesn't bring you on those meetings. But unless you would like desperately ask to go on one of them. But the other domains, the wild hunt is a like monstrous witch. One of like the other, there are other rhymes that she gives you in like a children's nursery rhyme almost for each of those stations. for the Witch of the Wild Hunt, there's a little, like, rhyme that a little, like, fairy in the attic of Grandmother Wren's house, like, repeats for you.

Where beasts have tread and monsters fed, the bloody fang and moor hath led. And it's, like, very cutesy, but you're like, oh, meeting that person in person would be very intense. The Witch of the Wind and Stars, who apparently lives at the far northernmost point of the world. in that same little sing-song rhyme about these great witches of old, of frost and stone of ice and throne, the ruler of the self alone. And you, the only one that sounds, the only one that sounds like close to being like a person you could hang out with

is the Witch of the Woodland Green, which is the Holly Branch and Towering Oak, The limb and leaf and thorn her folk, which seems like pretty, like, okay, nature? Yeah. Okay. This is doable. I commit all of these to memory,

and I imagine what the witches will be like, and maybe some of them have apprentices, and maybe there are other, other, which is my age, that are also learning these rhymes, and that I can meet, And maybe the one that's from the wild hunt is like, like, like, like, I'm imagining, I imagine like a female-looking urs salon, like an urs salon with eyelashes.

And I just, you know, I really apply myself because I want so badly to be part of this and to do right by Grandma Wren and to spend as much. much time with her as I can learning. I bet that when I meet the other, which is of the coven, we can also have witty exchanges with each other. As you think about having witty exchanges with the one witch of the elder coven that you met, you come across the last little stanza of that poem. Underneath the sign of the waning moon,

the death of light, the end of might, the all-consuming dread of night. And you realize that of these stations, only one of them concerns itself with people. And that all of persondom in the world, all of the world of humans exists in the purview of a single seat on that coven. There is much in the world that is,

spoken for outside of people. Over those years, I will ask, as these memories come flooding back, what your most sorrowful and your most angry memory would be. My most sorrowful memory is that I just, I couldn't. stay away and to find out more about my parents and my family that left me with grandma ren i don't think it was much more than just finding out who they were where they were i can't imagine that they live in a village too far from toma if they knew about the witch of toma and to bring their daughter there but i just want to see what they look like. Oh, I think I remember there were a lot of brothers and sisters, a lot of

claiming. How do you try to find them? Maybe I just ask people in the village. Everybody knows everybody. That's when you realize that nobody knows where you came from. Are you sure? We see that you're, uh, it's like a spring festival. How old do you think you are? and 14. It's a spring festival. You see that there are some other, some other girls that are like out by this like apple cart. There's hay.

There's some like beautiful dancing. These like long ribbons strung around a big string like maple. And you see the girls go like that one of the little girls who's like these long brown pig tails goes, no, my mama talked about it. You're not from here. Your mama talked about it Well Well it is interesting

Yeah I am interesting Where did I Where did your mama say that I came from Well when you were really little Like I don't know like five years old Or four or five years old or something like that You just showed up in town one day

Grandma Rent goes on long trips out of town Yeah I know but I mean didn't Like, how far away? And what does the local gossip say? You see a little 10-year-old girl goes, I heard you came out of an egg. I don't think would just come out of eggs. At least not, well, not in the way that chickens do.

We all come from eggs, of course. But, you know. You see that one of the other girls, it's like a fellow 14-year-old, just looks at you and says, look, your family's not from around here. You don't think they would have come to find you if they wanted to see you? Well, they don't want to see me. The other sort of girls, you know, like sort of whisper and you see like two or three of them

behind the main one you're talking to kind of turn and laugh to each other. And you see that one of them turns around and says like, why do you want to know anyway? Look, if your mom wasn't the town gossip and your dad wasn't the town fool, I mean, you'd want to know anyway, even if it sucked to know, right? My mom's not the town gossip, and I don't know why you want to come talk to us anyway. It's not like you're another village girl. You don't go to the school. You see this, you see that another one who says, you know, like, says, like, calm down. She's just like, she's clearly a girl. And she's like, no.

a witch. I go, and I like, punch her right in the face. Bam. You see, they'd scream. Rens, you feel Grandma Renn's hand on your back. Leap on her, and I started in the window, like, my arm. Enough, enough. You see, she pulls you off. The girl is, like, bleeding out of her nose as you've socked her. You're out of your mind. What's wrong with you? I'm a witch. You see, Wren goes, we don't need that. And then, um, And pulls you out of there.

Later at home, you are being excoriated. Are you thick? What's wrong with you? You can't attack? Look. Why can't I? Why does she get to see mean things about me and I can't do anything back?

Because she's not trying to be good. Maybe she should have and she would have gotten hit. Oh, is there something someone in the world should have done? Oh my goodness, someone in the world should have done something. Yeah. Let's every time someone doesn't do something they should, let's absolutely lose control. Great, good. Okay, I would like to say that I did not lose control.

You leapt on her and socked her in the face? Yeah, and I could have done magic about it, and I didn't. I'd say that's very in control. of me. It gets dark in the cottage. Whatever you're glibly referring to has the power to rot your heart from within and turn you into something that you would never recognize. Do not glibly invoke casting magic to settle a score because of your hurt pride, that you have even turned your feet in the direction of a road that dangerous gives me pause. Well, what if I wanted to have that? What if once in a while I wanted to

have a little bit of something and feel good about things and not always be working? Every summer, you know, you go to the festivals and every spring you go to the festivals and and you give so much to all of them, and they don't even invite you in for tea, like a normal person. What if I wanted to be a normal person? Sometimes I couldn't make them think I was normal. Grandma Wren looks at you, sees this incredibly dangerous statement you have made. She walks over to you, picks you, up, which is harder for her to do now that you're 14, and hugs you close to her chest.

You miss them. Them I was all me. And everybody else, I'm just a witch. It can't be like them. I don't belong with the spirits. We have you, them, and they're gone. Sorry, I didn't mean that. I don't want to be good.

I don't want to be kind. I'm sorry. That's all right, sweetheart. You're... These are the very, very hard years. And you're not wrong to feel this way. I don't understand what's happening to me. I just feel things all the time.

We'll never be able to overtake the cause of its appearance. You see, she takes a little sort of, she roots around in the thing and pulls out a little ball. It's like a little sort of, soft blue ball looks like something that might even be like from the Citadel. And you see she holds it up in her hand and she drops it. She doesn't throw it. She just drops it on the ground and it bounces. And it gets like a couple inches away from her hand that she has to lower her hand to get it.

It's a very wonderful little thing. Soft and Stone gave this to me because they've believed that they would be able to come and visit once a year. And they wanted some toys for little suvi here in the cottage. It's bouncy. It's fabricated from some wizardly materials, and it's quite a lovely little object. And when you drop it, it can never go higher than the point from which it was dropped.

And there's something in that in that that I sort of feel about dealing with and loss. Great pains, great feelings of unfairness, of loss, of hurt, mirror the wonder of the thing that we lost. Your sadness is in its own way a reflection of how wonderful the friendship you discovered was. And I don't think you would feel it if it were not for, how special those moments were.

Yeah, I guess I'm just glad I had them for a summer. But, you know, I think it's like, like this ball, it always just gets lesser over time, you know, the comfort that that memory brings. Boy, if I live to 170, and that's kind of the only high point for me, then I don't know. I can't promise that it won't be lonely. I can only... And you see here as she sits, goes, Before you, I was very alone. Oh, me, I...

I'm afraid I don't have the answers, my darling. The world will always be ready to see you as a witch. Sometimes it will be in celebration, sometimes in fear, sometimes in wonder, sometimes in dismay. Ready to accept that responsibility. You see, she holds you close, says, I will reach out to, I know not where Ursula is. His path he has concealed. A day I think might come. where Suvi could come into your life again.

Really? And Ursulaan, yes, if Ursulaan were to return one day, and it's not beyond imagining, but Suvi is in a hard position, and I will reach out to steal to, I have often reached out to steal to inquire after Suvi to make sure that she is all right. I think it's time I told you.

Um, Suvi needs to be at the Citadel for some time, because there's a great danger that surrounds her. Can you, can we help? Is she just safe there? Wasn't she there when her parents, you know, they got attacked there before? What if they were attacked there again? She should come here.

No, not here. There would be a safety here, but Suvi would... Suvi needs a place to flourish. And though there are comforts here, she has a gift, and she is gifted in those ways, and the Citadel has for her. More books, yeah, yeah. I hate to be that crass, but it's got way more books.

She looks at you and says, Do you want me to tell you? Yes. All right. Suvi's stay here that summer was about more than just being safe. There was a business at the Citadel that soft and stone and steel were all involved in.

The night that Suvi first came here, the night that Roof attacked the citadel, was anticipated by a faction within the Citadel that had been discovered by soft and stone and steel. They knew about it? I don't know that they knew about the attack before it happened, but they knew that there were people within the Citadel working to bring about the downfall of the Citadel.

This information I'm telling you, I'm telling you, because you will one day be the witch of the world's heart. heart. This information could absolutely see people killed. And I have to start telling you at some point, and you're 14, and that feels early, but any later it starts to feel irresponsible. Does Suvino? No. No. No. When Soft and Stone passed away, it was after many months of hardship and violence. Wait, wait a second. Wait a second.

I run to my room and I come back and I have like a little sort of accordioning almost map like a piece of parchment that I kind of roll out and you can see that it's got drawings and sketches

and different connecting bits and marginally and chicken scratch about Suvi and her parents and Jasper and Steele and Citadel and Beast question mark and just absolutely, you know, as much information as I have been able to gather over the years. You see that she says the accatator was a small group of self-deputized individuals within the leadership of the Citadel that included Suvi's parents, as well as several other important wizards steal, and several figures outside of the Citadel that alerted them to the presence of these agencies. One of them was a man named Yoran, who was a

shapeshifter from Galthmey. The entity they were chasing, which I believe they jokingly referred to as the League of Whispers, was dedicated to the downfall of the citadel from within. They discovered that, but unfortunately their own secret society was operating outside of the bounds of review because they believed there was a corruption within the citadel,

and they had to move extra judicially in order to cut the rot out, and it resulted in a prolonged series of secret violences across Umorea. I have scribbled on an extra piece of parchment, Equator, and I have a slap, it onto the middle of the board, making notes. You see, she says, Suvi was brought here because her parents, they thought they had more time. And the summer that she was protected here,

they were intending on coming back. However, I believe that those individuals responsible were pushed, underground, although steel has often asked me if I had any idea where urine was. So his involvement, I have my suspicions about him, how loyal he ended up being. Regardless, Suvi, I do not believe that Suvi is in danger. That matter is now many years resolved, but... Are you sure? When steel came to collect Suvi at the end of that summer,

the primary targets of their investigation were dead or missing. But if there was no... Okay, well, if they were missing, that's just not here. That's not gone. It was all... Dead. Well, it was all tangled up in... The issue with getting...

involved in that level of conspiracy is that if you have an enemy in Rove and an enemy in Gouthmi and an enemy in Kamsarza, and you come across one of them in a dark alley and they end your life there, they're not necessarily going to post a bulletin for your other enemies. This is going to be very complicated army and a great deal is going to rest on your shoulders. There is a there is much to do. And unfortunately, your position is which of the world's heart

is to fix problems that affect people. You'll do great. You're sure there's none of the other witches that have apprentices that could, you know, lend a hand or something? Well,

I believe that the only two of my coven that have an apprentice at the moment are Gromor and Injury. So I think Grimor's apprentice is busy catching and eating things, and then Injri's apprentice is occupied with tending to empty hallways and corridors of icy crystal. Okay, well, that first one, we are all trying to catch and eat something. Second of all, that second one sounds...

irrelevant. I'm going to tell you something. What you've said is absolutely true. And you are magically prohibited, as am I, from saying that in coven meetings. Oh my. Wait. When you're in a coven meeting, one day. You can't insult somebody like magically? You can't. Oh, there will be tremendous repercussions if you insinuate that any of the other stations are not incredibly significant to the nature of magic itself. We are bound by laws of mutual respect. We are bound, am I. You move from this memory in the final.

Grandma Wren tells you a lot that, honestly, these memories come flooding back to you. And of them, you remember, like, there's like wild memories or whatever, or memories come flooding back to you. She tells you about friends of your station. all over the world. It's more than I can even impart to you in a single episode. But from this point forward, if you're in a new city

or a new place or a new whatever, and you want to roll a check to see who's there. In other words, you know, Grandmother Red does like the anti-heroes quest mentor thing. She's not like,

the power will be within you when you most need it. She's like, here's a list of a hundred helpful people. Right? She's like, she's like, this is exactly what's going on.

She spends a life... This is the film. This is... Yeah. She spends a lifetime training you. But of note, it's like... To give you an idea of the flavor, it's like years of her not only training, like, here's how you make a potion.

Here's how you put a stitch in a magical garment. Here's how you do this. Here's how you do that. Here's how you cast a spell like this. All of this stuff that she's training you to be able to do. She's also flying you around the world, showing you places of significance. And she's, like, introducing you to some people. She's like...

She even, like, tells you if you ever go to the citadel, She talks about the friendly people there, where she's like, of course, Suvi, your dear beloved friend is there. The Citadel hosts many people, many wizards, many spirits. Steele is someone that you can trust to do what she considers honorable and just, but if you try to talk to her about something that does not benefit the Citadel, you are going to meet a very, forgive the pun, steely, presence. A good friend there is my old friend Sly of the brooch, a very powerful wizard who's very underestimated in a good way. Gult, the artificer, is also an old friend, and there is a spirit

that they have bound to their service in one of their libraries who is called Pomeroy. But his true name is Gwynfailathre here. And you see that... Always two ends or one. She spells the name out for you. He is the spider of the wind. You may find him in one. Yes, gross. Gross.

And she goes through, an immortal man. All over the world, too, she talks about, like, in the port of Kudroy on the inner sea of Rove, there is a man named Throne, who sold his soul to the moon for the chance to live forever. He made this promise a long time ago, so he's immortal, he made a promise a long time ago

to always look after his descendants if asked. He's a powerful, powerful warlock. However, he didn't really understand how generations worked when he made the promise. So he has like thousands of descendants. You are one of his descendants. It doesn't, he didn't...

Oh, wait, wait, I have a great, quick, great, quick, good, good, good, your father. Right, you and like 50,000 other people. So he didn't... Wait a means I'm related to. I have family all over. That's sort of how our species works, yes. She goes over, all this different stuff.

The last memory that comes back to you is, as she gets the first, the last day she's on her feet before she has to go into the bed. It's time for me to start handing over. See the, big bed around her breathing heavily. I understand.

I have done my best to put as many tasks to rest as I can so that this transition might be as smooth as possible. We respect all honored friends. The wild ones are as much a part of this world as its people as the rocks and trees and rivers and lakes. There is a spirit that is moving upon the world in a way that I have never seen before. He has held his breath since the dawn of time.

He is known by some as the pilgrim under stars and by others as the man in black. He is the king of night. He is called the stranger. For some time now, since, since you were a very little girl, in fact, he has been moving upon our world in a way that I cannot quite see. And you see that she begins to show you writings on her desk, other elements. I have never found even a shred or scrap of what his name might be.

And I believe that he has never been bound by any wizard or sorcerer of antiquity. He is a spirit of the night of dread things. and earlier this month, while I was away, I was in a sacred place of the coven of elders known as the Grove of the Well. He appeared and attacked me there, and I fear he is coming to the cottage. How do I prepare for him? How do I... If he comes, do not grant him entry, this station still has power left, in this sanctum.

It is important that you not lose this home. There will come a moment after I am gone where for a very brief moment there will be no witch of the world's heart.

And in that moment he may strike. But you must act carefully quickly during that time. But once you haven't inherited the home, all will be well. When you say he will moves upon the world in a way that you haven't seen before, and he dared to attack you,

what hope do I have against such power? You have the strength to provide, no more, no less. You see she puts a hand to your face. It is not fair to be tasked with this. The door is open. I remember that little girl that I held weeping in my arms who wished for a life where you could feel that you were of the tapestry rather than speaking for it.

It is not fair to be asked a speaker for the world. And if you wish to put that task aside No No, I mean I mean to say if you wished to put that task aside There are none that could blame you And I need you to know That I would love you all the same

My love for you is not built Upon what you can do for this world You have earned it every moment of the day by being just and only yourself. I love you so much, Grandpa Red. Thank you for always seeing me. She smiles. I will tell you everything of the stranger that I know.

Not be ready. She goes to sleep and you wake up. Ami, you awaken in a bed, clean, smooth linens, your belongings are on a small dresser to the side. A window is open and a scent of Jasmine comes in through the window on an evening breeze that you look out and see yourself and the stars moving in a strange way. You are in a town or a city? And you realize that the city is rising slowly.

You are in a hovering platform. the size of a small town within the erion of the citadel. Oh. On your chest, you feel a weighted warmth. And the fox looks right into your eyes. He goes, you wake? You okay? I hug him real close.

He goes and licks your face. He's just like licking at your chin and cheeks. I gotta go to bed. Oh, I'll let you. I like, oh, it takes me a minute because I just don't want to move. You know, once he's on top of you and he's all comfy and asleep, it's like, that's kind of it. But, okay, I got to get up. I put him, put him to the side.

I scoge him to the side. I look around. A woman steps in dressed in white robes with white gloves. She has dark hair up in a large sort of wide. almost like a Victorian bun. She has a gold piercing in her nose that goes along a gold chain to pierce in her ear. And you see she goes, Oh, are you awake?

Amé of Toma? Yes. I am Dr. Nadine Tamri. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Oh, my goodness. I suppose I have you to thank for being in. good health here?

Uh, yes. Oh my goodness. Your fox is asleep. Yeah. Yeah, he does that. Oh, no, he doesn't actually. What? What? Uh, well, he, he has, uh, refused to sleep, uh, while you have been, uh, unconscious. Oh. Oh, my. Uh, yes, you've been in a coma for a little over a month. A month?

We cut to the smell of rich incense and wondrous poperies of flower petals, nectar's diffused from glass decanters in a rich palatial suite. In tangled sheets, we find Suvi. Next to the sleeping body of the wizard's silver. Damn, everybody in bed. Everybody's in bed. It's been a month. Abria, could you please describe Suvi and her abode?

Yes. Suvie has a... She would call it a comfortable set of rooms that she calls her own. They are very... tried, and I think now having spent that one sort of precious afternoon at Grandmother Wren's cottage, she has tried to approximate the level of coziness using the sort of sumptuous, very elaborate styles of the Citadel. So there are like cushions everywhere and like fabrics swooping down from the ceiling.

And all of that looks like very, like, languorous and decorous. Because that's the outer sort of what she shows off to the world. She wants to look comfortable and poised and cozy and fucking a little sexy. And then she's got, obviously, her secret study that no one is allowed entrance to. That has a completely different vibe. That's just a monomania dream. of books and thoughts and things, but for now she's here just sort of

laying in bed and looking over at this very handsome man that seems to match this room quite well, and she's feeling very pleased with herself. It's like early evening right now, so, you know, Silver is very much not asleep. He's just sort of like resting his eyes. He turns over, you see that he has a bunch of

scars on his body from combat, that all of which have been, as most wizards of the Citadel do, have been modified. So they are genuine scars that would have actually sort of impacted his good looks. And so he had them healed just enough to keep them, but keep them in a way that did not alter what he felt were his best features. I love wizardry. This is great. as he turns over, he goes, hmm. How you doing? I'm doing better than before.

I wanted to ask, by the way, are you planning on seeing any of the sort of grand examinations for people that are trying to be graduated up into the upper class? because I think some people were going to go do that this weekend. I don't know if there's any that struck you as being interesting or not. Oh, do I know anyone that's coming up through these classes? More specifically, do I know any of Steele's kids coming through? One of Steele's eldest is close to this, but this is actually not even about, this is about acceptance into the Citadel. This is about graduation and promotion up through the ranks of the Citadel.

So these are graduated wizards. Oh, got it. Silver looks off and says, you're, you're, currently how I'm wrong, you're, you're getting your name cloak, right? Uh, God, yeah. I guess that's time for that. Yes, yes, I am. Oh. You have, you have, you know, some people are superstitious about it, but do you have one picked out that you would want to tell me?

Oh. Oh. Uh, I think Stevie gets really quiet and, like, still for a while. Sky. I'm going to be the wizard sky. Third of the name. All right. That's a... I mean, I would have put money down on... I would have put money down on it. Yeah. For sure, for sure, for sure.

Like, it's a... I understand it's kind of a cold shot, but I... Yeah. You're sort of in that, you kind of have to. I mean, you grew up, you know, it's like, If you didn't say Sky, people would be like, I wonder why she didn't do. Yeah, right. They're only like, oh, she picks Salamette. What the fuck?

No. Yeah. Hey, I have lived. You've known me forever. Big shoes to fill. So I guess we're kind of just going to lean into it now. It does feel like part of the order of things, right? Like, Sky, yeah.

Well, for what it's worth, I think you'll do an amazing job. Everything I hear is that you're one of the only Ark Magi apprentices that's actually doing anything or is it helping the Citadel at all? Yeah, it's crazy. I got back and I was like, oh, I really want to buckle down and it's been very easy to keep up with that work. I mean, huh, I, look, this feels weird to brag because you're kind of covered in battle scars and I'm talking about paperwork. Is this weird?

What is this? I did, um, can I insight check? him, I just need to know if I'm if I'm losing it in this moment. Give me an insight check. How is this? A natural one. Ah!

Arc two. We're back, baby. Um, you think of the past month. You look at Silver. He can't, how can he not be judging you? I mean, he's seen actual war. You see, he looks at you and just sort of smiles and says,

I feel like you have things you're worrying about. Lord knows whatever this is. And he points to, like, your study area. And he's like, kind of doing some memorabilia collecting. Oh, oh. Yeah, just big project. You know, Galfmy and there. It's fine.

I want to help with the war effort. We need to know who we're fighting. You hear a bang on the door. Bang, bang, bang. Wizard, apprentice archmaid, Sufi. Your friend has awakened. Amet? Amé is awake.

Oh, um, oh, shit. And Suvies, like, whole, she was diving out of bed and then does the freeze kind of at the edge. like a weird, sexy gargoyle. It's her his back and looks at Silver. Hey, I have to, I have to. You see, he creates a dimension door back to his own quarters. And, you see that Silver goes, no worries.

He traces a finger in the air, opens a doorway that suddenly reflects his own quarter in chambers. And you see, he goes, Clothes, hop to it. Claps his hand. And as he stepped through socks, shirt, pants, he, like, hops up in the air. The pants, like, jump up on his legs,

and they all sort of animate and fly onto his body. Before he leaves, I want to grab him, sort of at the threshold of the mentioned door and kiss him. He kisses you back passionately. Yeah, let's go to the thing later. When I'm, I... Okay. There's going to be a little get-together tonight.

I think, uh, um, I heard some people. we're going to try to challenge your guardian to a drinking contest. I will be there. He peels out and you begin to... Suvi makes for the door, opens the door, slams the door shut, remembers she is butt-ass naked. The attention goes, ha! Oh, God!

Oh, modify memory, you will not come quickly enough. One second, and I will analog put on clothing. You analog put on clothing, charge at the door, and you make it down to the bottom of your suite in Alabast Hall, looking at the rest of the court around you. Malacanth Court, one of two dozen massive floating platforms that rotate softly and gently, helixing up and down through the massive glass tower of the Aryan.

These perfect courtyards, neighborhoods, small cities unto themselves, in this massive stretching to the sky, almost, you know, seven or eight miles tall glass structure, boggling the imagination. rising into the sky of the white sand desert. Stars overhead, it is so bright here at night as the white desert reflects the moon and starlight

back up into the citadel. Racing out underneath a hedgerow of peonies, you see the supine form of Ursulaan, or as he is known here, a bear of Silbury. I'm just asleep. Yeah, I'm asleep. Ursulaan, please describe for me if you would. What objects of consumption and comfort,

which the citadel so richly provides surround you here at this flower bed and the soft, supple grass that creates almost like beds of, you know, comfort beyond what you could imagine. kept privately all throughout the city. I think you see Ursulae splayed out. I think there are a number of like kind of very intricate, like essentially to go boxes from the different restaurants and eateries that have been, he's been just picking at, a bunch of half-eaten things, and then bottles upon bottles of the nicest wine they'll give

to a guardian. There is like a silvery, a silver metallic box of like wrapped chocolate bonbons with small cream in them. You see that there is like a long package with like a kind of baguette-esque bread that has like cured meats and fresh cheese and fresh green sprouts throughout it. You see that all of these just sit here as like birds and grasshoppers flit around. but these birds and grasshoppers are illusory, so they would never eat your food, and there are no ants to come and get them. So you can leave your bonbon.

You can leave your bonbons right on the ground. Oh, Suu Bih, you see Ursalon. Bear, bear. Oh, God. A full bonbon comes out of my mouth. Oh. I catch it. Oh, put that down.

Are you done? Are we allowed to, can I come up stairs? Are you done? Oh, yes. But, um, on his wake. What? Yes.

Come on, come on. And I just crushed the like wet bomb in my hand. Arslan desperately trying to brush all of the crumbs off of himself. A series of presiditation. Oh, thank you. Yeah. That's right. Got you, bud.

Gotcha. Crumbs, everything go away. As it goes away, you see, you leave, whatever like litter or garbage you leave. As you exit more than 30 paces, you see there is a momentary eclipse of a run of magic hanging in silver light, and a small dust devil whirls the refuse up and begins to move it in the direction of a receptacle. This is the best place in the whole world. It's amazing.

So there was a moment where I was about to feel bad about just leaving a bit of a threat, and that it's always fine. It's always fine. Thank you. Again, I'm sorry. I'm not sorry, but. Yes. How long have you known?

Is it just now? Just now. Oh, okay. Yes. All right. You begin to tear across Malacanth court. This is a central, this is the home of the Perian Dome, which is the meeting place of the Ark Magi of the Citadel.

Even for a place of riches in all corners, Malacanth is the place of highest clearance in business. This is the cream of the crop. Like the Ark Magi of the Citadel have their quarters here in this place. The Tower of the Sword Steels Home is here in this place. As you run through, once again, it is not austere. The citadel is far from austere. Beautiful marble and bright red bricks covered in flowering vines.

Huge fountains of golden statues where the water erupts in movement to ethereal music that plays from seemingly nowhere. You hear proud horns playing. This is not one of the sort of like carousing platforms, so it's not bawdy here. Instead, it has a kind of peaceful, serene music that plays at certain fountains. And you see that as night sort of descends,

people are very much heading to their homes. You see that a few little, like, carts and places stay for those who have, like, forgotten or, like, skipped dinner. There's like a small sort of umbrella where you see over a cart of someone serving shaved ice who looks out as you rush past in this plaza with like well-lit kind of wizardly torches that flicker in flame that is cool to the touch. A salon slows down for one second and then realizes that he should just keep running. We can get some later. We'll get back.

Yeah, we'll come back. You know he only comes out like twice a week. I know, but now we can show Amit. Yeah, that's right. Oh, me, oh, me, oh, me. There are many intersect. So Malacanth is very much not on a grid. So small alleys raise into steps that go up into a cobblestone

across a wide avenue where troops can march, up through another sort of curving street that moves away, a sort of hodge-podge panoply of various streets and buildings. Many of the buildings here fit a central civic imperial architectural style, but several of the buildings and towers here are of strange architectural styles that the buildings were moved here, whole cloth from other places. Sufi's doing the rom-com run of in narrow alleys. She's in a full sprint.

And then anywhere where, like, someone important might see her. She's going to do the slow. And we're good, and we're power walking, and then into a dead sprint. And Ursula just keeps bumping into you. Oh, God. I'm really not telegraphing this in a way. that's out, it's fine. No, it's...

You be in front, you be in front. Okay, well, then I'm just going to run the whole time. Oh, shit. You arrive and see a crowd outside of Omniz's pace. This is in the alchemist's hall, where you see that there are a number of alchemists all talking excitedly to each other. You, of course, are shepherded right in.

You see that there's another Citadel wizard who says, I believe that the sword of the Citadel is on her way. right now. You were both ushered in, see the lights on inside. Dr. Nadine is there who has cleared the room. I am up and storming around, like hobbling a little bit. I need to see her now. You see a shaky on her feet after a month in bed, Ame, holding a sleeping fox. And when he's sleeping, he can make himself into a little ball when he wants. Legs full splated. Like legs hanging from her arm. head-lulling, tail drooping.

He is just a bag of bones. You rush into the room. Amé, you see Sufi and Ursula. Ame. You're awake. I'm going to come and pick you up, probably too aggressively. No, sorry. We need to talk.

We need to talk. We need to talk right now. I think you just woke up. Are you okay? Yes, yes. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. We need to go. It's a lot of energy. Do you want something to drink? Are you? No. As you rejoined in this moment, you see Amé has this, you know, intense looking her eyes.

Fox just going, oh, he's asleep. He's so mean. Okay. Dr. Tamri. Hi. Thank you so much. Go, please. Let us know when Steele gets here. We need a minute to catch up. Tearful reunion. Thank you so much. I don't know how to expedite this without-

Thank you for your services. Please get out. All right. There are some other tests. Yeah, we can run them in five minutes. All right. She steps out. I'm going to roll a die to see how close people are.

You want, I guess, a lower number. Okay. That's a 19. That's the opposite of a lower number. You guys can start talking. Okay, okay. I'm going to close to the doors. Hi, are you good?

Do you need any? I mean, you seem well. Well, the last time we saw you. I open up the door. Steele is standing right there. I close the door. Oh. I've forgotten.

I know the things about the parents. Hi, this is Steele, this sword of the citadel. May I come in? One minute! I think, and I know who can trust, and I know some of the things, and we gotta compare notes a month. A month.

Also, thanks for visiting me. Both of you, I know you were there. What do you mean? A whip back, open the door. Hi! Amé, you are? I'm awake. Awake.

How are you feeling? Good. Okay, great. Well. Do you want to come in? Yeah, can I come in there? Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, and then I close the door. behind, Steele.

Please come in. Wonderful. Hello. Hi. Good to see you, Steele. Bear, very good to see you. Well, I'm sure Dr. Tamri has mentioned, but you've been unconscious for about a month. And your friends, Suvi, is very.

very close to getting her name cloak, which will be a big milestone. Oh, yeah. We're having that ceremony very shortly. Bear has been training for some time. Yes. And you'd see now I'm wearing, I don't think I'm wearing my normal, like,

my plain clothes. I think I'm wearing essentially whatever would be a training, someone in training's outfit. I am also wearing fully a hospital gown. This is all been having a hospital. hospital gown. You see that she says, yes. So Bear has been staying with us.

And for you to know, because you've been asleep for a month, bear is the guardian and protector of the Archimage Apprentice Sufi. Yes. We made it official. Yeah. And there's a very foolish rumor. going around based on the fact of there's a familial resemblance between Bear and Bear the human. Yes.

Who looks like a very familial resemblance to. This is like the most unsubtle you've ever been. She's maybe groggy and seemed very perturbed and slammed a door in my face. So I'm just trying to communicate to you. Oh, fair. That some, there's a very nasty rumor going around about. bears resemblance to the late soft, the wizard soft. Yeah, he's my half-brother.

The great thing about a rumor on me is it gives people something to talk about, which is the thing you always need them to be doing. Right. Something else interesting, interesting story. Great. So here I am in the Citadel. and sorry I'm, yes, a little overwhelmed. You're good.

Right. Now, what's a name cloak? Oh, we don't have, oh, so, you know, not, so steel, and I just gesture at the massive armor clad, like kind of not really her born name, wizards. You have a name, and then we kind of. And then you get an S name. Yes.

and it kind of eats the real name out of the world because names are powerful. Remember? I got mad at you once. I was like, stop saying my name all the time. It's a whole thing. I'm sorry about that. God, so much to catch up. Anyway, I'm taking the name.

Sky. We, I mentioned it. Right. That was just a pseudonym. You're saying that it will eat the name Suvi? Yes. So if I call you Suvi, does that mean that it doesn't exist anymore? No, no, no, no.

Real everybody else here, Sky. Yes, yes. Steel. Yes. Ooh, I just have to give them a bit of my name, and that's how they can still remember. Yes. If you want to give them, you don't have to give them your last name, but if you want to give them your first name, they'll be able to refer to you however they like and the world will hear sky so if i say suvi then everyone will hear sky

yes and i will hear sky i will hear myself say sky you'll hear suvi suvi you'll hear suvi but you'll know that you're not really like everyone else is hearing also as a point of order not everybody gets an s name okay yeah it's complicated there's things so it's special sky soft stone silence silver Silver. Yes. So that's a thing. And it's very cool. We don't have to. There's a lot of... Do you know, Steele's? Tree name? Her. Rule name? Because she knows yours. Yeah, because she was kind of around when I was born. Sure. But do you know hers? Do you, is that something you share each other's names? Wow. Came out. Spicy. From a coma. Typically speaking, um, a... Children don't know their parents.

Younger generations do not know the given names of their older generation. My parents died before they could tell me their name. I'm sorry. It's okay. Okay. Great. Sorry, a little bit of a diversion there. No, you're good.

You're trained. Why don't I know your name? You want to know it? Yeah. It's classified. Well, what if I want to know it? Maybe for bear if you stop dropping your guard after a successful counterstroke. Well, you're being mean, all right?

You make me do all the push-ups before, and I'm not as strong as I need to be toward the end. Oh, you're only going to fight people when you're not tired? Maybe. If I can time it out well. Well, you might not always be able to time it out well. Regardless, Hamé, are you okay? You seem very agitated. Yeah.

Um, um, I, I, I, I whip open the door again to look at. A bunch of doctors go, oh, slam the door again. Why? Rude. That will happen every time. Why are you doing it? Um, still, I, um, I remembered the things that grandmother Wren taught me that she told me that I had been cursed to forget. Great. That's really good.

And if you ever want to talk about some of the things you remember, let's be really thoughtful about good places to have those conversations. You are a welcome guest of the Citadel for as long as you should desire to be so. And also, the traveling door to Silbury is. functional again. So if you would wish to return home, you may do so as well. See if you just a little bit shaking your head like, no, no, no, no, no. I thank you. That is very kind of you. I very much appreciate the hospitality and will, I suppose, eventually have to return to Toma and my duties as a witch. But for now, I would love a chance to catch up with my companions.

Lovely. Then, by all means. And if you wish to catch up in earnest, Suvi's dwelling place is an extraordinarily comfortable and safe place to do so. Ah, wonderful. And there's pants there. What?

You got your cheeks in the wind. You're wearing them. You've been asleep, so you kind of got a backless thing happening right now. So I'm just saying gesticulate less. Pants. I like prisons. She looks out and says, all right. You see that the alchemists outside, the various doctors come in, administer a few other tests.

They provide a sleek, small, lightweight wheelchair for Ame to be escorted. Back to Sufi's dwelling place, Fox sort of rolls over. Oh, he's so tired out. I never saw him sleep. He slept while I was there. Wait, really? Sometimes. Seriously?

Yes. He bit me twice. Oh, he was honest to say it's the nicest he's ever been to me. I'm not going to sick that personally. Steele looks over and says that Fox badly bit a number. of wizards. I'm so sorry for his behavior. He also,

I believe, almost drove one wizard to renounce the citadel. That's not right. He can tell you the story when he's awake, but essentially it was, he said I squeeze him tighter.

Boss. You guys, move out taking Amme back to your dwelling place, and Ame for the first time, you are walking under the skies of a distant land within the realm of the Kemsaritan Empire here at the heart of the citadel. At the edge of Malakhanth Court, which is at the edge of the platform, you look down and see a several mile drop to Haverward, which is a very far. at the base of the area, a massive sprawling city that is the terrestrial landing pad for the

various campuses, colleges, and universities of the Citadel. This enormous marble balustrade flecked with mica, fools gold, coloring this place twinkles under the light of desert stars, reflecting the glow of endless white sand rolling in dunes. Nama, you can see the dance of these windswept dunes and trails of gossamer snow-like sand being carried by the wind from the cresting ridges of each sandy hill in the vast wide sea of desert expanse. Looking out at the edge of the platform that rises slowly,

slowly to the Arian, where it will crest at the very top align with the points of geometric line at the apex of the Arian's Tower. It will receive that magic there, and then slowly twirl down to land before rising again in an endless dance of swirling platforms. here at the heart of wizard's magic in the world of Umore. That was Lou Wilson as Ursulon, Erica Ishii, as Amay, Abria Ayangar as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan, as everyone and everything else. World's Beyond Number is edited, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore

at Fortunate Horse, with additional sound designed from Michael Gelfy Studios. For even more like this, join us. on our Patreon. We'll see you there.