Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #28: The Staff

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

The gang splits up. The stars align and cast no shadow. In separation: terror and revelation. But it's pressure that makes the coal into diamond isn't it? And oh what stories that diamond could tell, of the phantom thread that unspools from cradle to the gory floor.  [If you listen to the show with young children, you might wanna give this ep a listen first.]Worlds Beyond Number is:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson and is produced, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with exquisite design and editing help from Jared OlsonSPECIAL THANKS TO: Tazer Army, Shannon, and Amanda Freberg!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. Fire in the keep of the world's heart lit. Our companions now gathered around a window, pushed open by Ursulaan, protector of the wizard sky and guardian the witch of the world's heart. The scarf received from the apprentice of injury, witch of wind and stars, has been tossed into the snow,

and the ringing in your ears, Suvee is gone. Shit, I should have seen that coming. I mean, it just seems to be the only thing that's changed. It was a gift from Neif, who I would like to kill right now. Was it from Neif, or was it from her mistress? Well, yeah, her mistress. Okay, well, her mistress is part of the conspiracy to eradicate me and my station. And apparently I just saw through the fox's eyes.

Oh, I saw her shouting at Marara, had her push up against the wall wagging, that pretty manicured finger in her face. And she said, did this give you any pause at all? Obviously she said some idea. And I can't read Marara's lips because it's a mask. And then Indri says, well, who knows? Perhaps she knew more about your plan than you?

had let on. And she did come here with those Citadel wizards who are walking around the halls. Maybe she knows something from them. And then Marara said something. And then she said, well, I don't know about you, Marara. But a hundred years ago, their tricks were poultry. And then 50 years ago, their tricks were poultry. And 20 years ago, their tricks were paltry.

I keep saying as I finger quotes it. But that they are getting closer every time she turns around and time is running out. And they walked off and then a fox is following injury. Okay, they all want, okay. Did she give you this girl herself and everything? Neif gave it to me when I was walking back to my room. She said that it was with her mistress's permission. Look, I understand that that was an overstatement.

sight on my end and my desire to give a witch a chance was immediately thrown in my face and I've learned a lesson here. That was your take, okay. But that was happening right now? Yes, yes. So that means injury isn't listening right now to the scarf. And there was something about it feeling like it was going somewhere, but unless it was recorded or someone's listening.

I want to find Neif right now, and I want to be very honest about what I want to do when I find her. Well, let's just talk first. We can just find her to talk. But yes, let's go find Neif. And what is it that... What's the explicit thing you'll be doing to Neif? I want to snap her neck.

When you find her? Yeah. Well, we can't... But after, after, after we talk. And also, wait, you made a promise that you would... I know. I said I want to, not I'm going to. Okay, well, Ursulon can snap her neck then.

No, I will not be snapping anyone's neck. Why don't you do it? I... I... Give you some leverage going back to... Okay, we're not going to... Hospitality rules. So we'll seek out meath.

That can be on the list. It isn't important now. Why was the wizard's straw crying? When? When? When we first met, myself in the Wizard's Straw. Oh. Oh, I didn't. I must have missed that. Maybe I should go check in with my people and see if there's anything new to add to the pile of what's going on right now. Yes. I mean, I will be unavailable after dinner, as I do have arrangements that I've made.

but if you need me it's not a date I'm going to drink until I'm sick Yeah, okay, the thing is you, Amé, you didn't get to see what it was like when Heinrules, like, when he was a wolf, but his mouth was on Ursula Snack and was like kind of like, please, oh no, but also like, it was a little, it was intimate, but in the way that like death is sort of intimate. That's why he kept trying to get me to bet my life.

on the wrestling match. Hi. Okay, does that feel like a, like a cool spirit thing that you guys do, or... Give me a stealth check for the fox. Uh-oh. That's a 23.

Ooh! He's sneaky little guy. He's sneaky. You hear in your mind, Amay. Boss, you are not gonna believe what I am seeing right now. Uh, yes. Uh, go for Fox.

is in a room Is that good? What? Anything else of intro? Uh, yeah. Okay, I really can't move. She's gonna, if I move, she's gonna see me. I saw where she was heading and I ran over here

and I hid under some stuff and if I move the stuff moves. Oh, I blink into the fox. It is blinding white. You see some. thing you haven't seen before, but that I, your dungeon master, have described before. The fox is hiding under a pile of stars. The light fills this place, and because he is in one of the shelves, there is no shadow being cast,

and because he's under a thing that's creating a lot of light, it's almost impossible to see. It's almost like he's behind a source of light, so he can see stuff, but he's totally hidden and has scrounged up and is like, it's perfectly irreverent and sacrilegious, in the manner most keeping with the trickery of the fox, in that he has found a beautiful magical wonder and jammed his little body in there with its dirty paws. And looking out, you warg into him and see injury.

The doors of the Library of Stars are closed. She stands above a central well and raises her hand. The telescope moves. The dome opens and starlight pulls into the room. You see, a number of new stars are pulled from the sky. And when she pulls them, you see the star they are pulled from remains. And the light moves and rejoins some of the stars on the ground, as though she is drawing water from a well or pulling silk from a cocoon,

more light continues to come down into this place. And as the ceiling shifts the telescope moves and the glass is resealed such that the snow stops falling into the library, she raises a hand and says, Morning wren song and stars begin to float up from the water. wells. Assortment of stars surrounds her as she moves them in space. Moving over to a central well filled with stars, she begins to pluck them from the air and suspend them perfectly in the center of the well and look down as snow covers it. And you see a beautiful young woman with a blue corduroy

witch's hat. She is gorgeous and young and you see that she is in a courtyard surrounded with icy statues and you see that

injury looking exactly the same is walking alongside her. The vantage point of this interaction is from on high looking down. It gives you a as you watch through the fox's eyes of the starlight over the skylight in the lavatory in Gavriel, of how the ice fairies came down to the citadel. And you see this young woman with the blue

corduroy patched witch's hat walking up. And you see there's something tucked into her coat as she approaches through this courtyard of statues. Injury in this memory of starlight goes, well, my deepest condolences about my sweet sister. And you see that the woman looks up and says, oh, though that's very kind of you. And I hope just to commit myself well to her memory. And a little rooster's head pops out of her coat as morning wren song in the memory of starlight. comes to the keep of the world's heart. You see that injury watches the short conversation

and touches a finger to the image of starlight flickering on the surface of the well opening. And as she does, you see she studies it somewhat, looking at this moment, her looking exactly as she does now, and a young wren on her first coming. to this place. She picks up that star again and the image fades from the opening of the well. She moves it between her fingers as if in thought, waves her hand with dismissal and the stars return to their place within the room. She moves to the doors and walks out. Fox goes, do you get all that? Yeah. Okay. Do I know if, does it look like in this script? or this library of memories, if the wells there are integral to retrieving them, to playing the memories?

What you looked at in this place is that it doesn't look like this was a memory of injuries. Or I'm sorry, memory of from the stars. Yes, this is a recording of the memory of the stars. and the power of that is so vast and yet must have its limitations. You wonder if there are indeed any memories in this place of what occurred in times of day or deep in dungeons or underground or in places like that. And yet here in this library is recorded everything the stars have viewed in the long history of Umorah. the wells themselves seem integral to it,

but it seemed quite simple, and it seemed that there were two unrelated things that happened. It seemed like injury in some way called upon new starlight into this place, that without her act of intervention, these memories could not be improved upon, that she called new light into the room of what the stars had seen since the last time she had been in the library was. and she said a name in full, a full name to call a certain group of memories to her.

And the vast amount of stars that were there, you wonder if that is due to the long and prodigious life. And the fact that Grandmother Wren was in many places of the globe, in many different stars under many strange skies, could have been known to see her at one time in her life or another. Fox goes, Well, boss, I can try to follow her, but I kind of had to cut across from her to get here before she got in,

so... Yeah, that's okay. You did so good. I got some fish stew here for you. Come on back, be careful, okay? You got it. I'll be there soon. He was crying, and it felt like I had betrayed

or in some way given up the secret by even suggesting that he might like. the pancakes. Oh, okay. And it was just very strange. I haven't spent much time with children. Yeah.

But I did like Roro a lot. He seems really nice. I'm sorry. Oh, Ame's back. Oh, hey. I think we need to go to a library of stars. Why? I think there's memories there that we need to see.

Okay. Uh, vague, but sure, I know exactly where that is. Oh. Is it a place we can go without offending, our host? Hey, if we get caught walking somewhere in the castle that we shouldn't be in, what are they going to do? Fucking kill you? Do you think that because I'm supposed to be meeting with injury to ask her about what she knows,

that I can meet with her elsewhere and that you could return since you know where that room is and maybe look up what that North Star might have seen during some of the conclaves. Oh. Yeah, yeah. Oh, a big room of magic. Oh, it's so bad for so long.

But yeah, I want to do that really badly. Oh, Sylvie. I'm going to go figure out everything that's great. going on the star. Yeah, I'm going to figure it out. Thank you. Okay. You have a big hug and embrace. This is really nice. I'll go into any library ever. Sufi, overcome with emotion at the possibility of this incredible library having opened its secrets to you.

You depart headed for the library of the stars. The scarf in the snow, do you leave it there in the snow? Do you take it? Is there anything else that you do? I'm absolutely going to go back and get it. And then just feed in some bullshit. See if I can't. Yeah, yeah. I'll take it and put it back on. Great.

Go ahead and give me a deception check with advantage. 11. Okay. You put it on and, you know, basically like, have a little short conversation with your friends as you're departing. Are you headed straight for the library? Or are you headed elsewhere first? Right now, my game is.

plan is I need to go check in with the other wizards. Great. You head towards the Silver Rampart Chambers where your wizards are being housed. Before I, like just as I was leaving, I think CIV just got a little bit of an earworm and is humming the rain road as she goes and heads back. That's all. That's beautiful.

Still a little reminder. Ursula, where are you headed off to? I'm just stay, I'll stay at the, I'll stay at the keep with Amme. You stay at the keep with Amme, Ame, and you're just sort of kicking it at the keep before dinner. Are there in the keep, there are multiple rooms, can I go explore them? Can I find out if, just in the way that the first witch of the world's heart left riding on the cobblestones? Can I explore the... Or again, there wasn't writing.

It was the symbology. Yes, the symbology of our station. Just in the way that the first witch of the world's heart left symbology of our station in the cobblestones, what other things have been left behind by the different witches that were in this keep? Give me an investigation check. Ooh. 14.

You look through the keep for, clues that could have been left behind or messages from previous witches of the world's heart. And you do feel as though this keep is very sparse. It is kept, after all, in the palace of the witch of the wind and stars. It is her sanctum. And even these keeps that are kept for you are houses for guests. It is not your sanctum, truly. But, rather a place to hold you in a palace devoted to an order of its mistress's choosing. And I think you look out at all the other towers and keeps and wonder how old this palace is. And if maybe there were other keeps in times before there were only five thrones in that chamber.

looking at this place, you see that there is a small hanging hook for a wreath, that the wreath is long gone. And you see that beside it are a number of drawers that have some sewing supplies in them. I can mostly unclear, but you see a few pins, a bobbin of thread. And I think seeing the thread and the pins a little cushion for holding a little pin cushion for sewing kit

it occurs to you in some way that as humble as you are what the world's heart means the coming together of disparate things that seem to oppose one another if this coven itself were in a domain. Whose domain would it be in? Perhaps there is some power here for you to work after all. Amay goes to wander the castle as Sufi heads on business to her imperial cohort. Ursula, with Amme no longer staying in the keep. Where do you go?

I'm going to stay in the keep. Great. And I'm going to go rummaging through Amay stuff. Yeah. And see if I can find some paint. I love that. Sufi, you arrive at the Silver Rampart Chambers. You see Maddie, Straw, and Sworn are the three wizards that are here.

Maddie, the young girl, Straw, sort of stout Helmswoman of the Meridian. And Sworn is a lanky, gawky, older sort of wizard. he is, I'm going to say, a transmutation specialist. I will, as I like finish humming and, like, walk in. You're like, oh, warm in here. And take off the scarf and make a bit of a, like, sonic display of, like, taking it off, folding up. And I'm going to bury it under as much shit in the front of this room as possible just to dampen it from... Hell yeah.

Okay, catch me up. What have I missed? Strausses, Wizard's Sky. We kept to our own in that room with the spirits as the conclave was occurring, but there was some talk of conversation between our honoured friends, spirits of woodland lantern and that tree speaking to the wolf spirit that spoke to your friend and companion, your protector. However, in our investigations of this place, go and give me an insight check. Yeah, yeah.

18. Straw is really rattled and messed up. Maddie, you can see in this moment, is blushing pretty ferociously. And you see that sworn looks okay for the moment as well, but largely seems a little bit perturbed. by some of what's happened between Straw and Maddie. There's like a weird vibe in the room. Yeah. Okay, good to know.

Hold on. What, what is happening? Straw, what, are you crying? What is, what are you doing? It's a heavy part here. Am I what? No, what's going on? You both look weird.

Did something happen? Maddie turns her face down. Sworn puts his tongue in his cheek. She says, nothing of any sort happened. I need you to talk to me. Whatever's going on now, I don't have time, nor the empathetic impulse of my friend, the witch, to suss this out slowly. Fill me the fuck in or get back on the ship. I won't be spoken to in this way.

And you see that straw whips around and Misty steps out of the room. She vanishes. And you can hear footsteps running down the hall. hallway. Um, sworn turns to you and says, she's lost it. She's lost it. Maddie saw her with the Witch of the Winded Stars. Oh, what? Hold on. Uh, immediately bust out. I'm going to try to run her down. Uh, okay. Hell yeah. Um, give me a wisdom saving throw. Seven. Okay. You fling wide the doors, uh, and begin to run her down. As you do so, I, I think that behind you, you see a sworn whip around, and he is going to cast a spell on you.

I'm going to meet you to make a wisdom saving throw again. DC is 16. Natural 20. Natural 20. Okay. He is casting hold person on you. In this moment, as you fling the doors open and sworn has cast hold person on you, what is your response right now? It is trying to figure out, is this trying to stop me?

Like, is he trying to stop me for my sake or for straws? In the moment of hesitation as you look at him, bat the spell away effortlessly. Hear that straw is getting away as she sprints down the corridor, you hear. There is a flash and straw is eviscerated. Gremora has her fangs in her neck, tears her apart, head off the body. limbs porn, uniform dismantled. Grimor picks up her torso and slams the ceiling above her to let the blood drain down into her mouth

and gulp it down her throat. Sworn is shaking in terror. The frightened condition returns to you in this moment and the whole person was to save your life. I think there is just that fear, the racing heart, the tunnel vision, and ears ringing, like full fight or flight, a panic. Suvi didn't even feel when she was almost choked to death by an undre.

This is something different and so much worse. My time composing myself. Give grimor to her awful work. Will resolve myself quietly in my own heart to seeing her destroyed. She is a monster. Do you step into the hallway to behold? fully what is happening or in your quarters

with Sworn and Maddie. I give a small nod to Sworn and turn and from the doorway watch even like soaked with fear I will watch and understand her a little bit better.

Give me an investigation check. You watch blood, body hits the floor. 204. Watch the horror so pointedly that at some point in the future, should Grimor ever prompt a roll from you, you may choose to re-roll at one time.

Gazing at the horror, the force of Suvi's curiosity gives her a bravery to watch the unspeakable, to know how to prevent it in the future. If you give her enough time to finish, I think there is a moment where Gromor, You see from behind, she drags her forearm across the front of her mouth, wiping the blood from it. You can see the stain across her arm as it moves down to her claws.

She turns her head just enough to catch you from the corner of her eye, not fully facing. Fills the hallway. With the force of her spirit, there's a long shadow, deep eyes watching you from the tall grass. or of something that is near you. The worship you give to something when you know that it can destroy you. Picks up the staff from the ground. I'll towards you.

She locks her gaze in your gaze. Want to try with everything in not a prey animal. I will not look away. Allow you, separate from that success on that investigation, to re-roll your wisdom saving throw in this moment. Forty. Are not a prey animal. and you are not a predator.

You are standing in this moment with the bravery of conviction and of proving a point, something that is in defiance of the world of prey and predator. You are showing bravery, which that type of bravery is adjacent to, but not deeply within

the world of beasts that is grimor's domain. You are not. challenging her, but you are not running from her. And so like oil and water, you glide off of each other. She approaches with the staff in hand, kneels in front of you, holds it in both hands, and screws the top off as a bloody contract falls out of it. She gingerly deposits them, gets up, turns, falls to all fours and lopes into the shadows and is gone. the contract, leave the staff, return to the room.

As you walk back in, Maddie vomits. Sworn, massages his forehead, and says, as you close the door, he says, I am so sorry,

Wizard's Guy. No, no. You have nothing to apologize for. You were correct, and you have saved my life. Thank you. On that high investigation role, you have seen

creatures moving at their at like a fast gate like you saw the fox like trotting down the hall you think it was the fact that you think it was the fact that straw was fleeing from you like you terrified her and she ran and you think that you think it would be dangerous to run at all it's quite interesting at all it is a guarantee of death to flee within who knows a mile of this witch god um you hold the contract in your hand and cannot be certain how Grimor knew it was there, but you see that Maddie looks up shaking and weeping. She's an adult. She's 19 years old, but God, 19 is young, young.

A child. Yeah. And so you see Sworn, whatever heroic sworn has, he is not a warm man. So he does not interact with Maddie who is shaking like a leaf and fucking terrified. He goes, Maddie. has the wizard Maddie, the apprentice, has been smitten by the Witch of the Winden Stars and was approaching her with a poem that she had written. Upon arriving at a small alcove above the Grand Hall, she beheld the wizard's straw, weeping and promising her eternal service to the Witch of Wind and Stars. That's our Nat one for folks listening at home.

Promising her eternal service, promising the betrayal of the citadel, all of the various secrets, and I believe the... Contract, yeah. I don't believe there is anything left for you to do here within these walls. Maddie just shaking goes, we're surrounded by monsters.

We're surrounded by monsters. We're surrounded by monsters. We're going to die in this castle. I'm going to immediately, I think it's while making eye contact with Sworn, just sort of walk over and like catch Maddie up and hold her and just pat her back while she's crying. Sworn like stiff stiffens up in the strangeness of this like military, like in the ways in which the citadel is a military, but it is. school, but it is also a home. Yeah.

He has a moment where he doesn't reproach anything you're doing, but Maddie just sobs into your chest. And you can feel it too. Even sitting here in this moment, you still think the Witch of the Wind is starting the most beautiful face you've ever beheld. Angermore are the most terrifying.

They are monsters, but you will not die here. I want you to compose yourself on your own time. Pack your things and when you ready. I am ordering you to return to the ship to wait for me there. She looks at you, and in this moment where you can see that she has fallen in love with

the Witch of the Wind and Stars, you have picked a perfect moment to make this order because she is more terrified of grimoire based on what just happened. She heaves sort of a raggedy sigh, salutes, takes her sort of imperial war staff, and gets up and is just going to march and takes the other direction turn out of your door. Sworn stands there as well with you and says, Wizard Sky, I am at your command. I am terrified of the Witch of the Wild Hunt for extremely rational reasons, but I maintain my composure in this moment.

I need you to go back to the ship. I need you to use the telement Report to home Let them know what you've seen And what has occurred thus far And if I am not back at the ship in three days Leave With the express hope

From me that if I do not come back to the ship I want you to return With as much firepower as possible And scorch this earth Your wishes by command, Wizard's Guy He salutes, takes his staff and marches out the door. And I'm just going to sit down and once it's quiet,

just throw up. Wait and barf. Amé, you are perusing the palace. Give me some kind of skill check, if you can, about what it is your attempting to do in this moment. Like what, like, what are you, are you, It's totally just you're ambling around. We can do a different check.

But where are you sort of headed? Do you have an intention in mind? I'm going to give you a survival check. In this moment, I'm thinking about the message that the sewing kid gave to me. I'm holding the bobbin in one hand and the needle and the other. And I'm kind of wandering around. what is the thread that connects us? And I am, much in the way that in a normal town,

I would go around and take the temperature of things and go to a bakery and listen to the local gossip and just understand this place. It's so old, and there's so many witches that have come and gone through here. Grandma Wren was here. in the citadel, I learned that there are not just nature spirits. There are spirits of places and feelings and items.

And in some ways, I want to get to know the spirits of this place. You can give me a survival check, a nature check, or an insight check. You choose which one? Nature would be like looking for the spirits of this place. survival would be looking for like the current denizens of this place, like the other witches and their retinues. And then Insight might be looking for the spirits of like the palace, more than like the natural terrain that it is on.

Oh, I'd like to meet the spirits of the palace. I've already met the little ice fellas. is 22. On a 22, as you're moving around, is the fox accompanying you now at this point? Mm-hmm. If he wants to. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You see that there's a sudden little click, and you hear, and your jewel hopper jumps out of its little cage and bounds over to a bucket of coal that is near a fireplace that at least looks like Neif has not yet had a chance to clean out. It's like a small fire in this little antechamber. There's like a small two-seat sofa

sort of at the base of like a spiral staircase, like a weird little waiting area at the base of a tower. And there's a small fireplace keeping it warm and a little bucket of coal kept there to burn. And you see that the jewel hopper goes and jumps onto a piece of coal. It begins to rub its legs together. And there's a tense moment.

And then you hear, get off. And a chunk of coal. rolls out of the basket and you see the cricket has licked at the coal and there's a big chunk that's come off revealing a diamond center of this chunk of coal.

And you see and two tiny little carbon legs and two little arms. The legs have only two claw-like toes and the hands have only two little claw-like fingers. Two

beady diamond eyes open up on the top of the lump of coal and a cough as carbon filings almost like those magnetic drawface of a beard pops out of this little coal spirit. It's on for me. It's just thing trying to do. Oh, I stick another couple of really shiny looking rhinestones into the little vial for Rhin. Oh, you've named the drill hopper Rinn?

Rhin jumps back in. I love that. He starts eating the, starts sucking the collar. out of the rhinestones. I stop her at Bachoff. And you see the little coal spirit looks at us as this, oh, that's embarrassing.

And goes over to the fire and starts to rub ash over the, like rub ash and soot over the, over the coal that reveals the kind of diamond interior. Sorry, sorry, it's embarrassing. Oh, that's all right. You know, they say what's on the inside that counts anyway. No, I don't.

I'll just a humble cold spirit. I don't want anyone to know. Oh, well, your secret's safe with me. I'm Amel. Toth. Toth. Toth? Toth. Toth? Toth.

Like cough. A little tea. Sit. Oh, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Taw. They better to get back in the bucket so I get burned alive. Is that something that you enjoy? Huh? This job for coal.

True. What happens to you after you get burned alive? Um... To become a soot spirit? Probably just the top part would burn, and then I got to go find more... More coal to rub on me. But, you know, it's... it's for work. It's a living. Say, I haven't seen you around these parts before.

No, this is my first time here. I'm the new Witch of the World's Heart. My mentor, Grandmother, Red, passed away. And so now I'm here and the conclave is meeting in order to discuss removing me in my station from the world. Removing your station from the world? Yeah. That's one less job. I know.

There should be more jobs. Right? Yes, that's what I'm always saying. You see, he goes, well, I'm going to tell you, I'll tell you the secret. Oh. I'm a, someone in the palace is a gem, but, you know, there's not anything gems do. They sit on a hilt of sword, or upon a jeweled dagger, and what good is that? Just sit there and do no good for nobody. So, so I've been, I've been, I've been a piece of.

of coal. I've been burning in fires here for a couple hundred years. Oh, did you ever meet? Grandma, Wren? She was, uh, I suppose back of the day, she is pretty witch with a corduroy, patched corduroy with a hat like mine. Yes, yes, rooster.

Yes? Oh, Taro, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, well, I do, Wren. She was very kind. She's found my secret out too. She never told anybody. Oh, that's Grandma Rem for you. Well, she was always very nice to me. She's, she, you know, some spirits don't get as much reverence as the others and cold spirits, the witch of, well, the mistress of this place. It never goes out of her way to be rude, but, you know, sort of.

if everything's just in its place and it's how it goes. But I don't know, we kept Grandma Wren warm her first night here, and she seemed awful grateful for it. And it's not why you do it, but it was nice to someone appreciated it. I don't know. Yeah, of course. You should take pride in a job well done. And, you know, yeah, it's nice when other people appreciate it too.

And that's exactly right. And we talked with her and she, you know, but she had a hard time of it, that's for sure. Yeah? What was hard about it for her? Well, I reckon if your job is everybody working together and there's less everybody, then that job gets harder. Back, oh, I remember, I remember. away. This was I was a young, young spirit. This was actually when the Witch of the Wind and Stars had just become the Witch of the Wind and Stars. Oh, how long ago was that? Oh, centuries ago.

Long, long time. She looks pretty good for her age. Yes, well, she, there's, the only, I've been here long enough that I've seen all the witches change except one. Which one? Oh, Hakea. She's never changed. Yeah, she seems so old. Not a polite thing to say. Oh, no, I mean... No, but we're just talking here and stairwell. Yeah, we're just talking. We're just talking. No judgment attached to that.

Oh, yes, yeah, it looks old. Yeah, pretty. But, uh, when she was first here, the witch of the wind and stars was, uh, had a hard time. Um, because, you know, there were so many voices. in the coven. And with all those voices, the witch of the world's heart had a lot of speaking to do.

Because when you speak for everybody and there's a lot of everybody to speak for, then the speaking for everybody speaks quite loud. And I imagine that if you're the person who doesn't like a lot of people speaking together and prefers just speaking on your own in a empty castle,

that you'd prefer it. if there were fewer people, huh? Well, maybe so. Some prefer their solitude, and others like to keep with a friend by the fire, I guess. I'm in the latter category. You can count me in. You shouldn't have a fire unattended. That's dangerous.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I trust at least for Apprentice keeps you well-fed, or keeps you helping you with your job. Which one? I'm sorry, what? I can't even learn their names anymore. She goes through them fast enough. Why does she go through them so quickly?

Well, you didn't hear from me, but... Oh, yeah, I look like I'm zipping my lip. Wait, actually, I look like I'm sewing up my lip. Yeah. As you do, the fox looks up for a second. It's almost like there's a little line of, thread that follows just the motion, almost like the little gold of a goldfish swimming up a staircase. Tauf goes, well, some are here for a while and some are here real quick, but I'd say

if I was an apprentice to the Witch of the Windenstead, there's one thing I wouldn't want to do, and that's look like I'm learning magic. She doesn't want an apprentice taking over for her, Because, I mean, because why would she? She serves herself alone. Well, the Witch of the Wind and Stars doesn't have to be that way. The last Witch of the Wind and Stars did a great job of training her apprentice. Clearly. Yeah, it was injury.

Yes, yes, I, yeah. She killed her. Well, um... Yeah, killed her old mentor. I better get back to the bucket. Actually, can you get... And you see, the fox says, oh, no doubt, here you go. And then gets his nose under Toff's butt and hucks him back into the bucket.

It was so nice talking to you. Nice to get a little bit of conversations. I just, you know, this staircase doesn't see a lot of use, especially ever since the keep up above stopped being used. Which one was up above here? Oh, take three guesses. It was the watching five. Well, you didn't give me a chance to guess, but I would have totally got.

You gotta be quick. You gotta be quick. Thank you so much. It was really lovely to meet you, Toth. It was lovely to meet you as well. Should I come by sometime maybe and, you know, make sure that your fire keeps going? Oh, you see, he gets very, he looks up and sort of his little, little, sooty cheeks kind of beam. He says, if you wouldn't mind, that's an awful kindness of you.

I really appreciate that. What could I call you again? Amen. Amme? You can count on old Toff with his two fingers any time you want. Thank you, Tuff, the two fingers. He smiles and sort of closes his little arms on himself,

and there's just a little lump of coal on top of the bucket again. Fuck your cute scene. What a tonal shift from speaking scene to fucking Amaze scene. Whew, baby. Wipe it off. It's a big castle, you know? We are in different Ghibli movies. Yeah, I want to be in your one.

I'm over here, full-spirited away. You got fucking mona-nokaneo-kate nightmare fuel going over here. Ursula, you do find a small series of paints here in the keep of the world's heart. What do you do? I'm going to just work on my perspective and draw a small stack of pancakes, just on the back side of the shield. Give me a, like, give me like a performance check. 16. I think you, I think we can say you have an established gift for painting.

You're actually quite a lovely artist. You render this beautiful golden brown stack of pancakes with little, or describe it me. What does it look like? I think it's pretty simple. Honestly, probably closer to like a, and small. Small and on the back of the shield. It's just a light outline with a little bit of shading of just a stack of three pancakes on a plate. Three of you converge again.

And Amé, you realize that you don't really have time to go upstairs right now because dinner is about to start. You hear it being called. you get to the grand hall and you see suvi leaving the chambers of the silver rampart chambers which given the gruesome mess that is here you are glad that you have relieved your other soldiers so you don't have to fucking come back to this place of nightmares but you do see as you walk through the ramparts the golden light of the massive doorway fall across the cliff's edge along the pier with the meridian and see sworn and actually see him taking a little bit of his commanders a cue from his commander as he wraps Maddie in a cloak and they rush across the pier

together safely to the meridian. What is that? Is everything okay? I've sent my last two wizards. You're a lot. Gremor. Slaughtered. straw in front of me.

Oh my God, I'm so, oh my God. Oh, Suvie. She ran. Well, yeah, but, but why was she fleeing? You see Suvie fighting back the things she wants to spit about the witches here. It was all a lot and the pressure they exert on us is not insecure. Oh, Suvie, I'm so sorry. Is there anything there any way I can support you? Yeah, Suvie squeezes your hand. You're supposed to be the bridge in both directions.

Yeah. Spirit, your coven cares much about us at all. No. No, I don't know that they care much about anything outside of their... purviews. It seems to me like Grandma Wren was the only one that really cared about that. Give me an archa check, Sufi. 30-20. There was a time in the summer at the cottage when you were kids where you found some of Grandma Wren's boots and walked around in them, as little kids always do when they stomp around in big, big shoes. and you're just looking at Amé so, you know, physically much less in stature than you, standing here with her fox,

her throne is an armchair, her keep at the edge of the palace, swallowed up by the mountainside. And as she talks about purview, and you look and have this spitting venom that you're holding onto because composure means you're life in this place, you see the shoes of the world's heart are enormous. And you see that Amé is teeny tiny. And you, I think, realize in perfect arcane geometry, you see the relationship that witches have to witchcraft and that the covenant of elders has to its stations so clearly. and it's so different from wizardry and it doesn't click for you until this moment where you go, oh, if a station has,

not even a bad witch, but of course it's possible to be a bad witch. You know the consequences of being a bad wizard. You get drummed out and you're in a shitty guild. What are the consequences of being a bad witch? What if one of these witches trains a bad apprentice? And all of a sudden, an entire aspect of the world is tended to by someone who maybe has good intentions but is incompetent or unlawful.

unwise, or maybe they're just new. And you think about Amé, with all of the skills and golden heart that you know from a long lifetime that she has, as being, no one has asked you to run the Citadel. And I think that whatever your emotional reaction to the screwiness of this system is, you're suddenly like, oh, the relationship of a witch to a station is of a pilot. to a ship. And the size of the witch is so small in comparison to the size of the station, unless that witch does what you know wizards can do, which is claw across a whole lifetime to develop the skills you need to actually be worthy of what you have been given to represent. I think as all of that hits, Suvie kind of squeezes your hand again and pulls you into a hug.

Less for her. Or less for you, like even though it feels encapsulating, but absolutely for her. Feel that, and I just hold her back. In the middle of an attack, you led them in a song. You don't ever know to trust. Trust you, spite, you know, or be worthy of that trust. I won't let them hurt. I believe that.

You see, the fox looks up at you, Amay. Looks over to you, Zubi. trots over and nozzles your leg, says, we won't let them hurt you. We shouldn't run. Ursula, as you approach the two of them standing in the hallway near the keep on the way to the great dining hall, as you turn the corner, the fox in between them, their two toes pointed to each other in this embrace. A perfect cat's cradle of golden thread connects Sufi and Amé in this moment. That was Lou Wilson as Ursula. Erike Ishii as Amé, Abria Ayangar, as Suvi, and Brennan Lee Mulligan, as everyone and everything else.

Worlds 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.