(Mar 14)
Dramatic Conversations
15/5
Tunnels in the Daggered Rise
Hark’ul retrieves Peach’s rifle, a tense journey of invisible stealth against a creature with a great nose and ears.
Bax tells the other Isendelians that Ashen said he fought against Astarael, the Witch Queen of Moraeth. Talith says he caught sight of Astarael once from behind, far away, surrounded by lightning, and he and Ashen have only traveled together for a few days, since Ivakar’s Passage. He reveals that he traveled back home, but the baronies don’t exist as political entities any more (although Galoring as a city does), while Moraeth is uninhabitable.
Squire says he doesn’t trust Peach because she doesn’t seem to have the right mindset for the situation they’re in, and makes a deal with Bax that Squire will deal with the military asshole (Ashen) if Bax can deal with bringing the waitress up to speed; Sav makes a jibe about Peach having taken a shine to him already, but Bax is clueless as to what she means.
Sal and Yev catch up, and Yev asks about Xalati. Sal pulls him in for a hug, and even Yev realizes what that means.
Merrick and Ashen bond; Ashen says he lost contact with his goddess, the Raven Queen, when he was pulled into this world, and must have been excommunicated, so now he’s performing penance trying to get back into her good graces. Ashen calls the angels misguided at best, and Merrick asks what a man might do against beings such as the angels; Ashen only has faith in the Raven Queen. Merrick tells Ashen that it is said the Owl Woman walks the Night, and the dead fear her tread.
Sav examines Bax’s eye and tattooed arm, and finds the former much the same as before and the latter’s ink bears a subtle mark of Divination, but is otherwise magically inactive. On closer examination, the constellation flickers in a long pattern that now (newly) underlies the original structure of the magic. It’s merely one piece of something more complex, like a secondhand refraction of a different phenomenon whose magic is interacting with the magic of the eye in a complex way. When she looks down, she notices a small pinprick of very similar magic next to her navel, and runs back to discover similar pinpricks (in different locations) on all the other Dreamers (except Talith, who already has his constellation of the Champion).
Bax confirms he’s still the yeti, though it’s a bit different now, and Sav is relieved at this. Then Bax plays Twenty Four Questions about her, and confesses he’s not sure how long he’ll be around, since he’s not supposed to be there—he was pulled back before his time, and he doesn’t know what will happen with that. He also says Ashen mentioned serving the Raven Queen, but doesn’t know what to do about that yet.
Talith asks Sav if she was having an affair with Astarael; rather than admit that she had feelings for Talith’s girlfriend, Sav chooses to disappear.
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