Session 15: Emberil

The Day Book
"“To the ant, a few drops of dew are a flood.”" Again and again, I feel myself play the part of the fool. Perhaps that is why I keep Viter so close—he comfortably assumes the fool persona outwardly, while I keep all the true foolishness to myself. A 15-year lead lay in an innocuous leather-bound day book surrounded by sticky bottles smelling of oak, smoke, and whiskey. Arabella’s day book contained a simple enough lead. So simple, a simpleton could and should have surmised it. All those years being educated by the top tutors and scholars. Yet the answers to my questions lay in a liquor-soaked day book.

So reads the key passage that was waiting for me all this time: "“… City is in disarray. The meteor has lit fires all over the city. People are panicking… City workers scrambling to find survivors in the wrecks all over the city… … reports of strange fog arising from wreckages… the crater itself… people who are exposed to it seem changed… its dangerous! The people exposed to the fog are mutating and unstable emotionally. Lord adrik recommends that we need to kill the exposed to protect ourselves… The city is rioting… control isn’t possible there is too much happening… The king was killed… trying to calm the crowd… he appeared before the mob to appeal to their senses… he was torn asunder adrik said… many of his guard were killed as well.. Even the best knights in the city couldn’t protect him from the mob… I fear we are trapped in the palace while we hold off… I have sent word to our bannermen outside the city to ride for the city.. General Vanderly has ridden out to rally our armies and bannermen to save the city. … the armies… they arrive but not with aid.. They seek to seize the throne… I must save the queen and her children… get them to safety… Caution says I should separate them… if one is found, the others may yet go free… The heirs are the most important… I’ll whisk them away while I stash the queen away to her favourite spot… I’ll bring the princesses to Eleanor… the Academy will protect them.. They must. They’re the only ones who have the power to get them away now…. … the girls should be safe.. The queen is next.. But she will will not depart the city without the gem.. I must find my way back to the castle first…”"These passages takes place over the month following the day the cursed meteor fell. We must determine why this meteor is here. It is certainly connected to the fey wild. A hex on the winter queen. May I burn her alive and watch her skin and magic harden and flake off, returning to dust crushed in the palm of my hands. May any who stand in my way meet such a fate.

During the fall of the city, Eleanor Eventide was still the Archmage of Sacena—the original one who was there when the city was founded 200 years ago. We do not know what became of Eleanor, I only just met her successor. And I let him slip through my fingers, pestering him like an insolent child. Now I need information from him that I doubt he will give lightly. Blast.

Arabella’s office hid a safe with 637 gold pieces and many documents, including deeds to properties owned along the lower house and the merchant sector. Notably, there is a deed of the luxury residence in the inner city, the Von Kessel Estate. The estate belonging to the king himself. May he rest in peace. Perhaps this is my Aunt’s favourite spot? Could she still be alive too? What gem could she not live without? What gem could be more important than her young girls? Sigrun, make it make sense.

….

I can see the delirium flecks in the pupil of the eye of a terrible monster from another plane filling the hole in the wall. So close. So menacing. Staring right at us in the small garden. Did I mention we were holding our breaths? Literally.

The room grew with the glow of delirium—the greenery got…greener. Viter picks up a giant log and positions it to bar the door. Yes, that will keep out the crystal-covered lizard monster the size of a god. Sure, Viter.

This blasted monster leaves behind toxic pollen, I barely finished realizing that when the next thing I know Ivasar is flying clear past me, crashing through to the other side of the room. In the chaos of the moment, I could have sworn that Viter cast a silent image of Ivasar. Ok, that is pretty clever. It luckily creates the same emotion of Ivasar at any given time, that is, a total lack thereof. I wonder if it can make puns, too?

The monster regards the fake Ivasar after smashing through the wall, spilling in with pointed shards threatening to impale us all. Anion does not seem to notice any disturbance in the chaos of the scene, maintaining impeccable concentration on the delirium crystal in the middle of the fountain.

Did I mention we were holding our breaths?

Perhaps, more importantly, I should mention that I cast shatter, again and again and again—and one more time for good measure. While Ivasar continues to get smashed and bashed around the room, goes in and out of consciousness, and even at one point is crawling across the room on his belly--we all manage to finally destroy the beast. Ivasar manages to live.

Of course, not before Viter covered the crystallized and corrupted beast with the yolks of its own unborn offspring.

I. cannot. even.

My final shatter spell convulses through the beast’s body. The shards of delirium down its spine that were buried deep in its back shatter and expose its insides. The beast crumbles onto the floor, dead. Its insides are infected with tumourous growths of delirium itself. The tumours though aren’t bulbous, they’re jagged and rocky. Delirium fog escapes out of every orifice as the body deflates.

We. Are. Still. Holding. Our. Fucking. Breaths. I mean, mostly.

At that precise moment, after an intense and chaotic handful of minutes that felt like hours, Anion opens his eyes and is shocked at the sight before him. He finishes his spell, and we can all once again take a breath safely, now that the protective anti-delirium fog spell is once again cast. We each take a 20-pound shard of the crystal with us, for good measure.

As we leave the destroyed garden, Viter shows that he kept just one more thing. One egg from the monster. I do not know what to expect from this but Viter can barely take care of himself—I do not know what we would do with this egg. One thing I do know, either the offspring in that egg will die or Viter will. Both will not be able to exist simultaneously.

We exit through the main hall and journey upstairs. The Steward’s office door is sealed with the 8 seals of the city, and I once again utilize the Lord Commander’s seal to unlock it. The well-cared for study is a level of luxury we have not seen in the rest of the contemporary, mundane administrative building. The mahogany-covered room and large velvet chairs, the drink cart—here is where we find the day book containing information I have spent months and months searching for. Mocked while standing among riches. What a slight. So many of my men died for this. And here was the big lead, resting on a high-end drink cart. Yet, no whiskey left for me to drown my sorrows.

I cannot think straight. I am lost. And I call myself an Andromedea? For the first time in my life, I am relieved that my Father is dead. Just so he cannot see the waste of a daughter he left behind.

We return to the main floor with the sweet fey creatures. Anion bows and thanks us. Has a new appreciation for druids. And the portal to the fey world opens. This time there is no static or buzzing. The barrier between the two world dissolves gently and I feel, different. The wind touching my skin feels unnatural against it. Suddenly, the scene before us is one of destruction. Burnt woods, dwellings and a silvery white mould that seems to be covering and suffocating anything else trying to live. The merry band returns to the home and the barrier returns to being a stone ceiling twinkling with delirium.

What is becoming of reality? May Sigrun have mercy on us all.