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forensicated · 7 months

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A summary is needed of events over 202 to 208 to explain happens/caused the Gina and Smithyness in Episode 209

WARNING: Trigger warning for controlling behaviour, discussions of rape and sexual assault.

Episode 202

Nick was found after being taken hostage by Weaver to stop him ID'ing a hitman. Nick, a recovering addict, was pumped with an overdose of heroin. Smithy goes above and beyond to prove that Nick is innocent. Unfortunately he's paired with Kerry who takes every opportunity to moan and flirt.

Cameron tells Smithy that he thinks Kerry might be the one. Smithy is a jealous, belligerent and drunken pain in the arse and slut shames Kerry. Cameron storms off. During an argument Kerry tells Smithy she's happy with Cameron but leans forward and kisses him. They're spotted by Gabriel.

Episode 203

Kerry feels guilty for sleeping with Smithy and Gabriel seizes every opportunity to make her feel worse. Kerry is assigned to a rape case and is struggling to focus. The victim blurts out that she'd been raped after she'd been arrested and "isn't reacting like you'd expect a rape victim to". Smithy tries to ask Kerry if she's ok after their night together and she brushes him off telling him nothing happened. During an arrest Kerry is injured and sprains her wrist. At the hospital she asks for the morning after pill. Gabriel uses her upset, guilt and the rape case to emotionally manipulate her.

Episode 204

Kerry can't remember what happened, what was said or what was done on the night she and Smithy slept together. Gabriel takes advantage and suggests that Smithy could have raped her. Things finish officially with Cameron.

Episode 205

Kerry is left stewing on what Gabriel suggested and is behaving oddly around Smithy who asks Gabriel what's wrong. Gabriel says it's probably hormonal and that she's been behaving like it all day after he turned her down too earlier.

Nick returns to the station for one last day on shift and he's partnered with Smithy and later they join up with Kerry and Gabriel. Smithy and Nick end up saving Kerry from at best a very bad head injury. Kerry still can't look at Smithy without wondering if Gabriel was right and it was possible that Smithy raped her.

Episode 206

Gabriel keeps the pressure on Kerry, asking her what she's going to do. Things could be getting back on track with Cameron but she still hasn't told him anything about Smithy. An oblivious Smithy has to say goodbye to Nick, one of his oldest friends (... it's complicated) as he enters Witness Protection fully. Gabriel doubles down on manipulating Kerry, inserting himself as the only person who knows and the only person she can speak to. Yvonne helps Kerry when he finds her in tears in the toilets. She has a manipulated memory after Gabriel's talks. "We kissed but I didn't want it to go further. I said no but he wouldn't stop..."

Episode 207

Yvonne wants Kerry to report Smithy. Kerry said she has no proof and wants to forget it. Cameron's happy mood at a possible reunion with Kerry annoys a jeaous Gabriel. Kerry won't be drawn by Smithy on what is happening with her and Cameron. Their suspect falls into the water and Smithy leaps straight in. Without outside influence, Kerry starts to see Smithy as she did before it all happened for a few seconds before Honey puts her foot in it by saying she can see, after watching a wet Smithy undressing, why Kerry fancies him. Honey says that Kerry can't deny it, she clearly wanted Smithy that night.

Honey: Oh Sarge, I thought you were gonna let me towel you dry. Smithy: Careful Honey don't start something you might later regret.

Rather unfortunate banter to have right in front of Kerry and Yvonne. Yvonne begs her to talk and says he could do it to someone else if she doesn't report it. Kerry tells her that even Honey thinks she was desperate for him and the others will think the same. "I'm accusing a highly popular officer of date rape. Who do you think will come out of it worse? If you make it public I'll just deny it." Gabriel keeps up the manipulation of Kerry when they're alone in the writing room. He suggests Yvonne might be right and that it should be made official. Kerry tells Gina, when cornered, she's been having personal problems but won't be drawn further. Gina tells her off for 'trying to shift the blame' to Smithy - who had just plunged into the Thames (filmed around Jan btw!) - for them not following up on something.

Kerry interviews a potential rape victim and draws parallels between the described assault and her own encounter with Smithy. It later turns out to be an affair cover up. Outside Kerry witnesses the husband and lover fighting with the husband shouting 'how could you lie you'd been raped?' Kerry decides to let the entire thing drop as she doesn't even know if she has a complaint in the first place. Gabriel insists he'd be there for her as he just wants her to be happy but Kerry wants to move on and get back together with Cameron.

Gabriel reacts angrily, sweeping a rack of condiments off the table in front of undercover journalist, Andrea. He tells her that a colleague and good friend was ditched by her boyfriend and abused by a senior officer the same night. Andrea witnessed Kerry walk out ahead of her arrival so knows who it is. Gabriel openly names Smithy as the senior officer and insists Yvonne was the one who told him.

Smithy asks Kerry 'where they are' and she tells him their night was a disaster, it shouldn't have happened and she'd rather they avoided each other outside of work. Honey tells Andrea she doesn't understand why Kerry is choosing Cameron when she has Smithy on offer stating 'she'd have Smithy any day'. Andrea said that she'd heard that he's "a bit rough between the sheets". "Like no means yes type of rough?" Yvonne apologises to Kerry but insists it's only because she wants her to do the right thing. Kerry says she's not going to take it further. She doesn't feel any hate towards Smithy, nor does she feel like a rape victim. She just wants to move on with Cameron. Gabriel tells Cameron to take it a bit easy with Kerry because of 'the whole Smithy thing' and then that Kerry was raped by Smithy.

Episode 208

As if the situation wasn't already pressure cooker like enough, throw in Gina and Adam at a conference in Manchester, a serious RTC, an armed robbery, a bomb for Smithy to manages as the most senior uniform officer on shift.

Undercover journalist Andrea tries to pump Yvonne for information but she's not biting and Cameron is late. Kerry is trying to deal with the RTC with just a small handful of officers and the fire brigade whilst backup arrive through a massive traffic jam caused by the accident. Gabriel tells Kerry that the rumours have gotten out and implies Yvonne is to blame. Kerry hasn't time to react as a trapped motorist calls for her. Cameron finally arrives and questions Yvonne about Smithy and Kerry. They make it to the accident and he makes a beeline to Kerry to question her on what had happened. He begs her to tell him if it's true. Kerry can't answer.

With traffic jams Canley wide and most officers tied up at the RTA, Smithy has to join the Area Car at a suspected armed robbery whilst they wait for the traffic division to take over the accident and clear the area. He arrives just before Cameron. Cameron volunteers to be Smithy's scribe and keep an incident log meaning he has to stick close. Andrea spreads rumours around the cordon that Smithy raped Kerry. Cameron digs at Smithy before telling him that he knows he raped Kerry. Great timing Cameron!

Smithy tells Cameron that he's not proud of what happened, they were both drunk but he did not force her into anything. Cameron tries to attack Smithy but Smithy overpowers him and points out they have an armed siege with hostages with no back up and armed support because of the traffic issues. This. Can. Wait. Cameron doesn't let it drop, telling Smithy he won't get away with it and glowers in the background behind Smithy. Smithy has to shout into the bank to make contact, only to be held at gunpoint and a car demanded by the gunman/robber, Willet, in the next four minutes. Cameron belittles all Smithy's efforts, but Gary doesn't believe Andrea's gossip and backs him up. Andrea is horrified when an unarmed Smithy has to continue to talk to Willet with no protection.

Kerry arrives and she and Yvonne blame each other for the rumours. The bank manager, James is sent out of the front door when the car doesn't arrive. He has a bomb strapped to him and has to stay upright and level as there's a mercury tilt switch inside. Smithy has to talk a terrified and visibly shaking James into not touching it and keeping calm. Unfortunately, Willet's ex is James' new partner (and the bank reposessed Willet's house.) Willet a remote to set it off inside if they don't get the car to him in 5 minutes.

With just 5 minutes, Smithy says he has to give Willet the car he asked for, however Kerry runs over to tell him that CID have brought Willet's ex/James' partner to the scene. Kerry volunteers to isolate the bomb and James away from the scene until bomb disposal can arrive. Cameron tries to talk her out of it but Smithy tells her to take him round to the carpark and stay there - keeping him as calm as possible - and that he'll have a car placed between her and the bomb to try and shield her. He also lets her know that he's aware of the rape rumours. Kerry does as she's asked, trying to keep a lid on the situation - only for Willet's wife to break through the cordon and come face to face with her ex. Willet insists they deserve all they get. Smithy demands that she's taken away and reclaims control of the situation. SO19 and the ambulance finally break through the traffic.

The wife/new partner learns about the bomb and Andrea tries to reassure her it might not be real. She screams at the top of her voice that it's fake with Andrea stammering that's not what she meant. Cameron is concerned that James is panicking but Smithy says Kerry can handle it and talks to SO19 about getting Willet out to the car so they can deal with him without the hostages. Cameron breaks away, followed by Gabriel. Kerry tries to keep control and tells the bank manager not to touch the bomb because Julie was wrong and it might not be fake. Cameron continues to distract Kerry and demands she tell him what happened. Kerry is literally trying to keep the bank manager looking at her and Cameron is stood crowding her and asking her why he didn't tell her she'd been raped. Pick your fucking moments!

Cameron insists he'd believe her if she'd said he'd been raped but the fact she willingly went home with Smithy gives him an element of doubt. He walks off, Kerry turns to ask him to stop before looking back at James. He can't hold his arms up any longer and Kerry runs towards him to stop him touching it...

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letterstosestrilles · 2 years

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Dear Tyko,

It’s been a few days since I Sent to you, and maybe you’re wondering why I’m not back somewhere you can get my letters again yet. Obviously this letter won’t explain until I’ve already left, but I don’t know whether I’ll actually be somewhere with reception in between now and … everything else. I hope I am, I want you to know what I’m up to in far more words than I can do in Sending, but I think we’ll be figuring that out tomorrow or the next day.

Before I talk about what’s next, though, there’s a lot to catch you up on, as you might imagine, having read my last letter. Questions I’ve asked and had answered, and the next steps, because there are next steps. Maybe you, like me, had a moment’s desperate hope (and fear, in my case—I can’t deny that I would have had trouble letting go, even if I would have for your sake and those of others who love me, if there were other people who had any faith they could complete this quest) that Emulf and Dwiona would take this task on with Niko, but they have other business to attend to, and I can’t blame them. So yes, there are next steps, but I do need to tell you about how we got to them.

When I last wrote, I was groggy and unprepared to face the world, but writing it down helped, as it always does, so I went off and found Maliah, who was also groggy. We drank some tea from the jug and chatted a little, mostly about our exhaustion. Eventually, she heard voices in the distance, and when we poked our heads out, Niko was also poking hers out, hair mussed and eyes squinted in the scant light. She asked if we wanted breakfast, and when we agreed, led us to the kitchen, pausing sometimes at a crossroads as she reminded herself what direction something was in.

Dwiona and Emulf were up when we got there, for a given value of it. Emulf had pitched himself so far to the side in his seat that he was leaning in the wall, coffee perilously close to spilling it whenever he drank. Dwiona was determinedly upright, not letting herself lean on anything including the back of her seat. They greeted us and offered desperately-needed coffee, and we all tried to find the rhythm of a conversation while we drank it.

Maliah and I did our best to catch them up on major events in the Prime Material Plane over the past two and a half years, though it’s shameful how little we know about what’s actually in the news, other than being fairly certain that Kirim was a major story, at least. I asked if either of them had home planets or stations they wanted to hear about specifically, but they waved me off to ask about generalities, which makes sense with some things I surmised later, but we’ll get there.

We did a little better over breakfast, where Dwiona brought out some things from a pantry that I suspect works much like the one in my Mansion and gave us all plenty of protein and bread to get our energy back up. Maliah and I talked a little more about our backgrounds, and what adventures we’ve been on with Niko that don’t fully involve the path she led us down, asked a few hesitant questions about whether they’ve had time to do much eating or resting since Reorx was attacked (the answer is “very little,” especially with their companions leaving a year ago to seek more help, Niko not having returned), and generally tried to make a very strange situation as normal as we could.

Eventually, though, it was obvious that not much else could get started without speaking to our host, so we all set our dishes aside and let Dwiona and Emulf go ask Reorx where they’d like to meet us while Niko started fussing with her hair and Maliah and I frantically straightened ourselves out. When we were all settled, though, we went out to something like a veranda, a place with a view of the sky (the only thing that still shifts moment by moment instead of holding steady as long as one is in the room) and no true greenery but crafted greenery: wrought metal flowers, silk vines, materials I can’t pretend to recognize.

Reorx, in orcish form, looked much more collected than they had the day before, and much more rested too. They asked, to begin, for more details on how we’d come to be there, and Niko obliged, to my everlasting gratitude. She knew the details that would most interest them, and the most about how she first realized something strange was going on in the first place. I only tossed in occasional commentary—things we saw before we started traveling with her full-time, personal confirmations of people I know who have been on the constant-inspiration side of things, and the occasional comment when Niko was being too modest about her own contributions. Maliah did much the same, and all told, we condensed the tale of our travels down to an hour or so, with a little extra when Reorx asked some clarifying questions.

When it was done, it was our turn to ask questions, and I started with the one I answered for you at the start of this letter: whether Reorx’s companions (it’s the best word I’ve got for them, when they aren’t all paladins and there’s clearly too much fondness and knowledge on both sides for “followers” to feel right) wanted to take over the quest now that Niko has her memories back. As I said, Dwiona and Emulf demurred, and Reorx has plenty of work to do with a lot of divine delicacy putting their domain back in order.

So the problem of Onver was squarely back in our laps, and we started asking questions as appropriate, starting with what it is that he actually wants. Reorx said, rather wry, that Onver isn’t given to dramatic speeches about his goals, but they expect that what he wants is power. The power of a god, even, but without the responsibilities or obligations of one. Reorx suspects they were a first test, not a final one.

The next question, one that’s been keeping me up nights, is whether the damage to Reorx was from charging or discharging the weapon. We know that it can pull from beings as well as from the ethereal plane, after all, and the kind of charge you can gain from hurting a god is not the kind of charge we want in Onver’s hands. Unfortunately, it seems to have been some measure of both, and Reorx can tell that some portion of their essential nature is in Onver’s hands—it allows them to do at least some general tracking on him, but that he succeeded in even that measure is terrifying.

Another logical question: what can a mortal do, with a piece of a god’s essential nature? With a piece of Reorx’s, given their domain. Pure destruction, certainly, but if all Onver wanted to do was destroy, he could easily have spent that power already. Other options are more nebulous: he could use it like an incredibly powerful version of the inspiration I can give, or infuse it into an object, or hoard it for when he gains more power at the next stage of his plan, whatever that is.

That gave us all plenty to think of, so I went sidewyas to Niko, who had her full and proper memories restored to her so recently and who I’m full of questions about and for. I started with something Reorx had said the day before—that they’d taken Niko’s memories to keep Onver from following her back once she found him. But Onver had also been brought to them once, so I was confused. Reorx cleared it up, starting the story a little back from that, as I’ll relay to you now.

After Onver destroyed his community so brutally, which Niko told us about, Reorx charged her and Achenna, who I haven’t met, to bring Onver to them for a conversation—as they say, punishment isn’t really in their remit, but something clearly had to be done and it was Reorx’s paladin Onver betrayed. They did, which is when Onver attacked and whisked away (some kind of teleportation magic, but whether it was magic in an item, a scroll, intrinsic, or learned, Reorx couldn’t say), but the protection was less about the location, in the end, and more about knowledge.

Niko and these other companions are all very close to Reorx, it seems, in a way most people aren’t to gods (which makes me think about Mishakal and her comment that Reorx’s plane might be more comfortable for us than many divine planes, so I’m guessing it’s not terribly common for gods to take on companions, but that seems rude to ask). They’re privy to secrets of divine knowledge, of universal and creative knowledge, that shouldn’t fall into Onver’s hands. Moreover, when you’re that close to a god, apparently there are means of tracking, so removing Niko’s connection kept her safe until Onver gave up looking for her.

That was a lot to think about, so I sidestepped again and got another blow to my perception of things for my troubles: I asked about the timeline of things, and whether the return of Niko’s memories had given her time back too. She laughed, a little wildly, and said that apparently the time between Onver destroying his community and Niko and Achenna bringing him before Reorx was twenty years. (I don’t know much about genasi lifespans, but you’ve met Niko. She does not look old enough to have been hunting someone for twenty years. Another question I don’t quite have the courage to ask.)

More than that, the memories she shared with us of bringing Onver to a mortal temple to Reorx were modified. She wasn’t a regular paladin called to be a servant and companion to Reorx in this circumstance. She’d been with them for some time, and the perhaps-killed head of the temple was Reorx themselves, twisting things so Niko could know what she needed to without betraying that knowledge if she was found. Apparently these companions go on what they agreed to call pilgrimages sometimes, returning to mortal planes to wander, learn new techniques, inspiring interesting projects, and the like. Niko was on one of those when Onver fell into her lap.

(And fell, it seems, by design. He might not have known exactly who was coming, but as Reorx put it, there are ways people can make themselves attractive in such situations, and if it hadn’t been a servant of Reorx, it might have been, I don’t know, a high-level cleric of an agricultural god interested in the supposed uses of the machine, or even, as they said, Gaizka, powerful enough to draw interest.)

The extra twenty years certainly make parts of what we’ve been surmising make sense. Niko and Reorx agree that she was hunting him fiercely enough that he can’t have been putting too much into place, but Maliah and I remembered Shaan Liadon, and his mother who might possibly be a warlock, which gave us all a sober moment. That’s more of a loose thread, a side problem I already know Athan and Gaizka have their eyes on from different vantage points, but it’s still a reminder that Onver might have done plenty of things even on the run.

They also agree that while Onver might have been presenting himself as a regular denizen of the Plane of Earth when she met him, chances are large that’s a disguise. There’s no guessing what he actually is, when there are so many powerful beings, Reorx included, who can change their guise on a whim, but we should be prepared for him to have resources and powers aside from his weapon, at the very least. He definitely has access to magic, by whatever means, even if his primary offensive capability is the weapon.

Well, let me be precise, so I’m harder to take by surprise: with Reorx, he really only tried to fight or wound with the weapon, and didn’t attack when he was separated from it, just tried to get back and hamper others’ movements. (At least at that point, he had to be next to the weapon to fire it. Point in our favor. When Niko and Achenna brought him in, it was using surprise and ambush tactics. Point less in our favor.) It may be that it’s the most damage he can do so he doesn’t see the point in doing anything else. It may be that it’s the most damage he can do to a god, so he didn’t try lesser measure. And it may be that he stuck to the weapon because he wanted power more than he wanted to win, in which case he definitely wouldn’t care to stick to it with us, since we can’t grant him divine power.

That was all a lot to take in, so I made another sidestep: does Reorx want him alive? Niko had talked about taking Onver alive before, to deliver him to justice, but apparently she’s done that once before. And, from what it seems, Reorx doesn’t care. If we deliver them Onver, they’ll deal with him as they see fit. If he doesn’t make it back but he’s dealt with, they’ll be pleased enough to move on to other things.

Maliah stepped in and asked the wonderfully practical question of what the thing looks like, after all this worry about it. Niko, obviously, has seen some plans for it, so she can tell us more, but it does look superficially like a drill, since it is a planar drill even if it functions as much by magic and metaphor as by its physical components. There are apparently a lot of lenses and lasers, which seem like parts that could be sabotaged, or so I optimistically hope. It’s large, on an industrial or agricultural scale rather than a hand weapon.

Reorx seemed to see all of us listing a little, still tired after healing them, and brought the conversation to a close by saying that they could tell us at least vaguely where he is, and would give us anything they can, but that there are places in the universe where it’s hard for magical sight, even that of a god, to penetrate, and Onver has wisely holed up in one. That, though, they said, was to deal with after a few more days of recovery.

Before they sent us off for that recovery, though, they said that they wanted to thank us for coming and finishing the job their companions have been so faithfully doing. They asked if there’s anything we know we need, and I mentioned something to hold Onver once we have him, and they produced from the air, as though it were nothing, a pair of strong but light manacles with runes carved in that can apparently keep a person from using teleportation magic once you have them restrained, and I thanked them and they turned to other gifts.

Reorx gave each of us a gift and a blessing. Niko they said will have greater rewards when they’ve had time to think of what would be appropriate, but apparently the glaive she’s using has more powers than she knew, or used to have more powers, and they’ve restored it to full function. Her blessing is a blessing of health, and as Reorx said it, I could see her sitting up straighter, a little more vital, even if she still looked exhausted.

Maliah was given a beautiful tooled leather quiver, just the size of her regular one but with space to hold arrows, javelins, even extra longbows, all of which can be drawn even quicker than getting something from the bag of holding. Squirt didn’t receive a gift, but they both received blessings. Maliah’s is a blessing of protection—for one who protects her friends, said Reorx, and I’m pleased they see her so well. Apparently it will protect her, which I’m even more grateful about, a little extra ease in dodging and avoiding harm. Squirt’s blessing, which Maliah nearly wept over, is one of wound closure: he’s going to be a whole lot harder to kill, and easier to heal, which is worth weeping over, I’d say.

I got a puzzle to go with my gift and my blessing. They said (and meant, I since discovered) that they wanted to know more about my gloves, but in the meantime asked Dwiona for a particular harp, and when she handed it to them, a small and beautifully covered object, they strummed it once, and the music seemed to shiver into being as light in the air. They cupped it in their hands, blew it over my gloves, and now, it seems, the gloves have the powers of the harp: they’ll cast Fly, and Wall of Thorns, and several other spells, once a day each, and if I try to use the gloves to charm someone, which I don’t expect I’ll do often, they’ll have a harder time resisting it. They also said that as I look for how they stored the data, I may find it easier to do some of my own, which is the puzzle, and one I look forward to unraveling.

The blessing is one that may amuse you, actually—Reorx, like you, seems to agree that whatever my virtues, I’m not exactly overflowing with wisdom, and gave me a blessing of wisdom to make up for it. I’m used to discovering new reserves of power in myself, but I do have to admit it’s deeply strange to feel a god expand your understanding and powers of observation, and I keep finding myself in spirals wondering if I would have thought something in quite the same way before the blessing. Hopefully it will settle soon.

After that, and a great many thanks, we were given the run of the compound while Reorx took care of business.

Dwiona showed me to some absolutely gorgeous music rooms. They don’t have any overt acoustic material on walls or ceilings, but even just talking in them, you can feel the roundness in the tone, the way it’s almost an echo but doesn’t actually linger or muddy any sounds. I don’t think I’ve heard a concert hall as good. And they’re just there, full of musical instruments, each a perfect example of type, some of them types I’ve never heard of and couldn’t imagine. Others have the wood-and-rosin scent of a luthier’s shop, or sheets of brass to be shaped, wires to be turned into strings for palm-sized harps as much as for guitars twice as long as I am tall.

I spent most of the rest of the day absolutely enchanted, playing first one instrument, now another, each all pure and perfect tone, the smoothest trumpet I’ve ever heard, a drum whose beats could echo across miles, a fiddle Serime would kill to get her hands on.

I had, however, in a fit of wanting to do something for the exhausted people who haven’t had breaks and vacations with friends and family for the last two years, offered to treat everyone to dinner in the Mansion, and that included Reorx, so eventually I tore myself away and very quickly planned a feast and a Mansion that’s a bit less flamboyant than usual, just in time for everyone to come along.

It was a pleasant dinner, thank goodness. Squirt gorged himself on a dozen kinds of meat, everyone else appreciated the strange array of dishes I conjured up, roast hog next to Infernal curry next to that cake I always wanted to try from The Estate of Bidi-Maha in the Time of Industry, which was just as delicious as I always hoped. I kept conversation as light as I could, and Reorx and their companions mostly talked about crafting, and mishaps with trying new ones. When they lapsed, Maliah and I told some stories of the quests not directly related to helping Reorx.

Eventually, we all admitted defeat and left the Mansion behind to rest again.

Yesterday was quiet. I went back to the music rooms, and while I spent a little time looking at the spellwork and wondering how to replicate it, and pulling out Hanai’s old notes to see if the crystalline structure could be a key to it, I also spent some time doing some maintenance on the rest of my kit, since the gloves are the showiest part but not the only part. I redid the wiring in my belt to be more efficient with the larger amounts of data I need to access, recalibrated the sensitivity on my loop sensor, and, while I had such perfect recording acoustics, rerecorded a lot of my vocal samples.

Maliah and Niko had both disappeared, Niko to rooms dedicated to fibercraft and Maliah sometimes with her and sometimes looking at and testing out Reorx’s gorgeous collection of bows, and we were all enthusiastic over dinner, which we had in the kitchen this time and without a god along.

And then today, after a bit more of the same, Reorx called us to that veranda again, to talk to us about our next steps, since Onver doesn’t seem to be moving fast but we all want to be done with him anyway.

As I said, because Onver has a piece of Reorx’s power, they can’t pinpoint him, but they know at least vaguely where he is. And as I said, there aren’t many places that can block magic as thoroughly as the place he’s hiding. Reorx listed a few, each of which sounded inhospitable: pockets of the Shadowfell, certain corners of the Celestial Plane, some of the Outer Planes, where Reorx says Onver does not yet have the power to walk.

But Onver isn’t in any of those places. No, Onver is, it seems, on the dark side of the Feywild. The place they tell ghost and horror stories about, a place where large parts don’t allow any access to magic and where I’ll thus have a hard time being of any use to my friends at all to the point where I’m worried I’ll be dead weight for a decent amount of the journey, unless I can make friends with some unspeakable horrors on the way to Onver’s den. But you can’t make friends with the land, which is also against you, and contains, apparently, pockets where time distorts, where we could lose months or years. Reorx, helpfully, suggests we avoid those. I’ll have to ask what they look like.

Or, most likely, I’ll have to ask Cerunwe what they look like, because we do know one person who’s been to the dark side of the Feywild and come back out, if with more difficulty than ze has yet told us about. We’re going to owe zir a hell of a favor, but the thought of at least zir advice, if not zir guidance, is one of the only things giving me hope, when Maliah blanched as soon as Reorx said where Onver is. Maliah’s not scared of places, not really, not when she could explore them, but this she’s scared of, and that scares me in turn, even if something about it tugged my imagination and my interest when I was there.

Maybe I’ll get to write my song about it after all.

I don’t know if we’ll be back on the Prime Material Plane in between. These messages may send from the Feywild—I doubt the dark side has the reception to send messages, but if we need to find Cerunwe, we won’t be starting there.

I’m scared. Of Onver and of this. But I can almost see the end of it, now, and some hints of what could come after. I’ll just have to keep those in mind, because the nearer things are too terrifying to focus on for long.

Please tell me you’re reading something happy in book club this month.

Love,

Elyn

#in character #in character: letter #letter to: tyko #episode 203 #location: reorx's plane #person: maliah #person: mehrnikorsa(niko)#person: dwiona #person: emulf #deity: reorx #person: aturav onver #looking ahead

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