Now That You Are Pure 1
PART 2: NOW THAT YOU ARE PURE

That damn file is back. The sculptor's file, with its horrible serated surfaces, being hammered meticulously into your skull by an invisible hobgoblin. The horse's hooves are echoing this time, and coming from somewhere to your left, making the hammer-beats of incremental pain faster and more erratic. You decide that in this scenario the hobgoblin is drunk.

You wish you were drunk.

Your eyes open to find only swaying shadows, looming disorientingly across your field of vision. You smell straw and horse, hear the creak of wood, the faint clink of ceramic or glass, the rumble of wheels. A cart?

A few experimental actions follow. You turn your head and suffer a sharp jolt of pain for your hubris as you grind your bones against stiffened muscle and tendon. You try to move your arms and cannot. Your legs, the same. Your shoulders respond in a limited fashion. Your tongue refuses to raise to the parched roof of your mouth. You try to speak, and only a slurred mumble emerges.

You hear the ruffle of disturbed fabric and a shaft of sunlight sears your vision. As your eyes adjust to the radiance, you make out the bright face of Brindle.

BRINDLE: "Oh, you're awake, lady. I'll just, er, get the Talonlord." he seems embarassed. "Just, uh, sit tight there."

He looks like he's going to correct himself, but thinks better of it, and ducks out of view.

You have a few moments to yourself. Your spatial reasoning slowly filters through to tell you that this sunlit opening is at the rear of a covered wagon, which means you are leaning against the left part of the front arch. That doesn't explain why you can't move, though. Are you still poisoned?

Poison. The memory hits slowly, like a wave over a long beach. Fincher poisoned you. You're not sure how to feel about that.

You hear footsteps approaching and Fincher enters the rear of the wagon as you are still processing this. She's much the worse for wear, missing her scarlet cloak and splattered with black mud. Looks like the road has been difficult.

You try to greet her, but your tongue once again does not respond. She reaches towards you without a word. You try to pull away, but your unresponsive body just ends up slamming your head against the arch of the wagon.

She removes the cloth gag from your mouth and tosses it aside.

FINCHER: "Afternoon, boss."

"Fincher." The word is a dry croak. "Why was I gagged?"

FINCHER: "Kept shouting unsettling shit while you were asleep. Not the worst of your worries, anyway." She gestures down.

You look down at your legs. Now that the wagon is open to the afternoon sunlight, you can see that they are tied together at the knee and ankle with neatly bound rope. You realize that your arms don't move because they are similarly bound behind your back, around the wagon arch.

"Ah."

FINCHER: "Yeah. Ah."

[ ] Am I a prisoner?
[ ] You need to untie me. I still need to find the secret infiltrator.
[ ] Can you untie me, please? I'm sorry about what happened.
[ ] You look rough.
 
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Now That You Are Pure 2

"You look rough."

FINCHER: "What-" she scowls. "Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No, I just mea-"

FINCHER: "Most of my talon is dead before we even make landfall, I've had about two hours sleep between managing patrols and tending to the wounded, two of my scouts are killed following my orders, the only other Dragon-Blood in sight has gone rogue with paranoia and started attacking my officers, and now we're on hour ten of a forced march. I'm fucking incredible."

"I just meant the mud. Sorry to hear all that though."

She looks down at herself.

FINCHER: "Oh, that. Yeah, one of the smaller wagons got stuck and I fell into the road trying to free it on my own. At least everyone found it funny. I heard Turnip saying I did it to raise morale. I'm going to let them believe that."

[ ] Since when do we have wagons?
[ ] Weren't you trying to get to a new shelter by dawn? Why a ten hour forced march?
[ ] Have I really gone rogue with paranoia?
[ ] Why am I tied up?
 
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Now That You Are Pure 3
[X] Weren't you trying to get to a new shelter by dawn? Why a ten hour forced march?
"Weren't you trying to get to a new shelter by dawn? Why a ten hour forced march?"

FINCHER: "New orders."

"You got new orders? From whom?"

FINCHER: "Dragonlord Mei."

Memories of a baleful yellow eye rise unbidden in your mind.

"She's here?"

FINCHER: "We're headed to her. Just before dawn scouts spotted her anima burning full, way to the south. If my maps are right - and I'm working from reconstructions and memories here - she's at Thazaniel, one of the island's ruined fortress-manses."

WAR: Anima beacon. It's a known strategy in the Thousand and One Actions. Find a secure place, light your anima to its brightest in the night, you can be seen for miles around. If your forces are scattered, they will know where to rally to you. Sensible play in this case, if this Dragonlord Mei can deal with whatever local attention it attracts.

"The island has ruined fortress-manses?"

FINCHER: "Yeah, three. Ashglass is built around a fourth."

You remember the looming, cyclopean double structure, with the city growing around it like barnacles on a whale.

"Why didn't we head to Thazaniel before?"

FINCHER: "Too far south. We were looking to complete our mission and get into Ashglass, remember? I only remember Thazaniel because it was going to be the staging ground for the second flight when we were to march south for the land campaign against the retreating Raigi. Guess the plan's changing."

"Are you sure it's her?"

FINCHER: "I'm sure. I've seen her anima before.

You get a flash of a monstrous face, impossibly bright, vaguely feline, with snarling, curved tusks.

"I think I have too."

She shrugs.

"So more legion survived?"

FINCHER: "It looks that way. The Dragonlord definitely did."

[ ] Can we talk about how I'm tied up?
[ ] How long until we get to Thazaniel?
[ ] What's this Mei like?
[ ] Mei is a fire aspect, right? Is it possible she killed your scouts?
[ ] Who else was on Mei's ship? They might have survived too.
 
Now That You Are Pure 4
[X] Who else was on Mei's ship? They might have survived too.

"Who else was on Mei's ship? They might have survived too."

FINCHER: "Hm. It was the Sulco's Spite, one of the bigger fleet galleys. Mei's in command, but she moved off the flagship on account of her, uh, disagreements with you. There were three talons on that ship, Mercer's wing and my commander Rivers, plus Rooster's engineering talon. Two-fifty legion all, and Rooster's Exalted. Another hundred or so Paleans. Then there's the navy, I think they had a Peleps captain on that ship. And there's the sorcerer-adjunt, the Bane of Kasj."

"What kind of name is the Bane of Kasj?"

FINCHER: "One you should not shorten to 'the Bane' and definitely should not shorten to 'Kasj'. He knows a curse that will turn your- well, it's a bad time. Don't do it."

You make a mental note to not do that.

[ ] Can we talk about how I'm tied up?
[ ] How long until we get to Thazaniel?
[ ] What's this Mei like?
[ ] Mei is a fire aspect, right? Is it possible she killed your scouts?
[ ] You said Rooster was your friend, right?
 
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Now That You Are Pure 5
[x] Mei is a fire aspect, right? Is it possible she killed your scouts?

"Mei is a fire aspect, right? Is it possible she killed your scouts?"

Fincher visibly pales.

FINCHER: "No, absolutely not. For one thing she's a hero of the Realm and a commander to those two legionaries. For another thing she would have had to move..." she thinks, "about a hundred miles in three hours to get to Thazaniel after randomly appearing out of the dark to murder her own legionaries."

"I was just-"

She holds up her finger.

FINCHER: "This did not happen. Do not talk about this idea to anyone. I will find out. I am already beyond my limit with your shit, don't make it worse."

[ ] Can we talk about how I'm tied up?
[ ] How long until we get to Thazaniel?
[ ] What's this Mei like?
[ ] You said Rooster was your friend, right?
 
Now That You Are Pure 6
[X] You said Rooster was your friend, right?

"You said Rooster was your friend, right?"

FINCHER: "Why? Are you going to accuse him of murder too?"

"Uh, no, I just thought it would be nice for you to see a friendly face."

FINCHER: "Oh." a ghost of a smile passes her lips. "Yeah, I guess it would be good to see him. Not getting my hopes up, though. We lost most of our people in the wreck, Sulco's Spite might be the same. But I hope he's okay. He's an idiot, but we went through the Stair togther."

[ ] Can we talk about how I'm tied up?
[ ] How long until we get to Thazaniel?
[ ] What's this Mei like?
 
Now That You Are Pure 7
[X] How long until we get to Thazaniel?

"How long until we get to Thazaniel?"

FINCHER: "Two hours if we're lucky. Maybe four if the roads get worse. We're past the flooded parts, but we're still getting stuck too often. Plus the approach looks complicated."

NAVIGATE: Poorly maintained roads! The bane of any traveller.

"Alright. I guess I'll just wait here then."

FINCHER: "I've got to say boss, you're being awfully calm about this whole thing."

[ ] What whole thing?
[ ] Well, I kind of had it coming, right?
[ ] It's ok, I understand why.
[ ] Well, there's not much I can do about it.
[ ] I'm not going to try to escape when you're right in front of me, am I?
 
Now That You Are Pure 8
[X] I'm not going to try to escape when you're right in front of me, am I?

"I'm not going to try to escape when you're right in front of me, am I?"

She sighs, sits down heavily on a barrel sitting opposite you.

FINCHER: "Look, I'm trying to make the best of a bad situation here. I can't have you running loose. Even if you don't attack people, morale is bad. I'm trying to keep everyone safe and together. That means you have to, you know, change roles."

"To prisoner."

FINCHER: "It's temporary. Hopefully things will pick up when we get to Thazaniel. It's not like I can keep a magistrate locked up, right? Oh, but just in case you decide to make that case yourself to someone else..." she holds up your ring. "I'm going hold on to this until we can set you loose."

[ ] That's fair.
[ ] That's probably treason.
[ ] I am extremely uncomfortable.
[ ] What if I need to pee?
 
Now That You Are Pure 9
[X] That's probably treason.

"That's probably treason."

FINCHER: "Yeah, probably. But I figure if you want me up on charges I'm fucked anyway. Might as well do things properly while I have the chance, right?"

You try to shrug. The pain in your neck stabs again.

FINCHER: "You seem calmer after some sleep. I hope we can... you know, move past this."

"Well, you did attack me, poison me and tie me up in a wagon."

FINCHER: "That is something that happened."

[ ] Good job, keep it up.
[ ] I'm really very sorry about this whole thing.
[ ] Can we have a rematch later?
[ ] I would like to be let go now please.
[ ] I won't charge you if you release me immediately.
 
Now That You Are Pure 10
[X] I'm really very sorry about this whole thing.

"I'm really very sorry about this whole thing."

FINCHER: "I appreciate it, boss, but I figure we're even, personal-like. Orison's the one you need to apologise to."

"Is he okay?"

FINCHER: "He's fine. I mean, he's not fine, but the swelling is already going down and there's no sign of damage to the skull. If he avoids any other head injuries on this campaign he won't have any permanent effects from the concussion."

"Okay, good. That's good."

FINCHER: "So... are you going to stop being weird?"

[ ] I'll try to stop being weird.
[ ] I'll try to stop being weird around people.
[ ] I don't think I can stop being weird.
[ ] I'll try to be weird in a constructive way.
 
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