060. 7 Wonders

Sophia's walk through Ramzia's dream reveals a possible solution to the Talus problem.

## 7 Wonders

### Play of the Game:

Kate as Patches, for agreeing to let the others into her dreams, and perhaps unlocking some of her "noble" qualities.

***"You pick up the game, you set up the board, you play, then… you have to go. You have to leave the game out."***

Sophia is once again observing Ramzia in her dream, watching her etch notches into the edge of a cliff, over and over, stretching back into eternity. As she goes "back" along the cliff, she sees some of the notches have become crosses, and the woman with a shock of white hair stands before her. The woman says that the crosses represent "the times she was lost", but that her secret is that "there hasn't been one in so long"….

Sophia leaves the dream to discover that Ramzia has morphed into this beautiful woman, her white hair streaked through with blonde. When Sophia asks who she is, the woman only replies that she is "the same you knew before" before morphing back into Ramzia! She asks that Sophia brings the rest of her motley up so that she can tell them "a few things they need to know".

Down in the Exhaust, Kyoko is in the midst of asking Braum whether he liked Giorgio the satyr, his ex's new boyfriend; Patches assure him that they didn't try to scare him at all. Sophia arrives to bring them all upstairs: Braum carrying Kyoko, Patches, and Sophia all enter the sidhe's penthouse suite to try to understand a bit more about Ramzia. Braum uses Contract to seal an oath they swear to not reveal Ramzia's secret (unless a life is threatened), and the pooka asks about legends: "Why do stories become corrupted?" Ramzia reveals she is Siochain, one of the Kithain rumoured to have found the perfect balance between Glamour and Banality in order to live forever and become, essentially, immortal.

The motley understands that Ramzia's current appearance is different from the one of the woman with white hair, but they are the same person. Ramzia tells them that she cannot teach her secret to anyone, and that since she has experienced so much in one lifetime, some of her memories are only shades now. She tells them that she had to sacrifice her love in order for "heroism to be reborn", and that this great loss haunts her every day. She made a mistake once that she's still paying for, which Patches ties to the brand Ramzia had in Braum's dream. Ramzia seems desperate to tell them more, but can't. When Braum notices that she seems to have a deep connection to a sleeping Kyoko, he asks her one more time about the world-changing event she must remember. Ramzia tells him that she can't give him any details, but that it was "light crashing through gray night, correcting wrongs, not to establish a tyrant, but so that we could rule ourselves". She takes Braum's hands and urges him to move forward: what happened then was the past, and "you, here, now, those are the stories to worry about".

Patches suggests that her previous self from the dream may know more about the brand that afflicted Ramzia, and that afflicts Talus still, but balks at the idea of Sophia walking in her dreams. She flat-out refuses to allow the sidhe to bring Talus inside her mind as well, anxious that she'll get "another furking Rick in there"! The group are surprised by Incisor, who shows up with donuts and a snowball; when she beats a hasty retreat, Sophia goes to her, confirming that she'll see her later tonight.

On the balcony, Patches makes a call to Duke Granville, still staying in residence at the Chateau Frontenac. She asks him what he would if he had to do something that scared him, but was probably the right thing to do; the Duke comments that it almost sounds like she's breaking things off between them. Patches admits that she doesn't feel particularly noble, and the Duke explains that being noble can sometimes be about selfishness, and knowing that you'll live to lead another day. Patches agrees to see the Duke at Yule time, and with that, they speak more… intimately.

Meanwhile, as Kyoko is seducing Braum in a seasonally-appropriate caroler's costume, Sophia makes her way to Incisor's room. The redcap is sitting on her bed surrounded by snow: she's conjured a beautiful, fluffy snowfall in her room just for the sidhe. Sophia comments in wonder that it was "just like this at my Chrysalis", but Incisor adamantly refuses to talk to her about her Chrysalis in return. As Sophia and Incisor tumble into bed, Braum asks Kyoko whether she would be open to having Sophia in her dreams: the rabbit is very nervous, asking if Braum would go as well. The troll hopes that maybe this would be a way for them to get even closer, but Kyoko finally admits that she is keeping something from him: "I can't tell you everything."

At Yule, Zistor leaves gifts for the motley: Braum gets bracers, and Sophia has a diffuser and lights installed in her shower. Patches, at the Chateau Frontenac with Duke Granville, opens her gift from Zistor to find a beautiful T-square, a blend of old and new, something she can use to create, seeing as he already gave her something with which to destroy.