Episode 111 - Winds

## Winds

A black background with a wite border that only take up the top half of the image. The sides a collection of irregularly placed dots - denser towards the top, and the top is a collection of squiggles. Within the border a hooded cloak is depicted in white with a side profile depiction of a large clawed hand depicted in red reaching down to a tent, also depicted in red. A collection of non-descript white shapes full the blank space behind the hand and tent. Bellow the image but still within the border the words "111.WINDS" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Mrs. Wicker seeks guidance, Olivier talks about the weather, and Friday finds answers in the smoke. The theme of tonight’s episode is Winds.

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> ***Content warning**: Animal death (Heidi, Bert as usual), Violence, Kidnapping and abduction, Death + Injury, Blood, Birds, Gun Mention, Insects, Emotional Manipulation, Electrocution, Religious Violence, Burned Alive By The Church, Child Sacrifice, Cindy’s personality*
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## Intro - Born of the Weather

Nikignik narrates to the Dreamers someone as they comfort a woman (presumably their spouse) while she gives birth during a thunderstorm. Once the baby is delivered, the storm resolves into a light rain, and they begin to weep, as it is evident that they are an Ephelzeph covenant and they had hoped that they'd come out like them rather their mother. They know that this means the baby doesn't belong to them, rather it belongs to Downing Hill Public Library.

Nikignik sits in the New Chapel of the Church of the Hallowed Name first seen in Episode 101 - Disciplines between Mrs. Wicker and Indrid Buckley. A choir sings to accompany the Vicar as he preaches.

## Story 1 - Let Us Pray

Mrs. Wicker sing sings in a choir at the Church of the Hallowed Name during a service. The Vicar opens and asks if any of the congregation members had anything they'd like to bring before the lord. Several hands raise but Mrs. Wicker is first and tells them that he daughter Johannah Wicker was missing (see Episode 107 - Absences), that this was not a new issue, but she feared she'd gone into the forest where Fort Freedom could not follow freely (see Episode 91 - Orders). She requests that they pray for her to come home. The Vicar tells her that there were several amongst the congregation who had gone through the pain of losing a child, and he sends out a prayer for Johannah's return.

The sermon continues, being one about the impotence of sacrifice, and when it ends Mrs. Wicker stays behind with the Vicar. She tells him that she appreciated his prayer, and her tells her that prayer would only be half of it, asking how long she'd been missing for. Mrs. Wicker tells him that she'd been gone four days. He tells her not to worry, as the Church would get her daughter back for her. She asks him what this would cost her, as she understood that no one gave anything for free. He tells her that she would owe nothing, and never have to repay them, as the church served their congregation. She tells him that she was indebt to him, but he tells her that if they could find her daughter, it would be God who she was indebt to.

### Interlude 1 - The Murmuration

Nikignik tells the Dreamers of the Murmuration, that they would not be able to identify its approach until it was much too close, calling it a waning fractal of light, sunbeams bent into prismatic reflections, a fold in the fabric of your reality. He tells them that if it passed through them the reality of their being would split and fold. He tells them that it did not like things that screamed like the Dreamers, and so it resided mostly in the northmost Hallowoods, but he tells them if they felt a wind blowing from outside their reality, they should run.

## Story 2 - Thundersnow

Olivier Song sits in a tent with Riot Maidstone as they huddle around a heating pad that Cindy Lockheart had provided them. Riot thanks Olivier for letting her borrow her coat, Riot being thoroughly bundled up, and Olivier tells her that she was warm, asking if it was her first-time seeing snow. Riot tells her it wasn't, and asks how the clouds on Olivier's cloak moved. Olivier attempts to explain Ephelzeph to her, recounting a time Friday Rescher had used a Binding Stone on her (see Episode 30 - Stones) and what she'd seen (see Olivier Song). She tells her that there were Ephelzeph covenants before her who had made the cloak (as well as Clara Martin's broomstick), that it'd been in Downing Hill's collection and C. S. Blackletter had let her have it. Riot asks if the cloak was what let her fly, but she tells her that she did that on her own. Olivier tells Riot that she looked pretty in the cloak.

Riot kisses her, before sensing that something's wrong and asks. Olivier tells her that she'd had alot on her mind. She tells her that Cindy reminded her of Blackletter and had been thinking about the chance that she was still being manipulated by Blackletter, still using her as a weapon like so many people had tried to. Riot reassures her that she was on the expedition of her own free will, because her friends were there. Olivier accepts this. The two hear a rustling from outside, and a large hand reaches down and snatches their tent away.

### Marketing - The Storm

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells the Dreamers that she had been crossing through a forest when she'd gotten caught in a storm, a few moments later remarking that her had had flown away. She tells her pet flies (see Episode 13 - Stars), Anderson and Oswald, to come with her as she only had so many hands. a few moments later there is the sound of Anderson's leash snapping and he is presumably carried away by the wind. Ethel laments this, announcing that she'd try and broadcast again at a later time.

#### Story 2, Continued - Thundersnow

Olivier and Riot are both pulled up inside of the tent and tumble around until they stop moving, Olivier noting that it felt as if they were strung on the end of a tether. She tells Riot that she was going to try and open the door, and does so, finding a frozen corpse on the other side. She screams and zaps it with lightning, and it swings away from the tent. She finds that they had been strung un in the antlers of a Wondering Night-gaunt. She looks down to see the other expedition members in a state of chaos as they woke up to find not just the Night-gaunt that had taken Olivier and Riot, but a whole herd of them in the surrounding forest. She watches as Cindy unpacks and assembles a sniper rifle and aims it at their tent, realising that she intended to shoot them down. She relays this information to Riot, who tells her that it was a bad idea as it'd make the Nigh-gaunt who's captured them angry and have the whole herd want to kill them. Olivier flies down from the tent and stops Cindy from firing before flying back up. The Night-gaunt attempts to grab her, but misses and she summons thunder, the loud sound causing the herd to begin to retreat.

Riot climbs to the door of the tent and calls for Olivier to catch her right before severing the tent strap with her sword and dropping. Olivier uses the wind to ease Riot's fall, before collapsing on the ground. Cindy yells at her for stopping her, but Olivier tells her that she would have ruined things otherwise, asking if her plan had been to gun-down half-a-dozen night-gaunts. Cindy attempts to pull rank, but Riot starts yelling at her for not knowing how to care for others. Cindy goes quiet, before asking if anyone was injured. Hector Mendoza speaks up, saying that they had another problem, Jonah Duckworth finishing the thought by announcing that they had arrived in the North most Hallowoods.

### Interlude 2 - To Love A Tempest

Nikignik asks the Dreamers how one loved a tempest. Recounting to them his relationship with Marolmar, how he changed frequently. Saying that if he were to tell a story about him, he'd never known what kind of story it would be. Perhaps it would be one of a tortured artist. In other times he would think of no tomorrow and only cared for time with Nikignik. At times Marolmar was the only one who truly saw him, found more value in him then as a guard dog (see Nikignik). And because Marolmar saw him his world hurt the more, recounting how he would quite openly tell Nikignik that he [Nikignik] was naive. Nikignik tells the Dreamers that he supposed this was true, as he hadn't noticed when the Council of heaven had conspired against Marolmar. And now he only had stories of him to tell.

## Story 3 - Coven Tales

Friday Rescher looks at an apparition of Sofia Rescher as she resides amongst a circle of other witches from the Blackwood coven. Grandmother Briar tells her that she had been much like Friday when she'd first met her, telling her of how she'd been identified by witch-finders in Europe and had to flee to Canada. She tells her that they were sensitive to the arrival of new witches on their soil, she'd offered to let Sofia stay in her home, told her all about her life and how she was pregnant, and Grandmother Briar had told her she was going to have twins. The apparition begins to change shape as Briar tells her about "Bad Americans" and what she calls "the great inquisition" the Church of the Hallowed Name. She tells her that on the night of black rain all of the witches of the coven had been overwhelmed, each connected to the earth as they were, and that was when their enemies had chosen to strike. Sofia had chosen to flee, taking a young Friday and Penny Rescher with her under the notion that as long as she had them with her, she was lucky.

Friday asks what happened to her after that, but Briar says she did not know, and Friday commands the apparition to show her own memories. The apparition displays Sofia Rescher being burned alive by the Church of the Hallowed name; a six-year-old Friday being forced to watch. She remembers Henry O'Connor coming to save her, losing his leg in the process. Briar asks who he was, and Friday explains that he was a professor at Dowing Hill and continues to search her memories for the last time she'd seen her sister. She finds it, the image of Penny not an hour earlier being dragged away by Mr. Raven, Mr. Writingdesk, and Mr. Riddle. She announces her resolve to find the three and hurt them and get her sister back. However, this momentum is cut off by the unexpected arrive of Penny Rescher (see Episode 103 - Crossroads), who tells her that she'd found her first.

## Outro - Winds

Nikignik waxes poetics about winds, asking who could put a stop to the winds of change? He tells them that he wished sometimes for a time without change. That he could wait for a little while and catch his breath, take in all that the past had given him. But with every moment, the future demanded his attention, forced a new day and a new trial upon him. They may not be so lucky as to have a moment’s peace, not when the storm gathered and billowed in the sky overhead. He tells them that he could not look to the past or he could lose myself in pondering it. That time had a hand upon his shoulder, and it guided him steadily into the uncertain future.