Episode 135 - Flames

## Flames

Image is a continuation of the Episode art for Episode 134 - Libraries. A black background with a white border consisting of thick wisped lines. In each of the corners a white letter is written, from top left clockwise "D, H, L, P". in the centre of the lines four items are depicted, a bloodied knife, a burning drum, a penny, and a last which apers vaguely technological. In the centre of the image a white room is depicted with bookshelves for walls and two turned over chairs, with thick red smoke coming into the room through an open door. In the room two anthropomorphic figures are depicted in red levitating while holding hands, the one on the left larger than the one on the right. Below this image but still within the border the words "135.FLAMES" are depicted in white

### Author

William A. Wellman

Indrid is reunited with her son, Zelda completes her mission, and Penny's luck runs out. The theme of tonight's episode is Flames.

> ***Content warning**: Al has no skin as usual, Violence, Death + Injury, Blood, Impaled by Spike, Needles, Birds, Gun Mention, Strangulation/suffocation, Emotional Manipulation, Body horror, Religious Violence, Child Sacrifice, Burning Alive, House Fires*
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## Intro - Linger at the Cradle

Nikignik narrates to the Dreamers C. S. Blackletter as she felt Downing Hill Public Library above her burn (see Episode 134 - Libraries). She wonders if she should investigate it, if she could leave the cradle for even a moment. Fate had misled her, and the spring had come much sooner then she had been ready for (see Episode 123 - Evolutions). A lesser person might have fled at the final hour, but this was what 'she' had worked for and Blackletter would stay even if it meant she'd die.

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that Downing Hil was in flame, questions if they lingered at the library because he hesitated to look north.

## Story 1 - Silver Hand, Golden Frame

Indrid Buckley walked through a burning Downing Hill Public Library (see Episode 134 - Libraries), ignoring the others who ran trying to find an escape. The night previous Jacob Wicker had succeeded in his mission to destroy the Church of the Hallowed Name (see Episode 132 - Crossings), and she was taking this in stride as a sign to further rid herself of her of any previous weaknesses. She comes to a stop in front of the painting containing Tiberius Laevinus (see Old Bindings), having seen it when she'd fled Downing Hill with Johannah Wicker (see Episode 123 - Evolutions) and taken note of its appearance.

She pulls the painting off the wall right before Al Buckley makes his presence known, getting her attention by calling her 'Mama'. She looks over to see him hovering in the fire, and he asks if she'd come to rescue him, telling her where his drum was (see Episode 134 - Libraries), that he didn't want to die again and had always known Indrid would come back for him. She acknowledges him, but prioritises the painting over him, taking a moment to gather her thoughts she tells him that he was never supposed to live. She asks what she was supposed to do with the ghost of her boy, stating that it was easier to forget him, it was time for him to stop haunting her and pulling her back from her future. She leaves with the painting, telling Al that she hoped they met in heaven.

### Interlude 1 - Non-Euclidean Fires

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that there were fires in space, resembling bubbles, bursting into further singularities. A flame that burned in a non-euclidean space was not far off, Downing Hill Public Library was an immense labyrinth of shortcuts through physics, once a normal building built but stretched far beyond that by its magical contents, warping its reality. And a fire that burned in a non-euclidean space was nearly impossible to extinguish.

## Story 2 - Zelda and Friends

Zelda Duckworth hobbles through the burning Library calling for Al Buckley (see Episode 134 - Libraries). She barges into a meal hall looking for the cabinet he had describe being stuck into her, when she spots a green firefly amongst the oranges and reds that light the room (see Alice). She continues through, stopping when Tattery Stabbs comes crawling out from under one of the tables, she kicks them and shoots them with her shot gun, sending them flipping and colliding with a dish cabinet. Tattery exclaims, asking what that had been for, before Elena Alder and Winona Carline make their presence known (see Episode 131 - Chasms). Winona tells her that it wasn't safe for her to be in the library, and that they needed to get out, asking why she couldn't just sit and be happy somewhere. Amelia Abbott tells Winona that she was going to find Laurence Abbott to get them out safely.

Alice is the last to enter the room, but by then Zelda had written off the group as a bad dream, and she'd once again spotted Al beckoning her towards him, now with tears in his eyes (see Story 1 - Silver Hand, Golden Frame). Winona notices him and asks who he was, Zelda explains that he was her grandson, and she was going to find him and bring him home. Both Elena and Winona plead with her to come with them to safety. Zelda turns to Winona and hugs her, telling her that she'd been a good friend, but she could stop trying now, she could leave and take care of people who needed her more. Before Winona had the time to react Zelda ran back into the fire.

### Marketing - Kindling

Lady Ethel Mallory interrupts Nikignik's broadcast with her 'marketing' segment. She tells the Dreamers that she'd saved one but set the remaining copies of her autobiography alight for a fire (see Episode 134 - Libraries). She laments to them about having abandoned her old brand identity (see Episode 118 - Nevermores), and she didn't know what her new one would be, the Lady Ethel Mallory she'd been selling the Dreamers for decades was a fabrication, she'd destroyed the world and it'd profited her nothing, having only fed a machine that had never cared about her until it ate her as well. She didn't know if she'd find a life, of if the bitterness would burn her into nothing.

### Story 2, Continued - Zelda and Friends

Zelda follows Al's lights until she found the cabinet he was trapped in, but instead of having simply fallen over it had collapsed because a large support beam had fallen onto it, much too large for her to move and - along with the contents of the cabinet - burning. Zelda falls to her knees, the smoke beginning to affect her, and Al asks if she could get him out. She tells him she didn't know if she could, starting to cough. This alarms Al, asking if she was okay, but she tells him she just needed to breath, not to worry because they'd find a way out.

She collapses, coming down hard on her hip and damaging it. Al appears before her, but she isn't able to make clear what he was saying, laying in the burning room dying. The Grackle appears before her, and she reaches for her and Dexter Duckworth's wedding rings tied around her neck, but instead tells it to scram, threatening to shoot it. The Grackle leaves, and Zelda stands over her own withered body (see Ghosts) beginning to char black. Al hovers next to her asking if she was okay, telling her he was sorry. She tells him that she felt great, and that they could stay at the library for a little while and play games, that she might be able to keep up with him now. They embrace as the fire continues to rage around them.

### Interlude 2 - Corrupting Fire

Nikignik tells the Dreamers that no one could say from whence the fire of souls came. He asks if their spirit was precious to them. They may be lucky that Marolmar’s corrupting fire burned on their planet too, and he had left all their souls to themselves. No more did Earth feed Syrensyr's furnaces. He tells them to not despise the Industry of Souls too much, for if they did not scatter life from world to world, raise it up like tall wheat to fell, who was to say if life would have come to their world at all. Theirs was a world of lost souls, now, but after death their spirit was their own to do what they will with (see Episode 131 - Chasms).

## Story 3 - Unlucky Penny

Penny Rescher gets hit in the shoulder by the charge Atticus Raven set off at the end of Episode 134 - Libraries instead of Friday Rescher, and she begins bleeding out. Friday throws the knife she'd been holding at Raven, and it hits him in his ribs before she turns her attention to Penny, panicked telling her that this was her fault, and she was sorry. George Writingdesk calls to apply pressure, and Friday rips a segment of her dress off the stifle the bleeding. Penny looks over to see Raven collapse next to Writingdesk and goes still. Friday tells Penny that she shouldn't have brought her, she'd known something bad would happen as it always did, but Penny tells her that Friday's bad luck was they Downing Hill was burning, and Penny's good was why anyone had gotten out.

Penny senses movement from further down the hallway, and Winnona Carline and company entre. Friday starts to scream at them to get away from Penny (see Episode 68 - Sands), going to punch Winona but she side-steps, and Elena Alder catches her fists. Winona sets about getting Penny moving so they could escape the library, Alice approaches and picks Penny up. They begin to leave, but Penny asks to be put down by Raven and Writingdesk. Writingdesk tells them to get on, having pulled himself against a wall and put his arm around Raven's shoulders. Penny tells them that they could come with them, as there was still time. He tells her that he would like that, be he was where he had to be, rifling through his jacket and producing a key card for the Complex, handing it to Penny, he tells her that it was for if she ever went back. He tells her to take care, and the group leaves, and they flee the building library to the snowy forest beyond. Penny looks back to see The Omen emptying itself from Downing Hill moment before it imploded in on itself, leaving only a patch of dirt behind much smaller than one would have expected from the size of the building inside.

## Outro - Flames

Nikignik waxes poetics about flames. He tells the Dreamers that the light that burns for their kind burned only a little longer. It wavered, now, on the wick, for the wax was gone. Spirits and gods like moths clustered to the fire, watching to see if it would indeed go out forever. And they were watching, him, with eyes open everywhere, and the Dreamers, with their eyes closed, listening to a story about a flame. There was a fire. And it burned. And there was a darkness, and it yearned. The wind picked up, and the flame breathed brighter, and it shuddered, for a moment appearing to have gone out. But there was still an ember, there, at the tip of the candle, trailing smoke, a breath away from a beginning.

### Until Next Time, Dreamers

*Until next time, dreamers, please identify the nearest emergency exit before taking your seat. Emergency exits may be hidden beneath chairs, behind other doors, inside of picture frames or pieces of furniture, or behind the wall of bricks in the cellar. Be aware of emergency exits at all times.*