Ep. 121 Stranded in the Maze Chapter Eight (C2)

## Listen

C2 Ep. 121 Stranded in the Maze Chapter Eight

—Milo

The Loaded Dice have brought Cassian to his great dragonshard, but they're interrupted by a group of aberrations: dolgaunts, dolgrims, and even a dolgarr. Cassian makes for the shard while everyone else fights the creatures off. They clear the cavern out, and Cassian is ready to head home.

He offers Reynard an invitation to join the Lighthouse Consortium. For Milo he has several bombs to drop. The voice of Kylie isn't actually *his* Kylie; it's Kylie from another timeline, who's Milo has died. Everyone told her not to, but she opened communication with him, anyway. It's a line through Xoriat, which is where he's been getting his magic. Since a feedback jolt from one of his spells going wrong, she's been in a coma, and it's been their daughter, Maggie, who's watching over him since.

Milo goes home to think, while everyone else visits the Consistent Bird.

## Synopsis

The Loaded Dice and Cassian have found the great dragonshard, and are greeted by a variety of aberrations. Erys takes the first shot, launching a blast disk from the flettcher into a dolgaunt, and cracking the cave tunnel. Milo throws magic at the cave entrance, collapsing rocks onto a group. He stays nears Cassian. Reynard's special arrow splits in two and gets an extra creature. Cassian goes for the shard. His armor opens up and energy transfers into it.

Bony shards are thrown from the dolgaunt at Reynard. Erys's magic protects her from the attack from a dolgaunt. Hob picks up a rock and *destroys* a whole group of dolgrim on his way to destroying the dolgarr. At that display, one of the dolgaunts run.

Milo feels a stinging pain in his head, and Dyrrn telling him he just made an enemy. Erys shoots at the cave entrance again, shattering it and destroying the two last dolgrim.

Cassian's charge finishes after a few seconds. He assures Milo that Dyrrn's influence over him is a proximity thing; once he's further away, he won't be affected by him. They head out of Khyber.

The manifest zone Cassian is headed to is on the outskirts of town. Before the split, he offers Reynard a chance at joining the Lighthouse Consortium.

Cassian asks for a minute alone with Milo. He shares that the Kylie that he's been hearing is actually the Kylie Cassian knows. The divergent point where their timelines broke off was the night of the fire. She was staying up late, working on the books, and Milo went to bed. The fire started, Hob came in, grabbed her, and got her out. Milo didn't make it out. Kylie saw this Milo was going to be left alone, and so she figured out a way to communicate. She doesn't exactly understand how the magic works, just that it goes through Xoriat, the plane of madness. When Milo's spell failed a while ago, it backfired into her, and she's been in a coma since. Milo notices there's not one of him in the Consortium, but Cassian says he can't come *yet*.

Kylie had people telling her not to, but she needed to talk to Milo, so she threw caution to the wind.

The person who's taken over for Kylie is her apprentice and the only other person who knows how the communication works. Kylie made her promise to take over if anything happened to her. Sometime before the fire, that Kylie and Milo had a daughter, Maggie.

With that, it's time for Cassian to go back. Milo goes home; Erys and Hob take dinner at the Consistent Bird. Reynard checks the card Cassian gave him. On one side is a symbol of an orange-gold circle with a purple lighthouse and a light effect. On the other side is a very simplified map of Khorvaire with various dots, and next to the dots are dates. Below it has instructions on if he wants to accept the invitation be at the marked location at the marked date. One is marked today, and it's near where they are.

They talk about the job; Erys thought they were gonna die, and even left a letter for Olive. They speculate on what Cassian told Milo, and Erys wonders about her other selves. She's disgusted that the other version of her isn't creative enough when it comes to Tasha.

Milo settles in at his mother's home.

## Locations

* The Cogs
* The Consistent Bird
* Khyber

## Quotes

"We met some bugs."
"They bugged us."
*—Jeff and Randy*

"I've prepared a diagram with a lot of yarn."
*—Eric*

"It's either every timeline my life sucks, or just in this one. I don't really know why. I can't think of one of those that would make me feel better."
*—Erys*