Go and Tell the Morning Star

The eleventh episode of Tremontaine.

## Synopsis

Kaab is too restless to sleep, anticipating a meeting with Lady Earnestine Hemmynge the next day. She sees, or thinks she sees, a possum in her bedroom, and she remembers that Citlali once said that if she were a nahual (a shape-changer), she would be a possum. Kaab apologizes to the possum as if it were Citlali, and the possum jumps from the window ledge. Kaab looks out the window, but cannot see the possum, and knows that possums are not found in the Land and that her window was too high for one to jump from.

Diane is also not sleeping well. William is keeping her awake with his madness, pacing and talking to people and creatures only he sees. Diane wishes he'd go mad in a fashion less inconvenient to her.

Diane sees a crow at her window, and it seems to imply it knows a secret about her. William seems to hear a crow talking to him about a carriage and a highwayman, something that seems intimately connected to Diane's past. The crow at Diane's window flies off, leaving her shaken.

Diane recovers herself and summons Duchamps, telling him to make sure that William take a sleeping draught. She notices that Duchamps hesitates before following her orders.

Diane asks Duchamps if there has been any word of Reynald, but Duchamps has heard nothing. Diane is sure that Reynald is dead, and this disturbs her because she does not know why he died. But, she says nothing for this to Duchamps, just asks him to make discreet inquiries about candidates to replace Reynald.

The next day, Kaab meets with Lady Earnestine Hemmynge in the morning and asks her about Diane. Lady Earnestine has not been in touch with Diane for years and never liked her, but tells Kaab what she knows.

Diane, like Lady Earnestine herself, was taken in by Lady Earnestine's nephew. After several years, Diane was betrothed to William, sight unseen, because William's father, then Duke Tremontaine, had ideas about bloodlines.

Diane insisted on getting a lady's maid, and chose one from "the orphans at a nearby penitent hospital". The maid was the same height and had the same color hair, but was in other ways like "a reverse coin of Diane".

Kaab is surprised to hear Lady Earnestine describe Diane as silly. Lady Earnestine suggests that perhaps Diane's silliness ended on her journey to the city, where her carriage was intercepted by Rupert Hawke. Despite the Riverside tales of the Gentleman Robber who "steals your money, but spares your daughter", Lady Earnestine says that Rupert Hawke murdered everyone traveling with Diane, including her maid, and would have murdered Diane as well if Diane had not run away.

Diane managed to reach the City alone, on foot, in her bloody dress. The duke put out a reward for the apprehension of Rupert Hawke, but nothing came of it. Diane wrote brief letters to the Hemmynges for a few years, but never saw or spoke to them again.

Five days after he has last seen William, Rafe dreams that he sees a star that is really a planet. It tells him that he has killed William with happiness. Disquieted, he goes to House Tremontaine, ignoring Micah's attempts to tell him something. Duchamps lets him in.

William thinks that Rafe is a hallucination at first. Once he realizes that Rafe is really there, he admits that he might have told Diane about their affair during the quarrel he had with Diane. Rafe has Duchamps bring William to his rooms, although William refuses to rest until he has negotiated a treaty of some kind, probably the imaginary kind.

Duchamps tells Rafe not to speak with Diane and says that, while it is his duty to inform Diane of Rafe's visit, whereupon Diane will explicitly bar Rafe from visiting, he will wait until Diane has returned from an afternoon engagement.

Kaab speaks with Saabim, who cautions her about about letting her passions endanger her family, as she did in Tultenco. Kaab says that she will leave Tess if Tess becomes a problem, and Saabim pointedly does not ask if Kaab would kill Tess or allow Tess to be killed if that were necessary to protect the Balam.

Saabim is also concerned about what steps can be taken to discredit Rafe if he spreads the news of his discovery. Kaab asks for and receives more time to follow up on what she has learned about Diane and Rupert Hawke.

Rafe arrives at the Balam compound to see Kaab. He tells her of William's madness. He and Kaab drop their masks and speak to each other openly about trade and navigation, and Kaab explains that this is not merely a matter of profit, but of life and death for her family and her people.

Rafe admits that he told William what he and Micah learned, and Kaab realizes that William told Diane and then went mad. Rafe promises to stop researching the matter of navigation and to divert Micah into something else, but Kaab realizes that it is Diane who is the threat, although she does not tell Rafe this.

Rafe asks if a Kinwiinik doctor could visit William. Kaab points out that Diane would have to agree to that, which is unlikely. Kaab says that she will tell Rafe if she can think of anything that might help.

Kaab practices with Vincent, who says that she is doing better since her first kill. aab has sex with Tess, but go to see Tess, but Tess quarrels with Kaab afterwards, because Kaab is trying to keep Tess at a distance and prioritize her family. Tess sends her away. Vincent is sympathetic, but warns Kaab that swordsmen aren't good lovers, and that being a good lover is about more than sex.

At night in the Balam compound, Kaab's family prays for her success in a dangerous mission. Sh.e thinks she sees the possum which might or might not be Citlali

Rafe tries to get drunk, succeeds, tries to get into Tremontaine House, and fails.

Rafe returns home, where Micah says that Joshua introduced her to Goodell, and she now wants to work on Goodell's problems, not the spheres. She promises to come back to the spheres, although Rafe tells her to forget them and do what best suits her talent. Rafe borrows clothing from Micah and takes Joshua's cloak so that he can disguise himself and see William. He considers cutting his hair, but decides not to do so.

Diane is at a dinner party. Kaab knows this from her uncle's sources, whoever they are.

Matilda, presumably the cook at House Tremontaine, has deliberately allowed Rafe to come in through the kitchen. Someone, probably Duchamps, assures Matilda that all she need do is say that she did not recognize Rafe. While this may not fool Diane, she values Matilda's services as a cook too highly to dismiss her lightly.

While Diane is out and Rafe is with William, Kaab breaks into Tremontaine House and learns Diane's secret. It is raining.

She hears William speaking of his hallucinations, the crow and a rat-like creature that sounds like her possum. She realizes that Diane has been drugging William, and that Diane would only do so to protect her own power.

Kaab further realizes that she must choose between helping Rafe and protecting her family.

## Timeline

Diane was about ten when her parents died and she was taken in by Lady Earnestine's nephew.

Six or seven years later, she was betrothed to William.

The last "several weeks" have been quiet at the Balam compound. But, it has not been that long since the last episode or, indeed, since Micah and Rafe learned the secret of navigation and Kaab reported this to her family.

It took Kaab "weeks" to identify Diane's foster family and then find the one person, Lady Earnestine Hemmynge, who might talk with her. This is the first we hear of Kaab looking.

It's been "nearly a week" since Reynald vanished and Diane started poisoning William.

Rafe last saw William five days ago, and for a couple of days
before that, Will was acting oddly, possibly because of the
shadowroot. It has been at least five days since Diane started poisoning William, possibly longer, and various nobles are beginning to talk about his decline.

Two days ago, a doctor saw William, drew blood, and said that William was physically healthy.

As the episode starts, the moon is waning and Kaab sees a possum in her room at night. William is keeping Diane awake.

The next morning, Kaab wakes with the dawn to speak with Lady Earnestine Hemmynge. Rafe visits William and sees him in his madness.

In the afternoon, Kaab speaks with Saabim and is visited by Rafe. Then, she practices with Vincent, has sex with Tess, and is thrown out by Tess, not understanding what she did wrong.

Saabim is sufficiently pregnant that her feet are swelling.

That evening, Kaab's family and a priest gather to pray for her protection, and she thinks she sees the possum again.

Rafe fails to get into Tremontaine House, returns home, borrows Micah's clothing, and succeeds in "sneaking" in, with help from the cook and, presumably, the steward. Kaab sneaks in as well. Diane is at a dinner party.

## Arc / Plot Points

When Kaab saw Citlali's dead body, the side of Citlali's head was "dimpled and purple like a rotten squash". Was Citlali also stabbed in the back? If not, who was the woman Kaab saw in Tullan who'd been killed that way? If so, why was she stabbed from behind and hit hard enough to bash in the side of her head?

Citlali was the wife of Lord Itzcoatl. This may have something to do with Kaab's fury last episode, "for every woman killed by a man who has claimed the right."

Kaab has told Saabim and Chuleb about killing Reynald. They are pleased, and she is beginning to redeem herself after her disgrace.

Diane came to William with only the "bloody clothes on her back", the only survivor of a highway man attack. She and William have never spent more than a few days apart in the seventeen years of her marriage.

Diane was uneasy when William brought her back North on a tour of Tremontaine lands.

It took a lot of time and work for Kaab to learn about the connection between Diane and the the Hemmynges. Diane has not maintained that connection.

Diane insisted on having a lady's maid, and had to choose one from the orphans at a penitent hospital.

The highwayman who attacked Diane's carriage was Rupert Hawke, Ben's father. Despite the stories told of him in Riverside, Lady Earnestine says that he killed everyone except for Diane and would have killed Diane as well had she not run and hid.

Duchamps quietly sides with William and Rafe, against Diane.

Kaab and Rafe speak openly about their conflict. Rafe is willing to yield, and indeed, to do anything if it will help William. Unfortunately, Diane is the person Kaab must deal with.

Kaab thinks that Diane understands the implications of Micah's discovery and has only refrained from acting because she is positioning everything to her best advantage. However, it seems more that Diane has no desire to upset the status quo and is not far sighted enough to realize that, in the end, it might do more for Tremontaine to reveal the secret of navigation. Then again, despite "Previously on Tremontaine", it isn't clear whether or not the mortgage has been paid off. Also, destabilizing the political situation across the water is not necessarily conducive to long term profit.

Vincent knows enough to be able to tell that Reynald was Kaab's first kill.

Tess quarrels with Kaab because Kaab is making it clear that Tess comes in second to Kaab's family and duty.

Joshua took Micah to meet Goodell, and Micah now wants to focus on Goodell's teachings, not on the mathematics of navigation, despite her previous fears about ships sinking. Also, doesn't Micah get an itch from unsolved problems?

Apparently, Diane's clever locks with their sequencing require merely patience to pick. The locket has a picture of Diane Roehaven, who has blue eyes. However, the Diane everyone in the City knows has grey eyes.

The tin trinket is presumably the healer symbol, the trefoil. This would indicate that Diane (or, rather, the person who has called herself Diane for so long) had some connection to a hospital, perhaps the penitent hospital where Diane chose a lady's made. Someone with a hospital connection might know about shadowroot, although we don't learn anything about the hospitals here.

There is still no indication about what the pouch is for, nor about why Diane keeps these items, and particularly why she has not destroyed the incriminating portait in the locket.

It seems clear that Ben Hawke tried to use the locket to blackmail Diane by threatening to reveal that she was not, in fact, Diane Roehaven. We can probably guess who she actually is.

Diane has disarranged her perfumes to hide the shadowroot.

There is a market for shadowroot, the plan that Land folk generally deny exist, in Kaab's home. It's a vine, and its distillate works better than the Kinwiinik mushrooms, and is considered too dangerous for all but the most experienced priests.

The visions it gives may have some truth to them. William sees and hears a crow talking about a carriage, which is interesting in light of what this episode reveals. This makes one wonder about the treaty he believes he must negotiate. He also sees what may be Kaab's possum telling him that he will be betrayed by everything he has ever loved and that it can see "the girl who betrayed it".

Everyone seems to be seeing unusual animals. Kaab sees a possum and wonders if it is Citlali. Diane sees a crow. William sees both a crow and what may be Kaab's possum. Thaddeus has seen a unicorn. What drug did he take to see it, and what does a unicorn mean in the symbolism of the Land? Or are there actual unicorns? Did Thaddeus see William as the unicorn? Rafe dreams of the morning star telling him that he has killed William with happiness. What is going on, and is it
all because of the drugs? Are visions contagious?

Kaab needs to choose between family and friends, and her heart has already told her what she must choose.

## Cultural and World Information

Xanamwiniik knives and swords are steel. Kinwiinik knives are made of obsidian.

Kinwiinik obsidian comes from mines at Coyoalco.

Kaab's mother has told her that death is "inevitable in the service".

The ceremony before Kaab's mission involves the family arranging itself inside a small house in its compound, a house of the gods, before the altars of Ekchuah and Xamanek after a priest consults the book of days and confirms that the night is auspicious. He pulls a maguey thorn through his earlobes, spilling his blood, which is "precious water". Saabim does likewise, pulling the thorn through her lower lip. Kaab and the rest of her relatives do likewise. Chuleb blesses her and reminds her of her obligations and priorities.

The Kinwiinik consider the plant called shadowroot to be a potent and dangerous drug, usable only by the most experienced priests.

Possums are not native to the Land.

Chuleb is younger than Saabim, and some think he is too beautiful.

Kaab has climbed "rock walls above the cenotes in Cehtuun" in the rain.

Diane has a silk dress embroidered "in the style of Uru".

The Gilded Cockatrice is a tavern that is "the traditional home of natural philosophers".

## Anomaly

* In "Previously on Tremontaine", shadowroot is misidentified as "Shadowbringer".