45: Hymn to Angels

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## Summary

### The Crows Know

The party deliberates a bit more on how to proceed, while Luca uses Speak with Animals to gain counsel from the crows. The crows seem to know quite a bit about the village and Luca’s mother. Meanwhile, at an impasse, Mujie uses Mitro’s coin. The gang decides to send Eton and Mujie into the village as weary travelers, with Luca in the form of a crow to watch them from above while Tira, Bran, and Mahi wait at the top of a cliff overlooking the Lodge at the north west of the village. Luca wild shapes again, and Eton and Mujie dress down a bit to fake their way in while the rest of the party listens in.

Eton and Mujie quickly meet two guards atop horses at the village gate. Their names are Savis and Daphne, and while a bit suspicious at first, they open up easily. Savis assures the pair—“Anders and Damhir,” here—that outsiders are welcome, and that Brother Phobos will take care of them. Savis leads the two to the center of the village, where the ominous gnomon towers above all else.

### Brother Phobos

Savis heads off to fetch the village’s elder, Brother Phobos. As they wait, Mujie and Eton take a moment to scan their surroundings. Considering their prior run-ins with the cult of the Illumined, it comes as a bit of a surprise. Primór appears a quaint, quiet place; children play and sing near the schoolyard, villagers take up daily chores, livestock mill around.

Brother Phobos emerges from the Lodge to greet Mujie and Eton shortly after. Though they get very few travelers in these parts, he welcomes them readily, and offers for them to stay in his own home. As they make their way there, the church bell tolls, and parishioners make their way out of a service. Among the villagers are a few people wearing familiar robes, and Mujie and Eton become suspicious anew. Stranger still, among the robed figures is a familiar face—Tai.

### What the Fuck Are *You* Doing Here?

As the people in robes head back to the Lodge, she and Mujie share some surreptitious but meaningful looks. Having to blend in, though, Mujie is forced to continue along to Brother Phobos’s house. A humble and unassuming place, the village head leaves them there with kind words and rations. At the slightest bit of snooping, the pair find the Book of Light.

Meanwhile, Tira, Bran, and Mahi watch on from the cliffside. While they can’t see everything, they manage glimpses into the daily life of the village folk, and remain apprised of the situation from the Ark pod in Mujie’s ear. Before long, though, they are discovered.

Two hunting dogs prowl up on their flanks, followed shortly by their master, presumably a Hunter they have heard a bit about. In a tense exchange, Tira manages to convince him that they are travelers seeking strong monsters to slay, which they hear plague this area. Seemingly satisfied but markedly unfriendly nonetheless, the man tells them they aren’t welcome here, and they begin to leave. On their way back to the road, they come across a log cabin, but with the dogs still on their trail, they don’t have time to investigate it properly.

### The Girl Who Punches Birds

In the village, Luca has taken to following Tai. He has a message to pass on from Mujie and Cat in the form of a totally inconspicuous piece of bread that he will instruct Tai to eat after listening to. When she emerges from the Lodge, now in ordinary clothes, she heads to a house south of the Lodge to fix a woman’s fence.

Luca, as a crow, tries to get her attention by absconding with her tools. Annoyed, she attempts to swat him away, but when he is undeterred, she strikes him, dispelling his Wild Shape and rendering him a man yet again. In a panic, he Wild Shapes right back.

### Good Book Not Looking So Good

Back at Brother Phobos’s house, Mujie and Eton find a strange note—the Hymn to Angels, it says—that speaks vaguely of the roles of the God of Light’s Left and Right Hand in the cult’s deliverance to Paradise. Elsewhere in the book, they also find the rest of the song that the children were singing in the schoolyard.

Before long, Brother Phobos returns. They tell them they stumbled upon the Book, and he is pleased that they take an interest in the village’s faith. As promised, he shows them around the church. Emboldened, he also shows them his secret room, tucked away behind the church’s altar.

One vaguely sinister monologue about his hobbies later, he reveals his greatest creation: a tapestry of Aftemelachus and Tristus before the God of Light. There’s just one problem—one of the angels bears a striking resemblance to their currently feathered friend.

## Quotes

#### ***WELCOME TO PARADISE:***

> “This is a place of peace. Mother and Brother Phobos say strangers are welcome, but before you enter Primór, you must lay down arms.”
> “There are terrible creatures outside in the barrens, verily, but the village has always been safe. Mother and Brother Phobos make it so. We have wards on the wall and hunters in the forest, see.”
>
>

—*Savis*

#### ***SPOKE THE LION TO THE LAMB:***

> “Welcome, travelers. What brings you to our humble settlement?”
>
>

—*Brother Phobos, Village Elder*

#### ***IF IT FLIES, IT SPIES:***

> "AHH!!"
>
>

—*Tai, seeing Luca*