Episode 60

### K and Ingred Do Drugs

K goes to talk to Ingred, to make sure she's okay. She tells him about the Tarlies and what her dad told her about Rosa. And that she hates feeling the way the Tarlie representative made her feel. She also tells him she doesn't want to be sober, and Marisol sort of made her sober. So K agrees to drink with her, and she instead means "do drugs". They take far more than the recommended dose, and Ingred goes right into Slomo, while K goes into a berserker rage. (there were multiple "oh *no*s" from the DM)

Ingred makes tea, pouring the water *way* too long because time is a strange and foreign language to her right now. K punches Ingred in the jaw and then wrecks his room. He eventually pulls out of the rage and apologizes. Ingred's still pouring tea.

### Anthos' Dream

Anthos, meanwhile, is having a tête-à-tête with the Flame Emperor. He goes to sleep and gets dragged into an audience chamber, kneeling on a comfortable pillow. Anthos doesn't stay kneeling, of course. The emperor is annoyed that Anthos’ consciousness is hard to grab when he’s asleep because it's splintered to hell and back. But, he wants to talk, tells Anthos he doesn’t want Anthos’ body, because it’s all scarred and clicks in weird places. He doesn't really want anything from Anthos except for temporary assistance manipulating the physical world; he wants out of the tiara. He also has a homunculus-like project that he was working on before he died that will provide a much more suitable body anyway. He just wants Anthos to take him there. And do a bit of work to make the transfer happen.

Anthos asks how he ended up in the tiara to begin with and is told he was killed when his brother, and cohorts, betrayed him. He also lets Anthos know that the phoenix tear isn’t going to work, it's not powerful enough, so they shouldn't waste it on this. He says that Anthos is eventually going to succumb to the curse, and Anthos will be burned alive. Or he can help the “Cinder Prince” escape, then he can keep the circlet with some extra power.

Anthos agrees to think about it.

### Seipora's Dream

Seipora's also having a dream of the past! She can feel rocking and hear the creaking of wood; a familiar and comforting sound and sensation. It's the rocking of a ship out in open water or docked in a marina. She can hear the sound of an untuned string being tuned to her right, behind and out of sight. A few more are tuned and a few chords are played before a soft melody is plucked. She then sees a younger version of herself walk by the foot of her bed until out of sight and hears a violin start to accompany the melody. She can pick out mistakes from her younger self; ones she's since fixed and others that linger. The song eventually lulls her back to sleep.

### Lily's Dream

You have a dream. It’s cold, bitter cold. Your teeth are chattering loudly and you can feel the warmth receding from your limbs until you can’t feel them anymore. You’re tired. If you could just sleep for a minute, you are sure you could make it. You look down and you are walking across opaque ice, you look back and you can see where you have traveled your footprints in the thin blanket of snow that has collected on top of the ice. There is a slight ping and a crack, as the ice beneath you cracks getting thinner as you walk. You hear a familiar voice, the one that spoke back to you when shouted for help into the ether. A female voice, wispy and with each word you feel the temperature noticeably drop. “You’ve wandered far too long, Descendant of Nexus, we’ve given you time to grow and prepare, shown visions and dreams and you have not returned the gem. Much like the ice you walk on our patience has run thin, you feel the ice crack beneath you punctuating her sentence. You must return the gem and begin our convergence.”

You look up from the cracking ice and you see four figures standing in front of you not too far away. To the far left is a woman that you’ve seen before, she wears a wispy grey gown that just touches the ground over that is a sheer shawl that covers her shoulders and arms. Her skin pale almost deathly grey and her hair is white pulled back in a tight bun she has crystal beads woven into her hair that hang from the bun. In her hands two white crystal swords and in the center of her forehead is an amethyst gem. You see everytime the wind blows her across her form it becomes translucent where the wind touches her. To her right is a man you’ve seen before. A knight in full plate with no helmet, sword point in the ground, hands folded over the pommel, the pommel holds a large amethyst gem. The body in the armor is wreathed in flames. You aren’t sure whether he is made of flames or covered in them. You see crown points upon his head that looks like cherry hot metal and every so often you see the flicker of human features in the flames, he looks like a proud warrior there are no burns or grimace on his face he does not seem to be in any agony despite the inferno engulfing him.

To the right of him is another man, this person you’ve never seen before. He comprised entirely of sedimentary rock and not as defined as the rest. He has no face but the shaping of the rock gives his head almost a full helmet look with a backward like fin at the top. His arms don't end in connected hands but orbitings rocks and rubble that form a palm and fingers, there are constant bits of pebbles and rubble that fall off of him that orbit around him before rejoining his body, you see each knuckle on the back of his hand is a rough uncut amethyst. To the right of him is a woman made completely of water; her form is far more defined than the earthen man to her left. She has a complete face and body you see water splash and swirl around her as well as inside her nearly see through body. You see parts of her freeze and become ice before melting away, she pours water back and forth through her hands. Orbs of water float around her, she reaches out and touches one it turns to solid ice then drops with a clack before melting and rejoining her, floating in her body at different points is an amethyst gem. As you look at them you see each one from the shadow at their feet is a pitch black line that extends from them before fusing at a single point then connecting to you.

Behind them in the sky you can barely make out details of another human figure obscured by a silvery gossamer atmosphere. This being is massive, taking up a quarter of the sky almost like a planet that ventured too close to your but what you do see are two brightly glowing amethyst colored eyes that stare down at you. You hear cracking again as the ice beneath you breaks and you fall into well below freezing water you hear a voice this time different than the others. It sounds like an amalgamation of several voices that says “You must return the gem and them back to me before you are unable to” the water shocks you awake at how cold it is. When you wake you find yourself completely encased in ice unable to move any part of your body.