Tiding 14: Memento Mori

## Content Warnings

Mention of family death

*"When a remnant demands beauty,
 give your eyes so it can see its land.
When a remnant demands expression,
give your tongue so it can speak.
When a remnant demands knowledge,
give your thoughts so it can understand.
When a remnant demands service,
give your body so it can act.
When a remnant demands certainty,
give your spirit so it can judge.
When a remnant demands death,
give your life so it can be put to a higher purpose."*

 *Show more/less*

*A prayer recorded on a Voëk grave, Cenja*"

## Summary

Amongst the stone and root of Cenja, Belka meets envoys of the remnant Duier. They barter for the caravan’s right to cross its land. Meanwhile, at the caravan, Strael repeats their demands.
Belka shares a name, Challa asks for help, Venz meets Strael and Bris agrees to a camping trip.

## Synopsis

Belka follows Kallan's eyes and they see the two figures standing on a ridge around twenty metres away, by a crack in the earth into which graves have fallen over time. The first figure is 2.5 m (8-9 ft) tall, pristine white marble, in a female form wearing a long flowing robe,hair in a bun surrounded by laurel. One hand is on its hips and the other is over its face as if scanning the horizon. Its face is cracked, its skull visible beneath. The second figure is a little shorter and appears to be part human, part bushes and plants. Flowers bloom along its body, and it is constantly shifting.

Kallan draws back his spear and instructs Belka to get behind him, which they do not, instead greeting the figures. They greet Belka in return, words alternating from each figure, and ask to approach, which Belka assents to. The statue folds back into stone and reforms by Belka in a masculine, rogueish and bowing form, and the bush slithers along the ground. The statue introduces itself as Memento, and the bush as Mori.

They indicate that they had noticed the caravan travelling through Cenja but that they had not offered tribute to the Remnant, Duier. They wonder if the caravan would consider offering those among them that are dying as tribute. Belka shakes their head and asks what else Duier might like. Memento Mori get excited, listing various macabre things Duier might enjoy. Belka offers their 'dead' name (so dead it never was, and yet still walking), to which grief is attached. Memento squats down and cups an ear, and Belka gets down and whispers their old name.

The statue reforms as if it is bowing, and the bush sweeps over it, forming one being. The stone starts to yellow and age, the vines pry cracks in the statue, and then all the life seems to be gone. The tribute has been accepted and the caravan have been afforded safe passage and friendliness from the Envoys. Belka stokes the lifeless stone sadly, bows, and thanks it. Belka and Kallan try to process what just happened.

Back at the caravan, Challa is wakes unreasonably early after her unsettling conversation with Strael, wakes Korrin, and goes with him to find Venz. Bris has returned to the camp and, seeing them sneaking off, asks them where they're going. Challa says it's important they find Venz, and Korrin, sensing he might get in trouble, says something about Challa having a bad dream about Remnants. Bris lets it go, and even re-iterates her offer of a camping trip.

Challa and Korrin find Venz sitting on the edge of the caravan area, looking partly for breakfast and partly for information about the Remnant here. Venz has noticed that several of the trees- around one in twenty- have pieces of souls buried inside them and seem to be younger than they would normally look at their age. Noises and whispers in different languages from the trees distract him and put him on edge.

When Korrin and Challa arrive, Korrin immediately starts talking about the voices coming from the trees, saying they're very loud and asking Venz if there's a way to isolate one of them to understand what they're saying.
Challa tells Venz that she has a possible problem, in that the large storm that had chased them isn't gone, but is still here, with her. She points out the ice shard in her eye and says its name is Strael. Venz kneels and puts his hands both sides of her face and peers at her eye. She says Strael was scared and needed an escape, so stays with her, but that she's now worried. Most of one of Challa's irises looks like the ice of a frozen lake. She tells him about the deal she made, the people that were saved, and so on.

Venz tries to offer Strael Tribute: news of an empty Remnant body it could inhabit (The Sharrow). Strael replies through the ice ferret, but with Challa's voice. It feels cold suddenly, and icy wind swirls. Strael asks for Venz to bring it Savel and Venren, and that he will see why when he does it. Venz says he'd see what he could do. Challa says Strael asked the same thing of her. The air clears and Strael is gone.

Bris heads towards Vilte's tent, where she is still recuperating. Aachen keeps watch on a tree stump outside the tent, her wounded left leg splinted and a sword before her. She lets Bris in to see Vilte, who is reclining in the tent. Bris mentions how Nilkat said people look up to her and isn't sure how to deal with the leadership that comes with. She asks Vilte whey people follow her- and followed her even when she was asleep. What's special about her... Vilte says she listens to people and can inspire hope, but that everyone in the Parish was lost in some way, as she was when she left Cer-Ashe. She says she gave Nilkat something new to fight for after his exile, and Bris asks what that thing is.

Vilte talks about how she know the thing under the mountain would wake, and tried and failed to stop the people that woke it. So, she chose to try facing the thing herself, and that also didn't work. She says she's scared there won't be a future for Ryne if the thing is left unchecked. However, she notes that people don't follow Bris for those sorts of reasons- that she's a seer or a healer; or for the reasons they follow Jeddah, who holds people together; but for her strength and conviction in times requiring decisions. Vilte asks a favour, that Bris take the Parish boy, Fenrir, with her on the camping trip.

Back with Challa, Venz is worried: a Remnant wouldn't put itself inside the body of a child without good reason, and it clearly hasn't told Challa why it's there. He decides to keep a closer eye on Challa, without making her worry. Challa says that Ayof is another adult that seemed to have some knowledge of Remnants, and Venz wonders if Ayof is a kind of Weaver. For now, though, Venz wonders what Strael would do if they don't do what it asks (bringing it Savel and Venren that night), and offers to try and protect her from any subsequent wrath.

Belka is talking (sitting in the way of everybody) with Sov about their brother Kallan, and about how they are trying to help him; how he hasn't been alright for a long time. They also talk fondly about how he can be a bit difficult to talk to. They ask Sov what happened to Kallan when he was in the south, before the Parish arrived in Ninut. Sov is initially hesitant, but says that Kallan went south, scouting, sent to investigate the storm with a few others. Kallan was the only one that returned, and he returned different; almost not the same person. Belka considers that Ayof has been in the storm, and resolves to talk to him again.

## Quotes

**Memento Mori**: "We noticed / you travelling / through our lands / and yet / you do not offer tribute."
**Belka**: "Ahhhh."
**Memento Mori**: "Perhaps, / we were wondering, / you seek to offer those / with you? / Those that are dying."
**Kallan**: "No."
**Belka**: *[Shakes head]*
**Memento Mori**: "Then what / do you suppose / you will offer / our Remnant?"
**Belka**: "What does your Remnant... like?"

―*Memento and Mori demand tribute from the caravan*

**Korrin**: "You can hear them too."
**Venz**: "Um...*you* can hear them?"
**Korrin**: "Um, yes. They're very loud."
**Venz**: "Ugh, tell me about it"
**Korrin**: "I can't tell what they're saying..."

―*Korrin and Venz discuss the voices of the dead coming from the trees*
## Game Mechanics

* Belka rolls 11 in Sad with Offer Tribute to give their dead name to Memento Mori
* Bris rolls 6 in Mad with her Guardian move to find out where Korrin is going. Fail, mark XP
* Venz rolls 5 in Scared with Pay Attention to the World Around You to learn more about Cenja's Remnant. Fail, mark XP
* Venz rolls 8 in Powerful with Offer Tribute to make contact with Strael. Success but comes with demands
* Bris gains a Bond on Vilte after opening up to her about leadership
* Challa gains a Bond on Venz using her Bond move, by showing vulnerability to an adult.
* Belka rolls 10 in Powerful with Manipulate to find out Kallan's backstory. *You succeed, but need to give them something upfront*

## Trivia

This is the first episode where Challa and Venz interact

## Plot Notes

**Warning! There may be spoilers ahead!**

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