Second Citadel - The Perils of Pellinore (Part 2)

Arc poster by Milo Mars.

**The Perils of Pellinore (Part 2)** is an episode of Tales of the Second Citadel. It is the 2nd Second Citadel episode of season 4, and the 5th overall. It premiered November 23, 2021.

## Overview

Sir Pellinore is prepared for anything... except, perhaps, the shapeshifting teenage rascal he's just imprisoned in his fortress. She might be a little more than he bargained for.

### Trigger Warnings

* Violence and threats of violence
* Depictions of sexism and xenophobia
* Body horror
* Sudden loud noises
* Enclosed, claustrophobic spaces
* Water/drowning

## Episode Summary

Olala wakes, trapped in Sir Pellinore's lair. Her companions are not with her, and she talks to Tail, despite having told Angelo she no longer does. She and Tail examine books in Pellinore's hoard of magical items, pulling out one about the Western Wastes with a page of true information about the Garden of Graves. There is a note that the book's publisher, Wayward East Press, has another book all about the Garden and its Sisters, but Olala doesn't know what "published" means.

Sir Pellinore appears, and they verbally spar. He demands she look into a True-Sight Crystal for him, apparently too afraid it might be dangerous to try it himself. He sets the room of books she was so interested in on fire, saying he will only stop it if she complies. Olala brings out the True-Sight Monocular that she stole from his delivery man, pretending it is only a corrective lens for her eyesight, and uses it with the crystal. After a sound of rushing water, Olala finds herself in an unknown city full of monster. A stranger pulls her out of the canal and tries to bribe her to pretend they're cousins so they have an excuse to walk away from a lion-monster. Olala is frightened of the lion-monster, but the stranger, she soon realizes, has stolen a bag of books from him, and is trying to escape. She pulls the bag away, excited when she sees that they were published by Wayward East Press.

The Monocular shatters, and Olala returns to Pellinore's fortress. He's angry that she's broken one of his artifacts, and that the vision the Crystal showed her isn't very interesting to him. He explains that it shows the viewer something they don't know, but there's so much Olala doesn't know that many of the visions will be boring. He insists she try again, even though she hadn't been able to get the crystal work on its own. He wants to know who will next try to kill him, so he can get the jump on them.

Unsurprisingly, Caroline and Angelo kick the door in, saying they've spent the last hour cutting through "paper-thin parlor tricks." Caroline cuts an illusion-dispelling sign Quanyii taught her into the soft stone floor, revealing that the "giant knight" Olala has been talking to is an empty suit of old armor. Pellinore is actually hiding behind the throne, a shaky and extremely old man with strange, bloodless wounds, chunks of flesh missing from his body. Olala marvels that he's even still alive, and Caroline says that the crystal must have dealt this damage for looking into it too many times. Caroline and Angelo intimidate Pellinore and interrogate him about Galahad. They decide he's only paranoid, not informed.

Olala tries to tell Caroline about what she saw in the crystal, but Caroline brushes her off and prompts Angelo to destroy it. When the group camps, Caroline is surprised Olala isn't tired. Olala sasses her about whether it's "the time" to speak now, which Caroline admits she deserves, before revealing that the book Olala had found about her home wasn't destroyed; the fire was another illusion, and Caroline saved it for her. She apologizes for not taking Olala seriously earlier in the adventure, and says that she lost her own sisters too.

When Caroline was an infant in the harsh Southern Frosts, her parents sold her to a hunter who bought, trained, and sold many children. When Caroline was six, the hunter sold her to a witch named Sylvie of Hiberna, "old and terrifying and beautiful, in my memory taller even than Angelo." The witch and her coven lived in a settlement of shacks by the Southern Sea. Her first night there, the witches appeared to eat a feast of air or invisible food, and when the witch touched Caroline's eyes, nose, and lips, she could see and taste it, too. She was as hungry the next day as if she'd eaten nothing at all. She hunted and caught a fawn, and this time, when the seven witches and Caroline ate their illusory meal, the fawn's corpse disappeared, and she felt full. They continued in this way for several years.

The oldest witches of the coven could remember the last human-monster war, and even things older than that--long-gone human and monster cities, and beings who might not be called human *or* monster. They stayed alive by conserving their energy, spending most of their time in silent meditation. Sylvie would not explain in an understandable way what their purpose was, guarding their privacy. In the present day, Caroline and Olala discuss the confusing line between love offered conditionally, and an absence of love. Caroline admits that the complexity of her relationship with the coven is why she has only told the story once before, and not to Angelo, who wouldn't understand her attachment to people who owned her.

When Caroline was twelve, the coven was attacked by marauders. They killed all but Sylvie before Caroline returned from a hunt and nearly killed one of them. Their leader was impressed and told Caroline he would spare her only if she killed Sylvie, so she did. The marauders all died in a blizzard within the month. Caroline goes on to say that she thinks often of Sylvie telling her "The work can only be done if you live to do it." She thinks she is more like the witches than she realized as a child, her life revolving around survival, with identifying what her "work" might be less important and sometimes unclear altogether. Desires like home do not come easily to Caroline, and she thinks she has not taken Olala seriously as a result, for which she apologizes.

Caroline goes on to admit that she wishes she were not the leader of the party. Neither Angelo or Quanyii are practical leaders, though they tried, and Ale refuses to take a turn. They try to work together, but the other adults look to Caroline for the final decisions. Olala asks if she should take a turn as leader, and Caroline says it would be unfair to give someone so young the responsibility, but she will be excited when Olala is old enough to lead. Olala is sad, but shows Caroline how she beat the crystal by using the Monocular to protect herself. She describes her vision, and reveals that, in addition to wonders, she saw Sir Galahad in the city of humans and monsters.

## Cast

* Marge Dunn as Olala
* Leslie Drescher as Caroline
* Bob Mussett as Sir Pellinore
* M. Sutherland as Angelo
* Stewart Evan Smith as The Book Thief