Pressing Questions

Carly Strait

McKenzie Wilkes

Local competing hero team gives exclusive interview discussing Friendship, Sources of Inspiration, and... the Royal Curse? (NOT CLICKBAIT.) Mavis might literally be in a living nightmare.

## Summary

Griana enters the greenhouse with tears on her face after a confusing and overwhelming date with Talon Visk. The rest of the team is playing a complicated resource-building board game; Cyrine has continued to bring everyone water throughout the evening. Griana quickly wipes her eyes before stopping in to say goodnight to everybody and making a beeline for her room. Realizing how late it is, Cyrine shuffles everybody else off to bed as quickly as possible for their busy day beginning in a few hours. She gives Valdis some space alone in what used to be Kai’s room, sitting with Eleanor in the living room and contemplating how strange the team feels with Ora gone.

### Stop the Presses

Mr. Darlington shows up at the door bright and early to bring everybody to their final press interviews. Team Langdale is dead asleep while Cyrine cooks breakfast, but manages to roll out one by one at the sound of knocking. Everybody scrambles for something “press-ready” to wear for the morning, while Cyrine sneaks Dylan to her home with her shroud key to find something suitable. The home is full of beautiful family portraits that give Dylan pause. She notes that all of the family members have on their person the same Reverie symbol as her late mother’s ring. They don’t have time to go over this, but she stores it in the back of her mind for later.

Back in the kitchen, Mavis is somehow failing to butter toast while Zil finishes making breakfast. They are chatting with Mr. Darlington, who mentions his son Tostig has an engagement party this evening. He is the gauntlet handler for Aeristead. Cyrine and Dylan return, dressed and ready for the day. Yga, Eleanor, and Copper are all vibing together; generally, spirits are high among the whole group. They finish breakfast and make their way to the gauntlet press junket.

The press interviews begin relatively smoothly, a lot of standard “Who inspires you?” and other simple things like that. One particular interviewer pulls no punches, digging into the group with questions about Dylan’s past with the Red Dagger division, as well as Mavis’ history as a Kobold Boy. A bit soured by the experience, the team is about to write it off until the interviewer bids them farewell with, “New Gods be with you.” Dylan moves to tackle him but Zil holds her back. They can’t go after him; they know that making a scene will only result in their team looking bad to the public.

Scottie is nearby on a raised platform speaking to the press on behalf of the Gauntlet. She welcomes them and assures them they will all be given the allotted hero time they were promised. She also has an announcement from the Crown that was released just before the junket began, and sees this as the best time to release it to everybody. “This morning, the Zoleri family has announced that they are on their way to discovering a cure for the Royal Family at present. They are asking for space and respect as the cure is being researched, but would like to thank Team Langdale in particular for helping them secure vital artifacts in the research process. On top of that, the final vote will be tomorrow. The ball to celebrate the Gauntlet winners will be on Saturday; acclaimed popstar Franko will be singing at the ceremony. Finally, the castle is no longer accepting visitors at this time, save for those who are registered with the Crown. Those have been the formal press announcements from the Crown; you can now return to your interviewing.”

Lukas is also making his way around the room, stopping at each team with their mail. Zil quickly asks if there is anything for them, but there is not. They brush past it when Mavis asks what they’re waiting for. Dylan does have a letter that seems to have come by courier within the city.

> *Morning Dylan,*
>
>

> *Hear you’re inbound to the castle for another trial today. I would love to catch a glance at you. The castle has changed so much while I was away. Have you noticed the same? Things aren’t the same.*
>
>

> *Quinn*
>
>

Dylan folds up the note and puts it in her pocket, resolving to check in with Quinn when they get to the castle. Zil is still asking Lukas about the mail, lowering their voice and asking if he can check with the postal service to see if anything was missed. They aren’t sure what it would look like or how it would be marked, but it should be coming from Alivia Oltswin. Lukas says he’ll search as best as he can and heads off. The press junket continues, most of the questions now revolving around Langdale securing the phylactery. Scottie comes around with a warning before the final interview so everybody knows to wrap up quickly. The team spots a Prosperity council member step out from behind a curtain with Lyco and the other Prosperity member. They are each holding two dossiers, and each of the three come to sit in front of a hero team. Lyco returns a wink to Cyrine as he passes her, sitting in front of Team Langdale.

Lyco gives them the rundown of the trial their team is going to face. They will have to split into teams of two, each representing a single province. Given little other information about the task, Mavis suggests they put their two best negotiators on different teams thanks to the hint Cyrine provided them with the night before. They pair Griana with Dylan and Zil with Mavis, each team having one person more familiar with nobility and another more familiar with common folk. Griana’s team will be representing Arsenvi, and Zil’s Yarbellen. Each of the dossiers they receive contain information on their Province that they can use to help a problem they are currently facing. They have until the end of the carriage ride to the castle to come up with a game plan for their negotiations with the other teams. He tells them who the other teams will be representing, and leads them off to the carriages.

### A Third Dream with Mavis Maymont

We are brought back to the night before. Mavis, drowsy and happily whiskey drunk, makes her way to a bed and crashes before she can remember to take anything that would prevent her dreams. Just before this, Macklin Maymont sits in a void, shaping the world his sister is about to enter into. Elegant, swirling green flame creeps its way up and around the nebulous space to form the same imposing door Mavis has entered through in her previous meetings with her brother. The magic is practiced and concise, just how the two of them were raised to be. Despite this, the door itself keeps turning out wrong, and worse every time he remakes it. He steps through to see Mavis in her painters’ overalls, sitting on her bed in their childhood home. The space is tall and imposing as he remembers it, but the walls and floor have been replaced with canvas. Every inch of the space is covered in sketches and scribbles of nearly incoherent theories. She drunkenly moves to pick up a bottle of wine, and just as she expects it to be there it appears for her to pick it up. From the corner of her eye, she notices him emerge from the bathroom that links their rooms as he leans against the door and asks about her night.

Mavis is intolerant of Mack’s playfulness; her resentment dictates that if he won’t give her the answers she needs, there’s no point in discussing anything. She continues painting while he tries to prod her on her evening, slowly forming an image of glimmering purple amethysts. He tries to explain why he left to become a saint without her, which she can’t forgive. He promises that he is coming back for her *now*, but met with her anger he points out that she is already on the losing side. No matter who her new friends are, or if she wins the gauntlet, they have more.

> “More people. More planesbreakers. More *everything*, and I am inviting you to be a part of the *winning* team.”
>
>

Mavis can’t believe they have more than half of the planesbreakers, but he assures her that they do and have their sights set on two more of which they know the location. He spitefully boasts that the whole of Burnfort-- the Shroud Assembly, the court, the entire city-- is poisoned, that the Despara are everywhere. He promises he can come get her, that he can keep her safe from the people targeting her. She thinks he means Kai, now wielding a newly-activated planesbreaker he wasn’t aware of. When he corrects her and explains that Lucius is gunning for her in order to take him down, the room begins to shift. Their surroundings shrink, move, and crumble around them as she spirals about the memories Lucius took, the information she’s gotten wrong, and the people around her who have been hurt because of it. Mack tries to control it and stop things from falling down around them, but can’t if Mavis is still upset. He learns every detail about her past few weeks, right up to Lucius taking away fourteen days of her memories. He promises to fix things, to fix everything, to come to get her in Burnfort. She pulls out one of her two matching daggers. As she presses it into his chest, he is pushed back and out into the waking world again.

### A Countdown Begins

Mack wakes up next to Lirel Okemo, sitting on a velvet barstool in Fortune’s Fool, the fanciest tavern in Llosey. An ornate dagger drops into his hands from where it was pressing into his chest. He marvels at the craftsmanship while Lirel explains that Athryn Velash wants them to leave shortly. They are heading into the Rosewoods, chasing after Gwen and Phibi as they escape with a planesbreaker. Mack can tell that since Mavis is attuned to the magical blades, she will continue to grow more exhausted until either she dies or they are joined together again. Lirel reminds him again that they’re leaving soon before heading to the armory. Mack knows that a trip to Burnfort from Llosey will take six days, but Lirel has a Shroud key that lets out in a town two days away from the city. He takes the key from their bag and heads to the door of the tavern, leaving a small note for Lirel: “I’ll be back. This is important.”