Episode 11

> Right in the den of the wolves, unaware of the depth of the debt to them.
>
> Livia in the Numicius’ book, assuming the whereabouts of Xanthus Numicius, **Deep Beasts**

> You understand who my family are and what they hide. You see the corruption that reaches fingers out into other noble families. You see the delicacy of our society on the brink of collapse. It can’t go on like this and I hope it does not. I hope this whole world crumbles to dust.
>
> Livia in the beginning of the last chapter of the Numicius’ book, **Deep Beasts**

SHORT SUMMARY

## Synopsis

As the party fights the deep beasts, they manage to successfully take out two of these creatures, with Petra and Agrippa both dealing the killing blow to one. Mouser goes over to Nadya and gestures to her to follow him outside of the room where the dead creatures are lying. *»I wanted to tell you before Spiderkiller arrives here, but the blood of these beats is quite a useful toxin.«* He advises Nadya to try to harvest some before Spiderkiller can arrive. She gives Mouser a kiss before she goes and manages to fill in seven vials. During this, Nadya notices Julius drinking blood from the dead creatures. Agrippa and Caeso see this happening from the room, and they contemplate talking about this. When Mouser gets back he looks down the stairs, looks a bit shocked, tries to shake it and walks into the room with the others.

As they all meet up in the room again, Mother Drusilla has a grim face, she congratulates us for killing the deep beats. She explains that these are a plague on the red church, they have had them for many years. According to her, they seem to grow more powerful lately. Deep Beats are creatures of Aa, twisted in the time of the Ashkan empires’ fall; sometimes when the sun rises, they rise as well. In the old days they were used to be sent against the Red Church on purpose of the Church of Aa. Now they simply live on some vestige of that instinct and they sometimes rise up against them from the deep of the mountain. Mother Drusilla further explains that they have these ancient bells set up by the ashkan sorcerers that they can warn us when they are coming and that those rooms, we were led to, are sealed against them. She apologizes that we were tight up in this and asks if anyone needs more healing. She goes to the other side of the room, produces the obsidian key she keeps around her neck at all times. She opens a little locker there and she hands healing potions to the ones that have asked. Nadya tells her that she means no disrespect, but it would have been very helpful to know of the possibilities of this happening before it happened. Mother Drusilla just says that this is very rare and that they don’t owe them anything. Mother Drusilla leads Agrippa and Petra towards the dead beasts and extracts a tooth from both of their mouths, giving them to each one, since they dealt the killing blow. She adds that Naev can take this to a hand to be made into jewelry or just keep it as it is. She leaves them, saying that she has things to sort out. She takes Solis with her, who looks very grumpy having not been able to fight a monster.

Before they head towards the dining hall, Mouser stops Xanthus, saying since he gave something to Nadya, he should get something as well, pressing a tooth in his hand. Meanwhile, Spiderkiller has arrived, taking the bodies apart, seemingly enjoying the whole process. Agrippa goes over and asks if he could take a claw. *»You may try.«* Agrippa manages to get a couple of claws. During lunch Mouser enthusiastically tells the story of the fight at his table, hyping up all of us. Making it out to be much cooler than it actually was.

Aurelius and Agrippa manage to find the safes in their rooms. The party meets up in Caeso’s room after the fight to talk about what has happened. The party confronts Julius about the blood drinking some of them witnessed earlier that day. Julius says that he was just hungry, feeling drawn to the blood. Aurelius tells us that he saw Julius conjure a dagger out of blood, making it manifest during a fight. Petra asks if that is what makes him hunger, to which Julius replies, sometimes. We had heard of weird blood magic sorcery before, but never had a grasp on what this entails, as well as hearing stories about evil creatures drinking blood for fun. But those stories never revolved about them being able to do some kind of blood sorcery. Xanthus turns to Aurelius, telling him that he got a lecture about his powers, but won’t talk with the child about drinking blood. Agrippa interrupts this, asking who has weird magic powers, saying that they should raise their hands. Xanthus and Julius raise their hands, while Aurelius tries to say that his magic is well established. Xanthus interrupts him saying that he should raise his hand. Which Aurelius then does. Caeso asks if they need to carry around blood just in case. Aurelius questions how long he was able to do this. Julius explains that he used his magic before, but never felt this kind of hunger, explaining that he doesn’t need to drink from a person. Xanthus says that Julius should tell a teacher. Nadya asks if all of the magic users are from Godsgrave, to which Aurelius explains that he is not originally from Godsgrave. Xanthus asks if he had powers before he came to Godsgrave. Aurelius confirms this. Nadya asks where Aurelius is from, he tells her that he is from Dawnspear. The party heads to the baths after their debrief. At Agrippa’s request Nadya cuts his hair short, doing a stellar job at it. The party sets up extra security on their doors.

Back in his room Aurelius reads the next chapter of the Numicius’ book. It talks about the fourth sister called Alyssa, a diminutive of her mother’s name. She was the pacemaker of the family and the closest thing to obedience that the Numicius family could ever produce. Livia mentions from what she heard Xanthus was a spoiled youngest child for eight years and was not pleased that there was another kid being born. But they ended up getting along pretty well. It was impossible not to like Alyssa, even her parents had a hard time pulling faults out of her. She was married off at 18, six months ago, to an old man, who was happy to bring other people into their bedroom. She is quite delighted with that arrangement and they seem to have a favourite partner in a young merchant who often travels through Godsgrave. Livia says that she wouldn’t be surprised if the future children would rather look more Liisian than Itreyan. While reading, Aurelius realizes that Livia must have written the book this year. Livia mentions in the next chapter that she cannot yet talk about herself, but explains the financial situation of the family. She says that some information was shared by their parents with them, others she found while reading letters, pleading with their slaves and with their grandmother before she died last year. She explained to her that the money issues began with their grandfather’s obsession over heirs, tossed away on Ashkan sorcery, even being scammed a few times before finding the effective method. Livia suspects that her parents telling their children that they could slowly earn their fortune back from their properties and interest was a lie. There was a third factor that none of the children were told. Their grandparents had to deal with the false sorcerers who scammed them and their parents had to hide the truth from other nobles, which meant the Red Church, blades hired and potential leaks murdered. None of that was cheap. Through their dealing they came to know several other families with ties to the Red Church all wrapped up in a careful tangled web, so nobody could report each other. Which meant arranged marriages, business deals and plots to overthrow their enemies. The families were: *Darius, Sethus, Verus, Cathian, and Tricinium. (All those families had some kind of debt to the Red Church)* Those are the only ones Livia was able to find out about; she suspects there are more involved in the Red Church in some ways. Because of this the family owes a great deal to the Red Church and although their father won’t tell her, she suspects that’s where Xanthus went.

The next day, combat class begins again and Solis is brutal, picks on the wounds of the deep beasts' fight, and tells Agrippa that he likes his style. During this Aurelius stands next to Bianca, telling her that he sympathies that she has been through a lot, but if she chooses to take that out on Agrippa or use him like that ever again, stating further that he is not above making her time here as difficult as possible. *»Yeah, you are really scary, so that means so much to me.«*

Juno goes over to Caeso and introduces herself; she says she is sorry to catch him alone, asking if he recognizes her. Caeso doesn’t really recognize her. She has quite a few Liisian features, although her name is Itreyan. He apologizes to her saying that doesn’t. She leaves Caeso standing, saying never mind, as she walks to the other side of the room.

During the week, Nadya reads about the Red Church's history. The chapter talks about the resettling of the Red Church after the empire fell. It mentions being plagued by certain vestiges of Aa’s. Deep Beasts, Sandkraken, a Drake that flies in the sky. Those especially occured in the early days after the empire fell, they seemed to have been very preoccupied in fighting those off in the early days. But as the powers of the Mother reestablished and increased, it became more difficult for the Deep Beasts, the kraken, the drakes to inflate. It seems to directly correspond with how powerful the mother is in how many of those attacks are happening. Aalea announces that a special event is coming up in her class and she will announce what will make the winner of her class.

When making their homework potions, Nadya and Xanthus earn an approval nod from Spiderkiller. After Spiderkiller’s class Aalea gets Julius for his investigation. Despite Nadya’s warning Julius drinks the tea. Mother Drusilla stops Julius on the way out, asking him what Hush has told him. He snitches on Hush, after being asked if he has seen him outside of his room after curfew several times.

That night Aurelius reads the last chapter of the Numicius’ book. As he reads the beginning lines of the chapter, he feels something strange happening, it feels like he is reading, yet like he is feeling something, absorbing a desperate emotion from the very pages. He remembers that his is not a true book, but a dead one. He keeps reading as he hears her voice in his head. She states her name and age and says that she is the youngest daughter. She says that she has seen how each of her siblings were pushed to meet their parents' ideals. Livia says that she alone knows the inevitable path. *»Let me tell you about my three betrothals. When I was a child I was promised to Lane Tricinium. He was bland, but kind and only two years older than me. I did not know him very well, but when I was 11 he vanished, we were told he was killed by pirates. I was unattached for the first time and the vultures began to circle.«* She proceeds to say that she first noticed a man at large banquets, a man who always watched her. His name was Severus Cathian (?). She says that there was something deeply dangerous about his eyes, an instinct that told her to run. She only knew him as one of Atlas’ friends. Whenever people stopped paying attention to him, he started paying attention to Livia. He would stare at her until she felt sick. Livia says she was nine when this started. When she was fourteen, he started to turn his attention to Xanthus, very suddenly and full of dedication. She thought she had been wrong about him, he seemed different, she started to relax just a little. Livia says she has left the door open one summer night and heard a conversation carry through the hall. She sneaked out and found Xanthus arguing with Severus, who had been sneaking out of the door, not away to leave the house but to Livia’s room. Aurelius feels the words on the page blur and an image flash up in his mind, like a misplaced memory. Apparently Severus had approached her father the night before and drawn up a marriage contract for her. He was 15 years her senior, who had watched her since she was a child, and decided he wanted to have her. There was a protective rage in Xanthus. Aurelius feels like he is absorbing full memories now, barely held together by the framework her words have given him. During their argument, Xanthus pushes Severus against the wall, when he says Livia is his now and he deserves a preview. He warns him off again. *»Perhaps you will be more scared when you meet the mother.«* Xanthus says before pushing a knife in Severus’ throat. This was the first time Livia realized that he maybe had killed someone before. She explains that Xanthus doesn’t know that she watched, that there was nothing to tie the family to the murder and that nobody worked out where Severus went. *»I thought this would be the end, that I would be free. I underestimated the ambitions of my parents.«* Xanthus left for Godsgrave, preparing for his future and what he would do as a son in the family name. She suspects it is the Red Church, but her parents will not tell her. Two days after Xanthus left, her father came to her with another proposal. This man was very rich and sat high on the Senate, but Livia’s blood chilled with every piece of information. His name was Myrion Darius (?). He was a friend and mentor of Severus, at least 50 years old. Livia explains that when she met him, he seemed more evil than the terrifying boy that he treasured. Flashes of a face appearing in Aurelius’ mind. Livia says she has two months until the wedding. *»But I’m lying in bed in tears right now planning out this book as if I would ever have a chance of writing it. I know exactly how I would write it. Designing it as a false genealogy. So I could snuck it out into the public eye. I know how I would build it chapter by chapter. But also I know my ideas will come to nothing. I can lie here and think all I want. I can never put the words to paper. It would hurt the rest of my family to do so, there are people I love. Our fates are intertwined so irreversibly, I must endure.«* Aurelius finds himself in his room again with Livia’s tears pouring down his face.

After finishing Aurelius sneaks out after curfew shoving the book under Xanthus’ door. He puts a little note in Livia’s chapter. He goes back to his room quickly and doesn’t sleep that night.

*Additional Note: There is a bit of talk about magic taboos and blood magic in the episode, it’s about 3:20:00 in the timestamps. Also apparently the bias against singers and darkin is different in that not everyone knows that singers drink blood, thus making the social taboo around the sorcery different.*