017. Jeopardy!

Meeting with the Garou provides some answers and leads to a discovery.

***"In Jeopardy, the point is not to ask questions, but to provide answers."***

Driving back from Quebec City with their new companions Layla, Charles, and Pasebakhaenniut, the motley is cautiously optimistic about learning more about Braum's past and the threats they face. Charles notes that the full moon makes it "a good day for this": they will be transporting the Kithain from one Caern to another via a moon bridge. This is all foreign to the three Changelings, who are explained the importance of announcing themselves upon entering, and especially how crucial it is to not tell others about their meeting.

Stopping by the side of the road, they are led into the woods, where the three in turn announce themselves to the forest: "Sir Braum Madsen ap Gwydion"; "Lady Sophia Aisling ap Liam"; "Patches… Steward of the Spark". A wild looking man with a long beard appears out of the trees and asks why these three have been brought to the Garou. Upon looking at each of them in turn, the man is completely arrested by Sophia's incredible beauty, and at the request of Pasebakhenniut, leads them deeper into the woods. As they approach a stone circle, the three close their eyes, feeling coolness wash over them, and open their eyes to find themselves in a different clearing entirely. Another man, dressed in a long duster and with complex patterns shaved into his hair, stands watching them. He introduces himself as Ash Bleeding-Edge, the Gatekeeper. He warns them to turn off any electronic devices they may have on them, and asks the Garou as an aside why they chose to bring visitors here just before a moot. Charles and Paseebakhenniut put an end to the discussion as they take the Changelings forward.

Discovering that they are now on L'île Sainte-Hélène, near a pond, the motley see a small group of eight people gathered around a small fire. One woman, seeing the new arrivals, asks the Kithain to sit down and shut up as they begin the ritual of the moot. Shortly thereafter, an older woman who seems to be in charge asks whether there are any "bones to be cracked", and looks pointedly at Braum. The troll stands, introducing himself, and tells the assembled Garou that he has come with his motley looking for answers. The older woman steps forward, and explains that she already knows Braum: she is the Sept Elder, Jeanne Seraph-of-the-Link, the person who, about ten years ago, removed access to his memories in order to "save him". She places a device resembling a thermometer to his head, and determines that Rick is still present in Braum. A decade ago when he was brought to the Garou, it seems as though Braum was killing himself with his memories, his emotions and rage running rampant. She tells him that he was "being used as a battery": someone had infiltrated his mind and was using him as a source of energy to be harvested. Usually, she admits, those in that situation would have simply been "lost" (i.e. killed), but a certain someone had fought for Braum's right to live.

At that moment, the first woman to speak asserts herself again: she was tricked all that time ago, otherwise he never would have been let in. Another Garou is quick to point out that she is just sore she was "defeated by a rabbit", and suddenly it becomes clear to the Kithain that Kyoko must have brought Braum here and challenged them for his right to be saved. Jeanne Seraph-of-the-Link turns to Sophia and Patches, asking whether Braum, now an older man, is still worth saving. "He is one of the true good people of the world, possibly to a fault," Patches tells her. "But are there deeds left in this man?" "He is still breathing," Sophia states. And with his worthiness confirmed, Jeanne gives Braum the gift of a single memory back, one that was being "saved" for him. The deal Kyoko made with the Garou was to have them seal off his memories involving those who had been killed and not tell anyone about it (unless Braum was to come back one day).

Braum suddenly has a vivid memory of speaking with Kay about what would happen were she to die. He would be the most likely person to retrieve her coat, and should take it to her niece, Lauren, a surfer living just up the coast from St. John's, Newfoundland. The cold waters there, she said, wouldn't damage her coat in the slightest.

Shaken out of the memory, the angry woman declares that she will not allow Braum to dishonour the Garou's gift by allowing it to be undone. To that end, she, the Caern's head of security, Rachel Places-the-Mark, challenges Braum to a contest of strength and skill. Braum, knowing that this is his only way forward, accepts. The two step up face-to-face inside a small ring. The first to push the other out of the ring will be the winner of the challenge.

The troll's immense strength is matched by Places-the-Mark's, and the two titans slug it out, with Braum almost being pushed out twice. Finally, Braum takes a desperate action in order to win: he calls upon the Dreaming to "knock her out", unleashing Dragon's Ire. His arms warp and twist into fire and ice, slamming Places-the-Mark out of the ring and into a tree. She just barely keeps her feral rage in check and stalks off.

The "cracking of the bones" finished, Jeanne Seraph-of-the-Link announces the storytelling time of the moot. As she explains to Braum that the person or persons who invaded his mind "occupy a low-level threat from the Weaver", she releases a weight from him, allowing his memories to start coming back slowly. In exchange for this gift, she asks that the Kithain take a Garou back with them as an ambassador, one they already know: Kaylie Quiet-on-the-Hunt. She also offers thanks to Patches for taking care of their Pattern Spider a few months before. Sophia, hoping to make a positive impression, offers a story to the Garou in the form of a song. The lilting melody tells of their journey across the moon bridge under the cloaking night with its stars… The Garou are incredibly affected, taking the song as a very sacred gift.

As the moot continues, the three changelings head off to find Kaylie and return to The Spark. In the forest, they are ambushed by a furious Places-the-Mark, who, despite Patches' protests of having done everything by-the-book, still threatens them, warning them never to return to the Caern. Disappearing into the trees, almost immediately another young werewolf appears. Sophia immediately recognizes her as the young woman with the light-up vest from her recent dream who had called out to her. Introducing herself as Infrared, she helps the Kithain reunite with Kaylie as they venture back to The Spark.

Once there, Kaylie insists on sleeping "as they do", and immediately burrows into a mattress to sleep. The other fae also head off to bed after a *very* long day… all except Braum, who knocks timidly on Kyoko's door. He sits down and thanks her very sincerely for her actions all those years ago. He challenges her to an arm-wrestling contest: if he wins, she has to reveal a secret about herself, but if he wins, he'll tell her where Kay's coat is! Braum puts on a good show, letting Kyoko win so that he can reveal to her the nature of his recent memory about Kay. She is immediately crestfallen, though, when she tells him that he's misunderstood: Kay's niece Lauren is the person to whom the coat is destined, not necessarily where it currently is. She gently coaxes him to remember before demanding he "do her a favour" for having tricked her. Braum is very conflicted about his feelings and almost kisses her, but ventures off to bed before it happens.

Kyoko goes up to Sophia's penthouse with Patches so the three of them can commiserate: she is obviously frustrated by Braum's seeming lack of understanding, but distracts herself by getting Patches to open up about her hesitance to continue her relationship with Duke Granville.

In the morning, Braum tells Sophia and Patches that he feels very close to the knowledge of the whereabouts of Kay's Selkie coat. His repeats his dream to them, and they toss around some possibilities, joking about cutting him open to check the contents of his stomach. Soon they realize that the memory may not point to where Braum left the coat, but rather may be a premonition of where it ended up. They venture down to the dungeon, to Little One's old nest of scraps and there, buried under some old sheets, they find a very familiar coat, leathery and light….