Brave New World • Chapter 11

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### Ain'alaard*(7th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

In the wake of his communion with the Earthmaven, Oondak informs Hector and Ironstrong-4 of the message he had been given to destroy Yuli. The group returns to the serai for the night, with Oondak torn on what to do. Ultimately, after a long talk with Ironstrong-4, who points out that there was no winning scenario here and that Oondak's faith would have to guide him, he decides to do what the Earthmaven asked and kill Yuli. Ironstrong-4 pledges to back him up, and the two lay out plans for how the grim task would be done.

Just as first light breaks on the eastern horizon, while discussing their plans for the city, Oondak and Ironstrong-4 see streaks of flame flying towards the Temple of Sút. Hurriedly, they wake up Hector, informing him that solari had arrived at the city, and the trio decide to leave quickly before they are found. They use the bag of ash that Thyakos had given them, and quickly plane shift away to the Ashmaiden's domain.

### Almeras Wilderness*(7th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

All the way across the planet, Lionel and Yuli make camp near a stunted tree amidst the tall grass. While Yuli gets some sleep, Lionel takes the opportunity to reach out his consciousness to speak with his brother, Alphonse. He apologises for the way they had left things when Lionel left home, and says his goodbyes, not expecting that he would ever speak to his brother again.

Meanwhile, Yuli's dreams seem uneventful for the night. She dreams of old places she called home, the tavern in Rûkmodan and of the oasis in Llys, before something suddenly shifts the dream around her, and she hears the sound of churchly organ music from outside the tavern door. Still ostensibly dreaming, Yuli drifts to the door and opens it, finding herself instead in a cathedral of some sort, with a massive pipe organ dominating the far side, and stone benches lining the aisle.

A single figure sits on those stone benches, close to the front. Yuli recognises him as the second veiled figure she'd seen only a short while ago after the event at the Allfather's citadel. He introduces himself as Luthar Eltzfeuer, and apologises for not speaking to her earlier.

"*I must confess...this is embarassing...we have spoken of you so many times in so many different plans, but...I still do not know your name.*"
 ― Luthar Eltzfeuer

The two speak of the Warbringers, their plans, and Yuli's place in it. Luthar professes admiration for Yuli's conviction in rejecting great power to avoid being bound to other people's causes, but asks her what she hoped to accomplish without a cause to drive her. Speaking plainly, Luthar tells Yuli in no uncertain terms that they were at war, whether she wished to participate or not, and that Ygdren needed her.

"*What does one need to wage a war? First a general, a leader of men, who can command and drive forward your armies to achieve quick victories where they can be won. Second, a tactician, working in the background. To turn the odds. To out-think the enemy. After all a body without a mind is just meat. And third? A weapon, powerful enough to end the war once it starts. Three vital pieces. Without them, victory cannot be assured.*"
 ― Luthar Eltzfeuer

Yuli asks Luthar what exactly their final goal was, and he speaks to her of the Firmament, the prime planar barrier, and how it was broken nearly 700 years ago at Lor Dulhir. He tells her that they intended to restore it, to seal away all godly interference and protect Ygdren from all extraplanar intrusion. He apologises that he cannot explain all the reasons why this was urgent, but insists the covenant forbade him from speaking of such things. Once again, he tells Yuli that if she wished to have the full truth, the only way she could find it was at the Desolation.

"*Where I am from...they say the organ is the closest man can get to the sound of dragon's breath. I always thought it a fanciful notion. Until I heard one myself for the first time. In this very cathedral. I was blown away. How? How could air and pipes produce such majestic noise? Of course, the credit lay not with the air or the pipes, but with the ingenuity of man. This was the lesson I learned. When we put our minds to it, we can accomplish wondrous things.*"
 ― Luthar Eltzfeuer

Urging Yuli to not take too long to make up her mind, Luthar leaves with a final warning that others aligned with them, such as servants of the primevals, would not likely be as patient as they. He also gives her a warning that even those she travelled with may not be as trustworthy as she expects.

"*After all, when their masters call for your head, how certain can you be of how they will answer? The knife in the back is often deadlier than the one that comes from the front, no? But you are a warbringer, my friend. You are the spear. They cannot hope to match you.*"
 ― Luthar Eltzfeuer

### Almeras Wilderness*(8th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Once Yuli wakes, in the aftermath of her dream conversation, she shares with Lionel what she had learned. He warns her to not believe all that Luthar had told her at face value, and points out that the primevals that were supposedly working alongside the Warbringers stood to lose just as much as the gods if the prime planar barrier was restored. Either Luthar was playing the primevals, or vice versa, or there was still some missing piece that had intentionally not been shared with them.

Yuli agrees, and the two decide to try and contact Ynalthed. Knowing that directly communing with her through planar was a terrible idea, Yuli instead tries to contact Abbie Walker, and by extension her master. This briefly backfires, as the familiar abyssal presence behind Abbie Walker's mind quickly holds Yuli's mind to speak with her. It warns Yuli that the abyss was still after her, but that it had been told not to kill her. It asks once again why Yuli still resisted, and begins reeling her consciousness into it before Yuli manages to break the connection.

Meanwhile, a great distance further to the south, Nicolaos drifts in pursuit of the Singer, hoping to catch back up with her after his rendezvous the previous day with Lionel and Yuli. While speeding through the clouds, he spots a trio of flying shapes heading northward: a strange sky ship of some sort and two smaller winged creatures alongside it. Surmising it to be unimportant, Nicolaos continues his journey south.

He catches up the the Singer early in the morning, still heading straight southward to the Desolation. His mind drifts aimlessly as he continues to follow, turning to thoughts of his brother and of the demand he had received, trying to think on what the "world tree" could signify. The monotonous quiet of the flight is suddenly interrupted when the Singer is ambushed by a number of flying creatures and streaks of flame, of which Nicolaos only catches glimpses amongst the clouds.

He decides not to interfere, and shortly thereafter the Singer descends from the clouds, wounded but alive. There is no sign of the creatures she had been fighting. At ground level, the Singer hunts down a pack of nearby animals, and spears several with her wings, draining them of arcana, before (still unaware Nicolaos was following) taking off back into the sky, continuing southward.

### Ashenfade*(8th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Hector, Oondak, and Ironstrong-4 appear in the Ashenfade, a colourless landscape drowned in ash. Far above, the sky burns with waves of colour, a raging storm of arcana. They find themselves in a scattered forest of stunted dead trees, buried amongst thick ashfalls. Here and there, echoes of shades appear briefly amidst the falling ash, all heading in the same direction. The trio begin walking in that same direction, and Ironstrong-4 calls out to the Ashmaiden hoping to draw her attention. She answers quickly, telling Ironstrong-4 that he shouldn't have come here, but now that he had to hurry to the citadel.

Obeying, Ironstrong-4 takes off at a run, with the others in pursuit. Up ahead, a fortress of grey stone towering by the banks of a great river begins to come into the view, and they can all see it is under attack . In the sky above it, Ironstrong-4 notes, a hurricane of golden crows swirls. The further they run, speeding over the ash, the more shades they run into, until their way is continuously slowed by the faint heavy air of the shades they try to push through. Hector and Oondak take to the sky, flying over the crowd, while Ironstrong-4 manages to assert his position as the Ashmaiden's shepherd to direct the crowd away from the citadel.

With haste, the trio arrive at the gates of the castle itself, which are being hacked into by hosts of demons of all forms. Lances of magic from within destroy entire swathes of them, only for more to tear through the fabric of this plane and advance upon the dome-like forbiddance that is barely protecting the walls and skies of the fortress. The trio manage to fight their way over the causeway and through the demonic assault, stepping inside the castle's courtyard, where they meet the Ashmaiden, who appears almost mundane and frail in comparison to the avatars of other gods they had seen, if not for the intense buzz of magic around her.

The goddess, who seems exhausted and under tremendous pressure, scolds Ironstrong-4 for his wanton recklessness, and asks him what he had been thinking in destroying the Curator's realm. She explains that the arcane storm that had been released had badly damaged the defences of this plane, which had been amongst those closest to the sundered Athenaeum. Stepping forward, Oondak calls upon the divine might of the Earthmaven, bolstering the Ashmaiden's forbiddance in a great surge of green and gold, granting her respite.

With the Ashmaiden visibly under less strain, Ironstrong-4 explains all they had found and done, as quickly as he could. He speaks of the Curator's realm, his journey within the Slip, the chained dome he had found, and of Yuli's loss of control in the Allfather's realm. The Ashmaiden seems increasingly worried with each revelation. She informs them that the chained dome, which had existed far before her ascension, was believed to hold within it some part of the same entity as the Evermoil, most likely its mind or divine well, the thinking aspect of the thoughtless wall of hands.

If the cage had been cracked, whatever was within was likely to be at least partially free. The Ashmaiden assures them however that since the rest of the cage still seemed to be intact, whatever was inside was certainly not completely loose. She also says to Ironstrong-4 that the scythe he carried was extremely dangerous, and that truthfully it would be best for him to destroy it.

While she speaks, Ironstrong-4 catches a glimpse past her shoulder of another archway on the inner end of the courtyard, that led deeper into the castle. In the archway, a single golden crow pecks at the ground. He resists the urge to walk further inside, and promises the Ashmaiden that he would not use the scythe idly, and would seek a way to destroy it.

Before leaving, they inform the Ashmaiden of their intentions to kill Yuli on the Earthmaven's orders. She cannot tell them if it is the right or wrong thing to do, but says that she had never known Rualla to be bloodthirsty, and that if she had asked them to do so then it was for good reason. With their minds set on their task, the trio plane shift back to the material plane, heading to Almeras to find Lionel and Yuli.

### Almeras Wilderness*(8th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

While waiting for the others to return, a strangely-shaped skyship and two red wyverns arrive in the sky above Yuli and Lionel. A singular gith woman who introduces herself as Yriil, Shardbearer and Gish of the Bladed Palace, lands nearby and kneels in front of Yuli. She refers to her as *mla'khir*, and informs Yuli that they had been sent by someone known as She of Twin Skies to escort her to safety.

"*It Of Black Flame has spoken. There is orders to take you south,* mla'khir*. To* sur'khal'qtar*.*"
 ― Yriil

Though initially sceptical, Yuli and Lionel eventually realise that these gith must have been sent by Ynalthed after Yuli's attempt at contact earlier. Not seeing much choice other than to go with them, they decide to allow Yriil and her *kyith* to take them southward towards the Desolation. During the conversation, Yuli notes that Yriil had a partial shard of crystalthorn embedded into her own neck, similar to the arrowhead shape Yuli had, but seemingly smaller and incomplete. The strange skyship that had arrived with Yriil disappears into the clouds above, though Yriil assures them it is still nearby to watch over them. The wyverns circle away to scout for approaching trouble.

"*There are many who seek to control or destroy you,* mla'khir*. On the silver of my blade, I will allow neither.*"
 ― Yriil

In the meantime, much further south, Nicolaos and the singer finally reach the mountain range at the edges of the Desolation. These uniquely jagged peaks ring a vast circle of desolate, petrified land, ending at the sea to the west and arcing further inland to the east. The singer stops on one of the peaks, taking a few minutes to look out across the completely silent landscape ahead. Shortly thereafter, she uses several cannisters of cerulean crystal to power up, and continues forward. Nicolaos, testing the waters, realises that he could not follow without whatever strange magic hung over this place tearing away at his incorporeal form. He decides to return to the others and inform them of what he had found.

In the early evening, Hector, Oondak, and Ironstrong-4 arrive, and after some initial tension with Yriil, reconvene with Yuli and Lionel. With the newly arrived trio rather worse for wear after their ordeal in the Ashenfade, they decide to make camp right away and rest for the night. Yriil quietly informs Yuli that the rest had arrived from the Ashenfade, using a gyroscopic device to determine their plane of origin. She cautions Yuli to be on guard, and heads out into the tall grass to keep a hidden eye on the camp.

While making camp, Oondak speaks with Lionel via planar, and tells him of all that they had learned in the Ashenfade. He also reveals that the Earthmaven had commanded him to kill Yuli. Lionel tells him that if he was going to do so, he would need to commit, because if Lionel decided to take Yuli's side in the matter, he would not hesitate. Oondak remains wracked with doubt about what to do.

Nicolaos, returning from his scouting, contacts Lionel and informs him of what he had seen. He tells him that the easiest way around the mountains would likely be to head west to the ocean. Nicolaos also scouts out the gith ship that remains hovering far in the sky above, discovering it to have an oddly biological design on the inside, and finding that it appeared to be powered by fragments of crystalthorn embedded into a biological growth of some nature. He counts roughly two dozen gith as crew.

Back in camp, Lionel presses Yuli for a decision about what they would do next. Seeking information, he reaches out to the Warbringer they had met in the fey realms, and has a brief conversation with him about their motives. The Warbringer, Calian, tells him once more that all the answers they sought could only be found in the Desolation, and that time was running short. A decision on Yuli's path would have to be made, and soon.

More convinced than he had been before that the path forward was to head to the Desolation, and fast, Lionel informs Yuli of the conversation, and also tells her that Oondak had been ordered to kill her. A tense confrontation ensues, in which Oondak admits that he had his reservations, and decides ultimately to not go ahead with his orders, determining that he could not kill someone he had spent so long protecting. In doing so, he breaks his faith once and for all, and feels the Earthmaven's divine blessings disappear, leaving him completely powerless for the first time in many years.

With the choice made, the group now knows they have no choice but to go south, directly to the Desolation, having fully defied the gods. Realising this meant that they would not go to Radenstadt to help him rescue Cassandra, Hector decides to make his own way there alone the following morning. Oondak apologises that he could not help now that he was powerless, but hesitates in agreeing when Ironstrong-4 points out that Oondak could send him as his shield instead to go with Hector. Taking this as an indication of Oondak's true feelings about Hector, the bard grows cold and packs up to leave immediately.

Before he leaves, he speaks bitterly to Oondak one last time and warns him about his lack of conviction, and that his inability to stick to his decisions was the greatest sign of cowardice. With Ironstrong-4 following, Hector takes his leave, disappearing into the night. Nicolaos, having observed the entire confrontation as an incorporeal ghost, manages to materialise himself briefly to try and convince Hector and Ironstrong-4 to stay, saying that the fate of the world could very well depend on it. Hector points out that with Lionel and Yuli at the head, the fate of the world seemed doomed to be contrary to his own wishes, and he would rather spend his last days with the woman he loved. Nicolaos finally concedes, and lets the two depart, both he and Ironstrong-4 knowing full well that they would never be whole without the other.

Exhausted, the remainder of the group goes to sleep. Yuli is contacted by Ynalthed in her sleep, who admonishes Yuli for her long delay in fulfilling the task she had been given, and demands that she not take any longer in doing so.

"*You seek answers, but refuse to go where they are found. It is illogical. You have my instructions. I created you for this purpose. Do not tarry any longer. Do not fail me.*"
 ― Ynalthed

### Almeras Wilderness*(9th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The following morning, still escorted by Yriil and her gith, the now much dwindled group begins the final leg of their journey south, towards the distant mountains at the edges of the Desolation. The day's journey proves largely uneventful, though Lionel spends some time discussing with Yuli the possibility of learning how to control the excess of psionic power that she unleashed within the Ardent Citadel, in the hopes of not being overwhelmed by it again and losing control in the same way.

That night, they rest in Lionel's conjured mansion, and Lionel takes Yuli downstairs to a newly fashioned training basement, where he puts her through a rigorous ordeal in the effort of forcing her subconscious mind to release the same power as she'd demonstrated earlier. The effort fails for the time being, but proves informative, as Lionel discovers that the shard of crystalthorn embedded in Yuli's neck was creating a sort of feedback loop with her own manifest psionic abilities. However, there appeared to remain some kind of block or disconnect between Yuli and the crystalthornitself, which prevented her from fully controlling it, and by extension the skewers it produced.

After Yuli retreats to her bedroom to recover, Lionel spends some time taking down notes on all he had discovered, which are added onto by the spectre of Nicolaos over the course of the night, where he points out an additional detail only he had noticed in his ghostly state, that when the feedback between Yuli and the crystalthorn was particularly intense, it created a strange type of pull, like a magnetic field, that seemed to draw away at his arcane essence. He notes it to be similar to the pull he had felt at the edges of the Desolation, albeit on a much much smaller magnitude.

### Almeras Wilderness*(10th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The next day, they continue their journey south, quickening their pace on Yriil's instruction as she suspects it would not be long before they were intercepted by divine forces. While they walk, Yriil asks Yuli if she really was also a "shard-bearer", motioning to the back of her own neck where Yuli had previously seen the fragment of crystalthorn. When Yuli shows her her own crystalthorn, Yriil is in amazement at how complete it is.

"*Amongst my people, the finding of such a shard is...a great ordeal. Few complete this trial. It is how we become* gish*. Were you gith, you would have earned your silver blade already, perhaps even a seat in the Chamber of Two Skies, for such a display of purity.*"
 ― Yriil

Curious, Yuli questions her about gith culture, learning about how they came to be as slaves of illithids, about their eventual rebellion, and about the two opposed castes that had formed in the aftermath, almost leading to civil war. Yriil speaks of the First of Twin Skies, Kha'luz, and of the Hundred Words he had written, which the entirety of gith culture was built around.

"*The first of the Hundred Words says: 'There cannot be two skies if both seek ascendance.'. The second: 'Threat comes from beyond, safety from within.' They are wise words, that all gith follow with great discipline.*"
 ― Yriil

That night, Lionel and Yuli once again head to the training chamber, where they contest in a fight to the near death, as Lionel hypothesises that Yuli must truly believe she is about to die if her subconscious is to take over. Though they get to within a hair's breadth of her dying, the outcome they hope for remains elusive, to Lionel's frustration.

### Almeras Wilderness*(11th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

For the third day, they press on southward. The jagged mountains loom ever closer, and Yriil informs them more of the specifics of their destination, telling them of a hidden way through the mountains via a treacherous system of gorges and ravines they would need to climb into. A guide would be waiting for them at the end of the gorge, to lead them through the cracked labyrinthine passages into the Desolation proper.

By midday, they come to the first signs of the ravines Yriil had described, and find the specific gorge they were looking for. The climb proves initially treacherous, and it's slow going, but the hidden path eventually stabilises into a canyon of sorts, with rushing river rapids to one side some distance below, and the less narrow pathway continuing to wind its way uphill.

Just as they think they're in the clear, the sky above abruptly darkens as unnaturally fast-moving storm clouds tear across the sky, crashing into the gith ship far above. Sheets of rain begin to fall, along with cracks of thunder and lightning, one of which strikes the path directly ahead of them and reveals armoured figures in dark steel and full-faced helmets, with starry-blue light pouring from the eyeholes. Alongside them, descending quickly from above, storm spirits and solari attack, and the group is forced to defend themselves.

A fierce conflict ensues, during which a local stranger, who later introduces himself as Makaio Hotah, joins the fray and engages the storm spirits, transforming into an elemental of air himself. Outnumbered, several of the group are badly injured, but begin to turn the tide of battle when Lionel brings to bear some of the reality-shattering knowledge he had acquired from within the Curator's mind, coupled with his own unique chronomantic talents. Similarly, Yuli, though she is badly hurt, devastates entire clusters of the attackers, but is betrayed at the last moment by Oondak, who changes his mind at the horrific sights unfolding before him.

He is shortly incapacitated by the rest, who have managed to fight off and dispatch the first wave of attackers, and a furious Lionel ends his life despite Nicolaos suggesting they keep him alive. With more enemies on the way,Yriil urges them to keep going while she held off what she could. Far above, the gith ship comes crashing out of the sky in a ball of flame, and the surviving members of the group, along with Makaio, flee up the path before they are surrounded once more.

### Edges of the Desolation*(11th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Scrambling over the damp rocks in the belting rain, with the sounds of clashing steel fading behind them, they traverse the increasingly narrow crags and ravines until they at last come into the shadow of the sheer mountain cliffs proper. Here, they find waiting for them a dangerous-looking, ashy-skinned woman in ornate, exotic armour. She bears the mark of the Spider Queen on her chest, and has a casually vicious and cruel demeanour accentuated by burning red eyes, but introduces herself as their guide, Helena von Jäger.

"*Disciple. A pleasure to finally put a face to the name. You're smaller than I expected. But a small knife can slide between the ribs better than a sword.*"
 ― Helena von Jäger

Though they remain wary, Helena makes no motions to attack them. Instead, she tosses each of them a mask, powered by Dellian glass crystals, that would give them a protective enchantment against the ravaging effects of the Desolation. With the storm unable to reach them here, they take a few moments to rest, and introduce themselves to Makaio, who is a local outlander that was seeking a way to undo the Desolation, a blight on the land he deemed unnatural.

While they rest, Helena also tosses Lionel a strange device of concentric metal rings around a minute hourglass at the centre. The rings appear to be made of the same silver they had come to associate with the ancient ruins they'd traversed a few times already. Helena claims the device was a gift from Calian, in lieu of returning the rest of the Witchlight as Lionel had requested.

"*A gift from on high, as it were. From our mutual, veiled friend. He said, he regrets that he cannot yet give you what you asked for, but hopes this will suffice in the interim. A taste of the knowledge that wait for you ahead.*"
 ― Helena von Jäger

Once they've caught their breath, they follow Helena through the jagged passages between the rocky base of the mountain, until they feel the tell-tale burning tingling against their skin, and step at last into the Desolation.

### The Desolation*(11th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

As they venture deeper between the rocks, they begin to notice that long-term spells which they cast seem to diminish at a faster rate. Makaio notes that even his wildshape forms appear to be affected. Through some experimentation, they surmise that the duration of arcane effects was more or less halved, and expect that it will continue to get worse the further into the Desolation they travel.

That night, they rest in the ravine itself, making a small camp in the shadow of the mountains. Makaio attempts to make some conversation with Helena, but finds her incredibly difficult to make conversation with. He does discover that she follows the Spider Queen, a goddess he was previously unfamiliar with. Aside from this, he manages to draw little else from Helena.

### The Desolation*(12th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

They continue through the pass the following morning, passing the peak point only an hour into their travel, and beginning the downward slope. The journey is slow and winding, and they are all struck by a sense of unease from this place, particularly at how quiet and unmoving it all seemed to be. By midday, they begin to catch glimpses of the wastes beyond, as the mountainsides give way to the flat emptiness of petrified grass.

Helena leaves them at the end of the canyon, where they break out into low canyons that eventually dwindle into nothing. Before leaving, she gives them enough crystals to power their masks for roughly 8 days, enough to get to the centre of the Desolation, and urges them not to run out. Before they get much further, they run into a strange set of corpses that appear to be almost mummified, but not rotten. Odder still, the desiccated flesh appears to have started to grow outward, like dribbling stains of paint on a canvas.

When Nicolaos inspects one of the corpses more closely, he ends up touching it, which seems to trigger some response from the collection of bodies, turning them into aberrant monstrosities of thoughtless flesh that seem utterly drawn to arcana, attempting to suck dry the group. Getting quickly overwhelmed by sheer numbers, the group decides to bail instead, and teleports away from the walking corpses after some difficulty.

They press on, leaving behind the canyons and coming out into grasslands. As they walk, they note the grass crunching underfoot and turning to dust, and realise that it was in fact completely petrified, frozen in place and turned into thin stone that crumbled at the touch. They also once again note that the grass was frozen in place as though being swept and flattened by a great wind, heading outward from the direction they are travelling.

That night, they rest in Lionel's arcane mansion, and Nicolaos spends some time deciphering the enchantment that powered their masks, managing to convert it into a castable spell that they could hopefully use as a backup in future should the masks fail. In the meantime, Lionel inspects the device that Helena had given him, noting that the orientation of the rings had changed when he used his chronomantic abilities.

### The Desolation*(13th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Their journey across the wastes continues the next morning, and they decide to make up some time by riding on a wildshaped Makaio, who can travel at greater speeds. Along the way, they begin to note numerous small craters in the soil, divots in the ground as though something had crash-landed there at great speed.

They stop to inspect one of the smaller craters, and Yuli finds within several minute fragments of crystalthorn, which Makaio notes seem to react somewhat to her presence, landing in the shape of field lines around her person when disturbed, like flecks of metal would around a magnet. When she touches one of the shards, Yuli has a momentary flash of a distant past, surmising it to be the last split second before death of whatever creature these remains belonged to.The further they travel, the more craters they see, including some that are significantly larger, holding half-buried chunks of basalt grey stone.

They also note that the burning siphon of magic in this place was steadily getting more pronounced. Spells and other magical effects last a third of their usual length by this point, making it harder and harder to use spells to gain ground. They take advantage of this while they still can, through Makaio turning them into wisps of cloud that can travel at great speeds.

By the evening, they begin to hear a great muffled roar of water from up ahead, and Makaio informs them they were approaching the Great Falls of Imagwa, a series of massive waterfalls that spanned all the way inland. The passage, which he expected they would hit early the next day, was near a dozen miles across on average, growing narrower at certain points further north.

They rest that night once again in Lionel's arcane mansion, expecting it would be the last time they would be able to do so due to the rapidly shortening durations of spells. While the others rest, Lionel relaxes in a private bath chamber, and attempts to use the calix to project himself to its place of origin. In this dreamlike state, he has his first view of what awaited them at the heart of the Desolation: a great crater dozens of miles across, the sea frothing against shattered rocks at its base. Above it, massive chunks of rock floating listlessly in a windless sky. Upon them built the grand ruins of a city of a greater scale than any he'd ever seen before.

Even through the dream, he can feel the intense burning siphon here, powerful enough to be painful even in his state. He notes that the effect was so intense it seemed to be coalescing streams of arcana through sheer pressure, following those same massive field lines they'd noted, being magnetically drawn to something or someone at the heart of the ruins.

### The Desolation*(14th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

A few hours into the following morning, they come to the edges of the great falls. By this point, the burning sensation against their skin is becoming outright uncomfortable. The air feels warm and acidic to breath, and their spells last only a quarter of their usual length. Ahead of them is a vast ravine drenched in water spray so thick its essentially fog. They cannot at all see the other side, nor the bottom, but are deafened by the overbearing roar of water plummeting hundreds of feet.

With magic being affected as it was, they see no way to cross the ravine by arcane means due to the sheer distance they would need to cover and the strange plunging air currents being caused by the turbulent waters. Makaio suggests that the river narrowed somewhat further north, and they decide to travel along the edges of the ravine in the hopes of finding some means to cross it.

They don't have to go far before they stumble into a set of ancient ruins that were only partially flattened by whatever eruption destroyed this place. Here, they find a cargo lift of some nature, that seems to span the length of the ravine, or at least as far as they could see. The large stone rails disappear into the fog, but seem largely intact. The lift itself however was dull and without power, overgrown, and askew on its rails.

They start the process of attempting to restore the lift by pumping some power into the large cerulean crystal at the heart of the lift's mechanism. This is successful, and the crystal seems undamaged enough to hold the arcana within it without issue. In the meantime, they spend some time looking around the other ruins for smaller crystal cannisters that they could use to place into the switch slot that likely turned on the mechanism itself. Amidst the ruins, Nicolaos also finds the remains of one of the golden constructs they had fought beneath Creuser, and withdraws from it an intact crystal core, that he believes might be a sufficient ingredient for a spell he is working on to restore his flesh and blood form.

Outside, Makaio turns into a giant ape and attempts to raise the lift into position and lower it safely onto the rails. The massive chunk of stone proves unwieldly, but thanks to some manipulation of time by Lionel, Makaio is able to adjust it properly and drop it onto the rails with only some minor damage to the stonework. He himself nearly slips into the ravine, at the edge of which the lift was precariously positioned, but manages to fly back up to land as a bird without too much trouble.

With the lift in position, they set about investigating the mechanism itself. Lionel's initial inspections determine that the structure was only at 8% capacity, and that they would likely need to give it more juice to get across the whole way. However, activating the mechanism seems simple enough. Using one of the cannisters they found in the ruins, they turn the lift on, and spend some time inspecting a control panel of some kind that is made of a multitude of small hexagonal bricks that can be pressed in and out like buttons.

They surmise that the panel required the unique physiology of one of the creatures that had constructed it, and use Yuli's crystalthorn wreath to mimic the behaviour. The skewers slot into holes at the base of the control panel, and Yuli becomes innately aware of the workings of the mechanism. Unfortunately, she also becomes acutely aware that they had unwittingly tripped a silent alarm, which in turn had activated a number of security constructs, which form from hidden panels on the lift itself and attempt to cleanse the "unknown lifeforms" of the group.

The constructs attack the group, attempting to destroy them, and a fight ensues atop the newly repaired platform. Though dangerous, the constructs prove erratic and incapable of the same level of tactics they'd observed them having elsewhere, and Yuli notes them to be internally damaged and reverting to base protocols. They fight off the constructs and destroy most of them, but manage to preserve and repair one of the small protective prisms and rebase its protocols to consider them allies.

After a brief rest, they finally activate the platform and begin the long haul across the ravine. Connected to the control panel and the system beyond it, Yuli begins to note the crystalthorn on her neck stirring and becoming more active, and also begins to hear vague echoes of conversation. The others, in the meantime, discuss once more what they would do at the heart of this place. Lionel asks Nicolaos questions about his distant past, and posits some hypotheses about divinity and the nature of the various sides embroiled in this conflict that they had become central to. He also comes to the decision that he wished to attempt to speak with the stranger in the garden, and uses Yuli's help to do so.

Here, he comes at last to the garden for the first time, and speaks face to face with the stranger therein, who for him holds the face of his older brother. The two discuss, and Lionel pushes to find out exactly what it was that the stranger wanted. Once again, the stranger insists that they had not lied, and indeed could not lie. All they wished was to lift the chains of perpetuity, and not have a world where immortal tyrants ruled without change. It explains that the nature of things was to change, and that if the cycle was stalled the ensuing existence was an abomination.

Lionel points out that the so called cycle of change that it described was still in many ways not change, but simply another form of perpetuity, and though the stranger disagrees, it also says that he was free to believe as he wished and make his own choices, just as it wanted all others to do. Lionel asks what it had promised the gods and primevals that were working with it, but the stranger explains it had only provided knowledge, and that the plots and plans others had made with that knowledge were not of its own doing. Lionel remains dissatisfied with this answer.

When he returns to the others and informs them of what he'd learned, they discuss that choosing either side was troublesome. Lionel puts forward the notion that ultimately the best option perhaps was to make their own side, to create a world that was free of either the perpetual cycle of tyrants, or the endless "heaven" without choice or free will. The others agree to some extent, though Nicolaos points out that they may not have a choice in the end.

At this point, Yuli brings up a mention of the echoes of conversation she had been hearing, and the others suggest she focus on them to discover their nature. When she does so, the crystalthorn flares up with agonising pain down her spine, answered by two lances of pain from each of her palms that run up her wrists and arms. The others see Yuli collapse and begin to writhe in pain, with dozens of crystalthorn skewers buzz around her in a frenzy.

"*You and I are not so different.*"
 ― ???

Yuli hears an unknown voice speak clearly to her, and sees the world as it was. She sees the great falls clear of fog, the splendour of crashing water miles wide, hitting massive turbines that send pulses of golden blue up a complex framework of crystal piping that spreads outward to distant places. She sees a rich, vibrant jungle full of life at the edges of the ravine, and she sees beyond it the spires of a great city rising into the sky, a civilisation at its zenith. And above it all, she hears the song: the hum of a billion voices singing as one, joyous, exultant, and alive. She feels a swell of pride that *she* had made them hidden, had made them safe.

"*Listen to your destiny, child. Save your people. Save your world. Do what I could not.*"
 ― ???

Then, another stab of pain, another convulsion, and for the briefest moment she hears the song turn into a scream, loud and piercing. She sees a flash of a world turn asunder, trees ripped away by the roots, giant chunks of rock cast into the sky, a shockwave towering thousands of feet high of blue fire scorching this world dry down to the very marrow. Then the pain fades, and she returns to consciousness. When she does so, she feels the crystalthorn settle deeper against her spine, almost embedded fully into the bone now.

The others question her on what had just happened, but have little time to talk further as the platform screeches to a halt against a break in the railing. The sound echoes down into the ravine, and is answered by an echoing call of something hidden far below in the fog. They quickly fall silent, and take measures to hide themselves, but the platform draws the attention of a monstrous creature with dozens of eyes in a strange mass of tentacles, that seem drawn to the arcane battery in the platform's mechanism

The creature doesn't seem to see them for a moment thanks to their precautions, but when it begins to rip out the casing of the battery to get to it, they are forced to take action. Makaio transforms into a beast in a burst of magic and draws its attention fully, then leaps off the platform to lead it away from the others.

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