The Mad Mirages (Part 1)

Arc poster by Milo Mars

**The Mad Mirages (Part 1)** is the fifth Tales of the Second Citadel episode of The Penumbra Podcast season 4, and the twelfth overall. It was released April 5, 2022.

## Overview

Led by Sir Tristan the Cold, Damien the Pious returns to the Citadel he once called home... and finds that "home" is not where he left it six years ago.

### Trigger Warnings

* Sudden loud noises
* Enclosed, claustrophobic spaces
* Violence and threats of violence
* Threats of warfare and genocide
* Religious persecution
* Starvation and torture
* Sexism and xenophobia
* Discussion of illness and death
* Deception by authority figures

## Episode Summary

Sir Tristan forces Damien to return to the Second Citadel with him. In his dungeon, Tristan has been imprisoning Otto of the Craftsman's Quarter, whom he claims is possessed by a demon, starving and torturing him. Damien verbally defends Otto and tries to help him when Tristan leaves. Sir Talfryn enters, to Damien's shock. They have a brief conversation about poetry, botany, and Damien's current predicament: he must slay monsters again, or watch his lovers exorcised by Sir Tristan. Damien asks Talfryn to advocate for him with Queen Mira, but Talfryn admits that neither the queen nor Sir Absolon thinks well of him right now. He's come to bring Otto, who used to be his neighbor, some food, but the only reason he's been set to patrolling the dungeons is that he's failed at every other assignment. Damien suggests instead that Talfryn seek out Tristan and stall his return, to buy Damien time.

Damien eavesdrops on Absolon meeting with Mira, waiting for an opportunity to slip in to speak with her. Talfryn runs up to him and breathlessly tries to warn him, but instead Tristan interrupts them; Damien doesn't have the window for privacy he thought, because Tristan's meeting with her next. He wants Damien to join him.

Tristan and Mira have a mutually frustrating conversation. He refuses to tell her details of the mission he has roped Damien into, and she refuses to let him override her authority. After teasing out some crumbs of his goal, supposedly a preemptive strike on an organized attack from one million monsters, she agrees to give written permission for them to borrow a little-understood Clockwork Pigeon from the Hall of Trophies. She dismisses Tristan to retrieve it so she can speak to Damien alone.

Mira tells Damien she hopes they will make a good team. She admires Tristan's ability, but wishes Damien to temper him. She asks outright whether Damien follows him of his own volition. She feels she owes Damien, and is willing to protect him. He implies he cannot believe that, and lies that he follows Tristan willingly. He asks her not to restore him to the ranks of her knights, as he is now motivated by the affairs of his own heart.

As they trek through the jungle, Tristan claims that he converses regularly with Saint Damien, and knows from him that Saint Damien has spoken to Damien too in the past. Damien has faith that his patron would not approve of Tristan, and declines to believe him. Tristan shrugs it off, and reveals that they have arrived at the edge of the Mirrored Plains, the borderlands of the Wayward East. Damien laughs hysterically. Nobody can cross the Plains without going insane, but Damien feels he would be insane not to agree, knowing the threat to Rilla and Lord Arum. Tristan chuckles, before praying grandiosely to Saint Damien for protection for the journey. A voice rises on the wind, commanding them to proceed and kill every monster they encounter.

## Cast

* Matthew Zahnzinger as Damien the Pious
* Joshua Ilon as Sir Tristan the Cold
* Jason Mellin as Sir Talfryn
* Kat Buckingham as Queen Mira
* Alexander Stravinski as Captain Absolon
* Uncredited as The Voice