All language subtitles for Candela.Obscura.S03E03.1080p.BEAC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-FFG_track3_[eng]

TALIESIN: Our radiant order
is bound to a sacred mission:

Reduce, contain,
and eliminate bleed.

For those that attempt to
harness its chaotic power,

great danger awaits.

When caught in the
crossfire of such phenomena,

one cannot be held to account

for the scars
they are burdened with.

Though, time is
a fleeting luxury

when a circle is
knowingly assembled

outside the parameters
of our belief.

A grim demise awaits those

who leverage the powers
of magickal bleed.

The Circle of Tide & Bone.

Assignment Number 39-26:
Candles in the Dark.

♪ (tense mysterious music) ♪

AABRIA: Lightkeeper Nokari
sits at the Council of Lightkeepers

for the Fairelands, distracted
by their strange dream

the previous evening.

A whale covered in pale,

vicious looking scars

that appear more
like claw marks

than the bites and gashes of
a marine predator's attack.

It dies suddenly, swimming
through the deep, dark water.

As it falls, scavengers
pick its flesh clean.

Until there's just a pristine,
gold skeleton sitting

at the bottom of an ocean.

Lost in rumination, it
is the expectant eyes

of the other Lightkeepers

that draws them
back to the present.

The regularity of
the early minutes

of these fairly consistent
meetings allows Nokari

to answer the unheard
prompt without

any lack of confidence
or misstep.

"The assignment has reached
a successful conclusion.

"The calls of the phenomenon
with the drowning

of the Periphery officers
in Groundswell

has been identified
and handled."

(Other Lightkeeper) "Handled?

"How?

"Handled like the Unabridged
was handled by your circle?"

(Nokari) "I trust this
circle's judgment

"and in the field, in
both of these instances--"

And Nokari is cut off.

"Perhaps then, it
is your judgment

"that we should be
discussing here, Nokari.

"The assembly of your circle
is deeply unorthodox,

"and several members, I
believe are a phenomena

"in and of themselves.

"How could you
expect them to--"

They continue to chatter
and bloviate.

Increasing in volume
and fervor,

driving towards their
pre-established conclusion.

Nokari's dream
suddenly makes sense.

They understand it.

They haven't had a dream
worth heeding in years.

Not since their time
in the field.

But even here, at the edge
of waking from this life,

Nokari remains a powerful
and talented medium.

They close their eyes,
shutting out the pontification

of their peers and
they open a third eye.

Milky white, with white
ducts and white lashes.

Sort of gently weeping
caustic tears

down the inside of
their sternum.

Burning deep trails into
the bone and cartilage there.

The eye, turned ever
inward, searches in hope

of one final communion.

It reaches out,
searching for phenomenon

in the area.

And it finds you.

Dr. Rajan.

Inside your chest, Raj,

you hear it speak
with the cadence,

though not the tone
of your Lightkeeper.

"They are coming.

"They do not understand
what you are,

"why you are.

"If they catch you,
Candela will hold you

"within the Fourth Pharos

"and study you until
they figure it out.

"Tell Dr. Roberts
I am sorry.

"I could not keep my word.

"Tell Cosmo
he must not fail.

"Go now!"

The communion is broken.

Raj, where did that find you?

NOSHIR: In our recovery,

I find myself
unable to sleep.

So I have pulled a chair
up outside of Elsie's room

where I wait.

As I listen to the message

and come to my feet,

vermin that had bordered
her doorway and her windows

slowly come back to me.

I have not allowed my
children to observe her

and I will keep her privacy,

but I will look
for the professor.

AABRIA: You move
down the hallway.

You find Cosmo
in his chambers.

NOSHIR: Professor.

LIAM: Dr. Savarimuthu.

NOSHIR: We have to leave.

The Lightkeeper has

delivered me a message.

Dr. Roberts is
in great danger.

He warns that he is not able
to keep his promise to us.

They are coming.

LIAM: All right.

Soon then.

NOSHIR: I think if we
had any time at all,

he wouldn't have reached
me this way.

It came at great cost.

LIAM: Yes.

All right.

Yes.

Well, I can be ready
to go promptly,

but we need to assemble
the others and go.

I will think of somewhere.
You do the same.

Let's get to it.

NOSHIR: The Madam
and your son.

Oscar.

They are at her place?

LIAM: Yes, yes.

NOSHIR: Then I will go
up and make sure

that Dr. Roberts is prepared.

LIAM: All right, I'll
meet you downstairs.

In the front shop.

30 minutes.

NOSHIR: I don't know
that we have 30 minutes.

LIAM: Let's make it five.

NOSHIR: I run back upstairs,

and give a light knock.

ASHLY: Elsie is

asleep, but it's light.

She's having a dream.

Of The Serious Man.

She's going through hallways
looking for something.

And doesn't wake up
at the knock.

NOSHIR: Little bird.

We have to go.

I knock again.

AABRIA: Raj, I need you
to take one brain.

You are affecting
a sense of calm,

but you know Nokari
reached out

with whatever they
had left in them

to get you this message.

You don't have
time for this.

She's in danger.

NOSHIR: I understand.

Patience.

Patience!

After a breath,
I try the knob.

AABRIA: Would you have
locked your door?

ASHLY: No.

AABRIA: It yields.

NOSHIR: I allow the
door to swing open.

My gaze never actually
entering the room.

Trying to give some
manner of decorum.

Elsie!

Elsie, I need you
to wake up.

We have to go.

ASHLY: Raj.

What's happening?

NOSHIR: Prepare your things.

Nokari.

It's a long story.

They are coming for us.

More importantly, they
are coming for you.

We cannot let you fall
into their hands.

ASHLY: It's Candela,
isn't it?

AABRIA: Take a token.
ASHLY: Mm-hmm.

SAM: Ooh!
GINA: Oh boy.

NOSHIR: So much for promises.

ASHLY: You can't
come with me.

If I go,
I have to go by myself.

You can't come with me.

NOSHIR: Little bird.

Where exactly do you
expect for me to go?

ASHLY: When I get up and
I start getting frazzled,

you see this fall out.

NOSHIR: You've kept it?

ASHLY: Look, Raj.

Just, um.

I will get ready.

I will meet you,
but go ahead of me.

They might not
know about you.

NOSHIR: Elsie.

It has become quite clear,

they will know more than
any of us would like to think.

I turn my back so
that she can do

whatever she must do.

That Oscar is an
interesting fellow.

ASHLY: Elsie is getting
ready as quickly as she can,

putting things on.

NOSHIR: Clearly, he has
earned your trust.

ASHLY: This is a weird time
to be bringing this up, Raj.

NOSHIR: I don't know that
we have much more time.

ASHLY: Yes, he has.
Why do you ask?

AABRIA: I've got to.

Take a token.

ASHLY: Fuck!
SAM: Oh!

GINA: Oh fuck, already?

AABRIA: How many
tokens is that?

ASHLY: That's all of them, friend.
AABRIA: Oh!

Question.

Do you feel like now is
an appropriate moment?

ASHLY: I think it
would take maybe

a little bit
more questioning.

AABRIA: Okay.

You've accrued six
tokens, the roll stands,

but if you take a bleed,
you can push for now.

Until the next time you
would take a token.

ASHLY: Okay, yeah, I'm going
to say that the questioning is

confusing.

Is this an inopportune
moment for jealousy?

Is this-- what is this?

So I think, because
I don't know exactly

where it's coming from yet,

I steady and I go:

I thought time was
of the essence, Raj.

Why are you asking me this?

NOSHIR: We are going
to be on our own.

We may have to leave the
others behind, if necessary.

ASHLY: What do you mean?

NOSHIR: I'm not
leaving you, Elsie.

So if you decide,
for whatever reason,

that you don't want
to put the rest

of the circle in danger,

I will stay with you.

I've failed you once.

And if there is
something that Oscar

has been willing to give you

that you feel
that I have not,

I will give you--

I will give you
everything I have.

You will never be alone
while I am here.

ASHLY: I need to go.

Elsie's going to
start heading out.

But then she stops and takes
your hand and squeezes it.

And then moves to the door.

LIAM: In the time that
they were discussing,

Cosmo closed the
door of his study,

rolled back over to the desk,

and takes a moment
to stare at

the painting of the
Straverford on the wall.

The ship that my father
almost drowned on

all those decades ago.

I rifle through my desk

and I pull out a
small, red flower.

A flower called
the Timely Iris.

Which was always
ironic to me because

my sister that I lost on
that ship was named Iris.

But these flowers come
from Trust's Clearing

in the Scarlet Wood.

Candela has been experimenting
with them to soak bleed.

They are poisonous,

but they soak bleed
and I have had

a dull ache in my bones
the last 24 hours.

One that I am familiar with.

So I crush the iris in my
wizened hand and swallow it.

Chew it and swallow it.

As a bleed soak.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: I will leave that up to
you if that gives me a body.

AABRIA: No.

I think, for what's to come,

I will allow this to be
an un-alloyed success.

LIAM: That gets me
down to one bleed.

And then, I wheel over
towards the door.

I look down at my dog,
who is grinning at me

like he always does,

scratch him under
the chin, knowing

it's likely the last time
I will see him.

AABRIA: He knows
nothing but infinite

and unbounded love for you.

He does his best
to hop into your lap.

LIAM: Oh, oh no.

Okay, okay, just a moment.

I give him a few scratches

as I think back on

all my decades working
for Candela.

All the good we did.

The mistakes.

But the good.

And I think of all I have
tried to do for my father

and so many nights
I thought I could walk

the tightrope
and end my life

pleasing everyone.

But life is
crueler than that,

and I prepare myself
to say goodbye

to the life I have
known for so long.

Then I kiss this dog
on his head

and place him back down
on the ground.

Take one final look
at all the oddities

and books.

All of the books.

Then I turn
and open the door,

and wheel out into the shop
and wait for the young folk.

AABRIA: Cosmo.

You feel it.

The building.

How long has it been
since you felt that real

rush of adrenaline?

You've been in the
field for decades.

You're not often
surprised anymore,

just weary,

a little forlornly hopeful.

Will this be the thing?

One last good deed.

Save your father.

Give him peace.
Give you peace.

You know

this is it.

If you fail,

he's lost.

If you can't find the source,

whatever happened to
him, made him this way,

whatever happened to Elsie,
made her this way.

Even Raj.

There's a knot at the center
of your understanding.

If you can't pick it apart
before Candela finds you,

then this,

all of this,

everything you've suffered

is for nothing.

LIAM: Let the final

die be cast.

AABRIA: You come
back to yourself

and you are joined
quite quickly

by Dr. Roberts--
LIAM: Oh.

AABRIA:-- and Raj.

LIAM: Children?
ASHLY: Cosmo.

LIAM: Are you
ready to go, Elsie?

ASHLY: I'm sorry,
this is my fault.

LIAM: Oh.

Fiddlesticks.

We can try to share
the blame on the way.

Let's go, please.

AABRIA: You cross town.

You head to the Glass Cat

to find Madam Glask
and Oscar.

What are you doing on an
average day in the casino?

Where will they find
you as they rush in?

GINA: Madam Glask
is currently sitting

on the floor of her bedroom.

Her skirt is surrounding her.

In front of her is sitting
that sweet girl, Mina.

AABRIA: Mina.

GINA: That she's taken in.

Mina's back is
faced towards her,

and Madam Glask is gently
tying a bow in her hair.

Now, you don't drag
your feet when you walk.

That's just lazy.

AABRIA: "Great."
GINA: Stand up straight.

AABRIA: "Okay. Okay."
GINA: Uh-huh.

AABRIA: "Right now?"
She tries to stand up,

but she's being
held by the hair.

(laughter)
GINA: No, there's a--

AABRIA: "Got it. In general."

GINA: In general.
When you speak to people,

you look them in the eye.

What is the number one
thing I've taught you?

You must always see
the money first.

SAM: (laughs)
AABRIA: "(laughs)

"Yeah, money."
GINA: Good. Yes?

GINA: "Yes.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it.

"Okay.

"Okay, what am I going to--

"Okay.

"Can you let go
of my head now?"

GINA: Oh, sorry.

GINA: "I'm not un-parented.
I get it.

"Thank you. Oh, oh,
that's your spit."

GINA: Just a little--
AABRIA: "Thank you so much."

GINA: There we go, sweetie.
(laughter)

AABRIA: "You don't
have to do that.

"I don't like that at all.

"Thank you so much."

ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: "(laughs awkwardly)"

GINA: Oh, and Mina,
one more thing.

AABRIA: "Mm?"
GINA: Madam Glask reaches--

AABRIA: "Am I
allowed to drink?"

GINA: Drink water?

AABRIA: "No, this is a bar."

GINA: No, child, you are--

AABRIA: "But I go here."
GINA: No, absolutely not.

We are not going down
that path anytime soon.

You don't want to
touch any of that.

AABRIA: "Okay."
ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Never.
AABRIA: Make a Sway roll.

(laughter)

GINA: Okay, two
and a gilded. Okay.

SAM: This is it. High stakes.
ASHLY: I know, Gina breaks out

her drive. (laughs)
AABRIA: Yeah.

These stakes are higher
than you think.

GINA and LIAM: (laugh)

GINA: Am I going to be
a good mother of the sea?

AABRIA: Establishing
dominance

with a 12 year old.
LIAM: Keep a child on the

straight and narrow.
ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Whoo! That is a six.

Success on a non-gilded.

AABRIA: Amazing.

You see her kind of--

You hit her with just enough

of the mom look
that she's like,

"(scoffs)

"Fine."

ASHLY: (laughs)
GINA: That's my girl.

But one more thing.
AABRIA: "Mm."

She reaches into

a pocket in her
overcoat here.

She brings out
a dainty necklace

with an impossibly sea
foam green stone pendant.

She puts it around
Mina's neck, says:

This is for you.

If you ever find
yourself afraid,

just touch the stone

and remember you're safe

and I'm here for you.

AABRIA: "Thank you.

"I appreciate that,
Madam Glask."

GINA: Or Mom.

SAM: (laughs)
ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Yes. Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: "Okay, that
feels pretty forward.

"My mom died days ago."
(laughter)

GINA: Oh, did I
say that out loud?

I'm so sorry. Oh, oh.
AABRIA: "Yeah, you did."

"You did, but it's okay.

"I do like you a lot.

"We'll get there. It's early."
GINA: Yeah.

ASHLY: (laughs)
NOSHIR: (laughs)

AABRIA: "I'm going to go."

SAM: I'm going to
knock on the door.

AABRIA: Yeah!
(laughter)

SAM: Madam Glask.
GINA: Oh!

Sorry, you said
to get you up.

Start the day.
GINA: Of course, Oscar.

SAM: Can I-- Are you decent?

GINA: Yes, absolutely.
Come in.

AABRIA: "I'm not, Cary."

SAM: Oh.

GINA: Oh, you're calling him--
ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: "He said
his name is Cary."

GINA: Oh, he told you
his name was-- Okay.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: "What?
Is it not Cary?"

GINA: Yeah-- It's--
ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Cary's fine.
SAM: So can I come in?

AABRIA: "What is your name?"
ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM: Can I come in there or--
AABRIA: "I'm more naked

"than before."
ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM: All right, I'll wait.

GINA and ASHLY: (laugh)

GINA: She zips up her dress.

I don't know how you dress.
AABRIA: "Oh, no, I'm clothed."

GINA: Oh.
AABRIA: "You're just

"fiddling with the zip--

"Yeah, you can come in."

SAM: All right. I just go in.
GINA: Oscar.

SAM: Come on in.
GINA: Come on in.

AABRIA: "Is it
Cary or Oscar?"

SAM: Oh, well, a lot of
people call me Cary.

GINA: (exasperated mumbling)

GINA: She's a child
and you're already lying.

AABRIA: "All right."

SAM: They're easy to lie to.

GINA: (laughs)

SAM: Hey, we got stuff to do.

I know you like your
beauty sleep, but--

GINA: That's fine. How are
the numbers at the door?

SAM: Last night was good.

GINA: Mm.
SAM: You know.

SAM: Pretty good.

It was a little lower than
normal because of the curfew,

but folks find a way
to get out anyway.

GINA: Occupation percentage
in the rooms?

SAM: 69, like always.

ASHLY: (laughs) Goddamn it.
SAM: Just kidding.

ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM: Just kidding.
AABRIA: Mina moves over--

(laughter)

AABRIA: She doesn't
get the joke,

so she didn't really
know that was a moment,

but you see her move
over to the window

and she's just looking out.

Go ahead. Keep going.
GINA: Oscar, look.

SAM: Oh, sorry.

Sorry. I lost some
money last night.

He holds up the
paper and points.

The Nightingales
beat the Bolts.

In 11 innings, too.

So I lost a bunch.
GINA: That is unfortunate.

Yes, I know you've
put a lot of--

ASHLY: You're killing Aabria.
Look at her. (laughs)

You're killing her.
SAM: I lost a few pieces.

GINA: Yes, yes.
SAM: Anyway.

Well, we should get going.
GINA: Yes, absolutely.

AABRIA: "You guys are Candela, yeah?"
GINA: Thank you, Oscar.

SAM: Well, I don't
think people

are supposed to
know that, but yeah.

AABRIA: "There's more coming?"
GINA: Huh?

SAM: More?
AABRIA: "Are they supposed to be coming?"

GINA: There's more coming.

AABRIA: "Mm-hmm, they're outside."
GINA: Outside?

SAM: Oh. Oh, shit.

GINA: Madam Glask runs over
to the window and looks down.

AABRIA: You look down,
and you see assembled,

pouring out of cars,

wearing fine suits

of light wool

with that tiny little
diamond on their lapels.

They file out.

Six of them--
LIAM: Oh no.

AABRIA:-- and begin reaching

back into the vehicles,

passing something
between themselves.

GINA: Oscar?
SAM: Yeah?

GINA: Did we have
any reservations

for a party of six?

SAM: No. Certainly
not this early.

GINA: Oscar--
SAM: Are these your people?

GINA: No, no. I was not
informed of any of this.

Why are they here?
AABRIA: You see a flame

pulled out.

SAM: A what?
AABRIA: As they begin--

A flame pulled
out as they begin

lighting something glass.

Begin throwing them--

SAM: Oh, shit!

AABRIA:-- at the building.
GINA: Oscar!

LIAM: Oh boy.

GINA: I immediately grab Mina.
SAM: Oh shit.

GINA: Oscar!
ASHLY: Oh no.

GINA: Madam Glask runs
over to her vanity table

and reaches under the
table and hits a button.

SAM: Of course.

SAM and AABRIA: (laugh)
SAM: Of course.

GINA: Then immediately
runs in her best girls,

Samantha, Liamel,
Noshira, and Ashlyn.

ASHLY: Aw.

SAM and LIAM: (laugh)
ASHLY: (laugh)

AABRIA: Okay.
LIAM: Delayed reaction.

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Of course,
her main bartender--

AABRIA: They will
eventually file in.

GINA: Girls--
AABRIA: You press a button?

GINA: Yes.
AABRIA: I will say,

in the intervening
two minutes it takes

for your best girls
to reappear from wherever

they may have been
sleeping for the night,

the outside edifice of
the Glass Cat is on fire.

SAM: Above board here.

Are there any--

This is your place.

Are there any
secret passages--

(laughter)
SAM:-- or quick escape places

in this place that
I would know of?

GINA: Yes, absolutely.

As security protocol, when
I hit that button, there is

a sequence of things
that you all know to do.

The main girls and you, as
head of security, know to do.

There is a passage
behind the bar,

behind the liquor
case at the bar.

SAM: Okay.

AABRIA: You hear glass
shattering downstairs.

SAM: Oh shit.
GINA: Okay.

The girls are assembled?

AABRIA: They are making
their way down.

You hit a button.
GINA: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: But without any
sense of what's going on,

they'll make their way at a--

SAM: We're upstairs or
are we on the ground?

AABRIA: Yeah.
GINA and SAM: We're upstairs.

SAM: All right, well maybe
we can't go down there then.

GINA: Yeah.
AABRIA: You hear the screams

of a couple patrons.

SAM: We got to
get out of here.

GINA: Okay.
SAM: Out the back window.

GINA: Yes.

SAM: Go.
GINA: Okay.

SAM: Just go.

I'll go back there and
see if the back window--

I'll look out the back
window, see if there's anyone

in the back of the building.

AABRIA: Doing this sort
of dual glance,

Mina's screaming and running
around, by the way,

you look out the front
and you see that these six

Candela members are
spreading out,

but they're not to the
back of the building yet.

SAM: Okay.
AABRIA: So you see the back window.

It's clear.

It's a set of fire
escape ladders

that will let you down
into the back alley

so you can move
into the streets.

SAM: Okay, I'll
open up the window

and get the girls out first.

AABRIA: Yeah. As you're
opening it up,

they're running down

and filing down,
they smack into you.

"What's going on?"

SAM: Just go,
just go, just go.

Get out of here.
GINA: Girls, you know what to do.

All right?
AABRIA: "What's happening? What?"

GINA: We've practiced this.
Out the window.

AABRIA: "Oh, okay."
GINA: Mina, come.

I grab Mina.

I let the girls go first and
then I follow along with Mina.

AABRIA: Yeah. Mina's
like, "Put me down.

"I can get out."

GINA: I forgot how tall she is.
AABRIA: "Yeah, I'm a whole--

"Yeah."
GINA: Mina, now's not the time!

Go, just go!
AABRIA: "Okay! Ah!"

She scrambles out

and starts making
her way down.

Do you follow?

SAM: I'm going
to quickly go back

and if I can sort of
peer down the stairs

to the bottom floor to
see if anyone's down there,

if anyone's broken
through the front door

or if they're all
just on the exterior.

AABRIA: There are two
figures in the front

moving not through
the front door,

but through the
windows as they clear,

as the front door is
now patrons milling out

and they're climbing
through the broken glass

and moving against
the salmon current

of patrons even here
early in the morning

that are making
their way out.

SAM: Shit.

They haven't spotted
me yet or anything?

AABRIA: Not yet.

SAM: Is there one--

How on fire is this place?

AABRIA: Not bad yet,

beginning to get
a little worse.

You can see that
the very edges

of upholstery are
starting to catch

and you know the
moment it hits

the central part
of the carpet,

where alcohol's
spilled constantly

or if it gets over
to the wood bar

that's either
covered in alcohol

or so well polished
that the fumes

of the cleaning agents
will ignite it.

You guess that you
probably have a minute.

SAM: I want to know
who these fuckers are

and why are they here.

So knowing that she's safe--?

AABRIA: You know that
she's scooting. Yeah.

You're peering out
over the banister.

SAM: I'm going to try to jump
down on one of these guys.

LIAM: Mm!
AABRIA: Oh, amazing.

SAM: They're fucking
with my place.

AABRIA: They are fucking
with your place.

SAM: I'm sorry.
It's your place, Madam.

GINA: Oh no, it's fine.
It's your home, too.

AABRIA: Go ahead and
give me a Strike roll.

SAM: Okay, Strike roll.
Let's see here.

Behind me, nope.
Basic Training, nope.

Okay, cool.

I will burn a drive.

LIAM: Now up to
bat, Cary Grimm.

SAM: Yeah, I'll take out
my chain and sort of--

Actually, I won't have
time to use the chain.

I'm going to jump
off the stairs

and try to elbow one in
the back of the skull.

AABRIA: All right, you've
got a beautiful option here.

You've got sort of
right dude and left dude.

Left dude seems
sort of tall, gangly,

a little hunched,
being uncomfortable

with their physicality.

The other dude,
the dude on the right

feels brawny and burly

and sure of himself
and his form.

He is thick and confident.

SAM: Well, I'm going
to go for him first.

AABRIA: Yeah.
(laughter)

SAM: Let's see what we got!

Five.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: Okay.

You're going to take
one point of body,

as you drop down a floor
onto this person.

And--

Yeah, is the goal to
sort of surprise tackle?

SAM: I want to knock
one out and hopefully

capture and quickly
question the other.

AABRIA: Yeah.
SAM: If possible.

AABRIA: You land. You both
land in a heap and a crumple,

a couple patrons
moving around.

You get sort of swept up, but
they continue on all fours,

scrabbling away and the
other person's going to turn

and wheel on you as they
see their person drop.

They go, "Bran!"

SAM: Bran.
The initial instinct--

SAM: That's a nice name.
AABRIA:-- was to reach out

and then they begin
to reach back

into their overcoat
and reach for a weapon.

SAM: As he reaches--

Is the guy
I have just conked,

is he out-ish, we think?

AABRIA: You can't quite tell.

SAM: Well, I'm on him.
AABRIA: If you give yourself--

Yeah.

He's face down.

SAM: He's less of a threat.
So I will pull out the chain.

AABRIA: Yeah.
SAM: And

before he can reach
for whatever he's got,

I will try to swipe it across

and connect with his face.

AABRIA: So standing up
to connect with the face?

SAM: Yes, please.
AABRIA: Or staying low to just--

SAM: No, I'll stand--
AABRIA:-- connect as quickly

as possible?
SAM: And lunge

and swipe.
AABRIA: Okay.

Give me a Stri--

Or no, no.
This would be Control.

Because this is your weapon?

SAM: This is my weapon and
I'll use my Hard Hitter feet.

AABRIA: Yeah.
SAM: Or whatever it's called.

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SAM: Oh, this is Control.
Okay.

GINA: Okay, but
are you planning on

interrogating,
asking questions here?

Or are we going to kidnap him?
AABRIA: You know what's really cool?

You're not there
to talk about it.

(laughter)

AABRIA: You're running away!

GINA: Oh, okay.
AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: I got three fives.

NOSHIR: God dang!
ASHLY: Wow!

AABRIA: Three fives?
SAM: Yeah.

ASHLY: Pretty good.

AABRIA: That's pretty good.

LIAM: Grand bam.

AABRIA: You stand up

and swing out

and you connect,
wrapping this chain

around the upper chest
of the gangly man

that didn't have
the reaction time

to get his weapon
out in time.

You catch him up

and as you pull him
towards you

and knock him off your feet--

Yeah.

Bran, the guy below you,

who is not unconscious

is going to grab and
lunge for your leg

and is going to
pull you back.

One more body.

SAM: Oh boy.

Oh boy. This is not good!
AABRIA: As you drop to a knee

and Bran, this dude that--

Now that you've interacted
with his physicality,

underneath the sweater
and the collared shirt,

it's just thick muscle.

He reminds you

of the soldiers when they've

freshly returned
from the war.

Bran's built different,

and he's not
out of this fight yet.

But you've knocked
the other man

down to his knees.

So you're doing a good job
sort of managing this fight.

But it's becoming apparent

that unless you can get one
of them fully knocked out,

they're going to
eventually overwhelm you

because it's two on one.

GINA: Can I help?

Because I maneuvered the girls
out, but I haven't left.

AABRIA: How do you
want to help?

You maneuver the girls
out, you ushered Mina out,

you're upstairs
looking down at this.

What do you want to do?

GINA: Okay, I trust--
Madam Glask,

trusts that the girls,
take Mina, take, just go,

and I am watching
this go down

and Madam Glask is pissed.

Everything that I've
ever worked for,

this is how they ruin me.

Everything that I have.

I would like to use my
powers to help him.

SAM: Powers?

AABRIA: What do you want to do?
SAM: As in persuasion?

(laughter)

AABRIA: Roll Sway
from the top.

GINA: Hey, stop that.
AABRIA: Just pop a titty out.

GINA: Please.

(laughter)

AABRIA: You are far
away from this

and your Prestige is a trick
that works better up close.

Do you want to try something
with a higher degree

of difficulty, or do you
want to enter the fray?

GINA: I'm going to
enter the fray.

Madam Glask, you know what,

she rips her dress to make
more space to run down

and she runs down
to help Oscar.

AABRIA: Okay, you push through
the crowd of people leaving.

What do you attempt to do?

GINA: She looks at Bran?

AABRIA: Bran is the soldier.
GINA: Yes.

Yes, I would like to
use my Prestige.

You want me to--

AABRIA: Give me a--
break me off a piece

of what you're
attempting to do.

GINA: Okay, I want to control

the moisture in the air and

build a cloud of incredibly
hot steam on his face.

AABRIA: Oh.

Okay.

Okay, give me a Sense roll.

GINA: Okay, I'm going
to use a drive.

AABRIA: Probably a good call.

I will set your expectations
here. This is a fight,

and the moment you
move into range,

you see Oscar doing his
best to hold his own

against two
Candela operatives,

and when you make
eye contact with Bran,

you are not looking
at a little suited man

that sits and does
research all day.

You decided to lock eyes
with the one that's a killer,

so you better not miss.

SAM: What are you rolling?

GINA: Sense, intuition.

SAM: Ah, can I give
her a drive by trying

to distract him
in this moment?

AABRIA: Sure, but that
will have repercussions

for your portion
of the fight.

SAM: Well then, fuck.
(laughter)

GINA: You're a wonderful
security guard.

This is the reason why I
hired you, thank you so much.

AABRIA: What do you care
about more in this moment?

Protecting Glask, who
has come here to help you,

or winning this fight?

SAM: Winning this fight.
NOSHIR: Are we riding on

Cosmo's chair? What the fuck?

Where are we?
(laughter)

I want to kick ass!
AABRIA: Things are happening

simultaneously!

LIAM: It's just another
seven blocks, then a left.

AABRIA: You are in a car
and Candela made a call

about where to go find you.

NOSHIR: Oh.

LIAM: Here comes another
curb, slow, slow, slow.

(laughter)

AABRIA: There's just
a lot of traffic.

GINA: Did you want to?
ASHLY: If you could--

AABRIA: So, what are
you going to do?

If you focus on the
fight in front of you,

you will leave Glask
to her own devices.

SAM: I mean, she's
pretty badass, so.

GINA: I hope so.
SAM: You go.

GINA: Okay.

Oh god, please.
SAM: Glask.

ASHLY: Come on, baby.

GINA: Two twos.

I roll two twos.

AABRIA: High is a two?
GINA: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: You raise your hand.

You're trying to pull moisture
in the air, but the room,

even the light burning
of it, it's distracting.

It's already a little
too dry in here.

The pressure is so much.

You are looking in
the eyes of a man

who has decided immediately
that he will harm you.

Your hand is up, he grabs,
disengaging from Oscar,

grabs you by the
wrist and he twists.

GINA: (yells)

AABRIA: You feel the pearls
around your wrist crack,

and then you realize what you
heard was not the bracelet,

but your radius and ulna
snapping in his hands.

GINA: No! No!

AABRIA: Take two points
of body.

SAM: Oh shit!

ASHLY: Okay.
SAM: It's on.

NOSHIR: This dude's
a monster.

ASHLY: How far along are we?
(laughter)

NOSHIR: Seriously, seriously.

AABRIA: All right, you
guys can be here now.

ASHLY: No, no, I
met in the session.

There's just a lot of time.

LIAM: No, thanks.

(laughter)

AABRIA: No.

Y'all want to teleport,
come get some.

SAM: I see him do that
to my boss and my friend.

I'm going to
grab whatever I can,

if there's a whiskey
bottle nearby--

AABRIA: Yeah.
SAM:-- and go to fucking town

on the back of his head.

AABRIA: Yeah, go for it.

SAM: Is this Strike,
Control, Strike?

AABRIA: So to give you
a little more play here,

you've got your chain
in your dominant hand

still caught up on
the gangly man.

SAM: Yeah.

AABRIA: You reach down
on the ground to find--

it's probably not
a whiskey bottle,

it's probably an
empty beer bottle

to clock Bran, the soldier.

Go ahead and make a roll,
an attack roll for me.

Let's call it--
SAM: Going to burn a drive.

AABRIA: Do you want
it to be drive

or do you want
it to be Strike?

SAM: I'm sorry, wait,
Strike or Control?

AABRIA: Oh, that's what
I meant, sorry.

SAM: Strike.
AABRIA: Okay.

SAM: Please.
LIAM: Let's go, Oscar.

SAM: Five.

AABRIA: Mixed success.

You are holding him at bay.

You grab this bottle and you
swing it across Brand's face.

You make contact, the
bottle shatters, cutting him,

and you feel blood splatter
across your face.

But you're so
divided and distracted

and now you have someone
else in the fight, too,

and she's losing.

You lose a little bit of
track with what you're doing.

You hit Bran, he
falls away back.

He pulls Glask with him.

He has too strong
a grip on her.

He takes the damage,

but Tolliver gets
enough time behind him.

He gets pulled
forward with you,

but reaches in and pulls out a
revolver and points it at you

and then looks at Glask

and pulls the trigger on you.

In this moment,

he is point blank range,

but he is aiming
for your body.

He seems not that
confident with his shot

and he's still off-kilter.

I need you to
make a Move roll

to try to dodge
the worst of this.

GINA: Can I help him?

AABRIA: Only a critical success
will allow this to somehow miss.

SAM: Well, then, I
will use a drive.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: I'm gripping my pencil
so fucking tight right now.

(laughter)

GINA: Am I allowed
to help him?

AABRIA: If you help him,
which you absolutely can do,

you will put yourself
at a disadvantage.

GINA: Disadvantage.

AABRIA: Do you help?

He's about to roll. You
got to make your choice.

GINA: Let me-- wait,
what are you rolling?

SAM: Move.
LIAM: Trying to dodge a gunshot.

GINA: I have to give
you a fucking--

no, I think you're going
to have to take that.

SAM: Six.

ASHLY: Oh!
LIAM: Ooh!

GINA: I've believed in you
this whole time, that's why.

NOSHIR: What the hell?

(laughter)

NOSHIR: He is a badass.
ASHLY: Whoa!

GINA: Can I have my dice back?
(laughter)

We traded just before
this and I want it back.

AABRIA: Full success.

ASHLY: Holy shit.
LIAM: Oh my goodness.

AABRIA: Question, did I
say it had to be a crit

or a full success to avoid?

SAM: You said a full success.

AABRIA: All right.

I'll hold myself to that.

You are able to,
he pulls the gun out,

he's aimed at the
center of your chest

and yet you can see this,

he's so young looking and--

SAM: And my chain's
still around him.

AABRIA: And your chain's
still around him.

He's off-kilter.

He doesn't have
that dog in him.

You've killed a man.

You feel in Bran that
death is nothing new to him.

This boy, shaky of
breath, doesn't quite have it

and you're able to get
him enough off-center

that it passes through
the side of your cloak

and scatters harmlessly
into the ground behind you.

Glask, you're grappled.

Your wrist is broken.

What do you want to do?

GINA: I have to
get out of here.

Okay.

I am going to try
to distract them.

I want to use my,

my flash powder.

AABRIA: Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

Give me--

I'm going to call
this misdirection,

so give me a Hide roll.

GINA: Woo, okay.

One, two.

AABRIA: As you pull
out your flash powder.

I'll say because you're
using one of your few items,

the stakes for
this are pretty low.

GINA: Okay.

That's two and a gilded.

Oh jesus, five on the
non-gilded, mixed success.

AABRIA: Okay.

What does it look like
when you use your powder?

GINA: He's still
holding onto my wrist?

AABRIA: Yeah, describe
what the physical effect is

and I'll describe how
you disentangle yourself.

GINA: She pops the pearl
off of her earring--

ASHLY: Sick.

GINA:-- and flicks it onto
the ground and a flash

of bright, blinding light
explodes from the pearl.

AABRIA: It's enough that
between the missed gunshot

and whatever this is,

Bran is off his game

and he lets you go,

but it is a mixed success.

You have to wrench
your broken wrist

out of a soldier's grip.

Take one more body.
You are free.

GINA: Ah, okay.
SAM: Go, go, go, go, go.

GINA: While doing
that, okay, she--

AABRIA: Oh, I'm sorry,
y'all talked a lot of shit

before we started.
(laughter)

ASHLY: No, no, no.
NOSHIR: No, no!

We love you.
ASHLY: You're great.

AABRIA: Too late for that now.

(laughter)

AABRIA: You're free, continue.

(laughter)

GINA: Oh god.

In the bright flash of light,
she slightly digs her nails

into his skin so he
lets go and she yanks.

(pained yell)

Just takes off.

AABRIA: Are you booking it?

GINA: Yes, yes.
(laughter)

AABRIA: So question,
in this moment,

are you running past
these two

and running out
the front door,

or are you running
to where your girls and Mina

were fleeing out
the back door?

GINA: I'm running
towards the back.

AABRIA: Okay.

Give me,
I just want one more--

Give me a Focus roll

as you get up and
book towards the back.

GINA: (laughs) Oh no

I'm so bad at this.

LIAM: Let's go.

(gasping)

GINA: That's a success.

NOSHIR: Yes!
AABRIA: Beautiful.

GINA: Yes!

AABRIA: You get up and
you start running.

That's where your girls are,
that's where your girl is.

Then you remember a
bit of what was happening,

what Oscar was
seeing and reporting.

Two came through the front,
but six were on their way.

Best you understand is if
there aren't four more people

coming through the front,
they're headed for the back.

You can go that way if you
want, but you do understand

that you're running towards
more Candela operatives.

GINA: Are they coming
from the front to the back,

or do they surround?

AABRIA: They're going
around the building

to get to that back alley.

GINA: Okay, four more back.

AABRIA: Do you continue
towards the back?

Just yes or no.

GINA: Yes, I do.

AABRIA: You sprint towards
the back towards your girls.

You know what may be
waiting for you back there,

but you hope that
even with all of this,

you are still faster
than they are getting there,

because at this time,

that our Antiquarian
contingent arrives

in front of a brick
facade beginning to burn.

ASHLY: I feel like I
would beast up immediately.

NOSHIR: Oh good.
(laughter)

GINA: Hooray.
ASHLY: I don't mean

to fuck everyone up, but like--
AABRIA: It's not even--

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SAM: The car explodes.

(laughter)

ASHLY: Well, I think we
see-- it's rounding the corner

and I see flames?
AABRIA: 100%.

ASHLY: I think I'm
starting to hyperventilate

in the back of the car.

AABRIA: Yep, I think this is
a high enough stress situation

that I wouldn't say
that this is you choosing

to summon your beast.

ASHLY: I could try, maybe.

Can I try to see if I can get
out of the car before I start?

I don't think I'm
going to control it.

I want to see
if I can like--

AABRIA: I just want you
to make the beast roll

and then we decide
what happens as we go.

ASHLY: Well, you guys
are seeing this happen,

so hold onto your butts.

LIAM: I'm in the back
seat, what's going on?

ASHLY: Six.

AABRIA: Six dice.

ASHLY: Fuck me.
LIAM: So easy.

AABRIA: And just as
a little reminder--

SAM: One of them are
supposed to be what?

AABRIA: Huh?
SAM: What happens?

LIAM: I think every one
is a death she has to achieve.

AABRIA: Correct, any
ones means she rampages.

ASHLY: I have to do,
how would you phrase it?

A significant amount of
violence or something?

AABRIA: A significant, a tasty
little amount of violence,

but it depends on how
many ones you roll, if any.

You might not.

ASHLY: I rolled one one.
SAM: Hey!

ASHLY: And two sixes.

That doesn't matter, does it?
AABRIA: That doesn't matter.

ASHLY: Great, great.
(laughter)

ASHLY: Great, that's fine.
NOSHIR: Just in case.

ASHLY: No, that's fine,
it's fine.

AABRIA: I'm going to offer
you something in this moment

because of course
you would rampage.

Of course this is a lot

and you held on as
long as you could

through the
strange conversations,

through everything you've
seen, and now it's on fire

and you know that
your friends are inside.

You know that Oscar
and Madam Glask

and that girl are inside.

Of course you rampage.

I'll leave you one
chance to control it.

The rules for this
have accelerated.

You took in that
little bit of the Maw.

So the rules are thus.

You're going to
make a Sense roll.

ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: It will take
a critical success.

ASHLY: Remind me
what that is.

AABRIA: Critical success
is multiple sixes.

ASHLY: Multiple sixes, okay.
SAM: Oh shit.

AABRIA: Multiple sixes allow
you to be entirely in control

of what you're doing.
ASHLY: Fuck. Okay.

AABRIA: A full success, and

I will ask that you be
a little more indiscriminate

in your violence.
ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: A mixed success or
a failure at this point

and I'll choose
your targets for you.

ASHLY: Fuck, fuck.
(laughter)

GINA: Oh shit!

SAM: But she'll probably
choose nice things.

AABRIA: Probably.
GINA: Definitely not us.

AABRIA: Probably.
LIAM: How many dice in this roll?

One?
SAM: Can you do it

on drives or anything?
GINA: What are you rolling?

LIAM: How do you get
a critical if you have--

SAM: You can't.

ASHLY: So I have a lot
of drives I could use.

I'm guessing the stakes
are pretty high.

AABRIA: Pretty high.

ASHLY: I am going to burn

all of my drives.

AABRIA: So here's the thing:
we're an hour in.

You sure?
ASHLY: Fucking cock.

You guys are with me.

You see me hyperventilating.

Does anyone want to help?
GINA: Which roll are you doing?

NOSHIR: What's the?
ASHLY: Intuition.

GINA: Intuition.
AABRIA: You see

Elsie begins to
double over and rock.

LIAM: Who's where in the car?

Who's driving?

AABRIA: You have a driver.
NOSHIR: No, I'm just kidding.

AABRIA: Cosmo appears
in the fucking car.

LIAM: Ah!
(laughter)

AABRIA: I'll let you tell me

what is your arrangement
in the car.

Who's sitting where?

LIAM: I'm in the back seat.

SAM: It's the monster.

LIAM: Oh, dear.

ASHLY: Maybe
I would be driving.

AABRIA: You think
you're driving?

ASHLY: Well, do you drive?

AABRIA: No, I love that.

NOSHIR: Who do I look like?

ASHLY: (laughs)
That's what I mean.

AABRIA: So you're both in
the back and you're--

NOSHIR: I've got no depth
perception to save my life.

SAM: Is it a motorcycle
and two sidecars?

(laughter)

NOSHIR: We just cut
one loose. Shoom!

ASHLY: Someone
draw that, please.

GINA: It's adorable.

LIAM: No, it makes sense
that you'd be driving, yes.

ASHLY: Fuck me, fuck.

NOSHIR: I have to be in the back
because I need to be the one

to help get the
professor out and in.

AABRIA: You see, she begins
to double over the wheel.

ASHLY: Raj.
AABRIA: Hyperventilating.

ASHLY: It's happening.

AABRIA: She grimaces and her,

the muscles in her mouth
pull too far back.

Too much mouth,

too many teeth.

[growling]

NOSHIR: Glorious.
ASHLY: Fuck.

All right.
(laughter)

GINA: It's not the time!

Time and place, mister!

SAM: What the fuck?
ASHLY: Am I making

this roll by myself?

GINA: That's a weird kink.

AABRIA: Don't kink shame.
GINA: Oh, no, I'm not.

AABRIA: This is the
monster fucker season!

GINA: I am--
ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: I will yuck no yums.

LIAM: I want to help by
using Speak Their Language.

AABRIA: Okay.
LIAM: And she will hear

my voice in her mind,
and I will lend two,

no, I can only do one.
AABRIA: You can only lend one.

LIAM: I will lend
a drive from Sense

as I speak into your
mind and try to--

Hold on to yourself, Elsie.

Hold on, child.

Hold on.

AABRIA: I'll just tell you,

if you fail, you're
going to roll the car.

ASHLY: Okay.

I'm going to burn--

You gave me one?

LIAM: Yeah.
ASHLY: So there's one.

Okay, I'm going to
burn three drive.

SAM: Oh!
AABRIA: Okay.

ASHLY: Fuck me. Fuck.
Fuck, I'm so nervous.

AABRIA: It's okay!
If you fail,

you both get a drive back.

ASHLY: You'll kill the
person I love, great.

That's fine.
LIAM: But you can

no longer drive.
(laughter)

ASHLY: I had too
much caffeine today,

I am like (vibrating).
SAM: All sixes.

GINA: Oh my.
SAM: All sixes.

Five sixes.
ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Praying to the sea gods.
ASHLY: I'm speaking to myself.

GINA: Praying to the sea gods.
ASHLY: I'm hearing Cosmo's voice.

Calm down.
SAM: Nope.

ASHLY: Remember
who's in the car.

Remember who's in the car.

I fail.

SAM: What?

AABRIA: Beautiful.

SAM: Wait, is there a
resistance or something?

ASHLY: There is a resistance.
AABRIA: Do you want

to use your Resistance?
ASHLY: Yes.

But I don't get
to spend the drive?

SAM: No.
AABRIA: No.

ASHLY: Then it's
just one fucking die.

SAM: Oh god.
AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: Fuck it, all right.
GINA: (groans)

ASHLY: Episode three,
baby, woo!

NOSHIR: (laughs)

ASHLY: Fuck.
GINA: Oh my god.

ASHLY: (groans)

Fail.
SAM: Oh!

What?!

GINA: Valiant effort,
valiant effort.

SAM: Burch!

(laughter)

AABRIA: You try to hold on.

You're driving and two of
the people you care most about

in this world are behind
you and they trust you.

But the beast will
not be stopped.

You double over the wheel,

and involuntarily,
this isn't the choice,

this is just the rictus
of transformation.

You pull the wheel,
you roll the vehicle.

It goes side-over-side,
coming around a corner,

slamming into a building as
you see the fiery Glass Cat

in front of you.

You will emerge
from this fine.

NOSHIR: Oh good.

AABRIA: Yeah.

But I need the two of
you to make Move rolls.

GINA: Oh my god.

ASHLY: I'm beastie when I come
out, I'm guessing, right?

AABRIA: Mm-hmm!
ASHLY: Okay.

LIAM: So with
nothing in Move--

ASHLY: Fuck.
LIAM: That's roll

at disadvantage, correct?
AABRIA: Yes.

GINA: He's like 1,000.

AABRIA: He's a billion
years old.

GINA: I know, he's the oldest
thing in Newfaire right now.

AABRIA: 100%.
GINA: Oh my god.

AABRIA: And there's
Oldfaire in Newfaire.

He's still got that
number one slot.

LIAM: I think of my mother.

No.

AABRIA: Failure.

NOSHIR: Mixed success.

AABRIA: Okay.

The car slams into the curb,

rolls, smacks into the wall.

Massive bang, wreckage.

Emerging from it, peeling as
though it were tissue paper,

the beast that
is Elsie emerges

unharmed behind it.

I'm going to give
you two body.

You're able to squeeze your
way through, make it out,

follow the safe path.
But safe for how long?

She is rampaging.

You will immediately
take a scar.

ASHLY: Fuck.

AABRIA: The beast is loose.

You have an objective of one.

What do the two of you want
to do as you emerge

to the sight in front of you
from the sight around you?

ASHLY: I don't think
I get to choose.

I think you do, right?

Because I failed.
AABRIA: Yeah.

Yeah.

We'll see what you want,
and then we'll see--

Well, you know what?

It would be so cruel
of me to take over here.

What do you think
I want you to do?

ASHLY: I think you want
to attack him. (laughs)

GINA: (groaning) Oh!

AABRIA: I think that's
a great idea.

ASHLY: But I'm wondering if,

and not just so
I don't attack Raj,

if the flames
would draw me more,

if the chaos and the
disorder of what's happening

in the building would
draw the beast more.

LIAM: I like that pitch.
NOSHIR: (laughs)

AABRIA: That's a
solid pitch, Burch.

ASHLY: Ashly likes that
pitch. (laughs)

AABRIA: That's a
solid pitch, Burch.

GINA: Yep.
AABRIA: What do you do

as you emerge?

Because that will
put a little thumb

on the scale for
what happens next.

NOSHIR: I'm looking
to try to see where

the professor
landed, because--

AABRIA: He's still
trapped in the car.

NOSHIR: Then I go
back into the car.

AABRIA: So you turn your back

on the beast to
search for Cosmo.

NOSHIR: I do.

AABRIA: I love it when
their back's turned.

ASHLY: Can I see him?

AABRIA: Of course you can.
ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: You can smell him.
ASHLY: Fair.

AABRIA: The blood of him.

Easy meat.

I want you to give me a roll.

ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: We're going to
call it a Focus roll.

ASHLY: Love that.

AABRIA: Yeah?

Full success and you
can go for the fire.

ASHLY: All right.

AABRIA: Failure, you're going
to attack both of them.

ASHLY: Mother fucker.

AABRIA: Mixed success,
you pick one.

I'll let you pick.
GINA: She's so mean.

She's so mean.
SAM: She's awful.

GINA: I'm scared of her.
ASHLY: I'm burning the rest

of my drives.

AABRIA: I hope you
took your drive back

from Forged in Fire
after your other one.

ASHLY: I didn't, actually.

AABRIA: You, too.
GINA: That was nice of her.

SAM: She's a good one.
GINA: She's a good person,

I like her.
AABRIA: Thanks.

I'll come back to
you in a second.

Don't worry,
I haven't forgotten.

ASHLY: These are such
big dice pools.

These are such
big dice pools.

AABRIA: You're doing great.

ASHLY: They're such big
dice pools, you know?

You would think,
you would think,

at least one baby six.

AABRIA: Just one.
ASHLY: (exhales)

SAM: (laughs) What are
you doing over there?

(laughter)

ASHLY: I've got mixed
successes, that's it.

SAM: Oh okay.
AABRIA: A mixed success.

GINA: It's something,
it's something.

ASHLY: So I pick one.

AABRIA: Yes.

You pick.

You get to pick.

ASHLY: Son of
a fucking bitch.

Do you think
I'm full beast mode,

or that there's any
glimmer of Elsie?

AABRIA: I think there is
something at the back of you.

You have bonded with this
beast, you've empowered it.

I think you are there,
but in the same way that

in moments of ecstasy you can
lose yourself to a feeling.

Elsie's there,
but Elsie loves this.

But yeah, you're there.

ASHLY: I think,
in that case--

Oh, did you want
to say something?

NOSHIR: Well, I just
wanted to ask

if I'm allowed to take
any sort of action here?

AABRIA: I want her
to pick her target.

NOSHIR: Great.

AABRIA: Then we'll
adjudicate from there

as you are going for Cosmo.

ASHLY: I think if there's
any Elsie in the beast,

there is a reason she
still wears this necklace.

There's a reason that

I lost it when I even saw

that Raj was part of this
group and what he might see.

So I think...

The conversation
they just had,

the feelings that she had
for Raj are reignited,

if they were ever dimmed.

And for that reason,

Elsie goes for Cosmo.

AABRIA: Love will
destroy the world.

You feel the slam
and the car lurches

as the beast that is Elsie
rounds back on the vehicle

and is making her way
back towards the two of you

as you go to free Cosmo.

What do you want to do?

NOSHIR: I could never strike
my queen, but I need Cosmo.

I'm going to loosen
my cravat and see

if I can fill the
car with my host

to at least make it
harder for it to see

where we are in the vehicle.

AABRIA: Okay.

You're going to take a bleed

as you try to
direct your host.

Give me a Sense roll.

Actually, no.
Make it a Hide roll

to see if you can
fill this space

and obscure the two of you.

NOSHIR: Okay.

AABRIA: I will say
expectations and stakes here:

A full success will
allow you to fill it.

She's going to swing,
she was swinging for Cosmo.

The best you can do is
that you divide the damage

between the two of you,
and that would be enough

to save Cosmo's life.

NOSHIR: Understood.

AABRIA: You died immediately
when she attacked you.

SAM: Yeah, but, but--

(laughter)

AABRIA: He's made
of talcum power.

(laughter)

LIAM: (dry poof)
(laughter)

GINA: Wait, do you have
two scars right now?

LIAM: Well,
we started with one.

GINA: Oh, that's right,
and you--

LIAM: I just got a second.

NOSHIR: A six on the gilded.

LIAM: You need
to roll like him.

(laughter)

ASHLY: I'm fucking trying!

AABRIA: Take your drive back.

This space fills with vermin.

Biting, stinging
pest and pestilence.

You lose sight, you're
swinging based on smell.

The blood of the old man,
the blood of the one you love.

You slam your
fists down equally.

Take a scar.

GINA: A scar?
AABRIA: Take a scar.

NOSHIR: Any particular kind?

AABRIA: Body.
GINA: Oh, oh, oh.

LIAM: Remind me,

since I've never been
this far down the road,

three scars or four scars
until we are gone-zo?

AABRIA: On your fourth
scar, you are gone.

LIAM: So--

Understood.
AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

LIAM: Understood.

NOSHIR: Does this reset
any marks we had for body?

AABRIA: Yes.

Let's reset as a sort of--

NOSHIR: How merciful.
AABRIA: Y'all took a lot.

I will allow you
to reset your bodies.

GINA: Does this mean
that they're out?

AABRIA: They're
both unconscious--

GINA: Unconscious. Oh, okay.
Got it, got it, got it.

AABRIA:-- buried
by beast-Elsie's

fists in the shrapnel.

Sufficient damage was dealt

and you can return
to yourself.

Upon looking at the
thing that you've done,

please take one brain.

No, it's two.

ASHLY: I take a scar.

GINA: (gasps)

AABRIA: The car is down.

You come back up,
you see what you've done.

You remember the choice.

Take out Cosmo, save Raj.

But you hit them both.

You wanted them both.

That's a lot.

A little too much.

And you faint.

We'll come back to
you three in a moment.

SAM: Jesus.

AABRIA: So!
SAM: Jesus.

GINA: Oh god.

ASHLY: Sorry, guys.

AABRIA: Inside of the
burning Glass Cat.

GINA: I just want to
let you know you're so

pretty right now.
AABRIA: Oh my god, thank you.

It's actually fine
and the fire's out.

GINA: (laughs)

AABRIA: You are still
engaged with both of them.

SAM: Nobody's down?

AABRIA: Nobody's down,
but they're both very hurt

and they're
struggling with you.

You've done this thing where
you are handling them both

and you're able to
keep them to you

so Glask gets away and is
moving towards the back.

You hear the massive slam.

Some accident outside.

What do you do?

SAM: I mean, the thing that
I'm good at is hitting things,

so I'm going to take
the guy, what was his name?

AABRIA: Bran.
SAM: Bran.

Just overcome with fury

for having seen him
hurt my friend, my boss.

I'm going to--

I'm going to grab
that good old chain

away from the other guy,
and if I can,

wrap it around
either his arms

or his neck or something
and basically throw him

over towards
the fire, if I can.

AABRIA: Yeah, love that.

Go ahead and give me
a Control or Strike,

I'll let you decide.

SAM: I'm going to go Control.

Using my ability.
AABRIA: Nice.

SAM: Five.

AABRIA: Yeah.

What happens here isn't you
taking damage as you do it,

but understanding the
opportunity cost of

focusing down on
a single target.

You release the gangly one,
he's barely a threat anyway,

and throw all of your focus
on Bran the soldier.

You swing your chain around
his neck and as it wraps

and as you catch the
other side, you pull tight.

Something in you remembers

a part of you long ago

that was so good at
escaping these chains.

I'm going to offer you
something here.

If you lose yourself
to your fury,

take one more mark.

Brain or bleed, your call.

You can finish Bran
in this moment.

SAM: Happily,
I'll take a bleed,

and not just end him,
but hurt him.

AABRIA: Yeah.

You hear something again,

like a language
you don't know

but understand
the feeling of,

pouring itself into the space

where the version of you

who still remembered
his name as Grimmick exists,

and you lean in, wrap him up.

You understand chains.
This was your--

This was your trick when
you were with the circus.

And it's easy.

So much of it is
about body weight

and controlling yourself.

And he has no control,
he's panicking.

I want you to describe for me
how you kill Bran.

SAM: (sighs) Drawn to
the sound in the front

and also the flames
that are crawling up

the front of the facade,

I would love to wrap him up

and throw him
out the front door.

Just smash it open.

AABRIA: Yeah.

You burst the door,
which has been swinging open

and shut as
patrons are milling,

or not milling,
sprinting out.

It's almost empty now,

and you knock the
heavy wooden doors

off its hinges
with this body.

You felt something,

he didn't quite have
control of himself.

He's going to hit.

You see his neck
hit across the door,

his body immediately
goes limp

and ragdolls the rest
of the way out.

As you look past him you
see a car you recognize,

crumpled on the
corner of the street.

SAM: I'll run out
there straight away.

I mean, I know that
the other guy's alive,

but I don't think that he's
going to be doing too much.

Well, maybe he will.
I don't know.

ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: We'll find out.

You sprint out the front.
SAM: Yeah.

AABRIA: Let's go
cut to the back.

Give me--

It's got to be a Move roll.

GINA: Okay.

AABRIA: Full success,

you make it out
ahead of the agents

that are coming
around from Candela.

Critical success,

and you have enough time
to do something about it.

GINA: It's one. I'm going to
use two out of three drives.

What are the stakes on this?
Is it really bad?

SAM: Everything's high.
ASHLY: Everything's high.

AABRIA: I would say
a failure is you--

The worst possible scenario
is you running out

at the same time--
GINA: Okay.

AABRIA:-- as
the Candela agents.

Which, for that
being the worst thing,

that might pull focus.

You have this weird sense

that because they focused
down Oscar and you,

they might be after
Oscar and you.

So even your
worst case scenario

might be pulling a bit of
heat off of your girls,

which isn't great,
but a win's a win.

GINA: I have three
body already.

Yeah, I'll just roll here.

NOSHIR: I really hope Mina's
down there kicking ass.

ASHLY: (laughs)
GINA: Yeah, right?

SAM: Shit, she's
got a monster.

Why isn't she fighting?
ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM: Goddamn it!

ASHLY: (laughs)
SAM: (laughs)

NOSHIR: If we take her back,
you can drink, Mina.

You can drink.
ASHLY: Yeah! (laughs)

GINA: That was
a mixed success.

AABRIA: Mixed success.

You make your way out, you
burst through the back doors.

You see the girls
have absolutely--

Heels are off,
skirts are slit,

and they are hauling
ass down this alley.

They're trying to
reach back for Mina

who you see on the other
side by your trash cans,

doubled over,
retching water down.

She didn't need--

She's safe because of
the choices she's made.

She's holding that necklace,

not in a desperate
plea for comfort,

but that she knows that

there's someone
who cares enough

to want her to be safe,
someone else to fight for.

She pours that water and
you can see some of the steam

rising off of it.

It begins to run and form,

as you see starting to
peek around the corner,

two sets of agents on
either side of the building.

Mina reaches out without
looking up at you

and waves you past.

GINA: Okay! Oh my god,
I'm so proud of her!

AABRIA: Do you keep running
or do you stop?

What do you want to do
in this moment?

She's trying to flag you
to go past her.

GINA: Yeah, I run past her,

but I still make it a point
to turn around and watch

and duck behind
the trash cans

just in case she needs help.

AABRIA: Yeah.

GINA: Yeah, I'm hiding behind
the trash cans now,

peeking out to make sure
that she's got this.

AABRIA: Yeah.

She pours the sentry
out of her.

It forms and stands
and squares off

against these Candela agents

and it launches
itself at them.

They're trying to move around
to get to the girl,

to get to you peeking, and
it will not let them pass.

It fights with
sharpened water

and pouring itself to
any available orifice.

You feel your body sing
with the urge to join it.

Do you watch or
do you try to join in?

GINA: Crap. Oh my god,
I have three bodies already.

How far am I from
the Candela agents?

Do they see me?
They know I'm there.

AABRIA: There is
definitely an agent

that can see you peeking out
over the trashcan.

GINA: Okay.
AABRIA: Saw you sprint by.

It's very obvious that you did
not continue down the alley

or they would see
you continuing to run.

So they know
that you're there.

They're having a tough time
getting at you.

They're probably
10 feet, max, away.

GINA: Okay.

AABRIA: And just
as a reminder,

your Prestige uses bleed,
not body.

GINA: Yeah. I'm going
to try it again.

AABRIA: Okay.
GINA: I'm trying to do it again.

AABRIA: Do you try for
a specific effect?

Or are you trying
to push your ability

into what is already
extant in here?

GINA: I want to connect
with her sentry.

How far is the sentry
from them?

Is the sentry attacking--

AABRIA: The sentry is in melee
with all four of them.

They're all 10 feet
away from you.

This thing is doing its best

to keep all of them away
from the two of you.

GINA: Okay. I want to
connect with the sentry.

AABRIA: Okay.
GINA: To--

AABRIA: Give me a Sense roll.
GINA: Okay.

AABRIA: And we'll see
what you can pull off.

The stakes for this
are pretty low.

This thing already exists
and everything in you,

the magick that is
in you wants this.

GINA: I have one.

I should've put more drives
in Intuition. Okay.

Oh my god, that's a six.

SAM: Yeah.
ASHLY: Yes.

GINA: Oh, thank god!

AABRIA: Beautiful.

I will give you
an option here.

More or many?

GINA: (chuckles) What does
that even-- Many.

AABRIA: You reach forward

and it doesn't feel like
the times you've tried to cast

and send out specifically
your water into the world,

giving it shape
and intention.

You simply release
what is in you.

The gift from--

You've believed for so long

that it was a gift
from your god.

You think back to the
KeGa Islands and Katma,

the god you and
your people worshiped.

You feel the water
flow from you.

You feel, for the first time,

the wrongness of this,
Cordelia.

This is not the gentle waves

and warm currents
of your home.

This is something different.

It's been doing
a poor approximation

of the ecstasy of your god.

This is still your power.

You have access to it,
but this is not of your home.

You release it forward
and it gives itself shape.

It pours itself
into the sentry.

Then the sentry doubles

and doubles again.

GINA: Holy shit.
AABRIA: One for each officer.

Every member, all of them in
that shape and bearing,

though in slightly different
physicality of the sentries.

That even you,

though you didn't get
a formal school education,

though you weren't from here,

you know that's
the shape of the sentries.

The soldiers of
Oldfaire that stood

on the harbor walls

and dared anyone to
cross into the empire

of Iomene's building.

They make quick work
of four men.

Snaps necks,
filled noses and mouths.

You barely hear
the gurgle of it

and all of this for
the wrongness of it,

for the foreignness of it,

feels right.

You hear something less
like the crashing of waves

and more like the purr,

someone revealing
herself to you

in a moment of great triumph.

"Yes.

"Know me.

"Find me.

"Come.

"The only way through
is down."

And all four of the sentries

unmake themselves and
fill the alley behind you

and around you and in front
of you with water

mingled with
blood and viscera.

You and Mina and the girls
behind you still running,

never looking back, are safe.

GINA: Oh, that's a good girl.

AABRIA: You take a moment,

collect yourself,
collect Mina,

and out the front door.

You head to the car?

SAM: Yeah, book it to the car.
Slide to a stop.

Are they all three
splayed out, unconscious?

AABRIA: Splayed out,
unconscious and

bugs flying, biting things
are filtering out of

the hole as if they
were all gathered.

And only at your appearance,
understand the importance

of scattering and
revealing the scene.

What do you do?

SAM: I mean,
if bugs are present,

and I assume

Dr. Roberts' clothes
are shredded,

but in very

convenient places.
AABRIA: Yes.

(laughter)

AABRIA: We have invented,
along with a flashlight

and baseball, spandex.

So you're good.

Bits are covered. Yeah.
GINA: Pasties. Pasties.

Monster-shaped pasties.
SAM: Slightly ripped,

but not in the private zones.

ASHLY: Yes.

SAM: I can sort of piece
together a little bit

of what happened,
but not really, not much.

So I will--

First instinct will be to
dive in and grab Cosmo

and pull him outta the car
if he's still in there.

AABRIA: Yep.
SAM: See if he's alive.

Take his pulse.

AABRIA: He's alive
and badly battered.

LIAM: Since I took two scars,

I would say that when
the car rolled,

first Cosmo's face smashed
into the window next to him,

crushing his glasses.

You see actually
the stem of his glasses

actually going through
into his mouth,

but not through the mouth.

His eye is intact,
but swollen shut

and there's blood dripping
down the side of his head.

Then the second scar
would've been from Elsie.

I think in her
handling of his body,

his left arm is badly torn.

Still holding on,
but somewhat unattached.

SAM: I'll cradle him
and just--

I don't know what I'm doing.

So, Cosmo, come on.

You got to wake up. Please
don't do this to me.

Please don't go.

I don't know
how to do anything.

So I'll try to wake up
Elsie because she might.

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: I'll try to shake her
and rouse her gently.

AABRIA: Yeah.

So because we are in
a moment of safety,

the threat has been cleared

with the exception of Toll--
The tall gentleman inside

whose name you don't know,

even though I said
most of it right now,

you don't know
what he's doing.

But he doesn't appear
to be coming out, you--

Even as you are
cradling Cosmo

and trying to rouse Elsie,

you're keeping an eye
over your shoulder.

Nothing is appearing.

SAM: Maybe he burned up.

AABRIA: Who could say?

GINA: We don't have
a sprinkler system.

AABRIA: We don't know.

ASHLY: So do his attempts work

in that case?
AABRIA: So yes,

because we are in
a moment of safety.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: You can be roused.

All three of you, at
a moment of your choosing.

ASHLY: So as
you're shaking me,

because I took a brain scar

I'm going to gasp for breath

and when my eyes open,
they're just white.

No pupil, no color, nothing.
They're just white.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: I don't know that, though.

SAM: Well, from my face, you
probably see something bad.

ASHLY: Oscar?

Do I see--

Can I tell that Raj and Cosmo
are both alive?

Just by looking at them?
AABRIA: Yes.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: I mean, you're seeing

ragged but steady breath.

ASHLY: (panting, gasping)

Where's Glask?

SAM: I think she's okay.

She ran out the back
with the girls.

ASHLY: And how hurt is Raj?

AABRIA: Raj,
how hurt are you?

NOSHIR: The last thing
that Raj did

as the beast was rampaging

was to fill the space

and try to ward over
the professor.

When the strike came,
it tore the sleeve

and degloved his arm
from essentially elbow

to the tips of his fingers.

So all the flesh that
was on the bone here

has unwrapped itself
like a sleeve,

and is hanging off of
what's left of his hand,

which has been
essentially torn into half.

But wherever
there was raw meat

it is now covered in
a moving, shifting,

iridescent pattern of insects

that are slowly starting
to cut away at dead flesh.

ASHLY: Knowing that, I have
an awareness of the choice

that I had made when
I was a beast, I'm going to--

(gasps) Oscar, wrap his arm.

SAM: Okay.
ASHLY: Take off your coat

and wrap his arm.
SAM: Well--

ASHLY: Then I'm going
to turn to Cosmo.

SAM: I'm going to take off
his coat and wrap--

(laughter)

SAM: It's already
ruined, so--

(laughter)

ASHLY: I see his arm
is basically coming--

AABRIA: Out of the socket.
ASHLY: Fibers.

Is it fibers?
AABRIA: Oh yeah,

is it torn or is it--

LIAM: It's dislocated
and torn.

So you can see a bit of
the inner working,

but it's not hanging--

ASHLY: Okay.
LIAM:-- by three pieces of string.

It's torn open.
ASHLY: Okay.

LIAM: You can see the
old man muscle and blood.

ASHLY: Uh-huh.

LIAM: It's totally
out of place.

ASHLY: Okay.

LIAM: And it's this one,

but you don't need to
get out of your chair.

(laughter)

SAM: Ensure is just dripping.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Why did you
give him a milky center?

ASHLY: Vanilla Ensure.
SAM: Mm-hmm.

(laughter)

ASHLY: So Elsie--

I'm going to put my hand on
your okay shoulder. Cosmo?

(pants) Look me in
the eyes. Cosmo?

LIAM: (groaning)

I'm going to have to do
something very painful.

I need you to stay with me.

I'm going to take his arm and
crack it back into place.

AABRIA: Yeah.

LIAM: You hear (pained grunts)
and he passes out.

ASHLY: Then I'm going to
start to try to bandage it

using Patch Up.

So, also, I'll say,
so you know.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

ASHLY: When I took the scar,
I moved a point from Sense--

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

ASHLY:-- because I think
it was so traumatizing

being in the beast,
and seeing what happened.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: That I don't think Elsie
wants to be there anymore.

AABRIA: Ooh, I like that.

ASHLY: So, Sense is gone,
and then I added to Move.

AABRIA: Love that,
hundred percent.

You can clear your beast
pool while you're at it.

ASHLY: Oh yeah.

So I'm going to
make a Focus roll

to try to patch
you up for one,

if that even fucking
matters at this point.

But oh wait, is
your body clear?

SAM: Oh yeah,
all the marks get cleared.

AABRIA: Yes, because of
the double scarring.

LIAM: Game mechanic, you guys.
AABRIA: Yes.

ASHLY: Oh, so I don't
even need to roll.

AABRIA: You don't
have to roll.

ASHLY: Oh, okay, great.
AABRIA: You can just describe.

ASHLY: Then I'm just--
AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: I'm wrapping--

I'm trying to stem
the bleeding on his face,

and I'm taking, I guess,
because my clothing is--

(laughter)
SAM: Very tasteful.

ASHLY: Tastefully covering--
SAM: Very tasteful.

ASHLY: Ripped and tastefully covering
different parts of my body--

I'm going to take his tie,
and unravel it,

and start
bandaging the wound.

LIAM: You might also want
to pull the glasses.

ASHLY: I forgot about
the fucking glasses.

GINA: Oh no.
AABRIA: One thing at a time.

ASHLY: Yes, I do that.

Slowly and discard it--
LIAM: He's unconscious still.

ASHLY: But it's still
a lot for me! (laughs)

Then press this to the cheek
to stem the bleeding.

AABRIA: He begins to rouse.

What's happening over here

with the boys?
SAM: I have wrapped his arm

with his very fine jacket

as I'm using it to, the tails
of it to wrap around his arm,

I can't help but notice
the fine craftsmanship

of the garments.
(laughter)

SAM: It seems like
very, very fine threads,

and satins, and silks,

I wrap it up
as tight as I can,

not really knowing
what I'm doing.

Then I give him

a smack across
the face to wake him up.

ASHLY: Do I see
that happen? (laughs)

AABRIA: Yes, as he goes
to smack, I will note that

as you were tying off

his mangled arm,

the bugs weren't scattering.

You could tie things over it,

but you would be crushing
them on his bones.

SAM: It's more of
a loose wrap.

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SAM: Like a mummy wrap.

AABRIA: A hundred percent.
ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: So yeah, you can still
see the shifting under it--

SAM: Sure.
AABRIA:-- as you go

to give a smack.
ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: You want to
intervene in the smack,

or are you letting this happen?
Ash No, I'm going to see it,

and I'm going to--
AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: (laughs)

Goddamn it, Oscar, I told
you to wrap his arm,

not hit him, just
go to your father!

SAM: He's very hittable.
GINA: (laughs)

ASHLY: Then I'm going
to take Raj,

and try to get his head up--

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: Take him by the head

and the face, and try to--

SAM: I'll do the
same with my son.

LIAM: (moans)

AABRIA: Raj.
ASHLY: Raj.

LIAM: What, what happened?

(groans)
ASHLY: I'm so sorry.

LIAM: Where is--

NOSHIR: What a sight.

LIAM: Do we--

AABRIA: As you come
back to consciousness,

you feel the bugs,
you feel your damage.

Your mind begins to
put together the things

that have just happened.

You protected the professor,

you've guarded your access

to knowledge, to secrets.

But you can't shake it.

You know

you've got to do something.

You've played this close
to the vest for so long.

Even as you're
bringing yourself back,

you can hear her voice.

You can hear, far away
as though underwater,

Cosmo's voice as well.

You're running out of time.

You need to find
what you're looking for.

You're not looking for Grimm.

You're not looking for Elsie.

You're looking for a secret.

You're looking for a truth.

Why?

Why, why the Maw?

Why The Serious Man?

What--

What happened?

What are you doing?

What's been done?

Raj, what are
you looking for?

NOSHIR: I'm looking
for a truth.

I'm looking to
find what happened,

what my mother
was involved in.

Why it tails into the
Maw and The Serious Man,

and why, when I
needed them most,

Candela abandoned us.

AABRIA: They didn't
just abandon you,

they are hunting you down.

You are running out of time.

Let them go and go
find your answers

before it's too late

for you, and the old man,

and the love of your life.

They are coming.

And you come
back to yourself.

ASHLY: Rajan.

NOSHIR: Elsie.

Is everyone okay?

ASHLY: I'm so sorry.

LIAM: We still can't

stay here.

NOSHIR: But we must go.

SAM: Where? Where, go where?

GINA: I join in with them,
I finally catch up.

I have the girls,
I have Mina with me.

AABRIA: The rest of your girls
have hauled, they are no--

GINA: Oh, the girls.
AABRIA: Yeah, they just took off.

GINA: Okay, good.
I show up then.

AABRIA: Yes, Mina's with you.

GINA: Oh, good.
Mina's with me. Good girl.

I just: What's going on?

What?

ASHLY: Where do we go?

GINA: You know what?

I see the wreckage.

I have my cars.
I have my cars.

We just got to
get out of here.

NOSHIR: We need shelter.
AABRIA: "Where?"

NOSHIR: We need
to find a place

that Candela
cannot get us at.

AABRIA: "This is Candela.
Aren't you Candela?"

SAM: These are
different Candela.

AABRIA: "You said it would be safe."
ASHLY: We are not Candela anymore.

LIAM: We have to get
underground tonight.

SAM: Where?

NOSHIR: Underground.

AABRIA: "Why?"

SAM: What does that mean?

LIAM: We just have to get

off the streets--
SAM: Oh.

LIAM:-- and I know
places underground.

NOSHIR: The well.

SAM: The well?

The one in the Groundswell?

NOSHIR: The well
in Groundswell.

They said it taps deep
into Oldfaire.

AABRIA: "It's-- Yeah,
it goes straight down.

"Are you just trying to--"

SAM: Have you been there?

AABRIA: "To the well?"
SAM: In it?

AABRIA: "No. I've gotten
water out of it,

"but there's probably
a lot of people around.

"The protests have
been happening.

"So that could be good
or bad, I don't know,

"but if you're just trying
to get to Oldfaire, you can,

"we can go that way.

"My people help."

GINA: Okay.
AABRIA: "Whatever you need."

GINA: Mina, if we get there,
you have friends,

people that can help us?

AABRIA: "Yeah."

GINA: I need you to tell them
that we're here to help.

We need their help.

If we get there,
can you do that?

AABRIA: "Yeah."
GINA: Okay.

AABRIA: "Whatever you need."

GINA: We have to
get off the streets.

As a safety precaution,

Madam Glask has an
escape route, she knows,

she has cars parked a
little bit further away

from The Glass Cat.

We can take my cars,
we can go to Groundswell.

LIAM: Oscar, can you--
SAM: Yeah.

LIAM:-- salvage my chair?

SAM: Yeah, I'll pull it
out of the wreckage

and see if it can still roll.

AABRIA: Ooh, how
good's that trunk?

You know what?

Give me a luck check.

SAM: That's not a thing!

AABRIA: It's not a thing!

SAM: Yeah, you can't
make things up!

AABRIA: I know I
can make a choice.

LIAM: It's called Rollies.
SAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: It's Roll--
(laughs) It's Rollies!

LIAM: Who's doing it, me?
AABRIA: Yeah.

LIAM: What am I rolling here?

AABRIA: You're just
going to roll 1d6.

LIAM: 1d6, all right.

AABRIA: Do you want
to roll against me?

Do you want it to be Rollies?

LIAM: No, you're
the boss here.

AABRIA: Yeah, I'm asking you.

We're all playing.

LIAM: My time is done,
you are on the rise.

AABRIA: You have
to beat a three.

LIAM: Well, I got a one.

(laughter)

GINA: Oh, honey!

AABRIA: Your chair,
in all of its pieces,

the frame is bent,

it is fixable, but as
it stands right now,

will not be usable.

You'll have to
repair it as you go.

LIAM: (groans)

SAM: I'll grab it, I'll
put him on my shoulder,

and try to hold this thing,

and hobble towards the cars.

AABRIA: You go for the cars.

Can I get--

Whose head is on a swivel?

I think it's yours.

SAM: Sure. That guy?

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: Fuck,

I forgot about the fucking guy.
GINA: Ah jeez, that's right.

AABRIA: Give me
a Survey roll.

SAM: Survey, now is this--

This is a high
pressure situation

you would say?
AABRIA: Okay. I would say.

I would absolutely say.

SAM: Okay.

I would say that too.
"Survey roll, add a number

"of dice equal to your
current Nerve resistance."

So I get one extra dice.

Right? Yes.

Okay.

Five on the gilded.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: Gorgeous.

You get your drive back,
and you spot it.

You see the little thin,
dainty barrel

of a military issue
revolver out the front.

This lanky kid has been
setting up his shot.

It's not a good shot.
But as you all move

towards the cars,
you can pick it out.

He's not aiming
for any of you.

He's aiming for the girl.

SAM: For the girl?

GINA: Mina.
SAM: Oh fuck.

AABRIA: A phenomenon,
one you didn't turn in.

You put it together.

Even within all of this,
they are being--

All of you are being
hunted, but she is still

the end of an assignment
that needs to be turned in.

You're going to be
there just in time

as Tolliver pulls
the trigger.

So in that moment,
what do you do?

SAM: Well,
I don't have a gun.

I have no way of blocking
bullets with my mind.

GINA: (laughs)
AABRIA: There is a chance

he will simply miss.

SAM: There is.
AABRIA: You know he is

a terrible shot,
and missed you

while right in front of you.

Do you risk it?

SAM: No, I would use--

I have a feature

called Behind Me.

AABRIA: Oh.

SAM: I will spend one Nerve

to choose an ally

who is about to take a mark
and take it for them,

and I will step
in front of her.

AABRIA: Yeah.

You slide in.

She freezes as you suddenly
fill the space by her.

She doesn't know
what is expected.

SAM: Back, back, back!

AABRIA: As you
interpose yourself,

you're going to take one body

as you get hit in
the calf with a bullet.

SAM: That's a scar.

GINA: No!

SAM: An Os-scar.

ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM: Sorry.
Edit that out, please.

ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: (laughs)

AABRIA: They absolutely will not.
ASHLY: Leave it in!

GINA: Take a brain for that.

SAM: (laughs)
GINA: (laughs)

AABRIA: You

have done so much.

You fought off two
Candela members,

protected your boss,
protected the girls,

protected this girl,
rescued your father.

It's a little--
It's almost embarrassing

that one little hit is
enough to overwhelm you.

But down you go.

You fall your knees
in front of Mina,

who's suddenly at eye
level with you, confused.

She catches you
instinctively,

and keeps you from
falling any other way,

and is holding you as
you slump into her.

She looks over your shoulder
at the dock, at Glask.

"What do we do? What do
we do? What do we do?

"He shot, he shot him!"

ASHLY: I make a
beeline for Oscar.

GINA: Get him in the car.
Get him in the car!

ASHLY: I'm going to
try Resuscitation.

"When a nearby
ally takes a scar,

"you can make a Focus roll

"in an attempt to
immediately revive them."

AABRIA: Yep.
ASHLY: On a six, it works.

SAM: I would still take
a scar though, yeah?

AABRIA: Yes, you're still
going to take the scar.

ASHLY: Okay, so, Focus roll.

I have to get a six,
or you're not back up--

SAM: Jesus.
ASHLY:-- basically

at this point,
because I have no drive.

Oh wait, drive
of my choosing.

Okay, whatever,
I'll just roll.

SAM: Yeah.

ASHLY: (sighs)

Fuck. Okay, I'm going to
spend two drive from Cunning,

and one from Nerve to get you
back to your feet immediately.

NOSHIR: Jeez.
GINA: Oof!

SAM: That's a lot of drive!
I'm not worth it!

ASHLY: Yes, you are!
GINA: You are!

SAM: Oh boy.

ASHLY: So taking a cue
out of your book,

I slap you across the face.
SAM: (pained groan)

(laughter)

ASHLY: Get the fuck up!

SAM: Yes, ma'am.

Is he pursuing?

Should we-- Do you think
we can get-- Can we get away?

AABRIA: You absolutely can.

It's not a matter of--

You could close the distance,

engage in a fight
with this guy,

or you could just
go farther away.

He barely hit you,

and he's been steadying
that shot for a minute.

SAM: Sure.
GINA: It sucks.

SAM: Through the--
AABRIA: It really does suck.

GINA: How'd he get hired?

NOSHIR: Where is he,
like how far?

AABRIA: He's poking
his gun and head

out of the busted window of
the front of The Glass Cat,

maybe 50 feet away.

ASHLY: So he's going to get
burned up soon, maybe, then.

AABRIA: Probably.
LIAM: I got dropped,

someone will need to help me.

GINA: Oh, oh, oh.
SAM: I mean,

through the pain,
I can keep, I can try--

ASHLY: I'm going
to say to Raj:

Get Cosmo,
everyone to car!

GINA: I grab your arm to
guide, to help you.

NOSHIR: Take him up, and help
move him towards the car.

LIAM: (grunting)

Can't hold him for long.
(groans)

AABRIA: You ignore the
final Candela member,

and make your way
to the vehicles,

vehicle.

Where are you headed?

GINA: To Groundswell.

To Groundswell to meet
with the protestors.

Mina can convince them to
let us in through the well.

Mina, these are your friends,

these are the people
that she grew up with.

We go to Groundswell.
AABRIA: "Okay."

GINA: I know that they don't
like the rich people.

These getaway cars
are not, like,

Bolls Boyces.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Violence.
GINA: They're--

ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: Every time you do this,

I resolve more firmly
to destroy you.

(laughter)

GINA: So it's harder for people
to spot me if I need to escape.

They're more like
Bonda Bivics.

(laughter)

LIAM: Everybody take a bleed.

(laughter)

AABRIA: The GM
will remember this.

(laughter)

AABRIA: You jump into
more discreet vehicles.

GINA: Bonda Bivics.

AABRIA: Violence.
GINA: Say it.

(laughs)

AABRIA: I simply will not.

(laughter)

AABRIA: And make your way
across to Groundswell.

You hear it,

the din of the Calinus Market

before you even arrive.

You're able to park
not too far away,

but this is the site
of a full-blown protest.

The people of Groundswell
and South Soffit

are making a impassioned
stand around the well

against just an incredible
amount of Periphery officers,

and agents of
the upper class here

that are yelling back
across the protest lines,

that this is an integral
piece of Newfaire's history,

and can't be risked being
destroyed via their use.

You hear them yelling
that all of their fears

about cullet, there's
no substance to it,

it's all conjecture.

No, get away, move away.

The Periphery does
what the Periphery does,

which is enforce the laws
that benefit the powerful.

They push in, batons out.

You hear and feel a faint
crackling in the air.

Their weapons are not normal.

They are using electrically
boosted shielding,

and weapons to push
through the crowd.

People are dropping, and
screaming, and surging forth,

but the line is being
held six people deep,

protecting the well.

Mina is the first to
scramble out of the car.

"Okay, that's
a lot of people,

"I don't really know what
you want me to do here,

"but we could try
to go around back."

GINA: Yes.
NOSHIR: What's the most valuable,

or expensive building
within our area?

AABRIA: Here at the market,

there's a decent amount of
clearance in every direction.

But the most
prominent building,

the one that juts out

a little more
towards the market,

closer than everything else,
is the Heritage Center here.

It is the home base of
all of the various groups

across Newfaire that seek
to continue bolstering

Calinus Market as a tourist
trap and a heritage site,

and embracing
the history of it

while ignoring the people
that still use this market

and this well
every day to live.

Big wooden edifice.

NOSHIR: Perhaps we just need
to redirect their attention.

I hold up the oil flask
I had from before

and a length of cloth.

ASHLY: And a candle?

AABRIA: (laughs)

NOSHIR: I mean, I only have
a flashlight, but whatever.

ASHLY: (laughs)
GINA: Oh, look at that.

SAM: You mean a beamy?

NOSHIR: Yes.
AABRIA: A beamy!

NOSHIR: That's nice.
GINA: The character development

you've created!
AABRIA: That's what we call

a growth arc.
GINA: Good for you.

SAM: You want to
start another fire?

(laughter)

AABRIA: I got that
button ready,

so you just let me know.

GINA: (laughs)
SAM: Okay.

NOSHIR: I don't know how else
we're going to clear the path.

GINA: Mina, did you
say something,

you know a way
around or through?

AABRIA: "Well there's
a lot of officers,

"but if we go to the--

Maybe we can squeeze
in back behind.

"It feels like
everyone's over here

"but I don't know."

GINA: Then Raj, if
you can distract them

then we can all sneak behind.

Mina, you can lead the way.

AABRIA: "Okay."
GINA: Oh!

AABRIA: "Are you trying
to jump down the well,

"is that what you're doing?
SAM: We need some rope.

GINA: Are we going
to jump down the--

Is there another--
SAM: I mean, yeah.

AABRIA: "There's rope--

"because we use it
to pull the--"

SAM: It's a bucket well?
AABRIA: "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

GINA: Mina, I need you--

We need to convince
these people

to make a scene elsewhere.

Do you think you can do that?
AABRIA: "Elsewhere?"

GINA: Where Rajan is
going to throw the fire.

AABRIA: "Okay. Do you
want me to use my--"

GINA: No, not the (gags).
Not that right now.

AABRIA: "Okay, I wasn't--
Just, it's fine.

"I got two options."
GINA: I love it though.

AABRIA: "Yelling,
barfing out a monster."

GINA: What if we spread
the word a little bit

amongst the protestors?

Hey, just make a scene.

Make a scene over there.

We just need your
help right now.

Just make a scene so
we can distract the--

NOSHIR: Professor,
in your learnings,

have you heard of any other
access to Oldfaire nearby?

LIAM: Well, we're in
Groundswell, correct?

AABRIA: Mm-hm.
LIAM: So with decades

I have been below, and
never through this well,

but I would ask you, Aabria,

if Cosmo would know
anything adjacent

or in the area that he would
believe would connect,

or is this not in my purview?

AABRIA: So,
Groundswell's famous

for the tides revealing
parts of Oldfaire.

So there's bits of the city

that are at the edges
of the water here

and because of the Shiver,

because it's been so cold
that water gets trapped

into big glacial forms,

the level of the
sea has dropped

to an all time low and more
of Oldfaire has been uncovered

than anywhere
since it was lost.

You can absolutely
go and try to find

an alternate means
through the mud and silt

to try to find your
way down into Oldfaire.

That is absolutely an option.

The well,
absolutely an option.

It's whatever
you want to risk.

Do you want to burn
time looking through

and trying to find
an alternate way in?

Or do you try to risk a direct
route in the midst of chaos?

LIAM: I guess
I'm just curious.

Have I ever-- I've never
been down this well myself

but have I heard
of people doing so?

AABRIA: Ooh.
Give me a Focus roll.

LIAM: Okay, before
I make that roll--

AABRIA: Sure, sure, sure.
LIAM:-- a little sidebar

in the terrible accident.
AABRIA: I love a sidebar.

LIAM: I am moving my
one mark in Control

and putting it into Focus.
AABRIA: Yeah.

LIAM: Because I
can't work my arm.

AABRIA: Yeah.
LIAM: But I have to think,

or we are dead.

I'm taking one
from Read as well,

because it was two scars,
and that's going into Sense.

AABRIA: I love it.

LIAM: So this is
a Focus roll.

SAM: Also, for me, he
winged me in the leg

so I'll take a mark.

I mean, I'll take
a point out of Move

and I will grow in anger

and move it into
Control so I can--

AABRIA: Love it.
SAM:-- hit even harder.

AABRIA: Amazing.

LIAM: I'm going to
use Intuition drive.

So this will be
four for Focus.

Five, mixed success,
not gilded.

AABRIA: You don't have--

You don't have
enough evidence

to a academic mind to move
with perfect confidence.

But yes, there are people,
stories of young kids

trying to prove themselves

with this despicably
deep well,

lowering themselves
all the way down,

reaching a wellspring

and cavern,

something very
low in Oldfaire.

LIAM: In a flash, I think of
how unlikely it will be for me

to get to the bottom
of this well,

and I turn to the
group and say:

We should go down the well,
it's the most direct path.

ASHLY: (scoffs)
GINA: Oh.

SAM: I start-- We're still
in the car, I assume,

or have we gotten outside?

AABRIA: I'll leave
that to you.

I think you could
be close enough

to have this conversation

in whatever way you want.

SAM: I start taking
off all my clothes.

AABRIA: What?
SAM: (laughs)

I'm going to change into
my policeman's uniform.

AABRIA: Okay.
GINA: Oh, we still have it! Oh.

AABRIA: Yeah.
SAM: From the other night.

I don't wear
underwear though.

So for a while,

for a few moments you
see me completely naked.

AABRIA: Incredible. Incredible.
GINA: Covers Mina's eyes.

ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: Everyone take--

SAM: Thank you, please.
AABRIA:-- three points of bleed.

(laughter)
LIAM: She would be like--

(retches)
(laughter)

AABRIA: Yeah!
(laughter)

AABRIA: Mina's just barfing
out extra monsters.

(laughter)

SAM: Just in case
we need some sort

of cover to get

through the enemy lines.
LIAM: That's a good call.

NOSHIR: Smart thinking.
AABRIA: Yeah.

GINA: And the shoes?

SAM: Shit.
(laughter)

SAM: Same shoes.
GINA: (laughs)

LIAM: Maybe in the chaos--

AABRIA: Who would
notice in the chaos?

Anything else anyone wants
to put in place right now?

We've got a Periphery officer
moving to do something

that will resolve.

You're going to
go set a fire.

Mina's going to
go help distract

and pull people
in your direction.

What are Glask and
Elsie going to do?

ASHLY: I might
take your coat.

SAM: That's nice.
ASHLY: Because of my situation

and then--
GINA: Oh right.

SAM: Oh yeah.
ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: That's right,
that's right.

ASHLY: Then I'm not
going to let Rajan

throw that thing by himself,

so I'm going to go with him.

AABRIA: Okay.
GINA: I'd like to--

SAM: I--
GINA: Hmm?

SAM: Oh, sorry, my
coat's a little long.

If only we had someone
here who could sew

or do some... No, you're not?

NOSHIR: I left my tailor
at my second house.

SAM: All right.
(laughter)

SAM: I'll just tie it off for you.
GINA: "At my second house."

ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: I would actually
be with Mina

to spread the word
and convince people

that the moment you
hear an explosion

and the Periphery officers'
attention is turned that way

I want you to bum rush

and try to push them away
from the well in the chaos.

Mina and I are trying to
convince these picketers,

these are her people,
they know who she is.

AABRIA: Go ahead and
give me a Sway roll.

GINA: Ooh, okay

AABRIA: I will--
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sway.

You have Mina assisting you.
GINA: Yeah.

AABRIA: So the stakes
on this are low.

GINA: Okay.
AABRIA: They trust her

and know her, so they're
listening to you

and you are already
quite persuasive.

GINA: Okay.

Ooh! I have a success
on a non-gilded.

AABRIA: Amazing.

They listen to you.

Mina nods along and they go,

"Okay. Okay, wait
for an explosion."

GINA: Yes.
AABRIA: "And then--"

GINA: Spread the word,
spread the word.

AABRIA: "Sure, sure. Okay."
GINA: Yeah.

AABRIA: "We'll wait for you
and we'll surge forward.

"Good luck."
GINA: Thank you.

AABRIA: "Okay. Okay."

GINA: Everyone ready?
AABRIA: They move away.

You can see the ripple
of conversation happening

and they are waiting
for your cue.

GINA: I move with Mina
towards the front,

slowly towards the
front of the crowd

so that I have the
Periphery officers

in my eye line so I can
keep an eye on it.

AABRIA: Okay.

I will say if you push
yourself to the front,

then if they surge forward,
you will have to fight

through that to get
back to the well.

So maybe split the

difference a little bit.
GINA: On the side.

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Perfect.

SAM: We're in a market
area, yeah?

AABRIA: Yes.

SAM: There are vendors
of different sorts.

AABRIA: Yes.
SAM: There are

maybe hand carts or
hand trucks around.

AABRIA: 100%, everywhere.

SAM: I'm going to steal one.

ASHLY and GINA: (laugh)

AABRIA: You know what,
I'm not going to make you

roll for that, because
it feels like a thing

you could and should do.

NOSHIR: Love it.
AABRIA: (laughs) Is that the play?

LIAM: That'll work.
(laughter)

AABRIA: Cosmo, freshly
situated in a hand cart.

Where do you want to
be when this pops off?

LIAM: Well, with someone,

because I'm not going
to be on the move.

It was a hand cart?

SAM: I don't know what model.

LIAM: No, it's fine.
SAM: But yeah.

It's not going to be comfy.

LIAM: No, I'm just wondering
if we throw a bunch of linens

on top of me or something

so you don't look like you're
shuttling around an old coot.

(laughter)

SAM: That's fun, yeah.

I'll take the clothes
that I had taken off

and pile them on top of him.

AABRIA: Perf.

Okay. Everyone's in place?

ASHLY: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: It all
starts with you.

Please make a Control roll--

SAM: You could light
yourself on

fire right now.
AABRIA:-- to light it up.

NOSHIR: I hold the oil flask

and measure out a length
of my cravat.

Where the insects had
been covering my hand,

they seemed to have
started to meld together

into this sharp
black carapace.

Where I had five fingers,
now I have three,

with the hints of some sort of
insect-like claw at the end.

Grasping a match is
never going to happen.

I ask Elsie,

can you light this
for me, please?

ASHLY: The match is in
your clawed hand?

NOSHIR: I'm holding
onto the flask.

So I'll hand you the
match with my left.

ASHLY: I put my left hand over
the hand holding the flask

and I take the match
and I strike it.

Don't fuck this up.

NOSHIR: It's all
in the timing.

I'm not even going
to throw it.

I'm going to place it
up in a corner,

hidden slightly out of
sight behind the door

and let the flame
rise on its own.

This gives us a little
of time to maneuver,

and also, frankly, I don't
trust myself to throw it

with any accuracy right now.

AABRIA: Time, a thing
that feels so precious.

Control and precision,

timing is everything.

You place it and slink back

as close to the
crowd as you dare,

staying back so that once
the signal's given

and the surge happens,
you have a clear shot,

as clear as you can get.

In the midst of this
din of this yelling

of the swinging
and screaming,

are those gunshots?

What's happening?

An explosion, a surge.

As they push forward into
the Periphery officers,

a little extra distraction,

Mina points over to a sign
that says Calinus Market.

It's this beautifully carved
single piece of wood.

They raised funds for
the name of the sign

for the market
that's been here

since Oldfaire's been here,

and they tear it down,

and as the word "Calinus"
cracks, chaos.

It is not just
a surging forward,

an earthquake,
temper boulevard,

a straight shot.

It's blocks and blocks away

and yet you can feel
it and hear it.

Something surges and cracks

and breaks back in
the Sidle, in your home.

Everything changes,
everything surges forward,

and you feel something
powerful deep below you,

back past you,

almost purr with approval.

All of you disappear
down the shaft

one at a time,

quick and quiet
down to Oldfaire.

And that's where we're
going to take our break.

SAM: Whoa!

NOSHIR: Goddamn. (laughs)
SAM: (fearful yell)

ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Oh my goodness.
SAM: (nervous moan)

AABRIA: We'll see
you in a little bit

for the second half.

GINA: Can we take a nap?

AABRIA: And we return
now, the five of you,

Mina staying up to help
with the distraction.

A little too young and
a little too scared

to go down an impossibly
deep, dark well.

You all made it, and with
some clever rope work,

you're able to get the
handcart down, too.

You find yourself

maybe a hundred yards
below the surface.

This well went so far down.

There's a little island
that you're able

to make your way to off
the side as you drop in

and hop and step
through sandbars.

There's still
plenty of water here

and the smell in this place is
of cold, clear, clean water.

But you are in
a massive domed cave,

a cavern from back in
Oldfaire's founding.

You know that a couple
people, ambitious,

youths trying to prove their
bravery to their friends

have been down here before,

but neither of you in
your academic studies

have much in the way
of an understanding

of how much this
has been mapped

and controlled
and understood.

It was always held
at arm's length

as the last great piece of
Oldfaire still around today

and thus was
treated preciously

even by the researchers

and explorers of the city
across the centuries.

There's not a lot of light
in any given direction

and you hear the low drip

and feel the echo
of a rumble,

like a hunger that
hasn't quite faded.

But it's quiet and it's safe,

so what do you want to do?

LIAM: We're on a small island
in the middle of the

reservoir?
AABRIA: Yeah, you can move across.

Looking down, if you had
a little bit more light,

I don't know how many
candles you've got on you.

ASHLY and GINA: (laugh)
AABRIA: If you've got enough.

Two candles.

NOSHIR: They're like
birthday candles.

(laughter)
GINA: Ha! Cute.

AABRIA: You can find some

sandbars to make
your way across

to the better curated ground

at the edge of this dome.

You can see a couple tunnels

heading off in
different directions.

GINA: It's a dome down there?
AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

NOSHIR: Can I use Sense
to see if taking in

any of the structure or
possibly glyphs or carvings,

if there's anything
that reveals itself

as what the purpose of
this area originally was?

AABRIA: Yeah, give me
a Sense roll.

Stakes are pretty low; you've
got time and space to think.

SAM: I'll-- Oh.

There you go, I was going
to help him, but forget it.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: How'd you do, bud?

NOSHIR: I got a six
and a two,

but I'm going to...

I'm going to take the loss.

ASHLY: To get a drive?

NOSHIR: And I will Learn
From My Mistakes.

SAM, ASHLY, and AABRIA: Oh!

SAM: That's
a special ability.

AABRIA: Yeah.

"Anytime you get a result
of one to three,

"describe what lesson you've
learned from this failure

"and refresh a drive
point of your choice."

ASHLY: Ooh!

AABRIA: Clever bit
of mechanics there.

You look around,

but you've made
a choice in this moment

to look with not your
eyes right away.

You try to feel first,

and I don't know if
you are united enough

in your purpose yet,
still coming down

from the adrenaline rush of
making it down here anyway

to really suss out
a direction,

because I think there
might be a part of you

that's still trying to
figure out what you want.

So with that in mind,

what lesson do you think
the good doctor is learning?

NOSHIR: I'm learning that

sometimes the desires
of the individual

are less important than
the desires of the whole.

ASHLY: Ooh! (laughs)

SAM: Oh god.
NOSHIR: I've taken--

GINA: Sick!
NOSHIR:-- my host--

AABRIA: Yes.

NOSHIR:-- and I use my
power to detect bleed

and ask the horde to
show me the way.

AABRIA: Oh! Wonderful.

I want you to give me...

I'll let you pick it.

Is this Survey,
Focus, or Sense

using all of you finally
not holding back anymore?

NOSHIR: My host doesn't
just live in the present,

they have a memory that spans

much further back than me.

So I think part of
it might actually be

something they recall
from a time long by,

in which case it
would be Focus.

AABRIA: All right, give me
a Focus roll.

NOSHIR: I'm going to
add a drive.

Well, what are
the stakes here?

AABRIA: Put it this way, you
are reaching towards something

in a place that wants
you to reach

towards something more.

Oldfaire was defined by its
love of and embracing of magick.

I would say this is a
regular stakes roll

with a reasonable
understanding of a heading,

unless you offer
me a bleed,

in which I will say
it's a low stakes roll

and you will get something
good no matter what.

NOSHIR: Let's sacrifice
the bleed.

AABRIA: Good man.

NOSHIR: So that brings me
to three.

SAM: Oof.

AABRIA: I love that.

Go ahead and make your roll.

Even a miss will yield
useful information.

NOSHIR: Well then, maybe I
shouldn't sacrifice the drive.

So a gilded Focus with two

means one regular
and one gilded.

AABRIA: Correct.

NOSHIR: A five,
mixed success.

AABRIA: Love it.

You lean and
embrace all of you,

every part of you.

And now that "you" feels
like a "we" in your mouth

as you send your host
out in every direction

and you feel the parts of it.

These are bugs and
vermin, flying things

that live only for a few days
or a few weeks and then die.

But there's this
turnover to it.

They were part of
something more,

they were connected
to the Maw,

and the Maw has been
around for as long

as tales have terrified
children in the Fairelands.

You can feel them,
the ones that move.

I think even now
dropping down,

you still have
a sense of orientation.

You're an academic.

You feel it due west

back towards the Sidle,
your chapter house.

Your vermin, like a
horse given its head,

begin to head home.

The others return to
you, bolster you

and you know the way and
you can feel the buzz

as they move through
the space

and it feels like the buzz
in the back of your throat

and you know you're getting
closer to the thing.

Whatever it was that
was so strong

that it could pull your mother,
Vimala, into this, too.

I think you feel, for the
first time in your long life,

even as you've become
a professor

of the same kind of
archeology that she did,

that maybe for the
first time in your life

you are truly walking
in her footsteps

and begin to drift
to the west.

ASHLY: Does anything,

given that a part of me
absorbed the Maw.

Does anything happen as
he's doing this, to me?

AABRIA: I think the thing
you get most of all

is as that host pushes out
and scatters

and they're all given their
own heading and bearing,

they're not being driven
to fill a space or attack.

The ones that fly past most
of you will move around

and move in directions
searching for information,

but maybe 10, 12% of them
land on you,

crawling across your face,
an affinity.

I think even though
you've absorbed

some part of the Maw,

there's something a little
different at play here

and you'll get
different information

if and when you trust yourself
to lean into your beast.

GINA: There was a voice that
spoke to Madam Glask earlier.

Is there a way that I might
feel words pulling me towards

or trying to connect with
me to show me where to go?

AABRIA: Go ahead and
give me a Sense roll.

GINA: That's a no.
AABRIA: No, not so much?

GINA: No, it's a one.

Madam Glask looks around
and goes: Well, well, well.

SAM: (laughs)

ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: Miss Glask.
GINA: Yes?

LIAM: Cordelia, I--

I am so sorry.

GINA: Upon hearing Cosmo actually
say her name, she rushes over.

She goes: How serious
is this, Cosmo?

LIAM: I would beg
your forgiveness,

but I am scarcely
worthy of it.

GINA: Cosmo, what are you
talking about?

LIAM: What you built over the
years, your home in a day.

I'm so very sorry.

GINA: Oh, Cosmo.

She lays a hand
on his shoulder

and I'm assuming he's
sitting or kneeling.

She kneels down.

Cosmo, you, being the closest
semblance to family I've had

since I was a child, I would
lose it all over again.

Over and over and over again.
You need not be sorry.

You are more valuable than

all the riches and gold
I've made there.

LIAM: You're very kind, child.

All of you are
very good children.

NOSHIR: Yes,
she is very kind.

LIAM: I pull a silver
coin out of a pocket

and it has a worn visage of
a woman's profile on it.

It's at least
a thousand years old.

Maybe it's Iomene,
maybe not, hardly matters.

I turn it over in
my hand a few times,

and look at this place
down here

that I visited
a few times in my life.

I press the coin into the palm
of my hand and close my eyes

and try to see Nokari.

I want to know
where they are.

AABRIA: Give me a Sense roll.

The expectations on this

are that if they are,

there's just such
a high variance.

You are so attuned,
maybe now more than ever,

but it really does depend.

It's kind of a coin flip.

I think you know
that going in.

LIAM: I've very little left,

but I'm going to use
a drive out of friendship.

AABRIA: Before you roll.

We've talked about it
in the terms of that jawbone

that you use as
a bleed detector.

LIAM: Yes.

AABRIA: What does it
feel like, in general,

when Cosmo is in the presence

of a tremendous amount
of bleed

as it suddenly rushes you?

LIAM: I lose all sense of self
for just a moment.

The world bleeds away,

especially in recent years.

My frailty melts

and my consciousness expands

and it feels, just for
a flicker of time,

that I hold all
the city in my heart.

Sometimes, I'm left with

new knowledge
and sometimes not.

But the rush
is always worth it.

Five.

AABRIA: Mixed success.

You feel the bleed
swirl around you

and the tendril of it
reaches out and touches you

and connects you back and up

overhead.

You feel yourself pulled
past The Antiquarian.

You can feel the cracks
in its foundation,

that tremor down the temper

being sufficient
enough to disrupt it.

Your home is broken.
There's no going home again.

Then past it, away,

out past Westwreck,

past the bounds of the city,
up towards the Verge

where the Council
of Lightkeepers

for the Fairegrounds meets.

A lighthouse that

I don't think has ever
appeared on any map to you.

You can feel them there.

They are safe, but agitated.

You feel how full they are.

You feel every
one of those scars.

That feeling on the brink.

One more reach
into the magick,

too close to a thinning,

too close to the Flare
and it will be too much

and they will be undone.

They're agitated
because they're still,

even in this moment,
trying to advocate for you.

They are resigned
because they know they used

the last little measure of

ability they
have in this world

to try to warn you
and defend you.

A debt that Nokari

feels as though
they could never repay

for services rendered
decades ago.

They're okay.

They're not in any danger
of being harmed by Candela.

LIAM: One more loose end.

Well.

GINA: Cosmo.
LIAM: Children,

boy.

SAM: Yes, boy?

LIAM: What shall
we do now?

SAM: Follow?

NOSHIR: West.

Whatever it is we seek,

it is powerful and old

and it is due west.

Perhaps we will have
some answers after all.

AABRIA: Are you
leading the charge?

NOSHIR: I would like to,

but as I finish
speaking to Elsie,

I notice that

the insects that had
flitted past are lingering,

centipedes and
cockroaches rise

up in the ground and
cover her shoes.

ASHLY: What's happening?

GINA: Elsie.
NOSHIR: I don't know what this

behavior is, but they
are seeking something.

Do I notice anything?

SAM: (sneezes)

AABRIA: Bless you.

You're allergic to Oldfaire.

It's very dusty down here.

I think the thing you notice,

without reaching too far

and while moving in
the direction of west,

that there is
a connection here.

You remember the
way Elsie as the beast

destroyed the Maw,

taking some part
of her into it,

and in the same way

that sometimes a pet
will get confused

if it smells
its owner on you,

there's just
a little too much

of a familiar stench to her

that they cannot
help but brush close

as they move forward
in their purpose.

ASHLY: Do I remember doing
this as the beast?

AABRIA: I think now you do.

I think you have
controlled the beast before

and you have watched
helpless behind it,

but you were there
and witnessing

and I think you can
look back into the times

that you've turned and see
the things that you saw there

and realize a bit
that a lot of that

was a desire to look away

and let whatever the
beast would do, do.

But yes, you recall taking a
bit of the Maw into yourself.

ASHLY: What does it mean?

Am I going to be like,

like her?

The nun?

NOSHIR: No, Elsie, I
wouldn't worry about that.

AABRIA: Go ahead and
take a token.

NOSHIR: Your power is
very different.

Perhaps we'll learn
more as we go.

I allow what part of my host
wishes to linger, to linger,

and open my mouth
to allow those

that want to come
home to come back.

(laughter)

AABRIA: I will offer
you something terrible.

As you share that
part of yourself,

finally so trapped
in your fear

of what you'd become
at such a young age,

this is a strange intimacy.

If it comes down to
a moment where Elsie

would take a mark of bleed,

you can, via your shared
host, soak the bleed for her

at your discretion.

NOSHIR: Who has the needle?

AABRIA: It's in the
shared hammer space

of whoever needs
it in the moment.

SAM: Probably someone who
has three bleed like you.

ASHLY: (laughs) Yeah,
maybe we should use that.

NOSHIR: The needs of
the whole versus the few

and I'll use the
needle on myself

if I can to extract
a point of bleed.

AABRIA: So very specifically,
this works not by extracting

extant bleed, but you
leave it in your body

and when new bleed
would flow into you,

it gets siphoned into
the needle instead.

So this will not reduce
you to two bleed,

but it will stop the fourth.

NOSHIR: Great.

LIAM: So you walk around
with it jammed in?

AABRIA: Yeah.

Yeah, it's a nasty game.

(laughter)
GINA: Ugh.

NOSHIR: I open my vest,

put the syringe to my skin,

and allow my insect
host to pull it

deep inside the nest
for safekeeping.

AABRIA: Somehow you made
it worse than I did.

(laughter)

SAM: I don't know,
that's like

the fourth or fifth
grossest thing--

(laughter)

SAM:-- I've seen
on your body.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Okay, don't forget
you also have a second--

Well, you have a group
stylus blade and the doorknob.

ASHLY: Can I ask a question?

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: The doorknob.

ASHLY: I had the doorknob.

Fuck, we should have
gone to the doorknob.

The dream I was having,

is any of that familiar?

Is there parity between
locations at all?

AABRIA: Yes, I think
you feel close,

but in that same way that

when Dr. Savarimuthu

leaned in and felt
an urge to move,

you feel the same thing,
that you're close.

It's like being beside the
right room around the corner,

farther to the west,
closer to the source.

The thing that
the Maw wanted,

whose hunger still
runs through your veins,

farther down, keep going.

I think it's mingled
like a predator

with their blood up

knowing that prey is close,

but also like a going home.

All roads lead
in this direction.

Will you go forward?

SAM: Yes, please.
GINA: To the west.

LIAM: As we start to
roll me out of here,

I, with my one good hand,

reach out this coin and
place it in your palm.

We're in a well,

toss it for luck.

(weak chuckle)

SAM: Make a wish?

That's a good idea.

I don't believe in
any of that stuff,

but tried everything
else, I guess, right?

LIAM: Old habits die hard.

SAM: Hey, I know that,

you know, it's going
to get hairy down there

and you're already
looking kind of rough.

(sighs)

Saying goodbye is
a big part of life

and it's not one that I've,

not something I've
been able to do, ever,

so I guess I'll just,

I just want to say
thank you instead.

Thank you for (sighs)
what I can remember, anyway.

Thank you for being my son,

and my brother,
and my father,

and my grandfather.

Thank you for

showing me what it's
like to live a life.

I didn't get a chance
to grow up, grow old,

have a family, retire,

but you did, and at
least I got to watch,

so thanks for letting me

visit your life and
for giving me a chance

to live it, even from afar.

In some ways,

children are nothing, if not

second chances
for their parents.

Well, you gave me a chance.

LIAM: You were a good father.

SAM: Was I?

LIAM: Oh, yes.

You didn't invite
this upon yourself.

You did the best you
could with what you had,

but if it's to be just you

moving forward,

try not to be
too hard on yourself.

I led a good life.

SAM: You did.

LIAM: I had a good family.

Loved.

Lived.

I read a lot of good books.

SAM: Yeah, yeah.

LIAM: Saw a lot.

They're getting away from us.

Better move
this thing faster.

SAM: Ah, sure, I'll
make a quick wish

and flick it behind me
and push the cart forward.

Now, it's an ice cream cart,
so when it moves, it goes,

♪ ("Pop Goes the Weasel") ♪

No, I'm just kidding.
(laughter)

AABRIA: Yes, yes.

Canon accepted.

There is ice cream and
"Pop Goes the Weasel."

When you flick the coin,
is there intention behind it?

SAM: Yes, yes,
there's a wish.

AABRIA: What do you wish for?

SAM: Oh boy, if you say it,
it won't come true.

AABRIA: Fair.

Okay.

You walk forward

and I think through the sound

everyone filtering
down to the west

and you sitting in the
cart, the sounds of the cart,

the squeak of the
wood, the groan of it all,

you're the only one
that catches that

it never makes a splash.

SAM: Does that mean
anything to me?

AABRIA: I don't know.

What do you--

A moment of intuition,
a very long life,

and a growing recollection
of what you are

in the place that
you go when you go,

but do not pass
into other realms.

In your heart, you
don't hear the splash,

but you feel like the hairs

on the back of
your neck stand up.

What are you afraid is
behind you right now?

SAM: What am I afraid
is behind us?

Whew.

I mean, there's monsters, but

I guess I'm most
afraid that the voice

that I speak to
in my head is there,

that this will
be my last memory.

That the veil will
swallow us up.

AABRIA: Okay.

There's that struggle,

especially with someone
who has lost

and forfeited so much
of your memory.

You can't tell if you
are constructing this one

in this moment,
but you can feel it,

a slender, feminine hand

catching the coin
out of the air

and waiting as you
leave the room,

knowing that even as
she stands behind you,

she knows that
you're moving toward her.

You turn around
or do you keep going?

SAM: Boy, I don't want to see
it if it's something bad, so

I'll start to turn
and then push on.

AABRIA: You feel just
a little warmth of a breeze,

something easily explained
by the space in this room

and the light and
world from up above.

Just a gentle puff
around you,

not pushing you.

You don't need to
be pushed anymore,

but you keep walking.

LIAM: Wiser than Orpheus.

AABRIA: Hmm?

Leading the charge,

I'm going to say that
this is a Move roll.

If anyone wants to assist,
the stakes are thus.

Moving forward, you have
a bearing and a heading,

but the ease with which
you will traverse

this part of Oldfaire,
this unmapped bit,

will come down to how much
you all work together,

so he can roll solo,

or you can contribute
whatever you think is best.

SAM: What kind of
roll is this?

AABRIA: Move roll,
just to navigate

through this tunnel system.

And, I will say,

there are things down here

and they might find you
if you take too long.

You are safer, but not safe,

and success means an easier
way through the dark.

SAM: I'll gladly help,

my friend.
NOSHIR: I would appreciate all

the help I can get.

AABRIA: (gasps)
Did you say friend?

GINA: Aw!
AABRIA: (touched noise)

SAM: No.

(laughter)

SAM: I said my--
NOSHIR: I heard you.

(laughter)

SAM: My end,
I'm looking for the end.

I want to help my own end.

NOSHIR: You know,
at the start,

I didn't know why
you were here.

You felt like such a waste.

You have proven to be a
wonderful surprise, Elder Grimm,

and I look forward to
knowing you better.

SAM: You're not

the worst person
I've ever met.

NOSHIR: Don't hurt yourself.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: Professor,
if you have any insights

that would help us
make a plan moving forward,

or if Madam Glask,

your water talents can in
some way guide us through,

we'll gladly take the help.

GINA: I can only use
Nerve, huh, to assist?

SAM: He's doing
a Move roll, right?

AABRIA: Yeah.
SAM: So yeah.

GINA: I don't have--

AABRIA: I mean, if you can
make a case for something else,

I'll happily allow it.

GINA: I want to see

if the water surrounding
us in this well

can show us any
safe passage or route.

AABRIA: You are walking out
of the main well dome,

so beyond it,
pointing in the direction

you were already moving in,

there's not a lot of
water already around.

But if you want to try
to channel some more,

you could use The Prestige,

if you want, to try
to assist with this.

GINA: I do, yes.

I do want to use
my Prestige to,

I guess, use the moisture in
the air or even put more water

on the ground to
see if there's any

disturbed water ahead,

like if someone's
standing on that water.

AABRIA: Hmm. Oh, that's fun.

Okay. Make your Sense roll.

GINA: Oh boy, okay.

AABRIA: Then we'll
come back to you.

(laughs)

You're always so distraught.

(laughs)
GINA: I know.

I should have put
more drives in her.

AABRIA: Nah.
GINA: Into Intuition.

AABRIA: It's fine. What's
the worst that could happen?

SAM: Next time.

GINA: A mixed success.
ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: Okay.
GINA: Yeah

AABRIA: Go ahead and mark one
bleed because it is a success.

GINA: Madam Glask
closes her eyes

and she channels the sea god.

AABRIA: You reach
for the sea god,

and you feel it,
that problem.

How many times, Cordelia,

have you reached for Katma

in this strange land
and come up with nothing,

come up dry?

You know now.

It's hard to admit,
but you know now,

your gods did not
come with you here.

You did not treat with
the lords of your home

when you made that deal
for power and wealth.

So what do you reach for when
you reach for your gift?

GINA: I reach for an unknown
entity that has always

sat in the back of my mind.

I so desperately wanted,

thought it was
Katma my whole life,

but she's failed me
too many times.

But there was always
some thing back there.

AABRIA: Mm.

GINA: Earlier,
back at the Glass Cat,

when I tapped into that
sentry, she spoke to me.

AABRIA: She did.

GINA: I don't know
who that is.

AABRIA: Yeah.

But now you are looking
in her direction,

and instead of closing your
eyes and wishing for the thing

that it would be,
you are looking at her.

She looks back at you

and moves into a warm,
golden light.

You see smooth,
symmetrical features,

ornate braids covered
with gold and jewels,

long robes wrapped around,

and even facing dead on.

I don't know if you ever
saw the coin that Cosmo held,

but there have been
reproductions of ones like it.

You've lived in
this city for decades,

you'd know that
face in profile.

Some worshiped her as
a god, as a goddess.

She became the Mother
in the Ascendancy's triad.

But a thousand years ago,
she was simply an empress.

Iomene the Everlasting

looks back at you,

leans in, and says,
Finally."

You feel your hands
curve around the damp,

dank, thick air here
and pull water.

It dances across
your fingertips

as easily as breathing.

She sits back, acknowledged,

and you feel yourself move
into your gift more fully.

GINA: It was you.

It was you.

Cordelia doesn't
know whether to

thank her

or fight every fiber in
her being to attack.

It was you.

How could that be?

AABRIA: "I have
waited for so long

"for you,

"all of you.

"Come to me.

"There's much to discuss.

"Do not falter."

GINA: (breaths shakily)

Her eyes roll back, and she

looks at everyone ahead.

She's-- It-- She's there.

With my Sense, I know
that something's there,

can I tell by how
disturbed the water is

how big, how far ahead,

any details?

AABRIA: You hold this
puddle in your hand

and then release it
onto the ground.

You feel the surface
tension of it,

and it feels like it connects
to all the other puddles

and bits of water
in this place.

You feel footsteps

and you feel
something hovering

over the water
but not touching.

You feel a set of four deep,

heavy paw prints

stalking across the ground.

Those moving the most,
those feeling the closest,

but they all feel
like the same thing,

part of something.

Behind you and before you.

GINA: Behind me?

AABRIA: Yeah.

GINA: It's here.

It's here, we're not alone.

We're not alone.
NOSHIR: What did you see?

GINA: We're not alone.

ASHLY: What's here?

GINA: More than one.

Ahead, behind.

I don't know what it is,
but we're not alone.

And a creature of
some sort with it.

SAM: I felt something, too,

but it might just be
trying to confuse us

or turn us around.

I think we just keep
going straight ahead.

LIAM: If there's one
thing I've learned

in my time down here

over the years,
it's that Oldfaire can always

get under your skin.

Most of the time
that's metaphorical,

sometimes it's not.

He pulls out his jawbone.

All right, we're busy
burning darkness here.

Let's go, Oscar!

AABRIA: Does anyone else
contribute a drive

to this Move roll?

GINA: Can I also tell them?

AABRIA: Hmm?
GINA: Can I also tell them,

whatever's ahead of us,
it's strong.

She calls herself Iomene.

NOSHIR: Yes.

She has touched every one
of us in some way or other,

and we are running out time.

LIAM: It's not every day you
get to meet an empress.

GINA: We're going
straight to her.

NOSHIR: Madam Glask, I would
present that we advance,

and if you feel anything
that guides us

to deviate from that path,
we will, with most haste.

But we must move in quickly.

GINA: Of course.
NOSHIR: Fair enough?

SAM: Yeah.
GINA: Yeah.

I keep the water there
just to make sure

if anything changes,
I will be notified.

ASHLY: So it's just drives,
there's no,

if I have a really good
Move, I can help?

AABRIA: You can
make me a case.

What you got?

ASHLY: Well, Move is currently
my best skillset now

since I got my scar,

so I'm just wondering if
there's a way I can assist

since we have this
strange connection now.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: If we can split
while still being connected

and be able to communicate
to each other?

If we could both
make the Move roll?

AABRIA: Okay.

Because group rolls--
Just for ease of use

we'll have one
person rolling,

but I will say that even
without spending a drive

both your action
and your action

will commit a d6
to your roll.

It's a little
weird down here.

NOSHIR: Understood.

So that's three assists?

SAM: You got one from
me in the form of

I gave you a hard candy--

ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM:-- to try to
calm your nerves.

It helps.

GINA: Oh jeez.
(laughter)

SAM: Helps me focus.

NOSHIR: How adorably
pedestrian.

ASHLY: You eat it, Rajan.

SAM: Live a little.
GINA: Oh my god.

AABRIA: (laughs)

SAM: Then there are
their two drives,

so you got three?
ASHLY: Was it two between us

or just one?
A collective one?

AABRIA: So it's one from each.
SAM: One, two, three.

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: Oh okay, great.

GINA: You know what? I'll
give you my last one, too.

ASHLY: Okay, so you
got four then.

ASHLY: No, you can only give one.
AABRIA: No, you can only give one.

SAM: Fine. You're good,

he's good. He's got this.
GINA: What?

ASHLY: You can only
commit one drive.

GINA: Yeah.
ASHLY: You already had done.

GINA: Did I?
ASHLY: Yeah.

AABRIA: Yeah, I'm saying when
we moved to you and I asked

how you were helping
out you used--

GINA: Oh, I did!
AABRIA: Yeah.

GINA: Totally forgot, sorry.

AABRIA: That's all good!

NOSHIR: That's a six
on the gilded.

AABRIA: You love to see it.
SAM: Take that drive.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: Take that drive.

You move forward.

You feel that
connection with Elsie,

you feel that connection
with this group,

and you feel that
connection with yourself.

And for someone who's
prided themselves

on standing away,
on refusing connection,

you cannot deny its efficacy
as you move forward.

I think between
the two of you,

and everything that
was clocked even by you

back in the room,
and you with your water,

and you with your jawbone in
your hand, you can feel it.

There is something
bastille circling you,

waiting for a moment of
weakness in this space

to move forward, to hunt.

But you are not running,
you are approaching,

and as such you have not
marked yourselves as prey.

It continues to
prowl and wait.

Whatever that figure is

at the end of this walk
continues to beckon.

You move forward.

It isn't very much time at
all until you find yourselves

under the crack under
Temper Boulevard.

You can see just the last
bit of light fading

in the day through the
bits of broken asphalt

100 yards overhead,

shining down bits
of weak light.

You continue on.

You're under the Sidle now.

You're past the
edge of the city.

What could be over here?

You remember
Toren Gevni digging

through the ground of the
sanatorium via the Maw.

He was aiming for something.

You can feel it, all of you.

I think you feel the
surge of bleed kick up

before everyone steps
far enough into it

to immediately take
a point of bleed damage.

Do you halt them?

Do you let everyone
move forward?

The jawbone goes
painful and cold

and buzzing and almost
electrical in your hand.

LIAM: I don't think
I say anything.

I've heard them all musing

over her for the last
15 or 20 minutes.

I just prepare to meet her.

AABRIA: Then unmourned,
you walk forward.

Everyone will take
one mark of bleed.

GINA: (sighs) Why?

SAM: Would that include you?

ASHLY: I'm at three bleed.

SAM: Me too.
ASHLY: Oh, fun.

GINA: Oh boy.
AABRIA: Oh, we love it here.

I'm going to stop
keeping track;

we're doing great.

You feel, Raj,

that bleed enter into you.

Instead of finding
purpose and purchase,

it wicks through you

like opening two windows
in a house

and moves into the vial
at the center of the hive

at the center of your chest.

It is full and it
detaches from you,

and it is resting in state
inside you, loaded.

Then you see it:
a massive cavern.

Black, even against
the darkness here,

far outside at
the edge of the city.

There are scrawlings in
Ancient Fairen everywhere.

But those of you
that can read it,

you understand
the franticness of it.

There are words,
"Danger: Go Back"

for those of you
that can translate,

but there are pictograms
for those of you who do not.

How do you explain to people
that might meet this place

in the future and
not speak your language,

that this is dangerous?

Tread no farther.

Symbols and signs.

But you know forward
is correct.

A cave inside a cave

with stalactites
and stalagmites

reaching down,
looking like a giant...

maw.

And more darkness still,
in and beyond.

For those of you
who have studied

the esoterica of Oldfaire,

this is a rumor.

A thing, a place referred to

in legend and hushed tones,

that no one could
confirm was real,

or if they found it,
they never returned.

The Anitithenai.

Rumored at the center of it,

a sarcophagus of smooth,
black, uninterrupted stone,

and within it,

the deathbed of
Empress Iomene.

The radioactivity off of this,
it prickles your skin.

It feels like you are being
burned by the ferocity of it.

But that's the direction.

So what do you do?

SAM: How big is
this sarcophagus?

AABRIA: You don't even
see the sarcophagus.

That is sort of the

rumor of this place.
SAM: Oh, it's just a black--

AABRIA: All you see is
the big cave maw

and then something like
a table or a pedestal with,

it's maybe, if you've got
your depth right,

and it's a little hard to
judge depth in this dark place,

I think your birthday
candles are burning

down at this point.

So if anyone's got a flashlight,
you got to bust that out.

That halfway into
this opening in the cave,

maybe 30 or 40 feet back,

there is
an eight-foot-long table

covered with
some sort of mound.

You don't even think you're
seeing the whole of this place.

GINA: I--

With a sense of
some familiarity,

I approach the mound.

AABRIA: You're going
to move into it?

GINA: Yes.

SAM: I will turn on my beamy.

AABRIA: I'm so sorry.
NOSHIR: (laughs)

SAM: Flashlights don't
exist in this world.

AABRIA: Yeah, you turn
on your beamy.

ASHLY: With your favorite
baseball team on it.

SAM: Mm-hmm, sure.

The Silverslip Swarms.
ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: Maybe it's just an
old timey brand name.

(laughter)

LIAM: It's an electric
torch made by Beamy.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: As you flick
your beamy

over the entrance of this,

you pick up a set
of words carved in,

almost lost to
erosion and time.

Written in Ancient Fairen but
you read it clear as day,

that says, "When one
enters, all are cursed."

(uncertain sounds)

SAM: Yikes.

AABRIA: Do you just rock up?

GINA: Yes. I--
SAM: Go on in.

AABRIA: (laughs)

GINA: I walk up, but I'm
very careful with this.

AABRIA: With what? In
what way are you careful?

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: I've described--

That's being like, "I'm going
to tiptoe into Chernobyl."

(laughter)

GINA: Yeah.
AABRIA: Great.

GINA: It's a sense
of familiarity.

This is someone that's
been with her for so long

that she slowly walks in.

AABRIA: Take another bleed.

SAM: Oh boy.
ASHLY: Oh.

Is that a scar, my friend?

GINA: That's a scar.
AABRIA: Okay.

GINA: That's a little
bit too gung-ho, okay.

AABRIA: You move
in carefully,

but the words were not
a false threat.

This place is bad.

Even through the sense
of familiarity,

you can feel the pain of this
place and it overtakes you.

Your last thought as
you fall to the ground

is of a rushing wave
toward you.

Even as it pools around
you, it surrounds you

and seems to pull you
back like the riptide,

and then you are gone.

You all see her drop maybe
five feet into the mouth

of this terrible place.

ASHLY: Glask.
SAM: Doc?

ASHLY: Just give me a second.

I'll get her up,
I'll get her up.

NOSHIR: You're going
to enter as well?

ASHLY: She needs help.
NOSHIR: Do we have a grapple?

Anything that we can use to
pull her back from safety?

AABRIA: Go and take a token.

ASHLY: I can't leave
her in there, Raj.

NOSHIR: I understand, but
perhaps there is a safer way.

Please don't sacrifice yourself
so willingly, I beg of you.

ASHLY: I'm a doctor,
that's what I do.

I'm going to walk forward.

But I wouldn't know that
she's taken a bleed,

but Ashly knows
if I take a bleed

I'm going to
get another scar.

AABRIA: Oh, now that's fun.

Yeah, no, no, no, let's
stay here for a second.

You walk forward and
you can feel it.

All of that fear.

You're walking into something
painful and dangerous.

You see the signs, the
parts of you

that know you cannot read
Ancient Fairen, read the words.

When one enters all are
cursed and you know fear.

But beyond human fear,

you feel that animal
terror for your own life.

The beast, it feels as though

it sinks its teeth
into your shoulder

and tries to drag
you back and away.

You can go forward,
this thing,

you may not make it,

but the beast is
built differently.

A curse for a curse.

ASHLY: You're saying if I keep
going, the beast will take over?

AABRIA: I'm saying, if you do
not give yourself to the beast,

you will suffer the same
fate as Madam Glask.

ASHLY: I do have an ace in the
hole, if he chooses to use it.

AABRIA: Fair.
SAM: Oh, him.

AABRIA: Do you hold
onto yourself?

ASHLY: I, shaking with fear,

say to the beast,

I am tired of
letting you rule me,

to hold on to this
thin rope of life.

I'm tired of letting
others hurt at your hands.

Get back,

and I take another
step forward.

AABRIA: You take another
step forward.

And that feeling
of your beast

with its teeth
in your shoulders,

you feel it tear through
you as you say back.

And it is helpless
but to obey.

It feels as though it
holds your shoulder.

All the flesh and bone
and sinew of it

in its mouth as you
tear yourself forward

and you step and you take
another bleed, and you feel it.

Too much for one person.

What do you do?

ASHLY: I realize I never
got how much bleed you had.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: You have three,
don't you? Fuck.

AABRIA: And three scars.

ASHLY: Oh no!

NOSHIR: Rajan takes a step.

SAM: I will step
faster than him.

NOSHIR: It doesn't matter.
AABRIA: You have to explain to me

how you know
what's happening.

SAM: Well,
do I see her buckle

or shake or anything
as she approaches?

AABRIA: You see her
step forward,

and yeah, she staggers,

but I don't know if you
know or how you would know

unless you reach towards
something you barely believe in

to see what's happening
between them

and the impossible
choice that they face.

If you want to intervene.

ASHLY: You have three scars.

NOSHIR: Let me
do this, Oscar.

AABRIA: No, this is
not a discussion.

Bullet time.

You stepped forward,
you feel the tug,

and before this adjudicates,
what do you do?

SAM: I would, if I saw
any or sensed any sense

that our doctor, my
friend was going to drop,

I would dash forward and
punch her out of the way.

AABRIA and ASHLY: (laugh)

AABRIA: You run forward.

I need you to
make a Sense roll.

SAM: I have no Sense.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: Fuck.

SAM: I'm not very smart.

AABRIA: Totally fine.

SAM: I got a one and a six,
but it's at disadvantage.

AABRIA: It is.
SAM: So that's the one.

ASHLY: Ooh!

AABRIA: A miss.

SAM: I could burn
a resistance.

AABRIA: This might be
the most important roll.

LIAM: There might be time later.
(laughter)

SAM: I will burn
my resistance

and basically just
reroll, right?

AABRIA: Yeah.
SAM: Two dice, taking the lower.

NOSHIR: Can I offer a drive?

AABRIA: You can, you can.

Flat roll.
SAM: Okay.

Which one was it?

NOSHIR: It's the four.
SAM: Okay.

(laughter)

ASHLY: What was
the other option?

SAM: Five.
ASHLY: Oh.

Both mixed success,
is that right?

AABRIA: Yep.
ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: Mixed success.

Oscar,

you race forward
and you feel it,

something inside you that
snaps to a tether deeper in.

You feel like you're
running through water.

You feel like you
are drowning in bleed.

You feel like you are dying.

But you can see it
just as easily

as you can see the tether
between you and the being

at the end of this
cave, this place.

You see the tether
between these two.

You understand full well
that for either one of them

to take this damage
is disastrous.

You're breathing, labored,
drowning inside this bleed,

in this moment begins
to calm down.

You have that sense
like a tidal flow.

Inhale, exhale, breathe.

And the thing at the end of
your tether breathes with you.

You can do this.

Inhale, exhale.

Take it. Take it from them.

You are the only one
in this world like me.

Eat the sin of this
world and this place.

Take the bleed, you're
the only one that gets up

when it becomes too much.

So as you move forward
in this moment,

there's no punching her out of
the way, she's moved forward.

You've moved into it, too.

Someone here is going
to take bleed.

Either you or her or him.

Who will it be?

SAM: I mean, it's me, 100%.

If I can throw her back into
him, that would be wonderful.

But if I can't and if
I can just use

the Behind Me feature to
absorb her mark for her,

I'll take it.

AABRIA: There have been times
in your long, long life

where you've thrown your
body in the way of problems.

This is that, but this is
more, and it's different.

You don't even make
contact with her.

You reach forward and with
a flick of your wrist,

Elsie goes flying back,
Glask goes flying back.

Even Rajan goes flying
back far enough to safety,

and you keep moving
through, drowning,

breathing in this bleed
and you take it.

Though it would be
enough to level you, too,

the person you have talked to
who talked you through this,

through your tether,
honors your sacrifice,

honors your connection
and your commitment,

and she takes it from you

and it gets pulled back
into the dark

and a being who has spent long
centuries doing just this,

for not a person, but for an
entire empire, takes this away

and you are fine,
standing inside

the mouth of the Anitithenai,

with your friends back
behind you and safe.

SAM: I didn't take a mark?
AABRIA: You did not.

Something deeper did,
for you.

SAM: I'm sure that's fine.

(laughter)
AABRIA: Probably.

ASHLY: We'll pay for
that later, that's fine.

SAM: I'm in the Maw?

AABRIA: You are in the
maw of this cave.

SAM: I turn back to them,
unsure of what just happened

or why I am still standing

and I don't know what to do.

Should I keep going?

LIAM: Take me in, boy.

SAM: Take you?
LIAM: Yes.

SAM: Okay.
LIAM: Yes.

SAM: Okay.
LIAM: Oscar.

It's time.

I'm tired.

If it's not now,
when would it be?

It's all right.

SAM: I'll extend my hands
to my sweet baby

and pull him in with me.

LIAM: I think I will
actually crawl my way up

and out of the cart

and stand next to you

and walk in.

AABRIA: Oh!

It looks as though
Cosmo is walking through

that same thick, viscousness.

Too much blood,
too much water.

It's slow going,
but it does not hurt.

The gravity is
not quite the same.

You make your way in,
join hands with your father

and arrive in short order
at the table in front of you.

You see carved into it,

a full-scale map,
topographical,

of the ancient city
of Oldfaire.

And in it,
different areas, sigils,

alchemical marks explaining

kinds of disaster,

magickal bleed,
like a map of fires.

Then one a little in front
of it and off to the side.

Can you make for me

a Focus roll or a Sense roll?
Your call.

LIAM: Cosmo's one eye
is wrecked,

but the other one goes wide,

forgetting for a split second
what he intended.

Just at the majesty of it.

Sense, you say?

Let's burn a drive.

If not now, then when?

Five on the gilded.

AABRIA: Take one bleed.

You read them, the fires,
but this one in front of you

you can't look away from.

The carvings of it,
the curse of it.

This is a pooling
of the bleed

of the radiation
of this place.

It's allowed to
sit here and fester

to warn people off
from moving further.

But it is a sigil,
it is a symbol.

It is a working of magick,
specific and intentional.

LIAM: In this moment, I would
like to back-to-back use

two of my abilities,
Speak Their Language.

I can speak the language
of any phenomenon I encounter

and my voice begins
to reverberate,

and my vision from one eye
vibrates and blurs,

and I say:
We are your children's

children's
children's children,

sifted down through time.

We would know you better.

And then because
I took a bleed,

I would like to Let Them In

and ask you one question about
the source of the bleed.

AABRIA: Yeah.

LIAM: You, who I have chased
the threads of for so long.

How will my son,

and daughter,

and friend,

and my father

garner your blessing
rather than your ire?

AABRIA: You feel the thing
you reach to break

as you call it Mother,

remind it.

Remind her of her duty,
of her connection,

the rage and pain of her.

That beast that's been
circling you backs away.

In the face of being seen,

truly seen for the
first time in so long.

You feel your attention turned
to the sigil in front of you.

"Change it.

"Change the symbol.
Cancel the effect.

"I would speak to you.

"I have known you
your whole lives

"and watched and
waited and hoped.

"Please,

"my child."

LIAM: I hold up,

in a very weak old
man's hand, the dagger

meant for writing
in the old way.

AABRIA: You speak the words,

you've connected with her.

You've connected
with this language.

There is no roll,
no thing to understand.

You know this like
you know yourself,

like you know the things you've
researched your whole life.

Make your mark.

Simple cuts to cancel.

Simple cuts will cancel it.

If you are ambitious,
maybe more.

What does Cosmo dare at the
end of a long, long road?

LIAM: I, in this
final moment,

will try to win

a god's blessing

for Oscar.

And I begin to carve.

AABRIA: You carve and you cut

and though your
father made a wish

and did not share it with me,

I think you're making
a wish now, too.

And I want to know,
Cosmo Grimm,

what hope do you put

into your carving?

Abjuration, of course.

Blessing, yes?

Anything else?

LIAM: Let the Grimms' story

have its end.

AABRIA: You carve.

SAM: If I see his arm falter,

I'll take it and help him,

help him make
the last few cuts.

AABRIA: With the
last few cuts,

you feel something
bigger and heavier

than what you originally
intended take effect.

This place shakes and
trembles with the power

of what you have dispelled,
and all of you can feel it.

The bleed softens,

and you can move forward,

and the path is laid for you.

A being beckons you forth

without reservation
to answer,

to end the story.

All of you together.

I think at this point,

Madam Glask comes back
to herself, rising.

What scar has she taken?

SAM: Oh boy.

GINA: She coughs up water.

(gagging coughs)

Foam all over.

(whispered) What? What happened?

Her scar, her
waters have filled--

Her lungs have
filled with water

and she can only speak
in a whisper now.

She is an unkind goddess.

SAM: We'll see about that.

So far she's been okay.

NOSHIR: She's certainly shown
you great mercy, Cordelia.

GINA: I sure hope so.

Or so you think.

Do I erase my bleed?

AABRIA: Hmm?
GINA: I erase my bleed, right?

AABRIA: Yes.
GINA: Okay.

AABRIA: What stats
did you move?

GINA: I removed
one from Sway.

GINA: I removed
one from Sway

to--

SAM: Water.
(laughter)

GINA: My lungs are
pretty shot now.

AABRIA: Yeah.
GINA: That means I cannot

speak as well as I used to,

and I can move it
to whatever I want?

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.
GINA: Got it. Okay.

Let's go to Sense.

AABRIA: Okay.

You move in.
Does everyone go?

SAM: I think it's safe,
if you two are okay.

NOSHIR: Is Elsie up and--

ASHLY: I never took
the bleed, so.

AABRIA: Yep.

ASHLY: Sorry.

NOSHIR: You don't ever
apologize to me.

ASHLY: We follow him.

AABRIA: Everyone
moves forward.

You move from room to room,

you feel something
turn your gaze

as you pass by rooms
full of curiosities

and treasures and
writings and sigils.

"No, not that way.

"Down here farther, to me."

Then you find yourself

standing outside
a massive set

of gold doors

carved with impossibly
small depictions

of a centuries long life.

Five panels, five sections
built into the wall.

Five panels, five sections
built into the wall,

into the doors.

Five sets of rituals,

each corresponding to a name.

The Everlasting,

the rituals that had
gave her such long life.

The Lady of Light.

You see her hands
spreading out,

sharing, moving her
magick into the world

like electrical poles

spreading out
power to the city.

The Bane of Empires,
a terrible hand reaching out.

Weapons and armies falling

at the feet of Oldfaire.

Unblinking, this is
the one you understand.

She sits on a throne,
breathing bleed,

inhaling all of the
poison of her world

and exhaling pure air,

dying,

her body locked in
a rictus of pain,

of death and rebirth again
and again and again,

losing herself to
the suffering of it.

The Vengeful at the bottom.

These ones carved with
a little more ferocity.

This is not the story

that Iomene tells of herself.

This is a cautionary tale

placed by the one
that put her here.

Emperor Calinus and Aku

locking her away.

The doors stand there ready.

You know they're unlocked.

You can feel the pressure
of this place

and the answers to
your lifelong questions

on the other side
of one last door.

But I can't make you go
through it. That's on you.

LIAM: I think Cosmo
in this moment

is aware that he is dying,

and taking some satisfaction
from being on his feet.

He places a very weak hand
on the door and pushes,

knowing it is not
strong enough to push.

SAM: I will push with him,

but my hand on his hand so

sort of feels like
he's doing it.

GINA: Oh, Cosmo.

SAM: You got this, son.

ASHLY: I reach for
Rajan's hand.

NOSHIR: With my other hand,
claw, I suppose,

I gesture to Madam Glask.

You can lean on me,
if you need to.

ASHLY: I put my free hand on
the door next to Cosmo's.

GINA: I take Cosmo's arm

to help him stay up

and I put my other--

Oh, that's broken.

I hold onto him.
SAM: Oh shit.

AABRIA: You push together.

The Circle of Tide & Bone,

standing finally in
front of the mystery

at the heart of all of their
mysteries, beyond assignment.

The question that has driven
you to Candela and from it.

You open the door,

and find each of you alone.

So we're going to take
this one at a time.

We're going to
start with Rajan.

NOSHIR: Hmm.

AABRIA: You find yourself
in the darkness.

They are gone now.

She's gone now.

There is only the one,

the thing, the siren

that called your mother forth

down into Oldfaire

to find something,

a weapon to end the war,

a way forward and
through for her family

that she loved so much.

She could not commit
to the dust

to which she was consigned

in a moment of
tremendous violence.

She came back for you.

She sacrificed it all
for all of you.

You have walked in her steps
and they have led you here

in front of a woman,

tall and proud and cold.

And maybe it's because

after so long and
losing her so young

you started to forget the
face of your mother.

But in that, Iomene
reminds you a little bit

of Vimala, too.

"My child.

"You made it.

"You found me.

"What's wrong?"

NOSHIR: I strayed so far,

thinking that I was walking
in my mother's footsteps.

Sin-Eater.

AABRIA: "Yes. You know me."

NOSHIR: My mother wasn't
looking for a weapon.

She was looking for a cure.

AABRIA: "For what?
I need you to say it.

"I need to know
you understand."

The flies around you
pour out of you and off you.

You feel hollow and empty.

Smaller by the moment.

NOSHIR: She was trying
to keep me safe,

to keep her children safe.

A world without bleed,

without abominable sickness.

AABRIA: "Yes."
NOSHIR: And supernatural war.

AABRIA: "An ambitious goal."

NOSHIR: She was
always a dreamer.

AABRIA: "(chuckles)

"She is lost to even me now.

"Gone beyond
to a place I cannot go."

NOSHIR: And
what of my sister?

AABRIA: "Aadtika.

"Lost,

"but not forever.

"She is caught

"in a place you call
a thinning.

"Trapped, but not lost.

"Would you find her?

"How much more of yourself
would you give away

"in order to regain the
things you think you've lost?"

NOSHIR: I don't know how much
of me is left to give,

but we would
pay a heavy price.

AABRIA: "I do love a bargain.

"Give to me
what you have left,

"what little of you
still holds honor.

"I will bend my power

"and bring her forth.

"But I haven't
the strength to do it

"without a cost to be paid."

NOSHIR: I wrestle
with the idea

of bringing Aadtika back

to a person she
does not recognize.

I won't let this
all be for nothing.

I will pay your price.

AABRIA: "Then it's time
to come home, my child.

"You've done so well,

"suffered more than most."

And she opens
her arms to you.

Three steps away

from a trade that you
cannot take back,

but you know her
word to be true.

Aadtika will be free,
returned to the world,

to a life made comfortable
by your family's sacrifice.

to a life made comfortable
by your family's sacrifice,

by your hard work.

Unblemished.

A chance.

Three steps.

NOSHIR: Unbidden by me
as I take my first step,

it's now become
second nature.

I start to recite:

I stand upon the shore

and seek a distant land.

Salt upon my tongue,

my skin burned
smooth with sand.

And I remember

that long ago,

there was someone
else I cared for.

Days spent

with Cordelia

as she tried to help me

find a way to bridge the gap.

Those days seem
long gone now.

Another step.

The wind sings out her name

and wicks away my tears.

My heart slows with the tides

and quiets as she draws near.

And I hesitate.

Will I remember her?

AABRIA: "The part of
you that will continue

"can never forget.

"Not forever."

NOSHIR: Good.

I take my final step.

AABRIA: Into her arms, outstretched.

She embraces you.

It's warm and it reminds you

of being a young boy,

swaddled and held
by your mother.

NOSHIR: (inhales deeply)

AABRIA: And everything
beyond her, beyond this,

doesn't matter
because this is okay.

Whatever version of you
may or may not go back

into the world, it doesn't
matter because this is okay.

This was a good sacrifice,
a worthy trade.

And you, in your
final moments,

know that you are a good man.

And then you let go.

Oscar.

You find yourself
standing in front of her.

You see her now,
more than just a voice

and a shape and a form
in the darkness.

She's always called to
you between the veil

and you feel
yourself here again.

So I don't think
there's any fear to it.

You've done this
seven times now?

"Cary?

"Oscar?"

SAM: I mean, most
people call me Cary.

AABRIA: "(laughs)

"Grimmok?

"Or have you put
that away, too?"

SAM: I honestly
don't remember.

AABRIA: She reaches forward,

quickly, but not to strike,

and puts her hand
on your cheek.

And you feel it all
come rushing back.

Here, now, for the
first time in 87 years,

you are whole again.

You remember them.

Iris and Cora.

Even your dog, Bruiser.

SAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: Quentin, and everyone
you lost on that ship,

on the day you were
just in the wrong place

at the wrong time.

"Welcome back."

SAM: (sighs) Thank you.

It's been a
while since I've--

(sighs)

Wow.

It's been a while since
I've been me and--

(sighs)

Is this a reward,
a punishment?

Is this a reward?
A punishment?

Did I do something
wrong to deserve this?

AABRIA: "No.

"No.

"Even I don't think
that the universe

"cares enough either way
to reward or punish.

"I'm so sorry.

"I have to ask something
so terrible of you.

"But you are the only person
that I've ever known

"in my too-long life
that was like me.

"I can't die."

SAM: It's the worst,
isn't it?

AABRIA: "(laughs)
It's the worst.

"I'm sorry I took your
memories from you.

"I thought it was
for the best.

"Over my years,

"it hurt too much
to hold it all.

"I split myself, my breath,

"three ways.

"A body, this,

"locked here to do the work

"that I committed myself
to over 1,000 years ago.

"To breathe the bleed,
to take as much as I could.

"To die again and
again and again

"for the ambitions
I had for my home.

"My rage and my pain

"I carved into a beast
that prowls this place.

"What little
hope I have left,

"I split off into a child.

"But the good in
me is gone now.

"Gone into the world,

"beyond where even
I can find it.

"The work still must be done.

"There is still magick.

"You're the only one like
me in the whole world.

"Will you stay?

"Will you help me?"

SAM: Oh.

Oh. (soft laugh)

AABRIA: "What did you
wish for?"

SAM: (scoffs)

I wished for...

I wished for death,

but not for me.

I mean, sure, it would
be nice for me,

but I really,

(sighs) I don't care
anymore about

my memories or my past

or the life I would've lived.

I just want Cosmo to be--

I just want him to be--

(sighs) I want him to have
the blessing of being alone

for a moment, a day, a month.

I want him to be his own man.

Just once.

I want him to remember me.

A father is nothing

unless he has a child to
look at him and think of him.

I just wanted him to be okay.

Will he be if
I stay with you?

AABRIA: "Yes."

SAM: He won't worry about me?

AABRIA: "I cannot presume
to know everything,

"but I know what I've seen.

"He is smart and he is strong
and he got that from you.

"He is okay.

"He will be okay.

"And I'm not just saying that

"because I want so
desperately to not be alone.

"It is true. (sniffles)

"You did the best you could.

"Your circumstances
were impossible.

"I wish I could
offer you rest.

"But I can't,
I don't know enough.

"Not yet.

"But I promise, if you stay,
if you agree to stay,

"I will shield you from
the passage of time.

"You will not be alone.

"And if some point in
the future occurs

"where freedom for this
curse lies for both of us,

"we will go wherever it
is you go next, together."

SAM: I think that's
a fair trade.

Tell me one thing, though.

AABRIA: (sniffles)

SAM: You like baseball?

AABRIA: "(laughs)"

She falls to her
knees, sobbing.

"(sniffles) Yes, I do."

SAM: Maybe we could
talk about it, I guess.

Pass the time?

AABRIA: "It would be nice to
have someone to watch with.

"11 innings."

SAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: "It's a long time."

SAM: I know.

AABRIA: "Even for me."

(muffled laughter)

(continued muffled laughter)

SAM: Where do I go now?

What, do I just
stand with you or--

AABRIA: She pushes herself
up to her feet,

wipes her tears.

I think you have seen
the humanity in Iomene

that's been gone for so long,
it's a memory and a myth.

She reaches out,
not as a mother or a goddess,

just a partner,
for your hand,

and looks out
towards the darkness

with a bit of unsureness,

but at least
she will not be alone.

SAM: But he will be, right?

AABRIA: "Yes.

"He's earned it."

SAM: Okay.

AABRIA: You take her hand
and you walk past,

through somewhere deeper,

and begin your work,

and fade.

Madam Glask.

Cordelia.

You find yourself
in front of a goddess.

She holds herself away

and regards you,

in a mirror of
your curiosity and distance.

"Hello."

GINA: Hello, old friend.

AABRIA "(sniffles)
I'm sorry."

GINA: I'm glad that
I can finally--

No.

You need not be sorry,
I wished this upon myself

without knowing
the consequences.

AABRIA: "No, no.

"You didn't ask for this.

"What happened to you
on that ship, the wreck,

"an accident.

"No divine decision.

"But I have limits
to what I can do.

"And in a moment of
great suffering,

"I did what I could
to offer you

"a wish in exchange
for what you'd lost.

"Pardon my deceit."

GINA: (sighs)

I've come to find that

all of it,

all the gold and pearls
and diamonds never,

never filled the aching
and longing of a home.

Every self-proclaimed lothario
that walks through my doors

giving me a sense
of temporary belonging,

it was never worth it.

My heart--

My person, my
stomach is full,

but my heart and my
soul are still so empty.

There is no home here.

And I've learned that now.

AABRIA: "This place
is a difficult land.

"This world is not easy.

"But I'm sorry.

"I cannot offer you this.

"It is beyond my purview.

"It is not that home is
beyond you, beyond this,

"but it's something.

"The only value in it is
what you make for yourself.

"You made a home
for your girls."

GINA: Then,

may I ask

that if you can be so kind,

may I ask for just one more?

One more favor from the gods.

AABRIA: You feel
a pulse around you.

Where five stood,

you feel two fewer, gone.

"In the terms
with which I deal,

"the price has been offered.

"I've strength enough.

"What do you want?"

GINA: The little girl.

AABRIA: "Mina?"
GINA: Mina.

I gave her a piece of,

a piece of you.

AABRIA: "No."

GINA: A necklace.
AABRIA: "You gave her

"a piece of you."

GINA: I only ask

to let the sea reclaim me

and unite me with my kin.

AABRIA: "You would not stay?"

GINA: For her, no.

I ask

that your calm waters
wash away her sins.

She's too young.

If she does have to
live this life again,

I hope that she's graced
with a loyal friend.

That is all I ask.

AABRIA: "Yes.

"I am sorry

"that I'm not the
gods of your home.

"They are blessed

"by the devotion of you.

"I will watch over her

"and smooth the way."

GINA: Then I am
finally fulfilled.

AABRIA: She opens
her arms to you.

"Three steps."

GINA: She takes one step

for Mina.

She takes a second step

for Samantha,

Liamel, Noshira,

and Ashlyn.

And the last step

for her dear friend Cosmo.

AABRIA: "He too is blessed
to have been loved by you."

As she embraces you,

you feel that sea foam
and water in your lungs

choking, grows
light and buoyant.

Then you are the sea foam,
light and buoyant.

You look up

and the sun is
setting over you,

gold and orange and red,

and it's beautiful
and peaceful.

You are here,
staring back at Mina

as she looks into the sea,

and you are lapping
gently at sunrise

at the islands of your home,

and you're at peace.

GINA: With a gentle wave

and ever so slight whisper,

I hope Mina hears: Home.

AABRIA: You know from the
startled look on her face

that she does.

And then nothing.

You find yourself

in a dark space

with a deity,
a queen, an empress

who prowls around you,
watching you.

She sees the ferocity
in your eyes.

[growling]

You do not know if the growl
you hear or feel is her

and the beast that she is,

or you and the beast
that you are.

But you are seen.

"Elsie."

"You found me.

ASHLY: What did I find?

AABRIA: "A person
locked and trapped

"by their own making."

She reaches up and undoes
the top of her robes.

Open just a bit,

and you see markings
and carvings,

sigils and alchemy
carved deep into her.

Hundreds of years
of experiments,

searching for answers,

for cures.

"We are not that different."

ASHLY: You're
searching for death.

I've been searching for life.

AABRIA: "What do you want?

"A cure for cullet?

"A cure for yourself?

"Regaining the status?

"Pride of place?

"What do you want?

"You're a doctor.

"Is it to heal the world

"or heal yourself?

"You've come this far.

"What do you actually want?

"There is no one
but us here now.

"No one to pretend for.

"No one to hold back for.

"Be yourself, be the beast.

"I hold it all and bear it
all and understand it well."

You see behind her,
a creature.

It looks like
a human and an owl

and a jungle cat, but larger.

A vessel, a monster prowls

and you know that
you are looking at her.

She is that, too.

ASHLY: I want to heal,

to right my wrongs, my sins.

But I'm so afraid

to die.

AABRIA: "Is it the unknown?

"What do you fear?

"You've known pain and death.

"You've known suffering.

"What is there to fear
in one more door?"

ASHLY: That in my life,

all I've known is greed,

and then pain and suffering

with one brief respite.

But I can tell,

he's gone, isn't he?

AABRIA: "Yes.

"I can return
the shape of him

"if that is some
comfort to you,

"whole and restored.
But he is gone.

"Somewhere I cannot go."

ASHLY: What will it cost

to heal those that
are like me,

Mina, her loved ones,

from this disease?

AABRIA: "The problem--"

You see her extend up,

and you feel her senses
reach out and around

beyond this place,
up into the world.

"This is not magick,

"simply the doings of mankind

"and the cruelties we invent

"when we are afraid
for ourselves

"and the ones that we love."

ASHLY: So you can do nothing?

AABRIA: "I can
offer you time."

ASHLY: With the beast?

AABRIA: "You had
the beast with you

"the whole time.

"You simply brought it forth.

"But,

"with time,

"many things are
solved with time

"and patience and care
and discipline."

ASHLY: I don't know
if I'm capable.

AABRIA: "The others I've met

"that know you and love you,

"they know."

ASHLY: So you'll send me
back just as I was,

but a little bit more alone?

AABRIA: "I can send you forth
through the veil with him,

"with all the sins
and the wrongs

"that you have weighing
on your heart,

"if that's what you want.

"Or I can send you back
with a ritual."

[beast snarl]

"The things written
in that tome.

"The others out there,

"they are not unkillable,
but they have time.

"If they are careful,
they have time.

"And a great many things
can be solved with time.

"I would offer that to you--"

[soft beast snarl]

"-- because you brought
them here.

"You protected them
with your beast.

"You healed them
with your gifts,

"and saw them safely to
the end of their mission."

ASHLY: I was never very good.

I was always quite selfish.

And I find that it leaves
a poor taste in my mouth now.

Send me back.
Give me the time.

AABRIA: "Okay.

"Good luck."

ASHLY: If I fall back
on old ways,

will you be watching?

AABRIA: "I will watch
regardless,

"as I always have.

"And everyone,

"those who have left you,

"those who have yet
to meet you and know you

"will watch you

"and hope for you to be
the best version of yourself.

"Elsie Roberts,
you can change the world,

"but that's on you.

"If you are worried,

"that you will return to
chaos and imprisonment.

"I can offer boon enough

"to remove Candela Obscura
from your trail.

"to remove Candela Obscura
from your trail."

And in your hands,
you feel a sudden sinking

as a heavy, heavy tome.

The outside solid gold,

and the thin vellum covered
in markings and writings,

Ancient Fairen
that you can read now.

An Auric Tome of your own.

"The ritual's simple enough.

"And if you give them that,

"they will be in your debt
for a very long time.

"Your beast is your own.

"Tame it
or lose yourself to it.

"Just stop treating it
like it's not a part of you.

"Just stop treating it
like it's not a part of you."

[beast snarl]

"You contain multitudes.

"You decide

"what to do, who to be,

"but it's all you,
and it always has been."

ASHLY: Thank you.

AABRIA: This being
understands

that in you, she sees
a kindred spirit

and regards you not as a
loving mother offering peace,

but as a peer.

Gives you a nod of respect.

And you are gone.

And you find yourself, Oscar.

Cosmo.

You find yourself
not in a dark room,

but sitting in
the sunny parlor

of The Antiquarian,

and across from you,
a goddess

who pours you a cup of tea.

"Hello."

LIAM: Hello.

AABRIA: "I figured

"I owed you a little more

"than a conversation
in a dark room."

LIAM: Do you know I've read
a great deal about you?

You see?

AABRIA: "I do.

"I have notes."

LIAM and ASHLY: (laugh)

AABRIA: "I think I'm painted
to be a bit more of a bitch

"than I think I am."

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: "But then again, they
did lock me in a ziggurat.

"So who's to say?"

LIAM: Well, I don't know
that I've met any one person

who is any one thing.

AABRIA: "No.

"You've learned so much.

"I don't know if I
have a right to be,

"but I am very proud of you."

LIAM: Oh.

AABRIA: "You've searched
for a very long time,

"dedicated your life
to your family.

"You've made a family

"so vast and wide and broad,

"both blood and the bonds
of fraternity and friendship.

"Cosmo, do you know
how loved you are?"

LIAM: I have been fortunate
in this world.

My father

considered himself cursed

for his lack of memory,

but (chuckles)

I've been blessed
with so many.

I can remember

our little family long ago,

and gosh, I've lost
track of the circles.

There was Gilded Glass,

and Serpent & Thrush.

Circle on the Hill
maybe was my favorite.

AABRIA: "Yeah.

"That sounds very nice."

LIAM: It was.

I have my missteps,
of course,

but who can't relate?

AABRIA: "Even I can relate.

"I think on the whole,

"you've done
an excellent job."

LIAM: I think at this stage,

I may be able to let go.

But I am curious,

I always have been.

AABRIA: "Yeah."
LIAM: I'm curious

what will happen
to my father now.

AABRIA: "(exhales)

"Out of the tremendous
kindness of him,

"he's agreed to stay
and help me.

"You get it.

"Right? What I do, what I am,
and why I stay?"

LIAM: I have theories.
AABRIA: (laughs)

AABRIA: "Better than most.

"I'm sorry.

"Even I don't know
how to free him.

"But he is safe.

"I hope he is happy.

"And I hope that someday
in the future,

"we will both be free,

"and hopefully the world
is a little better

"for the work that
we put into it."

LIAM: I hope you do too.

I feel very old.

Not as old as Oscar.

Not as old as you.

AABRIA: "Okay, rude."

ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: "I think

"if you are ready,

"you can let go.

"He can let go.

"You know, that was
the trick of it.

"I looked for so long.

"Even I couldn't untangle it,

"not until you were here,
not until you were close.

"He wasn't holding onto you.

"It wasn't that you
were holding onto him,

"you were holding
onto each other

"for exactly as long
as you needed to.

"I know you are tired.

"Your rest is well earned."

LIAM: Look at us all.

All like little candles
in the dark.

AABRIA: "Yeah."

LIAM: I've enjoyed my
little bit of light.

Perhaps it's time
to put the wick out.

AABRIA: "Yes.

"Whatever comes next,

"I do not know of a person
in this world

"or the others I have
not discovered yet

"who is more equipped
for the mystery

"and adventure of
wherever comes next."

LIAM: Wherever it may be,
fair or far.

AABRIA: "You've done well."

She's going to
come over to you,

and she holds your
face in her hands,

fingers covered in gold.

She covers your
mouth and your nose

and places a gentle kiss
over her fingers.

Breath binding.

A last act of respect

for the venerated
who have passed.

She will stay with you

for as long as you
wish to stay here.

LIAM: Oh, it doesn't
take long.

I feel a familiar
swirl of thoughts.

I wonder this, maybe that.

How will they?

But ultimately,

I just let it go.

AABRIA: The darkness
holds you gently.

And we come back finally.

And in the place
where five once stood,

only one remains,

only one returns
home to Oldfaire,

and then up,
guided to Newfaire.

Tome in hand,

alone,

to continue, to remember.

There isn't a lot of
time or space left

for an epilogue,

but is there anything
else we should know

about Dr. Elsie Roberts as
she returns to the world?

ASHLY: I think
several years go by.

The Antiquarian,
which was destroyed,

or at least terribly
damaged from the quake,

has been repaired.

Elsie doesn't live there
anymore, she can't afford it.

AABRIA: (laughs)

ASHLY: She lives amongst
Mina and her people.

She's found a place nearby,

and somehow knew

that wherever Madam Glask is,

she would not forgive her
if she left her on her own,

so they're sort
of a strange duo.

Mina has become somewhat
of a lab assistant.

She hasn't cured it,

but she's found a way to
let people live with it.

The beast

has taken on a slightly
different shape.

Things that remind
someone of an insect

and things that
reference water.

Every so often,
there is a report.

Something gets destroyed,

a business gets smashed in.

But for the most part,

the beast has become

a strange playmate for Mina.

AABRIA: In passing,
at some point,

you see her,

a woman that looks
so much like Rajan,

it is uncanny.

You put it together, the
pieces of the things he lost,

what he was willing
to trade away

to preserve and save.

I couldn't presume to know if
that is peace enough for you,

but I think you would agree

that it is peace
enough for him.

The world continues,

and the circle lives on
through all the things you do

and be and make and
put into the world.

And from wherever they
are, they watch.

And wherever Oscar
and Iomene are,

they watch.

Do you give yourself time?

Do you use the book?

ASHLY: (sighs)

No.

AABRIA: Beautiful.

We're all just
candles in the dark,

and you create
a beautiful flame

with the time you have left.

And that's where we will end

the story of the
Circle of Tide & Bone.

(sighs) I've been your
DM, Aabria Iyengar.

(clapping)

AABRIA: I wanted to pass it
around one more time

to truly the
most amazing table.

Let's start with you.

NOSHIR: I'm Noshir Dalal,

playing
Professor Rajan Savarimuthu.

SAM: I've been Sam Riegel,
playing Oscar "Cary" Grimm.

(laughter)

AABRIA: You got it in there.

GINA: I am Gina Darling
playing Madam Glask,

and also did not know
that we can choose to live,

but you know, whatever.

(laughter)

GINA: Like I saw two die, I'm
like, "Oh, I guess I go, too."

ASHLY: Oh no!
GINA: Then I see her live.

I'm like, "All right."

(laughter)

ASHLY: Oh no!

NOSHIR: Come on, Gina,
everybody's doing it.

GINA: I know!
(laughter)

ABRIA: Peer pressure really
caught you on that one.

GINA: Oh yeah,
I'm a perfect mark.

AABRIA: Damn.
ASHLY: Shit.

AABRIA: Unfortch.
ASHLY: Well,

I'm Ashly Burch, and
I played Dr. Elsie Roberts,

the only survivor.
Sorry, man. Shit.

GINA: Well, thanks for
taking care of Mina.

ASHLY: Yeah, well, I think it
was the least I could do.

Oh my god.
(laughter)

AABRIA: That's the actual
most heartbreaking thing.

ASHLY: Yeah!
(laughter)

AABRIA: Just dang, wait a second.
ASHLY: A choice, she wants

to go back to her family.
I didn't think you, oh no.

GINA: I'm floating and my
spirit's floating in the ocean,

like, "Oh shit."

(laughter)

GINA: I could have gone--
All right.

You know, whatever, man.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Incredible.
ASHLY: That's so funny.

(laughter)

LIAM: Hello.

AABRIA: Yeah!
(laughter)

LIAM: I am Liam O'Brien,

and in the course of playing
this game of Candela,

I have fused with
Oscar Grimm.

(laughter)

LIAM: Cosmo Grimm! I've messed
it up just like you did.

(laughter)

LIAM: I'm too old,
there's too many details.

(laughter)

LIAM: Oh, it's time to rest.

(laughter)

AABRIA: That's it. (sighs)

We will return with
another chapter,

another circle
and another story.

But until then,
take care of yourself.

Be a flame in the darkness,

and is it Thursday yet?

LIAM: Oh yes.
SAM: That's great.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Yay!
(clapping)