The morning of the Purity Edict finally arrived. After everything that had brought them to Palperroth, the group awoke rested, prepared, and painfully aware that the day ahead could change the Wandering Isles forever. Before anything else, they gathered to discuss the strange dream they had shared during (Session 103). Whatever its meaning, there was no longer time to dwell on it. Remington was still going to die unless they intervened, and the plan they had spent so long preparing now had to become reality.
Dash Heidmann disappeared briefly to change, returning in the strange black suit they intended to use during the operation. Rather than simply walking back into the room, Dash decided to test exactly how effective it was and slipped in unnoticed. Eldrin Drosk caught movement at the edge of his vision and, already on edge, reacted immediately. When Dash suddenly appeared behind him, Eldrin grabbed him, mistaking the masked figure for a genuine threat. Once the misunderstanding was resolved, however, the reaction proved exactly what Dash had hoped: the suit worked. Eldrin examined the material and described it as a shadow's shadow given form, something beyond ordinary darkness. It did not simply appear black; it seemed to possess a unique absence of light, as though something should have occupied that space but simply did not.
Preparations continued throughout the morning. Eos Tintreach decided that Duckie needed to be moved somewhere safe before the group approached the square, and she also wanted to purchase a journal while there was still time. Eldrin accompanied her through the city, helping her navigate Palperroth and safely move Duckie onto the ship after bringing Duckie back above ground. Meanwhile, Dash sought out Nessa Quill and arranged falsified records for his latest identity, "Dorian Hawk", ensuring there would be something behind the name if anyone decided to investigate it. Boreal Paleclaw, having little left to prepare personally, remained in bed and waited for the others to finish putting the pieces into place.
As the appointed hour drew closer, Eldrin gathered everyone again and asked whether there were any final preparations that needed to be made. His attention also turned toward Latch. They knew Latch could assume other identities, but recognising him once he had done so was another matter entirely. Boreal suggested using a codeword to verify one another's identities. After some discussion, Dash proposed the phrase "The birds are quiet", with the expected response being "they've flown away". Eos immediately became concerned that Boreal might find the choice offensive, given that he was quite literally a bird person, but the code was accepted nonetheless.
With that, there was nothing left to do but go. The group assembled, collected themselves, and began the walk toward the execution and the public announcement of the Purity Edict. Win or lose, they understood what the day represented. If they succeeded, they would openly defy the Crown and rescue one of the most important magical figures in the Isles. If they failed, Remington would die before an enormous crowd and the Sun King would have exactly the spectacle he wanted. Either way, everything changed today.
Near the square, they held one final discussion about where everyone should position themselves. Dash attempted to solve the invitation problem by simply stealing one from someone entering the ceremony. He moved through the crowd, selected what appeared to be an important but manageable target, and reached for what looked like documentation protruding from the man's pocket. His hand was caught. The man turned, revealing himself to be Ilveg Thornthrower, leader of the Crisis Response Unit. Dash immediately improvised, claiming he had only noticed that Ilveg's pocket was loose and had been trying to help prevent something from being stolen. The lie somehow held. When asked his name, Dash introduced himself as Dorian, narrowly escaping a disastrous mistake with both his cover and his freedom intact.
While Eos considered whether there might be another way into the square, Eldrin studied the guards, wondering whether he could imitate one of them or exploit some inconsistency in their security. Dash reminded the others that he already had access to Mirelle Vaudrelle's private box overlooking the square, but Eldrin remained caught between two conflicting concerns: being positioned too far away to help when the plan began, or standing so close that he would immediately be caught in whatever followed.
Eldrin decided to perform one final test. He began walking across the street as though nothing unusual was happening. When he reached the middle, he glanced toward a pigeon above him and quietly uttered a single supernatural instruction beneath his breath, compelling the bird to approach him. The pigeon changed course, flew down, and landed directly in front of him. Eldrin calmly bent down and picked it up, checking its leg to see whether it was a racing pigeon before gently smoothing the feathers on its head and releasing it again. Throughout the entire exchange his attention remained divided, constantly scanning the street for anyone who might have noticed what he had done. Nobody appeared suspicious. Dash eventually wandered over to confirm that the test had worked, receiving little more than a nervous nod from Eldrin.
Dash then entered the building overlooking the square and made his way toward Mirelle. The others moved into their own positions as the clock continued its relentless approach toward midday. Further down an alleyway, away from immediate attention, Eos embraced Boreal before placing a powerful protective ward around him, layering unseen magical protection across his body that would absorb incoming harm. Eldrin followed by placing another enchantment upon Boreal, ensuring that ordinary restraints, impediments, and restrictions would have far less ability to interfere with his movement. Lysa Sablewood climbed onto a nearby building to establish a vantage point of her own.
Eos asked Boreal whether he was ready to disappear. Boreal wrapped himself in magic until light seemed to pass around him and his form vanished from sight. Eos did the same, erasing herself from view. With nothing more left to prepare, Boreal looked toward the others and said, "pray for me", before taking flight and climbing high above the square.
Six minutes remained when the Sun King began approaching the stage. A large hooded figure soon appeared as well, almost certainly the executioner. Beside him walked a smaller hooded prisoner who could only be Remington. From Mirelle's gathering above the square, Dash feigned illness and excused himself, slipping down the stairs where he rapidly changed into the outfit of Lucius Shadowbane. Concealed by the strange light-devouring suit and mask, he settled into a hidden vantage and began studying the crowd below.
Familiar faces were everywhere. Dash spotted the former security guard from the school. Further back stood Drel Morrix, wearing his human appearance. Latch was present as himself, pale and undisguised, leaning casually against one of the pillars. Ironclad was almost impossible to miss, his enormous armoured form towering amongst the crowd. Dash recognised the lawyers who had defended the school, while the lawyer who had fought against Thaddeus Grimstone was seated directly upon the stage. Dr. Harrow was there, as were Simul Decker and Sel Varro. On the opposite side of the stage stood Cassiel Vaelor, the Monarch's Blade, and Ilveg, with the Sun King positioned between them.
From far above, Boreal studied the defences surrounding Remington. Archers occupied the rooftops, swordsmen guarded the ground, and spearmen were positioned amongst the defensive formations. Highly trained guards surrounded the ceremony, while Crisis Response Unit personnel waited around the perimeter with equipment and preparations specifically designed to counter magic. Boreal also noticed another familiar face moving through the square: Asuka Toshitsugu, who had explicitly been told to stay away.
The executioner and his hooded prisoner eventually reached the stage and stopped. Then Ramseth, the Sun King, rose. Thunderous applause rolled through the square as he addressed the people of Palperroth. Ramseth spoke first of everything the people of the Isles had endured and everything they had managed to build. He described civilisation as something forged through discipline, order and progress, a structure maintained only because people had been willing to impose rules upon chaos.
Then he turned toward magic. Ramseth described it as an unpredictable power that neither law nor steel had ever been capable of properly restraining. He invoked destroyed homes, broken families and innocent casualties, presenting each as evidence of what happened when extraordinary power was left in the hands of individuals without sufficient oversight. The era of simply trusting magical people to govern themselves, he declared, was over.
Before the assembled crowd, the Sun King formally announced the Purity Edict. Those possessing magical abilities would be identified. Dangerous magical relics would be surrendered. Those whose bodies displayed unnatural or unstable magical characteristics would be assessed. Ramseth insisted that responsible magical citizens had nothing to fear, while simultaneously promising consequences for anyone who hid their abilities, lied to the Crown or conspired against it. He rejected the idea that the Edict represented persecution or cruelty, instead presenting it as protection and prevention. Anyone calling it tyranny was dismissed as an agitator or criminal who merely feared accountability.
Ramseth promised a future in which ordinary people would no longer be forced to live beneath powers they had no ability to resist. From this day onward, he declared, power and magic would answer to law and to the Crown. He concluded with the language that had long defined Palperroth itself, promising prosperity and progression, but now adding something far more sinister: a "pure" future beneath his rule.
The Sun King stepped aside, and the executioner moved forward. The hood was pulled from the prisoner, revealing Remington Maleficum to the crowd. A collective gasp swept across the square. That was the moment. Boreal released the power he had been holding in reserve, filling his body with sudden strength and speed. He dropped from above, swooping silently toward the stage and landing behind Remington before anyone had time to understand what was happening. He leaned toward the condemned wizard and whispered, "time to go".
Remington understood immediately. "No", he said. But Boreal had already committed. The Seal was pressed against him, and its power activated. Remington was pulled unwillingly into the container, disappearing from the execution platform before the executioner's blade could fall. For the briefest instant, the impossible had happened. They had saved him.
Then all four pillars ignited. Ominous red light erupted across their surfaces as the markings carved into the stone began to glow. Whatever had been concealed within the square suddenly asserted itself. Eos and Boreal were instantly stripped of their invisibility, their bodies rendered completely visible before the guards and crowd. They were not alone. Magical and concealed figures throughout the square appeared simultaneously, exposing people who had believed themselves hidden only seconds earlier.
Dash watched as Gig Schniezek appeared amongst the crowd, his blue skin immediately betraying him. Helga Daunt was exposed in her minotaur form. Worby Jane appeared with her unmistakably pale skin. Across the square, figures connected to the school and the wider magical world were being revealed all at once. The terrible truth became obvious: the ceremony had never simply been an execution. It was a trap.
Whatever the pillars were doing, their influence reached across the square and attacked magic itself, or those connected strongly enough to it. Eldrin immediately began running away from them. Eos became violently sick. Dash abandoned his vantage and moved toward the crowd. Boreal tried to escape with Remington secured safely inside the Seal, but his body was already beginning to fail him. Every second spent within the pillars' influence made them weaker.
Dash fired his grapple line and descended from his concealed position, pulling himself toward the wall surrounding the square. He kept the Lucius Shadowbane outfit and mask in place, using them to maintain what little anonymity he still possessed. Eldrin's condition deteriorated quickly. A piercing migraine tore through his skull, his eyes felt raw, and his entire body seemed impossibly heavy while the world around him became an overwhelming assault of noise, movement and sensation. Believing distance, or perhaps simply breaking line of sight with the pillars, might lessen their influence, he began forcing his way through the crowd toward the alleyway. It did not immediately help. Even after creating distance, the pressure remained, and exhaustion began to settle into his body.
Boreal suffered differently but no less severely. A deafening ringing filled his ears and debilitating pain spread through him. His movements became slower and more difficult, as though his body itself were refusing every command he gave it. Remington was safely inside the Seal, but the simple act of escaping the square had suddenly become far more dangerous than the rescue itself. Rather than climbing high and presenting himself to every rooftop archer, Boreal dropped low and aimed for one of the exits.
Eos developed a nosebleed as sickness rolled through her. Now completely visible, she immediately adapted. Rather than trying to conceal how badly the pillars were affecting her, she exaggerated it. She hunched, staggered and presented herself as nothing more than an ordinary attendee who had suddenly become desperately ill during the ceremony. She began working her way toward the gate, deliberately appearing weaker and less threatening with every step.
Behind them, the executioner vaulted over the gate and began pursuing Boreal. The square descended into confusion. Guards hesitated as dozens of unexpected movements demanded their attention at once. People shifted through the crowd, some trying to understand what had happened and others immediately attempting to escape. Latch disappeared deeper amongst the people, choosing to move through the confusion rather than adopt another identity.
From behind the wall, Dash managed to get another look at Boreal and immediately understood that the rescue had not produced the clean escape they had imagined. Boreal did not look like a powerful wizard making a controlled retreat. He looked like a badly injured bird desperately forcing his failing body to keep moving. Dash responded with the weapon he could still use without revealing magic: his voice.
Drawing upon his talent for mimicry, he perfectly imitated the voice and authority of the Monarch's Blade. From concealment behind the wall, Dash bellowed, "Protect the King! To the King!" The order cut through the chaos. Enough guards believed it to matter. Their attention shifted, their priorities fractured, and personnel began moving toward the Sun King rather than pursuing Boreal. It was not enough to end the danger, but it created exactly the confusion Dash needed. He prepared to use the moving guards and disorder as cover to work his way toward Boreal.
Eldrin continued forcing himself away from the pillars, eventually creating roughly seventy feet of distance. For the moment, he managed to resist their effects and keep moving. Boreal, meanwhile, realised that Eldrin's earlier protection could not save him from what was happening. Nothing was physically restraining his wings or binding his body. The magic had done exactly what it was supposed to do. The problem was simpler and far worse: Boreal was becoming so sick and exhausted that his body could no longer move normally.
He flew low through the gateway. The rooftop archers fired anyway. A volley of arrows descended after him. Eos' protective ward absorbed strike after strike, magical force breaking against the incoming projectiles and keeping Boreal alive. Eventually, however, the protection reached its limit and shattered. One arrow punched through. Boreal kept moving. He made it beyond the gate, wounded and now suffering under two levels of exhaustion, but he was outside the square and still carrying the Seal.
Eos reached the guards at another exit with blood already running from her nose. She used it. Showing them the blood and leaning harder into the appearance of genuine sickness, she pleaded to be allowed out. The deception worked. The guards permitted her through, and Eos staggered roughly twenty feet beyond the square. The pillars continued affecting her even there.
Then the next part of the trap revealed itself. Eos looked ahead and found herself moving directly toward members of the Crisis Response Unit. Elsewhere, several more Crisis Response Unit operatives were coming down the alleyway toward Eldrin. Their placement was too deliberate to be coincidence. They had not merely been stationed to protect the ceremony from an attack. They had been positioned outside the square to watch what happened after the pillars activated, to identify the people who became visibly ill, panicked, revealed themselves, or attempted to flee.
By reacting to the trap, Eos and Eldrin had inadvertently identified themselves. Boreal remained wounded, exhausted and exposed beyond the gate, with rooftop archers still threatening every movement he made. Dash remained hidden for the moment, but his own danger was becoming increasingly clear. He did not need to possess magic to be condemned alongside the others. Being caught conspiring with magical people was enough, and exposure would not only destroy him but potentially endanger his family and everyone connected to him.
And yet, beneath everything that had gone wrong, one impossible fact remained. The rescue had worked. Boreal had Remington safely inside the Seal. The Sun King's execution had failed. Now they simply had to survive it.
The session ended with the party scattered around the square, the Crisis Response Unit closing from multiple directions, Boreal wounded and barely moving, Eos and Eldrin exposed by their reactions to the pillars, and Dash hidden behind enemy lines trying to turn the chaos to their advantage. Their carefully constructed rescue was over. The escape had begun.
