The Wandering Isles: Session 51
The group reconvenes after a momentous transformation. Slate, having returned to his familiar form, is joined by the others just as Amaedrianna announces she has unfinished business—an appointment at the Jade Tsuba with a figure known only as The Willow.
While Eos and Eldrin remain behind to tend to the horses, and Hatsu stays to carve a hidden message of hope for Saigo no Toshi’s future, Amaedrianna and Dash make their way through the city's streets. Slate, now in disguise, walks beside them, posing as a combat trainer.
At the fighting house, Dash attempts to swindle free drinks by uttering a dangerous name—The Archon—but it draws the attention of someone far more dangerous: The Wraith. This shadowed figure is Amaedrianna’s opponent. Their pre-fight conversation reveals little—just vague echoes of an ancient conflict between a blue man and an old man, locked in battle for the soul of the city.
The duel begins with tension high and the odds tilted against her. But with well-timed magical support from her allies, Amaedrianna finds her rhythm and ultimately edges out a narrow victory. As her prize, she receives a curious device: a Retractable Adaptive Field Transport. A RAFT. What it does remains unclear—for now.
With little left to hold them in Saigo no Toshi, the group sets out for Gatai. Their departure is quiet, heavy with what’s been left behind.
As the cart rolls through mist and rain, Hatsu and Dash share a private moment—an exchange about legacy, sorrow, and the aching loss of a place they called home. Amaedrianna, with her usual dry wit, expresses an odd excitement to meet Eos’s mother. Eos, meanwhile, is eager to breathe the air of places that once meant something. For the first time, she shares her last name with the group—a small step that feels enormous.
Along the road, the forest comes alive. Strange and beautiful creatures appear in flashes between thunder and rain: duskshedder snakes that shimmer with sunset light, ashcap owls with silent wings, silverback elk moving like ghosts through the trees. Flickerfoxes and lantern slugs flicker in bioluminescent pulses. Even a forest bear is glimpsed—massive, calm, present. Nature, unbothered by human burdens, moves on.
But peace never lingers for long.
Slate turns again to the book that houses Vathros, The Shadowed. It speaks to him, cryptic and terrible: “Pain is the truest form of clarity. Let the agony of thought peel away the false self…” Nose bleeding, he stares too long. Amaedrianna snatches the book away—and in doing so, sees something she was not meant to.
A vision takes her.
Her father, monstrous and shifting, standing atop The Isles. Her friends, her family—dead at his feet. A tower. A fight. A strange small automaton stands as her only hope. If it wins, she can kill her father. If it fails… The Archon will wield a power once thought lost to myth. The stakes are clear. The timeline is not.
The vision spits her back into reality, where she finds herself in the cart once again, surrounded by friends. Her voice cracks as she recounts what she saw. How long has it been? No one knows. But her story echoes in their silence.
Something dark is coming.
And they’re already in its shadow.
