The Wandering Isles: Session 54

The group stood at a distance, watching the fortress ahead. Quiet discussions circled around the best way to approach. Some, like Eos, were ready to walk right up and knock. Others, including Dash, urged caution. This wasn't the kind of place where magic users walked freely. Getting caught could mean more than just a bad day.

They questioned why they had been brought here in the first place. Eos explained quietly that her father was inside. As she spoke, she shifted her appearance with a magical disguise—her purple skin hidden beneath a human complexion, her glowing eyes replaced with piercing green, and her hair now a sharp black that fell to her shoulders.

Then she saw him. Or thought she did. A figure off to the side, familiar and grounding, though it was only an illusion conjured by Weslyn.

Amaedrianna sent Albi aloft to search for signs of Rykur, but the little bird returned with no answers. Instead, he brought back a single stone—perfect, almost unnaturally so. A strange reward, given how little it told them.

Not long after, a caravan of carts passed by on its way to Ashrest, dragging a cloud of dust in its wake. Eos and Hatsu broke into a run, following. The others walked toward the fortress more carefully.

Hatsu approached the guards and claimed to have a message for Rykur. They let him wait. Minutes dragged into half an hour. While they stood in the dry wind, he and Slate spoke quietly. Hatsu admitted his concern over Slate's obsession with the book, but reassured him that whatever came of it, he had his support. He believed in him.

Nearby, Eos explained what Rykur meant to her. Not a biological father, but the man who had raised her. She hadn't seen him in years. Now she was only steps away. When he arrived, he didn’t recognize her at first. But she offered a few gentle hints, and the realization washed over him.

He told her how they could meet safely. If they could sneak aboard a nearby ship under the cover of darkness, he would leave a ladder down for five minutes at 9 p.m. It wouldn’t be long, and it wouldn’t be easy.

As the sun began to fall, Slate noticed something missing. The book of Vathros was gone. Panic hit quickly. He dumped out his bag, searching every pocket, turning everything over. Nothing.

In the quiet that followed, Hatsu spoke to Weslyn, asking him to search the dreams for signs of Remington. The mention of that name sparked something deep in Weslyn’s mind, a flicker of recognition that hadn’t been there before. But the past remained hazy.

Slate, still disturbed by the missing book, asked everyone to sit in a circle he had drawn. Once they did, his eyes shifted. Something awakened in him. He could feel movement around him, sense vibrations in the ground like echoes underwater. He reached outward with this new awareness, hoping to catch a trace of the book, but nothing was clear.

While they waited for night to fall, Dash and Eos went for a swim, while Amaedrianna spent quiet time with Albi. Hatsu and Dash trained together. Hatsu showed him a few stances, shared a little of his style. It was calm, focused, the kind of bonding that words rarely achieve.

Eventually, the group divided. Some remained on the shore. Eos, Dash, Hatsu, and Albi slipped beneath the surface of the water and made for the ship. Amaedrianna, Slate, Weslyn, and Eldrin stayed behind.

Eos cast a spell, allowing herself to grow gills. She glided through the water with ease. Hatsu, struggling to breathe, asked her to link their minds. He wondered if he could share air with her, and they drifted close. From Dash’s point of view, it looked like something intimate, something he wasn’t expecting.

Then Dash swam headfirst into the side of the ship.

He found the ladder. Climbed it. Slipped through the lower level of the vessel, quiet and alert. Voices carried from above.

He recognized one of them.

Ilveg Thornthrower, the leader of the Crisis Response Unit. Notorious for his hatred of magic. And across from him—Rykur Frakes.

They were discussing something called Raze Threats when Ilveg turned his head, glancing toward the door where Dash now stood, breath held, perfectly still.

And that’s where it ended.