The Wandering Isles: Session 65
The night began with raised glasses and sharp stakes. Slate, still disguised as Dash, continued his drinking contest with the dread captain, Sarran. From the start, Slate handled the whiskey with far more ease, his calm manner only needling the pirate further. When Sarran questioned his motives, Slate mocked him with a cool, “only losers talk.” The provocation worked. In a sudden flash of temper, Sarran flipped Slate’s chair and planted a boot on his chest. Amaedrianna’s blade was at his throat a heartbeat later, and the tension in the tavern froze solid.
When it ended, the companions had won both Sarran’s hat and the dockrat Finn as part of their wager. They sent Finn to prepare passage to Asazaki, though his nerves slowed him. Slate, still playing his role as Dash, asked the others if his performance was over the top. Amaedrianna simply told him to tone it down. Using guile, Slate slipped a question into conversation and discovered the truth of the year: despite their time lost in the book, it was still 1543.
Eos fled when her disguise spell faltered, hiding before anyone could see her true form. Finn meanwhile stumbled awkwardly, calling everyone “Madam” at Amaedrianna’s insistence, to Slate’s visible irritation. Sent out for fruit and food, he crossed paths with Hatsu, mistaking him for Dash’s head of security. In his nervous chatter, Finn revealed that his sister Jexi had been sold to the dread captain.
The group debated how to act. Amaedrianna, who vaguely knew the family, recalled their father’s debts to the Archon. She approached Sarran directly, offering his hat back in exchange for Jexi. The gesture forged a fragile bond between them, sealed in jest as they shared stories of firing Dash from a cannon. With coin and compromise, Amaedrianna secured Jexi’s freedom, reuniting her with her brother. The siblings embraced, and Amaedrianna led them to safety, leaving them in the care of her mother, Valentina Russo.
With their business settled, the companions left in the cargo hold of a ship. A week passed, carrying them from the 18th to the 25th of Searpeak, and they arrived in Yakoshi. The town was striking, reminiscent of old Saigo no Toshi, but clean and improved, as though renewed.
Their walk to Asazaki revealed even greater changes. Buildings stood taller, better maintained. Roshi’s Bookshelf, the little store where Eos had made her home, gleamed with new life. Duckie, her faithful companion, was groomed and ready, and even the stables had been cleaned and restored. Inside, the shelves were ordered and painted, a raven logo marking the shop with quiet pride.
There, Eos was embraced by her mother, Raine Tintreach, who confessed she had missed her dearly and had help keeping everything in order. That help stepped forward: Dash, emerging from upstairs. He explained he had been in Asazaki for a week, working to clean and rebuild, and brought word that Saigo no Toshi itself had changed.
Later, Raine revealed harder truths. The ship carrying Eos’s father had never returned. No survivors had come back. The town had presumed him dead. Eos, though, clung to hope. No body meant no certainty, and certainty mattered.
Together, they gathered once more, now with their bonds reforged and a new journey already forming on the horizon.
