The Wandering Isles: Session 73
The night began with the group pressing forward on their infiltration of Saigo no Toshi while the sky churned with the promise of rain and the approaching chaos. Things took an unsettled turn when Weslyn tried to quiet the strange aura around Chicken the Fox. Nothing worked, so he cut his own hand in desperation. Eldrin tried speaking to the creature and somehow slipped into a divine language he didn’t even recognise. Eos, Hatsu and Slate knew it as Seraphic, a tongue long dead. The fox stirred back to life with a soft orange glow. Hatsu reminded everyone that this path was set long before any of them arrived.
Amaedrianna readied her flying harness for their entry, Weslyn climbed on, and Hatsu sank into the Seal. Slate cloaked Amaedrianna and himself while Weslyn vanished under his own spell. Once inside the city, Amaedrianna counted around eighty guards nearby. She returned, placed Eos into the Seal, and secured Slate for another run.
While this happened, Dash and Eldrin walked the outer sands. They spoke quietly about the looming birth of Dash’s child. Eldrin overheard the name Sister Vaelith and learned that Elandor Thistlenook was within the city walls, which was why he and Dash had been held back. Fear overtook Eldrin at the thought of Vaelith in danger, but Dash urged patience. Vathros then reminded them that anyone who ever entered a Seal now shared a link with him because he created the first one. The discussion deepened when Dash asked why he distrusted Kaelora, and Vathros admitted that he feared Maleficum power after the endless time he himself spent trapped.
Amaedrianna waited from a rooftop while the others inspected a tea house that looked abandoned. Inside, nothing made sense. There was no food, no service area, and barricades that turned out to be illusions. Magic sigils glimmered above several doorways. Weslyn sensed them all triggering just before stone shifted and a hidden passage opened. A robed young woman with purple hair stepped out, bristling with suspicion. Hatsu guessed she was the daughter of Remington, but she cut him off with threats.
She introduced herself as Hana. She recognised Weslyn as a dreamwalker and was immediately curious about Eos. After tensions settled a little, she led them through a long descent and ascent into a hidden bath house full of survivors. Hatsu rushed to his sister, Asuka, who was stern but relieved. She brought him to Lysa, who lay deep in labour with Ayame at her side. Ayame looked hardened by the horrors of the city but remained steadfast for Lysa.
Weslyn stepped in to help with the birth. Hatsu tried to explain that they needed to evacuate soon, but Ayame made it clear that Lysa had far less time than he thought and couldn’t be moved. Hana grew confused as she watched a child lead a birth, but there was no time to question it. The three had also chosen not to accept Vathros’s telepathic network, so they were cut off from everyone else.
Hatsu told Hana and the others that the Arcanum had fallen, which she resisted believing until she finally accepted his insistence. Almost seven thousand people remained alive in the city and he explained their escape plan. He estimated they could only evacuate about sixty, mostly those who wouldn’t survive another night. Hana hurried out to find someone she called Mimling while telling the room to gather the wounded, the young, the elderly and anyone else with no chance of lasting through a siege.
Before leaving, Asuka told Hatsu that their father had been taken months ago, and their mother was held in their old home. Thrakgar moved into the Toshitsugu estate as a message. They seemed to be searching for something. Hatsu suspected it was Kaze Joba, the blade he lost long ago.
From his vantage point near the park, Slate watched the city start moving. Survivors spilled out onto the streets. A muscular man tore through rubble while Hana rushed into a nearby shop and unleashed fire. Amaedrianna had little time left under her fading invisibility and slipped toward Hatsu’s home. She discovered it had been turned into an outpost for Thrakgar’s forces. With the last seconds ticking down, she reached inside and activated the animal coin Dash had given her.
Chaos erupted. Rain battered the city as the once beautiful streets lay broken. Slate glanced toward the shop and caught Hana signalling. A jewellery box lunged open with sharp teeth and swallowed an intruder whole.
At Hatsu’s ruined home, Amaedrianna unleashed a stampede. Deer, goats, cows, wildcats and more blasted through walls and windows. Screams followed as Thrakgar’s soldiers drew weapons, overwhelmed by the sudden wave of hooves and claws. Ironclad burst through the wreckage but even he couldn’t contain the storm. The animals shattered the locked main gate and poured out into the open.
Dash and Eldrin heard the roar of the stampede from the shoreline as the wave of animals surged toward them. Duckie panicked and bolted back toward the city. Dash sprinted after her, Chicken the Fox racing beside him. Vathros drifted toward the city instead of following.
Inside the bath house, the birth reached its peak as the sky split open and the Crimson Moon bled its light across Saigo no Toshi. Lysa screamed and Weslyn helped bring the first child into the world. Then he realised there was another. The second emerged moments later. The twins couldn’t have been more different. One shone with a golden aura, warm and angelic. The other arrived with burning hair, scorched skin, horns and a tail. Their names were Ash and Elyssa.
Elsewhere, Slate saw Hana clutch the box, sway and transform. Her eyes flared red, her skin turned purple, and horns broke through. The Maleficum blood she carried surged to the surface, but she looked fragile and sick.
In the broken home, Amaedrianna witnessed a burst of fire as an owlin figure rose from the ashes, shielding Hatsu’s mother and grandmother in a protective bubble. Boreal Paleclaw had returned, rising once more above the dying city.
Above the water, an army gathered. Horses and soldiers, ready to make sure Saigo no Toshi never drew breath again. The city stood on its last heartbeat. The blood moon glowed overhead. And everything that followed would be shaped by these final twenty minutes.
