The Wandering Isles: Session 77

Hatsu Toshitsugu had no space to grieve. His father’s head had barely hit the ground before the world dragged him onward. He turned from the horror only to see Slate standing naked, dazed, and reborn in front of a towering mechanical giant with glowing eyes. Hatsu reacted instantly, flooding the street with darkness to halt the machine’s advance.

He stepped through the shadows and appeared beside Slate, letting him sense his presence before speaking softly. “Well, chosen one. I see you chose the path. Let me guide you on the first few steps.” He tried to coax him toward the others, away from danger, and Slate followed with slow, confused steps.

Hatsu then found Asuka. She was shaking with fury, desperate to strike back at Thrakgar for murdering their father. He reminded her this was not the moment. Revenge would come, but not today. He also recalled the old lesson from his childhood, that with discipline he might one day speak to the dead. He promised her he would find a way. Asuka relented, but only on the condition she would be present when the day came to face Thrakgar again.

Before leaving the prison, Hatsu had Orla hammer a note to the entrance. It read:

“For those who liberate the city, the elderly and the wounded have been evacuated. The council has been destroyed. Hashirama Toshitsugu was beheaded by Thrakgar, the leader of the forces that led to the catastrophe of this city. Once this city is liberated, the people that survived will be back to bring this city back to its glory to praise the king.”

With that, everyone touched the Hearthstone. A heartbeat later, they were back in the safety of the Bastion.

Elsewhere, Weslyn Theiwyse had wandered into something entirely different. One moment he stood atop the stairs with Duckie the horse. The next, the world dissolved into drifting leaves the colour of nothing he had ever seen in the Isles. The sky glowed pink like spun sugar, with light that never dimmed. The ground swayed in gentle waves like the ocean underfoot. Even his shadow didn’t mimic him, its pose shifting independently.

Following a path, he found his childhood hut and a young Sakura tree sprouting nearby. A castle appeared on a beach in the distance, wrapped in nature’s embrace. The trees whispered with the weight of countless histories. Then came the smell of popcorn, circus music, and the unmistakable atmosphere of a carnival.

A squirrel in a red blazer and top hat erupted from the earth, telling him to look up. Above them soared a whale that dripped apple juice as it passed. When Weslyn asked for the creature’s name, it refused to give one. It instead held up a reflective surface showing Weslyn missing half his tattoos.

With cartoonish flair, the squirrel yanked a rail out of the ground. It produced a tiny table from its vest, dusted pepper on it, and the table expanded into a feast of strange fruits and vegetables. When Weslyn stepped onto it, he grew to a comically vast size. From there he saw islands, a chocolate-spewing volcano, and plucked a star from the sky to eat. He surrendered to the absurdity.

Virethorn appeared next, wandering through the scene without aggression, almost off duty. The squirrel then offered Weslyn the chance to bring three friends. Before he could question it, Hatsu, Eos, and Eldrin were pulled into this surreal realm, drawn in through Weslyn’s thoughts.

Eos complained about the shifting parallax of size and distance, but eventually stabilised. Weslyn offered them strange food and another edible star. Hatsu coaxed the squirrel into speaking more clearly. It told him it had taken his anger and sadness, and removed Eldrin’s confusion, while leaving Eos mostly untouched because she seemed best equipped to handle the nonsense.

Hatsu tried to ask reasonable questions but found none of his thoughts landing cleanly. The biggest concern now was Weslyn’s age, especially after seeing his own tattoos begin to fade.

Before any answers arrived, a rollercoaster cart burst from nowhere, scooped them up, and plunged underground. They hurtled downward at reckless speed. Eldrin questioned his own existence between jolts as they spiralled deeper into nonsense. Eventually, the cart shot them into a small town and stopped at a circus tent.

Inside, the crowd cheering outside vanished. The tent was empty. The squirrel had disappeared. Eldrin, barely holding to reason, pulled Eos aside, venting his frustration. They were supposed to go through the portal. They were supposed to help the people. “Why am I the only one that does not want to be here?” he asked. The others tried to stick to nicknames to avoid revealing too much, but Weslyn blurted out his real name anyway.

Trying to provoke something, Weslyn began an interpretive dance. Eldrin reluctantly joined. Then Hatsu. Then Eos. Their chaotic performance must have satisfied something, because the squirrel reappeared in a purple suit, applauding wildly as the circus show began.

The tent transformed. Scenes from each of their lives played out like elaborate theatre, not true memories but reflections performed by actors. Dash’s childhood unfolded first, showing the pain of losing his father and the struggles that shaped him, ending with him meeting Lysa and the blue gem that blossomed into a cosmic panorama.

Slate’s past followed, showing his escape, Dyewick, meeting Chance, and the winding road that led him here. The others felt echoes of his pain.

Eos’s childhood appeared next, filled with glimpses of her mother, Riker, and the people who shaped her. Then came Hatsu’s life, from peaceful family moments to harsh training with Asuka.

The show then highlighted the mirrored struggles of Eos and Hatsu, each forced in different ways to hide parts of themselves. Eldrin’s history came after, from being hidden away to being saved by Remington. Finally, Weslyn’s endless roaming was performed, with actors swapping places as he aged through shifting landscapes. His path ended in a symbolic grave sprouting from the stage.

The group watched each other’s pain, victories, and buried truths. Their bond deepened as the performances went on. An actor playing young Weslyn lifted a stone tablet, splitting it apart and reforming it to hint at its importance. Rapid flashes followed, showing their planning at the Bastion, their trials in Boreal, their battles in Saigo no Toshi. Darkness swallowed the tent. The audience erupted into applause, then dissolved into petals, then vanished entirely until only the group and the squirrel remained.

The squirrel returned from a brief break and restored Weslyn’s tattoos. When Weslyn demanded to know what was happening, the creature finally explained. It reminded him of a dream in the woods during his Arcanum trial, when Xerathis the Shrouded tested him. It claimed it had asked him for a deal, but only in a dream, and now needed it made real. It mentioned Eos’s vision from weeks prior, when it whispered “find him,” and the hints it had placed in earlier moments.

It seemed to perceive time differently than they did. Weslyn asked if it had asked him to make the deal already, and it answered simply, “not yet.”

Weslyn asked if it could send him home, and the creature said, eventually. It described the cosmos, the planets in their system, and how Weslyn had once wandered into the wrong one before falling into this one. He needed to take the deal to save countless lives.

It flipped a ring toward Hatsu, saying he would need it later. Then it explained that Eldrin had some connection to the gods, his bloodline tied to a celestial origin. Eos asked where they were, and the squirrel said the planet was called Verdantis. When she asked where her people came from, it answered Umbra'Kor.

Weslyn pressed for the original deal’s terms. The creature told him it had promised to send him home, and to save his father, if he cooperated. Now, since his father was gone, Weslyn could take his place. All it needed from him was information from a particular written stone. Only Weslyn could read it.

When Eldrin asked why the creature sought such power, Hatsu tried to interpret. Fixing a bowl not piece by piece, but by binding all shards at once. The squirrel said it wanted to correct atrocities in history. Beings like it didn’t hold power the way gods did, it said. They wore it.

Weslyn asked whether the creature had harmed the fox in the woods. It claimed something in Eldrin’s bloodline might have been responsible instead. Weslyn recited, “The Wild May Watch But Shall Not Take,” and “You May Make No Amendments,” but the creature argued that amendments should exist if both parties agreed. It insisted that memory must be taken, at least, referring to Virethorn.

Weslyn asked for time to think. The creature granted him a week, telling him to discuss everything with his allies first. Then, eventually, it would send him home.

Before releasing them, it gave them strength. A surge of power washed through all of them. They had reached Level 7.

And the deal still waited.