The Wandering Isles: Session 94

The day began beneath the weight of Eos’s vision. After seeing Dash, Weslyn, and Isolde killed in the museum, Eos begged Boreal to magically contact Hatsu and tell him to come back. The problem was that Hatsu was still on the ship with them, and Boreal’s message was far louder than it needed to be. Hatsu soon entered the room, finding Eos frightened and desperate for his help.

Elsewhere in Anbudon, Dash and Weslyn made their way through the streets toward the museum. Weslyn called for Chicken the Fox and sent him to recover his backpack from the woods, either bringing it safely to the ship or burying it if necessary. Once at the museum, they found Isolde and prepared to discuss the events surrounding the egg. The layout matched Eos’s vision, a detail that made the danger feel far too close.

Back on the ship, Hatsu found Ayame and asked how she was holding up. Her answer was quiet and heavy: “Grief is love’s equal. We carry both, or we carry neither.” She admitted she no longer knew her place in the world. Saigo no Toshi had fallen, the Fujiwara Clan was gone, and she believed herself to be the last of her family. Hatsu reminded her that the future mattered as much as the past. If nothing came after them, then there would be no reason to preserve anything at all.

He told her of the vision he had seen: Ayame with Onimaru, represented by a white dragon, and himself with Kaze Joba, represented by a red dragon. He showed her the necklace bearing her ring and promised he would never doubt that vision. Together, he believed they would find the sword and become part of something greater than either of their clans. When Ayame asked who stood against them on the board, Hatsu admitted he didn’t know. He only knew they could face it together.

Meanwhile, Eos disguised herself for the city, changing her height, hair, skin, eyes, and appearance until she looked human. She layered another spell over herself to resemble someone in an Oceanic Vanguard uniform, placing her sword prominently at her side. When Boreal warned Hatsu that Eos was leaving, Hatsu reacted with frustration until Boreal clarified that she was going to check on the others. Hatsu relented, telling Boreal to take care of his “witch friends” and to flee if everything went wrong. Boreal accepted with his usual composure, adding that he would “only maim if possible,” before asking Hatsu for a sparring match when he returned.

At the museum, Dash became fascinated by a large twenty-five-pound egg on display, though it was not the true artifact they sought. He searched for listening devices and found only a small recording mechanism, then looked for hidden doors and passages, finding a locked door instead. Nearby, Weslyn and Isolde spoke about the real egg. She asked why he wanted it, and Weslyn explained that he feared it falling into the wrong hands. It was only one piece of a larger whole, meant to be placed somewhere, and if the wrong people had already gathered the others, keeping this one away from them might be the only way to leave the story incomplete.

Isolde admitted she wanted to leave her position at the museum, and Weslyn encouraged her to return to the forest and reconnect with the old ways. She confessed that until recently she had believed her grandmother’s stories were only stories. Now she understood they were true. She told him what she knew of the vault: it lay beneath the building, and the Vaultkeepers would bring the valuable egg up for display before the handoff. She knew little beyond that, though records might exist in the museum owner’s office or in the guard room near the vaults.

When Dash considered investigating further, Weslyn sharply reminded him that he had been arrested only days ago. Going in the same direction again would be foolish. Weslyn rarely told Dash not to do something, but in this case, memory needed to be a teacher.

Then came a knock at the door.

A strange figure entered and said, “by the gods, you’re alive.” Dash and Weslyn did not recognize them, and Eos was still disguised with a different voice. Boreal was with her, also disguised. Even after they admitted who they were, Dash struggled to believe it. Weslyn became suspicious of everyone, doubting whether anyone was truly who they claimed to be. Eos tried to prove herself with far too much information, then with her staff, then with a letter signed by Dash, and finally by revealing her face. Weslyn still resisted belief, until he finally shifted tone and said it was time for a lesson. Eos, deeply frustrated by the ticking clock on her disguises, pleaded for them to leave because she had seen them die in that room.

Before they could settle the argument, Boreal sensed something nearby. Dash heard it too. Magic gathered in the room, a conjuration aura pressing against the air. Dust lifted in spirals. Loose parchment trembled. Candleflames bent sideways.

The room seemed to inhale.

Something invisible moved through the space with absolute purpose. It had no footsteps, no breath, no visible body, only pressure and consequence. The air warped around its limbs. Smoke and dust clung to an unseen torso. It was tall, lean, and faceless, a hunter made from absence. It did not look like a person. It looked like the wind learned malice.

Boreal realized what it was: an Invisible Stalker.

Weslyn told everyone to back away. Speaking in the old tongue, tainted by necromantic language, he conjured a sphere of sickening radiance to force the creature into view. It still did not become flesh. Instead, it became violence in the shape of a body, a towering humanoid formed from turbulence, pressure, dust, and storm. Its long hooked fingers were sharpened streams of air, its chest filled with rotating spirals like storm clouds trapped beneath glass. It looked less like a creature standing in the room and more like the room itself had been wounded into the shape of a hunter.

Eos lashed out with a whip formed from her mind. Then Dash spoke in Dr. Harrow’s voice. The creature shrieked and vanished.

The silence after was worse than the attack. Weslyn asked Eos if she had known this would happen, but she was frightened and confused. Dash saw that fear and believed she was likely telling the truth. Both he and Weslyn began to suspect the same thing: Dr. Harrow had been watching them for a long time. Boreal explained that Harrow had not created the creature. She had broken it, twisted it, and somehow learned to direct it. Eos asked what that meant for Slate, if Harrow had once broken and twisted him too.

Eos offered Isolde safety at the Bastion, but the group’s focus quickly shifted to urgency. Dash asked whether they should accelerate the heist and steal the egg now rather than later. Boreal suggested turning Dash invisible so he could sneak downstairs. Weslyn, meanwhile, realized his powers had been unstable, and remembered that Dr. Harrow had once warned him the egg might interfere with him. When he detected magic, he sensed a vast, faint aura of Dunamancy stretched across the city. It bent strangely, like time around a wound. For a moment, he saw what it was, what it had been, and what it might become, all occupying the same impossible space.

Eos left before her disguises expired. Isolde told Weslyn the egg would likely be moved tomorrow around three or four in the afternoon, but Weslyn thought it best to locate the vault now. He questioned her about where it was, how far down it lay, and where it sat beneath the floor. Boreal also fled back to the ship before his magic wore off.

When Eos returned to Hatsu, she summarized the museum encounter by saying they had “defeated a cloud.” She then explained everything properly and told him they needed his help. Boreal arrived soon after, interrupting to say everything would be delayed for now. Eos was irritated by yet another delay, but Boreal clarified the danger: Dr. Harrow had been watching, and the creature was an Invisible Stalker. It was not something made. It was something ancient, rare, and born into existence, then broken and bound.

Hatsu and Eos argued through the implications. Eos believed they should act immediately, before the museum became busier and more dangerous. She was exhausted by impossible events: visions, time distortions, Weslyn’s strange cats, the loss of Ekdíkisi, and the feeling of standing alone in a vast empty room. She trusted Dash’s instinct to take the egg today. Waiting felt like inviting his arrest or death.

Hatsu asked what she wanted. Eos answered plainly: she wanted his help. She praised his skills and said they needed him to get this done. Hatsu understood and agreed to help, but only with a plan. He would not disobey the person he considered captain in this matter, Amaedrianna. He wanted to wait for her.

Eos, frustrated, made tea. Boreal stretched his wings. Hatsu asked Boreal to clarify what he had seen, and Boreal first clarified only that he did not get out enough. Then he explained the heist details: the guards, the traps, the surveillance, the magical defenses, and what they had learned about the museum’s systems. Hatsu reminded them that Dash had already encountered intense Cogsworth security and had already been imprisoned while preparing for this very job. Storming in blindly was not an option.

Boreal believed Weslyn wanted to teleport in and out of the vault and solve the matter quickly. Hatsu admitted that would be ideal, but only if everything else was ready—the ship, the supplies, Vale’s deal, and their exit. Boreal, with total confidence, told him, “well hop to, soldier,” then sat down and remarked that the world was not yet ready for his real beauty.

As Eos stared into her hot water, she remembered something important. Under moonlight, her staff could teleport. If the egg could somehow end up in her hand or backpack, she might be able to take it directly to the ship or even the Bastion. Hatsu reminded her that this depended on moonlight, and moonlight could fail. Eos apologized for her impatience.

Hatsu reminded her that acting only for oneself was easy. Acting when others depended on you was different. Their choices affected the people at the Bastion, the refugees waiting for the ship to return full of supplies, and Amaedrianna, who had placed her name and reputation on the line for this job. Responsibility changed everything.

Hatsu knew this was the last day the supplies should arrive. He spoke with Ayame about what they had observed during the voyage, preparing to sail if needed. Then he performed a ceremony to the Mother of Light, grounding himself in ritual while the plan remained uncertain.

As the session closed, the scene shifted away from the group. In the woods, a hooded figure knelt over Weslyn’s belongings. Chicken the Fox watched nearby. The figure tossed the bag aside and said they were done.

Then they turned toward the road to Anbudon and began walking toward the city.