The Wandering Isles: Session 96

The voyage begins in uneasy quiet, with Weslyn Theiwyse seeking out a private moment with Amaedrianna Blüdfist before the rest of the ship settles into motion. He asks whether she has learned anything more about the magic bound up in the egg, though he quickly admits that whatever answers it holds will not come easily or quickly. More than that, he asks for the use of her cabin so he can investigate the object alone and without interruption. At the same time, he brings up her bag, explaining that the forest has done something to it and asking her to trance on it. Amaedrianna is clear that the bag is magical, but only by her own hand. It is not some foreign corruption, not some outside tampering, and certainly not any form of The Seal. Weslyn also claims the forest left gems inside it, though in truth he conceals that he stole those himself before leaving. When Amaedrianna empties the bag completely, there is no sign of the package he expected to find there, which leaves him confused, especially because the voice in the forest had implied otherwise. Still pursuing the thought, he asks if she might instead dream of placing him inside the bag so he can understand what would happen. With that, he asks to be left alone to begin his research, warning her to ignore any lights or sounds from the cabin and to keep the door sealed until he is done.

Elsewhere on the ship, Eos climbs to the crow’s nest and uses magic to message Dash, wanting a private conversation with him. When he joins her, she is blunt about what is bothering her. During the heist, she and Boreal were placed in extreme danger with very little communication and even less instruction, and she knows Hatsu will not take kindly to the idea that so much was done without a real plan. Dash explains that he saw them as the party’s strongest assets, the ones meant to pull the others out of the fire if everything went wrong. He also admits something equally telling: he has never really worked as part of a team before. When Eos asks whether Lysa does not count, Dash explains that he and Lysa began by chasing the same goals as rivals rather than partners. They are a couple now, they have a family now, but the life he comes from was built on isolation. Returning to the subject of the heist, he insists that the best possible outcome was always that they would never need to call on Eos or Boreal at all. They were there as backup, not as the first line. He even briefly wonders whether he should have kept the Telestones Simul Decker gave them, though Eos immediately says no.

When she asks what happens next, Dash says the plan is simple in theory if not in feeling: they go to the bastion, and he hopes that either Lysa or Elandor will have heard something about his mother, because he knows she is in danger. Eos says she wants to write a letter to her own mother, but for now only asks that it be mailed. Then, in a small but meaningful moment of growth, she thanks Dash for not getting them killed. Dash admits that all of this is harder than he expected. It was easier, once, to be selfish. It was easier when he only had to choose for himself. Now he is finding it difficult not to abandon everything and run straight to his mother to make sure she is safe. Eos answers with hard practicality, reminding him that the needs of many outweigh the needs of one. She asks who he prays to, and Dash says he prays to no god at all, only to the universe, or to anyone who might be listening. Then he hugs her, and she lets out a startled squeak.

By the time that conversation ends, Weslyn has finished his work on the egg, and the results are as troubling as they are incomplete. The object pulses with every school of magic in shifting waves, but one force remains constant throughout: Dunamancy. The output is immense. When he lays a hand on the egg and attempts to identify it, the experience overwhelms him. His colors change, his tattoos move, and for a moment it seems as though he might actually break through to understanding, but when the ritual ends it is as if the object has fed him nothing at all. The knowledge slides away from him. The information is not absent so much as it is actively avoiding him. In the end, the only thing he can say with any confidence is that this is the first item, but the last to be placed. That leads him to suspect it is only one part of something larger, either requiring other pieces to function properly or stronger magic than he can currently bring to bear.

Amaedrianna immediately offers to take custody of the egg, and just as immediately Weslyn refuses. What begins as a disagreement turns sharp in an instant. She argues that she was charged with obtaining it, but Weslyn counters that it is already too late to hand it over to the people who hired her. She finds it “curious” how unwilling he is to let it out of his hands. He refuses to yield. She answers that there are only two possible outcomes now: either she takes it from him, or he succeeds in keeping it from her. When he reminds her that stealing is wrong, she dismisses the point. She doubles down, insisting that she does not want anyone getting hold of it, and when he asks whether she truly believes she alone can stop that from happening, she makes her meaning plain. The person who wants it most, almost certainly her father, is likely coming for it, and she believes she is the one person capable of keeping it out of those hands. Weslyn’s answer is immediate: that makes her the target. He warns her that if she takes it, they will be at odds. She tells him it would not be the first time.

From there the argument only worsens. Weslyn says he does not believe she truly wants to keep it safe. Amaedrianna fires back that this is her ship and asks what exactly she has done to earn such profound mistrust. In her eyes, she is the only one thinking sensibly about the situation. She has no magic of her own to cling to, no hunger for the thing on those grounds, while he, she says, is tangled up with beings who clearly want more magic and cannot be trusted. Weslyn insists that no magic controls him. Amaedrianna reminds him that he has been brought back from death by a magical being, and that alone is enough to make her wary. Their voices rise until the whole ship can hear them.

Dash enters first and tries to understand what is happening. Amaedrianna explains that the egg needs to be hidden somewhere safe and that she can do that here. Dash asks where. She refuses to say. He points out that trust is a two-way street, and she throws the museum back in his face, asking where that principle was when he went in alone and got himself arrested. Dash turns to Weslyn and asks why he cannot part with the egg, only for Weslyn to answer that he is not done with it. Amaedrianna grows even more frustrated and says outright that his power came from a “god who wants something,” that the magic running through him is only there because of someone else’s intent, and that he does not truly understand what he is dealing with. Dash tries to calm her, suggesting she take a breath, but she refuses to leave without the egg. Eos drifts into the doorway and awkwardly witnesses the escalating scene, while Hatsu, still steering, calls down to ask if there is a mutiny underway. Amaedrianna says it may yet be sorted, but Weslyn still will not surrender the egg.

Hatsu asks a simple question that cuts through the rest of it: if this is tied to Weslyn’s ancestors, should he not have it? Amaedrianna answers that they did not steal the egg for Weslyn. Her original plan had been to steal it for Vale, but then to place it somewhere unreachable, somewhere nobody could get to it. She is alarmed by how attached Weslyn has become, especially when she believes the egg is drawing on him through his tattoos and when, in her eyes, he may already be little more than a puppet. Dash asks Weslyn whether he intends for the egg to leave the ship any time soon. Weslyn says no. That answer hardens everything. Amaedrianna says that in this moment she trusts Weslyn about as much as she trusts the Archon, because his refusal to place it somewhere safe, and his refusal to part with it even briefly, suggests it has a hold over him he cannot break. Weslyn says only that the forest removed what it wanted him to find, and then hid the truth again. When Amaedrianna demands to know why any of them should trust him, he says she does not have to. She does not even believe in the forest. Eos, watching the whole thing slip beyond recovery, says plainly that this is mutiny.

The breaking point comes fast. Amaedrianna moves toward Weslyn, and in an instant he teleports away. He reappears in the water, and she teleports after him without hesitation. Dash shouts for de-escalation. Hatsu calls for Boreal to take the sails down while he turns the ship. Eos races up to the crow’s nest to keep eyes on the chaos. Out in the water, Amaedrianna keeps trying to seize the egg, and each time Weslyn teleports again, with her following again and again as they flash from point to point near the turning ship. Throughout it all he keeps calling for Virethorn. Amaedrianna pleads with him to let it go, and he calls her a hypocrite. Then Dash makes the impossible throw. He dives into the water, casts his homemade lasso, and somehow, against all odds, it lands perfectly. He yanks the egg back toward himself. Amaedrianna lunges for it, but Dash reaches it first, grabs it, and sinks below.

Eos sends magic down to him with only two words of meaning behind it: trust him. Dash accepts. In the next breath a whirlpool opens, and he is gone from the water and back on the ship. He rises, dripping, and calls to Amaedrianna and Weslyn to come back aboard. Hatsu tells Dash to keep hold of the egg for now, in case the object itself is turning them against each other, and Dash disappears to hide it. Instead of returning, Weslyn begins swimming away from the ship. Eos calls after him, pleading with him to come back, and Weslyn answers by telling her to go fuck herself before continuing on. Hatsu, rattled by the whole spectacle, warns Eos not to challenge the captain and says he thinks the egg is making everyone strange. Amaedrianna, furious and soaked, cannot even find Dash now that he has vanished with the egg, and the stupidity of the entire situation finally breaks whatever composure she had left. She goes into the captain’s room, changes back into her usual armor, and throws the expensive dress she had been wearing into the sea. For the first time since everything changed, she is herself again, plated and armed.

Eos continues to track Weslyn’s position from above, calling it out again and again to the ship, but no one answers her. In the water, Weslyn eventually stops swimming and simply floats, clearly trying to decide what his options even are. Dash calls out that he will give the egg back. Boreal spots him, flies over, and asks whether he will return. Weslyn says no. Boreal offers him the egg instead, but Weslyn says the problem runs deeper than the object now and he is not even sure the egg could fix what has happened. Even so, Boreal offers him rope and helps draw him back to the ship. Weslyn does not truly come aboard. He clings to the ladder and refuses to climb, half-trailing the vessel rather than accepting it. When Eos asks Dash if she can hold the egg, he refuses and tells her she would have to ask Weslyn. She answers only that Weslyn was rude.

Dash climbs down to speak with him directly. Weslyn says he answers to no one, and that he will not ask permission to do what he must. The egg, he says, belongs to his family. Dash does not push against that. Instead he says the real problem here is trust, and that for what it is worth, he trusts Weslyn. Then he hands the egg back. He asks, almost begs, that Weslyn not abandon him. Weslyn answers that he feels he was the one abandoned. Dash says he hopes this is enough to show that trust is still possible between them. Weslyn says the boat does not belong to him, but he will not answer to the commands of the person who owns it. Dash, exhausted, says that the whole group needs a conversation that does not become another fight. He is too tired to force it tonight. By morning, he says, either this is resolved, or he leaves.

That does nothing to calm Amaedrianna. When she asks Dash where the egg is and learns it is back with Weslyn, she immediately says she does not trust him. Dash tells her she should be the leader. She snaps back that she is not a leader, but if she were, perhaps people would listen more. Dash says the group cannot continue like this if all that remains between them is mistrust. Amaedrianna says they should simply turn around and go back to the bastion, at which point Dash loses patience and says every delay is keeping him from his family. Amaedrianna reminds him that he made his own choices. He counters that the current delay belongs as much to her and Weslyn as anyone else. He insists they need to learn from this and start talking like adults. Amaedrianna cannot hear that as anything but another dismissal. She says she is terrified of that egg, that she has been trying to control the situation because she is trying to protect everyone, and that every attempt she makes to look after the people around her is answered with mistrust and disrespect. Dash argues that she could see the escalation coming and could have stopped it. At that, she washes her hands of the matter entirely. She will get them to the bastion, and that is all. She is done.

The argument between them burns a little longer. Dash calls her stubborn. She says he would never say that to Weslyn. He claims he trusts her judgment, and she laughs bitterly and says he has just proven the opposite. He brings up the fact that Weslyn brought his children into the world and says he is trying to honor that with trust. Amaedrianna fires back that he has no idea what everyone else sacrificed to make that happen. Dash says he followed her into the heist, trusting her, and she reminds him that whatever burden he feels, he is still the exception among them. The rest of them all live under the same threat. Magical creatures will be destroyed, and she is one of them. She knew exactly what danger she was in because it is her danger too. Then she says the quietest and ugliest truth of it all: the second her father learns what happened, she is dead. Her face was exposed to make this heist possible. The consequences will fall on her more heavily than on anyone. She says she does trust some of them. She trusts Hatsu. She trusts Eos. To some extent, she trusts Boreal. When Dash asks one last time that she sit down with Weslyn and simply talk, she refuses outright, says she needs to do nothing, and retreats to her cabin, ending the conversation.

For a while after that, the ship falls into an uneasy silence. Eos stands near Hatsu holding her rapier and compass awkwardly while trying to navigate as he steers. Everyone gives everyone else space. Eventually Amaedrianna goes to Hatsu and speaks to him more plainly than she has spoken to anyone else. She tells him she believes the egg could do catastrophic damage in the wrong hands. Hatsu agrees and says that is likely exactly why the king wants it. Amaedrianna says that is also why her father wants it. Her true plan had been to take it back to the bastion, hide it somewhere unnatural and impossible to guess, and then seek out a mage powerful enough to erase her own memory of where it was hidden so that it would be lost even from her. She tells Hatsu that when they near Vurduar, she intends to fly off and leave the group there. She also tells him why: she believes the stone Weslyn seeks is in Vurduar, and she hopes to move it unnoticed before anyone else reaches it.

Hatsu does not reject the idea, but he does tell her that they do not talk enough, and that most of what has gone wrong has gone wrong because people keep acting on assumptions instead of speaking plainly. He gives Vathros as an example. If he had judged Vathros only for what he was and not for who he was, his family might have missed all the good he brought them. Conversation might have changed everything sooner. He tells Amaedrianna she will always have his trust, but says the rest of the party deserves the chance to understand what she actually wants instead of being left to guess. She replies that she is trusting him with that truth now, and that she wants him to be captain once she leaves. She cautions that Vathros may still have darker intent for all either of them knows, but Hatsu answers that while that may be true, he does not only trust in people. He trusts in his path. He was chosen for something, and he pledged himself in blood to follow that path with her. She says she intends to return to the isle as quickly as she can, but she still wants to go.

Then Hatsu takes his backpack, pulls out the Hearthstone, and gives it to her as the means to return to the bastion if she needs it. He tells her again that he trusts her, but also reminds her that there is a reason Remington gathered them all together. Each of them was chosen, and not by accident. Bloodlines like his do not move carelessly, and they would not all be here without purpose. Amaedrianna says she does trust him. She adds that Weslyn is not the same person who first came to them. Hatsu answers that he is not the same either.

From there Hatsu goes to speak to Weslyn, who is still hanging from the ladder instead of coming aboard properly. He asks what he is doing and why he refuses to return. Weslyn answers that if he is ordered to be on the ship, then he will obey that much, but only that much. He will remain until they reach the bastion, and after that he will not be on this ship any longer. Hatsu asks where home is for him. Weslyn says he does not know. Hatsu says the bastion should be his home, then, and invites him properly back onto the vessel. Weslyn refuses. Hatsu tells him he is only making things harder, creating confusion when what they need is a bridge mended. Weslyn says no one is paying enough attention. He says he wants to know what this object is, and he is willing to share what he learns, but first he needs to learn the egg itself. He still refuses to come aboard. Before the conversation can truly shift, he adds one more warning: anyone who goes into the western woods will be punished as they enter. Hatsu brushes past that unless Weslyn is willing to come back onto the ship and speak plainly from within the group. Weslyn does not.

And so the ship sails on, scarcely three hours into what should be a two-day journey, already cracked by suspicion, fear, and the weight of what they have stolen. Nothing is settled. The egg remains a threat. Trust remains damaged. Amaedrianna is half-ready to leave, Weslyn half-gone already, and Dash is desperately trying to hold together a party that seems more fragile than ever. The journey has barely begun, and already it feels as though far worse may still be waiting ahead.