Francesca Harn: Welcome to Rolling Solo, where I follow the journey of Francesca,
Francesca Harn: a tiefling bard, as I learned to play D&D one roll at a time.
Francesca Harn: We're following Francesca di
Francesca Harn: Valcere, a tiefling bard quick
Francesca Harn: with a song even quicker with a
Francesca Harn: secret.
Francesca Harn: But it seems even bards aren't
Francesca Harn: immune to stubborn real world
Francesca Harn: ailments.
Francesca Harn: And while my voice may have
Francesca Harn: needed a week's rest, the story
Francesca Harn: never stopped weaving itself in
Francesca Harn: the shadows.
Francesca Harn: When we last saw Francesca, she'd endured a perilous fight
Francesca Harn: at the South Pier, intent on rescuing a shipment of slaves.
Francesca Harn: Victory tasted sharp on her tongue.
Francesca Harn: Yet as the captain fled into the shadows, Francesca was left with
Francesca Harn: a whisper colder than steel.
Francesca Harn: There are secrets buried in the Valcere name, and some one
Francesca Harn: intends for her to find them.
Francesca Harn: Right straight off the bat.
Francesca Harn: I'm going to apologize for my voice.
Francesca Harn: It's still a little bit snotty.
Francesca Harn: So a little bit bunged up, so I'm sorry if that comes across.
Francesca Harn: It might not.
Francesca Harn: You might not realise, but that is why I didn't have an episode
Francesca Harn: last, last week.
Francesca Harn: Because I've had a really horrid cold.
Francesca Harn: And yeah, it just my voice was gone for a little while and then
Francesca Harn: lots of coughing and sneezing and all of that.
Francesca Harn: Not one hundred percent better yet, but nearly there.
Francesca Harn: Probably around ninety percent.
Francesca Harn: But I can still I still sound a bit nasally to myself.
Francesca Harn: So if I sound nasally to you, apologies.
Francesca Harn: But I didn't want to miss out on
Francesca Harn: another week of Francesca's
Francesca Harn: adventures.
Francesca Harn: So I'm back.
Francesca Harn: Thank you for joining me.
Francesca Harn: Last time the battle at the
Francesca Harn: south pier reached its breaking
Francesca Harn: point.
Francesca Harn: Francesca cut through the Black
Francesca Harn: Gloves enforcers and forced the
Francesca Harn: red cloaked captain to flee with
Francesca Harn: dissonant whispers echoing in
Francesca Harn: his skull.
Francesca Harn: But before he vanished into the night, he left behind words that
Francesca Harn: won't stop ringing in her mind.
Francesca Harn: You don't even know what they've kept from you.
Francesca Harn: Valkyrie.
Francesca Harn: Now with the pier littered in bodies and the prisoners freed,
Francesca Harn: the night is finally still.
Francesca Harn: But secrets never stay buried for long.
Francesca Harn: The battle is over.
Francesca Harn: The air is thick with smoke and blood.
Francesca Harn: The widow's smile drifts just
Francesca Harn: beyond the pier, its ropes cut
Francesca Harn: loose, oars thrashing as the red
Francesca Harn: cloaked captain vanishes into
Francesca Harn: the mist.
Francesca Harn: The last echo of his words still burns in your mind.
Francesca Harn: Like an ember you can't put out.
Francesca Harn: Around you The freed prisoners
Francesca Harn: breathe the first air of their
Francesca Harn: new freedom.
Francesca Harn: The tall one, the soldier who led them meets your eyes.
Francesca Harn: His cheek is split, one wrist
Francesca Harn: still chained, but his voice is
Francesca Harn: steady.
Francesca Harn: He's gone, but they'll come back for us.
Francesca Harn: They always do.
Francesca Harn: We need to move.
Francesca Harn: Behind him, chaos simmers.
Francesca Harn: Two enforcers groan on the ground.
Francesca Harn: Another drags himself toward the water.
Francesca Harn: Frightened villagers peek from the alleys drawn by the noise.
Francesca Harn: The scent of oil and burned rope hangs in the air.
Francesca Harn: Francesca stands on the blood,
Francesca Harn: slick planks, victorious but
Francesca Harn: exposed.
Francesca Harn: The black glove will know what happened here before dawn.
Francesca Harn: The question is what to do before that happens.
Francesca Harn: One interrogate one of the wounded enforcers.
Francesca Harn: Learn what the captain meant before he escaped.
Francesca Harn: Two help the prisoners flee.
Francesca Harn: Rally them quickly before the black glove retaliates.
Francesca Harn: Free.
Francesca Harn: Search the pier and the bodies.
Francesca Harn: See what clues or evidence remain.
Francesca Harn: Four send word to Seraphine.
Francesca Harn: Warn her, and possibly regroup before the guild moves.
Francesca Harn: What does Francesca do first in the smoky aftermath of the battle?
Francesca Harn: I think that Francesca isn't
Francesca Harn: going
Francesca Harn: to want to linger around
Francesca Harn: too much. She was reluctant to
Francesca Harn: take on
Francesca Harn: a job at such short notice that
Francesca Harn: she didn't really know much about
Francesca Harn: anyway, and then she'd end
Francesca Harn: up going full throttle into this
Francesca Harn: kind of confrontation, which has ended
Francesca Harn: up with secrets revealed about
Francesca Harn: her family or, you know,
Francesca Harn: hints of secrets and the knowledge
Francesca Harn: that someone out there knows
Francesca Harn: her, her double life, her
Francesca Harn: secret identity. So, yeah, she's not
Francesca Harn: going to
Francesca Harn: want to linger. I think it would be silly
Francesca Harn: not to have a quick loot of the
Francesca Harn: corpses. That's what I always do
Francesca Harn: when
Francesca Harn: I play games like Baldur's Gate and
Francesca Harn: stuff. Always got to loot
Francesca Harn: everything. So
Francesca Harn: she'll have a quick little
Francesca Harn: look in the bodies nearby, her
Francesca Harn: or the unconscious people nearby her.
Francesca Harn: But then she's going to
Francesca Harn: get
Francesca Harn: out of there. Her mission was to rescue the
Francesca Harn: prisoners. She's done that. Her identity has
Francesca Harn: been at risk
Francesca Harn: too much that night. She needs to just get out
Francesca Harn: of there. You kneel among the wreckage. the
Francesca Harn: boards sticky with salt and
Francesca Harn: blood. The sounds of the freed prisoners
Francesca Harn: fade into the distance, their footsteps, their breathless thanks
Francesca Harn: as you let instinct guide your search. The captain's
Francesca Harn: crimson cloak flutters at
Francesca Harn: the pier's edge, a
Francesca Harn: shred torn free during his retreat.
Francesca Harn: You find a black iron
Francesca Harn: insignia,
Francesca Harn: pin shaped like a glove clutching a dagger. The mark of
Francesca Harn: the Black Glove
Francesca Harn: Syndicate etched along its side, barely visible, are two intertwined initials
Francesca Harn: V D a ledger page damp with river water
Francesca Harn: half torn but legible. "Shipment forty seven approved by House. Val."
Francesca Harn: The rest is destroyed and finally
Francesca Harn: tucked
Francesca Harn: inside a bloodied pouch. A
Francesca Harn: small silver card, smooth as
Francesca Harn: glass,
Francesca Harn: marked with a single engraved symbol.
Francesca Harn: A starburst ringed by thirteen
Francesca Harn: glyphs. It
Francesca Harn: hums faintly at your touch, warm
Francesca Harn: for just a heartbeat and then
Francesca Harn: cold. It doesn't belong here. It
Francesca Harn: feels ancient.
Francesca Harn: The tall prisoner. The
Francesca Harn: soldier catches your
Francesca Harn: glance and calls
Francesca Harn: over his shoulder. Come on, we can't stay. You pocket
Francesca Harn: what you can cloak. Snapping
Francesca Harn: in the wind as the river
Francesca Harn: mist curls closer. You turn from the pier, from the
Francesca Harn: corpses, from the broken chains. And vanish into the back streets of
Francesca Harn: Jerusalem's gate. Before the bells can toll. Smoke rises
Francesca Harn: behind you. Freedom and danger
Francesca Harn: both earned. Which direction
Francesca Harn: does Francesca choose to vanish
Francesca Harn: into the night? So I think at this point she's
Francesca Harn: going to want to seek out somewhere safe to go. So probably she
Francesca Harn: has a safe house
Francesca Harn: in this district or somewhere where she can camp out. She could
Francesca Harn: return to the inn where
Francesca Harn: Serafina is, but I don't feel
Francesca Harn: like that's going to be the
Francesca Harn: wisest thing, especially with that person that
Francesca Harn: she saw in the
Francesca Harn: crowd there earlier who seemed to know
Francesca Harn: something about her or just
Francesca Harn: seemed a bit, bit troubling. So
Francesca Harn: we're not going to do
Francesca Harn: that
Francesca Harn: instead? Yeah, she's going to find a safe
Francesca Harn: house. She's also going to send off, like
Francesca Harn: an encoded message to Serafina, just literally saying like, done or,
Francesca Harn: you know, with a tick kind of type thing and a
Francesca Harn: smiley face emoji. I don't know, but a way to
Francesca Harn: say that, you know, job's done. Um, but also thinking back to my
Francesca Harn: character's backstory, she has got some contacts. Um, so I'm looking
Francesca Harn: I think she's
Francesca Harn: got someone called whistle, whistle, Whistle Korrin a gnome contact who
Francesca Harn: would knows a bit about artifacts and things. They might be
Francesca Harn: able to help with
Francesca Harn: identifying this mysterious silver card. So yeah,
Francesca Harn: that's what we're
Francesca Harn: going to
Francesca Harn: do. We're going to find a safe house
Francesca Harn: and send off those to a coded
Francesca Harn: messages, letting Serafina know job done and
Francesca Harn: letting, Whistle know that
Francesca Harn: I want to meet up
Francesca Harn: with him ASAP. So let's pop that out.
Francesca Harn: Francesca slips through the
Francesca Harn: alleyways of Droslev's Gate,
Francesca Harn: cloak drawn tight against the
Francesca Harn: river fog.
Francesca Harn: Every echo sounds like a
Francesca Harn: pursuit, every lantern like an
Francesca Harn: eye.
Francesca Harn: But at last she finds the narrow cellar door.
Francesca Harn: She was searching for a forgotten safehouse tucked
Francesca Harn: beneath an abandoned perfumery.
Francesca Harn: Inside dust broken shelves, a small cot, a shuttered window.
Francesca Harn: It's quiet, blessedly so.
Francesca Harn: She lights a single stub of
Francesca Harn: candle, removes her gloves, and
Francesca Harn: finally breathes.
Francesca Harn: Before resting.
Francesca Harn: She takes a sheet of parchment
Francesca Harn: and a cipher wheel from her
Francesca Harn: pack.
Francesca Harn: One message to Séraphine done, another to whistle.
Francesca Harn: Korrin need to meet.
Francesca Harn: Urgent.
Francesca Harn: The wax seals cool, marked of an untraceable flourish, the kind
Francesca Harn: thieves use when they have too much to lose.
Francesca Harn: Finally, she sits on the cot and
Francesca Harn: turns the silver card over in
Francesca Harn: her hand.
Francesca Harn: It hums again faintly, then flickers of pale light.
Francesca Harn: Her eyelids grow heavy.
Francesca Harn: The world tips sideways.
Francesca Harn: You stand in a place without horizon.
Francesca Harn: Shadows ripple underfoot as if the floor were made of ink.
Francesca Harn: Before you floats a deck of
Francesca Harn: shining cards, their edges
Francesca Harn: burning faintly with silver
Francesca Harn: fire.
Francesca Harn: A voice neither kind nor cruel.
Francesca Harn: Whispers.
Francesca Harn: "You have drawn the eye of fate, little bard. Three cards will tell what has been, what is and what waits to be."
Francesca Harn: The cards hover before you blank.
Francesca Harn: Until your hand reaches out. So last
Francesca Harn: week
Francesca Harn: you learned about my little spending
Francesca Harn: spree going and buying lots
Francesca Harn: of new dice. Because I'm a dice goblin now. Uh, while
Francesca Harn: I was doing that, I also
Francesca Harn: bought, very excitingly, the deck of
Francesca Harn: many things because I saw them it
Francesca Harn: being used on a
Francesca Harn: clip, a YouTube short clip from
Francesca Harn: Critical Role on one of their campaigns. And
Francesca Harn: I just thought it looked like
Francesca Harn: great fun kind of tarot card
Francesca Harn: type
Francesca Harn: style thing. And I just. Yeah, I couldn't resist. So I bought
Francesca Harn: them, I let my,
Francesca Harn: I let my
Francesca Harn: dungeon master, my AI
Francesca Harn: know and explained how they work. So they're
Francesca Harn: going to be weaved in as
Francesca Harn: a storytelling thing. Just to
Francesca Harn: add
Francesca Harn: a little bit more interactivity for me, so that the Dungeon
Francesca Harn: Master isn't making it all up as it's not human, it's it
Francesca Harn: is the AI. I wanted to add a bit more spontaneity, but
Francesca Harn: also me doing things into
Francesca Harn: it. So I'm going to be drawing from my deck of many
Francesca Harn: things, which I'm
Francesca Harn: just going to open up in the little the little box it's in.
Francesca Harn: So let me have a little shuffle of my cards. Can you hear them
Francesca Harn: there? Bit of ASMR for you. And I'm going to
Francesca Harn: be drawing three cards, which
Francesca Harn: I think from what it
Francesca Harn: said, it's going to be interpreted as like the past, the present
Francesca Harn: and the future, but in a symbolic way. So like if I
Francesca Harn: draw a dragon, it doesn't mean I'm going to meet
Francesca Harn: a dragon. It just means whatever the AI
Francesca Harn: wants to interpret it to mean. So
Francesca Harn: let's
Francesca Harn: have a little look sees and draw. Okay. First card. Jester oh,
Francesca Harn: and it's really cool looking card. It's got a
Francesca Harn: jester,
Francesca Harn: but it's
Francesca Harn: like a really macabre. It's got like skulls
Francesca Harn: and things. Yeah. Maybe I'll take a picture and put
Francesca Harn: it on my Instagram if you
Francesca Harn: want
Francesca Harn: to have a look, but they're
Francesca Harn: really cool. So that's the first card.
Francesca Harn: Second card. Okay. So that's the present,
Francesca Harn: which I
Francesca Harn: suppose kind of links in
Francesca Harn: quite nicely
Francesca Harn: with
Francesca Harn: what I've discovered on the bodies. And then we've got void as
Francesca Harn: the future. That's a bit ominous, but let
Francesca Harn: me put those in and see what we
Francesca Harn: come up with. The void around you. Ripples and the free silver cards hover
Francesca Harn: before your chest.
Francesca Harn: They shimmer once, then
Francesca Harn: turn over one by one. The jester. A burst of
Francesca Harn: color explodes around you. Confetti made of memories. Laughter.
Francesca Harn: Wine. Applause.
Francesca Harn: The dream flickers with scenes of Francesca
Francesca Harn: on stage, dazzling audiences,
Francesca Harn: spinning
Francesca Harn: words
Francesca Harn: like
Francesca Harn: spells. But between the laughter,
Francesca Harn: there's an echo of mockery.
Francesca Harn: Nobles clapping for her
Francesca Harn: performance,
Francesca Harn: never for her. A voice whispers through the lights.
Francesca Harn: "Your mask was your freedom and your prison. You were their Jest, until you learned to play the fool by choice."
Francesca Harn: The jester grins, then crumbles to
Francesca Harn: ash. You feel both pride and sting. You've
Francesca Harn: always wielded charm as a weapon,
Francesca Harn: but it's also how the world
Francesca Harn: first
Francesca Harn: hurt you. The gem. The ash reforms
Francesca Harn: into a blinding diamond spinning in
Francesca Harn: the air. Its light fractures into dozens of reflections, each one showing
Francesca Harn: you as someone different.
Francesca Harn: Bard, thief,
Francesca Harn: noble, fugitive, none the same, yet all true. "You are cut from many faces,"
Francesca Harn: says the voice. "Each edge gleams with possibility, but one
Francesca Harn: flaw, and it all
Francesca Harn: shatters." As the gem turns. You glimpse the silver card
Francesca Harn: in your pocket, pulsing faintly in the waking world.
Francesca Harn: The deck is watching and perhaps testing. When you
Francesca Harn: reach for the
Francesca Harn: gem, it splits into
Francesca Harn: thirteen shards, each hovering in a circle, the faint shapes of
Francesca Harn: cards on their
Francesca Harn: surfaces. The void. The light suddenly dies.
Francesca Harn: The air chills. You fall below you.
Francesca Harn: There's no ground, only
Francesca Harn: a vast, starless Abyss. A faint
Francesca Harn: echo drifts upward. A melody, maybe
Francesca Harn: your
Francesca Harn: own voice
Francesca Harn: echoing from impossibly far
Francesca Harn: below. The voice
Francesca Harn: speaks one last time.
Francesca Harn: Hushed but intimate. "Something waits to claim what you hide, Bard. A hollow that hungers for names. For legacies. When it finds you... The question will not be who you are, but what remains when the song stops."
Francesca Harn: The final image before you
Francesca Harn: wake. A black crown descending into
Francesca Harn: the void, its jewels
Francesca Harn: glimmering
Francesca Harn: faintly like tears turned to stone.
Francesca Harn: You jolt upright.
Francesca Harn: The candle burned low to its wick.
Francesca Harn: The silver card lies beside you on the cot.
Francesca Harn: Cool again, but a faint smudge
Francesca Harn: of soot marks its surface,
Francesca Harn: shaped exactly like a smiling
Francesca Harn: jester's mask.
Francesca Harn: Outside, the first bells of Dawn toll over Droslev's gate.
Francesca Harn: What is the meaning of this dream?
Francesca Harn: Role either perception or insight to try to uncover the
Francesca Harn: message behind the images.
Francesca Harn: Perception.
Francesca Harn: She focuses on physical detail what she saw or heard or sensed
Francesca Harn: in the dream.
Francesca Harn: Insight she searches for emotional or symbolic truth.
Francesca Harn: What the dream means.
Francesca Harn: Roll your d20.
Francesca Harn: Let's see how clearly Francesca
Francesca Harn: recalls what fate tried to
Francesca Harn: whisper.
Francesca Harn: Don't see huge amounts of value in going for the perception,
Francesca Harn: thinking about the physical because it's a dream, right?
Francesca Harn: So let's talk more about the
Francesca Harn: emotional or symbolism behind
Francesca Harn: it.
Francesca Harn: So I'm thinking I'm going to go
Francesca Harn: for insight, which for me is a
Francesca Harn: role.
Francesca Harn: Plus a plus three are brilliant okay.
Francesca Harn: So let's roll this d20.
Francesca Harn: Give it a shake first.
Francesca Harn: Ooh.
Francesca Harn: Not bad.
Francesca Harn: I thought that was going to be worse.
Francesca Harn: It rolled for a while and I was
Francesca Harn: scared it was going to land on
Francesca Harn: three, but then it decided to do
Francesca Harn: ten.
Francesca Harn: So that's ten plus three.
Francesca Harn: Let's see what she finds out.
Francesca Harn: It's not going to be amazing, but I've had much worse rolls.
Francesca Harn: If you've listened to previous episodes, you know I've had some
Francesca Harn: pretty terrible rolls.
Francesca Harn: The candle has long since gutted out.
Francesca Harn: The faintest light of dawn seeps through the boarded window, and
Francesca Harn: you sit there on the cot, card in hand, trying to hold on to
Francesca Harn: the pieces of the dream before it dissolves completely.
Francesca Harn: You remember flashes a jester's
Francesca Harn: laugh, a gemstone splitting
Francesca Harn: apart, a crown sinking into
Francesca Harn: darkness.
Francesca Harn: The rest is already fading.
Francesca Harn: But a few threads cling stubbornly to your mind.
Francesca Harn: The jester.
Francesca Harn: Your past was a mask.
Francesca Harn: You survived by charm and deceit.
Francesca Harn: But there's a sting to it.
Francesca Harn: You learned too well how to hide even from yourself.
Francesca Harn: The gem your fractured but whole.
Francesca Harn: You can see so many versions of yourself now barred.
Francesca Harn: Thief, noble wanderer.
Francesca Harn: And you know that only one can survive what's coming.
Francesca Harn: The void.
Francesca Harn: Something knows your name.
Francesca Harn: That crown.
Francesca Harn: Those whispered words.
Francesca Harn: You don't think it was just a dream.
Francesca Harn: Something old and hungry is watching.
Francesca Harn: Waiting for the right moment to reach out.
Francesca Harn: When you glance at the silver
Francesca Harn: card again, the faint soot
Francesca Harn: smudge from the jester's mask
Francesca Harn: remains.
Francesca Harn: You can't shake the feeling that the deck marked you not as its
Francesca Harn: owner, but as its next story.
Francesca Harn: Outside Droslev's Gate stirs awake.
Francesca Harn: Somewhere in the city, Whistle Korrin
Francesca Harn: will have received your message.
Francesca Harn: The
Francesca Harn: question is whether to meet him now, before daylight gives way
Francesca Harn: to consequence, or to watch and wait a little longer. What
Francesca Harn: do you want Francesca to do? Good
Francesca Harn: question. What
Francesca Harn: do I want her to do? I
Francesca Harn: think let's go. Because.
Francesca Harn: Yeah,
Francesca Harn: before I personally. This
Francesca Harn: is getting like into my personal life. Now.
Francesca Harn: I
Francesca Harn: always get up and go, like in the weekend. I
Francesca Harn: need to do shopping or whatever. I'm
Francesca Harn: not someone that laze around in
Francesca Harn: bed or stays around the house till
Francesca Harn: ten. I
Francesca Harn: am up at six. I'm
Francesca Harn: out when the shops open before it gets busy. Let's
Francesca Harn: go. So
Francesca Harn: I think she needs to get out before people are out. She's
Francesca Harn: risked her identity a few times recently. Let's
Francesca Harn: go. Uh,
Francesca Harn: hood up. Go
Francesca Harn: and see Whistle Korrin, then head back to the inn. I
Francesca Harn: feel because she needs to show off
Francesca Harn: her persona of the Bard at the
Francesca Harn: inn where she performed the night
Francesca Harn: before to make sure that she's
Francesca Harn: kind of staying true to that.
Francesca Harn: Oh,
Francesca Harn: look, I'm just a travelling bard. Look
Francesca Harn: at me. I'm
Francesca Harn: innocent. So
Francesca Harn: yeah, I've ended up on a bit of a spiral there, but that's what
Francesca Harn: we're going to do. The
Francesca Harn: street of Droslev's gate is gray and slick with early mist. The
Francesca Harn: air smells of cold smoke and wet stone. You
Francesca Harn: move quietly through narrow lanes,
Francesca Harn: hood drawn low, every step
Francesca Harn: echoing softly on the cobbles.
Francesca Harn: The
Francesca Harn: few souls awake at this hour. Fishmongers
Francesca Harn: lamplighters. Street
Francesca Harn: sweepers. Don't
Francesca Harn: look twice. Whistle
Francesca Harn: Korrin's workshop is hidden
Francesca Harn: beneath a shuttered watchmaker's
Francesca Harn: shop in the Copper Lane
Francesca Harn: district, a labyrinth of old
Francesca Harn: pipes and gears that hum faintly
Francesca Harn: even when the city sleeps.
Francesca Harn: You
Francesca Harn: slip down the back stair, knock once, twice, pause, then a third
Francesca Harn: time his coat. A
Francesca Harn: moment later you hear the scratch of a latch. The
Francesca Harn: door opens a crack, revealing
Francesca Harn: a narrow sliver of whistles,
Francesca Harn: wide eyes magnified by thick
Francesca Harn: lenses. "Saints below. Francesca. I was just thinking about sending words. You're alive."
Francesca Harn: He ushers
Francesca Harn: you
Francesca Harn: inside, fussing in that anxious way only
Francesca Harn: he can.
Francesca Harn: The little gnome's workshop is a chaos of springs, cogs and half
Francesca Harn: dismantled locks. He pulls a stool
Francesca Harn: over for you, still peering toward
Francesca Harn: the door.
Francesca Harn: "So what d'you find? Your note was vague, even for you." you
Francesca Harn: set the silver card
Francesca Harn: on his workbench. The faint reflection of
Francesca Harn: the candlelight dances across it like liquid metal.
Francesca Harn: Whistle freezes, eyes going wide behind his goggles. "Where in the nine hells did you get this?"
Francesca Harn: His voice has
Francesca Harn: changed lower, reverent, and just a little afraid.
Francesca Harn: He adjusts a magnifier lens, studying the
Francesca Harn: etched starburst and the ring of
Francesca Harn: thirteen glyphs. "I've seen a sketch of this before. Old dangerous. Not gild work, not even arcane registry. This. This might pre-date recorded magic. Where exactly did you-"
Francesca Harn: He stops
Francesca Harn: mid-sentence. A faint knock echoes above, three, sharp taps
Francesca Harn: on the metal grate that separates
Francesca Harn: the workshop from the alley. Whistles face
Francesca Harn: drains of
Francesca Harn: color. "That's not one of my contacts."
Francesca Harn: The
Francesca Harn: knock comes again. Louder. What
Francesca Harn: does Francesca do as the knocking grows
Francesca Harn: sharper? You know what I think? Francesca is prepared for this.
Francesca Harn: Um, so she's gonna take off her cloak,
Francesca Harn: revealing her bard's outfit underneath.
Francesca Harn: Because although she did, you know,
Francesca Harn: put on her stealth
Francesca Harn: cloak
Francesca Harn: and mask and everything the night before. And she
Francesca Harn: didn't return to the inn
Francesca Harn: where her rest of her
Francesca Harn: clothes was underneath. She would have had
Francesca Harn: the corset and everything
Francesca Harn: that she
Francesca Harn: would have worn for the
Francesca Harn: performance. So she's going to take
Francesca Harn: the cloak off. She's going
Francesca Harn: to kind
Francesca Harn: of redo her hair really quickly in
Francesca Harn: that effortless, way that people with
Francesca Harn: long hair
Francesca Harn: do that. I don't know how that works because I have
Francesca Harn: very short hair. But anyway,
Francesca Harn: she puts it into like a half up,
Francesca Harn: half down, bard esque fancy hairdo. Um, she places the card quickly
Francesca Harn: inside her corset. I'm a big fan for hiding
Francesca Harn: my phone and credit cards and things inside my bra so she
Francesca Harn: can hide it in her corset, and she removes, from there, an antique
Francesca Harn: pocket watch which
Francesca Harn: stutters in its ticking so clearly not working properly,
Francesca Harn: puts that on the table so she can pretend that that's why
Francesca Harn: she's there. To see Korrin, to get him to fix the watch so she
Francesca Harn: then will gesture for Whistle to open the grates because
Francesca Harn: she's confident in this. This is what she's done. She
Francesca Harn: has this double life. And yes, that captain knows who she
Francesca Harn: is. But up until then, no one's seen
Francesca Harn: through this. She's confident in her
Francesca Harn: ability to put on a performance.
Francesca Harn: So let's see what
Francesca Harn: happens.
Francesca Harn: Whistle's trembling hand hovers
Francesca Harn: near the latch, but your calm
Francesca Harn: steals him.
Francesca Harn: In one fluid motion.
Francesca Harn: You shrug off your cloak, silk and shadow giving way to the
Francesca Harn: radiant performer beneath.
Francesca Harn: Gold threaded cuffs catch the candlelight as you sweep your
Francesca Harn: hair up, pinning it half back with a deliberate flick.
Francesca Harn: The antique pocket watch ticks unevenly in your palm, a
Francesca Harn: stuttering rhythm like a heartbeat faltering before a
Francesca Harn: song's final note.
Francesca Harn: You tuck the silver card safely against your corset, where it
Francesca Harn: thrums, once faintly warm.
Francesca Harn: "Open it," you whisper, "We'll let them see what they expect."
Francesca Harn: Whistle, gulps, nods, and unlatches the gate.
Francesca Harn: It creaks open with a long metallic groan, the mist from
Francesca Harn: the alley curling in.
Francesca Harn: Standing there are two figures cloaked in gray faces, hidden
Francesca Harn: beneath hooded cowls.
Francesca Harn: Between them a third, the red cloaked captain alive, bruised
Francesca Harn: and leaning heavily on a cane.
Francesca Harn: The crimson cloak is gone, replaced by plain grey.
Francesca Harn: But the rune etched sword hangs
Francesca Harn: at his hip, humming faintly even
Francesca Harn: now.
Francesca Harn: He smiles, lips cracked with dried blood.
Francesca Harn: "You should have finished the job, Lady Valcere."
Francesca Harn: Then his eyes flick briefly
Francesca Harn: towards Whistle, and the
Francesca Harn: workshop's only candle snuffs
Francesca Harn: out.
Francesca Harn: Darkness.
Francesca Harn: The sound of steel leaving its sheath.
Francesca Harn: In the black silence of Copper Lane, Francesca hears the faint
Francesca Harn: tick of her broken watch and wonders if this time the song
Francesca Harn: might stop for good.
Francesca Harn: The shadows grow deeper, the choices sharper, and sometimes
Francesca Harn: the only path forward is the one we walk rolling solo.