The Immortal Dream

Faye looked down into the stone coffin in the mansion's basement, the painting staring back up at her.

Lissa scratched her head with a wingtip. "If this is a shrine to a lost loved one, or something, it's kind of a creepy shrine."

Flarefeather nodded. "I was hoping we'd find a little more to do with the Consul. You know, a motivation for killing him, or something?"

Faye let them talk. Earlier, they had been suspicious that Neeve killed the Consul; it was pretty obvious that Flarefeather was more here because she wanted to learn about her father. But what really was there to learn?

Evidently, he had lost someone - his wife, child, or both - and never gotten over it. But whatever his past, the present day Crowscone seemed like someone best ignored and left behind. Faye had more important things to think about, like reaching the Crystal Palace. She didn't have time to spend on figuring out someone like this, and the time she did have was ticking. They needed to move on and get some sleep before morning.

...How close was morning, anyway? It had been late into the night when the ship went down, and then they spent hours investigating and walking into the city...

"Girls," she eventually interrupted. "Is there anything more you want to do down here?"

Flarefeather glanced up. "I mean, we haven't really found much, yet..."

"Could be because there's nothing here to find," Lissa remarked. "Though, think about it. This mansion doesn't look that old. Way younger than that painting. So he probably built this shrine way after the fact."

Flarefeather shifted her weight, thinking hard. "Which means...?"

"I don't know," Faye said. "Maybe nothing. You could always think about it later, when-"

"Nahhh," Flarefeather interrupted. "There's gotta be something good here. You can't just build something like this for no reason. Maybe he's got, like, a safe hidden under the painting?"

Faye frowned. "Is building a shrine to a lost loved one not a reason?"

Lissa nodded as Flarefeather reached into the coffin, pulling out the painting. "He didn't seem like the nicest guy, but behind a painting in a shrine seems like an odd place to hide..."

She trailed off, staring into the coffin.

Faye sighed, stepping forward. "Is there really something in there?"

There was, in fact, something beneath the family portrait Flarefeather had removed. It was a second painting, this one showing a solitary pegasus Faye didn't think she had seen before. She was about their age, with a raven-black mane and an ambitious look in her violet-red eyes, but her most striking feature was her outfit: shiny, glitzy and unmistakably the uniform of a Wilderwind Escort.

"Oh, now we're talking," Flarefeather whispered, her voice low with excitement. "He's got a history with Wilderwind? This is my wheelhouse!"

"You know her?" Lissa frowned. "I don't remember anyone in the Escorts who looked like that. Not since I joined, at least."

Flarefeather frowned too. "No, but..." She glanced back to the painting she had removed. "Hold on, you think she's the same kid from here? That would mean... If she's my sister..." Her eyes crossed. "Is that just a crazy coincidence? How did both of us wind up with the same employer without knowing about each other? Do you suppose someone in Wilderwind knew?" Her frown intensified. "They would have had to. No one gets to become an Escort without having something Wilderwind wants in their collection. But no one ever told me about it."

Now that dawn's timing was on Faye's mind, it was becoming a more and more pressing thought by the minute, especially here, far away from any windows that could warn them if the sky started to lighten. But it couldn't stop her thoughts from drifting, too, the new painting raising another concern she had momentarily forgotten about: Puddles said she had tried to work with the Escorts before, years ago, and it had gone horribly wrong.

Wilderwind Escorts probably didn't die that often, living in their rich and cozy tower, right? Not when Wilderwind basically kept them as living trophies. If this mare was dead, it would be a noteworthy, uncommon occurrence. And Puddles had a long history with Izvaldi. Her truce with the ruling family was uneasy and layered, and from the little Faye had been allowed to understand about it, it seemed designed to prevent them from having to endure each other's company for more than passing moments.

If what she suspected was true, a lot of things would suddenly add up. But, then... what was going through Puddles' head right now? They had explained Flarefeather's parentage to her. She would know this relationship, that Flarefeather was the sister of the mare from back then. By letting Flarefeather and Lissa on board, was she trying to atone, or... or...?

It was hard to tell what Lissa was thinking, but Faye wouldn't be surprised if she put two and two together, too. Flarefeather seemed oblivious, at least. And sure enough, Lissa was the next to prompt Flarefeather to leave.

"Maybe we should get a move on," she suggested, gently nudging Flarefeather's shoulder. "Leave things how we found them and ponder this in the morning."

"I'd like that too," Faye agreed. "Remember, our top priority is getting the ship back in the air so we can go to the Crystal Palace. I know you're curious about your family, but remember what Crowscone is like in the present day."

"Yeah, yeah..." Flarefeather sighed, giving the portraits one last look before rearranging them back how they had been. "Alright, we can go."

Halfway up the staircase, the topic hadn't changed.

"Pssst," Flarefeather whispered to Lissa. "Do you think she looked like me?"

"Who, the other escort?" Lissa looked distracted. "Yeah, sort of. Same jawline and eye shape. You're much cuter, though."

Faye urgently shushed both of them. As the study above drew nearer, a problem was sharply coming into focus: there were two stars inside. It was occupied.

"We're too late," she breathed when Flarefeather gave her a questioning look. "Someone's in that room now."

The three of them crept forward, listening. Sure enough, as they got right up to the door - Faye's bracelet extinguished so it didn't give them away by shining under the doorjamb - vague shuffling and mutterings could be heard from the other side.

They backed off a little, feeling their way down one flight of stairs. "Oops," Flarefeather breathed, the colored light of a unicorn horn seeping under the door above them. "Guess we did take too long, after all."

"How did you hear that so early?" Lissa whispered. "That's just unreal."

"Magic," Faye whispered back, glancing through the wall at the red ring star, behind the other door in the study that they definitely wouldn't have time now to investigate.

"Think your magic can also get us through that room without being spotted?" Lissa asked. "This is what you practiced for."

"I hope so," Faye answered, pushing back her star sight so it would be easier to shadow sneak with her friends. Her biggest concern was that unicorn's horn: since her bracelet was the only source of light they had, she had no way of testing if her inexplicable new ability to shadow swim in the light worked for all light, or only her bracelet's. And if it failed...

Well, hopefully the unicorn was casting enough shadows that she wouldn't have to find out.

Her nerves steeled, Faye spread her wings, grabbed her friends, and went under.

She swam in a hurry, swimming past Crowscone's desk and hugging the shelves and cabinets that lined the walls. Sure enough, there was a unicorn, standing near the doorway and providing light for Crowscone as he puttered around, examining a shelf on the far side of the room.

Near the open doorway. Beyond it, the gray light of dawn was filtering in through the windows and the fog.

There was no possible way past without trusting in her new ability to swim in the light, and Faye didn't have time to think of an alternative: she didn't dare surface for air, and swimming with passengers seemed to sharply curtail the amount her lungs could hold, as if she was breathing for three. She had no choice. She darted forward, into the light.

Her swimming held. The light from the unicorn and from the window didn't force her out into the open, as it would have done any day except for today. But her lungs weren't going to keep up, and in the corridor outside the office were no less than six guards, including two that were watching around the hallway corners in both directions. Her chest was burning, and she didn't have time to make a wrong decision and then correct for it.

The safest way to go, it would be... outside. Through the window.

Shadow sneaking let batponies move through glass, probably since glass was transparent to light, and they were merging with shadows. And the huge, floor-to-ceiling windows in the study's surrounding hallways should have provided perfect targets, without so much as a lip on the floor Faye would have to swim up to reach them. But as she accelerated, straining towards the outdoors, the glass didn't let her through.

It felt like any old solid, opaque wall. Was it because there wasn't actually a shadow? Had something fundamental changed about her shadow swimming, more fundamental than she had given credit for? What was going on, and why? And what could she do about it in the short time she had left!?

As it turned out, nothing. Because when Faye pressed harder against the glass, tried to go through it, and then tried to climb it like a regular wall, it didn't allow her to stay under. She simply surfaced, Lissa and Flarefeather in tow, the guards grunting in surprise as they appeared right in the middle of the hallway.

Faye froze in resignation. Something had been due to go wrong, and for it to be the new power she was trusting without understanding at all... go figure.

I couldn't sleep as a ghost, and I still couldn't see in the dark, so I passed the rest of the night floating above the fog layer, watching and waiting for the sun to rise.

It didn't take as long as I feared. The power had already vanished midway through the night, and after that we spent hours between our investigation of the ship and its surroundings and hiking to the city. Not that I was fantastic at guessing the passage of time, but it couldn't have been more than an hour before the sky first started to lighten.

I quickly dove back into the fog, watching as the mansion's outline gradually came into clearer relief. I needed to find my way back to our quarters so I could meet back up with Faye...

The corridors themselves were still terminally dim, even with gray, fog-filtered pre-dawn light seeping in through the windows. Almost subconsciously, I wound up following a unicorn in a guard-style business suit once I felt like I was getting close, on the off chance his horn light let me recognize an important landmark as he passed it.

And it did. When he finally stopped to rap on a door, I was pretty sure it was our own.

My suspicions were confirmed several minutes later, after more knocking, when Puddles opened the door, dressed in her Black Knight armor. "What?" she asked.

The suited guard nodded stiffly. "Three ponies who are supposedly with you were caught sneaking around His Radiance's private study. Do you know anything about this?"

"No," Puddles replied, her tone impenetrably neutral. "I do not."

"I've been sent to verify their identities," the guard continued. "If your entourage is present here, would you mind letting me speak to them to verify they aren't the ponies we're presently holding?"

Puddles nodded. "I'll find them."

Then she retreated back into the dim lighting of their suite, the guard waiting patiently in the hallway.

I scrutinized him. He was being oddly deferential to Puddles if he really did suspect us of something... which, with how Lissa and Flarefeather had been carrying on before I left, they probably really had gotten in trouble. Go figure that my awful luck could still do that, even when I wasn't present for it.

Moments later, Puddles returned. "They aren't here," she confirmed, saying everything a stoic masked knight should say when feigning innocence for herself and herself alone. "Take me to the ponies you've apprehended."

The unicorn nodded. "Follow me."

I started drifting along behind them. It sure was an odd exchange, the more I thought about it. The guard felt almost like he was running through the motions, and didn't really mistrust Puddles at all... Or, more accurately, he didn't care whether she was up to something or not. A punch-clock guard, who followed the letter of his duties and nothing more. Fitting, for someone wearing a business suit instead of any sort of armor.

Faye ran over her options in her mind as the the guards sat them against a wall near the door to Crowscone's study. If it came down to a fight... Presumably, Crowscone employed guards who weren't pushovers in combat, but none of them were changeling queens and none of them could likely hold a candle to the power of her bracelet. Assuming it worked the way she expected it to, which wasn't safe to assume until she knew what was wrong with her shadow sneaking.

But Puddles had promised she could talk them out of one slip-up. Whether she was right or not, violence wasn't their only hope, at least not yet. And beating anyone up would look a lot worse on their records than just sneaking. And maybe Flarefeather and Lissa would cool their heads a bit if they got a dose of reality like this one.

So, keeping herself calm with the knowledge that she wasn't fully cornered yet, Faye focused on her breathing and sat back to see what her friends would do.

Flarefeather, for her part, looked flustered. Lissa looked annoyed.

The sun was rising quickly, allowing her to see more than dim shades of gray as Crowscone finally stomped out of his study, puffing under the weight of his girth. He stopped in front of them, looking down at her with his beady eyes and triple chin.

"Well, well, well," Crowscone rumbled, trilling with his practiced, ostentatious accent. "You must be the three spies who snuck in with the Black Knight last night. Enjoying your look around?"

"We're not spies," Flarefeather mumbled, looking as if her nerves had temporarily deserted her.

"Not spies?" Crowscone raised a thick, black eyebrow. "Hah. And I suppose you're not Wilderwind Escorts, either. Well? How do you like it?"

"How do we like what?" Flarefeather asked, wary and confused.

"My beautiful home, of course," Crowscone trilled, gesturing with his wings at the corridor and windows around them. "Wilderwind, you know, they try to buy you out with a luxurious life in their fancy tower. Then they send you to spy on my house, thinking you'll be... be disgusted with the provincial standards of lesser lords. Don't they? Little do they know, I built this house myself. Yes, I made my fortune, served my country, then came back and built it."

For some reason, Lissa reddened.

Faye glanced at her as she started to fumble her way into a bashful speech. "I know, right? It's... Yeah, you got us. I wasn't expecting to find something this nice here, at all."

Crowscone nodded with a mix of approval and threat. "And what were you expecting to find? Trying to take my great work for your own greedy masters?"

"It's not like that." Lissa shyly fidgeted, leaving Faye all but certain it was an act. "We're... We're trying to swindle the Consulate, not you. We were just forced to lay over here because of the power outage, and since we haven't gotten to leave the Wilderwind tower in ages, and your house was completely dark, we..." She leaned over, pulled Flarefeather close with a wing, and gave her a quick smooch on the cheek. "We're in love. And your house seemed like a fun place to... um, 'flirt'? That's what these are for." She showed off a fluffy, inverted sock-like boot. "And we got a bit carried away seeing how close to the guards we could get, and forgot to watch for when the sun would come up. We're really sorry."

Crowscone raised both eyebrows, suspicious.

Flarefeather nodded, getting in on the act and somehow managing to blush on command herself. "It's a big place. Not knowing our way around was part of the thrill. And the Wilderwind tower never gets dark like this."

Faye nodded too, hoping this wasn't a lie she would regret getting caught up in... although it was also kind of true.

"So that's your alibi," Crowscone accused. "Just a coincidence, then, that you happened to be caught right outside my private study."

"Well, we figured it would be nicest on the top floor," Lissa explained. "So every time we found a staircase, we just went up. And I guess this is where you had the most guards?"

Crowscone considered this. "Very well. Suppose you are telling the truth. What have they put you up to against the Consulate?"

Faye cleared her throat. Anything they said here would invariably be cross-checked against Puddles, so as much as she wanted to stay quiet, she had to make sure their stories lined up-

"Can't say," Lissa apologized, cutting her off. "You must know how Wilderwind works. Our personal lives can be whatever, but confidentiality of state is serious business."

Flarefeather nodded mutely.

For a moment, Crowscone scrutinized them, breathing heavily as normal. "Hmph. Loyalty to the state is only admirable when it is my state you are loyal to. You do know this, right?" He leered at Lissa, then seemed to reconsider, an idea suddenly striking him. "Say... You two, with brands. What are they for?" He gestured at Lissa and Faye.

"This?" Faye glanced at her upside-down crown, which by now was fairly well visible in the misty morning light. "Chess. It's not that remarkable."

Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Lissa, remembering that she still had yet to properly take a look at what Lissa's special talent was. Every time she remembered and thought about it, Lissa was either wearing something, or in the dark, or she was otherwise distracted...

It seemed to be an anvil, made from a golden material that was faceted and shiny, like a crystal pony's coat. Huh.

"I'm pretty deft with jeweler's tools, believe it or not," Lissa answered. "What's it to you?"

"I am deciding your punishment," Crowscone haughtily proclaimed. "You are young! Possessed of looks and perhaps abilities. Your lives may yet have value to my great society. Perhaps we can make something beautiful out of them, rather than sneaking criminals..." He turned to Flarefeather, his girth shaking. "You, what can you do? All Escorts are retained for a reason. What was yours?"

"Oh, boy, I dunno." Flarefeather shrugged. "I think I'm related to one of the dead imperial houses? They mostly pay me to stand around and look cute. And poke any rulebreakers with a sword, I guess."

"Ah! Swordplay. Very good." Crowscone nodded, satisfied. "The rest of you too, I imagine?"

Lissa nodded warily, and Faye figured it was best to follow suit.

"Then prepare yourselves for my verdict!" Crowscone declared. "The three of you are guilty of trespassing in my beautiful home! Perhaps it was innocent. Perhaps it was a plot against me. I care not. You would not behave so if you held my Izvaldi in the reverence it deserves. But ignorance can be rectified, and I am merciful. So I will give you a chance to clear your names through a work of public service! The three of you are to participate in a stage play about my own service to the Empire. You will put your looks and talents to use! By studying your lines, you will learn from my good example how to become a benefit to society. And you will present this to me and the public in one week's time! Should I be pleased with the result, your records shall be expunged, and you will be free to leave my city and go about your ways."

Faye, Lissa and Flarefeather all gave each other a look. Sentenced to act in a stage play? That would almost be funny, if it didn't involve being grounded in Izvaldi for a week during which one of the world's foundational pillars was dying or dead.

"I am the government," Crowscone continued, his girth shaking regally. "That shall suffice as atonement for your crimes against the state. Now, as for your crimes against my person..." His beady eyes glinted. "I shall settle for prostration. Kneel before me, and beg of me my forgiveness. I find your attitudes to be... not yet suitably humbled."

Faye blinked. Really? Kneeling?

The only thing she had ever knelt to before was Unnrus-Kaeljos, on that day in the Icereach chapel. This comparison felt downright indecent, despite everything she knew about who the light spirit was and what it had done.

But she would be a fool to die on this hill. So she bent down, forelegs folded and chin to the floor, and lowered her head, wings spread low.

Surprisingly, Flarefeather and Lissa appeared to have a much easier time. Though maybe it did make sense. This was literally their day job back in Wilderwind, after all.

"Hmm, yes..." Crowscone looked down on them, his wide face growing a wide grin. "Your eyes are defiant, but your actions obedient. Isn't it a wonderful dynamic? You want to resist, but see that you have no choice! That is the nature of my authority, a steadying influence to supplant your weak wills and keep you from crime." He nodded at a guard. "You there. You know what to do."

The guard stepped up to Flarefeather and Lissa, who both yelped as he tugged free a single feather from one of their wings.

"What was that for?" Flarefeather gritted her teeth as the guard passed the pair of feathers to Crowscone.

"Pegasi," Crowscone told her, "occupy a special place in society." His wings rustled conspicuously beneath his robe. "As the most noble breed of pony, it is our duty to set an example for all the others. Now, I imagine the three of you think you're terribly clever. Going to leave the moment my back is turned. Fail to pay your dues. From the sarosian, we might find that predictable. But I won't have you two slandering our good name."

He waggled the feathers at Flarefeather and Lissa. "These are from you, are they not? I now own them as collateral. Therefor, I own part of you. If you want to fully own yourselves again, I suggest you not think about running, no matter how hard my worthless son tries to subvert me."

Flarefeather and Lissa shared a skeptical, offended look.

"Now, I have important work to return to," Crowscone puffed, turning his kingly, robed back on them and gesturing to some of the guards. "You and you, take these three back to their quarters and watch them to ensure they don't do any more sneaking! I've let them off mercifully, but they must learn that in Izvaldi, virtue is rewarded and sin is punished."

He barely had time to take a step after finishing before the clanking of heavy armor became audible in the hall behind them.

Faye turned to look. She wasn't at all surprised to see Puddles, accompanied by another guard.

"Oh," Crowscone said, looking at her over his shoulder. "It's you."

"I heard there was trouble," Puddles said, clad head to tail in her imposing black armor.

"Yes, trouble," Crowscone muttered. "You know, you really ought to be more careful, vetting the character of your associates. These three were caught sneaking around near my private study! I have just finished prescribing justice. You can help administer it. These three, I sentenced them to, to... Somebody else can fill you in. I have work that I must return to, and it cannot be delayed."

Muttering harder, he turned away again and stumped back into his study, leaving the door open to allow some light to seep in from the window.

Puddles turned her helmet slightly as she glanced between Faye, her friends and the guards.

"Please follow me," one of the guards offered. "I'll fill you in somewhere we won't be disturbing His Radiance."

"...And that's the short of it," the guard finished, standing with the four of them and two other guards in an unfurnished third-floor chamber with a suitably large window. "Though he didn't command you to remain here, Black Knight, I'm still aware this violates the spirit of your agreement with Prince Neeve. Hopefully I can ask your patience as we see what we can do. The king's moods are a tricky thing to navigate."

Flarefeather frowned. "Not to act suspicious when we're already in hot water, but you sound almost more loyal to the Black Knight than the king."

The guard looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Black Knight, I have to ask," another suited guard said. "How thoroughly have you vetted the possibility that these three could be Wilderwind spies taking advantage of you? You do tend to be... trusting of the populace."

"Of Wilderwind Escorts, though?" The third raised an eyebrow at the second.

"Wilderwind's attitude towards Izvaldi is as precarious as usual," Puddles said. "But they need not send spies here to get what some among them want."

"You have a point," the worried guard admitted.

"More likely," Puddles continued, "I think they were overly eager to investigate the fate of your Consul, and I was insufficient in impressing upon them the need for discretion. For that, you have my apologies."

"You're the ones who are inconvenienced by this," one of the guards said, shaking his head. "Apologize to yourselves. All I have to do is sit around watching you instead of watching any other hallway in this place."

Faye looked between the guards, and then to Lissa and Flarefeather. Both of them, especially Flarefeather, clearly wanted to talk about what had happened, yet both of them had their heads on straight enough not to say anything, since pretty much anything at this point could be incriminating.

The guards looked them over as well. "We'll be taking you back to your quarters now," one decided. "You look like you could use some sleep, and it'll be less trouble for us if you do that while waiting for directions on this stage play."

Faye nodded. That sounded as good as she could hope for, though she really wanted someone to talk to, herself... and neither of her other selves were anywhere to be seen.

In the hallway where everyone had been arrested, I floated invisibly, tempted to follow Faye and the others and see what became of them. But the greater temptation was to see what Crowscone would do in his study.

He had rubbed me the wrong way ever since we entered the mansion, but even the Composer couldn't match that level of self-righteousness. A blowhard like this, I decided, could stand to be less in control of things than he thought he was, even if all that meant was getting stared at by a ghost when he thought he was in private. And I kind of wanted to know where such an inflated ego had come from.

I passed through the open door to see Crowscone standing next to his desk, staring at the two feathers in thought, a lone unicorn helping to light the room. Crowscone's study was messy and claustrophobic, towers of shelves and cases covering the walls like climbing ivy, a dark chandelier hanging down in the center. I got the impression the unicorn didn't really want to be there.

"Leave me," Crowscone eventually commanded, motioning for the unicorn to exit. "And close the door behind you. Soundproof it. You know how it's done."

"In the dark, Your Radiance?" The unicorn blinked. "The power is not back on yet..."

"Are you questioning my word?" Crowscone leered at him from the shadows with his beady, gray eyes. "I require the privacy of my sanctum. Do it."

The unicorn bowed, and then retreated. "It shall be done."

After he left, a bit of conversation sounded from beyond the door, and then it swung shut, the telltale sparkle of unicorn magic briefly glittering against it. Suddenly, the sounds of guards shuffling in the hallway outside were gone.

So was the light. I could see nothing, hear nothing save for the muted pounding of my heart as I waited to see what would happen, and Crowscone's heavy, labored breathing as he seemed to search for something.

Then, with a scrape of wood against wood, a drawer on his desk slid open, illuminating Crowscone's face from below with a dancing, emerald light.

He beamed fondly, greedily down into the drawer, its light catching on the folds of his chin. "Hello there, my pet. Do we have a treat for you today..."

Heart hammering, I floated closer as Crowscone reached into the drawer and lifted out the source of the light.

It was a revenant.

A lesser one, somewhat crab-shaped, about twice the width of a stallion's hoof. It clicked and burned as Crowscone gently lifted it out, setting it on the desk, its flames casting flickering shadows around the room.

"Yes," Crowscone purred, stroking a wingtip along a curved piece of metal that served as the revenant's back. "What do you think of these, hmm? Will they make suitable additions to the great work?"

He offered it the feathers.

The revenant seemed to inspect them. I floated as close as I dared. Its green flames weren't so much as causing Crowscone's fur to curl...

What was this doing here? Why did he have it? Was Crowscone a Bishop? He always wore that robe, so I couldn't see his talent. But even if he was, why was there a revenant so far from Gyre? This was bad. I had fought those things off with heavy armor, a greatsword and my supernatural stamina and endurance; in a population center, they would-

"Right!" Crowscone nodded, satisfied. "In that case, let's begin the ceremony..."

His eyes turned red. A red aura appeared on his forehead where a horn would have gone, if he was a unicorn - fiery, apocalyptic red, not a color you could see in an ordinary aura, its light interwoven with filaments of destruction.

That wasn't a Bishop color. As far as I knew, every single one of them had emerald magic, just like my bracelet. I was lost. What was going on, here?

The two feathers rested on the desk before him, with the crab revenant curiously standing guard. Crowscone smiled down on them, opened his mouth, and started to inhale.

As Crowscone's breath rushed over them, the feathers twitched, and seemed to lose something I couldn't define. Barely a moment later, Crowscone stopped, sat up straighter, and nodded, satisfied with his work.

"Beautiful," he declared, his phantom horn going out and his eyes returning to their usual dull, beady gray. "Here. Have for yourself a well-deserved treat, hmm?"

At his encouragement, the revenant crab pinched the feathers with its fiery, metal claws. This time, the green flames quickly spread, and the two feathers were summarily reduced to ash.

This was bad news. I had seen enough. I fled through the wall, past the guards and out the window, urgently circling the mansion in the misty dawn light. I needed to find Faye, report what I had seen, and discuss what to do about this. Crowscone wasn't just insufferable: at best, he was dabbling with forces that could get everyone in the city killed. At worst, he was a monster too.