FINAL TRIAL

[strangerpeople]

FINAL TRIAL

[The Strangers manage to escape. By the time anyone has realized they have left, the Analemma is already on a course to a new destination, one not intended by their Conductor-who was certainly surprised to find their ride gone, hours later.

Cardia has turned off radar and other equipment that would allow anyone to find the train easily. There is no barrier around this train, so everyone can see the Clockwork Sun as it gets closer and closer.

They aren't going to London, obviously. Cardia manages to explain that, originally, the Throne of Hours was located there, but after Victoria became Twice-Renewed, the Throne was ordered moved closer to the Sun. Now, it is connected to the station called Sunspur-a desolate place, formerly an exhibition hall, where only the Sun's engineers and wayward captains now go. No one dares to cross the bridge that connects the Throne to it, when they are there.

That will change, but not immediately. Even at top speed, it will take several hours for the train to reach its destination. Cardia suggests everyone relax in the Lounge of this new train. Apparently, this one was going to pick up its newest passengers very shortly, and so the bar and kitchens are stocked with food and drink, at least.

There is much to talk about. Much to look through, and much to consider. The past four weeks have been difficult to process, but the evidence from Perdurance has been especially daunting. It only shows just how stark the situation is-and it's up to the Strangers to figure out just what they will do when they do, at last, confront Her Enduring Majesty.
After all.

Whatever happens, a reckoning cannot be postponed. Not indefinitely. And the bill is almost due...]





[It's time! The objectives are simple in this trial: untangle the story of this place and decide what to ultimately do when they finally confront Victoria, the Mastermind of the Little Courtesy! It will not be easy and the truth, as ever, will not be a light one.

Will they triumph? Will they go home? What else might happen? What else could be in store? There's only way to find out!

Have fun, and good luck! And remember-

All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.]

Comments

[katzenpfote]

[He is still for a long, long time as they stare at the eye, the tentacles. Is this what Fjord felt, looking at his patron? At something he knew could destroy him in a blink if it wanted to?]

[Part of his brain screams at him to flee. To move, to get down, to run away from all of this. He is a coward, and he knows it.]

[Frumpkin rubs his cheek against the scratchy beard, and he breathes for the first time in what seems like a long time. He can do this. If he doesn't... well. They all might be dead.]

Your... Your Majesty. Thank you for agreeing to see us, even if this is very... unconventional. We would like to ask you a few questions... if that is all right. We have all traveled a very... very long way.

[thricerenewed]

[At this the golem speak.]

{ Indeed. Though I have my own question- I must know why you left Perdurance.

You still would have been reasonably safe from the light. }

[katzenpfote]

... We would still likely be turned eventually. We also did not like the idea of being stuck in a gilded cage, especially when we still do not know where those being used as 'collateral' were. Additionally, we seek to find a way to reverse what has happened, even if it seems impossible.

[thricerenewed]

{ They are safe. Returned to their Weftlands, or if they were destroyed, to a place of their choosing. They would have been allowed visitation.

...

That is what I seek. Simply eliminating the Sun is not an option. }

[katzenpfote]

... This is probably crazy, but... how much control do you have over time?

[charmingheroine]

Even she can't go backwards, Caleb. Haven't got any reason to think Tall Bitter and Purple was lying, now... I'm sorry.

["They would have been allowed visitation."

Charlotte really didn't think she had any heart left to break. What an unpleasant shock, to be wrong yet again.]

[katzenpfote]

[He just shoots her a Look. There's... a lot of sadness in it. Let him at least ask... he has to know.]

[thricerenewed]

{ I cannot reverse the past. No one can. I can slow down time to a crawl, or speed it up as I see fit. But that is the extent of this power. }

SUNLESS SKIES SPOILERS

[thricerenewed]

[A silence.]

{ I share it with the Clockwork. But on a Throne, a Judgement takes precedence in the end.

The wefts. . .in the time before we were here, it was what first created the wefts.But they only unraveled time in one spot. Not space.

Not as it is now. }

[katzenpfote]

[He lets out a long breath.]

So what changed?

[unwittingking]

So...my family is safe? Not in space prison, not going to get killed by rapid aging, they're just...back at home, fine?

[Despite being nervous, Cheetah-King is relatively calm when seeing this. Godly beings sort of lose their edge when you've met several before, even if this one is kind of...different.]

[thricerenewed]

{ Unnecessary harm serves no purpose outside of the Little Courtesy. They have been freed. }

[higanbana]

...Wait, seriously?

[Ris was just going to let everyone else handle this, because like hell she knows what she's doing, but—]

You did exactly one thing right with my hostage, and now you've let that bastard go? You want to hold this place together, so you unleash a madman into a new world of horrible sciences he can dip his fingers into?!

[unwittingking]

Good.

[He was willing to fight her for that if he had to, so hearing that that's already taken care of is a relief.

As for the other concern...]

Now, about ending these murder trains? Can you do that too?

[technicolourdifficulties]

[RGB stares for about five seconds, slowly reaches up to the controls to the side of his screen, and cranks down the brightness to minimum before remembering that doing that only affects the screen and is thus no longer that useful for hiding.

Wonderful.

...But now is not the time to give in to his own cowardly nature, so perhaps it's for the best.]

Speaking plainly, I would prefer not to see another sky burn, as I'm sure will eventually happen if the Sun is left unchecked.

[charmingheroine]

[Okay, that's enough to get her to break the self-loathingpoliteness that's kept her from saying anything since... yelling down the hole.]

Pardon? What exactly do you mean another?!

[technicolourdifficulties]

[He's quiet a moment. When he speaks again, it is in the tone of a storyteller recounting old memories of a disaster, soft and with a creeping exhaustion built up over a long, long time.]

...Once, long ago, the sun was shattered. As the pieces fell, the sky ignited. Were it not for the quick thinking of three old friends, even more would have been lost than already was.

There is not a being who lived through that time that does not fear the thought of it happening again.

[charmingheroine]

But... you did survive it. I understand... no, I don't understand your fear. I can't imagine that. But I can understand why you're afraid, and... right now, that matches up with how I feel.

[She hates this. This whole world that doesn't make sense, where a man with a glass and plastic and metal head sings like a god-damned angel and everyone is willing to try to talk sense into some being from beyond time, and there is no good and so evil just is, is everything.]

That's why I wanted [still want]... why I said what I did. I don't want to live through something like that, or live knowing it's coming any moment. In the end, I'm a coward. You do understand that, don't you?

[technicolourdifficulties]

[He quirks a smile at that.]

How could I not? I'm as much a coward as you- No, moreso. I look more the part of the Tin Man, but I have always been the Cowardly Lion.

[charmingheroine]

And not by our own will.

[If she's going to die, well... you can't catch a fella with your stockings rolled, her brain helpfully provides. She's wearing socks, why that lyric... maybe just because it's a familiar thing. For the first time, she can understand what Lovecraft was trying to fit language around: there are some things that even someone trained to hunt vampires and all sorts of other monsters can't quite comprehend. The scale of this thing is... well, incomprehensible.

The glow she's giving off does not dim. She's careful to keep clear of the others, but she'd rather not turn off the juice now, all things being the same.]

[thricerenewed]

{ I do apologize. I have no control over the wefts. And what they might bring in.

That was never in my control. }

[charmingheroine]

What does have control, then? The... the Replacement was the first, was that the only intentional one?

[Hopefully the walking lantern shaking doesn't result in a sort of strobe effect, because wow being directly addressed is rather more intimidating than she thought it'd be.]

[thricerenewed]

{ . . .

Only the first, and by the hand of the Sapphir’d. He desired to replace Victoria. The Amaranthine received his wish in spades. }

[charmingheroine]

So that was the cost for... that poor creature upstairs, she was Victoria's replacement.

[She stares upwards, wishing she felt like anything but a stupid child.]

So... their lands, visitation. Did you mean they'd be released onto whatever was pulled here, and then allowed to see us once in a while? Or do our homes still exist, and were they set free?

[thricerenewed]

{ They are free. Completely.

But they have been returned to the lads the wefts brought in. }