Swamped

"You know, couriers don't just deliver gifts. They also deliver letters," you say. "Some of which could be quite important."

"Are you telling me my old gang got killed over a stupid letter?"

"I don't speak lightly of letters. Letters have started wars, ended them, stopped them before they began. They have the power to change lives."

"Maybe they do. I wouldn't know if we found any, or what was in them."

You don't think this is getting anywhere. But, you did gain some significant new information to confront the other prisoners with.

You inform Pubert you're done, and leave them in Rudolph's care.

Is there anything to take care of before you go and see the other two prisoners?

Check on Marshall

You'd best see to Marshall. You're the only other Bogknight here, after all - assuming you haven't been kicked out or declared dead, of course.

Regardless, you head to the tent where Marshall is staying.

As you step in, Dominique gives you a harsh glare.

"Leave the cloak outside," she says. "I've got enough trouble with my readings already."

"I apologize," you say, handing it off to a grebling who was clearly hastily recruited for guard duty. "I hadn't realized it still had any power."

"I think your little apprentice here might have inadvertently recharged it," she says. "You didn't notice?"

You wince at the word "apprentice". That's opened some old wounds. But you leave it aside for now.

"How are you doing, Marshall?"

Marshall looks up at you.

"Well, Dominique says it's safe for me to get dressed soon." There's a brief pause. "Sir, are you really a wizard?"

You could go into great detail about the answer to that question, but you settle for the simple one.

"Not any more," you say.

You're now Marshall. You feel like you've missed a lot today.

Captain Long has stopped in to check on you. Is there anything you want to talk to him about?

So, hey... the book thing. Is that normal?

Are you feeling better?

"Are you feeling better, sir?"

"Considerably, thank you." He smiles.

"Sir, what I did with the book... I don't understand it. Is that how wizardry normally works?"

"When it comes to magic, 'normal' isn't a word that generally comes to mind," he says. He seems a little uneasy now. "Where do I start explaining it..."

"We already had a talk about ether and enchantment," Dominique interjects. "I don't know about much more than that, myself, so you can start from there."

"Ah, yes. Enchantment is a good place to start, then. The most basic form of it is casting a spell on an item to give it special properties. A flaming sword that never stops burning... or, more practically, boots that won't wear out for a good long while. But it's possible to do more than that."

Long pauses, as he seems to be thinking how to demonstrate. After a while, he pulls off his gauntlet, and picks up a small sheet of paper off a nearby table.

"Let's say I want to use this paper later," he says. "I can put it in my glove, and then when I need it, I can take it out and use it then. Or, if someone else finds the glove, they can use the paper."

You nod along.

"So imagine that the paper is, instead, a spell." He holds the gauntlet shut. "The same idea applies, except that I can put a 'lock' on the spell, so it only activates under the right circumstances. It could be a keyword you speak, or a physical item you have to hold near it. But regardless of the method, only a wizard has any chance at using it."

"So... that's what the book is?" you ask. "It had the desert fever spell stored in it? But why? Did my father store it in there?"

Long shrugs.

"Rider would know more about that than I would," he says. "Regardless, it was rather common for wizards to use books for that purpose. I'm not sure if it was just tradition, or simply that it was easier to put clues in the text in case you forgot what the key was."

"Why prepare it in a book, though? Why not just cast it when you need it?"

"Some spells take quite a bit of effort to cast. If you needed them in a hurry, it was a good deal easier to have them in storage. In some cases, though, the whole idea was allowing somebody else to cast the spell."

You need to mull over that explanation for a bit. Is there anything more you need to know?

These marshguards...they're not that bad are they?

Oh and ask about the call. Is that magic too?

"What about the call of the swamp? Is that magic, too?"

Long shakes his head.

"I couldn't tell you what exactly it is, but there's no ether involved in that. Most guesses I've heard are that it's the work of some god or another, or perhaps nature itself."

He pauses for a moment.

"It's calling to me now. I want to go back, whatever it means for my position. But, before I can return, we need to resolve whatever's happening with the gateways here. No matter how distracting the thought of the swamp may be."

Suddenly, a thought strikes you.

"Is it hard to sleep when you're not in the swamp, sir?"

"When I first heard the call, it was. Over time, it grew easier, though usually when I left I already had plans to return. It's difficult to describe..."

"What was it like when you arrived there?"

"Overwhelming, at first. And I don't just mean the smell. It was as though something was near, something I wanted desperately to see with my own eyes. I still don't feel as if I've seen it, but in time, just being close to it made the sensation more manageable."

That sounds a lot like what's been going through your head for these last few hours. Are you hearing a call from the desert?

You wonder if you should try to explain this to him, but you're not sure how. Or even if that's what's happening.

Are Flame's artifices enchanted? Was (is?) Flame a wizard?

Have you ever tried to... pinpoint what you were looking for?

Also uhm...I could feel my arm, back when you were sick...is that normal?

"Have you ever tried to, um, find what you were looking for?"

Long lets out a laugh.

"Go traipsing around in the swamp based only on a vague feeling? No, thankfully. Maybe the first few knights to hear the call did, but these days, enough of us understand it to keep any impulses under control. Although if I'm being honest, I suspect whatever it is lies somewhere in the depths of the Marsh Fortress."

"Is that why we're fighting the Marshguards, then?"

Long frowns.

"The official mission of the Bogknights is to take control of the Marsh Fortress," he says. "Any details beyond that are not to be shared with anyone other than top officers."

Well. That didn't really answer anything, but you suppose that wasn't the point. You decide to change the subject by asking about something a little less heavy.

"So... how do Flame's gloves work?" you ask. "I never quite understood that. Is that also magic?"

Long shrugs.

"I don't truly understand it either. I've been around his gloves long enough without sensing any ether, but I don't know how he makes them. John Medic told me that it has to do with making the gloves respond to muscle movements, and magnifying the force behind them. But that's outside my expertise."

"One more thing," you say. "Back when I healed you... well... I felt like I had my arm back for a bit."

Long looks even more serious than he did when you asked about the conflict with the Marshguards.

"Have you had that feeling before?"

"Er, once. Sort of. I fell off a ladder the day after I lost it. And then I thought I felt a pain in my missing arm?"

Long starts looking thoughtful.

"I wonder," he says. "We've never had a case of someone surviving... that kind of attack before. And with the rain limiting visibility so much... it was hard for even the guards who rescued you to say what happened."

"What are you saying, sir?"

"I wonder if you might have chased the... creature away with a spell, without realizing it. At the cost of your arm. And then, when you fell, you may have subconsciously tried to save yourself with magic." He shakes his head suddenly. "It's pure speculation, and at this point, it probably doesn't even matter."

"It could," Dominique says suddenly. "I don't know what you mean about a creature attacking, but remember, untrained wizards can cause big problems with ether without even realizing it. If the real awakening wasn't today, but a little while ago... who knows what stray spells could be floating around?" She looks directly at Long. "However good you may have been back in the day, you couldn't even tell your robe was charged. You might have missed whatever was going on, especially if it was subtle."

You get the distinct feeling Long and Dominique had a conversation earlier that you missed.

"I know better than to rely only on my senses to defend us against stray magic," Long says. He doesn't sound like he's in a mood to clarify, and instead he just turns back towards you.

"I'm afraid I don't have time to answer further questions, so I'll get to the point. We're going to have a meeting later, once you and Starling have recovered and we've dealt with some other concerns. We're going to work out our plan for investigating the gateways, and in part that means settling on who's doing what. Staying to watch the camp, taking part in the investigation... or going back to the swamp. Possibly to ask for reinforcements, if I can convince Rider it's a good idea."

"All right, thanks for the heads-up," you say.

"Just give some thought to what you're going to do before the meeting starts," Long says. "Unfortunately, I've got quite a few other things to take care of at the moment, so I'll have to leave you to your own devices."

With that, Long steps out.

"All done," Dominique says a moment later. "Should be safe for you to walk about. Looks like your heat stroke's clearing up, too. I'll give you some privacy, since I imagine you'll want it after this mess of a day."

"Thank you," you say. She leaves, and you start putting your clothes on.

What are you going to do now?

Go find S- I mean Rivers.

The fact is, there's only one person in this camp you really know. You barely talked with Long before now, and while there's much you'd like to hear from Rider, you only really met him yesterday.

Right now, with all that's happened, what you need most is the comfort of a familiar face. Even if it's someone who doesn't especially want to talk to you.

You finish dressing yourself, and head out.

You're about to ask around about where Rivers is, but you spot her soon enough. She's standing outside a tent much like the one you were staying in.

"What do you want?" she growls.

How should you reply?

It doesn't take a wizard to know she's worried about Starling.

Wait, is she holding a pineapple? (Or "scalefruit" or whatever)

You..didn't try to just bite into that did you, Rivers? I have a slicer if you want to share some.

Tell her a story to cheer her up.

"Are you worried about Starling?" you ask.

She gives you another fierce look, then just shrugs.

"Nah. She's been sick before. Most of us have. She'll be okay, as long as she doesn't wander off again."

"Again?"

Rivers just grumbles.

"She just can't stay still. Can't help but go poking around in places she's not supposed to be. Usually she drags me along. We're good at not getting caught, but this really isn't the time or place to indulge her wanderlust. And I think she might be too sick to fully grasp that."

"So you are worried."

"Shut up."

"Sorry."

She glares at you silently for a while. You don't feel able to respond at all.

"Ugh. I know what this is about, Marshall. You want to talk about the good old days or whatever. Or you're wondering, what happened to that sweet, kind Sandra you used to know, how'd she turn into this bitter woman. Well, you can forget that. I left my past behind the day I joined the Marshguards. And I'm not interested in digging any part of it up."

You're not sure how you should respond to that.

Tell her that you're just trying to find people.

You came to the swamp to find your dad, you're probably also trying to find yourself. You want to know who this new person Rivers is, if she hasn't found herself she's certainly found someone new.

And, you didn't like Sandra because she was sweet, you liked her because she was strong.

You have these crazy magic powers now, but you still feel powerless. You think you're attracted to strong people because you don't know if you can be strong yourself. Maybe...learning more about who Rivers is can help that?

How did she get that name anyway?

"I'm just feeling... lost," you say, finally. "It's how I've felt most of the time since my father disappeared."

"Get to the point," she mutters.

"When I first met you... or Sandra, if you'd rather... I saw someone who knew what she wanted, and was willing to fight hard for it. I admired that. I thought... I suppose I thought, if I was around you, I'd have a better chance to figure out what I wanted."

She doesn't say anything. On the other hand, she hasn't told you to shut up again.

"After the fire, well, I felt lost again. For three years, I just scraped by. More than once I wondered if I should just go back to the farm, but I knew I couldn't really be happy there. Eventually, I went to the swamp, because all I had at that point was the hope that I might see my father again."

"I could do with never seeing mine again," Rivers grumbles.

"I won't ask what happened," you say. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's not my business. But... well."

You need a moment to work out what you're trying to say.

"You may not be Sandra any more, but I can't help but wonder. Who are you now?"

You look down, a little embarrassed.

"Maybe that's not my business either. But that's how I'm feeling."

There's a long and awkward pause.

"A few hours ago, I would've just told you to get lost," Rivers finally says. "But, well. I've been talking to this grebling lady for a while today. She asked me a lot of questions. I had to put some thought into who I am. Or maybe who I want to be."

Rivers paces for a bit.

"So. Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Well, for a start, I suppose I've been wondering about the new name. Sandra told me she wasn't much of a swimmer."

"It's where they found me," she grumbles. "At the intersection of two rivers, nearly drowned."

"They as in..."

"The Marshguards. I don't really know the details. Didn't wake up until I was at their fortress. When I was finally ready to move again, Doc asked if I needed help getting home." She shakes her head. "I just laughed and said I never wanted to go back. That's when she explained to me where I was, and I figured, might as well join up."

She seems to be smiling a little, at least. You should think about if you have any other questions.

Rivers is a good name. Rivers change. They bash up against their banks and shape the world around them.

The Marshguards have actually been pretty nice.

What do you do over there? Apparently card games are really big here

Oh have you...seen the uh...the wet guys?

"So... wait. Who exactly picked the name?"

"Doc suggested it when she told me where I'd been found. I didn't really care, so I just went with it. Then I spent a few months getting kicked off squads and assigned to new ones before I got stuck with the boss."

"Kicked off?"

"I was picking fights all the time. Couldn't stand being told what to do, mostly. Seems our whole squad was made up of troublemakers like me... well, except Starling, she was just new. Doesn't seem all that fair to her, now that I think about it."

You find yourself a little lost on where to continue. You opt for something that's hopefully a little less emotionally charged.

"What did you do in the Marshguards?"

Rivers shrugs.

"We didn't have a lot of people with specific jobs. Instead we did whatever needed to be done. Scrubbing floors, fixing holes in the fortress, chasing beasts out... we did it all. Not much fighting, though. Starling and me, we weren't ready for that yet. Our first real fight was with some Bogknights on their barge, I dunno... about a week ago? And we lost, real bad."

"That would have been when I arrived in the swamp," you say. "Um, I was hiding below deck, I didn't really know how to fight either."

"You're kidding me," she says. "We nearly ran into each other back then and had no idea? Life's weird, I guess."

"So... what about leisure time? Your fortress seemed, um, sparse compared to the Bog Hill base."

"I dunno what most of 'em do," Rivers shrugs. "But me, I spend my downtime reading. Because there's not a damned thing to do besides that."

"Oh, what did you read?"

"Nothing good, really. There was an okay field guide to swamp animals. Everything else was a load of rubbish. But I read it anyways, because I was bored as hell."

You're not sure where to take the conversation from here.

Tell her about the book of not very scary stories you read when you first got to the swamp. Hey, it was written by a Marshguard prisoner, actually! Know someone named Pepper?

"Did you read anything by other Marshguards?" you ask. "Over at our base, we had a book of unimpressive scary stories that a Marshguard prisoner wrote... I think his name was Pepper."

Rivers starts to frown even more severely than usual.

"Oh, gods, yeah, I remember that one. You were lucky, you didn't have Pepper around prodding you about your opinion when he saw you reading it. Those stories were so damn stupid. The worst part is, I had real stupid nightmares for nearly a week afterwards."

"Now that you mention it, I had a nightmare the night after I read that, too."

"Anyhow, I think he's the only one at our base who's written anything," Rivers continues. "Well, under a Marshguard name, anyhow. Who knows who might have written a book before running off to the swamp and going into hiding."

"Apparently my father did," you mutter, mostly to yourself.

"Good for him. Anyhow, that's how I passed most of my time. At least until Starling started hanging out around me, then she just kept telling me about animals. And I didn't really have anything better to do than listen, since I'd run out of books by then."

Something strikes you.

"Rider had a whole shelf of books. You never thought to ask if he had any you could borrow? Or if anyone else did, for that matter?"

"Unless you donate them for general use, books are personal effects. We don't go pryin' into that sort of thing in the Marshguards."

Huh. You never would have thought of asking about books as prying, but apparently it is.

Oh no! There's no prompt! I don't know what to suggest for anymore! It's chaos! Anarchy! We can do anything we want now!

Uhh uhh quick cut to Tom 9th playing the guitar - no wait, move to Shorty trying to figure out how to sweep up this massive hole in the wall...no hang on its Simone pretending to take a nap - nonono Lisa Black is arguing with Penelope no long cut, starwipe to a fancy salad, slow zoom out revealing a young woman in elegant garb nope, that's not interesting, massive zoom out planet wide, rezoom on Clancy swatting back bitebugs quick cut and

Back to Rivers and Marshall, they've been chatting for the last hour about life and mundanity. It's been pleasant, and Marshall decides it's time to open up about what happened to his arm and magic stuff - which of course is overheard by the female prisoner as she's being transferred.

All of a sudden, you find your thoughts wandering, back to the swamp, back to the people you were just starting to know.

You find yourself idly imagining what everyone's doing. Did Tom Eighth ever finish his mystery invention? How's the rest of Corvus' squad getting along without him? What would Lisa think if she heard you had vanished into the desert?

Rivers can't help but notice the look on your face, it seems.

"Are you even listening, Marshall?"

"Um. Sorry. I think I'm actually getting a little homesick for the swamp, of all things."

All of a sudden, Rivers starts to smile.

"You're embarrassed about that? How do you think I've felt since I got dragged here yesterday? I've lived in that swamp for somewhere around three years now. And you feel silly about that?"

"Well, I've only been there about a week," you mutter. "Plus, um, it's where I lost my arm."

Rivers suddenly glances at your shoulders.

"What. The. Hells," she says. It sounds like it's more to herself than to you. "I knew I was a mess, but I barely even noticed you lost your arm. I mean, I know I looked at it, I think I heard people talking about it, but I didn't even think it was worth giving another thought. The hell is wrong with me?"

She shakes her head for a bit.

"Guess there's not much to do except try to make up for it now. So. What happened to your arm?" She pauses. "If you don't mind saying."

"Um." You try to think about how to word this. "I lost it in... in the rain."

She stares at you.

"Wait. In the swamp. You were out in the rain?"

You nod.

"Just outside the door to the base, thankfully. It's still a miracle I survived." You pause for a moment. "Though, Captain Long said it might have been something more than a miracle... I'm still not sure what to think about that."

"The hell are you talking about?"

You feel really awkward explaining this, but, well, you trust her. She's not the person she once was, but it's close enough for your trust to carry over.

"Today I found out I'm a wizard," you start to explain. "Somehow, I cast a spell that cured Captain Long. And he said, well, more like he just guessed, that maybe I did something, um, when I was attacked."

"So... what? Either you were really lucky and survived due to sheer chance, or you were really lucky and survived because you turned out to have magic. Can't say I see how it matters from your side of things. Either way, you were lucky as hell."

"I suppose I can't argue with that," you mutter.

You're now Corvus.

You didn't get much more information out of the prisoners, though maybe Long had better luck after he took over that task. If he did, he's not saying anything.

Regardless, you've gotten all the info you're going to, because it's time to head out for the prisoner exchange. You, Rudolph, and Long are handling this, along with Yvonne to supervise. Rider's staying back in camp, just in case something happens there.

You're taking them over to Pubert's wagon, as it's the only vehicle around here that humans can fit in comfortably. Apparently there's some other arrangements being made for Pubert, you didn't really catch what they were. And for the moment, you're not really worrying about that.

Instead, you think you just noticed the woman you're escorting cock her head slightly, as though she was straining to hear something. You think you can hear some faint voices, too... and now that you're thinking about it, you can see Marshall and Rivers talking some distance away.

Huh. Is she listening in? She's got better hearing than you if that's the case.

You wonder if you should do anything about it, or just focus on the task at hand. It's not as if those two are likely to be discussing anything too important, after all.

There's only one interrogation technique you haven't tried yet...turning on that ole Corvus charm...

Wait why is Long loosening her ropes? What does he mean he's "going with her"??