un: raven master - audio | day ii

[pulvisetumbra]

Good afternoon. As ever, we have scant time for well wishes and compliments. This is the Merchant. To those freshly in my care, I bid greetings and remain at your service. To the rest: your ongoing survival is a matter of celebration.

( And... incredulity, though he will not be the man to say so. )

I am given to understand you remain in — a part of Yancai. I speak to you from five years onwards. We have succeeded to break the time's weave for precisely one hour to allow this communication, after which I regret to bid my leave. Let us employ our time wisely.

My hope and concern is that, in your attempts to remedy the harms of this village, you will succeed, as you have before, and break the flow of time. If you do — when you do, know this: just as there are territories outside of land, there are those beyond time. Often, they are wastelands or exist independently under the rule of tyrants without reason.

( A distasteful concept to him, for how his voice sours. ) Many of Akhuras' least... favoured sorcerers were exiled in such pockets. I hold minimal sway there, past episodes of commerce.

( Hesitantly: ) If you arrive in such regions, seek out waypoints bearing the carvings of an eye with the sun for a pupil. They were put in place to return Ellethian trade caravans to their true place in time.

( And might, on this occasion, serve the party. ) If you do not break time, if you merely wait out Yancai's next transition and return to five years onwards organically, ignore my cautions. Either way: see what may be gleaned from this Yancai of old. I trust no village whose House of Commerce once dealt on friendly terms with the warlord Anurr.

( ooc: please assume all interaction with the Merchant on this post happens within the span of an IC hour — thank you! )

Comments

[pulvisetumbra]

I am not with you and will be unimpacted.

Karsa... ( A pause. ) Accepted the risks of accompanying you.

[thedreamer]

No, but if the whole of this world is overrun. If we all leave through the beacons before we've fixed what's gone wrong, and all the terrible things spread across Akhuras, what happens to you? I worry.

[pulvisetumbra]

The trouble, dear boy, is that you are conflating: nothing went wrong at Yancai. You, as one man, do not like their outcome.

[thedreamer]

Nothing at all. Okay. Fine. [ The opposite of okay, but. ] We'll see you on the other side, then, wherever that may be. Seeing you being, well, a loose term, but — anyway! Do take care.

[pulvisetumbra]

And you, Doctor. Try not to manifest an excess of enthusiasm for time lords.