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[Filter: Franelcrew]

Okay.

My last talk with Suaimeas is about something I think we've all been avoiding. It's about you humans and your secret war. Suaimeas says that they don't know what started it, which is I think what we really would need to know for this to be very useful, but what we do know might end up important anyway so I'm just going to list it all out, okay?

First, we know that there's more than just Pillars and Messengers. There's also the Mute, who are people that can see everything -- that is, they can see who the Pillars and Messengers are. But they aren't able to talk about it. Aelbhe talked about this with some of you before, but I don't think she said what they actually are. I don't know why they can't talk about it, or how that works. Maybe it's a compulsion too?

Second, all three types of sect only exist on this side. Suaimeas says that one of the biggest things the aesdana had to do was catalogue who the sected people are, because they caused the most differences. People would just ... kill each other on this side, but they weren't sected on the other side, so you can probably see right away why that would start making things unbalance fast.

Third, the first sected ones didn't start showing up until years after Fionn and Dian killed each other and Suaimeas doesn't think it was actually related, but I don't know if I agree with that because there's obviously a lot neither of us knows about this!

And last, what makes someone sected ... um. We don't really know. Just that it happens "at the soul level," which was Ethniu's specialty... and sort of no one else's, ever. So maybe she could fix it? But we've been around and around about what the consequences of trying to wake Ethniu up might be.

I think that's all. Sorry, I know this is awkward. But it's probably really important.

[Filter: Aelbhe, in Danaan]

Crionna is mad at me because I don't want to tell the humans what we saw.

I just keep thinking.

What's the point? Suaimeas already told us the world would end if things continue as they are. He even told us how it would happen. Seeing it, describing it -- do they really need to know what it looks like? Do they need to know what all their last moments might really look like? Crionna says if I don't tell them it means I don't care, but I don't want to tell them because I ... do care?

They don't want to know all of that. I wish I didn't!

It felt like we made something mad. Like wherever our visions come from, the Between or whatever else, that it was punishing us. It felt like it went on forever... all those horrible things, with no way to shut it out or even slow it down.

And at the end, it was just me. Crionna wasn't even there. Floating in the Between, not even behind the glass. And I could feel them, all around, and then I could see them, and they were swarming and hungry...

Is it really so wrong to not want to tell them about it?

[Filter: Prudence and People Waiting Up For Us]

[the writing is shaky]

This

This ...

This wasn't a good idea.

We're coming back.

I don't want to talk about it yet.

Current Mood: blank

[Filter: Crionna, in Danaan]

It's not the stones, it's the seals! That's why our premonitions were so strong in Megam, too! And we probably near the other ones, when we got them in other places. Suaimeas said that human mediums see things when they brush against their other selves, just for a second. The world snaps into focus and sometimes they understand or see things they shouldn't because of that connection. But for us, it's the seals that give us that connection to the Between.

I'm going to go tonight. They can't stop us and now I know it won't hurt us, and if there was ever anything we needed to know something about ahead of time it's what's going to happen Sunday.

[Filter: Franelcrew, in Trade]

I asked about what you wanted, Korvin.

Siobhan, Vaelintin and Toiraesa were important figures during the war. Suaimeas said that Siobhan was close with everyone, but especially to Dian, Vaelintin was called [Danaan] "caomhnethe" [Trade] which means, basically, "Protector of Ethniu." They were druids, who were, I guess, preservers of secrets? They gathered and protected knowledge and used it to save people. Not just from outside forces... they saved people from themselves too. Toiraesa wasn't a druid, I think she was a guardswoman. He didn't say that but the things he thought -- they made me think of guardspeople. During the war, she became Fionn's right hand and helped him lead the armies.

They all died during the war. Siobhan was killed by glooms and glares in Atsiria... after Dian and Ethniu had finished the Seal, there were so many glares and glooms, they never would have escaped. But Siobhan faced them all and bought them enough time to get away.

Toiraesa was killed by one of the massive glooms ... it was too big to be cut down, even with their enchanted weapons. It would have gotten Fionn if not for her. He didn't know where it happened, just that she was defending Fionn and she saved him with her sacrifice.

And Vaelintin is strange. Suaimeas says no one knows how he died at all, or even why he was called that ... Protector of Ethniu. Just that he did, and he was.

But here's the really important part. Suaimeas didn't believe me when I said you were here, too. He told me that the protectors have never been here before, it's always just Fionn, Dian and Ethniu! And even though this has happened before, lots of times, you -- they -- never really make it very far ... not nearly as far as this. And maybe the difference is that this time, for some reason, you have your protectors too? But he doesn't understand how, and neither do I. If Ethniu is why the clerics can do this, how are the protectors here too?

He still almost didn't believe me that you were really carrying them, even at the end.

[Filter: Suaimeas, in Danaan]

I have another question for you today. -- Ow, sorry. I know I need to let us settle in before I start thinking ...

Okay.

Do you know who Siobhan, Vaelintin and Toiraesa were?

[Filter: Franelcrew]

The Clerics aren't immortal.

Back then, elemental magic didn't exist. People had light, dark and life magic. Life magic is what was used to make staves and things, but it did a lot more than just healing, and it was a rare talent even for them. Ethniu was just as strong in life magic as she was with everything else, and one of the things life magic does is let you manipulate souls.

Ferdiad helped Ethniu make a staff to harness that magic. They never intended to live forever the way I was thinking. They planned to have Ethniu use her staff to transfer their souls from their old failing bodies to new, young ones. Over and over and over, forever. But it was such a powerful artifact, you had to have really strong abilities with life magic even to use it. Ethniu was the only one who could.

Well, after Ethniu died, Danu was stuck. She doesn't have any life magic ability. Only Ness and Ferdiad did, and they weren't strong enough to use the staff. That's why she had to find another Ethniu.

There was no one with Ethniu's powers, obviously. She was one of a kind. Suiameas says that she might have been the first mutation... not quite human, but not aesdana, either. But Danu didn't need someone like that, just someone who was really, really strong with life magic only.

She found someone, and that's the "replacement" Ethniu. She's the only one who can do anything -- transfer or switch your souls. Danu can't. And she has to use the staff! And she and Danu hate each other.

... They used volunteers at first. But now they're only worried about looking the way they did before, so that your Ethniu, Fionn and Dian don't wake up and see strangers. So they've been looking for people who look as much like their original selves as possible and just ... using them. Their bodies. That's the sort of people they are, now.

That's what we're going to be walking into on Sunday.

[Filter: Suiameas, in Danaan]

I was thinking it must be hard to tell when days are passing in the Between. There's nothing out there except darkness and monsters. You can't see the sun or the moons at all ...

They're getting closer together. It's only four days until Moon Festival.

We did really well last time. Let's try to do just as well today.

[Filter: Franelcrew]

Okay. Today we mostly talked about the seals. Um, what they are, how they work, and things like that.

Before Eire was split, there were two "layers" to the world. The thin one on top that humans lived in, and the Beneath below it, a massive place filled with wild magic, where the glares and glooms were. When the glares and glooms started coming up into the physical world, Danu figured out that they were just keep getting more powerful if nothing was done to stop it, because the Beneath had no boundaries and the glares and glooms could just keep growing and growing forever unless there were limits put on it.

Glares and glooms aren't affected by magic because they are magic. Using magic near them could destroy a human's magical abilities. Um, Suaimeas said writings from back then say runes became like knives. They had to use magic mixed with physical things to fight and contain them.

They took half of the physical space, objects -- souls -- and everything in Eire, and pushed it through the Between. This is important to understand. They didn't create anything. They didn't make another world. If you think about it in layers... the physical layer before is just as big, it's just that half is on one side and half is on the other, so each side is thinner. I know it's hard to understand.

Now they had a Between but it still wasn't contained on all sides. They had to break it up into as many pieces as they could and completely contain them. That's why they made the seals. The seals are places where the two sides are pressed together through the Between. Now, instead of being a limitless place where glares and glooms could keep getting more powerful forever, they were trapped in "sections" and limited.

And the Great Seal holds it all together.

It's the Citadel like we thought. But there's a lot we didn't know. The Clerics would have been split like everyone else, and since they were human, they wouldn't have been able to see both sides like aesdana can. So the Great Seal -- the Citadel -- it couldn't be like everything else. There's only one Citadel for both worlds. It's the same. The Clerics are in both worlds at once, and they have spies and aids and all sorts of things to help them keep track of both worlds at the same time, since they can't leave the Citadel or they'd be blind on one side just like anyone else. That's why they never leave except for on their holidays and why so few people are allowed in.

Humans can never do what Crionna and I are doing, what all aesdana can do, connecting with their other halves. If humans go into the Citadel, unless their other half is completely synced with them at the time, the "side" that isn't there ... um, goes dormant? It isn't fatal but they won't respond to anything, and they won't remember what happened when they come back.

Okay, the last really big thing.

Kilians are all geased by Danu too. Most of them at least. When the clerics split the world, Ethniu created Kilia. I mean, she actually created it, with magic. She raised the mountains around the Great Seal by pulling aurae up. She created the mists, and she created the mist monsters too, to keep people away from the Great Seal. Then three thousand of the clerics' most loyal followers were put under a geas to keep all of Kilia's secrets and protect the Great Seal. It's four thousand years old, so it's not as strong as it used to be, and a little confused sometimes, but it's there.

Oh, and I don't know if it matters, but I know what clerics are tied to what seals. Suaimeas said that when a seal breaks, there's a backlash of magic that can take weeks to recover from, but it won't kill the cleric that was tied to it. Dyfeint was Ferdiad, Megam was Athairne. And Ethniu is Korin, Fionn is Kanemoria, Dian is Atsiria, Ness is Hanalan, and Danu is Dentoria.

Suamieas drew some diagrams to help explain the seals if you want to see them.

[there are rough copies of Suimeas's diagrams from here with notes]

[Filter: Franelcrew]

... We're done. We talked some. Prudence and I, I mean. I think Suaimeas answered more of your questions this time, so ... I'll just go through them here.

Um, I should probably warn you. I don't think you're going to like it. So if you're ready...

Our people do know about you. More than we thought. They call you the "carriers." Our people ... we have different tribes. Did you know that? Prudence and I are from the Blue. So is Aelbhe. Searlait was Red. But there are others. I'm telling you that because I found out today that the reason why we split up into different tribes has a lot to do with you. Maybe everything.

They argue. Incessantly. Suaimeas himself doesn't even really know what to think, because he's been in the Between so long, with all the different tribes there, arguing all the time about you. What to do with you. What to think about you ...

The truth is, back when this all began, back when my people were first ... born, I guess, and the glares and glooms started coming up from Beneath, there was a war with them. Prudence heard a lot more about this, so I'll let her tell you, but what I learned is that we won. It was over. The monsters were sealed in the Between, and the seven seals were all connected to one of the seven Cleric's souls. Everything would have been okay, then, except something terrible happened.

Dian and Fionn died. Ethniu was the only one who saw it happen. Whatever she saw was so horrible that she couldn't speak after it -- or wouldn't. Danu tried to get her to talk for two weeks, she tried everything. But Ethniu wouldn't speak. They found Dian and Fionn's swords, but ... they were their practice swords. Simple blunt-edged blades. That's how they knew they'd killed each other, for some reason, but they never knew why. And after two weeks of saying nothing, Ethniu killed herself, and the secret died with her.

But she did something first. She knew that the seals were tied to their souls -- hers and Dian's and Fionn's -- and if they were lost, the seals would be lost too. So she found a way to preserve them. To, um, keep them "fresh," so the seals wouldn't fall. It took thirty years, Suaimeas said, for Danu to even begin to understand the magic Ethniu worked before she died.

Ethniu found a specific bloodline, and she found a way to make her soul and the souls of her brothers ... attach, I guess, whenever that bloodline produced two sons and a daughter in specific circumstances. Suaimeas said it was maybe the greatest magic ever worked, maybe even greater than splitting the worlds. No one understand exactly what she did, just that the souls attach when they feel an "echo" of themselves. And there have been lots of carriers before you. And when Danu figured it out, it wasn't good enough for her. It wasn't enough the souls were preserved... she wanted to bring them back somehow. So, she started working on a massive project to do that. To somehow bring them home.

And because of that, she abandoned my people to keep the worlds in balance on our own. She stopped helping. They all did. They left us and focused on their project -- you -- instead. And my people couldn't agree on how to feel about it.

Our trible, the Blue, we want to help Danu, I think. He didn't tell me this, but I saw it -- I saw him thinking about it, all jumbled up in his mind... we want to help, but not like the Violet, or the Gold, they want to help but all for different reasons ... we just want Danu to start focusing on the world again. So our tribe thinks if we can help Danu finish her project, everything will be better because she'll come back and start helping us with the rest again. Um, and the Red don't want to help at all. They think it's a waste of time. And the White -- the White don't want to help anyone, they just ...

I don't know how much of this I should even tell you. I don't know if it matters. Suaimeas says I should be careful what I tell you, since not all this knowledge is for humans, but Suaimeas has ... strange ideas about humans, and I don't know if I trust him on that. So I guess I don't mind telling. The Green just care that the souls are preserved. They think we should have let Ethniu's idea be... that she was right, and Danu needs to abandon her project and focus on what matters now.

But the truth, I think, is that we don't really know the specifics of Danu's plot. Just that she worked on that instead of keeping the worlds in balance all these years. It split the aesdana, and it definitely made everything worse. And I don't know why you had to switch places at all. I think maybe only Danu knows? It's her project.

That's it. We couldn't keep going. Whenever we think too hard about you it's hard to stay connected. He doesn't know you ...

[Filter: Franelcrew]

All right. We're going to try again. I'm going to ask about these things:

Do you know about House Franel? Lawrence, Celeste and Kail, and Dian, Ethniu and Fionn. If yes, how are they connected to the seals? Why did they have to switch sides, and are their "other" selves doing something on your side? Are the souls of the clerics on both sides?

I'll ask about the Citadel. What's there besides the clerics. It might not be anything except that it's the Great Seal, which won't be affected if the worlds collide for some reason.

What are the aesdana treasures? Why did we have to fix them? Do you know about Dian and Fionn's swords?

Can humans ever see the other side like we do.

I think that's it. Please try not to bother us. Distractions can break the connection. And ... well, they're distracting. Especially for Suaimeas. He's curious about you all.

[a long pause]

[Filter: Suaimeas]

-- Ah. Are you here? You are.

I'm trying to concentrate this time. I know you have a lot to tell us but we have some questions too.

Current Mood: determined

[Filter: Aelbhe and Crionna, in Danaan]

I think we both understand it now. But I don't think we'll ever be like you.

... We learned a lot. Still not enough, but a lot. Suaimeas showed me the Between. Crionna talked about where we come from. I don't know what'll be next. Celeste and the others are talking about what they want to know.

[Danaan]

That was -- was that? That was it! It was like

[pause]

Crionna!

It was like opening another pair of eyes I didn't know I had. I felt him -- me -- we were right there and it was like all the voices and all the visions and everything overlapped and I could see and I could hear

But I couldn't hold it. I couldn't hold it!

I have to try again. I think I know what to do.

Current Mood: excited

[Filter: Elliot]

What was I like when you first met me?

[Filter: Crionna, in Danaan]

Don't you think they might cause more trouble?

Aelbhe said what we did in Megam made things worse. Unless Raetha and Ally's other selves are showing up as Heralds in Dentoria, won't this make things worse there, too? We should have warned them. I didn't even think about it. I thought they had run away for good.

[Filter: Franelcrew]

I think this is as far as we should fly. You can't get as close to Taln as you can to the other cities.

I know a place that isn't very far from the gate. I stayed there a long time ago.

We should decide if we want to carry the pot in or leave someone to watch it so one of us can come back later and fly it in when everyone is asleep.

[Filter: Crionna and Labhri, in Kilian]

I don't think they would want to hear it from me, but there are people here. They're all dead, but they aren't all monsters anymore. I don't even know if they would want to hear that at all.

Maybe they'll want to bury them. Or burn them. Or whatever they do. I always forget. But they probably won't want to leave them for the wild animals.

You know how to talk to them better than I do. So you can decide if you tell them or not.

She won't wake up.

None of the ones who fell asleep will, but we need her the most.

Prudence and I will stay up and wait. Last time everyone felt better by morning.

[Kilian]

What is that? Who's -- is that singing? Is it still day? I'm tired. Tell whoever that is ...

[pause]

It's her.

[Filter: Labhri, in Kilian]

Okay later when we're both awake you definitely have to teach me how to play this game better because I didn't know Prudence was already good at it and I want to actually win sometimes.

[Filter: Elliot]

Can you make sure I don't sleep past dinner tonight? Don't worry if I'm cranky about it. I'll get up. I'm trying to make sure I'm awake for at least a few hours before -- um, people have to sleep. Also I hate missing dinner, everything gets cold and it's not as good.

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Walking Man's Road

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