16:00

Are you one of the, are you one

16:02

of the Witch of

16:05

Winded stars, Retinue

16:07

or? Oh, I

16:09

am, oh, I'm sorry. I

16:11

put down the plate of food and I

16:13

do a little curtsy. Oh, sorry,

16:15

I'm sorry. I'm Ane,

16:17

the Witch of the World's Heart. This

16:20

is how I'm here. Oh! Yes.

16:23

Oh, I'm so, give me an inside check. That's

16:28

a nine. Yeah,

16:30

you look and, I think you just

16:32

see Startlement, Befuddlement. Oh,

16:35

I'm so sorry, I did, sorry. You're

16:38

the Witch of, The

16:41

Witch of the World's Heart. The

16:44

new, I'm new. You're

16:47

one of the four great witches. The

16:51

four great witch. Five

16:57

are the number of our conclave. I'm

17:01

so sorry, can I assist

17:03

you in any way? Are you mad? I

17:06

don't want to get it. I don't

17:08

want to, I was told to

17:10

remain in the, I

17:13

had my quarters until such time as, okay,

17:17

I'm so sorry. And you see that they turn to

17:20

go around and go take a seat. They say, I'm

17:22

so sorry for interrupting. My name

17:24

is Tefmet. And you see, pointedly,

17:26

they say, my name is Tefmet.

17:30

It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance,

17:32

Tefmet. Can

17:35

I do a quick little

17:37

medicine check or a survival check? Yeah,

17:39

absolutely. Yeah,

17:41

go ahead and give me medicine. 16.

17:45

16. Oh, they have a cold,

17:47

they have a cold. They just

17:49

have a cold? They

17:52

have a cold. Oh, do you have a, you

17:54

just have a cold? What? A cold,

17:56

you know? Oh. Like a simple

17:59

sniffle. not a magical ailment

18:01

or, would you

18:03

mind? Can I, I have some

18:06

remedies here. I'm quite used to

18:09

tending to those with common colds

18:11

and flus in back of my

18:13

village. Are you certain that that would

18:15

be advisable? The

18:18

mistress of this palace made me remain

18:23

in my quarters until such time

18:25

as the conclave was prepared to

18:27

meet and she bet- Well,

18:29

we are, we have already met. So

18:31

you've fulfilled your promise to

18:33

the mistress of this place. And also, I'm fairly

18:38

certain that there, it would

18:40

be easy for me to help you out here.

18:43

All right, well, I don't, I don't want to,

18:46

if this, if the conclave has already started and

18:48

you are a member of the conclave that I

18:50

don't wish to cause

18:53

any fuss, but please do understand that I was paid

18:55

by the mistress of this place to- Well,

18:58

you can stay here. I can

19:00

be here too and stay if you

19:02

don't mind. Well, that satisfies the conditions

19:04

of what I was paid. Yeah,

19:06

if you wish, but it's really not. I'm

19:08

not that- No, please, I insist.

19:11

I'm safe! This is my happy

19:13

place. Okay,

19:17

I closed out behind me. I start fussing

19:19

around in the herbalism kit. The fox

19:21

jumps up on Tefmet's lap and Tefmet goes,

19:23

oh, and you see the fox goes, this

19:27

is, I'm assisting the witch of the world's heart

19:29

and we need to warm you up. And you

19:31

see the fox looks over at you for backing

19:33

up on that. Yes, Nurse Fox

19:35

on the job. I'm

19:37

Nurse Fox. And you see the fox circles

19:39

up and just becomes a warm little animal

19:42

on Tefmet's lap. Go ahead

19:44

and give me an herbalism check. The

19:48

fox will also, actually will also help you here being

19:50

Nurse Fox. Yeah, Nurse Fox. But this is, we'll call

19:52

it a DC 12. That's

19:56

it, yeah, that's 14. you

20:00

get a little remedy and poultice together. You

20:02

know that this cold will run its

20:04

course in some time, and it's really

20:06

just about alleviating the symptoms while, but

20:09

you also see that, like, this room

20:11

is made of ice, and

20:13

Def Met has clearly come from a

20:15

place where, like, they do not have

20:18

the cold weather gear that all of

20:20

you have traveling here. I mean, if

20:22

I wanna, can I immediately, like,

20:25

healing word, or would that? Oh,

20:27

yeah, you wanna do a little bit of magic? Yeah,

20:30

do a little bit of magic about it. We have

20:32

spells. Yeah, exactly. Right? So as

20:35

I am making

20:37

some herbs, and poultices. Go

20:39

ahead and describe, I think it's all, so we

20:41

won't even use the D&D terminology. Yeah. Just

20:44

talk to me about how you create the remedy and what

20:46

kind of magic goes into it. From

20:49

a tiny kit in my

20:51

pack, I pull it

20:54

out, and it has different unlabeled

20:57

vials and pockets

21:00

that have warming spices,

21:02

and things like

21:05

elm bark, and

21:08

a loquat syrup

21:10

that I drip into it, and

21:12

I make a mug

21:14

of steaming, hot, warm

21:19

in both the temperature

21:21

and sort of emotional measure

21:24

of warmth, and it's in

21:26

a lovely little mug

21:30

that I had packed away safely

21:32

in my bag, and

21:35

so everything about it

21:37

feels like truly the

21:39

kind of medicine, quote unquote, that you

21:41

get from your parents when you're sick,

21:43

and they just are trying to help

21:45

you feel better about

21:47

it. But in this

21:49

case, it is imbued with a little

21:52

bit of magic, and

21:55

I speak over it and I say,

21:58

drink up. and

1:04:01

off in the trees outside the

1:04:03

grove, you see a road that it looks like the

1:04:05

man has come off of to this well to

1:04:07

stop his walking and take a drink. But

1:04:11

you are, you leave

1:04:13

this, you are deeply confused. The

1:04:17

man in black speaks. Steady

1:04:23

yourself, Brother Ursula. You

1:04:28

have not been moved upon

1:04:31

the world against your will. I

1:04:34

meant what I said to you in

1:04:37

that forest to flame

1:04:39

the wizard's belt. You

1:04:45

still lie in

1:04:48

the grass, in

1:04:50

the palace of the witch of wind and stars.

1:04:55

You met Bádze, yes. She

1:05:00

is the spirit of this

1:05:02

grove, the grove of

1:05:04

the well. And

1:05:07

so being within her heart, some

1:05:10

vision of you is still here.

1:05:14

But just a

1:05:16

vision. Your

1:05:19

sight, your sound has

1:05:21

come here. But I

1:05:23

would not drag you across the world against

1:05:25

your will. Yet

1:05:28

I needed to have my

1:05:31

words understood. Ursula

1:05:35

is going to slowly start to approach the

1:05:37

well. Well

1:05:43

then, let's have a drink. He

1:05:47

takes a small tin

1:05:49

can off his belt and

1:05:52

pours a ladle, a

1:05:54

wooden ladle in the bucket of

1:05:56

water and passes it to you.

1:06:00

Here close, you can only see,

1:06:03

the front of him is still in shadow, but

1:06:06

you see the light along raven

1:06:08

black hair, a bit

1:06:10

of his neck. You see that

1:06:13

he wears a long shirt buckled

1:06:16

with silver at the wrist and

1:06:19

a dark patterned vest and long

1:06:21

black trousers and tall

1:06:24

leather boots. And he

1:06:26

hands the tin cup of water to you and

1:06:28

says, drink deep, brother.

1:06:32

I do. I

1:06:35

know well this girl the first

1:06:37

time I met Bazzi. I

1:06:40

had come here to lay low a great

1:06:43

woman. Was

1:06:46

that grandmother red?

1:06:50

It was a task

1:06:52

I did not relish and

1:06:55

which in the doing I knew

1:06:58

for little chance of success, a

1:07:02

desperate gambit for

1:07:04

these desperate times. And

1:07:08

yet, here in the grove,

1:07:11

after her departure, when

1:07:14

I proved not to land the

1:07:16

blow that would have ended things,

1:07:21

I saw there in the water a vision,

1:07:25

of what might be. He

1:07:29

reaches under his cloak and takes

1:07:32

a sword from under the cloak,

1:07:35

wrapped in black leather. On

1:07:38

a belt, you see the

1:07:40

hilt is black leather, the cross

1:07:43

guard, silver moonlight,

1:07:45

the pommel white stone,

1:07:48

a sword of

1:07:50

night itself. Would

1:07:54

you hold this for a spell,

1:07:56

brother? This

1:08:01

is your sword. My

1:08:04

sword indeed. It's

1:08:08

sharper than a spinster's tongue and

1:08:10

harder than a miser's heart. With

1:08:14

it I can cut the spring from a

1:08:16

man's step and the apple from his eye.

1:08:20

I can part the lightning from the thunder

1:08:23

and skin a man's shadow off his

1:08:25

boot with this blade. Ussalon's

1:08:30

going to extend his hand. The

1:08:33

heft of this sword even

1:08:36

in its scabbard feels

1:08:39

mighty. I

1:08:43

have not drawn this blade

1:08:45

in an age of men.

1:08:52

And I do not

1:08:55

wish to wield it in the wars to

1:08:57

come for the next I

1:08:59

draw it a fate will befall me that

1:09:01

I do not wish. I look

1:09:05

now for a

1:09:07

champion to wield it.

1:09:10

One who can brandish the sword of night

1:09:13

lay low the proud and

1:09:16

restore balance between

1:09:18

Ummura and the world

1:09:20

of spirits. I

1:09:25

have returned to the Grove to drink deep

1:09:27

and make

1:09:29

sure I saw the vision clearly

1:09:32

that I saw here first when

1:09:34

I came for Wren. Do

1:09:38

you know what I saw brother Ussalon? No

1:09:42

no I do not. A

1:09:46

mighty warrior the

1:09:49

son of a great

1:09:51

bear with golden

1:09:53

pauldron in a tree upon his

1:09:56

shield. I

1:09:59

need the and

1:16:00

you recognize this pattern. It's

1:16:04

the symbol you saw on the back of Captain

1:16:06

Emless's neck. On

1:16:10

that 19, you

1:16:12

buckle the sword and the

1:16:15

man in black looks at you and says, We

1:16:19

may next meet as foes, but

1:16:22

always as brothers. I

1:16:25

won't suffer you to leave while I

1:16:27

am in your debt. You

1:16:30

have paid me the kindness of

1:16:33

placing my sword upon my hip. To

1:16:37

settle our accounts, I

1:16:40

would offer you a

1:16:43

gift or the answer

1:16:45

to a question. Make

1:16:50

your choice and leave me. I'll

1:16:56

have a gift, something

1:16:59

to remember you by. He

1:17:03

reaches into the coat of his vest, pulls

1:17:05

out a silver pocket watch, flicks

1:17:08

it like a coin through the air as it

1:17:12

lands in front of you. Time is ever walking down the

1:17:15

road, Brother Ursulon. That

1:17:32

was Lou Wilson as Ursulon, Erika

1:17:35

Ishii as Ame, Abriya Iyengar as

1:17:37

Suvi, and

1:17:39

Brennan Lee Mulligan as everyone and

1:17:42

everything else. Worlds

1:17:44

Beyond Numbered is edited, designed, and

1:17:46

scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate

1:17:48

Horse with additional

1:17:50

sound design from Michael Gelfie Studios.

1:17:54

For even more like this, join us on

1:17:56

our Patreon. We'll see you there.