The Fall of the King of Sota: Chapter Fifteen

 

I have a real problem with smarmy bullshit. so it was a kind of interesting week to follow up on, with this gigantic butterfly. So, I did what I could. And I think it worked!

October 30th through November 5th

The people flock around the giant butterfly, which talks in their minds with a calm, gentle voice: Maalijna, the ground listener. She is gentle, and kind. Children quickly learn to trust her, climbing atop her with no fear whatsoever. When asked to give rides in the sky, Maalijina always chuckles in a high-pitched mental trill: "Your mothers would never forgive me if I did".

The mothers agree. And realize they love her for it.

The "plague" ends immediately. Everyone attributes it to Maalijina.

Around Newport's northern farms, however, things are far from calm. King Lucian collapses all the remaining tunnels between Newport and Montport, and heads back up to Montport, cooperating with Lady Marie's forces.

Doing so results in not one, not two, but three violent deaths, the third one done by Seren, the Bearer of the Blade of Uriel. They were all confused, rushed, and thoroughly strange.

A few animals in the northern farms die, with their heads crushed.

The water in Montport is discovered to be poisoned. Maalijina promises to go there and purify the water there, too, when she's done purifying the ground around Newport.

November 6th- Chapter Fifteen

One of the things that Ross, who finally came back to play with us, said later really stuck with me. There's an interesting kind of loneliness that happens with Crescendo, Ross told me. All these players having these private stories between sessions. They're doing serious emotional buy-in between the sessions, and then suddenly that story is put on public display, full-blast. Without the context.

It's an iceberg of story and emotion and tragedy and comedy, all at once.

Sorta like a Gene Wolfe story. Oops.