20 years later…
Vivian sat in his office, catching up on paperwork and writing a few letters. His assistant, Sam, stepped through the open door with a tentative knock.
"Mail's in, sir." Vivian scowled at the honorific, but had long since given up on trying to shed it. A champion of evensong keep, an Emerald Knight, and the Most Favored of the Lady of Storms. He was honestly lucky to have managed to keep it down to just "sir". He knew others that hadn’t been so lucky.
"Letter from Empress Illyani of Zhad, sir.” Vivian grinned. Speak of the devil. “It's about the new temple in the capital." The church had only just begun to spread to the northlands.
"What did she say?"
Vivian’s assistant coughed. And then blushed. "It’s mostly, uh. That is. . . the language she uses is . . . uh . . colorful.” He sputtered. “She seems to feel most, uh, strongly about the attached Nightmare Magicka academy . . . ”
Vivian took the letter out of his assistant’s hand. “Oh. Oh my. Well, that doesn’t seem anatomically possible. Well then.” Vivian chuckled to himself. “Right, see. Here’s what we’re going to do: New project. Buy up a plot near the assembly building in the center of town. Close as you can get. Build a chapel there. Simple and small. Room for a couple faithful to do card readings." He laughed. “Everybody loves readings, and she’ll hate that they love it. And I’ll love that she hates that they love it. It’s perfect.”
“Very good, sir.”
“And, hey, you know what? Let’s also send a big donation to the Orphans of Zhado fund. Really big.”
"Yessir."
“Really big.”
“Yessir.”
“However big you’re thinking right now? Double it.”
“Very good, sir.”
Vivian nodded. "Anything else?"
He dropped a giant pile of paperwork onto his desk. “Needs your signature, sir.”
Vivian sighed and glanced over at his hat, hanging nearby on a rack. It was cracked with age and more gray than black; the feather was long gone. Vivian shook his head. It had been a long, long time . . .
Suddenly there was another shadow in the room. And a scream.
“Raven!” Said Vivian, jumping to his feet. “Good to see you!”
Raven simply shrugged and cocked her head to one side. Vivian’s assistant was cowering in the corner, trying to make himself invisible through sheer force of will.
“Someone’s been meddling with the weave from this side...” Said Raven, shortly. “They need to be . . . stopped.”
Vivian nodded, grabbing the hat. An invisible drawer slid out from his desk and revealed a longsword. The blade was black with rust, except the very edge itself which was bright silver. It slid onto his belt along with a few other sundry tools. Bonecasting bag, nightmare tiles, and a sack of daisha larger than his head. And his weavewalking anchor.
“Where?”
“Across the sea.”
Vivian hesitated. The thought of boarding a ship on the open sea still made him shudder.
But no. It was time to leave such fears behind.
“Outstanding.”
Raven nodded curtly and faded back into mist. “I’ll be in touch . . . “
Vivian scratched his chin for a moment before sitting back down and starting to write on a blank piece of parchment.
“Uh. Sir?”
“Yes Sam?”
“Uh . . . “ Sam hesitated. “Sir. Who . . . What . . . was that?”
   “A malifer. Of sorts. Well, I actually haven’t asked how she self-identifies now.” Vivian shrugged. “Helped us defeat the mist king and the seven, a lifetime ago. Worked for Lily Goldborn. Armies of nightmare-infused husks. Crimson plague. Fun times.”
Vivian signed his name carefully at the bottom of the parchment. “Copy this letter and courier it a copy to Felis, Kornelli, Kath or Pavel, Hazel, and Reese. Maybe Osgar too, see if we can tempt him out of retirement. Quenna and Rumly, why not. And…” He scowled. “Gods I know I must be forgetting lots of folk. You know what? Just tell the Courier to send it to the usual list. He knows who I mean.”
“Sir, you can’t just--”
“And hire a ship. Light and fast, with a slightly shady reputation but not too shady.” A thoughtful expression crossed his face. “Check with Luxanna of House Morea, she’ll know which ones we can trust.”
“Sir, you can’t be serious, you--”
“I’m going abroad, Sam. See new places, meet new people, and maybe kick in a face or three…”
   “Sir, what about your children?” Wailed Sam. “You can’t just--”
   Vivian cut him off. “They’re invited too. The twins will come, obviously. Little Alexandros has that new girlfriend, but I heard they had a fight, so he’s a hard maybe. Either way, he’s more than old enough to take care of himself.”
   “Sir, are you sure that’s…”
   “I know my children, Sam.” Said Vivian, sternly. “Morgan has been itching to come on adventures since she was old enough to walk, and Lily will want to go wherever her sister goes.”
   “But sir! Someone could get hurt!”
   Vivian shrugged. “Nah. I’ll make sure they stick to the nonlethal spells. Root and weakness and so forth.”
   “No, I meant--”
   Vivian threw out his arms, gesturing at the mess of paperwork on his desk.
   “Look at me, Sam. This isn’t me. Filling out paperwork? Approving construction? Arguing politics? Committee meetings? Storms above!” Vivian shook his head. “How long have I sat behind this desk? How long have I lived this suffocatingly quiet life? How long has it been since I rode out, blade at my side, friends at my back, with two-score combat spells hanging off my soul? Since I skirted past death through my wit, strength, and blind stupid luck?”
Vivian had was on his feet, pacing now as he ranted. ”Since I *lived*, Sam? Really truly lived! It feels like a lifetime ago, Sam. A distant memory, faded to gray with the turning of the seasons! An eternity behind this desk. Honestly, Sam, how long, how long has it actually been since I--”
   “EIGHT WEEKS, sir!” Said Sam, exasperated. “It’s Only. Been. Eight. Weeks!”
   “What?” Vivian paused. “Wait, really?”
   “Since that incident with that fake nightmare lord, sir. Remember? With the sentient laundry? You were gone for three days.” Sam tidied up some of the papers on Vivian’s desk. “Right in the busy season, too.” He added, reproachfully.
   “Oh yeah . . . That guy was so weird.“ He laughed. “So. Let’s see.” Vivian started counting on his fingers. “There was that guy, right? and that thing with those insane dreamtouched ghost echo monsters (or whatever the heck they were I don’t even know), and then that trip to beyond the weave that went all pear shaped. That’s three, I’ve only had three properly insane adventures this fiscal year. I’m still owed a fourth by the end of the month.”
   Sam sighed. He knew when he was defeated.
   “Yes sir. Will that be all, sir?”
   “Uch. Quinn’s gonna be so mad. He hates it when I go away on long trips.” Vivian frowned. “Sam, make a reservation at that nice little restaurant down the way. And order a dozen roses. And clear my schedule. And hey, do you remember where I put my chainmail? So much to do. So much to do. Come along, Sam.”
   Sam sighed and made a note before following the high priest out.

Mine got long, so here’s a link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I3vNRv-kyndgE1ThnjxOG6FDXwx2v9NY7WCk-H8TYlY

The Weave is a dangerous place and no place to wander alone. For there are monsters and things beyond your imagining that lurk in the mists. Things with too many eyes and too much hunger eager to trap unwary souls. But this isn't a story about monsters.

This is the story of a girl.
 

---

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was sweet and friendly and clever and kind. Her laugh sounded like chimes and she was as stubborn and determined as a tree on a riverbank. She was the apple of her mother's eye, becoming cleverer and wiser and better in every way as she grew. Eventually she caught the eye of a learned scholar who offered her an apprenticeship. Delighted by this chance to grow even more, the girl begged her mother to let her go and, eventually, her mother agreed. It was a very good opportunity after all, and the scholar was well respected and powerful.
 

But little did either of them know that the scholar was powerful in ways they could not have imagined for she was, in fact, not a scholar, but a witch.

But the clever girl was still young and she was too kind to see the sort of darkness that lurks in all people's souls. And so she started her apprenticeship under the scholar and she watched and listened and learned and grew. And while the witch knew the girl was clever and observant and quick to learn, she didn't realize how very much the girl was in fact learning. For one day, the girl saw something that she wasn't supposed to, a secret that no one was supposed to know, and the witch panicked. Which doesn't sound very witch-like, but something that many people forget is that witches are people just like anybody else and just as failable.

The witch - angry and upset and scared - threw the girl into the Weave and left her there. For in the Weave, there are many places to get rid of unwanted things.
 
And this is where the monster comes in. The Weave is dangerous, yes. And strange things lurk within. But it was especially dangerous where the girl had been tossed, for the witch and her coven had been keeping a monster of the Weave as a pet, one that ate souls and anything else that it found in its path.

And it swallowed the girl whole. 
 

Meanwhile, the girl's mother had discovered her daughter was missing and began searching desperately for her child. She looked in the city and she looked in the woods and she even searched the Weave, but she could find no trace of her daughter. Desolate, she stumbled home and wept and wept. And when the tears dried, as all tears must do, she picked herself up and got to work.

For she was her daughter's mother, and she was just as clever and determined as her daughter. And even if her daughter was lost and could not be found, she knew someone was responsible. And if she could not find her daughter, she would find the truth of what had happened and bring those responsible to justice.  For what wouldn't a parent do for her child?
 

Little did anyone know that the young girl was not in fact gone. For when the witch had tossed her into the monster’s pen, she had not bothered to do what the coven normally did to those they fed to the monster. And so, while the girl had been eaten by the monster, she was not in tatters like all those poor souls. She sat in the pit of the monster’s belly, completely whole and very much still alive.

Now most - when swallowed whole by an unknowable monster of the Weave and surrounded by the cries of everyone else the monster has been eating for the past thousand of years - would give up and despair.

But not her.

Too stubborn to let herself go and too kind to ignore the suffering around her, she began to sort out all the discordant threads and weave them into harmony. A piano for this one and a strong drumbeat for that one and a duet for those two and a melody of chimes strung through to bring it all together.


Elsewhere, a friendly songbird, traveling through the Weave, discovered something odd and grabbed the other animals to investigate. And as they made their way into the strange clearing the songbird had seen, they were dumbstruck, for what they found was a birthday party. Ever curious, the moth flitted closer to the candles; while the bunny snuck around the edges of this well-lit clearing in the Weave.
 
Then suddenly, out of the dark, a huge monster appeared from the shadows. Not knowing what else to do, the songbird and her friend, the bold nightingale, began singing to distract it and keep it from attacking the other animals. The bunny, hidden in the shadows, noticed an odd thread hanging off of the monster, and pulled it off. Noting that there were more, the bunny enlisted the serene fox and the spirited horse to help quickly pull off the remaining threads before the monster could notice. Just as they pulled the last thread off, the monster turned and vanished back into the mist of the Weave, disappearing just as quickly as it had come.
 
Shaken and confused, the animals gathered elsewhere to discuss what had happened. A monster like that was surely dangerous, for hadn’t the snake, the birds, and the moth seen such a monster eat an enemy of that very mean coven a moon or two before that? Such a being could not be allowed to be, not if it could appear wherever it wished without warning and especially not if it was being used as a tool to terrorize others. So decided, they pooled their resources and began searching for more information. For in order to kill such a beast, you must know how to first.
 
The moth, curious and heedless of the danger, decided to look into the odd threads the bunny had picked off of the monster. Gathering the sneaky bunny and the brave songbird, as well as the caring snake and the loyal lion, they set off to try and track down where the threads might have come from.
 
Eventually, they found their way to a dim, dark crevice of the Weave, where strange music with a chiming melody seemed to emanate. Steeling themselves, they followed the sound to the source of the melody, and found the figure of a girl. She was completely covered in threads and the song of chimes appeared to be coming from her. For the Weave is a dangerous place, and the forest creatures had accidentally found themselves in the very belly of the beast they had been searching for.

Realizing the danger that they were in, but equally unwilling to leave the girl behind, the songbird attempted to untangle the thread, so that the girl could escape as well. Knowing the futility of it - for in the Weave, what you see is not necessarily what is real - the girl urged them to leave and come back once they’d figured out how to unweave the beast itself. And so they did, tumbling over each other - paw over beak over wing over tail - but unwilling to let go of each other out of fear that one of them would also become ensnared inside the monster. Fleeing the cavern just as the monster appeared, the animals ran all the way back to their nests, fearful but knowing that they would have to go back and face it again eventually. For they had angered the coven themselves and they knew that it would only be a matter of time before the monster was set upon them as well.
 

The mother had heard of these forest animals and of their fight against the coven and so she went to them in search of allies in her own fight. Hearing this tale of the chimes, she beseeched them to help her get her daughter back and free her from the beast. Knowing just how terrifying the monster was, the moth, bunny, songbird, and snake were quick to agree and set to finding out just how best to kill a monster that was made from the threads of fate itself.

As the moon passed through its faces, the mother’s other efforts against the coven bore fruit and she caught their full attention. Hoping to stifle her and her supporters, the one of coven kidnapped the mother and began the ritual to throw her into the weave as food for the monster.
 
But the animals, realizing their new friend had gone missing, gathered a group to rescue her from the coven’s clutches.

And so the brave songbird, the sneaky bunny, the curious moth and the caring snake, were joined in their quest by the proud deer, the sleepy dormouse, the chaotic otter, the spirited horse, and the dour wolf. The rabbit led the way down the twisting path with the moth urging them on as they rushed into the weave, determined to save their friend.

They sped down the path, hoping against hope to make it time. And they arrived just in time to see the kind, clever, fierce girl raging against the coven that had trapped her so, who dared to threaten her mother now, as her mother was pushed into the Weave. 

They had made it, but they knew that the monster would come upon them at any moment.
But this time, they were prepared. The animals knew that if they could pull each thread out by playing its individual melody eventually the monster would unravel.

As they readied themselves, the monster appeared from the darkness, trailing all those broken threads behind it.
 
The animals leapt into action. The otter ducked and dodged, the mouse scampered underneath, the deer stamped and tossed his antlers, and the wolf snapped at the monster’s heels, all while the horse and bunny frantically bit and pulled the threads, as overhead, the moth dusted them with protective powder. The snake and songbird started up the song with the caring snake tapping out the beat with its tail and the brave songbird leading the melody. The other animals joined in too, with stamps and thumps and howls and squeaks, and the music swelled as the threads unspooled until all that was left was the threads, pure and unwoven. The knots holding the monster together were gone, and in a burst of glowing thread remnants so too was it.
 
And the daughter and mother embraced, finally reunited after so many years.
 
But the daughter knew that the way home for her had closed. It had been too long and she had changed too much. But her mother had a chance.  And what wouldn't a child do for their mother? And so, the brave, clever, kind, chiming girl wished her mother back to life.
 

She’s still there in the Weave if you look. If you listen, you might hear the sound of chimes on the wind, as she walks through the mists.

Bring some apple fritters or some chocolate cake, they're her favorite.

This is amazing work, Reese!

I think Linna said she was going to be learning advanced Performance magic too, so I think there should be at least three of us.

I am... flattered and a little bit amazed to think that a song that Vivian and I wrote could actually help us in this. But I will sing it with all I can, for sure.

—Miri

Wonderful, Reece.

I second the idea of using Rise Up Concordance to counteract the Ashensing. Though I am no Performer, I am happy to help in the singing, or to contribute to the effort in any way that may be useful.