Verbatim
Play time: 2 hours and 30 minutes.
This page preserves play in its actual order: the players' words, on Peek's side and on Time's, Focuses, Bets, rolls, and table corrections.
This English version is a faithful translation of the played transcript. It keeps its spontaneous table exchanges and mechanical discussion.
[TIME]
The Three Stones Spring
The sun is sinking over the Wastes when you reach the Three Stones Spring. It is a water hole ringed with reeds, guarded by three standing blocks that the elders of your tribe say are older than Waha himself. Fta-Ah pulls at the reins, thirsty.
But she does not drink.
She lowers her muzzle to the water, snorts, then steps back. The other antelopes do the same. Around the pool, the mud bears hobnailed bootprints, and someone has driven stakes connected by a red cord in a straight line to the foot of the tallest of the three stones.
Farther away stands a Lunar camp. Two square tents, a cart loaded with picks and baskets, about ten porters. A man in an ochre tunic, wax tablet in hand, measures the stone's shadow with a graduated pole. Beside him, armed, stand six Sable Riders. You recognize the first: Hirrak, your elder brother, sent by your father.
Hirrak sees you arrive and comes to meet you, pleased to see you.
— Little sister! Good timing. The Khan promised the Empire we would escort them here. They are going to dig a cistern for their road. There will be water all year round, and money for the tribe. Father says this is how the protectors of the Moon are rewarded.
He lowers his voice.
— They start at dawn. The big stone has to be moved.
Behind him, the spring water remains still. No insect dances over it. You feel the presence of the spring spirit, the one your tribe calls Mother-of-Reeds. She is usually peaceful. Tonight she is silent like someone holding back anger.
And above the Wastes, the Red Moon rises, full. Tonight you must sacrifice to your ancestors.
What do you do?
[PEEK]
Ah, Hirrak and his taste for Imperial luxury and money! I watch him strutting around in his breastplate and jewelry, proud of himself. But disconnected. I do not answer him and kneel down, putting my hands above and then into the water: "Mother-of-Reeds, I greet you and thank you for the life you give us." I close my eyes and breathe deeply. But I feel that something is wrong. I still haven't said anything to Hirrak. I stand and go to him: "Who decided to do this here: you or Father?"
[TIME]
The water is cold, colder than it should be at this hour. Beneath your palms, the surface does not move.
You greet Mother-of-Reeds and close your eyes.
At first, nothing. Then you feel her, deep below, huddled against the base of the great stone like a cornered animal. Not anger yet: fear. And something else you recognize because you have felt it before among badly unsettled dead spirits: she is preparing to leave. Where the red cord touches the stone, the water tastes of iron.
When you stand, your fingers are numb.
Hirrak has waited, a little offended that you ignored him. The setting sun shines on the bronze plates sewn onto his Lunar breastplate. At your question he shrugs.
— Father accepted the escort. The Lunars wanted water on the road to Moonbroth, and he told them the Sables knew every spring in the country.
He hesitates a second too long.
— They looked at three. I showed them this one. It is closest to the road, and the safest.
He raises his chin.
— Their surveyor decided about the stone. He says the ground is better on this side. I promised nothing about the stone. But I did not say no.
Behind him, the man in the ochre tunic has noticed your exchange. He sets down his pole and approaches, tablet under his arm, wearing the courteous smile of someone who has learned a few words of Praxian.
— The escort leader's sister? Honor to the Khan's daughter. I am Ostar Varenis.
He gestures broadly toward the pool.
— In one season, there will be water here for a hundred beasts, even in the dry season. Your tribe will have first use of it.
Above you, the Red Moon finishes rising.
[PEEK]
I walk toward Ostar. I may be small, but I impose myself with my fiery gaze and the inflexible, proud bearing of a Khan's daughter. "I greet you, Ostar Varenis. Glory to the Goddess." I join my hands in the Lunar greeting. "Only you cannot do this here at this spring. My brother brought you to the wrong spring. Paak sent me precisely to make sure everything was going well because he knows Hirrak is not always... uh... well inspired." And I give Hirrak a black look.
[TIME]
Ostar stops short. He did not expect the Lunar greeting, still less to see it performed correctly by a Sable Rider. He returns it at once, hands joined, with a sincere smile.
— Glory to the Goddess.
Then your next words wipe the smile away.
Behind you, you hear the leather of Hirrak's breastplate creak as he straightens. He says nothing. Not yet. But his jaw has tightened, and he knows perfectly well that Paak sent you nowhere.
Ostar glances at his stakes, then at the tablet of measurements under his arm.
— The wrong spring? Daughter of the Khan, I spent two days sounding this ground.
He is not refusing. He is waiting for the rest.
Intention: make Ostar give up digging at the Three Stones Spring.
Consequences : your brother is here and knows you are lying about being sent by Paak. You have just humiliated him in front of the escort and the Empire. If this goes badly, the lie may come out publicly, and Hirrak may not forgive you easily. You may maintain your intention, change your method, or reduce your objective.
Focus, Action Zoom: Does Ostar agree, on your word, to suspend the dawn works and reconsider the choice of spring, or does he maintain his plan despite you?
Your 3 Bets
- Daughter of the Khan: you speak with the authority of Paak's lineage, which the escort itself serves.
- The Lunar greeting: you speak to Ostar within his own faith, not as a hostile nomad.
- Your inflexible bearing: your confidence leaves no room for doubt.
The 4 Counter-Bets
- Hirrak knows you are lying, and you have just humiliated him in front of everyone.
- Two days of surveys: Ostar has measured reasons for choosing this ground.
- Paak's word: the Empire obtained the Khan's escort, and nothing proves that plan has changed.
- You have given no reason: "the wrong spring" remains an unsupported assertion in a surveyor's eyes.
You can contest these Bets or propose another if the fiction justifies it.
Reading: you read through Animism. Your Lunar Bet makes your relationship to the Moon relevant, and we are under a Full Moon outside the Glowline: two 1s forming a Spirit Pact are worth 2 Successes. Ostar reads through Theism, and for him too the Full Moon matters: his 1s may be rerolled.
Roll 3d6 and give me the raw results.
[PEEK]
Result: 6,5,3 -> 1 success.
[TIME]
Time reads 3, 4, 5, 2, for 2 Successes for Ostar.
1 against 2: Defeat.
Ostar listens to the end politely, then slowly shakes his head.
— I respect the Khan's daughter. But I did not come here on a whim. Two days, three springs, and this is the one I chose.
He taps his tablet.
— Work begins at dawn. If the Khan has changed his mind, let him tell me through his messenger and I will obey. But his messenger is your brother.
He turns to Hirrak, politely questioning.
Hirrak does not look at you. He answers Ostar in your language, in an even voice, then translates for him:
— The plan does not change.
Ostar inclines his head, satisfied, and returns to his tents.
Only then does Hirrak turn to you. He speaks quietly in the Sable tongue, and his face is no longer boastful.
— Father sent you nowhere.
A silence.
— I did not say it in front of the Empire. For the tribe. Not for you.
He remounts without waiting for an answer.
Night falls. The Lunar camp lights its fires. Above the Wastes, the Red Moon is full and high, and the sacrifice to your ancestors can wait no longer.
Behind you, Mother-of-Reeds is still silent.
[PEEK]
I shrug when Hirrak speaks to me. But inside I am boiling. I do not have time to return to the camp to warn Paak and come back before the Lunars begin work. Not physically, but in spirit I can do a lot.
So I go to Fta-Ah to retrieve from the pouches at her neck the bones, stones and wood I gathered for the sacred sacrifice to the Ancestors during the Full Moon, to connect with their sacrifice during the Darkness, when Wakboth still raged, when everything was bone and stone and wood was scarce. I know the ritual. I also intend to involve the Water Seeker spirit in my fetish, which stirs near a source of water, and my spirit who knows how to soothe spirits with its warm and gentle aura. My objective is threefold: renew the bond with the ancestors, soothe Mother-of-Reeds, but above all try to draw on Mother-of-Reeds' power so that spiritually she contacts Paak or our tribe's shaman to stop the Lunar project one way or another. Spirits can do anything.
[TIME]
You move away from the Lunar fires until their voices are only a murmur. Fta-Ah follows without being called.
In the pouches at her neck you find what you gathered over many days: bleached bones from the Wastes, three black stones, and a little wood, rare and precious as in the Darkness when Wakboth devoured the world and your ancestors had only such things to survive.
At your belt, the Water Seeker fetish stirs like a beast scenting something. The other one, containing the soothing spirit, stays warm against your skin.
You kneel at the edge of the pool and, before beginning, look into the water.
It is no longer black.
The Red Moon is reflected there, full and broad. And beside it, where nothing should be, floats a second moon, white. You look up: there is only one in the sky. You look down: there are two in the water.
The elders used to tell of this around the fires. You never entirely believed them.
What needs no dice. You know the ancestral rite, and the Full Moon sacrifice is accomplished. What remains uncertain is what the spirits will do with it.
Consequences
- Your taboo forbids defiling a place inhabited by a spirit. Sacrificial bones thrown into Mother-of-Reeds' water might be a defilement. You must place the offering on the bank or the stones, not in the water.
- Mother-of-Reeds is bound to her spring. She cannot travel to Paak's camp without abandoning this place, which is exactly what you are trying to prevent. This is a Frame Factor: she is not the one who will travel. Your ancestors, called by this rite, are not bound to any spring. They know the way to your tribe's shaman.
- A terrified spirit can strike the one who touches it. And your songs beneath the Moon will be visible from the Lunar camp as well as from the escort.
You may maintain your intention, change your method, or reduce your objective.
Intention: soothe Mother-of-Reeds and, through her and your ancestors, have your tribe's shaman warned.
Focus, Sequence Zoom: Does the rite manage to keep Mother-of-Reeds in her spring and send, through the ancestors, a warning to the Sable shaman before dawn? Or does the spirit's fear prevail, leaving your call unanswered?
Your 5 Bets
- The Full Moon ancestral rite, performed according to your lineage.
- The Water Seeker spirit, which knows how to speak to living waters.
- The soothing spirit, whose warm aura can calm Mother-of-Reeds' fear.
- Bargain with spirits.
- Feel and see spirits: you know exactly where she is hiding and what she feels.
The 4 Counter-Bets
- Mother-of-Reeds' fear, already preparing to leave.
- The red cord still touches the stone; the defilement has begun.
- The distance to your tribe's camp, which the ancestors must cross before dawn.
- Your anger: you are boiling inside, and a rite of soothing requires a calm heart.
Reading: you read through Animism, and the Full Moon still applies to you: a lineage rite performed under the full moon makes your relationship to the Moon relevant. Opposite you, the obstacle belongs to the spirit world: Time also reads through Animism, without Lunar influence.
Roll 5d6.
[PEEK]
6,4,2,1,5 → 3 successes for Peek
[TIME]
Time reads 3, 3, 5, 2, for 2 Successes (the 2, and the Pact formed by the two 3s).
3 against 2: Victory.
You place the bones and black stones on the lowest of the three stones, away from the water. You light the wood. The flame is small and straight, with no wind.
You sing the names of your lineage, in the order your mother taught you.
The Water Seeker fetish stops stirring. It pulls gently toward the pool, like a hand wanting to touch without frightening. The soothing spirit leaves the warmth of your skin and spreads slowly over the water.
Deep below, against the stone, Mother-of-Reeds does not fully relax. But she stops drawing back. You feel her hesitate, then listen.
You promise what you can promise: that a daughter of Waha has seen, and that the tribe will know.
Then the ancestors come.
You do not see them the way you see water spirits. You feel them pass, cold and dry, like the wind of the Darkness they crossed. They circle the flame once, take what you have given them, and leave eastward toward Paak's camp, faster than any antelope.
The flame goes out all at once.
You are alone with the silence. But it is not the same silence. A few insects dance above the water again. Fta-Ah approaches, snorts, then drinks deeply.
In the pool, the two moons still shine side by side, red and white. The white one seems a little closer to the great stone than before.
Over by the fires, a figure is standing, turned toward you. The light catches his breastplate: Hirrak. He has seen everything. He does not come closer.
There are a few hours left before dawn. What do you do?
[PEEK]
I turn toward him and say: "I do what I have to do, Hirrak. How long has it been since you honored our Ancestors? Do you think being part of the Empire excuses us? Our Ancestors were here before us and will be here after us... and after them," I say, pointing toward the Lunar tents. The ritual has tired me a little because it is always emotionally intense, but it has also soothed and strengthened me, as always when I feel the spiritual connection.
[TIME]
Hirrak does not move at once. Then he slowly comes down toward you, without the confidence he wore during the day. Up close, you see that the Lunar jewelry at his neck still lies beside the little cord of knots your mother tied there when he became a man. He has never removed it.
He looks at the ashes on the stone, then at the water where Fta-Ah is still drinking.
— Last Holy Day, he finally answers. With Father. You were away hunting.
He lets a moment pass.
— You think I do not honor them because I wear bronze? Father accepted the escort for them. Last summer the Impalas took two hundred beasts from us, and our ancestors did nothing. The garrison at Moonbroth returned the beasts in ten days.
He gestures toward the tents with his chin, without anger.
— They may not be here after us. But they are here now. And now our tribe hungers for more than songs.
Then his voice drops, almost despite himself.
— What did you see in the water? You were looking as though something was speaking to you.
Around you, the night is calm. In the Lunar camp the fires are fading; only one guard keeps watch by the tool cart. There are still a few hours before dawn.
[PEEK]
I answer Hirrak: "Mother-of-Reeds is frightened, Hirrak. She is no longer clear and she is hiding against the stone. This stone." I point at the stone and then I see that it is the one with the red cord and my face lights up. "Just a thread terrifies her! You know perfectly well we are not allowed to touch the sacred stones, much less move them!! We have to stop them at any cost!"
[TIME]
Hirrak follows your finger to the cord. He looks at it for a long time, as though seeing it for the first time.
— The sacred stones…
He says it very softly. He knows the rule as well as you do: the elders repeat it at every passage. You can see on his face that he had known it all day, and had chosen not to look at it.
Then your "at any cost" stiffens him.
— At any cost? Against the escort Father gave? Against his word? Against me?
He glances toward the camp. The Lunar guard is seated by the tool cart, head nodding.
— Listen carefully. If Sables raise a spear against those they escort, it is not the surveyor the Empire will punish. It is Father. It is the whole tribe.
He crouches at the water's edge, a respectful distance from the great stone, without touching the cord.
— I will not raise this stone myself. Nor will my men, if I tell them not to. But the Lunar porters will raise it at dawn, and I have no right to stop them.
He looks up at you.
— And you still haven't answered me. What did you see in the water?
In the pool, the two moons still shine, red and white. Hirrak watches only your face. He cannot see them.
[PEEK]
"I know, Hirrak, and what is done is done but perhaps it can be undone. I am not your enemy, little brother. But we really have a problem. I called on the Ancestors and they came. But nothing guarantees they can intervene in time. I may have an idea." I stroke Fta-Ah's neck. "Imagine: we go to the Lunars to clear ourselves, and meanwhile Fta-Ah catches the red thread between her teeth and pulls it away at the right moment. That way the Lunars won't be able to blame us. It will delay them and perhaps stop their project." I touch the fetish containing "Beast Superior to Man" that I intend to activate to tell Fta-Ah the right moment to pull the thread. "That's possible, right, little brother?" I say, not very certain and a little desperate given the situation.
[TIME]
Hirrak jolts at "little brother." A real smile escapes him, his first of the evening.
— Little brother. I have four more rains than you, and you still call me that like when you wanted to ride my antelope.
The smile fades when he looks at Fta-Ah, then the cord.
— Clear ourselves of what? We have done nothing yet.
He stands and speaks without anger, like a man who has spent the day escorting surveyors.
— And this thread is only a marker. The surveyor has his measurements on the tablet. Pull it out and tomorrow he'll drive another stake in half an hour. You delay the sun, not the works.
As he speaks, you feel something he does not. When you pointed at the cord, Mother-of-Reeds shuddered against the stone. Not fear this time: like an animal caught in a snare sensing someone approach the knot. To the spirit this thread is not a surveyor's marker. It is the defilement already begun.
Hirrak continues, more quietly.
— If Fta-Ah pulls that thread while we speak to the surveyor, I will not lie for you. But I will say nothing either.
He fixes you with his gaze.
— Only, this is the third time I have asked you, Peek. What did you see in the water? You want me to risk Father's word on your spirits. Then tell me what they showed you.
Against your hip, the Beast Superior to Man fetish is warm. Fta-Ah has raised her head and is watching you attentively, as though she understood that you were speaking about her.
[PEEK]
"I told you. Mother-of-Reeds is terrified. The red thread touches the stone. She moved close to it to protect it. Imagine if they moved the stone! I saw the Red Moon in the water too, and beside it a white Moon. The Lunars are changing the order of things on the other side. And I have the feeling Mother-of-Reeds really doesn't like it. We have nothing to lose by trying and everything to lose if we do nothing." I stroke Fta-Ah, speak in her ear, and lead her toward the stone and the red cord. Then I go with Hirrak toward the Lunar camp to join our people too.
[TIME]
Hirrak looks at the pool over your shoulder. He sees only one moon, the red one. He says nothing, but he does not mock you either. He touches the knotted cord at his neck with his fingertips, then follows you.
Behind you, Fta-Ah approaches the great stone without a sound.
You cross the camp to the fire by the tool cart. The Lunar guard starts when you arrive, hand on his spear, then recognizes Hirrak and relaxes. Farther away, the Sable Riders sleep rolled in their blankets. A lamp still burns in one tent: Ostar is working late.
Consequences : if anyone sees Fta-Ah pull the thread, everyone will know that a Sable antelope sabotaged the marking. It would no longer be an accident: it would be your tribe against the escort Paak promised. And Hirrak warned you: he will not lie for you.
Intention: make the cord stop touching the stone without the Lunars being able to blame the Sables.
Focus, Action Zoom: while you hold the camp's attention, does Fta-Ah pull the cord from the stone without anyone seeing her or connecting it to the Sables?
Your 5 Bets
- One with Fta-Ah: courageous, fast, faithful, she understands what you want from her.
- The Beast Superior to Man fetish, to give her the signal at the right moment.
- The diversion: you and Hirrak at the guard's fire, turning all eyes away from the spring.
- The night and the half-asleep guard.
- Mother-of-Reeds herself: the thread is a defilement she wants gone, and the soothing rite has made her attentive to you.
The 4 Counter-Bets
- The full moon, bright over the Wastes: one can see far.
- The Lunar guard, now awake and alert.
- Ostar, still working, who may leave his tent at any moment.
- Fta-Ah is known: if she is seen near the stone, the link to you is immediate.
Reading: you read through ordinary Animism, because your relationship to the Moon does not really weigh on this gesture. You may contest this choice if you see it differently. Opposite you is a material, external obstacle: Time reads through the Middle World.
Roll 5d6.
[PEEK]
I think Lunar influence is valid for Peek but also for the adversity (which would be more in a theist mode): animism / theism conflict (under Lunar influence). Okay with you?
[TIME]
Yes, that is more accurate, and I accept your reading.
For Peek: her relationship to the Moon truly matters here. She is acting precisely because she saw the second moon in the water and thinks the Lunars are disturbing the order of things. We are under the Full Moon, outside the Glowline: ordinary Animism, and two 1s forming a Spirit Pact are worth 2 Successes.
Opposite her: I had read the opposition as a material obstacle, but what opposes Peek is people. The guard and Ostar are Lunar faithful keeping watch beneath their Goddess's full moon. Ordinary Theism, and under the Full Moon their 1s may be rerolled.
That gives us a genuine conflict of perspectives: Praxian animism against Lunar theism, beneath the same Moon.
Roll 5d6.
[PEEK]
4,4,4,4,4 → 5 successes! I am aligned with the Spirits!
[TIME]
Time reads 2, 4, 3, 5, for 2 Successes.
5 against 2: Exploit.
At the fire, the guard relaxes when he recognizes Hirrak. Your brother talks to him about tomorrow's road, the wells on the Moonbroth track, horses that cannot stand the Wastes. He keeps the conversation going better than you would have expected.
Drawn by the voices, the light in the tent moves. Ostar comes out, wax tablet still under his arm.
— Daughter of the Khan. You are not sleeping either?
He sits by the fire and opens the tablet across his knees. While he speaks to Hirrak, your eyes fall on it. You cannot read his marks, but you recognize the drawing: three circles, three springs. Yours is circled twice. Beside the second circle, farther from the drawn road, he has made marks you understand when he comments on them to Hirrak himself:
— Jackal Spring would almost have done. The ground is just as good. But it adds half a day to every convoy.
Against your hip, the Beast Superior to Man fetish becomes burning hot. Now.
Out there in the darkness, no one hears the small dry snap. No one sees an antelope shadow pass near the three stones and vanish into the reeds. The guard looks at Hirrak, Ostar looks at his tablet, and the moon lights the Wastes while no one thinks to look toward the spring.
When you return to the pool a little later, Fta-Ah is waiting, proud. Twenty paces from the water, far from anything that might defile the spring, the red cord lies in the sand, torn from its stake.
You kneel. The water is clear again. You feel Mother-of-Reeds leave the base of the stone and stretch once more through the whole pool, like someone finally breathing.
The two moons still shine. The white one has moved and now rests just above the great stone.
Hirrak, beside you, looks at the thread in the sand. Then at you.
— Jackal Spring, he says softly. You saw what I saw.
There is a little more than an hour before dawn. What do you do?
[PEEK]
After going to Fta-Ah to congratulate her, I hear Hirrak's question and answer, "Yes, I saw... but wait." I kneel by the spring and put my hands into the water, trying to feel how Mother-of-Reeds is doing, while my eyes are fascinated by the reflection of two moons in the water when there is only one in the sky. I know the Red Moon is something greater than us and that our tribe is part of the Goddess's plan. The other tribes want to drive her away; we accepted her, and not only for their wealth or to defeat our enemies, although that is the majority opinion. I have never accepted this idea that it is a "betrayal" of our customs, and it has led to long hours of discussion with my father, Paak—and he sees farther. I have to see farther. This white moon is a miracle. And strangely, this miracle no longer troubles Mother-of-Reeds.
[TIME]
The water is warm now. Beneath your palms, Mother-of-Reeds moves freely from one bank to the other and brushes your fingers like an animal recognizing the hand that fed it. A faint trace of iron remains near the great stone, like a scar closing.
You are not trying to understand. You look.
The red moon and the white moon float side by side, and for the first time you notice that they are not both still. When the water ripples around your hands, the red one trembles and distorts, like any reflection. The white one does not move. The ripples pass through it without touching it.
Mother-of-Reeds does not flee from it. She circles it slowly, without fear, as one circles a fire known not to burn.
And a thought comes to you that may not be entirely yours: the spirit was never afraid of the Moon. She was afraid that the stone would be moved.
Then the approaching dawn wind crosses the Wastes, and when you look again, the white one is gone. Only the trembling red reflection remains, and the sky paling in the east.
Behind you, Hirrak has not moved. He waits without hurrying you.
Off: no roll here; nothing was uncertain or contested. This moment could leave a Trace in Peek's Portrait if you want: a fascination, a doubt, an incomplete revelation. A Trace gives no power, but it may become a Bet when it matters. It is for you to decide whether it becomes part of her, and how you phrase it.
There is less than an hour before the porters rise. What do you do?
[PEEK]
"We have to speak to the Lunars and explain the situation. They must not move or touch the stones, but their project is possible. If they think it isn't, they should put the well at Jackal Spring." So that is what we do, unless Hirrak has another idea. And in my head I wonder what will happen after my call for help to the Ancestors.
[TIME]
Hirrak thinks for a moment, then nods.
— Yes, I saw. And this time I speak first. I am the escort leader: it is for me to tell the surveyor what the Sables cannot allow. You will say why.
He adjusts his breastplate, then hesitates.
— And last night, about Father... I will not speak of it. Do not make me.
Dawn pales in the east. In the camp the porters rise and prepare their picks. Ostar is already awake, tablet in hand. As he approaches the spring with his men, he stops: the stake is there, but the red cord is gone. He searches for it, frowns, then sees you coming.
As you walk toward him, you cannot help looking east. Nothing yet. Only the Wastes brightening.
Consequences : Ostar has just discovered that his marking vanished during the night. If he connects it to your nocturnal visit, your approach may look like a maneuver, and suspicion could fall on the escort—and therefore on Paak.
Intention: make the Lunars give up touching the sacred stones, by digging differently or at Jackal Spring.
Focus, Sequence Zoom: Does Ostar agree not to touch the three stones, even if that means adapting or relocating his works, or does he maintain his plan despite the escort?
Your 5 Bets
- Hirrak speaks beside you, as leader of the escort given by Paak.
- The law of the sacred stones, an old and known Praxian custom.
- A concrete solution: dig without touching the stones, or use Jackal Spring, which Ostar himself judged almost as good.
- Daughter of the Khan.
- The Lunar greeting and your shared faith: you speak to Ostar as someone who accepts the Goddess, not as an enemy of the Empire.
The 4 Counter-Bets
- Two days of surveys and the garrison's orders.
- Half a day's detour for every convoy if the works move to Jackal Spring.
- The missing marking: Ostar is suspicious.
- He already said no to you last night, on the same arguments.
5 against 4
Reading: you read through Animism under the Full Moon, your relationship to the Goddess mattering more than ever. Ostar reads through Theism under the Full Moon.
Roll 5d6.
[PEEK]
6,2,2,5,3 → 3 successes
[TIME]
Time reads 1, 3, 4, 5. The 1 is rerolled under the Full Moon and becomes 2. That is 2 Successes for Ostar.
3 against 2: Victory.
Hirrak speaks first, straight-backed in his breastplate and, for once, without boasting. He says the Khan's escort stops at the three stones. The Sables will not raise a spear against the Empire, but neither will they allow anyone to touch what their ancestors forbade them to touch.
Ostar listens to you next without interrupting. When you remind him of Jackal Spring, he gives a small, joyless laugh.
— You looked closely at my tablet last night.
He turns toward the stake with no cord, stares at it for a long moment, then faces you again.
— I will not ask what happened to my thread. I do not want to know the answer.
He opens his tablet, rubs something out with his thumb, and draws new marks.
— The garrison wants water, not stones. The cistern will be dug here, thirty paces downstream, where the ground remains good. The three stones will not be touched, nor any root of these reeds. And if my porters go near them, your brother has my permission to drive them away.
He looks at you.
— But the cistern will be built at this spring, daughter of the Khan. Not at Jackal Spring. My convoys will not make a detour for my scruples, nor for yours.
You place a hand in the water. Mother-of-Reeds shudders when the porters pass, then calms as they move downstream without touching the stones. She stays.
Hirrak lets out a long breath as though he had been holding it since yesterday.
Then Fta-Ah raises her head and looks east.
On the horizon of the Wastes, in the rising light, a cloud of dust approaches. Several antelopes at a gallop. At their head is a figure carrying a staff adorned with feathers and skulls, one you would know anywhere: your tribe's shaman. And beside him, another broad figure holding the reins high as he always does.
Paak the Cunning.
The ancestors were heard. But your father is arriving at a camp where, this time, there is nothing left to prevent.
Hirrak has gone pale.
— Little sister. What exactly did your ancestors tell him?
[PEEK]
My face lights up. My heart is racing. I have rarely felt so aligned with my convictions: the bond of the Ancestors and our role toward the Goddess. I join the group of nomads. I see familiar faces. I savor my victory, our victory, everyone's. I quickly explain the whole situation to Paak and the shaman and why they received the Ancestors' call. I thank them for coming so quickly but explain everything: the miracle of the white moon, the compromise obtained, and above all I do not blame my brother; on the contrary, I say he helped me greatly. And I finish by looking at Ostar, who has come closer: "We are One."
[TIME]
Paak jumps from his mount before it has fully stopped. He is covered in dust, and his eyes first seek your face, then Hirrak's, checking that his children are whole.
You speak quickly. The ancestors, Mother-of-Reeds, the cord, the white moon, Ostar's agreement. And Hirrak, who spoke first before the surveyor. Your brother lowers his eyes when you say it, but you see his shoulders straighten.
The shaman stopped listening as soon as you said "white moon." He has gone to the spring and is looking at the water, where only a red reflection remains in the rising day.
— My grandmother saw it once, he says without turning. The night before the Sables first met the people of the Moon. She never knew what it foretold.
He says no more. He rests his staff against the tallest of the three stones and begins to sing quietly to Mother-of-Reeds.
Ostar has approached. He greets Paak as one greets an ally of the Empire.
— Honor to the Khan. Your daughter told me yesterday that you sent her to inspect the works. She did her job well.
Hirrak freezes. You feel your brother's eyes on you.
Paak does not hesitate for an instant. He lays a heavy hand on your shoulder.
— Of course I sent her. My children see for me where I am not.
Then he turns to the surveyor, and in the same sentence he is already negotiating: the Sables will guard the cistern in exchange for first watering rights and a share of what the convoys pay. Ostar smiles; he has recognized a bargainer.
When you say, "We are One," Ostar stops. He looks at you, surprised, then joins his hands.
— We are One, daughter of the Khan.
Later, when Paak's men are setting camp near the spring, your father takes you aside. His hand is still on your shoulder, but his voice has changed.
— I sent you nowhere, Peek.
He lets a moment pass.
— Today you spoke with my voice, and I said it was mine. Next time, I decide when you speak in my name.
Then, almost despite himself, he smiles.
— You saw farther than your brother. And farther than I did, tonight.
What do you answer?
[PEEK]
"I learned from a good teacher, Father," I say, looking at him the way a daughter looks at a father she deeply admires.
[TIME]
Paak bursts out laughing, the frank laugh that makes the whole camp turn around.
— A good teacher... Here is a daughter who lies as well as her father. And who knows when truth must be spoken.
He hugs you for one second, then releases you at once, because a Khan does not linger in front of his men.