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General Summary

Day 165

I reconvene with Bran, still not really closer to a solution. We can’t prevent deaths unless we stop the attack entirely. He’s been looking more and he thinks the attackers are Hoblins (which gives me pause, that this is not just human violence but a conflict between races). He tells me I should go out and looks closer but that he doesn’t want to influence me by telling me how much to get involved. He feels the presence of the other powerful spinner and doesn’t want to reveal our presence in the threads by tugging at them.   I can’t deny the sense in this and I’m deeply curious about this other spinner, so I head off alone with not even Alder. It crosses my mind to bring Rabiya to help me speak to them, but I fear that bringing him will be too much of a commitment to getting involved when I am resolved to stand back and observe.   But when I arrive at the camp, shadow-stepping silently, I find the camp strewn with Hoblin corpses surrounding a human man. He has a high-collared grey coat and a sword. The magic coming off of him is powerful, comparable to my own or even my Mistress’. It’s human, but unlike any I’ve encountered so far.   “You can come out, pact maker. I have no interest in fighting you today,” he says.   My spine prickles. It’s an ominous-enough encounter without the weight that comes with the word “today”. Still, I cast my ward and step out to meet him. He tosses down his sword and lights a pipe with his right hand. I don’t think he has a left one..   He gestures to the dead Hoblins and tells me it’s a peace offering.

• “It is not my place to question”
• “I obey” but he objects when I refer to this as blind obedience.
• He and his Master are from across the sea. They are here settling old debts amongst humans.
• His master wants the human mystic churches to fight amongst themselves and fall, for they have been leading the humans astray.
• We’ve been trading blows for weeks and it’s time to come to an agreement.
• They were behind the Order (seeking to bring down the Candlemaker’s church) and it was not personal that the Order was targeting elves. He assures me that it won’t happen again and that he will eradicate the Order’s magic as a gesture of goodwill.
• Moreover he tells me that they weren’t the cause of the Candlemaker’s and Fisherman’s combined magic in the Severing but they did guide them to it.
• He tells me they make little distinction between “sheepdogs and shepherds” when I ask whether their war is with the churches or the gods.
• “There’s a world where both sides get what they want,” he says, “But it is dimly seen,”
• “Not everything is a harsh crack of the lash. Some of it is soft,”

  I’m suspicious of him. I make it clear that my people are not just elves anymore and he seems to acknowledge this. “I feel your touch on the fae, and maybe the trolls now as well,”   We make a tentative pact to avoid one another as best we can right now. In twelve days we’ll meet at the place where pacts are made strong (I believe he means the place where the Covenant was formed) because while my people are built on oaths, his are not. He tells me that once his people recognized the power of oaths and that his master wants to return them to a time of respecting oaths, bonds, and service. In the same breath he tells me that if his master ever orders him to move against me he will obey, but he will at least tell me that the move will be.   When I return to the village and gather our people again, there is far more information to share than I had originally thought.   It becomes clear from Bran’s interpretation of this conversation that the man, Draken, is likely connected to the Master. The Master was the deity of humanity long ago, before the Seven. He ruled harshly with a whip in his right hand and the leash of the Beast, and all humans bent the knee. The new human gods rose up against him and freed humanity, leaving the Beast roaming free and the Master wandering in search of his lost...words fail me...pet?   The Beast wanders through humans’ dreams and they wake ravaged in mind and body. He is why they are afraid of the dark, and thus of elves. Alder asks what it says about us if we ally ourselves with someone like this, but ‘allies’ is a strong word for what we are investigating right now. This feels like the other player has just acknowledged that we’re playing a game and now we can finally engage instead of playing defensively. I think we’ve been doing pretty well for not even knowing the game we’re playing.   It occurs to me that we could probably just kill Draken next we see him. He’s powerful but against our family, probably not powerful enough. Perks of being one of two major players in the land, I suppose. But Kadia counters this - what would the Empress do if someone killed me? Even before she knew love she would have retaliated if someone had taken such a precious possession.   The debate is blurry and confusing - reminding us that the Empress was once also cruel and without love is important...perhaps the Master, too, has come to a new understanding of his people. But as tempting as that train of thought is, I have qualms. Through the lens of the human’s knowledge of this entity, Draken’s words and presence is far more sinister than it was already. And it was already sinister.   Two powerful entities working at unrelated goals don’t need to call a ceasefire to achieve their ends. Another powerful spinner working towards liberation of a different race would want to ally with us, not simply ignore one another. A truce wouldn’t be good enough for fellow people of justice. What sort of plan involves the casualties seen amongst the Order? What sort of leader is sacrificing lives so freely and sowing such chaos and hatred amongst his people? I have to assume that Draken’s lost hand is no coincidence, considering that it matches the Master’s.   So...the way forward is still murky but at least we have a sense of this other weaver. As for Whitewater...my damn family thinks we should just tell them the truth about the danger they’re in and persuade them to leave.   My wizard’s brain hates this. I have so many pieces to play with and so many complicated stories I could weave. The better part of me knows it’s the best plan.