Brigitte's Perspective (22nd Leaffall)

22nd Leaffall — Early Morning: The dream begins in her room at the Drunken Phoenix. Low fog on the floorboards like it belongs there. A wolffolk in the hallway with his back to her, relaxed, waiting for his friends. He introduces himself as Fen'ryk. She goes downstairs and she's back in the hallway. She tries the window. The fog curls around her boots and then drifts back, undisturbed. He's there again. Hi, I'm Fen'ryk. You look a little stressed. Can I get you a beer? She stops counting the loops because counting them makes it worse. She stops trying to escape and starts actually looking at him — blond fur, easy in his body, the kind of ease that comes from not yet knowing what's coming.

22nd Leaffall — Early Morning: She tells him she knows him. He's genuinely confused. She grabs his paw and walks him toward the window, thinking if she can show him the wrongness of it, something will crack. She turns to face him. Half his face has gone. Sand where the skin should be. The arm she's holding, bone. It's not as if you can kill me twice. An axe appears in his grip. The walls change — pipes, valves, steam curling up from the floor. She stumbles back. She knows she should get up. Every part of her that knows how to fight is telling her to get up. Her hands are flat on the cold floorboards and her legs are not answering. She stays down. Not because she can't move — because some part of her has decided she doesn't have the right to. She closes her eyes. The axe comes down.

22nd Leaffall — Early Morning: She wakes up on the floor beside the bed, hand at her own throat. She sits there for a moment before she trusts herself to stand. The hallway outside is just a hallway. She checks the stairs twice with Pascal — an adventurer heading to the Needlethorn sheep farm near the dam today, missing livestock, hired job — taking the lead before she's satisfied they go down. He says that sometimes when you're avoiding something it keeps repeating until you face it. She finds this annoying in the particular way of things that are accurate. She finishes her ale considerably faster than the water.

Reinald's Perspective (22nd Leaffall)

22nd Leaffall — Morning: Six pillows, and Reinald has no objections to any of them. He washes up, puts his gloves on, and heads downstairs. The gallery door is closed and locked, same as last time — he'd wanted to confirm. He has exactly enough time to take a few casual steps away from it before Aveline comes downstairs reading, and doesn't notice where he was standing.

22nd Leaffall — Morning: Over breakfast, Aveline mentions the mansion came from her mother's side of the family, not her father's — she says it with enough ease that he almost lets it pass. Her mother spent her life studying the Luminary who lived near the edges of the former Kingdom of Arnewynd, their rituals, what they left behind, things the Therans never thought worth investigating. She wasn't well regarded for it. When she died the work went largely with her. The topic shifts to his prosthetic arm. Reinald says the word Niðavellirian without quite meaning to make it significant. Aveline's eyes widen for a fraction of a second before she smoothly redirects toward the arm. He noticed. He doesn't act on it yet.

22nd Leaffall — Morning: The plan is laid out. De Ragnaisse supply contracts give Aveline legal standing for an inspection — it won't hold under serious scrutiny but doesn't need to. She needs three things before tomorrow: transport arranged, a cover story, and a layout of the dam. Siegbert has the archive key. The division of roles arranges itself without much discussion: Aveline is the overseer, Reinald handles logistics, Brigitte handles the physical side and whatever comes with it. They agree to meet at the Haven's Reach fountain early tomorrow morning.

22nd Leaffall — Morning: Felix's shop has customers and Felix is losing an argument about buttonwork. He clocks Reinald across the room and gestures upstairs. The package is on the desk. In the corner of the window frame, catching the light, is a lily of the valley. The same flower as the shop yesterday. He looks at it. He takes the package and goes back downstairs.

Brigitte's Perspective (22nd Leaffall)

22nd Leaffall — Afternoon: Back at the hideout, Coldrock doesn't address her directly. Gurak isn't in his room. A harefolk lackey in the corner sharpens their claws without looking at anyone. Brigitte asks Coldrock where Gurak is. He wandered in with Vesper. Coldrock stares at the lackey. Brigitte goes to find him.

22nd Leaffall — Afternoon: The guest room smells fungal — not strong, but persistent. Large crates against the wall. Vesper speaking to Gurak in a language Brigitte doesn't know. The collar still on his neck. Ah, pet. Do you want something? Brigitte asks for a moment alone with him. Vesper relents, more out of spite than generosity. In the hallway, Gurak looks exhausted. He tells her it's better not to ask. She says she'll take his place. He refuses. It was either you or me, Brigitte. He made the calculation. He is not performing anything. She reaches over and unbuckles the collar from his neck and puts it on herself, tightening it deliberately to fit. He looks at her with an expression that has no words in it.

22nd Leaffall — Afternoon: He stops her from switching places entirely. Rhazeth hadn't expected them to be back already. Something clicks — she's been here a year and never met these harefolk. This has happened before. Before she existed in this family. It's not the first time. He tells her to focus on the mayor and keep Reinald out of their business. She tells him the best way to find out if Reinald is a spy is to work with him. Gurak says he'll trust her judgment. Vesper's voice comes down the hallway. No, I can't let that happen. Not again. He goes back. Brigitte walks past the guest room on purpose so Vesper sees the collar. Ah! Such a good pet. On her way out, something glows through a crack in one of the crates. Not light exactly. She doesn't mention it to anyone.

22nd Leaffall — Afternoon: She sits alone in the common room. Wilt looks at her from across the room. His eyes settle on the collar. He says nothing. She keeps it on. The Beast Within tells her she's degrading herself — degrading them. She keeps it on anyway.

22nd Leaffall — Before Sunset: Sonya rallies enough of them to go to the bathhouse. Wilt pulls a hood on and comes reluctantly. They're nearly at the Lower Saltbreak when shouting breaks out from the direction of the Seahorse's Catch — glass breaking, something heavy hitting the floor. Brigitte sends Wilt ahead with Sonya and turns toward the noise with Branded. One of the adventurers brawling outside looks up at her with glowing eyes and nothing behind them where a person usually is. She doesn't have time to finish the thought before they come rushing at her.

Reinald's Perspective (22nd Leaffall)

22nd Leaffall — Afternoon: Aveline is on the steps of Stanley's tinkerer's shop when he spots her on Crow Street. She looks like someone who has been standing there long enough to start worrying. Stanley never showed up. She'd waited two hours. He asks about the rear door. She knows immediately what he's implying and she's worried enough not to object.

22nd Leaffall — Afternoon: The lower floor is undisturbed. Upstairs is the conclusion of something that went badly and fast — mattress torn open, bedding in two separate locations, scratches on the walls at a height that doesn't match a dwarf making them. A line of dried blood from the bed that stops near the stairs. The workshop downstairs is its opposite: tools sorted, everything in its place. Except for a broken vial. White powder drifting across the floorboards. They both know what it is. A dwarf's natural resistance would buy time. Enough for the bedroom to look the way it does. The question of reporting it is a short conversation. Aveline finds the logic distasteful. She agrees to it anyway: the moment she's back from the dam, she reports him missing. They lock the back door on the way out.

22nd Leaffall — Afternoon: On the way to Felix's, Reinald tells Aveline about the archive — the blocked door, the broken window, the paw print that didn't fit anything either of them could name. He tells her about the sewers, the carved caves below the city, the figure in the mask, the language he didn't recognize. He thinks they live down there. He thinks they've been down there a long time. Then he mentions the flower — someone in a hood delivering it across the city today. Felix's window this morning. The bathhouse turned away. Aveline stops walking. That was her mother's favorite flower. He mentions it glows in the dark. Something shifts in her expression — not alarm, but the discomfort of recognizing something where you weren't expecting to find it. That's not a Lily of the Valley, she says. It's possibly a Biǫlumýnna — a flower that grows underground and carries its own light because it has never had another source. Her mother spent twenty years looking for one and never found it above ground. They walk in silence for a moment, both of them turning it over, and neither says out loud what they are both thinking.

22nd Leaffall — Afternoon: At Felix's, the disguises are sorted quickly. Then Felix asks if Reinald has put on his outfit yet. He points him to the changing booth. Reinald tries it on, thinks well, that's a little too dark — and it turns white. He walks back out in a matching jumpsuit and understands. Melanithorne's, Aveline says. Felix confirms it. He tells Reinald he wants it back when this is done. It's a prototype. He only has one. Felix mentions a large woman came asking about Katrien earlier. He says she threatened him. Reinald looks away. Aveline says she's sure they all want the same thing, more or less. Reinald apologizes. Then Reinald asks about the flower. Felix's expression shifts to something closer to fondness — he'd thought he had a secret admirer. He'd put it in the window for the light because the bells were drooping. Reinald and Aveline share a look. They suggest he move it somewhere away from himself. He puts it in the shed, comes back, and says oh wow. Aveline and Reinald tell him to leave it there and not eat it. He says he wasn't going to eat it, but he looks like he's reconsidering the admirer theory one last time before letting it go.

22nd Leaffall — Evening: The flower shop is closed. Reinald knocks anyway. Tries again. The lights inside stay low. He cups his hands to the glass and looks through. The counter is empty. The flower from yesterday is gone. Aveline says to come back later. He files it next to everything else that has accumulated today, which is quite a lot.

22nd Leaffall — Evening: Walking back to the mansion, Aveline tells him her mother traced Luminary roots in this region back to a place called Rúnvalla. The Ragnarthane had been in direct conflict with the Luminary population. The Ragnaisse were a side branch who didn't agree. Her mother eventually stopped translating the texts at all — kept everything in the original Luminary so it was harder to take, harder to use. The Ragnarthane still come, sometimes, under the guise of keeping an eye on things. Henry barely leaves his room because of it. Aveline says she's going to see if she can find anything in the gallery tonight. She doesn't sound hopeful. He says goodnight. He hears the key, and the door, and then nothing. He goes upstairs. The bed has six pillows. Tonight, he is genuinely grateful for all of them.