Reinald's Perspective (21st Leaffall)

21st Leaffall — Late Afternoon: Sonya listens to the whole account, holds smelling salts under his snout mid-ramble, and presents him with her latest experiment — a Healing Bauble, translucent jelly-ball, ooze residue, works on skin contact. He tells her Spellwhisk Academy would take notice of something like this. She has the expression of someone who doesn't know what to do with a compliment.

21st Leaffall — Late Afternoon: At the Temple of Allura, Lissa Juniperthorne offers tea without asking questions. A dwarven woman arrives barefoot and goes straight to the confessionals. Röka suggests listening in, for a reward obviously. Reinald tells himself it's a bad idea and does it anyway. What comes through the curtain: someone receiving special treatment the dwarf can't stomach, an anniversary that only one person remembered, and a sister — described as having gone deranged, abandoned, while someone else apparently was not. He backs off before he's spotted. A piece of something, with no frame around it.

21st Leaffall — Late Afternoon: A new spell page appears — Röka's reward for the favor. It carries the same purple aura as the necklace in the cave. Röka says he can't tell if that's recent or something older. He thinks he's encountered something like the amulet before but can't place it.

21st Leaffall — Early Evening: Laundro Mattie's. He hands over his coat, picks Concordian Orchid from the fragrance menu, and watches a large masked man follow his own laundry going around with the focus of a warrior. A Hordeling woman strides in, threatens to dock the man's pay over stains, and leaves. Laundro calls him Sir Everhard. Everhard leaves without his shirt. Shortly after, Branded and a lionfolk arrive together. Branded clocks Reinald across the room, holds eye contact a moment, and disappears into the back without acknowledgment. Reinald collects his coat, a membership stamp card, and more questions than he arrived with. Time to head to the Barnacled Barrel.

Brigitte's Perspective (21st Leaffall)

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: On the walk back toward the Hideout, she turns to Branded. He didn't see her transform. It is not a question. He looks at her for a moment that goes slightly too long. Says nothing. They keep walking.

21st Leaffall — Late Afternoon: At the Family Hideout, Wilt, Sloane, and Beastie watch her drag an unconscious giant lizardfolk through the door and say nothing for a moment that stretches considerably past comfortable. She deposits Salt on the bench and looks at them. Well? Are you just going to stand there? Wilt moves first. She tells him everything — the necklace, the purple glow, Salt finding it near the Ambassador's beach, the cave. Wilt speaks to Pepper in the oceanic language and gets answers. They take Salt to the guest room. Branded settles at the bar. Sloane puts a drink in front of him. Beastie bumps against his leg. Brigitte sits nearby and doesn't try to start a conversation.

21st Leaffall — Late Afternoon: Alone with the drink Sloane left her, The Beast Within is accurate and unhurried about it. She hadn't tried to resist. Branded went down and she was already in a form the family voted on, and none of that entered her head in the moment. The Beast Within is right, and that's the part she can't argue with. Beastie eventually pulls her out of it. They go to check on Branded.

21st Leaffall — Late Afternoon: In the hall, Branded sits without his hood, glasses cracked from the stalactite impact, while Sloane works through the worst of it. She uses her Yggdrasil connection — a small gesture, flowers along her arm, a faint green glow where her hand meets his — to take the edge off the wound. When she makes contact to stitch his leg, a vision hits. Underground. A small branch. A green gemstone set into it, pulsing once before the dark takes it back. Less than a second. She keeps it off her face. When it passes she apologizes — not elaborately, just that she came across badly and shouldn't have said it the way she said it. He weighs it. It's fine, he says. But don't do that again.

21st Leaffall — Late Afternoon: Wilt glances at the tag in her jacket before leaving with Branded for Laundro Mattie's. Milanithorne. He reads it, hands it back, says nothing. Whatever it means to him, it lands. She doesn't feel she's in a position to ask.

21st Leaffall — Dusk: At the Assessor's Office she waits fifteen minutes, clearly annoyed, and starts writing a statement anyway. Meadowthorne steps out before she can leave. In his borrowed office — she clocks the wet wolven fur smell, this isn't his — he runs through why he shouldn't jail her. She doesn't adjust her tone much. He asks about the lizardfolk. Back in the ocean, she says. Healed first. He doesn't push it. Almost as an afterthought: it's time this city changed. She wishes him luck and reaches the door just as the Head Assessor arrives and finds Meadowthorne sitting behind his desk. The argument that follows has nothing to do with her. She walks out and heads for the Barnacled Barrel.

21st Leaffall — Dusk: The Beast Within surfaces on the walk over. Quiet, but accurate. She should have gone for it. All that aggression and she just walked away. She tries to ignore it. The Barrel isn't far. I'll be here, it says, when you need me again.