Quoted By:
You are Charlotte Fawkins, Herald and heroine. With the power of your positive spirit, you have overcome deceit, defeat, and divine possession, and now you are going to save the world. First, though, you need to get your stolen Crown back— no matter what obstacles lie in your way. Or boring meetings.
"You're late, Ms. Fawkins."
Lucky is as glad to see you as always. "<span class="mu-i">Am</span> I? Or are you just being—"
"Don't sweat it. We weren't that far in." Eloise pats the chair next to her. "Lucky likes repeating himself, anyway, so it's like you won't have missed a thing. Actually—" Here she stage-whispers. "—we already knew a lot of it, so—"
"Mr. Blaine is offering his own insight," Monty says patiently. "It's nice to see you, Charlotte. Sit down, will you?"
You were planning on it— have been trying to, actually, but the chairs in the Wind Court meeting room are uncomfortable-looking and, more crucially, don't have holes in the back. You settle on sitting at an angle, so to not crush your tail. "Where's Madrigal? I thought she'd be—"
"She had other business to attend to. I'll fill her in afterward. Mr. Blaine, could you start over?"
"It appears I must. Unless we have other visitors I should know about?" (Monty shakes his head.) "Very well. From the beginning. At an unknown point early this morning— most likely between 2 and 4 AM— a barrier sprung up around, roughly speaking, the entirety of the Corcass. This barrier is circular or ovoid, pitch black, several hundred feet high, and unnatural in origin. It is impenetrable to casual testing. The perpetrator of is barrier is no mystery, because identical barriers have been sighted progressively eastward for approximately a month and a half. They are the work of—"
"Jean Ramsey!" you say.
Lucky looks down his nose at you, then shuffles his notes. "It's impossible to know how you might've guessed that, Ms. Fawkins. Yes. Ms. Ramsey, or, in the popular imagination, the 'Hero-Queen,' generates these barriers for the purposes of 'The Game.' This is what she has dubbed the flagrant waste of—"
"We're on the same page about this, Lucky." Eloise has leaned back in her chair. "Specifics."
(1/5)
