Pile yourself in secrets. For a while, you wondered if it was some kind of metaphor, something about focusing your mind on secrets. But you’ve got a whole lot of secrets to keep already. You have plenty of them from your own time period, let alone the ones you’ve learned in this one. And of course, the fact that you’re not from this time period already is a secret. Not to mention the existence of time…
You’ve been busy. Very busy. You found another message from yourself, and it was essentially a list of things to do before going back to the beginning of the night again. At least half of them don’t make any sense to you right now and you can only hope they will by the time you get to them. You started by checking in on various people, only a few of whom you had permitted yourself…
“You sound awfully confident that it’s going to amount to something, Mr. Deckswabber,” Drake says. He sounds pretty doubtful. “That’s because I started by looking at another trail,” Len explains. “See, I told you someone approached our team. That someone introduced himself as a playwright of some renown. He didn’t mention his troupe, but I heard the name Great Fire when I started asking about him. And the city’s bound to have a file on…
“They called themselves ‘The Great Fire’, though I heard some chatter the new owner was planning to rename them,” you reply. “Mostly that was various jokes about spider-themed names, so I’m not sure how serious it was.” “And you don’t know the new name, then,” Len mutters. “But I suppose you’d know if they were Golden Rose. Well, there goes that theory.” “Theory? Are you familiar with that troupe, Mr. Deckswabber?” Drake asks. “Not familiar,…
“It’s the symbol of another theater troupe, one I was with very briefly before I grasped just how crooked the whole thing was,” you explain. “That was a mudspider eating a coalcrab.” You’re prepared for the surprised stares pointing your way. “Yes, I know that sounds ridiculous, a coalcrab is much bigger and a mudspider wouldn’t have any way to break the shell,” you continue. “Anyhow, the reason behind it is that a wealthy merchant…
“Probably because it’s not one animal. It’s two,” you reply. “These are the wings of a crimson moth, but they’re wrapped in the legs of a harbor spider. And these are its mandibles. It looks like the spider is eating the moth.” “Hold on, don’t crimson moths produce red silk?” Tom interjects. “That sounds like it would represent the Red Curtain itself. So maybe this isn’t about masks, but something else? This is signaling someone…
“The message itself is pretty vague about the trade. So how does the other party know where to go to pick it up?” Len points out. “Either there’s a prearranged place, or the information is hidden in the letter. That’s the point of the border.” “It’s certainly possible, but you say this with an awful lot of confidence,” Drake notes. “Am I to gather you’ve found the way to decode it?” “Pretty sure, based on…
He puts down a letter. It describes an agreement by the owner of the Sarvakken Sharks to lose the next game to the Lansor Coalcrabs, in exchange for “the merchandise”. At the bottom, in place of a signature is a seal – you don’t recognize the symbol on it, but the material comes from a red theater curtain. “Where did you get this?” Drake exclaims. “I’m surprised either party kept a record of something so…
He points to a spot that looks unremarkable at a glance. But you quickly recognize it as well. “That was once a shrine to the forgotten god,” you say. “Not just any shrine,” Drake asserts confidently. “The last one known to still be standing. It wasn’t just a shrine, it was a guidepost because several roads converged there. Since it was still useful, they kept it standing. They were not so kind to the shrinekeeper,…
“At one point, someone left with a tray loaded up with masks. I was keeping an eye on the main door, and they never came back while I was present,” Drake continues. “Now I wonder if that anthem was meant as a signal to them. What sort of signal, I have no idea.” “What was the date?” Tom asks suddenly. “I know you’d keep track of that.” “The twelfth of Red, earlier this year,” Drake…