WEBVTT

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Speaker 1: Hello,

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Speaker 1: traveler. I am Second Mask, purveyor
of

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Speaker 1: secrets, master of mysteries, and
right hand to the Revealer

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Speaker 1: herself.

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Speaker 1: Whether you realize it or not, you
are under her dominion.

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Speaker 1: All of these collected worlds are
hers. But

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Speaker 1: fear not, because she and I are
generous souls. We

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Speaker 1: seek only to reveal the many secrets
her worlds have to offer.

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Speaker 1: Ah, I am so glad to see the travelers
flitting about again between

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Speaker 1: worlds, sowing and revealing secrets.
And in honor of this

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Speaker 1: momentous occasion, I will be hosting
an auction, an auction

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Speaker 1: unlike any you have seen before, for
I will be selling secrets.

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Speaker 1: Take this book, for instance. There
is nothing like it in all the Eternium.

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Speaker 1: Like everything at this auction, it
has a story. The best secrets are

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Speaker 1: stories, don't you think? The man who
sold this to me did so at great

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Speaker 1: cost to himself. I took ten years
from his life simply to remove the memory

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Speaker 1: of it. His own frantic notes are
scrawled on the front cover. See, you can see
them

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Speaker 1: here. Ah, but you're made of tougher
stuff than he, aren't you? I'm sure you have

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Speaker 1: nothing to fear. And in the spirit of
celebration and generosity, I will

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Speaker 1: read it to you at no cost.

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Speaker 1: You have no body at present, so relax
your mind instead and listen to

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Speaker 1: The Woodsman.

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Speaker 1: My name isn't important. Who I am
isn't important.

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Speaker 1: The only thing that matters is a
single question. Read it carefully, then read it

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Speaker 1: again. Is it better to live a
tortured existence

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Speaker 1: or to not exist at all?

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Speaker 1: This isn't an academic question. It
matters. It matters because you

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Speaker 1: have to decide right now. I couldn't
live with the weight of that question.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I just couldn't do it
alone. So I wrote here.

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Speaker 1: I tried. I really tried. If you
change the words,

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Speaker 1: lifeless. If you stop halfway,
lifeless.

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Speaker 1: I understand if you hate me too after
reading this, but you need to decide.

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Speaker 1: Is it better to live a tortured
existence or to not exist at all?

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Speaker 1: If you choose oblivion, then simply
stop reading.

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Speaker 1: The Woodsman. I'm walking down the
street, holding my arms over my head to

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Speaker 1: try and stop the falling rain from
soaking my dress.

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Speaker 2: Why are we out here exactly?

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Speaker 3: We're out here because I have four
daughters and not a single one of them is

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Speaker 3: married.

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Speaker 2: So?

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Speaker 3: So, there.

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Speaker 2: Is that the Woodsman? Why is he just
sitting here?

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Speaker 1: He looks pensive and sort of sad.

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Speaker 3: Who knows? It doesn't matter. The
point is he's sitting there and you are the

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Speaker 3: pretty young girl he's been dying to
talk to.

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Speaker 1: I don't believe her. I've never even
talked to him, unless you count a polite nod

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Speaker 1: when he wanders into the general
store, stinking from his work mapping the
forests.

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Speaker 2: He's Papa's age.

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Speaker 3: He is not. And he's far more handsome
than your papa, so consider yourself lucky.

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Speaker 1: I resent the way she said that. I
hate how she always makes me feel like I'm a

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Speaker 1: burden, even when I do what she asks.
I almost walk away, risking her wrath,

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Speaker 1: but something stops me. He looks so
sad over there.

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Speaker 1: It would be getting dark soon.

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Speaker 1: No one should have to sit alone in
the rain and in the dark.

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Speaker 1: I sigh and steel myself.

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Speaker 2: [sighs] He never talks to anyone.
What if he's

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Speaker 2: weird?

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Speaker 3: Oh, goodness, girl. It's just a
conversation. And he's not weird. He's

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Speaker 3: just tired of his lifestyle, I think.
You're the perfect thing to cheer him up.

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Speaker 2: Fine.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't fine, but what was I going
to do? Run away to Temit's Ville and

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Speaker 1: work the fields? Never.

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Speaker 1: As I walk over to the Woodsman, my
mother flees with surprising haste. She had a

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Speaker 1: smile on her face, though, so
regardless of how bad I botch this conversation,
at

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Speaker 1: least she will be pleased for a
while. Maybe she'll even wait a few more days
before

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Speaker 1: introducing me to the next love of my
life. Maybe.

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Speaker 1: The Woodsman is sitting on a large
stump with various equipment strewn about the

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Speaker 1: ground next to him. Among the
equipment is a crossbow. I wonder what that's
for.

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Speaker 1: Wolves?

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Speaker 1: He's still staring off into the woods
that surround the clearing around our village.

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Speaker 1: It's like we're living on a little
island of grass inside a great big sea of trees.

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Speaker 1: "Good evening." The woodsman doesn't
reply. I look

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Speaker 1: around, feeling awkward. How
annoying. Well, I'm at least

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Speaker 1: going to get him to tell me to piss
off. It's one thing to be turned down and

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Speaker 1: another entirely to be ignored. I sit
down on the stump next to him. He'll talk

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Speaker 1: eventually. We can't ignore each
other forever.

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Speaker 1: To my surprise, he does speak. "Why
am I just sitting here in the rain? Shouldn't

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Speaker 1: I be doing something? It's such a
strange place to start." For some reason,

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Speaker 1: those questions catch me off guard
for a moment. Not that I mind skipping the
formal

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Speaker 1: pleasantries of a greeting. It can
get tiresome asking how another person is doing

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Speaker 1: when it's plain to see that they are
sitting sullenly in the rain looking at a

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Speaker 1: gloomy forest. He probably hates
spending so much time in there. "I don't

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Speaker 1: think anyone will blame you for
waiting until the rain lets up, sir. It's
dreadful

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Speaker 1: weather to be mucking about in those
woods." He turns to me with a strange

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Speaker 1: expression. Is that pity? "It's so
short.

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Speaker 1: Why is it so short?" I don't respond
to his strange questions. I did interrupt his

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Speaker 1: brooding after all. It wouldn't be
right for me to interrupt a person's thoughts
and

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Speaker 1: then complain that I don't
understand. He shivers and I notice how chill
the air has

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Speaker 1: become. Before long, I'm shivering
too. "I'll go get us some warm cider."

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Speaker 1: I spoke too cheerfully. Lord, am I
terrible at this. How does one make

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Speaker 1: conversation? Isn't it just supposed
to happen or not happen?

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Speaker 1: Mother has gone baby crazy. She sees
perfect matches in the most unlikely suitors.

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Speaker 1: She'll be setting me up with the mop
before long on account of its beautiful thick

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Speaker 1: hair.

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Speaker 1: Still, I look over at the chiseled
rough features of the woodsman.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps she wasn't completely wrong
about him. "There isn't time for cider.

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Speaker 1: There's never time for cider." Is he
pouting? Yes,

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Speaker 1: he's definitely pouting. "Oh, come
now. It's just inside the bunkhouse.

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Speaker 1: My uncles have it warmed already.
I'll be back in just a few minutes, and then the

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Speaker 1: two of us can gaze into the woods
with cider." The woodsman cracks a smile.

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Speaker 1: "We're cursed, you know. My curse is
to remember."

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Speaker 1: I smile too. I don't know what game
he's playing, but if he thinks I'm some dull

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Speaker 1: girl who would be frightened by his
stories from the woods, he is sorely mistaken.

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Speaker 1: "Oh? Then what's my curse?" His smile
fades.

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Speaker 1: Then he points into the darkness
between the towering trees. "They kill the
others,

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Speaker 1: but they always take you. You scream
for death, but it never comes.

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Speaker 1: Or if it does, it comes long after
mine. They will take you,

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Speaker 1: shape you,

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Speaker 1: break you. They will smear you into
themselves." He laughs

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Speaker 1: a dark, cynical laugh. Then he
continues. "Forgive me,

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Speaker 1: but I can't listen to the screams
anymore. When the time comes, I will leave.

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Speaker 1: I suggest you do the same." The
woodsman's words are strange and

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Speaker 1: frightening in a way I don't expect.
I don't really know what I expected to talk

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Speaker 1: about when I came over to sit with
him, but I hadn't expected this. But

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Speaker 1: this, this echoes. It feels so

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Speaker 1: familiar.

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Speaker 1: I feel foolish, but I just want to
run back to the bunkhouse now. I know it will

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Speaker 1: make me look like the frightened girl
that I pretended not to be, but I don't care.

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Speaker 1: I just want to be in the light, in
the warmth. I want to sing and dance and watch
my

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Speaker 1: uncles drink until they cannot stand,
then laugh with the others as they are dragged

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Speaker 1: away by their wives. "I have to go."
It was a mistake to come talk to the

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Speaker 1: woodsman. He is twice as weird as I
feared he might be. Lesson learned. Time

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Speaker 1: to go. "You won't make it." He puts a
foot on his crossbow,

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Speaker 1: drawing it back with a huff of
exertion. Is he going to kill me? Panic shoots

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Speaker 1: through me. No. No, he won't. And yet
he doesn't seem right.

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Speaker 1: This man isn't world-weary as Mother
said. He's broken.

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Speaker 1: He sees my expression and smiles with
unexpected warmth. He sets the loaded crossbow

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Speaker 1: back down at his feet. "This isn't
for you, child, though I would shoot you

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Speaker 1: with my only bolt if you asked." He
looks down at the crossbow and shakes his head,

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Speaker 1: smiling wryly. "It's so cruel that
there is only one." "I,

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Speaker 1: I don't understand." He begins
speaking again as if he hadn't heard me. "I'd
like a

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Speaker 1: kiss next time, if you don't mind.
I've never asked for that." My face flushes red

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Speaker 1: and I nervously spread the wrinkles
out of my dress. It's not like I haven't kissed

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Speaker 1: boys, but they were boys. The
woodsman is more than

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Speaker 1: twice my age. Is this right? He said
he wouldn't hurt me, but what will he

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Speaker 1: do if I say no? He doesn't look like
a violent man.

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Speaker 2: You don't have to wait until next
time. I could give you one now, on the cheek.

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Speaker 1: I regret the words the moment I say
them. I'm never thinking, always acting.

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Speaker 1: Mother hates my impulsiveness, but
she must have intended for something like this
to

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Speaker 1: happen. Had she really seen some
potential chemistry between me and the strange

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Speaker 1: man who spent as much time in the
woods as he did in the village? On the cheek is

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Speaker 1: fine. So I lean in and kiss his
cheek. The hairs of his beard scratch

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Speaker 1: against my face and I jerk back after
leaving only a tiny peck. It was a nightmare.

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Speaker 1: How many women, real women, has he
kissed? Thank you.

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Speaker 1: It's almost time. They'll be here
soon. He lifts the crossbow and stares intently
at

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Speaker 1: the darkness of the woods all around
our village. What is he looking for?

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Speaker 1: A person? Multiple people? I whisper
to him.

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Speaker 2: Is there someone out there? Are we
under attack?

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Speaker 1: Yes. Yes? That's all he has to say?

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Speaker 2: I have to go warn the others. We'll
gather some men and make a fight of it. How

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Speaker 2: many?

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Speaker 1: Too many. And they aren't human. It
doesn't matter, child. Just sit.

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Speaker 1: So I stand up.

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Speaker 2: No, I'm getting help. If we can't
fight, we can run. We'll pack bare essentials
and

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Speaker 2: be gone within the hour. We can flee
to Timmitsville. It's not twenty miles by the

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Speaker 2: road.

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Speaker 1: The woodsman shakes his head in
frustration. Timmitsville is overrun,

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Speaker 1: or soon will be. I've gone there
before. There is no sanctuary. Just

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Speaker 1: sit down. I am infuriated. Logically,
I

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Speaker 1: understand that the surest way to
anger me is to command me against my will. And

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Speaker 1: yet, I cannot stop the rage from
building. Mother always says that I am stubborn.

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Speaker 1: I prefer to think that I'm right.

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Speaker 1: There is a cracking sound from within
the woods, like the pop of a tree branch.

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Speaker 1: The cracking doesn't stop. The sound
of tortured wood grows louder.

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Speaker 1: In the gloom of the coming night, I
can see an entire tree go down, just a stone's

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Speaker 1: throw into the woods.

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Speaker 2: What was that?

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Speaker 1: I'm torn between staying to see and
fleeing to the safety of the village center.

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Speaker 1: Unfortunately, it's time.

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Speaker 1: I know you think I'm a coward, but,
but I just can't listen to your screams anymore.

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Speaker 1: Please just say you forgive me. He
looks at me longingly. He's

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Speaker 1: waiting for an answer.

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Speaker 2: I forgive you.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why I say it. Maybe
because he looks like he needs me to say it.

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Speaker 1: I don't understand his mind or what
has fractured it this way. But if a few

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Speaker 1: useless words will grant him some
reprieve, who am I not to help? Thank you.

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Speaker 1: I thought I was supposed to protect
you. But that doesn't make sense. Then I thought

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Speaker 1: I was supposed to give you answers.
The way he speaks, it's like he's reading the

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Speaker 1: script from a play. He delivers his
lines like he's trying to get them over with.

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Speaker 1: I want to ask him a strange question,
but I can't bring myself to speak the words.

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Speaker 1: What's come over me? But if that's my
purpose here, I failed you.

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Speaker 1: I gave up a long time ago. Then, with
a smooth, practiced

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Speaker 1: motion, he puts the crossbow to his
temple and pulls the trigger. Blood

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Speaker 1: splatters both of us. It isn't much,
not really. Only a little gets on my

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Speaker 1: dress. I stare down at the little red
dots, unable to think.

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Speaker 1: His body falls over and rolls a few
feet down the hill. That's

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Speaker 1: when I start screaming. I tear at my
dress, trying to rip the bloody parts away.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't work, so I scramble to my
feet to get away from his body. Another crack

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Speaker 1: in the forest, and another. My
attention snaps from the horror of his body
toward

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Speaker 1: the tree line. Twisted shapes move in
the almost darkness at the edge of the forest.

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Speaker 1: The question I wanted to ask the
woodsman comes unbidden to my mind.

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Speaker 1: Are we real?

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Speaker 1: Am I real?

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Speaker 1: It's a silly question on the surface.
I feel. I hurt. I

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00:17:33.296 --> 00:17:39.136
Speaker 1: experience. But if we're real, why do
you keep doing this

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Speaker 1: to me? I don't understand.

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00:17:44.156 --> 00:17:49.916
Speaker 1: I am caught off guard by a moan. It's
a thing making a low, sad sound.

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Speaker 1: And I can see it. Even with the dim
light of the cloudy evening

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Speaker 1: sky, I can see it. It's almost human,
like a

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00:18:02.576 --> 00:18:08.556
Speaker 1: child has taken a person and squeezed
it between their hands. It

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00:18:08.616 --> 00:18:14.236
Speaker 1: is as if the body were clay. Crossbow
bolts cover it like porcupine

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Speaker 1: quills. It's pulling itself by its
misshapen arms through the grass and up the hill

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Speaker 1: toward the village. Toward me.

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Speaker 1: The forest becomes a cacophony of
splintering trees. Massive twisted

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00:18:30.020 --> 00:18:35.660
Speaker 1: creatures push aside the ancient
trees as if they were mere twigs. A wall of

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Speaker 1: moaning, writhing flesh pours from
the forest. My

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00:18:41.620 --> 00:18:47.540
Speaker 1: mind is blank with fear. I am an
animal, and my instincts get me off the

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00:18:47.600 --> 00:18:53.400
Speaker 1: ground and running. Not running
anywhere in particular, just away. I

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Speaker 1: run through the village. I am
mindless. A girl greets me and steps into my
path. I

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Speaker 1: know her. I put my shoulder into her
chest and knock her away without stopping. She

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Speaker 1: lets out a single, wounded cry, but I
am already gone, running out of the village

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Speaker 1: and down the dirt path that leads to
Temitzville.

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00:19:13.860 --> 00:19:19.780
Speaker 1: Behind me I hear a few panicked
shouts and then a great crash. They are
screaming.

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Speaker 1: So many screams. My friends and
family. I know them.

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00:19:26.540 --> 00:19:32.140
Speaker 1: And yet, I have no idea who they are.
It's as if somebody told me

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00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:37.320
Speaker 1: everything about my life with them,
but I can't remember any of it.

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00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:39.800
Speaker 1: Did you do that too?

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00:19:42.200 --> 00:19:47.720
Speaker 1: The screams and crashes die away
behind me. My footfalls on the dirt path and my

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00:19:47.800 --> 00:19:53.740
Speaker 1: labored breaths are all I hear. I am
surrounded by dense forest. It's

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00:19:53.820 --> 00:19:59.740
Speaker 1: twenty miles to Temitzville. I hear a
moan on the narrow path ahead of me, the

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Speaker 1: cracks of breaking tree limbs in the
distance. In every direction.

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Speaker 1: It's twenty miles to Temitzville, but
it may as well not exist.

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Speaker 1: I'm exhausted. I kneel in the dirt
and hang my head. I can't

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00:20:18.220 --> 00:20:24.000
Speaker 1: fight my fate anymore. I want to. I
would fight.

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00:20:24.760 --> 00:20:29.840
Speaker 1: But it's as if you compel me towards
this same ending.

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00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:36.980
Speaker 1: A tower of human bodies, all stuck
together, writhes its way down the dirt path.

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00:20:37.780 --> 00:20:43.760
Speaker 1: Their bodies are so misshapen, but
it's clear who they are. I don't want

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00:20:43.820 --> 00:20:49.400
Speaker 1: to look. I cover my face and throw
myself onto the ground. Please,

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00:20:50.700 --> 00:20:56.420
Speaker 1: stop reading. Can you hear me? Don't
let them do this to me again.

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00:20:58.380 --> 00:21:03.940
Speaker 1: The creature is so close to me. I
look up at it. I have to.

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00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.700
Speaker 1: There are others like it surrounding
me in every direction. Slowly,

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Speaker 1: slowly moving their bloated bodies on
twisted masses of limbs. And they are all

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Speaker 1: me. Every single one of them is me. I
see the pain in their

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00:21:23.540 --> 00:21:29.420
Speaker 1: monstrous faces, sometimes as many as
a dozen faces per body. They are all

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00:21:29.500 --> 00:21:31.080
Speaker 1: covered in crossbow bolts.

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00:21:32.740 --> 00:21:37.640
Speaker 1: How many times has the woodsman fired
his only bolt in my defense?

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00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:45.280
Speaker 1: They don't want you to do this to me,
but they are compelled. It's your

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00:21:45.740 --> 00:21:51.120
Speaker 1: fault. You're making this happen. I
don't know how or why,

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00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:56.700
Speaker 1: but it's always you. Please, just
stop reading.

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00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:03.400
Speaker 1: I can feel everything. I don't know
if I'm real,

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00:22:04.260 --> 00:22:05.560
Speaker 1: but I'm real enough.

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00:22:07.100 --> 00:22:07.740
Speaker 1: I'm here.

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00:22:09.520 --> 00:22:15.480
Speaker 1: A single meaty appendage slaps my leg
and pain like a fire rolls up my

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00:22:15.520 --> 00:22:21.040
Speaker 1: body. I hear the popping of bones as
the creature sucks me into its mass.

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00:22:21.760 --> 00:22:27.640
Speaker 1: I scream and nothing comes out. Why
won't you stop it? Why won't you stop

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00:22:27.780 --> 00:22:32.780
Speaker 1: reading? I am being pulled apart.
Why?

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00:22:35.600 --> 00:22:36.840
Speaker 1: I hate you.

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00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:52.520
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Now, was that mere
novelty? Or something

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00:22:52.580 --> 00:22:57.860
Speaker 1: more? How does it work, do you think?
So many

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00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:03.960
Speaker 1: secrets to uncover. You could have
this book, and many things like it.

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00:23:04.940 --> 00:23:10.120
Speaker 1: Oh, but I have no payment, you are
thinking. Be at ease.

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00:23:10.940 --> 00:23:16.040
Speaker 1: I don't want your money. I deal only
in secrets.

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00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:22.580
Speaker 1: So, go now and find me some. Or miss
out on a

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00:23:22.660 --> 00:23:28.300
Speaker 1: once-in-a-many-lifetimes event. An
auction unlike any

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00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:34.160
Speaker 1: other. But be warned. When you

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00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:39.980
Speaker 1: bring your secrets, I will know what
is true, what is embellished,

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00:23:40.800 --> 00:23:42.640
Speaker 1: and what is a lie.

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Speaker 1: Until next time, traveler.

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Speaker 1: Special thanks to our voice actors,
Alfie Murray-Dudgeon, who played The Woodsman,

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Speaker 1: and Christy Soutar, who played The
Mother and The Girl. Her Twitter is

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00:24:11.320 --> 00:24:15.760
Speaker 1: LittleRedHen42, and there are links
to the rest of her contact information in the

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00:24:15.800 --> 00:24:21.500
Speaker 1: show notes. And on a personal note,
they were both absolute joys to work with.

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Speaker 1: See you next time.