WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:04.660 Speaker 1: Before we started this week's episode, I just wanted to give a special thanks to 2 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:09.540 Speaker 1: Katie at Summation Fifty-Two for her poems and inspiration, which I integrated into 3 00:00:09.600 --> 00:00:15.300 Speaker 1: this episode. You can see more of her poems at summationfiftytwo.com. Thanks, Katie 4 00:00:15.500 --> 00:01:05.720 Speaker 1: [haunting music] 5 00:01:05.720 --> 00:01:06.960 Speaker 1: . Soul Binder. 6 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:16.340 Speaker 1: Strength from within. Learning trust from where you've been. 7 00:01:17.460 --> 00:01:23.440 Speaker 1: A truth that is withstanding. A reminder that inner peace becomes built 8 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:26.880 Speaker 1: in. Trust in where you are going. 9 00:01:28.440 --> 00:01:29.160 Speaker 1: Belief. 10 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:32.600 Speaker 1: Belief in wha-- 11 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:39.300 Speaker 1: I can't, I can't do this anymore, Marcus. 12 00:01:41.300 --> 00:01:46.280 Speaker 1: I'm not strong enough. It should be you finishing these poems 13 00:01:46.300 --> 00:01:51.780 Speaker 1: [paper rustles] . One. 14 00:01:52.820 --> 00:01:54.000 Speaker 1: Die tomorrow 15 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:01.400 Speaker 1: [wind blows] 16 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:02.000 Speaker 1: . Stand. 17 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:09.320 Speaker 1: Estus Darkwater watched the snow blow into the lean-to. Her breath 18 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:15.360 Speaker 1: billowed in great white clouds of steam, a cold so deep that she couldn't feel her 19 00:02:15.440 --> 00:02:21.420 Speaker 1: face, her hands. A numbing cold. A gentle death awaited 20 00:02:21.480 --> 00:02:27.180 Speaker 1: her, and soon, if she did not rise now. Stand 21 00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:28.480 Speaker 1: up. 22 00:02:30.380 --> 00:02:35.980 Speaker 1: Her limbs rattled, then fell limp again. She couldn't. 23 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:42.340 Speaker 1: She couldn't rise. An unbearable weight had pressed her to the ground, a 24 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:47.700 Speaker 1: weight that dominated every waking moment. It would be so easy to lay down. 25 00:02:48.540 --> 00:02:53.620 Speaker 1: It would be so easy to just stop. Just stop doing anything. 26 00:02:54.640 --> 00:03:00.380 Speaker 1: But the voice in her head demanded more, always demanding more. 27 00:03:01.760 --> 00:03:06.600 Speaker 1: Get up. Die tomorrow. Die 28 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:13.260 Speaker 1: tomorrow. Why couldn't she die today? It would be 29 00:03:13.440 --> 00:03:15.580 Speaker 1: so nice to die today. 30 00:03:17.160 --> 00:03:17.500 Speaker 1: No. 31 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:24.720 Speaker 1: The inner voice offered no explanation, no comfort, only an 32 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:30.460 Speaker 1: implacable will. That will was all that drove her now. She was not 33 00:03:30.540 --> 00:03:36.100 Speaker 1: human. A human had depth, richness. Estus had only 34 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:41.720 Speaker 1: rage left. And when she blinked open her eyes, she found that rage was 35 00:03:41.780 --> 00:03:46.320 Speaker 1: enough. Perhaps she could die tomorrow instead. 36 00:03:48.040 --> 00:03:52.540 Speaker 1: And with the weight of a mountain on her shoulders, she began to rise from the 37 00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:58.580 Speaker 1: floor. She raged against that weight, gritted her teeth against the pain. 38 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:05.500 Speaker 1: No. No tears. Not again. She'd cried so often that 39 00:04:05.540 --> 00:04:11.100 Speaker 1: it wasn't even meaningful anymore. It wasn't cathartic. It was just something that 40 00:04:11.180 --> 00:04:17.079 Speaker 1: happened when you bore a mountain on your back. Estus got a hand under her. 41 00:04:17.540 --> 00:04:22.800 Speaker 1: She stared at the rotting floor of the lean-to. The canvas flapped noisily in the 42 00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:28.780 Speaker 1: wind next to her, taunting her. Her arm shook from the effort, even though the 43 00:04:28.840 --> 00:04:34.160 Speaker 1: weight wasn't physical. There was nothing wrong with her body. She stared at the 44 00:04:34.220 --> 00:04:39.900 Speaker 1: floor six inches from her face, smelled the musty boards, the clean, icy 45 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:45.120 Speaker 1: scent of fresh snow outside. Her face was a mask of rage. 46 00:04:45.880 --> 00:04:51.720 Speaker 1: She fed that rage, the only animating force she had. You 47 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:57.820 Speaker 1: don't have to do the whole day now. You don't have to do anything 48 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:03.240 Speaker 1: except stand. You just have to stand, damn it. 49 00:05:04.340 --> 00:05:10.200 Speaker 1: And with a heroic effort, she stood. A shadow of a shadow 50 00:05:10.280 --> 00:05:16.220 Speaker 1: of a woman, but still, she stood. That first burden of 51 00:05:16.260 --> 00:05:21.780 Speaker 1: the day was always the heaviest. From there, she would have the willpower to start a 52 00:05:21.840 --> 00:05:26.840 Speaker 1: campfire and cook herself a simple breakfast. There was no denying that a hot meal 53 00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:32.760 Speaker 1: had a magic of its own. Maybe just enough magic to get her through this day. After 54 00:05:32.820 --> 00:05:38.420 Speaker 1: this day would be another, though, and then another. The days would keep 55 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:43.740 Speaker 1: coming. How could she bear that? She couldn't. No. 56 00:05:44.760 --> 00:05:50.000 Speaker 1: Stop thinking. Thinking is death. You can't die. 57 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:57.040 Speaker 1: Not yet. Estus let out another billowing cloud of breath and parted the 58 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:02.700 Speaker 1: tattered canvas to look out of her shelter at the towering pine forest [wind blows] 59 00:06:02.700 --> 00:06:02.701 Speaker 1: . 60 00:06:08.192 --> 00:06:12.932 Speaker 1: Thin, dark pillars that spread into a tangle of bony branches set against the 61 00:06:12.992 --> 00:06:18.952 Speaker 1: lightning morning sky. Snow had piled in around the little shelter. It 62 00:06:18.992 --> 00:06:24.192 Speaker 1: would take any other person an hour to clear enough space on the ground for a proper 63 00:06:24.251 --> 00:06:30.092 Speaker 1: fire. Estis, however, was blessed with power. Power enough 64 00:06:30.152 --> 00:06:35.412 Speaker 1: not to be bothered with many of life's little unpleasantries. But, she remarked, not 65 00:06:35.452 --> 00:06:41.212 Speaker 1: enough power to actually change the events that truly mattered. Dark thoughts 66 00:06:41.292 --> 00:06:45.672 Speaker 1: simmered under the surface. She shoved them back into the depths, lest she get 67 00:06:45.732 --> 00:06:50.212 Speaker 1: dragged down with them again. There was work to be done. 68 00:06:51.652 --> 00:06:55.872 Speaker 1: Estis felt around in the cloth pouch at her right hip. There were little pockets 69 00:06:55.952 --> 00:07:00.072 Speaker 1: sewn into the pouch to organize the glyphs she carried. Most of the pockets were 70 00:07:00.112 --> 00:07:05.712 Speaker 1: empty. Some part of her mind screamed at her for that. She shoved that down too. 71 00:07:06.352 --> 00:07:11.532 Speaker 1: She ran her hands across the glyph in the far left pocket. It had the right shape, 72 00:07:11.832 --> 00:07:17.292 Speaker 1: but was there really only one left? She pulled out the heat glyph, a 73 00:07:17.432 --> 00:07:23.232 Speaker 1: small, red, glass-like object about the size of a marble. It was cut like a 74 00:07:23.332 --> 00:07:29.092 Speaker 1: gemstone, but warped and twisted, with the tip like a flame frozen in time. 75 00:07:29.972 --> 00:07:34.272 Speaker 1: Estis tore the canvas drape off the wall with her left hand and held the heat glyph 76 00:07:34.352 --> 00:07:38.572 Speaker 1: out in front of her with the right hand. She thrust her right hand into the hill of 77 00:07:38.692 --> 00:07:43.872 Speaker 1: snow and connected her mind to it. She imagined the boundaries of the snow hill, 78 00:07:44.472 --> 00:07:50.412 Speaker 1: imagined it as a single object. Then she bound the heat glyph to it. The glyph 79 00:07:50.492 --> 00:07:55.032 Speaker 1: flashed out of existence with a little red pulse, and at the same time, the snow 80 00:07:55.092 --> 00:08:00.912 Speaker 1: hill simply washed away in a wave of steam. She had to shield her eyes from the 81 00:08:00.972 --> 00:08:06.392 Speaker 1: thick, hot cloud. When the steam dissipated, there was a wide circle of moist, dead 82 00:08:06.472 --> 00:08:11.332 Speaker 1: grass where the snow hill had been. She stumbled out of her makeshift shelter onto 83 00:08:11.372 --> 00:08:17.072 Speaker 1: the still warm ground, though the chill was already creeping back in. Perhaps 84 00:08:17.792 --> 00:08:23.312 Speaker 1: she should have bound the heat to her clothes instead. Or, she realized, saved the 85 00:08:23.352 --> 00:08:27.932 Speaker 1: last heat glyph to actually start a fire. Stupid. 86 00:08:28.392 --> 00:08:34.172 Speaker 1: Impulsive. When had she grown so short-sighted? I 87 00:08:34.232 --> 00:08:38.152 Speaker 1: suppose I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way after all. 88 00:08:39.932 --> 00:08:45.512 Speaker 1: So she spent the next hour gathering fallen limbs in the early dawn for a fire. The 89 00:08:45.572 --> 00:08:51.552 Speaker 1: pine forest was deathly still, making her own movements seem loud and intrusive 90 00:08:51.592 --> 00:08:57.592 Speaker 1: by comparison. Hopefully, the sound would not attract danger. She 91 00:08:57.692 --> 00:09:03.252 Speaker 1: kicked herself again for her low stock of glyphs. At 92 00:09:03.312 --> 00:09:08.832 Speaker 1: last, she assembled a small clutch of sticks into a nest for the fire. Estis rifled 93 00:09:08.872 --> 00:09:13.512 Speaker 1: with clumsy, frozen hands through her pack of dwindling supplies for the flint and 94 00:09:13.612 --> 00:09:19.512 Speaker 1: steel to start the fire. It wasn't in there. She ignored the little spark 95 00:09:19.532 --> 00:09:25.512 Speaker 1: of panic in her chest, so she checked the side pockets. Empty. Except for 96 00:09:25.572 --> 00:09:30.912 Speaker 1: a single glyph. A composite glyph of some kind. A reflective gray 97 00:09:30.972 --> 00:09:36.452 Speaker 1: rectangle with little streaks of orange running through it like veins of fire. She 98 00:09:36.512 --> 00:09:41.512 Speaker 1: rubbed it between her numbed forefinger and thumb and closed her eyes, trying to 99 00:09:41.652 --> 00:09:47.132 Speaker 1: discern what it had been. Steel. Steel and something else. 100 00:09:47.832 --> 00:09:52.272 Speaker 1: She couldn't be sure, though. It looked familiar somehow, even though she couldn't 101 00:09:52.312 --> 00:09:57.632 Speaker 1: remember making it. She put it in her coat pocket to investigate later. Assuming 102 00:09:57.692 --> 00:10:03.412 Speaker 1: there would be a later. Estis was shaking from the cold. This was such a 103 00:10:03.712 --> 00:10:08.992 Speaker 1: stupid way to die. That implacable voice in the back of her mind told her that this 104 00:10:09.052 --> 00:10:15.032 Speaker 1: was exactly how most people died. From mundane causes. An illness. 105 00:10:15.312 --> 00:10:21.152 Speaker 1: An infection. A bad heart. Exposure. So 106 00:10:21.212 --> 00:10:26.212 Speaker 1: she stumbled back out of the lean-to and into the pine forest. She leaned against a 107 00:10:26.291 --> 00:10:32.112 Speaker 1: tree. Her shivering was actually beginning to slow. The cold 108 00:10:32.172 --> 00:10:37.932 Speaker 1: was almost beginning to feel warm now. She was sure that this was not a good sign. 109 00:10:39.372 --> 00:10:45.372 Speaker 1: Give me your heat. And now she was talking to a tree. 110 00:10:46.292 --> 00:10:52.232 Speaker 1: Not a good sign either. Estis placed one hand on the massive pine tree and looked 111 00:10:52.352 --> 00:10:58.132 Speaker 1: up. How did anything survive this far north? This thing was 112 00:10:58.212 --> 00:11:02.452 Speaker 1: alive. Somehow. It must have some heat. 113 00:11:04.152 --> 00:11:08.872 Speaker 1: She traced the branches with her eyes, looked at where it intermingled with its 114 00:11:08.932 --> 00:11:14.512 Speaker 1: neighbors to form a skeletal canopy. She imagined the tree's roots where they must 115 00:11:14.572 --> 00:11:20.472 Speaker 1: penetrate the frozen ground beneath her. The tree was cold, just like everything 116 00:11:20.552 --> 00:11:26.512 Speaker 1: else, but not quite as cold as everything else. When she was sure she held 117 00:11:26.552 --> 00:11:32.452 Speaker 1: the entire tree in her mind, she focused on what little warmth it had, and she took 118 00:11:32.512 --> 00:11:38.512 Speaker 1: it, drawing all of it to a single point in her right hand. There was a tiny flash 119 00:11:38.572 --> 00:11:43.312 Speaker 1: of red light, and the tree creaked and groaned as the heat was removed. 120 00:11:44.512 --> 00:11:50.132 Speaker 1: Estis looked down at her right hand. A tiny red heat glyph lay on her palm. 121 00:11:50.792 --> 00:11:56.652 Speaker 1: It was barely larger than a grain of sand. So small it might blow away. She 122 00:11:56.712 --> 00:12:00.932 Speaker 1: closed her numbed hand tightly around it and trudged to the next tree and repeated 123 00:12:00.972 --> 00:12:06.592 Speaker 1: the same process. Finding the edges of the tree, holding the object in her mind, 124 00:12:07.152 --> 00:12:12.788 Speaker 1: then consciously drawing only the heat from it. Ten minutes later, her mind 125 00:12:12.928 --> 00:12:18.448 Speaker 1: swam with the effort. Her thoughts were getting stupid, sluggish, her 126 00:12:18.528 --> 00:12:23.688 Speaker 1: movements dreamlike. When she looked down at her hand, she had a dozen or so red 127 00:12:23.828 --> 00:12:29.708 Speaker 1: specks of heat glyphs. She moved step by frigid step back to the circle of 128 00:12:29.768 --> 00:12:34.688 Speaker 1: grass and the pile of sticks there. Estis held the tiny heat glyphs to her chest, 129 00:12:35.308 --> 00:12:40.048 Speaker 1: knowing that she would be unable to bind more if she dropped them. There was a 130 00:12:40.128 --> 00:12:45.508 Speaker 1: popping sound in the forest directly behind her, not unlike the sound of the trees 131 00:12:45.568 --> 00:12:51.528 Speaker 1: giving their life's heat to her. But it was far off. She kept walking, then 132 00:12:51.588 --> 00:12:57.468 Speaker 1: knelt before the sticks to start her fire. Then she heard the sound again, 133 00:12:58.048 --> 00:13:03.628 Speaker 1: much closer. And was that the sound of snow crunching? 134 00:13:04.648 --> 00:13:09.888 Speaker 1: Estis turned to peer into the gloomy dawn forest. The evergreen canopy blocked out 135 00:13:09.948 --> 00:13:14.948 Speaker 1: most of the fledgling sunlight. There was barely any color to the world. Something 136 00:13:15.127 --> 00:13:20.868 Speaker 1: long and dark moved through the brush. Some of her training kicked back in, and she 137 00:13:20.948 --> 00:13:26.548 Speaker 1: turned back to the sticks. Fire. She needed fire. She bound the dozen or so heat 138 00:13:26.608 --> 00:13:31.848 Speaker 1: glyphs up into a single large one. There was that same flash of weak red light as 139 00:13:31.928 --> 00:13:37.468 Speaker 1: some of the energy was lost in the transfer. She isolated a single fat stick at the 140 00:13:37.508 --> 00:13:42.968 Speaker 1: bottom of the pile and held it in her mind, calming herself, forcing herself to 141 00:13:43.028 --> 00:13:48.808 Speaker 1: ignore the sounds of an approaching creature behind her. Then she applied 142 00:13:48.948 --> 00:13:54.768 Speaker 1: all of the heat glyph to her stick. The stick burst into flame immediately. Within a 143 00:13:54.828 --> 00:13:59.288 Speaker 1: few seconds, the rest of the clutch had caught. The radiating heat of the small fire 144 00:13:59.348 --> 00:14:05.308 Speaker 1: turned some switch in her brain back on. There was something right behind 145 00:14:05.348 --> 00:14:10.768 Speaker 1: her. She rose and turned to face it, but saw nothing in the gloom. She tried to slow 146 00:14:10.828 --> 00:14:16.008 Speaker 1: her speeding heart with deliberate breaths. Estis reached towards the pouch on her 147 00:14:16.068 --> 00:14:21.168 Speaker 1: right hip without taking her eyes off the spot where she'd last seen movement, some 148 00:14:21.227 --> 00:14:27.188 Speaker 1: thirty feet away. She felt that composite rectangular glyph again. It was 149 00:14:27.288 --> 00:14:31.968 Speaker 1: complicated, expertly made. Steel and intellect. 150 00:14:32.868 --> 00:14:38.588 Speaker 1: Yes, that was an intellect glyph woven in there. Interesting. Had she 151 00:14:38.668 --> 00:14:44.608 Speaker 1: created that? If so, it had been a more thoughtful, more prepared version 152 00:14:44.668 --> 00:14:49.308 Speaker 1: of her. Perhaps she had made it before. Before 153 00:14:50.648 --> 00:14:55.928 Speaker 1: There was a creaking, popping sound like the sound of rapidly spreading ice. A 154 00:14:55.988 --> 00:15:01.688 Speaker 1: nearby tree she'd tapped for heat began to go inert. A chalk-white circle formed on 155 00:15:01.728 --> 00:15:06.388 Speaker 1: the trunk where she'd touched it. It rapidly expanded to wrap around the trunk and 156 00:15:06.788 --> 00:15:11.888 Speaker 1: sped up and down the bark like a growing cancer. The transition to a chalk-white 157 00:15:11.928 --> 00:15:16.728 Speaker 1: material happened quickly once it began. A moment later, the earthy gray-brown of 158 00:15:16.768 --> 00:15:22.708 Speaker 1: the bark and the soft green of the pine needles had all turned a sterile matte 159 00:15:22.768 --> 00:15:28.528 Speaker 1: white. The needles no longer moved in the weak breeze. The great white statue of a 160 00:15:28.608 --> 00:15:34.108 Speaker 1: tree smashed to the ground and shattered into countless tiny pieces, spraying shards 161 00:15:34.148 --> 00:15:39.268 Speaker 1: of inert material in every direction. Estis shielded her eyes from the shrapnel. As 162 00:15:39.328 --> 00:15:44.708 Speaker 1: soon as she lowered her arms, the next tree went inert, and then the next, and then 163 00:15:44.788 --> 00:15:50.308 Speaker 1: the next. Estis dove into the tiny wooden lean-to, realizing only once she'd looked 164 00:15:50.388 --> 00:15:55.628 Speaker 1: up from the ground that it would do her absolutely no good if a tree fell on it. 165 00:15:56.528 --> 00:16:02.448 Speaker 1: The forest around her groaned, snapped, and shattered with rage. She closed her eyes 166 00:16:02.508 --> 00:16:06.648 Speaker 1: and clutched her life with a pure, primal longing for survival. 167 00:16:08.188 --> 00:16:13.088 Speaker 1: The storm of noise around her finally stopped and she looked up from the dirt where 168 00:16:13.148 --> 00:16:18.748 Speaker 1: she lay. Estis got up and looked around the camp's surroundings. The mounds of 169 00:16:18.888 --> 00:16:24.448 Speaker 1: snow concealed the destruction on the forest floor. Only the ugly white bases of the 170 00:16:24.508 --> 00:16:30.087 Speaker 1: inert trees remained, sticking up out of the snow like ragged snapped-off bones. 171 00:16:31.668 --> 00:16:37.608 Speaker 1: Obviously, the trees had gone unstable after she'd removed the heat from them. They 172 00:16:37.648 --> 00:16:43.088 Speaker 1: hadn't just lost their heat. They'd lost their ability to hold heat as well. 173 00:16:43.668 --> 00:16:49.668 Speaker 1: It had punched a tiny hole in their identity, their place in reality. That hole had 174 00:16:49.728 --> 00:16:55.508 Speaker 1: caused them to go unstable. And when things became unstable, they eventually 175 00:16:55.588 --> 00:17:01.568 Speaker 1: went inert. Binding was such a terrific art. You could mix 176 00:17:01.628 --> 00:17:07.628 Speaker 1: and combine the very rules of the universe under the watchful eye of the Judge. With 177 00:17:07.688 --> 00:17:13.428 Speaker 1: binding, you could cheat reality for a while. How long depended on 178 00:17:13.508 --> 00:17:19.288 Speaker 1: what you were doing, on what scale, and, obviously, how skilled the cheater was. 179 00:17:20.168 --> 00:17:25.228 Speaker 1: Big overt cheats in the form of dangerously impossible bindings called paradoxes 180 00:17:25.288 --> 00:17:31.008 Speaker 1: were caught immediately. More mundane bindings might last years. Eventually, 181 00:17:31.088 --> 00:17:36.888 Speaker 1: though, the Judge caught every cheat, no matter how small. When that happened, it 182 00:17:36.948 --> 00:17:42.228 Speaker 1: behaved like the Judge of a sporting game. It threw out everyone and everything 183 00:17:42.288 --> 00:17:47.128 Speaker 1: involved, not by removing them from reality, but by turning them into the most 184 00:17:47.208 --> 00:17:53.068 Speaker 1: mundane and useless of materials, by turning them inert. There 185 00:17:53.108 --> 00:17:58.988 Speaker 1: was the sound of something moving again, far in the distance. The creature that had 186 00:17:59.068 --> 00:18:02.568 Speaker 1: stalked her had been scared off. For now. 187 00:18:04.248 --> 00:18:08.488 Speaker 1: Which was good. Though, if she could still hear it at this distance, it must have 188 00:18:08.528 --> 00:18:14.204 Speaker 1: been big. Very big. Which was not good. It might 189 00:18:14.264 --> 00:18:19.284 Speaker 1: simply come back when she was sleeping. Yes, that's what she needed, another 190 00:18:19.364 --> 00:18:25.364 Speaker 1: pursuer. It seemed unfair that she could be so relentlessly pursued while failing 191 00:18:25.444 --> 00:18:31.044 Speaker 1: so miserably in her own quest. She looked to the south, close to the direction where 192 00:18:31.084 --> 00:18:36.204 Speaker 1: the beast had fled, and was increasingly certain that she was being followed. 193 00:18:37.064 --> 00:18:42.644 Speaker 1: And they were getting closer. Perhaps these two would run into each other. That 194 00:18:42.684 --> 00:18:48.684 Speaker 1: would solve a number of problems. Speaking of which The piles 195 00:18:48.744 --> 00:18:53.724 Speaker 1: of burning sticks had been scattered across the campsite by the falling trees, their 196 00:18:53.784 --> 00:18:58.324 Speaker 1: life-giving fire now little more than smoke and dying embers. 197 00:18:59.424 --> 00:19:05.384 Speaker 1: Estis sighed and put her face in her hands. Problems come in threes, she 198 00:19:05.444 --> 00:19:10.524 Speaker 1: remembered her mother saying. It seemed that her problems came by the dozen. 199 00:19:11.364 --> 00:19:16.743 Speaker 1: She lowered her shivering arms and found that the brush with death had given her a 200 00:19:16.844 --> 00:19:22.804 Speaker 1: weak but growing will to live. She did have a little more left 201 00:19:22.864 --> 00:19:28.704 Speaker 1: in her, enough to bind the heat from a dozen more trees, far away 202 00:19:28.764 --> 00:19:34.264 Speaker 1: from camp this time. Enough to live another day. Enough, 203 00:19:34.924 --> 00:19:37.344 Speaker 1: perhaps, to die tomorrow. 204 00:19:39.924 --> 00:19:44.044 Speaker 1: It took her the better part of an hour to gather enough heat to light another fire. 205 00:19:44.464 --> 00:19:48.984 Speaker 1: Between the warmth of movement and the rising sun, Estis was merely miserable 206 00:19:49.044 --> 00:19:54.664 Speaker 1: instead of endangered now. Hopefully she wouldn't lose any toes to frostbite. She 207 00:19:54.724 --> 00:19:59.864 Speaker 1: dropped another piece of firewood onto the growing bonfire. It would need to be big, 208 00:20:00.424 --> 00:20:06.104 Speaker 1: very big. Once her brain had warmed enough to reason, she'd found a fallen rotten 209 00:20:06.184 --> 00:20:11.164 Speaker 1: tree and bound the moisture out of it. The result was an easy-to-move, highly 210 00:20:11.264 --> 00:20:16.864 Speaker 1: flammable wood. It would burn away long before it had time to go inert. While the 211 00:20:16.944 --> 00:20:22.483 Speaker 1: fire grew, she pulled the map out of her pack. Seventeen red X's marked every 212 00:20:22.564 --> 00:20:28.524 Speaker 1: failure so far, every dead end. Each one had turned up no useful 213 00:20:28.584 --> 00:20:33.984 Speaker 1: information, or worse, false trails that had wasted weeks of her time. 214 00:20:34.784 --> 00:20:40.124 Speaker 1: Whoever it was she was following, if she was following them, they had 215 00:20:40.304 --> 00:20:46.244 Speaker 1: known how not to leave a trail. Instead of evidence, now she only followed a vague 216 00:20:46.304 --> 00:20:51.104 Speaker 1: intuition. They were going north. She was sure of that. 217 00:20:52.104 --> 00:20:58.004 Speaker 1: Estis examined the map for the ten thousandth time. Trouble was, she was running out 218 00:20:58.044 --> 00:21:04.044 Speaker 1: of north. In all the Empire, only one town had the misfortune of being farther north 219 00:21:04.104 --> 00:21:10.044 Speaker 1: than she was now. A town called Dire. She rolled up the map 220 00:21:10.084 --> 00:21:15.544 Speaker 1: and put it away. Such a fitting name. If there were no clues in Dire, 221 00:21:16.164 --> 00:21:21.784 Speaker 1: what would she do? Estis stared into the raging fire, now a 222 00:21:21.904 --> 00:21:27.364 Speaker 1: towering inferno with flames reaching as high as her shoulders. It was not even a 223 00:21:27.444 --> 00:21:33.424 Speaker 1: candle next to her own rage. She knew what she would do if the murderer's 224 00:21:33.504 --> 00:21:38.864 Speaker 1: trail finally went cold. Estis reached a hand into the bonfire, 225 00:21:39.384 --> 00:21:45.264 Speaker 1: just before it could truly burn her. She bound the heat, then the smoke, then 226 00:21:45.324 --> 00:21:50.884 Speaker 1: the light. Without the light, the forest fell back into gloom. She 227 00:21:50.944 --> 00:21:56.264 Speaker 1: dropped the light and smoke glyphs back into her pouch, but kept the large heat 228 00:21:56.324 --> 00:22:02.304 Speaker 1: glyph in her hand. She stared at the unnatural fire. A fire with no light, 229 00:22:02.864 --> 00:22:08.404 Speaker 1: no heat, no smoke. A strange flickering image in the dark. 230 00:22:09.544 --> 00:22:15.524 Speaker 1: As she watched, it turned chalk white, then collapsed into a plume of dust at her 231 00:22:15.624 --> 00:22:21.544 Speaker 1: feet, leaving her standing alone in the dark forest. Estis Darkwater 232 00:22:21.664 --> 00:22:27.664 Speaker 1: stared at the heat glyph still in her open hand. If the trail didn't go cold, 233 00:22:28.343 --> 00:22:34.224 Speaker 1: if she found the person or people she pursued, she knew what she would 234 00:22:34.284 --> 00:22:39.764 Speaker 1: do then, too. Her hands shook, but not from the cold. 235 00:22:40.804 --> 00:22:46.784 Speaker 1: She would give them this fire. That, and much, much 236 00:22:46.864 --> 00:23:30.004 Speaker 1: more.