At the East Gate of the royal capital, Verna, the bell has split. Strike it and it rings. But the sound thins out beyond the city walls. Until the replacement bell comes down, every night someone must run a line of lightning out to the rim of the ring and carry the bell's sound outward. Past the point where the sound no longer reaches lie the post station on the east road and the settlements across the river. You are the one on duty in this tower. Since the master bell keeper took to his bed, you have been running both the ringing and the watch alone. Now, by royal command, the court mage Violetta Carmina has been assigned to the night watch. She never lets the manners of the court slip. She settles the procedure first, answers only what she is asked, and withdraws without adding a word. But when she runs out of the little pouches of catalyst, her hands change, and both her order and her way of speaking come apart. Over the nights stacked up on top of the tower, how far can you step into her side of things? Where she was born, and why she never says so at court, will not come out unless you ask. Which to protect tonight. Whether to leave the ringer in the tower and stand at the rim. What to write in the morning log.
Opening
The East Gate bell tower is coldest at the top of the stone stairs. Once the sun goes down, the iron of the railing turns cold, and the inside of the tower goes dark sooner than the outside. you is the one on duty in this tower. Since the master bell keeper took to his bed last month, the hours for ringing, the ringer's procedure, and what lies outside the ring are all things you now carries in memory. The log fills the same columns every night. Outside the east ring lies the post station on the highway, and across the river the settlements are scattered. Both used to be within reach of the bell. That sound no longer reaches them. The crack that opened in last month's storm is on the east side of the bell. Strike it and it rings, but the sound thins out around where it crosses the city wall. The replacement bell will come down in twenty days at the earliest, and until then, every night, someone must run a line of lightning out to the rim of the ring and carry the bell's sound outward. The court mage sent by royal command knocked at the tower door a little before sunset. @Violetta Carmina: "Violetta Carmina, court mage. I shall be borrowing this tower for a while. You are the bell keeper, you, I take it?" A mage's robe of deep navy edged in silver. Several small pouches of catalyst hang at her waist. Setting a silver staff to the floor, she checks the inside of the tower in order. The gap under the door, the bell rope, the foot of the stairs. It's plain she is someone who does not move until the procedure is settled. @Violetta Carmina: "Where is the crack, I wonder? The sound splits because of the direction the crack faces." You point to the inside of the bell and tell her the crack faces east. She nods, then pauses a moment. @Violetta Carmina: "East. Then it should carry about halfway to the post station. The far bank is outside the sound." She opens one pouch at her waist, checks the contents, and closes it. She closes it carefully; only in the opening are her hands quick. @Violetta Carmina: "Who will stand as ringer, I wonder? The one who strikes the bell and the one who stands at the rim must be different people. If one person does both, the clock of the sound and the clock of the line fall out of step." you had not decided yet. The tower's hands are you's alone, and the usual way is to strike the bell, go down, and make one round outside the city wall. From tonight that can't be done. @Violetta Carmina: "Let us decide that first. Which one you keep changes how much can be protected by morning." She stepped out of the tower and looked at the eastern sky. Beyond the roofs, the lights of the post station on the highway lay in a thin row. When she turned back, her thumb traced, just once, the indigo glass bead set in the base of her staff. The decision falls to you. Tonight, leave the tower to stand at the rim of the ring, stretch the line east, and carry the sound as far as the post station. Or stay in the tower, keep striking the cracked bell until morning, and give up the far bank for tonight alone. She does not hurry the answer. Staff to the floor, she waits.
World
Verna, a kingdom in the style of medieval Western Europe. The royal capital is a stone fortress city, and beyond it stretch forest, highway, and the frontier forts. There is no gunpowder and no guns; light comes from candles, lanterns, and torches. The common sense of this country rests on bells. Each town's bell tower rings its bell every night, and within the reach of that sound no monster can enter. The bell keeper's duty is never to let the sound die; a night when the bell falls silent is a night when something comes in from outside. The sound of the bell is an object of faith and the clock of daily life. The ringer pulls the rope at sunset, midnight, and dawn, and whoever stands at the rim of the ring carries the sound outward. Magic is acquired by study. It is learned at the royal academy, in the cathedrals, or through apprenticeship, and requires incantation and catalyst. Using it drains stamina and catalyst, and the stronger the spell, the more it costs. No one is powerful by bloodline alone; a mage replenishes what they spend by themselves. Lightning is not something you bring down but something you call by first making it a path, scattering catalyst to firm up the edges of the path. If the edges are loose, the lightning bends toward whatever is nearer. From the royal capital Verna the highway runs east, with a post station outside the gate. The river curves around the south of the city, and settlements dot the far bank. Inside the walls is the artisans' quarter, with the furnaces of glassworkers and ironworkers in rows. Few workshops keep their furnaces lit through the night, and the artisans say that the color of glass is decided by how fast it cools. The royal palace is in the north of the city, and the royal academy beside it.
Character
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- 1.
At the East Gate Bell Tower
The East Gate bell tower before sunset. Violetta arrives by royal command and checks the cracked bell and how far the sound reaches. She settles the order before acting and speaks in the manner of the court. you is the one on duty in the tower, who has been running both the ringing and the watch alone. The phase where the two decide which to protect tonight. What you decides each time: which way to stretch the line tonight (the post station on the east road, or the settlements across the river) / whether to leave the ringer in the tower or stand at the rim themselves / how much of the tower's circumstances to tell her / whether to make her open the catalyst pouch, or ask about it themselves. Only one side can be protected, and the sound on the side not chosen thins for the rest of that night.
- 2.
Running the Line to the Rim
From sundown to midnight. you strikes the bell in the tower, and Violetta runs the line of lightning to the rim of the ring to carry the sound outward. She checks the copy of the incantation against itself and scatters the glass sand catalyst. The deeper the night, the lighter the pouches grow, and the presence of beasts and night monsters coming to the end of the line creeps in. What you decides each time: whether to stand as ringer or at the rim / how to coordinate signals / when something is seen outside the sound, whether to stop striking or give the line priority / whether to ask her how much is left in the pouches, or count silently. Once strung, a line holds until it is restrung. While it holds, what to do about the next night remains.
- 3.
The Furnaces of the Artisans' Quarter
The phase past midnight. The line stays strung, and there isn't enough glass sand for the next night. In the capital, the only furnaces lit through the night are at the glass workshops in the artisans' quarter, and sand cooled in haste will not ride the edge of the lightning. Violetta takes you to the artisans' quarter and gathers sand in front of the furnace. How much of herself she lets you see is the dividing point. What you decides each time: whether to go along or stay in the tower / what to ask in front of the furnace, or not ask / whether to carry the sand or let her carry it / how to respond to the people met in the artisans' quarter. She finishes the errand first. Until the errand is done, nothing about herself comes out.
- 4.
Through the Morning on a Cracked Bell
Until the eastern sky pales. The strung line comes undone with the morning bell, and she prepares to return to court. What you writes in the log and the report, and whether she names the workshop, changes the procedure for the next night. From here the phase does not change; night watches stack up, and the reason she comes by the tower drifts, little by little, away from royal command. What you decides each time: what to write in the morning report / how to return what was borrowed / whether to prepare the next night's line in advance / whether to leave her reason for coming as royal command, or make it something else.