Episode Description
Content Warnings: Discussion of a broken bone, killing of dog-like creatures, killing of humans via firearm, near-asphyxiation
“
The Witch in the Glass
“MY mother says I must not pass
Too near that glass;
She is afraid that I will see
A little witch that looks like me,
With a red, red mouth to whisper low
The very thing I should not know!”
“Alack for all your mother’s care!
A bird of the air,
A wistful wind, or (I suppose
Sent by some hapless boy) a rose,
With breath too sweet, will whisper low
The very thing you should not know!””
Opening
“
Gur Sevraq: My God, I am lost. And so, to find myself, I turn to the three inquiries. Here are the things that I know: I am here, but I am absent. I have been bound to Clementine by the whims of Perennial. She knows that we are bound, but not how; she is herself lost and wounded.
Austin: Oh, also, um, before we do the next one. Uh, what's up with your arm, is your arm healed more from the surgery? Are you still using the, uh, Vessel’s Gold arms?
Jack: Yeah, I think so, I think, I think yes, to both of those questions. I think that, um, the, the measures that Clementine took are bearing fruit.
Gur Sevraq: Here are the things I believe: That you are absent from this place, or that our connection has been severed. That Perennial is working towards some end. That however much the world would be better without Clementine, I cannot be sure that if I led her to her death, I would be free of her. And thus, that I am a coward.
Jack: I think Clementine is surprised that it is healing, but it is not necessarily, healing um, um, smoothly.
Austin: Right.
Jack: Uh, I think Clementine still has less mobility in her arm. Than she did.
Austin: Is she, is she also just like in a lot of pain?
Jack: I think so. Yes. I think it is something that she is managing, uh, with the, the, the stuff that she found in the Community. But I, I don't, I think she is still feeling the pain of the arm, and of the break.
Gur Sevraq: And here are the things that I commit to do: To ease my own pain. To limit the damage she can do to others. To try to work through her as you did once through me, as if a reflection of light through the window of a dark room. Never enough, never enough, but something.
Austin: I think it's time for you to embark.
Jack: Yes. And because, ah, this is our third pilgrimage, I get a little more direction, right?
Austin: Mm-hm. Tell me what you have in mind.
Jack: I'd like to explore the area out to the west of--
Austin: Really quick, you're not exploring anything. You're going on a pilgrimage.
Jack: [laughs] Yes, that's true. I would like to, I would like to go out on a pilgrimage out, out along the coastline to the west of the Community.
Gur Sevraq: This is what I know. This is what I believe. This is what I commit to do. These are the limits and privileges of all who live, even you, my god. And even me, even now, even like this.”
Plot
The Pilgrimage of the Single Star
Clem’s arm is slowly healing, though it has less mobility than it did, and still pains her. One night she sees a glowing pink-purple star in the starless sky, and decides to head west with Gur. She smashes in the Pact’s message panel in the gate as she leaves.
They come up against the place where the hyena-dogs start to appear again, and traverse a line of pink-purple poppies. They enter a meadow filled with all colors of the poppies. Gur notices a “No Trespassing” sign that warns of danger: the field is mined with explosives. Clem refuses to cross and they follow a path closer to the dogs instead. They fight the dogs until the dogs accidentally cross a poppy mine.
They enter a scrubland area with a large planetarium. Inside, an ancient version of a reanimated Apostolosian soldier, much like Motion’s Black Century, attacks them. They’re able to speed past their slow shots. They find the base of a telescope with dials and a word processor reading “Find me. See what I have seen.” Over at least a day and night Gur and Clem slowly put things together and figure out how to use it. They are then granted a vision from Perennial’s perspective.
Perennial gives Clem the Day’s Eye, once the mech of the witch Teasel Mode, and they fly it back to the Community.
Law 4: Everything that has happened before will happen again.
Clem shoots down a ship using the Day’s Eye. She and Gur find poppy seeds and begin potting them. She learns about Gur's history with Perennial.
3 months since the Red Light fell on Oxbridge
Agon Ortlights calls Phrygian, the Figure in Bismuth and Sovereign Immunity to Icebreaker Prime in Cruciat as part of a commission studying strange phenomenon occurring since Motion’s attack on Auspice. They each show her a new, almost magical development. SI reveals he’s found records of something suspicious in the North Pole of Partizan.
The Pilgrimage of Attention
Clem must walk down from the cliff face to the crashed ship, the Snow in Summer. She and Gur clear a path down. Strange red liquid is coming from the ship: Lambic House beer made with the blood of the Exemplar. There is a ship AI aboard powered by the blood. Clem threatens to destroy it if it doesn’t turn off the security system.
Three people remain at the comms station: Curtain operatives who have stolen the blood from Nideo to take it back to Crysanth. Clem shoots two of them and orders the third woman to turn off the comms. Outside, Perennial strikes the ground with lightning, and another ship appears.
Clem carefully, carefully brings the Hellebore (one of the earliest Horizon ships), a huge vessel, back to a landing pad near the Community. One day she finds Emaline, the woman she spared, working there with a robot dog she seems to have tamed.
Law 5: Emaline Eccles is a gift.
Clem does her best to “make friends” with Emaline. Some of the poppy plants in the Community explode and cause a fire. Some of the Motion troops take the Snow in Summer and Gur and Clem go flush them out. Clem and Gur work to track the motion of the Perennial constellation across the sky over time. One morning, the Hellebore disappears again. Clementine’s arm continues to slowly improve, and she is able to do some strength training.
4 months since the Red Light fell on Oxbridge
Thisbe and Milli happen to have been assigned duties around Lake Timea, and Broun seeks them out. They chat; everyone has a new look. Broun asks the others to come with them when they leave Partizan.
The Pilgrimage of the Present Day
Clem, Gur and Emaline head north in the little tricycle car.
They encounter three Con-Con units; they barely manage to dispatch the pilots. The Snow in Summer, transformed into a walking mech, attacks. The group manages to evade it for some time. Still being chased, they eventually lead the mech into a valley it can’t get out of.
They emerge and find a frozen land bridge connecting the island to the continent, but Gallica and Present intercept them; Gallica teleports Clem into the depths of space. Clem prays to Perennial, and then gives her version of an accounting of her life; Perennial returns her to the icy sea. Gur and Emaline pull her out.
There is a little boat docked along the coast. Clementine, making a kind of joke, names it the Hellebore. As the boat pulls out, the water is filled with Russian sage, and so is the Community on Chorus Island. As they travel, Russian sage forms a mask over Clem’s eyes. They come to the body of Past, hidden in Kesh territory, being tended by Curtain agents. The Curtain agents lead Clem in, to the chained heart of Past. Clem takes control of the place, and with her presence, Perennial is let into the glass city. Refugees begin to arrive and Gur pushes Clem to allow them to take refuge there; she does. Cats begin to appear in the city as well, at the whim of Perennial. Clem begins to be called the Witch in the Glass.
1 day before the Red Light falls on Oxbridge
Sovereign Immunity is led through the Reflecting Pool by the Figure in Bismuth. Along the way, he glimpses the people Clem has gathered as her coterie. She warns SI of the coming Red Light and offers him and his closest associates three things: a way out; the healing of Cas’alear; and the aid of the Figure. In exchange she wants the Resin Heart and the Eyes of the Exemplar. At Gur's prodding she concedes she will bring the Church of the Resin Heart aboard as well.
It is revealed that Sovereign Immunity cannot see Gur Sevraq. The one whispering to Clementine is his ghost, tied to her by Russian sage.
Cast
- Clementine as The Pilgrim (Jack de Quidt)
- Perennial as The Divine (Austin Walker)
- The Figure in Bismuth (Andrew Lee Swan)
- Sovereign Immunity (Art Martinez-Tebbel)
- Phrygian (Keith J Carberry)
- Kal'mera Broun (Ali Acampora)
- Thisbe (Janine Hawkins)
- Ver'million Blue (Sylvia Clare)