Dusky sat down. “I'm sure your aching to shake me down for answers, Tower knows I am for you, but first I wanted to thank you. I was dead in the time it takes to spit or blink, and you... were able to haul me back from the pale. Though it does make me interested in your kids talents.”

Corvayne folded his arms. While Dusky was his brother, he was first and foremost the leader of the Daoboys. “It was a happy accident that we could save you. And lucky that I don't just base my judgment on first impressions.” He eyed Rio, who was biting her lip. She was leaning on the counter as if she wasn't a part of the conversation. It both made sense that with the master back she'd step down, but also irked him that she had to basically run the show for six hundred years for... what?

Dusky cleared his throat. “We couldn't have predicted those leeches infiltrating our group. And... in the end our faith in Rio worked out. Thank you darlin.”

Corvayne kept his mouth shut about how much dumb luck had been involved. That and how... lackluster he felt kidnapping was as a cornerstone of building a sect. Though, on the flip side, he did end up helping them. Touche. He realized he was thirsty and moved to stand to make tea, though at the same time Rio perked up and switched to a chefs hat and apron. He was pretty sure [[Unity]] had transmitted the idea from him to her... or from her to him. In the same way he gave her a sense of where to find the kettle and where the tea was.

“Thank you.” His brother said, then putting his hands in his lap. “I wanted to ask if you found a way to the Watchers... I saw miss Spears with you and the moon floating along with us is no doubt big sister looking after you.” Dusky looked Corvayne in the eye.

“I didn't think I'm related to Diamond...” Corvayne said, aware there was something above him now clocked as a party member. A big ball of relaxed vigilance.

Dusky coughed, which Corvayne was pretty sure was a cover for him laughing. “Her term of endearment for you. Though, I reckon, she was quite a stern lady, so it was harder then hell to tell if she was serious. No, it's been a long, long time since I spoke to him and turned my back on the war... last I heard the blockade hadn't moved.”

Corvayne felt his first real stab of sympathy for his brother. “That our father had any sort of expectations to fail... that means he held you in much higher regard than me.”

“I don't think that's true. I left home a long long time ago, but he wanted to meet you again. There were quite a few first and second generation Watchers who took that and ran with it... you might have people who think you're some sort of chosen one. Some of them thought I was too, but... Hell I would have rather explored the tower over pushing for more war. Also... with what happened to Mother...” He got an complicated look. “Me and dear old dad didn't part on good terms.”

Corvayne had a pretty good guess who he was referring to given the mace. “Father ended up with Knocks-Off-Tables, right?”

He nodded. “Mom had been missing for a long time when I left. It's possible she's alive, but going after the Magus is a fools errand.” Corvayne felt the faintest whisper of guilt leak through the bond.

There was the whistle of tea, and Rio served them then sat next to Dusky. The man gave her a polite nod but Corvayne could see the emotions were less romantic and more pride. Like how he felt about Preshe.

“There's only two things stopping him from cutting us all down. One, he cannot enter the tower. Someone... not the most reliable source, but someone once said there's something even he fears in here.”

Dusky held up two fingers. “Second, he fears being trapped once again. The Magus was sealed for a long time by the Watchers, and I'm almost certain if he tried to pop in to finish the job they'd have a trap ready.”

Corvayne thought about the broken pipes around the Magus's prison. “He got outta the last one.”

Dusky's expression darkened. “Dad fucked up. Or maybe the Magus tricked him. He let the wizard go. It's his fault that mother is gone.”

Spears leaned forward. “I would say many things of Half-Claimed-Crown, but calling him gullible...”

“If the council had been whole, they would have kicked him out. But One-Last-Note had been planning to defect or had fallen under the Magus's spell and killed two of the others. Most Watchers don't know what father did did. The assumption was either One-Last-Note or Keeper-of-Silence let him loose.”

Corvayne leaned forward. “The Magus messed with my mind and made me think he was in charge. He had some way of infecting people through containment.” He thought back the mural he had saw ages ago back on Nel'Ferral. “Someone once predicted he was going to tear through us, that we didn't stand a chance because... we couldn't complete the pilgrimage.”

Dusky nodded, then sighed. “I hate to burst your bubble, but that's what the blockade is. The last gate needed to complete the pilgrimage is on a world that has every portal guarded by the Magus's witches. There's some sort of impossible fortress guarding the back way in, and the other direction to get there... One Last Note has built his empire around it. One of blood, slavery, and combat.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Corvayne took a deep breath. “You have a map, right?”

Dusky laughed and pulled a large laminated poster out of his storage space. “As does most of the late era Watchers.”

Corvayne could see in the huge ring of black ink white strands of paths, describing either planets or tower paths between them. There was the Black Circle on Nel'Ferral. The next was a pair of green hands, on a satellite called 'The garden' over 'Tripic'.

“Hmm... I guess I know where we are going next.” Corvayne muttered to himself. There was a forested world but he knew it was now a massive city, the capital of the empire Cascadia formed the tail end of. He guessed that the 'garden' in orbit would require a ship, which he could make, but might also need some sort of access to not get shot down trying to get there. Or find some other method to get to there from the planet... there was an image of a temple beaming people up.

After that, a trail ran through what looked like tower floors, moving from orbital gardens to shadowed forests drawn with stylized things lurking, eventually leading to paths of gold and blood right up to a blue lock floating above what looked like an endless series of bridges and gothic castles 'Illureshi Prime'. There was a jagged red line on the map, drawn in later, that bisected a road through snow to what looked like a massive city and an even bigger dome, and inside of it red faces with tears formed a loop leading to a tangle of paths that came together at what looked like a pair of golden eagles in a cloudy sky. The gold eagles lead back to 'Watcherhome' which had a string of lines spraying off, one of them to a globe that matched what he remembered of the village. Then a series of portals from there looped back to Nel'Ferral.

“I suppose this is wildly out of date?”

Dusky takes a moment to breath. “The paths are older than the mountains, older than the trees. It can be obstructed but never fully closed. If it's destroyed, it will reform. There's an idea that Watchers have that there's things that are fighting back against the Magus... that he's some sort of sickness that the pilgrimage is trying to eject from the universe. Or one of a hundred things that don't belong, only notable because he's 'ours', linked somehow with our corner of this universe.”

Corvayne thought about that. “But you turned away from the fight...”

“It was a waste of lives. I don't believe we can win, or are supposed to. If we were, the path would not be to rush at him, endlessly sacrificing our people to try to match him in might!” His voice raised then just as suddenly he was silent, breathing in and out a few times before coughing.

“We are so busy wasting our lives trying to be heroes, we throw away what we have! You see this line of people, my people, leaving their homes? Because the sect is not a building, a mountain, a resource rich corner of the universe. It isn't me or Rio. It's the people, people who resonate with a way of life. And yes, we seek power, but it's to the end of living a life on the ranch, a life where we are the master of our monsters, a life where we live simple and CAN leave, where what we cannot ride, cannot lasso, we cannot kill, we can outride into the sunset and live to fight another day. That's my Dao.”

The table was quiet. Rio looked like she wanted to speak for a moment, but shut her mouth when she met Dusky's eyes.

Corvayne thought about it. He didn't think Dusky was a coward, as he had found a goal and pursued it to the best of his ability. Had Corvayne tried using his compass to find his own mom? Well, maybe, it just spun in circles as if he was asking the wrong question. But he set that aside. He wanted to be in the same place, to settle down and let the problems of the world wash over him. He had, in fact done that.

“I understand it, Dusky, but... the Magus hunted me down. He hunted you too, or at least, one of his brides nearly destroyed everything you had made, and nearly took your sect with it. I think your right, that if you want a life where you don't fight, you need to keep moving...”

Spears leaned forward, her hand touching his. “Corvayne, don't give up. If not us, who will ever stand up to him? We need to be heroes.”

Rio took a deep breath. “I've seen too many fools die for nothing. It's not enough to want it.”

Dusky looked apologetically at Corvayne as Spears let out what may have been a wet growl.

She turned to Rio, liquid features turning stern. “Did you get as strong as you are to be a petty tyrant? Or a bully? No, you've even said it, you wanted to protect your sect. You stepped up to call them family then fight for them. You nearly died fighting a monster that was also 'too powerful' for you until it wasn't.”

Rio stood up. “I had nothing left!!”

Dusky put a palm over his eyes. “Cease, my student.”

Rio took a deep breath, and bowed to him then stiffly sat back down.

Spears leaned back. “That's why I love Corvayne. He barely knew you, but stepped up. He's an example, a hero.”

“Spears, I'm more like a solider who just knows how to do one thing.”

“If you could see yourself at all, if you could see what you look like to me, no curse could stop you.” Spears said, and he saw raw love and felt it through the bond. He smiled at her.

“We'll do it together. Climb to the top of the tower if we need to, or to the depths of the dungeon, break your curse and...”

Corvayne finished for her. “Take down the Magus.”

Dusky sneered. “Easy to say you will climb to the heavens and take the stars, but what will that do? Do you know what challenges you face to climb? How the Magus fights? Do you even know your own path, what skills your Dao truly wishes for you to find? Will killing the Magus find you peace, brother? Will it bring back those Watchers who already died? You could be a hero by forever running from him, forcing him to chase you instead of his mad ploys. You are a spear, but you face a creature of magic, pulled from the depths of darkness and wiped out a civilization that spanned the stars by himself, and only because it was necessary to erase whatever method they used to call him from the dark. No... Corvayne, Brother, A Spear Moves Forward, until it breaks. Forget your hatred, or courage, or whatever greater forces goad you into thinking you have a destiny. Live a good life, with your family.”

Rio looked torn, and Corvayne understood why. Her master, his brother, was giving up. Or at least, was taking another step back. He was a spear. He would move forward, even if it broke him, until he reached his goal.

“What happened?” Corvayne noticed that most of them had finished their tea and took a sip of his own, wincing a little that it was cold.

Dusky looked down. “I aspired to many of the things you did, to climb the tower and learn what was at the top. But in climbing I lost people I held dear. For less reason than what I blasted our father for... not for a just cause or family but pride, hubris.”

Corvayne opened his mouth then shut it as he thought. Yes, he needed to move forward, but... there was not a time limit. Or if there was, it was better to learn the limits. More and more there was a feeling that even as well as he fought, the war he was waging was sloppy and... directionless. More to the point, while he had a drive to fight, isn't what Dusky lost what he was fighting to have? He had risked his family, and looking back he could see many places where he could have backed off, as many as places his hastily thrown together plans could have ended in disaster.

“I want to dismiss what you say, but... I have a curse that can be removed by a year of living without powers, weapon skills, or spells. You will need help rebuilding your sect, right? Each of the Curses I overcome will make me stronger. I need to know what you can tell me about the tower, and as for learning about the Magus... I may have captured a far better source.”