No word had leaked from the study room of Matriarch Talya, Basil’s mother. Inside, Talya and Nymous had been discussing urgent matters for several hours. An uneasy feeling spread throughout the family estate. A closed-door policy during councils was rare in this house, and rumors echoed within the halls: “A family rider appeared with a D-class patch. Can you believe that?”

The classification system had four different tomes, ranging from A to D. D, being the final tome, was the furthest removed from the base physics and elements that made up this realm. It was rarely taught or discussed, containing only six chapters about obscure meta-processes around magic and life. These were considered uninteresting and unprofitable, so no family really cared.

Two things about that tome were exceptional. First, any family burdened with at least one D-class patchwork would always be a matriarchy for as long as it held it. This unbreakable rule was laid down by the realm’s second inceptor, Jaunaroth, through a deity shackle. If a family broke this rule, the shackle would break, releasing the full fury of the deity onto the family.

Jaunaroth had good reasons for this mechanism. When the first inception of the realm imploded, it was largely due to a powerful male usurper’s mismanagement. This ruler, Clostridius, neglected the D-class I TC patchwork he presided over. This chapter, Triggers and Constraints, served to keep existing shackles and magical rules intact.

Clostridius secretly used the patchwork’s powers to change the rules, driven by pathological greed. Ignoring the growing signs of danger, he accidentally unshackled The Pantheon of Broken Creators. Initially, the consequences were minor, as these gods were largely benevolent and weak. However, Clostridius’s reaction to this incident was disastrous.

He tried to fix his mistake, unable to tolerate rumors about his errors. A note from his administration read: “The unshackling of The Pantheon of Broken Creators has been resolved. This was planned and was no incident. Spreading rumors about Clostridius-issued decrees is punishable.”

In reality, he changed the mechanism that bestowed the authority to create new shackles, which was too complex for him to understand. Within five days, all shackles began to break down at random. Logs from that time mentioned corrupted entities returning to the realm. The writings ended abruptly as an unknown set of beings, hastily labeled as “We forgot about Them” by one family and “some terribly ancient unknown… it weeps” by another, caused the realm to implode.

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In the entrance of the Avery house, Basil sat on the staircase, hearing noises from the study room where his mother and Nymous were talking. The door finally opened a little. Talya had some last words for Nymous, who looked back at her, barely suppressing his urgency. Basil wanted to ask questions but knew they would ignore him.

Nymous ran outside, mounted his horse, and sped off. Basil had enough. He walked towards his mother.

“The entire house is one big rumor. What is going on? Why haven’t you told anyone anything?” Basil demanded.

Talya’s face turned stern, and she shouted in their native tongue, “Basil, I have no time for this! It’s a complete disaster!”

Basil was stunned. Talya quickly regained control and apologized. She walked to the middle of the entrance hall, knowing some staff had gathered nearby.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t deal with trivialities right now,” she said. “Spread your rumors; I care not even a bit.”

“I know many of you have questions, but now we must deal with the situation first,” Talya continued. “Anyone who works for the quartermaster, pack food and supplies for an excursion.”

The staff looked confused.

“THAT will be all!” Talya shouted. The staff shuffled back to their jobs and quarters.

She walked towards her study and grabbed Basil by the arm, dragging him into the room. She threw an extra log onto the fireplace and sat down.

“Do you have any idea what Nymous carried here today? That was the final patch of the D tome,” Talya said, not leaving space for Basil to answer.

“Walther explained patchworks before, didn’t he? A patchwork is the combination of the patch and the tome,” she said cynically. “Guess what, Basil, most chapters of the tome didn’t transfer. We got a patch with most of the documentation gone.”

She attempted to distract herself from the gravity of the situation with humor. “I’m betting Walther has not heard or read about a farce like this.”

Talya then stared into the fireplace. Basil stood, also gazing into the fire. After a while, he asked, “So, what are you going to do?”

“There is no script for this. I’ve sent Nymous to the Auspex’ library. If there is anything written about this, that’s the only place it could be,” Talya replied.

“Oh, that’s good, right? Nymous shouldn’t take long to get there. And he’s got good wits too!” Basil said, trying to be hopeful.

He paused and asked, “Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Yes. We abandon the house tomorrow,” Talya said, fidgeting with a pen, as if leaving home was the most mundane thing to do.

Basil could barely believe what his mother had just said, but it made sense.

Talya had immediately understood that the transfer of a patch without its complete tome meant the old family that managed it had perished, and a base rule laid down by Jaunaroth had been broken.

There was nothing known about the cause of the transfer, let alone why the tome was incomplete. Talya decided to abandon the house within the first five minutes of Nymous’s arrival.

“This is the D-class chapter six, Basil. The least wanted of all patches for very good reason. And the hot potato is stuck to our hands, like a stain that only grows when you try to wash it off,” Talya finished, almost allowing a rare sense of despair to come through her tone.