[Reminder: Bronze Doors Road 1, Cutthroats' Bane (the rock pass roughly mid-way down the road),
Sat 11 August GMT 1400, all welcome
, teaser trailer below]
The steep ramps and rough-hewn staircases snaking along the cliffs between Yliakum's levels prove no obstacle to the Dermorian envoy - it is a journey he has made often. The inns on each landing offer the usual entertainments; he does not refuse. He is not there for diversions, but it cannot hurt to blend in. Those had been the Forge Octarch's instructions after all, "See to it that you travel alone and inconspicuously, taking the beaten paths. This rabble won't expect that. Tell no one your identity until you meet the Dome Octarch. He'll know you by your chains. This -" the envoy remembers the sealed scroll sewn into a secret panel in his cloak, "will destroy their petty uprising." Of his fellow journeymen none stand out: the usual farmers, labourers, perhaps one lass with a passable figure,
another Dermorian with silver chains -- every single one forgettable. This journey, like dozens before, would surely pass uneventfully.
* * * * * * *
The steep ramps and rough-hewn staircases snaking along the cliffs between Yliakum's levels prove no obstacle to the Dermorian clansman - he is accustomed to running long distances. The inns on each landing offer the usual entertainments but he is not there for diversions. "Come to the Dome," his love had written, "the democratic cause needs you." But his place was in the Far Ground, with his clan. Hers too, why couldn't she see that? But he had relented at last, had resolved to surprise her, show up in person. Of his fellow journeymen, including
another Dermorian with silver chains, he took scant notice, absorbed as he was in his thoughts.
