I maaaaaaaay have been working on that 
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Ahahahaha 
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Thatās awesome Nimueh!
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It seems like the Moutainās falling apart, and I donāt blame them. Whether the Silver spy really is still among them or not, or if they existed at all, the very thought that a spy may be among them is tearing them apart. Ascender mentioned that Endri and Bash were still working to find better protection spells than the Joradian safeguard (our own safeguard of choice). It got me thinking about something that I think someone else said earlier in the thread - maybe Ascender did cast this spell on us. Iām sure the less positive aspects of the spell were not intended, but maybe he was trying to protect us from the same situation they were facing on the Mountain.
Iāve been working back through TMP stuff recently, and during Phase Three, Teddy Fallon told Marty that Kemetic Solutions tried to infiltrate the Mounties, but the guide kept throwing them off - Fallon specifically said that he ācouldnāt count on themā to get through. I think that the guide has some sort of protection, similar but more powerful than the Joradian. Of course, there are ways around the guide - thatās why we needed the safeguard later on. But if the safeguards are failing everywhere, how could someone stay safe from the Silver? If the guide is more powerful protection than the Joradian safeguard, the way to keep us safe would be to make anyone who wants to come at us go through the guide.
I donāt think the fact that the ādoorā through the veil cast around us is the guide is a coincidence. If this veil is supposed to be malicious, then choosing the guide was a poor option because thatās how we recruit anyhow. Weād just keep growing in number, even if no one could contact us, and Iām not sure thatās something that whoever would be veiling us away would want. On the other hand, if someone wanted to protect us, the guide would be the best possible door. It would keep out those who would do us harm, allow new recruits to get through, plus it does give us one way to contact those on the outside of the veil: affinities.
Iām sorry for rambling a bit, I just wanted to put something out there 
What do you all think?
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That makes a great deal of sense. Iām eager to get Eavesā take on it, and it sounds like theyāre safe in the Sanctuary, as their entry criteria is already fairly strict. We should include a warning with our next exchange with him.
I wonder if it would be possible for one of us, maybe a Gossmere, to use Communion Arts to send a message to him sooner, rather than wait for him to contact us first.
Last thought: these memories were embedded in the Veil with the casting of the spell, presumably months ago, based on our timelines weāve constructed. Ascender, Knatz, and even Bash and Endri might have already been wiped out by the Silver by now. As sick as it makes me feel with sadness, thatās a reality we might have to prepare for, and it fits with the Oracular Eyeās āthree forcesā prophecy: Us, the Sanctum, and the Silver.
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This is gonna be a long week isnt it.
Iām going to research some info for some other magiqal practices, see if we can maybe fuse the Jordian, shielding spells, and something to make it pointy. So we can focus it together and protect ourselves.
We should be able to change something. Use something in the Metamagiq to cause the change.
Do we know of anyone who knows more about the other timelines?
Idk. Iām just spitballing. Iām scared for what to come and pretty drained as is. Maybe we can find other splinters through communing with another affinity?
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I hope thatās not the caseā¦Iāve got my fingers crossed for our nightmare buddy and the others. It does feel an awful lot like the memory wipe spell to be honest - itās sounding more and more like there was a good intention, and it probably did work to hide us for a whileā¦but itās leaving me wondering 1. what happened to Ascender/whoever else cast this as a result of casting it and 2. what did we lose by having this cast? Why didnāt Ascender tell us this was happening? I feel like thereās still essential parts of the story to come.
But also I second the idea of a Goss sending the next message to Eavesā¦anything to maybe make the responses move fasterā¦
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Anyone else feel like theyāre gonna be keeping a mirror with them at all time now, just in caseā¦?
Now that Iāve had a chance to digest the entry (and dispose of suspicious vines), Iām starting to get really worried about Ascender, Knatz, and everyone. If this was months ago, what state are they in now? Iām hating to think theyāre sat locked away, paranoid that one of thoseā¦ things could be coming for them, or among themā¦ We need to get out from behind this wall. We need to be able to help our friends.
Edit: Also, who the hell is Wyckstrand?
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I feel like Hermione sneaking around the house looking around corners with a hand mirror
What if Ascender is being controlled by one of these creatures and thats why weāre now trapped in here. Not because of Ascender wanting to keep us safe but the sliver wanting to keep us contained during their secret invasion?
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This question scared me enough to go looking to see if they had an account on this forum. Fortunately they donāt seem to, under this name anyway. I think we should make a habit of checking for any of these users Ascender name drops in the future.
Iām worried for them as well, but letās remember Knatz lived underground gathering info for 25 years before coming out as our Benefactor. Sheās a survivor like no other. Ascender is also no stranger to long periods of dodging storms and keeping his head down. If any two people get my money on surviving whatever Apocalypse may come itās these two.
Endri and Bash thoughā¦ If they touch one hair on Endriās brilliant head imma fight themā¦well more than I was planning on it anyway.
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At first I was scared of what the mirrors were showing them but it just seems to be revealing what is there, and not the source of theā¦demon thing(s)! Just another excuse to keep a hand mirror on my person.
It doesnāt look like Wyckstrand has been mentioned by anyone before - perhaps because of what happened to him here? I assume he went as a part of Knatzās crew to the lighthouseā¦
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Hmmmā¦now Iām wondering what the chances are of them naming their account with an anagram of their name, if/when it exists. 
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Looks like Eaves responded yesterday to us.
Everyone always assumes it was Ascender that recruited me, and thatās true in a way, but it was Bash who found me first.
Bash and I worked for the same company way back in the day. Bash in IT and me in customer service, helping old folks track down their insurance policies.
We never really crossed paths until a mandatory company bowling party. We were put on a team with some guys from the accounting department, and although we see the world pretty differently, we bonded over the course of the night and following weeks (as much as Bash will allow ābondingā) over being āqueerā and all sorts of random shared fascinations with things like plants, tarot cards, secret societies, and the Mandela Effect.
Bash kept mentioning a message board and a guy there who knew a lot about the latter half of those fascinations, and then one day I answered the phone in the call center, and he was on the other end. Ascender.
Bash had already been recruited at that point, as had Itsuki. Endri came pretty shortly after me. We were all looking for something ā truth, wonder, community.
Looking back, I was looking for all of that, but above all, Ascender was the father I never had. He was larger than life, authoritative, wise, and caring in a distant way. He had a dark past he only mentioned in cryptic bits, and we knew thatās why he kept the world at armās length, but it was that push and pull that locked us in like we were stuck in his tidal force.
I can see now that most of my fight with Ascender was because of what I expected and needed from him, and he wasnāt capable of giving. He had a mission, and though he cared about us in whatever way he could care, we were ultimately five (and then 5,000) means to an end. He was righting some old wrong, fixing the past, which is impossible, unless you have a magical book of course.
And now, just like before, heās calling shots and making decisions for other people because he thinks he knows best. Only now, heās deciding the fate of lives without so much as a heads up. He has a cause, a path that he sees so clearly, but it makes him blind to everyone around him, and any other alternative option. All that matters is his mission, and when heās done with you, when heās done with whatever you have to offer, he moves on. Itsuki died while Ascender went looking for a new team to lead, one that didnāt burden him with having to care for anything but his fight, and if Iām honest, I blame him just as much as I blame Teddy Fallon.
I want to say I donāt care and Iāve moved on, that I pity him or wish him the best, but the truth is that if there were ever someone in this world I hated, it would be him. If heās the cause of this, if he dragged my friends back into his tide just to hurt them again, then heās my enemy.
Iām sorry. I almost forgot. The symbols youāre receiving. The herald saw them before it cost too much to look into the potential future. She says that theyāre essentially magimystic alchemical symbols. The primal distillation of the six elements and the houses of āthe magimystic selfā that they govern. When she could still see, she saw people someday wearing the symbols, in solidarity and as signs of hope, as ways to wear their belief with pride and as a way to support others who were hurting or in need.
Maybe this is the beginning of that.
Okay 2 thoughts afterwards. Eavesā¦didnāt quite take that as well as I hoped. Probably should have someone else break it to him, I guess.
Second, the runes seem to be key to something here. Maybe we need to start spreading them wide to the publicā¦if we even can through the veil. But they seen to be key.
Edit: Iāve added Eaves explanation of the runes to the Runes Storehouse header as well.
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Oh my, I didnāt realise there was this much enmity between Eaves and Ascenderā¦
It definitely looks like we need to start spreading the runes around somehow, or maybe at least start with trying to wear them ourselves in some way? Enamel pins of the runes, anyone?
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No, I think Eaves is absolutely correct: Ascender has been playing us all along. He lead a coup against the secretive, manipulative Monarchās Mountain only to take up their mantle and manipulate us to his own ends, in turn.
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If the BoB is acting like a door, maybe these symbols are the latchkey. For all the new recruits coming in (myself included) it seems really messed up that so many of our allies have lost the ability to view the forum or contact usā¦ Save through elaborate and seemingly dwindling magiqal sources.
If they are a key, does that mean they work both ways? Can they help us reach out without so much effort and fear of expenditure?
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To be fair, we technically started manipulating him first when we went back in time and tried to get him to do what we wanted to preserve the timeline during the last fragments. (I always say the weirdest things on here.)
Ascender is a carpenter. He has a hammer, and all problems look like a nail. Heās lived alone having to scramble and fight and sneak to get anywhere against the Silver for so long. This is what he doesā¦to those he loves and those he loathes.
Whatever he did, however he did it, letās get the whole story and then letās get out of this chrysalis. Maybe he bought us time we needed. We shall see.
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I think weāre going to definitely need to try something like this once we get all 6ā¦hopefully we get all 6 anyway,
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We still donāt know 100% where the veil came from, though, do we? I meanā¦ If Ascender got caught on the wrong side, kicked like so many of our other allies, and couldnāt contact anyone then of course heād go try something reckless on his own. Wouldnāt any of us?
I agree, we need the whole story. Something isnāt adding up.
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Theyāre a keyā¦ The guide is a doorā¦ Itās all sort of coming together now, it seems! Hereās hoping this goes well, I fear whatāll happen to us all if this spell doesnāt do it for us, yāknow? all of this information has been crazy worrying tbh.
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