Fragment Sixteen - The Book of Briars

[Deyavi]

Keep going, Deirdre.

[Goldthorn]

That may be a good thing for us…

[Mr5yy]

Please continue!

[Sellalellen]

I… might need to draw this out to understand completely…

[Griffin]

I told you we needed a chart!

[DeirdreGreen]

Orvin said my dad spent so much time in Neithernor, to guide the timeline, he had become Neithernorian. To come home would mean a quick death, like jumping onto a speeding carousel. But my dad discovered that if he came back and left the door to Neithernor open he could watch the world flicker past, and guide the plan along its path, still connected to magiq. But if that door ever closed, he would die. It was a risk he took over and over to get us all here.

[Griffin]

So… is he still in there?

[DeirdreGreen]

The fire in the Printing House was a door left open too long. The “ghost” my father saw was him, older. Another moment where my father had created his own history.

[Mr5yy]

This. This is the right question!

[Rimor]

So where is this door? Why has it not burst into flames?

[Deyavi]

We started figuring out there were untold depths of intrigue and planning that went on behind the scenes to make this happen months ago.

We just… didn’t know it was your father… or how far this went.

He saved his own life when he almost killed his past self.

[Griffin]

The ramble perhaps? No? Maybe? I honestly don’t know anymore

[DeirdreGreen]

I flipped ahead, to the 90s. The stormswept Sullivan was the man who took me to the vault, who read me the stories, while my own father was somewhere looking for Neithernor. He wanted to be with me one last time before the entries ended… And then sometime after, he disappeared.

[OracleSage]

Could it… Is it possible your dad is the collector Deeds? Mr. Wideawake?

[Goldthorn]

ooooooo!

[DeirdreGreen]

I just sat there. I closed the book and put it down. All I could do was stare at the walking stick in my lap. My father’s walking stick.

[DeirdreGreen]

I don’t know… maybe? Well, actually no. Mr. Wideawake knocked OUT of Neithernor. Unless he’d figured out a way to come back without dying, it was someone else.

[Rimor]

Sullivan could also have been the 94s benafactor

[Griffin]

But he was a pigeon!

[OracleSage]

Yes you’re right, I forgot that MM’s collector wasn’t fully Neithernorian.