NARRATION:

Okay, we have arrived in the town of Pugh, presumably named after some rich arsehole named Pugh. Things are going alright. The wagons are in the Caravanserai yard, most other people are out doing their business in town or taking some personal time. It’s the biggest town we’ve been in for a while, and the biggest we’ll be in for some time, so it’s a good idea to make the most of it. It’s a farming town: there’s a good amount of Illuminated land, as well as a few small Illuminated spots with good soil nearby enough that some folks here are willing to cross the Night to reach them and farm there too. It’s the breadbasket for the whole area, more or less, they make the most of the farmable land here to support nearby settlements with less space or farmable land, like Quarryfield or the Three Sisters. It’s almost nice how the people here dedicate themselves to feeding people they’ll never meet. I mean, that’s more or less what anyone does, it’s not like they do it for free- they’ll get pebbles from Quarryfield or coal from the Three Sisters, luxuries from further afield. But when it’s food, I dunno, it feels wholesome. 

 

Anyway! Some good news- or, I dunno, it feels good. The Caravan’s going to have a new member. Had a letter waiting for me in the Caravanserai when we got here, from the Caravan that precedes us on the Road. A lad’s come of age, and so he’ll be waiting in the next town for us to spend some time with our lot. Name of… [rustling paper] Jed. Little older than Melody, but I think it’ll do her good to have another kid around. He’s going to be here to learn how we do things, broaden his horizons, so hopefully Melody takes to him enough to teach him what she’s learned. I think she’ll do a good job of it. Probably make her feel like more of a part of this Caravan, having the chance to show off a little. I should go and tell her, actually. Yeah. Okay, that’s it for now.

 

[Arlo finishes the recording and opens the door to the wagon. He is startled to see Melody nearby]

 

Arlo:
Mel! What are you doing here, I thought you’d be out with the local kids.

 

Melody:
They’re in school now. 

 

Arlo:
Oh. Right, that makes sense. Schedules don’t always line up when we arrive in a new place.

 

Melody:
Yeah. 

 

Arlo:
So you’re just sitting around in the Caravanserai?

 

Melody:
What else am I supposed to do?

 

Arlo:
I’m not… Maybe help out with one of the others? Herschel, or Mister Worthy?

 

Melody:
Herschel and the other labourers are loading up crops and hay… I can’t lift any of it. He said I’d just get in the way. And Mister Worthy’s picking up some supplies, which is the same problem except that he’s dropping off fertiliser…

 

Arlo:
Okay that’s fair. What about Sacha? 

 

Melody:
They’re setting things up for a show after dinner. The performers get very serious right before a show, I don’t want to intrude.

 

Arlo:
Right. And-

 

Melody:
And Bess is asleep.

 

Arlo:
Well. Looks like I’m all you’ve got! Wanna come for a walk through town?

 

Melody:
Okay. What are you doing?

 

Arlo:
I’ve got some messages to deliver to the Telegraph Station. Nothing too thrilling, but it’d be a nice walk.

 

Melody:
Oh yeah, I saw all the wires when we arrived in town. We didn’t have one of those back home- it lets you talk to people far away? 

 

Arlo:

Basically, yeah- we can ask the attendant when we get there.  Anyway, c’mon. Let’s get moving.

 

[They begin walking through town. It’s a quiet hour, as most are busy working.]

 

Arlo:
How’ve you been doing? 

 

Melody:
Fine.

 

[Beat]

 

Arlo:
Well, good. Uhh, I’ve got some news, actually.

 

Melody:
What is it?

 

Arlo:
We’re going to have someone new in the Caravan soon. About your age.

 

Melody:
Oh. A new Caravaner?

 

Arlo:
No, from the next Caravan down the road- the one that was here in Pugh before us. They left a note so we’d know to prepare, then they’ll leave the lad- Jed’s his name- they’ll leave Jed in the next town down the Road for us to pick up. It’s something we Caraveners do, when we reach our thirteenth Summer, we leave our own Caravan and spend a year with the next Caravan down the Road. 

 

Melody:
Oh! Okay. 

 

Arlo:
Are you excited?

 

Melody:

Yeah! I’m… It’s been weird being the only kid.

 

Arlo:

It can be hard on the road with a baby, so a lot of the time people want to settle down once they have one. They might come back once the child is grown up enough, or they might not. We had a couple leave us a few seasons before you joined us, actually. There’s usually enough people who want to take up the Life to balance things out if people don’t come back. 

 

Melody:
Did you and my Mother ever talk about whether I’d join the Caravan?

 

Arlo:
…I mentioned it. Once. She wasn’t a fan. [Beat] So, I don’t know what Jed will be like, but he’ll be here to learn our ways of things- I was thinking you’d be able to show him the ropes, a bit.

 

Melody:
Shouldn’t he already know how to be a Caravaner?

 

Arlo:
Well, he knows how his people do things. Might not be the same as how we do them. It’s how we spread knowledge between Caravans, even though most of us will never meet on account of how we’re all travelling the same Road. We see Caravans coming the other way, of course, but we’re never going to bump into the Caravans ahead of us or behind who are going the same direction, unless something bad really slows them down, like plague or a natural disaster. 

 

Melody:
So it’ll be my job to teach him how you do things?

 

Arlo:
How we do things. You’ve been with us for two seasons now, I think you’ve picked up a thing or two.

 

Melody:

Okay, sure! It’ll be fun!

 

Arlo:
It will! 

 

Melody:
We should get him a present!

 

Arlo:
Oh! That’s a nice idea, what were you thinking?

 

Melody:
I don’t know. What does he like?

 

Arlo:
I haven’t met him, Mel. I’m as in the dark as you are.

 

Melody:
Right… Well, what do boys like?

 

Arlo:
Uh…

 

Sacha:
Go on, Arlo! I’ve been dying to know, myself!

 

Arlo:
Light! Sacha, must you sneak up on me?

 

Sacha:
Yes. Anyway, what are we talking about?

 

Melody:
We’re going to have a boy from the next Caravan join us!

 

Sacha:
Ohh, that’s exciting. What’s he like?

 

Arlo:
You know we don’t know, Sacha- shouldn’t you be getting ready for your show?

 

Sacha:
Pah. We’ve got the programme all worked out, just going to be a couple of our repertoire shows I know like the inside of my eyelids- could put me to sleep, too. And they don’t let me help set up the stage anymore.

 

Arlo:
That’s as much for your own good as anyone else’s.

 

Sacha:
My hand healed! 

 

Melody:
What happened to-

 

Arlo:
No, don’t be giving her any ideas.

 

Sacha:
Fine. [Whispering] I’ll tell you later.

 

[Melody giggles. Arlo sighs.]

 

Sacha:
Anyway, where are we going?

 

Arlo:
We? Fine. We’re going to the Telegraph Station. It’s at the top of the hill.

 

Sacha:
Oh! The magic message things, yeah.

 

Arlo:
It’s not magic.

 

Sacha:
Then how does it work?

 

Arlo:
…I don’t know. 

 

Sacha:
Ha!

 

Melody:
It’s got something to do with the wires, right?

 

Arlo:
Yes. The wires go all the way to the next town with a Telegraph Station, and from there to the next, and so on. They don’t follow the Road because they can take a more direct route- the Road can only go where wagons and people can go, but I’ve seen the Telegraph wires cross canyons and go through deep forests. 

 

Melody:
Where do they go?

Arlo:
Well, they’re all set up by companies in the bigger cities, like Lumenas and Vestal. So the wires all go back to the cities, and so long as there’s a pole to hang the wires off, and they haven’t gotten too damaged by the elements, the people in the cities can send and receive messages from the Telegraph Stations they’re connected to faster than a man on horseback or a bird with a letter. Somehow.

 

Melody:
Wow!

 

Sacha:
It’s impressive. Ugly, though. Hate the big tangly wires hanging over the nice scenery.

 

Arlo:
Well, it’s mostly out in the Night, and most towns don’t have a station, so you’ll survive. 

 

Melody:
How do the wires get out in the Night? Do Caravans set them up?

 

Arlo:
Nah. We don’t have anything to do with them. Like I said, the lines don’t follow the Road.

 

Sacha:
It’s mostly done by floaters, right?

 

Arlo:
Yeah, they have these big floating bags of air that they hang baskets of people off of, and they can go where the wagons never could.

 

Melody:
Big bags of air?

 

Arlo:
Yeah. 

 

Melody:
Are you making fun of me?

 

Arlo:
No! I swear, it’s true.

 

Sacha:
Yeah! Once we get to a bigger city you’ll probably see a few. It’s how rich bastards get from one place to another without having to look at some poor Caravanner or get dirt on their shoes. 

 

Melody:
And they use the telegraph stations to talk to each other without having to be there with their friends?

 

Arlo:
Probably. Not like they let us in their big houses. Far as I know, it’s mostly used to report problems or make requests of the folk further out, or to report problems that are far away so they can be fixed quickly. 

 

Melody:
Oh. That’s not so bad, then.

 

Sacha:
Yeah, well, typical isn’t it.

 

Melody:
What do you mean?

 

Sacha:
Well, they’ll make this incredible, “talk to people who are far away” stuff, and use it to help solve problems and connect people who won’t ever be able to meet in person. But only because it helps them. The powerful folks, see?

 

Arlo:
Yeah, that’s kind of how the world works, Sacha. We work at the pleasure of our betters and benefactors. 

 

Melody:
Oh.

 

Arlo:
What’s up?

 

Melody:
I didn’t know there were people who made you be Caravanners.

 

Arlo:
Well, they don’t make us. It’s just… This is what we do. Our niche. There needs to be farmers, and carpenters, and teachers, and-

 

Sacha:
And artists!

 

Arlo:

…Sure. Point is, people have their niches, their things that they contribute to the bigger picture. Pretty much everything is the way it is because someone, or a lot of someones, needed it to be that way. 

 

Sacha:
People wouldn’t live in the middle of nowhere if they didn’t have to, probably.

 

Arlo:
Well, some would, still. Just how some people are. I probably would, if I wasn’t on the Road. Cities are too much for me. But yeah, that’s the reason there’s towns out here, away from the centre of things: partly because there’s space out here, Illuminated space, and that’s always at a premium. And partly because you can’t get everything in one place. There’s no Illuminated spot that has good lumber, and wildlife, and ore, and coal, and everything else. So people scatter. And sometimes they do so with encouragement, because some rich person wants a specific something from a specific somewhere.

 

Melody:
So this whole town… Pugh, it’s all here just to feed a city?

 

Sacha:
Nah, everything here would rot before it ever reached Lumenas. But it feeds the other people who are out here, who produce things that Lumenas or some other city wants.

 

Arlo:
Yeah, and it’s a good spot for the Telegraph Station too, probably, so it gives a spot where the bigwigs can give orders from. But what’s most important is that it’s the best Illuminated farmland anywhere close to the Three Sisters. And the Three Sisters have the biggest deposits of the best coal anyone knows about, which the city folk really want. 

 

Sacha:
Still don’t get that. Coal is coal, right?

 

Arlo:
I don’t know, man, I’m not a sciencer. I think it’s got different stuff in it to just charcoal. Can burn hotter, which is how you can melt metal and make… Things. 

 

Melody:
Alloys.

 

Arlo:
Eh?

Melody:
You melt two kinds of metal together and they make an alloy. That’s what steel is, it’s two metals melted together. Or. Iron and something. They taught some of it in school. 

 

Sacha:
Yeah, see, we didn’t have school like you did, on the Caravan. 

 

Arlo:
I don’t think Sacha would have survived school.

 

Sacha:
Piss off! As if you’re some kind of genius.

 

Arlo:
Never said I was. I just think you’d have annoyed the teacher bad enough that they’d shove your head up your arse.

 

Sacha:
Ha! Yeah, true. 

 

Arlo:
But anyway, there’s plenty you can learn without a school.

 

Melody:
Yeah! I learned some stuff from you two.

 

Sacha:
Like about the air floaters. 

 

Melody:
I still don’t believe you about those.

 

Sacha:
I swear!

 

Arlo:
[Snaps his fingers] Digibles!

 

Sacha:
What?

Arlo:
Digibles. I think that’s what the sky wagons are called.

 

Sacha:
That sounds dumb. Are you sure?

 

Arlo:
Not really. Anyway, here’s the Telegraph Station. You coming in, Sacha?

Sacha:
Sure, why not. 

 

[The door to the Telegraph Station swings open, and we can immediately hear the sound of Professor Magritte talking animatedly to someone within.]

 

Magritte:
I’m afraid I must insist that the message be sent immediately, it is a matter of urgency!

 

Attendant:
Yes, I understand that, but as I’ve said the lines are down so we can’t send or receive messages until they’re fixed. 

 

Magritte:
And when will that be?

 

Attendant:
Like I said, when a repair team gets sent out from Lumenas.

 

Magritte:
And when will that be?

 

Attendant:
Like I said, how am I supposed to know?

 

Magritte:
But-

 

[The door swings shut again.]

 

Sacha:
Ugh. On second thought.

 

Arlo:
Remembered some important artist stuff you oughtta get to?

 

Sacha:
Sure, let’s go with that. See you at the show, Melody!

 

Melody:
Bye! [Sacha leaves] Does Sacha not like Professor Magritte?

 

Arlo:
No, not particularly.

 

Melody:
Why not?

 

Arlo:
[Laughs gently] Oh sweetie. Nobody likes Magritte.

 

Melody:
But-

 

[Arlo enters the Station without elaborating. His footsteps and voice fade out, with a musical sting to convey the passing of time. In her wagon, Bess pours Melody a cup of tea.]

 

Bess:
Hold the cup steady, now, my hands get a shake in the cold so you’ll have to be steady for both of us. There.

 

Melody:
Thank you, Bess! Are you sure it’s not a bother? I didn’t want to wake you-

 

Bess:
Of course not, girl! I scarcely get any visitors, I’d hardly turn away my favourite one!

 

Melody:
[Giggles] Okay, thank you!

 

Bess:
Now. You were saying you wanted to make a gift for someone?

 

Melody:
Yes! There’s a new boy joining the Caravan soon, his name’s Jed! I wanted to have something to welcome him to the Caravan, but there isn’t really anything here in Pugh that’s very… gifty. 

 

Bess:
Hmm, no, I wouldn’t think so. Unless you bought him some fine produce and made him a nice dinner.

 

Melody:
…I don’t really know how to cook.

 

Bess:
Yes, dear, probably best to leave that to Worthy. Making a meal for a young man you’ve just met might seem a little overeager, besides.

 

Melody:
Oh? Why?

Bess:
Never you mind. Now, how were you thinking I could help with your gift?

 

Melody:
Well, I was thinking some kind of… charm? 

 

Bess:
A charm? A good luck charm, or one for protection perhaps? What makes you think I know such things?

 

Melody:
Oh. I, uhh.. I suppose I just… assumed?

Bess:

Because I’m a witch?

Melody:
No, I’m sorry, I- you’re a herbalist, I know, I shouldn’t have-

 

Bess:
Ha! Oh child, you’re so easy to fluster. I do know some things about charms and wards, yes, although with such things it’s often more important that the bearer believes they work than that they work at all. 

 

Melody:
Right, you’ve talked about that before.

 

Bess:
People underestimate the power of their own minds, it’s quite sad. Even the greatest of healers can only scratch the surface, but I think that if we only knew ourselves better we could heal any injury just by wanting it enough.

 

Melody:
Wow, that’s…

 

Bess:
Oh, but I’m rambling about old dreams- here, let’s get to work on a charm. What manner of gift were you thinking of granting the boy?

 

Melody:

Well I don’t know him yet so I don’t know what he’d need. I suppose everyone needs more luck?

 

Bess:
That sounds like a fine enough idea. Here, hold this, and come along.

 

Melody:
A jar? What’s- it’s got some stuff in it.

 

Bess:
All will be clear. Come, now.

 

Melody:
Where are we going?

 

[The door to Bess’s wagon opens.]

 

Bess:
A charm such as this should be made with the freshest ingredients.

 

Melody:
[Puts down teacup] Oh, well it’s a good thing we’re in a farming town then!

 

Bess:
[Chuckles] Oh, we won’t be going to the cabbage patches or the little windowsill herb gardens. We need some real ingredients. Wild ingredients. Come along, now.

 

[The begin walking]

 

Melody:
Where are we… Do you mean, weeds?
 

Bess:
Don’t be coy now, child. You know where I mean.

 

Melody:

…My father told me not to go to the Night without permission. I got in lots of trouble last time-

 

Bess:
I’m with you, sweetling. That’s permission.

 

Melody:
But- couldn’t we just use something from the farms- or we could see if a local gatherer has the wild plants we need? Does it need to be fresh, or-

 

Bess:
You looking to back out, now that you know what making this charm entails?

 

Melody:

…I just- I don’t want to go back out there without my father. It was horrible last time.

 

Bess:
I’ll be with you. Nothing bad will happen, I promise. And besides- you can’t back out now.

 

Melody:
What? Why not?

 

Bess:
You can never back away from magic once you’ve dedicated yourself to it. 

 

Melody:
Magic? Is that… are you really… magic?

 

Bess:
Of course I am, dear. Why else would so many young men fear a sweet old lady? You yourself assumed as much just a moment ago!

 

Melody:
I didn’t really think… that it was magic magic, you know? That it was real.

 

Bess:
A sad world it is, where a girl your age has already begun to doubt its inherent magic. Magic is real, my dear- or really, some of it is, and some of it isn’t. The most important thing is knowing the difference.

 

Melody:

Are you going to teach me magic?

 

Bess:
Oh, I don’t know about teach. It’s dangerous stuff. But more dangerous would be letting you go on as you are without any guidance at all. As I said, the most important thing is knowing the difference: if I teach you anything, it will likely be where to draw the line and go no farther. 

 

Melody:
Okay… 

 

Bess:
Ah! Here we are. The Threshold. Beyond, the Night. Go on cross the threshold, girl. Feel the darkness caress your skin. I miss it.

 

Melody:
Why can’t… are you not coming with me?

 

Bess:
I will be just here, child. You’ll need not go far- but it has been some years since I could feel that cool Night for myself. 

 

Melody:
I have noticed that you don’t leave your wagon while we’re on the Road. Why is-

 

Bess:
A later lesson, though one tied deeply to the ones preceding it. Come on now, Melody. Pass into the Night. There we go. I wish I could join you, there. Things are so much more potent, so much more… wild. More honest. We’ll find truly potent ingredients here- only place to find them, really.

 

Melody:
Uhh… Why can’t we find them in the Light?

 

Bess:
It’s like I keep telling you- it’s about believing in the power. Things that grow in the Night, well, they haven’t seen as much as things that grow in the Light. They’re innocent, in their way, don’t know their own potential- so that potential is, naturally, all the greater for it.

 

Melody:
Is that really how it works?

 

Bess:
Perhaps. Or perhaps it only works that way because I believe it does. Here, look closely among the undergrowth, the moss.

 

Melody:

I don’t… it’s too dark.

 

Bess:
Oh, poor thing, how could I forget. Here, come back and hang this around your neck. It’ll help.

 

Melody:
Okay, I- Oh! Oh wow, that’s amazing! It’s all so clear now!

 

Bess:
A simple enough charm, one I haven’t needed to use in a long time now. 

 

Melody:
You can see without one?

 

Bess:
Oh, I hardly need see at all, these days. [A faint shimmering noise] Here! Look there, beneath that raised root.

 

Melody:
Down here? Oh! What is it?

 

Bess:
Some manner of Sprite. A trifling thing, hardly worth even knowing what kind. 

 

Melody:
It’s so pretty! 

 

Bess:
Is it? I suppose so- nobody’s ever been sure if everyone who can see them sees them the same, and if you try to draw it later you’ll find you can’t quite get the details right. It’s how such things are.

 

Melody:
It’s like a ball of… well, not light, but it’s like I… there’s details and bits just darting about! I’ve never seen anything like it.

 

Bess:
Yes, you have. You just didn’t believe your eyes. If I hadn’t have pointed this one out to you you’d have gone about your day without even realising it was there. Very few can see a Sprite without help.

 

Melody:
Hello! Hello there, can you- Oh! It heard me, here it comes!

 

Bess:
…And even fewer can be seen by a Sprite in turn. 

 

Melody:
Hello! Hello there, come on! I won’t hurt you, it’s okay!

 

Bess:
Yes, just a little closer… and…

 

[A rushing, grating sound the Sprite lets out a pitiful squeak. Melody gasps.]

 

Melody:
Oh, Light! What was- what did you do?

 

Bess:
What we came out here to do, sweet child. 

 

Melody:
But- the Sprite! Where did-

 

Bess:
In the jar. [Melody holds up the jar, which jingles] Just a jar, some iron filings, a couple of sprigs of this and that, and you have all you need to capture a fresh Sprite. 

 

Melody:
Is it… okay?

 

Bess:
Oh it’s fine. It’s barely aware of what’s happening around it, it’s simply a being of elemental energy. It flows along currents of energy the average person will never even know exist. I merely… convinced it that the energy led within this jar, where it will linger until its own energy is spent for our purposes.

 

Melody:

This is… our ingredient?

 

Bess:
It's energy, yes. Magic rarely creates something from nothing. Let that be one of your first, and most crucial, lessons: there is always a trade, a conversion, when one performs acts of magic. Most simpler acts require little- the temperature of a room, some energy from within yourself, some other offering. If you ever attempt to work magic without a source, to create something out of nothing, you shall pay a far worse price than whatever you ought to have offered.

 

Melody:
…How?

 

Bess:
Because you cannot create something out of nothing. And so something will step in to make the trade for you. And you do not. Want. That. 

 

Melody:
…A Darkling?

 

Bess:

People call many things they do not understand “Darklings”, child. Some of those things are mundane. Many are not. Many understand the ways of magic better than you or I ever can, and they are selfish creatures. They will twist whatever magic you sought to work to their own ends, and if you live to learn what those ends are you will wish you had died.

 

Melody:

I think I want to go back to the town now. 

 

Bess:
Of course! We’ve got what we came for. Come, let’s return to my wagon and get to work.

 

[They begin walking back to town. After a few seconds, Bess speaks again.]

 

Bess:

You feel bad for the little Sprite, don’t you? 

 

Melody:
It was just… Minding it’s own business. It seemed happy.

 

Bess:
It has no feelings, no thoughts, Melody. I promise you, taking it into this jar was no different to drawing fire from a stove onto a twig, and using its power to create your friend’s charm will be no different to using that twig to light another stove. It is simply a matter of redirecting its power. 

 

Melody:
Will it be okay when we’re done?

 

Bess:
It is hardly a being unto itself… But, once it has given all that is of use to us, I will put the jar open upon the windowsill and let what remains drift away on the breeze. In time it will reconstitute itself, or become a part of another Sprite or some similar form of magic. We are not being cruel, Melody. I promise you.

 

Melody:
Okay. So… What happens next?

 

Bess:
Next, we must coax the power of the Sprite into its new vessel, and as we do so we shall guide the new form it takes as one might form wax into a mould.

 

Melody:
What will we put the Sprite into?

 

Bess:
Most charms are best made of bone- don’t worry, we need not kill anything. Scavenged bones, from the Road will do, or those cast aside from the cooking pot- although they must be raw. 

 

Melody:
Why does it have to be bone, that’s a little gross.

 

Bess:
Bone is natural, sweetling, and well used to being a conduit for energy. When you take a twig from a tree it becomes kindling, but when you remove a bone from a body it remains a bone, and thus as in life it could contain and transfer power so it can in other forms. Does that make sense?

Melody:
No, not really.

 

Bess:
Hmm, perhaps it will be clearer when you see it-

 

[From a little ways off, Arlo’s voice suddenly rings out]

 

Arlo:
There you are! Had me worried sick!

 

Melody:
Dad! 

 

Bess:
We were hardly gone a minute. No need to be worked up.

 

Arlo:
I’m hardly worked up, I just… I came by Bess’s wagon and you were gone, and someone told me they saw the pair of you heading out into the Night.

 

Bess:
You heard correctly. Now- 

 

Arlo:
Collecting herbs, hm? 

 

Bess:
Yes, for tea. Right, girl?

 

Melody:
Oh. Uh. Yes.

 

Arlo:
And where are these herbs.

 

Bess:
We found none. The coming of winter has been harsh, it seems.

 

Arlo:
Bess. Do not make my daughter lie to me. 

 

Melody:
I’m not-

 

Arlo:
Quiet. Bess, I remember enough of what you taught me to know that- even if you had been out hunting for herbs, even if I’d given you the okay to take my daughter out there- there’s no kind of herb that lives in the Night that I’d want you showing Mel. 

 

Bess:
Ha. It doesn’t suit a man who lives in the dark to be so afraid of it.

 

Arlo:
If I’m afraid it’s because I’ve got a brain. 

 

Bess:
There has been a shadow upon you of late, child. What has-

 

Arlo:
Enough. We’re not having this discussion here. Melody, go back to our wagon, we’ll talk soon. 

 

Melody:
But-

 

Arlo:
No buts. 

 

Melody:

[Clearly upset] Fine! [She stomps away. Beat.]

 

Bess:
Such a touching scene of father and child, hmm?

Arlo:
Oh don’t you dare- You’re talking to me about the way I’m taking care of her, when you’re off showing her Light-knows-what. 

 

Bess:
I have been showing her what she needs to know to stay safe.

Arlo:
Taking her out into the Night without telling me- that’s keeping her safe, is it?

 

Bess:
You know full well that she is safer in the Night with me than anyone else in this entire Caravan. 

 

Arlo:
Not if you’re the danger. What have you been teaching her?

 

Bess:
What she needs to know-

 

Arlo:
Don’t give me that. Was I safe? Did teaching me this shit make me safe, hm?
 

Bess:
Yes. It was your own fault that it became… less so, and only through my intervention that disaster was averted. If you should see anyone here as a threat…

 

Arlo:
Oh, for- If you hadn’t shown me-

 

Bess:
You would have found your way there in the end, and without my awareness and guidance- my sacrifice- you would not be here today. You would have found yourself in that same… position, just as she will. 

 

[Beat. The wind has been taken out of Arlo’s sails.]

 

Arlo:
Is it because of me? Because I’m her father?

 

Bess:
As much as I hate to give you continued permission to make this all about yourself, in all likelihood the source does lie in the blood. 

 

Arlo:
It hadn’t even occurred to me that she would… Since before she joined us, I’ve been so busy preparing to be Chronicler, then being Chronicler, and… I just… I was happy she was spending time with you. I was happy she seemed happy, that she was learning- I thought she was learning herbs and so on, her letters, useful things. 

 

Bess:
And she was. I have not been teaching her Witching under your nose. 

 

Arlo:
But you knew you were going to.

 

Bess:
Not at first. But I suspected. As you should have.

 

Arlo:
Maybe. I did think… I wondered how you two were making it work, her lessons, but didn’t put too much thought into it. Only occurred to me recently, the way she talked about you, talked about talking to you…

 

Bess:
That I might be talking back.

 

Arlo:
Ha. Yeah.

 

Bess:
Arlo. Witch, I may be. But I am not some crone from one of Sacha’s pantomimes here to steal your daughter away to my coven of the Night. I care for her, as you do. I would keep her safe, teach her to be safe. If you’ll let me. 

 

Arlo:
Could I stop you?

 

Bess:
I’m an old woman, Arlo. 

 

Arlo:
So, even odds?

Bess:
More or less. An old dog still has tricks, after all. 

 

Arlo:
I’ll keep that in mind. And… Fine. Teach her what she needs to know- not a thing more. Understand?

 

Bess:
Yes. You know, my assistance wouldn’t be necessary if you’d kept up with your own lessons.

 

Arlo:
Yeah, rub that one in again. I made my choice. You understood why.

 

Bess:
Yes. It was your choice to make, and one with which I don’t disagree. Although… Your untapped potential has not gone unnoticed, I see.

 

Arlo:
You noticed that, huh?

 

Bess:
Yes. You’ve caught the attention of something… interesting, haven’t you?

 

Arlo:
What is it?

Bess:
I don’t know, Arlo. I can’t help you. 

 

Arlo:
Not even a little?

 

Bess:
I am cut off from that world, now. All I can do is perform my little cantrips and help guide your daughter through this. Your path is your own. 

 

Arlo:
I’ll settle for advice.

 

Bess:
Fine. This thing that has taken an interest in you, it comes to you in the Night? Shuns sources of light of any kind, whispers to you things that it cannot know?

 

Arlo:
Yes. Do you know what it is?

 

Bess:
Yes, it’s any one of a thousand different manifestations, or perhaps one not even I know of.

 

Arlo:
Great.

 

Bess:
Can you tell me anything that might be of use?

Arlo:
It’s never attacked me. Just… talks. Whenever I’m out in the Night and I’m away from a lamp. 

 

Bess:
It is biding its time. For what purpose, I can only guess.

 

Arlo:
There is one thing…

 

Bess:
Hmm?

Arlo:
It mentioned Melody.

 

Bess:
What?

 

Arlo:
I think it was the first time it talked to me. It mentioned… “what my daughter is” or something. And then another time, it said that it had been following her, not me.

 

Bess:
Has the girl ever mentioned this Darkling? Ever hinted at a strange presence or voice of any kind?

Arlo:
No. I haven’t mentioned it to her, either- or anyone.

 

Bess:

Melody’s lessons will be continuing apace. Send her to my wagon as soon as you’re done scolding her or whatever it is fathers think parenting is.

 

Arlo:
So that’s bad, then.

 

Bess:
It speaks to you because it can. Because you have some small, withered measure of power that is nevertheless enough for it to commune with. It seeks her because, while her power has yet to truly manifest, the Darkling can see how that power will grow in time. 

 

Arlo:
And what will it do with her, then?

 

Bess:
If I do not train her to control her power, to contain it and to wield it as necessary? It will do with her whatever it wants.