Chapter C: Two Rites

The two camps can be visited in either order, as Twinhold and Lanternfall can in Act 2. The chapter ends when both have been heard.

The Evane camp: the second Great Mending

• Where: heart_pane, west rim, the chorus circle (Mark_chorus_circle) and Ondine's tent (Mark_ondine_tent).
• When: act4.stage ≥ 2.
• Who: Prelate Ondine Ash; Tamsin; Mother Bramble (Tenders); Keeper Hale (Keepers of the Hour); Choirmistress Wen (Still Choir); Warden menders.
• What happens: Ondine explains the rite. Four voices, one for each mirrored faction, sing the Pane still; the last note, sung by a flawless mirror, makes the stillness permanent. The warps close everywhere, and asymmetric glyphs will never take hold again. She says plainly what it costs: Lanternfall goes dark and the Facets lose their magic. She has done the sum and believes fewer people die this way, and she doesn't pretend Corran didn't happen; she says she will pay her own share. (Idea) The Waymakers are not in the circle. Dace refused, and that is why the chorus is four mirrored voices: the "mirrored chorus". Tamsin is to sing the Wardens' voice in Ondine's place, because Ondine conducts.
• Player does: talk (Ondine; then each faction head, one short exchange each); choose a reply to Ondine (agree, challenge her with the Hour Stair records, or say nothing).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_EvaneCamp_Ondine, Act4_EvaneCamp_Bramble, Act4_EvaneCamp_Hale, Act4_EvaneCamp_Wen, Act4_EvaneCamp_Tamsin. Flags: act4.heard_ondine = 1; act4.challenged_ondine = 1 if the player raises the records. (Idea) Each faction head's stance is set by earlier acts and read here: Wen signs that she will sing only if no one else will (her letters to the Facets, Act 2); Hale sings because the records are already out (Act 3), and says nothing more can be hidden. VEL-63 decides which earlier flags these read.
• Art and audio: Evane camp kit (pale stone banners, silver, mirrored tents); the chorus circle of four standing stones, each lit in its faction's colour (Wardens pale blue, Tenders violet, Keepers and Still Choir as their colours are decided). Models: Ondine, Bramble, Hale, Wen (from Acts 2–3). Music: the mirrored chorus theme, a four-voice canon in which each voice is the one before it, mirrored.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

The rehearsal

• Where: heart_pane, west rim, a crack at the edge of the Pane (Event_rehearsal_crack), with a Facet lantern beside it on the shore.
• When: after Act4_EvaneCamp_Ondine.
• Who: Tamsin, three menders, the player; Ondine watching.
• What happens: The chorus rehearses on a small crack at the rim, and Tamsin asks the player to sing the last note: to draw one mirrored spell as precisely as they can. The crack closes and the Glass goes perfectly flat. The Facet lantern on the shore beside it goes dark and will not relight. Tamsin sees it too and says nothing. This scene teaches the Pane rule for mirrored spells (section 7) before the finale needs it.
• Player does: cast (a forced mirrored cast; the best-scoring mirrored spell the player knows is offered, Repel if none other).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_EvaneCamp_Rehearsal with <<prompt_cast repel>> (or a new <<prompt_cast_style mirrored>> command that accepts any learned mirrored spell (Idea)). Flag act4.rehearsed = 1. Optional: skip the rehearsal and the scene is narrated.
• Art and audio: VFX: a mending in miniature (a crack sealing in a ripple of pale light, then a mirror-flat patch); the lantern going dark, amber fading to grey. Audio: the chorus's last note, a pure tone; the lantern's glass cooling with a tick.
• Screens used: dialogue box; field cast.

The Facet camp: the last cut

• Where: heart_pane, east rim, the lantern line (Mark_lantern_line) and the cut line (Mark_cut_line), where the Culet cut's picks are driven into the Pane's edge.
• When: act4.stage ≥ 2.
• Who: Iver Kest, "the Cutter"; Rook; the Culet cut (Iver's cut; Culet is one of the Story Bible's cut names, section 2, and the culet is the bottom point of a gem, where a stone is cut last (Idea)); Lanternfall Facets who came to watch.
• What happens: Iver shows the player his hands. The seals from his un-teaching as a boy are still there as pale lines across his palms (Idea: sealed by a Twinhold court under Ondine's authority). He explains the cut: two different shapes drawn at once on the Pane's centre, held without drifting, until the last unbroken piece of the Mere gives way. Every glyph it holds is freed at once, and with no Pane left to mend from, no Warden court can ever seal a spell again. He admits warps will open everywhere. He says people will learn to live with glints the way they live with weather, and that this is the price of no one being un-taught again. Rook stands with him but answers for him less than he used to.
• Player does: talk (Iver; Rook; two cutters); choose a reply to Iver (agree; ask who pays for the warps; show him Lio, if 4.9 is done first).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_FacetCamp_Iver, Act4_FacetCamp_Rook, Act4_FacetCamp_Cutters. Flags: act4.heard_iver = 1; act4.asked_cost = 1.
• Art and audio: Facet camp kit (salvaged shard tents, amber lanterns, mismatched cloth); the cut line, a row of glass picks with each cutter's personal sigil on the handle. Model: Iver (new, see section 11). Music: the asymmetric shattering theme, two melodies in different metres that only line up every few bars.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

Lio at the lantern line

• Where: heart_pane, east rim, the end of the lantern line (Mark_lio).
• When: act4.stage ≥ 2; optional, but marked on the quest log while act4.stage < 3.
• Who: Lio; Rook (if he walks over).
• What happens: Lio, the child from Lanternfall who was handed a glyph too early (Act 2), has come with her family. She heard about the Mending and wants it: if asymmetric magic ends, her hands will go quiet, and she will never hurt anyone with them again. She asks the player whether that is wrong. Rook can't answer her, which is the first time the player has seen him without an answer. (Idea) This is the act's hardest moment for the Facet side, as the lantern going dark (4.7) is for the Evane side: the player sees each rite cost someone who isn't a soldier.
• Player does: talk; choose (tell her it isn't wrong; tell her hands can learn; say nothing).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_FacetCamp_Lio. Flag act4.lio_heard = 1; "hands can learn" sets act4.lio_hope = 1, which the epilogues read.
• Art and audio: Lio model (from Act 2). Music: none; wind over the Pane.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

Dace's caravans

• Where: heart_pane, north rim, the Waymaker wagons (Mark_caravans).
• When: act4.stage ≥ 2; optional.
• Who: Caravan-master Dace; Waymaker drivers; Evane and Facet families loading wagons.
• What happens: Dace refused Ondine and isn't helping Iver. The Waymakers are doing what they always do: moving people. Wagons are taking Lanternfall families north in case the Mending darkens their city, and Shardfield hamlets west in case the cut opens warps there. Dace says the Endless Caravan legend (Story Bible section 1) was always about this: when the Mere is in trouble, you keep people moving. Dace offers a job: escort one wagon to the edge of the inner ring and back before dawn.
• Player does: talk; optional escort (move, fight).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Caravans_Dace. Side quest act4_side_last_wagon (one stage; encounter inner_glints on the road; reward: one step of 5 each on rep.evane, rep.facets and rep.waymakers (Idea)). Flag act4.wagon_escorted = 1.
• Art and audio: Waymaker wagons with pale green sail-lamps (from the Long Road kit). Music: Long Road theme, quiet.
• Screens used: dialogue box; battle HUD; quest log.

When both act4.heard_ondine and act4.heard_iver are 1, the next conversation with Aske at her fire (Yarn Act4_Fire_Aske) sets act4.stage = 3, night falls, and 4.11 begins.

From Walkthrough: Act 4 › Chapter C: Two Rites