transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] I sold my car in Carvana last night.

Speaker 2:
[00:02] Well, that's cool.

Speaker 3:
[00:03] No, you don't understand.

Speaker 1:
[00:04] It went perfectly.

Speaker 3:
[00:05] Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong.

Speaker 4:
[00:09] So, what's the problem?

Speaker 3:
[00:10] That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes as smoothly. I'm waiting for the catch.

Speaker 4:
[00:14] Maybe there's no catch.

Speaker 1:
[00:15] That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.

Speaker 4:
[00:18] Wow, you need to relax.

Speaker 3:
[00:19] I need a knock on wood.

Speaker 1:
[00:20] Do we have wood? Is this table wood? I think it's laminate. Okay, yeah, that's good. That's close enough.

Speaker 4:
[00:24] Car selling without a catch. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. Your LinkedIn feed can give you daily insights from your professional community. It cannot keep you updated on the daily office gossip.

Speaker 3:
[00:37] Oh my gosh, no way.

Speaker 4:
[00:39] It can help you stay informed on the latest news and trends in your industry. It cannot stop your boss from trying to start a new office trend. Who's ready for Flip Flop Fridays? And while we can't stop all of the office jargon.

Speaker 1:
[00:52] Does this fight with our collaborative latticework metric?

Speaker 4:
[00:54] LinkedIn can start taking your career to new heights. LinkedIn is the network that works for you.

Speaker 5:
[01:00] I don't care, I'm going.

Speaker 1:
[01:03] Zeela says firmly.

Speaker 6:
[01:05] Can't you study natural sciences here at home? Midst has plenty of nature.

Speaker 5:
[01:09] Dad, they already accepted my application. I'm picking out my classes. I even have a room assignment. It's decided, it's happening. Please just chill out. It's not like I'm going to the Delta, I'm going to school. Most parents would be proud.

Speaker 6:
[01:25] And I am proud of you, prouder than I am of anything. Never doubt that. I'm just...

Speaker 1:
[01:30] He trails off, hesitant to name whatever he is, but Zeela finishes his sentence for him.

Speaker 5:
[01:38] Scared?

Speaker 1:
[01:40] The word hangs in the air like a moon.

Speaker 6:
[01:46] Sherman sighs. You're right, I know it isn't rational, but every time you're out of my sight, every time I'm not 100% certain where you are, there's just this old, wounded part of my brain that just starts telling me you're... Then that's all it is. It's an old wound, and that is no reason for me to stand in your way. When you're only doing what I always wanted you to be able to do, live your own life. I'm sorry, sweetheart.

Speaker 1:
[02:17] Zeela sits down on the bar stool next to him. All of the other stools are still up on the counter. The cabaret isn't open yet, and Zeela and her dad are the only ones here in the front room right now.

Speaker 6:
[02:31] Well, except for Cleo, Doc, Merlin, the biological man, Everett, Mickey, Felix, Hambing, Roffield, Steve, and... Zeela.

Speaker 5:
[02:40] Other than that, they're totally alone.

Speaker 1:
[02:42] Zeela nuzzles into Sherman's shoulder. The 18-year-old Zeela, not the 40-something Zeela is watching this exchange.

Speaker 5:
[02:50] I get scared sometimes, too, when I haven't seen you in a while. But it's not like a huge, islet-swallowing terror comes along every time we're separated. In fact, it's only happened once.

Speaker 1:
[03:02] She smiles up at him.

Speaker 5:
[03:04] And Verger's not that far away.

Speaker 1:
[03:06] It's far enough, Sherman says. But he's smiling, too. He puts an arm around her shoulders and squeezes her tight.

Speaker 6:
[03:15] This zoological program better be the most fun I've ever had.

Speaker 5:
[03:18] It's your fault I'm doing this, you know. If you hadn't always encouraged me, then maybe I wouldn't be following my dreams.

Speaker 6:
[03:25] That's right. Well, that was a mistake. Okay, no more encouragement. Only early bedtimes and gruel for dinner from now on.

Speaker 1:
[03:32] Aw, your dad loves you so much.

Speaker 6:
[03:36] Mickey is smiling.

Speaker 5:
[03:38] Yeah, Zeila says. He reacted pretty much the same way when I told him I was joining the expedition. Wait, how did we...?

Speaker 6:
[03:50] You know, now that somebody mentions it, how did they...?

Speaker 5:
[03:56] The crew, all standing here in Saskia's cabaret, start to examine their surroundings with a bit more awareness.

Speaker 7:
[04:05] I was starting to wonder when somebody was going to say something.

Speaker 5:
[04:10] Whoa, says Zeela, a bit dazedly. I... I almost forgot what we were doing. I already went to school. I finished school, right? Yeah, I'm a grown up. Oh my God, the hallway, the doors.

Speaker 1:
[04:26] Ah, yes, the hallway, the doors. It's coming back to them now. It's difficult to remember just how they got here.

Speaker 5:
[04:38] You know how in dreams, the context of situations is sort of lost or irrelevant? It just is the way it is. Moments and impressions smearing together like wet paint.

Speaker 6:
[04:48] But this isn't a dream, right?

Speaker 8:
[04:54] Where's the ship?

Speaker 9:
[04:57] It's outside where we parked it.

Speaker 7:
[05:00] That's not what happened.

Speaker 6:
[05:03] Huh. Well, nobody's particularly worried. It feels like the ship is still nearby. It's not like they lost it. When they need to be back aboard it, they will be. Right? Right?

Speaker 1:
[05:26] Saskia's Cabaret looks markedly unwarped, unswerly, with ordinary pre-Moonfall architecture. No terror has swallowed and transformed this place. Not yet.

Speaker 6:
[05:41] There is a child sitting at the bar.

Speaker 5:
[05:46] Wait, what happened to the Zeela and the Sherman that were just there?

Speaker 1:
[05:49] It doesn't matter. This is what's happening now.

Speaker 6:
[05:53] There, Zeela sits, swinging her gangly pre-adolescent legs from the tall bar stool. She's about 12 years old this time.

Speaker 5:
[06:05] Twelve and a half.

Speaker 1:
[06:07] Present day Zeela's eyes go wide. Goosebumps raise on her arms.

Speaker 6:
[06:15] Child Zeela is sketching some of the ornate bottles behind the Cabaret bar. Her dad, a bit younger than before, is polishing glassware.

Speaker 5:
[06:26] Oh my gosh, Cleo says. Zeela, you're so cute. You're just a baby.

Speaker 6:
[06:32] You're welcome to come up, sir, unless you'd rather finish your drink.

Speaker 5:
[06:35] A man in a bowler hat carrying a briefcase with a gift bag under his arm is talking to the Cabaret maître d just inside the front door.

Speaker 8:
[06:44] Oh, not at all.

Speaker 6:
[06:44] You can bring it up if you want.

Speaker 8:
[06:45] Let's get down to business.

Speaker 6:
[06:47] Or up. Yeah, go this way.

Speaker 5:
[06:51] This is... Whoa, I feel crazy. Are you guys all seeing this? Are you here too?

Speaker 6:
[06:58] Zeela is leaning over her own shoulder, now scrutinizing her childhood sketchbook.

Speaker 5:
[07:04] I felt so cool for figuring out crosshatching.

Speaker 1:
[07:08] Cleo's lights are still brightening and dimming in that same way. Maybe the rhythm has changed? Maybe they're staying on slightly longer than they're staying off. But maybe not. It's hard to tell.

Speaker 5:
[07:25] I am seeing this, but I'm not sure how. Is this Saskia's? I've never been here at all. I wanted to, but I didn't have time.

Speaker 6:
[07:36] Felix is looking kind of pale and sweaty.

Speaker 5:
[07:39] Time. Time. Time travel? Is that what's happening?

Speaker 6:
[07:45] No.

Speaker 1:
[07:46] The granddaughter gently shakes their head.

Speaker 5:
[07:49] But this is the past, and we are in it. Traveling.

Speaker 6:
[07:55] This is a memory. We are not really here. We cannot change anything.

Speaker 5:
[08:01] Oh. Well, thank god. Felix says, relaxing a little. I mean, if this were time travel.

Speaker 8:
[08:08] Dot, I thought you said you did not know what this was. And now you know it's a memory?

Speaker 5:
[08:15] Dot looks at Merlin neutrally.

Speaker 6:
[08:17] Because it is a memory, that is how I know.

Speaker 5:
[08:21] Several memories, Zela says. All kind of blurred together. And the stuff I can't quite remember isn't here.

Speaker 6:
[08:31] She watches as the maitre d and the man in the bowler hat make their way up a flight of stairs to the shadowy upper level.

Speaker 1:
[08:40] Not just shadowy, but insubstantial.

Speaker 5:
[08:44] Vague.

Speaker 1:
[08:45] Borderline non-existent.

Speaker 5:
[08:48] The space immediately surrounding kid Zela is vivid by comparison, as though she's a lantern that casts detail instead of light.

Speaker 1:
[08:58] Is this how people normally experience memories?

Speaker 6:
[09:03] The biological man is looking anxious.

Speaker 1:
[09:07] My memories aren't like this.

Speaker 8:
[09:09] I think you mean my memories.

Speaker 1:
[09:12] Merla mutters.

Speaker 5:
[09:13] Zela rubs her forehead. My memories aren't usually like this. Usually a memory feels like something that's inside you, but this feels bigger, realer, like we're inside of it.

Speaker 6:
[09:29] She watches her younger self with a wistful expression.

Speaker 5:
[09:33] This was one of my favorite ways to hang out with my dad growing up, when he was setting up the bar before open hours. It's so clear. It's better than normal remembering.

Speaker 6:
[09:45] Hey, careful.

Speaker 1:
[09:46] Everett rubs Zela's arm.

Speaker 6:
[09:49] Don't forget what's really happening. Steve maneuvers his gelatinous bulk delicately through the space, like a jellied rhino in a nightclub to stand beside the bar.

Speaker 5:
[10:05] His eye splits between the two Zelas, splits further to take in the room and the vague impressions of a world outside the stained-glass windows.

Speaker 1:
[10:17] Suddenly a feline shadow on the wall, a flash of butteryellow fur somewhere in the darkness behind the bar area, disappearing towards the theater side of the cabaret.

Speaker 9:
[10:29] Omelette?

Speaker 6:
[10:30] Cleo lunges forward.

Speaker 5:
[10:31] Omelette?

Speaker 9:
[10:32] Is that you? Here, boy.

Speaker 6:
[10:34] But Rawfield grabs her arm. Wait, Cleo, let's not get separated.

Speaker 9:
[10:38] Omelette, I saw his yellow tail, too.

Speaker 5:
[10:40] Cleo pulls aside a thick curtain, and suddenly, we're up in the VIP balcony overlooking the stage, morning on light streaming through windows, a weekend brunch crowd sipping mimosas. Everett and Mickey are sitting at a table together.

Speaker 1:
[10:55] We realize this may all feel rather dreamlike and confusing.

Speaker 6:
[11:02] That is because it is.

Speaker 5:
[11:05] For us here listening and for the crew observing.

Speaker 1:
[11:09] These moments seem to crest and withdraw, almost like waves on a beach, each lapsing into the next with the smooth fluid transition of a dream between scenes.

Speaker 5:
[11:22] A hallucinatory intermingling.

Speaker 6:
[11:25] Past Everett, seated here at the table, is saying, The highest heights, the deepest depths, the beginning and end of the cosmos, Mickey.

Speaker 1:
[11:34] Everett leans across the table of the booth, with bacon and eggs half eaten, oversized red bomber jacket tossed over the back of her seat.

Speaker 8:
[11:42] The road trip of a lifetime.

Speaker 1:
[11:45] The road trip to end our lifetimes.

Speaker 5:
[11:49] Mickey is grimly considering her coffee.

Speaker 1:
[11:51] I'll take a thousand more regular old delivery routes with you over one suicide expedition. I like our life, don't you?

Speaker 6:
[12:01] Yeah, I love our life, and this can be part of it. We can even bring our flying house with us, and we can just hang out in there whenever we want.

Speaker 5:
[12:09] Mickey just looks at her.

Speaker 1:
[12:11] Everett!

Speaker 5:
[12:12] Mickey? The entire present-day crew gathered nearby exchange uncomfortable glances.

Speaker 1:
[12:21] Oh, no.

Speaker 5:
[12:23] Present Mickey says. Present Everett blanches.

Speaker 6:
[12:27] Oh, jeez.

Speaker 5:
[12:28] No one, past or present, says a word. Until past Everett bitterly crunches a bite of bacon.

Speaker 6:
[12:36] Okay, I'll tell the consortium no. They'll find another lifeboat.

Speaker 1:
[12:39] Everett.

Speaker 6:
[12:40] No, it's fine. Somebody else can go on the greatest journey that has ever been offered to living human beings in the entire history of the cosmos. We can just say no, and we'll just take no risks, and we'll just try nothing, and we'll go nowhere. It's cool. We got packages to deliver.

Speaker 1:
[12:51] I'm done arguing with you.

Speaker 5:
[12:53] Past Mickey bristles and stands.

Speaker 1:
[12:56] We'll talk about this later when you're not acting like a jerk.

Speaker 5:
[12:59] And she leaves.

Speaker 1:
[13:01] Present Everett is cringing as Everett of the past continues to sulkily shovel bacon and eggs into her mouth, brooding over her coffee.

Speaker 6:
[13:14] Oh, that was kind of private, no big deal.

Speaker 5:
[13:18] Cleo's second-hand embarrassment alarm is going off big time. Should we give you some privacy?

Speaker 1:
[13:27] Mickey shrugs. Thanks, but I don't think that's how this place works.

Speaker 5:
[13:33] Present Everett offers Mickey a timid hug, and Mickey squeezes her back.

Speaker 6:
[13:38] Sorry again.

Speaker 1:
[13:41] Crap.

Speaker 6:
[13:42] I don't know if I like this place.

Speaker 7:
[13:44] Now, could you lie?

Speaker 5:
[13:45] Concurrs Steve.

Speaker 7:
[13:46] I don't like it at all.

Speaker 5:
[13:49] At this, Merlin turns to the jellied rhinoceros person. His eyes blink off and on.

Speaker 8:
[13:56] So this is getting to you. A new paradigm, one that doesn't fit neatly into your elegant theory of the mega cosmos. Oh, wise prophet, how does the fever dream hall of doors enter into your grand postulations? Deltas leading to founts leading to Deltas, my bocular ass. You're just as wrong about everything as I am. Ha!

Speaker 7:
[14:24] There is an explanation and I am not wrong. We may not see how it all fits together yet, but this must be another cosmos, just like the last, like yours, then like mine.

Speaker 8:
[14:33] Because it is unproven bullshit and you know it!

Speaker 7:
[14:36] Ha! Oh, shut up! You're just bitter that all your pitiful science is more worthless now than ever.

Speaker 8:
[14:42] Oh, look who's talking!

Speaker 7:
[14:44] And now you're just being deliberately cruel.

Speaker 8:
[14:46] And you are being deliberately persistent in outmoded beliefs. We may all be wrong.

Speaker 5:
[14:54] Steve glares. That has to be what this expression is. His head sack lights seem to smolder with a dusky hue, not unlike the glow of the dying sun last season.

Speaker 6:
[15:05] Rawfield simply crosses her arms, just a little flicker of smugness in the corners of her eyes.

Speaker 1:
[15:12] The biological man is looking red around the ears, clearly embarrassed by these plural arguments. Perhaps we should return to the hall. This door has only taken us to a memory of Midst, not the real thing. We still need to get to Midst in the present. Or in the future, I suppose.

Speaker 5:
[15:38] Yes, we should keep moving, says Dart.

Speaker 6:
[15:41] Especially you three. Zeela, Everett, Mickey.

Speaker 1:
[15:46] Zeela looks at Dart slowly, distantly.

Speaker 6:
[15:53] Ah, Rawfield says, that's why. Let's go.

Speaker 5:
[15:57] Zeela shakes her head, though it's hard to tell if it's from a reluctance to leave or an attempt to clear her thoughts. Her bird skull earring jingles slightly as she does so.

Speaker 1:
[16:09] Everett and Mickey seem similarly disoriented, unable to fully extricate their emotions from the memories housed in this place.

Speaker 6:
[16:19] Go? Where? Everett asks.

Speaker 5:
[16:22] Okay, round them up. Rawfield immediately takes charge. Everybody whose memories these aren't, let's lead the way back out.

Speaker 7:
[16:30] Yes, please, let us depart. I'm eager to quit this place.

Speaker 5:
[16:34] Cleo is about to protest that Omelette is still in here somewhere. When a faint cat-like noise echoes from beyond the cabaret's front door, a shadow flits over its window. Okay, so maybe Omelette isn't in here so much as just kind of around, huh?

Speaker 1:
[16:55] The crew retreat to the glossy black door with its stained glass candlestick. Rawfield firmly and decisively opens it, and they exit the cabaret.

Speaker 10:
[17:08] The Saja Boys Breakfast Meal and the Huntrix Meal of the K-Pop Demon Hunters have arrived at McDonald's. They are calling it the Battle for the Fans.

Speaker 2:
[17:16] What do you think, Rumi? It's not a battle. We're glad that our young Saja Boys were able to have breakfast and we had the rest of the day's food. It's an honor to be able to share with you.

Speaker 9:
[17:27] Oh no, the honor is ours.

Speaker 6:
[17:28] The greatest honor is ours.

Speaker 10:
[17:30] Oh, a lot of respect in this battle. Choose a meal to choose your group at McDonald's.

Speaker 2:
[17:36] In McDonald's, participants have to waste their lives.

Speaker 11:
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Speaker 1:
[18:18] The first, most notable thing is the presence of squirming, amorphous shadows that are clustered around the doorway. The crew has just exited, like ants around honey. They cling cobwebbishly to the walls.

Speaker 6:
[18:37] Shrieks, Felix flinching back.

Speaker 5:
[18:39] What the fuck?

Speaker 6:
[18:41] And the instant they are perceived, the shadows dart away, sliding silently along the hall, at something approaching the speed of darkness.

Speaker 5:
[18:48] It's easier to see them with peripheral vision, flittering in a way you could almost call lizard-like. But that's somehow not quite right.

Speaker 1:
[18:57] In barely a moment, they have disappeared into the hallway's immeasurable depths. Depths that seem, perhaps, just ever so slightly darker than they did before, at least in one direction.

Speaker 6:
[19:13] Cleo's hand is on her sword hilt.

Speaker 5:
[19:15] What are those things?

Speaker 6:
[19:18] They live here.

Speaker 5:
[19:20] Zeela is peering after them, scientific interest peeking through her fright.

Speaker 1:
[19:25] Whatever they were, they seem more scared of us than we are of them.

Speaker 6:
[19:30] They will not harm us.

Speaker 5:
[19:32] Whew, okay, that's a relief.

Speaker 6:
[19:35] I did not say that we were safe.

Speaker 8:
[19:38] How do you know that?

Speaker 5:
[19:40] Raising his hands and clenching his fists in frustration, Merlin turns to Face Dot.

Speaker 8:
[19:45] Once again, you imply you know things about this place without giving us any concrete information. Enough with the motherly ambiguity, Dot. How do you know it is or is not safe here?

Speaker 5:
[19:59] Dot examines him implacably.

Speaker 6:
[20:01] Does it seem safe here?

Speaker 8:
[20:03] Absolutely not.

Speaker 6:
[20:04] That is how.

Speaker 8:
[20:06] You become more like artifice every day, and I do not mean that as a compliment.

Speaker 6:
[20:12] The lurking presence of those shadowy forms is not the only change to the whole. Another, perhaps more welcome transformation, is rather glaringly apparent.

Speaker 1:
[20:25] From the higher levels of the hall, a somewhat familiar mica-like light has begun to glow, and along the floor rushes a shallow trickle of obsidian fog, a current of fold.

Speaker 5:
[20:47] Everyone reacts.

Speaker 1:
[20:48] Merlin's bellows heave with relief or crazed triumph or something.

Speaker 6:
[20:53] And Dot crouches down, dipping their gloved fingers in the meager stream.

Speaker 5:
[20:59] Rawfield watches them attentively, as though expecting them to lose their balance or need assistance standing up again. But they do not.

Speaker 6:
[21:07] The crew linger outside of the door to Saskia's house.

Speaker 1:
[21:24] As Hambing proposed, it is parked outside indeed, just as it was on launch day, but, you know, in a freaky hall of doors instead of at the top of Stationary Hill.

Speaker 6:
[21:38] Ahead and behind, above and below, countless doorways shimmer invitingly. Cleo is taking it all in with some trepidation.

Speaker 5:
[21:52] Ah, here we are again, right back where we started.

Speaker 7:
[21:57] What did I tell you? These doors are a waste of time.

Speaker 1:
[22:00] Okay, so going through that door didn't get us home, but it did do something.

Speaker 6:
[22:07] The Biological Man peers into the door full distance.

Speaker 1:
[22:11] There wasn't any visible fold here before. The ceiling wasn't glowing like Micah before.

Speaker 5:
[22:17] Felix scoffs, though he's still clutching himself fearfully. There weren't spooky shadow guys here before.

Speaker 1:
[22:24] My point is, the hall has changed. Dare I say, it now resembles our cosmos in some slight way. Micah above, fold below. A distinct and unidirectional current.

Speaker 5:
[22:39] The biological man gestures along the length of the floor.

Speaker 1:
[22:42] I think we're on to something. We should keep exploring.

Speaker 6:
[22:47] Merlin's bellows huff, but he nods.

Speaker 8:
[22:51] Everett? Any insights? Mickey? Navigation ideas?

Speaker 6:
[22:56] Mickey just laughs.

Speaker 5:
[22:57] I think we're way past conventional navigation at this point.

Speaker 6:
[23:01] And Everett just shrugs. Look, man, this is already way beyond anything I experienced in moth therapy. But I guess, yeah. Exploring good. That's what we're supposed to be, right, explorers?

Speaker 1:
[23:13] Dot looks gravely from one end of the hallway to the other, following the thin current with their eyes.

Speaker 6:
[23:22] I know very little.

Speaker 5:
[23:24] They say. They glance just a moment longer at the side of the hall that the fold seems to be flowing from, the side that the shadows fled towards.

Speaker 1:
[23:52] An echoing feline trill causes Cleo to jerk her head up. Was it coming from above?

Speaker 5:
[24:00] Where the heck is he? It can't be healthy for him to be running around this place unsupervised.

Speaker 6:
[24:06] I think the same can be said of us, Rawfield gives Cleo's shoulder a gruff pat. At least he seems to be energetic and vocal.

Speaker 5:
[24:13] But how did he even get out of the ship?

Speaker 6:
[24:16] The same way we did.

Speaker 5:
[24:18] okay, okay.

Speaker 6:
[24:20] A few doorways down, there is one of those many paintings.

Speaker 5:
[24:26] Hembing takes a few steps toward it to get a closer look.

Speaker 9:
[24:29] So if the doors lead to memories, what's the deal with…

Speaker 1:
[24:34] Everett grabs him by the back of his jacket.

Speaker 6:
[24:37] Don't, the mother's always told me not to look at those.

Speaker 5:
[24:39] She looks back at Mickey and the others.

Speaker 6:
[24:41] Did you all hear what I said? No paintings.

Speaker 1:
[24:47] He doesn't look closer, but it's clear he really, really wants to.

Speaker 5:
[24:54] Searching for another familiar doorway, more than one pair of eyes has now alighted on a distinctive curtain of bright red vegetation. Even without stepping through, it calls to mind a vivid memory. Soaring through an endless skyscape of stark white, in which a fluttering scrap of red stood out like blood on snow.

Speaker 9:
[25:17] How about that one?

Speaker 1:
[25:19] Hambing asks.

Speaker 9:
[25:21] I recognize that.

Speaker 5:
[25:22] Me too, says Zeela. It's the red lichen we found growing inside that hollow Meikeberg.

Speaker 8:
[25:28] Well, there's only one way to know for sure.

Speaker 1:
[25:32] Merlin, leading the way more out of restlessness than confidence, peels aside the curtain of dewy red growth.

Speaker 5:
[25:40] The rest of the crew close behind, tempted forward by a fresh, juicy atmosphere.

Speaker 6:
[25:47] A tooth-some humidity.

Speaker 8:
[25:50] Ah.

Speaker 1:
[25:53] Merlin says.

Speaker 8:
[25:54] Now this, everyone should remember. Except you, Steve.

Speaker 5:
[26:02] Steve mutters to himself. The black rainbow shard of the ship is parked above and milling all around, completely oblivious to our door explorer's presence. A crowd of familiar people explores the grotto with wonder. The crew, the entire crew, including those they have lost or said goodbye to.

Speaker 1:
[26:44] Over yonder, tiny hambing writhes on Felix's shoulder.

Speaker 6:
[26:50] Just there, regular original human Merlin is pondering crimson orb plants.

Speaker 5:
[26:56] Keno DelBelsaban hands out snacks.

Speaker 1:
[26:59] Kanekin Hartevelt takes a photo.

Speaker 6:
[27:02] Shana Marie does a luxurious forearm stretch.

Speaker 5:
[27:07] Oh my god, it's us, Cleo murmurs.

Speaker 6:
[27:12] Oh my god, it's him, says Everett.

Speaker 1:
[27:17] At the shore of the Crystal Lagoon is Mother Artifice.

Speaker 7:
[27:24] What is that?

Speaker 5:
[27:28] He says Steve, staying well back.

Speaker 1:
[27:33] The dark hammer-headed figure stands at the edge of the crystalline water with the granddaughter, attending to some whispered comment they are relating to him.

Speaker 6:
[27:47] But his veiled attention seems divided, because he alone, among the many members of the Memoryscape crew visible here in the Spectral Oasis, is looking directly at the new arrivals.

Speaker 1:
[28:07] Wait, is he really? It's kind of hard to tell with his face covered, but... I, uh... Oh, what did you say?

Speaker 6:
[28:19] Artifice shakes himself, returning his attention to his quiet companion at the lagoon's edge. Past Dot replies, I said that realization has...

Speaker 1:
[28:31] Oh, yes! Then remain vigilant. Your attention is a beam of light within your control to direct as you will.

Speaker 6:
[28:40] Another subtle turn of the head toward his observers.

Speaker 1:
[28:45] The Hall of Doors crew exchange slow, thunderstruck glances.

Speaker 5:
[28:51] No, Felix says. No way.

Speaker 8:
[28:56] This can't be.

Speaker 6:
[28:58] Merlin says.

Speaker 8:
[29:00] Does he? Can he?

Speaker 10:
[29:04] Go forth and observe.

Speaker 1:
[29:06] I am going to scrutinize these salamanders. They look very weird.

Speaker 5:
[29:11] Mother Artifice sends Dot off to explore the grotto on their own, and he kneels down by a tide pool to examine some little magenta axolotl type creatures about ten feet from the onlookers. All the skittish creatures.

Speaker 1:
[29:52] Yep, replies Mother Artifice.

Speaker 6:
[29:56] Howdy-doo.

Speaker 1:
[30:06] Thanks for listening to Unend. If you're enjoying the story, please rate and review to help someone new discover the cosmos.

Speaker 5:
[30:15] You can catch Unend every Wednesday, anywhere you stream podcasts, or through the Midst Podcast YouTube channel.

Speaker 6:
[30:22] If you're looking to dive deeper into the story, become a Beacon member at beacon.tv, or join the fold on midst.co to receive early ad-free access to episodes, behind-the-scenes exclusives, and lore-expanding bonus content.

Speaker 1:
[30:38] Or if you just want to hear this podcast two weeks early and without ads, subscribe on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

Speaker 5:
[30:48] To stay up-to-date on what's next in the cosmos, sign up for our newsletter on midst.co, or find us on social media at Midst Podcast. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Speaker 7:
[31:14] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Here, level up your summer at columbia.com.

Speaker 3:
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