And then he's completely naked, completely vulnerable, still holding Thea's hand.

When I was a child, we used to play this game.

The neighborhood children and I, I imagine they found me dreadfully irritating because I wouldn't ever want to play this same game.

We would stand in a circle and one by one take it in turns to sing the line of a song, making it up as we go round and round until we collectively felt the song was complete.

And they were terrible, of course, meandering nonsensical, repetitive, tuneless.

We were children.

But I cherished those songs.

Yeah.

Yeah,

okay.

Yeah, this was really fun.

I really liked the Calyx and Ash scene.

was just like really moving and like in a kind of like it was obviously like the the imagery of what we're seeing is pretty horrendous but the emotionality going on alongside it was oddly beautiful in the way that rotten things sometimes smell sweet i don't know it was i really really loved it so much i love this strange toxic relationship between these two.

I'm always just so excited.

I'm so excited to see where like, this can't end well, but I'm here for it.

together and like seeing how these two kind of work together.

the old fire.

Narrate the howling choir's lament, bringing Romulo back to life, and the appearance of the new moon, blue El-Sayin.

The

brave tell a story of a man

who did stand

against the queen who did smite him by her own wicked hand.

But the love of the many was stronger than she, and our voices held magic that set his soul free.

I love this game.

That's some comfort, but you didn't have to look into his eyes as he did, and that was the last thing I saw before this.

I know what it is to watch one you care for in their final moments, to have their last gasp taunt you with every exhale.

But let us speak of nicer things.

Um, and I think she's gonna root around in her pack and pull out Granny Lou's little kit of lotions and potions, and this h- th- in a kind of more practical way, without, without that hesitancy or tenderness, she's just gonna open a jar which has a pungent, overwhelming scent of rose, that last gasp of rose at the end of summer, and she's just going to start applying it around Fenwen's eyes without hesitating for permission in the slightest.

Um, and as she speak- as she does so, she kind of just prattles on about the delicious foods she used to enjoy in the court, and how they always threw rose petals out ahead of them when they were bringing it forth.

It's so delicious.

Simple pleasures, of which there are so few here.

Though grass and lichen claim them, what great enemies among the decomposed trespassers hint at the lone knight's forgotten prowess?

The floor is yours.

The story goes that you came to us, and you told us that in exchange for our help and our respect, you would reward us one day by invoking the Wolf King to open his second eye and watch over us.

So we helped you.

We howled and howled to help you find your lost friends until finally a howl came in response and you left us, but we remembered you.

And now he is here, and I have heard tell there is something greatly wrong with him, and I do hope that now you will help me to deal with that.

A lot of fun.

um just like a general star for everyone for all paint the scenes today were really good just some really fucked up shit lads loved it um fantastic um jason as always thank you for bringing into my life another sassy little bitch in the scrutineer caro uh of a different flavor yet again you have truly an endless rolodex of sassy little characters in your brain and it brings me utter joy every time um and the way you can balance that with some of the most horrifying narration known to man or god is genuinely a talent that i never tire of seeing so staff of that jason um ren i loved so much about your old fires but i really found it fascinating the way you kind of created this idea of we've kind of seen that the nameless have are quite mythic, like there's so many tales around them.

And it was so interesting the way that you kind of took that prompt about pride and showed us that the nameless were actually kind of building their own mythology.

With Thea, are you going to make camp here at the ruins of Kesselbruggen?

Yeah, Thea finds a comfortable-looking patch of rubble

to kind of lounge on so that she can be looking up at the red light of Rhaegar above her.

Don't be angry with me.

I know, I know revenge must be had and revenge will be had.

But I must look out for the well-being of our same.

He's younger than you.

It was so great.

T'Thea, describe how you use the story of Kenduin's beloved to walk past her barrier to reach her.

T'Thea continues in this dance, moving closer and further, forward and back, but always returning to the same place, And here is where she realizes why they left her.

Mortals, trapped in an endless dance, trying to win favor from an eternal being who could play with them forever.

Of course, they turned to each other.

They could be happy without her.

And Fea thinks she needs to remember what it was like when someone stopped letting her toy with them.

And she finds Fenwyn in this space.

That's an absolute, just astonishing mystery.

... to see this to its end.

This place is not dying, it is dead.

You know, [scoffs] I once would dance in a court full of heartbeats.

The troubadours.

I was never much of a soloist, always part of a troupe, and we would dance together.

And we would be many, but we would be as one, moving around each other.

Our hands were never empty, our hearts were never empty.

[laughs]

All right.

She'll sit down on the petals and invite Periwinkle to, to join her.

And as their bodies crush these rotting petals, that perfume, that cloying, slightly rotten scent rises into their nostrils.

And she will stroke his hair and murmur to him, "It's gone, that time of many lovers, that time of flesh and skin and mingled breath, of lips brushing and the intertwining music of moans and cries and gasps.

It's not coming back, poor spurned Tide.

But why don't you lie with me here and remember it?" And she'll allow him to lay down, and she'll think on the love that she has lost, as he thinks on his, and she will sing him.

Rose, sweet rose, your thorns are blunted.

Uh, yeah, just a good time all around.

If you do so, clear an appropriate condition, or unmark an aspect, and then as a group, you will discover your first clue for the Moldering Court." Um, I'll just give the scene over to all of you.

Fayre is drawing in the dust in one of the rooms of this castle.

She's not much of a visual artist, but she draws flowers and blooms, and she says, "They say it's like being assaulted, the, the scent of all those flowers.

I don't know what flowers smell like.

If I ever knew, perhaps I did.

But they say it's a pleasant assault.

You would know about that, wouldn't you, Hollow Branch? They say the petals were soft.

Well done.

Does Merciful try to bribe the darkness with gold, or face it with hollow dignity? How does decadence become terror?

The screams pouring through the window mingle with the screams of pleasure and ecstasy, and outrage and horror within this hall.

The percussive sound of footsteps thundering accompanies this discordant din as Lord Merciful, bloodied knife in one hand and a soup tureen frantically filled with food under the other arm, runs and runs and runs up the spiral staircase in the center of the tower, in the center of this cathedral, in the center of this city, to the very top of the bell tower where still those golden bells peal out their warning.

A warning no one is left to heed.

And as he reaches the top, he stands beneath the largest golden bell.

He grabs the clapper, and he pulls it down around him.

Safe in his golden cage, the weight of it protecting him as the screams and the outrage, and the horrors and the terrors, and the blood resonate around, vibrating and circulating, and ringing and ringing legato, luring him into a peaceful and pleasurable sleep until clang, clang, clang, clang.

So doesn't get much better than that, does it? [laughs]

Why do you think that premature infants have historically been overlooked as they grow older and continue their life through our healthcare system?

So there's probably two reasons for it.

One is human nature.

We want to normalize kids as quickly as we can.

The primary care team wants to get them off special formula.

They want to make them, you know, reassure the parent that everything is fine and their child is progressing.

We've come so far in neonatal care that, yeah, they actually, you know, for the most part, kids really do well originally.

I think if we package it the way

Why do you think, Michelle, there is such a hard time attracting talent into the credit department?

I think it kind of boils down to that a lot of people don't know this is a career officially.

A lot of people come from different backgrounds into this role.

They fall into it by accident.

They have some skills that absolutely will- will translate into a credit, uh, situation.

But they don't realize that- that this is actually a trained profession of people.

Colleges tend to direct their students to be a CPA or to get other designations.

No, it's gonna be awesome