[forward-dated to after the Jaunt] Fire and Metal

[capital_asset]

I know we've only just gotten back and all, but during the Jaunt I had two more prophetic nightmares. Neither of them had anything to do with the Jaunt - in fact, one of them was very explicitly not about it - so I opted to hold back on reporting them until it was over and we were all back to ourselves.

The first nightmare featured a shattered masonry wall in mountainous terrain, engulfed in incredible flames. It looked familiar, but it took me a bit to place it once I woke up: it looked like the wall separating the Bando Peninsula from the rest of En Zhenming.

The second nightmare was an extreme close-up of a black reptilian scale with an etched line on it slowly being filled with molten metal, which eventually revealed the shape of a clawed hand grasping an egg.

Whether those have to do with the final Jaunt or not I couldn't say, but having them during this past Jaunt would seem to imply that it's not that simple.

Comments

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Bando. I’m not familiar - is that one before my time?

[capital_asset]

It's actually the same world as that of the mermaids - we've been back multiple times, with the last 'visit' being two Jaunts before the Vale, to the duchy of Paramo.

The Bando Peninsula is where En Zhenming and their Emperor send their dissidents, criminals, and other castoffs, although they're also not above raiding the Bando for prisoners if they need 'recruits' for specific missions. There are three provinces on the peninsula, whom the Shogun in charge of the place kept pitted against each other until all three decided to unite and rebel instead.

During the Jaunt to Paramo, there was a group of spies, the Xunhuo Guwei, who were working on behalf of the Emperor to stage an attack on Paramo and frame the Bando rebels for the crime, in hopes that Paramo would attack the Bando themselves and thus solve the problem of the rebellion for them. The Investigators were able to thwart the planned attack, but the Xunhuo Guwei were still able to sink one ship and then sailed away flying Bando colors. The Arcana still counted the Jaunt as a win for us, although the residents of the Bando would probably argue the point.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

[All extremely complicated and messy and tragic. Berne is delighted.]

Which Arcana considered it a victory? We know that not all of them are worth negotiating with.

[capital_asset]

Judgement. Fitting, I suppose, since the initial trip to the Bando was also theirs.

...There was actually one more trip to the Bando - one of the mini-Jaunts that occurred immediately after Fortune was brought back from the dead. It was the only one that wasn't a direct repeat of some other Jaunt with certain details changed; instead, it was a search for three additional dragons who had been sealed away. I remember thinking it was a glaring inconsistency at the time, and then after the Paramo Jaunt ended up having nothing to do with that one whatsoever it seemed even more glaring.

[lightnovelexperiences]

Love fighting dragons and dragon-adjacent things in two jaunts back to back. And reruns.

Dragons a big deal in that world?

[capital_asset]

In the Bando? Yes. In Dolorosa, the world of the Illuminants, whom I think the other nightmare might be suggesting? Also yes.

[lightnovelexperiences]

Thanks, I hate it!

...Given that dragons in AWO were color coded for your convenience, and the difference between the Dracoformes and the Longs, I should be less that surprised by this.

You think this is a warning about the Skittles?

[capital_asset]

[It's a good thing that Raidou knows what 'Skittles' means in this context (and exactly no other ones, but details).]

It's possible, at least for the second nightmare. The first being about the Bando is... concerning in its own way, given how the last Jaunt in that world ended, but I don't know for certain if the two are connected.

[comebewe]

[A long, vehement string of swearing immediately follows this announcement]

[Then there's a moment of pause, and after Matthew has apparently collected himself he replies with something a little less colourful]

Bando dragons are not born from eggs.

[capital_asset]

[Raidou cannot judge, as he did his round of swearing immediately after having the first dream.]

That's good to know - I'd been thinking they weren't, but I wasn't sure.

I don't think any of them are black, either, aside from possibly the Dragon of Darkness from that one mini-walkabout immediately following Fortune's revival, and I don't think even that one's necessarily a given.

[comebewe]

We were not on that walkabout.

[there's a slight pause]

Those flames you mentioned. They, err, weren't blue, were they...?

[capital_asset]

It was extremely short, and I don't think we saw how it was resolved. The same went for the other three mini-Jaunts that accompanied her return, although those were all repeats of earlier Jaunts with significant changes.

No, they weren't. They were entirely normal flames - just very, very hot.

[comebewe]

Ah. Not our flames, then. Although we supposed that would not have been a prophetic nightmare...

[lightnovelexperiences]

I'm assuming Dolorosan ones are.

[capital_asset]

Unfortunately.

[comebewe]

Yes.

Also a bunch of them might have set Misericordia on fire when they all hatched at once...

[amadine]

Share the image of the black scale, would you?

[capital_asset]

[He does so.]

It being an extreme close-up probably makes it less helpful, but...

[amadine]

Not remotely. The last Red Illuminant was the leader of a mercenary company before he traded his soul away. And that certainly has the look of a company insignia - not the one he used before, but why should it be?

It's something to keep an eye out for, if we're unlucky enough to find ourselves on that world again.

[capital_asset]

I'd wondered if this one was somehow related to the Illuminants, especially given their forays into Liminal Space before the last Jaunt.

[amadine]

I heard you mention. It's what tugged at my memory in the first place.

We're better equipped, at least, to handle the Illuminants than we were the last time. And the dragons of the Bando, for that matter.

[bite_the_hand]

Can't say I'm surprised about the Bando. A lot happened there that we still need to make right. I was hoping it could wait until we have more freedom in how we handle Jaunts, but it sounds like we won't get that lucky.

[capital_asset]

Apparently not.

[And he really hopes the Illuminants aren't planning to involve themselves with the Bando, but with their luck...]

[bite_the_hand]

Any idea what the second vision's about? That doesn't sound like anything I remember from the Bando.

[capital_asset]

My first thought was Dolorosa, but I don't know if that's correct.