Author: Jordan

Having found themself separated from their companions, Dovetail was in something of a hurried panic through the misty dark in which they presently wandered. Half a minute ago, they had been in a large room that was very much not a dark void. Now the room was nowhere to be seen.

When they walked back to where it had been, there was nothing. Just to be sure, they took a few extra steps forward, only to wind up walking directly into a wall. They shook their head as the mist cleared, rattling a loose bolt in their jaw and revealing a large glass screen before them in an otherwise empty chamber made of slate.

On the other side of the glass was a lengthy obstacle course of ice and steel. On one end of the course was a modest stone door, and on the other end was a comfortable cage containing Elma del Ennington. In the center, hanging from a rope, was some kind of tube.

“Hello?” came Elma’s voice. “Is anyone there?” Dovetail could hear her as though they were in the same room.

“Did you know that Yulip’s Guide is named in reference to an angel who helped Yulip Howkirk found Openhearth when he was lost in the Frostlands hundreds of years ago?” asked Dovetail, who was assisting their new friend and boss, Ewevan, chisel away at the massive block of ice that surrounded Sunwood Cottage, which sat at the center of a frozen lake. Today Ewevan was doing most of the chiseling, while Dovetail turned the ice into sellable ice blocks and chattered away.

“I think you told me this one before,” Ewevan replied gruffly as he forced his pick into the thick eternice, “but I ignored you ‘cause it’s nonsense.”  Ewevan was a forest giant with dark grey skin and foliage for a beard, but was otherwise hairless. He and Dovetail wore similar large coats and stone hats.

When Nestor Pinkly woke up most mornings, there were a number of things he made sure to do.

First, of course, he would get out of bed, for the rest of these things were difficult or impossible to do while in bed. Besides, everyone knows all the best things in life are outside of one’s bed.

Second, he would say “good morning, Dovetail!” to Dovetail and make some kind of improvement or test her mental faculties, but because Dovetail was quite capable now and also several hundred miles from Skymoore, Nestor instead said “good morning, Regibald!” to Regibald and made improvements to the unicamelcorn body into which Regibald’s consciousness would be transferred any day now.

Thirdly, he would make breakfast with Regibald, ideally something with banana, like an omelet. He made enough for two even though Regibald could not eat.

This brought him to the fourth thing, which was to bring the extra food to the Church of Sol on the way to work so that they could feed their less fortunate visitors (he did this even when he did not work in the morning or at all, because Nestor just liked to make sure Odd & Ends was still there and not just a wonderful dream he had every day).

Fifth, and this actually usually took place somewhere between things one and four, he would say hello to the essence of the late Mrs. Grantham, and ask how she’s doing, and thank her for making Skymoore into the wonderful place that it is.

Author’s Note: In the city of Skymoore, as you are likely aware, there is a neighborhood or perhaps a sub-city called The Mish Mash. In the neighborhood or perhaps the sub-city called The Mish Mash, as you likely are not aware, there is a sub-neighborhood or perhaps a regular neighborhood called Easel Street. As you are likely aware at least in part if not in entirety, there is a once-abandoned art museum in the sub-neighborhood or perhaps regular neighborhood called Easel Street. This once-abandoned museum is now occupied by Teyla Eastwind, and as you likely do not know, there is a secret basement in this museum which contains a portal to the Infinite Hells. Specifically the slice of those Infinite Hells reserved for Teyla.

This is all to say, when in the ensuing scene Teyla walks into the basement and something strange happens to the geometry of the museum, that the strange geometry is not the work of the museum’s builder or previous tenants, who are all perfectly fine people who have never created portals to the Infinite Hells. (Not that no perfectly fine person has ever made a portal to the Infinite Hells. Things happen, and life takes all of us to unexpected places.)