In the past three months we found the first in a series of keys that unlock a magical book.
We made contact with a man who died thirty years ago.
We chased a talking rabbit.
We had clandestine meetings with former cult members.
We solved puzzles and riddles and found hidden letters in old libraries and magic coins under old bridges and assembled mysterious poems and were helped by awesome people from all over the world.
We learned how magic is made, by connecting things with poetry and meaning and resonance.
We learned that “Imagination is nothing more than memory, transposed.”
We actually learned a spell.
This has been the most exhilarating, terrifying, eye-opening experience of my life.
And you weren’t there.
You abandoned us.
I don’t care what Augernon told you. I don’t care about whatever you believe now.
This is the family you built. This is the adventure you set in motion.
This is the cause you inspired us to take up.
And when we needed you most, you walked away from us. You ignored us.
I’ve tried to reach out to you, in private, probably a hundred times in the past couple months.
Begged you to answer.
I got nothing.
So I’m doing this in front of everyone now. In front of my new family. In front of all the people you brought together. All the people WE brought together.
I want them to see you explain yourself.
So do it.
Explain yourself.
Or don’t ever come back to Basecamp.
–Eaves
I’m not coming back to Basecamp. It’s yours now. I followed the butterflies and found a new path. A path I can’t climb with you.
There are wheels turning in the shadows, Eaves. Augernon showed me. A machine churns in the dark places of the world. Growing in size and power. An old machine that wants to separate us. Crush us.
We are at war. A war I’ve been too blind to see until now. You have work to do, I have a war to fight.
We have different paths to climb but we’ll meet at the end, where those paths meet.
Where all our paths meet.