Hey Mountaineers.

Sorry I didn’t update sooner. I had some other stuff going on and I didn’t know what went down with the escape from Kemetic Solutions, everything that happened after, or the news about Itsuki until later.

I needed time to figure out… I don’t know, everything.

The following’s my basic recap of the week. Let me know if I forgot anything.

  • Martin and Whistler went over everything via email. He caught us up.
  • Aether transferred himself to Martin’s new phone and also bought Marty a bluetooth earpiece so he could broadcast the escape to the Mountaineers over Youtube.
  • Mountaineers worked together to cast two spells that would both blind the Kemetic employees and hide Martin, Whistler, Aether, Climber, and Portencia.
  • At 5pm on Wednesday Aether started broadcasting. Here’s a basic rundown, but I suggest checking out the preserved livestream because a ton of stuff goes down. Namely:
    • Martin went down to the sublevel with Whistler’s badge while–
    • Aether and Whistler went to medical to A) get Portencia’s last fragment from Kendrick and B) return Aether’s mind to his body. But–
    • Turns out Whistler was a brainwashed Sacha.
    • Teddy knew we were coming and had planned for it.
    • They wanted Aether and Martin, who’s a type of adept called a “Well.” (Wells are people and places that attract magiq and magiqal objects.)
    • “Wanderer” was Teddy’s son who he sacrificed so he could harness his powers.
    • Kemetic Solutions had made Sacha believe she’d woken up but was actually a plant used to get information from us because…
    • They’d brainwashed our friend Itsuki to send information to them about what we were doing but the “coercion” killed him.
    • But Martin and Aether had a surprise of their own. Aether had never gone back to his body (the secured room in medical was actually a trap.) He’d stayed in Martin’s earpiece, lowered KS’s firewalls, and had been broadcasting their files to a secured server somewhere. Martin and Aether had planned for a trap. (Awesome work guys.)
    • Teddy freaked that they were releasing Kemetic information and said “The Storm is coming… right now.”
    • Martin went to find Climber and Portencia while Aether finally went back to his body, which was locked up in the sublevel.
    • Turns out Climber was a Mountaineer who used to go as AlisonB on the forum.
    • They all made their way back to the elevator (including newly bodied Aether) but the elevators were called upstairs, and–
    • A weird sound started booming and getting louder.
    • The Storm.
    • They were trapped, with no way out, until Portencia convinced them to take her to The Chair. (The old throne that KS was using to try and open a door.)
    • As The Storm approached, Portencia finally opened a door to the future using her powers (with help from Climber) and Martin told them to go through it while he went back for Aether, who had stayed back to try and buy them time.
    • Then the audio cut off.

Then The Storm started talking to us in reverse. Mountaineer Ricardo reversed the audio which is crazy scary to listen to, here’s the transcript:

The dance has begun. We, the churning storm descend once more. As always, the Gates have moved to protect the worthless lives of their naive little mountain climbers. Ever lost, ever misinformed, reaching for a peak that you will never find. They care for you as they have never cared for previous manipulated acolytes. And in doing, they’ve made themselves vulnerable. They stretched their meager power too thin. Soon, what little power the Council still possesses will fade and they will disappear back into the Fray. Then one by one we will come for you and wipe you from our world like marks upon a looking glass. How could you have ever won? To defeat an enemy you must know them. The Gates will never win because they do not understand their enemy. We have no desire to abandon a world we control in completion. We were not learning how to open doors, we were learning how to close them. And in doing, break that precious book of yours, once and for all.

We checked The Book of Briars and sure enough, it’s been destroyed. We now have no idea what to do, where to go, and who is left to help us. And one of the nicest guys I’ve ever known is dead.

Itsuki was never much for chatting, but he was kind and caring and thoughtful and… good. He was the first person, aside from Ascender, that I ever met in the Mountaineers and he never treated me like a dumb kid.

Ascender found me, but Itsuki made me feel like I belonged somewhere for the first time in my life. I’ll never forget that.

—Eaves