The Inundation drifted nearer to the riverbank, its long shadow ribboning beneath the surface as it shaped its form anew. After all, it needed to look its part, and swordfish were no abnormal phenomena near Fawn City waters. It watched Ysan’s training from below, admiring tenacity, admiring inevitability. It had heard many echoes from the minds of those who once held Hazahnahkah, but never had it heard one like hers: she was going to perfect her Ramble or die trying. Many people thought this, but no one ever tried. Ysan’s perpetual training had stripped her body and soul of any fat there may have been. Her frame appeared almost skeletal at first glance—angular shoulders, prominent clavicles, long cords of muscle running under skin as thin and tight as parchment—but nothing about her suggested frailty. Her muscle fibers were not fast nor strong, but they could last from dawn to dusk. Best of all, she did not throw herself into the volcanoes of senseless martyrdom or sacrifice. Long hours of work were followed by deep, undisturbed sleep by the river. Her parasympathetic nervous system took full command. Breathing slowed, cortisol levels dropped, growth hormone pulses repairing the microtears in muscles. She always restored herself rapidly, eyes clear, posture steady—living with her body rather than against it. She was a person distilled.

  [Ysan’s Abilities]

  Hazahnahkah-Developed River Ramble: Can control approximately ten gallons from the surface area of moving bodies of water.

  [Ysan’s Equipment]

  Sentinel’s Sword: +100 fixed damage to attacks.

  Fawn City Vestments: +50 to Health. +20 to Tenacity.

  Hazahnahkah’s Covering-Fashioned Swordcoat: Grants the passive abilities [Reraise], [Attuned], and [Cherished]. These are refreshed so long as [Wielder of Seven Seasons] is active. Grants [Veiled Swing]. Adds +25 to Tenacity and Strength.

  [Ysan’s Conditions]

  (Debuff) Maimed Arm: Ysan is missing an arm.

  Veiled Swing: Every third attack made by the same limb is resolved as if the wielder’s Strength is x3 for that attack.

  Inundation flicked its fin and tasted her thoughts—bright, uneven, full of childish dreams she refused to name. She had wealth but no family. The closest person to her was named Ul, and this woman had long since pushed her away. Most interestingly she was allied by none other than the brother of a Rapscallion, Vikushak, who was the one who told her the great power of a Ramble—and yet she dismissed his offers for help. Ysan toiled on towards independence, towards self-exploration, walking her own way.

  Again Ysan trained her Ramble after resting. She reached out to the river. The currents of Serpent’s Ramble trembled around her: subtle until ceaseless. It thrummed to her psychological state. They bounced off one another as reflections bounced through a hall of mirrors. The River’s riffles, pools, and runs began to simmer from tranquility. For The River’s part, it did not appreciate being sculpted. It grumbled in these deep places as its song naturally strives to maintain itself and its balance. Ysan did not fight this anymore. She tried to find her place in these waters, and claim what small piece she could as her own.

  Ysan’s attempts grew steadier. A pattern in The River song took shape. It was her pattern, her Ramble. No longer did she fight the world or stake her claim upon it. She found her way and saw it through. The shape arose from the water as a fully controllable arm. The Swordfish found this most interesting. Regeneration was a Ramble often chased, but the woman did not seek healing or remediation. She was hungry, endless, willing to die. Ysan was an eventuality, and she viewed eventuality as water. It gave life as it took it. Her skills as ferrymaiden and beliefs about The River also made her as comfortable as she was scared of torrenting froth. It was a drowning of the self and an usurpation of one’s fears by becoming one with them. It was also shapeless, just as Bankanzaku was. If she should claim his life then so too should exist like him, for he was very hard to find. Should she use Hazahnahkah to kill him, then so too should she wield Hazahnahkah as Hazahnahkah wielded the world—shapelessly.

  To develop a Ramble was to walk one’s way. Every person who learned it learned differently, and so their powers were different as well. Inundation could learn these songs, communicate with them, teach them transcendental complexity. When Ysan freed her stub from the water, revealing a swirling new limb containing all the patterns The Great Wish River of Serpent’s Ramble once sang, the Swordfish knew she was ready. It did not even give her the chance to celebrate. It arose from The River like a great sea serpent, manipulating the reality around her water arm. It gave the water patterns it heard long ago. It made the arm more difficult to control, not her own, and much harder to maintain without thinking; but thinking was walking one’s way. Inundation knew in the long term this would benefit her well, and it as well should it come to be the death of Hazahnahkah.

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  -Ysan has processed her confrontations with otherworldly forces and is ready to leave The Fawn Cities for several important missions given to her by Ul, The Patriarch, and The Elkoalkim Council. Gained +300 to all Health, Energy, Agility, Tenacity and Strength. +20 Regeneration. +10 free Attribute points. Her desire to stop Bankanzaku, find her Patriarch, and keep Fawn City peace has spurred her towards training speed.

  Health (source of vitality and abilities): 800 → 1,100

  Energy (source of stamina and abilities): 300 → 600

  Agility (speed of actions): 250 → 550

  Regeneration (rate of recovery per hour for Health and Energy): 20 → 50

  Tenacity (resistance to unwanted effects): 20 → 320

  Strength (physical or mental reality manipulation potency): 50 → 350

  -Ysan has achieved and failed in many ventures, but she has grown regardless from womb to woman to wanderer. Learned [Wandering Whiplash]. She has also finished training [Hazahnahkah-Developed River Ramble] into a fierce ability.

  [Hazahnahkah-Developed River Ramble] → [Water Ramble], [Water Memory], and [Water Arm].

  Water Ramble: Can create and control approximately ten gallons of liquid in [Water Memory]. This liquid will always have trace amounts of water in it. Expends 10 Energy per gallon created. Expends 1 Energy per gallon controlled per second.

  Water Memory: Liquids Ysan has interacted with and understands may be replicated near-perfectly. Notable liquids include: The River’s water, drinkable fluids, medicinal tea, basic antivenom, and Ysan’s blood.

  Water Arm: An arm of water which may hold items and change shape. Objects held by the arm are inevitably soaked.

  Wandering Whiplash: Ysan may expend 10% of her total Energy to cause any of her attacks to occur an additional time for every 10% spent.

  Hazahnahkah: Terrified 100/100 → Longing 110/100

  Ysan was speechless. She didn’t think she earned Inundation’s appearance for herself. She saw it as little more than a stroke of luck, much like how she had once found a sword in a river. Her hand came up against the Swordfish’s head and they caught one another’s thoughts. They flickered beneath wind whispers, and lasted only for a moment. By the end of the exchange, the long sprawling ribbon of a swordfish had unraveled into millions of swordfish, weaving through the water and air as a storm would.

  “You have shaped a Ramble for your woes. There is a place far away in the sky that you must go to. For everything is real and yet nothing is legitimate. Take me and I shall help you get to that aimless place called justice. I shall live within your water arm.”

  Ysan processed what was happening with an inhuman quickness. She understood the power before her and she did not fear it or reserve herself. “You know of Bankanzaku? You would help me slay him?”

  “I know of all the Rapscallions.”

  “And why would you want to live in my water arm?”

  “Dreams,” Inundation glubbed, churning more slowly. “I have heard echoes from the beyond Serpent’s Ramble, and it will take Hazahnahkah’s death to reach them.”

  Ysan did not recognize the name of the sword she once held. She nodded as if these words meant nothing to her. Interesting. So she had not been given the dreams. Many had been given the dreams, but few remembered them. They were the fault of many myths, cultures, religions, events, and beliefs of Serpent’s Ramble. The only rational explanation Inundation had come to about these most improbable connections were that they were the truth, the way, the destiny.

  There was much to do to reach it. Ysan was walking the right way, even without Inundation’s guidance. The Patriarch had sent messengers directing her towards Yurreth-conquered land. She was to act as an emissary between the conqueror and the soon-to-be enslaved. The Swordfish was certain if it stuck along with Ysan then it would surely have that chance: End Hazahnahkah and alter all of Serpent’s Ramble. The decision to listen to the dreams was the correct way, and with this decisive thought it swirled into a smaller storm which swam throughout Ysan’s water arm. Here, it would show Ysan the way to the final line in the song of dreams that would change the world forever, but it only knows Hazahnahkah will be destroyed, for that is where all songs end.