Shadows in the Smoke S1E43 - "On Death's Doorstep"

Shadows in the Smoke S1E43 – “On Death’s Doorstep”

Kim
Shadows in the Smoke is intended for mature audiences and may contain material that some people find disturbing. Please see the episode description for content warnings, and listen with care.

[Shadows in the Smoke theme]

[An underground cavern. Water drips]

Kim
Mr. Hutchinson. We find you in an ancient Roman ruin beneath London. And you’re not alone. La Hortencia Figg is here, stepping out of a Roman bath.

La Hortencia Figg (Kim)
Oh now, what happened to you, pet? Last I checked, you had two good working eyes.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Yeah. You can never count on having two good working anything for too long.

La Hortencia Figg (Kim)
Too true, love. Too true. But it’s bad manners to go be mucking yourself up like that. You were to be our great prize, you were. A fitting sacrifice to Moc’h.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
You’re one to talk to me about bad manners, for what you’ve done. After the way you’ve raised your boys. I tell you, when I sunk my teeth into Obert, only thought running through my mind was “some people’s kids.” There’s just no accounting for bad mothering. And I would know.

La Hortencia Figg (Kim)
I did what I had to do to give my boys a chance. When you’re desperate and trying to survive, sometimes you call out for help. And sometimes, someone answers.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
And sometimes, you overpromise. Seems to me like you’ve been playing for two masters. There’s your god, and then there’s your mistress. Apparently, I’m an integral part in her plans. And I thinks he would like to see me through to the end of it. And believe you me, you don’t want to disappoint your mistress. Even if it means serving your god.

La Hortencia Figg (Kim)
Well, my lady’s also a mother. And she’d understand if a mother needs to take her revenge.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
I think that woman would gladly truss up both of her children if it meant saving her own skin and de-wrinkling it. And something tells me you’d do the same. So I’m offering you a choice. You can live. Save your hide, and stay on you quest. If you lure your remaining son to me.

La Hortencia Figg (Kim)
I’d rather die.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Then you will.

T.
I shoot her in the mouth.

Kim
[Gasps] Please mark La Hortencia Figg as resolved.

T.
I let her body fall back into the dregs of this ancient roman bath. Leave her to rot there.

[The rainy banks of the Thames]

Kim
Miss Douglas. You stand on the banks of the Thames, and you feel this surge of power roll through your body as a spirit is called from the water. Could you describe your mother to us?

Natalia
Maesie’s mom looks pretty much exactly like Maesie, just a little bit taller, a little bit older. She keeps her hair in two braids. But she’s virtually indistinguishable from Maesie. It’s like looking in a mirror that shows you an older version of yourself.

[Mystical ambience]

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Little pearl, how am I here?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Um, magic.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Well you were always a clever one, weren’t you?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I had help.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Well tell how you’ve been, love?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Really bad, mum. I’ve been really bad.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Oh, darling. If I could hold you, I would.

Natalia
Maesie reaches out, and tries to grab her hand. And it kinda just goes through her figure.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Yeah. I’m not quite at a point, I think, where I know how to manifest more than just a spirit. But maybe one day.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Tell me what’s been troubling you.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Oh, well… I… [Laughs nervously] A lot of things happened after you died, and my pelt is ripped. So I can’t go home. And I’m trying to fix it. I’m getting there. And I’m staying with these folks, who are… [Sniffs] Well, they’re like me, but they’re not like me. Um… they’re good. But we deal with all this stuff, and I feel like I’m in over my head, and I don’t know what I’m doing. And I thought maybe you could help me like you always have, to fix one thing.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Miss Maesie Douglas, look at what you’ve already accomplished. Learning to bring spirits back, finding out how to fix your pelt… I’ve never heard of a selkie doing that!

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
It’s not enough, mum.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Aye, not now, but it will be.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
It’ll never be enough, because you’re never coming back.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
But I’m always with you, little one.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I know.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Every time you look up in the stars, you see us.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I know.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Every time you take to the water, I’m right there with you.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
[Sniffs] Are you okay?

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Aye, lamb. I’m fine.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
[Sniffs] Okay.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
I swim every day with my gran and my ancestors.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
That’s good. Um… Anyway, I was wondering if you’d heard anything on your side of wherever you are about someone called Patrick Figg?

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
I have, pearl. The boy spends a lot of time by the water. Drags all sorts of muck out of it, make it into a big nest for himself.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Alright. That could be a lot of things, I suppose.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
I hope that was some help to you.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Of course, mum. [Sniffs]

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Oh darling, you know I don’t like to see you cry.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
[Stifles more tears]

Natalia
Maesie wipes the tears away and tries to put on a brave face.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I know, mum. I work on being stronger every day.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
Strength does not mean not having a heart, love. It’s alright to cry. I love you.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I love you too. Say hi to gran for me.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
I will, angel. I’m so proud of you. Look at all of the things that you’ve learned.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I’m gonna go home soon.

Maesie’s Mom (Kim)
I know you will. A girl as bright as you? You’ll figure it out.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Yeah, I will.

Kim
The spirit fades away into sea foam.

[The rainy banks of the Thames]

Natalia
As the spirit fades, Maesie sinks down at the same time into the water, and just sits there for a moment. And then stands, gathers up her things… Turns and gives one last look to the water, and goes home.

[Dark, serene ambience]

Kim
Miss Thanero, within this secret exhibit of the British Museum, a robed cultist approaches you, their head bowed low. And as they raise it, you see that it is former Detective Inspector Pettigrew.

Cassandra
Ena crosses the plinth, quick as lightning, and puts her hand around his throat.

Pettigrew (Kim)
[Gasps]

Cassandra
This is her most sacred space. He’s not allowed to be in here.

Pettigrew (Kim)
I’m sorry, mistress. I just… You said as soon as I had word about that man, the American, Mr. Taggard, that I was to see you.

Cassandra
She chucks him against one of these tall marble pillars in this room.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Speak quickly, so that you might leave my presence. You disgust me.

Pettigrew (Kim)
Mr. Taggard has been keeping some odd habits late at night, and I’m one to know. All hours of the night he goes about London, tying red handkerchiefs to streetlights. Can’t say if it’s a symbol for something, but it was most unusual. And I thought you would like to be made aware of it.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
And now I am aware. Take yourself from this place and never darken this room again. You are not welcome.

Pettigrew (Kim)
Yes, mistress.

Kim
And he backs out of the room, genuflecting towards you as he goes.

Cassandra
She goes back across the plinth, and gathers up her cape – not putting it on. But she makes her way back across the plinth, out the door, locks it, and begins to walk once again through the British Museum, and back outside to London.

[A rainy London street]

Kim
What does the rest of the day hold for you, Miss Thanero?

Cassandra
Having looked upon the Masterwork, Ena knows what’s happening to it. She’s very well aware. She doesn’t like what she sees. And he wants to feel beautiful. So she’s going to take a trip to see a woman who knows a lot about being scorned, and is going to visit Hazel Beaumont at her modiste.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, you said you had someone else to go visit today?

Robert
Yes. This one is a little trickier. Most of the people (and I use that term loosely) that Rabbit has been talking to, warning about Professor Sommerset, he knows that he can either summon them or knows that they are bound to certain locations. But this one, he’s a little less sure of. So he is going to go to Covent Gardens, and keep an eye out for the Snow Queen.

Kim
Oh! Alright. Mr. Lloyd, I think you ask around amongst the beggars and the urchins of Covent Garden. They all know the Snow Queen. Where is it that they take you?

Robert
The creche that was set up for Christmas outside the Royal Opera House is still standing. Though, as we have past Twelfth Night, all of the figures have been removed from it, and they are in the process of dismantling it. But before then, the Snow Queen is taking shelter underneath this fake stable.

Kim
You see the Snow Queen – this very tall, very pale woman – kneeling in the same spot that the Virgin Mary once lay.

[Gentle, magical ambience]

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Hello, ma’am.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
Storyteller.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Still sends shivers down my spine when someone calls me that.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
Thou hast other names. I could try them.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Storyteller’s fine for now. I spent the better part of several days, reaching out to every member of the Gentry that I knew of in this city. Warning them, and telling them to warn others. I still don’t know what exactly you are. But I figured you… You earn the same respect as anyone else. There is a man. A truly awful man. Who sees to steal power and take it as his own. He’s done this before, and he will do it again. And I know that you do not have any sort of connection to the magical world anymore, at least. But I don’t if he knows that. So I thought I would come with a warning. And…

Robert
With this, Rabbit looks around, sees a fairly well-dressed person passing by the creche. Dips his fingers lightly into the man’s pocket, pulls out a couple bank notes, and hands them to the Snow Queen.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
And an appropriate gift.

Kim
The Snow Queen stares at this bit of paper in her hands, and then just lets it drop to the ground. She looks unsure of what to do with it.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Don’t worry about it. The act of theft is more important than the actual thing.

Robert
And at this, Rabbit pulls out some of the bread and honey that he has left over from summoning the pixie.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Perhaps this might be better.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
The Storyteller would break bread with me?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I honestly don’t know what the Storyteller would do at this point, but I, Morgan Lloyd, will.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
Sit. Eat. Thou does not look well.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Well I suppose in a manner of speaking, I’m on death’s doorstep. [Chuckles] Although we’ll see tonight whether that happens or not. Let me see if I can’t earn that old nickname of mine, and tell you a little bit of a tale.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
You would honor me.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
There once was a man named Malcom Sommerset. Born into the most privileged houses of London, a silver spoon in his mouth and a soft pillow beneath his head. And yet still, he wanted. He wanted things that weren’t his, wanted power, wanted respect. And no matter how much he strived for these, it was never quite enough. And so he decided to seek out alternate methods to get them. He learned how to summon devils. How to bind the fae folk. How to take those who were more magically inclined, and steal their power from them. And he spent the better part of his life doing this. And he seeks to do it again. And I intend to put a stop to all that.

Kim
The Snow Queen’s long, graceful fingers travel to your hand and then pull up the sleeves of your shirt to show some of the tattoos.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
I see you have also sought to capture, Storyteller.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
If you know who I am as well as you claim to, you know that these were earned, not stolen. And you understand the difference between the two.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
I do.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
But even so… They’re useless. The magic, everything I was ever taught… I’m certain he has some way to counter it. I have an idea, but it’s risky. And I’m not sure if it’ll work. I guess I suppose I just wanted to see, uh, well if not exactly a friendly face, at least a set of eyes that seem to see beyond my skin and into who I really am one more time, before I try to pull this off.

Kim
She takes a sprig of holly from her crown and weaves it into your hair.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
Do what you must, Morgan Lloyd. And do it with my blessing.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Watch out for yourself. Keep yourself safe. If I fail tonight, I don’t know if it’ll be a harder world for you, but it’ll be a harder world for many.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
I am no one, long forgotten. But I will wait and see what the world is tomorrow.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Sometimes it’s all we can do.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, this seemed like a vulnerable scene, considering this was started by an act of petty theft.

Robert
And I did reveal a little bit of backstory in there, yes. I’d say this was a vulnerable move.

Kim
Alright. So you may clear a Condition, should you wish.

Robert
I think I’m going to clear Marked for Sacrifice.

Kim
Alright.

Robert
As, you know, he’s coming to terms with the fact that this might be the end.

Kim
And you may define a Clue for me for any of the active Threats.

Robert
Give me a second to think about what I want from her.

Kim
Cool.

[An underground cavern. Water drips]

Kim
Mr. Hutchinson. It’s been a busy morning for you.

T.
Yeah… [Chuckles]

Kim
Is there anything else you’d like to do today?

T.
Can I look around this area and see if there’s any hints about Patrick’s nest?

Kim
Oh, I love this.

T.
I don’t feel like I want to go anywhere else or see anybody, but I can at least be of use to the group.

Kim
Go ahead and make the Information Move with Reason. I think I want to put this at disadvantage. Most Beloved is a thing, but I think the Condition that’s speaking to me most is Runaway. Considering you are in this lost, abandoned place. It would be so easy for you to just disappear and not go back to Hargrave House.

T.
Just have the thought there, “Yeah, I could set up shop here.”

Kim
Yeah.

T.
I will mark the monocle.

Kim
Okay.

T.
Peer through that. Not to get rid of that feeling, but to amplify any kind of hidden things I might see through. Also, I don’t need glasses anymore.

Kim
Oh, boo. But indeed, the monocle does allow you to see what is hidden. I like it.

T.
So just flat?

Kim
Yes, please.

T.
[Rolls dice] 5 and 6 is 11.

Kim
Mr. Hutchinson, investigating this scene. You see these small dots on the stone floor of this temple. They’re amber colored. And when you bend to investigate one, it flakes away as you scratch at it with your index finger. And smells very sweet. These are small little dots of dried marmalade, spaced just so as if they were making a path, trying to lure a person or creature to a certain location. That is a Clue for Figgs’ Piggs.

T.
Hell yeah. My business here concluded, I return above ground. Btu I don’t want to return to Hargrave House. So I just wander, and lose myself in London.

Kim
Miss Douglas, what does the rest of your day look like?

Natalia
Having returned from the docks, Maesie comes back across those photographs that were delivered earlier. And I would like to look into more about the Whateley Camera? I just… I simply don’t know where to go.

Kim
So we have the Society Obscura, which Mr. Lloyd had investigated. But you also know that the Hargrave House library contains information on the Whateley Camera. Indeed, that’s where the hunters first learned of Atticus Whateley and his camera.

Natalia
That sounds perfect. Maesie will go to the library and see what other information she can discover about the camera.

[Quiet, peaceful drones]

Kim
Miss Douglas, you enter into this room that is full of towering bookcases. This is an immense room of Hargrave House. Indeed, occupies two floors of Hargrave House. There is a spiral staircase leading up to a second level. There are a bunch of very comfortable looking chairs and reading lights. The smell of paper and ink. I have a Paint the Scene, here. This library not only is a fabulous collection of resource tomes that would be of use to the hunters of Hargrave House, but it is also a collection of books that only exist within the library of Hargrave House. Perhaps have never existed anywhere else, outside of this library. Please describe one of these lost tomes.

T.
Love’s Labours Won.

Natalia
There is a bound collection of photographs in this library of actual cryptids from all over the world. Taken and collected here by hunters from the past.

Cassandra
There is an ancient book with faded Greek lettering on the cover that, when translated, says On The Things That Were Withheld. And instead of recounting the stories that we are familiar with from myth, it details them almost in a legal, clerical way, and includes things that would have been not present in the myths.

Robert
There is a brightly colored, mostly green and yellow book of significant flimsier binding than anything else on the shelf. And on its front cover it reads How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler.

Kim
Alright Miss Douglas. I like to think you grab a thick stack of books and find a particularly comfy-looking chair and just settle in.

Natalia
Pretty much.

Kim
Please make the Information Move with Reason.

Natalia
[Rolls dice] That is a 10 + 1 is 11.

[A rainy London street]

Kim
Miss Thanero, walking down Savile Row, you come up on the modiste of Mistress Hazel Beaumont.

Cassandra
I don’t knock on the door. I reach for the doorknob. I know she takes appointments, but it doesn’t matter today. She will see me. So I just grab the knob and turn.

Kim
Right as you are turning the knob you do see a small sign in the window that says, “Away on holiday.” But the door does open for you. But it does not open into the atelier of Mistress Hazel Beaumont. It opens into a small pocket of faerie.

[Insects chirp. Bells chime softly]

Cassandra
Ena closes the door behind her, and begins to look around. Studying it, taking it all in. And looking for Hazel.

Kim
You find yourself in a moonlit glade, alight with fireflies. It’s quite cold here, but a nice, brisk sort of cold. And Mistress Hazel Beaumont appears before you in a shaft of moonlight. She has cast away some of the veils that ordinarily cover her face, letting a little bit of her fae glamour slip in this, a very private space.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Miss Thanero.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
You’ve done some renovations to the place, I see.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Child, we are not in London. I was issued a warning by our lovely Mr. Lloyd that I should make myself scarce while he… oh, goes on some errand of sorts.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
His advice is best well-taken.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
We shall see. He is talented, yes, but… Very young. But I threw together a bit of a holiday home for myself. You are a guest in it. I pray you, be on your best behavior.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
And naturally as such, I did not show up empty-handed.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
What have you brought me?

Kim
She holds out several arms.

Cassandra
Ena observes the many arms for a moment, not sure which one to place the gift into. But instead, just proffers a large bottle of ambrosia that she got from the larder of Hargrave House on her way here.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Now isn’t this a worthy gift?

Kim
She plucks a couple of tulips and pours the ambrosia into the cups.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Delightful.

Cassandra
And Ena tosses her robe and her bag onto the floor of this glade and sits down crisscross applesauce, right in the middle of this shaft of moonlight, directly across from Hazel.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
In all my years, I never imagined you and I would take a glass together.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I’ve experienced something of a betrayal. And if anyone knows how to mete out revenge, you seemed the most accessible at this particular time.

Kim
She sits down next to you – a little more primly.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Tell me who has wronged you, goddess.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Oh, I think you’ve seen him about. We shared a dance at your masque, after all. A rather brazen fellow.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
The beast.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Yes. The very same.

Cassandra
She takes this tulip and, very ungracefully, pounds back the ambrosia and pours herself another glass.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Well I could have warned you off of that boorish man, had you been in such a state to heed my advice, last we spoke. Americans are so uncouth.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I am aware of that now.

Cassandra
She pounds the tulip again and pours herself another glass. It’s hard for gods to get drunk, but she’s gonna get there.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Do you wish to talk about it?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I think what I didn’t expect after meting out my judgement was the hollowness. How do you deal with that?

Kim
The Weaver studies you, pondering this question. Not necessarily the question itself, but the fact that you’re asking it.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
You have changed, Athena. You have grown much closer to his earth than the last time we met. I’m surprised to hear that a mortal could affect you in such a way, leave you hollow.

Cassandra
She smiles a little bit.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Mortals have always thought that I was made of stone. Impenetrable. Unbreakable. But even stone can be worn by time, and the cracks will eventually show. And like a weed, he wiggled in. And I’m still angry. I’m angry at the betrayal of who he tied himself to, for my undoing. But I’m also mad at his absence. And for the first time in my very, very long life, I don’t know how to move forward with anything other than hatred.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Pet, they say the best revenge is living well. And if there’s one thing you’re very good at, it’s living.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
What should I do if that’s not what I want anymore?

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Do you really wish to abandon your immortal gift?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
There may come a time when I don’t have a choice, and so I might as well make my peace with it.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Then I suppose one treasures the humanity and time that they have. It’s very easy to get complacent, when one lives as long as we.

Cassandra
Ena sits there, her very composed veneer gone. And she looks down into this tulip full of ambrosia, and I think we see one single tear run down her cheek and fall into this cup of liquor. And then she quickly wipes her face, dries her eyes, and looks back into the face of Hazel Beaumont.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
I hated you for years, you know.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
And it would be fine if you hated me still.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
I don’t. Not quite. Time heals many things. Perhaps one day, I could call you friend.

Cassandra
Ena downs the last of the liquor in the tulip.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Perhaps I could do the same. And perhaps we could meet in a friendly competition, just to see the skills we still possess.

Hazel Beaumont (Kim)
Don’t be surprised if I beat you again.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I promise to give you a worthy fight.

[Quiet, peaceful drones]

Kim
Miss Douglas, in the library of Hargrave House, you start poring over these ancient, esoteric tomes for any mention of Atticus Whateley and the camera that he was so fascinated with. And you’re presented with a series of pictures. It is a rendering of a temple wall in ancient Egypt. And amongst the hieroglyphics, you see a figure holding a most unusual looking box. And then you see another subject in the hieroglyphics, rendered completely ashen. Drained of color. And then in the next panel, that figure disappears, and all that’s left is this inky void. It appears as though the Whateley Camera has always existed – or at least existed long before the invent of cameras themselves.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd. How about that Clue for me?

[Gentle, magical ambience]

Robert
So with the Snow Queen’s network of unhoused people, she’s heard a rumor of a specific steel mill being shut down, and all of its workers being turned out onto the street.

Kim
Alright. So that brings our Clues for the Coven up to six. And, Mr. Lloyd, since you are engaging in the Vulnerable Move with a side character, I do need you to make the Day Move. There is Vulnerability in sharing so much of your story with her.

T.
Also they kept saying “Storyteller, storyteller, storyteller.”

Kim
Indeed.

Robert
I’m afraid that someone at Covent Gardens, or supernaturally, will have overheard part of this conversation, and Sommerset will have a little bit more warning of what’s to come.

Kim
I like that. So with that in mind, I think we’re gonna make this a Day move with Composure, with the idea of wanting to keep your discussion a little more clandestine. I am going to put this at disadvantage because you are feverish, and thus you maybe were not as tight-lipped about secrets as you maybe should have been.

T.
For sure.

Robert
Rabbit notices in the creche with them the St. John’s Wort that he had previously pressed into her hand. And he picks it up and gently tucks it into her crown, where she had removed the sprig of holly.

Kim
I love that.

Robert
I’ll be using a Personal Quarters item to make that roll at neutral.

Kim
Go forth. Yeah, this is as neutral as it gets, because you’ve got a +0 to your Composure.

Robert
I do. [Rolls dice] So that is a 7 on the dice, and I don’t add anything to that. So that is a mixed success.

[A rainy London street]

Kim
The Snow Queen nods at you, and then with a bit of a royal air to her, waves you away.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Well, it was lovely having one last meal with you, your majesty, but I’m afraid, um… Destiny calls.

The Snow Queen (Kim)
I’m intrigued to see how the story ends.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
For once, so am I.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, as you leave the Snow Queen and start walking through Covent Garden, you swoon.

[Dark cellos]

Kim
Your vision swims, and you fall to your knees as you start to hear these whispered chants in your ear. This cacophony of noise. The skin around your hands and your mouth start to crack and bleed. Please remove the Condition: Feverish and replace it with On Death’s Doorstep.

[Shadows in the Smoke theme]

Kim
Shadows in the Smoke is a Kitten Marlowe production. This episode was edited and produced by Kim Dalton, and featured a theme song by Jake Pierle. You can find out more about us by visiting KittenMarlowe.com, signing up for our newsletter, or following us on socials. For Discord access, an exclusive behind-the-scenes show, and more, visit Patreon.com/KittenMarlowe and join Ash and all of our incredible Kitten Marlowe patrons in supporting artist-driven storytelling. Thanks for listening.