Narrator 3: A bocular stallion, which is basically just a bocular horse, but bigger and fancier — think of like a limo — pulls up outside of the Loxlee headquarters building in the heart of the Highest Light’s business district.

[Awooga.]

Narrator 1: Ooh, fancy.

Narrator 2: Hieronymous Loxlee, briefcase in hand, gets out, bends down to tie his shoelace and looks around, checks his watch.

Narrator 3: It’s all super casual, not even a little suspicious.

Narrator 1: Another bocular horse, a regular non-limo one, pulls up alongside the fancy Loxlee stallion.

[Awooga.]

Narrator 2: It idles for just a moment, just long enough for Hieronymous to slip covertly into its coach-like interior, and then it resumes its journey, going on a casual stroll around the Loxlee Lights corporate campus.

[The rhythmic clanking of the bocular horse continues in the background.]

Narrator 3: This is their main business headquarters, sort of the office building, not the actual manufacturing plant where the light bulbs are made. That’s its own islet, some distance from the Highest Light.

Narrator 1: The nondescript, regular bocular horse strolls innocuously, circling around a corporate drive lined here and there with flowers, with flowing Loxlee banners, and lightbulbs of course, and it passes around the elegant Loxlee finance tower.

Narrator 2: Inside the horse carriage compartment, Hieronymous pulls down a shade over his window.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “All right, I’ve got fifteen minutes. What do you need to talk about so urgently?”

Narrator 3: In the passenger seat across from him, Saskia pulls her window shade down. She looks like a cool dame from a detective movie.

Narrator 2: Slats of horizontal light from the window shade falling across her face mysteriously. (Saskia) “Kozma’s dead, Hieronymous.”

Narrator 3: Loxlee sighs.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Yeah. Yeah… That’s uh, that’s what the meeting I have in about fifteen minutes is about. It’s an emergency business council. Tripotentiary Weepe has got a unique negotiation style.”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Hieronymous, the Breach is planning to destroy the Central Vault and permanently wipe out all Valor records.”

Narrator 3: Oh shit. Saskia just comes right out with it.

Narrator 2: That throws him for a loop. He just stares at her. He wasn’t surprised about Kozma being dead, but THIS, this apparently is news to him.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Shit…”

Narrator 3: He stares at the closed window, eyes defocused. He puts his head in his hands and massages his eye sockets.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Shit. It’s all falling apart. Kozma wasn’t kidding.”

Narrator 2: Saskia frowns in confusion. (Saskia) “She doesn’t strike me as much of a kidder. Uh, didn’t strike me. Did she… say something about this?”

Narrator 3: Hieronymous slides a finger into the window shade to peek out the window. A commemorative statue of Maximilian Loxlee looms on a street corner, holding a lightbulb to the sky.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “She warned us.”

Narrator 3: A vein is ticking in his temple. He looks very stressed.

Narrator 2: Saskia is examining him closely. (Saskia) “Warned who? The Upper Trust?”

Narrator 3: Hieronymous nods. He sighs heavily again. He twists his wedding ring distractedly.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Kozma informed the Upper Trust that she was head of the entire Breach and that any attempts to challenge her would be met with… well, it sounded bad.” He gestures to Saskia. “And now here we are.”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Can I ask, did you already know Kozma was in charge? I just found out, through other channels. But the way the Breach has always worked, no one knows hardly anyone else who’s involved…”

Narrator 1: Loxlee nods tersely. (Hieronymous) “Yeah, she and I have been in touch for years.”

Narrator 3: Hieronymous seems to regain his senses a little bit. He examines Saskia suspiciously.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Hang on…Saskia, are you helping with this Vault plan?”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Yes, I am. And you’d be surprised who else is too.”

Narrator 1: Loxlee eyes her warily. (Hieronymous) “And what do you mean by that?”

Narrator 3: Saskia leans closer, dropping her voice.

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Lark. The Imbalance herself.”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Lark’s here? In the city?”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Yeah! And also, of all people, Phineas Thatch!”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “You’re joking.”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “I’m not. He drew us a map of the Vault’s restricted areas. He’s sharing all the information that he had access to as Prime Adsecla. He and Lark even helped get Sherman and Tzila out of the city!”

Narrator 1: Hieronymous latches onto THAT piece of information, visibly relieved and quite concerned. (Hieronymous) “What? How?! The risk of getting them out of the c—”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Not everyone in the Breach is as cautious as you are. They took a risk and it paid off. Sherman and Tzila are on their way home right now.”

Narrator 3: Hieronymous clearly wants to know more about this, but he shakes himself back to the other more critical, destructive, time-sensitive issue at hand.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Hang on, back up. Clarify? What do you mean by ‘destroy’ the Vault?”

Narrator 3: Hieronymous’s eyes narrow.

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “We have Agatha Ledge on the team. The Incendiary Imaging Device is what she’s known for, but apparently the same technology can be used to—”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “You’re going to blow up the Va— the Breach isn’t supposed to DO things like this!”

Narrator 3: Their eyes meet in a staring contest, which Hieronymous abandons after just a moment, his eyes shining.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “It isn’t supposed to hurt people…”

Narrator 3: And he’s abruptly a million miles away.

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “So what are you saying? We should just put up with the Trust forever? Now’s our chance to actually change something. We have to fight back!”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “By bombing a building full of people? Throwing people’s lives into chaos for the ‘good of the…’ what, the Breach? What gives you the right to make that call?”

Narrator 3: He reaches a hand out to pull the horse’s stop lever.

Narrator 2: Saskia grabs his hand, but he wrenches away.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “This is insane. Destroying the Central Vault is not a solution. Good does not cancel out bad. Innocent people in the Trust and the Breach will get hurt.”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Which is exactly why I’m talking to you. With your help, it will go a lot smoother. We can fight back AND no one has to get hurt.”

Narrator 3: Saskia reaches out to clasp Hieronymous’s hand again. They examine each other, and eventually, Hieronymous just says,

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “No.”

Narrator 2: Saskia leans back. (Saskia) “What’s the matter with you? Are you going to pretend to be a Trustee forever? Something’s gotta give. Why aren’t you ever willing to do anything DRASTIC to help the Breach?”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Grow a spine!”

Narrator 3: Saskia pulls the stop lever and makes to climb out of the horse’s cabin, but Hieronymous says something that freezes her in her tracks.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Kozma Laszlo blew up Midst’s moon.”

Narrator 3: Saskia’s hands go numb with panic.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “She confessed to it right in front of us. The thing is… she was lying.”

Narrator 3: Oh, no…No, no, no, no.

Narrator 2: Loxlee’s eyes are hollow.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “It wasn’t Kozma’s idea to destroy the moon. It was mine.”

Narrator 3: Saskia hears a ringing in her ears, a weird tunneling of her vision, a blackness closing in around her, not just because of the darkened interior of the bocular horse. Hieronymous can’t look at her. He just stares directly ahead at the shuttered window.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “I don’t know why she lied about it. She’s either a hero or a psycho. You could never tell what her game was. Did she lie to hold power over me? To protect me? Or to cause drama?”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Stop talking about Kozma. You need to explain your part in this. Right now.”

Narrator 3: After a long moment, when he does speak again, he tells her the truth.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Kozma and I had a plan. A way to help everyone in Breach escape from Stationary Hill without exposing them to the Trust. An excuse for everyone to leave Midst, Trust included. So I ordered Ledge’s Incendiary Imaging Device brought to Stationary Hill, under cover. Kozma and I thought we could set it off at night, during the Fold — create some medium tearror, something big enough, just enough of a commotion to provoke safe evacuation of all residents, all Trustees, the night after the sale. We thought the Trust would lose track of everyone on Midst. Then the Breach could go to ground unnoticed, rebuild the route somewhere else.”

Narrator 3: What Hieronymous doesn’t explain, though, is how this all got started.

Narrator 2: How Ginsberg was caught while failing to abduct Senior Notary Milton Fleit and desperately kidnapped his grandson instead.

Narrator 1: How Ginsberg confessed in interrogation and pointed the Trust to the Breach route hiding on Midst.

Narrator 3: He doesn’t explain how the Trust installed a watchful notary on Midst and moved to buy the islet from Laszlo so they could search it unimpeded.

Narrator 2: Nor how Laszlo agreed to sell, because to refuse would reveal she was protecting the Breach. How, with full control of Midst, it would only be a matter of time before the Trust would find out about the cabaret, and how the cabaret would connect them to thousands of other Breached escapees hiding further downstream in the Fold.

Narrator 3: How it would doom the entire Breach and generations of escapees all in one fell swoop.

Narrator 2: How he and Laszlo, the Breach’s two primary organizers, needed to take secret action immediately.

Narrator 3: Hieronymous Loxlee wrings his hands. He swallows. And what he does say is,

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “That WAS the plan, at least until his Most Valorousness the Tripotentiary, your former colleague, decided he was gonna pick up the magnifying glass and show the Trust exactly where the Breach was hiding on Midst. We didn’t even see that coming. Trust didn’t even have time to start looking before Weepe just exposed the Breach immediately. And the Incendiary Imaging Device wasn’t even on Midst yet. It was still in a stealth ship on the moon. We were waiting until closer to nightfall to bring it to town.”

Narrator 3: Saskia can’t breathe. She can’t believe she’s hearing this.

Narrator 2: Down on Midst, her second body is standing stock still, halfway out of her bedroom in the cabaret, one hand on the doorknob, other hand holding a forgotten cup of tea, gone cold. Staring into space, expression fathomless, all her attention rooted on this conversation many many miles above.

Narrator 1: Loxlee knows that Saskia’s other body can hear his confessions, but he doesn’t care anymore.

Narrator 3: He can’t keep this secret any longer. It’s eating him alive.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “We had to get the Breach out before the Trust could capture them all. So I told Kozma to give the signal, to trigger the device on the moon. I didn’t know exactly what would happen. We just hoped it would be enough of a distraction to let the Breach escape.”

Narrator 3: Saskia is quaking with anger.

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “You’re telling me Agatha Ledge’s fucking camera blew up the moon?! Did Ledge know? Who else in the Breach agreed to this? Were the moon miners in on it?”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “No no no, it was just me and Kozma. It’s our fault. It’s MY fault. It’s no one else’s. We kept everyone in the dark, Saskia. It’s the way the Breach has always operated. You only know what you need to know. Ledge didn’t even know that we took the device, and the miners…”

Narrator 3: He doesn’t have to say it. It’s clear from the look on his face that none of the miners knew what was about to happen.

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “I suppose I’m glad to know that it wasn’t the entire Breach behind this. It was just you and Kozma that agreed to put the entire islet of Midst in danger, who thought that sacrifice was worth it.”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Saskia, if I’d known how extreme it would be, how many orders of magnitude, the moon, the tearror, the whole, I would NEVER have—”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “But you did.”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “I did. I did. I take responsibility. I take all the FUCKING responsibility! I KNEW Sherman was there. I knew my own DAUGHTER was there. I knew YOU were there. But Saskia, I’m responsible for more than just the Breach on Midst. I have to protect thousands of people from the Trust hiding on islets all across the fucking cosmos. Thousands of Breached families. I can’t even EXPLAIN to you what it’s like…”

Narrator 2: Hieronymous drops his head into his hands, his whole body trembling.

Narrator 1: They both sit in a tense silence,

Narrator 2: The bocular horse still at a standstill. The sound of another horse skirts around the stopped vehicle.

Narrator 3: Loxlee’s anguish seems real and profound. But that doesn’t assuage Saskia’s anger. She doesn’t care how he feels right now. She cares about the nightmarish tsunami of tearror on the horizon. The panic on her neighbor’s faces. The screaming, reality-eating darknesss, tearing apart all her friends in the cave beneath the hill. The dead bodies littering the ground.

Narrator 2: He looks up at her again, eyes red, angry, anguished.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “So. I’m having a real hard time seeing any value in blowing up more things in order to make any of this better for any of us. This is not the way, Saskia. I can’t help you. I won’t. Not again. I won’t be party to hurting anyone else.”

Narrator 2: Saskia takes a moment to compose her thoughts. She leans over to Hieronymous and waits for him to look her in the eye.

Narrator 1: Eventually, slowly, he does.

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Hieronymous, you were willing to put the Breach at risk just to get them temporarily out of danger. So why aren’t you willing to put the Trust at risk to get the Breach permanently out of danger?”

Narrator 1: Loxlee shakes his head. He pulls away. (Hieronymous) “I can’t believe this is happening…”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “It’s happening with or without you, but if you don’t help, we are stuck with a brutal and violent plan. It actually makes a lot of sense to learn that this was Kozma’s plan originally. But we don’t have to do it this way. I don’t WANT to do it the way Kozma would’ve wanted.”

[Three gentle knocks on glass.]

Narrator 1: There is a knock at the shuttered horse window.

Narrator 3: (Unidentified speaker) “Do what the way Kozma would’ve wanted?”

Narrator 2: This shakes them both to attention. They look at each other in a panic. Saskia carefully peeks through the window shade.

Narrator 1: And who should be standing outside but Imogen Loxlee, previously Most Valorous in all the Trust?

Narrator 3: She’s wearing a fuzzy bright sweater under her elaborately lacy abacus. Her arms are crossed.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Oh my god,”

Narrator 2: Hieronymous says quietly, aghast.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Oh no, it’s all over.”

Narrator 2: Imogen Loxlee opens the door to the bocular horse and climbs carefully into the interior coach compartment. She’s an older lady, each of her movements cautious and deliberate.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “Make room.”

Narrator 2: She sits beside her husband.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “We’re late for our meeting, dear,” she says, (Imogen) “Not that it matters. We’re obsolete now. Might as well take a few more minutes.”

Narrator 2: She looks at Saskia.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “Hello,”

Narrator 2: She says, recognizing the retired lounge singer and former Highest Light celebrity — minor celebrity.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “You’re Saskia Del Norma, aren’t you? I have your first album. Big fan of your early work.”

Narrator 2: Hieronymous is looking like he might faint at any moment.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Uh, hello, dear. This isn’t what it… How long were you, uh…”

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “Long enough. You seemed completely distracted, and I’d recommend greater discretion in the future. Outing yourself as a Breach organizer in a standard municipal bocular horse? Amateur.”

Narrator 2: Saskia and Hieronymous look at each other. They had been distracted, it’s true, and now everything is… ruined?

Narrator 3: Imogen folds her hands in her lap. (Imogen) “So, my dear. You’re with the Breach?”

Narrator 2: Her expression is soft, searching, not accusatory.

Narrator 1: Hieronymous’s expression, on the other hand, is despairing and horrified.

Narrator 2: The dude looks awful. 

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “I… uhhh…”

Narrator 2: All his caution, all his maneuvering, and his world has been shattered in a moment of distraction. All he can manage is a weak nod.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “So that’s why you really married me. I assumed it was for my Valor, of course, but this does make more sense. It certainly would explain all your strange absences of late.”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “Imogen, no, I—”

Narrator 2: Saskia puts her hand on the door handle uncertainly. (Saskia) “Should I go?”

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “Oh, no need. I assume you’re also with the Breach? I understand you were operating that cabaret on Midst?”

Narrator 1: Now the funny thing here is, there is no security anywhere. There’s no one else standing nearby. Imogen doesn’t seem angry, she doesn’t even seem shocked. She’s just listening.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “Don’t worry, neither of you are in trouble. Just please be honest with me.”

Narrator 2: And they kinda believe her. She does not seem antagonistic in the slightest.

Narrator 1: Loxlee looks at Saskia with surprise. Disbelief.

Narrator 2: Saskia finds herself nodding, takes a leap of faith. (Saskia) “We have both been with the Breach for some time, ma’am.”

Narrator 3: Imogen nods. (Imogen) “I see. And now that Baron Laszlo is dead, what retaliation does the Breach have planned? She threatened it would be something awful.”

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “The Vault,” says Hieronymous, swallowing a throat full of bile. “They want to destroy the Vault.”

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “They?” Imogen quirks her eyebrow. “Are you or are you not part of this?”

Narrator 2: Saskia snorts a little, without humor. (Saskia) “Well, that’s what we were just discussing. With his help, it could be less lethal, for everyone involved.”

Narrator 1: Hieronymous turns to his wife, almost pleadingly. (Hieronymous) “Imogen, I didn’t know everything Kozma was planning. This isn’t something I agreed to. It’s too dangerous.”

Narrator 3: Imogen slowly closes her eyes. (Imogen) “At this point, I don’t think it’s a bad idea.”

Narrator 2: What? 

Narrator 1: Huh? 

Narrator 2: Well, that stuns everyone into silence.

Narrator 1: Once he’s done being stunned and silent, Hieronymous speaks again. (Hieronymous) “What?! Imogen, do you… realize what you’re saying? This would erase everyone’s accounts. This would be the… end of the Trust.”

Narrator 3: Imogen pulls one of the Valor beads that’s gotten stuck in her sweater, untangling it, setting it back down gently. (Imogen) “Whatever the Trust was, it ended the day Weepe took over. It’s become… something else now, and I don’t like it. As an older lady myself, I don’t see what good can come of hunting down another old lady for a childhood crime. When Max died, I hoped the worst of the Trust had died with him. But I guess it’s all someone else’s game now.”

Narrator 1: This is crazy. Sitting here inside of a horse hearing THIS from one of the Trust’s most legendary figureheads?

Narrator 2: Saskia senses her opening and takes it. (Saskia) “Respectfully, you can still be a lot of help. You both can.”

Narrator 1: Imogen turns her cataract-fogged eyes to Saskia, decades, entire generations of Trust history shimmering there in that gaze.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “I’m listening.”

Narrator 2: Hieronymous is fucking stunned. Years of careful courtship and maneuvering, countless veiled misdirections, dozens of covert trips to the Fold under the guise of “philanthropy”…

Narrator 3: All to prevent Imogen from catching on.

Narrator 1: He always kind of sensed it might be possible to make her sympathetic to the Breach, if he gave her time, if he worked on her, if he slowly acclimated her. After all, open-minded or not, she was an old Trust figurehead. He had to be careful, strategic, about how he introduced revolutionary ideas to her.

Narrator 3: And now this? She’s just… COOL with it?!

Narrator 2: Saskia goes on, (Saskia) “Destroying the Vault doesn’t have to mean destroying the people inside it, too. That’s exactly why I reached out to Hieronymous. You said you were trying to evacuate Midst to save its people. Well, don’t you Loxlees have the authority to evacuate the Vault before we hit it?”

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “Indeed we do,”

Narrator 1: Imogen Loxlee says quite simply, listening mildly, amazingly unconcerned.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “But only if we act quickly. The Tripotentiary is consolidating more and more authority every day. We can only coast on our reputation for so long. Might as well take advantage of it while we still have it.”

Narrator 2: This is wild. Hieronymous feels like he’s in a completely different dimension.

Narrator 1: But he shakes himself back to this one. (Hieronymous) “Okay. But even if it’s empty, destroying the Central Vault? That’s completely unnecessary. This is Kozma’s sense of drama. If our goal is to put an end to Valor, then just… sabotage the Arca and the Arca’s infrastructure. That’s efficient, that’s much less destructive… at least structurally. Societally, uh, that would be actually extremely destructive…”

Narrator 2: Saskia is nodding, thinking. (Saskia) “It’s also much more likely to work. You empty the building, and then the Breach team can get inside and hit the Trust exactly where it hurts. No need to take the whole building down. I need to talk to the others, but I’m sure they’ll see the sense. They don’t all think the way Kozma did. They just want freedom, not revenge. Even if your plan to rescue the Breach on Midst had succeeded, the Trust would’ve just come back for them at another time, in another way. It was never going to fix anything, it was just… temporarily delaying the cycle. All of this work and pain and struggle to protect the Breach… it has one very simple solution that you have never wanted to see, Hieronymous. There’s no Breach if there’s no Trust. Even if there WAS anything about the Trust worth preserving, that’s all changed now. You see that, right? Even your wife sees that.”

Narrator 3: Imogen says nothing. She squeezes her husband’s hand again. Hieronymous’s head is spinning, oh my god.

Narrator 1: Hieronymous takes a very long breath. (Hieronymous) “On the condition that no one else is harmed, and that ONLY the most vital Valor infrastructure is targeted… then I will agree to help you.”

Narrator 3: Imogen slaps her thighs. (Imogen) “Good, I’m glad we had this talk. You can have my husband back after we attend this little meeting and I announce the bank holiday I’m about to invent, which should clear out the Vault for you. Then, I’m going to make arrangements to leave the city. Come along, dear.”

Narrator 2: Imogen Loxlee opens the bocular horse compartment door and steps out onto the curb.

Narrator 3: She pokes her head back in once more. (Imogen) “Nice to meet you,” she says to Saskia, “and with any luck, we will never have to meet again.”

Narrator 1: And to Hieronymous,

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “My dear, I don’t really care what brought us together, whether it was deceit or political maneuvering or whatever. I’m glad it happened. I love you, and I think you love me too.”

Narrator 1: He nods. He does.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “You are a good man. Certainly the best man I’ve ever been married to. I know you will do the right thing, Trust or no Trust.”

Narrator 2: She touches his cheek.

Narrator 3: (Imogen) “I just hope I get to spend the end of my life with you by my side. Now, let’s go to this wretched meeting and pretend this conversation never happened.”

Narrator 2: And then she disappears, headed back to her limo-horse nearby, her stallion. Awooga. Hieronymous looks after her, preparing to disembark himself. He shakes his head, bewildered.

Narrator 3: He looks at Saskia.

Narrator 1: (Hieronymous) “I told you it was complicated.”

Narrator 2: (Saskia) “Huh,” says Saskia. “Yes, I… I suppose I understand.”

Narrator 1: Hieronymous obediently disembarks from the normal horse, following his wife, but turns to Saskia one last time. (Hieronymous) “I’ll contact you. And, um, Saskia…”

Narrator 2: She knows what he’s going to say. She gets there first. (Saskia) “No,” she says, coldly shaking her head. “No one else needs to know about you and the moon. I won’t say a word. Not to anyone in the Light, not to anyone on Midst. People might kill you if they knew. And we… still need you.”

Narrator 3: Saskia and Hieronymous examine each other for a long moment, sharing a silent burden of incalculable pain, fear, and determination, until a nearby voice reminds them it’s time to go with a subtle, understated, sophisticated…

[Awooga.]