It has been a little over a year since I learned that I was an Errol. It has been mere days since I learned that I was Dragomir’s daughter. And of everything those revelations have brought to light and have forced me to understand about myself, what Dragomir said today highlights the one fear I’ve always had about my lineage.

Blood compels.

I am only a dhampir. I can stand in the sun, can eat and drink like a normal person, and I bleed the same as everyone else. But before I received this gift from Quester Apogee I could be harmed just the same as any full-blooded vampire if the powers of life were turned on me. So where is the line, really? Who am I when compared to Curwen, who yearns for everything the name Errol should give him by birth.

Power, prestige, strength.

If I had grown up as he had, chasing my father’s shadow instead of under my mother’s protection, would I have wanted it as he does? I told Granny Weaver that I wouldn’t have, but that is because I answer as myself, as a Wrona, who has known what it is to live in fear of what I am and not know that I could demand respect as an Errol.

Blood compels, but I still do not think that I would have wanted anything else.

My father hides here in the Delta. He protects the small world he has claimed for himself, and nothing more. I think, in his own way, he is afraid of what he is, too.
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

Cast:
Bitmap as Ksana the Spear
Cory as Apricus the Luminary
Jade as Viidra Matei
Mab as Elżbieta Wrona
Zachary as The Game Master

Produced by: Mab
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat user Still North Media and others, Soundbible user Tony Phillips, and Freesound users monkeyedz, kyles, webbfilmsuk, halleck, artninja, julianmateo, molefimanaka, brunoauzet, eminyildirim, and cgeffex
Other music: Ovani Sound

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

Momma,

I met him recently.

Did you know this would happen? When I wrote to you weeks ago and said that we were going into the Delta and that our next target was going to be its Warden. Even if your response had been able to reach me in time, would you have warned me off of that course of action?

Would you have finally given me an answer, told me the truth, or would you have begged me to find someone else to go in my place without an explanation?

Actually, this is the third time our paths have crossed. Twice he was a monster who never acknowledged my presence. The third time, he sat across from me like an estranged father would, looked me in the eye, and had the gall to say I had the best of you.

I already knew that. I did not need him to tell me. I did not want him to tell me.
- Unsent letter from Elżbieta Wrona to her mother, Mariska

Cast:
Bitmap as Ksana the Spear
Cory as Apricus the Luminary
Jade as Viidra Matei
Mab as Elżbieta Wrona
Zachary as The Game Master

Produced by: Mab
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat and Freesound users jfm, arnaud-coutancier, cgeffex, nachtmahrtv, hannagreen
Other music: "For Endless Days" by Pamela Yuen, licensed under CC-BY-4.0; changes made to loop certain segments of the song.

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

CONTENT WARNING for:

• medical/descriptions of surgery at 21m04s to 29m11s
• spiders at 1hr02m8s to 1hr02m33s

I can’t stop thinking about how Aldrich and Dragomir have viewed Ksana’s brand of magic. Calling it self-sacrifice, calling it stupid, calling it useless because she gives and gives of herself and expects nothing in return. Of course they would think that; their view of that outpouring of life is that it does not sustain them. All the Errols can do is take from this land, to literally bleed it dry, and they cannot understand a selfless act as they are inherently selfish creatures.

That is not to say that I condone Ksana’s martyrdom. What is the point in throwing yourself away to build a better world if you are not here to see it? Over the last year, since I have joined the Rams and was finally given the chance to realize that there is so much more to life than surviving, I have figured out what I want out of this quest. I want to create a world where people like me, people like Sorren, people like that Wight we met upon first entering the Delta, can live without hiding their true faces. And I want to fight for a place like that so that I can experience it.

Ksana fights for a world that exists to display the wondrous good of humanity, so why would she carve herself empty and hollow so that she will not live to see it? There is so little of her left and she will gladly parcel it out.

Granny Weaver is wrong. There is nothing that the Errols can do to break me and reshape me into a monster who will serve alongside them. I think I want to see Ksana’s vision of the future, and I’m determined to ensure she’s there to witness it as well.
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

Cast:
Bitmap as Ksana the Spear
Cory as Apricus the Luminary
Jade as Viidra Matei
Mab as Elżbieta Wrona
Zachary as The Game Master

Produced by: Mab
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson
Sound effects: zapsplat, Yellowstone National Park Sound Library, and Freesound users lg, DBlover, nachtmahrtv, other_kat, and iainmccurdy
Other music: Ovani Sound & Kevin MacLeod

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing