This is the continuing story of my adventures in the tale: Save me a Story. If you wish to read the introduction to understand what is happening, click this link:
https://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=3431
Otherwise, I’ve tried to summarize what happened at the beginning of most of the sections of this story.
Riddles
By the laws of Selat, the Caretaker was given the power to oversee its inhabitants and ensure that the life of story continued.
These times were difficult. An evil sorceress was collecting characters from stories, moving them to an uncharted island in the north of Selat, and blocking their memories, so they not only did not know what story was theirs but who they were at all.
The Caretaker wanted to help stop this disaster before all of Selat was lost to this evil sorceress but was restricted by another Selat law. Though Selat law dictated that the Caretaker’s role was to ensure that the life of story continued, he was prohibited from using his powers to make a direct change. He had to find other ways so that the inhabitants of Selat, or others, were responsible for any actions taken.
He did have mystics and soothsayers that could help him by predicting possible future solutions, but he couldn’t actively give direct solutions to anyone.
The Caretaker thought long and hard about the problem facing Selat. Both his mystic and soothsayer predicted that an outside teller of tales might be the solution. One predicted this taleteller would bring the change needed to thwart the sorceress. The other predicted that a friend would also be involved in finding a solution but was unclear as to how this second person would be involved other than providing some help to the teller of tales. As with most predictions, there was always a possibility that the predictions were wrong. But the Caretaker chose to value these predictions and trust in them.
The Caretaker used his power to transport the mystic to another realm to find these two helpers. When found, those helpers would be given their tasks and transported to Selat. From there, it was up to those individuals to find the solution. At least, this was the Caretaker’s hope.
But things don’t always go as planned, and time was running out. Some meetings had been held by Necroma, the evil sorceress, where she kidnapped characters, wiped their memories, and transported them to the island of Lorn. At one of those meetings, the Caretaker used his powers to focus on one character, Fox. He put a temporary shield protecting Fox’s memory so that Necroma’s spell took longer to take hold than it had on the others; this allowed Fox to leave a clue that might help the foreigners in their task.
But that was not enough. The Caretaker needed to make more clues to be found.
A series of riddles were left along the path that the characters followed. With any luck, they would all be found by the right parties and interpreted correctly. However, neither the mystic nor the soothsayer could find an outcome in their tellings.
Fox’s message had already been found. Unfortunately, not all of the message’s content was fully understood. A second riddle was left carved on a stone in the path of another group. A third riddle was left to be found by one of the subordinates of Necroma. A final one was to be imparted to the inhabitants on the island of Lorn, hopefully at the appropriate time.
For now, all the Caretaker could do was wait and watch.
Continued in…Sorcery and Secrets
