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Diane turned the piece of paper over and over in her hands, thoughts wildly tangled. The song, and the scrawled signature that read only, "Qualmi," were unchanged. At the same time, Leigh's words played over in her head, shifting as they repeated, hard to pin down. New rascals, old Wyrm... she knew Leigh had pronounced that name upon Canth, and the dream she had shared with Leigh did seem to press that theme as well. After the event of waking up with the papers from the dream become physical reality, Leigh and she had put together a few hints, and Leigh had figured out the last clue (the one that Diane had interpreted as the Bastet's ridicule of their attempts to figure out his earlier clues). Leigh said it had meant that Wyrm was two, the older of the two being Canth, but then told Diane she did not understand the meaning of the number 21. That was the part Diane had figured out. The Qualmi said two into one, and the song said 21 to win. 21 was two into one... reunite the Wyrm, make her one again. Whether that entailed somehow defeating or destroying Lasher and Lucian, or even more impossibly allying with them, they had not yet figured out. And Diane could not seem to fit the Glasswalkers in, though they were important... everything was too tangled up in the Talespinner's mind. It was forming more of a mess than a story. She decided to go back to the beginning and try again.
In their shared dream, Diane and Leigh had met and gone into a club with a neon sign blinking "21". Inside, there had been bete of both living and dead types, all save Bastet. They watched a lynx-man tell jokes, the last of which had accused the Glasswalkers of the Apocalypse -- and then sing the song "Dragula." Before leaving, he'd given them each a copy of the lyrics, two arcane hints and autographed Diane's lyrics page. And repeatedly told them to solve the riddle -- though he'd never quite admitted what the riddle actually was.
Dead I am the life, dig into the skinThat certainly sounded like Canth; themes of life in death, and lycanthropy. There were three verses... three. If Canth was Wyrm - 2 into 1 to win - maybe the other verses were the other parts of the Triad.
Knuckle crack the bone, 21 to win
Dead I am the dog, hound of hell you cry
Devil on your back, I can never die
Dead I am the pool, spreading from the foolThat was the Wyld, at least the second line was. Weak, what they needed, and nowhere when they bled, in Dallas, say. The rat part... well, Ratkin were the Wyld's fiercest followers... and there'd been something off about the Bastet in that dream. She couldn't quite figure out what. What about the first line, the pool spreading from the fool? Wyld energies seemed to radiate from Mouse, and Mouse was childlike and wise, like the fool characters in many traditional stories.
Weak and what you need, nowhere as you bleed
Dead I am the rat, feast upon the cat
Tender is the fur, dying as you purr
Dead I am the one, exterminating sonShe could see this one as Weaver. Strangling the breeze, yes. She wasn't sure about the angels... have to think about that more. Could the Glasswalkers be the angels? They served Weaver in whatever they were doing that had to be stopped, that was obvious enough. Glasswalkers slowly turn from Gaia to serve Weaver, and in the process conquer Wyrm, rather than reunite it?
Slipping through the trees, strangling the breeze
Dead I am the sky, watching angels cry
As they slowly turn, conquering the worm
She felt an elusive idea slip from her mind. Something... something she was on the verge of figuring out but just could not quite... She sighed, and slumped, then pulled out her notebook. She wrote down her speculations, then reread over the original account she'd written of the dream when it was fresh. Maybe it'd help her drag out this difficult answer from its hiding place in her own head.