Random Encounter is a storyboard Worldsong and Anke started because they were bored, and Sebastian and Sylvie confused them.
Many of the older houses are named for something or other; house names are sometimes used for last names (which are otherwise not very common).
(These are Mutt's notes on rereading the story from the start. They will contain spoilers.)
[01] - Summer, pleasant day in a wooded area. Sebastian on riverbank. Ayu-Asra steals part of his catch. Dragon flies off, gets followed, ends up being carried towards Sylvie, who is cooking. Fancy seeing you here... Sebastian muses suspiciously about the pleasant weather and 'chance' encounter.
[02] - While cooking, Sylvie mentions Nico's stories of running into friends in unlikely places. Sebastian admits he doesn't live anywhere. Sylvie is contracted to a Canyet scholar helping on an encyclopaedia of plants and has been in the area gathering samples for a month. Sylvie admits she too is far from home, and evasively describes this as like a journeyman stage. Ayu-Asra is introduced by name and Sylvie hints that she wouldn't mind getting rid of the dragon. Describes where they're found in the wild.
[03] - Sebastian mentions he's been in the area before, but not for "some years". Mention of their first meeting, when Sebastian was beaned by a tree branch and Sylvie helped him out. Sebastian's thoughts hint at worry about his various personae. Mention of the size of the town; bigger than Sebastian remembered, prompting musing about passage of time. "No bother." "No, really, no bother."
[04] - Sebastian admits he's going to meet a priest to deliver a message. Both decide to spend the day here before setting off for the town. Sebastian afraid of being questioned and understood, and still apprehensive that this may turn out to be a plot of Lady Luck's. Sylvie teaches him a mancala game. Mentions Eodea's five moons and Sebastian brings up the topic of deities.
[05] - Sebastian asks about Sylvie's homeworld and the people there. Yrn's island chain full of diverse people with diverse ties and loyalties. Multi-species and -cultural. Sebastian describes his childhood home as a once-great country in the process of breaking down into warring kingdoms. Muses over terrorising some of the people there. Yrn's islands, by contrast, a coherent group in opposition to the three mainland continents and linked by seafaring families. Yrn a large island built on mystical ruins. Largely agriculture supporting the eponymous capital city. Ruins mysterious, rumours of catastrophe if disturbed. Sylvie mentions the name Eodea for her world. Asks Sebastian about worlds he's visited and whether they have names.
[06] - Sebastian mentions connection between naming worlds and religion. Sylvie asks about his religion. Sebastian describes Lady Land's function as barrier between wilderness and civilisation, role as ecological guardian, view of her as decreasingly relevant in urban areas. Describes Lady Luck as patron of underdogs who favours those who trust her. Sebastian grew up in Lady Land's temple. Sylvie mentions spirits but seems unfamiliar with deities as opposed to local spirits. Sebastian describes the deities of indolence by example. His description reflects his idea of deities as the essence of an idea becoming personified and drawing power from examples of its source -- such as lazy people in this example. Thinks aside about deities of cities and perhaps countries. Mentions the sapient drive to belong as a fuelling factor for both deities and organisations. What does Sylvie belong to? She replies that she's most at home with scholars.
[07] - Sebastian asks about religion in Yrn and Eodea. Duality of matter (body) and spirit (mind). Some actual spirits are asked or invoked for help. Also patron figures or examplars, generally real people from history. Sylvie asks why Sebastian doesn't want to settle down. He says it never compares to the memories of his home. He shiftily adds that he has tried settling down and never stuck to it, so now he views it as impossible for him. Probes Sylvie a little further on why she's away from home. She hints at an accident with a fae gate. She estimates she's been away from home for four years.
[08] - Sylvie mentions she's looking for a way home and says she got Ayu-Asra on the first world she was thrown to after the gate accident. Dis the Cross'd Roads, ha ha. Sylvie misses her home. Sebastian much moved. Brief talk about travelling between worlds, banishing convicts and unforgiving terrain. Sylvie mentions mind-reading apropos of nothing much and mentions an old shopkeeping friend of elven-human blood who made good guesses.
[09] - Mention the concussion incident again. Asks Sylvie if she often helps strangers, and remarks that he is the stranger in most comparable situations he encounters. Split up for food-finding and to let thoughts settle. (Sebastian [insults newts].) Caraway and mushrooms and an unlucky grouse. Sebastian worries more about Hattishness.
[10] - Is Lady Luck also the patron of foreshadowing? Small talk about the weather. Sebastian cooks this time. He likes summer, is generally keen on thunderstorms and dislikes the smell of cities, though likes the people and rhythm of life. Sylvie mentions the shopkeeping friend again, naming her as Kashei. Apple wine. Sylvie doesn't often drink much alcohol.
[11] - Sebastian also likes the variety of music found in towns. Muses about not being honest with Sylvie, yet being more honest than he usually is. Talk about conversations and debates. Sylvie gets out the singing orb at the insistence of Ayu-Asra, who duets with it. Sebastian likes this. Sylvie asks where he got the orb. It was from a dead, half-sunken city. Sylvie finds this suspicious. Upon questioning Sebastian says he was there to find passage for someone out of the country as part of a larger scheme to [ruin or murder] someone else, whom he describes as a very nasty person whom the law couldn't touch. He mentions that this was a mission for one of his goddesses and Sylvie, appearing to dismiss any misgivings about his methods and decide his justifications weren't lies, asks about other missions.
[12] - Sebastian explains that Lady Luck usually manipulates him into doing what she wants, and is known to drop him in impossible situations to see him wriggle out of them. Lady Land, on the other hand, "doesn't need to ask". He wonders aloud why he's telling Sylvie all this and implies that he trusts her. She mentions the chicken-repelling talisman she made for him. Sebastian is still carrying it (Sylvie reflects that it must have run out of juice by now), but then again, Sylvie is still lugging around the orb he gave her. Sebastian abruptly tells her that the version of him she may hear about in the stories is "just an act". Sebastian has a sleepless night thinking about why he trusts Sylvie. When she wakes up she briefly wonders the same. She concludes that she trusts him because she's a nosy bleeding heart.
[13] - Sebastian says the locale is dreamy; cue a little back-and-forth about whether that's a good thing, and then about travelling. Life without horizons (literal) to chase is "a cage" to Sebastian.
[14] - Travelling towards Canyet town. Abstract talk about perceptions and how most people are boring and limited. Angles of approach to problems. Sebastian thinks how people react to circumstances is more significant than the circumstances themselves. At Sylvie's question, Sebastian decides to go by "Kai" as an alias. A bit more musing about how people are stupid. Ayu-Asra has wandered off; Sylvie is unworried. He always catches her up, even when she tries to abandon him.
[15] - They theorise that Ayu-Asra is in fact a devious mastermind incognito. Brief mention of Yrn dragon legend, sadly not followed up. Further banter (Sebastian seems startled by a chance mention of apples being thrown). Reach a small village by afternoon. [*askance is adverb] Sebastian given strange looks. Decide not to stop. Head off intending to reach Garya Cross, a larger village, before nightfall. Sebastian aware of rainclouds moving in.
[16] - Ayu-Asra hitches a lift on Sebastian's shoulder and is not turfed off, amusing Sylvie. They reach Garya Cross and Sebastian finds himself swaggering and generally showing off without meaning to. They find the inn, the Two Oaks. Sebastian is out of place what with his appearance. Sylvie gets a few looks thanks to the dragon. They eat and a storyteller pops up, telling a somewhat rambling tale of a local bandit-rebel called Cowled Willart, who wore a famous hat and was brought to mob justice by a "fox" (whether animal or human isn't overtly stated). Sebastian looks shifty throughout this story. Sylvie isn't impressed and misses any nuances as to the identity of the 'fox'. They get rooms and sleep.
[17] - After another night of strange dreams Sebastian is up early. After Sylvie joins him and mentions that she didn't think much of yesterday's story, the storyteller, Borin, arrives and joins them. He is curious about a correction Sebastian made to the story. In turn, Sebastian wants to know what other stories of his Fox persona still persist around these parts. The storyteller mentions a few. The penny drops for Sylvie, who seems to find it funny.
[18] - On the way towards Canyet again, Sylvie asks for confirmation that the Hat and the Fox are one. Sebastian affirms. Rain starts moving in towards Canyet, arriving shortly after the duo-plus-dragon. Sylvie goes to see Garren, the person for whom she has been collecting samples, in a house called Old Ivy. Having been in town for a few months she knows it well enough to suggest lodgings for Sebastian, at an establishment called House Crow (small, cheap, reasonably clean). Canyet is a walled city built in three successive rings. The route to Old Ivy is through the outer ring, between walls 2 and 3. Old Ivy is so called because of what grows on its walls. The way in is through an apothecary. Sylvie is met by Gemma, a tall woman with a strong voice who assumes they are a couple. Sylvie (and Sebastian) is offered "Fren's room", which is vacant after Fren went to sea. Sebastian, amused but not embarrassed, declines for his own part and explains they're not romantically entangled. They part for a few days so Sylvie can get on with her work for Garren. Gemma mothers her a bit.
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