Was There a Wall There? (Bonus Chapter of the 80k Giveaway)

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Firelight illumined the Midnight Songbird, leaving a shimmering sheen of flickering orange of the hull. The deck glimmered, and to look at it in the otherwise dark night-

"Knock that off!" Tabitha exclaimed, in her usual irritable-

"I'm burning serious, you hack. It's bad enough that you killed me, but to think that my afterlife still has you narrating. Spit and burning ash, I wish I could light you on fire," Tabitha said.

"Better. Now explain to the good people why we're here," Tabitha ordered, as she gestured to the rest of the crew.

"Master, are you really yelling at the narrator?" Gerald asked.

"Worse, he's the author. All the hackneyed description and pretentious wordiness stuffed into The Dragon Chase is his fault. So is my death, which I'm still upset about," Tabitha rambled-

"Rambled? Throw yourself in the Spire! Ideally from here. I promise I'll make sure you burn alive before you hit the ground," Tabitha scathed, her voice disturbingly similar to the howl of the spire.

Arrayed in a circle on the deck, the crew of the Midnight Songbird sat upright, waiting for Tabitha to get over her hissy fit and-

Ow ow ow ow! I'm sorry!

"Better. So, the reason we're here is to make it clear to anyone who managed to slog through this b-rate author's messy prose that we're extremely grateful. To that end, the fourth wall is missing for a little while, and we're going to do our best to answer some of the questions you asked in earlier chapters," Tabitha explained.

...

Uh, why did you pause?

"I was waiting to chew you out over your elaborate dialogue tags. But you seem to be learning," Tabitha said.

Part of why I came to Wattpad.

"Hey, he's not that bad," Gerald remarked. "Chew him out too much, and you'll start insulting the taste of the readership, some of whom think the story was pretty good."

"Fair point," Tabitha conceded with a shrug as she sat down. "Besides, we're here for them. We may as well get on with it."

"So, I guess I'll start," Harold Reeves said, standing up and reaching into a small satchel slung over his shoulder.

"Alright, we have a missive, priority white, from @Khalsi. As follows: Would it be possible that other people still live beyond the Everburning City's walls, in other settlements?" Harold read.

There was a moment's silence, as most of the people aboard deferred to Tabitha and Gerald, waiting.

"I hope so," Amelian said, filling in the silence. "It's hard to imagine what lengths they would have to go, to endure the Gloam for hundreds of years, but we would all be better off if there was more to the world besides The City."

Gerald nodded, agreeing. "We can't rule it out. We survived after all, so it's possible. But however it happened, they would have to have secured enough land to feed themselves indefinitely, handle a growing population, and produce some kind of fuel to maintain a barrier of fire."

"So it's impossible, unless they also made a bore?" Valen asked.

"No," Tabitha insisted. "The Maesters who abandoned the City before the First Invasion might have found a place. Or other refugees before the Gloam reached them. Us doing it just means it can be done. Not that it has to be done our way."

"We can hope," Mathias reflected.

"No. We can do more than that," Lucille insisted.

"I suppose this is why you're going to keep refusing your own ship?" Amelian asked.
Valen's gaze lingered on Amelian's sword for a moment, and his eyes narrowed. "That's not a lieutenant's insignia on your pommel."

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