Most people think the world is exactly what it seems.
They're wrong. Sometimes the lights flicker and
something else slips through. A whisper in the static, a
shimmer in the mirror. A feeling in your bones that
you're not quite alone. And that's where I come in.
Archibald Wolfington, Old English Bulldog, ex agent, Still
handsome, still dangerous, especially before my morning
biscuit. And for those of you new to the
glorious chaos, I'm Aaron Draycott, a systems engineer and
accidental narrator. I'm also human to this charming
bulldog with a serious case of I know more secrets than you.
Not secrets, love classified memories.
Welcome to Tales of the Veil, a magical mystery podcast where
the world you know is only half the story.
And the other half? Well, today it's my turn to tell
a bit about that. Trust me, you're going to want
tea for this. This is Tales of the Veil, a
character meeting. Well, here we are, just you and
me tease. Just the right temperature.
And the biscuits, well, there's a proper plate of them.
A chap can't ask for much more in this life, can he?
So, a story out of sequence. Erin thinks it's all terribly
complicated. Charts and code and contingency
plans. She's a good girl, mind you.
Clever, caring, stubborn as a firewall, but she sees the world
in ones and zeros. A problem to be debugged, minor
glitches aside. And in a way, she's right.
But there's more to it than that.
My world went sideways when the order collapsed, and that's a
glitch of a different sort. 1 you can't fix with a hard reboot
and a cup of tea. It left a scar.
It did. One that no biscuit can heal.
Oh, and if you've been following along, you may be thinking,
what's with all the different titles?
A guardian one moment, a Sentinel the next?
Which bloody title is it you might ask?
Well, it's all about need, isn't it?
Way back when my duties were simple.
Maintain the threads, keep the peace, guard the line.
But there came a time to connect old with new without triggering
a total time space collapse. You see, Aaron didn't need a
Sentinel at first. She needed a guardian, a
protector, a teacher. Not a ghost from a forgotten war
dragging her into ancient battles.
I'd seen what happened when Sentinels acted too soon.
The shattering didn't come from nowhere.
It came from an architect believing she could hold what
wasn't hers to control. Basically, Aaron needed a reason
to believe before she needed to know the whole bloody truth.
And I, well, I needed to give it to her gently.
A soft, steady debrief, not a hard reset.
A Sentinel learns patience, you see, times, just another
construct. The threads of causality and
memory must be played gently, like harp strings, and in the
games of the Loom you don't reveal the whole strategy on the
first round. A proper hand of fate knows when
to keep the good cards close. But now, Now things are
different. I may be a pensioner with a
monocle and a fondness for a good biscuit, but duties change,
and my key remaining duty is to a Conduit who thinks magic is a
matter of computer science. She's right, of course it is,
for the most part, anyway. This world we live in, You, me,
the others, the kittens. More than a kitten.
Of course, you know some of that by now.
And oh, but that's his story, not mine.
Yet. Aaron thinks she found me at the
shelter. Truth is.
Well, some stories are best told over more tea.
The Veil. It's a beautifully flawed
network, held together by frayed threads and half forgotten
memories. And yes, a glitch or two exists,
but like I said, there's more to it than that, and someone has to
watch over the new architect until she's ready to learn it
all. It's a strange kind of
retirement, but I suppose one endures, especially when the TS
this good. And you listening now, I, I do
mean, you think you're safe behind your headphones, do you?
Well, now you've heard my tales. But here's one more truth.
Stories. Listen back, don't blink.
The veil marks the curious remembers, the ones who watch
and the ones who become a lingering echo.