Exalted 2e Question - Night Caste anima power

[nargbop]

First-time Storyteller for Exalted, never played a Night Caste before. On page 98, they say that the Night caste can spend ten motes to become very difficult to notice. Spending eleven motes makes her obvious. Is this another eleven motes, eleven motes of Peripheral, or is the Night exposed as soon as she spends another single mote?

[Jerthanis]

Motes spent from your Personal Essence pool do not contribute to the glow of your Anima banner, so if you spent the 10 essence from Personal on the obfuscation anima effect, you're not obvious in the event of spending one more mote.

Mostly, the Obfuscation Anima banner is about half as useful as a Stealth Excellency, so the Obfuscation for 10 motes effect isn't used terribly often, except that it can be used in social situations more easily. The real benefit of the Night Caste Anima power comes from the power to prevent anima flare when you DO dip into your Peripheral pool. Also, when you decide to go all-out and spend 11+ motes of Peripheral essence, your identity is obscured automatically. So if you're a political mover and shaker in a Realm Satrap and you suddenly need to go crazy with magic powers, people will remember a Solar was there, but won't recognize that it was you specifically.

[Kyeudo]

The anima also has a few advantages over an Excellency, though. It is an innate power and reflexive, so you can activate it at any time, even if you just used a Charm. It's a scene long, so if you need to make alot of Stealth rolls in a short burst, it will pay for itself eventually. Finally, you can use it with a Stealth Excellency to pump your Stealth even higher, since your Anima doesn't interact with the dice cap at all (it's not a Charm).

Still, yeah, a Night Caste mostly uses his anima for the prevention of anima flare.