Exalted - We Herald the Coming Dawn

[Orosboru]

It is a cold, dreary Calibration night. But for some, it is a nightmare.

"Once, there was a little god…" :smallconfused:

Someone is talking in the distance. Everything's so dark.

"….who had a little staff and crown." :smallamused:

There! A light! Depending on your point of view, you either reach there in a instant or several eternities. It's really hard to tell. The iron rod that is stuck firmly into the… firmament of the ground It has a bulb of glass on the top, which glows softly.

"He would prance around, coming and going as he pleased." :smallbiggrin:

You can feel yourself breathe. You can feel the coldness of the air. How is this possible? Are you dreaming? Are you mad?

"But one day, he came to where he was meant to be." :smalleek:

You look into the distance, but there is nothing. The crying has stopped. And then you are startled by four strangers suddenly start… well, existing. You don't recognize any of them.

You hear a great, horrible, scream of agony.

"But he did not come alone." :smallredface:

The veil of darkness retreats, and you can see the brightness of the stars and moon. The planets glow, undimmed by the sky. The ground you stand on is a thin, opaque metal that glows softly.

" 'Who am I?' he asked. They did not reply. :smallfrown:
So, he laughed and chased them around the night. :smallwink:
'There's always another day.' he said." :smallsigh:

[Brontes]

Axle began looking around him frantically, not fully sure what was happening. He had his run ins with the strange and unusual before now, of course. Having done the odd job for Rigan, interacting with local gods, plumbing ancient tombs, and the like. And that was not including his own shenanigans.

Rigan had warned him things might get fantastic, but Axle always guessed that would be a long time from now. He turned to the other four people he could see.

"Anyone have a clue what's happening?"

[Myllinnia]

Titania looks about the area with wide eyes, silken her silken skirts and ankle long and wealthy red-black hair whipping about her as she does so. She unconsciously runs her hands along her golden mocha and scantily clad body, checking herself for injury or worse, and then gives a sigh raising her eyes to him.

"I... I do not know. I was sleeping, in Chiaroscuro no less, and then well... now I'm here. We're we kidnapped? Are you the kidnapper... and what the heck was up with the ... whatever it was," she waves her bare hands the gleaming bracelets jingling there with a near look of panic.

[Ifni]

Calibration. A time for madness, a time for profit, a time for terror and delight and... whispers. They've been getting worse, the last few nights. Happy birthday, Lapis.

She drops to one knee to touch the ground, dark eyes wide and wondering as she runs her fingers over the glowing metal. Then she looks upward, and takes a deep breath as she stands, gaze fixed on the brilliant stars. Shadows surround her, but they recede as she stares into the sky, and slowly exhales. Something about the words spoken by the darkness pierces straight to her heart - but the stars are a memory of peace, of home, and in their light she can regain her composure.

In appearance, she is... forgettable. An impression of scarred dark skin, black eyes, black robes. A seven-section staff held loosely in one hand. An eye-wrenching pattern of unlight on her other arm, that somehow seems less interesting, less distinctive, than it rationally should.

She turns to the others, regarding them curiously. Are they images shaped out of her dream, or is this reality, and these her fellow-travelers? Does it matter? She smiles secretly to herself, and inclines her head to them in courteous greeting. Her voice is calm and quiet, when she speaks, in fluent but accented Old Realm.

"We might be dreaming. Or this might be reality. Or both, perhaps - lines blur at Calibration, I've been told. It is either a meaningless fantasy, or provides a chance to learn, no? Nothing seems to be trying to hurt us yet, in any case." Although there is hurting here. That scream.

She feels oddly light, oddly drifting, as if this really is a dream. "I am called Shattered Diamond Night. Do you really have no idea of any reason you might be here? You mentioned Chiaroscuro, Lady - are you a noble of that city?"

[Orosboru]

The crying starts. The voice whispers in all of your heads, murmuring a hidden sutra. The light of the lamp flickers and fades, leaving all of you with starlight to guide your way. A frantic, scrabbling voice is dimly heard by some, but it is like a thunderstorm for Diamond.

Once, there was a boy…
…who met a god who was one amongst many.

ThEpAiNwHoAmIWhOaReYouHeLpMePlEaSeDoN'tDoThIs

She glowed with a light that could protect creation.
He liked her as much as she liked him.

YoUdIdThIsToMeIlOvEyOuIHATEYOUpleasedon'tleaveme

One day, she gave him a kiss, and bit down with sharp teeth.
He offered her power, and with it, hands to grip her soul.

ThIsIsCrEaTiOnThIsIsADrEaMwHeReArEyOuArEYoUlOsT? Little lambs?

The whisper suddenly takes on a vestige of clarity.

With the greatest care, she held him in her gaze.
She said nothing, and smiled sorrowfully.

Little lambs? Don't be scared. You're safe. Safe from them. Safe from yourselves. Safe from... me.

[Ifni]

Diamond presses her shield-hand to her forehead and doubles over, gasping for breath as the scrabbling, babbling voice floods through her mind, all her vaunted calm swept away. Like a sandstorm, scouring the land. Like a flash-flood, driving all in its path. Like a tempest of wind and lightning, leaving no room for other sounds... except the whisper that speaks on, and on, through the thunder.

As the voice becomes clearer, Diamond straightens, but she is shaking. She turns her thoughts resolutely away from her own mind, her own memories. Later she can try to sift through them, see if anything more has been lost. She shivers more violently still at the soft, kindly words. Safety has never been her deepest desire. Safety, sometimes, can be a cage. But fleeing seems unlikely to accomplish anything here.

In a voice weaker than she had intended, she asks, "Who... who are you? Who are we?"

[Myllinnia]

Titania shakes her head, "No I am... A princess of the Land of Ail'Katar, its a land on the other side of the Summer Mountains, I was on my way back, but misjudged Calibration's time. Anyway I do not know..." And then it started up again and she winces from it, she presses her fingers to her temples moaning at the soft hard to understand babbling and crying. "Why... what... is this... I bet it was a drug that was slipped in my drink...," she whimpers glancing to Shattered Diamond Night.

Fighting back the constant annoyance she makes her way to the young lady and speaks in Firetongue, "Hold on, stay strong!"

[Ifni]

Diamond turns to the other woman, reaching gratefully for her hand. The familiar language is comforting; she finds herself replying in the dialect of her childhood, her Varangian accent reasserting itself. "You... you hear it too, yes?"

[Brontes]

Axle tries to get his bearing on the metal platform, his gaze is distant as he tries to find the edges. His bad eye twitches under his mop of hair.

"Yeah, I hear it," Axle says to Diamond, "Name is Broken Axle, and I've no idea why I'm here. Well, I have some idea, but it's not like I've done anything yet."

Axle pauses a moment while he gets his thoughts together and assuages his concerns. His gaze turns to the rod wedged into the platform. Axle stares at it intently, but isn't sure what to do.

[Orosboru]

The globe flickers with essence, gathering the local energies in a single focal point.
I? Who am I? What am I? Whence did I go? When did I become? Why? The voice chuckles. Cute little things, so far from home.

The voices, the whispers - they calm down. "Although it is my place to hide, I am the former king, the former friend, the former lover. I am the former partner, former runner, former watchman."

I am yours. You are mine.

TheIGreatestamDayNoxHasGodAofNight.


Roll throwback, Ifni.

[Ifni]

The silences between the spoken words impress themselves into her mind, carrying the weight of years and worlds.

There's a vision, waiting in the dark behind Diamond's eyes. A fragment of memory that's lain in wait for millennia. Laughter, and an onyx form, turning away. Does the face look back? Is there the edge of a smile, the hint of recognizable features? Beloved...

The surge of emotion shocks her. Love, yearning, pain. She wants to kneel in worship. She wants to lay her staff at his whose? feet and swear her life to his service. And something less benign... a lurking coldness, a hatred, diffuse and undirected for now.

This is not right.

She is diamond, impervious. These are not my passions. Her hand clenches around Titania's, like a person gripping the edge of a cliff. She forces the feelings aside, forces herself to breathe slowly, to remember who she is. Shattered Diamond Night. Daughter of the desert sky. Who lived and fought and loved before the Exaltation ever bonded to her soul.

But that reminds her of that night, of her despair in the darkness. And though the whispers may be shattering her memories and filling her mind with dreams and desires not her own, still... it saved me. HE saved me? How can she not feel loyalty? How can she not feel awe? My king. My god. My love.

"You are the whisperer," she says, in little more than a whisper herself. "And we are your... Exalted?" Her voice rises, questioning, on the last word.

[Myllinnia]

Titania nods slightly, "Its not so bad for me." And she winces as it redoubles its efforts. There is little she could do, this was stronger more assertive than Azheed. Still she holds to Shattered Diamond Night's hand though the young woman certainly held a hint of strength there as she tightens and tenses. What was it doing to her that it wasn't towards her or the others.

"Whisperer?" She says catching Diamond's words. "Exalted..." and she feels cold for a moment. Was this maddening voice their Patron. As the Green Sun Princes have the Yozi and the Lunars have the moon, then this voice, this seeming maddened voice belonged to their Patron?

[Orosboru]

"You are not you. Not you used to be you, until you became not-you. You are correct, little one. Gold star for you." The voice laughs. "I cannot tell my name, but I think you get the gist of it. Right? Besides, these fresh off the mint Exalts need some plot exposition!" Another voice chimes in. "Quiet, you. Heralds, there is a task of great import-"

You hear a great shuddering from the adamant. "If you'd excuse me for a moment, I believe that Creation is suffering a blue screen of death. We apologize for the inconvenient interruption of your heroic dream... please give me a moment while I find my computer. Now, where did I put it?"

Saturn is especially bright in the night sky, but it has suddenly turned a shade of crimson! What terrible things must be happening for such a horrible omen.

"Could you guys be a dear and unscrew the top of that glass bulb for me? Thanks in advance. Damn lights..."

NoDoN'tDoN'tDoItPlEaSe-
"Same to you, mumbly. Gosh, you are such a bore."

[Brontes]

The quickening pace makes Axle nervous. Though his face is obscured, his right eye begins to tear up due to stinging. The red star makes him quiver, but he cannot find meaning in it.

"What the hell?! What's happening now?"

[Qaera]

Lansatura walks towards the others, and at the sound of the voice, halters for a moment- she's heard it before. But this. This is... palpable. It's closer, it's louder, it's more real. Maybe, it can explain what happened- how she got here, for instance. She shook her head.

"Wh- What's going on...?"

~ ♅

[Ifni]

Diamond exhales, and a little of the tension drains out of her, the powerful emotions fading somewhat as the voices seem to turn their attention to other matters. You became not-you: does that mean what she thinks it does? Later. She loosens her grip on Titania's hand. "Thank you. I... thank you, Princess. That helped, very much."

She turns to Broken Axle, although her gaze keeps drifting back to the blood-red Saturn. In many nights walking beneath the desert stars, she has never seen such a thing. She doesn't know what blue screen of death means, but it sounds... not good. Very not good.

She opens her mouth to speak, but then stops as another person comes into view. Another confused person, by the sound of it, seeking an explanation. She inclines her head to them, and directs her words to them as well as Axle and Titania. She is obviously still shaken, but her voice has settled back into some semblance of calm. Healers need to at least appear composed in emergencies.

"You all hear the voices, yes? I've heard them since my Exaltation, but only whispers - here, earlier, the babbling was a roaring storm, overwhelmingly strong. We are... His Exalts, I gather, this voice. He said... or implied... he was Night, the Night of the Greatest Day. Do any of you know... anything, about this?" Her voice trails off.

She takes a breath, shifts her stance. Wraps her arms close to her body, as if shielding herself against the cold.

"Right now, our purpose here appears to be to unscrew a glass bulb. Although... part of the voices are crying, they don't want it done." She opens one hand, tilting it back and forward, a gesture of uncertainty. "I guess we go ahead? That red planet... doesn't look good. At all."

[Myllinnia]

"It must not have been gentle, all I hear is buzzing, whispered words that make no sense to me, and chaos, but all I get is a minor headache at best." she nods to Shattered Diamond Night. "You are welcome, I am sorry I could not reduce it any. And please, just call me Titania. We are not in Ail'Katar, and we are likely equals in whatever we are."

After a bit she looks to the crimson Saturn. Her tutors and advisers had taught her the sky and its heavenly lights, but never had she seen one this color. Not even Mars could mimic this color, or... could it? She looks to the others.

"Yes I guess the only thing we can do is check it out, no?" And she follows after her eyes never really leaving the Crimson tinted Saturn. After a bit she says introducing herself to the others here, "I am Titania Sera Varia, let us hope we can help whatever it is that needs help."

[Brontes]

"I..I guess," Axle nods toward Diamond, "I don't think our...patron, was it, is going to be any more coherent now."

He gazes at their surroundings a moment longer, before drawing out Timely Intercession.

"Not sure I want to normalize the area without knowing what this place does, but if something attacks, I'll be willing to take the hit."

Gathering his resolve, he walks slowly toward the bulb. He stretches out his hand.

"Last chance to make sense, patron. Then I remove the sphere."

[Orosboru]

Sense? What have I ever done that had ever made sense?" A female voice says. "I don't want you to take off the cap. In fact, it wants to stay there. Do you know that it doesn't want you to touch it? Are you some sort of rapist?
Take it off. The stern voice says. "Or they will bring the endless night. They will fail to preserve the last rays of twilight. Our dawn will never come."
NoStOpDoNoTdOiT
"For once, I'm in agreement, Grandpa. This Mantavara is screwed enough already, for Pluto's sake...
The four voices clamour, but they are silenced by the monotone voice.

There was once a god...
...who remembered fondly what things were.
He said: "You know, I came to this place."
"You tried to kill me, that little girl that followed me."
"And I remember - I don't, but I don't mind."
"I know that it's better to be here then to dream."
...
"I'm keeping to heart," he said. "What I know to be false."
"That one day, I'll stay. That my dreams will die."
"I'll cling to reality," he said. "until Time begins again. But-"
"There is no end." said Time.

You must decide. You have been chosen to decide. Will you be heralds of a new age of man, or harlequins laughing at the emptiness of time?

[Ifni]

"One moment," Diamond says suddenly. She fears this, but... worst of all would be not even to try. She walks toward the light and kneels next to it, pressing her hand to the adamant surface. And she opens her mind to the whispers, lowering the diamond barriers of her soul, actively reaching out to the babbling and the gibbering, the conflicting voices. The love and the longing that she fought against, just minutes ago, surges up again, mingled with a terrible sense of betrayal.

What do you desire? What do you fear? What will happen if we remove this "cap"?

Lord of Night. Whisperer in darkness. Beloved. Open my eyes.

Spending one temporary Willpower to roll Perception + Whispers, seeking insight into the complicated mind of Nox.
[roll0]

Stunt dice? [roll1]

And I've heard "channelling Virtues" mentioned, but I'm not sure quite how that works, so a primer would be welcome, or a page number where it's discussed. Could I channel Compassion using the emotions bleeding over from my Throwback?

[Orosboru]

Through the confusing skeins of his madness, you see truth.
"I wanted... love." I... want absolution.IwAnTtOHiDeThElOyAl. I want to stay.I wanted what is mine. All of you.

I Fear... the Return.
I fear the return.
IfEaRtHeReTuRn
I fear the return.
I fear the return.

Everything.

Your conviction orders his regrets and fears into a more coherent form. The whispers gnaw at the virtue, instilling doubt.

[Ifni]

Diamond stands. Her eyes are dry. Her gaze holds something terrible. A fissure in the diamond calm - of rage, of pity, of growing, gnawing doubt. She shakes out her seven-shadow staff, raises her warped-light shield. Shadows billow around her, and she steps precisely between Titania and the light-source, moving with the grace of a trained martial artist. She wants to vanish, to not be here anymore, to find a place of silent solitude in which to absorb what she has learned, and recover herself... but that is not an option, not yet.

She mutters quietly to the others, her fellow Exalted, her Chosen kin, "Well, that was... enlightening. I'll tell you later. We do need to remove the cap. But I at least have one more question, while we are here..."

She turns her face upward to the endless sky. "What is the Return?" she asks.

[Indivisible]

Thousandfold Iris is doing his best not to draw any attention to himself. He stayed on the ground when the others were on the ground, and he stood up when they stood up. Members acting outside of the group draw the group's attention. However, outside of a crowd he does not have the Charms to hide himself.

He recognized the voice as the one which had told him to run when he first exalted, and some of the others seemed to have recognized it as well. One of the others murmured "exalted". Was this the god who had saved his life?

If everyone there was chosen by the same... entity... could they team up and create one of those perfect circles that Mighty Raiton talked about? His quest to find a quest would be easier if he wasn't the only one searching. His only claims to fame were his accounting prowess and tripping over a Lunar onto a Wyld Hunt.

He should say something witty to prove that he that he belongs to this group.
Something interesting and worldly that shows that he has valuable experience to offer.
Something...
Sigh...
Sand steps up to the cap to assist in removing it. He does not speak.

[Orosboru]

The glass bulb shivers as you approach it. There is only one choice left.

Chose, my Exalts, for I have little time left.

[Ifni]

She hadn't really expected an answer to that question.

"Well, unless any of you know what the "Return" might be..." Diamond glances around at the other Chosen, "I vote for unscrewing this bulb. Removing the cap." Invoking the promise or the threat of... everything. But all I ever asked for was a world where change was possible. She turns to the bulb and examines it, looking a little taken aback as she notices the silent one, who she had somehow overlooked before. But his actions seem to decree his vote. She nods to him and steps to the opposite side of the cap.

[Myllinnia]

Titania gives a soft sigh and brushes back strands of hair from her bare shoulder, "I'm usually not one to touch things I know so little about, but it looks a little sad and in need." She gives the item in question a critical look. "I say... remove it. I assume we can put it back if removing it turns into a very horrifically bad choice."

In fact she could just imagine that anything here might be more dangerous due to their inability to know if this was a life like dream or not.

[Brontes]

"I doubt putting it back will undo anything that happens," Axle responds and shrugs, "Some paths remain available, some don't."

He cracks the best smile he can give under the current circumstances, "But as father used to say, 'what life have you lived if you have nothing to regret? A poor one if you ask me'."

He places his hand on the bulb, "The ayes have it, so bring it on!"

And Axle attempts to turn the bulb.

[Ifni]

"If this wakes us up, or sends us back, separately - let us try to find each other in Creation. Chiaroscuro?"

Shadows lapping around her like a cloak beneath the glittering starlight, Diamond lays her fingers lightly against the glass bulb as Axle twists the cap, ready to catch it if it comes loose suddenly, or to assist if it proves stubborn. She nods at his words. "So be it."

[Qaera]

"I once heard of man. At every crossroads, he took all paths. At every chance to make a decision, he would deny them, and keep open all possibilities."

She looks to the others and winces at the volume of the voices.

"As for choices, I say take both."

~ ♅

[Orosboru]

"Yes..."

The cap comes off, the adamant glow exploding into a cloud of essence. You look down, and stagger back as you look down into... creation.

A howling wind quickly subsides as you stare downward. It's so high, so far - but you can see everything. Absolutely everything that has ever existed during this time is visible to your eyes. It's sobering, to be so high and so far away from the land. You've only seen this detail in maps of creation!

"A form that you are comfortable with. Excellent." A shadowy man forms next to the empty shell of the Adamant cap. "I suppose that you have questions, and I'll give you the best non-answers that I have." He pulls out something from his pocket, and smoke accompanies the trails of shadow essence.

[Myllinnia]

Titania gives a small squeak of fright, but quickly forces it away. This can't be real, we're still standing her as if there were a ground. When the man shows however she narrows her eyes at him before flicking back strands of red-black hair and giving him a calm, despite not being so, look.

"Tsk Non-Answers? I guess then there is nothing to ask. However I'm going to venture a question and see what your non-answer is: What was it that we just did, what chose did we just make? Okay... so two of them."

[Orosboru]

"Tell me no truths, and I'll give you no lies." The man shrugs. "You popped the cork on a age old wine, one sweetened by tragedy and mulled with age." The man smirks. "Of course, no one thinks of the bubbles in the froth, pushed by forces out of their control.

He peers down into creation. "And the choice you made? Nothing consequential. But it is the smallest domino, and it just tipped in the right direction." He turns to you, his powerful gaze looking deeply into your eyes. "You have had your two questions. For the sake of symmetry, I'll allow you all two each." He looks into the night sky, staring at the planets. "But be quick about it. I can't be out for long." A sad sort of nolstalgia hovers in the atmosphere.

[Brontes]

Axle nods to Titania while mussing his hair trying to obscure his face. If the specter tried to discern anything, he could make out the rolling of his eyes.

"Well, that told us next to nothing, but I'll add two more...specter. Primarily, who are you? Secondly, hmm"

Axle wasn't sure what exactly to ask. His thoughts had settled on the purpose of their summoning or the selection of his Champions. Besides releasing him, what did he want them to do? Alternately, why the five of them, specifically?

"Got it. You wanted us to release you, presumably, but that doesn't appear to be the only reason for calling us. So what is it that you want or need from us, that you would summon us in this manner? And I'd appreciate actual answers, I get enough mystical nonsense from Rigan and her friends as it is."

[Orosboru]

"Hmm. Would you accept that I'm not supposed to tell you?" The spectre laughs. "I thought you wouldn't. Neither the perplexity of asking a shadowy man who he is. Well, I'm what they think I am. But no one has thought of me, I mean, really thought of me, for years. But I oversee a little thing, in my spare time. You might have heard it. He puffs, and a cloud of sparks showers into the sky. "It's pretty obscure."

"I want you to be you, my little stars. I want you to blaze for the brief lives you have, shining in the darkness. I want you to... live." He waves his hand, gesturing at the night sky. "But of course, you are welcome to think what you wish. Who am I to order you around when you have a lady fair with lightning hair, and a woman cold with eyes of gold?" He smiles a knowing smile.

[Indivisible]

If he can only give non-answers, is a non-question the key? Thousandfold Iris can't resist.

"It certainly is nice weather we're having on this mysterious platform overlooking all of Creation."

[Orosboru]

The specter's eyes gleam with reflected starlight. "Now, what did I say about telling me the truth?" He sits down. "The weather has been becalmed and dutiful as of late. I wouldn't say that it's been good, but it hasn't been bad, either." He puts away what he was smoking. It looks like he's bleeding more essence. "There's a danger in taking me too literally, bro. But I'm heralding one who loved me the least... and forged me chains made from my soul."

He suddenly raises his hands up in rapture. "As to where we are? We're on the top of the world!"

[Myllinnia]

"On top of the world you say," Titiania can't help but look down and regret that action still she refrains from looking frightened of falling. "This thing just gets weirder and weirder. But," she looks to the specter, "I shall trust your non-answers."

[Ifni]

Diamond looks down in wonder. She has seen maps before, occasionally, but never anything like this. The great deserts look small, from this vantage point, as if she could cover them with her hand. The mountains are mere crinkles. Is this what it means to be Exalted - the greatest barriers reduced to something barely noticeable, the impossible made trivial? She smiles in euphoria, and there is a glitter of tears in her eyes. So beautiful.

She laughs softly, within her shadows, at the specter's words, although she does not take her gaze from Creation. Tangled truths and lies, questions without answers, answers without questions: a Calibration riddle, indeed.

"So, two questions I have, or unquestions? Let's make it one of each. But first, thank you - for this, and for, well, Everything." She takes a breath. "Riddle me this: what is the return that whispering words might herald with fivefold fear? And for the second..."

She thinks, contemplating what they heard in the darkness. Contemplating the screams and the crying and the whispers, and the non-answers and the words given in exchange for truth. Then she speaks, trying to match the patterns of the sutras whispered above the adamant expanse.

"There was once a god,
Who was night against day.
In the place where he was meant to be,
He found love and betrayal
A kiss with sharp fangs.
He was chained with his own soul
Bound to reality and Time.
But there's always..."

She makes a small, slicing motion with her hand, and stops speaking. She looks at the shadowy man silently, curious to hear his response. Will he speak? Will he laugh? So how much truth was that, and how much falsehood for the balance?

[Qaera]

"Two questions."

Lansatura ponders. Hmm. Ponderance. A funny word!

"What is the best question to ask?"

~ ♅

[Indivisible]

'What is the best question to ask?' Damn, why didn't he think of that! He now know that this place is on top of the world, so is is there a real place on top of the world, how would he get there? It would certainly trump any discovery Mighty Raiton had ever made.

Mindful that the dream might not last long after the questions are answered, Thousandfold Iris turns to his companions and says:

"I'd be happy to meet in Chiaroscuro, but where in the city would we meet? I'm currently in a caravan somewhere to the southwest of Sijan, but I haven't really been paying attention to the last few caravans I've been in so I could closer than I think. I will need a while to get there though."

Chiaroscuro! The legendary city of glass! How exciting!

[Orosboru]

"You are a dear. I suppose that the gestalt of the five entities that resonate with the five exalted types, one could say that I'm the least common denominator of them all. I know what one knows, but I don't know what everyone knows. So, I'm a cluster of unwanted ideas." He starts to shed clumps of shadow. "But there are things that are coming to roost. The mother. The unwanted. The unseen. The reclaimers. And... you lot."

He grasps Diamond's face, and whispers. "...a key for every lock."

His legs start to evaporate into essence, his eyes two blazing comets in the night. He holds onto Diamond, his ebon fingers cool to the touch. "The best question to ask, is, as always, 'where is my towel?'

[Ifni]

Diamond freezes as he reaches out to her, reflexively turning the scarred side of her face away. But then she hesitantly, awkwardly raises her hand, reaching back to hold him in turn. A note of unreasoning delight sings through her at his cool touch, counterpointed with a bone-deep unease. Joy, pity, sorrow, anger... she no longer knows how much of these emotions are her own. A brew of tragedy indeed, but now leavened with... hope? A key for every lock. The hatred for chains, for bindings, for slavery, that is all hers.

Her attention is almost entirely focused on the shadowy man, but at Iris' words she says quietly, not taking her eyes off the specter, "Titania, you are in Chiaroscuro now, will you choose a meeting place in case we need it?"

Then, although she keeps a fragment of her attention on the other Exalted, she leans closer to the shadow, meeting the blazing comet eyes. She waits while the others ask their remaining questions, and then whispers, "If Time permits - where might a searcher seek a key?"

[Brontes]

The shadow had silenced Axle with his knowledge of that night, his casual account of a highly intimate detail was unnerving. Unable to comprehend anything else that was being said by it, he began to walk away from the group. He parted his hair slightly in order to better glimpse his surroundings, in case he was ever taken back to this place. He taps Timely Intervention to the floor, hoping to avoid any invisible floor/no floor divide.

The group had mentioned Chiaroscuro. Axle frowned slightly.

"It's been awhile since I've heard of the place," he called back to them, "I live in the East past the Hundred Kingdoms, but I'll talk to Rigan and see what I can do. Of course, this assumes that when this is over, we just magically return to where we're from."

[Orosboru]

"Well, it seems I've been here long enough." His legs are quickly evaporating away in streams of essence. "You may notice that you can't wake up metaphysically until you escape this place. A first test, if you would." He turns to Diamond. "Remember. You'll find the key to every problem if you find the maker of all of the locks. Find them. Find the Exalted, and see to their arrival. Remember Autochthon. Remember me... lover. He gives Diamond a kiss on the cheek, more of a shadow of contact, before his face disincorporates into dust.

The adamant hexagons start to glow once more. You are left alone to the endless night.

[Myllinnia]

"A fairly interesting turn of events... but ... we can't wake up until we escape this?" She crosses her arms under her ample sized breasts, "I cannot imagine how though, we were just dropped here... I think. Perhaps, the way we came?" She then brushes aside a strand of hair from her face and purses her lips.

"Also before I forget," she starts glancing from Diamond to the others, "if we have decided to meet in Chiaroscuro, there is an inn with a connecting tavern, it was once... a place I frequented when I was younger. It is called the Twilight Jade Eclipse. Its rather close to the docks so I hope you can make it there. I suppose... I'll be waiting there." It would be a shame to not meet these people in person, and Ail'Katar has hopefully survived a year without me, I shall have to send a message to the Palace at this rate.

"With that aside, now... how do we get back to where we were?" She looks around trying to remember the direction they had all came from.

[Brontes]

"I don't know," Axle shrugs, still searching the area around him, "Right now escape is not my concern. I'd like to know if any of you managed to find sense in the specter's ramblings. It could be awhile before we encounter each other again to make sense of these things."

His gaze, if any could track it, tried to meet that of Diamond's. She seemed the most in tune with the specter, not to mention his parting actions.

"Did you understand anything he said?"

[Qaera]

The towel, yes. One must always know where it is. It is about the most massively useful thing an interpolar wanderer can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold plains of the North; you can lie on it on the brilliant green corol beaches of Santraginus Island, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so brightly on the desert stretches of Gem; use it to sail a raft down the slow heavy River Yellow; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off sandstorms or avoid the gaze of the yeddim (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you- daft as a brush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a normal person discovers that a wanderer has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a mouthcleaner, washcloth, soap, tin of cookies, flask, compass, map, ball of string, bug repellent, northern-apropos clothes, etc., etc. Furthermore, the normal person will then happily lend the wanderer any of these or a dozen other items that the wanderer might accidentally have "lost". What the normal person will think is that any man who can wander the length and breadth of Creation, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win throuhg and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

"So, ah, where is my towel?"

~ ♅

[Ifni]

As the specter dissolves, Diamond lowers her outstretched hand slowly, a brief flash of mixed emotions crossing her face. She touches her cheek, and then sits down rather abruptly, resting her head on her knees. At a muttered word, shadows ripple outward from her form, cloaking her in an inky patch of darkness.

Eyes closed, she stares into darkness. Not memory, no. The tangled, wild emotions raging in that part of her mind are too much for her to endure right now. Too much, to sift through in search of meaning. Just... nothingness, for a moment. Solitude. Silence. And then stars like shattered diamonds, like waypoints in the night.

Drawing in a deep breath, she raises her head, and with another murmur, the shadows recede. She remains seated, though, looking up at the others, her black robes pooling around her on the adamant surface. She hesitates for a moment, and then suddenly something changes in her appearance - a connection re-established, between sight and perception, between the moment and the memory.

She is a small woman, with very dark skin, dressed in flowing black robes and wearing a long headscarf. A birthmark like a splash of ink stains one side of her face. The other is badly disfigured, scarred with the marks of disease or abuse. The seven-section staff clasped loosely in her right hand appears to be made from some jet-black metal. The shield on her right arm is still hard to look at, still a craze of eye-wrenching light.

"Yes, we should talk," she says to Axle. Her voice is quiet in the still starlit air. She gives Lansatura a somewhat perplexed look, muttering "Your towel?" before looking back at Axle. "I think I discerned a little, from the whispers before we removed the cap, that might help clarify things. The voices we heard, the five, desired different things - love, absolution, to protect the loyal, to 'stay', to claim... us. But they all feared the same thing, and they all named it The Return."

Diamond shakes her head slightly. "That's what I was trying to get at, with my question. The answer, or non-answer - the mother, the unwanted, the unseen, the reclaimers - I don't have any good ideas for what that means." Well, perhaps the last, but she cannot speak of that, not even to these people. That would be too much trust, too fast. She shrugs slightly, glancing away across the adamant expanse, before she looks back up at the others. "What I inferred from the earlier words was, well, what I said before. A god of night, betrayed, bound and chained, until the end of time, by someone He loved." She hesitates, seems to almost say something, and then stops. Her fingers brush her cheek briefly, then curl back. She begins again, "At the end, he mentioned a name... Autocthon. I'm no scholar... does any of this sound familiar to any of you?"

She looks around at the others. "Maybe we should go back a step, though? Do any of you know what we are? Exalted, I gather, and His Exalted, by all appearances - but I've never heard of any Exalted like us." She holds out one hand, and lightly snaps her fingers. On her forehead, a silhouette of a barred diamond appears - first so faint it is barely noticeable, but rapidly darkening and solidifying until it appears like an indigo etching on her brow. Despite the absence of daylight, a shadow seems to fall across her upturned face. "As I said, I'm no scholar," she says apologetically. "But... do you others have the same markings?" As if suddenly remembering something, she turns her gaze to Sand and Lansatura. "And I didn't get your names, before, did I? I'm, well, call me Diamond."

Ending Another Face in the Crowd. Spending 1 mote Peripheral Essence to manifest her caste mark.

Personal Essence: 23/23
Peripheral Essence: 31/47 + 14 committed
Willpower 8/10
Conviction channels 3/4

[Indivisible]

"****. He left. Ah, I have a marking too, when I let it show.I'm Thousandfold Iris, but you can call me Sand. It's less of a mouthful."

Sand concentrates and two dark blue diamonds appear, one within the other. The vertices are connected by thick lines.

"From what he said, I get the impression that since we were looking at an accurate representation of Creation, which implies that a place like the place we are currently standing on exists. Do any of you know anything about a crystal dome over creation, or do you think that is a metaphor for something else? As for Authocthon, I've never heard of her, or him, but if I get to a good library I have a charm that can find the information if it exists."

Sand looks nervous, but continues, "I think we'll need the library of an Exalted, or a big god. While we do not conform to Immaculate specifications of Anathema, I would suggest that it would be safer not to confuse and enrage the religious zealots. I've never heard of anything like us, so that's not an option. The last Lunar I met tried to eat me, so I'd rather not try that without all of you standing behind me, or in front of me. Can any of you fight? I have magic knives that I can make explode and I can not die but that's about it."

Sand takes a deep breath. "The Solar exalted are also an option, but we must be wary of their mind control magic, and be ready to run. Anyone have good anti mind control charms? We could loot a tomb, but I'd imagine that there'd be a lot of traps and the books might be rotten. Does anyone know any gods that would have a big library and would be amenable to letting us see it?"

"I'm sorry. I know I'm babbling a bit. I haven't really had anyone to talk to about my powers. However, I think I know how to leave. Have any of you ever really wanted to make something happen, and then made it happen? Once, when I was travelling with a caravan, we reached a river that had become to flooded to forge like the caravan master was planning, and I said to myself, 'Self, it's too bad we can't cross the river here. What if there were a bridge her? Would that be enough to get us all across?' And then I felt something inside myself, and I knew I could make it happen! I shouted 'What if there were a bridge here!' and before the seamstress I was sitting beside could tell me to shut up, a blue crystal bridge appeared! It lasted long enough for the entire caravan to pass! I had to change caravans after that."

"Anyway, I think that if I 'what if' an exit, we can all leave. I even think that I might be able to specify an exit to Chiaroscuro, but I'm not sure. It would save on travel time though. Do you want me to try?"

Sand decommits his mote from Another Face in the Crowd.
Personal:22

Peripheral:30

[Ifni]

Diamond smiles at Sand as he speaks, listening intently from where she sits on the adamant surface. When he pauses, she replies,
"I have some skill in martial arts - I've become much better at it since I Exalted. And I can make myself unnoticed fairly well, and slip through anywhere that light can go. Mind control..." she shivers, "I don't have protections against that, apart from just not being noticed." She would much rather not be noticed by anyone with mind-control magic, but if they need to negotiate with someone like that... "I wouldn't know where to find any Solar or Lunar Anath- Exalted, anyway, or any gods with a library. Do any of you?" Sabria might be able to get them access to a library, but only if Diamond explained to her what they were seeking. Not sure that would be a good idea. Especially if "reclaimers" means what it might.

She suddenly stops speaking, and puts a finger to her lips. "Wait, that reminds me of something I was wondering earlier. Our... patron spoke of a fivefold gestalt, resonating with the five Exalted types. Solars, Lunars, Dragonblooded... what are the other two, do you know? Are we one of them?"

Her eyes widen in interest as Sand describes his plan. "No, I've... I've never done that, or even tried. I guess I haven't needed to - to try, I mean, I don't know if it would work for me. That sounds like a plan, but maybe let's look around, and talk a little more, first? We have privacy here, which we wouldn't have in Chiaroscuro."

"Although... hmm. If you can make things happen just by thinking "What if?", what if you thought about a book with the lore we want in it? Do you know if the power extends to creating information?"

[Myllinnia]

Titania watched the two talk, and watched carefully sand. Azheed had tried to call our her powers when he owned her, and it had backfired for them both. She wasn't ready to try any of it, especially up here in a land that she couldn't tell if it were real or false. Still he had offered to try, and while neither Azheed nor Zenthinia had been able to understand her power she was willing to see how another of her kind could.

"I am Titania Sera Varia," she simply informed them deciding not to bother with her full title, considering her appearance didn't exactly scream, First (and only) Princess of Ail'Katar. Shaking loose her head she only shrugged, "I do not know though, perhaps we are. Five-fold... hmm. I... ran into some rather powerful people and they weren't at all sure what exactly I was." She even points to her forehead and lights her caste mark, she had learned that much. "I know of libraries though, but I don't think Ail'Katar's library contains any information on us. I'm not certain if Chiaroscuro will have any information that we are looking for either."

[Ifni]

"If we have a way to all leave together, I don't need to go to Chiaroscuro - I just suggested that because I was worried we'd be thrown back to where we started, and it was the only city any of us had mentioned, at the time." Diamond shrugs. "I am - was - in the South as well, although closer to Gem than Chiaroscuro. You said you were near Sijan, Sand? That's in the East, yes?" She looks up at Axle. "And you said you were in the East too, Axle?"

Habits of caution, of discretion, had been drilled into her as a child, and again by Sabria. But up here, who was there to see? What was the harm in being open, in experimenting with their abilities? Well... except possibly the danger of falling to their deaths, of course.

[Myllinnia]

"This is true. If there are ways to get to places as we are now, then perhaps we can pick a differently spot. The East and South. My destination was further south and east. What of that big city, Nexus was it? Would it have a tasty library to raid? Does it have a Solar or Lunar near it?" She folded her hands under her breasts and sighed with a thoughtful look. "I wonder if we can wish for a book with the information we need. Too bad I'm not certain how that all works."

[Ifni]

"I've traveled much in the South, but not at all outside it." Diamond's voice is a little wistful. "Although... I should probably not just leave my people without telling anyone, at least, not for an extended period. I'm their healer, and I haven't had a chance to train an apprentice yet." And I owe Sabria more than that.

She shifts her position, stretching, feeling the chain shirt shift beneath her robes. And suddenly, a memory comes back to her.

It involves Sabria, so it's recent, from after her Exaltation - not one of the ones that had been shattered and remade, that night. But there's an almost palpable miasma of cold and foreboding around it; perhaps that was why she didn't think of it before, automatically shuffling it to the back of her mind with the other emotion-charged fragments of the past.

"Wait. There is another Exalted type. I learned about them some time ago - I didn't remember it until now. My memories work... oddly, sometimes, since my Exaltation." She looks down, as if in embarrassment or shame. "They are called the Sidereal Exalted, the Chosen of the Five Maidens - Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus and Saturn. They have five castes, accordingly: Secrets, Journeys, Battles, Serenity, and... Endings." Her voice stutters on the last word. Violet light, and pain. No. She traces the caste marks on the adamant floor with one finger, remembering more and more. The description had been brief, just Beware these signs, and somehow it had all felt very familiar, like remembering something rather than learning it for the first time, but there had been one important thing, one key point... "They... I was told they guard Fate. And to be careful not to draw their attention." She swallows, and glances up at Saturn in the sky, to see if it is still burning red.

A god who was one amongst many...
That little girl that followed me...

And a crimson Saturn, and the whispers and the fragments of lost memory, tangled with ancient love and hatred. Something to think about.

[Brontes]

Axle looks intently at the signs, but is otherwise focused on other things. So many questions to answer in turn.

"Somewhat past the Hundred Kingdoms, never left it. I work for a Lunar," he begins, "I've mentioned Rigan once or twice already. The specter seems to be...aware of her at any rate. She's not much older than me, but she's good with talking and healing at any rate. She might be able to set something up."

He continues, "Anyway, I can fight when I have to. Swordsmanship, mostly. Never got the hang of martial arts. Mostly, though, I run and travel. Packages to deliver, messages to relay, gaps to cross, things to climb, passages to navigate, challenges to overcome. Sometimes, I wish I could just run forever."

And on Sand's 'what ifs', "I did that once, though not while anyone was looking. And it complicated my journey."

He smiled weakly before coughing, "On purpose."

[Ifni]

"A Lunar? That... might be good. I don't know much about them -" just the caste marks, the Immaculate names for them, and If you see one, get away as fast as you can "- but I'd like to meet another Exalted healer. Is Rigan trustworthy? Do you judge that she can - and would - keep secrets for us? Do you know if she has contacts with older Exalts?"

Diamond taps her fingers softly on the adamant as she considers timing. Sabria had left seven days before Calibration began, and had said she would not return until at least five days after its end. Diamond might be the tribe's best healer, but there were others who knew enough to deliver children or bind up wounds. Would it be such a betrayal, to go with the others immediately?

None of this might matter, of course. The strange wishing power might not work the way Sand thought it did. They might all be flung back into their individual dreams.

Diamond rises to her feet in one smooth motion. "Shall we look around a bit, and see if there's anything else to find here, while we talk?"

[Qaera]

When Diamond shone her caste mark, Lance was shocked- it was her mark, her symbol. Even the black shroud that formed around her was the same!
When she asked for her name, she shook off the shock.

"I am known as storyteller and wanderer, but my name is Kebok Lansatura. Your mark- Diamond, was it?- is exactly like mine."

She spends a mote to show her caste mark.

"There is one more type-"

And then Diamond spoke.

"Yes, the Sidereals. I spent some years with them, as I was meant to be one."

Also, to the aforementioned plan-

"I can make it to Chiaroscuro."

~ ♅

[Ifni]

Diamond's eyes brighten with curiosity. "That's... very interesting. So we are of the same caste, then? You said 'wanderer' - so you've traveled far? That might be a way in which we are alike, I wonder if that has anything to do with it."

And then she takes an involuntary half-step back at Lansatura's other words. "You were meant to be a Sidereal? Can you... would you tell us about them? Are you still in contact with them?" She hesitates. "And - do you know anything about our Exaltations, then? I thought us being here might have... something to do with the Maidens, with Saturn that strange color."

[Brontes]

"Rigan has been very good to me. She saved me when I was dying, and has been helpful to my home," Axle responds to Diamond's query, placing a hand over his face, "She likes to mess with people at times, but she's not keen on telling her allies about me. Some of them might keep a secret, but word can spread no matter what you do. She doesn't want to risk what some people would do to strange Exalted with no history."

Axle begins to look upward at the sky, perhaps there's a key to their escape up there?

"She still has ties to some Lunar and godly allies," he continues, "That said, I wouldn't trust some of the people she associates with. I guess it depends on what type of secret you want to confide in her."

[Qaera]

"I'm not really, ah,"

She scratches the back of her head.

"Well, if I wasn't going to be a Sidereal, I was expected to leave. I imagine it would be pretty awkward, although I would like to see my father again..."

Lansatura sighs.

"I don't really know anything about what we are... there was not much knowledge in Heaven that I would have had access or clearance to that would have mentioned us, and I had no idea this type of Exaltation existed at the time."

She looks up to the planet.

"I'm not sure what this means, I've never been this high up before, but it seems very foreboding."

~ ♅

[Indivisible]

"I don't think we'd find our answers in Sijan. It's a city for the dead, and any knowledge would be hidden in a tomb. They say at night the dead guard the living, and woe betide any would be grave robbers. I've never actually been there though, and all of my hearsay comes from caravan masters who would take cloth to Sijan to be made into funeral garb. It's kinda East, but I think it might be part of the Confederacy of Rivers?"

[Brontes]

"This night sky might be important," Axle murmurs, "I mean I guess it could be appearances, but no reason you can't add function to it."

Action: Discerning peculiarities in the night sky.
Perception (3) + Lore (1): Knowledge of basic astrology
[roll0]

[Ifni]

Diamond nods at Axle's description of Rigan. "She sounds like a wise woman. As for secrets - mostly, as you said, our existence. The fact that we really do appear to be some new kind of Exalted. But also anything we might discover about our patron, and what he told us."

She goes over to inspect the hole where the cap was, peering down into it. "Foreboding, yes... let me ask a question. I know you all heard the whispering voices, earlier. Have any of you found yourselves experiencing strange emotions, and flashes of what seem to be memories, since you Exalted?" Her voice is calm, light even, but there's a tension in her stance.

[Orosboru]

As you look down, you see what appears to be a rapidly spreading dark stain in the east. Odd.

Axle doesn't know anything relevant to the situation.

[Brontes]

Axle frowns almost childishly, "I wouldn't say wise. I mean, she's not that much older than me. But she is skilled and shrewd."

He turned away from the sky, having discerned nothing unusual that he could tell, and walked up to the hole. His gaze was drawn to the darkening spot.

"Once in a dream," he gets caught up in the memories question, "Not long after Exalting. I can't recall major details, but I wanted something made, I think, and the person I made the request to looked at me like an idiot. If it concerns you, I guess we could find someone to ask."

Axle snaps his fingers, "Shot in the dark, and it may not hurt anything cause he's gone, but what if we put the cap back on? Kind of a return things to its beginning kind of thing?"

[Qaera]

"I've heard the whispers, but I... it's hard to make them out, yes?"

Lansatura tilts her head, questioning.

"We should try putting the cap back on."

~ ♅

[Indivisible]

Diamond nods at Axle's description of Rigan. "She sounds like a wise woman. As for secrets - mostly, as you said, our existence. The fact that we really do appear to be some new kind of Exalted. But also anything we might discover about our patron, and what he told us."

She goes over to inspect the hole where the cap was, peering down into it. "Foreboding, yes... let me ask a question. I know you all heard the whispering voices, earlier. Have any of you found yourselves experiencing strange emotions, and flashes of what seem to be memories, since you Exalted?" Her voice is calm, light even, but there's a tension in her stance.


"Hmm, nothing so distinct as memories, but when I exalted I realized I possessed several skills that I didn't before, like dodging and fighting, and I knew things about the occult that I never learned."

[Ifni]

"We can try replacing the cap, certainly. If it's inert, I guess it just won't do anything." Diamond seems preoccupied, staring down at Creation in all its glory. "Axle, Sand, you're from the East - do you know what that darkness means?"

"As for the memories, I guess it's just me, then. I just... wondered." She steps back from the cap, letting others move up to it, and looks up into the sky again. Her voice is quiet and a little bleak as she continues to speak, insofar as it holds emotion at all.

"They're pretty powerful, for me. I think they're connected to why I heard - and hear - the whispers so strongly. They haven't provided any real information so far, but I'll let you know if that changes. Although... there are emotions. Whoever the memories belonged to - she loved our patron, I think." She won't mention the other feelings, yet - they're too ill-defined, and she's not sure what's really triggering them.

Her gaze remains on the stars. A small smile curves her lips as she traces the constellations. Axle's suggestions have been sensible, but even without them, she would have been drawn to the glittering glory of the sky. She watched the stars as a child in Varang, even when she thought they decreed a pattern of destiny from which she was excluded, and they guided her in the desert, to the moment of her Second Breath. It's a beauty she usually misses at Calibration, although the perfect darkness of those nights has its own advantages.

Following Axle's idea, here's a Perception+Lore (or equivalently, Perception+Survival) roll to see if Diamond discerns any differences from the normal night sky (she's comparing to the sky as seen from near Gem, I'm not sure if that matters in Creation).
[roll0] = 2 sux
[roll1] stunt dice.

[Myllinnia]

Titania shakes her head, "I hear whispers and they are hard to understand but nothing more than that."

She glances to the sky but she had never been too concerned with it before. She knew stars, the common things about them anyway, and that was that. Ail'Katar relied on the sky simply for its farming and weather cycles. Calibration she accepted as being what it is. Though it was odd to see them now, right? Looking back to Diamond. "A growing blackness? We are high up, perhaps a cloud?"

[Brontes]

Axle grimaces, "I'm not completely sure, actually. The Hundred Kingdoms are a big place, but I have heard the Scavenger Lands are having some problems with a city that sits on what they call a 'shadowland'. That sounds like what we may be looking at. Another one of those."

He picks up the cap and walks back to the stand.

"I'm sorry for speeding this along," he simply says, "But from what little I know, 'shadowlands' aren't usually good omens. I should probably return home now, make sure things are okay."

He pauses, "I am open to other ideas, of course, before I go through with it. Chiaroscuro was the agreed upon meeting place, right?"

[Ifni]

"You don't know what a 'shadowland' is, then? It sounds, well, foreboding." Her mouth twists slightly, and she nods to Lansatura.

"As for a meeting place, the Twilight Jade Eclipse inn, in Chiaroscuro, had been suggested, I believe. Although I would have no objection to somewhere further east - a city accessible by ocean would be good, though. It looked like a long way between Chiaroscuro and your Hundred Kingdoms." Diamond hesitates. "There's a possibility I might have access to a fairly rapid mode of transport, but it relies on the aid of a certain powerful being who may or may not be willing to help. Do any of you have allies or magic that can arrange quick travel?"

"Of course, in any case, this planning may all be unnecessary." She smiles suddenly. "I say go ahead! Try the cap."

[Qaera]

"Well, I've found the best way to travel is to not worry about how long it takes you to get there, but to enjoy the journey. I can get there eventually."

~ ♅

[Ifni]

Diamond laughs quietly. "A good philosophy. I'd agree with you, usually, but I'm curious about these questions, I want to know the answers! And I think we could seek out those answers better together than alone. Visiting places I've already been seems less interesting, as well. But yes... you're right. We have time."

[Brontes]

Axle snorts, "I don't have time, there's a shadowland growing in my Direction. And I don't care what he says, you don't get summoned by patrons for trivial reasons. To the messenger, time is always a factor and an obstacle."

"I hope this works," Axle begins to twist the cap on the rod.

[Orosboru]

The cap lights up softly as it is resealed. You feel peaceful, a tranquile part of a greater working far beyond your mind's imagination.

I'm not bitter. But I hate to be uninvited.
You won't dream to be great. You are great.
Herald to power, laughing at entropy, guard yourself.

The entire sky lights up, a cascade of comets, flashes of empyereal glory, burst of nebulas, shining auroras, and the radiant nova.

MaGnIfIcEntLiTtLeWoRms.

Everything calms down, even the floor slowly fading to black.


I wonder, if they loved a little harder, would they have shed a tear before the blades came down?

Didn't try to mess around? Huh.

You wake covered in sweat, with phantom pains and a inexhorable feeling of fear.

[Myllinnia]

Titania panted in her bed, the sheets twisted around her legs entangled the sweat damp glistening limbs. A hand was pressed over her chest feeling the pounding of her heart. Her long hair stuck to her damp skin and she moved aside wet strands from her face. Her eyes were wide and her other hand was gripped tightly around what sheets she had.

After a bit she slowed her breath wincing with the ghostly pain that haunted her. Sighing she relaxed but the southern night air was not cool. Softly she wandered to the window, her bare feet softly touching the wooden floors as she made her way to it. Titania moved aside the curtain and brought her hands to the shutters.

Titania had always loved to sleep in the purest of darkness, many a dream had been bad for her when Luna's light streamed through her windows. Though it was Calibration, and Luna would not be out this night. The young woman then opened it quickly hoping that she was somewhere familiar.

"Was it a dream," she asked herself as she attempted to pierce the darkness of Calibration. "If it was a dream it was too vivid and realistic to have been otherwise."

[Ifni]

Diamond opens her eyes to darkness, absent of stars. She rises to an awkward half-crouch and stumbles out of her tent, into the frosty desert night. She lowers herself to the sand and stares up into the infinite blackness of Calibration, unasked-for tears falling from her eyes and swiftly evaporating into the bone-dry air.

She does not weep at the phantom pain that chills her bones; she has known much worse. She does not weep at the strange fear that shadows her mind; she learned long ago to be stoic. She does not weep for grief, or rage, or love; she does not know, in the end, why she weeps, except for a sense of deep inchoate loss.

She touches her forehead, remembering the dark etchings on the others' brows. All of them, chosen and marked, but for what task? She does not believe she could have dreamed them. The Twilight Jade Eclipse, in Chiaroscuro, near the docks. Her hand drifts to her cheek. Lover. And she is certain she could not have dreamed Him.

For now, she needs knowledge, and the means of swift travel. She knows where to get both, albeit the price may be steep. Anything worthwhile has a cost. But she has a little time, to make her own plans and preparations, before Sabria returns.

As she turns to go into her tent, she pauses, and looks up at the sky one last time, remembering the glory of the stars above the shining adamant expanse. She feels a wistful yearning, and is not sure if it is hers or the other's. It hardly seems to matter. She whispers to the dark heavens,

"Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun."

After a long moment of silence, she brushes away her tears and nods decisively. Then she rubs her arms, and ducks back into the relative warmth of the tent.

[Ifni]

Shattered Diamond Night
Downtime in the Desert

Before this fateful Calibration, before her Exaltation, before she ever came to the desert, Lapis was a healer. This meant, among other things, that she had learned to sleep deeply and soundly whenever the chance presented itself - for all too often, her rest would be interrupted by an emergency, someone needing her aid right now.

So it went the morning after the not-a-dream, when she was woken by sunlight striking through the open flap of her tent and a small hand touching her shoulder, and saw the desperation on a child's face through sleep-crusted, half-open eyes. She was on her feet and out of the tent in a flash of motion almost too fast to see, snatching up her staff and a bag of supplies and tools on the way.

The girl panting for air at the edge of the camp could barely speak, but she could point, and the path she had taken was plain in the sand. Diamond began to run; none of her skills would bring someone back from death.

She found them - the wounded boy, and the one who had stayed to defend him - not far out into the desert. The three youths had been attacked by a pair of eight-tailed mole hounds, somehow escaped the initial ambush, and made it nearly back to the camp before one of the mole-hounds managed to tear a gaping gash in the younger boy's leg. The girl had run for help, while the older boy stayed to protect his cousin. The creatures were circling the two youths, preparing a coordinated rush, when Diamond arrived on the scene.

Before her Exaltation, Diamond would have called that leg wound fatal, without hesitation. At a glance, she could see that the artery had been pierced. In a safe place, with nothing to lose, she might have attempted emergency surgery, but she would not have expected to succeed. In this situation, the only sensible thing would have been to run, leaving the dying boy behind to distract the hounds.

But Exaltation meant transcending the impossible. As she leapt down the sand dune, her hand brushed the wounded boy's forehead, and with a mere touch of Essence, she slowed the flow of time through and around him almost to a halt. Blood would still move in his veins, but the torrent was now a trickle. Time. Most precious of gifts. A chain to be broken.

She spun like a feather on the wind in the clear dawn light, her staff snapping out like a black viper. Two blows dropped the mole-hounds. The killing done, she turned back to the injured youth, to attend to her real work.

When she let the Charm dissipate, and the boy caught his breath at returning pain, his wound was cleaned, closed and bandaged. By that time, the boy's family had arrived from the camp, and they carried back their son and the hounds' corpses.

The hunters of the tribe, who knew the desert well, saw the mole-hounds and became very grave. The man-killers rarely roamed this part of the desert, but when they did, they hunted in packs of ten or twenty, not pairs. They decided on an immediate hunt, to destroy the pack before more members of the tribe could be harmed. With the spreading desolation, there were few alternate sources of prey around; the pack might even attack the camp, with food so scarce.

The hunt was a success, without even a single serious injury. Diamond went along to heal the wounded, and darted into the battle where she saw the need, to stop hunters from being surrounded or brought down. She avoided noting that she might well have been able to destroy the pack herself; she had a different plan.

When she casually suggested cooking and eating the mole-hound meat, there was widespread support. The locusts were delicious, of course, but the hunters felt a need to mark their victory, and there were many among the tribe who took pride in their ability to prepare a feast. The celebrations lasted long into the night, even though the meat itself was rather tough and stringy.

The atmosphere in the tribe changed noticeably, at least to Diamond's perceptions, over the next few days. Sabria's bounty had brought many benefits - no infants had died in the past few months, no elders had chosen to walk into the desert so as not to burden their children - but many had begun to feel useless, and retreated into idleness, or the elaborate prayers that Sabria had taught them. Others had become all too dogmatic about the laws Sabria preached, complaining about the need to help the "weak" - the old, the sick, those with disabling injuries. The successful hunt, against dangerous and intelligent predators, followed by the feast and festivities, seemed to bring back an intangible sense of confidence and community to the tribe.

When not treating her newest patient and more minor ailments and injuries, Diamond spent much of her time talking to the elders and leaders among her adopted kin. They had known since she Exalted that she might need to leave them, but it was still something of a shock to have it happen. As well as preparing them for her likely departure, she spent those conversations trying to subtly subvert their often unquestioning reverence for the Malefactor and her laws. If she could instil some critical appraisal of Sabria's goals to go along with the devotion, some kindness into the harsh laws of Cecelyne, a desire to remain at least somewhat self-reliant without rejecting the real benefits that Sabria's rule had brought them... well, then, she would consider that a victory. She did not want to betray Sabria, only to temper the effect she was having on people who Diamond loved. It might or might not last, after she left, but she had to try.

The Malefactor returned on the fifth morning after Calibration. Diamond was changing the dressings on her patient's leg when she heard the cry go up from outside, as the people of the tribe gathered to welcome their Lady home. The Empyrean finished her task, and then went out to greet her friend.

Learning Blameless in Abandon, which takes three days. Diamond will be practicing it on the influential members of her tribe, using it to subtly shift their magically-induced positive Intimacies for Sabria and the laws of Cecelyne. She's not trying to remove the Intimacies, just to redefine them in a way that encourages a bit more freedom of thought, independence and empathy. This may or may not have any effect at all past their next meal of locusts :smalltongue: Yes, I realize it's ironic that she's trying to use mind-control magic to make people think for themselves :smalltongue:

[Brontes]

Axle tossed and fumbled with his sheets trying to stand up, a feat made difficult by his trembling. Managing to make his way out of his house, Axle breathed deep of the cool village air. His eye stung considerably from the sweat.

"Damn," he muttered, "Too real to be a dream." Axle looks briefly at the night sky, "Don't know why you couldn't just tell us what you wanted without the nonsense, fate of the world and all that."

He walks back in to his home and begins to get dressed: Toughened hide pants, armor, and jacket. His gauntlets and boots had a wheel symbol laced into them. "And there's that Shadowland that's nearby. I'll have to drop by there and see what that's about."

To the east of the village was heavy forest, nested within this forest was the large cottage where Rigan lived and handled business.

Axle sighs, "The messenger's job is never done."

[Ifni]

Shattered Diamond Night

Diamond shaded her eyes against the bright sun and waited for Sabria to finish greeting the villagers. She noted the animated hand gestures being employed by some of the younger men, and realized with a muted sigh that of course they were telling Sabria about the hunt. She hoped the other Exalt wouldn't be too offended; it wasn't as if they'd stopped eating the locusts altogether.

When the crowd cleared, she went forward, a genuine smile on her face. The other woman was her friend and mentor, despite her allegiances.

"Welcome back! How was the Calibration party?" As she took Sabria's hand, she murmured in a lower voice, "Could we walk out of the camp a little way? I have some things to tell you about, and some questions. Calibration brought me a very interesting dream, this year."

[Orosboru]

"It was... surprising." Sabria scrunches her head in thought, and yawns a little. "The Ebon Dragon, or at least one of his component souls announced that he might have something to announce worth announcing to several individuals of note. Nothing to be worried about." She is rather evasive, but you feel like she is trying to be as truthful as possible. "The exuberance of the demons present was notable, however." She grins.

"Calibration dreams, especially for the Exalted, are portents from the past and for the future." Sabria slowly reassures the people that yes, she is going for a walk and she'll be back shortly. "Of course, they could also be a symptom of too much wine after dinner, but something tells me that's not the case." She gives you a stern look. "Is there something I should know about?"

[Ifni]

Diamond smiles. It's a relief to have Sabria back here. The other Exalt is very good at taking charge of problems - and it's wonderful to have someone both knowledgeable and sensible to talk to.

"Well, when he does more than announce the possibility of an announcement, let me know if you need my help with anything." She grins back, and thinks for a moment, arranging what she wants to say. "As for my dream... can I ask you to keep this in confidence, insofar as you can?" She waits for a nod or sign of agreement before continuing, and then takes a deep breath.

"You told me that some Exalted receive visions from their patrons on Exaltation. The dream seemed something like that, only rather more extended. I know we've both been curious as to where my Exaltation came from. Do you know of any stories of Incarnae or other powerful beings that embody night?" She pauses, to give Sabria a chance to absorb that, and then adds, "Also, after the being - or voice - in question claimed to be my patron, he dropped quite a lot of cryptic hints and riddles... does the name "Autocthon" mean anything to you?"

[Orosboru]

"The night? Luna carries the mantle of night in Yu-Shan, but I doubt that you're a Lunar of any sort. Unless, of course, you're hiding something from me." A pause. "That was just my paranoia talking. Your patron is unknown to me, but I think if I ask the right people..." She ponders the thought.

"Autochthon? You ask many strange questions." As you look into her face when you mention the name, she initially looks surprised, which fades into her standard smiling face. "Perhaps your mysterious patron has... no." She smirks. "You ask very complicated questions, worthy of a Exalt. I'm afraid that I don't have the foggiest clue of what you are saying.

[Ifni]

"No, I'm fairly sure I'm not a Lunar." Diamond grins, but then her face turns pensive. "Although I might have been, if things had turned out differently. I hear whispers, since my Exaltation. I might have mentioned them to you a time or two - in the dream they were much stronger. One of the things they tell me is might-have-been futures. But anyway." She makes a flicking gesture with her hand. "Not that you need my permission, but if you choose to look into this, I'd be very interested in anything you find out. Autochthon was the only explicit name the voice mentioned in the dream - with the admonition to remember it, nothing more - so it might be a place to start."

She hesitates at that look of surprise. "If you do know the name, anything at all might be a helpful clue, something that lets us piece things together better in the future. If you can't tell me, though, I understand."

"There was quite a bit more to the dream, but if you think what I've told you sounds complicated, you should have been there. My patron apparently also specializes in cryptic riddles. You know so much already that I thought you might be able to decipher more of them than I could, but it sounds like they require information neither of us has. The voice talked about a Return, and mentioned "reclaimers", and so that sounded... potentially pertinent to your interests. Although it also mentioned "the mother", "the unwanted", and "the unseen" in the same breath, and I have no idea what any of those are, so perhaps just a coincidence." She notices Sabria giving her a slightly odd look, and adds, "Well, of course I wrote down everything I could remember afterwards."

She stretches out her arms. "Anyway, there's one somewhat important aspect I haven't mentioned so far. I wasn't the only Exalt in the dream."

[Orosboru]

"Well, hmm..." Sabria looks to the west, her eyes glimmering with a familiar green glow. "If 'reclaimers' means anything that I think it means, your patron must be very highly placed indeed." She sizes you up, trying to discern something. "I doubt that any Yozi would make exalts of their own, but... they're all accounted for. There are a set amount of Green Sun Princes. Unless something-" She pauses. "The mother probably means either Cytherea, or the traitor Gaea. The unwanted is... probably him. The unseen is vague, as there is a lot hidden in Malfeas. The Ebon Dragon, maybe?" She looks unconvinced.

She backpetals when she sees your hesitation. "I-it's not like I'm hiding anything, okay? I just heard it in passing from other peers. Apparently, the Ebon Dragon met with my patron, Cecylene, to talk about obscure matters. Mara is such a bitch..." she mutters. "Other Exalts? Tell me about them. This dream is sounding less and less like a wine-induced fantasy every moment."

[Ifni]

"Oh, if it was a wine-dream, there must have been something extremely interesting in the bottle." She laughs, quietly. "And it's okay. I wouldn't expect you to tell me everything, in any case. I'm asking you to keep my secrets, after all. But that's interesting, if the name came up in the context of the Yozis." She shivers a little, although the air is warm, and there is a touch of concern in her eyes as she looks at Sabria. "You'll be careful if you go digging for more information, yes? I know you're more experienced than me, but... just be careful, okay?"

"As for the other Exalts, well. They had dark indigo caste marks, like mine, but different symbols, except one that was the same as mine." She crouches down and draws the symbols in the sand for Sabria to see, and then brushes them away. "A couple of them mentioned strange powers, to make things happen just by wishing for them, or thinking about hypothetical questions, and channeling Essence. I haven't tried that, I remembered what you said about some magic being... more noticeable than ordinary Charms, and I didn't want to draw any attention here. But I can attempt it, if you like."

"We didn't have very much time to talk, but the reason I brought them up is that one of them told me that she was in Chiaroscuro, and agreed to meet with me there. The others were scattered through Creation, and I don't have exact locations for them. But if you could spare the time and trouble to take me to Chiaroscuro through Malfeas, that would be a very concrete way to confirm whether the others are real, and whether we should take the dream seriously."

She looks away, out to the distant horizon. "I'd like to try to figure this out, to solve the riddles of the dream, if it was real - and to see more of the world, even if it wasn't. I love it here, but I'm starting to feel it may be time for a change."

[Orosboru]

"I'll..." She hesitates. "I'll be fine. I'm tougher then I look." She frowns. "All of this is interesting. I thank you for your honesty." She claps you on the back. "But what if this is a trap? I cannot say for sure that these people are truthful, and I cannot accompany you so far away when I have a mission here." She sighs.

"It's stifling for you to be here. Clearly, you were meant for different things. Greater? Maybe. But definitely different." She starts to walk back to the camp. "But you'll always have a place here by my side. Remember that, will you?" She turns away and pointedly looks at a boy who is rushing up towards you two.

"Saaa-bria! I don't wanna eat breakfast. And why are you so puffy? Are you sick?"
Sabria blusters. "Enough about that, child. You need to eat so you can grow up strong. You want to become a strong man, right?"
"But I hate it! It tastes funny."
"Your mother said that she likes it, too. She remember a time where it was chancy to get more then a meal a day. You should be thankful."
"I like mole-meat better." He pouts.
"You want to grow up strong. You don't want to be weak, right? It's the natural order of things for the weak to be pushed around. So your mother loves you very much and wants you to become as strong as you can. That way, you can order around your lessers and serve your greaters to your best of your ability."

She turns to you. "I'll take you to Malfeas, but will you be able to get out on your own? Do you remember the first time I took you there?"

[Ifni]

Diamond nods. "I understand, of course. You can't just drop everything on the basis of a dream. I just thought that you might want to be personally involved, since new Exalt types don't come along so often. But that's a privilege of irresponsibility, I guess." Her tone is mildly self-deprecating, and she grins at her friend, then looks touched when the Infernal mentions her always having a place here.

"Thank you, Sabria. It means a lot to me. And you know, if you need my help, just ask. Um... will you have some way to get in touch with me? Is there a place I could leave a message so it will get to you, or something?" She had actually been expecting more resistance from Sabria to the prospect of her vanishing off into Creation, but perhaps the Malefactor is relying on Diamond's loyalty to her tribe, or her sense of obligation. Either that or it's intended to confuse her... or maybe she's just your friend, and doesn't want to constrain you. Sabria's already succeeded in making Diamond feel slightly guilty about the information she's omitted. It's the usual dichotomy: she is such a nice person, so generous and protective, but...

Diamond smiles at the child, although her smile skews a bit as Sabria explains to him about the importance of pushing his inferiors around. As he leaves, she mutters, "I know it's the law of Cecelyne and you must adhere to it, but some of my kin are taking it a bit... literally. You think you could emphasize strength in wisdom and knowledge, as well as muscles, in some of your sermons?"

"As for getting out of Malfeas, I think I remember that first visit, but... how do you enter Creation at a particular location? Are there gates or something, or is there a spell? Or do you just need to know where you're going? I've been to Chiaroscuro before, but not through Cecelyne, obviously."

[Orosboru]

Sabria frowns. "There is... a way to go as a non-citizen. Of course, you wouldn't remember that time. You can stay in touch with me very simply. If time is not important, ask any demon of the first circle to deliver the message. If time is of the essence, ask a sorcerer or run to a Yozi domain, and I'll receive the news quickly."

She licks her lips as she picks up the child. "Strength is strength. Whatever solace they find, whether it be in the mind or body, they will conform to their greaters and shape their lessers." She hefts him over her shoulders as the boy wriggles. "I will keep that in mind, my... friend." She hits the boy on the bottom. "Stop squirming! You shouldn't have come out this far, anyways."

[Ifni]

Diamond nods, and reaches out to touch the other woman's arm lightly, her mouth quirking in an involuntary smile as she watches the other Exalt's efforts to control the squirming child. Puffy eyes, yes; fatigue, or did Sabria swipe away tears when she turned away? "I'm glad to be your friend, Sabria. And I'm glad you'll be here, watching over my people." She is glad, despite the darker aspects of this bargain they've made.

"Thanks for your thoughts on my dream... those are interesting ideas. I appreciate your honesty, too. Just so you know, when the voice talked about the Return and the reclaimers, it wasn't as something he was ordering us to either oppose or support, just... something that was happening. Coming home to roost, I believe was the phrase. And even if that changes in the future, well -" She shrugs. "We are more than just our Exaltations." She leaves it there; she is fairly sure Sabria will understand what she means, without any need for explicit protestations of loyalty. And if the memory of those words strikes a chord with her at some future time, when confronted with the madness of her own patrons, so much the better...

"Anyway, I can leave whenever you're ready. If you need to sort things out here first, then that's fine, we didn't set a specific date for the meeting and she's probably expecting me to travel overland. I didn't tell any of the others my exact location, of course, just that I was somewhere in the Southern deserts; that seemed like it should be safe enough." She tickles the child Sabria is holding. "Shall we take the little one back?"

[Orosboru]

Chiaroscuro! City of shattered glass and broken dreams. Its glorious height, a shining exemplar amongst exemplars, broken by the slow grinding of ages. An age has passed in the reckoning of the stars and men, but for the exiled Exalted it was like a bolt of thunder. A picturesque spot with good geomancy, turned into a spiralling city of glass, turned into a shattered vestige of the first age.

Chiaroscuro! All of this momentous happening came while you were locked away, before the paradox liberation. All of the awards of the mighty age, reaped from the yielding arms of the primordials, you did not win. There are the mighty Dragonbloods, the returning Solars, the scheming Sidereals up high, and the Lunars that will always survive – and the newcomers. The pieces of memory, of a past person that your exaltation was are alien and foreign to you as a strangers. But they are yours, so to speak. It is like a midsummer's waking after many thousands of thousands of years, and wondering: “Am I still dreaming?”

Chiarascuro! Northernmost of the South, emblematic of the second age! One image, one destiny, overthrown into a thousand images and a thousand destinies, all reflected into a million phantasms which scrabble in the remains.

At least, that is the state when you arrive.

[Brontes]

-Months Earlier-

Axle figured it was late night-before dawn, before he reached Rigan's cottage. He tried to get a quick sweep of the area. Finding no one outside, he walked up carefully to the door.

"Please be awake," he whispered, "Please be awake."

He rapped against the door and affected the most positive voice he could, "Rigan, I've got the weirdest dream you need to hear about."

[Orosboru]

A initial tapping on the chamber door, which was such a rapping - fresh from the night on the plutonian shore, Axle knocked. But within, a different battle was fought'd, do not doubt. A bay of loss! Ghast of ghost, worm of mind caught, doubt'd me not, a raven's about!

Such a inauspicious result, to come a-tapping at such a inauspicious hour. A moment was waited, a second to cower. But brave man he was, Axle did not bay. He would have what he needed to say. So he approached the rest of the dreaming doctor, for his strange omen could not wait a day by her.

And there was a creak, a empty bottle rolling on the floor, proclaiming: Lookshy Chilled Wine, for the intelligent drunk, it goes without saying. The smell of desperation, a melancholy most dark and ungodly; a strange and fey mood, worthy of attention.

She dreams a different dream, the one that we all have, it seems. To hope to never wake and for once we live in a world where we can take - it all. The world where we never fall. But she mourns for a different reason, unrelated to the disastrous season of Calibration night.

To beseech her wisdom, her bright sliver light, you first must wake her, without a fight.

[Brontes]

Axle examines the bottle carefully, "Well, her connections are far reaching, so that's a good start."

He looks away from Rigan's sleeping form for a moment, face turning red. He rarely saw her this vulnerable.

"I wonder what's gotten into her, wine aside," he murmurs and shrugs, "But I can't wait, time is always an obstacle."

He places a hand on her arm and begins to shake her gently. He was going to work his way up to being rough, especially if gentleness might not irritate her.

"Rigan" he whispers, trying his best to mimic her own manner "Axle has a story he'd like to share with you."

[Orosboru]

She suddenly grabs your arm and hugs it tight, like a child would do for a stuff animal, or a more pessimistic interpretation, a predator holding on to its captured prey.

"...oh, not the tongue." She licks her lips, still asleep. "...what a strange dream."

[Brontes]

"Oh, brother," Axle places a hand on his face, "I should have just knocked harder."

Axle starts shaking her a little harder, raising his voice to normal levels, "C'mon, Rigan, important things are happening that require your attention."

[Orosboru]

"...mhgr?" As she is slowly awakened, your hand is held pressed tighter and tighter.
"...go away. Don't bother me. 'spice opens in a few." She mutters, content to nibble on your hand.

It is clear that drastic measures are needed. For a shapeshifting, freespirited exalts, you wouldn't expect them to be in the habit of wearing clothing. Sadly today, your expectations are confirmed.

[Brontes]

"Oh, crap," Axle's eyes widen, as he begins to realize, "This could end badly."

I need to slip out of that situation as best I can. I'm hoping it's a Dexterity roll to remove my arm from her grip.

Dexterity + Larceny = 5. I will use my Second Excellency to buy 2 successes out of my Personal Pool.
[roll0] + 2 successes
Personal: 18/22
Peripheral: 44-Whatever the attune cost of 1 Short Daiklave is/44

Yes Axle will spend precious, life-saving motes to avoid embarrassing situations

Axle finagles as best he can to escape her scavenger-like grip, making silent prayer to the gods.

[Orosboru]

Your hand comes away bloody, but otherwise okay. If she was awake, you wouldn't have gotten away with it. But it is strange. You wouldn't have thought her a drunkard. You don't remember if she did anything important last night. She breathes shallowly, sulking a little for having her chew toy liberated so quickly.

You notice that a candle, long ago burnt out, has dripped wax on a pile of books on a desk to your right. A bunch of downy feathers have fallen out and attached themselves to the window. You think with a little more urging, you can wake her up. Of course, her mood might be strange - who knows?

[Brontes]

Axle walks out of Rigan's room, not wanting to have her wake up while he's there. He would have to ask about the books when she was willing to talk about it. He shuts the door behind him and looks at his bleeding hand.

"Need an excuse for this," he says, his frown deepening as an idea formed. He turned toward the door.

"Rigan! For gods' sake, I need to talk to you!" Axle punches the door with his bloody hand before yelling something intranscribable.

[Orosboru]

You hear a crash of furniture, and clumsy searching as Rigan curses lightly. A minute later, she opens the door, her eyes squinting under her spectacles as she stares at you. "...Axle? Crap!" She shuts the door quickly and you can hear more fumbling within. She comes out again momentarily with a robe on. "W-what are you doing this early? She hides the bottle of booze... poorly, behind her back.

[Brontes]

~You need to talk quick, Axle. If she spots even a hint of awkwardness...~

Axle tries to ignore his mentor's fumbling, less she catches on about his intrusion.

"You know how Luna, your patron, appears to you in a vision the moment you Exalt?" Axle started, "I think that's finally happened for me. I think."

Axle recounts his dream as best as he could recollect. Mentioning the general structure he was held in. The actions he had to take to make things happen. The other people he had encountered...

"They seem to be a good, if cautious, group of people," Axle ventures, "I think you might like a few of them."

And of course...

"Our patron...I don't like him," he states simply, "I know gods tend to be a bit loopy, or have natures that reflect their domains, but it's like he's a caricature of himself, I think. Of course, I get the feeling he's injured and trapped in some manner, so that might be the cause of it."

[Orosboru]

Rigan thinks for a while, placing the bottle covertly behind the door. "...and on Calibration, too. I didn't know that any other gods were strong enough to support their own Exaltations. That certainly solves a mystery." Her eyes gleam as she studies you. "Did he tell you his identity? Do you think that he is a threat to creation in any way? It's important." She dashes back in and pulls out a old realm text, preserved in a essence-foil. "Tell me again... what did he look like?"

[Brontes]

"It was hard to say," Axle frowns strongly trying to remember, "Kind of like a man who was also a shadow. His body was evaporating. That may not have been his true form, mind, like I said he seemed injured or trapped. Before he appeared to us, there were several voices that seemed to come from different people. I get the feeling that he was the source, though. There wasn't anyone else at any rate."

Axle paused a moment, "Hang on, there's also an issue of some concern happening down here. I recall that before we woke up, one of us spotted a shadowland growing out somewhere in the East."

[Orosboru]

"...hmm." She idly flips through the books, extremely careful not to damage it. "Five Days? No, too weak. Neverborn, through coincidence? You would be much more obvious. A aspect of Luna?" She looks up. "...I doubt it. The Ebon Dragon?" She turns the page. "That might be... have you had any recent desire to kidnap and ravish powerful woman?" She sniffs. "Wait a minute... were you here earlier?" She gives you a suspicious look.

[Brontes]

"I'm pretty sure it's not the Ebon Dragon," Axle responded, "If it were the Ebon Dragon, he'd probably be more coherent and probably have something for me to do."


"Wait a minute... were you here earlier?" She gives you a suspicious look.

"I assure you, I've been outside until now. That smell is probably leftover from the last time I visited." Axle answered as calmly as he could muster, hoping his bangs were doing the job of hiding his eye.

~Change the topic. Change the topic!~

"Anyway, in the vision the others were talking of meeting up in...Chiaroscuro, I believe it was. Somewhere in the South. I was hoping, if it wasn't too much trouble, if I could go out to meet them. I'm aware that would require a lot of work, but this is the first time I've met anyone else like me. Feels like destiny, you know?"

Manipulation + Presence to bluff my way out of that.
[roll0] Going to need so much stunt dice.

[Qaera]

Lansatura opens her eyes. This dream had been extremely vivid, and especially auspicious on a Calibration. The name of the others, and their meeting-up location was slipping her mind, so she grabbed a bit of parchment and wrote down everything she could remember. No, it hadn't been just a dream. She knew what her dreams were like, and this was something completely knew, that had spoke to the very Essence of her being.

Sitting up in her bed, she cracked her knuckles, and then her neck, and pressing against the small of her back, she heard another pop. Just how long had she been sleeping? Time flew differently on Calibration, with only the empyrean expanse to tell the passing of time, albeit in a more precise fashion than any celestial body. Rising from the bed, Lance called for her companion Katarina to plan out a journey to Chiaroscuro.

South. A direction she had not yet considered for her storytelling travels, mainly due to her family's affiliation with the element of Air- she preferred colder climates, at least, when she had been running all over Creation. But maybe it would be best to leave behind her familial ties right now. The constant heat and sand would be a reminder to her about her new duties as not a Dynast, not a Terrestrial, not a Sidereal, but something new and, in her opinion, clearer. Her life made much more sense after her Exaltation. Hiding it from her family had been hard, but she didn't want to be a disappointment again.

Looking around her room, she yawned. Seeing her bathing area, she laughed. Katarina had laid out a black towel, streaked with indigo and dark, cool colors, and even made a pattern in the shape of her caste mark. Friends and towels. Two things to smile about.

~ ♅

[Orosboru]

"I suppose that's true." She licks her lips. "What a strange taste. Anyways..." She turns to you. "Your mysterious patron might either be extremely clever, or he doesn't exist. Of course, there are hundreds of gods in various states of existence, some which are senior enough-" she stops herself. "If you feel that it's right, do it. Don't use words like destiny, fate, or anything else from making you do what you don't want to do. After all," She smirks, and rubs your head. "We're exalts."

"Chiaroscuro is pretty far. Say..." She smiles like a snake. "How would you like to go for a joyride through Yu-Shan?"

[Brontes]

If Axle were drinking, he'd have spit his beverage by now. "Yu-shan? Are you sure that's wise? Unknown Exalted walking through one of the center's of power?"

Axle could almost imagine some odd, obscure deity poking at him with a scalpel. On the other hand, Yu-Shan.

"Not that it wouldn't be awesome. Wait, how do you even get that kind of pull? I've been Exalted for only slightly less time."

[Orosboru]

"Well, my mentor and I, we-" she covers her mouth. "Tee hee, almost blurted it out." She giggles nervously. "Suffice to say, it involves a lot of... blackmail. And if we wiggle you in front of enough people, someone is going to tell us something useful." Her mad scientist glaze returns over her eyes. "And then we can do sooooo many tests! I haven't even tested your ability to..." She mumbles. "...and stretch!"

"Oh, and unknown? You? Heh. Heheheheh..." Her glasses gleam. "Trust me. By the end of this experience, you'll have wondered where the time went. Trust me."

[Brontes]

Axle could definitely imagine Rigan poking him with a scalpel. He did his best to keep that thought to himself.

~Rigan has a mentor? Have I heard this before? Well, she was from the Pact, maybe she still talks to whoever taught her.~

Axle sighs, "Well, I guess if it cuts down on the travel time. Creation is a big place, and everyone would be waiting for me and who knows what else. So what do you propose?"

[Orosboru]

"Well, you won't come to me on a whim, right?" A small wistful smile comes over her. "I have business in Yu-Shan, anyway. And if I can put another over-" she pauses. "-her, then it'd be worth it."

"Pack your things. We're going on a adventure!"

[Brontes]

~It amazes me that she manages this for how long she's been Exalted. I guess I'll get that kind of sway, too, eventually. And who is she talking about? Should I inquire?~

Axle shakes off the thought, there would be time to find out when he crashed head long into it.

"Yeah, alright. I guess a few changes of clothes, something for Southern climates, and...hmm...I guess I could use what money I keep to buy some useful trinkets here and sell them when I get there. Unless you know a place or guy that exchanges money directly."

[Myllinnia]

Titania sat in her room, leaning back, the ink well sitting on the desk, a parchment sitting before her. There was writing on it, and a candle burned softly casting its soft glow. Her window was open, letting a soft ocean breeze to blow through her window, making her candle to flicker its light in the dark room.

The dream had been vivid. To vivid. Titania had spent the entire remaining of that night up till now contemplating her courses of actions. She said she would wait, and waiting she would do. But Ail'Katar needed to now its heir was alive and well. So Titania turns her attention back to the letter and quickly jots down the information she has to give. It was a good sign that Zenthinia had returned her sigil seal back to her. No telling what she would have done had Azheed found it.

Titania folded the letter and then sealed it. Checking her money supply, which had grown a bit, she goes to the door, and takes her traveling cloak, puts that on and descends to the streets. Titania doesn't go far, she chose the Twilight Jade Eclipse for a reason. She could work here while she waited, she could wait and have a room and food, and she could see ships come and go. Zenthinia as well would find her there, if she ever returned from whatever she was doing.

Titania gives a sigh as she makes her way to one of the tavern tables and orders a drink. She missed Zenthinia, that addicting scent and touch of hers, her confident words. Titania blushes and leans back as her drink arrives.

"I wonder how long it will take for them to get here. They seem like such an interesting bunch too."

OOC
During this time she'll be learning the Charm: Personified Mask of Temperance. Also I am not sure if Calibration is still going or not so I just assumed it was just dark for whatever reason. ^^

[Orosboru]

Axle wakes up, a cloud of fuzziness in his vision. He raises his hands to rub his eyes, when his shoulders bump into a unfamiliar body. He turns around. It's... that strange woman from his dream. At least, one of them, if you put a extremely weird chime earrings and... what the hell is that? The local essence feels concentrated, much like a manse.

You are wrapped in a blanket with your possessions tied up in a sack in front of you. A slick of moisture covers your neck. It is... a hickey.

Diamond dreams of gears and lightning storms in huge seas of steam and oil. It is terrifyingly beautiful in a primal way. It's so warm in here. And it's so cold outside. You twist a little.

Great. She's moving. How do you find yourselves in these situations?

Lansutra walks down the streets, looking for her friends. Titania idly watches the crowds pass by, sipping at her drink.

Thousandfold Iris is in the middle of a crowd, but he immediately feels like he doesn't fit in. All of these workers, they look determined and purposeful. Whatever is going to happen, it's going to be a bloodbath.

"Firedust workers of Chiaroscuro!" A defiant young man with his right eye and left arm missing stands on a bunch of orange crates. "For too long we have been forced to subsist on the Realm's leavings. For too long, we have mourned the loss of our friends in family. For too long, we have suffered. No longer, I say, no longer!"

"NO LONGER!" The crowd echoes back.

"All we ask is compensation for our dead brothers and sisters. Too many widows have to watch their children work in the same places that killed their mothers and fathers. And who profits from our suffering?" He points northwards. "There is enough profit that those who bleed for it most can benefit. Who is with me? Who will strike?"

"WE WILL!" The crowd echoes back.

Lansutra and Titania hear a roar coming down from the street.

[Brontes]

~Clothes are still on. That's a good sign.~

Axle rubs his neck with the blanket as best he can, his thoughts returned to that Calibration night months ago.

~I'm sensing a pattern here.~

Axle tries to rise up as quietly as possible, hoping the strategy he employed before will work now. He was not going to explain something he had no explanation for.

[Ifni]

Lightning arcs between the clashing metal gears, blue and white and brilliant. Oily tides of liquid darkness surge below, depthless as a Calibration night. Gouts of steam rise around her. They should be hot, perhaps, even scalding, but they only feel warm. So warm, so soft the air. So cold... out there.

Where is there? Where am I?

She tries to turn in place in the dream, to look around her. Is she alone? Where are the others? Is he here, the dark one, the whisperer? No memory of her own, this dream. The otherself's memories? Or something more?

"Who calls me here? What do you want of me?" She imagines the words, shapes their reality into the dreaming night. A challenge cast out. Hide in the dark, little pitiful one... but she is Exalted now. Isn't she?

She fixes the scene in memory, straining every sense for the details. Feels the dream begin to fade, awareness of her body beginning to return. Struggles to instead fall deeper into unwaking, into the impossible storm over strange seas. Tell me.

[Orosboru]

Mathematical principles expressed as abstractions in time in space. Hundreds of thousands of designs in perfect harmony as you fly deeper and deeper into the heart of the maelstrom of wyrd elements.

And you see the heart of it. A great, seeping wound - and you know it to be the end of all things. The beginnings of the death of something great and terrible, something never born doomed to die. For hubris. For ambition. It shifts and defies form - every new shape that the mechanical being takes, it follows almost at quickly to the new. Slowly, but surely, the designs move in and out of existence as the stale old ideas quickly are superseded by the more promising.

"Hmm?" it thinks. It looks at you. And you wake up to a spike of unfamiliar essence. To your horror, even in the pale dust of waking cannot conceal the mark of Adorjan, the Silent Wind on the strange man's form. It bleeds defiance even in its diminished state, and your earring-chimes desperately sing a tiny tune.

[Ifni]

She sits up with a start, flashing from sleep to wakefulness in one brilliant moment of horror. She concentrates, trying to sear the dream into her fallible memory. The falling, spinning abstraction of the dive. The dance of symbols and ideas, ever-changing, ever-accelerating. The beauty. The bleeding wound. The ending.

She looks around, and her gaze fixes on the man standing next to her. Oh no. No no no. "Axle? Um." She swallows hard, and reaches out to point at the mark on him. "That's a... new feature, I take it. Do you know how we got here? Or where 'here' is?" As she tilts her head to look at the symbol, the earring-chimes jangle softly, and she reaches up to touch them, running her fingers over them. Her expression is a strange mix of fear and curiosity.

I didn't tell her, curse it! Not their names, not their descriptions, not where to find them, not even the location of the meeting! She casts desperately back in her memory, trying to see how much she remembers of the journey with Sabria, after they left the camp. I knew I couldn't trust her fully, but... She looks around as she rises to her feet, reaching for a weapon as she gauges their surroundings.

Her staff is not beside her, and she bites her lip, then sees the sack lying on the ground. She walks over to it and opens it, quickly sorting the items within and retrieving her own gear. "The rest of these are yours?"

She shrugs out of the outermost layer of her robes for just long enough to slip on the silvery chain shirt, and straps her shield to her arm. Shadows ripple from the hearthstone in her armor, blurring the shield's bright face.

Her panic recedes as she arms herself and deliberately slows her breathing. If not for the mark on Axle, this might not be so bad at all. For all she knows, they are in Chiaroscuro, as intended. She can't remember the journey, but that was to be expected, given the route she had taken.

But... that spike of Essence, and the mark on the other Exalt. A Yozi's mark. Maybe he was working with a Green Sun Prince as well, and his talk of Lunars only misdirection - or maybe there really was a Lunar mentor, and she was in league with the lords of Malfeas. But please, let it not be me that betrayed him. She looks again at Axle, sidelong, studying the mark.

[Myllinnia]

Well that didn't sound good. Couldn't trouble find a different place to be this day? Titania had brought herself to sit near a window and so with the noise, the strange roar, Titania stood and made for the door. Cautiously she looked outside, letting the hot southern air to blow through her black hair.

[Brontes]

"I haven't a clue where we are or what happened," Axle follows suit, arming himself with Intervention and his knives, "I had thought the worst about what was on my neck, too. Can you tell what that is?"

~So you think that a hickey is worse than whatever that is. Really, Axle?~

Axle's gaze sweeps across the area, trying to take it all in, hoping an exit could be found.

"I thought going through Yu-Shan was a bad idea. Couldn't say know to seeing it once., though"

[Ifni]

"It looks like the mark of Adorjan, the Silent Wind - who is one of the Yozis, imprisoned within Malfeas. Wait, Yu-Shan? How did you arrange that?" Diamond turns the sack inside out to make sure there is nothing left inside, after Axle retrieves his gear. "How much do you remember? For me, everything after I left for Chiaroscuro is a blank. These earrings are new, as well, I don't know where they came from."

[Brontes]

"Rigan apparently got her mentor to pull something for her. I was told blackmail was involved. In retrospect, that was not a good sign. I don't remember what happened either. Safe to say we should avoid going to Yu-Shan for now. I guess all that's left is to figure out where we are now."

[Ifni]

"Hmm, it sounds like this Rigan of yours has some interesting friends. I'm worried about that mark; if the Yozis are taking an interest in us, that could be extraordinarily bad." She shivers.

"But you're right, let's see if we can find out where we are. If we're in Chiaroscuro as planned, that's a very different situation than if we're in Yu-Shan still... or worse places."

"Although at least we're together, we have our weapons, and we haven't been obviously harmed. That seems to argue against a lot of the nastiest possibilities that come to mind."

She begins to walk around the edge of the room, running one hand along the walls, looking and feeling for a doorway, or a crack or keyhole where light might shine through.

[Orosboru]

You bump into a doorknob, which you open. You are in a small hidden manse within viewing distance of the city of glass. The sun is in high noon, and the countless shards reflect painful beams of light, which make you flinch.

You seem to be in a concealed spot. There is no one else around you. The room you were in is bare except for your things, the blanket, and a small table with a bunch of papers sitting on it.

[Ifni]

"Well, that was easy. That looks a lot like Chiaroscuro, over there. Let's not leave just yet, though." Diamond walks back to the table and looks down at the papers, not touching them yet.

[Indivisible]

"Well good for them. They should stand up for themselves." Thousandfold Iris murmured as he looked for a place to observe the proceedings safely. He had read treatises on the need for workers to band together, and in theory he supported people standing up for their "ability to live a meaningful life." In practice, he was finding it far scarier than he had anticipated.

[Orosboru]

It is burnt slightly, but it is readable.

Notes on the Netherworld
By revered Sub-Chair on the Convocation on Deathlords, Kalshu-Tor.
To: Nara-O, head of the Division of Secrets

(note: revise before Calibration.)

There seems to be a power shift in the Netherworld. There seems to be a grand accumulation of forces near the powerful Solar ghost 'The First and Forsaken Lion', whose first age identity is extremely burnt bit. Rumours of a underhanded marriage proposal plague the ghostly underclass like nostalgia does the Gold Faction (admittedly, more justified). Similar rumours come from Malfeas. Is it a copycat? Where do they originate?

My maiden has not seen fit to tell the grand total of her prophecy. She mentions the disappearance ofa fuzzy, burnt bit and the identities of its fetich soul. A great new ending is in place, but which I have yet not seen.
A surprising insight from one of my more secure sources show that the Maiden of Journeys briefly left the games of divinity to pursue some unseen goal.

But enough about heaven. The Underworld is mobilizing for war. And it seems that the powers that be down there have been permanently unsettled. Our agent on the ground reports that she was rebuffed by the ascending Deathlord, but she was allowed to observe the events. Interesting. What game is he playing?

I assigned Agent Ten of the Immaculate Eye to track down the mysterious Geneva Talon, or her mysterious alter ego, Professor Gino. Hopefully, he will find her, and prevent the return of Thrice-Radiant Misho. Somehow, she is related in all of this mess. In the return. But of what? Not just a mere solar, no matter how great.

There is a disheartening feeling of trepidation as I finish this report. I go to the Valley of Five Swords to regroup with the other Chosen of Endings.

Kalshu-Tor

...

A troop of soldiers armed with firedust weapons storms into the square, and start to bully their way into the crowd. The woman and children walk back, and a line of burly-looking men form to meet the soldiers. The feeling is very, very tense.

"All we want is fair conditions for our dangerous work," The man on the pulpit starts. "We-"

A twitchy soldier's gun goes off. Whether it was intentional or not, a entire group of woman and children are incinerated into ashes. Knives are drawn in anger, grenades are primed.

And it all goes to hell.

[Ifni]

Diamond reads rapidly, dark eyes intent on the page. "Axle, how much of this can you decipher? Chosen of Endings... that's a Sidereal caste." A shiver of ghostly pain as she speaks the word Endings, a flash of violet light behind her eyes... I'm going to have to figure out what that means at some point. "Chosen of Secrets is another of their castes, so I guess that goes with Division of Secrets. We have a Sidereal internal memo? Is this one of their manses, maybe?" She eyes her fellow Nocturnal. "You're sure you don't remember anything about what happened in Yu-Shan?"

"Rumors of a marriage proposal, in both the Underworld and Malfeas." The Ebon Dragon announced that he might have something to announce worth announcing... "Huh. That sounds... ominous. Do you happen to know anything much about the Yozis or the Deathlords?"

"A prophecy by the Maiden of..." She coughs into her hand, struggling to ignore the sense of dread that rushes over her. Don't say the name! "Well. His Maiden, he says. So I suppose that would be something to do with some kind of... conclusion. And something disappearing, and its fetich soul..." The Yozis have many souls, but Sabria would know if one of them was missing. Not that she would necessarily have told me. A Primordial? She shivers. "I was... dreaming, before we woke up here. Like the dream of Calibration, but less controlled, less coherent. I dreamed of a place of grinding metal, and oil, and steam, and lightning - and it was alive, and thinking, and dying. Never born, doomed to die..." She touches her forehead, absently. "I wonder if there might be a connection." Or someone is feeding these images into her head and wants her to think there's a connection - but you'd think they'd be more explicit about it.

"These names at the end don't mean anything to me. Geneva Talon, Professor Gino, the Valley of Five Swords... it sounds like this Thrice-Radiant Misho is a Solar? And the Immaculate Eye... that must be something to do with the Realm." She glances at Axle. "It sounds like this Kalshu-Tor has agents in a lot of places."

[Brontes]

"Pfft," Axle says, "I have no idea what that's talking about, the idea that I could reach Chiaroscuro or Yu-Shan is mind boggling right now. My goals have always been on the scale of a kingdom and its neighbors. Rigan has never prepared me for a whole Direction. Hell, I don't think she's prepared. I know the Underworld has some connection to the shadowlands, I mentioned the East having trouble with one before, right? It's ruled by something, I'd guess a 'Deathlord' would be the thing to rule it. That's about all I know, really. Maybe the same or a different one was involved with the new one?"

Axle sighs, shoulders slumped, "Look, all of this is over my head. I can deliver messages, handle physical challenges, and fight things. That's all I'm good for right now. I guess we should hold onto it, though. Might be good to keep that kind of knowledge, though."

He heads for the door, "I'll see what's ahead. If it's talking about a Deathlord's attack, you may have been dragged to the East. I hope that's not the case."

[Ifni]

"Well, this says this... Deathlord... is a Solar ghost. And yes, if he's mobilizing for war, maybe that's related to the shadowland we saw." She bites her lip. "I'm sorry, Axle. That doesn't sound so good, for the East. As for the rest..." She shrugs. "I guess we can't really follow up on it for now, although we should definitely take this with us, and I'm still worried about that mark on you. I don't know much about the Underworld, but I do have some information about Malfeas, and having a Yozi interested in you is... bad. Very bad."

"Unless you have a city of glass in the East, I think we made it to Chiaroscuro - I've been there before." She waves at the door. "So we should go try to find the others, or Titania, at least - but let's look around here a bit, first. The Essence here felt odd, when I woke up, did you notice that? And with this memo here... maybe there's a gate or something?"

Diamond goes to the blanket and unrolls it, shaking it out to check for anything hidden within or under it. Finding nothing, she folds it up neatly and puts it next to the table. Then she begins walking around the walls, searching for any other exits - tapping on them, running her hands over them and scrutinizing them for any telltale cracks or patterns, straining her senses for anything odd in the Essence of the place, searching for anything not apparent at first glance.

[Brontes]

"Oh, okay, at least we're in the right place," Axle smiles weakly, "I don't think exploring this manse is a good idea. For all intents and purposes we were kidnapped here, there may still be some hostiles. Also, going through a gate got us in this mess in the first place."

He shrugs slightly, stretching his smile a bit, "Not that I wouldn't want to explore the place. I'd just like at least another person to help."

[Ifni]

Diamond hesitates, but then continues her search. "Fair point, but coming back here might not be a trivial task. Let me just see if I can find anything in this room..."

"We should make some copies of the note, too; it looks a bit fragile, with the burn marks. There are writing materials in my bag, if you want to begin copying - or I'm happy to do it, if you want to check outside."

She continues to move along the walls. "And while we may have been kidnapped... they clearly want us alive and free to move around. They might be trying to use us, but they don't want us dead or prisoners, or, well, we wouldn't have woken up here with our weapons."

[Brontes]

"Alright fair enough. You're more on the ball than me and I need to work on my penmanship anyway. I'll copy and you can look around."

Axle gathers Diamond's materials and begins to work, "I'm going to have a long talk with Rigan after this."

[Ifni]

Diamond nods slightly, but doesn't comment at first, focusing on her task. She'd like to be able to trust Rigan, too - she might not know the woman at all yet, but "Exalted healer" had sounded promising - but the way events have unfolded do raise some nasty suspicions in her mind. That's for Axle to work out, though; she knows she'd feel defensive if someone else started speculating about Sabria.

And anyway, you're the one who definitely brought the Yozis into the picture. Isn't it more likely that whoever dropped you off is responsible for Axle's mark? Not that she can tell him that.

She works in silence for a few moments, broken only by her tapping on the walls and the scritching of the pen. Then she says quietly, "Axle, what you said, about this being over your head, and your goals always having been on the scale of kingdoms... I don't think any of us really know what we're doing. And as for goals... for most of my life, my only goal was survival, and later, freedom."

Her hands skim the walls, sensitive fingertips probing for anything strange. Old training, this. Sharp eyes, keen senses, honed in a place that she no longer really remembers. She regrets losing later memories, but the earlier ones... she is half-glad, sometimes, when she finds a missing space or alien thought where one of them should be.

"It's funny how the same events can both expand and contract perspective. For me, in some ways this feels like going back to basics - survival, freedom, self-knowledge. Only we're trying to figure those out while stumbling through some grand scheme related to the end of the world. This - having to worry about Yozis and Deathlords, finding Sidereal memos when we wake up, travel through Yu-Shan - it feels surreal to me as well."

She glances over her shoulder at Axle, a slight crooked smile on her lips, her eyes taking on an absent look as she tries to sense the local Essence flows. "Anyway, I'm just saying: I'm mostly figuring things out as I go along, and from the dream at Calibration it seemed like we were all doing more or less the same, so don't underrate yourself."

[Brontes]

"Well, I haven't Exalted long," Axle says while writing, "So I always expected I'd be able to handle things in time. This just feels too soon is all."

Axle stumbles with his implement for a moment, crossing out the word and continuing, "See, that's my problem. My basics are to follow instructions, do my job well, and overcome obstacles toward the first two. On the bright side, when I'm given a destination, I'll find my way there eventually."

[Qaera]

Katarina finished packing her bag, and turned to Lance with a frank expression.
"Y'know, if we want to be getting to Chyaroskyro in any sorta close timeframe, we need to be using the Gates. Otherwise, to be arriving we would be takin months. Seasons, even."

Lansatura sighed. To go back to Yu-Shan in this state, with new Essence, unseen Essence, was madness. She'd be stopped at the entranceway if anyone with Essence sight blinked at her. But travel from her family's manse-estate in the East, where the Sidereal histories were kept, to Chiaroscuro would be a nightmare. Even with her Charms during Calibration... no, still not soon enough. While her travel philosophy was patient, it seemed her companions' were not.

She looked over her shoulder, at her bags ready with the necessities, and her owl staring at her with his big, knowing eyes. "Well? Let's go, then. Don't want to wait till everyone's awake. Don't forget your blindfold."

~ ♅

[Indivisible]

When he saw the soldier incinerate part of the crowd. Sand thought his blood had frozen, despite the heat. And the smell. This was outside anything he'd ever experienced. The Lunar he'd fled from had only attacked him, not the people around him, and the Wyld Hunt had acted to keep mortal bystanders out of harms way. He'd never read any story like this.

To make it worse, he had no way to stop it. All of his charms were focused on investigation or fighting small groups of people. Even his new trick was only good for making money. His only other power was to wish things into existence and that couldn't... Oh.

"What if we could all get along and stop this?"




Sand will attempt a fluctuation using The Silk to create a situation where everything can be resolved without bloodshed

[Orosboru]

I will take your statement as literally as possible.

The clamor stops when the figure yells: "STOP!" Even the soldiers stop panicking. "Bring him here," he pants, out of breath. The crowd parts...

"I-I'm so sorry..." The soldier says. "Take it. An eye for an eye." He offers up his flame piece.

The man stops, and lightly pulls it away from the soldier. The man on the ground winces, waiting for the inevitable. He flinches...

He is offered the gun. "Join us. Atone for your sins and let them hear our voice, brothers and sisters." A cry goes out as the crowd chants rthymically in some unknown chant. "You will remember their lives by fighting for them."

The mob, now armed with firedust arms, marches towards the city.

[Indivisible]

"Oh good... I... made things better?... Maybe I shouldn't tell the others about this when I meet them? Jade Eclipse Inn? Time to ask for directions."

Thousandfold Iris is not looking back and forth in a shifty manner. At all.

[Orosboru]

You notice a small compartment, hidden behind a mirror. You open it.

Hundreds of small pictures, old letters, and even a rusty mask! They are organized chronologically, but there are no dates. They seem to be about a hairless woman who is frequently seen with many wigs - she is very, very beautiful. It abruptly cuts out in a large pause, but it resumes with several pictures of a small girl. One with a very unique birthmark.

You.

More pictures. You on your first mission. You leaving Yane. A picture of you with your characteristic face veil. A final picture of you staring into the endless desert sands, alone.

And it ends. There is scribbled question marks, conjecture - but nothing recognizable.

[Ifni]

Shattered Diamond Night
---Outside Chiaroscuro, at the Manse o' Mystery---

There was a silence in the manse, where before there had been the quiet sounds of Diamond's footsteps and the light tapping of her fingertips on the walls. Even the whisper of her breath had stopped, briefly, and when it resumed it seemed deliberately slow and regular, almost forced.

The Southern woman stands before the compartment and leafs slowly through the pictures and letters. She cradles each picture or document in her fingertips like a treasure both infinitely precious and infinitely fragile, taking exquisite care not to crease them or tear their edges. Each image, each scrap of writing, is absorbed with an intent, intense regard, and then replaced in its correct position in the order. Her hands shake with a fine tremor, almost imperceptible.

Her breath catches when she again reaches the image of herself as a child, and she glances away from both the compartment and Axle. One hand rises, as if to touch her cheek or adjust a veil, and then falls back to her side. Her gaze turns back to the earlier pictures. She stares at the beautiful woman portrayed there, searching for hints of common features, hungering for signs of a resemblance.

Her thoughts are a whirl, tangling on themselves. Who is the woman? My mother? That absence is an old, old pain, one she thought she'd put out of her mind years ago - but at the possibility of answers, however faint, the old hurt and hope and yearning strike like a punch in the gut, like a dagger from the shadows. She brushes one of the last pictures in that sequence with a fingertip, tracing the shape of the woman's face, trying to imprint that image into her memory. That particular picture shows its subject smiling; one might read warmth in that smile, even affection.

But if the early pictures evoke longings she thought buried, the implications of the later ones chill her to the bone. Perhaps they are a reconstruction. Perhaps the one who drew them has the power to look back in time - or more mundanely, perhaps the early ones were gathered from people who'd known her, after the fact. She wants to believe that is true. Because if it is not...

If it is not, then someone watched her grow up, and did nothing to help her. This time her hand does brush the scars that mar her face, tracing the familiar ridges and roughness. Or perhaps they had helped; perhaps when she had thought herself lucky, or skilled, it had been nothing of the kind, only the invisible hand of some mysterious watcher. All along, had she only been a pawn?

She goes back to the letters and begins to skim through them quickly, looking for names or descriptions of people, places and events. Looking for clues, to a mystery that has just become much more personal. She picks up the rusty mask and examines it: decorative adornment, practical disguise, or something else?

Utterly engrossed in her discovery, she has not yet even turned to look at Axle, much less described her findings to him - but her sudden silence and the flaring tension in her stance probably provide sufficient indication of something unexpected.

[Brontes]

Axle is still copying things down, though he has noticed Diamond's silence.

"Something wrong?" he inquires, turning to look where she was standing. From where he was working, he could make out that she was rummaging through something, but nothing specific.

He got up from the table, walking over to where Diamond was standing.

[Ifni]

The voice is a grating intrusion on the inner whirlwind of her thoughts. For a moment she had almost forgotten she was not alone. (As she had always been alone, in all these pictures that charted the course of her life.) But Axle was brought here as well; he has a stake in this mystery.

"Something... unexpected." She steps aside to let him see into the compartment. Her face holds an ambiguous confusion of emotions.

[Brontes]

~Oh, gods, why didn't she stop me? What is this? I don't...~

The pictures render Axle speechless. Once more he has stumbled into something personal. A number of thoughts and questions plague him, ~Her father perhaps? A Sidereal Agent looking in on her? Would that be true for the rest of us? Why...?~

He forces these thoughts away. This was a personal matter, it was not his place to speculate. Unable to think of anything to say, he walks back to the table to finish his work.

"That should do it," he says while stacking the copies "Want to do anything else before we go?"

[Orosboru]

My love,

I am afraid that I cannot come to you in the coming months. My previous engagement with the king of Aretevelio cannot be ignored. His son is a boisterous boy, but he is fated for greatness - and such potential cannot be wasted.

I have been teaching him to be noble, a king. He is neither enthusiastic or lazy. He is neither the worst or the best of the ones that I have trained. Hopefully, the ideals of his father and the rightful manner of rule will imprint on him for the years to come.

He has a pet pony, that he adores despite his father's disapproval. The king pesters me to convince him to be rid of it, calling it 'that stupid thing'. It is good, in my mind, for any future ruler to have compassion.

I miss you terribly, but I hope that your business at that monastery will be completed soon. The weather is scorchingly hot for a land so east, but it reminds me of home. And you.

Esmerelda


The mask is slightly warped and dented, but it appears to be a vizard with the image of a laughing woman, her eyes deep as night.

[Ifni]

"Anything else? Um... see if I can take off these earrings, try committing Essence to these earrings to see if they're magical, and check around the outside of the building. That was more or less my list, but..." She stares at Axle. "I have to say my priorities have just shifted a tad. Doesn't this mean anything to you?"

She takes a deep breath, forcing her voice back to calmness. "What do we know? Someone, clearly, has been watching me. Someone "kidnapped" us, in your words, and brought us here. Both of us, not just me; it's a good bet they know we're connected in some way. Someone left that memo here for us to read -" she points at the table, "- after redacting it to remove certain key words. Those burn marks are too precise to be accidental. Someone gave you that mark, and me these earrings." She hunches her shoulders and mutters, in a lower voice, "I hate being a pawn."

"Someone, or multiple someones, associated with Yu-Shan or Malfeas or both, and with more information about the situation than the scraps they're feeding us, seem to find this place useful. But I'm not sure they meant us to find this compartment, and so I now don't want to leave until we've extracted what information we can from it." Her voice lowers, becomes softer. "And yes, if it might hold clues to where I came from, I want to know that too. I never knew either of my parents. But this is about a lot more than just my personal history."

She looks down at the letter, balanced delicately between her fingertips. "This one looks potentially promising... you come from the East, right? Do you know of a kingdom called Aretevelio?"

Esmerelda. And she taught the sons of kings. A scholar? A Realm emissary? A Sidereal agent? Fated for greatness...

My love. The recipient could not have been a Green Sun Prince; they hadn't existed thirty years ago, and compassion was not a virtue much valued by the Yozis' servants, in any case. Business at some monastery...

If only she knew more about the Sidereals. They might be deadly danger to people she cared for, but by all appearances, they had knowledge she desperately wanted. Perhaps when they met up with Lansatura, she could learn more.

[Brontes]

Axle's face is still, "Aretevelio was eaten by Fair Folk before I Exalted. The Fey are gone, but no one goes back there now. Sorry."

He isn't sure what to say now, "Some things mean some things to me, others mean other things. I'll agree that someone wants us to do something. I agree that someone has an interest in you. But what I'm hearing from you is a secret plan that's been happening from your childhood. I think this whole thing is haphazard and spur of the moment."

He gestures the pictures and writings, "These things make no mention of what you've been doing or who you're dealing with, this suggests an interest that, albeit creepy, is personal. I don't think the person who uses this manse had any plans for you, though others may have. He loses track of you at some point, the pictures stop here."

He continues, "We don't know what happened on Yu-Shan save that we were both there at some point. One of us may have gotten in trouble, the other may have helped, and then this third person recognized you, much to his surprise, and pulled some strings. This may be why we're together now, not some knowledge of our previous involvement. We may not have even been necessary for this, and we're only doing it because it was a means to save us. Cause we're an unknown brand of Exalted who got caught in Yu-Shan."

He walks toward the door, "We don't know anything and there's not enough to tell the extent we're being used. I like to think that someone, albeit in the dumbest manner, saved us from having our chest cavities opened."

"I don't pry in personal stuff without permission, is all, and I am willing to help. But the others are waiting for us now, and it's probably better to get a third pair of eyes on this. I'll mark something near the manse's location so we can find it."

Axle tries his best to crack a smile, "Besides, the more people try to use us, the more chances we'll figure them out anyway."

[Ifni]

Diamond frowns in frustration at the news that Aretevelio has been destroyed, and slowly puts the letter back in the compartment.

"No, I agree this seems like something recent, not a plan going back years. Or at least, not in any detail. I mean, I don't think... the whispers tell me what my destiny was supposed to be. What happened instead, I don't think that was foreseen. That last picture, that probably wasn't so long before my Exaltation." She stops talking, needing to think for a moment. "And you're right that the interest seems... personal. Especially if this woman was my, my mother." She seems to have a little trouble getting the last word out.

Axle's hypothesis is enticing. And it could really be true; it made more sense, fit together more cleanly, than most of the darker scenarios she'd imagined. Someone who'd watched over her, sending them here to save them, leaving the note to try to help. Maybe the memory erasure and the redaction of the note had just been precautions to protect the person who'd helped them. A person who her mother had loved? Her... father?

She'd been avoiding letting herself think that word. It wouldn't do any good, right now, to let her mind hook onto the mesmerizing possibility that she might have a parent still living, and more, one who cared about her. The thought is a very tiny, fragile bloom for now, shallowly rooted. But still, something new, in the diamond fortress of her self.

"I guess you're right, we should go and try to find the others. I'm even more interested to hear what Lansatura has to say about Sidereals, now." She grins, a little weakly. "Can you pass me the writing supplies, though? If you don't object, I might leave a note in the compartment, before I close it up again. Just in case we don't make it back here, and the person who left these pictures comes to check."

Going back over to the compartment, she takes out the picture of the woman smiling, and tucks it in among her supplies, carefully pressing it flat. She writes a quick note, hesitates, adds a few more lines, and lays it next to the final picture, of herself walking into the desert.

She considers the remaining letters with a stab of regret. Axle seems eager to get going, but if and when they come back, she promises herself, she will read them all. My mother's words. For the moment, she only picks up the final letter, and reads quickly through it - an indulgence, but it will not take long.

That done, she picks up the mask, turning it over in her hands. "I might take this with me." She closes the mirror on the compartment, then raises the mask to her face and puts it on, seeing if it fits her. She tries to send the lightest whisper of Essence into it, on the chance that it has some magical properties - although she expects it is simply a mundane memento, but no less precious for that.

The earrings chime as she tilts her head forward to don the mask, and that reminds her. Might as well check this before we leave... Taking the mask off, she tries to slip one of the earrings from her ear with one hand, to get a closer look at it. Silvery, pretty... simple jewelry, or something more?

The note is written in Flametongue, three simple sentences at the head of the page:
I was once Lapis, now Shattered Diamond Night.
I want to meet you.
Thank you.
And then, scribbled below,
Re Kalshu-Tor note: source in Malfeas reports impending significant announcement from Ebon Dragon.

[Orosboru]

The mask sloughs off the rusty layer of iron and glows warmly, conforming to your face. It comes off mouthless, the eyes worried in fear, with a small spark of defiance. Its resemblance to you is... uncanny.

Diamond feels a rapturous and baneful calling, a happy memory forgotten, barely recalled that you cannot remember. This sense of belonging, of friendship and camaraderie to a very old part of you that you cannot remember, but understand very well. It sends your mind into a chaotic rapture of bliss and despair. To Broken Axle, her anima is barely contained in the essence-damping nature of this hidden manse - in her ascendant banner, her aura totemic.

I'll detail the earrings later. I can't find your anima anywhere...

"If you've got something useful to tell me about Kalshu-Tor, why don't you say so?" a voice echoes in your mind.

[Ifni]

Diamond has only a moment to feel the glowing warmth of the mask, the smoothness of its features against her fingertips, so uncannily familiar - the face she might have had? - before...

Lightning from the sky. Memories she's never had; she may have yawning gaps in her recall of her early life, but she would know if she'd ever felt like this. She wouldn't be the person she was, if she'd ever before experienced such unmitigated joy, such unreserved trust. She wouldn't see the world the way she did, if even once in her life she'd felt that bone-deep sense of belonging.

The bliss is glory. The despair... comes perhaps from the knowledge that some ancient part of her had this, and lost it. The fear that this is not truly meant for her, not as she is now... and the certainty that whatever it means, there is no turning back.

Her anima flares around her, the darkness at the heart of Calibration; a labyrinth of shattered diamond, spinning slowly in the eternal night.

Against the backdrop of heart-soaring euphoria twisted with soul-deep pain, the intrusion of the voice into her mind seems oddly... mundane. Diamond struggles to think, to speak, her jaw working soundlessly for a few moments before she manages to shape her thoughts into coherent words.

"Huh?" Well, semi-coherent, anyway. An unlikely beginning, but oh well, it can't possibly get worse from there... I am NOT going to begin this conversation with "Are you my father?", that would be just pathetic. Even after that rush of incredible emotion, she retains some standards of caution - and perhaps more relevant, a desire not to embarrass herself in front of... whoever this is. "Kalshu-Tor? I know very little, beyond what was in his notes. May I ask who I'm speaking to?" If the speaker has somehow already read the note that she just put in the compartment, then he can be more specific with his next question; she's not going to volunteer even trivial information on the Yozis to an unknown person through a mystery artifact.

And she wants, oh so very much, to know who the other speaker is.

[Brontes]

Caught off guard by Diamond's anima, Axle was assaulted by the incoming darkness.

"Oh crap my eyes!" A loud thud sound could be heard, the shock had knocked him back.

A moment of silence follows, then a sigh.

"I'm okay. No worries."

[Orosboru]

The voice is quick, measured, and clipped in tone. Distant lightning thunders in the background, punctuating his sentences.
"Whoever you are, you've hijacked one of the most secure communication lines in the world. Nobody's ever done that before. I'm... a little impressed, actually. 'Wisp' will do for now. Little busy trying to save Creation, but circumstances have conspired such that I've got time for a chat. How are things on your end?"

Your anima goes down to a manageable level.

[Brontes]

Axle recovers well enough to discern Diamond talking to air. He dusts himself off, and smiles sheepishly.

"So...long distance talking artifact? Could be useful if we find the receiving end. Any idea who you're talking to, Sidereal manse and all?"

[Ifni]

Diamond runs a hand over the smooth metal of the mask. Her anima is subsiding, and the emotions lessening with it... but she still feels a leap of exultant joy, inextricable from an echo of chill despair, at the sound of that measured voice.

"Not... so bad, all said and done." Diamond hesitates. "Saving Creation? Um... anything I can do to help with that?"

Part of her knows that trust is death, that the powers of the world can be divided into the malevolent and the indifferent. It is the same part that holds her secrets tightly, and wants nothing more than to be forever unseen. But that part of her had never felt the surge of joy and heartbreak when she donned the mask.

"You asked for information on Kalshu-Tor; I have what looks like a memo written by him, here. If you know him, does that mean you're a Sidereal? Or one of their agents?"

And if the mask had tapped into a secure Sidereal communication line... well, that certainly lent credence to the my mother was a Sidereal agent theory.

She glances out of the side of the mask at Axle, and mutters in Old Realm, "Not sure. He asked about Kalshu-Tor, so I'm guessing he works for them, at least. He mentioned I'd hacked into a secure communication line."

[Orosboru]

The voices grow hazy, the supposed Sidereal's voice fading into the background. It starts blaring out a familiar voice, and several unfamiliar ones.

"Enough tricks. My unnamed, where hence she been? Enough despair - I may have the all the answers. You will have many battles before your life is through, that I know- we're used to suffering, aren't we - I loved you, mother. I loved-


alea iacta est. The game has begun, Saturn. "
The mask slowly peels off, leaving you exhausted and weary. The light from outside slowly creeps back in.

[Ifni]

Diamond lowers the mask, staring at it. "Wisp? You still there?" she says quietly. It doesn't sound like she's expecting an answer, and after a moment, she sighs, and switches to Old Realm for Axle's benefit. "That... that was interesting. The connection was cut off, when I asked if he was a Sidereal. There were other voices, at the end. One I think was our patron. The others... I don't know. Did you hear them?"

She feels like weeping, but her eyes remain dry. "He didn't know about the mask. I thought at first he was linked to this place, but now I don't believe so. He thought I was someone else at first, I think, someone he was asking for information on Kalshu-Tor. He said it was a secure connection, so maybe he was talking to another agent, or to his superiors. He said he was a 'little busy trying to save Creation', and you know, I don't think he was joking?"

She takes a deep breath and looks up at Axle, her face deliberately calm. "Anyway, sorry about my anima flaring up like that. I guess it was a reaction to the artifact. There was a funny emotional surge that went with it. Seems to be almost a regular occurrence, these days." Her tone is superficially exasperated, but a current of loss runs beneath the surface.

She goes to the door of the manse and looks out, shading her eyes against the glitter of the sunlight. Why had the mask chosen that particular person, to connect her to?

The emotions aren't gone, they linger - perhaps buried, but not and never dead. No turning back, even if she never learns the meaning of what just happened, although that thought clenches at her heart.

Where was he now, that calm-voiced man, who could say Little busy trying to save Creation and make it sound casual? In the North, a land of ice and snow and other dangers Diamond couldn't even imagine? The West, fighting against the Lintha? The East, Axle's Direction, home of a new spreading shadowland? Here in the South, perhaps just learning of the blights spreading in the deep desert? His accent had been Southern, by her judgement, from the central badlands. A shiver goes through her at the thought, a flash of fear for the family and friends she left behind.

Of course, he might not be in Creation at all; he might be infiltrating Malfeas itself, or the Underworld. He had asked about Kalshu-Tor.

She remembers the bright warmth and the deadly coldness when she donned the mask, the flaring of her anima as if in celebration or defiance, the joy she'd never felt before and hungered to feel in truth, not imposed by some strange magic. Danger and darkness, and the promise of light.

She raises the inert mask to her face again - it probably won't help, but it can't hurt - and focuses on those memories, and on the image of Creation, spread out in all its glory below where she stood on the roof of the world. Where are you, stranger? Where are you, Wisp?

Using the bond to see if Diamond has any intuition for Whisper's location, rolling bond + Whisper's Essence.
[roll0]
I'll spend 1wp for an automatic success.
Stunt? [roll1]

EDIT: 3 sux, so I think that gives me location accurate to within 1000 miles (p.83 of the Nocturnals book).

[Brontes]

Axle shook his head, "Nope, just the stuff on your end. It's a mask so I'm not sure it handles mass communication. Anima wasn't a problem, just took me by surprise. Kind of embarrassed that I fell like that, though. Heh."

Axle sits down to gather his thoughts, "Kind of sucks how little time that thing gives you. You wanted to check the earrings before we left?"

He readies Intervention, "Just in case something terrible happens."

[Orosboru]

Within a thousand miles, Mount Melgalapa, I am.
But not perhaps, for long.


You don the mask and... nothing happens. Whatever connection you had, it is gone. The mask is still warm to the touch, strange as it is.

Your earrings, Broken Axle notices, are made of the wispy magical material known as starmetal. The gems seem to be perfectly mundane, but hold bits of infernal essence in their makeup.

[Ifni]

The Empyrean's gaze swings toward the east, as if drawn by an invisible thread. Peculiar... she'd only half-expected that to work, and it felt different to the usual whispers; no cryptic insane gibbering, just an odd inner awareness, guiding her attention. (Behind her eyes, the indistinct shape of a vision: a floating mountain, a shadow on the land.) In any case, if what she feels is true, he's not in the South, and more likely to have been referring to the Eastern shadowland than anything related to Malfeas.

Diamond musters a weary smile for Axle. "Heh. As for the words at the end..." She does her best to repeat them verbatim, for her fellow Exalt's benefit. "The mask is still warm, but I'll put it away for now; no need to draw more attention than necessary. It doesn't seem to be doing anything right now, but an unexpected anima flare in the middle of Chiaroscuro might lead to a little more excitement than I'd prefer."

"I guess I should check the earrings, and better to do it here than out in the open, in case something happens. Can you see, does it look like they would come off easily, or did whoever put them there not want me to take them off?" She holds out her staff to Axle. "Also, you want to hold this for me while I experiment?"

[Brontes]

Axle stands to attention and grabs her staff in one swift motion. He lifts his hair from his good eye to better view the earrings.

[Orosboru]

The earrings chime a little, but otherwise do nothing. You think that a small diagnostic was done, but without greater knowledge you don't know what exactly it does.

They also, uh, make her look... average. Not too bland, not too pretty or ugly, but Broken Axle notices that she could hide in a crowd.

[Myllinnia]

Titania doesn't give much thought to the chaos that was growing nearby. Shaking her head at the sadness it was bringing though only made her desire to make Ail'Katar that much better. Still as she was about to retreat back into the inn and drink she noticed one of those from that strange dream. What was his name? Shrugging slightly she waved quickly to Thousandfold Iris trying to subtly get his attention.

Trouble was rearing its head, Chiaroscuro may burn. And that was something she was really wanting to not be a part of. As the wind blew gently over her she broadened her wave.

[Ifni]

A whisper of Essence, extended very tentatively into the earrings... Diamond remembers Sabria's warnings, before she tried to attune to her armor for the first time. But there is no anima flare, no strange surge of emotion, no sense of warning from the strands of starmetal.

She shrugs. "Well, I can't tell what they do - could you discern anything? - but they seem innocuous enough. Thanks." She reaches out to retrieve her staff from Axle. "I'm ready to go, then, if you are."

[Brontes]

Axle tilts his head slightly, his mouth in a blank position. A moment passes while he hands over the staff.

"I don't know, you looked nondescript for a moment, but you've been able to do that since before you had the earrings. Did you do that on purpose now?"

[Ifni]

"Not on purpose, no. So that's interesting. I felt like some kind of... check, diagnostic, was done, but I couldn't tell what it was. Perhaps one of the others will know more." She smiles slightly, though she looks weary. "In any case, they don't seem likely to explode or induce spectacular anima displays. Could be a lot worse."

She moves toward the door of the manse, with a last regretful look back at the mirror that hides the hidden compartment. But the letters should be safe here, and she'd never forgive herself if she took them with her and then they were damaged or lost. And she has the picture, and the mask, and a name.

"Let's go find the others, then? We can leave a marker outside, as you said before. I'd... like to return here, later." Shading her eyes against the sunlight, she takes a breath, squares her shoulders, and steps out of the manse.

[Brontes]

Axle follows suit, stepping outside the door and no further. His eyes dart around, trying to take in everything that he could use as a landmark for this location, and trying to find inconspicuous areas that he could mark.

Since we're not in battle/social combat this isn't a flurry.
Perception and Awareness to pick out 'landmarks':
[roll0]
Survival and Intelligence to place it in memory and make a mental map of sorts
[roll1]
Perception and Awareness to pick out a good place to mark the manse's location
[roll2]
If any of these combinations are no good, I'll roll a different set in the OOC topic.
Axle looks away for a moment, "I guess it's silly, but I felt kind I was snooping back there. Bad enough I did this once already elsewhere, I don't want this to be a trend."

[Ifni]

"You did this kind of thing once already elsewhere?" Diamond's eyes brighten briefly with amusement, despite the exhaustion still plain on her face. "A story for another time, perhaps."

She adjusts her headscarf, and pulls the light dust veil across her face. "It's fine, Axle. And no, I don't think it's silly - it's good of you, to respect your friends' privacy. But you didn't seek it out, and I don't mind you knowing." She gives a half-shrug, and looks back out at the glass spires, trying to gauge the best path toward the city. A moment later she speaks again, quietly, "I probably won't tell the others everything, though, unless I think they'll need the information. As you said - it seems mostly personal."

[Brontes]

Axle nods, "Alright, but I owe you a story or something in return. But I can save that for later, not sure what I'm comfortable telling you."

In the open air, Axle stretches a little before jogging down the path a ways, "Finally able to run around like I like. It was getting stifling in there, having to stay in one place."

He turns around to get a better look at the manse or at least where the manse was or would be.

[Orosboru]

In the distance, you can see the rioting city, plumes of flame bursting into a explosive dance of reds and oranges. Firedust. Dangerous, in a city with so much. Whatever the circumstances of your coming, you certainly have been dropped into the action.

A solemn young tree guards the exterior, a piece of lapis lazuli the focus of the essence of this manse. It shrouds the area in a mysterious field, but it seems to recognize you two as friendly. It hums quietly in the background. Axle landmarks himself, feeling the distinct feel of the essence and the towering trees around him.

[Ifni]

Diamond looks up at the trees with a wondering smile. It's been a long time since she's seen plants so large and healthy; even at the oases, the trees tend to be spindly, hardy things, adapted to make the most efficient possible use of water. Trees like these aren't efficient, in the deep desert... but they are beautiful.

She reaches out to gently brush the piece of lapis lazuli with one finger, a feather-light touch acknowledging its beauty and the welcome she senses in the air. It seems akin to that sense of belonging she felt when she first put on the mask, although not nearly so overpowering. Such an unfamiliar sweetness.

Her smile fades as she looks at the city. "This place is such an oasis of peace... but over there, it doesn't look so good. We'd better find the others before the inn we're meeting at burns down. I wonder what's happening?"

Diamond will follow Axle's lead in assessing the area for landmarks:
Perception + Awareness [roll0].

By "focus of the essence of this manse" - do we sense that the lapis lazuli is the hearthstone, or does it just seem like a geomantic anchor for the protective field? Diamond knows a little about manses, as she's attuned to one herself.

[Indivisible]

Titania doesn't give much thought to the chaos that was growing nearby. Shaking her head at the sadness it was bringing though only made her desire to make Ail'Katar that much better. Still as she was about to retreat back into the inn and drink she noticed one of those from that strange dream. What was his name? Shrugging slightly she waved quickly to Thousandfold Iris trying to subtly get his attention.

Trouble was rearing its head, Chiaroscuro may burn. And that was something she was really wanting to not be a part of. As the wind blew gently over her she broadened her wave.

Thousandfold Iris was trying to find the inn that the dram people had agreed upon, but was having little luck. He was tempted to use magic to find the way, but after the effect he had had on the crowd, he wanted to be far away before he used any essence. He did not want anyone to come to any conclusions about his involvement with the riot. It's not like he started the riots or anything, just armed it. Accidently.

Still, he was tired and his feet were sore and this city was so BIG and full of sights and sounds. His neck ached from turning to look at the sights so often. At the moment he was looking for an inn, and anyone noticing him. Or waving at him? Oh! She was in the dream! What was her name again?


"It's so nice to meet you! I am Thousandfold Iris, or Sand, as you prefer. How are you today? I hope that your situation has no degraded since Calibration."

[Brontes]

"Oh, wow, that looks like it could be trouble. Normally, Rigan would come in at this point and fix things, well, actually she'd be doing things that would somehow indirectly prevent this from happening."

Axle puts his hand under his chin and tilts his head slightly.

"I'm sorry, I lost track of myself, the point is we should probably find the others in case we want to handle this."

[Ifni]

Diamond nods to Axle. "If you think you have enough landmarks memorized to find your way back here, let's get moving, then. You said you liked to run?" That half-smile on her face, that raised eyebrow - it almost looks like she's trying for camaraderie and friendly challenge, albeit rather tentatively, as if they're not expressions she's accustomed to.

She begins to walk toward the burning city, her stride rapidly lengthening into a fast, ground-eating lope, the strange earrings chiming in melodious rhythm with her light footsteps. She glances at her companion - if he takes off at a run, she'll be right behind him.

Well, she has Dex 5 and Stamina 4, so can probably keep up with Axle for a little while. He can be the pathfinder with all those Athletics dots, though :smallsmile:
And oh! It suddenly occurred to me why Adorjan would love hate Axle. Ifni is slow on the uptake :smallwink:

[Brontes]

"Oh ho ho," Axle chuckles, "Love running! The challenge of it all, surpassing all obstacles and threats! The sweet caress of air as you take off, shielding you against all worries!"

Axle's little speech is cut off as he catches Diamond take off ahead of him. He stutters a moment, then slowly he grins.

And he's soon after her, moving like a wheel down a hill. His gaze is shifting constantly: The height of rooftops and neighboring buildings, incoming obstacles to jump or slide over, density of buildings, crowds. He takes everything in as best he can to find the route of least resistance to their destination...and victory.

"Think you can beat me?" his grin is wider now, "I do this for a living."

My dash can cover 10 yards (Dex 5+6 minus 1 mobility penalty)
I'm going to flurry an Awareness + Wits action to help navigate past incoming obstacles. That's a -3 multiple action penalty and a Wits + Awareness of 7 so 4 dice.
[roll0]

[Orosboru]

Broken Axle starts to go forward, striding after Diamond when a cleverly-hidden rock hits him in the ankle. He falls straight forward, avoiding injury but knocking out any momentum that he might have had. A sharp cracking sound is heard as soon as you fall on the ground. Your ankle hurts... a lot.

That'd teach you to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time.

[Brontes]

"..." Axle tries his best, but ultimately yells something that is, once more, intranscribable. Though few locals could speak the languages he knew, he was sure he saw a woman cover her son's ears.

He tries to assess the damage as best as he is able.

"Please just be sprained." he utters continuously.

[Ifni]

Diamond grins beneath her face-veil at Axle's challenge. Ulterior motives aside, it is good to run freely, to delight in the speed and endurance of her body. And this camaraderie thing, it seems... strangely easier than she had expected.

Enough despair. I hear you, patron.

The earrings chime their ethereal music as she gathers up her robes and takes a long graceful bound forward - only to stop abruptly at the crunch and... word... from behind her. She spins around, and darts quickly back to the other Nocturnal.

She drops to one knee beside him and murmurs in muted Old Realm, "Are you okay? Where does it hurt? Ankle? Knee?" At least he's talking, sort of.

[Brontes]

Axle sputters a bit, "I...I think it's my ankle." He fumbles awkwardly at his boot in an attempt to take it off, ignoring the painful stinging in his eye.

"Gods, I hope it's nothing serious. I don't need this now."

[Ifni]

"Don't yank it off. Here, let me help." Diamond helps Axle carefully remove the boot, then probes gently at the affected ankle, feeling for the signs of a break or sprain.

Before I roll, I note that I have 10 dice on this, which is enough to take the auto-succeed option on difficulty-2 rolls that aren't dramatically important. I suppose I should actually roll given that it's Axle rather than an extra, but just saying, if Diamond screws up something this basic she will be convinced someone has cursed them :smalltongue:

Perception+Medicine diagnosis check!
[roll0]

EDIT: Okay, Diamond is... not cursed. VERY not cursed. I think she may know Axle's blood type :smallwink:

[Orosboru]

Ah. It's just a ligament, but the bone feels dangerously out of place. With one swift motion, you click the limb back into place. She does it so quickly and with enough finesse that it only hurts for a moment. It feels... okay, now. Perhaps a more detailed examination needs to be done later, but she's done it pretty well.

Your earrings jingle, and you feel your eyes drying up. It quickly goes away after you blink a couple of times.

[Ifni]

"There you go. Nothing too serious. How good is the ankle support on your boots? If they're well-fitted enough, they'll probably do for now, else we should bind the ankle before you put your boot back on." Once that is resolved, she stands up, and offers her hand to Axle. "Be careful when you first put weight on it, and let me know how it feels."

She touches one eyelid absently, surprised by the sensation. But nothing else seems to be wrong. No Essence invoked here, and yet the earrings reacted? Curious.

[Brontes]

"Well, they're designed for week-long trips and the like, so I guess they're good for when you've worked them to death. Not sure how they handle injuries."

He grabs Diamond's hand and tries to get up as gingerly as possible.

"Anyway, I should be fine or at least not too bad. I didn't stop when I was dying, I'm certainly not going to be beaten by a bad ankle."

He pauses a moment and smiles weakly, "True story."

[Ifni]

Diamond offers her arm to stabilize Axle. "Want to tell me about it? Not that I'll be offended if you say no, of course. But since we're not racing..." She begins walking again toward the inner part of the city, more slowly this time.

"Actually, first, what languages do you speak? Old Realm's not so common around here, except among scholars. Chiaroscuro's a port city so I don't think you'll get any strange looks for speaking a foreign tongue, and I can translate from Flametongue for you if needed - just wondering if it'll be necessary."

She considers the image they present: a veiled Southern woman on the arm of an obviously foreign man. But it's Chiaroscuro, and they're clearly not Delzahn, it shouldn't cause problems... and it looks like most people in the city have more to worry about at the moment, anyway.

[Brontes]

"Want to tell me about it? Not that I'll be offended if you say no, of course. But since we're not racing..."

"Well, I'll give you the basics, but nothing too detailed. You can ask our mutual friend about it that you want, he seems to know somehow."

Axle takes the offered arm, "Old Realm and Rivertongue are the only languages I know." he admits, "I spent my time on the way here learning to ride animals and such instead of Firetongue. I was kind of hoping that we'd just take a magic horse or something to get here."

He sighs, "Anyway, while the village I was living in was attacked, I had been sent to deliver the news to a village neighboring a military outpost. The invader in question sent ahead a small force to intercept any messengers. I had a few scraps with them, but otherwise, I lost them going through the forest. Save a single archer, who got me good."

Axle pulls his hair out of his face to better display the damage, "Nicked me near the eye, causing this, and at least one-two wounds that would eventually kill me. Anyway, things get blurry after that, I was out of it for awhile before I got back up and continued to make my way to the village and collapsed when I got there. Rigan patched me up pretty good, though."

[Ifni]

Diamond winces at the sight of his damaged eye. "That looks like it was painful. I'm sorry. But all right, duly noted: do not get between Axle and the swift completion of his appointed duty." She smiles at him.

After a moment of silent walking she asks quietly, looking down the street rather than directly at Axle, "Did the reinforcements get back to your village in time?" The question seems likely to be safe; Axle hasn't shown any signs of bearing that sort of guilt. But still she hesitates a little as she asks it.

[Brontes]

Axle fumbles for the words, "Technically, no, our villages tend to be a day or two away from each other, so they would have some time to do what they like. That I was shot hours away from the other village is the only reason I'm here."

He shrugs, "Oddly enough, though, most casualties were military, and the civilians were largely unharmed. Their lord is oddly principled from what I could gather, but otherwise he is quite cold and ruthless."

[Ifni]

Diamond nods. "Not so bad, then... I'm glad. Here in the South, at least in the conflicts I've seen, noncombatants left alive usually end up as slaves." Her voice is flat, not betraying much emotion.

She glances around the deserted street. "It looks like whatever's going on up ahead is bad enough to drive people indoors. I guess we could try to skirt around the center of the city, to reach the docks - or we could just keep walking in this direction until we find out what's going on. What do you think?"

She tests the balance of her staff, the dark lengths of metal hissing faintly as they pass through the air. A foreign man, still limping a little, and a woman; to some, they might look like easy prey. She eyes the alleys and rooftops warily, watching for the telltale glint of light on metal, listening for the sounds of breathing or the tread of footsteps. Not that she is seriously afraid of random muggers, of course, but it would be an inconvenience. On the other hand, it would at least give them someone to ask about the fires up ahead...

[Brontes]

"We can find out what's happening after we contact the others. I'd rather not get in a scuffle after hurting myself."

[Ifni]

"I suspect anyone here who could threaten us will have other things on their mind, but as you wish." Diamond glances up at the sun, orienting herself as she considers the direction and distance they have walked. "Titania said the Twilight Jade Eclipse was near the docks, so let's head that way - it's toward the sea and should let us avoid the center of town. We can cut back toward the main docks later; if we get lost, at worst we can just follow the shoreline."

"If we find the inn and they're not there, well, I may still be able to find them. But let's try mundane methods first."

Diamond grips her staff more tightly as they approach closer to the location of the fiery blasts, and adjusts the black draping covering her shield. It is her preference to go unnoticed, to glide unseen through the world until she chooses to intervene, but Axle would presumably have used such abilities already, if he had them.

It feels very strange to walk the streets of Chiaroscuro in solitude and silence. When she had last visited here, the streets had been thronged with people, and the noise of a thousand tangling conversations in all the languages of Creation had filled the air.

Firedust explosions... an accident? A riot? A rebellion? An invasion? Surely Sabria would have warned her if she was walking into a war zone. Then again, maybe she thought I could handle it.

She searches for another topic of conversation, even as her eyes scan the rooftops and alleys in a swift, practiced pattern.

"So, Rigan. I guess you don't know where she is now, since you don't remember what happened... but I'd really like to meet her sometime, if only to speak with another Exalted healer. Would you tell me about her? Nothing private, of course," she adds hurriedly.

[Brontes]

"Hmmm," Axle thinks slowly, "Rigan patched me up after that encounter, and I Exalted a little after that. She hasn't been at it much longer than me, I'd say two years about, but she's taken to it a lot better than I have and taught me most of what I know or cared to learn from her. She's not from the same place I'm from, but she treats the kingdom like home and she coordinates a lot of her efforts into strengthening it. I've asked a couple of times about her old home and circumstances, but I only get generic answers."

"Anyway," he continues, "Rigan changes with her circumstances, though she's usually pretty cheeky in all of them. With me she's kind of like an older sister who can't fully see you as an adult, but then you've never really tried to prove her wrong. I will guarantee you, that if I ever introduced you to her, she would go out of her way to embarrass me. I can almost imagine it now."

Axle exaggerates a saccharine tone "Oh, Axle, you've finally made a friend. That is so adorable."

Axle stops and blinks a moment, "D..Did I say that out loud?"

[Myllinnia]

"It's so nice to meet you! I am Thousandfold Iris, or Sand, as you prefer. How are you today? I hope that your situation has no degraded since Calibration."

Titania gave Thousandfold Iris a bow and motioned him inside taking a seat and playing her drink. Quickly she orders another for Iris.

"Oh well it was fine until recently. I had forgotten that passions run hot in the South." She returns to her seat, perhaps she would wait for the whole thing to blow over. Hopefully the rioting would not return to this area. "I am Titania, I don't suppose you noticed the others on your way here?"

[Indivisible]

Titania gave Thousandfold Iris a bow and motioned him inside taking a seat and playing her drink. Quickly she orders another for Iris.

"Oh well it was fine until recently. I had forgotten that passions run hot in the South." She returns to her seat, perhaps she would wait for the whole thing to blow over. Hopefully the rioting would not return to this area. "I am Titania, I don't suppose you noticed the others on your way here?"

"Thank you. Oh does this happen often then?" Thousandfold Iris laughs nervously. "I have to admit that I was so distracted by the crowds and the unfamiliarity of a new city that I barely saw my own feet. I think I've been going in circles all day. Hopefully the others won't get as lost as I did."

[Ifni]

Diamond smiles at Axle's description of Rigan. "I never had a sister, but that sounds... nice, all in all. Although I can imagine it could be frustrating." She thinks she does a fairly good job at suppressing the note of envy in her voice.

It seems that she has remembered the street plan of Chiaroscuro correctly; she can smell and hear the sea now, and around the next corner, the great docks open up before them. Still strangely quiet, but it doesn't look like a sea invasion, at least. Diamond silently notes the damage to some of the buildings: riots?

In any case, if rioters have been here, they seem to have moved on. She strides quickly onward, looking for the sign of the Twilight Jade Eclipse. "Axle, I don't know where this place is exactly, so we should both keep an eye out. When we find it, perhaps I should go in first, and just make sure we don't have an unexpected welcoming party waiting for us? I have some Charms to make myself unnoticed and invisible."

At least, with no people around, it should be easy to spot anyone tailing them, or keeping an eye on the meeting place.

Perception+Awareness paranoia check :smallwink: (looking for people following us, or people watching the inn, when we find it - also keeping an eye out for the inn itself)
[roll0]
EDIT: 6 sux. Twitchy paranoid Diamond :smallwink:

Trying to leave some room in case Brontes wants to do something else before meeting with the others :smallsmile:

[Orosboru]

The cafe is completely empty; through the open air awnings, the only ones that still linger are the curious people that resemble the ones you saw in your dream. Curious. You haven't spotted anyone trying to tail you, but that could mean that they have evaded your senses, and are truly a capable enemy!

...nah, it's just you.

[Ifni]

It really doesn't look like a trap. Huh. Possibly the others were smart enough not to try taking a shortcut through Malfeas and/or Yu-Shan, hmm?

Diamond glances around one last time, waves Axle forward, and slips through the doorway into the cafe.

"Titania? Sand?" She extends her hand to the other Nocturnals in greetings, a shy smile lighting her scarred face.

[Brontes]

Axle takes a seat with the others, his gaze, if one could find it through his maze of hair, was trying to find Diamond's. He had no idea how to ask her about what she wanted to do and remain discreet. Should they tell them about their misadventure? Wait it out? He could only hope she would understand what he was trying to do, or otherwise discern what she wanted to do from the conversation.

"Titania, Sand," he nods to the other two before indicating himself, "Broken Axle."

[Myllinnia]

Titania smiles, "Why hello!" She gives a glance around, "We're missing one other. Do you think he made it to the city safely? I hope the city's issues have driven him away." She sighs after a moment and leans back looking to the window, "I do wonder what the heck happened to get them all up in an uproar."

Titania smiles warmly, finally people she could talk to, maybe even relate with, "But first, how has you've all been? It certainly couldn't have been easy getting here from where you all came from." She motions to Iris and Axel, both of whom she had remembered were not even in the Southern Direction when she had met them in the dream.

[Ifni]

Diamond takes a seat with her back to the wall, where she can see all the entrances to the room. When Titania mentions the city's "issues", she nods.

"We saw explosions on the way here... do you know anything about what's going on? We didn't see anyone in the streets, or I would have asked someone - everyone seemed to have retreated into their houses and barred the doors and windows."

She notices Axle trying to catch her gaze. The frantic wiggling of his eyebrows suggests he's looking for guidance. From her? Surely they can trust Titania and Sand; they have the same incentive to keep their strange Exaltations secret, and to understand the mysteries of the Calibration dream. Although, of course, they might also have other unknown loyalties.

"I've been well, thank you. More or less, anyway. There were some, well, complications on the trip here." She shrugs one shoulder. "The details can wait, for the moment, but there is information we should share with you, when time permits." She smiles at Sand. "I'd like to hear the tale of your journey too; you started in the East, no?"

The Empyrean settles back in her seat. "So Lansatura hasn't shown up yet?" A slight unhappy frown crosses her veiled features. "A pity. I'd hoped to consult with her. Do you think it's safe to remain here in the city?" She looks questioningly at Titania.

[Brontes]

"I've had similar problems," Axle says, "It's a long story, parts of which are complicated. I'll tell you about it at some point."

Axle scans the area for a moment, checking to see if anyone else was there.

"I'd like to know more myself about Chiaro's predicament," he chimes in, "Someone needs to help. At least do damage control, right?"

[Ifni]

Diamond nods. "I was very surprised to see the city shut down to this degree. I'd imagined the Delzahn would crack down quickly on anything that interfered with trade - unless it was plague, or something of the sort." She tenses for a moment - that hypothesis at first sounds alarmingly plausible, it wouldn't be the first time parts of a city had been burned as a desperate quarantine measure - but if it was plague, surely Titania and Sand wouldn't be sitting here so calmly.

She looks at the Easterners. "Chiaroscuro is a trade hub for the whole South. Unrest here could have quite wide-reaching consequences." She adds more quietly, "Not that some of the aspects of the current system couldn't do with some shaking up."

[Indivisible]

"Well, the near East anyway, to the South of Sijan. I'm still not sure where that town was. It's not a very exciting story. I wanted to avoid drawing undue supernatural attention after our flashy shared dream, so I joined a series of caravans that were headed in a Chiaroscuro-ish direction. Plenty of people do it for security and companionship, so it's a good way to blend in. You get to meet some interesting people as well."[/COLOR[COLOR="Magenta"]]

"I met a wood spider silk merchant who I'm pretty sure was a god-blooded relative of the spiders. I didn't know that wood spiders made silk, though I guess the rarity would up the price. Everything she was selling was in bolts though, so I wasn't able to sample her wares" Sand looks pretty regretful about that. Wood Spider Silk sounded interesting.

"What do you know about the unrest? The only city of a comparable size that I've lived near is Sijan, and this kind a violence would be unthinkable there. The dead wouldn't stand for it."

Hopefully he didn't do something horrible when he armed the mob. TOO horrible.

[Ifni]

"As I said, Axle and I saw almost literally nothing on our way into the city, just explosions in the distance. Our complications were all earlier, and more, um, esoteric. Did you see more, when you arrived? Is it a rebellion? Riots? You said violence, so I'm guessing it wasn't just a cascading chain of accidents?"

Avoiding drawing undue supernatural attention: yes, in retrospect, that might have been a good idea...

[Myllinnia]

Titania shrugs, "I wasn't paying that much attention. There was shouting, something about poor working conditions." She gives a sigh and leans back, "So ya a bunch of angry people taking out their frustrations somewhere. Chiaroscuro has never been the best with its people, but it never has been this bad before. I admit though that was a few years ago, and last year I wasn't in the position to pay attention."

"Still I believe the city is safe to remain in. As long as we don't draw undue attention, I for one desire to steer clear of the issue."

Titania glances to group, "Did you guys learn anything about the dream? I figure since you all are here it was more than simply a dream anyway."

[Ifni]

Diamond nods slightly to Titania. "As you wish. But I might go into the city center after we're done talking, and see what I can find out. Disruption on this scale seems unusual enough that I wonder if there's someone manipulating events behind the scenes." She glances at Axle. "I'd welcome your help, Axle, but for initial reconnaissance, it might be better if I handle it, since I speak the language and can blend into a Southern crowd more easily."

"As for the dream... well." She glances again around the room, and lowers her voice. "I haven't learned much. One of my contacts thought that the allusion to a 'mother' might refer to ancient primordial powers, and mentioned the names Gaia and Cytherea. I asked about 'Autochthon', but unfortunately they didn't know what the word meant."

"They also mentioned... don't pass this on to anyone else, okay? They have some contacts in the demon realm, in Malfeas. They said that two of the dread Yozis, the Ebon Dragon and the Endless Desert, had met recently to discuss something - they didn't know what. And that the Ebon Dragon was planning an announcement of some kind." She shrugs helplessly. "Not very useful, I know. But combined with the dream, and what Axle and I found later, it seems we've been thrust into, hmm, interesting times."

"Axle, do you want to tell the next part?" As Diamond leans back against the wall, her earrings chime softly, and she abruptly sits back up, glancing from Sand to Titania and back again. "Ah, but I meant to ask that, and now is as good a time as any: do either of you have any knowledge of artifacts? And if so, can you tell anything about these earrings?"

[Brontes]

"I'm not sure what you want me to say," Axle ventured, not sure how to break things, "Sidereals may have found us out. My mentor tried to use her connections to get me through Yu-Shan. Next thing I know I wake up in a manse on Chiaroscuro's outskirts, with no memory of how I got there. And a parting gift, apparently."


He tries his best to discreetly reveal his mark, "Diamond says the mark depicts Adorjan or something like that. Any clue what it does?"

Axle breathes deep.

~Hope I haven't volunteered too much.~

[Ifni]

Diamond nods, "And I woke up in the same manse, also with no memory of what happened after I left for Chiaroscuro. With these earrings." Her glance at Axle approves his conciseness, and his discretion.

"The optimistic interpretation, I suppose, is that we might have an ally of sorts, or at least someone who would rather try to use us than kill us; whoever brought us there, they left us all our possessions and didn't harm us, at least not in any way that we've discovered so far. And as far as I can tell, we weren't followed into the city."

"Furthermore, they left a note for us to find. It looks very much like a Sidereal internal report. A few words have been redacted, but what remains is still quite interesting. Axle, you have the copies?"

Some things are private, and others might lead to questions she doesn't wish to answer. But she feels that Titania and Sand need to know this much for their own safety - and they might have some insight into the mysteries contained in the note, as well. It is slightly worrying that the one person who hasn't shown up yet is the one with the closest ties to Yu-Shan and the Sidereal Exalted.

[Brontes]

Axle rummages through his bag, "Yeah, I brought them with me. Feel free to look through them at your own leisure."

"Anyway," he jumps track, "Even if we don't get involved, we should better understand what's happening here. These things tend to escalate and spread. A nation bordering my kingdom had a peasant revolt in one region. Next thing we know, some dragonblood's ruling it and making a go for us. And Chiaroscuro is a trade hub, right? So it's got better reach and impact."

[Indivisible]

If the group was going to investigate the riots, then it was time for Sand to divulge his part in it. As much as he didn't want to say anything, getting caught withholding information would not be beneficial for group cohesion. This was his first time really meeting them after all, and first impressions were everything.

"I'm afraid that I'm partially involved. While I was wandering the streets I encountered the group of angry workers, but they weren't violent then. One of the guads fired a firewand into the crowd, killing a group of workers. They workers were getting ready to tear apart the guards and the guards had enough firepower to kill all of the workers. It would have been a slaughter. So I tried the 'what if' thing, which stopped the guards from killing the workers. Instead they gave the workers their weapons, and joined them."

Thousandfold Iris draws in a deep breath and sighs.

"As for finding out what caused the riots in the first place, I think I can help. If i can touch someone or something, I can find out information about where they came from, and I'm very good at finding things."

Thousandfold Iris blinks.

"Actually, maybe that would work to find out what happened with you two."

[Ifni]

Diamond's eyebrows go up as Sand recounts his role in the riots, but her eyes are warm, and when she speaks, she doesn't sound disapproving, even a little impressed. She reaches over the table to touch Sand's hand. "I wouldn't be sorry for preventing a massacre, even if it has unintended consequences. Did anyone seem to be leading the workers?"

She leans back against the wall as Sand continues, tucking both hands into her robes. When he's finished, she takes a slow breath before speaking. "That sounds... interesting. How does it work, precisely? Do you read their minds? How much detail do you get? How far back does it go?"

"I'd like to know what happened to me and Axle, but... well. There are also private and personal matters that I'd rather keep private, and not just for myself - I'm a trained healer, and people have trusted me with confidential information."

"Although hmm, you said you could read things as well as people? Maybe you could try on these earrings, or the original of the note?"

[Indivisible]

"There's no reason that I couldn't try both. I have the motes to spare."

Sand pauses again.

"Axle, maybe it would also work on the mark, or the ink which makes up the mark. Is it made of ink? If never tried to use it on an object attached to a person before, let alone a tattoo."

[Ifni]

Diamond nods, once Sand's words are translated. "Try my earrings first, then. The mark is associated with the Silent Wind, and messing with the Yozis... might not be the best idea." She shivers. "I'd like to know anything you can discern from the note, as well - if we could tell anything about who left it there or where it originally came from, then that would be useful. The note mentions a 'return', after all, like our dream. Axle, you still have the original?"

She remembers leaving her tribe, and she didn't have the earrings then: thus, a trace on the earrings shouldn't reveal her people's whereabouts or nature. It might reveal they came from Malfeas, but given Axle's mark, that probably won't lead the others to infer too much about her alliances. And it would be very good to know the earrings' history, if she's going to walk around wearing them.

[Brontes]

Axle stammers for a moment, "With the copies, and the possibility that we were coming back, it didn't occur to me that we'd need the original. Sorry, I didn't think we had that kind of magic."

[Ifni]

"Oh. So we just left the secret Sidereal memo in plain view on the table back there? Um. Well, I guess the manse was pretty well hidden, to anyone who didn't already know where it was... it's probably fine. Better, in a way, since if we'd brought it here, seeking 'information on where it came from' might just give us the manse. Or doesn't it work like that, Sand?"

Despite her words, Diamond glances nervously at the window.

"Perhaps just my earrings for now, then? And then we should decide our next step. It sounds like most of us would like to investigate the riots. Titania, did you have something else in mind? If there are libraries or sages around, maybe we could try to learn more about some of the names in the note, or from our dream - but the riots might make that more difficult. Axle or I could show you and Sand the way to the manse, if you want to investigate there."

She taps the note. "The Sidereals are trying to prevent some 'return', from this: associated with a Solar, but more than that. I don't suppose any of you recognize the names - of people or geography - mentioned here?"

"I had a strange dream, too, right before I woke up in the manse. Of a world of gears and oil and steam and lightning... it's hard to describe. And at its core -" She waves her hands in frustration. "It was as if the world was itself a mind, ever thinking, a maelstrom of pure ideas. And it was... dying. Ending." She pokes at the note. "The note talks about a great new ending, and a gathering of the Chosen of Endings - I suspect our patron may have been giving me a clue, in his usual enigmatic manner. But I don't know what the dream meant. That imagery isn't something I'd associate with any of the powers that I know about."

For reference, here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11885191&postcount=128) is the note.

[Indivisible]

"I usually just get a flash or two of information. Of course I usually don't get a chance to do it slowly."

Thousandfold Iris closes his eyes and slowly reaches out to touch the curious earrings. He inhales and exhales, inhales and exhales, breathing slowly. He draws in one last breath, and opens his eyes to the past.

Spending 3 personal pool motes to use Whence you came.
Spending 1 willpower to augment roll
result in OOC thread

[Orosboru]

Through the bits and pieces of info, you manage to extract two coherent memories.

"...it's done. I hope you know what you are doing, Sidereal. Even exalted like you find it hard to stay in Malfeas, let alone live it. This will keep the wind away while you work alone."

"Ooh! what do we have here? "Something interesting..."

[Ifni]

Diamond watches Sand curiously as he reaches out to touch her earrings - although 'curiosity' lacks a certain intensity, as a description of the focused stillness of her face. What does he see, what images coiling like smoke around the chiming of the starmetal and the glitter of Essence in the gems?

"Anything interesting?" There is a hint of tension in her voice; her eyes search Sand's face for clues.

[Indivisible]

Sand couldn't breathe. His face was chalk white and he was sweating. He saw something and...

"I think something saw me. That's never happened before! It called me interesting... and some ... Sidereal... was going to live in Malfeas? How do wind chimes keep away the wind? Is that a saying or something because... because..."

Yeah. Pretty freaked out.

[Ifni]

Diamond whistles through her teeth. "Do you know what saw you? Did you get any sense of it?"

"As for your other question, the earrings seemed to chime in response to Axle's marking, when I woke up. Adorjan is called the Silent Wind. Perhaps the sound of the chimes keeps her away." She touches one of the earrings. "These belonged to the Sidereal?"

A Sidereal agent in Malfeas. That seems to fit with some of her earlier guesses. Her hand lingers on the earrings. If the one who'd watched her had spotted her in Malfeas, and recognized her, and given up the artifact that protected them for her benefit... Please be safe. That scenario still didn't quite explain how Axle had gotten his marking, unless perhaps something had pursued them.

"Are you all right, Sand? If you're okay, there's something else you could test for me, if you're willing."

Diamond reaches into the bag and draws out the mask, turning it over in her hands. "One of the private and personal things I mentioned - I wasn't sure whether I wanted to speak of it, but it concerns Sidereals too, and so if we're going to be working together, it might become relevant to all of you, not just me." And I want to know what your magic reveals - and if they do go back to the manse, she'd like to be able to look at the letters again without having to try to keep them secret from her allies.

She looks down at the mask, face still and carefully impassive, as she speaks. "Hidden at the manse where we woke up, we found evidence that someone has been watching me for a long time. Most likely a Sidereal. There were pictures there, of me as a child, and a woman who looked a lot like me, and letters... and this mask." She holds out the mask to Sand. The hunger in her eyes is imperfectly hidden. "Could you see if you can tell anything about its past?" She hears the note of pleading in her voice and turns her face to look out the window, seeming embarrassed. After a moment she adds quietly, "I never knew my parents, you see."

[Indivisible]

Another inhale and exhale.

"I saw two things. Well, heard. The first was someone saying that even Sidereals like you have a hard time staying in Malfeas, let alone living it. The Sidereal was going to be working alone, and well, the chimes. The second was very jumbled. It sounded like a group of people said 'Oh, what do we have here? Something interesting.' Each word was said by a different person, but the words fit together like it was one person. Could it have been a god? Maybe a demon if it was Malfeas? Do only demons live there or gods too? I've never so much as seen a demon, so hell is fairly unfamiliar to me."

Sand listens to Diamond's request and feels his heart ache. As a construct created to tend to affairs his Solar master found too boring, he had never known family, or parents. He reaches out, takes the mask, and concentrates.

[Ifni]

Diamond looks thoughtful, chewing her lip. As Sand takes the mask, her gaze follows it. She glances up for a moment, meeting his eyes; a flicker of surprise crosses her face, at the compassion there. She looks quickly back down at the mask, folding her hands.

"I don't really know much about Malfeas, either." True enough; she'd only been there a couple of times, on quick and quiet visits with Sabria, and she hadn't seen more than the tiniest fraction of the boundless city. The other Exalt hadn't wanted her to draw the attention of the other Green Sun Princes, much less the Yozis. "I'm not a sorcerer myself. There must be non-demons who live there, unless this Sidereal was going to disguise themselves as a demon, but I'm not sure about gods." She tilts her head, birdlike. "I wonder if the 'something interesting' was the earrings, or the Sidereal, or me or Axle, or something else?" She hesitates, and then shakes her head slightly. "While you work on the mask... let me try something different. I still hear our patron's whispers in my mind, maybe I can learn something more from them."

She leans back in her chair, tucking her feet up close to her body and touching her fingertips to the point on her forehead where her caste mark would be. She closes her eyes, and listens.

It's quiet outside. Bright sunlight. Empty streets. No one watching. But in the shadows within, the darkness behind her eyes...

In the gibbering chaos of that wild night, she will never be unwatched, never unheard. Never alone, not any more. Once, that would have terrified her. But now - No more despair.

He wore a crown, once. Where does He linger now? In the place where he was meant to be... prison, and palace, and reverberation of thunder in her thoughts.

I may have all the answers. So, then.

She lets the images, the names, flow out into the darkness. Like tears falling into an endless sea. The manse. The chimes. The mark. The letter. Laughing at entropy. Can time twist upon itself, can the arrow fly both ways? What fragments of a forgotten past are here, shored against His ruins?

Whispers+Perception, probing Nox's ramblings for information relevant to my cause, which right now is trying to figure out what happened :smallwink: Nox cannot tell me about anything that happened outside Fate, so this almost certainly isn't going to reveal anything that happened in Malfeas, but perhaps Diamond can get something related to events in Yu-Shan. She would also happily take any information related to the person/people who dropped her and Axle off at the manse.

If this depends on current events in the Sidereal thread, feel free to delay a response until they're resolved.

Perception+Whispers, successes in excess of 4 are wasted:
[roll0].
EDIT: Heh. 4 sux. Convenient :smallsmile: p.85 of the Nocturnals book has guidance on what that gets me. (It's capped at Whispers rating, hence the "successes in excess of 4 are wasted".)

Willpower: 8/10
Conviction channels: used 1/4

[Brontes]

Watching his companions perform mostly mental magics was about as interesting as watching paint dry. Sighing slightly, he turned to the other companion.

"Titania, was it? You've been here before, what can you tell me about the economy and government?"

He sighs slightly.

~Well, Rigan has been nagging me to take an interest in politics.~

[Myllinnia]

Titania tilts her head slight and thinks a moment. "Chiaroscuro is a Trade hub, extremely strong or was until recently, this riot is going to hamper efforts. The Guild has a few chapter houses or what have you that conducts their part of the trade process. Mostly... Ya know I'm not sure what they prime exports and imports are... the Queen is going to have me sitting in the library for weeks if she hears of this." She sighs, "Regardless apparently firedust, spices, and some other items. Chiaroscuro is run by the Delzahn, so if you want something you generally have to talk with them first. Supposedly the Tri-Kahn is really real, and so he would be the head of all of Chiaroscuro. Except there are so many other factions here its hard to know who is really running what." She leans back and frowns, "Also if you know where to look, you can find the black markets, which in itself is a faction and power all on its own."

[Orosboru]

Sand

At first, you see a endless desert of scorching sands, the sun high in the sky radiant and shining. You get a flash of a great volcano, jewels and gold hidden deep within the earth. You see a masked man lying dead, slain by someone you cannot see. You see a golden king, bloodied and defiant with his radiant lance ready to fight to the end against a unstoppable force.

Tell me, nineteenth echo of the Wind of Change, where did you hide my face? Come. Tell me. I have your heart right here.
I'll never tell you- A scream of pain, which continues.
I have all day here. You, however, have only two, maybe three minutes? It must feel like dying, every time I do this to you. You'd do anything to make it stop.
I... won't... tell... you, you pig!
Strong willed, huh? I guess that's what I get from the progeny of Adorjan, if not in flesh, then in spirit. We'll see about this attitude in a couple of hours, won't we?

The vision ends with a endless scream of pain and agony that seems to go on and on until finally it stops and you are hurled into the real world.

Diamond

So, is it possible, my Twilight brother?
Although it violates every thing that Exaltation stands for, yes, it can be done. The host body, if given a suitable meal of exalted flesh and blood, can trick the exaltation once it is free on your death to another. It doesn't last long, and it usually fries the soul of, of course, I don't know why you would want to. In the Primordial War, only the most desperate of situations would necessitate it. Why would you ask?
Nothing, my brother. Nothing...
So we go to Yu-Shan?
Yes. There's something in the Loom I have to show you...

[Ifni]

Diamond's eyes snap open, staring into the distance. She holds her head in her hands and sits still for a few moments, trying to absorb what she'd just perceived. I suppose I should have known better than to expect that to clarify the situation...

"Okay. More data, but for me at least, it only adds more confusion. I tried to ask about what happened before we showed up in that manse, and got a fragment of conversation." She pauses, arranging her thoughts. "Two voices. The first sounded like a woman, she called the other 'Twilight brother', and said that they were going to Yu-Shan, there was something in 'the Loom' she needed to show him. Isn't Twilight one of the Solar castes? The ones the Immaculates call Unclean?" That's not a good thought; she remembers what Sand said about Solars, back in the Calibration dream.

"Before that, she asked if 'it' was possible. The second voice, the Twilight brother, said yes, and described what sounded like an attempt to make an Exaltation jump to a specific host, when its original holder died. He said that it went against the spirit of Exaltation, and in the Primordial War, it would only have been done in the most desperate situations. That it was short-term and usually fried the soul, and the 'host body' needed to be fed Exalted flesh and blood to make it work." She shivers. "They must be involved, or our patron wouldn't have shown them to me. That... worries me, to say the least, although hopefully their mention of traveling to Yu-Shan was the relevant bit of the conversation, not what came before it."

She looks around the group. "Does any of that mean anything to the rest of you?"

The 'Twilight brother' had used the Primordial War as context. Her patron had rather strongly implied that her fragments of memory were real, and ancient... could other Exalted remember that legendary conflict? He'd mentioned it so casually.

Then again, they'd sounded fairly casual about going to Yu-Shan, too... "Axle, if Rigan got you into Yu-Shan, and it required pulling strings on her part, do you know who can go there freely? I guess gods, and the Sidereals? If the first speaker wanted to show her brother something in Yu-Shan, that suggests she either spent enough time there to notice it, or heard about it from someone who did."

[Brontes]

Axle shrugs, "I don't know who can enter or leave Yu-Shan freely. It's where important gods do business, so between security and politics I didn't think it would be easy to enter. If there are people who can do it freely, Rigan never corrected me on the matter."

Axle leans back in his chair, "Of course, Yu-Shan has been around since history, right? When did that conversation happen?"

[Ifni]

"I couldn't tell, Axle. I tried to seek fragments directly related to how we ended up at the manse, using your mark, the note we found, the manse and the earrings as guideposts. But -" She shakes her head, a sharp staccato motion, causing the earrings to jangle. "The whispering voices are cryptic, and as you know, our patron did not seem one for direct answers."

She exhales softly, and rubs her forehead. "This seems like a dead end, for now. Much as I hate not knowing what happened, especially when every new piece of information we get points to more Exalts and powers who might have been involved... if we can't learn anything more with the resources we have, I think we should focus on the situation here in Chiaroscuro. Do you agree?"

She looks back over at Sand, reaching out for the mask, and belatedly notices his continued concentration. "Unless..." Her voice trails off and she goes quiet, waiting to see what Sand has discerned, her expression a mixture of hope and trepidation.

[Indivisible]

"It's not good, especially in light of the consumption of human flesh and blood you discovered. I saw a desert that seemed to go on forever, with a beautiful and terrible sun overhead. Also a volcano filled with gemstones and gold. There was a dead man wearing a mask, and a king. I knew he was a king somehow, and he golden and beautiful, fighting with his shining spear against a foe he couldn't beat.

"Then there was this... cruel voice. And they were torturing someone they called the nineteenth echo of the Wind of Change. Because they couldn't find their face? The person they were torturing was a child of Adorjan, that silent wind you were talking about. The torturer said that the victim was a child in spirit, not flesh. There was so much screaming. I thought it would never stop."

"What do you think that meant, a child in spirit but not flesh? Adopted children? Um, do you think we are... Nox's spiritual children? Mighty Raiton spoke as if he had a connection to the Unconquered Sun, and we seem to have a similar relationship to Nox. Does the ...Silent Wind... have her champions?"

[Ifni]

"A volcano of gemstones and gold... that might be Gem, perhaps. It's a city in the far south, built into an extinct volcano, and it's a center of the gemstone trade. It's on the edge of the great deserts, too. A beautiful and terrible sun... was there something unusual about it? Or just that it seemed very bright? It's easy to become sun-blinded in the desert, certainly." Please, please don't say it was green...

"As I said earlier, we found letters with the mask; I didn't have time to read through them all, but in one I did look at, the writer implied she was from the South - or from somewhere hot, at least. She was in the East at the time she wrote the letter though - I don't suppose the name 'Esmerelda' means anything to you? Her letter said she was in the kingdom of Aretevelio, teaching the son of the king - I wonder if that was the king you saw? Axle said Aretevelio was destroyed by the Fair Folk a few years ago."

"I don't know what the masked man might mean, unless his mask was the 'face' the cruel voice was talking about? As for the last... a spiritual child of one of the Yozis could just mean a demon they had created. Hmm." She ponders, and then glances sharply at Sand. "Who is Mighty Raiton? I don't think you've mentioned him before."

She reaches out to take the mask back from Sand, running her hand gently over its warm surface.

[Indivisible]

Sand hands the mask back to Diamond as quickly as he can without seeming overly hasty. The screaming was still echoing in his ears. That person was dead. Horribly dead.

"I don't think there was anything special about the sun. It just seemed especially dangerous, though that could have been the golden figure. That charm can be both very clear and very vague about details at the same time. We're in the South right now, so how close are we to this Gem? I mean, I've never heard of an Esmerelda or Aretevelo, or that much outside Sijan's commercial influence."

He bit his lip.

"I think the mask being the face is very likely. Do you know what the mask does? I'm not so sure about the spiritual child being a demon though. I don't know a lot about demons, but wouldn't a demon created by another just be called a child, not a spiritual child? And uh, the person who was screaming sounded human to me. Don't demons have different voices than humans?"

Ah, she wants to know who Mighty Raiton is. Sand knows that while he is excellent at uncovering the truth, he is terrible at concealing it. What's the use when he's used to dealing with someone who can detect every lie as it passes your lips. Also, who would make a secretary who is talented at dishonesty? Once again the only option available was to be forthright, as any attempted deception could scuttle this alliance. Thousandfold Iris has had enough of being alone.

"How much do you know about Solars, and what they are capable of?"

[Ifni]

"We're not close to Gem, it's much further south, and west across the desert." Diamond closes her eyes, visualizing the map. "About... two thousand miles or so, at a rough estimate. That's as the raiton flies, it's further by the main trade routes, of course."

She shakes her head as Sand continues, albeit not in disagreement. "I'm sorry, Sand, I just don't know that much about demons. Like I said, I'm not a sorcerer myself. You may very well be right." She glances at Axle and Titania, wondering if either of them will interject.

"The cruel voice, did it sound like a man, or a woman?" Do I really want to know this? "When you say you think the mask was the face... do you mean the masked man, or my mask?" She pulls the mask close to her, running her fingers unconsciously over the too-familiar contours.

"As for what my mask does..." She blows out a breath. "I wish I knew." She grips the mask protectively with both hands. "I tried putting it on and channeling Essence into it, back at the manse. It was rusty when we first found it, but the rust flaked away when I did that, and it became warm. And then I found myself talking to... someone. Axle could only hear my side of the conversation, though." She shakes her head. "Sorry this is so out-of-order. I was eager to see what your magic might reveal - but I think this is the last thing that happened at the manse that might hold useful information." The mishap on the footrace into the city does not need to be shared, in her judgement.

"When I activated the mask, it also made my anima flare up. The effect died down quickly enough, but that's why I'm not wearing the mask: I didn't want to risk any further unexpected displays."

"The person on the other end of the link asked if I had information about Kalshu-Tor, who's supposedly the author of the note we have. He also said I'd hijacked a secure communication line - he seemed as surprised as I was. So I think he might have been a Sidereal, but when I tried to ask him who and what he was, the link was cut off, by... several other voices. One of them sounded like our patron, I didn't recognize the others. Although the last one said..." She shivers, and forces the words out past a lump in her throat, a strange chill running through her blood, "The game has begun, Saturn." The last word is the hardest; she feels better after getting it out. "We were speaking Flametongue for most of the conversation, but the voices at the end were in Old Realm."

She shrugs, and looks up from the mask to meet Sand and Titania's eyes. "But that seems to have been a one-off occurrence; I tried putting the mask back on afterward, and nothing like that happened. So I'm not sure it tells us much. I didn't really have time to learn anything useful."

She quiets and leans forward as she listens to Sand's last question, then sits back, a speculative look on her face.

"Solars? Very little. When I was younger, I was taught to flee if I saw the signs of the Anathema, and I could probably still recognize their caste marks - but nobody saw the need to tell me precisely what they could do, apart from killing mortals who got in their way with extreme efficiency. Aside from that, only what you said at Calibration, that they had mind-control magic and we should be wary of them." She pauses, and says gently, "I gather you've had a close encounter with one?"

[Brontes]

Axle's gaze once more drifts toward Titania, longterm mystery taking lower priority to current events. His mind idly drifting back to the many times Rigan brought him along to a political function or social gathering. Usually followed by a lecture related to said event

Best to double check with his more socially adept companions, too.

"So, riots...any common factors? Like people involved or motivation for doing it?"

~Has Rigan ever talked about it? She's usually trying to teach me something about government and society and crap, and rioting was an issue before the border skirmish. Hmm.~

[Indivisible]

Sand smiled, a little bitterly.

"You could say that. He created me. This is not a metaphor. Mighty Raiton is a Solar of the Dawn caste, warriors without peer. He's an archer, to be specific, but he also has this really big sword. I mean really really big. He considers himself a warrior-scholar, and he likes to study something he calls the First age."

He shivered.

"Solars gain power from controlling social groups, but actually attending to the day to day affairs of business kept him from his tomb raiding. However, Solars also possess the ability to bring order to chaos, and form to something he called the Wyld. So he created me, a mortal secretary who would keep his textile business running in his absence. That way he could have his adventures and come home whenever he needed essence."

Sand is visibly having difficulty restraining himself from slipping into an expression and tone of awe and admiration.

"I was completely loyal to him. How could I not be? He was so perfect, so grand so..." Sand blinks and reorients himself. "Disobedience was literally unthinkable. I... had... to be loyal. Mainly I took care of the day to day boring accounting stuff and he would show up to actually have contact with other clients. They always gave him what he wanted. He was so perfect."

"I... changed... when what I now know to be a Lunar attacked me on my way to a meeting with Mighty Raiton, because he didn't want to leave his personal library to come to his office. I think he wanted to show me something but I don't know what. He was also showing me these incredible finds from the tombs he raided, or rare books he had found. Anyway, when the Lunar sank his fist into my chest and ripped out my heart, I was standing up from behind some refuse in the alley, like I had been there all along."

Sand cringed at the memory.

"Anyway, my mind was clearer than it had ever been before, and as I left Arjan I saw a golden raiton erupt over the city. I'm more than alright with travelling farther west."

[Orosboru]

HordeCommander5

Nightmares.

More accurately, memories, but they might as well be. No figment of your imagination could compare with the atrocities of your remembered form. Your hands, her hands. Your laugh, her laughter. All near the person you love the most, the one you were made for, who your soul cleaves for. It is something that cannot be destroyed by any force in the world. It is pure. It is a exalted feeling. It is the memory of utter ecstasy as you drink deeply into the heart's blood, your sacred act parodied in the blood of innocents.

And they whisper. You know who they are. Some foul art or charm in your past has bound you to his nameless masters, and you can hear their distant calls. A couple of nights ago, the earth-shattering roars of lucidity from them nearly drove you mad with delirium. Ever since, it has been getting worse and worse and worse-

But it stopped.

There is a man, standing in the sunlight, not looking at the fires and chaos of the city, standing there... and watching you as you taste the first moments of noon. Watching you awaken.

[X15lm204]

It's nice, isn't it. Like in the snow. Or the ashes.
Quiet. For the first time in seasons Windblown Nepri wakes without his hands clamped over his ears. It's such a relief, such a sweet release, that for a moment he can think of nothing else, and the whole world seems as silent as his mind. He basks in silence loud enough to brighten yesterday.
Get up. No time to waste on pleasure.
Are you done? Had enough of the games?
Never, dear, pretty boy. But there's a time and a place, and things are getting interesting.
It can't last forever, of course. A languid stretch brings with it awareness of the noonday sun, of the comfortable carpet he lies on, of the man gawking at the strange sleeping northerner, of the sounds and smells of the city of glass- the city-
Do you like the bed? You know I aim to please.
I went to sleep outside the city.
What? Did you really want to sleep in the sand?
...No time to worry about it now. Senses unexamined rush forth: smoke, acrid and foul, shouts intermixed with screams. And a man, gawking at the strange sleeping northerner even as the city burned... Or melted..?
What are you waiting for? Get up and say hello!
...This can't be good.
Hahaha. Little boy, why so interested only in the boring? Hahahahaha!
Nepri rises, watching the man warily (rubbing his fingers together and running his tongue over his teeth to check for claws and teeth, don't want to make that mistake again) and listening carefully for the sounds of chaos.
You are not sitting this one out if I have anything to say about it, brat.
Perception+Awareness check to listen to the sounds of rioting, primarily trying to judge its distant from him.
[roll0]

[Myllinnia]

The talk among the others was, the least to say, confusing. But she supposed it might be that way when listening to the whispers. Titania had not used her powers, she had made it a point to not do anything major with it inside the city. Still, she was thankful for Axel and his interest in the city's unusual affairs, the major mystical issues she would happily let them work with.

"Riots, some, but the city has its rules and its men to defend it from such things. Its not common for riots, but its not too uncommon either. While Chiaroscuro is a fine trading city, it lacks a fair and reasoned way to rule its people. Workers complaining about things will likely happen no matter where they are, but riots would less if the people understood one another."

Titania lowers her eyes after a moment. "Granted everything I know is either a few months old at the earliest and years out of date in the latest."

[Brontes]

Axle frowns, "So it's a labor dispute we're dealing with? What kind of work do they do down here? I can't imagine jobs in a trading hub are as intensive as farming or mining. I guess travel could be a concern, or maybe their jobs aren't meeting basic needs. I don't know, barter was our primary means of getting stuff. Chiaroscuro uses money, though, right?"

[Ifni]

Diamond reaches out to touch Sand's hand in wordless sympathy, when his account is translated for her. Gods of sand and ash, and I thought my childhood was bad. The people who'd raised her might not have cared very much about what she wanted, but at least she'd been able to defy them in the privacy of her thoughts, and eventually make those dreams of rebellion real.

She puts the mask back in her bag and curls up again in her chair, waiting for a break in the conversation. I clearly need to learn Riverspeak. Especially since the East seemed to hold secrets relevant to both her past and present. She watches the others' faces as she listens, trying to train her ear to the unfamiliar cadences, to match their facial expressions to the meanings of their translated words. It's been years since she was last in Chiaroscuro; she doesn't expect to have anything to share that Titania doesn't already know.

When silence falls for a moment, she offers quietly, "This has been pleasant, and enlightening, but I feel like there's not much more to be said, with the information we have to hand. I'd like to head into town and see what we can find out."

She nods to Axle. "And yes, Chiaroscuro uses silver dinars, mostly."

[Myllinnia]

Titania is aghast at Diamond's suggestion. "You want to go out there? The chances of any of us finding ourselves entangled in that mess are high. I mean I'm sure each of us can take care of each other, but things can get hairy quickly." She folds her hands after a moment and closes her eyes taking a deep breath. "But if you do want to go out there, I'll go with you. No point in sitting here where I will get intoxicated with alcohol while twiddling my thumbs in boredom."

[Brontes]

Axle shifts uncomfortably for a moment before getting out of his seat, "Well, like I said, these problems can spread if you're not careful, especially if another Exalt gets involved. Some light investigation wouldn't hurt at least."

He places a palm on Intervention for a moment, shrugs, and sheathes it again. Instead, he pulls out one of his throwing knives and weighs it before tightening his grip.

"Of course, I'd feel better about this if we had a plan. Rigan says I tend to flail when going in blind."

[Orosboru]

At first, you are startled by its ethereal nature, its ghostly apparition appearing in the slight shadows and hollows of the refuge you have sought.

"We beg a favour, Prince of the Earth." It appears to be a armoured warrior with ghostly chains blowing to some unseen breeze. Its cold steel helm and spiked fists give it a intimidating glare. "We request your assistance, though you be not obliged to do so."

[Ifni]

Diamond nods in agreement with Axle. "If Chiaroscuro went up in flames, it could destabilize much of the South." Not necessarily a bad thing... but whether I want to intervene or not, I need information. "I'd rather not get blindsided by that, when we have a chance to find out what's happening and perhaps avert the worst possible outcomes."

"As for a plan. Well. It's hard when we have so little information. If I were on my own, I'd just make myself unnoticeable and walk into the center of the city, see what I could find out from watching and listening. With four of us... hmm. I guess we should plan to meet back here, if we get separated? If the city gets too dangerous, we can regroup outside the walls instead. Axle, maybe at that copse of trees we came in through? The ones with the arched roots? Near the wall, right after we passed that field with the big reddish boulder?" She continues in this vein for a little longer, trying to give a clear enough description of the land that Titania and Sand could also find the place described.

"I think Sand suggested using his magic to try to read the past of one of the rioters? That sounded like a reasonable idea to me." She eyes her companions. "Then again... we could skirt around to the east rather than heading straight into the center, go by the out-of-towners quarter and the Plaza. Foreigners likely wouldn't get involved in the riots, you all speak the trade tongue, and from the stories I've heard, the Plaza's probably unaffected as well - Grandmother Bright," she makes a small gesture with her hand, "does not deal kindly with those who threaten her domain. So we might be able to learn something there. On the downside, who knows what's happening in the center while we delay?"

Diamond uncurls herself and rises from her chair, slinging her bag across a shoulder and tugging her headscarf forward a little. She goes to lean against the wall near the doorway, idly coiling and uncoiling the black seven-section staff in her hands.

"What do you think?"

[X15lm204]

Hmm. He's dressed for success, at least.
Nepri straightens slowly, his wariness not in the least lessened by the man's spectral mien.
Hear him out, boy.
"You seem to have me at an advantage, sir," he says, looking through his helmet for any glimpse of his face. "I hope you will forgive me if I am not forthcoming with promises until I have been given a great deal more information. My experiences with strange apparitions such as you appear to be do not have a long history of mutual benefit."
You do so love your understatement.
Nepri begins subtly scanning his surroundings for escape routes, just in case. That vendor's stand gets me up to the roofs, but they might only take me so far before reaching those much taller towers...follow the alley behind me to lose him in the maze? I don't know the city well enough...
Pah. You can take one little ghost, kitten. Show some spine.
Any interesting results on that Awareness roll? Also, what language does the ghostly figure address Nepri in?

[Brontes]

"We could check out the safe areas first," Axle agreed, "If anyone knows anything sufficient there, we won't have to go straight into the riots. Then we can figure out what to do from there. I'd start with the Plaza, I guess, if the people there are native to Chiaroscuro."

[Orosboru]

"Forgive me, Prince of the Earth, for my tale is long and insignificant to the likes of you. I come not from your enemies, (which your actions have earned a particular notoriety) but from friends. You have shown skill of slaying, of luck and perseverance that set you apart from mere mortals. You, my prince, are a grand tale in itself." It tries its best to smile. It fails.

"But I am not here to tell you what you already know. Another of your kin once again walks the same path of your predecessor. This princess has torn through the lands of the dead, even venturing into the dread tombs of...." He stops. "They are the sources of your torment, to leave it on a short note. Her name is Silver Claw of the Falling Stars, and like a familiar story, she has fallen in with deathknights. Please. Persuade her away from the path of Oblivion. On her travels, she has lost much, but she continues. She does not heed the words of the Silver Pact. Neither do you, and that is the reason I come to you today.

He edges away from the beams of sunlight. "My time is short. Know that even in your darkest hour, you have friends shining in the darkness. Remember to serve Creation as you always have, Steward of Luna. You will find allies to stand against the Endless Night. He fades away as the sun fully envelopes your room.

Outside, the sound of rioting about two-three blocks away from your current location is gradually getting closer. You can smell the scent of burning buildings, flesh, and flamedust.

[Ifni]

"Of course, just because the people there are less likely to be rioting or their homes are relatively safe, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be going about their normal business," Diamond cautions.

She snaps her wrist, coiling up her seven-section staff, and tucks both hands and weapon inside the voluminous sleeves of her robes.

"But it's a place to begin, and at least we should be able to better map out where the riots are. Shall we go?"

She moves to the door and peers outside, checking for watchers, before stepping into the street. She turns back, looking at the others.

"Oh, and you should know... if I can choose, I can vanish from almost all perception. If I see a chance to learn something quickly and unobtrusively, I may take it. I'll try not to get too far away from the rest of you, and at worst I'll meet you at the Plaza - or wherever we choose to go."

[X15lm204]

Presented as an opportunity, not a favor. Well maneuvered.
With a sigh and gritted teeth, Nepri considers what he has been told. As much as he hates to act on so little information, a chance so save a peer from...them is as close to a sure cause as anything he can think of. In his search, and when he finds this Silver Claw of the Falling Stars, he can discover what he needs to know to persuade her. ...He hopes, at least, since persuasion is not a task he's particularly skilled at.
The specter did pick an especially useless tool for this task, didn't he. I could have had this done in moments - not that I would have, of course.
More frustrating is the fact that he hadn't been given any information as to how to go about finding this woman he is supposed to save. Not a location, anyway - if Nepri knows his stories at all, that urging to find allies and play the hero will be the setup he needs.
Because you love playing the hero.
Which likely means finding this riot and saving the day. And drawing attention to himself. Intentionally.
A pound of silver on the Immaculates, the Pact, and Faffles's men all being there to watch you flail about!
Joy.
I suppose I won't even bother suggesting you leave this moron to her well-earned fate.
With yet another sigh, Nepri climbs to the rooftops in a few short leaps, and sets off - against all his instincts - towards the chaos.

[Orosboru]

A sudden firestorm erupts as a elemental is summoned to the city, one of the sworn defenders of the city. Collateral damage forgotten, whoever is doing this must be increasingly desperate. The sounds of riots turn into screams as flesh warps and melts and clay hardens and explodes.

The firedust stores are not too far from where they are fighting. If they go off...

South of the cafe, and north of the Lunar's current location, it is about three city blocks away.

[Ifni]

Diamond, holding the door for the others, spins around at the sound of the explosion to the south. A very bad word in gutter Varangian escapes her at the sight of the rising cloud of fire and embers.

In rapid-fire Old Realm, she says, "Axle, no time to go to the Plaza, the fighting has come to us. And..." She blinks against the broken memories, seeing the city for a moment as an empty plain - but even if she can't remember where the firedust stores are, if she ever knew, she knows suddenly that they're close. "If that blaze gets to the firedust stores... come on!"

She switches to Flametongue for Titania's benefit, assuming Axle can translate to Riverspeak for Sand, and says hurriedly, "Explosion out here, only a few blocks away, looks like an elemental, I'm worried about the firedust stores - do you know where they are? I'm heading straight for the blaze itself."

Waiting only to see that her words have been understood and relayed, she spins again and takes off down the street, moving as quickly as she can. As she runs, she taps the core of umbral Essence within, that second soul of darkness and whispers.

The night fills empty space, to its depths and heights. In the shelter of His shadow, all perception fails; she has the anonymity, the invisibility, she so long desired, even on this sunlit day of fire.

Of course, that probably won't last long, if she has to fight. But Diamond prefers to choose her own battles.

Dashing! Activating Someone Else's Problem from Personal motes, all Awareness/Investigation checks to perceive Diamond automatically fail unless she does something that offers other characters a +3 or higher situational bonus to detect her. When she thinks the fight is right around the corner, she'll slow down and try to hug the shadows as she approaches the blaze. If needed, she'll augment the existing shadows with her Gemstone of Shadows, which increases the difficulty to spot anyone inside by 2, but she's trying to be subtle, so she won't e.g. create a two-yard-wide blotch of shadow in a well-lit area.

Stealth + Dexterity if needed, but Someone Else's Problem should supersede this: [roll0] = 1 success.

Essence: Personal 20/23 (3 committed to SEP), Peripheral 33/47 (14 committed to artifacts).
Willpower: 8/10.
Conviction channels: 1/4 used.

Active charms: Someone Else's Problem.

[Myllinnia]

Titania frowns and gives an annoyed sigh, "Well I guess that is our cue." She nods to Diamond, "If I remember right they are this way." With that Titania leaves the cafe, not even waiting for the men to follow, and headless of danger she now strides gracefully towards the endangered firedust stores, after all if the stores go up, so will most of this section of Chiaroscuro, maybe all of it.

"Stupid idiots, you'd think one of them would be smart enough not to do this," Titania grumbles angrily. Rioting was one thing, blowing her up was another thing entirely. She'd slap some sense into the idiot's stupid head if she even notices him, gods so help her!