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<blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 5010249" data-attributes="member: 5203"><p>The room was pitch black, though the echoes of their footsteps told them that wherever they were, it was large, and empty. Two caste marks flared to life immediately, filling the room with a dim light.</p><p></p><p> They stood on one end of a large, marble chamber, roughly a hundred feet across and circular in shape. The room was devoid of furnishings or other doorways, other than a staircase against the far wall that curved along the wall to the next floor up. The domed ceiling rose about thirty or forty feet over their heads, and looked like a seamless hemisphere of gold-veined white marble. There were no buttresses or pillars supporting the structure.</p><p></p><p> A large number of human skeletons were strewn about the room; some looked like they were only a few weeks old, others were so ancient that they were little more than dust. The signs of battles were noticeable in the chamber; spatters of dried blood, chips in the marble floors and walls, and dark scorch marks everywhere. Underneath the bodies, Ghost saw that the floor once bore an engraved symbol of the Unconquered Sun embossed in gold, which someone had attempted to chip away or cover with paint long ago.</p><p></p><p> Lear looked carefully around the room, his caste mark pulsing as he concentrated. “I have good news and less fortunate news,” he said. “The good news is that I believe this is a manse. The less fortunate news is that the defenses of this manse appear to be active. Although this likely means that the contents of this building have not been disturbed, it also means we will have to contend with those same defenses.”</p><p></p><p> “What kind of defenses are they?” Ghost asked. </p><p></p><p> “I can detect three types of energy,” Lear said, twisting his monocle as it sat on his eye. “One is Solar, and is the oldest of the three, possibly dating to the manse’s construction. The next bears a Lunar power signature, and is roughly 1,300 years old. The final signature is Terrestrial in nature, and has been here less than a millennium.”</p><p></p><p> “I do not know if this will help,” Ghost said, “but I believe that I once lived here.”</p><p></p><p> “Truly?”</p><p></p><p> “The symbol on the door, the carving of the spider monkey – that is the same form that my anima takes. I have seen it carved in other places where I have been in the past. The spider that overlays it is new to me, however.”</p><p></p><p> Lear thought for a moment. “My research indicates that each Solar often worked in coordination with a particular Lunar. Perhaps the spider is symbolic of your past incarnation’s Lunar counterpart. This may also explain the Lunar energy signature I have detected.”</p><p></p><p> “And the Dragon-Blood magic?”</p><p></p><p> “Perhaps another layer of defense added later. The creation of those energies occurred some time during the Shogunate, predating the Scarlet Empire and the Great Contagion. That would also predate the curse that surrounds Denandsor. It is possible that the Dragon-Bloods who occupied Denandsor at that time were unable to penetrate this manse’s defenses, and so they added their own security to prevent any Anathema from accomplishing what they could not.”</p><p></p><p> “That does not bode well for our chances,” Ghost grimaced.</p><p></p><p> “Perhaps. But many of Denandsor’s automated systems have malfunctioned over the centuries, including some defensive systems. We may be fortunate. However, I believe that this part falls more in your domain than mine.”</p><p></p><p> Ghost looked around the room again. He was hesitant at first, which was not like him. He realized, suddenly, that the omnipresent aura of dread that permeated the city was affecting him more than he realized. Steeling himself, he began to walk slowly across the floor, looking carefully for any signs of movement.</p><p></p><p> About halfway across the chamber, Ghost suddenly felt a slight warming on the foot he had just placed on the floor. Looking down, he saw a tiny disc of light on his ankle, emanating from some unseen spot on the far wall.</p><p></p><p> Ghost jumped backward as he heard a slight grinding sound above, and a beam of white-hot energy shot down from the ceiling, scorching the spot on the floor where he had been standing only a moment before. He felt heat on the back of his head, and caught the smell of burning hair. As he landed, he saw another spot of light on his boot, and immediately sprung away again on one foot, at the same time hooking the toe of his other foot under the rotting ribcage of one of the corpses and flinging in skyward. The second beam struck the corpse, incinerating it in an instant as Ghost leapfrogged away. He ended up back against the wall, his legs stretched out into splits with one foot on the floor and the other on the wall.</p><p></p><p> “I think I have identified the nature of the defenses here,” he said after a while.</p><p></p><p> “Fire lances!” Lear said with excitement. “How very exciting! And so cleverly concealed… they must have been able to construct them much smaller than modern equivalents…” Lear looked over at Ghost, still perched on the wall. “Oh, yes, I suppose we should do something about that.”</p><p></p><p> “I would appreciate it,”” Ghost grumbled.</p><p></p><p> Lear reached into a pocket and withdrew a handful of rubble. He began tossing chunks of broken masonry around the room, striking various points of the floor and walls. Beams of white-hot fire lanced down on several occasions as the pieces crossed the triggering light beams. As he worked, Lear looked carefully around the room through his monocle. Finally, he pocketed the remainder of the rocks.</p><p></p><p> “It appears that the triggering beams only cover the floor, not the walls,” he said. “Unfortunately, the beams appear to be activated on a random pattern, so there is no real way to predict where it is safe to walk. I have also been able to determine that the Essence flows of the room converge near a spot on the staircase, below the fifth stair. I suspect that some sort of control mechanism is hidden there.”</p><p></p><p> Ghost looked across the room, judging the distance. He closed his eyes for a moment, focusing himself, and then suddenly launched himself off the wall. He arced through the air, almost looking like he was flying, until he landed just in front of the stairs, only inches from the hard marble.</p><p></p><p> “Most impressive,” Lear nodded. Ghost had jumped nearly the entire distance across the room.</p><p></p><p> It took several minutes of searching, guided by Lear’s advice, but finally Ghost was able to locate a hidden panel. Opening it, Ghost saw a series of sixteen buttons, labeled in Old Tongue. Staring at the panel, he was about to ask Lear for some advice, when his vision suddenly dimmed. He felt his hand rise, and flash across the buttons, entering a code. When his vision cleared, Ghost saw that the lights in the marble chamber had brightened, and Lear was walking calmly across the room, sidestepping corpses to join the Night caste by the stairs.</p><p></p><p> “I am surprised that you were able to deactivate the defenses so quickly,” Lear said. “How did you decipher the code?”</p><p></p><p> “It was a name,” Ghost said slowly, mentally retracing the movements of his hands. “Revealing Whispers. It seems… familiar, but I cannot place it.”</p><p></p><p> “Neither can I,” Lear admitted. “Perhaps it was your own name in the First Age, or that of your Lunar partner.” Lear cast his glance up the stairs. “Well, shall we see what awaits us upstairs?” With that, Lear turned, and with a cheerful whistle half-ran up the stairs.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">۞</p><p></p><p> Kaliel hefted his weapon and began to walk forward, until he felt a strong hand on his shoulder.</p><p></p><p> “Wait,” Standing Oak said. “We have more pressing concerns elsewhere.”</p><p></p><p> He led Kaliel and Ayama into the trees, with the Zenith keeping a wary eye on the shifting shadowy shapes behind them. After a few minutes, they emerged into a clearing that the all knew immediately was the Sea of Dead Vines. The reason for its name was plain to see; the area was open to the sky, unlike most of the forest they had traversed for weeks. The ground stretched out across roughly two miles, composed of woven dead vines forming a relatively flat patch of ‘ground’. Arrayed across this field was a mass of hundreds of zombies, arranged in a rough formation. At the center of the formation stood a giant suit of armor, eighteen feet in height, composed of bone, black metal, and flesh.</p><p></p><p> “Warstrider,” Kaliel said. “I have seen them in operation before, but none that appear like that.”</p><p></p><p> “It is an Abyssal warstrider,” Ayama said. “Powered by foul necromancy.”</p><p></p><p> A hollow voice rang out from the warstrider, across the parade field. “Commence Field Test Operation Alpha Two.”</p><p></p><p> “That one is mine,” Kaliel said. Again, he felt the hand on his shoulder as he began to step forward.</p><p></p><p> “Wait.”</p><p></p><p> Standing Oak gave out a series of shrill whistles. Within moments, the edges of the clearing began to shift, as two hundred and fifty beastmen emerged from the trees. The cat-like humanoids snarled and howled, but held their positions.</p><p></p><p> “You did not think I came all this way alone, did you?”</p><p></p><p> “We did,” Kaliel replied.</p><p></p><p> “Yes, but I am smarter than you.”</p><p></p><p> Kaliel surveyed the scene. “I do not see a challenge here.”</p><p></p><p> The exasperation was plain on Standing Oak’s face as he turned to Ayama and said, “Shall we let this one go forth, and retrieve his corpse later?”</p><p></p><p> Ignoring them, Kaliel has stepped out into the clearing. His anima was still glowing brightly from his battle with Nine Wounds Laughing and the necromantic horrors, which drew attention to him immediately. Kaliel raised his tetsubo, pointing at the warstrider, and then tapped the weapon against his own chestplate. The warstrider, who had begun ordering his zombie forces to engage the beastmen, stopped to regard this new threat. After what seemed an interminable pause, the pilot’s voice echoed across the Sea of Dead Vines again.</p><p></p><p> “Field Test Alpha Two-A commencing.”</p><p></p><p> The warstrider then turned to face the advancing Solar, as the zombies continued shuffling off into the trees. The beastmen also melted into the trees, and when Ayama glanced over, she saw that Standing Oak had also vanished.</p><p></p><p> The warstrider closed the distance with Kaliel, a blade of dark steel emerging from its forearm. About two dozen yards away, it raised its other arm and shot a beam of foul, black Essence at Kaliel which caught him on the arm in a glancing blow. There was no pain, but he saw the flesh on his arm boil away, leaving exposed muscle ringed by necrotic skin.</p><p></p><p> They closed with each other as Kaliel’s anima flared to full strength again. His ethereal wings snapped back and then forward as he brought his tetsubo around in a low swing aimed at knocking the warstrider off balance, his weapon swirling through the chrysanthemum blossoms as he attacked. The warstrider brushed the wings aside with its elbows, and blocked his attack with its own blade. It then slashed out with a low backswing aimed at decapitating the Solar. Kaliel quickly dropped to one knee and raised his tetsubo, his anima wings wrapping around the jade weapon as it deflected the blow away. Golden sparks sprayed up from the tetsubo, while black sparks rained down from the Abyssal blade, feeling cold against Kaliel’s flesh.</p><p></p><p> One of Kaliel’s wings curved up around the warstrider, almost cradling him as he brought his weapon across, aiming to strike the elbow to knock its weapon out of position. But it raised its arm at the last second, avoiding Kaliel’s attack as it then brought its own weapon down, trying to cut the Bronze Tiger in half. Kaliel planted his tetsubo into the ground, bringing the end up to meet the point of the warstrider’s blade and deflect it away, but the dark weapon still bit deep into Kaliel’s shoulder, stopping near his sternum. Kaliel gasped as he felt the remnants of his Essence being drained out into the foul metal of the warstrider’s blade, and the screams of the damned echoed in his ears as his vision darkened.</p><p></p><p> Kaliel slumped to the ground, his blood splashing across the vines. The warstrider stepped back, looking down at the still form.</p><p></p><p> “Test Subject Alpha Two-A insufficient for Necrostrider capacity. Terminating test subject.” The black blade came up.</p><p></p><p> “No.”</p><p></p><p> Ayama stepped forward, her own anima flaring into the image of two winged snakes over the symbol of the Unconquered Sun. Limned in blue and gold light, she looked defiantly at the Abyssal.</p><p></p><p> “I am not going to allow you to do that. I am not going to allow you to continue your existence.”</p><p></p><p> From somewhere off in the trees, there was a flash of light, and several golden arrows sailed through the air. They landed in a ring around Kaliel’s still form, burning away the vines, until Kaliel suddenly dropped down through a ragged hole.</p><p></p><p> Ayama and the warstrider regarded each other.</p><p></p><p> “Commencing Test Alpha Two-B.”</p><p></p><p> “Yes,” Ayama said, as she began stepping back toward the trees, “but we play by my rules.”</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">۞</p><p></p><p> Zanka emerged from breakfast with Ramba, putting a little more sway into her hips than usual as she left. Once she was past the curtain, she heard the Solar merchant sigh, and a smile crossed her lips as she heard him mutter, “Next time.”</p><p></p><p> The Crowned Sun made her way up toward the temple district. On the way, she pulled the note that Pearl had slipped her. The message inside was simple; ‘Two days, sundown, your room’.</p><p></p><p> Finding a temple dedicated to Talespinner was not difficult, as he was one of the three ruling gods of the city. Zanka spent an hour or two observing the customary methods of prayer and worship directed toward the god, then set out to wander among the other temples, hoping to gather information and other news. She was quickly able to pick up several interesting pieces of news, including the rumor that one of the Fair Folk was in the city.</p><p></p><p>She was somewhat surprised when she came upon a large temple dedicated to the Unconquered Sun. The temple itself was devoid of worshipers, and only five priests in white robes embroidered with yellow thread were in attendance. The temple bore signs that although the few priests had done their best to maintain the shrine, the structure was in need of some repairs.</p><p></p><p> One of the priests quickly approached Zanka; the symbol of the Unconquered Sun on his robes was embroidered in gold thread rather than yellow. “Welcome, traveler,” the high priest said. “Welcome to our temple. Do you wish to offer a prayer to the Unconquered Sun?”</p><p></p><p> “I see that few come to visit here,” Zanka remarked. “Not many seek the Sun’s guidance?”</p><p></p><p> “The Sun is a distant and subtle god,” the high priest said. “And thus few appreciate his wisdom in allowing us to flourish on our own merits.”</p><p></p><p> “It is a pity,” Zanka said. “More worshippers would certainly help you keep his temple in better repair, though you have done an admirable job with so few.”</p><p></p><p> “We like to think that he looks down upon us every day, and he would not want to see his house of worship wanting.”</p><p></p><p> “Perhaps I might be able to convince a few to pay their respects,” Zanka said. “I can give your temple a glowing recommendation.”</p><p></p><p> “Your offer is appreciated,” the high priest said. “A few souls needing our help would be most gratifying.”</p><p></p><p> Smiling, Zanka patted the back of the man’s hand, and went out into the street. She went directly to the stone circle that sat just outside the temple; each temple had at least one such circle, and Zanka had learned that this was the customary place for those proselytizing for the respective gods would stand.</p><p></p><p> “People of Great Forks!” Zanka said, raising her arms skyward as she let her Essence flow into her words, though she was careful not to release so much that her caste mark illuminated. “I am but a humble traveler, a stranger to your city, but tales of this place have reached even the cold reaches of the North. I have always been told that this is a city that honors all gods, where people may worship freely as is proper, unconstrained by the restrictive views of any one particular order. Yet I stand here today with a heavy heart and a troubled soul. For here, behind me, I see a temple dedicated to the highest of the gods, the ruler of Heaven, one whose place among the gods should be undeniable amongst this community of the faithful. Yet my vision of his glory is obscured by the lamentable condition of this house of worship! Will I return to this city one day to find this evidence of neglect in the other temples of your city? Will Dreamweaver look down upon cracked marble columns? Will Talespinner’s parables echo in halls decorated in faded paint? Will Dayshield’s faithful be sheltered under a roof in need of tiles?” She paused, looking around at the crowd that had quickly gathered. “Show me, good people! Show me that you honor all the gods, from the greatest to the least! Show the Unconquered Sun that you honor him!”</p><p></p><p> Inside, the high priest busied himself with polishing the brass and gold fixtures around the shrine. He was dimly aware of a commotion outside; most likely some sort of celebration for one of the other gods. He paused in his work, thinking for a moment on the extraordinarily beautiful young Northern woman who had been in the temple. <em>A few more like her here,</em> he thought to himself with amusement, <em>and we might actually have some real worshipers.</em></p><p></p><p> The noise from outside grew louder, and then one of the other priests rushed up to him. “Resplendent One!” she cried, “Come and see!”</p><p></p><p> Standing quickly, he rushed out to the main temple area, where he was astounded to see dozens of people crowded into the foyer. Some were bringing in tools and jars of paint, and working to restore the faded frescoes or smooth out uneven floor tiles.</p><p></p><p> Zanka stood at the front of the crowd, a smile on her face. “Will this be sufficient?”</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">۞</p><p></p><p> Ghost caught up with Lear at the top of the stairs to the second level, where the Twilight was staring around in wonder. Looking around, Ghost could see why.</p><p></p><p> The room itself was circular, like the foyer below, but was much larger. The walls and ceiling were made of clear glass, with a large crystal prism suspended from the ceiling that amplified the sunlight coming in and spread it all around the room. Eight thin marble columns were arrayed around the outside of the room, dividing the walls into eight sections. Each column bore an engraved bas relief in the middle, alternating between a spider monkey rendered in gold, and a spider rendered in silver. The floor was tiled in the same marble as below, but lines of moonsilver ran between each tile, and a sorcerous diagram on the floor in one area had been embedded in the stone and filled with starmetal. The room was open, though the sections delineated by the columns were obviously devoted to different activities; a bedchamber sat across the room, a dining area was just to the right of the stairs, and Ghost could also see a workshop of some kind near the diagram in the floor, and a small dojo. A heavy layer of dust coated everything, showing that the upper level had been undisturbed for centuries. Looking out the windows at the city, Ghost realized that even though the stairs had seemed to only rise about thirty feet, the room they now stood in was almost two hundred feet in the air.</p><p></p><p> “Incredible,” Lear said. “The craftsmanship is simply breathtaking.”</p><p></p><p> “We seem to be the first to come here in a long time,” Ghost said. “Are there still defenses to concern ourselves with?”</p><p></p><p> “Er, yes,” Lear said, tearing his eyes off the panorama surrounding them. “One system is still active. The defenses based on Solar energies were in the lower levels, and were never activated – I suspect your presence has much to do with that, else we probably would not be standing here now. The fire lances were the Terrestrial defense system, which had been tied into the Solar energy grid of the manse – that is why your code was able to deactivate it. I suspect that up here we will encounter the Lunar’s defensive system.”</p><p></p><p> “The one created by this Revealing Whispers,” Ghost nodded. Having reflected on the name as he climbed his stairs, Ghost felt that this was not the name of his own previous incarnation; thus it had to be that of his Lunar partner.</p><p></p><p> “Indeed. Be cautious.”</p><p></p><p> Ghost began to move slowly into the room, circling to his right. He scanned the many objects he could see in the room. “It appears I had a number of different hobbies,” he said, looking at the diagram on the floor.</p><p></p><p> “Well, it seems proper that beings who live so long would pursue a variety of activities.”</p><p></p><p> “What do you mean?”</p><p></p><p> “The Dragon-Bloods live for centuries, as you know. It seems logical to assume that other Exalted would have similarly extended lifespans, if not even greater.”</p><p></p><p> Ghost thought for a minute. “I had not considered that.”</p><p></p><p> A flicker of movement caught Ghost’s eye, and in an instant his boomerangs were in his hand. Around the room, the four bas-relief silver spiders had detached themselves from the columns, and were now skittering across the floor, two going after each Solar.</p><p></p><p> Ghost dove to the side as two of the silver spider leapt at him, one jumping at his legs and the other going for his head. As he twisted to the side, he grabbed the back of a chair sitting nearby, and hurled it at the two spiders advancing on Lear. The chair struck them, but the spiders’ bodies simply flowed around the flying piece of furniture, reshaping as it sailed past. However, the move slowed the spiders’ advance long enough for Lear to bring his own defenses to bear. But it also cost Ghost, as he felt the fangs of one of the spiders scrape against his calf. He rolled away into the center of the room, dust flying everywhere as he sprung into a defensive posture. When he landed, however, he felt his knee buckle slightly. Looking down, Ghost gasped in alarm when he realized that it had not been his knee that had given way, but his shinbone. The spider guardian’s venom had softened the Nightbringer’s bones, rendering them soft and pliable.</p><p></p><p> Ghost lashed out with both of his boomerangs, whipping his arms around so hard that his forearms flexed slightly. The boomerangs shot through the air, one missing its mark but the other slicing across a spider’s thorax. Across the room, Lear reached up and grasped the air in front of his glowing caste mark, drawing a glowing blade of energy from midair. He slashed at the advancing spiders, not wounding them but keeping them at bay. He picked up the chair that Ghost had thrown in his other hand, using it as well as his weapon to ward off the spider’s attacks.</p><p></p><p> Ghost dashed across the room, keeping ahead of the shambling spider constructs despite the way his legs wobbled and twisted with each painful step. The Solar grew concerned as another attack with his boomerang was avoided by the spiders. He had used much of his inner reserves of Essence in defeating the defenses of the manse downstairs, and he had little left to mount a significant offensive. Ghost switched to a more defensive posture, keeping ahead of the spiders and focusing on keeping them off balance. He ran over to the laboratory area of the manse, picking up a tool that looked something like a large ladle, and then leapt over to one of the spiders, attempting to scoop it up and fling it against the far wall. The construct, however, simply flowed out of the cup and landed on the ground, forcing Ghost to jump away to avoid its poisoned fangs. He ended up clinging to the tail of one of the golden monkeys on a pillar, as the two spiders nipped at his boots.</p><p></p><p> “If we ever meet in person, Revealing Whispers,” Ghost growled, “we are going to have a serious discussion.”</p><p></p><p> Lear lunged at one of the spiders attacking him, managing to wound it. He looked across the room, and then suddenly dashed over to the bedchamber. He grabbed the corner of the coverlet, sending dust flying as he whipped it into the air and threw it over one of the advancing spiders. The small construct writhed as Lear gathered up the loose edges of the bedding, trapping the spider inside a makeshift sack. The Twilight smashed the enclosed spider against the bedpost, then tried unsuccessfully to stab it with his solar blade, struggling to keep it contained.</p><p></p><p> Seeing the wisdom in Lear’s approach, Ghost once again crossed the room, going back to the dining area where he had grabbed the chair. This time, however, he picked up one end of the large table, and with a grunt of exertion he lifted the heavy wooden object into the air and brought it smashing down on top of one of the spiders. Remarkably, the table did not shatter, landing with an echoing thud that shook the room. At first, the tactic appeared to have worked, but then the spider slowly oozed out from underneath. It jumped at Ghost, who deflected its attack by flipping a large metal bowl into the air with his foot, intercepting the construct in midair.</p><p></p><p> “This is not going well!” Ghost shouted at Lear. He looked over and saw that Lear was staring intently at the wriggling spider wrapped in the bedding.</p><p></p><p> “This one seems to be weakening!” he shouted. “I do not understand…” he cast a glance around at the marble floor, then his face brightened. “Of course! The moonsilver that lies between the tiles! It acts as a power matrix for these constructs!”</p><p></p><p> Lear and Ghost began moving quickly around the room, avoiding the attacks of the spiders while slowly replenishing their reserves of Essence. Lear cried out once when a spider managed to bite his hand, and struggled against the effects of the bone-warping venom, but managed to keep ahead of them otherwise. Eventually, they managed to maneuver the spiders into the center of the room, where Lear was able to envelop the rest of them into his makeshift sack. Ghost then carried the sack high up toward the ceiling, waiting until their struggles grew weak, and then reached into the sack and dropped them one by one to the floor, where Lear waited to slice them in half with his Essence blade.</p><p></p><p> Ghost jumped down, and sat down on the floor, panting from the exertion of the long battle. He cast a glance up at the golden spider monkeys on the pillars. “If those things start climbing down now,” he grumbled, “the Unconquered Sun can have his Exaltation back.”</p><p></p><p> Lear slowly walked back to the large bed. “This is why I came over here in the first place.” He flipped back a corner of the large rug with one foot, revealing a small hatch in the floor.</p><p></p><p> Ghost came over to examine the hatch. The door was flush with the floor, with no hinges visible. It was secured with a complex combination locking mechanism. Ghost removed his tools from his satchel, and began to work.</p><p></p><p> When the first tumbler fell into place, there was a flash of light and the overwhelming stench of blood. Two huge, demonic apes with red fur appeared in midair, claws and teeth bared. Ghost started to roll away to safety, but Lear caught his arm.</p><p></p><p> “Wait.” Lear looked at the two blood apes carefully, then laughed. “For once, the degradation of Denandsor’s defenses works in our favor. These demons have spent too long in stasis Elsewhere. They are frozen in time and space.”</p><p></p><p> Looking up, Ghost now realized that the two demon-apes had not moved since they had appeared. Laughing, Ghost returned to his work. A minute later, the last tumbler fell into place, and Ghost pulled the door open. Reflected golden light shone from the vault as it opened. At the same time, a beam of silvery light shot out from the underside of the hatch door, striking the central prism. From there it split into four beams that struck the spots on the columns where the four moonsilver spiders had been perched. The empty spaces in the columns filled with moonsilver, which flattened into four perfect mirrors that bounced the beams back to a focal point in the center of the large room. There they formed the translucent image of a handsome young man, whose black hair was tangled and matted with blood, and whose eyes were pure black as well. Seeing the image of this man, Ghost was filled with an inexplicable sense of longing, as though seeing a long-lost friend.</p><p></p><p> “Evanescent Shadow,” the figure said, in an archaic version of Old Tongue, “I do not know if you will ever see this message. I can only pray that one day your Exaltation will return to Creation, and reclaim it from the usurpers who have slain you. In the hope that you and your circle will one day accomplish on that far off day what I and my kind cannot do now, I have left you what small trinkets I could collect for your use. The greatest of your weapons are unfortunately beyond my reach. It is my wish that you return Creation to its glory, and remove the usurper Dragon-Bloods from their so-called seat of power. I go now to ensure that the spawn of the dragons will never lay eyes on this place. Until we meet again, my love.”</p><p></p><p> The image faded. Ghost, blinking back unexpected tears, looked at Lear.</p><p></p><p> “Revealing Whispers, I presume,” he said. Lear peered down into the vault in the floor. “Oh, my.” He looked up at Ghost. “I realize that this is terribly rude of me, especially since this is your home, but I wonder if I might take possession of one item in particular.”</p><p></p><p> “Of course,” Ghost said. “What do you want?”</p><p></p><p> “That.” Lear pointed at the vault door.</p><p></p><p> After the vault was emptied, which proved to contain several orichalcum artifacts, a large book, and a golden orb that Lear identified as the manse’s hearthstone, Lear carefully closed the door, and then gently used his Essence blade to slice along the line where the door met the marble tile. When he pulled it free, Ghost saw with amazement that it left the floor underneath smooth and unblemished, as though a large vault had never been there.</p><p></p><p> “Locks without hinges, key or lid, and golden treasure within is hid,” Lear said with a grin, as he carefully packed the vault door away. “What now?”</p><p></p><p> “I say we remain here,” Ghost said. “As long as we can before the city’s curse becomes too much to bear. This place is safe for us now, and we will need to recover our strength before we attempt to leave and avoid both the automated sentries and Lookshy’s patrols.” Ghost looked around the room, taking in the panoramic view, “and I wish to learn more about myself before I leave.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Delemental, post: 5010249, member: 5203"] The room was pitch black, though the echoes of their footsteps told them that wherever they were, it was large, and empty. Two caste marks flared to life immediately, filling the room with a dim light. They stood on one end of a large, marble chamber, roughly a hundred feet across and circular in shape. The room was devoid of furnishings or other doorways, other than a staircase against the far wall that curved along the wall to the next floor up. The domed ceiling rose about thirty or forty feet over their heads, and looked like a seamless hemisphere of gold-veined white marble. There were no buttresses or pillars supporting the structure. A large number of human skeletons were strewn about the room; some looked like they were only a few weeks old, others were so ancient that they were little more than dust. The signs of battles were noticeable in the chamber; spatters of dried blood, chips in the marble floors and walls, and dark scorch marks everywhere. Underneath the bodies, Ghost saw that the floor once bore an engraved symbol of the Unconquered Sun embossed in gold, which someone had attempted to chip away or cover with paint long ago. Lear looked carefully around the room, his caste mark pulsing as he concentrated. “I have good news and less fortunate news,” he said. “The good news is that I believe this is a manse. The less fortunate news is that the defenses of this manse appear to be active. Although this likely means that the contents of this building have not been disturbed, it also means we will have to contend with those same defenses.” “What kind of defenses are they?” Ghost asked. “I can detect three types of energy,” Lear said, twisting his monocle as it sat on his eye. “One is Solar, and is the oldest of the three, possibly dating to the manse’s construction. The next bears a Lunar power signature, and is roughly 1,300 years old. The final signature is Terrestrial in nature, and has been here less than a millennium.” “I do not know if this will help,” Ghost said, “but I believe that I once lived here.” “Truly?” “The symbol on the door, the carving of the spider monkey – that is the same form that my anima takes. I have seen it carved in other places where I have been in the past. The spider that overlays it is new to me, however.” Lear thought for a moment. “My research indicates that each Solar often worked in coordination with a particular Lunar. Perhaps the spider is symbolic of your past incarnation’s Lunar counterpart. This may also explain the Lunar energy signature I have detected.” “And the Dragon-Blood magic?” “Perhaps another layer of defense added later. The creation of those energies occurred some time during the Shogunate, predating the Scarlet Empire and the Great Contagion. That would also predate the curse that surrounds Denandsor. It is possible that the Dragon-Bloods who occupied Denandsor at that time were unable to penetrate this manse’s defenses, and so they added their own security to prevent any Anathema from accomplishing what they could not.” “That does not bode well for our chances,” Ghost grimaced. “Perhaps. But many of Denandsor’s automated systems have malfunctioned over the centuries, including some defensive systems. We may be fortunate. However, I believe that this part falls more in your domain than mine.” Ghost looked around the room again. He was hesitant at first, which was not like him. He realized, suddenly, that the omnipresent aura of dread that permeated the city was affecting him more than he realized. Steeling himself, he began to walk slowly across the floor, looking carefully for any signs of movement. About halfway across the chamber, Ghost suddenly felt a slight warming on the foot he had just placed on the floor. Looking down, he saw a tiny disc of light on his ankle, emanating from some unseen spot on the far wall. Ghost jumped backward as he heard a slight grinding sound above, and a beam of white-hot energy shot down from the ceiling, scorching the spot on the floor where he had been standing only a moment before. He felt heat on the back of his head, and caught the smell of burning hair. As he landed, he saw another spot of light on his boot, and immediately sprung away again on one foot, at the same time hooking the toe of his other foot under the rotting ribcage of one of the corpses and flinging in skyward. The second beam struck the corpse, incinerating it in an instant as Ghost leapfrogged away. He ended up back against the wall, his legs stretched out into splits with one foot on the floor and the other on the wall. “I think I have identified the nature of the defenses here,” he said after a while. “Fire lances!” Lear said with excitement. “How very exciting! And so cleverly concealed… they must have been able to construct them much smaller than modern equivalents…” Lear looked over at Ghost, still perched on the wall. “Oh, yes, I suppose we should do something about that.” “I would appreciate it,”” Ghost grumbled. Lear reached into a pocket and withdrew a handful of rubble. He began tossing chunks of broken masonry around the room, striking various points of the floor and walls. Beams of white-hot fire lanced down on several occasions as the pieces crossed the triggering light beams. As he worked, Lear looked carefully around the room through his monocle. Finally, he pocketed the remainder of the rocks. “It appears that the triggering beams only cover the floor, not the walls,” he said. “Unfortunately, the beams appear to be activated on a random pattern, so there is no real way to predict where it is safe to walk. I have also been able to determine that the Essence flows of the room converge near a spot on the staircase, below the fifth stair. I suspect that some sort of control mechanism is hidden there.” Ghost looked across the room, judging the distance. He closed his eyes for a moment, focusing himself, and then suddenly launched himself off the wall. He arced through the air, almost looking like he was flying, until he landed just in front of the stairs, only inches from the hard marble. “Most impressive,” Lear nodded. Ghost had jumped nearly the entire distance across the room. It took several minutes of searching, guided by Lear’s advice, but finally Ghost was able to locate a hidden panel. Opening it, Ghost saw a series of sixteen buttons, labeled in Old Tongue. Staring at the panel, he was about to ask Lear for some advice, when his vision suddenly dimmed. He felt his hand rise, and flash across the buttons, entering a code. When his vision cleared, Ghost saw that the lights in the marble chamber had brightened, and Lear was walking calmly across the room, sidestepping corpses to join the Night caste by the stairs. “I am surprised that you were able to deactivate the defenses so quickly,” Lear said. “How did you decipher the code?” “It was a name,” Ghost said slowly, mentally retracing the movements of his hands. “Revealing Whispers. It seems… familiar, but I cannot place it.” “Neither can I,” Lear admitted. “Perhaps it was your own name in the First Age, or that of your Lunar partner.” Lear cast his glance up the stairs. “Well, shall we see what awaits us upstairs?” With that, Lear turned, and with a cheerful whistle half-ran up the stairs. [center]۞[/center] Kaliel hefted his weapon and began to walk forward, until he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. “Wait,” Standing Oak said. “We have more pressing concerns elsewhere.” He led Kaliel and Ayama into the trees, with the Zenith keeping a wary eye on the shifting shadowy shapes behind them. After a few minutes, they emerged into a clearing that the all knew immediately was the Sea of Dead Vines. The reason for its name was plain to see; the area was open to the sky, unlike most of the forest they had traversed for weeks. The ground stretched out across roughly two miles, composed of woven dead vines forming a relatively flat patch of ‘ground’. Arrayed across this field was a mass of hundreds of zombies, arranged in a rough formation. At the center of the formation stood a giant suit of armor, eighteen feet in height, composed of bone, black metal, and flesh. “Warstrider,” Kaliel said. “I have seen them in operation before, but none that appear like that.” “It is an Abyssal warstrider,” Ayama said. “Powered by foul necromancy.” A hollow voice rang out from the warstrider, across the parade field. “Commence Field Test Operation Alpha Two.” “That one is mine,” Kaliel said. Again, he felt the hand on his shoulder as he began to step forward. “Wait.” Standing Oak gave out a series of shrill whistles. Within moments, the edges of the clearing began to shift, as two hundred and fifty beastmen emerged from the trees. The cat-like humanoids snarled and howled, but held their positions. “You did not think I came all this way alone, did you?” “We did,” Kaliel replied. “Yes, but I am smarter than you.” Kaliel surveyed the scene. “I do not see a challenge here.” The exasperation was plain on Standing Oak’s face as he turned to Ayama and said, “Shall we let this one go forth, and retrieve his corpse later?” Ignoring them, Kaliel has stepped out into the clearing. His anima was still glowing brightly from his battle with Nine Wounds Laughing and the necromantic horrors, which drew attention to him immediately. Kaliel raised his tetsubo, pointing at the warstrider, and then tapped the weapon against his own chestplate. The warstrider, who had begun ordering his zombie forces to engage the beastmen, stopped to regard this new threat. After what seemed an interminable pause, the pilot’s voice echoed across the Sea of Dead Vines again. “Field Test Alpha Two-A commencing.” The warstrider then turned to face the advancing Solar, as the zombies continued shuffling off into the trees. The beastmen also melted into the trees, and when Ayama glanced over, she saw that Standing Oak had also vanished. The warstrider closed the distance with Kaliel, a blade of dark steel emerging from its forearm. About two dozen yards away, it raised its other arm and shot a beam of foul, black Essence at Kaliel which caught him on the arm in a glancing blow. There was no pain, but he saw the flesh on his arm boil away, leaving exposed muscle ringed by necrotic skin. They closed with each other as Kaliel’s anima flared to full strength again. His ethereal wings snapped back and then forward as he brought his tetsubo around in a low swing aimed at knocking the warstrider off balance, his weapon swirling through the chrysanthemum blossoms as he attacked. The warstrider brushed the wings aside with its elbows, and blocked his attack with its own blade. It then slashed out with a low backswing aimed at decapitating the Solar. Kaliel quickly dropped to one knee and raised his tetsubo, his anima wings wrapping around the jade weapon as it deflected the blow away. Golden sparks sprayed up from the tetsubo, while black sparks rained down from the Abyssal blade, feeling cold against Kaliel’s flesh. One of Kaliel’s wings curved up around the warstrider, almost cradling him as he brought his weapon across, aiming to strike the elbow to knock its weapon out of position. But it raised its arm at the last second, avoiding Kaliel’s attack as it then brought its own weapon down, trying to cut the Bronze Tiger in half. Kaliel planted his tetsubo into the ground, bringing the end up to meet the point of the warstrider’s blade and deflect it away, but the dark weapon still bit deep into Kaliel’s shoulder, stopping near his sternum. Kaliel gasped as he felt the remnants of his Essence being drained out into the foul metal of the warstrider’s blade, and the screams of the damned echoed in his ears as his vision darkened. Kaliel slumped to the ground, his blood splashing across the vines. The warstrider stepped back, looking down at the still form. “Test Subject Alpha Two-A insufficient for Necrostrider capacity. Terminating test subject.” The black blade came up. “No.” Ayama stepped forward, her own anima flaring into the image of two winged snakes over the symbol of the Unconquered Sun. Limned in blue and gold light, she looked defiantly at the Abyssal. “I am not going to allow you to do that. I am not going to allow you to continue your existence.” From somewhere off in the trees, there was a flash of light, and several golden arrows sailed through the air. They landed in a ring around Kaliel’s still form, burning away the vines, until Kaliel suddenly dropped down through a ragged hole. Ayama and the warstrider regarded each other. “Commencing Test Alpha Two-B.” “Yes,” Ayama said, as she began stepping back toward the trees, “but we play by my rules.” [center]۞[/center] Zanka emerged from breakfast with Ramba, putting a little more sway into her hips than usual as she left. Once she was past the curtain, she heard the Solar merchant sigh, and a smile crossed her lips as she heard him mutter, “Next time.” The Crowned Sun made her way up toward the temple district. On the way, she pulled the note that Pearl had slipped her. The message inside was simple; ‘Two days, sundown, your room’. Finding a temple dedicated to Talespinner was not difficult, as he was one of the three ruling gods of the city. Zanka spent an hour or two observing the customary methods of prayer and worship directed toward the god, then set out to wander among the other temples, hoping to gather information and other news. She was quickly able to pick up several interesting pieces of news, including the rumor that one of the Fair Folk was in the city. She was somewhat surprised when she came upon a large temple dedicated to the Unconquered Sun. The temple itself was devoid of worshipers, and only five priests in white robes embroidered with yellow thread were in attendance. The temple bore signs that although the few priests had done their best to maintain the shrine, the structure was in need of some repairs. One of the priests quickly approached Zanka; the symbol of the Unconquered Sun on his robes was embroidered in gold thread rather than yellow. “Welcome, traveler,” the high priest said. “Welcome to our temple. Do you wish to offer a prayer to the Unconquered Sun?” “I see that few come to visit here,” Zanka remarked. “Not many seek the Sun’s guidance?” “The Sun is a distant and subtle god,” the high priest said. “And thus few appreciate his wisdom in allowing us to flourish on our own merits.” “It is a pity,” Zanka said. “More worshippers would certainly help you keep his temple in better repair, though you have done an admirable job with so few.” “We like to think that he looks down upon us every day, and he would not want to see his house of worship wanting.” “Perhaps I might be able to convince a few to pay their respects,” Zanka said. “I can give your temple a glowing recommendation.” “Your offer is appreciated,” the high priest said. “A few souls needing our help would be most gratifying.” Smiling, Zanka patted the back of the man’s hand, and went out into the street. She went directly to the stone circle that sat just outside the temple; each temple had at least one such circle, and Zanka had learned that this was the customary place for those proselytizing for the respective gods would stand. “People of Great Forks!” Zanka said, raising her arms skyward as she let her Essence flow into her words, though she was careful not to release so much that her caste mark illuminated. “I am but a humble traveler, a stranger to your city, but tales of this place have reached even the cold reaches of the North. I have always been told that this is a city that honors all gods, where people may worship freely as is proper, unconstrained by the restrictive views of any one particular order. Yet I stand here today with a heavy heart and a troubled soul. For here, behind me, I see a temple dedicated to the highest of the gods, the ruler of Heaven, one whose place among the gods should be undeniable amongst this community of the faithful. Yet my vision of his glory is obscured by the lamentable condition of this house of worship! Will I return to this city one day to find this evidence of neglect in the other temples of your city? Will Dreamweaver look down upon cracked marble columns? Will Talespinner’s parables echo in halls decorated in faded paint? Will Dayshield’s faithful be sheltered under a roof in need of tiles?” She paused, looking around at the crowd that had quickly gathered. “Show me, good people! Show me that you honor all the gods, from the greatest to the least! Show the Unconquered Sun that you honor him!” Inside, the high priest busied himself with polishing the brass and gold fixtures around the shrine. He was dimly aware of a commotion outside; most likely some sort of celebration for one of the other gods. He paused in his work, thinking for a moment on the extraordinarily beautiful young Northern woman who had been in the temple. [i]A few more like her here,[/i] he thought to himself with amusement, [i]and we might actually have some real worshipers.[/i] The noise from outside grew louder, and then one of the other priests rushed up to him. “Resplendent One!” she cried, “Come and see!” Standing quickly, he rushed out to the main temple area, where he was astounded to see dozens of people crowded into the foyer. Some were bringing in tools and jars of paint, and working to restore the faded frescoes or smooth out uneven floor tiles. Zanka stood at the front of the crowd, a smile on her face. “Will this be sufficient?” [center]۞[/center] Ghost caught up with Lear at the top of the stairs to the second level, where the Twilight was staring around in wonder. Looking around, Ghost could see why. The room itself was circular, like the foyer below, but was much larger. The walls and ceiling were made of clear glass, with a large crystal prism suspended from the ceiling that amplified the sunlight coming in and spread it all around the room. Eight thin marble columns were arrayed around the outside of the room, dividing the walls into eight sections. Each column bore an engraved bas relief in the middle, alternating between a spider monkey rendered in gold, and a spider rendered in silver. The floor was tiled in the same marble as below, but lines of moonsilver ran between each tile, and a sorcerous diagram on the floor in one area had been embedded in the stone and filled with starmetal. The room was open, though the sections delineated by the columns were obviously devoted to different activities; a bedchamber sat across the room, a dining area was just to the right of the stairs, and Ghost could also see a workshop of some kind near the diagram in the floor, and a small dojo. A heavy layer of dust coated everything, showing that the upper level had been undisturbed for centuries. Looking out the windows at the city, Ghost realized that even though the stairs had seemed to only rise about thirty feet, the room they now stood in was almost two hundred feet in the air. “Incredible,” Lear said. “The craftsmanship is simply breathtaking.” “We seem to be the first to come here in a long time,” Ghost said. “Are there still defenses to concern ourselves with?” “Er, yes,” Lear said, tearing his eyes off the panorama surrounding them. “One system is still active. The defenses based on Solar energies were in the lower levels, and were never activated – I suspect your presence has much to do with that, else we probably would not be standing here now. The fire lances were the Terrestrial defense system, which had been tied into the Solar energy grid of the manse – that is why your code was able to deactivate it. I suspect that up here we will encounter the Lunar’s defensive system.” “The one created by this Revealing Whispers,” Ghost nodded. Having reflected on the name as he climbed his stairs, Ghost felt that this was not the name of his own previous incarnation; thus it had to be that of his Lunar partner. “Indeed. Be cautious.” Ghost began to move slowly into the room, circling to his right. He scanned the many objects he could see in the room. “It appears I had a number of different hobbies,” he said, looking at the diagram on the floor. “Well, it seems proper that beings who live so long would pursue a variety of activities.” “What do you mean?” “The Dragon-Bloods live for centuries, as you know. It seems logical to assume that other Exalted would have similarly extended lifespans, if not even greater.” Ghost thought for a minute. “I had not considered that.” A flicker of movement caught Ghost’s eye, and in an instant his boomerangs were in his hand. Around the room, the four bas-relief silver spiders had detached themselves from the columns, and were now skittering across the floor, two going after each Solar. Ghost dove to the side as two of the silver spider leapt at him, one jumping at his legs and the other going for his head. As he twisted to the side, he grabbed the back of a chair sitting nearby, and hurled it at the two spiders advancing on Lear. The chair struck them, but the spiders’ bodies simply flowed around the flying piece of furniture, reshaping as it sailed past. However, the move slowed the spiders’ advance long enough for Lear to bring his own defenses to bear. But it also cost Ghost, as he felt the fangs of one of the spiders scrape against his calf. He rolled away into the center of the room, dust flying everywhere as he sprung into a defensive posture. When he landed, however, he felt his knee buckle slightly. Looking down, Ghost gasped in alarm when he realized that it had not been his knee that had given way, but his shinbone. The spider guardian’s venom had softened the Nightbringer’s bones, rendering them soft and pliable. Ghost lashed out with both of his boomerangs, whipping his arms around so hard that his forearms flexed slightly. The boomerangs shot through the air, one missing its mark but the other slicing across a spider’s thorax. Across the room, Lear reached up and grasped the air in front of his glowing caste mark, drawing a glowing blade of energy from midair. He slashed at the advancing spiders, not wounding them but keeping them at bay. He picked up the chair that Ghost had thrown in his other hand, using it as well as his weapon to ward off the spider’s attacks. Ghost dashed across the room, keeping ahead of the shambling spider constructs despite the way his legs wobbled and twisted with each painful step. The Solar grew concerned as another attack with his boomerang was avoided by the spiders. He had used much of his inner reserves of Essence in defeating the defenses of the manse downstairs, and he had little left to mount a significant offensive. Ghost switched to a more defensive posture, keeping ahead of the spiders and focusing on keeping them off balance. He ran over to the laboratory area of the manse, picking up a tool that looked something like a large ladle, and then leapt over to one of the spiders, attempting to scoop it up and fling it against the far wall. The construct, however, simply flowed out of the cup and landed on the ground, forcing Ghost to jump away to avoid its poisoned fangs. He ended up clinging to the tail of one of the golden monkeys on a pillar, as the two spiders nipped at his boots. “If we ever meet in person, Revealing Whispers,” Ghost growled, “we are going to have a serious discussion.” Lear lunged at one of the spiders attacking him, managing to wound it. He looked across the room, and then suddenly dashed over to the bedchamber. He grabbed the corner of the coverlet, sending dust flying as he whipped it into the air and threw it over one of the advancing spiders. The small construct writhed as Lear gathered up the loose edges of the bedding, trapping the spider inside a makeshift sack. The Twilight smashed the enclosed spider against the bedpost, then tried unsuccessfully to stab it with his solar blade, struggling to keep it contained. Seeing the wisdom in Lear’s approach, Ghost once again crossed the room, going back to the dining area where he had grabbed the chair. This time, however, he picked up one end of the large table, and with a grunt of exertion he lifted the heavy wooden object into the air and brought it smashing down on top of one of the spiders. Remarkably, the table did not shatter, landing with an echoing thud that shook the room. At first, the tactic appeared to have worked, but then the spider slowly oozed out from underneath. It jumped at Ghost, who deflected its attack by flipping a large metal bowl into the air with his foot, intercepting the construct in midair. “This is not going well!” Ghost shouted at Lear. He looked over and saw that Lear was staring intently at the wriggling spider wrapped in the bedding. “This one seems to be weakening!” he shouted. “I do not understand…” he cast a glance around at the marble floor, then his face brightened. “Of course! The moonsilver that lies between the tiles! It acts as a power matrix for these constructs!” Lear and Ghost began moving quickly around the room, avoiding the attacks of the spiders while slowly replenishing their reserves of Essence. Lear cried out once when a spider managed to bite his hand, and struggled against the effects of the bone-warping venom, but managed to keep ahead of them otherwise. Eventually, they managed to maneuver the spiders into the center of the room, where Lear was able to envelop the rest of them into his makeshift sack. Ghost then carried the sack high up toward the ceiling, waiting until their struggles grew weak, and then reached into the sack and dropped them one by one to the floor, where Lear waited to slice them in half with his Essence blade. Ghost jumped down, and sat down on the floor, panting from the exertion of the long battle. He cast a glance up at the golden spider monkeys on the pillars. “If those things start climbing down now,” he grumbled, “the Unconquered Sun can have his Exaltation back.” Lear slowly walked back to the large bed. “This is why I came over here in the first place.” He flipped back a corner of the large rug with one foot, revealing a small hatch in the floor. Ghost came over to examine the hatch. The door was flush with the floor, with no hinges visible. It was secured with a complex combination locking mechanism. Ghost removed his tools from his satchel, and began to work. When the first tumbler fell into place, there was a flash of light and the overwhelming stench of blood. Two huge, demonic apes with red fur appeared in midair, claws and teeth bared. Ghost started to roll away to safety, but Lear caught his arm. “Wait.” Lear looked at the two blood apes carefully, then laughed. “For once, the degradation of Denandsor’s defenses works in our favor. These demons have spent too long in stasis Elsewhere. They are frozen in time and space.” Looking up, Ghost now realized that the two demon-apes had not moved since they had appeared. Laughing, Ghost returned to his work. A minute later, the last tumbler fell into place, and Ghost pulled the door open. Reflected golden light shone from the vault as it opened. At the same time, a beam of silvery light shot out from the underside of the hatch door, striking the central prism. From there it split into four beams that struck the spots on the columns where the four moonsilver spiders had been perched. The empty spaces in the columns filled with moonsilver, which flattened into four perfect mirrors that bounced the beams back to a focal point in the center of the large room. There they formed the translucent image of a handsome young man, whose black hair was tangled and matted with blood, and whose eyes were pure black as well. Seeing the image of this man, Ghost was filled with an inexplicable sense of longing, as though seeing a long-lost friend. “Evanescent Shadow,” the figure said, in an archaic version of Old Tongue, “I do not know if you will ever see this message. I can only pray that one day your Exaltation will return to Creation, and reclaim it from the usurpers who have slain you. In the hope that you and your circle will one day accomplish on that far off day what I and my kind cannot do now, I have left you what small trinkets I could collect for your use. The greatest of your weapons are unfortunately beyond my reach. It is my wish that you return Creation to its glory, and remove the usurper Dragon-Bloods from their so-called seat of power. I go now to ensure that the spawn of the dragons will never lay eyes on this place. Until we meet again, my love.” The image faded. Ghost, blinking back unexpected tears, looked at Lear. “Revealing Whispers, I presume,” he said. Lear peered down into the vault in the floor. “Oh, my.” He looked up at Ghost. “I realize that this is terribly rude of me, especially since this is your home, but I wonder if I might take possession of one item in particular.” “Of course,” Ghost said. “What do you want?” “That.” Lear pointed at the vault door. After the vault was emptied, which proved to contain several orichalcum artifacts, a large book, and a golden orb that Lear identified as the manse’s hearthstone, Lear carefully closed the door, and then gently used his Essence blade to slice along the line where the door met the marble tile. When he pulled it free, Ghost saw with amazement that it left the floor underneath smooth and unblemished, as though a large vault had never been there. “Locks without hinges, key or lid, and golden treasure within is hid,” Lear said with a grin, as he carefully packed the vault door away. “What now?” “I say we remain here,” Ghost said. “As long as we can before the city’s curse becomes too much to bear. This place is safe for us now, and we will need to recover our strength before we attempt to leave and avoid both the automated sentries and Lookshy’s patrols.” Ghost looked around the room, taking in the panoramic view, “and I wish to learn more about myself before I leave.” [/QUOTE]
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[Exalted 2e] Chosen of the Second Age
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