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<blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 5249255" data-attributes="member: 5203"><p>How about a double update to make up for lost time? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>-----------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p> Ayama’s eyelids fluttered open; it took her a few moments to realize that she was laying atop a cot inside a large tent; it took less time to realize that she hurt almost everywhere. Slowly, she turned her head, and saw Ghost sitting nearby.</p><p></p><p> “I have heard,” he said to her, “that healers are among the worst patients in Creation. So my question is, will you be good and allow yourself to rest and recover, or should I ask them to bring in some leather straps to tie you down?”</p><p></p><p> “Is anyone else hurt?” she asked.</p><p></p><p> “Not enough to concern you.”</p><p></p><p> “Then I will remain here for now.” She lifted her arms and legs slowly, testing the extent of her injuries. “I am curious as to what happened to me, as I recall my injuries being much worse when I received them.”</p><p></p><p> “You were close to death,” Ghost admitted. “But then something… unusual happened.”</p><p></p><p> Ayama’s brow rose, prompting Ghost to continue. “I carried you here, in hopes that the Bull’s healers could save you, but they claimed that you were beyond hope. But there were three strangers here as well, not part of Kaneko’s army…” he shook his head. “I must confess that I remember little about them, other than there were two men and a woman. They asked questions about what we had been doing, and I had the impression that they were here because of it. I appealed to them to help you, and one of them agreed. He used his walking staff, and – I have no better words for it – he beat you back to health. It was as though each blow sealed up one of your grievous wounds, leaving only bruises. The same man also said that Crystal would be moving ten miles West.”</p><p></p><p> Ayama was silent for a moment. “I am not going to ask how,” she said, “but I am curious why it is moving.”</p><p></p><p> “I am not certain. There was a large explosion of energy in the city when I was bringing you here. Perhaps it has something to do with that. Kaliel and Zanka may know more.”</p><p></p><p> “Kalliope?”</p><p></p><p> “Is alive, according to the message that Kaliel sent. I know nothing more, though I assume that Nine Wounds Laughing is long gone.”</p><p></p><p> A sudden loud rumbling interrupted their conversation. They both got up and went to investigate, Ayama walking slowly out of the tent. Far to the North, where the excavations were taking place, a plume of white was rising into the air. Enormous slabs of ice were tumbling down off the face of the glacier, burying the various tunnels under thousands of tons of debris.</p><p></p><p> “That will make it considerably more difficult to investigate what was in there,” Kaliel said, walking up behind Ghost and Ayama.</p><p></p><p> “And I had wanted to see what would compel two armies to come and destroy my home,” Zanka said. In response, Kaliel reached over and picked up a shovel that was leaning on a crate nearby, and handed it to the Eclipse. Zanka tossed the shovel aside, making a rude gesture at Kailel.</p><p></p><p> “You are looking better,” Kaliel said to Ayama. “Much better than I expected.” He loked at Ghost. “How did you do this?”</p><p></p><p> “Secret Night Caste techniques,” he said with a grin.</p><p></p><p> Kaliel snorted. “Seriously.”</p><p></p><p> Ghost related the tale of the three strangers and the unusual methods used to heal Ayama. He also relayed the message about Crystal moving. As he had done with Ayama earlier, Ghost did not mention that a debt was owed for healing Ayama; he hoped that once the debt became due, he would be able to repay it without involving the others, since they had been given no say in the matter.</p><p></p><p> “I had wondered why the Bull was preparing to leave so swiftly,” Kaliel said.</p><p></p><p> “It is probably being moved to get away from the shadowland,” Zanka said.</p><p></p><p> “Shadowland?” Ayama asked.</p><p></p><p> “The result of the efforts of Nine Laughing Wounds’ allies to eliminate the two armies,” Zanka said. “The deathknight mentioned it before she escaped.”</p><p></p><p> “That is quite the price to pay for her assistance,” Ayama said sadly.</p><p></p><p> “I would say it was more of an unintended consequence, if not unwelcome for her,” Ghost said. “But it seems that it will not affect the city itself.” Ghost turned to Kaliel. “So she escaped? I thought that she was a little too comfortable with your five-second head start to not have something planned.”</p><p></p><p> “She seemed to simply vanish into shadow,” Kaliel said. “I did not even see her move.”</p><p></p><p> “Sorcery, perhaps,” Ghost said, “or some deathknight ability.”</p><p></p><p> “How is Kalliope?” Ayama asked.</p><p></p><p> “Calm now,” Kaliel said. “But I expect it will be some time before she has recovered enough to talk about what happened to her. I have already made plans for her to be escorted back to Chrysanthemum with my troops. Rutendo has offered to accompany them to make the journey easier.”</p><p></p><p> “I doubt the Bull will remain here much longer, either,” Ayama said. “With the threat gone, I would guess that he will stay long enough to eliminate any lingering demons or undead, and then return to his main army.”</p><p></p><p> “I see no reason for us to remain, either,” Ghost added. “I say that as soon as Ayama has recovered and Kalliope is safely on her way, we should journey into the Haslanti League to find out what became of Crystal’s people.”</p><p></p><p> Both women recovered faster than had been expected. Within a few days, Kalliope had been able to tell them about the lives of her and her sister Kassandra over the past three years. She related how they had been held at the House V’Neef estate as ‘honored prisoners’, and had been cared for fairly well and even educated in the manner of any other Imperial dynast.</p><p></p><p> “A woman came in the dead of night, several months ago,” Kalliope said, with a shiver. “A woman with red hair, with a fighting chain. She killed everyone in the house, and took me with her off the island. She has been keeping me alive ever since, traveling North, until the other night when she bound and gagged me, and rode out to meet you. And then she…” she trailed off.</p><p></p><p> “Do you know what happened to Kassandra?” Kaliel asked. She shook her head.</p><p></p><p> “She was alive when I was taken. That is all I know.”</p><p></p><p> “She may still be with the V’Neef,” Zanka said. “Though probably under heavier guard.”</p><p></p><p> “She may have been moved as well,” Ghost observed, “and that assumes that it was the V’Neef who first arrived on the scene after Nine Laughing Wounds attacked. It seems that until we can locate a reliable source of information, Kassandra’s fate will remain unknown.”</p><p></p><p> The four Solars made preparations to leave as soon as Kalliope was on her way back home with the Knights and Rutendo. Kaliel and Zanka attempted to meet with Yurgen Kaneko to negotiate a formal agreement of non-aggression toward Chrysanthemum and Lagan, hoping to take advantage of a rare opportunity to deal directly with the infamous Northern warlord. But the Bull of the North was too mired in trying to mobilize his army to meet for more than a few minutes. He did, however, agree to meet in the future on the subject, which was at least somewhat reassuring.</p><p></p><p> The night before they left, Zanka found herself having an unusual dream, one in which she was not entirely certain she was asleep. In her dream, she felt herself rise from bed and begin walking out onto the snow, heading southeast toward the edge of the glacier. When she arrived, she found herself climbing up a set of steps carved into the ice, nearly invisible unless one knew they were there. As she felt herself rising, experiencing what felt half like a dream and half a memory, she saw a spire jutting out from the top of the glacier, again placed in such a way that if one were not on the stairs, it would be undetectable.</p><p></p><p> She reached the top of the glacier, and began walking along a set of spiral stairs carved into the spire. At the top was a large, throne-like chair, seemingly carved of ice. Zanka felt herself sitting down in the chair, and remained in that pose for the next several hours, seemingly doing nothing but watching Creation unfurl beneath her.</p><p></p><p> When she awoke, Zanka found herself sitting in that very chair, the wind whipping around her, with something hard and angular under her. Her descent was much slower and less sure than her ascent.</p><p></p><p> She rushed into the tent just as the others were waking. “Look!” she cried. She thrust an object forward, that looked like a cube-shaped crystal the size of her palm, refracting a myriad of colors inside the facets.</p><p></p><p> “The three strangers that helped Ayama came to me last night. They showed me a secret way into the glacier, and told me that this is what the demons and ghosts sought!”</p><p></p><p> “What is it?” Ghost asked.</p><p></p><p> “It is the Eye of Autochthon, of course,” Zanka said proudly.</p><p></p><p> “But… it is square.”</p><p></p><p> “Who said the eye of a Primordial had to be round?” Zanka retorted.</p><p></p><p> “I thought the Eye was lost in the deserts of the South,” Kaliel said.</p><p></p><p> “Clearly, misinformation spread to deter those who seek the Eye.”</p><p></p><p> Ayama looked at the cube closely. “Zanka, dearest,” she said. “That is not the Eye of Autochthon. It is a hearthstone. Air aspected, I would guess.”</p><p></p><p> Zanka smiled. “I know. But for a moment, I had you wondering, did I not?”</p><p></p><p> After Zanka explained the true story of how she had come upon the hearthstone and the manse hidden in the glacier, they departed Crystal. They ended up walking southwest, following the edge of the great Northern Glacier as it made its way toward the White Sea. Fortune was with them, for the first large city they came across once crossing into the lands of the Haslanti League was Windcreche, and it was there that they found the survivors of Crystal.</p><p></p><p> Only a little more than a third of the population had survived; half had not made it out of the city at all, with the rest succumbing to their injuries or the elements as they fled. To Zanka’s surprise and delight, she found that her own family was among the survivors, and she had a joyous reunion with her Matre, and her two younger siblings, Jonu and Broedst. There was some initial confusion when Zanka introduced her circle-mates, and she was referred to by the name ‘Zanka’ by her friends, and as ‘Berta’ by her family. Eventually, she was able to explain her decision to change her name, and her family began using her new name.</p><p></p><p> What made the reunion somewhat uncomfortable was Zanka’s insistence that none of them reveal that they were Solars. “I will tell them the truth soon,” she promised, “but now is not the time. They have had too much grief.” So they each kept their silence, and allowed Zanka her time with her family.</p><p></p><p> The joy of the reunion was marked by sadness – for Zanka’s grandmother, her Oomatre, was not long for the world, despite having survived for years in the harsh winters of the North and the exodus from Crystal. She passed only a week after Zanka had arrived in Windcreche, and a traditional wake was held for her, as family and friends gathered in a large pavilion tent away from the city. There, the flesh was stripped from Oomatre’s bones with ceremonial knives, and laid out on the snow as an offering to the spirits of the land who had allowed her to live her full measure of life. Her bones were ground and mixed with flour by those who had prepared the body, and as tradition held, none were permitted to wash the blood from their hands, as a sign of respect to the departed.</p><p></p><p> That night, the funereal feast was held, beginning with the ceremonial sharing of the bread made from the bones of the departed. Zanka spent most of the night with her family, telling stories of Oomatre’s life as they drank mead and ale and ate platters of roasted caribou. Eventually, however, she made her way to where her friends sat.</p><p></p><p> “I know that there is no reason for any of you to remain in Windcreche,” she began, her pink-stained hands standing out in sharp contrast on her normally alabaster skin, “but I feel I must remain here for a time. Though my people never fully accepted the teachings of the Immaculate Philosophy, their beliefs have been altered by the presence of the Order for so many years. I must help them to realize the truth, and help them prepare to return to Crystal. My people have already made an appeal to the Haslanti League, and they have offered assistance in resettling Crystal – and in helping to better defend it.”</p><p></p><p> “Will you be returning to Crystal with them?” Kaliel asked.</p><p></p><p> “No. As much as I would like to stay with my family, it is not where my talents can be put to their best use.”</p><p></p><p> “We had been discussing this subject ourselves,” Ayama said. “I would very much like to continue to offer my services as a healer within the League, and learn the techniques used in this region. I have had the opportunity to minister to some of the airship pilots stationed here, who have been engaged in testing some new developments in aerial technology. Tending to wounds sustained from falling from great heights has proved both challenging and informative.”</p><p></p><p> “And I would like to begin recruiting more soldiers into the Knights, and negotiating some new contracts now that our arrangement with Lagan has ended,” Kaliel said. “I am also interested in beginning some specialized training in the use of mammoths in warfare.”</p><p></p><p> “I find myself ready to gain a greater understanding of my connection to my Essence,” Ghost said, “which is something I feel I must do alone.”</p><p></p><p> “The point is that each of us seeks to pursue different goals, none of which are easily accomplished if we remain together,” Ayama said. “We have been discussing a plan to separate, and meet together again in a few month’s time.”</p><p></p><p> “I would agree with that,” Zanka said. “What do you propose?”</p><p></p><p> “I suggest that we meet again on the first day of Ascending Air,” Ayama said, “after Calibration. We can meet in Chrysanthemum again.”</p><p></p><p> “Then I would offer a toast,” Zanka said. She picked up a flagon of wine from the table, and held it aloft. “For those we have met, we give thanks. For those we will meet again, we give thanks. For those we have yet to meet, we give thanks. And to those who we will never meet again, we also give thanks.”</p><p></p><p> The four Solars raised their cups, repeating the litany, and drank. They then wandered outside to where a bonfire had been constructed, and watched in silence as the flames chased away the spirits of the dark.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Delemental, post: 5249255, member: 5203"] How about a double update to make up for lost time? :) ----------------------------------------------- Ayama’s eyelids fluttered open; it took her a few moments to realize that she was laying atop a cot inside a large tent; it took less time to realize that she hurt almost everywhere. Slowly, she turned her head, and saw Ghost sitting nearby. “I have heard,” he said to her, “that healers are among the worst patients in Creation. So my question is, will you be good and allow yourself to rest and recover, or should I ask them to bring in some leather straps to tie you down?” “Is anyone else hurt?” she asked. “Not enough to concern you.” “Then I will remain here for now.” She lifted her arms and legs slowly, testing the extent of her injuries. “I am curious as to what happened to me, as I recall my injuries being much worse when I received them.” “You were close to death,” Ghost admitted. “But then something… unusual happened.” Ayama’s brow rose, prompting Ghost to continue. “I carried you here, in hopes that the Bull’s healers could save you, but they claimed that you were beyond hope. But there were three strangers here as well, not part of Kaneko’s army…” he shook his head. “I must confess that I remember little about them, other than there were two men and a woman. They asked questions about what we had been doing, and I had the impression that they were here because of it. I appealed to them to help you, and one of them agreed. He used his walking staff, and – I have no better words for it – he beat you back to health. It was as though each blow sealed up one of your grievous wounds, leaving only bruises. The same man also said that Crystal would be moving ten miles West.” Ayama was silent for a moment. “I am not going to ask how,” she said, “but I am curious why it is moving.” “I am not certain. There was a large explosion of energy in the city when I was bringing you here. Perhaps it has something to do with that. Kaliel and Zanka may know more.” “Kalliope?” “Is alive, according to the message that Kaliel sent. I know nothing more, though I assume that Nine Wounds Laughing is long gone.” A sudden loud rumbling interrupted their conversation. They both got up and went to investigate, Ayama walking slowly out of the tent. Far to the North, where the excavations were taking place, a plume of white was rising into the air. Enormous slabs of ice were tumbling down off the face of the glacier, burying the various tunnels under thousands of tons of debris. “That will make it considerably more difficult to investigate what was in there,” Kaliel said, walking up behind Ghost and Ayama. “And I had wanted to see what would compel two armies to come and destroy my home,” Zanka said. In response, Kaliel reached over and picked up a shovel that was leaning on a crate nearby, and handed it to the Eclipse. Zanka tossed the shovel aside, making a rude gesture at Kailel. “You are looking better,” Kaliel said to Ayama. “Much better than I expected.” He loked at Ghost. “How did you do this?” “Secret Night Caste techniques,” he said with a grin. Kaliel snorted. “Seriously.” Ghost related the tale of the three strangers and the unusual methods used to heal Ayama. He also relayed the message about Crystal moving. As he had done with Ayama earlier, Ghost did not mention that a debt was owed for healing Ayama; he hoped that once the debt became due, he would be able to repay it without involving the others, since they had been given no say in the matter. “I had wondered why the Bull was preparing to leave so swiftly,” Kaliel said. “It is probably being moved to get away from the shadowland,” Zanka said. “Shadowland?” Ayama asked. “The result of the efforts of Nine Laughing Wounds’ allies to eliminate the two armies,” Zanka said. “The deathknight mentioned it before she escaped.” “That is quite the price to pay for her assistance,” Ayama said sadly. “I would say it was more of an unintended consequence, if not unwelcome for her,” Ghost said. “But it seems that it will not affect the city itself.” Ghost turned to Kaliel. “So she escaped? I thought that she was a little too comfortable with your five-second head start to not have something planned.” “She seemed to simply vanish into shadow,” Kaliel said. “I did not even see her move.” “Sorcery, perhaps,” Ghost said, “or some deathknight ability.” “How is Kalliope?” Ayama asked. “Calm now,” Kaliel said. “But I expect it will be some time before she has recovered enough to talk about what happened to her. I have already made plans for her to be escorted back to Chrysanthemum with my troops. Rutendo has offered to accompany them to make the journey easier.” “I doubt the Bull will remain here much longer, either,” Ayama said. “With the threat gone, I would guess that he will stay long enough to eliminate any lingering demons or undead, and then return to his main army.” “I see no reason for us to remain, either,” Ghost added. “I say that as soon as Ayama has recovered and Kalliope is safely on her way, we should journey into the Haslanti League to find out what became of Crystal’s people.” Both women recovered faster than had been expected. Within a few days, Kalliope had been able to tell them about the lives of her and her sister Kassandra over the past three years. She related how they had been held at the House V’Neef estate as ‘honored prisoners’, and had been cared for fairly well and even educated in the manner of any other Imperial dynast. “A woman came in the dead of night, several months ago,” Kalliope said, with a shiver. “A woman with red hair, with a fighting chain. She killed everyone in the house, and took me with her off the island. She has been keeping me alive ever since, traveling North, until the other night when she bound and gagged me, and rode out to meet you. And then she…” she trailed off. “Do you know what happened to Kassandra?” Kaliel asked. She shook her head. “She was alive when I was taken. That is all I know.” “She may still be with the V’Neef,” Zanka said. “Though probably under heavier guard.” “She may have been moved as well,” Ghost observed, “and that assumes that it was the V’Neef who first arrived on the scene after Nine Laughing Wounds attacked. It seems that until we can locate a reliable source of information, Kassandra’s fate will remain unknown.” The four Solars made preparations to leave as soon as Kalliope was on her way back home with the Knights and Rutendo. Kaliel and Zanka attempted to meet with Yurgen Kaneko to negotiate a formal agreement of non-aggression toward Chrysanthemum and Lagan, hoping to take advantage of a rare opportunity to deal directly with the infamous Northern warlord. But the Bull of the North was too mired in trying to mobilize his army to meet for more than a few minutes. He did, however, agree to meet in the future on the subject, which was at least somewhat reassuring. The night before they left, Zanka found herself having an unusual dream, one in which she was not entirely certain she was asleep. In her dream, she felt herself rise from bed and begin walking out onto the snow, heading southeast toward the edge of the glacier. When she arrived, she found herself climbing up a set of steps carved into the ice, nearly invisible unless one knew they were there. As she felt herself rising, experiencing what felt half like a dream and half a memory, she saw a spire jutting out from the top of the glacier, again placed in such a way that if one were not on the stairs, it would be undetectable. She reached the top of the glacier, and began walking along a set of spiral stairs carved into the spire. At the top was a large, throne-like chair, seemingly carved of ice. Zanka felt herself sitting down in the chair, and remained in that pose for the next several hours, seemingly doing nothing but watching Creation unfurl beneath her. When she awoke, Zanka found herself sitting in that very chair, the wind whipping around her, with something hard and angular under her. Her descent was much slower and less sure than her ascent. She rushed into the tent just as the others were waking. “Look!” she cried. She thrust an object forward, that looked like a cube-shaped crystal the size of her palm, refracting a myriad of colors inside the facets. “The three strangers that helped Ayama came to me last night. They showed me a secret way into the glacier, and told me that this is what the demons and ghosts sought!” “What is it?” Ghost asked. “It is the Eye of Autochthon, of course,” Zanka said proudly. “But… it is square.” “Who said the eye of a Primordial had to be round?” Zanka retorted. “I thought the Eye was lost in the deserts of the South,” Kaliel said. “Clearly, misinformation spread to deter those who seek the Eye.” Ayama looked at the cube closely. “Zanka, dearest,” she said. “That is not the Eye of Autochthon. It is a hearthstone. Air aspected, I would guess.” Zanka smiled. “I know. But for a moment, I had you wondering, did I not?” After Zanka explained the true story of how she had come upon the hearthstone and the manse hidden in the glacier, they departed Crystal. They ended up walking southwest, following the edge of the great Northern Glacier as it made its way toward the White Sea. Fortune was with them, for the first large city they came across once crossing into the lands of the Haslanti League was Windcreche, and it was there that they found the survivors of Crystal. Only a little more than a third of the population had survived; half had not made it out of the city at all, with the rest succumbing to their injuries or the elements as they fled. To Zanka’s surprise and delight, she found that her own family was among the survivors, and she had a joyous reunion with her Matre, and her two younger siblings, Jonu and Broedst. There was some initial confusion when Zanka introduced her circle-mates, and she was referred to by the name ‘Zanka’ by her friends, and as ‘Berta’ by her family. Eventually, she was able to explain her decision to change her name, and her family began using her new name. What made the reunion somewhat uncomfortable was Zanka’s insistence that none of them reveal that they were Solars. “I will tell them the truth soon,” she promised, “but now is not the time. They have had too much grief.” So they each kept their silence, and allowed Zanka her time with her family. The joy of the reunion was marked by sadness – for Zanka’s grandmother, her Oomatre, was not long for the world, despite having survived for years in the harsh winters of the North and the exodus from Crystal. She passed only a week after Zanka had arrived in Windcreche, and a traditional wake was held for her, as family and friends gathered in a large pavilion tent away from the city. There, the flesh was stripped from Oomatre’s bones with ceremonial knives, and laid out on the snow as an offering to the spirits of the land who had allowed her to live her full measure of life. Her bones were ground and mixed with flour by those who had prepared the body, and as tradition held, none were permitted to wash the blood from their hands, as a sign of respect to the departed. That night, the funereal feast was held, beginning with the ceremonial sharing of the bread made from the bones of the departed. Zanka spent most of the night with her family, telling stories of Oomatre’s life as they drank mead and ale and ate platters of roasted caribou. Eventually, however, she made her way to where her friends sat. “I know that there is no reason for any of you to remain in Windcreche,” she began, her pink-stained hands standing out in sharp contrast on her normally alabaster skin, “but I feel I must remain here for a time. Though my people never fully accepted the teachings of the Immaculate Philosophy, their beliefs have been altered by the presence of the Order for so many years. I must help them to realize the truth, and help them prepare to return to Crystal. My people have already made an appeal to the Haslanti League, and they have offered assistance in resettling Crystal – and in helping to better defend it.” “Will you be returning to Crystal with them?” Kaliel asked. “No. As much as I would like to stay with my family, it is not where my talents can be put to their best use.” “We had been discussing this subject ourselves,” Ayama said. “I would very much like to continue to offer my services as a healer within the League, and learn the techniques used in this region. I have had the opportunity to minister to some of the airship pilots stationed here, who have been engaged in testing some new developments in aerial technology. Tending to wounds sustained from falling from great heights has proved both challenging and informative.” “And I would like to begin recruiting more soldiers into the Knights, and negotiating some new contracts now that our arrangement with Lagan has ended,” Kaliel said. “I am also interested in beginning some specialized training in the use of mammoths in warfare.” “I find myself ready to gain a greater understanding of my connection to my Essence,” Ghost said, “which is something I feel I must do alone.” “The point is that each of us seeks to pursue different goals, none of which are easily accomplished if we remain together,” Ayama said. “We have been discussing a plan to separate, and meet together again in a few month’s time.” “I would agree with that,” Zanka said. “What do you propose?” “I suggest that we meet again on the first day of Ascending Air,” Ayama said, “after Calibration. We can meet in Chrysanthemum again.” “Then I would offer a toast,” Zanka said. She picked up a flagon of wine from the table, and held it aloft. “For those we have met, we give thanks. For those we will meet again, we give thanks. For those we have yet to meet, we give thanks. And to those who we will never meet again, we also give thanks.” The four Solars raised their cups, repeating the litany, and drank. They then wandered outside to where a bonfire had been constructed, and watched in silence as the flames chased away the spirits of the dark. [/QUOTE]
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[Exalted 2e] Chosen of the Second Age
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