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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2020481" data-attributes="member: 15043">Ancestry Revealed“An aranea...” Felonca said quietly as the party looked at the burnt, spidery body that now covered the road.  “How could one have come into Imperial service, or masqueraded as if it was in Imperial service?”“I don’t give a damn,” Nayu spat, kicking the dead body one last time.  Its form was almost unrecognizable due to the damage Nayu had inflicted with his morningstar post-mortem.  Nayu then let loose a string of profanities directed at the Dowager Empress, the young Emperor, and her brother the Prince of Shu.“I... I think I need to talk to you, my son,” Nayu’s mother Su said quietly.  It had taken her another hour to finally calm down to a point of numb observation.  “Your... father... had something he...he  wanted me to tell you... before that... beast...” she stammered, before Nayu was at her side.“Yes, mama?” he said quietly.“May... may we speak in private?” she asked, her voice loud enough that it carried to Nayu’s comrades.  Felonca, Cho and Liu immediately understood, with Felonca immediately drafting the other two into helping her loot the Councillor’s home of, “anything nonevil we can get some cash from!”When they were gone, Su pulled from her sleeve a small wooden box, its top and sides carved with simple beauty.That box sat on the shelf by father’s side of the bed! Nayu remembered, the sight of the object immediately bringing back memories of happier times in the warmth of a home.  His home.“Your f...father,” she started to break down, but managed to control herself, “he...he wanted you to have this.”  She held out the box, and Nayu reverently took it from her hands.  He gave her a slight bow, which provoked a slight, sad smile on her face.“Your father did that, whenever I gave him a gift,” she said sadly.  At Nayu’s responding look of depression, she gently urged him on.  “Open it... look inside.”Nayu carefully opened the box that’d never been opened in his sight before, and too his surprise, found the inside lined with red velvet.  Sitting in the middle, atop the velvet, was a large ivory seal, its top an intricate miniature of a palace, four ivory pagodas rising in each corner an inch above its base.  In the center, as the roof of the largest, round pagoda, was a beautiful rounded ruby, ground perfectly smooth.What is this?!  How did father get something this...  this...Nayu flipped the seal over, and on its underside, found writing in the Court Tongue, the language of the Imperial Court within the Jade Palace.  He’d only seen such writing twice before in his life, both times when a scholar for the Imperial family stopped briefly in Red Lotus on their way north.“This... this has Court writing on it!” Nayu hissed.  Did father steal it?  Did a noble sell it to father for something?  What?  “How... Where?”“My son... I have to take the place of your father.  On your eighteenth birthday, he meant to tell you the following... the secret of the Wakabayashi family.”  She gave a sigh.  “I must caution you, that you keep this secret closely guarded, especially in these dark times.  Your father and I were taken in because this secret became known to that Councillor.”Nayu nodded numbly, alternately staring at his mother and the priceless seal in his hands.“Many years ago, when the Emperor Xuandi ruled from the Jade City, his eldest son, Prince Huang, fell in love with a follower of Shenyang, a commoner named Diao Xi.  When he married her despite his father’s disapproval, his brothers engineered his birthright to be stripped from him, and the Prince to be banished to the north... Heaven was displeased, the nation almost fell into civil war until Huang’s brothers had him killed...”“What does that have to do with father?” Nayu asked numbly. “They did not kill him before Diao Xi became pregnant with his son.  Diao Xi hid away, becoming a widow and farmer in the town of Red Lotus,” Su began, as Nayu’s face dawned in slow recognition.  “Her son lived long, and sired only one son... who also lived long, siring one son... you,” Su replied simply, before looking at the ground.  “By all rights, Prince Huang should have become Emperor after his father, and the eldest of his sons after him.  Your grandfather was Huang’s only son, and your father was your grandfather’s only son.”And I am an only son... Nayu thought, his brain trying to wrap around the new information, before it hit him like a tidal wave.“That’s... that’s why the Imperial Councillor killed father.”  Nayu looked down at the seal, the sunlight reflecting brilliantly off of the ruby on its top.“This seal is the seal of Prince Huang, whom many regarded as Huangdi, Emperor of Ak Konylu.  And by Heaven’s will and intents...”Nayu nodded grimly in understanding.  Su sighed again, before looking to her son. “Your father, like his father before him, chose not to assert any claim, instead living peacefully and quietly, content to provide for his family.  The family claim,” she gently clasped her son’s hands around the seal, “is now yours, Nayu.  Yours to guard, and to pass on to your children, until Heaven’s Will manifests itself, and the time is right for the claim to be made public.”  “Nayu, you look worn out,” Cho observed as the sorcerer almost stumbled into the small house.  “Are you all right?” The monk set down the vase he’d been instructed to examine, until Nayu waved him off.“I’m fine, really.”“What’d your mother have to say, and did she give you that box she was clutching so tight?” Felonca asked, dumping a vase out, causing a clatter as hundreds of silver taels rattled across the ground.“Yes, she gave me my father’s last gift,” Nayu replied numbly.“Well, what is it?” Felonca hopped up, the looting of coins having put her in a far better mood.  When Nayu didn’t respond immediately, she crossed her arms.  “C’mon!  There are quite a few curious people here!”“It was something very personal, Felonca,” Nayu replied, sounding immensely tired.“Oh,” her face went down, detecting the slight admonishment.  “Well, its good you have whatever it was then.”  She started pushing the silver taels into Nayu’s magical bag, before she suddenly stopped.  “If you really don’t want me to know, I won’t snoop,” she added softly, prompting Nayu to give a real smile for the first time since they’d arrived in the house of horrors.“I know... I trust you, my friend.”  He then leaned down, and scooped up some of the coins.  “It looks like you could use some help there... I can be some additional hands if you like.”“Hmm, I think I’m rubbing off,” she smirked, giving him a pat on the shoulder before pointing him towards a corner where a few walking sticks were stacked.  They looked beautiful and elegant, intricately carved.  “I need to know if those are magical, and if they are, tell Liu so he can check if their evil.  Then, I need you to take a look at...”</blockquote>

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