Scribe of Thoth

Scion: The Prophecy of Anani

---

Maya's investigative strategy was entirely too predictable, but Tyler couldn't argue with the results. So the professor was in class still. Either they'd arrived early or the man was terrible at scheduling his meetings. Whatever, no harm done, just something he could complain about if the man gave him attitude. Which was a distinct possibility, given that he was acquainted with Lucas. He followed along idly, unconcerned with the rest of the university now that they'd been given a location. So long as all the student kept a respectful distance, they may as well have not even existed in Tyler's mind. Unfortunately, he soon had bigger problems to worry about and gawking nerds, as the small comfort he'd just attained was ripped away from him at the hands of a Kaudian escort outside a room he'd bet his manasaber was L105.

Edmund wisely decided to hold Maya back while the creepy fucker went to play diplomacy, and though Tyler was quite willing to start an international incident of his own, he opted to stand and fume. Maybe he'd get lucky and they'd try something on Allard. It'd be a quick fight - they were probably unarmed. At least, they should be. The school was stupid enough letting them on campus, but he supposed he shouldn't've expected some ivory tower academics to understand their own safety. When the Kaudian dignitary himself stepped out, it was all Tyler could do to not throw him into a wall and figure out what business he conveniently had with Rhaveus by force. His interest in Lucas was a damning crime all on its own, as after as Tyler was concerned, and he wasn't very subtle in the way he rested a hand on the hilt of his blade when the Kaudian's eyes moved to him.

Smug piece of shit. The professor was getting one hell of a scolding for even entertaining that jackass, and campus security was next. Meeting with the enemy after being entrusted to investigate the death of a holy Scion. How disgraceful. Unfortunately, he'd spent too much time gawking at the enemy to get a word in, as he filed into the classroom just in time for Rhaveus to break into his lecture. Most of it went over his head, but the Templar was fairly certain he got the gist.

Mana negation. That would explain why the Scions seemingly lost the favor of the Goddess back at the party, and why his manasaber kept flickering during the duel. But it didn't explain why the Templars were unaffected. Scion magic was different from other types, and the mana it harnessed likely was as well, but Templars would have to draw on the same exact mana, right?

He shook his head. Better left to the academics. The car was the more important issue. They must've shut it and Theo's power down in one fell swoop, and taken advantage of the confusion to capture him for whatever the hell that dickless toaster needed to steal. Giles Manor was a cult success before the party had even begun.

"None of the Templars were affected," Tyler huffed with a grimace, "Which means that idiot would still be here if he hadn't insisted on dicking off on his own." Theodore was getting the chiding of an (after)lifetime when Tyler saw him again, he swore. It almost made yelling at Rhaveus seem pointless.

Though, speaking of the potential enemy spy...

"Wait, can we even trust this guy? He's entertaining Kaudian dignitaries while on classified business for the Church. I'm more interested in that before we hand over any more information." Tyler leveled an accusatory glare toward the professor. It didn't matter how vital this quack's brain was to the investigation, he wasn't going to sit by and let a Kaudus sympathizer pretend to be buddy-buddy with them. If he was really that important, Allard left a cell open for him to study in anyway.

---

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

---

The massive monk apparently wasn't the only person who felt brave today, as an armed woman rushed out to the old man's defense. At least, Tao had assumed it was bravery. The words that left her mouth made it seem more like stupidity. Obviously the man didn't have proof, or he would've had the old man bound in stone and carted off already, but waving that in his face wouldn't deter him; he was there to obtain proof. Worse, she clearly knew the old man, so there probably wouldn't be any talking her down. That should've been Tao's cue to evacuate the scene, but the monk turned on him before he could make his escape.

The airbender was certainly polite and, in normal circumstances, Tao would've gladly entertained his humble request, but he could only assume it was a preface to him doing something drastic and the wayward Water Tribesman couldn't risk being implicated as his accomplice. Even if through something as silly as holding his sack while he- oh, blessed Moon Spirit, he dropped it.

"Hey, wait, I-" Tao staggered backward as the weight of the rice sack fell into his arms, far heavier than he'd been prepared to lift on such abrupt notice. He pulled it into his chest on instinct, which proved to be a mistake as the telltale tremors of earthbending shook his already unsteady footing to send him gracelessly down onto his ass. A muffled "Oof-" escaped him at the collision, but he had little chance to sit and recover; the telltale sounds of grinding rock and flying boulders told him he needed to move first and complain later.

Tao shrugged the sack off his chest to heave it onto the ground beside him and shot up to a combat base. Bitterly, he considered the rock wall that now separated the violence from the crowd and how he could've been on the safer side of that barrier had the monk not hoisted his burdens on him in the most literal sense. Polite as he was though, it was hard to blame the airbender, so Tao would have to settle for the woman. Typical.

It helped that the monk still seemed committed to talking the situation out, though Tao didn't think it would be worth much at this point. The woman had clearly made the first strike, legal citation or not, and the commanding officer's wounded pride would have the fishery torched before he admitted a mistake now. With a weary glance down at the sack, Tao scooped it back up and made for the edge of the water under the guise of a fleeing bystander. He would've left it, but of the three potential rebels he'd encountered, the airbender seemed to be the most likely to survive this encounter, so it'd pay to ingratiate himself to the man. Besides, the monk had asked.

There was no way the woman would be able to hold her own against that many earthbenders unless she pulled out some bending of her own, but she could have friends waiting in the wings, given her confidence. Tao needed to wait for the tide of battle to flow in her favor - or, more realistically, wait to see the monk's plan of action - then intervene with something decisive.

---

@Asura

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

---

This was not the Earth Kingdom Tao knew. Or, at least, he thought he knew a different one, but would he have even noticed from behind the walls of Ba Sing Se? The other settlement he'd passed had been similarly downcast, but that was a small fishing village, and this looked as though it had once been a busy port in its heyday. The people trudged the streets like zombies and shied away in fear of every Earth Kingdom soldier they passed; no longer were they stalwart protectors, this was an occupation. Soon, the harbor would be another staging ground for the crown's blockade, or at the very least used to maintain a garrison in anticipation of a Southern Water Tribe offensive.

It wouldn't kill them to treat the kingdom's actual subjects better than their enemies though, would it?

Regardless of the town's status, Tao hadn't intended to stay long. The army was nonsensically mobilizing southeastward despite no sensible military target existing in that direction. Unless the Eastern Air Temple had grown bold enough to be considered a threat - which Tao doubted; they weren't just airbenders, they were women - something had to have occurred inside the Kingdom. Pessimistically? A small peasant uprising. Optimistically? The resistance proper had gained ground already. Ideally? The Avatar. Regardless, it seemed the most logical direction to travel. Gaoling stood in his path, and surely such a large city would have at least some resistance presence that could point him in the right direction, even if finding them was another matter entirely. It also let him stick to the coast, which was a boon in a land that may very well consider him an enemy now.

It wasn't a challenge to copy the other weary residents of Lazhou, and Tao guiltily preferred it that way. If everyone kept their head down like a fugitive, the real fugitives could blend right in. Which was precisely why, when a commotion broke out, Tao made like the rest of the commoners and walked the other direction. But then they started shouting about fugitives. Tao had no idea about the workings of this village. He had no idea if these soldiers accused anyone they could of treason as an excuse for a shakedown. He had no idea if this old man was even guilty. All he knew was that there was a chance the man was, and that could lead him to the resistance.

It also meant he couldn't let the man be taken in, but how would he possibly do that without ending up in a cell along with him?

Tao snuck closer to the scene, trying to blend in with the other townsfolk that were too curious for their own good and stopped to watch. He had to internally take back his earlier comment about airbenders, apparently, given some utter specimen of the Air Nomad race was currently his saving grace in a manner toeing the line of pacifism and tossing worldly detachment entirely out the window. Was he with the resistance too? No airbender would get involved otherwise.

But that still begged the question of what he was supposed to do. Tao might've been able to fake his way into the Earth Kingdom's good graces by exploiting his father's status, but he couldn't do that if he was openly opposed to them. Maybe he could save the airbender and leave the old man to his fate. He'd have to appear innocuous- damn it, he was becoming his father.

Yet, he had little choice. If things got hectic, they were at least near enough to the water that he wouldn't feel totally defenseless. So, he approached the imposing monk and offered his hands in a placative gesture. Not too supportive of the soldiers, not too against them either. He could do this.

"Sorry to intrude, um, sir," Tao announced his presence mousily, "Maybe you shouldn't get involved. I'm sure this is all a very big misunderstanding. These fugitives are probably steering clear of the city anyway." Hopefully they weren't actually out there and he didn't just consign anybody to internment, but he really needed either these soldiers gone or the monk to stand down.

---

@Asura

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.

_{"A hidden stone may shatter a plow, but a hidden current will drag a man to his death. Even the most adamant rock cannot outlast the river's erosion forever.
When it crumbles at last, my family will be whole again, and I can return home."}

_NAME

Tao Huangzi

_AGE

18

_BIRTHPLACE

Ba Sing Se, Earth Kingdom

_ELEMENT

Water

_{APPEARANCE DETAILS}

Tao is a foreigner no matter where in the world he goes. Though he has the striking blue eyes of a Water Tribesman, his complexion is far more at home in the northern Earth Kingdom, and his features aren't quite typical in either. His face resembles both and neither of his parents' at the same time, with his father's sharp eyes subdued by his mother's demure eyelashes, and her soft jawline sharpened with his father's chin. He has a lithe build atypical of a hardy Earth Kingdom native, born of a life of leisure rather than hardship or starvation, and accustomed to the dancelike flow of the waterbending arts. This is accentuated by his attire; outside the frigid poles, he prefers the flowing attire of the Earth Kingdom, both for its familiarity and its helpfulness in blending in, though he's still petulantly fond of blues and whites.

_PERSONALITY

"You are not a child of the earth, Tao. You are only as rigid as you need to be. Water has no shape. Water is flexible. Be as the flowing river. Be as the raging tsunami. Be as the stalwart glacier. Be whatever you must to suit the moment."

Tao is no stranger to the role of the outsider, and has thus embraced it. He has a friendly nature, even if it can be hard to see under a reserved and awkward exterior, but he rarely considers himself truly integrated into a group. To this end, he tries to be very adaptable. He believes he cannot find a space for himself through commonality, so he weaponizes his differences in order to ingratiate himself to others. As his father would say, every group has a weakness, whether through their values or simply the combined shortcomings of those that compose it, and Tao aims to fill these weaknesses as surely as water fills the vessel it inhabits. He is the unconventional solution, the Vaatu's advocate, the fresh perspective to a tired problem. Failure is simply the result of one lacking the fluidity to attack the problem from another angle.

Expectedly, he finds it all rather lonely. The only people with whom he's ever felt as though he truly fit in was with his family, which now stands in jeopardy due to the war. Beyond this, Tao has a tendency to cling to those who are nice to him, though he's thankfully a bit too shy to be overbearing with it. He also despises liars, and the dishonesty demanded of returning to the Earth Kingdom, much less taking part in a rebellion, unfortunately grate heavily on his patience, even if his misgivings are ultimately overwhelmed by his drive to end the war and return to Ba Sing Se.

_BIOGRAPHY

"The clever bird chooses the branch whereon to perch; the wise servant selects the master to serve. Seize the chance when it comes, for repentance ever comes too late."

_{—From The Romance of the Three Elements}

Though a waterbender, Tao was born in Ba Sing Se, and spent his childhood in a luxurious apartment in the Upper Ring of the city. His mother was an immigrant from the Northern Water Tribe who left to ply her healing arts in the wider world, and his father was a native-born agent of the Dai Li under King Xiong and later King Wei. The family knew little of his work, only that he was a peacekeeper for the crown and the city, and that his frequent fishing trips to Lake Laogai were probably more work-related than he let on. Tao was shielded from many of the worsening conditions for foreigners across the nation by his father's position, but he felt like no less of an outsider, especially in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, where foreigners were rare beyond visiting dignitaries. His mother was the only waterbender he'd ever met, and her womanly education in the north could show him little more than the fundamentals. Attempts at practicing with other children left him with little choice but to try and replicate earthbending with ice, to limited success.

This seemed like it would change six years ago, when Tao's father cryptically announced that dangerous events were in the works, and he was moving the family to Northern Water Tribe territory until it all blew over. While Tao was hesitant to leave the only home he'd ever known, Agna Qel'a promised a new beginning; for the first time, he'd be among fellow waterbenders, he'd have a role in a collective united by more than just geographic location. At least, that was the idea. The reality was less than ideal. While never one to enjoy the heat, the biting cold of the north pole was still a far cry from a Ba Sing Se winter, and the local cuisine left a lot to be desired. Likewise, his father's status meant nothing in the frozen city, and he was reduced from pampered gentry to just another tribesman. It was a hard adjustment. The one saving grace was that he was formally enrolled under a waterbending master for training, and he took to it swimmingly. The initial learning curve was rough, as Tao had to unlearn his earthbending-inspired philosophy and relearn how to be a waterbender proper, but the lessons were far more engaging than his mother's rudimentary teachings.

Still, he was even more of an outsider among the other students than he was in the Earth Kingdom. He didn't know how to hunt a seal or dive for sea prunes - he barely knew how to swim before moving to the north. His culture was foreign and nonsensical to the traditionalist Water Tribe, which made him an interesting visitor but not an accepted member of a tight-knit tribe. They were polite, friendly even, but it was clear that Tao was not one of them. Nor did he want to be; with the reality of the north falling short of his hopes, Tao longed to return to his home in Ba Sing Se. He trusted that his father would not steer the family wrong, but he couldn't fathom what threat could possibly justify leaving the eternal walls of Ba Sing Se for a shoddy replica carved from ice and snow.

Tao thought he received his answer when the war broke out. The real answer came months later, when his father was brought before the chief on charges of espionage. Though the ostensible reasons for their relocation may have played a role in Tao's father's decision to flee the Earth Kingdom, his primary motivation was to act as a spy for the Earth King in the Northern Water Tribe. He and his mother naturally fell under suspicion as well, and any good will he had accumulated evaporated nearly overnight, and with it left any ties Tao had to the Water Tribes. He wanted to return home with his family, even if his father was a liar who broke his mother's heart, but that was impossible with the Earth Kingdom's descent into tyranny and his father's new status as a prisoner of war besides.

The solution was simple; he'd have to help end the war. Since his mother was barred from participating in military affairs, Tao had volunteered for a blockade run to the south pole to help prove his innocence. The expedition took damage during one of their encounters with the Earth Kingdom navy and docked in the southeastern edge of the continent for repairs when they heard the news of the Avatar's alleged return. That seemed a far more prudent method of ending the war decisively than merely ferrying messages between the Water Tribes, so Tao, now back in his homeland, set off in search of the elusive resistance. Wary of Tao being a saboteur to their own mission, his fellow warriors from the Water Tribe did little to stop him.

_TRIVIA

• Though formally trained by a Northern Water Tribe sifu, Tao seems as though he intends to emulate earthbending whenever he has access to large quantities of ice, using it much as an earthbender would utilize rock.
• He carries an Earth Kingdom dadao slung across his back, for when his waterbending is inaccessible or otherwise ineffective.
• Tao isn't fond of heights.

Scion: The Prophecy of Anani

---

Tyler was not, as anyone even briefly acquainted with him could attest, at home in any institutions of higher learning. Academia was boring and composed of out of touch weirdos, who all said insane things you would never hear anyone in the real world actually say. And they'd look at you like an idiot for not agreeing. He didn't care how many slap-fights these nerds allegedly got into, he didn't belong here. The revelation that Lucas had been accepted here was just the cherry on top of the sundae; if they all acted like him, Tyler might be the one starting fistfights instead.

While not particularly threatened by the initial swarm of fans, he did his best to keep himself between any squealing sycophants and Lucas. Pictures were fine - he knew this venture wouldn't be able to avoid publicity - but why did they always feel the need to try and touch? He'd grabbed plenty of Scion over his career by now, and he'd yet to receive any blessings of good luck. Quite the opposite, actually, and he doubted a bunch of researchers and overeager students would enjoy always living in the midst of interesting times the way he did.

Once past the crowds, Tyler allowed himself to relax. A hoity-toity university was exactly the place heresy would spread, if you asked him, but none of the bookworms they passed struck him as particularly threatening. Not that he didn't openly stare at anyone that wandered too close regardless. When they arrived at their destination only to find it uninhabited, he sighed.

"Probably teaching a class, isn't that his job?" Tyler offered cluelessly. Lucas had probably told him the man's field of study several times already, but he couldn't recall for the life of him whether it sounded like something practical or if it was theoretical arcanodynamics or something equally made-up. Maybe he was in a lab or something. "Bit impolite to keep a Scion waiting, and a prince besides. Sacrelige, even. Do I get to start kicking down doors or do you have other ideas?"

At least, he hoped this tenured prick was just being flippant with his time and not kidnapped by the cult, because that would probably kill whatever sense of control the Scions had left, not to mention set a horrible precedent for any possible links to Theodore they had.

---

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

@Scribe of Thoth Out of curiosity, how much interaction does Tao have with the populace of Ba Sing Se? He basically lived as a normal kid through his upbringing there or was a he mostly aloof? I'm not certain how much connection to some of the existing NPCs he may have without understanding this better!

@Achronum

He was fairly normal but he kept to the hoity-toity rich areas as an ethnic minority among what I assume was an increasingly jingoistic population during Wei's reign, so he wasn't exactly popular. He'd definitely know any officials that his father would've interacted with openly, even if in a "say hi to Minister Zhong, Tao" capacity, and he'd at least be passingly familiar with other kids from the upper ring, with a probable preference for nonbenders since earthbender kids were basically a sour reminder he wasn't an earthbender.

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.

_{"A hidden stone may shatter a plow, but a hidden current will drag a man to his death. Even the most adamant rock cannot outlast the river's erosion forever.
When it crumbles at last, my family will be whole again, and I can return home."}

_NAME

Tao Huangzi

_AGE

18

_BIRTHPLACE

Ba Sing Se, Earth Kingdom

_ELEMENT

Water

_{APPEARANCE DETAILS}

Tao is a foreigner no matter where in the world he goes. Though he has the striking blue eyes of a Water Tribesman, his complexion is far more at home in the northern Earth Kingdom, and his features aren't quite typical in either. His face resembles both and neither of his parents' at the same time, with his father's sharp eyes subdued by his mother's demure eyelashes, and her soft jawline sharpened with his father's chin. He has a lithe build atypical of a hardy Earth Kingdom native, born of a life of leisure rather than hardship or starvation, and accustomed to the dancelike flow of the waterbending arts. This is accentuated by his attire; outside the frigid poles, he prefers the flowing attire of the Earth Kingdom, both for its familiarity and its helpfulness in blending in, though he's still petulantly fond of blues and whites.

_PERSONALITY

"You are not a child of the earth, Tao. You are only as rigid as you need to be. Water has no shape. Water is flexible. Be as the flowing river. Be as the raging tsunami. Be as the stalwart glacier. Be whatever you must to suit the moment."

Tao is no stranger to the role of the outsider, and has thus embraced it. He has a friendly nature, even if it can be hard to see under a reserved and awkward exterior, but he rarely considers himself truly integrated into a group. To this end, he tries to be very adaptable. He believes he cannot find a space for himself through commonality, so he weaponizes his differences in order to ingratiate himself to others. As his father would say, every group has a weakness, whether through their values or simply the combined shortcomings of those that compose it, and Tao aims to fill these weaknesses as surely as water fills the vessel it inhabits. He is the unconventional solution, the Vaatu's advocate, the fresh perspective to a tired problem. Failure is simply the result of one lacking the fluidity to attack the problem from another angle.

Expectedly, he finds it all rather lonely. The only people with whom he's ever felt as though he truly fit in was with his family, which now stands in jeopardy due to the war. Beyond this, Tao has a tendency to cling to those who are nice to him, though he's thankfully a bit too shy to be overbearing with it. He also despises liars, and the dishonesty demanded of returning to the Earth Kingdom, much less taking part in a rebellion, unfortunately grate heavily on his patience, even if his misgivings are ultimately overwhelmed by his drive to end the war and return to Ba Sing Se.

_BIOGRAPHY

"The clever bird chooses the branch whereon to perch; the wise servant selects the master to serve. Seize the chance when it comes, for repentance ever comes too late."

_{—From The Romance of the Three Elements}

Though a waterbender, Tao was born in Ba Sing Se, and spent his childhood in a luxurious apartment in the Upper Ring of the city. His mother was an immigrant from the Northern Water Tribe who left to ply her healing arts in the wider world, and his father was a native-born agent of the Dai Li under King Xiong and later King Wei. The family knew little of his work, only that he was a peacekeeper for the crown and the city, and that his frequent fishing trips to Lake Laogai were probably more work-related than he let on. Tao was shielded from many of the worsening conditions for foreigners across the nation by his father's position, but he felt like no less of an outsider, especially in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, where foreigners were rare beyond visiting dignitaries. His mother was the only waterbender he'd ever met, and her womanly education in the north could show him little more than the fundamentals. Attempts at practicing with other children left him with little choice but to try and replicate earthbending with ice, to limited success.

This seemed like it would change six years ago, when Tao's father cryptically announced that dangerous events were in the works, and he was moving the family to Northern Water Tribe territory until it all blew over. While Tao was hesitant to leave the only home he'd ever known, Agna Qel'a promised a new beginning; for the first time, he'd be among fellow waterbenders, he'd have a role in a collective united by more than just geographic location. At least, that was the idea. The reality was less than ideal. While never one to enjoy the heat, the biting cold of the north pole was still a far cry from a Ba Sing Se winter, and the local cuisine left a lot to be desired. Likewise, his father's status meant nothing in the frozen city, and he was reduced from pampered gentry to just another tribesman. It was a hard adjustment. The one saving grace was that he was formally enrolled under a waterbending master for training, and he took to it swimmingly. The initial learning curve was rough, as Tao had to unlearn his earthbending-inspired philosophy and relearn how to be a waterbender proper, but the lessons were far more engaging than his mother's rudimentary teachings.

Still, he was even more of an outsider among the other students than he was in the Earth Kingdom. He didn't know how to hunt a seal or dive for sea prunes - he barely knew how to swim before moving to the north. His culture was foreign and nonsensical to the traditionalist Water Tribe, which made him an interesting visitor but not an accepted member of a tight-knit tribe. They were polite, friendly even, but it was clear that Tao was not one of them. Nor did he want to be; with the reality of the north falling short of his hopes, Tao longed to return to his home in Ba Sing Se. He trusted that his father would not steer the family wrong, but he couldn't fathom what threat could possibly justify leaving the eternal walls of Ba Sing Se for a shoddy replica carved from ice and snow.

Tao thought he received his answer when the war broke out. The real answer came months later, when his father was brought before the chief on charges of espionage. Though the ostensible reasons for their relocation may have played a role in Tao's father's decision to flee the Earth Kingdom, his primary motivation was to act as a spy for the Earth King in the Northern Water Tribe. He and his mother naturally fell under suspicion as well, and any good will he had accumulated evaporated nearly overnight, and with it left any ties Tao had to the Water Tribes. He wanted to return home with his family, even if his father was a liar who broke his mother's heart, but that was impossible with the Earth Kingdom's descent into tyranny and his father's new status as a prisoner of war besides.

The solution was simple; he'd have to help end the war. Since his mother was barred from participating in military affairs, Tao had volunteered for a blockade run to the south pole to help prove his innocence. The expedition took damage during one of their encounters with the Earth Kingdom navy and docked in the southeastern edge of the continent for repairs when they heard the news of the Avatar's alleged return. That seemed a far more prudent method of ending the war decisively than merely ferrying messages between the Water Tribes, so Tao, now back in his homeland, set off in search of the elusive resistance. Wary of Tao being a saboteur to their own mission, his fellow warriors from the Water Tribe did little to stop him.

_TRIVIA

• Though formally trained by a Northern Water Tribe sifu, Tao seems as though he intends to emulate earthbending whenever he has access to large quantities of ice, using it much as an earthbender would utilize rock.
• He carries an Earth Kingdom dadao slung across his back, for when his waterbending is inaccessible or otherwise ineffective.
• Tao isn't fond of heights.

If you notice anything wrong with my lazy photoshop no you don't

Avatar: Title Pending (lol)

I'm in too but you knew that

Scion: The Prophecy of Anani

---

Zach could not say he was happy with the Mother's plan as of late. Tragedy upon tragedy befell Her chosen, to say nothing of the rest of the nation. A Scion missing and later murdered, the king dead, and Kasper - it wasn't fair. Zach felt as if he'd done nothing but attend funerals and pray for the past few weeks, which was still a morbid improvement from watching Kasper decline, guilty as it was to admit. Who needed cultists when fate was so cruel already?

The resumption of his duties brought no respite either. Reassignment to a new Scion was as bitter as it was relieving - lightning this time, not shadow. He didn't know if it would've been easier or harder to see another Scion of Shadow standing beside him. He didn't really wish to know either. Not that he'd made much use of his blessing prior; it would, in theory, be an easy adjustment for him to receive a new element. But the news came with conditions that brought no peace to his heart. Zach desired to be of service, to do good in the world, especially in such troubled times, yet the High Cardinal informed him that the position demanded vigilance not only from without, but from within. He was not to be a protector, but a jailer.

The new Scion of Lightning was a criminal, and Zach was given explicit orders to watch him very carefully. He'd wanted to protest; Kasper had slipped away from him countless times, he was hardly the person to be entrusted with such a rigorous task, but then he considered who might be assigned in his place. Renault's crimes were not - on the surface, at least - irredeemably damning. It wasn't like he was an unrepentant mass murderer or serial rapist. Granted, he was a politician, which some would argue was even worse, but his crime was trying to access forbidden magics. He could speculate on what the man intended to do with such power, but it would only ever be that, speculation. This was not a soul he could dismiss out of hand, and that gave him pause. Surely the Church could find another Templar, one less merciful and less willing to see the good in a downtrodden criminal. It might've been what Renault deserved, but embittering a holy Scion was not something the nation needed right now.

So Zacharie accepted.

The man was... strange. Weird hair, predatory smile, fake-charming in the way he'd imagine a spider would be to a fly. Appearance aside, exactly the type of person one would imagine to be involved in politics. Even his blessing felt political; Renault simply shook Zach's hand, as if they'd closed some important deal and not sealed a covenant before Almighty Incepta. The new Scion of Lightning spent much of his time after acclimating to the outside world again, catching up on current affairs, the types of thing Zach assumed one did when they were released from a lengthy imprisonment. If he had family or loved ones, Zach didn't see them. He decided not to pry.

Seeing the summons from the Scion of Time was a surprise, given how hushed the entire ordeal of Renault's Scionhood had been kept by the Church. An invitation to all Scions was an invitation to all Scions, he supposed, but to organize such in only a week was a level of thoughtfulness Zach didn't figure the prince had in him. The introduction once they'd actually arrived shocked him more; Prince Lucas had been downright courteous, which was more than he could say about the rest of the room, already arguing before the meeting had even begun. He kept to the fringes of the discussion, hovering dutifully behind Renault as expected. The food might've been an appealing way to avoid any questioning pointed his way, for what a mere Templar's opinion was worth here, anyway, but one look at the cookies just reminded him of Kasper at Sir Tyler's blessing ceremony and that soured any appetite he could muster.

"If I may, esteemed Scions," Zach piped up, "I don't believe this conversation is going anywhere. No one in this room is directly drafting the war declaration, no matter how much some of us may like to." He didn't have a solution to the Kaudian problem either, but war would solve nothing of their current woes and only breed more sorrow for the nation at large. His Scion raised an excellent point as well; should these enemies of the faith turn out to not even be Kaudian, they'd only be turning their backs on the threat they already faced, and if they were, he doubted an invasion would end in a decisive conquest if the enemy could disable and capture any Scions on the frontline on a whim, no matter how intent Scion Theobald was on printing his name in the history books beside Alderman.

"We should be looking at more immediate and actionable solutions rather than drawn-out campaigns on the Kaudian front, don't you agree?"

---

Scion: The Prophecy of Anani

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In troubled times, it was important to cherish the little victories. Even if they came in the form of more work. It wasn't too hefty of a task, getting the Lucanian - Goddess, did this prick have no shame? - guard up to snuff; the existing force was more than adequate, but they were at war and a peacetime battalion simply wasn't something Tyler felt comfortable trusting. Sure, the castle security guarded royalty and behaved accordingly, but the staffing was a tad sparse to be fending off cultist attacks. That meant vetting new personnel, making sure everyone was adequately trained for a real attack and not just unruly pedestrians, establishing a sensible chain of command, on top of everything else he'd have had to do to settle in anyway. The upside was that it kept him in good shape. While not entirely out of practice back in the ballroom, testing the mettle of his new team definitely whipped him back into a fighting shape more to his comfort.

Now the castle had a full security detail and enough personnel in reserve to nearly defend a second Lucania Castle, with a schedule that kept every guardsman well-rested and well-drilled in the event of an attack. Lucas had simply waved his hand when asked about the budget, and Tyler certainly wasn't going to argue. Unfortunately, it was almost all for naught as Lucas somehow managed to end up fucking hospitalized. At least he got to miss that stupid coronation. King Ezekiel, what a joke. As if Lucas needed another thing to be smug about. He'd been infuriatingly coy about his stupid magic fork, though whatever it was seemed to have spooked him enough that he probably thought he was doing Tyler a favor by omitting information. Naturally, Tyler assumed it would blow up in both their faces and planned accordingly.

Other than that, Estoran palatial life was Estoran palatial life as he'd always known it, though the company was a bit worse this time around. The letter from Theo's mother still sat on his desk somewhere, along with a few half-written replies he gave up on when he couldn't think of what to say. Theodore would've just told him what to write by now.

Maybe he could write that down.

His stresses were overwritten by more pressing matters to stress over before he could, however, as Lucas informed him he intended to call a meeting of the Scions and 'invoke a prophecy', whatever the fuck that meant. At least he was only in charge of security, which was a surprisingly easy task given the guests were solely Scions and Templars. Anyone else was to be detained or dealt with, naturally. Tyler didn't practice a very PR-friendly brand of security, and he made this very clear to his new team.

Of course, the arguments started before the meeting did. While he couldn't help but agree with her, at least superficially, Belle played the part of a bitchy girlfriend trying to talk her man into a fight on her behalf wonderfully. Tyler had intended to lounge around for the entire meeting, quite frankly, but it seemed he'd have to play babysitter after all. No, mediator. Theodore called it mediating.

"Relax, ladies, you're both pretty," Tyler chimed in wearily as the flow of guests filed into the room, "I personally don't think any of our neighbors have the b-" Damn it, Rosemary. "-bravery to intervene on behalf of Kaudus. They'll huff, they'll call us warmongers, and then they'll ultimately do nothing. But I believe His Highness has a point, we can't declare open war on Kaudus while these heretics already infest our borders. Clean house first, then move to the backyard."

Their casus belli was the murder of Theodore Estora IX, as far as Tyler was concerned, and the opinions of a bunch of foreigners mattered to him about as much as the Kaudians, but they needed to exercise some tact against a force that managed to kill two Scions already. They were diplomatically, morally, and - most importantly - spiritually in the right here, they might as well take advantage of it and embarrass Kaudus on every stage.

And if they told him to fuck off, at least he could always fall back to the 'gift ham'.

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