Tatterdemalion

Return to Thellamie

Yuki!

When the tablet shows a new message at breakfast, you nearly knock over the chai while trying to check it. It's just you and a Nagi maid in here, for now, and not a maid-knight either: just a girl about your age by the name of Pasenne who's handling setting the breakfast table and bringing dishes over. (A seven-course breakfast- expect nothing less from Sulochana.)

The Princess herself is still finishing up attending to her morning routine: hair wax, scale cream, killer eyeliner, a facial scrub followed by sunscreen, and then putting her hair up in an elaborate set of braids. That means Pasenne (and the private chef in the other room) are the only possible witnesses to you fumbling for the tablet and nearly spilling your drink all over yourself. But it's fine! You've got it! And...

>[.praxispacksis]
>I am so, so sorry about what happened last night!!
>I won't be able to talk much, but...
>Is Sulochana okay? I heard from Mekesh that she fought with the Khatun, and...
>Do you think she'll be angry with me if I DM her??
>And are YOU okay??

Also, unrelated to Juniper's guilty worry, palpable through the screen, a different message pops up.

>[.rockamt]
>Hey, squirt. Something's come up. I'm covering the Civil meeting this morning, but I need your help with an investigation. Think you can swing by so we can talk?
>Also, bring bruise cream if you've got it. I'm out.

(There's a non-zero chance that she'll pull you into private and strip so that you can slather it onto hard-to-reach places to soothe and heal bruises, let me be clear. Not in a flirting way, just in a "shit, can you get this for me?" sort of way. Right? Not swooning at the thought, are we?)

---

Tsane!

"...sending the Hero of Ages against the Mansion of the Dragons is unprecedented, Mason."
"So is a blatant attack against the Goddess in broad starlight, in the middle of a disruption of the proper order that the Stars had to mend! We do not know to what degree they are involved in this, to what degree they may have had a part in causing it, and to what degree they plan to take advantage of it!"
"Permission to interject?"
"Granted."
"It is precisely because we do not know that we cannot open a war on two fronts at this time, Brother Mason."
"We do not have a first front to begin with, Sister Emella. Despite the ill-conceived actions at last night's event, which the goddess was prevented from addressing due to Eclair Espoir's attack, the Khaganate is still under the guidance of the Church. Notably, no Khaganate member attempted to assault the Goddess last night."
"Counterpoint."
"Granted."
"Brother Mason, it is time for us to recognize that the western monasteries are at risk of being suborned by the Khaganate, if they have not already been. We will have time to reach out, formally make a complaint, and if necessary make disciplinary moves towards the Order of the Aurora if they are, in any organized way, involved in this event. The Golden Fawn's theft by Aestivali ashiqs is far more pressing, and we must face the fact that we may see open war between the Khaganate and the Aestivali High Council. We must make it clear that we disapprove in the strongest terms the disorder and misrule we saw last night at the feet of the very Goddess herself."
"Secretary, may I respond?"
"Granted. Brother Oli, you will then have the floor for the Highcrag Temples' delegation response to these issues."
"As the Goddess once said herself in the Third Incarnation, at times attempting to circumvent a coming event merely brings it to fruition..."

It's going to be like this for a while. The Kel haven't really made their rhetorical thrust yet (see Oli there, adjusting his spectacles and bouncing a little on his heels, eager to make the case that his delegation has agreed upon), but there's definitely a shearline through the assembled group on whether the Khaganate or the Order of the Aurora is the true threat that deserves to have Heron pointed at them. Do you happen to have any opinions on the matter yourself?

(Civelia is slowly disassembling the Sleepless Charm with her bare fingers. Motes of starlight float up and rest against her skin like reverse snowflakes. This is inefficient, entropic, and yet she seems to have something very deliberate in mind.)

---

Kalentia!

So this is a Lunarian, then.

Slight of frame. Willowy, even. Skin so pale that the intricate branching blue veins underneath it look like swirls in porcelain. The cut is all the more severe for contrast. Her severe bob of green-black hair was cut with absolute precision, but it's clear that she hasn't taken the helmet off to care for it in some time. Her fingers are long and slender. If Tsane were here she would likely be scribbling frantically, adding to the world's sum total of knowledge about these famous isolationists.

You, instead, are focused on the task of figuring out what sort of poultice would work on this injury that when she closes her fingers around your wrist, it's a complete surprise.

"Yaguka-omehi?" Her voice is weak and painfully aching with longing, but her eyes are bleary, right on the edge of waking and understanding. "oto-oloroametinakamato, oku-umetekiniqitoma..." The way she glides her thumb, gingerly, along your hand is the kind of thing that you were once super incredibly prepared for Heron to do to you.

And then her eyes open a little more, and a dark nictitating membrane flicks across them, and when it retracts she snatches her hand back like she suddenly realized that you were actually a goblin-bear made out of angry bees which were also Miaou-worshippers wreathed in the unholy fires of the underworld. Her cheeks flush indigo.

"...you are the mistaking of being before me," she says, hoarsely. "You are the, the, ika-tanatafekuixa, disallowing, unauthorization, the..."

If she gets overexcited then that is likely to make inflammation worse. As far as you know! Maybe their bodies are so different that it speeds the healing process! But down here, with the kind of people you're familiar with, that will make things worse if her heartrate and breathing spike like this.

---

Eclair!

Ruthmoreness being who she is, three things happen.

Firstly: the corner of the book's spine smacks her right in the middle of the forehead, sending her head back and the book straight up.
Secondly: Ruthmoreness's heels go out from under her and she sits down on the ground hard.
Thirdly: the book succumbs to the idea of weight and hits her right on the head again.

"Owwwww," she whimpers, rubbing at her forehead, even as with her other hand she fumbles it open. "Ma'am, I'm owed a forfeit for that." And that is... arguable! The sort of statement that would make other members of the Order, were they around, chime in either out loud or in their body language. On the one hand: you have acted in anger towards one of your fellow maids, knowing that once matters had left your hand, you were no longer in control of their trajectory. On the second hand: it is on Ruthmoreness, especially as a junior member and one only recently permitted to leave on missions, to have the necessary poise to catch the book out of midair. On the foot, it is unworthy to challenge a fellow maid in their weakness unless you are intending to assist in improvement.

She drops next to you in a clatter and shows you her strength in turn, her eyes wide and soft, her ears cocked just so, her smile crooked just the right way. "Won't you make it better, ma'am?" She holds up her bangs to show you exactly where you can perform the Ritual of Mending a Minor Hurt with your lips. She's well within her rights to claim that as a forfeit, if indeed her forfeit was rightful in the first place.

Out here, though, your comaids are not here to witness and weigh in. It is on you to uphold the standards of the Mansion. And it is up to you how you respond to her retort, which places you on the back foot in the Great Game. Certainly, you are a formidable piece, but if Ruthmoreness was not willing to make her plays where she saw the opportunity, she would not be in the Mansion to begin with.

To wit: you may give her that ritual kiss and a String, or you may spurn her and slide further into your own isolation.

---

Hazel!

"Oh, well, see?" Mel pouts as the Serigalamu touches his hat in apology. "Sorry for that. I'm Jaks--"

"OHOHOHOHOHO, do you not know who you see in front of you?!" Purnima Karn-Pana's voice bursts out over the crowd, and already the crowd's stirring into movement, trying to get out of the way of her... chariot?! Yes, a Nagi-designed chariot, pulled by three mismatched goblin-deer, each one with golden paint on their antlers. Long-suffering guards, at least one of which is definitely Gemes, follow in her wake. "That's right! Out of the way! I must be off to Aestival at once! Fear not, my loyal citizens, your compliance will be remembered when I come into my power and glory! Some of you will likely be fortunate enough to come to our wedding!"

She is. Definitely coming your way. You'll most likely have to Defy Disaster here one way or another, unless you want your little adventure to end in her coils. And you wouldn't want that, would you? Whether you want that or not, Amali is definitely prodding you with her foot, trying to get you to leap into action.

Breathless Dead

This, too, is a magic spell. It's one of the ones that the scouts of Ceron know, but which most shed as quickly as they can once they are proper knights and can pretend that they have never staked their dignity on a ritual approach to warfare.

This one is called "Oops!" when it is not called "In Sheep's Clothing."

One scout behind enemy lines can drive them into confusion, turmoil, and logistical bleed using this approach, as long as they are willing to both hide themselves in the servile busyness of the Synnefo and leave a trail of messes behind them. Do you have any idea what one innocent bride, taking it upon herself to help whenever she sees some place to step in and provide assistance, can do if she is deliberately clumsy enough? Even with no one to watch, she must (in order to do this properly) exclaim in dismay whenever a line gets cut, someone is sent the wrong way with a nonsense missive, volatile explosives tumble out of a crate and block a corridor, on and on and on, a zig-zagging path cut towards Liquid Bronze leaking chaos in its wake.

What ridiculousness that she mixes up her suit jacket with a domestic servitor's plain apron! How could she possibly mix up sending a message up to the kitchens and tripping an evacuation alarm on multiple sublevels? How easily she ducks out of the way of patrols, squeezes past drones while carrying a tray of meat smothered in Liquid Bronze's Epic Boarbristle Barbecue Sauce with an apologetic air, and then fumbles the tray all over the ship's inner shrines- but not to worry, she'll make it to her darling eventually.

Once she's run out of disasters to cause, that is.

Return to Thellamie

Hazel!

It's morning.

The rickshaw is balanced really well, all things considered. Amali is seated under the canopy, knitting needles clacking away. All around her, bolts of cloth and balls of yarn are heaped up, bagged, stacked, tucked into corners, and tied down to the roof. And you? Well, you're a strapping young lad, aren't you? And the desperation to help that you exude is palpable, particularly for the daughters of Aestival.

The crowd is packed in the streets; it's like trying to get up onto the highway after a music festival. You're rubbing shoulders with people from all over Thellamie, trying to fit that little rickshaw between wagons and families and the great goblin riding-beasts and Nagi who don't live in Crevas in ponchos and loose fur coats and beaded capes and veils and why are you staring shouldn't you be looking down at the cobblestones very seriously?

"Hey, venturer!" There's a couple next to you, lugging backpacks as the line to get on the Roads inches forward. Their tops have colorful repeated arrow patterns, zigging and zagging. "Do you happen to, like, know the Golden Fawn?"

"Mel, you can't just ask someone if he knows the Golden Fawn just because he has, you know...!" The Serigamalu man of the pair gestures awkwardly at your antlers, blushing as hard as you are. "Sorry," he stage-whispers, even as Mel looks up at you with wide and curious eyes.

Click, clack, click go the needles.

---

Yuki!

Sulochana is cuddly in her sleep.

The pajama top is, fortunately, long on you: designed for serpent-bodied Nagi. The sun filters through the gauzy curtains, bringing with it a warm breath of wind. Its rays touch you between the rare gap in Sulochana's coils. Somewhere nearby, Crevas-brand chai tea is being steeped, the spices tickling at the nose. But Sulochana's body pillow is on the rug and instead she's holding you fast.

You agreed, at some point last night, exhausted and heartweary and shuffling to bed, that you'd for sure get up early and be right onto the Roads to pursue Hazel! Surely you did. But despite your guilt, it's difficult to even think about getting up out of bed. That's just how it is. Sulochana is warm in the sun, her mattress is absurdly soft, and she's incredibly safe. Go ahead. Snuggle a little before you try to wake her up. She's the one who got stabbed, after all, and she needs that rest to recover properly.

After all, once you wake her up, she's going to have to decide what she's going to do about Hazel, and...

Maybe you can wriggle an arm out of her grasp to check your tablet, if you rest it against your breastbone?

---

Tsane!

Heroes.

Civils are taking their seats, a semicircle facing Heron, Civelia and a small sculpture of a chisel (itself representing the First Fallen). Almost nobody here has a free left arm: not at a meeting this important. Notebooks and tablets are sitting in laps as an expectant hush falls over the room. Very notably, there's a large gap on one side where the western monasteries should have sent their representatives.

They love heroes.

Kalentia and Cair are back at the Nexus, caring for the Lunarian (who, it turns out, was running a fever). Which means that it's you here, and naturally your old man, and likely... well, where are Injimo and Sayanastia? They could be in either place, I suppose.

They love the light of their hearts, cast by their shadow.

"Ten thousand thanks, my loyal servants," Civelia says, rising to her feet. Her hair's been elaborately styled, all ringlets and curls that are still as stone when she turns her head. "Once again, we find ourselves in the midst of crisis and tumult. Where the chaos of the Dark Dragon rears its head, there we shall be-- must be-- to restore serenity in the Hero's wake and to make her path clear. Upon this meeting's concluding, we shall have decided the course of action to bestow upon her as our sacred duty. I once again offer praise to the First Fallen for preparing for a moment such as this."

Heads are bowed for a moment, pens stilling and tails stilling. It's appropriate to take this moment to thank the First Fallen for creating the world and to consider your place in maintaining his creation. Such as, say, doing your best to understand creation and to catalogue its manifestations and shapes.

General Secretary Dasheka steps forward from where she stood beside the goddess. "We have three points of interest for this meeting. Firstly, the unexpected outcome of the Queen of Light ceremony, and the Golden Fawn's status as a person of interest in resolving the uncertainty around the Queen's identity. Secondly, how we as a body should respond to the actions of the Khatun of the Serigalamu last night. Thirdly, the attempted attack on the person of our Goddess by one of the Maid-Knights of the Order of the Aurora that also occurred last night..."

The arguments about what to do will go on for a while, but the Civils will be trying to adhere to Civelia's own rules of debate, so at least it'll go somewhere. She doesn't abide wasting time or not trying to apply logic properly to a problem.

---

Kalentia!

So here's the major question for you and Cair. Given that Fallen Far's arm has an infected cut, right where there was a rent in the armor: what have you removed in order to give her treatment? On the one hand, the Moon's got insanely strict purity and modesty laws, and you'll probably be risking further infection, but on the other hand... well, you've got to apply treatment somehow.

The Shadow's still watching you, but they seem content to coil up in a corner, mirror-eyes unblinkingly keeping vigil, drinking in everything that you do.

---

Eclair!

In the midst of the Outside, you find a place which has the weight of reality, at least for long enough to sit underneath a palm tree and drink from a stream. It is wickedly cold, and tastes faintly of basil. The light of the distant sun is golden and buttery where it filters through the leaves.

The crunch of brown grass underneath brown shoes. The logic of the half-real insists that the most important place be the most memorable, the most real, and what's more important than a meeting? For a moment, the black and white and steel makes you think, certainly, that you've somehow lured Timtam out to fight with you between home and the world, but no, it's not her.

"Well met, ma'am!" Ruthmoreness O'Tara waves with her whole arm at you before shouldering her board on its strap and clattering forward. Charms jangle on that strap, both to keep her safely on her way and because they're super cute you know? Her bonnet is strapped under her chin to keep it from falling right off her mop of hair.

You cannot confirm for yourself that she has not been suborned in whatever game Timtam's playing. But she brings with her petrichor and the kind of chill wind that brings strength back into the limbs, and she's barely avoiding tripping over her own feet (as usual). "Any messes to report, or aught of that sort?"

Return to Thellamie

End of Session 1 (Crevas): Mark 3 XP.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki!

“…what do you mean you arrested Yuki Edogawa?”

It’s later! A serpentine cordon has been placed around the entrance to the Crevas Stone, barring entry. See, the thing is, those fireworks have some enchantment on them which triggers if you get too close, which we all know because you got too close and nearly set off a disastrous chain reaction of explosions, and then you got tackled by a Nagi guard.

(They’re not quite the same as cops, incidentally. It’s technically a volunteer position, but it’s a power move for the ruling families to have enough members of their client families that they can make some take shifts in the city watch, and enough resources to pay them for their work. This also means that unlike cops, there’s a bunch of city guard cliques that don’t work together well, and like cops, some of them are thugs for hire on the side.)

So here you are, handcuffed and stuck under someone’s tail, and who’s come to save you but Sulochana? Okay, technically she’s here to figure out what happened, but—

“—she saved Thellamie and you decided it was a good idea to arrest her, do you have the brains that the First Fallen gave an ant—“

You have, unfortunately, had time to stew— to plead and be ignored— to worry about Hazel, gone with Seli and Keli and that villain maid— and to get a cramp in your shoulders.

That sounds like time enough to have taken a Condition, don’t you think?

But here’s the tail of Beti Karn-Daga slithering off you sheepishly, and Sulochana pulling you up onto your feet and sweeping you into a crushing, desperate hug. And she looks like she’s had as terrible a night as you have.

---

Eclair!

The wind kisses your face like the breath of slumbering dragons.

It’s later. The edge of a Hub, any one you care to name, tends to be rundown and poor when compared to the rich urban center. But you’re past even the shacks and the guardposts and the fertilizer warehouses now, staring out into the desert, its colors pale phantasms under the light of the judging moon and stars.

The Khatun and her pack have already had their tracks be blown away by that wind; on the horizon, they might as well be tricks of the Outside. They ride furiously, having lost whatever dispute they were having with the city guard of Crevas. But this barely matters to you, Eclair.

What matters is that you must pursue Timtam. Now, perhaps it would be more sensible for you to go back down into the city, examine crime scenes for clues, and be methodical about this.

But you’re not feeling particularly methodical, are you?

Because she’s out there. She’s played you for a fool. You’re no closer to understanding what she wants, why she’s betrayed you, or what she was doing in Crevas. And on a night like tonight, that might make a Knight of the Aurora march out into the desert, on the edge between the real and the half-real, chasing until she finally admits that she’s let the trail grow cold.

Not that Timtam will let— but I get ahead of myself.

---

Hazel!

Tsk tsk tsk young man. Thinking you could get away from Amali that easily! “Nonsense,” she says, with the sternness of (comparative) age. “You don’t know the first thing about evasion, stealth, or Stone-navigation! You’ll be snapped up as soon as a wink. But not to worry, Auntie knows a safe place to stay, one of the most comfortable and luxurious places from here to the Moon! And I’ll get you there, see if I don’t.”

The Chrysanthemum. Oh, I could roll that name (and more) around my tongue all day long.

She putters off (to check the locks on the door) and leaves you to your tea, and your tablet, and… oh, looks like you had a message from Yuki! Had, mind you.

Your fate’s in your hands. And Yuki, oh, she’s with a hunter. And you’ve just been promised comfort and luxury. Surely it wouldn’t be too bad to let that offer pass you by…?

---

Tsane!

What does the Hero’s Shadow want from an encounter? This. This moment of conviction. This unfolding of knowledge. This willingness to act. The Outside exists most strongly when it is being observed and has a frame of reference to be defined by. And this is their frame of reference.

They unfold their talons, holding out to you a folded square of palm leaves. Inside: the Sleepless Charm that Civelia once made for Heron when the Hero of Ages expressed a wish to be able to work around the clock. (The aftereffects, mind you, were detrimental enough that she went back to stimulant drinks in the end.)

Its chain is wrapped around a tube of resin.

“Cair should present as my shadow,” they say. They are filling the whole of the corridor. Their heat is suffusing clothing and hair. “Go before the Doll and fear you not.”

This is when the Lunarian’s knees finally start buckling, seeing as the fever’s really started to kick in.

Breathless Dead

Death in a deathless place is still holy, yet that does not mean that it is loved.

The moment when the drone dies is distinct. In one moment she is holding a drone, and in the next she is holding a body.

It doesn't fall apart. Bodies should, shouldn't they? It's still as it is, because one of the daughters of Artemis (like Bella) has done her sacred duty. Still. Limp. Empty.

Ember doesn't shiver. She doesn't make a face. She closes her eyes for a moment, and then she opens them. Then she sets the empty shell down on the bed, carefully, cradling the head on its broken neck.

She squats. Takes up the suit jacket again. Digs in a pocket until she finds the two coins down at the bottom.

"We summoned a monster of the void," she says, voice neutral and steady, as she lays the coins down. "I was the bait, and the ritual demanded that Liquid Bronze come and save me. But Love brought me here instead, and now... I'm alone. No pack, no ship. And if I don't make my way towards the bridge, then everything we did to call that Angelshark here will... I have to make my way up to him. But I can get you to a shuttle first."

The sir is unspoken.

Return to Thellamie

Hazel!

Well, we just have to start with you, sweet little thing. So nervous. So anxious. So desperate to be a good boy. (What, did you think you could hide these things from me?) You need approval. You need to be chased. And you need a blessing or you’re never even going to make it to the Chrysanthemum.

The thing about the kiss I give you— on the lips, with your lips, light passing between us like the heat of a summer’s dusk— is that, in a way, it’s your kiss for yourself that your heart wouldn’t admit it needed, but was screaming out for all the same. Keli’s my daughter, you must remember; I have a weakness for you soft little things. Especially ones with those sad little eyes like a wet kitten and that slender figure just made for playing dress-up and no idea of what to do with your hands while you’re standing.

But when I pull back, for a moment, you’ll be able to see the stars in my eyes (like in your gritty true crime drama, Oshi no Ko). I am old, darling (and in that moment, you intuit this). I am older than anyone in this world. I fell from Heaven because I could not help but make things more interesting. I am helping you, Hazel, because I think that you will be interesting. And if you bore me, I will not abandon you. Not without seeing if I can force you back into being entertaining first. And you should not, under any circumstances, underestimate my ability to make situations more entertaining.

You are cute. You are entertaining. You need to be comforted. You need to be tormented. You have my attention, Hazel Valentine Fletcher, my Golden Fawn, and the attention of any of Us is perilous.

Does that answer your question, sweetieantlers~?

---

Eclair!

The skateboarder, the maid, the prodigal, she has nine tails. Her own, which lashes with excitement as she speeds along, and the eight strings of firecrackers which trail from her hand, long and glimmering and Outside-touched.

She spares you a glance over her shoulder, through that laughing mask in black and white, and then builds speed, lifting up into a 1080 spin, giving her an excellent vantage point and momentum. With one hand she grips her board and the strings (can you hear her giddy laughter) and with the other, she flings a line at you.

And as soon as it comes close to you, you can see that the firecrackers are crudely shaped like lizards in a multitude of colors— indigo, chartreuse, honeysuckle, cream, viridian— and then you have just enough time to see their eyes glow and a little fire spit from their mouths.

Suddenly it’s not a spiraling spring of firecrackers. It’s two dozen simultaneous barking sparking snapping hissing shuddering roaring explosions spreading through the entire east side of the plaza, and you’re headed straight into it unless you do something now.

---

Yuki!

Boom!! The plaza explodes into a tumult of fireworks as the masked maid lowers herself on the board and aims right for the Stone, tossing out a string of fireworks to either side of her.

Yowl!! Juniper’s suddenly staring down Hazel and those darn foxgirls bearing down onto her, and behind them the city guards and the Khatun’s pack (and the view looks different than you remember, though I don’t expect you’ll have pieced everything together yet.

Swoop!! Olesya sweeps Juniper up in her arms, her curved heartblade lying on the tiles, crushing the nun against her as she tumbles backwards out of the way of the tumult, cradling Juniper as a Nagi’s coils crash through the space where she was (and, unfortunately, the net snaps up a pack huntress right behind her).

“Golly!!” Hazel is scampering like his life depends on it, squeaking and bobbing and weaving and sliding, and Keli and Seli have their thin heartblades out kissing the air and stinging any hunter who gets too close.

---

Cair!

The path is blocked!

Specifically, the path from A6 (Armory, S-Y) across to G1 (Civil Regalia/Shrine) is blocked by a collection of illustrated Hub guides. Or, more specifically, they’re being blocked by the Hero’s Shadow, who is expertly turning the page of a guide to Basal, their dreadful talons gripping the corner with ease.

Their sleek-spotted tail thumps. Their wings shudder iridescent. Their empty eyes reflect unseen lamplights. Their heat fills the corridor, a pleasant but powerful sauna-sweat. A spiced floral scent lies heavy on the tongue.

They’re a reflection of Heron’s soul, supposedly. That’s the theory, at least, and asking the Shadow to confirm a theory is useless, because they’ll just answer with “if you say so, it must be so.” Also, they might Challenge you afterwards, and then you’ve got to toss out all your plans for the afternoon to deal with that. Anyway, that’s supposedly why they look nothing like Heron, and why they’ve shown up with as much regularity as Sayanastia.

“Six and one and six. Boxcars, but she’s elsewhere.” Their voice is androgynous, melodious, the kind that makes sense of nonsense. They cock their bearded-vulture head, stroking the illustration of the Deep District (done up in seven shades of purple) with the back of one wicked talon. “Tell me: which of you has the purest nature? I need all of your answers.”

It’s always gotta be a whole thing with this one.

---

Hazel!

The kettle whistles, and the scent of something almost exactly like what you would call tea-tea fills the cramped little room.

“You will want to take those off, sweet,” Amali says, setting a tray of tea and cinnamon biscuits and toast with butter and goblin-orange jam before you on the table. She gestures to your antlers. “Or they’ll be soaked through and no good tomorrow.”

A light blanket is wrapped around your shoulders. A goblin that’s almost exactly like a cat, just with a checkerboard for a fur pattern, is making biscuits of his own in your lap. You’re sitting on a soft cushion on a hard chair, and the ticking of a grandmother clock fills the room as much as the scent of the tray’s treasures.

Your lips are still faintly tingling.

Breathless Dead

Ember doesn’t have her weapons to hand: not her sword, neither her knife. That would have ruined the magic, after all. All she has to hand is the suit jacket wrapped around her and her own body.

So much to say that she is not disarmed.

All she needs is that nod, that gesture, and she’s tearing off the jacket, flying the black flag of herself. (You’re married, Dolce, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.) She’s behind the drone before you can say “Ceron!” and wraps her limbs around its thin, waspish waist, between thorax and abdomen.

Redana of Tellus was an Olympic wrestler.

The suplex drops the drone like a thunderbolt. It’s too strong to be stunned, but those gangly limbs and powerful face can’t get at Ember, who uses their prone position to adjust her grip, and then has the drone on her shoulders, now lifted into the air like Antaeus with one hand at the neck and the other at the waist.

“Okay! Where do you want me to put her?” Ember says, tail wagging, suit jacket finally settling onto the floor, grinning broadly at her reunited… friend, yes, that’s the fire burning in her. Her friend! Her Dolce! Not her Dolce in that way, but how else is she meant to express her joy?

[Overcome 10.]

Return to Thellamie

Rurik!

Civelia smiles. It's the kind of smile that an artist might struggle to achieve, the ideal that they would strive to be able to create on demand: subtle, gentle, without pulling the lips back from the teeth. A smile that is not mad, don't put in the news bulletin that she got mad, she's so happy to be rebuked by the Hero of Ages.

"We're going to need to have an Emergency Civil Conclave just to untangle all this trouble," she says, sweetly. Her gaze lowers to the tiles, lit by flickering starlight and lanterns. "Just having this unexpected revelation from the stars would be trouble enough, but the Khatun has begun to play her hand at last, and perhaps other dragons have begun to stir in their slumber." (Heron hasn't been to the Mansion... recently, that is. If you asked Tsane, though, there would likely be notes from a previous life's infiltration somewhere in the stacks, and Cair would have inroads on where to find the apron.)

She clutches her hand to her breast, and though there is no wind here, still her hair dances. There is faint and flickering starlight on her stony lips. "Heron, by the Trust placed within me by the First Fallen, I charge thee with bringing some token to the Emergency Civil Conclave upon the morn which shalt suffice to shine Light full upon Our troubles and turmoil. Furthermore, I beseech thee, bring forth some treasure which has been vouchsafed to you from Our keeping, that from it I may draw strength in proportion to the tumult that does Us surround."

There. That's the real thing. That's not a polite request. The Goddess has called upon her Eternal Bridegroom, formally, invoking magic almost as old as the world itself. Time to get on it.

By and by, where's Kalentia?

---

Kalentia!

"We are not the descending into starglamour," the Lunarian says, staring down the length of the Via Cobera. Like many major Crevas roads, the Via Cobera contains both a stairway and the broad Nagi paths, heading down the straightest route to the Welcoming Plaza. Or, at least, it should. It's just that... it doesn't. There's supposed to be a straight path, and if you squint you can almost see it, but... no, it snaps right back to splitting around a building jutting out of the center of the road like a mountain, and sending both sides of the Via Cobera veering off into other streets.

They've extended an arm (the bandaged one) to stop you from running down into it. One of the earlike things floating above their head twitches. Their shoulders are hunched, and as far as you can tell, they're exhausted from the running fight. But they stopped you from following said running fight into the 'starglamour.'

"I am the displaying of penitence for failing to arrest this disturbance of serenity. You are... the judging of my weakness, Mending. You are dictating how I am atoning."

---

Yuki!

Speaking of doubling back, however, it appears that some members of the Khatun's pack have doubled back for their goblins. A goblin-crab is scuttling along walls, goblin-horses gallop recklessly down paths made for the Nagi, and a small sharp-winged goblin soars upwards, against the stars. Olesya and Juniper both tense up, watching its arc, and then Olesya shrugs. "If she knows..."

The huntress doesn't bother to finish the thought. What does Juni see in her, anyway?

Together, the three of you make it across rooftops and over streets until you're within eyesight of the Welcoming Plaza. Well, isn't that perfect? There's only one way in and out of the city, assuming that you're not going to dare the perils of the Outside. Perhaps you can lay a trap for him here? Or, well, not a trap. You usually don't think about making traps for your friends, do you?

"Oh, perfect," Juni says. "We can lay a trap for him here!" She sounds positively giddy at the thought, and is already pulling some sort of folded net out of her robe's inner pockets, like she's the blonde member of Mystery Incorporated.

---

Eclair!

Here's the trick, Eclair. The poisoned tip of this scorpion's sting.

The Paladin's gamely trying her best to keep up with her, and it's to her credit that she can keep up a sprint even faster than yours, but she doesn't have a skateboard. You do. And you have no hopes of catching up with the distant sound of tricks if you don't take to your skateboard. Leave her in your wake vainly trying to catch up.

But if you were to abandon her, well. Then you'd get close enough to see. To call out. And then it would be a race. And we all know who happens to be grinding towards the Welcoming Plaza at this time of night.

---

Hazel!

It would be polite, at this stage, to offer me a String, wouldn't it? I do think you should be a good boy and do just that.

Particularly because, at this point, I might as well be you. The you that scampered into my den, at least, just with better eyeliner. On either side, my daughters peek out from behind me, hands to their veils, eyes alight with intermingled pride and affection. And I am putting on a show of stretching, limbering up, getting ready for a run (which you should definitely get in the habit of doing, Golden Fawn).

"It's such a shame we can't take him home yet, yah?"
"He'd look right at home on the Garnet boardwalk!"
"It'd be easy for him to get work, yah?"
"He'd die blushing first~"
"So? We'd kiss him back to life~"

That barrage from my girls is interrupted by Amali making her way through the door. Ah, Amali, brought here on extremely short notice, game and ready for anything that her Auntie asks of her. My perfect weapon against you, Hazel Valentine Fletcher. My trap to keep you right where you're needed for our game.

"Why, isn't he a handsome young fellow?" Amali adjusts her half-moon spectacles, getting a better look at you, smiling with the warmth of an Aestivali hearth. "They'll love him up at the Chrysanthemum." (Keli and Seli frantically swallow giggles, electric with the prospect of going and finding you there.) "Don't you worry about a thing, darling," she says, looking up at you, hair silver with age, leaning on her driftwood cane, ears at attention even as she radiates the benevolence of age. "We'll overnight here and then head out with the crowds in the morning. You certainly look like you could use a good night's sleep after all that excitement and magic and such. You're probably peckish, too, and we can feed you properly, dearie. I've forgotten more places to eat around Crevas than you've known!"

"But for now," I say, your accent almost down, "how's about I, uh, give you this, maybe?" I stand up on my tippy-toes, the way that you would, to snap two nets around your antlers, letting them contract down to a tight fit. "It's thirsting wool; it'll grow soggy and heavy with your light if you leave it on too long, but, um, maybe it'll work for short distances? And you can always wring it out to get liquid light, and, oh, gosh, that's really useful stuff! Just be aware it'll soak through and get as sheer as, uh, as," and I do a devastatingly true-to-life hand gesture at Keli, who offers you a bouncy bow.

"Now, the two of you, gosh, you've got to get going! Because soon this whole place won't be here anymore, and you'd be right in the middle of all those strong Nagi and opportunistic Serigamalu and then all that effort I put into helping you would go right to waste, and, oh, Amali would probably get hurt, too, and we both know you're not going to let that happen! So get going, okay?"

Amali takes your arm, and you're definitely not going to be able to wriggle out of helping a little old lady to her hostel. You've been bound as tight as can be, Hazel. Aren't my bindings so very pleasant?

Return to Thellamie

Yuki!

Thank you for handing Olesya that String; I'm sure it will come in handy sooner rather than later.

"The Khaganate's system is very different from slavery," Juniper says, because she's been set off. "It's an honor offered to those who could not evade the hunt but who have useful skills which are used to support the huntresses and it's an acknowledgement of how useful we are despite the fact that we couldn't overcome the hunt and thus our lives are forfeit ceremonially but have been taken up by the pack because it's not like they'd actually kill anyone and on top of that we have the option to request another hunt within a reasonable time frame and if we can use the skills we've picked up to evade being caught for a set period of time then we have earned freedom and a boon from our mistress with the caveat that if we do it before we've learned enough from them we'll receive a corrective punishment but really it's about knowing yourself and knowing what you've been able to learn in the process of serving which is in and of itself an important thing to be able to do and before you ask being invited to share body heat is an honor and--"

Olesya snaps her fingers and gives Juniper a Look, and wow, that's a Look. The eyeshadow, the lowered eyebrows, the stony and flat expression, the way her eyes aren't even open all the way but she's still Intense... be honest, you're in the splash zone at least a little bit, aren't you? Either way, Juniper blushes and stops talking, tail wagging uselessly. Olesya then spares a moment to give you the Look, like, you got her started, so behave.

(But it does sound like slavery with extra steps and a whole framework of "I caught you and could kill you," doesn't it? The underlying hunt ethos is so gauche and barbaric, and just between you and me, Olesya and Juniper here are actually doing it properly, the way those Serigalamu were a blink of a century or two ago, lovers chasing each other across the edge of the Outside with a net they'd woven together, "prey" offering exactly what they wanted to give once caught. But things have certainly changed out west, haven't they?)

"...we track naturally," Olesya says. "Even in unnatural places." And, come to think of it, this does feel a little unnatural, doesn't it? Not quite the same as the Outside, more like someone talented and clever is pulling the wool over the eyes of the world, saying: what if things were like this, instead? "...but you are not pack. Can you scent his trail?" And she casts a hand over my Labyrinth of empty houses and winding alleyways, still looking to you. A request, but also a challenge, and also a measuring. What can you do, Yuki Edogawa, Heroine of Crevas?

---

Sayanastia!

Oh, darling. That would be fun, wouldn't it? But Civelia makes half of a scoffing noise before belatedly remembering that it's beneath her station. Her purpose. Her role. Her coffin. She's not just a one-armed girl, you know; she's a goddess with as many memories as you, if not more, and she's a Beacon of Hope for the Struggling of the World and all that. She's already trapped in a crystal, and the crystal's called Society. (Deep.)

To challenge you directly, she'd have to know that Heron was out of the picture, and believe that there was a threat she couldn't wait out, and that it was your fault. Or you'd have to convince her to want something, with her maiden's heart, her young heart and not her old thoughts, and stand in her way. Or, like, I guess you could enact some sort of Wacky Scheme teaching her self-defense with Injimo, only you keep bullying her, and you get her to stand up to you, and in the moment when she starts to overpower you with her one arm you lean in and press your forehead against hers and steal what Heron never wanted--

"The Civils would do it," she says, looking away from Temptation, waving her hand. "Or Heron. Who--"

She turns to Rurik. Chooses her words carefully. "...may have been distracted from the importance of this ritual. Who has not gone to chase after the Fawn. Who, perhaps, may be entangled in side errands and tasks that seem dreadfully important in the face of a ritual I have been preparing for centuries?"

She smiles, sweetly, on reflexes almost as old as the world. She's struggling so very much to be angry with Heron, but this is beyond the pale for the Hero of Ages. Or would be, if she were here. Attending the festival. Not on the Moon.

---

Rurik!

Civelia cannot know that Heron is on the Moon and you cannot let her follow up on Sayanastia nearly blowing the whole operation just to needle her and you have to have a reason that you didn't leap into the fight with the maid and Civelia is looking at you and she's almost certainly going to have an Emergency Civil Conclave set up here by morning and you are on the spot, so good luck!

---

Aadya, the Rock upon a Mountain!

"I am Aadya, the Rock upon a Mountain," you say, somewhat tetchily. (I'd estimate roughly two-thirds of your thoughts right now are just a repeating mantra of REMATCH REMATCH REMATCH.) "And... wait, no, that..."

You stop to hold your chin in one mighty gauntleted fist for a moment. "...the Sister already knew your name. Vessenmer can't be a spoiler here, turning her against you, unless she were in some sort of ridiculous scheme with wide-ranging implications across the Church." (REMATCH REMATCH REMATCH) You don't have any reason to suspect Vessenmer, not above this snooty maid (REMATCH REMATCH REMATCH) or poor Tammithyn herself, who was a mess of tears when she came to you to beg for help, and this is frustrating and none of it really makes sense, does it?

Hold onto what you said. Either Eclair (REMATCH REMATCH REMATCH) is lying to you, or you got played by a Sister, or you got played by someone who made the Sister lie to you, and she was very convincing, and would someone being blackmailed really be that good at acting? Maybe. Dammit.

Maybe it's time to pull out the biggest gun you've got.

"You know," you say, with as much firm casualness as you can, "the Goddess herself is in the city tonight. And given the fact that this involves the Church and your mansion," and you see that she hears the lack of capital letter there, which is a petty victory but a victory nonetheless (REMATCH REMATCH REMATCH), "I can probably expedite this. Get her to cross-examine both of you. I'll have to pull her out of the celebrations, but she's the goddess herself, she'd definitely want to pass judgment. Now, if you're really innocent, you'd have no reason to deny that, would you?"

---

Eclair!

You hear, distantly, a noise that is familiar. A noise that cuts through distant tumult and the sound of this Paladin's blustering.

Someone, out in the streets, is grinding down a handrail.

---

Hazel!

Oh, come now. We don't do that here. All that sulking, when you should be properly awed and indignant and squeaking. You'll make me look bad, you know? And we can't be having that. I'll end the story right here if you think you can make me look bad in front of my lovely daughters.

"That may be so," I say, and my daughters glance aside with the casualness of a caught kit, which tells me that they don't know, and it's not like I can flip back and review the story thus far. Naturally. "But that is why we need to get you out of these clothes, ya?" There. Did we get a reaction with that one?

I clap my hands, as if calling for a servant, and my fires light the room: blue-white, the color of my light, dazzling and enchanting. Have a look, Hazel Valentine Fletcher: have a look at the clothes hanging from the racks. "Now, we don't have much time, so pick something out. Girls, you will be coming with me. We need the switch to last as long as it must." And not a minute longer- but that's a spoiler, isn't it?

Crevas is known for its colors, and that is what I offer you, Hazel. Soft silk and comfortable linen, all in your size, all in a dizzying array of colors, all lit by my radiance. Hoods and veils, vee-necks and loose trousers, and it's a coincidence that all of them have the subtle patterns denoting a servant of the Karn family. Not that you'll know that yet, so forget I even said it. Here, Hazel, something to hide those horns, something to blend in, and all you have to do is sacrifice your Yukisearth clothes. Don't you worry, there's a changing booth, and I'll keep the girls from peeking too much.

As you hesitate (we both know you do), I let a bit of reverb slip into the voice. It's such a delightful party trick. "As I said, we do not have much time. Unless you want to be on a leash by morning, be quick about it! Besides, Amali is waiting, ya?"

"Oh, she's here?" Good girl, Keli. That trill in your voice will let Hazel know your delight.
"You can't keep her waiting!" And there, Seli, with the swat to his rump, not giving him time to really think about this. Oh, you've been taught well.

Tell us what you pick out, darling, underneath my light. You'll love it. That's my promise.