Ill Winds and Warding Shadows
Twenty Fourth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
House of Master Coryn Yin, Yi Ti
"How is Fen?" Tyene asked as she dropped into her seat with little of her usual grace. Magic could heal wounds and turn poison to water, the ring upon her finger could ward off the need for sleep, but no magic was perfect and the battle had tested her to her limits. Stepping into Ser Richard Lonmouth's spellsteel boots was not where she was most comfortable.
"As well as could be hoped, which is to say too scared to sleep and doing her best not to show it. If I have to deal with any more quiet dignity in one's duty I may break out in hives," Azema snorted, though her eyes showed far more sympathy than her words. "She is angry too, thank her Fates and Fortunes, talking about learning to wield a sword. Personally I think she would do better with magic, put the book to good use."
"As fascinating as the young lady's tale of personal growth may be I think we have more important matters to account for," the soft almost buzzing voice of the fey lord lingered in the air a moment more than it aught. Not for the first time Tyene wondered what lay beneath his porcelain mask. He had simply introduced himself as 'Thorn Iris' and claimed to have knowledge of the Golden Empire 'in the days before its twilight', though given how much help he had been both in slipping unseen among the people of Yin and other darker dealings Tyene was not about to ask for answers he was not minded to give.
"The Dark Queen's agents," Tyene said darkly.
"The Oni," Nuri corrected her firmly. "They might serve Her interests, but it is as allies and not vassals pledged to her body and soul. I would say what we found in Jiang proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. A Prince of the Imperial House replaced by an oni lord..."
"We are not entirely certain that Colonel Bu Jia Jin was replaced," Thorn Iris interjected softly. "He might have communed with the oni, taken it into himself. What we know for certain is that he was wholly mortal when the Grand Inquisitor visited him last month, mortal and easily deceived into revealing the connection to our foes. Was he devoured, or ascended in darkness?" The fey sipped his tea without another sound.
"Thankfully he should not suspect us, or the Emerald Magisters, of thinning his agents," the Dornishwoman said, the satisfaction only slightly marred by the twinge of remembered pain in her side from where the
oni mage's ornate flail smashed against her ribs. You would not think something with so many damn frills on it couldn't hit that hard, much less that quickly. Still, she had paid him back in black lotus and an agonizing death so she 'counted the books balanced', as the Braavosi said. "It was clearly a rakshasa attack in retaliation for the raid on the dojo."
"It is thankful, Lady Tyene, that you possess a ward against foresight as much as skill in the weaving of illusion to match a glasting," Somehow the porcelain mask
smiled, an almost beatific expression. "The Fallen Kami are known to be as skilled oracles as they are wont to heed them to save their own skin, yet now they are blind, their backs turned to us and towards another foe that they might grind themselves to powder against it."
"Let's not congratulate ourselves too much, we still have to explain to the 'Son of Heaven' how a fiend had come to wear the skin of his cousin or worse still, how his cousin became such a one," Azema cut in. "It would do his reign no favors that the blood he is so proud of flows thick with the same vices as 'lesser men'."
No one commented on the vitriol in her tone. The alu demon had changed much since Tyene had first met her, very much indeed, but one thing that had remained unchanged was a disdain for any lord, king or emperor who did not prove his personal worth to her. Hopefully Bu Gai would prove wise in the days ahead.
OOC: I thought about doing the battle here, but that would likely have likely been multiple interludes of just the combat and that did not feel central enough to the narrative to warrant it. Since I know it will be asked, Bu Jia Jin has been replaced by a Wind Yai, likely one with spellcasting. Tyene and company stripped him of any of his lesser servants while framing the servants of the Bloodstone Emperor for it, but she did not feel like taking her chances against it.
