[Exalted] The Last Daughter -- Dragon-Blooded Sorcery School Quest

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Ambraea
Earth Aspect Dragon-Blood
Sixth year Heptagram student, age nineteen

Competencies: Sorcery, arcane and academic pursuits, elemental lore and mystical rituals, swordplay, endurance, senses, Dynastic education

Sorcery:
Initiation level: Emerald Circle
Initiation: Pact with an Earth Dragon
Shaping rituals: A gift of gems (wealth sacrificing ritual)
Spells: Plague of Bronze Serpents (control spell), Summon Elemental, Breath of Wretched Stone, Theft of Memory

Goals:
- Emerald Circle Sorcery (initiate before end of first year) COMPLETED IN YEAR 1
- Discover a rare spell COMPLETED IN YEAR 2
- A Heart That Hides the Deepest Dark (resolve romantic tension with Maia) COMPLETED IN YEAR 3
- Get even with Peleps Nalri - NO LONGER RELEVANT AS OF YEAR 5

- The Serpent Witch (long term growth direction)
-- More snakes
-- Upgrade Verdigris
-- Establish a reputation

Ties:
Ties are recorded as mutual connections between Ambraea and other characters, rated from 1 to 5. Ambraea's feelings toward them are listed first, followed by their feelings for her. Interactions can change both the intensity and the nature of a given tie.

Ambraea's Hearth:


Other ties:


Connections:
The equivalent of ties, but less personally to represent more diffuse relationships with factions and organisations


Scrutiny:
Similar to connections, but not strictly beneficial, and potentially disadvantageous


Current as of Year 6, update 01

Descending Fire, Realm Year 759

Four years, four months before the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress.

"Have you noticed people treating you differently?" you ask.

L'nessa glances up at you, having been fussing with the fastening on her cloak. It's a gloomy Chanos morning, and the steel grey sky overhead does not promise a warm voyage. "I suppose," she said. "Definitely a few people who seemed less eager to spend time with me — it was nice, having you over the break."

"Yes," you agree, a little less effusively. You trust L'nessa to know you well enough to not take offense at that. "A lot of servants keep looking at me like I might curse them, or feed them to Verdigris." The snake around your shoulders stirs slightly at her name, and you idly stroke a hand along the scales over her nose.

L'nessa laughs. "Yes, well, you're a little scary," she says. "It's not necessarily a bad thing! I think you make it work for you, sometimes. And, well, peasants will be a little more superstitious than the rest of us. It's not really their fault."

You sigh. "I suppose." There hasn't been a major turning point in how things stand with you and Peony in the weeks since your return to Chanos. You'd like to think she's getting more relaxed again, but... well, it will be something to work on when next you see her.

The two of you are already on the pier, ready to board the familiar ship back to the Isle of Voices, having shared a carriage through Chanos's narrow streets. You're looking forward to it — for all the crushing workload of the previous year, you still have a tremendous amount you want to learn.

"Hello, Ambraea!" says a voice to your left as you approach the gangplank. The speaker is familiar — as small and devoid of colour as the last time you saw her.

"Hello, Amiti," you say. "I trust your break was pleasant?"

"Oh, pleasant enough," Amiti says, narrow shoulders giving a noncommittal sort of shrug. "Quiet, but that was nice, honestly."

"Did you get much reading done?" L'nessa says, with a tone that tells you she's poking gentle fun of Amiti's hobbies.

"Oh, yes," Amiti says, "quite a bit of it. We had a bit of a strange problem at one point, but nothing too bad — hardly any deaths. I'll tell you about it later, if I don't forget." With that, she drifts off ahead of you, boarding the ship.

"Nice girl," L'nessa comments, following close behind you as you step up onto the gangplank. "A little strange, though."

You can't actually dispute that. There's sufficient distance between you and Amiti that you feel safe replying — she's already become seemingly embroiled in conversation with Ledaal Anay Idelle. "I wasn't sure if she was coming back this year," you admit. You're glad that she has, you find.

"Well, she did seem quite dedicated to her studies, even if she's not getting any results yet," L'nessa says. "Not all of us can become a proper sorcerer so quickly. Oh, there's poor Maia."

As you step up onto the deck, you spot Maia's mousey figure standing off by the railing, determinately not talking to anyone. As she spots you, you deliberately make eye contact, as if silently signaling that it's alright for her to approach. She responds to it with visible relief, threading an impressively deft path through the crowd, seemingly unaffected by the rise and fall of the deck underfoot.

"Maia! Ready for another year?" L'nessa asks, taking the smaller girl by the shoulders.

A little startled by the sudden show of intimacy, Maia nods. "It's been a long break," she admits.

"Nothing too bad, I hope," you say.

Maia fidgets in place and doesn't make eye contact, looking very much as though she wishes she hadn't said anything. "No, nothing... too bad."

You decide not to pry immediately. "I visited with L'nessa's household," you say, changing the subject. "Eagle Prefecture was lovely."

"Oh, I've heard that," Maia agrees, plainly relieved. "I've missed you both," she admits.

"Oh, us too," L'nessa says. "No one back home gets quite as adorably flustered at the drop of a hat."

Maia going bright red does not do a great deal to immediately prove her wrong. You allow yourself a very small smile — you missed her too.

---

You're most of the way into the journey, the smothering fog having closed in around the ship, air and sea churning with unseen horrors that you're only spared due to Instructor First Light speaking the proper incantations into the wind.

The first years are mostly grouped up together, trying very hard not to look frightened and overwhelmed by it all. You and your yearmates watch them from the lofty vantage point of hardened veterans eying new recruits, and pointedly keep a lid on any similar nervousness you might have. There is still some mixing between the sacrifices and the older students, however.

Tepet Sola stands beside a boy you don't recognise — he's pale where she's dark, stocky where she's tall, and boyishly plump where she's lean and athletic. Still, the familial connection becomes obvious as you make your way across the deck toward them and catch their conversation:

"Still no word about Joti, then?" Sola asks her companion.

"No," the first year boy says, failing to entirely disguise his nerves. He's much younger and more uncertain than you'd ever looked last year, surely. "She's just... gone. Last anyone saw her, she made it all the way to Arjuf, but nothing solid after that."

"Someone went missing?" you ask, stepping up to them.

"Oh, hello, Ambraea," Sola says. You both politely ignore the way the boy jumps at the sound of your voice. "My cousin, Tepet Joti — we weren't really close, but I'm almost the same age as her brother, Aresh, so I saw her growing up." She makes an awkward face as she adds, in a lower tone, "Joti's well... leftover child, you know?"

You grimace in understanding, knowing the term well: A child born too soon after her parents' last due to their carelessness or misfortune, and therefore highly unlikely to Exalt. "Did she just run away, then?"

"We think so," the boy says, forcing himself to look you in the eye. "Just... no one expected her to be so good at it, you know? Thirteen-year-old mortal girl off on her own for the first time."

You nod, and there's an awkward, somber moment that passes between the three of you.

"This is also my cousin, Tepet Lapan," Sola says, breaking the silence "He'll be one of our new sacrifices. Lapan, this is Ambraea." The boy jumps again as she claps a hand on his shoulder. His eyes are incredibly blue, shot through with wisps of grey passing slowly through them. Another Air Aspect — he seems a little slow in parsing the significance of your single name, but you can tell the moment where he realises who you are.

"A pleasure to meet you!" he says, stumbling over his words.

"Likewise," you say. Turning back to Sola, you add: "I assume you intend to keep up your. martial studies as well, this year?"

"I do," Sola says. She's still wearing the sword, after all. "Why do you ask?"

"Would you like a sparring partner?" you ask, deciding to simply be direct.

Sola's smile widens. "Well, I wouldn't say no! It'd be more interesting, anyway. Did I manage to convince you of the importance, last year?"

"You did," you say. Then, after a pause, admit: "... and I may have been made a fool of by V'neef S'thera, over the break."

Sola lets out a laugh. "Well, there are certainly more embarrassing people to be made a fool of by. I can't promise you'll be up to her standards by year's end, but she's not exactly summoning elementals at age sixteen, is she?"

"I suppose not," you admit.

"Is... that the shore?" Lapan asks, sounding very much like he wants it to be, as he watches the vague shape through the fog grow larger.

"Yes," you say. You can sense the land more and more as you get nearer. "Don't look too relaxed yet — the walk up to the school is the most interesting part."

Lapan's eyes get a little wider. "Interesting?" he asks, looking between you and Sola.

"You'll see soon, sacrifice," Sola tells him. It doesn't seem to be a great comfort.

---

Year 2: Swords and Legacy
Goals: Discover a rare spell, acquire more snakes, improve your familiar, begin to cement your reputation.

(And get better at swords.)


The room you arrive in is technically not the same dorm room as the previous year, but it might as well be — same tower room with three beds and three matching sets of furniture.

With a small, fatigued squeak, Maia lets herself fall face first onto her mattress and lays there, unmoving.

L'nessa laughs, opening up the wardrobe opposite her bed to check on the sets of identical blue and red uniforms hanging there. "We're one of the few sets of three still entirely intact, you know," she comments.

"I suppose that's true," you say, thinking over the number of students from your year who will not be returning.

"That just goes to show our collective dedication to excellence," L'nessa decides.

Maia, who is apparently still conscious, lets out an uncontrollable giggle, muffled by the mattress her face is pressing into. "Ambraea is a little bit of an outlier," she says, lifting her head just enough to speak.

"I'm sure you two won't be too far behind me," you say, sitting down on your own bed more sedately. Verdigris immediately slides down off your shoulders, and sets about finding a good place for a nest somewhere in the immediate vicinity. The beds are raised in the northern style, so you expect her to end up sleeping in the dark space beneath, like she did at the end of last year.

L'nessa laughs. "Oh, no pressure at all!" she says.

You shrug. "Without incentive, how do we excel?"

"Who said that?" L'nessa asks, recognising a quote when she hears one.

"My mother," you say.

L'nessa groans, reaching into her wardrobe for a nightgown. "Well, I can't exactly argue with my esteemed grandmother, can I?"

This time, Maia's giggle is distinctly nervous, and she pushes herself up to a sitting position. "It's not usually a good idea, anyway." When the two of you glance at her, she turns bright red, and hastily adds: "Well, it's not, is it?"

You shrug. "Not unless you have a particularly good point to sway her on. Or unless you amuse her, which is not necessarily reliable."

"I would hope that the Scarlet Empress has better things to do than fret over mild differences of opinion from secondary school students," L'nessa says.

Which is self-evidently true. You're entirely certain that she has someone reporting to her about your activities, but it's hard to imagine that the Heptagram isn't already playing host to someone on the All-Seeing Eye's payroll who can simply add you to their existing duties. Being watched by people who will report back to your mother is just a fact you've lived with for the past sixteen years.

"I'm... just going to try to sleep," Maia says.

Which sounds like such a good idea, you don't take long to follow suit.

---

She's simultaneously the best and worst kind of opponent — she's better than you, but by little enough that you can tell precisely what you do wrong every time she beats you. So you can tell that you're learning... but it doesn't mean you're exactly catching up to her in a hurry.

"You're always a little bit more aggressive than I'd expect from an Earth Aspect," Sola says, slumping down to sit on a flat stone near to your impromptu practice area. It's a rare, halfway decent day, and the two of you aren't going to pass up the opportunity to steal an hour to take advantage of it.

Sunlight, tired and grey, filters through the gloom overhead, enough to burn off the worst of the mist for once. The cool sea breeze is pleasant enough against your face as you take a seat yourself, lowering yourself to ground at a more dignified rate. Unlike Sola, you're sitting directly on a bed of uneven pebbles, but they're comfortable enough for you. "Well, we do all contain multitudes," you say.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised," Sola says. "The first thing you learned was to summon a horde of venomous snakes. Those would be damn useful on the right sort of military campaign, you know. Weakening the enemy before they even have a chance to take to the field." She moves to flick a strand of sweat-soaked hair away from her forehead. Even in the relative shelter of the boulder behind her, it still blows gently in the phantom breeze that seems to accompany her wherever she goes — Sola is just lucky that she makes the windswept look seem dashing.

You raise an eyebrow. "True enough," you say, "although it doesn't seem like the most... honourable tactic."

Sola shrugs. "War is messy. A commander's honour is important, and winning every victory cleanly is an ideal to strive for, but the general who isn't willing to consider all tactics at need serves her house and her empress poorly. Or so my mother has tried to drill into my head. I'm not about to go around acting like a Sesus, but I'm not going to refuse to see the value in something a little distasteful."

"I like Amiti," you say, holding out a hand for Verdigris to climb back up to her ordinary perch. The snake has gotten very good at not getting too agitated watching you spar. You can hope she's getting better at separating out the nuances of the situation.

"Well, she does seem harmless enough," Sola admits, with a little bit of reluctance. "They're not all bad, as individuals. Just entirely too slippery as a group." She doesn't waste a lot of time on the notional virtues of House Sesus, however. "When I used to do this with my cousins, we'd make a bit of a game of trading old family stories, and try to all find ones no one else had heard of."

"That sounds hard, when you're all Tepets," you say.

"Yes and no," Sola says. She's getting that medicine box out on her lap now. You haven't exactly asked her what the pills are for, but by this point, you can make a fairly decent educated guess. "It's easy to get a repeat, but... well, we've got a lot of history to plumb through for this sort of thing. Easy enough to bring up a particular story about a famous ancestor that no one else had heard of."

"Are you asking me for one, then?" you ask.

Sola grins. "Only if you're interested."

You consider that, and it seems harmless enough, before you both have to hurry back to wash up in time for a practical lesson. You certainly have stories like that on both sides, although your mother was much less inclined to indulge childish whims in this regard. You have as little idea of who her ancestors were during the Shogunate as anyone else does. Prasadi history, on the other hand, is nearly as interesting as early Realm history, and is far less likely to have been something Sola's heard before.

Article:

So, first vote of year two — this one lets me establish the story we'll be focusing on here for this, and gives an opportunity to flesh out certain things about Ambraea's family history.

[ ] A story of the conquest of Prasad and the breaking of a god

[ ] A story about a young Exalt and an Anathema who tried to ensnare him

[ ] A story about a Pure monk and a fair folk prince