A Charnel Sun
Rihaku
The Internet
This update's not yet proofread, so please excuse any typos.
A Charnel Sun
There was no time to say anything. From the first, Odyssial understood that.
The gaze of black fire had caught him within its ethereal beam, smoldering glory that raised heat-blisters across his very soul. He dashed forward, Ambition like a cutting star.
The Immaculates, having seen their chance, were already adjusting their stances, moving to attack. The two non-Immaculate Dragon-Blooded operatives he had taken along were swiftly moving to process their shock. They would try to run, or at least one would. Knowing they could not prevail against him, it was the rational thing to do.
If Ulyssian were practiced in speech, in the arts of timbre and pitch, the sudden proclamation and the arresting look - if he were Tepet Nilul or even Odyssial of old, in the fullness of his power - perhaps he would have said something. To convince his subordinates that the necromancer's reveal had been nothing more than an Anathema trick, or to attempt parley as the Abyssal had requested. But he was not practiced in speech, and so he could speak only with his sword.
That sword drove back the colossus of steel and bone, whose armor of blood glinted like black ice against Ambition's whitefire light. The gravestrider stumbled and fell, as even the supernatural agility of its wielder found it hopelessly outmaneuvered. Around him, the Immaculates descended, wielding fire and falling stones, but he shifted and wove around their attacks, and what few strikes did land pinged helplessly against his armor, robbed of force by his effortless movements.
This was not the Sesus Ulyssian that had struck down a full circle of Immaculate monks but days into Exaltation. He'd had months now to train.
The shikari were heroes all, but he was the tyrant-king who had emblazoned his law across the very cosmos, and they could not match him.
Still that gaze held him, casting forth from the gravestrider's triclopean face, even as he darted forward to threaten its heart, where his powers of hearing had pinpointed the location of its wielder. Void Scar had drawn his bow and was carefully, carefully glancing between Ulyssian and the Immaculates; Maison had tried to disappear and was now fleeing the battlefield. Odyssial's hearing caught it all, even as he fended off a hundred strikes from half a dozen angles.
The ground trembled as the gravestrider attempted to stand, its muscles like coiled springs flexing. But Odyssial was faster, and had weathered the storm of the Immaculates. He raised his sword towards heaven, and the clouds parted in a perfect circle to reveal a star-filled sky.
There was a flash and a crack like thunder; a moment of terrible apprehension, and then a terrible sound of ripping and shivering, like a glacier shaken and splintered by ten thousand conflicting earthquakes. Ulyssian's blade shattered in an apocalypse fission, seemingly present along every vector of attack at once, and wheresoever the clouds had parted, there was no escape from Ambition's edge.
Immediately, Maison and Void Scar were flattened into unconsciousness. The shikari of Water tried to spin his attack away, but her Bottomless Depths were as a child's top against his falling star. The shikari of Earth tried to resist his might, the shikari of Air tried to evade it, and the shikari of Wood tried to bear his allies' wounds. All this they tried, but they were scoured away, blasted into nothingness by the sheer power of the attack they faced. The gravestrider was torn asunder, lifted as if by some heavenly hand and bodily ripped in two, its colossal bulk serving it little as the energies powering it escaped into the world. The Seeds of the Poppy, at its core, fell to pieces, cut apart at head, throat, heart, liver, and limbs.
The blade Ambition keened, like a kettle brought to white-hot boil, and fed power into his arm. It suffused him, replenishing a good portion of the strength he'd spent to bring down the Necromancer and his errant shikari.
He remembered, then, thoughts drifting unbidden like petals of ash in the wind.
Glaives made of thunder, sinews made of stone... Thousand-headed giants with teeth like calcite crags, fists like falling stars...
How wondrous and terrible they'd been, the monsters that had been put to the sword by the Exalted. How wondrous, and how futile.
Ulyssian considered his two surviving subordinates, Maison and Void Scar. He'd slain the Necromancer. The easy part was done. Now he had to convince these two Chosen of the Dragons that what they'd seen was but a trick, and the Immaculates misguided, driven by political rivalry.
The gruff, quiet competence of Void Scar, who was whisper-deadly with a bow and always wore camouflage paint. The ambiguously gendered Maison, who didn't seem to begrudge his apprenticeship with Zao, unlike the other Sesus. They were Exalted of few words, but capable. He hadn't disliked them.
If he failed, he couldn't see any way to avoid killing them.
Maybe... maybe he would keep them unconscious for a while longer. Plan some strategies for the confrontation to come. Luseng was far away, and they had an excess of horses now.
---
"Wake up."
Above, the moon glowed high and clear in the night sky; the soft cover of cloud that had blanketed before had all but disappeared. Around them, there was neither mist nor moisture. All that had dissipated from the land, and what remained was the rolling green, broken only by trees whose leaves shined like silver blades in them moonlight.
Ulyssian prodded his two subordinates, who were grievously bruised but otherwise unhurt (for Exalted), with a toe. He had successfully re-applied his disguise, and was every inch the Fire Aspect again, save for the crown of light that appeared on his brow.
The Dragon-Blooded stirred.
"So," Sesus Maison said, holding back a groan, "you spared us."
"I see no reason," Ulyssian said, "to murder loyal Dragon-Blooded operatives who are both competent and efficient. You did not strike at me with intent to kill, like the Immaculates did. The satrapy needs all the help it can get."
"The necromancer's dead, then?"
"Yes," Ulyssian said, glancing over at the still-awakening Void Scar.
Scar slowly sat upright, dusting off his armor.
"So," Scar began, "Odyssial. I've heard that name before."
Maison turned curiously towards him.
"The tribe across the river from where I grew up, they worshipped him. Had carvings and sculptures too. Now that I think about it, you do look very similar. Just younger. We fought many times with that tribe. They had more Outcastes than we did."
Scar closed his eyes. "Maison, you're not a patriot. So think about what you do next very carefully. You don't deserve to die, but I'm ninety-nine percent sure that we're not getting out of this alive unless we agree to keep his secret and serve him loyally, and he believes us."
"What- you- this-" Maison sputtered, looking between Scar and Ulyssian himself. "You're saying he is an Anathema, but we should serve him willingly?"
"Look," Scar sighed. "You haven't been to the Underworld, but... just ask literally any powerful sorcerer. House Sesus has to have a few, right? The Immaculate Philosophy is objectively wrong. After the soul enters Lethe for reincarnation, its previous acts have no effect whatsoever on its future fate. Anathema are Exalts like us, they just tend to be diametrically opposed to the interests of the Realm so sorcerers like Mnemon still want them to be hunted down. And because they're Exalts and super-convincing, the Immaculate proscriptions against interacting with them are actually a good idea. But it's not the truth. It's just convenient."
Scar was certainly much-better informed that he'd ever let on. "That's essentially correct," Ulyssian said, glad to drop the pretense. "Scar, you're saying that you don't care what schemes I have, you'd rather serve me than die?"
"Yeah," Scar replied, shrugging. "I don't know how to convince you I wouldn't leak the secret, though. I think there's a spell that can do it, but Abagael's still in Fae hands. Don't even know if she knows it."
Maison, who seemed dumbfounded by the surreal exchange going on in front of them, interjected. "Just- hold on a minute! Scar, this is treason of the highest order, and heresy too. I understand you've got weird beliefs, but you know there's no proof of them that can't just be argued against. Willingly serving an Anathema can only lead to ruin. How can you just give up like that?"
Scar sighed. "Look, even if Anathema are all as insidious as the Philosophy says, they're not going to destroy their own servants until those servants are used up. Even their stories are full of Anathema that are perfectly charming to their minions and only terrible to their enemies, though their enemies are often the Realm. You don't even like House Sesus, so why do you care?"
"The well-being of Creation?" Maison exclaimed.
"Sir," Scar said, addressing Ulyssian again, "what are your plans, actually?"
"There's too much in-fighting among Creation's defenders, be they Lunar, Sidereal, Solar, or Dragon-Blooded," Ulyssian said. "I'm to avoid that in-fighting by working within the Realm, against direct threats to existence like the Deathlords."
"A likely story," Scar said resignedly, "but it could be true. After all, Maison, this guy was vetted by Admiral Zao, and you've seen how mediocre a liar he is. I don't think he could have fooled Zao, which means Zao's in on it."
Ulyssian wasn't even sure if he could trust Scar, who would act exactly this way if he was merely well-informed but still intended to betray his Satrap. Maison seemed more genuine, but was not so willing to accept his Anathema nature. In any event, keeping the two of them alive was a major security risk, even if they were purportedly loyal. Zao would likely advise him to simply kill them and be done with it, but...
"Maison," Ulyssian asked, "you are an- actually, what is your gender?"
"I'm asexual," Maison replied. "The family was very surprised when I Exalted."
That explained why they were a covert operative. A total lack of reproductive viability was one of the few shames that could fall upon a Prince(ss) of the Earth.
"The nature of Immaculate Dogma is that an Anathema can't say anything that would redeem them, because every word they say is suspect," Ulyssian pondered. "I don't know how to convince you that I have no ill intentions towards Creation or humanity in general. But the truth is, if I'm not convinced that you'll keep my secret, I will kill you. That is the reality of this situation. And while I may not be very good at lying, I am very good at detecting lies."
"Fine," Maison bit out. "I don't want to die. I'll keep your secret... for now."
---
Your Investigation determines that they don't seem to be lying about their intentions.You have received 75,000 of the 150,000 Vengeance XP.
[ ] Kill Them Anyway - This is simply too much bother and risk. They could just change their minds at any time! Maison is clearly conflicted, and Void Scar is too dangerous an operator to roam free with the truth. [+75,000 XP]
[ ] Extreme Paranoia - Require the two operatives to be within your sensory range at all times, using the Relentless Force aspect of What Rouses Glory to stay perpetually awake for several days. In the meantime, secure a definitive means of binding their loyalty. It's a great effort, but loyal subordinates who both know the truth and are competent Exalts are hard to find. This consumes your personal action for the next turn.
-[ ] Send for Nilul immediately, to bind them to you with numerous Eclipse oaths.
-[ ] Mount a rescue mission for Tepet Abagael, the sorceress captured by the Fae.
-[ ] Attempt to learn Sorcery yourself... somehow.
[ ] Trust Them - If this satrapy is going to work, you can't spend excessive amounts of time accounting for every risk. Allow the operatives to operate as normal, with reasonable precautions in place - officially categorize them as traumatized / mentally damaged by their experiences against the necromancer, and then require them to be powerfully sedated when not on duty, use your authority to limit or eliminate their ability to fraternize with others, etc.
[ ] Write-In - Many options here. You could kill Maison and keep Void Scar, for example.
Additionally, next turn's choices will come in a vote update, likely tomorrow when I've gotten more sleep.
A Charnel Sun
There was no time to say anything. From the first, Odyssial understood that.
The gaze of black fire had caught him within its ethereal beam, smoldering glory that raised heat-blisters across his very soul. He dashed forward, Ambition like a cutting star.
The Immaculates, having seen their chance, were already adjusting their stances, moving to attack. The two non-Immaculate Dragon-Blooded operatives he had taken along were swiftly moving to process their shock. They would try to run, or at least one would. Knowing they could not prevail against him, it was the rational thing to do.
If Ulyssian were practiced in speech, in the arts of timbre and pitch, the sudden proclamation and the arresting look - if he were Tepet Nilul or even Odyssial of old, in the fullness of his power - perhaps he would have said something. To convince his subordinates that the necromancer's reveal had been nothing more than an Anathema trick, or to attempt parley as the Abyssal had requested. But he was not practiced in speech, and so he could speak only with his sword.
That sword drove back the colossus of steel and bone, whose armor of blood glinted like black ice against Ambition's whitefire light. The gravestrider stumbled and fell, as even the supernatural agility of its wielder found it hopelessly outmaneuvered. Around him, the Immaculates descended, wielding fire and falling stones, but he shifted and wove around their attacks, and what few strikes did land pinged helplessly against his armor, robbed of force by his effortless movements.
This was not the Sesus Ulyssian that had struck down a full circle of Immaculate monks but days into Exaltation. He'd had months now to train.
The shikari were heroes all, but he was the tyrant-king who had emblazoned his law across the very cosmos, and they could not match him.
Still that gaze held him, casting forth from the gravestrider's triclopean face, even as he darted forward to threaten its heart, where his powers of hearing had pinpointed the location of its wielder. Void Scar had drawn his bow and was carefully, carefully glancing between Ulyssian and the Immaculates; Maison had tried to disappear and was now fleeing the battlefield. Odyssial's hearing caught it all, even as he fended off a hundred strikes from half a dozen angles.
The ground trembled as the gravestrider attempted to stand, its muscles like coiled springs flexing. But Odyssial was faster, and had weathered the storm of the Immaculates. He raised his sword towards heaven, and the clouds parted in a perfect circle to reveal a star-filled sky.
There was a flash and a crack like thunder; a moment of terrible apprehension, and then a terrible sound of ripping and shivering, like a glacier shaken and splintered by ten thousand conflicting earthquakes. Ulyssian's blade shattered in an apocalypse fission, seemingly present along every vector of attack at once, and wheresoever the clouds had parted, there was no escape from Ambition's edge.
Immediately, Maison and Void Scar were flattened into unconsciousness. The shikari of Water tried to spin his attack away, but her Bottomless Depths were as a child's top against his falling star. The shikari of Earth tried to resist his might, the shikari of Air tried to evade it, and the shikari of Wood tried to bear his allies' wounds. All this they tried, but they were scoured away, blasted into nothingness by the sheer power of the attack they faced. The gravestrider was torn asunder, lifted as if by some heavenly hand and bodily ripped in two, its colossal bulk serving it little as the energies powering it escaped into the world. The Seeds of the Poppy, at its core, fell to pieces, cut apart at head, throat, heart, liver, and limbs.
The blade Ambition keened, like a kettle brought to white-hot boil, and fed power into his arm. It suffused him, replenishing a good portion of the strength he'd spent to bring down the Necromancer and his errant shikari.
He remembered, then, thoughts drifting unbidden like petals of ash in the wind.
Glaives made of thunder, sinews made of stone... Thousand-headed giants with teeth like calcite crags, fists like falling stars...
How wondrous and terrible they'd been, the monsters that had been put to the sword by the Exalted. How wondrous, and how futile.
Ulyssian considered his two surviving subordinates, Maison and Void Scar. He'd slain the Necromancer. The easy part was done. Now he had to convince these two Chosen of the Dragons that what they'd seen was but a trick, and the Immaculates misguided, driven by political rivalry.
The gruff, quiet competence of Void Scar, who was whisper-deadly with a bow and always wore camouflage paint. The ambiguously gendered Maison, who didn't seem to begrudge his apprenticeship with Zao, unlike the other Sesus. They were Exalted of few words, but capable. He hadn't disliked them.
If he failed, he couldn't see any way to avoid killing them.
Maybe... maybe he would keep them unconscious for a while longer. Plan some strategies for the confrontation to come. Luseng was far away, and they had an excess of horses now.
---
"Wake up."
Above, the moon glowed high and clear in the night sky; the soft cover of cloud that had blanketed before had all but disappeared. Around them, there was neither mist nor moisture. All that had dissipated from the land, and what remained was the rolling green, broken only by trees whose leaves shined like silver blades in them moonlight.
Ulyssian prodded his two subordinates, who were grievously bruised but otherwise unhurt (for Exalted), with a toe. He had successfully re-applied his disguise, and was every inch the Fire Aspect again, save for the crown of light that appeared on his brow.
The Dragon-Blooded stirred.
"So," Sesus Maison said, holding back a groan, "you spared us."
"I see no reason," Ulyssian said, "to murder loyal Dragon-Blooded operatives who are both competent and efficient. You did not strike at me with intent to kill, like the Immaculates did. The satrapy needs all the help it can get."
"The necromancer's dead, then?"
"Yes," Ulyssian said, glancing over at the still-awakening Void Scar.
Scar slowly sat upright, dusting off his armor.
"So," Scar began, "Odyssial. I've heard that name before."
Maison turned curiously towards him.
"The tribe across the river from where I grew up, they worshipped him. Had carvings and sculptures too. Now that I think about it, you do look very similar. Just younger. We fought many times with that tribe. They had more Outcastes than we did."
Scar closed his eyes. "Maison, you're not a patriot. So think about what you do next very carefully. You don't deserve to die, but I'm ninety-nine percent sure that we're not getting out of this alive unless we agree to keep his secret and serve him loyally, and he believes us."
"What- you- this-" Maison sputtered, looking between Scar and Ulyssian himself. "You're saying he is an Anathema, but we should serve him willingly?"
"Look," Scar sighed. "You haven't been to the Underworld, but... just ask literally any powerful sorcerer. House Sesus has to have a few, right? The Immaculate Philosophy is objectively wrong. After the soul enters Lethe for reincarnation, its previous acts have no effect whatsoever on its future fate. Anathema are Exalts like us, they just tend to be diametrically opposed to the interests of the Realm so sorcerers like Mnemon still want them to be hunted down. And because they're Exalts and super-convincing, the Immaculate proscriptions against interacting with them are actually a good idea. But it's not the truth. It's just convenient."
Scar was certainly much-better informed that he'd ever let on. "That's essentially correct," Ulyssian said, glad to drop the pretense. "Scar, you're saying that you don't care what schemes I have, you'd rather serve me than die?"
"Yeah," Scar replied, shrugging. "I don't know how to convince you I wouldn't leak the secret, though. I think there's a spell that can do it, but Abagael's still in Fae hands. Don't even know if she knows it."
Maison, who seemed dumbfounded by the surreal exchange going on in front of them, interjected. "Just- hold on a minute! Scar, this is treason of the highest order, and heresy too. I understand you've got weird beliefs, but you know there's no proof of them that can't just be argued against. Willingly serving an Anathema can only lead to ruin. How can you just give up like that?"
Scar sighed. "Look, even if Anathema are all as insidious as the Philosophy says, they're not going to destroy their own servants until those servants are used up. Even their stories are full of Anathema that are perfectly charming to their minions and only terrible to their enemies, though their enemies are often the Realm. You don't even like House Sesus, so why do you care?"
"The well-being of Creation?" Maison exclaimed.
"Sir," Scar said, addressing Ulyssian again, "what are your plans, actually?"
"There's too much in-fighting among Creation's defenders, be they Lunar, Sidereal, Solar, or Dragon-Blooded," Ulyssian said. "I'm to avoid that in-fighting by working within the Realm, against direct threats to existence like the Deathlords."
"A likely story," Scar said resignedly, "but it could be true. After all, Maison, this guy was vetted by Admiral Zao, and you've seen how mediocre a liar he is. I don't think he could have fooled Zao, which means Zao's in on it."
Ulyssian wasn't even sure if he could trust Scar, who would act exactly this way if he was merely well-informed but still intended to betray his Satrap. Maison seemed more genuine, but was not so willing to accept his Anathema nature. In any event, keeping the two of them alive was a major security risk, even if they were purportedly loyal. Zao would likely advise him to simply kill them and be done with it, but...
"Maison," Ulyssian asked, "you are an- actually, what is your gender?"
"I'm asexual," Maison replied. "The family was very surprised when I Exalted."
That explained why they were a covert operative. A total lack of reproductive viability was one of the few shames that could fall upon a Prince(ss) of the Earth.
"The nature of Immaculate Dogma is that an Anathema can't say anything that would redeem them, because every word they say is suspect," Ulyssian pondered. "I don't know how to convince you that I have no ill intentions towards Creation or humanity in general. But the truth is, if I'm not convinced that you'll keep my secret, I will kill you. That is the reality of this situation. And while I may not be very good at lying, I am very good at detecting lies."
"Fine," Maison bit out. "I don't want to die. I'll keep your secret... for now."
---
Your Investigation determines that they don't seem to be lying about their intentions.You have received 75,000 of the 150,000 Vengeance XP.
[ ] Kill Them Anyway - This is simply too much bother and risk. They could just change their minds at any time! Maison is clearly conflicted, and Void Scar is too dangerous an operator to roam free with the truth. [+75,000 XP]
[ ] Extreme Paranoia - Require the two operatives to be within your sensory range at all times, using the Relentless Force aspect of What Rouses Glory to stay perpetually awake for several days. In the meantime, secure a definitive means of binding their loyalty. It's a great effort, but loyal subordinates who both know the truth and are competent Exalts are hard to find. This consumes your personal action for the next turn.
-[ ] Send for Nilul immediately, to bind them to you with numerous Eclipse oaths.
-[ ] Mount a rescue mission for Tepet Abagael, the sorceress captured by the Fae.
-[ ] Attempt to learn Sorcery yourself... somehow.
[ ] Trust Them - If this satrapy is going to work, you can't spend excessive amounts of time accounting for every risk. Allow the operatives to operate as normal, with reasonable precautions in place - officially categorize them as traumatized / mentally damaged by their experiences against the necromancer, and then require them to be powerfully sedated when not on duty, use your authority to limit or eliminate their ability to fraternize with others, etc.
[ ] Write-In - Many options here. You could kill Maison and keep Void Scar, for example.
Additionally, next turn's choices will come in a vote update, likely tomorrow when I've gotten more sleep.
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