[Exalted] The Last Daughter -- Dragon-Blooded Sorcery School Quest
Year 1: Sacrifice 05
- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Plague of Bronze Snakes: 22
Death of Obsidian Butterflies: 16
Stalwart Earth Guardian: 7
Death of Obsidian Butterflies: 16
Stalwart Earth Guardian: 7
You dream of being vast, but terribly finite — immobile save for your own glacial growth outward. Earth Essence flows through your mineral body in place of blood, connecting you to the vastness of all Creation as the seconds crawl by like years. In that bizarre and ponderous existence beneath the earth, you gradually bear witness to the interplay of the five elements, and the hidden workings of the world beyond them.
It wouldn't have worked if your mind hadn't already been primed for this, gradually pried open little by little by the Heptagram's Ten Thousand Labours. You don't think you could have grasped what Perfection was trying to show you even half as quickly as you did if you'd been earlier in your studies. Even now, the alien perspective is incredibly disorientating.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" the androgynous youth asks, somehow both alongside you and not here at all as you drift amid a glimmering crystalline lattice. You would respond, but you have no mouth. Somehow, they hear you anyway. "I'd forgotten how beautiful, until now. Seeing it through fresh eyes is a good reminder!"
Even your waking hours are surreal and dreamlike, full of the whispering of the young dragon's wisdom in your mind. The trickle of your understanding gradually increases until it's an outright landslide, threatening to overwhelm you entirely.
Then one day, you wake up, and everything is changed.
Resplendent Wood, Realm Year 759
Creation is larger than before. It's not quite a sixth sense being opened, so much as it is all your others being sharpened in a way you couldn't have imagined beforehand, and certainly couldn't begin to describe now. You can sense the power in this place, in the Isle of Voices — the interplay of geomancy and spiritual energy and mightier forces you can only just begin to glimpse.
You have been given the faintest understanding of the great secrets behind the surface of the world. The laws that govern it, and how they can be changed. This is the true power of the Emerald Circle, through which everything else flows.
Coming as you are out of your haze of frantic work, you pay close attention to the student body for the first time in months. It's smaller than it was even a few short weeks ago, the attrition felt most heavily among your fellow first years. You'd been only dimly aware of faces just disappearing from the meal hall, no longer appearing in the hallways. Dorm assignments being reshuffled to pair up those left without roommates. It is stress, mainly, that leads so many to slink back home in ignominious failure. This is, of course, normal — the Heptagram separates the wheat from the chaff.
And whatever happens to anyone else, you are one step closer to being the wheat.
Eyes follow you as you descend the steps at the end of the lecture, plainly trying to catch the instructor before she leaves. Your new companion is eye-catching enough to cause a stir.
"May I have a moment of your time, Instructor?"
Cynis Bashura looks up from where she's packing up her lecture materials, looking poised to tell you she's too busy. When she looks at you, instead of meeting your gaze, she locks eyes with the serpent that's slithering up from the collar of your tunic, twining languidly around your neck. It's certainly striking at a glance — its scales are a handsome blue-green, the patinated bronze warm as it slides over your skin. Beyond that, though, the polished, metallic tones of its eyes and darting tongue mark it as supernatural even if someone hasn't seen its like before.
She blows a thoughtful smoke ring up over both your heads. "I think I can find the time," she says, a weary sort of smile creeping over her face. "This should be interesting."
The work room she leads you to is in the basement of one of the towers, warded with a basic ritual that you could have gotten through anytime after your first week. It's only middling in size, but it feels very large and very empty — there's nothing here but a few unoccupied shelves, and a dirt floor. The latter is why she chose it.
"Now," Bashura says, closing the door behind you with a firm snap, "it isn't nighttime yet, but I think you should be able to manage a demonstration."
You nod. Summonings of all kinds are often easier after dark, particularly at the stroke of midnight, particularly during nights without a moon. Times when the barriers between worlds grow infinitesimally weaker. Lesser elementals aren't quite so picky, however, even for specialised summonings like the spell that burns in your chest. "You know what I wanted to do?" you ask her.
"I've seen a bronze serpent before, Ambraea," she says. "You've certainly been busy. Show me."
Swallowing your nerves — and ignoring the slight tickle of a forked tongue flicking concernedly at your ear — you reach out for that spark of foreign Earth Essence you've cultivated inside you, mingling so strangely with your own. You'd bolstered it before going to bed the night before by ritually consigning a silver coin into the ground. You slow your breathing, finding the steady peace of the solitary mountain. There's a pulse underfoot that only you can sense, and the dragon scale hanging beneath your tunic burns cold for just a moment. Despite the part of you that simply wants to get the thing done with, you go slowly and carefully as you form the power that you need. When you're ready, your hands flash through a sequence of Heptagram mudras, signs describing the Verdigris Serpent Chant in place of you speaking it aloud.
A book you cross-referenced spoke of two different methods for the final casting of this spell. Diamond-Cut Perfection had told you of a third, only viable for one whom the earth itself already obeys. It's this last that you perform now, raising a booted foot in order to slam it down onto the hard-packed soil underfoot, perfectly in time with the last of your signs. There's a flash of bronze-coloured Essence, and this time, you're very certain that the slight tremor was felt by more than just you. You stomp down on the same spot again, and then a third time, forcing yourself to focus through the euphoria of the casting. It's easier this time than your first casting.
The dirt floor splits open at your feet, a small, narrow hole forming. Out of it flows half a dozen snakes, each an adder as long as your arm, each thin and deadly and waiting for your word. Last time, you'd panicked, looking back at all those snake eyes staring expectantly up at you, and you'd said the first thing that came to mind: "Rats!" They'd all slithered off into the darkness... except for one.
"Anyone who steps into that corner," you say, pointing to the far end of the room. As one, they hiss an affirmation and slither over the ground to the spot you've indicated, forming a strange, unnaturally still guard there.
Bashura, wisely, does not approach them. She's been watching this all transpire with a keen eye, leaning against the back wall. You see that she's actually produced a pipe, which she's presumably lit with her bare hands — a sensible enough habit to pick up, when one already had her Aspect markings. "You've been tutored by an elemental," she says.
You stiffen, and don't reach up to touch the dragon scale. On your shoulders, your snake goes abruptly still. "It's that obvious?" you say.
"No," Bashura says, gesturing with the pipe. "I'm just very smart." She frowns, as though mulling over a possibility for a second or two. Then she says, with actual venom: "Diamond-Cut Perfection."
Perhaps conjured up by the mention of their name, you feel the elemental's mind touching your own — they're unquestionably amused. No use trying to hide it. "Yes," you say.
"And just when did you get a chance to—" Bashura reconsiders the question, and her tone, taking a puff from her pipe before starting again. "You know, I've been watching you a little, this year."
You're aware that many people have, for reasons other than your great skill or dedication. Still, you're a little surprised to hear it from her. "You have, instructor?"
"To be honest, I thought there was a decent chance you'd go home early. Or not at all."
The words genuinely sting. No matter how common that is, it was never an option for you. "Why?"
"Most of us do not become flawless diamonds when we're under all the pressure in the world," Bashura says, as blunt as before. "And you are most definitely lucky to be alive, the way you've been carrying on."
"You... noticed this much, but you didn't stop me?" You frown, finally letting an expression pass through your calm facade.
Bashura shrugs. "It's our job to make diamonds out of coal, as it would happen. We can't do that without a few splitting, or falling through the cracks. I'll have words with that elemental — so will the dominie, I suspect. We were bound to need to sooner rather than later, but tempting first year students into bargains is too far to be borne. Be careful of what that dragon tries to drag you into." For the first time, her expression softens a little, as she adds: "But... congratulations. You're a sorcerer."
You don't quite let yourself heave the relieved sigh you want to at those words, but you feel your snake coil a little tighter around your neck — just enough to be a comfort.
"Put a sign up on the door when you leave," Bashura says, turning toward the door. "We don't need anyone blundering into your little pets here, before they go back to the earth."
This is not, of course, the end of things — you're questioned further on both your actions and your judgment, and called foolish by more than a few instructors.
The response from your peers is more mixed — upperclassmen seem to view you with a sort of keen-eyed scrutiny, as if you have suddenly just threatened to become an actual human whose presence they'll have to consider beyond a single year. Your own yearmates are a mix of awe and a sort of disapproving envy, depending on the student. One of them takes it a great deal farther than most, however:
You haven't had a great deal to do with Ragara Yonan, but you've seen him often enough. You remember him from countless lectures, practical exercises, and binding rituals. A quiet boy, and certainly not lazy, but also not particularly talented. Twice, he is caught attempting to go outside after curfew. The third time, he succeeds, venturing out into a rainstorm.
His body is found two days later laying at the bottom of a dry gorge with a broken neck, already partially eaten. Reflection helpfully tells you that it was probably the fall that killed him, the drop off having been nearly invisible in the darkness. Whatever had been feeding off of his body was much more likely an opportunist than anything. In the end, being fireproof doesn't protect you from splitting your skull open on a sharp rock.
You don't mourn for the boy in particular, although you're not thrilled by the thought of someone dying in emulation of you. The largest part of your disquiet is more existential than that — Exalts don't die this way in stories, it's always a glorious battle or a heroic last stand. Certainly you know, intellectually, that this isn't always true in the real world. One of your own half-sisters infamously died after too much heroin mixed with too much dreamstone dust. Cynis had been nearing two-hundred, though, already the Founder of her own Great House. This feels... different.
It is a slight wakeup call, for all that it doesn't entirely take away your giddy sense of triumph.
"Honestly, it's like you're trying to make us all look bad," L'nessa says, one night. It's one of the few truly clear evenings you've seen all year, the stars fully visible overhead. You're on top of one of the towers, expected to correctly read the heavens above, and record your findings meticulously — astrology is primarily known for divination, but it can be used in all manner of odd rituals a sorcerer might take advantage of.
"Well," you say, not quite looking up as you work, "at least you'll be able to tell your mother that you did manage to get to know me. Like she asked." Your snake is curled up on the ground beside you, dozing smugly as it digests an unlucky mouse.
She laughs, the sound kept quiet enough as to not disturb the others at their work. "As difficult as you make that! Although to be fair, you're still one of the more approachable aunts I have."
You crack a smile at that. "Yes, I imagine so."
You both fall silent for a moment, concentrating on your work. At length, she speaks again: "This year will have been the hardest part, supposedly," she notes.
"Yes, I'm sure it's nothing but smooth sailing from here," you say. It won't be, and you know it — you still have a great deal to learn over the next seven years, even if you've made an auspicious start in only one. One spell does not a master sorcerer make.
"Naturally," L'nessa agrees. "Try to keep up with me, won't you?"
You only smile at that, as the two of you look up at the heavens, both already thinking ahead to the remaining years of your schooling, and even beyond. Neither of you can see the storm on the horizon yet, but how could you? After all, no one expects the Imperial Mountain to crumble or the sky to fall. For you in particular, either of those things are as easy to contemplate as what the future holds.
The end of the first year approaches, and you have not only survived, but triumphed. You will now have the short months of the academic break to recover and bask in your accomplishments.
Returning to the Imperial City is impractical by ordinary means, from the sheer length of the voyage. Anticipating this, you have been given permission to stay in the Empress's personal residence in the city of Chanos, one of the many she maintains across the Blessed Isle. The break is, among other things, intended to keep secondary school students connected to the Dynasty as a whole.
As a young student of sorcery, you will not precisely be swamped with offers to attend salons and gallas. You do intend to do more than merely moping around in a strange house with no one but servants for company, however — some of the connections you've made during this year offer opportunities to begin to take your first baby steps toward establishing yourself as your own woman, rather than merely your mother's daughter. This is a vital time in every young Dynast's life, where you work to forge lasting networks among your peers, as well as impress your elders.
Article: The following choices reference gaining ties and scrutiny — these are informal ways to track who Ambraea has been directing her efforts towards, and who else is taking notice. Scrutiny is not necessarily bad at this stage, with your place in Dynastic society not yet secured and the tentative alliances you might form yet so fragile. Over the long term, however, you cannot please everyone, and all Great Houses have enemies who they will judge you for associating too closely with. This will not preclude having a positive relationship with certain individuals from a given Great House, but it may make things more interesting, from time to time.
You may vote for as many options as you like, but only the option with the most votes will be picked.
During the break, you...
[ ] Stay in Chanos, but accept an invitation to call on Sesus Cerec, Amiti's mother, at her estate outside the city
Its unsavory reputation aside, you could do far worse than working to associate yourself with one of the three Great Military Houses of the Realm. Even if Amiti herself has shown no great talent at sorcery, her mother is a well respected legionary officer both within House Sesus and beyond, with more power and influence than you can possibly guess at yet. However, long term, you cannot hope to attach yourself to one of the military houses without drawing suspicion from scions of its rivals.
+1 ties to Sesus Amiti, House Sesus
+1 scrutiny from House Tepet, House Cathak
[ ] Accept an invitation from your elder sister, V'neef, to call on her in Eagle Prefecture, traveling with L'nessa via sorcerous conveyance
House V'neef is a wealthy and dynamic young house, and attaching your fortunes to it in its early days may reap substantial benefits down the road. V'neef yourself is popular and gregarious, well known for being a gracious host. Both the fledgling house and its matriarch have powerful enemies kept at bay mainly by your mother's attentions, however, and at some point you will be perceived as taking sides in the intrigues and enmities of your elder siblings. Perhaps unavoidable, in the long term.
+1 ties to V'neef L'nessa, House V'neef, V'neef
+1 scrutiny from House Peleps, Mnemon
[ ] Exchange favours with Diamond-Cut Perfection in order to return to the Imperial Palace at supernatural speed, making a grand statement about your sorcerous progress
Doing so will cause a minor stir at court, and announce you as a rising talent, as well as deepening your entanglement with a powerful and enigmatic elemental. You can count on a chance to speak privately with your father, at least, and to see servants and palace officials who very literally raised you far more than either of your parents did.
+1 ties to Diamond-Cut Perfection
+1 scrutiny (general))
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[X] Stay in Chanos, but accept an invitation to call on Sesus Cerec, Amiti's mother, at her estate outside the city
She died attempting to become the Most High I see...
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[x] Exchange favours with Diamond-Cut Perfection in order to return to the Imperial Palace at supernatural speed, making a grand statement about your sorcerous progress
Good decisions for for other people, who aren't the Scarlet Empress' rising star of a youngest daughter.
Riding back to the Imperial City on dragonback, just to say hi to our dad, is definitely just the coolest and silliest option, so I have to vote for it.
Good decisions for for other people, who aren't the Scarlet Empress' rising star of a youngest daughter.
Riding back to the Imperial City on dragonback, just to say hi to our dad, is definitely just the coolest and silliest option, so I have to vote for it.
... Ah. That kind of consequence.
I wonder if we might have had copy-cats if we'd picked Names Plucked Like Blossoms. And if Geomantic Mandala might have seen even more die or wash out.
- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's pretty impressive, considering that she was a Wood Aspect.
Maybe she snorted raw Raksha.
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
[X] Stay in Chanos, but accept an invitation to call on Sesus Cerec, Amiti's mother, at her estate outside the city
[X] Exchange favours with Diamond-Cut Perfection in order to return to the Imperial Palace at supernatural speed, making a grand statement about your sorcerous progress
[X] Exchange favours with Diamond-Cut Perfection in order to return to the Imperial Palace at supernatural speed, making a grand statement about your sorcerous progress
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- Pronouns
- Reader
So these are the houses we gain scrutiny from, and people with confirmed ties to them. It's interesting that our options were mainly tied to the military houses, with the outlier being a Heavy Geomancy house.
I notice as well that aside from Perfection, we have an option for one Room mate and one non Room mate friend. Does this mean that either Erona Tepet didn't survive or where they just picked because of the higher overall vote count in there respective votes?
So we actually have elder syblings at both votes. I suppose that could be the reason they're our options instead of Tepet and Erona
Now this is interesting. The fact that the house includes formers members of many fallen houses is rather curious, especially given the fact that it's a merchant house.
[X] Accept an invitation from your elder sister, V'neef, to call on her in Eagle Prefecture, traveling with L'nessa via sorcerous conveyance
In the end, I can't resist the chance to meet those fallen house former members, or the chance to recieve some rare gift that V'neef acquired through her merchant connections abroad.
@Gazetteer you forgot to add perfection to the spirits section.
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- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's less that I'm deliberately going out of my way to exclude ties to Sola or Maia in this vote so much as like, I wanted to narrow it down to three, and these three were ones I had good ideas for (also, in the case of Amiti's family, simple proximity is important, since the Isle of Voices is off the coast from Chanos Prefecture anyway). We've got a lot more years left in this thing, and there will be other opportunities in the future.
The thing about getting scrutiny from military houses is mostly just a coincidence. House Peleps is mad at House V'neef due to the Empress giving V'neef the Realm's cash cow merchant fleet to manage upon her ascension, in a transparent bid to decrease Peleps' amount of power within the Dynasty. Cathak and Tepet mentioned because like, the great military houses are rivals, and in particular Sesus lacking the piety and/or codes of martial honour of the other two lead to tensions. In particular, Sesus and Tepet are not friends. Although to give it away, Amiti is so intensely uninterested in familial posturing that Sola will give up on trying to make something of it very early on if they end up socialising due to being Ambraea's friends.
House V'neef is largely made up of outcaste/patrician households -- an outcaste is any Dragon-Blooded who Exalts outside of either the Dynasty or the Blessed Isle's patrician class. Outcastes from the Blessed Isle (frequently called "lost eggs") either go into the Immaculate Order, or accept a fifty year stint in the Imperial Legions in exchange for being granted patrician status if they survive. Some fallen Great Houses are still around in patrician form: For example, Iselsi and Burano (what's left of the Blessed Isle branch, for Burano, obviously the Prasadi branch that Ambraea's father comes from is doing very well for itself). House V'neef is not really made up of a bunch of fallen houses, though, so much as it's got a lot of like... households belonging to seasoned military veterans who are mostly older than V'neef despite having been adopted as her daughters.
You're correct that I haven't updated the character list yet, I'll probably look at doing that soon!
The thing about getting scrutiny from military houses is mostly just a coincidence. House Peleps is mad at House V'neef due to the Empress giving V'neef the Realm's cash cow merchant fleet to manage upon her ascension, in a transparent bid to decrease Peleps' amount of power within the Dynasty. Cathak and Tepet mentioned because like, the great military houses are rivals, and in particular Sesus lacking the piety and/or codes of martial honour of the other two lead to tensions. In particular, Sesus and Tepet are not friends. Although to give it away, Amiti is so intensely uninterested in familial posturing that Sola will give up on trying to make something of it very early on if they end up socialising due to being Ambraea's friends.
House V'neef is largely made up of outcaste/patrician households -- an outcaste is any Dragon-Blooded who Exalts outside of either the Dynasty or the Blessed Isle's patrician class. Outcastes from the Blessed Isle (frequently called "lost eggs") either go into the Immaculate Order, or accept a fifty year stint in the Imperial Legions in exchange for being granted patrician status if they survive. Some fallen Great Houses are still around in patrician form: For example, Iselsi and Burano (what's left of the Blessed Isle branch, for Burano, obviously the Prasadi branch that Ambraea's father comes from is doing very well for itself). House V'neef is not really made up of a bunch of fallen houses, though, so much as it's got a lot of like... households belonging to seasoned military veterans who are mostly older than V'neef despite having been adopted as her daughters.
You're correct that I haven't updated the character list yet, I'll probably look at doing that soon!
grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
Probably why it took a speedball to kill her, really.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Accept an invitation from your elder sister, V'neef, to call on her in Eagle Prefecture, traveling with L'nessa via sorcerous conveyance
- Location
- United States
[X] Exchange favours with Diamond-Cut Perfection in order to return to the Imperial Palace at supernatural speed, making a grand statement about your sorcerous progress
[x] Stay in Chanos, but accept an invitation to call on Sesus Cerec, Amiti's mother, at her estate outside the city
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
[x] Exchange favours with Diamond-Cut Perfection in order to return to the Imperial Palace at supernatural speed, making a grand statement about your sorcerous progress
We are a Daughter of the Emperess, we must impress everyone and show ourself off to the Abassador. Also we can say hi to the family that raise us.
We are a Daughter of the Emperess, we must impress everyone and show ourself off to the Abassador. Also we can say hi to the family that raise us.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Oor we could spend time with friends?
Like, it's a question of whether we want to try and establish ourselves on our own, and focus on becoming individually significant, or we want to politic.
Personally, I'd say we should establish political connections as opposed to essentially bluffing.
Like, it's a question of whether we want to try and establish ourselves on our own, and focus on becoming individually significant, or we want to politic.
Personally, I'd say we should establish political connections as opposed to essentially bluffing.
- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The political and the social are not necessarily completely different things for a Dynast. The friendships Ambraea is making are real friendships, and they may grow to be something that matters to her more than political posturing (for instance, Maia is not someone who has an obvious larger benefit to hang around the way someone like L'nessa or Sola does). But it's also true that like... the easiest path forward for Ambraea to establish herself and carve out her own niche in this society is to find allies other than her mother. Like, for example, V'neef married a Tepet and her household was subsequently closely aligned with House Tepet for years, giving her time to establish her own skills and cement her own reputation prior to mom allowing her to found her own Great House.
As for spending time with friends... I also think that it's kind clear that like, these options, if you ignore the larger political concerns are... "hang out with Amiti over the summer break", "hang out with L'nessa over the summer break" or "hang out with this enbie dragon on your way to go home and see your dad and hopefully make your mom proud."
- Location
- United States of America
[x] Accept an invitation from your elder sister, V'neef, to call on her in Eagle Prefecture, traveling with L'nessa via sorcerous conveyance
[x] Exchange favours with Diamond-Cut Perfection in order to return to the Imperial Palace at supernatural speed, making a grand statement about your sorcerous progress
