Not My Dream Vacation (Celestial Crab Bucket. First World, Exalted)

TheLastOne · Apr 17, 2025

Author's Note
There is a (perfectly legitimate) tendency to not like certain kinds of surprises being sprung on the reader, where what they think is happening, and what actually is happening is quite different.

As such, I am making a note of it right now that there are basic things Nathan thinks are true that are not. Consider this a warning, if you're one of those people

As I said, this is an actual spoiler. Don't share it in the thread outside spoilers tags.

While Nathan's original 'pre-isekai' identity is what he thinks it was, his arrival in creation was somewhat worse than he thinks it was. He has been hit with Pattern Spider's Touch, and has had roughly eleven days of history rewritten. That is, his entire existence in Creation up-to-that-point.

Notably, he isn't a god, though 'not being a real god' isn't actually that big a deal. Still, putting it out here so no one thinks I'm springing it on them , and fair warning for people who don't like those kinds of surprises coming out of left field.

Chapter One
An Auspicious Start

The 3rd of Ascending Water, Marsday, Realm Year 762
"Drink, drink. You were human, right," The Dreamer stated more than asked, "Humans love drinking."

"Ah, thank you," I replied, taking a careful sip. To be frank, I didn't like drinking; it was not a moral objection. I just didn't like the loss of control. But I wasn't going to tell my companions that. My appointment could have gone badly, and I wasn't going to risk it so soon by offending them.

The taste was intensely mineral, which isn't normally how I would describe something pleasant, but honestly the only reason I wouldn't describe it as the best thing I had ever drank was that the festival I attended at the start of the session had a tea that I could only describe as a religious experience. With fear, to be clear; I didn't want to want anything that much.

"It's delicious," I said, honestly.

We were currently hosted within The House of the Nine Hearths of Emerald and Silver, the home of the Ennead, the patron gods of some nation called the Haslanti League. Evidently choosing them as our hosts was minorly scandalous, a way of pushing back on the authority so recently applied. Since my appointment was part of that self-same exercise of authority, I was unsure how to feel about it.

We were currently… well, holding court, basically… within a great hall that had been repurposed to host us. Most of the pantheon hosting us were not home. I still was getting my head around the local seasons, but evidently the season of Ascending Water was a busy one from the Ennead - the Pantheon that was hosting us. It kind of seemed strange to me that we were being given the run of the place, and it was considered a big honor and transgressive of us to pick them as our hosts, yet at the same time it wasn't an insult for none of the Ennead to be here.

But then, I had been a god for all of three weeks. And, as far as isekai cheats go, 'being a god' turned out to be deeply mid. So what did I know? Honestly I was grateful. I was more than a little overwhelmed still. That said, we were hardly alone. The Ennead had left servants to take care of us, and we were making full use of their home to host a Gala.

There were twelve of us here, currently enjoying the Ennead's hospitality. While by tradition only the god of the preceding, current, and next season needed to be present, there were more of us than that.

For Descending Air, that was The Dreamer, who it seemed had been assigned as my first teacher. Maybe they took up the role themselves? They were friendly enough, but they seemed friendly to everyone, so I wasn't sure how real it was. They were androgynous, and I wasn't sure of their current gender, so I was being careful about it. They looked like a hospital patient wasting away - maybe fifty pounds soaking wet, at a respectable 5'8. Though their hair was wine-dark and lush, and they were well groomed. I always got the feeling they were stoned, too. Not just from the name.

The gods of the current month, the Calendar gods of Ascending Water, were the Cold Roars. They were a pair of giant bears. But while the Dreamer was playing host and teaching me the ropes, the Cold Roars had excused themselves the night before to hunt… I think dogs? I didn't quite understand that part, though I felt vaguely horrified about it. But I felt vaguely horrified by many things.

The gods of Resplendent Water, of next month… They were the The Three. They were like a genderfliped witches coven - The Boy, the Father, and the Codger? Whatever. They were made from Ice, and if this was a DnD session I would have guessed they were some kind of elementals. Luckily, I hadn't said that, because I'm pretty sure they would have been insulted. And honestly, they gave me witchy vibes, and I didn't want them insulted at me.

They were the ones 'in charge' of the current court. But they weren't the only ones present.

I was sure he was positively inclined towards me, but mainly because I was essentially told as much - that his support had been arranged. But as he rarely talked, and he seemed to be putting most of his efforts into rebuilding his connections with the hangers on of the Court, we had barely interacted.

Lastly, the Golden Stars were present - six identical women. Their complexions and features struck me as being Arabic - except there was no such thing here in Creation, so I supposed I needed to update my ethnic library. While they were decidedly average in appearance, they all had a vivacious air to them, and I would have been charmed to have a girl like that pay attention to me. Just not them, because they low-key terrified me.

Lastly there was me. The new calendar god, the god of Calibration, the five days that weren't part of any season, a 'month' into themselves. Theoretically, this was my formal introduction to godly society. Since I'm pretty sure we would be throwing a festival anyways, I didn't take it very seriously.

The Dreamer picked away at a shallow bowl they had at their side, rolling together a ball of something gray and stringy, before popping it in their mouth, before returning their attention to me.

"So, what you have to understand," they said, resuming our earlier conversation, "is that our job is to represent and inspire."

He languidly gestured at all the strangeness gathered in the hall, the gathered gods milling about the other members of the Court. While the Ennead weren't home, their home was full of people wanting to meet us, along with some of the Ennead's servants taking care of our needs.

"The Bureau of Seasons might make everything run, but they're staid and humorless. See, they don't make people believe that things should keep running. They don't get people invested in the system. People need symbols, patriotism for reality, you might call it."

He threw a few more stands in his mouth, musing over his thoughts before speaking, "The seasons aren't just physical. We might not make it snow, but we make snow a time for families to come together and celebrate. You aren't going to go and fix the Loom during Calibration, no. But it's your job to make it a celebration, rather than let everyone be terrified that a demon is going to crawl through their shadow and eat their spleen."

They took a long draw from their pipe, and the smoke they blew out smelled foul, before even more languidly continuing, "They make nature run. We make people happy that natures running. The seasons turn according to the design of heaven, but we make it so that's something to celebrate."

Yeah. My isekai cheat? Literally godhood. As in, I was a god when I wandered, confused, out of that stupid hole in reality. And hey, while I didn't start out a god of anything in particular, they made me a Calendar God. That had to be a big deal, right? It had to make me a big deal, right? This was the start of my adventure, right?

No. No it didn't. Instead I got an official apology of 'whatever hole from beyond you fell through has been officially recognized as our fault', and then whisked off to a position where I couldn't damage anything with my complete lack of qualification as apology.

Maybe it was way better than I had any right to expect. Maybe it was an actually prestigious position. Maybe it came with some real respect. But I couldn't get over the fact that I was a cheerleader. As in, my job was to hype up the change of seasons, and run a bunch of parties. Only not actually run the parties, because that was too much responsibility. Enliven them by my presence and claim responsibility for the work more qualified people did.

"Calibration really is terrifying if you think about it for more than a minute," I said honestly, because it was. "I hope I can live up the expectations you've all placed in me by trusting me with the responsibility."

The trust in this case was 'The Bureau of Destiny will help you make a fall guy to cover for your crimes in return for solving one of their problems.' While I might be misunderstanding the situation somewhat - in fact, I'm sure I was simply because everyone involved was a lying criminal and I lacked context - the basic gist of it was this. The whole Court of Seasons did so much crime that there were binders worth of blackmail material against them gathering dust. They broke Heaven's laws left and right, and got away with it on account of being popular enough that no one wanted the headache.

And like all things 'no one wanted', it was a homeostasis that lasted until someone did. Evidently, The Whisperer's court had been used to launder a little bit too much money from Heaven for it to be overlooked. I didn't really get the context, but for some reason no one who mattered thought the Whisperer himself had anything to do with it, but it was being held against the Court as a whole. The Hidden had stolen something (never named) that they really shouldn't from the Bureau of Humanity. The Seven Fangs had killed the godblooded scion of… I didn't quite catch the name… and he had actual legal protection that actually mattered for reasons that escaped me and wouldn't apply to all their other murder. And those were only the opening act.

On the flip side, the Bureau of Destiny was always happy to help execute more gods, because dead gods could be turned into some kind of super-special magical metal called 'Starmetal.' Which was an amazingly happy thought to discover, you know, as a new god. And while the crimes were serious, the Court would have been able to avoid being executed. But if they were allowed to shift the blame…

But shifting that much blame around, doing that much of a frame job was more than the Bureau of Destiny would just do for a handful of minor gods getting executed. What they wanted was this - the Court of Seasons had an open slot. It was prestigious and harmless, and it let them wash their hands of me. There were fifteen months plus Calibration. All fifteen seats had been fighting over getting Calibration, even though Calibration is only five days. Handing it off to me might deny anyone the chance to expand their own domains, but I would be weaker and less prestigious than the rest, and none of their rivals would get it. At the same time, binders worth of crime disappeared, the freaky destiny wizards in the Bureau of Destiny got a nice toy, and heaven can officially say they did right by me for whatever ripped me from earth to, to…

To this messed up fever-dream. Like something between a bronze age Conan-style horror show, and Asura Wrath.

"If we're supposed to be inspiration, shouldn't we be out there in the world?"

"Oh," a perky voice interrupted our conversation. One of the Golden Stars was climbing up the steps of the dais, before plopping herself down on one of the floor cushions, "we will be!"

She picked up my cup and took a long draw, before using it to gesture to the rest of the crowd, "We've agreed to hold court within the territory of the Ennead till the next Carnival of Meetings. That said, we don't want a bunch of mortal petitioners dying in the snow before they even meet us - it would look bad."

She plopped herself down on her own cushion, and the Dreamer started preparing her a pipe of whatever he was smoking, "We don't want to be cheap, and some of them dying is good for that. People value something risky more than something safe, you know? And some of us just run very dangerous courts. That's all fine. But if they start dying before they even reached our court…"

She shrugged as she accepted the pipe, "It might hurt how many petitioners we get in the future. It would make more people think they didn't have a chance, which isn't what we want."

She let out a sigh, as she sprawled into her cushion. It would have made for a tempting sight - something I sort of suspected was intentional - except for the part where she scared me, and that she thought the idea that there should be an appropriate number of deaths disgusted me.

But I held my tongue as the Dreamer's lethargic voice picked back up as they started walking me through all the festivals we were officially responsible for. It was quite a list.

The 4th of Ascending Water, Mercuryday, Realm Year 762
I looked around my current bedroom. Sometime between going to bed last night, and waking today I felt… better. More grounded. It was the second time that happened. Something about my messed up way of entering this universe fixing itself? Something like that.

I felt good. Great really, physically speaking. That was pleasant, but not so pleasant that it made me want to actually finish getting out of bed, so I sat, half covered in the fur blankets, enjoying the crisp chill.

Against one wall was a dresser with the handful of clothes I had hanging from it. My outfit from the day before hung there - already cleaned by the Sanctum's scarily efficient servants. Most of the rest of the room was piled with gifts. Boxes spilling over boxes, forming into drifts that, while one might not be able to drown in, had certainly graduated from ''tripping hazard" to "Navigation hazard." Which was fine with me, since I didn't really want to go anywhere. Though it probably wasn't to be, since…

My door banged open, Lird Melo, the middle figure of The Three, entered with a purple haired goddess I hadn't met before, and a trailing tail of house-staff. I wasn't sure if I would call him a 'young man' or 'middle aged.' Right on that border, absurdly handsome like something a movie character stepping out of the big screen. While he was made from ice, that didn't make him see-through. His colors were off, and he gleamed, but he wasn't monotoned. He had black hair, though it looked more like ink than human hair, and wine-dark eyes. He had that 'something Asian in the last couple generations' look of Keenu Reeves, if Keenu Reeves was 6'10 and had biceps bigger than a woman's waist. Like… he was shredded. Absurdly shredded. Grate cheese on his abs shredded. He wore a two layer robe, but it wasn't quite closed right, letting a bit of his chest show and leaving him looking disheveled. It was intentional - he always looked tousled.

"Slow morning? I'll join you for breakfast today," he stated casually as he walked to my small table. "It's not good for us to be too present since it's not our season, don't want to be too available."

He casually gestured at the trailing servants to get me dressed as he started nosing his way through the gifts.

"Not a problem for you, really, since you just have the Carnival of Meetings, and that has a somewhat different balance to it." He studied a velvet bag for a moment. It was sewn shut, but his eyes seemed to see through the cover, and after a moment he handed it to one of the attendants to put on the table, before going back to rooting through the piles.

"Anyways, this is Vevin, goddess of… you're a lake goddess, right?" At the woman's nod he continued, "Anyways, she's volunteered to teach you Old Realm Script, Geomancy, get you started on basic orphiology… we have you with her for about five hours a day for the next week. See if she's worth using. Don't be afraid to toss her if she's useless. You're doing her a favor, don't hand those out if the petitioner isn't worth your time." He shrugged, before walking to the table with a two more packages.

While this had been going on, the ever officiant servants of the house had gotten me up out of bed, found several gifts that evidently were clothes (this had been how all of my wardrobe had thus far been procured), and not only had they finished dressing me, they were halfway through applying makeup and fixing my hair.

Makeup, it seemed, wasn't a gendered accessory in Creation. Thanks, Creation. I hate it.

As I was seated at the little table with Lird and the now named Vevin, I studied her while Lird opened the packages he had picked out - some kind of tea-set complete with a selection of teas, a cured meat spread, and a kind of large thick cracker. Before he had finished unpacking them, the servants had found a hot-plate, dishes, and silverware from among my unopened gifts.

Vevin was a tall woman. I couldn't be sure exactly since Creation didn't use American Customary, but I think my Apotheosis had put about five inches on my height, boosting me from a sort of average 5'10 to about 6'3. Somewhere in there, at least. She was about my height; she was close enough that I would put her within an inch of me in either direction. And while I hadn't seen her shoes, I had yet to see heels. She wore dark blue, and both her hair and eyes were a purple verging on black. Her dress seemed to swish as if alive as she moved, and for a moment it was like here skirt was a tail - an image that swiftly vanished when she sat, but stuck with me.

She gave me a small confident little smile, unconcerned with Lird's dismissive attitude, and gave me a deferential little bow that somehow managed to be amused. Considering Lird's attitude towards her, there was something wrong here. Like always, I lacked context.

"Nice to meet you Vevin," I said, nodding in acknowledgement, and feeling awkward. I would normally shake hands, but I was told that while there was a similar custom in a few places in Creation, and an important god could get away with sticking using their favored cultural norms. But also that such a gesture was only appropriate towards peers. I felt rude, and didn't know what to do with my hands instead, so I just played with the silverware. "I just hope you don't find me a frustrating student. I don't know what orphiology is."

She lightly shook her head as I tried a bite of crackers with meat spread. Delicious of course.

"I'm sure you'll be a fine student. I've taught mortals, I'm sure a young god will prove a more able student."

I wasn't.

"Oh," Lird interrupted, "do you need to top off?" For a moment, a blue-green glow snaked around his fingers like a cat's cradle.

"Nope," I lightly shook my head, and genuine smiled. "I started respiring essence last night."

"You did?" There was a flash of curiosity there. "It seems your apotheosis is fixing itself. Before long you'll be a real god."

Ah, yeah. I wonder why I didn't want to start the day.

"You couldn't naturally regain essence?"

"Don't ask questions outside your station." Lird didn't even look at her when he responded for me, an almost bored tune to his voice. "Anyways, if you don't need a pick-me-up anymore, I'll leave you to your day. Resplendent Water is going to be taking our leave of the Sanctum for the day. Only the Dreamer is going to be holding court. It's really disgraceful the way the Cold Roars treat their court. It's their season - they're supposed to be the key figures here. See you tomorrow at the latest."

He finished his last bite, nodded, and left trailed by servants. Two of them stayed - I guess my escort for the day.

"Before we get started, what should I call you? I only know you as the new Calibration god."

"Ah. I'm Nathan," I replied. The first part of my name was just my old name. But the Heavens had assigned me a new one too. Didn't know how I felt about it. "Nathan Nozi."

Authors Note
So something that I always forget until I go and look at the months…

In Exalted, air is associated with Cold, and the North. Yep, fine. We're all on a page here. Water is associated with the West, and has lots of variations, but thematically kind of defaults to a Mediterranean Sea for a Greek Mythology Style. Okay, we're still tracking.

However, the Season of air, the season when the elemental pole of Air is ascendent, is Autumn. Winter is in the Season of Water.

Why? Well, I'm guessing early on Water was going to be the 'cold' element, because ice=water, and so they arranged the seasons thus, and it never got changed even after they shifted cold to Air.

Well… this far north, Air is going to be pretty wintery, too. But I keep wanting to call winter 'air' and it's 'water.' Anyways, I thought I would share.

So there's this old thing about how spelling and names were done in the Old Realm. Not official, but I like it well enough. In this case, Nozi means Void-link-Lord. That said, this isn't a very expansive list of characters - I'm going with 'there are degrees', and the void in his name is similar but not the same as 'The Void'. In this case, it means hollow.

Basically Nozi means 'hollow lord' or 'lord of nothing.' Officially he has that because Calibration is the 'null' value in the calendar, the time that isn't, so he's the Calendar Lord for 'this time does not exist/the value is NULL.'

The Celestial Crab Bucket
Starting CP: 800CP
Starting Unlock: [Redacted]
First Discounted Unlock: Exalted: Outcaste [Ruby="400CP"](400CP)[/Ruby]
Starting Origin: [Redacted]

Starting Purchases

"Free For" [Redacted] [Ruby="350CP"](50CP)[/Ruby]

[Redacted] (Free)
[Redacted] (Free)

Unlock Origin: Exalted: Outcastes Origin - Godspawned Wretch

Firmly Familiar: +0CP
Similar Strength: +0CP
Base CP (Min. +50CP): +50CP
Total: [Ruby="300CP"](50CP)[/Ruby]

Godspawned Wretch Purchases
Anima Treasures

Significantly More Powerful?: +0CP
Fundamentally Transform: +100CP
Base CP (Min +50 CP): +100CP
Total: [Ruby="200CP"](100CP)[/Ruby]
Where you gained a priceless treasure like this is unknowable. It is as much an Endowment or mutation of the soul as it is an object. Perhaps it was a half-real wonder left unclaimed from the end of the first age that you dredged up from a forgotten laboratory, or maybe you bargained with a Demon Prince. Regardless, this is a true wonder.
In a display of essence and power, you drive your Anima to manifest at the Iconic level. And in a moment of strange wonder, it will shift, solidify, and become a strange item crafted in the colors of your Anima Banner and with motifs and designs echoing your Iconic Anima. It's as much a work of art as an artifact.
You may develop charms to further enhance this artifact-charm, to use it, or to grant it new abilities or attributes as if having it was a native ability natural to your charm set.
At any time, you may dismiss the artifact. Resummoning it is easy, but if you wish to refresh it you may do so with another investment of essence like its initial summoning. That said, while it's manifested, it's a real physical object, not some ephemeral construct of essence.
For future jumps, this charm counts as an appropriate item to import future items into it.

Mantle of Rebirth
The Mantle of Rebirth is made from something more illusionary than gossamer, and more sacred than ambrosia. Its weight on your shoulder is as heavy as a promise.
The Mantle of Rebirth allows you to, in a single moment, kill and unmake yourself, and at the same time set in motion your rebirth. A death caused this way doesn't count as 'dying' within the greater context of the Chain, though the time between your death and rebirth will not progress the current link on the chain. Using the mantle usually takes too long and takes too much focus to use in combat, though it isn't that long a process. It's in line with a moderately involved spell.
When you use the mantle, you can specify many aspects of the circumstance of your rebirth; you can pick your parents in other worlds. Only the most powerful beings are immune to this manipulation. You are also able to declare many details of your new form; you generally can't make yourself more impressive, but you can move things around.
If circumstance or external forces interfere with the fulfillment of your rebirth, you can choose what will be prioritized when you use the mantle. At the same time, improbable choices can result in the mantle metaphorically satisfying your design, rather than doing so literally. The mantle and its use is exceedingly hard to detect. It cloaks itself in such a way that nothing less than the direct attention of one of the Maidens will find you, and she would have to already be looking.
All that said, your rebirth will also prioritize the abilities you have over the ones of your new parents; exaltation will usually burn away spirit heritage and other supernatural powers.
You can allow others to use the mantle.
Once every ten years, or once every link in the chain (whichever comes sooner), the Mantle will whisk away your soul to reincarnation at the moment of your death even if it isn't manifested. After your chain is done, the mantle may save you any number of time.

Wake up somewhere where 'You' will be helped, and/or gain a knowledge and helpful mentor/guide. [Ruby="100CP"](0CP)[/Ruby]

Day One
[Ruby="+50CP"](50CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a day that you involve yourself in Plot - when you're actively engaging with the world, going out of cour comfort zone, and otherwise tying yourself to events.

"Free For" Godspawned Wretch[Ruby="0CP"](50CP)[/Ruby]
Do what you want 'cause an outcaste is free (Free for Everyone)
You have the talent to be an outcaste's outcaste, the idea so many of them pretend to. Whether you live up to that potential is up to you, but you certainly have the basic set of abilities needed to thrive.
First, you are a bit better than the average person on all of your basic attributes. It's nothing dramatic; if the average man was a 'two', then you're at least a 'three' on all fundamental abilities.
But more than that; you express a nature strengthened by the five elements.
From Air, you're a bit quicker on your feet, as if you had a Stone of Quick Thought.
From Earth, you are physically flawless, like the bearer of a Gem of Perfection.
From Fire, you deal well with both cold and heat, shake off many minor diseases, and resist dehydration as if you bore the Stone of Circulation.
From Water, you are immune to disease and poison, and will not bleed, as if you bore a Bloodstone.
From Wood, you excel at matters of survival and endurance through valor, as if you bore the Stone Of The Emerald Rooster.
You are not one to be pinned down by others' expectations or designs upon your identity. Man? Woman? You are what you decide to be, just as if you bore a Stone of Gender Transformation.
Lastly, outcaste society is a Dragonsblooded society, concerned not just with what you are, but what springs from you. You can guarantee your children inherit any inheritable trait you wish. Even if such inheritance should weaken, you can promise it will not.
To be clear, this Charm won't weed out traits. It's a way of helping you pass things on, not a way to engineer your children. That said, you don't have to use it on any trait you don't wish to be passed down. Things will proceed naturally from that point. This Charm is an inheritable trait.

TheLastOne · Apr 17, 2025

Settling in

The 4th of Ascending Water, Mercuryday, Realm Year 762
Orphiology, it turned out, was the 'Study of Deepness.' In this case not referring to physical depths, but spiritual ones. At the most shallow layer, it talked about how Least Gods interacted with the objects they were attached to. At deeper levels, how Sanctums and similar things existed, and then how gods were attached to concepts.

Honestly, the best analogy I had for gods was that they were strings. Little gods were small strings that were then bundled into sets, that were then bundled into cords, and so on, all leading to heaven. Reality didn't really depend on them. The little god of my teacup wasn't necessary for me to drink from it. What it did was make sure that the teacup remained firmly tied to fate. Considering that fate getting entangled was what appeared to lead to the cosmic error that dropped me into Creation, I was firmly on team 'have fate work right.'

Vevin said my analogy was fine for a basic understanding, but would become less accurate as we investigated deeper layers, and that there was a reason fate was the one that usually had the string metaphor used. And also that we wouldn't be really talking about fate, because that was a whole confusing topic itself and not actually involved in Orphiology, but that while she wasn't always on the side of those who tried to turn fate into prophecy, she too was on team fate. As was anyone sane.

"So you were appointed to your seat as an apology?"

"Yep. Had nothing to do with gods or… anything supernatural before all of this," I told her. She was really easy to talk to. Honestly the first normal person I met since coming here. Hell, I could almost pretend she was human - enough people dyed their hair. Though an amazonian punk-chic cosplayer would have totally been out of my league back on earth. " I was just a normal person."

"That's some apology. I'll admit, you're not what I was expecting when I heard there was a new god in the Court of Seasons, I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting when I saw the curriculum they had setup. But not you. Who exactly screwed up enough to feel they had to arrange something like… well… this? Don't get me wrong, it's admirable to take responsibility for your wrong doings, but it's not what I expect of heaven these days."

Well, that was super heretical I'm pretty sure, if true from everything I saw. I wasn't going to tell the censors though, so I just shrugged and went over to my bed side, found the folded letter by my nightstand, and handed it to her as I sat back down.

It was short. Two paragraphs, a closing, and two signed names. I would call it perfunctory. Living in this world for almost two weeks hadn't actually given me enough context to really understand the importance of those names. That was something that would only come from years of living. But I vaguely understood.

"... why do you have an apology letter from Saturn and Mercury?"

"It was something they felt needed to be apologized for? Why does anyone have an apology letter?"

She blinked several times, shook her head. "Okay, I know I was told to keep it to myself, but really, what happened?"

I shook my head. "I'm not insulted you asked, but I really can't say. As in, I can not say. I can't speak the words. While the existence of the apology is no secret, the details are. They have been sealed to secrecy by the Maiden of Secrets. No one still bound by fate can speak them, nor hear them."

She sat there for a minute, just thinking, then sighed.

"Well, I think you'll need more than basic Orphiology if you're involved with such things, but everyone starts somewhere. Let's go over the Racha's exclusion principle. It's fundamental to understanding when a subject with be governed by a single god, or multiple. The important thing to understand…"

The next several hours involved going from topic to topic. Whenever I started struggling, she picked up on it. Often the analogies she used left me confused, but she was always able to switch over to a new one, figuring out a better way of explaining it to me. Lake god… it made me wonder what secrets her lake had hidden in its depths. While gods could grow beyond their task, I had already learned that few did so. If she was so aligned with knowledge and the occult, there probably was a reason.

Still, I did not ask. She probably wouldn't tell me, after all.

"Okay, you obviously are already lettered. It would make it easier for me to teach you if I knew what scripts you already have."

I hummed, then quickly wrote down, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."

She stared at it, quirked an eyebrow, then gave an 'ah.'

"What does it say?"

It took me a moment to organize how I wanted to say it. While I seemed to just be able to automatically speak Old Realm, it didn't organize the same way, and color terms were complicated, because colors were associated with magic and metaphor. There were about a dozen ways of saying 'brown fox,' and most of them would add context that I didn't want, but I settled on how I would translate it.

"Huh." She thought for a moment. Looked over the letters again. "Ah, this is a pangram."

I was the one who blinked several times in surprise. "Ah… yes. All the standard letters at least. There are a few others that get occasionally used in loan words or for historical purposes, but those are all standard letters."

"Well, that puts you at something of a disadvantage. There's an elegance to phonemes, but we all inherited the Old Realm\s Logographic approach from those who came before, and Heaven's never going to go through the effort needed to change it. Can't, really, it's been woven into the foundations of reality. I also don't know your lettering, which just makes me more curious, but also I don't know any easy cheats here to get you started. So we'll just have to do this the hard way."

I was disappointed to see her go, and even more disappointed to be paraded out before the Court once again for everyone to gawk at me over dinner. It made me feel like a zoo exhibit.

The 7th of Ascending Water, Saturnday, Realm Year 762

It was late into the evening when the Cold Roars returned from their 'hunt' to once again hold court. With all three reigning seats in attendance the Golden Stars had their position on the dais displaced, and so withdrew. Not alone, I noted. Two of them were trailed by new suitors.

I sort of had the feeling that they had been trying to pull me into their orbit, and… Well, I had seen one of their blowups. I wasn't going to sign myself up for that. I'm glad that they weren't next to my month.

I was instructed to stay. I was supposed to be learning, after all. The Dreamer, looking particularly masculine today, had me sit next to him so that he could continue explaining everything going on.

Honestly, at the heart of it, I don't think his plan was much different than the Golden Stars. I just found 'Teacher' a more tolerable bribe than 'romance.' Considering some of the gifts the Golden Stars gave to their paramours, maybe that said something judgemental about me? I guess I didn't really care in this instance.

The Cold Roars were two giant bears, though that phrase was somewhat misleading. I'm unsure if the sloth bear existed in my old world, but they were a smaller species of bear in the South in Creation.

The Cold Roars were albino, oversized Sloth Bears. They were only slightly larger than Polar Bears, with delicate and clever claws. The younger brother, Cold Wind, was using them to sew the coats of slain Omen Dogs into a tapestry. Not using needles - his own claws appeared to be the only tool he was using.

I was happy to discover that Omen Dogs were not dogs. They were sort of dog-like, but bigged up quite a bit, and much less friendly looking. Saber-Toothed too; which somehow seemed wrong on a not-a-cat.

The other gods who had gone out hunting were circling Sleet Wind, the older brother of the two bears. He was regaling the room with tales of their hunts. I was just wondering how many Wind names there were; they seemed weirdly popular. The Dreamer seemed bored, eating what I now knew was hair. Dying people's hair.

Gods were weird.

I was half dozing, wishing I didn't have to be at these things, when something Sleet Wind said caught my attention. He was laughing loudly, boisterously, his voice caring across the room

"That's right, that's right! You're completely right. We really should, we really should. In three days, we'll take Nathan with us on our hunt. He needs to learn these things! He needs to learn these things."

Day Two
[Ruby="+50CP"](50CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a day that you involve yourself in Plot - when you're actively engaging with the world, going out of your comfort zone, and otherwise tying yourself to events.

Day Four
[Ruby="+50CP"](100CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a day that you involve yourself in Plot - when you're actively engaging with the world, going out of your comfort zone, and otherwise tying yourself to events.

TheLastOne · Apr 21, 2025

Out of the Nest

The 7th of Ascending Water, Saturnday, Realm Year 762

I suddenly had need for several skills I had, up to this point, been unpracticed in. I needed to be able to ride, and ride as part of a company of hunters. I needed to wield several weapons - probably a hunting spear and bow, asking me to manage something complicated like a net would honestly be asking too much of me. I needed gear of at least decent quality, and so on.

It was possible that some of my needs might be solved by some of my gifts; I could certainly launder some of them into such. But using them now could be problematic. I hadn't been using any of the more magical gifts for a reason. They really needed to be investigated before I could use them in case of subtle traps. Nor could I trade for what I needed within that time span. I probably could get someone here to give me a blessing against the cold that would last me the trip, but I would be exposing my weaknesses.

"What can you do as a god? You're very new, so I get that you haven't grown into your role yet. But you're ascended, and ascended gods usually have something going for them even before they get assigned a domain."

Vevin was helping me go through my gifts, looking for things that were probably safe enough to use. She had set aside a stack of charms - little sutras painted in red on strips of green lacquered paper with complicated edges woven from gold and copper threads. Several of them were reliable thaumaturgy talismans that might help me deal with the cold and thin air. They had probably been intended for me to use on mortal worshipers, but nothing stopped me from using them myself.

I shrugged at the question. "Not alot, really. I can inspire hope - it's technically an Excellency, but not for me. It's a blessing, and its really weak." I shifted uneasily for a moment, I did have one other thing.

I made a grasping motion as I pulled… something from the air. For a moment my fingers blurred, and I was outlined in a vague prismatic aura, then it was caught by my hand, pulled into form, the colors inverting, collapsing into…

It was plaid. The base color was a bottomless vantablack. Over it, a gray like static, uncertain, impossible to focus on. Then faint gold, rarer than the other two, yet the only color your eyes could really track. Then, rarer still the silver threads, an edging of the color so light that it was more a suggestion than a reality.

For a second, I heard whispers, felt the grinding of cosmic gears, and was chilled by a river that wasn't there… then the phantom sensation was gone. It looked no more real, it was still blatantly unnatural, but the vague horror of the moment was gone.

It was a mantle.

"I also have this as my Panoply." I let it fade back into my invisible aura. "So nothing really useful for now."

"Hmm, no," she responded dryly, obviously not bothered by… well, that. "What does it do?"

I hesitated a moment. "It… gives me power over reincarnation. Only over whoever is wearing it. I can't just…" I waved my hands vaguely. "I have authority over the reincarnation of anyone wearing my mantle."

"Huh. So could you assign someone to be born Dragon-Blooded in their next life? I get why you don't see it as a big deal, things like that don't really matter, but there are those who would trade everything they have for the use of it."

"Ah… Kind of? I only got a quick rundown, on how Exaltations work. I could make sure you were born into a body that had the potential, but you would still have to earn it yourself. And I'm not sure how that knowledge would affect your chances? Asking for that is a lot more calculating then getting into that life normally."

She snorted, "Don't lots of people live their lives hoping to be reincarnated as a Dragon-blooded?"

"Yeah, but they don't remember."

Slow blink.

"Come again?"

"Well… you don't go through Lethe when you use my mantle."

"Oh. Okay. I think you really need to walk me through how it works."

I let out a sigh. I really wasn't comfortable with that thing.

The Mantle of Rebirth let me kill whoever was wearing it, and in an instant fate them to be reborn… pretty much anywhere, to anything. So long as I wasn't trying to make someone the child of someone really powerful… well, it would happen.

I could set all kinds of things about their next life. How they would look, some of the circumstances going on around their new life, and more. If I got too fancy… well, it would try and fulfill everything, but it might get more metaphorical about it all.

They will be born with whatever level of spiritual grace they had in their last life. Over the course of several years, they will come to remember their previous life, as their soul syncs up their new body. By puberty their spiritual graces will have reasserted themselves. Generally, spiritual graces they already possessed will take precedent over anything new - so if a one of the Dragon-Blooded asked to be reincarnated as the child of a god, they would likely burn away the godsblood by puberty as their previous nature reasserted itself.

"To be clear, I've never used it. That's what they told me in heaven when they were studying me after my ascension. Well, I kind of had an intuition for how it worked, but they told me what that would probably mean. I've never even met one of the Dragon-blooded. The only Exalt I ever met was a Sidereal, and I don't really remember what that was about."

"Studying… so that isn't something assigned to you. It's not part of your nature at the god of Calibration, but part of your nature because of your ascension? Like the Mountain Boy's Sutra? Most panoplies are assigned, but… this is a panoply charm born from your nature."

I shrugged. "I don't know who he is. But yes. It's a piece of my soul. Kind of."

"Hmm. Could you reincarnate someone as a spirit? Say, an elemental?"

"Sure? Like… I find the whole assigning people to be someone's future mother part kind of creepy, so -"

"I know exactly who can solve half of your problem. Now… This place must have a summoning room."

The 8th of Ascending Water, Sunday, Realm Year 762

This place did, in fact, have a summoning room. After declaring that she had a solution, she had me arrange use of it. Evidently this was enough of an ask on our hosts that we couldn't go ahead and use it that same day. Owl from the East gave permission to go ahead, but by that time it was already too late to do it that night.

Instead, I had moved on to work with other tutors. Even divine tutelage wasn't going to make me competent with the spear in a single day, but it was making me mildly less uncomfortable holding one. I wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing - it felt like I was being set up to make a mistake.

But permission did come, and with the turning of the day, I was lead to the room set aside for elemental summoning. Vevin had already been there, actually casting the spell.

The room was odd. It was rather bare, compared to most of the House, four brazers where set up, two at the entrance to the room, and two before a set of steps leading upwards. The blazed in four different colors - Yellow, Blue, Green, and Violet. The stairs were short, ending on a landing that looked like it should have a gate or door, but simply ended in the back wall of the room.

Vevin had set herself up in the center of the room, drawing circles and diagrams she sat within. She bore no tools, used no regents. She just occasionally muttered, or drew lines in the air in the darkest of blues and purples. There was a seat by the door so that a guest could sit in while the sorcerer was working, and a servant of the house had set up a desk by it, alone with study material assigned to me by my various teachers.

I was reminded once again how amazingly competent everyone working for the House was. I probably didn't work as diligently as I should, but I enjoyed watching Vevin.

Eventually she reached a lull, and turned her attention away from her ritual. While it would take the Elemental four hours to arrive from the time the ritual began, much of that was waiting, simply keeping the channel open through the Dragon Lines.

"So this Gale's Echo… She'd really work for me for a child? That… That kind of makes me uncomfortable on several levels, but as long as everything is consensual I guess it's okay. But why doesn't she just… have one."

"Hmm. So the Thúroch are not a natural race of elementals. They were created, and how they were put together doesn't flow perfectly from the nature of Wind. To have children, the wind must be warped into an unnatural state. There's some rare conjunctions where this just happens, but usually it takes sorcerous workings to warp the geomancy of Creation enough to enable that."

She made a so-so gesture, "And while she is a reliable bodyguard, her service isn't usually worth enough to justify the cost involved. Well, not if you're hiring her, and while I know some gods who are happy to just bind elementals, it can make for bad blood in the long run."

"But I can perform this casually.'

"But you can perform this service casually."

For the next hour, she coached me through what I would need to say and do for my first bargain with an Elemental. It was almost a relief when the world seemed to tilt, the geometry of the room breaking open to a place filled with white sea foam, and a sky with Sun, Moon, and Stars all sharing the heavens as one.

Gale's Echo was the silhouette of a horse, woven from strands of whipping tempest clouds. Around her hooves, her mane and tail, they became so fine and thin it looked like real hair. The rest of it took on a pattern that seemed half organic, half mechanical. And under that was a blackness that seemed to roil, like the darkest thunderhead at night on the new moon.

She neighed as she galloped into the room, and it set the walls to shaking. The comfortable temperature in the room plummeted like a rock. "I am Gale's Echo, Honored for my guardianship by the Stone Walker, who shepherded the children Fanoar from harm. I was thanked by Incandescent Decree himself when I took a blow aimed at his child from a Lintha assassin. Who summons me, who summons one of the Tempest Horses!"

"I am Vevin, acting as proxy to Nathan Nozi. Nathan of the Court of Seasons. Nathan, who rules over the exiled days, god of Calibration! He honors you with his summons and his call…"

Well. This was going to take awhile.

Our offer was simple. She would be my mount and my bodyguard for a month. In return, she would gain possession of my Mantle for a month, or until she used it once. She was at first unsure of why should she want it - I couldn't quite decide if her questioning of our offer was rude or obsequious, because it somehow managed to seem like both - but once she understood what it did…

She offered her service for a year, in return for being able to call upon me to use the mantle one time. She didn't want the month deadline.

And that was how I gained my first retainer.

Day Five - The 8th of Ascending Water, Sunday, Realm Year 762
[Ruby="+50CP"](150CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a day that you involve yourself in Plot - when you're actively engaging with the world, going out of your comfort zone, and otherwise tying yourself to events.

TheLastOne · Apr 23, 2025

It's an Ill Wind that…

Morning of the 10th of Ascending Water, Marsday, Realm Year 762

We were gathering outside the Sanctum, the various members of the hunting party leaving it in ones and twos as odd ripples in the air. Most of them were immaterial , and I watched them move about the clearing like spots dancing on the top of my eyes. A few of them were material though, moving physical goods about, or were elementals. Mostly air, though a handful of earth and wood elementals were present. None of Water, evidently out of a long term conflict between air and water, and none of fire for reasons that had never been fully explained to me (yet I was vaguely certain it would come up at the worst time, in the worst way).

Gale's Echo was directing several minor gods who had attached themselves to me without my knowledge. One of them I had dubbed 'the beholder' in my head, though it was kind of an unfair labeling. It was a… kind of pink cloud, and out of the cloud extended twelve delicate alabaster arms. Eight of those arms held crystalline eyes, while four of its arms extended and shrank in wave-like rhythms as it moved and shifted gear about, loaded pack animals, and double checked sacks and boxes. A gold ring banded around it, with one side of the band opening up into a silver ring in which a larger eye was mounted, moving freely to examine the world as if a ball bearing.

"Just a few more minutes," it sang to me in a voice like a guitar. Literally - I found its voice both hard to understand and disturbing, and while it had told me it's name, I hadn't actually gotten it. I was vaguely hoping someone else would use it nearby so that I could hear how it sounded when a human-adjacent being said it. They were so enthusiastic I always felt a bit guilty I found them creepy.

At the same time two birdlike gods were hopping on me, straightening the layers of my clothes, making sure all the charms were properly attached. Sometimes when they decided a charm wasn't placed right, or something wasn't tied right, their sharp beaks and vicious claws lashed out, tugging and pulling things into place, then their essence would settle, somehow making the whole thing more… solid. Fixing the 'correctness' into place like glue or cement.

When I first left the sanctum, I had felt the chill the same way you would in winter even when wearing layers of jackets and heavy clothes. As they worked, that feeling slowly faded away. They were called Nanar and Nayar, and evidently they were the gods of the walls of the family houses for the City of Fair Isle, and they were quite excited to be so close to me.

For her part, Gale's Echo needed neither saddle nor harness - the tendrils of cloud that made up her body would naturally shape itself to it, but she was wearing complicated looking cloth barding in the colors of the Maidens, and draped with charms and trinkets. She also had the court shoe her 'properly,' whatever that meant.

Now that we were outside the Sanctum, she would not move more than five feet away from me - close enough that she could interpose herself at a moment's notice between me and danger. An intimidating experience because as an Air Elemental she was in constant prancing motion, and was huge even for a horse.

"I hadn't realized you were naturally material," she informed me, almost accusatory.

I gave an uncomfortable face. "I spent weeks not naturally respiring essence. I'm… a little broken. Maybe it will fix itself? The essence thing did. Though… Calibration is when the spirit and the material is closest together, so maybe it won't."

"Protecting a material being is more complicated than protecting a spirit," she stated, as if it was my fault. "It's fine. It's fine. I just need to know these things in advance."

All activity stopped for a moment as Cold Wind and Sleet Wind loped out of the Sanctum trailed by dozens of courtiers milling around them like remoras on a pair of sharks. Then everyone burst into fanatic motion, to finish getting ready. Except for me. It was beneath my dignity to do things myself, after all.

… that was unfair. There were a handful of other gods who were similarly being attended to, rather than attending to things. One of the Ennead was joining us; Master Winter, a grandfatherly figure with icicles for a beard. Though he was grandfatherly in that 'stern, judgemental, disapproving' sort of way rather than the welcoming flavor. He had been friendly enough for the three words we had so far exchanged, but he felt… cruel.

I would have thought him too busy during this season to go on this kind of excursion, but evidently he was a god of preparedness. Or rather, punishing unpreparedness. It was a matter of principle that he rarely needed to work during this season, that he had everything set up long before, and it could just cleanly tick along with minimal input from him.

"This is a good day," Cold Winds bellowed to the crowd as the last of the preparations finished themselves. A good day for a hunt! I'm glad you've all come to join me! That you're all joining me for this grand hunt."

Then Sleet Wind took over, "As you all know, we brothers love hunting the Omen Dogs for their ancient insult against us. You all know it! But we also know that you all love more exciting hunts. That you all want to hunt more exciting prey. To the north. To the east. Yes, to the mountain north and east. There, we will find the land where ancient ice has carved valleys. It has carved valleys deep."

Everyone stilled. Master Winter, I noticed, had started to smile as the location was laid out.

"In those valleys, the ice has carved open a way deep. It is a deep place, where the light of the Daystar does not reach. From it, forbidden gods have lifted their heads above their station and walked upon the surface. They walk where they are unwanted!"

Yes, Master Winter was smiling.

"We will hunt omen dogs. We will hunt hushed ones. Will will hunt Raksha. And we will hunt the Únôlpûr Aithanar! We dedicate this hunt to our hosts! And we gift this hunt to the newest brother of our Calendar Court!"

There were cheers.

"Yes, we gift a glorious hunt. We gift glory to you all!"

Gale's Echo nudged me. "It's time."

Tendrils of cloud reached out through her barding, and acted like stirrups helping me climb onto her back. It was a good thing she was an elemental, because I suspected I would have spoked a horse with my ineptitude. She was patient though - she was a bodyguard for children, I remembered, so she probably was used to worse. Then the tendrils lashed about my legs, and around my hips, and I was firmly - but shockingly comfortably - tied to her back.

And then we were off.

Afternoon of the 10th of Ascending Water, Marsday, Realm Year 762

The hunting party, despite its size, moved fast. Several gods had magic for speeding journeys, and for erasing presence. Only a handful of the hunting party even stayed material - even the Elementals dematerialized. One of them was The Beholder, who always stayed near me, and I vaguely suspected had been assigned as bodyguard.

Another of them was Vevin - I wasn't sure when she ended up joining the hunting party, but she had. She wasn't near me at all, but was chatting away with several other gods who had forgone mounts. Instead she was bounding forwards, every pump of her legs a graceful leap, her rope lashing behind her like a tail.

A third was Master Winter. He hadn't started out near me, but as the journey continued his part of the procession slowly, imperceptibly edged it's way over to mine, until he was riding at my side. His mount was some kind of giant deer, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a real animal, just a piece of his own spirit he had manifested as a separate being.

"You look like a man who has realized he has only provisioned for three months of snow when the ice first comes down. I hope this hunt isn't that intimidating - I know the brothers have picked a mightier prey than they otherwise would as a favor to Us."

I lightly shook my head. "I don't really know enough about the Únôlpûr Aithanar to be intimidated by them. I hadn't planned on becoming a god, so all of this is intimidating."

He nodded sagely. "I rarely have sympathy for ascended god-blooded who find themselves unprepared for their new duties, but they had time and opportunity to steel themselves for what is to come. I do not know your circumstances, no one but the Maidens do to my knowledge, but unexpected troubles come to every life. It is more Autumn Frost's domain than mine.

"The only advice I can give is to make each moment count. When unexpected trouble visits you, that doesn't mean you can stop preparing, it just means that your preparations must happen on a shorter time frame."

It took me a moment to realize that he was offering aid. It wouldn't be free, of course, but it probably wouldn't cost me much.

"Can you tell me about what we're hunting this time?"

He smiled. It was clearly the right question.

"Of course. I'm always happy to help the diligent prepare themselves."

Author's Notes
So there's a minor problem here that might merit mention later, once more is known. That is to say, "Why can Nathan see Immaterial Spirits." I would argue that it's completely defensible rule zero territory for… reasons. The reason is going to have half of the long-term Exalted fan nodding along in annoyance, so it probably bears mentioning. I can't really explain without spoiling though.

Second, I figured I might as well explain what he's saving up for, since the question came up. While I'm not going to regularly do this, it's not actually a big mystery this time, nor intended as a surprise. It kind of feels like the most obvious purchase that he would unconsciously make.

That is, he's saving up for Numen. Base cost 300, but it would both make him Significantly More Powerful (+50) and is Fundamentally Transformative (+100), so 450. That gives him a bunch of spirit abilities he thinks he already has and just aren't working right. Arguably not the most efficient use of his points, but it gets him Spirit Respawning (you know, way faster than reincarnation if easier to stop), the ability to become immaterial, the power to hear and respond to prayers, the ability to give themed blessings, and more.

TheLastOne · Apr 24, 2025

Fight like a cornered weasel

Morning of the 11th of Ascending Water, Mercuryday, Realm Year 762

I had spoken with Master Winter through dinner that night, the ancient spirit perfectly happy to earn a future favor in return for teaching a subject he appeared to be passionate about. Less the monsters and animals of the North, specifically, and more paranoia about nature, but it was a six one way, half a dozen the other situation.

Gale's Echo had been able to interject several times as well. Evidently she was even older than Master Winter, but she had also mostly lived in the South, and wasn't actually that knowledgeable about the North. The last time she had been up this way was nearly twenty five hundred years ago. Still, she had plenty to say about threats common to all directions.

After dinner, I mounted Gale's Echo again to practice the spear and saber from her back. Using a weapon while mounted was quite different, and if I had been riding any lesser mount I would have surely not only hurt myself, but would have spent half the night unmounting myself.

I probably would have half-crawled into my tent, but the beholder helped me inside, having set it up for me over dinner. I was grateful that I hadn't had to do it myself, but also felt vaguely guilty about all the work everyone else was doing for me, and how it was just expected. I thought I would have trouble with Gale's Echo and the beholder murmuring to each other in low voices as they played guard, but I fell asleep almost the moment I laid my head down.

Then we were off again, bright and early the next morning. At first the hunting party was filled with chatter, until Cold Wind called a halt. A moment later, a message passed its way through the line of hunters.

Quiet. They had found tracks.

That's how I found myself in the back of the line of hunters, as we passed beneath alien trees adapted to an environment only marginally more hospitable than Antarctica.

A few minutes later, I felt my ears pop as Gale's Echo extended some of her tendrils like a cage around us, and the quality of the sound changed. She snorted angrily, and spoke up, and I realized she had placed some kind of privacy barrier around us.

"They're using us as bait."

What.

"Look, everyone close to us is dematerialized. Everyone who's staying material is taking different more hidden paths, and none of them are nearby. They're having us travel almost openly, and near places where a predator might be hiding in ambush."

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

"Should we break away?"

She tossed her head, and her whole body rippled oddly, the illusion of her being flesh and blood momentarily disrupted.

"No. Ready your spear. Point it sinister, and slightly down, and get ready to stab."

I clutched the spear, forcing it to point the way she told me while panic seeped into my bones. Why was she having us go along with this, when we could just…

A shape burst from the snow in front of us, aiming for my throat and I less stabbed than flailed as my spear jolted once… twice, and suddenly a great weight was dragging at it as a hellish animal scream filled the air and a series of 'thumps' sounded as things were thrown about.

"Good job, my lord,' Gale's voice sounded, suddenly back to normal without that odd enclosed sound of her barrier. "You hunted those ice weasels perfectly."

The beholder had manifested before the attack had even finished, their long arms ringing me with spears pointed outward in every direction, and in their fourth hand a long white furry… snake..? Larger than even than The Cold Roars hissed and flailed. Wait… no… limbs?

I finally realized what I was looking at. It was a ferret… no. A weasel. A weasel longer than two cars put end to end, and thinner around than a wolfhound stood tall. Its fur was white, and ice and snow and frozen to it till it looked more like some elemental creature of ice than anything living.

My spear had slain another. On the ground in front of us where my spear had been ripped from my hands laid a second ice weasel. The spear had gone in through its lower jaw and perfectly intersected its head, as if someone had drawn a perpendicular line through its brainpan. That wasn't me, I was sure. Hadn't I felt an upwards jolt to the spear before I struck the weasel?

A third and fourth weasel laid dead at Gale's Echo's feet. One to my right, her leg resting on its snapped neck, and second further away, where wind had picked it up and slammed it against a tree trunk so hard as to smash the tree.

Around us the rest of the party was beginning to converge. Only the beholder and… Vevin? Hadn't she been further away..? Only those two had been close enough to help.

That's when the adrenaline hit me, and my hands began to shake. I stuffed them into my sleeve to hide the motion and suddenly Gale's Echo and Vevin were both talking to the rest of the gathering hunters, making themselves the center of attention

"You spear," a boar head god had retrieved it without me noticing. I looked at it blankly. It was a beautiful thing - nothing overtly supernatural itself, but crafted to a standard beyond mortal hands, and with a talisman fused to the blade to give it potency for the next five days. Other than that, it was just a beautiful simple steel spear.

"Thank you for retrieving that, lord Hoarfrost," Gale's Echo stated for me, taking the spear delicately with one of her cumulonimbus tendrils and turning the attention back to her.

I felt very alone.

I kind of wanted to finish this day, but this felt like such a natural breakpoint that I ended the chapter here instead.

Day Seven - The 10th of Ascending Water, Marsday, Realm Year 762
[Ruby="+50CP"](200CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a day that you involve yourself in Plot - when you're actively engaging with the world, going out of your comfort zone, and otherwise tying yourself to events.

[Ruby="+50CP"](250CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a week for existing.

[Ruby="+50CP"](300CP)[/Ruby]
You recieve 50 CP whenever trouble comes to find you, and you don't back down or flee. Again, this is usually once a day - a series of engagements count as one (though if you face several of them before you flee, you may take the CP), while truly separate troubles seeking you out at the same time are counted separately.

Day Eight - The 11th of Ascending Water, Mercuryday, Realm Year 762
[Ruby="+50CP"](350CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a day that you involve yourself in Plot - when you're actively engaging with the world, going out of your comfort zone, and otherwise tying yourself to events.

[Ruby="+50CP"](400CP)[/Ruby]
You recieve 50 CP whenever trouble comes to find you, and you don't back down or flee. Again, this is usually once a day - a series of engagements count as one (though if you face several of them before you flee, you may take the CP), while truly separate troubles seeking you out at the same time are counted separately.

TheLastOne · Apr 30, 2025

Memories

Morning of the 11th of Ascending Water, Mercuryday, Realm Year 762

"I had Ice Weasel once," Sleet Wind murmured to himself. Three of the giant beasts had been hung from a nearby tree, while he was skinning the fourth. "That I did. It was at Flix Arum's coming-out ball. He was presenting himself. He had only been Exalted for seven years, for seven years he had been learning under his elder circle mates. But he was ready to leave the shadow of his circle. He was ready to come out."

He paused for a final moment, studied his work, and then pulled most of the fur from the carcass in a single movement. The smell… it was revolting.

"He took seven meats said to be impossible to make palatable with mortal craft alone, and from each of them made a feast mortal kings would fight over. It's said a small portion of that meat made all the way to Yu Shan."

I had gotten myself under control, mostly by blasting my own brain with feeling of hope until I dissociated from the moment. Crude, but it had worked. But I really wasn't feeling the melancholy vibe he was putting out. They had set me up. Yes, gods… well, we respawned on death. But lots of 'god' things didn't work right for me. I had a fallback of course, but I was loath to use it.

Frankly, it was gross.

And for what? To 'test my mettle' or some such nonsense. The Cold Roars had been subtly passive aggressive in their welcome up to this point, and now their welcome felt more genuine. And I didn't really care.

"Ice Weasel fur is quite nice. It's quite pleasant to have," he told me confidingly. "I'll make you a coat." He patted my back and ambled off. As other gods took up skinning the other three.

"We need to move. We need to hunt. Ice Weasel warners rarely have less than fifteen members, but they'll soon flee and scatter when this many hunters don't come home. They won't be home."

A hauntingly eerie goddess that I could only describe as 'a yuki-onna from an actually scary manga' drifted over to stand near me, before bowing deeply. I felt ase much as saw her gather reality to her, stepping into the material. Her bare, bleeding feet left no marks on the snow, despite me watch blood welling from cracked feet.

"If it pleases my lord, I will veil your presence as we approach the warren."

"That would be useful," I stated. It was the first thing I said myself since the attack, I realized. My voice was calm, disinterested. For today I was done. I maybe I would care about this pit of vipers tomorrow.

A large head lightly bumped my shoulder. I turned around to see Gale's Echo watching me with a placid gaze.

"Let me check you over."

"Ah. Of course."

She spent several minutes nosing at my robes, poking at the various talisman attached to me.

"Two of them broke," she said, and the sound made me realize she had granted us privacy again. "Not from the Weasels. It looks like they just wore down."

I frown, "Are they defective?"

She flicked her tail, seeming annoyed. "No, no. These kind of tools really need a Thaumaturgist to keep them working right. You need to collect one for your household. I'm sure if they had come with, Nanar and Nayar could get them working again, but I lack the technique."

"Oh. Is this going to be a problem."

"No, no no. Your setup was picked with some redundancy, depending on the talisman you can lose between seven and fifteen of them before efficacy starts dropping. I was going to check this tomorrow, when the real hunting started. I wasn't expecting them to use someone as honored as Calibration of the Court of Seasons as bait. I need to know what my margin is now."

She seemed to settle herself. "I really should have known better. I'm just rusty. I thought the Court of Seasons was better than this."

She sounded genuinely disappointed, but the columns were beginning to move again, so I mounted up as we started moving again.

"Never meet your heroes."

"Why wouldn't you want to meet…" she started to ask but she seemed to get it. "Ah. I'm not familiar with that idiom, but I suspect it's similar to a saying among the Laplanders. Always Dream Northwards."

"Uh… What. Why do you always dream northwards? What does that have to do with anything? Do… Do dreams have directions?"

Her voice was amused as she started explaining the history of Laplander idioms, it's connection with certain legends in the region tying to several neighbors of the Lap and their desire to be more independent of the Realm, and how Lap by contrast enjoyed its status as a satrapy. We got into a debate over whether or not the saying were actually similar, or both just expressed a more dissatisfaction with placing ideals above reality.

It wasn't until much later that I appreciated what she was really doing for me.

By the time night fell, our party was laden with several successful minor hunts. I was able to join the rest of the hunting party in chatting over dinner that night, as we ate from the day's spoils. And if I was slightly less friendly, no one seemed to notice.

Morning of the 12th of Ascending Water, Jupiterday, Realm Year 762

That morning, Gale's Echo once again checked over the state of my talismans. Still only two broken, though she said she didn't think another two were going to last the day. Also, at some point during the night Vevin had vanished. Nothing sinister; responsibilities had come up.

"Zivzizov will have your breakfast ready shortly. However, I wanted to go over the itinerary of the day before you eat."

Considering how she atonally sang that name, I'm pretty sure I now knew how to pronounce the 'beholder's' name. She was eatting her own breakfast. There was a small fire near my luxurious tent, and over it a small cauldron was hung. She periodically stuck her entire muzzle into it.

"Sure?"

"Essentially, I wanted to ask how risky you are willing to be today."

"What do you mean by risky?"

She flicked her head lightly. I wished I knew equine body language. Or maybe elemental? "As you heard, we are theoretically hunting Omen Dogs today. They're not really a threat against even a mortal on horseback, but we're getting far enough from Earth that the wildlife is getting weirder. And stereotypes aside, while I'm an Air elemental, I haven't historically spent much time in the north."

She paused for a second and took another bite before continuing.

"I probably can fight off anything we run into. There's animals this close to the poles that could chase me off, but few of them could ambush me. But if we're attacked by something nasty, I'm not sure if I can do it in a way that keeps the image we established yesterday. On the other hand, if we hang back, that could also tarnish your image."

"Ah." I frowned. "I really don't know the right answer. What would you suggest."

She tossed her head, and this time her feelings we clear enough. "If I knew that, I would just do it. I've done work like this before, but I had more of a safety margin. Sanmai's mother would have murdered anyone who thought to speak badly of her son, long before his father got involved."

I filed the names away, but they weren't really important."I suppose…" I started.

"I suppose that if we hang back, I'll look bad no matter how it goes, while if I ride towards the front, I'll only look bad if something goes wrong."

She lightly kicked the ground, then tossed her head like tossing away a problem. "Fair enough. Front of the column it is."

Day Eight - The 11th of Ascending Water, Mercuryday, Realm Year 762
[Ruby="+50CP"](350CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a day that you involve yourself in Plot - when you're actively engaging with the world, going out of your comfort zone, and otherwise tying yourself to events.

[Ruby="+50CP"](400CP)[/Ruby]
You recieve 50 CP whenever trouble comes to find you, and you don't back down or flee. Again, this is usually once a day - a series of engagements count as one (though if you face several of them before you flee, you may take the CP), while truly separate troubles seeking you out at the same time are counted separately.

TheLastOne · Wednesday at 4:08 PM

Sports Hunt

Last afternoon of the 12th of Ascending Water, Jupiterday, Realm Year 762

Evidently the average territory of an Omen Dog in the far north was 831 Glym. Even if I could define a mile closer than 'this feels like I walked a mile', which I couldn't, that still wouldn't help me though. A Glym was a topological unit that was evidently popularized before the fall of the Solars; I really did need to get context for that eventually. By 'topological', I mean informed by topology. It might be a two dimensional unit, but it wasn't a traditional one - it took into account how slopes and valleys could change how much useful ground there was, and evidently was very good at predicting ranges for ground animals, or useful zoning for cities where mortals needed to walk, and also had uses in predicting how streams would move.

"You are correct. As a unit, it's almost completely useless in this degenerate age of sorrow. It requires accurate maps that simply don't exist anymore."

Keep telling it like it is, Echo. Keep telling it like it is.

More than that, I wasn't sure how fast we're traveling. Echo evidently could easily keep a pace of 42 Vell, which was a more conventional distance unit. And a proper flat road would translate 50 Vell to 50 Glym. But this far north, there was nothing like that consistency.

"If I had to guess, I would say we're probably at least three Vell to every Glym. Some of these slopes would be impassible to mortal creatures - that greatly expands the needed territory for a pack to feed itself, when so much of the territory isn't useful. Though really, the generic Glym is only marginally useful. There's a number of tools for adapting it more precisely to the question."

In short, it was a value that, if actually useful, probably was only so in scientific literature.

The line of discussion came during the sixth hour of our hunt. Even with Gale's echo being an unnaturally comfortable ride, I was becoming increasingly sore and stiff. We were regularly finding evidence of the hounds, but nothing recent, and I was beginning to wonder if they had fallen prey to one of the countless threats of the north.

I think I would be fine with that? Omen dogs were creepy, but were just doglike enough for me to dislike hunting them. Of course, that would move us on to the rest of our itinerary, which…

At the front of the line, Cold Wind held up a paw, bringing the hunting party to a halt, then made several gestures, before loping off in another direction with more focus.

"Tracks, around eleven. No more than a day old."

"Huh. I guess we'll probably get them today."

I was enjoying Echo's sound barrier immensely. She wasn't chatty but she also didn't mind talking. The few times she was worried about an ambush, she would tell me to let her focus, and the rest of the time she was knowledgeable and patient.

As we crested the hill I thought about the rest of our itinerary. The hushed ones… they were some kind of mutants, and evidently they ate people. That sounded pretty bad, but I really didn't know the context - I know that accusation got thrown around a lot at 'primitive' groups or tribes back on earth, that it was literally part of the blood libel. Evidently they had some kind of hive mind. It felt like there should be some way of talking to them, rather than just hunting them down.

After that, the Raksha. I wasn't sure why whatever magic that was translating everything for me translated that name as Raksha, but they weren't tiger men. They… kind of were shape-changers, but not really in the same way people meant when they used the term. More like they could trade bodies, but only outside reality. They had some kind of illusion magic, but it had to be pretty flawed considering how casually everyone was treating hunting them. Honestly, they sounded more like crappy fairies than anything else. I wasn't sure what to think about that.

Generally, in the stories, people hunting fairies were the bad guys. But unlike the Hushed Ones, there were open dialogues with some of the Raksha 'courts.' And evidently they were big on buying slaves, supposedly? That was pretty unpleasant, but I kinda thought I was going to have to hate everyone if I judged them on slavery, since it was damn near universally practiced here in Creation, and I didn't have that much hate in me.

Maybe I should? Maybe it said something weak about me? I don't know.

As for the Únôlpûr Aithanar… Well, they were the real goal of this hunt, and we weren't really planning on taking one of them out. More harass them so that they wouldn't keep sticking their nose above the surface.

Cold Wind slowed to a crawl, lowering his body close to the ground as we crested the next hill. I wasn't sure why - he was still immaterial. But a second later he gestured again. A moment later Gale's Echo translated again.

"The den is here."

Early Evening of the 12th of Ascending Water, Jupiterday, Realm Year 762

In the end, only fifteen of us were picked out to be hunters. Arguably sixteen, if you included Gale's Echo. But then you probably shouldn't include me.

Both of the Cold Roars, obviously. That was two

Then me (and Gale's Echo. But mostly Echo.). Officially three.

Then Zivzizov - they were totally a hidden bodyguard. Though probably not assigned by the Cold Roars. Four.

The scary Yuki-Onna girl - her name was evidently Fönn - came riding a deer-like god whose name I didn't catch. Five and six.

A trio of southern war gods joined us. Three brothers - smoldering ash encrusted parts of their form, and their pale hair would blacken and curl as smoke escaped it at the tips, before the ends burnt away, but it grew as fast as it burned. The Elnnti, I think they were called. Nine.

Three bear gods, two tiny things not much bigger than dogs, and one massive one that had to be fifteen feet at the shoulder at least. Evidently they were constant parts of the Cold Roars courts, though they were only associated with each other out of friendship.

Three elementals - air all - finished the roster. Took the forms of falcons as big as ponies, and evidently had been 'given' to the Cold Roars by the Wind Masters. Fifteen.

The rest of the hunting party would pull back and surround the den so that none of the Omen Dogs could escape. I watched them move away, waiting until they were in position to materialize.

I just felt vaguely sick. The Omen Dogs weren't hurting anyone. No one here wanted to eat them. They would be skinned, but it was unlikely anything useful would be made from their coats. Their teeth and a few bones would be harvested for artwork. Evidently there were a few thaumaturgic uses for their organs, but we weren't going to bother.

This was exactly the kind of sports hunting I had hated back on earth.

Still, I was crouched around a surprisingly perfect replica of the area made from snow. Fönn had made it. Maybe topological based distances weren't useless for gods, if they could get maps this accurate so easily. Well, if anyone was making and keeping those maps up-to-date.

"You, Zivzizov, and Fönn will come from here," Sleet Wind stated. "That is where you will come from. Zivzizov will stay in the back, to make sure nothing escapes you two, while Fönn will finish off any prey you have wounded. You will be a harasser, you will harass them, wound them, and dive them out. So will I. I will do the same. While Cold Wind will finish the ones I wound, finishing off the bloodied ones."

He worked his way down the list, giving each of us tasks and positions. The plan was pretty simple. Three lines. The forward most - the harassers - were suppose to try and hurt and scare as many of the Omen dogs as possible. The second line was for the ones who would finish off the injured or running Omen Dogs. The third line in the back would pick off anyone who got past the second line.

And of course, any prey that got past all three lines would have to face the rest of the encirclement.

Those of us hunting 'in front' were supposed to keep the magic to a minimum. To keep it sportsmanlike. No such restriction was placed on that outermost line.

That's how I found myself on Gale's Echo's back, holding my pretty little spear, to hunt a bunch of animals who had done me no wrong.

I felt it, this time, as Echo's magic wrapped itself around me. Just faintly. My grip corrected itself just slightly, and I wasn't holding the spear, aiming the spear the way I naturally would. As she explained it, after I asked, it was a specialized intersection between Endowment and Possession - while Echo couldn't herself use most weapons, she was actually skilled with them, and could pseudo-possess her rider to channel her own skills and excellencies through them. It was almost unnoticeable, because I was still 'in-charge' of what those skills would do. It didn't instigate the normal conflict most forms of possession would cause.

Fake.

Shut up, me.

Ahead of me, from the other side of the den, Cold and Sleet Wind both crashed down, fully physically, and the den exploded into noise an motion. The Omen dogs started… yelling? Screaming? It was nothing like the sounds of dogs. More like deeper sounding foxes, if that made any sense. Pups tried to bolt as adult hounds yelled and screamed. They really were saber toothed, which still looked so wrong on a canidae. And Echo's scarily fast trot had brought me among them, my spear flashing down once, twice, thrice.

I suppose I could have just bloodied them, left them for Fönn to finish, but that felt cowardly, like I was trying to pretend I wasn't a part of this. I wasn't going to try and finish them off, but two of my blows killed, while the third was thrown away yowling in pain for Fönn to finish off. Echo was no kinder. Her hooves stuck pups.

I knew I was going to be sick after this.

And then the snow erupted beneath me, as sliver flashed. The snow for ten feet around us shivered and was blown apart as red explode in time with Gale's Echo leap. She had to take us fifteen yards, and she landed with perfect grace. Where we had been there was only a pach of minced red snow and ground meat, with a shimmering silver saber sitting pristine in it's corpse bed.

Then she gracefully collapsed into the snow, and I felt her guiding presence withdraw.

"I don't think I'll be able to guard you for the rest of this battle. Run."

What.

What just happened.

What the fuck just happened.

Around us, pale bodies rose from the snow. Black hair, almost clawed hands, and unnaturally shimmering weapons.

The Hushed Ones, it seemed, decided to hunt us first.

TheLastOne · Wednesday at 8:39 PM

Broken Promises

Evening, 12th of Ascending Water, Jupiterday, Realm Year 762

They were more clothed than I was expecting. They had wrapped themselves in strips of torn cloth around their torsos and forearms. The ones without weapons had wrapped their hands. Blue, White, Red, Black, Green. Torn and bloody, obviously once part of something else, there was no order to how they wrapped themselves. Behind me, I heard battle start. Our encirclement was encircled. I swallowed, raised my spear, and prepared to defend my bodyguard.

"I don't think," one of them was on me, and I wildly lashed out, trying to keep the strange boy back. "there's anywhere I can run!"

His movements were fluid as he flowed around my strike, lashing out at me. Somehow his clawed hands slipped off me without bite, but I felt a jolt in my robes. Points where my clothes seemed to momentarily catch, and then tear loose, and suddenly some of the cold was cutting through them.

I whipped the butt of the spear upwards, trying to catch him with it, and it slammed into his ribcage with knocking him back. But he didn't make a sound.

Behind me, I heard Gale's Echo try to rise, and cry out in alarm.

Then something slammed into my back, and I was plowed into the snow. The force of the blow stole the wind from my lungs, but the cold made me lock up. I couldn't scream with it in my face even if I had breath. It was just a numbness, like my face was gone. Then another blow, and the weight was gone from my back as Zivzizov was lifting me to my feet.

I saw the Cold Roars were fighting a dozen of them. It seemed like I was the only one who got so perfectly ambushed, but both of the brothers were bleeding, and though they lashed out with their magics, they couldn't seem to find a grip on the Hushed ones. Every time they were struck, more of the tattered cloth frayed away, but… they were going to fall before they tore through those defenses. Then the Elnnti erupted into flames, and I wish they hadn't. Everything frozen numb suddenly could feel again, but the only thing it was yelling at me was pain.

I blacked out for a second, and when I came too again, Zivzizov was gone, fighting to drive the Hushed Ones back, and entangling six of them by themselves. Fönn had replaced them, and there were three pristine corpses at her feet. Whatever protection they had didn't seem to save them from her touch, because a forth one was struggling in her grasp. It hadn't come for free though. A saber was stuck through her head, and an arrow seemed to have been shoved through her chest. Neither wound had downed her, but she was visibly flagging.

She turned to me, as the one in her grip stilled, and I saw her eyes widen. I shadow fell over me. And I know.

I knew I was going to die.

I was going to die, because I couldn't refuse to come on this stupid hunting trip. Because we underestimated the Hushed Ones incredibly badly. Because I was caught up in reputation, rather than something important.

I was going to die because I was caught up in the expectations for 'A God of Calibration.' Because I obeyed the rules of that role, the unspoken promises that it carried.

I hadn't made those promises. I was going to die for promises I hadn't made.

I was entangled by them, like I was entangled by my own limbs, by this biting cold.

I was…

I saw a boy, laughing, "Don't you know anything? Never trust dragonspawn. I'll show you where you can be safe."

I saw a soulless husk, that had been a boy. I had watched and done nothing. I hadn't understood.

I saw a beautiful face and felt nothing but all consuming loathing.

I was standing, yelling, punching ineffectually.

I was…

The net was holding me. Entangling promises, enforced role, entrapping safety, and stolen truths.

The promises were killing me.

I cut them free.

Broken things were holding me back. What if they weren't broken?

I was on my feet, energized and drained at the same time, and not cold. I stepped forward, and the hiss of air told me I had escaped the blow that would have felled me.

I less turned, and more was then facing the other way. This hushed one was a man, and his wrapping had worn all the way down to a tarzan getup. I studied him, then. Very very pale. Dark eyes that… I wouldn't call them soulless, but whatever was behind them was alien to me. Oddly perfect, though not in an attractive way. No scars, no extra body fat, a little too symmetrical.

Something predatory from chaos that wanted to eat people. Not a human. Not a person. I felt overwhelming disgust, seeing him. He reminded me of… I wasn't sure. Tip of my tongue, but I didn't care to chase the though down. I raised my spear, and he set himself. There was something casually disinterested in the motion, like he had my measure.

Then I was standing in front of him, less moved and more was just there, swinging wildly, not even trying to make sure the head of the spear cut him, just battering at him with it like it was a staff. He blocked it once, twice, thrice. The sound of impact was wrong, like a hand muffling the world every time his blade stopped me, and he wasn't casual.

Four times, five…

He missed a block, and my spear didn't care that I hadn't used the blade. It carved through him, leaving him to fall into three pieces that began tearing themselves apart into violet threads. There was the sound of impact behind me, and I turned to see two more of them being held back by scarlet… Ofuda? I was surrounded by burning Ofuda. Scarlet flames let from them, driving back two attackers, or knocking aside blows aimed at me. I leapt at one of them, rage and loathing driving me forward.

Again, I less moved and more was just there, in their face. They were one of the ones without weapons, just using hand-wraps, and that didn't block my spear at all as I carved them from crown to hip, the other one had…

Fönn was chewing something, and their throat was gone. Around me, the fighting was quieting.

The ambush had failed. And Gale's Echo let out a pained laugh.

"It seems your ascension is continuing to fix itself. Good job."

Sleet Wind inserted himself into the conversation. "It's good you did." He was dragged the body of one of the Hushed ones with him, like some grisly trophy. Good. They didn't deserve respect. Altogether to much like the Raksha, with their hunger for humans and looking like people without being them.

"It's good it happened. They were aiming for you. You were targeted. Hmm. If you fell we would have had to fall back. We would have had to explain." He tossed his trophy aside, then shrugged. "Also good for the dignity of court that your magic is coming."

He studied me for a moment.

"We must have a mirror. We must have a vanity. You should see, you should look at your ascension." He seemed to notice Gale's Echo's state them. "You did your job. You did good work. I'll see that a Healer tends you."

"Thank you, lord."

He nodded before wandering off. I just…

I just wanted to collapse. I felt drained in ways I couldn't really explain.

"I need to see?" I asked, raising my hand to my face. "Waht does he…

Blurring. And… I seemed to be jumping back and forth between one and three. I… didn't feel like I was moving, but I realized I was. It felt like shifting weight back and forth between my feet, but… everywhere, and in a direction I couldn't see. But…

Then I dismissed it.

"Do you need anything?" I asked Echo. "You saved my life. Anything that's in my power right now."

She gave me a mildly offended look, then shook her head. "You hired me. It's my job. Just let me rest until the healers get to me.

And so we did.

They cleared the bodies away, and then turned the clearing in front of the omen dog's den, and then Master Winter turned it into a castle of ice. They gathered the wounded together, and then he conjured it around them. Some of the gods started shedding… pieces of themselves, who seemed to solidify into lesser gods, and I was shooed away from Gale's Echo so that the healer gods could tend to the wounded.

About a dozen gods had fallen, and it wasn't clear if all of them were going to return. Those were god-killer weapons. And the unarmed Hushed Ones had evidently taken alchemical concoctions that made them more deadly to spirits.

"Well, that isn't what I was expecting at all."

Fönn had made that mirror for me. It seemed she was leaping on the opportunity that Gale's Echo being injured and Zivzizov being assigned to camp defense gave her, and saw it as a chance to get close to me. Which… she had defended me this time.

"Yes, my lord. Your visage is quite impressive."

I… was three people. One of them was constantly fading away, another constantly fading in.

The fading one was itself constantly… unsplitting? Like half a dozen even more faded images were merging into it, to give it their solidity, all of them doing something else before moving into alignment with it, and it was only by consuming these other images that it kept restoring itself..

The fading in image then was constantly dividing itself, spending away it's solidity to become more images, most of which then blinked out of existence, like it was constantly discarding them. And between them was…

The real me? I blurred, smeared. Like an anime trying really hard to tell you I was fast, even when I sat still.

She sat behind the real me, picking at my hair. My transformation had come with a new boondoggle. A fancy - hair net, basically - that had shown up on my head. Evidently my hair was suppose to be tied around it, and she was teasing it into place. I evidently needed to grow my hair out more to wear it properly.

"I don't feel like a bunch of eldritch nonsense."

Fönn blinked, and then let out what seemed to be a genuine giggle. "Now I know you were really a human. Anything as obviously divorced from normal existence as you is either the agent of the powerful, or something powerful themselves. The esoteric is not for mortals to touch."

She gave me a grin, and I realized she had shark teeth.

"You are glorious, my lord."

"Glorious."

I just stared at the icy mirror, wondering what I had lost, what I had severed, to get here.

Day Nine - The 12th of Ascending Water, Jupiterday , Realm Year 762
[Ruby="+50CP"](350CP)[/Ruby]
You receive 50 CP a day that you involve yourself in Plot - when you're actively engaging with the world, going out of your comfort zone, and otherwise tying yourself to events.

[Ruby="+50CP"](400CP)[/Ruby]
You recieve 50 CP whenever trouble comes to find you, and you don't back down or flee. Again, this is usually once a day - a series of engagements count as one (though if you face several of them before you flee, you may take the CP), while truly separate troubles seeking you out at the same time are counted separately.

[Ruby="+100CP"](500CP)[/Ruby]
Any true threat of ruin brings you 100 CP for surviving it, in whatever form you do. Try not to get this one too often. You can only win so many rolls of the dice, even if you weigh them in your favor.

Godspawned Wretch Purchases

Numen

Significantly More Powerful?: +50CP

Fundamentally Transform: +100CP

Base CP: +300CP

Total: [Ruby="450CP"](50CP)[/Ruby]

The numen are the strange not spirits of Domnica. Once they were Dragonsblood, and in some ways they still are. Yet they are also other. They have become what they carved out of themselves. In many ways, they are like spirits, or perhaps elementals. In other ways, they are still the Exalted they once were. Perhaps it is best to just say 'They are the Numen.'
A Numen is carved from an Exalted - normally only a dragonsblood, though if you are other you have somehow overcome that fact with your Exaltation intact - and shaped into what they asked to become. As you are paying for this transformation with the Prestige of the Rivers and Lakes, you may carve away as little or as much as you want, and uniquely, you can look upon yourself through both eyes, till you have honed in on becoming what you wanted to, rather than merely what you thought you wanted to become.
This transformation can reinforce and improve you on several fronts, though not on all fronts. You might become stronger and more beautiful and swifter… but you couldn't also become wiser and more observant at the same time.

Dex+••, Sta+••, Str+•

Second, you become something like a spiritual entity. You can dematerialize like an elemental. If slain, but your killer failed to use such magics that will permanently slay a spirit, you will recondense after a lunar month. By default during this link in your chain, you will reform in the heart of the Woods, but you may move your place of rebirth if you wish. If you have taken The Shape of Mist companion, you can entrust your place of rebirth to them.
Normally, a numen loses their element, anima abilities, and anima. As you are paying for this, you do not, but you gain complete control over your anima; it only manifests at your will, and only to the extent you wish it to.
The Numen are shapechangers. You can shapechange into any form within your 'theme' for a paltry cost of essence. While a Numen doesn't have a singular true form, they do have a set of themes their ascension displays itself through. Build your Numen form through one free purchase of Unnatural Glory at the 'obviously inhuman' level. Numen usually displays a multiplicity of limbs, so taking the Multiple Limbs mutation only costs 2 points; you can also freely add as many extra heads as you want, as that mutation has no real effect. A Numen can shapechange away their 'true' form piece by piece, but will lose access to its abilities while in such a reduced form, and must spend essence to regain a true expression of their ascension before regaining use of the mutation.

Unnatural Glory

Whether it's a gift pulled from an ancient tome, the blessing of a powerful spirit, a carefully shaped mutation gained through Power-Questing, a sorcerous working, a generational eugenics program, or something stranger… You have abilities most unnatural.
Alternatively, you can take fifteen points worth of Hearthstone Powers, thirty points of mutations, or some other equivalent unique and powerful ability. However, your form is permanently and obviously changed; people will know you aren't human without extreme effort merely by glancing at you. You will have to decide at the beginning of a jump whether you want to manifest these abilities on a given alt-form.

10 Hearthstone Points, 10 Mutation Points

[Fire Version] Gem Of Perfect Mobility (Manse •••••)

[Solar Version] GEM OF PERFECT MOBILITY (MANSE •••••)

Inexhaustible (2-pt Affliction)
Multiple Legs (2-pt Abomination)

Gazelle's Pace (2-pt Affliction)

Nathan appears something like a flickering flame. Not in being flamelike, but in the dancing inconsistency of position. He's something like a mirage, not in being immaterial, but in his position and movement being uncertain from moment to moment. His movements are blurred, like the smears an artist uses to represent speed, even when he doesn't move particularly fast.

He stands upon six legs. Two from the past, two from the present, two from the future. But the past is hindsight as much as reality, and so Nathan moves and shifts to where he wishes he had been. Future Nathan is always in motion, always changing where he's moving to, never quite matching where present Nathan will end up. And present Nathan is dragged between the two. He never quite touches them. Even when the three Nathans overlap, they somehow don't touch… but past Nathan is drawn to become present Nathan, and present Nathan is drawn to become future Nathan. Despite their unreality, past and future Nathan's movements and motions seems to pull and push at Nathan, speeding him onward.

If Nathan wishes to hide his hindsight and aspirations, and banish his future and past self, he lockes away Multiple Legs and Gazelle's Pace. Without his six legs, he can't move with the speed of past and future combined.

If he wishes to still himself, to be able to stop moving, stop being drawn between past and future, he locks away Inexhaustible. His endless energy comes from being caught between those external agents.

If he wishes to move naturally rather than flickering between places and moments, he locks away Gem Of Perfect Mobility. By letting his past begin a movement, he could cut the time to complete it in half, by letting his future complete a movement, he could do something else at the same time. Cut off from these, he moves like a normal man.

In addition, each Numen has advantages and disadvantages inherent to their state. Usually, you would permanently enjoy and suffer both, but you will only enjoy the advantages. Others can take on a shadow of this by invoking you through magic, and there may be other ways to sorcerously borrow your strength. By default, you cannot deny such imitation and invocation, though abilities you possess from other worlds might change this.

Boon: A sorcerer who summons Nathan Nozi's aspect receives one automatic success on Occult and Performance rolls. Furthermore, those outside of fate have a harder time perceiving them. They lose one success on all perception rolls to see or notice them. For instances of 'automatic' success, then now need to achieve one success.

Agreements with Nathan fall under heaven's eye, a state a Sorcerer may also enjoy. They may witness any deal or contract, and in doing so make them binding. Anyone who breaks such an agreement will suffer one great stroke of ill fortune. Like Calibration itself, the sorcerer is outside the scope of his agreements, and is not bound. This will not prevent them from being bound to the agreement by other measures. Also, any such agreement will be recorded in heaven, though finding it is no easy feat these days.

Bane: A Sorcerer who summons Nathan Nozi's aspect find themselves constrained by a role they do not fully understand. They become fated (as like a Decending Destiny, carving away every other possibility) to do some small task of repair for heaven. They rarely know what those tasks are, just that it foreclosed other possibilities. This will last until Calibration at the latest. During Calibration, Nathan's aspect may be freely called upon without consequence.

You also develop a unique set of abilities that focus your virtues through how you have redefined yourself, to share or inflict your perfection on the world. The stronger your essence, the more of these abilities you'll gain. Normally these are one-off abilities, but because you have paid for this you can treat them as the base of a chain and build charms on top of them.

Compassion: Highlight the Violet List (Repair Issue)
Functions like Samathi Anja's Rot.
Calibration makes the endpoint of many invasions of Creation. The time when such errors can be isolated and excised. Any weapon Nathan wields after invoking Blacklist takes on a violet sheen. Every noise it would make is 'undone', the air stilling as it cuts the sound from the air and a painful momentary deafness follows every blow.

Valor: Itemize into the Red List (Read-Only)
This functions like Virtuous Guardian of the Flame.
To perform repairs upon the mechanism of reality, one must know the shape of reality. Nathan marks something as 'should exist as it is.' Efforts to change it struggle against the proper state of things. Those marked by Nathan are orbited by half a dozen burning crimson prayer strips. As one of them finishes burning, a new one appears. The crimson flames the prayer ships will lash out in all the shapes of war, to rip apart any attack made against the protected.

Temperance: Escalate to the Blue List (Flag Issue)
Functions like Iurka's Carve Away.
Just as Calibration lets the Pattern Spiders mark errors to be removed, so planning out repair, so too are the flaws Nathan marks out condemned unwoven like snares in cloth. At his touch, light blue threads become visible, as if they were always there but only now revealed. They tighten about the flaw, which then 'falls away' as if it was never part of the object to begin with.

Conviction: Deliver the Green List (Set Deliverables)
Functions like Whirlwind of Fate. Costs Two Temperance Channels
Many long term goals and plans are set during Calibration, while others happen right after on the black canvas it leaves behind. From the Wind Masters planning out the next year's weather, to adjusting individual fates to make sure they're still in line with the overall design. Nathan may set short term goals for himself, or anyone he touches who does not resist. For a moment, yellow script shines in their eyes.

You hear prayers directed at you, and if they're properly done can determine their source. You can bless those whose prayer you heard. Your blessing comes into play for activities and phenomena appropriate to your themes as a numen; it weights events somewhat in favor of the outcome you seek, nudging events. You are always under your blessing.
What you carved away from you becomes a small panoply, artifacts that are both part of you and something you can hand away. Design 1-2 interesting trinkets; they'll be more thematic than powerful. You can recall them to yourself at any time, or regenerate them if they're somehow damaged or destroyed.

The Promised Net

A hair chain. A center ring sits over the forehead like a third eye, with seven chains extending from it. The two 'outermost' have a single charm on them, meant to be braided into the hair. Then the two more 'innermore' ones have three. Then five, while the final centermost chain has seven. Each charm is a small 'talisman' with oaths written in Old-Realm upon it in green.

The 'one' charm chains have oaths appropriate to a god who would defend people against the dangers of Calibration. The 'three' charm chains have oaths for a god representing the dangers of Calibration. Then the five charm chains are protective, and finally the seven charm chain's oaths are all paradoxical and contradictory.

By channeling Valor, the wearer of The Promised Net may tear a promise from it and cast it upon another. When they do so, they tie them to the promises of a role they labor under - or are presenting themselves as operating under. They take their temperance as a penalty to any action not in line with their 'role' until the next new moon, or until they spend three to overcome the effect.

If performed during Calibration, this lasts through two New Moons, only fading on the third.

Unlike a 'normal' Numen, you are an independent existence. That said, the Mists will still welcome you and take you as kin.

TheLastOne · Thursday at 3:12 AM

Kept Promises

Morning of the 13th of Ascending Water, Venusday, Realm Year 762

"While we are not experienced with the Hushed Ones, what records do exist on past conflicts with them is clear. They are certainly smart enough to do this - they are incredibly intelligent, and while few hives of them actually make things, few is not none."

It was the Elnnti. The Cold Roars had respectfully stood aside after the attack, letting Master Winter and the Elnnti take control after this shifted from 'pleasure hunt' to something more serious.

"They are capable of understanding speech - they have been known to disguise themselves as humans to sneak into villages and towns, to spy and kidnap. Whatever stops them from communicating back is not a lack of intelligence. No. The problem is twofold."

The speaker a handsome man, outside of the ashen crust across his face that made him look both wounded and dirty at the same time.

"No, the problem is that spying on mortals is a very different game from spying on gods, just in a logistical sense. They might have been able to observe that a hunting party of gods was making it's way in this direction - again, they are highly intelligent. But this ambush would take time to plan and setup. Without access to resources they do not have, they would have had to set this up before we ever left The House of the Nine Hearths of Emerald and Silver. And that's ignoring the alchemicals they used.

"While the weapons are suspicious, they might have just found a First Age cache. No, that's not the damning detail. They used three different rare consumables here. A potion that lets one see immaterial gods. One that lets you touch them. And one that infects you with a contagious curse - nasty thing designed to make wounds take longer to heal, but it can sometimes stop a god from returning from death."

Master Winter took over. "The alchemicals they had access to are completely implausible. Even if this group of Hushed Ones had delved into Thaumaturgy - something that to our knowledge has only happened thrice, the resources needed to make enough for the entire group that ambushed us… only the cursed moxibustion treatment is one that has any shelf-longevity, and sourcing all of the regents for making these… We Ennead would find it expensive to source all the way out here. Maybe in the East, or the Blessed Isle, but out here sourcing this much would be punishing for a nation. If the Hushed Ones had that many resources, they wouldn't be hiding on the periphery. They would be conquering the north by force."

The Elnnti War God nodded in thanks to Master Winter, before he continued. "But that's not the most damning detail. The armor they had. That was made from the robes of slain Immaculate Monks. The Hushed Ones are dangerous, but we would know if they had slain three full circles of the Sidereal's hunting dogs. More importantly, we do know of a major Immaculate contingent that was recently slain."

"It's how we knew of the Únôlpûr Aithanar incursion," Master Winter stated. "They drove them off the surface, but didn't understand how much stronger they grow when somewhere the sun hasn't shone for a hundred years. They chased them into the depths, and all were lost."

"This has changed from a surprise attack on a group of unprepared Forbidden Gods into one upon a group of them who not only are ready for us, but have begun a harassment campaign to whittle us down, and almost certainly will be entrenched by the time we arrive."

"Thoughts?"

"Should we even be continuing?" Zivzizov asked. "Our forces were enough for a decisive conflict with the Turrets of the Ice Blossom, but only if it hasn't received further support. They have a strong relationship with the Guild, and while it would be unusual, it's not unthinkable for them to hire mercenaries - that could take the form of Raksha mercenaries, mortal sorcerers, martial artists. There's a major company of ghosts wearing necrotech war engines that have been making a name for themselves in the area, and I know they hire out to the Guild."

"Hmm," Sleet Wind rumbled, "We shouldn't just think of mortal resources. We shouldn't just count the ones paid for by mortal coin. The Jet Court could get involved."

Master Winter made a sour face. "While I hold nothing but disdain for Princess Kyema, I don't think she would involve herself with the Únôlpûr Aithanar. She hasn't stayed on top of the Jet Court for centuries by exposing her back to knives. Since we were going after her anyways, it makes sense for Ellith. We were coming after her anyways. But Kyema has something to lose and nothing to gain."

Sleet Wind nodded his massive head and sank back down, deferring to the local expert.

"The specifics might be wrong, but the overall point is valid," Zivzizov sang. "The Guild is only the most obvious thread they could have pulled on. Raksha are highly social creatures. Connections are more real to them than matter."

At some point I had balled my hands into fists so hard my fingernails had starting biting into my palms. The Raksha were so disgusting. They should all die.The point was right though. There wasn't a reason for us to keep pursuing this - not the Court of Seasons. We were already doing the Ennead a favor as I understood it. Doing them two favors, including one as risky as this?

No. Still, when I was about to interject something to that effect, Master Winters voice echoed in my ear, carried there by some hidden magic.

Hold for now, and you will benefit.

I settled down. He had better follow through though, because I was done following along for no reason.

"The Guild simply wouldn't have had time to move mercenaries around, not in great numbers. Nor could the Únôlpûr Aithanar be too open. Any merchant that knowingly trades with them is unlikely to ever receive a Road God's blessing again. No merchant could afford that. They poured so many resources into the Hushed Ones ambush because it was their best chance."

Master Winter gestured at me. "Young Nathan here is both an important and seemingly vulnerable god. If anything happened to him, there's no way we could have continued on. We would be dealing with Censors, at the very least. They didn't prioritize maximizing damage with their attack - if they had attacked a few seconds earlier, they would have caught us in a worse position. But they waited until they could get a strong ambush on Nathan specifically. That was their move. They didn't have time to prepare something better."

"While they might have warned Turrets of the Ice Blossom, the Raksha are no more friendly to forbidden gods than they are to any of the rest of us. Maybe less. I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't raided Ellith already to steal them from her. The Únôlpûr Aithanar have a never ending hunger for slaves for the Undercity. They're competitors."

There were nods around the room, which… I didn't know enough to say what was and wasn't reasonable. But that hardly laid my core objection to rest. But I held my tongue. For now.

That said, it seemed to be enough to deflect the bulk of the objections. I wondered if hunting the Únôlpûr Aithanar wasn't a reason many gods had joined this Court of Seasons. I was starting to realize that the Court was known for its extravagant festivals… and Ascending Water in the far north had few grand ones, yet there were a number of war gods making up the contingent of the hunting party.

I wondered if we were being used to, well, launder the presence of so many gods whose presence would normally be seen as problematic. Or maybe something else. I didn't know enough to know what I didn't know.

"I am here to convince you to go along with continuing the hunt."

We were sitting in the room that I had claimed. Fönn and Zivzizov had cleared out - I was expecting them to approach me soon to make whatever relationship they were seeking formal - so it was just Master Winter and me.

"I hope you understand why that's unlikely. From my perspective this whole hunt isn't just looking dubious, but like it was dubious from the start. Was it ever the Cold Roars idea?"

He snorted lightly. "So you noticed?"

I shrugged. "I think everyone has by this point."

He shook his head. "They do hunts every year when it's their turn to head the court. We… the Ennead and the Elnnti… had always planned to use this to move forces across creation. It let us gather significantly more forces here than we could have normally gotten away with. That said, most of the gods on this hunt are genuine celebrants."

I raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged. "It's true. We weren't originally going to go after the Únôlpûr Aithanar until Resplendent Water. Some of the hunters would have delayed returning home to visit friends, or play tourist." He shrugged, "We didn't need them to stay very long."

"So why isn't that what happened?"

"You know why. The Cold Roar's decided to bring you on a hunt, and suddenly every god who thinks they can hold a spear wants to join up. It was going to be very expensive paying for all the mercenaries we would need. The Elnnti alone are costing…" he shook his head. "We aren't a rich pantheon. Borrowing the might of the Court of Seasons made everything simpler.

So he had made this trip - that I already hadn't wanted to be on - more dangerous for me, and then was going to leverage it to extract favors from me?

"That circles back to why I would go along with this? This feels like a lot of risk that I would be taking to help you, when as far as I can tell you're already in debt to the Calendar Court. I'll be honest and admit that I don't really like the fact that you set me up to be targeted here. From my perspective part of the point of my being placed where I was, was to ease my debut into divine society. One that's been partly ruined by your little conspiracy."

"Because we'll pay you."

I shrugged. "I'll be honest and say that I don't know enough to know what's a good deal or a bad one, and that after all this plotting I'm not going to take your word on it."

He frowned, then shrugged. "Fair. You want a negotiator. Who?"

I frowned a little. "Gale's Echo is the only friend whose motivation I know who's here."

He seemed thoughtful, but shook his head. "She's not been part of any high level politics. I could easily manipulate her into taking a terrible deal, and she would never know it. That's just setting us up to have a problem in the future. Do you have anyone else you trust?"

I frowned, thinking. Maybe The Three? I didn't really trust them, but they wouldn't want to cheapen the prestige of the Court of Seasons by letting outsiders leverage our reputation for cheap. I was about to suggest them, when I noticed… Light? Darkness?

The deepest, darkest blues and purples. Light that was blocking light, as my room grew darker and darker. The ground started bleeding little drops of silver that fell upwards. It was like deep waters, Faint at first, but it quickly grew thinker. Silver formed a film, a surface. We were under a lake. I was drowning.

No. No I wasn't. I was breathing air. I had to force myself to remember I was breathing air.

"I'll do it."

Far above, the surface of the 'lake' shattered for a moment, as something massive and dark swam through still waters.

"I was only gone for a day. I had to check some things out, see."

Master Winter's eyes were wide.

"Things weren't adding up in two directions. I suppose your little stunt answered one of them."

Vevin strolled out of the darkness, her thick tail lashing back and forth, a circle of silver filled with darkness burning like the blackest night upon her brow.

"Hello Master Winter. I know we just spoke a day ago, but allow me to reintroduce myself."

She smiled, and I realized that Fönn's grin was that of an amateur. I wasn't entirely sure how that many needle like teeth fit in a human sized mouth.

"Light… Lightless Darvne." He swallowed, "I greet the Moon Sage."

TheLastOne · Friday at 9:46 PM

Under Pressure

Morning of the 13th of Ascending Water, Venusday, Realm Year 762

I wanted to say something like Vevin?, ask her What's going on. I didn't. I wasn't an idiot. She wasn't the god I thought she was. A moon god of some kind? I knew Luna was one of the Incarna. Black. The dark of the moon. Why did her presence feel like being at the bottom of a lake? I looked up and saw its surface far above.

The room wasn't that big.

But the nice thing about everyone knowing your ignorant, is that you just get to ask without embarrassment.

"Moon Sage?"

Her smile brightened a little, into something that wasn't quite so predatory.

"Ah, yes," her accent was different. Somehow more erudite, though I wasn't sure how I could tell. It just felt like it was more clipped, more vowels being properly pronounced, and somehow prettier. "I am, as they call us, one of the Anathema, and not a god. I haven't gotten to the part of your education where I would have talked about it later."

"I… I am just going along with the plan the Twisted Stone Conclave set out. I won't deny that I've taken a couple liberties, but part of planning things out is seeing…"

"I'm perfectly sure you did exactly what the Conclave intended," she cut him off, as she began circling the room. The… light? darkness..? it swirled around her like water, and I again had to struggle to breath, to remember this was air.

"I should note that," she began, her voice dropping lower, "while I'm here on their behest, we are not allies." Her voice had taken on a watery, almost serpentine sound. "I would more properly label them as my political enemies. And it seems the favor they actually sought was not the favor they asked."

"I…" Master Winter seemed to be thinking over his words, "... am not a party to the infighting within the Silver Pact. I do not know what favor they asked of you, but I assure you I haven't worked against you."

"Oh," She said brightly. "It was the obvious one, which is why I didn't question it. 'Who is this new god of the Court of Seasons?' After all, the Court is associated with the Bronze Faction, and the Bronze Faction is an enemy of all Lunars."

I was sure he understood the implication, because he suddenly looked less scared and more sour. LIke he understood how he had been used, his lips thinning.

"I'll again assure you that I didn't know you were here, or that young Nathan here was your student."

"Which is why you're alive. I've killed my elders for playing games with my students."

He seemed to have found his spine, because he met her gaze then. Clearly, he had decided she wasn't going to kill him.

"The Twisted Stone Conclave had expressed a distintest in Nathan to me. I wasn't aware that they had also arranged to insert you to spy on him. I suppose it's obvious now what they were after. I take no responsibility for it. We are allied with the Twisted Stone Conclave, we are not their servants."

She stopped her circling equidistant between Master Winter and me, and grabbed…

Grabbed a chair out of midair and plopped it down backwards, before falling heavily onto it. She crossed her arms on the backrest, and let her head rest on them. "Yes. They intend to use me against the Únôlpûr Aithanar. They aren't willing to risk their own. They obviously had some grasp on Nathan's character. I wouldn't pretend to be a student to such a young lamb. That after taking the role of teacher to get close to him, I would be unlikely to abandon it. I'm infamous, after all, for how defensive I am about my students."

I wanted to protest that I wasn't a lamb, but then… didn't I almost just get lead to my slaughter?

"They will pay for using me this way, but they aren't wrong."

Master Winter nodded. "That's understandable. I would not forgive being used against the servants of Fides-Dumuzid so casually."

"Fides-Dumuzid has been seen on the surface."

Master Winter stilled. "Ah. That is… brazen."

"I suspect the Twisted Stone Conclave doesn't think they'll have to pay me at the end of this. They're wrong. Even if I do die against him so that my shard can go to someone more worthy, they'll still pay. I have made certain of that. But enough of that. We are speaking of how you will bribe my student to continue on this fool's errand."

He paused as if thinking, "I admit I had assumed you were going to talk your student out of it."

The dark-light started fading then, a gradual lessening of intensity.

She shook her head. "No, I'm going to bribe him as well. If he leaves, half these hunters will leave with him, and I can't magic up enough of an army on short notice. Fides-Dumuzid has been seen on the surface. If the Sidereals did their job the Wyld Hunt would be here instead of running down some poor kid in Great Forks who lit up a week ago. Cecelyne's teets, the Aerial Legion should be here. It will be, if he actually does something notable like kill those idiot brothers."

Master Winter did wince then. "Please don't get them killed. The rest of the Court of Seasons would hold it against us, and our legal situation…"

"That's not really my problem, now is it."

He quieted then. Then, "What do you need."

"Nathan's now a major god of the Haslanti."

"Done."

"He doesn't yet have a Sanctum. The Ennead will front the resources and manpower to build it. Alternatively, if his domain ends up manifesting one, you will support one major initiative of his within Yu-Shan."

He winced a little. "You know our current problems there."

She just raised an eyebrow. "Very well."

"Finally, Autumn Frost will act as keeper or guardian to anything Nathan entrusts to you for one hundred years."

This last one seemed to intrigue Master Winter, but he just said, "There must be limits."

She nodded. "A Kap. Autumn Frost doesn't have to drop everything when he calls, but must make reasonable accommodations to do this. We'll use Deus's Code reasonable."

"Fine." He nodded. "I'll show myself out."

I waited until he left the room before starting.

"Please explain. You're acting like you're on my side here, but you just admitted that you're using me yourself. Why should I trust you now? Also, why those three favors?"

She sighed, and her teeth had gone back to normal, though her tail was still there. I couldn't decide if it was fish-like, or serpent-like, but it bounced in time with her leg.

"Explaining the Anathema and all the politics around history around it would be… I'll get to that if I survive the coming conflict."

"As for the three favors?"

"You really do need a Sanctum. You might have a special kind of fallback through your Mantle, but it has a number of issues," it really did, "and a Sanctum is simply useful for a god. It also takes a lot of time and resources."

"The Ennead are an interesting Pantheon. I've only gotten into the shallow end of telling you about how god's work, but they're not a Terrestrial Court. Nor are the a Celestial one. They are a mixed group of Terrestrial and Celestial gods who have essentially banded together to jointly pursue their interests as a way of going around the bureaucracy of Yu-Shan. Their Joint Sanctum - The House of the Nine Hearths of Emerald and Silver - is in a gray zone. But it probably would not be found as legal if anyone got sufficiently interested. "

"So… they're politically weak in Yu-Shan."

"Yes," she smiled as if she scored a major point. "Why is that useful?"

"Ah." Why would that be useful. Their favor couldn't be worth much, and calling it in would make for some bad blood.

"Oh. It's blackmail."

"Um." She nodded. "They'll work hard to find something you want more, so that you'll give it up."

That… probably would make for some bad blood later, but after this stunt I didn't really care.

"And the last?"

"If you ever are killed and must use your own path of reincarnation, you're liable to lose every physical item you've acquired. While someone old like me has ways of hiding things away, you're too young. Autumn Frost is no Madame Marthesine, but Madame Marthesine would charge too much for the service. Hmm. A Kap is a unit for the possessions of the average mortal household - it uses volume and mass. Though it was set during the height of the first age, so a Kap is actually a reasonably large unit of storage."

I nodded. So she had gotten me things that were valuable.

"As for why you should trust me… do you want to hear about me, or about Fides-Dumuzid?"

Which would make me more inclined to listen to her? Fides-Dumuzid was obviously going to be someone terrible, so listening about him first could be used to excuse many actions. But she hadn't manipulated me and inserted herself into my circle at the start because of Fides-Dumuzid. She had as a favor to this Conclave.

"Tell me about yourself."

She nodded.

"Your areas of ignorance fascinate me. I'm almost sure you must come from some holdout colony that was setup in the first age - someplace outside creation entirely that a paranoid old Solar created in case Creation itself fell. There really is no other explanation for someone as obviously educated as you to have such massive areas of ignorance. That said, I will give you a high level overview, because many of the topics border other topics that would require weeks to just give a surface understanding of."

"I was Exalted, became one of the Chosen of the Moon, not long after the Usperpation. The Moonsilver Tattoos -" and for a moment, patterns of silver covered her - "that define our current social order didn't exist yet - wouldn't become common for another twenty years. I was born into an age of decline, where every year was marginally worse than the one before, and while the Shogunate performed regular purges on anything that might even hint at Solar influence. Often, that was other parts of the Shogunate, in an endless series of cannibalistic purges."

Her eyes were distant, and as the room continued to move back towards normal.

"I won't speak much of my early years. I became a sorceress before I became an Exalted, and I have always defined myself by my sorcery. I suspect the Silver Pact would have made me a Changing Moon if I wasn't so obviously a sorcerer first and foremost. I butted heads enough with my mentors, didn't have the approved mindset. But they also worked harder to pretend that Sorcery belonged to the No Moons alone in those days. Such efforts failed, of course. Salina's gift saved us from such machinations. I would have been a terrible Changing Moon, but many Changing Moons are terrible Changing Moons."

"I suppose my fundamental disagreement with them peaked during the Contagion and the Balorian Crusade. By then I was well established, and had years to see how their 'controlled' descent worked, their efforts to build a society that "didn't depend" on sorcery and the help of gods and Exalts. Those societies all died when the Crusade reached them, if they weren't already dead of plague. Not just directly - starvation and malnutrition, banditry, loss of trade, and a thousand other infrastructural dooms took as many as fell to the actual plague. The same continues to torment the Wyld barbarians some of my compatriots champion. Even groups like the Haslanti are two bad winters away from falling, and they could never defend themselves from a major Fair Folk invasion."

"Hmm… but I'm speaking of politics you don't have the context for. Let us just say that there is a simple answer for how to build a society that does not depend on the Exalted. That no one else champions it among the Lunars, when so many of us claim to be working to build a society that does not need us… Salina remains right, even if her approach had the flaws so many Solar's were defined by."

"What you should understand is that I have spent the last seven and a half centuries spreading knowledge. I have probably taught more mortals, gods, elementals, even Dragon Kings Sorcery than anyone in Creation. I've also taught Martial Arts, Thaumaturgy, and more. I would say I've done as much or more to slow the growth of the Realm than many of my peers who brag about it, and little of that came from me fighting them directly."

"So you're against the Realm?" I asked, "I keep getting mixed messages about them?"

"That's what you focus on?" She made a sour face. "Complex. Less so than many of my peers. Without the Scarlet Empress, Creation might have genuinely fallen, and while they have destroyed a lot of history, they have also preserved knowledge in many places where it otherwise would have been lost."

"I do oppose them, yes. Though the reason I oppose them and the reason many of your peers dislike them probably doesn't match up much."

"So… you're a famous sorcery teacher then?"

"Sorcery, whenever I can, yes. Also necromancy, though I find that less useful. Martial Arts. Thaumaturgy, when I didn't have time or opportunity to teach better. Economics. International relationship - I've taught a number of mortal princes over the years. Not to be immodest, but I'm probably the most famous Lunar teacher in Creation."

She paused, then. "Not the best, but I have no respect for him. He might teach you, but only to extract favors from you later, and he only properly teaches other Lunars."

"And so I should trust you because you're a great teacher?"

That wasn't a good reason.

"No. I'm going to use you here, and I got close to you to use you. You also don't know enough to really trust anyone. I will say that I wouldn't betray you here because it would be bad for my reputation. Pretty much the only good reputation I have is as a Teacher. Since I have revealed myself as your teacher, I wouldn't undermine that now. But you don't have the context to trust that."

"Why did you decide to teach me, anyways?"

"I wasn't going to. Not really," She shamelessly admitted. "The Twisted Stone Conclave claimed they couldn't put someone close to you because there were too many eyes watching them. So they would make sure everyone knew where they were while I would show up and investigate you in return for future favors. I was just going to spend a couple days investigating you, but… Well, frankly, you remind me entirely too much of many of the young Lunars I have mentored over the years. Once I pretended… I wasn't going to teach you poorly. And once I taught you seriously… It's against my nature to watch you sink."

"But no, you shouldn't trust me because what's going on is serious, even if it has nothing to do with you. I might die here, which is probably why the Conclave arranged for me to get involved. Another knife at my back. Fides-Dumuzid was seen on the surface."

"Fides-Dumuzid, the forbidden. Fides-Dumuzid, the loyal son. Fides-Dumuzid, the keeper of the gates. The Steward. Loyal servant to his exiled masters. After the Primordial War, it was unthinkable that he would manage to hide. After all, who could feel safe while he yet lived? Wouldn't he always be a blade hanging above the heads of the gods? Yet they grew used to the blade. Found ways to dull it, to cut him off from his domain more and more."

"Fides-Dumuzid, who took a minor breed of darkbrood gods and made them the Únôlpûr Aithanar. Fides-Dumuzid, the first City Father."

"Fides-Dumuzid. The God of Yu-Shan itself."

Not My Dream Vacation (Celestial Crab Bucket. First World, Exalted)

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