15[20:05] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger ascends Sentinel Hill, to lend support to Xia Lan in the most fraught negotiations of the circle's young political career. The rain that's blown in from the west hides all but the barest outlines of the Vecchio palace. Balor's star stains the cloudy sky pink. [20:06] 14He got here as soon as he could. Hopefully it's in time to at least help out with some paperwork. 15[20:07] <@VoxPVoxD> Elsewhere, Keldar's been drilling his new conscripts in Parko Llana, the only open space in the city big enough to house the general's burgeoning army. What's he do when the rain comes in? Do the cadets get a break? [20:09] <@Ferrinus> 12The cadets do get breaks, but they don't get breaks for rain. For this particular exercise, the more sudden and more driving, the better. Keldar, wearing a big brown cloak so that his armor doesn't stand out too much against the grass and mud, is shouting at ranks of archers. "Just started coming down! Remember where the targets were and remember they can't have moved farther than [20:09] <@Ferrinus> you did! Now FIRE-" 15[20:11] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger's only a block away when the palace ignites. The upper floor bleeds deep red light from all its windows for a moment before they explode outward with a shockwave, raining glass on the streets below. [20:12] 14He immediately places his hand on the book in his robes and calls Keldar. [20:12] 14He doesn't begin running, not yet, but it's the briskest walk he can manage. 15[20:13] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar, farther off, only sees the beast in the sky. A massive wolf, hide stained crimson, raises both its heads to snarl at the sky. Dawn stings the eyes. 15[20:15] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger's caught in a panic in the plaza, buffeted by guards and officials streaming out of the palace and Dawn Guard charging in. Bureaucrats and assayers stream out with terror on their faces, Guildsman bodyguards and attaches bearing out... was that Gen? Astrologer Kratz? Stunned and bleeding from the temple? [20:15] <@Ferrinus> 12Grunts and shouts sound around Keldar. Off in the distance, ropes and chains go taut as a hidden line of recruits moves a set of targets in semi-random directions. "Should've nocked again by now! Ready, aiwhat in the fuck? ...WHO SAID TO STOP?" [20:15] 14He'll push his way over to Kratz. Is Keldar picking up? [20:16] <@Ferrinus> 12The mercenary takes a knee and touches two fingers to his ear. "Yeah?" [20:16] 14Stranger: "Council Tower. Get over here." [20:16] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Moving." 12He rises. "Empty those quivers and then you're on break! Wait for further word!" 12Then he dashes off. [20:17] 14Stranger kills the call as he tries to get Kratz's attention. 15[20:18] <@VoxPVoxD> The first thing Xia Lan feels when she stirs is the sun on her face. It's the last thing she felt before he hit her. She's on her back, in no pain resting on cool grass. Somewhere, a string trio plays gentle music. 15[20:18] <@VoxPVoxD> Kratz looks this way and that before focusing on the man in front of her. "...Stranger..." [20:18] 14Stranger: "Astrologer. What happened? ...Where is Xia Lan?" 15[20:19] <@VoxPVoxD> "Upstairs." [20:19] "...Nogare?" [20:19] 13No pain? The sun on her face... Her eyes flutter open as she takes in the sky, not yet daring to look around. 15[20:20] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan sees a summer sky, harsh and cloudless. There's plenty of light, but no sun. 15[20:21] <@VoxPVoxD> Kratz: "Pellicia. Pellicia stayed." [20:21] 13She takes in a few long breaths, then attempts to sit up. So this is how it ends, then. [20:22] 14Stranger: "I'm going up. Get clear of the tower, and get the rest of the Councillors clear, too. Keldar is on his way." 15[20:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Coming up from the northern side of the Hill, Keldar sees better than Stranger the red storm streak like a comet from the palace atop the hill, off to the east. [20:23] 13Ends? Has ended? What's she see as she sits up and really takes stock? [20:23] *get clear of the palace 15[20:25] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan feels a desert wind on her face, rises in the heart of a rose-garden. There are silver paving-stones, gossamer filigree, and the most elaborate tea service she's ever seen. She hears movement but she can't place it. [20:26] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's bolting southward, a great shape of rippling sackcloth beneath which are periodic flashes of gold and silver. He makes a mighty leap as soon as he's near the vecchio, then another, then another, until he's standing at what's become the top floor. [20:26] 14Is Stranger up there to greet him or have the stairs been blown out? 15[20:27] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger runs up the sweeping staircase and meets eyes with Keldar as he leaps onto the balcony. The shattered meeting-room stands between them, a table smashed to flinders and two bodies among the debris. [20:27] 13Well. No pain means she can probably stand. What's she got on her - what's she wearing and all that? As she continues taking in the scene, she tries to place the location of the music - if it's even "anywhere" at all. [20:28] 14Stranger is holding his walking stick by its middle now, no longer an affectation of blindness. 15[20:28] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger can enter through the west door or through the hole in the wall right beside it, the size of three men. [20:28] 14Please. He'll use the door. 15[20:28] <@VoxPVoxD> What is Xia Lan wearing? What does she have on her? [20:29] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar mutters curses as he sweeps forward, crouching to survey the wreckage and then simply seizing and heaving aside tables and pillars and such until the bodies are clear. [20:29] 14First thing to do is figure out who our bodies are, it seems. [20:29] 14Not fun work. 15[20:31] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar uncovers Xia Lan first, her breathing shallow and ragged. It takes him a second to recognize her. She's alive, barely, choking on blood and savagely beaten. [20:32] 14Stranger goes back to the stairs. Have other soldiers found the stones to filter up after them? 15[20:32] <@VoxPVoxD> The other body is still. The other body is Pellicia's, her own sidearm saber planted to the hilt in her abdomen. Her body's curled around the blade, as if she died trying to hold it in. [20:33] 13To Xia Lan's eyes, she's got on one of her more reserved outfits - a simple dress she remembers wearing a few short days ago, back in their apartments. All her gear is still on her - the Skin of the Loyal, Nine Muses Attend, and Before and After - she's prepared, even here. 15[20:33] <@VoxPVoxD> Dawn Guard advance up the stairs behind Stranger, slowly. None of them can see past him into the room just yet. [20:33] 14If so he is going to send for Commandant Vissi D'Arte by name. [20:33] 14With a request to bring her best doctors. [20:34] 14Rejoining Keldar: "How bad is--" [20:34] 14He sees precisely how bad it is for Pellicia. [20:35] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's eyes widen and nostrils flare. He ducks deeper into a crouch. Xia Lan's alive. Is Pellicia? Breath, heartbeat of any kind? 15[20:35] <@VoxPVoxD> Pellicia is dead. [20:36] 14Stranger walks to the edge of the blown-out wall. Can he visually track which direction the Prince shot off in? 15[20:36] <@VoxPVoxD> Toward Firewander, by the looks of it. [20:37] <@Ferrinus> "Shit," 12Keldar says, before turning immediately to Xia Lan. He flicks one wrist, then another, and the moonsilver ligaments joining the orichalcum plates of his armor detach and snap back in a way that lets him shake bare hands free of gauntlets. He gets to work immediately - staunching bleeding, binding breaks, that sort of thing. [20:38] 13Xia Lan steps towards the tea service, looking for signs of anyone else here. Is it just her, the tea, and the music? [20:39] 14Stranger steps back from the wall. "Firewander. The old Deliberative hall, I'd guess. I'm going to send runners for the Dragonlord and the Governor." [20:40] 14He looks down at Pellicia, and he looks much, much older than he usually does. "Do you know if she has any people I should send for? A husband or a wife or children. They should know first." [20:41] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar works with incredible speed and precision, the kind that might even make old Xu Sim proud. The armor-obscuring cloak he was wearing turns out to be a perfect source of splints and bandages and things if combined with bits of curtain and tablecloth still intact at the site of the attack, and before long Xia Lan's... well, she's still unconscious and blood-soaked and generally [20:41] <@Ferrinus> 12a wreck, but she isn't visibly seizing up. [20:42] <@Ferrinus> "She's married. Someone in the guard." 12Then Keldar stands. "You know what we've got here, Stranger, looks to me like wanton violence." [20:43] 14His face hardens, then...and he smiles. [20:43] "I believe you are correct." [20:43] "Can we get Xia Lan on her feet? We will need her." [20:44] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Not for another day. She's safe to move now - I'll get someone to get Xu Sim." 15[20:44] <@VoxPVoxD> There's something of a disciplinary problem behind Stranger. Dawn Guard are standing off with the Lookshyans who've come to escort Commandant D'Arte and her medics. [20:44] 14Stranger: "And the boy. Cathak Tsuka." [20:45] 14Stranger spins and strides back to the top of the stairs. "THE DAWN GUARD WILL PERMIT THE MEDICS TO PASS, OR I WILL COME DOWN THIS STAIRCASE." [20:45] 14He is still smiling. Grinning, really. 15[20:46] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan can see a long yellow feather bobbing in among the flowerbeds, and some rustling beneath. The tea service is only set for one, though there's enough food for three or four. [20:49] <@Ferrinus> 12While Stranger sees to this, Keldar, crouches back down to investigate Pellicia again. He pushes the body enough onto its side to get a look at the back, then casts his eyes across the room for a better picture of what happened. [20:50] 14He doesn't even release Essence, or call upon his anima banner. Stranger-Visits-Heaven's disquieting, imperial presence is enough to compel obedience. 15[20:51] <@VoxPVoxD> The crowds part, and the medic team rises up the stairs. "I heard two patients?" comes Commandant D'Arte's voice from behind her white and red helmet. [20:52] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Aha. Aheh." 12He stands up again. "All right. All right, well, properly speaking I'd just be teleporting straight into Firewander and melting every skeleton within a block. But we're going to have to do this like guardsmen." 12This mostly to himself, but he raises his voice to address the medic: "One." [20:52] 14The smile turns angry, and Stranger's voice is almost a feral growl. "One." [20:53] 13She walks past the tables, towards the golden feather. She regards it with interest, and begins to rack her memories for how to coax a golden emas... [20:53] "The Tiger of Nexus has applied emergency aid, but Xia Lan needs to be taken for dedicated care." [20:54] 14He points to two likely-looking Dawn Guards loitering near the stairs. "You two." [20:54] 14Stranger beckons them over. 15[20:55] <@VoxPVoxD> The guards approach Stranger as the medics fill the room and fan out, carefully rolling Xia Lan onto a stretcher in fourfold tandem. D'Arte, to Keldar: "What do you know so far?" [20:56] 13She scans the table for any sort of cakes that may have been set up. The sweeter the better. What sort of food is there, actually? 15[20:57] <@VoxPVoxD> Honey, berries, little cakes, slices of mango... everything on the table is sweet in some way or other. [20:58] 14To the two guards: "The Dawn Sergeant is dead, murdered by the Prince Regent of Highland. Her body will be taken from here to the appropriate place, and we will begin implementing the procedures for her lying in state and her state funeral. You will handle this," 14he says, pointing at the Dawn Guard on the left. Then he points to the one on the right. "Your sole and immediate [20:58] job is to inform the Dawn Sergeant's spouse of her passing, and convey the dread assurance of the Emissary of Nexus that this is being handled." [20:58] 14He pauses for a moment. Then: "Am I clear?" 15[20:58] <@VoxPVoxD> "Sir, yes, sir!" [20:58] "Then you should be running." 15[20:58] <@VoxPVoxD> They run. [20:58] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "As to what happened here? I arrived not long before you did. But it must have been Nogare. Why, I couldn't guess." 12He takes a long breath in through his nose. "We can learn together once he's in custody." 12Then the Dawn turns on a heel and strides back towards the members of the Guard on the scene. Rapid fire orders ensue - some are to follow Xia Lan and D'Arte and [20:58] <@Ferrinus> 12ensure she's taken care of. One will go to Red-Hot Iron and send word to Xu Sim. Others will collect Pellicia's body. Others still... will muster the rest of the Guard, and a contingent of Apples beside. [20:59] <@Ferrinus> 12After all, it's now on Keldar to make an arrest. [20:59] 14Stranger: "Custody?" [21:00] 13Huh. That's... fitting, in a lot of ways. She'll have to try and ease the bird out from the flowerbeds after she samples some of the wares. What sort of tea has been left here? [21:03] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Yeah. I mean, that's not how it'll go down, obviously. But we're reasonable people on paper." [21:04] 14Stranger pauses. "...Perhaps you're right. If we can take him alive. There might be things to learn through torture." 15[21:05] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan recognizes this! This is Prince Pelican. It's an herbal tea which is traditionally served to three groups of people: mothers before childbirth, convicts before hanging, and generals before battle. [21:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Things to teach, really." [21:05] 14Stranger's grin widens. [21:06] 14He walks over to the blown-out wall. "I am sending for Dorma, the Governor, Cathak Tsuka, and anyone else who wants a piece of the Prince Regent. You are bringing your Apples?" [21:07] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "I'm bringing the Guard, Apples and all. This is city business. ...we might not want Lookshy or Thorns involved." [21:08] 14Stranger: "Perhaps. But I'd rather be sure of winning, then go in pridefully and lose. A statement needs to be made." [21:08] *rather than [21:10] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Well, you can put the word out, then, that our treaty's been violated and justice is being done. Any who'll commit forces will see it done faster and at less cost to the war effort." [21:11] 13An interesting collection! Xia Lan pours herself a cup - the first cup of the rest of her life. She takes a few sips, looking outwards from the rose garden and the tea service, away from the flowerbeds and the golden emas. [21:12] 13After all, if what they say of the emas bird is true, she could leave here. But where would she even leave to? 15[21:12] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi D'Arte: "We're going to need to move her. Any objections?" [21:12] "Oh, of course. The word is already out." 14Stranger has already sent off runners to that effect. He will defer to Keldar on the planning of their hunt itself, but he is going to be accompanying him. [21:13] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Go ahead. She's stable for the moment. Let Xu Sim see to her as soon as he arrives." [21:13] 14He simply waves dismissively to the Commandant. "Simply get her under proper care. Her life is in your hands, Commandant. I trust you know what that means." 15[21:14] <@VoxPVoxD> The runner Stranger sends for Tsuka is almost bowled over at the door by Tsuka, who's charging up the stairs with burning footprints eating through the carpet behind him. 15[21:14] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan takes a sip of tea and is startled by the suddenness of the voice. 15[21:14] <@VoxPVoxD> "ExCUSE me." [21:15] 13Xia Lan: "What?" 13Startled, she nearly spills her cup, but manages to set it down gently and look for the voice. 15[21:16] <@VoxPVoxD> The voice is coming from the face beneath the hat that has a golden emas feather on top. The man is pale, with immaculately coiffed golden hair and a thin, pitch-black moustache. His face is writ with indignation. "Who..." [21:18] 14Stranger wheels on the young Dragon-Blood. "Cathak Tsuka. Just the man I wanted to see. Your date is going to have to be postponed, sadly." 14Stranger doesn't sound sad. He sounds...not quite happy, but anticipatory. Hungry, almost. "We're going to kill the man who did this to her. I take it that you're in." [21:18] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's out of the palace shortly after, unless someone stops him with further questions. He's literally rallying the troops, summoning the combined Guard/Apple forces for what may soon be a full-on assault on the district of Firewander. [21:18] 13Oh. Not a bird after all. Well, that's an embarassing assumption. Now she's just glad she didn't say "here pretty birdy" with some fruits in hand. "The Unfettered Xia Lan. I apologize, I just woke up over there," 13she gestures back. 15[21:19] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka stares at Stranger, but his eyes fall on the body the Lookshyans are towing out in a translucent blue bubble that floats just off the ground. "What. What happened." [21:19] 14Stranger: "The Prince Regent of Highland murdered the Dawn Sergeant Pellicia and beat Xia Lan within an inch of her life. It seems he has a problem with women." [21:20] "Now he's what I like to call 'fair play.'" 15[21:20] <@VoxPVoxD> "Where were you?" [21:20] "Do you know what that means?" 14Stranger's smile widens. "It means anything we do to him is fair play." [21:21] 14Stranger laughs. "Where were you? Xia Lan does not need to be babysat every moment of every day." 15[21:21] <@VoxPVoxD> "You just--" The man follows where she points. "...ah." 15[21:22] <@VoxPVoxD> "Well. Well! Forgive my rudeness. I wasn't anticipating a guest. Please, help yourself. I am Elegba." [21:22] 13Xia Lan: "Hello, Elegba." 13Does that name ring any bells? 15[21:23] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan reads her briefing books. She knows the name. [21:25] 14Stranger: "What? Did you think if I were here, I could have saved her? Do you think if you were here, you could have saved her? The best outcome is you'd be dead on the ground next to the Dawn Sergeant. The worst? He'd have just ignored you while he beat her." 15[21:25] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Where is he." [21:26] 14Stranger: "Firewander." [21:26] "We're going there now." [21:26] "He won't be leaving except on his back." [21:26] "Are you in?" [21:27] 13She suddenly loses her appetite. "Ah. The Saffron Khan, yes? That Elegba?" 15[21:28] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "When do we move." [21:29] 14Stranger: "Keldar has just left to put together his team. March with him. Tell anyone who tries to stop you from marching with him that they will answer to me. Keldar will have you on his front line. I will join shortly. I have to see if there are any other sword-arms to collect." [21:29] 14He plucks a jade piece of paper from his book. "Take this." [21:29] "It will allow me to speak to you across distances." 15[21:31] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka takes it and goes without another word. 15[21:33] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "That depends. Are you the Unfettered Xia Lan? The voice of hope in a world gone mad? The apple of every eye from Lookshy to Luthe?" [21:34] 13Xia Lan: "The very same. Though I suppose one of the imposters gets to claim that name, now," 13she says, thoughtfully. "I'm not sure I'll get much use out of it here." 15[21:36] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "I'll tell you a secret if you answer a question for me." [21:36] 13Xia Lan: "Ask away." [21:37] 14Stranger touches his book again and calls Bubo. 15[21:37] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "What is your heart's desire?" 15[21:38] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo crackles in Stranger's mind. "Mmm?" [21:38] 14Stranger: "Your woman's been hurt. The Prince Regent murdered the Dawn Sergeant and beat Xia Lan into a coma. She's still here at the palace. You should go to her." 15[21:40] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "He did WHAT?" [21:41] 14Stranger: "He's a dead man. He'll be finding that out soon." [21:41] "...Do you have a current line on Vladok?" 15[21:42] <@VoxPVoxD> "I'll catch him on the way. He lives in Firewander." [21:43] 14Stranger just grins. "Excellent. Keldar is marshaling his troops. Things are moving quickly. Call me when you have the demon." [21:43] 13Xia Lan: "Bit of a personal question, isn't it? Well." 13She taps her chin, thinking. "...more than anything, I want to go back. For a long time I didn't think I would, actually." 13She gestures around. "I wasn't expecting being dead to look like this. I figured - maybe a party, maybe what I thought I deserved - but now that I'm here... I just want to go back. I had so much left to do! ...it seems silly, considering I got [21:43] beat to death, but I was really looking forward to my date night." [21:47] 14Stranger calls Xu Sim next, as he's leaving the tower. [21:47] 14...The palace. 15[21:47] <@VoxPVoxD> Where is Xu Sim when the alarum reaches him? Xia Lan is in mortal peril! Nexus is seized by sudden war! The greatest doctor in the Direction has a patient! [21:47] 13Xia Lan: "Sun above. I used to think I was waiting for this, just playing out the string." [21:48] 14Stranger is consumed by the coming legal killing. 15[21:48] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "An honest answer. I appreciate that. And it fills my heart to tell you: you're not dead." [21:48] "What?" 15[21:48] <@VoxPVoxD> "I'm given to understand that death is far drearier." [21:49] 13She leaps up from the chair. "Then - where am I? What are you doing here?" 15[21:49] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "To meet honesty with honesty, my new friend, I'll say it plain: I don't know what you're doing here. This is my dream." [21:49] 13Xia Lan: "I suddenly don't understand anything at all." 15[21:50] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba leans forward, head in hands, grin filling his whole face from the bottom up. "Oh, I envy you." [21:51] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's out in the streets of Sentinel's Hill, now. Uniformed and armored men and women are running to and fro, filling out ranks and readying weapons. The Dawn Caste puts two fingers to his ear. "Stranger - get me the doctor." 15[21:51] <@VoxPVoxD> "I pity all of us who understand something. Every piece of knowledge is a blandishment, a little prick in the skin of our souls that lets pain leak in. To be perfectly ignorant is to be invincible." [21:51] 14Stranger picks up the call from Keldar. "I'm calling him now. We're all on the same page." [21:52] 5Xu Sim is huddled over a pot of reagents in the depths of the manse, preparing it for raksha-consuming destruction. He has been experimenting. A tiny iron butterfly is splayed out in front of him, wings fluttering as it slowly expires, leaving behind a foul-smelling greasy stain as its animating force slowly leaks from the joints in its carapace. [21:53] "Eh?" 5 Speaking into thin air still feels a little strange to the doctor, for some reason. [21:53] 14Stranger: "Xu Sim. This is Stranger. You're on with me and Keldar." [21:53] "Have you heard?" [21:54] <@Ferrinus> 12That's why you do the ear thing. Feels more natural. Keldar speaks: "Listen. Nogare's gone insane and we're bringing him to heel. What've you got, right now, that'll blow up or cut down as much of his army as possible?" [21:55] 14The thing about milky eyes is that when you roll them, noting appears to happen. "The Prince Regent killed Pellicia and beat Xia Lan into a coma. We're killing him. Today." [21:55] "Pardon me?"  [21:55] 5Xu Sim is a little suspicious that this could be some sort of sorcerous doublecross. [21:55] 14Stranger: "You're pardoned. Now get out of that basement." [21:56] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Yeah. You're an emissary with the rest of us and it concerns you, too." [21:56] 13Xia Lan: "No, that's - if I'm not dead, I have to get back! And why am I in your dream, anyway? Perfect ignorance does nothing for me!" 13She gives another look out to the horizons. "I guess it isn't perfect if I know I'm not dead," 13she adds, as an afterthought. [21:58] "I'm on my way, but what the hell happened? What do you mean he killed Pellicia?" 5 Xu Sim scoops up the flasks, unguents, ointments, and powders he can - dumping them unceremoniously into a satchel - before hiking up his robes and hurrying out of the Tomb of Cold Iron as quickly as his pale legs can carry him. 15[21:58] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "I certainly didn't invite you. We aren't scheduled to meet for three more weeks." [21:58] 14Stranger: "He took her sword and he put it through her." [21:58] 14Stranger: "He did it to make a point." [21:58] "We're going to make a few more with him." [21:59] "What the hell point?" [21:59] 14Stranger: "That he could." [22:00] 13Xia Lan: "Don't get frequent visitors to your dreams, then? I'm honored, I guess." 15[22:01] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "Somehow I doubt I'm the first to have this problem." [22:01] "...sorry for breaking and entering, I guess? I still don't know how I got here." [22:01] 13Scratch one of those "I guess"es. Repetition is tacky. [22:01] 5 Xu Sim is hustling. As soon as he exits the Tomb, he'll try to flag down a carriage or something. [22:02] "Where am I meeting you?" 15[22:02] <@VoxPVoxD> As soon as Xu Sim exits the tomb, he comes face to face with Nessun Dorma. [22:02] 14Stranger: "Firewander. We're staging outside the Deliberative. Follow the army." [22:04] 5Xu Sim immediately terminates the connection, if he can, as soon as he sees Dorma. "Dragonlord! What the Hell happened?" 5He's more than ready to keep running, if the general looks angry. [22:04] 5 Well- angry at HIM. [22:04] 13Xia Lan: "Ha ha. I'll remind you you said that in three weeks, then." 15[22:05] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma's voice is dry and quiet. It's unnerving, like being alone in a huge stone temple with all the braziers burnt out. [22:05] 14Stranger doesn't even register the quick termination as rude. It's efficient. He's already heading for Firewander. 15[22:05] <@VoxPVoxD> "War has come against the Anathema." 15[22:05] <@VoxPVoxD> "Haven't you heard?" [22:06] 5Xu Sim licks his lips for an instant - he points at his own chest in apprehension. "You mean The Beast? I just got the news." 15[22:08] <@VoxPVoxD> Nessun Dorma grabs Xu Sim in one hand like a ragdoll. "You're needed in the medicine tents." The white gem at the center of his armor flares, and huge slabs of stone shear free from the ground to close around the two of them like a flower blooming backwards. There's darkness, and heat, and the sense of moving very rapidly. [22:09] 13After a moment: "So let's say I'm in your dream, then. How do I wake up?" 15[22:10] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "I'm at a loss. Where are you supposed to be? Tea?" [22:11] 13Xia Lan: "I was supposed to be at a council meeting before my untimely demise. It was going well, until it suddenly extremely wasn't." 15[22:11] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "Do tell." [22:12] 5 There's no earthly way of knowing / Which direction we are going / Not a speck of light is showing / So the danger must be growing... 15[22:12] <@VoxPVoxD> The heat and darkness give way and Xu Sim is suddenly somewhere bright and cool. The air smells of blood and sharp alcohol. Xia Lan's on a stone table, surrounded by doctors. [22:13] 5 Xu Sim is possessed by the spirits of alacrity - "Move!" 5 he barks as he lunges towards the table. What the hell happened to Xia Lan? [22:13] 13Xia Lan: "I don't remember much! I was giving a speech, we came to a vote, I remember trying to dodge a weapon, and then I was here. I guess I didn't dodge fast enough." 15[22:15] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger hears: "I've got Vladok. Word is getting out. His people will be in position." 15[22:15] <@VoxPVoxD> That's Bubo's voice. [22:16] 14Stranger has been keeping his profile low recently, out of modesty. Not right now. He throws around whatever official weight he needs to throw around to get to the front line and reconnect with Keldar. To Bubo: "Excellent. Wait on my word, and keep out of sight. I'll pass along positioning." 15[22:19] <@VoxPVoxD> From what Xu Sim sees, it looks like two separate sets of injuries: first, Xia Lan was hit in the torso with the force of a charging yeddim. Her lungs are pierced, her ribs are broken, there's massive internal bleeding. Separately, it looks like someone very strong hit her in the face over and over again. She's barely recognizable right now. But she is stable. 15[22:25] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "A vote? Whatever on?" [22:26] 5Xu Sim frowns deeply and, with a flourish, twists his moustache between his fingers for a moment. Then, he cracks his knuckles and stretches his hands. "Pay close attention to every word I say," 5he explains to the physicians of the Seventh. "And provide each thing I request without hesitation." 15[22:26] <@VoxPVoxD> The Seventh Caduceus stands at attention. [22:27] 13Xia Lan: "Law and order. The fundamental character of Nexus." 13She shrugs. "Seems I touched a nerve." 15[22:27] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "Were you able to vote before... whatever happened?" [22:29] 13Xia Lan: "I hope so! I think that's what set him off, actually. Drove the nail in." 15[22:29] <@VoxPVoxD> How far from the Highland compound is Keldar mustering? Is it within sight? 15[22:30] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "Set who off?" [22:31] 13Xia Lan: "Hmm. Don't know if I should be talking to you about this, actually. You heading towards Nexus and all." 13She sizes him up, thinking. [22:31] 14Stranger will have passed along to Keldar via book that he was sending Tsuka to him, and that the kid was coming with a vengeance. [22:31] 14Given how well he did in the tomb, that should be fine. 15[22:33] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "Is that a tactical term? I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with military jargon." [22:34] <@Ferrinus> 12Yep, it is. Keldar's mustering at the corners of Sentinel's Hill and Bastion, such that a wide avenue before him and his troops leads straight southwest to the Deliberative hall. The Guard and Arrows are heavily armed and armored, clearly ready for direct and brutal assault, and supported by ranks of archers and whatever other mercenary companies Keldar's been able to summon from [22:34] <@Ferrinus> 12his backers in the Guild. Present, too, are as many supernatural assets as can have been produced in short notice; Cathak Tsuka, for instance, and as many demons, elementals, god-blooded, dragon-blooded, and mercenary sorcerers as may be distributed across the assembled companies. [22:35] 14Stranger will arrive shortly to play traffic cop for Bubo, Vladok, and all the people Vladok brought. He doesn't bother to sugar-coat Bubo's involvement for Keldar. Surely at this late hour, that's not a problem. [22:36] 13Xia Lan: "No, just - feels strange to gossip with... I guess the enemy? In a few weeks at least." 13She pauses. "...Mori Nogare. You ever hear of him?" [22:36] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar briefly considered doing this in secret... but why? They can't not have known what was coming the moment Nogare's anima ignited. So it is that the Tiger of Nexus is present in all the finery of his ancestral panoply, right at the head of the burgeoning mass, striding back and forth to ask questions and answer with orders. [22:38] "Needle," 5 he says with an outstretched hand. He jabs it in and out of her chest with a speed more resembling a woodpecker than a human, resetting her chakras. "Wraps." 5 He ties a complicated knot around Xia Lan's chest cavity, relieving the pressure from her cracked and broken ribs and easing things on her lungs. "Green salve," 5 he adds with a gesture to his pack. This he dashes [22:38] 5across her face with a few carefully chosen oaths, before bandaging it as well. [22:41] 5 As Xu Sim works, a swirling mandala of power envelopes his brow, then his head, then the entire room - a blindingly bright, purple and gold formula of dazzling complexity that works and reworks itself to reflect Xu Sim's limitless talent and wisdom. Flashes of green - like the last glimpse of the setting sun - pop here and there as he works. [22:43] 5 And before the chirurgeons in the room have taken twenty breaths, he is done. "She is to rest in bed for the remainder of the day and under no circumstance is she to be disturbed. Now," 5he turns round towards the doctors and the Dragonlord with grim purpose, shouldering his bag again - "Take me to the ruins at the edge of the Firewander." 15[22:45] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma picks up Xu Sim again, and this time deposits him on the back of a Gunzosha suit, running extremely hot. Blue jets illuminate the space between its feet and the ground as it blasts forward at terrible speed. 15[22:47] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "The Beast of Highland! Sickly orphan, turned genius strategist, turned Anathema conqueror. Am I close?" [22:49] 13Xia Lan: "The very same! Bit of an anger problem," 13she says, lightly. Then, realization: "Oh. But he didn't actually kill me. Someone must have stopped him...?" [22:50] 13She furrows her brow. "He must've been driven off somehow." 15[22:52] <@VoxPVoxD> Lookshy comes! The Gunzosha Vanguard burns its way to the foreground first, carrying Xu Sim, Nessun Dorma, and Dorma's entire officer corps. [22:53] 13She waves a hand vaguely. "Anyway. That's the last thing I remember. Not sure how that ends up with me sitting here with you. Ah, no offense, just... not exactly how I would've drawn it up." 15[22:54] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "Things rarely go according to plan when it matters, I find." [22:54] "Life would be so much simpler if it did," 13she grumbles. [22:54] 5 Xu Sim is hollering in a rather undignfiied way as he is carried, scorching, through the air on the back of a Gunzosha elite who probably originally came to Nexus for the express purpose of murdering him. 15[22:55] <@VoxPVoxD> One of life's little ironies 15[22:55] <@VoxPVoxD> . [22:55] 14Stranger's grin widens when they arrive, and he begins dispatching the forces in concert with Keldar's wishes even more efficiently. [22:56] 5 He pauses to catch his breath and takes a second to admire the handiwork around the power unit - the same power units he worked with Keldar to disable the last time someone got a little too hot under the collar and decided to battle in the street. [22:57] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's there to meet Xu Sim and Lookshy's contingent. This might be the first time he's confronted Nessun Dorma clad in artifact gear that wasn't looted off the corpse of Dorma's one-time lover. Either way, Dorma receives a stolid nod before Keldar addresses the sorcerer. "We're talking to them shortly and, likely as not, engaging shortly after. You in position to blast Highland's [22:57] <@Ferrinus> forces if they resist - or at least check Nogare's sorcerer?" 15[22:57] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "I have to say, you're taking this all rather well." [22:58] 14Stranger makes a point to be at the meeting between Keldar and Dorma. [22:58] 14Just in case. 15[22:59] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma stomps toward Keldar. "Xia Lan will recover. Has a messenger been dispatched?" [22:59] 5 Xu Sim scrabbles to the ground and rushes to join the others. [23:00] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "To Nogare? Not as yet." [23:00] 13Xia Lan: "If I'm not dead, I can still serve Nexus. Bizarre dream journey to a place neither of us know how to get me to leave notwithstanding - things could be a lot worse." [23:00] 13Xia Lan: "...though I really wish he hadn't tried to kill me. It's going to make everything so much messier." [23:02] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "He'll be given one chance to surrender himself - or, at least, to present himself for a duel rather than a war. Then we go in. This isn't Lookshy's responsibility or business - but if you want to support the Council's forces we won't refuse you." [23:02] 14To Nessun Dorma: "What he means to say is that we'll welcome your help if you choose to give it. And we're not concerned about taking him alive." [23:03] 5 Xu Sim looks around at the assembled forces. Green Apples and the Seventh Legion - quite an impressive force. [23:03] 14His grin widens. "If we do, though. That'll be the day." 15[23:04] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "I appreciate the clarity of this plan." [23:05] 14Stranger: "We want to win. But we also want you to stay alive. So strike a balance." [23:05] "If we bleed ourselves white here, we're playing into the hands of the enemy." 15[23:06] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "Speaking of which, I trust you've eliminated the possibility of deception?" [23:07] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "You mean that it wasn't even him? Live witnesses did leave the tower and I don't know who else has that anima." [23:07] 14Stranger: "He made himself authentic." 15[23:07] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: 15[23:07] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "I suppose it will. Is there anything I can do to help?" [23:07] 14Stranger: "If you'd like your Huntmaster to investigate, we can tolerate a slight delay. But the Council of Nexus speaks with one voice on this." [23:08] "But as a practical matter? When someone pisses in your eye, you don't stop to taste it for salts." [23:08] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar looks to Stranger. "We waiting on anyone else?" [23:09] 13Xia Lan: "...what?" 13She's caught off guard again. "You - I'm afraid I don't understand?" [23:09] 14Stranger shakes his heads. "My people are in position. You have operational control." 14He grins. "Tell me where you want me." 15[23:09] <@VoxPVoxD> The air grows chill. The dead walk in Nexus. And riding at the heard, on a blind three-headed horse, is the massive form of the Governor, gleaming grey, with a brimmed, hat-like helmet on his head. [23:10] 5 Xu Sim makes his way over to Cathak Tsuka and gives him a reassuring clap on the shoulder, leaning in: "She'll be alright tomorrow." [23:10] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's expression changes slightly. "Suppose I should've asked if we were expecting anyone else. 'scuse me." 12He makes his way to the other side of his own formation to meet Thorns's representative. [23:11] 13Xia Lan: "We're supposed to be - you ARE heading for Nexus, are you not? To besiege it, or attack it immediately, or honestly we haven't figured out what yet - what do you mean 'is there anything you can do to help?'" [23:11] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "This is the situation: Nogare killed one Council member and nearly killed another. We're responding appropriately. You here to observe or participate?" 15[23:11] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "Seriously: what is Nexus?" [23:12] 5 Xu Sim sighs and takes his leave of Tsuka before the young man can get a word out. He hurries over to the Governor, and Keldar. [23:13] 13Xia Lan: "Oh, Sun." 13She starts to laugh, at first a slow chuckle that turns into a cackle. Suddenly, she stops, grows serious again: "Then what are you heading for?" 15[23:13] <@VoxPVoxD> Governor: "We are sworn to Nexus's defense, are we not, Mister Keldar? The stones of these streets thirst for the blood of boy-tyrants." 15[23:14] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "The hollow, obviously! The hollow between the rivers." [23:14] "It would make this contest a lot less wasteful," 5observes Xu Sim. [23:14] 5, who has appeared at Keldar's elbow all of a sudden. [23:18] 5Xu Sim is kind of massaging the word "wasteful" on its way out of his mouth. [23:18] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar nods to the Governor, then turns to Xu Sim. "Something up? I'm going ahead, otherwise." 15[23:19] <@VoxPVoxD> Governor: "My esteemed magician, we are servants of Nexus! Here, thrift is the very bedrock of virtue." [23:19] 14To the Governor: "We'll remember your contributions to the cause." [23:19] "But none of us are here to 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> To Keldar: "You know to send only one messenger, correct?" [23:20] listen to grandstanding." 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> "Oldest trick in the book." [23:20] 13She blinks. "You're a bit late for that, I think/" [23:20] 14Stranger grins. "'How many men does it take to deliver a message?'" [23:20] 13/ -> . [23:20] 14Then he mimes drawing a bow. [23:22] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Don't need one. Alright, gentlemen, to your places." 12He rolls his shoulders and then strides to the head of his own formation, such that he's standing right before Firewander's gates. He motions to his side, and a man in the uniform of the Dawn Guard scurries over to deliver a parcel; Keldar unwraps it to reveal the conch used in Council deliberations. 15[23:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka, for his part, is sitting cross-legged with the rest of the Apples' officer corps, staring stonily out at the golden dome of the Deliberative hall. [23:22] 14Stranger gives a few hand signals. Where does Keldar want him? He is the guarantor of oath that's been broken. [23:22] 5It doesn't take any men to deliver a message but Xu Sim won't call attention to that at the moment. "We shall doubtless have a few opportunities to show our frugality," 5 he agrees. 15[23:23] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba groans. "I knew that cow was going to slow me down. Is it already over then?" 15[23:23] <@VoxPVoxD> "Is he dead?" [23:23] 13Xia Lan: "You're going to have to be more specific." 15[23:23] <@VoxPVoxD> "You know. Him." [23:23] <@Ferrinus> 12He draws a deep breath, and in his hands the minor artifact warms and vibrates, pushed to its limits. When the Dawn Caste speaks, his voice thunders across the streets, echoing to the edges of the district before him. "MORI NOGARE! YOU'VE VIOLATED THE DOGMAS." [23:24] 14Is there anything nearby that might make some great noise when struck? A broken bell; a metal shell? [23:24] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar continues: "None shall commit wanton violence... and none shall harbour a fugitive from the council's wrath. As an emissary of Nexus, I demand Nogare present himself for judgment here and now." [23:26] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar glances to his side; he can pass the conch if Stranger, or indeed Xu Sim, have something they want to add. Otherwise: "Highland's citizens are free to stand aside. Our business is with the Prince-Regent." [23:30] 13Xia Lan: "I do know... or at least I assume I do. Honestly? Jury's still out. Jury took a look at the evidence and ran away screaming, actually. No judgement, no moral." [23:30] "It's been a weird couple of weeks," 13she adds. 15[23:30] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "I know exactly what you mean." [23:31] 13Xia Lan: "...you inclined to sharing your plans when you get here?" [23:32] 14There's a great and broken shield, dropped by some long-dead statue, made of metal and leaning against the marble base of its former frame. 15[23:32] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "I'm hopeful we can all talk this out like sensible people." 15[23:32] <@VoxPVoxD> "I like that you vote! Maybe we can have a vote on it." [23:32] 14Stranger walks up to it and starts -- hitting -- it -- with -- his -- walking -- stick, over and over. [23:33] 13Xia Lan: "I'm honestly not sure what that would even entail, but, me too, buddy." [23:37] 13She'll finally slump back into the chair. She still hasn't touched the tea or the spread since learning she's in Elegba's dream. "You asked if there was anything you could do to help? I want to wake up. I've - there's a lot of work to be done." 15[23:38] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "I can do that. But I need something from you." [23:38] 13Xia Lan: "Which is?" 15[23:38] <@VoxPVoxD> "A piece of your heart." 15[23:38] <@VoxPVoxD> "I'll give it back when we meet in person. On my word of honor." [23:38] 5 Xu Sim frowns for a moment, before working up another of his tiny messenger-motes. [23:39] 13Xia Lan: "...what does that mean." 13She made a deal without asking the terms, once. [23:39] 14Clonk. Clonk. Clonk. Clonk. Clonk. Clonk. Clonk. Clonk. Clonk. [23:39] 5 He is whispering to it as Stranger beats the shield like a drum. What's he saying? 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "A piece of your heart. An obsession. A passion. A principle. Something you hold true with all your being. Something that we could read in the stars if you stretched yourself across the sky." [23:40] 5 It's this: 'Your master, Mori Nogare, is about to be utterly destroyed. The armies have him surrounded and intend to destroy him utterly if he does not come out. But it's not too late for you - I will ensure your protection and safe passage, if you surrender and cease working your magics on his behalf.' [23:41] 5 He dispatches the messenger-fly to find the sorcerer who's been at Nogare's hip since the Beast of Highland arrived in Nexus. [23:42] 14Stranger: "THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD." [23:42] 14Stranger: "THE END OF THE WORLD COMES TOMORROW. THE END OF THE WORLD IS A MORE DIFFICULT THING." [23:42] 14Stranger: "THIS IS THE PROVIDENCE NECESSARY TO SEE THE END OF THE WORLD. THIS IS THE NAMING OF THE FOOL. THIS IS THE PAPERWORK FOR THE APOCALYPSE." 15[23:43] <@VoxPVoxD> The air gets heavier with every word Stranger speaks. The street gets hotter with every beat of the drum. 15[23:44] <@VoxPVoxD> It builds in your ribcage, in your eardrums, behind your eyes, in your throats. [23:44] 14Stranger: "THE PRINCE REGENT. THE MORI NOGARE. THE WORLD-FOOL. THE END OF CONVERSATIONS. WE KNOW HOW THE SKY WORKS. WE KNOW THE RUN THE OF THE SUN AND THE MOON. WE KNOW HOW IT FEELS WHEN WE FAIL." [23:44] "WE KNOW HOW IT FEELS WHEN WE DON'T." [23:45] "BRING THIS MOTHERFUCKER OUT CRYING." [23:45] "BRING THIS MOTHERFUCKER OUT CRYING." 15[23:46] <@VoxPVoxD> A breeze blows, chilling the sweat that's popped out on the back of everyone's necks. Xu Sim hears it whisper in his ear, 15[23:46] <@VoxPVoxD> "save me" [23:46] 14And he bangs -- on -- the drum. [23:47] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar raises a golden reaver daiklave to the sky. "YEAH!" 12Behind him, his troops do likewise; the roar ripples down the streets. Before it's faded, Keldar's closed his eyes for a moment, spun Terminus in his hand, and then brought it down to roughly waist level as a much, much larger blade. 15[23:47] <@VoxPVoxD> Above, the red star flares. [23:48] 13Xia Lan: "...I don't know how this works. Do I - how do I...?" 13She looks at Elegba questioningly. 15[23:48] <@VoxPVoxD> It shines brighter and brighter. It hurts to look at. It hurts when you shut your eyes. It hurts when you look away. 15[23:48] <@VoxPVoxD> The pressure is unbearable. [23:48] 14Stranger grins. He doesn't shut his eyes or look away. [23:48] 5 Xu Sim breathes slowly, taking the measure of the air. This is familiar. 15[23:48] <@VoxPVoxD> Elegba: "Lend me your hand. Let me look in your eyes." [23:48] 14Good news for bad people. [23:49] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar settles himself into a stance fit for withstanding the pressure from the sky. Is there action in Firewander? The Prince-Regent strolling up by his lonesome down the main avenue, or at least some sort of messenger or procession? [23:50] 14KILL ME IF YOU CAN, BAY BEE 15[23:50] <@VoxPVoxD> There's no one on the strrrrrr4rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr [23:50] 13She places her hand in his and looks straight into his eyes. "She will come back to me." 13It's not a question. 15[23:50] <@VoxPVoxD> A lone figure walks on the road to the old Deliberative dome, his back to the assembled armies, his white cape rising behind like he marches into a hurricane. [23:51] 14HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAA\ [23:51] "The sorcerer wants to surrender," 5 Xu Sim explains in a low tone into Keldar's ear. "We rescue him, and this fight becomes a lot easier," [23:51] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Huh." 12He pauses. "...doesn't he never go in there?" 15[23:52] <@VoxPVoxD> "They always do," Elegba vows, as he takes her hand. The world spins, and she heads for the exits. 15[23:52] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan wakes up in a cold place, full of blue light and concerned faces. Everyone looks wavy and translucent, as if they're behind glass. [23:53] 13Xia Lan: "Nnnnnh." [23:54] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar holds up his left hand, fingers splayed - the universal signal to hang on a sec. He squints at the retreating Emissary, glances over to Xu Sim. "Can you tell what's going on here? Safe to follow?" 15[23:55] <@VoxPVoxD> The first voice Xia Lan hears is a woman's, gentle, with a pronounced Lookshyan accent. "Easy. Easy. Just rest. You're safe." [23:55] "As safe as being near that creature can ever be: Not very. You go first." 5 Xu Sim presses. [23:57] 13She struggles to move her mouth, unable to find words: "Mnh? Rngh..." [23:58] 14To Keldar: "Star of the show. In every respect. And the only respect." [23:59] 13She tries again: "Ahrs." [23:59] 14He slaps Keldar on the back and moves to the position Keldar asked him to take. [00:00] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Frankly I'm willing to wait a few more minutes. Don't need to see the Guard liquefied in the course of our job getting done for us." 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> The woman speaking to Xia Lan: "Don't try to speak. It's going to be a few hours before your jaw resets. Can you nod?" [00:00] 14Stranger: "Sounds good. But this asshole just wants to fight." [00:01] 13She nods, slowly. [00:01] "I'm changing my mind." 5 Xu Sim is as white as a ghost. 15[00:01] <@VoxPVoxD> "My name is Vissi. Are you in any pain?" [00:01] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "We've all seen what it looks like when that guy fights. New Emissary's got a blast radius." [00:02] 14To Keldar: "You want me to try to talk him down?" [00:02] "I won't be nice." [00:02] "But he didn't respond to nice earlier." [00:02] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar swings his grand daiklave around and rests it, point first, in the sreet before him. "What? No. I want to wait at a safe distance and see where this goes. If the old Emissary splats Nogare rather than us, I can live with it." [00:03] <@Ferrinus> 12the street* [00:03] "And we're in it. All of Firewander is in it. All of our armies are in it. Balor is going to destroy us. And in the Dome, they're trying to use the Wyld-Shaping Technique! But I thought that was lost...!" 5 Xu Sim is, ah, a bit beyond concerned. [00:03] 14Stranger grins. "If he wanted to 'splat' Nogare, he'd already be inside, wouldn't he?" [00:03] "This is all performance now." [00:04] 13Xia Lan begins to shake her head, winces, and nods slightly to Vissi. [00:04] "He's about to 'splat' us too!" 5 flecks of spittle go flying from Xu Sim's mouth. 15[00:06] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi: "I'm going to give you something for the pain. Rest now, okay? We'll talk in the morning. Everything will be better in the morning." [00:06] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar starts. "What?! How? How far back is safe?" [00:08] 5 Xu Sim throws up his hands - "NO!" 5 hurling the force of his anima banner back at the heavens - back at the star - his magic as precise as the point of a knife; the sheer force of his will the pebble that turns aside an avalanche. [00:15] 13Xia Lan nods, takes whatever Vissi offers, and tries to sleep. Hopefully this time she doesn't end up dreaming of a Raksha general. [00:15] 14Stranger's long stopped banging on the metal. He stares down at what's left of Xu Sim, crumpled but alive. To Keldar: "Let's do this." 15[00:19] <@VoxPVoxD> The star swells like an overripe fruit, growing to fill the sky from skyline to horizon. But Xu Sim's anima wraps around it, piercing it with ninety-nine needles of pure thought, and it simply bursts like a heart pushed too far. 15[00:20] <@VoxPVoxD> Red light falls limply, spouting between the gaps in Xu Sim's lattice, just like it leaks from his ears and nose before he collapses. Where it touches the city, the city melts away, leaving stone scoured white, banishing cracks and age and anything that lives. But it falls sparingly, in empty places, and after the spectacular display the banner bursts into thousands of stars that fall gently to the ground, for just a moment brighter than Balor's memory. 15[00:22] <@VoxPVoxD> There's a gut-wrenching lurch in the pit of everyone's stomach as they feel something being physically torn away. The great Dome burns red, then violet, then white, then blue. The heat draws slowly upward, leaving almost nothing in its wake. It's as if the invincible vestige of Solar power were burning like a parchment set to a candle. 15[00:22] <@VoxPVoxD> A minute and it's gone. [00:22] 14Ha ha. [00:22] 14Ha ha! [00:22] 14Ha ha hahahahahahaha! 15[00:23] <@VoxPVoxD> But only almost nothing. [00:23] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar mouths 'the fuck?' to himself, taking several steps forward and squinting in the blaze. His hand's still on the hilt of Sword-Oath Terminus, which rests vertically beside him. What remains of Firewander? Is there.. an army in there? A dome? A man? [00:24] <@Ferrinus> 12An Emissary? 15[00:24] <@VoxPVoxD> There's a body on the ground in the barren lot where the old Deliberative once stood. The sword rising from its back reflects the red star back up the road to Stranger, Keldar, and the other generals. [00:24]  [00:25] 14Stranger: "And you want to talk about the Sun! Here's the Sun. You want to talk about mercy! Here's mercy. You want to talk about the end of the world well we've got that too." [00:26] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar frowns to himself and takes up Terminus. He motions behind himself again, bidding his troops hold fast. Then he looks sideways to Stranger, to his other side to Xu Sim, and begins to walk forward. [00:26] "Get the fucking sorcerer on his feet and let's have a CONVERSATION on the way the world is." [00:27] <@Ferrinus> 12It's Keldar's aim to simply head down into Firewander, before the old dome, and see what the hell's going on. If the forces of Highland crash in from both sides, he trusts his guardsmen will have his back summarily, but at this point he's willing to risk a few moments of being surrounded. [00:27] 5 Xu Sim is blasted off his feet - downwards, to anyone watching closely - though he bounces several yalms in the air, spinning head-over-heels before landing face-down. He coughs blood into the dust as blood - more of it- streams from his eyes and nose and ears. 15[00:28] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma and the Governor follow. Tsuka takes a step after them but ultimately stays with his troops. [00:28] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's only taken a few steps when Xu Sim really gets it. He stops and turns, intent on making sure the sorcerer's still alive and mobile before proceeding. [00:28] 14Guardsmen? GUARDSMEN?! General the Sun stares down on you whether you like it or not. We are all here to run for justice. [00:29] 14Stranger grins and walks on in. [00:29] 5 Xu Sim struggles to his knees, hacking and wheezing. [00:30] 5 And a moment later he's scrabbling along after them, hobbling as best as he can in his haggard condition. [00:30] 14Get that man on his feet. Get him poisoning the fucking watering hole. [00:30] 14You fuck. You shit. [00:31] <@Ferrinus> 12Terminus is held across Keldar's shoulders as the Dawn Caste heads into Firewander District. Unless something attacks or otherwise draws Keldar's attention, he'll stop before the fallen body and, if he can't identify it, turn it over onto its side or back with a boot to get a look at its face. 15[00:32] <@VoxPVoxD> The collected remaining defenders of Nexus see an old man with stringy black-and-gray hair, face down in the dirt, a simple sword running cleanly through the back of his purple robes, blood pooling beneath him. [00:32] 14Stranger: "Kick it if it deserves to be kicked." [00:33] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "You in shape to handle him, Xu Sim?" [00:34] 5 Xu Sim hobbles over towards him, looking over the blade and considering the dire circumstances. [00:35] <@Ferrinus> 12Meanwhile, Keldar looks around. There's just... no Deliberative any more? How about the surrounding buildings? Where are all the Highlanders? [00:35] 14If the answer isn't Dead, it can be. [00:35] <@Ferrinus> 12Does Firewander feel like Firewander again, incidentally? Does Keldar's essence itch at contact with the air and surge to defend him from warping? 15[00:36] <@VoxPVoxD> The Deliberative compound is an empty lot, now, just the bare white stone and clay that serves for bedrock here between the rivers. There's no sign of any of the people that were inside, save the sorcerer. But that wasn't the entire Highland delegation - and scouts from the Apples, vanguards from Lookshy, and shriekers from Thorns all manage to capture about a hundred men. Ninety alive! [00:38] 5 Xu Sim crouches - collapses, really - next to the sorcerer, and cracks a grimace back up at Stranger and the cruel look in his eyes. [00:38] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar sends out word for the Guard to move in as he ducks down besides Xu Sim. Between his expertise with battlefield first aid and the sorcerer's advice, Keldar's able to remove the blade, compress and seal the wound, and lay Nine Storms Fiend onto his back no more worse for wear. [00:38] 14What's the question they always ask? How is sausage made? [00:39] <@Ferrinus> 12Highland's troops - what've they got to say? Are the dead ones dead from magic or from stabbing? 15[00:39] <@VoxPVoxD> What? [00:39] 14Heh heh heh heh heh hehhehehehehehehehehhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeehehehehheheehhhehehehhehehThis is how. 15[00:39] <@VoxPVoxD> There's no dead ones. Ninety alive ones, along with the scouts and the Gunzosha and the hunter-killer ghosts. [00:40] 14That's more than enough bodies to hang. [00:41] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "All right, all right. Air's getting bad again and we want to move fast. Round 'em up, bring a stretcher here..." 12Keldar's all business again, his weapon now crossed behind a shield at his back. He moves his troops with all possible haste to minimize exposure to the center of Firewander and bring every captured Highland soldier out for interrogation in Sentinel's Hill. [00:42] 14The good news is that despite whatever is going on with Stranger his main loyalty is to the system. [00:43] 14Busy him with sorting out the surrendered troops and his mind will be somewhere besides where it wants to be. 15[00:48] <@VoxPVoxD> NEXT TIME: An absence of leave 15[20:12] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan wakes to birdsong, warm light, and the smell of flowers. For a moment she must wonder if she's back in the dream-garden - back with Elegba - but the full-body stiffness she experiences as she tries to sit up or move around confirms for her that she's alive and awake in Nexus. She sits up slowly to find herself on a flat white table, smooth cool marble, covered in a wool blanket and surrounded by more than a garden's worth of vibrant, sweet-smelling flowers. 15[20:12] <@VoxPVoxD> Where, then, does Stranger wake? How does the morning find him? [20:13] 14...In his chair, in the common room. By the fire. [20:14] 14He fell asleep there. [20:14] 14He sighs, stands, and turns over the coals before walking to their little kitchen for water. [20:17] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven remembers most of what happened yesterday through some sort of haze. It's unsettling. He was there; he remembers being there, and he remembers doing the things he did. Saying the things he said. But he still feels a strange sense of remove. [20:17] 14Detachment. [20:17] 14...He wonders if anyone else noticed. [20:17] 13Let's see... the last thing she remembers is a helpful nurse, and before that, the dream, and before that... Is anyone in her room? Are there guards at her door? Someone's been in, clearly - flowers don't just suddenly appear - where's... [20:17] 14... [20:17] 14Maybe the boy. [20:19] 14More than anything he feels old, older than his thirty-six years, old than the fifty or sixty years which he looks. He felt a different kind of old yesterday -- a powerful kind of old. Now he's just tired. 15[20:23] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan sees herself in a tent with only one other occupant, the sleeping Xu Sim, who starts awake about now. He still looks in dire shape. There are guards, and crowds, audible outside the tent, but it seems like they have a minute or two before someone comes in. [20:24] 13Xia Lan: "Xu Sim? What happened--" [20:24] 5 Xu Sim cracks an eye open. "You want the summary?" 15[20:24] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger finds himself alone in the hideout, save for Xu Sim's dog Princess and Mhaka, the clockwork cat. [20:25] 14Ah well. [20:25] 13Xia Lan: "Nogare attacked me. I have no idea what happened after that." [20:25] 14He'll just...sit here, for a little while. Thinking about Pellicia. [20:27] 5 Xu Sim doesn't roll over to look at her, he just keeps staring at the ceiling of the tent. "You were stable but in a terrible condition. Couple broken ribs, punctured lung, that sort of thing. The other four armies all gathered outside Firewander to drag Nogare to the gallows, but the Emissary was there too." 5 Xu Sim sighs. [20:29] 13Xia Lan: "...that raises more questions than it answers." [20:30] 5Xu Sim: "The Emissary decided to use the sort of force that destroying the Beast of Highland truly merits - overwhelming. He channeled his power through the Star of Balor, and long story short, I stopped him from pulverizing the entire Firewander; ourselves, the armies, Nogare," 5 he sighs again. [20:31] 5 Xu Sim, again: "At least, I think I stopped him from killing Nogare. I suspect I did so. Conjecture." [20:31] 5 Xu Sim, again: "At least, I think I stopped him from killing Nogare. I suspect I did so. Conjecture." [20:32] 13Xia Lan, quietly: "How was he stopped from killing me?" [20:33] "Ask the Dawn Sargeant," 5he suggests. [20:34] 13Xia Lan: "Where is she?" [20:34] 5Xu Sim: "Dead." [20:34] "..." [20:34] "...oh." [20:35] 5 Xu Sim rolls over now, to look at her. "I don't know why he didn't finish you off. He certainly could have; there was nobody else to stop him. Now I will ask you - what happened?" [20:37] 13Any desire she might have had to get out of bed, check on the outside world leaves her. "I successfully argued that Nogare and Highland were not to be immune to the laws of Nexus. Nogare took it badly. The next thing I remember is being at a tea party with Elegba." [20:38] "The Saffron Khan?" [20:38] 13Xia Lan: "Very same. I thought I had died." [20:39] 5Xu Sim coughs a laughter. "You did not. You feel well now, I expect?" [20:41] 13Xia Lan: "I don't feel like I've been bashed into a pulp anymore. Not physically." 13She's still quieter than usual. "Do you know where the Dawn Sergeant's body is being kept?" 15[20:42] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger's sit is interrupted by a buzz from the Codex. Bubo's sequence. [20:43] 14He touches the book. "Hello, Bubo." [20:44] 5Xu Sim: "A wound, I can heal better than anyone in this Direction. But as far as grief is concerned, I am a layman..." [20:45] 5Xu Sim, again: "I don't know what they did with it, but I would guess the Temple of Gentle Airs. I haven't even seen her, myself; Stranger told me she was murdered alongside you - I can only assume, protecting you. It was a terrible rush to catch Nogare, I was carried on the backs of flying gunzosha and hurled through the earth itself by Dorma and so forth." [20:46] 13Xia Lan: "I appreciate your efforts. Is there - anything I can do in return? I'm no doctor myself, but..." [20:46] 5In the hideout: the Twice Refined Princess nudges Stranger's leg. [20:46] "What do you mean?" 5asks the doctor. [20:47] 14He'll put out a saucer of milk or water for her. Or whatever Xu Sim has taken to feeding her, so long as it isn't comically vile. 15[20:47] <@VoxPVoxD> "Good morning. I've gotten ahold of the sailing plan of Winter Rain. It appears to have been heading for Port Calin, followed by Pneuma, followed by a trip home by way of Gloam." [20:47] 13Xia Lan: "To repay you? Not just for healing me, either -- I assume you didn't get those wounds for fun, after all." 15[20:47] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "Good morning. I've gotten ahold of the sailing plan of Winter Rain. It appears to have been heading for Port Calin, followed by Pneuma, followed by a trip home by way of Gloam." [20:48] 14Stranger is silent for a moment. "Interesting. I'm sorry, I am not the best with geography downriver -- how many days travel is that? It sounds like quite a few." 15[20:50] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "A week to Port Calin, and another to Pneuma." [20:50] 5Xu Sim coughs again, in lieu of chuckling. "Aren't you my friend, Unfettered Xia Lan? Surely, that's what friends do for each other. Aren't you mine?" 5before she can answer - "There is nothing to repay. Unmaking the Emissary's magic nearly turned me inside-out like poor, what was that miserable fellow's name, Brueghel." [20:51] 14Stranger: "You said 'appears to have been' -- has it been waylaid?" [20:51] 5The Twice-Refined Princess' food is normal food - lots of it. It's her dietary supplements and vitamins that are comically evil. 15[20:52] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "All I know for sure is that I can't find the manifest for Port Calin. If it arrived there, no one wrote it down." [20:53] 13Xia Lan: "...this is still my fault. I pushed too hard." 13She sighs. "If I had been - more deft, smarter about how I handled things..." [20:53] 14Stranger closes his eyes. "Finding this ship will take time that we don't necessarily have, and won't be getting back if we waste it." [20:54] "But it is important." [20:55] "Ah, maybe, but Nogare was an asshole and you were right to stand up for principles," 5Xu Sim lays back, waving his hand dismissively. "He'd have done it sooner or later, or worse. Besides, I can't be the only one getting completely rinsed in all our battles." 15[20:55] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "I'm happy to devote myself to the task. It will keep me out of the city for a time, however." [20:56] 14Stranger: "You will be missed here, but I think it will be worth expending the effort. Perversely, we're hoping it didn't make Port Calin, because that means it's somewhere less than a week away." [20:56] "I would come if I could, but...perhaps once we know where we're going. Things are a bit unstable here at the moment. For obvious reasons." [20:57] 13Xia Lan: "I was right, otherwise I wouldn't have done it. Still. ...The Dawn Sergeant is dead, you're wounded -- Is Tsuka all right? Are Stranger and Keldar? 13There's a sudden urgency to her. 15[20:57] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "Mmm. No sign of Nogare, then, yes?" [20:57] "Not as of yet." 14He sighs. "If there was a body, one way or the other, then at least we would know where we stood. As it is, uncertainty carries the day." [20:58] "And there is nothing worse for a bureaucracy than uncertainty." [20:58] "Keldar, fine. Stranger, was a little stranger but fine. But Tsuka! Oh, he's terribly wounded, I'm afraid." 5 He swivels his head to look at her. 15[20:58] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "Mmm. Grim business all around." 15[20:58] <@VoxPVoxD> "While I work on this, there is a favor I would ask of you, Stranger." [20:58] 13That has her out of bed. "Where is he?" [20:59] 14Stranger: "Name it." [21:00] "I shouldn't say he was wounded - that's overstating it - but he's quite sick. You should see him immediately, I agree. But how should I know where he is? I was dragged here by the chirurgeons." 15[21:00] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "While I'm out of the city, Kratz is alone. I'd appreciate it if you or someone you trust made sure to check on her now and then. She won't shirk her responsibilities, but... she carries more grief than she can manage alone. Than anyone can." [21:01] 14Stranger: "Of course." [21:02] "Remind her, should you speak to her again before I do, that she can call me like this at any time, and I can get in touch with you. I even sleep with a hand on this Codex." 15[21:02] <@VoxPVoxD> Bubo: "I will. Thank you." [21:03] 13Xia Lan adjusts - is she still wearing her outfit from the Council, or have they moved her into a hospital gown? Whatever it is, she brushes it smooth. "I'll - have them come in in a moment." [21:05] 13...these flowers are incredible, by the by, and she'll have them moved somewhere else as soon as she's able. ...though she'll leave some for Xu Sim to see until he heals. [21:05] 5Flowers? 15[21:05] <@VoxPVoxD> As if on cue, the tent flaps part and a woman in white armor walks in, her green eyes darting from patient to patient as she runs a hand through the wildflowers growing from her scalp. Xu Sim will recognize this woman by voice, at least, as Vissi D'Arte, the physician-lieutenant and unit commander of the Seventh Caduceus. Xia Lan might or might not, depending on how clear her memories before being put back to sleep are. 15[21:05] <@VoxPVoxD> The tent is full of flowers, bright and vibrant flowers. Some of them - Xia Lan'd wager at least a third - are actually for Xu Sim. [21:07] 13Huh! How about that. Good for Xu Sim. For Xia Lan's part regarding Vissi D'Arte, she barely remembers being awake at all. "Hello?" 15[21:07] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi: "You're both up? How are we doing this morning?" She'll start going through checkups and inquiring as to how the two of you feel. [21:08] 14...It's probably about time to get out and about. Stranger will bathe himself change into another of his barely-different peasant robes, then walk out and about to get a late breakfast before ambling towards where the Judiciary is holding court at the moment. One assumes still in the Council Tower, since it was only the meeting rooms at the very top that were blown out. [21:08] 14Due to the nature of the Codex, he is of course able to continue his conversation with Bubo or accept calls from other pageholders throughout this. [21:09] 13Xia Lan: "Fine, I think, no pain, capable of movement - do you know where a Cathak Tsuka is being cared for? Xu Sim informs me he's grievously ill..." [21:10] 5 Xu Sim, interrupting - "Yes, he's in quite a state. You should see him immediately, on my recommendation, for both of your sakes'." 15[21:10] <@VoxPVoxD> Council Tower's basements still house the Officer of the Judiciary, but arbitration is heard at Bath House across the street, which is what it sounds like - an ancient First Age bathhouse whose geomancy and plumbing no longer work. But the room sizes and acoustics make it the best place in the city to hear cases. 15[21:10] <@VoxPVoxD> *Office of the Judiciary 15[21:11] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi looks askance at Xu Sim. 15[21:12] <@VoxPVoxD> But she says to Xia Lan: "He's outside. He's been first in line to see you as soon as I gave word you were fit to see visitors." 15[21:12] <@VoxPVoxD> "So. Are you?" [21:12] 14Stranger will check in with Nobu Whitefeather first, then, to make sure there are no administrative matters which require his attention, before heading across the street to Bath House and quietly sitting in on some cases being heard by Sion: Fear Has Wings. [21:14] 13Xia Lan: "Yes, perfect, thank you--" 13She hurries out past Vissi unless she's stopped again. She'll thank her later - probably after berating Xu Sim for his prank. [21:14] 14Before leaving Nobu, he'll hand over one of the remaining two unassigned pages from the Codex. Should he or the Chief Justice or any of the others require direct, immediate access to Stranger, they are to call him. [21:14] 5It's not a prank. [21:15] 14Of course, Nobu is instructed to be a bit more sparing with the page's use than Bubo or the others in the Circle. Not due to disinterest from Stranger in assisting them, but because it's important that the Office of the Judiciary be able to stand confidently without Stranger's constant intervention. [21:15] 14That means its officers learning to take initiative and act on their own. [21:15] 5Xu Sim rises to a sitting position to adress the Physician-Lieutenant - "Doctor Vissi D'arte! So good to see you." 5Once Xia Lan leaves - "Young love,"5 he offers by way of explanation, "like mercury - either deadly or curative." 15[21:16] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan strides out of the tent and physically collides with Tsuka before being bowled back by the force of the cheer from the crowd assembled outside. Past a bewildered and exhausted-looking Tsuka, past the burnt furrow his pacing has carved in the grass outside the tent, are dozens of people behind an impromptu fence, looking exultant, ecstatic, and relieved. Some of them have signs. A few of them - the young ones, mainly - burst into tears. [21:17] 14Ah, the adoring public. 15[21:17] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi: "I can't refute your diagnosis. But I've got to wonder what it is they taught you about bedside manner. What do you have to report?" [21:18] 5Xu Sim grins rather wickedly. "They'll recover. For my own part, I still feel quite miserable, objectively speaking. But a big improvement on things last night. I have high praise for you and your staff." 15[21:18] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi: "We're not total slouches." [21:19] 5The sorcerer manages a weak, but recognizable, cackle. 15[21:24] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi: "You've got a visitor too, when you're up for it." [21:24] 13She hugs Tsuka tightly, practically melting into him, before turning with him to face the crowd, arm around his shoulders while waving to her fans. She's got a bittersweet smile, looking towards the fence - this support is welcomed, but the circumstances are still... [21:25] 5 That cackle grows noticeably stronger as the healing Essence flows from one doctor to another, until it's -almost- as good as normal. "Doctor! I owe you my gratitude. And the better part of a week of my work. I shall send something for you and your team. Who is my visitor?" 15[21:26] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi: "The Dragonlord." [21:26] 5 No more cackling, no more smile. Xu Sim moistens his lips and smoothes out his hair and moustache. "Very well." 15[21:26] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi adds, hastily: "I can stall him for as long as you're willing to stay bedridden." [21:27] "No, no. It's alright. Send him in." [21:27] 14Stranger will approach the bench when Sion grants a recess. It would be a smart bit of business, he thinks, to officially try Mori Nogare in absentia -- just to keep everything crystal-clear and legal. As far as Stranger is concerned, the Emissary of Nexus has not actually levied a punishment yet -- the former Emissary acted on their own initiative, which Stranger would argue did [21:27] 14not violate the 'wanton violence' provisions of the Dogmas as it was not wanton, but directed (shaky ground here, given established definitions of 'wanton') but more importantly because the former Emissary was acting in clear self-defense against a violent criminal already 'fair game' in the eyes of the Emissary of Nexus. [21:28] 14He and Sion: Fear Has Wings massage the theory of action and the charge itself until they've got a crime that fits the facts. 15[21:28] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka hugs back. The crowd goes wild. 15[21:28] <@VoxPVoxD> People are whispering among themselves. 15[21:29] <@VoxPVoxD> Vissi tilts her head. "Dragonlord. He's ready for you." [21:31] 13Let them talk. They can see her, healthy and happy -- Xia Lan whispers to Tsuka, briefly: "Is there a quiet tent nearby? Let me shake some hands and then -- I don't know how much Xu Sim lied to me..." 15[21:32] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "The supply tent. Around the corner." 15[21:32] <@VoxPVoxD> The crowd before Xia Lan and Tsuka goes quiet as it parts for Nessun Dorma. 15[21:33] <@VoxPVoxD> A white jade mask hides the usual fraction of his face visible inside his helmet, so a mountain of jade strides up to and, hopefully, past them. [21:34] 13Xia Lan steps aside with a respectful nod. She's not bowing, but this is - someone helping, at the moment. [21:35] 13Arm's still around Tsuka, though she's about to let him go in order to head for the crowds at the fence. 15[21:36] <@VoxPVoxD> The tent admits Nessun Dorma. Vissi stands at attention, saluting her commander. "Sir!" 15[21:37] <@VoxPVoxD> It's so hard for Xu Sim to tell where Dorma is looking with that mask, but it's pointed in his general direction. "Thank you, Lieutenant. You may go." [21:38] 5Xu Sim squints at the mask for a moment, before coming to the conclusion that it's probably there because Dorma thinks he has the silver tongue of Stranger-Visits-Heaven. [21:38] 13Once the Dragonlord passes, the Unfettered Xia Lan gives Tsuka a quick peck on the cheek. Another whisper: "I'll see you in the supply tent in a few. I'm so glad you're okay..." 15[21:40] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan almost burns her lips. Tsuka, reddening, breaks the embrace and walks away quickly, presumably to the tent. [21:41] 13That's hot. [21:41] 14Kids these days. 15[21:42] <@VoxPVoxD> D'Arte looks about to protest, but she just strides out instead. 15[21:43] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan's crowd is adoring. "We're so glad you okay?" "Who did this?! I'll kill them myself!" "WE LOVE YOUUUUU" 15[21:44] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma looks down at Xu Sim, before moving a flowerpot to sit precariously on a low wooden table usually reserved for instruments, and clearly not rated for his weight. [21:45] "Dragonlord. Thank you for your visit." 5 Xu Sim is a little cagey. [21:46] 14The most important facet of this prosecution isn't Nogare, of course -- they have license to run that dog to ground and put him down in the streets, and would without any formal proceeding. The important thing is contextualizing Nogare as the head of the Highland delegation (not difficult, given his title of Prince Regent) and remand the decided case to the Council to impose larger [21:46] 14punishments based on the finding. A legal pretext for the Council fucking with Highland as they see fit, along with a well-researched and supported legal opinion of why the Dogmas and Civilities entitle them to do so. 15[21:46] <@VoxPVoxD> Then, slowly, he takes the helmet off. His head is enormous and square, his red hair high and wide and mercilessly flat along the top. He looks to be almost fifty, which Xu Sim deduces means he's north of a hundred and twenty. A peer of old Novak indeed. [21:47] 14Stranger is very keen on replacing previous Emissary's style with one that places significant judicial decision-making power in the hands of the Council -- rather than a no-account whim-fueled masked vigilante. [21:47] 14Not that he has anything against masked vigilantes. Some of his best friends, etcetera and so on. But it's no way to run a society. 15[21:48] <@VoxPVoxD> But look how well it's done for Nexus! [21:49] 13After Tsuka heads off, Xia Lan makes her way to the crowd, waving and shaking hands. She doesn't quite have it in her to give a full speech, but does her best to reassure any questioners that yes, she's safe; so is Xu Sim, actually, though he's healing more slowly because he's the best physician and can't treat himself; the matter is being handled by the Council; and, perhaps surprisingly, she'll be holding a concert soon to talk [21:49] about this and raise some funds for the defense of Nexus, tell your friends! [21:49] 14It doesn't seem to lack for immigrants. 15[21:49] <@VoxPVoxD> Finally, Dorma says, in the same hollow quiet voice Xu Sim remembers from the night before: "What happened?" [21:49] 14They're just all armed, is the thing. [21:57] "The Emissary was channeling his power into the Star of Balor. You could feel it, couldn't you? Pushing down on you, like a hand on your shoulder and in your chest. He was going to wipe the last seven hundred and seventy years away from Firewander. It would have destroyed all of us, our armies, who knows what else in the city. [21:58] 13Finally, after an appropriate amount of time - though frankly too long, to Xia Lan - she gives a final wave to the crowd with both hands, bows, and thanks them for their support - she hopes to see them at the concert! Nexus needs their help, after all~! [21:58] 13Then it's off back to the tent Tsuka mentioned, where they will hopefully be finally, blessedly alone. [21:58] "The Beast of Highland, on the other hand, was opposing him through some sort of magic, and I think he was using the Wyld-Shaping Technique to try to escape. I don't know, it's a mythical practice." [22:00] "I had enough time to stop one of them. I could have stopped Mori Nogare from escaping, but all it would have done was kill him along with us, our armies, the whole district. So I stopped Nogare. Hopefully, I made the right choice." 5he shrugs. 15[22:01] <@VoxPVoxD> The wheels are in motion. Whenever the Council convenes next, it will have this to consider. Speaking of which... what does Stranger do after leaving Sion's office? [22:02] 14He goes to see the Council, of course. 15[22:02] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "!!" 15[22:02] <@VoxPVoxD> The Council is, perhaps understandably, not in session today, though their offices are still open in Council Tower and the first floor of the Vecchio palace, and he knows where all their residences are if he wishes to make personal calls. [22:02] "As for how I stopped him? Hell, I was improvising. But I was able to leapfrog off of what Nogare was attempting to sabotage the Emissary in their own wizard's battle." [22:02] 14There is the formal pretext of his visit to the Councilors, which is to arrange Pellicia's funeral. But they are short on time, now, and advantages should be pressed. There's no taking time off for mourning and respect when they're all on a three or four week time limit. [22:03] 13She kisses him properly this time, heedless of whether there's anyone else in the supply tent. They're both safe, that's the most important thing. [22:04] 14He will make personal calls, starting with Kratz, moving on to Hayle and Udelph, and then to Gen and...the others that are left. [22:05] 14Two Councilors dead in a week and change. Madness. 15[22:05] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "Could he do it again?" [22:05] 14Three in four weeks. [22:05] 14Though perhaps the return of the "Emissary" cancels out Balor's clear demise. [22:06] "I don't know. I have to assume that what he could do once, he could do twice." 15[22:07] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka doesn't hesitate to kiss her back. [22:07] 13No burnt tongues, one hopes. 15[22:08] <@VoxPVoxD> Doesn't seem to work like that, thankfully. 15[22:08] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "Where did the dome go?" [22:09] 13After they come up for air, Xia Lan still holding him tight: "I didn't think I'd make it," 13she confesses, "I really, really didn't." 15[22:10] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka doesn't let go either. "You're alive." [22:10] 5Xu Sim frowns and shakes his head. "It went wherever Nogare went. It could be anywhere in Creation. It might not even be in Creation." 15[22:10] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "And we have no way of knowing?" [22:12] 5Xu Sim nods this time. "Once I get back to my laboratory I can try to find out. I doubt the captured soldiers know anything but the defected sorcerer might." [22:12] 13Xia Lan: "Thanks to the Dawn Sergeant, Sun rest her," 13she says, suddenly morose. Still, she leans back from Tsuka, giving him a critical eye. "What about you? Xu Sim said you were sick--" 15[22:14] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "What? No. I'm fine. I was just worried." [22:14] 14It's not a fun afternoon. Why would it be? [22:14] 5Come on kid, that's a gimme! [22:15] 13Her eyes narrow. "I'm going to bludgeon him with something large as soon as he's healed," 13She hugs him again. "Sorry I worried you. He also said you went after Nogare... did you find him?" 15[22:16] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "No. He got away." 15[22:17] <@VoxPVoxD> "Took half of Firewander with him." [22:17] 13She sighs against his shoulder. "A coward and a bastard besides." 15[22:17] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "Mmm. How soon will you be able to return to work?" [22:18] "...did he kill anyone other than the Dawn Sergeant? I heard about her from Xu Sim, but..." [22:18] 14Kratz is...the Astrologer is in a state that concerns Stranger so much that once their interview is over, he takes aside whatever majordomo or head maid of household she has and instructs him, in his official capacity, that under no circumstances is she to be left alone with herself for more than three-quarters of an hour unless her staff are certain she is asleep. If Kratz should [22:18] 14criticize this or bar them from fussing over her, the head of staff is to send for Stranger immediately, via the Office of the Judiciary. This is one of those circumstances where Nobu will be contacting Stranger as soon as possible. [22:19] 5Xu Sim: "Thanks to the commendable work of the Caduceus Physician Corps - my personal appreciation and congratulations to Lieutenant D'Arte and her staff - I will be resuming my work today and should be back to my normal, efficient operations by sundown." [22:20] 14He calmly runs Kratz through how to use the paper he gave her once again, tells her to call if there are any problems or even if she just wants to talk, and reminds her that he can set up a direct call with Bubo at any time, no matter where Bubo is. He informs her that Keldar is the militia's choice for next Dawn Sergeant, and asks if she has any problems with this; afterwards, he [22:20] 14goes light on the Council business involving Highland. As much as he is concerned for Kratz, he might not be the best messanger for keeping her in the Council. When Xia Lan wakes up, this should be her remit. 15[22:21] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "I don't know. I don't think so. Even the sorcerer lived." [22:21] 14After leaving, he will call Bubo again briefly to underline the importance of him seeing Kratz before he leaves town. As in: he should come back, immediately, if he has already done so to visit her, and do more. [22:21] 14Then it's time for Hayle and Udelph. They're not pleased. [22:21] 14They are, in fact, terrified. 15[22:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "Ah. Well, good." There's a lengthy pause. "That's good." [22:22] 13She finally releases him, looking around the area for seats - they can't stand their hugging and making out forever, but also, she needs to look him in the eye. "Where is he." [22:22] 13stand there* [22:22] 14Stranger doesn't really blame them. If possible, he'll meet with them together; he wants to give the impression that they have strength together, and that this strength is worth protecting, even if this then turns into a heated question-and-answer session. [22:23] 5Xu Sim: "Yes." 5a beat. "Ah, thank you for coming for me yesterday. And for the services of your gunzosha as transport. It was... it might have been decisive." 15[22:23] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "The Apples have him. Talk to Khelendros." [22:23] 14He is more direct about Keldar and the case against Highland with them. He gets the feeling they'll be reassured by the knowledge that Something is Being Done, and that business as usual still has the chance of reasserting itself. [22:25] 13She'll slump onto some stack of supplies if no actual furniture is forthcoming. "I don't know that I can fix this," 13she says. 15[22:26] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka sits down on the stack of wooden planks beside her. "Huh?" [22:26] 13Xia Lan: "I set him off. I was right but-- there must've been a way..." 15[22:27] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Don't." [22:27] 13Startled: "Don't what?" 15[22:27] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Don't make excuses for him." [22:28] 14The Midnight Queen and the August Councilor -- Ephiselle and Thalever -- are thankfully shaken but stalwart. It's an odd thing to think, given that they're Stranger's enemies on the Council in terms of faction and ideology, and it's surely got much to do with the fact that it wasn't someone in their faction who ended up beaten or dead over it, but he is very grateful for their [22:28] 14continued to commitment to both their positions and to the pursuit of normal Council business. 15[22:28] <@VoxPVoxD> "If a dog goes rabid and bites someone, you can say, 'oh, I should have done something different'. If a storm ruins your crops, you can beat yourself up for not thinking ahead. But he's- he's a man. He has to know better. He's responsible. Nobody else." [22:29] 14They're not fans of Keldar, of course -- no one on the Council besides the Emissary's seat is, really -- but they're either willing to listen, resigned to the matter, or both. And hopefully they're at least pleased that the Office of the Judiciary is handing them an action item against the monster who wrecked their day. [22:29] 14Which just leaves Master Gen. [22:29] 14And Master Gen is complicated. [22:30] 13Xia Lan: "That's -- Pellicia's blood is on my hands," 13she tries. "She died defending me." 15[22:31] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen's holed up in his study, under layered guard, looking at ledgers and accounting-books for the Nexus militia, apparently seconded from Pellicia's office. He's checking them against the Assayer's Logs, working feverishly. He scarcely looks up when Stranger enters. 15[22:31] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "No!" 15[22:31] <@VoxPVoxD> "You didn't kill her. He did." 15[22:31] <@VoxPVoxD> "Don't do that." [22:32] 13Somewhat stunned, she manages to squeak out: "Do what?" [22:32] 14Stranger will take a seat where he can find it. "Find anything?" 15[22:32] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Don't make excuses!" [22:32] 13She literally just asked this, but yes, she does need the refresher. 15[22:32] <@VoxPVoxD> "Don't make doing the right thing into a vice because bad people hate it." 15[22:32] <@VoxPVoxD> "That's on them. Right is right. You did the right thing." 15[22:33] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka's an intense kid but Xia Lan's never seen him like this. 15[22:34] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "It was necessary." There's another lengthy pause. [22:34] 13She's got her head buried in her hands, knees drawn up onto a crate. "I hate this. I hate him. I want to kill him." 15[22:35] <@VoxPVoxD> Finally, Dorma says: "I'm making a requisition to accompany the reinforcement petition to High Command. Materials. Equipment." 15[22:35] <@VoxPVoxD> "If there's something you need that we might have I can put in for it on my order." 15[22:35] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Me too." [22:35] 13Xia Lan: "I just. I was doing the right thing. How come this sucks so bad." 15[22:35] <@VoxPVoxD> He can't do much but hold her, so hold her he does. 15[22:36] <@VoxPVoxD> "I don't know. It's not fair." 15[22:37] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "Not yet... working backwards it looks like there are no shortfalls. Or windfalls, for that matter." 15[22:37] <@VoxPVoxD> He shuts the heavy book before him. "Which leaves us to face the fall alone." 15[22:38] <@VoxPVoxD> "Have you been to see any of the others yet?" [22:38] 13She leans into him, quietly rocking. "...Can you stay here for a while? I've got to get back out there eventually, but..." 13But I'd rather spend as much time as I can with you first, unspoken. [22:38] 14Stranger: "I saved you for last, Master." [22:39] "Had a feeling, is all." 15[22:39] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "I have the rest of the day." 15[22:39] <@VoxPVoxD> "Are you hungry?" [22:39] 5Xu Sim is silent for a moment. "Nothing necessary..." 5 The Dragonlord is still wearing his mask? [22:39] 13Somewhat jokingly: "Kind of. Sorry I missed dinner." 15[22:40] <@VoxPVoxD> The Dragonlord is bareheaded and bare-faced. His helmet and mask are on the bench beside him. 15[22:42] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "We could go get something..." [22:42] "But more esoteric supplies, the type I need to work at a higher level of precision and power, those could be helpful. Thank you again, Dragonlord." 15[22:42] <@VoxPVoxD> "I don't know. We could eat at your hideout, maybe, or I could go get something and come back here." [22:42] 13Xia Lan: "I'd rather see the hideout again. We're going to have to sneak out, probably, I don't think the fans actually left..." 15[22:42] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma, somewhat impatiently: "Such as??" 15[22:43] <@VoxPVoxD> Xu Sim gets the impression the Dragonlord is not, ah, technically proficient in Xu Sim's work. 15[22:43] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "Oh?" [22:43] 13She almost corrects herself, then realizes: "...you're probably going to have paparazzi too, now." [22:44] 14Stranger: "One only checks the ledgers at the end of the term, yes? For better or worse. Closing out the financial year." [22:44] "Making a reckoning of things, before turning to a new page." [22:44] "I can present you a list. One particular piece of equipment that would be helpful, if it happens to be sitting in a vault somewhere, would be a sort of press or a device that mills down iron bars or shavings into the ancient iron thistledown ammunition, that once formed a part of the Sword of Creation's war-manse system." 15[22:45] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "...ah." [22:45] "Aside from that? Jade dust, firedust. Lots of firedust." 15[22:45] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "I don't care. Really, I don't. What is anyone going to say to me?" [22:46] 14Stranger: "So you know where I stand: I would benefit, politically, from you leaving the Council. For whatever reason. I neither ask what yours is, nor do I blame you. I would certainly find a way to install a more agreeable Master, to my way of thinking." 15[22:46] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma actually barks a laugh. "Thistledown!" 15[22:47] <@VoxPVoxD> "That's brilliant." [22:47] "And you are, of course, a free man. If you wish to leave, then leave." [22:47] 14Stranger: "But I would ask you to stay." 15[22:47] <@VoxPVoxD> "Gods. This far inland? Prevailing winds as they are -- the coverage we could get with a proper pylon is enormous." 15[22:47] <@VoxPVoxD> "A kill radius measured in malms." [22:48] 13Xia Lan: "It gets annoying, sometimes. Can hardly go out without someone there keeping an eye on you, 'less you duck 'em." 13She can probably get a good disguise going, but Tsuka... "Besides. It's not what they say to you, it's what they say about you. And to whom." 15[22:48] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "If they're not saying it to me, it matters even less. Gossip is trash." 15[22:48] <@VoxPVoxD> "But let me know if anyone's talking bad about you. I'll go take care of it." [22:49] "That's the aspiration. And if I can keep the wheels running I hope to get some sort of crude mechanism up and running, well, soon. We won't have much time - not much time at all - to finish it before the enemy arrives. But I think we can make it work." [22:49] 13She snickers. "Don't think that's a problem for me, babe, but keep that up and it might be for you." [22:49] 13She doesn't seem to notice on the term of endearment. 15[22:49] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "Would you be able to prototype something without access to the components? It'll be a week, maybe two, before we get what I send for." [22:51] "I think so? It's tough to say, it's a tricky sort of project. And I haven't done it before." 15[22:51] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "Alright. I'll be making my final report at noon tomorrow, so if you can send my people a list by the end of the day I'll see to it we get what we can for you." [22:52] "Sounds like a plan." 5 Xu Sim nods. 15[22:53] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "In return I need a favor." [22:54] "A favor?" 5 This is not the relationship that Xu Sim has enjoyed with the Dragonlord thus far. 15[22:55] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "I need someone to take the temperature of Thorns's necromancer. She's rebuffing my people, but you can hold court with her and aren't obviously her enemy." [22:55] "No, I suppose not," 5he observes. "Do you need something specific?" 15[22:56] <@VoxPVoxD> "We need to know what kind of magic she's preparing, what she's willing to do. Get a sense of her limits, if possible." 15[22:56] <@VoxPVoxD> "High command's fear is... unpredictable as they are, the Thorns delegates are only so threatening, against the backdrop of what's coming." 15[22:56] <@VoxPVoxD> "But given who they answer to..." 15[22:57] <@VoxPVoxD> "We need to know how closely they're working with the Mask." 15[22:57] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "...why?" [22:58] "Reasonable," 5 Xu Sim agrees. "Alright, I'll try to find out what's going on. After all, more shadowlands and walking dead aren't good for hardly anyone." 15[22:59] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma: "Good. Satisfactory." Another pause. "Thank you." 15[23:00] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Psshhhht. What are they going to do to me?" [23:00] 5 Xu Sim nods. "We're going to win. And that means we're going to have to work together." [23:00] 14Stranger: "Because I need people who know the work more than I need people I agree with. And frankly, despite what you might believe about me and mine wanting to stack the Council, my opinion is that Keldar taking a seat is already the limit of what we can sustain, and perhaps past the limit of what we should." [23:00] "I do not want us getting into the business of rulership." 15[23:01] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma's almost out of the tent before he freezes, staring at the closed flaps a few inches in front of his face. 15[23:01] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "A bit late for that, isn't it?" 15[23:02] <@VoxPVoxD> Dorma finally says, "Thank you for the globe," before immediately storming out, helmet and mask back on. [23:03] 5Xu Sim smiles tightly and takes a second to look over the flowers. Are there really many there made out to him? Quite impressive. Nothing too ominous among them, one would hope? In a city that's just been ravaged by a bee-spread plague it's a bit of an odd gesture. But old habits die hard, perhaps. [23:03] 13Xia Lan: "Dunno. You got secrets? They dig." 13She says it light-hearted, then stands. "I'm gonna go change and sneak out. Meet me at the hideout? Also, you want me to pick up dinner or should I?" [23:03] 14Stranger shrugs. "There is the throne, and then there is the power that upholds it. We are not the first small coterie to exert an outsized political influence on a ruling body. And I'll note that we've been incredibly civil in our actions. If you want to see what it looks like when one of us is a monster, Mori Nogare showed you quite clearly." 15[23:04] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "I'll do it. What do you want? They've got these fried dumplings here full of crab and cheese--" [23:05] 13Decisively: "Some of those, any other comfort food you can pick up -- do you have one of those pages from Stranger?" 15[23:06] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Yeah. Uh. Have you... heard from him?" [23:07] 13Xia Lan: "I just woke up like, 30 minutes ago. I've only talked to the nurse, Xu Sim, and you." 13And the crowd, but they didn't have names. [23:07] 14Stranger: "...You're not the only one considering quitting, you know." 15[23:07] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Okay." 15[23:07] <@VoxPVoxD> "He's..." 15[23:08] <@VoxPVoxD> "He took the news about you getting hurt really hard." [23:08] 13Xia Lan: "...how hard." [23:08] 13Should she call him before or after she sneaks back to the hideout, unspoken. 15[23:08] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "I've never seen him like that before." 15[23:08] <@VoxPVoxD> "Be careful." [23:09] 13That settles it. "I'll talk to him before I leave." [23:09] "See you back at the hideout?" 15[23:09] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Okay. I'll meet you there." 15[23:09] <@VoxPVoxD> He kisses her again before leaving. 15[23:10] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "...I suppose I wouldn't be, would I?" [23:10] 13She kisses back. Honestly, she would've if he didn't. "Stay safe," 13she commands. [23:10] "The Astrologer is in much the same situation as you. She cared deeply about Pellicia. She's very hurt. I am...keeping an eye on things with her. Just in case." 14Is there tea? "I tell you this not as gossip and with the full knowledge that I am breaching her privacy, because I think that she will stay. I think that she will stay, and remain an example to the people of Nexus, and [23:10] become stronger for it. She is no great fan of Keldar, but she will tolerate him. To be honest, I doubt she trusts me all that much either, given that I stand with that man." 15[23:10] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka actually salutes her before leaving. [23:10] "She and you have something in common. Perhaps that hasn't been true enough before, but it is now." [23:11] 14Stranger pauses. "And neither of you are cowards." 15[23:11] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "I don't want to see any harm come to the Astrologer. If there's anything I can do to help her, please, let me know." 15[23:12] <@VoxPVoxD> "But... Pellicia was the only thing keeping that woman halfway honest." 15[23:12] <@VoxPVoxD> "She's a flake." 15[23:12] <@VoxPVoxD> "She's a flake at the best of times. And now she's rightly despondent. Pellicia is her best friend." 15[23:12] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen winces. "Was." 15[23:13] <@VoxPVoxD> So! Xu Sim is free to leave at his leisure. What's his next step? [23:13] 14Stranger: "No, I don't think so." [23:13] 5Xu Sim will make his way out past the crowds - if there are still crowds outside, anyway. Then he'll make his way to the sewers. He's late for his meeting with Selin. [23:14] 13...That is adorable. And technically accurate, which is why it's adorable but also... honey, please. As soon as he's out, she'll attempt to contact Stranger via the page, unaware of whatever presumably-minor things he has going on. 15[23:15] <@VoxPVoxD> Xu Sim has to push through the crowds same as Xia Lan would to get out, but mercifully(?) they seem only to want to cheer Xu Sim and offer him huzzahs, the city's twofold savior! The city's living martyr! [23:16] "Thank you, yes," 5 Xu Sim gamely waves and so on. It's a bit of a bother, but surely that's part of the appeal. 15[23:17] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger finds Selin not at their appointed meeting-spot, but on the way there. He's leading a team of strapping men and women in pulling yet another gondola out of the canal. [23:17] "I object to both a Guild man calling someone dishonest and to her being a flake. It does not align with what I've seen of her. And if you think nothing else of my kind -- of the Chosen that I am -- know that we are pushed to demand the best efforts of everyone. As villains and as heroes alike." 15[23:17] <@VoxPVoxD> *Xu Sim finds Selin [23:18] "Selin!" 5 Xu Sim hurries towards the group. "My profuse apologies, sifu, I overslept." 15[23:18] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "I take your point, and advisedly, but she hasn't attended a Council meeting except at Pellicia's urging in years." 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin sends the laborers home, their work completed, once the old and rotted gondola is pulled up onto the roadside. Then he turns to Xu Sim. "I spoke with your doctor. I understand you had quite a day." [23:21] "Not just me, as it happens," 5he explains. 15[23:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Mmm. I heard about Pellicia. How is your friend?" [23:23] 14Stranger: "And that's bad for you?" [23:23] 14He shakes his head. "Have you considered that she might have, perhaps, not had full faith and credit in the Council to begin with?" [23:24] "Physically, she was fine when she woke up this morning. The rest, I think she'll be in the arms of a particularly suitable suitor to help her through it." 5 Xu Sim shrugs. [23:24] "The previous Emissary was...well." [23:24] "He forced you to react." [23:26] 14Stranger will likely take the call slightly earlier in the day; perhaps just before the meeting with Gen. "You're awake." [23:27] 13Xia Lan: "Stranger! Have you snapped and killed anyone other than Nogare? Tsuka was worried about you," 13she asks, a lot more relaxed than her words might otherwise indicate. [23:28] 14Stranger stops walking and is silent for a very long moment. [23:28] "Have I..." [23:28] "No." [23:28] 14He did not take that as a joke. At least not one he found funny. [23:28] 13Xia Lan: "Is Nogare still in town?" 13There's more of an edge on this one. [23:28] "We don't know. Probably not." [23:29] "Xu Sim likely knows more on the, ah. Technical side. Than I do." 15[23:29] <@VoxPVoxD> "Young love," sighs Selin. "is like quicksilver. Either deadly or curative." [23:29] "But he has not reappeared. If he does, he's a dead man." [23:29] 13Xia Lan: "...I assume you've already got people looking, so I won't tell you to - oh, for love of. Xu Sim lied to me twice already, anything important I'm routing through you." [23:29] 14Stranger shakes his head. "That does sound like him." [23:29] "Keldar is handling the manhunt." [23:30] "I am trying to herd cats with the Council." [23:30] "Sorry. I'm fine, healed up and all. Sun bless Keldar. I'm going back to the hideout and having the dinner I scheduled with Tsuka, and after that... point me where you need me. I screwed up once. Won't happen again," 13she promises. [23:31] 14Stranger, bluntly: "No. You didn't." [23:31] 5Xu Sim smiles, a little guardedly this time. "Well, it's certainly true." [23:32] "You prevented a terrible, exploitative law from passing the Council. You did the opposite of screw up. And it won't happen again because we're going to see him in a grave with whatever officers of his that we can find." [23:32] 13Xia Lan half-curses. "Yes, sorry. Tsuka's been on me about that, too. I did the right thing, it just..." 13She trails off, then regains her strength. "Do you know where the Dawn Sergeant's body is being kept? I need to - thank her." 15[23:32] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "So. Have you come to train or to justify your absence. Because I consider your absence well and truly justified. You have a doctor's note." [23:33] 14A pause, and with less of an edge: "She's lying in state now. The Temple of Gentle Airs. Her partner and family have been there all day." [23:34] "I'm still a little sore, but I intend to stick to my schedule today, regardless." 5He does! [23:34] 13Xia Lan: "...if you have the time, let them know I'll be there later. I... owe her that much, at the least." [23:35] 14Stranger: "I will do that. I'm about to walk into a meeting with Master Gen...but I would appreciate the opportunity to talk later, either tonight or tomorrow, once you've finished with Tsuka." 14He doesn't even say that last bit suggestively. [23:37] 13That's good! That's good. She says her goodbyes and begins applying her disguise to sneak out back towards the hideout. A meal -- and her boyfriend -- awaits. 15[23:37] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Alright. So! Tell me what you've mastered, and where you're having trouble." 15[23:38] <@VoxPVoxD> Xia Lan finds Tsuka already there, jealously protecting the bag of food from an aggressively curious Princess and Mhaka. [23:39] 13She strips off the more distracting parts of the disguise as she slumps into one of the chairs around the table. "Well, Tsuka, we've made it." 15[23:40] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "Do you like spare ribs?" [23:41] "Well, mastery, I don't know. I've been thinking about it, and, in actual fights - not sorcerous battles of wills or whatever - I'm having trouble with longevity and timing; I'm getting into fights when I'm almost out of breath and then I run out of anywhere to redirect my opponent." 5That's the straightforward, practical, Keldar-style explanation. [23:41] 5You know who likes spare ribs? [23:42] 13Xia Lan: "Absolutely." 13She seems exhausted, but also, the prospect of ribs has her interested again. "How was your trip? Stranger's doing fine, by the way, not..." 13She waves a hand vaguely. "Freaky." 15[23:44] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Ah. It sounds like you're thin-skinned." [23:45] "I've been using the Ox Body-Hardening Technique - doing situps under the waterfalls near your sewers, actually. But I need more!" 15[23:45] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka doesn't respond to that directly. Instead he says, "Let's eat." There's the fried crab and cheese dumplings here, as well as spare ribs, and fried rice, and a sack of pork buns. [23:47] 13Xia Lan digs in. At some point: "I still want to, actually take you out for dinner," 13dumpling into mouth which she chews up thoughtfully, "but like, for real, not hiding away..." 15[23:50] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Well, as to what meditations and mastery of Essence it takes to harden your hide, I can mostly only guess. But from what you've said, you haven't yet mastered the Scholar-Martyr Doctrine." 15[23:50] <@VoxPVoxD> "Did your sifu never tell you about that?" [23:51] "The Scholar-Martyr Doctrine?" 5He asks, credulously. 15[23:53] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "We've got time." 15[23:53] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "You fight barehanded, yes?" [23:53] "Yes." 15[23:53] <@VoxPVoxD> "I don't see any swords or fans on you." [23:54] "None." [23:55] 13Xia Lan: "We do." 13Actually, that's true - it seems like anything she can actually work on can actually wait til tomorrow. "We... really do. So, hey... where do you want to go for dinner? Can't have us spending another meal hiding away," 13she smirks. 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Right. But you're missing the ease of having a sword in your hand." 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "The seafood place you talked about sounds nice." [00:02] 13She manages to find a reason to kiss Tsuka again, and hug him close. "It does. It-- gosh." 15[00:03] <@VoxPVoxD> Tsuka: "I'm really, really, glad you okay." 15[00:04] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "Of course I have. But why'd she accept the job if she didn't respect it?" [00:04] 13She doesn't let him go. "Me, too." [00:04] "That's true. But by keeping my hands empty, I can still block and flow with my enemies, redirect them. Throw them if I have to, or scrabble around without worrying about being disarmed or the like." [00:06] 14Stranger: "You can take a job that you don't respect if you think it's important. And respecting the Council is far different from respecting Nexus, as perhaps we've all been given opportunity to observe recently." [00:07] "In any event, I find her allegiance to herself far less objectionable than others she might have." 15[00:08] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "So what do you propose? Trust that now, after she's lost everything, she will finally take her duties seriously?" 15[00:10] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Oh yes, I won't deny the usefulness of the open hand. But it comes with the pain of the scourged palm, no? A bitter truth, we must meet with sweetness." [00:10] 14Stranger: "She is not so weak as you presuppose. And she has not lost everything. Besides, and I say this will all due respect, I'll not hear her dedication impugned with a man literally booking it out of town." [00:10] *impugned by 15[00:10] <@VoxPVoxD> "Pain has no direct answer to love, Xu Sim. It can sidestep, it can undermine, it can ignore. But it cannot refute." 15[00:12] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "If you'd seek to defend her honor you can do so all the more easily in my absence." [00:13] 5Xu Sim obviously contemplates a rejoinder, but, in the end, does not offer one. "Alright. It's possible, yeah, for - sweetness - for love, to win." 15[00:14] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "With this thought in mind, what then is pain?" [00:14] "A distraction." 15[00:16] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "No! It's so much more than that. It's a beacon. If you can identify the source of what hurts you, you know which way to go to answer it. You know what to face. People live and die in agony without the ability to see that. Or to act on it if they can." 15[00:16] <@VoxPVoxD> "But not you." [00:16] 14Stranger: "Which highlights that we're really talking about two different things here, at the same time." [00:22] 5Xu Sim glances away, in deep thought. "Thank you, sifu." 15[00:22] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Think on this. Think on it with a friend." 15[00:23] <@VoxPVoxD> "Day after tomorrow, we spar. I'll come knock about your head in a hospital bed if I have to." [00:25] 14Stranger: "The thing that links them, of course, is Nexus. And Nexus is the reason I want you to stay." [00:28] "Certainly. See you in two days." 5With that, Xu Sim bids his leave. 15[00:28] <@VoxPVoxD> Selin: "Oh, and Xu Sim?" [00:28] "Yes?" 15[00:28] <@VoxPVoxD> "Go easy on the kids, will you? They've got it bad enough for each other as it is." [00:30] "You may not like me and, more importantly and more concerning to me, you may not trust me. And I do not deny you have legitimate reasons for doing so. I do not believe that it is our place to rule Nexus, or rule Creation. I do believe it is our place to ensure that mortals do. Keldar will become the Dawn Sergeant because these are extraordinary times, and in these times the troops will [00:30] follow no one else. But I do not wish for us to permanently remain the Emissaries of Nexus, and I certainly do not wish us to be a majority -- or a substantial minority -- on the Council. Xia Lan was appointed because she has a good heart, and it is credible to you all that she does not want political power. When Nexus is safe, we will step down. I am designing the Office of Judiciary [00:30] to ensure this." [00:30] "It was wrong, if convenient, for the previous Emissary to have so much power, and wield it so transparently. It would be wrong, if convenient, if we did the same." [00:30] "Give them an ilm, they'll take a malm, but maybe you're right." 5He's not so sure, but what's the worst that could happen? [00:31] "I need you and Kratz to stay for similar reasons: you are both mortal, and you both have the right to rule this city, and you both love it. Even if you don't like each other, or me." 15[00:32] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen regards Stranger silently for a long time. 15[00:32] <@VoxPVoxD> Finally: "I don't know if you're right." 15[00:32] <@VoxPVoxD> "But I do know that betting you're right is our best chance for survival." 15[00:32] <@VoxPVoxD> "So fuck it." [00:34] 14Stranger smiles and nods, then stands. "I'll leave you to your work, then." 14He pauses. "If there's anything from the late Evening Master's library you need and, ah. Don't already have access to. I've had it sent to the Office of the Judiciary. They have of course been instructed to permit Councilors to inspect the collection." 15[00:35] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen opens his book. "I'll send them a memorandum, then." [00:35] 14Stranger: "Good evening, Master Gen." 15[00:35] <@VoxPVoxD> Gen: "Good evening, Emissary." [00:37] 5Xu Sim gets to the rest of his day with redoubled efforts - his projects at the hideout, his sorcery and his projects at the Tomb of Cold Iron, and, in between, jotting down correspondence for a letter he'll be sending off to the Scion of the Sevenfold, suggesting a meeting of the minds, to help increase magical collaboration and understanding. [00:38] 14Stranger leaves the Master's estate and heads straight home, buying a paltry dinner on the way. He spends the rest of the night in front of the fire, silent, staring into the flames. 15[00:39] <@VoxPVoxD> NEXT TIME: You don't have to live like a refugee [00:39] 5 It's late when Xu Sim comes home. He spares Stranger a second glance, but says nothing as he collapses into his own bed.