15[20:24] The Four Fangs wake beneath a hazy sky. It's not as red as it was at landing; there is little left to burn here. The atmosphere is tense, because fighting hasn't broken out yet and everyone from the dawn-shift guards to the lay faithful doling out breakfast is waiting for it to happen. [20:25] 4Maybe the fighting's all done! I mean if it's pure elemental combat who knows. 15[20:28] The eyes of the camp are on the Fangs - even great burning Budokan has to share the spotlight with these strangely-omened people from the Blessed Isle as he tromps around examining fortifications. But people are reluctant to engage, and none of them gets a formal invitation to morning prayers, which most of the camp attends. [20:28] 4Piu's fine with that. Gives her more time to explore. 14Note the weakness in the defenses in case she has to slip in here wearing Silk Shadow. [20:29] 10Eh. Tireless elementals are one thing, but the weakest links in the enemy ranks are going to be the women and men performing the summonings and overseeing their supernatural charges, and they need breakfast too.  [20:33] 10Daizo will show up to the morning service slightly late, feel the pressure of the camp's sidewise glances and the subtle havoc it plays with the ceremony, and slink away. To whatever degree he can ever be said to "slink away". 15[20:33] The Immaculate leading the prayers keeps her hood up, but Daizo can feel her head track him both as he enters and leaves. 15[20:39] After the prayers - after breakfast - shortly before the Fangs are preparing to leave, the same hooded woman approaches them. "Good morning. I was happy to see you at dawn, Tepet Daizo." [20:39] 4She doesn't really have any interest in the new Abbess, but if Daizo wants to -- oh. [20:42] 10Daizo's engrossed in cleaning grime out of the crevices of his armor, and starts. "Ah! Er. Thank you, Sister. I hope I didn't cause any undue disruptions to the service." [20:42] 4Eh. Probably more interesting if he did. [20:46] 4Piu isn't, like, standoffish with the Abbess per se. But the woman's obviously not here to talk to her. 15[20:46] "I think people found your presence comforting. Yesterday and today. It's been too long since we saw a new face, much less a friendly one. I'm Sister Mos. I'm... the Abbess here, as long as there are people who look to the Dragons for guidance. She lowers her hood; she looks awfully young to hold such a title - probably younger than Daizo, even. 15[20:46] While Piu's right, she does make eye contact with the others and nod. She seems just a bit too worn to smile. [20:50] 10Daizo's countenance brightens a shade or two. "It must have been very difficult for you, seeing so many of your fellows turn to heresy in such a short time." 15[20:54] Mos laughs a little awkwardly. "The hard jobs are why we're here. That's what I keep telling everyone." 15[20:54] "What about you all? Why are you here?" [20:55] 4Piu looks to Dryas. She's been the one fielding that. [20:57] 07Dryas considers the question for a moment. She strokes the orichalcum amulet around her neck for a moment - a tic the other Fangs may now recognize for what it is. 15[20:58] Mos's eyes are drawn to Dryas once it becomes apparent who is going to answer her question. 15[20:58] Mnemon Mos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rd_uqcRf5c - If you feel an emptiness, if you want to hide: think about the blood that's pumping, keeping you alive. [20:58] 10Getting a glimpse of someone's true self certainly improves your negotiating position. Daizo can't fault Dryas for that. [21:01] 07Dryas glances at the others for a moment: "Riches, glories, avert the world-consuming war, shake the pillars of heaven, that sort of thing. Trivialties, really." [21:02] 4Piu: "The docks here have been silent long enough we kinda knew something had to be happening." 15[21:03] Mos: "So you've come to broker peace?" 15[21:03] "Or, no. Now that you've arrived... is that your aim?" [21:04] 4Piu: "Peace would be nice. But the big guy doesn't seem so interested in peace." [21:06] 07Dryas: "Terrible things are waiting out there, and they come a little closer every day. We can't afford these squabbles, and neither can the people who depend on us." 15[21:06] Mos, carefully: "The Governor would say that he values peace with honor over peace at any cost. I agree, Lady Dryas." [21:06] Daizo: "Now that we've arrived, I have no interest ins eeing Putu-on-Neck reduced to broken earth and ashes." [21:07] 4Cheerfully: "I bet he even believes it!" 15[21:07] Mos: "Well, if there's anything I can do to help us achieve honor without more suffering, don't hesitate to ask. I think there is a lot of honor in being willing to pay a great cost for peace." [21:08] 07Dryas: "Then why did you stay here, when your superiors left?" [21:09] 10Daizo: "Let's ask it anothe rway, if I may. What could you tell us about the events that led up to Gu Len and Rikai's rebellion? It would seem that you were closer to them than Lord Budokan or his aides were." [21:10] "Had they had a history of radical interpretations of the Philosophy?" 15[21:13] Mos looks from Dryas to Daizo and sighs. She says, "They abandoned their posts. They turned their back on their blood and their duty." [21:14] 07Dryas frowns. "Hopefully, the Governor's rantings are misguided and they can be returned to the fold." 15[21:15] "They didn't, no. Brother Gu Len is one of the most passionate orators I've ever met, and Brother Rikai one of the keenest minds. It was like night and day. They cornered me, trying to... to convince me to join them. They told me the Order was unsalvageable, that the work was bankrupt - that we had lost the Mandate of Heaven, and needed to earn it anew." [21:15] 4Piu: "I'm not hearing a lot about cannibalism, or human sacrifice, or demon worship, or ancestor spirit resurrection. I'm hearing a whole lot that sounds like a labor action." 15[21:16] To Piu: "If it had been building over weeks and months - if they had grown disillusioned - then I'd agree. But it wasn't like that. Something changed them. Something... broke them." [21:16] 07Dryas: "There are a few in play for those heavenly mandates these days," 07Dryas shifts her shoulder slightly, and Earned Nemesis shifts in its place. [21:18] 4She sighs. "I guess there's a case for possession there. Well, there's also the worst case scenario." [21:18] "Someone got themselves a Solar exaltation." [21:19] 4Calling that the 'worst case scenario' might be a case of telling an Immaculate Abbess what she wants to hear. 15[21:20] Mos: "Or necromantic perversion. On clear days you can see the spires of Onyx from the plateau." [21:20] 07Dryas: "Anathema? Here? Unthinkable." 07She casts her eyes about for a mouse. [21:22] 4Piu wrinkles her noses. "Maybe. But there's like...aesthetics to these things. If they're talking iconoclasm while insisting they're the heroes and they're trying to save everyone, that's Golden Anathema. The Skullstone crew starts hanging grave-lace everywhere, wearing black capes, adding veils to their hats, planning something called the Half-Corpse Wedding, you know." [21:22] *4nose [21:24] 4Conversationally: "We've had to deal with both kinds before. You can talk to the Golden Anathema. Deathknights are far worse at compromise. You have to make examples out of 'em." 15[21:25] Mos: "Well... then for our sake, I hope you're right. Because an example made of them is an example made of us all." [21:25] 10Daizo begins to get a sense that there's a deeper layer to this, something he can't quite grasp yet.  [21:26] 07Dryas: "Do you have a message you'd like us to convey?" [21:27] 07Dryas: "Or anything else for that matter? A token, a letter?" 15[21:27] "I..." Mos starts, pauses, shakes her head. "I said my piece to them. They know what I need them to know. If I could make them care I would have." 15[21:28] "Their people need them. All their people need them, not just the ones swayed by their words and bravado." 15[21:28] "If you could make them understand that, I would be in your debt." [21:29] 10Daizo: "We'll do our best to bring them back, Sister, if we can. Ah, one more thing." 15[21:29] "Hmm?" [21:30] 07Dryas contemplates this, then nods determinedly - pauses to hear what Daizo has to say. [21:30] "Had either of them received any strange visitors before all of this began?" [21:32] "People who felt like they didn't quite belong, or like they were play-acting… I'm not sure, it's hard to put into words." 15[21:32] Mos: "It's been the rainy season, and they were up at the mines... and even before that, ships have been scarce for a while. We don't get a lot of visitors when the tribute ships stay away." 15[21:33] "I was thinking maybe pirates, but the Navy would keep them at bay, and you made it, besides." [21:34] 4Piu doesn't have the heart to explain the situation with the Navy again. 15[21:35] She doesn't press for specifics, which has implications of its own. "I'll pray for your while you're gone. Dragons' favor, Lords and Ladies." 15[21:35] *for your safety [21:36] 10Daizo nods. "Just a thought. Thank you, Sister. And may they watch over you and these brave few as well." [21:37] 4When she's gone: "Honestly they'd have to be just about the worst agent of Heaven ever for a kid like that to notice them." [21:37] 10Daizo: "I don't know. Seiri twigged to Salim before any of us." [21:38] "Noticed he didn't act enough like a proper monk." [21:38] 4Piu: "Seiri lived a very different life." [21:38] 4Piu: "Also...kiiiiinda not true. But that was back when I wasn't telling the full truth about stuff." [21:39] "…yeah. I suppose so. i don't know. Someone hurt Mos, too, but I can't put my finger on how or why." [21:39] "Just a feeling." 15[21:40] Diamond Weapon's hale enough to ride - are the other Fangs claiming horses or going on foot? [21:40] 4Piu, to Dryas, having seen her eyes: "Rinca's out scouting the rebel encampment. He should find us when we're making our approach." [21:41] 4If there's a horse on offer, Piu will take it at least half-way, but she'll likely be making the final approach on foot. Might be best to ride with someone. [21:41] 07Dryas, inspecting Diamond Weapon's wound approvingly: "Maybe she just felt left out?" [21:42] 10We're not trying to make a stealthy approach, are we? We're the ostensibly neutral envoys. [21:43] 07That's right. No hidden agenda here! 15[21:43] That's the plan. You could always change the plan, of course. [21:46] 10Well, if there's a horse up to the challenge, Daizo will ride.  15[21:46] They ride north in pairs, where the plateau rising in the distance is brick red and dim beneath the smoke-choked sky. 15[21:47] Overland the trip is swift, because while the land is scoured, pitted, and ruined, the roads themselves are wide and flat and mostly unmarred. Easy riding. [21:48] 4Hm. 15[21:50] As the plateau grows larger in the distance, the character of the land's damage begins to change. The pits and scars of burning wounds grow fewer and faded, but the soil itself is darker and choppier. Well before any kind of timberline the trees have simply stopped. Even back at the thickest points of fighting the burnt-down stumps of what must once have been great forests reduced to 15[21:50] ash littered the landscape. Here, nothing but mushy, faintly acrid earth. [21:50] 10Daizo: "Every ilm a wasteland. Even if we can broker peace, it's going to be hell for the survivors." [21:51] 07Dryas examines the soil. Would it nourish roots and hold water? [21:52] 14Piu: "Perhaps my reasoning is motivated, but hard not to blame the guy burning like a funeral pyre for this whole place being a burnt-out tomb." 15[21:56] The soil would hold water, but nothing's growing in it. It's very different from the damage back nearer the main settlements, though - that land was razed by fire and battle. This is just... like this. Daizo can deduce why as Dryas points it out - this land isn't burnt but poisoned. This black soil is contaminated by effluvia, specifically the spoil of jade mining. 15[21:56] Obviously not an intended side effect of the mining process, which suggests to Daizo that the most likely consequence is an accident or engineering failure. Looking around, maybe more than one. [21:57] 14Or negligence. [21:58] 10Corner-cutting's always a possibility, when it comes to meeting tribute quotas. 15[21:58] Closer now, nearing midday, cairns flank the road as malm-markers, telling you how far from the main commercial nexus of Cinder Hearth you are. The stones scrape as you get close and pass them; it becomes apparent that they are turning to track your movements. [21:59] 14Piu: "Unsettling." [21:59] 10Daizo: "Look on the bright side. If we wanted to bleed off the excess earth essence at Mionzi, we could blast this place with it." [22:00] "Probably wouldn't even do half as much damage as Budokan and these mining operations have managed to inflict on the land." [22:01] 14Piu: "If we can get that essence stream on line as a gun, I'd absolutely be fine with this being our first test. Cursed, poisoned place." [22:02] 07Dryas: "A place with one thing everyone else wants, and that needs everything else everyone else has. Too bad about the pirates, though." 15[22:04] The sky above is clearing; the breeze off the sea is pleasant and warm. They shouldn't be able to feel it this far inland, and the wind shouldn't be blowing in this direction - but the salt air is unmistakable to the Four Fangs, who have spent so long at sea and seaside. [22:05] 10Daizo: "Fertile ground for disillusionment, if nothing else—you smell that? The wind's all wrong." [22:05] 07Dryas: "Perhaps a change in the winds will do this place some good." [22:07] "Or it presages some other kind of elemental imbalance." [22:08] 07Dryas just grunts noncommittally - then salutes the cairns with her direlance: "Hail, rocks! Hail, stones! Send for your masters, the Four Fangs are come!" 15[22:09] Someone blows on a horn as they crest the last ridge, and see the black stone walls of Cinder Hearth - these look hand-made, bricks hauled by human or elemental labor. There are both at the ramparts - black stone guardians behind which stand a rank of soldiers in leather and iron. Weapons are visible, but not readied; they glitter in the noon light. [22:10] 4Piu hops off the horse to lightly jog alongside as they come to a halt. [22:14] 10Daizo dismounts, helm under one arm, other hand free. He puts on his best impassive face. 15[22:14] It looks like quite a small town from up here - likely the miners lived at the camps ringing the plateau and this was primarily a conduit for trade. But it's clearly been bulked out with hastily constructed settlements around the spare stone dome that would be an Immaculate temple if it had the proper markings, but whatever once marked the oldest visible structure in Cinder Hearth has 15[22:14] been worn smooth by time or magic. 15[22:14] Aphelion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feoHV5JUbuo - ♫♪♬♪♩ 15[22:16] The to and fro of soldiers at muster is halted as a figure clad in red jade pokes above the battlements, provoking instant deference from all in sight. She grips the edge of the wall and peers down at the approaching Fangs. 15[22:16] "HAIL!" [22:16] 4Piu waves. [22:16] 4No contact from Rinca as they approached, huh. 15[22:16] Nope. 15[22:17] At some point you've got to start worrying... but maybe not yet. [22:18] 4Hey, maybe he's fucking off on the beach with some hot war refugee girls. Not like he works here. [22:19] 07Dryas raises the lance in greeting. "Hail! We're the Four Fangs, come aboard the Prolix and Terse, commanded by Commodore Peleps Ratel. This is V'Neef Piu, that is Tepet Daizo, there is Tepet Zhangyu, and I am Cynis Dryas." 15[22:19] The jadeclad woman reaches for a horn of her own, but rather than blowing a note it seems to project her voice. "Advance with hands free, Four Fangs, and enter in peace!" 15[22:20] She holds up her hands to show they're empty, but of course for a monk that's not a very meaningful gesture even before you discount the armed guards and monsters. [22:20] 4Piu steps lightly, though she manages to restrain herself from outright skipping. 15[22:24] The Fangs enter with the peace that was promised. Soldiers gather, so do cooks and carpenters at the windows, and up the main road that runs to the temple gate, they see it suddenly fill with the faces of children who can hear the commotion. They can't see it, though, because their eyes are bound up in clean white cloth. [22:24] 10Daizo takes it easy. No sudden movements—not until they're necessary, anyway. Pasiap bides his time.  15[22:25] The woman leaps from the battlement to land before the Fangs. "You came in peace; we'll meet like with like." 15[22:25] Cathak Temida: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC_k8j8YwjU - Go and try, you'll never break me; we want it all, we want to play this part. [22:26] 4Piu will breezily drift away from the point of impact. 15[22:28] The woman: "I'm Temida, Master-at-Arms. You came in peace... but not just peace. Did the old man die?" [22:28] 4Piu: "Nope! Not yet anyway." [22:28] "He's burning at. Well! Every end." 15[22:29] Temida: "Every end but his own, sounds like. What's the word?" [22:30] 4Piu: "We're here to talk! And as a sign of good faith, we can tell you that no legion is about to walk over that hill. We're not his reinforcements. We don't work for Cathak Budokan." 15[22:31] Temida: "Yeah, you didn't come off like cowards or assholes. Pardon my Riverspeak." [22:33] 10Daizo: "Hah. No, we sailed to the Neck for business and found… this. If there's a peace we can make, we'd like to make it. And if there isn't, then we'd like to back the side of the righteous." 15[22:34] Temida laughs. "Wouldn't we all? Of course it's easy to say as much before you have to make a choice." [22:34] 07Dryas: "Your zealous elementals might have chased our ship out of anchorage. If you can see that word is passed along, it would put us in a better position to be of assistance, to everyone." 15[22:35] Temida: "I'll pass it along to our zealous elementalist. But you can just tell him yourself, too - it sounds like you're here to see all of us." 15[22:35] "Or am I wrong?" [22:35] 4Piu: "Nope! Meeting everyone's part of the deal." 15[22:37] Temida brings her fingers to her lips and blows a shrill whistle. "THEY'RE HERE! WE'RE BRINGING 'EM UP TO THE BOYS!" [22:37] 07Dryas, as things no doubt erupt into commotion: "Pardon my forwardness, but, why are the children blindfolded?" 15[22:37] Temida: "Lesson plan." 15[22:38] It's not clear at who or even in which direction she's shouting until the blindfolded children pop back inside the temple and another woman emerges, her face set with caution as she looks down at the newly-arrived Dynasts. 15[22:38] Temida: "She knows more." 15[22:38] Temida beckons her down with a casual gesture. 15[22:39] Now the whole town's watching, it feels like. Men, women, and children. [22:39] 4Caution? Probably not the one in charge then! 15[22:39] Temida: "We're going up." 15[22:40] The woman from the temple: "Right. Do they know?" 15[22:40] Temida: "If not, they will. Come on." 15[22:40] The other woman smiles and nods politely at the Fangs. "Good afternoon. Glad to see you made it." [22:41] 4Piu: "Thanks! That's slightly ominous phrasing!" 15[22:41] "This is slightly ominous territory. You're Piu?" To the other female Fang: "Which makes you Dryas." [22:42] 4Piu: "Yep!" [22:42] 10Daizo: "It would appear you already know quite a lot about us." [22:42] 07Dryas tips her head respectfully. "The Younger." 15[22:42] "Not as much as I'd like. I bet the reverse is true too. My name is Szalony." 15[22:42] Nellens Szalony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjbarM7nDzE - At the end of the storm is a golden sky and the sweet silver song of the lark. [22:45] "The pleasure is mine. Call me Daizo." [22:46] "Well met!" 4Szalony is the kind of name mean kids have a lot of fun rhyming with stuff. 15[22:48] The two women lead the Fangs up the road to the temple, and then around it, where the a winding road continues up the mountainside until it disappears into a mine. [22:50] 4They hold their meetings in the mines, huh. [22:50] 4She's feeling better and better about her pick. 15[22:51] Inside it glows red. Chunks of red jade suffused with elemental essence have been left embedded in the walls, where their glow lights the corridors of the mine complex as Temida and Szalony turn left, right, left, left, go up, up, left, right, and up again. They don't pass any miners; there is no sound of work within. 15[22:51] The convoluted path leads them to an open atrium, a perfectly circular chamber of smooth white stone etched with pictograms, with stone stools around a trapezoidal table, wide near the entrance that converges at a table-head wide enough for one seat. [22:52] 07Just as down at Budokan's fortress, Dryas tries to estimate how many living souls might be here. Food and fresh water can't be easy to come by here... [22:53] 10Daizo: "This isn't a natural chamber, that much is clear. Was it constructed recently, or found like this?" [22:54] 4Piu: "I'm guessing the table's to spec." 15[22:54] There are two men at the head of the table, wearing the robes of Immaculates. One of them - the only one of the four to keep his head shaved, watches the Fangs come in with Temida and Szalony. He seems in good spirits, and makes smiling eye contact with Piu. [22:54] 4She smiles back. 15[22:55] The other's high forehead is framed by wild hair as his fingertips dance over a huge and heavy-looking slab. He's bent over it, so you can't see his face. 15[22:55] The man watching them says, "A discovered treasure, like an old truth or a new friend. Welcome." [22:56] 4Can't quite tell if she's being hit on. Fairly certain, though, that this is Gu Len. "Hi! I'm V'neef Piu." 15[22:56] The watching man: "Well met, Cousin Piu. I'm Rikai." [22:56] 10Daizo tries to get a better look at the slab without making it obvious that he's gawping at it. [22:56] 4Nope! [22:57] 4Maybe Gu Len's the other guy then. 15[22:58] Rikai: "I'm so happy to see such capable people come to hear us out. In particular I'm happy to see family here. It bodes well." 15[22:58] V'neef Rikai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rSYHY8txdk - My heart is stone. My hands are clean. [22:59] "Brother Rikai, greetings. Call me Daizo. I suppose I'm a scholar." [22:59] 4This guy's slick. [23:04] 07Dryas takes in the air down here. 15[23:04] Even upside-down at a distance Daizo recognizes the ideographic style. He saw it in Abalone, beneath the tomb beneath the bar. He saw it, in rough and finger-wide strokes, on Garnet's jar. [23:05] 10Well, shit.  [23:05] 10Is the sign of Ligier present? 15[23:06] A litany of proclamations, invocations, and interdictions. A tablet of laws, framed around blasphemous iconography - the etching of a man, wide of frame and well-muscled in the depiction, wearing ancient military dress. The etching is highly detailed - you can make out wrinkles in his robes, the shape of his many medals, the imperious curl of his lips. But the stone is smooth and 15[23:06] unblemished where the man's eyes should be. 15[23:07] "Blood and scholars!" The bent-over man has a rural accent. It reminds Daizo of Clara a bit, or the people he grew up around back home in the provinces. 15[23:09] "We have common interests, Daizo and kin. But do we have common cause? Can a man call himself a scholar if he falters in search of truth - even if it means unlearning everything he ever learned?" [23:09] 10Oh. Oh no. Ligier might have been preferable.  15[23:10] "Can a woman call herself a sister if she hesitates to build a righteous bond?" 15[23:10] The man lifts his head, and faces the Four Fangs with the milky, scarred eyes of the blind. 15[23:10] "Even if it means leaving her own flesh and blood behind?" 15[23:10] Peleps Gu Len: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djG9g5hCOfU - Me, I'm an artist; all of y'all are acts. 15[23:12] The light coming down from the clear sky is directly overhead, coming through the glass-thin ceiling to fall straight upon the gathered eight. They cast no shadows. [23:14] 4Piu: "Gosh. Do I have to answer all at once?" 15[23:15] Gu Len: "No, ma'am. We're all called to answer in our own time." 15[23:16] He gestures at the table. "Sit! Please. They're not comfortable, I warn you." [23:17] 10Daizo suppresses a visceral recoil. "I am not so arrogant as to say I know all the truths of the world. So I'll hear you out." [23:17] 4That wouldn't be the aesthetic! He didn't make a joke about how she brought her own padding, though, so things have been worse. [23:17] 07Dryas will accept the hospitality, such as it is. Straight to business. "Do your people here have food and water?" 15[23:17] Gu Len smiles with big white teeth. "That's all I ask." 15[23:18] Rikai fields the practical question: "It's hard, but with tight rationing everyone's getting fed. The catch is thin in the rainy season, and you saw the land when you came in. Poisoned by the abuse of the mine." 15[23:18] "Water is easier, we have elementals pulling the salt from seawater." 15[23:19] "But between the soil and the Essence it's all but impossible to grow anything more satisfying than a mushroom." 15[23:20] Gu Len: "We are a hungry people." [23:22] 4Maybe hoping for an annoying but fundamentally trustworthy Golden Anathema was a bit too much. Rikai's got an angle, which she can respect, but Gu Len...that smile's creepy. And Daizo's on edge. [23:22] 07Dryas steeples her fingers: "Tell me more about your people. For what do they hunger?" 15[23:27] Gu Len: "Food. Safety. Truth. Justice. Order." 15[23:27] "Our world is fallen. It has unwound from both ends. The low are raised high, and the high... well." 15[23:27] "As below, so above." 15[23:29] "Five years ago, the Empress left us, and since then, the world has succumbed to tumult, to decay and disrepair. Every passing season people grow sicker, crueler, greedier. The oceans swell with shed blood and spit bile." 15[23:29] "Is this because we have lost her leadership?" 15[23:29] "No." 15[23:30] "Her loss was the first symptom of a rot that has plagued Creation since time immemorial." 15[23:30] "An unwinding not just of the natural hierarchy of men, but of the order of the universe itself." [23:32] 4Ooh. 'Men.' We've got a real pre-Realm old order on our hands here. 15[23:33] "And to the unwinding of things, to the dissolution of the old order like meat in a starving man's gut, I say: it's about damn time." [23:35] 10Daizo shifts in the just-as-uncomfortable-as-promised stone seat. "Is it the end of days? Or the beginning of a new turn of the wheel? Many people in times of chaos have wondered as much." 15[23:36] The atmosphere of the three other ex-Immaculates is tense. They're anticipating something. 15[23:38] "That, Daizo, is up to us. It comes down to the monumental task that circumstance has laid before us." 15[23:39] He spreads his hands wide, and the noon light throws their shadows across the table, reaching towards his sworn brother and sisters. "I'll put it as plainly as I can." 15[23:39] The blind man: "There is no sun." 15[23:39] "There hasn't been a sun for some time." 15[23:39] "We aim to install a new one." [23:39] 4Piu leans forward. "Ooooh." 15[23:39] "We aspire to ignition." [23:40] 10Daizo: "…what?" [23:41] 4Cheerfully: "Gotta admit, I had you down for a mystery cult -- no shame in that, don't know if we'll be joining but we can work with it -- but this is some extreme heterodoxy!" 15[23:42] "I know, I know," he gestures upward. "Your eyes tell you I'm crazy, a liar, a fool. And it's hard to falsify. It's not as if there exists a lens one can look through to confirm that what lights our world from dawn to dusk, what grows the plants and warms the winds, is a false Sun, an impostor, a mannikin." 15[23:42] "But I assure you it is so." [23:42] 07Dryas blinks a few times. [23:42] 4Piu: "So the Unconquered Sun got conquered, huh." [23:42] "Who's powering all the Golden Anathema?" [23:43] 07Dryas squints up, amulet in her hand. [23:45] 10Daizo: "It… sun-theft doesn't work like that, Piu. Not from my understanding. The power is celestial in nature, madness-inducing—of the Sun, but not the Sun itself." [23:46] 4To Daizo: "There are rules on how Sun-theft work?" [23:46] "Incredible!" [23:47] 07Dryas reaches under the table for Piu and Daizo's hands, on either side of her. She looks up. [23:47] 4Piu takes it. [23:47] 10Daizo: "Ye-e-e-s… it's not as though I was able to get into the most restricted libraries, of course. But you could… shatter the Sun. Slay it. Take his power and divide it. Is that what the Golden Anathema are?" 15[23:48] Dryas looks up. Her eyes burn. Her heart burns. It feels hollow. 15[23:48] Daystar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ou_y-nIkwY - ♩♪♬♪♫ [23:48] 10Daizo, fingers suddenly nerveless, clutches Dryas's hand. [23:49] 4Piu: "Dryas? What do you see?" 15[23:50] Temida and Szalony look in Rikai's direction. 15[23:50] Rikai watches Dryas eagerly. 15[23:50] Gu Len's grin only widens. [23:52] 07Dryas gasps - and then she looks down, eyes shut. 15[23:52] Gu Len: "I know that gasp." 15[23:52] "Did you feel it? No, you didn't. You reached out and felt emptiness." 15[23:53] "Did you see it? No, you didn't, because it isn't there." [23:53] "What the fuck is going on here, Dryas." [23:58] 07Dryas: "It wasn't nothing, there was something there. Distant, melancholy. Comforting, of a sort. But it wasn't nothing." 07Dryas fumbles for the ruby-red Chiaroscuro-glasses, which she puts over her eyes, but the red burn-bruises are evident around their edges anyway. [23:59] 10Daizo: "This has to be some kind of trick. You couldn't have a vacuum like that in the cosmic order. It's not—it's not allowed." 15[23:59] Gu Len: "The same words, I expected, uttered by the first people to learn the Empress had left us." [23:59] 4Piu: "Eh. Lot of people saying the same thing about the Realm." [23:59] 4Slight grin at Gu Len. 15[00:00] Gu Len winks in her direction. Pretty good aim, considering. [00:00] 4She wonders if the blind thing is an act. Every cult leader needs a bit! [00:01] 07Dryas: "...But it's... not well." [00:01] 10Daizo looks from his sister to the creepy blind man, and back again. "Fine. All right. Is there a way that I can see this for myself?" 15[00:05] Gu Len: "What do you think?" 15[00:05] Rikai: "She knows. She believes. We can show them. This is the best shot we're ever going to get." [00:05] 07Dryas: "I don't understand. It had a song. It's not like, I don't know, a random rock that nobody cares about, which doesn't have a song." 15[00:06] Rikai: "A palace. A fortress. A chariot." 15[00:06] "A vessel or vehicle for the thing itself. But not the thing itself." 15[00:06] "Come. We'll show you." 15[00:06] NEXT TIME: Beckoning the Visitor