As evening fell it found us sitting in Song’s wagon discussing our immediate plans. Selene made a well-timed entrance for us to explain how business was likely to keep us in Moonspire for the next few days and thus the White Clouds would go on ahead as usual. We’d stay behind and catch up with Selene’s Flurry later.
We left the dogs with the circus – Song introduced the one she’d adopted to the wasp and set it to guard her caravan and we left early the following morning as the camp were readying for their last full day in Moonspire. Along with Varten we followed Azeri’s directions and discussed what we wanted to do about the Censor as we travelled. No easy solutions presented themselves and we’d run out of ideas by late afternoon when we came to a weathered, part-crumbled stone spire and a building leant up against its side. It was well off the beaten track and we’d not have found it had we not been looking specifically.
We reassumed our human forms with Varten shifting his feathers about him like a cloak as Song reached out and knocked. There was a heavy silence before the door opened and a mature woman greeted us by name – Azeri had evidently told her daughter to expect company – who introduced herself as Tamari Yellowstone and welcomed us in. We met her family – her husband, Amber Grassland and her two children - a boy, Onyx Steps and his older sister, Levka Greenwood – and shared a meal as Teela played with the children.
Afterwards we sat around the fire burning in the grate and asked her to tell us what stories she could – those that Azeri could not (for she was the goddess of wisdom passed down through generations and we were not her children). Tamari was happy to oblige. She told us of the Censor – an elemental painted as a selfish being who sought power at the expense of others, who didn’t seek friends except where it would further her agenda and antagonised those gods she felt beneath her in status. Friendly to the war god of the East and various other significant deities it was those lesser in power who suffered at her hand – although as Censor she hadn’t been unique in using her position to advance her own goals.
Interesting as it was to know more about Adiubande the evening grew late and we graciously accepted the offer of hospitality for the night. With the morning came the opportunity for more stories, but first there was practical work to get done and we were happy to help out, especially after Amber Grassland cooked sausage and biscuit breakfast. Caelan and the children went out to hunt. They were relatively adept at hunting and foraging but with the aid of a Solar Exalt fared a little better than they might have done otherwise. As Caelan summoned his bow from Elsewhere they reacted with some surprise but he explained hurriedly that it was simply a ‘power’ he could use and they accepted the explanation. While they didn’t have Awakened essence, their parents did and we’d suspected the children would be far more accepting of such things. With the deer felled Caelan realised a little late that he’d not be able to get it back without help – thankfully Ariorn was only a whistle away and with a little manhandling, supported the carcass on her back.
Meanwhile Olvir was mounting a powerful assault on the wood pile outside and had a pile of logs stacked high by the time Caelan returned. Song had been helping Tamari prepare bundles of herbs for drying, explaining some of the more unusual but beneficial attributes and learning more about Adiubande. When she was young, Tamari revealed, she was said to have been a dragon in the wrong element – her temper was more fire aspected. It was stories like this, in part, which brought about Azeri’s harsh treatment... humorous tales at the censor’s expense were passed down in families and Azeri was told to prevent such a thing. She could – and would – do no such thing – and thus the censor demonstrated her wrathful temper.
As the herbs were bundled and hung to dry or smoke in the fire Azeri related another tale, a fight Adiubande had had with a Dragon-Blooded many years ago. Legend held he prepared his weapons with a mixture of herbs and roots which cut more deeply into her hide than they should (though not deeply enough to bring him victory). Azeri didn’t know why the plants described in the tale should have such an effect but Song, with her knowledge of alchemy, did, and realised he’d combined particular plant antivenoms to counteract the powers of the wood dragon. Intrigued she explained why to Tamari – it was something more for her tale.
Caelan, Ariorn and the children arrived back and Olvir and Amber Grassland went to help shift the deer. Leyka presented Song with a bunch of collected flowers – it seemed Caelan had been telling them they had to fetch her something – and slightly bemused, Song thanked the girl who seemed quite relieved to have found the right material.
We sat down and listed to Tamari again as Amber went outside to gut the deer. While Olvir was keen on hearing the tale of the dog and the donkey, Caelan and Song weren’t – they’d heard Olvir tell it too many times when drunk – and instead encouraged Tamari to relate stories of the founding of Brightwater, of long-ago airships and the glory of the First Age.
We took our leave after lunch, thanking Tamari for her stories, and headed back to Moonspire, finding a spot to camp overnight where Song enlisted a rather reluctant Van-Oris to help her practice a Charm she had learnt to force a spirit to materialise and prevent it from venturing too far from her. He got his feathers ruffled but was unhurt and it was otherwise a quiet night – we were on our way at first light and while our steps were firm and determined our decisions were less so. The Censor posed an ongoing problem and Tamari’s stories hadn’t presented us with an immediate way of resolving the problem. It took several hours of discussion but by the time the Moonspire itself hove into view we’d concluded we could do no harm by talking to her on the matter.
Taking our old rooms at the Ice Wolf Caelan wrote a message to the Prince to warn him we and the Censor would likely be in the vicinity of the Spire tomorrow morning and he might want the guards to be stationed elsewhere, just in case. Song took off (literally) with the note and ensured it was delivered at once; security and protocol meaning little to a Lunar who could become a small bird and fly through open windows.
Then it was on to the Crimson Goblet where Adiubande had a suite of rooms under her alias as the Daughter of the Amber Moon and left another note – this one with the innkeeper – requesting that she meet with us the following morning at the Spire. In case of immediate reprisals we and Varten stayed the night in the sky manse, two miles above the city and guarded (albeit indirectly) by two Celestial Lions. However we spent a peaceful, if restless night and were ready to meet the Censor at the appointed time.
It was never going to go well, and perhaps we should have been glad when the confrontation was over that it hadn’t actually become a straight up fight. She wasn’t initially willing to allow us into the Spire on any account, and thought little of the Mandate handed down by Heaven – such had not been the case for centuries, she argued, and decried our right to claim it. She regarded us dimly and Olvir took swift offence at her analogy about ants... and when a Full Moon Lunar is angered it becomes swiftly clear. Song tried to mollify both parties but hackles were already raised.
However she did not stalk away leaving us with nothing, but demanded something of worth – considerable worth – as at least a first payment if she were ever to permit us to venture into the tower without a conflict. Still, it wasn’t an idea we were happy with and we parted on terse terms, returning to the sky manse to discuss it. We didn’t know if we could win in a straight up fight, we didn’t have riches by which to bribe her and we certainly didn’t have what she’d like most – yasal crystals. Even if we did, knowing what she used them for made us additionally reluctant.
But jade itself wasn’t entirely out of the question – the Jadespike mine was, after all, essentially ours unless someone else stood up to claim it. Perhaps if we had jade, we could source something as payment – much as we disliked the idea – and then deal with her later? We could travel there in only a few days now, with Caelan’s new-found Exalted horsemanship skills, and were all keen to know how the village was faring. Thus with a plan only vaguely formed, we resolved to return to Jadespike.
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