We stepped outside and Varten immediately attracted attention from curious circus folk. Some were more forthright than curious... Selene made her way over, intrigued by the new stranger in our midst. We made introductions and Selene suggested if he was interested in joining the circus he should try out for it... she was looking to add to our numbers and would be holding auditions later.
Varten evidently recognised Selene for what she was; he’d had occasional dealings with the Raksha of the North – the Jet Court, he told us later. After she’d left he asked if she was bound to us - but we weren’t entirely sure what he meant by that, so he went on to explain how Raksha were bound by oaths in a much greater way than most. A Raksha who swore an oath freely (or a given value of ‘free’ at any rate) was bound to it in the same way as anyone sworn to an oath in the presence of a Solar Eclipse caste, like Jeret, but it could be even more troublesome if the Raksha breached it. Also, the more powerful a Raksha became the more their oath would mean, as would the power of the one sworn... an oath held to a powerful being would bind the Raksha closer than one to a mortal for example.
Varten wondered if she had others who were bound to her, other Raksha, and said something about how we could tell them for she’d ‘carry the graces she’d vexed away from them’. It didn’t make a lot of sense to us. We were fairly certain she was the only one – as sure as we could be, at any rate.
We were intent on plotting our next course of action which was to go and visit Kashlyk and ask if he, or any other deities he knew, had been subject to what we believed was the Censor of the East’s harsh justice. If there were gods who would agree, essentially, to ‘testify’ against her, Varten thought Vanileth may be able to manipulate things in our favour and generate adversity in her camp from the domain of heaven. It was certainly a better idea than any we’d come up with and if we made a few enquiries of local gods we’d soon know if our hypothesis was correct and if any would help us out.
We could talk to Ethris... but she’d already been cagey on the subject so it was to the coliseum we first planned to head before going on to the library to see if other local gods might be found who might fit the bill. We gave Varten a brief overview of the city gods and the Prince, explaining how we’d spoken to him and would do again, to facilitate access to the Spire. He asked us if the Prince had our approval... and realising he asked assuming we had absolute authority as Celestial Exalted, Song replied with a smile – evident to Caelan and Olvir but not to Varten – that yes, he did. We were, of course, assessing him and going about our business in such a way as to not disrupt his rulership she said, and Varten nodded, believing he understood exactly. It was another reminder of how the Celestial Exalted could be seen – and how far we were from fulfilling that vision.
Varten elected not to come with us to the coliseum – his size and appearance would turn a lot of heads and he wanted to get out and stretch his wings so asked if there was anything we needed that he could do. Since we’d mentioned it he thought he might be able to track down steel wood – theorising that in times past it had been grown locally as the Spire would have used plentiful supplies – so he elected to do some exploring. Olvir asked him to keep an eye out for tyrant lizards as well, and nodding he pushed apart his feathers to reveal a small bird, like a kite in miniature, which stretched her tiny wings and fluttered onto his hand as he held it outstretched to us. She would come and find us if he found anything, he told us.
Olvir asked her name and he shook his head – she didn’t have one. This didn’t stop Olvir who used his Charm to speak the tongues of animals and asked her directly. She gave a short, high-pitched call which Olvir translated as Sharp Talon, and told Varten this (much to his surprise) before she nestled back amongst his feathers as he took off, flying low across the ground before vanishing amidst the forest.
We made it to the coliseum where Song offered up a prayer to Kashlyk and asked him to speak with us. He arrived quickly and welcomed us to his sanctum where we explained what it was we were looking for. He’d had no trouble with the Censor – he saw her rarely and mostly kept to his coliseum, but there were a few gods he knew who might have had encounters such as we spoke of and he promised to ask a few questions and let us know in a few days if any would be willing to speak to us.
He’d been enjoying the coliseum fights but wondered when Caelan and Olvir would show their mettle and make for an interesting battle. That they’d so far not shown their animas showed they were holding back and Kashlyk hoped the upcoming bouts would encourage them to put on an even more dramatic show. Neither were sold by his argument and it was evident Kashlyk would enjoy the fights anyway, especially Olvir’s – Alik hadn’t especially impressed him and he gave us the impression he wouldn’t be sad if Olvir killed him.
We thanked Kashlyk for his time and were on our way to the library to see if a little research on local gods might help when we spotted Sharp Talon who, after she’d got our attention, was keen to lead us out of the city. We followed her till trees surrounded us before Olvir shifted into the form of a kite to ask her what she’d found: a giant lizard. Excited, he flew on ahead while Song and Caelan hung back a little to allow Olvir space to hunt.
He spotted it from overhead as it predated on buffalo and landed to shift into great ape form to stalk it through the trees before making a move, leaping to deliver a solid punch to its head. The blow which would have knocked out an ox merely made the lizard’s jawbone rattle and unimpressed it turned to snap at him and bit down hard. It might have killed a mortal man but as Caelan and Song watched, moonsilver re-knit the deep gouges scored in Olvir’s flesh and as he wrestled with the beast he pulled one of the vicious canines from its mouth and with the force of a titan drove it deep into the creature’s brain. As it collapsed to the ground with a crash, Olvir shifted form again into a mospid and slithered down its gullet to devour its heart from within. All was silent in the forest for a moment before the carcass began to quiver and shake before erupting in a vile explosion of intestine and flesh as Olvir burst from the body in the form he’d just stolen. Like some unearthly, horrific phoenix, a tyrant lizard rose from the corpse on the ground, wreathed in a moonsilver aura and wearing a monstrous grin.