The morning was still young and bright with a late winter chill in the air. Caelan mounted up and the two Lunars chose their preferred forms as we headed out to find the last manse: Song knew where she was going and we found it easily enough. An almost perfect ring of trees surrounded a frozen pool of water and pushing through the treeline to find it we noted the chill in the air turn decidedly wintry as the temperature within the clearing was lower by some degrees. Frost had formed on the inner edges of trunks and branches.
The pool was the strangest thing however, with ripples moving across the seemingly frozen surface and on closer inspection we saw fish within the pool swimming amidst the ice as easily as they’d normally swim within water. Yet the pool felt solid and frozen and Olvir, testing a theory, shifted into his crab form and took the plunge – except he skittered on top instead of sinking into it. Song gave crab-shaped Olvir a push and sent him sliding across to the pond to the other side where Caelan picked him up, plonked him unceremoniously upside down and sent him spinning back. The game was interrupted by one of the fish who – innocuously enough, or so we thought – came to the surface to take a look and promptly took a swipe at Olvir’s prone claw, biting a chunk out of him. Song hastily grabbed him and righted him on the bank where he shifted back to his human form, the wound healing as he changed as he called on a charm to heal himself. Of all three, he was the least worried at the strangely powerful and violent fish and most impressed by their abilities which he exclaimed loudly as Song stared warily into the deep, calling on her ability to see the essence around them.
She realised they weren’t fish but elementals – air elementals and powerful ones, some with essence equal to her own and other smaller ones with power diminishing relatively, but all with more raw power than mere fish. Wondering about their other abilities she bent low to the edge of the ice and called out to them in the tongue of water-creatures, grateful to Luna’s gift to allow her the speech of animals. She wasn’t sure if they’d have the intelligence to respond but a large fish soon swam to the surface and replied – in Old Realm. Song shrugged – she could converse just as easily that way – and as they spoke the fish told her the pond was home. It didn’t, however, mind if we three attuned to the place though as a sweetener she asked if there was anything it and its fellows may like. It transpired they had a fondness for birds who occasionally landed on the ice and she nodded. Describing a hearthstone she ascertained there didn’t seem to be one within the pond and like many of the other manses it likely as not siphoned all its energy along the dragon lines to the Spire, so turned to the others to relay the conversation and with that, we set off bird hunting. A certain element of competition arose between Caelan and Olvir as to who could catch the best bird first but as it turned out they both got back around the same time with a good catch. Song followed shortly after – happy to concede they’d beaten her to it. She’d found a ground nesting avian sitting on eggs (and Teela later made sure they didn’t go to waste). The three birds were one by one placed carefully on the ice and we watched in eerie fascination as the fish swam up to nibble at the corpses. As they took mouthfuls the birds slowly sank into the ice where they were devoured, feathers, bone and all.
With the fish busy, we sat around the pond well-wrapped up against the chill and spend a couple of hours attuning. As suspected, no-one resisted our attempts to claim it, and rising to leave for town we were glad to be back in the slightly warmer surrounds of the woodland. It was a good hour’s journey back and Song had some unpleasant revelations for the others to do with Selene and her true nature, which Song had realised when viewing her with her newly developed essence sight. She told the others of the origins of the story Selene had told around the fire the previous night: the Balorian crusade spoken from the view of one antithetical to Creation and the simple fact Selene herself wasn’t what she claimed to be. Song shuddered as she called to mind the pure Wyld energy she’d seen in the leader of the circus when she’d watched her with eyes open to the flow of essence.
It made sense now that she’d sensed her caravan as being a Wyld-aspected manse. It was a Waypoint – a place of the Wyld carried in Creation and presumably a source of protection from the influence Creation would by its nature seek to impose on a Raksha spending too much time within its bounds. It was how Selene managed to travel at will and not descend into whatever madness would afflict a Raksha far from home. The very word ‘raksha’ instilled a certain cold dread in the minds and bellies of those who heard it – everyone knew the stories of the creatures who bit at the edges of Creation and sought to destroy anything of form. Song knew well they weren’t just tales told to scare small children, either. Raksha were real, destructive and sinister beings.
Selene, however, had shown no sign of bringing down her ravaging might upon Creation in the time we’d known her. She’d played the part of a Dragon Blood exceptionally well and given none of us reason to question her role. She’d not – that we knew of – taken upon herself to wipe out anything within Creation with the might of one born beyond its bounds. Still: she had lied to everyone and continued to do so and given her insistence that we reveal our true natures to the circus folk as soon as we told her what we’d become, it seemed she had more to hide and held herself to a different standard. We agreed that telling the circus was probably the best thing to do but wondered now why Selene had insisted? Did she perhaps expect a different outcome? No more did we think she held our best interests at heart. Indeed – as we talked it over none of us really knew what to think of her. Olvir especially could hardly believe Selene of all people would wish us ill – yet, her secret nature lay revealed. We agreed to take things carefully – and make it something we’d keep between ourselves for now and not mention to anyone – Selene included.
We arrived back at the camp in a thoughtful mood, though the bustling of the circus soon had us caught up in preparations for the night’s performance. Song had potions to prepare and a crowd to entertain and went off to distribute sweets and fortune cookies to the locals. Olvir, well-oiled, began his usual tour of the town’s hotspots to show off with feats of strength leaving Caelan to prepare for his act and spend the day wondering if he ought to tell Song he’d rather wear something other than the ill-fitting, itchy yellow suit he’d been given for his first performance. Apparently oblivious to the circus joke he decided against telling her, despite Ylang’s suggestion, and opted for a sneaky change of clothes before his Big Top appearance.
He and Ariorn drew rapturous applause and Song seemed remarkably accepting of his costume shift when he told her afterwards... or perhaps she was simply trying to contain her mirth that he’d still thought the yellow outfit was needed. Either way, the first performance in Moonspire went well and the circus camp was a merry one.
We were up early the next morning despite the events of the day before. It was the second round of coliseum matches and today Caelan and Olvir would face other essence users for the first time. There was nothing much we needed to do in camp and the appeal of the hot spring manse was considerable so heading out for the day we enjoyed a relaxing soak before heading back to camp to prepare. Olvir had no shortage of people helping him oil up for the event or cheer him and Caelan on from the stands as both won their first round matches easily. The eagerly anticipated bouts between Essence users came next – the mortals having by now been knocked out – mostly honourably.
Olvir was next up to face Kiril the Firm. Participants were given a little longer to prepare this time around and Olvir, knowing his Charms would take barely seconds to summon, decided to amuse himself with a couple of the juicy skewers sold by the stands around the arena and lined a couple up on a stand near his position. He’d polished off two out of three when the shout went up and the battle was on.
It had become evident from previous fights Kiril was a practitioner of Earth style and as he and Olvir wrestled Olvir’s solid blows seemed to roll off him and impact the ground with immense force. Olvir wasn’t about to be beaten however, though Song could see the Essence whirling around him as he poured as much into his attacks as he drew back from the surroundings. She could see Kiril’s Earth-focussed power too yet knew she couldn’t reveal his weak spot to Olvir and watched with barely concealed restraint as the two men sought for control of the fight.
Their combat tore great rents in the floor of the arena before Olvir finally gained and held the upper hand, wresting Kiril above his head and letting out a bellow of triumph. Song watched as Kiril’s ties to the earth dissipated as he lost contact with the foundation of his solidity and power. Half the man he was, Kiril had fought well but Olvir emerged victorious.
The epic duel done, Olvir retrieved his last skewer and finished it off, to equal parts cheers and jeers from the crowd.
There wasn’t much let up in the excitement as Caelan’s round was up next. He was fighting Baltazar the speardancer, an elegant, tall woman who nonetheless looked a little encumbered when she walked out onto the sands carrying spear and shield. As the preparation time commenced however it became apparent she knew exactly what she was doing as her katas gave her the grace to wield both as naturally as if they were extensions of her arms. It looked to be a well-matched fight as Caelan drew his sword to face her. She attacked first, charging with a true strike which Caelan only avoided by a hair’s breadth before turning to execute an almost perfect counterattack which cut deeply into her unprotected flesh. Blood dripped onto the arena floor and a hush fell around the crowd – would this match see the first death of the night?
It would not; as Caelan, realising how wounded she was, parried aside her next blow and rolled out of the way. Sensing restraint, Baltazar growled at Caelan to fight properly. Still wary, his next attack was hesitant before he realised she meant exactly what she said and grievously wounded she still had every intention of seeing the battle out. His next strike was to disarm her and with blood now flowing freely from her wound he cast her spear aside where it tumbled into the dust. Realising it was over, she conceded the match and was helped from the arena where Kashlyk Ashak was on hand to see to her wounds.
If Caelan’s match was short and perhaps lacking in drama, it was at least notable by the honor of both participants. The next match was anything but, as Alik of the Streets proved his reputation true by punching his fist straight through the skull of his opponent and standing back as the body dropped lifeless to the floor, picking and flicking bits of brain meat from his knuckles. As shocked cheers for the victor echoed patchily around the arena, the food vendors sighed. Alik was bad for business. Few people fancied a sausage in a bun after they’d seen one of his bloody battles.
Thankfully the last battle of the night between Solmund of Orsha and a Terrestrial Martial Artist saw a return to form as Solmund took a well-won victory leaving his opponent beaten but not ashamed. Caelan and Olvir looked towards the opponents they’d face next. Olvir’s eyes narrowed – he’d be facing Alik next, and the betting odds saw, perhaps unsurprisingly, the street brawler as favourite to win. Longest odds were on Olvir, but no-one was discounted just yet.
Putting it aside for the moment Olvir went to talk to Kiril, inviting him along for drinks with the circus and congratulating him on a well fought battle. Kiril declined and it was just the circus folk who gathered around the pitched up wagons to heartily congratulate both Olvir and Caelan on their victories and speculate in faux whispers about the upcoming rounds. Drink flowed freely though the party didn’t run so late – pitched up in town the circus folk knew they were working and as Luna’s waning crescent reached midheaven most had drifted off to bed.
Early morning rain greeted us the next day and without a performance to give that evening we had most of the day to ourselves. Song had been pondering something the Celestial Lions had said, about an underground hangar somewhere and realised if that were the case there must be a way for the airships held within to escape – the tower was too narrow for all but the smallest of vessels to travel upwards inside and in the dreams sent from Vanileth she remembered craft which could have swallowed the tower itself, large as it was.
Explaining her theory to the others she set to investigating and after studying the tower and the area it sat in from the air she shifted from bird to rat form to scurry about the place unobserved. Scratching at the loose packed dirt around the cobblestones she realised there was definitely something underneath and a little more investigative digging revealed a ring of marble stretching out from the tower in all directions enclosed by a thin line of moonsilver. Sitting so closely to it she could hardly see the join, another line of moonsilver bordered an outer ring of marble. So whatever was beneath the spire was indeed much larger that the tower suggested – but there seemed to be no easy-to-find access point. It was an interesting find but nothing that gave us any more than that.
Flicking dirt and rain from her whiskers Song scampered back to find Caelan and Olvir and reveal what she’d found. We walked a little further out of town and under shelter of trees discussed the Spire, the Prince and the Censor. Olvir had been thinking of ways in which we could subtly indicate authority to the Censor and suggested we seek her opinion on the Creation Ruling Mandate before mentioning we were interested in the Spire. If we could get her to acknowledge we had authority over deities in Creation she’d have no choice but to accede to us where the Spire was concerned. At least, that’s how it could go, if all went in our favour.
Caelan wasn’t keen. It amounted to trickery, he thought, and would tip her hand to our presence and intention and when we left she’d be well armed to take whatever preparatory action she deemed fit. But it would give us an idea of what she thought and how we was likely to act, Olvir countered, and grant us an equal advantage in terms of time. Song felt Olvir’s approach would be a way of gently broaching the subject – and why leave, if we’d committed to the conversation?
Couldn’t we just report her to her boss, if she ignored the mandate, Olvir asked, perhaps imagining the Celestial bureaucracy akin to city politics. And maybe it was, but Song explained somewhat regretfully that such things were on a far grander scale – made so by not less personages than the gods whose Exaltations we represented and while it might be possible to go to Yu Shan and petition Ideal Flame, the deity who oversaw the operations of the Censors of Creation... or perhaps to the Censor overseeing the Blessed Isle as they were superior in rank... the likelihood was that the ‘Creation Ruling Mandate’ said it all. It was our issue to deal with should we come across a transgressor: we were meant to be the power in Creation and able to enforce it.
It became evident we had no clear plan and the spectre of the Censor of the East hovered over us (though we hoped not literally) as we made our way back to the circus camp. A stranger in a feathered cloak caught our eye as we got close, he was on a path to the circus as well and he seemed in all ways larger than life. To Song’s Essence sight his feathered cloak was no mere cloak but a part of him – and his Essence was strong. To her preternatural senses she could even tell he was God Blooded... at least, she would have named him so but his Essence was a little stronger than her own and a child of a God would normally have become a deity themselves in that case. Another mystery to be investigated.
As we got closer we hailed him and introduced ourselves, since it seemed he was headed for the circus. Our intuition served us well as he was seeking us out – and when he introduced himself we weren’t surprised. His name was Varten and Vanileth was his father. Our presence and intentions towards the Moonspire had stirred his interest in the world enough to send Varten to offer what aid he could, so here he was and we were more than happy to have an ally, especially given our recent conversation.
We decamped to Song’s caravan where Varten had to hunch a little to fit – he was altogether too tall for the wagon – and Song offered around tea and sweetcakes. Olvir, to save room, shifted into his monkey form and perched on the tabletop, much to the surprise of Varten who stared incredulously at him and explained that while he knew about the ability of Lunars to shapeshift... it was a different thing entirely to witness it. Olvir shrugged and stuffed a whole sweetcake in his mouth, making the most of a small mouth and thus relatively larger cake, enjoying simple pleasures.
We asked Varten if he knew much about the Censor of the East. He didn’t, but Vanileth had found out a few things (on presumably the heavenly equivalent of a grapevine) which suggested she was more willing to work with gods who’d laid claim to cities that tradition would otherwise suggest and that most crimes committed in her domain had a price to be ignored. That she’d accept bribes wasn’t much of a surprise but Varten didn’t mention anything about our suspicions she was using her weapon of office to enforce order, so we asked.
He seemed a little shocked at the suggestion – saying such a thing would be reserved only for the most severe of punishments – but when we spoke of our conversations with Adler and Ethris he admitted it did sound incriminating – though what it meant for us we weren’t sure. We were still the only representatives of the Creation Ruling Mandate around and if the Censor of the East had been overstepping her dictatorial boundaries there was no-one else around to impart justice. If anything – it made the situation all the more worrisome. Song poured more tea. We also had a little time to talk on other things and forget the awkward Censor situation for a while...