Kesai/TheExaltationOfALostSoul

The field looked like it was holding its breath, the setting sun casting his blood-scarlet rays across the grass. A gentle wind blew, ruffling through the trees that ringed the meadow where, so soon, this peace would be corrupted by screams and bloodshed.

He sat quietly, tending the fire as he watched, knowing that they were there and watching him in return. The faint glitter of the Zenith mark on his forehead caught the dying light as he stood up, stretching and slowly, methodically, ritualistically donning his Orichalcum armor and shouldering the daiklaive. A breath was taken. Now or never...

Away from the solar was a lone figure, sitting atop a black warhorse, reigns slackened against the sides of the beast's neck. She was dressed in black, a mask covering her face- everything hidden but a pair of grey eyes that watched the young man with a mixture of hatred... and interest. Her eyes turned over her shoulder and she looked into the woods, knowing that somewhere back there, the cavalry was moving onward and awaiting the results of her scouting mission. But she didn't care much about that at the moment. Instead, she paused for a heartbeat longer and edged the horse forward, nudging his flanks with her heels and urging him on.

Someone was coming. The sound of the horse's hooves on the soil alerted him and the daiklaive was swung from his shoulder, held with one hand as the other was raised to balance himself, awaiting the inevitable onslaught... But no onslaught came. Instead, a single woman on a black stallion approached, nearly melding into the shadows as she came closer. "Hold," she said, lifting a begloved hand, "I am required, by orders, to kill you. But I would speak with you first." An interesting greeting, that, but he lowered the sword. His guard was still high, though the point of the blade rested on the dirt, "What would you speak to me of, Dragon-Kin?" he spat, glaring at her with his tawny golden eyes.

"I am not a Dragon-Blooded. I never Exalted. Bastard child of a bastard child and no chance of manifesting an Exaltation. You probably could kill me without a thought so you don't need to wave that meat-cleaver at me." The woman gestured to him to set aside the daiklaive, hoping that he would realize the truth of her words. A mortal - albeit a skilled one - had little hope of taking down one of the Anathemas single-handedly. "I have questions. Such as, why are you so damned? What did you do to become so... ill favored, Forsaken?"

He snorted, "A perfect example of your ignorance. We are not damned, the Unconquered Sun himself chose me to Exalt and bring about the remembrance of the First Age. We are peacemakers, we protect the weak and innocent from harm and injury. I am not forsaken, I am Exalted." Was their ignorance really so great? He'd heard stories... but he'd never taken them seriously. What had the Dragon-Blooded done to themselves? Delusional bastards.

"Peacemakers? You are the Demon Princes, what peace could come of that? You would kill us all and bring about the end of all things!" she exclaimed, shifting her weight on the charger between her knees.

"Demon Princes? Those are the Yozi. Not we."

"Nonetheless..."

"No, you have been lied to, woman. If you ever get the chance to read the histories, you will find out that it was the Dragon-Blooded that betrayed us! We did nothing wrong beyond giving into hedonism... which I will not say was right, but we did not kill people- we saved them. Who do you think ushered in the First Age? It was not your Dragon-Blooded..."

"Wait... what are you talking about?"

"You mean you don't know?!"

"Don't know what?"

"They are keeping you in the dark, aren't they..." he shook his head, leaning on the guard of the Daiklaive as he gestured to her. "History! The Dragon-Blooded overthre the Solars because of a few of the Siderials saw something in the stars that didn't bode well... and now look what's happened? The great and wonderful First Age has crumbled, leaving us to wallow in our own ignorance!" This angered him, he didn't think that they would really have gone so far as to erase things of such importance from the records.

The woman slung one leg over the saddle and rested her knee on it, looking down at him, "So... what you're saying is that everything I've been taught my entire life is a lie?" she'd had suspicions, recently, that they were keeping things from her. From all of those in the Realm. But this... it almost seemed unreal. Then again, she'd overhead things she wasn't supposed to know- the Dragon-Blooded that *did* Exalt and lead the Hunt in truth... they spoke freely when they didn't think that their meat shields were around to overhear them. And all of what he was telling her just suddenly clicked. "Holy..." she murmured, her jaw dropping slightly as the weight of this sudden realization hit her.

He felt... gratified as her expression abruptly changed from one of disbelief and skepticism to one of utter awe. A smile showed on his lips and he lifted a gauntleted hand to brush the locks of blond hair out of his eyes. "Do you see?" he asked softly, almost imploring her to understand- though he knew she already did.

She did see. She saw better than she had ever before... and it was at that moment that she heard the horn announcing that an Anathema had been found. It wasn't far, in fact it was on the very ridge that she herself had been standing on. The trees poured forth horses and men on horseback shouting. The woman growled deep in her throat, turning her horse. A cry of battle on her lips, she charged forward. A glow. At first it was dim, and then it grew stronger as she drew throwing knives from her belt- hurling them one after another after another into the throats of the human shields that the wretched Masters of the Hunt hid behind. When the humans were bleeding to death and squirming in the muddied earth, she turned to the Solar- confused at the look of surprised joy in his eyes as he pointed to her forehead. "They said you'd never Exalt and look at you now..." his tone was soft as butter and just as smooth as he gestured t the ghostly outline of a phoenix that flickered around her shoulders and the golden circlet that appeared at the centre of her forehead. Within that ring was a patch of darkness, lit with blazing stars that glittered and twinkled in a ghostly limitation of the true midnight sky. Gold likced the edges of the anima that surrounded her, the bird's head thrown back in a mute cry of freedom, wings outstretched and body poised at the height of a climb- that moment before the dive back towards earth. "The battle isn't over yet," she reminded him, dropping from the horse to the ground and stretching. Her body felt stronger... faster... and it gave her much-needed confidence as the true Hunters emerged from the shadows. "You!" they cried, almost as one, pointing towards her and standing stock-still for a moment. She grinned, a malicious, hateful grin that held neither warmth nor humor. "Me."