Shades Of The Loom/Part 2

The 12th Day of Resplendent Wood, 602 in the Year of Our Empress. Fallstavia

Iselsi Navia watched herself go with a strange mixture of regret, relief and nostalgia. It was an amazing opportunity, to truly see what she had been in a way no one else had ever accomplished. Still, she was glad for the distance of age. The marks of domination her father had left on her had faded to dust long ago but they were still fresh on that Navia. All of the painful adolescence of a new Sidereal, the doubt, and being without purpose...yes, those were experiences Navia was relieved to do without.

"She'll be fine," the pregnant Navia said next to her. The real Navia turned to her future self and bowed her head respectfully.

"We have much to talk about, Navia," she said to herself. "How much time do we have?"

"More than that one had," reassured the older Sidereal. "Which is well. There is much to talk about. I know you burn with the questions I had when I was you, so ask them."

"Do you know why I never mentioned the Great Contagion?" Iselsi Navia said at once. "You know how many people died. Why wouldn't I have tried to prevent that catastrophe?"

"An excellent question," observed the pregnant Navia. "Why didn't you warn her?"

"Because, when I was her, I was not warned by who I am now," Navia answered. She schooled her irritation, keeping her face composed with a millennia of practice. She was not the undisciplined child she'd been, no matter how fresh the reminder of her youth. "I was reluctant to deviate in the slightest from the script of things to come. What little has been unveiled from the Pivot Child Prophecy only convinces me all the more that it is essential the Child be born, critical to Creation's survival, and I would not risk that for even a million lives saved from the Great Contagion. Not for all who died."

"Very good," the older Navia agreed. "Nor did I. Now, let me tell you what I was told when I was you. The Great Contagion could not have been prevented."

"Do we ever find out how it started?" Iselsi Navia wondered.

"No," said her future self grimly, her mouth firming into a flat line. "And because of that, no warning of ours would be heeded by the Bureau. I will tell you what I was told when I was you by who I am now; we could not have changed anything."

"How can you be so sure?" Navia asked archly. "We both understand Fate perfectly well. We know how to weave Destiny and change the future."

"But we didn't. If true time travel were possible, if who I am now is actually real in the context of your reality, then changing the past is possible. We do understand Destiny, however, and we both know how impossible it is to change what has happened. Once woven, the Tapestry is immutable. It can be changed but it cannot be unwoven. Is there a possibility where we warned her and she changed the future? What do you think?"

"That cannot be a genuine possibility," Iselsi Navia said, shaking her head. "Because the past has already happened for me. I am not a possibility anymore. I am, for present purposes, the real Navia. After a thousand years, I understand more but not enough. This is my second question. How can this encounter be happening? If I am the real Navia, who was that young Sidereal I reassured and steered on the correct path? The past cannot change. So what was that? And if, someday I become you, who will I be right now when I'm talking to her? A...ghost of spent possibility?"

"Navia, consider this," said the older Navia, thoughtfully tapping her lips with an index finger. The mannerism was interesting. It was not one Navia herself presently used. "The Loom of Fate was not built by the Gods. The Primordials created it as the great Engine of the World, creating and sustaining the known. You told yourself that just now. The past cannot change, in part, because in a fundamental way the Loom says it cannot. Do you see?"

"So all of the strange things that have happened to people in here, ever, may be true impossibilities anywhere else but not necessarily so here," Navia mused aloud. "That is strange and it seems contradictory."

"Perhaps it is," the other one said. "Nonetheless, we are having this conversation. When you become me, you will believe as I do; that whether I am in some way determining my past or not is ultimately irrelevant. I tell you what I was told because I believe in this future, Navia, and have faith because the Pivot Child is almost ready to be born."

"That supercedes all else," Iselsi Navia agreed. "Now, tell me who the father is. No prophetic forecasting has revealed that information to me."

"Nor will it for a while yet. Despite that, you must find him and conceive a child before then." The older Navia smiled, a little sadly the present one thought. Iselsi Navia wondered at the long red hair. Had she promoted out of the Capital Convention altogether? Was she no longer the Spymaster of the All-Seeing Eye or one of the Immaculate Order's most revered monks? Was Iselsi Navia just Navia once again?

"Tell me what I must do."

"Several things must occur, Navia." The older one winced slightly and pressed a hand to her stomach. Navia stepped forward and, with a hesitation she could hardly have explained, she reached forward and touched the swell of her other self's stomach. Indeed, the child was kicking. Navia felt wonder bubble up inside of her, as fresh as the feelings of that child-self she'd just been talking to. That was her daughter inside of there. A daughter not yet conceived but hers. Hers and Creation's. A reverential awe swept over her, followed by a deep instinct to ward and protect the unborn child.

"She's amazing," Iselsi Navia whispered, feeling at the burgeoning thread of the child's life. If she looked over her shoulder at the Tapestry, would she be able to see the Pivot Child in it? How could she feel her daughter's destiny, indistinct as it was, when she hadn't been conceived yet? How was any of this possible?

"Only the Maiden knows," the older Navia answered, as if knowing her thoughts. Come to think of it, she likely did. Iselsi Navia straightened and gave a curt nod to her counterpart.

"Tell me."

"You will know him by his blood and by his name," her other self said. "The Pivot Child is to be born from the Dragons and he will be near enough. He will be named for his mother, yet not by his mother. He will be chaste, pure, and your eyes will reveal him to you. This is how you shall know who the father will be."

"There's more," Iselsi Navia said, following the intuition her mastery of Fate gave her.

"You cannot force him," the pregnant Navia said, looking a little more sad as she said it. What secret was she hiding? Navia was a manager of the Capital Convention now, on the verge of admittance to the Bronze Faction's Inner Circle. She was trusted by Kejak himself and she was very, very good at what she did. A pity this other Navia was at least as skilled.

If only the necessity of prophecy did not prevent her from pulling every fact she needed from this other Sidereal, whether it was herself or not. She would make any sacrifice for the Prophecy, even a self not yet her. This Navia was pregnant with the Pivot Child, though, and that was what mattered. She had to have faith in allowing this conversation to go its course, have faith that her success would be certain that way.

"What am I to do?" she asked respectfully, aware that her inner thoughts were known to this other woman and not caring in the least. If this future Navia was anything like she was now, she would understand the ruthless practicality that defined their very existence.

"He must fall in love with you," said her other self. "The Pivot Child can only be borne in love. You may bind him with Wanting and Fearing but you cannot compel him with it. You may create those feelings but he must be free to choose."

"I see," Navia said, concealing her irritation with practiced smoothness. "What else?"

"You must conceive. But not before you see the correct sign. You must wait for a Second Circle error in the Capital Convention to occur. You will know it for it will involve a Dragon-Blooded youth paradoxically Exalting. What you must remember, Navia, is to watch for the sign of paradoxical Exaltation. This is important. Even the Heavens will bear witness to this paradox for it will occur at the end of two sequential lunar eclipses. In fact...you will see the eclipses first."

Iselsi Navia wondered at her counterpart's words. Obviously, there was more to this sign that her words immediately showed. She wasn't an amateur at this. The only reason she would have emphasized the point in such a heavy-set way was to trigger the appropriate memory of those words when the real sign occurred. Why was she not being plain?

Obviously because the future Navia she had not been, when her counterpart had been her.

"I understand," she replied. The future Navia smiled a little more, as if understanding and approving of her masked internal reasoning.

"I have a few words of advice and then I must go, for you're already late for your dance and I...I will deliver Yezenjen sometime tomorrow."

"Yezenjen?" Iselsi Navia asked, wondering at the name. "That means Lion of Heaven, doesn't it?"

"It does," the older Navia said, with a slight smirk. "Perhaps pretentious but suitable for such a child as she will be. But we must hurry. You don't want to keep Ragara Yelaren waiting."

"I know," Iselsi Navia sighed. "I hoped that my promotion to manager in the Capital Convention would get me out of these annoying things. I'm relieved that my duties to instruct Iriszy will be done soon."

"I remember how time-consuming instruction was," her future self commiserated. "The burdens of our dealings with the Scarlet Throne. Put it from your mind for the moment. To permit the Pivot Child Prophecy to pass, you will have to do some hard things, harder than any you've ever done. No matter the price, remember that she is worth it. No life is more important than this one." She patted her stomach and smiled at the child inside of her. "Also...you will likely conceive our daughter and never see the father again. But..." Navia paused meaningfully. "Although that is usually the Division's approach to moving Destiny, to fade into memory, you may wish to consider treasuring what time you can snatch with him. You and I will know very little comfort for a great while, Navia. When all else fails, he may offer some."

"I will consider your advice," Navia said, folding her hands together and stretching her fingers out. "Have a safe delivery, Navia. We both know the stakes. I pray Heaven itself watches over this child."

"It will," the older Navia said, sighing softly. "It will. I will."

Iselsi Navia walked past her pregnant self and moved down the corridor until it turned straight down into another corridor. She set foot on the branch, feeling gravity twisting about her to reorient her, when she heard herself call back. Turning, she saw her counterpart lift a hand and wave.

"One thing more, Iselsi Navia," her other self said. "A day may come where you feel you can trust E'lial. Do so then for he has done much to further our cause in my day. But no one, absolutely no one else can know. At all costs, you and he are the only living people who can connect the Pivot Child to you until she is born. Afterwards, it will not matter but before then, you must avoid detection. At all costs," her counterpart enunciated clearly.

And then she was gone.

"Where were you, old friend?" Ragara Yelaren asked, evidencing curiosity. Iselsi Navia adjusted the decorative shawl over the gorgeous blue Dynastic dress and stepped close enough for confidential conversation. Both of them carried field-issue jade rings that would be worth an absolute fortune from the Houses, if the Dragon-Blooded were capable of their manufacture. As long as they wore them, they had no fear from Terrestrial snooping Charms.

"Just a small matter to conclude in Heaven," Navia answered politely. Then, she smiled a little to remove any sting from her words. "It's good to see you again." She'd worked with Yelaren for quite a long while, seeing as they were both on the Capital Convention. They'd been the closest thing she had to a best friend for the better part of 500 years. She was pleased that, so far, there was little evidence of resentment from the sapphire-eyed Chosen of Serenity. After all, he was her senior by a century yet she'd been promoted over him. He'd never cared much for secrets and the enigmatic nature of her department had never settled well on him. It was remarkable they got along.

"Quite a party Iriszy has put together, don't you think?" The Chosen of Serenity looked quite serene as he surveyed the august assemblage of Dragon-Blooded. In his handsome blue suit, the blonde man with spiky hair fit in perfectly...but of course he would. He was in his element here. Truthfully, it was an amazing party by Creation's standards. Iselsi Navia was not the sort to care for such, though, not even the ones in Heaven.

"Of course. She is missing no opportunity to forge alliances and start foundation work for relations between her prospective household and the other Houses. Iriszy is intelligent. Although this is only her first child, she may reasonably expect the Scarlet Empress to write her name in the books and give her a House in the years ahead."

"Yes, she has the imperial bloodline of course," Yelaren shrugged. "And the ambition, the temperament, the cunning...Mnemon might be careful. She was the only other one so ambitious at her age."

"I suppose you would know," Navia sighed. "Iriszy is far too ambitious for my liking but you know my heart. I never quite had the heart for teaching again after my first died."

"Yes, it's a hard thing to lose a student," Yelaren said sympathetically. "I wish it could have been different but no Terrestrial lives forever and Iselsi had a good run in her time."

"I wish it had not been necessary to demolish her House," Navia said wistfully.

"It was out of respect for you that we waited as long as we did," Ragara Yelaren said. "We both know the necessity. Dangerous complications in the future might have arisen if their ambition hadn't been coaxed back then. Her death likely saved a great deal of trouble for us now."

"I'm sure you're already planning Iriszy's daughter's matches. That should give you something to do." Yelaren didn't contest her change of the subject. She was relieved, and appreciated that her relief was the reason he allowed the matter to drop. He was a good friend.

"There's always too much to do," Yelaren sighed, brushing at his hair to make sure the spikes stayed straight. "Even at a party, we're working. Sad, isn't it?" Navia looked into the wall-length mirror at the back of the room, saw the two of them reflected with myriads of Terrestrial walking and socializing about them. Two loners in a roomful of people. Such was the fate, if the use of that word could be forgiven, of the Sidereal.

"Why don't I introduce you to Da'nashay? I imagine you'll like him quite a bit better than your latest protégé."

"I know all about Da'nashay," Iselsi Navia said skeptically. "I like him simply because of how much Iriszy doesn't but neither is he someone I care to meet." It was not particularly fair to her student, to be sure, but there it was. She had known Iriszy since she was a baby and she loved her as if she was her own. But that didn't mean she liked her.

"You'd be surprised, come on." The Chosen of Serenity tugged on her arm, nearly dragging her across the floor, pausing only to whisper once more before they caught up to a man in articulated red jade armor. While he was not the only man in the room wearing armor, or armed with a daiklave for that matter, he was undoubtedly the most deadly-looking. "You'll love him if you get to know him. Just back from the field! If only I could get a good marriage for him, he's the most stubborn man! ...Ah, Captain Da'nashay, how good it is to see you again!"

"Ragara Yelaren," Da'nashay said, inclining his head respectfully as he turned around.

The captain was a handsome man, in a worn, rough, craggy sort of way. His jaw was solid and square, his shiny black hair smoothed down the back of his neck, and the stubble on his face almost looked decoratively intentional. His skin was most unusually colored, in shades of red and purple like a sunset...or a distant flame.

When he continued his turn to face them, Navia's eyes widened as she looked into a remarkable set of his own. It was rare to see green eyes of quite that deep color. In fact, they were exactly her color, if lacking the stars hers had. How beautiful.

"Ah," Ragara Yelaren coughed apologetically, as the eye contact between the two lingered into an awkward length. "Please, Captain. Allow me to introduce Iselsi Navia, a Dynast of...excellent qualifications."

"Navia," the captain repeated and he smiled slowly. Thankfully, it was not a lecherous smile but rather one of genuine pleasure. Navia found herself smiling back at him without having to force it. It was the closest to a real smile that she'd come in...centuries, surely. "It's not common to meet a woman willing to confess that House name."

"I have little use for pretense," Iselsi Navia said, dipping into a slow curtsey to cover the irony that threatened her composure. Pretense was all there was to a Sidereal's existence, and to this Resplendent Destiny for that matter. This Iselsi Navia was the spymaster of the All-Seeing Eye and, thus, discreet yet indiscriminate simultaneously. So she employed both before the handsome Terrestrial.

"How refreshing," Da'nashay nodded, as if answering a question she'd posed. "I have no use for it. A soldier in the field has little enough time as it is. I don't care for games."

"A remarkable sentiment in the Scarlet Dynast," Navia said. "Tell me, Captain, why would a self-professed unpretentious soldier who doesn't like games choose to spend his time here?"

"It was a personal request of my sister, Iriszy," Da'nashay said. His face slipped into a neutral mask that was surprisingly good but his true feelings were plain before Navia's practiced eye. There was obviously no love lost between them. "I'm only in the City for a few days before I deploy again. Trust me, I would much rather be elsewhere." His disclosure was truly remarkable, given that anyone with any interest would overhear his words. Da'nashay was either very bad at politics or he was deliberately being bad.

"I understand entirely," Iselsi Navia said smoothly, unconcerned with anyone noticing what she had to say. "I am also here for the same reason."

"I have rounds to make. The burdens of heritage." He was obviously reluctant to leave as he looked at her. It had been a long time since a man had looked at her the way he was looking at her now. She couldn't ever recall it feeling pleasant like this look was. No trace at all of the lingering fear that used to crawl in her stomach when she saw a man with lust in his eyes. "If you don't mind, I would like the chance to meet you again sometime. It's rare that I encounter someone direct and it would be a shame if it didn't happen again. May I?"

"Certainly," Navia said politely. "I look forward to it." She bowed her head slightly and he did precisely the same. The smooth, subtle grind of jade against jade faded as Da'nashay in his armor moved on toward his initial destination.

"Quite a man," Ragara Yelaren muttered admiringly, and with more than casual interest. "He seems quite taken with you. What a pity." He chuckled, as if making a joke.

Navia felt only the ice-cool of reality enfold her once more. She knew what he was and she knew what she was. Attractive or not, she was not given to flings and her job permitted no other kind of relationship.

"He's not what I expected," Iselsi Navia said at last. "Iriszy painted him a dangerous, manipulative, cruel man. Naturally I have seen those signs in her all along but I just assumed he had them too. They are both children of the Scarlet Empress, after all."

"I know. He's sadly doomed." Ragara Yelaren sighed regretfully. "Did you know the man's still a virgin? Seems to have no interest in relationships at all. Career soldier, through and through, and no head for politics. But yes, doomed. He's never been at risk in battle because we've scheduled him to die at the hand of his sister. I understand she considers him her chief rival. It's likely to happen very soon, I think."

"An amusing rival," Navia whispered, still numb by the unexpected intimacy of the contact. For a reserved Sidereal, it was rather bracing to interact honestly, with no roles or ranks to play. Even the spymaster Iselsi Navia was just like her in this respect. "He will never be a political threat to her. He's never going to found a House, as she will. You're right, Yelaren, she'd probably kill him on her own. Childhood hate twisted into something else, it leaves her no room to do otherwise, even if he is innocent of its cause. He has perhaps a day to live." Fate spoke through her and she knew what she said would happen, as surely as one step came after another. "Whose planned it?"

"Nuche Keru's," Ragara Yelaren said, his voice unexpectedly quiet. "The tree has to be carefully pruned at times, Navia. It may not make much sense, even to a Chosen of Secrets, but the Cerulean Lute of Harmony is very careful about these things. We've had decades to forecast what's happening now and it's necessary that this one die. A shame. His men call him the Scarlet Soldier, can you imagine? One would think such a man would have the mettle we need. I'm expecting a promotion soon that will get me in the door to more of the planning data so I can understand why people like Da'nashay have to die."

"What?" Iselsi Navia asked, feeling a surge inside her. "Did you say...he's the Scarlet Soldier?" Lightning rose inside of her, not true electricity but the sensation of something immensely important.

"I know. I hear his mother even tolerates it. Imagine. The Scarlet Empress allowing a portion of her name to be used. I suppose it's because his men named him and he didn't seek it himself."

"'You will know him by his blood and his name," Navia whispered. A thousand years she'd waited, more than that, and now here he was. "'The Pivot Child is to be born from the Dragons and he will be near enough'...yes, blood of the Scarlet Empress. 'He will be named for his mother, yet not by his mother', also true. 'He will be chaste, pure, and your eyes...your eyes will reveal him to you.' And they do...he has my eyes."

"Navia?" The Chosen of Serenity looked alarm, when she finally glanced at him. "What was that? That sounded like Prophecy."

"It is, in a way," Navia replied. "Something secret." Had she said that out loud? How could she have made such a lapse?

"The Pivot Child? I know that name..." Ragara Yelaren frowned in concentration and Navia's stomach sank. It was bad fortune, to say the least, that on the eve of finding the father, that the forgotten prophecy should be on someone's mind now. And it was her fault, after having been warned by herself no more than a dozen hours ago. Clumsy.

"It refers to an obscure and obsolete Hinge Prophecy, Yelaren," Navia said softly. "One that cannot come to pass, as it depends on another, more impossible prophecy. The Fulcrum Hammer."

"Oh, right. Well, isn't that quite the coincidence?" Ragara Yelaren laughed, sounding a little forced. "One of the components of a Hinge Prophecy, and you noticing it like that. Ivy Manse kind of thing, I suppose. Well, I suppose it wouldn't have been a Prophecy if it didn't point to something real, true?"

"Who's to say?" Navia said, staring off into the crowd after Da'nashay. "Please excuse me, Yelaren," Navia said quickly, pressing her hands over her stomach. "I'm not feeling well." True, for she was somewhat in a state of shock. "Please, give my compliments to Iriszy, I have to go."

Navia dwelled in the next few hours. For a Sidereal, able to see the ebb and flow of Fate, tampering with one's subjective perception of time was a simple trick and one she exploited without shame. She knew the gossip of Heaven, had read in the records of her Department the name her Fellowship had once labeled her. If they saw her now, they would not think her the Ice Queen any longer.

They lay together, blankets strewn haphazardly across their cooling bodies and the bed. The pale creamy silks of the bed were coarse and ordinary to one accustomed to Heaven's luxuries but the muscular, flawless body she lay against had no peer. Navia, who had never been with a man as an adult, who had not known the touch of a kind lover ever in any of her thousand years of life, nestled against Da'nashay and was content.

An hour in his arms had passed like a hundred and she had enjoyed every moment of it, in her own way. He was new to this, having always been chaste. It had helped her to feel safe and his inexperience had concealed from him her own limitations. Lost in his own pleasure, he never noticed her lack. She was relieved. Since her father had touched her as a child, she had never experienced the smallest amount of desire in the whole of her life. But the closeness, this closeness with this kind and plain-spoken man...yes, that made her happy.

"I've never met anyone like you," the captain said quietly, his breath like a whisper of wind across her shoulder.

"There are a few but not many," Navia said, her thoughts on the burning blue prayer strip that lay around the bone of her left ring finger. Da'nashay had one just like it, even though he didn't know it.

The Wanting and Fearing was a favorite Charm she'd used in the past like a scalpel, decisively forging new relationships and feelings where they solved matters, sealing up possible breaches of paradox with needed resolution. She was considered a master of the art, applauded even by the Chosen of Serenity, and she secretly delighted in her ability to solve problems by creating love.

This was the first and only time in her life she had ever used it upon herself. Other Charms could have brought him to her but this one was sure. She would not have dared to do so at all, if he hadn't been slated to die. It would require some careful manipulation of paperwork but Heaven and Fate would hardly notice if a man fell in love hours before his death.

"Will I see you again?" Da'nashay asked. He was so young compared to the eras she'd lived through but he had a man's demeanor and a man's courage. His voice didn't waver in the slightest, despite the pressure from the love that burned in his heart. She knew the strength it must take to ask such a question for she felt the same love inside her own chest.

"I imagine so," Navia answered, after a long silence stretched between them. "One way or another. Would you like that?"

"You seem a woman who appreciates honesty, directness without guile. Let me be frank with you." When she moved her head to look at him, his beautiful green eyes came into view, moving about as if to soak up her every detail to treasure and cherish. It was a surprisingly nice feeling.

"Please. I do not scare." Navia smiled a little at him, listening to the thrum of his heart beneath her ear.

"I would like to marry you."

"Marry an open Iselsi?" She smirked at him gently. "My, my, what would your mother say?"

"It's not as if we're close," Da'nashay chuckled. She liked how the vibration tickled her cheek.

"You realize you would doom all chances of establishing your own House someday, Da'nashay." Navia watched for his reaction. She wondered why it felt so important to her but she was most wise in the Wanting and Fearing Prayer and she rode its direction to see where it would take her.

"I never intended to start one, Navia," he said without hesitation. It was the honest truth. "I never intended to marry either." Also true. "The Legions are my life. You are the very first reason I have for looking outside the ranks. Since we're being honest, I'll confess something else to you. I don't want to marry you because you'd be politically advantageous, though you're not. Nor because you would make a powerful wife, though you would. I want you to be my wife because I love you. Does that frighten you?" It would a true Dynast, for his words were nonsense in their world.

"Seeing this night end frightens me," Iselsi Navia answered, plainly truthful for once as his candor deserved. "Nothing you've said frightens me."

It was at that moment, when nothing else particularly important was happening, that the Pivot Child conceived.

Navia's whole life changed. She felt the subtle possibility of a daughter transform into the absolute certainty of it. She closed her eyes, felt across her own thread with her Auspicious Prospects of Serenity Charm, and a tear fell from her eye when she saw the green of her life shot through with white now, the beginnings of a thread that would separate and become its own some day. It would belong to her daughter.

"Navia...what's wrong?" Da'nashay's rugged face, full of so much character for a young Dragon-Blooded, was concerned.

"I love you too." The admission distracted him from a truth he couldn't know or understand. For the first time, Iselsi Navia felt the sting of resentment, that she couldn't share her whole life with this man. This was why Sidereal did not fall in love. This was why she never had. This would be why she would never do so again. Even if she could tell him the truth, even if he understood it, he would be dead before it did either of them any good.

"Then marry me?"

"I'll marry you," Navia said. The only reason it was possible was because he would not live to follow through with the ceremony. A marriage to him would be awkward, tricky to arrange, after all. Not 'even with' her Bronze Faction credentials but because of them. If Da'nashay had not been scheduled to die, Ragara Yelaren would undoubtedly have plans for his lineage. It would be politically difficult for the head of the All-Seeing Eye's to marry an ill-considered scion of the Scarlet Empress. It would be even harder to get the approval of the Bronze Faction's planning division, though she did boast a very impressive heritage of Breeding thanks to Father.

If only she could marry him, though. A small love for herself. The Pivot Child Prophecy had been the secret goal driving her for ten centuries to master herself, becoming the only Sidereal of her age to manage a Fellowship in the Capital Convention. She had done inestimable service to the Bronze Faction and to its leader, Chejob Kejak, as dedicated to the cause as he was.

But it was impossible. It would completely disrupt decades of planning data. Her tampering would go on record if she used anything stronger than the most subtle Charms. And she couldn't afford to expose the Child before her time.

Navia sighed against Da'nashay's side as she heard the smallest settling of a glass window against its frame. Was this the beginning of his death, what Fate had measured out against him? The night was moonless, thanks to the Lunar Eclipse, the second exactly as she'd warned herself. A strange omen to signal the conception of the Pivot Child. Perhaps, instead, it signaled the death of the Child's father.

Her memory pricked her, as the intruder carefully crept inside in the other room. Her future self had said she would likely never see the father again. True, if he was going to die. But that's not how she'd said it. "You and I will know very little comfort for a great while, Navia. When all else fails, he may offer some." That was in the present tense!

Looking at the now-dozing Dragon-Blooded in wonder, Navia once again knew with Auspicious Prospects of Endings that he was meant to die. But, for the first time, she looked upon him with the Auspicious Prospects of Secrets...and saw that he was vitally important to the Pivot Child Prophecy still.

Was that what her future self had meant? Had she taken the same risk Navia was contemplating now? Was there any other choice?

No. Nothing could stand between her and the Prophecy of the Pivot Child coming to fruition. Not even decades of planning data, the Department of Serenity...or her best friend, Yelaren himself.

Doing this would have to be conducted with the utmost discretion. No Charms involving Prayer Strips, preferably no Charms at all. No Astrological work. Few, if any, use of her allies and connections in Heaven.

With those limitations, how could she accomplish it?

But her mental reasoning was interrupted before she had an answer. For at that time, a man stepped from the shadows. Two wicked moonsilver knives trailed in his hands and his face was furious. And Navia wondered if it was already too late.

"Da'nashay!" Iselsi Navia spoke sharply. If she could have kept him asleep, it would have been best but she lacked an appropriate Charm and had none of her tools here for such a purpose. She was ill-prepared, having arrived in a party dress.

"I'll handle this, Navia," Da'nashay growled, seeing the intruder and snatching up his Daiklave from the side of the bed at once. Navia took advantage of Da'nashay's advance on the assassin to catch up a white robe sewn with scarlet embroidery. One of the rarely known privileges afforded to the wardrobe of a visiting son of the Scarlet Empress was such raiment. She rose, drew it up on herself and tied it off for modesty and battle readiness as Da'nashay pointed the great jade sword at the advancing killer, halting him just shy of its point.

"You really think a little sword's going to stop me?" the assassin growled, a threatening low rumble like a wolf. It raised the hair on her neck and she looked carefully. ...there, yes, his eyes. They had just a hint of yellow, just a slight oddity to the pupil but telling in a literal way. The man had a Tell. Which meant, no matter how improbable it was on the Blessed Isle, that this killer was a Lunar.

Da'nashay was outmatched and he didn't even know it.

"Does my sister really think an assassin's going to stop me?" Da'nashay answered back, growling in a more human way. "She just doesn't get it. Stupid girl."

"This has nothing to do with a girl. Your troops annihilated part of my shipping operations. You killed my men. MY men. It took me weeks but I managed to track down every shred of evidence so there's no use lying about it, snake-blood. I don't know why but I don't care either." The Lunar spit. "Then, it was just a matter of waiting for a time when you'd be vulnerable. How nice of you to show up at your sister's party and leave yourself a fine, bloody target. No one steps on my territory without paying for it, snake-blood. Time to bleed."

Navia hurried forward and lifted a hand, as if to stop the first seconds of the fight. If only she could, just like that. Avoiding a confrontation was easy for a Sidereal. Helping someone else avoid it was not so much. Battle's End would accomplish it, but at the price of exposing what she was. Celestial Sorcery was, after all, quite beyond the Dragon Blooded.

Da'nashay fell back defensively as the Lunar exploded into motion, his moonsilver knives flashing in the dark bedroom as they sparked off red jade. The Captain fought splendidly, doing credit to whichever Sidereal had trained him, but his experience and Exaltation were no match for his opponent. In seconds he would be dead and the Fate the Bronze Faction had planned would be fulfilled.

Navia Forced him to make another Decision, though, instead pulling his blade and backing away because of the chance that Da'nashay was innocent. It was the largest change in someone else's Destiny that she dared make if she wanted to avoid any risk of an audit. However justified she was, she knew her Faction would not favor her agenda over theirs. The Lunar shook his head and then glared at her, pointing the knife threateningly.

"I know that trick. You think I don't know that trick? But you don't have purple eyes, little girl. Must mean there's more than one breed of you. Too bad. I warned Lingering Whisper to tell the rest of you to leave me alone. Now, run like the cowards you are before I gut you too."

Iselsi Navia blinked as comprehension came, even as she winced from the Paradox she'd likely incurred. So this was the infamous Elated Fury. No wonder he'd come by surprise. The Sidereal had gotten too used to the easiness moonsilver tattoos gave in magical detection. Now, he'd seen through a Resplendent Destiny to the Sidereal that lay beneath. The Pattern Spiders would not appreciate the extra work that made.

Was there a way to resolve this without violence? Not really.

The subtle methods she had perfected would not work against an enraged Lunar who was wise to them. She couldn't retreat without Da'nashay. And, given the Lunar's reputed skill, it was unlikely that she would be able to best him without resorting to Martial Art techniques impossible for any Dragon-Blooded. Auspicious Prospects of Endings still confirmed that Da'nashay would die this night without her direct intervention, which left her little recourse.

Navia felt the just-formed life within her, looked upon the man who had made Yezenjen possible, and took a risk. Where fate-manipulation and astrology always left a record...Martial Arts did not. What Da'nashay did not witness, he could not report.

For a split second, Navia ceased to exist.

And then, she existed. In all things, in all places, in all ways, in all colors, she came together and stepped back into Creation. Her Exaltation was charged with its connection to the construct of the Tapestry and all things were laid out for her to see in exact detail.

Navia shed the Iselsi she had been up until now, stepped out of her Resplendent Destinies and simultaneously invoked the Four Magical Materials Form, Soul Fire Shaper Form and her Demesne and Manse Form through her Prismatic Arrangement of Creation.

Even as Elated Fury swung an arm up for another attack on the Dragon-Blooded, Iselsi Navia struck from where she was standing, the bright green of her Anima shining like a forest of leaves. Leaving contrails of Essence, her body and arms flickered like moonsilver, her starmetal and jade-shod hands flashing as she struck with lightning precision.

Da'nashay fell backwards across the bed, quite thoroughly unconscious, having no clue who his attacker had been or that his lover twenty feet away had done it.

"You've...got to be joking," Elated Fury said, hesitating. For a savage Lunar, the man was surprisingly composed given how angry he seemed to be. "Did I just see you knock the Dragon-Blooded out? Weren't you two...involved?"

"Correct. But you're mistaken if you think I'm done."

Navia blurred into rainbow light as she attacked. Elated Fury was considerably better than poor Da'nashay had been, much better than half the Lunar his age likely were. She certainly hoped that was the case, else even Kejak would not be able to halt the advance of a Lunar like Ma-Ha-Suchi.

His moonsilver knives flowed like liquid, twisting to get through her defenses, twisting to keep her from getting through theirs. But against hands that emulated Starmetal, the weapons were only as dangerous as the skill of their wielder. He was good but not enough to prevail.

Elated Fury leapt back for maneuvering room. Iselsi Navia leapt with him, slashing at him with her fingertips seven deadly times. He stopped the first two, barely turned aside the third, ducked the forth, jerked to the side to avoid the fifth, and howled when the sixth and seventh caught him across his exposed side.

"How the hell did you just do that?" he exclaimed, landing and springing back on his feet. For such a well-muscled man, he was as light as a feather. A shame the Lunar mindset was set so staunchly against the enlightened perspectives required for Martial Arts Mastery. This Elated Fury's body was perfect but his soul was not. That would be what broke him.

"You see why I wished Da'nashay unconscious," Iselsi Navia said solemnly. "I've read the reports on you, Elated Fury." She spun to avoid a knife, caught his follow-up kick and dislocated his knee with a well-placed elbow strike. "You fight very well. I can see why Lingering Whisper had such difficulty against you." Elated Fury lunged and she snapped a kick into his face, hitting him with the full force of the Four Magic Material Style. The Lunar broke the table set against the wall when he landed on it. Come to think of it, the wall didn't look too good now either.

"Not bad, Star Girl," he grunted, scrambling from the wreckage. "But I'm not backing down, not for you or anyone. I've blood to repay." Elated Fury wiped a string of blood from his face. Was he healing already? How remarkable. Ordinarily, Lunar didn't do so quite so quickly unless in their battle form. Was this a Charm she hadn't heard of?

"You've been lied to, Elated Fury," Navia said. He charged her. She spun backward, her heel striking him in the jaw. She completed her backflip and regained her feet even as Elated Fury cracked the wall with his impact. "Your passion has been used against you. You've been manipulated, Lunar. Da'nashay is correct about this. This is his sister's doing. Iriszy has set you up to kill a rival of hers, placing the blame of his murder squarely upon you and leaving her hands free. You've been played, my friend."

"The hell you say!" he cried, jumping back up.

With the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form, Navia remained a part of Creation's whole Essence pattern while perceiving it as well. So she was not surprised when she noticed that Iriszy was climbing the stairs to this wing of the Imperial Palace. What was surprising was that Ragara Yelaren was with her. They would be here in minutes.

Navia frowned in thought, her mind racing to work through the possibilities. There was no way she had the time to conceal her actions and presence here on this short a notice. Iriszy could be redirected but Yelaren was trained as she was and he would not be fooled by any deception. With the two together, Navia's path was further tangled...or perhaps it was smoothed.

She grimaced at the thought while she caught Elated Fury trying to dislocate her shoulder with a Charm. Soul Shaper Fire gave her the means to Charm Redirect and he howled as his own shoulder gave way beneath his strength. Navia allowed the Lunar to back off and throw himself against the wall to pop it back into place. It gave her a few extra seconds to consider alternatives, even as her time was running out.

At last, Navia used Wise Choice. There was only one way to resolve the converging paths of Fate here. Only one way that would allow Da'nashay to survive and her own complicity to be unknown. It might even provide the key to guarantee Yezenjen's Celestial Exaltation. And, to begin with, it required her to knock the Lunar out.

"For what it's worth, Elated Fury, you're a competent fighter," Navia said. "I don't like Anathema, mind you, and I'd just as soon put you down like the dog you are but I have a far more useful plan for you. When you wake up, I trust you'll play your part. I'm going to be giving you what you want, the way I want you to have it."

"Huh?"

Navia only beckoned him on. This Lunar was a cunning fighter, even now refusing to give in to her baiting. So she took the matter out of his hands.

Rainbow and sunlight streamed from her body as she executed the Thousand-Fold Descending Destruction Technique, her own customized combination of three Supernatural Martial Art skills fueled by her mastery of the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style. Her fist knocked his head back, a knee slammed the breath from his lungs, and then she struck him 11 times against his ribs, 7 to his stomach, 5 to the back, 3 to the throat and exactly 1 time to the head, in a perfectly indivisible way. Only then did the demolished body of her opponent touch the ground, beaten into sleeping helplessness.

Navia frowned as she rubbed her knuckles. Hitting him had felt like punching steel. Still, it was well she had employed the Jade Method or he would not have survived the Thousand-Fold Descending Devastation Technique. Instead, Elated Fury would sleep long enough.

Was he still healing? Yes, good. She could put her plan into practice.

Navia felt them coming toward the door, the angry Sidereal and the frustrated Dragon-Blooded Dynast. Why had Yelaren come with her? If only they had come separately, there might have been hope. But now...no, there was no other way. Navia clenched the twisting rope of sorrow in her stomach. She had no time for weakness.

Her Anima shone more brightly as she utilized the God Ways Charm. She dematerialized...and then she stepped squarely into Elated Fury's body. If he were conscious, his will was probably more than sufficient to expel her. But he would not wake until well after...what was to come.

She had just enough time to straighten her body's leather jerkin when Ragara Yelaren threw the doors open.

Her own student, Iriszy, followed on his heels. The obviously pregnant Dynast looked irritated that her pace hadn't been enough to keep a lead over her companion. For appearances, Navia grinned in her best roguish manner and flipped them both off.

"You haven't killed him yet, Elated Fury?" Yelaren looked mildly surprised but she knew it was a lie. He could see the Sidereal behind the Lunar, even as she could see the truth behind his masquerade. There was no reason for Yelaren to have gone with Iriszy on a private Dynastic matter, if he hadn't known something was wrong.

They were the only two Sidereal in the Imperial Palace tonight. No one else knew what had transpired here and no one else would. That was what mattered.

"Do we really need the pretense?" Navia inquired, not bothering to pretend to the jaunty air of the Casteless Lunar. Her heart wasn't in to it and it wouldn't matter what Iriszy saw anyway.

"'You will know him by his blood and his name'," her old friend quoted, answering her. The sapphire-eyed Sidereal glared, popped his knuckles, and closed the door behind him. It clicked as it shut and Navia knew it would not open again before matters were finished. That was one relief. There would be no other witnesses. "That's not in any book of Prophecy I know of. You're acting on your own, aren't you?"

"I didn't mean that pretense, my old friend," Navia said, forcing a slight laugh. "Think of your company." Navia gestured to Iriszy who opened her mouth, only to be silenced by an imperious gesture from Ragara Yelaren. The daughter of the Scarlet Empress looked outraged...until the Sidereal dropped his Resplendent Destiny right in front of her.

"Navia... Navia...have you lost your mind?" the Sidereal asked. His exposure of her, and of himself, was surprising. She hadn't expected it. What else might happen that she didn't expect? This did not bode well.

"I am only doing what I must," Iselsi Navia replied calmly, taking a step forward and stretching. Almost healed now, she thought with satisfaction. "As are you, Yelaren. We've both incurred Paradox tonight because we both know how this conversation is going to end, don't we? It is unlikely either of us will be able to conceal our Animas after we're through."

"What you must..." he repeated dumbly, apparently hung up on her first words. "Navia, you've just ruined a year of planning, did you know that? Da'nashay is not supposed to survive the night. What were you thinking, upsetting our tables like that? You're interfering with planning data!" He almost gasped at the audacity of it. In other circumstances, it might have seemed like melodrama but Navia was fully aware of how grave her actions already were. Were she Gold Faction, she would be punished. But for one of the Bronze to do this to their own Convention...

"I am acting in accordance with more important data," Navia said. "I will not explain myself, old friend. You've never liked mysteries. I appreciate your feelings but this one must endure. I cannot allow Da'nashay to die."

"Who are you people?" Iriszy asked, the small Dragon-Blooded looking positively bewildered. She was intelligent enough to reason out why Yelaren was calling the form of Elated Fury by her name but she lacked the context to understand it. They both utterly ignored her, knowing they needed all their concentration for each other.

"Because of some impossible Prophecy? The Pivot Child is a dead end, Navia," Yelaren demanded. "It can't come true. I cannot fathom why you think it can. But the rest of what you said, that's not in the Hinge Prophecies anywhere. 'He will be named for his mother, yet not by his mother'? Nowhere is that written."

"No, it's not written. It was told to me by one of unimpeachable motive." Navia fought at the tears that crept into her eyes. This was not the way she wanted things to turn out but, again, the constraints of time and secrecy would force a path she had to walk.

"You're wrong." Yelaren's gaze was steady, composed, certain. There was no doubt in him, just as there was none in her. "And you're..." The Chosen of Serenity's eyes opened wide. "You're with child. Not even an hour old. By the Maidens, what...are you trying to fulfill the Pivot Child Prophecy yourself? What's happened to you, Navia? I thought I knew you."

"Navia slept with my brother?" Iriszy shouted furiously. She really had an amazing mind. Although she was ignorant of the mechanics, she had corrected intuited Navia's presence here and the source of her unborn daughter's conception from words and wits alone. Navia was proud and she grieved for that.

"You do know me," Navia said, giving her oldest friend a small, steely smile. "You know me in greater detail than any other living being. Nonetheless, I work toward a purpose you would not believe in even if it were explained to you. Come, Yelaren, we both feel the inevitability of our positions."

"The Pivot Child cannot occur," Yelaren pleaded, as if urging her to come back to his point of view. If only he understood that she had never shared it to begin with. "Your own Department has coordinated with mine, with all Departments, to plan the future. We have a map laid out, a map you've defended, made possible, even helped plan now. Will you really abandon the whole work of the Bureau of Fate...for this?"

"Yes," Navia said. No hesitation, no doubt or reserve. "She will save the world, Yelaren. But she cannot if I do not follow the path I know I must."

"Your path is impossible. Even less possible than the Gold Path was." Yelaren shook his head. "I was born the night the Solar Deliberative fell, when my predecessor did not survive the banquet he threw for the Zenith. They were tyrants, Navia, and the monsters caused centuries of damage...yet even their reformation was more likely than this Child of yours."

"You're...Anathema..." Iriszy gasped. "Somehow, I always thought you two might be...but...what are you?"

"In a minute, student," Navia said sternly to her, turning back to Yelaren at once. "Do you believe Fate tells you this?" she asked archly.

"Yes," Yelaren replied instantly. "I cannot see a future in which the child you carry right now will save the world or bring about world peace. Your vision is wrong. Look with my eyes and tell me I'm wrong, if you can."

And Navia did, searching across the Path of the Pivot Child. As it had for a thousand years, it still burned brightly in her mind, leading inevitably to a future of surpassing glory. Yelaren...was wrong. He really was. How could his Auspicious Prospects tell him something that hers did not? Or vice versa?

He was lying. There could be no other reason. Fate did not lie. But a Sidereal would, if it meant preserving the ideologically pure vision of the future they had dedicated their life to. She had and would again and she could not fault Yelaren for doing what she would.

"You are wrong, Yelaren." Navia sighed. "Why forestall the inevitable any longer? Surely you must see that it will only complicate things further, no matter who wins."

"Good point, 'old friend'," Yelaren growled. "Shall we? I'll make my stipulation. One Style only."

Navia nodded, amused and impressed by his choice. When two Sidereal dueled, tactics quickly moved beyond the experience of even most Exalts. By limiting them both to one Style, it would go to demonstrate which was superior or which Sidereal was better at utilizing their stylistic principles. It would also favor Yelaren, for he was almost a master in the Charcoal March of Spiders and it was deadly in a most wicked way.

On the other hand, and what Yelaren was regrettably not considering, was that Navia's chosen style gave her amazing defensive power. It was true that, with the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation only, she would not have any directly useful attack Charms beyond the common enhancements of the Four Magical Material Form. On the other hand, it meant she could hoard the Essence she had left and rely on sheer inhuman skill to win.

Yelaren could kill her in a single strike if she was not careful. But, Navia felt after considering their match, the matter favored her. Though old friends, Yelaren and indeed no one knew just how dedicated Navia had been in the last millennia.

"Then I will make mine. No Suturas." Navia bowed Elated Fury's head slightly at Yelaren's wary skepticism. "It is my stipulation to make, my friend."

The Chosen of Serenity was just shy of mastery of the Charcoal March of Spiders, which meant he only had access to the Student Sutra. Navia, on the other hand, had completed her mastery of the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation more than a century ago and could use the Master Sutra. Her stipulation hindered her more than it hindered him, or so it would seem if her goal was simply victory and not secrecy as well.

"Please stay in place, Iriszy," Yelaren said in a calm voice. "Neither of us can permit you to leave until this matter is settled."

Navia and Yelaren faced each other, their mutual skill at Destiny vying against the other. There was a reason Sidereal never fought each other seriously. Much of the tactical advantage an individual Agent of Fate wielded was mitigated when your enemy could do the same tricks you did, knew the same things you knew.

They both brought up their Defense of Shining Joy. Navia politely waited for Yelaren to execute the three necessary katas to bring about his Charcoal March of Spiders Form and whatever other Charms he felt he needed. But the outcome, when at last the two were ready, was never in question.

Yelaren struck with the sudden rising speed of the spider, lunging in a fashion both grotesque and surreally quick. Navia, well accustomed to this technique, evaded the blow with the grace of Moonsilver and Joy. Next, he chose to attack her six times in rapid succession, with kicks and punches that would have killed a mortal. Each one failed to find its mark as Navia flowed from every potential touch, twice being forced to turn his strike away when the Shining Joy failed her. But if Yelaren seemed to be in many places at once with his Form, Navia truly was and the contest of their skill was a thing of legend.

The Chosen of Serenity simply smiled at her, and he struck six more times, doubtlessly hoping to wear her down with his sheer speed. Navia spun, twirled, deflected, and leaped backward as each blow failed to find its mark. Her feet caught purchase on the floorboard of the bed and she sprang from it, twisting into a spiral that struck the other Sidereal twice across the face.

Yelaren staggered back, hand reaching to touch his cheek. Navia balanced in a fighter's pose, graceful and elegant even in this foreign body. Elated Fury was in excellent condition and her God Ways allowed her a flexibility to fight with her full speed.

She held up her index finger and turned it one way, then another. Spots of blood lay across each side. Sure enough, Yelaren's brow darkened as he realized she'd cut him lightly across each cheek. It was a humbling display of skill and one his pride would not abide.

On came the Water Spider Bite, the hissing Charm coiling across his glowing blue palm as it sped to stab deeply into her Anima. Navia saw it coming...and caught his hand at the wrist with both palms. He pushed but she would not give ground. Yelaren sighed as the powerful Charm faded away, its power unused, and then he struck her a great blow across the head.

Navia allowed the blow to land for she had studied her adversary since before the founding of the Scarlet Dynasty. It might have killed a mortal but it was hasty and made in anger and it barely dimpled the oriacalcum-sheathing of her Anima. Navia straightened and nodded toward her friend.

"You didn't Charm Redirect," Yelaren observed politely. He was glowing brightly now, just as she was.

"No," she answered, just as polite.

His limbs jerked like a spider rearing to strike and then he was upon her. Yelaren fought like an army of arachnids, tireless and infinite in his skill. Navia met each attack by choosing to be somewhere else, at times using her hands or feet to convince his fist or boot that they would find no target here.

She knew what he wanted and she gave it to him. Navia fought through an army of blows, only to deliver a mighty blow directly toward his chest. The Sidereal grinned in victory and the yawning void of the Cannibalistic Heritage Technique opened to consume her. He knew she had taken his bait, just as she knew he knew. Each was confident in their impeccable power.

The void gnawed at her Anima, fighting to bite through to consume the Sidereal beneath, but the green light about her was emulating oricalcum and the void could not breech it. In fury, Yelaren lashed out at her through the dissipating vortex of hostile Essence and every one of his blows was solid and sure. Navia stopped the first four...but the fifth rocked her back on her heels.

She wiped Elated Fury's blood from her mouth...and then she came back upon him like silver, gold and gray and each of her fingernails flashed with a color of Jade as her fist impacted his chest. Yelaren was knocked from his feet and only the impossible agility of the Charcoal March of Spiders was enough to keep him from going through the door. Instead, he landed on the door's surface, just like a spider.

"One chance left," Navia observed. "Have you decided my fate?"

"Yes."

And then the blue light fell to embrace her. Yelaren came in a dozen directions, each meant to mislead and beguile. Navia ignored the phantom blows, and shrugged off the real ones, for there was only one she was worried about.

With her oneness with the world, Navia felt the Pattern Spider Touch come. The whispery yellow shades of nihilistic surrender urged her to give in as his hand crept closer and closer. With a single touch, Yelaren intended to remake her into a new Sidereal, one without the burden of the Pivot Child Prophecy or the grief of a 1,000 years of hard decisions. It was not a defeat but a promise. It was the Chosen of Serenity's philosophy in a Charm and it would remove all her unhappiness if she let it.

She did not.

The Patter Spider Touch missed her. It missed because Navia met his attack, coiled around it with all the sinuous grace of the moon, and then her starmetal-shod hands were inside his defenses. Her friend had used the last of his strength to try ending her and he had failed. There was truly only one outcome to this fight.

Navia's fist left trails of Essence in the air where her oricalcum-sheathed Anima rippled the geomantric patterns of reality. Yelaren saw the attack coming. She saw his counter. In a fraction of time, they both saw the rest of the battle unfold, ending minutes later in Yelaren's defeat. Every door to his triumph had closed with the failing of his Pattern Spider Touch. Weary acceptance crossed her friend's face and Navia felt like crying at seeing it.

Elated Fury's powerful fingers, hard as Starmetal, were not opposed. Navia's hand slammed into his chest, broke through his ribs, caught his heart, and tore it out with a single twist.

Much as the victim of the Jumping Spider Strike had only moments to live before the inevitability of his death caught up to him, Yelaren had seconds to appreciate the irony of someone emulating its method against a near-master of that Style. He gave her a look of surprise. He really thought she wouldn't finish the fight, that the prohibition between Sidereals killing each other would stay her hand.

Navia caressed Yelaren's face and told him she loved him. In his eyes, Navia saw forgiveness and absolution, the last gift he could give a friend. Navia leaned close to him and whispered a secret she would not let the world know.

"The Loom of Fate itself showed me the rise of the Pivot Child, my old friend. May your soul find its peace in knowing that your Exaltation...most surely will rise again...within her for she is conceived the very night you die."

Yelaren nodded once and then the blue of his Anima faded away to ash in her arms. Though he had fought her in his unbelief, Navia privately hoped that her best friend would be honored to be reborn in a girl destined to bring peace to the world. It was the best reward a dedicated servant of Serenity could hope for.

Navia wept four tears for her fallen companion, and two more for herself at having done the deed. Her own heart ached in her chest and she felt very alone. How many times had she saved Yelaren's life during the time of their Fellowship? She had fought to protect him, only to turn out to be his murderer.

"Do not," Navia said cuttingly, over the rough edge of Elated Fury's voice darkened further by still-unshed tears.

Iriszy hesitated at the door, then dived at the door handles. The daughter of the Scarlet Empress was far from stupid. Though she didn't understand why it had happened, she knew she had witnessed something she shouldn't have. She might have made it if she hadn't been burdened by a pregnancy two weeks away from completion.

Navia flipped backwards from her seat on the floor, where she had lowered her murdered friend down. Soaring, the world spinning around and around, Navia closed her eyes and concentrated on the sensation. It was a brief moment of distraction from what was left to do.

Then she landed on the door handles, almost breaking the Dynast's fingers.

"You're a fool if you think you can get away with this," Iriszy hissed. "I cannot fathom... how you can be Navia but obviously my Sifu has lost her mind. Navia, teacher, Sifu, listen to me!" Desperation passed across the girl's face. Yes, she understood.

"I'm listening, Iriszy."

"You don't have to do this. I won't say anything. I honestly will never speak of this again. I know when I'm in over my head. I...never knew, about either of you, but you know what kind of woman I am. I keep my word when it's important. You trained me, Sifu...trust in the work of your hands to keep your secrets. I'll tell everyone Elated Fury did it. It's true, after a fashion!"

Iriszy's voice was gracious and humble. It was foreign, for Navia had never known her Dragon-Blooded student to mask her arrogant pride or her diamond-like determination to become a power in the world. She admired the spirit it represented. Yes, Iriszy had learned much from her hands. Even how to bend against the irresistible.

If only she could change the girl's Destiny. Or change Da'nashay's. But tampering with either of them would go on record. It would stand out like a sore thumb because her reputation for her unwavering commitment to the Bronze was well-known and keeping them from each other contravened the direct plans of the Department of Serenity. Questions would be asked and the timing of her pregnancy noticed. She already had one outstanding use on record now, the Wanting and Fearing, and it would be all she could do to explain that. She knew how to but anything more would threaten the integrity of that story.

"You've come very far, Iriszy," Navia conceded. "As well as Iselsi did in her time. Oh yes, I trained her too," she said, smiling slightly at the wonderment in her student's eyes. "Destiny is a delicate thing, complicated no matter the skill used to understand it. If I had had more time, I could have prevented this catastrophe from happening but I did not. There is only one conclusion to this conversation now."

"Navia, please..." Tears came to the young Dragon-Blooded's eyes. "If not for me...for... my son. Please."

Navia's heart broke to see such suffering and to know that she was the cause of it. The pain stabbed her through and she might have fallen from her perch, if not for centuries of discipline, sacrifice and commitment. Despite her dislike of Iriszy, she loved the girl like a daughter, saw her unborn child as a grandchild to nurture and protect, just as she had sheltered House Iselsi after it's founder, her best student, had died.

"I've always cared for you, Iriszy," Navia said, allowing her tears to fall freely now, to show her student how much she mattered. "But I cannot let harm come to Da'nashay. I cannot allow any trace of my presence to be found here. I cannot do both. You and he are set to be foils to each other and I know you, Iriszy, this is one passion you will never set aside. I could set it aside for you but it would show my hand and I cannot take that risk either. I am trapped and there is only one way through."

"So...what, you're going to silence me? Murder me like you murdered Yelaren?" The steel was back in Iriszy's voice. In that moment, the child of the Scarlet Empress looked every inch her worthy successor. "You can't get away with this. We have investigators, you know. I'm sure...whatever you are, that those like you do too. You'll be caught! Even if you got away, you don't think people will wonder how this happened? Someone will pick it apart, Navia, someone will tease out the truth until your treachery is unmasked."

"Correct," Navia said, smiling encouragingly through her tears. "But for two things. The first...I myself will lead the investigation into this, as is my right. I am a Chosen of Secrets, eminently qualified to handle such matters, and I have the right as the only other Sidereal in the Imperial Manse tonight."

Iriszy shook her head in denial.

"The second...you yourself have provided me with the perfect tool. Elated Fury."

"Wh-what?" Iriszy stuttered, her eyes flicking over the body she still wore. In the recesses of his mind, the Lunar stirred. He would wake soon. Every moment of this evening seemed cursed with inauspicious haste.

"You sent him to kill Da'nashay, my poor student. Clearly, he discovered the truth, that you killed his men, that you engineered the plot to lure him here as a weapon." The guilt and awareness in the Dragon-Blooded's eyes made Navia nod with her student's internal realizations of how perfectly this scene could be manipulated. "It even has the benefit of being true. So, he will have struck you down with his claws. Poor Yelaren, warden of a Bronze Faction project, realized you were in distress and came to assist...only to die as well. My friend was cunning but not invulnerable and he would not be the first Sidereal to fail against this particular Lunar."

"Elated Fury will escape, very neatly framed, and you'll never have been here," Iriszy said, with grim pride at understanding her teacher's plot to kill her. "I assume you knocked Da'nashay out? Yes, I thought so, from the way he's lying across the bed. He didn't see a thing, then, and he'll be proved completely innocent I'm sure. It really is perfect. I would never have believed you capable of it."

Navia met her eyes with the weight of her centuries and nodded slowly.

"Your mother already learned this lesson, Iriszy. When it comes to the fate of all that is important, no sacrifice is too great. Even one you must make of yourself, of your friends, of those you love."

"Can you promise me one thing?" Iriszy asked. An eerie expression of peace came over her, the recognition of the condemned simply waiting for the inevitable axe to fall. "My son...he's almost born. Take him from my body...after you've done what you're going to do. Promise me he'll be...taken care of."

"I will, Iriszy," Navia said, clasping her hand over her student's shoulder, squeezing tightly. "Even if you never knew it, I've loved and cared for you since you were a baby yourself. Your son will live."

"Thank you," Iriszy said in a choked voice, bending her head and squeezing her eyes shut tightly against the impending horror of death. Navia kissed her once on the brow. Somewhere inside of the Sidereal, a tattered memory of the young girl she'd once been screamed at her that this was wrong.

Terrible as it was to kill her best friend, some could call it self-defense. There was no way to spin or alter what murdering Iriszy would be. The Dragon-Blooded was helpless before her, didn't want to fight her or oppose her, and it was only because of the prowess of Navia's own Bureau that she couldn't permit a single witness. If she did this, Navia knew she could never recover the innocence she'd lost.

But she did what she had to do.