Xilanada - Pursuit Of Regretted Truths/Part 10

"I've had enough of this," Xilanada growled, not caring to conceal her anger anymore.

High above the city of Nexus, one particular cloud carried a golden disc outfitted with comfortable chairs and an unparalleled view of the landscape. Xilanada knew for she was seated in one of them. She had seen such sights before, though. Besides, the sun had just set, ruining the view and her company was ruining any other pleasure she might have been able to find.

A handful of Sidereal were seated around her. Even reclined, all held themselves in a state of readiness, prepared to strike her down in an instant. It was laughable, really. They were as bound by Heaven as she was, which was also why the objection she had just said was equally funny. She would be laughing if it really was funny. It wasn't.

"I don't understand it," muttered Tragic Fortune, a Chosen of Journeys who looked as frustrated as she felt. "Could there be another flaw in the Tapestry? Another paradox that just happens to be in Nexus at the same time?"

"I wouldn't think so," disagreed Death And Decisions, a Chosen of Endings who looked as somber as Xilanada had always pictured Jupiter's Sons looking. "Essence usage is rising even as we speak but it's not really on the scale that a serious breech needs."

"Perhaps it is something else," Iselsi Navia said graciously. Of all the Sidereal here, Xilanada found herself liking the Secrets Caste Sidereal the most. She only asked her questions once and seemed satisfied no matter what Xilanada told her. Saved them both time and bother. She seemed so serene, in her robes of the Immaculate Order, though she wore her red hair long as no monk would ever do.

"What else could it be?" argued Tragic Fortune. "We know it's going to be bad. Final Starry Night is the only one strong enough to cause a disruption like that."

"My name's Xilanada," she said wearily, for the 100th time. Naturally, the stoic Sidereal were ignoring her. Maybe they thought endorsing her change would make the paradox problem worse. Or maybe they were just stubborn.

"What about a summoning?" asked E'lial, who looked very bored.

The three speaking Sidereal all turned to look at E'lial, then at his partner. The enigmatic Chosen of Battles lounged, looking perfectly relaxed, if a little frustrated. E'lial also looked at the last Sidereal present, the only one who hadn't spoken yet. That one was known as the Hunter, a Chosen of Endings who apparently specialized in demon-slaying.

Xilanada had asked him his name. Much to her surprise, the Sidereal did not have one. When she'd wondered why, he'd spoken for the only time during this meeting, and only to say that he had lost it in the line of duty and hadn't bothered having a new one issued from the appropriate Bureau in Heaven. Whatever that meant.

"She is the only one strong enough for that kind of summoning," the Hunter said quietly. "As she is presently in our company, I do not think it likely. Such Sorcery takes a great deal of time, not to mention the right inauspicious celestial event. Calibration, for example."

"You know that tonight is not an auspicious night," Death And Decisions said somberly. "It's possible even a Demon of the Third Circle could escape, if the Solar were knowledgeable enough and had the right preparations."

"Still right here," Xilanada reminded them, sighing at the foolishness of it all. As far as she knew, she was the greatest Sorcerer in Creation and even she wasn't dumb enough to try binding a Third Circle Demon. She knew how, of course, but Final Starry Night had decided some time ago that the risk of such a creature getting loose far outweighed any good he could do with such a power for evil.

"As she says," the Hunter said with a smirk. He turned back to a brooding contemplation of Nexus, life, death, or whatever strange philosophy amused the Sidereal at the moment.

"You know what your problem is," E'lial spoke up suddenly. "You're looking at Xilanada as the cause. What if she's the effect?"

"Ah," murmured the others. Xilanada looked from one mysterious Sidereal to another. They seemed to be meditating about what E'lial had said, making it pretty clear they weren't going to volunteer the information.

"You mind explaining yourself?" she asked at last.

"Oh, sorry Xilanada," E'lial smirked. At least he called her by her name, something the others refused to do. "I'm going to assume you have a basic familiarity with paradox theory, given you're a Solar Circle Sorcerer. Essentially, cause and effect can get very muddled when it comes to breeches in the Tapestry, which demons love to exploit and sometimes create."

"So it could be a summoning, you said that," Xilanada said.

"He means that you are most certainly involved," Iselsi Navia said calmly. "But instead of being the cause, you may be the effect, the symptom preceding the breech."

"How can I be a symptom?" Xilanada asked, boggling at the concept.

"I'll put it plainly," Death And Decisions snapped, obviously impatient to be done with this distraction of a conversation. "You grew up in the Realm, were of Dynastic blood, trained and studied there. You went adventuring in the Threshold, by your own testimony, Exalted and studied in Denandsor for half a century. You left with visions of restoring a Solar Deliberative all by yourself and you used the power you'd unlocked in Denandsor to fuel your conquest of three countries, forming the nation of Xi'arna you ruled over and you were on your way to conquering other lands."

"So?"

"So, suddenly, you threw out 70 years of history and grew a conscience. Miraculously, you swore off your cause, changed your name, changed your gender, your whole life. You left behind a persistent progressive life for something radically new. It is almost inconceivable how you could make your present life any more different than what it had been."

"People figure things out," Xilanada said darkly. "Whatever your opinion of Solar, we can have our fits of conscience and make lasting choices to do things differently."

"Yes, but...the timing," Tragic Fortune said slowly. "We know there's a very large snarl in the Weave of Fate approaching. We see you squarely in the middle of it, with so much of yourself changed. You might be the cause, Final Starry Night. But if you are not, you must be a symptom, an effect of the tremendous breech approaching."

"What are you trying to say? That...I didn't actually make my choices? That a demon strategy's outcome just...made me become Xilanada as a side-effect?" She didn't believe it.

"Bingo," E'lial said proudly. "Got to love the Twilight. They're sharp."

"I don't believe it," she said, choosing to say it out loud.

"Xilanada, do you know of anyone who could mount that kind of power?" Iselsi Navia asked gently. "Do you know of anything else that could cause a breech of the magnitude we're talking about?"

"The strongest demon summoner I know of in the city is my...wife," Xilanada answered, hesitating at the pain of that fact. "And Solitary Coil lacks both the strength and the desire to bring a Third Circle demon here. However, tonight would be the night to summon a demon of the Second Circle...which I know she can do."

"No, the breech at risk is much more serious," Tragic Fortune insisted. "Something on a scale only your kind could do."

"Aren't you done with that yet?" Xilanada said, rolling her eyes. "I've already made it plain I'm not the kind to bind demons, not even when I was Final Starry Night. I just want to go back to my School and see if there's any fragment of a life I can pick up among the pieces."

"I knew Kejak shouldn't have written the contract that way," muttered Death And Decisions. The violet hue of his eyes seemed to churn with his agitation. "We're not really going to let a Solar walk away, are we?"

"We are obligated to once all of our questions are answered to our satisfaction," Iselsi Navia said politely, folding her hands in her lap. "She is bound to answer our questions, we learn what we need to so the paradox may be resolved, and she will be free of the Wyld Hunt...this time."

"You'll just be throwing good Dragon-Blooded away after bad," Xilanada muttered. All the Sidereal gave her a glowering look. "What? I'm just telling you the truth, even if you don't want to hear it. I flattened the last band that tried. Even without Solitary Coil or the Daiklave, I'm not hiding my power anymore and that makes me stronger than I was then."

"Yes," sneered Tragic Fortune. "I suppose you'll be off building another army and massacring more innocents. You might as well just pick up where you left off. I hear Grayfalls is still picking up the pieces from your Sorcery."

"By the Sun, you bring that up again and I'm going to decapitate you and throw your head up to His embrace, to keep or reject as he likes." Xilanada hated sounding like that, hated how easily those words came to her lips, but her anger burned too hotly to do otherwise. "This safe passage ends, by the terms of that contract, when you ask your last question and I am allowed to take my leave. Don't encourage me to hunt you down later."

"That little rant is supposed to make me feel safer about you running around unrestrained?" the Sidereal snapped back.

"This isn't productive," E'lial said, yawning. "I mean, we can rattle our sabers all night. I'm thinking the demons aren't going to be caring, though. Shall we?"

"Great Prophecy, what is that!" cried Death And Decisions, pointing over Navia's shoulder toward the Nexus nightscape.

Xilanada saw what he meant. With only a few streaks of red in the horizon left, it was already quite dark tonight, owing to the lack of Luna's face. Even so, the towering pillar of darkness that rose from the Bastion District was obvious for it was darker still.

"That's..." Iselsi Navia breathed.

"...Summoning the Heart of Darkness," Xilanada finished for her. "The only Celestial Sorcerer I know in Nexus is Coil but...I don't think that's her. I don't even know if she knows it and she always favored battle Sorcery, the kind that killed people instead of confusing them."

"Can you see the Essence patterns?" Navia asked quietly.

"I can," Xilanada nodded and All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight revealed the world of Creation's power to her eyes. Standing in the middle of all that vibrant life, several glaring things stood out about the School. "We have a problem."

"Explain," demanded Tragic Fortune.

"First, I've never seen an Essence signature like the kind used in that Sorcery. Given how badly it's mashing the local flows, I'm going to venture a guess. I'd say we have an Abyssal here doing that."

"Figures," E'lial said, with an interested nod, even as the other Sidereal groaned. "Go on."

"Second...I blame myself for not noticing this earlier. You think I would have figured this out before, since I lived there, but I never looked at the School from this vantage point and didn't bother to trace out the geomantric designs. The Six Poses of Lightning School has a lot of the same engineering as certain First Age Manses."

"No it doesn't," Navia said, shaking her head. "I know quite a bit about First Age architecture and I've never seen a design like that."

"That's because you're looking for something obvious. It's not. Don't look for the usual Manse designs, it wasn't built to make a Hearthstone. No, look at each of the wings, look at the buttresses and how they're angled. Look at the center, see how it serves as a quin-mode channeling focus? It's not meant to concentrate the power in the middle, it's feeding it to the Founder's Wing, up there on the north end, that's why you're not seeing it. I wasn't paying attention but I'd bet most Exalted wouldn't know the difference either, walking around in there."

"I still don't see it," Navia said, making a soft sound of frustration. The other Sidereal were watching Xilanada with varying expressions from mistrust to fear.

"I wouldn't worry too much over it," Xilanada said. "Kal Bax's Advanced Formulations of Geomancy said that only those with enough mastery of Essence could understand the full dimensions of the designs. Sidereal Exaltation may not be strong enough."

Seeing no yielding in anyone's expressions, other than a subtly obvious glare, she shrugged and conjured a flaming quill from her own Essence. Who would have thought martial artists could be so sensitive? She drew sharp lines of sunlight across the air in front of her, overlaying the School far below. "There, do you see? Look here, look here, it's a little like the work of Kal Bax. It's brilliant, really. I can't believe Tepet Malias came up with those plans."

"Maybe he didn't," the Hunter said threateningly. "In which case, we have a demon-engineered School using First-Age techniques that can concentrate Essence for a specific unknown application. We have an Abyssal in that School and we have a student body of almost a thousand, most of whom possess a measure of Essence themselves."

"Well, when you put it that way..." E'lial mumbled. No one was smiling though, not even him.

"Please let me go," Xilanada said, making pains to keep her tone cordial and subdued. "My friends, my students, they could be dying down there. I have to help them."

"In a moment," Iselsi Navia said, looking absorbed with what was occurring. She turned away from the dark pillar and a pale green Caste Mark on her forehead shone softly in the moonless night. "Daimyo Nasri, your presence is requested on a matter involving the Army of Heaven."

Xilanada tried not to gawk. She'd read books on celestial hierarchy, even on the Solar's own interactions with Heaven's administration, but it was quite another thing to watch a woman you'd been having polite conversation with casually summon the General of the Heavenly Army of Yu-Shan.

The other Sidereals did not look unfazed, either. Tragic Fortune and Death And Decisions exchanged worried looks. E'lial looked blankly indifferent but he was noticeably tense, for the first time Xilanada had ever seen him. Even the Hunter was acting differently. He was smiling.

In minutes, Xilanada saw the Essence flows of the sky shift, turning tempestuous as the Daimyo of Storms herself, General Nasri winged in from beyond the clouds. She might have been invisible to mortal eyes but Xilanada could see the great bulk of the Storm Serpent and she marveled at seeing one of the greater Gods in all of Creation here. Iselsi Navia rose smoothly from her chair and dipped into a curtsey before the General and the other Sidereal stood and nodded respectfully.

Xilanada also stood. She did not bow, nod or curtsey for her mind was working furiously, remembering everything she'd read about him. A wild idea was forming and she wanted to make sure it could work.

"Chosen Navia," the General said, her deep voice booming like the thunder. "I have assembled a legion of Huraka, as per your earlier request. I regret I can not dispense more troops without the authority of Shogun-Regent Ghataru, even for you."

"A legion should be sufficient," Iselsi Navia said pleasantly. "Thank you, General. Please gather your forces and proceed to the Six Poses of Lightning School, in the event of an imminent demon incursion."

Abruptly, thunder shattered the skies. Xilanada cried out in pain and blocked her ears, even as the other Sidereal did likewise. General Nasri swayed in the air, her great serpentine head turning this way and that. There was no more sign of rain then there had been since the God's arrival.

"An ill omen," the General said. "That was not my doing, nor was it natural in any way." No, it wasn't and Xilanada thought she knew what it was. That was very bad, if she was right, but it also gave her an opportunity to put her plan into action.

"Daimyo Nasri," Xilanada called out, standing stiffly as her Sunmail dress flowed out from her, billowing over the side of the cloud platform. She called forth her own Caste Mark with a small thought. "I am Xilanada, Twilight Caste of the Unconquered Sun, and Solar Circle Sorcerer. The ancient texts attribute such an event to one particular demon, Daimyo. Erembour, That Which Calls to the Shadow, has come to Creation."

"You are recognized, Descending Sun," the great Storm Serpent said. "And your counsel will be given its appropriate weight."

"Respectfully, Daimyo, I request to join your legion in battle."

"No!" shouted several Sidereal at once. "We're not letting her out of our sight!" Tragic Fortune shouted. "She is in the custody of the Bureau of Fate!" Death And Decisions added. "We're overreacting!" E'lial shouted among them, drawing several spiteful looks that he ignored with every good grace.

"I'm afraid my fellow Chosen are correct, General," Iselsi Navia said, sounding regretful. "Xilanada is presently under contract to answer our questions in exchange for safe passage from us, for the duration of our investigation."

"I see," Nasri said thoughtfully. "I'm afraid the Bureau of Fate has precedence in this matter, Lawgiver."

"The duration?" Xilanada repeated, annoyed that she hadn't seen it before. "I submit to you, Daimyo, that they intend to keep me 'indefinitely' for questioning. It was my mistake for not considering that possibility when signing it but I am a Sorcerer, not an Eclipse. A Censor could clear this matter up, should one be called in to investigate their exact intentions and their own private departmental correspondence, which I'm certain would be quite revealing." Was that a shift of discomfort? Oh yes. Xilanada grinned at the Sidereal. Bastards.

"Regrettably, this is not the business of my department, Chosen of the Sun." The Storm Serpent was looking distinctly uncomfortable. What were heavenly politics like now, anyway? Once, the Bureau of Seasons had reported to the Solar and now the Solar were gone, with Ghataru, the Daimyo of Sunlight and the Season of Earth according to Denandsor's books, apparently the Shogun-Regent. But the Sidereal were still there. Could there be bad blood between departments run by old rivals?

"It is, Daimyo, if the Bureau of Fate is interfering with a member of the Bureau of Seasons in the commission of their duty, is it not?"

"You are not under my jurisdiction," the Daimyo said, beginning to sound annoyed.

"But you are under mine," Xilanada demanded, driving the point home. Yes, the Sidereal were uncomfortable, she noticed. "I'm certain my information is outdated but the Library of Denandsor's section for the Solar was quite thorough and I doubt much changes in Heaven. Bureaucratically speaking, Daimyo Nasri, your department reports to the Solar Deliberative and right now I'm the closest thing to it. I've mastered the Vengeful Onslaught technique. According to the Izerreta School of Celestial Swordfighting, that qualifies me for Exemplary status in Yu-Shan."

"You are not a Dawn," countered Nasri in an angry rumble. "You are not qualified to be my commander." Xilanada worried about offending the Storm Serpent but, from the way everyone was reacting, she obviously had some kind of political ground to stand on.

"I'm not giving you orders, Daimyo Nasri. I'm establishing precedent, that I am under the political umbrella of your Bureau and that I have the right to accompany your forces into battle as Sorcerous support. Besides, if Erembour is present, there's the strong likelihood that I can banish her. I, perhaps alone in all Creation, can do that."

The great Storm Serpent drew back, regarding her with a baleful eye yet she held her tongue. Xilanada did her best not to look too triumphant. At last, the Daimyo of Storms bent her head and nodded.

"She has the right. And she has the power to do as she says. Respectfully, Chosen Navia, I request the Bureau of Fate release her to perform her duties."

"This was unwise," Iselsi Navia said quietly, in a private voice just between the two of them. Where the other Sidereal looked nervous, looked uncomfortable, looked like anything, Navia's expression had not changed from its serene cast since their first meeting. The Chosen of Secrets exhaled a little heavily, almost a sigh, and nodded. "Very well, Daimyo. Final Starry Night is released from the Bureau of Fate's jurisdiction to yours. And Heaven help us if it was the wrong choice," she said with a bit of a bite at the end. Xilanada met her eyes with every bit of conviction she had.

"I'm not Final Starry Night. My name...is Xilanada and I am pledged to do the Sun's work, not my own. I never asked for this but, since it's been given to me, I am going to wield that power in the righteous way I think it's meant to be used. If you question that judgment, then question the Unconquered Sun. If you have any faith in Heaven, Sidereal, all of you...have faith that the Incarna's trust in us is not misplaced."

The Hunter looked indifferent. E'lial looked bored. Tragic Fortune looked ever so slightly scared. Death And Decisions smiled a little and mouthed the word "Anathema" at her. Iselsi Navia...looked no different at all.

"Daimyo," Xilanada said, turning her attention to the Storm Serpent. "I am at your command. I only make one further request of you."

"And what is that?"

"I need a sword."