Xilanada - Pursuit Of Regretted Truths/Part 6

"So, you going to sulk up here all day?"

Xilanada opened her eyes and jumped backward on the tilted battlement, the blazing Sunmailed dress flaming coolly about her as the trails drifted several stories down. A man was crouched in front and above her, just off one of the inner walls of the roof. He was dressed outrageously in silver, gray and...were those boots really that canary shade of yellow? But it was his eyes that made her bring up her Charms. The red hue was speckled with stars. The only other man to have eyes like that had tried, twice now, to kill her.

"Son of Mars," Xilanada said, inclining her head respectfully to the Sidereal. "Welcome to the top of the Tower of the Council of Entities. Now, I give you ten breaths to explain yourself to me before I hurl your soon-to-be-shattered body from these heights. You're not here from the Council, telling me to find another place to sit?" She gave him a pleasant smile, one he returned in a jovial fashion.

"I didn't really want to get this close to you in the first place," he said with a chuckle. "The further my kind stay away from yours, the better, don't you think? But unfortunately that's no longer possible. I have...a warrant for you." He sighed and looked vaguely annoyed with it all.

"A warrant? Wait a minute...you're trying to arrest me?" Xilanada shook her head at the sheer audacity. "By what authority? I doubt Nexus would recognize it anyway unless it's from the Council. Not that I can blame them, given what I did to their Tower. But tell me, Sidereal, what possible group could you represent? The Bureau of Fate doesn't work with warrants...unless your kind have a front now."

Xilanada looked at the man thoughtfully. What had the Sidereal been doing in all that time since the Usurpation? Doing the work of Destiny, of course, but was that really it? For that matter, why had they allowed that academically preposterous Immaculate Philosophy to go the direction it did? They, of all Exalts, knew better.

"I come on a Mandate from Heaven," the Chosen of Battles said. "I'm not here to fight you but to bring you in for questioning. There's a little matter of the Tapestry that has become imperative."

"That would be...a paradox?" Xilanada said, struggling to remember. The books on the Sidereal's work had been obscure and, honestly, had not been as interesting as most of the texts she had at her disposal back in Denandsor. The Chosen nodded in acknowledgement and Xilanada gave herself points for getting the answer right.

"Here," he said, tossing a scroll to her. The white tube flared with silver light as it fell into her hands, its seal imprinted with the sigil for the Forbidden Manse of Ivy. Xilanada barely remembered it but understood its significance. "It's yours, open it up." The Sidereal chuckled again. "Among other things, it's a promise no harm will come to you during the course of this little matter."

It was a strange dialect of Old Realm but Xilanada was an accomplished linguist and recognized the language drift and her own old-fashioned education as the reason for its oddness. The contents seemed plain, though. Chosen of Secrets Chejob Kejak, had put the bearer of this warrant, Chosen of Battles E'lial, under orders to bring the Solar Final Starry Night to a Fellowship for investigation and determination of paradox in reference to upcoming fate disruption. It did promise her safe passage in exchange for her cooperation in answering their questions.

What's more, the paper appeared to be of an old Oath-Binding variety. By signing his name to it, the Chosen of Secrets had come under Heaven's Law and would suffer greatly if its terms were broken. Likewise, a place for her signature would put her in the same position.

"If I don't sign this, it's not valid, is it?" Xilanada asked, although she was pretty confident she knew the answer.

"Nope," the presumed E'lial said. He'd fished out an opium pipe from somewhere and was quite contentedly puffing away on it while she'd given the letter her full attention. Xilanada looked about warily.

"Which means this could still be a trap. Your Fellowship has until I sign this before safe passage is in place, no?"

"My, you're a cunning one," E'lial said approvingly. "Well thought out and most guileful. If the First Age Solar had been as quick, they would never have been thrown down."

"So it is a trap!" Xilanada glared.

"No," he chuckled, shaking his head again. "Apparently the Sidereal aren't any quicker than your predecessors were." The Chosen of Battles seemed to find that quite funny, though Xilanada couldn't for the life of her understand why. He seemed a humorous fellow but was it really funny to mock one's own Exaltation?

"What do you people want from me? Really?"

"Oh, 'my people' would like you dead," E'lial grinned. "Personally, I think they could do it too but they're too afraid. There's a dozen or more who I'd lay money on winning a fight with you, but all of them fought the First Age Solar too. Your predecessors must have struggled like the Yozi's themselves because no one wants to tussle with you at this point if they don't have to. Except Fateful Ambiguity, who knows he would lose."

"So why did they send you, E'lial? You're not what I expected."

"I'm sure that's part of the reason," the Sidereal mused. "But mostly it's because I was already in the area. It's funny, I stopped by the other night to visit an old student of mine. Brilliant Sorcerer for a Dragon-Blooded, has the talent to go the distance if he put his mind to it. Good man. Seems to have a bit of a problem though."

Xilanada narrowed her eyes at him, encouraging the Chosen with her cold stare to get to the point.

"You see, he's in love with a woman. Deeply, head over heels in love. Problem is, he thinks she's a demon. Tragic, wouldn't you say?"

"E'lial, let me speak plainly where you will not." She fixed him with the full weight of her will, hoping her glorious Impenetrable Sunmail would make up for her lack of height. "I am not Final Starry Night anymore nor will I ever return to his ways or methods. But I can recognize a patently obvious display of agenda-working when I see it. I do not know what you plan for me or for Sen or for my Lunar mate. But if you think my refusal to become the Destroyer again will protect you from a swift execution if I decide you've tampered with my life...think again."

"Ah, now that's grit!" E'lial enthused. "Spirit! You make me miss Xilanada."

"...you knew her?" Xilanada asked, suddenly thrown off-guard.

"We met a few times. Social functions mostly. She was very much like you. Shy and quiet on the surface but feisty and full of drive. She never went as bad as most of your kind did in the First Age, I heard."

"What are you about, Chosen?" Xilanada said, blinking and shaking her head to dispel her confusion at his continual change of subjects.

"I'm interested in wrapping up this little problem with the Tapestry, a problem you seem to embody. You see, as long as you embrace your predecessor's name and appearance, while bearing her soul and her Anima...it causes problems. Creation says you died over a millennia ago."

"But now you're here, apparently the same Xilanada. You have the same name, Anima, soul, you look like her, you act like her. What can I say? Fate's a little simple-minded sometimes. And where it's weak, the powers of Hell can intrude."

"And what does my personal life have to do with it?" she said with a little heat, feeling the dress woven of sunbeams flare in the light of the day from her feelings.

"Well, Xilanada was married to her Lunar mate, a man. That yours was a woman helped a bit but when she took on a man's shape, that kinda worsened things." E'lial shrugged. "Not that you know anything about that. Anyway," he continued over her opening mouth. "The best way for you to show Fate that you're not the same Xilanada is by being different. Now, you could stay away from libraries or schools but I think we can agree that's not likely to happen. You could go back to being the Destroyer and that would work too, though I'd really rather you didn't because it means a lot of people will die."

"Get to the point," Xilanada said, grinding her teeth at the unpleasant reminder.

"Fine," E'lial said, taking a deep drag from his pipe. "Do you love Sen?"

"I see no reason to discuss him with you."

"You want the point or not?" he smirked.

"...fine. Yes, I love him. I spent the morning crying my eyes out because things are over between us. I feel terribly enough that I've actually given serious thought to going back to the drug habit Captive Smile used to have. At least last night, when I was high, I was happy. Now, are you?" Xilanada crossed her arms across her chest and tapped her foot, waiting.

"Stay off the heroin," E'lial sighed. "Of course, a Blue Boy would love to get you addicted again, they're all about drugs these days. Me, I love wine, women, song and drugs as much as the next Venus-monger but...I'm afraid I'd get bitter. Kinda like you!" He grinned like a fool, looked sheepish when she didn't react and he hastily continued.

"...Anyway, it's not exactly my job description but of all the ways to make you different from who you used to be, I think the way that'd make you happiest is to be with Sen. He's a Dragon-Blooded, which is definitely not something Xilanada did in the First Age. I'm trying to make things happen for you both, for his sake because he's an old student, for yours because you've got a good heart, and for Creation's sake...so that demons don't come and eat us all."

"You're so dramatic," Xilanada said, rolling her eyes.

"Actually...no. That's what this warrant's about." E'lial pointed his finger at the paper. "Sometime today, there's a strong likelihood of serious demonic incursion in this city and...well, you're the strongest magnet for that kind of thing right now."

"You're really not kidding," Xilanada said, watching the sincerity on the Sidereal's face.

"Nope. Now, Runic Isolation, my apprentice...he thinks you should get back with your Lunar. As long as she stays a woman anyway, because that would mitigate the paradox problem even better. Of course, Runic Isolation's young. He still thinks girl on girl action is the best thing to ever happen around him." E'lial sighed and shook his head in mock disgust. Xilanada blushed, thinking of Coil, grimaced at herself, caught E'lial noticing her grimacing, and blushed harder at having called attention to herself.

"But you favor Sen," she said, more to avoid thinking of her Lunar than because she wanted to talk about her love life.

"What's not to like?" E'lial said with a broad smile. "He's handsome, intelligent. Would give his soul to you if he didn't think you'd eat it or something. He's every girl's dream... and you happen to be his. Only downside is lifespan but I'm sure an industrious Solar like yourself can figure out a couple of ways to mitigate that little obstacle. Mostly, I don't see good things in the future for you or anyone else if you choose Coil."

"No?"

"Xilanada...I will admit to you that there is a strong possibility that you could truly bring the light of righteousness into that woman's heart." E'lial was serious for once and Xilanada nodded to indicate she understood. "There is also a strong possibility that, with her in your life, you could end up becoming something far more dangerous than the Scarlet Empress. At least with Sen, you only have personal heartbreak to deal with whenever you eventually outlive him. Me, I'd pick that for you over the heartbreak of every family who loses a member because of a war you fought or a harsh punishment you might impose years from now."

"You don't have to remind me of the evil in my heart," Xilanada said fiercely. "I know what I'm capable of. Don't mistake my resolve to do better for ignorance of what the Solar did. And in your plotting, E'lial, you missed one possibility entirely."

"Oh?" That got his eyebrows to raise and Xilanada smirked sadly at him.

"You didn't mention what could happen...if I ended up alone."

E'lial seemed to meditate on the thought for a minute, puffing contentedly on his pipe while she bowed her head and basked in her Father's light. Xilanada had no fear of Sidereal maneuvering in to attack her now. She had no fear of anything anymore.

For the truth was, the day had given her the chance to realize that love had no place in her life. She couldn't be with Sen and couldn't be with Coil. And maybe it was better that way. An amusing tidbit from the Immaculate Philosophy made her smile as she thought about it. One of the reasons monks avoided relationships was that such strong feeling interfered with their spiritual impartiality and objectivity. If anything was true from that faith, perhaps that was.

"For your sake, I hope you don't make that choice," E'lial said grimly. "For I can only see one outcome."

"...I die," Xilanada said, as the truth slowly welled up in her mind.

"Sooner than later," E'lial said, nodding his head. "Without someone to live for, I fear even with your power you'll find a way to die in splendid battle before this decade is out."

"I would have thought a Chosen of Battles would welcome my death," Xilanada said, unable to hide the harshness in her voice.

"I'm not thinking of you, I'm thinking of everyone who will die with you," E'lial said, just as harshly. It surprised her. Up until now, he'd shown no hint of steel yet there it was. "Doesn't matter. You'll almost certainly wind up with one or the other. You need love in your life, Xilanada."

"You think I need a wife or husband just to bear existence?" she asked, angered suddenly. "You think because I'm a woman now I need a spouse to please or I have no purpose?"

"I think you do, yes," E'lial said softly. "Not because you're a woman. Because you're simply you. Those long years in Denandsor left their mark, didn't they? Tell me the truth. Now that you've returned to the world...can you really bear to leave it again?"

"Maybe not," Xilanada said regretfully. "But we're wasting time." She channeled Essence to use an obscure Linguistics Charm and summoned a flaming pen of sunlight into existence. With bold strokes, she wrote her signature in never-fading light across the scroll and handed it back to the Sidereal. "Let's do this."

"One thing first. Just the truth, please, for your sake. Now that you've signed that, you're bound to cooperate with our questions but it doesn't specify which. You have to answer me or risk the wrath of Heaven."

"Be done with it!" Xilanada yelled, outraged at his audacity again.

"Who do you want? In the end, who do you wish to spend the rest of your life with? Sen or Solitary Coil? Choose. Which would it really be?"

Xilanada bowed her head as she felt her Father's eyes upon her, felt the weight of Heaven calling on her to answer. Tears came to her eyes again at the impossibility of her reply. But, bound as she was, she said it.

"Sen."

"I thought so," E'lial said, satisfied. "Now, shall we go? The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can work on a way to get you two together."

E'lial stood straight and began casting Sorcery, causing brilliant silver-white runes to twist into being around him. Xilanada recognized the teleportation spell, of course, and stood next to him. Just as the runes completed and the magic seized them, she leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"Unless I decide all of this was your fault, first."