The Ghost/Under the Sign of Mercury
This is the first Chapter of the chronicle This Exalted Thing We Do it is followed by The Details of Gods and Fairies
At The Elephant
We first meet our heroes in a caravansary by the name of "The Elephant" where they are planing their next move having found each other through the connected strands of fate woven together for their exaltations ere the ending of the last age. Their names are Golden Harmony a gifted surgeon and medical practitioner, of the twilight caste and Reverberating Catechism an occultist, alchemist, and scribe of the eclipse caste. They comment on the fact that Chiaroscuro is too firmly in the grip of the Immaculate Order and seek a place of greater freedom where they can grow into their power. Following up some rumors they learn of a city deep in the southern desserts near the summer mountains called Iskandar where the hold of the Immacualtes is weak and a Solar Anathema might find some respite from the Wyld Hunt. Deciding to seek out this place of refuge they leave The Elephant to make preparations for a trip into the deep deserts.
Meeting the Night Caste
While going through the city in search of supplies and beasts of burden to carry them for their trip Cat and Golden come upon River a young southern woman who now bears the shard of their circle's Night Caste. The three oath bound companions strike up a conversation but are accosted by a group of thugs seeking to take the scandalously dressed night caste captive to sell to slavers. Things manage to come off without violence, this time, but the slavers will reappear, with reinforcements, in a few more hours.