Xilanada - The Third Interlude

In the small shop of masks, in the Bastion section of Nexus, a certain hue of sound came over the Sanctum concealed behind the world in Elsewhere.

That meant something.

And so to Creation's store front Shalrina came, the Daimyo of Faces who had forsaken a heavenly throne for Creation and her own agenda.

Shalrina, whose names were many and yet One, readied herself and watched the man who came in finery to her store with great interest.

That man meant something.

So, the Daimyo bowed her head and greeted the Solar Lord in the fashion and with the respect that one of his great station and might deserved.

To the shop came Final Starry Night, the Destroyer of Grayfalls, the Conqueror of Xi'ar'na, and Twilight Caste of the Unconquered Sun.

To the shop came a Descending Sun whose entirety was weighted down by such a burden that he could barely stand, a matter long familiar to one such as Shalrina.

To the counter, he moved and the Twilight bowed with the one knee, in the old-fashioned manner one of her authority warranted.

"I have come to call and you have answered," Final Starry Night said, in a dark voice that bore terrible sadness and power not to be questioned.

"You have come to call and I answer you," answered the Daimyo of Faces, in a pleasing voice that soothed all those who came with such burdens like this one.

"I have come as far as I can go," Final Starry Night whispered, and his bitter smile was cruel and self-depreciating under the light of her spirit lanterns.

"Do you know what is required?" Shalrina inquired.

"As much as is ever required, Daimyo, perhaps more than exactly enough," he replied, raising up a magnificent Daiklave whose worth rivaled the price for this entire district, perhaps the whole city in this enfeebled Age, for the sword's strength predated the First Age and was truly that great.

"You know the other price?"

"I offer you all I own as I wish no reminder of what I was when I become who I will be, nor would you have the power to enforce the other price if you were to search me out."

Across the length of the counter, Final Starry Night's will was adamant, his raw strength as he said, and his wordly possessions exceedingly great and so Shalrina permitted the notion to continue for as long as her own interests were properly satisfied.

"You will be someone new, Final Starry Night, whoever you wish, though I have one especially in mind for you," Shalrina said.

"Tell me."

"A blonde woman, petite but pretty, who could be the Librarian again instead of the Destroyer before me."

Shalrina donned the woman's appearance and knew she had spoken sagaciously, felt the golden Exaltation within the man stir as it strove to become again what it had once been an Age ago.

"Be wary of Xilanada, Final Starry Night, for she will not be easy to restore, nor will this mask I wear come without her own past that may overtake you."

In this small shop, in her Sanctum, Shalrina could almost reach out and bring it about with the Solar's own strength, she who was and represented Identity.

"Will my Exaltation remain a danger to me?" Final Starry Night demanded in a voice that made mortals worship him.

"Your Exaltation is between you and the Sun."

"What should I do about it?" the Twilight Sorcerer asked quietly, the nervousness and fear in his voice well hidden and yet laid out to see and savor for a God who was pleased to see a Descending Sun humbled before her.

"Beg the Sun to forsake you, if you can."

"And if I can't?"

"Then...see if you can conceal it, for such a one as you might know the ancient wisdoms that can shroud you in the shell of Mortality, for it is the only way you will know peace."

"Then I shall do so, Daimyo, for I will not allow anything to stand between me and what you will give me when I make the price."

At that, Final Starry Night ceased to be the glorious Solar Lord as he drew about him the Eclipsing Ephemerality Prana, and the hue of noise in Shalrina's shop because ordinary clamor again.

Here in Nexus, within the boundaries of existence, the mortals continued, living out the lives given to them for both good and evil in all things.

Here in Nexus stood the crux of the Age, the intersection where Gods, Demons and Men might fix the course of the future.

Here in Nexus resided the Exalted among the mortals, the agents of Greater Powers...or their executioners.

Here in Nexus the Daimyo of Faces smiled, for if Final Starry Night sought to change his life, she knew he could not change his Destiny and that Destiny would come ever closer to fruition...for it served her purposes as well.