Quendalon/Session21LiInterlude
The five Exalted rode hard out of Idris, the inhuman shriek of Cessair still ringing softly in their ears. Betrayal had followed betrayal and yet again the Chosen of the Sun and Luna had been forced to flee from those who would have been allies. Li had wounded Cessair brutally but she and her brothers had wounded her pride worse. The fey queen’s spear-wound would heal but she would undoubtedly nurse her grudge against them, especially against Li, who had sought to slay her, and against Aekino and Zera, who had in the end, spurned her. Another enemy left behind. If only she had Burning Tiger in hand when she confronted Cessair—
She shook the thought away fiercely. The grand daiklaive weighing on her back seemed to pulse in approval of her bloody thoughts.
Li breathed carefully, measuring her breaths to the rhythm of her horse and the night wind whipping past her face. She looked around at her brothers and at Fetek, who was very nearly a brother to them as well. It seemed every one of them was being tested constantly; not just their strength of their arms but the strength of their will.
We have grown distracted, she thought to herself. We have turned away from the purpose we were meant for, the purpose that brought us to this demon-haunted land.
It was not truly surprising, she reflected, that our paths should have been so easily turned aside. For the first time in their lives, every one of them possessed power, true power to affect change and to take what they wanted. Before her own Exaltation, Li’s world had been bounded by the shores of Orchid and the wide ocean. Only the touch of the Unconquered Sun had transported her beyond those boundaries. She knew now it was much the same for each of her brothers, in their own way. Thorvald’s people lived a bleak and dreary existence, a life of constant struggle which they fully expected to end with pain, death and even damnation. Zera Thisse had been a poor man and a peasant in Thorns, a benighted and oppressed city even before the coming of the Mask of Winters. Even Aekino, a privileged son of the Dynasty, was bound by his family ties and relegated to a lesser station without the blessing of the Dragons in his veins. Now, each of them had thrown away those bonds, each believing in some way that they were now free to chart their own destiny across the face of Creation.
What fools we have been, she thought. We have merely exchanged our old bonds for new ones. We have ignored the responsibilities of our stations and acted selfishly, impulsively, and much pain and suffering has been the result.
She resolved that moment not to continue down that road. Often, she had held her silence while her brothers discussed and debated and made decisions, and she had gone along despite misgivings, because she had trusted their judgement. Now her trust in their judgement and her own was breaking apart in the face of the consequences of their actions.
No, she resolved. We will not become the Anathema that our old selves became. We must remain true to our purpose. Our enemies are clear: the dead of Kaihan. The demons haunting the land and their lord in Tul Tuin. The Mask of Winters. All else is distraction and temptation away from our true path. She knew it in her heart and she knew her brothers knew it as well.
It was time to begin acting as Exalted, not Anathema.
