Chapter 1–Heritage
"Arianna, Arianna," said Dace in amazement, gently shaking his head in disbelief, "I can't believe you actually found it!"
Dace, Swan and Arianna were entering a massive chamber of marble, brass, starmetal and orichalcum. Great pillars and arches supported the ceiling, which was a massive adjustable star-chart. In the centre was an orrery over sixty feet from side to side, modelling the motions of the planets and the constellations in tandem with the star chart in the closest approximation to the workings of the loom of fate there ever built.
When Arianna had claimed she had found the tool for divining the future in Denandsor, the rest of the circle thought it was a wild goose chase, in fact Panther & Jade hadn't even come here.
The three of them had to step over some pretty dangerous traps to get here, as well as do an immense amount of research, but they'd finally arrived at what was looking to be the largest astrological chamber in Creation. In addition, this chamber held the equipment necessary to trace the path of an Celestial Exaltation back into the past and even into the future (with some vague accuracy), which few if any other such astrological arrays were capable of.
"So," began Arianna, "Let's get started!" striding over to a control panel, she motioned Dace to follow her. She began working a huge set of dials and switches, continuing "Dace, you stand on that rune. We can use it to find out who you were in your past life, then check in the adjacent hall of legends for details on your past," she smiled "And then we can use this orrery to predict the future, assuming the bronze faction hasn't sabotaged it…"
It had been three weeks since the rescue of Tepet Ejava, and they'd been looking to find the orrery ever since a couple "Sidereals" of the "Gold faction" had approached them and told them of this massive conspiracy, as well as that the sidereals had been all but wiped out in an event known as the "Lotus massacre" and had urged the circle to find the Orrery of the Silent City to gain an advantage over the rising forces of the Queen of Hell.
Arianna worked the controls and the orrery slightly adjusted, shining light upon Dace. Arianna regarded the screen and looked up, declaring "Well, you're the reincarnation of one Kan-Hur. We can see who he is in the hall. Come on Swan!" she exclaimed exasperatedly, motioning him to stand on the rune as Dace left it. Arianna was always like this with Swan, even, or perhaps especially, over trivialities.
She worked the controls, the orrery adjusted, and she looked up, declaring "Desus. Your exaltation once belonged to someone named Desus. Now, you go look yourself up. I'll get to divining the future."
Swan walked over to the library, shaking his head slightly. Once Arianna was in this sort of mood, it was best just to leave her alone with whatever was the object of her latest obsession.
Swan searched through the vast library, searching through bookcase after bookcase for the name "Desus". This hall of legends was a gigantic archive, with books or booklets on the deeds of every Solar and Lunar exalt before the Usurpation, as well as a few notable Terrestrials.
After over an hour of hunting, he finally found the book titled "Desus". It was bound in some kind of hide, decorated with Gold Filigree and written in Old Realm. He gingerly opened it, seeing that it was written in beautifully illuminated script. He began to read.
As he read, he learned that yes, Lilith had been his mate and they'd fought and loved and won during the Primordial war, of which little is spoken of in the book. He read of how Desus became a great leader in the First Age, had helped found the Solar Deliberative, had helped draft the contract which kept the Yozi & their demons enslaved, had negotiated with the first kings of the Underworld, had robbed a creature known as the Logic Engine of it's power by, in tandem with a trio of Twilight researchers, defeating it in formal debate, had killed the rogue solar general Torquemada in a sword-fight, defeating him with the technique he had invented mere days before as a capstone for the Snake Style, and so on and so forth.
It became clear to Swan as he read that his previous incarnation was one of the founding fathers of the Old Realm, with a long and glorious career. Around a third of the way through, he started to wonder why Lilith refused to speak of Desus, or even mention him by name. He read and read, and it became apparent to him that Desus had fallen into decadence after a couple centuries of peace. He had blinded a peaceful behemoth just to see what would happen, though the book made it seem quite heroic. He had taken to excessive displays of every excess, he had killed those who had offered him insight, he had taken to clandestine affairs with a number of exalts and mortals, but it was all presented in the same heroic light that his exploits in the beginning had been.
It spoke then a little of Lilith, how her loyalty to Desus was so great that she would fly into great rages when anyone dared to criticize him, one notable instance being that when a young dawn caste had asked if Desus had given her her broken arm, she had leapt on him and slain him where he stood, her arm still broken, pecking his eyes out and slitting his throat.
Swan put down the book, disgusted. So this was why Lilith didn't talk of Desus: he had used some kind of charm on her to keep her enslaved, probably tormented her, he didn't know. He did know that he no longer had any pride for his former incarnation.
Dace came around looking a little sick yet simultaneously excited, telling him "Swan! I got the codes to the Five-Metal Shrike!" which jolted Swan out of his reflection. Dace flipped to page sixty of his book, showed him a page. The page detailed how he had commissioned the Five-Metal Shrike to replace the Titan-class directional fortresses, hired with the Twilights Arnos, Elsander and Rhaea to design and build it and had put a special command code on it so no-one else could command it.
"Where?" asked Swan, at which Dace furrowed his brow and pointed right at the bottom of the page, exclaiming "There! Can't you see it?" but that section of the page was blank, as it should be: he was pointing at the margins. Then it dawned on him: "Of course," he sighed, "Letter-within-a-letter technique, just like Reza used," referencing another eclipse caste who had risen to some prominence in Nexus. Dace nodded agreement, adding "Yes, it wouldn't make sense to leave the codes for anyone but his reincarnation," then continued "Now we just need to go after the Shrike!" saying it as though it was the easiest thing in the world. Swan chuckled, catching the sarcasm.
The two of them returned to the chamber to share the news with Arianna, neither of them mentioning their former selves' past. It was better this way. It wouldn't do to discuss the sins of their past lives now. Now they were heroes again, and they had a job to do, which at this point was tracking down the five-metal shrike, which in this case meant going to the libraries of Nexus, check with the gods at Great Forks, consult with experts, perhaps using the (crippled by Bronze Faction operatives to facilitate the Usurpation but still partially functional) orrery… it was going to be a big job, but should they succeed, it could change the whole war effort.
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But this is not a tale of war and heroics. It is not a tale of battles and chases and races against time. What is this a tale of, you ask? It is the tale of a tale told by a man to a woman, mind to mind, heart to heart, soul to soul.