Under Cloudy Glass
by Shawn Hagen
Updated August 2018
Forward This is the fourth Exalted story I have written, the other three and the order that they are probably best read in are:
Sparrow Hawk and Lightning The Untruths of Time To Stand once more in the Sun This story can be read without having read the ones above.
It may also be a good one to read first as I attempt to provide a more detailed background of the Exalted world of Creation than I have in the other stories.
The updates of this story are primarily related to spelling and grammar. It is still the same story that was originally posted.
Glass and Ghosts
Before the time of man, the city of Chiaroscuro had existed. The Primordials had laid its foundations, and the Dragon Kings had added to it, but it had been the Solar Exalted who had been the master architects who had made it a vast, glass city of 22 million people.
The Usurpation had levelled the administrative and governance centre of Chiaroscuro, leaving behind a mile-wide plain of golden glass where the great glass towers had once stood.
However, Chiaroscuro had survived the death of the Solars and remained a vibrant city and port during the age of the Shogunate. Until the Great Contagion had killed 9 in 10 of the city's inhabitants. As it had killed 9 in 10 throughout all of Creation. Then the Scarlett Empress would turn the power of the Sword of Creation against the city, toppling towers full of corpses as she also destroyed those who sought to challenge her new rule.
In time the hundreds of thousands of bodies decayed and went to dust and people returned to the city. It remained mostly deserted until the Delzhan horde-the desert nomads-took the city and made it once again one of the greatest cities in the south (though most of it was still ruins-and it was only a shadow of what it had once been).
For all the deaths that had occurred in the city it was amazing it was not all one huge Shadowland. Instead, there were a handful of smaller Shadowlands, some so small you could walk across them in a few steps, some encompassing several blocks of ruined city.
Near one the slums of the new city was one of the larger of these Shadowlands. An irregular shaped area, a quarter of a mile across at its longest point. While many in Chiaroscuro had made some peace with the Shadowlands in their midst, this one, sometimes called Thane's Doom, had been shunned for as long as anyone might remember.
Only the truly desperate lived close to it, and even they pooled their meagre monies to have salt wards placed around it.
On a dark night, only a sliver of a new moon lighting the sky, two of the living had confidently stepped across those wards, for they had business in Thane's Doom.
Near the centre of the area, close to a mostly extant tower of red glass, they stood against a small army of hungry ghosts; ravening monsters, gruesomely marked by their horrible deaths.
Two women, back to back, in a pool of light cast by a small lantern.
One was tall, green hair tied up in buns, her skin a soft amber, eyes dark brown. She wore a short, red cheongsam; bare skin between the bottom of the dress and the top of her stockings.
The other woman was of average height, short black hair, pale skin, where not covered by a black, body-hugging suit that fit like a second skin. Her eyes were blue.
In the hands of the green haired woman a serpent-sting staff moved with certainty, directed with a finely honed skill, the seven section, Orichalcum weapon left hungry ghosts lying on the ground; skulls crushed, limbs shattered.
Like a shadow in her bodysuit, Orichalcum, fist-sized spiders fastened to her hands like small flames, the other lashed out at the ghosts; her strikes quick and precise. Where the spiders hit, when she willed it, the spiders pumped their venom into the dead bodies. When that happened, the ghosts erupted in golden flames, their spiritual corpus burning.
Serpent-sting staff lashed out, the sharpened tip on the end punching through a skull. "Meep, any thoughts."
"Well Mina," Meep answered, the razor-sharp legs of her black widow razors nearly severing the head from one of the ghosts, "I was thinking of hiding and then watching you fight all of them."
Mina swept the legs of a ghost and then stomped a sandal-clad foot down on its neck. "Meep my dear, today's spankings will be with the paddle for that."
"Oh come on," Meep said, dodging a ghost, "it was just a jo..."
"Down!" Minna snapped.
Meep dropped to the ground, crouching low. Above her, like a whip cracking, Mina's serpent-sting staff spun about, the heavy metal staves crushing the bones and bodies of the ghosts.
"Take care of the trash, I'm going to deal with Thane."
Mina jumped forward, her feet crashing into a ghost, knocking it down, and dashed towards the open door of the tower.
Behind her, she heard a 'whoosh' of fire and assumed that Meep had set another of the ghosts burning.
The interior of the tower was not wholly dark, for there were some functioning lights within, thought many flickered, casting strange shadows all about. A ghost stumbled from a cross corridor as if to attack her. She grasped it across the face, forcing one thumb into an empty eye socket. Shifting her hips, she drove it back the way it had come, its skull shattering against the hard, glass wall.
She looked up the stairs the ghost had stumbled down from. More the dead were packed tightly in the confined space, moving down towards her. Mina smiled, grasping each end of her staff, the rest of it hanging loosely behind her; she went up the stairs.
A hungry ghost went down, skull crushed. Another moaned as Mina drove the sharp tip of the stave into its chest, then, using it as a lever, spun the ghost about so it shielded her from the attack of another. She kicked straight up with her left leg, the toe of her foot hammering into the face of a ghost that had been about to bite her shoulder.
The loose segments of the staff behind her swung about, wrapping around the legs of a ghost. A shift, turn, and a twist on Mina's part sent it falling down the stairs, opening up a small space about her. The serpent-sting staff moved like its namesake, and Mina's own movements were equally smooth as she made the small area hers and denied entry to every ghost that approached.
And then they were done, destroyed or their bodies so severely damaged they could not move. Mina kicked a corpse down the stairs, out of her way, and then continued to the top of the stairs.
The room beyond was spacious, empty, but for scattered candelabras and a single throne-like chair. On that chair sat an ancient ghost, a Nephwrack. Grey skin stretched tight over bone, encased in black armour, a greatsword of black iron laid across its knees.
"What business do you have here breather," the ghost asked, its voice high and surprisingly melodic.
Mina looked the ghost over, snorted through her nose and then attacked, hurling one end of her staff forward, the individual rods snapping out so for a moment it was almost as if she held a spear.
Thane rose from his throne, his great sword sweeping out of to block the attack. Mina flicked her wrist and pulled back, the end stave of her weapon folding over to entangle the sword. She pulled hard, and when Thane pulled back to keep his weapon in his hand, she leapt forward, using the ghost's own strength to aid her attack.
Her foot slammed into the Nephwrack's shoulder and drove him back into his chair. Her feet touched down on the armrests, and she looked down at Thane. With a smile playing on her lips she backflipped away, her foot slamming into the underside of his jaw with bone-shattering force.
As she landed lightly on the floor, Thane leapt from the chair, his lower jaw hanging loosely from the rest of his skull. He screamed, anger, pain perhaps, and came forward, sweeping the greatsword around. Mina lifted her weapon, catching the sword, turning it as she spun inside his guard and dropped one end of her weapon which she then kicked it up between his legs.
Her spin brought her behind him, where she caught the loose end of the serpent-sting staff, wrapping him from shoulder to crotch in the Orichalcum staves. Pulling tight, she jammed a foot into the back of his knee and drove him floor. As he fell she twisted the staves, so they caught one of his feet, and then rolled forward along his body, dragging his leg up behind him until his heel touched his shoulder with a crack of bone.
Thane howled.
Kicking to her feet, she turned, freeing the staves, and then brought the weapon down like a whip towards the prone Nephwrack. In spite of the ruined leg he managed to roll away, and the staves came down on the glass floor, cracking it. Hauling back on her weapon caused the end to snap back, striking Thane in the face, tearing his jaw bone from his skull.
A garbled cry came from the ruined skull, a prayer to the underworld Mina supposed, as the room suddenly filled with a disgusting liquid, making the floor slippery even as the rushing filth threatened to sweep her feet from under her. It knocked over the few candelabras and snuffed out the candle flame, leaving the room lit by only the flickering room lights.
Thane rose to his feet, his broken leg swinging down, the bone grinding as he moved towards her, tongue hanging obscenely down from the ruined mouth as he continued to scream.
Mina swung her serpent-sting staff, the end snapping towards Thane, but it passed through his body, leaving him unharmed. His garble of victory was short lived however as the other end of the weapon shot up from under the liquid, taking him by surprise and shattering the knee of his good leg.
As he fell forward, Mina moved forward, the ends of the staves held in each hand. Her attacks were a blur, each hitting like a striking snake, and while Thane managed to let some pass through a malleable corpus, most hit his solid form, tearing into him, ripping him apart as golden lines of essence followed in the wake of her attacks, and on her forehead the caste mark of the Dawn glittered.
"Don't ever come back ghost," she told Thane as the light in his remaining eye faded, "or I will find someone to end you permanently."
And then Thane was gone, leaving behind a pool of disgusting liquid, and his armour and sword.
Mina looked about the room and smiled for a moment, before looking at the liquid that had soaked her stockinged legs up to the middle of calves. "I am going to need a bath," she said absently, splashing through the mess as she went to stand upon Thane's empty throne. She watched as the stuff flowed away, down the stairs, leaving the floor glistening unwholesomely.
"This's disgusting," Mina heard a short time later. She watched as Meep carefully picked her way up the stairs. "Did someone pop a demon or something?"
"Just a little gift from Thane," Mina told her, stepping down from the throne.
"And I thought I didn't need another reason to hate ghosts."
"They will surprise you. Be a dear and find Thane's treasures."
"Sure they weren't washed away in this crap?"
"The room was empty."
"Got ya," Meep said, and walked towards one of the room's other doors. She pushed it open, then jumped back as a hungry ghost stumbled out. Her clockwork spiders scuttled down her arms, grasping legs around Meep's wrists and hands, and were ready when Meep struck the animated corpse, setting it burning in golden flames.
"Watch out for the ghosts," Mina offered.
Meep laughed and nodded as she looked carefully into the room before entering. "I think this is it."
Mina followed, found Meep by a door. "Locked," Meep said, rapping it with her knuckles. "Think a combination, trapped too. Seems a likely vault."
"Can you open it without being too obvious."
"Asks the girl with her caste mark showing."
"Girl?" Mina frowned.
"Lady, beautiful lady," Meep amended.
"Remember that Meep dear, and killing Thane is less likely to attract the attention we are trying to avoid, so the question stands."
"I can open it, without too much essence."
"Good girl. Get to it."
Smiling Meep knelt down to examine the lock. From the black material of her bodysuit tendrils flowed out, hardening into the tools she needed.
"Trap first." Clever, agile fingers worked the mechanism and moments later brought forth a small device, the size of a fist. She sniffed at it. "Poison is old, kill a mortal, not us."
The trap was put aside as attention was returned to the lock. There were several soft clicks over the next minute and then Meep stood and slowly pulled the door open, peeking inside, as if to assess danger, before throwing wide.
"Tah da!" she exclaimed.
"No one likes a show-off Meep," Mina told her, but smiled and brushed a hand across Meep's bare cheek.
Within the room were many objects, things that the ghost had probably considered significant. Some of it seemed more trash than treasure to Mina, but who could fathom the mind of a mad ghost? There was, however, a great deal of what she considered treasure.
Meep wore a small pack, and from it, she took forth several bags of black silk. She moved amongst the items, picking out the most valuable, wrapping them, and putting them in the bags. Mina left her to that, for Meep had a more critical eye for valuables than she. Mina was focused on finding their true prize.
"Look, Mina," Meep said excitedly.
Mina looked to her companion, seeing that she held a sparkling diadem, gleaming red and silver.
"Moon silver and red jade," she said happily, and then set it upon her head where it shone against her black hair.
"Very pretty. If you are a good girl, perhaps I will let you have it."
Meep smiled and took the diadem from her head and slipped it into one of her bags.
Turning back to her search Mina caught sight of something pushed towards the back of a small table which was littered with scrimshaw pieces and other items of bone. It was a cylinder of teak wood about as round as her thumb and forefinger brought together, and nearly as long as her forearm. Each end was capped with silver plugs. "I think this is it," she said as she took it from the table.
Meep moved close, looking at it as Mina removed one of the plugs. Inside was a roll of paper like material, slippery, which made it hard for her to get a grip, but once she did it slid smoothly from the tube. Mina shook it out, letting it unroll, and held it up. The material was covered in Old Realm writing, with other notes in fire tongue added to places.
Not particularly good with either language, Mina handed it to Meep.
Holding it up, the scroll was nearly as long as Meep was tall, she looked it over, lips tight in concentration as she worked out the meaning. Finally, she nodded. "This is what Pajou wanted." She began to roll it up.
"Good," Mina said, holding out the tube so Meep could slide the scroll back in. Once it was in Mina capped the tube and handed it to Meep. "Get anything else of real value. I am going to bundle up Thane's sword and armour, we'll take them as well."
"Right. And then what? There is a lot of night left."
Mina looked back at her as she stopped near the door. She smiled. "I think we'll see if we can kill every hungry ghost that Thane raised."
In Chiaroscuro there were places where the glass towers had not fallen, or where, while the tower tops fell, the lowers floors remained intact. These areas had become the old city, controlled by the Delzhan nobles, who lived in the extant towers, as did those who paid the nobles for the privilege of living in homes with lights, climate control, clean running water, and magical lifts that would whisk them a hundred stories or more to their suites.
Other towers, or their remains, might offer some of these luxuries, or in some cases none, but they were well built, and the Delzhan were sure to collect rents from those who wished to live there.
Outside of the old City most towers were in much worse shape, and the few that still stood, and the fewer that offered any of the amenities of the First Age, were significantly prized, and jealously held.
In the new city, not far from the out-of-towners' quarter stood the Black Glass House, a five-story tower named for the opaque indigo glass of which it was made. It had been abandoned and empty since before the Great Contagion, for it was also known as the Tower of Ten Thousand Deaths.
Ingenious traps within the tower had killed all those who had entered the tower, who had hoped to claim it, or just loot any treasures that might remain. Over the centuries hundreds had died for every prize taken from the first floor. Fifty years prior two Dragon Blood exalts, exiles, had managed to make it to the second floor, but only one had survived, bringing out with him a vase of adamant. A vessel that had won his return to the Blessed Isle when he had offered it to the Empress.
Others had tried, but no one else had succeeded in penetrating deeper into the tower.
Until the Solars returned.
Meep knew that the name Ten Thousand Deaths was exaggerated. There was, in fact, two hundred and seventy-five traps within the tower, two hundred and seventy-five traps that she had disarmed; in some cases, multiple times.
Every day at dawn and dusk the traps would reset themselves.
She disarmed the traps that would have got in her and Mina's way but left the others armed, ready to take care of anyone who might try to enter their home. After all, she and Mina liked their privacy.
On the fifth floor of the tower, in an office, Meep stood near a desk, sorting through the various artefacts that she and Mina had recovered. The small collection did not represent the entirety of their acquisitions, in fact, there were two rooms on the fourth floor that had been given over to holding their growing horde.
They did have plenty of space.
Meep picked up an orb of gold, heavy in the palm of her hand. It was made up of rings which could be turned, forming different diagrams, depending on how the markings were arranged. It was a key, or, more to the point, a plan of a lock.
Placing the orb back on the desk she reached for a knife, amongst a set of eight matched knives. There were etchings on the otherwise unblemished surface of the blades, when the knives were placed together, formed a map.
A map to where she was not exactly sure, not yet at least.
She sighed as she lowered herself to the seat, but stopped just before she sat. Mina had been good to her word and had used a paddle. For the moment Meep's bottom was still tender.
Exalted durability non-withstanding, Mina could make sure that Meep was aware of when she had gone too far.
Not that Meep really minded. She smiled, reaching up to the golden collar around her neck, and turned to look out the windows, down at the busy streets below. No one knew that the Black Glass House was inhabited, people passed by, ignoring the building, or casting furtive glances at it, as if worried that they might be struck by the sudden desire to enter.
For a time the activity on the street below held her attention until she heard the sound of the tower's lift. It would be Mina, returning from her meeting with Pajou. And if it were not Mina, well, that was why some traps were left armed.
"Meep," Mina called.
"In here."
Mina came into the office, smiling. She had a leather satchel with her and held it up. "We got it, and some other pretties."
"Any problems?"
"Well, Pajou seemed to have trouble remembering he had promised me free pick of his collection." She smiled. "I suggested perhaps I might see if the Tri-Khan would be interested in the scroll."
"I suppose he didn't like that."
"No." Mina moved to stand beside Mina, gently brushing her cheek. "Almost challenged me to a duel. Came to his senses. But," and she shook her head, "bastard suggested there might be taxes on what I took."
"He's an idiot."
Mina nodded. "Prayer scroll of Tamas Khan and he wants to quibble. Still," she reached into the satchel and removed an object in a leather sheath, "we have what we wanted." She placed it in Meep's hands.
Meep untied the straps on the leather and removed a rectangular piece of golden glass, edged with bronze. It was captivating, the way it caught the light and glowed as if lit from within. For a time she merely stared it, enjoying the beauty of the glass and the way it felt in her hands.
Mina reached out and twined some strands of Meep's hair in her fingers and then gave them a gentle tug.
Shaking her head Meep took a deep breath, mumbled, "I'm sorry," and held the glass up, turning it until she could see the old realm characters that seemed to float within the glass.
Opening a desk drawer, she took out some paper, ink and brushes and was about to sit before stopping and standing straight again.
Mina was smiling.
Looking at the glass, then writing, she copied out the characters from within the glass. Once that was done she set about deciphering them. A thief did well to read many languages, but Meep was not yet fluent in her understanding the ancient writing.
While she worked, she heard Mina taking other things from the satchel, placing them on the desktop. Meep was curious, but she kept her attention on her work until she finished her translation.
"I see," she said, and then opened another drawer and pulled out a pile of notes. She found a map of Chiaroscuro, it was ancient, showing the city as it had been laid out in the first age. "Co-ordinates would put it roughly about," she traced her finger across the map, "here."
Mina looked on and said, when Meep's finger had stopped, "The Field of Gold."
"The Field of Gold."
"It wasn't in the buildings was it?"
"I don't think so." She picked up the golden glass again.
"Because the buildings are a mile wide plain of glass now."
Meep nodded. "Under them, I think, maybe."
"Tunnels likely filled with glass now."
"Not the deeper ones."
"Deeper ones? Ancient subways, maintenance tunnels, basements and underground admin and support facilities, the city is probably bigger underground than it is on the surface."
Meep nodded. "We'll need a map."
"A very good one," Mina agreed. "Flau probably has one in his collection."
Meep swallowed and looked at the glass she held, the slight tremble in her hand. She carefully put it down and looked up at Mina. Mina was smiling, but Meep knew there was no joy in it, and a muscle was twitching in her jaw.
Reaching up she put her hand on the side of Mina's face. "We don't have anything to trade with Flau."
"I was not thinking of trading with him." Mina put her own had over Meep's, holding it against her face. After several seconds the twitching along her jaw ceased, and she relaxed. "I really do hate them Meep," she said softly.
"I know. But Tristan said..."
"I know what Tristan said Meep." She released her hold on Meep's hand and stepped away. "I am the one he told it to. However, we are hitting something of a block here. I think that maybe it is time to put aside subtlety."
Meep moved closer. "We can't."
Mina looked down at her, reached out and grasped the ring in the collar that Meep wore, gave it a gentle tug. "Can't?"
Dropping her gaze, she said, "I'm sorry Mistress."
For several seconds Mina maintained her hold on the collar, then let it go and walked away, leaving Meep alone in the office.
Meep dropped down into the chair, ignoring the discomfort that sitting caused and put her face in her hands. "Damn, damn, damn," she said softly.
She tried to work, but the various pieces would not come together in a way she could make sense of, her mind in such a mess. She turned the chair and tried to watch the people below, but their lives could not hold her attention.
Turning back she opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out a roll of un-dyed, rough silk. It was tied closed with a black ribbon. Freeing the knot she spread it open, revealing a small collection of silk undergarments, each carefully stitched to the silk backing.
A smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as she gently ran a finger across a dainty pair of blue panties, trimmed with lace. "You were a hard one to steal," she said. "Sleeping priestess of Ahlat, surrounded by all those warriors. You were still warm when I slipped you free."
For a time Meep was able to put Mina's displeasure from her mind, or, more to the point, let it move to the back of her thoughts, where she could pick it apart, without feelings of Mina's disapproval paralysing that process.
Finally, she rolled the silk up and tied it off, returned it to the drawer. Standing, Meep went in search of Mina. She found her in what had probably been an Atrium, for the glass in the walls and roof let bright sunlight shine in on empty planters full of hard packed dirt and dust that had once been plant material. The ample space provided Mina with the room she needed to train. She spun about, her serpent-sting staff flashing about her, an extension of her body.
Moving in the sunlight that made her green hair glow, her cheongsam, so wonderfully short, teasing Meep as it promised to reveal more but never did. She was so beautiful. No wonder the Sun had chosen her, and the thought was coloured by a little bit of ridiculous jealousy. "I love you so much," she said softly, and then, louder, "I will kill them all for you!"
Mina stopped her training, her serpent-sting staff coming to rest. "You will?"
"All five. They'll die badly. I promise they'll know who killed them and why. And not a hint of a tangle in that Loom he so often speaks of, so Tristan won't complain."
Mina took a deep breath, then put her weapon aside, laying it on the edge of a planter and walked towards Meep. With a sudden burst of speed, she swept Meep up in her arms. "I am not ready to turn my little thief into my little assassin," she said and kissed her. "We'll talk it over, see what Tristan has to say." She carried Meep to the bedroom, sat her on the bed, and then removed Meep's robe, leaving her unclothed but for a black band around her right forearm.
As Mina removed her cheongsam Meep lay back on the bed, and the black material flowed along her arm, until it covered her hand like a glove, and then it all flowed into her palm, so she was holding a ball of strange black material. Turning her hand, she allowed it to fall to the floor.
Mina stood at the foot of the bed, clad in only her panties and stockings. Meep looked up at her and said, "Trying to steal your panties was by far the best thing I ever did."
"And I still have not finished punishing you for that." She got onto the bed and moved along Meep's body, capturing her wrists, drawing them up above Meep's head, and then tying them off with a soft piece of rope attached to the headboard.
Meep gave an experimental tug at the bindings that secured her hands, feeling the strength in the rope and the integrity of the knots. She smiled up at Mina as her mistress ran another of the cords through the ring on Meep's collar.