Disclaimer:
In this chapter, Tetsuo and Anastacia get into a "famous quotes" battle. As they quote fictional philosophers of their world, I decided to do a little shout-out to some of my favorite real philosophers (some of you may know that I have done this before – I quoted Voltaire in The Well of Udr). The first three quotes are from Sun Tsu, the middle three are Machiavelli and the last one is Nietzsche.
I waited for Brock at the gates of Nexus all night. Just when I was sure that something bad had happened to my friend, he finally made his appearance. He was sitting astride Maat on the crest of the hill I'd come down earlier in the very edges of the bordermarsh. Knowing that he couldn't come any closer to the city without dismissing his mount, I waved to get his attention and then ran up to meet him. The city guards watched me suspiciously, but didn't follow me out onto the road. Clearly, they didn't see Brock... or didn't understand why I was so eager to catch the attention of a ghost.
"I was waiting for you." I informed him. "Where have you been?"
"Business." He admitted. "Lord Khaaj summoned me."
"I'm sorry." I paused. I felt like I should apologize. We'd only hurried to Nexus because I'd insisted and I was certain that summoning Maat was what had caused "Lord Khaaj" to remember that he hadn't ordered his mercenary ghost around recently. It was no secret to me that Brock didn't particularly like his other employer, but as I saw it, having access to one of the Al-Khayl was the kind of perk that would make almost any job bearable.
"So you met with the woman?" It wasn't really a question as he posed it.
"Yes." I admitted. "And I'm going with her to Sijan."
"Well, in that case..." Brock heaved a huge sigh and shook his head heavily. He pressed something into my hand, a little black piece of ebony that seemed to have green flames dancing in its depths. I knew what it was immediately. It was the whistle he used to call Maat.
"You could get into trouble for giving me this." I observed.
"Hope you don't have to use it." Brock replied gruffly. "I'd... better get going."
And that was clearly all he was willing to say.
I strung the demon whistle onto a piece of cord and put it around my neck. If I hurried back to my accommodations I could still catch enough sleep to negotiate with Anastacia in the morning... but I also had some investigating that I wanted to do first.
I went first to the Guild of Stonecutters and Sculptors, let myself in their back door and approached the little shrine to Pagwa, the local God of their trade.
A few motes of Essence proved to be sufficient to get his attention.
The God assumed corporeal form and blinked at me owlishly. He was not a very big God and had a flat gray face that made me think of Anastacia's unfinished sculpture. "Who are you, and what do you want at this outrageous hour of morning?" He demanded.
"I need you to tell me everything you know about Anastacia Commissa." I replied.
"Who?" Pagwa wondered.
"Anastacia Commissa." I repeated. "You must know who I'm talking about. She's a marble dealer from Sijan who lives in this city. A very talented sculptor."
The God considered what I had said, but either he was purposefully being uncooperative or he really had no idea who Anastacia was. I was betting on the latter.
That worried me. The only reason a God like Pagwa wouldn't know of a sculptor of Anastacia's caliber was if she had gone through great pains to conceal her presence from him... or if she wasn't really a sculptor at all. In fact, something I'd smelled in her house left me thinking "sorceress" was probably a more apt description.
I sighed in disgust and threw her chisel into the pile of garbage where we stood.
So much for that plan. I thought to myself, trying very hard not to let my face betray how annoyed I actually was.
"Ahem?" The God wondered as I started to leave. "Since you disturbed me in the first place... I was wondering if you would..."
"If I would what?" I turned back to him, perhaps a little meaner than I should have been.
"There are rumors, you see. About a Godblood who can get anything for the right price. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
I considered. Pagwa could potentially help me, but he could also tell other Gods of my whereabouts. I decided not to tell him anything and focusing on working every angle I could with Anastacia first.
"No. I'm just trying to impress a woman." I told the little God.
"Well, I don't know why you came to bother me then." He remarked. "I'm not the God of Flowers or Jewelry."
"Not all women impress so easily." I informed him.
Pagwa gave me another odd look and promptly discorporated.
The next morning I headed to The Divine Peach where I was supposed to meet Anastacia. I remembered what she said about waiting "until the Solars left" and arrived especially early so that I could get a good look at the "glorious, enlightened, rulers" of the New Deliberative.
I knew better than to try to forcibly pry secrets out of them. Like any powerful Exalts, Solars were quick to recognize that they were being manipulated and while the Sidereals I'd encountered in Stygia had merely told me to piss off, they weren't on their home turf at the time and obviously didn't want to reveal what they really were.
At first I thought I had the wrong restaurant. There was no one present who looked the part of a Celestial "lawgiver"... although my eye were drawn in the direction of a tall, blonde man in his early thirties who sat out on the patio where Anastacia had requested that I find us a table.
He had a bowl of rice with a fried egg on top of it in front of him, and all of his companions were eating the same thing. It seemed strange that anyone would go to an exclusive restaurant to order fare that any cheap tavern could provide, but the four were clearly comfortable with their surroundings and the waiters seemed to know them well.
To the left of the man I'd noticed first was a short, fiery-looking woman clad in black leather who wore a pair of firewands on her hips and had her feet kicked up on the table. Across from her sat a skinny, nervous, red-headed man dressed in all white who was tinkering with a little gold ball, and a Southerner who was talking in a very loud, animated fashion. I didn't hear but the tail end of what he was relating, but from the reactions of the waiters, it was clearly an exciting story.
"And then he just looked at me and said, 'Who the hell do you think you are?' And, well... I couldn't resist!" He beamed.
The man at the head of the table groaned. "Roach!"
"Loren, you would have done the same thing!" The Southerner protested.
"Oh no. Loren would have apologized!" The woman interrupted. She put her nose in the air and her hand to her chest, doing what I gathered was her best impression of the man she was sitting next to, the one called Loren. "What seems to be the trouble, citizen? Oh, I'm the trouble? Oh, I'm terribly sorry! I'll just be on my way then. I'm not oppressing you. Do you see me not oppressing you?"
"Sapphire!" Loren glared at her.
"And Veritas would have just turned Godchaser loose on em'!" Sapphire added.
The tinkerer put down whatever he was working on and smiled slightly. "You do realize, Roach, that you can't just flare your Caste Mark whenever some little upstart God won't listen to you."
"I can when it's hilarious!" He replied.
The words "Caste Mark" confirmed my suspicions. So these four were the new rulers of Nexus?
I decided to risk trying to pull a good secret out of one of them, and casually brushed past their leader. Though they all called him "Loren", I could only guess that he was the legendary "Faeslayer". The secret I got from him was so powerful that it almost caused me to trip right onto my face.
Cursed.
That didn't make any sense to me, so I tried again... and got the same response from the man in white.
Cursed.
They were all cursed?
Or no, it was more than that! All Solars were cursed! But most Solars didn't know?
I realized that I'd stumbled upon a very big secret indeed and slowly sat down at a nearby table, calling for a glass of water. The Solars all eyed me suspiciously.
"Sidereal?" The one called Veritas whispered, glancing in my direction.
"No." A female voice chirped. I realized that it was his cloak he was talking to. "Just a Godblood."
The Solars glanced in my direction every so often as they finished their breakfast, paid their tab, and left. I drank down another two glasses of water and attempted to straighten out my hair before Anastacia arrived.
When she did make her appearance, she did not fail to impress. She was dressed in an emerald colored gown with a scandalously plunging neckline and her hair was styled in a very intricate fashion. A pair of little gold spectacles perched on her nose. She sat down across from me and began fanning herself with delicate rosewood fan. One of the waiters brought her a glass of white wine.
I decided to open up the conversation by lobbing my first piece of ammunition. "You're looking particularly lovely this morning, Miss Anastacia. One would think that any man who met you would be absolutely helpless under your spell."
She clearly did not like the implication that I wasn't her willing slave. Nevertheless, I had a point to make, and I was going to make it.
"You think you've got me under your thumb. But you haven't covered your trail as well as you think. You're not Anastacia Commissa." I informed her.
"Rude boy!" She warned me. "My family..."
"Is still in Sijan. As is the real Anastacia." I finished. "You're an imposter."
She smiled slightly. "Don't be absurd!"
"Am I being absurd? I'm not actually fishing for proof, milady. I'm not at all interested in unmasking you." I informed her, now convinced that I was right. Anastacia Commissa was not Anastacia Commissa. "I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not someone you can string along like a little toy."
Anastacia smirked. "The thought never crossed my mind. I suppose we might as well get down to business." She paused. "You needn't know my reasons, but the entity that I'm having trouble with in Sijan is the City God Ereshkigal. He's been making it very difficult for me to do business there. And I've been told by our mutual friend Dorian Gray that Ereshkigal loathes you more than anyone in Heaven or Creation. And because he hates you so much, Dorobo, I have an inkling that if you were to make a return to Sijan, that crotchety, pompous old God would make exactly the kind of mistake that I want him to make."
"I see." I observed, noting that the situation had just gotten far more dangerous. "You want me to be your bait. And what do I get out of this arrangement?"
"You get into Yu-Shan. Which is what you want, isn't it?" She pressed.
"How do I know that you can deliver?" I demanded.
"I'm quite well-connected." Anastacia replied cryptically. "You needn't worry."
"You'll have to do better than that. I don't make a habit of trusting what people say." I paused.
"And if I tell you all my secrets, will you tell me all of yours?" She retorted. "If I give you too much information, Dorobo, we both know that you'll go off on your own and cut me out of the deal."
I scowled. She was right, of course. That had been my original plan. "Very well. So when do we leave?" I asked.
"At the end of the week. I'll make all of the necessary arrangements." She replied, fanning herself. "It's a bit too hot out here, don't you think? Why don't we go somewhere with shade?"
She offered me her arm and I took it like a courtier. We hailed a carriage and Anastacia instructed the driver to take us to The University.
I'd never actually set foot on the grounds of The University of Nexus before. Though my father had ensured that I learned enough about every subject to qualify as well-educated, I'd never actually sat in a class with other students and I'd had only one instructor for my entire childhood.
In fairness, there's no University Professor anywhere in Creation who can hold a candle to a Sidereal savant. And my sifu had been on of the scions of my father's Division, a Chosen of Secrets.
With Anastacia leading the way through each little courtyard and garden, I felt surprisingly comfortable. The ancient live oaks that had planted on the grounds when the first stones were laid provided wonderful shade and painted the whole world green beneath their branches. There were some University professors and students also walking the grounds, as well as a fair number of idle, wealthy ladies, all of whom stared at Anastacia.
She smiled sweetly back at them and I began to suspect that she was exactly the kind of woman that those rich merchant's wives hoped their bored husbands would never meet. Though like any criminal of a certain caliber, I understood how to behave in high society, it was not my natural element as it seemed to be Anastacia's. She was clearly what your garden-variety pickpocket would refer to as a butterfly, a woman who got into even the most exclusive social circles on looks and poise alone.
I'd known a few butterflies in my time. Like their namesake, most of them had been poisonous.
Even still, there was something immensely satisfying about having Anastacia on my arm. Maybe it was the reactions of all the men. My clothes weren't shabby, but they'd been bought in an inexpensive store. I obviously wasn't wealthy, and as I've often been told, I'm a little too thin, pale and wild-eyed to get the attention of most women. Obviously, they couldn't fathom how I'd captured a jewel like Anastacia.
"Isn't it just so beautiful?" She sighed. I realized that my arm had drifted around her waist. It was slightly inappropriate to be leading her in such a fashion, but since I didn't need to impress anyone in Nexus, I decided to let them all think whatever they liked. If Anastacia didn't protest, I could only assume that her intentions were the same as my own.
It always started with simple games and manipulation. At some point we'd fall into bed together, then we would try to kill each other... and ultimately, the best thief would win.
I let Anastacia get some distance away from me, pretending to be very interested in the white roses that lined the garden path. Of course, it was the woman I was really watching.
I wondered what her real name was and considered how she might have gotten into her present position. She didn't strike me as a black widow, willing to kill the real Commissa heiress or whichever wealthy old merchant had formerly occupied her sumptuous residence.
Maybe it had been a crime of opportunity?
Anastacia danced back over to me and took up my arm again, her delicate fingers drifting to the ropes of pearls around her throat as she gazed up at me. I was not much taller than she was, but the slight difference in our heights meant that if she was to kiss me while we were standing, she'd have to go up on her toes. I decided to let her make the first move. It was something I could use against her later.
"Ahem?" An old professor interrupted, elbowing her way between the two of us. She disappeared up a flight of stairs. Anastacia seemed disappointed as she realized that we'd reached the end of the garden path and were now in the courtyard of the University where scholars and students were all bustling around and getting in our way.
Of course, sightseers weren't permitted to go everywhere on University grounds, but the library was open to the public and so we went inside. There were a few students sitting at desks and a nervous-looking professor with severe dark circles under his eyes gathering up more books than one man could possibly carry. He scurried past me and as his shoulder brushed mine, I picked up a secret from him.
He knew.
But what?
The professor knew something, obviously, and it wasn't something he was supposed to know. Sometimes my ability to steal secrets wasn't very useful at all. It only left me feeling unsettled and a little worried.
Anastacia turned in circles like a dancer and drifted out into the middle of the room, staring up at the thousands upon thousands of books on the towering shelves which loomed more than six stories above where we stood.
As libraries went, I had to admit that it was very impressive. I'd actually never seen better... except in Yu-Shan.
"Oh, how I've always wanted to study at a University like this!" Anastacia exclaimed.
"So why don't you?" I suggested. "You're living right here in Nexus! And you can certainly afford it."
"Perhaps I will!" She retorted. "What about you, Dorobo? Are you an educated man?"
"I'd be dead by now if I wasn't. I actually had a private tutor." I admitted, not knowing what compelled me to give Anastacia any information about my real life – that is, my life as Tetsuo and not "The Secret Thief". "She was... unconventional. But excellent. I always enjoyed her history lectures."
"History. Fascinating subject! It's always so interesting to see how people react when they don't hold all the cards, don't you think? It makes you respect how powerful secrets can be." Anastacia paused. She considered the books on the shelf in front of her and finally decided on a particularly fat and intimidating unabridged copy of Cathak Garel's "Famous Generals of the Early Shogunate".
"I like secrets." I said.
"I assume that's why you steal them." Anastacia replied. "Say, have you read this one?"
"Of course! I quoted. "Opportunities multiply as they are seized."
"Everyone knows that quote!" She scoffed.
"You can do better?" I prompted.
"Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate!" She retorted.
"Clever." I smiled slightly, and decided to counter her. "The skillful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man."
"Bah, too easy!" Anastacia tossed the tome down on the nearest table and went for a delicate, red-bound little book I knew very well, the letters of Nexus's most famous Guildmaster, Prospero VI.
"Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many!" I recited.
"For one change always leaves a dovetail into which another will fit!" She waved the book in my face.
"It is better to be impetuous than circumspect; because fortune is a woman and if she is to be submissive it is necessary to beat and coerce her!" I replied, seizing the book from her.
"I am offended!" She gaped at me, though she obviously wasn't.
"A challenge then, scholar!" Anastacia decided. With her hands on her hips, she stormed over to the "religion" section and pulled a copy of Thus Spake The Dragon down from the shelf.
I didn't bother to disguise my disgust. As the son of a God, I don't put too much stock in the Immaculate Order, an organization which coerces and bulliest mortals away from the worship of most other deities. Of course, that didn't mean that I was completely ignorant of their philosophy.
"Very well. You asked for it!" I took the book from Anastacia, held it to my chest and made a face that would have earned me a good beating if there had been a Dragonblood anywhere in the library. "Who is the great dragon whom the spirit will no longer call lord and god? "Thou shalt" is the name of the great dragon. But the spirit of the lion says, "I will." "Thou shalt" lies in his way, sparkling like gold, an animal covered with scales; and on every scale shines a golden "thou shalt." Values, thousands of years old, shine on these scales; and thus speaks the mightiest of all the dragons: "All value of all things shines on me. All value has long been created, and I am all created value. Verily, there shall be no more 'I will.'" Thus speaks the dragon!"
"I don't believe it! You honestly got through that pretentious piece of trash?" She demanded, her hands on her hips.
"I memorized the important parts." I whispered. "Sometimes the trick isn't actually to read the whole book. It's to figure out what everyone else thinks is so good about it."
"Sneaky!" She gasped.
I dropped the book on the floor, which I hadn't meant to do... but when Anastacia had jumped at me, I'd caught a glimpse of my cufflink cleverly laced into her corset. Though she'd changed her clothes since our first encounter, she'd apparently decided to leave my little treasure exactly where she'd originally put it. I rubbed the one cufflink that remained on my right sleeve.
If the Maiden of Secrets was watching, which one of us did she favor?
"As if you've never pretended to know something?" I taunted. "Or someone?"
I said that word in a particularly suggestive manner, so she would take it as insult.
Anastacia slapped me with her fan, but not without a smile on her face. "I don't have to pretend! I am as spectacular as I look!"
And she was, damn that woman!
We spent the remainder of the day tearing through the University's library until a servant informed us that it was time for him to lock the doors and politely requested that we put away all of the books we'd pulled down from the shelves.
Since that amount of work would have taken us hours, Anastacia and I took off running instead. We made it as far as the street before the head librarian saw what we'd done to his sanctuary and came chasing after us with a ruler. Fortunately, Anastacia's whistle could get the attention of a carriage horse from a mile away and we escaped completely unscathed.
Our driver took us back to Anastacia's residence first, and we spent the entire ride giggling like a pair of wicked schoolchildren.
"Are you coming up?" She asked me as I walked her to the door. In the process of our daring escape, she'd lost the ornate comb that had held her hair in place. With those curls falling over her shoulders, she looked almost as windblown as I always did, and the look suited her. The same was true of her little glasses. I felt inspired somehow, seeing those little imperfections. For the briefest of moments, I considered saying yes to her offer. I still hadn't gotten a single secret out of her, and the idea of a warm bed did seem very appealing.
"We've only just met." I replied, kissing her hand. "And we wouldn't want to do anything that might tarnish Miss Commissa's reputation, now would we?"
For the first time, Anastacia did not look down her nose at me when I suggested that she wasn't Miss Commissa. "No." She smirked. "We wouldn't."
At that moment, Anastacia finally lowered her guard. Almost imperceptibly, but enough that a secret jumped out at me and I immediately caught it. I'd been right all along!
Anastacia Commissa wasn't only an imposter. There was no Miss Commissa, no Commissa family and not even a real marble company. It was all an elaborate masquerade! And somehow, nobody knew that but me!
Anastacia's servant closed the door between us, and I told the carriage driver to take me back to my accommodations. The whole ride down from Sentinel Hill, I watched Anastacia's mansion shrink and then fade away completely into the dark.
I was more troubled than I wanted to admit, and I wished that Brock hadn't been called away by his other employer. The old mercenary would beat some sense in my head, and I needed to hear one of his nasty stories about the evils of women. I knew that it was important to keep Anastacia dancing at an arm's length so that she would have very little opportunity to stab me in the back.
And yet, I wasn't the only one treading on dangerous ground.
There was no way "Miss Commissa" could keep up such an elaborate and expensive con forever. Eventually, she'd have to run from Nexus. And when she did, perhaps I could be there to extend her an offer that she couldn't refuse. The Celo Viatori could provide her a new place to hide, new contacts to burn through, and maybe even a few useful secrets. Although we'd only known each other a very short time, the way we kept pace with one another seemed so effortless, like Fate.
Of course, I knew quite a bit about Fate. Anyone who has ever set foot in Yu-Shan understands that Fate is an inconceivably powerful force, but I'd never actually felt its pull before as I felt it then.
Maybe this game we were playing wasn't about which one of us was the better thief.
As we reached the Cinnabar District and my inn, the carriage driver gave me a parting glance. She was probably eighteen years old and not much to look at. The expression on her face, however, needed no explanation.
"Something amiss?" I asked.
"No, sir." She replied.
And yet as I stepped out of the carriage and up onto the curb, I saw that the carriage driver was still watching me with that same, wistful, irritating smile... like a pining heroine in a bad play. Of course, that was when it hit me.
Love?
The stupid girl thought I was in love!
What if I was?
"Shit!" I cursed, much louder than I'd intended to.
The drunks around the front door of the tavern scattered.
"What's wrong with you, man?" One of them muttered.
"Nothing a few drinks won't cure." I informed him.
Three hours later, I'd polished off almost two full bottles of wine... and I still wasn't feeling better. I'd almost nodded off to sleep when a familiar laugh drew my attention and I caught a whiff of celestial opium. Very slowly, I looked up. Burning Feather, The Goddess of Intoxicants, was sitting directly across from me. She appeared as she always did, in the guise of a very old prostitute with smoking feathers in her hair, the eyes of a fae lord, and a mouth full of black teeth. "My dear Dorobo!" She gave me a cat's smile. "Oh, I can't tell you how I've looked forward to this conversation!"
"The great Secret-Thief, paragon of restraint, drinking himself stupid to soothe pains of an aching heart!" Burning Feather poured me another glass of wine.
I pounded my head against the table in front of me and groaned. "I'm not in love!" I protested, nearly knocking over the glass she'd set for me. My head was already swimming and the last thing I needed was to continue drinking with a God whose presence alone actually caused most mortals to become inebriated.
"Oh, I'm afraid it's much worse than that, poppet." Burning Feather informed me. "You're not just in love, dear... you're also in Fate."
"That woman is going to kill me!" I argued.
"Sometimes they do." Burning Feather smirked. "But what if it's worth it?"
"You think I should go after her?" I smiled slightly.
"What I think is altogether irrelevant. Suffice to say that love will make you more of a fool than drinking ever will. But then again, the sweetest intoxication there is cannot be drawn from any vine." She replied. "One more drink for me, poppet. I'll make sure you get some good sleep tonight." She gestured to the wineglass in front of me.
"For you." I replied, giving her a little salute. The Goddess discorporated.
I drained my glass... and promptly passed out.
I woke up in the early afternoon. As some point over the course of the night, I'd evidentially been lucid enough to make it back up to my room, but I couldn't remember actually leaving the bar and I hadn't taken my boots off before collapsing into bed.
Since my new clothes were now dirtier than the clothes I'd worn to Stygia, I decided it was time to find a laundress. I also needed something for the wretched hammering in my head, a side effect of the alcohol I hadn't quite slept off. Taking stock of what I had left in my possession, I knew that I should find someone with a few juicy secrets I could steal... but for some reason, I didn't feel up to the task.
I decided that if I simply spent my day avoiding Anastacia, I'd consider it a success. A two-week trip up to Sijan in her company was beginning to seem like a terrible idea, but I'd played so many of my cards setting up the Stygian coin job that I didn't have another way of getting into Yu-Shan. And if I tapped any of my usual contacts, there was a good chance that Seven Seasons Widow or someone else who worked for The Mask of Winters would find me.
I toyed with Brock's Malfean horse whistle. I wasn't planning on blowing it unless I absolutely had to, but it was nice to know that someone had my back.
Still trying to decide what to do next, I picked up my sole remaining cufflink and stared at it for a short while. Maybe I could get a message to my father?
I picked up a pen and a piece of paper, took a deep breath and focused.
The letter-writing Charm that my father used to make sure his messages to me could not be intercepted was one of the first bits of conscious Essence manipulation that I'd ever learned. Even hungover, I could still manage to work it. The trick was to write something innocuous while instilling every word with I really wanted to say.
The Most Excellent Designers of Destiny and Sidereal Conjunctions,
Division of Secrets, The Forbidding Manse of Ivy
Nara-O of the Hundred Veils, Keeper of Secrets,
News of Heaven's most recent audit has reached my ears. What are your thoughts on the matter?
Most sincerely,
I hesitated. Of course, I couldn't very well sign my own name. Mere mortals such as myself were supposed to send prayers to Heaven, not official correspondence. But prayers were often ignored, bled dry for their quintessence and never actually answered.
Burning Feather.
I smiled slightly as I signed the Goddess's name. She may have thought it was funny to see me drunk and miserable, but she wouldn't be laughing if someone apprehended my letter and thought that she was sending secret messages to someone who was facing a very serious Audit.
Dueling with Anastacia, I'd started to doubt myself. Getting even with the Goddess of Intoxicants, however, made me feel much more confident in my own abilities. Focusing my Charm like the edge of a razor, I let the words swim and rearrange themselves so that I could check what I'd actually written.
Father,
I've heard about the Audit and I am worried about you. What do you want me to do?
All my love,
Tetsuo
It wasn't exactly what I'd hoped for, but it was good enough. I folded it up and sealed it closed. Now all I had to do was find a God I could coerce into sending it for me. I decided that my best bet would be to wander down to the Temple District and make my decision when I got there.
The Temple District of the restored Nexus was by far the most impressive part of the city. Though I knew that my best bet would be to track down a little God like Pagwa or one that I knew to be thoroughly corrupt like Dorian Gray, I found myself drifting in to the bigger temples just to admire the architecture.
I gleaned a few secrets as I wandered, but nothing particularly earth-shattering. When we'd discussed our next move at my tavern, Dorian had seemed very convinced that Nexus was too reformed for the likes of us, and I was beginning to fear that he was right.
Finally, I reached the end of the road. Looking out over the waterfront was an unusual building with a domed roof. It was tall but not very broad and at first, I wondered if it was a lighthouse. Then I considered the way the roof seemed to be assembled and realized that it had to be an observatory.
Since no one was watching the doors, I let myself right in. There was a wooden staircase encircling the room and a little desk in the entry way buried in stacks of free newspapers, city maps, and religious propaganda. Above my head sat a massive brass telescope which was fixed to a platform that seemed to raise and lower mechanically.
"Hello?" I called out.
There was no response. I made my way up the stairs and evaluated the telescope. It was a phenomenal feat of engineering by any standards and I was curious to see how well it actually worked. The old Nexus I remembered, drowning in smog, never had many stars in its night sky... but the ironworks of Nighthammer were mostly gone, replaced by far more sophisticated First Age factories.
I couldn't imagine how the old foundry roustabouts were faring in an environment so very different from everything they'd ever known. The transition from smelting to magitech must have been as difficult for them as the transition from Guild rule to the New Deliberative. No doubt, there were probably still some dissenters. But even the most disillusioned men had to respect how clean the river was and how clear the sky had become.
I caught sight of a chart left sitting on a table beside the telescope. Someone had been working on it recently, jotting down the positions of certain constellations. Any scholar would have found such a chart interesting purely because of its scientific value, but I was also looking at something else.
You see, the positions of the stars are not at all arbitrary. They show everything which is going on in Heaven and Creation and those who are adept at reading them can predict all sorts of things, from whether or not the harvest will be good to when someone will be born or die.
My sifu had always considered me an abysmal failure at Astrology, but considering that she was a Sidereal, I never took her abuse to heart.
As the Exalts of the Five Maidens and the Chosen of the Stars, Sidereals do more than predict the future. They actually use Astrology to change it.
Whoever had made the star chart I was looking over was obviously wise to something. He had made a note in the upper right quadrant which read,
The Mask has moved.
That seemed strange, but it worried me more because of all of the constellations, The Mask most often signified conspiracies. Had some poor astronomer actually realized that there was trouble afoot in Heaven? Did the change I perceived have anything to do with the Celo Viatori or was I simply interpreting what I read how I wanted to?
I took a blank piece of paper from the table that no one would miss and marked the position of The Mask on it along with the present date. If the constellation moved again, I would know to be worried.
That was when I heard the door to the observatory open. I flattened myself against the wall and cursed involuntarily. The last thing I wanted was to be caught pilfering through a stranger's papers while I still had a letter addressed to a God in my pocket.
A man had entered the observatory. He was probably my own age and dressed like a University scholar, carrying several rolled-up star charts tucked under his arm. Sighing heavily, he swept the stacks of newspapers and other junk off of the table at the bottom of the stairs.
I made myself invisible right before he came up to retrieve his own most recent charts, the ones which showed the movement of The Mask. He stopped for a moment and stared right in my direction, seeing nothing. I considered reaching out and trying to glean a secret from him, but it seemed as though he was still looking for me and so I didn't dare.
I can't actually hide my presence for very long, and between my ill-conceived pub crawl and my stressful morning letter-writing, I began to feel week and uneasy. I had very little Essence left and most of my will was utterly spent. Just as I was contemplating making a break for the door, I heard a sudden familiar chime.
A little ornate box had just appeared hovering in midair only a few feet away from the young astronomer. It was blue and gold and wouldn't have looked out of place on a rich woman's dresser, except it was most definitely floating and the seals emblazoned on its little doors were the insignia of The Cerulean Lute.
I didn't have to get a secret from him to know that he was a Sidereal. I even knew his Caste.
The Chosen of Serenity sighed in defeat and checked his mail. As he unsealed the first set of orders he'd received and perused them, I had an inspired idea.
The doors of his celestial mailbox were still hanging open, and as soon as they were closed, I knew that the box would return to Yu-Shan. Throwing caution to the wind, I leapt down from my perch, stuffed my letter into the Sidereal's mailbox and slammed it closed. His star charts flew everywhere as he whirled around to see who had just gotten the drop on him.
"What are you doing in here?" He demanded.
"Posting a letter!" I replied with a smirk.
That was when he realize that I'd just sent something to Heaven using his mailbox.
"Of all the... who do you think you are?" The Sidereal fumed.
I didn't dignify that question with a response. At that moment I'd noticed one of his new star charts which had fallen near my feet. It showed The Mask again in a different position!
I was right! There was something going on!
I seized the chart and went straight for the door.
I didn't actually get so far. The Sidereal was suddenly standing right in front of me. When I took a good swing at him, he was behind me again as if he'd never moved... and then he had me up against the wall. Though he wasn't any bigger than I was, as an Exalt he was much stronger. He lifted me off my feet with one hand.
I let the star chart drop to the floor and didn't struggle.
Generally speaking, it's unwise to spar with a Sidereal. Since the beginning of time they've perfected martial arts which actually bend the fabric of Creation in such a way that they can literally be in two places at once.
"Nice try." The Sidereal glared at me. As soon as he stopped playing the part of a mousy little University student, he became quite intimidating. Not that I'd tell him so. "Now who are you?" He demanded.
I could feel the insidious pull of the Charm he was using to coerce the truth out of me and resisted it with all my strength. "You're a little rough for a Chosen of Serenity!" I informed him.
He didn't seem surprised that he knew what he was. In fact, he actually threw me against the wall again. "Now I'm usually very patient, but you are treading on very dangerous ground, thief! What was that letter you sent?"
As he used his Charm on me again, I found that I was compelled to tell him the truth.
"A letter to my father." I replied.
The Sidereal gave me a strange look, as if he'd begun to understand that I was a Godblood and that I'd eluded him using a Charm of some kind. I took advantage of his moment of distraction and swung my foot up as if I intended to kick him in the gut. When he reacted to my feint, I struck him hard in the right temple with a ridgehand and then carried my forearm across his face and drove my elbow into the left side of his head.
He staggered and fell into his table, cursing incoherently.
That was all the opportunity I needed. Before he could recover, I was gone. I dodged into the narrow alleyway between a temple dedicated to The God of Mercenaries and a shrine belonging to Burning Feather, who still seemed to be one of the most popular deities in Nexus. Considering that I'd just used her name on the letter I'd sent, I decided I should probably avoid asking her for help and jumped into a nearby trash pile instead.
From my hiding place, I could see the Sidereal standing outside of his observatory, rubbing his head and looking for me. The stench was almost unbearable and I'd squished something very nasty with my right hand. Still, I waited until the Sidereal gave up and went back inside before I rolled out of the pile of refuse that had almost swallowed me whole.
Filthy as I was, I had no choice but to walk back to my accommodations in the Cinnabar District. Because of the smell, I tore off most of my clothes before I made it out of Little Sijan and was staggering down the street in only my breeches and boots when a familiar-looking carriage passed by.
And then stopped.
I froze where I stood as Anastacia leaned out the window and blinked at me in disbelief. "Dorabo?" She gasped. "What happened to you?"
"I am a very bad person and Heaven hates me." I replied.
She raised an eyebrow in my direction.
I approached her carriage as close as I dared and did my best to look composed. She wrinkled her nose as she caught a whiff of whatever it was I'd landed in. "You need a bath!" She informed me.
That was something I couldn't argue with, and an hour later I'd finished scrubbing half of my skin off in Anastacia's bathroom. It was just as lavish as the rest of her mansion and featured hot and cold running water as well as a marble tub large enough to bathe a horse in.
Her permanently disgruntled servant, the silver thief, brought me a change of clothes. I dressed quickly and surveyed my reflection in her flawless, full-length mirror. When I picked my own attire, I tried to be as practical as possible. I always looked for something that I could run away in if I had to, although I also wanted to keep up with the fashion of wherever I was. Anastacia had apparently decided a scholar's robe would suit me better than a coat and boots. She'd also guessed my size perfectly.
The robe was surprisingly comfortable and I wondered if I could fool anyone at the University into believing that I was a visiting professor. Or...
I smiled slightly. An astrologer!
One way or another, I was going to find out what that Sidereal was up to!
Anastacia didn't bother to knock on the door of the bathroom. She stood and watched me with a smug little smile on her face. "Green is your color." She decided.
"Why, I thought it was yours!" I replied. Once again, Anastacia was dressed to impress... this time in a sheer gown with green and gold scrolling vines embroidered around the collar and the hem. An emerald the size of a grape hung around her neck on a fine chain.
I examined the stone for a moment and let her think that I found it fascinating. Then I glanced over my shoulder as if I expected we were being watched and put on finger to Anastacia's lips, the universal gesture for silence. She seemed to jump at that, perhaps wondering what I thought I heard. I took advantage of her moment of weakness and seized the lacing of her corset, retrieving my stolen cufflink.
She gasped as her corset came completely undone and stared at me with her hands on her hips as I dangled my prize before her nose.
"Meet me at The An-Tang Princess tomorrow." I told her.
'That's a whorehouse!" She gaped at me.
"I think we've done enough dancing in your native environment." I informed her. "I want to know more about this mess that both of us are waltzing into and more about the method you've devised to get me into Yu-Shan."
"It's your cufflink." Anastacia snorted. "I don't know why you assume that I want it back so badly!"
"Very well then, milady." I bowed and walked right out the door.
"If I end up covered in refuse, I'll kill you!" Anastacia warned.
I smiled slightly to myself.
She was mine.