The Story of Ozaki the Wolf

Ivory had locked herself into the library to do some research, so she said, leaving everyone else to wait. They had prepared a meal from the supplies they had brought in and afterwards Heron had taken some time to look at the guest room that had been provided. While the furniture had deteriorated to the point where most of it was unusable, the bathroom's porcelain and adamant construction had stood against time.

The shower he had allowed himself was long and hot, the water clean.

Afterwards he had had taken the time to brush and comb out his hair, running conditioning oils through it, a task in itself, before dressing.

When he went to the library he found the door open. Lightning was already there, sitting on the floor, her back against a wall, while Ivory sat the room's desk, dwarfed by its proportions, a crystal reader in her hand. Hu lay in front of the desk, looking as if he were about to fall asleep.

"Where's everyone else?" Heron asked.

"Darken Gray has gone to get Sparrow and Dreaming Blue," Lightning said. "They should be here soon. You cleaned up."

"I don't often get a chance to take a shower."

"I suppose."

He walked over to Lightning, lowered his voice, "You spent your time staring at Courtesan."

Lightning did not deny, simply shifted and shrugged her shoulders.

There was a sound of something sliding over the floor, and the sharp reports of metal banging. Heron looked away from Lightning, saw Hu already on his feet, padding towards the door. He followed, looked as well, saw Darken Gray and the others approaching, carrying, or dragging, several chairs and a bench, made of adamant, or some other long lasting material.

He stepped out to lend a hand and soon they had a place to sit for everyone, except Hu of course. Ivory put the crystal reader into a rack near the desk and pulled the seat around, a wheeled, heavy chair, that creaked softly when she climbed back into it.

"The changes made to the exaltation to create and Abyssal can be undone," Ivory told them.

"How?" Lightning asked.

"I don't know."

"You said..." Lightning began.

"I didn't say that I could undo it," Ivory interrupted. "Yet at least," she added, seeming to become aware of the hardening of Lightning's gaze. "It would take me decades of research to get to the point where I could try it."

Lightning waved her hand. "What about everything in here?"

Dreaming Blue spoke. "Researching exaltations was considered to be in bad taste at the very least. It was considered something of a blasphemy in the First Age, as they were gifts from the gods."

"Right," Ivory said. "Not to say that they didn't do it, just that they didn't write much about it. Least not for public consump'n."

"Consumption," Darken Gray said, pronouncing the word clearly.

"I don't think we have decades."

"Yeah, probably not. So we need to find someone who already knows it all."

"Sidereals?" Sparrow asked.

"Unlikely," Dreaming Blue answered and Ivory said, "Nope." At nearly the same time.

"Let's not play a guessing game," Lightning said, almost growling.

"There are three I can name," Ivory said. "The Neverborn could do it if they chose, which they wouldn't. That leaves Authocthon or the Unconquered Sun."

"Authocthon?"

"He helped to make the exaltations," Ivory said.

"He has also been missing from Creation for a very long time. You will find nothing of value pursuing that avenue," Dreaming Blue told her.

"So that leaves the Unconquered Sun."

"You might as well try to find Autochthon, or convince the Neverborns to help you then," Dreaming Blue told Ivory, perhaps a bit more scorn in her tone than was really deserved.

"Why?" Heron, Ivory and Lightning asked at nearly the the same time.

Dreaming Blue looked suddenly ill at ease to be under such scrutiny. Heron wondered if she had not meant to speak.

"It has been a very long time since the Unconquered Sun has left the Jade Pleasure Dome," she said. "And there is no reason to expect he will leave in the decades you'd need to study this."

"So we just go in the Jade Pleasure Dome and talk to him," Ivory said.

Heron shifted his gaze towards both Hu and Darken Gray even as he said, "No Exalt is allowed within the Jade Pleasure Dome. Ever."

"How did you know that?" Dreaming Blue asked him.

"I know many things."

"He's got to come out sometime," Ivory said.

"No." Dreaming Blue turned her attention back to Ivory.

"What if you stood outside of it calling his name?"

"You would be part of a crowd," Dreaming Blue told her snidely.

"Sent him a letter?"

"There are departments dedicated to cataloguing the unanswered correspondence that has been sent to the Incarnae."

Ivory frowned. "How can that even work?"

"The departments and bureaucracies that were designed and implemented are very efficient," Dreaming Blue told her. "It all functions without direct oversight."

"So the Unconquered Sun just doesn't leave?"

Dreaming Blue nodded.

"Surely he must get bored," Sparrow said.

Heron was still watching Hu and Darken Gray, furtive glances, to measure their body language, the small tells that both gods had and probably did not know.

"Apparently not," Dreaming Blue answered Sparrow.

"Who else can we go to? Who else will know what you need?" Lightning stood and came to loom over Ivory.

Ivory shifted back in her chair. "I'm... I'm not sure," she stammered. "Maybe the other Incarnae."

"Who probably play these games as well." Lightning looked over at Dreaming Blue.

"Yes, though Luna and the Maidens do exit, from time to time."

Lightning returned her gaze to Ivory. "Would they understand a Solar exaltation as well as the Unconquered Sun? Assuming we could even speak to them?"

"I don't know."

Lightning turned away from Ivory, walking back to her seat. "Hopeless."

Ivory jumped from her chair. She looked angry. "Well if we need the Unconquered Sun we can..."

"Enough," Heron said, his voice loud and carrying and cutting Ivory off.

Everyone in the room stared at him.

"Dreaming Blue, you may leave. The gods as well."

"What?"

"As you wish," Darken Gray said. "Ivory, please behave."

Hu got to his feet, looked towards Ivory, and then padded from the room.

Heron looked at Dreaming Blue, then the door. "Please."

"Very well," she said, turning sharply, almost tripping, then stalking from the room.

Heron walked to the door and closed it. "I don't want anyone listening to us."

"Caretaker, can you ensure we have privacy."

"Of course Ivory."

"I want the Caretaker gone as well."

"Why?" Ivory asked.

"I do. Is it possible?"

"Caretaker?"

"It is possible. I can cut this room off from my awareness. I would rather not." Something in that tone suggesting distress,

Ivory looked to Heron, eyes entreating.

"I want complete privacy."

Ivory nodded. "Please Caretaker."

"Very well. You will have to exit this room to request my attention." It paused. "Please be as quick as you can, I do not like being unaware of any part of the manse."

"Thank you," Ivory said. She looked at Heron. "Satisfied?" There was a hint of bitterness in her tone, of a child denied.

Heron ignored the bitterness and said, "Caretaker?"

There was no answer.

"We will have to assume we can trust the Caretaker to its word." He walked over to Ivory, standing above her in the same manner that Lightning had. "Now, what stupid thing were you about to say before I interrupted you?"

Ivory looked shocked, and angry. "Stupid?"

"Stupid. What was it?" He leaned forward.

Ivory shifted back in her chair. "Nothing."

"Ivory." He raised his voice.

"Heron, what are you doing?" Sparrow asked, she had got from her chair and moved closer, as if ready to stop Heron.

He did not answer her, his gaze fixed on Ivory. "You were about to say something along the lines of destroying the games, kicking over the board, that sort of thing, were you not?"

She frowned, looking angry, petulant. "So. Why not?"

Heron straightened, sighed louder than he intended. "Your governess is the goddess of spanking and you still seem intent on seeking to anger the adults."

"She's the goddess of Corporal Punishment," Ivory said defensively.

"Why don't we just knock over the board?" Sparrow asked.

Heron looked towards her. The surprise he felt must have shown on his face.

"I am not saying that we do it, I just need to know why we don't."

Heron looked around, Sparrow and Lightning obviously curious, Ivory pouting (though he supposed it was unfair to think of it like that). He returned to his seat. "Were you watching Hu or Darken Gray?"

It was a question that seemed to catch them all off guard, for none of them answered in the positive.

"I was, and both were disturbed when we started talking about the games, and most of their concern was directed at Ivory."

"Why?" Lightning asked him.

"Because they both know her well enough to guess where her thoughts might go, and that she might voice them worried, maybe even scared them."

"In case Dreaming Blue found out?" Sparrow asked.

"Did you see how fast they left? It was in case they found out."

More surprise from all of them, then thoughtful looks.

"I know only a little about the Games of Divinity," he said, carefully, slowly. "That is the way that I think is the best, but there are those who believe that the gods chose to lead a revolt against the Primordials so as to get control of those games. Assuming that there is any truth in that belief, how do you think they would react to the news an Exalted was considering damaging them?"

The anger seemed to leave Ivory, and she had the decency to looked chagrinned. "Oh," she said, and then, "but I didn't know."

"More reason for you not to speak of it then," he told her.

"Ivory is right then," Lightning said, "if we want an audience with the Unconquered Sun, the game must stop."

"They would not thank us for that. They would kill us, possibly anyone we ever cared for, and anyone they ever cared for, and so on, until Creation was a Charnel house."

"Then what do we do?" It was Sparrow who asked.

Heron steepled his hands, and put them in front of his face, as if praying. "Have you ever heard the stories of Ozaki the Wolf?"

"No," Sparrow said, and neither Lightning nor Ivory voiced an opinion.

"He's a folk hero of sorts, from the Scavenger Lands. Ozaki the Wolf, a hero who took wealth from the greedy, and shared some of it with the poor. He tweaked the noses of the people in power, in the ways that the common folk could only dream of. There are probably hundreds of stories about him, or someone similar enough that their story could become Ozaki's."

Heron lowered his hands, leaned back. "The stories usually end with Ozaki taking whatever riches his last adventure left him with and going to gamble. Then the next story would start with him having gambled away his wealth and setting out on a new adventure.

"However, there is a story, that tells how members of the Guild, and others who had suffered at Ozaki's hands, sought to end his threat. They had tried assassins and other means of violence, but Ozaki was said to be a powerful warrior and master strategist, and none of those means had worked. This time a clever Guild factor suggested another way to deal with the collective thorn in their sides.

"Ozaki the Wolf was of no problem when he gambled, for he never left the casinos and other gaming houses. So, this factor suggested that they keep him there. It did not take much, a small bag of silver when Ozaki would have otherwise been bust, to keep him in the game. And he was a skilled enough gambler, though one who had never learned to walk away from the table, that only a small bag at a time was ever needed.

"Months would pass, with Ozaki never coming from the casino, and those that had been his targets were left to go about their business unmolested. It was at this time one of his daughters saw what the Guild was up to, and she planned to save her father from himself.

"Of course when she went into the casino and tried to talk to him he would not listen, and she could not stop the Guild from keeping the games going. She tried several strategies to get her father away from games, but none of them worked. Finally she went in search of Plentimon, the god of gambling."

Heron paused, wishing he had a glass of water. The others were patient, waiting, Ivory leaning forward near the edge of her seat. He smiled and then continued. "The story is long about her seeking out Plentimon, but she eventually stood before him and made her request. She said to him, I ask that you curse Ozaki the Wolf so that he will always break even, never knowing the joys of victory or defeat.

"I suppose for Plentimon it might have been something of a novel request, so he granted it to her.

"It did not take long for Ozaki to realize the game had changed. There was no longer the highs of a winning streak, nor the lows of losses. I suppose it became boring, because even though he still had a fortune, he left the casino of his own accord.

"Eventually he would find Plentimon and have the curse removed, which is another story on its own."

"It sounds as if you are planning on fixing the game," Sparrow said to him.

"The interesting this about the Ozaki story is that he did not get angry, at either Plentimon nor his daughter. They had not taken anything from him, he had not really been cheated. In some respects they left him better off than he might have been. They just made it less fun."

"And you think the gods might react the same way?"

"I don't know. They might still kill us for this, but I like our chances better."

"Do you know how to fix this game?" Lightning asked him.

"Not a clue."

She looked at Ivory. "And you?"

"I did not know these games even existed until recently."

"So do we need to get the Unconquered Sun to tell us how to do this?" she demanded, angrily.

"No," Heron said. "I already know where to get the answers on how we might fix the game. The Malfeans. They created it."

Sparrow frowned, and Lightning looked, well, perhaps horrified, but Ivory jumped from her chair. "We are going to Malfeas?"

"You can't go there," Lightning told him, standing.

"In fact, I can. Out of all of us, I am the safest there. They cannot touch an Eclipse operating on official business. That extends to those on my diplomatic mission."

The Lunar frowned, but said, "You trust that?"

"Completely."

She sat down. "I don't like it."

"I understand, and I am not asking you to go. I will only take Ivory with me."

"Good," Ivory said as Sparrow said, "She's a child."

"Hey!" Ivory exclaimed.

"She's the one of us most likely to make sense of what we could learn."

"It seems wrong."

"I won't argue it."

"I want to go," Ivory said.

"She wants to go," Heron told Sparrow.

"She would. Fine. What will Lightning and I be doing?"

"I have no plans for the short term. In the long term I need you to get invitations to the Calibration Celebration in Yu-Shan."

"How?"

"Ask for them," Lightning said. "Mention it to Dreaming Blue or Darken Gray, or just stand somewhere and yell that you want an invitation. You helped defeat a Death Lord. There are gods who want to talk to you." She paused. "As for me, I can't stay still. If there are people hunting Courtesan I need to be on the move."

"It sounds like I am to be left alone at the Ice Tree."

Heron looked towards Sparrow. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "I am not complaining. There are things I can do. Have you thought of what to do with Dreaming Blue? If we just scatter, she will ask questions. She might feel the need to get help. As it is she is a known threat we can control, to some extent. We need to bring her into our confidence."

"We can't trust her."

"Why not? I do not think she was particularly happy about the situation in heaven."

Heron nodded. "I will give you that."

"Even if all she does is stay quiet and give us the chance to hang ourselves, that will help."

"It does not feel like we have enough."

"What if we gave her somethin' she wanted?" Ivory asked.

"And what does she want?" Heron asked her.

Ivory opened her hands, within them was the watch he had won months before. "She wants the Orrery."

"True, but why would you give it to her?"

Ivory's cheeks coloured. "It's not much good to me. I can't get it to do what she can."

Heron was careful not to laugh or smile. "If you are willing to give it up then I think we might have a starting point and the leverage to ask her to swear an oath."

Answers to reviews since last chapter

Mr Pumblechook thanks for writing, glad you are enjoying it

N3phtys glad you like Ivory. Sorry that Lightning and Courtesan have not gotten the focus you would like. I can't promise that short and mid term that will change, but long term you should get what you want.

Always appreciate feedback.

I suppose that the music for this chapter could be Hungry Like the Wolf.