Chapter 24
The Three Circles Society
The Red Queen was gone. It was time to make my move.
I rose from my bunk without a sound, and slinked like a thief over to the door of our cell. Usually, one of the goblins would cry foul if any of us girls even touched the bars, but our usual guards had gone upstairs for some reason and hadn't returned yet.
It had been more than a week since I'd turned myself in to Sesus Nagezzer's thugs outside of the Sweet Dreams Bakery and allowed them to "sell" me to their mistress, the powerful fae known as the Red Queen. I'd expected to escape captivity on the same night that I was brought into the Red Queen's lair – but that had been before I'd learned just how bad the whole situation really was.
There weren't only a few girls who'd been picked up by the fae, there were hundreds of them from all over the Scavenger Lands. Most were destined to become slaves, but some were marked down by the Red Queen in a little leather book as "interesting". It had taken me some time to insinuate myself into the "interesting" category without revealing what I was really up to. When the goblins had tossed me into a different, more secure cell and I'd looked up into the familiar faces of my friend Val's daughters, I'd heaved a great big sigh of relief.
The girls had stared at me for a long while, probably thinking that I'd gone crazy. Not that I blamed them. Six months ago, I wouldn't have purposefully thrown myself into the hands of the fae just to get information that I could probably uncover by blackmailing Dragonbloods who were considerably less powerful than the Red Queen and not nearly as likely to eat my eyeballs. But when Tamika and Rose had vanished, I'd thrown my own life on the line without knowing if I would be able to save them at all.
Generally speaking, I don't like seeing any of my friends in trouble. But when it's Val's daughters I have to worry about, my better judgment goes right out the window. Of course, Tamika and Rose weren't the only "interesting" girls that the Red Queen had gotten her hands on. Also in our cell was my mother's right-hand whore, Keiko Matsura... a young Water-Aspect Dragonblood called Matsu and the infamous Heather Fiore, the very worst professional "actress" in the city of Nexus.
"Sapphire?" Matsu hissed. She'd been watching me like a hawk from the moment I arrived and it was clear that she suspected I was up to something. "What are you doing?"
"Getting us out of here," I replied, seizing one of Heather's hairpins
"Hey!" Heather protested as her elaborate curls collapsed over her face. Of course, I would have picked the most essential pin.
When it comes to Solars, the Dawn Caste are tough, the Twilight Caste are clever, the Zenith Caste are charismatic, and the Eclipse Caste are manipulative and slippery.
Night Caste are agile, stealthy, and really, really lucky.
It is very cool to be Night Caste.
Born and raised in a part of Nexus where people generally didn't think much of women, I'd taken it upon myself to use my talents to protect those in need, even if they didn't always appreciate my efforts. Heather scowled at me, trying to recover her hair. In a fae prison, you'd have thought she'd have more important things to worry about, but that was Heather for you. Over the course of the last few days, I'd ranked each of the girls I was imprisoned with on her overall ability to help me orchestrate an escape.
The Dragonblooded Matsu was on the top of my list. She was so competent it shocked me that she'd been captured in the first place. After Matsu were Val's girls, Tamika and Rose. They were both smart and I'd taught them how to deal with the fae. Because she was old and somewhat overweight, Keiko was somewhat of a liability, but the "actress" Heather Fiore was worse. I somewhat suspected that I'd have to carry her out kicking and screaming. Fortunately, if push came to shove, I was prepared to do just that.
Tamika quickly handed me all of her hairpins and Rose silently watched the stairs. Ten minutes later, the lock I was fiddling with still refused to open. It made a nasty little gurgling noise that made me suspect that it was enchanted. I sighed in defeat and reached for my shroud cloth, tying it around my head. To anyone who didn't know what I was doing, it probably looked like I just wanted to get my hair out of my face.
"Have it your way. I can play dirty," I whispered the first part of one of my favorite Charms under my breath. The internal components of the lock writhed and clacked against each other as I fueled as much Essence as I dared into the device. I'd already used a number of Charms to keep my weapons hidden and to secretly observe what was going on upstairs with the Fae. I could feel my Caste Mark beginning to burn beyond the point where I'd be able to repress it. Still, my shroud cloth would keep anyone from noticing what I was doing, provided that they were a little stupid and I wasn't already pushing my luck.
See, as much as I consider myself to be a force for good, a lot of people have some issues with the source of my power. Through centuries of propaganda and brainwashing, the Immaculate Order has convinced most of Creation that being a Solar Exalt is the ultimate in heresy. They say we're "Anathema" and send entire armies to hunt us down. Not that I blame them for that, honestly. They need entire armies to hunt us down.
"We're free!" Heather exclaimed as the lock crumbled into pieces in my hand.
"Shh!" Matsu scolded, covering her mouth. "Not yet we're not!"
"How did you do that?" Keiko whispered uneasily. It was the first she'd said in hours.
"It's a trade secret," I replied, trying to underplay my accomplishment. I stuffed the lump of gossamer-laced slag into my pocket. I would have preferred to have the lock intact, but sometimes with magical devices, forensics is usually easier than psychology.
"Is there anything archaeologists don't do?" Tamika smiled slightly.
"I'll tell you if I find something," I drew my long knife. "Can any of you use this?"
"You mean to stab someone?" Heather gasped.
Matsu immediately raised her hand.
"Good. Don't lose it. It has sentimental value," I paused. Though "sentimental value" was something of an understatement, I knew it wouldn't be wise to confess that I had actually found the blade in the 1,500 year old tomb of my past self. Really, I knew very little about my previous incarnation, except that he and I were both Night Caste and that he had been "the Keeper of the Peace", a position not unlike "Chief of Police" which I held a tremendous amount of respect for. Violent and filthy as Nexus had become since the fall of the Solars, it could certainly use a few people who were willing to lay down some law.
Unfortunately, there weren't nearly enough of us who could compete with the kind of scum that more than a thousand years of lawlessness could cultivate. As fast as I could recruit mercenaries and other people with skills to my crews, they became casualties. I didn't like seeing good kids get killed, but I hated what I saw when we did nothing even more. It's one thing when a man dies with a blade in his hand. It's another thing entirely when some soulless monster steals a child's skin and leaves his lifeless corpse lying curled up in his mother's bed as if he were only sleeping.
I've seen that. And I've seen worse.
"But what about you?" Keiko protested. She looked nervous, and I didn't blame her. Though not always purely malevolent, most fae are still bad news.
"I think I'll manage," I replied, gesturing to my firewands. Of course, no one had noticed them before, but once they did, all of the girls were in awe.
"You… you snuck weapons in here? How?" Tamika paused. "Wait! You planned this all out? You got captured on purpose, didn't you! Oh gods, Sapphire! Why?" Tamika demanded, reading me like a book.
"It was the only way to get you out," I replied.
"You shouldn't have risked your life for me! I… I'm just a stupid maid! Not even good enough to be an entertainer." Tamika protested. "You're..."
I put my finger to my lips, warning her not to say anything before she gave away my alias. Though Keiko knew that I was "Shadowsbane" because she worked for my mother, I didn't think it would be right to let two complete strangers know that they'd just been rescued by Nexus's second-most infamous vigilante. Only the Emissary himself was more feared.
"Tamika, I promised your father… I…" I almost said something I hadn't meant to say and swallowed my words. "Screw it! If it's what you really want, you could learn to do everything those women do!"
"I agree," Keiko nodded. "You're a very strong young woman. Perhaps lacking in graces, but those can be learned. If you truly wish to learn, I shall speak to Three Pearls on your behalf."
"But I don't know how I'll ever…" Tamika began, her eyes drifting in my direction.
"You really want to pay me back? Try to stay out of trouble," I paused. "And if you see me do some pretty impossible things… don't mention them to anyone."
"If you succeed in getting us out of here, we will all owe you our lives," Keiko put her hand on my own. "I may be a whore, but that doesn't mean I am without honor! Your secrets are our secrets. Agreed, everyone?"
"Of course!" Matsu nodded readily.
"Agreed!" Tamika replied. Silent little Rose gave me a hug, and even Heather nodded.
"Good. Then I'm going to cause a distraction upstairs. I can guarantee that every last fae in this building will be chasing after me. I'm going to lead them out onto River Street, towards Firewander District. I want you to wait until you can hear them panicking and that's when I want you to come up. Tamika, when you reach the big room, you lead the girls out the back door where they bring in the flour. Run as fast as you can to the Market Permit Office and get Adamant Quill. Tell him where I am and what's going on."
"Adamant Quill?" Keiko blinked in surprise. "Well, shouldn't we find the militia? Or some of those Dragonbloods that are camped around outside the city?"
"Get Quill. No one else. Please, trust me!" What I didn't say was that I specifically wanted Quill because he was also a Solar, and therefore not inclined to turn me over to the nearest Wyld Hunt if I happened to be glowing a bit when he arrived.
"We'll do it!" Matsu agreed.
I turned to Rose. "Start counting."
She nodded in agreement. Without hesitating for a moment, I raced up the stairs. I threw open the doors, firewands blazing.
Goblins dropped their flour sacks and baking pans, leaping at me like a swarm of locusts. Using two Charms in sequence, I leapt onto the scaffolding above our heads, flipped over the whirling blades of the mixer and landed on my feet between the two fae who wore the chef hats, obviously the ringleaders of the entire operation.
Without hesitation, I shot them both between the eyes... just as the River Street doors came crashing down. The fae seemed uncertain, glancing back and forth from me to the strangers who'd just arrived on the scene.
The doors had been busted in by four newcomers, but they were people, not fae. The first was a thin man about my own age with a short red hair dressed in a spotless white cloak that looked just like the one the Emissary was so famous for. He was followed by a huge silver wolf and a second man who looked like an Imperial soldier, except that he was charging into the fray with an orichalcum daiklave.
The last to enter was a Southerner, a Murqai who kept right behind the man with the daiklave. Weird as it was, he fought with what was obviously an Imperial-issue longsword... and the way he moved also looked like army training. Without a doubt, he was a Realm soldier dressed as a bandit.
I suspected his reasons for donning such attire had something to do with the obvious Solar in front of him. The big guy killed fae with an efficiency and expertise that I'd never witnessed before. I could only guess that I was watching a genuine Bronze Tiger in action, and I wasn't disappointed in the least.
Black smoke billowed out of the oven and I realized belatedly that one of the goblins I had shot had fallen into it. The smell was enough to make me gag, like burning sugar mixed with something too foul to consider. Running back in the direction of the mixer, I fired a dozen shots into the crowd of fae below.
While they were scattering, I swung over the railing and landed effortlessly on my feet beside the red-head, the one who'd taken the doors down with fire. He was carrying what looked like a First Age lightning spear and as he turned to face me I saw that he was also a Solar.
A thrill coursed through me. Two new Solars in my city! In the five years that I'd been Exalted myself, I'd only ever met a handful of other Solars... and most of them hadn't stuck around for very long. The infamous Windswept Rhapsody waltzed into Anathema's every year around Calibration, bought a few rounds of drinks and then waltzed back out again before I could say more than two words to her. She knew that I was also a Solar, but I got the distinct impression that she wasn't really interested in being my friend.
From what Viper had always told me, Solars tended to be private and suspicious. For most of us, it was the only way we could keep our branded heads. But that didn't mean I didn't sometimes dream about what it would be like to sit down with someone who actually understood what it felt like to be one of the ousted and defamed Lords of Creation, divinely mandated to try to protect people who thought you wanted to eat their babies.
That was when the fae's big nasty decided to make its appearance. I'd heard about the dough monster from some of the girls I'd originally been locked up with, but I hadn't actually seen it before myself. It was far bigger than I'd expected, and a lot faster. It rose up out of the mixing vat, howling and lunging for us with its gooey tentacles.
The Murqai chopped one of its arms clean off and fearlessly tried to cut the dough monster down. He ended up getting mobbed by goblins but managed to wrestle his way free, seize his sword, and jump right back into the fray. Though he wasn't using any kind of Essence that I could observe, he was still holding his own.
The way the Murqai shrugged off most of the hits that he took reminded me of my friend Little Fox. Fox is a Djala. Although he's an adult, he's basically got the body of an eight year old. Of course, that's never stopped him from tussling with Immaculate monks or even burly Icewalkers. Full of attitude and tenacity, Fox always fights like he's got something to prove. This guy was like that.
I spoke the first words of another of my favorite Charms, and let loose a volley of Essence rounds. The Twilight standing next to me began shaping some more sorcery and the man with the orichalcum daiklave and his wolf companion covered the two of us. It was obvious that those two had been fighting together for a very long time, and that the wolf was no mere animal. The two moved like dancers across the floor, never actually touching one another but scarcely more than a foot apart. I guessed that the wolf was his Lunar Mate and thought immediately of Val, wondering if he was looking for his girls or not.
Just the thought of what those fae had planned to do to Tamika and Rose made me furious. And since I'm a practitioner of Righteous Devil Style, anything that pisses me off only makes me more dangerous. With a tremendous burst of Essence, I blew out the doors opposite of us, incinerating a dozen fae and making us a new exit.
The Twilight let loose his spell, a wave of acidic flame, and burned the dough monster to a crisp. As it crumbled into pieces and went down into the vat, he turned to me.
The man with the daiklave quickly ran to meet us, his Lunar close behind him. He'd burned quite a bit of Essence tearing through the goblins on the floor. I was not surprised to see that he was Dawn Caste, and I suspected that I already knew who he was. There were also rumors that a certain Cathak Loren, a beloved scion of the Realm and commanding officer of the local Wyld Hunt... had "powers" at his disposal that no mortal could possibly possess. It was always nice to have puzzle pieces fall into place.
"Who are you?" The Twilight demanded. His tone suggested that he thought he was the one in charge.
"You can call me Shadowsbane," I replied in the exact same tone. "I kill faeries."
"Ah! The heretic archaeologist!" The Twilight exclaimed. "I thought I recognized you! Why am I not surprised?"
I smiled slightly as I realized that I did know him. His name as he'd given it before was Veritas and he'd looked considerably less impressive when we'd met after one of Val's lectures. I'd suspected that he was a Solar anyway, but I hadn't had the opportunity to call him out. Seeing him dressed in gold and white with all of his artifacts out in the open instead of cleverly concealed under his clothing was like meeting him all over again.
"Where are the girls?" Loren asked.
"They should be running up those stairs any minute now. I set them all free and told them to follow me as soon as it got really loud up here." I pointed.
"Right. You're three Three Pearl's daughter, aren't you? Did Quill put you up to this too?" The Lunar pressed. As she had changed back into her human form, I knew immediately where I had seen her before.
Anathema's. Of course. She was one of Viper's friends. Her name was Amira.
"No. Quill thinks I've been captured, just like everyone else," I replied.
"But?" The Lunar, Amira, pressed.
"Well, he also knows I can take care of myself!" I pulled off my shroud cloth. It was a little singed but not seriously damaged. Standing there between the three of them with my Caste Mark burning out in the open felt liberating. As a Night Caste, stealth was my greatest advantage and I'd gotten very good at concealing the fact that I was Exalted.
Of course, sometimes it was very hard for me not to jump up on a rooftop and proudly shout it out to the whole city. All of those sanctimonious fools at the University who mocked me would have to swallow their wagging tongues!
True, my mother was a whore and my father was an alcoholic mercenary who'd left me with nothing but his surname. I'd grown up without two coins to rub together and worked my way through a University education by conning other students out of their spending money. In the past I'd worked as a slack-rope walker, a trick shooter, and even a mah-jong grifter. Before I'd discovered the lost world which lay buried beneath the streets of Nexus, I'd toyed with the idea of becoming a lawyer, a profession that would have doubtless proven far more lucrative than archaeology, particularly since one of my childhood friends, Clawface Chao, was the current head of the Gongfang crime family. To my mother's chagrin, I'd never acquired any sort of poise at all. And maybe I did laugh like a hyena... but damn it all, I was still good enough for the Unconquered Sun!
"Oh, I knew it! You are a Solar!" Veritas exclaimed.
"I am indeed!" I smirked, firing a shot blind over my shoulder. It caught one of the smaller goblins in mid-leap. He exploded in a burst of light.
That was when Tamika and the others came rushing up the stairs. They froze where they stood. Matsu dropped the knife I'd given her as if it were a hot coal and Tamika stared at me with her jaw dropped. It was no use putting my shroud cloth back on. I'd burned enough Essence that I'd risk incinerating it… and the girls had already seen what there was to see.
I only hoped that I could find a way to explain later. Given the circumstances, I reasoned that it was probably about time to tell Tamika and Rose where their father had "disappeared" to anyway.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that being revealed was something I couldn't have put off forever. And though I didn't trust Heather, I knew that Keiko would hold her tongue. Stories of demons attracted Imperial attention, and that was the very last thing anyone wanted in Harlotry. Soldiers were only good when they had lots of leisure time. When they were busy looking for fugitives, everyone was liable to suffer.
"Damnit! I told you, go!" I ordered.
The girls didn't need any more coaxing. They bolted out the back door and disappeared, all except Matsu who casually approached Veritas as if he was someone she knew very well.
"Fancy running into you here, demon," she remarked, her hands on her hips.
"You're looking well, Matsu," Veritas replied.
"The fae took my firewands," she snorted with distaste.
"Have your daddy steal you some new ones," Veritas suggested. "The Ying Long II is floating somewhere under the Nexus Pool right now," he informed her. "I don't suppose you need an escort home?"
"Oh, I'm not going to be caught dead with three Anathema!" She retorted. Then Matsu smiled slightly. "But thanks for rescuing me, demon! See ya around!" She gave me back my knife, offered up a little salute, and sprinted off.
"What were the fae doing here?" Loren wondered, examining the stacks upon stacks of flour bags.
"Baking with Wyld-tainted sugar," I replied. "It's how they've been spreading their influence throughout the city. Buy a cookie, take home a nightmare." I gestured towards the dough monster which was still pouring halfway over the edge of the enormous mixer.
"Disgusting," Loren snorted.
"I know," I sighed. "But there's more. The Red Queen has been trading for information, bringing lots of "experts" in here. She wants to know how to get in to a Solar Sanctuary."
"A Solar Sanctuary?" Veritas paused. "That's Adamant Circle Sorcery. Practically impenetrable for a creature of the Wyld."
"And that still doesn't explain what was she doing with those girls!" Amira protested. "You can't tell me that Heather Fiore is an expert on anything, let alone sorcery!"
"It isn't about what she knows, it's about who she knows!" I replied.
"Matsu's father is a smuggler with a reputation for fencing early Shogunate and First Age artifacts," Veritas supplied. "If there's something that would tear down a barrier like that available on the black market, it's safe to bet that Jing Wei would know about it."
I nodded. "Keiko Matsura is the mistress of Peleps Eamon - and he used to teach at the Heptagram. Tamika and Rose are sisters. Their father disappeared five years ago. They still don't know what happened to him, but…"
"You do?" Veritas raised an eyebrow.
"Well, you went to someo of Val's lectures. You tell me," I replied.
"He's brilliant, but he pretends to be a fool when people are watching him." Veritas paused. "There can only be one reason for that. He's a Celestial Exalt like we are. But... not a Solar. A Lunar, I suspect. No Moon?"
"Hah!" I laughed. "He's going to hate that you guessed that!"
"That still doesn't explain Heather!" Amira argued, speaking that name with obvious distaste.
"Yes, it does! Dead Eddie. She's the star of his new play and it's no secret to anybody in this down that Dead Eddie has been around for a long while," I sighed. "And I'm sure not the only one who thinks that whiny old ghost knows more than he's telling."
"We should probably be getting out of here before the authorities show up," Loren admitted. "And I need to see Quill and tell him that my end of our bargain is done."
"Damnit, Quill! You know, it's times like this that I really wish I could convince that man to stop shaking hands with everyone he meets! It's not always necessary to coerce people into helping you. Sometimes they just like to do the right thing!" I argued. "Am I crazy to think that he's a little paranoid?"
"We should be the paranoid ones, dealing with him," Veritas replied.
Loren nodded.
"Well, fortunately for you folks, I know exactly where we can find him!" I finished.
Amira snickered, and I figured from her tone that I was in for more trouble than I'd bargained for. The five of us searched the building from top to bottom and found almost nothing, but the process of making sure there were no more girls locked up anywhere took just long enough that I could put my shroud cloth back on before we headed out onto the streets. Loren and Veritas settled for pulling up the hoods on their cloaks.
"That's handy!" Loren's lackey, the Murqai called "Roach" grinned, noticing how the shroud cloth concealed my Caste Mark. "You oughta get one of those!" He nudged Loren.
"I wish I had a spare," I admitted. "One of these days I'm going to burn this one to smithereens."
"Don't worry," Amira sighed. "Something like that wouldn't do Loren any good. He doesn't do anything by half measures. Either he won't burn a single mote or…"
"All of House Sesus is running through the streets screaming "Anathema"?" I suggested.
"You were there?" Amira blinked in surprise.
"Are you kidding? I could hear the panic from down here! The whole city was going nuts! Giant cow monster, big glowing machine floating on the river, eight separate fires, some kind of demon invasion?" I teased.
I turned to Veritas, who appeared to be having some sort of whispered conversation with his cloak. "So, if we're off to see Quill, our best bet is to travel through the sewers, especially since we're all obvious right now. We can stop and have a look at my project on the way."
"Project?" Veritas perked up at the sound of that word. When he learned the truth about Solars, my buddy Little Fox had commented that he was surprised to discover that I was a Night Caste and not a Twilight myself. See... my passion for "taking out the trash" is really only rivaled by my love of archeology, especially ancient machines.
"I've been anxious to show this off. Well, to someone besides Quill. He's never impressed with anything I do. But personally I feel like I've come a long way." I continued, opening the trap door in the center of my workroom floor.
"What is it?" Veritas wondered, the first to follow me down the hidden ladder.
He blinked in surprise at the long section of track that led off into the darkness. A word that sounded suspiciously like a curse escaped him.
"Part of a lightning rail." I explained. "A transportation system from the First Age. I've been working on it for more than five years. I figured it might be useful. You know, for people like us who have to get from Harlotry to Nighthammer, or from Fishmarket to Sentinel Hill without being seen? I have three access points excavated already. One of them is here, another is in the basement of the Foundry… and the last one is in the Permit Office at the Big Market where our friend Quill pretends to work. It's the door labeled "Filing Room"."
Veritas grinned very broadly. "You're reconstructing the Whispering Serpent?" He observed.
"How'd you know that name?" I demanded.
"Well, I did build it," he replied, a smug little smile on his face.
"Perfect! Then maybe you can answer some…" I trailed off into silence, realizing suddenly what I had unwittingly said. "No, wait!" I exclaimed. "You're Perfect!"
Spending as much time as I did beneath the streets of Nexus, I'd uncovered more than a few ancient cornerstones and technological marvels that bore the signature of the famous First Age artificer known as Perfect Mechanical Soul.
"Of course," Veritas bowed. Obviously he knew enough of the past to recognize the name of his previous incarnation.
"Then you…" I turned to Loren and a few nice Old Realm curse-words escaped me. Word on the street had it that a legendary Dawn Caste called "The Faeslayer" had recently returned and made short work of a particularly nasty, predatory fae known as the Alabaster Duchess. The Alabaster Duchess had been one of the most hated underlings of the Red Queen and personally I wouldn't miss her one bit.
"You're Faeslayer!" I exclaimed.
He looked a little embarrassed, but nodded slightly.
"I can't believe this! C'mon, now I've really got to show you something!" The two followed me as I ran down the tracks to my little base of operations and kicked aside my sketches and maps to reveal the very first track of the lightning rail, a piece of perfectly smooth orichalcum inscribed with graceful Old Realm characters.
The Whispering Serpent
Given this 12th day of Descending Water to the People of Nexus
Alexander the Faeslayer
Exalted of the Dawn Caste
Sword of the Deliberative
Perfect Mechanical Soul
Exalted of the Twilight Caste
Third Grandmaster Artificer and Supreme Engineer of the East
Shadowsbane
Exalted of the Night Caste
Keeper of the Peace
"And I take it you are Shadowsbane?" Veritas turned to me. It wasn't really a question.
I nodded. "Pretty awesome, isn't it?"
"The lightning rail?" Loren wondered.
"Well, yes, but that wasn't what I was talking about. I was talking about the Unconquered Sun, bringing us all together right here. The three of us are standing exactly where we stood over two-thousand years ago!" I finished.
Veritas laughed slightly. "I suppose that is something to marvel at."
"There's another place you two should see," I admitted. "It's down in Nighthammer and that's a bit of a walk, but do either of you remember something called the Three Circles Society?"
Veritas immediately brightened. He grinned very broadly. Loren nodded, looking a bit nervous.
"I don't know if you know this, but back in the First Age, all of us were serious sorcerers. We collected all of the information we could about magic and combined it into one book that was supposed to be the ultimate resource. Everything from Terrestrial Circle meddling to Adamant Circle Creation-rearrangement," I explained. "Quill was kind of our wild young blood back then, the rule-breaker... that's how all Silurians are, apparently. Not that I've got that much experience with sorcerers in this lifetime. But I've been reading."
"So have I," Veritas nodded. "And everything you've said so far makes perfect sense to me."
Loren bit his lip. He looked concerned.
"You two need to meet Val," I decided. "He'll be tickled. You're his favorite Solars. He's written books on you."
"We're not the same people we used to be," Loren paused.
I studied him for a moment and smiled. "Yes, you are," I replied. "You know, Quill told
me once that you have to act like a Solar in order to become a Solar. That's how Exaltation works. You have to need your Essence or you'll never unlock it. You'll just die of old age and be born again."
Loren glanced at Veritas, and both of them nodded.
"Do you know where the fifth member of our Circle is?" Veritas wondered hopefully. "Ah, presuming of course, that Quill is the fourth."
"He is," I replied. "And no, I don't. Although I'm sure we'll all recognize our Zenith when we meet her."
"Or him," Loren supplied.
"Ahem?" Roach cleared his throat.
Amira stood with her hands on her hips. "We're supposed to be finding Quill, aren't we? You three can come back and stare at that very exciting brick later if you really want to!"
"And for the record, I don't speak Old Realm!" Roach announced. "So unless it's some "secret Solar business" that you're up to... can we stick to High Realm?"
"We were speaking Old Realm?" Loren blinked in surprise, turning to Roach who gave him a very condescending look.
"Hunh. Didn't realize that," I admitted. "But I spoke Old Realm growing up, so it's kinda natural for me. Burning Feather is my grandmother."
"The Goddess of Intoxicants?" Veritas observed.
I nodded. "Yup. Pain in the ass she is. Of course, I'd take her any day over my mother."
"Actually, we met your mother," Veritas informed me.
"I'm sorry," I grimaced.
"She was very helpful," Veritas replied.
"Mm. I wouldn't be so sure of that. She doesn't have an altruistic bone in her body. If she gave you information, she'll want something from you. Maybe not right away, but eventually she'll come round," I said.
Loren said nothing. He looked uncomfortable.
For awhile, we walked on in silence, heading in the direction of the Big Market. Veritas seemed to be deep in thought and finally he broke the silence. Despite the fact that Roach had reprimanded all of us for having a conversation that he couldn't understand right in front of his nose, Loren turned to me and spoke in Old Realm.
"What do you know about the Usurpation?" He asked.
"I don't remember it if that's what you're asking... but from the research I've done, it sounds like it was very bad. The fighting part at least." I admitted. "Some of the oldest Solars must have been terrifying to face. Flying fortresses, Adamant Circle sorcery, weapons, artifacts, construct armies, Wyld-shaped housepets..." I shook my head heavily. "Even if the Dragonbloods did outnumber us ten thousand to one, we still should have destroyed them when they tried to take us out. And yet they somehow succeeded in killing us all and imprisoning us for over a thousand years? How?"
"Sidereals," Veritas replied with conviction.
"Sidereals?" I echoed. That was a word I'd never heard before.
"You've never heard of them either, have you?" Veritas observed, a slight smile on his face. "There's a reason for that. They broke Fate itself to hide their existence from us. But they're behind everything."
"If you say so." I shrugged. It sounded like paranoia to me... but I was a little unnerved by his certainty.
"I know so!" Veritas replied. "You see, the Sidereals particularly hate our Circle. There's a special Convention within the Celestial Bureaucracy created solely to keep track of Exalts like us who learned things that they were never meant to know. It's called Oversight."
"Oversight?" I eyed him suspiciously.
"Sounds rather innocuous, doesn't it? Don't be fooled!" Veritas warned. "Sidereals are nothing but trouble, and even the ones who claim to be interested in helping us can't be trusted."
"What is it with you and Sidereals?" Loren demanded. Notably, he spoke in High Realm so that Roach could understand.
"What's a Sidereal?" Roach wondered.
"I tried to explain that to you before." Veritas sighed heavily. "It's very complicated. But the short of it is, Sidereals are Exalts like we are... except that they live and work in Yu Shan with the Gods. They're all part of an organization called the Bureau of Destiny and they manipulate the Fates of everyone in Creation. Including us." He paused. "Especially us." He decided. "The Sidereals are responsible for the Dragonbloods rising up and overthrowing the Deliberative."
"Wretched meddling bastards, those Sidereals," Quill added, landing silently behind Loren. "Never know where they are or what they're doing! Can't trust them at all!"
I didn't know where Quill had come from, but he'd certainly made an excellent entrance. Even Amira looked surprised to see him, and it's almost impossible to sneak up on a Lunar.
Loren jumped like a scalded cat, and almost went for his daiklave. "Don't scare me like that again!" He warned.
Quill smirked and turned to me. "Shadowsbane, your messenger found me. I suppose I need not tell you that she was quite distressed. At any rate, it didn't take me long to guess where you'd gone. The old Circle's all together now, eh?" He put his hands on his hips and surveyed us.
"We're still missing one," I reminded him.
"Yes. But I wouldn't worry about that too much. If we continue as we have been these past few days, I've no doubt that the Unconquered Sun will find a way to bring ol' Heart-of-Gold back to the rest of us soon enough." He replied. "So are we off to the Well?"
"Absolutely," I replied without hesitation.
"Then allow me to lead the way!" Quill gave a rougish smirk and illuminated his own Caste Mark. Despite myself, I was fairly skipping as I followed him into the dark.
Chapter 25
The Well
Wandering the ruins be