Memories
"Please!" she spoke to the assembled hall, they all watched her. Some of them wore pity, some wore contempt and some didn't seem to care.
Behind her, her mentor cleared his throat "Indeed, young one here is right. The Clear Glass Accord is surely worth the effort."
Someone in the upper part of the hall scoffed "Why should we care about the mortals, most don't reach 50 years while most of us have been around since we saved them over a millennium ago. The gift would be wasted on them."
The girl (For through her eyes this scene being seen) turned to her mentor who nodded sagely, she turned back to the hall "But what about those newly exalted?" She asked, her training allowing her to speak without any tremor in her voice. There was a moment of quiet conversation throughout the hall but the girl pressed on "Exalts growing up in poverty or with their lives ruined by the law. When they Exalted they would think to change the system."
The same voice from before spoke out "Then what of you child? You who grew up in these so called 'poor conditions' why do you speak when you could be raising an army of mortals against us? Oh right, because they could never win?"
The force of the speaker's personality washed over the hall causing some to nod, even the queen on her throne tilted her head. It was then her mentor stepped in, he rose to his full hight and put on a smirk "Really? You say that now but are we not kings and queens of creation? Are kings and queens not those who guarantee good lives for their subjects?"
"We did that." The voice retorts "We saved them from the primordials. After that anything else would be silly."
"I disagree." The hall went silent as all eyes turned to the high queen. She stood up and spoke "I am for the Clear Glass Accords, I believe that prosperity for the people is worth the effort, would any disagree."
There was absolute silence. The queen clapped "A vote then, All in favour?"
Hands rose throughout the hall, in the end it was two to one for. The Clear Glass Accords went into effect.
Outside the Deliberative, the girl and her mentor sat on a bench and talked. In the end they split, her mentor claimed he would be working on a job and that she should enjoy herself while he was away. His form shimmered and a red fox stood where he had been only a moment before, the fox nodded to her and ran off.
She never saw him alive again.
Sakura woke with a start. She was sleeping in a room in the gold light district of Malfeas. She had turned down all the free prostitutes she had been offered as all she had wanted to do was sleep.
But that dream...
Her Coadjutor stepped in "It was memories."
Sakura frowned getting ready to leave to head to her townhouse in the Conventicle Malfeasant "A memory? I've never seen that situation."
"Not yours," her Coadjutor clarified "Exaltation shards carry the memories of their hose, effectively a backup in case anything goes wrong. Normally they are cleaned between hosts but the Ebon Dragon chose not to clean them so the Infernal Exalts could make use of their first age knowledge. The only cleaning that is done is between incarnations of the infernals. You will have memories of the first age but none of Black Moon Walker, get it?"
Sakura nodded and left the 'Love' Hotel. She followed the directions of her Coadjutor towards the Conventicle Malfeasant but suddenly her Coadjutor stopped before mentally pointing to a brass mirror nearby. Sakura saw a reflection of the city in it but her own reflection was waving at her.
She approached the mirror, seeing her own reflection closer she could see her reflection had eyes that were spheres of silver. Her coadjutor filled her in "It is Kagami, the city of mirrors, Fetich soul of the Yozi Szoreny."
Sakura looked shocked but after a moment she curtsied, her reflection in the mirror matched her exactly but with a knowing smile. They reached a hand out of the surface of the mirror, at her coadjutor's insistence Sakura grabbed hold and almost screamed as she was pulled bodily into the mirror.
In the mirror the world was subtly diffrent, Larger side streets, the windows reflected more light than they let through and sometimes demons moves straight through each other as if illusions.
Her reflection, Kagami, smiled and pulled her up "Well that was interesting. To be fair I thought you would scream."
"I was concidering it." Sakura replied tautly before going quiet as she hadn't wanted to say it.
"Don't worry, I'm just here to give you an order." The reflection spoke "Lord Szoreny invites you to his forest and expects you today."
Sakura heard her coadjutor gasp in surprise but she asked "Why would a Yozi that I don't have any relation too want to speak to me?"
Kagami smiled "Good question! Now off you go." He/She smiled and shoved her back out of the mirror.
"Well that was rude." Sakura spoke as her Coadjutor changed direction to lead her to Szoreny.
"Well he does rule over the mirror of Malfeas. A world of a similar scale to a yozi would be stressful to run even if it was your body."
Sakura nodded "Fair but still, why did he even need to pull me in if he was going to push me out a few moments later?"
"He did change what layer we were on," her coadjutor spoke "Previously we were on a layer closer to the heart of Malfeas, we were moved to the layer where Szoreny stays."
Sakura looked around and admitted "I can't tell the difference."
"It's fine, we are almost there by the way. Look to your left?" Her Coadjutor informed her.
She did and saw what looked like a forest without any leaves. The wood of the forest was pure silver that seemed to reflect all the sights of Malfeas within them.
"Well," Sakura forced herself to smile "time to meet another being that helped create the world."
End of chapter
In the first draft an event I plan for later in this arc also occured here but I put it off because I wanted to get the memory of the past and the invitation from Kagami done quickly.
The next chapter with Sakura has been on my mind (and it's rough outline on the planning document) since the start of the fanfic.
Side note: While this chapter was the first memory from her first age self it didn't really have any clues on the identity of Sakura's first age incarnation. When I start giving more clues I want to make a game of readers guessing who it is.
