Answer for Answer

When the three of them came to their senses and looked around. The three were greated from the floor.

"And you're awake? About time."

Looking down they could see the younger looking of the two soldiers that had helped them in the battle. Their wounds appeared to have partly healed since the battle. Upon looking around the other one could be seen watching them from a few meters away. They had seemingly both been waiting for the three of them to calm down properly from the fight.

There was a moment before Rin asked the important question.

"Who are you two? You are stronger than you look."

The younger one stood up quickly with a worried look on her face. The older one was still calm but she looked like she was preparing for something as she began to speak. Her words at first made no sense to the trio.

"Cloaked Blessing, remove your destiny."

The woman on the ground winced but then something strange happened. The two women seemed to shimmer slightly but nothing actually changed about them. Shirou's feeling that he had seen the younger one before grew slightly but he still wasn't sure.

The older of the two shrugged "Full Honesty then-"

"No." the Younger shook her head "We shouldn't."

The elder looked at her calmly "The time for stealth has passed for now, We need answers ourselves and we can't get it without our own truth."

Sakura raised her hand and asked "So a question for a question then? With you asking first?"

The elder nodded "That sounds okay. First question then, What exactly are you?" The question was pointed and Sakura who tilted her head and then nodding as if she had heard something.

Sakura raised a finger and asked her own question "Same in reply then, what exactly are you?"

"I am Soaring Star and this is Cloaked Blessing. We are Sidereal Exalted." The elder spoke simply then waited for Sakura's answer.

"I am Sakura, I am an Infernal Exalted." Sakura spoke calmly, not reacting when both of the Sidereals flinched.

"It's true then? The Yozi are making their own Exalted?" Cloaked Blessing, the younger of the two Sidereals asked.

Rin shook her head "We need another answer too then, Why did you agree to help us?"

Cloaked blessing didn't answer but Soaring Star did "I believe that Solars should be protected and trained, I wasn't going to let those Abyssals turn him into one of them."

In response Sakura answered the previous question asked to her "Yes," She flinched for a moment before finishing "the Yozi have around fifty Exalts working for them now."

A moment passed without anyone speaking but Shirou broke the silence.

"So you were following me to train me? Why couldn't you do it openly?"

Soaring Star laughed at that "What? Reveal the the army what both of us were? That would be mad. I was there to train you though, I would have liked to get you away from the army so you could be trained in one of bases but that would have been near impossible to get you to agree to."

After a few seconds Cloaked Blessing noted "We didn't get a question for that one."

"True." Soaring Star admitted "What about this then? Why are you three so special? You were absent from the Loom of Fate before suddenly showing up a few months ago, at first we believed that you were some sort of Demon or Fey but neither of those can gain an Exaltation." Upon demons being mentioned, Cloaked blessing glanced at Sakura.

There was a pause before Rin spoke quickly "We would like time to discuss our answer."

"No." Cloaked Blessing refused "Give an honest answer, not one you have been careful to hide the things that you don't want us to know of."

Shirou was the one who finally answered "We aren't from here, we all arived here from somewhere else."

Cloaked Blessing squinted.

"Where?"

Shirou looked towards the sun and paused as he thought of exactly how he wanted to answer.

"Another world, I don't know how I got here other than through what we call the Second True Magic."

Soaring Star sighed airily "And that is?"

Rin was the one to answer "Kaleidoscope, the operation of parallel worlds. I was forced to walk through the Wyld to complete the journey."

The Sidereals were quiet as they digested the fact that the three before them had not been born in creation. They used strange terminology and were outside the loom of fate for a while when they had first shown up. That sort of thing could happen if someone explored another world long enough to break their connection to the Loom and then returned, would it be the same for someone the Loom had never seen before?

Cloaked Blessing asked a question slowly "When you say a parallel world, do you mean something like Malfeas or the Underworld? Or something else?"

Shirou answered her "It's called Earth, it's a spherical world that floats in a void of space."

Rin sighed "I'm fairly sure our worlds don't even share some mystical rules, the Essence here is much stronger than the Mana we have on Earth."

Cloaked Blessing didn't believe them but Soaring Star knew they were not lying. That left two options, they were mistaken or they were telling the truth.

"I believe you. Is that your goal then? You want a way home?"

"Yes." Shirou confirmed "I was hoping to be able to research in the Dragon-Blood's greatest academies to find if there would be anything to help find how to do that."

Soaring Star shook her head "They don't have that kind of research there. I'm not convinced any place of learning would. I could see a few gods having that kind of knowledge but getting them to tell you would be hard."

Shirou's face fell but he perked up again quickly "I need to contact the gods then and find out what they would need?"

"It might work, but I doubt it." Soaring Star admitted "I could try to look into it for you though if you're all willing to help me with something."

"That depends on what it is." Sakura commented. Cloaked Blessing looked between the two as if waiting for fighting to break out but Soaring Star just spoke simply.

"Sakura, I want you to come to Yu-Shan with me. The others can come too of course but we need you to prove to the other Sidereals that we have a common enemy in the Yozi. Your existance proves the existence of Infernal Exalted and that will prove to them that we need to act."

Sakura frowned "You want me as a witness. Can you guarantee our safety if we do come."

Soaring Star raised her hand "I swear before the Pattern Spiders, I, Soaring Star, Sidereal of Endings, will do everything in my power to protect the travellers from another world while they accompany me to Yu-shan and during their stay in the City of heaven."

Her form shimmered again but again there was no obvious change. Before it had even finished though she started again.

"I swear before the Pattern Spiders, I, Soaring Star, Sidereal of Endings, will assist the travellers from another world to return home under the condition that Sakura, one of the travellers and Infernal Exalt, appears to prove the existance of her kind to Sidereals."

Again there was a shimmering and judging by Cloaked Blessing's face something amazing had just happened.

Soaring Star staggered for a moment but quickly righted herself.

"With that, I have created a pair of destinies. Due to how I worded them I can't pass them onto someone else and so I must fulfill them or suffer the Spider's wrath." She smiled before continuing "Shall we be off then, the quicker we move the quicker you all can go home."

Shirou shook his head "I need to know how the war turns out, can we head back to Roseblack's army first."

Cloaked Blessing shook her head "There's no point. They were starting a siege of the imperial city when we last saw them. Mnemon will try and hold the city but that will only last so long."

Soaring Star nodded at Cloaked Blessing before turning to face Shirou again "I can give you updates in Yu-shan but in all honesty it isn't likely to last long in the first place. This war will be over soon enough."

As she finished speaking clouds were quickly gathering in the skies above. Much to fast to be normal weather.

When the Sidereals saw Rin looking up their eyes went up too. After a moment they were all looking up and only Soaring Star seemed to know what was going on. She cursed in old realm before explaining "It can't be. That isn't possible."

Cloaked blessing sounded afraid as she asked "What is it?"

"Someone has entered the Imperial Manse, I'd assume it was Mnemon, and activated it. Those clouds that fast means one simple thing. The Sword of Creation, the most powerful weapon ever built by the Exalted of the First Age, is starting up."

End of chapter.

Finally. Only a little more to go until this act is done.

This chapter was mostly just to get everyone on the same page.