Summary:Lucent meets with a Chosen of Battles, in search of knowledge about Herons.
XP:L1
Tags:< We Have, Ahem, A Problem | Sol Invictus Logs | Black and Green >
Colapso It was on one of the tallest spires on the tallest mount surrounding Solaria, a Temple built by a man of wealth who wished to worship a god long dead. He died in Aurora District, his belongings passing to the State, the gargantuan temple turned into a museum to those eccentricities, a collection of rare art pieces of faded divinity on its halls.
Colapso Lucent liked the place, and had sponsored a little bar that opened up on one of its tallest floors, with a great view of Solaria. Of course, as something he sponsored, he could close its doors to be alone but for the servants as he waited for the one Knight of the not-Chrysanthemum-anymore he expected...
Kish Kish, a young man who almost certainly hails from the southern shoreline region, sits before Lucent in a casual, jaunty position. The color mandate is served in his clothing by scattered red flowerbursts on a sheer, flowing silk shirt of reflective black, and the carved sandstone bracelets he wears on each arm; his position within the new Sidereal organization designated only by a tiny metallic pip on one collar.
Kish He sits before Lucent now at the latter's request, though he seems somewhat cheerier about it in general than many other Sidereals the Solars have interacted with....
Lucent "You should try the coffee here. The southeast has the best crops, I am told. There is a certain recipe with chocolate that is simply breathtaking." He nods, watching Kish. As usual, he had the demeanor of an old friend, a confident "And it is a pleasure to meet you, Kish."
Lucent "You seem... different than most Sidereals I have met in the Second Age."
Lucent "Or at all, really."
Kish Kish grins, a slightly mischievous yet endearing smile, as he fixes himself a cup of the coffee. "I'm not sure why," he says. "It is not as if we are little yellow ducks, all hatched from the same egg."
Lucent "Of course, of course." He shakes his head, "But you do tend to keep closer to your Caste's assossiations than most Exalted. Or at least, that is how most try to present themselves to us. I imagine it is an artifact of having so few of you..."
Lucent grins. "Not like I can say anything, being such a... Zenith!"
Lucent "But you are nothing like I expected a Chosen of Battles to be, that is for certain. Too cheerful. Without a certain... something that our friend Fierce Red Star exhibited."
Kish Kish chuckles. "And I might say that you are nothing like Kiriath the Deceiver, and it would be true as well," he says. "But it is not to converse on the whims of identity that you called me here."
Lucent laughs! "Quite true. But it is, in fact, just not ours'."
Lucent "I heard you were knowledgeable in your peer's story. And there is one I am most interested in."
Lucent "What do you know of Seven Leaping Herons, Kish?"
Kish laughs. "Well, he is not a peer, certainly; more of a great-great-great-great-grandfather." He swirls sugar and cream together elegantly in his cup with both hands as he speaks, never looking, with the deft motions of one whose hands are greatly skilled at many things.
Kish "But I know something of him, yes; I studied under him, when the Chrysanthemum still stood."
Lucent "Well, it seems like Sidereals have respect for their elders. If only Solars did the same..." He gave a long, long-suffering sigh. "Oh, did you? What was he like, as a teacher?"
Kish "Unpredictable," he said, "but very educational. He had much to teach me, very little of it being what I was assigned to him to learn."
Lucent "I imagine. A chosen of secrets cannot be what you expect, after all. You cannot expect a secret." He nods. "What were those things, however? We know little of how he operates... or thinks. In fact, sometimes it is hard to know what side is he on."
Lucent "Aside from not being on Qian Mian's."
Kish "He bore the burden of three ages' destiny," he says. "He was not open, even with his students, and it has been long since any others walked the golden flower's halls who had shared them with him in his youth." He sips gently on his coffee. "He tended to think, not on one level, or two, but many, all at once."
Kish He gestures to Lucent. "When he heard your kind had returned, his orders were to contact you that you might aid us -- and to revive the Wyld Hunt, that you might be kept in check."
Lucent "Hmmmm. So he wanted our help, but hunted us at the same time. Ingenious."
Kish "This was his way," he says. "It served us well, through many crises; it helped us shepherd the Shogunate into power, and to guide Surkha when the world needed her to save it."
Lucent blinks "How did he guide Surkha? I was not aware you had such a hands-on approach to her."
Kish "The passage of history is a powerful river, but only a small stone is oft needed to make it jump its banks," he says. "The Knights did not put her on the path to the Auric Temple, but merely greased the wheel." He takes another large sip, savoring the taste of the hot beverage. "It was a time of crisis," he says. "Something needed to be done, and Herons was not above a long-shot approach."
Lucent "And how did you grease the wheels, for her ascent?"
Kish "An obstacle removed here, a hint dropped there," he says. "I learned of this only from my elders; I imagine their tale is clouded by romantic notions of heroism and the fog of age, for I know from my own fieldwork how little glory and how much dirt and suffering one truly acquires during a crisis."
Lucent "Indeed." He sighs. "What about Heron's glories? Does anyone still remember where he started, so many aeons ago? Where he lived, all those years?"
Kish "His records were not for us to peruse," he says, "and his origins not a topic of great enthusiasm for him. I know he dwelt in the Capital when he was a younger Exalt, and that he had a place he would journey to occasionally, on an island in the West."
Lucent "Hmmmm." He ponders. "And what would you do, if you were to try to track him down?"
Kish laughs again. "Probably visit his island. Here," he says, and writes some coordinates down on a napkin.
Lucent looks it up. "Well, I am sure Imrama will be able to make sense of that."
Lucent "Why are you not looking for him, however? From what you tel me, he was a guiding beacon for you all. Now that you have been decimated, would it not make sense to gather all the leaders you could possibly find?"
Kish "I'm not sure you really understand the way that our kind operates," he says. "If he's missing, and it's not for a perfectly good reason... well, I'm not sure what purpose tracking him down would serve, then."
Lucent "Hmmmm. Interesting, that." He considers, for a moment, finishing his coffee.
Lucent "And you, Kish? What do you intend to do now?"
Kish "The Agate is busy," he says. "I will do what I can to serve the world that gave birth to me, in the way that I have trained to do."
Lucent "You were trained to be a Chosen of Battles." He smiles, "And I just happen to be building an army. I intend to ressurect the Last Lantern Line, a project of the late Rosada against the Underworld, to patch any blind spots he may have left intentionally there... and use it against him. It is led by a Chosen of Dusk... but it lacks a strategist. One who could impart on it the formation of Mars, to complent Spring's stratagems."
Kish grins and finishes the last of his coffee. "You are right," he says, "the flavor profiles of this cup are truly exquisite."
Kish He puts his cup down and stands up. "I am busy," he says, "and have my own causes to attend to, but... I will keep your offer in mind." He flashes Lucent that mischievous grin again.
Lucent "Thank you, Kish. It was... most enlightening." He nods. "May Mars smile upon your path."
Lucent That meant battles to be fought, after all... but that was precisely what Lucent wanted of him.
< We Have, Ahem, A Problem | Sol Invictus Logs | Black and Green >