Imperial Year 768

Third Office of the Administration of Divinity, Bureau of Heaven

Yu-Shan

"Come." The stranger hurried away down the path. Taryn scrambled to follow, though she found she had no trouble keeping up with the taller woman.

"Where are we?" Taryn studied the stranger sidelong as they walked. She appeared middle-aged at most, but gave the impression of being older, and her robe looked like it had been picked out as a costume for a bureaucrat in a play.

"The Bureau of Heaven."

Taryn stumbled, but caught up again quickly. "...Why?"

"Lytek can probably explain what he wants better than I can. I'm just acting as a courier in this."

There was, of course, commerce and exchange between Heaven and Creation at the gates created for the purpose, but mortals didn't get to just...go wandering, at least not that Taryn had ever heard of. "So what sort of god are you?"

"Oh, a minor one." Something in that sounded sarcastic. "I work in the Bureau of Destiny, Division of Journeys, most of the time, but my talents occasionally find themselves in service of other departments when they find themselves in need of a way to get from one place to another quickly."

"You don't sound entirely happy about that."

The goddess turned left, abruptly, Taryn didn't have time to read the sign on the door she took them through. The antechamber was empty, though there were several desks that might ordinarily not be, and then a small hallway with offices and meeting rooms off to the side before a large office at the end. "Go on. I'll retrieve you when he's done with you." Taryn looked back at the goddess for a moment, then opened the door and stepped inside.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was expecting. Like the hall outside the office was largely polished marble, tastefully paneled in dark wood up to just over her head, the ceiling was vaulted and decorated in purely geometric motifs. It was much larger than offices she'd been in before, but she supposed that would be, in Heaven. Bookcases and scroll cases covered the far wall except for a pause in the exact center, where a tall gilded cabinet interrupted. In the center of the room, looking very lonely in the middle of all the empty space, sat a semicircular desk, of the same wood as the wall, and at the desk an elderly-seeming god bent over a parchment, the scratching of his quill all that broke the silence.

He glanced up as Taryn entered, nodded. "Good, right on time." He gestured with the quill to a chair in front of his desk. "Come in, sit down."

She sat. The silence stretched out. "So. Lytek. What are you the god of?"

He finished the document, signed the last page with a flourish, then looked up. "My domain is Exaltation." He stood, proving to be quite tall, and stretched. "All right, let's have a look at you."

Taryn stood, guarded. "Is that all? You want to...have a *look* at me?"

Lytek nodded. "I expect your scaly associate didn't tell you exactly what he did to you." He paused at her confusion. "Not scaly? Hoofed? Ah, yes, it *would* be her." Lytek gestured Taryn back into her seat, and began examining her through some kind of lens, housed in a golden pentagonal frame. "A Celestial Exaltation is a discrete entity that attaches onto a human soul, and grants the bearer access to the kind of Essence usage that normally takes a larger and more sophisticated soul to manage." Taryn tried to ask a question, the god kept going straight over her. "Seven hundred were made, originally, three hundred from the Unconquered Sun, to lead, three hundred from Luna, to support, and one hundred from the Maidens, to guide." He paused, shook his head. "An oversimplification. Anyway. Back during the unpleasantness with the Deliberative the Sun's Chosen were carved off and trapped in a vault hidden deep in the sea, and to cut a long story short your new friends came up with a way to steal some and turn them into their own servants."

Taryn shook her head. "Wait. How recently did you say this was?"

Lytek pulled some kind of ivory instrument out from somewhere and poked it towards her face, Taryn flinched, he sighed. "Hold still, I need to examine your eyes. I'm not going to hurt you. Three years ago. I expect it's taken them that long to refine their process and seek out new candidates."

"So before that these...*Chosen*...had nothing to do with demons at all?"

"Oh, no, no. Not to say that they couldn't be terrible on their own, but Malfeas had no hand in their ancient misadventures."

"Hrm." Taryn filed this away for later. "What are you looking for now?"

Lytek had some kind of crystalline implement out and was prodding it deliberately into points in the air around Taryn, and frowning at it as it turned colors. "I'm trying to determine what the Yozis did, exactly, to your Exaltation." Then he snorted. "I won't claim to truly understand what an Exaltation is and how it works, their creator is long departed, but I do think I have a better understanding than anyone left in Creation, and from this, here, it looks like the Dragon isn't as clever as he thinks he is."

"How so?" Taryn remained seated, watching, as Lytek stood and packed away his instruments.

"There is evidence here of some...dangerous shortcuts. The god sat back down, steepled his fingers. "Not dangerous to you, for the most part, but dangerous to him, certainly, and potentially to everyone and everything else."

Taryn stood, warily, stepping back to place the chair between her and Lytek. Not much protection, she was sure, but better than tripping over it trying to run. "So what are you going to do with me?"

The silence stretched for a long moment, then Lytek shook his head. "Nothing. You are merely potential, still; the Exaltation gives greater potential for destruction but also for protection or creation. If I were to condemn you for the risk of what might happen surely I'd also need to reward you for the promise of other things that might happen." He chuckled like that was a joke. "I have all the information I need, so I shall give you two pieces of advice before you depart." Taryn nodded. "First. On sorcery. The Exaltation has changed your soul, somewhat, the trials your peers underwent may not work for you as they once would have. If you seek a deeper understanding of your patrons and how they understand Creation you may still be able to go by another road." Lytek paused, took a breath. "I should not need to warn you of the dangers of melding your perceptions too closely to the Dragon's, though."

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"I should hope not."

"Second." The god seemed pained. "When Celestial Exaltations pass back through my hands after their bearers die the remnants of the bearer's presence are normally scrubbed from them to leave the next incarnation with a clean slate, it was deemed too risky to allow hints of a powerful presence into the mind of a fresh incarnation. The Dragon was...less than diligent about this process. I haven't studied the effects of such sloppy workmanship in detail but you should be aware that what you're hearing is an echo, and with time you should learn to keep it under control and silence it if you wish." Oh, thanks a LOT, the voice said. Shut it, Taryn thought at it. Make me. She tried to ignore it. It started humming. Lytek shook his head, then stood and bowed. "Thank you for your time, Taryn din Ilya. Glass should be able to drop you wherever you need to go."

Taryn returned the bow. "Thank you, Lytek of the Bureau of Heaven, for the advice." She turned towards the door. Stop it. The humming continued. How did you...negotiate...with a voice in your head? Do as I say or I'll punch myself really hard in the face? Would the voice feel it if she did?

Outside the goddess from earlier, Glass, was standing in the empty office looking bored. "Good, let's go."

"Can you really take me anywhere?" Taryn hurried to keep up with the taller woman.

"Within reason."

"The Imperial Manse?"

"No."

"Denandsor?"

"Strictly speaking I can't prevent you from committing suicide, but I feel like I ought to."

"Somewhere near lots of poorly-guarded treasure?"

"If I knew of a good spot like that why would I give it to you?" They were back by the storage closet. Glass gave Taryn a scathing look. "Any real suggestions?"

Well? Humming. No ideas at all? What good are you?

I'm musical!

Futile. "You're from the Bureau of Destiny, right? Do you have any good ideas?"

Glass' eyebrows lifted in surprise, then she frowned, thinking. "Well...I can't dump you anywhere too active...Pamarkhan should do nicely. It's on the River of Tears, and you may do it some good!" She opened the closet door, this time it led into some kind of workshop, lit by moonlight.

Taryn squinted. She thought she'd seen glowing tendrils in the air when the door opened, maybe..."Could you do that again?"

Glass snorted. "As if. You'll be enough of a mess without learning that particular trick." She grabbed Taryn by the shoulder and pushed her through the door, muttering "and at least you can't make anything any worse."

"Wait, what?" Taryn turned, to find an unremarkable door leading back into an empty hallway behind her.

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City of Kalaax

Scavenger Lands

Cities in the East tend to the dense; there are many people, plenty of materials, and often little space, and they grow in an organic manner, without planning or structure. Kalaax may not have been a large city but its streets presented a dense warren of windy streets and narrow passages all the same. To an attacker trying to go somewhere specific they would have been a great hindrance. To an attacker simply bent on destruction, on the other hand...

The city's defenders had largely broken and fled as the Revenant moved through the streets admiring the carnage. What forces he met were Jhasa's, mostly; Sparks' archers would still be outside the walls, and the Nexus forces were still moving methodically down the main thoroughfare.

By this time the captain would probably have realized the problems the Revenant's plan had created. Bandits did not make good soldiers at the best of times, and letting them run riot unsupervised in an undefended city you were trying to pacify...

The Revenant gathered warriors as he moved, a dozen here, a dozen there. Fires, looting, destruction, slaughter...He let instinct guide him, collected a force whose blood was up, those who had lost themselves in a kind of trance, gathered them with the promise of greater rewards at the center of the city.

When they reached the plaza there were still a few defenders around the palaces and temples there, the Nexus troops had not reached them yet. They split off, without a word, acting on their whim, trusting it accorded with the whim of their leader. Blood, smoke, and screams soon blanketed the city center.

The Revenant stood in the center of the plaza, six warriors with him. They were big, not so scrawny as the rest of the bandit force, a fitting guard. Their ragtag gear had been supplemented by better weapons stripped from the fallen. One had found an officer's helm somewhere, blue-dyed horsehair brush for a crest, another had a bright red silk robe tied loosely over her ragtag armor.

The tramp of heavy boots heralded the arrival of the Nexus troops, much reduced in strength. Their lacquered iron armor was dented, and they did not move with the same speed they had an hour earlier, charging the gate. The Revenant took a quick count. Thirty-seven. Not all of them, not by any measure. Enough to be trouble, even with his newfound strength.

Jhasa pushed forward around the formation from the side, she had a small bodyguard with her as well, and even from a distance her fury was palpable. "This was your plan all along." Not a question. From the Nexus force an under-officer looked between the two, and chose to stay silent.

The Revenant smiled, silently.

"What was the point of all this?" She stalked forward, spear held out to the side, waving back and forth through the air. "Did you set up the city to burn just...because?"

He stepped off his spot, forward, sword coming to a low guard. "You forget yourself, Captain. You think you can keep war in check, stay your hand and achieve victory without compromising your...squeamishness."

The two circled. "So is that all? You wanted to make a point? How many had to die because you were bored?"

"Would knowing they died for your profit, or that of Nexus, make their deaths mean more to you?"

She snarled, stepped across and into a lunge. The Revenant flicked his sword across, slapping the spear aside with contemptuous ease. Shadows flickered around the corner of his vision again, Jhasa stepped back and back again, eyes widening. "What was..."

The Revenant closed the distance in the blink of an eye, sword passing past her haphazard parry in a fluid motion to ram through armor, ribcage, and out through the other side. Eyes wide, mouth gasping, in her last moment she heard a soft whisper from her foe. "This failure was not your fault. The fight was beyond your power."

He stood, again, after laying the captain on the ground, shadows gathering around him in a halo, a circle of absolute blackness blazing on his brow. Below no blood left Jhasa's body, blackened with frostbite, the rent in her torso smoking in the wake of the sword. The Nexus soldiers had stepped back into a semicircle, spears levelled. Someone in the back whispered anathema.

The Revenant was not concerned. The whispers in his dreams had told him what to say. He projected his voice to the edges of the square, to the warriors trickling in. "Hear me! After a thousand years the Chosen have returned! A thousand years deprived of the glories of the celestial, under the oppressive heel of Fate and the Elemental Dragons! Follow me, and I shall lead you to victories of the like you can only imagine!"

The Nexus under-officer looked around, taking a count of the bandits coming forward to listen. "I don't know who you are or where you came from, but these crimes will not go unanswered." His formation turned, smartly, returning spears to a carrying posture, and marched back out of the square.

The Revenant gritted his teeth, but kept going. He stepped up onto the base of a statue as the mob grew thicker, the better to watch all that heavy armor just...walking away.