Chapter 1 - The Betrayal [Let's Go Down In Flames]

[Axelgear]

The battle is over, but the war is lost. All over Creation, the Solar Deliberative has been broken; a knife thrust in its back by those meant to serve it and guide it. The Princes of the Earth have been betrayed by those in whom they placed their trust and now it sets in fully.


All those present on the yacht Glorious Horizon now feel the weight of the battle on their shoulders. As the Dragon-Blooded breathe their last, loyalist and traitor alike, their former lords stand as the sole survivors, facing capsized and floundering vessels and bodies drifting in the water. The assault came at night, and the fires that burn dimly offer slight illumination beneath the stars. Luna does not watch tonight, her eye hidden, her cloak covering her Chosen that flee from the sides of their mates torn asunder.


Amongst the assassins who tried to kill their lords was a single Sidereal. He did not do more than touch all of you once; a single light brush of his hand, far deadlier and more insidious than any punch. In death, he appears in perfect repose, the mark of a cicada burned into his forehead. The traitor knew he would likely not survive and had prepared that, in death, he would not be brought back from the brink. His soul moved into Lethe moments after the koan left his lips but his purpose was complete.


Now, all stood in silence, but for the lap of the waves, able to see the inky blackness stretch from the deck to the horizon as the full weight of what had occurred, and the death sentence placed over their heads began to come to the fore.


Ninety Nine Days of Grace begin now.

 

[Moon dancer]

"How Dare They!" the ragefull shout from The Eternal Phoenix of Unbreakable Brass, pierces the silence as he throws aside the remains of the ship he had used as a improvised club.


"They will pay for this, every single last one of those traitors, they'll pay for this" he says as he lands on the deck of Glorious Horizon, still shaking with fury. then he walks over to the others and sits down so that he won't tower too much over them, from inside of his warstrider, making sure that he steps on the sidereal that infected them on the way.

 

[Ligier]

"This will not stand!"


Hermit says these words without shouting, but after a few thousand years his voice has a habit of cutting through other noise very easily.


"I will not die. Not to filth like this. Not ever."


Seeing that Phoenix is about to stand on the corpse of the Sidereal, Hermit jumps forward and places himself between the massive foot and the body.


"Not yet Phoenix! First we make sure he doesn't have anything of use to us on him and then we scatter his corpse to the five Elemental Poles."


Kneeling down, Hermit starts searching the Sidereal's corpse hurriedly. Patting him down, he's eager to find anything the Sidereal might be carrying. Some fantastic artefact belonging to this ancient Sidereal would not be frowned upon, but much more useful would be some kind of clue towards fighting the doom that Hermit can feel hanging over his head.

Have we heard about the Usurpation and that all the other Solars are presumably dead?

 

[Moon dancer]

"hmm, you are right Hermit"


Phoenix says and changes the course of his boot


then as he bends forward to see what Hermit finds he ask him if there is


"anything of interest?"

 

[Axelgear]

(You actually heard of the Usurpation mere moments before this attack occurred. You know that there was a betrayal and some Solars are dead but, beyond that, you are unawares.)


Patting down the Sidereal's body finds he wears nothing save his blue silk robes, not even armour. His body is shaven, finely cleaned and prepared, ritualistically so. He had not been expecting to survive this encounter, most likely, and his preparations were apparently not in vain. However, hidden on the inside of his robe is a small scroll, sealed with the sign of Mercury in golden wax around its middle.

 

[Ligier]

The Sidereal apparently knew he was going to die, which means that if he's specifically only left one thing on his body then it's probably a trap or something equally annoying. Hermit considers this for a second and then opens the scroll anyway.

Someone else might want to do an Int + Lore to find out what they know about this Sidereal, as he's an ancient Exalt and all. Would do it myself but it doesn't make sense for Hermit to know something like that considering how secluded he's been.

 

[Axelgear]

As the seal is broken, a single small mote of light floats from it and vanishes into the sky. The scroll itself is written in Old Realm, addressed directly to "The Solars who read this", and reads more like an apology than anything else.


"To the Solars who read this, know that what I did was an act of mercy, not of wrath; kindness, not of vengeance. I do not attempt to justify this betrayal but know that, had I wished it, I could have most certainly chosen to end you all far sooner. The ninety-nine days you have been given are a gift. Each of you is a mighty king, chosen by the King of Heaven in turn, and in each of you is the spark of something great, long since diminished but not snuffed.


Princes of the Earth, I beg of you, use this time wisely. Each of you has been struck down for a reason. If you know this reason and lament it, use this time to find absolution. If you do not, you will most certainly find out before your lives end.


Now, I finish this letter. My soul is in Lethe by the time you are reading this. I have betrayed my own values by participating in this horrific usurpation, and for that, I do not intend to survive my fight with you. Goodbye, Princes of Creation, and good luck."


It is a suicide note, written by a man who could not live with himself once his values were knowingly betrayed in the name of this tumult that he and his kind inflicted.

 

[Ligier]

Crumpling the paper after reading it, Hermit tosses it over his shoulder to send it skittering across the deck.


“Bah. He hates us for not being pawns to the ridiculous goals of the Sidereals.â€


In Hermit's mind, this is the only coherent explanation for what he's just read. “In each of you is the spark of something great, long since diminished but not snuffed.†Ridiculous. He is stronger and more powerful than ever. He can crush entire civilisations with his personal might and even the most powerful demons and gods cower beneath his might. How could his greatness be diminished at all? Pure stupidity.


Picking up the corpse of the Sidereal by the back of the neck, he holds it at an angle so that the others can get a good look at it and possibly recognise it.


“Are any of you skilled enough in medicine to counteract this? I never thought it worth my time to learn. If not, I say we head to Yu-Shan. If there are loyal Sidereals there then they will know how to deal with this. If not there's always Uvanuvu, God of Health, or even the Maidens themselves. We have stood for thousand of years against the greatest threats of Creation. This will not be our end.â€

 

[Moon dancer]

"Nah, it didn't interest me either" Phoenix shrugs


"As for going to Yu-Shan, I doubt it is necessary"


He turns his head to the east


“If we travel through the Hungry Dragon and into the hearth of the Willful child, I am sure someone in Sperimin could help us. It would be faster if we did thatâ€


(by the way did we see which caste the sidereal were?)

 

[Axelgear]

(Serenity, as the blue robes would suggest)

 

[Ligier]

"Faster? Time and distance mean nothing to one such as I. Still, let it be Spearmin then. If they have no spells to cure us and no physician at the Instructor's School of Curative Tradition to help us, then we will turn to more drastic measures."