Chronicle of the Scavenger Lands (Exalted 3E) - IC

[Sherwood]

Ailera looks at the other woman and shrugs. "I suggest you practice throwing yourself on her mercy. Perhaps that will help spare your life."

 

[jaydude]

A small smile begins to appear on Melisande's face. "Perhaps." she says to Ailera, before looking at Zedradon. "I can understand you expecting me to be angry. But the truth is that while losing whatever control and influence I had in Nalia isn't ideal, I don't regard it as a serious setback. Especially if the rightful queen is willing to consider bringing me to her side, as your brown-haired friend here suggests."

"As for bargaining for my freedom...at the moment, I'm not quite sure what is is that each of you wants." she continues pleasantly, addressing the other three Solars. "Okay, that's not quite true; from what the handsome redhead's told me, he has little love for the Northborn who currently occupy Alsein. One could almost deduce that he's helping Ysandre regain her homeland, in the hope that she will repay him in kind." she continues, looking at Ryan.

Spoiler: OOC

Rykon , Melisande is performing a Read Intentions action against Ryan here, to try and find out if he has an Intimacy related to Alsein. She has nine dice to roll (Perception 4, Socialize 5) at base level, and is also using Motive Discerning Technique, giving her double 9's and allowing her to speculate about the existence of another related Intimacy if she beats his Guile.

...aaand she completely fails. Okay, not quite; she didn't botch it at least. And no, I didn't forget to change the number of faces in the roller.

"But you two, I know next to nothing about." she says, turning her focus to Zedradon and Ailera. "So to start things off, how about you tell me what it is that Ysandre's offered you in exchange for helping her?"

 

[D. Rex]

"A clever girl then, like you, must surely have other plans to hold your cool so steadily." He replied. "And better her side than mine. I got too much work that a soft handed, soft stomached noble cant do. Though I would not count yourself so lucky. I dont think you would be that useful for her for you to escape her ire."

When discussion switched to Ysandre and what she offered to Zed, the doctor barked a coarse laugh. "Unless you work with Abyssals, I doubt you have anything I want. And as for Ysandre. I dont think she likes me much." He gave a small wry smile, "Not enough to offer me anything. And if she did, I likely forgot what it was."

He was quite bemused. He had know doubt she was trying to pry out information that she might be able to make use of. Zed didn't mind that. He wasnt one to be tight lipped in any case. He was who he was.

 

[jaydude]

Melisande frowns at her inability to figure out anything about Ryan. And judging from the intensity of it, failure isn't something that happens very often when it comes to her reading people.

"I've heard a few things about these 'Abyssals', but I've never had any involvement with them, or those they're said to serve." she says. "Why do you ask? And what sort of work is it that you think I can't do?"

 

[Rykon]

Ryan returned Melisande's frown with a smile. "You're close at least. I just needed a large enough source of income to supply us while I build the company's numbers up. I have no intention of fighting for my homeland just to change its leadership to a different foreign lord." The commander then looks to Zed and shrugs. "I wouldn't say she has nothing to offer us, it's just that if we were amenable to quick or easy bribes... well... Not only would we not have been trusted to make it this far, but my company at least would lose all trustworthiness for future work. I owe it to my friends and brothers in arms to preserve their dignity as well."

 

[D. Rex]

Zed chuckled at Ryan, "I'm not doing it for anything. You and Ysandre needed help. And that was all I needed to know." Zed looked at the commander and gave him a good natured smile. "I have many faults, but avarice and dishonesty are not among them."

"I know what you mean though. I was just a bit disappointed she wasnt even trying to save herself. Back a rat into a corner, and the chief reason it isnt attacking is because it knows their is a hole behind it to escape into." He mused as he looked over Melisandre.


At the mention of work he grinned dryly. "Sewing back body parts, dear, or chopping off those black with death. Washing soiled bandages of blood and infection. Cleaning the injured and dirty. Feeding and taking care of those who cant do so themselves. Spending hours in hot water scrubbing bloody instruments clean. Dealing with fluids and diseases and poisons that would make even the stomachs of the hardiest men churn up like curdled milk. Mix tinctures and gather roots and leaves. Wrestling them from the earth while being as gentle with them as if they were babes. To handle being arms deep in the chest of a man with the Contagion. " he explained.

He leaned back and rested on Emancipation. Turning his attention back to the topic of Abyssals. "Have you now? Heard of them? That's more than many can proclaim. I love to hear much about how and what you heard, as well as those they serve." He tapped his fingers against the soulsteel shaft, almost as if bringing attention to it. "I'm... just curious, is all." He said with a smile, though not particularly a friendly one.

 

[jaydude]

"I agree. That doesn't sound like the sort of work I'd be up for doing." Melisande replies in response to Zedradon's words about his work, her voice a little deadpan. "As for these 'Abyssals', all I really know is that they supposedly serve the causes of ancient ghosts, and have powers based around death. As I said, I've only heard about them; I've never had the need or opportunity to get involved with them. Thorns is hundreds of miles away, and as for Walker's Realm, that place is said to have a curse that instantly kills any mortal that enters it."

She then looks at Ryan. "Could you not just return to Alsein and raise up a resistance movement there? You and your men didn't seem to have much trouble taking this castle..."

 

[Rykon]

"Inserting a ruler with a proper claim is a much smaller scale task than driving out a foreign invader with complete occupancy. With as lean a force as I have now, the death tolls would be far greater than if I could bring a larger and more seasoned force to bare. Not to mention the numbers we'd need to keep from losing ground every step of the way. By the time we moved to the capital, we'd be surrounded by enemies. Perhaps I could work on gathering the militia together, and I will. However, I don't have the might to get them trained and ready quickly enough to keep them from being slaughtered." Ryan clenched his fist in frustration at himself. "I know in time I'll get used to this power more, but for now I need to make sure I'll be ready to hold onto what we take and keep the troops fed and paid in the meantime. What about you? What did you actually intend to accomplish as you built up your own influence and resources?"

 

[jaydude]

"What does it matter to you, if I have some sort of secret ambition? Or do you just expect me to have one, simply because I'm a Solar as well?" asks Melisande. "This might disappoint you, but my only goal was to give myself a position of power and influence. If I ever had a goal besides that, it was to regain control of my homeland, my birthright. And I accomplished that in the same year I Exalted."

 

[Rykon]

"It matters to me in about the same way my troop deployment decisions matter to you, evidently." Ryan quipped. "I will say I was expecting something along the lines of, 'getting enough power to live without fear of the wyld hunts' or 'some peon merchant once swindled my family, and I intend to make them pay'. Y'know, maybe not something grand, just something unique enough about you that the greatest divinity of the cosmos thought he'd give you the means to make it happen. Seemed a pretty cool enough thought to ask the question out of curiosity, don't you think?" The commander concluded, trying to end his response without sounding like he was judging or condemning her.

 

[jaydude]

"The Wyld Hunt..." remarks Melisande. "Yes, being able to live and not have to worry about them would be nice. But if you're going to try and become more powerful than them, you might as well try and do the same with Lookshy. They're another powerful entity who are just as much opposed to our existence, and unlike the Wyld Hunt, they haven't been affected by what's happening on the Blessed Isle. Maybe I could have done that, given time, but until then I was content to just hide my nature, rather than risk drawing attention to it."

"I don't know why I was given this power. But for what it's worth, my Exaltation came after soon after my eighteenth birthday. I had been the duchess of Bayonne for six years by then, and I had just discovered that my regent had set things up so that even after I came of age, he and three others could rule in my place, reducing me to a mere puppet..."

 

[jaydude]

Esbilon Red Shadow Claws Epiphany

While the conversation with Melisande is taking place, Ryan's men and the three other Solars are continuing to search and secure the palace. At some point during this search, one of Ryan's men comes running up to Ysandre.

"Begging your pardon, Ysandre." he says urgently. "But we found a young man and a boy trying to sneak through the art gallery. They've refused to surrender to us, and they both have the same color hair as you. We thought they might be relations of yours, and so we didn't want to risk hurting them..."

Elsewhere, Quill and Catseye both get similar reports from Ryan's men, who seem to want them to either head to the art gallery and help defuse the situation, or find Ysandre and help her do the same.

 

[Rykon]

The commander sighs at Melisande's objections. "I am aware of the challenge that presents... We would need the kind of force capable of resisting a troop deployment from either the Realm or Lookshy, worst case both. It's much easier said than done, but the more Exalted we bring together... the more people we bring together, the closer we are to that goal. I know there are some, like Ysandre, who were raised in Immaculate sympathetic territories that would prefer to play nice with them, but I just don't see it as a viable longterm strategy. Someone, somewhere, within those organizations will rally enough zeal to be after us eventually. Just like they came down upon my home with a full invasion force for no real reason other than to bother the spirit court."

"Like you I Exalted in my teens. We were surrounded by the enemy, and I was but a mere Knight, elevated from service in the militia. After the power came over me, we managed to kill our way through their encirclement and make our way up the river..." Ryan said, shifting his gaze to try and forget the horrible noise of that battle. "Given that you've also experienced selfish malice trying to seize your home, would you still strive to hold onto it going forward? Is it still important to you now that you've experienced being Queen? ...being Exalted? If not that, what has taken its place?"

 

[jaydude]

"Bayonne is my home." Melisande replies simply. "And while I know it's uncouth to sing one's own phrases, I feel I am eminently well-suited to the court, and the burdens of leadership. Even before my Exaltation, I was born and educated to rule, much like Ysandre I imagine. I will not give up my title of Duchess if I can avoid it...but if I have no other choice, if it is a matter of survival, I will do so. After all, one who falls can always rise again, assuming they survive the landing..."

 

[Esbilon]

Ysandre is conflicted as she moves through the halls of the palace where she was born and which was her home for most of her life. On the one side, coming back filled a void in her heard that nothing in the world beyond has been able to, on the other she has returned at the head of an army and taken the palace by force. Even if the city and the army will welcome her back, many individuals will not and her return will be bought at the cost of her people's lives. Fewer people that would die and suffer from Quincel's mismanagement, though, she reassures herself as Ryan's man approaches her.

"Take me to them," she answers him immediately, if Regis send her brothers to flee, this may well be them.

 

[jaydude]

The soldier nods at Ysandre, and takes her to the art gallery. As its name might suggest, it's a long and moderately large room with various high quality paintings dotting the walls. Most of them depict previous kings of Nalia, each one displaying the character of the ruler in question; some paintings show imposing battle-hardened leaders, others austere and humorless statesmen, others wise and benign-looking rulers, and others charming and friendly carousers.

Ysandre's father, the previous king, naturally has a painting of his own, created about two years before his death. It depicts a middle-aged man with wavy neck-length hair and an expertly-groomed moustache, both the same colour as Ysandre's hair. He stands upon a red carpet in the room, wearing a blue surcoat beneath an ermine fur cloak, and of course a crown. It's gold, with rubies, sapphires and diamonds set into the metal, and clearly finely made, though Quill could probably make something better in his sleep. In his left hand, the king holds a golden scepter, and sheathed on his hip is Joy, the ancestral Daiklave that Ysandre now bears.

Near one corner of the room stand three of Ryan's men, their weapons sheathed, and one of them raising his hands as if trying to calm down someone standing opposite him. Within the corner of the room stand two people dressed similarly to Quincel, as if they had to wake up and get dressed to leave the castle very quickly. One of them is a young man - bordering on an old teenager - with messy blond hair and a thin layer of stubble on his chin, currently holding a steel straight sword in a guard position as he glares at the three soldiers. He stands protectively in front of the other person, a young boy who looks between ten and twelve years old, with the same blonde hair and a very similar face to the teenager he's currently trying to hide behind him.

It doesn't take long for Ysandre to recognize the two as her younger brothers Dorian and Raymon, Dorian being the older of the two, Raymon the younger.

"Come on, kid. Just drop the sword already. Even if our commander hadn't requested it, we don't want to have to hurt you. And even if you and your brother get past us, there's no way you can escape this palace." the soldier with raised hands says to Dorian in an empathic tone.

The older of the two boys doesn't buy it. "You'll forgive me if I don't believe the words of armed men who suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and broke into our home." he says. There's a nervous edge in his voice, and his hands are shaking around the sword's handle, but otherwise he shows no signs of wanting to back down or run away. Raymon meanwhile is looking around wildly, as if trying to find an escape route, only to instead catch sight of Ysandre.

"Sister?" he asks in fear-filled disbelief. The question causes Dorian to glance to his right, whereupon his eyes widen upon seeing the Zenith Caste.

"Y...Ysandre?!"

 

[Esbilon]

"Yes, Raymon, Dorian. It's me," she answers with trepidation as well as relief. The worry she feels in her heart is reflected in her eyes, what do they think of her? Has Quincel turned them against her? Has her bringing an army to their home made them hate her? Or has her Exaltation forever taken her family from her? Whatever may be between them now, she hopes it is something they can overcome together, even if it will take time.

 

[jaydude]

At the sight of his sister, a look of pure relief floods over Dorian's face, and he lets his sword drop down by his side.

"I had a feeling that you'd be back one day, sister." he says, his demeanour becoming more relaxed as he gives Ysandre a warm smile. "Though I can't say I anticipated it happening quite like this. I figured there'd be a lot more fighting in the countryside, you and Quincel warring for the throne, and then you somehow appear inside the capital with a group of loyal soldiers."

Dorian then looks back at Raymon. "You can relax, little brother." he says softly. "These men were speaking the truth; they were with our sister."

Raymon appears no less relieved than his two older siblings. In fact, he actually runs forward and wraps his arms around Ysandre's waist in a tight hug, as Dorian follows behind at a slower pace, grinning at the sight in front of him.

"I can understand why you might be anxious around us." the young man says reassuringly. "But I know you well, Ysandre, and I know that whatever may have happened, you would never wish our father dead, or seek demonic power. For one thing, you're much too smart for any of that."

 

[Esbilon]

Ysandre holds her brother tight and for a moment, she has no need for words. Quincel she will have to deal with soon, but for now it is enough to know that she has at least some of her family back. Looking back up at Dorian, she answers: "I too feared that our people would bleed before I could make it back home, but now we can hopefully circumvent much of that. Still, from what I hear there is a lot of work to be done before peace is properly restored to the countryside. Have you both been well in my absence?" She asks finally with a glance down at Raymon.

 

[jaydude]

"More or less." replies Dorian. "Quincel never did us any harm, and we weren't affected by what was going on outside the palace, but it weighed down upon us heavily. And that, on top of our father's death..."

 

[jaydude]

Epilogue​

Quincel was put on trial for high treason a few weeks later. While he consistently denied murdering the old king, he admitted to usurping his sister, the rightful ruler of Nalia. Any plans for an alliance with Melisande soon fell through when she was discovered and proven to have ordered the deed.

As Ysandre had feared, her ascension to the throne of Nalia made civil war inevitable. It was a bloody affair, yet also a mercifully short one, and by the end of it, the only dukes and a majority of the counts in the kingdom were people loyal to the new queen regnant. Afterwards, it took little time for Ysandre and the Circle to not only repair the damage caused by the civil war and Quincel's misrule, but usher Nalia into a new golden age.

Ryan continued his relationship with Lyla, who would later exalt as an Eclipse Caste Solar, ensuring Ryan would never have to lose her to old age after a mere several decades. With her help and that of the other Solars, he succeeded in forming a mightly army that drove out the Northborn occupying his homeland. Once the new government of Alsein was established, the nation became a faithful ally to the Circle.

Ailera soon became the greatest thief in all of Creation, pulling off heists in Nexus, Chiaroscuro, and even the Imperial City and the Underworld on rare occasions. At one point, the Sidereal who had tried to dictate her life, maddened by his inability to manipulate her, fought a fierce duel with her on the rooftops of Nexus. His body was found in the city streets the next morning. Though her lifestyle left her parted from them for long periods of time, the Night Caste always remained close and kept in contact with her Circlemates.

With the help of Calarel's afterimage, Quill, now Ysandre's Prince Consort, succeeded in restoring the underground castle and the Sunforge within. In time, he led expeditions to Denandsor and Rathess, restoring both cities to the gleaming beacons of civilisation they'd been during the First Age, and recovering many wonders from that glorious time.

Of course, the new Solar Deliberative in Nalia came under attack from those seeking to crush it in its infancy and adolescence. The Wyld Hunt were rebuffed multiple times, and eventually Lookshy went so far as to launch a full-scale invasion of Nalia. Their defeat in the subsequent war sent shockwaves across the entirety of the Threshold, as did the General Staff being forced to swear Eclipse-sanctified oaths of nonaggression during the peace process.

But all these achievements were mere steps and preparations for the Circle's greatest triumph; retaking the city of Thorns. After a year of fierce fighting - in which Ganzin, Tannis and Arumi all lost their lives - the Mask of Winters was slain and destroyed for good, and both Zedardon and Catseye could begin rebuilding and restoring their destroyed home to its former glory. It would be a hard road, as would all the roads after, but if any could endure them, it was a Solar Deliberative.