Krayzikk

GM IC: “Lord Rayuke.” “Umbraline Masayoshi.” My boss, one of the foremost Battlemasters in the Empire, a member of my own clan’s nobility, uncle to the Rora, and the Imperial Executioner said with stiff, unusual formality. In my years of service he had never called me by clan unless introducing me, not once since the day I began my watch. Not a good sign. But if that was a poor sign the long, gleaming blade that rested on a bench next to him was worse. “Kneel.” But I knew that before I came here. “Some things have… Happened. Since my time. In contemplation.” “Yes, my Lord.” I knew this would come. Despite the results, my transgressions have to be considered. The world may be coming down around us, but Order has to be maintained. I don’t care about that. Not before, but especially not now. Order could follow the entire Empire to the in which we now reside, but I do understand Rayuke’s anger. It isn’t about the laws I broke. Or about the risks I ran. It’s about the trust I betrayed. I could try to run away, I could escape to the Dastana, or try to flee across the sea, but I… “Explain them to me.” “I abused the powers of your office. Powers that do not belong to me. I issued instructions to the Hogo in your name.” I don’t want to run. I did what I did knowing there would be consequences, and knowing I would face them. And pay them. I was willing to risk my life to bring the Chojo home safely. A fair trade. I held my shoulders back and my head high, facing straight ahead. “I consorted with a hostile power. I enlisted the aid of a traitor. I have fought, and killed, citizens of the Empire with your authority. I slew a Toroshu. I left you unguarded while I did, and in so doing I have betrayed the vows I swore the day you brought me here from the Umbraline estate.” The last bothers me the most. I’ve never spoken of it to him. It wouldn’t have been appropriate. But my position at the estate was killing me slowly, piece by piece. With infinite kindness, consideration, and patience. With every act of compassion they drove another nail in my coffin, reinforced again and again that I was to be treated with gentleness, regarded with deference, but never to be respected. I was there to be cared for, to be shown as a pious example of sacrifice for clan and Empire.I didn’t need their sympathy. I didn’t want it. I needed to get mad, I needed to work to pull myself back to my feet and I needed their help to do it. Maybe it wouldn’t have changed anything. But that was the support I needed, and I didn’t get it… Until Rayuke stopped by the estate. He never questioned if I could do the job. Only if I was the right woman for it. From the day I swore my loyalty he never treated me differently from any other Menti, never tried to shield me from danger. I was his guard and he placed in me his confidence. He trusted me not just with his life but that of his nieces, people he valued more than his own safety. And I took advantage of that trust. “My acts come perilously close to treason.” I drew a deeper breath and tightened my hands on my lap as he remained quiet, silently pressing me to continue. He knew what was coming, just as I did, and I think he wanted to see if I would say it myself. If I could take that last step after walking into my own trial. “I submit myself to your judgement, Lord Rayuke. And if you judge that I have strayed so far, I ask only that I may see the gardens I have spent so long in properly.” And that you forgive me, I added silently to myself. That was more important than anything but I- “You… may not.” He rumbled, and for once he was… Taken aback. I had never seen anything like it. He almost rocked back, an immense reaction from a man so controlled, as though I had struck him with all the power in my frame. I couldn’t see his face- a limitation of my ‘eyes’- but I felt at once like I had misjudged the situation entirely.... And that I had wounded him, unintentionally, with my guess. “”It is… In shambles. Those monsters performed… A bombing run. I have not even begun… To correct the damage.” “Masayoshi… Masa.” He began again, the severity gone from his voice. He sounded gentler than I had ever heard, for once looked every one of his years; as though he had aged a lifetime in mere moments. When he began again it was without the voice that could make him seem so brutish, ‘speaking’ in such a way to properly convey all of the nuance that I could not see. .:You aren’t here for judgement, my guardian. You’ve worked for me so long, I thought…:. He seemed to resettle, shifting to regard me with his full attention. And his respect. .:But then you’ve always worked for me, haven’t you? You’ve never considered me your equal. Nor should you have, I know. I’ve always treated you as my underling. But you’re so much more than that. My sister was, and now my niece is, my Rora. My sister could never be close with me after that. Especially not after I was sent to the mines. I have no children. And I have slain too many to truly have friends. They’re all afraid of me.:. His tone softened, mellowed by an untold sadness, and he cocked his head uncertainly. .:I never would have thought you were. But you would be more than mortal if you weren’t, wouldn’t you? Maybe you went too far. The Dastana are not our enemy. You did not aid Inokio, you required him to aid you. You fought those who set themselves against your Rora. And you brought my niece home safe and sound.:. .:Even if that were not so, do you think I could punish you so casually? Here in my garden, without a trial? Without giving you a chance to appeal to your Rora?:. Rayuke shook his head. .:Masa. You aren’t my servant, or my slave. You have been the closest thing to a friend that I have, and you have been my protege. And I could not be prouder of you.:. “Lord Rayuke, I…” .:Please just listen, Masa. You’re rash. You’re bullheaded. And even now I know there’s so much anger inside of you.:. He stood and turned towards a small writing desk tucked into the office just past his garden, and walked towards it with slow deliberate strides. .:It reminds me so much of how I used to be. But you have never acted with any less integrity than you believe your oath requires, even when you wanted to so badly. You have never even broached with me your accident because you knew that if I were to hear the truth I would have no choice but to see justice done.:. .:It would have been the smallest thing, Masa. Zuto Nui knows I’ve given you the chance to tell me. But you refused to use your position that way. I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.:. My ward shook his head, a ponderous movement, and picked up a wrapped package and a bottle off of the desk. .:Sit, please.:. I sank onto the cushion in front of his table, onto the one that had over the years come to be mine. The absurdity of the thought, at this moment, in this uncertainty, brought a laugh bubbling to the surface just barely caught before its escape. At the end of an Empire all I can do is make sure that I have my pillow at the right spot near the table. Rayuke knows it, too. The deep rumble of a chuckle proves that. He’s twitted me with endless politeness about my dedication to Order, at least where my pillow is concerned. He insists that he has to tell guests not to use it lest I know that the shape is wrong. I reached for the bottle out of long habit to pour us both a drink and Rayuke pulled it away, pouring instead for the both of us. Which is blatantly, blatantly wrong. By every standard I should pour for him, just like I always have, and it’s making me a whole lot nervous the way he keeps breaking the rules. When I thought I was coming here to be punished everything made sense. Now I don’t know what is going on. So I take my drink, raise it in silent toast, and take a good long sip. .:Better.:. He rumbled, taking a drink of his own. .:Masa. I called you here to release you of your oath.:. “No!” The outburst escapes before I can rein it in, touching upon wounded pride atop the fear that I know he must feel too. Now. He can’t possibly do this now, not when he will need my help more than ever. He will need it, Desdemona will need it. To escape the archipelago will take a miracle, and he wants to- “My Lord, I don’t think this is the-” .:Enough.:. The mental plane cracks with the force of command, and he pours again in the silence. .:I’m going to do something foolish. Lethally so, perhaps. I’m an old fool, Masa, old enough to have earned the right to be a fool. I do not have the right to drag you along with me.:. .:This is my home. All of it.:. He gestured expansively, less I think for my benefit than for his. He knows I can’t see it, but he’s always been one to gesture. It helps him to make his point. Sometimes he can be less sure of his words than he acts, but the eyes can rarely lie. .:The Palace, the Yards, the Gardens, every alley and square and plain between here and the mines in which I labored. This land is what I know. It’s what feels right. I never wanted this job, but my sister needed me. I would have been happier to garden.:. .:There will be no need for an Imperial Executioner on Mata Nui. We will have to adapt, and I will never be able to do so. Nor will our people do so if I am there to watch them. I am a relic now, part of an era that is ending. And I helped to bring this threat about. I helped to unbalance our land.:. His ‘voice’ hardened. .:I will help to end it if I can. My duty now, Masa, is to right the wrongs that I can while I can.:. He’s not going to leave.The thought echoes in my brain, a contradiction of a simple truth that I thought I knew. But it wasn’t so shocking, not when I thought about it. My ward could never leave innocents in danger. Not when he could do something about it. Whoever he might once have been, whatever his job was, that was an inviolable truth of Umbraline Rayuke. And there would be innocents left behind, people in danger. Evacuating everyone was simply impossible. “What will you do?” I asked simply, instead. It wasn’t up for debate. I couldn’t stop him, and it wasn’t my place to. “And have you told the Rora?” .:I’ve told both of my nieces.:. He answered, taking a long drink of his own. .:They weren’t happy. I understand why. But even if we did need an Executioner, my badge of office is gone.:. .:Which is also why I can’t pass it to you.:. “What? To me?” I choked on my sip, coughing and meeting his gaze as best I could. “Me?” .:Someone has to take care of my nieces for me, Masa. They’re the only family I have left. They will need guidance, and our people will need help. I don’t think of you as an Executioner, perhaps… Maybe a Justicar. The term doesn’t matter.:. He tapped the package on the table between us. .:I had this made a short time ago, before all of this. I think it’s more important now than it was then. White and black, not a trace of Umbraline purple to be found. You don’t like it, and it would undermine the message.:. He stopped, tapping the side of his cup gingerly. .:I think Zataka has something of a grudge. Towards me, and those Dashi. Take care of them, too. I swore them safe passage and I won’t be there to uphold it.:. The tall Battlemaster smiled, a warm gesture. .:Not as an order. As a request. From a friend to a friend. Equal to equal.:. “... Of course I will.” .:Thank you. One more thing, actually. Ah…:. He laughed aloud, almost sheepishly. .:On the voyage. Don’t let them eat Kellin’s crab.:. “His… crab?” The man who had been Executioner nodded, chuckling. .:His crab. As much as it galls me, little guy saved my life. Take care of him, too.:. ____________________________________________________________________________ The problem was distance, and to a lesser extent time. The Imperial City simply wasn’t built as a city for war, or if it was hundreds of generations of peace and building made it an awful, Zuto- place to defend. Years and years of expansion until the Palace covered all of Sado destroyed any tactical design that had ever gone into the Residences. No, that isn’t quite fair. The Residences still stand, unbroken if not unafraid. But the rest of Sado is not so fortunate. The other parts of the city expand outwards into a ring and none but the Yards are defended so thoroughly as the Residences. We were lucky for a while. The creatures were slow to come, and as stragglers and refugees reached us we learned why. The monsters scattered as they descended from Mt. Koshiki seeking the most fortified clans first. They did not eradicate… But they did destroy. Walls, crops, supplies, any material goods that might have been of use were destroyed by stave, claw, or teeth. When Menti tried to stop them, they were killed. And they continued until resistance had stopped. Scores dead, ancient lands ravaged, and no knowledge of what had come. This scourge swept over the land for a day, then two, then three, and then it was Sado’s turn. They poured over the walls, through the walls, and deep into the city. Some could pass through barriers like nothing, some could simply chew their way through them. Crystal shattering into dust with nothing more than a touch. And all of them could fly. Only the Residences and the Yards were clear with any certainty; the Wards had been hit hardest, the many apartments an infinite number of hiding places for infiltrators that could pass so easily throughout the city. Keeping two sections clear was quite an accomplishment. The trouble with their defensive plan was that even though they were mostly safe, the only place that they could complete their evacuation from was the Imperial Docks attached to the Yards. To evacuate the Rora and her family a path would have to be cleared from the Residences to the Yards. .:We also serve who sit and read.:. .:Shut up, Nono, I mean it.:. .:Thaaat was what you said. When you told me we should come to Sado, instruct others in the things we’ve learned. Nnnnow look at us.:. .:Nono,:. The taller Menti said, a belt of Eiryu blue with three golden knots about her waist, said to the second just behind her. ‘Nono’s’ belt matched, but tied the other way; a left hand to her Twin’s right. .:If the bugs-:. .:-don’t kill me, you will?:. She finished cheerfully, sparing a grin while her eyes swept their surroundings. Theirs were the only garments in such a color, but they weren’t outnumbered; the variegation in their little band was shocking for anything but the end of the world. Ageru, Umbraline, Roku, Vilda, and even a couple Fursics who had nowhere left to turn when news of their clan’s dissolution came home. Worse than their disunity was their inexperience; their betters had decided to balance the need for experienced warriors to defend the Residences, and the need for experienced warriors to help clear the paths. To uncover the Residences would invite disaster, to fail to clear a path would be a waste of valuable time. Nono understood, but she didn’t like it. Herself and her Twin were both Battlemasters, but the half dozen Menti under their command were not. Some far from it. It wasn’t their fault, she had to admit. There hadn’t been a real armed conflict since the last Fursic uprising, something none of these girls had been alive for. Or, if they had been they were too small to pick up a sword. .:Aina.:. Words weren’t something they needed, not with each other. But to use her name was a tap on the shoulder, a request for particular attention before the flow of thought began. That intricate exchange of impulse and feeling without need for words. She was worried. Her partner Knew, and answered with understanding without condemnation. It wasn’t quite fear that gripped her heart, not for herself alone. A Battlemaster surpassed fear, without it their will could not possibly be so strong. She felt the deeper dread that only one of them might live. That their spirit would be reduced, would be fractured without hope of healing. Soothing compassion whispered across their bond, carrying with it a touch of will. The feeling of victory and the determination of a warrior to bolster her scholarly Twin, the need to be strong. Without them not one of these Menti would come back alive. More than powerful they needed to be confident and commanding, to bolster the spirits of their little unit. Belief was as important as any sword. And unspoken below their communion was the promise that neither would say aloud; that they would both return or neither would. It was the briefest of connections, a blink of the eye their cohort didn’t even notice, and their attention snapped back to the present. They hadn’t encountered one of the insects in the hour since they had set out, and the absence was beginning to make them leery. A beast might avoid them if it were timid enough but nothing about these creatures had been timid. Their aggression had been unmatched, uncanny, so why weren’t they striking? They were around somewhere. Saki had detected at least one with her Mask of Sensory Aptitude barely twenty minutes ago, heard the uneasy sound of claws on crystal to the west. Not even a block off of the route they needed to clear for the party coming up the street forty minutes’ walk behind. But the city block went silent as soon as they altered course, so Saki took the lead to search with the Furic Soulsword backing her up. Still nothing. It worked in the back of Nono’s mind, turned over and over looking for the answer. It felt like a trap, but could these monsters plan like that? Nothing about their movements had suggested strategy, but- Saki never even screamed, only gurgled briefly around the Soulsword that sprouted from her mouth before the wound burned closed. The Fursic’s lips contorted with a snarl of vicious hate as she yanked her blade free, scarcely in time to catch a strike from the shocked Ageru Menti that had been watching her from the beginning. Shimmering energy illuminated her Calix as confusion melted understanding and disgust. “Our clan wasn’t enough, you Umbraline sellout? Had to to finish us off?” She snarled, allowing her Soulsword to dissipate and twisting out of the way of the descending Agery scythe with sinuous grace. The blade reappeared in her other hand at the end of the move, carried cleanly into the Ageru’s hamstring. “You make me sick.” “Me? You killed Saki!” The Ageru gasped, bracing hard on her other leg for balance. “Look at her!” “What? I didn’t-” The words died in her throat as she saw their Roku guide facedown in the dirt, the color draining from her face. “How-” Nono never registered Aina’s warning, she simply spun as an extension of her Twin and stopped the stave plunging towards her spine dead with a telekinetic grip. The gray beast’s face split in vicious, soundless cry and it snapped a kick into her midriff with unholy ferocity. In contrast to its silence the crack of her rib was unmistakable. Freed from her grip its stave rose from below to open her from hip to shoulder stopped just short by a shimmering naginata. The stave did not melt, but crackled violently where the energy touched it as it ducked back from a blistering counter strike. It was a trap, and one that had already reduced their capable number by two. Saki was dead, and a lamed Soulsword was no help at all. Even as the beast with damaged staff stepped back the rest of the trap snapped shut, as two more with varying sickly yellow highlights simply appeared. An illusion. The first must have silenced the others, while one simply hid them from view. And manipulated them into attacking their own. There was no time to think about it, only hope they lived long enough to pass the word. The beasts weren’t just smart, they were coordinated. The Ageru and Fursic Menti- she wasn’t even sure they had ever been introduced- fell first. Wracked by guilt the latter tried to defend the former, striking at the nearest monster’s open faceplate. But to no avail. Her Soulsword struck, struck home, and the creature simply… Bit down. It faded a second later as she went limp with the creature’s claws around her throat. The hobbled Ageru didn’t even do as well, simply stabbed and tossed aside with no way to properly defend herself. In less than a minute the insects had very nearly evened the odds, outnumbered only by two. The silent Rahkshi came in again, low and fast, sensing Nono’s weakness in her labored breath. Her eyes widened, she gasped in pain as she tried to evade and the Rahkshi’s staff drove home entirely without resistance. And then she simply disappeared. The Rahkshi had only a second to see her Twin, standing stock-still just to its left, eyes aglow with power, before the naginata in her hand severed its spine and it saw nothing again. Nono wasn’t idle, however. Her rib was definitely broken, and her breaths were coming shallow and rapid. So she might have perforated a lung, too. In either case moving vigorously wasn’t a good idea, but one of the beasts had disappeared again. Probably the illusionist. Her remaining band of subordinates were trying to fight the one that had killed the Fursic, but every blow they landed seemed to no avail. It wasn’t even scratched and one of its foes was already losing blood from a wound to the shoulder. She had an idea of how to deal with that, maybe, but the illusionist was a bigger problem. It had played their band like a lute, and seemed able to do it again. A master Sighteye could replace reality with an illusion so lifelike as to be indistinguishable. A Soulsword could be dodged, a Mindarm tired, and a Willhammer resisted for their art was one of subtlety. But a Sighteye, even if detected, could not be stopped. How could you find someone that fooled your every sense? You struck faster than they could think. Nono drew as deep a breath as she could, circles the dirt beneath her foot with a raised sole, and tapped the earth. Silt blasted outwards from the impact, nearly aerosolized so fine was the spray. Two meters in every direction blocking out the view from beyond; but caking the unseen form to her right. It vanished half a second later, its owner catching on to her trick, but too late. Ethereal light cleaved its head from its body, and Aina stepped out of the cloud coughing delicately. “Nono, are you alright? Let me help you, we need to get out of here.” The naginata dissipated and she stepped forward quickly, arms outstretched to support her Twin just to stagger when Nono drove the Soul dagger into her heart. Betrayal flickered briefly in her eyes, face contorting into rage and clawed fingers rising again to try and lay hands on her killer just once before she passed. But the Eiyu Battlemaster twisted the dagger, and Aina shuddered once, twice, and sagged. “Clever,” Her voice dripped with hatred as the buckling form melted and gave way to a gray and yellow carapace. “You thought I wouldn’t notice when you stabbed her.” Only Aina’s pained, wordless affirmation of safety (relatively speaking) stilled the sick churning in her stomach. It was fortune, blind luck, that the beast had been as blinded as her Twin when it struck. It couldn’t see her well enough to manage a killing blow. The illusionist must have been hiding that one, one last trick. But the dust was clearing and the last still stood where one of her Menti did not. The creatures clearly could be killed, even if their armor resisted traditional weapons. Soulswords could cut through it if they could get close. But only the head and spine seemed to be of any real vitality. That didn’t matter, what mattered is that this one was different. Its impervious hide wasn’t innate, it was a power like any other. And she could put a stop to that. Green eyes locked on its form, welling with hatred for what these creatures had done to the people she was supposed to lead, and the smell of an old library overwhelmed its senses. Its mind was… Evil. Feral. It grappled, pushed, shrieked at the very touch of her mind but it was not in control. Something bigger, something stronger, plucked at its strings. Bent its savagery to her will, coordinated them with precision towards their kills. It did not reside within the monster but outside it, controlling it from afar. All she need do was halt one of those strings for just a moment, coincide it exactly with the moment one of her Menti went to attack. A moment, two, three, and pluck. The Rahkshi faltered, and in that critical second its power failed. A spear struck into its armor, piercing deeply but not enough to kill. It shrieked with real pain and the other Menti grabbed it, held it in place with her mind while her peer pulled the spear back to finish the job and- Something Else noticed. She had been so far beneath its notice, a pebble before a god, but in that briefest second that its control was interrupted it noticed. Noticed the same way that a pebble under foot felt different from the rest of the ground it trod upon. It noticed and an ugly, petty something inside It hated the interruption and seethed with sick, uncomplicated enjoyment that the pebble was within her reach. It reached out through its puppet yet to die and grabbed her mind with both hands, fingers wrapped like vises around her skull and squeezed and burrowed with incessant pressure. It looked within her and began to pull her apart to the last fiber, reducing her very soul to its base components slowly and painfully to see what made her tick. Someone screamed, and Nono was distantly aware that it was her; and that she had fallen to the ground and broken her nose. Time slowed, the torment seemed to go on forever, and then her Twin was there. A gentle, soothing presence in her mind that even weakened with pain promised support. A bastion of sanity that could not be stripped away, told her that all she had to do was hold on. The spear struck home again and the pressure vanished as though it had never been, leaving her panting and trembling upon the dirt. “Get the Toroshu forward,” She rattled to the Vilda holding her spear, pushing herself to her knees. “The path won’t stay clear for long. Saori, you need to help me with Aina. She can’t walk without help and I can’t carry her. Leave the dead. We can’t help them.” ____________________________________________________________________________ Nono breathed and for the first time in nearly an hour it didn’t hurt. It did nothing to combat her exhaustion and nothing to clean the blood that had dribbled from her nose. But she was whole again. So was Aina, and that was something of a mixed blessing at the moment. The other Eiyu’s mouth was set in a hard, grim line as she walked— stalked, more than anything— up to the Toroshu standing on the docks. Neither of them had ever been here before but this particular dock clearly belonged to a Saihoko fisherwoman, not to any Toroshu. The trawler was worn and grubby, not from disuse but from regular use. It had been someone’s livelihood. Emphasis on the ‘had’, for a handful of bodies had been haphazardly covered up after being shuffled aside. “What in Zuto Nui’s name have you done?” She snarled, forcefully enough to raise the Toroshu’s eyebrows. A guard stiffened, reaching for her blade, but stilled at a graceful gesture from the Toroshu. “What, the Hoko? Calmly, Lady Eiyu. I informed them that I would require their boat. They refused.” “It was their ship!” “And I have need of it.” A note of frost crept into her voice at last, as the Dashi and Menti that bore her colors loaded crates onto the ship. “Order must be enforced by Power, if a Hoko won’t do it for their own honor. A lighter punishment might have been offered in peace, but this is a crisis. In Zuto Nui’s name, as you put it, my family must survive. As must yours, a fact I’m sure your Toroshu would remind you of. In the meantime, mind your tongue.” Aina stiffened, fuming, as the Toroshu continued. “Battlemaster you may be but you are a Menti. Mind your betters.” “My apologies, my lady,” The Eiyu forced out calmly, though Nono felt her simmering under the surface. “But might I politely ask why you’re loading these crates?” “Child, surely you realize that my family’s resources cannot be left for the Dastana to find. The Rora has no power to command me to abandon my clan’s treasures, and neither do you.” The Toroshu turned away in dismissal, beginning her walk onto the ship’s deck. “You have done your duty admirably, Lady Eiyu, and I have instructed my healer to tend to you and your partner as reward. The rest is not your concern. I am sure others are awaiting your aid.” The Eiyu’s gaze moved between the Toroshu’s retreating back, the guard that gazed at her with warning, and the pile by the dock. For a brink, Nono knew, she hovered on the brink of the unthinkable. But she couldn’t let that happen. They had a duty to perform, and slaying all of the people here would not undo what had been done. And done legally. Things were different beyond the Eiyu’s walls, something her Twin knew and accepted once the thought had reached her. It allowed her to step back from the precipice, back towards her Twin. The grim smile they shared acknowledged what both knew the other to think. And acknowledged that no matter what they did here the same thing was happening everywhere. ____________________________________________________________________________ .:Remember the plan, Masa.:. .:I will. Rayuke.:. It felt wrong to say, still, but the command had been without negotiation. Whether he was the Executioner or not he was the Umbraline’s First Son and his command was to be obeyed… Even if it was to treat him like an equal. .:Good luck.:. I’m not a fan of this plan and he knows it. But he’s also right. It’s the best we can do. Behind me are arrayed three parties, each dedicated to the protection of a single cause. Myself, and the Menti at my side, formed around the six Dashi that Rayuke had charged me to care for. Behind me another group gathered around the Rora and behind her around Desdemona. For each the highest priority went to their own charge in hope that most would make it through to the Docks even if some were to fall. Rayuke would be the distraction. The fact, in some oblique way, seemed to amuse him. I can’t fathom why, but his sense of humor was always… Odd. He can’t possibly be as relaxed as he seems but if he isn’t I can’t tell. He’s never been moved easily, not in the time that I’ve served him. And now he has trusted me with his family and his sacred honor. Zuto Nui, you and I haven’t seen eye to eye. Not in the past, and especially not now. But he believes you have a plan. He believes in you. Don’t let him down. ____________________________________________________________________________ There’s no blaming Masayoshi for being worried, he reflected. The man who had been Executioner strode out into the open air, down the courtyard of the Residences and past the haggard defenders. Long, easy strides carried him quickly but without hurry; he might simply have been seeking some fresh air had it not been for the tension in the air. She can’t help but worry because, at the end of the day, Masa had never known him in his youth. She hadn’t even been born. To know his past was one thing. To understand it was impossible, as it was for his own nieces. It didn’t make sense. The man who had borne the heavy burden of justice all their lives, the man who spoke so slowly, the man who spent his leisure carving beautiful statues to fill his garden could not possibly have done what was said. It must have been a misunderstanding, or more likely a coverup. It wouldn’t be the first time. Sometimes niceties had to be preserved even at the cost of one’s reputation. Rayuke knew better. “Zataka…” He rumbled into silence, standing with his feet planted shoulder width apart. His rounded shoulders flexed as he crossed his arms across his chest with the sun catching upon his Rode. “You vengeful harlot.” “You said your Sons would have no mercy for me, so why am I here?” Deep within a flame long controlled was stoked, fed with the injustice of Her actions. Stoked with the intensity of his determination, his dedication, and his bone deep conviction that everything would happen as it was meant to. Freeing this evil, be she Zataka or an impostor, was his doing. It was meant to be. He had to believe that. That there was a reason, in Zuto Nui’s plan, that she had to prevail just this once. Just as he believed that there had to be a reason that he was spared. And in the end, just this once, he was angry. Truly angry. He had learned to control. To temper his anger with compassion and duty, to vent his frustrations into productive pursuits. That his fellow Dasaka were not appropriate targets for the tempers of his youth. But these were not his fellow Dasaka, and to crush them would be very productive. “Perhaps… They are not strong enough. A terrible reflection. I am a Son of Zataka, be you she. Surely one of yours must be my equal.” A low, sibilant hiss came from the dark places around him. The nooks, the crannies, the rubble where once had been beauty. “Here… I am. Unarmed. Alone. One that you failed... To kill. Despite the treachery of your gratitude.” The hiss came again, louder and deeper with the fibrillating undertone of rage. “Pathetic.” Long ago, for Yusanora’s birthday, the Fursics had asked of the Vilda a Rahi. Something big, something powerful, something that could stir a crowd as they had in old. The Vilda knew what would be done. Regretfully they gave to the Fursics the Rahi they asked, and it was raised large and strong. And on the day of the Rora’s birth, as part of the grand spectacle arrayed in the Colosseum to honor her they placed this beast with a single Fursic Menti to goad it into charging. She was permitted no powers, nothing but her wit and her skill. It was barbaric, senseless, and it had filled him with disgust even then. As it had Yusanora, though she had no choice but to applaud the show. Just as the Fursics had intended, of course. But he remembered the dart, that last jab that provoked the creature at last. Just as he did. The first Rahkshi to spring forth slammed into the floor with his pickhammer in its head. The second he bashed against the ground until nothing remained, threw into the fourth, and swung at the fifth. He roared as they shrieked in kind and the battle was joined. With tooth and claw, and staff and Soul, and fist and spirit. Just one he grabbed by the throat, fingers wrapped around its writhing spine, and forced it to meet his gaze with its own. “Do… Better.” His voice rumbled like thunder as raw psychic energy wreathed his fingers, melting through its carapace and burning the kraata within to cinders. Then he turned anew towards his next foe. ____________________________________________________________________________ “Move, move, move!” Why did Dashi have to have such short legs? I didn’t like it but Rayuke’s distraction worked like a charm for the first half hour or so. Maybe longer. Adrenaline does funny things to time. But for a while we weren’t disturbed. It couldn’t last, but the first assault had been… Gruesome. A crystalline shard flew from an elevated position, somewhere, and perfectly pierced through the eye of one of my Menti. Then a second. Then a third. We were in a full run, by then, and the fire at my group stopped soon after. Just as the next group entered the monster’s range, I’m sure. The next wasn’t any better. A lightning bolt struck the lead warrior, filling the air with the smell of scorched flesh, and jumped from her to the next and to the next and to the next until one thought quickly enough— or was lucky enough to have it— and triggered her Haunoru to catch the bolt. It hit the focused shield and dissipated, crackling across its surface as it was halted. But the damage was done and there was no time, not at all, to treat the fallen with respect. It didn’t take long for the pace to become arduous, even for us Dasaka. For the Dashi it was murderous. Keeping pace with us was killing them, and slowing the pace for them was killing us. I growled, unable to contain it, and swatted aside with my mind the next incoming projectile. The Menti with Haus or Haunorus I ordered to the front, to block whatever they could with their very bodies if they had to. And it was working, as far as it went. But this couldn’t last forever. Not with how far we had to go. We had already slowed enough that the other groups, their wards huddled protectively in their middles, were just behind us. Before long we would become encircled. The more they slowed us the longer the creatures had to reach us. Worse, perhaps, were the Menti that simply were yanked away through solid walls. Actually, though, I had to laugh. Between the adrenaline, the stress, and the exhaustion it was just too funny. Huddled inside our group with the Dashi was Inokio, the banished Battlemaster, and he was insensate with rage. His hands were bound, preventing him from doing much himself, but he seemed to have met most of the Menti in our little group at least once. What few he hadn’t, and even some he had, he had very poetic terms for. “Who in Zataka’s—” Lightning cracked. “—trained you?! Group in tighter! If you’re going to draw fire, be alert for it! If you aren’t drawing fire pick targets and hit them!” It was almost enough to make my imminent death worth it. We’d lost almost half our escorts already, and there was no way of telling how many— if any— of the monsters we’d felled. My own breath was starting to come hard, and— “Umbraline.” “You there, keep up the pace!” “Masayoshi.” A deep breath, as deep as I can with my burning lungs. “Masa.” “What?” “This can’t keep going, Masayoshi, you know it. The pace is untenable. And despite it we’re slowing down. They’ll surround us soon, and there’ll be no way through. We’ll all die.” “Thank you, Battlemaster of the obvious,” I snapped, a little more harshly than I really meant to. Just because I was hauling him along, because I insisted on keeping my word, doesn’t mean that I’m happy to hear him point out the obvious. “I’m figuring out where to hold them.” “Anywhere is as good as anywhere with these things, Umbraline. You’re stalling. Looking for another way. Sacrifice a few or kill everyone.” “I know.” And I’ve known for a while. Nui, I hate it. I hate what this fight has probably already cost. I hate what it has cost good people because their duty requires them to get the Rora out. But he’s right. They’re going to need the defenders to keep pushing, and they won’t matter to me anyway. No one that plays rear guard is getting out alive. Mindarms. Soulswords. Willhammers and Sighteyes won’t do me/i] any good, but if someone can carry a couple Sighteyes they can keep the monsters on their toes. Best to— “Inokio, stick close to the Dashi. If they get out, you’ll get out. Watch for—” “Don’t be a moron, Umbraline.” He responded, managing to sound almost insulted. “It will be a cold, cold day before I let a cripple shame me.” The angry retort was on my lips before the carefully metered sting in his tone struck home. It was a slap in the face, and it was meant to be. He was goading me, flicking my pride to force me to think instead of simply react. The same thing he’d been doing to students— and me— for a long time. “We had a deal, Korae. Playing rearguard is just a different death sentence.” “And I’m rejecting the deal. Exile among the Tajaar may have been acceptable, but among barbarians? Never.” His voice softened, almost immeasurably, but it did. “Masa, my empire is dead. I betrayed it for nothing. I have been stripped, rightfully, of my clan name. My titles. Let me die with it.” “Don’t force me to live, not like this. Not at this cost. Let me die facing my enemy with weapon in hand like a Battlemaster.” “And if I don’t trust you?” The Battlemaster rolled his eyes. I can’t see them, but I can track the way his head tilted, the exasperated breath that went with it. And I could see with ease the way, with a little will, psychophysical energy wrathed his hands and simply burned away his shackles. A pretty clear point, I had to admit. He rubbed his wrists, cracked his neck, and surveyed the group. A true tactician, selecting his tools. “If I wanted to sabotage you I could do it. You three. And you.” He pointed, rattling off about a dozen names or simply pointing as needed. “You’re going to stay with me. It’s time to show these monsters how a true Dasaka dies.” “Die well, Battlemaster.” “Live better,” He said slowing to a stop and allowing the evacuees to pass him by. Turning to face his enemy in defense of an Empire already gone, with warriors at his command. “Masa. Take care of them.” Nothing left to say after that, for him or for me. ____________________________________________________________________________ The Docks were never busier, not even when the Ryu was set to sail. Every seaworthy ship was being prepared, every last bit of provisions were being loaded, and of course, Menti kept the peace while evacuees jostled for position. Only one ship was spared that chaos, and that was the Rora’s own vessel. Not that it was being spared anything else. Despite the size of the crew, and staff, it was meant to accommodate everything that wasn’t essential was being thrown out to make room for supplies and bodies. It was nearly ready to go, and that was the only reason that we had made our move. Defenders had been relaying updates to the Residences from the Docks and vice versa over the days since the evacuation was announced, coordinating when they would make their bid for freedom. And now it was time. Fewer than half of their original cohorts made it to the Docks. Inokio’s rearguard, for it could be nothing else, drastically slowed the attacks for some time. Gave us time to catch our breath and keep moving into the arms of the Yards’ outer defense. But even so we lost a handful more in the process before we reached the safety of the Yards. Here we could finally catch a rest, though not let down our guard. There were enough fortifications, enough Menti, for us to rest. Me? I hadn’t meant to sleep. Truly. I didn’t think I could, but after the past week… I was out almost as soon as I sat down, and I did not dream. I only sank into that exhaustion and saw darkness. When I finally awoke the chaos had died down, and someone had covered me with a blanket. One of the Dashi shook me awake, I can’t truthfully say which one. Without the mental plane I have no easy way to tell them apart. “It’s time to board.” “Right. Yes.” I stretch the weariness from my limbs, grimace at the ache, and rise. “Let’s go.” “Ah, Miss Masayoshi?” One asks, sounding a touch concerned. “Is it normal in this land for the sun to set so quickly?” “Pardon?” “It’s gotten pretty dark.” It shouldn’t have. Soraya, the one I do know, knows that too. I can ‘see’ her shaking her head nervously. I probably don’t look very reassuring, either, but it should only be a bit after midday. A little cloudy, perhaps, but there was nothing to suggest rain. .:Miho? What’s going on?:. I asked the Daikura leader of the Yards’ defense, trying to look unconcerned. .:What’s the situation?:. .:I’m not sure yet, Lady Masayoshi. We’re seeing it here, too, but there’s no sign of those insects. The horizon looks normal, too.:. My frown deepened, and that said quite a bit. The past week had thrown a lot of surprises my way specifically, let alone the archipelago. But nothing quite lined up with this. Despite Zataka’s presence we hadn’t seen any unusual darknesses, no unusual weather, nothing to suggest… Something hot landed on my cheek, and almost reflexively I touched it. It gave way easily beneath my finger smearing my cheek with something warm and dry and soft and… Ashy? The monsters filled me with adrenaline. A little fear, yes, but only enough to keep me on my toes. Keep me sharp. A little fear is good, it’s Zuto Nui’s way of letting you know you aren’t dead yet. The bellow that split the heavens did nothing of the sort. It didn’t remind me of my life, or sharpen my mind, it only shouted the imminence of my death and the death of everyone I love. It showered the earth in ash and cinders, startled everyone below into silence and denial. I don’t blame them. Who could have expected this? The first pass, the gout of flame hot enough to melt crystal in an instant and reduce bodies to nothingness, claimed a dozen lives and destroyed a supply cabin. A dock went with it, a smaller craft scorched through and left a listing hulk. It bellowed again, and I ran. I don’t fear death in defense of the people I care about, or the people I swore to protect. Had Inokio not volunteered myself I would already be gone. But this isn’t something I can fight. This isn’t something anyone can fight. This is something we can only run away from. “Get to the ship, get to the ship, get to the ship! Book it midgets!” I snapped, tossing one back onto his crab and hustling the others along. Any slower and I swear to Zuto Nui I’ll just fling them on board. “Get Desdemona, get the Rora, we’re leaving now!” The mature Kanohi Dragon slammed down upon the Docks, and I’ll never know how many died there. Or how many died in those first swipes of its tail, or snaps of its jaws, or that next breath of flame. Menti, brave as they were, attacked it in droves. Defense of the outer Yards was forgotten. If they didn’t somehow stop this then there would be no point. I hurried up the gangplank, hurried my charges, snapping orders half out of my mind and hoarse with intensity. “Infected Kanohi.” One of the Dashi hissed, jabbing a finger at it as I hurried— it would be rude to say shoved— them up the plank. “Look!” Whatever in the name of ‘Taka’s left cheek that means, I don’t know. But it definitely doesn’t sound good. “Go, go, go! Talk about it later! Where’s the Rora, where’s the Chojo?” “The Rora is aboard, the Chojo is coming as fast as she can!” Umbraline Desdemona, I swear to Zuto Nui, I didn’t go through the process of rescuing you for you to die because you can’t sprint! “I’ll get her, get the Dashi!” I snapped, jumping off the plank. I can just[/ii] barely make her out, hurrying towards the ship. I don’t have much of a sprint left in me, so I go for a more direct solution; I grabbed my hapless ward, one of the people Rayuke charged me to protect, telekinetically and yanked her towards me. “Weeee can talk about your exercise later, my lady, let’s get you on the ship!” I said as I grabbed her out of the air, only just not throwing her over my shoulders like a particularly unruly feline. “Come on, come on!” “Masa, we can’t get away if we don’t stop it!” “Aaaand who’s gonna do that? We have to take our chances!” The Chojo thought, long and hard, and I felt the world repeat. She slipped a thought into my head, something I neither fought nor consciously understood. But I trusted her intent. As one we shoved off from the ground with our disciplines, attaining a trajectory that carried us clear onto the deck of the ship just as the sailors aboard prepared to give up on us. And just as a breath of flame scorched the earth where we had stood moments before. “Think I can, Masa.” The Chojo said, and if her voice shook it was also as certain as it had ever been. “I’ve gotta. Get everyone below decks.” “What are you-” The psychic shockwave that hit me isn’t something I can describe, not if I used a thousand words and spent a thousand years. It wasn’t simply physical, though there was enough of that. The rush of air as the projection rushed outwards was enough to bowl me over, but my legs had crumpled from the shock already. I think, were I not already, I would have been blinded. The heat alone scorched my face as it passed. I couldn’t perceive it properly, and at first I thought it might have been because of the psychic whammy my brain just took being so close to the eye of the storm. But it wasn’t. I couldn’t perceive it clearly because its surface was shifting, dripping, and constantly forming itself anew. It was a mass of psychophysical energy the likes of which I have never, not ever in my life, seen and have never heard of. It racked my brain, again and again, being so close. It filled the sky and swept towards the land as the ship set sail as quickly as could be. The Kanohi Dragon roared, beginning to rise into the sky for its prey, before a mass of psychophysical energy in the shape of a massive, winged dragon slammed into it. It didn’t roar, not like its foe, but it bit, and clawed, and the Dragon’s roars of anger quickly turned to pain for nothing it could do would faze it. To bite it or claw it only wounded itself further, and what does fire mean to a projection of psychic plasma? To something that burns all but its creator through mere contact? I can’t describe it properly because there are no words. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I never will again. The Docks were in ruins, the ships that had been boarded fleeing, but the Kanohi Dragon was gone. Simply gone as if it had never existed. The Chojo collapsed, and it was all I could do to catch her. Despite her victory we weren’t out of the woods, not when the monsters could fly. But a cry went up, a shocked announcement, as the captain spotted the Dastana fleet moving in steadily. They were loaded for bear, he said, with decks packed with Dasaka holding stolen staves. I wished I could have seen it. And, while I hurried inside with the Chojo in my arms to find a healer, I wished I could see the island that I doubted I ever would again.

OOC: Yumiwa courtesy of EW IC: “It wasn’t an accident.” I waved my hand slightly, brushing off the first initial protest I’d come to expect. There wasn’t time for it, Rora or not, not even to wait and see if it came. To get through it I can’t wait, or stop for questions, or allow her to interrupt. Time enough for all of that afterwards but right now… The day appeared before my eyes as though real. The way I felt, everything I heard, the way the bright sun illuminated the Yards that had become my personal demesne. No longer the Daikura’s but mine by right of undefeated conquest, earned through every hard day of work. Memory is a malleable thing if you don’t put it to record immediately, events revisited in the mind will be a little different every time. But not this one. This one will be fixed in my brain for all time, no matter what anyone might say. I saw again the dust kicked up from the dry, sun baked earth with every step. Heard again the instructor call for the match to begin. “My opponent was a First Son. Closest to a rival I had, but he hadn’t won a bout with me since the first week of training. Despite his head start I blew right past him. And he’d been so abrasive I relished in it. The Daikura rotated our matchups, putting us up against each of our classmates for their benefit and against instructors for our own. And against each other, sometimes. Almost like an exhibition. To show our classmates what they were striving for.” I felt an urge to get up and pace, to move about somehow. Give my agitation an outlet. The world was ending and I was revisiting old scars, between them I wanted to scream. It would almost have been worth letting her into my head to see for herself, but that was one thing I did not trust anyone to do. It’s the last truly inviolable place I have, and over the past few days I’ve had enough of being whammied by Willhammers. “I don’t know what was getting to him that day, but he was coming at me like he meant it. Everything he could bring to the table and still stay within the rules. I wasn’t worried, but…” I paused and ran my hand over my face, letting out a sigh. “You’ve been trained a little as a Soulsword, your Majesty. Would your teachers ever let you use yours during a bout, let alone against someone of a different discipline?” “No, not for a spar,” I said, although the truth of it was that I wasn’t sure what my tutor had wanted after all. “Neither would mine. I never trained as a Soulsword, I can’t tell you exactly what they’re taught normally. But none of my peers were permitted to use their Soulsword in a spar against another discipline. Maybe at the higher levels, where true masters face one another. But at mine it simply was too great a risk.” I paused, bringing to the surface an even older memory. “They taught us rules at the Yards before anything else. And the first rule was that here there are no enemies. And we do not hone our Power to harm our friends.” “That’s an unshakeable tenet for those that go through the Yards, your Majesty. I’m sure your private masters taught you something similar. Accidents happen, but a match in the Yards is never for real. It’s practice. That’s so ingrained that when it comes time to fight for real it can be hard to let go of. And it was why I never saw it coming when he raked his Soulsword across my face.” I nodded once to show I was still listening. My mind wandered slightly, wondering about the battlemaster I thought I knew who had taught in the very same schools as Masa had apprenticed in, but the thoughts were still nebulous and hadn’t coalesced to ideas. I refocused on Masa’s story. “It started here,” I placed my finger on my right cheek, just below my cheek bone and drew it across my face, crossing my eyes and ending by my left temple. “And went across. If I hadn’t been wearing a Calix I believe it would have been worse. But those reflexes didn’t save my eyes. I can’t tell you what happened after that. I dropped on my back and I screamed, and I blacked out. I don’t remember anything else until I came to in a hospital that night.” “I woke up, and I couldn’t see anything. Only a little gray where there was light and black where there wasn’t. I almost screamed again when the nurse spoke without telling me she was there. She told me the healers at the Yards and there at the hospital did everything they could,” My own tone said more about how much I believed those words than I ever could have. “But that I would probably never see again. And she told me how sorry she was that I had such a terrible accident.” “And that was where I got confused. Because there was no accident, I told her. I was attacked. And she got quiet. And she told me that some people were here to see me. My instructor came in, as did my Toroshu, and they explained…” I took a deep breath. More than the memory of my maiming itself, this is the part that stings. The dagger’s tip that broke off in my back and stayed there, agitating me when the weather is just right. “They explained, your Majesty, that what happened had been a terrible accident. One the First Son felt horrified over, and that his clan had already agreed to pay a weregild for my trouble. I was going back to Oki to recover and they would send me the best healers they could find to see if something could be done. But my Toroshu had heard of me, they said, and she hoped that I could provide that discipline for her groundskeepers during my stay.” I frowned a little, I could feel it. “And the more I tried to tell her it wasn’t an accident, that my instructor could vouch for the rules being broken, the more she reiterated that it was. Until she finally sent the Daikura instructor away and told me privately that she knew that. But prosecuting the First Son of another clan was no small step, especially with so much tension. And it just wouldn’t be possible. She reminded me to take comfort in the Order of the Empire, and in the compensation she would be sure I had.” “I was betrayed three times in a day. First by the peer who was bound to cause me no harm. Then by our teacher who should have expelled the offender. And then by my Toroshu, who should have delivered me justice. I can show you my eyes, your Majesty, if you wish to see. I can answer any questions you have, too. But the purpose of this story is to show you I know what it is to be betrayed. To deserve justice, and desire vengeance.” I met her gaze again, settling once more into a more resolute posture. “And I assure you my Rora. I wanted revenge for the justice I was denied.” “I still do. Not a week goes by I don’t think that I could use the power of my office, of Lord Rayuke’s trust in me, to start an investigation over again. And his honor would force him to see it through. With the world falling apart around us right now I can’t help but think to myself that I will never get a better chance to settle the score.” “I deserved justice, your Majesty, but I do not deserve revenge.” My voice has gone calm, but there’s a hint of warning in it. Even for the Rora. “Nor do you.” I let the story and its attached moral lesson linger in my mind. It would be so easy to fall to the easy lure of vengeance, made even more tantalizing because I possessed the power to do so with ease as well. At my behest, the traitor could be made to suffer to balance the scales of justice and recompense the damages inflicted upon me and my family. The traitor could be executed with the same ease and ruthlessness as when he murdered the unnamed saihoko in the Markets to so much as touched me; then, it had been to teach me a lesson, and this time it would be a lesson given in return. Death and punishment was a tool so quickly resorted to and even Masayoshi, a lifelong dedicated follower of justice, could still feel the temptation eat away at her as well. She was right to educate me against it and righter still to not wish for me to take a darker path. "My thanks to you for the story. You speak truly, Menti Masayoshi," I said slowly, respectfully, and thought on how to answer her unspoken question. Masa was as much a barrister as a detective, and despite being in close proximity to me she had never had the reason or opportunity to take a deposition from me before. Like my uncle, she needed to know what drove someone to do what they did, based on the legalistic philosophy that the answer to many crimes lay in the motives behind their execution. What are you here for? she asked of me—and, even more subtly, What are you made of? Masa, it seemed to me, justly wanted to know the real mettle of her empress. "Would justice give your eyes back to you?" I asked rhetorically. My voice wilted in melancholy. "Of course it wouldn't because justice doesn't change the past or bring back what we have lost, no matter how much we want them to. We have to build our own fortitudes, recoup what we can, and grow stronger in other ways. Enacting vengeance for what we have lost would be like striking the sea for the lack of wind, it's an act of desperation wrought from an inability to effectively cope. That is my understanding of it." I thought of my beloved mom felled by an assassin at my own ball, of my doting dad murdered by pirates on his way back from seeing the people he cared about, and of the whole archipelago being ripped away from all of us by an enemy we had no hope to match, and I felt a tear coalesce under my spectacles and slither down my Miru. If there was ever a way to get them all back I would do it in a heartbeat, but it would never be that way. "Am I correct?" I asked, genuinely this time, sitting there with humility in my heart as a supplicant asking a sage. There were few others who had license to judge my knowledge on the matter, and in that moment... I wanted to know if the path I was going to set myself on was right. “I suppose that’s half true. Justice, real justice, isn’t a solution. It’s a promise.” I tilted my head, and my voice became more gentle. In her own way she’s heard the lesson and the question, and now she needs to know if her solution is the right one. It’s not, not entirely; but her answer doesn’t have to be the same. It never would have been, and her job is different from mine. Her considerations are different. They have to be. “Justice, your Majesty, is a promise to the powerless. That a wrong inflicted will be punished. That the wrong they suffered won’t happen again. No, justice wouldn’t have brought my eyes back. But it would have soothed my heart. It was our Toroshu’s chance to make good on the fealty she owed me as her clansister, just as I owed her as my Toroshu. It was her responsibility to redress the wrong.” “And she declined it. Peace is not always strength. And what is right should never be at the mercy of what is convenient. Justice exists only because we have decided it is so, your Majesty, and it isn’t less important for that fact. It’s more important. Because every time we fail to uphold it we tarnish ourselves and our own sacred honor. An ideal is only worth what you’re willing to pay to uphold it.” My head tilted the other way, and I took a deep breath. “Which is why I can’t believe what I’m about to counsel.” “If you decide the man in the room beyond me should die, I will swing the sword myself. He’s in my custody and Lord Rayuke is busy with other affairs. That is for me to do. But I don’t believe that’s the right decision. Not because he doesn’t deserve it, because he most assuredly does. But without him your sister would be dead, the Fursics would be preparing to strike, and I would not have been able to stop it. In exchange for his help I gave him my word that I would speak on his behalf.” My hands tightened on my knees. “Strip him of his title. Strip him of his clan name, his citizenship, banish him from our lands and society. What little of it we have left. It’s all but a death sentence now, anyway, but he can have the chance that he doesn’t deserve.” “He will have his chance,” I said, a mellow fire rekindled behind my eyes suddenly. “If barely. I am not here to pass judgement, though I will accept a confession all the same. No... I don’t think I have come to extract justice to soothe my heart. I came to hear what happened, to understand the how and why.” I let my words linger a moment and moved my jaw as if to speak, trying to urge the thoughts to manifest. I wanted justice, oh goddess how I wanted it, but I fought it back with effort, wrestling it down so that I could focus on the bigger picture. “For while I am the most singularly aggrieved party...” I reflected, “my own comfort and heartaches are not where my duty lies. I know there are systemic flaws in our society and I know we have reaped the harvest of our hubris. My priority as empress is to preserve the realm and prevent this treachery from happening again. And to do that, I must be wise, listen, and learn, most of all from those who wield their desperation as a weapon.” “You’ve spoken time the traitor at length by now, I am sure. Tell me—and let no detail be too intimate—what have you learned of the man I once loved as blood-family? “I hate him.” I said flatly, my very lack of inflection screaming my sincerity. It wouldn’t do to call him the names I can think of in front of my Rora, even if she has asked my opinion. “I always have, long before I knew him to be a traitor. He is sanctimonious and arrogant. Not more than I’ve ever seen, but more infuriating from a man who should be skilled enough to have learned humility. Confident. Ruthless.” I paused, almost unwilling to say what I had to. For the sake of honesty. “But I’ve met few more dedicated to their principles. The lie was what those principles were. The pursuit of power, of martial prowess, is his reason for existence. The chance to rebuild the Empire of his ideals, paid with the chance to become the only man to know all four disciplines? It doesn’t shock me at all that he took the deal.” I made myself meet her eyes without apology or remorse, because the next truth could be… Problematic, if taken the wrong way. “I can’t blame him for his motives. We had long enough to talk, and Zuto Nui knows I don’t think he’s wrong about the state of the Empire. But justice is the mistress I chose to serve, and his crimes are unforgivable. Even with that said… I feel a grudging respect for the man. He’s not unlike who I might have been, in some respects. He could have stabbed me in the back on that island, and I’m sure he considered it. I’m sure he did not stay his hand out of any loyalty. But he could have held back, tried to play both sides of the issue. He didn’t. When he committed to my aid, he gave it everything he gave his own cause.” My frown deepened, and I shook my head. “It’s not the respect I give my ward. Your Uncle, rather. Or that I give to you, or to your sister, or that I once gave to my Toroshu. I respect him as another warrior, one without a moral compass but possessing a purity of motive reserved only for the zealot. Not that I can speak of zealotry.” "Thank you for your deliberation and candor, Menti Masayoshi," I said and ceremonially bowed my head in gratitude. A small tear fell to my folded lap. I wondered if the justicar could hear it's patter but also hoped she hadn't. I breathed deeply as the complexity and gravity of the matter fell on my mind more with each passing second, but I steeled myself knowing the puzzles of yesterday and today will be no more meaningful than a vase turned to dust in the tomorrows we are headed towards. I exhaled sharply, realizing as I did that I'd been holding my breath, and my eye twitched uncontrollably for a second. I had to do this, though—we needed weapons if we were to survive, and I'd learned that there were few weapons greater than our demons. "I would like to see Battlemaster Inokio now." "Of course, your Majesty." I inclined my head to the door beyond, tone returning to a more formal measure. A distinction drawn between the conversation then and the professionalism now. With a thought I turn the lock inside the door, not bothering to do so with a key. To find the key hole would have taken more time than was reasonable, or necessary. The lock itself was a formality; Inokio could have done what I just did as easily. No, I was the real deterrent. As were the Hogo posted further outside. But there was no need to make a point of that. "Through there. We will be outside, if you require anything." "I hope you find your answers."

GM IC: My children, Zuto Nui told us. I give you Power, Order, and Honor as the tokens of my love. Your guiding virtues and your reward for faith without reservation. I give you the Power to enforce Order. Crystal shatters. I give you Order to preserve your Honor. Gates give way. And I give you Honor to understand and preserve them both, that the Virtues may cost you your life but never lead you into error. And fearless warriors scream. We had so little warning. Lord Rayuke arrived with six Dashi in tow, bellowing a warning across the mental plane from the moment he came into range and hollering with all the urgency that could fit into his mountainous voice as soon as he could. He ordered gates barred, defenders readied, and couriers sent to the Toroshu the moment anyone could hear him and if any of us had doubted his authorities those doubts evaporated with the first, roiling chorus of shrieks that swept through the air behind him. We barred the Imperial City barely in time. And it scarcely mattered. One of the small Dashi called them ‘Rahkshi’. The word is so ugly that I suppose it’s as good as any. It was laughable to think that anything could threaten Sado. I admit it. I would have laughed anyone but Lord Rayuke out of the room if anyone had suggested it. Maybe the Fursics could have done it at their prime, but they would have been hard pressed. The island is the city, and the city is defended. Even if it wasn’t, the Imperial Navy was second to none and an enemy would have been forced to cross the water between the islands. I did feel fear for the clans on Odaiba, below Koshiki’s shadow. And then even that fear became horror. Clans that had lasted for generations decimated. Homes held since time immemorial razed, and a tide of Menti and Dashi alike desperately seeking safety behind Sado’s walls. Worst were those closest to the mountain, those nestled in the foothills. From some of them there has been no word at all. Even so, I thought, Sado would hold. Until they began crossing the water. Many flew, some simply strode across it as though weightless, but they simply followed their fleeing victims to the sea and beyond. Every one we brought down was replaced by ten more, and our own cost.... I’ve never witnessed the power these creatures possess. Control of elemental forces, corrosive influences, shapeshifting, density, I can’t possibly identify them all let alone remember. And they have refused to die alone. More Menti have died in battle, I suspect, than in the last true Fursic rebellion. When they were done sweeping across Odaiba they turned their eyes on us. Pouring beast after beast at our lines, our gates, and breaking through with the delicacy of a cudgel. And I can’t stop them. Everything my Chojo did to stop the Fursics, everything Korae Inokio and I accomplished, for nothing. There is no stemming a tide brought forth by a goddess unseen in countless generations. Nothing but a goddess of our own, and from Zuto Nui? Silence. Not that I really expected an answer to my prayers. She never has before. But for her people, for the entire Empire, I thought maybe. But no help has come, no divine intervention, and for the third night in a row I stand guard to my leaders while wave after wave of monsters hurl themselves at people that I would give anything to protect. And I can’t do that, either. Not from this. No one can. Which is why I’m as shocked as anyone, sitting here away from the fighting, listening to the screams and the crack of weapons as the announcement rolls through the city, relayed from citizen to citizen as soon as one of them had heard. .:Imperial Citizens,:. The inconceivable proclamation began as my hands tightened into fists. I already know the words. I was there when they were decided upon, when the Royal Family and their advisors quibbled over every chosen word. I thought knowing would help. It doesn’t. .:You all know the threat facing our great Empire.:. .:At this time it is insurmountable. All we can do is fight to defend our honor, but to condemn the loyal warriors of this Empire to a fight they cannot win would be unforgivable. This is not surrender. We do not, will not, surrender. Not now, not ever.:. .:But we must survive. Tomorrow the Imperial Navy begins a strategic withdrawal to join its commander on Mata Nui, with the Rora, her family, and any citizen who wishes to seek refuge there aboard. Pack nothing more than you can carry. Be at the Imperial Docks before sunrise. The ships will not wait. Anyone with their own seaworthy vessel is asked to carry anyone with them that they can.:. Of course they are. Not even the Navy could move the whole population if they all wish to flee. .:This is a dark hour. You have questions. The Rora will address you all directly, if possible. In the meantime you have decisions and preparations to make.: It ended there. Of course it did. What else was there to say? Tomorrow the Royal Family would flee the Archipelago for the first time in history, to an island few Dasaka had ever been to, with no idea of when they would return. If they would return. Strategic withdrawal. I wish those ‘Dashi’ had never come here. If my Lord had known what they would unleash he would never have helped. I don’t know how he’s going to live with that. And I can’t protect him from that, either. Spectacular track record Masa.

IC: Near death experiences are Kane Ra dung. No slowing of time, no sudden recollections, and certainly no conversations with the departed. Maybe Mata Nui couldn’t think of anyone. No sight, no sound, only the feeling of an ever heavier gravity pulling inexorably into the dark. Not even conscious enough to dream but he could feel the crossroads at which he hovered. It would be so easy to let go. Even now without a conscious thought he was hanging on, clinging to the last threads of life that bound him to the cold beyond his mind. He almost didn’t want to. For all that he wanted to live that abyss called to him and promised rest. Exhaustion threatened as much as hypothermia, even more than his injuries. Without complaint he had pushed and pushed for days; placed the mission above his health. Now at the end of the worst week of his life, Krayn hit a wall. There wasn’t any strength left. Why should he have to fight so hard? Why did he have to dig deeper still for enough will to hang on a little longer? It was never enough. All of the energy that he could put into the world and it was never enough. It just demanded more. It taxed his will by the minute, the second, and for diminished gain. He was never enough. Nothing he could do was ever enough to fill the holes he saw in the world, no matter how hard he tried and how much he pushed he never seemed to get anywhere. All he could do was keep his head above water, never reach the shore. He could labor until every breath hurt, and he had. But he was no closer to anything at all. Everything had a breaking point. Everything had to end. No supply of energy was inexhaustible. He just wanted to rest. In the snow, jostled with every step despite his rescuers care, his resolve slipped, and slipped, and slipped. Every whisper made it a little easier. There was no reason to struggle, it was all out of his hands. There was nothing more to be done, he would make it or he wouldn’t. All he had to do was let go of that control. All he had to do was rest. … What then, another thought whispered, had been the point?. What had been the point in fighting at all if he was willing to surrender here? They had come for him, risked everything to carry him out of that alley. What would it do to them to know he had died minutes shy of safety? To rest now was death, there could be no doubt. He could feel it even through the insensate haze of his mind, the thick mire every thought had to fight through. Every breath was shallow and his heart beat with the weak, fevered pace of desperation. His whole world had shrunk to those feelings, those sounds. He could not see, not without the strength to open his eyes. He could not hear, he could not even think. But if he could focus on those feelings, if he could still feel that weak pulse, he was alive. That was all he had to do. Just hang on a little longer. The slide towards eternity slowed and stopped. "You're safe now." The words were muffled and distant, barely perceptible, but he heard their sincerity. The words were tense under the calm, tired and drven. The cool energy that flowed through his body brought the fuzzy world into far flung focus, snippets of conversation breaking through the haze. She said he was okay but still he fought, struggling to pull himself out of the haze. The danger had passed, but what if it hadn’t? He needed to do something, he had to find out what happened. He needed to tell them what was wrong with him, where to focus. If he couldn’t, they might… … They’d get it right. They had not brought him so far to let him die now. It didn’t make any sense. He’d have to ask them, when he could. But they wouldn’t let him fall. These foolish, stubborn people had refused his choice and made their own. Choosing to give his life for them had been easy. He could trust them to preserve it instead. When the darkness rose, gently this time, he didn’t fight it. * * * Dehkaz sat across from the unconscious form of the gunmetal-armored Toa hands clasped together and chin resting on his knuckles. All things considered, Krayn looked at peace where he lay, though that fact alone was still slightly disconcertingly close to looking too peaceful. It was difficult for Dehkaz to shake the resemblance between his comrade’s current state and the state which they had left too many of those out on the frozen streets of Ko-Koro in their desperate escape from the citadel from his mind. With effort he had to remind himself to take it down a notch, the Commander was still far too on edge. Dehkaz felt his brow relax, unaware that it had furrowed in concentration. He had been at Krayn’s side for some time now, lost in his own thoughts. The initial rush of activity as refugees had been moved into the village, some injured some not, had died down in the following hours. They had made it. While the future was still uncertain, those within the confines of the small mountain village were safe from harm. After making certain that Krayn was no longer in danger of drifting away completely from the land of the living, Dehkaz had done what he could to assist the rest in need. Unfortunately that… wasn’t as much as he would have liked. He was a fighter, a guardsman, but that wasn’t what was needed at this point. Sure, he could patch up a wound well enough, as he had done to his own while waving off others to help those more in need, but his area of expertise was far more firmly planted in taking beings apart rather than pulling them back together. No, for now those in danger needed healers, not fighters. So, Dehkaz had resigned himself to making sure to not get in the way of those at work, as well as watching over a friend. Here, alone with just the familiar comforting chill of the mountain air, his thoughts, and the resting Toa that they had worked to get back to safety, he stayed. Waking up was a surprise but the pain was not. The first thing, by long habit, the former officer’s brain did was take stock of the damages. There wasn’t much. The discomfort was almost everywhere regardless, but it was muted; the muffled echoes of injuries already healed. Not perfectly, there wasn’t enough energy to spare for him alone. It was sufficient to get him out of danger but the new tissue was fresh, tender. His muscles were worse. Even stationary they burned. The slightest move brought a fresh wave of fire in every fiber. But the worst- Oh, the worst was his shoulder. The slightest move, even further down the limb, was agonizing. No, that wasn’t quite right; he just thought it should be. It hurt to be sure, but it wasn’t the white hot lance he expected. Slowly, carefully, he clenched the bed’s blanket in his fingers. They moved when he commanded, he could feel the material between them. So his arm was there after all. He hadn’t been sure they could salvage it even if he survived. It was a relief to know he was wrong. Even so he could tell it wasn’t… Perfect. Something still felt wrong. Perhaps it needed more time to heal. But Nui, was his throat dry. It was like trying to inhale the entire Po-Wahi desert. The first sound he could make was a wracking cough, which in turn only made his torso burn. Someone had left water on the table next to his cot, and with great difficulty he propped himself up enough to grab it and swallow a few, precious mouthfuls. “Commander,” He rasped out, breath more ragged than he would have liked. “Where?” Krayn’s ragged cough snapped Dehkaz out of his reverie and the Toa of Magnetism moved to stand before it was clear that Krayn was, for the most part, not in any serious danger of keeling over. “Ihu-Koro,” he explained, sitting up straighter and folding his arms to address Krayn, “We pulled what refugees we could here.” “How’re you holding up Krayn?” “I’ve been better.” The De-Toa coughed again, but his voice was a little clearer. Actually, his head hurt more than anything now. The cough seemed deafening after his hearing loss, and mustering the focus to reduce it was… Difficult. He’d never experienced it before, managing it with his element had always been enough. “No disrespect, but I’ve had better stays in the Wahi. Fewer injuries. Less loud.” He grimaced, rubbing at his head and trying to clear his throat. “Actually sir, really, quietly please.” With an understanding nod Dehkaz continued, lowering his voice to a quieter volume, “To be expected, you gave us quite the scare there, glad to see you’re all still in one piece. Surprised to see you up so soon.” The Toa of Magnetism paused, giving Krayn a look of appraisal, before shaking his head slightly in almost disbelief. “You’re crazy, you know that?” His tone was equal parts respect and weariness, “Not many would be willing to pull off what you did… not many would be able to pull off what you did.” Krayn cocked his head a little, a gesture that unlike the rest had nothing to do with his condition. This one was born of confusion. He was thinking slowly. That at least was part exhaustion even if it was still frustrating. Everything a little after the Madu dropped was a little unclear, hazy and incomplete. It only got worse as time went on until he woke up here. He could remember the highlights, but… “I’m not sure what you mean, sir,” He said slowly, quietly. That was half true; he had an idea of what the other Toa meant, but he couldn’t begin to understand why. “And I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but what the Karz were you thinking?” “Krayn… they all made it out,” Dehkaz explained, “Kale and the rest, they made it here, they’re safe. From what I heard things were looking bad, and something had to be done if any of you were going to make it out of that citadel in one piece. You made sure of they did.” The Commander stopped to let Krayn process that for a minute. Well, that, and also for- “And, ah, apologies for the arm,” he gestured to the Toa of Sonic’s shoulder, addressing what he thought was Krayn’s second point, “Didn’t exactly have much choice. You were bleeding something fierce. Healers did their best with it, told me it should be fine in a week or two.” “No, not the-” He broke off the remark with a grimace, feeling the way it moved when he tried to hold up his hand for emphasis. Krayn rolled the joint almost unconsciously trying to find what exactly didn’t feel right, where in the motion it just felt wrong. The muscles ached from being knit together where they had been cut, the flesh was tender and new, but still something didn’t feel right. An imperfection in the muscles or in the bones where none had been before. “Not the arm.” The thought continued while he experimented slowly. “If you didn’t stop it I would have died.” “Which I was prepared to do.” Krayn’s eyes wandered back up from the foot of his bed where they had lain unfocused to meet the Commander’s gaze. Beneath the fatigue there was an element of puzzlement, the look of a man trying to turn the question around in his mind. “I’m glad it didn’t come to that. But it was going to. Kale and Four, the others, they were going to make it out. It was close, there would have been a little fighting. But they would have made it. I stayed behind because I was injured. If they stayed to get me out we might all have been killed.” “Like you could have been. You and the Lieutenant both. I could already have been dead, probably should have been. You both could have died trying to haul out a body that no one needed to bury.” Comprehension hit Dehkaz in pieces as Krayn spoke, and the understanding caused his brow to furrow in mixed amounts of concern, thoughtfulness, and mild confusion. Probably should have been. The words resonated in his mind for a moment. They were all too familiar, the meaning and sentiment behind them all too well known by his unconscious for it to let them go so soon. It was a headspace he’d found himself in before. It was, if he was being quite frank with himself, unnerving to hear the words spoken aloud by another being. “Ah.” He replied eloquently. “Maybe. Maybe we could’ve. You know as well as anyone else; better I think, after all this; that’s just another risk.” Dehkaz inclined his head towards the Toa of Sonics, “If it was anyone else we would’ve done the same. And you can’t tell me if you were in our position you wouldn’t have done the same.” “It was risky, sure, but there was a chance. Not one of us, you, me, Kale, Naona, Fourth… none of us would have let that chance slip away.” His tone, while no louder than it had been a moment earlier, had taken on a firm note. “You might’ve hung up the badge but you’re sure as Karz still one of us, can’t get rid of that. We don’t leave anyone behind.” Krayn wanted to argue. He half opened his mouth to do it, an objection already on his lips, before he made himself stop and think. Not an easy feat when someone had cheerfully been stomping all over his skull, at least it felt like it, but he did anyway. Not just listen to what Dehkaz had to say but consider it. He didn’t know the Commander particularly well. That was part of the problem. It was difficult to take what he was saying at face value, hard to consider that someone he had only worked with would take that sort of risk. But broaden it out and he began to concede the point. Naona, Kale, Four, Skyra, Praggos… For slightly different reasons maybe but not one of them would have left him behind if they could help it. He had seen even through his confusion the look on Kale’s face when he had to, and he couldn’t imagine how Skyra had reacted. No, he really couldn’t. That was something of a blind spot that Krayn had to admit to himself. The two of them had spent so long butting heads, then quietly adversarial, that it was difficult to comprehend how her opinion had shifted. But if she had been there she wouldn’t have agreed to leave him behind, either. Naona had to have been there. She had to have at least carried him, maybe him and Dehkaz, or he would never have made it to Ihu-Koro in time. Even that hike would have been fatal if he had waited so long for medical attention. And there could be no doubt which two had put him back together, pulling him back even from the brink. The surprise was disproportionate to so simple an answer. It shouldn’t have been, the thought was almost chiding, but had he held onto his problems for longer than they had? He would have run the same risk for any of them. Even Skyra, and he had run that risk for her and Kale. It wasn’t like Ga-Wahi. … Had he been carrying around that day for so long? Karzahni, he had some apologies to make. The low, weak laugh sounded more like a cough as the De-Toa found a less tiring way to prop himself up and shook his head. “I owe you an apology, Commander.” Another cough and a long drink of water. “I owe a few of them. What I should have said was ‘thank you’.” Dehkaz let out a short breath of... not quite disbelief so much as patience. He shook his head once more, though it seemed as though it was more to himself than from anything the Toa of Sonics had said. “Apology accepted,” He replied nonetheless. “I have a feeling however, call it a hunch from parallel lines of thinking, that you shouldn’t forget to apologize to yourself as well.” With that, the Commander rose from his seat, his tone slightly more upbeat than it had been moments before. “Now that you’re awake, I’ll get someone to come and make sure you’re all in good shape. Went through an awful lot to get you back here in mostly one piece, not going to let all of that go to waste.” He paused at the door, a hand resting on the frame as he turned slightly to address the recovering Toa. “And Krayn, you can drop the Commander, it’s just Dehkaz.” With that, he stepped out of the room. Krayn managed another rough and weak laugh, carefully propping himself up against the wall behind his cot. The bustling sounds around him were almost too loud even muffled by walls, but he could tell there were many more wounded and recovering people in the building than him. He couldn’t muster the strength to get out of bed. Even if he could it would be a bad idea. But his friends were out there, somewhere, and someone needed to pass the word. “Excuse me,” he managed, catching the attention of a Bo-Toa walking briskly by to her next crisis. “Somewhere in this building is a bunch of fools waiting for me to wake up. If you could let them know I have before I fall asleep again, if you see them. Please.” The medic seemed to look him over, thoroughly displeased by the notion, but relented and nodded. It was probably his seraphic smile. But he still slouched heavily as soon as she moved on, deciding not to fight sleep too hard if it came. Any visitors would have him up as soon as they stepped near the door.

IC: "... just pack my box with PT gear. 'Cause early one morning 'bout zero five, the ground will rumble there'll be lightning in the sky." The opening volley had been a blood bath, the sort for so long the Covenant had visited upon humanity exclusively. Six Banshees and a Seraph by his count, nearly half the corvettes' expected capacity of parasite craft. But with the element of surprise lost Nik was forced into a disadvantageous position; the Martian wasn't actually a great pilot.He could get from point A to B and he could coordinate just fine but the truth was dogfighting wasn't really in his wheelhouse. He'd been an enlisted man when he was till in the Navy, and since then he'd ridden pods to the ground like a stone cast from heaven. Not a lot of room for fancy maneuvering. He'd gotten some catch-up training as a Spartan sure but that didn't make him an ace overnight. The truth was, one to one the Covvies over there might actually have been better pilots. So it was important not to play fair. Banshees were faster, more maneuverable. He didn't trust himself to fight them, so he focused on harassing the Seraphs. He flew inverted to the plane to present a small target and overshot the corvette rapidly as its shields fell, burning hard to hug its curvature and loops back around 'below' it; and behind the ship's formation of remaining Seraphs and Banshees. "Don't you worry, don;t come undone. It's just my ghost on a PT run." Nik immediately flushed four of his MITV pods at the formation, specifically peppering the Seraph with his guns just to salt the wounds, and immediately broke off to hug the corvette's length. In doing so he presented Vali her choice of targets, and ensured no Banshee would take a shot without getting into close pursuit; at any other angle they could hit their own ship. And with the hangar opening dead ahead and coming up fast, there were minimal firing angles for the ship's turrets between him and his objective. <<Nova Two One, making a run for the hangar. Godspeed, Olympian.>>

IC: <<Good. I like a target rich environment.>> Space is really, really big and you can't get a clear idea of it until you set foot outside your ship. Suspended from the rail below the 1.8 million ton destroyer's belly the void yawned to welcome them, spreading as far as the eye could see in any direction. As soon as the clamps released there would be no up or down within that expanse, nothing universal to orient against at all. "Below" would become meaningless in moments. Within that vast nothingness there were two Covvie corvettes, twelve Type 27 Banshees. and four Seraph fighters. Infinitesimally small but they were nevertheless the only specks within the vastness that mattered. They were targets, targets he would destroy by fire and maneuver. "When I die, please bury me deep..." Nik muttered, frowning at his HUD. Silence had descended, not even the umbilical that still connected him to the ship carrying any vibration. That was more alien than the nothingness; the complete absence of sound had been known to send unwary cadets into a real panic the first time. You learned to live with it, but it could still strike you when you had half a second to think. And he had that, if only barely. He returned Miguel's two finger salute with an added; <<Nova Two-Three, solid copy.>> Cheeky guy. "Place my MA5 down by my feet." Fireteam Nova in truth was nothing of the sort. With seven Spartans an Elite, and an ODST flying point and Hammer bringing up the rear they were an undersized squad, and split between two objectives it wasn't how he would have formulated the ops plan. He'd done what he could by designating the frames bound for Bandit Alpha as Nova Two, but it could've been cleaner. At a thought his HUD rearranged the information on his allies, relabeling his own little band as Alpha and Myra's as Bravo. Quick, informal, but it would help keep track of who was who when things started getting frenetic. And they would be, as the count on his display ticked from four, to three, to two, to one. The clamps released and his fusion drives came online, rocketing him forward on silent wings. For a given definition; the OF-9's 'wings' were retracted, pulled in close for storage. And they would stay that way for a minute longer. "Don't cry for me, don't shed no tear..." <<Gauss charging.>> He reported to the Elite at his six, something that didn't inspire confidence. As much as he didn't expect her to turn the turret on him he still couldn't quite shake the picture. His solace was that if she did, Miguel would make certain she didn't get to gloat. Collision warnings blared occasionally within his helmet, HUD marking objects within the edge of the asteroid field large enough to pose a risk. Piloting wasn't really his strongest suit but he maneuvered around them deftly, the frame's narrower profile letting him skirt danger with close, precise handling. Smaller pieces pinged harmlessly off of his armor, the only sounds he registered from the outside world. The twisting line towards his objective remained a slender thread of fate urging him inexorably onward towards the fray. And then like that he was free, emerging from the asteroid belt that Madrigal had lain doggo in for nearly a week. But all of that was about to change and Madrigal would be lighting up their sensors any second. The Seraphs in a holding pattern were within range of the Gauss that lay between his knees along the length of the frame, but he waited. Waited, and waited, and waited as he cleared the field and drew closer. He knew what the ops plan called for, knew when it would happen, and by his estimate.... <<Extending pods, Nova Two-One weapons hot in three.>> He stated over TEAMCOM as his 'wings' extended, the twelve MITV pods running on their rails out to his left and right for unobstructed launch and increased maneuver. At the cessation of his countdown he thumbed the Gauss cannon's trigger and a single accelerated round lanced into the void in time with Madrigal's opening shot. The Seraph he had chosen would have no more than a breath's notice before it slammed into its shields, and more likely than not, into its armor. It might live, it might not, but it'd know it had been kissed either way. The pirates knew they had arrived now. <<Recharging, Sakuai, hang tight and watch our six. Nova Two victors our priority is the hangar bay but let's make it easier for Olympian on approach.>>

IC: Nikolai Markov laughed, a proper sound that began deep in his chest. <<Are they letting just anyone on board now?>> Leave it to the hijo de Toledo Nueva to make such a properly timed entrance as deliverance in urban camo. Not even hearing an Elite over his own TEAMCOM was enough to dampen his spirits now, and in an instant he could almost reevaluate the whole plan. It was always good to see another New Alexandria alumni. Despite his mirth it was time to be prompt, and Nik climbed aboard his own craft with perhaps a little less flair than his gunner. The 'cockpit', such as it was, was barely more than a cluster of screens and controls atop an I-beam. That wasn't entirely fair, there was a clear place for the pilot to lock in; the hardpoint was necessary for HUD integration. He settled into it easily, letting his HUD update with the OF92's current status. It'd get more complicated in a couple minutes, but for now the view was nice and clean. Pre-flight checks seemed a lot more dignified than it deserved but ensuring system operation was key. Didn't want to get out there and find out your shields didn't work, now did you? <<Fusion thrusters green. Recursive thrusters green. M92 online. MITV fully stocked, rotary cannons loaded. Shields green.>> He recited over single-beam to Vali, then switched channels for wider reception. <<All systems green. Madrigal, Nova Lead, designating Nova Two One through Nova Two Five.>> No point in getting Madrigal all confused over who's who. His HUD updated, LOCUS allocating new designations to the sensory data he received. <<Ready for launch.>> Switching again to single-beam he added, <<You're more familiar. Any guesses how our corvette will be flying its birds?>>

IC: Youth. There was an unmistakable feeling of youth. It was clear the two Spartan IIIs hadn't paid much attention to his intent, and Nik wished they had. It wasn't a lecture, it wasn't even a warning; it was experience, and it was concern. The two clearly worked together perfectly but they weren't going to be the only two on the ship. It was important to work as a unit, especially when you hadn't cooperated before. Even for Spartans, all trained with the same standards since the legendary IIs, there was no substitute for knowing someone. Knowing how they thought, how they reacted, and knowing that they'd have your back if it came down to it. Maybe it was his experience showing. Much of the Spartan III program was classified but what was available lined up with the older IIs, and it was likely they'd never seen a combat mission without their augmentations. They had met the Covenant, sure, but never below eye level. They had never had to go up against the Brutes, or worse Elites, without being able to fight on an even footing. Unit cohesion was for their group, and their group was the best. Why worry about how to work with anyone else? No wonder Jumpers didn't get along with Spartans. "See you on board." He said simply, recognizing futility of pushing the issue. And that he'd already been a little slow to say anything. The two got a genuine nod and a smile, with an added "Good luck." His demeanor seemed to change in an instant as he pivoted in place, beckoning for Vali to follow with a tilt of his head. "It's not the enemy's cannons we should really worry about. You do know why these are listed as ammunition, don't you?" The Martian grinned irreverently at her, green eyes daring her to ask if he was joking or not. It was the last expression she would see for a while, his black helmet lifted, lowered, and twisted into place. Two Spartan IIIs and a Sangheili. He really did get the short end, didn't he? "We've gotta get them off the ship somehow, and the things are magnetic..." Two TEAMCOM connections greeted him when his helmet finished booting, and he familiarized himself briefly with their data. Very briefly. It only took the breaths between finishing his joke and reaching the OF 9 he'd staked out for himself. It wasn't actually any different from the others, it was just... The right one. Pretty nonsensical reasoning, right? Not like any one of these flying death traps was better than any other. He was rated to fly one. They were covered in training for this very reason, seeing as Spartans were the only people who could safely operate one. As heavily armed as they were, and even with partial shielding, they were a lot like flying a gun. You'll do damage, but there's not a thing between you and the enemy. And if they hit you... Well, all those munitions will make a nice firework for your sendoff. It was insane to take one up against a proper ship, even with fire support. It was practically begging to be blown to pieces and that was from the guy who'd gotten used to a drop pod. Well. Nik'd just been thinking he was better suited to being David. "That'll be you," He commented to Vali, glancing over his shoulder and pointing at the turret atop the rear of the craft. "You haven't got the hardpoints to fly one of these yoursself. Maybe something can get rigged up for next time, but this time we'll get you strapped in good and secure. Your gear's EVA-rated, right?" She was his other concern. He had never dropped with an Elite in support, and he didn't really know what to expect.. She wouldn't stab him in the back, even if that was her plan it wasn't the Sangheili way. He'd learned that well enough fighting them. But with an Elite on one side, and a Spartan III duo on the other... Man, where was a proper wingman when you needed one.

IC: "Bet you are." The Martian nodded slightly, almost approvingly. They'd all see how the mission went, and he'd have a little time for chit chat on the ride over. In between evasive maneuvers, anyway. But for now there were some more immediate issues to take care of now that they were getting into their sub-units. Firstly.... "Artur, Julia," Nik started, waggling his helmet slightly. "I'm gonna need battlenet links, please and thank you. LOCUS can handle 'em and it'd be good to have access to your sensor data. Sakuai and I can handle the computer, she'll point out anything different I need to know about Covenant systems. You two do what you do best. Be careful, though. Kig-Yarr aren't much alone but they can be a pain in larger groups, especially with the home field advantage. You get into trouble, you fall back and we regroup. You're not a duo on this. Alright?"

IC: Mostly the ops plan he was expecting. Nik turned his helmet over a few times in his hands, thinking. That wasn't entirely true. He wasn't expecting to be running with the IIIs or the Elite. The Spartan IIIs were workable; whatever his concerns personally they were Spartans and they'd been trained on the same signals and comm discipline. Maybe there'd be a little friction integrating such a practiced duo into a larger unit, but honestly? He could smooth out the rough spots. Maybe a drop like this'd help ease them all into the same team mentality. It was still a little strange to think about the Spartans' rank structure. Namely the fact that they didn't have one, aside from designating an overall head and a fireteam leader. All of that could get ironed out just fine. He nodded slightly to Artur and Julia, keeping one eye fixed on Vasquez and without disrupting the briefing. He didn't have any questions but keeping the floor open for those who might was important. And it gave him time to think about the more problematic inclusion to their little subunit. Vali 'Sakuai. It had gone unspoken but he'd felt the assessment that went down; the brief second where their intentions were laid bare. The Elite had tensed. Nik was a professional and he'd worked with people he didn't like before but he couldn't quite keep his discontent at her presence off of his face. As a liaison he could accept it. Not enjoy it. but accept it. Actually taking her out into the field with them, against a species hers used to be allied with, was entirely different. She wasn't completely brought up to speed on the Spartans' process the way everyone else was, he didn't know the first thing about Sangheili comm discipline or strategy and there was no time to drill any of it. More than that she'd be strapped into the gunner's seat on his OF in a few minutes. That could be a recipe for a whole lot of trouble. But someone had to help bring her into the fold, if it was gonna get done, and you like the challenges don't you Nikky? So ease up. Drop the hackles. Try and make her a little more comfortable. Offer a hand, just keep the Magnum in your other one. "Guess we'll be riding together, Miss 'Sakuai." He muttered out of the corner of his mouth to the Elite next to him, regarding her with one expressive eye. "Probably a first."

IC: "I tell you, it's hard being so popular. I'm comin', I'm comin'. Have to keep the fans happy." He'd already been in motion, more or less, when the comment came through. He'd given the other Spartans a head start. The one with his helmet on already, Artur, had taken the bump well enough but he'd also bolted quick. No reason not to let him have a little space on the way, and it gave him a chance to run one last check on his software. The LOCUS helmet... It really wasn't like anything he could have expected. It was artful, almost. And it'd make his job a lot easier. Not to mention the fact that a Hunter could stomp on it and he wouldn't even get a headache. He tucked the helm under his arm and walked to the hangar, quick enough to be punctual but not so fast as to imply a rush. There was no need, an extra thirty seconds wasn't going to matter much. Gave him a minute to consider the mission briefing so far. Open Frames were a real nailbiter, someone was on a lot of drugs when they came up with it. Nik still wasn't sure that someone hadn't been pushed to see what sort of cheap solution they could pass off, honestly. Professionally or on a bet. Oh, yeah, sir, they probably said. All those suits are sealed up, we don't need a chassis, or armor, or life support. Trust me, sure, this'll be great. Lunatics. And speaking of... 'Jumpers, Spartans, aaaand... The Elite. The Sangheili, properly speaking. He had no idea what the brass were thinking with that. Her. He could recognize the Elites weren't enemies anymore, at least most of them weren't, He was thankful for their help in ending the war, he knew it couldn't have happened without the Schism. But something about seeing one here, on deck in a UNSC vessel, just set him on edge. The rest were all solid whether he could back it up yet or not. And no ship with a contingent of ODSTs could be too bad. "Gunny! I didn't know they were letting fossils re-up." He said cheerfully to the (much) older man, shifting the charcoal, vaguely skeletal helmet from one arm to the other. Despite his cheer, one eye stayed on the Elite. His posture was fluid, but somehow wary; infused with the awareness that for the first time in his whole life, he didn't have to look up to regard one. The balance had shifted, and even though this one was an ally he would be ready. A lifetime of war took time to undo. He wasn't ready to trust her yet. Still, he held the other hand out for the ODST to bump while he nodded his head in Myra's direction. "Present company excluded, ma'am." He grinned. "Miss Elite. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

IC: "Trust a marine not to tell time. You're fine." Nik gave her a wider grin as she passed, something to show the humor. A little inter-service rivalry never hurt anyone as long as it was good-natured. And that was all he meant; most of these people he could recognize by name or face, but that didn't mean he knew them. That took time, and he hadn't had a whole lot of it with the Madrigal's compliment yet. Breaking the ice was important, especially with... The III with his helmet on had tensed up for a second. Not a lot, nothing conscious, but there was just enough of it in his voice to accentuate the shift. He knew there were a few on board, they pretty much all seemed to be in the Armory with him. But a whole lot of information about them was still classified, and they seemed a bit... Twitchy. He had no qualms about their confidence, only their ability to play nice in a team. But he couldn't expect them to go bridging that gap all on their own, now could he? "Appreciate the heads-up." He nodded to the helmeted Spartan, extending his fist to bump. Shaking hands never seemed right in a suit like this, bumping fists worked out better in his opinion. "Don't think we've had the chance to chat. I'm Markov." "Covvies makes more sense than Innies ever did for me. Long as that SPNKr stays pointed down range," He raised his voice a touch, just to be sure the third SIII heard. "I'm happy." OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis@FarflungWanderer@The UltimoScorp

IC: "'Scuse me," a voice came from Artur's left, its owner plucking the same carbine off of the rack. The larger Spartan had been in the room all the while; truthfully he had been for the last hour and a half. Check, recheck, and check again. Always. Your gear was your responsibility, and if you dropped with something that didn't work? Who was going to offer you a replacement? The Covenant? ODSTs lived or died on the back of their discipline. You maintained your gear like it was your religion, learned to field strip your weapons like your life depended on it, and treat chance as the enemy as much as any Brute. Diligence was practice, practice was habit, good habits keep you alive. Simple as that. You couldn't plan for a lucky hit taking out your pod, but you could make sure nothing'd surprise you when you got down. "Gonna need this." And it was a ritual. A superstition, just like everyone else who lived to deploy twice. Some people joked, some people sparred, and some people prepared. Which was why Nikolai had been hunched over a workbench for nearly an hour meticulously disassembling, inspecting, and if need be cleaning his gear. The shotgun and carbine he was willing to trust the armory officer on. Mostly. The shotgun had already been inspected, and as he stood in place he gave a cursory evaluation of the MA5K's mechanical actions. Satisfied he nodded at the other Spartans; two already in their armor, one only just arriving. The last he shot a knowing grin, clearly recognizing a latecomer when he saw one. He'd been in the position often enough. Nik at least was already in his tech suit, just waiting to step onto the Brokkr. His armor had been the first inspection on the list. He'd had to enlist the same poor tech the 'Jumper had harassed about her armor to check on the software, but everything came up green. Did he trust those little lights? No. Did he have any proof they lied? No. But never bet on it. It still felt... Wrong. He'd dropped in the ODST gear so often this new, sleek, black-tinted, humanoid MBT just didn't feel quite right. But he couldn't complain about the specs. A little fruit basket, he suspected, from the job he'd turned down. Spooks did play the long game, didn't they? "Fine morning to you, folks." He flashed the other three a quick, friendly wave with his off-hand. Not that Nik stopped moving; he took a few sideways steps back to his bench and laid the carbine to rest next to the other goodies liberated from the Madrigal's armory and his own M6H2. That wasn't quite familiar yet, either. He could have field stripped and reassembled his old SOCOM with his eyes closed, but the M6H2 just wasn't that familiar yet. He'd resisted swapping over for an age and a half. It kicks, he used to argue. The SOCOM had an integrated suppressor and brake, it didn't move a hair when you fired. Made the next shot right on target. You could compensate, sure, but why bother? What good is that much extra range without a scope? You might as well switch to your primary if you're taking a shot that far. Nik, someone finally had said, how long's it been since you felt a gun kick at all? Take the extra range. Point taken. "Munroe, isn't it? Late start?" He asked, finally stepping onto the mechanism. He couldn't quite keep eye contact while the whirring armature installed the smoky plate on top his tech suit, but the casual air was unmistakable. The conversation was just as forthcoming despite his mandated stillness. It didn't take long, and he stretched languidly as he stepped off. Gear found magnetic strips with practiced ease, the same friendly smile fixed on the small gaggle of Spartans to which he spoke. "Sleep in?" OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis @Dane-gerous @FarflungWanderer

For your consideration, as promised. I may have some rewriting to do when I reread in the morning. Name: Nikolai Markov Species: Human Gender: Male Age: 29 Appearance: Before three weeks vacation at a little bed and breakfast on Mars, Nik Markov had been a little taller than your average grunt and built lithe. Skinnier than you’d really expect for special forces, not that you could tell when he was suited up to dive feet first into . Now he’s only really lithe if you stand him next to another Spartan and at 6’10” he’s taller than even many other IVs. For his old squadmates it’s a bit like talking to a tree trunk, not that he noticed during the PT to get used to his new frame. The Spartan IV augmentations gave him a whole new lease on life with combat capabilities that could extend well into the next century, but they didn’t do anything to hide a lifetime of injuries big and small. Outside his armor, Nik’s hands are calloused and pockmarked by well-healed scars. Without a shirt you could see similar marks across his body, along with a pale line tracing a path across his shoulder and the skull-and-comet tattoo on the left side of his chest. As much as some things change, though, plenty stays the same. It might be almost a foot higher than it was but Nik’s face definitely stayed the same. Pale skin, sharp facial features, and deep green eyes could easily look unfriendly (especially with his new build) but they’re softened by a friendly, irreverent demeanor. He smiles a lot more than you’d expect from an ODST, let alone a Spartan. Nik keeps a clean shave aside from the occasional five o’clock shadow depending on how busy he’s been, and his brown hair is kept medium length though not always tidy. Rank: Spartan Personality: Friendly, laidback, self-assured, and easygoing; all of the words you would not expect to apply to someone who’s been among the most effective operatives in the UNSC for the better part of a decade. But nine times out of ten, before his augmentation, Nik’s first impressions ran contrary to preconceptions. That’s a lot harder now, but he would say all the more important for it. Don’t want to become as frightening to the guys on your side as the ones against, you know? In another time and place he would have lived a pretty peaceful life, but born five years into the Human-Covenant war didn’t leave many options. It’s when he becomes focused, on whatever has his attention, that it becomes clear why he is where he is. Nikolai can be driven in the extreme when he sets his mind to something, and considers success an inescapable fact. It’s only a matter of how you have to get there. Nonetheless Nikolai is more capable and much more intelligent than he tends to let on despite his informal education, and maintains the utmost respect for his colleagues and peers. He never had the institutional distaste for the Spartans his fellow ODSTs tended towards, maybe because ONI had been using them to boost morale by the time he joined the outfit. He does, however, have an intense and occasionally problematic mistrust of former Covenant species and soldiers. Nothing that discipline doesn’t curb, but the Martian finds it difficult to remember that they were trying to kill him for his entire life. Background: Nikolai Markov was born on June 19th 2529 on Mars, and knew nothing but war until it ended. Papers will probably be written about the psychological impact of growing up under the shadow of a war for survival on such a massive scale, but Nik didn’t understand any of it. But he grew up scared because in the shipbuilders’ neighborhood he was raised everyone was scared. Under the weight of such existential dread the young man acted out, getting into all sorts of trouble. Nothing serious, Nik was a good kid at heart. But he would break into places he wasn’t supposed to, get access to information he wasn’t supposed to have, anything he could do to benignly try and draw attention to himself. It went on for years, until he broke into a supposedly secure office (and server) at his local UNSC office and nearly got himself a juvenile record. Cutting it that close finally nudged him a few degrees back onto the straight and narrow, and more importantly finally gave him a focus. On June 19th 2547 Nikolai Markov enlisted in the UNSC Navy. After a long night of celebrating, drinking, and saying goodbye to the neighborhood he grew up in he shipped out to UNSCN basic training the next day. Almost on day one he lobbied for a shot at the grueling, volunteer-only recruitment process for the renowned Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. About two years later he got it. No matter how tough he expected it to be he couldn’t have prepared himself for the reality. The training was designed to push him to the absolute limit, and it succeeded. Not everyone who applied made it. His own standards and the humiliation of being Returned to Unit kept him going and at the course’s end Nik was among its graduates. Then-PFC Nikolai Markov was initially assigned to the 105th Shock Troopers Division, serving under a former special forces marksman for his first few drops. He showed a real knack for sabotage and reconnaissance, remembering his youth and gathering any additional information from behind and between enemy lines that wasn’t nailed down. His career brought him to the defense of New Alexandria during the Fall of Reach, and later operations during the Battle for Earth that truly proved his mettle. At the war’s end a good many problems still needed the none-too-gentle touch of an ODST fireteam, and Nik was happy to oblige. Many of those solutions took a liberal application of black ink and Nik found himself co-opted by ONI’s own plans on occasion. Four years after the war’s end, the Office of Naval Intelligence offered to put his talents to permanent use. A free ride through university, and a guaranteed job with a hefty security clearance attached. Spartan Operations, around the same time, offered him a chance at augmentation. The choice wasn’t hard. Equipment: A charcoal suit of Recluse armor topped by a LOCUS helmet rounds out Nikolai’s only permanent set of equipment. A M6H2 Tactical Magnum is usually attached to the magnetic strip on his left thigh, but his primary (or tertiary) equipment rotates depending upon mission specifications. The helmet’s passive cyberintrusion package, battlenet cache, and multiple video feeds make for unparalleled battlefield awareness. Skills: Nikolai excels in neutralizing hostile entities and hostile technology, by force or subterfuge. The former is really pretty simple. Nik’s first ODST fireteam leader drilled the unit on marksmanship endlessly, and it stuck. He’s versed in the operation and proficient in the use of almost all UNSC firearms, and he was a crack shot before augmentation. After undergoing the procedures it would be more notable if he missed. The latter is more nuanced; Nik has spent his professional career building on the intrusion skills he learned as a youth, and may be among the better cyberintrusion specialists in his current branch of service by now. His armor assists, of course, but the Martian has a certain innate knack for turning enemy or unaligned electronics to suit his own purposes. And after a stint doing asymmetrical warfare as an ODST, a learned proficiency for simply blowing up resources he can’t utilize. Flaws: As dedicated and effective an operative as he is, Nikolai has two evident flaws. His mistrust of the Elites and other species formerly a part of the Covenant and an unrelenting perfectionist streak. For all his laidback mannerisms Nikolai allows himself no slack or quarter and it impacts his ability to effectively delegate tasks that don’t require his personal attention. Any failures become personal failures, and personal failures he struggles to let go of. As a former enlisted man he also is of minimal use on the bridge of a ship, or in the operation of small craft. He can fly a Pelican in a pinch, but don’t expect an air show. He’s used to gravity doing the work for him, what do you really expect?

Looks solid. All the necessities seem to be in place, and seeing as the only RPG running right now seems to be Interrugnum I have no qualms about approving a second. Looking forward to seeing how this goes. x1

Extension approved x2.

I'm convinced that someone had been sealing people away in a soul gem. And someone finally broke it. Hi, Zeal.

I'll shoot you a PM with anything I can think of!

Hey! Despite Raz's best efforts, we're all still here. Pretty sure the Arc was a soul trap for a bunch of you guys. Old faces have been turning up at a record clip ever since it wrapped. Everyone's always welcome back, we should have something fresh and exciting for you all to look at soon. You're entitled to your opinion, and I understand. Whether you see it voiced or not you're far from the only person frustrated with the delay, and I count myself among that number. And I can actually see what's going on so I understand that it's more frustrating when you can't see the sausage getting made, too. If you could you might understand the delay or you might not and that's fine. You weren't here the last time there was an arc transition but there's ordinarily more connective tissue. Staff posts are the skeleton, yes, but there's usually all sorts of other parts at play. Ironically all of these other parts take longer. The need to organize more players to accomplish an arc resolution held up Arc 1 for quite a long time, just positioned before the wrapup topic and not after. In expediting the end to the plot of Arc 2 we excised most of this connective tissue. Which made the plot 'easier' to resolve more quickly... But left us without much in the way of connective tissue. There just wasn't a lot to go between structural pieces the way there usually is, and that makes the length of time seem even more obvious. If this afternoon we forced through a barebones, cliff notes version of what content still has to happen we still wouldn't be able to get the ball rolling tomorrow. Because in addition to the last bit of transitional material needed between arc to set the stage for the next one we have to prepare the next one. The big document we have, all of the hours of staff meetings, and all of the notes have to be organized and condensed for cohesion, the new topics have to be prepared, and even the topics that will return mostly unchanged have to be updated. There's a lot of moving parts to manage. And the next arc will require a different management style than they have in the past. The new material has been designed from the ground up to reflect the changes in the community, but there will still be some things we have to play by ear. The game's climate always changes, and that means that what worked in a previous arc won't necessarily work in the next one. And as has been chronicled ad nauseam this past arc had a lot more problems than they usually do on top of the usual changes. None of this probably does anything to ease your frustration or your impatience, but nothing I can say would.

A little more barebones than what I would normally allow through, but history has shown that sort of thing can work. Considering the community as it stands and the intent I've seen behind it, I'm willing to give you a shot. x1

As much as anyone else, I understand the desire for a swift resolution. I am eager to get to show off what we have for the next arc not to mention begin my own plans. We haven't forgotten, and we are working. I'm not going to put a solid date on it in case I'm wrong (I have been before), but we're getting there. The arc was six years old when it ended, and thorny until the day those topics locked. I for one am not surprised the wrapup has been just as uncooperative.

There's been a four year discussion on whether or not you were dead. Franco, welcome back.

Yes. Back up to the point of departure. We're starting to engage in specific discussion, however, so I will take this to PMs in a few minutes.

I'm not privy to exactly what was discussed already, only what I am explaining now. An imprisoned character is difficult to get out. That's by design, because village forces are under the direction of players as much as the PCs that lead them. It's not supposed to be easy to get out. A jailbreak isn't against the rules, but the manner in which you have gone about it does run contrary both to courtesy in dealing with village forces, and directly goes against the Common Sense Guide's section on NPCs. Neither of which do I think either of you intended to violate, you didn't know. Which is why I'm offering the choice to retcon it. As for Forge, he wasn't PMed by staff; he was PMed by a more experienced player who wanted to nudge things before I had to do something. It has been a day, the day after I finished my part in the sprint to finish this six year old arc. I was taking a frankly well deserved breather. You can retcon, or I can assume control of the Ta-Koro Guards.

That's not what is primarily at issue. That is part of it, the wrapup topic is not intended for ongoing play as indicated in the first post. What is more at issue is that what you have been doing doesn't actually work. I was working up a PM to address the issue, but you've managed to get out before I could finish it. I can still finish it to explain in greater depth, if you would like, but presently your options boil down to retconning the departure from the cell, orrrrr I'll actually play out the Ta-Koro Guard end of things. Which won't go particularly well. I'm not trying to be unreasonable, but you've blazed through faster than I could address it. And I believe that one of your fellow players was already trying to warn you against this, as well.