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Tamuz' desert village in a rough crestent wrapped around an oasis. The homes of the villagers are basketwork cones supported in their centres by palm trees, which are heavy with dates; these and the pelts of fearsome desert animals the tribe hunts are their major source of barter with the caravans that occasionally pass through.
As this time of year the water is low, and the oasis proper is surrounded by a broad salt flat. It is here that Tamuz suggests he and Osprey hold their duel.
Arkadi suppresses a groan
Malic excuses himself from Elder Lunar and Osprey to continue speaking with the tribesmen about trade. "You are still interested in my Simhata?"
<Osprey> Osprey accedes to Tamuz' suggestion. "As custom demands, the choice of arena falls to you."
<Osprey> "What terms do you propose?"
"I leave it to you to set them, though I request that we not fight to the death. I have no wish to kill here on the shores of my well."
The tribesmen take Malic off to the side to discuss this with them. They are indeed interested.
Malic folds his arms across his chest and smiles slightly, confidant nothing they have can entice him to sell a Simhata. "If all you have to offer is dates and hides, I doubt we can reach an agreement. My friends and I have more then enough food and we would be hard-pressed to find a use for most of your hides.."
Arkadi sighs and fishes a cigarette out from his robes
Gia looks slightly worried about the prospect of Osprey duking it out with an ancient Lunar, but tries to seem enthusiastic for Osprey's chances, and trust Fate in general.
"Look," Hamru says to Malic, "I'm not about to casually reveal the secret riches of my tribe to some soft-toed outlander merchant because he has pretty horses. Tell me what you want for them and I will tell you whether I am willing to take them for the price of that."
Osprey nods his head to Tamuz, and unslings his daiklave.
<Osprey> He lays the massive weapon on the ground near Gia's feet.
<Osprey> He then takes off his cloak, folds it neatly, and hands it to the Chosen of Secrets.
Gia gives Osprey a baleful look after seeing the sword laid at her feet, remembering their conversation in the Garden of Secrets. "Fate knows what it's doing," is the only comfort she is able to muster.
Osprey catches Gia's apprehension, and gives her a slight, reassuring smile as his shirt, and sheathed knives, join his cloak in her arms.
Malic shrugs eloquently, nodding his head at Hamru. "Well, I can understand that, of course. But these aren't just pretty horses. They're Simhata, the Lion-Horses of the South, mounts of the Exalted, beasts beyond compare in battle and peace. And, being inclined to hold on to the bare handful I have, I can't simply name a price so easily. Could you?"
Osprey hefts his staff and strides out onto the salt flats, rolling his shoulders to limber them up.
Malic lets his warm smile broaden a bit as the amber-gold of his eyes flashes bright for a moment, wrapping the tribesman's mind in a warm fog of trust and friendlyness.
<Osprey> "Bring your spear," he directs Tamuz. "No other weapons. I will explain the rules once we reach the place."
<Osprey> He stops about thirty paces away from the others.
<Osprey> .me turns to face Tamuz, holding his staff horizontally in front of him in one hand.
Tamuz follows, wondering what the man is planning.
Arkadi fixes Ossie with a look that says 'This is a bad idea. If it backfires...can I have your desk?'
Osprey gestures for the elder Lunar to also hold out his weapon.
<Osprey> When Tamuz does so, Osprey takes hold of his staff with both hands, and steps forward so that the hafts of the two weapons are crossed, in an X shape.
Gia sighs, wondering why it couldn't be ARKADI that Fate had deemed should challenge the giraffe.
<Osprey> "In my homelands, braves often tested each other in this way," explains Osprey.
Osprey widens his stance, firmly planting his feet.
Tamuz does the same. "I think I remember this trial."
<Osprey> ""The rules are simple. Neither one can strike the other, and their weapons must always remain in contact. The first one to move his feet, or fall, loses."
Hamru thinks for a moment. "I do not trust you, but you cannot be stupid enough to cross the protectorate of Tamuz. I will tell you something that is true."
Osprey softens his stance, drawing a deep breath and letting it out. His deep blue eyes look calmly into Tamuz' tawny gold.
The Lunar nods and straightens his arm.
The tribesman rolls up his sleeve, to reveal a very odd tattoo. It looks like a galloping horse, but in the place of feet it has long spikes, like the blades of stilettos.
<Osprey> Their weapons tap softly together; Osprey's arms float smoothly back in response to Tamuz' pressure.
"My family were simhata keepers, once. I have their secret breeding records lasting one hundred of their generations. A copy of these I will give you, in exchange for a mated pair."
Osprey flexes his knees, lowering his center of gravity and bringing it forward and up in a smooth, slow curve, testing Tamuz' ability.
Tamuz bends in response like a serpent recoiling. His motions show no initiative, only reaction to Osprey's.
<Malic> "I can part with one of the males for that, Hamru."
<Malic> "The breeding records alone wouldn't do me much good, without the lines themselves to work with."
"You drive a hard bargain. I will part with them for that, provided that you bring me to meet he who sold you these beasts. They are very fine."
Osprey rotates his forearms, spinning his staff in slow motion as he gracefully sways back, exerting a steady sideways pressure on Tamuz' spear as he draws it back towards him.
<Malic> "A little God gave them to me in return for favor. But I can't be going back that way for a'while. I'll give you directions and instructions on dealing with him though."
Arkadi watches the duel intently, ignoring Mal's little by-play
<Osprey> The heat of the Southeastern sun shimmers off the white crust of the salt flats.
<Malic> "Arkadi, would you fetch your Simhata for me?"
Arkadi blinks
<Arkadi> "That's my ride HOME."
<Arkadi> "Sell your own fucking horse."
<Malic> "You can ride Moth's."
Arkadi scowls
<Malic> "Mine's a mare, I need the mares."
<Arkadi> "..."
<Arkadi> "Why mine?"
The shapechanger's silver tattoos bunch and curl against his skin, the silver antelopes turning their heads to watch Osprey. He lets go of the spear with one hand so he can twist it round the staff, in an attempt to tangle Osprey's arms.
<Malic> "Because yours doesn't like you and it won't miss you."
<Malic> "Everyone else gets along with theirs."
<Arkadi> "Ossie doesn't."
<Malic> "He doesn't get along with anything."
Osprey 's eyes harden subtly, just a moment before he abruptly straightens his arms, pushing his staff strongly against Tamuz' spear.
<Osprey> The wooden hafts slide along one another.
<Arkadi> "I love how you decided to sell my horse without my blood permission."
<Arkadi> *bloody
The tribesman muses, "There is no need for the meeting to be immediate. Within the span of a year, perhaps."
<Malic> "I'll give you one of the foals I breed."
<Osprey> The "free" end of Tamuz' spear swings back toward him, repelled by the sudden force.
<Malic> "It won't be long before Gia's mare gives birth."
Arkadi pinches the bridge of his nose and flies off into a sequence of cuses in Riverspeak
<Arkadi> *curses
Osprey slides his staff up toward Tamuz' knuckles, deftly keeping it in contact with the spear's haft as it moves.
Malic nods to Hamru "That is acceptable. I can return within that timespan easily."
Osprey carefully watches Tamuz' eyes.
The Lunar's eyes are nearly closed against the salty midday glare.
<Osprey> However, his real attention is to the silent melody of fate which twines around them, every motion of their bodies heralded by a soft change.
Osprey waits patiently, listening for the change in tempo which will signal him to act.
He catches the spear in his free hand so he can regain control of their point of contact, sliding it outward so that Osprey must reach to keep the weapons connected.
<Malic> "Arkadi, if you really don't want to part with your Simhata, you can fetch one of the other males for me."
<Arkadi> "It's the principle of the thing..."
<Arkadi> "Next time, bloody ASK instead of doing..."
Osprey sways forward, simultaneously choking up on his weapon, tilting the staff forward to keep it resting on top of Tamuz' spear. The ripples of fate emanating from the wooden shafts begin to take on a different timbre, shading away from blue.
Osprey forces his grip to remain soft -- he can't act too soon.
<Malic> "Would you have said no?"
Malic looks curious
<Arkadi> "Likely not, as I said...that's the bloody point..."
Tamuz also appears to be resisting the temptation to act too forcefully, but he is moving faster now, and with a certain air of concentration that indicates that he isn't casually playing along any longer.
Arkadi turns his attention back to the fight
Malic shrugs. "If you'd have said yes anyway, I don't really get what you're so upset about."
<Malic> "Anyway. Could you get the animal?"
<Arkadi> "After this."
The tribesmen, too, have for the most part paused in their daily pursuits to observe the spectacle.
Osprey answers the increase in intensity with one of his own; the speed of the duel does not increase, but the tension can be seen in the play of muscles beneath both men's drak skin, and the sheen of sweat covering their bare chests.
Osprey dips back and down, angling his staff and pushing upward, aiming to force Tamuz to straighten up and raise his center of gravity.
Tamuz does so, as it happens. He seems confident that this will not endanger his stance in any manner.
Arkadi tsks 'He's gonna get knocked on his ass.'
Osprey widens his grip and torques his staff, forcing Tamuz' spear back as well as upward.
Osprey consciously makes the move faster than his previous ones have been.
<Osprey> The sudden tensing of muscle in his arms and shouders is obvious to all the onlookers, the first move in the duel which has not been languidly deliberate.
Gia raises her eyebrows and continues to watch.
The Lunar is surprised enough to swing his arms upward, and then he turns his superior mass against Osprey, forcing both weapons into a downward spiral.
<Osprey> The Lunar's greater strength and weight begin forcing Osprey down toward the ground; his low posture lets him press up with both arms and legs, but it is clear that the other man will soon overbear him,.
<Osprey> Osprey's upraised arms tremble, muscles standing out in sharp relief as he resists Tamuz' assault.
In an experimental move, Tamuz brings the two men gradually into a crouch.
Osprey sinks slowly toward the ground, knees bending more and more.
<Osprey> It is obvious that the Lunar has the upper hand.
<Osprey> Osprey suddenly jerks downward, one of his legs giving way before Tamuz' force; he barely manages to recover without moving his foot.
<Osprey> His knee hovers a mere inch off the ground.
Malic moves to stand beside Gia "I think you're going to owe me a request and some money in a moment or two.:
<Osprey> A rivulet of sweat runs down Osprey's cheek.
Gia shoots Malic a lightning-fast dirty look before looking back at the match in question. "Have faith, Brother Malic."
<Malic> "I have faith in many things. Osprey's strength against Tamuz's is not one of them."
<Osprey> Her eye drawn by the sun glistening off the sweat-droplet, Gia can discern the faintest hint of a smile at the corner of Osprey's mouth.
Tamuz, seeing that his opponent is struggling, makes one final, forceful push. He has no wish to draw this duel out into an embarassing contest of exhaustion.
Gia grins, and then tries to hide it with a show of wiping sweat from her nose.
<Osprey> In the instant before Tamuz' muscles contract, Osprey senses the currents of fate snap into place, crystallizing into diamond-clear intent.
<Osprey> With a deft motion, Osprey tangles his staff in the web of destiny bearing down on him ahead of Tamuz' spear.
<Osprey> Not attempting to resist the Lunar's downward force, he arches backward, pulling his staff strongly back.
<Osprey> Tamuz' spear, its destiny looped around the staff, is drawn along as though the two weapons were welded together.
Tamuz is forced to stretch forward to keep his grip on the spear.
<Osprey> Osprey lunges back, pushing against the ground with all his strength, pulling the Lunar forward and over him.
Tamuz leaps from the ground so he can perform a flip over the Sidereal's head and land, two-footed, behind him, their weapons still elegantly crossed. He grins hugely.
Malic sighs
Malic digs around and offers Gia the coins they'd agreed upon.
Osprey continues stretching back, his feet never leaving the ground, even as his hands crunch against the salty earth.
<Osprey> As Tamuz' feet come back down, Osprey continues his cartwheel, coming back up to his feet.
Gia gives a catlike grin to Malic. "I'll figure out what favor I want later." She offers a light smattering of applause to the two Exalts.
Arkadi applauds lightly
Osprey straightens up, and bows to Tamuz, fist to heart.
<Arkadi> "Okay, that was bloody incredible."
<Osprey> "You fought well, mighty Tamuz. Your strength is unparalleled."
<Osprey> "I see that the legends spoken of you by the tribes of the South must contain nothing of fabrication."
Osprey makes a self-deprecating gesture.
<Osprey> "I do not expect I would be able to defeat you again, now that you have seen my tricks."
"Oh, certainly they do, wise Osprey. I fabricated them myself! such an attentive warrior as yourself must have seen a touch of the craftsman's tongue in them, otherwise why mention it?" The Lunar bows again, deeply.
"You have won this round, though. Will you accept a prize?"
Osprey inclines his head to Tamuz.
<Osprey> "It would be my honor, great Tamuz."
<Osprey> "I would hear a tale from you."
<Osprey> "A small price, for a storyteller as masterful as yourself."
Osprey begins walking back toward the others, with the Lunar beside him.
<Osprey> "The fantasies which you spread among the tribesmen are indeed masterful, but the tale I wish is a true one."
Osprey glances at Tamuz.
He nods.
Gia picks up Osprey's blade and hands it back to him, along with his cloak.
"let's drink and rest a bit first, and then I'll tell you this tale."
(pretend I capitalized that like not a monkey.)
Osprey accepts his belongings from Gia, and turns to face Tamuz. "I wish to hear the tale of how Tamuz and his fellow Chosen of the Moon met the lords of the Dead, and what things they learned of the Underworld's campaigns into the land of the living."
Arkadi arches an eyebrow
Tamuz does the same, replying, "I don't know this tale yet."
Osprey looks mildly surprised.
Arkadi tries to hide a smirk
<Osprey> "Is that so?
Gia grins.
"The lands of the dead are dearly spare of prey."
<Osprey> "Then I wish to know how it is that you and your tribe have failed to encounter the agents of darkness, when the Deathlords reign openly in their shadowlands, their deathknights riding freely across the lands."
"We encounter them and when it is right we do war upon them, but it has not fallen to us to mount a campaign against their cold fortresses in the night."
<Malic> "It falls to all who would lay claim to Exaltation with any hope at honor. The Exalted are bound to protect the world as well as to rule it. The Deathlords would destroy it all if they could, even Heaven and the Celestial Gods."
<Osprey> "And you claim that you know nothing of what lies inside those walls? I suspect you are spinning a tall tale, for the Tamuz whose wisdom is known throughout the Threshold of the Southeast would not hide his head in the sand like an ostrich when confronted with a frightening adversary."
Osprey keeps his tone neutral.
The white-haired warrior nods to both Sidereals at once. "You are both right. Tamuz shirks no responsibility, and leaves no stone unturned where he knows there are spiders. We should not talk of this in the open, though."
Osprey nods. "This is the wisdom I was led to expect."
He spares a glance for his tribesmen. "They are not all apprised of the darkness that eats at us."
<Malic> "They should be."
Malic meets the Elder, burning amber eyes to tawny gold.
"Perhaps." He leads the five into a sizeable stand of trees.
"I leave much of the investigation to the younger Chosen," he explains. "I am only one man, and my duties are to my tribe first, and to the world through the works of my tribe. To bring them as they are, marching into the shadows of the ghost kings, would be to invite their doom. They are not strong enough yet."
<Malic> "You can talk to the other Lunars. They must be awakened and turned against the darkness. Would Luna want you to sit on your stripped asses while the Malfeans eat her alive?"
<Malic> "Well. Not eat. Cast her into the Void to be utterly and forever destroyed, more like..I suppose they COULD eat her...maybe.."
Malic stops to ponder this, looking thoughtful
Tamuz blinks. "How old are you, sir?"
<Malic> "Fifty or so."
Osprey looks askance at Malic.
"Have you ever tried to make two of the Chosen of Luna to agree on something? Without someone involved lying through his teeth, I mean."
<Malic> "No. As a rule, I avoid them."
<Arkadi> "May as well try to get the Mouth of P Eace? in the sack, you're tryint to say?"
"I find it difficult."
<Arkadi> "Right, that means 'impossible' for us."
"You are Sidereals, are you not?"
Osprey says nothing, but looks Tamuz in the eyes.
Arkadi takes a drag on his cigarette
<Malic> "Yup. I'm the Coefficient of Rejoinders, too."
<Arkadi> "I'm just a bitter old curmudgeon."
Osprey 's indigo gaze sparkles with stars.
Gia smiles slightly at Tamuz, saying nothing.
<Osprey> "Does not everyone know that such things no longer exist?"
Tamuz's eyes are filled with layers of golden membranes, all blinking independent of one another. "Things change."
<Malic> "Only when someone messes up."
"And you have been trained better than you know." He gestures at the earth, where the footprints of the five have formed the shape of the Sorcerer constellation.
Gia looks behind her, obviously surprised.
<Arkadi> "Okay, that's just plain WEIRD"
Malic idly moves his left foot to scuff the dirt into a lewd picture, then scratches it out.
<Arkadi> "...and that's just crass."
Malic shrugs.
"You wouldn't be asking me this if you didn't have some stake in it, I suppose."
<Malic> "We're just trying to save all the world from destruction."
Osprey sighs quietly.
<Osprey> "We recently came into conflict with the Deathlords, ourselves."
<Osprey> "It made us aware of the true extent of their power."
Osprey pauses, regarding Tamuz speculatively. "Are you aware that their ambitions extend to the stars themselves?"
<Malic> "I'm sure the Celestines would support us if they weren't busy playing kesmick" Malic smiles at the mention of the Southern children's game that is utterly impossible to win when playing another person and, thus, abandoned by all but the most stubborn and bored of people.
"I was not."
<Malic> "They do. They include "Heaven" when they say "everything" as their target of destruction and utter annihilation."
Osprey inclines his head. "I have no doubt that your scouts will soon bring you news of recent uproars near the Bayou of Endless Regret."
"I do like that region. Once there were delicious spices that grew nowhere else."
<Malic> "Bet they're all gone."
<Arkadi> "Well, only things that grow there now are moss, and some rather tiwsted trees."
<Malic> "And fungi. Remember that one that tried to eat you?
Gia chews on the corner of her mouth, remaining silent.
"I arranged that one of the green houses of the Dynasty has propagated them it its gardens. At any rate, perhaps you will summarize these dins?"
<Osprey> "Songs were sung, and efficacious dances performed, with the object of twisting fate itself to serve the ends of one whose Eye watches over a house of ice and shadow."
<Arkadi> "It really did a number, too...we ran halfway across creation trying to sort THAT bastard out."
Tamuz nods.
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