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Kai: As the morning sun crests the horizon, Kai walks out into one of the Cascade's gardens. She draws Daybreaker, plants the blade in the ground, and sits crosslegged before it. "I have a puzzle. I need some pieces."
Arexus: Daybreaker stands upright in the middle of the garden, light failing to gleam off of its deep, dark surface. The earth seems almost unhappy to be holding it.
Kai is now known as Kai
Arexus: After a second, the voice from within it speaks up. "What's bothering you, Kai?"
Kai: "Well, I presume you were paying attention when Markuran was taken by that shadow thing."
Arexus: "I might've noticed something."
Arexus: Arexus: After a second, the voice from within it speaks up. "What's bothering you, Kai?"
Arexus: Kai: "Well, I presume you were paying attention when Markuran was taken by that shadow thing."
Arexus: Arexus: "I might've noticed something."
Kai: "Well, that rather indicates that some of our problems may date back to the First Age... And I can think of no better expert."
Arexus: "There are few things I am *not* an expert of." The sword seems to be standing at a slight slant out of the earth. "So. What are you curious about?"
Kai: "Well, I guess we should start with names. Are you familiar with a man named Kiriath? Possibly "Kiriath the Deciever"?
Kai: 'Was he a... what's the word? Contemporay of yours, or older?
Arexus: "The whole incident with Kiriath went down when I was still new to the Deliberative. It was pretty much the biggest event of the century, if not more."
Kai: "Incident?"
Kai: "So, you were in the Deliverative? Were all Solars? And what was the purpose of the Seals?"
Arexus: "All of us were in the Deliberative. It was the body of Solar government. The Seals were the mystical bindings of the Deliberative, and the Perfect Circle kept them in their roles as its heads."
Kai: "The Perfect Circle?"
Arexus: "The five big shots who headed the Deliberative. One of each Caste. At the time, Kiriath was the Zenith."
Kai: "Who were the others?"
Arexus: "Rosada, the Dawn. Grim type, very old, even more humorless. Black Iris, the Twilight; she was new, I think she'd created a new kind of garden using altered gravity. Askaru was the Eclipse, though for a few years before then he'd been present in Meru less and less often."
Kai: "Who was the Night?"
Arexus: "At that point? There wasn't one."
Kai: "Because the Seal was missing."
Arexus: "Gotcha."
Kai: "And the Seal went missing with Ymir."
Arexus: "Oh ho, you've been studying."
Kai: "So, what happened to Ymir?"
Arexus: "If they figured that out, I wasn't around for it."
Kai: "You mentioned a murder. That's when Ymir disappeared, right?"
Arexus: "Yes."
willows is now known as love-song-of-night-and-day
Kai: "When she and Kiriath killed Talmuda."
Arexus: "What? Kiriath had nothing to do with that."
Kai: "... Was Ymir alone?"
Arexus: "That's what the Flowers said."
Kai: "The Flowers?"
Arexus: "The Chrysanthemum? The Sidereals?"
love-song-of-night-and-day is now known as night
Kai: "Oh, right. That makes sense. So, who were Ymir and Talmuda? What went on between them?"
Arexus: "He was a heroic general from the War. She held the Night seal as part of the Circle. They got married, then she killed him. An old story, I'm afraid."
night is now known as willows
Kai: "Alright... So what was the incident with Kiriath, then? He did something and they encased him in soulsteel, right?"
Arexus: "Let's play a game. Guess how many people he killed."
Kai: "Well, given that I'm guessing, it's either three or a whole damn lot."
Arexus: "One."
Arexus: There is a brief pause.
Arexus: "Hundred."
Arexus: Another pause.
Arexus: "Thousand."
Arexus: Pause.
Arexus: "Give or take."
Kai: "... How may were Solar?"
Arexus: "I believe only two. That's not counting the Sidereals, Lunars, and Dragons he took down, of course."
Kai: "Anyone noteworthy?"
Arexus: "Rosada. Which left an absentee and a new appointee as the only remaining members of the Circle."
Kai: "Who was the other? And what happened to the Seals, Zenith and Dawn?"
Kai is now known as Kai
Arexus: "One of the Shadows Resplendent, sent to take him out. And I'm not sure exactly. They definitely got the Zenith seal back from Kiriath when they finally took him down, but Rosada's body was stripped of all valuables when they found him."
Kai: "So he hid the Dawn Seal? And who got the Zenith?"
Arexus: "Well, at that point, the Perfect Circle was pretty much shattered. They didn't establish another one while I was around to see it."
Kai: "So, what became of the seals?"
Arexus: "They went 'into protection.' Keep them safe in case anything else horrible happened."
Kai: "Right. Do you know where?"
Arexus: "Somewhere inside the Palace of Lights, in Meru City."
Kai: "Do you know why Kiriath went on his rampage?"
Arexus: "No clue."
Kai: "Okay. One more who's who: Alawi?"
Arexus: "Hmmm. I don't think I knew her very well? She had duties in the East, I didn't interact with her much."
Arexus: There is silence.
Arexus: There is still no answer.
Kai: "Do you know that this blade killed Talmuda?"
Arexus: There's another pause, followed by a quieter voice. "I didn't know that."
Kai: "I'm afraid there may have been a breach of faith with the Flowers. Please, whose blade was it?"
Arexus: There's silence again. Kai notices the blade begin to shake back and forth a little in the earth.
Arexus: The blade steadies a little in her hand. "I'm... not going to be able to answer that question."
Kai: "You are bound somehow?"
Arexus: The sword does not answer.
Kai: She stands, and draws the sword out of the ground. "Don't fret too much over it. I may have other avenues." With that, she heads back inside to talk to the others.
Tags: (:tags Daybreaker, Arexus Jonai, Kiriath, Solar Deliberative, Seals of the Deliberative, Perfect Circle, Rosada, Black Iris, Askaru, Ymir, Talmuda, Sidereals, Palace of Lights, Night Caste Seal, Dawn Caste Seal, Zenith Caste Seal :)
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