The morning sun wouldn’t peek out over the trees for another hour or so still, which meant that only the dimmed golden sconces and chandeliers of mage light illuminated Xoco’s personal library just enough for her to navigate. Not that she particularly needed it. She had spent enough time here that navigation to all of her favorite spots had become second nature.

From the lowest sub-basement that had the comfiest velvet and silk cushions with the warmest lights, to the cooler lights shining through the thick glass of the salt water aquarium built into one of the walls casting its light onto a sitting area, and up to the observatory room with all its cosmic design stylings compressed into an ironically small room.

Though as the rain drummed against the windows to provide a soothing rhythm, Xoco found herself on the highest perch available in her library to all not named Nelli. While the feathered serpent could and would sometimes drape herself on the highest golden chandelier up in the domed ceiling, Xoco found herself content to settle for a spot only accessible by climbing up a certain bookshelf to the hammock installed just for her that let her overlook most of the library.

It was her “secret” spot that let her survey all, and the light sconce that was altogether out of place and extremely convenient to her reading up here did not make it any less secret. And though “personal library” actually meant “Xoco’s personal library that she let any servant who wanted to read in here when her family wasn’t looking”, one of her few rules was that this hammock was hers alone. A rule that no one had any objections to as it was quite precarious to get to and involved hanging over a very high drop.

The jungle troll found her pulse quickening as she thumbed through the pages of the novel. Not on account of the book, though on most other days she had found this series quite engaging, but as a result of what she knew lay ahead for the day. She peered out over the side of the hammock, confirming that there were still no servants in the library this early in the morning.

Only a certain rainbow feathered serpent curled up in her lap, eyes closed yet still judging her for being up this early. Xoco knew she wasn’t sleeping, from the occasional tongue flick, and scratched her familiar at the spot where plumage turned into scales to elicit a small squeak of approval.

Her pulse lowered, even as she knew the inevitable was soon to invite itself in through the library’s entrance any moment now. Just enough to enjoy the story for a while. Carefully turn the pages with her claws while rocking back and forth in the hammock. Read about a group of tightly knit friends on an adventure into the unknown finding a day of quiet to celebrate an old holiday that brought them closer together as that all too convenient light illuminates the page. Inaudibly sigh as the library doors opened far below.

Rock back and forth while staring at the pages, and hope that it was going to be good news.

“Xoco?”

That she was hearing her mother’s airy voice and not that of a servant told her that it was something important. And that absolutely no amount of resistance was going to work here. Xoco reached down to Nelli to coax her up onto her shoulders as she called out “I’ll be down in a moment, mother.”

She climbed down out of her hammock and back down the bookshelf with enough speed and grace as to baffle any observers as to how she could do so in her silk sleeping gown so effectively. More ladders and spiral staircases navigated with similar alacrity until she was at the bottom level, finally finding her mother waiting with a large wooden case with golden inlay.

“No floating to the ground?” Xoco’s mother asked as she looked up to her daughter yet still managed to project an air of being larger partially aided by her scarlet macaw familiar perched on her shoulder.

The younger jungle troll sighed as she offered scritches to Nelli. “Air Cloak still doesn’t slow me enough to make that as safe as it could be. And I am poorly dressed for the attempt.”

She said as she put a hand to her silken nightgown that despite its quality was positively plain in comparison to the festive dress her mother had already changed into that had enough gold and gems woven into the fabric that almost rivaled all the jewelry her mother wore.

Almost.

“And the history books shall read that you were already dressed for the day in your very finest when I presented this to you.” She said as she offered out the elongated case to Xoco who eyed it with confusion as she wondered what gift would be so necessary to present far before any Descending Rain festivities had begun. Her mother dispelled that mystery as she pushed the case into her hands. “It is the honor of a mother to present her daughter with a weapon you shall one day pass on to your own descendants.”

Xoco’s eyes finally lit up with realization, pupils going wide enough to almost turn her eyes from pink to black. Once she knew what she was looking at, that it was the case for a sword was all too obvious. Though she wanted to fling open the golden latch and behold what she was certain to be a new rapier, she took her time in tracing her fingers along the heavy case and the designs of gold set into it resembling a feathered serpent not too unlike Nelli. The reddish brown color, floral aroma, and weight of the case led her to suspect it was cocobolo. With the case being such a work of art, she could only imagine what it contained as she finally unlatched it and opened it up.

Almost dropping it in the process as her eyes threatened to leap out of her skull and run off into The Place of Fright, never to be seen again by the living. With wide eyes sparkling, she looked up to her mother to find her own sapphire eyes looking back at her and a pleased smirk on her lips. Xoco looked back down to the sword. It was certainly styled as a rapier, but it was very much still an actual soul blade. The hilt and handguard were all expertly crafted steel, with only the pommel’s unbreakable glass vial to betray anything out of the ordinary before looking at the blade itself.

Or rather the impossible arrangement of prismatic obsidian blades laying in the velvet colored the same violet as Xoco and her mother. They looked as though a long sliver of prismatic obsidian had cracked and was now held together with naught but the grace of The Obsidian Lord himself. Which wasn’t, as many experts on magical craft suspected, too far from the truth.

The dimmed mage light glinted along the blade, giving it the ethereal white glow at the edges that Xoco had only read about for such a blade. She had to look back up from the blade to her mother once more.

“This is…is this truly?”

The middle aged jungle troll gave an amused scoff to match her smirk. “Your father and I thought it a fitting weapon for our newly awakened mage daughter who may one day become the successor to his lineage.”

Xoco’s eyes fell down to the family emblem on the handguard, focusing on the wings and stripes of the creature that helped turn her ancestors from revolutionaries and founders into an enduring economic giant. Her voice struggled to find purchase before she could ask “Where is he now?”

“Regrettably busy with preparations for the day’s festivities.” Her mother stated with a nod before moving on, pointing to the pommel of the sword. “The sword waits for its very first offering, and to be bound to you until you pass it onto your own child. Do you know how to activate it?”

The young mage had only read about it extensively after first learning of it after taking up the rapier. That being the preferred sword design for soul blades. She carefully walked the case over to a nearby study table, setting it down and withdrawing the blade. It was light in her hands, and would take some getting used to, especially after what was to come next. Catching the light of a magelight sconce, she spied the tiny black fang-like protrusion at the bottom of the pommel. With no previous owner, all she had to do was press her thumb to it and endure a sharp pinch to make her wince as the glass vial filled with her blood until it was solidly dark blue.

She held the sword out in front of her as the blade’s ethereal white aura turned the same color as her blood and numerous cracks started to form along the obsidian blade until no black was left and it was a solid dark blue. The blade shattered, every miniscule piece vanishing into nothing as they flew off in every direction. Xoco waved a hand over the top of the hilt, feeling nothing where the blade once sat with wide eyed amazement. She held it back out and away from her as she felt along the hilt for a hidden trigger mechanism, activating it as the blade reformed from nothing accompanied by a sound like glass shattering in reverse with the black obsidian of the blade now smooth enough to be a mirror with the addition of a faint dark blue glow at the edges.

It was nothing short of a work of art, Xoco thought as a parallel thought that her eyes might get stuck in a permanently awed state from marveling at the blade, and in need of an immediate test. Which of course meant swinging it against the nearest chair to see the blade pass harmlessly through the wood, with another slash against a study lamp proving just as harmless.

All further testing against any live targets, and the nightmarish effects it would induce, would hopefully never happen. A click of that same mechanism and the blade burst into nothingness once more at the sound of shattering that one didn’t hear in their ears but within their soul.

“Mother! I can’t thank you enough! This is incredible howdidyouevengetthisIthoughtthat” Xoco stopped herself before pulling her mother into a hug, who only bristled slightly at her dress being disturbed in the embrace, and finally returned it with a pat.

“Wear it well today after you’ve finally gotten ready.” She said with a smile and withdrew from the embrace. “And I must insist that you let the help apply your makeup today. Something fitting for the holiday instead of…”

She made a flippant gesture with her hand and rolled her eyes as her scarlet macaw let out a low squawk, which brought her eyes back to attention and gave her a dagger filled smile.

“Precisely!” She said with a raised finger while backing away. “Maybe you’ll even find a nice boy at the celebrations today so that your next Descending Rain isn’t spent alone. I even picked out a nice dress and matching jewelry for you to wear. The help will assist you with that as well, now I really must finish the day's preparations. See you soon enough!”

And with that, her mother vanished out the carved reddish wooden double doors. Xoco hadn’t even realized she had frozen up, her mother being an expert at packing a number of revelations and commands into something that took only a few breaths and left before they could be mentally processed and silence could be taken as acceptance.

Xoco let out a low, nearly inaudible groan as she placed the sword back in its case. She cursed herself for not expecting her mother to be like this on a holiday that her family was so fond of turning into a grand social function. The case and golden inlay were cool to the touch, despite Xoco’s library like most other rooms being magically temperature controlled to something cozier than the cold and rainy weather outside. Xoco’s fingers traced along it once more as her eyes studied all the little details, while she deliberated on if this was in fact a thoughtful gift or yet another accessory for a prized mage daughter to wear.

The small gold inlay of her name in Old Flatlander glyphs let her lean into believing it was the former, and the young mage relented in a smile while Nelli nuzzled against her neck. With a little effort, she carried the case back to her room that lay through a short connecting passageway that only she ever used. Her own room was quite a bit cozier with only the 2 levels, and Nelli’s newly built enclosure that spanned both levels only added to that with the little slice of jungle within the glass habitat. Xoco released Nelli into the enclosure and watched her fly up to a high branch of one of the trees within before hurrying over to the room’s private baths to quickly wash up before her mother could insist that servants help with that too.

Though her mother had conveniently forgot to demand that her servants fix her hair up in some overly elaborate bun that was in style now, and meant that she was free to tie her hair into a long braid with a festive ribbon running through it just as she had seen in the old portraits in the Ancestor’s Hall. She carefully straightened out any stray strands of violet in her mirror, hoping that the festive ribbon would be enough to let her get away with this.

She straightened out her simple blue and green dress as she rose from her seat and padded along the tile floor in slippers to collect Nelli once more before going to see the servants that were likely already waiting for her. Xoco paused at the door leading from her room into the hallway, leaning her head against it and taking a deep breath before straightening up starting her day.

And letting as much of it go by in a blur as she could.

Her mother’s servants insisted that the lovely colorful dress that she had picked out was not lovely and colorful enough, and several shades off from what the rest of her family would be wearing this year. Earrings of emerald and sapphire replaced her preference of jade and turquoise. And makeup that hid a few too many of the stripes on her face. Every single polite plea for an servant to even consider changing things up slightly and going against her mother’s wishes was met with even more careful avoidance of eye contact and recited insistence that Xoco’s mother simply wanted her looking her best for all the guests.

That being before an array of rings, necklaces, bracelets, ankle bracelets, bangles to make every other movement produce a gentle clinking sound. That Nelli’s preferred perch was draped around Xoco’s neck and covered most jewelry was an argument that had been futile soon after the young mage had received the rainbow feathered serpent, as the sacred beast was more valuable than everything else she was wearing combined.

One of the only solaces she was allowed was that she was given a stylish leather belt to hang her new sword on. She lost track of however long it took to have servants put all of this on, but they had her escorted to the main dining hall just as the sun was finally peeking in through the lowest of the windows as it struggled against the rain clouds. Though she wasn’t announced, there was still enough of a stir in the already large assembled crowd. A steadily growing sea of invited guests and their families. Executives within her family’s Great Corporation and its many branches, negotiators from rivals, aspirant business partners, military liaisons, and high society guests.

Most of The Empire’s peoples had at least one representative at these events, and the numerous interpretations of festive Descending Rain attire was as dazzling as the weapons each guest wore. Xoco had faced these crowds before with a smile, a wave, and a thank you directed at no one and everyone. It had long been second nature, though as the newly awakened mage of her family who bore a rainbow feathered serpent on her shoulders and a soul sword at her hip she drew far more attention than she was used to.

Or comfortable with.

Four hundred questions about her plans as a mage and for the family by revelers already on their fifth drink of honey based alcohol, all before she could make her way to the raised platform at the center of the room where most of her family had gathered around this year’s indoor rain display as an immobile cloud far above at the ceiling produced rains to match those outside, the magical water collecting in a tiled mosaic pool bearing a golden statue of the family emblem in the center before vanishing.

The festive attire of the family mixed seasonal greens and blues to compliment their own teal skin and black stripes, with the adults in particular bearing just enough skin to show off the tattoos that displayed wealth status and adulthood alike. Though all her siblings assembled so far were quick to compliment her, she didn’t miss her mother’s smile that failed to hide the twitch of her lip at seeing her choice in hairstyle today that contrasted the elaborate high buns and ponytails of her sisters.

“Xoco!” Her mother’s disapproval was only discernible in her eyes to those who had grown up with her as she spread her arms out before resting them on her taller daughter’s shoulders. “You look positively stunning today! Even with your choice of…hmm”

She ran a claw along the long braid and the ribbon woven in. “Vintage-”

“Ancestral style on this of all weeks!” Xoco said with a bright smile filled with razors to show there truly was no malice or double talk in her words, though invoking the ancestors was enough to get her mother to recoil and relent as the young mage continued unabated. “The Festival of Hunters! We-”

“Can wait a day for us to return to that while we have another lovely holiday to celebrate!” Her mother exclaimed while stretching her arms out and displaying a number of tattoos of a stylized macaw like the one ever perched on her shoulder. The troll matriarch caught the eye of one of her grandchildren who had yet to develop an ability to talk back. “Enjoy yourself and make some connections!”

Xoco sighed, deciding to spend some time with her siblings in the early morning festivities before even more guests arrived. Her father and mage brother were nowhere to be found, and both were likely running around ensuring everything was just so. Ikal was the only other mage of her siblings, and until she had awoken he had been unchallenged as next in line as head of the family despite not being the eldest. Though she was a potential complication, Xoco wanted nothing to do with heading a family of military and corporate interests so her brother Ikal had continued on as though he were still the undisputed successor.

Let him have it, Xoco thought to herself. He was already incredibly accomplished in the family trade, with new products and innovations to his name. Which sat fine with her, as Xoco could at least appreciate the pursuits of another mage even if he was…harsh to those outside the family sometimes.

One of her older sisters had just snatched a small plate of breakfast finger foods from a passing servant and was already gobbling up a green caviar the same shade as her military dress before she could compliment Xoco’s new sword and upcoming attendance at Black Reef Institute. She even offered to obtain an entire list of the children of known business rivals that would be attending, which Xoco quickly shut down as she insisted that she would be there to learn rather than be a part of any business scheming.

Which got a hearty laugh from her sister, who dabbed at the tears at the corners of her eyes before looking up to her younger sister with a sympathetic smile and a gentle pat on the arm before she vanished into the crowd without another word.

And after two more siblings asking what plots she would be up to at school and who she had her eyes on, Xoco decided it would be easier to dodge such questions if she moved to another room with performers in elaborate displays of fire dances and illusory marvels that defied reality all in vignettes of Descending Rain tales. Primarily from Mayab rather than Aztlan to give the celebrations a more “exotic” regional feel rather than the form the holiday took at the capital region.

Which was appreciated!

The elements of the primarily foreign interpretation of the holiday as one that pulled double duty as a lovers’ day was less appreciated.

Which hadn’t always been true in years previous when Xoco was only the youngest daughter of one of the most powerful Great Corporations such that age and her more notable siblings deterred most suitors.

Now? The servants had switched to lunchtime offerings and she had politely declined at least five separate boys thus far. All of them following the same routine of heaping praise upon her before talking up themselves and their families. Followed by an unsubtle proposal that they spend some time together today. Each time, she politely declined the arrogant strangers who knew not a thing about her and spoke of her family’s accomplishments like she had earned any of them, and spoke of their own family’s deeds like they themselves were responsible for them.

That well practiced smile and politesse always made the rejection easier, their ego and the notion that they would simply find some other girl here sent them away without much issue. Though the fifth had insisted that she was mistaken.

“So…” Xoco looked down to the forest green goblin parading about on a basilisk, raising a brow as he avoided eye contact. “You weren’t asking me out on a date and were just-”

He waved her off as he interrupted. “Proposing a fortuitous business partnership. Perhaps I was too subtle in my machinations and my charm was misinterpreted as romantic interest. You’re not my type anyway.”

“Oh truly a pity indeed um…hmm-” Xoco put a hand to her chin as her amused grin endured. “Jearx, was it?”

The goblin forced a laugh though his eyes were screaming loud enough for anyone looking his way to see. “Foolish mistake but I won’t hold it against you. I’m just not into girls as tall as you. And anyways, your height would just…well you know.”

Xoco tilted her head and her lips closed over sharp teeth though her grin endured. Nelli looked up to her with minute concern. “Do I?”

“Hmm?”

“Do I know…what, exactly?” The jungle troll said with clasped hands and an enduring smile that didn’t make it up to her eyes that were filling with pink disgust.

“We would be fantastic business partners but the height would just…” Jearx crossed his arms after flicking at an invisible mote of dust. “Don’t despair, certainly someone wouldn’t see it as an obstacle-”

The jungle troll snapped her fingers and pointed to the ceiling. “Business partners! Yes! A wonderful proposal! And I know just how to test if we should proceed with such an important endeavor!”

She took a step back as she unhooked her sword from her belt, activating it with a sound of unshattering glass and leveling it at the goblin’s face. All with the same grin that was so false as to be deliberate. “A duel would be appropriate, don’t you think?”

Jearx froze up as though his basilisk had turned its gaze on him, as did most of the surrounding crowd in the hallway with large glass windows being battered with rain. He gulped as he looked down to the spectral blade and onlookers formed a circle with rising excitement. The goblin cleared his throat. “Appropriate for a business proposal that is…in doubt.”

“A girl of my height would likely be bumbling and uncoordinated.” The tall troll girl lamented with a sigh and eyes that didn’t waver in the slightest in their focus on the sweating goblin teen. “And I can understand your hesitance in dealing with me on account of the rare gems your family mines. What better way to prove my grace than a duel? Fear not! For I shall only aim for your limbs.”

The young goblin’s eyes were locked on the blade as he gulped once more. His hand didn’t even twitch towards his spear on his basilisks’ saddle. There were certainly enough blood mages on staff that the effects of a limb strike wouldn’t last too long, and the effects he had only ever read about wouldn’t haunt his nightmares for too many years. But the torso or head?

He slicked back his black hair with some of the sweat accumulating on his forehead as he scoffed and his basilisk hissed. “I…must decline…my offer was perfectly valid-”

“So you yield?”

“AND I shall not be entertaining such a challenge to the honor of my family.” Jearx said as his basilisk turned and started scampering off while he called out. “Truly a shame!”

“I accept your yielding!” Xoco shouted after him with a smile that had once again begun to show teeth before clicking her sword back to only a hilt with a shattering sound that still somehow didn’t sound like it was actually hitting her ears. The gathered crowd gave a cheer, sated not by physical violence but by conversational violence that made Xoco both disgusted and glad that she had learned the art from her mother.

Nelli’s chin nuzzles were enough to keep her spirits high as she weaved through the cheering crowd until she was stopped by a familiar face beaming bright at her.

“Aunt Xelha!” The troll girl exclaimed as she threw her arms around her aunt, who was all too happy to return the favor in a tight embrace. Her eyes then flew open as realized how rude she was being to her uncle by marriage, quickly remembering to bow to the oni. “And Uncle Norikazu!”

He pulled her into a hug with a chuckle. “You will not deny me a hug from my favorite niece!”

“Oh don’t pick favorites!” Xelha chided with her own laugh before leaning in to whisper “But you are my favorite too.”

The young mage felt blood rising to her face to turn her a darker green as Nelli gave an approving squeak to her aunt and uncle. “When did you get here?”

“Just in time for lunch and a show.” The older troll woman failed to suppress another chuckle as she adjusted a cloth bag beneath her arm that bore tattoos of a decidedly traditional and non-traditional mixture. “We attended a lovely Festival of Hunters celebration early in the morning that was tempting to stay at, but we could hardly miss seeing all of our nieces and nephews! And my sister. Also her husband.”

The sisterly rivalry between her aunt and mother always left Xoco with little to do but give a pained, wincing smile. “We’re still glad to have you here!”

“And we are very grateful for that!” Her uncle Norikazu insisted while placing a large green hand on his wife’s elbow. “And we promise we’ll even stay for dinner this time!”

“But in the terrible event that something were to force us to leave early!” The teal troll woman said as she handed the fine cloth bag over to Xoco while her husband gave a small shake of his head. “Your Descending Rain gifts!”

Xoco took the bag in her hands before carefully extracting a book on ancient draconic scripts, causing the young troll girls’ eyes to light up.

“I didn’t think they had deciphered any of those yet!” She exclaimed as she flipped through the pages.

Her aunt took the opportunity to give Nelli some scritches and a freshly dead, still warm mouse. “According to one of Norikazu’s employees, they deciphered enough to recognize that even some of the same scripts aren’t necessarily the same language!”

Before she decided to read the entire book here in the middle of a large hallway as party guests passed her by with curious looks, she withdrew her second gift from the bag and revealed a purple umbrella that mixed more vintage aesthetics into a collapsible modern design.

“That-” Her uncle pointed with one black claw as he gestured with his other arm to follow he and Xelha to a less crowded part of the estate. “-is my gift. It also comes with a story!”

Aunt Xelha only shook her head with an amused smirk as the green oni man launched into a tale beneath a window still beset by rain. “When I was young and foolish, rather than old and foolish now, I believed I would be fine leaving a regional office on my own. A surprise heavy rain showed me my hubris as I took refuge in a roadside shrine. Until I beheld an exotic foreign beauty with striped skin bearing an umbrella, walking through the rains.”

“You are a charmer, but continue.” Xelha said as she rolled her eyes as her husband’s smile bore more tusk fangs.

“This exquisite woman saw me standing there, already soaked to the bone from the rain, and offered to walk with me under her umbrella. I spoke in my language, and believed she would not know ‘In the stories here, it’s usually the boy who offers a fair maiden an umbrella to share.’ The fair maiden in question scoffed and responded in my language ‘Perhaps I should leave, then if I am unwelcome?’ and I told her ‘No! I like a woman of action!’ The rest was history.”

Xelha gave him a peck on the cheek and traced along a large tattoo that extended out from underneath the sleeve of his formalwear. The mixture of designs from he and his wife’s people always interested Xoco. “We’ve both long been ones to modify tradition. That’s what helps new ones get started.”

“Maybe you’ll find some dashing young man in desperate need of an umbrella of your own some day!” The oni said with a hearty laugh as his niece rolled her eyes, though her smile and slight blush told him she was amused.

“Thank you uncle, auntie.” Xoco said, clutching the gifts to her chest. “I’ll go run these to my room before I join mother and father for the dough effigy ceremony.”

The older jungle troll raised a brow as she nodded to a passing servant. “Not going to have someone do that for you?”

Xoco shook her head. “My family is overworking them enough. And with a primarily jungle troll staff, we’re making them work two holidays today.”

Her aunt gave a wry smile up at the girl. “So good to see you didn’t completely take after my sister. Now, how big is this year’s effigy and what filling are they using?”

“Record profits means as large as a mastodon, and filled with blueberry jelly with gold leaf…but you didn’t hear that from me!” Xoco said with a faux whisper.

Xelha rolled her eyes and groaned. “I suppose I can bear seeing that woman disembowel the effigy with a giant axe once more if it’s blueberry…”

Xoco excused herself down a passageway unused by guests during the day’s events, and at the moment it even lacked servants. The dull buzz of the crowds died down, giving the jungle troll a moment to exhale and take her time walking along. Her deerskin boots were flat to not add any more to her already considerable height, which did little to help being on her feet for the entire day. She caught sight of the sun through a high window. Or rather lack thereof.

Was it that late or was it just raining that hard?

Perhaps time slipping out of her grasp so easily wasn’t so bad if it meant she missed seeing her father for most of the day, she thought to herself as she recognized where she was in the labyrinthine estate. If she was away too long, her family would send someone after her again to drag her back and they had long caught onto the claims of servants who “couldn’t find her despite my best efforts!” Those best efforts being avoiding where they knew Xoco would sometimes hide as a thanks for her kindness.

But she did still have time to take a detour into the Hall of Ancestors.

It was a central room in the estate with high ceilings but no windows to keep the sun off of all precious artifacts and art. The stonework of the walls and the tile floor were notably plain here to not distract from all the portraits of ancestors and associated artifacts that were tied to them to form a familial museum. There were grand temples of smaller size than this room where the visages of her family long past looked upon her, their stories written in metal plates beneath portraits or sculptures. Any time she wandered through here, Xoco noted that it was something of an art history lesson as the works spanned the entire history of The Empire.

And there at the far end of the room with the largest display to rival a similar one located in The Founders Hall in The Capital was something of a shrine dedicated to Kuxtal and Xareni. The family was, very technically speaking, older than those two. But the couple had been cast out by their families for awakening as mages when such a thing was scorned instead of treasured. Each had an embossed metal plate detailing their separate early life stories until they awakened and fled into the jungle. At the point in their story that they joined the man who would one day be Emperor and his 400 mage army, it became a tale of love and war to match any ancient traditional story.

Xoco gazed up at the ancient depiction of Xareni, every bit as tall as her husband standing next to her and built as one would expect of the woman who may as well be synonymous with both “warrior woman” and “battle mage”. The young mage found herself here more often lately, looking up at that ancient portrait with a frown that would turn into a cautious smile as she would feel better about her own physique. Kuxtal demanded just as much admiration from the girl, as a man who’s name still doubled as shorthand for a smart person in some places.

His old notes in the Old Flatlander Glyps were an ongoing test of her practice in reading that old script, especially with how technical yet flowery it could get at times. Xoco looked over her shoulders, finding only Nelli staring back at her from her shoulders. She found a passage from his journals that she set about reading, eyes lighting up as she recognized the Granted Name of The Emperor from before he gained his Attainment Name, marking this passage as exceptionally old.

“...I am not the only jungle troll with these doubts. Xareni feels them too. If we are pariahs, why should we not cast all that we were into the sea and be washed of the old ways as we enter a new time? It is almost the Festival of Hunters, and it will not be the only holiday being lamented over in camp…”

“I told Huitzitl of my concerns, and he said I wasn’t even the first to voice them. He didn’t let me lament that fact for one second before he corrected me, and said that was a good thing. There is unity to be found for the lost, he said, but those that cast us out shall not take who we are from us. He told me that they would not be the sole proprietors of the ways of a people. ‘If we are going to change things, we must start somewhere.’ And I now find myself with the task of arranging a Festival of Hunters celebration with Xareni, as he will help arrange a Descending Rain day, and others their own days. That seems like quite a few celebrations to hold for outcasts hiding in the wilds, but I can see the morale and camaraderie benefits. I will also never turn down nary a chance to get to know Xareni better, and-”

Xoco stared at the glyphs for a moment longer before her eyes raised to an ancient sketch of the earliest members of the 400 in their first year, already a diverse group. All smiling.

She hurried off towards her room to deposit her newest gifts, passing by a long line of her ancestors whose unmoving visages all asking what her own story would be. A few exhausted looking servants had been sitting on the floor or leaning against the wall in a side passageway, and scrambled to attention when they saw her before she could promise them that she would not tell her family. Though they believed her, they worried about retaliation even more as they bowed and curtsied and swore to never let it happen again and rushed off back to the party.

The young mage stood alone for a moment before the Hall of Ancestors, her eyes cast downward and the nuzzles of a certain feathered serpent going unnoticed as she continued on her way.