Chapter 323 - Careful Preparations

In the midst of the chaos Firuzeh had a moment of clarity, as if time slowed down around her, where she saw the moment in its entirety.

The shelves and tapestries around the circular room were alight with raging flames. The frantic light reflected off the blood on Firuzeh’s tanned skin and shone in the frenzied eyes of the men and women surrounding her.

They held out their bronze talismans toward her and the teenage oji beside her, waving them while spitting the prayers in the harsh, ancient Fortus tongue. Their shadows stretched out, long and twisted on the uneven stone flooring lined with glowing yellow runes.

This is the end. The thought appeared in Firuzeh’s mind. She was trapped, pressured by the ring of cultist servants in front and the whirring clockwork machine behind her. This is how I die.

It was almost cathartic how the thoughts calmed the tall, elegant Saboteur.

The whirring machine in the center of the room ceased trying to attack Firuzeh and Cheen as the plates locked into place, forming a final three dimension rune with its parts. The ground reverberated with a terrible hum as the debris and blood droplets in the room began to rise into the air.

Firuzeh stood straighter, staring down the head servant who held aloft the glowing brass shell that had ripped Rados’ spirit shard out of her body. The crystals inside the open shell glowed in iridescent hues as arcs of aetheric energy started to spark into the air.

Firuzeh thought to herself, humorously, that she should thank the old crone for freeing her from his influence before her death.

At least she would die in full control of her body.

Her lips curved in a soft smile as an arc of lightning shot from the brass shell to the top of the machine, filling the room with a blinding light.

~

Elsewhere in the underground labyrinth, Char Char had lost all sense of direction after following the fleeting fox through the twisting halls.

Doubt once again crept into her mind as she couldn’t help but wonder if she had made a mistake following her gut. Her instincts said the fox was something special, something helpful, but hadn’t those same instincts gotten her in trouble so many times before?

This is serious, Char Char. We can’t afford to take this lightly.

Her teeth grit together in frustration as the memory of Corbin’s words nagged her, mocked her, looked down on her and her attempts to do something right.

But what was she supposed to do, just be a good girl and let the ‘adults’ handle things and just be okay when things fell apart?

Char Char’s hands clenched into fists, trembling for lack of an outlet to vent her frustrations. She shook her head rapidly, trying to clear her negative thoughts.

The next moment she realized that she had lost track of the fox.

She had unknowingly stepped through a doorway, exiting from the window corridors into a vaulted hall. All was silent, but for a low rumble that vibrated through the earth. She had noticed the vibrations when she first entered the underground. They were subtle at first, but were now increasing in frequency and intensity.

The hall’s darkness extended beyond the reach of Char Char’s small conjured flame, though the lack of echo on her footsteps told her that the space wasn’t too large.

A candelabra mounted to the wall on Char Char’s right caught her attention, and she took the opportunity to light its singular candlestick.

To her surprise, the flame didn’t glow orange, but white instead. She jumped in surprise as another candle puffed to life a few feet down the wall. Then another lit spontaneously shortly after, and another, circling around the room until it reached the other side of the doorway on Char Char’s left.

Twelve candles glowed white, their flames flickering in an invisible breeze.

Have I accidentally activated something? Char Char felt a sudden shame at her impulsive action. Why did I do that?

She thought about running and leaving the chamber, just in case she had activated something dangerous. Then she berated herself for thinking about fleeing and not taking responsibility for her reckless actions.

While her thoughts were in a mess, another tremor coursed through the ground. A wave of aetheric energy imperceptible to Char Char passed through the hall, lighting up the lines of silver and gold embedded into the floor.

The lines began to glow with a white light as a symbol of five concentric circles appeared in the floor. The circles were bridged in various places by lines, with more connections on the outside than the inside.

A soft fog lifted out of the floor as a knee-height structure began to take shape at the center of the symbol.

It was a stone shrine on a rectangular platform, with three circular windows in each of its three walls and a tiled triangular roof.

Char Char was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice the change in her surroundings. Her cheeks were hot, gaze turned downward.

The mystical, wondrous show that would have once impressed the girl and filled her imagination was completely lost on her in her current state.

She didn’t even notice as a soft illusory voice sighed frustratedly in her ears, or see the translucent strands of white hair floating at the edge of her vision.

~

A half continent away, Yuzu pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration at her friend’s lack of appreciation for the supernatural spectacle that she had arranged.

See if I ever do something nice for you again! She grumbled to herself, placing her fingers back on the small crystal ball cradled in her lap.

Yuzu closed her eyes to the physical world, letting her awareness expand into the strings coming from the crystal ball. It was called a lodestone. Yuzu had seen this kind of spiritual item before, months ago before she even knew what the Exalted world was.

The one she had interacted with back then had been owned by the teenage monk from Huan called Edwin. Edwin’s lodestone had been grey and slightly translucent, with a smokiness to it, whereas the one held by Yuzu right now was darker, almost black, its interior flecked with glimmering gold particles. Back then, Yuzu had chanced upon an interaction with Edwin’s master, Ming Ru, and had even altered Edwin’s Fate, allowing him to obtain the catalyst to advance him to Candidate.

At the time Yuzu hadn’t realized what a rare and useful item she had held in her hands. But now she was able to appreciate it. Simply by holding this black lodestone in her hands, she was able to influence events in the world hundreds of kilometres away.

The guru-chi used lodestones to communicate amongst themselves. The spirituality of the user determined the distance the lodestone could reach, and both Bacchi and Somm had ample spirituality to boost the range. They had three total, held by the three eldest brothers— Bacchi, Zashii and Amanu.

Yuzu had helped Nilya succeed in his ascension to Apprentice, and in doing so had gained the absolute trust of Somm. Yuzu didn’t even have to say the words, the guru-chi knew that without Yuzu’s help, Nilya would not have survived drinking the Hollow Ember catalyst.

By bringing Nilya up to the level of Apprentice, Yuzu had also ensured by the strict rules of the guru-chi that Bacchi no longer was able to directly harm Nilya.

The balance of power between Somm and Bacchi had been stabilized, the danger posed by the elder guru-chi had been negated. And Yuzu, through the nature of her assistance to Somm, had risen in status in both of their eyes.

Shortly after Nilya’s ascension Bacchi had revealed the crystal lodestone, using it to contact his brothers. Amanu’s lodestone was unreachable, but the connection was quickly established with Zashii’s.

Zashii’s lodestone was currently held by his oji, Cheen.

Even though the estate had been separated from the physical world, the connection between lodestones was not severed. And she was able to use this connection just as Yuzu had been able to use the link between Nilya’s physical and spiritual bodies to influence the isolated space of Ying Zhen.

Cheen had either ignored or been too busy to access his lodestone, frustrating the guru-chi, but Yuzu quickly discovered that by being in his possession the lodestone still interacted with his spirituality. This was useless for the guru-chi, who seemed to simply be able to use it as a method of direct communication, but Yuzu was able to see the strings across the entirety of the estate.

Through the strings, Yuzu confirmed that Cheen was in fact undergoing the Trial of Succession as Somm and Bacchi had predicted. There were three oji in total in the pocket space, as well as a number of Exalted from various pathways, all embroiled in conflict, with varying degrees of awareness of what was happening.

It amused Yuzu how limited the use of the lodestone was for the guru-chi. Perhaps they didn’t even realize the immense value of the item that they held.

Through the lodestone, Yuzu saw everything that was happening.

With a few indirect words about the trial, Yuzu was able to hint that there was still hope for Somm and Bacchi. Thus they didn’t object when Yuzu requested to hold onto the lodestone. At her behest Somm even prepared a comfortable nook in a hill for her, using his powers to carve out a room-sized space for her use.

Somm had also, in a “gesture of sincerity”, borrowed sixteen gold coins from Bacchi and paid off his debt to her. Thirty gold coins now weighed down her coin pouch, a literal fortune.

In other words they were paying her to interfere with the trial, ensuring that the other guru-chi did not find success, giving them a chance to obtain the Sun God’s inheritance.

Yuzu hadn’t been present at the beginning of the Trial. She wasn’t able to prevent many of the deaths or tragedies that had occurred. However, the event was now under her full control.

She had provided guidance to Old Man Reza, and brought Corbin and Master Reza to his study. With her help, Old Man Reza activated the runes that transported the three of them outside of the pocket space, to their safety.

She had saved Firuzeh, recognizing the Exalted women who had once prayed at the White Maiden’s shrine. The spiritually charged shackles that had prevented Firuzeh’s escape were manipulated by Yuzu to break at the exact moment after the spiritual essence inside Firuzeh had been extracted.

Yuzu didn’t quite understand what happened or what had been extracted from within Firuzeh, but it provided the distraction that let Firuzeh escape. Though Firuzeh suffered a terrible wound, this was the best possible result.

She had connected Cheen with Cecil, and provided the guidance and interference for them reach the corridor at the exact right place and time to save Firuzeh.

She had nudged the strings of the three Exalted so that they would be drawn back into the chamber, despite Cecil’s desire to flee.

This meant Cecil would not be able to stumble upon the shrine of the White Maiden, which appeared as the ritual reached its climax. The small chamber, inscribed with the symbol of the White Maiden, was hidden deep within the labyrinth away from the battle. Cecil had correctly guessed that this was simply a side-effect of the ritual; the cultists seemed to have no awareness of its existence.

This enigmatic man knew too much and acted with a suspicious amount of confidence. Yuzu was particularly careful around him and his thread. The mystery of Cecil’s identity and the backers behind him was put aside for the moment, but Yuzu made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

Had Yuzu not interfered, Cecil would have easily made his way to the chamber and taken the prize — Which was how she discovered the hidden shrine to the White Maiden in the first place.

After distracting Cecil, Yuzu had used the appearance of the red fox to guide Char Char directly to the Sun God’s amulet without any danger. The red fox had been necessary, since Char Char’s Chaos pathway meant Yuzu could not influence her strings directly.

And of course, Yuzu banked correctly on Char Char’s curiosity and imagination to get her to follow the red fox. She knew her friend intimately well, after all.

Now that the Sun God’s amulet was about to be revealed, she would be able to seize it and fulfill her side of the deal with the God of Pre-Eminent Wisdom. She had no doubt that He was carefully observing the situation, or even interfering where he could.

As long as Yuzu achieved her goal, she was fine being a temporary proxy agent of the God.

The Sun God’s amulet had appeared. The Trial of Succession was nearing its completion. The pieces were in place to stop sacrificial ritual and return the estate to the real world.

Yuzu tilted her neck side to side once and stretched her fingers out in front of her. She felt a thrill of exhilaration, like a chess master about to play the winning move after a tense game.

A soft grin touched the edge of her lips.

“Okay then, no more showing off.” She muttered, her grey eyes growing serious, “Time to settle things.”

Dozens of golden threads extended out of the ball, shooting off into the distance as Yuzu gave the ball her full attention.