[Exalted] Protectors of the River Province

[Hotfoot]

Liayna froze as the word left Orduin's mouth. Her fingers gripped the sash around her waist before she took a breath and let go. The part of her that wanted to scream and run had almost won, and Orduin was nearly shown how just how deadly a body Liayna really had. "I've already passed out some drinks. "Oh, but we have just met, dear Orduin, and while you've certainly piqued my interest," She smiled, looking over Yvele and Kolth. The former was new, and presumably the captain the others had mentioned previously, while Kolth was the slender man who she had not gotten a good look at before. After a moment of appreciating the new arrivals, she quickly poured drinks for each, then again for herself and any others that needed refills.

"Still, I don't recall ever agreeing to anything. I had a passing thought of something from long ago, and you rough, tough mercenaries suddenly seem to know me even though I barely have the slightest about you., and already you're calling me such nasty names." She pouted her lips and pretended to act hurt, looking at Ake and Teamhair plaintively.

[Marcao]

“We should arm wrestle sometime and put that theory to the test.â€

[LadyTevar]

Teamhair took another sip of her whiskey, watching the sudden panic in Liayna's demeanor, and the efforts to hide it. The Lunar couldn't resist trying to break the young woman's calm again.

"You have not changed a bit, my dear," Teamhair said, lazily sipping the whiskey to help hide her smirk. "Already, you're draping yourself over your chosen bedpartner for the night." It was a shot in the dark, the Courtesian taking the brief image of the man in living silk and giving him the current incarnations lustiness. "Back then, you'd do anything with a hole ... or found a way to become the bottom yourself."

Why she was being this cruel to the young woman, Teamhair couldn't say. It was just entirely too amusing to tweak Liayna.

Orduin raised an eyebrow, but said nothing until his Lunar mate started getting catty. Then he lifted his hand placatingly. "Enough," he said, in gentle warning to Teamhair.

[rhoenix]

Though Orduin was getting a bit annoyed at the byplay between Teamhair and Liayna, Kolth was getting more amused by the minute. He adjusted his sitting position to be more comfortable.

He'd give them another couple minutes before he did anything - until then, he'd enjoy the entertainment of two beautiful rival redheads.

[Hotfoot]

The edge of nervousness that had nearly worn off was spiked by Teamhair's comment, only this time, instead of fearing for her life, she was now facing the loss of her carefully played game. "Oh, come now my dear Teamhair, I seem to recall you finding ways to fill every role in the bedroom yourself, as it suited you. There's nothing to be ashamed of in living life, in loving each moment as it comes and not having regrets," Slowly, she made her way to Teamhair's seat, leaning in close, allowing the other woman full view of her kimono's neckline. The same perfume that moments before had gently wafted into Ake's nose was all around Teamhair. A free hand gently caressed the other woman's jaw, guiding her eyes up to meet Liayna's.

Their faces mere fractions of an inch from each other, Liayna's green eyes locked with Teamhair's, and her voice became but a whisper for Teamhair alone, "I would not think of taking the happiness you have found away from you, my dear. I could search hundreds of years and not find the joy I saw in your eyes as you walked into my caravan. Truly, you are blessed. Revel in that." She leaned in as though to kiss Teamhair, but instead, simply touched her forehead gently to her own, mindful of the tiara that covered where her own caste mark should be.

Standing up once more, she took in the responses from the rest of the gathered circle, her free hand still lingering near Teamhair.

[LadyTevar]

Teamhair had to admit Liayna was attractive, and very skilled in flirtation. Had the young woman remained face to face, Teamhair would have kissed her right there.

"It would not be the first time we've shared," Teamhair replied, taking Liayna's hand in her own, gently rubbing her face over the back, brushing the skin with her lips without kissing. "However, I would truly love to know where you found that scent, and what price you'd ask of me for it."

[SirNitram]

"I do believe my Lookshyian reputation as disciplined and avoiding indulgence is about to take quite a few hits from innuendo alone. In that case, I do believe it's time for a drink." Orduin chuckled softly. "Forgive me if I don't join in the flirting. I honestly don't remember much of that time."

[rhoenix]

"Oh no, it's alright," said Kolth with an grin. "Some things really are best as spectator events. But now that we've established that both women like teasing the living piss out of people, can we move onto the 'well now what?' part of the meeting?"

He resisted the temptation to relight his blunt. For now.

[Hotfoot]

Liayna's heart skipped a beat as Teamhair persisted. This was nothing like what her Sifu had done. When she first tried to work her wiles on him, he had given her a lecture that had lasted the better part of a day. It was the first time she had that many visions in one day of guilt, shame, and some of the horrible things she...he may have done in a past life.

And here was Teamhair, with her soft touch and smooth skin, her silken voice, and her sweet words. Was it still a game? How much was real, maybe neither knew. She resisted going any further, instead giving Teamhair's hand a gentle squeeze before pulling away gently. "Ask me another time, I'll be sure to save some for you then."

She poured another drink for Orduin while smirking at his comments. "Well my dear Orduin, my advice is that if you're going to earn a reputation from rumors, you might as well enjoy the acts that come with them," she shot a quick smile back at Teamhair before moving back to the other three guests. Since Kolth decided to talk first, she focused in on him. "Well, we could always get to know each other, but I think it is far too early in the day for that, and I still have customers outside waiting for me. For now, I'd be happy with less talking in riddles and more of a solid reason for why I have been blessed with so many new faces, all of whom seem to know the man in my visions almost as well as I do."

[rhoenix]

"Well," said Kolth with a sigh, as his facial expression and body language grew more serious, and much less casual, "personally, I have my suspicions already as to how all of us, who just happen to be one of each...time of day (with the exception of Teamhair, of course), managed to meet up at similar times in the same place without prior knowledge."

There was a pregnant pause after that. "However, that's mostly because I really don't believe in coincidence. In following that pattern though, and because Teamhair and others here 'remembers' you, it's a good indicator that you're supposed to be here now, and to meet up with us, at this time. Why? I have no idea. For what purpose? Again, jury's out - what I do know is that those with sunny dispositions are showing up a lot more lately, those with the blood of dragons in their veins have been seeing more and more upheaval."

He paused again, though more to let the above that sink in, than to collect his thoughts, as before. "Whatever, or whoever us behind us meeting up like this as we are also knows that we evidently knew one another long ago - or can make us believe we can. We are meeting one another for a purpose that is as of yet unknown, that is for certain. Until we know more, reasonable guesses are all we have."

"However," he said, his face brightening as his trademark mischievous smirk re-appeared, "that certainly doesn't mean we can't plan on some fun and interesting times in the near future, unless I'm missing my guess."

[LadyTevar]

While Kolth began to give his two dinar's worth, Teamhair was more straight to the point.

"Because we were there, my dear," Teamhair answered, allowing her Hide Of The Cunning Hunter to fall away. Silver tattoos shown over her body, peeking out from under the linen blouse, curling over the Lunar's skin in ancient symbols of her deeds.

But that was not all -- her hair brightened from a soft auburn to a bright foxy red, twin vupine ears standing upright from within the thick silken mass. Her golden eyes gleamed slightly as Teamhair smiled at Liayna. "Have I changed that much from the woman in your vision?"

"Still, Kolth is right. Whether Luna or Unconquered Sun, we've been drawn together for a purpose," she finished, again slipping into the Hide Of The Cunning Hunter, her tattoos vanishing, her hair darkening, her ears again looking human.

[Academia Nut]

"All of Creation is threatened by the events of recent years. The dead walk amongst us, preying upon the living. The Fair Folk invader further and further every year and the those with the military might to push them back are too concerned with hunting our kin or their own affairs to stop the monsters. Darkness surrounds us. It is any surprise the gods of light are gathering us together?" Ake noted.

"This circle being reunited, for that is what I truly think it is, a reunion of what once, could be the nucleus of an army, of those who will not bow before the shadows in the night, no offence Kolth, and we could take back creation from the Deathlords and the Fae. We could push them back to the holes where they belong. We have the power, thus we have the responsibility to help."

[rhoenix]

"Oh, none taken," said Kolth with a smile. "We shadows of the night usually prefer shrieks of horror to bowing, anyway."

"More seriously," he continued, since he did feel this meeting was momentous enough to merit being at least half-serious, "the timing does seem to be seemingly good, doesn't it? What worries me is that it's just about too perfect - the setup can easily tip to the glorious re-emergence of those with sunny dispositions, or it could lead to the rest of them being caught and corrupted, along with others like the necro-bestial spank tart we ran into a couple days ago. Either way, dashing into action headlong is probably going to be a bad idea in most cases."

[SirNitram]

"We make our own fate, in defiance of stars. So said an old man I knew who had learned to channel Essence, speaking of his peers. Let's prove it by avoiding the many pitfalls before us." Orduin rumbled softly.

"Still. It is very convenient, but then again, perhaps that's fate itself. A Perfect Circle.. All records that survived indicated it's auspicious as hell. And the East needs all the auspicious it can get."

[LadyTevar]

"all we need to do is see if your Lunars are around," Teamhair added wryly. "Then we truly will have a full circle. However ... if they are not here yet, I don't think they will come."

[rhoenix]

At this, Kolth raised an eyebrow and a smirk grew on his face. "Present company excluded of course, right? I'd say that your very presence here is a precedent."

[LadyTevar]

"My presence here is to keep this one," her thumb jerked to Orduin, "out of trouble. When he gets upset, he destroys entire cities."

That was, of course, in the First Age.

[Marcao]

“I believe that Ake has a point.â€

[rhoenix]

One of the dreams came to him again, as they did sometimes, capriciously, when he was awake. It only lasted an instant, but it appeared that an entire day of memory passed in that instant, leaving Kolth looking drawn, and somewhat tired - as if he'd seen something terrible.

"...I think some of us Solars did very bad things for the cause of 'good and justice,' deplorable things," he said in a quiet voice.

"I don't know much about my previous incarnation, but compassion was not one of her strong suits. It takes a special kind of person to slaughter an entire town, even if it was for death worship," he said, looking lost in troubled thought.

"I know for a fact that if we truly come back to the world," he continued after a moment, "the last thing I want is for us to become drunk and lazy due to our power again. I don't know too much about my First Age self," he said, looking at the others with eyes that seemed haunted, "but I know I couldn't ever live with myself if we fought for freedom and justice, and ended up casually slaughtering people because it was a more expedient solution. If nothing else, I would consider that the lesson we should have learned from our forced vacation - the lesson of hubris. My sincere hope is that we don't forget that. Ever."

With that, he lit his half-smoked blunt (though remembered to check to make sure windows were open), and began to slowly smoke it, eyes staring out the window.

[Marcao]

His attention oscillated between those gathered around him. He was not a master of human emotions; he was not some sort of insightful buyer easily able to peel aside the nuances of human emotion. Still, he caught sight of Kolth and almost instantly felt something change. He was not sure why he felt it; he was not even certain why he had glanced towards Kolth when he had. He was certain that if he had not looked in his direction at precisely that moment, he would have missed what had transpired. It was as if Kolth had…deflated. There was no better way for him to rationalize what his eyes had seen.

When Kolth spoke in his quiet voice he listened. It was a sharp contrast to his usual cynicism. He did not interrupt him as he spoke, he would not even have dreamed of it. It was a side of Kolth that he had not seen before and it was a striking change to the mischievous prankster that always seemed in tune with his emotions.

“I do not doubt that your words.â€

[rhoenix]

Still looking out the window, Kolth had an absent quality to his voice, as if not all of him was focused completely on the answer. "The very re-emergence of the Solars has already caused a palpable shift. Even if only a few Solars choose to work toward the supposed 'glory' of the First Age, even if every single last Solar chooses to retire to a small plot of land somewhere remote and ignore everyone else, there will still be palpable effects."

Pausing to take a hit of his blunt, he continued as he exhaled smoke in wispy tendrils that seemed to reach sinuously for the window. "If we pretentiously call ourselves 'Lawgivers' based on some vague feeling that we're the ones supposed to be creating laws, then the Solars will once again create a society based on power that will eventually crumble and fall, just like before. We will have deluded ourselves into believing that the little shiny thrill we get for being of Sol somehow gives us the right to bully others around, and the exalts created to be bringers of light, truth, and justice will have done nothing but prove all the Immaculate propaganda about the Anathema accurate."

With that though, he turned to look at Yvela - his eyes still seeming to hold the afterimages of horrific images that the imagination paints over the eyes long after the sight has gone away. The look on his face, however, was one of haunted determination. "If we are to work toward something, I want to know what that something will be. If we are to hone and focus our power to accomplish an end, I must know what that end will be, and whether or not consequences and effects have been discussed."

He began shaking his head as he took another hit. "The question is not whether or not I'm willing to give my life if necessary - if something must be done, I do have the stomach to give a life for it, whether mine or someone else's. However, that's a steep consequence, and one that can add up very swiftly in seemingly isolated incidents."

As he exhaled, a faint ghost of his usual smile appeared on his face, though it was mixed with finality, and sadness. "If many others like us think as you do Yvela, then my duty is clear - I must keep the rest of us in line, lest we suffer a repeat of last time."

[Marcao]

It was strange. He had not expected to involve himself in a conversation such as this with Kolth but it was too late to stop the words now. He understood that something was at play here, and it may be best for this debate to occur now than later. In a sense, an understanding reached now before the entirety of the circle was an appropriate one. “The Unconquered Sun does not choose those that would willingly hide from themselves. We are all here because we are all willing to affect change in our own way.â€

[rhoenix]

At Yvela's words, Kolth nodded, looking a bit more thoughtful and animated than before; it was as if the images were haunting him less. With their absence came a marked increase of his focused attention.

There was a subtle feeling that he felt as this conversation continued; it was almost as if Yvela and he had picked up an old custom that they'd been interrupted from for a while - ethical and philosophical discussion. "All the shiny wonders in all the world mean nothing if their very presence means others must suffer so that we may be great. I cannot and will not support such a point of view," he said, shaking his head.

"I hear your words, and I agree with that - however, due to our very power and our presence, we should focus on making sure we bring others up to our level and therefore cause all of us - Solar, Lunar, Iguana-Blooded, or otherwise - to aspire to greater things and higher ideals. If we view ourselves as the greater things to which others must hold as an ideal, then we have not learned from our fall, and we will repeat our mistake," he said, pausing to take a more thoughtful-looking pull from his pungent-smelling cigar.

Once he exhaled, he continued. "I agree that we have the potential to make all the world a far better and beautiful, not to mention wondrous place. But with that potential comes also the potential for its opposite - the potential to wreak immense suffering and horror. We may not be as directly bad as Abyssals; in a way, they're better off than we are since they're all kept on very short leashes - we currently only have our own ethical compasses to guide us. If those compasses are allowed to use ego as North, no matter how prettily it might be cloaked, then we are no better than the Abyssals who once stood with us in the sun - in fact, we would be much worse."

With all that, he leaned back with a smile - not a smirk, but a true smile. "I too feel the pull to action, to do something, to right the wrongs of the world. But the ego can blind one to one's duties, and when one has powerful tools to draw upon, one must be doubly more careful about using them correctly, and for the benefit of all."

[SirNitram]

Orduin was silent a long time, but when he did speak, it was with quiet words that held the weight of what was considered. "I remember only flickers of ancient days. I know I held power, and I suspect I did not always use it wisely. But I am reborn, and a new chance is at hand. I will not pretend to know more than I do; the mark on my forehead names me 'Scholar', but I'm not so informed as to know perfectly what all of this means."

He turned a bit, casting a gaze towards the door. "I am Gunzosha. Before any deity reached down to me and made proclamations, I was Gunzosha. First into battle, last to leave. I have led men to slaughters of our enemies, and I have led men to their deaths in the vain hope we would buy inches, seconds, a fraction of a chance with each drop of blood we shed. This was a choice I made when being Gunzosha meant I would be dead before my fiftieth summer, even if I was never injured. I was granted a longer life. Another chance. But I am Gunzosha; and my blood is the people's. It will be shed, and I will shed the wicked's, for them."

[Hotfoot]

Liayna sipped her whiskey as the two new additions to the room started debating the finer points of destiny, exaltation, and other such heavy topics along with the rest of her guests.

"Well, I'm all for changing the world, boys, but I don't think we'll do that in my wagon mid-day," a sly smile played on her lips. "Besides, I wouldn't want to ruin my reputation as a respectable merchant here in Lookshy until at least after the sun set." She slid up between Kolth and Yvela, making her presence well known through body language, scent, and the intonation of her voice. "Grand though the Unconquered Sun is, some things are best out of his sight," a playful look lit up her face as she willfully attempted to distract them from their discussion with her charm.

"Besides, don't I get a say in all of this?" Her look was one of demure pouting, now, as though hurt that the others all clearly had plans that they wanted to enact, all now that she was here. "If I'm helping make this perfect circle, or whatever it is you say I'm going to do, I think I should have a part in all these grand schemes of yours, don't you think?"