Exalted: Dreams of Exaltation - Prelude: Bronze Tiger

[Krul]

Saiya stood with his daughter, as they moved north toward the An Teng prefecture, a weeks of travel and they should be on the coast, prepared to catch a ship to the Threshold, and from there, head to nexus. They had traveled from Gem, over the mountains this way, due to the caravan having several stops along the way in small markets, and target of reaching An Teng. They were traveling with the caravan, for safeties sake, and he was hopeful for the future.

"What's that, Daddy?" The cute young girl at his side, pointed to the east, and the retired soldier looked up, and his face went slightly pale. The rising dust in the distance had to be caused by a marching army, and from the looks of things, there was another indication of dust in the east.. from the looks of things, they were about to to find themselves in the center of a battle.

For a moment, the middle aged warrior felt a hint of fear, how was he going to protect his daughter in the middle of a battle? He didn't worry to much about the rest of the caravan, though there was a hint of concern there as well. But Saiya had never been a man without courage, reached down he checked his sword, and looked over at his daughter.

In the next few minutes, a full scale battle rolled over the hills, one small army charging into another.. as he had feared, the caravan was on the edge of this battle, and it's presence was ignored. Within ten minutes, he was fighting to protect himself and his daughter, but his skill was not enough.. not quite... but he would not yield, or give up.. and a blade struck his forehead, causing blood to cover his right eye for a moment.. and giving him a terrible headache.

In that instant, time seemed to stop, and the sun appeared to speak out to him, with a voice both beautiful and glorious. "Rise up, my warrior, I see your courage, and I anoint you a warrior against the darkness, bring light to the darkness and hope out of despair." Suddenly a golden aura surrounded him, and he remembered.. even as he parried every blow, without paying it all that much attention, with increasingly incredible ability, he remembered.. Another age, another time, a time of glory and splendor... a time that ended in betrayal and loss.. looking down, he saw a young girl, and he knew he cared for her, that he loved her, and fought to protect her.. but he knew nothing else.. his memories didn't mesh with what was.

[Seiya]

The battle raged around him, his hands hefting the blade without effort, parrying and subduing his foes even as he looked to the young Child.

Finally, He and the girl stood alone all his foes defeated. H came to her, his breathing deep, and heavy. "Child, Who am I? What, what happened here?"

He looked around, at a body he didn't know, and listened to a voice that wasn't his. The world was not as he knew it, and who he was before was lost forever. The Soldier turned blacksmith looked at those who had fallen to him, amazed at their number, and at the power such victory displayed. It felt wrong, impossible, and yet most of all, He felt as though for him, this was the norm, the skirting edge of what he could do.

[Krul]

Daiya looked up at her father, she had been scared as they were attacked, but her father had leapt down to protect her, then suddenly he was glowing, and folks were running away from them, screaming "Anathema". Daiya didn't run though, he was her father, even if he was a bit scary right now.

"Don't be silly, Daddy, you know me, I'm your daughter?" She was only nine years old, but she thought he should know that, and her voice was slightly hurt, looking up, her eyes widened. "Look out, Daddy!" Even as she spoke, a pair of warriors charged them, looking like they were surrounded by a blazing red fire, screaming. "Die, Anathema!"

For Saiya, it was like a sudden memory, he remembered being attacked by his own retainers, who were Dragon-Blooded, as these these warriors of the Fire Aspect appeared to be. While they had coordinated their attacks, he had already activated, without really thinking about, Five-Fold Bulwark Stance, so he contemptuously ignored their attempts to weaken his defense by attacking together.

He had been an excellent warrior a few moments before, but his skill now, surpassed that of even the greatest mortal warriors, and two options occered to him. One, he could activate another charm, and unleash a counterattack on these two warriors.. or two, he could attempt to reach his ancient weapon, Dawn's Wrath, if it was still attuned to his soul, awaiting his rebirth elsewhere, as the advanced charm he had activated upon death should have made it.

[Seiya]

He held out his hand, his moment with the child professing to be his daughter broken by the crazed interlopers. He Felt the essence flow as he called forth to his weapon, rousing it from centuries of slumber. "Come to me, become one with me, Dawn's Wrath!"

From elswhere the great Oricalchum Grand Daiklaive took form, firmly in his hands, His essense suffused it, and Exalt and blade became one again as they once were.

The mighty weapon was of the finest design, A weapon made by A warrior gifted at the forge to be the embodiment of The Wrath of the unconquered sun. It looked everybit as impressive as one would expect, it's massive blade far to big to be hefted by a normal man, let alone wielded like a weapon.

[Krul]

Gone from creation for more then a thousand years, bound as it was to an exaltation trapped within the Jade prison, crafted by one of the greatest warriors who ever lived, there was a flash, as a blade that existed elsewhere for so long suddenly returned to creation.

Somewhere else, suddenly a thread of fate that had been gone for so long, returned to the loom of fate, and in that instant, destiny was altered, as only one Exalted could manage. Dawn's Wrath, the sword of champions, was once more thread into the loom of fate, matched once more with the exalted essence of it's creator.

The Blade was massive beyond belief, approximately six feet long and a foot wide, only a measure of essence committed to the blade allowed it to be used at all. It required two hands to manage, as the newly exalted Dawn swung the powerful blade, and his closest foe attempted to block it, only to watch in horror as his blade shattered when the Dawn's Wrath struck it. Only his partner's quick use of the dodge charm Virtuous Negation Defense saved the young Terrestial from being cut down.

[Seiya]

Seiya once again took up a defensive stance, readying himself against his attackers, Dawn's Wrath graspedd firmly in his hands. They would not hurt the little girl, that much he vowed to himself, and Focused all his power towards ensuring.

"I know not why you attack me, but if you seek to do any further harm, I will strike you down without remorse. I offer you one chance to back down and leave."

[Krul]

Focused upon the dawn before them, now armed as he was by a massive blazing golden sword, and considering how perfectly he was fighting them, the two fire aspects spoke to one another for a moment. "We can't fight him with just the two of us, we're no wyld hunt, or dynasts, we have a duty to this army, Darain, we have to withdraw." The other glared at his partner, before nodding slightly, the Dawn had proven himself incredibly capable, and his weapon made him even more so. "Another time, then Anathema."

The young girl came up to him, even as the terrestial exalts withdrew, she reached up to take his hand. "Daddy, we should go." Where of course, had changed, Seiya had different memories and thoughts then he use too. Of course, he didn't know exactly where in creation he was yet, he could try and make a few guesses based on terrain and climate.

[Seiya]

As his two assailants withdrew, he spared a look to the young girl claiming kinship with him. "Where should we go? I don't even know where I am little one."

He nods once. "Or who, or what I am now."

[Krul]

"We're in the mountains east of An Teng Highlands, Daddy, we were going to the city of the Steel Lotus.. that way." She pointed to the west. "You told me all about it, you said we'd see the pinnacle of mercy where the Golden Lord lived, and the thousand dragon's lake soon."

During the first age, the High Lands of An Teng, where the god the Golden Lord had lived was a well known place. Though Seiya could recall nothing of his memories in this body, other then vague dreamlike images that vanished when he tried to gain more clarity, his memory of that land was actually quite strong.

With that knowledge available, he began to move onward, this time just himself, his wagon and his daughter, no longer seeing a need for a caravan to remain safe. There were odd changes, however, to the world sense he remembered it.

[Seiya]

Seiya looked at the young girl once and nodded. He didn't know why anything was happening, but so far this young girl was the only person who hadn't attacked him, and she did seem trustworthy.

"Then let us continue on, I probably shouldn't have let those men go like that, but I knew you could be in danger, and I felt I simply couldn't allow that."

[Krul]

Daiya reached out to her father and took his hand, even as they continued to move forward, she was somewhat confused and uneasy, her father was no longer glowing like golden fire, but he didn't remember her. But he still indicated concern and care for her, so he was still her father, he just didn't remember. "You always protect me, Daddy." As they continued to move, the Solar recalled something of importance.. one of the possible locations he had sent his manse too was directly north of here... though he couldn't remember for certain where he had sent it.

[Seiya]

Her words rang with a truth he knew was ironclad, and he nodded once. "There's another place I know, I think it may help us, we'll take a little detour to it, if you can handle it."

He smiled and put an arm around her. "That's right, I will protect you."

[Krul]

Shifting direction some time before they went into An Teng, Seiya and his daughter Daiya went north for a few days, until they reached the location that he wanted them too. Earth and stone covered over a long flat mesa-like area on one of the mountains, it was otherwise unoccupied, and as Seiya stood over it a moment, he nodded, this was the place.

Set with certain passwords long forgotten, secrets long hidden, unknown outside of the Manse of Forbidding Ivy, Yu-Shan's division of Secrets, a secret long forgotten was about to return to creation.

For Seiya, it took only a few passes, and a trigger phrase, while his daughter watched him with worried eyes, and then gazed in awe as a palace made of the purest white marble rose from the earth, it's flows of essence hidden until this moment.

[Seiya]

"Home."

He looked at the young girl and smiled. "Come, we'll stay here, it will be safe." Memories washed over him and he knew it was all true. He looked to her. "I just know it all, all about this place."

[Krul]

As he entered the first room of the manse, which was as much palace as manse, Daiya looked around in awe, then gasped. For before him, was almost a field of bones, dozens of them, maybe enough bones for almost 50 people, and he remembered.

Dying, as the charging Terrestials came at him, he lifted his blade and unleashed a terrible blow that made the air scream, not just one, but several, waves of terrible essence shaped by weapon skill cutting through the air, and though they tried, the dragon-blooded died one after another, but not without getting a blow or two of thier own in, but thier leader ended up splitted on his blade, even as he bled out his last. Invicible pride, but also, for a moment, a sense of shame that they had let it get so far.. the mightest of the exalted.. slain by thier own servants, were they truely so bad? With that thought, he spoke the word to make the manse move to one of it's hidden locations, and died.

Shacking off the momentary vision, Seiya looked at the bones in the center of the room, which wore a set of golden chainmail, that could only be orichalcum, and a crimson bow on his back, and he knew once.. that had been him.

[Seiya]

He looked at the field of the dead, and sighed. "I did this, these were my men, and they turned on me, and I cut them down." He made his way to the Figure that was unbowed by time, with the scarlett bow. He touched it, and knew. He knew this was him, from the past. He guided the child past the killing field, He'd come back for what was his once she was seen too. They didn't need to linger here. "Come along."

[Krul]

Daiya looked around rather nervously, but when her father guided her around the killing field at the entrance, he then lead her deeper within the manse itself. Inside, he took them past several sets of stairs, doors opening at a word from him, until at last they found their way to a rather comfortable set of rooms, his personal chambers. Though they should covered in more then a thousand years of dust, it was as pristine and new as if it had been only yesterday sense he had left them.

"Daddy? What is this place?" Daiya was awed, and a just a little scared, though the care he took with her did assure her a great deal.

[Seiya]

"This was my home from another lifetime, It will sustain us." He knew where everything was, and quickly showed her where the bath was, in addition to a kitchen he knew was stoccked with edible food. He allowed her to get clean and fixed a small repast and waited for her tocome back to sit and eat with her.

[Krul]

The young girl cleaned up and returned to eat, still rather awed but she was slowly overcoming her fear. So enough, she was full and tired, though she insisted that her father put her to bed and tell her a story. Soon enough, however, she was sound asleep, leaving Saiya to think about what he wanted to do next, or to retrieve some equipment from his manse.

[Seiya]

Seiya returned, and began his work. He cleaned things up and stripped the bones of any useful materials, including his armor. From there, he began wandering around the grand hall, retracing the place the memories he half remembered said was his.

[Krul]

As he roamed though the various rooms of the Manse, he found many things that he remembered, and other things that he did not. But then, his memory wasn't completely clear yet, some things remained foggy, and difficult to recall.

Still, it was like returning to one's home after years away, much was familiar, but somethings took a moment or two to recall.

He finally found his way to the control room, from which various aspects of the manse could be directed, and then to the heart of the manse, where the heartstones were waiting for him, avalible to set into his weapons as he attuned himself to the manse.

[Seiya]

He was home. That much was clear to him. He touched the ancient panels and smiled. "Take us somewhere safe, we must protect the little girl."

[Krul]

A holographic map was suddenly displayed in the air, over the central controls, then smaller and secondary display was placed over it. Five red dots appeared on the map, each of them pulsing. "The full range of locations indicates that the size of creation has been cut by over 40%.. much has been absorbed into the Wyld, at least one transport location is located in the deep wyld, at the present this one is most likely possesses the easiest access."

[Seiya]

"Alright, well at least until Morning, let's go back into the ground. This place isn't inconspicuous, and those others will probably return hunting us."

[Krul]

Several days, then a week passed, while Seiya got to know his daughter, Daiya again, and she told him a few stories about their life together. She hadn't know her mother, so she had no idea who it was, or why she had been left with him, only that he'd promised to explain when she was older.

Daiya was somewhat sad by the fact he didn't know either, now, but she was happy to spend time with her father.. and she was amazed by many things within the manse.

However, Saiya knew he couldn't achieve his goals by hiding in the manse forever, sooner or later, he would have to go out and take action in creation, besides, he needed a priest in order to fully reactivate all of the capabilities of the manse. So spending some time teaching his girl the basis of combat, so that she could better defend herself, after a week or two, the manse once more rose from the earth it was hidden in... and the two of them set out.

Once more, heading to An Teng, this time with a goal or two in mind. His navigational drifted a bit, however, and he found that they descended into the lands of the Snakes who walk like men.. just in time to reach the edge of a clearing of sorts... where a young woman seemed to be trying to speak to 3 men with some snake-like features.