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Exalted: Shards of Hope - Fiction: Blood and Sand [Complete]


Rysha

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The sun was already sinking in the west and the first torches being shuffled up into the stands when they called the woman the shouters called Song of Blades to the arena. The exhibition had been less than overwhelming thus far, and the crowd was restless; the remains of several gladiators were still being hauled off the field along with the young river dragon they'd battered nearly to death before it finished them, and more than a few of the crowd were short a fair amount of coin on the result. Still, the evening's crowning match was sure to be worth betting on. Song of Blades was viper-swift, a slender whipcord of a girl whose preternatural grace had let her elude death at the hands of far more experienced gladiators and whose exotic beauty spawned rumors that a Southern demon had begotten her. On the other hand, betting against Belgar of the North was usually a losing proposition; the massive barbarian from the frozen wastes could make the stands themselves shake with the impact of his massive war-club, and he'd survived an unequaled five seasons in the gladiatorial circuit with only a single loss in a wrestling competition in Great Forks. He was already working the crowd, demonstrating his bone-shattering strength against heavy barrels and tossing half-filled crates of feed about like sacks of millet.

Fat Thilneas ceased fondling one of his hired girls long enough to gesture to one of the servants. "Bring her out."

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Callum shook his head in disgust. The slaughtering of men and beasts for entertainment was a waste. Not only a waste of life but of resources. Those animals would likely be burned and those men, even the criminals, could be more productive in other ventures. Leaning over Callum wispered into Mei's ear, "Why are we here again?"

Sitting looking down at the pit and out at the bloodthirsty crowd Callum wondered why they had come to this forsaken city at all. Nominally is was clear. Nexus was a hub of travel and "commerce". The fact that they could remain unknown and restock on important supplies helped make the descision easier. Callum shook his head, A Night caste could work until he expired of natural causes and still not reduce the amount of filth in this place ...

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It was hard to tell what Mei-Ying's reaction to the decadence and debauchery of Nexus in general, and the arena in particular, was. Not only was she more reserved even than usual in this place, but she had donned one of the hooded cassock-style robes common to women of some southern nomad tribes, complete with veil. Only her eyes were easily visible; peering out like augers.

Callum had been with her long enough to have a good idea of her inner reaction though. She was not one to approve of excess in any form.

"It was the largest crowd available," she murmurs in reply. "I'm sure that office has someone following us."

During their trip to the marketplace, they'd encountered a squad of Imperial troops under the command of an individual in jade who could only be one of the Dragon-Blooded. The Terrestrial Exalt had, surprisingly, known Flametongue and accosted them. Not knowing the language, Mei-Ying had been forced to pretend to be a fearful commoner and retreat...perhaps not too uncommon a response. But ever since then there'd been a glint of Imperial armor not far behind them wherever they went. Clearly her performance had aroused suspicion of some kind.

"If we simply circulate through the crowd for a time, we should be able to lose him long enough for me to get out of this...this garment and hide you. Ideally he'll then pass us by, and we can leave the city in peace. We're fortunate the Dragonborn himself isn't following us."

She sighs and adds, "I realize it's...nauseating, but try to keep up appearances. Most people are here because they -want- to be."

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Callum gaves Mei a wry look; unfortunately for him it didn't translate through the cloth wrappings. "Largest crowd, that's true. But you understand that if we get caught here not only will the crowd do nothing to help, but they'll proabably form a ring to watch the 'entertainment'? Gah ..." He cut off mid syllable and threw another look over his shoulder. "I agree though, we need to get you out of those clothes"

Callum recieved a few suprised looks from some of the women nearby and a couple of amused grins from the men. Damnit that is not what I meant ... Leaning in close to Mei he continued, "Actually I think we both need a change, I'm standing out too much as well. Also we’re being followed … again.”

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The sudden, bone-rattling roar of the crowd drowned out any reply that Mei-Ying might have made, a great crashing din that should by rights have brought the whole arena crumbling down around them with its force. Belgar answered it with a mighty roar himself before turning to face the warrior who stepped onto the sands to oppose him. She was almost a foot shorter and scarcely half his size, a slender reed of a girl whose shirt of silvery chain and long leather boots did little to conceal her delicate frame or the brilliant scarlet of the elemental fire dragon tattooed into her skin, coiling up from her hip over the length of her back, ducking beneath the bound-back darkness of her hair to nestle its head against the line of her jaw and brush her cheek with its tongue. She held a hammer low in one hand and a short sword in the other, and she moved with the wild grace of a trapped tiger. Belgar roared his challenge again, barely audible over the rumble of the crowd, and hefted his massive warclub to punctuate the point.

Then she moved.

Callum had seen soldiers in his time, Dragon-blooded, creatures of nature and the Wyld too vicious for words. Nothing and no one he had ever seen moved with the kind of speed and fluid grace that this girl could conjure, and the wild cheer of the crowd as she flowed around the bone-crushing impact of Belgar's club to flick a long line of red from one tendon with the short sword's tip told him the crowd was entranced with the novelty.

Which was good for him, since it took their attention away from the entrance of the arena where a tall Dragonblood and two squads of legionaries stood scanning the crowd.

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Callum winced as the crowd roared it's approval. The scarlet line in the large man's flesh was now showing streaks as the blood welled up and began to drip down his flesh. Callum knew that the injury looked worse than it actually was. The cut was shallow but it would bleed well and that would entice the crowd all the more. Sickening, these people would gain so much entertainment from such "sport". Callum turned away as the beastly man swung his hammer in a great arc.

Mei would have heard his groan had the crowd been less rowdy, he did so little to conceal it. Entering the arena at one side was the Dragonblooded, and with enough troops that he was not sure if Mei and he could escape without being seen. So much for that plan ...

Callum grabbed Mei's arm and spun her around so that her back was to the Exalt, “He’s here,” he shouted into her ear, staring over her shoulder at the exalt. He reached up and pulled the hood of his coat over his head, hot though he was already discretion was the better part of valor.

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She nodded, not bothering to try to respond, and lowered her hood and removed the veil. It wasn't much, but at least in the crowd her head would look different. At the top of the stands, perched on one of the support beams of the small overhang there for the comfort of the well-paying patrons, was Hu, keeping an eye on the Realm soldiers.

There didn't seem to be any sorcerers among them as she momentarily borrowed the owl's vision. That was good. Mei-Ying was all too aware that she knew no magic that a Dragonblood sorcerer couldn't duplicate...albeit with significantly more time and effort. They weren't common though, and it meant the Sandstorm Rider spell should be sufficient to get away with little chance of successful pursuit.

She stood on her toes to say into Callum's ear, "Act normally. Point, cheer, clap. We'll make our way around from them as if looking for a better view. If we can just get clear, I can call the wind to carry us away, if we can't lose them."

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Callum gives a short nod, "Remember though Eilein is waiting in outside of town from us. We can't go too far." Callum stands up and tries to scan through the crowd but finds that it's difficult given his shorter height. He grabs Mei's hand in his own and begins to pull her through the crowd. He shoves spectators aside and moves toward the edge of the pit.

Stopping ringside he manuvers Mei to stand between him and the rail, though they were of the same height the exalt and his men would be more likely to overlook a woodlander than a woman in southern garb. Callum looked down into the arena as he cheered. The big man must have gotten a backswing or perhaps a strong punch to connect as the woman had a red mark showing at her jaw. The man himself had a pair of new cuts, one running down his jaw and the other horizontally across his bicep. Both bled profusely but only the bicep cut would be serious given how much effort the man was putting into swinging his massive war-sledge.

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Rysha moved like a dancer, a quick step in that sent her opponent staggering as she drove her hammer into his side, and then his sledge drove into her shoulder with brutal force and she rolled with impact, feeling the bone stop just short of fracturing, and she lost her grip on the hammer as she tumbled out of reach and came up on her knees. Belgar roared again, a wild Northern warcry like the shrill keen of the winter wind, and Rysha reached past the roar of the crowd and the pulsing adrenaline in her veins for the white-hot rage that had been years growing.

She found something entirely brighter and fiercer instead.

Two burning violet eyes stared back at her out of the golden bonfire in her mind, and the last thing Rysha heard before the Second Breath took her was a woman's voice, as graceful and eloquent as the edge of a perfectly forged blade. You'll do. Oh yes, I think you'll do nicely.

The arena flared with the light of a noon-day desert sun, and the slender girl who rose to her feet wreathed in the ghostly wrath of a golden elemental dragon whose eyes burned with violet witchfire extended her hand toward her enemy with casual contempt. She spoke in the words of the ancient tongue, the Old Realm flowing freely from her lips as a gleaming blade of golden metal appeared in her hand like a long-lost lover. "A pity your thin blood will have to suffice for the first offering today. Still, I suppose it will have to be enough."

Her first stroke took him from hip to shoulder; her second sheared through his club and took his head before the bisected body had a chance to begin shattering apart.

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Callum watched, dumbstruck, as the young woman Exalted within the arena. At the back of his mind he felt his own essence throb as though the woman had splashed the pond of creation. In his hands he could even feel as Mei's essence reacted to the newcomer.

She moved like water of a hot skillet, fast and full of unpredictable energy. With a sword summoned from the essence of nature itself she cut the Barbarian as though parting water or drawing a line in the sand. Indeed a line in the sand is exactly what she had just created. With her on one side and the Imperials on the other. The Dragonblood reacted immediately drawing his own weapons, a pair of serpentine blades of green jade, and leaping from the parapet to the arena.

Callum was torn inside. As he watched the Dragonblood fly through the air he could feel the reverberations of his essence with that of the newly exalted woman’s. He knew that Mei had felt it too, and he knew that it was, though far more intense, the same feeling he had had before meeting Mei those months ago. All thought of flight slipped from his mind.

Assessing the situation Callum saw that the soldiers had lost all interest in them and were rushing toward the arena to assist their lord. As they did so the spectators fled impelled by the stories of the anathema few remained to watch the coming battle. It was said that the anathema could kill with a look and corrupt by their mere presence. Leaping to the railing Callum summoned his own golden weapon and began to slay the guardsmen as they rushed toward the sandy pit. Arrows streamed from his bow, trailing fire and righteousness behind them as they found weak points in the heavy plate and mail; above and around him a dark corona resolved itself into a massive wolf’s head, snarling in rage and bloodlust as Callum drained his essence into repeated attacks.

Over the din he called to Mei, “You may want to be ready with that spell, I suspect we’ll need to make a hasty exit before long!” He did not bother to see if she had begun engaging the troopers, he trusted that she would guard his back and be ready when he needed as he would for her. Below them the exalt, a Dawn caste, entered a fighting stance and greeted the Dragonblood, with shining Orichalcum.

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Mei-Ying grabbed Callum's arm tightly as Essence crackled in the air, painting an enormous anima in the shape of a dragon around the female gladiator. Instantly, she became aware of two options.

They could run now. They could ask for no better distraction. The Realm guard would instantly lose interest in their pursuit of a pair of suspicious lowlifes and instead focus all their might on quashing this new flame. The Solar essence was unquenchable, it would return in a new host in time.

And yet...

The girl might have had a chance, if Mei-Ying and Callum hadn't lured a patrol of Imperial troops right to the place of her Exaltation. Her death would be on their hands. And she knew, knew without doubt, what Callum would want. And how he'd react if she spirited him away and let the girl die when she might have been saved.

But at what cost that salvation?

She slipped the golden cord of her sling out from its hiding place. One way or another, despite their best efforts, there would be blood spilled this day after all.

"The spell takes some time to finish!" Mei-Ying called to Callum over the noise of fleeing, panicking people as they crowded towards the exits. "And it will be obvious to all that magic is in the air! Try to keep them from me!"

Then she took a deep breath and let it all fall away. The arena. The screaming crowds. The squads of soldiers, and the Dragonblood below. The new Solar, and her friend. They were as smoke...dust. Silence fell over her like a blanket, and she saw not crude light and matter; masks and lies...but rather the crystalline patterns of Essence that were the truth of all Creation. Golden light streamed from her fingertips, drawing strange sigils in the air as she painted with Essence. A new set of instructions, to form new patterns, and change reality itself. She began to speak in the language of the Old Realm, because words shaped ideas, and ideas shaped the cosmos. Green smoke wafted from her mouth as she incanted, curling into yet more runic script that floated into the larger golden characters and intertwined between them.

Mei's caste mark blazed to life, and radiated the violet and blue spokes that branched together to make that intricate geodesic disc that spun hypnotically around her face as she fed Essence into the hungry pattern she had designed. Just a little more, and the spell would be complete...

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The Dragonblood's shining green blades spun with the fluid grace of a tree's boughs riding the morning breeze, his footwork flawless and his long green hair twining itself lightly like branches grown across each other; golden fire flared to meet him, the girl's slender hands whipping the long blade of the daiklaive up in a backhanded cut which he barely parried. She slid around his answering thrusts and cuts as if he were trying to cut at a shadow in flickering torchlight, then flipped herself over his head with a graceful twist, blade running the length of his as he parried another vicious cut; her ankles snapped shut on either side of his neck and the horrible crackle of bone yielding between her reinforced boots punctuated the dexterous speed with which she finished the handspring and brought her blade down into his armored chest before he could finish falling. His burning green anima flickered, fluttered, died... and Rysha staggered under the sudden exhaustion that rushed through her as she came back to herself, half-drenched in the spattered blood of two men and the golden fire of her anima guttering on the dregs of her newly claimed Essence.

She would never know what it was that dragged her across the sand to the pair whose golden light burned as brightly as her own; kinship? Hope? Simple gratitude? Or something deeper? The golden blade in her hand hummed and spun as she flicked away guardsmen's arrows with casual grace, putting her back to the archer's and finding, at last, her tongue. "Hail and well met, stranger."

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Callum's anima was ferocious now, alive with his burnt essence and painted in hues of deep reds, orange, purple, and blue. The wolf snarled and howled nearly continuously as he launched arrow after arrow into the remaining legionnaires. Below him the young woman dispatched the Dragonblood with a fierce grace that both added to and detracted from her beauty. So fierce, so young, and yet so irrevocably drenched in blood. Callum shook his head, a few tears could be seen running from his eyes into the embrace of his head wrap.

Originally Posted By: Rysha
"Hail and well met, stranger."

Callum nodded, “That remains yet to be seen. We must escape soon, my companion is preparing the way but first we must assuage any fear that you survived…” Callum clenched his jaw and ground his teeth, that this was his own plan was something he was not sure he could live with, desecrating the dead was to him a cardinal sin. “Search the bodies. Find a girl of your age and strip her of her armor. You must exchange places, when the Wyld Hunt searches this place they must find that the Dragonblood killed the anathema before succumbing to his own wounds … you must …” Callum almost choked on the words, “… you must carve you caste sigil into the body …”

Behind him Mei continued to chant. Callum dropped the last of the legionnaires and stepped down off the rail. Mei was lost in concentration, carving runes into the air with essence. Soon they would make their escape but first they must ensure that they were not followed. As Mei worked her magic Callum and the young woman searched the bodies of the dead. Callum filled his quiver with their arrows and located a man and a woman who would soon be known as anathema. He removed the man’s armor and wrapped his head with strips torn from a discarded garment. Similarly he found the woman a robe which would pass for Mei’s southern garb and dressed her in it.

Quickly as he could he rushed back to Mei, she nodded that the spell was near completion and he called to the woman, “Come we will take you with us but the time must be now, I hope only that you leave nothing of value behind…”

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Rysha flicked her eyes over the fleeing crowd, seeking Thilneas, but the bastard had long since fled; a flicker of though banishing the long golden blade back to the ether again, then plunged out onto the arena to catch up her short sword and hammer with swift, deft hands and, with only the slightest wince, did as she was told to the girl. "The dead know no pain." She murmured it to herself like a benediction as she brushed the bloody sand from her knees and slipped the girl's slender purse onto her belt.

She rose again, still glowing with flickering embers of golden light, her Caste mark shining like a beacon on her forehead as she turned to face Callum. "I am Rysha. Let us go." She stepped close to her saviors, her short sword bared and ready in her hand as she pivoted to watch the crowd for anyone desperate or foolish enough to turn back against them.

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It seemed just in time, as Mei-Ying finished.

She regarded the pair with the detached calm she always seemed to possess when doing her sorcery, and extended her hands to them. Hu flew to her shoulder on unspoken command, and she made sure to brush her leg against Eilein's side.

"Take my hands, quickly."

When she felt Callum's callused skin in one hand, and Rysha's small, delicate but bloodied palm in her other, Mei-Ying raised her face to the sky and called on the wind.

With a rising howl, the wind answered.

A zephyr of uncommon strength spiraled down from the sky, encompassing the three solars in the peace of its eye while it gleefully tore boards out of the surrounding stands and hurled bodies like children's toys. Dust and debris were sucked into the twisting pathways of air, obscuring the people within...and concealing from them most details about what was outside.

Then the ground fell away, and they were standing on wind and dust and sand...it looked as if they must fall, but it was solid as marble under their feet. There was no sensation of movement, no tugging this way or that. Through the sandstorm that surrounded them, they could see the arena flash by, people and guards barely registering before it was past. Nexus itself lasted hardly more than a heartbeat before it was gone, and they were in the plains of the river valley.

"I don't think your deception will hold long," Mei-Ying says to Callum, as if this wondrous transportation was a commonplace event. "The Hunt has charms to see through efforts to throw them off the trail, though it may buy us much needed time. Our best ally now is distance, I think. Reports of southern dress might send them South...we should go East. Do you agree?" She looks at Callum while she speaks, not sure what to say to their other passenger.

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Looking around Callum realizes that Mei has put them not far from their camp the night before. He calls out, a low long howl, and is soon answered in kind. Turning to the others he speaks, “That will be Eilein, luckily she was not far and you placed us in the perfect spot Mei.”

For the first time Callum takes a long look at the young woman they have just helped. Half a hand shorter than he, Callum found that she could be no older than Mei and likely a few years younger. The blood, sweat, and sand did little to conceal the slightness of her frame and yet having seen her perform just a short time before Callum knew that her muscles must be like corded iron. Her long dark hair was in disarray and the bruise on her face was beginning to darken already. He studied her assessing her reaction to the situation.

“I can only assume that fate has brought us together … yet again.” Callum spoke quietly. He shot Mei a look; he could not have conveyed his lack of surprise better had he spoken it aloud. “My name is Callum; I am of the Night Caste. This is Mei-Ying, of the Twilight. It is an honor to meet you Rysha. By your caste mark you are Dawn, the strong right hand of the Sun.”

Behind Rysha there came a bark, not loud but clearly from a large animal. "And that is Eilein, my familiar. The owl, Hu, is Mei's, and I am sure to get no end of poor treatment from either for leaving them to the last." Callum shakes his head his eyes betraying the mirth that his voice conceals.

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Mei-Ying reaches up to stroke Hu's head, and says, "Slow down, Callum. This is going to be very strange and frightening for her."

"Sit down, Rysha," she advises. "I'm sure you have many questions. I will start by saying that what you have learned about Anathema is distorted and untrue, and we'll go from there. Ask us what's on your mind."

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Rysha dropped heavily to the earth, long-honed reflex keeping her short sword ready in her hand even as her legs gave out under her. For a long moment she simply half-knelt, half-lay in the soft grass of the slope as she struggled to fold the last few minutes of her life into something resembling a sensible order. She had heard the stories of the Anathema, of course, the ones the Immaculates told and even the older stories passed between the Brides of Ahlat about the ancient god-kings who the Unconquered Sun had once called forth to throw down ancient evils, but the answer that came to her lips was flooded with a sudden knowledge she had never possessed before the golden fire had touched her. "I know I am the sword of Heaven, the arbiter of justice and executioner of the Sun's Mandate. I don't know... how I know. But I do."

Brushing strands of blood-soaked black hair out of her face, she stared at the other two Solars with intense violet eyes that managed to be both fiercely wild and somehow vulnerable. "How long ago were you Chosen?" There was no mistaking the emphasis in the last word, the formality of it.

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Callum turned to Mei his eyes cold and hard, but her words found precipice and soon they softened, "Of course." He rubbed at his eyes, suddenly very tired now after expending so much essence in so little time. He too sat down on the hard earth to rest.

Originally Posted By: Rysha
"I know I am the sword of Heaven, the arbiter of justice and executioner of the Sun's Mandate. I don't know... how I know. But I do. ....How long ago were you Chosen?"

Callum thinks about it for a moment, "Close to a year ago ... for the both of us. As for your memories, those will come to you from time to time. My own memories lead me to locate a manse, the home of my solar essence. I have had others though none as clear as the ones guiding me home. The name is probably that of your past self, the title given to that solar essence which now shares your soul.”

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Well meaning fool. The thought slid into her head in a strange voice, that hauntingly resonant sound she'd heard as the golden fire first touched her. She blinked, shook her head slightly, heard nothing more. With an effort, she put it down to the strangeness of her new situation. "What brought you two to Nexus, then?" Her eyes turned suddenly sharp, intuitively putting a few of the pieces together. "Fugitives from... someone."
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"We're all fugitives," Mei-Ying says simply.

"Any of the Solar Exalted, such as Callum or myself...or you. The Hunt is not what it once was, but it is still an ever-present danger for all of us."

She then quickly injects a question of her own.

"I saw your tattoo. Why was a gladiator slave bearing the mark of an elemental dragon?"

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Rysha's lips twitched with the hint of something sharp and bitter, but her shoulders moved in a delicate shrug. "My owner thought it would make me more... distinctive. Which is a valuable commodity in the gladiatorial trade." She took a deep breath, let it go, then dismissed the thought with a slight flick of her hand. "Where will we go now? I trust remaining in Nexus would be... unwise."

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"Former owner," Mei-Ying corrects. "You ceased to be a slave the moment the Sun chose you."

"But yes, Nexus is out of the question. I think our best option would be to continue East, to one of the cities where loyalty to the Realm is weak. Our other options are North and South, but I'm less familiar with those regions, and do not speak their languages."

She eyes Rysha shrewdly for a moment, then adds, "I'm sure in time, we can return to Nexus if you have any unfinished business."

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As Mei and Rysha converse Callum removes his pack and begins to rummage about inside. Removing a small mortar and pestle he adds a few dried herbs and some small berries into the apparatus and begins to grind and mash the mixture within. Adding a small amount of water from his skin he completes the wet paste. Passing it over to Rysha he says, "Apply this to your wounds, it will ease the pain and help speed the healing process."

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Rysha looked at Callum for a long moment, examining the paste in her hand, then gingerly rubbed it into her cheek without ever quite looking back at Mei. "The future is... for the future." Her fingers tightened visibly on her sword's hilt, then carefully loosened again. She paused as if she would speak again, then fell silent. Her fingers rose to her forehead, touching the golden mark there, and then she pushed herself to her feet and shook her hair back out of her face, shoulders squared with fragile determination. "The Sun and our hunters will not wait for us. We should go."

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"Marita," Mei-Ying says abruptly as she consults a parchement with a scrawled map on it. "It should be far enough to disperse the Hunt, but close enough we can make it by dark. If we work on blending in as soon as we get there, we should be in a good position to avoid the Hunt when it gets there."

She gets to her feet and begins the ritual to summon the whirlwind again. "Besides, it seems like the kind of place nothing much ever happens. Perfect."

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Rysha looked at Mei-Ying for a long moment, a warily crooked smile hovering on her lips as the wind rose around them again. "Somehow, I don't think anywhere we go for the rest of our lives is going to fit that description once we're there."

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