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Lessons of Dynasty Part 1: Abecedarian	By : JohnDoe Category: +A through F > Exalted RPG Views: 470 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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Chapter 3 – Journey To the Isle of Voices

Realm Year 736, 1^st Day of Ascending Air
Chanos City

The Prefecture of Chanos lies on the northern shore of the Blessed Isle. It is a cold and rugged place, with few comforts, scoured by the chill Northern winds and biting rain. Rocky and cold, ill-suited for farming, this fog covered prefecture is rich in minerals and does a brisk trade with the surrounding prefectures in the Imperial River Basin and on the White Coast. It is the seat of power of House Sesus, warmongers, brutes, and spy masters, descended from their eponymous founder, the child of the Scarlet Empress and her consort, Nellens. Called the Gateway to the North, Chanos city lies in a curving bay that forms the only safe harbour on the Shadowed Coast. Home port to the Air Fleet, one of the Realm’s six navies, the bustling city of nearly fifty thousand, is widely considered the last safe stop for those seeking to make the perilous journey to the Isle of Voices.

Few, even Dynasts, brave travel during the five moonless nights of Calibration, so it is to Chanos that Heptagram students make their way, being sure to arrive well before the end of the year. Here they sequester until the new year begins, hearing tales of the demons and stranger guardians that smash ships to splinters if they dare approach the Heptagram uninvited. Here they busy themselves as Ragara bankers and Peleps marines manoeuvrer against the spymasters of House Sesus. Here they wait, and prepare, and worry… and then that last journey begins – a short jaunt into, but not across, the Inland Sea to the Isle of Voices.

Sesus Alon Agiba maintains a townhouse specifically for the purpose of showing hospitality to cousins on the way to the Heptagram, and it’s here on the first Sunsday of the year that Mnemon Danireya and Ledaal Ludila wake. Agiba is a cousin to Danireya, by her father Mnemon Barin, and is hosting the girls out of notional family duty – she provided them with two rooms, though one of them lies empty as the girls share a bed.

As dawn breaks, the girls rise with the sun. Servants have already packed their bags and taken them to the docks. Ludila’s mother has provided servants and security for their girls, headed by Ludila’s minder, Frau Hessant. Their clothes have already been pressed, warmed, and laid out for them. The simple uniform of the Heptagram doesn’t require a lady’s maid to help them dress, and Hessant has ensured that Agiba’s servants have prepared a suitable breakfast for the girls.

Reya puts on her gloves as Udi rolls up her socks, their eyes meet and they smile at each other.

“Good morning, fellow abecedarian,” Reya waggles her eyebrows.

Udi crosses over to her and kisses her passionately, “What’s an abecedarian?” She asks eventually.

Reya pushes her away playfully, “‘One learning the rudiments of something (such as the alphabet)’, a beginner, a novice. Us, at the Heptagram,” She shakes her head mockingly, “You really haven’t prepped for this, have you?”

Udi feigns shock, “I recently began a very serious relationship with a very beautiful Dynast! How am I supposed to study when I can just ogle her instead?”

“Well, this gorgeous girlfriend of yours had damn well better be a genius or you’re going to flunk out!”

Udi flashes Reya a teasing wink and shrugs, “Guess I’ll just have to cheat off you.”

Reya pulls out an expertly wrought iron dagger, “I will cut you,” she threatens, not entirely joking.

“Then who’s going to keep you warm at night?” Udi pouts, “I’ll study when we get there! That’s the entire point of school! Come on, Reya, I would have been top of my class at the Pagoda… if my gorgeous girlfriend hadn’t been a complete genius and a status obsessed overachiever.”

(In her head, Udi adds, ‘And I was top of my class at the Palace of the Tamed Storm, when the Pagoda finally kicked me out.’)

“That’s better,” Reya says as she puts away her weapon, “Come on, let’s get breakfast.”

“Then make-up, and I’ll fix your hair, then we can leave.”

****

The morning sun casts shadows over the port as Reya and Udi are escorted to the docks. A hundred armed guards wearing the colours of House Ledaal flank them as they ride in a carriage down to the pier. Frau Hessant opens the door to the carriage and delivering them to the boarding plank of a small yacht.

There’s no question as to whether this is the right boat. Shapes of solid sapphire fly around the sails, swooping in large circles, vocalising songs in Old Realm in overlapping harmonies. A huraka, one of the elemental bears that shepherd the wind, stands at the ship’s helm, looking terrifyingly stern. Something blessedly unseen beneath the water, causes the waves beneath the vessel to churn and bubble.

Though Udi longs to squeeze the woman who practically raised her in a tight embrace, she contents herself to a curt nod, “Thank you Frau Hessant, that will be all.”

Hessant gives a short bow – hardly the correct amount of respect a mortal servant should show her Dynastic mistress – and responds in kind, “It has been my honour to serve you, Miss Ludila.” She turns to Reya, “Miss Danireya, I deliver you unto the care of the Heptagram.”

Hessant withdraws, and with her the small army of mortal soldiers who seem almost anxious and certainly grateful to leave the cursed ship behind. The girls look up the boarding plank of the ship. There stands a woman who Reya can only describe with one word: pirate. Cynis Bashura is crowned with a wide brimmed hat and eye patch, she wears a long captains coat, clearly enchanted against the weather, her body is taught, well disciplined, and scarred by a life of adventure (though the scars are faint, if not fading, thanks to her exalted nature). Her hair is the colour of tree bark, her eyes green like the needles of a pine, and she smells – even above the stink of the harbour – of wild forests and adventure. In her hands, she holds a rolled scroll of vellum.

Reya marches up the ramp head held high, and Udi follows at her heels. The pirate watches her impassively as she approaches, but the wind bear at the helm snarls fiercely as they board.

Reya forces herself not to react to the threating war cry of a twelve-foot elemental being with claws like short-swords, and instead turns sharply to the pirate, “Danireya and Ludila, first years. We seem to have angered your huraka – should we have asked permission to come aboard?”

The pirate looks down at her, sizing her up, before checking two names of her list, “Professor. ‘Should we have asked permission to come aboard, professor?’ And no, it’s not necessary. Take a seat on the observation deck, up those stairs. You’re one of the first: we shall depart on time, but hopefully more of your fellow sacrifices will arrive shortly.”

Reya gives a slight curtsey, “Hopefully so, professor.” Then she leads Udi up to the observation deck as directed.

Internally she fumes. One of the first? One of the first? Up at dawn, and some bratty, try-hard, over-achiever has made it onto the yacht before her? Before her!

There’s only one other student on the observation deck. Sitting at the very front of the deck, on the port side. Not idly gazing out of the window but reading a book. The only reason to take the front port seats is because of the spectacular view it affords. And the only reason to read a book instead of taking in that view is to deliberately snub the Nellens-Come-Lately students – to show that you are better than them by taking the view away and not even enjoying it.

Reya makes to introduce herself.

It’s a girl, of course, at least she is by Reya’s immediate reckoning. Red hair – of course – lustrous and long. Pale skin and green eyes, partially hidden behind the thick magnifying lenses of her spectacles. The girl doesn’t look up as Reya approaches. If there was any doubt in Reya’s mind that the book was a calculated snub before, there isn’t now.

Reya clears her throat pointedly and looms over the girl. Only now does she realize quite how short she is – a good four inches shorter than Reya, who is only of average height herself. “Good book?” She asks casually.

The girl looks up and is met with Danireya’s pearly white smile. Her golden plaits frame her face, hanging down, almost on top of the smaller girl as she looms over her. The girl also seems to notice Udi – who looms menacingly behind Reya, her arms folded over her chest, and a clear look of annoyance on her face. The girl quickly decides that Reya seems to be the better girl to focus her attention on, and nervously rips her gaze from Udi to look up at Reya.

She speaks with a quite voice and a mild stammer, “Y-yes, it’s the ‘Doom of Emperors’. I’ve heard we might need it so I decided to get a leg leg-up on the reading.”

She pauses. Reya looks at her. She looks at Reya. Reya says nothing but continues to smile and continues to loom.

“Rowena, first year Heptagram student!” Ragara Rowena manages to squeeze out at last.

With this Reya stands straight, though she doesn’t back away, “I’m Danireya, this is Ludila,” She gestures to the uniform they’re all wearing with one hand and with the other indicates her surroundings, “I don’t think we quite need to specify that we’re all abecedarians.”

Rowena smiles nervously, resolving to at least try and make the friends and connections she’ll need for her adult life, “No, of course n-not-”

“I found Lady Sennaka to be over-acclaimed, personally, for a Shogunate era treatise. The use of rhetoric throughout makes it feel like he’s addressing a student, rather than a peer. Have you read anything by Oakthorn?”

Rowena casts her eyes to her feet and tries not to cry. The Doom of Emperor’s is the most enlightening book she’s ever read, and she thought she was doing so well getting ahead of the year’s reading by starting now, “O-only ‘Ruminations on Mortality’,” She half mumbles to the floor.

On hearing the stutter, Reya is prepared to eviscerate the girl, but Oakthorn’s Ruminations are a remarkably advanced text – one that even she has only skimmed, not quite fully understanding – and so the taunt dies in her throat. Fortunately, Rowena is still looking at her feet, so doesn’t see Reya’s look of surprise, giving her enough time to fix a condescending smile instead.

In the pause, Rowena continues speaking, “But it was t-t-too advanced for m-me. I do see your p-point about how he doesn’t treat the reader as being any less ac-accomplished though.” Rowena risks a glance up at Reya’s face, where she’s met by that perfectly posed look of patronising condescension.

“Well, that’s what school is for, I suppose,” Reya says airily, “The Heptagram is the finest institution in the Realm: if they can’t teach you, I suppose there’s no hope?” She pauses just long enough for Rowena to open her mouth to answer, “That was rhetorical.” Reya smiles again.

Udi loses patience, “Clearly,” She announces with some force, “It’s not just the reading you are behind on, but social niceties! We’ve danced around this long enough – you’re in our seats! Move!”

At this point a gaggle of four boys have entered the deck, and they take the first two rows of the starboard seating. Rowena glances nervously to the boys and then to Udi, who is somehow even more terrifying, before shooting a pleading look at Reya, “P-please, I get travel sick. I need to sit at the front.

Reya graciously takes a step backward, falling into a half-bow as she and extends a hand to help Rowena to her feet, “Why didn’t you just say so, silly girl?” She chides gently.

Rowena automatically takes Reya’s hand and rises. As she does so, Udi flows like water, twisting between the girls and the seat, expertly squeezing herself into the narrow gap and stealing Rowena’s seat. Reya twirls the smaller girl out of the way enough to take the adjacent seat.

“Don’t worry,” Reya says in a soft, mothering tone, “I’ll be quite comfortable with you sitting on the floor at my feet.” She taps the deck with her foot, indicating where she’d like Rowena to sit.

Udi kicks her legs up onto the railing, “Don’t spew on my boots!” She scoffs nonchalantly, gazing out at the ocean view as more students arrive and take their places in the rows behind.

Rowena hesitates for a moment, before timidly sitting on the ground at Reya’s feet.

Udi gestures at the breath-taking view they have of the Inland Sea. “These are great seats, Reya! I can see why it was so important that we sit here.”

Reya simply snorts and brings out a book to read as she pointedly ignores the view, and playfully kicks at the girl sitting between her legs.

****

The journey to the Isle of Voices is… uneventful to say the least.

Reya had read many a tale about the bleached skeletons of those who tried to force their way onto the isle. Of raging storms which never cease. Of the most fearless and determined captains, charting secret courses through impenetrable reefs.

Yet there were no hazards. No giant serpents. No pillars of fire that rose to block their path. No riddle contests with mystic kroken (she had prepared a series of riddles, just in case their captain should be incapacitated and it fell to her to save her classmates).

They had simply sailed, more-or-less in a straight line, from Chanos to the Isle.

She had, of course, made small talk with her fellow classmates – introducing Rowena for her, so the poor girl could get on with her reading, and making excuses for Udi where necessary. There would be a time for formal introductions later in the day, but she already had a good idea of who’s who.

It’s not long before the boat moors on a small, windswept jetty. By rights, the crude pier is should be barely large enough for a small five-person cutter, but somehow Professor Bashura makes the yacht fit.

The students at the back of the deck disembark first. Rowena is too cramped to stand until Reya moves, which she does without acknowledging the girl at her feet. As Rowena tries to stand, Udi deliberately tramples her down.

“It’s polite,” Udi states as she clambers over the girl, treading in her lap and on her knee, “To wait a two-count before following behind your betters.”

Udi trots after Reya to follow at her heels. The girls don’t look around, but it’s at least to the count of four before they hear Rowena getting to her feet behind them.

****

Rowena is the last student off the yacht. Elemental beings of earth, strong, study creatures hewn from living rock, start to unload the student’s belongings and ferry them up to the school. Bashura follows behind, quickly overtaking to place herself at the head of the students. The professor doesn’t bother instruct the students to follow her, nor does she warn them not to stray from the path – any student dull enough not to realise that deserving what they get. Reya and Udi naturally follow in the professor’s wake, deftly positioning themselves at the front of the class. The other students part naturally before Bashura, so there is no unseemly elbowing or shoving as they take their rightful place.

A pair of boys – well muscled and tall for their age – size the girls up as they pass. Reya pretends not to notice, but Udi gives them a wink, sticks her tongue out at them, then takes Reya by the hand.

Reya turns her head fractionally towards Udi as if to reprimand her with the unspoken question, ‘What are you doing?’, but Udi just gives Reya’s hand a little squeeze, and Reya does not pull away.

There is only one path from the jetty. A lonely, winding path which takes them up. Up towards the only structure of any importance on the Isle of Voices – the Heptagram.

The peasants who live on the Isle of Voices, mostly simple fisher-folk, live on the southern beach and their huts are not visible to the students. All they see is the rise, the rocky cliffs, the spray of the inland sea, and then…

Then the majestic towers that make up the Heptagram’s seven libraries. One, in theory, for each year of study – though rare is the student who can successfully complete a year in all of them.

Every one of the new first years – each a gifted student at their primary school, from a rich and connected Dynastic House – understands that this is where they will spend the next seven years of their lives. Here is where they will make the alliances that will serve them into adulthood. That the looming libraries of the Heptagram represent the most complete collection of lore – magical and mundane – in all of Creation, and that this treasure trove of knowledge would soon be theirs to exploit.

As they arrive on the grounds of the Heptagram, a man is waiting for them. It can be none other than the Dominie, Ragara Bhagwei. Tall and willowy, his face lined with age like the bark of a tree, closely cropped hair and a dark beard. He wears a cloak and tunic of Versino green and black tights, matching the uniforms of the students in colour, though not style. A dozen teachers flank him, all standing bar one: a muscular man with heavy features and skin of invulnerable bronze is seated, scowling at the students as they approach.

Bhagwei welcomes the students, warns them that they are confined to The Hall of Terrestrial Puissance for their first year of study and that they are not to wander the Isle. Each of the instructors, only a sample of those who will be teaching them this year, are introduced along with their subjects of focus. Each stand forward and say a few works, apart from the instructor for Shogunate History, the sorcerer with the skin of living bronze who simply gives the students a terse nod from his chair. Reya finds her eye drawn to the surly Instructor Ganan, taking in the piercing gaze of his eyes and the shape of his body. Ganan’s eyes meet hers for a moment and he seems to look right inside of her soul, before his eyes drift away to the next student.

Then the teachers file back to their classes, Reya notes that her history teacher rises awkwardly and walks with the help of a cane (a demonic servant picking up the chair from behind him).

A gnarled wooden homunculus, a little over four feet long, drags itself along the ground on a dozen finger-like sticks – the sticks snap off as the creature moves, setting fire and burning to as in its – in her – wake. The creature looks up at the creature, it’s face a carved tragedy mask – and bids them to follow her in a creaking wooden voice.

“What is that!” Reya overhears one of the other students exclaim in disgust. His accent seems strange and foreign to Reya’s ears, as does the bluntness of his question and lack of guile in showing open surprise.

“It’s a chrysogona,” Rowena says quietly, “One of the Crying Women, demon of the first circle, progeny of Makarios.”

Reya turns a sharp eye to Rowena, “The Sigil’s Dreamer. Himself, the Warden Soul of Erembour, That Which Calls to Shadows.”

A strange girl nods, “The Seventh Soul of the Yozi known as the Ebon Dragon. The Crying Women feed on ambition, serving as advisors to those seeking to advance themselves and leaving ruin in their wake. Their bite is toxic and turns people to wood.”

Udi stares at the strange girl, who has a dreamy, far-off look, before nudging Reya, “Somebody knows their demon lore.”

The demon shows them to their rooms – the students dorm mostly two to a room. Their luggage has already been brought ahead and class schedules are posted prominently. They have a few hours to settle in before dinner, and after dinner their first class.
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Lessons of Dynasty Part 1: Abecedarian