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Dynasty of Dovak	By : JohnDoe Category: +A through F > Exalted RPG Views: 4983 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter List
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Session 71 – The Gift of Royalty – Ganan (235XP 188DX, 235/186 spent; 20WhP 5GP 67SP), Melody (235XP 188DX, 235/183 spent), Jinabar (235XP 188DX, 228/183 Spent)

Tepet Ganan blinks in the sunlight as it streams through the canopy of the forest. He raises a hand to his eyes.

“Gan!”

Melody runs across the forest floor and leaps up into his arms. Ganan grabs her and she smacks a chaste kiss right on his lips. Clapper ponderously crashes through the forest behind her.

“What are you doing here?” She asks breathlessly, smiling at him as he lowers her to the ground.

Ganan pulls a face, “Where are we? I was… I was in Thorns.”

“I was at home – the House of Black Waters… and then I woke up here.” Melody studies the trees, “This is Dovak.” Her great Shieldback lizard looms precariously over them.

Ganan grimaces, “Dovak? Yes… I remember agreeing I’d come back here… I was in the map room… Ejava was discharging me...”

“Bow chicka bow wow!” Melody grins at him.

Ganan scoffs and shakes his head, “Don’t mock your favorite brother.”

“Favorite brother? You only wrote me five times in the last year! Reya and Udi wrote every week!” She punches him playfully in the chest. It hurts.

Ganan looks at the back of his hand – his skin is not made of invulnerable bronze. “I just cast that... I should have hours left…” He mutters to himself, brow knitting in consternation.

An unfamiliar voice breaks Ganan’s train of thought:

“Favorite brother? After that kiss? Must be Dynasts!”

Melody and Ganan turn to see a robed figure wearing a stylized trickster spirit mask, who radiates a palpable aura of menace. They both take an immediate, visceral dislike of the hideous apparition before them.

Ganan squares off against this new figure, “We are Dynasts. Who are you?”

Lady Magnificent bows, “Ada Augusta, Lady Magnificent, Adventuress, Connoisseur, Bon Vivant.”

“Marauder, corsair, pirate, thief!” Melody spits. Lady Magnificent bows again with a mocking flourish, and Melody continues, “I know of her. She’s been menacing Jorod and the Wood Fleet! Your sister’s sworn a vendetta against her.”

“Another sister?” Lady Magnificent teases, “You do get around!” She frames Ganan theatrically in a window made of her fingers, “Let me see… sloping caveman brow, hideously unattractive, kissing your sister, dressed like a purple bruise… you must be little Jin’s big brother – Cynis Ganan?” She flicks her wrist extending a full length wrackstaff as if from nowhere, “House Cynis has the best toys. Will you be as obliging as your sister? Stand and deliver!”

Ganan’s eyes play over the wrackstaff, there’s no doubt in his mind that it is Jinabar’s weapon – Calumny, “Oh Jin is never going to live this one down. I will enjoy killing you.”

Ganan starts to glow with power as he anticipates the battle unfolding around him.

Melody mounts Clapper and draws her bow in one smooth motion.

Lady Magnificent closes the distance between herself and Ganan in a flash of green light. Her wrackstaff flashes out as Ganan’s skin hardens to stone. Lady’s staff hits his flesh, binding him with sticky strands of congealed essence. Ganan rolls with the blow and takes Earth Dragon Form: his anima rises into a ranging sandstorm. The wrackstaff whispers a name into Lady’s ear.

Ganan fights through the sticky essence enveloping him and smashes into Lady Magnificent with a mighty overhead blow, but even as he brings his fists down, she launches forward whipping up and devastating plume of steam. The blast of steam knocks Ganan badly off-balance. Lady Magnificent’s anima rise-up into a dog made of twisting vines.

Lady Magnificent ducks back, and twirls her staff, “Tell me, who is ‘Mnemon Honas’?”

Ganan’s face becomes a mask of rage, but Lady’s manifest essence bindings holds him back.

“Oh, that important to you then?” She taunts as she ducks inside his guard to hammer him again.

Melody looses an arrow, Lady Magnificent shifts her focus, swinging her staff up at the last moment. The force of the arrow knocks open a hole in her guard.

Ganan surges up and drives a fist into Lady’s ribcage, hammering the air from her lungs.

“Well, this has been fun.” Lady Magnificent grins, as she draws back and makes a dash for the tree-line.

Melody spurs Clapper forward, but Ganan calls out:

“Let her go.”

“Seriously?” Melody says as she draws a bead on the fleeing brigand.

Ganan nods grimly, “We’re not here for her. If you crash Clapper through the forest, you’ll tip our hand.”

Melody doesn’t dismount but she lowers her bow as Lady Magnificent disappears into the foliage, “Gan, why are we here?”

“That is an excellent question.” Glowing with the faint red-light of her fiery anima, Cynis Jinabar steps out from the tree-line with her faithful servant Mott and a pair of other mortals whom our heroes do not recognize.

“Jin!” Melody calls enthusiastically as she vaults off Clapper to run over to her.

Jin flinches and holds up a hand to stop her, “Please, no public displays of affection.”

Ganan pulls his tetsubo from his anima, “Are we good?” He asks cautiously.

Jin looks at her brother, “After you destroyed my home, murdered my entire family, then didn’t even write for a year? And don’t say you didn’t know my address.” Her voice is level, but there’s emotion evident behind her words.

Ganan shrugs and lowers his weapon fractionally, “I didn’t know what I’d say. You look well.”

“I’m surprised to see you… alive?” Melody ventures hesitantly.

“She wasn’t in the manse when I destroyed it.” Ganan says simply. Jin nods mutely in acknowledgement and Ganan sheaves his weapon.

“Are you here tracking Lady Magnificent?” Melody asks, quickly changing the subject.

Jin shifts her attention to Melody, “No. I expect I’m here for the same reason as you. What’s the last thing you remember before waking up here?”

“I was at home,” Melody answers, “Gan was in Thorns.”

“And what were you doing?” Jin asks patiently.

“Ejava was booting me out of the 40^th.” Ganan responds.

“And I was hosting a V’neef delegation… when… I had a visitor?”

Jin gestures for her to continue.

“I don’t… remember who… damn it!” She turns to Ganan, “A Sidereal?”

“Wait, what’s a Sidereal?” Jin asks, confused, “It was the Wanderer who brought me here.”

Ganan snaps his fingers, “That’s right. The Wanderer. Today was my last day of service, I wanted to stay on and secure Thorns, but the Wanderer came-”

“Hold on,” Melody interrupts, “Your last day of service is the 2^nd Day of Resplendent Water, that’s when the Wanderer saw me. It was early in the day.”

“And that’s when he saw me as well,” Jin says, “In Greyfalls.”

“There’s got to be a thousand miles between Incas and Greyfalls!” Ganan exclaims, “Even on a Stormwind Rider, even on a Lesser Elemental Dragon, he couldn’t have seen us all in the same morning!”

“More like three thousand miles,” Melody adds, “And transporting Clapper here from the Blessed Isle… is a feat, to be sure. The sun is overhead, which means it’s not morning anymore, so we’ve lost time. As Ganan’s spell has worn off, we’re probably talking ‘days’ not ‘hours’.”

“Hmm.” Ganan considers, “That doesn’t necessarily square. If it’s been days, why didn’t I recast my spell this morning? It could be that I had to discharge the spell early – combat, maybe, or needing to reduce my weight?” He stops, and touches the Yasal stone at his hip, “It’s been less than six months, at least,” he confirms as he feels the familiar presence of Ndiza (resummoned during the campaign on Thorns), then he and routes through his pack, “How much food do you two have?”

They check: they all have a couple of days’ worth of rations.

“We should head into Dovak and get the date at least.” Melody suggests.

“I’ll go.” Jin says decisively, “I’m less well known than the two of you, and stealthier too.”

Ganan scoffs, “You are a klutz, I am far stealthier than you.”

“And why do we care about stealth?” Melody asks, “Let’s just march into town!”

“That’s not tactically sound,” Ganan admonishes, “We didn’t leave the city on good terms. I wouldn’t have agreed to leave Thorns without a very good reason. A reason pressing enough to keep me from my wife and children.” He points at Melody, “And I note Iohan isn’t with you. We’re not here for a friendly visit.”

Melody looks panic stricken for a moment, but then is overcome with the undeniable feeling that she made appropriate care arrangements for her one-year-old son and Muli’s boy.

“Why don’t you go check out that tree you used to summon Sondok?” Jin suggests, “I’ll scope out the city. Take command of my archons.” And without waiting for a reply, she turns and rushes into the forest, quickly disappearing from sight.

“She’s going the right way, yes?” Ganan confirms with Melody before dissolving his body into shadow and chasing after her.

Melody shakes her head at the pair, mounts Clapper, directing the archons up with her, and she stomps through the forest at right angles to Dovak to head for the Gateway Tree.

****

With her spiritual reserves drained from her fight with her brother, Jin can’t adopt her disguise as Lady Magnificent, but she is still incredibly stealthy as she sneaks her way into Dovak in broad daylight.

The fields surrounding the city are tilled by the dead: zombies pull ploughs by hand, scatter seeds mindlessly, and spread foul smelling offal as fertilizer. The presence of the undead does not shock Jin, or Ganan who follows close behind in shadow-form. Ganan can’t feel the presence of any immaterial spirits: the zombies being left unsupervised in their rote tasks.

Crucified bodies flank the entrance to the palisade which surrounds the city. The stench of rotting flesh assails her: a pungent, acrid stink that makes Jin feel like the inside of her nose will never be clean again. The corpses turn and struggle against their bonds as she approaches the gap in the wall, letting out low moans of warning. Startled by the undead sentries, she disappears back into the tree-line and waits. She doesn’t have to wait long: convoys of mortals – humans and beastfolk – are streaming regularly in and out of the city, heading for the mines and the mountains or returning with wheelbarrows and wagons. Vast amounts of copper is being shipped into the city, but also stone (which appears more like rubble than quarried blocks) and fresh corpses. Jin blends seamlessly with the crowd and hides on the underside of a wagon, rolling into town without alerting the corpse sentries. At the same time, Ganan’s disembodied shadow slips between the cracks of the palisade, entering the city from the side.

Dovak is almost unrecognizable. The basic outline (Ganan’s neatly ordered rows of houses, the grand temple to Tomonas, the palace in the center of the city) is the same, but the tenements are blood-stained as well as soot-stained; green and gold banners bearing the Mon of House Cynis fly from the buildings; undead monsters beat the copper into blades in eerie unison, every hammer in the city rising and falling in time like the beating of a behemoth’s heart; ghosts and darker things stalk the shadows in the alleyways between buildings; and a stockade has been erected next to the stables. Six figures, sickly and weak, are bound in the stockade, surrounded by effluence: Ganan and Jin do not recognize them, but assume it’s the Rulinsei Satrap and her delegation.

Ganan loses sight of Jin as he serves out of sight to avoid a mortwright. Minutes pass as Ganan makes his way toward the Wall of Stone. He catches sight of a familiar masked figure – Lady Magnificent dashes up the rooftops and jumps for the Wall. She soars a clear ten-feet, whipping out a length of rope which catches the top of the wall, easily scrambling up the remaining distance. Invisible and Immaterial, Ganan slides under a barred door, entering the Wall.

Lady Magnificent does not stop running. She flips over the other side of the Wall, retying her rope on the run and sliding down its length. She kicks off the Wall, using her tie as a fulcrum and launches herself at one of the taller trees in the palace gardens. She’s already on the ground and heading for the Tower of Air by the time the zombie guards notice that she’d scaled the Wall.

Ganan makes straight for the old Satrap’s quarters. He finds a disturbing sight – two Dragon-Blooded, their animas raging, tempests of elemental power, are conducting an orgy. The participants – or rather, victims, are mostly mortal but Ganan notices some of the more badly mauled corpses continue to grope and writhe in the elemental power as undead. Ganan slips quietly out of the Satrap’s quarters, glad on the solid workmanship he put into the heavy oak door. Having seen more than enough, he swiftly leaves, heading for the Gateway Tree.

Her mystic reserves still drained, Lady Magnificent sizes up the perfectly smooth nephrite walls of the Tower of Air. Reluctantly she removes her mask and approaches the Tower entrance as Cynis Jinabar. She raps smartly on the door.

A guard, liveried in the uniform of the Dovaki royal family, living but his face gaunt and pale, answers the door, “I am Cynis Jinabar. I was told to present myself to the boss.” Jin bluffs.

Cautiously, the guard opens the door. Jin certainly looks like she could be a Dragon-Blooded: she has an aura of impeccable cleanliness, such as is impossible to maintain in the smog and gore of Dovak.

“The Prince is in a foul mood. You’d better be a tracker, or he’ll have your head.” The guard warns, waving her into the Tower.

The guardhouse and servant’s market are deserted. The only living soul is the single guard who let Jin into the Tower. She picks her way past unattended internal defenses: there’s blood on the floor – old and stained. She rises through the tower to the next level, the entire floor is empty, filled with rooms of different sizes. The furnishings have been stripped, even the doors removed from the walls, it is impossible for Jin to guess that once this was the Reception of Power where Dovak’s nobility and wealthier citizens conducted business. She crosses the floor and continues up to the next level, the Royal Market: this leaves some clues, rotten food discarded on the ground, more bloodstains. Zombies fill the next floor: a press of bodies, male and female, young and old. Some wear what were obviously once fine clothes, now gore-splattered. They turn their eyes on Jin with murderous intent but make no move toward her. A thick black line has been drawn in something like bitumen on the ground: the zombies are all behind that line.

Jin holds up her hands in what she hopes is a universal gesture of surrender, then calls out in a commanding voice, “I am Cynis Jinabar. Make way.”

For a second it seems as if the zombies do not understand her, then the part, leaving a clear path for her to the other side of the floor. Calumny clasped firmly in hand; she cautiously crosses over the black line. The zombies do not converge on her and she crosses the room without incident.

The next level is the court. Living, dead and stranger things mill to the sides of the great room, yielding the walkway that leads to the throne. Upon the throne is sat a youth skin as pale as the moon, spiky hair black as night, yet tinged with streaks of red-fire, eyes as deep and merciless as the sea and lips like lumps of coal. On his head he wears a wreath, twisted with gold, and in his hands is a warclub (no stately scepter of office, this is a wicked looking thing made of twisted soulsteel). Jin thinks he looks oddly familiar, though she struggles to place the likeness. She approaches the throne boldly, stops before it and bows:

“Your Majesty.”

The courtroom falls silent.

The Gift of Merciful Silence looks at her sternly and responds in Old Realm “I am not given to forgiving insults, Terrestrial.”

A creature that looks like something from a nightmare, a twisted being in the rough shape of a man only taller and thinner, its skin like dead, rotten wood with a pulsing, squirming, something mercifully obscured by the bark, turns the shadowy void that exists where a human’s face would be toward Jin and… if not speaks then at least generates words directed at her (also in Old Realm):

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESSS, THE GIFT OF MERCIFUL SILENCE, MAKES NO CLAIM TO THE THRONE OF DOVAK. WHILST THE PRETENDER AND THE EXILE DRAW BREATH, YOU SHALL NOT REFER TO HIM AS 'KING'.

Jin rises from her bow, curtsies and responds in her own Old Realm, “Clearly the master does not appreciate my boastfulness. I ask only that you suspend my punishment until after I deliver my quarry.”

The Gift’s eyes narrow, “You are the tracker, then, that my Cynis servants have sent for.” It is not a question.

“I am Cynis Jinabar, formerly a Magistrate hand-picked by the Scarlet Empress herself to serve her. Now, I am the foremost scout in House Cynis. There are none better than I at tracking quarry.” She answers, more-or-less honestly.

The Gift relaxes back, “You are boastful. We shall see if I like that. May I assume that useless bitch Petalin has failed in every way to brief you properly in your mission?”

“She has: I have not been briefed,” Jinabar responds inwardly grimacing as she recognizes the name as one of House Cynis’s foremost military commanders who deserted during the Civil War, “But I have already offended you, and I shall not presume to waste any more of your time…”

The Gift holds up a hand for silence, “I will brief you. I will brook no further mistakes. Your targets are two. The first is Crown Princess Tinkara Dovak, in exile. She is a god-blooded warrior. She wields an enchanted warclub that can call the power of the storm. The second is a pretender who calls himself Yochanan Dovak – after the Princess’s younger brother who fled the kingdom in exile, some time ago. I am told there is a certain… resemblance, between them and myself only…”

He motions one of the native Dovaki forward. He approaches without hesitating, obeying the wordless command instantly, but with a look of absolute terror on his face. The Gift caresses the man’s skin, the contrast of his white pallor evident against the olive brown tone of the noble. Then, with a flick of the wrist he tears a chunk out of the nobleman’s neck. The dead body hits the floor and The Gift of Merciful Silence carefully peels the skin from the flesh and licks the blood from the skin. Fearful servants haul the body to one side and The Gift rises from his throne presenting the skin to Jin.

“Their skin is darker than mine.” The Gift concludes, he regards the fallen noble with contempt, “These people put such stock on the color of skin denoting worthiness to rule. A foolish notion.” He whispers, more to himself than to Jin.

Jin takes the human skin without flinching: it’s not quite the same as her own, but certainly her tan is closer to the Dovaki olive than to The Gift’s pallor, and the comment on ruling and skin color makes her uncomfortably aware of that fact.

She can now place why The Gift looks so familiar: he looks like The Wanderer. But he also looks like… someone else. Like a cross between the Wanderer and someone she knows with pale skin…

“This pretender, the one pretending to be an exile, not the exile pretending to your throne,” Jin says, “He is, if you’ll pardon the expression, one of the Anathema?”

The Gift returns to his throne before answering, “He may be. He is not to be underestimated.”

“Does he have any other aliases? ‘The Wanderer’, perhaps?”

YOU GOT TOO FAR, TERRESTRIAL! The nightmare creature barks.

The Gift silences his lieutenant, “We believe that is an alias he may use.”

“And… ‘his son’?” Jin questions, her eidetic memory recalling the Wanderer’s greatest secret.

Jin’s world explodes into a mess of stars. Pain like nothing she has ever felt courses through her body. When she can see again, the only thing she can see is bare stone. It takes her a breath or two to realize she’s face down on the floor.

SHOW DEFERENCE TO THE MASTER'S FAVORED SERVANT! The nightmare thing barks at her.

“A thousand apologies,” Jin mumbles, her mouth full of cotton, “But I arrived in Dovak only this morning, consider how quickly I will find your quarry.”

“She’s not lying.” The Gift judges, “Let her up.”

Jin suddenly becomes aware of a great weight pressing down on her, just as it is being removed. The swirling in her head stops, and she rises from the ground.

“Do not disappoint me.” The Gift warns, dismissing her.

Jin turns and flees from the Tower. As she leaves Dovak, the crucified corpses do not scream at her. She crosses the threshold to re-enter, just to be sure, then heads out into the forest to meet up with Melody and Ganan – using Wind-Carried Words and her unerring sense of direction to find them.

****

Melody rides directly to the Gateway Tree. It still seems hale and healthy – a portal only to Creation. But that is the only hale and healthy thing here. The fortifications Ganan built to protect the tree from the dead are now manned by the dead. Sacrifices and sickly animals are chained to the ground by the tree and nothing else living is growing within fifty-yards. Melody is not trained in occult matters, but even to her it seems obvious that someone is trying to create a Shadowland here, forcing the passage to the Underworld to reopen.

She consults Mott, “One Dragon, three mortals, and Shieldback against an army of zombies is good odds. But I don’t want to fight a spirit without Ganan here.”

“How will you know if there’s a spirit here?” Mott asks.

“Well, if it inexplicably goes dark and we all die, there’s a spirit here.” Melody grins.

“You still can’t see spirits in mirrors, mistress?” Mott asks.

“I still can’t even set fucking bodies on fire, Mott!” Melody fires back, “Can Jin see spirits?”

“Mistress Jinabar has developed many new abilities, but, no, I don’t think so. Spirits can still bedevil us – I suspect that’s how Lady Magnificent keeps getting away.”

Melody makes a noise of frustration, “If only we had more of you!” She laments.

“How many more, mistress?” Mott whistles.

Out of the forest ten figures emerge from the foliage, having tracked them on foot – the rest of Jinabar’s archons.

“Alright!” Melody nods, “This could work…”

****

Melody positions the archons in the trees, then orders Mott forward to attack the zombies with his sling. He attracts the attention of the horde then runs back for the tree-line. The zombies pursue, mindlessly abandoning their fortified position and blundering straight into the archon’s ambush. The archons hit the zombies and fall back, then hit them again before falling back again. All the time, Melody just watches the battle and sings out instructions to the troops. Eventually they lure the zombies to Melody’s position, and she dispatches the entire horde easily.

Ganan arrives as the last zombie falls. He looks at the positions of the archons and Melody, “A box gambit?” He ventures, speculating on Melody’s tactics.

“Well, I didn’t run straight at them with a tetsubo and beat them to death, but it worked.” Melody grins at him.

“That would have been foolish. For starters, you’re better with a bow, and what if there had been a mortwright leading them?”

“Holy crap! Are you actually talking to me about tactics? Real, honest-to-Mela tactics?”

“Well,” Ganan makes a fifty-fifty gesture, “Simple tactics.”

Melody gestures at the archons, “Jin’s other soldiers.”

Ganan nods in acknowledgement but says nothing.

“The tree is still… Creation-y, not Underworld-y.” Melody confirms as they approach the fortifications once more.

“But they’re obviously trying to change that.” Ganan comments on the sacrificial blocks, “We should demolish this fortification: I can always erect another.”

“Music to my ears!” Melody grins, ordering Clapper round to start demolishing the other side.

Ganan eyes up his handiwork and plans the proper demolition of the walls, factoring in Clapper’s ad-hoc destruction of the far side. He works quickly, using his tetsubo to hammer key points (1SP) and between his effort’s and Clapper’s tail the defenses are soon dropped.

Jinabar joins them as the work is completed.

“So, what’s the date?” Melody asks, “I figure Ganan forgot to ask, or he would have told me as soon as he arrived.”

There is a rustle from the tree-line, the very place where Melody drew the defending zombies into a trap and for a brief moment, Melody realizes just how exposed they are now they’ve destroyed the Gateway Tree’s fortifications.

The familiar, toned, and tanned figure of Tinkara Dovak appears from the tree-line with an army of bearfolk at her back:

“It’s the Third Day of Resplendent Water, and you are still not welcome in my kingdom!”

The bearfolk army leer at our heroes from the tree-line, banging weapons on shields.

“Your kingdom?” Ganan answers, “All I see is corpses and Cynis banners. We’re the ones killing the zombies.”

“We are your friends Tinkara,” Melody adds quickly, “We have diligently fought to protect Dovak in the past, and now we’re here to help.”

“Here to help?” Tinkara spits, “Cynis Ganan whose House has pillaged my kingdom, Mnemon Melody whose-” She disgorges a torrent of maggots from her mouth as the curse Reya levied upon her takes hold. Our heroes wince and hold their tongues until she stops, “And you! … Who are you?”

“Call me ‘Jin’,” Cynis Jinabar says as she gives a bow, “Your last Satrap, Bekara, had me imprisoned when I first came to Dovak, but I helped these two to track down Sondok and send her back to hell.”

Tinkara glares at Ganan, “I’d almost forgotten that you unleashed that demon on my kingdom.”

“You are my friend, Tinkara,” Ganan says, spreading his palms, “I don’t know what happened between you and Reya, but I begged her to remove that curse. So did Melody, or, at least, she would have if Reya had not cursed her as well. House Cynis betrayed the Realm, and they no longer have my allegiance. And Sondok didn’t do any harm to Dovak, but we took responsibility, and we fixed our mistake. That’s what we’re doing now.”

“We make a lot of mistakes, princess,” Melody says earnestly, “But we don’t want to see Dovak overrun by the dead… or House Cynis, apparently. And, not to be rude, but you have, what, five hundred bearfolk there? Against the three of us? Sweetie, it’s your kingdom and we’re here to help but stand your little band of merry mutants down before someone gets hurt. We’ve already taken back the Gateway Tree. You need us.”

Tinkara addresses Jin, “If they imprisoned you then made you hunt down a demon that they unleashed, I take it you have no particular loyalty to them? Help me kill them and I’ll make you a thane.”

“That is a tempting offer, princess,” She stares hard at Ganan, “A very tempting offer. But I’ve just come from the city and we are going to need every fighter we can get. Honestly… even working together, I don’t think we can do this.”

“To be clear,” Tinkara says slowly, “‘Do this’ means overthrowing Oka and returning me to the throne?”

“Of course,” Melody says.

“I don’t know who ‘Oka’ is but if it’s the creepy guy calling himself ‘The Gift of Merciful Silence’ and sitting on a throne, sure – let’s do this.” Jin nods.

“No.” Ganan says.

“No?” Tinkara says, and the other two echo her surprise.

Ganan screws up his face as if remembering something. He speaks slowly and with obvious difficulty, “We’re… here… to restore the rightful king?”

Tinkara draws her weapon and squares off against him.

Ganan hurriedly clarifies, “Which isn’t Oka. You and Oka both hang your claim on being next in line. But neither of you are.”

Tinkara grits her teeth, “Darios is dead. If I am not the next-in-line and you don’t recognize Oka’s claim, then who is this so-called rightful king?”

A new voice, clear and bold, yet familiar rings out, “I am.”

All eyes turn and see the Wanderer standing tall.

****

Ganan spends 8XP to train Spirit-Chaining Strike and 2DX to train Dodge 2.

Melody spends 10XP to train Wind-Carried Words Technique.
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Dynasty of Dovak