The New Star: Interlude 2
My lord, as instructed, here is my report on this day, the 5th of Ascending Water.
Our agents in Nexus reported that they had seen the man known as Gavek ‘Shadow-Stride’ using an artifact weapon that appeared to be Orichalcum. My first instinct was to suspect that they were, yet again, attempting to use us to eliminate one of their rivals, so I detailed Sesus Andrak to investigate. He took sixteen Sharks with him and, according to the only survivor of the encounter, spoke to and then followed a monkey to a house in Cinnabar where Gavek and one of his Anathema allies were hiding out. The ally, whose identity is unknown (all we know is that he had “a big dog”), attempted to talk his way out, but I fear that debate was never the strong suit of Andrak. The two Anathemas then proceeded to kill Andrak and all of the Sharks save the one that ran away.
As a small note, my lord, I believe the bit about the monkey detracts credibility from my man’s statement ~ he may have been somewhat unhinged by his experience. But we have no other witnesses and thus must work with his admittedly suspect story.
Nevertheless, I believe we are dealing with at least one, if not two, Solar Exalted, and I would like to request the appropriate forces be assigned me to deal with them, quickly, before they become a serious problem. They have seemingly gone underground, which doubtless means next time they will be prepared for us.
Finally, I would remind my lord of the additional difficulties of working within the Scavenger Lands, and must ask for the appropriate allocation of resources to employ more local agents.
I await your decision, my most noble lord.
Your humble and obedient servant,
Ledaal Aia
Meanwhile…
Resplendent Water Sutra heard the window rattling. She crept over and peered out into the night. There appeared to be no-one there, but the window was still being shaken.
“Qwerty, is that you?” she called. There was no answer, unless it was from the window being rattled more violently. Cautiously, she unlocked the window, and immediately it burst open and something large, heavy, yet invisible threw it wide and tumbled past her into the room. In the middle of the floor Qwertyuiop became visible, as did the blue, ectoplasmic blood he was leaking. His skin was shredded; he had been assaulted by an incredible violence of some kind. As Resplendent Water Sutra crouched over him, he struggled to tell her something:
“Storm… of Roses… beware… Storm… of Roses!”
Then he died, and when Qwertyuiop’s form dissolved into the streams of the air she knew that the spirit’s death was final, total and forever.