The New Star: Interlude 7

In the year of the Glorious Scarlet Empire 769, the outcaste princess Mnemon Anna wrote in her diary:

17th day of Resplendent Water, continued
The Wyld Hunt is here. It seems Ivory is seeking to back up her suspicions by calling in the likewise paranoid, yes? We may be divorced from the Realm, but Ivory must not have entirely divorced herself from her old allegiances. The leader of this pack is one Ledaal Aia, whom the rumours would have us believe was Ivory’s mentor in her former life. It will be interesting to see if they are any more successful than she in rooting out anathema from among us. But I feel it will be more interesting to see how they get on with Yy, whom they must surely consider a heretic and a traitor, yes?

18th day of Resplendent Water
A curious truce has been formed between Yy and Aia, which was not what I anticipated. It seems he also believes anathema are our enemy within. This will doubtless be the work of Ivory, which means she has much more influence over Yy than I had previously suspected. The Hunt has taken a place in our little council, with Aia, of course, speaking for them.

21st day of Resplendent Water
A day of departures. Today we lost our escort and our guests from the Hunt, and shortly we shall lose Ivory. I have to admit I am not sorry about any of these. This morning our movement took us south of Greyd, and the escort left us then. The Huntsmen left at some point during the day ~ no-one is quite sure when because they left as quietly as they arrived. We assume they are satisfied that we are anathema-less, or else they found what they were looking for and dealt with it, yes? As for Ivory, a temporary absence, perhaps, but one I shall appreciate. Yy is sending her ahead to Constant, to ensure my father is keeping his side of their bargain.


Meanwhile…

The sun set. A moment later, the figure of a man materialised from an inrush of mist. An elderly man with long, white hair and beard, but standing tall and proud as though at the height of his powers.
To Resplendent Water Sutra his appearance was more like that of a spirit than a ghost, so she activated the Tell-Tale Symphony to find out what this was. She was instantly inundated by a cacophony of discordant noise, coming from the supposed father of General Yy, which drowned out all other sounds she could hear. As she began to adjust to this, the first thing her hearing perceived above the din was the apparition saying:
“She is one of the meddlers. Yy, kill her.”