The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

Shimmer had only able to fly Sunrise to the edge of the miasma and back again from there while in her beast-pony form, but that still saved them both a good day of travel on hoof, allowing them to return to the campsite shortly after the sun had set.
Sunrise easily found Speaker’s old workshop. It was sealed off and built over in an attempt to hide what must have been an otherwise indestructible building. It had been made to look like a pool-house with no doors or windows. How unfitting for a place of such glorious creation.

Returning, what they found was Red, Cash and Sullen Hoof silently listening to Speaker lecture the three on motonic science and the importance of keeping all gemstone-based essence foci clean and… quite a lot of other things that none of them had understood.

When Shimmer and Sunrise set down, handing the Hoof of the Maker over to Speaker, Speaker was ecstatic .
It was a strange looking device that Speaker’s right fore-hoof fit into quite well, covered in orichalcum gears and solid tubes of adamant crystal. It was pretty, but had an alien aesthetic to it: This was not a device designed by a pony… even if it was made for one. Speaker quickly launched into a joyous tirade about what one could do with it, most of which sounded far too fantastic to be real: “…and armies! Entire armies with a wave of your hoof, coming into existence. Cities, kingdoms, entire new continents could rise out of the wyld and be ready to worship Celestia in mere minutes!”

While Speaker spoke fondly of the device, with Red trying her best to nod along to it, despite not understanding half of what was said, and finding the other half too impossible to be true, Sullen Hoof motioned for Sunrise to step away from the show and tell to update her on their grim discovery. Cash had drawn the shortest straw and had to inform Shimmer.

From what Cash could tell, then the lunar’s reaction was… mixed. At first she was understandably horrified, but then she seemed to quickly calm down and seemed to at least for a moment consider whether this wasn’t a good development.

“Shimmer, he’s forgotten his entire mortal life prior to exalting. His loyalty to Looksy, his dislike of the guild, every aspect of his personality not formed within the last couple of months are gone. He doesn’t even remember his birth-parents or where he got the old 7th legion uniform he’s wearing right now” Cash said, sounding oddly enough far more concerned than Shimmer for Speaker’s mental health.

Looking over at her solar mate, Shimmer carefully considered the situation. In her cunning beastpony form her intellect was even sharper than usual, putting her on par with speaker, if not actually making her smarter. It was only Speaker’s booksmarts that made him smarter in that respect – but then again, in the west mares weren’t treated as well as they typically were in the east, so she had long ago developed a habit of not revealing her insights and wisdom in order to better blend in wherever she infiltrated.

In Shimmer’s mind the idea that this development might actually serve her elders’ interests well floated around. The sunken city of Luthe might rise again if Speaker, now free of anything binding him to the east, could be brought to the west. Sure, Leviathan would be displeased that Speaker wasn’t the solar he seeks, but still, a solar with no loyalties to any contemporary agencies? The silver pact could benefit greatly from this.

Cash was approaching the issue from a very different point of view. As a businesspony his reputation and the other businessponies he knew was his bread and butter – or had been. Losing your memory of all of that? To Cash Charmer this was horrible beyond all reason. Equally, then together with Sullen Hoof Cash had ‘evaluated’ Speaker: “Listen, Speaker is different now. He’s more aggressive. The loyalty he had to Lookshy and his desire to remain on good terms with them have obviously made him refrain from any crazy schemes: Speaker has been talking about using that mitten of making to spawn entire legions, all mindless flesh-drones of living metal and fangs that’ll march across creation, to scour creation of all unicorns. He wants revenge… and honestly, he seems perfectly happy to bring down creation to do that – he says with the hoof and his singing staff he can rebuild creation from the ground up if need be – and we can’t talk him out of it. He’s as stubborn as ever, but not in a good way now”

Shimmer’s birdlike face soured. It was a little tricky for Cash to read her, since beaks didn’t convey emotion that well, but his charms aided in that: She definitely had a hidden agenda she was considering to further here – but he didn’t want to ask, honestly considering Speaker’s mental health more important.

It was then that Sunrise Glow called Shimmer and Cash over to her, next to Red and Speaker who was looking ever so pleased to have his Hoof of the Maker back.

Addressing Speaker with a less than pleased scowl on her lips, Sunrise Glow stepped up on a small broken tree-stump to get up on the same level as the tall and sturdy Lookshyan stallion: “Speaker, I’m being told that you’re experiencing amnesia, is this true?”

Now, while Red, Sullen and Cash had initially caused Speaker to panic, Speaker had quickly taken refuge in his first age memories, recalling them even clearer than before, acting as if he was almost still in the first age, ignoring their questions as the answers to them unnerved him so.

This time he could not ignore the question. With eyes filled with fear Speaker looked around, looking for support, for someone to intervene. How was this possible? Wait – charms, obviously! It was the Terrifying Apparition of Glory rhetorical technique, the denial of denial, only allowing him to come up with a counter-argument of which he couldn’t. How dared she!? How dared that little foal try to command his mind!

In an instant Speaker was furious and would have lunged at the diminutive Sunrise Glow, if not for Red – having far more combat charms than Speaker – having heightened her reaction time to a point that even war gods would envy her, to grab, flip and pin Speaker in a heartbeat the moment he aggressed.

Lying painfully on his back, with Red keeping him down, Speaker could do nothing but cry out in rage and anguish. It was a long and painful wail, one of impotent fury in the face of both overwhelming force and a very real existential dread.
Shimmer looked on in horror. This most certainly would not do, Sunken city or not.

Sunrise Glow, with her scowl never having changed from previously, her having not even moved as Speaker had tried to lunge for her, approached Speaker again, this time stepping down to the ground and Looking Speaker in the eyes as she peered down from her hood: “Do you have amnesia?”

Speaker’s heart was racing and his breath was deep and fast. Lesser ponies might have passed out from the strain he was putting up against Red’s grip, but when it came to clinches then Hoof of the Daystar style was simply superior: “I… I am told that that is the case – but I don’t see the problem”

Sunrise Glow wasn’t impressed, her stone-faced expression never changing: “You just tried to attack me – to hurt a fellow solar in your circle. Is that not a cause for concern? Why would you do such a thing if there was no problem?”

“I… You… If you’d let me go and stop asking me stupid questions there wouldn’t be a problem!” Speaker shouted.

Sunrise continued asking questions which could not be ignored, only answered. Speaker would try to resist the unnatural compulsion to not ignore the question out of sheer force of will, but after his second attempt at this Sunrise Glow’s caste mark lit up: “Speaker, we only want to see you well, will you let us help you get better so that we all can get on with our lives?”

Speaker was silent for a moment. Then he started thrashing about under Red’s tight grip as he screamed: “I could feel that in my mind! You’re trying to get me aren’t you! I won’t submit you old fool! The hierophant will not rise again!”

Red, appearing to use almost no effort at all in pinning Speaker down, despite him being almost a head taller than the warrior mare, turn to look at Sunrise: “Hold on, I thought he was having amnesia, not being paranoid or talking crazy?”

Of what little facial expression Sunrise Glow showed under her hood one could see her mood souring: “I attempted to use a hypnotic charm to make Speaker more agreeable. I will have to hand it to Looksyan stubbornness, resisting that charm is not easy”

Cash’s ears perked up at the mention of the hypnotic tongue technique. He knew it well, but had yet to really find any excuse to use it: Since he could already talk someone in the southern deserts to buy sand if he wanted, the charm’s use seemed limited to him.

“Hold on – what’s the point of even trying to make Speaker cooperate if we don’t have a way to fix him? I know some healing charms, but they’re mostly about healing and regenerating wounds of the flesh, not those of the mind” Shimmer noted, looking evermore concerned.

Sunrise nodded but said that she knew someone in Great Forks who would certainly lead them to a healer of minds, since she was equally certain that such a feat was actually possible for unicorns to do.

“He’ll never live this down if a unicorn has to fix him up…” Cash joked, Sullen Hoof nodding, whatever facial expression he had hidden behind his mask and straw hat.

Sunrise Glow took a deep breath and once again bid Speaker to be cooperative, the hypnotic suggestion in her charm ordering him to submit to her orders until his memories were restored. This time Speaker could not fight the effect, but Sunrise did warn the rest of the circle that he might still resist the compulsion momentarily from time to time.

“I thought when you got hypnotized that you were completely in the hypno-pony’s power?” Red wondered, having only ever heard or seen of the concept from traveling entertainers and whatnot.

Cash was quick to point out that ponies do not work like that, and neither does hypnosis: “You only see stuff like that at carnivals and whatnot. That kind of traveling shows usually plant a member of the troupe in the audience then chooses them to be hypnotized. It is all an act. This charm work by planting a compulsion you aren’t aware of. You do things you don’t know why you’re doing. The trick is to make the compulsion something that isn’t questioned, otherwise you’ll get suspicious and start to question your actions. That’ll make you resist the compulsion, thinking consciously about why you would want to do such things”

“So making a pony run around barking like a dog?” Red wondered, having mostly figured out the answer in advance.

Cash shook his head: “Fake. Ponies either want to play along on the game and willingly do as told just for fun, or are part of the show already”

Red carefully let Speaker go, with Sunrise telling him to remain quiet and occupy himself until Shimmer could bring them back to civilization. He did so, walking to the edge of the crater they were camped in and sitting down to meditate, not speaking a word, his Hoof of the Maker in his lap.

Shimmer found it difficult in the following days to relax, Speaker only ever getting up to join the others to eat, or when they were to sleep, spending all his time in meditation. Talking with the others she found she wasn’t the only one. Speaker was usually so nice, sage and willing to help… now he came off as stern, with a grim determination that by no means matched what Shimmer had been told about her solar mate’s first age behavior…

“What exactly do you know about Speaker from the first age? Do you remember anything from back then?” Cash wondered.

Shimmer sighed: “I only know what I’ve been told, or read, often via writings that my own past incarnations left behind. I’ve always reincarnated in the west, so I’ve been a regular with the eastern elders for many reincarnations whenever a wyld hunt would finally catch up to me, or changelings would kill me – but because of the multiple reincarnations then most of what I remember from past lives are from those lives, not what lives I had in the first age…”

“A shame, would have been nice to get an idea of whether this was how Speaker acted back then” Sullen Hoof said.

Looking over at Speaker, his face contorted into a grim frown, his eyes closed and his ears flat down the side of his head, Shimmer breathed deeply as her longing eyes wished for her solar mate’s kindness and compassion to return: “From what I’ve read he was a kind pony, who would put helping others before personal glory and luxuries. He would enlighten hundreds of tribes of ponies, granting them knowledge of medicine, writing, how to make better homes and how to give thanks to Celestia. During the primordial war he was horrified by the uncaring nature of the river of all torment, so he punished the river that wanted to feel all things by trapping it behind a dam that could not feel , nor be felt. This sensory deprivation allowed others to slay the primordial. I’d need my old scrolls back home west if you want to hear more stories…”

Sullen Hoof nodded, secretly wanting very much to hear more stories of the first age, but right now there were more important things to do: “That sounds more like the Speaker we know. I’m guessing that his compassion was lost when he lost his mortal memories. I guess if you only have power, but no memory of having no powers or others without power you care about, you stop worrying about the consequences of your actions”

The rest of the circle agreed, Cash noting that that sounded a bit like how some guild factors he’d heard about acted from time to time.

The next few day went by far too slowly, until three days later at sunrise when Speaker approached Shimmer who was still not fully recovered from the mental rigors of performing so much complex sorcery.

“Have you recovered sufficiently?” Speaker spoke, plainly and without sounding as if he truly cared at all.

Shimmer shook her head and lowered her gaze in shame, not wanting to look at Speaker while he was in such a state, but her solar bond compelling her to remain in his presence to ‘support’ him. Suddenly light from Speaker’s direction drew her gaze up again.

Speaker had reared up and around his hooves circled streams of glowing runic script in tight bands: “Stand still”

Shimmer stood paralyzed in both fear and unwilling loyalty as Speaker struck her gently on the shoulder, the infinitely complex glyph patterns of essence that swirled around Speaker’s hoof seeping into her painlessly.

It took a moment to realize, but suddenly Shimmer felt… refreshed, as if she didn’t need to think as hard to… think. It was weird, but also felt very nice, as if she had just spent a few weeks in a spa surrounded by supple young yet strangely well hung colts who all shared with her copious amounts of hashish.

“You may now transport us – NOW” Speaker said with a stern tone, standing to attention with his eyes to the skies. Speaker might not remember his time in the 7th legion, but he sure acted as if in it now.

The rest of the circle quickly gathered around the two. Shimmer admitted that she felt refreshed enough to return to civilization. Sunrise Glow said that she looked forward to returning to her congregation, while Red, Sullen Hoof and cash all noted that they weren’t fully recovered, but felt well enough to travel.

As with the three days of waiting, the flight north seemed to take far too long.

Red did note that Speaker at least seemed to have made good on all his talk about developing a charm to ‘transfer will’ – although she wasn’t entirely sure how that worked. Sunrise Glow enlightened her: “It is by will that you can control yourself, pure and simple. You may have natural inclinations, instincts and behavior shaped by your foalhood, but with will you can choose. It is with will that you hold back when beggars shout obscenities at you for not giving them money, or will that informs not doing something you might want to, when you know you shouldn’t”

“I guess that makes it easy for you then – you don’t want to do anything but pray and make others pray, makes for easy choices” Red noted, smiling at her attempt to be funny.

Sunrise Glow didn’t appear impressed.

The circle arrived near Great Forks in the afternoon. Cash marveled at the distance they had crossed, explaining how many months such a trek would have taken via hoof or cart, especially when moving through thick eastern jungle.

Sunrise Glow instructed the circle to wait for her at her apartment – she would go meet whoever it was she knew. It was clear to everypony, except Speaker who did not seem to care, that Sunrise was not interested in telling who it was she was meeting.

Returning in the evening, Sunrise said that she had at great personal cost been given information that could aid Speaker: “There’s supposedly a wood-aspected unicorn, a former immaculate monk, living as a hermit under mount metagalapa. If we fly there we should fly low, at night, and avoid the skies”

Shimmer was quick to ask if they should go right then and there. The rest of circle saw no reason not to, although Cash was quick to point out that even former immaculate monks tended to regard anathema with some hostility.

“Then we will have to see if we cannot make this hermit agreeable” Sunrise Glow said, the eager tone of her voice revealing that she was eager to engage in a religious debate, but there was also a great deal of confidence in her voice, making Cash silently wonder if she wouldn’t try to hypnotize the monk into renouncing his faith and converting to worshiping Celestial while they were at it.

For some reason this scenario actually pleased Cash, and not in the ‘sticking it to the immaculates’ way, but because it might show him whether Sunrise ever did let her personal goals, such as perhaps stamping out all other creeds than the one she advocated, interfere with her stated ‘official agenda’ of peacefully and calmly spreading the worship of Celestia. He didn’t speak of this, but chose to observe the following events carefully.

For Shimmer controlling her cloud at night would have been difficult if not for her beastpony form’s third eye as well as a few perception-enhancing charms.

Mount metagalapa would – during daylight – have been a strange sight to behold, for indeed it was.

It was situated in roughly the eastern center of the upper hundred kingdoms. It was a big mountain… and it hovered about five hundred yards above the ground, with a huge mountain-sized hole in the ground under it where it had probably once rested. It was a lone mountain in a landscape of rolling plains with hills and minor rivers and streams, and it was half a mile up in the air.

Cash had heard of it through herb dealers, as the constant shade under the mountain had allowed for strange breeds of plants to grow there, making for lucrative herb and mushroom harvesting: “…although last I heard, then raiders had begun attacking ponies all around the mountain, so there might be raiders camped in or around the crater when we get there… so we should be on the lookout for campfires”

“If it’s anything more than idiot outlaws they’ll know to hide their campfires so the light can’t be seen at a distance. They’ll probably have camps just inside the crater rim” Red noted, her dawn caste giving her insights into strategy she’d never really had before exalting.

“Fair enough, but I doubt they’d disturb a unicorn monk, speaking of which: Do not talk to the unicorn while there. He is a hermit who meditates in solitude. We must respect this and only burden him as little as possible” Sunrise quickly added.

Approaching the mountain while flying just above tree-level, with frightened animals making for brief chirps and howls as the cloud zoomed by overhead, the circle found no campfires or raiders under the mountain.

The hermit was surprisingly easy to find – Shimmer using her third eye to track the essence of the unicorn: “Normally this would be quite difficult, but there’s hardly any residual essence here in the crater… it’s weird, but handy”

The circle followed the half-bird beastpony as Shimmer led them through the crater to a small cave that appeared to have been ‘dug’ by large roots that equally grew around it and held the dirt and rock up. Inside was an old unicorn who sat motionless in a meditative position. Before getting too close Shimmer turned into a pony again.

The unicorn did not move nor did it speak as the circle approached, and yet they could all sense that the unicorn was keenly aware of them.

Sunrise Glow calmly walked up to the dark silhouette of the unicorn and whispered something that could not be heard – well, it wasn’t meant to be heard, but Shimmer already had charms active that improved her senses, and so did Sullen Hoof…

The unicorn’s horn glowed green, revealing an equally green horn and – in the light from the horn – a bald unicorn in ragged robes of coarse sack cloth. With a jerk and a cough the unicorn got up and spoke in a language that neither Sullen Hoof, Speaker or Sunrise Glow could speak – but Red and Cash instantly recognized the high realm tongue, as well as its accent as being from the blessed isle: “So the favor has been called… twenty years of solitude only to be disturbed for this? Oh well, bring forth the patient”

Cash translated and Sunrise Glow bid Speaker step forward.

The dim light from the unicorn’s horn faded, only to suddenly be replaced by bright green light from the unicorn’s eyes. He spoke again in a language that Speaker did not understand: “You have been traveling… to old places… and succumb to ancient madness… interesting…”

The unicorn then closed his eyes again, plunging the tiny cave into darkness once more. A sweet smell of peaches spread in the air, and Speaker felt and heard leaves rustling around his hooves, the rest of the circle hearing them as well. This was the anima of wood-aspected unicorns: Like all unicorns, when they used their essence their elemental nature would show. However, unlike fire aspected unicorns who’d simply burn their surroundings when their anima-flux appeared, then wood aspected unicorns would poison their surroundings like poisonous berry juice… and Speaker knew this, so he hoped this wouldn’t take too long – he had things to do, armies to conjure, realms to reduce to ash.

“Lean down” the hermit unicorn said. Speaker did so, and felt lips on his forehead… followed by a torrent of memories and emotions flooding into his mind, causing him to drop to the ground as his mind readjusted itself.

This didn’t look all that dramatic to everyone else, standing behind Speaker. In fact, it looked rather undignified as Speaker lost all control of his bodily functions, resulting in him pissing, pooping and even puking a little, all the while jerking spastically on the ground. An ugly smell began to spread in the small cave.

A few moments later Speaker slowly staggered up, breathing heavily from the exertion. To Shimmer’s horror Speaker’s caste mark had also lit up, shining a golden light in the darkness of the night. She started feeling that itch in her hooves, and her eyes started darting to and from the glowing caste mark to the silhouette of the unicorn…

“I guess the rumors were true… I pity the realm once more of you start appearing” the unicorn said, his voice coarse and reflecting his rough living. Cash, Red and Sullen Hoof would later question how a hermit under a mountain would hear rumors at all.

Speaker got up to the point that he could look the unicorn in the eyes. It was strange, but the need to scour the land of unicorns with armies of metalic drones didn't feel that important anymore: “Oh there’s more of us… but it doesn’t have to come to blows – I am quite thankful for your service and would prefer to leave peacefully”

Shimmer let out a sigh of relief: “True that – three hundred lunars, three hundred solars and maybe a hundred others… and we’re not all bad”

“Anathema by another name, the scriptures call for your destruction – but I got out of that rat race a long time ago… now please, leave, I wish to return to my meditation” the unicorn said, sighing heavily as he was probably the first unicorn to ever get the true number of supposedly active ‘anathema’ – and it was far greater than what any preacher or monk he had ever met dared theorize…. And six of them were standing in his presence if his senses hadn’t dulled that much. He was a healer, a unicorn healer, and he knew enlightened essence when he felt it – but none of the ponies in his company had the air or look of unicorns, nor the marks that usually identified godblooded.

And up to a thousand anathema in creation at any given moment? The wyld hunt rarely had more than fifty hunts back when he had still been in good standing with the rest of the immaculate order… Oh it would require much meditation to settle his mind, for this news – even if it might be a lie – had upset him so.

Looking up the unicorn saw that the other ponies were gone… but this wasn’t the first time he had lost himself in thought.
The dawning light could even the seen at the edge of the crater, doubly-visible due to the shadow cast from the mountain floating overhead. Oh what madness had he released upon creation? Only time would tell.

Back in Great Forks, following a surprisingly somber cloud-flight back and a quick pit-stop at a pond for Speaker to clean himself, discussions were had on just how Sunrise had come to learn of this oddly cooperative dragonblooded unicorn.

Sunrise wasn’t in the mood for telling – and even Cash with his silver tongue couldn’t wrestle that fact out of her. With the discussion having reached a deadlock, and Red having already bowed out stating that they should all just be happy that Speaker was ok again so they could start focusing on the plague in the Chung lands, the circle went to bed as the sun rose.
It probably hadn’t been that long before a noise woke the circle up.

In the tiny and unfurnished apartment with six sleepy exalted ponies a little voice was shouting: “Hey, wake up! Come on”
It was a piercing shrill voice, typical of the tiny and relatively mindless messenger spirits that even unicorn sorcerers could summon fairly easily once they learned the spell. It appeared to want to talk to Shimmer.

As the lunar got up the spirit wasted no time to deliver its information, a short verbal message: “The silver pact has learned that Anointed Starfall has acquired a double-boon from a solar, reply back if you know what solar, also please report on your last month’s activity. Elder Moonglow”

The whole circle looked at Sunrise, who under her hood was frowning furious – her scowling mouth was the only thing the others could see, but oh how it was scowling.

“Got to love messenger spirits with no sense of timing or secrecy” Cash remarked, smiling far too much for.

Shimmer shook her head as the spirit faded away: “They probably expected me to be somewhere alone – it’s normal for lunars to take private time this close to the next full moon”

“Right, but now we know who told Sunrise – so, my dear, who is this Anointed Starfall?” Cash was quick to ask.

Sunrise Glow was oddly enough still reluctant to speak of her contact, even with the name revealed.

“Hold on, I’ve heard of him. He’s the pony that runs the Secret Thunders lodge here in Great Falls, a sorcerers club – I came across the name while going through city records while looking into that slave food scam I busted earlier” Sullen Hoof chimed in.

There was an audible sigh from Sunrise Glow: “Right, and now that that cat is out of the bag my oath to never mention where I got my information from is null and void – but yes, a lunar named Anointed Starfall gave me that information, and for a price I might add”

“So what is the price of a solar’s sanity?” Speaker said, curious at what another lunar might charge for such a precious thing.

Shimmer glanced nervously at Speaker. She did not like the prospect of the circle getting a negative image of lunars. It would make her plans so much more complicated.

Sunrise Glow, standing a full head shorter than the other ponies present, one and a half head shorter than Speaker, cursed herself inwardly as her body betrayed her reluctance to speak, as she absentmindedly scraped at the floor with her left forehood: “I… Anointed Starfall swears you to a magical oath when you undertake his tutelage. One to never speak of him or reveal where you have learned your skills. It also obligates you to grant him one favor or service to later in life, to which you have no choice but to obey. I bargained to take over the unicorn’s obligation in exchange for the information, in addition to the boon I already owed him”

“Sounds like two boons owed alright. I wonder; could I make you owe me as well if I promise not to inform my elders of what I now know?” Shimmer said, with a smile on her lips and a face full of jest, revealing both the cruelty of her joke and that she had no intention of really carrying out her threat.

Shimmer could feel the icy glare from underneath Sunrise Glow’s hood while Speaker told her not to joke about something like that.

“Wait, what did you do to owe this lunar anything in the first place?” Red wondered. Sullen Hoof quickly filled in the warrior pony that the Secret Thunders Lodge trained sorcerers – something that many of Great Forks’ godblooded ponies apparently had taken advantage to. It was obvious that it was via Anointed Starfall that Sunrise Glow had been initiated into sorcery.

“I can’t believe that the wyld hunt would allow a lunar to operate so openly…” Speaker said, having finally woken up enough to piece together that a lunar training sorcerers should have been noticed a lot sooner.

Sunrise Glow knew the answer to this. Apparently Anointed Starfall was known to the three ruling gods of Great Forks, who liked having someone around to make sorcerers out of their godblooded population – because sorcerers were powerful tools when it came to both war and commerce. So it was sort of a ‘public secret’ that had government sanction: Every pony in Great Forks with enlightened essence knew of the lodge, although Sunrise also noted that with that in mind the number of favors owed to Starfall had to be staggering…

Shimmer couldn’t help but smile at this: “Well, a wise lunar knows when to hide and when not to – sounds like this Starfall fellow has a good setup”

There was some discussion on the ethics of accruing favors in such a way, as well as the military use of sorcery, but ultimately the circle went back to bed. It was noon before they got up again, as some of Sunrise Glow’s cultists came knocking on the thin wooden door, calling for their priest to preside over their daily noon ceremony for the sun.
Sunrise Glow obliged.

The rest of the circle slowly got up, cleaned themselves up and got something to eat. Cash walked off, checking up on the medical caravan. Red and Sullen Hoof thought it would be amusing to check up on the gang they’d so thoroughly beaten up last they were in town, to see what they were up to. Shimmer wanted to find this Anointed Starfall, while Speaker wasn’t sure what to do:

“I’m still having trouble reconciling what I did while I had amnesia – I mean, attacking Sunrise? Why would I do that?”
Shimmer smiled as the two of them slowly walked along the edge of the temple district. There were so many parades and colorful ceremonies going on… not to mention the very public displays some pleasure cults were putting on.

Looking at her solar mate, Shimmer urged him to be calm about it: “I’ve seen brave warriors back home have their minds eaten by changelings – they’re left hollow and confused, so were you. This makes you scared, because you fear the unknown, both in that it’s unknown but also because it makes you aware of the fact that part of you is missing… and that fact hurts. Fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate… and in that brief moment that hate can make you lash out”

“I can see what you ended up exalting in the no moon caste and not the full moon caste” Speaker remarked, bowing his head to Shimmer’s wisdom.

“Me, a full-moon? Come on, I’m not that much a warrior – I think before I act. My elders all agreed that when I was tattoo’d as a no-moon” Shimmer said, smiling again, both at Speaker appearing to feel a little better and that he was feeling well enough to make that kind of un-related inquiry.

It was then that Cash came running, wearing brand new silks that had probably cost far too much, shouting: “The medical caravan left three days ago!”