The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

In the lone wooden cabin situated in the middle of nowhere, not far from Chung Do, the circle huddled around the stone hearth as Speaker and Shimmer regenerated Cash’s flesh, grew back his teeth, retrieved the teeth that had been forced down into lungs and disposed of them.

As Cash’s condition improved the messages he sent non-verbally also improved, though he did request that any bits of skin and flesh from his head that had been torn off be recovered and stored elsewhere... he didn't specify for what, but he seemed eerily happy when he was presented with most of the skin from his head. It had peeled back like a banana from the front of his face to the back of his neck, so it was almost in one piece… lush blond mane and all. Cash clumsily put it elsewhere once his spine was healed, allowing his use of his body again.

By their second day in the cabin Cash was well enough to ride Nah. The circle abandoned the cabin, though they left behind a plaque outside to commemorate their battle and the defeat of Peleps Blueblood.

Speaking of which, they found the Lord of t he wyld hunt half a mile away, having apparently conjured elemental water into his hole and floated up and out of it, then worming his way away. He was not pleased to see the circle again, and attempted to use his tsunami force shout once more, but Shimmer used Lunar tricks to deceive his eyes and ears – making him waste his essence. With that done Shimmer used her flesh-melding charm to seal Blueblood’s mouth… he wasn’t saying anything with it anyway.

“Won’t he starve?” Sullen Hoof wondered.

Shimmer shrugged, not really caring either way: “He’s tough, he can take it. I’ve gone for without eating anything”

“It doesn’t count if you’ve shapeshifted into a tree” Speaker noted as Shimmer tossed a now essence-string cocooned Blueblood up on Nah’s howdah.

As the circle gathered up on Nah, Cash slowly took the reins with shaky hooves. He looked somewhat out of character: It wasn’t his heavenly silks, now his magical shoes… Cash looked unsure of himself, glancing every so often over on the cocoon.

“Don’t worry – he’s facing away from us. Even Blueblood is mad enough to blast through his own mouth, he’ll only end up hurting himself” Sunrise said to reassure Cash.

Back in Chung Do it took a few days before Cash had regained enough confidence to have another go at Blueblood.

The unicorn had been hoisted up Twin Fountain Square, where all could see him. Sunrise had loudly proclaimed to the masses who their captive was and what he had been trying to do. Suffice to say the ponies of Chung Do in turn expressed their dislike. When Cash and Sunrise finally came to pick up Blueblood and take him to the castle for a final round of ‘polite talking ‘. Blueblood was caked and soaked in juices from spoiled fruits and vegetabes, plus it seemed that someone had tied a big paint-brush on a stick and decorated the hapless unicorn.

With no mouth the unicorn obviously couldn’t speak – and indeed he did look rather hungry – but Cash was able to read Blueblood’s hateful looks and defiant wiggles just fine: “What we’re going to do to you? We are going to tell you certain truths, truths that will hopefully make you change your ways – nothing drastic, just some information on the nature of the celestial exalted”

The information given to Blueblood was simple enough: The unicorn was explained, thoroughly, how Solar and Lunar exaltations would simply reincarnate of their bearers were slain – so if the wyld hunt was to be improved, it should start capturing such anathema, not simply kill them.

Blueblood was understandably skeptical about this – namely because he though Cash and Sunrise were lying to him constantly. Sunrise ultimately spun the story in a way that Blueblood seemed to buy: “The evil powers that we gain our powers from are freed when you kill us – they can then seek out and tempt others in sin. Capturing anathema and holding them prisoner prevents their evil from simply seeking other hosts”

Sunrise wrapped up the séance by using her memory reweaving technique to make Blueblood forget that he had taken captive, as well as forget that he had gotten ideas put into his head against his will – though the idea of taking anathema captive was made to remain.

Thus the infamous unicorn, the Butcher of the Wyld Hunt, Pelebs Blueblood was released far to the west of Chung Do, bearing only the marks of mild torment and the memories of having been captured, publicly humiliated, and released to spread the dire warnings of the powerful anathema protecting the Chung lands in the hundred kingdoms. It would be months before he would reach realm controlled territory.

It was thus, with many a great sighs of relief that the circle celebrated their victory in Chung Do. The celebration lasted well into the wee hours, but at dawn the circle was not greeted with hangovers and merry memories – but instead cries of horror from one of the servants at the castle, as the young colt ran through the halls screaming bloody murder.

From their room Speaker and Shimmer quickly ran out, Speaker still fiddling around with the buttons on his old uniform.

It turned out to be a false alarm: The young servant had woken up in the bed of one of his superiors, with little but a hazy recollection of last night’s events. Upon reviewing the most recent content of his Recorder of Everlasting Glories, Cash confirmed that the two castle servants had been flirting and drinking with each other.

“Ugh… so can we go back to bed?” Shimmer groaned, looking out of one of the castle windows. It was barely even dawn.

Cash shrugged: “Why not…”

For the first time in a good while the circle relaxed for a good day or so, resting well on their laurels. The young Shogun was similarly at ease, knowing that Chung Do was safe once again.

The next day the circle flew off to Sunhill after having lunch. Speaker wanted to check up on the hospital, especially in case there had arrived any new patients requiring his care, while Sunrise wanted to minister to the ponies of Sunhill. Cash in turn felt that a visit to Stygia was due, to see about that council spot his grand jade daiklaive had gotten him…

All of their plans, however, were dashed the moment they got close enough to Sunhill that Sullen Hoof’s charm-enhanced hearing could pick out the screams and shouts down on the ground: “They’re being raided!”

Cash yanked on Nah’s reins, the flying yeddim groaning in a long and rumbling fashion as it dove towards the dimly lit city. In the dusky light it was just barely possible to get by on the ground without a torch, while Cash had the lights atop of the Sunhill Manse to navigate by.

The circle readied themselves for combat, all except Speaker, who instead pulled out the hearthstone of the Sunhill manse and closed his eyes.

Above the manse lights suddenly flared into being. They soon focused into cones aimed down to the ground, scanning over the surface and locking on to each of the raiders. A the same time Speaker’s voice boomed out from hidden essence resonators: “Beware all you who trespass on Sunhill! Its guardians approach and your punishment will be swift and terrible! Citizens of Sunhill, seek refuge in the city manse – its doors will hold the raiders out”

To the ponies running the streets, seeing the manse spring alive with lights and the voice of the Solar lords of the place was met with mixed reactions: The raiders noped out, dropped whatever loot they were carrying, and began to gallop off – while the denizens and legit visitors or travelers in Sunhill made for the manse.

As Nah neared the ground and followed the searchlights, Sullen Hoof and Shimmer quickly crashed into the biggest groups of raiders. Sunrise equally leapt off, though not to fight: She rallied the ponies of Sunhill and organized the ponies running for shelter in the manse.

It took a little less than a few minutes to round up most of the raiders. From the lights of silvery and golden glowing animas it was possible to tell that the raiders had been mortal ponies, some clad in piecemeal armor, some only armed with clubs.

Cash put Nah down next to the tangled pile of prisoners between Sully and Shimmer in the western main square of the city. It had only taken them the first short seconds between jumping off Nah and Cash landing Nah to catch all the raiders within reach.

The search lights soon faded, Speaker not being able to detect any more raiders through the manse – though how he did that was something Sullen Hoof was quite curious about: “Wait, how?”

“The searchlights was the combination of three primary functions of the manse: It can project images, lights, sound and allows me to sense everything that happens within its area of influence… as its hearthstone-bearer I can focus on the stone, and sense everything in and around the manse… a then make illusions, sounds and whatnot appear anywhere within that sphere of influence as well” Speaker explained, adding that the intended use of these features are to allow him to guide the hospital staff more efficiently, including looking in on operations, medical procedures and consultations.

Sully remarked that it also looked to be a dandy surveillance system – but Speaker noted that you could only really focus on one place at a time, so that would require other manse functions as well.

“Alright, lets round the raiders up and find out where they’re from” Sullen Hoof said in a grim and determined tone. His voiced obviously hinted of the implied cruelties that would be necessary to make the raiders talk.

It was then that Sunrise came stomping into the square, followed by about two-hundred raiders.

At first the circle was alarmed – but then it became obvious that Sunrise was in charge…

It turned out that a group of raiders had followed some of the Sunhill civilians into the manse. Sunrise had come across them and used her charms to mentally dominate the raiders. Exploiting this, she had gotten them to lead her to their camp outside of Sunhill, where she had done the same trick to the rest of the raiders that had gotten out of the city.

“I’ve made sure they’re very sorry, and will help us form a military to defend Sunhill, with them as our first recruits” Sunrise asserted, much like a teacher listing off what her students had agreed to do.

Speaker and Shimmer both found this turn of events quite amusing. The pile of beat-up raiders in the square were less amused, a few of them groaning that they felt a bit cheated.

“Don’t fret – there’s plenty of mindcontrol charms to go around” Cash noted, returning from having parked Nah in its appropriate stable.

In retrospect it might have worried some, but at this point the circle felt sufficiently at ease with using mind-altering charms to make enemies into allies, and thus they spent the next few days turning the raiders into an armed defence force for Sunhill. Equally, the now ex-raiders told that they were mercenaries hired by one of the neighboring warlords to probe Sunhill. This led to Cash and Sullen Hoof taking Nah to visit said warlord, either to form a non-aggression pact via Cash’s skills of diplomacy, or for Sullen Hoof to do a little assassination and then let the warlord’s territories fall into a war of succession.

It a day after Cash and Sully had left, around noon, that Speaker suddenly got a magical messenger from Shimmer that quickly stated: “Come to the manse, meeting room 2, big fucking emergency”

Sighing, Speaker looked around. He was in the northern main square, which had been repurposed slightly as a parade ground, with one of the nearby tenements having been turned into barracks for the city’s new armed forced. The square was filled with the two or so hundred ponies that made up the fledgeling Sunhill Army, made up of roughly two thirds former mercenaries and one third volunteers, most of which had been active in Brookside’s neighborhood watch/defense force. Suffice to say that they were thoroughly undisciplined and were barely able to hold on to weapons properly.

“Ok, I have to leave for a moment – everyone continue on the drills I showed you until I get back, or the dining halls call in for dinner” Speaker shouted, galloping off and using his jumping and balance charms to quickly cover the distance to the manse.

Up in meeting room two, Speaker found Shimmer, Sunrise and… the mare from the baths of Venus who had shouted at them. The mare looked… not happy, but more in a sad and horrified way, not in an angry way.

“Ok, what’s going on?” Speaker asked, unsure of what to expect from the situation.

Sunrise exhaled, then took a deep breath: “Speaker, this is Iron Siaka, chosen of Venus – she has… news for us”

Judging from how both Sunrise, Shimmer and Iron Siaka looked, then Speaker quickly figured that it likely wasn’t good news. He nodded towards Siaka, to signal her to speak.

The previously angry mare looked thoroughly remorseful. It was clearly difficult for her to look any of the ponies in the room in the eyes, which clashed oddly with her martial attire which otherwise signaled a strong and confident type: “I… I’m sorry”

Shimmer waved a hoof around in a circular motion: “…and?”

Iron Siaka took a deep breath and looked towards Speaker: “I was sent by the bronze faction to spy on you, after you left Yu Shan. I followed you to Chung Do, and reported back to Yu Shan everything you did there. I’ve just found out what that information was used for…”

Speaker did not like where this was going.

“…I think my superiors sent the information to the Deathlords. I know this because I got a warning to leave Chung Do after heavenly fate augers tracked two abyssals heading there. I came back after they said it was safe, and I found this” Iron Siaka lamented, retrieving a scroll from elsewhere.

The scroll was wrought of rough ash-grey paper, and the writing on it was in old realm.

Sunrise read out loud: “To the circle of solars that has caused me and my peers much grief. I have ordered the juvenile Shogun of Chung Do captured. His continued safety depends entirely on whether you all stay out of me and my peers’ work for the next several years. Chung Onyx will be returned unharmed, unaged and without memory of his capture at the time of the conclusion of me and peers’ work. This should be in around five to fifteen years or so”

Speaker looked incredulously at Sunrise: “...who sent it”

Sunrise grimaced: “It is signed ‘The Barbate Arbiter of Unbounded Gravitas and Unremitting Strife, Deathlord by the will of the Neverborn”

There was silence over the meeting room so loud that it was deafening. When a servant came in with tea and biscuits everyone but ever-stoic Sunrise were startled, but at least it made everyone start talking again.

“Iron Siaka, what exactly did you think the information you gathered would be used for?” Shimmer wondered.

The sidereal shrugged: “The usual, I guess. I thought Chung Do, or maybe the juve-Shogun would get cursed astrologically, or linked with a bad destiny – not sold out to the freaking deathlords”

Sunrise remained silent, glaring intently at the scroll. Speaker shook his head in anger: “I bet this is revenge for Cash taking over the Streets of Swords district”

Iron Siaka gave Speaker a very confused look: “Your friend took over what?”

“One of the twelve districts of Stygia, the capital city of the underworld, long story – and Speaker, I don’t think that’s all. Remember all the deathknights we killed or captured up around Chung Do, I’m sure the Arbiter was pissed about that – the information Siaka gave just told him how to get to us” Shimmer noted, giving Siaka a look that was more of pity than of anger, before finally adding: “Speaker, is she telling the truth?”

To the best of his abilities and charms Speaker could not discern any lies from what Iron Siaka had been saying.

It was then that Sunrise spoke, addressing the sidereal: “If Red was still alive she would have ripped you apart, even if you are but a harbinger of bad news. Pray that her next incarnation is more merciful. In the mean time, Shimmer, send a message to Cash and Sully to return with Nah”

“Yes, and then message the Bodhisattva to arrange a meeting, let’s say somewhere in Stygia, to help find Chung Onyx” Speaker added.

Shimmer, still giving Iron Siaka the same sorry look, approached the sidereal and put a gentle hoof up on the armored mare’s shoulder: “and you get to inform the gold faction of what you’ve done, including any and all evidence that shows your superiors giving the information to the deathlords”

Iron Siaka did not look happy about this request, but she didn’t appear surprised by it either: “I’m afraid that won’t help much. The information was sent to one of the Green Mare’s dead drops, and I do not know on who’s orders that was – and I doubt anyone will ever admit to it”

“My truth-telling charm can find who gave that order” Speaker noted through gritted teeth.

Iron Siaka sighed and explained that enough essence could mask such lies – and a bit more essence, used differently, could mask the use of essence to begin with, so essence sight wouldn’t help to reveal charm-based cover-ups. Speaker was not pleased.

“Assigning blame beyond the bronze faction as a whole isn’t necessary. We know why they did it, now we have to fix things. Shimmer, send those messages – everyone else go do what is needed and prepare for battle” Sunrise said with a notably raised voice.

Speaker turned to leave, to wrap things up with the Sunhill militia and the hospital as quickly as possible. Just as he was about to exit the meeting room with Sunrise, who was likely going to clear her schedule as well, Iron Siaka called out: “Wait – can I come? I want to help”

Looking at Sunrise, Speaker’s look clearly communicated his disapproval, but Sunrise didn’t seem to care as she turned to the martial sidereal: “Right now we only need information, and we know that the Bureau of Destiny has little in the way of informants in the underworld. But when the time comes for the rescue itself you’re welcome to join, provided that you can leave any bronze faction misgivings about us behind you while working with us”

“Where will you go for information? I’ll wait for you there” Iron Siaka said earnestly, sounding almost desperate to be there to help as quickly as possible.

Sunrise looked up at Speaker, who at this point simply shook his head and walked off, leaving Sunrise to instruct the young sidereal on where in Stygia they might meet.

Giving the Sunhill militia some quick instructions before heading back to the hospital manse to check on the few patients there, Speaker couldn’t help but fear that Iron Siaka was a bronze faction plant sent to betray the circle, rather than help…

About an hour later Cash and Sullen Hoof arrived. They barely had touched Nah down outside the Sunhill manse before Shimmer appeared, chucking several sealed barrels of food and drink up on the howdah, herself joining moments later. Speaker in turn leapt on board with Sunrise on his back.

“So, where are we going?” Cash wondered, not even questioning why Shimmer had saddled them up with enough supplies to last a month. Shimmer took a deep breath, steadying herself as she peered up at the Sunhill manse: “Stygia. The Bodhisattva replied, says he’ll have someone ready to meet us in the Street of Swords district, at Stalwart’s old mansion”

Nodding, Cash made Nah fly off at great speed. Once up in the sky, an issue came up: Would Nah be able to fly into the underworld? Cash’s answer: “No – because this isn’t Nah, it’s the yeddim we bought to fly back from Wavecrest. Didn’t we name this one Han?”

Polite discussion on yeddim naming conventions ensued, though regarding the original topic Cash noted that one of the charms he had recently developed was one that would magically steady any beast he was helming: “We all know that yeddim are stupid, but with this charm you could set it on fire and it still wouldn’t care – it’ll fly into the underworld just fine”

It was about then that Shimmer wondered why Cash was flying almost due west, instead of south towards Great Forks and shadowland known as The Walker’s Realm.

“Well, the Bodhisattva said that that shadowland was cursed, right? You all remember how that flying construct began to shake when we crossed into it? The curse was ripping the thing apart! I don’t think a living mount would last long in that” Cash explained as the yeddim flew across a vast plain of tiered rice-paddies filled with ponies.

Shimmer agreed that such a route made an awful lot of sense all things considered, though she was still weary of how the yeddim would fare while in Stygia.

“Good point, but this one was fed and watered before we left –it won’t need to bed fed again for days – we just have to find a safe place to stash him in Stygia, and I think I have the authority to see to that” Cash noted.

Approaching the absolutely massive shadowland known as the Black Chase, the western half of which being where Sijan was, was a strange sight. Most of the chase was filled with highly contrasting pine-trees: black needles on ash-white wood made the whole forest look really strange. Sijan itself was a more dour sight, with its vast plain of tombs, crypts and graves spread out as if suburbs to the central Sijan necropolis. Between all the grey and black stone buildings, and the fact that no grass grew in the shadowland, made the whole place look very bleak.

Speaker found the flight over the outskirts of Sijan quite interesting: Apparently his essence sight showed him how the entire landscape of Sijan was built according to some really neat first age geomantic principles, though he couldn’t identify the effect of it all.

“Hey Speaker, did Sijan exist in the first age?” Sullen Hoof wondered.

Thinking for a moment, Speaker nodded: “Sort of. There was a Sijan before theh primordial war, but it was annihilated when a primordial died over it – that’s what created the black chase shadowland. The Sijan we know today was built after the primordial war as a place to burry all the dead – and there were a lot of dead following that war…”

“Hold on – shouldn’t Sijan be bigger then?” the Orichalcum Chef asked, finding it odd that Sijan could have remained so small for so long.
Cash let out a loud “Ha!” – then explained that from what he could tell in Stygia, then less than one in a hundred ghost stayed behind for more than a few years: “Once they’ve resolved whatever issues that made them stay – assuming they get the chance for that. I once traveled alongside a Sijaneese corpse caravan. They told me that one of the biggest businesses Sijan deals in is specifically helping a ghost to get in touch with family or loved ones, or whatever, so they can say goodbye properly and pass on. When a ghost jumps in the river, their ‘home’ or grave becomes vacant for all intents and purposes”

None in the circle thought to ask what happened with the mortal remains that such a ghost would leave behind – but then again, certain questions are best left unanswered.

As the sun set and the circle transisioned fully into the underworld, Cash snapped Han’s reigns, making the yeddim speed away towards Stygia. The dim stars of the calendar of Setesh lit the way, and soon the factories, workshops and foundries of The Street of Swords rose from the suburbs of Stygia…

Landing in a mostly empty square, Cash quickly retrieved his black jade sword, the symbol of office that granted him domain over the district. Waving the sword around, Cash quickly convinced a group of nearby ghosts to find somewhere suitable for Han to be stabled, while the circle made way towards the former lord of the district’s mansion.

At the mansion, with the square where the circle had fought against the twice-risen undead, the circle was greeted by a dour looking mare. It was difficult to tell if she was a deathknight or a ghost – either way she was dressed in black rags, had a pale ash-grey coat, and appeared to have no face… as if she had taken a big cleaver to the side of her head, right before the ears.

“I am The Bearer Of Titles Unoriginal, and you must be the circle that the Bodhisattva told me to meet with” the mare without a face somehow said… without having a mouth, or nose. Her voice was unpleasant to hear, not unlike a feminine version of the Bodhisatva’s beyond-the-grave voice.

Sunrise nodded, stepping forth: “We’re here seeking information about the Barbate Arbiter. He has something we want”

The seemingly ironically named deathknight shook her head: “I’ll have to ask around for clues on that. In the meanwhile the one among you called Charmer has a meeting with the other Stygian lords at their council. They also want him to bring a good singer – it was Stalwart’s turn to bring entertainment and cake. You don’t have to bring cake”

Cash arrived just in time to hear the mention of not having to bring cake: “Excellent – Sunrise, you’re with me then”

Thus the circle agreed to part, Sullen Hoof, Shimmer and Speaker going to see the Bodhisattva, while Cash and Sunrise proceeded to the city council meeting. One thing Cash did before the circle split up was show how he was going look at the meeting…

“Since when did you learn disguise charms this advanced?” Shimmer inquired curiously, as Cash spun essence into potent illusions around himself, giving him that semi-transparent ghostly look, topped off with using his own torn-off face as a very macabre mask.

Speaker didn’t really pay attention to Cash’s explanation on how Sullen Hoof had been, at Cash’s request, teaching him disguise charms, mainly because he found Cash’s new appearance positively nauseating, with only the illusion-shatering powers of his essence sight allowing him to look at Cash without feeling sick.

The strangely named deathknight led Shimmer, Sully and Speaker off to seek information on the Barbate Arbiter while Cash and Sunrise were guided by ghosts to the palace of the twin monarchs, where the city council met.

While enroute to wherever they were going, Shimmer simply had to ask: “So… your name, uhm… title, what’s the deal?”

The faceless deathknight threw Shimmer a look that – under the kind of normal circumstances that involved actually having a face, with expressive eyes and whatnot – might very well have been very tired and disapproving, then shook her head and sighed: “The Barbate Arbiter originally gave me the title of Scribe of Lethal Linguistics. He lured me into this with promises of revenge on the cretins in Nexus high society that drove me into suicide by public ridicule. I was fine with that, but when he wanted me to send necromantic letter-bombs with killing words all over creation… “

The deathknight mare elaborated, adding that the Arbiter seemed to generally target creative ponies who were betrayed somehow for abyssal exaltation. This kind of strangely specific exaltation pattern was apparently common among the deathlords, but as the deathknight pointed out: “It also means that not everyone who gets a black exaltation are fit to wield one… and not all deathlords are equally apt at weeding out abyssals that aren’t loyal”

“So that’s why you’re helping the Bodhisattva? Are there others like you two?” Sullen Hoof wondered, having taken on a disguise not entirely unlike Cash’s, making him appear like a gaunt ghost in ragged clothing, not unlike the untold millions of ghostly commoners that lived in Stygia. He even used his own burn-scarred face to great effect as part of the ghostly illusion wrapped around himself.

Gazing intently at two of the steel-plated buildings they had just passed, their greasy and rivet-covered facades helping to give the district that distinct oppressive and uncaring feel, the deathkninght stopped: “Hey that’s the archive, we need to go in there – and there probably are others, but many deathknights are still on the fence. A lot feel trapped and lied to by the Deathlords. Few can see a way out. That’s part of what me and the Bodhisatttva are working towards: Finding a way to revert us into Solars… that’ll give a lot of Deathknights hope”
“I guess proving that that’s possible would be interesting” Sullen Hoof mused, not sure what he was feeling about the building they were about to enter. It looked like a metal box.

Stopping at the door, the faceless deathknight turned to gaze intently at Speaker, Shimmer and Sullen Hoof: “It’s imperative that the Bodhisattva succeeds. The Barbate Arbiter might be a jerk, but for all the Deathlords he’s the most popular one among the deathknights. He’s really good at selling others on his projects, and he’s similarly really good at framing his own ideas as very fun and interesting projects. This means that he has a lot of support from deathknights that are loyal to other Deathlords”

“So…finding a way to turn a deathknight into a Solar would give you more allies against the Arbiter? And give him less?” Speaker noted quizzically, him suddenly realizing how oddly similar the Bodhisattva’s plight was to that of the circle with regards to their work in creation, on gaining support and taking support away from their enemies.

The deathknight mare nodded, tiny shreds of flesh around the edge of where her face had been removed jiggling ever so slightly: “That, and as one who has suffered greatly I am sympathetic to the suffering of the Neverborn. I want to ease their pain, but not by killing off the rest of Creation. I’m a poet first, and as such I prefer a living audience, not a dead one… the ghosts around here wouldn’t know good poetry if it slammed them upside the flank – the Bodhisattva’s plan on destroying the neverborn seems a lot simpler than taking on all of Creation and heaven”

“Sunipa would approve” Speaker said, smiling. It pleased him to no end that this deathknight seemed not only to want to ease the suffering of beings in pain, but didn’t want to do so in a reckless manner that would endanger others.

Inside the Street of Swords archive the circle was assailed by a thick smell of embalming fluids, and the mad giggling from a clearly deranged archivist ghost who appeared to be busy stuffing bloated ledgers with blood and guts for reasons no sane being could comprehend.