The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The Sacrificial lamb stylist lets herself be diced up into tasty lamb soup - but nobody else gets hurt

…

The regally dressed unicorn stallion facing Speaker, having just witnessed Speaker effortlessly destroy some of his most powerful demon minions, very seriously considered his next move.

One of the follower unicorns quietly spoke to the unicorn stallion in a language that Speaker did not know, after some of their number had retrieved the unicorn sorceress that Speaker moments earlier had somehow struck at a great distance without visibly touching her. The stallion nodded, giving orders in the same language.

Some of the unicorn followers retreated back onto the ship, bringing the struck unicorn mare with them – but the rest fanned out around the lead unicorn, who cleared his throat and addressed Speaker: “I am Ragara Bhagwei, Dominie of the Heptagram! I came here because I have heard tall tales of magical healing being done by anathema – healing of such potency that I felt it warranted my attention”

Speaker could only shake his head. The very headmaster of the realm’s grand academy of sorcery? That would make the other unicorns some of his best and most powerful student, and probably some of the professors as well – and the demons… well, they were realm sorcerers, so of course they had summoned an army of demons slaves to serve them before arriving. Oh, what a bother. What a waste.

Taking a deep breath, Speaker approached the quite intimidating lineup of unicorn sorcerers: “If you had come here peacefully, I am certain we could have learned a great many things from each other – sadly, you appear to have followed the foreign policy of your realm house, trying to take anything you want by force”

Bhagwei issued a few quick orders the unicorns around him. Several of them began shaping up sorcery, while four others enacted charms that formed elemental restraints from their horns to Speaker’s legs… well, that was how they were aimed – for Speaker caught all of them, and in turn simply yanked the four unicorns all the way over to him, taping each on the forehead – which caused all of them to fall to the ground, instantly asleep.

The other unicorns quickly finished their spells, which turned out to be similar sorcerous restraints. These spells were a fair bit more difficult to dodge or avoid, Speaker quickly finding himself wrapped up in magical ropes of verdigris – but Speaker had taught himself a basic counterspell from the Book of Three Rings, so with but a thought the ropes faded into pure elemental essence around him: “Are we quite done here?”

Bhagwei appeared somewhat torn between complimenting Speaker’s ability to maintain his composure, or to take insult at Speaker so thoroughly trouncing all of his attempts to grab him: “Not likely. I have already confirmed that your city’s defences do nothing against dematerialized demons at this point – so if you do not surrender, I will have them turn this city into a slaughterhouse, as you said; in the tradition of my house when it comes to dealing with anathema”

“And here I thought you were here about our healing services – not to harm ponies” Speaker replied bluntly, finding that his patience for the unicorn before him, sorcerous accolades be damned, running thin.

With a deep frown, looking quite insulted, Bhagwei was about to issue some kind of order to his fellow sorcerers when Speaker did that… thing again – flicking around punches despite not being in reach of anyone, though the solar also erupted with bright golden soul-flame, as his anima ignited from the considerable amount of essence being used.

Bhagwei suddenly found himself standing quite alone, all the unicorns around him having fallen over, asleep – a few tipping over in each other, leaning upon one another.

“If you want to inspect our medical facilities, I’ll give you a tour – we have very few secrets – but you will come alone, with no demons and none of your retinue – your other choice is to leave. Pick one” Speaker said, struggling to keep his tone polite.

The unicorn looked around himself in thorough disbelief, never having witnessed such a subtle use of magical martial arts – though magical martial arts were quite removed from where his passions and interests were. Still, he nodded towards Speaker and followed him: “Should you take me hostage, the Ragara legions will descend upon this place like fire and thunder from the heavens”

“Sunhill has no interest in hostages – and the Ragara legions are tied up in the realm civil war, they will do no such thing” Speaker calmly replied, happy that he was facing away from the unicorn, as this covered for his wide smirk. Just how full of himself was this bag of hot air calling himself Bhagwhei?

Later in the evening the circle returned to Sunhill, finding messengers instructing them to meet Speaker and Ragara Bhagwei at Sully’s restaurant, where they had ended up after an extensive tour of the Sunhill hospital, the alchemy district, the big foundry with its fire elemental tenants/employees, the gem and stone-cutting industry where light-rail pillars were made, and the many other marvels of Sunhill.

Joining them at the restaurant, they found Speaker, Sully, Bhagwei and a few dozen other unicorns there – the unicorns all absolutely marvelling at the food they were being served, while Speaker was still telling Bhagwei of Sunhills history and the circle’s adventures.

“There you are – Sunrise, could you fetch the staff of sorcery from Sperimin – Bhagwei here refuses to believe that we claimed the place!” Speaker drunkenly called out, before anyone in the circle had a chance to introduce themselves.

Sunrise smirked and withdrew the beautiful orichalcum and jade staff from elsewhere, the old realm inscriptions on it quite clearly denoting it as the symbol of office for the head of Sperimin’s college of sorcery.

Bhagwei and the unicorns looked as if their eyes were going to roll out of their heads as the staff was passed around, after which Bhagwei gazed quite perplexed at Speaker – barely able to get a word out.

The circle, satisfied that Speaker had handled things somewhat peacefully, met up later the next day in the Sunhill manse, discussing what had happened and what the others had figured out for the three ‘infernals’ in Great Forks, a term the three strangers had suggested they use.

“Oh, so he was willing to accept your medical charms, but not that you are the new Chief Librarian of Sperimin?” Cash joked, having found Bhagwei’s behaviour quite amusing.

Sunrise smiled, appearing to feel quite happy with her choice to seek sorcerous enlightenment: “Anyone can tell a tall tale – but now we’ll have to deal with the realm learning that Sperimin is open for business again”

“Perhaps – but Bhagwei’s ambitions aren’t to aid the realm as such. He seeks knowledge for himself – and once I told him that we could not in good faith grant him access to the book of three circles while the realm civil war was ongoing, and until we could be certain that whoever gets to be charge wont abuse the book’s knowledge against us, then he actually seemed to accept that without question” Speaker noted, sounding a little surprised himself.

Sully, having carefully observed the unicorns while at his restaurant, chimed in: “That’s not surprising at all. I got a very solid read on Bhagwei: He wants to learn how to magically cure all diseases there are – even the great contagion”

Fire Orchid found that information both interesting – but also disconcerting: “Wait… that plague ran its course like seven hundred years ago and killed basically everything. How can he think he can cure that today?”

“If he wants to be the best healer in the world, it makes sense – sort of” Shimmer noted.

“Nobody ever found a cure – and if he could find some ancient samples to reinfect a few test subjects… sure he’d get even more famous than he is already among sorcerers and healers, but the risk of it spreading again is insane” Fire Orchid added, sounding not at all positive about the idea of a realm gloryhound potentially unleashing an ancient incurable plague, just so he could try to get famous for curing it.

Nobody else found that prospect all that alluring – not even Speaker, who commented: “We were talking about the Dowager – the deathlord who had originally made the great contagion. If she was ever looking for a vector to sneak new samples of that disease into the realm… then Bhagwei would totally be it”

It thus occurred to the circle that there might have been more than one reason why Bhagwei had come to this part of creation – to which end Sullen Hoof and Shimmer were instantly dispatched to track where he’d left on his ship, while the rest of the circle got cracking on finding information on the Dowager.

Sunrise headed to the grand Sunhill temple and prayed to various gods, requesting information, all the while Fire Orchid returned to the Sunhill military encampment, training herself and the best of the jungle fighters under her command. Speaker went to meditate on his first age memories, trying to recall what had once been in that part of Creation, while Cash said that he would reach out to some of the merchants who had come from the eastern-most river provinces.

“By the way Speaker, we resolved the issue with the strange half-demon ponies – the infernals” Cash said, just as he was about to leave the war room.

Perking up at the mention of the strange ponies, Speaker shot Cash a curious look.

“Sunrise reminded us of the strange pony you had encountered in An-Teng. The trio said that he was probably another of their kind – and what you and Shimmer had found, with him also being hesitant at using demons to overtly turn the place into a hell hole, it fit well with what they wanted. We arranged for them to journey there via a local water elemental currier service”

“Sounds great – I’m sure Bitter Copal would love some help from allies like that, and his cult would probably be quite accommodating to them, even with their mutations”

Sullen Hoof returned a few days later, reporting that Bhagwei and his ship was indeed heading east, up the yellow river. Shimmer had attached herself to the ship in the form of some obscure western sea creature, to remain undetected, allowing her to effortlessly track the ship further.

While waiting for her report, Cash was able to learn from the merchants he had spoken to of only few and scattered settlements and plantations as far east as where the Dowager was, yielding little useful information. It was Sunrise who had been able to get some interesting information from Hran-Tzu, informing her that very close to the elemental pole of wood there was a shadowland, an ancient one that according to Hran-Tzu’s records, which predated the primordial war – and it was the only shadowland of note for thousands of miles in that area, due to the wood pole’s aggressively supernatural healing essence.

“Aggressively supernatural? Really?” Cash quipped, finding that particular wording somewhat silly.

Speaker frowned, having experienced that healing essence up close and personal: “Oh it’s quite real. That far east your wounds will heal almost instantly, and fester just as fast – things grow too fast, growing back together wrong if you’re not quick. Lookshyan medical protocol for broken limbs in that region, call for repeated rebreaking until you get the limb to heal in the correct alignment… and its next to impossible to get right that close to the pole of wood”

The very idea of having to rebreak a limb over and over, because it would heal too fast – Cash shuddered, doubly so because he knew that of the circle, he was still the ‘squishiest’ of the lot... well, perhaps Shimmer had that dubious honor now, but he had yet to see her mettle tested in combat, and Lunars were nothing if not tough.

“So don’t get hurt, got it – but we can’t just go there regardless. We have no idea what lies in that shadowland, plus I would expect the jungle to be quite impenetrable there” Sunrise pointed out.

Sully noted that if the dowager was somehow planning on seeding a new and virulent sample of the great contagion to Bhagwei, then he wasn’t quite sure how she would do that: “Because you’re right Sunrise – it is quite difficult to get there via land, and flying there is quite difficult too because you can’t see what’s under the jungle canopy at all. There’s also the fact I picked up in the underworld that the dowager never has more than one deathknight at a time… only one, always with the same title”

“The shoat of the mire?” Shimmer wondered, recalling what Speaker had told of the psychotic filly that he and Sunrise had fought earlier while trapped on Juggernaut.

Speaker and Sully both nodded, with Fire Orchid chiming in: “Well, if her plan is to cook up diseases then she wouldn’t need that much help – at least not until she needs to spread the disease across creation – but you’re right, that would greatly limit her ability to pass anything on to Bhagwei, especially if Cash’s maps are right about the lack of rivers in that area – and while I didn’t get to speak with him much last night, he didn’t strike me as someone who’d be ok with consorting with the undead, considering his pride and personal politics”

“We don’t even know if Bhagwei is planning on doing something like that – he seemed more interested in visiting the medical scholars in Great Forks, Nexus and Greyfalls when I was chatting with him” Speaker pointed out.

It was thus that the circle resolved to probe the territories surrounding the dowager, both to find out where they could enter her domain from – but also to simply find things like landmarks to navigate from, since none in the circle were all the familiar with such a far reach of creation. To facilitate this, Cash and Sully flew off on Nah, returning several weeks later with much needed information, just a few days after Shimmer had returned as well.

“We had to fly slow, and only at night, to keep our presence hidden. Sully put a lot of effort into making sure we weren’t followed – but we found the nearest piece of civilization, only a mere three-four hundred miles of impossibly dense jungle from the Noss Fens” Cash explained, tracing the route that him and Sully had taken with glowing essence on a detailed map of the east the circle had in the war room.

Sully nodded, sounding not all that happy with what they had found: “It’s a duchy called the Gossamer Stockade, ruled not by mortal ponies, but by two reasonably powerful changelings”

“Ponies living under changeling lords? The horror…” Sunrise said, sounding genuinely upset at the very notion.

Tilting his head from side to side, Cash made a motion for Sunrise to calm down: “It’s actually not that bad. We spent a few days in their capital, a place with the rather apt name of Glass Fortress. We found that the changelings there for the most part live somewhat amicably with their pony serfs. The ponies who live under the rule of Obsidian Wave and Plestara pay a tax of dreams – and nothing else. I don’t think I’ve seen ponies that wealthy so far from Nexus, ever…”

To say that this confused the rest of the circle was putting it mildly, but Cash told the tale of Gossamer Stockade well, cluing them in the sources of the wealth of the place: “The gemstone mines in their underground is what supplies the caravans that go down through Chung Do – it’s their stones that lay the foundation for Chung Do’s gem-cutting and resale economy. Beyond that the ponies of the Gossamer Stockade also produce a large volume of medical herbs they sell…”

“Well, that’s perfect – that gives us two… maybe even three excuses to visit the place: A trade deal for gems to Chung Do, one for Sunhill for medical herbs, and depending on how the ponies there are treated, that” Shimmer quickly rattled off, having figured out Cash’s plan.

Nodding greatly, the solar diplomancer smiled widely: “Exactly. We’re not going there to set up a base of operations for our forays against the Dowager – we’re there to set up a trading post and embassy. Sully set up a meeting for us, while disguised, before we left there. Now, what you did find you while tracking Bhagwei Shimmer?”

Everyone turned to listen to Shimmer – and it was clear than the Lunar neophyte was a bit intimidated by having what to her felt like elder Solars look at her expectantly. It took a bit of essence for her gather the courage to speak up: “I tracked Bhagwei’s ship first to Great Forks, where he apparently had several others waiting. They then set off east, up the yellow river. I had a look at Bhagwei’s navigator’s notes. They’re heading to a place called Mahalanka on their maps”

“Figures that they’d go to Sperimin – Mahalanka was what Rakshi called it. Oh well, it will be a while before they get there – should give us plenty of time to shore up the garrison there and give the spirit things controlling the place instructions on how to handle them” Fire Orchid noted, nodding to Shimmer that she had done well.

Shimmer beamed with pride that her second real solo ‘mission’ as a part of the circle had gone well.

Preparing for this diplomatic mission took a few weeks, as various diplomatic gifts, documents, and other supplies had to be gathered, packed up and loaded. Shimmer found that Speaker was restless in this period, and it didn’t take much to figure out that it was the idea of changelings lording over mortals. Trying to soothe her solar mate, she found it difficult, not knowing much about this strange country in the far east-north-east.

To this end, Shimmer sought information from other lunars, namely the lunar she had read about living in Great Forks, originally re-discovered via the notes left by her last incarnation. It was through this that Shimmer learned that much of the north-east of Creation was the claimed territory of a pair of elder lunars, one Rain Deathflyer and one Silver Python – information that she relayed back to the circle, as it might be useful. This prompted a quick discussion:

“That certainly explains the stories I’ve heard of the Haltan ponies from a variety of merchants – they live up in the trees – and produce a wide range of wood-based products… living very much in tune with nature” Cash noted, sounding as if a lot of facts and rumors he had heard suddenly made a lot more sense.

Fire Orchid looked at the maps in the war room: “But the nation of Halta is spread out so widely – and I’ve heard plenty of their warring with their neighbours along their western borders, so they probably won’t have much in the way of military assets in their south-western territories… so asking them for help probably wouldn’t do much”

“Moot point – if we approach Halta as solars, they’re not going to help us. They helped the Bull against the realm in order to strike at their ancient rivals, the Linowan – who are those ancient rivals Fire Orchid mentioned, but their leaders also got quite frightened when they saw the might and carnage that a solar warlord can pull” Sunrise commented, sounding as if she had heard something the rest of the circle hadn’t.

Elaborating, Sunrise explained that she had spoken with spirits in Great Forks, including wood elementals from Halta who were visiting friends there. Sunrise added: “For Halta the undead are strange things they’ve only heard stories of, strange things from far away. There’s only one mid-sized shadowland near them, one bordering to their Linowan rivals, stemming from an ancient battle between the two. They have no real experience with fighting the undead – because the undead can’t climb up to them, and ground-based ghosts don’t last long in those areas due to the changelings on the forest floor”

“Fair enough – but we’re aiming at setting up a base of operations in the Gossamer stockade, not in Halta. Will they be more willing to help?” Speaker wondered out loud, knowing full well that none in the circle had an answer to that just yet, but he wanted to bring things back on topic.

Cash shrugged: “We’re not looking for military aid from the changelings there – just a place to rest and stable a yeddim or two. They shouldn’t object too hard with that”

“True – and from what I saw, then they didn’t have much in contact or trade routes leading further east, which would be in the direction of the shadowlands. The stockade around their borders from which they derive their name, the titular gossamer stockade, is made of changeling magic. Damn things moves on the outside, makes it impossible to climb it, and you can’t light it on fire. Great defences against greedy hundred kingdom warlords, or barbarian tripes further east trying to raid them” Sullen Hoof added, using essence to form an illusory image of the stockade. It appeared made of shimmering glass.

Looking at the illusion, Speaker got a funny look on his face. Shimmer was about to ask into it, when Cash beat her too it: “You’ve got that expression that tells me I’ll be selling something new and lucrative pretty soon”

“I was just thinking… if they’re reasonably friendly changelings, and building things that large out of gossamer – and they haven’t been overrun by a random warlord with iron weapons just yet – then we could look at trading some of the filled dreamcatchers I have. Maybe I could even learn something from them on how to use dreamstuff” Speaker mused, appearing pensive at the idea of normalizing diplomatic and trade relations with changelings of all things.

The rest of the circle agreed that it was weird – no doubt about it – so everyone was both curious and apprehensive as they finally flew north-east.

Their flight-path mainly took them along the heavily trafficked main rivers of the hundred kingdoms, going along the yellow river, then up the rock river. This took the circle by the Gunzota redoubt, still being rebuilt by Lookshy after the circle had made it safe to be in years ago. This of course also brought them past countless river-side ports, city-states and other small principalities, too numerous to count.

Following the rock river north, Cash followed the roads and other visual markers visible down on the ground, the terrain soon changing from jungled riverland with small villages and rice paddies interspersed, to pine forest – the evergreen trees standing tall from the ground like green spears striking at the heavens.

It certainly made for an interesting change in terrain, for despite the regions proximity to the elemental pole of wood, then it was too far north to sustain the kind of jungles that the hundred kingdoms were known for.

Speaker, having never been in this part of Creation – at least not in this lifetime – found the scenery unfolding down on the ground fascinating: While the ground was broken up by countless great pine trees, then it was possible to see farmland squeezed in between them, along with no small number of lumber operations. It was none the less strange to see territory like that, for it looked superficially similar to the hundred kingdoms, but the foliage was so different… it wasn’t thick jungle, it was “just” dense mostly pine forest.

Approaching The Gossamer Stockade, it also became quite evident that what Sully had said about the great wall there was very true: A vast forty-foot wall stretched from horizon to horizon, with blockhouses every couple hundred yards. The walls were clearly fortified and manned by… something… but whatever strange changeling creations that stood guard atop the battlements, then it was clearly not ponies. Many of the strange defences seemed thoroughly integrated into the magical wall, which indeed seemed to wiggle and continuously flow on the outside, making scaling the wall quite impossible.

Indeed, the fluttering glass-like tentacles that sprouted from the wall and migrated down its outer surface appeared quite well able to snatch nearby trees and rip them about, shattering the trunk on the ground – the circle witnessing such a violent feat, as they flew in over the wall.

“A wall like that will do a number on any kind of siege tower rolled up to it – nice” Fire Orchid commented, sounding duly impressed.

Cash shrugged: “If they’re the biggest source of gemstones in all of the east… and like also the north… then it makes sense to be well defended – though I would still question how well the wall holds up against iron”

Everyone agreed that the nature of the wall raised some interesting questions – indeed, further into the lands of the gossamer stockade, other buildings could be seen that showed clearly signs of changeling artifice, mostly in the form of various forms of transparent materials that simply should not be transparent – such as stone or wattle and daub, giving quite a lot of the buildings they passed large sky-lights.

Further afield into this strange land, Cash steered Nah along well-kept main roads towards the largest city there. To Speaker’s surprise the city appeared to have infrastructure set up to receive flying visitors, in the form of an aviary with a total of five landing platforms, two of which were actually occupied: One by what appeared to be absolutely enormous birds of prey the size of yeddim, that platform being under heavy guard by ponies at arms who did not in any way look local – and the other looked to be full of much smaller birds, each strapped with small boxes or crates on their backs, or with cargo held in their talons, all of them appearing as if getting ready to take off.

“Hmm, it would appear that both the Metagalapans and the Haltans do trade here” Cash commented, recognizing the ponies at arms for being natives of the flying mountain, and the lesser birds that seemed… intelligent enough to tie packages to themselves… as being Haltan in origin.

Speaker, having basically no clue what the haltans were, and only faintly recalling the strange floating mountain that was Mount Metagalapa from when he had recovered from a brief stint of madness many years ago, after which the circle had brough him to a hermit who lived under the mountain who had saved him. How could ponies live up on a flying mountain?

Landing, the circle was quickly approached by a very official looking welcome party consisting of three ponies and a changeling who’s form could best be described as colourfully insect-like, with a lot of bright orange and green shell segments, as if a pony had been pieced together by large insect-parts.

“Greetings, I am Thorax, first keeper of the staff here at Green Keep. On behalf of our twin lords Obsidian Wave and Plestara, I welcome this delegation from the far-off lands of Sunhill” the diplomatically inclined changeling eloquently and politely stated in forest-tongue, his speech sounding both well-rehearsed but also earnest.

Cash instantly gelled with the diplomat and his attendants, Thorax expressing great curiosity and delight at meeting the leaders of the far-off market place where the majority of the gemstones mined within the gossamer stockade ended up being sold for the time being. Cash in turn spun yarns like a seasoned weaver, getting on with Thorax like a house on fire.

This left Speaker, Sully, Sunrise, Fire Orchid and Shimmer wondering what they should do – but somehow, in-between talking Thorax and his attendants’ ears off, Cash also informed the circle that an official meeting with the two changeling lords were scheduled to take place in about six days, during which the circle was free to explore the city and whatnot: “If you buy anything, make sure its delivered here – there’s a warehouse section downstairs where they can store our goods before we load up and fly off – and I’ll have a place for us to stay arranged before you know it”

“Flying off on your yeddim? Oh, you simply must tell me how you manage to do that” Thorax said gleefully, appearing quite overjoyed at the prospect of getting to hear so many new and strange stories, his voice loaded with all manner of curiosity.

Fire Orchid quickly herded the rest of the circle off the platform, leaving Cash to revel in his duel with a fellow wordsmith: “Alright, Sully – go find us provisions for a journey to the noss fens. I read that you know how to make food that won’t spoil in shadowlands. Speaker, you wanted to have a sniff at the gossamer workers. Shimmer, make sure Speaker comes back to us in one piece. Sunrise, you’re with me”

Despite his eagerness at learning the secrets of gossamer artifice, Speaker had to wonder: “Fire Orchid, what will you and Sunrise do?”

“I’ll do what any visiting warlord or general does at a new and strange place… I’ll check out their defences and figure out why they haven’t been conquered yet. Sunrise will do the same to check up if the ponies here are being treated well” the solar general stated in a knowing tone, like a grandmother explaining something obvious to a curious grandchild.

“I’m older than you” Speaker retorted, not really appreciating how Fire Orchid had talked to him.

While a contest of elderly glaring might have been fun to witness, then Shimmer found this sudden strife silly and hauled Speaker off into the city.

Out in the city of Green Keep, Speaker quickly found himself distracted by the strange mix of changelings and ponies, living side by side. Well, sort of: It was clear that the changelings walking about were in charge. Local ponies bowed and acted quite deferential to changelings they came across, provided that the changelings were larger than ponies – for the city was also alive with small changeling goblins and other lesser figments of a changeling noble’s imagination, all of them zipping about hauling goods, carrying messages, or doing other forms of menial work – and due to the insights granted to him from his sidereal martial art, Speaker found it very easy to tell changeling illusions apart from the real deal, as the duo passed by vendors of all kinds of strange things.

The presence of changeling merchants made for a very colorful cityscape, with small winged creatures flying around with scrolls or small packages in their beaks or claws, while ponies went about their business. As Cash had taught Speaker to look for, then Speaker saw next to no empty storefronts: Business appeared to be good in the city of Green Keep.

Seeking out a gossamer artisan wasn’t difficult – well, once Shimmer found a merchant who spoke rivertongue that they could actually talk to. With that information they sought out a part of town apparently called ‘the market of dreams’.

Much like the specialty markets of Nexus, then the market of dreams turned out to be a place where changelings came to exchange and trade in gossamer. The stalls there were replete in impossible geometry, signs that blinked, gestured and even beckoned for your attention. Of course, the two weren’t there to buy more gossamer… at least not initially – they were there to entreat the gossamer artisans that had their workshops surrounding the market.

As per the instructions the two had received, the duo found a shop marked by a sign set with large glass pearls. They had been told that the pony who ran the place spoke rivertongue – and indeed, the proprietor and workshop master, a fae-blooded pony with strange glassy eyes and a mouth that opened just a bit too widely to be entirely natural, greeted the duo warmly.

Now, simply asking a master to teach them out to work gossamer – the stuff to dreams – wasn’t really an option. It would take too long to be taught by a mortal, at least for the kind of time schedule that the circle operated with, but by presenting the dreamcatcher with Shimmer’s nightmare the duo was able to get a live demonstration of the artisan’s craft. During this demonstration, Speaker used his education charm to enhance what he saw and learned, giving him a first lesson without the artisan really knowing.

Of Shimmer’s nightmare the artisan crafted a dark bauble, using a bit of black jade dust to give it great depths. Put on a necklace of a silver chain, it would allow Shimmer to change her appearance into that of a living nightmare to frighten foes around her.

“There we go – quite impressive if I must say. It was a potent nightmare, and extracted quite expertly. It was clearly not dreamt anywhere around here, considering the open oceans it featured” the artisan said, his north-eastern accent quite notable, but none the less understandable.

Having agreed not to reveal their true nature just yet, Speaker refrained from explaining that he himself had drawn out the dream – but Shimmer explained that it was pulled from her in the west some time ago, before coming to the east.

“Fascinating – but I was more referring to the… how do you say... the edges of the dream. Dreams taken by changelings have a certain mark, like a bitemark – but this dream had soft round edges, like a hoof. Quite fascinating…” the artisan mused, clearly wanting to know, but appearing to recognize that he wasn’t going to get a straight answer.

Buying some more gossamer, the duo spent the rest of the week examining the rest of Green Keep’s industry. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, then the city had a thriving support industry making tools and kit for the various mining industries within the gossamer stockade: Mining copper, tin, iron, coal, salt – and most importantly of all: Gems. The production wasn’t in any way as prodigious as in Gem in the deep south… but with Gem having fallen to demons not that long ago, then the gem mines in Gossamer stockade were bound to become a lot more lucrative.

At the end of the week, the circle had its official audience with the twin changeling lords of the land, which happened with all the pomp and pageantry one might expect from heads of state meeting with other heads of state. Cash had been so kind as pack everyone some very nice sets of clothing for the event, and meeting up at the castle he quickly briefed everyone on what talking points and negotiation were bound to come up. It wasn’t anything unexpected, though since it was essentially a changeling court, then the circle didn’t have to worry about revealing that they were exalted.

From the very nice tavern that Cash had rented rooms for everyone in the circle, they travelled in style to the palace of the twin lords via the nicest rented carriage service available in the city. The palace of the twin lords was in turn quite spectacularly decorated, appearing to have been decorated in both the green and gossamer colors of the twin lords, as well as some very tasteful green on black with yellow sunbursts, as a creative reinterpretation of the Sunhill coat of arms. Indeed, the very palace actually greeted the circle… because of course it did: The grand structure itself was a specially made changeling, a living building.

A palace that could open itself own doors for you was… new – at least from what Speaker could remember, though Sunrise seemed certain that in the first age she had been to manses with similar features.

The court of Obsidian Wave, who appeared as a bug-looking changeling of black obsidian, with shining amethyst eyes, and Plestara who had more of a wood elemental aesthetic, with a body of policed hardwoods and various north-east flowers and grasses, had prepared some very impressive festivities for the circle. It turned out that the court of the twin lords had spent the weeks following the arrangement of the visit from Sunhill scouring all of their connections for stories and legends of solars – and thus the court had been very much so hyped up about the circle.

Cash in turn made great efforts not to disappoint on that, the rest of the circle struggling to keep up with the yarns he spun and the many questions they were asked.

For the grand court audience everyone who was anything in Green Keep had showed up, some as courtiers, some simply to bear witness to the curious visitors from far away – and the circle did not disappoint: Sunrise put on a performance of her musical martial arts, stirring the hearts and minds of everyone in eartshot, impressing even the most hardened of the court’s cataphracts. Cash equally amazed everyone with the stories of the circle’s exploits, and Speaker wondered if he should try to show off by doing something medical… or if he should do something with dreams.

Now, in the days prior, Sunrise’s investigation into the welfare and treatment of the ponies of the gossamer stockade had showed that it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as what the circle had feared. She had found that the changelings treatment of their pony citizenry was surprisingly fair – arguing that it was even better than how ponies in Great Forks were treated by their god and spirit masters. Cash and Fire Orchid had both found this analysis sounding quite right, with the ponies of the stockade not paying taxes in the form of money – regardless of how much or how little they earned – instead they had to pay a tax of dreams, meaning that a few days per month they wouldn’t gain any true rest from their sleep… which all things considered, was a very small price to pay, considering the brisk trade of uncut gems flowing from the mines of the of the stockade territory. The twin lords even patronized a large number of poets, writers and playwrights, seeking to enrich the dreams of their subjects with as much creativity as possible.

It was with this largely positive review of the stockade and its leaders in mind, that the circle had put on their best faces for the audience with the twin lords – and it was equally for this reason that Speaker chose to reveal his sidereal martial arts, asking for a dream-eaten pony to demonstrate his skills on.

“Oh, esteemed lords of Sunhill, we do not engage in such short-sighted practices here. Full on dream-eating is reserved only for unrepentant criminals of the worst sort for the duration of their sentence – and thus we are loathed to see such ponies restored, for we have heard legends of your healing powers Lord Bright” Plestara stated from her magnificent throne of jade and gossamer.

While hearing such a thing made Speaker quite happy – then it equally frustrated him a fair bit, for he had come up with a really neat trick to show: “Do you have any such ponies who are near the end of their sentence? Lord Charmer can bind such a villain to never willingly commit crimes if you’re worried”

Obsidian Wave jittered, as an insect might, its mandible jaws twitching: “Fifth Page, my dearest chief justice – do you know if we have such a colorful character in our penal workforce?”

The changeling known as Fifth Page, who had a form that appeared to be made of folded paper, with a mane and tail of flowing black ink, creased the paper that was its forehead as it thought of the question: “We have a few potential candidates – shall I have one brought here?”

Messengers were quickly dispatched, and libations for everyone in the court of the twin lords were brought in during the wait.