The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The mantis stylist consumes soup with both hands, so rapidly that neither ever gets wet.

…

The revelation of his late wife’s horrible behaviour, and the motivation of the killer, left Prince Josei of Notable Genius and his daughter Princess Midnight Pearl in grief, neither feeling terribly interested in doing business with the circle – but that was when Cash struck, using his charms to intuit that right then and there, in that moment of sorrow and weakness, was when to make their move: “The injustice you’ve suffered was ultimately caused by the oppression and ill treatment that the realm levies upon you. You told us yourself that your wife was from a lesser noble house, but you chose her as your bride for her beauty and her wits, lest a vacationing realm unicorn take her for a concubine and mar her virtue – she likely grew up resenting the realm, fearing that she might be taken any day”

Prince Josei just looked at Cash, not with anger or disgust – but with a resigned sorrow. He knew that Cash was right, but what could he do?

Sunrise stepped forth, joining Cash: “Last night we did not pray to the golden lord – we didn’t have to. We can see the injustice this land suffers clear as day – and we wish to help”

This made the clever prince confused. If they hadn’t gotten the information that Polished Amethyst had killed his wife from the gods, how else would they have been able to identify her and get her to confess so easily?

“In ancient times we were known as lawgivers – bringers of peace, prosperity and most importantly justice” Sunrise continued, angling for a very specific response from the scholarly royal.

Midnight Pearl felt her father’s attention slip from her and their shared sorrow in a way she knew well: This was how he behaved when something tickled his mind and reminded him of something he had read somewhere: “Father, what is it?”

Turning to the circle, prince Josei looked at them with inquisitive and sceptical eyes: “You speak of the ancient masters of An Teng, from before the rise of the dragonblooded host… the ones who named the golden lord”

Just as planned, everyone flared their caste marks. The prince and the princess both stumbled backwards in surprise, a couple of guards hearing the commotion and entering the study – only to find their lords prostrating themselves before the circle: “Your highnesses, are you ok?”

It seemed that Prince Josei of notable genius was well read into the ancient past of An Teng, back when Solars had ruled the lands and showered it with their blessings. To be faced with four of such legends of old, reincarnated – it had shocked him deeply.

“We came here at the bidding of a tengese pony we knew, one who also suffered greatly under cruel realm masters. We are here to see the ponies of An Teng free, that they need no longer bow their heads or sow flowers for foreign masters” Cash said, his words so honeyed with essence that Speaker could feel his teeth rot.

It thus came to be that the prince of the An Teng highlands swore solemnly to aid the coming revolution.

Leaving the Jade Plum Citadel, the mountain-side fortress city and capital of the highlands, the circle flew north – river travel no longer being all that possible for where they were going: No river led to the pinnacle of mercy, the mountain where the golden lord had his terrestrial residence.

“That went well” Cash said, being all smiles.

Everyone agreed, as the mountains zipped by their magical cloud. Speaker was able to recognize the landscape from when he and Shimmer had travelled to meet the golden lord – of course this time they knew to keep a watchful eye for sidereal ambushes, of which they found none.

Landing at the bridge leading to the golden lord’s palace, with the two massive statues of celestial lions guarding the way – the terrestrial manifestations of the actual celestial lion spirits that stood guard immaterially at the bridge to the palace. That day at the landing before the bridge there were no mortal supplicants, so the circle didn’t have to pretend to be anything other than their true selves.

Sunrise quickly stepped up to the lions: “Greetings. Is the golden lord presiding today?”

With charms that let one actually see and hear spirits, it was possible to witness the two celestial lions first use their own powers to sense what kind of pony had made such a bold inquiry – after which they simply nodded and stepped aside, not that their immaterial spirit forms could have blocked the solars, but it was a polite if silent way of inviting the circle inside.

Walking across the bridge, Sullen Hoof – wanting to make sure that everyone was on the level – asked: “So this god, he’s just the god of An Teng? He doesn’t have any other domains?”

Speaker thought for a moment, then answered: “He’s a celestial god – not just a terrestrial one, namely he was tasked by Celestia to be the judge and sanctioned arbiter of the exalted. I’m guessing he moved here because with the usurpation he didn’t see heaven’s bureaucracy supporting his idea of justice anymore”

“Oh, so he would be a supporter of solars taking over creation?” Sunrise wondered.

Unsure of how to answer that, Speaker took a moment to ponder. Cash in the meantime added: “I remember him as just the straight up god of judgement – the supreme god of judges… and I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure I’m all that happy to meet him in person”

“Are you afraid he’ll judge you as unworthy or wicked?” Sullen Hoof said in obvious jest.

Laughing off the joke, Cash replied: “Heavens no – I stand by everything I have done in this life. It’s my last one I’m more worried about. I specifically remember avoiding him and his inquiries last time around… and not for any good reasons”

Everyone in the circle knew of what wickedness Cash spoke. Lilith had not been subtle when she had laid out his past incarnation’s crimes against her – but at the same time they had worked hard to redeem those actions, Sullen Hoof pointing out: “But we got rid of all your old oaths to her. That has to count for something”

“Let’s hope so – losing Fire Orchid was bad enough, I don’t want to see Sunhill be short another solar” Cash said with a voice full of apprehension.

Sunrise agreed wholeheartedly, but also added: “Now that you say that, I think we should ask him to judge each of us – before we change the topic to An Teng – so he can know that we truly are worthy to ask for his aid”

It was an interesting gambit, and the priests at the end of the bridge found the request of what appeared to be four random supplicants to be not that out of the ordinary – though it seemed that most petitioners came for a redress of grievances, not to be personally evaluated.

The circle was about to led to a shrine where they could pray, when a group of other priests came rushing at them – it seemed that the golden lord himself had sensed the true nature of the circle, and so had demanded to see them in person.

Speaker quietly wondered if playing along with the original priests’ request that they just go and pray, would factor into the judgement they were about to receive, as they walked the beautifully carved halls of the palace-temple. The carvings on the walls showed stylized scenes of the golden lord standing tall over all things, both mortals and other gods, rendering the even-hoofed and fair judgement that he was so well known for.

In a grand hall, part throne-room and part inner temple shrine, with much of everything made of gold and polished lapis lazuli, the circle was to stand before a massive statue of the golden lord. It didn’t take many moments from the circle arriving before the statue faded, the priests present dropping to the ground in abject worship: Their god did not manifest often, but when he did, they knew that his judging gaze would be upon everyone he saw.

“Goldy you fat bastard, you owe me a bottle of celestial wine!” Sunrise called out in old realm.

For the rest of the circle, everyone’s eyes went wide, looking at Sunrise in disbelief.

The golden lord, standing two heads taller than even the tallest of ponies, clad in golden robes, appeared as a normal tengese stallion – with a massive bushy black beard and even greater moustache, looking at Sunrise with his just judging gaze: “Who would speak so disrespectfully to the golden lord?”

“You know who I am – you know who all of us are. You’ve never paid up on the bet we made last we met” Sunrise stated firmly.

Rising from his massive throne, the golden lord approached Sunrise – standing twice her height: “…oh I do remember young solar, but are you simply here to hold me to that old debt?”

“Of course not. I have no interest in that – but I figured it was the fastest way we could prove who we are, and who we were. We are here to ask you to render judgement upon us, that we might be known as just or in need of penance” Sunrise said, looking the golden lord right in the eyes.

The god’s face rippled as a smile far broader than what a mortal could produce crept across his face: “Oh there is no doubt of who you are… or what you were – and yet you seek my judgement? You, who’s last incarnation’s hubris was so great that Celestia turned her eyes from Creation in disgust?”

“Did I stutter?” Sunrise said, fearlessly maintaining her gaze at the god.

Raising a mighty hoof, the golden lord called out: “Bring forth the Mother of Princes!”

A dozen priests and monks rushed off, returning shortly with an ornate cart laden with a great orichalcum sceptre – the eponymously named ‘Mother of Princes’. Sullen Hoof noted that the sceptres of the three An Teng princes appeared to have been modelled in the likeness of the god’s sceptre.

With the sceptre held high, the golden lord gazed intently upon the circle, going from left to right: “Sullen Hoof, chosen of Celestia, of the night caste. You seek to punish the wicked and aid the needy – in labouring to ensure these actions, I consider you just”

The solar culinarian let out a sigh of relief, as the golden lord’s gaze moved to Sunrise: “Sunrise Glow, chosen of Celestia, of the zenith caste. You have done the ponies of Chung Do a great injustice, but you did great penance for it and through the support of your friends found the courage to face your own fear of misusing your power. Through this display of humility and penance I will render the judgement that you are indeed just”

Sunrise teared up, finally having gotten the validation of heaven itself that despite her earlier faults and misdeeds, she truly was a good pony. Any lingering fear she had, was gone – and she looked endlessly relieved.

The sceptre then passed over to hover above Cash, who wasn’t afraid of his actions in his current life – but he dearly dreaded judgement for what he had learned of his past incarnation. The golden lord’s voice rumbled: “Cash Charmer, you… you are not without sin, but little of what you have done falls under my purview of injustice, for I rarely bother judging vice lest it is a scale demanding my attention. Your previous incarnation though, him I would love to have rendered judgement upon – but his crimes died with him, and I have always maintained that guilt never passes over with reincarnation”

Cash looked ready to faint, but the golden lord bid him stand proud: “You should be commended. The old oaths you rendered moot could easily have led you to such excesses of unjust behaviour – but you not only resisted that temptation, I sense that the new oaths you are making are surprisingly even-hoofed and worded fairly. I can only hope that for the rest of your exalted life, that you remain this good”

Speaker smiled as he saw the almost deliriously happy Cash, with the shadow of the golden lord’s sceptre passing over to him: “Bright Machine Speaker… you have done so much good”

Immensely proud of his many achievements, Speaker smiled as the divine arbiter of the righteousness of the exalted weighed his actions: “While I see you having done much good, then your record remains stained”

It remained what? Speaker appeared quite perplexed.

“In the city of Chung Do, you once utterly mutilated a pony for no other reason than to vent your fury – you had far simpler and less abominable options available at the time, but in your rage you saw none of them. For this sin – in missing the mark for righteous action – you have yet to atone properly”

Oh, that one… that gang member Speaker had ‘disassembled’ as a way to convince her to talk. Speaker remembered how utterly traumatized she had been – how he had asked Cash to lessen the impact of the ordeal on her, but in the end, they had saved Chung Do from both starvation and from a besieging army! Wasn’t that enough?

“Your lordship – I don’t understand… we were trying to save tens of thousands of ponies, and this criminal was withholding critical information from us” Speaker pleaded, but the golden lord’s gaze was hard and harsh.

The rest of the circle seemed to remember the incident well enough, but they held their tongues.

“Your motivations can be as noble as you want – but your actions were reprehensible” the golden lord stated slowly and firmly, his tone undeniable and his expression very much communicating that this was not up for discussion.

His head bowed in shame; Speaker relented: “What can I do to atone? I have healed untold numbers, duelled deathlords for the fate of creation – what else can I do?”

Shrinking down to Speaker’s size, the golden lord faced Speaker – and bid him raise his gaze to match his: “You succinctly point out the paradox of justice. If I permit a good deed to simply cancel out an act of villainy, then those who do great things may well feel emboldened to commit equal acts of evil, simply because they knew that they can get away with it in the eyes of heaven. Ten thousand random good deeds cannot cancel out a single act of true evil – only true penance can do that… but you are right, you have done an almost endless amount of good deeds since then, and I can tell that you are more than willing to do even more”

Holding his breath in anticipation of the golden lord’s final judgement, Speaker dared not look away.

The golden lord smiled, his bushy beard lending his face a kind and sage appearance: “Your sentence is simple: Don’t do it again, and be mindful with this warning that with greater goals meant to benefit the masses, you always risk sacrificing the individuals”

Speaker’s mind raced, trying to run through the various deeds he had done over the last couple of years, trying to sus out when and where he might have hurt innocents in his actions. Thorns came to mind first, when in his conjured warstrider he had crushed a few buildings – and similarly in Port Calin. The golden lord saw this pang of guilt on Speaker’s face, and found it good: “To be chosen by heaven is a heavy burden to bear. Your guilt suits you well, that you do not become blinded by hubris. You counselled your friend Sunrise Glow when she feared that using her powers would lead to her corruption, now you would do equally wisely to remember to seek and heed the council of your peers and allies in times of crisis and doubt”

The deep thrumming of the golden lord’s voice, and the sage words he rendered upon the circle, was a humbling experience. It reminded the circle that for all their power, then the eye of heaven was still upon them – and while heaven might not move to stop them, then that didn’t equate to tacit approval of everything they did.

“Thank you, Golden Lord – it is refreshing to be reminded that even as exalts of the goddess of perfection, that we are not perfect, and will likely never be – no matter how much we labour towards that goal” Sunrise said, her feeling of vindication and elation making her hooves feel lighter and her head more easily held high.

The golden lord returned to his original greater form and sat down on his throne again, his priests carting off his heavenly sceptre: “And thank you oh lords of Sunhill, for coming to me – for long have I awaited the return of the chosen of Celestia… yet none arrived”

A table and seating arrangements were brought forth, transitioning the audience from an official judgement to more of a social visit among celestials.

Once tea has been served, Cash finally broached the topic of An Teng’s freedom: “Golden Lord, we also came here to discuss a more local matter pertaining to your purview”

With a mighty eyebrow raised, the golden lord nodded to Cash: “A local matter – one pertaining to An Teng?”

“Indeed. For we were originally summoned here by a group of ponies who work towards a goal of a free An Teng, or at least one no longer ruled by a foreign power. We have travelled An Teng, and witnessed the abuses and oppression that the realm imposes – from dictates regarding what is to be farmed, to the detriment of local food supplies, to centuries of cultural oppression – and we seek your blessing and ideally also your involvement… for it is known that you on occasion council the three princes of An Teng, which would be a perfect way to start this uprising, once the time is right” Cash explained, noting that more than half of the golden lord’s priests and other mortal servants appeared to nod along to what he was saying.

The golden lord’s expression darkened briefly – this was clearly a big ask and a touchy subject for him, but then he began nodding: “I would be a fool to reject this offer – for the ponies of An Teng have prayed to me for justice for millennia and I have waited just as long for Celestia’s champions to return and be the deliverers of that justice”

More negotiations followed – there was no small amount of minutia that had to be agreed upon – plus the caveat that the question of who was to become the high king or queen of An Teng, the ruler of three princes, had not been agreed upon with Bitter Copal and his coven.

To the circle’s surprise then the golden lord wasn’t all that surprised to hear that a demon worshiping cult had taken root in An Teng, for he knew the tengese to be stubborn and crafty – and if legitimate solutions could not be found, then it only stood to reason that darker sources of power would be sought: “…and for all her might, then the pale lady – my counterpart and fellow god of An Teng, isn’t well known for being very reliable when it comes to such things – so the tengese sought other dark sources of power to empower them for freedom”

The circle had heard of the pale lady in their investigations of tengese religious customs – she was the local goddess of death and chaos, basically everything that could be said to be the opposite of the golden lord’s purview of justice and fairness.

Of course, the golden lord was just as happy to know that the circle had helped reign in the demonic influence of the cult.

In the end, the golden lord said that he would await a message from the circle that the armies they needed had been raised and were moved into position – then he would reveal himself to An Teng and declare a time for uprising.

With this, the circle bid their farewells and returned to the coven, their new challenge being to convince Bitter Copal to retool his plans of revolution to fit with everything the circle had done during their grand tour of An Teng.

To absolutely nobody’s surprise, then Bitter Copal didn’t like the idea of the circle actually cooperating with what he called realm oppressors – even if it would make the revolution easier to pull off.

“And the lowland prince – that realm toady – he has to die!” Bitter Copal stated firmly, the disgust in his voice quite harsh.

Sunrise shot Bitter Copal a serious frown, seeing the apologetic looks from the rest of the coven – with even Lee having learned during his weeks with the coven that Copal’s stubborn hatred was quite difficult to budge – but Sunrise wasn’t having it: “He received the dreams we gave him. As a mortal he will not have been able to resist the charm-enhanced messaging in them – he will be entirely on board with the rebellion. Killing him is counterproductive at this point”

“No! He has spent years whoring out his family to the realm – we cannot let that kind of debasement of our royal bloodlines go unpunished” Bitter Copal replied, sounding less vengeful and more sad about the situation than anything else.

That was another detail that had surprised the circle: It turned out that during Bitter Copal’s studies at Saphire he had researched his family tree – an apparently quite common pursuit among noble or wealthy tengese – and he had found that he was the last descended of an ancient royal line of An Teng. This line had not just been of a regional princely family line – no, it was of an ancient high queen’s family line, giving Bitter Copal a claim to the high throne of An Teng.

That Bitter Copal fancied himself in charge of An Teng didn’t really surprise the circle all that much – for such was quite common among rebel leaders – but that he actually had a legit claim, that was a surprise. Of course, letting a demonically mutated pony take the throne would likely be a very difficult sell – but the coven had worked on a solution for that, indeed they had apparently been hard at work with Lee on puzzling out what demonic charms they could ‘safely’ use while in public.

To this end, while Bitter Copal accepted that upon his rise to the throne as high king of An Teng, that prince Laxhander of the glorious reign should simply be shamed for his behaviour, but not punished that, then the rest of the coven demonstrated the demonic charms that they and Lee had judged safe enough to use.

Shirin, the strangely purple-skinned pony with no mane. Black orb eyes and needle teeth did a seductive twirl before the circle. Her shadow reared up and covered her in liquid darkness: “We learned this for the purpose of espionage – the illusion is quite impressive, especially when improved through a mastery of eldritch secrets”

The liquid shadow withdrew, revealing Shirin once more – but now she no longer appeared as a deformed half-demonic pony. She looked like a perfectly normal pony: Her coat was light brown, her mane a few shades darker, her eyes greens and her teeth normal. Her brass piercings and the faux-mane it gave her was nowhere to be seen.

“That is… wow… I can’t even see through that with essence sight” Speaker said, trying his hardest to peer through the illusory disguise.

The rest of the coven demonstrated similar charm use, though only Ashi of Six Wheels was able to match Shirin’s mastery of disguises – for Bitter Copal and Fallen Twin their disguises could be seen through with essence sight.

“Alright – that is certainly impressive… and I can see with Ashi that you can even change what your essence appears as, both in potency and flavour” Sullen Hoof remarked, sounding genuinely impressed.

Fallen Twin agreed that the charm was quite useful, letting them move about in public and avoid detection: “Using these, we can safely lead armies across An Teng without anyone getting frightened by it”

“That’s certainly one advantage – but how long does the disguise last? And will charm use disrupt it?” Sunrise wondered, sounding sceptical. To her surprise Shirin said that none in the coven had found anything that disrupted the charm, though using too much essence would of course light up one’s caste mark and anima.

Lee was quite happy with the charm, but his almost giddy glee made it quite obvious that he had prepared more than that with the coven to show the circle.

“It all mainly depends on what Yozi is our master – we can only intuit the charms of our master on our own, while anything else has to be taught to us. I was trained under the auspices of Adorjan, the silent wind, to move silently and across all surfaces – good skills for a spy or assassin” Ashi noted, demonstrating by galloping up the walls and going around in circles on the ceiling at a speed far beyond what even the swiftest mortal pony would ever be able to match.

Speaker looked to Fallen Twin: “Your bonded demon, the unwoven adjudicator, that was a bloodhound, right? Bloodhounds fall under Malfeas’s soul hierarchy – so is malfeas your master that way around?”

“Correct, but Shirin’s is a neomah demon – though she was officially schooled under the auspice of the Ebon Dragon, as an infiltrator and source of chaos” Fallen Twin noted, explaining that the yozis didn’t mind ‘borrowing’ each-others minions if it suited their designs.

Bitter Copal, with an annoyed look on his face, noted that of their coven the only yozi not represented was arguably the one they needed the most: “We have no malefactor in our midst – the yozi title for their corrupted zenith caste exalted. Cecelyne handles them, and her charms primarily focus on marshalling and empowering a personal cult – her organizational charms would have been endlessly useful for us”

Ashi put a gelatinous and semi-transparent hoof on Bitter Copal’s bandage wrapped body: “I know – but that’s how we ended up discovering that thing, right?”

“What… thing?” Speaker said curiously.

Fallen Twin gestured to two small black flames that hovered over his shoulders. With a thought, they winked out and an impressive suit of armor made of firmin resin appeared over him: “Like this. We combined the Ebon Dragon’s manic desire for unrestricted freedom with Adorjan’s tendency to shed anything that burdens him – turning a worn suit of armor into these small wisps of black flame, and then back again – it’s a storage charm”

None in the circle found that to be terribly impressive. Fire Orchid had known the lightning hauberk gesture – which permitted her to stash a worn suit of armor elsewhere, and retrieve it on herself in an instant, without any telltale bits of black flame revealing anything.

“We understand, Lee knows that charm too – but the point is that the yozis do not know this charm!” Shirin said, sounding oddly giddy about that strange fact.

It turned out that while the infernals were able to develop new charms on their own, then doing so had to be done within the thematic auspices of their yozi master. Fallen Twin’s charms had to fit Malfeas’ dominating and brash nature – while Shirin would have to develop subtle and sneaky charms, to fit with the Ebon Dragon’s sly spiritual theme. Ashi put it well: “If we develop such a new charm – and during our training we were very much encouraged to do so – then our yozi masters would instantly learn that charm as well… but this mix of two yozi’s essence, to create a new effect… they aren’t learning that”

Everyone in the circle could sense that this information was probably important – but it was difficult for them to exactly discern why. Sullen Hoof asked the pertinent question: “How did you learn that they haven’t figured out your new power?”

Bitter Copal gestured to Sullen Hoof: “Officially I am still in good standing with my demon masters – not long after you were gone, after we had shown this charm to Lee, I journeyed to Malfeas. Officially it was to report my progress and to pick up supplies, but I also made inquiries… quiet ones, learning that these new charms were not known to the yozis”

“I hope you didn’t reveal anything about us – or the rest of your coven being here?” Sullen Hoof wondered, sounding as if he knew well enough that his question was a bit blunt, but returning to the demon realm while planning to betray them didn’t sound well to him.

Shirin nodded, joining Ashi and Bitter Copal: “I taught Copal a way out of that. There is a fun little charm from the Ebon Dragon, one that truly makes you believe any lie you say – makes it really hard for any lie detection charm to sus it out. I taught this to Copal before he left for Malfeas”

“…and they didn’t notice him using that charm?” Sunrise wondered.

As the coven presented it, then the yozis were actually willing to believe that their agents used such charms – chiefly to aid in their cover stories while operating in Creation – so they had no objections or inquiries on the topic, as detecting that such a charm was in use didn’t tell you anything about what lie it was making you temporarily believe.

“When you are being trained by the lord of lies, he not only expects you to lie – he expects you to become very good at it” Shirin noted.

Back to the original topic, the discovery of these charms that none of the yozis could detect or learn, meant that the coven had found a solution to their original worries about learning too many demonic charms that would warp or corrupt them. An example of this was Shirin pointing out that for her to master anything but the least of the Ebon Dragon’s charms required internalizing a charm… or a lesson… called ‘witness to darkness’ – and it had a price: “It lets me see in the darkness perfectly, as if bright day, but in return direct sunlight it hurts my eyes…”

Sunrise found this curious, wanting to see exactly how that worked. The luminous fungus lamps were taken out of the room, bathing the room in darkness, after which Shirin was able to perfectly tell which way Sunrise was pointing her hoof: “Up, down, up – I told you, I can see everything in here clearly”

“Impressive – but then this should actually hurt you then?” Sunrise said inquisitively, flaring her anima.

Shirin let out a yelp of pain and covered her eyes. To the rest of the circle, and everyone else present, Sunrise’s anima was but a warm and pleasant golden glow. It turned out that a while ago Sunrise had learned a charm that made her anima give off actual true sunlight, originally to help combat the undead, since they didn’t react well to direct sunlight.

“Tell me, why are we even discussing the weaknesses of your powers? I thought that your time with Lee would have been enough to find work-arounds to this?” Sullen Hoof asked, suddenly wondering what the point of it all was.

Fallen Twin quickly set the record straight: “Remember, we called you here because we felt we had to accelerate our plans – the infernals that led the demonic conquest of Gem are working their ways through the fire mountains, towards An Teng. Officially it is ‘aid’ Bitter Copal, but it would also mean a demonic land-war spreading death and destruction across all of An Teng…”

“Right, and if we need to fight them, we need to know your weaknesses” Speaker said, finally catching on.

Gesturing in agreement, Fallen Twin stated that his more powerful malfean charms were all oriented around Malfeas’s primary theme of domination: “…but you cannot dominate if you have no-one to rule. Thus, Malfeas’s more powerful charms do not work in places where nobody lives or works”

Sunrise had to give that a bit of a ponder, but in the end both she and Speaker agreed that such a strange limit made sense considering that Malfeas as a primordial invented the concept of ruling over others. Bitter Copal chimed in, saying that the more potent of charms that he knew from She Who Lives In Her Name were vulnerable to her dependency on all things being put into a known hierarchy: “If she, or even I, don’t know a charm or combination of charms being used, then they cannot be defended against – same for her offensive charms: they require known quantities”

The circle agreed that this made sense, to which Shirin said that the Ebon Dragon’s weakness was actually a bit boring compared to the others: “I mean, I remember being told that some of the charms of Cecelyne won’t work unless used within a desert – and Cecelyne is an infinite desert”

“I don’t see how that’s connected to the Ebon Dragon’s weakness?” Cash politely pointed out.

Bitter Copal huffed: “That’s because it’s not – it’s also wrong. Powerful Cecelynian charms require places of desolation, either physical – like a desert – but it can also be simply spiritually desolate places, like a family home where everyone hates each other, or a temple where nobody actually believes anything”

Shirin gave Bitter Copal frumpy look – something she was able to do now that she had used that illusory disguise charm to cover up her black-orb eyes: “Right, and that’s so much cooler than the Ebon Dragon’s weakness. I mean, it’s so basic its silly”

“Then please just tell us” Sullen Hoof urged, sounding a tad annoyed at Shirin’s reluctance.

Cash, having sussed out what Shirin didn’t want to say – and why – beat her to it: “Oh its simple, isn’t it? The Ebon Dragon – being the hollow thing that he is, cannot stand anything that truly stands for and shines forth as an exemplar of something. Meanwhile he’s not just a creature of darkness, he is THE creature of darkness – so charms that express the highest goals, the most supreme goodness of creation, that’s his weakness”

Shirin nodded immensely: “Totally – and I’m sorry, I don’t know why it’s hard for me to say it… I think it’s from my training, some kind of compulsion to not reveal Ebbie’s secrets”

“So… holy charms?” Sunrise said quizzically, trying to make sense of Cash’s verbose statement.

Shirin’s nodding intensified, looking a tad manic: “Yup – holy light and holy smiting send him packing pretty damn hard”

With that conclusion, the coven and the circle began making battle plans. They might have – somewhat circuitously – ensured the relative cooperating of the three princes, but they would still need to raise an army and get it into position to take out the coastal fortress near Dragon’s Jaw, as well as the satrap’s palace in City of the Steel Lotus.