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Rishi	Rishi's directions lead you through several winding streets in the Holymaze district, to a somewhat shabbly-looking, but recently repainted door. Opening it leads to long narrow hallway, that looks to be regularly swept but it is also in need of a bit of repair. But then it opens out. At the end of the hallway is a moderately large room covered in blue tile with an abstract fountain of blue veined marble at the center of a pool of clear water. Above you can see an open occulus with a lovely view of the sky. There are a couple rows of benches at intervals surrounding the pool and a couple of arches leading elsewhere in the temple.
Tiziri	Evening has come, the sun completed its journey and gone to bed even as the moon has begun its ascent. Still not so late the city has gone to bed though, far from it, if Great Forks ever truly sleeps at all. Ardent Vagabond has finally made her way here, just as before walking along with an easy confidence as she holds her spear in one hand almost like a walking stick. A she steps into the temple she starts to look around curiously, lips pursing thoughtfully.
Amethyst	Amethyst herself is walking confidently, and soberly, through the streets of Great Forks. Night time is always a bit more dangerous during the day, and she affords herself her slitted pupils so she can see as well in the night as in the day, but otherwise resembles her usual human self. No accidental dragon-y forms today. She is unarmed like she always appears to be, but one wonders what the sorcerous could pull from her sleeves if she needed. Not that she'll need it here. She steps into the temple sometime after Ardent, curious of what she might just find inside.
Rishi	Silver wall sconces give the room a soft flickering light, but the rising full moon shining through the occulus onto the pool sheds a much purer and surprisingly ...bright? silver light. There is a single person kneeling before the pool. As you both enter she waits a few beats, then stands. The beautiful woman is wearing a leather cloak over a long blue backless robe, though said robe isn't really cut to conceal her spectacular curves. She smiles at you both, and runes over to give Ammy a hug. "Ah! It is being so lovely to be seeing you both!" Rishi says.
Tiziri	Curiousity or no, suspicion is a thing too. And caution. With a weapon. Yeah, not taking chanced. Still, she's looking relaxed enough. "Hello again." the young woman says to Rishi but ends up stepping to the side as the seeming priestess moves ot hug Ammy. Though it is still a rather relaxed sort of thing, with a weird little smile on her face.
Amethyst	Amethyst isn't being caught off guard. She rushes towards Rishi as she runs towards her, launching herself into a tackle as she approaches, changing and shapeshifting into her dragon form and wrapping all of her limbs around her giggling. And to top it off, she noseboops Rishi with her nose!
Rishi	Rishi giggles and hugs Ammy back, her long dark hair shimmering in the light as it sways. "One moment my love." as she lets go and goes to pull a door to the outside closed and sets a chain across it. "There we are going. Now we can be talking privately." As she says this she hunches and seems to grow larger as her ...cloak? changes, humping up on her back. When she turns back, her cloak has become large bat wings, elfin ears part her dark hair, and light ochre fur has covered all of her body you can see. While the robe covers her body and legs, from the shifting curves there's definitely things going on there too. She reaches out one well muscled arm and clawed hand to Ardent in greeting, an empty silver ring forming on her brow as she says "It is most nice to be meeting you properly. I am being Rishi Fleshweaver, Chosen of the One Who Is Many." she sweeps her hand up to the view of the moon. "And this is being their temple, but do not be spreading that around. We are both being in disguise." she giggles.
Tiziri	Ardent Vagabond stands back during the hugging, but as Rishi pulls back and the shape shifting follows, and then the introduction, there's at least a look on her face that implies she knows. Or expected. Still, it's surprised as well. the weirdly relaxed posture she was holding gets a bit more rigid then, and she looks over towards Amethyst for a moment too - there's the one moment there's any look of concern from her. But then? Her skin seems to shimmer, and the first obvious bit is a hollow silver circle glowing on her forehead, and barely a moment later elaborate silver tattoos appear as well, especially the spirals on her cheeks, and triskeles on her outer hands. "My name remains Ardent Vagabond, sometimes Tiziri. I am not famous enough outside of certain circles." A heartbeat's pause. "On purpose. Though in Mahalanka I am respected and known."
Amethyst	Amethyst lets go of Rishi and stands up herself, but those tattoos of hers certainly are /not/ Lunar tattoos, and she still has the obvious markings of a Dragon-Blooded despite her obvious gift. "I don't have any special titles myself, though my full name is more technically Peleps Yim Ametis, of the Yim household that was nearly completely destroyed in a massive fire, all but me, my father, and a brother that still lies in the realm. But I've been an outcaste in Champoor as long as I can remember, and don't have much love for the Realm these days. Most folks just call me Amethyst." "I'm not actually familiar with Mahalanka, what is that?"
Rishi	Her eyebrows go up at the mention of Mahalanka, though she says "I am not being particularly well known either, but, it is what I am wishing to be known for." She motions to the benches, so they can sit. "This temple...the finding of it was a gift from The Ever Changing One. The ones who found and reconsecrated this place, they are being scholars who are thinking they have recovered the 'truth' of the Lady of the Changing Waters. But, her legend has been mixed with most of the other water or moon gods, including Ammy's Danna'd. This place though...Somehow they have made the contact and they are properly doing the rites of service for They of the Mutable Form." she smiles. "I have joined them and been encouraging of this, but they were having the doing of it since before I had the finding of the place." She shakes her head. "Truly a miracle and I am working hard to be doing the rewarding of them soon." Rishi frowns, raises a finger, then closes her mouth. "I am hearing many of the stories about the Mahalanka, but I have never been doing the visiting. All I am *knowing* about it is that it is a city in the jungle that is being ruled by a powerful Elder Sorceress." She turns to Ardent. "I would be liking to be hearing more."
Tiziri	Tiziri gets an almost unsettling sort of grin on her face. "The Queen of Fangs is, well, a powerful Elder sorceress indeed. She is one of the ones who helped settle the Castes, amongst other things. I doubt there are any alive right now who understand sorcery as well as she does. And if there is? I'd be shocked." Tiziri says this in such a way that does show some respect, but also no small amount of fear. "Mahalanka is an amazing place too. A place still respectful of our kind." This said while looking directly at Rishi. Then with a deep breath she continues, "A place full of the wonders of what once was, even if they are fallen to ruin." She sighs. "Honestly, I could have spent decades more there and I doubt I would know all I could, but there's so much more too, and I wanted to see it all."
Amethyst	Amethyst nods to Rishi, "In the Realm where knowledge that the evershifting one exists is pretty taboo Danaa'd, Elemental Dragon of Water, has taken a similar role. I happen to be one of hers, and I guess I just decided I wanted to be more adaptable and changing than my breathern typically are." She grins. But Amethyst's expression is pretty hard to read when she listens to Mahalanka and the Queen of Fangs. "Settle the... castes?" The dragon looks quite confused, "If you like old wonders you would probably like Elderloch. But wait, you're to tell me that Mahalanka is ruled by a Lunar?"
Rishi	As she is talking, Rishi is listening intently. The two others can see the fur on Rishi's body part and retract slightly in places, making it look like silver filigree of vines and leaves is crawling across her body as her tattoos are released. If one looks even closer, one could make out closely written poems in clawspeak among the vines. "Unlike the other Chosen, the Many Faces are being expressed equally in us after we are being claimed." She raises her arm. "The tattoos are helping us to be choosing which of the Faces we are wishing to be showing." She tilts her head to one side, considering, her dark hair waving. "It is like if you were belonging to all of the elements, until you were choosing one with the powerful ritual." Rishi looks at Ammy. "The Queen of Fangs is being one of the ones who were designing the powerful ritual after the death of the Solars and the coming of your ancestor's Shogunate. So, yes, she is being the ruler of the nation." Rishi turns back to Ardent, giving her a smile. "I am being ...most young among our kind. But.... I have been learning and doing much in my time. If you would be liking, we could be sharing the wisdom we have been gaining with each other. In fact, I am doing the waiting upon the correct astrological configuration to be finishing the Sorcerous Miracle I have been doing the working on for this place. I could be doing the inviting of you to be joining, if you would be the interested?"
Tiziri	"My Mistress was alive when the First Age ended, before the Shogunate." Ardent Vagabond responds. "Exactly. She holds a powerful relic, one I've barely been granted access too despite being a pupil she likes. But I hope to one day be given more wisdom, when I have earned it. Wisdom of the time before. Of when things were different." Tiziri doesn't even sound unhappy, she merely sounds eager, like she believes it will come in time. "Either way, I know of no one else in all of Creations I would rather have unhappy with me." Another of those pauses and Ardent Vagabond continues, "And no one else I'd rather have happy with me yet. She inked my caste. She continued the teachings. She sent me here." She sounds wondrous in so many ways. "And now I've met another of our kind! And you!" She looks to Amethyst. "You don't seem to fear us! to wish to kill us!" There's definitely relief there.
Amethyst	Amethyst listens intently to Rishi and nods, "And if I remember right, those are Full Moon, Changing Moon, and No Moon. I've not had a lot of chance to actually learn about the Lunars and what they're like." "Man, someone from the first age... with knowledge unparalleled in this one I'm sure. She would actually know the history of the world as it was and not as the Immaculate Order would have it. I wonder if she'd know the real legends of the Elemental Dragons." "It sounds like you both love and fear her a lot." Amethyst reasons. "And yes, I don't wish to kill or harm you. Despite that I still do my services to the dragons, I do wish that I could actually talk to Danaa'd, as I can't imagine she'd be happy with the state of things. I've thought about praying to Luna hersself but I've never had the courage to actually try. I wonder what she thinks of us Dragon-Blooded after what we've done."
Rishi	"The One Who is Many is preferring to be a they, my love." Rishi says absently "But I would be most happy to be guiding you both in the prayer shortly." She looks a bit troubled. "I have been hearing the ...worrying stories about the Queen of the Fangs. Is she being as terrifying as people are saying?" Rishi's face as she looks at Ardent says she heard about the baby eating, but doesn't really know how to bring it up.
Tiziri	"Honestly, I was from so far from the Dragonblooded they were basically... a rumor. I knew of Prasad. Yet their scions were rarely seen. A distant sort we paid service to, but nothing too important except in prayers." Tiziri shrugs then, sighing softly afterwards. "Sadly, I learned soon after my change that I was wrong. and had to fight." Then Ardent Vagabond grins almost darkly at Rishi. "The Queen of Fangs is anathema, right? Just as we are? I admit I've never are a baby." Then she leans forward against her spear. "She's taught me a lot. Reputation is sometimes as powerful as fact. Sometimes fact overpowers reputation."
Amethyst	"...Wait, are you telling me some of those immaculate stories are actually /true/?" Amethyst asks in disbelief. She looks between Rishi and Ardent. "I've heard of some... cruel and insane stories told in the immaculate tales. I think I may know who you might be talking about or maybe it's just a caricture of a dozen who've done similar things. It doesn't help that a Lunar is the reason I ended up in exile with my father since they killed the rest of our household for reasons beyond me. It's why my father has such a deep-seated hatred of folks like us." There's a sorrow in her voice as she speaks this. And Amethyst looks at Rishi, and considers, "What would I even ask of Them?"
Rishi	Rishi headtilts considering. "...I suppose I should be liking to be meeting her one of these days, so I can be determining for myself her nature." Rishi sighs, looking down. "...There are being some who are having the Blood of the Dragons who are not being the good Immaculates, yes? There are being some among the other Chosen who have been shown to being most ...unworthy of this gift. And... Well, the Silver Pact has been doing the fighting against your Realm since before the Empress was being born. Terrible things have been done by both of the sides, but... the Silver Chosen who have done the terrible things? Many of them still live." She sighs again, deeply. "I am...seeing in my dreams, some of the time, things from the previous ages. Many of them are not being ...nice." She raises her head with a firm gaze at the others. "This is part of why I am being serious about being the healer. Many of us are contributing to the suffering, much fewer are helping with the reducing of it." she waves her hand around this place. "Those who come to this temple, they request the intervention of the Changing Waters to be healing their bodies, because, by accident or birth, their bodies are not fitting them. When I was being Chosen, I was charged with helping those like that. And so I have. But...this is not telling me how one should be healing the society itself." She slumps a little, before straghtening and turning to Ammy. "...You need not be asking anything of Them. But...If you are being confused about their nature or their Chosen, you could be asking for the clarity? They are unlikely to be answering that one directly, I am thinking."
Tiziri	Ardent Vagabond gets a weird little smile. "Probably. We are pretty beastly when we wish." She says to Rishi even as she stands there looking like the most human of the three present, after all, she's not shown any beastly transformation! Just tattoos and a caste mark. Then she's looking to Rishi with a weird sort of look on her face. Blinking, wide eyed, even a little bit of a shiver. "When I was Chosen, I was different from now. So much so, uncomnfortable. Now I'm as I always desired." She is practically whispering there. Then she takes a deep breath and says. "The Immaculates would destroy us as we are born, destroy us before knowing what we are. Even though we fight at the fringes of Creation, defend us from the Wyld. I know of the past too, of the terrifying and awesome wonders of the First Age. Of the Tyrants and Joys. I've been taught." She shudders. "But we are denied that, so many die before, just because we are seen, fight for what we are. Within a week of my becoming what I am meant to be, a large force converged, fortunately, another teacher was there and with his followers we fended them off. Raksi eats babies? The Immaculates sacrifice myriads of babies in the name of stopping others." She is suddenly looking at Amethyst now. "A Dragon Warrior, A Forgotten Pasts Relic, Destined for battle."
Amethyst	"Well, then I will not be asking Them anything." Amethyst nods to Rishi. "...I guess I just got used to asking Danaa'd for guidance as to how I should be and conduct myself, how I could best honor them as I go about myself." "I was raised with the Immaculate Philosophy and used its mantras and passages as my bastion against the twisting forces of the wyld when I underwent the trials that gave me the tattoos and sorcerous power I have now." With that, her tattoos suddenly shift as one can feel her gathering sorcerous power. Like the weight of the very ocean pressing down upon the room, though not enough to impede movement, she takes out a small dagger. "With those trials I gained and lost something valuable. More than I could ever put into words. So then, what was I to do when I learned that all of my beliefs were wrong and false?" She slits her palm in a quick motion, and blood comes pouring out as the spell takes shape. "I hate what my kind has done to yours, I hate what Creation has become as a result and I fear what the Solars might be able to do once they've taken back Creation, which, I feel is inevitable. And yet there's something even more sinsister brewing, the fall of Thorns is something that terrifies me and if we are going to stop whatever happened there, it might take Dragon and Lunar and Solar working side by side, a dream that right now is but a dream." With one last grand gesture, she takes a little silver canister and tosses it, and it explodes into a rainbow hued glow, finally the spell condenses and her blood turns into a razor whip that she controls just by willing it. "If I have anything to say it's trying to bridge the gaps that the centuries have caused and to learn the truth behind the lies in the immaculate philosophy, learn its origins and the reality that it so twisted so that I may teach it to my own kind. Yet, even if I do, I'm sure those centuries of death and destruction will still lead to a war that I cannot stop. But damned if I don't want to try. And I'll cut down the true anathema and my own if I must to make it happen."
Rishi	Suddenly Ardent is being embraced. "I know how you are feeling. It was being the same for me. I am getting to be my true self now." Rishi's 'true self' is apparently a hot gargoyle lady, but Ardent has likely seen even more unusual Lunars. "If you are not knowing already, I can be teaching you how to be helping people in this way." Rishi moves to embrace Ammy too, and then sighs. "I wish we did not have to be doing these things. But...the Chosen of the Sun are returned. Other powers are rising. The Realm is crumbling. If we are not doing something, everyone is likely dying. Best to try to continue to be helping the people." Rishi headtilts, looking at Ardent curiously. "Was that being a poem?"
Tiziri	There's a moment, the briefest of moments that only those who are trained in combat could probably tell, where Ardent Vagabond seems tense and ready to sprign into action. Yet those unused to it, or not looking for it, might not realize it fades as quickly as it begins as she is embraced. Still, the girl with feathers in her hair ends up standing shocked for a time. Finally, there's a flash of a smile and a nod to Rishi before something else is enunciated. "A thousand years, even elders are shaken, what will the light mean?" Tiziri has a truly inquisitive nature to her tone, and her look. "So the rumors are true?" A weird smile even by her standards, it's not entirely unhinged, just excedingly curious. "We wondered. What will it mean to?" She purses her lips some more. "My... shahan-ya is my teacher. She knows more than I likely ever will. But I am still me. I know, and she intends, that I must analyze for myself everything. Use my own judgement. For they eyes of youth see things differently from that of the sagacious."
Amethyst	One who's understood combat as thoroughly as Amethyst has notices. But, she doesn't change her posture, instead just keeping her eyes fixed but for that brief moment. Then as she relaxes her whip neatly coils around her arm, not unlike a dragon. She gently returns Rishi's hugs. "I think now we need to prepare, gather ourselves and our wits. I am plenty deadly, now I just need to find myself to be tough. At this rate I wonder if I would've been better as a Fire-Aspect with how much thrive in combat..." Amethyst muses, "Then again I also routinely do incredible workings like an air aspsect." She shrugs. "I'm glad I didn't have to choose myself, it would've been imposssible." "As far as for old legends? Danaa'd is well known as doing the impossible against all odds, so maybe Water is really the most fitting for me." Amethyst muses.
Rishi	Rishi smirks at Ammy's comment and hugs her again. "I am being most hardy and difficult to be killing. I'm being sure I can be helping you to be improving your scales and your stamina, as I was doing the helping with the rest of your form." She winks at Ardent. "She is being some of my finest work, but the shape is being all her own desires. I ...cannot agree with forcing my shape upon the others, for whome it is not doing the fitting." Rishi nods again, her smile widening. "If you are staying here for the time, then you will most certainly be meeting the Golden Ones and then you can be seeing what you are thinking of them. They can be ...most terrifying. Or Kind. And most human, which is likely to being the real terror and the real wonder."
Tiziri	"I'm not sure even Raksi knows what to think." Tizi says all too honestly. "Most of her life has been without them too. So it's pretty wild. Especially as everything else happsn. All I know is coincidence is... too much of a coincidence." Even her tone makes it obvious she finds that weirdly awkward phrase to be just that, awkward. "There's a lot of things we need to worry about. Thorns is certainly one of them, the fall of the Realm is concerning for all the opportunity it provides. But oh to see inside the Imperial Manse!" She is suddenly beaming at saying that. "Not that I ever expect to, I'll just be happy to see things here. This place is wondrous as well! Mahalanka was great in its way, but this is a place great now, not a shadow of the past."
Amethyst	"I was the test bed for her latest working." Amethyst explains, "And she's personally given me just about all of my mutations." She focuses for a moment, and her dragon features fade, but instead are replaced with gills and fins abd webbed hands (and presumably feet, though she's wearing boots), with a brilliant translucent rainbow pattern to her much finer scales. "I don't have nearly as many forms as you lunars but I have a fair bit that I can do. This is another example of her work." She stretches and considers, "Humans are indeed scary. Tho fae are way more terrifying. At least humans don't wanna literally eat your soul. Though the Guild sometimes comes close..." She rubs her chin.
Rishi	Rishi nods. "Then you will be coming to be seeing the finality of my working. I'm sure it is not being much, compared to what the Queen of the Fangs has been doing with you, but ...it is what I can be doing. And you shall be getting to be seeing the Ivory Orchid Pavillion, which is most impressive, even if you have had the seeing of it before." Rishi ...may be trying to impress this student of Raksi's. Or she might be responding to her honest curiosity. Rishi claps her hands. "For now, we must be putting away all of the complex talk. The moon is being in the most sublime position. Join me in the water and let us all be communing with the one who has given ...and taken... much from us all." Rishi steps out into the pool, glowing in the moonlight, holding her hands out to the others. "Speak your true hearts to them in this place and they shall hear you." "Luna, grant me your favor in stilling the turmoil in my heart and in the helping of the others, through this Working. May I continue to do your work in this life."
Tiziri	"I've had a lot of experience with the Human, though very little with the Fae. Though I've read enough and heard enough to know how bad it can truly get." Ardent Vagabond says soberly. After that she looks back to Rishi, even as she starts to set her spear aside and go about preparing herself for the prayers. Her caste mark and moonsilver tattoos still glowing. "I am interested in seeing what I can, and aiding if I can. I make not say to being anything like my teacher. I was more concered with reading and dancing, so to say." She smiles almost sheepishly at that. Though accompanying such a thing is always interesting."
Amethyst	Amethyst sheds her boots and joins Rishi in the water, bowing respectfully. "Oh Luna, how can I change the hearts of my own and yours so that together we may face down Creation's true enemies? And am I even worthy to pray before you and your children, with so much blood on my kin's hands?" It looks like Amethyst almost surprises herself with her questions, one wonders how much those questions weigh on her young heart.