Greetings, Exalted-teers... no, wait, that's terrible. I'm out of here. Just get some peas for the road...
Yeah, I got nothing. No news or anything that I can think of. All I've got is the adventures of the Moonlight Maiden, and you all. So lemme take a moment to appreciate anyone reading this right now.
...
Okay, and now that the moment has passed...
We pick up in the Vagabond Panther, with Kim Sơn showing his Eternal Wave tattoo to Xương, Lani, and Nam-Kyu, and he says that what he wants to do is gather together a few more people, get a ship, and make an expedition further to the southwest in search of them. Nam-Kyu, uneasily and apologetically, excuses himself. He's here looking for ways to protect Wavecrest from the Silver Prince[0], and hunting down an ancestor or ghost cult to make that happen feels like much more of a lateral move than an improvement. He wishes Kim Sơn luck, but he's got his sister to get back to. Kim Sơn almost makes a scene, showing signs of desperation as Nam-Kyu leaves. Lani chimes in and says that he's still down for the expedition if there's more of a plan involved, or at least a more-developed one. Xương also stresses the importance of a plan.
Kim Sơn says he's got a plan, and even some cash saved up to pay for such a trip. He just needs people and a ship. Xương emphasizes the need for guaranteed transport to make sure they don't get down there and get stranded if they don't find the Eternal Wave. Kim's frustrated, almost beyond reason, as the conversation settles into a general mood of 'with more to work with we can do this, but not as it stands right now.' When pressed, though, Xương makes it clear he's definitely still interested overall.
Of course, Xương has little to fear from a ship full of ghosts on account of being a Lunar-fucking-Exalt, but he's not exactly going to advertise that.
Lani says that he's certainly willing to come along when things are further along, and says that he'd even be willing to help crew a ship on such a journey. But for now, he's going to pop out for tonight and Kim Sơn can find him if he needs him. He tells Xương that it's been nice meeting him, and he heads out.
With a sigh, Kim Sơn thanks Xương for sticking with him this long at least. And he laments that he has few options left. He's prayed to the various gods, he's too old to be graced by the Dragons, and he's too cowardly to risk Wyld mutation. Xương suggests not to entirely rule out the latter, and Kim Sơn points out a swan-woman also drinking in the bar and comments that if he were in better shape he knows there are places where one can take mystical trials and become beastfolk, and that might help him.[1] But from here things just kind of dissolve into small talk and Xương and Kim Sơn part on good terms for the moment.
Elsewhere, during all this, Hǎifēng was getting their freak on with cousin Mongo, and Shango explored the city.
So eventually we cue the JRPG inn music, and cut to the next morning with Hǎifēng bursting in through Xương's door, doing what some people (or at least people who didn't grow up in An-Teng, which is kind of a horny place) would call a walk of shame. Shango remarks that Hǎifēng seems to have had a good time, and Hǎifēng gets a little defensive about the fact that all they'd seen so far in their time in Lathe was a library, and got accosted by Immaculates and so they deserved a night out on the town. Everyone gets into talking about their respective evenings and Hǎifēng talks about what they learned from Mongo about Sentulga missing, and perhaps consulting someone about a secret/personal library.
The theory is that this someone might be the mysterious Third Party, which Xương argues can only be a handful of people in Lathe because being an island, the list of people who can afford to maintain a private library that wouldn't be ravaged by the salt and moisture in the air is a pretty short one, narrowed down further by the interest in specific subjects. Xương suggests going down to the stomach, which is the alchemist and sorcerer district, and ask around. Hǎifēng, however, still has that appointment down at the Immaculate Temple with Si Du-Ho, and thus uses their newly-increased Essence to create a better version of the clone they made before -- one that can better match Hǎifēng's personality and capabilities. The clone's abilities are entirely limited to mundane skills (no Charms or Shapeshifting), but they can persist pretty much indefinitely and Hǎifēng can reabsorb the clone and receive memories of their experiences as if they were there. They send the clone out to take care of the appointment and shift to hybrid form since they can pass for beastfolk that way.
The three Lunars head out to the stomach and find people giving classes on occult and medical subjects and buying and selling things -- there's a snake oil salesman, someone obviously selling fake medicines, and then there's a snakefolk apothecary dealing in tinctures and potions. Among others. The three of them split up to basically check for rumors -- Hǎifēng isn't sure how to work talking about the libraries into casual conversation and comes up with the idea of posing as a potential sorcerous initiate. Shango is just going to blatantly ask and offer bribes for information or silence. Xương just plans to ask outright and damn the consequences.
Cue a montage of the group going around asking questions.
After a couple of hours of asking around, they narrow it down to a trio of possibilities. There's Sadiki, a geomancer from Chiaroscuro; Kanut, an alchemist and necromancer from the Northwest; and Pania, a local student of the volcano lords (and possible pyromaniac). As the group pools their information, it comes up that if they need someone to take a look around these places, they do have someone who can shift into a tiny monkey form.
So it's early-to-mid afternoon when the group gets to Sadiki's place, a structure built into the 'hillside,' as it were. Hǎifēng finds an available window and manages to get it open and wriggle inside, finding themselves in what looks like a sitting room. There are mirrors all over the place, obviously in some sort of very careful arrangement, and a beaded glass curtain instead of a door. Hǎifēng looks in one of the mirrors and fixes their hair. Then, just to be a jerk, they slightly tweak one of the mirrors and send light scattering weirdly around the room as the delicate balance is disrupted.
They also realize they can hear someone at home, moving around elsewhere in the house.
Fortunately, the library is near the sitting room, though it's not easily recognizable as such at first. The shelves have multi-colored glass doors, very similar to what we'd consider stained glass, turning the shelves into cabinets. The glass is a little too translucent to read through, so Hǎifēng finds a needle in what looks like an acupuncture doll and uses it to pick a couple of the doors open where they find some of the books[2] on the list. They revert to human form to stuff as much as they can into the folds of their kimono so that way when they shift back to monkey form, the outfit will vanish into Elsewhere with everything in it. After that, it's easy enough to sneak out without raising any attention -- they jostle the beaded curtain enough they hear someone (presumably Sadiki) pause to listen, but after a while whomever it is gets back to what they were doing and Hǎifēng gets out the same way they came in.
They meet up with the others in an alley, and Xương's a little confused as to why Hǎifēng took the books as there seems to have been a minor miscommunication there. Regardless Shango decides to take the books back to Xương's clinic for safekeeping while Xương and Hǎifēng move on to Kanut's place.
The necromancer's home is further underground like Xương's clinic, down a long, mostly-empty tunnel. Hǎifēng sneaks in through the air vents while Xương hangs out in the tunnel keeping an eye out. The monkey-shaped Lunar winds up landing in a room that is easily recognizable as a morgue. They start poking through the bodies on slabs and in drawers to find one that seems weirdly-fresh... Hǎifēng gets a closer look and recognizes her as what they're pretty sure is the Lintha captain that Mongo was talking about, Sentulga. Her throat's been slit and it's tough to tell, but on closer inspection it looks more like she's been dead a while and magically or alchemically preserved. Hǎifēng immediately starts rummaging through her pockets looking for something to prove what they found, and discover a fancy compass and what at first looks like a charm bracelet of shark's teeth, but there's scrimshaw-like carvings in the teeth that seem important.
Meanwhile, out in the tunnel, Xương hears voices coming. First is a voice he knows -- Doctor Zither, the information broker. The other is a woman's voice with a weird accent. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any way to signal Hǎifēng, so he just has to loiter around and pretend to drink while he spots the information broker walking and talking with a woman with pale skin and hair but solid-black eyes. They're making the sort of pointless-sounding small talk people do when they're obviously speaking in code, made the more obvious by the fact that when they see Xương they switch to actual pointless small talk as they approach the front door to Kanut's home.
Meanwhile, inside, Hǎifēng finds Kanut's library... to find the specific books they're looking for missing. They think that perhaps that Sentulga had stolen the books and was caught on the way out, so they might've been left somewhere and not reshelved yet so the monkey scampers around in search for them... until they hear the front door open. They immediately scramble behind some furniture and listen as Zither mentions to Kanut that he saw Xương outside, which interests him.
He then goes to ask about the 'preservation of the body' and Kanut thanks him for letting her run an experiment, and he simply thanks her for 'assistance in these matters.' They heard towards the morgue, and Hǎifēng follows as quietly as they can. They catch up with the pair while they're looking at Sentulga's body, and Zither marvels at the preservation though he mentions it's affected the presentation of the neck wound a bit, but then adds it'd be suspicious if it looks too good. He says that he's going to need to move her soon.
Kanut says she doesn't really need to know any unnecessary details, and he just says he'll come back about midnight and take it somewhere, and somebody's going to have quite the surprise come morning. He laments he doesn't have anyone to talk to about these stuff like how he's going to sneak it into the monastery (presumably the Immaculate temple). He then says that he trusts Kanut on these matters, but he would like to make sure that he's not going to be halfway across the city just for Sentulga's intestines to burst out and try to strangle him or something.
Hǎifēng, upon hearing that, really wants to start a fight. They're pretty sure they can take even a couple of Dragon-Bloods, and they're probably right. But this is also a bad situation, and there's no point in risking fighting them alone when Xương's just outside. So they barely resist the urge, and decide to wait for Zither to leave. He goes to do so, though before that he whispers something in Kanut's ear and she looks confused. But Hǎifēng takes that as a sign that the good Doctor knew they were there the whole time.[3]
They escape through the vents and basically land on Xương a few moments after Doctor Zither passes by on his way out of the tunnel. With their monkey form's ability to mimic human speech, they point at Zither and screech "Get him! Get him now!" Xương trusts his crew, so he chases after him with monkey-form Hǎifēng clinging to his shoulder.
Meanwhile, Shango's just catching up after leaving the books at Xương's clinic. He sees Doctor Zither coming down the tunnel towards him, but then... then he glances up and over Zither's shoulder. He sees Xương barreling towards him at top speed from behind, with Hǎifēng clinging to Xương's shoulder pointing angrily at Doctor Zither.
To be continued...
[0]-- I don't think I mentioned this before, but just in case you didn't know this, the Silver Prince is another name for the Deathlord known as the Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water.
[1]-- Hypothetically, there are things that the characters could hypothetically do to help at some point, but 'bouncing around the Southwest to save one random guy from cancer' isn't the story this week. But for the record, it would be a relatively-simple act of sorcery (which is like saying 'a relatively-simple act of brain surgery') to cure him or magically-grant him the fortitude to fight the cancer (and future cancers) on his own. As has been pointed out, if he were going to Exalt as a Terrestrial (or a Sidereal, not that he knows that) it would have happened by now. Solar, Lunar, or Infernal Exaltation would save him, as would being chosen as an Exigent, as simply being Exalted makes you resistant to most diseases, allows you to heal faster, and increases your hypothetical lifespan to thousands of years (barring incident). (Technically Abyssal or Liminal Exaltation would also provide those benefits but those only become options after the fight to live has already failed. And Alchemicals and Getimians are born, not made. Just being thorough.)
[2]-- There reaches a point where even I get tired of changing up the various words for what these are. Because it's not just bound books (codices), but also scrolls, folios, sheaves of paper bound by string, etc. But for simplicity's sake I'm probably just going to keep saying 'books.'
[3]-- They'd be right, by the way. At a later time I'll go over how much of that conversation was staged for Hǎifēng's benefit.
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