C<\/span><\/p>\n ommuning with a deity is like being cured of cataracts. All the haze and uncertainty and guesswork is replaced with this abject <\/span>clarity<\/span><\/i>, a change that is so stark that it is practically painful.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIs Renshii Meida pregnant?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n YES.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cIs it Takahiro\u2019s child?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n YES.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cIs she keeping this a secret?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n YES.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Again and again the answers came, each one a lightning strike of divine truth.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIs Takahiro\u2019s mother still alive?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n NO.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cDid Anamurumon have her killed?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n YES.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Koya was straining against her contact with Desna, or whichever servitor had answered in her place.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIs Takahiro\u2019s father still alive?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n NO.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cDid Anamurumon have him killed?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n YES.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n I was practically shaking, feeling the weight of what we were learning. Answers from a deity come with a permanency and surety that makes them more real, more <\/span>absolute<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> than anything you know or have experienced. Like, you could come to question everything about your life, your place in the world, even who you are, but these truths would endure.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIs Takahiro a descendant of Anamurumon?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n YES.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cDoes Takahiro know this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n NO.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n After her spell ended, we sat in stunned silence.<\/span><\/p>\n When we first met with the Emerald Branch here in the city, we gave them a list of questions around Takahiro, Anamurumon, and Meida. Mostly, they were shots in the dark.<\/span><\/p>\n From the journals, we knew Anamurumon was obsessed with fathering an offspring that could pass as human. A half-fiend would likely be bound by the same divine laws as an oni, but a half-fiend that <\/span>appeared<\/span><\/i> human<\/span><\/i> could mate with a human and produce a child of their own. <\/span>That<\/span><\/i> would result in a <\/span>tiefling,<\/span><\/i> and being of mostly human blood, the child could, in theory, fall outside the divine restrictions. If Anamurumon stayed close to this child, exerted influence over them, he could essentially take the throne by proxy.<\/span><\/p>\n Soto Takahiro refers to Anamurumon as his \u201cgrandfather\u201d. In Minkai, this can be a term of affection just like \u201caunt\u201d and \u201cuncle\u201d back in Varisia, but\u2026could they <\/span>actually<\/span><\/i> be related? We didn\u2019t know. But, according to the Emerald Branch, <\/span>Takahiro<\/span><\/i> didn\u2019t know, <\/span>either<\/span><\/i>. \u201cTakahiro has made inquiries in the past about his parentage, but we do not know what, if anything, he discovered. This at least suggests that his grandfather also did not know, or was not forthcoming to young Takahiro with that information.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Another question for them was how faithful Takahiro and Meida were to one another. They told us Takahiro is something of a philanderer, which we were more or less expecting to hear. Meida is significantly more faithful, though there was still a big surprise to be had: \u201cOne of our contacts is a samurai whose daughter is employed as one of Meida\u2019s handmaidens. She recently asked her father about the possibility of quietly securing the services of a midwife who could be trusted for her loyalty to Minkai and willingness to be discreet.\u201d You don\u2019t \u201cquietly\u201d hire a midwife who can be trusted to be \u201cdiscreet\u201d unless you are trying to hide a pregnancy.<\/span><\/p>\n Before this morning, all we had were these suspicions, but now? Now we have some idea of just how fragile the Jade Regent\u2019s grip on power really is. How much does he <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> know about Anamurumon? Obviously, not very much, because his \u201cgrandfather\u201d has been keeping a lot of secrets from him. Including the murder of his parents. To say that is huge would be a ridiculous understatement. This is the sort of thing that makes enemies out of friends, lovers, and family. And how much does he know about his lover? Again, the answer seems to be, \u201cNot as much as he should\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n As for Meida, herself, we don\u2019t know what game she\u2019s playing. Obviously, you can\u2019t hide a pregnancy forever, but trying to hide one <\/span>at all<\/span><\/i> suggests a lack of trust between her and, well, <\/span>everyone<\/span><\/i>. Whatever her angle is, it depends on that staying a secret for as long as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n We met with the Emerald Branch again this morning and asked them straight out if this was information they could work with. You might say that their response was an emphatic \u201cYes\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Which is good, because we\u2019re going to need their help again. We\u2019re taking Ameiko to the Shrine today, and we don\u2019t know how long we\u2019ll be gone, mostly because we don\u2019t know how big a trap we\u2019ll be walking into. That means the Emerald Branch will have to keep the rebellion and the Amatatsu heir visible both in name and in spirit while we\u2019re away.<\/span><\/p>\n It also means that the situation with the kidnapped daughters, also known as the hostages, is going to have to wait. Though we are pretty sure we know where they are being held, thanks to the posthumous interrogation of a Typhoon Guard commander, it\u2019s deep in the palace, and that\u2019s not a raid we can just pull off without significant planning. If we can pull it off at all. We may have to take the throne <\/span>first<\/span><\/i>, or at least commit ourselves to that path, which is something we can\u2019t do until Ameiko receives her blessings from her ancestors. And we <\/span>still<\/span><\/i> don\u2019t know how that works.<\/span><\/p>\n I am resigned to the notion that there will probably be casualties among the hostages. While there are no executions scheduled for today that we know of\u2014the one that <\/span>was<\/span><\/i> seems to have been cancelled because the two prisoners escaped overnight\u2014that doesn\u2019t mean that there won\u2019t be any last-minute changes. And if we aren\u2019t back before tomorrow\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n Well, I don\u2019t really want to think about that.<\/span><\/p>\n W<\/span><\/p>\n e did find a trap waiting for us here, but like all things Five Storms, it was so poorly organized and so obvious that they may as well have put up signs. I am not kidding: what gave it away was that we actually heard <\/span>bickering<\/span><\/i>. But I guess there\u2019s not much else to do when you\u2019re stuck on an island waiting to see if, and I quote, \u201cone of the other families shows up. How likely is that?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n How likely, indeed?<\/span><\/p>\n From the sound of their adolescent squabbling, this was another one of Anamurumon\u2019s famous \u201cThe Five Storms is known to keep their word\u201d deals, where he promised to marry one of them or father their child or gods know what else, and like idiots they believed him. They were even fighting over him in advance. Where does he find people this gullible?<\/span><\/p>\n Not that they were \u201cpeople\u201d. They were, in fact, what Dasi called rokurokubi, which is apparently Tien for \u201cwoman with a 20-foot-long neck\u201d. It was creepy and disgusting, watching them stretch out and snake their heads around the room, like naga with a human torso. Anamurumon sure can pick them.<\/span><\/p>\n The rest of the shrine has been\u2026disturbing. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s Anamurumon\u2019s doing\u2014not directly, anyway\u2014but something here is definitely amiss. We\u2019ve been attacked by shadows and a giant construct made from gravestones. Somehow, I don\u2019t think this is how visits to the Imperial Shrine are supposed to go. When the heir comes to receive blessings from their ancestors, I don\u2019t think the island is supposed to try and kill them.<\/span><\/p>\n We were so desperate for information that we actually consulted Suishen. Yeah, I know. Don\u2019t judge us. Not only did he not know anything about the Imperial Shrine, he had never even paid attention during the few times he was brought here. Why? Because there was \u201cno fighting\u201d and that made it \u201cboring\u201d. Ironically, this non-answer was an answer in itself, as it confirmed that none of this is supposed to be happening.<\/span><\/p>\n I <\/span>hate<\/span><\/i> shadows. We were walking through a cemetery for the advisors of past emperors and other notable figures when they emerged from the graves to attack. We were completely surrounded from the start, which gave us nowhere to go. When one of them descended on Koya, I knew I had to do something, but there was a shadow on top of me as well, which limited my options. So I chose a radical and dangerous tactic: I cast a spell that suppressed magic and supernatural phenomena. At which point I promptly fell 30\u2032 to the ground. But it put me close enough to Koya to protect her from their touch, so mission accomplished.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a good thing I\u2019ve learned a thing or two about how to fall without dying.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sarenith 22 (Kasai, Morning) C ommuning with a deity is like being cured of cataracts. All the haze and uncertainty and guesswork is replaced with this abject clarity, a change that is so stark that it is practically painful. \u201cIs Renshii Meida pregnant?\u201d YES. \u201cIs it Takahiro\u2019s child?\u201d YES. \u201cIs she keeping this a secret?\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-kali"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5734,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions\/5734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sarenith 22 (Imperial Shrine, Afternoon)<\/h3>\n