====== Chapter 09: Transition Beyond Nellens ======

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The group brought their cousin [[exalted:dragonbloods:nellens_zamat_belak|Belak]] in from Galba and installed him, temporarily, as the new Nellens ambassador until the family made a further decision about it. We contacted the family via elemental messenger to update them on the situation in the satrap and requested new/updated orders.

The group spent the next few months helping [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|the Princess]], now queen, solidify her power base by smacking down listless nobility.  After everyone finally agreed that things were stable enough, the group summoned [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]]. And then a long discussion was had.

It was interesting to [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]] that the Empress, despite knowing about the family's rebellion here in the satrap and naming Isha's group anathema, had chosen not to simply nuke the satrap using the realm defenses. Why was a mystery, but still, interesting. Isha figured it was because the empress could only activate them so often and had to be ready for a retaliation from Mask of Winters or whatnot. The lone rebelling satrap was not nearly as important.

The group also explained to her in detail what happened the the former king, what powers he'd been "given" and how he'd used them. She said she'd have to look into that further, but seemed very interested

Additionally, the empress had been naming any who opposed her, such as Isha's group, anathema, and sicking the wild hunt on them to take care of them. The true definition of Anathema no longer existed. Isha knew that at some point, they would have to fight Deled and his cronies.

Isha, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly disturbed by continuing to deal and being forced to deal with all these other anathema. [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]] wouldn't admit it, but she definitely was one, in the traditional sense. So was the guy in the black ship in the harbor of Galba. And [[exalted:infernals:nellens_song|Song]] too had turned into an Anathema before her eyes. The chosen of the dragons were so numerous; how was it that all they'd seen recently were Anathema?

[[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]] then had a rather philosophical discussion with them about a vision she'd had and where Isha and her cousins were to go from here. 

Her vision was basically that a motley group of people would come together and eat away at the rot plaguing creation, and would eventually find a champion who would emerge to save the people. She told the group that she believed we were the ones who would find the champion, and that the champion was not any of us.

It was weird, and a lot to digest, and only served to solidify in Isha's mind that [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]] was definitely an Anathema. She wondered if she should really be doing as this woman said. But thing again, [[exalted:dragonbloods:mnemon_opheria|Opheria]] trusted her. And it seemed like [[exalted:dragonbloods:mnemon_opheria|Opheria]]'s goals were in-line with her own. Isha supposed it was okay for now, but her trust of [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]] was not great.

Eventually the group agreed to meet with [[exalted:dragonbloods:mnemon_opheria|Opheria]]'s cousin, [[exalted:mortals:Mnemon Berrel]] in Nexus to find out how they could become more involved in the rebellion movement. Only problem was, Nexus was forever away, the meeting was soon, and he wouldn't know they were coming to meet with him.

After fretting about the timeframe a lot, [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]] said she could get us to Nexus. And so all members drank a thing she offered us, and some lion-like things appeared in Isha's peripheral vision before she slipped into sleep. And then, they were there. In an Inn in Nexus. [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]] told us that he had a meeting with Nexus guild members this evening in this Inn and that he wouldn't know we were coming. And good luck. And she couldn't transport us like this again because she got in trouble, goodbye! And she was gone, as usual.

The group set themselves up in some rooms and prepared for the meeting. Isha left all her armor and weapons in her room and headed to the common room. The goal was to be non-threatening and to encourage discourse, not fighting.

She spoke to the Innkeeper who pointed her to a table. She ordered a beer and sat there waiting with Grant and Rath. Az left to get his nails done.

The guild members arrived first and Isha put them at ease until [[exalted:mortals:Mnemon Berrel|Berrel]] arrived. When [[exalted:mortals:Mnemon Berrel|Berrel]] arrived, he was slightly alarmed. After a short side discussion away from the guild members, Isha and her group went and sat at a different table to wait for [[exalted:mortals:Mnemon Berrel|Berrel]] while he dealt with the guild members. 

When he returned, they discussed for a long, long time the things that had transpired in Achmenis, answering any questions he had, so he could verify who Isha and her cousins were who they said they were. Once they finished he seemed somewhat excited. Apparently, word of what had occurred in Achmenis had spread among the dynasts under the thumb of the empress and were fueling the rebellion movement.

They discussed with him [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]]'s nature (he said she was in fact an Anathema, called a Sidereal), and that there were ways to confer power to people who had none, at least one way via a book called the Broken-Winged Crane. He asked if they'd seen anything like that when they'd gone through the king's things but they hadn't really seen anything. [[exalted:mortals:Mnemon Berrel|Berrel]] and Rath talked for a few more minutes, apparently [[exalted:mortals:Mnemon Berrel|Berrel]] was quite well-read in mystical things, and of course Rath was very interested in that sort of thing.

Once that topic finally was put to bed, they began discussing philosophically the point to the rebellion and the goals of the rebellion. [[exalted:mortals:Mnemon Berrel|Berrel]] mentioned that they wanted to return the status quo, but Isha wasn't sure that was exactly what she wanted. With the status quo, her house was struggling due to their very few exalts and recent falling out of favor after being on the losing side of the last civil war. [[exalted:mortals:Mnemon Berrel|Berrel]] said that no one really knew what things would be like afterwards anyway, and that one person's vision could be completely different from another's. In the end, as long as everyone was freed from tyranny, wouldn't that be good enough for now?

He told us that our heritage, connection to the empress, if this was indeed her, her mind controlled or not, would work against us while we worked against her. That she could reach through her bloodline magically and control us, possibly take us over, and that to join we had to free ourselves, break our blood connections to our parents, so that she would no longer be able to work through us.

Everyone agreed, and the ritual was performed. 

Then he told them that they needed to, in order to lay low for a bit, go find replacement manses from the ones powering our stones. The empress was systemically taking over all the manses controlled by the houses and eventually we would no longer be able to use hearthstones powered by them. That, in fact, the empress would possibly wait until the most inopportune time to deactivate them in order to gain an advantage. So Isha and her cousins had to go find transfer the attunement of their hearthstones to new manses, and that he could provide some locations from a list that he had that he'd been working through as dynasts in need joined the movement.

He marked up a map, with instructions, taught Rath the ritual that needed to be performed to transfer the attunement, and with that we left and began to plan our journey to the first manse, upriver inland to the east a good ways.