Dancing Fox In XII: Dance If You Want To

[Recaiden]

[Cleo's room, the one that reverts to the inn in general at 11 AM]

Cleo returns to being properly awake with a sigh, reality(?) coming back to her.

That could have gone better. The Nobles were more traditional and less scheming than she had expected.
At least it went better than poor Frederick's dreams. The boy must be crushed by stress and doubt.

In a few minutes she's up and about and going down the hall, singing a heavily-reused song about how wonderful it is be be the morning. And not covering any of the floor in flowers.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist is at his counter, having gotten up at opening time as is proper.
"Looks like your good mood has kept up." says Mist with a smirk.

[Fenric]

In the meantime, Frederick has found his way to the main room and is reading a dusty, old-looking book while letting a cup of coffee go cold. He looks up at the singing person, not looking particularly rested or cheerful.

Hey, Cleo.

[Recaiden]

Cleo flips a room key to Mist. As luck would have it, it's for the room she let.
"And why wouldn't it?"

"Here, get me a glass of melon juice, and a pie for our sleepy friend here."
She slides some paper bills - coins are heavy Mist, and often made of awful things - over and, looking in Frederick's direction, gives a wink.

"Heya Frederick. Sorry about you getting sent away to the material world so suddenly. But she said 'yes', and not even to spite you."

[Deathkeeper]

Mist dutifully fetches the order.
"Material world? Where else were you?" he asks.

[Fenric]

Frederick smirks and chuckles

Eh, it's ok - I kinda deserved it... sorry about being at bit gauche there.

And congrats.

A sleepy grin at Mist

Shadows, finishing up Cleo's little quest.

[Recaiden]

"Yep, the shadow world."

Cleo happily takes her drink and gulps it down.

"And speaking of the quest-"

-she draws the sword that they recovered, the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, and lays it carefully in front of Frederick.

"-if you want to look at it further for your report. have you made any plans for reclaiming your throne? I expect you'll need it if you do."

[Deathkeeper]

Mist looks between Cleo and Frederick, and the sword.
"You have a throne? Or, supposed to?"

[Fenric]

Frederick chuckles and reverently picks up the ancient sword

Well, strictly speaking, this belonged to my great-great-great grandfather: Emperor Yoshiro Yarafuji, usually considered the last Emperor of the Sun...

So, great-great grandma Eniv was the youngest daughter of a hostage-bride from the barbarian lands of Telhorme named Brinja Haakonsdottir, daughter of king Haakon Bloodaxe. Eniv had gone essentially incognito to the Imperial Academy of Magic, where she met my great-great grandfather Fendran. They got along... very well.

Anyway, as these stories tend to go, there was a coup and a revolution. The usurper started off with the very practical expedient of killing the royal family to the third degree - so we're talking quite a few people. He missed two: second-prince Ito and great-great grandma Eniv, because they were both at the academy. Grandma found out about the coup and fled with Fendran back home to Midvale City in Cheritanne and then on to WinterHearth where they claimed sanctuary in the main Temple of Inari, while Ito ended up being the leader of the counter-revolutionaries.

The civil war didn't go well, and in the end there was an explosion that took out the Imperial Academy and shattered the continent it was on into a fair number of bits and pieces. But the usurper also ended up killed and the guy who became the new "emperor" was really only fictionally related at all. But the empire hardly existed anymore: everybody had claimed independence and it is only the tiniest shell of what it used to be.

But... I am directly in line, oldest to oldest, descended from the only survivor of the original royal family. That's why the guard ghost thing let me pick this up. Technically I have quite a strong claim, though I highly doubt the amazingly racist humans who make up the "empire" as it stands today would honor it even if I felt so inclined.

[Recaiden]

Cleo nods excitedly, and sits down to listen to Frederick's history lesson.

"And you aren't so inclined. But if it's just a tiny shell, it can't be too impossible to take it back."

Which would most likely just start another cycle of civil wars, at best.

"You could pretend to be human?"

Cleo teases, clearly Frederick doesn't want to take over an empire. Much less in disguise.

[Fenric]

Freddie laughs

Yeah, right.

then he comicaly brandishes the sword

Bow before Frederick the Conqueror, rightful heir to the Throne of the Rising Sun!

Behold! I am Frederick no Yarafuji, son of Krystal, daughter of Fenric, son of Ferdar, son of Fendran, son of Eniv, daughter of Yoshiro no Yarafuji, last Emperor of the Sun!

this has the unintended side-effect of causing radiant flames to leap into life and run along the blade. Frederick's ears fold down.

Oooh... I think I woke it up...

Go back to sleep, magic sword. I would have to find the shield, mirror, and wishing gem anyway: you aren't enough.

[Recaiden]

Cleo has to laugh too as he takes that ridiculous pose. Could there be anything less Frederickful?

"All hail the conquering hero!"

Then she glowers at the burning blade.

"Hey, I'm given charge of you, Tsurugi. He doesn't mean to wield you."
"Hmm? There's a shield too in your empire? We only had the three. Sword, mirror, jewel."
"I mean, we found one of them. Why not three more? Think what a historical find that would be."

[Fenric]

Frederick relaxes as the light dims down and the flames go away, and he sets the sword down.

Magic items... sheesh. Especially the "not intelligent, but not unresponsive either" sort.

Then he nods

Yep: our Empire had four. It's kinda odd, too... I dreamed about the shield last night. Since it's at least somewhat specific to our world, there's precious little information on it here.
For the others... the story goes that the high priest of Amaterasu stole the mirror but the legends around it are pretty slim pickings. Our legends are pretty clear about the gem, though: the Queen of the Kitsune had given it, and she took it back again when the family line was broken. Other traditions are much more vague... everyone was focused on the sword.

[Recaiden]

Cleo reaches out to pat the sword.
"What did she want a shield for?"

"Ours are just as particular that the Magatama was taken back to the imperial palace. The only one the humans are sure they got back."
Cleo tilts her head curiously.
"Although with the line gone, perhaps it's vanished itself away."

"As for the mirror, we're even more sure. Eh-hehe, my family definitely destroyed it during the Break. A priest did steal back the ashes and scrap, so maybe there's something left of it even in our world. There was some time when it was brought across the ocean by refugees, but we'd like to have that occur beforehand, to make the chronology nice and neat."

[Fenric]

Frederick nods thoughtfully

Legends of things being destroyed or taken away... that hints that our worlds were on the edges of the influence clouds for those items rather than on the main path of influence. That makes it much more difficult.

But perhaps we should still start with the gem: if your humans recovered it but then were themselves lost, the end result might be the same as our story. And perhaps your fiancée is the answer: because to talk to the Queen, we must travel to the Kitsune world.

[Recaiden]

Cleo nods quickly.

"Start with the gem...I don't see why not, except, what does your world say about the Queen of kitsune? That's a scary person to bring up, we'd say."
"Should be exciting."

She goes to run a hand along the blade of the sword.
"What do you think, huh? Do you remember three other regalia?"

"Of course, it might be that its ending up in the kitsune world is an edge path, and truly it was someone else who stole it away."

[Fenric]

Frederick nods

Oh yeah, not the safest thing to do at all.

He nods

And yeah, our chances of getting tricked and ending up with a fake are a bit annoyingly high.

The mirror would show the location of the others, but I have no idea at all where it could be. You say yours was destroyed... and ours very well could have been: the cataclysm wasn't kind to glass.

Our shield might very well just be a random outlier, in which case we'll never find it away from home.

He looks at the sword

But I am fairly sure that's the real sword... likely even the archetype...

I wonder...

He looks over to Mist.

Is there a decent scrying-capable mirror in the place, Mist?

[Deathkeeper]

Mist considers this.
"Well, the ones in the bathrooms are pretty big. Or you could fill the sink or bathtub with water? Don't think there are any bigger than those." he says, not really sure how to answer.

[Fenric]

Frederick looks thoughtful

Water! Now there's a thought: let's go give old grass-cutter here a bath.

[Recaiden]

"And the mirror, of course, will be the hardest one to find."
Cleo nods, a little guilty.
"We had to break it in order to put out the sun."

"Maybe she doesn't want it anymore either."

Cleo's eyes light up when they suggest water.

"Yeah, we still haven't properly cleaned it off after lying in that shrine forever."
Upstairs to find a water basin!

[Fenric]

[Bathroom]

And so... Frederick starts draw a tub full of water... it takes a while.

Probably better off not being too hot, but icy cold likely isn't the best either.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist brings the two at the bar a pair of martinis, stirred. Not much else with something so vague requested.

[Recaiden]

[Bathroom]

"Lukewarm is what you want."

Cleo sets a finger in the water to test and shakes her head. "A little colder."

[Fenric]

[Bathroom]

After a few rounds of temperature adjustments and a minor debate about the best depth for the water, the tub is at a point that the pair agrees on.

I think you should put it in: Inari did name you the caretaker.

Then he starts preparing his spell

So, normally this is a bit of an odd request and a diviner would grumble: you're supposed to want to know the future! Or at least, the present... but I'm not going to even bother with that. One of the bigger things I learned from Mom is that divination is better pursued in roundabout fashion.

So let's have a look at the last time all the items this sword is familiar with were all together in one place. As it turns out, that historical spell that when cast by a specialist is nearly always successful.

a grin

I honestly thought I'd have ended up bored and gone home by now: who knew that majoring in Arcane History would have ended up quite so useful in a place like the Nexus.

[Recaiden]

[Divination Bathroom]

Cleo gently sets the sword into the water. Hopefully it doesn't burst into flames at that too.

"But that's for people who want direction of action. We know what we're doing, so you look at the past!"

A laugh.

"Who would have thought that studying magic's history in one of the most magical worlds there are could be interesting?"

[Fenric]

[Divine Bathtub?]

No, no flames. Frederick laughs

There's a lot that has been lost between the Dawn Wars and the Civil War. And many of the people don't have good records from their homeworlds - after all, in many ways we're a planet of refugees.

He takes a small vial out of a pouch on his belt and drops a few drips onto the surface of the tub. The water immediately goes smooth and flat like a pane of glass, and the sword glows softly.

So, now let's see that last time all of the items in the Imerpial Regalia were together in one place!

The spell flickers across the water and the reflections change to an image: indistinct at first but swiftly clearing. An image of the sword, a jade wishing-jewel, and a mirror all carefully arranged on heavily-carved wooden shelves in a small, dimly-lit shrine. Frederick sighs

Yeah, yeah. Ok, fine: the shield isn't one of the real ones. But there they are, presumably in the private shrine of the imperial palace just after the crowning of the last emperor.

[Recaiden]

[Divine Bathtub!]

Cleo chuckles, leaning over the

"You'll find a lot of that here. Not so many refugees, but a lot of different histories here. Heh, we have trouble enough getting the nexus's history straight."

"But then...can you see where it was after the cataclysm?"

[Fenric]

[Divine Bathtub]

Frederick lets the scene play forward. The doors open and three priestly looking men come: one takes the sword, one takes the gem, one takes the mirror. He pauses the scene once more.

Presumably the heads of Atsuta, Three Palaces, and Ise. I can't follow all three... I still think the Magatama is likely closer in Probability than the Kagami is. Shall we follow the high priest of the Three Palaces?

[Recaiden]

[Divine Bathtub]

Cleo shakes her head.

"The mirror. We have the most information about the Magatama already; let's see something else."

How far do they each go, she wonders.

[Fenric]

[Divine Bathtub]

Frederick shrugs

Ise, then.

The scene moves forward quickly, showing a fairly boring and heavily guarded trip through the agricultural heartlands of the empire.

Not sure what world this is, but it sure isn't Erda.

The mirror ends up back at the shrine, and spends years in the treasury there until the scene shakes violently.

Earthquake!

and a strange, stony looking hand and arm reaches up through the floor, grabs the mirror, and drags it down into an elemental rift! The sword's link to the mirror is defeated as the item in question leaves the material plane. Burned and broken shards of other treasures litter the ruined room, and it would be quite reasonable for someone to assume that the mirror itself had been destroyed in the violent quake.