Return of the Scarlet Empress III - The Lookshy War

[Maugan Ra]

As they walk through the entrance to the Kharal family Manse, Zhou lets out a brief... not quite sigh, but a sound filled with contentment and nostalgic familiarity all the same.

"It's good to be home." He says, half to himself.

"I hope you all enjoyed the public welcome," she notes. "But the celebrations are not over quite yet."

She claps her hands, and a group of servants almost instantly appears.

"There will be a banquet this evening to welcome you to Gens Karal... either permanently or for a short time." her gaze lingers over Ireva and Isa both at those words. "Nephew, your room is as you left it. Ireva, a porter will show you to your room - you will find appropriate garments there waiting for you."

"Of course." Zhou nods. "Ah... is my father around? We have not spoken in some time."

[Ascension]

Lunacy:

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Braga thought himself braced for almost anything the Lookshyan Man of Shadows might say or do. Insults toward his person or family, threats on his or Versino's life, all manner of lies and maneuverings... he wouldn't like hearing them, and he might not know just what to say in response, but he wouldn't be surprised by them. Even the ultimate accusation, the word Anathema, wasn't genuinely unexpected, when he heard it... he'd just hoped it would be longer in coming.

In no way, however, could he have anticipated this. As the man claws bloody lines across his own face, Braga rises from his seat, stumbles backward, a warding hand extended toward Versi, warning her to back away. It's the change in the man's demeanor that's even more frightening to Braga than the shifting of his body; it's his voice and bearing that almost send Braga fleeing from the room.

He had thought the man a serpent, or a fox... a man with a puzzle-box mind driven by schemes and plots. There ought to be no room in such a mind, in such a man, for this howling ogre spirit, this lunatic glee. The moon is known to change its face, but this shift is so sudden and so complete... like a harvest moon darkened to total eclipse in a single instant. Such a dramatic transformation, to Braga's thinking, should not be.

"H-how?" he asks, when his voice finally comes back to him, and then, realizing how insufficient that question is to address this revelation, continues, "What is your aim?"