The amount of silver they find stuns Jing. It will take an ox to return this chest to town! "Do you think we can find and afford an artificer to make a guardian spider statue for this bridge? I guess not."
A few weeks pass in relative peace and quiet. The work crews finish repairing the bridge, allowing trade to open up once again between Willowshore and Karahai. Slowly but surely, the townsfolk are becoming accustomed to being part of the living world once again, though displaced in time over a century.
One day, the bakeneko Yami approaches you in the Cerulean Teahouse, her tail waving happily behind her. But she is not alone: accompanying her is a strange cat that is four feet tall at the shoulder and has four gleaming eyes. Her sapphire fur is highlighted by violet spirals, and she wears a silver and spidersilk collar.
"Hello! I want to introduce you to my new friend. Do you want to know her name?" the smaller bakeneko says with a gleam in her eyes. "Tell them your name."
"My name is Amai," the purple cat says in a cultured feminine voice.
"Amai! Isn't that funny how similar her name is to my own? Yami. Amai. Yami! Amai!" Yami says.
"It is quite amusing!" Amai agrees.
The two felines share a laugh, both seeming unusually amused at the coincidence.
"At any rate, Amai here says she has a message for you," Yami says.
Amai steps forward. "Indeed. Greetings, heroes of Willowshore. I have the honor of serving Lady Ren Mei Li, the Silversilk Princess, Resplendent Daughter of Yin-Sichasi. My mistress is curious about you, and wishes to make your acquaintance. Will you meet with her for tea in seven days’ time?"
You recognize the name Ren Mei Li. She is the jorogumo you met with in the mindscape. There, she was just an echo of the spider-woman from a century ago. It seems that the real princess now has her eye on you...
"Well...um...we wouldn't want to be rude. And I don't think we're in any danger of evoking her jealousy--right Sakura?" Kamo grins at his sister.
"Our tea house has become famous." the excitement in her tone is obvious, even though the cat specifically said the princess was coming to meet them instead of the tea house. It takes a moment for her to register that "Oh, is she coming here to our tea house, or are we going to her?"
"She will come here to your tea house," Amai says. "You should be honored that she deigns to grace you with her glorious presence." The cat eyes Pagma curiously. "You are very small! What kind of tiny flying human are you?"
"A Pagma kind" Pagma answers without snark, just plain fact. She does seem honored and deeply tickled at another princess coming to their tea house. "Does the Resplendent Daughter of... Yin-Sichasi..." she said it slow to make sure she got it right "... have any preferences in tea or cake?"
"She enjoys smoky black tea, like lapsang souchong, and chestnut tea cake," Amai says. The cat turns to Kamo, sizing him up. "You have a lot of weapons on you! Which one is your favorite?" she asks.
"My favorite? Oh, I suppose it depends on the situation," Kamo is taken aback by the question. "I suppose my shortsword is handiest, and good for fighting fiends. The fighting fan has the most style, though. And I've had this staff for quite a while. We've been through a lot together."
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Sakura folds her arms in typical Sakura-style. "Relax, brother. If the Silversilk Princess is shopping for suitors, she’ll need more than your fan tricks." she says in a deadpan voice before lettingthe corner of her mouth tilt up.
To Amai, she bows, formal and as graceful as she can [b]"Willowshore accepts. The Cerulean Teahouse will host Lady Ren Mei Li in seven days. We’ll honor guest-right. In return, we ask the same. No harm to townsfolk, no webs spun in the common room, and her retinue keeps blades sheathed. I prefer my tea without panic."
She glances to Pagma and whispers behind a cupped hand "Smoky black-lapsang... and chestnut cake. Can you do a double batch and a few smaller tarts for tasting?"
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"And post-tea dumplings," Kamo adds, conspiratorially.
Amai bows and departs.
***
The next week passes without incident as you prepare for Lady Ren Mei Li's arrive. At the appointed hour, a shimmering silver mist fills the Cerulean Teahouse. From it steps a woman of extraordinary beauty, clad in pale blue and sea green silk of the finest quality. Silver sticks, ornamented with jeweled spiders, bind up her hair. She looks around the teahouse with open interest, examining its furnishings and decor for several minutes before turning to you. Her voice is gentle and her smile serene. The only aspects of her appearance that might be unsettling are the silver sheen over her near-black eyes and the movements of the spiders in her hair, which are living creatures and not, after all, made of gemstones.
“How nice to meet you. I am Ren Mei Li. I will not draw you away from your duties for long, as I understand Willowshore demands your attention. I hope you will not find my directness too rude.
“In short, I wish to offer you an alliance. I understand that the town of Sze has cast its greedy eyes upon Willowshore’s resources and wishes to cast its greedy hands upon it as well. I can prevent this. I am even willing to offer Willowshore a considerable degree of autonomy, provided its stewards are people I can trust.
“Do you suppose that some, or all, of you might serve as my stewards?”
Kamo doesn't have the social graces to keep his eyes from widening at the visitor's suggestion.
I can't imagine Sakura's going to like that.
He stress-eats several tea cakes and waits for the more charming members of his fellowship to respond.
Pagma's fretting over smoky black-lapsang and chestnut cake had her friends filled with samples to the degree they may never want another cake presented in front of their noses ever again.
Or at least the wee sprite might have thought until she saw Kamo shoveling them in.
"Lady Ren Mei Li, the Silversilk Princess, Resplendent Daughter of Yin-Sichasi" Pagma says, hovering behind a cup of liquid twilight set next to a perfect cut of chestnut moon, dusted with powdered webs. "... would you grace us with what you would consider 'a considerable degree of autonomy'" she bows on her knees, in the air as her wings bat a mile a minute.
While the Resplendent Daughter of nonsense talks about taking over her town, Sakura focuses on her breathing exercises, her knuckles turning white and her foot tapping on the ground impatiently. She opens her mouth to say something unwise, but luckily Pags beats her to it.
She breathes, foot tapping once more, then stills it.
"Princess Ren, Willowshore owes you courtesy and plain speech. Your offer is generous, but we are not kings. We’re stewards already, of a sort. To our neighbors, our kami, and the graves that bought this spring with their winter."
"If we talk alliance, I need to understand steward in your terms. What would you ask of us? Ttribute, soldiers, judges? For how long? And what do you give in return beyond staying Sze’s hand?"
Ren Mei Li seems both pleased and amused by your responses. "Of course. We can discuss the particulars in a bit, but let us delay in deference to tea and a meal. Something you've prepared smells quite delicious, indeed."
She gracefully makes her way over to where Pagma has prepared the service and takes her seat. "So, tell me more about yourselves. I would be quite interested to learn how you have managed to somehow restore Willowshore back from the ruins it was a few short months ago..."
"Well, great lady of the silken thread, it all started when our neighbors bound us, took us to the woods, and left us as sacrifices to the spirits..." Pagma tells the story of four friends (well friends and two siblings) to the princess, her small voice ringing in the delight of doing so. Including flourishes, acting out battles, describing flavors, all with little breaks to refill cups and bringing out another variation of cakes (and dumplings).
Ren Mei Li sips her tea and eats her cakes as she listens with rapt attention to Pagma's performance. As it continues, she asks knowledgeable and incisive questions about the mindscape phenomenon, your clashes with Kugaptee, and how you dealt with it all. Upon learning that a version of herself visited you in the mindscape, she is intrigued and demands exact
details of how she behaved, treating it more as an opportunity to learn juicy gossip about a competitor than anything else.
After the tale is complete, the jorogumo nods approvingly. "I had my theories about transpired here, and they seem to match what you have told me. Thank you for being truthful with me.
"Now, it is time to discuss the Five-Season Treasures. Tradition demands that new stewards complete a ritual to prove their loyalty, courage, and capacity to serve as ambassadors. Such people must be acquainted with their citizens and concerned with their welfare, don’t you agree? We all know too well what happens when those considerations are ignored.
"For you, I think a ritual honoring the seasons you’ve endured to sit here with me shall do, and no better ritual than seeking the Five-Season Treasures comes to mind. Four of these treasures symbolize the four seasons of life, to symbolize that a worthy ruler keeps their pact year round: the bright bird of spring, the fiery flowers of summer, the sweet fruits of autumn, and the spiced tea of winter. Once gathered, the gifts of the living must then be offered to the honored dead, to gain the blessing of ancestors and guardians—this is the fifth season, a season beyond mortal life. If the ancestors accept, and grant their blessing, then all you need do is swear fealty to me, and the stewardship is yours."
Kamo tries his best not to be rude as he questions the visitor: "That ritual sounds very interesting, and makes me feel better about this whole endeavor, to be honest with you."
"I do still want to know the particulars of what we will be swearing to. The people of this town were almost destroyed forever when the last mayor made a bargain without thinking it through. What does it mean to be your vassal? What would we need to do as stewards?"
"If I accept you all as stewards, I am prepared to offer considerable autonomy to Willowshore. The precise terms can be negotiated, but I expect you will find them very reasonable—far more reasonable than you would receive from any other court.
"In exchange, what I want is this: an oath of personal fealty, superseding any loyalty you may have to Lady Lang Loi or the rest of the jorogumo court. I wish for you to be my agents, and mine alone. Naturally, this will be kept discreet. Outwardly, you must play the part of loyal subjects to the jorogumo court and never let our private agreement slip. If you find that my kindred make unreasonable demands, you must ask me to intercede rather than taking matters into your own hands, but I do promise my protection if your village should need it."
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Sakura sets her cup down, breathes once, stills the tapping foot, and meets Ren Mei Li’s eyes.
"Your ritual I accept in spirit. Seeking spring’s bird, summer’s flame, autumn’s fruit, winter’s spice, then laying them before the honored dead.... that honors the land and our people. We’ll do this."
She leans in a hair. "But the oath you ask? Secret, personal fealty, being your agents... That I cannot swear. My first and only absolute oath is to Willowshore. Its living, its dead, and its kami. I won’t bind my tongue against them, nor pledge myself in shadows where my council cannot judge my steps."
A breath. She pauses, collecting herself and issues a small nod. Respectful, unflinching. "Here is what I can swear. A public mutual defense, open trade, and arbitration witnessed by our kami. We’ll come to you before crossing blades with any of your kindred, and you’ll intercede when lesser webs tighten around our throat. In return, Willowshore stands as a loyal ally and gateway to the interior, and we’ll treat your envoys as honored guests under our protection."
"Decide what you truly want of us, Princess. Stewards the people trust, or agents you must hide. We’ll give you the first with both hands."
Ren Mei Li frowns as she considers the offer. "Very well. Your offer is acceptable. Let us begin the collection of the Five-Season Treasures. To begin with, you must offer me a bright spring bird."
The lady draws a pair of silver pins from her hair and stabs them into the mat before her. She touches one of the two cloisonne balls dangling from the first pin, which depicts a white bird with a long, curling tail of many-colored feathers, then speaks again. "The bright bird of spring is a symbol of joy and renewal breaking through winter’s drear. If a steward is good, then their rule represents a revival of good fortune for the village. You will put on a performance of whatever type suits your talents—music, dance, drama—to celebrate the greatest thing you have done to benefit Willowshore. In your case, I should imagine that would be freeing your people from the mindscape, no? Whatever you choose, the show should involve multicolored costumes, vivid backdrops, special effects, and dramatic music.
“Please have your performance ready within the week. I shall return to watch it. I quite look forward to your show.”
Without further ado, and without waiting for any additional acknowledgement or indication of what the remaining four rituals entail, Ren Mei Li stands, bows, and leaves the same way she came—vanishing in a swirl of silver mist.
Pagma settles into the fluffed huff as the princess vanishes, her bright eyes pretty glazed over. It is only when one checks on her do they hear her whispering with excited glee "multicolored costumes, vivid backdrops, special effects, AND dramatic music!!!"
"Well, two of us are certainly dramatic enough," Kamo smirks at Pagma and his sister. "Maybe Jing-De and I can work on the special effects and backgrounds."
You prepare for the show over the course of the week. Soon enough, it is time for its premiere at the Seven-Colored Songbird theater in downtown Willowshore. Everyone in town is excited to attend, both to see the performance and to catch a glimpse of the town's mysterious and frightening new patron, Ren Mei Li. As before, the jorogumo princess appears in a cloud of silver mist minutes before the show begins, settling down in her appointed seat.
Kamo crouches backstage during the performance, a headband holding back beads of sweat as he listens carefully for cues. This is probably the longest he's spent concentrating on any one thing in ages.
He carefully triggers the minor magical effects designed to enhance the performance at just the right moments.
The week is spent on so many things for the little sprite, everything but sleep. Too much to do. Designing, supervising and then helping with everything, plus planning what she wants to SAY. She does actually collapse the night before, and her friends are insistent on everyone leaving her be to sleep.
The day of she is as bright as a bright pie of a Pagma has ever been, and that is bright. There are explosions of color, literal explosions of color, combined with a song about their town that made people jump up and cheer. All in all she is happy with the results.
Sakura does not perform. Instead, she helps buyild the sets and direct the work. Pressured into being on stage, she finally relents and agrees to headline a hard-driving, athletics-forward sword kata that tells the story without words. She shoulder-presses a weighted bridge prop, plants it, then hammers through suspended "web" cords with powerful cuts, each break cueing Kamo’s gusts and Pagma’s color-burst effects. In the climax she hoists a lantern standard one-handed and sprints a tight circle, Pag's red-to-gold streamers snapping behind with a comet tail before she plants, kneels, and sets the lantern centerstage. She rises, salutes the crowd, and bows toward Ren Mei Li.
Though Kamo's magical effects are slightly underwhelming, Pagma's sets and performance are both incredible, and Sakura does a fine job with her kata. The townsfolk who survived the events are awed by seeing their own experiences on stage, which somehow makes them feel both more real and more legendary. After you take your bows, the crowd erupts into cheers and applause.
Ren Mei Li claps along with them. Once the audience has dispersed, she stands and claps her hands one last time appreciatively. "It was a fine show, which wonderful effects and performances. Well done."
She withdraws a silver pin from her hair, then unthreads the cloisonne ball depicting the bird with the many-colored tail attached to the pin, offering it to Pagma. She keeps the next ball attached to the pin—a ball that shows overlapping bursts of red, gold, and green sparkles against a backdrop of deep blue enamel, presumably representing fireworks against the night sky—before she speaks again.
"The Fiery Flowers of Summer are your next assignment. Even as one celebrates the season, a competent steward does not allow their duties to go neglected. Neither do they cause undue fear among the people being protected, however. These fireworks, presented to the people as a celebration of summer’s beauty, also serve to frighten away malicious ghosts and spirits.
"To fulfill this purpose, the fireworks must be made with dried blossoms of Hei Feng’s horn. Regrettably, I have no supplies of these blossoms to give you, but I have no doubt you will be able to find more somewhere in the Moon Marsh to the north, and will have no difficulty harvesting enough to put on a fine show. Once again, I’m afraid, time is rather important. Shall we give it another week? Good; I look forward to seeing what you can do!"
With that, the jorogumo once again departs in a waft of silver mist.
"Ha! Now we're talking, Pagma," Kamo gives a sly smile at the next assignment. "Did you hear that Sakura? I think that officially lifts the 'no fireworks for Kamo' rule, don't you think?"
"But you nearly burned off all of Sakura's hair last time." Pagma said as she stared at the beautiful bird pin in her hands "She looked really weird for a month."
Hei Feng’s horn, a rare, bright orange wetlands flower. While this flower grows sporadically throughout the region’s wetlands, the largest swath with the best flowers grows in abundance in Moon Marsh, so named for the soft orange glow that these night-blooming flowers give under the radiance of moonlight.
Moon Marsh can be reached by traveling north from town for about 18 miles, through the abandoned village recultivated) fields through which the seasonal Moon Creek flows south into the Duyue River. During the spring, this creek runs dry, but it remains a more reliable path to follow than the overgrown road.
Once you arrive, you wait for night to fall to more easily search for the flowers. After about an hour, you upon a serviceable patch. The flowers aren’t the only adornments in the area, however. Bronze and glass sundials, astrolabes, and various lenses and prisms hang from cords tied to overhanging tree branches, while strands of large, flat glass beads inscribed with geometric symbols and astronomical formulae adorn lengths of cord draped around the grove.
A strange creature resides here--a naga with dark scales that sparkle with motes of light like the stars in the night sky. He regards you curiously before speaking. "Hello, there. I am Isori, scholar of the heavens and guardian of this glade. Who are you? Where are you from?"
The sprite smiles big and bright enthralled a bit a tthe sparkling scales. "Hello Isori, we're Kamo, Pagma, and Sakura, from Willowshore. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"We are simply in the forest looking for flowers," Kamo adds.
"Willowshore? The village was in ruins when last I visited its site. You have rebuilt the town?" Isori asks curiously.
Once you explain the situation, the naga is amazed. "That's quite a story! I wonder if Willowshore's return is related to the ominous portents I have observed in the heavens of late." He gestures with his tail to the night sky above. "Something dangerous is coming. I have seen creeping chains reaching for the natural world like hungry vines. Do you know anything of this?"
"Chains? I don't think so..." Kamo thinks. "We've been dealing with local rivals and some bandits lately, and doing errands for our new protector, Lady Ren Mei Li."
"Did those chains look root or knot like? Are town has been threatened time and again by a being known as Kugaptee. His symbol is a tangle of knots."
"Yes, they did!" Isori says. "Oh, my stars. I hope that you might be able to do something about this Kugaptee's corrupting influence. If harvesting these flowers might help in some way, you're more than welcome to do so, provided you respect the environment and don't take more than you need."
The small Pagma hovers around the flowers sniping with extreme care, while taking Kamo's advice on every cut.
You are able to harvest several petals that are particularly viable for use in fireworks. You bid farewell to Isori and make your way back to Willowshore, where your next task is to craft enough fireworks to put on a proper show.
"These fireworks will be silver, and they're crackle after they burst!" Kamo says excitedly to Pagma as they mix volatile ingredients.
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Firesworks... Pagma's entire life has led up to this moment. People (other than the Willowshore's kids) want her to actually make pretty EXPLOSIONS! "Oh!" she buzzes with excitement at Kamo's statement darting in to scope a tiny bit and throw it in the nearest flame (which is probably too close to the volatile ingredients, but they NEED to be able to experiment to get this perfect. "We need every other color as well, plus some new ones!!!" her little mind is already exploding in all the possibilities.
It is not an embellishment to say that the fireworks show is the best one anybody in Willowshore has ever seen, and likely better than any show they will ever see again in the future. The orange-hued explosions light up the night, their booms barely drowning out the huge rounds of cheers of applause each detonation draws from the crowd.
Once the last firework bursts, the gathered townsfolk disperse back to their homes, and Ren Mei Li once again approaches you. As before, she eagerly compliments your efforts before she again plucks a silver pin from her hair. This one is adorned with two cloisonne ornaments on strands of colored silk that carry the scent of apples.
“I congratulate you on a magnificent display, but I know you are eager to learn of your next task. The Sweet Fruits of Autumn symbolize the steward’s willingness to gather and wisely stockpile resources for the coming hardships of winter. I know, and perhaps you do as well, of a grove of particularly delicate apples that grow not far to the south, but no one has lived here for so long that I fear the grove may have become the home of something... particularly disagreeable to those of my persuasion. We are some months away from apple season, but if you begin the work of restoring this grove now, come autumn, you’ll be rewarded with sweet fruits indeed! And if this disagreeable element can be punished, all the better for it. Again, I give you a week to accomplish this task, and I wish you luck!”
Ren Mei Li then vanishes into the silver mist without further warning about what might now dwell in the apple grove.
"That was quite the show, Pagma!" Kamo rejoices after the celebration. "People are going to be talking about that for ages. We might even be allowed back into Master Li's alchemy shop!"
After the latest instructions from the patron, he says, "Well, I love a good apple, but it's no dumpling. And farming is so much work."
Pagma looks glassy eyed and punch drunk with the sheer spectacle of the event. Normally she is as talkative as a morning rooster but in this moment the booms and sprinkles are still popping in her head. "MmmHmm" she hums agreement to whatever Kamo is saying, though it is possible she has no idea what that is.
The apple grove in question lies 20 miles south of Willowshore and is a place that many townsfolk know well and have long enjoyed the fruits of. Today, though, the grove is completely overgrown.
Where once stood a beautiful clearing in which grew dozens of fine apple trees, now creeps an overgrown tangle of weeds and brambles. Here and there, apple trees still stand among the undergrowth, but wide animal trails left by something the size of an elephant do as well—trails lined with the crunched and chewed remnants of countless enormous spiders.
It isn't long before the predators lurking here make themselves known, lurching from the undergrowth to attack! They are four primeval opossums grown to enormous size, with razor-sharp teeth and claws!
Sakura has the best of intentions, starting this engagement like she's done dozens of times before. Charging ahead, she gets her foot caught in a vine, stumbles and is completely offbalance in her attacks.
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The giant beast Sakura attacked lashes out with its tail, missing her. It follows up with two powerful claw strikes. A second opossum moves up and whips her with its tail but fails to grab a hold of her.
The other two enormous animals pounce on Kamo. One misses, but the other one bites and claws him.
"Ugh. Stop That!" the sprite yells at the toothy rodent like things as she unloads bombs on the one Sakura is Trying to stab, at least that is what Pagma thinks the other woman is trying to do.
"Youch! Back off!" Kamo shouts at the possum in front of him.
for +
for
"I've never liked rats!" Sakura says as she gets battered by the opossums. She retaliates by swinging twice before attempting to parry more tail whips.
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