<br/>In this, the volatile Second Age of Creation, forces innumerable are at work.  The high-handed and overbearing tactics of the Realm, the subtle machinations of the Sidereal Exalted, the economic power of the Guild, and the Oblivion-seeking servants of the Neverborn are just a few.<br/><br/>To top it all off, the recent return of the Solar and Lunar Exalted has caused quite a stir amongst the chosen of Creation’s Gods – and the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress, the force holding together the Realm, have made this a time of change.  A time of heroes.  A time of villains.<br/><br/>A time for the birth of legends, great and small.<br/><em><strong><br/>Creation, The South, The Coast, Near the Cities of Paragon and The Lap</strong></em><br/><br/>Our story today begins with a knock on the door of one Mikiro Asaniya, Sidereal Exalted of Serenity.  Lady Miki, as her employees know her, runs a small resort in the South of Creation, set aside for adventurers and explorers of the region to come and relax from their endless questing.<br/><br/>In reality, the resort – one of Creation’s many manses – is a front, a front for the group Miki serves – the Gold Faction of the Five-Score Fellowship.  Part of the apparatus of the Cult of the Illuminated, the resort’s guests are fellow Gold Faction Sidereals (on their pre-approved vacations) and for the returning Solar Exalted (What?  Heroes need time off, too!).<br/><br/>The knock at the door requested the Vizier’s attention.  “Lady Miki?”  It was one of her female employees.  “The watchman at the front door reports that an armored intruder has collapsed there.  We are gathering some of the staff to investigate, but we thought we should inform you of what is transpiring in case you wished to invest your personal attention into this…”<br/><br/>What no one knows yet – though Lady Miki is certainly cunning enough to realize it when she arrives and sees the intruder – is that this particular individual is another Exalt.  Not of the Celestial levels, like Miki or any of the Solars her resort hosts, but a Terrestrial.<br/><br/>Mana Amilar, Ranger of the Seventh Legion of Lookshy.