<strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></strong><div style="text-align: right;">A New Scene Begins...</div>[/size][/b]<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The appointed hour of departure is not far off.<br/><br/>Only a handful of the temple's inhabitants remain awake at this hour-- preparing food, tending to the others, standing sentry, or a half-dozen other small things.  There's always something to be done, after all.  Other than that, though, most are enjoying a bit of rest from the day's exertions, and the guests' business is always their own.  Beyond those, it's a still and quiet path to predawn.<br/><br/>Two things disturb this peace.<br/><br/>The first event is a sudden, torrential burst of Infernal Essence.  For a brief and dreadful moment, every Celestial Exalt in the temple feels a yawning recognition from the bottom of their souls: one of the dread powers of the Yozi has been drawn, and the fabric of Creation its recoils at such things.  The second event begins about fifteen seconds afterwards.  The first sensation was a pulse, and a lingering tingle.  This, however, is constant: scraping, raking, clawing, tearing, against skin and hands and clothes and face.  The winds within the manse have suddenly grown active, whistling quietly down the hallways and inside the rooms, and they have also grown hungry.  And unlike the first sensation, the strange active frission of Essence in the air is one is felt by -everyone- within...