We return to Idli and the monster he’s escorting.
Wren says they’ve been traveling for a while and Idli’s been right about everything so far. They’ve had to wade through neck-high mud and now currently they’ve enjoying more Silent Hill:

The tunnel they were in opened up onto a ledge running the length of a long corridor hewn out of what looked to be rusting iron. A dim, reddish light filled the room, apparently at levels that Idli could stand, but it made the entire corridor look as if it were made of clotting blood.

Worse, there’s some bunch of presumably ghosts that look like rotted corpses with rotted weaponry. Even worse, Idli says they can’t backtrack because That path was already closing when we took it. The best plan he can come up with is jump off the ledge and hope what’s underneath is 1) there 2) close enough they can land without splatting 3)not full of worse things.

You’re not well enough trained to use the power you have, so speed is our only ally.”

On the one hand, I enjoy that Idli is not impressed by Wren’s incompetence so far. On the other, even baby solars can pull out some powerful effects.

So anyway, Wren says okay sure and runs. He lands and safely, but unfortunately it’s just as packed with corpses that are presumably ghosts. Cliffhanger ending! Now back to fucking Dace and Yuyu. Fuck you guys.

Okay, so the brain eating chaos fairies have followed them and now they’re singing pretty, as fairies do.

They knew about this place all along, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say they led us here intentionally.”

But you know better because…………….? Really, all evidence right now points to them doing it for the lulz. Which seems more likely: you just happened to stumble on a cool ruined city that just happens to have been destroyed by the brain eating chaos fairies adding extra weight to the upcoming battle, OR while they were deliberately herding you, they deliberately herded you to a cool ruined city that was destroyed by the brain eating chaos fairies adding extra weight to the upcoming battle?

Dace noted with pride that the boy already had an arrow on the string

STOPIT

Dace says that they’re all over the entrances, so there’s no way out, but hiding will totally work. Yes, they’ll just duck into a building, wait a while for the brain eating chaos fairies to miss them, then head out. Not only is this fucking stupid, but the narrative flaw is clear in comparison to the chapter we just had – punching through is way more interesting. (Hiding can be done well, but every solution that isn’t murder has been terrible so far, because everyone’s an idiot.)

They hear hunting horns and Dace immediately goes to Plan B: let’s die with honor:

“To the pyramid. They’ll at least have to dismount to take us there!”

So why not just have Dace say that to start? If you’re not going to explain why he changes his mind, just have that be what he thinks originally. That’s also get rid of the stupid hiding idea being there at all.

As they approach the pyramid we learn that the stone chains are metal chains, so apparently that was just a wild guess before? Why would you guess that. And the stairs are really high, and there’s alters with grooves like this is for blood sacrifices. So exactly like Rathess. This is actually fitting very well with the idea this whole place is actually a fair folk freehold shaped to look like super-Rathess.

Some were horses, true, but others had serpents in their manes, or goats’ heads, or paws like a lion’s. Others were scaled or feathered, and one looked like nothing so much as a giant bat, striding relentlessly forward on its ungainly wings. Around them surged a crowd of small, scaled things, built roughly like men, but tiny, with green pelts and clever, clawed hands.

Chaos, always there to liven things up.

Inside, they find a titanic circular shaft that sank down into the bowels of the earth, perhaps a hundred yards across. It was lit from beneath with a ghastly red glow and suffused with the stench of brimstone. Heat wafted up from it, and the four monstrous chains that had marked the outside of the temple ran down its sides into the untold depths below.

Eh. If it’s not a shaft reaching into the underworld, it’s no big deal.

I feel like this gets back to the same problem as Ratcatcher swearing he’ll claw his way out of hell – hell is just not a thing in Exalted. There’s no fire and brimstone going on. The afterlife’s associations are all built around cold and still, and Demon City is built around brass and sand: unnatural, alien life.

Anyway, they keep going up.

the first elf appeared in a doorway. She strode arrogantly into the chamber surrounding the pit, looking not at the marvel before him but rather for any traces of her prey. She was clad in white, but the red glow surging up the shaft made her appear as if she were garbed in rust.

This is so mundanely D&D. It’ll keep referring to them as elves, the most boring possible term. Anyway, she’s pretty and female, so She smiled, then, and mouthed an invitation of such sensuous depravity to the boy that Dace found himself blushing.
“Come to me,” they both heard her whisper, in a voice that carried across the pit with ease. “Come to me and I will show you such pleasures that every man in the world will pay jade just to hear you tell of it.” She smiled then, and brought her knife to her lips. She ran her tongue along the blade slowly, sensuously, and then tossed it into the depths. “Imagine.”

And naturally Yuyu shoots her just above the left breast because they always, always get shot somewhere relative to the breast. Men can get arrows to the neck or between the eyes, but once a woman bats her eyes, she’s getting shot in the designated temptress zone.

Fightfightfight. Very bloody.

The strike took the faerie at the knees, shearing through both legs and sending his torso tumbling in a welter of blood and severed limbs. The elf shrieked, which Dace found extremely gratifying

The fae haven’t even successfully harmed them yet, so glorying in their unnecessarily messy and painful deaths is kinda fucked up.

Then back to Ratcatcher. He’s been up in the tree rotting. Still more interesting than Yuyu. Also bugs are swarming around him constantly. And he’s really annoyed by the fact there’s two jackdaws hanging out. He’s tried to chase them down but it’s as if birds vs corpse is obviously not in his favor. He has no actual reason for hating them, though, so this is all stupid.

Also, it’s been two days, so the birds really should have left for food and water.

Finally, they fly over, one landing on each of his knees. The one on the left preened itself, the one on the right simply stared at him.

Odd. Here to talk again?

“You do realize what you’re asking for, don’t you?”
In response, they each let out a pitiful croak, one that mixed desperation with a hopeless plea for mercy.
“Ah,” said Ratcatcher. ‘‘I understand. Raiton’s got a sense of humor, he does.” He reached out, grasping one bird in each hand.

What?

So again, his grudge makes no sense, Raiton murdering his own messenger birds makes no sense, and why’s one preening in that case?

“I‘m going to enjoy this, you know,” he told them, and then squeezed.

BUT WHY DAMMIT.

If the birds had spent this time ripping chunks out of his face every time he slept, it’d be one thing. But he’s just mad they exist in his vicinity. That’s basically the emotional maturity of my cat.

Later, some guy shows up.

if the man were the one Raiton’s message had spoken of, Ratcatcher wanted to be ready as well. Raiton’s gifts, the tales said, tended to carry with them unexpected consequences.

Raiton is some super minor god, he should not be known across the land.

The song he was singing was a dirge Ratcatcher recognized from his youth, the tale of a man left behind to guard his tribe’s treasure even after all of the rest had been slain in battle. Oath-bound to tend the hoard, he could never leave the well-hidden cache and so he lamented the fact that his people’s story would slowly die with him.

Nice bit of fluff there, and Ratcatcher even points out the obvious question.

The animals he has with him are emaciated with huge packs, because running your work animals into the ground is good practice I guess.

‘‘I was told you’d be here,” he said, his gaze moving back and forth. “I’m here to help.”
Ratcatcher’s response was to drop out of the tree, birds in hand. It was a decision he regretted instantly, as the impact with the ground caused twin daggers of pain to shoot up his legs. He stumbled, his intended threat reduced to a low howl of pain, and fell to his knees.

Ratcatcher’s life is suffering. On the other hand, he’s a constant dick.

The guy is here to be Ratcatcher’s new body. He also knows the ritual for swapping Ratcatcher out of the dissolving body – it involves roasting the birds and he’ll eat them, because eating carrion eaters will let Ratcatcher’s undead spirit home in on his body. Also for some reason all animals are just gone.

The short version is this: A long time ago, someone read in the stars that you’d come to this particular pass, and that you’d be in this particular place-all except the bits you left in the river-and that things could go one of two ways. Either you’d rot here and spend a good long while waiting for another body your soul could slip into to come along and die convenient-like in the vicinity, or someone could be trained up with the intention of being here in the right place at the right time for you to slip into.

The real question is who the hell read the stars for this? I mean even aside from the part where essence users can’t be predicted over the long term, abyssals have only existed five years! If you find out that at this date, a guy who used to be an abyssal which is a modified solar shard will be running around, you’re not going to think about how you can help him get a new body, you’re going to wonder why the fuck the solar shards are loose and how the fuck the exaltation was modified given they were designed to be indestructible.

Ratcatcher wants more of an explanation, like who decided all this, but come on, the guy could just lie. The guy says it’s the Prince of Shadow’s boss, whose name shouldn’t be said, which sounds like the author thinks the neverborn and the deathlords are the same thing. I mean, you can talk about the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears all you want, it doesn’t cause any trouble. She’s just a solar ghost with extra powers.

“You’re that willing to die?”
Hound shrugged. “Isn’t that what you teach us? To embrace death? I feel honored that my death actually helps advance the great work. Should I feel any differently?”
Ratcatcher shook his head, gently. “No, no. It’s just. .. rare to see that. You’re a brave man.”

Ratcatcher continues to have random bouts of compassion. Although Exalted has mechanics to force you to behave a certain way if your virtues are at an extreme, only valor is set up to handle both a high and low score. So you can build a compassion 1 character, then have them be as compassionate as you feel like, without ever worrying about being forced compassionate when it’s inconvenient for you.

Mechanically accurate or not, I really wish this aspect of him was actually integrated in a halfway sane way, but at least it means there’s something other than all dickery all the time, which is every other character in this series.

Anyway I guess a guy cheerily heading for his own death is slightly creepy, but the deathlords are really more the sort to drag some screaming captive over for the ritual.

Then they start discussing wolves and wolf spirits for no reason, I guess to try to remind everyone that Bonecrack is still totally a thing even though it’s not one that has anything to do with Ratcatcher.

Ritual time! Chanting begins.

The fire’s crackling grew louder, and the dancing flames leaped higher. Tints of color that had no place in any normal flame appeared, flaring bright for an instant and then vanishing. Ratcatcher watched, fascinated. Then, slowly, he reached forward with his ruined left hand and let the flames wash over the naked bones. He felt no pain, only a slight warmth, and was bemused to see that his fingers continued to bum when he pulled them from the fire. Faithful Hound’s chanting was louder now, and with it came a throbbing, insistent pain behind his eyes. For an instant he thought that Faithful Hound had tricked him, and tried to rouse himself to anger, but the feeling quickly dissipated. How could he be angry, after all, when such beautiful flames danced in his hand? He could see streaks of blue there now, and dark green and a red so bright it could have been liquid blood. The pounding in his head grew more insistent, but somehow he understood that if he closed his eyes and lay down, the pain would go away. Dimly, he heard an unpleasant crunch of bone, and felt, rather than saw, Faithful Hound forcing himself to take a bite from one of the charred jackdaw corpses. That’s odd, Ratcatcher thought, his mouth is full and yet he’s still chanting. I wonder how he does that.
Then, gently, he toppled over on his side, looking for all the world like a long-dead victim of plague.
Across the fire, Faithful Hound finished chewing the last bit of scorched bird and then lay himself down on his blanket for the last time. His mind was peaceful and his hands were folded across his chest. And so I descend were his last thoughts, before a tide of darkness rose up inside him and carried the spark of his soul away with it.

Very nice!

Later, Raiton appears with eyes a luminous gold suggesting longstanding solar association for no clear reason, though possibly more evidence for my theory solars are the true evil. It noms on what’s left of Ratcatcher’s putrid, maggot-infested corpse, then eats an eye from the new corpse and, apparently now full, just stabs the other.

“You’ll see graves from that empty eye, and nothing more unless I let you,” the bird hissed at the unmoving body. “Find the boy blind, will you? I don’t think so. I don’t think so at all.”

Why so loyal, birdy? You’re a carrion eater, surely it’s all the same to you who’s doing the killing.

Hm. I wonder if perhaps the distinction is that abyssals have an end state of peace and nothingness, while the solars are your best bet if you want perpetual war. A carrion eater wants there to be continual death, which is quite distinct from complete death.