And now we’re back to Yuyu. When last we left him, brain-eating chaos fairies were putting perfectly ordinary brambles in his way and then he went a different way they didn’t want him to go and somehow this meant the brambles stopped.

Today, he’s still in the boring woods with boring plants and no fun wyld-related monstrosity stuff.

He’d been planning on coming down out of the woods for several days now, but ever-present fear had told him that as long as he could keep moving roughly southward, he was better off staying in the cover of the trees. Beyond them, where the last low hills surrendered to flatlands, was a broad, grassy plain that offered no cover whatsoever.

As if that matters.

For starters, , but also, hello, you’re an exalt! You can see other people before they see you and you can probably move faster than them too. Or even hunt them down yourself given you’re not merely a solar but an overpowered sue of one.

See, normally when this comes up, there’s more to it than just that woods give concealment and plains doesn’t. If the people chasing you are on horses and you’re on foot, then if they see you, they’ll be able to ride you down, while woods not only let you break line of sight but may prevent horses from being in use at all. And if you don’t even have a horse, you don’t have a binoculars or a spyglass like those seen on this site… how will you see them before the see you, and in fact they might have things like that themselves to better hunt you down.

But here, the stars can see you fine unless you’re desperate enough to hide in the underworld itself, so where you are doesn’t matter much. And on the other hand, hello, you’re a solar exalt! Your eyes work better than their eyes, your legs work better than their legs, and also you totally soloed a Wyld Hunt once already so do you even care if they see you?

the thought of distant Fair Folk archers sighting down their slender arrows at him made the skin between his shoulder blades itch

Why? You’re better at seeing and arrowing than they are, plus we both already know you left their territory. You fought off an entire swarm of them already – they were easier than the Wyld Hunt!

It was not so much that he was being pursued, Yushuv realized after a few days. It was that he felt like he was being led.

Ah, the old delusion that saying outright that this is happening out of plot fiat will somehow wrap around to being clever.

Anyway, this has been burying the lede – our opening line is actually that he’s finally going to leave the leafy embrace of the forest due to hearing the sounds of glorious battle. For some reason, hearing friendly sounds like screams and once, the instantly recognizable snap of a thick bone breaking make him want to sprint into the middle of it, but he refrains on the basis that actually he has absolutely no reason to do so or even idea of what’s going on. That said, if he could figure out what’s happening, maybe he’d have an excuse to jump into this fight he still have no stake in, so he climbs a tree.

an unarmed old woman in a plain gray robe was beset by bandits.

Is that the only thing in the GM’s random encounter table?

There were five of them, and they were circling her at a wary distance. One held his left wrist as if it were in great pain, and the others held wicked-looking knives. Even as he watched, a heavyset fellow with his greasy hair tied back, launched himself at his victim. His blade, poised on high for a killing blow, caught the afternoon sunlight.
The old woman turned and, without a single wasted motion, stepped inside the bandit’s downward stroke. The knife cut the air behind her, and even as it did so she ducked and struck a blow to the man’s ample belly. The air went out of him in a whoosh, but before he had time to double over she threw another punch. This one took him in the groin, and he made a sound that spanned the distance between a scream and a whistle in no time at all. The knife dropped from his nerveless fingers, and he folded into himself like a piece of poorly made origami. Before he hit the ground, she had already turned to face her next opponent.
Yushuv had seen enough. He leapt from the tree and hit the ground running

Because clearly, this wasn’t actually banditry but people hunting down some sort of creature wearing the skin of an old woman, right?

Really, why would you even think they were bandits? An old woman in a plain robe is someone it isn’t even worth the breathe to threaten, let alone persisting once she proves she’s got mechanically impossible fighting skills. The very fact this is taking place says they must have some other motivation, and she’s certainly displaying inhuman abilities here, so who knows what she might have done to people earlier on?

So, what is she?

Brain-eating chaos fairies have been thick on the ground, and this sort of impossible perfection does seem their wheelhouse. Maybe the reason the lesser fae have backed off is because Yushuv is running toward a noble. Apparently wizened old woman who punishes you horribly for disrespect is as valid an archetype as any.

God-blooded of some unpleasant god. Given Exalted is designed to make it so the lesser can tear down the greater, her ability to juggle five attackers at once is really concerning and probably beyond the ability of a god-blood, but one of the really powerful, scary ones might be able to manage it. And we know Raiton has its own superiors…I’m not too up on the gods of Creation, but I feel like if Five Days Shadow had kids, they’d be pretty terrifying martial artists. Probably have four arms, though.

Exalt. Celestial tier, since a dragonblooded would likely need to flare essence to handle getting mobbed like this, and elder, because ditto.

But no, Yushuv sees five humans getting taken apart by a lone woman and thinks yeah, I should join my fellow uber.

For a moment he’d considered using the bow to pick off the highwaymen from his perch, but dismissed it as unworthy. Besides, he admitted to himself as he ran, getting his hands dirty again might be fun.

Because, thus far, Unforgiven Blossom hasn’t been actually killing anybody. More for Yushuv!

He was dressed like a farmer’s idea of a robber, a scarf tied around his head and dirty rags knotted around his fists.

Or, put another way – he was dressed a great deal like a farmer. Perhaps one trying to hunt down some sort of fae witch monster who ate the kids.

I believe it was way back in the first book that I mentioned there sure seem to be a lot of robbers who don’t know what they’re doing, aren’t outfitted properly, and are attacking people who look like they’ve only got the clothes on their backs and maybe a crust of bread. Even grudgingly going along with the book’s claim I should seriously believe these are robbers and not a group of people tracking down a monster, why are they robbers? The bit last chapter where someone takes her horse but leaves her alone had a sense of plausibility to it – a thief, even one who steals supplies you need to survive, doesn’t necessarily wish you any harm.

Really, they’re here so Yushuv has fresh meat.

he looked down to see the haft of Yushuv’s knife sticking out of his belly.
“You should be more careful of your targets,” Yushuv said, and then pulled the blade free. The man collapsed, clutching his leaking gut

This wasn’t really necessary as she seemed capable of handling this without murder, and indeed Yushuv turns to see that there’s now only one guy standing. Gotta act fast!

and he held his knife out in front of himself like a talisman against evil spirits.
“Don’t come any closer,” he said, his gaze flicking back and forth between the two nervously. “If you take another step, you’ll be sorry.”
“If you say so,” replied Yushuv, and threw the knife he’d taken from his opponent. It flew straight and true, catching the startled robber in the eye.

Wow, so cool! You really showed that mortal.

Staggering backwards a step, he said, “Not fair,” weakly, and clutched at the knife’s handle futilely. The blood made the grip slick, and his fingers slid off even as he collapsed. His one good eye stared blankly up at the sky; the other was a ruin of dark blood.

No, seriously, the book is so proud of him and the gorey deaths he’s handed out to these inferior scum. That’ll teach them to look directly at one of the overmen. Yushuv goes on to turn to Unforgiven Blossom and admit he hasn’t the faintest idea what was going on there.

Who were these people? Why were they so desperate they tried to rob an old woman, and so incredibly desperate they kept going once they found themselves outmatched? The man Yushuv gutted was still fighting after she’d already wrecked one hand. This is all playing out just like the mob that attacks Wren on the way to Nexus, and it really suggests that just outside the view of our main characters and their special destinies and shiny toys, the world is going to hell.

But who cares about what when Unforgiven Blossom has just pulled out a shiny toy!

The gleam of sunlight on the blade made the dead grass seem vibrant and alive, made the rough clothes of the bandits seem to be lined in gold. The blade itself was marked with subtle animal patterns, and Yushuv could see that the hilt was carved into the shape of a roaring lion’s head.

Wisely, the first thing the woman says is, “This is yours,” and that’s presumably why Yushuv doesn’t just gut her as well. Instead, he agrees that yep, his. His shiny.

Now, you’ll recall I said that she wasn’t killing. So, the other three are currently on the ground groaning and twitching and she begins knocking them fully unconscious. Yushuv suggests, you know, “doing something” about them.

Unforgiven Blossom blithely agrees they should do something. What should they do?

And he completely freezes up.

Yushuv chewed on his lower lip. “They don’t seem to be any danger now. Do you think it’s necessary to kill them?”

He wants to. But he has to pretend he has morals. He so desperately wants her to say that yes, of course neither of them want to but it’s the only option, yes, murder them.

I wonder if he did the usual sociopath stuff back when he was a kid, abused the occasional animal and stuff, but took it really hard when the other kids were horrified by it. When no one’s there to watch him, he does all sorts of horrible things, but now that there’s a witness he’s tripping over himself.

But she just keeps lobbing the question back at him, so Yushuv gives up. He switches the conversation over to who she is and what’s going on, and she explains that she’s been showing off the dagger – explaining why the men knew to attack her in particular, but not why they were so desperate or why she was so overpowered – and the reason, in fact, was to lure him out. But it’s not like some weird stalker thing where he should kill her, it’s just some fate thing where she knew he’d be there, okay? And Yushuv apparently isn’t up for arguing.

He’s also still not willing to admit he wants to murder these guys, but is willing to discuss it by proxy:

“We should be getting away from here. All that blood’s going to bring predators.”

But Unforgiven Blossom is still having none of it.

You have been marked by the wolf and the carrion bird; it is your time. Any beasts who feast on the dead here should bow down to you.”

Which is portentous as fuck and all, and I don’t want to discount how much I appreciate that sort of thing, but…really? One’s an ally and the other’s trying to eat him, and a huge pack of smart wolfy things tried to kill him last book. Also, while Raiton evidently is a god connected to carrion birds generally, since it could order some to go to Ratcatcher, the main wolf thing doesn’t seem to have any direct connection with mundane nature – even got described as something that may have started off a fae hound.

Really, the better argument here is he’s a fucking solar who took on a huge pack of smart wolfy things already. Maybe something like that he marked the wolf, or tricked it, and he’s served by the carrion bird? And it’s not just that this better fits with the observed reality of the situation. It’s that you being the master of your own destiny is a big point in Exalted and this should be a great moment for it – it’s not that Yuyu happened to get the attention of two gods and that’s what makes him special. If the beasts of the land are bowing to him, it’s because he’s one of the true princes of the earth.

But no, Yushuv is just so impressed at how that thing she just said completely reflects the storyline and wow however does she know. Only we know how she knows. She’s getting set up as the mysterious figure the main character runs into, only we’ve known her from the first book. Even her motivation isn’t some opaque mystery. We don’t know her motivation, sure, but we do know that’s because she doesn’t have any. She’s outright said she’s just doing stuff because plot says so.

Speaking of, she goes on to explain that look kiddo, auguries say so therefore she’s doing it even though she doesn’t want to be doing it and she’s even more worried about what he’ll do with it and how he should be glad he doesn’t know because knowing means doing this stuff etc. There continues to not actually be any reason she has to do this stuff, of course.

Yushuv doesn’t get that he’s in a badly written story where people do stuff because the author needs to move the plot along and demands she explain why she’s doing this if she doesn’t want to.

“Explaining this would take longer than we have, unless you wish me to render my assailants unconscious at regular intervals throughout our conversation.”

It’s nice to see acknowledgement that unconsciousness doesn’t last indefinitely, even if it is obviously an excuse to pad this out further. Even more sadly, Yushuv doesn’t jump on the fact she’s finally expressed a slight opinion and say that while he is deeply shocked and horrified by what she’s asking, well, if she insists he murder them all and there’s no other way, he guesses he could bring himself to do it.

She insists he take the fucking dagger and get on with resolving the mighty +1 sword plot. Yushuv refuses unless she gives her name because he’s feeling petty today, or possibly because he’s hoping to start a fight that’ll justify murdering her and then without anyone to judge him he can kill the rest too. She points out this is stupid bullshit because she’s not anyone he knows, now take the fucking dagger.

Yushuv folded his arms across his chest. “Nevertheless, I insist.”

No one out-petties Yushuv. No one.

Unforgiven Blossom says she’s Unforgiven Blossom. It means nothing to Yushuv, as she told him it would. Having gotten information he had no reason to think would matter, he’s now willing to take the dagger he wanted back in the first place. He’s so pleased, he magnanimously holds out a hand to her – it’s going to rain, they should hang out together somewhere with shelter! As buddies!

She brings up the bandits again – so, has he decided what he’s going to do about them? Wasn’t he concerned about wild animals…?

They’ve got a better chance than they might have had with just you,” he said.

I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but it is indeed what he says in response. My best guess is that he’s just realized they’ll probably die if he leaves them and is jumping at the chance. Yushuv is highly in favor of leaving the doomed to die more unpleasant deaths, after all.