Iselsi Augus
A nameless young woman, beautiful, as all here were beautiful, led Iselsi Augus through the corridors of the brothel, her sandaled feet making faint scraping sounds on the wooden floor. She stopped in front of a red laquered door and opened it for him, bowing. He entered, and the door shut behind him.
The sixteen year old boy was stretched langorously on the nearby bed. He opened his eyes and looked coquettishly at the new arrival for a moment before suddenly sitting up and tumbling from between the silk sheets and onto the floor. The youth kowtowed three times before Augus and remained kneeling in front of the older man.
“You have something for me, Tearius?”
Tearius nodded and moved back to the bed, reaching beneath the mattress and pulling forth a tightly-bound scroll of rice paper. Silently, he handed it over to his master and waited.
Augus removed the chords that bound the scroll, revealing a long roll of paper divided into six parts. Each part told the story of an epic victory, the words rendered in beautiful calligraphy and accompanied by watercolor illustrations. The final panel depicted three radiant men shining with golden light, striking down a thunderbird of enormous size. Several minutes passed as Augus studied the unfolded painting, his eyes narrow. “Where did this come from?”
“One of our Roamers brought it back from the Marukan alliance. He bought it from a street painter at one of their Spring Markets. It depicts some local battle that apparently holds significance for them. I’d never heard of it, but they call it the Battle of Breaking…”
Iselsi Augus cut the boy off with a wave of his hand. “Do you know anything of the men depicted here?”
“Only what the Roamer told me. The are new leaders among the Marukan. Reports vary as to their exact number. This scroll depicts three, but the stories he heard from others suggested there may be as many as five. He could only confirm three names: Storm of Amber, Rivers Between Us, and Song of the Silver Wind.”
Augus was already rerolling the paper and moving towards the door. Tossing some jade scrip onto the boy’s bed, he opened the door and pulled his cloak about him. “Tell no one of this. These anathema have already destroyed at least one Wyld Hunt. Possibly two. It is time that the Eye became involved.”
Closing the door behind him, Augus quickly made his way to the entrance. Perfect Blossom, the proprietress, was surprised to see him again so quickly but masked it well. “Was everything to the master’s liking?”
Nodding, Augus brushed past her. “Fine, fine. I just finished quickly is all.”
Once out on the street, Augus stopped and opened the scroll again, peering down at the three figures depicted there. A gust of wind swept down the street, picking up dust and leaves in its wake. A moment later, it was empty and silent.
