Editing Pagoda of Infinite Strategy (section)

==The Brass Lady's Home==
The model of the Marukan hills that rests in the topmost story of the Pagoda of Infinite Strategy is perfect in every detail, including its miniature copy of the Pagoda itself, standing two inches high.  This tiny replica is the doorway to the spiritual sanctum of Sweet Voice of Brass and Glory; those who wish to enter the sanctum, whether by invitation or force, must touch  one of the miniature's gabled eaves, whereupon they find themselves shrinking down into the model until they stand at the Pagoda's gatehouse; the Pagoda of Infinite Strategy and Sweet Brass' sanctum are the same building.

As expected, the sanctum's interior is identical to the original Pagoda in almost every way.  The first four floors house the same audience hall and training rooms and are decorated with the same banners, maps, weapons and armor.  The ninth floor, with its racks of detailed maps of Creation and its council table, is likewise the same, and its windows scry out onto the fields of Creation, not those of a model.  

It's only the middle floors that differ from the manse Rivers Between Us made.  The barracks of the Qinglong Alliance and Zhuque Brotherhood, as well as the suite reserved for Cathak Nekuto, stand empty and waiting for visitors or an expected staff.  The eighth story, where Storm of Amber's suite should be, is an apartment for Sweet Brass.  

A visitor leaves the sanctum the same way he entered it: by ascending to the top floor of the Pagoda and touching the minature building contained there.  The leaving comes with the same sense of shrinking until the visitor is again standing at the gatehouse.  The implications should be obvious: once a person enters Sweet Brass' sanctum, he never leaves.  He only wraps himself further in the folds of infinite strategy.


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[[Heaven's Mandate]]