28. Genesis

The Solars learn that they'll need to venture into the Wyld to get some answers. Or is the Wyld coming to them? 
“What we define as a hero can change from person to person… but to be a hero involves a certain amount of pain and sacrifice for the future.”
The session begins immediately following the group’s meeting with Bends-Never-Breaks. They have learned that they must journey to Yu-Shan to get some answers about the Sidereals, but as Ember aptly remarked: “One does not simply walk into Yu-Shan.” How will they be able to find the entrance? It is suggested that the Wyld may hold some answers, but will present plenty of questions and dangers of its own.
As the party tries to find Speaks-of-Silence, most of the Lunars in the camp ignore them. Some of the guards are blatantly rude, which flusters the group and angers Rey. It is discovered that to have a bond with a Solar Exalted is “not always a point of pride” for the Lunars, as they resent having their fates so dependent on another. Val is sympathetic to this, but Rey doesn’t see why they should be trying to prove themselves to people who won’t give them the time of day. One much younger female guard, Two-Seasons-Run, scarred and missing an eye, is stunned by Rey’s hair and person. She asks if it is OK to be scared, being newly Exalted, and the Solars try to put her at ease.
Speaks-of-Silence returns and takes the Circle to her private territory, a sacred pool in the woods. She reveals that some of the Lunars are nervous about new types of Exalted at camp, but that she has been selected to be their guide into the Wyld, where they will learn how to get to Yu-Shan. The Solars disagree about the need to go at all: while Valeria and Jorek want to keep moving forward and up, believing that confronting bigger challenges will help remove some of the large obstacles, Rey doesn’t want to lose sight of where they came from. Three Fates Shadow manages to convince her to see the bigger picutre: “I saw a fight between Rey and Ember, that proved that a fight can benefit all.”
All of a sudden, a man from Valeria’s village, Po, arrives to worship her. Leaving Speaks-of-Silence’s clearing with her, he reveals himself as a monstrosity, a Fae named Daja. He promises to one day eat Val, and that he has arrived to bring the group to his “master” in the Wyld. Val treats him like a petulant child, taking up his habit of referring to her as a carrot, and sends him off back to the Wyld.
In trying to get Speaks-of-Silence out of the clearing to help the Solars with Daja, Jorek sets her off with “Let’s not be rash!” Speaks-of-Silence shoots back: “Rash was f***ing your circlemate while thinking of you!” Jorek senses, however, that this statement is hiding something and is more than meets the eye. Valeria sends Daja packing, and Speaks-of-Silence is furious with the creature: “Good or evil doesn’t exist to them… only selfishness.” Jorek knows, however, that the Fae are incapable of breaking an oath, and that as an Eclipse, he can grant them safe passage to the Fey… And the Solars, along with Ember and Three Fates Shadow, are off to venture into the Wyld!
Category:EXN-Ep