Undying Claws of Terra Khan

"Golden Chrysantemum, rise and accept these, the Undying Claws of Terra Khan."

"Thank you, Shahan-Ya Leviathan."

"We entrust these to you, in honor of Terra Khan, whose death by betrayal was most tragic, and reminds us all of the Realm's betrayal, and untrustworthiness."

— Meeting notes, Silver Pact meeting in Rathess, 110RR.

As I turned to my newest student, this young changing moon, her eyes fey, her mien and demeanour cagey and energetic all at once, I remembered how it all started. I'd trained so many whose blood ran down these rocks, my own struggles unnoticed between Ma-Ha-Suchi and Raksi's grandstanding. So close to the realm, yet so far, often the first Lunar they met off the Blessed Isle, the first one touched by Luna they encountered.

I remember my own first encounter with Luna, that fey dancer, while I hid in that abandoned mine, on the side of a hillock, leagues away from anything of significance except for the still distant tombs of Sijan.

Now that mine contains a few surprises for visitors, even my ward doesn't yet know all its secrets, for all her prowling and skulking about, of course, the lava makes it hard for her to use some of her luna-granted powers, I designed it so, and asked Raksi for a favour, one of her favorite geomancers did the lava and water works. There are no easy paths but those I make, in there.

It is time, I will hand her the Undying Claws, and she will go, she must be tempered, she must assuage some of her anger, but also learn its limitations. She will not do so, coddled in my lair, playing patty cake near the lava.

Those claws and I have been through so much together, slicing through blood apes infesting The eye of the killing storm. Helping that Lawgiver Samea under the auspice of Lilith, both of us thinking the battle of futile blood would catalyze an invasion of the realm. Finding Anya Silverclaws, and helping her find her place, bringing her to Nexus, then helping her back past lookshy onto her native Thorns, a frenzied bobcat instead of a kitten.

Eventually, she'll learn, like I did, that they replace our lunaform's claws, granting them a moonsilver touch, and allowing her to become 'the silver ghost', a minor legend in Nexus, to scare one's enemies.

Given time and study of the claws, she can unlock its powers of treespassing(no, not tresspassing, trees' passing, or tree passing), silent stride and shadow's tread.

Few challenge "panther" in its domain, and even my senior colleague Magnificent Jaguar would think twice before facing me wearing them, especially without his own weapons.