Lyr had gone. Serena and Keiko however, remained behind.

“Keiko, What happened to Lyr?” Tatsuya asked, stepping forward from the gloom into the centre of the room, to where they clustered around the periphery of the symbol on the floor.

“He has walked the Pattern and travelled to the shadow realm on the other end of it.”

Tatsuya took a moment to search his memories, to see if he understood what Keiko had just said. There was nothing familiar there. “What does that mean exactly?”

“I’m not sure.”

Keiko gave an apologetic shrug. Both their gazes travelled to Serena. As it dawned on Serena that they both expected some sort of explanation, her expression shifted to a combination of stupefaction and concentration. She related to them how the name Pattern was given to the force behind Amber and the Amberites. Part of it manifested as magical constructs which provided the power to run shadows, and even Amber itself – if it still existed. Without some form of generator, shadows would break down under the pressure from surrounding Chaos. Patterns could be constructed by particularly powerful Amberites, and if one were walked correctly, the being walking it would then be able to manipulate its power.

“Lyr successfully walked this Pattern, and now he can control it. But now that he controls it, he has used it to access the other shadow that it powers. Apparently it doesn’t just run Balance.”

“Why are you still here?”

“I’m not going anywhere without my sword.” Serena replied.

“A sentiment I can empathise with. Where is your sword?”

“Up there. In the room with the sarcophagi.”

Serena pointed up through the opening at the end of the chamber. Rising high above was a section of the Restricted Building. On one level, where according to the surrounding structure there ought to have been a door or window, stood a shimmering portal.

“Sarcophagi?” Tatsuya said to himself. From what Lyr had said earlier about sarcophagi, this seemed interesting. Keiko evidently thought so too, and announced that she would go to fetch the sword.

Keiko used her mists to travel directly to the sarcophagi room, but by now Tatsuya knew that he would need to travel there under his own steam. He could not get there using his control of Void yet, but he used his power to appear on the ledge directly next to the shimmering portal. He reached out and touched its surface, which felt like a sheet of static electricity hovering in the air. As he pushed his arm through it, he could sense a force pulling him in. Taking a deep breath, he plunged headlong into the portal, into an unnatural blackness on the other side…

He was drawn through the blackness, a process that felt as though he were falling slowly, until he felt the static rushing at him again. He passed through the other side of the portal, into the light of a room containing twelve sarcophagi. Keiko had arrived before him and was examining the designed on their lids.

Keiko explained to Tatsuya that the last time the sarcophagi had been opened, by her fellow fugitives, they had turned Clara into a gemstone. They had eventually freed her, but not before accidentally killing one unfortunate being who had been trapped in a similar manner. Tatsuya and Keiko agreed between them to alternate who opened the sarcophagi, until they had deduced which ones were likely to be safe for someone of their own powers…

As Tatsuya levered the lid from another sarcophagus, a green glow emitted from the channel around the edge. It had the same otherworldly qualities as the light that was associated with the Void, which made sense when Tatsuya wafted the mist inside away to reveal the contents. Lying in the sarcophagus were Smith’s pistol and earpiece. He lifted them out and held them in the light to examine them.

“Can we use those?” Keiko asked. Tatsuya regarded the pistol, and then threw it back into the sarcophagus.

“An uncivilised weapon.”

But he quietly placed Smith’s earpiece around his own ear. As soon as he had it in place, he realised that it was a magical artefact, one that gave him a continuous link to Mother Void. So Smith had been her agent, then.

‘I take it that your offer to rule alongside you is a recent one? Who was Smith?’

‘The decision to assassinate you was not mine. Those elements responsible for it have been deposed and are no longer a threat to you. First, we sent armies of samurai to stop you, but you defeated them time after time. After your eventual capture by the agents of Balance, it was decided to concentrate on quality rather than quantity, so the samurai were replaced by Smith. By defeating him, you defeated your enemies elsewhere. In their failure, they were condemned.’

‘You do not need to be defensive. I am familiar with the demands of Realpolitik.’

The next sarcophagus Keiko and Tatsuya opened was Serena’s. Inside it lay a sword, matching the description she had given, and a chalice.

“She didn’t say anything about a chalice.” Keiko said. “Shall we take them both?”

“No.” Tatsuya replied, surprising her.

“Why not?”

“Serena is dangerous. She is a powerful remnant of the old order and that means that she could one day pose a threat to us. I do not want to arm her any more than necessary for that reason.”

Keiko looked at Tatsuya and wondered when and why he had begun to think about a Universal Grand Strategy. She was still concerned primarily with her immediate security.

He picked up Serena’s sword and replaced the lid on the sarcophagus.

“We’ve got what we came for. Let’s go.”

“You go on ahead. I’ll be there is just a moment. I want to check on something.”

Tatsuya nodded in agreement and disappeared back through the portal with the sword.

Tatsuya emerged back onto the ledge overlooking the lawn in front of the Restricted Building. He could see before him the whole of the inner University including the chasm that led to the chamber where Serena had been left waiting. He leapt into the air, and as he began to plummet down through the hot, rushing wind toward the mouth of the chasm, blinked out into the Void and reappeared moments later by Serena’s side.

“Your sword.”

Serena took the offered blade from Tatsuya, but looked wary.

“Was there nothing else in the sarcophagus?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

There passed between them a cold silence, which was broken only by the sudden arrival, through a puff of pink mist, a falcon. The bird wheeled and soared around the cavern before gliding toward them and, with a flap of its wings, came to a halt in mid-air before turning into the naked form of Keiko. She dropped a short distance to the ground, and looked around. Tatsuya and Serena stared at her, until she realised her position and disappeared again in another puff of mist. Seconds later, she reappeared, this time as a fully clothed human being.

With Keiko’s brief appearance au naturel in his mind, Tatsuya struggled to concentrate long enough to form a full sentence, so it was Serena who said that they should leave Balance now, hopefully for the last time, and rejoin the others at the other end of the construct. This they would achieve simply by walking onto the construct, with a foot in each half.

Unfortunately, Serena failed to mention the exact mode of their travel. The three stepped onto the Pattern together and burst into flames, supernatural tongues of fire that rapidly burnt their mortal bodies down into ashes and dust, leaving only their consciousnesses to be picked up by the ghostly roots of a gigantic luminescent silvery tree and transported through its trunk to the canopy, which spread its branches in a new shadow. In flames, they reappeared, constructed from the tree’s essence. Serena seemed bewildered; Keiko and Tatsuya were a little angry.

In the new shadow, the tree took on physical form. It sat atop the Pattern, its roots spreading out and partially obscuring it in a tangled mass like a mangrove. The tree itself was ten feet tall, but very thick for its height, over six feet at its base and four feet where the trunk branched out into a stumpy crown. There was little in the way of foliage on its branches, virtually none of it green. The tree and Pattern sat in the centre of a large caldera, beyond which nothing could be seen of the surrounding terrain. The landscape inside the caldera was plain burnt soil, black as the night, with patches of dark grey ash dotted about randomly. The sky above was the blackness of space studded with a mass of stars, save for a dim red glow on one horizon. Assembled there around the tree was the entire party of travellers, who were the only living things in sight, save one. Perched on the edge of the caldera was a creature half-man and half-bird. Tatsuya recognised it as a Tengu.

Lyr stepped forward to ask the Tengu what shadow they had come to. It glanced at him, and then turned away to look at Serena. Tatsuya found this rude, and confident that he was now a significant player in the Grand Scheme, asked it again.

“What is this place?”

The Tengu glanced at him, and then turned its gaze back to Serena. Eventually, she repeated the question for a third time.

“This is the Fire Pattern. I am Galahad, one of its guardians. It was once the elemental expression of the element Fire, and sat at the heart of a star. Now that star has died, and all it provides now is the red glow you can see by.”

“Ask him what happened to cause that to happen, Serena.” Lyr suggested.

“What happened to cause that to happen, Galahad?” she repeated.

“This world is ancient. It formed part of the Pattern once, but when the old system collapsed we were forced to form an alliance with Balance in order to survive. The construct that powered Balance, once known as Equinox, was deactivated by its creators as their world crumbled. In return for the energy from our construct, which flows through the tree you see growing over it, and providing the wards and charms that protect Balance and allow it to function, we are allowed to continue.”

“Lyr” Tatsuya whispered “which Pattern did it once form a part of?”

Lyr leaned over to speak to him. “He means The Pattern. The force that held Amber together and gave the Amberites their power.”

With those words, the fog that obscured his path lifted. His mission became clear. The Shadow Warrior had been brought to this place to destroy it. By destroying the tree, he would be able to sever the flow of energy into Balance and drop the mystic barriers that it held up between the Mist and the Void This would release Mother Void from her prison and give him, through her, the means to shape the universe.

Tatsuya turned and stepped toward the tree, drawing his sword across his body as he did so and raising it to strike. The others turned to watch him and very quickly, Serena, Keiko and Lyr realised what he intended to do. Serena realised that she would not be able to reach him in time and went for one of her throwing axes. In the blink of an eye, she had it drawn and raised to throw, but she was too late. Tatsuya swung his sword with all his strength and bit deeply into the tree…

The blade hacked into the trunk, stopping four inches deep. Tatsuya did not have time to be surprised at the tree’s resilience, for from the wound gushed a spray of burning liquid, which covered his sword and set him alight. Serena’s throwing axe was also hurtling towards him, and he countered both dangers by dropping to the ground and rolling, passing underneath the axe and putting out the flames temporarily. As he stood up, however, the liquid re-ignited. Unable to extinguish it, and since Serena was advancing rapidly towards him, Tatsuya activated his combat form. Red armour plates spread out all over his body, which though still burning, suffered no damage from the flames. As he completed the transformation, Serena launched her attack, swinging the sword Tatsuya had very recently returned to her in a direct line for his head. The ninja was faster, and rolled underneath her swing. He tried to grab a hold of her and turn the fight into a grapple, where his lack of a weapon would not be a major factor, but she was nearly as quick and the two of them ended up facing-off beside the haemorrhaging tree. Before either could attack again, Keiko stepped into the space between; her arms held out to try and keep the combatants separated. Tatsuya knew that he would not be able to dodge past her to get at Serena without using violence, and Serena seemed to have either made the same calculation or did not want to continue fighting, as neither of them moved. Tatsuya was aware in his peripheral vision of a number of Tengu working with Lyr to try and stabilise the tree, which continued to gush fire. After a while, they seemed to be having some success. Tatsuya decided to abandon the direct approach, and since the flames about his person had died out, he reverted to his normal form and dropped his guard. Serena and Keiko visibly relaxed in response, as he had hoped they would; as soon as Serena glanced over to see what was going on with Lyr and the Tengu, he dashed at the tree. Before anyone could stop him, he grabbed his still flaming sword, which remained embedded in the tree, and Voided out of the shadow.

He headed back to Balance, or perhaps Equinox would have been a more accurate name now, with the intention of carrying out vengeance. Mother Void had told him that the old order had been deposed when he killed Smith, and if that were the case then he had to be sure that his enemy was truly dead. If not, then he would almost certainly be a prisoner in the same cells where he himself has first awoken. Appearing on the lip of the cell that had once been his prison, Tatsuya searched the rest of the cavern looking for someone with a family resemblance. It did not take long, as the prison was not that vast, and many of the pits were empty. Some of them housed wretched, broken creatures, but none of them contained the one he was looking for. Tatsuya noted that the cavern had suffered some structural damage, probably caused by some great earth tremor, and given the short time he had been away, probably caused by the same earth tremor that had been caused when he damaged the tree in the Fire Pattern realm. Perhaps some of the prisoners had been roused to consciousness by it, and had escaped? He must search the complex to be certain.

Tatsuya went looking for trouble. The first living beings that he encountered as he stalked the subterranean corridors were a pair of minotaur guards near to a gated exit, who told him that no prisoners had gone that way. As he continued to search the corridors, he came across a section with four doors. Pushing open the nearest, he saw a grey cowl at a desk, whom he ignored and returned to the corridor to look behind the other doors. The second opened to an unremarkable room, which he again declined to explore, but behind the third door he found a white cowl standing behind a lectern. He advanced menacingly and held his sword to its throat, demanding to know how many powerful Void users were imprisoned in Balance’s vaults and caverns. It laughed, seemingly uncaring that its existence was in imminent peril, and explained in a condescending tone that there were no powerful Void users. Anywhere.

“What about me? Am I not powerful enough to warrant your attention, devil? You kept me here for some time. Explain!”

The white cowl proceeded to fill in some of Tatsuya’s unremembered history. He was once mortal as all Void users were once mortals. Balance’s remit did not extend to imprisoning mortals, with the exception of himself. He was an individual of special significance.

“What about Mother Void?”

“According to our mythology, she is already a prisoner. We have no interest in her.”

“What?” he spluttered, dumbfounded by the casual dismissal of his most powerful ally.

“She is imprisoned in the Void. Her powers are over Mist. It was deemed to be safer this way by the dragons.”

Tatsuya grinned at that important revelation. As he turned to leave, he disrobed the administrator with a deft half-throw and continued his search.

Through the fourth door, he found a room filled with maps, attended by a single grey cowl. He leafed through some of them, ascertaining quickly that they were of many distant realms.

“What are these maps for?” he asked the administrator.

“Navigation.” It answered abruptly.

“Yes, but of who? Who leaves this world with your permission? The locals are unaware of anything beyond it. Do administrators travel elsewhere? To capture prisoners?”

“That is a matter for the Adventurers.”

When pressed, the cowl readily told Tatsuya that some of the inhabitants of Balance who possessed supernatural powers were so accepting of the new order that they had volunteered to, and were trusted to, leave in order to capture and return other superhumans who posed a threat to mortal life or the balance of things on other shadows. The ‘Adventurers’ had captured both himself and all his companions at some stage. Moving into an adjoining room he discovered boxes filled with files on current and former prisoners. He ploughed through them, looking for details on the others.

First, he found Lyr’s file. Lyr had been living the life of a legendary mortal, unaware of his powers until one day, while defending himself from mortals he had reflexively unleashed his sorcery and killed dozens of them. Almost as soon as this happened, a small group of the Adventurers materialised and took him, voluntarily, into captivity on Balance. Serena appeared next among the papers. She had been captured while slumbering amid the dark, lifeless ruins of Amber itself. Tatsuya himself had been in the action of escaping a hostile fleet crewed by demon samurai sent by Mother Void’s previous consort, and had sailed into a dragon’s domain, appearing to be an invasion force. Adventurers had been summoned immediately and had overpowered him, then dispelled the samurai. Among the rest, Eglamore’s file was unique – he had simply appeared from anonymity one day, inside the University grounds, and begun attacking anything in his path.

With a wealth of new intelligence, Tatsuya decided to abandon his search for Mother Void’s prior consort, his mortal enemy, and assume that he was dead. Tatsuya would return to caldera in the Realm of the Fire Pattern and attempt to re-join his former associates. He could not afford for them to travel through the universe acting without his knowledge. Disappearing in his characteristic green light, he travelled directly through the Void, appearing just beyond the rim of the caldera in which they had remained, and eavesdropped.

One thing that Tatsuya’s supernatural senses could not miss on his arrival was the army of cat-face humanoids gathered at the foot of the mountain. They milled in a quiet and patient fashion, often looking up towards the caldera as if waiting for something, or someone, to emerge from within. Fortunately, Tatsuya’s powers of concealment were not being seriously tested at this distance, even with their presumably feline vision. He lay still, listening in on the others’ debate. Serena, unsurprisingly, led the faction who no longer counted Tatsuya as an ally. She vocalised loudly about his mysterious background and ‘dangerous’ actions, expressing with certainty that he could no longer be trusted. She didn’t know what he wanted, but it probably wasn’t good.

Keiko, slightly swayed by Serena (and he had to admit, his own actions – they had been somewhat impulsive), but still at heart trusting of her fellow warrior, admitted that his actions may not have been wise but she was sure that he posed no danger to the rest of them. She seemed more certain of her convictions when she said that she doubted he was working for any dark force. Tatsuya smiled – Keiko was wrong about both points. He most definitely did pose a threat, to the Amberites and Lords of Chaos at any rate, and Mother Void was no natural blonde.

No group decision was going to be forthcoming on this matter without Tatsuya being present for questioning, so after a while the topic shifted and Lyr outlined his plan to break the connection between the realm of Fire Pattern and Equinox, the latter of which he had activated by walking it, so that Equinox would survive the break. He then planned to attach the power source beneath the tree to something else so that this last fragment of Pattern would survive too, thereby granting a last refuge to Serena and her kind, and by extension Carlito and Marina along with any other beings from the former system that were on the loose. It was a typically grand plan, as Tatsuya had come to expect from Lyr. The potential ramifications, however, were both obvious and huge and he had not said anything of them; and so the group immediately descended into a buzz of questions. What effect would this have on Mist and Void? Would a quadripartite system work? Would the four realms be stable, and who would have the most power? How would it be policed?

When the hubbub died down, Keiko suggested going to see her father, Shaodelin, a man of whom all that was really known was that he knew a lot more than he was willing to divulge. On that, they finally managed to agree. Keiko seemed pleased to have contributed to giving the group a temporary unity of purpose, although she cautioned that the Shadow Warrior would probably prove to be a vital part of whatever her father suggested. He was like that, apparently.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think the Shadow Warrior will join us again after the whole tree thing.”

Tatsuya chose this moment to emerge from the shadows – “Some good points by all of you, but you were wrong Keiko – I will join you now. And you all need to decide what Balance will become, or more specifically what you are going to do with those imprisoned within it”

His arrival caused a new outburst of opinions, and the trip to see Keiko’s father was briefly forgotten. The issue of the other prisoners caused raised voices as Serena announced that she didn’t care what happened (after they were released), whereas Tatsuya, Keiko and Lyr were gravely concerned that some of them deserved, and perhaps needed to be their for the safety of all. The four argued passionately until Serena unwittingly offered the others a solution to their satisfaction. In a voice of arrogant incredulity, she exclaimed:

“What do you suggest? Putting them all on some sort of trial?”

“It could be done.” Tatsuya answered grimly, daring her to try and backtrack. “There are hundreds of boxes of files beneath the University detailing the crimes that its prisoners have been accused of. We can separate the innocent from the dangerous that way.”

“And who is going to decide? You? Me? No one here comes without an agenda, no one can be trusted to be impartial and we won’t reach a consensus. A trial won’t work, unless you are going to suggest something stupid like a mortal jury.”

“And why not?”

Tatsuya headed down the stairs to look for Marina, in the room where he had last seen her. The University appeared deserted as he made his way through corridors and white, battle damaged stone chambers, but he knew that somewhere out there was a large force of minotaurs looking for his ilk.

He heard noises up ahead. Breaking into a jog, he headed for the source. Drawing closer, he could tell that there was some heavy damage being caused to the building; possibly the result of a fight. Bursting into the foyer of the Restricted Building, he was greeted by the sight of masonry showering down onto the yin yang mosaic from above, through a gaping hole in the roof that extended upwards through many storeys. Tatsuya leapt upwards, pushing off against the walls and remaining tracts of the floors as he half ran, half flew up toward the source of the noise, his ninjutsu skills and superhuman powers blending seamlessly to carry him aloft.

The sight that awaited him at the top of his ascent was a surprise. Gabriel, now a fully grown man when only days before her had been a small child, was flying around on a pair of great white wings, smashing aside furniture with reckless abandon. At Tatsuya’s arrival he exited through a hole in the exterior wall and flew out over the courtyard and away, leaving the Shadow Warrior watching him from the edge.

Tatsuya recommenced his search for Marina, but after searching through lonely corridors, he found only an administrator. The being bade Tatsuya to sit down and examine some documents, which were written in a script that Tatsuya could not read.

“What do they say?” he asked.

“This is your contract with Balance. I place it before you now as it has come to our attention that you have signed another contract with a higher being from outside our system. The small print compels us to renegotiate terms in this instance.”

“And why should I enter into a binding agreement with my former gaolers?”

The administrator seemed to relax back into its chair. “You are under no compulsion to do so, but it could be beneficial to both of us if you do.”

“I am not interested.” Tatsuya replied. An instant later, he flipped the table over toward the administrator, and in the moment when it was surprised, dashed forward and removed the cowl from its host, a young woman, who’s name was Victoria.

“What’s going on?” she stammered, unbalanced by the sudden release of the cowl’s sorcerous power.

“You are a prisoner, as was I. Come with me if you want to leave.”

As they made their way along the corridor, still searching for Marina, Tatsuya felt a by now familiar sensation as Lyr made contact him through the trump. He grasped Victoria’s arm and the pair appeared shortly afterwards in an area of the University that was unknown to Tatsuya, although the yin yang on the floor seemed familiar enough. At one end of the cave-like chamber, hot air rushed up through a chasm towards the sunlight above. Tatsuya guessed that they were underneath the foyer of the Restricted Building, and at the end that opened to the sky was the front lawn. Serena, Keiko, Lyr and Eglamore were there.

Lyr announced that he had some idea of what the symbol on the floor meant. Unlike the reproduction above them, small grey stones, equally spaced around the circumference, surrounded this symbol. According to Lyr, the number twelve had occurred before on this world in a significant setting – some sort of crypt containing confiscated items from the prisoners had held twelve sarcophagi.

“Shadow Warrior, may I kindly borrow your sword?”

Tatsuya did not understand what Lyr intended to do, but drew it and handed it over, hilt first, regardless. To his alarm Lyr then used it to etch runes onto the small stones, one design on each. He said something about activating them with the signs of the Zodiac, but Tatsuya’s attention was focused upon being ready to dash in and seize his weapon back if it appeared to suffer any damage. Only warriors understood the proper way to treat such valuable items, not philosophers!

Once he had finished, and handed Tatsuya his undamaged sword back, Lyr walked onto the pattern on the floor, taking great care to place his feet exactly onto the circles in each half of the yin yang one at a time. Some kind of supernatural wind seemed to buffet him as he did this, although it was not possible to feel it from outside the circle. Tatsuya took the chance to disappear back up the stairs while the others were transfixed upon Lyr, and when he was out of sight he left Balance and went to see Mother Void. He needed advice.

Tatsuya found himself once more in the nether-region that was the Court of Mother Void. The cube was empty except for him but he sensed that she was present, just outside, wherever that was.

“The others are planning to alter the nature of the Universe. Balance is to be destroyed. What impact shall this have on our realm?” He used the word “our” deliberately.

Mother Void appeared to him, striding in through the green walls as if they did not exist, her tumbling dark hair and piercing brown eyes just as he remembered them. Although he did not know her beyond a faint acquaintance, he felt a connection with this being that he did not feel from anyone else, and trusted her implicitly.

“Balance keeps the Universe in order. It perpetuates all our lives, but it prevents us from fulfilling them.”

With that, she turned and withdrew back behind the wall of green light. That was all he needed to be told. He had never liked Balance, even if it had found a place for him. If Balance was the barrier preventing the two constructs, Mist and Void, from living their lives to their fullest extent then he would destroy it. Tatsuya returned to the cavern beneath the University.

I am creating a seperate profile to write up on my various Exalted's adventures. Although it will contain stories on all 3, it is visible at silver-fangs.livejournal.com. I shall invite people to be friends as soon as I post something.

TAE

The Shadow Warrior appeared, perched on the edge of the roof of the Restricted Building, overlooking the Quadrangle. Below him, a small horde of minotaurs gazed upwards at the dark figure. He paused for a few seconds, remarking to himself that of all the places he had been, this was the closest to being real, in the way he had known things to be. Yet this was the place he was supposed to bring crashing down.

He felt a trump contact from Lyr, and travelled briefly through the Void to appear in the lobby on the ground floor among the rest of those who had aVoided capture by Torada and the Administrators – Ingen, Marina, Keiko, Khora, Clara, Gabriel, the stranger were all there and somehow, so was Smith, now regenerated, standing off to the side. Lyr stood apart from the others just a pace away from the leader of a small army of minotaurs holding the lobby of the Restricted Building, a leader that it took him a second to place – Tom, who had clearly survived his meeting with the Black Dragon beneath the University.

“Tamburlaine.” Lyr unwittingly corrected, not taking his eyes away from him.

“Shadow Warrior.” Tamburlaine acknowledged the new arrival with the title he was known as by the immortals rather than his name. “Back sooner than expected I see.”

“I am glad that I can surprise at least one person in that case.”

Tamburlaine frowned, not comprehending Tatsuya’s meaning. Remembering Tamburlaine’s attempt to attack him from behind when they had met during the dragon summoning ritual, and the abominations of the prison beneath the University, for which Tamburlaine seemed in Tatsuya’s mind to be at least partly responsible, Tatsuya seized the moment and advanced towards him, which provoked Tamburlaine into action.

“Smith! Deal with him!” He snapped, dismissively.

Smith hurled himself at the ninja, throwing a mighty cross punch towards his face which Tatsuya deftly slipped past, but Smith still had momentum; the two of them collided and hurtled across the room and through an interior wall until they were stopped by the stone of the exterior wall of the building. The impact knocked them apart, and both sprang to their feet as Smith re-launched his attack. He was fast, much faster than any other humanoid Tatsuya had had to deal with, and he was forced onto the defensive. Imperceptibly, Tatsuya moved backwards as he parried Smith’s flurrying punches so that Smith began to overreach, and as soon as his balance was taken, Tatsuya deliberately accepted a weakened punch to the chest as he lunged forward and grabbed him by the lapels, leaping upwards with Smith held aloft so that his head punched a hole in the floor above, through which they both passed. As they landed on the first floor, Tatsuya was knelt on top of Smith, and threw a skull crushing blow at his head, which whipped aside in a blur as Tatsuya’s fist burst through the roof of the floor below. Smith reached up and grabbed Tatsuya’s throat, which he reciprocated as the floor, weakened by the hole that had recently been punched into it, cracked and gave way, throwing them down among a shower of rubble to the ground floor again, trading punches as they went.

Again, Tatsuya used Smith’s body to cushion his own impact, their landing creating a small crater in the mosaic floor and throwing them apart, both momentarily stunned. Tatsuya groaned as he rolled onto his front and got shakily to his feet. By the time he had recomposed himself, Smith stood impassively in the centre of the crater, his sunglasses crazed with cracks. Tatsuya brushed dust from his clothes and prepared to receive Smith’s next attack. As he placed his feet, his rear foot knocked against his dropped sword. With a malevolent grin, he slipped his toe under the scabbard and kicked it up so that he could grab and draw the sword without looking down. Smith withdrew a very large pistol from within his jacket and held it by the barrel as a club, for firearms were one of the many things that were impossible in Balance. Confident that the advantage was now clearly his, Tatsuya advanced.

Smith may have been disadvantaged, but he was still a skilled warrior. They exchanged several moves, Smith parrying with the handgrip of his pistol and twisting his body out of the way with infuriating regularity.

“You cannot defeat me Shadow Warrior. I have been programmed with all of your moves.”

“Really? All of them?”

As Smith turned another cut aside as if to confirm his statement, Tatsuya let go his sword with his left hand and landed a cross punch squarely on Smith’s jaw, sending him staggering back. The look of surprise on his face was gratifying. Tatsuya followed him and made to cut at him diagonally downwards, but as Smith swung his pistol to check it he pulled the cut and span around three-sixty degrees, so that it arrived a fraction of a second later than Smith was expecting it and sliced open his exposed flank. As he recoiled and swung back to knock the sword away from him, Tatsuya dipped the point below his arm and thrust it forward, managing to inflict a shallow stab wound as Smith leapt back in a blur of speed.

Smith slowed, stopped and looked down at his sliced jacket, and seemed genuinely confused.

“But how?”

“Simple.” Tatsuya replied. “I remembered how I killed you all the other times.”

At that, with a flick of the wrists he threw his sword at Smith’s face, who turned aside so that it flew harmlessly through the air where Smith had been, but while he was still twisting around and defenceless, Tatsuya dove forward and smote him with a flying uppercut that sent Smith crashing through the exterior wall, across the lawn and plunging down into the abyss that blasted superheated air out from the bowels of the University.

Tatsuya stood for a moment watching through the hole in the wall in case, somehow, Smith had survived and came flying back out from the darkness, but he did not. He wiped a trickle of blood from the side of his mouth, coughed up some more and then patted the dust from his gi before walking over to retrieve his sword and the scabbard. It was as he re-sheathed it that he felt Lyr once again make trump contact. In a flash (of green) he reappeared around the corner, to find that not much had changed during his fight.

Lyr had continued to confront Tamburlaine about his doings while Tatsuya had fought Smith – the fight cannot have lasted more than a minute, but it felt as though they had been locked in combat for far, far longer. But now the time for words was over. Lyr was clearly up for some violence and Tatsuya was ever helpful. One moment there was just Lyr, the next the Shadow Warrior had appeared and his sword was pressing down against Tamburlaine’s neck, forcing him down to his knees.

“Now for some answers, Tamburlaine. I am not in the mood for prevaricating.”

Neither were the minotaurs, for their reaction to this sudden turn of events was to charge headlong into battle. Keiko and the stranger rushed to meet them with steel, while the others used their own gifts to check the charge. The battle raged around the three of them, and Tamburlaine was to receive no respite had it not been for what was seemingly the last regeneration of Agent Smith.

Like the minotaur Tatsuya had confronted in the Administration’s attempts to keep him trapped in a mental prison, Smith refused to stay dead. He appeared at Tamburlain’s side, clutching a vial of what he claimed was a dangerous substance. He threatened to smash it, and kill them both. Tatsuya surmised that at such close range, whatever it was would certainly kill he and Ingen as well, so he tried to stop Smith by striking him in the neck with the blunt edge of his sword, and then replace it to Tamburlain’s throat while Ingen caught the vial. Unfortunately for Tatsuya, he had forgotten that he was facing superhuman foes, and all it succeeded in achieving was making Smith bend over backwards so that the sword passed harmlessly over him, while giving Tamburlaine the chance to get to his feet again. Tatsuya cut at him, but his cloak was enchanted and swirled to protect him by deflecting the sword within its folds. Smith grabbed Tamburlaine as his cloak deflected a second stroke, and they vanished together in a flash of green light, and were not seen again.

Tatsuya and Ingen helped the others drive off the last of the minotaurs, but even as they did so, they could hear alarms sounding in the distance, alerting other minotaurs to the presence of a threat to Balance in the University. More would be coming once they had had a chance to organise, probably with help from other creatures, and so the group scattered to pursue their personal agendas in what time they had.

Tatsuya wandered out into the grounds of the University and watched from the deserted courtyard as the town below seethed with activity. Apart from squads of minotaurs rushing to the gate to prepare a sally up the hill to the University, business continued as normal. The average citizen of Balance continued on, blissfully unaware it seemed of the drama unfolding. They seemed happier for it, he thought.

The sextet appeared in one corner of the triangular town plaza, in a major settlement somewhere on Diohn. Architecturally speaking, it was similar in style to the Western European Renaissance, but considerably cleaner than would be a similar sized settlement from that period or place. A tall, three sided clock-tower stood at the centre of the cobbled plaza, around which clustered a myriad of small stalls selling a bewildering array of items, and around the plaza itself what looked like residential buildings. It reminded Tatsuya of a smaller and dirtier version of the market place in Balance. Other things suggested that this place was not on Shadow Earth, such as the strange insects buzzing around the odd pile of animal dung, and the size and colour of the sun.

This was the home shadow of someone called Clara, Tatsuya had gathered, so the people running about or manning market stalls must be her subjects. One such subject was the only one to react to their sudden arrival, and the man who strode confidently across and greeted them said that he was the town’s mayor. His rosy red face and soft hands certainly suggested that he was no ordinary labourer, as did his gold chain.

“Good day my friends, and welcome to Montburgh!” He beamed. “How may I be of assistance to you?”

Keiko engaged him in conversation and the mayor quickly realised that he was speaking to individuals of great power. No matter how Keiko attempted to steer the conversation, he repeatedly brought her back to the importance of visiting the local ruler, in his castle. Maybe they would meet the others there, Tatsuya thought.

“Splendid! Just allow me to furnish us with transport.”

“Us?” Natasha said, quizzically, but her comment was not heard.

Now eight strong, including the cart’s driver, they headed towards what the mayor called Castle Van Bannet. Keiko said it sounded familiar to her. The others didn’t know enough to find it odd.

As they trundled Southwest, Tatsuya felt Ingen attempting to make trump contact with him. He learnt that the others were also heading to the castle, but were South of their position. More worryingly, he learnt that they had discovered that the castle was owned by one of three dragons that lorded over Diohn instead of Clara. The two colluded and agreed that it would be best for them to join together and discuss what they should do next. Tatsuya attempted to describe where they currently were to Ingen, and Clara provided the best place to try and meet up. After that, Ingen left Tatsuya to his own devices.

Tatsuya seemed to come out of a daydream and reached across to Keiko to grab her attention and pull her within whispering distance, so that the Mayor would not overhear them.

“Keiko – I have just been in contact with Ingen. He is with the others and they intend to meet us on our way to meet Van Bannet… the dragon.”

Keiko scowled as she recognised the name at last. Her dark features made a strange contrast with the view out of the carriage behind her, where long eared rabbits frolicked among meadows packed with bright flowers under a blue sky inhabited by swooping swallows and puffy white seeds being carried on the breeze. The land became scarcely more credible as they trundled on, through small picturesque villages where all the folk were cheerful and well fed, stopping their labours to wave at the strangers passing through their impossibly tidy hamlets.

Although the land of Diohn was like a fairytale kingdom, eventually, the sun set even there. The Mayor announced that they were close to a coaching inn called The Sun Inn, and he suggested that they should stay there overnight before arriving at the castle the next day. It was where Clara had guessed that they might rendezvous. As Mayor, he would deal with all the arrangements and the cost.

Soon the party arrived at the inn, its name displayed on a hanging wooden board next to the road over a stylised version of the sun. The Mayor led the way, but then left the others unattended to arrange things with the landlord. Tatsuya took the opportunity to ask Keiko some questions he had been waiting to ask for some time.

“Keiko?”

“Hmm?”

“I have been meaning to ask you, for you seem to have more recollection than the rest of us, including myself, about what happened to you before Balance. Do you know who we are, and what we are? I mean, we are certainly not ordinary men and women. Do you know of others like yourself who are not here with the rest of us?”

Keiko told Tatsuya of her younger days in True China with her father, and alluded to her mother, but did not like to elaborate on her save that she had been killed by the dragons, thus causing Keiko to take up her sword and become a dragon slayer. Her sword, incidentally, was a magical artefact of great power, forged by a man named Hikuro, but she knew that the full capabilities of the weapon were still beyond her as they were with Tatsuya and his sword, which he instinctively knew was capable of great power if only he could recall how to tap into it.

“I think it would be difficult to tell if we were using swords of similar power without testing them against each other, and I am not sure that would be very wise.” She said.

Tatsuya agreed, and then pressed her on her father, a man of great power clearly. Did she know of others like the two of them back in True China?

“I do not know if there are thousands of us or if the stable back at the University held all of our kind at once.” She confessed.

The conversation paused, and at that moment the other half of the band arrived at the Sun Inn. The Mayor, who reappeared simultaneously, was apprised of the situation and then, slightly crestfallen, disappeared again to secure further rooms in addition to the ones he had just paid for. While he was gone, the landlord had the servants lay on a small buffet for the growing group of strange guests.

They sat down to eat, but Tatsuya was less interested in the food than in the large black book Ingen carried, which he knew contained a great deal of information on his past, if he was the one they called the Shadow Warrior. Eventually, he excused himself from the conversations and went to Ingen, who happily lent the tome to Tatsuya, who proceeded outside to read it in private. Opening the black cover, he began on the first page:

‘In the beginning, there was only the swirling ocean of disorder and formlessness. Out of the disorder rose the order of Creation. But Creation was not stable, and it began to fall. So, a new order was established and the safeguard against the old ways of instability was Balance. But the old order had not ceased to be, and it sent as its agent the Shadow Warrior. He strove to test Balance and he ensured that it did not grow weak or allow the new order to fail, and though he constantly destroyed and confounded, Balance remained.’

Tatsuya turned a handful of pages to see if the tone of the book changed, and indeed it did. The middle part of the book seemed to comprise a detailed Lore of the Shadow Warrior, extrapolating on his role as a force of nature rather than as a man, sent against Balance but a part of the system rather than a true enemy, meant to test Balance’s defences. Charms to protect against him were listed, charms to prevent his entry, to prevent his violence, to deter him, none of which appeared to work to Tatsuya’s recollection.

Interesting as this section was, time would not allow a thorough reading of a book so big. Turning to the back, he was pleased to find an index. He looked up entries labelled as ‘sword’.

‘The sword of the Shadow Warrior was made from lightning forged into an edge more powerful than any weapon known on Balance. While he carried it, the Shadow Warrior was nigh on invincible, until the Man of Devices disarmed him.’

Fascinated, Tatsuya looked up this Man of Devices. Elsewhere, it stated that he had later allied himself with the Shadow Warrior, the reason for which was uncertain, but possibly guilt of some sort. There was no indication as to the identity of this enigmatic character though.

Leafing through towards the end, the book became a simple collection of eyewitness reports of Tatsuya’s recent movements on Balance, which he recognised, and which put paid to any doubt he may have had that he was truly the Shadow Warrior. Final proof lay in an image of him, etched into the centre spread of the book. He recognised it as trump artistry, the one Ingen had used to summon and occasionally contact him.

Tatsuya’s supernatural senses detected the return of the mayor. He announced to the rest of the group that a hot meal was now prepared for them, free of charge, and some wine. Tatsuya closed the book and returned to the company of the others, returning the book to Ingen with a word of thanks before sitting down. After so long spent travelling through worlds they did not fully understand with people they did not know could be trusted, there were many who took the chance to ask questions of Fiona and Gerard once the mayor had disappeared once again. What was going on in Diohn, and how was it and the dragons connected to Balance? What was the nature of the obvious differences between members of the group and how did they relate to their imprisonment?

Fiona answered most of the queries, with the occasional reference to Gerard. She started at the very beginning, with the tale of the creation of Amber and its war against the Lords of Chaos. Amberites used a construct called the Pattern as their primary means of moving though the shadows while the Lords of Chaos used the Logrus. The two forces were opposite and naturally came to conflict, and those using them had differences which could not be hidden and which many of those assembled had detected. The two sides had been at stalemate for a long time, until the Black Road began to encroach into Amber during the period known as the Patternfall War. The Patternfall War ended with the thrones of Amber and Chaos being united, and the two sides formed a peace. Unfortunately, this union destroyed both and without their constant opposition the fabric of creation began to crumble. Creation would have been destroyed entirely if the Dragons, who lived outside of Creation, had not decided to become involved and allow shadow versions of themselves to seize power in Creation and set up a new system, where the new opposing constructs were constantly held apart by a third power, that of Balance. Those who came from the original system were imprisoned to prevent them from attempting to destroy the new system and thus cause another collapse of reality.

The revelations sparked a heated debate amongst those listening about whose side they were, or rather should be on. Tatsuya noticed that Clara now seemed less convinced about her right to reclaim the throne of Diohn.

Ingen suggested that they sleep on it, heading off a potentially explosive situation for the time being. As the group dispersed, Tatsuya followed Marina up the stairs towards her room. She had read the book many times according to Ingen, and was the resident expert on the Shadow Warrior, perhaps more than he himself. The thought brought a faint smile to Tatsuya’s lips.

As Marina surmounted the stairs, Carlito appeared by her side, a position Tatsuya had rarely seen him leave, and then only briefly. He needed to talk to her alone.

“Carlito, Marina, please excuse me.” He said, and the pair paused. Tatsuya caught up with them on the first floor landing. “Carlito, I wish to speak to Marina in private about…the book.”

Carlito thought silently for a few brief moments, then looked at Marina. Some sort of unspoken communication appeared to pass between them before he looked back to Tatsuya and spoke.

“I’ll be just around the corner.” And with that he left them alone.

Marina, separated from her male companion, became noticeably more defensive in her body language, although Tatsuya could guess that it was by no means because she was intimidated by him.

“What?” she asked tersely.

“Although I have read some of the book you have on me, it was large and time was short. You have read its contents more than anybody and you know the most about…who I am. More than I do. I want you to tell me what you know, about me, Balance, what came before – everything.”

Marina’s expression hardened still further, as though for a reason she was almost certainly about to explain, she was angry with him.

“Well, firstly, if you have indeed lost your memory as you claim, and you are not now working in league with our former captors and the dragons… According to the book, you do not, or at least did not appear to be part of the Balance system as the Administrators claimed, but a revolutionary attempting to destroy it. I thought you were…”

She struggled to find a phrase, internal conflict obvious on her face.

“I thought you would be on our side, but then I had a vision. I’m not entirely clear what was happening, but I saw you betray a demon named Torada to the Administrators, and now, I don’t know anymore.”

“You saw what happened, I must admit. But you did not see me betray anyone. I did not know the Administrators would find me, and I wished no harm to Torada, although once they had killed him, I had no option to go with them for I was bound to seek out Keiko, who I knew to be on Balance. If I could have stopped them I would have. I hope that you can believe me when I tell you that.”

Silence passed between them for a couple of seconds as they both tried to figure each other out and reconcile what they had just heard. Tatsuya spoke again first.

“Why did they take your memories?”

“Because I am trouble to them. I am trouble because of the fascination I have - had with you! Which I don’t really think you deserve!”

She scowled at the memories, or rather lack of them that he had caused her, her girlish features taking on a more worldly wise aspect. Marina had a certain magnetism about her when she became angered, he thought.

“You are almost certainly right about that. But we do have a common enemy, I promise you. Thank you for taking the time.”

Tatsuya left Marina looking a little less certain about things, alone on the landing. As he turned around the corner towards the guest rooms, Carlito was waiting, leaning against the wall and flipping a coin over and over again absently.

“That’s the down side of hero worship.” He observed, ruefully.

“I never asked anyone if I could be a hero.” Tatsuya replied. “But I shall try not to disappoint her.”

Carlito smiled and nodded approvingly, then stood upright to talk quietly to him.

“A man like you might find it handy to have access to resources some day, if you are going to be that hero you talked about.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are powers far greater than anything even Gerard, Fiona or you can muster available to someone who has the right contacts. Higher powers. I can help you in that area, if you ever need it.”

Tatsuya was intrigued.

Thank you Carlito. I will bear your offer in mind.”

Tatsuya, Carlito and Marina left it at that for the time being. The next day bode of resolutions, but not necessarily for the better Tatsuya thought, as he fell asleep.

The next day, Tatsuya awoke with a start. As he sat up in bed, sunlight streamed in through the window in the wall opposite and warmed his face. It was mid-morning, judging by the height of the sun in the sky, which meant that he had slumbered longer than he had planned. He wasted no further time in clambering out of the bed and making his way downstairs towards the place where they had eaten the night before. Ingen, Khora and Clara were already sat with the Mayor around one of the tables in the bar-room. As with the other three tables in the room, its surface was covered with text that someone had carved into it during the night. Another man, who Tatsuya had not met before, stood nearby. The stranger looked out of place sitting in a medieval style tavern in his clean-cut suit and angular sunglasses, an impression that was reinforced by the stern and unyielding look on his face as though everything around him was disgusting.

Just as he arrived at the foot of the stairs however, Keiko appeared at the top, clearly in some distress.

“We have a problem upstairs!” she announced. Tatsuya turned back, ran up the stairs and onto the corridor on which he had encountered Marina last night. The stranger hurried up the stairs after him, but neither of them could see anything that might have troubled Keiko and it became apparent that she had stayed in the bar-room to talk to the others.

But, moments later, Keiko, Ingen, Khora, and Clara bundled past him and made down the corridor for the rooms of the as yet unseen other members of the party. He followed as they went from room to room, discovering that eight of their companions lay insensible with oddly coloured veins standing out on their exposed skin. They found Marina kneeling beside the motionless body of her brother and clutching his hand, she would not leave his side. Eventually they congregated in Natasha’s room, including the boy Gabriel, who had been fetched by Ingen, and Template who stood at the back of the crowd looking concerned. Natasha lay motionless on her bed, covered in a network of luminous vessels that gave off an amber glow. As the others watched silently, Ingen touched one of her temples and closed his eyes, trying to establish contact. Quickly abandoning the attempt, he asked Khora to hold his arm and bring additional psychic strength to the task. He remained still for a few seconds until his face had turned quite grey and the child Gabriel, who held his free hand, had started weeping silently, then he stood back and shook his head in defeat. She did not appear to be dead although Tatsuya could not see any sign of breathing, so he stepped forward and took her wrist, to feel for a pulse. There was no evidence that she was alive.

Carlito, Rayana and Damien were all lying in their rooms, with the same symptoms as Natasha. Gerard, Fiona, Llewella and Serena also lay passively in their beds, although the vessels covering them gave off an unearthly dark light, as though they were emanating shadows. Tatsuya suddenly realised the significance of the colours when he thought back to Fiona’s tale of the old order, and how the Amberites had fought against the Lords of Chaos when the Black Road had encroached into their reality. He guessed that they were being imprisoned by the essences of the opposite natures, which meant that Carlito, Rayana, Damien and Natasha were definitely either of the Logrus or the new equivalent, Void. The others were old and he knew them to be Amberites.

“They have been attacked!” someone declared, and it was not an unreasonable deduction. If correct, it meant that they were all in danger so long as they remained where they were. As if in confirmation, frightened cries could be heard coming from the street below. Leaning out of the window, Template identified the source of the disturbance and announced it to the room. “A star is falling from the sky,” he said before fleeing from the room. With no hesitation, Khora picked up Natasha’s prone body and slung it over his shoulder to carry her out of the inn. Tatsuya left and ducked back into Fiona’s room, picked her up, and carried her outside after Khora and Natasha. Shortly after he made it outside, Tatsuya saw that the falling star had reached a height at which it could be more accurately identified – not a star at all, but a metallic structure with the size and appearance of an ornate bunker, falling in a great blazing arc down towards the ground. It came with incredible speed and, with incredible destructive force, it ploughed through a copse of nearby trees, crashing through the outhouses it exploded through the West wall of the Sun Inn! Tatsuya, encumbered by Fiona’s limp body, was still dropping to the ground as it impacted mere yards away, and the blast threw the both of them through the air. He blacked out momentarily, coming to to see the dust from the explosion starting to settle and dissipate to reveal that the inn was no more than scattered planks of wood, lumps of masonry and burning fabric, set alight by the oil lamps inside the rooms. The sign outside the door was smashed into several fragments lying forlornly among the carnage.

***************************************************************************

“Keiko!” he cried out, for he had not seen his friend leave the Inn.

There was no sign of any of the mortals who had been inside, but all the members of his party seemed to be intact, albeit only the warriors among them were rising to their feet immediately, with the others lying either stunned or lightly wounded.

Along with Tatsuya, Ingen, Keiko and the newcomer, whose name was Smith, rose to their feet. Smith was up first, and took the time to brush dust from his suit and straighten his tie before marching over to the broken hulk of the crashed ship that was the only semi-intact object left in the vicinity. Tatsuya knew instinctively that it was a man-made artefact, as old memories whispered in the back reaches of his conscious mind, but he did not find anything familiar about the shape. Smith obviously did, for pausing only to touch at something in his left ear, he activated a door on the side of the ship, which slowly hissed open to reveal a trio of glassy tubes, each filled with a purple liquid and about seven feet tall. One of these contained a man, dressed in futuristic warrior’s clothing, with a firearm in a holster at his side and the handle of a great sword visible over his shoulder. He seemed to be in his mid to late twenties by human standards, but that was no guarantee of chronological age. He appeared to be in a state of suspended animation. Smith was now examining a control panel, and as Tatsuya began to speak to check him, they arrived.

Eight Administrators and Torada, very much alive it seemed.

After a brief standoff, the Administrators began to drift towards where the still motionless bodies of Gerard, Serena, Fiona, Natasha, Carlito, Llewella and Rayana lay. Tatsuya rushed to place himself between them, and the Administrators stopped and hesitated.

“We have not come here to fight Shadow Warrior.” Torada rumbled. Tatsuya was gratified that Marina could see now who had really been in league with the Administrators…

“What do you want then, Torada?” He replied, making a show of gripping the hilt of his sword to the Administrators.

“We have come for collection.”

“Of them?” Ingen asked, gesturing at his fallen comrades.

“Yes.”

“Then you are wrong!” Tatsuya barked aggressively. “You have come for a fight!”

With that, the Shadow Warrior bellowed his mighty war cry and hurtled into the air, drawing his sword to attack as he flew straight at Torada. The hulking demon leapt forward with surprising speed, and Tatsuya realised as it parried his sword cut with the stony warts that dotted his forearms that the demon had concealed its true abilities from him the first time they had met.

As the Tatsuya and Torada fought, Ingen suddenly began to radiate with inner light and as he emitted a rising cry, blue and white armour plates formed from his skin, appearing as wave-fronts of light formed, split apart and crept all over him as though burning away a thin covering of flesh. As the transformation neared completion, his face disappeared behind an all-enclosing helmet surmounted with a tall crest, leaving just shadow where his eyes had been visible before.

With his transformation complete, Ingen joined Tatsuya in the fight against Torada, and Tatsuya could see that he was not the only one joining the fray. The previously inanimate man who had arrived on board the crashed vessel was now free of his tube thanks to Smith, and was laying into the Administrators with his sword alongside Keiko, and forcing them back in disarray. Mindful that he should not discover the consequences of killing one the way that Tatsuya had, he called out to the stranger not to kill them, but before he could tell him to remove their enchanted cowls Torada spotted his distraction, and landed an elbow in the side of Tatsuya’s face which sending him sprawling backwards into a pile of smouldering splinters.

Now Tatsuya began his own transformation – red light blazed out from his eyes and mouth and spread to cover his whole head, then moved down in a ring around his body, leaving a figure encased in red chitinous plate armour behind it, until it sunk into the ground by his feet and he was completely changed. He leapt back into the fight immediately, just as Smith and Ingen between them swept Torada’s legs from beneath him, and as the demon hung momentarily horizontal above the ground, Tatsuya stepped up, changed his grip on his sword so that he held it pointing down at Torada’s torso, and plunged it straight through him, nailing Torada into the ground.

Incredibly, Torada not only remained alive but quickly sprang to his feet and ran away, following the surviving Administrators who were now fleeing from the stranger from the sky. Ingen was quickly off the mark and tackled him from behind, causing him to fall forward and do himself further damage on the sword still sticking through him. As Tatsuya arrived, he kicked Torada over onto his back so that he could withdraw the sword, intending to administer another gutting, but before he had the chance Torada faded away into nothingness, as did the Administrators. Somehow, despite the victory, the eight afflicted ones had been snatched during the fighting and abducted. But one lost colleague returned – giving off a blue glow, Ingen’s new armour peeled back to reveal his face again, except that it did not reveal his face at all. It was Lyrs. He was alive.

“Hello!” he chirped, deliberately ignoring the consternation of those around him.

The logical conclusion was that those abducted had been taken back to Balance to go into the prison and have their memories removed by the memlechs. That meant that those remaining free would have to go there and rescue them unless they wanted to one day be next. The Administration could not be allowed such a huge victory. And Ingen had been Lyr all along, apparently.

Smith approached Tatsuya and offered to transport him to Balance. Although it was strange that he had approached so quickly, addressing only Tatsuya and assuming that he could not travel himself, Tatsuya’s guard was down in the immediate aftermath of the fight – after all, Smith had helped them, and he had been with Ingen when Tatsuya came downstairs in the morning, and so he agreed. But it was to transpire that Smith had a personal agenda.

The Shogun became incandescent with rage, his eyes burning with fury, and his retainer became fearful that he would become the victim of a stress-relieving sword stroke, as had his predecessor. But the Shogun had no time to indulge himself.

“General Myashi!” he bellowed. The General came riding over at speed, looking nervous.

“My Lord!”

“Send the ashigaru forward and finish them off with arrows! Take what mounted samurai you have off to the west and ride around the hills to attack them from the rear, I want every one of those stinking peasant scum dead!”

“Yes my Lord!” Myashi galloped away to round up his men and instruct the leaders of the ashigaru units, relieved that he was still alive.

“We shall join the attack ourselves!” the Shogun barked at no one in particular, but those high ranking officers around him knew that he was referring to them, as he fastened his face plate onto his helmet.

Tatsuya made his way to the front of the army and looked down the slope towards the enemy. A quick estimate of their strength revealed that the ninjas were still outnumbered two to one, and although the surviving enemy were of the second line, they were no less deadly for it. Ranks upon ranks of war bows now faced the Iga army, with spearmen units spaced in between the units of archers. By the rear of the enemy army, Tatsuya could make out some horsemen streaming away to the west and out of sight. Somehow he didn’t think that they would be retreating, but that did not unduly worry him, for they had survived one cavalry charge already and if they faced another one it would mean that they had fought their way past the ninjas he had placed along the roads waiting for such a flanking manoeuvre. They would arrive too late.

“Charge!” someone cried from the left flank. Startled, Tatsuya turned to see what was happening, and was dismayed to see the samurai who had held the hill from the initial enemy attack had found horses and mounted, and were now charging straight towards the enemy line unsupported.

“Fools!” He cursed aloud. A younger man approached him urgently, and implored him to order an advance quickly before the samurai were wiped out and the army weakened for naught.

“No.” Tatsuya replied grimly. He had worried that the old samurai longing to always charge and be first into the fray would come to disrupt his battleplan as much as he had based it upon the enemy doing so themselves.

“We must wait for the right moment or we will be cut down by arrows. Against the whole army their loss is acceptable.”

They watched as the samurai rode into a storm of arrows, brandishing their katanas high and bellowing their war cries like evil spirits. Some were thrown to the ground as their horses were killed under them, pinned by the leg or finding themselves on foot with too much ground to cover to make it alive. A couple fell from uninjured horses with a shaft protruding from their eyes, the only truly vulnerable area of a samurai’s armour against ranged weaponry. Some of the ninjas had similar armour, but the speed with which they had been forced to assemble meant that many had lesser or no protection. Many of the charging samurai’s horses were hit by one or two arrows and were not killed, but swerved in agony before their riders could bring them back under control and press on with the attack, but a few were left miraculously unharmed and they were the first to crash into the Shogun’s forces.

The sound of steel ringing and clashing drifted across the field as they fought. At first it seemed as though they were winning as they cut down a unit of archers and some cheers arose from the ninja lines, but then they rode on into spearmen, who checked their advance by weight of numbers and length of weapon, holding them still until a small group of cavalry, including the Shogun himself, launched a counter charge into them. The sound of battle raged on for a few minutes, until all the Iga samurai had been killed.

And now Tatsuya was nervous. He had not seen the Shogun fight until now, and his speed and skill of was beyond anything he had though a man capable of. His swords, for he wielded two full length katanas about him, sliced through armoured men as if they were tatami mats in the dojo and seemed to trail ghostly fire in their wake. There was unearthly power in them, he was sure. Only his sword had had such heavenly power he thought, and he had always urged himself to remember where he had acquired it from, to shed light on who he was. If it was the key to his special skills, then perhaps it followed that the bearer of such blades would prove his equal?

As the last of the Iga samurai fell, Myashi’s men were hurtling headlong along a narrow forested track to emerge to the rear of the ninja army. Dappled light rained through the canopy and lit their way as they spurred their steeds ever onward, keen to rejoin the fight and earn some glory. This was a good tactic, but unfortunately predictable. As they rounded a bend, a chain was pulled taught and shot up to bar the way; Myashi’s horse had no time to stop and was struck in the throat, causing it to fall and thrown him into a shallow ditch filled with rainwater. The horses behind tripped on his fallen mount and threw their riders as well, those behind them sliding to an ungainly halted bunch. As all momentum ceased, their ninja ambushers burst from the vegetation either side and from the trees above, impaling grounded samurai as they tried to stand up and cutting the legs of the horses that had not fallen, making them spill the riders that remained mounted onto the ground where they were easy prey. General Myashi rose to his feet as a ninja with a sword came at him with the weapon held high, ready to split his head asunder, and was quick enough to draw his own sword and disembowel his attacker before he had the chance. That did not put him out of danger, for he had to parry another thrust from his right immediately and then overcame the second attacker with a secret technique his old sensei had shown him, cutting both his arms off and then finishing the job by decapitating him with a second stroke. A short arrow lodged itself in his armoured skirt, but did not penetrate; he rushed back to help his beleaguered men and found himself the only one not already dead or fatally wounded already. His son lay among the dead, his throat cut as he had lain helplessly trapped beneath his horse. Mixed in with the corpses of his horses and men lay a couple of black robed figures, but ten more, very much alive ninjas turned to face him. Armoured, he could not escape, and so he raised his sword above his head and waited for them to come.

The enemy were advancing up the slope to meet them once more, and when Takamatsu saw the first signs that they were going to halt for their archers to take a shot, he gave the order. Behind the first ranks of the army, ninjas equipped with their characteristic short bows fired flame arrows into the sky. The ninja bow was much smaller than the traditional war bow, and consequently had only a fraction of the range. The enemy started to mock as the ninjas’ arrows landed well short among the grass, but they had misunderstood their intent.

Outgunned, Tatsuya had advised denying the enemy the chance to use their advantage by creating a smokescreen. Takamatsu had predicted rain the day before the battle, but a fine day for the fighting. He suggested using fire arrows to scorch the damp grass, and produce not flame, but smoke instead. Combined with the smoke left from the detonation of the mine, it was now working well, and a dense pall began to form, cloaking the two sides from each other. Some enemy archers realised the ruse and let loose. Men on the front rank collapsed forward into the dirt, but it was too late to make a difference.

Tatsuya and Takamatsu drew swords together, and sounded the charge.

A terrifying roar rose up from within the smoke, and nervous archers fired another volley, blindly. Seconds later, a wave of black clad warriors burst out of the whiteness and piled into the enemy line like a typhoon of steel. The din of battle echoed through the valley and over the hills as the two sides fought a brutal contest for survival, artful sword strokes and gutter fighting moves equal in abundance as the armies merged into one giant swirling melee. Only the ashigaru spearmen with their long polearms maintained any cohesion, moving their spear tips as one as they had been specially trained to do. Individual ninjas stood and fired short bows or threw knives and shuriken into the densely packed formations, goading them to disintegrate and charge, but that would have handed the ninjas a tactical victory, for alone their long spears made them vulnerable. Instead, the spear formations held, and their tormentors were forced to move off as samurai ranged through the smoke searching out worthy adversaries.

Tatsuya found himself forcing a path through a group of enemy swordsmen, ducking cuts and hacking at limbs alternately, his sword tearing a red path through even the finest mail and leaving his foes dead or dying in his wake. Suddenly, a unit of ashigaru spears emerged from the smoke and advanced toward him, their spear tips waving ominously in his direction. Without pause, he launched himself into it, batting the points aside with his sword with superhuman speed, as dozens of them tried to jab and thrust at him. Eventually, he cut and parried his way inside the ring of spears and advanced between the shafts toward the now panicking soldiers. Once he was within sword range, he unleashed a massacre upon them, severing heads, arms and torsos like a machine until they broke and fled, scattering across the battlefield with their ungainly weapons to be killed one by one.

As Tatsuya stood at the epicentre of the bloody pile of the dead, soaked in their blood, he sensed a terrible presence, somewhere unseen, elusive but near. The smoke was almost impenetrable now, and he felt utterly alone in the middle of the battlefield except for the feeling that he was being watched, hunted. Then, out of the white miasma, a shadow slowly appeared. Riding a white steed, the figure wore an extravagant helmet, decorated with horns and heraldic devices that gave him an air of evil. Hanging from his belt was a sword and an empty scabbard. In his right hand was a long, curved sword dripping blood, and as it swayed through the air as his horse walked, it trailed fire. It was the Shogun himself, come to give battle alone and unafraid.

The vast expanse of the mountain range was covered in three feet of virgin snow beneath a crystal clear, electric blue sky. In the middle of a Japanese winter, no one ventured up into the peaks, beyond the tree line. But there were fresh footprints in the snow, and they led up towards the peak of Mount Iga. It could only be him.

The wind tore at his loose black robes and stung his eyes as he struggled through the snow drifts towards the summit, desperate to reach it before nightfall. He pulled his hood across his nose and mouth, trying to keep the frigid air from rushing into his lungs as he breathed and freezing him. The man he was going to see would hopefully have the answer to this nightmare, the man who for some reason lived in a cave near the summit of the tallest mountain around where he could not be troubled by anyone at this time of year. It had to be said that a man with such knowledge would have many enemies, and so casual visitors were to be discouraged.

His foot plunged down though the snow and found no purchase, causing him to fall forwards into the icy powder. Dragging himself quickly to his feet, there was no time for irritation, only a stronger urge to complete the journey. Time was running out, for the Tengu would be trying to find him by now. He scanned the skies with anxiety, expecting to see them high above at any second. Faster...

The trail wound through many miles of mountain pass and over plateaus and crests, always rising higher and higher. The Tengu soared above it, clutching their terrible weapons in human arms while their crows’ eyes searched the ice wastes below. It was not long before their demonic vision saw the lone black figure making its way alone through the desolation. They screeched a battle-cry and performed a wing-over to come diving down upon him.

The screeching carried faintly on a gust of wind to his ears. He had failed to evade them. Looking up at the sky, he saw them as six black dots high above, forming into a line and rapidly increasing in size as they dove down upon him. He stopped and drew his sword ready for combat, its blade glowing gently with his life force, and awaited the onslaught. The leader came racing down with such speed that it seemed as though it would plough straight into the snow, but at the last second pulled up and zoomed straight over his head, taking a sweep at him with its rust coloured great axe. Flinging himself aside to avoid this lightning quick assault, he managed a wild swing at the demon as it passed by, but met nothing but air. Lying on his back in the snow, he watched as another Tengu soared straight down on him with a jagged spear held out, aimed at his chest. He rolled onto his side just enough to dodge the point which lanced deep into the snow and took advantage of the Tengu's sudden loss of velocity to swap his sword over to his left hand and grasp onto the shaft of the spear, hacking up at the creature as he held it in place and cutting deeply into its right forearm. The Tengu screeched in agony and released its weapon before rising up an out of harms way with a frenzied flapping of its feathery wings. It had not gone far before the hurled spear plunged into its back and brought it down in a spray of crimson blood.

Rising back to his feet, he was immediately sent sprawling as he only just managed to block a sword swing from another high speed swooping attack, rolling backwards over and over again down the face of the mountain until he came to rest on a small plateau. The Tengu circled above before repeating their diving assault, the first of them coming with sword and managing to embed it into its targets robes, lifting him bodily into the air with it. Grasping onto the demon's belt, he impaled it through the belly with his sword, expecting to be released and to fall a few feet into soft snow, however the short flight time had taken them both over the edge of a gorge and the two figures separated and fell hundreds of feet towards the trees below, the Tengu helicoptering into the side of the mountain like a falling sycamore leaf, the man crashing through the dense canopy and smashing upon a rock next to a forest path. His grip on his sword relaxed, and it fell to the ground, its glow fading until it was no more.

Takamatsu Toda paced along the path, flicking larger twigs and rocks from his path with his staff as he went. His time in the mountains meditating was at an end, and he was looking forward to going home and seeing his students and his grandchildren, Yoshi and Manakki. The village was not far now, which was good since he had felt an evil presence earlier when he was near the tree line, and thought that he had seen a strange bird falling to earth. It seemed like an ill portent. He paused briefly as he came upon a spring to take a drink. The water was pleasantly warm, by the heart of the mountain. As he was squatting to scoop up handfuls of water, he caught something in his peripheral vision further along the path. He turned to look, and saw a man lying arched over a rock, seemingly dead, a sword lying beside his limp hand. Takamatsu sprinted over and checked his wrist for a pulse. He found none, so checked his neck. There was a very faint hint of life. An otherworldly cry from above the trees made Takamatsu look up, and although he could not see what had caused it, he knew that it was something threatening. Hastily, he slung the unconscious man over his shoulder and tucked his sword into his belt, then made his way as quickly as he could towards the safety of the village.
The village was a place of quiet but intense activity. The fields and workshops were tended from sunrise to sunset by the civilians and the ninjas and kuonichi, the female ninjas, practised their art in the dojos and unfarmed fields almost constantly, in various small groups. They were all students of Takamatsu at some level, although he let his older and most gifted students take most of the routine lessons. He had many things to spend his time on, not least meditation, which often helped him to see the safest path for the clan to follow.

This village at the foot of Mount Iga was just one of many owned by the Togakure clan, a very old family of ninja that controlled much of the province, and which sent out many agents to work elsewhere in Japan to ensure that the troubles of the state did not encroach into their domain. Takamatsu owned it, and as the eldest of his family was nominal head of the clan, with his brothers and oldest grandchildren and nephews owning the other villages. He liked his life here at this particular one, which he shared with his second son and his youngest grandchildren, Manaaki and Yoshi, who were both proving to be extremely talented in the ninja arts.

It was Manaaki who saw him first, coming up the dirt path from the edge of the forest with a black load slung over his shoulder, which as he drew nearer Manaaki saw was an injured man. Perhaps a naive bandit had attacked his grandfather again, mistaking him for a frail and defenceless elder. When would they learn? He really should stop bringing them home with him though.

"Yoshi! Grandfather is home! He has a casualty with him!"

Yoshi opened her eyes, brought out of her meditative state by a familiar voice. She took a moment to sit still and fully awaken before she rose from her seated position to her feet. The interior of the temple was very simple, made entirely of polished dark wood with only a few incense sticks and candles in strategic positions around the room, and an understated shrine in the centre of the back wall. This consisted of a drawing of Daisuke Togakure, the founder of the clan, Takamatsu as head of the family, and a mirror in the centre. The mirror showed you a reflection of your true self, devoid of the ego and busy mind of the viewer.

She bowed to the shrine, and then walked out into the sunlight to find the one who had awakened her. Shielding her eyes from the sudden glare of the sun as she descended the steps, she could make out someone approaching across the fields carrying a staff and another person slung over their shoulder, and someone running out to meet them. She smiled as she recognised her grandfather - it appeared that he had been demonstrating ninjutsu to one of the local scoundrels again.

Manaaki took the unconscious man from Takamatsu and walked with him into the village.

"What did you do to this one grandfather?" he enquired.

"You should not be so presumptuous." He scolded him. "I found this man by the side of the road. I believe that he is important somehow."

"To us? How?"

"I do not know yet, but there were portents. I shall be interested in what he can tell me when he revives. Tell your father that he will be our house guest for the time being."

6 weeks later, Yoshi chewed the end of a straw as she watched the men training with her father in the northernmost field. It had been used for grazing the horses this year, and the short grass made it a pleasant outside training venue. The spring sun was shining, the birds sang, and cherry blossoms festooned the trees. She was happy.

Father was demonstrating some kicking techniques on Tatsuya-san. The enigmatic stranger had lost all his memories when he had eventually come around, and could not even recall his name. Tatsuya was his own choice, after a couple of days thinking. Tatsuya had taken up ninjutsu, and she had to admit that he was impressive. Already, just a month and a half after his first lesson he could best most of the village. Father could still give him a run for his money, and Grandfather could beat him, but not as convincingly as he did with everyone else. It was like he never made any mistakes after being shown a technique once - a special gift Yoshi desperately wished she possessed. She knew that such skill would be useful in times to come, not too far in the future.

She felt guilty that Tatsuya had been integrated so readily into the ninja way of life, for she knew that this would earn him many enemies. The forces of the Shogunate were encroaching into Iga province more and more often, and it was only as matter of time before an invasion army crossed their borders. Would Tatsuya be expected to fight then? It did appear that he had been a warrior prior to his arrival, for his sole possession had been a very fine sword, but only one, so he was not a samurai for they carried two at all times as a badge of rank.
Pondering on such things, she did not notice the passage of time until Tatsuya was stood by her.
“Somewhere else Yoshi?” he enquired, noting the faraway expression on her face.
“Oh, so sorry Tatsuya-san. I was thinking about the nature of destiny. Sometimes I think I can see it working to make things as they should be and I was trying to figure out what that is.”
He sat down beside her and plucked the straw from her mouth. She blushed, for she had forgotten it. Tatsuya twisted it into a circle and held it before her with his finger and thumb.
“Life is like a wheel you have said, always turning and coming back to a place it has been before?”
She nodded, for this was true. All things were destined to be repeated, and all things were equal in the end.
“Then what is the point if all is decided and the cycle never ends?”
“Because the world can only function if there is balance.”

Something deep within Tatsuya felt that balance was not so desirable as Yoshi assumed.

*********

The morning mist was as thick as the smoke from a signal fire, but it could not hide the presence of thousands of men standing in disciplined ranks on the slopes of Mount Iga. The souls of so many men were as real to Tatsuya as the halberd clasped tightly between his fingers as he awaited battle. None spoke, they simply listened as the sound of clanking armour and horses’ hooves crossed the blind void from the positions of the Shoguns army across the fields .This would be the greatest battle of recent times, they all knew. Not since the original Emperor had so many men gathered to spill each others blood in one place. Masked by the white mist their opponents stood with a three to one advantage in numbers. They all knew that another army approached from the rear, but a days ride to seal the trap and crush them and their families in an iron grip, to expunge the very record of their kin from existence. The only way out was to fight, fight like their ancestral demon kin the Tengu. So they would fight, and they would take their enemies to hell with them, for they were the greatest of Japans warriors making their final suicidal stand. They were the ninjas.

The mist began to rise, slowly at first so that one could see the masses of black clad warriors either side, which gave him hope. Many had come, a greater host than Tatsuya had ever seen before. Five men to his right, in the front rank despite being over four score years old stood his teacher Takamatsu. He had seen dozens of battles, but they were all far away from home. Now he stood less that half a mile from his house, where his grandchildren huddled in fear at the sound of approaching war drums. This day would see the fate of the Togakure decided.

The mist now lifted, giving sight across the valley to the lines of the enemy. A gasp rose up from the lines as the magnitude of the force before them became apparent. At least ten thousand men stood on the opposite side of the battlefield with banners flying in a lazy morning breeze. The Shogun had drawn his forces up in two lines, stretching from the westward foot of Mount Iga to the village of Ishima-iro a mile to the south. Cavalry milled on the southern edge of his battle line, with spears in the centre and ashigaru militia holding the weaker left flank. Behind the first line were more spears and bowmen. The Shogun on his distinctive white charger sat in the centre of the second line, surrounded by his generals, where he had a commanding view of the field. Facing them, the Iga army of three and a half thousand ninja and samurai held a single line between two small hills, on which all missile troops had been positioned behind a screen of samurai spearmen. The samurai held the flanks because they were unwilling to retreat, a necessary part of the battle plan. Tatsuya felt a chill invade his heart as he realised the scale of the slaughter that was about to ensue. If only there had been enough warning to allow the ninjas to disperse and fight a campaign from the hills, but the invasion had been swift and secretive, so the ninja and the local samurai had been forced to stand and fight together in the field or be butchered piecemeal.

The day before, shortly after word had come of the two massive armies entering Iga, Tatsuya had been watching the distribution of black powder to the few hand gunners and cannon operators that could be mustered ahead of the battle. Thanks to secret knowledge, the ninja villages could produce large amounts of black powder at short notice, and there was a significant surplus. This was held in barrels on mule trains that would resupply the cannons in the unlikely event that the Shogun’s army stood still long enough for a sustained bombardment to take place. It was as a samurai was scolding one of his retainers for bringing a naked flame too close to one of the mule trains that Tatsuya had realised a more effective way to employ the excess powder. The plan was very high risk, but possibly the only realistic hope of victory.

A shout came from the ranks of the enemy as the first line began to advance up the gentle slope toward the Iga army. As defenders, they had had time to choose the most advantageous place to meet battle, but the attackers strength in numbers meant that they were unperturbed by such a modest advantage as a gentle incline. The real reason that the ninja had chosen this place to fight however, was in fact that the two small hills at either end of the line would funnel the attacking force into the centre and then over the crest of the rise on which they currently stood, hopefully into the trap.

Under a relatively light rain of arrows and bullets from the flanks of the Iga lines, the Shogun’s samurai came on, led by the cavalry which could not resist the temptation to charge into battle alone before the rest of the army could catch up, for this was how samurai glory was decided. The horses swept towards the hill on the left of the Iga lines, but finding the going easier toward the centre, and the ranks of spears arrayed on the slope daunting, they shied away and came crashing into the left of the centre of the line. Steel clashed, horses whinnied and men screamed as the elite troops penetrated into the Iga lines, running men through with spears, slashing down on heads with their swords, or simply riding over those unable to get out of the way quickly enough. The danger of a rapid defeat was greatest at this point, which is why Tatsuya had made certain that he would be here. Spinning his naginata like a waterwheel, he nimbly darted between the horses as they rushed past him, slicing legs and arms off man and horse alike, casting riders sprawling onto the ground where they were dispatched with a sword in the back before they could get to their feet. Spying a samurai with a particularly lavish flag attached to his back, Tatsuya leapt onto a riderless horse and rode towards him, spearing a samurai on foot with his naginata as he dropped it and drew his sword. He and the samurai captain clashed as they rode by each other at full tilt, their swords meeting edge to edge as both swung for the others’ neck. Tatsuya’s sword cut effortlessly through the mortal blade of his opponent, and effortlessly decapitated him. The head had not yet landed as he had to turn and parry a blow from the side, thrusting his riposte deep into the cavlaryman’s guts as though his armour were non-existent. While drawing his sword out, he saw a ninja being charged down and used his left hand to throw a shuriken from his belt into the eyes of the samurai, blinding him. The rider fell, clutching his face, and was killed by his intended victim.

The spearmen now reached the Iga army’s battle line, and the two crashed together like a tsunami on a rocky shore. For a while, the two sides surged back and forth, as men dropped bleeding to the ground and were trampled underfoot by those still standing. Bow and gun fire from the hills kept the main mass of the enemy on flatter ground in the centre, as the plan called for. Then, as a horn sounded, the ninjas fell back and poured back over the ridgeline, the samurai in hot pursuit.

The Shogun laughed as he watched the Iga army’s centre collapse and retreat over the crest of the hill, his loyal samurai pouring after them. True, the left and right flanks held out still thanks to favourable defensive terrain, but they would soon be encircled and destroyed. He would not even need to commit his reserves to seal a victory.
The report initially sounded like a thunderclap, but the sky was blue. Then, the massive pall of smoke and flame belched up into the sky from behind the ridge. Something had exploded, but what? It was too large for a misfired cannon…

For a few seconds it literally rained samurai as those not obliterated by the mine’s explosion fell back to earth. The massive weapon had worked just as Tatsuya had predicted, detonating just as the Iga army reached the limit of their feigned retreat and catching the mass of pursuing samurai unawares. Unfortunately, to be effective, the blast had been made so large that many ninja had been hit by shrapnel and either killed or incapacitated, but the losses were acceptable. Although still outnumbered by the surviving attackers, the Iga army had been ready for the shock of the blast and were ready to fight again much sooner than the stunned troops of the Shogun, and more importantly, they now had the first wave surrounded, with higher ground on both sides, from which men could charge and missiles could rain down into the mass of samurai.

The circle of spears quickly contracted, and in the melee that followed men were cut down like wheat before the sickle. As the tide of battle settled, it was to the Shogun’s fury and surprise that the black army of Iga reappeared on the ridge, facing the second line of the Shogun’s troops.

The cowls flew at him, smothering him as he sat in an empty house in a rain lashed village somewhere, piling up on top of him…

Tatsuya awoke to find himself in an open topped pit. Immediately, he leapt up and out into the room that contained the openings to all the cells where prisoners of Balance were held while the memlechs fed on their minds. He began to search them, in case Keiko was in one right now, but had not checked more than a couple before he felt a strange sensation at the back of his mind, something trying to gain the attention of his consciousness – he stopped and tried to make sense of what sounded like voices calling him from far away but within his own head.

He felt a pull, to another place. It felt like the sensation he had experienced when Lyr used his card to transport the two of them out of the prison and into Khora’s lab, and so he submitted to it and sure enough, found himself fading and switching from here to what appeared to be a stable, empty of horses but with lots of interesting looking people in it.

Khora was there in his trademark labcoat, looking rather haggard and crazy, even for himself. Natasha was with him, looking very tired as she attended to Khora. As well as these familiar faces, there were many who Tatsuya did not recognise. He sidled over to Natasha and expressed his relief that both she and Khora were still alive, if not in particularly good health.

“Who are all these people?” he asked her, “and why are we all assembled here?”

Natasha sighed, and after a pause, directed Tatsuya’s gaze around the stable as she named each person: Ingen was the distinguished looking middle aged gentleman carrying a large tome, which she informed him contained the trump image of Tatsuya.
Marina was the young girl with the tumbling mousey hair, slim to the point of seeming elfin, whispering intently to someone called Carlito and deliberately avoiding eye contact with Tatsuya, he noticed. Carlito was a small man with short dark hair, probably at the end of his youth but still handsome, a toothy grin occasionally flashing out from a mass of short stubble. Tatsuya noticed from his body language that he was affectionate towards Marina, but his attentive gaze was regularly turned toward the small golden haired child who was standing out in the stable yard. His name was Gabriel.
Princess Llewella was a willowy young woman with emerald green, shoulder length hair and striking features, not least of which was her green tinged skin, the impact of which was amplified by the fact that she was wearing only a lab coat. The woman Natasha referred to as The Doctor (but also known as Fiona) was notable for her otherworldly air and long, wavy, bright red hair. She wore a smart blue uniform and white coat, more like a soldier than a doctor Tatsuya thought. Colin, although that name really didn’t suit him, was a tall and solidly built man, all muscles and black hair, falling in curls around his face and forming a short beard across his chin and upper lip. He was in conversation with a woman who could have been a female version of himself, toned and slightly more muscular than a woman was supposed to be, wearing leather armour and carrying a long sword. Her face was stern, her blue eyes looked cold, framed by her dead straight dark brown hair.

Tatsuya’s gaze was drawn then to a graceful blond woman carrying two large books and wearing a dress of the highest quality. She seemed a little familiar.

“And her?”

“That is Clara, Queen of Diohn, apparently - if she’s worked out a way to get back there, I guess that’s where we’ll all probably end up going in the very near future.”

“An illustrious gathering.” He mused. “But why are we all here?”

“That, Tatsuya-san, is a question that the finest minds could ponder over for centuries. The closest thing to an answer I can come up with is this; something started with your prison break and it’s been snowballing ever since.”

Natasha settled back down to care for Khora. Tatsuya approached the one known as ‘Colin’ and struck up a conversation. Colin seemed defensive, although Tatsuya was perplexed by the underlying hostility that he detected in his voice – after all, they had never met before had they? So what would Colin have against him?

The conversation turned quickly to dragons, on account of Tatsuya mentioning them. About half the people present stopped their own conversations upon hearing the word and chorused “Dragons?” in an interested tone. Tatsuya told them all he had learned from his recent journey, and realised that no-one here was on the right side of the Day Dragon Council either. At that realisation, he felt an enormous sense of relief, for by himself he had felt too small and impotent to face down the threat. Although he did not understand exactly why he was so afraid of the Council, he knew to trust his gut instincts. Perhaps with the aid of this group, he could stop them. But that would of course, have been too simple.

Marina announced that she did not trust what he was telling them, or indeed Tatsuya on the whole. Somehow, she seemed to have access to vague information regarding his exploits and specifically, believed that his past actions had amounted to a betrayal of Torada.
This caused a commotion. Carlito made it clear that he believed whatever Marina had to say on the matter, but that he did not necessarily think that Tatsuya was a danger to them. The others did not seem to be willing to leap to conclusions based upon whatever source Marina was using (the book?) but Colin, or Caine as several of them referred to him, did not seem to need reasons to be suspicious of Tatsuya. There was clearly much going on beneath Colin/Caine’s façade, and Tatsuya would find out what that was.

Serena changed the subject by expressing an urgent need to rescue her father, whose name was Gerard, and was in some kind of danger. Ingen and Fiona had an idea as to how they could use a trump to achieve this, despite the fact that earlier attempts to do so had been blocked by a powerful force, by having everyone present join hands and combine their psychic powers. This was done, and with a great effort of will, they broke through whatever magical barrier was working against them and successfully summoned both Gerard - and Dunnog.

Dunnog the Troll King had blubbery looking grey flesh, four stubby horns on his head and more teeth than strictly necessary. He wore brown leather trousers but nothing else. Although a creature of significant physical presence it was clear that he felt out of his depth as he stood back from the group, observing and attempting to make sense of recent events.

Gerard was huge, dressed in expensive, hard-wearing clothing to go with his weathered looking skin. By observing his movements, Tatsuya became confident that this man was one of the strongest humanoids he had so far met.

A man, called Template Tatsuya gathered, appeared on foot and immediately began to accost those nearest to the stable door. Quickly, his speech rose in volume until he was addressing the entire assembly on the concepts of “law”, “rightful imprisonment” and “danger to society”. The thrust of his argument was that everyone present deserved to be in Balance and that they should make no attempt to escape. This suggestion did not appear to be backed up by the suggestion of force, and as a result his points did not elicit a serious response from most of his audience, although there was no way they could fail to hear him.

Tatsuya looked around to gauge how Template’s speech had been received by the others. He took the earnest looks on Natasha, Carlito and Marina’s faces to mean that they accepted what Template was saying. Even so, they did not look as thought they were considering surrendering themselves to the appropriate authorities immediately, and nor was he, even though he felt that Template was speaking truth. He just couldn’t reconcile the image of a multi-dimensional threat to civil order with himself. Certainly he was powerful, and why not? He had trained hard to acquire his skills (although the administrators had insinuated that they had been enhanced recently somehow) and was far from the only one to have mastered the way of the warrior. He did not possess the strange magical abilities of the others – at least he didn’t think so.

Clara, Serena, Fiona, Caine, Llewella, and Gerard however were clearly scornful of Template, and he detected more than a hint of arrogance as they exchanged mocking looks with each other. Possibly that meant that they were indeed dangerous. Ingen, Khora, Gabriel and Dunnog did not seem able to decide how they feel about any of it, and their expressions changed from deep thought to wilful ignorance in due course.

Regardless of their stance on crime and punishment, everyone decided to leave before they were found and re-imprisoned. For want of anything better to do, they agreed to free Diohn, which seemed to be under the yoke of three dragons allegedly politically allied to the Administrators of Balance. From what Tatsuya had said, dragons were the key to their misfortunes and confronting them might provide an idea of how to proceed. Travelling there could be accomplished by using a trump image of Diohn in one of the books carried by Princess Clara.

Time to find Keiko and leave…

“Natasha, I am looking for someone, but she is not here. Her name is Keiko, I have to…”

“She’s upstairs sleeping. Actually, I think she would probably want to be woken up now, what with everybody leaving and all.”

She led Tatsuya out of through the stables and into the main university buildings, past a door guard/receptionist who recognised them both and greeted them by name as they approached.

“Do you know in which room we might find our friend Keiko?” She asked him.

“Eight forty two.”

They carried on along a corridor to a set of lift doors. They appeared similar to lifts that one might find on any technological world, except that Tatsuya had a horrible feeling that they were connected to the silver metallic golem holding a rope who stood motionless in a space cut into the corridor wall.

“Eighth floor please.” Natasha requested, and the doors slid open as the creature pulled a lever. She stepped inside immediately, followed by the briefly hesitant Tatsuya.

The lift rose with surprising smoothness to the 8th floor, propelled by the efforts of the silver being. Tatsuya stepped out into the corridor ahead of Natasha, and checked for danger. Satisfied, he led her to the room they had been told was Keiko’s and rapped on the door. There was no response. Slowly and quietly, he pushed the door open and slipped inside.

The curtains were closed, so the room was dim, but by the light that forced its way through the material Tatsuya could see a young woman partially covered by a sheet sleeping on the single bed, a sheet that bunched up in the corner by her head so as to possibly cover a sword his instincts told him. She was pretty, very pretty, with lustrous black hair and freckled cheeks, dark, round eyes and a delicate nose, looking the picture of innocence as she slumbered. This was certainly Keiko.

“Keiko.” He said. Her eyes did not open, but he could tell by the movement behind the lids that she was alert and aware of his presence.

“Keiko?”

Keiko opened her eyes and sat up in bed, seemingly unconcerned by the presence of a stranger in her room. She swung her legs to the floor with inhuman grace and gazed at her visitors in the doorway.

“My name is Tatsuya Nakadai. I have been sent here by a man who claims to be your father to bring you back. He was an elderly mystic in a shadow I was very recently in a shadow of Nippon – he had your picture in a book and, er, I think he may have been able to shapeshift into a dragon. Does this sound like something your father would be capable of?”

Keiko seemed either troubled or angered at the mention of the dragon. It was hard to tell without knowing her.

“That was probably him.” She answered curtly. Tatsuya sensed she was a bit of a rebel.

“We should leave this place as soon as possible.” Natasha said.

“Do you have the means to do this yourselves?” Keiko asked. Tatsuya and Natasha both shook their heads.

“Have you?” Natasha queried. “And if so, can you take us with you?”

Keiko described a method of travelling between shadows using some artefacts that she had with her, which produced a magical smoke into which it was possible to step and be transported to an alternate reality through which other shadows could be accessed. It did not seem to be affected by the magic of Balance, however, Keiko had never taken others through the smoke and although she was confident that she could, it would not be entirely safe. One problem was that she needed to know where she was headed before they left, and although Keiko had visited maybe ten shadows, she did not think that she had been to the one in which her father now resided. It might be possible for her to learn the location by reading Tatsuya’s mind. He politely refused, for he feared that she would sense the guilt he held over the girl wearing the cowl that he had killed, last time he was here. A girl who reminded him of Keiko a little. He told her that she would not be able to read past the magic her father had used to protect his mind from the memlechs.

Frustrated, Keiko, Natasha and Tatsuya returned to the stables. Llewella and Fiona remained there, along with a large pale skinned man with thin, straw coloured hair, very red cheeks and wearing a cheap grey suit. A short but intense discussion followed, beginning with how they had been left behind when the others travelled and did not know how to transport themselves. It ended with it being unanimously decided that the group would travel through Keiko’s smoke and attempt to follow the others to Diohn. Without the book that contained the trump of Diohn, they would struggle, but Fiona knew that a girl who worked in the Library had made an extensive study of the volume, so they went to fetch her. The girl in question was called Rayana, who was standing behind the books in/out desk leafing through some volumes. She wore a kimono, but was not Japanese – she was much fuller of figure, and although her hair was dark her skin was pale and her smile too unrestrained.

“Keiko! I was wondering if you were going to come back. Who is this?”

“Trouble.” She replied swiftly. Tatsuya was quite surprised and failed to speak. “Come on, we’re getting out of here.”

They went to Fiona’s office so that they could lock themselves in to prevent being compromised or followed. Llewella broke a small piece of mirror glass she acquired from Fiona in two and gave one half to Keiko. Using the other half herself, she would be able to follow Keiko’s trail and bring the blond haired man along with her. Fiona would hold hands with Keiko and Natasha, following the former and drawing the latter on after her, with Tatsuya holding onto Keiko and Rayana so that Keiko could pull the two of them along.

At this point, Tatsuya felt a burning sensation in his blood, and soon realised that he was supposed to be steering them in a direction other than Diohn first. He informed Keiko that her father was perhaps keener to speak with her than she appreciated, and that unless they went to see him immediately, there would perhaps be no point in trying to take him with them. She deferred and agreed to make a diversion before travelling to Diohn.

Keiko made her magical mist, and they held hands before plunging into it and off Balance once more. The process was like walking along a corridor in the clouds at sunset, as the reddened rays of the sun shifted about them. Gaps appeared at regular intervals along this gaseous corridor, showing other worlds beyond them. Some way ahead was a world which looked very familiar to Tatsuya.

“There. That is the one.” He indicated, gesturing with a finger and a nod, careful not to release his grasp on Keiko’s arm. It would ordinarily have taken seconds to cross the distance, but in this place, where only Keiko belonged, it was as if she carried the weight of them all on her back through mud; the strain was obvious on her face. As they made their painfully slow progress, all was at first well. Then, as they neared the halfway point, Tatsuya became aware that he was being affected by the smoke, which came to feel more like a thick, wet fog that chilled his bones and made his legs numb – in fact, when he glanced down at them, his legs were beginning to fade from view. This alarmed him somewhat.

Turning to Rayana, he said “something is happening to me.”

Rayana turned and looked concerned, an expression that took on an aspect of fear as she saw that her connection to Keiko was dissolving into thin air (or whatever filled this place). The smoke was not affecting her at all, it appeared. Tatsuya pulled on Keiko’s arm and when she turned to look, motioned down. From the look on her face, he guessed that this was not supposed to be happening.

“We are almost there!” she urged.

Fiona was the first to reach the exit, but that was not the end of it, for it seemed difficult to force her way through, and it would take some time to extract everyone at this rate. Tatsuya was beginning to fade now, not simply from view but from existence, he could feel it.

“I’m not going to make it.” He declared, and with a great effort pulled Rayana’s hand toward Keiko’s arm, joining them so that Rayana would not be lost to the mist if he fell.”

“Do NOT let go!” Keiko barked, hauling herself into the doorway.

“Leave him! He is weak!” Fiona shouted as she disappeared onto the other side of the exit.

The sudden display of pitilessness made Tatsuya angry, and as he felt the emotion come on, his body came back into being and he felt himself again, as the mist pulled away from his body. Unfortunately, as he re-materialised, he seemed to become immensely heavy to Keiko, who was nearly pulled over backwards by the sudden appearance of an immoveable object holding her back.

“Whatever you just did, stop, do not do it again!” she said, confused.

“Leave him! He’ll get you both killed!” Fiona’s voice sounded again.

Tatsuya didn’t give anyone time to decide, he let go of Keiko and Rayana and fell back into the smoke and approaching oblivion. The sense of failure and waste was powerful, and he became angry, angrier than he had felt in a long time.

And that was what saved him. As the emotion intensified, solid white walls erected themselves around the ninja, as though it was a shield against the essence of the place he found himself stranded in. He found he could walk, but the walls moved to keep him in the centre and he soon lost his bearings, but he was temporarily safe. For the next few minutes, he tried to manipulate his new surroundings to help him escape. Using his ninja training he managed to focus his anger into a directed blast of will, which made the white wall swirl and boil, deform outwards, and eventually collapse at a point from which a pencil thin beam of green light, like a laser, shot out into the infinity beyond. Eventually though he tired, and the walls quickly reformed into a perfect box, or maybe cell would be a better description, around him.

As he rested, the fog closed in again. Tatsuya attempted to find another emotion that he could focus upon that would be less tiring, and perhaps have a different result, but he could not concentrate any other way. It seemed futile, but just as he was beginning to give up hope a swirl in the mist fleetingly showed him the exit to Nippon. Using anger to put up the walls Tatsuya ploughed through the smoke to where he thought it had been, using his ‘laser’ to keep him on the correct course. After a few steps, he was surprised to find the face of Keiko’s alleged father appearing through the wall.

“Well, my daughter made me come and get you out; shall we try to find a way to do this without mutually annihilating each other?”

The walls dropped, and the smoke rushed in to envelop him. The last of his reserves of strength gone, Tatsuya Nakadai lost consciousness.

The blackness slipped away, replaced by light. In time, the glow began to coalesce into shapes, and when his vision had finally returned to normal, Tatsuya saw Llewella knelt over him, applying a wet cloth to his brow.

“You only just made it out back there.” She said, dipping it into a small bowl of water and then handing it to him to use himself, for Llewella did not waste time helping those who could help themselves.

Tatsuya sat up and gathered his bearings. They were back in the ruined castle where he had met Keiko’s father, and sure enough, he could see him arguing with Keiko, although the words were somewhat unclear, for his hearing had not yet returned to its normal owl-like standard after his trials in Keiko’s mist. The main gist of the conversation seemed to be that he was telling her that the Day dragons were using her somehow against the Bay dragons. Keiko was becoming very upset and referred to her mother’s death, which prompted her father to take a sterner line.

The two of them eventually stormed off in separate directions, he towards the exit and out of Tatsuya’s sight, Keiko towards the group. After a moment’s thought Keiko went after the old man and was gone for a short while before she re-entered and approached Tatsuya and Fiona. Tatsuya detected tears fighting to escape from behind her eyes, and felt sorry for her. He sensed that she was a good natured woman and was, he recalled, one of very few people he had met recently who had not asked him to promise them something.

“What now?” Fiona asked her.

“We are going to Diohn.” Keiko replied. “Are you ready Tatsuya?”

Tatsuya picked up his sword and rose to his feet before sliding it into his belt. “I am ready now.”