Capítulo 1: Chapter 1 - Crater Hills
"This is going to be the worse book," Ianme complained. He sidestepped to the right at the last moment just as his opponent lunged at him with his spear right where he was standing. His opponent barely missed him by a fraction of an inch. However, the last-minute evasion allowed Ianme to use his opponent's own momentum to position his opponent within the effective critical radius of his twin butterfly swords. "Especially if I end up dead in the end!" he continued as he easily drove the guard of his right-hand butterfly sword straight into the scaly snout of his opponent and forced him to turn to his upper right. This gave Ianme an opening for his left-hand butterfly sword to easily slice his opponent's exposed throat.
"Then don't die!" Eunshi screamed back at Ianme as she made a quick spin with her three-section staff, twisting it as she spun. Her maneuver forced her two opponents to take a couple of steps away from her. She took this momentary advantage to trigger an eizou that ignited the oxygen inside the lungs of her reptilian opponents. "I swear, if you die on us, I'll make your death so ugly in the narrative that you'll be forced to rise from the dead to beg me to change it!" she added as flames burst forth from the eyes, nostrils, and mouths of her opponents as they fell writhing to the ground.
"And would you change it?" Ianme asked with a smile as he quickly positioned himself between two surprised opponents who expected him to face just one of them that will allow the other one to flank him from behind or the side. However, his odd positioning took his opponents by surprise and made the space too tight for them to effectively use their spears against him. "Would you change it after I come back from the dead?" Ianme continued. He then briefly fell to his knees and made a semi-circle slice with his twin butterfly swords that sliced the belly of his opponents exactly where their breastplate meets the leg armor. There is a small gap between the two pieces of armor in that area where the two separate parts of the armor join, and that gap opens whenever the wearer turns to the left or right.
"Of course not!" Eunshi replied with a laugh as she ran towards another group of opponents who stood shocked as they watched their companions burn from within.
A burst of light-hearted laughter filled the western side of the battlefield where the loud clanging of metal rang out in the background. The sound of metal on metal ringing in time with the shrill laughter gave the feminine laughter a strange background rhythm. "Yes, Eunshi. Make his death ugly and gross. Like he fell face down into a large pile of steaming cow dung, after getting hit by a dagger in his balls. Then he died drowning in cow dung," Lynn suggested after her laughter died down enough to allow her to speak. Her opponent was barely able to defend against the relentless attack of her kodachi despite her laughter and speaking at the same time. All he could do was to keep stepping back from her as he defended himself with a straight sword common in the northern kingdoms. His attention was focused on the kodachi on her right hand that he failed to see that her left hand was quickly forming the magical seals of a powerful nature-based zhougeru. Lynn made another feint to her left, and a loud crashing sound came from the wooded area at the back of her opponent as several large trees fell and crushed the reinforcements that were hidden there and were slowly creeping around Lynn. He was supposed to distract her long enough so that his companions can position themselves and surround her then attack her in surprise. When her opponent realized that his reinforcements were crushed under the weight of several trees, he quickly wondered if her attacks on him were just to force him to keep withdrawing to reveal the position of his comrades so that she would know exactly where she would direct her spell. However, before he could admire the cleverness of the strategy, Lynn's kodachi came from nowhere and left a large gash across his exposed throat. He fell to the ground gurgling on his own bluish blood as he watched Lynn walk away towards another opponent.
Eight days ago; at sunrise during the Festival of the Last Summer Evening.
The Dragon Grandmaster walked steadily through the palace grounds followed closely by the five guests that he invited very late the evening before. They entered the palace grounds and into a small waiting room through the use of stealth so that no one knew that they were even inside the palace except for themselves and Kyoden Miramoto, the Dragon Grandmaster of the Amejisotugo Clan. They met at sunrise, and not even the five guests knew the reason behind the sudden meeting so early in the morning of the Festival of the Last Summer Evening.
Not even the Omono-Ryu—the person who rules the Kingdom of Zeiken-Shi—knew about the meeting nor had a hint about its objectives.
It was not long when the five guests noticed the slow pace that Miramoto took as he walked across the palace gardens. It was as if he intentionally walked them slowly through the southwestern garden on purpose so they could admire its rare beauty. It was the part of the palace grounds that his late wife personally tended to and everyone in the kingdom knew of this. And since it was the Omono-Ryu's favorite part of the palace grounds, there was nowhere else in the palace that the Dragon Grandmaster could be prouder of.
The walk was pleasant, and all five of the guests admired the garden in their own way and from their own personal point of view. Ianme had a natural tendency towards artistic and beautiful things, so he appreciated the garden more because of its beauty out of the five guests. Eunshi has a love for recording the history of people—how they lived, what occupied their thoughts when they were alive, how intensely did they feel love. Everyone knew about the tragic death of Kyoden Shoira, exactly sixteen years ago. It was during the same Festival of the Last Summer Evening. Seeing Shoira's work on the palace garden gave Eunshi an insight into her mind that she would not find anywhere else. Khyn appreciated weapons and armors more than anything else, but he could not help but admire the beauty of the garden, its artistry, and the skill involved.
Lynn and Mingmei were both silent as they followed Miramoto and walked through the garden. They kept their head forward, but their senses carefully studied the garden. Mingmei has an eye for hidden detail, while Lynn was always sensitive to the motives behind every action. And the garden revealed information to both ladies that even the Dragon Grandmaster himself was likely not aware of.
After a few minutes of pleasantly walking through the garden, the group arrived at a small clearing at the center of the garden. At the center of the clearing was a black structure that was made of a strange black matte metal. It looked like the exact half of a metallic sphere. Ianme imagined that it was a giant metal ball and the other half was buried under the ground. It had three metal arcs that crossed from one side of the dome to the opposite side. Miramoto approached one side of the dome and traced several symbols on the surface of the dome with both his hands as the five watched him. After he completed the symbols, the outline of a door appeared on the dome and opened slowly.
"Please, come in," he said as he gestured for his guests to enter. Eunshi, ever curious, entered the dome first followed closely by Ianme who was eager to see how the dome looked inside. Khyn followed Ianme reluctantly after a brief glance at the two girls behind the group. Lynn looked emotionless as she stood still and studied the outer shell of the dome before her. She looked determined not to follow the rest of her companions inside a mysterious dome. She was trained to trust no one—not even herself—and going inside a dome that she knew very little about was asking too much of her.
Mingmei watched Lynn from the corner of her eye as she studied Miramoto. She turned to Lynn and nodded slightly at her. Khyn watched them and paused halfway into the dome. Lynn looked at Mingmei, said nothing, and started to walk into the dome. Mingmei walked towards the door followed by Lynn as Miramoto watched them both. Seeing the two ladies walking towards the entrance, Khyn went inside the dome and towards the center of the chamber inside.
The dome had only one room that occupied the entire space. It looked bigger inside than the outside. The chamber had a large square table in the center that was made of black wood. On one of the walls of the dome was a plain wooden armoire made from the same wood as the square table. There was a map of the capital laid out on top of the table with several red pins on specific locations within the territory of the capital.
Miramoto entered the chamber as soon as everyone was inside. He closed the door behind him and sealed it with a symbol that he traced with his hands. Once the symbols were complete, the door disappeared, and the wall looked like there never was any door there at all. "Welcome to the Negation Chamber," Miramoto said as he walked towards the table. "No spell from outside will be able to enter these walls and no spell from within can escape. This is the perfect protection from any magical spying from outside," he added.
"Or the perfect prison," Mingmei whispered as she inspected the roof of the dome.
"Isn't that a little overkill, Grandmaster?" Khyn asked. Completely neutralizing magic from within and without did not bother him at all, but what bothered him was the fact that any emergency within the chamber could be twice as deadly because no one can call for help from the outside through magical means.
"Allow me to tell you why you were invited here today, and you will understand the need for extreme caution," Miramoto replied with a smile.
Present, Crater Hills.
An arrow whizzed past Lynn's ear. "They're resorting to arrows, now? And here I thought we were starting to make a connection with a long-thought-dead race," Lynn exclaimed with a mischievous smile.
"We need to evacuate the area; I will cover our escape!" Mingmei offered. She looked worried, a perfect contrast to the smile across Lynn's face.
"Escape? We have the upper hand!" Ianme replied confidently. He then pivoted on his right heel and delivered a twin killing blow to two opponents then briefly sprinted forward to attack an unbalanced enemy ten feet away with an upward slash with his left-hand butterfly sword as he deflected an attack with his right-hand butterfly sword.
"Mingmei is correct," Khyn replied as he threw five daggers in rapid succession hitting the heads of five opponents before they can position themselves for an attack into their perimeter. "They are firing into our melee position with their fighters still inside, without worry that they will hit their own soldiers. This means they have men to spare. A lot of them from the looks of it," Khyn explained as he readied another batch of six throwing daggers in between his fingers and studied their surroundings.
"Or they are just so dumb and ruthless!" Ianme replied angrily. He was just starting to enjoy the battle and the idea of running away was something that he was not prepared to consider yet. But strategy was not Ianme's strong trait and he knew it. Point him into the thick of a battle against multiple opponents and he will be glad to jump right in without question.
"You can stay if you want. I need to survive this to record what happened. Especially what would happen to you most of all," Eunshi declared with a smile. She started to withdraw from her position in perfect sync with her companions except for Ianme who was still reluctant to leave.
"You were never mean to me when we were kids, Eunshi. I think your clan training changed you," Ianme said in a tone that made him sound so pitiful. He parried another spear attack with his right butterfly sword as he spoke. He then made a quick forward step then pirouetted on his heel to deliver a powerful blow with his left butterfly sword that dropped another enemy who made the mistake to engage him alone.
"Another incoming volley of arrows! Prepare to sprint out while I deflect them!" Mingmei shouted out to her friends as she dug her heels deep into the soft loamy soil. The evening rain made the ground loose and she decided it was best to stabilize herself for her next spell as she traced mystic symbols in the air quickly with her hands and whispered words of power. As soon as the arrows entered her range, she released her zhougeru—Delusion of the Wind—and the arrows flew back to where they came from. The wailing of the attackers that were hit by their own arrows distracted the foot soldiers that moved forward into the position of the five companions. They stared bewildered at their comrades that were hit by their own arrows. When they turned back on their five opponents, they were nowhere to be found.
Eight days ago; inside the Negation Chamber.
"Two months ago, the police force received a missing person report when people in a neighborhood were not able to have their routine breakfast that morning," Miramoto said with a lighthearted tone and a slight smile. He took a deep breath and became serious at once again. "An elderly baker who lived alone in his bakery in the Emerald District of the city suddenly disappeared. Everyone in the militia and in the Keruberosau Clan thought that it was only a case of a septuagenarian who had started to suffer from dementia," Miramoto said and then paused. His countenance started to look regretful of what he was about to say. "Everyone was convinced that he would turn up soon in another area of the city without a memory of how he got there. A week later, we have two more reports of missing elderly who lived alone and still no baker. Two weeks after the baker disappeared, we have a total of seven missing elderly from different neighborhoods of the city. At this point, law enforcement took the case seriously and considered it a case of serial abductions on the elderly in the city because there was an obvious pattern. This was also the first time that they brought the matter to my attention," Miramoto added. He stopped speaking and stared briefly at the five people who stood around the table and listened attentively to his every word.
Khyn took a deep breath and looked at his companions one by one. He understood how serious the situation was but was not sure how to even begin the investigation. He wondered why Liam was not invited to join them but decided not to voice out his thoughts. Liam is a member of the Keruberosau clan, the clan who is charged to maintain the peace and order of the kingdom. They are the police clan and each member of their clan is trained in investigations of different crimes at an early age. Khyn was convinced that Liam would have been an important addition to their group if they are to be assigned to investigate the case of the abducted elderly.
"At first, a senior investigator was assigned to handle the case. But after a month and fifteen reported abductions, I decided to escalate the case and assigned two Keruberosau squad leaders to the case," Miramoto continued. He then took two parchments from under the map on the table and handed it to the team. "These are the two officers that I assigned to the case. They were supposed to divide the capital in two and investigate each half independently. No one was supposed to know about the investigation, and no one should know about whatever each one of them would find out. They were to report directly to me after thirty days."
The five companions stared expectantly at Miramoto. They eagerly waited for what Miramoto had to say next as they briefly read the contents of the parchment that contained a short profile and sketch of the two Keruberosau police squad leaders. They all knew the two. They were among the most skillful within their clan. In their minds, they agreed that they were the best choice to investigate the case.
"They were supposed to send me a report two days ago. I received nothing and the enforcers in their respective precincts have reported them missing for the past two days. They disappeared at the same time and on the exact date that they were supposed to submit their findings on the abductions." Miramoto brought out a pile of parchment from under the map and laid it out on the table for his guests to inspect and read. "Those are the profiles of the abducted victims. We now have a total of thirty-two. We believed initially that the abductors were abducting the helpless elderly. That they do not have the martial skill or ability to become a true threat to the capital. This was probably true at first. However, since they were able to abduct two police squad leaders, and the master of a family from the Mantis Clan, this assumption is no longer true."
"And you suspect an inside job which is why you decided to meet us inside the Negation Chamber?" Lynn asked. She looked calm yet serious. She never touched any of the parchments and Mingmei noticed this right away although no one else seemed to have noticed this. Lynn would only take a glimpse of the contents of the parchments over the shoulder of Ianme on her left or Eunshi to her right. Mingmei decided to pretend to touch and inspect the parchments but followed the lead of Lynn and made sure not to touch the parchments on the table.
"Yes and no. I suspect that people are likely spreading information about the investigation and the investigators without conscious thought. And in so doing this information reaches our abductors. This conclusion tells us that those responsible for the abductions are many and that they are scattered throughout the city," Miramoto clarified. He paused and thought about his next words briefly. "If it was an inside job, they would know about the two investigators. I met them at the main hall, not inside this chamber. If they had such knowledge, they wouldn't wait for the last minute before abducting the two investigators. Waiting for the two investigators to do thirty days' worth of investigations and compile it is dangerous to their operations. They could have abducted the two but the report about their findings could still be hidden somewhere in the city; simply waiting for someone to discover them," Miramoto explained patiently.
"And thus, absolute secrecy of this mission is important," Ianme whispered to himself.
"Yes," Miramoto replied in a soft voice that was almost a whisper itself.
"What do we need to do, Grandmaster?" Eunshi asked. "If they have the skill to abduct two highly skilled members of the Keruberosau clan and a Master of a clan family, I think sending five who just completed The Trials to storm the doors of the abductors would be more than a suicide mission," she added. "Even if you send all ten of us who topped The Trials this season wouldn't be enough," she added with a sigh.
"No. Your mission is not to storm their stronghold. Your mission is information gathering. Your unique skills coming from five different major clans will be an advantage in seeking out the lair of the abductors. Once you have found where they are hiding, you are to send a message to back here so that I can organize a proper apprehend and rescue mission," Miramoto replied. He stared straight into Eunshi's eyes and he could see courage. He understood that despite her comments, if he asked them to storm the stronghold of the abductors, they would gladly do it if it meant freeing the abducted elderly. "I will be sending you reinforcements in five days—in half a deck's time. You should have a clear picture of who those would be, of course, since you all grew up together despite coming from the ten major clans of the kingdom," Miramoto said as he straightened himself before his guests.
"We understand, Master," Mingmei replied without taking her eyes off the parchments that held the information on the abduction victims.
"The red pins on the map before you mark the different areas where the victims were abducted. The blue pins mark where the two squad leaders were last seen, and the black pin marks the last known location of Master Sao of House Geben of the Mantis Clan. They may be a minor clan but you know that their martial arts skills are not to be taken lightly," Miramoto explained as he swept his hands gently across the large map of the capital that was spread out on top of the square table. "As you can see, there is no pattern to the abductions at all," he added with notable resignation in the tone of his voice.
The five quietly studied the map as they passed around the parchments that contained the profiles of the abducted victims. Ianme and Khyn tried to look for a pattern to the abductions based on the pin marks on the map as they took turns in reading the parchment. They both shook their heads every now and then as their eyes moved from the map to the parchments and then back to the map.
"I shall leave you briefly. Study what little clues we have. And allow me to apologize for the few clues that I have given you despite the urgency of your mission. I fully understand how heavy this request is for all of you. I shall return shortly with notes that you can use to purchase any equipment that you need as well as to cover your expenses throughout the investigation," Miramoto said briefly, took a light bow at his guests, and then walked towards one side of the dome. He traced symbols on the wall and a door materialized on the wall before him. However, unlike before, he left the form of the door—although he made sure that it was closed—when he left the chamber.
"I don't see any pattern," Khyn declared.
"Me neither," Ianme agreed.
The three ladies stared at each other but said nothing.
"Are we in agreement?" Lynn asked directing her question towards Mingmei.
"Yes," Mingmei replied briefly.
"Even after all these years, I still get goosebumps whenever you two do that," Ianme said as he rubbed his right arm briskly with his hand.
"They've identified a pattern hidden in the chaos," Eunshi said with a slight smile. She shook her head, obviously amazed by Mingmei and Lynn.
"A pattern?" Khyn asked surprised.
"We need to get to a Cleansing Chamber before we start wearing a disguise," Mingmei said, ignoring Khyn's question.
"Wait, we're going on disguise?" Ianme asked surprised. "When did we agree that we're going to be in disguise?" he continued. He was always uncomfortable wearing a disguise. His clan, the Kei-Okeo, has the task of preserving culture and beauty, and being constantly surrounded by beauty and works of art made it hard for Ianme to accept being in disguise. He saw disguises as an abomination because it hid the true beauty of a person.
"The secrecy of our mission is of utmost importance. A disguise is implied in it. I am sure you understood this, right?" Lynn asked in the same serious tone and expression. This made Ianme feel uneasy. Lynn was the kind of person who always smiled and always took things lightly, but she has never smiled even briefly since they entered the garden.
"O-Of course. Yes," Ianme agreed reluctantly.
"Why the Cleansing Chamber?" Khyn asked uneasily. Going through a Cleansing Chamber meant that they would have to destroy everything that they carried with them and this was the primary thought that occupied Khyn's mind. Khyn secretly grabbed the hidden chest pocket of his kimono tightly.
"There are many ways to spy on people without using spells that the walls of the Negation Chamber protect against. We could be carrying an object with a planted eizou that could be recording our every word," Eunshi explained as she turned to Khyn. "The Negation Chamber cannot protect against spells that we brought with us inside the chamber, unfortunately," she added with a sad tone as if she knew the true reason why Khyn asked why they had to go through a Cleansing Chamber.
"The very strand of our hair could've been enchanted with such an eizou, much less the weapons and items that we carry," Lynn added without turning to Khyn.
"I-I understand," Khyn replied with a hidden grimace. He turned sideways from the table and his friends.
Mingmei held Khyn's shoulder gently. Khyn slowly turned to her with sad eyes. "I'm sorry Khyn, but we have to do this," Mingmei said softly in a sad tone as she stared straight into Khyn's eyes.
"Thank you and I understand," Khyn replied with a sigh. "I suppose we really have no choice," he added as he held the hidden pocket—and whatever was inside it—tightly in his hand.
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