"My Lady," Daitan said as he knelt and pressed his head to the floor. "You sent for me?"
Hitomi still looked out the window, as if he had not been heard, but Daitan knew better. Many thoughts crossed his Lady's mind... and not all of them were her own. After a minute, she turned to him, of of her first followers, and a look something like relief came over her human features.
"Daitan," She said quietly. "Rise."
The ise zumi did as he was told and came to Hitomi's side at her motion. The Dragon Champion pointed out the window into the gathered trees and rocks below, darkened by the moonless night. "What do you think of them, child of my blood?"
The Naga. In the trees, their snakelike forms were clear to his eyes, trained by human masters and tempered by the blood of a kami. Daitan looked to his daimyo for a moment. Were he a Lion, he would curse their existance. If he were a Unicorn, he would laugh at them and dismiss them as a mere trouble. But he was a Dragon, and he said what he felt, "They are misguided, my Lady. I feel pity for them, destroying themselves in an effort even they do not fully understand."
"They are not destroyed, Daitan. They return to their 'akasha' and are born again." Hitomi looked back at the stocky man. She was testing his response.
"There are many ways to be destroyed, my Lady. Their acts mean they may never be allowed into the Empire again. There are reports that they have done battle with the Shadow, and those Naga lost to the darkness will never rejoin their brothers and sisters." Daitan looked down at the Naga. He spotted one cleaning his bow, and wondered how many times an arrow had flown from it and spilled the blood of one of Daitan's new brothers and sisters.
Hitomi was silent for a moment. "The gaijin?" She asked finally.
Daitan looked down to the wakizashi on his belt, then to his Champion. "He is no more," He said, sadness clear on his face and voice. "I can no longer feel his soul, and I know he was near the cursed castle in Mori Kage when it departed." The young ise zumi looked out into the sky and whispered, "I fear he is shadow-lost."
"He was loyal," Hitomi said, not flinching. "Though he doubted our goal, he served." She nodded a moment later, as if agreeing with an unspoken voice. "He will be remembered."
Daitan was silent, and remembered the words he had heard the Kitsuki speak as he waited outside this very chamber days ago. Once the Shadow began to tear away who you were... there was no return.
Far to the west, in the ancestral home of the Scorpion, two men, dressed in black, dragged another into the abandoned court of the Baysushi. They held the other man on their shoulders, supporting him as a comrade, not a prisoner.
When they stepped into the middle of the room, another figure emerged from the shadows. The two other men bowed to him and laid the third on the ground. "Aramoro-sama," The first man said. "We found Tashiro-san wandering, near death, in the mountains to the east."
"Has he said anything?" Aramoro asked.
"I can... speak, sama," The man on the floor said quietly. He raised himself to his feet, shakingly, and bowed low. One of the other men caught him as he pitched forward. Tashiro shook the man off and stood on his own two feet.
"What news, Bayushi Tashiro?" The ninja spoke to the archer.
Tashiro was silent a moment. A thousand thoughts spun through his head, and he could not make sense of any of them.
"What news of Otosan Uchi, samurai? Where is your companion?" Aramoro hissed, his patience wearing thin.
"Otosan Uchi..." Tashiro tried to clear his head, "We left, with... A Phoenix... and travelled to a castle in a forest... Mori Kage, I beleive. The Emperor was there... and so..." The archer's eyes became wide and he frantically threw his arms about, shoving the two men away from him and he lunged at Aramoro. "THE SHADOW!" He screamed.
Aramoro quickly spun away from the clumsy assault, and punched Tashiro on the back of the neck, sending him to the ground.
"The Shadow," Tashiro moaned, "They have taken him..." and then the samurai passed out.
"What is your name?"
The room was pitch black, and a lone figure was chained to the floor, standing on his knees in the center. He was garbed in all black, save for his torso, which was bared. On the front, a thick black design crawled on his chest, and an image of blue water was on his back. In front of him was a small lantern, lighting the room for only a few feet in every direction.
"What is your name," Again, the voice seemed to emenate from every shadow, and again, the man could not answer. There was silence for a moment, and another figure walked into the circle of light. "He is bound," the man whispered, not to the chained figure, but to someone or something else.
The chained figure dropped his head as memories flooded his mind. He saw many things, but he saw them as if he were watching another person. The images were familiar, but foreign all at once... He had a name before.
"Your name is Ryu no Kage, my student," The voice came from in front of him, and the man snapped his head up to see someone standing before him. Like the images, the man held some sort of recognition to him, but seemed like a stranger. Without thinking, his mind lashed out at the figure before him in hate. Ryu no Kage wanted to kill this man.
"I am Shosuro Kage, your master," The man continued, staring him right in the eye. He was right. Ryu knew he had called this man his master, his teacher once. He didn't know why, but he knew he had been betrayed. He felt the intense anger build from inside him, but he waited for his teacher to draw nearer.
Shosuro Kage stepped next to the chained gaijin and smiled, "You will train under me once ag-" The ninja had no warning as Ryu reached forward from the floor, and the chains binding him fell away from his arms as if he was made of air.
Shosuro Kage stumbled back, but was too late as he was lifted over the gaijin's head in a swift moment and thrown into the vast darkness. Ryu loosed a primal scream of fear and hate as Kage flew and slammed into an unseen stone wall. Ryu looked around the chamber, and could not see an exit. His mind spun with base thoughts, and all he could think of was escape. He reached out into the darkness... and felt it. He knew the shadows, as if they were his own home.
Ryu stepped into the inky blackness, and faded into nothing.
When Shosuro Kage found his footing and senses, he was alone in the chamber with a tipped over lantern.
"What has happened?" A hissing voice came from the darkness. Kage's master.
"You lied to me, shadow-weaver!" Shosuro Kage snarled into the shadows. "You told me he would be easily subdued! He has already mastered his shadow-walking!" The ninja glanced about the chamber, waiting an answer.
"Our actions have released... sleeping power withing the gaijin. Follow him, Kage. He is your student. Your Ryu no Kage travels to the palace of the Bayushi."
"Why?" Kage asked quickly.
"They have something of his. Something he forgot about, long ago... Bring him back, and we will bind him for certain. If you cannot, kill him."
"Hai, Goju-sama," Shosuro Kage bowed, then turned to the shadows, fading quickly as well.