In the basements of the IVN arcology, someone laughed.

It was a deep, hollow laugh, filled with madness and … something empty.

Occasionally, out of a room marked 'Equipment,' a bolt of black light would burst, singing the walls around the door and the outdated equipment that was piled along the walls.

If one were to go inside the room, one would see a single figure, sitting and looking into a pane of polished diamond, swirling with mixed colors… bands of gases and minerals. Or he would be looking into it if his eyes were open.

"The vessels have been prepared. We have weakened the observation posts so that none will see your arrival; the DSOC has been all but destroyed."

The figure paused. His gaunt, ashen face pulled from its amused smile into an expression of complete tranquillity. As he closed his eyes, he changed something in his mind, snapped out of the reality and the focal diamond, and entered the quiet clarity of the Void.

Well, nearly quiet. As the purity of emptiness surrounded him, Isawa Eiga imagined what it might have been like before the modern age. He imagined it would be like looking at the night sky from the country, and seeing the great multitude of stars, so many more than there were in the smog-filled cities. But now the Void had its own pollution.

As he waited in the emptiness, the crossing, multihued lines of the Isawa Void Network began to stand out against the emptiness. Instantaneous data transmission had made his fortune, but it had also destroyed the peace of the Void. And others had noticed.

"Eiga." A form of nothingness - a being seemingly more empty that the Void around him - pressed itself against the background. "Thank you for your help. Perhaps together we can make the Void pure once again. Sacred emptiness." The voice of the thing - if it could be called that - was shallow and hissing, like that of a snake, but also had a deep, otherworldly quality. It was mesmerizing. "Do not come into the Void tomorrow. Stay away from your transmission stations. The Void will storm tomorrow, and anything within may not find its way back."

Eiga thought of the thousands of shugenja whose job it was to secure the data lines in the Void. He thought of all the technicians who would be out servicing the lines… But then an image of the purity of a truly empty Void filled his mind, and all of his other thoughts were gone. When he was at peace, the Void thing continued.

"In a few days, our physical forms will begin to enter your empire. Though you have done what you can to ensure we are not seen, and we have our own methods, I can assure you, I wish you to do a few more small things for me. I wish you to be on the outer planet when we arrive, to take care of any … contingencies that may crop up. Eiga thought. He had travelled through the Void before, but never between worlds. Each world's Void had its own color just as each world had its own unique flavor of kami. A person's mind could be ripped from them with the change of reference. "We will facilitate the transfer, but you must leave now. Do not tell anyone, do not leave anything. Just come… Now!"

Eiga's world lurched in five different directions and he felt his soul dissolve. His perceptions expanded for a second, and he saw the entirety of the Void Network, the entirety of Rokugan. He saw the people standing out like bright lights against the background - the Trillions of people all going about their own buisness. The trillions of people who were about to have their lives disrupted. But it was for a good cause. I must be for a good cause.

And just as suddenly, the Master of Void found himself sprawled across the ground on a festering city street, completely empty. He moved his lungs to draw air into them, but nothing came. He felt his skin blistering and bruising in every imaginable place. And then he was sitting in a tiny dark room. He still had the bruises, but he could breath again. He whispered, "A mistake?"

"We do not make mistakes." A small, windy voice whispered into his ear… and then was gone. But in the low hum of a distant life support system, Eiga thought he heard something like laughter.