Anvil of Despair
The long year of warfare has turned Rokugan into a bloody, lawless wasteland, and it seems the only who have noticed are the samurai and shugenja of the Unicorn Clan. As the other Clans continue their bickering and squabbling, the Unicorn have turned to guarding the peasantry of the Empire.
However, far across Rokugan, in the Imperial Palace, Hida Kisada faced the one thing he never thought he would see: a fire-eyed Emperor Hantei. But there he was, sitting on the Emerald Throne, waiting with his family's sword for Hida Kisada. The battle between them was fierce and decisive. At the end, the Emperor was standing, and Hida Kisada was at his feet with the Emperor's Sword in his belly.
The events that occurred next were confusing. Kisada's son, Yakamo, remembered very little. He remembered a black fire erupting from the Emperor's lips and eyes. He remembered a pretty geisha helping him pull Kisada from the palace, and the entire Crab army retreating.
Outside the Palace, Kachiko sat in the mud and rain looking back at the Palace that was nearly hers. Just beyond the shadows, Togashi Yokuni's voice told her that she could not deny her destiny. Slowly, she rose up in the rain and walked back into the Palace to face her fate.
The Crane, in the meantime, faced the army of the False Hoturi and his madmen. At the last moment, from the south, Daini and his Naga arrived along with the Crane Clan Champion. The combined might of the two armies was too much for the False Hoturi. He tried to retreat, but the Naga were too fast, and the Crane knew the territory too well. The true Hoturi faced the False Hoturi in a brutal duel that left the imposter with the Ancestral Sword of the Crane Clan lodged in his heart.
Deep in the Phoenix stronghold, the Elemental Masters have begun to realize their fate. While seeking ways to master the dark forces of the Black Scrolls, they discovered that the Black Scrolls are their masters. In a final attempt to learn the name of the secret master of the Shadowlands, Isawa Tadaka followed in Kuni Yori's footsteps by binding his name to an Oni, and the act has driven him to the brink of madness.
And angered debate fills the halls of the Lion clan.
Families are divided on which direction to turn. They have sworn
fealty to who sits on the Throne, but it is obvious that it is no
longer their Emperor who inhabits the broken body of Hantei. While
the words rage on in the hall, Matsu Tsuko sits silently, apparently
listening. But her eyes are distant as she remembers the empty eyes
of her samurai, laying still and bleeding under the advancing tide
of the western seaÉ