The fortress of Sleeping Mountain rose, stern and immobile, above the blackened peaks. As the dawn's light faintly touched the horizon, hundreds of warriors rose and made preparations for the day to come. The sounds of armor, torches sputtering as light approached, and the gentle hissing language of the serpentine Naga hung in the air, reminding us all of our purpose: the destruction of the Dragon clan.

To the side, Togashi Hoshi stood on a high cliffside, watching the sun rise as though it would be his last morning. The form of Hoshi, son of the ancient Dragon champion, shivered and changed with his thoughts. First it was that of a man, then that of an immortal dragon, and, at last, that of the half-beast we knew as his true shape. Against the darkness of the night sky, he seemed no more than a marble statue raising its hands to the Celestial heavens.

He was the son of Togashi, once champion of the Dragon. With Togashi's death, Hitomi took his place, and Hoshi fled the lands of his people, fearing her wrath. Hoshi took shelter in the quiet halls of the Brotherhood of Shinsei, and when the time was right he led an army to retake what was his - his father's swords and the leadership of the Dragon clan. he was a man formed of the union of a Dragon and a mortal, born hundreds of years go and filled with the power of the Fortunes. If he led, the monks would follow - even to their doom.

As I traveled through the campsite, seeing the faces of monk and serpent, I noted the powerful bulk of the Naga called Qamar - their leader, as Hoshi was ours. His massive head towered a shoulder above even our tallest man, and his tail stretched some twenty feet behind him. Green skin, forked tongue - both were signs of the mythical beast-folk we had been told about as children. No one had known they would come to life, bursting from the secret depths of the Empire's forests at the command of their "Akasha." Ah, the elusive Akasha - a group-mind of the Naga, which both commanded and rewarded their efforts. It seemed a single soul shared by all Naga. Truly they are a unique culture, uncivilized and filled with strange beliefs. I do not know if I should teach them our truths or learn theirs.

Beside the Qamar, another Naga stood, his eyes filled with hatred as I passed by. "Balash" was his title - they told me it meant "strong bowman" - and he often screamed his views about the "huu-mans" with distaste and anger. We were filth, he claimed loudly, fit to be destroyed and no more. The land must be purged of our civilization, so that the Naga might thrive in our place.

I can only pray that the Qamar he serves knows better than to heed his hatred. The Naga claim that they are here at Sleeping Mountain to destroy an ancient evil below the fortress. They claim that the evil is as old as time and is breaking free of its captivity. I do not know what to think. They seem wise, but their ways are strange. They do not speak our language well and have odd views. if there is an evil looking up at the mists around the high mountain peak, I can only hope we are in time to stop it. And if there is no evil...

But enough of my thinking, I go to speak to Takao, the father of our order. he is a bold man, young for his position but wise in the words of the Tao. He stands tall among us, his peaceful face untroubled by the conflicts to come. he has stood by Hoshi's side in many wars, many troubles and crises of faith, yet he retains his vision of a future in which the Empire rests its swords and extends its hands in peace.

Shioda, the ancient advisor of the Brotherhood, stands behind him, scrolls and pens fluttering in his nervous hands. Takao looks at me, one long and silent glance, as I bow with respect and honor.

"Ikudaiu," Takao says to me. "I have a journey for you. One that may hold the future of this battle."

"My lord, it would be my honor to assist the Brothers and their allies." I am a new monk, though I served with the Dragon years ago. I reached the age of retirement and came to the monastery to study the Tao. Never did I know I would be asked to kill my own house...

"go to the fortress gates. Take this." Takao handed me a thin sheaf of paper sealed with Hoshi's mark. "Hitomi, leader of the Dragon clan, will allow you passage."

"Why me, my lord?" I asked, stunned, as I took the scroll.

"Because she knows you, Ikudaiu," Takao said thoughtfully. "You were a member of her clan. She will cause you no harm."

I bowed again and stepped out of his presence. A scroll for the Dark Lady of the Dragons! How dangerous! How strange. Yet dawn was still approaching, and with it came the rise of our armies. They would attack when the sun first peered over the mountaintops.

I had little time.

Through our armies, and to the tremendous golden gates of the Dragon. In the paling sky the gates seemed to stretch forever upward. My knock was feeble, but they already knew I had arrived.

A thin man covered in tattoos spread wide the gates. "She asks for you..." he murmured, his eyes glowing a bloody gold in the darkness.

He was Akuai, my youngest brother.

"Asking...Akuai?"

"Yes. Now come swiftly, before she goes into the Dark."

We traveled through the grand fortress, past the rooms and corridors of my youth. They had changed, been altered by the presence in the deepest recesses of the keep, and their stone floors held little of my memories. I looked at Akuai, noting the changes in him. Thinner, he moved gracefully and lithely. His eyes disturbed me, but in them I saw a shimmering light not unlike the beauty of the Sun.

"Akuai," I whispered, fearing the echoes in this half-known place. "Why does Hitomi insist upon this war? Why do you serve her?"

Another voice broke the stillness and I spun in surprise. "He serves me because he knows the future."

Hitomi.

Once a daughter of the Dragon clan's Mirumoto family, Hitomi had forsaken her name when she claimed the throne of our people. Her features were different now, half of her body covered in an obsidian sheath, darkened by the touch of some foreign magic. She saw my stare and smiled, lifting her obsidian hand before her face and clenching the fingers into a slow fist.

"Yes," she smiled, "the hand of the ancient Thunder, the greatest artifact in the Empire. Did you not know, Ikudaiu?" I shook my head in fear. "It was given to me long ago, at another battle. its power has allowed me to see the future - and it is a future I wish to avoid. Even if it costs me the lives of my clan."

Akuai bowed in reverence, and I did the same, confused.

"I bear a message for you, my Lady," I said.

"I know. The Hand tells me much - as much as the souls of our ancestors lost in these walls." She touched her fist to the stonework, and the palace seemed to groan in fear. "The message, Ikudaiu?"

With numb fingers I handed her the scroll, and she broke the seal of Togashi's son. In seconds, the paper had fallen to the floor.

"Enough. he is jealous of the power I hold and fears the future that is trapped beneath these walls. If Hoshi thinks his petty threats will keep me from discovering the secrets of the past, he is wrong." her gentle hand crushed the pillar of the wall, powdering the ancient granite.

"My Lady...?" I did not understand.

"Long ago, the Sun and Moon fought over their children. The moon sought to kill us all and devour us in his darkness. Yet we lived." Hitomi's eyes glowed with sunlight, and Akuai pressed his face to the ground. "now he seeks to destroy us again."

What madness was this? The Sun, the Moon...

"You do not believe me, Ikudaiu?" A pause. "Follow." Beneath the palace lay a crystal chamber, its clear walls cracked and sullied by internal corruption. I had seen it many years ago but had never been told its purpose. Now Hitomi stood before the crystalline walls and touched their smoothness with her blackened hand.

"Within this chamber," she whispered - but the echo was like a battle-cry - "lies a powerful servant of the one creature that has ever defeated the Moon. it escaped the Moon's wrath and hid deep beneath the world's surface. We captured it centuries ago and placed it here."

A fleeting shadow in the chamber moved at the sound of her voice. At first I sought to locate its source, but then I knew the truth: it was the Shadow itself. Something I could never understand.

The Naga were right: Hitomi was mad.

Yet in her golden eyes, I could also see sanity. if she could understand this creature, she could protect us all from the Moon's mad wrath. Ensure the eternity of the Empire. I found myself sinking deeply into her yellow glow, losing touch with reality and life...

Go, my old friend, Hitomi whispered. Tell them I will not yield. Even at the face of my own damnation, I will fight for the future. Hoshi's ambition has blinded him; mine has freed my soul

The wind was cold as I shielded my eyes from bitter torchlight.

"Halt! Who goes there?!" a voice called. I was outside, far beneath the palace's high peak - beyond even the armies of the monks and the Naga. I had seen no Shugenja, no magic spell-binder of our people. What power had brought me to this strange place?

Hitomi. her name still moved in my thoughts.

Then the other voice spoke again, clearly not in my mind. "Stand up, old man!" it called, and I struggled to my feet, not even realizing I had been prone. Before me, ten armored samurai, all wearing the Emperor's mon, stood with torches. Their hands rested on the pommels of their swords, and their faces were hard and cold.

From the rear, a general came forward on a prancing horse. Though he bore the mon of the Emperor, it was the face of the Imperial Regent I recognized beneath the armor of silver and gold. Takuan. Takuan, once a ronin, served the cause of Toturi before he became the Emperor, and has continued to serve him. Even now when we cannot find the Emperor and he is believed dead, Takuan still stands firm that his master will return and claim his Jade Throne.

But what were the Emperor's armies doing in Dragon lands?

"I know you," he said, dismounting and approaching. "You were once an ambassador to Toturi's court. Are you a Dragon?"

"No, my lord," I replied, falling to my knee. "I retired to the monastery of the Brotherhood."

Rumbles from Takuan's men. "The Brotherhood, who joins with the serpent-creatures and attacks the people of my master's Empire?" Anger threaded its way through Takuan's noble voice.

"I only serve my master, Regent, as you serve yours." My words reached his heart, and he nodded.

"Very well, monk. Return to your order. But know that we shall be on your heels. If one blow is struck against the Dragon clan, it is a blow against the Empire. We will not stand by and allow this slaughter to continue."

"Yes, Regent." I bowed, and Toku, the captain of the Guard, escorted me from their path.

"Do you think the Naga will attack?" Toku whispered as we walked away. Sunlight tinged the clouds, turning the sky the color of blood. Toku's broad features were concerned.

I looked up at the fortress, tall and black against the reddening sky. Its towering parapets were covered with the faint glint of armor, and I knew that Hitomi stood inside the gates. At the entrance to the chamber of quartz even now she began the rite that would open the cracked crystal door. Once it opened, the Shadow would be free. If she could control it, perhaps she could free us from the threat of Armageddon at the hands of a raging Moon. If not...

"I do," I replied, and I felt my heart turn to ice. "I do."

* * *

Above the battlefield Naga arrows soared, bringing blood and death to all who opposed them. I looked at my men, desperate for some aid, some cover from their strike, but all I could find was agony and more desperation. If those arrows could not be stopped, the day would surely be lost to us..." - Toku, Captain of the Imperial Guard

* * *

Hitomi stood, her face shadowed by grief. "You claim the right of combat for your father's throne?"

"I do," answered Hoshi, drawing his katana.

"It has always been our clan's way to settle such things with one man's blood." Hitomi turned away, reaching for her brother's sword. As it slid from its saya, an ancient gong rang in the war-filled courtyard below. "Come and kill me, then, son of Togashi...if you dare."

* * *

On the fields of the Dragon fortress, the bodies of the dead littered the ground like fallen leaves. I turned to my Master, feeling the fear I knew echoed in my eyes. "Wise one," I whispered as another legion of samurai charged, "We are doomed to die."

"No, My son," he smiled, raising one calm hand. "Not this day."

He whispered the sacred words of our order. Light shone, and the earth moved.

The advancing guard ceased, their swords crushed as in some majestic hand. The wisdom of the Tao had prevailed.

* * *

"We destroy them in waves, but still they come!" Balash cried, his quiver nearly empty.

With a nod, I lowered my bow. The troops of the Emperor stood in the dawning sun, their brothers and comrades dying on the earth below. "They battle to the death to save their people, as we would fight for our own." My voice was hollow with fear. The legions of the huu-mans began their march, courageous and unconquerable.

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