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Chapter twelve: A strange request.

Carlin Ayane leader of the Consortium of Nobles, the collective holdings of the richest human families in all of Arcadia paced his study in endless circles. He was not a man given to idle worry. That, he felt, was for weaker men. "Damn those fools on the council, letting that thing run loose. Damn the Azure Sky for taking him in. And damn the Black Soul. May he rot in the deepest pits of hell." He sought to master his frustration and failed. "Arcadia is breathing down our necks enough as it is. For him to do this to us now."

"I fail to see a problem. Of the three great companies the White Wind answers to us directly. The Grand Ocean are the puppets of the council. And the Azure Sky consists of children and a few old war heroes who have not yet had the good grace to die. They are hardly in any position to be a threat to us." Camilia Ayane spoke the truth. She was a member of the council and held considerable sway in matters political here on both Avalon and in Arcadia. Through his marriage to her he had received an elevation in status, with the accompanying wealth and power he had raised Calandra Manor to a state of prominence in the Consortium. In matters of family however, he was merely a figurehead. The true power rested in her. And her accursed bloodline.

Blood, it was all that mattered in the world. Destiny was decided for you at the moment of your birth. Either you were born to nobility or you weren't. Too many had seemed to have forgotten this. Letting their families become polluted by inhuman filth. Their children nothing more than half-human mongrels. They even let their children associate with them. Further polluting their bloodlines.

They were destroying the purity of the human race and they couldn't even see it. Didn't they realize that it was all a ploy? That the therianthropes, the elves, the dragons, they were all just biding their time. Weakening the great families from within. So they could break their hold on power.

Carlin sneered. As if they have any right to rule the Arcadian empire. It was built by humans for humans. Soon enough we will reclaim our rightful place.

"Now is not a time to act in haste. We've worked for too long to get to this point. Throwing away generations worth of effort in a fit of pique will do nothing to further our cause. After all, we do this for our children."

"You're right of course." Carlin ceased his endless pacing. A plan taking root in his mind. "After all, they should do their part for the future as well."

* * *

Sipping his Dian Hong Shiro let the warmth from the tea seep into his fingertips. It was the one thing from the sumptuous banquet that had been laid out before him that he had considered pure enough to eat. The rest of the food, a collection of various dishes from around the world was merely a flaunting of wealth. A truly calculated insult the dishes had been chosen according to their intention, most of which had not been in any way welcoming.

So much waste and all of it designed to insult me. Thought Shiro as, looking over the food and at his host sitting on the other side of the table he began to wonder. So what is it that the Purists actually want from me?

In reality Shiro had been asked to find a patens hidden somewhere in Calandra manor, and they had been willing to offer him a great deal of money to look for it.

It had seemed a simple enough request, if a bit, out of the ordinary. But what had made it truly suspicious was that he, and not the Azure Sky had been asked for specifically.

Shiro had accepted the request eagerly enough, thinking that, even if he wasn't able to complete the task, then at least he would have been able to gain a greater understanding of the powers that tried to move Avalon Island from behind the scenes. Instead, he had found himself sitting in a solar listening to a woman he could barely stand the sight of discuss the finer points of economics while rambling on about why it was so desperately important that he find the patens for her while he stared at food that turned his stomach to think about. And yet, he had to eat, to deny any sort of hospitality that had been offered was an insult he wasn't prepared to make.

"Avalon's economy exists in a delicate balance." Said Camilia Ayane in a monotone voice. "In order to maintain it, many contacts among the outside world must be carefully cultivated." She finished her point with. "Which is why warriors like you are such an unfortunate necessity."

Koji, who had been lost for much of the conversation, suddenly growled low in his throat. "Shiro. I feel like we've just been insulted."

Shiro didn't doubt it for a second. Camilia's expression said it all.

Oh? So even someone like you managed to realize it? Next time I'll try to make it less obvious.

Shiro sipped his tea. "Koji." He said. "We're guests. And she has asked us to locate something of considerable value for her." Shiro awarded her with a truly unwholesome smile. "Wait until after we've been paid."

Camilia bristled at the insult. It was brazen, uncouth. And designed wholly to make her angry. She almost admired him for it. Almost. So he is more than a simple brute who keeps his brains in his fist. Very well, this may actually prove to be . . . interesting.

Camilia would welcome the insult, and many more like it, if it helped to unravel the enigma that sat before her.

Shiro had eaten sparingly, touching the food with only his right hand while weaving signs in the air with his left. A custom that was only performed in Seirei by monks to purify something they considered to be tainted or too impure to eat.

That he had made no move to conceal his actions told her that he was either flaunting his secrets in front of her, or that he simply didn't care if she knew.

His every movement had seemed to be a carefully cultivated facade. And yet. Had he been human she was sure she could have understood him by now. Instead, he managed to remain frustratingly unknowable.

"It is people like you who make warriors like us a necessity in the first place." Said Shiro, ignoring the look of distaste on her face. "We exist to keep you honest. For example. Avalon Island could be considered the perfect way point for travelers, since so many unique trade goods flow through this place. But they need a reason to stay." He leaned back, enjoying the look of confusion on her face. "The Academy is that reason. Everything else. The shipyards, the town, your trade consortium. It's merely an extension of that reason. Take it away. And Avalon Island is merely a floating chunk of rock. An interesting enough novelty to be sure."

Camilia awarded him with a brief smile, a twitch of her upper lip. "You are a, remarkably observant young man. It is a shame that you were not born human. The Consortium could certainly have made use of a man with your, obvious talents. What a pity."

"If I were human, then I wouldn't be able to enjoy the look you have on your face right now." Shiro wasn't about to be outdone by a simpering bureaucrat. Someone who was content to sit about playing petty games with people's lives. Let them think that he was a pawn to be moved about. It was time to show them that the tiger had fangs. "Here we are, sitting in your home, eating your food and trading insults with one another. I quite enjoy the irony."

Camilia frowned as if his point had been entirely lost on her. "And what irony is that?"

"You need us. We don't need you." Shiro rose to his feet in one fluid motion. "Koji. We're leaving."

It's a bluff. A cheap trick! No one would willingly walk away from so much money. And yet, he was. "Wait." Camilia was suddenly forced to reevaluate her opinion of him. "Come back."

"Miss Ayane, I'm afraid my time is valuable. Unless you have something worth saying; I see no point in listening further."

"I'm willing to, increase our offer." She said through gritted teeth.

"Double it." Shiro smelled desperation and secrets. Two cards one should never hold in the same hand. "Or we walk."

"You aren't serious."

"Goodbye Miss Ayane. Do try and have a nice day."

"An exchange then." She refused to let him name his own terms.

"I'm listening."

"Double our original offer and in return." Shiro's face may as well have been a mask made of alabaster for all he allowed his interest to show. "You tell me where you learned to bargain so well."

"A fair enough trade." Shiro took up his cup once more, letting the warmth of the tea flow into his fingertips he said. "My master was . . . is, the head of our entire order."

A slip of the tongue perhaps? Or a crack in his armor. Shiro's face revealed nothing to her. For she could find no wedge with which to pry forth his secrets from him.

"The monks of Shin Kami Ryu. I've . . ." She feigned interest. "I've heard of them before." Camilia sipped her wine in silence. The monks were a secretive lot to be sure. The Consortium had tried for years to establish trade relations with them. The silk they produced alone was worth kingdoms. When that had failed, operatives had been employed. Operatives who had either failed to discover their secrets, or simply never bothered to return.

"My master was often summoned to the imperial capital." Shiro said to that silence. "To serve as an adviser to Seirei's emperor and his family."

Camilia felt her interest grow. "And you went with him?"

Shiro nodded that it was so. "I grew to manhood in a world of veiled intrigues. Where mere words are weapons that can cut more deeply than any sword, the deadliest of threats," he said, "were the ones that were left unspoken."

Shiro's eyes pierced her with their intensity. A hint of silver stirring in their depths.

It was a chilling reminder that he wasn't human, and thus, not to be taken lightly.

"In Seirei. One lives or dies by their ability to bargain. Once I realized we had stepped into that world once more." Shiro seemed to grow to fill the room. His presence alone became overwhelming as the air around him shimmered, the silhouette of a great cat laying itself overtop him. His voice was one step away from a purr when he said. "My old instincts took over."

Shiro knew his eyes had already become twin slits of feral silver flame. He had allowed just enough of his other self to rise to the surface, so that he would be able to frighten her, her and whoever else was watching.

Camilia forced herself to swallow. "It would seem that you learned your lessons well."

Shiro's smile showed two rows of teeth, equally sharp. They were wicked looking ivory daggers that gleamed like pale moonlight. "I am no longer shielded by my Master's influence." He said. "So the hand that moves me, must be my own."

Every instinct in her being screamed at her to run, to flee from the monster that looked at her with such a longing its depths. Its eyes spoke of a desire to reach out and swallow her whole, if only it could grow hands in its mouth to pull her into its waiting maw.

"Then I hope that I have at least provided you with something of a challenge." She felt her heart begin to race. It was searching for something even now.

Shiro swirled his cup twice and considered what he saw in the dregs. No. But then, the hand that moves you is not your own. This game was of someone else's making. He was already conscious of the eyes that were even now watching him from somewhere else. Somewhere nearby. No doubt she has a silent partner hidden in a concealed room. Shiro slammed his cup down on the table, dispelling the smell of fear that had begun to pervade the room. "I consider it a pleasant reminder of home. Thank you. For the tea."

* * *

"That one is far more dangerous than we were led to believe." In a rare show of anger Carlin struck the wall with his fist. "He damn near broke through the concealment spell. A little longer and he would have found me."

Camilia smiled at her husband, grateful to be free from the gaze of those wretched eyes she said. "Then he should have no trouble finding the patens and getting past its guardians, should he?"

* * *

"Is this place always so. Empty?" Shiro felt starved for sound, for the sight of people going on about their lives, something! Anything to break apart the dull thudding monotony of their footsteps.

Even his words echoed through the corridors, a haunting whisper when they returned to them they were pale shadows of their former selves.

"Calandra Manor is a noble house." Said Rosalyn. "We insist on maintaining the purity of this place."

Rosalyn Ayane had been chosen as their guide, and her stern demeanor and aristocratic attitude hadn't softened in the slightest since their first meeting so long ago. Even now she looked at Shiro as if he were something beneath her notice.

Her nose turned up ever so slightly she said. "To that end. Everything is maintained by magic."

"So that's why there's no people." Shiro touched a wall. There was no laughter in this place. Only a palpable sorrow, a loneliness that seemed to pervade everything. An aura of emptiness reached out with spectral hands, as if trying to lay claim to everything that was good and bright about him. "Save me from a house with no people," he said, "or a home where that is the norm." Looking around he added. "And keep me from abandoned halls, where only ghosts dare tread. Their footsteps echoing silently, through corridors filled with forgotten memories."

From halfway down the hall Koji's ears twitched. "You say something Shiro?"

He shivered and was quick to catch up. "No, not a thing."

* * *

"I've searched this room more than a dozen times before." Rosalyn stamped her foot. Not that it did her any good. Shiro seemed bound and determined to pull the entire library apart and put it back together. "I'm telling you its not in here."

"Just because you haven't found it."

Rosalyn tapped her foot impatiently as she watched Shiro with mounting frustration. He was arbitrarily taking books off the shelves, flipping through them, and then putting them back. "What are you even looking for?"

"Something." Was all he said.

Rosalyn wanted to scream.

"He has clear eyes."

The words shocked Rosalyn. Leon almost never spoke of his own accord. He was always a silent guardian, a stoic defender. No matter where she went, his sword was always at her side. He had been her only friend and confidant for uncountable years.

"Leon?"

The massive leonine warrior crossed his arms and said nothing more.

"Found it." Said Shiro with a sigh of relief.

"The patens?"

"What? No. The architectural records for all of Calandra Manor."

"You just spent the better part of an hour looking for . . . what an unbelievable waste of time! We could have been searching, we could have."

Shiro flipped through the book until he found what he wanted. "Look." He jabbed the page with a finger. "Its right here. See anything suspicious?"

Rosalyn made a careful study of the page. It was the floor plans for the foundations of the manor. Measured in exacting detail both the materials and the time it had taken to build were carefully written in its margins. "Alright, I admit that this could be useful. But I still don't see how it helps."

"Don't you see it?" Shiro spread his arms. "This room, this whole floor, this whole house. It's smaller than its supposed to be!"

Rosalyn reexamined the page. Shiro was right. The answer had been staring her in the face all along.

"And what's the one thing that can make a room larger or smaller than it really is?" Shiro was amazed no one had thought of it before, especially since Veil itself relied on it so heavily.

"Dimensional magic! Of course," Rosalyn followed the thought through to its natural conclusion. "but it has to be built before . . . the foundations. Of course they would have had to build the library in the center of the manor. Dimensional magic requires an extremely complex spell-form placed in the heart of the spell in order to maintain it. They couldn't very well lift the whole house and carve it into the ground after the fact."

"No. But they could tunnel underneath it. Which would mean?"

"We're standing in the spell-form itself." She was quick to add. "That means the tunnels leading to it don't exist because the entrance to them is being disguised by the spell-form."

"And no one's ever found it because this whole house absolutely reeks of magic. Its so ambient it bleeds over into everything." Shiro had to focus on dimming his spiritual sight. "Forget search spells, this place numbs your ability to sense magic by simply overwhelming you. The spell we're looking for is the proverbial needle in the haystack."

"Maybe not." Said Koji. "If we are standing in the heart of a spell-form, then all we have to do is erase part of it and the spell will unravel. Seems simple enough to me."

Rosalyn rubbed her temples. "There's; there's so much wrong with that I don't even know where to start. For one thing if the spell is tied to other dimensions than you can't simply cross out a line and expect it to fall apart. There would be safeguards, multiple layers to the spell in order to hold it in place."

"So what if there are safegaurds." Said Koji. "We can just to smash our way through. Right Shiro?"

Rosalyn was incredulous. "You . . . you just can't smash your way through magic you . . . you overgrown wolf!"

"So what, when I'm bored, I feel like smashing stuff. Got a problem with that," Koji flicked her in the forehead with a finger. "princess?"

"You . . ." Rosalyn kicked him in the shin. "You bastard. I'll have you castrated. Spayed. Neutered. I don't care which. Touch me like that again and I'll--"

Koji just spread his hands and said. "Better women than you have already tried. And I've still got 'em." His eyes glinted mischievously. "Wanna see?"

Ignoring Rosalyn and Koji's increasingly violent outbursts Shiro moved to a quieter part of the library to think about what Rosalyn had said.

Multiple layers . . . ? He closed his eyes as he thought about it. _Would it even be possible to bend a dimension around itself?

Yes, but only if the axis of the spell-form existed in space rather than on a fixed plane . . . but to do that you'd have to._

"You're both right."

Shiro's sudden comment brought an abrupt end to their heated argument.

"We . . . both are?" Rosalyn gaped at him like a fish out of water. "But that's."

"Impossible right?" Shiro touched one of the stacks that extended from the wall. "Koji, help me push this thing.

"If you think about the way the library is laid out from an interior and exterior perspective at the same time. It seems to me that this room takes on a rather interesting set of magical laws."

"A three-dimensional spell form." Said Rosalyn in awe.

Both Shiro and Koji together weren't having much luck.

"Scary thought isn't it? The writing isn't on the walls anymore. The writing is the walls."

Leon added his considerable strength to the task and the stack groaned as it shifted a few feet to the left.

There was a sudden shift in the air surrounding the house, a physical wave of disorientation that caused the entire manor to shudder.

Ugh. Shiro felt more than a little nauseous as he fell to his hands, the world was suddenly leaning at a dangerous angle. That was like a thousand blinks all at once.

Koji was dry heaving. "Someone stop the ride, I want to get off."

Rosalyn was the first to point out one of the changes to the room. "That door wasn't there before, was it."

"No it wasn't." Shiro checked the book. "And it's not on the floor plan either. Wanna lay odds that's where will find the patens?"

"Against you? Not a chance."

* * *

Torches burst to life and burned with a strange azure flame as they passed them by, slowly illuminating the road ahead. Passing through the door had led to a strange corridor.

It was almost as if a naturally existing cave beneath the manor had been reshaped by magic.

For a long and winding tunnel that connected with the catacombs inside the island, it was a hellishly dank place with moisture that seemed to seep into everything.

This is not somewhere I would want to hide something. Thought Shiro. "How long do you think this place has been sealed off?" He said.

"A thousand years." Rosalyn replied, "Maybe more. Why?"

The path ahead of them had been lined with dozens of stone statues. Marble swords left stone sheaths as the centurions roused themselves from their thousand year slumber.

"Cause those guys don't look very happy to see us." Shiro drew his sword as Koji lept into action. His fist colliding with a stone breastplate.

"They're enchanted statues!" Rosalyn couldn't believe his stupidity. "Just hitting them with your fists isn't going to work!" She cast out a handful of seeds. "You have to do it like this."

The seeds had barely managed to touch the ground when thorny vines burst forth and began twisting their way into every nook and cranny in the statues armor.

The stone statues were halted in their advance and with a snap of her fingers, reduced to dust.

"See." Said Rosalyn, looking inordinately pleased with herself. "That's how you smash stuff."

"I could've done that." Koji stepped past the rubble cautiously. A stone finger pulling itself towards him as he passed by. "You just wanted to show off."

Rosalyn picked the finger and prodded him in the chest with it. "Words alone aren't enough wolf boy. Prove it."

Koji's ego managed to look injured. "I will. Soon as something comes along just watch me. I'll show you the power of my fists."

"I, don't think you'll have to wait very long." Said Shiro.

"Why is that?"

The tunnel had dropped off into a massive cavern. Shiro pointed to the roof above them. "Because we're surrounded by bats. Big ones."

* * *

Koji offered Rosalyn his hand as they climbed from the pit. "Enchanted statues, bats the size of a small house, booby traps. What the hell else is this place going to throw at us?"

No sooner than the moment Koji had managed to finish his sentence a howling torrent of flame scorching the tunnels walls began to fly unerringly towards them.

Shiro stepped out in front. "Let light become our armor, shield us from the formless dark!"

The fireball passed around them harmlessly. Wisps of flame dropped from their clothing, only to sputter out on the floor.

"Oh. Fireballs. Cause y'know, that's real original. What's next. Are we going to have to run from a boulder?"

Rosalyn studied her fingers intently. They were surrounded by a softly shining layer of light. Incredible. He can actually form a barrier from light. And without any wasted energy he shaped it to fit our bodies.

"Sorry, I know that ice is better for shielding against fire. But I'm not very good with water magic."

Well maybe he isn't so incredible. "You shouldn't just yell your spells out loud like that. All you're doing is telling your opponent exactly what your going to cast."

"But, I like yelling my spells out loud. It adds dramatic effect."

"And you shouldn't let others know what magic you can and can't use. What if we were in the middle of a duel? You would have just handed your enemy the key to victory."

Her words died to a strangled gasp as a beam of light shot from Shiro's fingertips.

A manticore let out a death cry and fell to the ground. Its human face was eerie even in death.

"While you were busy talking, that manticore was sneaking up behind you." Shiro tested the corpse with a nudge from his foot. "What were you saying again?"

"Just that . . ." Shiro was suddenly a blur of motion.

He was running towards her, silently praying that he would get there in time.

"Rosalyn look out!" Koji's warning came to late.

The manticore had a mate.

* * *

Shiro pushed Rosalyn out of the way as the scorpion like tail slammed into his side.

White hot agony filled his body as the manticore's poison spilled from the wound.

Leon drove his sword into the side of its neck, the force of the strike lifting it off of its feet and pinning it to wall. "Are you unharmed mistress?"

Rosalyn was quick to respond. "Yes. But Shiro isn't."

Shiro lay on the ground where he had fallen. He was holding a trembling hand to his side.

He, he saved me. "Why? Why did you do that?" Rosalyn fumbled with his shirt. It was wet with blood and poison.

"Didn't you know? Random acts of stupidity are an essential part of being a man. We can't help ourselves, when beautiful women are in sight."

She managed to get it off him and surveyed the damage. It looked worse than it really was. Shiro's skin was turning a deep purple and was badly bruised. His barrier had taken the brunt of the blow. The only danger to him now was bleeding to death. And closing the wound would prove to be be a simple matter. Once she had removed the poison of course.

Koji grimaced as Rosalyn began probing the wound with her fingers. "Doesn't that hurt?"

All Shiro said was. "Stings a bit."

"Men! Masochistic idiots! Juvenile scar glorifying morons!" Rosalyn branded her finger like a sword, waving it in Shiro's face. "You! Your just lucky to be alive. Manticore poison only paralyzes its victims. What if that thing had struck a vital organ!"

Shiro withered under the force of her glare. "It didn't, and anyway, you're safe. That's all that matters." He choked back a scream as she forced a seed deep into the wound and held her hands over it.

"Just try to hold still, the Valerian will draw out the remnants of the poison."

Shiro grit his teeth. "You're, a nature mage aren't you? Its your . . . elemental alignment." Shiro relaxed as a pleasant calming sensation overcame him. "We could use a good healer in the Azure Sky. Zeyd's a fair hand but he can only do so much. And Kiara, well, she's as likely to chop something off as to let it heal."

But I'm human. A small part of her cried out. And your not. She ignored the voice. "Don't talk, it makes it difficult to concentrate." She had said it more to herself than to Shiro. But if he doesn't care about that. Why should I?

He could feel his grip slipping and he needed to tell her before he drifted away. "I . . . I didn't want to see you get hurt. My master used to say. 'Never make a woman cry, because their tears are more precious than you know'. So don't cry for me. I'd do it again, without a thought."

Shiro's breathing grew steadier as the Valerian pushed him over the edge and into a deep dreamless sleep.

And there was the truth, he hadn't done it out of a sense of duty or even obligation. But simply because he was someone who cared. It was a fact that was at odds with everything she had ever been taught.

Rosalyn didn't know how to feel about that.

Koji leaned over them. "Is Shiro going to be okay?"

"He's just unconscious that's all. The Valerian is numbing most of the pain. Although he might babble incoherently for a while."

"Why is that?"

"Because Valerian acts in similar ways to catnip."

* * *

Shiro waved his hands in front of his face as he tried to clear the cobwebs from his mind. For some reason, invisible pink unicorns were dancing on the ceiling. Preferring to ignore them he asked. "How long was I out for?"

"A little over an hour." Said Koji. "It took that long for Rosalyn to finish drawing out the poison and to bandage your wound."

Shiro touched the strips of cloth that surrounded his waist. "You used your dress. But why?"

"Well I needed to bandage your wound with something." Rosalyn waved his concern away. "Besides, we might need to run from something else and you can't do that very well in a dress."

"Thank you." Rosalyn blushed. Shiro had a sneaking suspicion no one had ever thanked her before.

"You should save your thanks until we after we get the patens."

* * *

A grand cathedral endured a lonely vigil beneath an azure sky. They were still underground, but the sheer amount of effort someone had gone through to create the labyrinth was astonishing. Even the artificial forest that endured in that barren place was a testament to the power of its creators will.

Why build such a thing? Thought Shiro idly. Of course, when you could use magic. Why not?

The sunlight that filtered through the stained glass windows illuminated a pedestal with many colors. On it rested a single yellowed parchment.

"We risked our lives." Said Koji. "For a stupid piece of paper?"

Shiro's hand was stopped by an invisible wall of force. The glass surrounding the patens possessed a barrier and it would take him a great deal of time to break through it.

While he worked, he began to study the names written on its surface. Of particular interest, was an unbroken line that stretched back to the very founding of Avalon Island.

Realo. Why does that name seem so familiar to me? "This isn't just any paper." Said Shiro as he began making the connection. "These are patens of nobility. Proof of ancestry. This is a record of house Calandra's family tree." Some of these names don't belong to humans. If Rosalyn has mixed blood ancestry. Then, the Purists will find this reason enough to come after her as well. "Rosalyn, your mother wants to erase your families history. She didn't want us to find this. She wanted you to find them We were just sent along as your protection."

"Because only the legitimate heir can remove it from its case." Camilia was standing at the entrance, flanked by her own personal guard. "I'll say it again. Its a pity you weren't born human. Rosalyn, bring me the patens."

Rosalyn hesitated. She was torn between two different desires. The duty to family, and the duty to herself. "No."

"No?" Camilia seemed genuinely surprised by her daughter's defiance. "You are a scion one of the great houses. How dare you disgrace our family name before outsiders!"

"Me?" Rosalyn was incensed. "How can I be the one to disgrace our family name! Shiro is right. You just want to erase them."

Ever the bargainer Camilia said. "It is for your protection. For your future."

"For me? When have you ever done anything for me! You're doing this all for yourself. Just like you've always done. The Consortium, your career, they've always been more important to you. Mixed blood, pure blood. I have news for you mother. We aren't pure blooded. The proof is right there. Everything we are is a lie. Its always been a lie."

Rosalyn had grown up in a world that cared only for one thing. Blood. Surrounded by sycophants who only cared about maintaining their purity, She could have had anything she wanted, the world at her fingertips, so long as it didn't dirty the bloodline.

It was no life at all, to have everything, yet always want something.

She felt as if she were about to be sick. "And now you want to erase the truth. For what? So we can go on pretending?"

"Your still young to understand. You have no idea what it is your talking about."

Something about all of this still doesn't fit. Shiro spoke his suspicions aloud. "Someone is blackmailing you aren't they?"

Rosalyn stared at her mother. "Tell me it isn't true."

Camilia's face remained impassive, as blank as any stone statue.

"You could have gone to any of the other companies for help." Said Shiro. "The White Winds is completely human, and Grand Ocean would have asked for a lot less money. Instead you asked for us. And there are only two reasons for doing that."

"I'm not surprised someone like you managed to figure it out." Her guards had already sealed off the entrance. "But without the patens themselves that knowledge alone is worthless."

Shiro began to list off the names written on the patens in perfect chronological order. As if each one were the blow from a knife Camilia's face twisted a little more. "I have an eidetic memory. I only need to see something once and its mine forever."

"And just what do you intend to do with it?" Her personal guards were moving to surround them now.

Shiro slipped his hands into his sleeves. "Why would I want to do anything with it? Blackmailing someone requires a lot of work and effort. I'd have to research all those names, find out their personal histories. Talk to a lot of different people. I'm a cat. I'm much too lazy to care about all of that." Camilia seemed to relax. "But I'm sure it would be much easier to find someone who would be interested in the names on that list. So I think I'll settle for you owing us a favor."

Shiro pulled what looked like two pieces of a small broken mirror from the hidden pockets in his sleeve. Joining the two halves together opened a gate to the outside world, a window that looked upon a waiting field.

Shiro had created it as a contingency plan. He'd thought he would need to make use of something of the sort. And while it had required considerable effort to make, it never hurt to be prepared.

Camilia glared at him impotently as he and Koji stepped through the waiting portal.

Shiro gave her a bow from the waist. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you alone to solve your own family squabbles. But if you find you ever need the services of the Azure Sky again. Please, don't hesitate to ask."

He was waving at her from the other side when the portal closed with a wink.

* * *

_I had thought that, in coming to Veil I would at least in part be leaving the politics of Seirei behind. It seems that I was wrong. For they are played as deftly here as they are back home. Though the players have changed, and the pieces are different . . . the game remains the same.

I admit, I had hoped to start over. To view the world through new eyes. To see and be a part of a new place and walk untouched by the world that I was leaving behind. Such it seems, was not meant to be.

Already I can feel myself slipping, slowly being drawn back into that place of endless shadows.

A world where black is black, white is white, and everything and everyone exists in an endless shade of gray.

The rules of the game are simple: Information is the coin with which you purchase victory, never let your opponent realize your true objectives, bargain as if your life depends on the outcome, and never remove any piece from the board until you know what can be won or lost by doing so._

And just like any other game, you must always play to win.