Partings

Antares looked out into the emptiness that lay before him, the night sky seamlessly blending into the Void. At the edge he stood; the edge where the Land ends and no Path-seeker had stood before.

'Unfortunate,' he thought, 'that this time had to come.'

Slowly he took off his cloak, the once regal azure now a dirty blue. He wouldn't need it in the emptiness--there, it is neither cold nor hot; there, every ounce of feeling that had come and gone will be shred apart. All will have returned to nothing, the nothing that had fallen apart with the first battle.

His last thoughts were interrupted by footsteps light and quick.

"Master!"

KaiShen, his most loyal apprentice, ran to where he stood and bowed.

"Please, Master, rethink your decision. Things may still yet change--they have promised us that. There is hope yet for the Land."

"I have taught you well, KaiShen." Antares replied. "Yes, there may be hope still, but what I seek cannot be found in this Land anymore. She has long left the Land, the Lady that I have sought the Path for.

Selfish, maybe, but are not our motives selfish as well? The Path-seekers claim to unite to rebuild the Empire of old, yet they cling to the banners of their own clans and try to raise them above others'. The gods and demons keep the Land (and the Path-seekers, to some extent) from being ravaged by the Soulless--simply because without a Land, they would not be rulers. The Soulless want to destroy the Land, because that is what they have not. Even the most austere ascetic does it for his own enlightenment.

Pray tell me, kind one, that we truly live for others. Maybe then I will change my mind and return."

Antares folded up the cloak, and together with his sigil, handed it over to KaiShen.

"And we all have to move on sometime. What is the use of an apprentice if he would not succeed his master?"

With that, he took a step forward, and let the Void consume him.

Visions

"If we were to implement this--"

The groan of the heavy chair interrupted the venerable Immortal Master mid-sentence. "What is it, Qi Xun Jue?" Zhuan Xu turned to the Seer, who stood up under a trance.

"The Dragonslayer awakens."

Asche stole a glance at the Immortal, then at FelMaiden. They had feared that this day would come.

At that moment a Yao Jing burst inside the room, panting heavily. "Dragonbreath--in the wind--nearing the city..." Sui Mei gasped, steadying herself against the frame of the door.

"Check JadeNight's chambers. Raise an alarm across the whole Land, alert all the clans. Tell them to brace themselves."

Warnings

Arcadia's peach blossoms still danced earthward, their fragrant footsteps etched upon the wind. Between the trees, a fox lay lazily upon the green grass, catching up on her sleep.

Sui Mei sighed. It has been such a long time since she last went here, her refuge from the wars now ravaging the Land. This place always had a certain magic; the battles fought on these hills not tainting its beauty. The fragrant blossoms were proof of this.

Yet something in the wind was amiss. It was first a hint of smoke, then ash that slowly made it hard for her to breathe. The blossoms' fragrance slowly disappeared, replaced by fumes no mortal hand could have created. Surely not one of the gods, nor any of the demons; they have long forsook any direct meddling in the affairs of the Land.

Then it dawned on her: Dragonbreath.

But the last of the honorable Dragons have passed from this Land, killed by JadeNight when his Soulless side gained control of his body and power. Only Asche and FelMaiden managed to contain that side, the side that wished to revert everything back to the Void.

All traces of sleep shaken off, Sui Mei threw her raiment of flowers around her and raced back to town. Her paws barely touched the ground as she ran, wanting to outrace the wind that had brought the warning.

Something was coming, and it did not seem to be good.