brought you back. I cannot save what is lost, only bring it back for a time. It binds you to me."

"You are. All of the stories say it, I've read them. You slew a thousand wolves at the Shrine of Saicomb…"

"Including the great wolf, Aeva, the mother of the horde, cursed with human form in the light of the sun. You rescued Prince Ying Sung from the Burning Mines…"

"Your duel with the Brothers Venom atop Quiet Eye Mountain…"

The shinigami gave me the power to bring back heroes to help me."

Hosan prayers

Ipian prayer

the people of Kaishi had anything to do with the disappearance of Flaming Fist's daughter, but they had certainly paid the price either way.

There was both respect and friendship between Whispering Blade and the Century Blade; it went deeper than the time they had spent together.

Ein tugged free of Cho and stared at her, pale eyes showing something she couldn't quite grasp. It was an ancient stare, the sort she'd seen in old soldiers who had witnessed too much, and accepted too little.

The honest truth of it was that some men were easier to serve than to fight and Flaming Fist was one of them.

"I can't wear shoes," Ein said. "It was part of the deal with the shinigami. I gained the power to bring people back, on the condition I carry out his judgement on a man. And that I don't wear any shoes. I don't know why he hates shoes so much."

He claimed he had seen a shinigami, spoken to it and made a deal with death itself.

O mighty giver of life, is kill the most powerful, most heavily protected man in all of Hosa."

Wu palace, and it was at the farthest end of Hosa, deep within the city of Jieshu.

treetop city of Unyun,

patience, after the constellation of Rymer, the keeper of time. But

endurance, after Fenwong, the drunkard. Five

For up at the pinnacle of ShinWo, on the final of the Thousand Steps, the Century Blade had learned true humility, and that sometimes one can only be victorious in defeat."

was restraint, after Osh, the beast master.

sharing, after Ryoko, the one

Library of All Things, he had learned that knowledge helps to better all of man, and there are few things that should not be shared.

"The Nash have a saying, boy. Tomorrow is just more of yesterday.

"It takes a lifetime of evil to be a villain, and only one moment of good to be a hero."

He named me Yanmei, the Last Bloom of Summer.

Anyone else the boy wanted to serve him, they would kill. Cho now realised the boy would make monsters of both of them before his quest was done.

"In my experience, it is those who claim to be trustworthy who are most untrustworthy. Those whose claim to not deserve trust, are often far too scared of trusting others."

"Ban Ping, city of veiled enlightenment,"

The monks of Ban Ping are the most peaceful elite soldiers in all of Hosa."

"Dozens of towns in ten different little kingdoms are on the way to Wu. This is Ban Ping.

blue hakama to wear over her legs and a black haori to wear over her under- wrappings.

even have the constellation of Lili tattooed on my back. Master Fushus said it would connect me to the most calming of the stars."

She was an Ipian Shintei, trained in the ways of the blade to help others, to lend steel and technique to worthy causes.

chance encounter with Seifon, the Broken Chain.

"Chen Lu, Iron Gut."

Honour can be lost a dozen times, and regained. Life can only be lost once, and never regained.

Death's Echo

"And will be again. My name is Roi Astara." Cho glanced behind the man at the gathered crowd. "They called you Death's Echo."

"You've clearly been in Ban Ping too long. The emperor… of Ten Kings. Ruler of all Hosa. And general all round megalomaniac, if half the stories are true."

with a parasol in one hand and a wooden keg under his arm, and a short rifleman covered in bandages.

dedicated to foreign gods from Nash or Cochran, but most are for Hosan and Ipian worship. Some even worship shinigami, the lords of death. I saw statues of them, bare foot and hunched, grotesque things with squat bodies and huge faces." Roi Astara coughed and speckled his bandages with fresh blood. "Each of them has long ears and bulbous or hooked noses. Some have teeth, while others have fangs. They wear rags, barely covering their bodies, and greedy expressions. Shinigami are hungry for souls and guard their collections jealously. I have heard it said they fight from time to time, and that is why some of the shrines are little more than wrecks with broken statues. Overgrown and untended."

"No. I cannot read the stars. But they talk to me from time to time. They talk to many people, but most don't know how to listen."

"One can either let their losses define them, or define those losses by what is left to them."

vengeful spirits. She had grown up with brothers; one older and three younger,

"For you cannot find yourself, if you do not first lose your way."

It is said the Eeko'Ai come only as portents of events that will shape the world. Whatever event they came before, the forest did not wish to witness

"And like most gods," Roi Astara continued, "they exist to meddle in the affairs of people, and fight amongst themselves. Whichever shinigami Ein serves has enemies, and those enemies would love to see him fail in his quest."

"She wasn't half rotted. The hone- onna rise as skeletons from the grave. They choose healthy victims and steal their organs and flesh, stretching it over their bones to become human once again."

but hope was a dangerous commodity to give voice to. Inside it could be suppressed and denied, but once it was out, there was no taking it back.

They recommended cleansing your chakras. And leeches."

"The Cochtans love their leeches. But they have never worked before, I see no reason they

cities of Hosa, and even a few up north beyond the Cochtan border.

It was a small nation of warriors, strengthened by the daily toil of a hard life.

Ein told him a mokumokuren was a harmless type of yokai, likely sent by one of the shinigami to keep watch on him and his heroes.

never seen her draw the second sword, but he noticed it had no tsuba, and a sword with no hand guard was dangerous. She bowed and said,

"Korobokkuru," the boy said. He looked up at Bingwei with a fearful gaze. "You had a yokai growing inside of you."

is the peace of the sword, enforced only when it pleases him and only on those who deserve it least. The people of Hosa live in fear. Fear of good men standing by while evil is done to others. Fear of the old ways dying out in favour of new fashions. Fear of being dragged from their homes and branded traitor by the point of spear, for openly worshipping the stars rather than the throne."

"Sometimes peace is no more than oppression in disguise."

Cho knew almost nothing about qi, but Chen Lu claimed just about anything that was hard or painful also served to strengthen the qi.

Cold water could be refreshing, but it was never relaxing.

"It's a river dragon," the leper said "A yokai far more powerful than any we've encountered so far. No bullet will stop that thing."

It is the shinigami chasing us who has grown bolder. It draws them in, gives them purpose by throwing them at us."

"Because you do not know how to properly use your energy to sever that which binds the yokai to the bodies they inhabit."

"You focus your qi through your voice. It is impressive."

"The other sword was dark like obsidian, thin trails of grey like smoke curling along the hamon. It has no tsuba to guard the hand. Mifune called the sword War, and told me I wasn't worthy

"He told me they were forged as a pair. Peace steals the souls of its victims, trapping them so they can never be reborn. And War releases those souls, should it ever be drawn, allowing them to reenter the world as the stars see fit. So I swore only to use Peace against those who are evil, and never to release them by drawing War." She paused, trying to stop herself from saying more, but the tale needed to be told. "It's the only oath I've ever kept."

"Why can't shinigami wear shoes?" Zhihao asked. "Because IoSen," Roi Astara rasped, "the goddess of consequences, cursed them to always feel the consequences of where they tread."

"He's too young to be in any of your books." The leper coughed, spattering the bandages around his mouth pink. "He is the son of the king of Qing, and a man of strength and focused vengeance, determined to see justice for his father's murder. He is the last challenge to the emperor's rule. And by his side sits the Art of War, a strategist with no equal. Together,

his walls in the city of Jieshu, holding all the kings hostage so none of their sons

name is Daiyu Lingsen." "The Art of War,"

"I died," Ein said with a nod. "On Long Mountain

reveal a horrifying motley of purple, black, and red. Cho couldn't help but look away. She couldn't imagine how anyone could do such a thing

"The shinigami brought me back," Ein continued, "and sent me on a quest. A single mission I have no choice but to pursue. To kill Emperor Henan WuLong."

"To complete my mission, the shinigami gave me the ability to bring back the dead. Whispering Blade was the first. Like the others she is mostly alive, but once I complete my quest, the shinigami will make her fully alive again."

Ein suddenly looked tired, and Cho realised why she had never seen the boy sleep. He would find no rest until his quest was done.

Slowly, so slowly, he shook his head. "No. You are yokai. Vengeful spirits I raised to help me."

Cho wondered how she hadn't seen it before. She was yokai, a vengeful spirit raised to serve the shinigami's purpose. But so was Ein. They were, all of them, nothing more than ghostly pawns in a greater game.

"You once said you wonder what your name would have been, had you become a hero," Cho said. She couldn't even find the effort to lift her head, but she smiled. "Death's Echo."

"You first died almost sixty years ago. Never defeated. Not once after earning the title of master. But far too trusting of your fellow man."

"You died to a Cochtan spy who you refused to execute even when caught. The man returned and murdered you in your sleep. Hopefully this death will find you some peace. The Last Master of Sun Valley."

"Must you continue to wear my old skin?"

been following. The shinigami stopped before the throne and sketched a mocking bow. "I quite like it," the shinigami said in a voice so similar to Roi's own. "Everyone underestimates me in this body. Just like they did you so long ago."

"It seemed a bit much for such a paltry sacrifice as you. But twenty years is what I gave him. Twenty years of immortality and power." The shinigami paused and looked around the throne room. "He didn't squander

"They needed to believe they weren't dead. Whispering Blade and The Emerald Wind were the toughest. I had to show them the consequences of Flaming Fist's attack on Kaishi. I had to show them the past. I had to show them the Century Blade's death. Quite an illusion to weave."

"Emperor Henan WuLong is dead. My name is Einrich WuLong, and I am the Emperor of Ten Kings."