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From the shadows, I watch him.

He stands with the Crane - the weak Hoturi - and makes battle plans. I wonder if he knows how Kachiko tricked Hoturi, and then tricked the Empire with her trick. I wonder if he knew, how close he would stand to the Crane, I wonder.

Now he walks from the Cranes to the Lions. The Lion commander is handsome, strong, beautiful, perfect. He's more Crane than Lion. They speak and look at the Lion army that stands at the gates, waiting for them. They speak and look at the army of marching dead men that waits for them. Within the gates is the master of the armies, but even he has a master. He is a slave to darkness. His chains are heavy, but they bring him strength.

Just like my own chains.

I have a duty to perform, a destiny to fulfill.

It has nothing to do with Yokuni.

It has nothing to do with "Shinsei."

The voices in my head tell me to "Forgive!" but there is no room in my heart for forgiveness. Only vindication.

Soon, I will face him, but only when I am ready. Only when he is as my brother was. Only when he is bruised and battered with blood in his eyes and his lungs, that is when I will face him. I will watch the fear in his eyes grow. I will bathe in it, use it to wash away my soul's pain. Then, once I have seen his fear, and he has felt it in his belly, he will know how my brother felt. He will know. He will know.

And then, I will send his soul screaming away with that knowledge, that at the moment of truth, his heart was filled with fear, and he failed. He failed.

My brother told me a story once when I was a little girl, watching him train. A story about Shinsei and Togashi. When Yokuni speaks to me, I wonder if he knows I know. I wonder if he knows what my gift has whispered to me.

I know my destiny, and I am ready for it. There is no fear in my heart. I see the obsidian glass creeping into my skin and I see the eyes of others wonder if its tendrils have reached my heart and I smile. My heart turned to black glass long before all of this.

From the shadows, I watch him.

Soon.

Very soon.

 

Mirumoto Hitomi

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Artwork is copyright by various artists who illustrated for Wizards of the Coast.