Chapter One

xXx

For only meeting the man three times for brief intervals, Yuri could firmly state exactly how much he hated Duke.

The first time the silver haired man was making angsty comments about humanity and it's futility. Yuri simply brushed it off as the man being a bit off in the head. The second time was the incident in Keiv Moc when he 'calmed' the Aer Krene, where he was generally a superior and condescending bastard that sounded like he'd never had a good day, ever. That, one could take as him merely having that sort of personality.

But the third meeting was where Yuri made his decision about his opinion of the angsty man.

Duke was stupid enough to dispel an entire apathea in an enclosed space all at once.

The trip back through the desert was excruciatingly painful for Yuri after that. He didn't allow any sign of his discomfort to show in his movements or on his face, but it was there. Every injury he had acquired on this journey that had been healed by Estelle, meaning all of them, resurfaced just below the skin, slowly degrading until they would open fully again.

Some days it just wasn't worth getting out of bed, but he had no choice.

Sucks to be a Mana-producing humanoid species at times like this.

No, he wasn't Krytian or Entelexeia, they functioned on Aer. Mana as a general rule, regardless of type or element, was considerably denser than Aer. Humans could survive off of either, but could thrive more easily in high levels of Mana than the delicately balanced state necessary with Aer.

He was a different, if hidden, race that could live, and flourish, just about anywhere.

They called themselves Umoujin.

In their native language it meant 'feathered people'. To the rest of the world, they were a separate people and kingdom of humans, where in reality they infiltrated every corner of society masquerading as humans or Krytia, they were nosy that way.

Currently Yuri was pulling his 'human' act off quite well, but that mask was slowly being chipped away by the Aer fighting his body's Mana. Umoujin like himself did not take well to such massive infusions of Aer, especially when they couldn't get it out.

It was a condition called 'Aer Poisoning', and it wasn't pleasant.

xXx

Yuri was never happier to see the rings of an active barrier before in his life as the group came upon Mantaic, the desert city. True, it was rather small to be considered a 'city', but nobody out here really cared.

His elation was cut off sharply by the sight of Cumore's distinctive figure at the gate of town, yelling at a soldier who was loading citizens into a cart. It was obvious that the captain was intending to send the defenseless and unprepared people out into the desert like so many others.

Yuri nearly lost what was left of his control at the scene, but thankfully he convinced Karol to sabotage the carriage before that happened.

Breaking the coach only bought them a little time, but that evening, Yuri snapped.

It was deathly silent as the dark haired swordsman crept into Cumore's room. Like a black ghost he stood over the corrupt knight's bed, staring down at his relaxed sleep.

Yuri sneered. The man had enslaved hundreds and sent so many to their deaths, but not even his subconscious held any remorse if his sleep was undisturbed.

"Cumore..." he hissed, and with a jolt the captain sat bolt upright.

One look in the darkness and Cumore recognized Yuri instantly.

"L-lowell! What are you doing here?"

Yuri said nothing, standing over his enemy with his sword unsheathed. Cumore gave a gasp of fear and tumbled from his bed in his nightclothes, backing away on all fours.

"S-someone! Anyone! Help me!" he whimpered, before getting his legs beneath him and bolting for the door.

Outside, the panicked captain ground to a stop at the edge of a sand dune, where the side crumbled dangerously into a shifting morass of sand below. Watching in utter terror as his aggressor approached, he quivered in fear, and tried to bribe his way out of his upcoming death, money, prestige, reinstatement in the knights, but Yuri only pressed forward.

"N-no! Stay back you monster!"

"Coward." Yuri growled in a low, even tone. "How many times have you heard the same begging for mercy, and ignored it?"

Cumore's eyes went wide. "No! I am Cumore, Captain of the Imperial Knights, the one destined to become Commandant!"

Yuri only narrowed his eyes. "Well, than you can prepare Alexei his place in hell after you." he said slowly. "He'll be joining you soon enough."

Cumore snapped. In his paranoia he kept a special kind of 'aer pistol' on his person at all times. The small weapon shot concentrated blasts of aer to stun the victim. In this moment of fear for his miserable life he whipped out this pistol, and fired it point blank into Yuri's chest.

At first, he felt nothing, but suddenly a searing pain, different from the wretched burning he had been subjected to ever since meeting Duke in Yormgen, tore through him and three different old wounds ruptured open.

As Yuri collapsed Cumore regained his composure. "Well, I suppose your pathetic lowborn self is pathetic against my noble cunning Lowell." he said, and stooped to grab Yuri's sword, but failed due to it's deceptively massive weight. He floundered a moment, but then abandoned the sword for the dagger that Yuri kept stashed at the back of his wide sash, left exposed from it's hiding space when it had jostled free.

Cumore took the dagger and admired it's strange form for a moment. "How odd, that a commoner like yourself has such a magnificent example of those savage Umourian's bladework." he said. "Worse than you common trash, but at least they make a good blade."

With a sneer, he readied himself to stab Yuri's unprotected back, when an unexpected entity interrupted and Flynn Scifo approached.

"Captain Cumore!" he yelled, running towards his downed friend, causing Cumore to drop the blade, and it landed point first into Yuri's back, just behind the shoulder blade.

"Aaarrrgghhhh!"

Yuri's cry of pain resonated through the quiet area. Cumore panicked and wrenched the dagger out, grabbed Yuri by his hair, and held the blade to his throat.

"Don't come any closer Scifo!" he hissed. "Or your criminal friend dies!"

Flynn ground to a halt. "No! Release him Cumore!"

"I think not! This man has been a thorn in my side for too long! Just now he tried to kill me! Nothing you can do will save him!"

A small push of the dagger dug it's tip into Yuri's neck, blood beginning to trickle down pale skin, but a shrill cry like a bird startled them all.

"What in the world?"

There was the crucial moment. Cumore, unnerved, released his hold on Yuri, and he was rammed into by a whirl of feathers, disappearing into the darkness.

Stunned, Flynn stared at the space where his fellow captain stood, but spurred himself into action as the sand below his friend turned red.

"Yuri! Are you alright?" he asked, turning the wounded man over, but Yuri lay unresponsive. "Damn, he's unconscious, Sodia! Get over here!"

"Sir?" asked the lieutenant. "Is something...Lowell!" The female knight rushed over to her captain. "Sir Flynn! What happened?"

"Cumore attacked him, some kind of blastia weapon. I didn't see the entire exchange, but Yuri is in bad shape."

Sodia glared at her nemesis, but nodded. "He doesn't deserve it, but we should get him to the princess for healing. I'll help you carry him."

"Thank you, get his sword and that knife, we have to get to the inn."

"Understood."

Sodia struggled with the heavy blade for a moment, but managed better than Cumore had, slinging it over her armored shoulder and grabbing the bloodied knife.

"Permission to speak freely sir?"

Flynn did not turn his head, only moving forward, but he answered. "Granted."

"This knife is Umourian make, the style is unmistakable, where could Captain Cumore get such a thing?"

"He didn't, it's Yuri's." the captain said slowly, shifting the body in his arms. "He's had it as long as I've known him, he isn't going to be happy to know that scumbag used it against him."

"It's Lowell's? Where on earth did he get it?"

"I don't know, he never told me."

"It has a purple diamond in it!"

Flynn paused. "Diamond? I always thought it was glass."

"My father is a jeweler sir, I know a diamond when I see one." said Sodia, jogging slightly to catch up. "The cut is unique to dark violet diamonds, used to enhance the color and brilliance of the stone. I've never seen one set into the hilt of a blade before, but the setting around it has to be either white gold or platinum."

Flynn frowned. "This is troubling, Yuri is going to have a lot of explaining to do when he wakes."

"Undoubtably sir."

xXx

Estelle was distraught to see Yuri's bloody state when they woke her, and even more so when her healing arts seemed to cause him great discomfort, closing the wounds but leaving angry red welts. Karol was particularly panicky, but Flynn distracted him with the now cleaned knife once Yuri was resting in the next room.

"Young man, have you seen a blade like this before?" he asked, presenting the sheathed dagger to the boy. It took a bit of work freeing the sheath from the underside of Yuri's sash, as it was firmly wedged into the odd knot he used, but now the beautifully decorated scabbard was visible. Tucked with the knife was a deck of odd cards, but no one paid them much heed.

"Huh? Where did you get this?" Karol asked, taking the knife. "It's pretty."

"It's Yuri's, he's had it longer than I've known him. I was hoping that your experience could tell me what it is."

Karol turned the knife over in his hands slowly, examining the black lacquered metal sheath and the pattern of bright silver detail. The blade itself had characters of some type set into the spine with a different metal. Raven, his interest piqued, leaned over to study it as well.

"Well lookie here, I haven't seen that pattern in ages." he quipped. "That one's a classic, Umourian scroll pattern, nice inlay inscription."

"Really? That's Umouroi?"

Raven scoffed. "They call it nihongo kid. Ridiculously complicated to read since it's got three different writing systems, but it sounds pretty. I met a guy from there once, great singing voice, but he had a knife like this, just not as pretty."

Estelle looked closer. "It looks like a ceremonial dagger I saw in a book once."

"Hardly. These things are fancy, but they're all about function. One little slice from these babies and you can lose your hand, easily. Sharpest little blades in the world, can split a hair like it's nothing and never lose their edges. My contact said they're marks of skill or rewards for notable deeds, the writing on the spine of the blade details what it was presented for."

"Are they rare?" asked Flynn.

"In the empire yeah. No one but the Umourian smiths can make these things."

Karol piped up. "I can see why, it's got the classic wave pattern in the metal for Umourian made weapons. The Soul Smiths guildmaster would kill to learn that technique."

Flynn frowned. "Is there any way of finding the smith that made this?"

Karol made a face. "No way. From what I heard most Umourian smiths put their maker's marks on the tongue of the blade, under the hilt. Even if we could take the hilt apart we won't be able to read the signature, they use a totally different language remember?"

"His name was Murasaki."

Everyone in the room jumped and turned to the doorway to see Yuri standing there, shirtless and leaning heavily against the frame. He looked utterly exhausted, and his pale skin now showed far more numerous red marks than earlier, each the shape of a large wound.

"Yuri! Are you alright?" asked Estelle, getting up and looking him over. "Do you hurt anywhere?"

Yuri patted her on the head gently, shaking his own head. "I'm sore all over princess, but there's nothing you can do about it."

"But Yuri-"

"No. No more healing artes." he said with such a tone of finality that any arguments Estelle had died before she could speak. "I just need to rest. There's so much aer in my body it hurts, give it time and it'll dissipate."

With that he made his way over to an empty chair and sat down heavily, slumping in exhaustion.

Flynn spoke first. "What was that you said before? That name?"

"Murasaki. Tencho Murasaki. He's the man that made that knife five hundred years ago, it's a family heirloom."

Flynn blinked. "Your family has an Umourian made blade of that caliber as an heirloom?"

Yuri looked at his long time friend through the fringe of his bangs. "You do realize that I was adopted, right?"

Flynn started a bit. "What?"

Yuri chuckled darkly. "I can't believe you don't remember, I've told you that a dozen times before."

"But Yuri, you have such a strong resemblance to them!"

"Happy coincidence. Mom and Dad are the same race as me, they just happened to live in Zaphias when I ended up there. I'm really from Sei-an Hei."

Raven jumped. "Sei-an? Isn't that the Umourian Capital?"

Yuri nodded. "Yeah, but it's Umoujin. 'Umourian' is a word the Empire made up."

Estelle gasped. "Oh Yuri! Why didn't you tell me you were Umourian? I could have been hurting you all this time!"

Everyone looked at her in confusion save Yuri and Judith.

"What precisely do you mean by that?" asked Judith.

Estelle looked flustered. "I read in a book once that many Umourians can have severe reactions to large quantities of aer, they get aer sickness much worse than the average person."

Judith nodded. "That is true. The majority of Umoujin produce mana instead of living off aer, since their unique abilities are mana based. The two different energies tend to fight one another, but mana tends to trap excess aer in order to convert it to useable form, high levels of trapped aer leads to the condition known as 'aer poisoning'." she explained solemnly. "You have it, don't you Yuri?"

Yuri remained silent, but gave the slightest nod.

"How long?" asked Flynn. "If you're sick, you should tell someone."

Yuri did not meet the captain's eyes. "I've been dealing with the symptoms for nearly ten years Flynn. Staying under a barrier blastia can give you a mild infection if you can't disperse it properly. My foster father was a trained doctor in energy based medicine, but I'm a lot more receptive to aer than normal. There's nothing you can really do about it."

Judith sighed. "I suppose I will have to take over healing Yuri Estelle."

Estelle looked up. "What do you mean Judith?"

The lancer gave a small smile. "I'm not really full Krytian. My father was only half, so the rest of me is Umoujin. I was born and raised in Sei-an with my mother's clan, the Yamamotou, who are known for their element-based healing artes."

Yuri laughed, startling the group. "Yamamotou? I knew you seemed familiar! You're Juu-chan!"

Karol snorted a laugh. "'Juu-chan'? What kind of name is that?"

"It's a nickname." Judith responded. "My best friend growing up called me that, right, Hoshino?"

Yuri smiled. "Guess you knew it was me all along, eh, Juu-chan? I didn't recognize you when we met at Gasfarost, you've changed, a lot."

"The last we saw of each other was almost twelve years ago, so I suppose change is a given thing. But yes, I did recognize you, I just wasn't sure if you even remembered."

Flynn was reeling. "Wait a moment, Yuri isn't your real name?"

Yuri shrugged, but flinched at the action as it pulled at the deep cut in the back of his shoulder. "Kind of is, kind of isn't. More than half our people have multiple names and aliases, it's not uncommon. I took the name Yuri to protect myself, and since I've been using it for eleven years it's as much a part of me as my first name, Hoshino. Just call me whatever you're comfortable with."

The captain seemed appeased at the admission, and stood up to leave. "I suppose this is good bye for now then Yuri. I must leave, for I have official business in Nordepolica. Take care."

With a swish of his cape tails, he was out the door. Yuri sighed heavily.

"Man, he says I changed, talk about being shortsighted." he muttered. "Can I have my knife and cards back? I'm going to sleep, we'll be heading out an hour after dawn."