When Shen was seven, his father brought home an orphan boy with fair hair and scarlet eyes. Kusho said nothing of the child's background, but the scars spoke for themselves and Shen could see the shadows that haunted the younger boy's blood-red gaze.

He smiled, stepped forward, and held out his hand.

.

Hi, I'm Shen. What's your name?

…Zed.

Father says you're to stay here from now on. Come on, I'll show you around.


Zed knew that the other students were whispering about him again. He cared little for their petty jealousies, used as he was to being the target of resentment, suspicion, and sometimes fear from his peers.

But they did not matter. They could wallow in mediocrity for all he cared; there was only one who could be his equal.

His sparring match with Shen that day had ended in a draw, as it always did, and his fingers twitched with a restless energy. For a moment during their fight it had felt like he had the upper hand, and he had momentarily sacrificed caution for speed to lunge in for the final strike... only for Shen to seemingly disappear right before his eyes.

He had barely spun around in time to block Shen's retaliating blow, and then Kusho had called for them to stop.

Kusho had praised Shen for improving his reaction time, and chastised Zed for taking such a risk.

A blur of motion in the corner of his eye pulled Zed out of his thoughts. He raised a pale eyebrow as Shen appeared before him.

"Zed!" Shen's light blue eyes were bright with amusement. "You ran off so soon. Still sulking over what Father said?"

"I do not sulk," Zed snapped, glowering at his adoptive brother. "There was simply no reason for me to stick around when Master Kusho clearly wished to speak to you in private."

"Oh, that thing?" the older of the two young ninjas shrugged. "It was just to brief me about my upcoming mission."

Zed paused. "The bodyguard mission?" He had not been able to find out any details about what was to be Shen's first solo assignment, and though he was loathe to admit it, the lack of information worried him.

"Yes. I am to protect Lord Jizo during the Snow Festival next week."

Zed looked askance at him. "Master Kusho expects an attack?"

Shen shrugged. "Father only said to stay hidden, and ensure Lord Jizo's safety at all costs."

"That's…" Zed frowned. "Why am I not included? Surely two of us together would do a better job of defending some feeble old ars—" quickly changing his next word at a disapproving glance from Shen, "—aristocrat."

Shen looked at Zed with that eyes had the colour and stillness of pond frozen over in winter. "It is not for us to question the orders we're given," he reminded gently. "My duty is to fulfil the mission given to me."

Zed scowled. "It's a test, isn't it?" he said abruptly. "You have to do it because you're going to be the Eye of Twilight."

"…I believe so," Shen said, after a pause. "It is likely."

Then he smiled, and Zed instantly forgot he was supposed to be bitter.

"Come now, there's no need to make that face. While I appreciate my dear brother's concern for my safety, you really do worry too much." He paused, then added slyly, "I'd be concerned about your hair turning white from all this fretting, if it wasn't already so."

"Oh, really?" Zed said, with a sardonic glint in his eye that would've sent most people their age running for the hills. "Don't get too ahead of yourself, brother, or one day your overly inflated head will get big enough to float you right out of Ionia."

Shen simply leaned his chin on his hand and looked at Zed. "You're smiling," he pointed out.

"Well then, you're paying!" Zed whirled around and stalked off, throwing the retort over his shoulder.

Shen blinked, and called after him, "Wait, for what?"

"For my dango!"

Shen coughed to hide a laugh and followed, shaking his head at his brother's mercurial moods.

"I swear, that sweet tooth is your only exploitable weakness," he commented lightly, falling into step next to Zed.

Zed glanced at him for the fraction of a second before looking away. "Hah, no," he scoffed, but said no more.

.

Zed knew what his weakness was. It looked him in the face every day with good-natured placidity, smiled at his foul tempers, and called him brother.

.

Despite growing up in a temple full of other ninjas-in-training, Zed's only true friend and companion was Shen. He knew full well that his general demeanour tended to make people wary of him, unwilling to draw close lest they be burned by his acerbity. There was a strange intensity to Zed, and something about the way he looked at people, that almost never failed to unnerve those around him.

His unusual appearance did him no favours, either. The scars upon his body had faded a little with the years that had passed, but people still flinched at the sight of his bare face. Eventually he began to wear a mask when he was outside, not to spare their sensibilities, but because their twitches and cringes annoyed him.

A poet might say his hair was like cold steel under the moonlight and his eyes as red as blood-drops from a wounded heart, but Zed did not live in a society of poets. The Kinkou Order had no appreciation for macabre imagery; their only preoccupation was with the preservation of balance. To the others who lived in the temple, Zed's exotic looks was a reminder of how he had, after all those years, remained an outsider. He was no more than a stray whom Master Kusho had once taken pity on and, for reasons unknown, chosen to raise as his own.

Zed knew that people disapproved of his close association with Shen.

After all, Shen was different from him. They had played together as children, and trained together almost exclusively when it became clear that none of the other students could match either of them, yet circumstances of birth had placed them on separate paths. Although Zed had proven himself time and again to be Shen's only equal, he had been barred from all the secret training and special missions that Shen had to undertake. It was as though the Kinkou intended no place for him in Shen's future.

But it was no matter, if he could only prove himself stronger than Shen. If he could defeat his rival in a duel, then Kusho would be forced to acknowledge his abilities and give Zed his rightful place – both in the Kinkou Order, and in the life of the one he called brother.