Notes:
Onii-sama is an honorific Japanese word meaning "older brother"
Shiroi is a Japanese word meaning "white"
Ouji is a Japanese word meaning "prince"; thus Shiroi Ouji's name means "the White Prince"
Shiro is a form of the Japanese word "shiroi", which means "white"
Kikyou is a Japanese name.
Miko is the Japanese word for "priestess"
Cléopâtre is the French pronunciation of Cleopatra
-sama is used at the end of a name or title and it automatically makes the word used with it honorific.

After re-supplying at a small village, the Land-Ship and its crew continued on their journey to Nexus. The weeks until they reached Nexus passed slowly for Kikyou. Most of the time she spent either training or meditating.

As Kikyou sat on the green cushion, she let her mind wander. How long had it been since they had promised to save the city of Rathos from their deadly approaching fate? Months, surely. Yet, still the party was unable to save them. The danger Rathos faced was of the cursed lands, the Wilds. Rathos was built too close to the Wilds, and slowly, the creatures of the Wild were beginning to take over the lands nearby. They had already experienced a few attacks on their own city, but thus far had been able to somehow managed to fend off some of the worst attacks. The main danger they faced from the Wilds was a Death Lord who had many regions under his control, and increased his number daily.

On their last trip to Rathos, the town was at the point where they had practically decided to let the Death Lord reign over them. But, after much discussing and arguing, the party finally convinced the leaders of Rathos not to give in to the Death Lord. The group promised to save them from him. They promised to go kill the Death Lord. But was it really a promise they could keep?

At the time, they thought it was. But now, Kikyou's mind became flooded with doubts. How would they defeat him? How she longed to go to his fortress and face him head-on But, the party had already tried that tactic, and it most certainly hadn't worked. She felt the pain in her side come back, just thinking about their last battle. No, it wasn't possible for them to save Rathos by heading straight into his fortress. Then he would have the advantage, it being his own territory. And then they had thought about the shrines.

In order for the Death Lord to take over a territory, he must build special shrines in the areas he's taking over. If the shrines are destroyed, he loses control of that area. But there were many shrines, and no doubt they were guarded very well. So, in order for the group to be able to destroy all the shrines, they would need more men in their crew.

In previous battles, many loyal soldiers had fallen for their sakes'. They were all good men, and the party mourned each one's death. Where once there was 150 good men serving the party on ship, now only 50 remained. That was another reason they were going to Nexus. They hoped that they would find good, strong, loyal men to join their crew. If they could, they hoped to get 350 new men. That was all they could fit on the ship, but hopefully that would be enough to take down the shrines around Rathos and free the city.

Kikyou furrowed her brows in concentration. She just hoped and prayed it wasn't too late by the time they were ready. What if Rathos was already taken over? What if it was too late? She could never forgive herself if she broke her word to save the poor, pleading city. She had given an oath to save the city, and she would, or she would die trying.

***********

"Miko-sama," Kikyou heard one of her personal followers, Fuyu, calling her as she sat meditating. She looked up at him. "We have arrived. Ahead of us lies the city of Nexus."

Kikyou stood up and smiled. "At last!" she thought to herself. She nodded to Fuyu and followed him up to the top deck. In the distance she could see the large, crowded city of Nexus. She turned to her brother Shiroi, who was at the wheel, guiding the ship through the land.

"Will we sail into the harbor as if we were a normal ship, so as not to cause suspicion, as we usually do?" Kikyou said, asking her brother.

"Yes," he replied, glancing at his sister briefly before returning his gaze to the front of the ship. Living as a Solar Exalted was very difficult. The party always tried to bring as little suspicion as possible upon themselves, for fear that they might be discovered as Solar Exalted. That is why, when sailing into a town, they always parked the Land Ship in the ship harbor. If a city saw a ship sailing through the land towards them, it would definitely cause a commotion, and that was the last thing the party wanted. The Land Ship sailed through water just the same as land, anyway.

After docking at the harbor, Kikyou stepped out onto the dock and smiled as she saw all the busy people wandering about, going about their daily lives. Nexus was certainly a thriving city, unlike Rathos. She saw Lebeau, Creed, and Shiroi walking up to her.

"Ok, I will go see my mentor now," Creed said, "Hopefully he will be able to teach me the spell I need to learn. Where will everyone else be going? When will we meet up again? Someone needs to stay with the Land-Ship."

"I plan to look for cooks. I'll take Lafarga with me." Shiroi said.

"Cooks?" Kikyou asked questioningly. Shiroi nodded.

"That's a wonderful idea, Shiro!" Creed said. "Having the crewmen cook for us is terrible. They're soldiers, not cooks! All right Shiro, get some good cooks. We can afford it!"

Lebeau said nothing as he stood there, arms crossed, with a stern look on his face, but he silently nodded his approval to Shiro.

"I shall stay at the ship, as I have nothing important to do," Kikyou said. Creed nodded.

"I will go with Creed." Lebeau said.

"Very good. Then, we shall meet back at the ship tonight?" Creed asked. Everyone nodded their approval. "Very well. Let's go, Lebeau."

"Goodbye! Good luck on learning the spell!" Kikyou said as they turned to leave.

After Shiroi, Lebeau and Creed had left, Kikyou went back to the ship. She sat on the side of the ship, watching the people of Nexus scurrying about on the crowded docks.

***********

Creed walked up to the wooden door and knocked on it. Behind him stood Lebeau, silently watching. Suddenly the door opened, and there stood a short man.

"How may I help you?" the man asked.

"I'm here to see my mentor, Smith." Creed replied.

"I'm sorry, sir, but Master Smith is not home at this time." The man said.

"Oh I see. Well. Tell him Creed is in town, and tell him I'll be staying at the inn." Creed said.

"Which inn, sir?" the man asked. Creed pondered for a second.

"What inn What inn would you recommend?" Creed asked. The man looked a bit startled at his question.

"Well, I " he began.

"What is the nicest, most expensive inn in the city?" Creed asked. "No wait, the second most expensive inn in the city?"

The man paused. "That would probably be the Golden Dragon Inn," he replied.
"The Golden Dragon Inn, huh? Ok, tell him I'll be there," Creed said. "Can you tell me where I can find this inn?"

After the man gave Creed the directions to the inn and promised he would tell his master that Creed was in town, Creed and Lebeau left.

**************

Certainly the Golden Dragon Inn was a nice Inn. The rooms were large and spacious, and everything was decorated with gold and green coloring. The place was quite beautiful, actually, with all of the rich decorations, but Creed and Lebeau barely noticed. The only reason they had gone to an expensive Inn in the first place was because of all the trouble they had had previously with thieves robbing them of their belongings in the night. Yes, they had had many bad experiences with thieves in inns.

"Well, I'm going down to the tavern below for a drink," Creed said. "You coming, Lebeau?"

Lebeau nodded, "might as well."

Creed and Lebeau walked down the stairs that led from the rooms above to the tavern below. When they got to the bottom, Creed paused and turned to Lebeau.

"Look at that girl there, Lebeau," Creed said to Lebeau, "She looks like a Terrestrial Exalted, don't you think?"

Lebeau looked at the room of people and immediately spotted the one Creed was talking about. The girl was dressed in a full suit of heavy armor, and at her side, hanging from her belt, was a large sword.

"She does look Terrestrial," Lebeau said,

"Hey," Creed said, "maybe we could recruit her for the ship! We could definitely use a Dragon-Blooded."

"We could ask," Lebeau said.

Creed walked up to the girl, who was silently sipping a mug of alcohol. "Good day, m'lady," Creed said to her. She turned around to look at him.

"Greetings, sir," she replied.

"We were looking for soldiers to hire," Creed said, "and we thought you looked like you might be interested. She paused.

"I might be. And who exactly are you?" she asked.

"We are adventurers," he replied.

"Adventurers, huh?" she said.

"Yes, adventurers," Creed replied. "We will, of course, be willing to pay you. But first, we must know: are you Terrestrial Exalted?"

"Yes, I am," she said, getting up from her stool.

"Ah, I see. And, would you be willing to join our crew?" Creed asked. She paused, pondering for a minute.

"I need no pay," she said, "but I would be willing to join you in your adventures."

"Really?" Creed asked, a bit surprised.

"Yes," she replied. "My name is Cléopâtre."

"Well then, welcome to the group, Cleo pat " he fumbled around, trying to pronounce her name. She smiled.

"It's Cléopâtre," she repeated.

"Umm Well, welcome, Cleo," Creed said. "We'll just call you Cleo."

She smiled widely. "Cleo's fine."

"Oh, and I am Creed. And this is Lebeau," Creed said, motioning towards Lebeau.

"Greetings, Lebeau," Cleo said. Lebeau nodded at her.