First Tale : Odin's Trust
Chapter VI

"Every person is influenced by his or her own destiny. Destiny is a common thread that binds us all. There are those who choose to follow their destiny and there are those who choose to make their own destiny. Thus each human being has a choice…the right to choose the path in his life and the right to walk the path in a manner he sees fit."

- The words of Ghenravin as noted in the Journals Of Ghenravin, The Wanderer

Riyu looked up at the sky, noting the direction from which a flock of birds were approaching. They were flying quickly…those birds…and they gave Riyu Kikame a very uneasy feeling. Hijo Ramurao had been gone for a long time. The master rarely stayed away from the dojo for long without sending some word, either through a friend or through a messenger. This time, no word had arrived and Riyu was worried. He had not been able to hear the conversation between his master and Joshua Heimus, but the strange manner in which the two had acted had indicated a certain amount of danger to Riyu. The fact that he had seen shadows moving across the walls of the dojo had not helped either. The master had departed before Riyu could tell him about the shadows, but he suspected that Hijo Ramurao had known about them from the start itself. The master's senses were very acute and could sense movements and predict them to a great degree in combat. He had taught Riyu to control his senses as well and although young Kikame had a long way to go, he was fairly sure that the shadows he had seen were men following Joshua. Since the master had departed quickly, behind Joshua, Riyu feared for his safety as well.

He turned his attention back to the flock of birds as they flew directly overhead. They were flying unusually fast today. Riyu touched the hilt of his sword and pondered about his next course of action. He still had a tournament to participate in, but the master's safety obviously came first. Riyu had never been into the city much since training had taken up a lot of his time. At best, he knew the way to the smithy where he worked and the way back to the dojo. Other than that, his knowledge of the city was quite poor.

"Well", he thought, "there is little I can do, except try and find the master as soon as possible. The master always said that I should trust my heart when my mind is unable to find a solution to my problem."

Riyu checked his sword and sheath and fastened them securely to the left side of his belt. He tested the grip several times to make sure that he could draw the blade as fast as possible. Hijo had warned him time and time again about faulty sheaths that would make the sword extremely difficult to draw or hold the sword so loosely that the drawing speed would be too great to control!

"Remember Riyu, the Tet'suname technique emphasizes on the speed and skill of the warrior. But you must also remember that you must not move so fast as to loose control of yourself. If you loose control of your soul and your strength, you will give in to demonic tendencies! The power of Tet'suname is so great, Riyu, that absolute control is essential to tame it. If it is let loose in the wild, the techniques of this dojo will destroy all that stands in its path!", Hijo had told him repeatedly.

Riyu stepped towards the entrance to the dojo, drawing deep breaths with each step. He concentrated to establish peace within himself. It was an essential part of facing the storm. Two storms clashing would simply destroy each other and everything else around them. But a storm would not last against a wall stronger than it. The Tet'suname technique required a great deal of accuracy and that accuracy was often obtained by studying one's enemy. No monster or opponent was so simple as to reveal its weaknesses immediately. Careful study of the target was essential, but taking one's own time would result in one's death. Therefore, one had to study quickly. The analysis of the enemy had to be completed within the fraction of a second and that analysis had to be interpreted and a target spot found even quicker! For that purpose, the soul had to be at peace.

The birds had flown in from the north and Riyu stared in that direction, gazing at the tall buildings that covered the horizon, overshadowing the strings of huts and cottages beside them. Some of the smithies were in that direction…that much Riyu knew. He would at least be able to travel in familiar territory for sometime. So it was that Riyu Kikame began his little journey to the north of Glast Heim to find his master Hijo Ramurao, who at the moment, unknown to him, was caught in the middle of many factions, fighting to achieve their own agendas and their own goals!

Hijo remembered bits and pieces of his previous visits to the sewers. It had been a long time before. A very long time indeed! In fact, he had last visited the sewers of Glast Heim as a Crusader, with a small party of comrades to guard his back.

"Never will be venture forth alone, for we are the hands that protect the Light of Heaven! Together we stand. Together we prevail! May the grace of God be with us. Amen!", Hijo muttered as he recalled the teachings of his Order.

But he was alone now, venturing into the darkness of the Glast Heim sewers. There was no one to guard his back this time round. No comrade to hold a shield against sudden attacks. No boon companion to lean on in times of peril. Here he was…sword master Hijo Ramurao, once a Crusader of God and now, a lonely sword master exploring the deep recesses of a long sealed off sewer.

"At least the map Joshua found was not a fake. Here is that seal it mentioned.", Hijo thought out loud as he came to a dead end.

The end was actually an entrance to another level of the sewers, but it had been sealed off a long time ago by holy priests. Hijo ran his hand over the ancient circular artifact that had been placed in the middle of the wall. It was shaped like a coin with ancient writing carved in the middle. Unfortunately, the passing years and the pathetic conditions of the sewers had taken their toll on the seal and Hijo could clearly see indications of scratch marks on it. Undoubtedly, a few sewer monsters had tried to rip it apart. They had failed, at least for now. Hijo examined the seal closely, making sure that his makeshift torch had enough fuel to burn. The oil rags he had wrapped around an old stick had been burning brightly, but the sword master knew that adventurers could always count on something bad happening at the worst of times. He quickly glanced around him, pausing to stare at the knee deep water in which he stood. It had been polluted by the wastes of the city, which were constantly dumped into the sewers. The dark, muddy color of the water was enough evidence of the fact and Hijo knew these places were usually crawling with monsters. Fortunately, they weren't crawling around anywhere near him and all that he did not need to do now was to loose his torch in a fight! Most of the sewer creatures were sensitive to light and kept away from light sources. Some monsters, however, were attracted to the light and those were the ones Hijo had to fight off. The others could bloody well keep their distance and be happy as far as Hijo Ramurao was concerned.

The seal turned out, much to the sword master's surprise, to be a Crusader seal! Hijo examined it once more, making sure there were no traps tied to it. Although most Crusader traps tended to be holy in nature, they could still harm any adventurer who was foolish enough to tamper with them. Most Crusader seals were designed to hold off the undead and hence, they packed a great deal of holy energy. As far as Hijo could remember, it used to take days for a Crusader to make a seal and that too, at the cost of a lot of the holy warrior's energy and strength. Seals were dangerous to make and they were extremely deadly to tamper with. Hijo tried to remember as many ways as he could to open a Crusader seal and was about to touch it, when suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps approaching!

The sword master's stunning reflexes sent him hurtling into a dark corner of the Glast Heim sewers. Lighting as such had never been given a great priority during the construction of the sewers. The whole sewer system had been designed simply for getting rid of the city's wastes and no one had ever imagined that it would become a place for adventurers to wet their appetite for killing evil demons and generally harmful beasts! Thus, any man, or woman, who dared to venture into the recesses of the Glast Heim sewers usually remembered to carry a few torches along, beside the usual bag of food, first aid materials and lots of potions to treat injuries. Getting lost in the sewers for days at a time was quite common and without the necessary supplies, the chances of survival were very bleak. Hijo turned his attention back to the path, which he had used to get to the seal. Like the rest of the sewers, this path too was designed to allow easy passage of slime and waste material. The floor was shaped almost like a half cylinder and the walls were pretty huge. The ceiling comprised mostly of sets of pipes that had long become redundant. Once used to supply water to the city from underground reserves, the pipes had become outdated after the automatic pumping systems were installed. The pumps allowed water to be sucked up directly from beneath the ground and negated the need for long networks of pipes. Thus, many of the pipes were dangling freely in the air and others were cracked in various places. In some cases, clear water was dripping, from the pipes, into the knee deep slime and in other places, the slime had managed to invade the pipe network as well.

The only source of illumination along the entire path was a lone torch that had been hammered into the side of a wall. Hijo had lit it on the way in and now, it helped him see the shadows of the figures approaching from the distance! The sword master held his breath as he waited for the strangers to close the distance. There was little he could do in here except either stay out of their way or fight them to the death. Considering his battle with the enhanced minion that the Herald of Flames had sent against him, Hijo preferred to stay well out of the way of the two approaching strangers.

"Perhaps they know how to open the seal.", Hijo thought as the shadows grew closer and closer.

The two figures seemed to spare no attention whatsoever to the burning torch. Either the low illumination had reduced their visibility to a great extent or they already knew someone was there and didn't really give a damn!

"That ought to tell me a bit about their strength and confidence, shouldn't it?", Hijo told himself as the strangers came nearer.

The trailing figure was at least five feet tall while the leading stranger was clearly a foot taller. Both of them wore slightly tattered cloaks, but the sword master noticed the shiny gleam of armor, hidden underneath, in the glow of the torch light.

"I really doubt these guys are mere adventurers out for a joy ride. Oh boy! This is going to get real interesting!", Hijo thought, hand near his katana blade.

The sword master sized up his opponents in a flash, measuring the distance between them and choosing, from a plethora of techniques, the most suitable move to finish them both swiftly. He had to move quickly for the sewers did not provide enough space for prolonged combat. Besides, if these two were from the Herald of Flames, then more minions would probably be on their way. Hijo thought he could handle these two, biologically enhanced or not, but a whole bunch of them was quite another matter. Yes, it had to be quick and deadly. He needed to buy time for himself and Hijo's hand tightened around the hilt of his blade as he prepared to lunge towards his opponents. The sewer water would hamper his speed a bit, but that wouldn't matter if he had surprise on his side.

The next moment, however, his hands and feet froze and Hijo Ramurao found himself in a state of shock and amazement as the shorter stranger called out to him, "Master Hijo, please come out and show yourself. I believe we are all after the same thing here!"