Rae knelt before the council. It would be disrespectful not to. They were the head of the Priests, the leaders, and they were to be respected above all others. They signaled for her to come to her feet, so she did.

"Did you do as I asked, Rae? Is your mission complete? The village and its inhabitants destroyed?" Shujin asked from across the room, in the second in command chair.

"I did. The village had been burned to the ground, its people cut down by my hand," She replied, her heart heavy.

The entire council nodded in approval.

"Good. Very good, Rae." The head of the council said. His name was Yasuo, though no one was supposed to know his true name so Rae made sure to keep her knowledge of it a secret. Everyone, even the other members of the council, were to refer to him and the Judge.

The meeting continued, the elders talking for several more minutes about menial tasks that Rae was to perform next. Mainly, the supervision of a young and new recruit. She was taken from her village, not three months ago, and Rae needed to oversee her training for the next week. 'Taken... Just as I was taken...' she mulled. She loathed the idea, feeling she had more important things to do and there were better ways to spend her time. But if the council was assigning her the task then there was no rejecting the assignment.

Rae walked into the sacred part of the temple, once again. The Judge instructed her that the girl would be waiting for her there. He had placed a task of converting on her. She was to pray for three hours and then assume immediate training afterwards. Those three hours were about up.

The red head walked through the large doors to see the little girl kneeling before the symbol hanging on the far wall. Deep in her prayer, a small cloak shadowed her figure and the cowl concealed her face. Though Rae knew she was no older than seven, as had been explained to her by the council.

Five minutes passed before the girl stood up. She turned to see Rae directly behind her a few paces back. There was fear in her eyes. Rae had heard from master Shujin that she was still weary of the Priests-with good reason-and held a close fear of our organization.

"You must be Ahmi." Rae said.

The young girl nodded hesitantly, silent.

"Speak girl, it's impolite to stay quiet when someone talks to you."

"Y-yes. M-my name is Ahmi…" She said in a faint, unsure voice.

This time the red head nodded. "Well are you prepared for your training?"

Ahmi started to bob her head up and down in that shy way but stopped and remembered what Rae had just told her. "Yes." She said, this time she sounded more confident.

The red head gave her a questioning look before walking with Ahmi outside. The use of weapons in a sacred place would surely damn one to hell, but once in the open, free space of the outside... Rae immediately threw three shuriken at Ahmi out of thin air. At least that's what it looked like to the girl. But Ahmi was nimble and dodged them easily and swiftly. 'Good girl,' Rae though.

Rae trained her with several different weapons. By the time they were finished for the day the young girl was out of breath; Rae didn't even break a sweat. Not that the red head didn't give the girl credit for her abilities, but she had more practice. She expected her to be like this. No new trainee did things flawlessly right off the bat. That would be expecting too much of these children. And one would only be rewarded with disappointment.

Ahmi however, was advanced in her skills. More than a child should be. Rae made a mental note of this and pushed it to the back of her mind. She would question her master about it later. Right now-after telling Ahmi she could rest for the day-Rae was on her way to the joining room, a place where new recruits received the mark of the Priest. The symbol of their order, burned onto the back of their neck. Rae had one too and she could say from experience that it hurt like hell.

A long, thin metal rod-with the Order's symbol twisting the far end of it, was placed in the fire, heating the metal until it glowed white hot. Then the cross was pressed onto the back of a child's neck until it left the mark of their organization there. Ahmi already had hers and so did most of the other kids. But there were two newer recruits that came in just yesterday.

And Rae was required to be there for every child's joining.