:And a left, and a right, and - this way?: Kaoru asked, tracing her way through halls she hadn't set foot in for over a year.

:That way,: Megumi confirmed. :If I hadn't seen them take it over, I'd never have believed this was the old Guard barracks. Do mages have to complicate everything?:

:Megumi.: Kaoru tried not to roll her eyes. :The elf-knots were years ago.:

:So?: Her Companion snorted, projecting the wincing memory of just what it had felt like to comb and cut the mass of tiny knots out of mane and tail. :If young mages want to practice tangle-cantrips on fine strands, they should try the Court ladies' embroidery circle!:

Kaoru sighed, thinking of the Haven weaving competition that had come within inches of going drastically wrong. :I suppose it doesn't matter that they missed?:

:NO.:

Kaoru shook her head, taking a deep breath. You can do this. Master Sejanes isn't an Imperial anymore, he's part of the Alliance. He is not going to eat you. And Kenshin said he'd stay put. He's got the laundry, the garden, and the children to look after, Sanosuke's looking in on him, you know he's smart enough to stay inside today and let the fuss die down...

Unless, of course, someone got into trouble near the Kamiya dojo.

Wincing, Kaoru made one of her father's old hand-gestures to ward off bad luck. Raised her hand to knock.

Wait. That's not just Sejanes in there.

Cautiously, she reached out with her odd Empathy. Ki sense, her father had called it. The mark of a good swordsman.

Only I don't know how you can use it with swords when it keeps giving me a headache!

Unlike regular Empathy, it just wouldn't shield, no matter how she and Megumi tried. Being around large groups of people rubbed her raw inside. Being around lots of Heralds could be easier, with the trained Heralds, or agonizingly worse. Trainee Gifts opening up in class had knocked her out more than once.

Another reason Dean Teren kept my circuit here in Haven, Kaoru thought ruefully. All it would take is one young Gift waking while I'm in the middle of a blizzard, and Megumi would be hauling in a Herald-sicle.

At least it didn't bother her in the dojo. Or around Yamato in general, oddly enough. They were... quiet. Like shadows. About as far from the "loud" and "bright" of an unleashed Gift as she could imagine.

I guess it's good for knowing if you're up against a Gifted opponent, Kaoru shrugged. Like now. She could feel the hard-edged brightness of a mage, the rough glow of a full Herald, and the fierce strength that said Weaponsmaster. "Captain?"

A familiar laugh penetrated polished wood. Kerowyn opened the door, giving her a considering look. "That is a neat trick, Kamiya."

"You wouldn't like the side effects." Kaoru stepped into Sejanes' workroom, automatically marking the at-rest stance of the elderly ex-Imperial and Herald Eldan's diplomatic lounge on a wooden chair. Her glance strayed to the bloodied katana on a stretch of table that had been cleared by the expedient of pushing papers, brushes, and odd bits of curved metal to one side. Jin-e's katana. "You wanted to see me?"

"We're hoping you can clear a few things up." Kerowyn swept a hand across, indicating the katana and its accompanying gear. "You know Yamato swords. Does any of that seem out of place?"

Let's see. Cleaning kit. Water bottle. Bandages. Flint and steel, matches and tinder...

One by one Kaoru sorted through the items and named them. "I don't know, Weaponsmaster. This is all gear a samurai would carry into battle. What am I looking for?"

"You haven't touched the sword," Eldan noted.

"I don't have to. And I don't want to." Kaoru shuddered. "It hates me."

"Does it?" Sejanes raised a gray brow, military-cut hair bristling with curiosity.

"Not exactly," Kaoru said lamely. How to explain to someone who couldn't sense it? "It feels like hate. Like all the lives Jin-e stole, weighing it down like lead chains. Like... like blood-hunger. If I tried to use that sword - it would hurt." She swallowed dryly. "Kenshin said... when a man kills too many, too long, he loses his purpose in the smell and color of blood. That's what that sword feels like." Not like Kenshin's. The small swordsman's blades were touched with grief, anger, the will to protect. Like her father's.

Only her father's had never carried that ghostly taste of blood.

Kerowyn frowned. "I thought you said there wasn't any blood-magic left in that blade, Sejanes."

"There isn't." The golden-brown robes of a Mages' Collegium instructor swished around the older man as he walked over for a closer look at bloody steel. "But I'd venture to say its purpose has marked it deeply, especially if the man's been assassinating people for over a decade."

"He was a blood-path mage," Eldan pointed out coolly.

"Fifteen years ago, I might have agreed with you. Looking at the evidence, though..." Sejanes turned on her. "Herald Kamiya. What is a hitokiri?"

Kaoru hesitated. :Weaponsmaster?:

:He's the closest thing to an expert on Yamato magic I could find. He knows.: Kerowyn gave her a slow nod. :He also knows how to keep his mouth shut.:

Please let her be right. Oh, Kenshin. "'Tousan didn't want to talk about them much," Kaoru answered. "Hitokiri means manslayer, and he said Kamiya Kasshin Ryu would never follow that path. That if we had to kill, we would brush aside the ki of a death, like any samurai, so it won't harm those we protect. But we would never pattern our swords to use it." She kept her hands from shaking with an effort. "I didn't really understand what that meant. Until last night. When I saw what Jin-e could do." When Kenshin told me what he could do. What he must have done, to keep Jin-e's fire from burning us alive...

"Sword-patterns. Kata?" Sejanes asked, dark eyes alert and interested. "You can use kata to manipulate magic?"

"Mind-Magic," Kaoru answered. "I've... never had the chance to try it with real magic. It's like meditation, just moving. I can shield better, project farther, even if all I have is a shinai. But I think... hitokiri can do a lot more than that."

"They can." Sejanes sighed. "Well, Captain. Based on this, I think I can give you a better idea of what you're dealing with." Laugh-wrinkles crinkled around his eyes. "Would you prefer the good news or the bad news first?"

"Let's do good news, for once." Eldan crossed his arms. "Jin-e's Final Strike burned itself out?"

"Was snuffed out," Sejanes corrected, not quite touching the blade. "I can see how Elspeth might have made that mistake, though I'm surprised Darkwind didn't detect the difference. Still, I suppose even a Hawkbrother might not know what to look for unless he'd met it before." He looked Kaoru straight in the eye. "Just as a fire can't burn without fuel, a spell can't function without energy. Someone tore that energy away from Jin-e, breaking all the personal locks on his power in the process. Very professionally done."

Kaoru tried not to wince.

"I thought we asked for the good news," Eldan muttered.

"That is the good news, young man," Sejanes said severely. "Most blood-path mages never bother to cultivate this level of skill. Which is a pity. There's enough energy left over on most battlefields to accomplish more than an arrogant bastard like the late Falconsbane could with a dozen blood sacrifices. If you have the patience and skills to use it effectively. You don't have a mad killer on your hands. I should think that would be very good news."

"And the bad news?" Kerowyn asked.

Sejanes pointed at the pile of equipment. "No components. No charged foci. Nothing, in short, to mark this man as anything other than a highly competent swordsman." He lowered his hand. "You don't have a blood-path mage on your hands. At least, not the kind you're used to thinking of. Jin-e - and, I'd wager, your Himura - are very different creatures entirely."

Kaoru's fists clenched.

"Yamato." Sejanes sighed. "Tremane and I must have visited that land half a dozen times in the service of the Iron Throne. And each time, we were surprised all over again." He tapped a finger against the table. "Imagine the Pelagirs, with all their wild magic, and multiply that ten times over. Twist and contort the whole of it into four sea-washed islands, so violent and unstable that the earth shakes daily, people build with paper rather than brick because they expect the building to fall down on them, and even the smallest village supports a miko, a shrine maiden, just to warn of the great sea-waves that rise out of the ocean without warning. A land so fierce, so dangerous, that the Eastern Empire has done no more than gain a toehold for trade. That is Yamato." He laughed at himself. "Back then, we believed the miko and houshi were just charlatans, 'predicting' the future and 'casting out demons' to make their living from the unwary. Now... now I'm not so certain.

"The local magic is so unstable that sending in an unwary Adept can get him torn apart the first time he tries to tap a ley line. And you can't allow in any woman who might be bearing a child with Mage-Gift. You'd be signing both of their death warrants. There are no local mages. Not as we know them." Sejanes paused. "But there are hitokiri."

Kaoru loosened her fingers, a joint at a time. I don't want to know. I don't want to hear this. She steeled herself. But I have to.

"As you say, Kaoru-san, hitokiri means manslayer. They're warriors, first and foremost. Usually swordsmen. And on the battlefield, they can do things that are literally... magical. Fire from nowhere. Blows that slice through armor and bone in one clean cut. Healing impossible wounds. Information sped from hitokiri to spy and back again, with no trace of magical communication; as if their very thoughts reached out and touched." Sejanes arched wry brows. "Of course, the Empire thought it was all superstition. They had to be mages, cloaking their power in ways unknown to us. How else could one do such things?"

"Mind-Magic?" Eldan paled. "You're saying these killers have Mind-Gifts?"

"Extremely strong ones, given Chief Tostig's report on Kurogasa's 'freezing terror' technique," Sejanes said bluntly. "Heralds have proven you can boost Gifts with magic. I can't see why the energy of the dying should be any exception."

"Gods." Eldan shot to his feet. "And he's staying in your dojo? Kero, we can't - we have to-"

"Stay put, Eldan." Crisp and sharp, the Captain's voice froze him in place. "On the battlefield, you said?"

"I was in Kyoto near the start of the Revolution," Sejanes nodded briskly. "I saw the aftermath of several attacks. Including no few on Imperial agents. They weren't tortured. They weren't played with. They were simply killed."

"They take the energy, but they don't commit blood sacrifice." Kerowyn gave Eldan a steady look.

"Don't they?" Eldan met her gaze. Turned to Kaoru. "'No', what? What was Himura about to do?"

No. Not Kenshin. I can't.

:Chosen.: Megumi's voice was painfully gentle. :You have to tell them.:

"He was going to kill Jin-e," Kaoru whispered.

Eldan shot Kerowyn a grim look.

"It wasn't like that!" Kaoru burst out, suddenly, unreasoningly angry. "You weren't there! You don't know!" Focus. Focus! "Jin-e - he wanted a duel with the hitokiri from the Revolution..." Damn you! You think you can judge? Judge this! Seizing them with her Gift, she poured out the memory of the night.

"In three cigarettes' time, I could kill you."

"Kenshin!" So much blood. Oh gods, I can't move, I can't Call-

A sneer on a shadowed face. "How boring. We must have you become more enraged."

A gleam of red - wild green eyes locked with her own-

And everything stopped.

I can't breathe.

I can't breathe!

"Kaoru-dono!"

Jin-e toyed with his blade, gloved fingers feeling Kenshin's blood. "I made it stronger than usual. Enough to stop her lungs."

Fear, in the violet eyes that had been so hard. Grief, and dawning pain.

"She will last two minutes at most..."

And the fight exploded.

"That's enough." Eldan stalked toward her.

"Stop right there." Kaoru glared. "You haven't seen enough yet."

Sparks in her vision. Growing blackness, lightened only by the furious clash of swords. Surprise, when Jin-e rushed Kenshin - and leapt away, unwilling to face that burning amber glare.

"If you do want to live, break the spell you put on Kaoru-dono."

Jin-e's teeth gleamed in glee. "I can't. This is much stronger than the one I put on that pig, Tani. She must either break it herself, or my will must be completely shattered. Those are the only choices." He sneered. "Of course, for a Herald, whose mind has always leaned on the strength of her Companion, the former... is impossible."

"Then..." Amber narrowed, hard and angry. "I will just kill you."

Kaoru shuddered, blurring past those next few, vicious moments. They weren't important, only this was...

Breathless. Sweat coating her face. Lips tingling. So dark.

And still, a madman's taunting voice.

"Why do you hesitate? You must kill me to break the spell. If you don't, the little girl dies. If you do, she lives. It's the easiest of choices.

"There's no reason to hesitate. You've no time for it.

"Your sakabatou. Put it here... a souvenir for the afterlife."

"...Good point." Kenshin's voice was rough. Darker than night. "I've no wish to give gifts. But...

"To save Kaoru-dono... I will become a hitokiri once again!"

Fury crashed over her, hot and burning as a wave of molten gold.

"Die."

Kenshin!

"...A sword is a weapon," Kenshin's voice whispered in her memory. "The art of swordsmanship is learning how to kill. She speaks as one who has never bloodied her hands. Kaoru-dono maintains a sweet, naive lie."

A smile, as Kenshin strode fearless through the Hirumas' thugs, red-socked feet soundless on her dojo floor. Such a sweet, joyous smile, all and only for her.

"But in the face of such awful truth, the naive lie she tells is ever so much better. If this one had but one wish..."

He hadn't killed then. He could have - she was a Herald, they were murderers - but he hadn't. He'd kept her dojo a place of life, not death.

But he wouldn't now. He'd kill, no matter what it cost him. Because of her. Because - he-

"Kenshin! NO!"

And there was air, and the roar of her own heartbeat in her ears... and somehow, even through that, she could hear the clink of a sword cast away.

Kaoru dragged in a breath, scrubbing at her eyes. I'm not going to cry. I'm not...

"Easy, now." Kerowyn's hand squeezed her shoulder gently. "It was a bad night. It's over." She looked past the younger Herald. "Blood sacrifice, hmm?"

"No." Eldan sighed. "I still don't like it."

"No reason you should." Sejanes stepped around the table. "Herald Kamiya. I know this is difficult. But could you show me the Shin no Ippou again?"

"I-" Kaoru swallowed. Nodded.

Inescapable eyes. Force, locking on her own soul like steel. Polished shells of iron, severing her will from her body-

"Enough." Sejanes gripped the edge of the table to steady himself. "Amazing. You don't have Mage-Gift, and yet you sensed the energies of his spell. Of course, that could be due to the mental component..." With a frown, he set the thought aside. "Mirror shields, maintained from his own life-energies."

"I thought it might be something like that," Kerowyn said, satisfied. "My grandmother took out a host of Raschar Oathbreaker's mages that way in Rethwellan," she informed Eldan. "The only way you can break those is to build up enough force inside, find a friendly mage to break them from outside - or hunt down the mage who cast them."

Eldan sighed. Looked aside. "Selenay's already said we should be practical about this. As long as we can keep this away from the main Council, it should work out." He frowned. "She's still not going to like it, you know. Himura aside, Yamagata's been less than truthful with us."

Kaoru cleared her throat. "That," she said carefully, "doesn't have anything to do with magic."

Kerowyn drew in a deep breath of green scents, enjoying the easy walk through the hills and over the stream of Companions' Field. Kaoru had kept up a light chatter with Eldan about current events in Haven all the way, innocent glance apparently straying to flowers every minute or so, as if the young woman just happened to need to look at bright petals from every possible angle. Ah, the sunshine's lovely today.

:Lovely sunshine, my tail. You're just patting yourself on the back because Kaoru paid attention in counter-surveillance,: Sayvel said dryly.

With Himura on her hands, she's going to need it. "I'd say we're clear," the ex-mercenary stated.

Kaoru's shoulders relaxed. "Good." She tensed again. "This is going to sound really, really stupid..."

"I lived with mercenaries for decades," Kerowyn pointed out. "People who put their lives on the line every day get strange. Sometimes even stupid. And your samurai were supposed to be ready to do that, yes?"

"I'm not sure where to start." Kaoru bit her lip. "I didn't just take Kenshin in out of warrior's compassion. I had a plan. Well, sort of a plan."

"Does this have to do with honor-debts?" Eldan put in. "It seems to be the key way Yamato handle social obligations," he added at Kero's glance. "Everyone owes someone a favor. And if you can't pay it back, your family owes it until it is returned. Chief Tostig told me he recently had to adjudicate a case in which a family's debt ledger was... borrowed."

Before someone decided to take it back the hard way, Kero thought, picking up Eldan's images of the blood and bruises. "And why haven't I heard about this before?"

"You're not in the system, Kero-love," Eldan said plainly. "You don't owe anyone, and no one owes you. No Yamato's going to give a gaijin, who doesn't have any idea what's proper, the opportunity to put them in their debt-" He stopped. Thought. Grinned. "Oh, that is clever."

"A master of a sword-school is expected to find ways to improve," Kaoru said simply. "Any sensei can take in a ronin or rurouni. It's a trade; a place to stay, for the chance to train with someone as good as you are. It's customary. It's tradition." She crossed her arms. "And it gets people talking to a shihandai who just won't talk to a Herald."

"They wouldn't?" Eldan frowned. "I thought you inherited your father's debts."

"'Tousan was relieved of most of his by Satsuma before he ever came to Valdemar," Kaoru said matter-of-factly. "Just like the rest of his companions. It's the only way they could come here, where they might never be able to fill their obligations. And-" She looked aside. "I was raised here, in Valdemar. I'm a Herald. Someone who rides a white spirit-horse and dresses like I'm in mourning every day. I'm not expected to behave properly."

"Blue hakama," Kerowyn made the connection. Ever since she'd gotten out of Collegium, Kaoru had hardly ever worn full Whites. Well, whatever gets another Herald out of the "shoot me now" uniform works for me.

"It's hard to be a Herald when you're scaring the children," Kaoru confirmed. "Gensai-isha's been trying to help since he got here, setting up the clinic. People will lean on his honor to talk to me - if they trust him enough. That works, but it's not a good fix. If we're going to have the clans as part of Valdemar, if we're ever going to break the yakuza, we need them to let the Guard handle crimes. We need them willing to talk to me. To us. To Heralds. And that's not going to be easy." She paced away. "This... is hard. It took me a while to put together. And I'm still not sure I have it all right." Kaoru wove her fingers together. "The way the clans think is, since the Jump went wrong and they landed in Haven instead of an empty spot, they owe us for not killing them. And they don't like it."

"Because we're gaijin," Eldan said neutrally.

"They wouldn't like owing other Yamato a debt this big." Kaoru shifted her shoulders self-consciously. "We're strangers! And they owe us their lives, and their children's lives. How can they possibly pay that back?"

"They could try telling us the truth," Kerowyn grumbled.

"But they won't, because that might give us an opening to ask them to pay up," Eldan said shrewdly. "And given what we know about Yamato politics, and magic, they have to assume we might literally ask for their lives." Dark brows drew down. "So, in order to avoid incurring any more debt, they've been keeping their problems to themselves?"

Kaoru nodded. "So when I ran into Kenshin, I thought-" She flushed. "Well, first I thought he was Hiruma Gohei. Or - who Gohei was pretending to be..."

"Which he actually was," Kerowyn observed, tongue in cheek. "Imagine that."

"You wouldn't have!" Kaoru sputtered. "He just looked at me with that innocent Oro, and his eyes bugged out, and he just jumped away from my swing and crash-landed in a pile of barrels, for gods' sake..." She flung up her hands. "I swear, he looked harmless!"

Eldan raised interested brows. "Harmless?"

"Completely harmless," Kaoru said grumpily. "Scooped me out of the blade's path before Gohei could slice me in two, let Megumi herd him back to the dojo carrying me, bandaged me up, let Ayame and Suzume crawl all over him and 'help' him make breakfast... all I thought he was, was some really lost rurouni who didn't want to fight." She rolled her eyes. "So I thought I'd offer him a place to stay. How much trouble could he be? Don't say I told you so, Megumi, you didn't know either..."

Kerowyn stifled a snicker. "And Yahiko?"

"He needs someplace," Kaoru said softly. "And if I'm going to make this work, I need a student." She smiled wryly. "I admit I was pretty surprised when Kenshin dropped him in my dojo and said 'stay', and I wish the kid would stop calling me ugly, but - he's not a bad kid."

:Definitely not,: Sayvel laughed. :Just watch, Eldan. You want a samurai Chosen? Wait a few years, and you're going to get one.:

:That sure, are you?: Kerowyn kept her face neutral.

:It's likely,: her Companion admitted. :You know how Kaoru's wild Gift seems to react to other Gifts? Even in potential? Sanosuke's fairly sure Kenshin's got the same thing. Only his is stronger. And trained. If he dropped Yahiko in Kaoru's lap, it means he thinks the youngster needs her kind of training.:

Very interesting. :Her training? Not his?:

:Not his.: Sayvel was firm. :Hiten Mitsurugi - that's Kenshin's sword-school, according to Sanosuke - is what Yamato call satsujin-ken. "Murderous sword technique.":

Kerowyn restrained a nod. :A hitokiri style.:

:Sanosuke hasn't come out and said it, but probably. Nikaidou Heihou, Jin-e's style, definitely is.:

And a nasty one, too. Trapping people so you could slaughter them at will, aware of the blade in a way even a cold-drake's victims weren't aware of the teeth to come. Anyone willing to support a man who could do that...

"So you've been hearing more of what goes on in the Yamato community," Eldan spoke up, taking his cue from Kerowyn's glance. "Do you have any idea who might have hired Jin-e?"

"Not yet." Kaoru's lips formed an uncharacteristically hard line. "It's a lot more complicated than we thought. Did you know that up until about halfway through the Revolution, Choshu and Satsuma were fighting each other?"

"Is that so." Kerowyn cracked her knuckles. Oh, for a few minutes with Yamagata.

:Selenay wouldn't like that,: Sayvel warned.

:Oh yes she would,: Kero shot back. :She just couldn't officially like it.:

"At one point, Satsuma had some of their people around the Emperor. They hadn't really declared themselves against the Shogunate yet. Katsura wasn't in charge of all of Choshu then, and, well..." Kaoru shook her head. "They call it Kinmon no hen. Thousands, literally thousands of Choshu soldiers attacked the Imperial palace, trying to kidnap the Emperor so Choshu would have a better bargaining position with the Shogun. Kenshin says the battle only lasted a few hours, but most of Kyoto went up in flames." She rolled her eyes. "It's like pulling teeth to get specific details out of Kenshin, but he... he says he wasn't there, he was away in the mountains. Only the amount of damage Choshu did, people wouldn't believe anyone else could have taken down the palace guards. A lot of Satsuma might have reason to come after him just for that."

The two older Heralds stared. Glanced at each other. Raised inquiring brows almost as one.

"We've been trading," Kaoru filled in. "Revolution history for Mindspeech lessons in Valdemaran, spoken and written, even if he does have to be meditating for me to reach him. You have no idea how nervous Kenshin is about being anywhere he can't read."

I think I can guess, Kerowyn thought. Between falling out in the Pelagirs and the wandering he'd done in Yamato before then, the man must have been perilously alone. People lie. Books usually don't. "Let me see if I've got this straight. The Ishin Shishi pulled together whole hordes of troublemakers under one banner, mostly grouped between two clans that hate each other's guts and only teamed up because it was that or let the Shogunate have both their collective hides as throw-rugs. They won, the Mage-Storms and the Chi'in broke up the party, the Seinan rebellion stomped on what was left, and we now have everybody who was fast and lucky enough to bolt before Saigo's hitokiri burned Edo and Kyoto down around their ears." She let out a long-suffering sigh. "Good luck picking out who hired Jin-e from that mess, ke'a'char."

"Thanks," Eldan said wryly. He eyed Kaoru speculatively. "Though we might have more luck. If your Kenshin was willing to fill in other Heralds, and possibly some Guards, on recent Yamato history?"

"He's not my Kenshin," Kaoru protested, cheeks pink.

:She doesn't know?: Eldan asked Kerowyn privately.

:Looks like. But he does - I'd bet an in-foal Shin'a'in mare on that.: The Herald-Captain flipped that fact over in her head, looking at all its painful angles. :We have a very, very skittish young man here, love.: How young, she still wasn't sure. Kenshin looked barely Kaoru's age, eighteen, but if he'd been fighting in the Revolution, he couldn't be much younger than thirty. :I wonder-:

:I'm not sure,: Sayvel stuck in.

:What?:

:If he's been bound like this before,: her Companion filled in. :But he was very closely tied to someone; I've seen aura-scars like that. Once. Himura must have a very strong will; he's alive.: A mental sigh. :Which means right now, he probably doesn't know which way to jump. He says he doesn't want to be a hitokiri anymore. But if Kaoru is in danger - and Kaoru's a Herald, it's her duty to be in danger - he's going to pick up any weapon he has to, to protect her.:

:And he's trained to kill.: Kerowyn restrained her nod. There were reasons you didn't hire seasoned mercenaries as tavern bouncers. Push a trained warrior hard enough, and reflex took over. And then you've got blood on the walls.

"And when I ask him about politics, he keeps telling me he doesn't know that much," Kaoru went on, politely ignoring the slight glaze Mindspeech lent to her fellow Heralds' eyes. "Hitokiri are tools for clan plots, they usually aren't plotting themselves. They work for clans. They're given targets. They guard. But they're not leaders."

:Leave it,: Kerowyn advised Eldan. :Until he figures out he can trust us, he won't talk anyway.:

:And I suppose you have some idea how to get him to trust us?:

:As a matter of fact...: "Think you can drag your redhead through the Collegia gates sometime?"

Kaoru paused a second. "I think so. If Sanosuke helps. It's funny; ever since those two beat each other up, they've been thick as thieves."

"Men," Kerowyn said matter-of-factly.

"Hey!" Eldan planted his fists on his hips.

"Tell him that as one of your former teachers, I want to see exactly what tips he might be giving you on your sword technique," Kero went on. "He's a professional. We Heralds may not all like his profession, but we can sure as hells respect it. I expect he knows dirty tricks, and I expect him to show both of us. Yamagata may have lied, he may have been fooled; either way, I am not going to assume Jin-e's the only hitokiri who slipped through the cracks. There's no way this side of the Havens I'm going to shove away someone who knows things that might save our next crop of Trainees."

"That'll work," Kaoru said thoughtfully. "Sensei are supposed to look after their students, even after they're masters themselves." Blue eyes lost focus. "If you think you could help us out, Sano?"

:Hmm?: Laughter flavored the Companion's Mindspeech. :Oh, Jou-chan! You've got to see this.:

The odd, skewed perception of a Companion's gaze was fixed on two giggling little girls standing on either side of a washtub, "helping" Kenshin do the clinic and dojo laundry. Help that seemed to consist of bubbles flung here and there around the courtyard, and foam piled atop red hair into two wavy lumps of white. "Rabbit!" Ayame declared gleefully.

"He's a rabbit!" her younger sister Suzume echoed, losing her balance as she giggled.

Soapy hands caught her in an instant, setting the pig-tailed two-year-old gently upright. "A rabbit, hmm? And with such a tasty vegetable garden here, and no one to watch it..."

"Eek!"

"Uncle Ken-ni!"

Laundry dissolved into tag around the garden, Kenshin always a half-step ahead, until young breaths started to lag. Then red-socked feet suddenly seemed to tangle themselves, and the "rabbit" was buried in a pile of crowing children.

"Kenshin no baka," Kaoru sighed.

:I think he needs this.: Sano's voice still held a laugh, but there was an edge of sober thought under the glee. :After last night, I know I do.: A sense of a sigh. :You want get him up there for sparring, hmm? I'm in. Just be careful, okay? Corner him and he'll run. And I like having him around.:

One of the most dangerous swordsmen she'd seen in years, and he was collapsed on the grass under a tickle-assault, red hair streaked white with suds. Kerowyn had to chuckle herself. "Keep spending this much time with him, and people will start thinking the poor guy's one of our lost Trainees."

She expected a snort. A dry, half-cynical remark, at best. Eldan had been filling her in on Sanosuke's speckled years here in Haven, and she knew the scarred Companion was almost as rough a diamond as her Skybolt skirmishers.

She did not expect a shy, wondering whisper.

:...I think he's mine.:

Collegium, hmm? Battousai took in the guards, the various defenses - or lack of same - they passed on their way to the training hall, and snorted in the back of Kenshin's mind. Osaka Castle it isn't.

It's not meant to be, Kenshin told himself, trying to gentle his youkai blood back into sleep. His darker half had relaxed somewhat over the past day; cooking, playing with Ayame and Suzume, falling into the human rhythm of soap and water and laughter. And yet... and yet...

Sleep? When someone tried to kill my mate not two days ago? I don't think so.

Kaoru-dono is not my mate!

Yet, Battousai said smugly.

Kenshin kneaded his forehead as they walked past a small group of gray-clad Trainees at archery practice, feeling a headache threatening. And not just because the young Heralds-to-be had no more sense of how to shield their ki than new-hatched chicks did of how to fly. She's human.

And? So? Your point?

She's of Valdemar. She can't know how she - calls to me...

She is samurai. The same fire burns in her veins. All I have to do is wake it.

The rurouni bit back a curse. No!

My, my; there is a temper under all those manners, isn't there? Battousai snickered in the back of his mind. A very youkai temper, I think.

True enough. The swords that sealed his blood only kept the demon from taking over. They didn't wipe away his own rage. And he was angry. Terribly, terribly angry. Angry at Jin-e, dead as he was, for threatening Kaoru; angry at himself for not stopping the assassin before he could snatch the young Herald. And deeply, painfully angry at Yamagata for hiding so much from the land they now meant to call home.

If there is an accident - if some unknowing Guard or Herald separates a hanyou from their sealing sword-

He knew his people. Knew their pride, their disdain for gaijin, their fierce, demonic tempers. It would not be if, but when.

And then there will be blood.

Yamato law would hold the hanyou blameless, no more at fault than a fire-cat dunked in ice water. Valdemaran... well. Who knew?

Kaoru knows her own people. She is trying to find the best way to guard both sides. We must not make her task any harder than it is.

He'd have to let his demon side loose a little, a very little, before his frustration roused the bloodlust. Maybe a hunt outside Haven. Rabbit would be tasty tonight. Or inside, if he were careful; roof-running soothed him, and rock dove was just hard enough to catch on the wing to make it interesting.

Either that, or we could track Kaoru down in the bath and-

It wasn't physically possible to throttle the assassin in his head. Not that he hadn't been tempted to try. Kenshin half-curled his fingers, counting under his breath in Yamato, then Chi'in, then the tongue-twisting numbers of the Eastern Empire. At least he'd known that tongue before falling out in Rethwellan. While it was not the same, the Empire's speech had some things in common with both of those languages he'd met outside the Pelagirs...

"-Kenshin?"

"Hmm?" He blinked at Kaoru, granting her the rurouni's vague smile.

"I asked you, what do you think?" She waved a hand at the walled grounds; tall, rambling buildings that were the Palace, the Bardic, Healers', Heralds and Mages' Collegia, and the tremendous sweep of hills and greenery that was Companions' Field.

"Anou... it's big, Kaoru-dono. Very big, that it is."

Give me two squads of Choshu skirmishers, and I could take it, Battousai snorted.

Sessha thinks it might take more than that, Kenshin thought dryly.

...Maybe, Battousai admitted grudgingly. But get a houshi to shield against ForeSight, and we could flatten that stupid Palace. Royals included. Just look at it!

I wish I could not. Not when every glance catalogued another strength or weakness, shaved or added an option to the scenarios sketching themselves in his mind. This was a seat of foreign power, a raw affront to Yamato and youkai alike, and he could see how to grind it into helpless dust.

This is the place of Kaoru's rulers, and nothing to do with me, Kenshin told himself forcefully. We are the outlanders here. Yamagata has made peace with these people. It is enough.

"Big." Walking by Sanosuke, Yahiko gave him a cross-eyed look. "It's huge! There wasn't anything like this in Edo!"

'Cause nobody there was that stupid, Battousai grumbled. One earthquake, and this whole place would be down around their ears- hello.

Reaching out with his ki sense, Kenshin tensed. Snatched Yahiko's yellow collar. And moved.

Diving out of the sun-

"Coming thrrrough!" Feathers and fur caroled through the space they'd occupied, a long red paper streamer snapping in the wind of their passage.

Thirty feet away, Kenshin set the startled boy down and watched the hawk-beaked creature swoop back into the sky, streamer flapping from his right foreleg, followed at a slightly higher altitude by a smaller sibling with a more tattered streamer of her own. Bodies the size of great cats, each with four strong paws, golden-brown feathers-

-And attitude, Battousai growled. Don't forget attitude.

Sessha might say, look who's talking.

Heh! And we know why, don't we? I'm a predator, and we both know it. There's not a one of these white-wearing idealists I couldn't take down. Pure, matter-of-fact pride rang through that thought, mingled with a breath of wistful hope.

Relaxing his grip on Yahiko's gi, Kenshin frowned. Sessha's not letting you out for a sparring match. Sessha's a civilized person, that I am. Sessha's not a hitokiri anymore!

I'm not an assassin anymore, Battousai thought, roughly gentle. But hitokiri wa hitokiri. We know that. We've known it since Hiko started teaching us.

"Whoa!" Yahiko shaded his eyes to peer up at soaring wings, grinning with delight. "Those are the gryphons? Kaoru?" He looked her way, where Megumi was pawing the ground with laid-back ears, and grumbled under his breath. "Great. Busu's Mindspeaking again."

"-Oh no you don't!" Kaoru smacked a fist into her palm, quick anger coloring her cheeks. "Jerven thinks I don't know the difference between war-training and wing-tag," she filled in at Kenshin's questioning look. "He knows he's supposed to keep to his own training area, or stay over twenty feet, like Lytha is! Like he didn't notice the archery range?"

"I'll take it from here." Kerowyn stalked out into the sunlight, frowning into the sky. Arched a brow. Glared upward.

"One knows the Gifted were not always trusted in Edo, but you should give your teacher's skills more respect," Kenshin told the youngster in an undertone. Inwardly he held himself still. Kerowyn was blazing her ken-ki to the skies, all fury and impatience. He was glad he wasn't on the receiving end of her Mindspeech.

"Huh!" Yahiko scowled. "Real samurai don't read people's minds to figure out what they'll do in a fight!"

"Nor does Kaoru, that she does not," Kenshin said firmly. "A trained fighter does not think of what he will do, Yahiko. He simply sees, and senses his opponent's ki, and moves. No Mindspeaker could read that in time." Kenshin lifted a red brow to hold the boy's attention before it could stray from embarrassment. "Toba Fushimi went to the Revolution's side in part because Saigo and Yamagata knew how to use Mindspeakers to best effect - to gauge the battle, spread deception, and keep the generals' orders flowing. There may come a time when your battle depends on such tactics, and you must know what they can and cannot do."

"Spread deception?" Kaoru's blue eyes were wide. "You can't lie mind to mind!"

"But you can lie to the Mindspeaker, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin informed her, smiling wryly. "The generals had codes, discussed in private before the fray. They knew which messages were to be taken as true, and which false."

"That is... really sneaky," the young Herald said faintly. "I'm sorry. I'm just not used to the idea of the bad guys having Gifts like everyone else."

Yahiko's fists clenched on his shinai. "My father was an honorable samurai!"

"This she knows," Kenshin said, placing a firm hand on the boy's tense shoulder. "There were good and evil on both sides, Shogunate and Ishin Shishi alike. There were many like the Myojins, who declared the rebellion a dishonorable revolt against the rightful leaders. There were as many in Choshu, who swore the Shogunate's vows were dead and dust unless they yielded to the true emperor. We all fought with our ideals riding on our blades." He smiled gently. "And now we are here."

"And dodging damn idiot teenagers who still haven't learned about not being conspicuous," Kerowyn growled. "Going to have to talk to Treyvan and Hydona... get in here, Himura."

He followed the Herald-Captain inside, all too aware of Yahiko's snickers behind him and Kaoru's hand ready to grab him if he even looked like turning around. Not that she truly could, if he wished to escape. But perhaps it was better not to remind her of that yet. This is... very unlike a dojo.

Oh, some elements of the vacant salle were the same; the sanded floor, the racks of wooden swords, the scent of sweat, leather, and leather oil, drifting from the Valdemaran's odd padded practice armor hanging on the wall. But no Yamato dojo would have those clerestory windows above the mirrored wall. Much less the mirrors themselves.

Silvered glass, Kenshin thought, ghosting over to tap one. "In Yamato, Kerowyn-dono, this would be an unacceptable hazard."

"Really?" Kerowyn raised a blonde brow at him, tightening straps on her leather armor.

"Earthquakes." Kenshin shuddered, all too able to picture shards of flying glass.

"Now those, I still find hard to believe," Kerowyn admitted, picking up a weighted wooden sword. "I've felt the earth shake once or twice, and a few of my Skybolts have told me about places where that happens every year - but a land where the ground actually opens up and tries to swallow you? Without any mage behind it?" Aquamarine eyes narrowed at Kaoru. "And I thought you were going to make him bring armor."

"According to my father, it can," Kaoru nodded. "And... well... he did."

Kenshin set down his travel bag, taking out the leather arm-guards Hiko had given him so many years before. He'd had to replace the outer, disguising layer of ordinary leather more than once, but the true armor beneath it, crafted of youkai dragon-hide, would likely last his lifetime.

"That's it." Kerowyn's tone held frank disbelief.

Kenshin inclined his head.

"That's all?"

"This one's style does not lend itself well to armor, Kerowyn-dono. The less weight, the better." He cinched the guards into place, feeling the hitokiri's mindset rise closer to the surface. Sparring. We're only sparring. "And these appear little different from the guards of arm and hand any peasant would wear to work the fields. Scythe to reap or sword to block; in Yamato, both peasant and samurai have need of shields against their own blades. If pressed, a lone warrior simply needed to abandon the blue haori of his uniform, and no Shogunate soldier could be certain they had snared one of Choshu."

"So you're a skirmisher first. Good to know," Kerowyn murmured. Shrugged her shoulders. "Well, when you walk away from this with bruises, don't come crying to me."

Selecting a bokken, Kenshin arched a red brow.

"We may be pulling punches, but this is full-contact," Kerowyn said dryly, settling her shield into place on her arm.

"Aa," Kenshin observed neutrally. Behind him, he heard Yahiko snicker, and Kaoru hush the boy. He could feel the heat of her blush through her ki, along with threads of concern for both of them.

"You're a lunatic-"

Overhand swing. Left. Shield rush-

Kenshin ducked, dodged, and stepped aside, wondering when the true attack would begin. "Captain, if you wish it-"

Thrust. Shield again.

"-we could simply call our blows-"

Side slash. Whirling now - does she truly think I'm still there?

"-you do not need to project them as well."

Kerowyn stared a blink longer at the empty space in front of her. Turned to look him in the eye. "Call our blows? This isn't one of Kamiya's kenjutsu lessons, Himura!"

"So you said," Kenshin admitted. "But if that is so - you are a master, Kerowyn-dono. Why do you allow your movements to show clearly in your ki?"

Kaoru gasped. "You're using ki sense? But - how-"

"How?" Kenshin slid a step back, easing his stance as he saw Kerowyn lower her blade. "I knew I had not seen you instruct Yahiko on ki sense, Kaoru-dono, but not every style trains it directly... intent. The flow of energies. It is clear around her, as it is with most gaijin. It is as if none of them know how to be a teardrop in water, a whisper in the wind..."

"Blending energies into the background? You're shielding?" Kerowyn frowned. "I know Empaths. Even strong ones, like Talia, can't predict what a fighter's going to do. And if you're shielding your Empathy, how can you use it to tell what I'm about to do?"

Kenshin blinked, taken aback. "Ki sense is not Empathy, Kerowyn-dono. Sessha's not a miko. I do not See the future, nor do I Feel the hearts of others. I sense ki. As Kaoru does, as Yahiko has begun to do, as any samurai can. It is born in us, in all of those whose heritage is of Yamato." Whose heritage is... gods. Our kin wander where and when they will. Did they never wander here?

He let his lips part slightly, tasting the scents in the air. Kitsune powers were more rooted in spirit than flesh; while his ki sense could outstrip the wind, his sense of smell was nowhere near that boasted by an inu or yama-inu-hanyou. Still, he should be able to detect something.

Leather. Steel. Horse-that-is-not-horse; Companion. A ningen samurai cub. A samurai female, also ningen. My own scent, tingling like flame. Older scents, of children and adults, all gaijin. As Kerowyn's is gaijin.

Gaijin. Outlander. The same as the folk he'd walked among since he'd left the Pelagirs; ningen who were bewilderingly cold, and rude, and seemingly blind to energies the youngest babe of his land would flinch from.

Kami. Heralds are Gifted. And yet they are not- Kenshin buried the shock. Later. Later he would take this revelation out to study, when he could afford all its numbing horror. For now - a swordswoman wished an explanation.

A very delicate explanation.

"It is a sense of-" Kenshin hunted for the right words, "Life's energies. The quiet glow of calm, the brightness that is a child, the focused fire of sword-skill. Gifts are a searing edge to those energies, like sun through a burning lens. A Gift makes one very - bright. Very loud. Very visible." He tilted his head. "Unless one learns to master what of one's ki radiates into the world, one might as well be wearing white in broad daylight."

"'Tousan said it was being rude," Kaoru put in from the sidelines, puzzled. "I don't know why. I took Courtly Graces, just like everybody, and there's nothing in there about keeping your ki sheathed."

"Is that all he said?" Yahiko snorted. "Gaijin never know when they're asking for a fight."

"Drawn ki, a drawn blade," Kenshin nodded. "To Yamato, they are much the same."

Aquamarine regarded him steadily. "And what happens when you draw your ki, Himura?"

She's asking for it, Battousai pointed out.

Aa, she is. Letting his bangs fall forward to hide his eyes, Kenshin loosened some of the tight discipline that held his ki soft and quiet as falling rain. Let it stretch, let it flare-

This is who I am.

Battousai moved forward as he took up a ready stance, patient and waiting. As he had stood when Jin-e rushed him, at the last; as he had stood so many rain-swept nights in Kyoto, staring down Shinsengumi who meant to fight past him to the Ishin Shishi.

Go back the way you came, or die.

"K-Kenshin..." Yahiko's teeth chattered.

The boy. And Kaoru. Kenshin pushed his darker self down once more, face set. "Gomen. Forgive... forgive this unworthy one. There is no threat here, no need..."

Sweating, Kerowyn held up a hand for silence. Walked over to the wall, setting her wooden blade back into its place on the rack. Stood there a moment, clearly thinking.

She's good, Battousai chuckled. Let me play with her.

Sessha doesn't think that would be wise, Kenshin thought warily.

"Himura," the Weaponsmaster said flatly. Lifted a true sword, sunlight gleaming off sharpened steel. "Don't kill me."

Death-intent!

As his feet left the ground, Kenshin was struck by the sudden, awful realization that Kaoru truly loved her bokkens.

Oh well.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu - Ryuu Tsui Sen!"

Wood shattered.

Kenshin touched down amid flying splinters, left hand closing on air - and then, with a flex of will, the saya of his sakabatou. If the Herald-Captain was still standing, she wasn't going to be very happy.

The leather-clad woman blinked. Wavered. "Ughhh..."

"Kaoru-dono." Kenshin kept an eye on the wobbling Weaponsmaster. "It would be wise to summon a Healer now, that it would."

"Sheka..."

"Right," Kaoru said breathlessly, clamping her hand on Yahiko's shoulder when he might have run toward the Captain. "Let Kenshin handle this."

"But Kaoru-!"

"Remember what Sanosuke told you? Sometimes he can't help but kick. This is like that."

Leaving Yahiko to his teacher's tender mercies, Kenshin caught the Captain as her knees gave. "Forgive, Kerowyn-dono. This one knows this probably isn't what you had in mind."

"Yes and no... what the hells did you hit me with? Nobody moves that fast." Kerowyn's pain-filled gaze stared at the splinters, puzzlement clearing into sudden, dazed comprehension. "Fetching. You were Fetching!"

"It's rather hard on practice blades, that it is," Kenshin admitted. "Sessha's shishou never even bothered with them. Steel it was, from the first day. Sessha hadn't used a bokken until lodging with Kaoru-dono." He glanced over shards of wood. "Perhaps this one should stick with the sakabatou. Bokkens appear to be messy."

Kerowyn hissed as he helped her to a bench. "You can Fetch yourself. Like a Firecat. In the middle of a fight?"

"Sessha cannot Jump as they do," Kenshin corrected. "That takes more strength than a fighter can spare. But yes, this one can Fetch. There is only so much speed and strength a human body can bring to a fight." Or even a hanyou body. Most of their legendary resilience was due to the energy flowing through them, not any inherent difference in flesh and bone. Block that energy, as his had once been blocked, and they were mortal as any ningen. "Fetching allows this one to increase both..."

The limp weight in his arms told him the Weaponsmaster was no longer listening.

"Sanosuke was still standing after that strike," Yahiko said wryly. "I guess Companions are a little tougher than Heralds."

:And don't you forget it!: Sano snickered from outside.

Kenshin sighed. Met Kaoru's disbelieving eyes. "Sessha's going to be in trouble for this, ne?"

"I'm going to hunt down that redheaded shrimp and string him up by his toes..."

"I asked for it, Eldan." Wincing at the phantom ache in her collarbone, Kerowyn felt carefully along the Healed flesh. Good to be back in their own quarters; here, she could let herself ache, without putting on the Fire-Mare mask for awestruck students. "There are some things you can't see through another Herald's eyes. I had to see him fight. Even if he was pulling the blows."

"Blows?" Eldan said pointedly. But took her pointed glance, and found himself a chair.

"Next time I'll have a better idea how to handle him," the ex-mercenary said confidently. "Preferably involving a flight of arrows or a bunch of hefty guys with maces. Closing sword-to-sword with that man is an extremely bad idea."

Eldan crossed his arms over his lap. "Always looking for a new Weaponsmaster, hmm?"

"Himura? Weaponsmaster? Not a chance." Kero laughed. "It'd be like asking Warrl to take over as MindSpeech instructor here. Heraldic Circle or Companions - you wouldn't stand for it. When you strip Himura's style bare, he's not fighting with steel. He fights with his Gifts." She shifted her shoulder in a casual shrug, absently checking for any residual twinge of unHealed muscle. "Oh, he could probably show anyone the basics of Yamato sword-fighting. And he knows enough down-and-dirty frontline fighting to give Kaoru a good grounding in that, too. But when it comes down to the wire, he's hitokiri." She stared into the distance. "Which is why I'd like to know just why you think he's yours, Sanosuke."

A mental sigh brushed them. :You know I went out on Search once?:

"A false alarm," Eldan stated.

:I thought it was. Gods, I hoped it was. Because if it wasn't, I just... didn't get there... in time...:

Cold, cold; cold and snow and air so mountain-thin it ached in his lungs, how in the Havens had he gotten from that weird blank spot in the Pelagirs to here? Wherever the hells here was...

A fire-blast!

Sano slogged his way through the snowy pines toward the noise, reaching out with his senses for any trace of his Chosen. He could still feel the Call, the youngster had to be here. Somewhere.

Nothing. Just blank, empty nothing where the feeling of life should have been. If his nose and eyes and ears didn't swear he was in a living forest, he'd have thought he was walking over lifeless rock.

So think, oh great and wise Companion. He's a Chosen, right? Where else is he going to be but up to his ears in trouble?

Right. Toward the big boom it was.

Make that big booms. Sano flattened his ears at the concussion of air, stopping cold at the scent of fire-powder and blood. Here... the first blast site. A bloodstained metal dart lay half-buried in disturbed snow, and a thin red trail led to and from the muddle of footprints and torn branches. Someone was hurt. Badly.

And from the fragments of flesh and blades scattered through here, at least one someone was dead.

One set of footprints, leading off toward that second blast. Small. A woman, or a young man. And blood. Oh gods, blood...

Sano charged off toward the second blast, not thinking, not caring what sort of hopeless battle his Chosen had gotten mixed up in. Once he had the kid on his back, they were getting out of here.

Two more bodies. Bigger pieces - ugh. Deep breath, and look again. Bloodstain around one neat stab to the chest on the big guy; sword-wound. Don't recognize the clothing. Dark cotton shirts that wrap around, some kind of weird leather guards for the backs of their hands... they were armed, that's all that matters. The big one with an axe, his partner with - gods, are those metal claws?

Razor-edged metal, long as his muzzle. Stained with blood.

Not a random attack, Sano realized, tasting a scent all too like the Artificers' blasting powder. This was an ambush.

A two-layered ambush. Armed men and deadly blasts... for an already-wounded young one with only a sword.

If there's two layers, there's going to be three-

Found the trail. Lost it. Found it... damn, how much blood has he lost? How can anyone bleed like this and still be moving?

Why can't I feel him?

Sano cursed the snow, and the rotten, rock-and-tree terrain, and whatever was making this forest a blank spot in the energies of the world. If it weren't for the steady presence of the Call, he'd think he was going mad...

And then he knew he was, as wide dark eyes stared up at him; a young boy he'd almost stepped on, backed up against a pine tree with an odd purple umbrella in his arms. Could it be you? Sano reached out-

:Hate - rage - want my sister back - assassin - traitor! - he dies today...:

Sano backed off, snorting, fighting the impulse to kick this child clear across ten leagues of snow. There was something painfully wrong with this boy.

But I can't get him to a MindHealer now. And if any of that was true- there!

Oh, gods...

A small redhead in bloodied dark blue and gray was slashing at air, trying to connect with an older, gray-haired man in an odd sleeveless shadow-gray tunic and leggings. The older man would step in, strike, watch the redhead go down and wait like a cruel cat for his prey to stagger up again. Prey that was bleeding from eyes and ears, balance as sickeningly off as a Herald struck by a lightning bolt.

He can't see. I'm not even sure he can hear. How the hell is he fighting-?

A hammer-blow of interlocked fists, and the redhead went down.

Hells with it! I've got to get down there-!

:Oh, I think not.:

Webbing curled out of the trees about Sanosuke, seizing him in a net of gray silk and pine branches. Dark-furred legs appeared where he would have sworn there were only shadows, spider eyes gleaming uncanny red from an impossibly huge form. :Let me go!: the Companion squealed.

:And ruin this fun?: Fangs gleamed. :It's not every day we get to watch a half-breed die...:

Steel flashed in the older man's hand, just as the redhead screamed out a desperate battle cry and swung-

Blue-wrapped white silk lunged between them-

Blind eyes widened-

And three bodies fell together.

"Tomoe, iie..."

The dark-haired young woman stirred, knife clasped in her whole left hand. Fought death just a minute more, bringing the knife up to the bleeding slash on the redhead's cheek, crossing it with her own cut. Pouring in will and hope and determination so bright Sano could feel it even through the bleakness.

:...Live, anata...:

Her mind snuffed out, and Sano Felt the wail of a soul left howling into emptiness. Felt Mindspeech rip and shred itself, trying to touch what was no longer there. :No!: He thrashed against the net. :Don't do that! Look over here! Damn it, you young fool - look over here-:

:He can't hear you,: the spider-creature sing-songed. :I won't let him.:

:Bastard!: Sano bared his teeth, biting at silk that was somehow strong as steel.

:Bastard? I think not. I am chuugumo. Your little assassin, now - he's the only bastard here.: The spider snickered. :I could hunt down the little half-breed. He'd be such an easy kill. But I'd have to let you go to do that, wouldn't I, spirit-made-flesh?: A long tongue licked at Sano's leg. :And you taste like so much more fun...:

The world twisted into nightmare, and he knew nothing more.

:The MindHealers blocked out a lot of the rest of it,: Sanosuke finished. :That - creature - fed on despair. And I could give it a lot, because I lost him...: Kerowyn felt the Companion shudder. :But after several months, it got careless. I broke out while it was sleeping, lurched my way back to the blank spot and Jumped. I don't think I even cared if I made it back alive. Almost didn't. Wandered around in the Pelagirs a while, finally got my head together enough to stumble back toward Valdemar, and - that's it.:

"What in the hells was that thing?" Eldan demanded.

:Probably some kind of Change-spider, according to Megumi,: Sayvel filled in. :They're at least as common in Yamato as firebirds are here. Think wyrsa-nasty. Then think bigger and more intelligent. Sano's damn lucky to be alive.:

Kero whistled. "And them without mages. No wonder those poor bastards came up with hitokiri." She looked at her hands - hands that had so often held a bloody blade. If I were going to kill a man anyway, and I knew things like that were out there, and there was nothing but me to stand between them and my people...

:Don't think about it,: Sayvel advised. :So. You think it's him, too.:

"Redhead, cross-shaped scar, fights like a demon," Eldan ticked off. "And the age seems about right. Still, red hair usually gets darker with age, not lighter. And if he could sense the man's ki-"

:There wasn't any there to sense!: Sano growled. :It was a trap; a trap for anything that could sense energies! I told you - I could feel the Call, but I couldn't feel him!:

Eldan's eyes widened. "You mean, ki is-"

"Life-energy," Kero nodded. "What hitokiri use. What Companions live in, just by existing."

Eldan gulped, still stunned. "They use it to run, and to feed to us when we need it, and to home in on when they're Searching..."

:And Heralds never learn how to shield it,: Sayvel finished. :Herald-Mages do - they have to, or they're demon-bait - but that training comes long after they're Chosen.:

"And you don't Choose Healers," Kero added under her breath. She'd spent some time MindSpeaking Alberich after Healer Gensai's little bombshell. He'd had quite an interesting story about another armed Healer; MindHealer Crathach, who'd gone with King Sendar to the final battle of Tedrel Wars. As one of the king's bodyguards.

"Crossed him, I would not have," Alberich had said. "A two-handed fighter with knives who to me a trick or two did show. Very angry at Tedrels, he was. Doubt he could kill, I did not."

"But if you really think he's yours, still, after all this time-" Eldan spread his hands.

Sano was painfully silent.

"Think, love," Kero said gently. "If a Companion can't touch your energies, they can't bond. And except for very brief moments, Kenshin always keeps his ki shielded."

Eldan eyed his partner. "So what do we do?"

Cantrip - a "low-level" spell, beginner's magic.

Shinai - bamboo practice sword.

Houshi - monk.

Kitsune - fox, fox-spirit.

Inu - dog.

Yama-inu - "Mountain Dog", wolf.

Shihandai - assistant master of a sword-school.

Ryuu Tsui Sen - Dragon Hammer Strike.