**This story is getting long... I hope you're all still reading. I'm considering labeling a part one and two when I'm finished. I don't know, tell me what you think. I enjoy where this is going, and I have lot's of ideas.

I hope that everyone is satisfied with this story.

I will keep on writing until I'm finished.

Enjoy Chapter 63! :)**

Chapter 63: Shifting the Odds

Hiro and Eiji had finally settled on an explanation.

"That's the one." Said Hiro.

"We'll tell them that we both could use the training, and because you're my friend and a blood mage, it would make perfect sense for you to tag along."

Eiji nodded. "That's a good idea."

Shisuta walked in. "No! That is awful, and they will point out all of the flaws! Here, let me help you..."

They jumped when she entered.

Eiji was red. "Um... How long were you listening to us?"

She shrugged. "I started listening when I heard Hiro explain that she was leaving."

They both let out a sigh of relief.

"That's good..." Said Eiji.

Shisuta looked at them warily.

"There's not something I should know about, is there?"

Eiji and Hiro gulped.

"Nope!" They said in sync.

Shisuta shook her head.

"I will drop the subject... But..."

She gave them the look. An all knowing dark and scary look that she knew would frighten them a little.

"Be warned... If anything happens while you two are off and about... I will know. I have the tools to find out, so no breaking the rules... Or else."

Eiji gave a sharp nod.

"Okay! Sounds fair... Please don't kill me."

She sighed. "Just tell them that Hiro has a better chance with someone else there. Then Hiro, tell them that you would feel better if you did not have to go completely alone. Then you can mention that Eiji could also receive training... It is best to have a well set up explanation, because it leaves less room for your parents to disagree."

She walked out of the room.

When she was out of earshot, she burst into laughter.

"I cannot believe they fell for that! To think they believe I can check on them on a whim!? How ridiculous!"

...

I was completely brain fried, and holding my pen in a shaking hand.

My head was half rested on my desk, and I felt like I was going insane.

"It's always something... The odds are NEVER stable. Nothing makes sense, and I'm running out of time and options... Yet I have nothing. Nothing at all..."

I'm always talking to myself now... It's the first sign of insanity, or so they say...

Shisuta walked into his office.

"You look exhausted..." She said.

I sighed. "It's nothing."

Shisuta sat next to me.

"It is obviously not nothing... Can you tell me what happened?"

I let out a defeated groan, letting my head fall to the table.

"It's everything Shisuta, and it keeps happening. I have to set up the logistics and strategies, yet the board keeps changing, and grey cards are constantly being slapped on my desk! Then there are the larger factors, which are complete unknowns... I'm working with scraps, and being forced to count out the unknown factors..."

Shisuta shook her head.

"You should have said something sooner. What are the unknowns?"

I looked at her.

My eyes went wide. "That's right! You DO still have that well of knowledge!"

He pulled out his papers.

"Well first off, I need to know what the forces look like in the heavens. Second, I need to know who Shinjitsu is and if he has any connection to the heavens. The last thing, look at prophecy and see if you can find anything on the throne. Who is on it, who is to claim it, and so forth."

She nodded. "I will get on that now..."

Her eyes closed, and she was searching in her well, looking for the right information.

It was amazing she could navigate such a vast library of knowledge. Even without this well, no one could doubt that she was an anylitical and alchemical genius. Her skills in research were remarkable...

It takes ones soul to gain this amount of knowledge... It takes true skill to be able to utilize it.

She opened her eyes.

"That definitely changes things." Said Shisuta.

"Shinjitsu was offered a spot on the throne if he were to defeat the rebels in prophecy... Us. He has known about this since the prophecy has unfolded. A disadvantage. The heavens do not intend to keep their and of the bargain. We could use that. I also found that Shinjitsu has been known to hollow his soldiers. A forbidden art that allows complete and permanent control over the left over shells... Basically vessels. I don't doubt he did that to those children... The forces of the heavens are surprisingly slim. It seems as if they are hoping we don't make it that far... Something is amiss with the golden city... Yes..."

She seemed to pick up on something.

"Like a key slot... For destruction..."

Her eyes widened.

"Kahn! You cannot go through with this!"

He looked at her. "Why not? I need to know. There may be a way around it, if you give me the information I need."

She shook her head. "All of the information in the universe does no good if the facts are inevitable. Kahn, the heavens are not prophesized to be ruled... They are prophesized to be purged. There is no more after that... It ends. I hate to say this, but if we destroy the head, the body dies."

I froze.

"Are you sure it means the end if we do?"

She sighed. "All I know is that when I read the prophecy... It ended. It was inscribed on a stone wall somewhere in the heavens... This wall tells what is to be, and it's words are names of events in history and in the future. If we go on with this siege, that wall will tell our tale."

I went pale.

"Then... What was all of this for? Can't we do anything!? We can avoid destruction if we know what not to do!"

She teared up. "Afraid not... The only way to open the gates, is to open them with a key. The gates are locked to the living. The moment the gates are breached, everything is lost... Everyone in the city is like a circle of bombs, surrounding the core, waiting for the moment when they can explode. If they are aloud to fulfill their purpose, the core dies. The core consists of nine high priestesses, each with the core of a universe in their brain... Splitting off to other realms of possibility... Endless lives in endless scenarios..."

Some blood trickled from her nose.

"The mass is approximately..."

More blood...

"It's just so..."

I shook her.

"Shisuta! This is too much! Stop thinking for a moment!"

She shook her head, and began shaking.

She threw up in the garbage can next to my desk, half of the vomit was blood.

"L-Like gatekeeper's of destruction..."

I put my hands over her head, and healed any damage she may have caused herself.

She breathed in and out slowly.

"You need to be more careful." I said softly.

"Too much knowledge in one space all at once... It's to much for a mortal mind to handle. You need to be careful. As for the gatekeepers... Well, they seem to be the main issue. I won't ask you to do this now, but I need you to find a way to breach the core without using a key. We have the dreamstone Amulet, which can get us to the gates. I want you to find something that will get us inside."

Shisuta thought for a moment.

"Or perhaps access to the link... An intricate network between the nine, all woven into a central containing... Containing..."

Blood came shooting out of her nose, and leaked out of her mouth.

I healed her again.

"You need to stop that!" I exclaimed.

"Must I watch you to insure you don't kill yourself with this knowledge!? I will if it comes to it."

She was shaking.

"I c-can't stop... I CAN'T STOP IT!"

I grabbed her shoulders.

"What do you mean you can't stop!?"

"The center is all one... Together... Yet separated by... There's this tie that morphs it... And... And it..."

More blood.

I was in a constant state of healing her.

"Shisuta! Just try to calm down!"

That's it... I could use my eyes to calm her.

"Look at me..." I said.

She did, and her eyes focused.

She spoke.

"There is a way to obtain the core... It is like the beating heart of existence, and yet it is also a seed that has yet to beat... The seed of a tree that has long died. It is life... It is death... It is not, yet it is all. Intangible to mortal eyes, only one who relates to the seed, shall own it as her own heart... Beating within her like a dying rebirth. She who will travel the roads of it's hollow everything, and find the meanings of nothing... Giving the nothing a form, and existing purpose, which it knows not."

She smiled sadly. "It knows all but one, which it needs... She has the one, but knows not the roads. Nourished in the baffled beams of darkness which masks the shifting seed, yet wants for hands to pull her in... The one who wanders, unknowing of her purpose. The seed that knows, but cannot wander... This is the curse of this core, yet a shadowed blessing, for it is unaware of it's surroundings... Forever pulling as a subconscious, which holds the conscious existence."

She gave a look of sad knowing.

"We all have the one, but in the end, only one can give it, and therefore receive the throne. Only she who makes the journey, will be one with the seed."

Those last words clicked for me.

"You say a woman will become one with this core when she finds it... She'll then have domain over everything. What happens to the rest of us when she does this?"

Shisuta's gaze seemed more penetrating by the second.

"That is her choice."

Shisuta collapsed, and fell unconscious on the ground.

I shook her. "Shisuta, Shisuta!? Are you alright!? Please wake up..."

She shifted, muttering to herself. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Wh-What happened...?" She asked tiredly.

I was relieved she didn't retain any of that.

"You passed out." I said.

I stood her up before she could see any of the blood she had shed.

"Let's get you to bed, and you should really try to rest."

She nodded slowly. "Okay..."

Luckily, she was too out of it to notice the blood on her clothes.

I took her to the altar room, which is connected to her room.

Karo saw us walking in, and stopped.

"What happened!?" He exclaimed.

I shook my head. "Not now... Get her resting, and we'll talk."

He looked extremely worried, but listened to what I said.

He got her to her room, and made sure she was sleeping before he left. Apparently it didn't take long.

"Are you going to tell me now?" He asked.

I nodded. "We were trying to discover what the heavens forces were, and we discovered that if we were to even breach the gates... Well, it would be an ending of sorts... No, just the end. We would destroy everything."

Karo went pale. "Are you serious...?"

I sighed. "Yes, I am. However, she told me about this core at the center of the golden city... All I can say is that it is literally everything. And that the city and core is destroyed if we breach... The rest of the information was so intense, it was destroying her... I'm just glad she didn't remember any of it."

Karo looked very scared.

"That amount of knowledge can do that? She has access to literally EVERYTHING!?"

I looked down. "That's right. She can't be allowed to know about what she said, or what I've told you... She can't try that again."

Karo nodded. "I agree... What did she say anyway? Did you get any of it?"

I gave a deep sigh.

"Some of it was too abstract to comprehend, and the rest is too out there to even attempt explaining... You would have to have been there."

He looked down.

"Damn... What do we do?"

I had no clue. I had this horrible feeling that this whole journey was one complex mistake, built off of little mistakes...

One mistake...

One seed...

Roads and paths...

"That's it!" I exclaimed.

"What's it?" Karo asked in confusion.

I shook my head. I can't explain it now, but I think I know where to go from here."

I started pulling down books on enchanted artifacts, and the dreamstone. The dreamstone amulet allowed the user to travel anywhere that exists, besides the core.

Shisuta had said something about aspects of nonexistence within the core, so maybe that's why it was impossible to breach that way.

The dreamstone allows for knowledge to be shared through moments of scrying... It can also be used to summon objects and creatures from different realms, so long as you know what they are...

Combined with the amulet, it opens portals to the creatures you intend to summon, and can teleport you anywhere else.

...What if I could use the dreamstone amulet, to open a portal into the world of the seed.

I could do this by summoning the seed as a living object... Yes! That way it is accurately called upon as neither living, nor dead, as Shisuta described.

We would have to prepare for every possible situation. I have no idea what we'll find in there...

I closed the book.

"I hear that Hiro is traveling soon. In her absence, I want everyone else to train as well. We may be facing the strongest trials in existence, so I suggest we all prepare."

Karo nodded. "Right. I think we should gather the others, and start trying to make out whatever it is you've discovered."

I nodded. "We will, but for now there is the issue of preparing Hiro... Let's make sure she has everything she needs."

I felt a pang of worry.

"I don't like the idea of her going alone... I know she'll pull through, but..."

Karo sighed. "Yeah... I'm going to miss her. You'd think I'd enjoy some peace and quiet... I've kind of gotten used to the noise."

Karo's mind seem to switch to something urgent.

"Wait, what about Shisuta? You said the knowledge almost destroyed her... Should we bring her to the meeting? Kahn... Is this a good idea?"

I looked down. Good point...

"We may have to have Chihiro put a seal on deeper knowledge. She can't be allowed to access something so lethal... It might kill her the next time she does it."

Karo nodded. "I was thinking of suggesting that to her anyway... I thought that maybe having too much of that well open was dangerous. My fears were Sasageru, but I never imagined this..."

I didn't think that anyone could access such knowledge... I was very worried about this, but right now, Hiro needed to be ready for a long trip. I would handle that first, and then handle the situation with Shisuta.

Sealing parts of her well was a delicate matter. My guess?

It would not bode well with Shisuta.

**I've decided to make a third story, because this one is really long. It's not over yet, but I'll make sure to end it in a way that's interesting. ;)**