Tenjo sat at the table, the steaming tea in front of her still too hot to drink without scalding her mouth. The room she was currently sitting in wasn't something that she would have expected of a guard house. It was empty apart from the large table, and left without any windows.

  Instead, light came from candles that didn't appear to melt and gave off far too much of a bright, even glow, likely due to the runes carved into the wax halfway down their length. The floor was a smooth carpet that had made her feel obligated to take of her shoes when she entered, despite being assured she didn't have to when first escorted into the building.

  "I'm sorry to keep you waiting," A woman said as she opened the door. She wasn't someone who could be called young, but no signs of age had overcome her yet. Her eyes were sharp, yet hiding a emotion that Tenjo couldn't make out.

  Most importantly, she was wearing a uniform with "Guard Captain" written on the breast in formal characters and golden thread, and she had an aura that gave off the solid impression given only by one that was fully developed.

  Behind her was Meng, the mage she had run into twice before, and another man, with prematurely gray hair tied up on his head in a knot that wasn't unlike her own, although in far better shape, and a uniform with "Vice-Captain" written on it in the same style as the other one.

  "It wasn't long at all," Tenjo said.

  The three of them sat across from her with a diverse range of expressions on their faces. The guard captain wore a look of resignation, and she was the one to speak first.

  "My name is Akemi, and I'm the captain of the guard here in Oukon, as you may have guessed. I'm sorry to have to bother you with this, seeing as Meng here tells me that you're busy, but I need your help."

  At this the unnamed man gave a snort, quiet enough that Tenjo would have failed to hear it if she hadn't had her aura condensed. Meng shot him a look, and he returned it with a glare of his own.

  "I have business that I need to deal with myself though," She said. "I don't really have the freedom to take on a job and get tied down here in town."

  “Your runaway brother, right?” Akemi said. “Give us a hand here, and I can guarantee that he’ll be found.”

  She hesitated for a moment. As useful as the guard working with her could be, that would mean she would have to come clean about everything in order to have actual assistance from them. Alternatively, if she refused them, she was set back to square one, her ability to come to them for advice on the group she was looking for hampered.

  Taking her silence as compliance, the guard captain continued.

  "This city has a very strange balance of power. It's no longer a large hub of wealth, so no nobles or masters of the blade would be willing to work as seconds to the local administrator. However, as it's still under Imperial control, neither one of those could be put in charge either."

  Tenjo nodded, reaching out for her tea again before noticing the amount of steam still coming off it and letting her hand rest on the table instead. "I don't quite understand why that means you need my help."

  "Because the soldiers of a nobles house, or the local sword school are typically who the guard goes to when they need support for groups that they don't have the manpower to deal with personally," She paused. "And right now, we are lacking a fair bit in that department.”

"So you want me to help you with something that is too much for you to deal with on your own?" Tenjo asked.

  The vice-captain's aura condensed for a second, giving off a wave of anger before he got it back under control. He was still comparable to a student, a fair way from reaching the level of a disciple of the blade like the captain.

  "Delun," Akemi said. That one word was enough for the younger man to stand up and leave the room, leaving behind a empty silence.

  "I'm sorry about that," Meng volunteered. "He was opposed to this. One of his friends passed away recently, and he feels as though the guards should be able to handle this on their own.

  "Should be able to handle what?" She said.

  "There's a growing criminal element in Oukon, condensed into a single gang that controls everything. Currently they're balanced with us in terms of power, meaning that we haven't been able to make a move on them."

  "Why can't you request help from the Empire?" Tenjo asked. "Surely they would be willing to send you someone powerful enough to help, or at least some more men to tip the scale?"

  "What do you think would happen if that group got news that a force of Imperial soldiers was marching to the city?" The captain asked. "They would do one of two things. Launch a preemptive attack of their own, or split apart into various smaller gangs that would end up preying on groups with less protection, such as travelers or isolated villages."

  "At the moment the temptation of gaining control of the entire city from the underground is too large to pass up, so the gang has settled for gathering power and extending their roots. Recently though, they've started to influence local businesses, and gain ties to other groups. If this goes on any longer it won't be a matter of force. They might be impossible to root out, even with a whole army."

  Tenjo grabbed the tea and drank the entire cup in a single gulp, ignoring both manners and the scalding heat. "So what do you need me to do, exactly?"

  "For now, just wait," She replied. "We recently had an altercation, and now the boss of the gang is on edge. It would be best if we waited for things to calm down before making a move. We also need to look into their base of operations, and any other groups they might be entangled with."

  "I need to confess something to you," Tenjo said. She swallowed down her inhibitions. "I wasn't honest when I gave you my reason for coming to Oukon. I didn't want to admit it, but my brother didn't leave, he got captured by a group that brought him her for an unknown reason."

  She stood up, and gave a bow of apology to Meng.

  "So our interests align then," He said. A twinkle formed in his brown eyes. "If there was another group, it was probably the one that has connections with this gang. Let me guess, you already knew that much, and that's the reason you were right outside the guard house to begin with."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "That's right," She admitted. "I was hoping to get information on their location from you. I don't really know anything about either group."

  There was a moment in which none of the three of them spoke, and then Akemi was the one to break the silence. "This doesn't really change anything. You help us with the attack, and you can get your brother back at the same time."

  She slid a small bag of coins across the table. "I know that traveling disciples traditionally go around asking for leftovers and sleeping in stables, but it doesn't sit right with me for someone to work without pay. Take this."

  Tenjo thanked her and left, wandering down the street again without any destination in mind. What manner of thing had she gotten herself into now?

  She kind of wanted to go up to the very highest part of the city. The whim came to mind, and at first Tenjo pushed it down, but it came back.

  Why not? It wasn't as though there was anything else that she could do to aid her quest of finding Daichi. Surely partaking in one little whim couldn't hurt, could it?

  Her mind made up; she now had a purpose. It felt like this was the first time she had truly been free in the past few days, not only without something that needed to be done, but with a clear path of what she needed to do.

  The feeling of the city was almost oppressive, the constant flow of people quite unlike her past days spent mostly training alone or in small groups. Tenjo couldn’t help but look around at everyone as they passed, and she also couldn’t help but feel their eyes on her.

  As she climbed the levels one by one, the building became farther and farther apart, and the people on the streets became fewer and fewer. The ways up also became less common, until she climbed up to the eighth level, high enough that the mild breeze had become a strong wind, and found the only staircase to the floor above at the other end of the city.

  At the top of that, there was more empty space between than there were buildings, the remainder all far larger than any normal house of store that she had seen, most notably bigger even than the Silver Crescent Moon school from her village, the largest construct there by far.

  She walked along one of the main streets, passing mostly what appeared to be weathered warehouses for goods and the massive temples that had no signs of life, until she came to a temple that had a large open courtyard.

  As she stepped inside, Tenjo became aware of something, the feeling that had been bothering her ever since she left the guardhouse. It was a deserted place, the stones swept clean by the wind and the once detailed paintings on the walls now faded away to the point that she could barely make out the gods on them.

  But even here, there was still the feeling of another person, someone watching her from behind. She turned around, and found nothing but the empty stones. Then at the gate there was movement, and a person stepped out.

  It was a young woman with a sword at her side, and loose crimson robes that swayed in the wind on her body. Her face was nervous, giving off the impression that she would rather be anywhere else. Yet she stepped forward cleanly and confidently, stopping when she was halfway across the open space and facing directly to Tenjo.

  Tenjo could see the muscles in her throat move as she swallowed, and then she spoke.

  "I challenge you to a duel, as a disciple of the blade. I'm sorry about this, but I need to kill you for the sake of my future."

  With that, she drew her blade and took a fighting stance. Tenjo felt her heartbeat speed up as she faced the new opponent, her hand itching to leap to the hilt of her own sword.

  "I accept your challenge," She said.

  The woman's sword was a Willow-leaf saber, the blade a balance between narrow and heavy, the slight curve leading itself to cuts while still allowing for precision in the thrust. Unlike the foreign sabers, with their hilt fully covering the hand, it had only a simple disk guard that didn't even extend to her wrist.

  Her dark blue hair waved freely around her face as a new gust of blew over the two swordsmen. She stepped forward, but instead of attacking she faced Tenjo and bowed, just deeply enough that she could keep her eyes on her opponent and not violate the position of her stance.

  "My name is Yumiko," She said. "I don't have a family name, or a current school."

  "My name is Tenjo," She replied, giving her own bow in turn. "I likewise no longer have a family name or school."

  Tenjo gripped her sword, not yet drawing. Against this weapon she had a reach disadvantage when fighting with two hands, and a speed disadvantage when fighting with only one. Her best option was to then use the Silver Crescent Moon to make up for the disadvantage in speed, and to aim for a counter the moment the saber wielder stepped into range.

  Yumiko slowly drew closer, her sword at a slight angle and held out in front of her, leaving the blade free to turn into a stab or slash at any moment while still capitalizing on her greater reach. Her footwork was careful, each step small while leaving the back foot firmly planted to push against the ground at the slightest moment’s notice.

  With each step Tenjo was forced to turn, changing her stance and shifting her weight as she readied herself to unleash her technique. Her legs yearned to charge forward, her mind telling her that the best strategy was to take the offensive and close the distance to a more ideal range.

  One more step, and the distance between them had shrunk enough that it could be covered in a second if either of them started to advance in earnest. Taking the initiative was the right move, based on everything that she knew, all that she had learned from her countless matches.

  It was the best option at her disposal, but for some reason it didn't feel right. Every time Tenjo imagined moving from her spot, a prickling feeling ran up her spine, as though a feather had been gently tracing its way up, one vertebrae at a time.

  Her face had gone slack, her mouth hanging open slightly and the rest of the world fading away while every piece of her body focused on the woman in front of her. One more step, and the range between them had shrunk even more.

  If both of them had fully extended their arms, the tips of their blades would have crossed. It would only take a single step more from both of them. Every muscle in her body was tense, ready to explode into motion.

  Then Yumiko took one more step, and the katana sprang from its scabbard in a silver arc while Tenjo threw herself forward.

  The strike cut nothing but air, Yumiko having halted her movement the second that her opponent responded. She even lowered her saber, letting it rest loosely at her side. Before the blade had finished moving, she had stepped forwards into its fading trail.

  Her footwork had a turn, and while Tenjo started to bring her sword back around to defend or follow up, she vanished from sight halfway through the motion.

  A flicker of movement appeared in the edge of Tenjo's vison, a flash of white steel and red cloth. She spun around, just in time to see that saber rise up and stab at her heart from past her own sword.

  Instinctively, she grabbed the spine of her katana with her free hand, and used the middle of the blade to deflect to incoming attack down and to the side. There was a short moment in which Yumiko didn't move, perhaps taken by surprise that her technique had failed, having expected the land her blow. It lasted for only a fraction of a second, but in that second, it was impossible to miss.

  Tenjo seized that chance, and cut out in a horizontal line. The sword cut deeply, and she could feel it pass between the ribs, the tip drawing through flesh and bone alike without a hint of hesitation. The smooth movement didn’t betray the complex feelings of the one executing it in the slightest.

  As the red robe parted, it revealed a flutter of white under it, which was quickly dyed to match the outer layer. By the time she toppled over and hit the ground, it was already stained the same shade of crimson as the pool of blood that had formed around her.

  Two pairs of eyes met, and for the second time Tenjo had the last expression of someone she had killed carved into her mind. Yumiko stared at her with a mixture of hatred, fear, and respect, which slowly became tinged with satisfaction before the light faded away, and then only a corpse was left with a faint smile on its lips.

  Her saber wasn’t in her hand, Tenjo noticed. She turned her head to look for it, planning to place the weapon with her as a last sign of respect. It wasn’t on the stones around them though, or thrown away in the final exchange.

  Then she took a step, and the location became all too obvious.

  The sword was sticking out of her left side, just below the ribcage. It didn’t hurt, but instead as she focused on it the steel was as cold as ice, leaching the warmth out of her side.

  Within it she could still feel traces of the other woman's aura, burning with the emotions she had held in her final moments, which slowly faded away while a dark wetness spread out from the blade.

  Well, that would explain why she had paused after the thrust.