The entrance to the Hidden Valley was a spectacular archway, by all appearances carved from a single massive block of alabaster. The portal was intricately engraved, an endless, interlocking arrangement that served to draw the eye of the observer to the top of the archway where had been set a massive, iridescent pearl. The colors of magic chased each other across its surface.

The guardian of the Hidden Valley was a sacred beast of great advancement and sagacity. An ancient spirit, he had developed far beyond the limits expected of his kind.

In his human guise, the guardian struck a majestic figure; his bristly, austere visage, his long hair flowing in a river of silver. He was clad in robes of white, adorned with complex scripts and signs that were woven into the fabric of his clothing as well as tattooed across his skin. Tawny hair sprouted in thick tufts on the backs of his hands and on his neck, and he looked out on the world with eyes that glowed like the embers of a bonfire.

Despite his imposing appearance, the guardian was not without compassion. He had been the protector of the Hidden Valley and all of its secrets for centuries, and he would stop at nothing to defend it from those who sought to plunder its vital treasures without permission, but that did not prevent him from harboring a fondness for a few members of the clan he served.

Sunwhisper and his companions knew that they would have to be cautious in their approach, as Makoto Yuyu had warned them not to address the guardian directly. They were not of the family, and even if they had been clan members, they did not have the clout to be worthy of its conversation.

"You look soft, Remuru." Yuyu, though she appeared to be scarcely more than a scrawny girl in fancy robes, had four-stars inked into her arm. A graduate of the Heavenly Academy of the Azai, her face was serious, but there was the barest hint of old affection in her eyes. Beside her, Ise Ebi, her bonded beast, waved its claws and antenna in a respectful greeting of the superior creature.

The sacred lemur flattened its mouth in disapproval of the address. "You have hardly changed since the last time I saw you, little Yuyu. Have you been shirking your meditations?"

"My duties to the clan keep me occupied." This was an excuse. A pure artist would make time for training, no matter the personal cost. Something passed between them, a memory neither cared to address.

"Who are these runts?" He did not look directly at Sunwhisper, Janna, the spider or the raven. His eyes scanned the horizon, but they had no doubt of being observed.

"My servants," Yuyu said. "I will be sending them through the gate."

Remuru had bushy eyebrows whose tapering ends trailed from either side of his face. They bobbed as he rocked his head from side to side, regarding Yuyu with a critical eye. He had watched the party’s approach along the long and winding trail that led to the Hidden Valley of the Azai and had already intuited her desire.

"I am surprised at you," he said, his voice deep and resonant. "You understand better than most that the Hidden Valley is a place of great power and ancient magic. It is not a gift to be taken lightly or entered without proper respect and caution. How can you say these runts are prepared for what they will face if I allow them to pass? It will waste your opportunity for the year."

Yuyu nodded, bowing her head slightly in deference to the guardian. It was the first unequivocally respectful thing Sunwhisper had seen her do since she had appeared in his laboratory in Jigoku to give him an ultimatum. Join her or die.

"I understand, Remuru. We come in peace and with the utmost reverence for the valley and its secrets. We seek only to learn and grow, not to plunder or harm or waste the resources of the clan. These children are more than they seem, and it is my informed decision to use my privilege this way."

Remuru considered her address, his glowing eyes finally coming to rest on the tall young cultivator at the center of the unusual party. The male was dressed in initiate’s robes, several steps into his second star, with a damping ring on one hand and a rod of a dark, unusual steel at his hip. The gray scarf he had draped over one shoulder was a treasure, but Remuru found he could not read its aura, a sign that there was more to this boy than there at first appeared.

The girl beside him, fresh, attractive, but ultimately unremarkable, had only one star on her wrist beneath the lengthy debt marks they both bore. These two had offended the Azai, stolen from them, and their debt had been taken on by Makoto Yuyu. She was, for all intents and purposes, their owner.

The entire situation stunk of deceit, but Remuru could not say exactly where the duplicity lay; with Yuyu, the tattoos, or something deeper?

Finally, he nodded his head in agreement.

"Very well," he said. "I will allow you to enter. It is your gift, after all, and you will spend it as you choose." He frowned down at her servants. "There are terms to your entrance. Lady Makoto’s token allows her only one hour of freedom within the Hidden Valley every year. Every second spent beyond the allotted period comes at great price." He met Sunwhisper’s eyes, marking the point with a brief flare of spiritual energy.

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"While within the valley, you have permission to channel directly from the environment, which would be the safest option for cultivators of your advancement. If you choose to venture deeper, you will risk death and enslavement, but the potential for reward will be commensurate. You do not have permission to hunt the sacred beasts that dwell in the valley, but you may defend yourselves if you are attacked.

If you survive an attack, then you must leave the core of any beast you kill behind you, allowing its essence to return to the valley. There is only one sacred plant you have a grant to gather, Seishin grass. All the rest must remain untouched. We have ways of knowing what you do beyond the gate." At this pronouncement, the vast pearl atop the arch of white and graven stone glowed brighter, the rainbow that chased itself across its surface intensifying for an instant.

"And the pool," Yuyu said.

"Ah yes, you are granted the right to drink from the Pool of Ten Thousand Laughing Tears, but not to store or collect any of the sacred water aside from what you can imbibe." The old lemur held out his hand. "Present the token."

The treasure was small and slender, an ivory cylinder inscribed with the name of the patriarch in minute script along with the terms of its use. It had been created by an inkmaster at the highest levels of his craft, and there were not many among the Azai who had been granted such a boon. Those others who had been were all ranked higher than Yuyu.

It was a treasure that pained her every time she looked at it.

Sunwhisper saw the darkness in her and wondered. Since she had given him the scarf and taught him how to use it to disguise himself as a human with two cores, instead of a mechanoborg with a smaller mechanoborg hiding inside his chest, he had been able to read her as clearly as he did Janna. Janna’s motivations, however, seemed simple and straightforward by comparison.

Jin Janna was an earnest, ambitious girl who doubted herself but persisted nevertheless. Over the course of their journey, she had become attached to him almost as if they were the true family they pretended to be. A not unpredictable development, given what they had been through and the fact that she could no longer return to her original home. Their fates were intertwined, and her practical nature led her to embrace the situation rather than rail against it.

Yuyu was something else entirely. Sunwhisper had killed her cousin and committed crimes against her clan, and neither of those facts troubled her. She was the sort of person who would laugh at her own death, when it came.

She had come to them in the mountains and laid out her plan, promising that, in exchange for their service, she would put her will and her influence toward the purpose of advancing Sunwhisper and Janna to the point where they would be eligible to enter a Heavenly School.

The marks on their arms effectively made them her slaves for the next seven years. It meant little to Sunwhisper, who with some effort, could alter his body and the tattoo with it to the point where he would be unrecognizable. Janna, however, was trapped in the agreement until Yuyu relented or they found a higher ranking Inkmaster than the one in SIlk Flower Town to remove the marks.

Yuyu had given them the choice of capitulation or death. For the moment, the potential for gain from working for her far outshined the slim hopes of survival if they had refused. All she required from them in return was for them to enroll in the same Heavenly School she had attended and murder one of the instructors; Makoto Shishio, her uncle.

Not for the first time, Sunwhisper pondered the border guardian’s motivations in giving him that same name. The idea that it was a coincidence seemed outlandish at this point. It certainly seemed to have influenced Yuyu’s decision in taking them under her wing.

Even if they succeeded, killing an instructor and escaping the school alive, he found it hard to believe that she would release them from their contract as she had promised. There was something deeply wrong with Yuyu.

She radiated killing intent. Sunwhisper didn’t know if what he felt when he was around her was a side effect of some strange cultivation technique or merely a result of his increasing emotional awareness, but he could not look at her without getting the sense that he was looking at a monster who was only barely contained.

She carried no visible weapon, but he had the sense that at any given moment she was heartbeats away from unsheathing a blade that would not be put away again until it had spilled blood.

Sacred beasts, Karasu and Ogumo both kept their guard up around her, making every effort to project a submissive attitude. Ogumo was a spider, so he lacked the emotional display range that came with a human face, but he never adopted a threatening posture around her, instead bowing his face and presenting his back whenever she acknowledged him.

He knew that she was a predator, just like he was, but one that was far more dangerous.

The old lemur took the token from Yuyu and tapped it against his forehead before holding it up before the pearl. Sunwhisper felt the tingle of mana in the air, but he did not have the eyes to see what was happening on the level of a spiritual exchange. Karasu, with her violet eyes, watched whatever was occurring in the realm of the invisible with interest.

It did not remain invisible for long.

The rainbow coruscation bled from the pearl and filled the space beneath the arch with light. Every color of magic spun and mixed in patterns both numerous and sublime.

"The way is open," Remuru said, "your hour has begun."

"If you die," Yuyu said, "I will find a way to punish your spirits."

They required no further encouragement.

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Quest Alert — The Hidden Valley

‎The Hidden Valley of the Azai is one of a handful of rare high-magic zones. Access to these zones is restricted by the sects that control them, and you have been granted a temporary easement to channel the ambient mana, collect spirit grass, and drink from a sacred pool. Enter the zone and collect as many benefits as you can before the hour elapses.

Reward — Seishin Grass

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