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The Shogoness stands beside her watching her work. Moon spines the staff and dips it in the salt the Shogoness calling out commands. Moon draws as her mother speaks demonstrating a sophisticated dance with her staff.\n“The Quest of Twenty-One Blades:\n \tThe Frist Blade; the young blade, carved from stone, it cuts deep, it most, for it is hardy and wishes to return to the earth.\n\tThe Second Blade; the new blade, plucked from the grass, thin and sharp, lite as air, it flexes and quivers. A trusted friend, always in arms reach, but like the grass quickly grays then turns to dust.\n\tThe Third Blade; the child’s blade, innocent, imaginative, weightless, shapeless, formless, made by a child for a child, a man will never know.\n\tThe Forth Blade; the Maturin blade, clean and sharp, swift, she sits in her castle, watching her children play, she knows a pain that is only hers, her labors are many, her suffering unheard, life gives life, as filth births purity.\n\tThe Fifth Blade; the brave blade, the true blade, he leaves his mother’s side, his eyes open, he can see only the future, tomorrows unnumbered, fate pushes him to search for his ken.\n\tThe Sixth Blade; the mature blade, his hands are weathered, his teeth are chipped, he remembers the path he has walked and looks forth to the miles left to travel, the blade refreshed by wisdom earned through defeat.\n\tThe seventh blade; the honored blade, snow and ice, winds and rains, miles walked, blood spilt the blade of hero’s, stand not behind us, but before us, let this sword lead you out of danger and into glory.\n\tThe eight blade; a bent blade, worn and weak, she slouches over, her lags sit apart as she watches her feet with much interest, she hides form the path before her and the path behind her, she is tired, but she is not broken.\n\tThe ninth blade; the stoic blade, his hand reaches for his brothers, he bleeds, but he knows that he bleeds so that other need not, let this blade be your wall, let me fight so you may rest.\n\tThe tenth blade; the hateful blade, he sits on his knees, he cries looking back, all he has lost, the nights grow longer, he has forgotten something of value, he curses himself, he curses he who stands with him.\n\tThe eleventh blade; the lost blade…”\n\tMoon drops her staff with an earsplitting twang as it hits the ground. The shogoness is not amused, she looks down at her child with a most piercing gaze awaiting an explanation. Moon ducks her head in shame “I lost it, I crossed my wrist, pinched myself.”\n\tThe shoguness eyes lighten “pick up staff, we can start again. Your father spent fifty winters learning this dance I understand. In the end adding one step to the end. His own hidden marking.”\n\t“a twenty second blade?” Moon ask\n\t“a forgotten blade.” She adds\n\tMoon goes to hand her mother the staff, “can you show me?”\n\tAwai shacks her head planting a hand on Moons chest her eyes closed and a peculiar smile on her lips “I have yet to master it myself.”\n\t“what are the Twenty-one blades?” moon ask.\n\t“old magic, A story, the oldest one I know, the blades are people, that is why we give them gender, the first second third and fifth are one person, fourth and eighth are another. Dance was how we remembered things in the lost past.” Awai places her hands on moon shoulders and spins her in a loop to about face. “do you remember the 17th blade?”\n\tMoon whispers to herself trying to start her dance from one of the least steps “the seventieth blade; the phantom’s blade, the healers blade, she rests her hands on the eyes of the first, second third forth, fifth, and seventh, she invites them home, the night has come and the brave most rest, bring all blades to her that she may place them in the ground and with the rising of the sun call them back to light...”\n\tAwai calls “stop.” Awai draws her sword, she reaches around her child resting the flat of her blade to the fabric of her robe “look now at the markings you have made in the salt and at the markings on the side of my blade.”\n\tThe scars of the staff on the ground have clearly drawn a picture in the salt. The same picture is on Awai’s short single edged sword. Moon looks up with bright eyes. “you are the 17th blade!”\n\t“my grandmother’s grate grandmother maybe. This was no sword crafted by the stone smith, this one is my family sword, my father’s sword. When he died it was brought to me for safe keeping, and when I die it will become Sun’s. that is the tradition, that is what we have done since time and memorial. That which was the father’s become the daughter’s that witch was the mother’s becomes the son’s. “\n\tWith skill and grace Awai wraps her lag around a staff thin kicks it up into her hand catching it behind her back, “we will start again. I stand with you this time my beloved.”\n***\n\tIt is even later into the evening then Kero had planned when at last he makes his way back into his chamber, Awai and Moon still hard at their practicing. Booth girls had let down the shoulders of their robs to free up their movements, making their dance ever so much cleaner without their thick robs weighing them down. Kero let’s Sun into the chamber first, once the door slides open Awai re-robes Moon swiftly then herself, then ties her hair back in anticipation of her shogun’s return.\n\tKero stinks of sweet and blood, he walks past his family without even an acknowledging glance. He throws his robe from his body then mounts his sword in its cradle, he drops his new axe on the ground then falls to his knees, his eyes fixated on the wolf axe, the World Breaker.\n\tKero’s family weights quietly for their father to address them. Still without an upwards glance his ears twitch reminding him of their presents. “Awai, hand our robes to your escort, have them wash them in the river, then have them go to the church, tell the elder monk he will be needed at sunrise. Then you may sit.” There is another pause as Kero seems hypnotized “No, tell him after noon prayer. I need to bathe. Sun, Moon,” He makes a gustier with his hands that is somewhat unclear to the others “Go, outside, play.” \n\tThe order to go play is one the Kero has almost never given, if there is time for play then there is time for work, time for play is one holy day. But the order was clear, Sun and Moon run outside without giving their father the opportunity to change his mind.\n\tAwai takes off her clothes once the kids have stepped outside and sits with her lover. She rests her hands on his chest fallowed by her head on his arm, “what need does Kero, the King of Rabbits, have with the elder monk?”\n\t“my father told me one cold spring morning that ‘monks are filled with the most pious of rage, in a time of fear that rage can light a fire’ I will have him paint a picture for me. Then I will build a giant.” Kero with that reaches around taking his Shoguness and holds her to his chest hoping to chip the ice from his soul with her warmth.\n***\nAs the kids get outside the moon is already rising. Moon climes the side of the pagoda and throws down a rope to Sun. her speed at climbing is unmatched, and she is even faster without her traveling gear. The two of them climb to the top tier where there are two effigies one of a jumping fish the other of a waiting snake.\n\tThe night is warmer than most so the kids strip down to their undergarments and sit on the roof together. Sun sits with his head down and his knees pulled into his chest, Moon slides up behind him, she folds her arms over his chest holding her brother lovingly. \n\t“Moon, I feel like I have done something wrong.”\n\t“why”\n\t“I told father that I want to fight. I want to fight for Lafe.”\n\tMoon is speechless. Moon, like so many other has never seen war, has never seen fighting. She steps around her brother laying down setting her head on his legs and looks up at him looking to try to change the subject at hand. Sun seems to understand what she is trying to do; he lays back bunching up there clothing to use as a makeshift pillow. “Sun, what do you know about the wolves?”\n\tSun sets one hand on his sister’s belly rubbing her as he watches the moon corona “not very much, nothing that isn’t common knowledge I don’t think.”\n\tIn each other’s embrace the kids relax, “tacking this land from the wolves was our finest victory. But what do you think happened before that?”\n\tSun rubs up Moon’s fur pushing it the wrong way making her fur puff up as he talks “when dad was a kid, like 4000 years ago or something, he and his uncle were weapon makers…”\nMoon squeezes Suns hand stopping him from rubbing up from her hip to her chest holding his hand to her midsection “No, no, no, before that, before the war. There must have been something that sparked the fighting right?”\nThe two of them stare off into the endless night sky, the air is warm but the wind slowly turns the night cold. “I don’t know?” Sun sinks his fingertips into Moon’s fur, Moon lets out a comforting squeak.\n“What do you think that bone blade Kero had was?”\n“I don’t know.”\n\t“Make something up then.” Moon is clearly requesting a story from her brother, it’s a silly game, one from there earliest memories, Awai told stories when Sun was just starting to walk, before he became a fighter. The two asked questions insufferably. Awai sometimes made up stories to distract them.\n\tSun thinks hard for a moment then starts to spin a tale for his sister’s amusement “Once the Queen of all Wolves had a son, he was all wolf, even though he wears a mask with the face of a monkey. The wolves love their prince for he was mightier than mighty. Even the Jade Emperor loved the prince of wolves; so much so that he gave the wolves two holy gifts, first he painted a picture of the sun for them, and called it Helio, then he panted the moon and called it Eclipse.\n\tWhen the prince took Helio into his maw, it became a mirror, which he cut into a shield and the shield was unbreakable, the he took Eclipse into his maw and it became an axe, and it was unstoppable. Then with these tools on his back. The prince took a name for himself, he became Gideon the Skull. With this power he now holds Gideon became a Godhunter. He searched the world over looking for those that would turn their back on the creator of worlds, or who would harm that which the old gods found pure and he would punish them.\n\tThe world loved Gideon just like the wolves, just like the creator. People from around the world called his name whenever they were afraid and he would come running. He ran so fast that trees bent their knees to him and water parted to let him pass. To stand before the prince became the job of the argent and the foolish. No man could break his shield, no man could stop his axe, he became justice in the flesh.\n\tBut not all could see his power for what it is, there was a being, one mind with endless bodies, they are called the deep. Awaken from a sleep the was ever meant to end at the end of the sea, in a place where light never shined, a lost horse maiden calls back to this world something Luna had buried.\n\tLuna’s children revived, they brought the seas to life, giving the water a voice, and the power to walk and talk like a beast. The vary waters of the earth are now alive. \n\tAnd so the prince of wolves’ picks up his mighty shield and his axe, and he goes to do battle with the water. The prince is mighty, fast, strong, the waters pound on his back, but his shield holds the water back. The prince swings his axe, he splits the ocean from the land, and with seven swings he carves apart the seven grater islands from ‘the one earth’ and with hundreds more her crafts the lesser lands.\n\tAs the battle rages on the two invincible forces create with the fiery the lands and the seas, mountains are forged when the prince is pushed back by the Deep, cannons are unearthed whenever the Deep takes a step.\n\tAt long last the prince finds winning this battle is impossible, he will never kill the Deep. But what if he did not need to kill to win? Gideon throws himself at the ocean, and picks it up in his mouth, he pins it to the ground, it thrashes and throws itself about and at last rolls the prince onto his back. But the prince will not yield. \n\tTo this day the wolf and the sea still do battle, whenever a storm dawns and the sky turns black, that is Gideon trying to stand up, and the Deep pulling him back down.”\n\tMoon is mostly asleep as the story comes to a close, she meekly whispers as she places one arm and one lag around her brother “you can tell me in the morning what the horse maiden did to make the sea mad.”\n\tSun tucks one hand under her tail to hold Moon to his side “yeah I can.”\n***\nAt day-brake drums pound, Awai’s escorts approach the main gate, a dozen old monks walking between them. With the monks inside the doors to the throne room close, the doors would not reopen for months. \n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Chapter 7
\tMoon stands in the entertaining room of Kero’s castle, a long bo held between her hands, a plate of salt at her feet. The Shogoness stands beside her watching her work. Moon spines the staff and dips it in the salt the Shogoness calling out commands. Moon draws as her mother speaks demonstrating a sophisticated dance with her staff.
“The Quest of Twenty-One Blades:
 \tThe Frist Blade; the young blade, carved from stone, it cuts deep, it most, for it is hardy and wishes to return to the earth.
\tThe Second Blade; the new blade, plucked from the grass, thin and sharp, lite as air, it flexes and quivers. A trusted friend, always in arms reach, but like the grass quickly grays then turns to dust.
\tThe Third Blade; the child’s blade, innocent, imaginative, weightless, shapeless, formless, made by a child for a child, a man will never know.
\tThe Forth Blade; the Maturin blade, clean and sharp, swift, she sits in her castle, watching her children play, she knows a pain that is only hers, her labors are many, her suffering unheard, life gives life, as filth births purity.
\tThe Fifth Blade; the brave blade, the true blade, he leaves his mother’s side, his eyes open, he can see only the future, tomorrows unnumbered, fate pushes him to search for his ken.
\tThe Sixth Blade; the mature blade, his hands are weathered, his teeth are chipped, he remembers the path he has walked and looks forth to the miles left to travel, the blade refreshed by wisdom earned through defeat.
\tThe seventh blade; the honored blade, snow and ice, winds and rains, miles walked, blood spilt the blade of hero’s, stand not behind us, but before us, let this sword lead you out of danger and into glory.
\tThe eight blade; a bent blade, worn and weak, she slouches over, her lags sit apart as she watches her feet with much interest, she hides form the path before her and the path behind her, she is tired, but she is not broken.
\tThe ninth blade; the stoic blade, his hand reaches for his brothers, he bleeds, but he knows that he bleeds so that other need not, let this blade be your wall, let me fight so you may rest.
\tThe tenth blade; the hateful blade, he sits on his knees, he cries looking back, all he has lost, the nights grow longer, he has forgotten something of value, he curses himself, he curses he who stands with him.
\tThe eleventh blade; the lost blade…”
\tMoon drops her staff with an earsplitting twang as it hits the ground. The shogoness is not amused, she looks down at her child with a most piercing gaze awaiting an explanation. Moon ducks her head in shame “I lost it, I crossed my wrist, pinched myself.”
\tThe shoguness eyes lighten “pick up staff, we can start again. Your father spent fifty winters learning this dance I understand. In the end adding one step to the end. His own hidden marking.”
\t“a twenty second blade?” Moon ask
\t“a forgotten blade.” She adds
\tMoon goes to hand her mother the staff, “can you show me?”
\tAwai shacks her head planting a hand on Moons chest her eyes closed and a peculiar smile on her lips “I have yet to master it myself.”
\t“what are the Twenty-one blades?” moon ask.
\t“old magic, A story, the oldest one I know, the blades are people, that is why we give them gender, the first second third and fifth are one person, fourth and eighth are another. Dance was how we remembered things in the lost past.” Awai places her hands on moon shoulders and spins her in a loop to about face.  “do you remember the 17th blade?”
\tMoon whispers to herself trying to start her dance from one of the least steps “the seventieth blade; the phantom’s blade, the healers blade, she rests her hands on the eyes of the first, second third forth, fifth, and seventh, she invites them home, the night has come and the brave most rest, bring all blades to her that she may place them in the ground and with the rising of the sun call them back to light...”
\tAwai calls “stop.” Awai draws her sword, she reaches around her child resting the flat of her blade to the fabric of her robe “look now at the markings you have made in the salt and at the markings on the side of my blade.”
\tThe scars of the staff on the ground have clearly drawn a picture in the salt. The same picture is on Awai’s short single edged sword. Moon looks up with bright eyes. “you are the 17th blade!”
\t“my grandmother’s grate grandmother maybe. This was no sword crafted by the stone smith, this one is my family sword, my father’s sword. When he died it was brought to me for safe keeping, and when I die it will become Sun’s. that is the tradition, that is what we have done since time and memorial. That which was the father’s become the daughter’s that witch was the mother’s becomes the son’s. “
\tWith skill and grace Awai wraps her lag around a staff thin kicks it up into her hand catching it behind her back, “we will start again. I stand with you this time my beloved.”
***
\tIt is even later into the evening then Kero had planned when at last he makes his way back into his chamber, Awai and Moon still hard at their practicing. Booth girls had let down the shoulders of their robs to free up their movements, making their dance ever so much cleaner without their thick robs weighing them down. Kero let’s Sun into the chamber first, once the door slides open Awai re-robes Moon swiftly then herself, then ties her hair back in anticipation of her shogun’s return.
\tKero stinks of sweet and blood, he walks past his family without even an acknowledging glance. He throws his robe from his body then mounts his sword in its cradle, he drops his new axe on the ground then falls to his knees, his eyes fixated on the wolf axe, the World Breaker.
\tKero’s family weights quietly for their father to address them. Still without an upwards glance his ears twitch reminding him of their presents. “Awai, hand our robes to your escort, have them wash them in the river, then have them go to the church, tell the elder monk he will be needed at sunrise. Then you may sit.” There is another pause as Kero seems hypnotized “No, tell him after noon prayer. I need to bathe. Sun, Moon,” He makes a gustier with his hands that is somewhat unclear to the others “Go, outside, play.”
\tThe order to go play is one the Kero has almost never given, if there is time for play then there is time for work, time for play is one holy day. But the order was clear, Sun and Moon run outside without giving their father the opportunity to change his mind.
\tAwai takes off her clothes once the kids have stepped outside and sits with her lover. She rests her hands on his chest fallowed by her head on his arm, “what need does Kero, the King of Rabbits, have with the elder monk?”
\t“my father told me one cold spring morning that ‘monks are filled with the most pious of rage, in a time of fear that rage can light a fire’ I will have him paint a picture for me. Then I will build a giant.” Kero with that reaches around taking his Shoguness and holds her to his chest hoping to chip the ice from his soul with her warmth.
***
As the kids get outside the moon is already rising. Moon climes the side of the pagoda and throws down a rope to Sun.  her speed at climbing is unmatched, and she is even faster without her traveling gear. The two of them climb to the top tier where there are two effigies one of a jumping fish the other of a waiting snake.
\tThe night is warmer than most so the kids strip down to their undergarments and sit on the roof together. Sun sits with his head down and his knees pulled into his chest, Moon slides up behind him, she folds her arms over his chest holding her brother lovingly.
\t“Moon, I feel like I have done something wrong.”
\t“why”
\t“I told father that I want to fight. I want to fight for Lafe.”
\tMoon is speechless. Moon, like so many other has never seen war, has never seen fighting. She steps around her brother laying down setting her head on his legs and looks up at him looking to try to change the subject at hand. Sun seems to understand what she is trying to do; he lays back bunching up there clothing to use as a makeshift pillow. “Sun, what do you know about the wolves?”
\tSun sets one hand on his sister’s belly rubbing her as he watches the moon corona “not very much, nothing that isn’t common knowledge I don’t think.”
\tIn each other’s embrace the kids relax, “tacking this land from the wolves was our finest victory. But what do you think happened before that?”
\tSun rubs up Moon’s fur pushing it the wrong way making her fur puff up as he talks “when dad was a kid, like 4000 years ago or something, he and his uncle were weapon makers…”
Moon squeezes Suns hand stopping him from rubbing up from her hip to her chest holding his hand to her midsection “No, no, no, before that, before the war. There must have been something that sparked the fighting right?”
The two of them stare off into the endless night sky, the air is warm but the wind slowly turns the night cold. “I don’t know?” Sun sinks his fingertips into Moon’s fur, Moon lets out a comforting squeak.
“What do you think that bone blade Kero had was?”
“I don’t know.”
\t“Make something up then.” Moon is clearly requesting a story from her brother, it’s a silly game, one from there earliest memories, Awai told stories when Sun was just starting to walk, before he became a fighter. The two asked questions insufferably. Awai sometimes made up stories to distract them.
\tSun thinks hard for a moment then starts to spin a tale for his sister’s amusement “Once the Queen of all Wolves had a son, he was all wolf, even though he wears a mask with the face of a monkey. The wolves love their prince for he was mightier than mighty. Even the Jade Emperor loved the prince of wolves; so much so that he gave the wolves two holy gifts, first he painted a picture of the sun for them, and called it Helio, then he panted the moon and called it Eclipse.
\tWhen the prince took Helio into his maw, it became a mirror, which he cut into a shield and the shield was unbreakable, the he took Eclipse into his maw and it became an axe, and it was unstoppable. Then with these tools on his back. The prince took a name for himself, he became Gideon the Skull. With this power he now holds Gideon became a Godhunter. He searched the world over looking for those that would turn their back on the creator of worlds, or who would harm that which the old gods found pure and he would punish them.
\tThe world loved Gideon just like the wolves, just like the creator. People from around the world called his name whenever they were afraid and he would come running. He ran so fast that trees bent their knees to him and water parted to let him pass. To stand before the prince became the job of the argent and the foolish. No man could break his shield, no man could stop his axe, he became justice in the flesh.
\tBut not all could see his power for what it is, there was a being, one mind with endless bodies, they are called the deep. Awaken from a sleep the was ever meant to end at the end of the sea, in a place where light never shined, a lost horse maiden calls back to this world something Luna had buried.
\tLuna’s children revived, they brought the seas to life, giving the water a voice, and the power to walk and talk like a beast. The vary waters of the earth are now alive.
\tAnd so the prince of wolves’   picks up his mighty shield and his axe, and he goes to do battle with the water. The prince is mighty, fast, strong, the waters pound on his back, but his shield holds the water back. The prince swings his axe, he splits the ocean from the land, and with seven swings he carves apart the seven grater islands from ‘the one earth’ and with hundreds more her crafts the lesser lands.
\tAs the battle rages on the two invincible forces create with the fiery the lands and the seas, mountains are forged when the prince is pushed back by the Deep, cannons are unearthed whenever the Deep takes a step.
\tAt long last the prince finds winning this battle is impossible, he will never kill the Deep. But what if he did not need to kill to win? Gideon throws himself at the ocean, and picks it up in his mouth, he pins it to the ground, it thrashes and throws itself about and at last rolls the prince onto his back. But the prince will not yield.
\tTo this day the wolf and the sea still do battle, whenever a storm dawns and the sky turns black, that is Gideon trying to stand up, and the Deep pulling him back down.”
\tMoon is mostly asleep as the story comes to a close, she meekly whispers as she places one arm and one lag around her brother “you can tell me in the morning what the horse maiden did to make the sea mad.”
\tSun tucks one hand under her tail to hold Moon to his side “yeah I can.”
***
At day-brake drums pound, Awai’s escorts approach the main gate, a dozen old monks walking between them.  With the monks inside the doors to the throne room close, the doors would not reopen for months.
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