Oulan made her way carefully through the Wind Cave, carrying the Star Dragon Sword in her hands. {I feel better this way than with him on my back,} she thought as she shoved one last boulder in place to block the incessant wind vents. Marching on, she fought off those few monsters that dared to challenge her and made her way to the final chamber, where the Star
Dragon Sword had once rested.

{For some reason I wouldn't be surprised to find Pesmerga here,} she mused idly as she entered. {The place seems to suit him. Of course, it could be said to suit Sier too,} she thought with a pang of melancholy for her lost sister-in-spirit. {The darkness of the cave, the opening nicely angled to let in moonlight. Dammit, Sier, why'd you have to let-}

"Aha! I sense your anger growing towards the vampires again! Now I understand your purpouse in coming here, servant - to prepare yourself for the task ahead, finding and slaying both vampires! I commend you!"

Hearing the Star Dragon Sword again made Oulan's eyebrow twitch. "Not that my anger's only for them, old man. *Now* I understand something."

"Ah, a perceptive servant at last! What is this insight?" the sword orated.

"Now I understand why Viktor left you here, you venomous old killer."

And with that, Oulan drove the sword back into the cleft that she'd drawn it from, slightly deeper than it had been.

"WHAT!?!? What are you doing, servant?"

"Exactly what Viktor did. I'd rather trust to mortal steel and skill than be forced to rely on a hateful old being whose only purpose is death. Have a nice rest, old man."

"Have you taken leave of your sanity!? I command you to pick me back up this instant!! Stop! Don't you turn away from me, mortal-"

Spinning in place, Oulan put such a fierce glare on the sword that it actually shut up for a moment. "You talk as if you're so superior to us - that being a sword gives you the right to order us around. Well, Sier realized what was wrong with that - why can't you? Or is there something of the Tribe of the Moon that is beyond the power of the Night Rune after all?"

Deciding against retracing her path, Oulan stalked past the stuck sword and out the exit behind it, climbing down the cliffside to near the original entrance.

"You were right, Dag. There she is," the robed man stated matter-of-factly.

"Hmph. She's got too much of an attitude herself to put up with that thing for long," Dag replied, rubbing his recently-healed neck.

"You would fare no better," the robed man reminded him. "Now prepare yourself. I wish to meet her at dusk."

The two began to climb down from the ledge where they had been watching the Cave of Wind.

Oulan paused in her old routine of setting up camp. {I don't need this,} she thought in exasperation. Someone had been following her for most of an hour, and was now hovering around the edges of her perception as she laid the campfire. {Whoever they are, they're good,} the bodyguard thought to herself. {The main question is, why are they following me around?}

A sudden crackle came as Oulan managed to get the fire going. {Okay, let's invite whatever is going to happen,} Oulan thought. Skewering a piece of seasoned meat on her travel knife, she began to cook it in the fire, squatting beside the small blaze and giving every indication that she was absorbed in her task.

Even keyed up for trouble, her only warning was the whisper of cloth rubbing together and the ghost of a breath behind her.

Exploding out of her crouch, Oulan's squatting posture became the balance point for a spinning back kick levelled at her stalker. He whipped one hand up to parry it, revealing a knuckleguard much like her own Iron Fists.

As her foot hit the upraised arm, every muscle in Oulan's body snapped in the other direction, turning her in a complete spin and changing her spinning back kick into a front circle-kick. Caught unprepared, the stalker had no time to block with the other arm and had to lean back hard, robe flapping with the speed of both attack and reaction.

Oulan's kick didn't quite connect, but it came close enough that the wind of its motion blew back the hood of the robe. The face within had the features common to some Harmonian families (think Japanese, folks) and his black hair was tied in a topknot - and he was quite familiar to Oulan, even though she hadn't seen him for years.

"Master Zorin!! You were testing me, weren't you?" Oulan demanded, then broke into a grin. "So what brings you here?" she asked.

The frowning face never softened. "I am hunting someone, Oulan, and I require your assistance. You will come with me to the mountains in the morning."

Oulan shivered briefly - the old *dojo* habits of obeying Master Zorin without question were hard to shake. "Master - *who* are we hunting, and why?"

Her only answer was a black glare, then Zorin turned back to the fire. Oulan found that she actually had to muster up her courage to try again. {This is ridiculous,} she thought to herself. {I'm not the raw child who came to that *dojo* in Rockaxe to learn to fight - I've faced men, monsters, and assassins without flinching. I shouldn't be frightened of just a glare- no matter *who's* throwing it!}

Trying a more diplomatic tack, Oulan asked, "Master.. forgive my presumption, but my code demands that I *know* what I am doing, and why, so that I don't do wrong unknowingly. Please tell me - what is this mission?"

Zorin glared at her again, and she flinched - but then hauled her eyes back around to his and kept them there. {I won't back down on this,} she thought, {even if it *does* feel like staring Death in the face...}

Finally, Zorin looked away and gave a brief nod and an approving grunt. "You've put some steel in your spine since you left Rockaxe, my student," he commented, neither approving nor condemning with his tone. "Very well, I shall tell you. We go to hunt a murderess and bring her to the justice of one she herself has hunted."

A few months ago, Oulan might have accepted this at face value: but her time with Sierra, doing exactly what this 'murderess' was said to have done, and for the best of reasons, made her wary. "Master - some who hunt have good reason for doing so. I must know more."

Again the black glare fastened on her, and again the contest of wills ensued. Oulan shuddered. {I never noticed how *cold* his eyes were back in Rockaxe,} she noted as she fought to keep from looking away.

Then, she saw something *past* her old Master. The hint of a face, back in the bushes... hair as black as Zorin's gaze...

...and a nose bent over to one side.

Action came instantly with recognition. "DAG! Damn you!" she howled, lunging for the bush, and her old nemesis scrambled backwards out of it, trying desperately to reach a defensive posture before the furious woman reached him. Gathering speed, Oulan passed Master Zorin-

-and went for a sidelong tumble as he stuck out one leg and shoved her with one arm, turning her rush into a leftward tumble. Vaulting back up to her feet, Oulan protested, "Master, NO! Look out! Dag's become a hired killer since he left you!" She moved to charge again-

-and halted, almost against her will and definitely against her better judgement, as Master Zorin held up one hand and stated sharply, "Break!"

The old *dojo* command to halt combat still ringing in her ears, Oulan tried again to explain. "NO! Master, don't let him near you! He was working for the *Neclord* not two days ago - he'll kill you if you give him the chance!"

Standing well back, Dag taunted from behind Zorin. "Don't you get it, oh pure-hearted Oulan? I'm *still* working for Neclord - and so is our Master - and now, so are you!"

"What??" Oulan gasped, looking to her old master for some refutation.

There was none, however.

"It's quite true, Oulan," Zorin stated matter-of-factly. "Variev - the one you call the Neclord - brought me to his castle to heal Dag's wounds. In so doing he earned a favour from me. He stated that favour should be returned by bringing him Sierra and ensuring that *you* do not trouble him anymore. You and Dag are responsible for my owing him this favour, so the two of you will help me repay it - and I will keep the second part of the bargain with Variev by reclaiming my protege," and for the first time that night, he smiled at Oulan, a grin so full of congratulations that she was hard pressed to keep from smiling back, "to my side, where I can be certain that she will not bother him again during my lifetime."

"*Busakeruna!* (Stop messing around!) You can't honestly believe I'll help you hunt Sierra!!" Oulan yelled in denial.

Zorin glared at her, this time with genuine anger behind his eyes. "Soro-soro shin no tatakai yo? (Shall we fight seriously then?)" he asked - a question from *dojo* days when a student questioned him too much. The child in question was usually lucky to walk properly for the next few days. The childhood fear slithering down Oulan's spine paid no attention to her self-admonition that she was *much* better now than she was then.

Gathering up her courage, Oulan squinched her eyes shut and shook her head violently. "NO! I won't fall for this! I refuse to help you hunt her, and I will not be drawn into a battle here." Standing up, she snatched up her pack and turned to depart.

Zorin's voice snaked into her ears from behind, all softness and appeal. "My protege is abandoning me then? You know how skilled your friend is, Oulan. I could die... Your *sensei* could die.."

Oulan shuddered to a stop, then turned her head fractionally. "What you are doing is... *wrong,* Master. Anything that happens to you..." Oulan paused for a moment as her throat closed up at the thought of her *Sensei-* her last parent figure- dying ran through her mind. Finally, she began again. "...is on your own head. Oh, and Dag needs more training - he still wastes way too much motion." She took another step out of the clearing, and another.

Zorin's voice rang out again, all friendliness leached from it this time. "So you still have that stubborn streak. So be it, Oulan of Rockaxe. Tell me though, do you know *why* you were my prize of all those students?"

Oulan stopped again, nostalgia and pride tugging at her. "I learned fast," she replied.

"In more ways than one, little killer," Zorin said, lightly taunting her with his tone. Oulan's next step died stillborn as she began to turn her head to look at her Master.

"What?" she breathed. Zorin... smiled.

"I'm not just a wandering fighter, Oulan. I work for the Temple of the Silver Moon in Harmonia, and the purpose of my training *dojos* was to recruit agents and fighters for us - at a very young age."

"No.." she whispered, but Zorin hardly paused.

"In each town, each city, I stopped and trained the youth who would come. Rockaxe was quite promising, really - but only two stood out, from my point of view. Dag, I had my eye on from the beginning - disappointed, violent, angry - he fell into line readily. You, however, were my prize. A young girl raised according to those tiresome Matildan morals, who much to my
surprise turned out to have such a talent for the fighting arts she might have had Harmonian blood in her."

"Stop it. Shut up," she murmured at him, but the words kept coming.

"By the end of one short season, the girl had not only gotten a firm enough grounding into Silver Moon martial arts that she could fight apprentices twice her age, but I had reshaped her morals from Matildan prudishness and knightly honour into someone who would kill, without remorse, whenever the right provocation arose. Once that was accomplished, her slide into killing would simply be a matter of time. I'm only sorry someone got to you with that silly bodyguard idea before I could reach Rockaxe. That fool Gorudo gave me the perfect opportunity to recruit you into the temple - I was just too far away to
capitalize on it. Oh well - no use crying over spilled milk," Zorin finished.

By now, Oulan was literally shaking with rage. {My childhood - he took it away... he... HE...}

"DAMN YOU!!!!" she screamed as she dropped the pack and whirled to charge at her Master/the man who stole her
innocence.

He was six steps away.

Her free foot hit the ground and drove her forward as Zorin began to raise his right arm.

Five steps.

Her right leg rose and fell, pumping her farther forward, and her Angry Dragon Rune ignited, energy and flame playing over her entire body.

Four steps.

As her left leg came down for the second time, Zorin's arm came up, two fingers pointing at her.

Three steps.

Her right leg pumped again, her hads extending to grasp his throat.

Two steps.

A Rune image appeared over his outstretched hand - the character that resembled a scythe.

"Deadly Fingertips," his bass voice intoned, and the world flashed black-and-white to Oulan's eyes. Her body quit responding, went utterly limp, and the whites in her monochrome vision began to dim. Her body crashed to the ground in a tangle of limbs as her Rune guttered out. She was left staring at a rapidly darkening patch of leaves over her head as Dag and Zorin's voices
echoed in her mind.

"But Master - with her dead, how will we find the vampiress?"

"Patience, boy. By your tale of how Variev spoke of them, they're bonded. The vampiress will have felt her die - may even have caught a glimpse of us through her eyes. She'll come here - and we will be ready."

{No... again... he did it to me again...} Oulan thought as her vision went dark and the voices faded out. {He used me... that's all I ever was to him.. a thing to be used and discarded...}

Her eyes closed.

A moment later, they opened again, staring from above at a black-and-white Rockaxe. The building Zorin had used for his dojo was right below her. {They made it into an item shop later, I think,} she thought fuzzily. {But how did I get here from-}

The door opened, and a line of children came out - one of whom was in colour, and had red hair. The redheaded girl was the last one out, and she and the boy in front of her - whose nose was crooked - both bowed and chorused, "Thank you, Master Zorin. It was a wonderful lesson!"

Oulan tried to jump back in astonishment, but she - or her viewpoint, perhaps - would not move. {Th-that's ME! Me and Dag!} she realized.

Meanwhile, Young Oulan turned to Young Dag and bowed her head contritely. "I'm sorry, Dag - I dinnit' mean to bust you one!"

Young Dag began to reply, but a roar of "OULAN!!" emerged from the dojo, and the boy cast one apprehensive look inside before scampering off in fear.

Young Oulan slumped despondently, and walked back inside the dojo. Suddenly, Oulan's viewpoint moved - rushing down to the doorway, where she could see a much younger Zorin scowling at Oulan. "Oulan! What is the first lesson of our school?"

"Do what you have to to win," Young Oulan recited, and Oulan mouthed it along with her. {This is so familiar, but I never remembered it clearly,} Oulan thought. {It was so long ago.}

Zorin continued. "So is there anything to apologize for in what you did, if you're *supposed* to do that?"

Young Oulan bit her fingertip in concentration. "Mmmmm... I guess not."

"And why did you do it?"

"'Cause he got me mad," Young Oulan replied.

"And if he got you angry, whose fault is it?"

"Ummm... His?"

"Exactly," Zorin concluded with a smile on his face. "So is there anything to apologize for at all?"

"I guess not..."

"Excellent," Zorin smiled down at her. "Don't worry about it, Oulan. Sensei knows best."

"Hai. Sensei knows best," Young Oulan repeated. "C'n I go now?"

Zorin nodded, and the redheaded girl skipped out of the dojo, unaware of the smirk on Zorin's face.

The older Oulan could see it, however, and it made her ill. {How much of who I am today is because of this bastard?} she wondered.

Then everything changed.

More and more images flashed before Oulan - all from her childhood and young adolescence. {My life is flashing before my eyes,} Oulan realized. With a small sigh, she mused, {I'm dying.}

~Yes... and no.~ a Voice replied.

"Wha? Who's there?" Oulan called out into the grayness from which she was observing her life.

~Someone you know. Watch, and you'll remember.~

The Voice was vaguely male, which ruled out Sierra, and she was the only one Oulan knew who could talk without speaking. {So who in the world-}

She cut off midthought as she looked outward, and realized that the scene there had reached perhaps the worst point in her life.

The young Oulan, now sixteen, and her parents were walking down the street together in a warm summer evening in Rockaxe, her father carrying the odd Harmonian sword, the *katana,* that he was so expert with. Their surprise was total when a man swaddled in gray cloth leaped out at her father, wielding two long knives. Suddenly, Oulan was sucked into her younger
self, and went from viewing the moment to living it.

Oulan and her mother had run around the corner, then come back to watch from hiding.

The fight wasn't going well. At the beginning, Father had done one of his draw-cuts at the assassin - what he called an *iaijutsu* - but hadn't hit the man, and he was tiring fast. Far faster than he should have been, in fact.

[Oulan's mind skewed for a moment as her later experience gave her the answer. {The assassin had Poison Runes on his blades,} Oulan realized.]

Even as Oulan watched, Father stumbled before the assassin's lunge, and the man crowed in triumph as he kicked the sword away.

There was a shriek from behind Oulan. As she turned to see-

[{I know what's coming,} present Oulan thought, full of horror]

-Mother leapt out from beside her, throwing herself between the killer and Father. "Mother, NO!!" Oulan yelled, grabbing at her parent too late.

The assassin never hesitated, plunging one knife into Mother's throat and the other into Father's eye. Involuntarily, Oulan screamed.

The assassin looked up, and saw her. Oulan should have been frightened. This man had just killed the finest swordsman she'd ever known.

She wasn't. She was, in fact, so angry she felt as if she were on fire. "I may die," she gritted out through grinding teeth, "but I'll drag you to HELL with me, you ANIMAL!!"

She and the assassin took their first steps towards each other - and the world seemed to come to a halt. ~I feel you...~ a voice stated inside Oulan's head.

**Wha?** she answered back. No time seemed to be passing.

~You have the rage of the Dragon in your soul. Do you wish the power, the Rune to match?~

**Shut up! I want to kill this bastard! And the Dragon Rune is with the Dragon Knights of Scarlet Moon anyway!**

~Not all of it. Once the Dragon Rune was whole, but it was divided when the dragons joined the humans. Joshua's Dragon Rune symbolizes the fellowship of human and dragon. The remainder was cast away, without a wielder - for it is the symbol of the wild, untamed power and fury of the dragon, and the Dragon Knights could not abide it. But you... you hold the rage of a
Dragon in your soul. Wield me, child - vanquish your enemy with the unbridled power of a Dragon!~

It only took Oulan a second to decide. **YES!!**

Time started up again - and the memories of the moment outside of time flitted out of Oulan's mind even as her
bare fists flared red.

As Younger Oulan continued her lunge at the assassin, Oulan herself was left behind, and she stood stunned. "A.. True Rune. You're a True Rune? A fragment of one, like Genkaku's Bright Shield Rune?"

~Yes. I am the part of the ancient Dragon Rune symbolizing wildness, anger, freedom - not part of most Dragons today, so I am weak. But I remain part of a True Rune. Had you not noticed, child - though more than ten years have passed since that day, the only changes to your body have been wrought by you yourself, not age?~

As the Voice - The Angry Dragon - spoke, the scene from the past faded away, leaving only a gray mist around Oulan. {It's true,} she realized. {I'm better built, broader - but that's becuase I've been training. My face is more worn, but from weather, not age. It's really true!}

"...why now?" she asked. "Why reveal yourself now?"

~You were struck by the spell of death. As holder of a True Rune, your spirit cannot be so readily broken from your body - not without killing the body first - but were you not convinced that you could live, you could have floated in this limbo forever. I have had enough of that for myself, thank you.~

Bitterly, Oulan laughed. "I have to agree. And I thank you."

~No, I thank you, child,~ her Rune replied. ~I will be silent hereafter unless spoken to, but you and your anger pulled me from the abyss. I merely return the favour here.~

And Oulan woke up.

As she opened her eyes, memory flooded through her. {God, I was so naive,} Oulan thought, seeing in her mind's eye all the little tricks Zorin had used on her while teaching her. {Good thing I never did talk Alexandra into coming. Or that other girl - what was her name, Maddie? Madeline?}

For a while, she simply laid there, trying not to retch at old memories made clear. {'Sensei knows best,' 'It was a wonderful lesson' - whether it *was* or not - he had dozens of little tricks to keep us obedient, didn't he? And he seldom wasted an opportunity to badmouth the local government - no doubt to lay the seeds of disloyalty in his future recruits. What a sick monster, doing that to kids so young!}

Sitting up, she reached back and gathered her pack to her, then stood. {Nevertheless, we have unfinished business.}

Zorin sat back in the campsite he and Dag had set up. The location was ideal - in the back of a shallow cave, unreachable from the air, the vampiress would have to approach them on the ground, where they were more than capable of defeating her. Dag was standing guard at the cave mouth while Zorin toasted some dried meat over the fire on a travel knife.

{I doubt the vampiress will come tonight,} Zorin thought, {but better safe than sorry. Dag has his instructions - if the vampiress comes, he's simply to retreat inside the cave and allow the two of us to engage her.} With both of them battering her, it would
be fairly simple to subdue her and keep her there until Zorin could use his Wind Rune, on his left hand, to cast Wind of Sleep on her, after which the two fighters could simply carry her back to North Window. {And if Sierra uses her Rune on Dag,} Zorin reasoned, looking at the Darkness Rune on his right hand, {I can simply do likewise to her from here.} Still, he was uneasy. Something was wrong this night, and he wasn't sure what.

Suddenly, a voice rang out across the clearing and into the cave.

"Dag is a bootlicker! Dag is a bootlicker!"

Impossibly, the voice seemed to be Oulan's. {But she's dead,} Zorin thought in shock. Dag wasted no time in responding to what Zorin recognized as an old childhood insult - one Oulan had used to great affect on Dag in their younger days. The younger man charged at a dimly visible silhouette standing in a bush at the edge of the clearing. As Dag closed to within three steps, the figure moved, shifting its weight - and the end of a branch rose up out of the bush as the figure stood on its far end.

It connected on Dag, significantly *below* the belt, and he folded in half from the pain. The figure took one step forward, bringing one hand down on Dag's head, and he collapsed. The figure walked forward another three steps, revealing red hair, a tall feminine build, and twin knuckleguards of dull metal.

{It *is* Oulan! But how-} Zorin wondered, only to be cut off by a sharp quote.

"Soro-soro shin no tatakai yo, *sensei?*" Oulan asked.

Oulan stood at the edge of the clearing, relishing the look of surprise on Zorin's face. {About time *I* shocked *him,*} she thought with satisfaction. It had been difficult setting up the trap for Dag, but the result was well worth it. Zorin, still in his travel
cloak just as Oulan was, stood up and stepped past the fire and out into the moonlight.

"How did you survive?" he asked, his face settling back into his usual composed expression. "I felt the spell strike you."

"Spirit and body are one," she taunted back, parroting one of his old *dojo* phrases back to him. "It'll take more than a normal Rune to kill me that way. If you're going to try *that* again, go get the Soul Eater first." {And good luck trying,} she thought
sarcastically. {McDohl may have run out on us, but he's a master in his own right to beat Sier cleanly the way he did.}

Zorin nodded quietly. "I see," he replied. "You clearly have more potential than I even guessed, to shrug off the affects that way. It would be a sad waste to kill you, my protege. I ask again - won't you join me?" As he finished, he looked up at her with sincere appeal in his eyes.

Oulan snorted. "Hardly," she answered. "Thanks to the spell you hit me with, my life flashed before me, Zorin-"

"*Master* Zorin!" he interrupted. She ignored him.

"-Zorin.. and I remember it all now. How much you molded me in the few months you were in Rockaxe. How horridly you manipulated us all. I can't forgive that, Zorin." Oulan, having finished, raised her head so her stare at her former master was unobstructed by her hair.

A wind began to blow through the clearing as Zorin nodded. "I see. Then there's really nothing more to say, is there?" he asked, slipping off his cloak to reveal the *gi* beneath - a Thunder God Garb. Oulan likewise removed her cloak to expose her own garb - a version of Rokkaku gear that armourers called a Ninja Suit. Both of them let their cloaks flap as the wind tugged at them, then released them at the same moment; as the wind carried them away, their owners charged.

For all her anger at her former master, Oulan knew better than to forsake defence in the opening exchange. The two martial artists met in the middle of the clearing, limbs flying in a blur of motion. Thighs deflected knees and kicks, forearms parried elbows, and palms guided fists and chops wide of their targets. For a few brief seconds, it was a classic fight of Silver Moon-style martial arts.

Oulan, beginning to lose ground, was the first to mix up her offence. Parrying a punch with one hand while drawing away Zorin's other hand with a chop, she took one step in - moving inside the arc of Zorin's developing kick on the way - and snapped her head forward, her forehead (and the Circuret adorning it) crashing into Zorin's temple. He staggered back a step,
and she rushed in to press her advantage, lashing out with her right fist.

He snatched it out of the air, and twisted it violently enough to send her tumbling around the fulcrum he'd used her arm as. She hit the ground flat on her back, but she knew throws as well, and she twisted her body away from him, hard enough to turn over - and drag him around on the end of the arm that he hadn't let go of.

He released her wrist as he flew over her: she used the roll's motion to keep flipping and regain her feet, while his freed arms reached out forward, turning a bad fall into a neat tuck-and-roll. Still, for all the skill of the maneuver, it had one flaw: when he rolled to his feet again, he was facing away from Oulan.

She charged again, but obliquely, leaping toward a tree on her right and literally rebounding off it to come at him with a flying kick: he got his head around in time to see what was coming, and dropped back to the ground, narrowly avoiding the strike.

Oulan landed from the kick, and now their positions were reversed: *she* was facing away from *him.* Not waiting to find out what he was doing, she dropped into a tuck-and-roll much like Zorin's a moment ago, turning as she did so the roll took her off to one side, and she sprang to the other side as she came out of the roll. Not hearing any imminent pursuit, she whirled to look back at Zorin.

He had his left hand raised and aimed at her. He pronounced her doom with two simple words:

"The Shredding."

The Wind Rune on his hand flashed, and two tornadoes sprang into being on either side of Oulan. For a few agonizingly long seconds, she hung in midair as the whirlwinds lifted her off the ground between them, spun her dizzyingly, abraded and battered he with debris, and finally nearly pulled her apart when they went spinning off in opposite directions.

Tumbling to the ground, she got to all fours and raised her head, stubbornly tracking her foe. Zorin stood a good twelve paces from her, facing her with an upraised left arm and a small smile calculated to infuriate her. "I've never had the chance to ask this of a former student before," he said conversationally, "so I'll take the chance while I have it. How does it feel, Oulan, to know that the man who took your formative years from you, who took your family from you, will now take your life away from you?"

Oulan's world turned upside-down for a moment, and she asked in a shaky voice, "Took my family?"

Zorin's grin never changed. "You never guessed? The assassin who killed your father was Harmonian, Oulan. *I* provided the information that sent him on his way, once I returned to the temple for a while and verified in the records that your father was the man who escaped the temple years ago. I had to visit the other City-States first, of course, but..."

He was plainly waiting for her to charge - and Oulan had learned from experience that six paces, much less twelve, was enough for him to trigger his Rune before she could reach him. He had her.

{But he killed my parents...} she grated in her mind, her left fist coming up and clenching, leaving her perched, like a runner, on one arm and two legs. {He killed *my..*}

Rage, pure and unsullied, was rising inside her. The man responsible for the deaths of her parents was standing in front of her, and there was *nothing* she could do about it... {He.. *killed....*}

{HE!!!!!}

Her head snapped up to glare at Zorin, and her mouth opened as if to emit a shriek of pure rage.

What emerged, however, was not sound.

It was flame.

The Angry Dragon sigil glowed above her head as she vomited a torrent of flame out of her mouth at her suddenly horrified foe. Zorin had time to yell and cover his face with his hands before the fire obscured him from view. Her feet and hand skidded slightly until she planted them firmly on the ground and halted her motion, reacting more out of instinct than thought.
For five, ten, fifteen seconds, the fire roared forth... then stopped.

Oulan coughed, clearing some leftover smoke from her lungs, and directed her thoughts to her Rune. {{Hey, did you do that?}} she asked silently.

~No, you did,~ the Angry Dragon replied. ~I told you years ago, your anger allows you to draw upon the strengths of a Dragon. Physical power is one of those: fire is another.~

{{Ah,}} Oulan replied, then turned her attention out to where her master-cum-foe had been standing.

He knelt there, coughing weakly, in the center of a cone of scorched earth starting just in front of her. His flesh was red and raw, and his Thunder God Garb was largely burned away. Oulan rose and walked over to him, grabbing him by his topknot and hauling him up. He opened his eyes and stared dimly at her.

"I reject your ways, Master Zorin of the Silver Moon," she began. "That being the case, I won't kill you - it would be unnecessary, even given what you've done to me. But now - now that I know everything," she choked on remembered grief, "I will be wondering, whenever I think about myself, what I would be today had you not dragged my life towards your path. I'll remember you every time I look into a mirror. It's only fair that you should have to do the same." She looked down at him,
idly wondering where the great sword-scar across his chest had come from, and then brought her left fist across in a blurred motion.

*CRACK* went Zorin's nose, folding over to one side. Oulan reached into her pouch - by some miracle, the tornadoes hadn't torn it away - and brought out a small dose of Medicine, which she applied to the broken feature, pressing one thumb across it to keep it bent. Moments later, it had healed crooked - and would likely remain so for the rest of Zorin's life.

"You were so proud of me doing that to Dag - let's see how you like it," she stated as she walked out of the clearing, snagging her travel cloak on the way, leaving Zorin groaning on the ground.

The next morning found her out on the South Window plain, watching the sun rise. {Now my old life really is over,} she thought. {Time to start on a new one. I'll keep bodyguarding, though - those who are strong have a responsibility to protect those who need it.} A brief pause. {So where to today, Oulan?}

A moment later, she answered her own question. {I think I'll head for Muse. I can check in with my 'friends' there, see Annabelle.. and get news about the peace treaty, or lack thereof. Yeah, Muse it is. So now, to Kuskus, to catch a ship!}