The palace was dark, and lanterns flickered in the hallways as if afraid to shed their light.

It had been too long since the sun had risen over its gold and green banners, too long since the shadow of night had been driven back. Toshiken's footsteps echoed hollowly as he paced the hallway, sending back his guards as he had been bid.

Toturi called for him, and the Emerald Champion obeyed his command.

The throne room was dark, unnatural shadows playing in every corner. Nothing shone here, no lantern flickered save the faint light of the Jade Throne, and the small candles that rested in brackets on the tall wooden beams that held the ceiling aloft. The room was empty...empty save for one man.

On his throne, his head lowered in dark thoughts, the Emperor waits.

Three steps, and a swift bow, then Toshiken knelt before the dark Lord on his throne of jade. "Your will, master." His voice seemed too loud, unmuffled by the whispers of courtiers and the flutter of fans. The court was gone, freed from the day's politic. They were alone. Toturi rolled a steel ball as large as a man's fist from side to side, smiling at its smoothness.

"Night, Toshiken-san," the Emperor smiled faintly. "Night has come."

"Hai, Toturi-sama. Night. It is time to rest. Your guards..."

"No guards." Toturi's hand waved idly. "No guards, Emerald Champion. I wish to speak to only you."

"As you wish Master."

Toturi leaned back into his throne, running his hands along the carved lions that snarled beneath the arms of the chair. "The courtiers, they whisper. They whisper...and they murmur, and they talk. You, Toshiken. You are a man of action. Tell me...tell me about these Mantis, and their war."

"The...?" Toshiken stumbled over the words, surprised. "Yes, Toturi-sama.

The Mantis war on the Asako lands. They take the land with armies, but they do not kill. They bring food from their islands, feeding the starving peasants as they seize the land. Yoritomo's men do it...because the heimin are dying. The Phoenix do not have the samurai to attend to their holdings."

"And the Phoenix?" Toturi asked quietly.

"They fight for lands they have held more than a thousand years, my lord. It is their duty - though they do not have the men to hold the palaces, they will continue their war. A word from you could stop this. If you choose..."

"Enough, Toshiken," the Emperor interrupted. "Yoshi...told me another tale of this war. One that has the Mantis to be butchers, pillaging and destroying the Asako. Ruining the land. Should I believe you, or him? One tells me the truth and the other lies. One must die and one must live. But you are a samurai. You will die with honor, and that will not bring me silence. I am so tired of the arguments..." Toturi frowned. "You will stop all the talking. All the whispering, all the petty bickering - I grow tired of it. I do not wish to be reminded of it any more. They are like children; their voices are nothing more than whispers in the dark, after the night has fallen. They will not rest, will not sleep. They will not let me be...in silence."

"The children will not stop their whispering..." The last was said lower, almost covered by the tinkling of the silvery ball. "Do you have a family, Toshiken-sama?"

"Hai...a son, and a daughter." Ishiko was five, her brother seven. They were the light of Toshiken's world.

"Do they whisper to you in your sleep?"

Chills raced through Toshiken's spine. "Yes, Lord."

"The courtiers beg me to stop this war, like children, complaining." The steel ball fell idly from hand to hand as Toturi spoke. "So I will stop it. I will stop all metnion of it. The children must die. Do you understand me?"

"Hai, Toturi-sama."

"Now," the Emperor leaned forward in his chair, leveling his eyes with those of his Champion. "Whose children will die, Toshiken. Yours...or mine?"

The silvered ball rolled to the edge of the Emperor's fingertips, falling slowly to the ground. When it landed upon the hard floor of the Imperial throne room, it shattered into a hundred silvery shards; their glimmer lost in the darkness of the shadow that surrounded the throne.

Blood stained the courtyard, spread in scarlet waves down the palace hallways, scattered in droplets across the shoji screens of chambers that belonged to the Imperial Court. When he was finished, Toshiken once more entered the throne room of the Emperor.

"They...are silent, my lord." Though he fought to control it, Toshiken's proud voice shook with refret and pain. "There will be no more whispering."

"Yes, Toshiken. Now, there will be silence. You have my thanks for bringing me silence. Now I will aid you. Let me show you my gratitude."

Kneeling on either side of Toturi's throne were two small forms dressed in the brown and gold of the Seppun. Their kimono were too large for them, their tiny hands pulled deep within voluminous sleeves.

"Ishiko? Sajiro?" Toshiken stepped toward his children and opened his arms.

When they looked up at him, their featureless faces were smooth as glass.

"Give in, Yoritomo," The First Goju hissed, shadow spreading from his hands and surrounding the island warrior. "Even the storm must kneel to something, and the choice is yours. We know that Hitomi has told you that you will die at the hands of your son. We, too, have seen this. It is inevitable. He is a traitor, a Scorpion, with no reason to care about you or your clan. He only served you to further his own revenge. All you have to do is to bend your knee, and you can live forever...our power can be yours." For an instant, Aramasu saw his father's eyes close. "Give us your name..."

Then, the warror's eyes opened...and Yoritomo laughed. "You may take my soul or pride, but you will never take my name. Ten thousand men hold my name for me. A hundred thousand peasants, and the islands of the Mantis have already taken my name. If you want it, you will have to find us all.

"You cannot steal my name. I have already given it away."

Snarling, the Shadow withdrew. "Kneel!" Goju slashed once, open-handed, and his touch burned away the might warrior's armor, sizzling with black flame into the flesh beneath. Yoritomo stood resolutely, though his own blood pooled at his feet. The kami struck again, tearing open Yoritomo's eyes and blinding him. Tears of blood streamed down Yoritomo's cheeks, but he did not move. The Shadow struck a third time.

Aramasu screamed, but he could not hear his own voice above Goju's laughter. He saw Yoritomo fall. Aramasu leapt toward them as the Goju vanished into shadow, falling to his knees bt the Mantis Lord's side.

Clasping the youth's hand and pressing his two great kama into Aramasu's palm, the mighty General said stoically, "You will need these. You must lead the Mantis now. I have another duty - one you must help me fulfill."

"Remember this, even if the Shadow takes you. You are Yoritomo Aramasu. You will always be my son."

"Fortunes," Aramasu bent his head, unable to fulfill his father's last request. Then, with the strength of a true son of Kaimetsu-uo, Aramasu raised the kama and ended Yoritomo's life.

"I will remember..."

Goju laughed from the heavens, seeing the flames roar across Jigoku's fields. Spirits burned and withered, and with their deaths, cities and families in the Jade Empire begain to crumble into nothingness. "Give up, samurai," he shouted. "Your time has ended!"

"No, Goju," a voice from the gate called. In the archway, a tremendous man with glowing eyes stood, lifting his hands to either side of the arch. "For a thousand years, I have done my duty to the land. I have held open the arch to Jigoku, and I have guarded the spirits of this land. No more."

"It is time for the arch to fall."

Ryoshun, the tenth kami, pulled to either side of the massive stone gateway, and began to pull.

As he did, an army of glowing spirits flooded through the gateway, passing through the kami's immortal spirit and rushing toward the last fragments of the allied armies of the Jade Throne.

Others stood on the far side of Oblivion's arch, destroying the Shadow that had invaded Jigoku. This army was led by Yoritomo, charging in with the lost Thunders, Doji Hoturi and Isawa Tadaka. The mighty Mantis raised his weapons and shouted, and all of the underworld shook with storms. The Shadow began to retreat.

From the arch, an army came, charging out into Volturnum's heart. Among them, Matsu Agetoki, pride of the Lion; Hida Sukune, brother of the Sun; the gentle Kakita Yoshi; brave Iuchi Daiyu; Hasame, the ronin; the Master of Water, Isawa Tomo; Bayushi Aramoro and an army of Scorpion, dead in the sands of the Far West, arose to fight for the Empire during its time of greatest need. They stormed from the underworld, prepared to fight the Shadow. And at their head, riding a charger as pale as the Sun, rode Toturi, Emperor of the Jade Throne, Master of the Chrysanthemum, Sovereign of Otosan Uchi and the Seven Hills.

With him came an army of spirits, flowing as golden as the sun, to seize the Empire's final hope before it was too late.

A samurai can die a thousand deaths.

An Empire can die but one.