Kaoya Zun Temple, Beibacah 6, 1382 CC

It was a quiet, calm, beautiful day befitting of the day of the Harvest Ceremony. Emperor Angsiyan approached the temple with confidence; it was just like last year, and the year before that. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Behind him, his bodyguard stood silent. To the casual eye, he appeared relaxed. Calm. Alert. The perfect bodyguard.

Slowly they approached the top of the temple. Angsiyan and his retinue knelt in prayer, but the bodyguard had other ideas...

Without warning he slew his emperor. The Ritualists all tried to flee in fear, but only one escaped. She too, was soon silenced.

He returned to the temple and knelt, reflecting. Waiting. He knew the nearby Luxons and Kurzicks would soon come to avenge their ruler. He was not disappointed.

The doors were kicked down, revealing the Luxon champion Archemorus, and the Kurzick champion Viktor, along with their accompanying guards. The bodyguard stood and turned to face them, daring them to approach him.

The order was given. The two factions attacked, but only the two champions survived the initial assault. He was just too much for the average guards to handle. And with his skill, there was no way the two of them alone would survive much longer.

But as he approached, a young Assassin shadowstepped into the temple and, with the element of surprise, crippled the bodyguard. Injured and in pain, he dropped his blades and turned to face the girl, eye filled with anger and hatred.

The two champions used this opportunity to slay the betrayer. With his last breath, he let out a cry of anguish, and the Jade Wind was born. Kaoya Zun Temple sank into the sea. The water was turned to jade, and the forest to stone...

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Tomaat Pass, Zalfawn 20, 1582 CC

Lani tugged her heavy coat tighter around herself as she finally reached the bridge in Tomaat Pass. Even for mid-Zalfawn, the mountains were still cold and snow-covered. Behind her, a Monk huffed and panted as she collapsed onto the dry wood of the bridge. "Why would the plants have to be all the way out here?" the girl complained.

"It is pretty far." Lani agreed. "But we're almost done. See, the nong bush is right there, and the Seijun Woods aren't much further. We can be back in time for supper."

The Monk gave her a weary look, but said nothing. Her Pyromancer companion was one of the most energetic, physically fit people she'd ever met. Though a spellcaster now, Lani had originally trained to be a Warrior. Some lessons were just never forgotten. Taya briefly wondered if Lani would be up to carrying her back to the Monastery.

Lani finished picking the nong berries and stashed them away in her belt pouch. "Tai ling buds, right?" she asked. Taya nodded wordlessly, still trying to catch her breath. "All right. Come on, you should at least get down off the mountain. That yeti might be back any moment." The Monk nodded and got back to her feet, following her companion down the trail to the woods. The only creatures there were the mantids, and they were harmless when left alone. Lani left Taya at the edge of the woods to rest while she ventured in alone to find the tai ling vines.

The Monk Headmaster, Amara, had approached the two girls the evening before with the request for the items they now sought. She spoke of how a plague was coming to the island, a terrible sickness that would turn even the meek into raging monsters that would kill anything they saw. She planned to use the berries and buds to form an antidote for this strange disease. Taya had skipped supper that night, feeling somewhat ill after that. "Headmaster Amara is never wrong," she explained. "I don't even want to imagine the kind of chaos this plague will bring... I can only hope it stays on the island and doesn't spread to the mainland."

Lani chewed on her bottom lip as she searched for the vine. She too was worried about the plague; her own intuition told her the plague would not stay on the island, but she didn't have the heart to tell her friend that. Finally, she found the vine and picked the buds from it before heading back to where Taya waited. "All set, let's go!"

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Lani found she couldn't sleep that night. Her stomach felt as though it was in knots. She chalked it up to just being nervous about meeting Minister Cho the next day, but it didn't help her sleep, so she got up and lit her lamp to read. She grabbed the first book on the pile on her desk- Canthan History. Shrugging, she decided to read it anyway. She opened it to read and-

A sudden strong gust of wind came blasting through the window, nearly blowing out her lamp. She could hear the complaints of several nearby students, up late studying for tests, that weren't so lucky. She looked down at her book, seeing the pages had been blown over by the wind as well. The page it stopped at held the entry of the day of the Jade Wind.

It was only one page long, as there was very little to write about. The only man who knew the motives behind the action was long dead.

Lani looked up as she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye. Nothing. "Just a trick of the light," she murmured, trying to reassure herself, but it did nothing to calm her nerves. Then came the unmistakable sound of a blade being drawn. She whipped around quickly- a dark shadow rushed at her, the long blade glinting in the lamp light-

She sat up, gasping in shock. A dream... It was only a dream. She fumbled for her glasses, placing them on her face with shaking hands before attempting to light her bedside lamp. It took a few tries before she managed to get a flame to the wick, and she sighed in relief as the room was flooded with the dim, warm light. Calmer now, she risked looking about the room. Everything was as it should be.

She yawned and blew the lamp out once more, placing her spectacles back on the night stand before going back to sleep.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

The next day was bright and warm with a gentle breeze, a perfect day for meeting the Minister. Along with Lani and Taya there stood several other graduating students- Aeson, a Luxon Ritualist; Lukas, a Kurzick Warrior; Mai, an Assassin; Kisai, an Aeromancer; Yuun, a Ranger; and Togo's favorite student, Yijo Tahn, another Ritualist. Yijo was a few years older than the other graduating students and so didn't socialize much, but that suited him just fine. He had an undeniable passion for studying and working hard.

It didn't take long for Master Togo to arrive, and he led the students across Sunqua Vale to the minister's estate. The students chattered excitedly as they reached the courtyard, never having had any reason to travel to that part of the Vale. But their chatter soon died as the sounds of fighting reached their ears. Worried, Togo hurried to the gate guard to find out what was going on.

"Master Togo!" the guard cried in relief at the sight of the familiar face.

"What's going on?"

"It's complete madness! Something has gone terribly wrong! The guards are all turning on each other!" The students all walked up behind Master Togo as he attempted to calm the guard, listening to the conversation. Togo turned to face them as they drew the guard's attention.

"Come. The minister needs our help." He then turned once more to the guard. "You must stay here. Do not let anyone in or out of this gate until we know what's going on. Whatever it is that threatens this estate must not be allowed to threaten the entire monastery."

"Master Togo... My son- he is in there- I-"

"I will look for him." Togo promised.

"Please, bring him back alive..."

They were allowed into the estate, where Master Togo gathered the students together and gave them a few simple instructions- stay together, and attack one enemy at a time. Better to do that than spread their forces. It was slow going through the sprawling grounds of the Minister's estate. Nearly all of the guards had been sickened, as had all the animals in the menagerie. Yijo had been frightened by one of the moa birds, thinking it some sort of 'feathered demon'. Lani still took the time to admire the animals, even though they had become hostile toward the humans.

Every so often Togo would catch glimpses of a small boy, possibly the guardsman's missing son, and he would call out to the boy to wait, but the child continued to flee from them. Thankfully he seemed to be going in the same direction they were- toward Minister Cho. Master Togo grew increasingly unsettled as they drew closer.

"Is everything all right, Master Togo?" Mai asked, frowning with concern.

"I fear this situation is far worse than I originally suspected..." the elderly Ritualist responded. "Come, we must hurry. We may already be too late!" He ran ahead, slowing when he saw the Minister waiting for them.

Minister Cho looked quite unwell when Lani finally saw him, like the guards, but far worse. He took a staggering step toward them before falling to his knees with a pained cry, grabbing his head. Togo held an arm out to keep the students back, feeling his heart drop into his stomach. He'd been right; they were too late. Slowly he walked forward and kneeled down to pray for the fallen Minister.

"Master Togo, watch out!" Aeson yelled suddenly. The elderly Ritualist had barely a second to jump away as the sickening sounds of tearing flesh and breaking bones filled the courtyard. They could only stare in shock at the monster that rose from the Minister's dead body. Lani had to fight back a wave of nausea. Its flesh was raw and bubbled as though burned, eyes opened on its broad chest, and a gaping maw with fangs took up the space where its abdomen should have been. Holding it up were four spindly legs, and in one of its massive claws it held a Necromancer's staff. The Pyromancer didn't think twice about calling up her fire and burning the twisted creature to ash. Quickly, the other students followed suit- the faster it was killed, the better. It finally fell with a sickening wet thud.

Togo stared at the monster's body thoughtfully. It seemed the plague Headmaster Amara had dreamed about, had become reality. And now that Minister Cho was dead, the Monastery was in charge of Shing Jea. It was now his responsibility to find out just how widespread this plague was.

Lani watched at the Master of Shing Jea Monastery kneeled in renewed prayer, but was soon distracted by a muffled sob coming from behind a nearby pillar. Her curiosity piqued, she walked over to discover the source. She found the boy they had been chasing, sitting on the floor hugging his knees and rubbing at his eyes with a sleeve. She smiled gently and kneeled down with him. "You okay?"

The boy started in surprise and stared up at her, fear in his eyes. "It's all right, you're safe." She reassured him. "What causes your tears?"

"I had a bad dream." The boy sniffled and rubbed at his eyes again; his sleeve was soaked. Togo stood up and walked over to them, and the boy calmed. He knew who Master Togo was, and if the elderly Ritualist was around, then it was surely safe.

"Tell us about it?" Lani pressed him.

The boy looked up at teacher and student, and sniffled one more time. "The wind blew the leaves from the trees, and the animals in the zoo all became scared. The animals, they were... they were always very tame, but something in my dream made them angry. And they started hurting everyone. Then the people got angry too, and they started hurting each other. And Minister Cho... he was the most angry of all! And he turned into a big scary monster!"

"Where are your parents, little one?" Togo finally spoke. He kept his voice calm and even to keep the child calm, even as he attempted to keep the boy from seeing the grotesque body of what was once the Minister. The other students caught on to what he was up to and silently cleaned up the mess so the kid wouldn't see it when they finally left.

"My mother died when I was very little. I don't remember her much..."

"And your father?"

"He guards the gate." The boy replied. Master Togo visibly relaxed; they had found the guardsman's missing son after all. "Master Togo, you don't think he will be angry like Minister Cho, do you?"

The elderly Ritualist smiled warmly at the boy. "No, I don't think he will be angry at all." He held out his hand and the child accepted it, getting to his feet. "In fact, I think he will be very happy when he sees you safe and sound." He turned back to the students. "Yijo, I would like for you to accompany me. We will escort this child back to his father. I want the rest of you to continue to the Ran Musu Gardens and tell Ang the Ephemeral what we have found here. He will be most interested."