Katsuhito awoke with a start, something in his blood running cold. His bedroom was dim, the candles out, yet the pale light from the sunrise leaked through the windows, casting a dull glow over his room. Dawn. He had always awoken this early ever since he had tended the Masaki shrine, which was a frighteningly long time. So long, in fact, Katsuhito no longer thought of himself as Katsuhito, or that name that still whispered at the edges of his mind, Yosho. He was Grandpa, to his son-in-law Nobuyuki, and his grandson, Tenchi.

Every morning he had awoken when the sun showed her first rays, yet now he felt a sense of unease as he stood, shrugging out of his night clothes as he reached for his hakama, hanging on a hanger near his toko (bed). His hakama was very large and though easy to slip into, it was she double twin pairs of wraps that took time to tie.

After pulling on his montsuki and tying the lapels where they should be, Katsuhito moved to make his morning tea. Visions of his dream still whispered at the edges of his thoughts until he found himself mulling over them distractedly as the greenish, steaming liquid poured into his cup. Large eyes, impossibly large, slanted and almost Anime in their appearance had they not seemed so real.

And fear.

And then he thought of his daughter, Achika, who had died not long after Tenchi had been born. By now, Katsuhito knew that her life-force had been exhausted when she faced the omnipotent being, Kain, in order to save her son and to-be-husband, Nobuyuki, in the past.

Why? he wondered as he lifted the cup to his lips, mostache twitching. Why did he think of his daughter, dead so many years? And what were those large, frightened eyes?

. . Where.. where am I? . .

. . What? . .

. . Where are you? Where am -I-?.. Who.. who am I? . .

. . Ka-?... Yes.. I remember now. I am.. Kain. . .

. . Dead? How? . .

. . Jurai.. yes.. the Jurai.. The Jurai child hurt me.. she -hurt- me! but it wasn't enough..? . .

. . Yes.. the weapon.. the cannon.. I couldn't pull her back with me! I-I failed! . .

. . But.. But how could I fail? They were children! I.. I am -Kain-! . .

. . I did. . .

. . I.. I do not want to be dead. . .

. . But.. surely.. . .

. . ....yes! A deal. Perhaps.. you and I, Death.. we can make a deal.. . .

Rayek knelt on the great rock outcropping, the desert wind seizing his jet black hair and dusty cape, whipping them sharply around, yet he gave no interest, his serpent-gold eyes fixed over the landscape, fingering his long sword's hilt thoughtfully. He and Ekuar had long since departed from Junsland. Mama Shayan would recover from the grevious hurt the surrounding business authorities had done to her House of Comforts. Winnowill still laughed at him, occasionally, but for now, she slept in the back of his mind as Ekuar napped in a niche he had shaped into the surrounding rocks, both granting him a moment of solitude and peace.

His thoughts were on Cressi, the dark-skinned human girl with braids that had trusted him, given him a smile and dared to try and show him a moment of pleasure and release from the pain that was at his side, night and day. And then he had betrayed her, foolish enough to believe Winnowill cared and trusted her, instead scarring Cressi's beautiful face, a black ugly scorch across her face. His eyes squeezed shut; he would not cry. He would not give Her the pleasure of knowing She made him cry.

But Rayek knew and felt it when the lone tear slid down his cheek to fall upon the dry, uncaring dirt.

Winnowill's eyes opened to the dreary black of the spirit world, of the darkness that inhabited the corners of Rayek's mind in which she inhabited - in which she was held! she corrected herself smartly. She unwound her spirit, stretching out her tendrils of thought to see what had awoken her and smiled when she touched the fresh sore of grief and pain. Aah.. my dear 'soulmate' is grieving for the wretched human girl again.. oh, Rayek, you fool. Even I thought that you would not fall for such an obvious ploy!

She uncurled, slipping through the passageways of Rayek's mind. He was crying too, she discovered, delighting in the emotions that roiled over her. All she had to do was pinprick the tiny, crystalline thoughts and emotions would spill out, feeding her, sustaining her. She grew stronger when she fed off of the tidbits of Rayek's soul, siphoning his emotions like a parasite, and she wondered if her brown-skinned lover even realized she did this..

Winnowill smiled, looking out through Rayek's eyes to peer at the dismal landscape, then retreated back inward, preparing to interrupt his moment of reminenscence when a whisper interrupted her. She turned, eyebrows knitting together. A whisper? she wondered, flicking on a tendril to find the source of the whisper and blinked when it touched something. Then a sharp pain shot down the length of the psionic tendril and she cried out. Something had her! Something was.. pulling her!

The pain was unbearable; nothing that Winnowill had ever inflicted upon another being could compare to the pain that racked her spirit's form as something tore at her. She screamed for the only one that could hear her, knowing that not even he would be able to save her only moments before the shadow hands grabbed hold of her spirit robes and pulled her backwards, the thought-thin fabric tearing as she fought desperately to be free. She was fighting a losing battle and with her last ounce of strength, she cried for the only one that had truly loved her, even if she had never accepted that love or loved him in kind.

** RRRRRAAAAAYYYYEEEK! **

Rayek's head jerked up, his eyes widening and pupils growing smaller. "Winnowill..?" he had barely enough time to whisper her name before the pain took him too. He crumpled over, gasping out loud as he clutched at his head. It felt like.. knives! Knives tearing at his mind, slicing every rope and bond he had on Winnowill, tearing her free. It was no less painful for her, and he felt her fear-laced screams in his mind growing fainter and fainter. He could see her, dark eyes flashing wildly as she reached for him, even as bloodless white hands pulled her further away, into the abyss. He reached for her, straining to touch those fingertips, trying to save her, but..

He couldn't. The look of fear overtook her face completely just before the blackness engulfed her. "Winnowill!!" he shouted, hoping the cry would somehow magically make her appear again, but his echo only ricocheted off the surrounding rocks to be lost in the dismal deserts before him. Rayek curled into a ball, long ebony hair falling so fine and long over him it touched the ground. "W-Winnowill..."

"Brownskin?"

Rayek looked up into the worried brown eyes of his father and mentor, Ekuar. Ekuar returned his gaze, leaning uneasily on his walking stick, his eyebrows knitting together beneath his wide-brimmed hat that blocked out the Daystar's rays. "My son.. what has happened? Has Winnowill..?"

"Gone," Rayek whispered hoarsely, spreading his hand along his forehead to push his hair from his face. "Vanished. Taken away.. far away.."

Ekuar paled, but his eyebrows furrowed. "'Taken', my son?" he echoed. "By who?"

Rayek said nothing at first, lifting his head to look over the deserts, watching the wind catch sand and fling it in circles, dustdevils numerous, then he whispered the strange, unfamiliar name that lay heavy in his mind.

"Kain."

. . This is the vessel upon which I am to feed? . .

Kain looked, for now he had eyes, upon the innert form of the elf woman, Winnowill. She floated suspended in limbo. Her physical form was visible, her long, black tresses forming a floating halo. Her eyes were closed, her garments gone so that her egg-shell pale form stretched nude in front of him, yet he felt no kindling of desire for this flesh-skinned creature. He focused on the power that lay inside this recreated vessel, power turned dark and twisted by her own doing.

Like the power of the House of Jurai, yet different, but still accessible to him.

Death hovered beside him, no longer the disembodied voice, but it had taken one of its many forms. Black, empty eyesockets rested on Kain, a bone-white, yet yellowing, skull all that he could see before the shadows of the hooded cloak that bound Death engulfed the rest. Fingers, naked of flesh with yellowing bones, clenched a scythe so tightly, its joints threatened to give. "This is Winnowill," Death said unnececessarily. "On her world, she killed herself and I claimed her soul for my own, but her race long ago learned how to escape my grasp, so she hovered in limbo, her soul trapped within the mind of a bitter lover rather than my Realm of Choice."

Kain looked to Death. . . Realm of Choice? . . he echoed.

"A Realm denied you, Kain," Death answered cryptically. "When you struck a deal with me."

Kain only nodded, his three eyes unblinking.

Death turned back to the floating form of the elf woman, eye sockets blank, yet somehow thoughtful. "Winnowill killed herself, giving her spirit up to the void, flinging herself beyond my reach..." A skeletal hand reached out to touch the pale face, brushing some air-fine hair from her face. "But, with your help, Kain, I stole her back and brought her back from void." Death's head turned slightly to regard Kain. "So that you might siphon her power."

Wordlessly, Kain smiled.

"Tenchiiii, I'm bored! Enough of your silly chores, I want to play!" Ryoko had her arms wound about Tenchi's neck, whining in his ear.

Tenchi was struggling desperately to sweep the path to the Masaki shrine clear of leaves, but having a full grown blue-haired woman clinging to your back and whimpering like an unhappy puppy made it pretty difficult. "Ryoko!" Tenchi growled, trying to shake her off, but only got a cheerful squeal in response. "You know how Grandpa is about me and my chores! I have to get these done before he gets really mad!"

Ryoko's feline eyes flashed and she ceased her movements, instead pressing against him and leaning to whisper in his ear huskily, "What happens if I get mad?"

Tenchi's eyes widened, his face growing pale, and with sudden strength, Ryoko was on the ground and Tenchi was already strides away from her. "R-Ry-Ryoko-!!"

Ryoko blinked, trying to connect the moment in which she had been flirting shamelessly with Tenchi to the moment now where she was seated on the ground, her arms and legs folded over each other haphazardly. She looked up at Tenchi and pouted. "Oooh, Tenchi. Why did you go and do something like that?" She fluttered her eyelashes at him, looking pitiful. "You hurt me!"

Tenchi blinked, feeling a twinge of guilt rise up in him. Maybe he overreacted. Maybe he should've been nicer about how he rejected her. Maybe he should stop rejecting her and maybe act normal for once in his life. He looked down at the cyan-tressed maiden, her striped, high-collared dress all mussed, and started to manage an apology when a sharp, familiar screech of dismay and anger interrupted him.

"MS. RYOKO!! Just what are you doing to Lord Tenchi?!"

Princess Ayeka, of the House of Jurai of the -Planet- Jurai, stormed down the steps, her ruby-red eyes flashing angrily. Her hair was something to look at, even more outrageous than Ryoko's unkept flash of blue. Dark violet and cut just below her ears, two long bits of hair fell over her ears and hesitated just below her collar bone. Below the shortly cropped hair was a layer of hair of impossible length, the ends just touching her ankles. The violet-hued strands were pulled into two tight ponytails. Her fists shook with anger as she stomped right up to Tenchi and Ryoko, grabbing hold of the cyan-haired space pirate and yanking her up by her collar to glare at her. "How -dare- you seek to manipulate Lord Tenchi, y-y-you.. you awful person, you!"

Ryoko's cat-yellow eyes flashed, sparks of electricity feeding off of her hands as her fingers tightened into 'claws', then she melted, drooping in Ayeka's grip until the Crowned Princess of Jurai had to struggle to keep her grip. "Tenchiiii," she whimpered, turning kittenish eyes on the object of both maidens' desires, sounding much younger and helpless. "Ayeka's being mean to me. Make her stop."

Tenchi struggled for patience. These two never stop, do they? "Ms. Ayeka," he obliged carefully. "Please put Ryoko down."

Ayeka did, letting go by simply releasing her grip. Ryoko would have fallen to hit her bottom on the hard dirt-and-rock path had she not caught herself in time, levitating a few inches off the ground and quickly swooping away from the purple-tressed female. Ayeka glared after Ryoko, her nose wrinkling. "Honestly, Lord Tenchi, I don't know how you can tolerate such an uncultured, flirtatious ruffian."

Ryoko sparked. "Up yours, Princess."

Ayeka whirled about on her heels, glaring daggers at Ryoko. "What did you say to me?!"

Ryoko smiled sweetly, folding her hands beneath her chin as her tail flicked back and forth innocently. "Oh.. nothing," she purred, fluttering her eyelashes as she returned Ayeka's gaze evenly.

"You're lying!"

"Am I?"

"I heard s-"

"Please," Tenchi's voice was strained, stepping between the two female rivals, holding Ayeka at bay with the handle of his broom and holding his hand, palm facing Ryoko to ward her back as well. "Don't fight. Can't you two ever get along?"

"Oh Tenchi!" Suddenly, Ryoko was on him again, clinging to him like a lifeboat, her arms about his neck as she sagged, her gently slanted eyes wide and flashing liquid gold as she looked up at him, lower lip trembling. "You see how mean that awful woman is to me? You see what horrible things she says?" She buried her head into his shoulder, eyes squeezed shut. "Make her go away, Tenchi. Make her leave us alone."

"Leave you alone?! I wouldn't dare leave you alone with Tenchi!"

"Why?" Ryoko winked. "I'd probably do a much better job than you would, Ayeka m'dear."

"Grrrrrr!"

"Oooooh, watch out!" A giggle. "She's getting mad!"

"You're hopeless, Ryoko! Simply hopeless!"

"Hah!"

"'Hah'?! How -dare- you brush off my words, you mongrel criminal! You should feel honored that I let you hear them at all!" Ayeka sniffed. "It's only through the goodness of my heart that you're here and not locked up somewhere, you awful thing, you."

"Hah!" Ryoko sneered. "The Statute of Limitations wore off months ago, your royal LOWness! Screw you and your 'goodness of your heart'. The only thing in there is ice!"

"And there's only rocks in yours, Ms. Ryoko! Just like your head!"

"Those are fighting words, Ice Princess!"

Tenchi buried his head in his hands with a hopeless sigh. Those two never stop. Never.

How long had it been since last Rayek had set foot in the halls of the Palace of High Ones? How much time had passed since he had the gentle whispers edging his mind? How much time.. Rayek pushed the thoughts away, his jaw becoming tight as he stepped through the arched doorway, Ekuar at his side.

When Winnowill disappeared, Rayek and Ekuar had called for the Palace. The Palace had come swiftly, their two minds limited, but the elves that lived inside were subjected to such powerful magic-heightening auras on all sides, they recieved them anyway. Timmain awaited Rayek and Ekuar inside, Skywise on one side of her and Suntop on the other. The single remaining High One's eyes were silver-blue and grave, for she knew of the danger that their crisis posed. Winnowill in the hands of another could be very dangerous if that other harnessed her raw power. And if she were to escape from that other, to be allowed to run free..

Timmain the High One pursed her lips and refused to let herself think the thought. Instead, she let her eyes fall upon Ekuar, meeting the maimed rockshaper's eyes with a gentle, welcoming smile, then shifting her gaze to Rayek, letting it soften. The airwalker looked.. beaten somehow. Defeated. She knew that he had taken an enormous task upon himself and to have even this single, grave moment of rest from it must be refreshing, the High One knew that Rayek blamed himself for Winnowill's disappearence. "Ekuar.. Rayek..." she murmured softly, stepping forward, her light-spun hair floating around her form finally bound by clothes of woven Preserver silk, obvious Sun Folk design.

"Welcome."

Ekuar nodded to her and offered a stumbling greeting, but it was Rayek she was most interested in. "High One," Rayek greeted stiffly, a touch of formality to his voice. "I.. apologize.. I failed and now I have to drag you.. all," He added quickly, glancing to Skywise and Suntop who, to his amazement, stood silently at Timmain's side. "..into this."

"Don't worry about it, Rayek." Skywise's smile was still crooked as always, but it was a rare gentle one that the star-gazer placed on him. He hadn't thought much of Rayek since those first days of the Sun Village, and even less when he had stolen Skywise, Leetah, and the children ten thousand years into the future, but still, the stargazer looked upon him without harshness. "You need help. We'll give it."

Suntop bobbed his head up and down in cheerful agreement and, smiling with mild amusement, Timmain reached over to lay a slender hand on the youth's head, then offered the second to the two newcomers. "Come. Rayek, your mind will be our guide to find Winnowill and this.." Her mouth twitched slightly. "..Kain, but first it would be better to collect the Wolfriders."

Rayek's eyes widened. "We need not involve..!" he started to protest, something in him welling up. He could not bear their eyes, their pity or scorn, and he could not bear the knowledge that they, those mortal, half-breed mongrels, knowing that he had failed to contain one of the most dangerous beings that the elves of Abode had ever known.

But Timmain silenced him with a look, pointed and gentle at the same time, then turned, silk and hair gently accenting her movements and all but floating around her, moving towards the Scroll Chamber. "Come, Rayek.. we must gather our strength and prepare to face the challenge that is laid before us."

Rayek hesitated, looking to Ekuar who only granted him an encouraging nod, then looked to Timmain. By force of will alone, he glided fluidly into the air, moving after Timmain. "As you wish.." he answered softly, then a corner of his mouth twitched. "..High One."