A warm wind blew as the eternally setting sun reflected gold off of the barely still shallows.  The water below looked very inviting, clear blue and cool for this ‘time of year’.  Not that time mattered here.
Here was the Endless Domain.  Not any sort of continent or planet, just a place in time and space that could only be accessed by the kind of person I had become.  The person I had become was a sort of immortal that could technically die an infinite amount of times and yet get back up again.  Someone that did what was possible to keep the ebb and flow of the universe intact whether that meant fighting in wars or making and upholding peace treaties.
But that is a different story, getting back to the issue of time.  Time for my people is neither linear nor circular.  It does not affect us as it affects those untouched by the ashen snow.  So when I died in that snow at the age of nineteen, my body did not wither in the two thousand five hundred years since.
However in the here and now I am waiting for new partners in a quest that will decide the fate of a whole people.  My people.

“Himitsu-Kuri, Tala,”  I nodded at them as I passed by, they following and catching up to me as I walked down a hallway,  “where starting a quest today that will either save or condemn us all.”
We rounded a corner and walked quickly up two flights of stairs and through a trap door coming up into a secretive loft.
“What is this about?”  exasperated Himitsu-Kuri.
Tala too seemed to be some sort of weary as she leaned back against a pillar in the shadows.
“You’re aware of the Nines?”  I asked, shifting my little hat toward the center of the top of my head.
“Yes.”  Tala breathed.  “The originally eighty-one objects, nine weapons, nine pieces of jewelry…  Basically any nine pieces of a certain kind of item that had a special ability invested in them.”
“Right, all but nine were destroyed.”  I then held out a leaf.  “This is one of them.  It’s a magical leaf that acts as a sort of magic carpet when enlarged.”
“And this help us how?”  Himitsu-Kuri was swinging her Kunai knife’s circular end around her finger as if she were trying to entertain herself during a teacher’s boring lecture.
“It helps us by making sure these items don’t fall into the wrong hands!”  I gave her a look that should have made even the most dauntless of men shudder if only she was looking at me.
“So then what are we waiting for?”  She said as she turned to face Tala and I, kunai held so that it could fly loose if Himi-K chose to do so.
“Word from several other’s of our party.”  Tala said, looking at her watch.  “Told them to be here at about this time.”
I looked my watch began to beep, pulling it out of my pocket and opening the front latch and it stopped.
“We need to leave now.”  I looked up, distressed.  “Something’s happened.”
“The watch that goes off whenever something bad happens.”  Himitsu-Kuri said flatly looking at the watch.
I looked up at her and then Tala, both carefully eying me.
“My husbands brother gave it to me as a wedding gift.  He said it would help me later on.”
“And we won’t know what happened because the mirror is gone, correct?” Tala said.
“Yes.”  I replied.
A deafening boom came from down below as we ran toward the trapdoor to see what was going on.  Papers, pencils, anything that would be found in an office were scattering all over the place as an unnatural wind bid them this way and that.  Hard footed steps were heard clanking, and then the door to the room we were in swung open.
“Captain!”  said a young man rushing in, his copper blond hair getting in his face.  “Captain Tala you and your party must leave!  Ronderin and Charte have arrived and are seeking the pocket watch.”
We all hopped down from the trapdoor as Himitsu-Kuri violently pulled the young man inside the room and looked the door.
“Vitore.”  Tala said sharply.  “Alert the other captain’s and Himitsu-Kuri’s lieutenant and tell Zealand where we are.  Go!”
With that, the young man conjured a wooden door painted red.  He yanked on the handle, jumped on through and then slammed the door shut behind him; the moment the egress was closed it disappeared.
“Ronderin and Charte must be thrown off.”  Said Himitsu-Kuri handing over an origami bird in one hand, a dragon in the other to Tala.
Tala took them both cradling each in her hands respectively as she breathed in.  She exhaled on them sparingly and were blown onto the floor when she said a few words.  I opened a window as they enlarged and became the actual beasts that they represented, the window just large enough to let them out.  Himitsu-Kuri boarded the dragon as Tala and I jumped onto the back of the bird then suddenly diving toward the ground before leveling out along the river bank, the dragon leading the way.
“I thought Charte was resealed within the box?”  Yelled Himitsu-Kuri, barely looking over her shoulder.
“He was!”  I shouted back.  “I was there;  Oni Masikha Ankhtari and Tagaris performed the first seal then Rollo put on a second.  Oni made sure it was the strongest seal she could conjure.”
“Ameki had turned crazy at that point, correct?”  Tala asked, referring to the most powerful mage that had ever lived.
“Yes;  that’s why Rollo had come to perform the second seal at the last minute.  He was able to look through Ameki’s notes and make sense of them to produce a sort of charm to keep anyone from opening the chest Charte had been looked into.  Oni and Tagaris made sure to find the strongest binding spell to keep Charte opening it up from the inside out.”  I recalled, as it was I was there in person the day it had happened.
“So why is Charte out?”  Himitsu-Kuri asked.
“I don’t know.  Unless Rollo had revoked the spell then-”
“What about Ameki?”  Himitsu-Kuri looked back at Tala and I.  “Sources say her ‘illness’ has been cured and she is back to herself.”
“How good are you sources?”  Tala raised an eyebrow.
“I am a ninja!”  Himitsu-Kuri ferociously snapped.  “How good do you think?!  On top of that I am Captain of the second division, Zealand himself said out of the previous shinobi captains I am the one with the best connections!”
She turned only to duck beneath a low flying branch.  The bird avoided it by flying higher and the dragon came up beside it.
“Where are we going?”  I asked either of the two, hoping the arguing would stop.
“To the space port in Calendasa.”  Tala said.  “We should be able to find a vessel going to Al Amdas Tokra.”
“What’s there?”  I asked, unsure of its importance.  The entire planet was nearly water, a shallow ocean with a few hundred considerably sized islands.
“More like whose there.”  Himitsu-Kuri said.  “Tala, did you tell Vitore to send out the invitations?”
“Inconspicuously so, yes.”  Tala then pressed her lips together tightly, a sign that showed she would no longer speak.
We all didn’t say a word more until reaching the space port.  Once there at the gates, which were made of two large poles holding taught between them a large sign with black lettering ‘Ebreda Port’.  Tala and I slid off the bird and Himitsu-Kuri jumped off the dragon, landing in a low stance, one leg stretched out  while the other was drawn in close to the butt.
It was then that the animals disappeared becoming shreds of paper, two shuriken lodged in the large poles behind them.
“Let’s go and find a flight.”  I said walking quickly forward.  “Why does the sign say Ebreda Port and not Calendasa Port?”
“Because the name of the city is Calendasa which annexed the port town of Ebreda.  However this port wasn’t ever really a primary place among the sailors here and once Calendasa took it over it became a highly used stop of spot for vacationers on their way to planets like Latke and Tartu.”  Said Himitsu-Kuri, seeming partially strained.
“So were are you headed, Madams?”  came a voice.
We all looked over to see a young man of dark skin and wearing clothes that were made of fine silk, a bright electric blue and lime green.  He looked young, disheveled and was grinning with contentment.
“Paco.”  Himitsu-Kuri, nodding at him.  “I haven’t heard of you around since the little incident with Atera-Kolu.”
“Yes.  Since then I’ve been in a state of concealment so as not to be bothered.”  He walked over closer to the three of us.  “Might I ask what it is you guys are doing?”
“Why would you be interested?”  Himitsu-Kuri asked.  “Looking to get yourself back in good graces?  When you outlawed yourself-”
“No.”  he narrowed his eyes accordingly.  “Luta is a dear old friend of mine;  where is it your going?”
He beckoned toward me when he said my name, a nick name rather.
“Nowhere.”
“Al Amdas Tokra.”
Himitsu-Kuri and I spoke at the same time, looking at each other with a sort of accusing glare.
“Al Amdas Tokra.”  Paco said smugly.
“Yes, now if you’ll let us be on our way.”  It was more of a demand from the ninja then anything.
“You’ll be needing tickets I presume.  And not many ships head out that way unless they’re luxury liner types.  I can hook up with free ones.”  Paco said scratching the back of his neck.
“Your giving us all free tickets?”  Tala questioned lifting an eyebrow slightly.
“No;  I’m giving Luta and yourself free tickets.”  Paco looked toward Himitsu-Kuri.
“What?”  the ninja glared at him.
“I believe your keeping a sharp eye on my whereabouts for Atera?”
“Kolu.”  Himitsu-Kuri said sharply.
“I’m an official outcast;  give me your word that you’ll give Atera false information so she can’t capture me.”
“She will.”  Tala said shortly.
Paco excused himself and told us to meet him at the Belvedere Lounge near the South Entrance.
“Don’t speak for me, vampire.”
“We need to get on our way-”
“Why not conjure ourselves there.”
“Because it’s unnecessary.  Ronderin and Charte are probably trying to find a magical trail strong enough to lead them to our whereabouts.”
“But if that’s true then what of Vitore?”  I asked.  “Won’t they find and torture him, maybe even kill him?  Well Charte will most definitely…”
They both looked at me when Himitsu-Kuri had an expression of realization play on her face.
“That’s right, you were captured by him, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” I turned to Tala but she wasn’t there.
“Where’d she go?”  I almost freaked out.
“I don’t know;  maybe she’s headed over to Vitore to make sure he’s alright?”  Himitsu-Kuri sounded slightly worried.  “We need at least three for this endeavor.”
We looked at each other, slight concern showing on our faces.
“I’m here.”  Tala said, walking from around a nearby corner.