Letter 10

(Clan Lion)

    Mock me if you will.

   Call me traitor.

   But realize: were it not for my sacrifice, our lands would have been destroyed.

    The beast which lives within the castle's walls knows its master, as surely as the sun chases her moon across the sky each tedious day. We still reign in Shiro Matsu only because of my sorcery, and although I feel myself fading with each passing day, I will not rest until our lands are safe from the Unicorn.

    You rise beside the Crab - the armies of the Lion marching to their doom at the hands of the Shadowlands, valiant and ever-eager to defend their 'brothers'. Oh, yes, I know Tsanuri's secret plans. The Beast tells me everything; all I wished to know, and more. Such knowledge as you can never imagine fills my thoughts, and no spellcraft can escape me. The Lion will be safe, without their armies, without their Champion. If the Matsu and the Ikoma will not stand for them, then the Kitsu will.

    I will defend them, but not with my life.

    With my soul.

   Kitsu Okura, Jade Champion