1 Prologue

Avolar Linio paced back and forth before the giant oaken door, entrance to the conqueror, now emperor of all the lands. He was anxious, ailed being the herald of a news he did not want to bear to the fierce ruler. This should have been the job of a birdmaster—the first-hand receivers of news, good and bad. Yet here he was, a healer, to endure the impending wrath of the cruel tiger.

Linio wasn't ready for that. And he never will be not even if he lives another seventy years in this godforsaken realm. Avolar Linio was old and he should have been dismissed a long time ago. However, no other avolar was in the high disposition of Linio whose experience seeped to him like the whiteness of his hair to its once dark strands. This was the only reason why he, a human, was permitted an important position in the council. Because no other avolar was as critical and wise as Linio.

That did not mean that Avolar Linio was impervious to the emperor's mercurial temperament. Linio was human after all and that was all the burden he needed if he wanted himself to be thrown in a cage with the Landcrawlers.

After much time and thought, Avolar Linio finally decided to meet his ill-fate with the emperor. The fear did not lessen the slightest even after he paced back and forth, gods remind him if that even worked at all.

Avolar Linio pushed with his frail muscles and the giant, oaken door began to budge. Its hinges creaked deeply, amplified by the vast hall and made it sound like the low grumble of a great black bear. The elderly healer need only push the door slightly open and the guards, a pair of identical lions, pulled it the rest of the way.

Linio felt a sudden exposure. Still far from the throne, he could already feel the emperor's sharp gaze cutting through him. Ever since the Five Great Tragedies, Linio despised the pattern of stripes over orange. He hated everything that reminded him of the emperor—the last ray of dusk with thin silhouetted clouds, the skin of a rotting orange and the tapestries in the manse halls embroidered with the emperor's patterns. He was seeing it now. There, seated lazily on the throne, one hand on the armrest, a leg crossed on the other and a tail between his legs like a serpent elegantly slithering, was Emperor Zhaohu the First Tiger, Conqueror of the Four Great Nations, Slayer of Gods and Spirit Warriors, Saviour of the Forgotten Shadows and Ruler of All.

Avolar Linio cut the distance between them as quickly as his frail legs carried him. He watched as the figure he loathed grow larger and larger for his eyes to see as if he was being mocked. His own legs betrayed him. But he did not let the anger show on his face lest there be lives to pay. He addressed himself courteously, bowed to the emperor and awaited for his word. It was law that the emperor must speak first before anybody else no matter the urgency.

Avolar Linio waited, still bowed before his majesty. He could hear the low grumble from Emperor Zhaohu's lungs and he did not quite know whether this was natural of the emperor or not. He wasn't always there to observe the emperor and he prayed every night that he never had to. After a cold and fearful silence, Emperor Zhaohu finally spoke. Shivers ran down Avolar Linio's spine.

"Speak," he said in a deep, raspy voice.

Avolar Linio straightened his posture and looked at his majesty for no more than he could handle. The emperor's jade eyes were as sharp as the fangs he bared when he yawned and twice as scary when he spoke. And Avolar Linio could never look at him for more than a second.

"My emperor, word from the far East. There may be something that needs your attention."

"May?" Zhaohu growled. "Be clear, avolar. I'll have you know that if this message you bear does not meet the urgency of you, I'll have you scribble all your worth in a fortnight and have you executed."

Linio bowed his head low, swallowing the fear and the contempt and all his powerlessness. He continued in a soft voice, pure of everything he felt right now. "There is an exorcist, my liege, one that carries the knowledge of old."

"You bore me, Avolar." The tiger shifted positions and yawned again, baring fangs white as pearls and sharp as B'koli daggers. "One exorcist among ordinary humans. Time will kill him. He will be lost in this era like a speck."

"She travels with a former deity, my emperor and were last seen in the village of Akako in the land of Fukamori. If I may continue, my liege, they had…" Avolar Linio swallowed before continuing, "…slain your collecting party and salvaged the batch of Godkissed infants."

This part of the news seemed to have interested the emperor had his jade eyes slightly widened and shimmered a moment too fast for ordinary eyes to catch. "A woman? You make me laugh, Avolar. Perhaps I should assign you as my jester had you been pleasing to the eyes and not a sagging old councillor."

"You are most kind, my liege."

"And what of the threat this news was supposed to bring me?" Zhaohu asked.

Avolar Linio hesitated. "The knowledge of old she carries is from the Northern Dragonair Temple…my liege, if I may—"

Avolar Linio was startled by the sudden roar of the emperor. It echoed in the vast hall, Linio could feel the grumble shake his lungs and vibrate underneath his feet. The power seemed enough to sway the golden candle-holders hovering above them. This was when he knew that his fate could meet him outside that oaken door or worse…then and there where he stood.

"Do you know how offended I am to be fed by lies?" the emperor's eyes were wide, its jade color burning with a fire within. The tiger's fangs were bared as he spoke and his claws out from their safe pads. The emperor got up, a dot of light shimmered on Linio's face from the reflection of the midday sun thrown on the tiger's steel ornament on his robed chest. He continued, "The temples do not train women to become exorcists, nor men, not after I wiped them all out. I made sure that the elders were slain. Their skulls rest beneath the catacombs, lined on the walls for all who dwell there to see. And I made sure that the children were all made good use of."

Avolar Linio flinched at Emperor Zhaohu's last statement. What he did to those children as what he does to the new-borns delivered to him every month was a horror that plagues him to this day. It didn't matter that it wasn't any of Avolar Linio's doing. The mere fact that he serves Zhaohu was enough to get his hands just as soiled.

"I do not know her history but word from the birdmasters said that she was surely a practitioner of exorcism and magic in the Northern Dragonair Temple. Her magic is peculiar but strong. The woman was clever enough to escape the great conqueror's siege. I'm sure she was clever enough to find a way to become a student of the temple." Avolar Linio didn't watch his words closely. Not at the end of his statement. He immediately regretted having said that and he expected that anytime soon, he would be dragged in chains. But the emperor's angry visage relaxed and he started with a low chuckle.

"That was twenty years ago," Zhaohu said with a smirk rising on the corner of his mouth. "If she had been a child then, she would be a woman now. I think I'd like to see her face."

Avolar Linio was a scholar and a crystallized one over the decades. There was nothing he didn't understand but for the first time in the longest time, he wasn't sure what the emperor meant.