The silent house seemed strangely normal, as if Ren had simply stepped out to run an errand and would be back at any minute. An accusing smear of dirt marred the floor near the entrance and sent a pang of guilt through Hikari. Cleaning the floor had been her job— though Ren had done it more often than not. Hikari had been too busy training and Ren had been reluctant to interrupt.

Hikari retrieved a bucket and a cleaning cloth and got down on her knees. She cleaned the mud then noticed a faint layer of dust scattered across the neglected floor. Hikari scoured it as well before moving on to the kitchen countertops and the shelves throughout the house.

As she worked, the shadow of Ren's absence hovered about her. Hikari had to repeatedly stop, close her eyes, and do nothing but breathe until the pain subsided. Then she returned to cleaning. She scrubbed at every crack in every corner, losing herself in the simple mechanical movements.

A toilet flushed. Jingwen shuffled into the room wearing his boxer shorts and a stained T-shirt with the "SB" Shaw Brothers logo. His blinking eyes widened. "What are you doing up at this hour!"

He had forgotten to leave his bathroom slippers in the bathroom again. She pointed at the floor over which he had walked. "I need to clean the floor."

"You need to rest!" Jingwen took the cloth from her and forced her to rise.

Hikari looked around dizzily. The windows were dark. Wasn't it still morning? She glanced from the gray cloth to her blistered reddened hands. How many times had she cleaned the house?

Jingwen took her by the shoulders and turned her around.

"I can't sleep," she murmured.

"You don't know until you try."

Hikari tried to protest as he gently forced her to her futon, but sleep took her like a brick to the head when she had lain down.

The sun rose only a few hours later. Mr. Kim arrived on their doorstep wearing a dark custom- tailored suit and carefully groomed hair in a conservative cut. He looked more like a Hong Kong businessman than an elder master of an ancient temple of warrior monks. But behind the expensive rimless glasses set in the well-worn laugh lines gathered above his cheekbones, his eyes held a grandfatherly warmth.

"Master Kim, this is Miyabe Hikari of the Awakened." Jingwen turned to Hikari. "This is Elder Master Kim who oversees the far eastern branch of the Jade Lotus."

Mr. Kim held out his hand. "I am but a gardener." He gave a slight bow as she took it.

"Welcome to my home." Remembering the Jade Lotus had provided the house, Hikari suppressed a guilty wince.

"I have heard amazing things about you from both Jingwen and Ren and I've looked forward to meeting you for some time."

"I haven't done anything amazing."

"From what I've heard, you've accomplished more in the short time since you've been cleansed than most awakened do in a lifetime." He lifted Hikari's hand which lay forgotten in his and examined it. She felt a sharp tingle as if a spark of electricity had jolted her. Faint lights flickered beneath her flesh.

"Amazing," Mr. Kim repeated in a tone of awe. "Such power— and under such control— I would not have believed it if I had not seen it myself. For someone so young to have mastered such— or nearly mastered it..." When he looked, his expression was sorrowful. "In the end, the Sacred Flame takes us all does it not?

It was as if he had read her mind, the relief of having been cleansed of the Corruption, the regret of being alive, the guilt of not being able to save Ren and the anger at having been dragged into this secret war and what it would ultimately cost her. Perhaps they shared the same feeling. Hikari swallowed and nodded.

"But then in the end, something will take us all," Mr. Kim sighed. "At least we live— and die— with purpose."

Another nauseating punch of grief. Hikari bowed her head to hide the welling tears then blinked in surprise at the anger that rose up in her.

"I am very sorry about Ren," he said. "The world is a poorer and darker place without her."

"Hai," Hikari whispered.

As if trying to dispel the gloomy atmosphere, Mr. Kim's tone lifted. "It is because of her recommendation that I've come to see you. She thought very highly of you. She even said that you might well equal and even surpassed the Sixteen immortals."

"Sixteen?"

"Ren was one of sixteen students who began training at the temple in the same year. Probably the most talented students I have ever seen— and Ren was as talented as any of them." Mr. Kim gave Jigwen a bemused smile. "They certainly gave Master Jingwen a challenge." A profound smile stretched Jingwen's tightened lips and lightened his tired face. His glistening eyes stared wistfully off into the distance.

"She begged for the chance to train you— to start it early without waiting until you could officially join us. She was convinced you would become our wisest and mightiest warrior, that the struggle against the Corruption needed you, that you would find a way to end it if anyone could..."

Wise? Her? When had she ever displayed anything like wisdom? Could Mr. Kim be lying? Jingwen's expression of fatherly pride seemed to be in agreement. For some reason, that frightened her. How could any of that be true?

"That is why I'm hoping you will decide to join the Jade Lotus. We need you. We are not overflowing with warriors of high talent. Unlike the other societies, we do not oppose the Corruption for personal gain or other selfish reasons. The call of sacrifice is not as attractive as power or wealth and it can only be answered after careful consideration."

That's right. There are other societies of the Awakened. The Jade Lotus was not her only option. There was the Order of the Dragon, the Philosophers, the Golden Horde, and the Byzantines among others. She had heard only vague references to them. She wondered what their training was like. How long are their lifespans? Then she remembered the Sixteen Immortals.

"They're all dead aren't they?" she asked.

"Who?"

"The Sixteen Immortals. Ren was the last one, wasn't she?"

Mr. Kim nodded reluctantly.

And Hikari finally understood why there were no pictures in the family shrine, only sixteen flowers of various types... and why Ren would occasionally sit at the shrine, staring out the window at the moon and slowly sip a cup of sake or two. She was remembering her friends. She was honoring their deaths. Again the anger rose up.

Mr. Kim's gaze was shrewd, despite his grandfatherly eyes. "Perhaps you will choose to avenge them and help us defeat the Corruption and those who killed Ren and the sixteen," he said as if reading her thoughts.

Defeat —or rather— destroy, a voice in her head promised.

Her grief returned to dowse her anger, but deep inside her resentment still smoldered.

- - -

Hikari tried to open the front door but it was locked. She searched her pockets frantically. She had lost her key. She pounded on the door and rang the doorbell impatiently.

"Mom! Dad! I'm home. Let me in!"

Laughter burst out from within the house but no one opened the door. She stepped through the wilted plants of her house's front flower bed toward the living room window. Inside, her parents greeted Ren with smiles and laughter. Daichi looking up at Ren, with an expression of surprise and joyful wonder. He said something and Ren chuckled, tousling his hair as she replied.

"Ren! Daichi!" Hikari pounded on the window, but no one turned toward her. She might as well have been a ghost. She pounded harder, trying to break the glass. It barely rattled. She summoned the Sacred Fire— fueling it with her anger— and punched. The window shattered and the light in the room vanished.

Hikari blinked as her eyes adjusted to the night. Her living room was cold, dark and empty. A web of oily black liquid covered the tattered furniture and crawled up the walls like spreading vines or the roots of some dark plant from another world feeding off of the life from this one.

She scanned the room for another exit. Where have they gone? Only her grief answered back. She wouldn't see them again.

A glint of light at her feet caught her eye. The shards of glass still displayed a broken scene of her living room. Her family remained just out of view, their shadows on the wall moving across the light.

They were somewhere else, somewhere out of sight, somewhere she could not reach.

Her hands burned with icy cold. She examined them, fearing she had cut herself on the glass. But instead of blood, the oily black slime of the Corruption covered them.

This was the Corruption's fault!

The Corruption had taken everyone from her. The life she had known was dead. The person she had been was dead. Nothing that mattered remained. Though she still breathed, it was only a matter of time until she joined them in the grave. How then would she spend what time she had left?

She drew up the Sacred Fire focused it in her frozen black hand. It burned with her rage.

I will destroy the Corruption.

The slime steamed with an oily fume. The veins, tendons, and bones of her hand appeared as smudged shadows within her glowing flesh. She summoned every spark of fire she could reach, drawing upon it until the shadows of her bones disappeared in the light.

She would track the Corruption to its source and destroy it. Then she would die.

Hikari woke to the smell of burning cotton and yanked her glowing hands from her quilted blanket.  Across the top hem, her smoldering fingerprints burst into flames. Hikari flung it away and leaped up to stomp them out. She held up the blackened and tattered cloth. There would be no saving it. Ren had made this quilt.

The guilt only fueled Hikari's rage.

* * *

Mr. Kim Jingwen returned a few days later just as Hikari finished her sixteenth hour of practicing her sword forms. Except for short pauses to eat a snack or meditate to restore her strength, she had not stopped. She turned toward the two men as they entered, the fire in her eyes burning with indignation at the interruption. Taking a deep breath, she strained its impulse.

Hikari reeked of three days of sweat which glistened on her honey-colored skin. It had soaked her sports bra and small thin cotton shorts, the only things she wore. With the edge of her palm, she scraped back the sweat-plastered hair clinging to the sides of her face and neck like a damp black stocking cap. Though never long, she had cut it short.

Mr. Kim appeared surprised at her transformation. He bowed just inside the entrance. "Pardon the intrusion."

"What do you want?"

With only a slight hesitation at her aggressive response, Mr. Kim replied. "We've come to hear your answer."

Hikari took a long slow deep breath. She didn't have time for polite foolishness. Her eyes narrowed. "Can you not read the air?"

Mr. Kim turned a puzzled look on Jingwen who translated the Japanese idiom.

"Kuuki Yomenai," she muttered and turned away to assume the starting stance of her next form.

Mr. Kim returned a small smile. "Then welcome to the Jade Lotus as a full warrior against the Corruption." He held out a green cloisonné broach of a lotus flower

With a snort, Hikari turned a bra strap toward him on which she had pinned Ren's jade brooch. It was an older and simpler design than the one Mr. Kim had offered, but it was real jade. It had been good enough for Ren. Hikari didn't want any other. "I already have one."

He withdrew his hand with a nod. Hikari turned her back on him and walked away. "The world may never know the part you played in saving it," Mr. Kim continued, "but those of us who fight for it are grateful to have you by our side."

Hikari wondered how much fighting he accomplished in his fancy suit. She didn't much care one way or another about the Jade Lotus or the world. She was going to dive into the heart of The Corruption and kill it. Then she would die and join Ren and her family.

With her back to him, she raised her weapons to the ready position. "Pardon me for not showing you to the door." She launched into the first form. Spinning, jumping and kicking, her swords slashing out in all directions. The two men hesitated, exchanging questioning looks. They bowed in her direction, apologizing again for the interruption and stopped to put on their outdoor shoes.

The two men hesitated, exchanging questioning looks before bowing and apologizing again for the interruption. They put on their shoes and opened the door to leave. Jingwen lingered at the entrance. He opened his mouth as if to speak then closed it. With a nod, he turned to leave then paused to mutter. "Ren would normally wear a sarashi..."

Feeling only a faint brush of guilt for her rudeness, and then only for Jingwen's sake, Hikari launched into her dual katana form. I have to stay focused, she thought. I have to sharpen my skills to the limits of my ability. She suspected she didn't have much time to prepare before the end came for her.