Tamashi Kunshu: 

I played and played the flute through the night. Hoping, praying that i would be able to see him again. The traces of dark magic remained in the smoke which he had left behind. I had captured the smoke in a vial and tried to use my own magic to find traces of him. There was a map to Asura, and the first part had been put right in front of me. I played the flute frantically and with great emotion. Enchanted instruments like the Narakam flute enhanced the magic of the user and allowed for it to be much more powerful. I used the flute to try and seek traces of this identical magic. I locked myself in my room and played for the whole day and until night. I would find something eventually, no matter how long it took I would continue playing. 

When the clock struck midnight that night, a response came to my flute. The bowing of a stringed instrument. It played 2 harmonious notes at once. These 2 low notes floated through the air. They remained there, unchanging. Then a gust of freezing cold winter flooded into the room just as the notes changed slightly. This cold air was not normal. This was autumn time in the Teikoku capital of Kaiyosai, and the temperature never dropped this low. However this cold reminded me of somewhere, which was coincidentally freezing cold at this time of year. Where else but the frigid, howling and lonely mountains of the Narakam Mountains. I had gotten my first clue. Now it was time to follow through!

Captain Shakhar Badhri: 

We walked through the ice and snow of these parts of the south. I could barely see 4 feet in front of me, it was like a sheet of white surrounded us at all times. No wonder the rebels chose this as their base of operations. This frozen tundra was hard to see through and as such it would have made it damn near impossible to find them. All the more reason why I was extremely unhappy my platoon had been sent to scout for the rebel camps. Not only was this part of the empire impossible to navigate due to the snow and frost, it was also very close to the Undesten Border. We were Kanshai soldiers, so we would not be able to go anywhere near the border, lest we accidently provoke a war. These rebels were extremely crafty, they were able to operate out of these parts of the deep south with impunity due to how inhospitable it was. I was not one to believe in tall tales, but it was rumored that the rebels were led by a magic user, which was what allowed them to stay in such an extreme climate. I was silently cursing field marshal Haig under my breath. As it had appeared, we came for nothing, we couldn't find the rebels. Just as I was about to order the platoon to turn back, one of the men called me. He spotted a plume of smoke rising up in the distance. We made our way toward the smoke. We made sure to remain completely silent. The smoke came from just beyond a hill. We trudged up the hill slowly and silently. I thought a mission such as this would be more appropriate for the special forces rather than us regular infantrymen who had only been trained in the central Kanshai forests. When we reached the top of the hill we looked down and saw the massive cantonment in the valley below us. It was massive, it was at least close to 400 acres. It was practically a fortress. We started to take pictures of the cantonment. We had done what no others had been able to do in nearly a year. We had found the rebel headquarters. Just before we finished taking pictures, we were unexpectedly seized. My entire platoon of a dozen men were surrounded and taken prisoner by the rebels. We were marched into the Cantonment. It was a mix of a sprawling old town and a military installation. It made me wonder why we cracked down on these people so much. Seeing the women and children live happily and freely in this camp made me think about how I got here. How the rebellion itself started. These were all Kanshai citizens once. These people were the people of the easter provinces, who had come to the emperor in their time of desperation, but were turned away. These people were repressed by the government because they were the descendants of Narakam nomads, nomads who had their own nation in their homeland much before the Kanshai empire had even existed. They had their own culture, their own customs and their own language. They had been present in the eastern lands, even before the first great demon war. They had been there before the Kanshai settlement of the continent. I thought about how they had been treated. How the government had turned them away in their time of need, when they starved and died. How my own comrades had participated in the expulsion of these people from their native land. No wonder these people rebelled. These people called themselves the Kalantaikal, which in their language meant children of the sea. They were always peaceful people. Which would explain how they put up with the thousands of years of abuse by us. I think the famine and the loss of the fish stocks and our horrendous response was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I looked around. This was the horrible enemy? This was what we were fighting? I saw families eating happily in restaurants and children playing in the streets. I felt sorrow in my heart. Like I always did. I did not like what my comrades and I had done to these people. My soul would not allow me to rest at night, however unlike normal I didn't have access to my usual flood of alcohol to drown my guilt. We soon reached a large dark building. I was separated from my men and was led down the winding halls in my cuffs, till we reached what seemed to be a large office. This was it, I had been taken to the leader of the rebellion himself. They called him the Dragon of the Snow. The rumoured magic wielding chief of the Kalantaikal. I was pushed to the floor and the guards left the room. A tall man in a suit walked in front of me. He was well dressed, and his heels clicked against the wood floors as he walked. I looked up to see this man of legend. He was a slightly tanned man with jet black hair and pointed ears. His yellow eyes stared at me intensely. I was worried at that moment as to what my fate would be. The towering man spoke suddenly. “Identify yourself oppressor.”. He had a clear disgust in his voice, which only deepened my internal scars. Remembering what I and my comrades probably did to him to force him to become the way he was. To take up arms and fight. The memories of the burning villages and the screams of children flashed through my head. I accepted that whatever happened after this would be deserved. I gathered the courage to speak, “I- I am Captain Shakhar Bandhri of the 91st Kanshai infantry division. I presume you are the rebel leader?”. The man abruptly clicked his heels together and said “ I am afraid you are mistaken. I am one of the Generals in his imperial majesty’s dark army. We are what you describe as ‘rebels’. You say we are rebelling, whereas we are fighting for our freedom. We are led by my master, the dark emperor. He is what you would call the ‘rebel leader’ but that title is not befitting of him. But I digress. Captain Bandhri, you come here seeking to harm us. You came here seeking to continue the Kanshai oppression of our people. You came to continue the extermination of the Kalantaikal. You found our headquarters. Your very existence is a threat to the safety of all the people here. You know what we have to do to your men, captain. I’m sorry.” I simply nodded my head. I saw this coming. The guards came in and got me, as I walked what I thought would be, my last walk. All I did was pray for my family and apologize for my sins under my breath. This would be the last opportunity I would have to pray for their forgiveness and prevent the actions of my life from harming them. In my mind I was a dead man walking.