Devotion to one's art can be both beautiful and dangerous. Speak to the girl know as Tymora to discover the beauty of devotion. A child prodigy of the blade, and a deceptively keen mind hidden under innocence and naiveté, Tymora and her no-dachi are inseparable. Her last sensei told her that she exemplified the samurai spirit and heart even more so than he did. Her last sensei told her that her art of Iaijutsu surpasses his own skill when he was her age. Her last sensei was Seryph Gibbons, avatar of the universe. In Seryph's eyes he sees Tymora as everything that is good in the art of the blade. Purity of mind and heart. Devotion beyond self-interest and ego. Reverence to the art without pretension. Simply, Tymora is more a samurai than the ancient men that fought and died in Japan so many centuries ago. Seryph does not wish to see this youth corrupted. That is why Seryph refuses to take her under his wing totally. He does not want to burden her with becoming one of his chosen students, for he trains his students for the day when he must eventually retire. If her were to do so, he would shatter her pure spirit, just as his own pure samurai spirit was shattered the day he ascended to the vast sea of space to battle for the continued existence of reality.

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"Do you remember the first day we met, Tymora?"

Devyn questions the prone form of Tymora. She hangs from his clenched fist, dangling from his grasp. His fist wrapped around her kendo gi, Devyn tosses Tymora to the ground with a pathetic thud.

"It was at Inusaka High. You were on your way to meet with Seryph at his apartment, and I was leaving said apartment with some friends of mine. You looked at me with this innocent gaze. One eye seemed to look at me with amazement, the other with fear. Neither eye seemed to know why it felt the way it felt. Your eyes simply reacted."

Devyn levels another punch to Tymora as she attempts to struggle to her feet. Tymora falls back, barely managing to catch herself on a tree.

"At that time I had not the slightest clue to the nature of your reaction. You looked at me in the manner in which a rabbit would look at a wolf. My young heart had no idea what you saw that day. But my darkened heart knows now."

Devyn's foot meets with Tymora's face, flinging the girl back to the dirt and leaves.

"You saw me as I truly was. No facade of proper attire and manners passed your keen eye. It was a shame your eyes were not trained to recognize that which they perceived, for that day I had officially taken the oath to secretly join the ranks of the Covenant of Mystra."

Devyn's foot steps down on top of Tymora's head, keeping the girl in a most humiliating place on the ground.

"You saw the rapid degradation of my soul. You saw what I would become, for it was always present within me. You saw the truth. I only wish you could have told me at that time. I only wish you had truly known..."

Devyn lifts his foot off of the prone body of Tymora, reaches into his sports coat, and pulls out a cellular phone. He dials 911, placed the phone next to Tymora, and quietly leaves the small grove.

"Lovecraft... this better be worth the prices we are all paying..."

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Kyoko and Devyn lay arm in arm, embraced in a manner only two lovers would dare. The two kiss for a moment. Or perhaps it’s for infinity. Kyoko cannot tell the difference. She’s in the arms her beloved. Reality, Void, they matter not. She and Devyn are in that vacant realm of pleasure beyond concepts of existence and non-existence. That sparse moment of silent bliss where neither exists. That is the ecstasy of their embrace.

Kyoko looks into the eyes of her beloved, only to find a far more warm, yet far less caring, set of eyes peering back at her. Yushiro's gaze settles upon Kyoko. He continues to embrace Kyoko, but the hold becomes more and more like unto a noose rather than a coupling, and Kyoko's body begins to grow cold and numb from the stranglehold, but she cannot resist continuing in the physical bliss. Despite all the pain, she still finds the pleasure to be too much to resist, and closes her eyes in acceptance.

As Kyoko allows herself to sink into the cold love of Yushiro, she feels his grasp on her soften. She allows her eyes to open for but a moment, only to find two narrow slits staring at her. Kyoko attempts to shriek back, terrified by the hatred she feels brewing within her chest. Instead, the form of Lynne Soyokaze smiles and slowly lets loose of Kyoko. Lynne stands up, towering over Kyoko, beckoning with one hand, and clenching her fist with the other. Kyoko huddles up into a ball, still in shock over seeing Lynne appear. Lynn's fist crashes down upon Kyoko's frightened body…

Kyoko sits up in her bed, short of breath and sweating. Her fear quickly diminishes, giving way to regret and anguish for the past and the present. After a few moments, Kyoko regains her senses, only to find a small envelope laying on top of her bedspread. "Lovecraft" was all that was written on the front of the envelope. Kyoko knows what this means.

Hello dear child, I hope I'm not disturbing your beauty sleep. Having nightmares again? Care to know how to end these frightful visions? A certain someone is beginning to hold sway over our dear Devyn. I believe you know who I speak of. She has already begun her sweet song of redemption on our dark dancer. I wish for you to deal with this personally. Make sure her influence no longer has any affect on our mutual friend. But please, do take dear Devyn into consideration. Make sure she is dealt with in a manner that is not detrimental to our beloved friend. With the right words and the right actions, this situation should turn out to be mutually beneficial. Good day.

Kyoko remains in bed for some time, in high meditation over the letter. A smile comes across her face-- a smile she had never smiled before.

"Good morning...." Devyn enters the room, attempting to awaken Kyoko from what he believes to be a long slumber. Devyn's gaze falls upon Kyoko's bare body, the only thing keeping her from being totally exposed being the blanket loosely draping her lower body. Devyn's eyes quickly but nonchalantly shift away from Kyoko. "So... you are awake already."

Kyoko raises her eyes, attempting to catch Devyn's gaze, making no attempt to cover herself out of modesty. Devyn's eyes continue to rest just slightly askance of Kyoko.

"I was worried. Afraid last night's skirmish had hurt you more so than I thought. I am... glad to know otherwise." Devyn artfully turns around and leaves the room, leaving quickly enough to not catch the faint sigh that comes from Kyoko's mouth.

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The Amber Express trudges along on yet another one of its countless runs. The souls aboard this train are far from your normal travelers to Khazan. Anyone can reach Khazan. Few reach Khazan because they are meant to be there. That is the purpose of the Amber Express. Destiny's chauffer to Khazan.

A young girl sits alone in one of the many passenger cabins. Her hair is cut short and dyed pink, and her eyes are fixed upon a small handheld television. Nothing but static. No television receptions or any sort can pierce the blanket of the realm in which the Express travels at this moment. One of the darker realms of existence, where one could say the Universe bordered with the Void. This area still teems with the residue of the Void, for it was one of the hardest hit by the Apathy Wars some fifty years ago. Ironically, since then, the Express has traveled through this realm far more often than it did before the Wars.

The young girl continues to stare into the crackling of the television screen. She looks into the grayish tones with an almost meditative posture. There was something within the static that, on some level, was profound. Perhaps it was the juxtaposition of the chaotic liveliness of the screen onto the bleakness of the Void-tempered atmosphere of the current locale. Perhaps it was the way the gray tones danced about her eyes, blanketing her blue eyes, fusing with the sky hue of her eyes to make a melancholy shade. No matter what the circumstances, the girl is oblivious to the fact that within the last few moments her lone cabin has garnered two new arrivals from the last stop.

"Mother..." the younger of the two women questions, "I thought we had a private cabin."

The older woman looks at the young pink haired girl for a moment before responding. "I think these arrangements will work even better, Diedre."

"Why is that?"

"Why don't we ask our new friend?"

The older woman sits down across from the pink haired girl, reaching for the girl’s television, and softly turns it off. For a few moments the pink-haired girl doesn’t seem to notice the occurrence, but upon realizing that her object of interest has been tampered with, she finally lifts her eyes up to where she can see her new traveling companions. She sees the woman sitting across from her warmly smiling at her, offering her a small piece of candy.

“It must be lonely traveling alone, especially through such a dangerous part of the universe. The Hullin system is not know for being the most pleasant of realms. it’s a travesty a young one such as yourself should have to pass through such a desolate corner of the universe.”

“I’m ok.” the pink-haired girl says in a hushed voice as she takes the piece of candy and places it in a backpack resting in the seat next to her. “I find it peaceful.”

The younger woman gives the pink-haired girl a disgusted look, as if she has uttered a heretical idea, but the older woman puts a calming hand on the younger woman’s knee. “Such bravery for a young one as yourself to not fear the darkness surrounding us. But only brave souls can find access to the Amber Express, so I should not be surprised by your reaction, Madeleine.”

Madeleine’s eyes widen slightly, and her lips begin to issue forth a question.

“No need to be alarmed. I didn’t read your mind or anything of the sort. The man who took our tickets informed me we would have a guest and took the liberty of giving me your name. Madeleine Collins. A lovely name for a lovely young woman. My name is Eileen O’Conner. The impolite girl sitting next to me is my daughter, Diedre. We’re what you could call professional tourists. We have always wanted to visit Khazan, and our current situation has allowed us the privilege of traveling to that fascinating planet. If you don’t mind me asking, what brings you on this journey?”

“I was invited.”

“An invitation? Do you have relatives on Khazan? Someone important that needs to see you?”

“No. All I have is a letter, a ticket for this train, and an address. I don‘t know where or why I am going. I am merely going.”

“Undiscovered destiny… fascinating…”

Diedre gives her mother the same disgusted look she gave Madeleine moments before and proceeds to leave the cabin. “If you will excuse me… Mother…”

“Don’t mind her, Madeleine.” Madeleine in fact doesn’t mind at all since she is totally oblivious to Diedre’s reactions. “She’s been a little on edge lately, she’s so concerned with our little trip. Afraid something terrible is going to happen and has been in such an unpleasant mood since we left. She’s usually a much more cheerful girl. But enough of that, I…” Eileen’s words are broken as the cabin’s door flies open.

“Mother!” Deidre voice forces itself to shriek despite being short of breath. “Creatures… THINGS… have boarded the train! Attacking… killing…” Diedre collapses out of panic onto the seat next to her mother.

Without a single look of concern on her face, Eileen pats her child’s head while reaching for something within her jacket. “You two stay here,” Eileen says as she pulls a revolver from her jacket, “everything will be just fine.”

As Eileen steps out into the hallway, Madeleine sets down her television screen and reaches for something beneath her seat. “I’ll come with you.” From under her seat Madeleine reveals a elongated object concealed in ordinary brown cloth. Eileen’s attention trains upon Madeleine’s possession, and she nods.

Eileen and Madeleine step out into the hallway as a shambling black mass oozes into view. The creature’s form seems to contour to its surroundings, adapting to the narrow space in which its prey now dwells while disallowing the narrow space to hinder its movements. Undoubtedly Void beasts left over from the last days of the War that ravaged this solar system that managed to stow away onto the Express on their last stop.

A dark tentacle shoots out from the formless mass towards Eileen and Madeleine. Eileen dives behind an open door for cover, but Madeleine doesn’t seem to even acknowledge the projectile’s existence and calmly stands her ground, not even watching as the tentacle narrowly misses her head and retracts back into the creature’s form. Eileen quickly emerges from her cover and fires a single shot in the direction of the beast. A bright beam of light fires forth from the revolver and engulfs the creature. As the light diminishes nothing is left of the creature but a few faint whists of black smoke.

Eileen turns around to check on Madeleine and finds another shapeless beast inching closely behind the seemingly unaware Madeleine. Eileen’s gun arcs forwards to shoot the beast, but before her gun reaches its target, the cloth covering the object Madeleine drops to the ground and a glimmer of metal shines in the air as the beast is rendered in two, crumples to the ground, and instantly begins to dissolve into noxious black fumes. Madeleine’s left arm is extended into the air holding a short blade while her right arm still cradles the cloth, from which the blade’s sheath can be seen peering out into space.

“You could see it.” Eileen says matter-of-factly. “So my assumption was correct. The dormant look in your eyes was just that. Most would see those eyes and see a vacant, apathetic person-- someone devoid of any compassion or awareness. Yet you saw that creature as plainly as you would have seen be before you. Something resides within you, Madeleine, I can feel it.”

Madeleine’s expression doesn’t change. “No. Nothing resides within me. I see and do what I see and do because that is the wish of those things around me. I merely wait and react. It’s nothing special. It’s only natural.”

“I think you just proved me right by saying that, Madeleine. Now put that sword away, there shouldn’t be any more of those foul things left aboard the trait. Now how’s about we make out way to the diner car and forget about all of this cosmic nonsense.”

A faint smile crosses Madeleine’s lips. “That would be nice.