The wizard's blonde hair hung like strands of gold around his face, as he gazed across the water. And his smile was almost angelic as he looked to the King.
"As I said before, Ashura, I'm running out of time quickly now," He tilted his head to the side, listening.... "And the ninja is almost here."
But perhaps the wizard had slightly misjudged the quickness of purpose, for the ninja appeared at the doorway, swaying slightly, but there nonetheless, and ready to kill.
And the boy too...........
"Ah, an audience......." the wizard smiled. "Good."
Fai lifted his staff high in the air, once again, and began to draw the words of his magic, and the King was at once encased in glass.... the water rising up from the pool to take him.
"Goodbye, Ashura," Fai smiled. "The Kingdom will await your awakening."
Suddenly, a reflection from the glass blinded the wizard, and he put out a hand to block the glare....
In real time, only a second could have passed, but for the wizard, the vision seemed to last nearly a lifetime...........
He saw........himself......
Or was it?
It's me..........but it's not.....
He stood on a cliff...
a cliff in his own snow filled world........a place that he knew....
With wide eyes, the wizard watched himself fall from the cliff.....
watched the wind take him......no, it's not me!
and then gasped, as the ninja threw himself down to save him..
It couldn't be!
Not the very same man.............Kurogane..
And then again he saw.......
This time the ninja held him close......he felt the man's lips against his own,
felt his love, need and the strength of Kurogane's arms around him........
And then, the wizard's amazed eyes cleared.
He looked to the King, now sleeping, suspended in the pool of rippling water.
"Now we're even," He said to the King.
Fai then turned to face the ninja and the boy, eyes still filled with wonder at the vision.
