<em>“The shadow is a cowardly beast.”<br/><br/>The young girl that kneeled before the speaker looked up quickly.  Eyes that would normally avert stared on him as if to ensure that he had spoken such a thing.  Confusion touched her heart and fear brushed her soul that somehow she had displeased enough to speak his words so.  Black hair parted before her youthful face.  Only a few winters had passed since her arrival, but already she was showing signs of beauty and grace.  Such signs were a painful thing to watch for her people as they would become nothing more than a pretty façade for the shadow.  Yurei was but a vessel for the powers that lived inside her blood.  <br/><br/>“Sensei, how can you say such a thing?  The shadow goes where others cannot, strikes where none can touch and moves through the crowd of his enemies to return home and fight another night.  Is that not bravery enough?”<br/><br/>The elderly figure looked down on her.  Almond eyes narrowed to slits that sent shivers down her spine.  Whispers spoke of the man killing students younger than her and for far less insult than she had given.  She had no need to defend her clan to this man, a known warrior and assassin for the Masters.  His reputation was without peer, yet he spoke against the very clan that had taught him such a trade.  There was anger in her eyes, but respect steadied herself in place.<br/><br/>“To hide ourselves in our own shadow, draw strength from another creature alien to our kind and then use that strength to strike down another being is cowardly.  Do not mistake cowardice for stupidity or weakness girl.  A coward hides when they must, strikes at their attacker’s heels and grovels at their feet to gain distance.  Cowards survive to go out another night for their clan and people.”<br/><br/>The lesson was presented and Yurei took wisdom from his words.  Such wisdom would not truly blossom in her heart until years later.  Yet he had planted the seed.</em><br/><br/>Yurei stepped forward from the realm that was now unfamiliar to her.  A lithe limb slipped forward from the unseen portal between the worlds.  Around her the shadow continued to slide over her body, like ink the creature stained her very flesh.  Shadows clung to the surface of that figure, caressing her with a lover’s touch.  The air seemed to grow darker with her presence, light shifting away as if in fear of her attention.  He would be hard pressed to see the evidence of her female frame.  The shadow wrapped around her disguised her, shielded her from the burden of human appearance.  Eyes of the deepest water stared at him with lifeless intent.<br/><br/>Around her waist he could see the markings of a weapon.  The simple shaft of a kama hung at her side.  A chain of dark steel was linked to the base of that weapon, coiled tightly just below so that she could easily remove the weapon.  Such a creation was deadly in the right hands, a weapon of misdirection and a quick death.  No doubt other instruments of death hung beneath the flow of her shadow, waiting for her command to strike.  Still she made no movement to touch the items.  Instead her silence persisted while he spoke and displayed his power.  Chunyang would be hard pressed to find a time when her sister displayed herself so openly, shrouded in the essence of her own shadow.  She knew that deep down; Yurei despised the creature that claimed her.<br/><br/>When Yurei spoke, the voice was not the whisper of a mind’s touch.  To speak outside of the Shadow Realm was to ask the creature around her to speak.  Her mouth did not open while the words emerged.  “You are demon and slaver to this world.  Our Masters bid you return to the planes you came least we send you there ourselves.”<br/>