Prologue; A new idea.

A good story doesn't always start at the beginning. Here, we're caught in the middle of one.

Before I start, I'd like to make a note.  A Quintesse Blade, the weapons used by our protaginsts, is a direct physical representation of a person's will to fight.  Not everyone has one, not every person's is the same.

     Quintesse Blades are not forged by a weaponsmith, they never dull, they are unique, and if a person's Quintesse Blade is broken, or taken away from them, that person is likely to go slightly insane.  Afterall, their Quintesse Blade is a portion of their soul.

     They also have abilities.  The laws of our world do not bind them.  They can work magic, create illusions, and enhance their weilder's abilities.  They also, sometimes, have wills of their own.

     Also, a note on the names;  most character named themselves, espescially those in the Ronin (Acid, Red, Aradat, Quicksilver and Breeze), except for Aradat.  He is the only one of the Ronin to have retained the name his parents gave him.

     "Renshi" is Red's pet name for Acid.  Originally, she used it to mock him (a joke on the word "Renchin" which, in their tongue, means "great one" or "to be admired"), though over the years her dislike of him dwindled and the name stuck.  Because I'm not sure I'll get chance to explain these in the actual story.

 

 

 

 

 

The idea struck her like lightning.

     Without warning, she stopped running, span on the spot, and drew her Blade.

     “Red!”  The young man turned back, “Red, I’m telling you to run!”

I’m sorry, Renshi.  If this works, you’ll thank me.

     “Shatter the night; Light of the Full Moon.”  She closed her eyes, keeping her stance, Blade held horizontal before her with its black ribbon streaming in the wind, while her pursuers gained yet more ground on her.

Come on.  Come on!  Concentrating with all she had, she cautiously opened her eyes.  Yes!  A triumphant grin spread across her face as she saw a ring of around eight ghostly replicas of her Blade surrounding the guards.  She watched intently, wondering what might happen next.  The swords began to rotate, ribbons trailing to form an unbroken circle.  They moved slowly at first, then with more speed as they gained momentum.  The guards’ eyes darted here and there, trying to fathom what was happening, where to attack.  Suddenly, when the spectral Blades moved too quickly to be seen clearly, they stopped, hanging in the air like omens of death.  After a moment or two, they sped towards the centre of their ring, where they vanished in a flash of brightest light.  When the light dimmed, and the two Ronin could see clearly again, there was no trace of the men who had followed them.

     “Sweet!  Renshi, did you see that?”  The girl sheathed her sword with an exultant motion, and was promptly hit around the head.

     “Idiot.”  Her companion muttered, as she scowled at him, “You’re a reckless idiot, Red.”

     “Yeah, well,” The girl, Red, struggled for a comeback, “my idiocy may have just saved both our skins.”  It may not have been a home run, but it was definitely a hit.  The young man sighed, sat down on the sand, and motioned for her to do the same.

     “Red,”

     “Renshi.”

     “Tell me.  What’s the first thing you learned, when learning to wield a Quintesse Blade?”

     “ ‘Understand’.”  She quoted, dutifully.

     “The second?”

     “ ‘Know your Blade’.”  Where is he going with this?  She was getting impatient.  She wanted to be home.

     “That attack, Red,” He raised an eyebrow, “did you know it?  Did you understand it?”

     “No,” She sighed, admitting defeat, “no, I didn’t, Renshi.  That was the first time I’d used it.”

     “What were you thinking?”  The young man’s pale blue eyes softened, “You could have killed yourself.”

     “I...  I’m sorry, Renshi, but we shouldn’t have to run from those guys, like criminals!”  She slammed her fist into the sand as she spoke, angry.  The young man stood, then, and held out a hand to help his comrade up.

     “Believe it or not, Red, I do actually enjoy your company.  Don’t be so careless in future.”

     “Fine.”  Red stood, without his help, and walked ahead.  The young man laughed slightly.

     “Proud fool.”

 

It took the pair less than an hour to reach their destination, a small, derelict castle whose moat had long since dried up.

     As the rotting drawbridge was lowered, the young man stared at the various bones and rusting weapons at the bottom of the former moat.  How many attacks had this castle withstood?  How many tales had it to tell?

     “Renshi.  Are you coming, or not?”

     He nodded, and they entered their home.

 

The outer corridors and quarters were crumbling, but the main building still stood strong.  As they entered the throne room, their main place of residence, Red was attacked by a small boy with ice-blue hair.

     “Red!  You came back!  You’re alive!”  He shouted, enthused, as he hugged her so aggressively that the pair of them were sent crashing to the floor.

     “Of course I’m alive, why wouldn’t I be?”  She laughed, tousling the boy’s curls.  “Aradat, will you take your crazy brother off me?  Please?”

     “Breeze,” Aradat called, half-heartedly, pulling his cascading orange hair into a ponytail before turning to his leader.  “Acid,”

     The young man looked up, and saw that his friend was expectant of a positive answer.  He looked away, ashamed, and shook his head.

     “I’m sorry, Aradat.  We ran into some trouble.”  Acid closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples, “Apologise to Quicksilver for me... I’m tired.  I’m going to bed.”  He shook his head, then crossed the room to the staircase and vanished up it.  Aradat turned to Red, who was still battling the nine-year-old Breeze.

     “Breeze, seriously.  Get off her, I need to speak to her.”  Breeze, shocked by the severity of his brother’s tone, immediately backed away.  Aradat then helped Red to her feet and led her away from prying nine-year-old ears.  “Acid said you ran into trouble, that you didn’t get it back.”  It was a statement, not a question.

     “That’s true.  I’m sorry, Aradat.”  She stared at her hands, not wanting to meet his eyes.

     “Yeah, that’s what he said.  So.  What was so troublesome?”  Aradat gazed intently at the wall, as though he’d like nothing better than to put his fist through it.

     “Well...  Renshi...”

     “Spit it out!  What?  What about him?”

     “We... erm...” Red sighed, inhaled deeply, and then said, “Renshi’s brother’s alive, and he’s the one who ordered Ran’Tai to steal Quicksilver’s Blade.”  Aradat’s eyes grew wide.

     “Oh, s**t.”  He muttered.  “Why didn’t he say so?”

     “I don’t know.  But listen; don’t tell Quicksilver we came back, just yet.  I’m going back to the city tonight, to see if I can do something.  They’ll never expect it, when we’ve only just failed our fifth attempt.”

     “On your own?”  When Red nodded, Aradat continued, “Not a chance.  If you’re going, I’m coming with you.”

     “Nemamiah’s hardly a weapon designed for stealth, now, is he?”  She responded, an eyebrow raised.  She knew she was going to lose this argument.

 

Author's Note

Story is two years old, I've not had chance to clean it up properly yet.

I know my dialogue's bad. I've always been bad at writing long conversations because I'm paranoid about getting into "he said, she said, he said, they said, she said, he said," etc.
Names of the Quintesse Blades are decided by the Blade, not the weilder. A person only acquires their Blade (if they have one) after much soul-searching to find its name.

Also, I'm bad at writing for more than two characters at a time, so at the parts where it gets messy, blame a fourteen-year-old mind and my own ineptness.

Reviews

[Callum Dalloway]

Ooo I'm sensing the start of something here...and light of the full moon sounds a bit me! Lol, I may have found a favourite character...already!!

=] I like, so keep going. I shall now read more, follow me gentle viewers!

[l0urEn]

this is really good ^^
I really really really wish i could finish reading it now... but i still have some things to do (stupid reporting...)
even though it's not really clean yet, it was a good read.
I'll just put on some notes so you could see the errors (at least the errors i saw, which wouldn't probably be that many LOL)

[Star Catcher]

"Breeze, seriously. Get off her, I need to speak to her."
So awesome. XD

I'm very intrigued by this whole story. Keep going, I love it. ^^

[Liam]

I think this story is AWESOME. Seriously, finish it. I'm going to add you as a friend so I don't forget. Seriously, well done, and if you feel you can improve your writing, go for it! Well done!