In the deepest parts of Xiater, Mai found an inn. The Dark Fly, it was called. The run-down status of it, and the buildings around, along with the odd, dark looks of those on the common room, at Mai and Casari, as they entered, confirmed Mai’s opinion that the Dark Fly had been built in quite an unsavory locale.

All the better, Mai thought. She didn’t want to be where law-abiding citizens frequented. She wanted a place where everyone had a secret to keep.

Mai walked up to the counter, as calmly as she was able, while using an arm to keep a spent Casari to keep from topping over. He hobbled along with her.

“What do you want, pretty?” asked the man at the counter. He was big, ill-kempt, and playing with a knife, scratching it across the surface of the table before him.

“A room for the night,” said Mai.

The black-haired innkeeper looked around, to the others who slouched about the common room. “What do you think, boys?” he asked. “Should we let this girl, and her strong, powerful man stay the night?”

Casari looked up at the insult, and lurched away from Mai, to her horror, forcing himself to stand on his own two feet, which did not look like they could support him for long.

“I might be spent,” he said, gazing at the innkeeper with those gray eyes of his, that had lost none of their intensity, “but the one you so kindly refer to as a girl, is not.”

The innkeeper seemed taken aback by Casari’s high-minded words. He turned from him, back to Mai, and walked around the side of the counter, coming out to face Mai.

“So your man, thinks you can take me,” said the innkeeper, cracking his knuckles. “Can you?”

Those around laughed, and Mai realized she was not in the mood for this. Following up on what Casari had taught her, Mai’s right hand darted out, and struck one of the innkeeper’s pressure points, on the back of his neck. She slammed his head down, hard, on the table he had spent his time carving.

His buddies laughed.

Mai released him, and the innkeeper stood back up. “You can stay,” he said, wearily, and Mai, using some coins from Casari, paid for the room.

Then she helped Casari hobble into it, and together, they closed the door.

Casari took the bed, and Mai, out of respect of his injuries, took the floor. The questions and the answers would have to wait until morning. Mai and Broken were soon fast asleep.

Morning.

Mai awoke to find herself neither robbed, nor with the Makini, but instead on the floor of that small, dirty room in the Dark Fly she had checked into the night before.

Mai got up, and saw that Casari still lay upon the bed, breathing slowly. He was facedown upon a pillow, and by no means looked like a man who was capable of what he was. He looked deeply tired.

But still, like the Broken of old, as Mai stared long enough, Casari rolled over, and sat up, looking at Mai with those gray eyes.

Mai sat down on the bed beside him, and looked at him in shock, as she saw the state he truly was in. The night before, she had not gotten a very close look, but now…

Casari still wore his armor, but red stained the leather, all over. Mai gasped, and reached for his hand, then dropped it in haste, fearful that she had hurt him.

For Casari’s right hand was charred black, and covered with blisters.

Mai looked at him.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” she said.

“It was worth it,” said Casari, wincing as he gazed at his mangled forearm, as if feeling renewed pain. “I saved you. I will live, and this-” he held up his hand, “-will heal, in time. As will my other wounds.”

Mai just looked at him.

“Now,” said Casari, “do you want to hear the story, the whole story, of how I came to be here today? Of who I really am?”

Mai nodded.

“Then I shall tell it,” said Casari. “I shall tell it, after all this time. Do note though, that it may all not make sense until the very end. So I ask you, please, to not interrupt me.”

Mai nodded, again.

“To do this right,” said Casari, “I must start at the beginning. I was born in the year Seventy-Seven Tachen, I was born Fash Realer, son of a poor fisherwoman. I had no siblings; I was the result of a rape. The House my mother swore allegiance to as long since passed out of existence, but I shall tell the name of it to you, now. It was House Ixan.”

“I’ve never heard of that House,” Mai said, trying to come to grips with what Casari was saying.

“I did not expect you to,” said Casari. “But please, let me continue.” The words seemed hard for him to speak.

“I was always, as my mother called it, ‘the best of the best.’ Not my words. Hers. I was always stronger than my fellow children, always faster, always more intelligent, always more capable, and as I grew older, these differences became more and more pronounced. Some told me the God-Kings had special plans for me. Others told me I was demon-spawn, and that whatever had impregnated my mother had been no man, at all.”

Casari looked at Mai, carefully. “However, later events proved that not to be the case. I am as human as you are, Mai.” He took another pause.

“In any case, I grew up, one way or another, as one of the lower class. Despite the hopes and dreams of my mother, and her small circle of friends, I fully expected to never be more than a fisherman.

“One day, that all changed. I was eighteen, when one in a brown robe entered my small fishing village. He asked the elders where he could find me, and they pointed him in the right direction, all the while wondering what a stranger could want with Fash Realer.

“The one with the brown robe found me alone, fishing on a wharf. He then approached me, and revealed to me who he truly was; he was no man at all, he was a Nari. A Nari, by the name of Slytherayaim. The Third Guide. I had never been one to put much stock in myths or legends, and so, seeing a real Nari before me, I was frightened. After I asked Slytherayaim what he wanted, and the Nari answered, I became terrified.

“You see, Mai, back in the year Seventy-Seven Tachen, the Empire was ruled by Emperor Nikui. Emperor Nikui had been on the throne for a dozen years, and by few accounts was he a good man. As years progressed, he took deeper and deeper cuts out of the Imperial Treasury, for his own uses. These cuts resulted in a lack of food to go around in famine years, and thousands starved, but still, Emperor Nikui would not explain his actions. When lords spoke up against him, Nikui declared them traitors, and executed them, stripped them of their ranks, and had their assets seized. It began to be common rumor that Emperor Nikui was spending thousands of the nation’s gold coins on studies, studies of the dark magics, studies on how to extend life, and studies on how to gain power, and more power. In an attempt to divert attention away from himself, he declared war on several outsider states, beyond the Empire’s borders. And thus, by the time Slytherayaim came to me, Mai, not only had thousands died of famine because of his actions, thousands had also died in pointless war.

“But now, I return, to I and Slytherayaim, alone, on the wharf. By this point, the wars had raged for two years. There, the Nari told me that I had been born with special purpose. I, and I alone, had the power to depose the madman that Nikui had become, and bring back peace to the world, by founding a new dynasty.

“More than a thousand years ago, Slytherayaim told me that I was the Anointed One.”

Mai gasped, but stifled herself, before she said more.

“I had a similar reaction,” said Casari. “I could not believe that I was going to be He Who Was Anointed, He Who Was Chosen. I thought the entire concept was a legend. And yet, there I was, on that wharf, face to face with a Nari. Clearly, some of my perceptions were going to change.

“Slytherayaim told me that he had searched for years, before finding me. He told me that my old life was over, and refusal of my destiny was not an option. He renamed me. He renamed me Casari is Koranor, and told me that when I sat upon the throne of the Empire, a House would be founded in my name. House Casari.

“And thus began my epic journey, my epic journey that, the Nari promised, would end in my destined victory. But things were not easy.

“I gathered an army about me, and surrounded myself with Nari advisors, and raised the flag of rebellion. But Nikui was determined not to go down, at least, to not go down without a fight.

“And so, civil war raged through the Empire, the battles with the outsider states forgotten. And for six long years, we fought. The north and the east were filled with my allies, but the south and the west, they belonged to Nikui.

“In those six years, I changed, from a naïve boy with boundless potential, to one of the greatest warriors in the history of the Empire, a warrior bent on conquering himself the Empire, for the sake of the Natural Order, but a warrior disillusioned by war.”

Casari paused, and swallowed.

“One day, in a brief respite from the fighting, I returned home to my mother, in the small fishing village that I grew up in. I greeted my mother, and embraced her, glad to be home.

“And then, as I held her in my arms, one of Nikui’s assassins shot her with a poison dart. She died in my arms. I came after that assassin, hunted him down, made him beg for his life, and killed him, but even as I did so, I wondered: what was the point? When I returned to my generals, I told them we had to win the war, and quickly.

“In that sixth year of the fighting, my point seemed proven. Nikui’s murder of my mother was only the first of his attacks. His armies pushed forward in all directions, and in that year, in that sixth year, it seemed everything I had fought for, would come to naught.

“In my desperation, I came to the Nari. I told them that they had prophesied, and they had predicted, but it now seemed that they were going to be wrong. I told them that if things went on like this, for another year, I would be lucky to be alive then, much less an emperor.

“And they told me what I had to do, Slytherayaim taking the lead of their chorus of voices. He said that Nikui’s beast was fearsome, but it had one crucial weakness: the head. If I lopped off the head, Nikui’s beast would die. And what was the head? Nikui himself, of course. I had to pierce the defenses of the Imperial City, and kill him.

“A daring raid on the Occluded Palace was planned. I was going along of course, along with my best friend, the General Tyasku, and my lover, Iru. Tyasku was a superb fighter, almost my match, and Iru, she was as good as he. Even though I cared deeply about them both, I knew they had to come along, and face the dangers with me, for I would need all the help I could get, if the Nari’ plan was to succeed.

“The night before the assault, I spoke with them both. Tyasku told me not to worry about him; that I should worry about myself, for I was the one spoken of in legend, not him. He told me he would gladly die so that I could take the throne. I then went to Iru. She told me much of the same, and then we made love. And then the time for action broke.

“I, Tyasku, and Iru, along with a half-dozen more of my best soldiers, snuck into the Occluded City, by cover on night. But then, of course, things began to go horribly wrong. We were perhaps halfway to Nikui’s bedchambers, when a guard spotted us, and sounded the alarm. We raced through the halls that night, into an ambush. We slew many of the Imperial Guards, but my men began to drop, as well. My men began to die for me. Soon, all of mine were dead, save I, Tyasku, and Iru. Tyasku turned to the swarm of Imperial Guards, and told I and Iru, under no uncertain terms, that we had to turn, and go one without them. He told us that he would hold the Imperial Guards off, long enough for I and Iru to evade them.

“As I and Iru ran, in the hope that somehow, we could complete our mission, Tyasku…Ty…threw himself upon the soldiers. He must have killed a dozen, before he was brought down. But nevertheless, as we escaped, Iru and I saw him die.

“We rushed onwards, in the hope of somehow, completing our goal, and so, we came upon Nikui’s bedchamber. But another trap had been prepared for us. Nikui was there, indeed, but accompanied by a full cadre of soldiers, along with a golem, courtesy of the Makini. Indeed, House Makin was alive back then, too, and they fought on the side of Nikui.

“I stood there, in my horror, realizing how I was trapped. And then Nikui spoke. I remember the words exactly. ‘Six years is a long time,’ he said, ‘and in that time, you, Chosen One, have caused me much annoyance. And so now, I will break you.’

“And so, he took Iru, and he tortured her, before my eyes.”

Casari’s eyes welled up with tears, but he did not shed them.

Mai looked at him, but no words could be used to describe her feelings. However, Casari answered them perfectly.

“I did not find a miracle to save myself, that day,” he said. “I could not have won. If I did, do you really think I would be here, today? The only thing that should interest you is what exactly happened.”

He continued. “And then, Nikui killed Iru, after he had tortured her, before my eyes, in ways that I do not wish to describe. And then, he turned to me. ‘What can I do to you,’ he asked, ‘that will be payback for six wasted years?’ And then he smiled and said, ‘I know just what to do.’

“He took my sword Aurasing, and, with the dark magic he had spent years perfecting, etched runes into my sword, to scar both it, and me.”

At that moment, Casari pulled his sword from its sheath, and showed Mai the words of the ancient tongue. “The owner of this sword is fallen,” he translated, and then sheathed his sword back.

“And at that moment, Mai, I was,” he continued. “I had seen the two closest to me die, both in vain. Nikui laughed, and said that he knew a spell, one that would torment me forever. And so, as I stood, basking in the shock, in the horror of it all, Nikui cast his spell.

“I was imprisoned in a crystal. I could not feel, nor see, nor hear, nor smell, nor taste, nor touch. And I remained as such for a thousand years, until this one.”

Mai looked at Casari’s face, studying it carefully.

“A thousand years, Mai,” said Casari. “I went insane within that crystal. Several times. I lost my sanity, then gained it again, and then lost it again. I hallucinated, hallucinated that Iru and Tyasku were alive, hallucinated that I had won the war. But in the end, reality sunk in. I was trapped, with nothing but my own mind to keep me company.

“I counted the seconds for two years. But in the end, with nothing to do to pass the time, I focused my mind on greater pursuits. I focused my mind on trying to understand the mysteries of life: why I had lost, in spite of the prophecy, and why I was here, being punished for good deeds.

“Centuries passed, and all I could think about was philosophy,” said Casari. “Perhaps now you can realize why I was so full of random quotes, before. But, in any case, I decided that the God-Kings did not exist. How could they? How could they make the world fair, if I was enduring, what I was enduring?”

He paused. “I could go on like this, but I do not think you need to hear any more, of what was within my head, when I was within that crystal. I will skip ahead, to the day I awoke.

“I awoke. There was no other real word for it. After a millennia, I was free again. I had no idea it really had been a millennia, yet, but I knew it had been a long, long time.

“And as I awoke, the crystal dissolving to dust all around me, I saw that I was in an abandoned basement room of a palace, which I immediately guessed was the Imperial Palace. I found that my body had not aged, that it had been kept in perfect stasis.

“And then I heard screaming. It had been long, oh so long, but deep within me still existed a fundamental truth: If innocent people were in trouble, and I had the power to help them, I was obliged to. I checked to make sure all of my gear was in place, which it was, after all those centuries, and then I found a set of stairs, and ran up them.

“Even as I did this, my mind pointed out my folly. I knew not what was going on. I had no idea what year it was. I had no idea if when I arrived to help those people, who were screaming, if I could actually help them.

“And even as I did this, even as I ascended the stairs, I was being assaulted with what it meant to sense things again. I could have marveled at the sight of a stone floor for days, delighting that I knew it was there.

“But I had always been one for duty, and even in this mysterious new world, that I had been freed into, for reasons unknown, I decided that I had to find a purpose. And so, I decided to help those screaming people.

“I came up one flight of stairs, then another, as I saw people running in all directions, paying me no heed. I saw that the Palace was on fire, and I saw that the only thought upon the minds of those around me, was that they wanted to get out.

“And so I made a fundamental conclusion. In a building of the Imperial Palace’s size, it was quite possible that someone was trapped above, within the fire, wanting to escape, and not being able to.

“I didn’t know why the building was on fire, why there was chaos on the streets, whether it was for good, or for ill, but I knew I could use my talents to keep some from perishing in the fire.

“And so I searched the building, the Palace, ablaze. Just as I was about to give up hope of accomplishing my naïve task, I heard a distant shout, one of ‘Stop!’ And I knew whoever had uttered that cry, I had to help them.”

Mai remembered. She remembered when Varsis had grasped his metal hand upon her throat, and she had shouted out ‘Stop!’ to remind him that if he killed her, personally, it would bring him dishonor.

Had that single cry really saved her life?

“And so,” said Casari, “I rushed to the sound of that voice, as fast as I could, through the smoke, through the fire. And when I arrived, I saw a scene of horror: I saw a warrior forcing a girl’s head into a pillow, trying to suffocate her. I saw you then, Mai, and I knew I had to save you.

“You know what comes next. I killed the man, and, using my knowledge of the Imperial Palace, preserved after all those years, I led us to the stables, and we escaped.”

Even as Casari spoke, Mai was reliving the experience. Reliving it, from his side of awareness. He had been as confused as her.

“And then,” said Casari, “as you know much of the rest, I shall flash forward to the first thing you do not know. Our first real conversation. You asked me what my name was. It had been a long time, and I knew time turned truth into myth, so I was reluctant to give out my real name. For all I knew, that name could have turned into a joke, one that was used to describe another who was a complete and utter failure. And so, I told you my name, but in a guarded way, saying, ‘I can be Casari is Koranor, if you wish me to be.’ That way, my words could have been perceived as a joke, if my name was a joke, or perceived as the truth, if there was no special bias against that name.

“And then you told me that Casari is Koranor was the name of a demon, and instantly, I learned the truth. It had not been enough for Nikui to do all the things he did to me; he had to deface my name, as well. And so, I uttered four simple words. ‘My name is broken.’”

Mai gasped, in realization of the truth of what Casari had meant, when he had spoken.

“My lament, you interpreted to be my actual name,” said Casari, “and I let it be. After all that time, Broken was an apt enough word to describe me.”

He paused.

“And that is how Broken came to be. You know the rest.”