The Lone Fisherman felt out of his element. His old (yet still strong) legs carried him step by slow step up the steep, wooded slopes of the Highlands. There was nothing but moist earth and mossy wood all around Kreed. Not a large body of water in sight. He felt somewhat claustrophobic being constantly smothered by the rich, evergreen boughs that swayed gently overhead. He closed his eyes breifly and breathed slowly in…then slowly out. He felt his anxiety slowly trickle away as he meditated on the task at hand. For a great task he had before him.

Kreed got his bearings as he spotted the nearby crest of a proud mountain and steered himself a little more West. He heard a rumor that up this climb there was a body of water. One could call it a mountain spring. Another could call it a natural fountain. Someone else might just stay at fountain. The Lone Fisherman would call refer to it as his own fountain of youth.

Kreed laughed slightly at the notion. It wasnt THE Fountain of Youth fondly referred to in myth and legends, yet it may lead to youth regardless. The Lone Fisherman was seeing the river of his life slowly beginning to flow to a close and he still had not accomplished that which mattered most.

The balance and harmony of all living things.

He had already found and held onto the peace and joy that comes from balance. He even found joy from vanquishing those who would bring chaos or imbalance. Yet his lifes work seemed so miniscule compared to the large expanse of history behind him, the brief present before him, and the vast unkown future ahead of him.

Kreed sought this fountain as one step in his plan to achieve longer life. He must see his work accomplished. Supposedly there is a goddess that lives beyond this world. A goddess who is referred to as the Mistress of Keys or the Guardian of Secrets. Her realm can only be accomplished a number of ways and one of those ways is a reflection. The rumors claim that the fountain at the top of the Highlands has a surface so smooth that you cannot tell if the the reflection is real or the reality is the reflection. It is here that Kreed will gaze upon the surface and wish entrance to the Shinjitsu no Kagi, the realm of the Mistress of Keys, and ultimately long life.

Just as Kreed felt his heart lift from the thought of furthering his work he felt the air grow considerably colder. The dew in the air and on the grass seemed heavier and almost alive. He tread more lightly and came around the bend of a large piece of natural granite.

And there he saw the fountain. Its surface so smooth, so reflective, and so clean that he felt that if he could show this to the world then his goal of universal harmony would be accomplished.

"So it begins." The Lone Fisherman whispered softly to himself.

Eternal life: a wish so common that one might think it was no longer a secret in the present age. For countless millennia, men have sought the means to escape their mortality, even to the point of genocide. They all have stood in fear and regret of the inevitable, trying to run away whilst the reaper's scythe was already around their neck.
 
Yet for all their collective power of observation, not one mortal in this group of seekers had found an ideal solution. Kreed, by far, was not the first to embark on this mad quest, nor would he be the last. In fact, his kind were so numerous that the Goddess had failed to notice him during his climb to the fountain in the Highlands. She had been napping in her chair in Aisatsu when her guest finally arrived at the reflection, and stirred only when his gaze found the entryway.
 
"Another doomed soul come to find an escape," she muttered while opening her eyes to the light of the fireplace once Kreed was in position. "What will he offer, I wonder?" She stood from her chair after her remark and walked toward the door of Himitsu no Koa. She touched the wooden frame upon arrival, and spoke directly to her realm once she had decided on which trial the Lone Fisherman should face. "Send him to Kuso."
 
Thus the gauntlet was thrown. Whilst Kreed looked out over the fountain, wishing to enter Shinjitsu no Kagi, an image of the Goddess's eye suddenly and violently overshadowed his reflection. Reality split open in that instant, whisking the elder from his location on the shore and placing him squarely inside Arashi. The room that greeted him after this transition possessed a solitary mirror on the 6 o'clock wall, and was, otherwise, an amorphous mess. It did not remain in this limbo state for long, true, but the experience entry was already disorienting for the uninitiated without feeling like their idea of space was also disappearing.
 
Despite this, Natsumi waited till she returned to her rocking chair before she allowed the trial to begin. 'I see the wounds of war in your heart and the sting of tragedy that has been stowed away for several decades,' she thought once she sat back down to watch her guest from afar. 'Let us see if your resolve toward balance is great enough to withstand a living memory.'
 

In that instant, Kreed's room was allowed to change. The mirror disappeared, and the fog cleared into a replica of his childhood home. At the same time, the figures of his late parents appeared before him, looking as if they were still alive and had not met with the soldier's blade. It was a trick, a play on the fisherman's memory meant to give him pause; and only by seeing through the illusion would he be allowed to advance on his quest.

Kreed was uncertain what exactly happened when he stared into that pool. He felt that he saw…something reflecting back at him. But before he could even remotely grasp what he saw he felt his head rotate to where his feet was and the feet where his head should be. It was so sudden that the monk hardly felt the transition flip in his stomach until a short breath later. As soon as his stomach caught up with where his body was now he felt his perception flip again, again, and again. He became disoriented and helpless and tried desperately to hold onto his consciousness. He grit his teeth and focused on meditation. He was not going to be someones play thing. He was going to prove that he was worthy of a longer life. A fools quest it might be, yet he was an old fool so the quest was perfect.

At this thought he breathed out the disorientation in a chuckle and waited for the movement to stop. As soon as he found his determination again he had already stopped moving. He tried to focus on what seemed to be a strange room with a single mirror in front of him but that vanished instantly and he saw that he was outside of an old seashide shack. A shack that seemed familiar and wrong at the same time. It was HIS seaside shack! His old home!

The old brown wood was peeling and split in many places. Kreed remember the chilly sea air whipping in through multiple holes. He used to pretend that the wind was arrows coming in through the holes of the house and he had to dodge all the holes in his house to make it outside. The chimney was decaying from the top down and there was still the smell of oily smoke coming from the opening above. Kreed would often gather rotting driftwood to feed the fire. His mother complained often when he brought the oily wood to the fire, constantly belittling his work. She didnt realize that there was no other wood to gather. She never realized much of anything. Especially when she was drunk.

Almost as if on cue his mother stumbled roughly out of the house with a clay jug of ale already half empty.

"Oy ya stupid boy! Where is that *hic* wood for the fire? Yer father'ssss in here dying of chill and ye just stand out here yapping at te birds? Ya useless whelp! *hic*"

Kreed stared silently back at his inebriated mother trying to make sense of what his eyes were seeing. "This isn't real," He whispered as quitely as he could, "This just can't possibly be real."

Kreed began to feel the foundation of his senses crumble around him and the structure of his soul unwraveling. He saw his parents die. he watched unblinkingly as they were butchered in front of him. How could they possibly be here now? His head and chest hurt terribly. He glanced around and noticed that his crippled father also was outside just laying against the side of the shack. He stared with empty, soulless eyes towards the ocean. When Kreed's father was crippled he lost all the hope of living and never spoke or laughed again. He just lay in the sand most of the time, being hand-fed and carried from place to place.

"Eh? Whats that ye say whelp? *hic* You want te pet a seal? What kinda foolishness ye talkin' bout now ye empty headed, worthless, pathetic, weak, excuse for a son? Ye hearin' this nonsense Tenser? Yer boy wants te pet a seal. He's as useless as ye are!"

Kreed's father just stared at the windy ocean.

Kreed thumbed his prayer beads desperately as he blocked out the echoing words of his abusive mother. He prayed over and over to the water spirits to cease whatever curse was upon him. He didnt want to hear his mother's words. To see his father's hopeless eyes. He didnt want to feel the switch across his back. He wanted to fish. He wanted to help people. He wanted balance. He-

He stopped.

Why was he afraid? He was a monk. A man dedicated to the benefit and healing of others. He was tired of being the useless, cowering child inside, especially to a cripple and a drunk. He had the capability and kindness to overcome them. He made a promise. And if that meant helping those who had hurt him the most then so be it.

He opened his eyes and stared at his mother with a new determination. A determination that was as strong as the ocean was deep. He wanted to help her. He stared briefly at her angry, snarling face and then charged forward.

Dead or not he was going to help them.

Although she had never been fond of torture, Natsumi used a form of the horrid practice in order to protect those that would seek her domain. Weakness equated to death in the realm of secrets, more often than. She had seen it before, watched the remorse it brought to those that cared about the careless; and had decided she would no longer contribute to a problem brought about by willful blindness.
 
That was why Kreed was suffering in her domain during his initial visit. Abuse survivors typically hung onto their memories even into old age. They commonly developed learned helplessness, becoming weak-willed individuals that went along with the crowd or whatever idea was planted into their head at any time. The Lone Fisherman, as the Goddess could see, did not think of himself as among this group, but he still faltered when he saw his late parents – just as the Ice Queen's estimations said he would.
 
This act of memory assault was Natsumi's modus operandi. To test the resolve of her visitors, she showed them the secret closest to their heart, the cutting edge that was most effective against their soul. 'If they could not overcome their past,' Natsumi thought, 'then they didn't deserve to find the answers they sought by coming to her.'
 
But Kreed did pass her test. He struggled with the illusions, at first, but overcame his fears and misgivings enough to confront his past instead of submit to it. It was enough; he had done enough to gain the Goddess's attention.  
 
"Not many sufferers of abuse could so quickly cast off their chains," the satisfied woman's voice sounded out in the room where her guest stood charging, "when confronted with the abusers they thought to be long dead." Each syllable of her revelation dispelled a portion of the shadow memory, eventually returning the Kuso room to one of stone instead of sea air. There were no more parents to taunt the old man; no more rundown, seaside shack to haunt his reality. There was only a monk and the disembodied voice of his host."Secrets is a dangerous realm, Kreed," the latter continued in this newfound void, "one fraught with peril and hidden danger. Without proper strength of will, it is liable to consume you, and so there are barriers to ward off those too curious for their own good. By facing the phantoms of your past and not falling prey to their trappings, you have proven to me that you may have what it takes. As a result, I give you permission to pass, Lone Fisherman. Your trial in Kuso, the realm of simple secrets, is sufficient to gain entry to Himitsu no Koa."
 
With that said, a door decorated in the symbolism of the sea opened on the far end of Kreed's chamber. Beyond lay the greeting room where Natsumi resided, a place where she was still sitting calmly in her rocking chair while clothed in a white kimono and wearing a black mask to cover the bottom half of her face.
 

"Tea. Earl Gray. Hot," she recited once she was finished creating that door for her guest. A pristine, pewter cup materialized in her hand in response to the command, with Earl Gray tea already steeping inside. The scent of the brew would be the first smell her guest caught upon entry.

Kreed was startled as he listened to the powerful female voice surround him. It was like a powerful wind that could easily blow you over yet decided to be gently for your sake. As it spoke he could see the vision of his old home and deceased parents blow away on the currents of the voice. The monk shook his head disgracefully. He should have had better control over his emotions. He knew they were dead…he WATCHED them die. But as the words of the powerful, young, feminine voice met his ears he realized that he must have done the task that required entrance to the goddess.

"- I give you permission to pass, Lone Fisherman. Your trial in Kuso, the realm of simple secrets, is sufficient to gain entry to Himitsu no Koa." The voice of the Mistress of Keys finished.

With that the old monk found himself in the chamber once more facing an open door that had a beautiful engraving of the symbol of the sea on its face. It was a symbol from his homeland that he always loved and felt peaceful looking upon it.

Through the door he saw the frame of an elegent, young lady dressed in clothes similar to his own. They were a pure white, more clean and pristine than any pearl in the ocean that Kreed had seen. To contrast the white kimono she wore a black mask, as dark as a shadowy key-hole that obviously held thousands upon thousands of secrets behind it.

As a cup of some beverage appeared in her hand while she sat upon her rocking chair the old monk was uncertain how to react. He had never encountered a divine before and despite his old, experienced age he had a hard time deciding upon an action.

He ultimately decided to be honest in his movements and speech to the goddess. He crossed the threshold of the door that bore the symbol of the sea into the chamber where she sat patiently. His steps were soft and showed no arrogance in them. The monk had the wisdom to know when he was in the presence of his betters. He stopped at an appropriate distance from her and continued to show respect in the tradition of his people. He knelt down slowly, one knee after the other. Removed his weapons and placed them on his right, and his possesions on his left. He then placed his palms in the 'Humble Starfish Bows to the Tide' position and bowed deeply to the deity.


"My Mistress Natsumi, Mistress of the Keys, and Guardian of Secrets. I recognize your position and authority here and have come as one seeking counsel. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak with you and for your potential advice."


He paused here briefly for what he felt was an appropriate length while she took another sip of her drink before continuing.

"As my mistress can behold I am an old man. In some cultures I am very old indeed and am viewed upon as at the end of years. I feel and know that my soul can go longer than my body can. It is this cursed, expiring body as to why I am kneeling before you. I have work to do on this plane. I have made an oath to help all people and bring harmony to all life. It is this and another reason that I come before. I would beseech thee to reveal the secret of a longer life."


At the end of this comment he bowed lower and breathed in the aromatic spice that enveloped around him that was obviously tea of some sorty and waited for her response.

The aroma of Natsumi's tea was swift to waft through the doorway when Kreed opened it, but she herself remained stationary. She watched her guest with piercing eyes, measuring his worth in ways he was not yet aware of. His wish was far from secret at this point, even if his gracious words betrayed he thought otherwise. At least the Lone Fisherman had the good sense to be polite in asking, unlike some of his predecessors; but still, he had much to learn over lunch.
 
"Food first," the Goddess responded to the request given her, taking another sip from her cup after Kreed was finished speaking. "I've already taken the liberty to prepare a medley of your favorites." One of the miniature tables in the room, along with one of the chairs, appeared in front of Kreed once these words left the woman's mouth. On the table sat a plate flanked by fork and knife, and filled to brim with salmon seasoned with lemon, garlic, rosemary, and butter. There was also a side dish of fried abalone and raw conch meat, exactly as the fisherman preferred.
 
This meal, while seemingly out of nowhere, was actually Natsumi's way of granting her elder guest a courtesy: a last meal, so to speak. He was a courteous person, sensible. He deserved to at least know what he was getting into before stepping further into the rabbit hole, so the Ice Queen provided him with an appetizer to enjoy whilst she explained his situation.
 
"As someone who has researched me enough to discover a name beyond just the titles others have given me, Kreed," she stated while motioning for him to rise and take a seat, "you deserve my frankness on this matter." There was a pause at this point, specifically meant to give the fisherman time to move. Natsumi would continue regardless of whether he took the food or not, but she, at least, wanted to give him a chance to accept. "You desire something that many others have sought in the past and will continue to seek in the future, but it is not so simple an endeavor that I can simply tell you what you want to know. If I were in the business of giving away information for free, after all, my realm would be Wisdom instead of Secrets."
 
Indeed, Secrets was not a realm of charity, as Kreed's words might have suggested. It was a place where one careless step could spell your doom; where the reaper had to be bribed in order to move anywhere on the board. Caution and tact were law: a fact that Natsumi's upcoming story would illustrate.
 
"Let me tell you a tale to show what I mean," she continued. "This is the story of a man; in fact, the first man who came to me in search of a longer life. He had been a smoker and drinker for many years, and those habits were catching up to him. He had already begun to have a horrible cough in his 50th year, and his throat felt like it was being constantly scratched by daggers. He knew he was on death's door, so he came to me in search of a means to extend his vitality. Now the part I haven't mentioned is that this man was also rich, and accustomed to getting everything he wanted. He lived a privileged life, so much so that he had the gall to come into my home, pass the trial set before him and then think that a preliminary was enough for him to demand a closely guarded secret. He failed to realize that there is a law within my domain that you can't skirt around or bribe a guard to look the other way on: that, in order to obtain something, something of equal value must be lost." Taking yet another sip of her tea, the Goddess let sink in what should have been obviously coming next."I gave the man one of the secrets to a prolonged life, but, in keeping with what he gave up - which was minimal -, he received a cursed life. He will live for three times his current age, but I cannot say it will be a life worth living."
 

Even now, Natsumi could only imagine the pain said man was in. She anticipated any day now that he would be begging her, once more, for a cure to his ailment of life; and it was very likely that he would, once again, misunderstand the realm to harmful effect.

The monk was surprised at the spread of food on the table. All the items were Kreed's favorite, even right down to the rosemary and garlic on the salmon. He breathed in deeply the aroma of the seafood but had to pause momentarily. Was it another test? Is partaking of the food a taboo in this realm? Was this a test of his manners to see if he would be grateful enough to partake of the goddess' good graces?

The Lone Fisherman decided there is never a good reason to be impolite to a good host. He took a bowl of fried abolone with chopsticks and sat comfortably down across from her on the lavishly carved wood and admired the glass, bronze, and other fineries surrounding him. He ate quietly as she spoke to him the matter of secrets and what they cost. She would not be willing to simply hand out long life to every person who asked for it. She then continued to illustrate the story of a man who had the same goal of a prolonged life. The man ironically smoke and drank.

The monk couldn't help but laugh at this. Kreed had a beautiful fish pipe that he smoked often when he fished and his one sin in life was that he sometimes drank a little too much. He had been known throughout his life to get drunk in the most foolish of ways. He felt that he got the habit from his mother and father. At the mention of these habits Kreed cackled loudly and pulled the pipe and tinderbox out of his sleeve and lit it with enthusiasm.

"He he he. My lady, as I mentioned before my business is obtaining peace in anyway possible. If I am to pay something for that prize then so be it. Harmony is the absence of evil and the harnessing of good. Most of the world is consumed by violence, rage, greed, and deciet. Then at the other end of the spectrum they let their passions run unbridled. They party till they can no longer stand, celebrate against their health, and laugh with the loudness of wild animals." The monk puffed on his pipe and had a fairly admirable halo of smoke about his head. "There is no center, there is no harmony, and there is no peace in the world of man. There is an abundance that can be said about the world of water, however. The waters know patience, fish know control, they know the proper amount to eat, they know when to play, they know when to be sorrowful, they know when to be courageous, they know when when to be afraid, the waters. Know. Peace." He ended each word at the end as a statement.

" The world needs guidance." The monk shook his head with sorrow, "Moreso it the needs the guidance of the fish and the waters. Having the knoweledge and experience that I have as a monk of the waters it is up to me to bring that guidance. To bring peace. It would be evil and slothful if I turned from that responsibility. If I need to drown the world in water so everyone may know of the serenity that comes with it then so be it. If I there is a great and dire cost for long life that would ultimately bring the world to harmony and the absensce of evil…I would pay it. I would pay anything."

The monk cackled again as he looked back at the goddess with determination and obsession. His driven attitude and passion for his goal encircled about him as much as the smoke from his pipe.

Kreed's habits were not unknown to Natsumi. The irony in the story she told was obvious to her, but that was also her intention. This was a tale of a different Kreed: one the person before her would likely never know. What the monk didn't seem to realize, however, was that the two men being discussed possessed additional ironies between themselves.
 
Although the Lone Fisherman would likely reject the notion, he was arrogant just like his rich counterpart – if only in different ways. He had come to Natsumi with an idea in his head, one he fervently believed in; but his intention to learn something new was insincere. He was a tea cup who had been filled to overflowing and no longer had room to grow, just the same as the old adage. So long as his erroneous world view remained intact, anything the Goddess offered would be wasted.
 
For starters, water, the element, was a paragon for water; not people or even the inhabitants of the sea. Likewise, you can't teach a baby peace by drowning it, because death is the absence of learning. To settle for absolutes of this nature, as Kreed was doing, was a foolish mistake, and one he would have to correct if Natsumi had any say on the matter – which she most certainly did.  
 
"You fundamentally misunderstand, then." The Goddess spoke once her guest was finished with his monologue. "What would that accomplish to drown the world? You uphold the sea as an ideal, yet do not mention that there is still disease even among the water. Negativity and harmful traits do not belong solely to land breathing, sentient creatures. They are all around you; and, so long as you pit yourself against a notion of evil, an immaterial enemy, using its own tactics of violence to try and fight it, you will never attain the harmony you seek no matter how long you live. It is the same as saying you will kill a person who kills other people because killing other people is wrong. Until you pry yourself away from this idea of absolutes, of good and evil, you will never find the root and you will never obtain what you have spent decades striving toward."
 
Natsumi erected a barrier following this statement to keep the fumes of Kreed's pipe contained within his general area. She detested the smell of tobacco, and didn't want to jeopardize her temper against the man before her. Likely, she would have to burn the chair he was sitting on after he left just to get rid of the smell, but his habit wasn't annoying enough yet to bring it to his attention. There was still plenty of conversation to get to. "With that in mind, I do have an appropriate price for you to pay," Natsumi continued. "A series of tasks that will involve relearning what you thought was obvious. But before that, you must finish a statement I pose to you. Your answer will affect how many tasks I have to go through in order for you to earn your prolonged life." Pausing, the masked, fox angel drank the last of her tea, and then gave the statement she wanted Kreed to complete. "The key to peace is not violence, but blank. Fill in the blank."

Kreed shook his head and laughed quietly. It was nothing new to him that certain people often looked at his ideas with negativity. Some even considered him an extremist. Yet it was new to him to have a goddess to misinterprete his meanings. Novelty was enjoyable.

"My lady," He bowed his head slightly with apology, "I believe you have mistaken some of my passion and symbolism for blind following of my own ideals. I do not mean to say that violence is the method to my end goal. However, I will admit that it may be used along the way. Yet even you surely have had the experience of combat? Just because some may argue the morality of using force as a means to an end, does not mean that ALL life will experience it at some point. I train my body for combat not for the combat itself, just for the preparedness for the inevitability when I must fight to accomplish my goals."

He paused breifly to snuff out his pipe and rest it gently on the table, "Furthermore, I was worried when I used the word 'drown' that it would be misconstrued for the extinguishing of life. No, no…I use the word drown for the defintion of 'to flood or submerge an area.' If I had the oppurtunity to submerge all living things into the cradle of harmony that the waters have brought to me I would not hesitate." He chuckled quietly, "I suppose 'cradle' would have been a better word,yes? I apologize i never was good with words. Comes with years of silence as a monk."

"The speaking of water brings me to my next remark. I do not mean to imply that the waters, or the denizens therein, are perfect. No there is still disease, and violence as those who are up on air. Though I have a strong suspicion that chaos is birthed in the air and polluting the waters that is the besides the point. I just merely implied there is harmony. Just as I have found in myself. There is all the beauty, wonder, and joy that is found in the waters. Just as I mentioned that chaos is birthed on land and polluting the waters, I believe that peace was birthed in the oceans and has spread to the air and land."

At this the Lone Fisherman stopped suddenly and was speechless for a moment. His eyes stared at nothing as his mind worked and worked over the conversation he had with the goddess.

"I don't believe it. It is so simple. I can't believe I didnt see it sooner. It wasn't until I spoke to you that I could see what was staring at my face the whole time. It only took me fifty years to figure it out."

He cackled excitedly and looked up at the Mistress of Keys with a new joy and enlightenment.

"My wonderful goddess you have had me realize a new harmony I had not forseen. I have indeed been wrong all along. The world is ALREADY in harmony. The water with the positive reacting force, and the land with the negative reacting force. It does not mean the world is chaotic as I had originally thought in my depressed state of mind. The world is complimentary. Without the bad we would not know good. Without joy we would not know sorrow. There is the beauty in both that I had not considered. It is how we have joy or harmony to experience at all! I was a blind and foolish old man."

He ran a shaky hand across his bald head in joyful amazement. "I believe it is fortunate that I had this enlightenment at the time that I did. I was one the wrong path and our fortuitous meeting has set me right once again. I still feel that I must show the world that they are in need of the knoweledge I now hold, and still seek for your aid in a longer life. A monk's work is never done after all." He said with a wink, "So it is here at the death of my foolishness and the birth of revelation that I will answer your question…although my answer is the question you asked. 'The key to peace is not violence, but blank.' That is the answer. Blank. It is the void that is everywhere and all around us. The depths of the oceans, the thunderous skies, the roaming plains, the vastness of space, and the the expanse of thought. Peace is anything and everything that life feels it needs to be." He smiled proudly at this, "Even if the answer is wrong I feel that a warm spring of thought has just thawed in my mind after fifty years of winter and am grateful for that."

At this Kreed smiled brightly and bowed once again.

For Natsumi, long talkers had long been preferred as guests, if only because they reminded her of home. After she ran away from her family's estate many years ago, she came to realize how unusual it was that she spoke in prose and long-winded speeches. The commoners around her during the initial parts of her exodus were far gruffer than the nobility of Nisshoki had ever been; preferring to speak in single sentences or even fragments. This difference in speaking habits was a definite culture shock for the young girl, and one she never grew to like.
 
Kreed was dissimilar from his kin, the silent monks, in this respect. He lay somewhere between long-winded and elegant in his speech, touching on Natsumi's aforementioned preference. She did still find his chuckle and smoking annoying, but allowed him to speak as if she had nothing to say for the most part. There was one such time that she interjected, but only because she had been asked a question that necessitated answering.
 
"More than you might guess," she responded tactfully when Kreed asked if she had ever faced combat, "but then my goal was never harmony to begin with and my path always bloody. They don't call me the Harbinger of Change for nothing." The recollection of murders she had committed stood strong in the Goddess's mind, as did the thefts. She projected an image of purity toward her visitors only because the world gave the color white a connotation of innocence. If she were being completely honest, everything around her and everything about her would have been gray.
 
Of course, her response to the Fisherman was the only point in the immediate conversation that Natsumi gave some insight into that bloody past of hers. There were other questions – such as when Kreed insinuated that it might have been better to use the word "cradle" instead of "drown" – but they only got nods as responses to show that the woman was still paying attention. Her true reply did not commence until after the monk finished his lengthy revelation.
 
"You have unlocked the first gate with barely even a helping hand from me, it seems," the Ice Queen said once her guest ceded command of the stage in such a manner. She crossed one leg over the other before continuing, and summoned more tea to the pewter cup she still held."Your answer is mostly correct. Peace, for any person, can only be defined by what their life demands. Each person has their own needs, and it is the unbridled wants of others that disrupt those needs and, by extension, the formation of peace. For someone who seeks harmony, their key capability must be an understanding of this balance as well as the ability to educate others on the subject with an even hand. If you are to find any success, you must be prepared to learn from the mistakes in your teaching style and form your message in an appropriate manner, much like you have just done. Never be afraid to question and grow, no matter how old you become. Sagely wisdom and adamant belief in one's own 'correctness' are just excuses to stop learning. To leave them unquestioned is to do a disservice to all."
 
For once during the monk's visit, Natsumi finally stood up. She walked over behind her guest, and then took another sip of tea before finally revealing her terms.
 

"I believe I've prodded you enough, though," she began while eyeing Kreed. "You've chiseled out what it actually is that you believe and what you want others to know through your revelation here, so it's time I actually give you the information and contract you came for. There shall be no parchment for this contract, but the terms will still be enforced as if you had signed a legally binding agreement. The sacrifice I demand is that you subject yourself to mentorship. You must either form a school or take on an apprentice to carry on your work, because you must come to grips with the fact that death can't be cheated forever without consequences you cannot even imagine.  Your body will still crumble in the end, whether it happens tomorrow or 1000 years from now; and, if your goal is to become a reality, your idea mustn't die with you. There will also be another cost with the item I am about to reveal to you. In order for it to work, you must give up something for the rest of your life. I would suggest smoking tobacco, as that's bad for your health anyway." Pausing, the divine lady moved her gaze to nothing in particular, and then asked what was, hopefully, her final question of the negotiation."Do you accept these terms?"