“The humanity that existed prior to the first great war, before the founding members,” Caz mentioned. “Are these the predecessors you mean?” Mimi looked at him, eyes wide. She calmed herself. She didn’t know Caz like that, but his demeanor had always brought her guard down – it was like he cared so little about things and just went with the flow. In reality, he seemed to know more than he let on, as did Timur. She should’ve paid more attention.

  Idiot, idiot, Mimi thought, chastising herself.

  Timur didn’t look surprised, but he did lean forward more on his seat, watching Caz with cold, analytical eyes. Light shone through the window, brightening up the patch of space between the three individuals.

  “So you are aware,” Timur said.

  “It’s just a deduction,” Caz replied. “Mutterings of informants and oral traditions passed down amongst members of the Lost Clans allowed me to piece together a history that appeared to have existed before Alyssa Kamakura’s founding of the city. After all, logically speaking, we had to have existed before her and her crew built the foundation of modern society. And yet, the three major clans speak as if this history never existed. Why?”

  “Hmm, interesting,” Timur noted. “Now, Blackbird, do you know why the Lost Clans were named as they were?”

  “I’m going to assume its not because the name represents minor clans not affiliated with the three major clans?” Caz said.

  “A convenient story everyone seemed to have accepted,” Timur said. “No, the Lost Clans, originally harbored members who were direct blood descendants of the ten founders. A form of nobility separated from the masses who held reign over the city during the initial years of the city’s growth and expansion. Leaders of each of the factions conspired to be the drafters, enforcers, and executioners of city law.”

  “An oligarchy,” Mimi chimed in. “I can’t imagine that would’ve worked out.”

  “It didn’t,” Timur replied, darting his eyes towards Mimi, as if seeing her for the first time. “You know, I’ve always had a different impression of you, from the reports I hear.”

  “What? That I was a ditz?” she said, crossing one leg over another, giving a wry smile with closed eyes.

  “No…your presence. I’ve noticed quite a few of my subordinates in the past talking of a Valkyrie Daimyo whose descriptions quite matched yours. Yet, when they tried to describe their interactions with said individual, they could never quite recall what happened.”

  Mimi continued to smile.

  “The opposite was just as true, with a few of my men reporting the smiling presence of a young girl who followed a tall and dark woman, carrying the quarry that had been marked for capture by hunters that our Clan had hired in the past.”

  Timur sighed. “I’m getting older. Too old to care about the machinations and games played between the councils and the Clans, the hunters, and the remnants of nobility which still reside amongst us.”

  “The Vitadale nobles?” Caz asked.

  “Indeed, they are direct descendants from our founders, and with the exception of a few key individuals, most of them aren’t aware that their blood carries those of…most of the original ten,” Timur said.

  Caz, silent and unreadable gestured for Timur to continue.

  Timur smiled, “You see, after the Founding War spelled the end of the World Eater Enthipid, the noble faction split between those who wanted to distance themselves from the great creatures of the desert, and those who supported them. This resulted in the first two great clans: The Clan of Voices, who supported a symbiotic relationship with the Enthipids, and the Clan of Tributes, who saw prosperity through their own hands as the only way for humanity to survive, even if that meant self-sacrifice against these creatures in the process. After all, why would you side with something that had almost destroyed us at the beginning?”

  “Why would the Clan of Voices want that? Even today, I’ve never quite understood their motives.” Mimi asked. She looked truly puzzled.

  “Why did you think the Founding War began in the first place?” Timur asked.

  “The presence of the first Supreme Enthipid, the World Eater, threatened to destroy early humanity.”

  “Yes,” Timur replied. “In a way, that is a cause. But the World Eater’s arrival didn’t come at a whim. No, in fact, it was the founders who brought it here with them. Alyssa Kamakura, convinced it to assist humanity’s efforts in rebuilding their dwindling civilization, and with the founders, they had worked with the World Eater to terraform the Fringe. Without it, Neo-Kamakura would have never existed in the first place.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “What?” Mimi and Caz exclaimed simultaneously.

  “Ironic that its corpse now rests in Tresgate, for it was its personal alliance with Alyssa, and its collaboration with the other founders that forged the foundation of the city we know today. We, were the ones who betrayed it. But Alyssa Kamakura was revealed to have struck a bargain with it to achieve this result – one which the Clan of Tributes believed we could never uphold, and it broke apart the founders. The contents of that bargain are lost to time. All we know was that Cain Liu – yes, that same one - sided with four other founders to fight in usurping Alyssa’s rule, believing her to be an enemy to the people. The remaining founders, led by Eredict Sable, chose the opposite route, and fought back.”

  Mimi and Caz listened on in silence, though Mimi started listening in to the surroundings, realizing that men were coming up the staircase to their floor.

  “Obviously, given that both Cain and Eredict’s legacies survived in our Clan and the Clan of Voices respectively, you may be wondering, how did this conflict resolve? The battle which ensued divided our people, to almost irreparable levels. The damage we inflicted on ourselves during that early battle almost undid everything that Alyssa fought for. Two of the founders died in the exchange, and Alyssa, leader that she was, stepped in, and through methods we still don’t know of to this day, she managed to stop the bloodshed. And after the conflict, it was her efforts which established the Clan of Venerers and the Council, as a neutral body. She envisioned a lawmaking body and its enforcers, which would create the hunter system that we know today – and for a time, order appeared where there had only been chaos before.”

  Timur stood up, which surprised Mimi.

  “Through the council, the founders’ rule over the city was disbanded, and authority was vested equally amongst the three Clans. Founders who acceded to the new regime were given a small space for themselves, Vitadale, in which they would live out the rest of their lives in obscurity. A few escaped however, into the Fringe, and their remnants still litter parts of the outskirts and streets we know of today.”

  “These were the Lost Clans then,” Mimi realized. “The other descendants of the founders.”

  “It is as you say,” Timur replied. “However, though society stabilized, one factor went unaccounted for. Alyssa, at the peak of her influence, disappeared shortly after. Though she brought us back together as a people, lingering resentment against her for being the catalyst of the Founding War led to the abuse of the hunter system in the beginning. Her descendants became the first of the marked, and were wiped out in its entirety.”

  Mimi stood up. “You actually know the truth of what happened, don’t you? With Alyssa. I always thought it strange how little we knew about her, and the various recounts of her heroic exploits were always buried beneath rumors and hearsay. But the Alyssa we knew, was a hero, not the persecuted betrayer you’re painting her out to be.”

  Timur smiled, “Sharp as expected. Indeed, we needed Alyssa to remain the hero. A beacon of humanity. The unfortunate demise of her people led to scrutinizing eyes held against the Clan of Tributes, who were suspected to be the force behind the genocide. The council, in order to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again, established the Auditors, to regulate process of the hunt, and stripped the Clan of Tributes of the authority it once held over the city.”

  “You deserved to be held accountable,” Mimi said, pointing from where she stood. Caz remained in his seat, silent.

  “Perhaps we did. But we are not the same Clan from that era. Our ideals have changed, and we focus our efforts on furthering humanitarian growth and technological advancements. Keeping humanity alive, that had always been our top priority.”

  “Bullshit,” Mimi said. “No rational could explain away why no one knew of these facts until now. And the fact that you’re telling us all this serves a purpose. I know which parts are lies, and which are truths, and you’re doing this for a reason.” She heard Timur’s heartbeat, faint as it was, and it told her everything she needed to know about his words.

  “The Clan of Tributes were always the leading force behind societal and technological advancement until recently, but I also know you were also the main source of information and data research. You had the power of media and control over the flow of information. You deliberately withheld this history from us. And you’ve set a trap for us, baiting us to come here today. You left your server farm unattended on purpose, so you could draw us out, because we are threats to a greater goal.”

  Mimi began to activate her Johrei, “Why are you after the Trepidor brothers?” she asked.

  “Because they have ties to the founders, and to lost history that existed before the founders arrived unto this barren wasteland of a planet.”

  “…”

  Caz stood up as well.

  “Timur. I have my own question. Why did Alyssa choose to enlist the help of the World Eater?” Caz asked.

  “Because…she was desperate. The world of Onyx was gone, and all that remained of humanity now lives in a small city, located in the middle of the Fringe, surrounded by nightmarish entities that have threatened our survival for the past century. If not for her, our legacy would have died with the first colonists, who lacked the means of survival to forge a new path into the future.”

  A minute movement, a tilt of his head in amazement, Timur did not miss Caz’s subtle surprise at the mention of the word Onyx.

  “I knew it…” Timur said, his suspicions of Caz’s involvement all but confirmed. “I apologize, my old friend Casimir. I knew of no other way to stall you two but to tell you the truth.”

  “The bounty…” Mimi muttered. “You’re planning on keeping us out of it.”

  Just then the door to the room burst open. Mimi, ready for their arrival, began to screech, ready to unleash hell. Her attack, was blocked preemptively, by a large shimmering shield.

  Men and women clad in golden, intricate attire, stood watching the two Shoguns, each donning a mask of strange, ornate designs which loosely represented animals Mimi remembered reading about in the past – those animals of an older era.

  “The Golden Order,” Caz said… “And you brought them all here to stop little ol’ us.”