Keiko Yamanaka hovered in space. Her burgundy shield lit the darkness, dimming stars, banishing night. Only the breathtaking planet below, the one Takeshi hid in a pocket within the Boundary, outshone her. Silver and gold marked its wide continents, blue and turquoise coloring its glistening oceans, rivers, and lakes. Lush, verdant forests abutted the much larger desert wastes in the west, while in the east, green gave way to fields and plains, the transition too abrupt, the woods too small. Higo. Takeshi Akiko said the ancient Japanese fable about a man whose love brought a willow tree’s spirit to life was a hauntingly appropriate name. The world was supposed to draw Roarke, Kami of Earth, from his seclusion.
Keiko smiled sadly. That hadn’t happened. Roarke remained locked away, unwilling to venture out, unwilling to do anything but grieve the loss of his wife. As if catching her thoughts, Takeshi’s shield appeared against the velvet sky to Keiko’s right. The Kami of Spirit stopped over a solitary mountain and motioned Keiko to join him.
“How long has it been?” he asked as Keiko slid her shield next to his.
“Long enough.” Keiko worked her face into a disbelieving frown. “I can’t believe you haven’t heard anything.”
“Not a word.” Takeshi sighed. “Roarke’s as silent now as when he left Earth. I thought he’d found closure. I was wrong.”
“You really didn’t think this would happen?” Takeshi’s admission meant this was more serious than Keiko thought.
“Never confuse caution with certainty, Yamanaka-san,” Takeshi said. “I was simply taking precautions, something I should have done with Vissyus.”
“You should have done that with Seirin. She’s the one who started everything.” Seirin Bal Cerannon, Queen of the Oceans and Kami of Water had craved a child, circumventing kami law to make that dream a reality. The results were devastating: the ancient Earth nearly destroyed; Vissyus, Kami of Fire, insane and burning the world to cinders; rifts, battles, and uncountable deaths, Roarke’s lover, Botua, among them. Apart from a short reappearance a few Earth years ago to help his friends defeat Vissyus, Roarke remained in seclusion.
“Higo was supposed to give him a chance to start over. Apparently, he didn’t see it that way.”
Keiko rubbed her cheek. “I guess. But what does that have to do with us?”
“This has everything to do with us.” Takeshi turned to face her. “Without a kami’s influence, war has come to Higo, a war that will spread to other worlds unless we stop it.”
“What? How? Higo’s sealed off in its own section of the Boundary. I watched Gaiyern do it. I helped.”
Takeshi nodded patiently. “True,” he said. “Unfortunately, none of us knew that, intentionally or not, Roarke left his Gate between Higo and Earth open.”
Blood drained from Keiko’s face. “And because he still controls the Gate, you can’t close it.”
“You are learning, Yamanaka-san. Higo is Roarke’s world now; his will, or lack thereof, controls everything that happens here. Which is why we can’t prevent his people from moving from one civilization to another.”
“But…” Keiko sputtered. “That doesn’t make any sense. How are we supposed to do something, if we can’t actually do anything?”
“Carefully.” Takeshi smiled grimly. “Very carefully. First, we’ll remove Higo from the pocket and bring it back into real time.”
“And then?”
“And then we fix this.”
Keiko rolled her eyes. “Have you told Yui? If this involves Earth, she needs to know.”
“She has enough to worry about with rebuilding Earth and letting its people adjust to her existence.”
“And if the fight spills over? What then? She’ll have to step in; she won’t have a choice.”
“Then we’ll just have to stop that happening, or at least contain it if it does.”
“Okay,” Keiko sighed. “I get it. When do we leave?”