Your Chambers the next morning

You awake to the sound of noise outside your windows but you're smart enough then to not jump up due to your injury which will keep you from action for a week you estimate based off the pain. With every deep breath, your body ached from the pain coursing throughout.

You slowly sit up and realize your plain leather armor has been stripped from your body along with the gauntlets you always wear to hide the hideous burn marks you've earned in the attempt to save your mother's life when you were a child. It pains you to this day that you remember the fire that spread from an experiment at the Sage Academy your father and mother built together at the beginning of his reign as Sage of the Wilds.

You barely remember your mothers face as the fire was 20 years ago when you were only five. It was your thirst for knowledge that impelled you to visit the Academy that day but you ended up watching your mother burn to **** as you helplessly tried to move the rubble blocking your path and were only saved yourself by Uncle Akechi who noticed you during the evacuation dragging you out of the fire. It wasn't until the next day that the shock wore off and the **** pain kicked in that you realize your arms were burnt nearly to the bone.

You come out of your memories at the licking of the old wounds by a giant grey wolf twice the size of any other. The large wolf with silver eyes just like yours was rescued at the end of the last war with Errian four years ago.

You found him in a field while traveling home from the borderlands surrounded by a group of bandits who were threatening the small pup who walked into their camp looking at the two wolves being butchered by the half-starved criminals.

With anger in your eyes and a breaking of your heart, you marched into the camp with a few of the Samurai who were assigned to protect you and seized the pup you named Dusk, which you named after the time of day, plus it was symbolic as the war just ended.

"Alright boy, "you cradle the giant wolfs head in your arms, "I know, I know..." you scratch behind his ears "We all suffered some failure in the past and have the scars to prove it but we learned from them to better ourselves to become what we want to become," You say to the wolf named Dusk who has become one of your two closest friends over the past four years.

Dusk nudges you to get up at the sound of the noise outside the window, alerting you to your other "friend" wants to enter. With a smile on your face at the happy wolf "I know, I know!" he rub his face "I'll open the window... although I don't know who shut it because I always prefer to leave them open so she can come and go as she pleases" you say to Dusk who gives you a sly look.

You start to get up you feel the fresh pain shoot through your chest but you push through it to stand. As you regain your footing the bedroom doors open allowing an agitated Mei to burst in staring at the bandaged wound with dry blood covering it. "It looks like your going to be stupid and **** yourself to work!" she growls at you "And for fuck sake, this stupid Owl!!" she's flustered at the ever persistent tapping of a beak on the glass. "Lay the fuck back down!" Mei orders you while walking over to the window to open it for the bird.

You look at Dusk and laugh at him again before falling back into your bed. Dusk's mouth drops open and you hear him puff out air, which you've come to know as a laugh from your loyal companion. Funny as even he doesn't want to feel the wrath of your perverse cousin Mei.

Right as Mei opens the window Dawn, a Blakiston's fish owl weighing around ten pounds with a wing span of just around six feet and stands a little over two feet tall, flies inside past her and lands on Dusk's head. It causes Mei to huff in annoyance turning around looking at you three. "Dawn, Dusk and Kaito, do you plan to use your elites as a mercenary company to travel in secret?"

You nod so Mei continues "I'm glad I'm into women or I would lose you to some whore as you always walk into ****'s playground and wind up injured all the damn time." she moves with angry feet to the dresser in the room, looking through the drawers to grab some new bandages "I swear you need a trained doctor in your Phantoms..." Mei says causing you to laugh earning another shot of pain through your chest "Look, I know you're going to go out and investigate because you always search for the truth but you need to rest. Plus, I believe it would be best to handle the council before you go play mercenary" Mei says playfully but with a hint of worry as she changes your bandage.

"Fine, I'll rest for a week here and deal with the council." you reply to your cousin "But then I'll travel south to infiltrate the few hundred warriors belonging to Errian to see if they are truly preparing for the next war at our border." Mei bites her tongue as she continues to wrap the bandage over your wound "Then from there I'll spend another week in Tenor visiting my relatives from my mother's side." You vow to let your worried cousin know your movements.

You didn't tell her everything though, only the stuff she needed to know. On your twenty-sixth birthday, you were going to find out who hired the killers and what they hoped to gain besides the delirious claims that Feng spouted before you passed out about a man named Shade and his love of a whore named Eliza.