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The knights, exhausted from the greatest battle they had ever fought, could not trust their eyes. Every man stood cemented in place. They waited for the wind to die down. Each needed one more glimpse of the Jung Champion's face before they could compel themselves to think or move.

When the wind finally settled, the knights watched intently as their Master Commander reached up and pushed his hair from his eyes once again. Only, it wasn't a man who stared back at them after all. It was a woman with brilliant sapphire eyes - a sign of the Raven goddess' blessing.

They were stunned into silence. The men had difficulty grasping the new knowledge, given they were spent in body and in mind after such a grueling battle, that their Master Knight - the man they had pledge to fight beside until death or victory - was a woman.

Several of those nearest Lieutenant Shim, who was the Third in Command on the battlefield and the closest commander to them at the moment, stepped over smoking debris and crowded behind the enormous knight with the ox-like shoulders and the big beefy hands.

Sergeant Maeng, whispered to the Lieutenant, though he made sure his voice was loud enough for those close by to hear, "What the hell is this?" His voice carried a mixture of disbelief and ire as he waved his hand with great agitation in the general direction of the woman.

Shim gazed down at his faithful Sergeant and grimaced. He didn't know what was going on either but he didn't like the tone in Maeng's voice. No matter what the Master Commander's gender, as far as the Lieutenant was concerned, she was still their First Commander on the battlefield and deserved the utmost respect.

Especially, after killing the damn Sakong sorceress just a bleeding minute ago. How quickly these men forgot who the real enemy was, Shim mused to himself with some disgust. 

"We've been had by another woman," some young knight grumbled. His voice full of bitterness.

It sounded to Shim like he was jealous she had won the victory and he had not. Some men were like that. Quick to find fault in those who showed more promise than themselves whether during training or on the field of war.

He made a note of the young man's face. It sounded to the Lieutenant like the boy was in need of some serious personality training, which Shim was only too happy to supply at a later date.

Another knight under his command quickly agreed adding, "Who does she think she is impersonating an Elite Order Knight?"

At this point, Lieutenant Shim wanted to bark with laughter. Did they hear themselves just now? She was the savior of the entire freaking Yoh Realm. If it took disguising herself as a knight to do it, well, good for her and for them. Shim was glad she had the balls to do it. Otherwise, the whole of Yoh would have fallen prey to the maniacal Sakong witch.

It was better to have this women fight and win for them, then to be defeated by a sorceress who wanted to castrate men in thought and in deed. The Lieutenant would much rather be under the thumb of his female Master Knight, then under the sword of the sorceress she'd just killed with her own two hands.

The rising complaints and snorts of dissatisfaction grew around him and with them his temper. Lieutenant Shim had never felt disappointed with his knights before. He thought the knights of the Elite Order proved themselves to be brave, courageous, faithful to the end, and honourable men. But the men around him now, despite having fought valiantly, were deteriorating into jealous, spiteful adolescents before his very eyes.

Was this what the Order was made of? Men who would curse out their own stalwart Master Commander the first time their loyalty to him was put to the test? Shim was grieved and felt deeply ashamed of the knights. Battle weary or not, their tone and their attitudes were entirely unacceptable. The knew better and had been trained better than this.

The prejudices against women ran deep and were certainly not helped when the greatest enemy the Yoh Realm had ever fought turned out to be a scorned and spiteful woman sorceress. However, this was no cause for his knights, the Elite Order, to dishonour the woman who had saved them all.

By the time Lieutenant Shim decided to respond to their questions and complaints, he was so furious that he wasn't sure he'd be able to contain his raging temper. In a voice that was deep, commanding and laced with righteous indignation the Lieutenant addressed the murmuring crowd of babies that stood around him.

"So help me, you will keep your tongues and show your Master Commander the respect her office demands or I will cut your tongues out, feed them to your brother's in arms, strip you of the Order, and cast you like dead dogs into the streets of Jung, dishonoured and disavowed of the Elite Order of Jung Knights from this day forward. Do you hear me?" He questioned while seething at the mouth and ready to pummel the first man who showed any readiness to argue with him.

The knights, terrified of the Lieutenant when he was in a fury, quickly shut their mouths and looked at one another with guilty and fearful expressions. The last thing they wanted on such a momentous day in the history of Jung was to be stripped of their place among the most prestigious brotherhood of knights known.

The shame would ruin them and their families for generations to come. Many of the men would never be able to return to their fathers' homes. They would become outcasts even in their own villages.

"How dare you shame the Elite Order of Jung Knights by insulting your Master Commander, who defeated the greatest enemy we have ever faced by her own two hands," the Lieutenant continued to  lecture them. "Not one of you could have done half of what she has done for us and for the Five Thrones."

Still not satisfied he'd driven it home to them, he stared them all down, his eyes aflame with scorn, and said, "Have you no honour? Are you just street dogs grasping for bones?"

A heavy-hearted hush fell over the knights. At the first test of true honour they had failed miserably and it was like bitter water in their mouths. They could not divest themselves of the taste. They were truly ashamed.

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Commander Ryu, the Second in Command, saw from the corner of his eyes that his knights were agitated by the surprising sight. However, he did not have time to worry or concern himself with them and their reactions. Right then, he only had time for himself - for his own state of disbelief.

He felt like the biggest dupe in the entire Elite Order. His face flushed with embarrassment. How could he not have known? Was he that dull of mind? Were his senses that weak? What sort of Commander was he, if he didn't have even an inkling that his First Commander was a woman? By all the gods, he felt like the biggest fool to ever come out of Namgung.

He and his men were from the neighbouring kingdom and had gladly joined forces with General Jin, whom the Master Knight served under, after the sorceress had decimated the Namgung kingdom and killed its king two years earlier.

Ryu and his men were fascinated with the Raven Masked Knight, who demonstrated demi-god like powers. He did everything he could to get as close to the Master Knight as he could because he wanted to be at the right hand of the knight who was going to be the savior of the entire realm.

Luck was in his favour and Ryu found himself promoted quickly given the death rate among the knights. It was only a matter of weeks before he was installed as the Second in Command. The previous Commander had met a terrible death on the battlefield at the hands of the Sakong sorceress. And even though this was just as likely to be his fate, Commander Ryu lived to serve the Master Knight.

Yet, despite how closely they had worked together from that point onward, it had never once occurred to Ryu that the hero of Jung might be a woman. Just how blind could he be, he wondered at himself.

The question was, did he still want to serve her knowing now that she was a woman? He knew every knight left standing must have been struggling with that question.

He watched the unmasked Master Knight pick her way across the rubble, checking on the slain to see if any lived. He sighed to himself. The truth was, he did want to serve her. He could not deny it. She was an extraordinary Master Commander and he would follow her into the darkest depths of the unknown world and back again if she asked him too. He was devoted.

Now that Commander Ryu had made up his mind, he wondered for the first time about General Jin. Did he know? How would he take the news? Better yet, how would he spin the news to his advantage?  the General was not just a military man. He had also proved to be quite the politician too in Ryu's estimation.

The Commander began to do the calculations in his head. The war with the Sakong sorceress had raged on for seven long years. The Jung Champion was at Commander Jin's right hand from the first assault on of the sorceress' forces. And, the knight did not wear a mask at the beginning of the war. So, the General would have been well acquainted with the original Jung hero. That was a given.

When though, Ryu tried to think, did Jung's hero receive the Raven Mask? Was it sometime in the early stages of the war or much later?

He stared hard at the approaching Master Knight, whose sapphire blue eyes left a strange trail of light as she looked to and fro for survivors. He was suddenly reminded, that the mask was given to the Jung hero by the Raven goddess at the end of the fourth year of the War for the Five Thrones. Sometime after the Battle for the Sull Bridges.

Was the mask part of Commander Jin's plan, then? Had he used it to cover up the Master Knight's identity? If so, why do so after 4 years? Had the original knight died or been terribly injured during the battle for the bridges?

It wasn't uncommon for kings to have a double or a replacement. Why not a hero knight on whom the hope of an entire realm was placed. Ryu thought the General very likely to have such a plan in place - a substitute knight waiting in the wings.

There was nothing like a living legend and an invincible hero to keep the people's spirits up when they were facing an excessively powerful sorceress who had no equal. No equal that was, until the Raven goddess blessed the Jung Champion with her mask and her powers.

As if a bolt of lightening flashed through the Commander's brain, he stumbled forward and blinked repeatedly while holding his head straight. When the feeling passed Ryu could not believe he didn't see it before. The Raven goddess, in every story ever told about her, only ever blessed women with supernatural gifts.

This meant that the knight who wore the Raven Mask had always been a woman, which meant that General Jin must have always known. He would have been responsible for selecting the woman candidate to take on the role after the first Jung Champion had died or been permanently injured.

But, how he manged to get the Raven goddess to help him against the Sakong sorceress was a mystery and who was this woman walking toward him? Where did she come from? How did she fit into all this? How was she chosen? Ryu had so many questions for her.

However, the first thing he did, when she arrived in front of him, was kneel down before her on one knee. She was the Master Knight regardless of her hidden identity and she had just, single handedly, saved what was left of the Yoh Realm from the most powerful sorceress the whole of Yoh had ever seen.

Ryu looked to his Third in Command, Shim, and to his Lieutenant, Maeng. Both men followed suit and bowed a knee. The rest of the Order then bent their knees as well to the Master Knight - the victor of the Seven Year War for the Five Thrones.

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Moon was taken aback. She had truly expected the knights to scorn her. Honour was a founding principle for any knight's training and she was certain these men would loath her for her deceitfulness. She felt tears stinging at the back of her eyes and blinked rapidly while their heads were bowed.

Tears on a battlefield were not unusual or unwelcome. However, Moon was afraid that she wouldn't be able to stop if she got started and right now there wasn't time for tears. She had wounded men who needed care, fires that needed putting out and someone had to alert General Jin that the Sakong sorceress was dead - that the War for the Five Thrones was finally over.

"Arise," she charged the knights.

Very much moved, she had no doubt she would remember this moment for the rest of her life. Even if that life was likely to unfold in a quiet Sky Temple someplace very remote and a million miles away from any of these brave men. However, instead of dwelling on that, she had to focus. There was a battlefield to tend to.

After the knights rose Moon bowed at the waist to Commander Ryu. It was a sign of deep respect and she hoped it would convey to him just how profoundly thankful she was for his leadership in that moment. If he had not bowed his knee, if he had not chosen to disregard her gender and her deceit all these years, the men around him would not have either. They followed his example. They trusted his judgment. Yes, Moon was humbled by his response.

She rose, straightened her armour and then proceeded to give her Second in Command orders as if nothing had changed - as if it were normal for a female knight to give a subordinate orders. Well, nothing had changed for Moon. She was still the Raven's Knight with or without the mask.

"We need to make a temporary hospital right here in the rubble. I counted a number of men who are still alive though not mobile as I walked over here," she revealed to Commander Ryu. "We'll need men to separate the living from the dead. Also, I want those fires out. There's not much left to burn but we can save what can be salvaged."

Moon paused and looked around at all her weary knights. This would likely be the very last time she saw them. Once she left the battlefield she was sure General Jin would have her whisked off to the nearest Sky Temple as quickly as possible.

It had been the plan from the very beginning. It was the only way to protect the last Throne from future scandal, especially now that she had been unmasked, and to protect herself from being prosecuted by the law, which put women to death if guilty of impersonating a man or picking up a sword.

Moon knew, when she agreed to replace her twin brothers as the Jung Champion, that she was never going to return to her old life. She just didn't account for how difficult it would be to leave her men behind. It had never occurred to her that she would grow as fond of them as a mother for a child. When had they become so precious to her? She could not recall.

Moon's attention was drawn back to her Second in Command. He was the best of men and she had been blessed by the gods when he came to serve as her Second two years ago.

"I go now to tell the General about our victory," she told him. "I wont be returning Commander Ryu. I'm sure you've realized that by now," she confessed to him quietly. "You will have to instruct the men here today, those who saw my face, that they, on their honour, are never to speak a word of this to anyone.

"I don't have any idea what the official story will be but I'm sure General Jin will kill the Raven Mask Knight off just as quickly as he can." Moon smiled at the Commander who looked a little stricken. She appreciated that he really did have her back. "Understood, Commander Ryu?" she asked already knowing the answer.

"Yes, Master Knight. Understood, Sir!" he shouted back in his usual way.

"Take good care of them Commander," she said as she looked out one last time over the knights who had fought at her side for the last three years. Then she graced the Commander with a genuine smile before turning away.

Moon listened to him spring into action behind her and cry out a string of orders. She was going to miss the Commander from Namgung most of all.

Setting her sad thoughts aside, she went in search of something to cover up her face. She was sure of the Elite Order's silence. Honour would compel them to keep their tongues the rest of their days. However, in order to reach the General, Moon would have to pass by lesser knights and soldiers who may or may not be offended to see a woman walking around in the Master Knights armour. It was only wise to cover her face.

In the debris she found a dark silk banner that must have been used to decorate a wall in the castle before the big battle. She pulled on it and it tore easily. It took her a minute to wrestle the dust and ash from it, which she was sure would choke her. Once fairly usable, Moon tied it around her neck and face until all that could be seen were her eyes and forehead. She pulled her unkempt fringe down over half her face and gave another heavy sigh. This would have to do. It was all the disguise she could muster on the battlefield.

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