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The General stared at the Raven Mask Knight's partially hidden face and bellowed, "Out!"

Every last man, except the knight, went scrambling out of the covert, secondary War Office, which was secretly tucked away in the stony recesses of the Khu Peaks. General Jin had retreated, with all the Jung royalty, to the hidden fortress in the event that the knight before him now was not successful. 

Jin had received word that the sorceress had been defeated twenty minutes before the Master Knight showed up. It was an unspeakable relief to see that his intel was right and the war was finally over. He'd been waiting a very long time to see this day.

He sighed with genuine happiness when everyone vacated the War office and he was finally left alone with Jung's savior. How she had survived these last three years, after her twin brothers had not fared so well, was a mystery to him in so many ways. Though, the glow of her sapphires eyes really told the tale.

He wondered, as she approached, what had happened to the goddess' mask. Had it been lost in the battle? Was it destroyed somehow? Or, had the Raven goddess herself come and taken the mask now that the sorceress was defeated?

"What happened out there?" he asked as she stood in front of him - ever the soldier. He scrutinized her face. She looked exhausted and she had certainly aged beyond her years. He felt a pang of sorrow as he looked on the very familiar but now war-hardened features.

"The sorceress destroyed the mask during the battle. I was too busy strangling her to notice," she told him with a shrug of her shoulder. "The men in the field with me at the time have seen my face. You'll have to deal with that. I've already instructed Commander Ryu to speak with the men about it in the meantime. I don't think you'll have much to worry about. Commander Ryu is very loyal."

"Yes he is," Jin replied thoughtfully. "But come, we need to hurry. There are prying eyes everywhere," he explained with certainty.

From the hidden and empty War Office, he escorted her down a series of well lit and empty stone halls. "Everything is ready," he told her quietly and soberly as he stopped before an unremarkable wooden door. Jin gave it one solid knock, gripped the brass latch and then pushed it open.

Inside was the Head Military Physician and the body of some unknown soldier who had just died that day. Jin gave the physician a nod as he closed the door behind the Raven's Knight. There were no pleasantries exchanged just short, shallow bows of acknowledgement.

Jin had no need to instruct the knight. She had already been told what to do. This had been part of the exit plan all along.  Without delay, and without a thought about her own modesty, she stripped out of her armour, with the physicians help, and then stripped down to her naked flesh.

While she worked quickly to get into a set of traveling clothes that had been set aside for her, Jin and the head physician went about the difficult and laborious process of redressing the dead man in the knight's discarded clothes. Jin was relieved when the knight came over and assisted him and the physician as soon as she was dressed. The extra set of hands were very helpful.

After an half hour of struggling, grunting and cursing softly under their breaths, the three had managed to stuff the fresh corpse into the Master Knight's armour. All three spent a moment examining their handiwork. Jin finally declared, "This will do." He watched the other two nod their heads in silent agreement.

Sadness, mixed with regret and a profound feeling of loss, passed over him as he turned around to look at his former knight, who was shortly going to be whisked off for the Sky Temples. In the knight's place now stood a noblewoman of more than average height and build. Her twenty-six year old face had aged ten years since he'd compelled her three years ago to give up her life and enter into the War for the Five Thrones. He was sure that no one who use to know her would recognize this lean, mean, battle weary killer standing in a noblewoman's travel attire.

He smiled sorrowfully at her but she did not return the smile. She was too enervated. He could see that easily enough. All she could muster was a dutiful nod. 

Jin felt cheated. He'd half hoped, when the last battle was fought and won, that she would come and throw herself into his arms as she use to do. They were all each other had anymore. The war had taken everything from them both and somehow, though she lived and breathed in front of him, it seemed the war had taken her too. The woman before him now was a reserved stranger. The effervescent daughter he use to know was no more.

"Come," he beckoned to his precious Moon. "I have riders waiting to take you to the Raven's shrine."

He wanted Moon to protest. He wanted her to put down her foot and tell him that she was never going to leave his side. However, she made no such declaration. She took her orders like an obedient knight - like a well trained nobleman's daughter. So, he had no choice but to swiftly escort her to her rendezvous point.

But, what had he expected? That's what she'd been trained from birth to be - obedient, self-sacrificing, and compliant regardless of her own feelings and her will. The war had not changed this deep seeded socialization. Jin hadn't seen it, not until it directly affected his own happiness, but there was something desperately wrong with a society that took a woman's voice from her - that penalized her for speaking her mind and asking for what she wanted.

Filled with turmoil, as his fatherly desires clashed with his duty to the Throne of Jung, he didn't know how to talk to his only daughter and last living child as she followed him quietly. Jin saw the final door ahead and wished he had the words he needed to express to her how much he wanted to keep her at his side. With his twin sons dead and his wife passed away from grief, he had nothing but Moon in all the world and he did not want to part with her.

When the final door between him and her departure arrived, nothing had come to his mind - no words to convey to her the anguish and disquietude of his heart. Jin was forced by his duty to the Jung Kingdom to keep moving forward with the plan he'd already set in motion.

He was going to secretly send off his only daughter to the Sky Temples to live out her days in obscurity after her indispensable service to the kingdom and the Five Thrones. Then he was going to kill off the invincible Jung Champion, by telling the King and the people that the their hero had died from injuries incurred during the final battle with the Sakong sorceress. He'd save his daughter from a public hanging and the kingdom from the public shame and ridicule of having a female knight as a savior.  The irony was not lost on him. 

Jin took in a deep breath and exhaled with a rush as he pushed open one last door and guided his beautiful, but exhausted looking, Moon out into a sunlit stone courtyard. Six Raven priestesses dressed in flowing black garb and seven enormous raven mounts, which stood taller than any horse on the battlefield, were waiting there silently.

Jin acknowledge the Head Priestess, who came forward and bowed moderately to him but much more deeply to his daughter. Her eyes still glowed a fearsome sapphire blue, which was a clear indicator that she carried the goddess' blessing and was, by all rights, the Raven's emissary. Therefore, she was considered almost as a demi-god by the priestesses, which was why, he surmised, she looked on his daughter with such profound deference.

Without a single exchange of words, the head priestess immediately took his Moon to the seventh mount and helped her board the big, black feathered beast. The creature was several times larger than any horse on the battlefield and quite frightening to behold. The raven mounts were rumoured to have malicious tempers and it was said that they often purposely dropped unsuspecting riders to their death from the highest of heights. The General had never been this close to one before and he could see just how such rumours started. They had very menacing countenances and the claws on their feet were nearly as long as a knight's blade.

Jin watched with anxious dread as Moon approached her mount. The enormous creature did not rustle a single feather in protest. He took his rider very graciously and for that Jin was visibly relieved. Surely they would take great care of the goddess' own envoy, he told himself.

As soon as she was mounted and settled properly, he approached the ravens and riders. They were all mounted up before he'd even got half way across the courtyard. He wanted to have one last word with his daughter before she disappeared from his life forever.

However, there was sudden flurry of wings that kicked up the air so powerfully Jin was knocked to the ground. He stared in disbelief as the mounts leapt up into the air the very next moment. The force of the down-draft caused by their enormous wings forced him further to the stone floor. He had to shut his eyes tight and cover his face to keep tiny sand particles and minuscule stones from whipping at his face. 

When the down-draft let up, and he raised his head cautiously, his heart sank. Just like that she was gone. Watching her disappear higher and higher crushed him and stole the breath from his lungs. It was like receiving an unanticipated punch to the gut. He was sickened, heart and soul, that he never got his chance to say goodbye to his only living child.

How could the head priestess have just left like that? Why hadn't she let him say his peace? By all the gods he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs for his daughter. He wanted them to come back. He wanted to look at her one last time. How could the head priestess not realize this, he questioned with confusion and agony?  

Jin remained on his knees and wept openly in the secret courtyard on the mountainside.

As he watched Moon's mount disappear into the blue skies above, he knew then that he would never forgive himself for taking her from her mother during the War for the Five Thrones and forcing her to follow in the footsteps of her identical twin brothers who, together, were the original Jung Champion. He also knew in that moment that he could never forgive the Raven goddess for making the ruse possible with her enchanted Raven Mask.

(1895)