The room, lined with exactly eighty mats of bound rice, was empty, save for the man dressed in a blue loincloth that was attempting to get a furry brown and white creature to come towards him.

He clicked his tongue a few times to get the actively darting rope of fluff towards him, then sighed when the creature preferred the fake flowers painted on one of the paper walls.

The man sighed, making his aged face look even older, muttered that he was the one that fed the giant caterpillar and frowned when a drum announced a sudden visit. He sighed again, dusted himself off and stood up to dress in a simple red shirt, that covered only his torso and barely that. The man's physique was that of a warrior, though slowly sagging with the comforts of palace life. He quickly ran a finger across his face, making sure he had his paint on.

He hadn't expected any visitors, as such he nervously tapped his foot as he waited. Sudden messengers rarely brought good news.

With every tap his bare foot started to hurt more, leaving him in a foul mood by the time the messenger announced himself outside the door.

The giant caterpillar reared itself on its hindlegs at the noise, then skittered through an invisible hole in the painted wall behind the Gunari. The Gunari clapped his hands and the doors, decorated with two praying mantis about to strike, parted to let the messenger in. The Gunari turned around as he did.

"My lord," the messenger, whose voice sounded like it was dripping with honey, announced himself and the Gunari heard him drop to the mats to push his head against the floor.

He turned around to look at what in shape was a person, though had he not known better, he'd have assumed somebody had dumped a pile of dirty laundry in his receiving room.

"What news?" he demanded, unbothered by the vagabond fouling up his palace.

"The foreigners, my lord," the man groveled, "They are up in arms against your rule!"

The Gunari rose an eyebrow, waiting for the man to continue.

"Your just and fair rule," the messenger added placatingly before continuing to the point, "The Dekamu domain wants to bring you down. They'll open another trading post, and bring more of the unwashed barbarians to our realm!"

"And how do they propose to do that?" was the unimpressed query.

"The foreigners, they want to smuggle their guns to the Dekamu domain!"

The messenger hesistated for a moment, then added, "Though no weapon can stand before your might, my lord."

The Gunari tapped his foot again, silently considered what he had heard, then nodded, "Dismissed, messenger, though let me know if there are any developments."

Without rising, the man shuffled backwards and closed the doors without ever raising his head from the floor.

After letting out a terse sigh, the Gunari sat down, crossed his legs under him and considered which agent he'd send to deal with this. He clacked his tongue in an attempt to get the caterpillar to join him.

The bug ignored him.

The Paper Palace was a large castle, accesible only to those with the means to fly. It stood precariously on top of a giant tree that covered part of the metropolis below it in a cool shadow and the soft melody of wind rushing through the vinelike leaves.

Giant wasps and bees arrived and left regularly through the canopy beyond which the round building was barely visible.

In the metropolis below, life went on as usual. For the Hosseru, the merchant class, that mostly meant selling things, creating things to be sold, moving things to be sold elsewhere and making sure nobody took their merchandise without paying. For the older Giya, the upper warrior class, it involved leisure time, which was spent in quiet meditation, mastering the arts be they martial or aesthetic. Younger Giya preferred duels, or making trouble for their socially inferiors. Soldiers patrolled the streets and the priestly class maintained their temples. In short, most everyone had a purpose in life.

Which left the people without set duties, tasks or other forms of jobs. People who lived in the craks of society, be they thieves, murders or imperial agents. The most feared of these last were the Dragonflies. Semi-mythical agents, whose job it was to stamp out any threat to the Imperial rule, even though that was Nominal only. The Gunari being the true power in the Eighth Empire.

To most people, these zealous agents were no more than stories to scare misbehaving children, most never having to deal with them or even being aware they were face to face with one of them.

One of them however, by name of Nana, had become a well known face on the Butcher's Crossing.

The Butcher's crossing was the last part of the inner city still touched by the giant tree's shadow, which was where the poorer Hosseru's shops connected to the filth-strewn quarters of the Sukeeru, the untouchables. Normally, these dredges would not be allowed to live within the city walls, but the need for freshly prepared meat, emptying the many latrines, and the clearing of the remains of executions had allowed them some leeway to live in a small fenced off part of the city.

As a matter of form, the governor had placed her execution field near the crossing. This had lured the seedier elements of the Capital's criminal underworld to set up houses in the nearby hosseru neigbhorhood, living in the shadow of their crucified comrades to show their contempt of the law and the death it brought with it.

This is what had led Nana to the Butcher's Crossing often enough. Generally to arrest, or execute if her mood was foul enough, the object of the Gunari's Ire.

Today, Nana had no real reason to be in the crossing and the only killing she was doing there was the killing of time. She had gone under the pretense of making sure nobody had removed yesterday's quarry from the crucifix she had personally tied him to.

The man was still there, the blood of his wounds cleared by the rain that had been falling for days. Nana casually strolled up to the man, folded her arms and smirked. She lost her gloating expression when she realized he had passed and would definitely not feel the sting of her words. The only thign regarding her were the eyes of the creature that had been tattooed around his entire a body. A snake. Nana had never seen one of the living ropes in her life. A strange foreign predator that a local gang for reasons of their own had taken as their symbol. Somehow, the snake's expression looked quizzical at her, despite not being alive.

"Too late," Nana said to herself and turned around. She wiped the rain that was pushing her short bob down out of her eyes, then frowned when she felt something was amiss. In the distance, a bronze bell, imported from wherever the foreigners were from chimed, informing her it was a few hours past noon. The hour of the grasshopper.

Then it clicked.

There should have been an execution at this hour and neither the executioner, nor the victim, were anywhere to be found.

Nana's instincts took over. Her hand dropped to the hilt of her sword and she started scanning the roof, looking for archers, alleys to find thugs hiding in the shadow and listening for the sound of footsteps that would be masked by the rain.

Tense moments passed as she turned around, fidgeting with her weapon and preparing to fight, though in the end... Nothing happened.

She relaxed, letting her reasonable mind take over. The execution was probably delayed by the inclement weather and the cause of the silence was not as dark as she had expected.

After pushing her hair out of her eyes again, she decided to go have a drink, heading to the city proper and away from the kind of people she considered barely human filth. She picked the alley she knew was the shortest route to the city center, though still in the back of her mind a nagging feeling that something was wrong kept bothering her. Only to find out a moment later what it was.

Two lumbering shapes came bursting through the latticework that held the paper walls together, one on either side of her, locking her into the alleyway.

Nana was not impressed. She rolled her eyes and dropped her weight through the nearest wall, which was what the men had been waiting for. A third was ready to grab her in a bear hug and carry her back out into the room.

"Eye for an eye," the one behind her said, drawing a black dagger from inside his clothes. All Nana did in response was roll her eyes again.

She observed the men around her, all of which wore open jackets to show off snake tattoos similar to the one the man on the cross had displayed. Their faces too were similar, painted with red eyes, green lips and two piercings on either side of their lips to show the idea of fangs, trying to imitate the foreign creature that was their symbol.

"Well then," Nana said conversationally, "Awful weather isn't it?

"The least of your problems," the man holding her bit at her.

"Is it?" Nana replied, sounding like a teacher that wanted an answer from a slow student. Before the man could respond, her bare heel connected with his groin, her head with his chin and he stumbled back, releasing Nana who lightly landed on her feet.

Without looking, she reached into his clothes, drew the knife he had hidden there, elbowed him in the ribs for good measure, then ended her assault by lightly holding the dagger at her side.

She batted her eyes at them, then added with a sweet innocent tone, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

The man with the knife brought it up, ready to strike.

Nana parted her lips, cocked her head and smiled softly. The man put his weapon away, turned on his heel and rushed into the rain slick streets.

"What about Takayuki...?" one of his comrades demanded, his mind clearly having trouble with deciding on fight or flight.

"To the hells with Takayuki," the fleeing man screamed over his shoulders.

The others, seeing their de facto leader give up, followed suit, scattering into the alleyways and leaving only the man behind Nana, who was still gasping for breath.

"I'll leave you," he gasped, "Alone, but...I need..."

"You need this back?" Nana asked, looking at the cheaply made weapon she had taken, "Sure."

Without bothering to look, she flung the weapon behind her, pinning it into the man's foot.

"Go find a new gang, boys," she said calmly, running a hand through her dyed blue hair, before looking back over her shoulder, "This one's as dead as your boss."

Nana looked at her reflection in the bowl of water that she had demanded from the store's owner. Her face paint had run away from her face and the blue dye was slowly escaping down the back of her clothes. It explained why she had gotten an indecent proposal on her way to the place. They had mistaken her for a kechi, a prostitute, which was a mistake the woman probably still regretted addressing her at all.

She made a mental note to deal with it after her drink, a glass of fermented icy blue juice. She glared at anyone, man or woman, that might get it in their head to dare and approach her. Which is exactly why she was annoyed when somebody was undeterred by her look. The reason he couldn't be dissuaded was clear a moment later. He wore a blue circle around his right eye, marking him as a direct servant of the Gunari. His other eye had a yellow square around it. He was a messenger.

"Lady Nana?" he tried.

"What?" she snapped testily, already pushing her drink aside.

"You're a hard woman to find. His lordship wants you..."

"Him and everyone else apparently. ...When?"

"At your earliest possible con..."

"I get it," she sighed, "I'll go right away."

She fished through the purse that she kept her sighed, took out a small translucent orange ball and flicked it at the owner.

"Needs more sugar," she called at him, then dragged her feet towards the Paper Palace.

The Gunari stood up when somebody entered his receiving room unannounced, ready to tear them a new one, but relaxed when he saw Nana entering. He smiled when he stood eye to eye with the round-faced girl. She had washed the remains of the dye from her hair and painted her face. Even though she was merely adopted, she had painted her eyes with the blue Dauragé that was the hallmark of the Gunari's family. She kept her gold lips slightly open as the paint they used for the lips hadn't dried yet and she did not want her lips to stick together.

The Gunari was always glad to see her, not because of looks or the fact that she generally wore clothing that covered little more than her torso, but simply because this one of his many adopted childrenwas the most efficient and reliable.

"My daughter!" he said warmly, spreading his arms as if to hug her, then folded them, keeping his professional distance, "I have a task for you."

"Do you now?" she retorted, offering a smile that was somewhere between playful and expectant.

"I do, I need you to be my eyes and ears..."

"Original," she said, lacing her syllables with irony.

The Gunari looked unimpressed with her tone, but continued his instructions.

"I need you to go to Choukishi. Your orders are in your saddlebags."

"Understood. Do I go by strider?"

"Hornet."

Nana's face fell, "But..."

"It's urgent. Dismissed."

Nana considered a protest, hating flying as she did, but in the end simply nodded her head and retreated out of the reception chambers.

The rain had ceased, leaving the roof the Paper Palace in that wet evening chill that was just slightly too cold to be pleasant. This was the least of Nana's concerns.

She stood eye to eye with her mount. An orange hornet thrice her size that regarded her with its amber eyes. They were common enough mounts, but Nana never knew if the creatures considered their riders as anything more than misplaced prey.

Its orange head cocked left and right as the stablehand fussed around it, clearly unconcerned about the stinger or giant mandibles so close to him.

"Get another of them out," he called, "We have two riders!"

Nana hesitantly waved to get the stablehand's attention, "What's this one's name?"

"Same as all the other ones," the stablehand replied, then spat on the floor, "Toro."

Nana smiled wryly. Toro wasn't a name but a common insult around the empire which translated to something akin to 'rotten genitals.'

She was about to continue when her bondwoman showed up. Rei.

Rei was about half a head shorter than Nana and her opposite in personality. Where Nana was a cool and collected woman, Rei was a cheerful bubbly girl. She kept her hair in a messy ponytail and had the sort of smile that lit up rooms whenever she entered. It was why Nana kept her around. The girl's high strung energy drew everyone's attention leaving her to handle whatever matter they were dealing with. Aside from that, the girls talent for violence was welcome if things went south. Rei had messily added her family makeup, green winged eyeliner and purple lips, though it had clearly been done with little regard for the final result.

She girl wore a short dress similar to Nana's, though slightly longer and wider, as not to show off anything private. She had two red sheaths in her hands, bowed for Nana, then knelt to offer the weapons.

As protocol dictated, Nana checked the black blades for imperfections, knowing fully well that Rei would have prepared them to her own impeccable standards.

"In order," she said, sliding the chitin weapons back and handing them to the stablehand that attached them to the hornet's saddle.

"Where are we off to?" Rei wanted to know, getting to her feet.

"Choukishi. And..."

"Yeah yeah," Rei laughed, "No talking in the air. I know the rules. Where did you say we're going?"

"Mind on the job, Rei," Nana said, a soft smile playing around her lips, "Choukishi."

Rei's face lit up, "We're going home? Can we visit..."

"No, it's work."

Rei's wide smile fell slightly, then took the proferred reins to her hornet and her mind went elsewhere, "It'll be nice to see the ocean again though."

"Rei," Nana said incredulously, pointing to the dancing waves that could be seen from the palace roof.

"The proper ocean," Rei laughed, as if Nana had said something incredibly stupid, then mounted her hornet, between the thorax and abdomen.

Nana looked at the sea, wondered what was improper about it then decided not to worry about her attendant's oddities and mounted her own.

The stablehands made room for them, getting away from the beating wings and Nana swallowed hard, looking at the world shrinking below her. The neat grid of the capital's streets looked like a perfectly made puzzle from her height. She looked at the Paper Palace a last time, then focussed on not plunging to her death. She was slightly annoyed at Rei, who was a natural flyer and sent the wasp in loops, screws and other stunts she considered insane and unnecessarily deadly. She sighed and took her instructions from her saddlebags.

Neither noticed the Gunari staring up at them from the balcony.