LotS/The Story/Days of Wu/Intro

My name is Wu Tenchu, and when this game of weiqi is over I will die.

This doesn't trouble me. An assassin knows death dogs his steps, as surely as it gleams along the edge of his blade or glimmers upon his pistol's barrel. He lives beneath its shadow, in the very same darkness that claims each of his enemies, waiting for the day fortune turns against him and the slayer is slain. And what is a politician but an assassin on a grander and less honorable scale? His deeds must often be buried in blackness too, for they might make even his friends and allies despise him. Retribution is never far from him either. Only a deluded fool would believe he acts with impunity. Every stone on the board is both killer and victim, and the myriad moments that shaped my life have marked my fate.

No, my impending death doesn't perturb me. What irks me is that I know so little about the man whose presence here will force me to purchase his doom with my own. But perhaps there's still time to address this before our game ends, and elucidate the mystery for those who'll walk in my footsteps.

A black stone touches the board. My white stone follows. Noir's eyes gaze down at them, two blazing azure flames. His mind is focused and fastened on the battle of wits and strategy. Mine is not. This game takes only a modicum of my concentration, the barest sliver of my intellect. It occupies my enemy and satisfies a portion of my curiosity while I do what must be done. Because my duty to the empire isn't over, and I cannot shirk it in these final minutes.

My lips are still, leaving the silence broken only by the clicking of weiqi stones on wood. But words flow faster than a human tongue could ever utter them -- spinning from my brain, cast into the ether, captured by the devices stationed around the room. Recorded and relayed, along with all the hidden data that was mine alone while I lived but must now pass into the safekeeping of those I trust most.

My last will and testament.