Book II - The Disgraced And Dying One

Another now walks the path to kill a Shogun while he takes into his employ a most unlikely protector. Old allies rekindle while older feuds awaken amongst the Elders. A Rider is divided between his love and his Dragon, and the Tigers of Hantorai plant the seeds of allegiance in an old and unknowing friend.

The Disgraced and Dying One is a tale of turning tides, of the reach and struggle to disrupt the balance of power, of the dark that shapes the shadows, and the waning faith for interfering Elders. It is the telling of Tsukiko's lament and what lengths she travels in search of some solace or semblance of peace. Fleeing from the heart of Ryoku to her outer boundaries, she discovers that there may have been more to those horrors wrought on her family and her people. She stands split between her want to run and an unsettled desire to redirect her rage at the ones responsible for the ruin of her homeland. Hundreds of miles to the north, it explores the pain and uncertainty of a newly bound Dragon Rider, torn between his Dragon and his muse, and the devotion his Sensei puts to the test. And to the southern islands, following the footpath of an old Yoru legend, slipping the snares of a fearsome many Senshin, it tells the tale of young Michio as he trains against his will to kill a Shogun.