As Ryuzen lay on the ground unconscious, the mysterious strangers blood much darker in color than a normal human's blood almost black begins pooling next to Ryuzen who himself is bleeding out also and soon as both types of blood begin to mix a mysterious electricity begins to stir and the weather in the sky changes from clear skies to very dark clouds and lightning. Then the dark strangers body begins to shake and stir and then simply disappears into nothing and leaving only the blood pool his body bled. Then three distinct mysterious voices in the sky begin speaking a woman's voice begins to speak, "He was never meant to matter. A poor country samurai, no prophecy, no divine blood. Fate ignored him. This has made him the perfect error." Another mysterious voice with sound of a male then says, "This has made him a knot, a life where threads tangle instead of running straight", Then another voice of an elderly woman speaks, "Their, blood, half divine and half mortal, stains the earth at the same moment fate contradicts itself" All three voices say in unison, "Ryuzen will survive, but fate can no longer decide how, Fate now will react to him instead of commanding him" As quickly as the voices spoke and weather changed and then everything dissipated back to clear skies and silence once again descends on the mountain forest.

  At same time back at Jinsai estate, Isabell who is herself worrying and hoping Ryuzen is alive, is inside the room with her father who is asleep and resting, then all of sudden she hears several mysterious invisible voices speaking all at once in unison, "Child hear us precious relic of the fates your time has come, you must bind yourself to Ryuzen and stay close be his balance. He became the knot in time and now we cannot spin his fate. He will forge the fate of everyone around him whether for good or evil he will now decide" Isabell replies, "Yes elders and I will obey and try to be the balance he will need" "Beware child, Melanios the underworld-born god is pursuing you in an effort to control our lineage on earth and to teach the daimyo to follow his teaching of forbidden divination that loosens fate. Every lesson weakens are hold. For now, he has been stopped by Ryuzen and he is regenerating but is now threatened by Ryuzen new abilities" " I understand elders and will be wary of his pursuit" Then the room becomes silent as the voices stop speaking and the only sound is heard is the sound of her father's snoring.

  Jinsai is retracing the route the patrol should have taken and is riding his horse hard with his men are struggling to keep up. He feels responsible and guilty for sending his son on the patrol today and if he is killed, he will never forgive himself. As reaches the bend in the road where he remembers the report of finding Joam and his daughter and rides past this area and he begins to slow the horse down as he remembers the mountain road begins to narrow on this stretch of road. Then he sees ahead people that to appear to be sprawled out on the ground. As he gets closer, he realizes Ryuzen lay face down on the road with his katana down next to him and another katana near him. He sees the large pool of blood and his blood runs cold as he believes he is too late to save his son. He is horrified to see poor Tada head on the road near his headless body and Hidenage body equally dismembered with his arm. He immediately jumps off his horse next to his son and rolls him over and is surprised to see him still breathing and on his left side there is dried blood and opens his shirt to see that his wound is repairing itself and starting to close up. He is shocked but there is no time to think, and he immediately picks him up and places him on his horse. Then his gathers Kurokane Ryuzen katana and grabs the other katana which is unusually dark black on its blade and scabbard and hilt and wraps them in a blanket and ties them to his horse's saddle. Then orders his men to gather the other scouts and to give them a proper burial when they get back to the estate. Then Jinsai rides off back toward his lands.

  As Jinsai rides back, Ryuzen is still unconscious and begins to what feels like a dream in his mind's eye. Ryuzen sees a large dark room, "Where am I?" A mysterious voice in the dark begins to speak and sounds like a young woman, "You are asleep child and we have entered your mind to speak to you" "What do you want?". Then a light flashes and Ryuzen sees three figures in the distance, and he begins to walk toward them and as he draws near to them several floating torches appear around the trio and light up with flickers of flame and he begins to see them more clearly. He sees a young woman who appears to be Japanese dressed as young shrine maiden with a pure white outfit, her face was very light pale with black eyes and rosy, red lips and her hair is jet black and extremely long and neat down to her waist and she appears to be spinning threads that drips blood, to her left is a tall male Japanese onmyoji (court magician) in formal Heian-period court attire layered in flowing black robes, wide hakama trousers lined red on the edge's and a tall back hat called an eboshi and he is appears to be middle aged with wrinkles on his face with well maintained and well-groomed beard on his face with also black eyes and thin pursed lips and he appears to be measuring shadows, and finally to the right of the young lady is an elderly lady extremely old and wrinkled with thin lips and also dark black eyes with short gray hair wearing a simple Japanese farmers wife clothing covered in a straw coat and is holding a broken blade that cuts without touching the threads of blood that the young woman is spinning at certain points of length. In the background a shamisen (two string guitar) is being played slowly by some unseen musician. Ryuzen stops directly in front of them within arm's length. As he stares at them the young woman speaks, "I am Clotho, and the gentleman you see is Lachesis, and the older woman you see is Atropos, we are the Three Weavers of Fate. Ryuzen nodded in respect. This gesture seems to please the fates, and they seem to be less tense. The young woman continued, "We have entered your dreams because you have become the knot in time and fate. You have a power now that will decide the fates of everyone around you. You are the perfect error. You were never meant to survive your encounter with the dark warrior you faced" Ryuzen asks, "What do you mean I am the perfect error, and I was supposed to die when I fought the dark warrior? I thought I did die" "All will be answered but first let me explain what has happened to you, when you fought the dark warrior, you managed to cut him down and yet he also stabbed you in the back and as you both fell your blood intermingled. As this happened the dark warrior we call Melanios rewind his fate back a few heartbeats before he was cut down by you. However, what he did not anticipate is your blood mixed and stained the earth at same moment, but fate does not rewind you back to the moment before you defeated him and instead, he was thrown back to another location before your encounter and now must regenerate somewhere else in Japan. You on the other hand have become the knot in time where your threads tangle instead of running straight. Understand you have now the power to change the fate of anyone you encounter. You see a child is dying and you can change that destiny and save a child from death, but then they become a warlord and tyrant. Yet you will have no clue to how your choice will affect this decision. Save a burning village and prevent the disaster but then the village spreads a plague that kills many other people in the process. You will never see the full consequences until they come to fruition because of your actions" Then the Atropos speaks, "Do not despair child we have a relic of fate who can guide you and you have already met this precious child called Isabell. She has the power to see symbols or fragments of dreams of the choices you are about to make and can guide you to help make a decision. Understand, your destiny is tied to hers and you both now have been intertwined to a knot that cannot be unwound" Ryuzen speechless by the revelation given to him by three fates, contemplates everything said to him and listens to the shamisen play and it soothes him. Then he asks. "How will I be able to change someone's fate?" Lachesis answers, "Your katana has been granted with a "time mark" which only you can use and no one else, now you simply hold the katana Kurokane speak their name and what you want to do. For example, your father Jinsai is killed, and you state I wish for Jinsai to live and not die and then you see him alive before he died and will avoid his fate and only you and Isabel will know of the rewind but be warned you will not know the consequences of allowing him to live. Isabel will give a fragment but not the full picture and you have to live with your choices afterwards" Lachesis continues, "Understand child we can only watch as you weave the fate of everyone around you and yourself, but this is a burden and you will come to understand in time that this has a great responsibility. Melanios does not care about the weight of his choices and has already begun altering fates and daimyo armies who should have lost a battle and actually won instead has altered the course of your nation and has a following of powerful daimyos who think of him as monk teaching forbidden divination and they will do anything for him for ultimate power. You are now the counterbalance to Melanios and you may either decide to allow victories go to armies destined to lose or interfere and ensure they lose to keep fate restored but again never knowing the full consequences of the actions just like you would decide for individuals. There will an unwritten war of the fates and we can only watch and spectate helplessly as you two decide what will behold your nation. Your choices are yours to make and we will watch and pray you make the right choices. For now, rest child and when the time is right, we will speak to you again in your dreams. Isabell will help you understand better once you recover" Ryuzen then drifts back off to darkness and sleeps for now as Jinsai continues to ride toward his home.

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  When Jinsai arrives, he stops the horse and jumps and grabs his son and orders a servant to prepare his room and bring medicine and bandages quickly. He orders another servant to grab the katanas wrapped in a blanket and bring them to Ryuzen room also. Then Jinsai carrying his son walks into his mansion and straight to Ryuzen room and places him on his sleeping mat and calls his servants to hurry up with everything. Isabell has then entered the room also and Jinsai sees her and allows her stay, and she grabs the bowl with water and puts a rag into the bowl and then squeezes it to allow the water to drip. Jinsai and his female servant take Ryuzen robes off accept his loin cloth and they inspect his wounds and the wound from his back near left kidney and exited through the side of stomach appears to be getting smaller but his scar on his forehead has not healed and is still open and bleeding. They grab a small cup and mix sake with medicine and coax Ryuzen to drink it. They begin to bandage his wounds on back and stomach and also his forehead and they cover him with a blanket and allow him to rest. For now, he is still alive and appears to be recovering fast to Jinsai surprise. Anger rises in him and he does not know who attacked his son, but he looks at the black katana, and he swears he will have his revenge on this mysterious person one day. If it is the Imagawa who are responsible although he is a minor lord, he will have his revenge on them. He sees Isabell next to Ryuzen stroking his hair and wiping the blood from his face. Jinsai thinks to himself for a barbarian she is a good person and I am glad my son has someone who seems to care so much for him. For now, all he can do is wait until his son recovers and hopefully give him the answers he needs to find out who is responsible and execute justice on them for this dastardly deed.

  At the same time in Satsuma Province in the castle called Uichi castle in the lands of Shimazu clan, Melanios is sitting in a private chamber being attended to by a female servant and he is thinking to himself, "That child got lucky in defeating me and I will have my revenge on him and take the relic of fate at the same time. She will serve me and he will die a painful death. He may be able to control fate, but he is still a boy, and I will hurt him in ways he never imagined. For now, I will recover and help my disciples here in Satsuma province grow and eventually I will make my way to those retched Takeda lands and burn the entire province for this affront to me the son of Hades God of the Underworld".