Isawa Ujina

On the day of Ujina`s birth a white wren circled three times the bed where his mother was resting, and then flew to the window sill. One of the widwife said that this was a good omen, that the bird would bring joy. "You are mistaken, the wren is the color of sorrow. It is not natural and will bring misfortunes in the boy`s life." replied her companion. Isawa Nodari, Ujina`s father, entered the room at that moment and heard the old woman`s words. He drew his katana and cut her down. As she fell, some drops of blood splashed on the wren`s white feathers. The bird took flight. With a firm voice Nodari instructed the other woman to clean up the mess and never to speak of that moment again.

She never spoke a word of it and only saw the white wren one more time in her life. In the years that came she became Ujina`s maid. Ujina grew to be a tall and slender young boy, he was agile and deft and his ability with the katana was impressive. But it was clear that the path of the sword would only be a pastime. From the very beginning Ujina showed great affinity to the rarest of all magic; Void. At the age of eight the Master of Void visited Ujina`s father and told him of his son`s gift and that he would stay one more season with him before starting to train under the master. Three months later the master came back for young Ujina. He trained for ten years before passing his gempukku. He was Eighteen when he finally came back home, it was as if he had never left. Although they spoke to him with reverence in front of his father the servants spoke with him as easily as he did with them. Through the Void he could feel there every joy and sorrow.

At the age of twenty, Ujina meet the pretty Crane, Doji Ninube. Ninube`s land bordered Ujina`s family. they courted and soon were betrothed. On one night two months before they were to marry, Ujina was sitting in his garden feeling lonely as his betrothed was making the several days` journey from her father`s house to his. He decided to reach out and seek her scent. He could smell his garden, the mountains, the pines and he could smell the faint citrus of her hair. But then all the scents, all the sounds, all the textures went out of the world. Everything around him stood perfectly still. As he watch, the colours began to bleed. "Ujina?" Said a voice that did not sound familar. Then, the world went back to normal in a rush. The water was pounding in his ears, the colours blazing his eyes, the scent of the garden stuffing his nose and his heart pounding as if it was going to explode. Forcing himself to concentrate Ujina`s senses came back to focus. For some time after that Ujina feared expending the Void out very far again.

Ninube did not arrive. Four days after the day she would have arrived, Ujina over came his fear and reached out again with all his senses, but he could not find her. He searched and searched and felt nothing. It was not has if her spirit had left the Rokugan, instead it was as if she had never exited. On the sixth day Ujina rode out to Ninube`s castle to see what had happened. When he arrived at the castle Ninube`s father told him that his daughter had left as planned. Searched parties were orgonized right away and a group of Imperial magistrates was summoned to help in the search. Ujina would have accompanied them but Ninube`s father begged him to stay, saying that he couldn`t to afford Ujina`s lost along with his daughter. They waited but no one ever came back.

Finally, an other magistrate, Kitsuki Kaagi, arrived. Ujina and the Dragon magistrate went out to recover Ninube. The things they saw during their journey made Ujina afraid for the second time in his short adulthood. After many events involving many strange things Ujina finally recovered his wife-to-be. Unfortunatly the journey left Ujina wounded badly, his right arm was completly lost and his right side of his body was left horribly scarred. The second midwife`s prophecy had come true...

Ujina returned home a very different man. His beloved stayed with him and nursed him back to health and they were married. Ujina`s misfortunes did not end. Soon after his weeding his father grew terribly ill. Ninube nursed him as she had nursed her husband who now was able to take care of himself. She stayed with her father-in-law all day taking care of him and reading him gentle haikus. But his father soon died. After his father`s death Ujina`s time was mostly spend alone. Even the servant, who once enjoyed his presence and had always been close to him could not help but feel revulsion when looking at Ujina`s half torn body. His only company was the Master of Void and Ninube, his wife.

The master of void often came to see his student. He never stayed very long. Ninube began to suspect that the old Master did not like her. One day as Ujina and his master were having tea, Ninube entered the room. The Master eyed her as she moved around the room. Finally looking nervous she left. "Do you not like my wife, master?" Asked Ujina. "I do not know her." replied the Master of Void. "I know each pebbles that rolls at the bottom of the sea, I know each ant that is born and dies under the foundation of this castle but I do not know your wife. Do you?" Ujina had no answer, and so he let the matter rest.

Two months later Ninube came to Ujina with a grand news, she was pregnant. Ujina informed the Master of Void of the news and asked him to come but he replied that he would not come, not yet. Five months later, during a fierce storm, Ninube had her child. The same midwife that had delivered Ujina stood by Ninube side. When Ujina`s new born daughter came into the world a loud thunder crashed, so loud that it was hard to tell if his young daughter had cried. As the midwife wrapped the new born infant in soft cloth she saw the same blood-stained wren poised on the window sill. Waiting outside the room Ujina felt his daughter enter the world, but something was wrong, terribly wrong. As he entered the room his daughter immediately looked at him with eyes that looked like they were half her own. "I do not know you, not by half," said Ujina "And I do not know your mother". He looked at Ninube exauted on the bed. He stared at her and he had to think back to before their wedding before he could recognized her face. He instructed the nurse to take his daughter down stairs, he could feel that she was afraid. "how are you, wife?" asked Ujina, approaching her. "Well enough, husband," she replied him. He could she her body trembling and her brow slick with sweat but her eyes were gazing at him as if they had never been any ordeals. With an even voiced Ujina ask his wife if she had murdered his father, which she replied that indeed she had. Standing at the foot of the bed he asked if she had murdered his wife, which she replied that indeed she had. Ninube`s features were getting harder and harder to place, they didn`t seem to fit. Lightning struck and the flash was so bright that Ujina felt like he could see right through her. "I will destroy you," Ujina said, his voice distant, the lightning`s energy coursing through his body. He glowed with the power of the lighting in the darkness. "I will forget you," he said, and the thunder echoed in his voice. "You can only destroy what you know, what you understand." she said as she flinged herself forward extending her body with something dark and alive. The dark poisoned struck him on his already mutilated right side. The pain, like acid, burned through him. He could feel the poison rushing toward his heart. "You are wrong," he said. "I can also destroy what I love." He reached out with his left hand "And I know you now, you are my daughter`s mother." And with these words he motioned his left hadn in a ragged, tearing motion and unmade her. The woman on the bed fell away like bits of sands in a gale.

The sky went utterly still as he stood alone in the empty room. Only the wren remained on the window sill, it stood calmly in a pool of fresh blood. Ujina reached out to it with his hand and felt the soft brush of its feathers at it took off to the air. Ujina limped downstairs where the midwife and his daughter waited. He took the infant from the fearful midwife and cradled her in his good hand. "You are Kaede," he said looking at her. As her named her he watched as her eyes became clearer and drew a little less dark. "Never speak a word of this." He told the old woman. She only nodded. For the rest of the night he sat with his new born daughter in a corner of the front room. In the morning the Master of void, his teacher, came to him. "You have seen through the last illusion, my friend" he said. "You are the Master of Void now."

In the years after that night he raised his daughter well. She grew strong and happy, and he taught her everything his old master once had taught him. A year after the death of his first wife Ujina married Isawa Ieku, who bore him two sons, Isawa Tadaka and his youngest son, Isawa Tomo. But the dark poison that struck him that night still coursed through his body and he knew that it would struck his heart and corrupt his very essence, if he ever gave it a chance. Ujina was a strong Master, stronger then all before him and kept the poison well in check. As he did he could feel the poison slowly corrupting his torned body. But he never gave up, he always held it back. Until one day when he heard something call him, sensing something terribly wrong south of the Crab borders Ujina appointed Kaede as the new Master of Void and left the Phoenix lands without a word. He journeyed across the Shadowlands feeling its power growing each day. But even a former Void Master cannot remain in the Shadowlands without it affecting him. His body became utterly corrupted by both the Shadowlands taint and the dark poisoned that still ran through his body. The monster, that once was Isawa Ujina, had its name stricken from the Histories of the Phoenix, but not before telling his daughter and Shiba Ujimitsu, the Phoenix clan champion, of his finding in the shadowlands. Although it is popular belief that Isawa Tadaka was the first Phoenix to enter the Shadowlands to search for answers before the Day of the Thunders, it is the Nameless One, the man formerly known as Isawa Ujina, who was first to seek answers, at the expense of his very self...

Agasha Kijutsu
Phoenix clan Earth Shugenja * Aikune`s follower

Special thanks to Brandon Johnson for the scans.

**NOTICE: Most stories and texts say that Tomo is his brother but one says that he is his cousin.
**NOTICE2: Most stories and texts say that Uona not related to Tadaka but one says that she is his sister.
**NOTICE3: Most stories and texts say that the Phoenix had 3 black scrolls but some say that they had 2.
This great piece of art is property of AEG.