Midori was born in the Minkai Empire into the Niji-iro family, a large clan of kitsune with diverse fur patterns. Chairo, Haiiro, Kuro, and Shiro were her brothers; and Akane, Kiiro, Mizuiro, Murasaki, Orenji, and Pinku were her sisters. Her parents, Tetsu and Sakura, were diplomats, so the family spent most of their lives traveling to far-off lands on business trips.
One such trip was a diplomatic mission to Absalom, the City at the Center of the World, the Jewel of the Inner Sea. The Minkai Empire was in negotiations with Lord Gyr of House Gixx and his Grand Council to smooth over some unpleasant business regarding trade routes and supply ships going missing.
Unfortunately, the unpleasant business was not as straightforward as it seemed on the surface. The Aspis Consortium, the organized crime syndicate masquerading as a legitimate trade empire, was responsible for the piracy. But try as they might, no party could prove to the authorities that those gangsters were guilty.
Until now.
Tetsu and Sakura had brought damning evidence of the Consortium’s hand in the matter and were prepared to present their proof to the Grand Council the next day. The diplomats traveled with a small but highly skilled security contingent of swordsmen, shinobi, and sorcerors to protect them against any enemy. Arriving at the Minkan embassy in the Ivy District of Absalom with the Niji-iros, the team cast protective wards around the family’s chambers, sent out patrols to keep an eye on the streets, and posted guards at both entrances.
Tetsu and Sakura felt safe. Their children, however, were clearly uncomfortable with all of the hustle and bustle. Their parents put them in windowless living quarters in the basement to help them feel safer and more secure.
That night, Pinku, the youngest daughter, refused to go to sleep. She kept telling her mother that it wasn’t safe at the embassy. “The snakes! They’re coming to hurt you and Papa! They’re gonna burn down the building! They’re coming to take me and my brothers and sisters from you!”
But Sakura knew that Pinku had been telling crazy stories about xulgath cults and extinction curses since the family had arrived on the Starstone Isle, so she calmed Pinku down as best as she could and put her to bed.
All of the children eventually slept soundly except for Midori, who got up just before midnight to get a drink of water from the kitchen.
The Aspis Consortium was no stranger to military assassinations. Facing a threat that could potentially dissolve the Consortium at the hands of various world governments, the Patrons would spare no expense to keep the proof of their culpability unexposed. They had arranged specialized strike teams to eliminate the threat to their collective reputation.
Aspis assassins had been tracking the shinobi since they arrived at the embassy. Once the shinobi left on patrol after dark, the Aspis assassins harnessed their superior knowledge of the city streets to hunt down and kill them by quarter to midnight, leaving the Niji-iros none the wiser.
With the patrols eliminated, the other strike teams were free to emerge.
Shadowy figures emerged onto four high rooftops of buildings within sight of the embassy. The four groups of four began their preparations. The druid of each group, part of a sniper duo with his or her corresponding elven eldritch archer, shifted form into a bat and flew toward the embassy. Each bat peered through the windows of the top floor to find the sorcerors tasked with casting and replenishing the defensive wards on the living quarters and entrances below. One by one, the spotters communicated over their telepathic links to their archer counterparts, “target acquired.” Meanwhile, the accompanying wizard and priest strengthened each archer with multiple blessings and magical enhancements. The archers nocked their faintly glowing arrows to their rune-studded bows and took careful aim.
The clock tower in the square near the embassy struck 12:00.
The archers’ bowstrings twanged faintly in unison. The seeker arrows flew in unnaturally straight lines to the corners of the embassy, turning abruptly at right angles to zig-zag through windows and hallways, navigating the few turns needed to find their marks. The sorcerors died instantly, their hearts pierced by the magical flying shafts. “Target eliminated,” the spotters reported to the archers.
12:01.
Aspis wizards emerged from the shadows in the streets surrounding the embassy. Together as one, they cast their magic around the building to dispel the remaining protection wards and any other surprises that the Minkan sorcerors could have left behind.
12:02.
From a nearby toy shop, dolls and stuffed animals jerked into motion as if they were alive; these poppets streamed out of the shop’s milk door, started ticking like clocks counting down the time, split into two groups, and scampered toward the groups of wizards near each entrance to the embassy. One wizard in each group started casting a spell, then leaned down and touched the lead poppet of her group, engulfing each group of quietly ticking poppets into complete silence.
12:03.
Another wizard in each group moved away from the poppets and toward the entry doors, casting a spell. A touch to each door broke its locking spell and flung open its physical lock. The wizards ran back to the shadows.
12:04.
The silenced poppets rushed the unlocked entry doors on either side of the embassy and burst through, completely bewildering the guards waiting inside as they could hear nothing. The guards could not react other than screaming noiselessly as the poppets swarmed them, latching on to limbs and heads, then silently exploding as their internal timers expired.
12:05.
A team of heavily muscled and lightly armored brutes in black cloaks gathered by the back entrance to the embassy with two wizards who provided them with silence spells as well. Using hand signals, the lead brute guided the team inside and down the stairs into the basement, leaving the wizards outside.
The team slammed soundlessly through the door of the living quarters where the Niji-iro children were sleeping peacefully and undisturbed, thanks to the absence of noise. They only woke up as they were torn from their beds, screaming without sound. Pinku looked at her siblings and mouthed, “I told you so!” Kuro and Shiro, having gone to bed with their bokkens in their hands for just such a contingency as this, attempted to bash in the skulls of their would-be captors. However, their attacks only made the brutes laugh soundlessly, causing the children to panic even more. The brutes tied up the children’s little mouths and limbs and stuffed the ten of them into burlap sacks. Then the team proceeded to ransack the room to ensure that no children had been left behind. Finding no others, the team left the building quietly, where the wizards turned the group invisible to cover their retreat. The Niji-iro children would make fine hostages to use as leverage against the Niji-iro clan to ensure that no more evidence against the Aspis Consortium would find its way to Absalom.
12:10.
A final group of eight wizards moved to the front of the embassy, casting their spells. The eight fireballs that pounded into the third floor charred every person on that level, along with all of the damning paper documents, to ash. Teetering precariously from the fiery explosion, the embassy collapsed into a heap of burnt wood and rubble.
12:11.
The Aspis Consortium teams vacated the area.
A small voice escaped from the partially collapsed kitchen in the basement of the embassy: “Help!”
There was nobody around to hear.
The voice fell silent.