| abstract | - The tale of Yasuki Kaneko should serve to remind us that even the most innocent faces can hide treachery. Kaneko was a young girl, the smallest of her peers, but her mind was as agile as any in the Empire. While her brothers planned to become powerful in the court, Kaneko studied the ways of poison, of treason and guile. She was infinitely successful, and some say that she became a Master higher than any in the Empire and served with the enigmatic secret society known only as the Kolat. The Kolat's goals are mysterious, but their handiwork is always brutal. They fade into the shadow, and they cannot be found until they wish to come forward. Kaneko was among their master spies, reporting on - and controlling - the imperial court for a number of years. Though her skills were great, she was eventually implicated in a minor scandal, and her enemies planned to do away with her. But before they could come to escort her to her execution, she had vanished. At the time, she was only 17. Tales of Kaneko continued to surface throughout the Empire. Some called her the Black Knife. They claimed she worked as an assassin, spy, and consummate actress for her mysterious Kolat lords. In time, however, the stories ceased, and no further word of Kaneko has ever surfaced in the Empire. Still, there are distant travelers who claim that she traveled to a land of burning sand and flame, and became the wife of a mighty daimyo. If these tales are true, then Kaneko could still be alive, plotting vengeance on those who forced her to vanish beneath the surface of the Empire so long ago.
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