The Pool of Shikama, Part 2 (Tales of Tonogato)

The Battle Against the Darkness has passed into legend. Those who fought together to secure the future of Tonogato are nearly all gone, save a lonely few who must now bear witness to the virtual collapse of the fragile Tonogato Alliance. Violence and intimidation are the new tools of power, the ruthless and the cunning wielding them with near-impunity. Into this maelstrom falls Satora, a man who long ago gave up interest in the corrupt politics of royal courts, and who has angrily rejected the magic at the very center of his soul. Swept away from his mountain sanctuary by events he cannot control, he finds himself engulfed by the storm of upheaval raging across Tonogato. Forced into using the powers he has forsworn, Satora struggles to harness both magic, and himself, before he succumbs to the darker paths of sorcery. Overlaying all of the human struggles is the potential destruction of an entire race of beings who had once helped the humans defeat the Darkness. The secret hidden between the lines of a decades-old letter is the sole key to whether their world will vanish into nothingness forever. And Satora is the only one who can find the lock…