A puff of smoke rose, filling the darkroom. A woman bounced off her seat, grimacing revealing teeth that were black as a crust. "The phoenix rose again. That means the princess is still alive." She was a shaman.
Several people in the room gasped in surprise. They looked at each other, amidst the billowing smoke in the room.
"But didn't she die a hundred years ago?" another woman asked with her eyes that looked sad and angry at the same time. She wore a necklace with a snake symbol and a flower.
The shaman walked hunched over, clutching her aching back. Her eyes gleamed red, against the smoke coming from the jug on her desk. "I thought so too. But isn't that Phoenix already an obvious sign?"
"If we kill that Phoenix then will the princess be able to die again?" asked a man. He wore a suit of armor made of thin steel plates. The flower and snake symbols were printed very small on the edges.
