Yes, I haven’t updated this for ages, but I was simply stuck. No muse, no writing. But all your poke-poke-get-off-your-ass reviews finally made me remember what I was writing about, especially those last 10 or so reviews. Thanks, guys. So this chapter is for the pushy ones. :) It’s not very long, but it’s definitely part of the main plot-arc, as you could call it. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish this story soon.

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I know how it is when an author picks up a story after ages- you go, oh yeah, what was that about?

What has gone before -

Jin and Jiya are twin desert cities that have been fighting a long war. The war is still going on when the king of Jiya dies, and the prince, Genma the Vicious, assumes the throne. Genma steals another noble’s fiancee, Nodoka, and marries her. Nodoka gives birth to a girl, Kasumi. Genma, furious, attacks the queen but is stopped by his courtiers.

Across the desert, to the west, young King Kuno of Dara sits brooding on his throne. Mousse, his advisor and sorcerer, and Kuno meet with Happosai, the leader of the Arun tribes of the desert, and convince him to attack Jin and Jiya.

Genma now has three daughters, and is also waging war against the Arun nomads. His councilors persuade him to exchange his youngest daughter, Akane, for Ranma, the crown prince of Jin. They say that if Genma promises to make Ranma the heir to Jiya by wedding him to Akane, then he can raise Ranma as his own son.

Ranma and Akane meet when they are seven. Ranma has been brought up very harshly by Genma but he fascinated by Akane. He kisses Akane before she leaves.. Happosai meets with Kunou, who is plotting to make the engagement between Ranma and Akane to take place.

Ranma and Genma train at the Jusenkyou oasis. They are cursed. Akane comes to Jiya to be formally engaged to Ranma. Ranma wants to tell her about the curse. Ukyou interrupts and fights Ranma.

Meanwhile, Tarou, Mousse and a large contingent of guards ride to Jiya to storm the palace through an insider. They attack the palace, ending in Ranma, Ukyou and Akane fighting side by side. Tarou recognizes Ukyou, and we learn that his sister Kodachi was raped and left for dead(but not killed) by Iori, Ukyou’s brother and he raped Ukyou in revenge.

Mousse is looking for Ranma, but Ranma turns girl and escapes Mousse’s magical amulet. Mousse goes off to hunt for him. Ranma, Akane and Ukyou team up- the first two to look for Nodoka, and Ukyou to look for Tarou.

Genma is a prisoner.

Ranma,Ukyou and Akane travel to Dara, a city made of mysterious black marble, encountering Cologne and some adventures along the way. Genma escapes using his panda form, and goes after Ranma, as well as Kuno.

Mousse  falls into Jusenkyou, and starts back to Dara.

Nabiki, Kasumi and Nodoka escape their captors and head into Dara.

Tarou has reached Dara, and is waiting for Nodoka and daughters to arrive, but U arrives first, attacks him, and all hell breaks loose. R and A end up in the kings’ harem place, where Shampoo is a courtesan. Ukyo is captured and raped by Tarou, but she escapes and leaves him for dead.

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Kunou sat impatiently on his throne, which in turn was mounted in his royal palanquin. Mousse had not yet returned from his mission to capture Ranma and Akane, the keys to his freedom, and Kunou hated waiting. He would pass the time in his harem for the space of an evening, and let those veiled beauties amuse him as they might.

He glanced down at his body bitterly. Not that they could do much.

The guards stopped at the entrance to the walled harem. As men, they were not allowed past the gates. They would merely guard the harem from outside. Eunuchs carried the palanquin and Kuno relaxed as much as he could, as he passed into the perfumed gardens. The sweet air and pretty surroundings eased him slightly. The palanquin stopped.

Giant eunuchs, their muscles straining, lifted the throne out of the palanquin and bore it into the inner apartments, where a room was outfitted with a stage. They placed Kunou’s throne gently upon the stage, the king still tensely sitting in it. Kunou looked around, seeing his women bowed to the ground before him on their knees.

He waved the eunuchs away, and smiled when his favourite courtesan, Shampoo, appeared before him with a plate of delicacies.

“My lord, welcome,” she said, smiling. “May I feed you?”

He nodded. She popped a Turkish Delight into his open mouth, and he chewed and swallowed, enjoying the relish.

The eunuchs closed the doors behind them. They were deaf and could not be summoned until a harem girl went to call them. Now, his women would look after all his needs.

“What show have you prepared for me this evening, Shampoo?” he asked.

To his surprise, she bowed again.

“Actually, my liege, someone requests an audience with you,” she said, her forehead still touching the ground.

“An audience…?” Kuno barely had time to murmur before a steel dagger appeared at his neck and a muscular arm at his throat.

“The word is actually ‘demand’, I guess,” a voice whispered in his ear. “You really don’t have much choice.”

“Who…?” Kuno wondered, forgetting to worry about his own safety. How had someone scaled the harem? It was so tightly guarded.

The speaker came around the throne to face Kuno, the dagger in his hand still menacing. Kuno gasped with recognition.

“Ranma!” he cried.

“What?” Ranma was shocked. Did Kuno recognize him?

“You’re here, at last,” Kunou said, smiling. “I’m so happy to see you. I…” He frowned, and looked around. “I hope Akane is with you.”

“I’m here,” Akane said, before Ranma could demand an explanation. She stepped forward from the crowd of veiled women. Ranma glared at her over his shoulder. He didn’t want Akane exposing herself to danger unnecessarily until he figured out what was going on. Akane glared back.

 “So you are.” Kunou’s obsidian eyes glittered with excitement. Then he closed them. “No doubt you have many questions.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Ranma said, still angry but confused. Kuno hadn’t shouted for his guards or tried to attack them at all.

Kuno gestured to his women with his gloved hand.

“Ladies, please leave us.” The women melted away, all except Shampoo who slid unnoticed behind a curtain. Kuno didn’t notice her. All his attention was focused on Ranma and Akane.

“Is it true that you are helping the Arun nomads to fight us?” Ranma watched the king, who had barely moved. He was covered in a black silk cloak that fell to his feet.

“Yes.” Kuno sighed. “You must understand, it was only for the good of your kingdoms. When Happosai attacked you, it forced your fathers to unite.”

“And why would you care if our fathers united?” Akane examined the young king carefully from where she stood. She hadn’t expected him to be so handsome. It was strange how pallid he was, well what she could see of him, which was one slim hand and his poetic face. The rest was shrouded in the shawl.

“There is a whole desert between our kingdoms.” Ranma frowned. “You should have no interest in us. We are not neighbours. Our cities aren’t made of black marble like Dara.”

Kuno sighed sadly and looked away.

“Now you come to the crux of the matter,” he said. “Dara was not always thus. I remember when I was the king of a city made of sandstone and limestone like other cities. I ruled here with my queen.”

“Your queen?” Akane hadn’t heard of a Dara queen. “No one said you had a queen.”

“No longer,” Kunou said tightly. “It is a tragic tale. My queen and I ruled Dara long ago. I loved her dearly, but one day I discovered that she was in love with the Captain of my guards. I secretly tracked her and came upon her in bed with him. Furious with me, she placed a curse on me and on Dara. “

Within the folds of his cloak, Kunou slowly removed his gold glove.

“She said – Let this city turn to black marble, year by year, and when the entire city is marble, you too, will share the curse, your body growing more and more unyielding until you are nothing more than a statue!”

Stopping his speech, Kunou whisked away the black cloak that shielded him.

Ranma and Akane gasped with undisguised shock.

From his chest to his feet, Kunou’s body was a carved block of black marble. The one hand that had been hidden by the glove was stiff and black, and it gleamed. Only his left hand, his face and his neck were left untouched. Ranma and Akane wondered how far up his chest the black marble had crept up. Was it even now working its way toward his throat behind his tunic?

Akane shut her eyes in horror, while Ranma kept staring.

“My queen lost her powers after casting such a mighty spell, but such was the force of her rage that she was heedless of this even as she cast it. She left me, and ran away with her lover to Jiya, where she caught the eye of the prince, who executed her lover and married her.”

“The…prince? You mean…” Ranma and Akane glanced at each other in shock. “Nodoka was your queen?”

“Yes.” Kunou’s head was bowed. “She looks young, doesn’t she? Well, a sorceress ages slowly.”

Ranma was shaking his head, and Akane simply stood still, trying to take it all in.

“I can’t believe you,” she said.

“Why not? You disbelieve me because Nodoka is your mother?” Kunou sneered. “You don’t know her at all.”

“Well, she’s not MY mother, but I have lived with her,” Ranma said coldly. “She’s incapable of harming a fly.”

Kunou threw his head back and laughed nastily. “Well, what do you expect? Her powers are gone. Her lover is long dead. She has no real reason or ability to fight.”

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 Nodoka took a shallow breath as she rode through the streets of Dara, her two daughters beside her, a third probably dead on the floor of her betrothal hall, her heart’s blood drying on the silk caftan Nodoka had sewed for her. That was, if she had escaped some worse fate.

The queen could feel her long-lost magic pulsing at her from every wall and brick in Dara. Her magic had turned them black and she wondered how Kuno fared, this close to the completion of the spell.

The foolish hastily-spoken spell which had wrung every drop of her magic from her. Nodoka knew she could regret that, especially on days when Genma remembered she existed, but things were the way they were.

Akane may be dead, but she still had two daughters to protect. Even with no magic, she knew more now than she had known when she’d fled Dara so many years ago. She wondered how Genma’s son fared. No doubt he too was dead.

“Hey! Woman! What are you doing dressed as a guard?”

Nodoka looked up in alarm to see two marketplace guard bearing own on her.

“Oh, no it’s my fault,” said Kasumi, hastily tucking away a stray piece of hair undr her helmet. She quickly held hands with Nabiki.

The three of them watched as the guards advanced towards them.

There was a blur, and the guardsmen dropped like flies. Cologne carefully dusted off her walking stick and peered up at the three women. They looked familiar. The older one, the mother presumably, reminded Cologne of…

“Are you Akane’s mother?” she asked.

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Well, there ya go.

Oh, yeah, it’s weird how my chapters are having formatting problems. I’m sorry it’s taking so long to correct, but I have to go in and change each chapter by hand, comma by comma. Luckily I had a few old chapters of Tokens lying around so I was able to replace some of the earlier chapters with good formatting. I know Hearts or Diamonds has the same problem.