When the light died down, Amber was sitting in the middle of an alley.  There was no sign of the book she'd been reading, nor any other books, for that matter.  She reached reflexively behind her and found that she could still feel her backpack and a wall.  "I must be dreaming, that's all.  I'm probably still sitting in the Reference Room asleep over that book," Amber stood and hoisted her pack onto her shoulders. "Well, as long as I'm dreaming, I might as well get to see some of the local sights.  I'd hate to waste all this valuable sleep time just hanging around in an alley."
	Amber stepped out of the alley and wandered around for a bit in the crowded streets, just looking at anything that happened to interest her.  As she passed by a food seller's booth, her stomach growled.  'Oh brother.  Even in my dreams, my stomach's complaining about me having missed breakfast.  I don't suppose a mysterious supply of money decide to hitch a ride in my pockets during this dream, did it?' Amber checked her pockets and wasn't really surprised when they didn't come up with even a single coin. 'Figures.  Even dreams aren't always perfect.'
	As she continued her meandering, she heard a man's voice carrying above the normal crowd noise, his voice full of passion, "...must throw off your chains of bondange to the false god, Suzaku, and the other three pretender gods and turn towards the true god, for he will give you strength."
	Having nothing better to do, Amber headed towards the noise, pushing through the crowd until she came to a spot where she could get a good view of the speaker.  He wore a dull brown, somewhat frayed, robe, but the robe wasn't what caught her eyes' attention.  He had shoulder-length white hair and red eyes, marking him as an albino, and his voice was even more overpowering close up.  So overpowering that her bones throbbed in time with the rise and fall of his speech patterns.
	The sum of his argument was this:  The four gods that this country and its neighboring countries looked to were frauds.  The one true god that this guy espoused had patiently sat by waiting for these fads to pass, but they hadn't.  Now, the true god was angry and promised to send horrible disasters to visit those who would not renounce their practices of idolatry and turn to him.  Those who turned to the true god willing and worked faithfully to cleanse these lands of the false gods' influence would surely win a place of honor at the true god's side.
	'This sounds a lot like my own Christian beliefs, but here, they just don't sound right.  Why is that?  Maybe I should ask him some questions.  After all, it's my dream, so I can do what I want.  I'll have to wait for him to catch a breath, though.  He's still going strong,' Amber thought and began to watch, waiting for her opportunity.
	A couple of minutes later, Amber's opportunity came.  He stopped to take a deep breath, and Amber cleared her throat, "Exactly what are the teachings that your god espouses as the right way of living besides abstaining from idolatry?  These beliefs sound quite similar to some of my own, so I was wondering if this god is the same one that I believe in."
	The crowd parted to allow the speaker a clear view of her.  He was about to answer the question, when suddenly, his face colored with anger.  "You... you're mocking me, aren't you?  Do you think I'm stupid enough not to recognize the symbol of another one of those false pretenders on your rather unusual garb?  How dare you!"
	"Mock you?  You think I'm mocking you?" Amber took a few steps towards him before stopping once more. "That was a valid question that I wanted to know the answer to, but if you really want me to mock you, I will."
	The tale of a man who wanted to be king filled her head, and she began to sing a rather silly song about a man who wanted to be a god.  Some of the crowd was laughing and clapping along to her melody while others were giving her increasingly hostile stares.  The speaker grew as red as a tomato as she started on a second verse, and before she realized what he was doing, he came forward and slapped her so hard that her ears rang.
	'Ow, that hurt.  I thought that things weren't supposed to hurt in a dream," she reached a hand up tentatively to touch the place where he had hit her and eyes grew cold. "So, you want to play hardball, huh?  Well, you've picked the wrong day to mess with me, buddy."
	Amber lashed out with her fists and caught the man on the jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground.  'Hey, that hurt, too.  This is definitely one strange dream.  I'd better get out of here before things get any worse,' she thought and began walking as quickly away from the area as she could.
	As she passed some of the crowd, she heard someone in the crowd whisper, "Hey, isn't that Seiryuu's symbol she's wearing?  What's a citizen of Kutou doing around here?"
	"Are you crazy?  That's no citizen of Kutou.  I've been to Kutou, and they might be pretty strange, but I've never seen anybody there wearing anything as weird as what she's got on," another guy remarked.
	The first guy spoke again, "You don't suppose that girl is Seiryuu no Miko, do you?  My great, great, grand-father used to tell me stories that his grandfather told him about the Mikos that came when he was alive, and they wore strange clothing, too."
	"What's that?  Seiryuu no Miko!"  a third man exclaimed, loud enough for the whole crowd to hear.
	As the whispers spread through the crowd, the white-haired man got back to his feet and spoke, the rage clear in his tone, "Believers of the true god, those whose souls have been touched by my words, why are you letting this abomination, this... Seiryuu no Miko, walk away unharmed?  Bring her back to face the justice of the true god for harming one of his servants!"
	Amber heard the sounds of several people following behind her and risked a glance over her shoulder.  The ones who had been glaring at her throughout her irreverant recitation were striding toward her with the intent of great bodily harm, and even some of those who had laughed, whom she guessed to be devotees of the one that the speaker had called Suzaku, were with them, as well.  She broke into a run thinking to herself, 'Oh, Lord.  What have I done?  This dream's getting totally out of control.  Why am I feeling pain, and why can't I wake up?  I'm in a strange city with no idea where I'm going, and if I run into a dead end, and these guys catch me, I'm toast.  Somebody, please do something!  Somebody, help me!'


	'I can't keep this up forever...' Amber thought as her legs began to protest. 'Trying to outrun a mob is a lot harder than fighting your way across campus.  C'mon, dummy.  Wake up...  It's just a dream, right?'
	Still, she kept on running.  She really didn't want to find out what would happen if they managed to catch her, even if it was just a dream.  She turned down one of the narrower side streets, hoping it wouldn't lead her to a dead end.  Luckily, it didn't and she continued to zigzag her way through streets until the sounds of pursuit began to fade away.  Amber let out a sigh of relief and leaned against a building's wall, remaining almost motionless while she attempted to catch her breath.
	Amber had not been there for more than a minute or so when a series of dark shadows surrounded her, and she looked up to see that she hadn't outrun all of the mob...  Evidently, some of them had gotten smart enough to stop running and just allow her own noise to point the way to where she was.  'Blast it, there's no way to run from this.  My back's literally up against a wall, here.  Maybe I should try reasoning with them,' Amber swallowed hard and said, "You guys really need to cool off a bit.  You're turning one tiny little bit of friction into a big religious war.  Don't you think we should talk this over first before you all make some colossal mistake?"
	"What?  Are going to summon the false god, Seiryuu, to blast us all into the underworld?" one man jeered. "Even your false religion says that you need the seishi for that, and I don't see any around here, do you?"
	Murmurs of agreement spread through the crowd, and the man nodded.  "Not even a single one.  You'd better come along quietly, girl, and perhaps Teiran will forget his earlier rage and pardon you for striking... if you truly meant what you said earlier about your so called beliefs," he eyed Amber levelly. "Although, you'd better have a good explanation for your current dress if that is true.  Personally, I think you're a pathetic liar."
	Anger blazed in Amber's eyes.  Her fists clenched and she thought, 'I must... control my temper.  I must.  Slugging this... Teiran guy didn't get me anywhere, and now I'm depending on the mercy of him and his followers.'
	Slowly, Amber uncurled her fists and straightened to her full height.  "I did not lie, and I have nothing to hide," she said in a frigid tone. "If you wish to conduct me back to this... Teiran, did you say he was?  Then, I have no objection to following you, for I must confess that I am quite lost, having never been in this city before today much less this country."




	Once word came to Teiran that the girl that was possibly Seiryuu no Miko had been found and was being brought to him, he nodded his thanks to the messenger and closed his eyes.  Although he hated to admit it, Teiran knew he could have handled things better and not drawn so much undesirable attention if he had been more... diplomatic in his approach.  'But surely, I would have no need for such trivial double talk if the hypnotic voice power had worked on her as it seemed to on most everyone else,' Teiran thought, frowning. 'I'll have to ask about this from someone more knowledgable in the mystic arts.  Perhaps Gyardon and Lucianna would know.  Besides, I'll have to send a message to them anyway, since they are stationed in Kutou and should be made aware of this development, whether it turns out to be true or not.'
	By this time, Teiran had left the plaza in favor of quarters at one of Eiyou's finest inns.  His stay was being paid for by one of the true god's most loyal converts, so he did not have to worry about the enormous amount of ryo that it was costing.  He gave orders for the innkeeper to send a meal up to him and paused, changing the order to a meal for two.  If this girl was really going to be as disagreeable as she first appeared to him, it probably wouldn't do him much of any good, but it certainly couldn't do any harm.
	Then, Teiran continued on down the hall to his room, unrolled a scrap of parchment, and uncorked an ink bottle.  He dipped a brush into it and, with smooth, sure strokes, began writing his letter to the two he only half-joking thought of as the Twin Terrors of Kutou.


	'The girl is here...' The thought flashed through Teiran's mind as soon as the sound of several pairs of footsteps ascending the stairway reached his ear.  Not too long before that, Teiran had finished the brushstrokes of his letter to the twins and sent it for immediate delivery by a fast courier rider who was, of course, another trusted member of their group.  Also, the food had also arrived and was waiting, still steaming and untouched.  Before any of the group had a chance to knock, Teiran said, "Come in.  The door's unlocked."
	The door opened with only a slight bit of hesitation, and the girl walked in, carrying her strange pack with her.  Teiran was somewhat chagrined to notice that the portion of her face where he'd slapped her was already showing faint signs of bruising.  'I honestly didn't think that I'd hit her that hard...' Teiran rubbed his jaw almost unconciously and restrained a smile when he saw her wince in turn. 'Feeling just a tad bit guilty now, are you?  Good, good...  The more leverage against you, the easier things will be for me.'


	'I feel as though I've walked right into the lion's den and been asked to eat with the lion...' Amber looked at the food in front of her, hungry beyond words but not yet willing to take a bite. 'Who's to say this Teiran fellow hasn't done something to it?  And why do I even care?  It's a dream.... just a dream.'
	With mixed feelings, she reached for a piece of the small, bite-sized finger food and popped it in her mouth.  She chewed it slowly, mildly surprised at the intensity of the flavor.  She could recognize some of the spices, but there were others she could never remember having had before.  Not being able to place or quantify them troubled her more than she would ever be willing to admit.  And yet, despite her misgivings, she found herself reaching for piece after piece until she had completely cleaned her plate.
	Teiran was slower to finish than Amber was, for he watched her as she ate, making note of small details.  'She's left-handed and neither hand shows any sign of roughness other than a callus on her left middle finger,' Teiran looked at his own hands, noting that he had a corresponding callus. 'She must write then, as I do...  But, surely, that is not the province of women.   She must come from a very strange country indeed.'
	After Teiran had finished his portion, he said, "I don't believe you've told me your name."
	"Mizuumi Sachiko," Amber replied, barely remembering to tack on a form of her family name first, reflecting that it would only be half a lie that way.
	"What an unusual last name...  Are you perhaps descended from one of those barbarian tribes that makes its home far to the northwest around Lake Balkhash?" Teiran asked.
	"Lake Balkhash..." Amber could remember that name faintly from a geography lesson, so now, she was almost certain that this dream that the Universe of the Four Gods had brought her to was somewhere in Ancient China.  'Strange...  How very, very strange.  All this brought on by a text I could barely understand and a picture of a dragon,' Amber shooke her head, saying, "I've heard of that lake before, but I seriously doubt that any of my ancestors came from that region.  I come from..."
	Amber stopped, unsure of what to say.  'The place I'm from isn't even close to being founded yet.  And as for my ancestors...  The earliest I can place any of them is in the late 1700's, and the country he's from doesn't exist yet, either.'  Finally, she said, "I really don't know where to say that I'm from.  The name will be meaningless to you, so I might as well be from a different world."
	"Might as well be?  But you're not?" Teiran asked, thinking, 'Your answer to this is crucial, girl, for it is said that only those from another world can become the mikos to these false gods.'
	"I'm...  I mean," Amber sighed and reached in her pack, pulling out something, about six inches long and an inch and a half wide, wrapped in brightly colored paper.  She set it on the table, pushing it slightly toward Teiran's side. "Inside this wrap is some food from my country.  Taste it, and I'll let you be the judge of whether I'm from this world or not."
	Teiran picked up the object and turned it over in his hands, looking for the opening.  "You claim there's food inside here, and yet, I don't see how..." Teiran tore one end off the wrapper. "..it got inside in the first place."
	He slid the wrapper's contents out onto one palm and could smell a sweet scent emanating from the brown colored bar that he now held.  "Is this some kind of... dessert?" Tenatively, he took a bite, thinking as he chewed, 'She is most definitely not from this world at all...  Some kind of magic that places things inside paper without leaving a hole or any discernable sign of being fastened shut.  And the paper itself!  It feels much smoother and reflects the light oddly.  Not to mention those strange symbols...  I believe they may be a writing system of some kind.'
	Teiran laid aside the bar on the edge of his plate and set the wrapper next to it.  He said, "I am, indeed, forming an opinion that you are not from this world at all.  And if this dessert of yours in any indication, your culture differs so much as to make your wearing of the dragon symbol not the insult that I had thought you meant by it.  As to the one god that you profess believing in, I am not sufficently up in the chain of command to make any definitive comparisons between our god and yours.  So, let me ask you...  Do you have any traveling or lodging plans?"
	Amber shook her head, "No.  I don't.  I didn't plan on straying from the library that I was in for the entire day, and yet, somehow, I ended up here.  I have no money, no food other than a few things similar to what I just gave you, and no clothing other than what I'm wearing now."
	'If ever there was a doubt that she came from elsewhere, that clears it.  No one purposely goes out far away from home with practically no supplies.  Even though it will place this girl in the political heart of Kutou, I really think it is best to send her to the twins.  They will know how to turn this situation to our advantage,' Teiran looked at Amber and asked, "Being that such is the case, would you mind undertaking a journey to a neighboring country of ours to discuss theology with a pair that are higher in command than I?  It will be a considerable distance, but I will see that you are provided with supplies and companions to guide you on your way."
	'A journey is it?  Why not?  As soon as night falls here, letting me sleep,  I'll wake up back in the library anyway...' Amber reasoned. "All right.  I see no reason not to go.  But, there is one thing."
	"And that is?"
	"Could you... find some way to make sure that these companions you send with me weren't part of the crowd present today?  I don't think that they'd be inclined to care too much about my well being right now."
	"No, I suppose they wouldn't," Teiran agreed. "I'll do my best on that account, but I cannot make any guarantees that some of them won't be."


	'Tomorrow...  So, that's when everything will all begin.  I'll meet my traveling companions/keepers.  That is...  I will if I don't wake up first,' 
	Amber grinned. 'They say that going to sleep in a dream is sure to wake one up, so I'll never be around to see it.  It's a real pity that, since I'm dreaming about being inside the book, I haven't gotten a chance to meet any of these people with the glowing symbol things.  I really wish that I knew exactly what's going on, but there's nobody around here that I can trust to counterbalance the skewed view that any of the god-followers whose hands I've fallen into are sure to give me.'
	Amber was sitting on the edge of a bed in a considerably smaller, but no less well furnished, room of the inn that Teiran was staying at.  She had been assured that she wouldn't be disturbed until morning, so she had spread all her other-world goods out around her, trying to think of something to keep her busy until she could reasonably expect to fall asleep.  She picked up a notebook and a pencil and decided to write down all the facts that she knew about this strange place.
	For one thing, the name of the book was 'The Universe of the Four Gods', so that indicated that the general belief was that there were four, and those were probably the ones that Teiran was railing against.  "And two of them are named Suzaku and Seiryuu, the dragon on my shirt being the symbol of the latter," she spoke aloud as she added that item to the list.  
	"Now, let's see...  What else is there?"
	From what little she'd understood of the book, she'd gathered a general feeling that the symbol bearers were related in some way to the gods.  Also, the original impression of the crowd indicated that they thought she, also, was connected with it.  'So, what exactly is a miko?' Amber flipped through her dictionary until she found the meaning: priestess, shrine maiden. 
	'Priestess...  Now, that's one occupation I've never exactly thought of going into.  But it makes sense with the summoning remark that one fellow made.  Now, what did he say was needed for the summoning?  Seishi?  It's clear from the crowd's behavior that they must be people, more than one for each god.  Could they be the ones with the symbols in the book?'
	Amber shook her head.  This line of speculation was going too far on too little information, even for her active imagination.  She closed the notebook and stuffed it back in her pack, along with most of the other stuff as well.  All that was left outside of the pack was her CD player containing one of the CDs to which she'd never written English lyrics yet.  'Maybe divine inspiration will strike, and the words will just spew forth like a flood...  Ha, ha,' she thought sarcastically as she slipped the headphones over her ears and pressed the play button, leaning back on the bed and concentrating on just the interplay between music and song.
.