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The opal moon seemed to light the sleeping world tentatively, like a flickering lantern suspended in a boat which rode the dark waves of the sky. It bathed the room in a glow which might have been romantic, if such a concept were of any use to its three occupants. It was not. Of the three, one was caught in a death-like sleep, and one was frozen in the moment between waking and sleeping.

The other was Lightning.

Getting in had been a simple game, although the planning and execution of it had given him pleasure. An elaborate hide and seek around the Palace, a swift and subtle powder dropped into food, an inside door: it might have been a story. He had often thought the invisible mesh of secret entrances and passageways in the Palace was a world worth playing in. They reminded him of the pages of the storybooks he had read in the Grand Library, furtively, spilling the juice of a stolen piece of fruit over the pages and leaving them on the floor when he had finished.

He had been perched on the bed for quite some time, enjoying, for a while, being perfectly still and observing the face of the person who lay asleep there. But being perfectly still and waiting had got boring, and so he had fidgeted, deliberately. Now the person in the bed was looking at him. Lightning's face was inches away, his blonde hair glowing white under the moonlight's brushstrokes and his face wearing the expression sculpted on to a statue of a child god - a frown of concentration, a half pout of the lips; perfect innocence of anything other than what he was doing at that precise moment.

"Did you know that it's common to swallow spiders while you're sleeping?" He had a high voice, with a curiously light quality to it which seemed to imply that there was nothing which could concern him greatly. "They crawl into your mouth. They like the dark. Anything can happen while you're sleeping, can't it?"

"I was lonely," the high voice replied, as dry as the crackle of fallen leaves. No further explanation than that was offered: the implication appeared to be that that was all the explanation necessary. A sudden flare of bright electric light blazed across the room, casting deep shadows of their figures on the screens. It appeared to come from nowhere - nobody would guess, had they been looking, that it originated in the depths his bright blue eyes, rather than simply functioning to illuminate them and show their colour, vibrant against his wan face.

"I was lonely," Lightning repeated, a defiant flash in his eyes. "You're my brother." A second implication was in operation, by this time, and it was far more sinister - that means you're going to have to do something about it dripped from his apparently incongruous words like melting icing on a mound of sweets arranged in the sun.

"He's sleeping," the boy replied. His voice was serene and his expression matched it. "Those men outside your door are sleeping too. They ought to be grateful. Staying awake all night isn't good for you. Now they'll wake up refreshed and ready for a brand new day."

He giggled breathlessly: a tiny, tinkling, asthmatic sound. Earth's words sounded much more sensible and much more reassuring when Earth was the one speaking them, and they were laughable coming from someone who rarely slept at all if he could help it. Although he had a suspicion that his new brother wasn't going to feel much like laughing.

He looked at the silent and very still body of the retainer. Things weren't as they appeared - careful examination revealed the slight rise and fall of the man's chest. "Spiders aren't the only things you have to worry about swallowing, it seems," Lightning said. His bright blue eyes flashed back towards his brother. "He's sleeping peacefully," he promised. "I hope he has nice dreams."

There was a flash of movement, so quick that it was mainly discernible by the rustle of silk which accompanied it. The tips of Lightning's small white fingers peeped out from the wide hems of his too-long sleeves, ten perfectly pared nails. His face was inches away from his new brother's, and the expression it wore was horrible in its intensity. He was the shorter of the two, but not by very much, and his eyes burned two smoking holes right into Daiichi's head. "Don't ever say that again," he said. It was the threat of a child, but there was an edge to it which his previous words had not held. This was something which meant a lot to Lightning, and, like a small boy with his precious hoard of paltry treasures, he was exceedingly jealous of it. "You're our brother. You shouldn't forget that."

His face changed a second later, like the rippling of a rice paper fortune fish as it flipped. His smile became open, the look in his eyes cleared, and he looked alarmingly guileless. "Not that you're a very good brother," he pointed out, glancing sceptically at the sleeping retainer. "None of the others would have let that happen." He scrutinised the new brother for a moment, as though he were attempting to work out what the point of him was. The endeavour apparently failed, for a small frown wrinkled his usually untroubled forehead. "What do you even do, anyway? I'm Lightning. There's Air-nii-sama, and Water, and Earth - and Fire's come back now too. But that's all the elements. What are you?"

Lightning's blonde head tipped to one side as he grappled with this difficult new concept. The intelligence of the Batsu was apparently unrivalled. They had all been educated to the highest degree, from a young enough age to mark them all as prodigy children. Lightning had probably read most of the books in the grand library (the ones deemed suitable by his tutors, that was) at a time which ought to have been filled with running about screaming and playing in the dirt. However, for all this book-learning, he had always retained an extremely simplistic view of life. Things either made sense in his very singular world view, or they didn't. This didn't.

He was wary of the unfamiliar, to the point of be frightened of it. Unfortunately for Daiichi, when Lightning was frightened of something he usually wanted to kill it. "You can't be Water," he said, straight-away, folding him arms and crumpling his over-long sleeves. "We've already got a Water." His small face was alive with bright suspicion. "Did you make that up? I meant what magic have you got," he added, in case he needed to clarify. It would be an impossibility for them to have a brother with no magic at all. Air would never have allowed that. But it was true that this one looked useless. He hadn't even tried to defend himself from Lightning's stealthy infiltration of his rooms and incapacitating of his guards.

Actually, he hadn't even noticed.

"Obviously."

Wondering why Daiichi was attempting to look at the end of his own nose, and if he knew that it made him look cross-eyed, Lightning put out a tiny finger and prodded him in the arm as though testing a figure in a dream for flesh and blood. "Are you lying, then?" he enquired innocently. It appeared that he hadn't grasped quite how seriously the odd new brother would take such an accusation. "You have to be," he said simply. "Water's Water. You're you. There can't be two of you. What would we call you?"

There was no other explanation. Unless - the machinery of Lightning's brain began to whir and click with rapid ease - unless Daiichi also had water powers. After all, there had once been another man with the power to harness the lightning, hadn't there? Lightning couldn't recall his name or face, although he remembered the satisfying squelch of his internal organs. So it was possible for two to exist at once, if there was no danger of one killing the other. And he very much doubted that this one could kill a fly, let alone Water.

He considered for a moment. "Nii-san's already Water," he said. "But you need a name...let's see. It needs to be like Water, because you are, but obviously not as good, because you aren't. I think," he said, coming to a decision as quick as his name and nature, and completely failing to take in the fate he damned his new brother to, "you had better be Puddle."

Then, in perhaps his most alarming act since deciding to visit his new brother, he threw his arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. "Welcome to the family, Puddle-chan."

"Yes," Lighting agreed happily. "It's Puddle."

He was glad he had decided to make this visit. It was so much better than meeting his new older brother in a solemn introduction orchestrated by Air, who would insist on the kind of seriousness which made Lightning want to fidget and escape. He loved his eldest brother, and was deeply in awe of him, but whenever they came into contact he was so determined to both impress him and show off that he never felt comfortable, and never made the impression he imagined he would. It was better that he and Puddle met like this.

And Puddle was funny. His look of fury was really excellent, and the lack of strength in his skinny arms almost amazing. Lightning was by no means a large individual, but he probably could have pushed his new brother over. A huge and puppy-like grin spread over his face. Playing with Puddle was going to be great fun. He could tell Lightning off until he was blue in the face, and it wouldn't matter because he was completely ineffectual. And Lightning would always know more and know how to do everything better, because he had been in the Batsu for far longer. A feeling of great superiority overtook him, swelling his chest with something akin to pride.

"You can be my friend," he declared, with the air of one granting a great favour. "I brought chess. I want to play now."

"I'm not going until you play chess with me," Lightning said obstinately, setting his jaw mulishly. He pointed to the box he had brought with him, which was half-hidden by Puddle's thrown back sheets. "I brought it with me. I want to play." A faintly whining tone crept into his voice. "You have to. I can't sleep. Brothers look after brothers, Puddle-nii-chan. Even bastard brothers." This last was uttered so casually that it was almost an afterthought, but it was quite clear that Lightning, in his immature fashion, was trying to put his new brother firmly in his place. Like Water, but not as good as him. One of the Batsu, but not a proper one. Part of the group of clever and brilliant brothers - but nowhere near as clever and brilliant as the rest of them.

Nevertheless, he was prepared to like Puddle in spite of all these failings - perhaps because of them, in fact.

"Or," he said, one of those many subtle changes taking place in his expression as he looking over at the sleeping form of Kenji, "I could kill your retainer." Suddenly, the bright moon at the window was shining down on the white skin of Lightning's fore-arm and the dark lines of the Batsu tattoo. In his hand was a dagger as sharp as a shard of broken mirror. It appeared to have come from absolutely nowhere. With a rustle of deceptively innocent sky blue silk and the bright, unsuspecting smile of a child, it was gone again, as quickly as it had been there.

"White or black?" he asked.

"Then you're stupid, aren't you?" Lightning said, his blue eyes wide and innocent. "It's very easy."

He sat down suddenly. Lightning did nothing sluggishly, for he did not often get to the place between being asleep and being awake, as he avoided sleeping at all costs. He was constantly a coiled spring of latent energy. Removing the chess set from the box, he placed the board on the floor in front of him. He laid out the pieces meticulously, taking pleasure in lining them up perfectly straight. The white pieces were on his side of the board, a small ivory army with menacingly blank faces, and the black pieces on the other, for Puddle had unwittingly chosen a side by picking up one.

"White starts," he said, and moved a pawn forward. His eyes fixed on Puddle, full of dangerous expectation. "It's your go now," he said. "Hurry up."