As part of the run-up to the Time of Legends expansion, there’s another new piece of lore fiction — entitled Isamu’s Legacy — up on the Ultima Online website, again written by EM Malachi:

Sho Hill burned. Rondorin Castle was gone, devoured by a sinkhole caused by the nascent volcano. Falling ash filled the city streets, and hundreds packed the northern roads to escape the approaching molten flows. Messengers from the various daimyos had come with similar reports. Only tiny Zento was said to be safe from calamity. As the natural world tore itself apart, the odachi that had served Kimura Isamu so well was without purpose. All Isamu could do was follow the final orders his daimyo had given him.

The samurai was drawn from his brooding by a crash. An apprentice sailor had dropped a crate, spilling the contents across the pier. He looked up at Isamu with panic and started to frantically pick up handfuls of emeralds. Lost in worry, the sailor didn’t notice the wealth he was haphazardly tossing into the broken crate. Rather than reprimand him, Isamu stooped in his armor to help gather up the treasure.

As the bezaisen set sail for Zento, Isamu checked the worn scroll case strapped to his back. The scrolls were the legacy his daimyo had died saving from the archive: war journals, kenjutsu techniques, writings on Bushido, and the family registry. While only a dozen scrolls out of hundreds, they were what remained of the history and wisdom of the Rondorin Empire.

Click on through to read the rest; it’s available in both English and Japanese.