Epilogue:

Henna was in her largest workshop when the first wave of nausea hit her, a sensation she hadn't felt in a long time. She grabbed a bucket and managed to not miss it. When she thought she was done, a second wave hit her, bringing with it tremendous pain. She barely made the bucket this time. The third wave was even worse, but her stomach had nothing left. She screamed and gagged, then rolled sideways away from the bucket, collapsing on the floor. She was unprepared for so severe a pain after its long absence. She was vaguely aware that Ba had materialized in the workshop and was watching her.

"Screw you," she hissed at it. "I'll have your head mounted on a pole soon!" Ba continued to watch her coldly. The sorceress reached up and grabbed her workbench. Then she pulled herself up and grabbed some herbs from a jar. Shoving the herbs in her mouth, she chewed furiously and felt the pain subside. "Something has happened," she thought to herself. "Something has broken while my sight is limited."

Henna then heard laughter ring through the house. "The Sprite!" she hissed. "It has done something more!"

"Oh no, dear Henna! Not me!" the Sprite said as its laughter subsided. "My death comes closer!" The voice filled the house and then went silent and all was quiet.

As soon as she finished steadying herself, Henna opened up her senses, only to have the screech of metal sound in her ears. She looked around the workshop quickly. The room was about 20 meters by 30 meters, filled with her tools and models. The sound was coming from the back – something she had not used in a long time was coming to life. She moved to the back of the room as quickly as she could, but the echoes of pain were still with her. What she saw stunned and horrified her.

Next to the back wall was a four-way balance. The four 1-meters arm were arranged at ninety degree angles about the pivot point and would normally be parallel to the table top if the four cups (one from each arm) had equal loads. As it was, the arms were nearly vertical with respect to the table top – one of the cups outweighed its three brothers badly (the pivot point was about a meter and a half above the table top). The screeching sound was coming from the pivot. As Henna watched the balance began to right itself.

"No!" she hissed. "That's not possible!" Despite her disbelief, the balance continued to move. Slowly the four arms swung on their pivot until they were parallel to the floor. Then the arms rotated until the arm that had been pointing at the bench now pointed to the East. Henna moved forward to check that the four cups of the model were empty (as they were suppose to be).

She stared at the restored balance until her shock was replaced by rage. She resisted the urge to smash the tool – that would change nothing. What the Sprite had said was true – the Thing's siblings had died, and the World had finally noticed. A Time of Change was coming, and, unless Henna moved quickly, it would discard Henna in the waste bucket of History. Her power would fade, and so would her life.

"I need to pervert the Change," she thought. "I need to stick my thumb back on the Scales." As she pondered that, she heard one of her zombies walk in and move the bucket Henna had thrown up in. A thought struck Henna then and she walked back to watch the creature clean up the mess Henna had made.

"I could summon the deceased Siblings back and order them to resume their duties," she thought. "Then they would be just like my zombies. It's not ideal, but it would serve," she continued silently. "I need to go to Mt. Phoenix and take back the Kinjakan – I'll depopulate the mountain if that's what it takes. The Gekkaja is still at Jusendo – that's easy to get. The Heart Stone is more problematic – last I knew, it was in the foothills of Mt. Fiji." She looked at the balance and its east pointing arm; she knew it was pointing towards Japan – and Ranma. "Setting foot anywhere near Ranma is a bad idea. I'd be better off hiring mercenaries to retrieve it for me. It's just a rune-carved quartz rock to them. They can move around unnoticed."

Henna continued to stand there in her workshop plotting and planning, never knowing that she was being observed. The Sprite sat in its tank watching Henna using a globe of pure water, picking the thoughts out of the woman's head. "Henna, after nine hundred years of studying you, you are so predictable to me," she said to herself. "I will have my freedom, and you will not stop me."

A/N: So ends Part I. The next Part will move away from the high drama and not be quite so "mythic" – expect a bit more humor. The story will focus on changes brought about by the Summoning among the "canon" characters and deal with Judge Sanu and his severe case of "Nerimaitis". Tofu's mercenary team (from "The Date – The Flip Side") will also make an appearance and we will learn about a chapter from Tofu's past. Oh, and someone will get "burned" badly – I hope you stick around.

I am on taking my family on a vacation next week, but I will be posting a one-shot if all goes well. Look for "One Stitch at a Time", a story about Nodoka and Akane. It is set after "Shape-Shifters" but before "Genma's Job". When I get back, we will get started on "The Destruction of Ranma Saotome – Combustion".

As a final note, I would like to thank the reviewers who commented along the way – their input was important both for motivation and for the feedback that made the story better, whether it was a spelling correction or calling attention to a paragraph that needed some editing. Many of them also sent PM's with corrections and offered to be Beta Readers – I'm still trying to work out how to make this happen with the schedule I keep. It is a good idea though (especially with the number of errors people are catching - maybe if I can get a proper pipeline going). So a hearty "thank you" to (in no particular order): Taechunsa, Wharpt, Compucles, gort420, Leoness, goldplatium, jaqjaq123. Richard Ryley, TL, Flameraven1, cloundshadow, Dee Bryant, TopKat90, BobV, Ranmayamabushi, James Birdsong, goddessa39. UrmixMoonstone, pursemonger, Rose1948, Saggit, KaraOhki, Kittychan H, weebee, and spok4. And thank you to everyone else for reading this story!