Of Bindings and the Bound
July 7th, 1583
Reiko rolled a small white child's ball between her hands, tossing it back and forth absently. The ball was a bit larger than a walnut, pure white, and made of an oddly resilliant material. It had, until recently, been kept safelt in her ancestor box. But she'd brought it out and had been playing with it more or less constantly for the past few days. The ball was comforting, and handling it calmed her thoughts. She wasn't sure why, but it did.
She was, with a thread of silver fire, tracing the sigils on Tsuyoshi's forehead and lips, the spells that kept his thoughts chained and his tongue stilled. She hadn't tried attacking them both at once before, and had needed to wait until she was well fed to attempt it. Tsuyoshi sat before her, his boyish face turned up towards her, his eyes closed.
Trace, trace, trace. The complicated symbols, with their layers of lines, glowed with white that twisted around her silver, fighting her magic. But the white was losing, and losing quickly. Odd, Reiko thought. This was much harder last time, and I was only doing one.
She concetrated, and with a nearly audible snap, both sigils shot white sparks and disappeared. The spirit opened his eyes and with an amazed look on his face, said Free! I'm free... He rubbed his forehead with a transluscent hand. Reiko, you did it! Only... He frowned. What year is it?
"1583. Why?"
Two hundred years...I don't remember very much of it. There was you, of course, but there was always you. How could I spend two centuries as a spirit and learn nothing?
"Lin bound you. As she bound me. She bound your thoughts so you couldn't remember who you had been, and she bound your tongue so you couldn't tell me what it was you know. And she took my memories of you--most of those are still missing. I remember that you were a scholar and a wu jen...but there it stops."
The spirit ran a finger down the side of her face, the energy he was made from tickling her cheek. I was in the court of Yoshikuni the Fifth, an extremely minor noble in the Phoenix clan and a researcher for him. We were investigating--wait. Reiko, what's this? His fingers slipped underneath the skin of her cheek, under one of the sigils she knew was there.
Reiko laughed and curled herself away from him. "Tsuyoshi, that tickles! Stop it!"
No, really, hold still! His finger slipped under her skin again, sliding down the sides of her neck and down her arms, under her breasts. Reiko convulsed with laughter again, batting at the spirit, her hands passing through him harmlessly. He abandoned whatever he was looking for in favor of tickling her, as she giggled helplessly.
"Careful, you! I'll change into fox form and run away. And then you'll never find me."
The light from those sigils would betray you in even the darkest well. But, no, i was looking for something, but you're so ticklish that I can't figure out what it is.
She sighed. "All right, I'll hold still. But try to be quick, it really does tickle awfully."
His long-fingered hands explored her body again, the ghostly fingers under her skin oddly intimate. She closed her eyes and memories spun themselves out in her mind--these same hands, two and a half centuries ago, roving her body as the lamps in the room burned low. Her scholar usually made love like he approached most of the rest of his life, with an intense fervor that blocked out all distractions. It was rare to catch him in a contemplative mood like this, but this was her clearest memory of him, the remembered hands touching her bare skin as his spirit in the present day slid his hands underneath of it.
Tsuyoshi's voice brought her out of her reverie. Did you know you have another spirit in here? It's hiding behind your sigils.
"I'm told that I and the rest of my companions each have a small shard of the spirit of Japan--the sun spirit--within us."
You do? You do! How extraordinary. Did you know that those spirits were my life's work? Well, communicating with and containing them was. I helped make these orbs--wait! I remember now. You have them, all three of them, don't you?
"Y-yes." Reiko was stunned. How convenient that her scholar would be a researcher of the spirits. It appeared that some things were fated, after all.
They're dangerous, those orbs. I was almost killed working on them, a couple of times. I think I managed to tame their power down, at least I hope I did, my memories are a little odd towardds the end. Something about not remembering one's own death, perhaps. Wait. That was you, wasn't it?
"Ah, yes." Reiko looked up at him, wondering how he would react.
Couldn't have happened any better, really. I was finished with the orbs, and then, well, I was finished. It was a sweet death, really.
She found her voice again. "I'm...glad you see it that way."
He waved his hands in the air. Done is done, Reiko. Now, these sigils. Lin's work, I know. You undid one of them when Jinn was taken, and when the power resdistributed, how did it feel?
"Like I was going to die. I passed out, and Hiroshi found me unconcious."
I wondered. Hold still again. Reiko fought giggles once more as his fingers traced one of the sigils she could see, the one that was suspended between her breasts. I thought so. See, here? When you undid the binding, the power contained in it flowed into the other ones. And each of these builds on each otherm supporting each other. I think by its very presence, that spirit is loosening your bindings. Extraordinary, extraordinary indeed! And...oh. Oh, dear. He was touching her forehead, and she rolled her eyes to look at him.
"What, Tsuyoshi?"
Lin wasn't a very nice person, was she?
"She took lessons from the Demonbane. She was--is--the opposite of nice."
He traced the sigil on her forehead with his fingers. This one...this one is the master of masters. It's probably the first one that went on, and it needs to be the last one to come off. Like the rest of the master marks, this one is tied into a spirit. Into your spirit. And when it's destroyed, it's going to hold so much power that it's likely to take your soul with it.
"So if I undo that mark, I'll die?"
When you undo the mark. Or when it's undone. And there's a good chance...no. I refuse to beleive it.
"What?"
Do you really want to know?
"Yes! Tell me."
The kind of power in there...when it's released, there will be a backlash. There's a good chance that it'll destroy your soul.
"I'll die the true death, never to return."
Just as if you'd starved to death.
"Any way around it?"
Only if you shunt the energy off somewhere...I need to think on it. Tadaki may be able to help, this is a wu jen specialty.
"That is if I can convince him i'm not going to eat him..."
Well, aren't you? You seem to have a taste for scholars.
"And warlords!" She puzzled on this, and sighed. "Too many serious thoughts for today. I think the people on the ship could use with a little mystery." She shrugged off her robe. Tsuyoshi whistled at her, and she stuck her tonighe out at him. And then, with an effort of will, she changed, her form shrinking down to that of a small black fox.
A fox with two silver-tipped tails.
She nosed the door open and ran out into the corridor, Tsuyoshi alternately following her and running ahead of her, his memories of life meaning that for once he was standing on the floor rather than floating. Into the bowles of the ship she ran, occasionally leaping and nipping at Tsuyoshi, startling a couple of sailors who were on the late shift.
*****
In the morning, Panda turned over from where she was curled on her mat, waking for another day of guarding the Lady. As she tugged at the blanket, it felt like something was weighing it down...what? She woke a little more and propped herself on her elbow, looking down where the resistance was coming from.
On the blanket curled a black fox, nose buried in the tips of its two tails. Startled, Panda said, "...Reiko?"
The kitsune cracked one amber eye, looking at the white-haired samurai. Then she closed her eye, yawned widely (displaying a somewhat impressive set of sharp white teeth), and blew out a breath, to all appearances falling directly back to sleep.
Panda rolled her eyes and climbed up off of her mat, shaking her head. She would never understand the kitsune, she thought. Who knew why they did what they did? After dressing, she left the room, in search of Yukiko and Haku.
When the samurai was well away, the black fox uncurled herself and got to her feet, stretching and shaking out her tails. She sniffed the mat where Panda's head had lain, looking for something...ah, there.
When she lifted her head from the mat, three long white hairs trailed from her jaws. She looked terribly pleased with herself as she dipped her head to rub her cheek along the place where Panda's head usually rested. Mine. You're mine.
Then she pushed open the door, the white hairs still in her mouth, and padded out into the hall, heading back to her own cabin.