The Bound Fox
There is no true privacy on a ship, Reiko thought as she attempted to find a location on the deck that was out of the way of the sailors, who were going about their jobs as usual. What she needed to do now was going to require a fair amount of talking aloud, and she really didn't want to be cooped up in her cabin any more than necessary. Not with some of the memories that were beginning to return.
She finally found a relatively out of the way location, settled herself more or less comfortably, and turned her face towards the sky. Her spirits--the five that were left--swirled and settled beside her. Miss M, her mouth still bound by Lin's mark, hugged herself, the look on her face a mixture of grief and fear. Kei, the only one who could not be still, paced the deck before her. Tsuyoshi was muttering to himself, which Reiko could hear as if someone were talking several rooms away. Setto sat beside her, seeming to be waiting for her to speak.
And Zhane perched on a rope, looking at Reiko with an expression that Reiko could not read. Perhaps she was angry, or perhaps she was afraid. Perhaps both.
"I'm sorry." Her tone was soft. "I...is there anything more I can say, really?" The muttering from the bound spirits grew louder, Zhane's voice contributing to the fray as she tried to express something incomprehensible to the shaman. "I've never heard of a sword that can trap spirits." She reached out with her mind to that place that Jin had once been anchored, the place where he had been raw and painful. "My Jin, my honorable Jin." She had loved him, the older man who had so often lectured her when she'd done something less than honorable. But the lectures were always kindly meant, and though his words had often stung she'd always had to admit that he had a point.
Setto looked at her, and said, "You knew that jade is a substance that affects spirits. You knew that Jade Warriors can see spirits, and you knew that it was likely that the warrior had a nasty surprise in store for you. And yet, you still rushed into the fray, and attacked the person that the warrior was created to protect." His words were mild, but the anger behind them was not, and Reiko quailed; Setto had a temper on him, though it sounded as if he was holding it in check for the moment. "And your impulsive behavior lost you Jin. Is there a reason we shouldn't all be angry with you, Reiko?"
She shook her head. "I just...didn't think. The lady had a knife to her throat--if I hadn't done anything, she might have been killed."
"And instead, you sacrificed one of us. Who, I will point out, you have a sacred duty to protect from harm."
"I just didn't think, all right? I forgot about the Jade Warrior, and I've always--"
Setto's voice was quiet. "And you've always had Lin to guide you, to keep you from doing something truly stupid. She kept you very young, but she also kept you out of serious trouble. Even though you're centuries old, you're still a pup. A one-tail. And for someone who is, really, quite clever, you certainly can be an idiot sometimes."
Reiko felt the lash of his anger in those words; had she been in fox form, she would have tucked her tail between her legs. She settled for pulling her knees to her chest and hiding her face in her hair. The place where Jin had been was a liquid fire on her spirit, the wounds across her back that were not yet completely healed ached. After she'd been roused back to consciousness by Funitsu, she'd refused any more healing, feeling somehow that there should be some physical punishment for losing one of her beloved spirits. "The others don't understand. Panda thought that I should be glad to be rid of you."
"They only see the strangeness that mortals call madness. Between your vixen nature and you talking to us aloud..." He shrugged. "Rei, you've never particularly worried about your differences."
Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. "I've never had this many people I could call friends all at once, either. And I need to protect them, as well as you, as well as the Lady."
"Don't worry about the rest; they seem more likely to end up defending you than the other way around. Yukiko and the child are your priority, and us. Let those with strength do the fighting. Your battleground is altogether different. Combat can sometimes be won before the swords are drawn. That's where you need to concentrate."
"And cleaning up afterwards." Reiko looked up at Setto, her hair falling over one eye. He still looked angry, his arms crossed. When he was alive, she remembered soothing him out of his anger with soft kisses, but that obviously wasn't going to work now. She tried to speak but was startled by a sudden flare of pain from the place Jin had been. "Ow! What the--" With an effort of will, she dropped into her magical Sight, scanning the place that hurt so badly.
The place that hurt was a sigil, burning into her with white fire. Concentrating, she looked at it, trying to comprehend the mind that had set these into her soul. Lin, Lin, what trap have you set for me? She thought the sigil was familiar--wait. It was the same sigil that had been set over Jin's heart. A quick check revealed that each of the spirits' heart sigils was inscribed in white fire somewhere on her body. She couldn't stop to think about that, though, because she saw--and felt--the mark that had matched Jin's pulse irregularly, burning her. "They must be connected somehow, and now that Jin's gone, the power's somehow unbalanced." She touched her pool of power, and hissed as she felt that it was much smaller than it had been this morning, and dwindling rapidly. This flaring, whatever it was, was drawing on her power; she had to stop it, and quickly. She drew a silver thread from the small pool that still existed, remembering the lesson that she'd learned the other day.
She threaded the sigil with her silver fire. It was difficult, more difficult than the last one has been, but she traced and traced it, silver swallowing white finally--
And darkness came abruptly as the sigil shot white sparks and disappeared, the rest of the sigils flaring bright as the sun as the power redistributed itself into the remaining bindings. Reiko's body sprawled to one side, limp, her spirits all regarding her worriedly, Miss M stooping and brushing her fingers against Reiko's hair.
Hiroshi had come up to the deck for a breath of air and to see what there was to be seen on the coast. He was leaning on the railing, enjoying the wind in his face, when all the of hairs on the back of his neck stood up. There was something wrong, somewhere, the part of him that was constantly evaluating even the safest of surroundings for signs of danger was prodding his attention. What was it...wait. There were air currents that weren't acting like they should, swirling around his face. He backed away from the railing, turning, trying to pinpoint a place that felt more wrong than right. He saw, from a niche made from several crates lashed to the deck, a small bare foot protruding, and the edge of some bright red cloth. He remembered that red, Reiko had been wearing it that morning when they'd all arisen. Crossing the deck with several long steps, he looked into the niche to find Reiko tumbled over on her side, breathing shallowly, obviously unconscious. He put a hand on her shoulder, saying her name, but she didn't awaken.
No obvious signs of injury, no indications of magical attack--what could be wrong with her? Well, he should probably get her somewhere safe and find Funitsu to see if he could figure out what was wrong with her. He eased an arm around her, resting her head against his shoulder, and was picking her up when the tiny woman jerked and thrashed, her eyes flying open. "Reiko! Reiko, it's all right, it's just me." He watched as recognition filtered into her yellow eyes and her body relaxed, breathing out.
"What happened?"
"I'm not sure. I found you here, passed out, no sign of what had caused it around. What do you remember?"
Reiko thought, remembered the sigil, remembered tracing it, and---"Oh. Just a moment." She closed her eyes and used her magical sight to look at the place where the sigil she'd erased had been.
It was gone, completely, as were a number of other sigils that had been connected to it. In fact, there was a whole swath of her body that was now free of sigils, her right hip and leg bare of magical bindings. "That must have been a master mark," she murmured, forgetting that Hiroshi was next to her. "Take out the master, and the others fall. But the master sigils are somehow linked into my spirits...oh, Lin, you are an artist as obsessive as any I've ever met."
Hiroshi, confused, said, "Reiko, you're not making any sense." As usual, the thought came unbidden, but he didn't speak it.
"Oh!" Reminded of his presence, Reiko blinked. "Um. Do you want the long explanation or the short one?"
"Is either of them more likely to make sense?"
She thought. "Probably not."
"The short answer, then."
"How to sum it up...All right. You know Lin, the spirit of mine who left me, had ways of keeping my memories and powers bound, right?" At his nod, she continued. "She bound me using sigils, magical diagrams, all of them linked together over my body. There were seven master sigils, the ones that anchored all the rest. These sigils were somehow linked into each of my spirits, and they power them with their energy. When Jin was taken from me today, that master sigil somehow went haywire. I was able to erase it, but I think it discharged all of its energy into the rest of the bindings. For some reason, I passed out."
Hiroshi regarded her silently as she finished speaking. She rubbed her forehead, muttering, "And it's given me a wicked headache, as well."
He was suddenly aware of the fact that he still had his arm around her shoulders, and that her body was warm against his. He released her, sitting down with his back against a crate. "I have to confess that I don't really understand what you're talking about. But I am no magic-user, so."
She snorted. "At least you seem to believe that I have spirits. I overheard Funitsu referring to my spirits as my imaginary friends the other day. He'd better be careful who he calls imaginary, is all I have to say."
The archivist chose his words carefully. "The Scorpion is a skeptic when it comes to certain things, it seems. It may yet come back to haunt him, so to speak."
She shrugged. "I'm used to people thinking I'm crazy." She glanced at him, a rueful expression in her eyes. "You might still think I'm nuts, but thank you for at least believing I'm real. As for not understanding...what it really means is that there was a part of me that was locked away that is now free. I remember more, now, of what I am. Who I have been."
"What do you remember now?" His curiosity was getting the better of him. Perhaps, unlike the rest of her stories, this one might make sense. Such an optimist, Hiroshi, he chuckled to himself.
"I remember Jin. He was a retired samurai, widowed five years by the time I met him, living on his estate. His oldest son was running most of the family's affairs when I met him, so he had quite a bit of time on his hands. Time enough to notice the pretty apothecary in the village closest to his estate.
"Love between us grew softly and gently. I was going by Mei at that time, and I knew he loved me the day he brought me a branch of plum blossoms and told me that I was sweeter by far than my namesake. His family eventually found out and were properly scandalized, thinking that I was somehow taking advantage of him. They thought I was wanting to marry him and inherit from him. I never managed to convince them that I wanted nothing of the sort.
"He was very sweet, such strength held under perfect control. I loved him and thus I overstayed my welcome. A year after I met him, I drained him to death, not knowing what I did. And then Lin took everything away again. But now..." She closed her eyes. "I remember things about herbs and medicines that I didn't before. I remember the four systems of elements that are in wide use, and the places where each correspond. I remember how to cure illness with my herbs. And how to kill with them." She gave him a canny look. "I am certain you know of what I speak. Archivist."
He nodded, touching one finger to his lips in the universal gesture for silence. Amusement flashed in her eyes and lingered around the corners of her mouth, and she climbed to her feet. "I think I'm all right. A bit dizzy, but I'm sure it'll pass." Reiko stretched as Hiroshi got to his feet. She looked up at him, a small smile on her lips. "Thank you for checking on me."
He shrugged. "You're a friend, kitsune."
She looked away, out over the ocean. "Very few have ever said that to me, who knew what I am. Fewer still have meant it. The problem with being an immortal is that it can get very lonely." Then she blinked, her demeanor changing in a flash, and she was climbing barefooted into the rigging. Hiroshi watched her go, bemused.
He paused, waiting for Reiko to be safely out of earshot, and said, "Did you hear what you came for, Lady?"
Yukiko stepped around the crate, smiling perhaps a bit ruefully. "I did, thank you. How did you know I was there?"
He shrugged. "I have excellent hearing, Lady. But you knew that."
"So, what do you think of our little shaman, now? Do you have a verdict on her, as several of my retinue seem to?"
"No, Lady." He looked up into the rigging, where Reiko was talking animatedly to someone neither of them could see. "In all honesty, I'm not sure what to think."
Yukiko looked up, her expression unreadable. "I hope you meant what you said about being her friend, archivist. I have a feeling she's going to need all she can get soon enough. As will we all." She turned and walked away towards the bow of the ship.
Hiroshi returned to the railing, leaning on it, watching the coast slide by.