Tomika's Letters, 8/7 - 8/12: The Worm Turns
8/7/1583
Aomori
Dear Yukiko,
Short sailing this morning, landing us in Aomori this afternoon. We were met immediately by Storming Bear's samurai, and taken to his house and feasted in what appears to be Unicorn grand style. Much meat was involved. Bizarre, but there you have it. He noted immediately that the librarian was different, and said that his new form and apparent profession were much better than his old one. Storming Bear is many things, but stupid is not among them. He knew exactly what the librarian was, before.
We spoke of Minoru, the general who is trying to stir up conflict within the Unicorn, and he said that he'd never heard of the man. Almost as an afterthought, he said he'd had an advisor who he'd fired a month or so back, because he disliked his advice. That advisor was named Tadao, and had gone to Oni Killer after he was dismissed. Oni Killer happens to be Storming Bear's greatest rival within his clan.
So very convenient, it seems.
The Dragon samurai that Haku had sent to the Unicorns rather than causing trouble with the Lions had arrived; unfortunately, they had taken many casualties, and were something of a ragtag band of fifty-odd at this point. There was one that had been altered, who Storming Bear had been about to kill, but he offered to let us take a look at him first.
After finishing our meal, we did so.
Interesting, what we found. A man, but a man more afflicted by strength than any I have seen, wrapped in bonds of muscle as tightly as any ropes. He was feverish and sweating, moaning in what seemed to be pain, the sheet on his mat knotted around him. The scent of his sweat hung thick and sour in the air. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong indeed.
Storming Bear said gravely, "He said that the Dragon contingent had run into Oni Killer's people, and each of them were as giants in their strength. When he killed one, the Unicorn's blood splashed into the Dragon's wounds, and very soon he was feeling unwell. He has been like this for a week, perhaps two. Death would be a kindness, at this point."
Haku asked Panda to look at him with her orb of true seeing. She did, and whatever she saw made her go as white as her hair. She handed the orb to Reiko without comment, and fled from the room. She has had quite the touchy stomach lately, has Panda. Reiko peered through the orb and murmured, "That's neat. Disturbing, but neat."
The orb was passed around, everyone making somewhat disgusted noises. When it came to me, I could see what they had been grimacing about--under the man's skin and inside of him were worms, wriggling, exerting some sort of influence over him. Haku suggested using the true source on him and we promptly did so.
Unfortunately, it worked, but not how we wanted it to.
The worms did indeed come out of him. But they exited through his skin. It was as if he suddenly had dissolved in a cloud of blood. He drew his breath inward as if to scream but died before he could let it out.
We burned the worms that had come out of him and made arrangements for the body of the Dragon to be burned. Gryphon, as we burned the worms, ducked his head under his wing, and whined, "Owwwww....make them stop!" Reiko, confused, inquired what he wanted to make stop, and he said, "The worms are screaming! Can't you hear?"
None of us could, except Gryphon. Oni Killer also brought us a broken katana, and said that the dead Dragon had snapped it in two with his bare hands. Such strength is a frightening thing. Humans are not meant to be so strong.
Storming Bear told us Oni Killer's true name, with the request that we keep it secret, so that Funitsu could scry on him. (I can't tell you what the name is. But I assure you that it is very, very amusing. Evidently Oni Killer's parents had a vicious sense of humor.)
My husband scried, and came back with the information that Oni Killer has three hundred samurai, all altered as the Dragon who had just died was, stationed south and east of Aomori. South farther still are another three hundred troops, evidently in process--probably being altered as the rest are.
Tomorrow, we go south to try and see if we can interrupt the processing of the samurai. Tonight, however, we sleep.
Flirtation is not working on my husband. Strong measures are needed. I am unsure what these measures are, but I will come up with something, I'm sure. Perhaps Panda would have some advice.
Much affection,
Tomika
8/8/1583
Aomori
Dear Yukiko,
Such an exciting day! A lovely fight against a mighty foe, and travel in comfort via the mirror. This is, indeed, the life. We headed south early this morning, all of us except Gryphon, Reiko, and Tadaki in the mirror. Gryphon and Tadaki were flying, and Reiko was riding Gryphon, as she takes every excuse to do. She really seems quite fond of the gryphon. Perhaps because in some ways, they are the outsiders, here.
We took the Warresh with us but left the Thrykreen behind. We are very careful to keep the Warresh near enough to the librarian so that he can see them. Out of his line of sight, they may become unpredictable.
Near the place we were heading, there was a barren area, one that looked like it had been growing for some time. There were small turning winds dancing along the surface, as if something from underneath were disturbing the air above. Gryphon found a place to land, and we all came out of the mirror.
We discovered that there were creatures beneath the ground--one giant worm, and many smaller ones. When we dug up a bit of earth, we found that they were the same as the worms that had infected the Dragon samurai, only larger.
Much larger.
A plan was hatched. Tadaki would fire a fireball into the warrens of the worm, and Hiroshi would try to poison the largest one. Meanwhile, we would try to fetch Tadao, who was busily infecting samurai with these worms. We were hoping that in the confusion we could take care of Tadao before the samurai knew what was happening.
A good plan, and one we put into action right away. At the explosion we heard from the barren area, we set out at a run to try to get Tadao. Haku, being the fastest of us, was the first there, and tackled Tadao as he attempted to escape.
The flaw in our plan became apparent when out of the ground burst the largest worm. At a hundred or so feet long, it was massive and much faster than anything that big has any right to be. It was heading after Hiroshi and the Warresh, who were fast but not nearly fast enough.
Panda and Haku were taking care of Tadao, and the worm screamed. The samurai who had been infected, as one, bleed and fell as the worms flew out of them and crawled to join the large one. Perhaps one of the more disgusting sights in the last few days.
I took aim at the worm, but then something happened to make anything I could do exceptionally dangerous. Gryphon had swooped down to pick up the librarian, snatching him out of harm's way, and tried to toss him up in the air and fly under him to catch him on his back. This, unfortunately, did not work as intended, and the librarian dropped, falchion-first, onto the worm's back.
I saw him pour something into the wound, and the worm convulsed and screamed again, writing, trying to rid itself of the man on its back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Reiko with eyes narrowed, pointing at the worm.
Out of the tiny shaman came a great cry, directed at the worm. "BAD WORM. LIE DOWN!"
And, impossibly, it did.
A few minutes later, it shuddered and died, the poison that the librarian had given it finally working. And where the body of the worm had been, there was suddenly a hole in the air. One that led, quite improbably, back to Kyoto. We didn't trust the hole, and decided to linger to see if it would fade.
In the meantime, Haku gave Tadao some of the true source, and he turned out to be most cooperative, considering that he was one of the Dragon's. He agreed to work for us on the inside, which means we can, perhaps, have Panda's husband Nibori travel with us. I am hoping that will make her less short-tempered.
Tadao said that he though, after the mother worm had died, that in three or so days all of her children would die. We elected to test that theory by going back to Storming Bear and telling him that we could wait for three days and see what happened.
We also have a priest here who has agreed to ride on Gryphon and try a Mass Heal spell on some of the worm-altered people, to see what happens. More on that tomorrow.
Much affection,
Tomika
8/11/1583
Aomori
Dear Yukiko,
It has been a tense but otherwise restful three days. When the priest did his heal spell from afar, the worms in the samurai died but their strength did not decrease. We elected to see this as a good sign.
The rest was waiting. I overheard Reiko asking Storming Bear if he had any daughters of marriageable age, and he said he had two. "But you might want the younger one, the oldest is ugly." Having met the girls in question, I had to agree. The younger is a remarkably pleasant girl, sweet of face if not overly pretty. The elder is...well, "ugly" sums it up. It is somewhat difficult to tell she is female, as a matter of fact.
I believe that Reiko is matchmaking, perhaps for your brother, perhaps for Haku or Tadaki. Trust the kitsune, in the middle of a war, to try and marry off those around her. She used to be a politician. Perhaps, in some way, she still is.
Today, we received reports that all of those who'd been infected with the worms had fallen over and slept for a time. Storming Bear stated that he could now take care of Oni Killer, and we have taken our leave.
Panda has been teaching her dog, who appears to be named Dog, to fetch. Dog caught on quickly, but seems to have generalized "fetch" to mean "bring anything small and portable to Panda". So far, Panda has been the recipient of shoes, pieces of Thrykreen armor, two kittens, a set of dice, someone's money pouch, one of the combs I use in my hair, and Taura in fox form, who looked very cranky indeed at being hauled around by a dog.
We're going to Akita, to see if we can convince Nibori to travel with us. Four days to Akita, we think; the winds are unfavorable at the moment for a southward journey.
Much affection,
Tomika
8/12/1583
At sea, towards Akita
Dear Yukiko,
Most upsetting and puzzling happenings today. When my husband arose and opened his door, he was the recipient of three darts in the chest, each poisoned. We all heard his shout and came running, and found him pale and sweating, the poison already taking effect.
Reiko rolled her eyes, told Funitsu to hold still, and stood on her tiptoes and kissed his neck, lightly. A red light burned briefly in Funitsu's chest, and she pulled out the darts, the poison on them neutralized. She dropped them in the librarian's hand and stalked off, muttering something about people who were so unobservant as to walk into an assassins' darts.
The device that had fired the darts was a clever Black Hand creation, keyed to Lord Soshi, and we determined that it had been set recently enough that the person who'd set it was probably still on board. Haku went searching and Panda mustered the crew on deck, none of whom had anything unusual about them.
And at the same time, we noticed two things happening. One was that there was a sparkling cloud forming right before Shrike. The second was that the outlines of the ship were changing, taking on a sleeker, faster form.
Panda said a word I didn't think she knew, and I'm not certain she appreciates all of the connotations of. All of us except Gryphon plunged below decks, towards the control chamber. If the outlines of the ship hadn't changed, we'd never have known that someone was in the control chamber.
In the control webbing was someone who was obviously a ninja, and probably a Black Hand member. He or she--it was difficult to tell, with the clothing and the mask--disentangled themself from the control webbing, and braced to attack. Ignoring the ninja, Haku ran past , grabbing his reality-door wakizashi, and proceeded to teleport the entire ship five hundred yards to the left--far enough so we wouldn't sail into the sparkling cloud.
Reiko tried to do the spell she'd done so successfully on the worm, only it rebounded on her, leaving her stunned and mostly incapable of movement. The rest joined battle with the ninja. After taking some grievous wounds from Panda, the ninja slid under her guard, grabbed Reiko by the throat, and hissed, "How quickly do you want her to die? I suggest you stand down." The voice was definitely female.
I could see Panda hesitate, doing the calculus of honor in her head. Somewhere, I believe, she came to the conclusion that the promises of assassins can never be trusted, and came in for another attack.
True to her word, the ninja cut Reiko's throat and dropped her to the boards. Within moments, her body shrank inside her kimono, signaling that she was dead.
The fight, after that, was brief and bloody, ending with Haku taking off the ninja's head. Beside me, Funitsu said, "That's another piece of Arenro's spirit." He uncovered the ninja's dead face. It was nobody I recognized, but the librarian said, "Well, that was Takako. The former second in command in the Hand."
One more down, it seems. Perhaps they have started taking us more seriously.
Funitsu asked me to cast Speak With Dead, so I did, and while he was debating what to ask her, I dug the little black fox body out of Reiko's kimono. I'm reasonably sure the scarlet fabric is ruined. She goes through much clothing, does the kitsune. Perhaps I should look into making a fireproof kimono for her in my spare time. I gave her one of the resurrection tablets I keep on me, and she blurred and changed into her human form, beginning to breathe once more, her damaged throat healing over without a scar.
She opened her eyes, and I said, "You know, every time you wake to see me, you've just died."
She winced and rubbed her throat, and said, "I remember." Pulling on her kimono, both of us turned to pay attention to Funitsu's questioning of Takako's head.
She said she'd come aboard at Aomori, and had secreted herself in a secret compartment aboard Shrike. She had the help of three other Hand members in this; nobody important, Funitsu said, but they'd be found and punished anyway.
We weighted the body down and threw it over the side, and I waved goodbye as it sank into the depths. She had only a few interesting items on her, but the mention of a secret compartment aboard this ship is worrisome to me. I suppose we'll ask Shrike.
Sailing to Akita, still. With any luck, Nibori will still be alive. I believe Panda worries for him; her touchy stomach lately, I think, is perhaps not all due to her pregnancy. Honestly, if having Nibori around will ease her moodiness, I for one am all for it.
There seems to be some sort of fuss up on deck. I suppose I should go see what it is. Perhaps the puppy has chewed something it's not supposed to again.
Much affection,
Tomika
[a note, written in Tomika's hand, but undated]
I went to my husband's cabin tonight on some pretext; perhaps I was going to ask him to come see the full moon with me. I slipped into the small room silent as a mouse. I was about to waken him with a hand on his shoulder when I heard him speak, and froze.
He was muttering in his sleep. The only thing I could make out were the words, "Tsutsako. Why? And why?" The tone he said them in was heartbroken and sorrowful.
I stood, hand pressed against my mouth, until he quieted once again. Once he had fallen deeply asleep once more, I slipped from the room.
I know now who my rival is, Yukiko. She is his half-sister, and until he knows why she has betrayed him, I do not think he will even notice my attempts to capture his attention.
My heart is heavy this night with all I have not understood about my husband, and all I have yet to understand.
--Tomika.
Quotes:
"I'm going to bite you, Sparrow."
--Reiko
"Hellloooo, creature!"
--Gryphon
"Most of the sex in Japan seems to happen with tentacled monsters."
--Bryan
"It's going to either get a flaming enema or a facelift, depending on which way it's facing."
"I fell into a burning ring of fire..."
--Ray and Laura
"Can I have a D...something?"
"...yes? I think you're going to have to be more specific."
--Graham and Kris
"We made a hole in the worm, and the worm made a wormhole."
--Graham
"I'm sorry, Lord, for anything I've done in the past, and to your ancestors in the future."
--Storm, as Tadao
"…who are you trying to marry off, Reiko?"
"Never mind."
--Haku and Reiko
"A kappa is a master of martial arts...so they're ninja turtles."
--Bryan
"We travel with a former assassin, a current assassin, and the leader of the assassins. You bet I carry Neutralize Poison. I'm not an idiot."
--Reiko, explaining why she happened to be carrying the perfect spell for the situation
"You know, every time you wake up and see me, you've just died."
--Storm, as Tomika.
"You never really know a thing until you've put it in your mouth."
--Kris