Tomika's letters, 9/5 - 9/28/1583: The Lion and the Unicorn
9/5/1583
Kanazawa
Dearest Yukiko,
Saying that the last few days have been busy would be the understatement of the age. Akechi probably told you after we visited that he suggested we go clean out the nest of vipers that Kanazawa, the Lion Clan headquarters, has become. He said that Ryoto and Sachiko were there, Usagi is there and posing as a Dragon clan ambassador (to which Haku replied, "I will kill her. Slowly."), and General Isamu was probably somewhere around as well. (Ryoto being the Lion Clan Lord, but you knew that.)
Reiko also asked for advice concerning her situation, which is the first time I believe I have heard the full story about the ugly trap the kitsune is in. (Who would have thought that the kitsune and the Thrykreen are possibly the male and female of the same race?) He had no useful suggestions for her other than the possibility of killing her mother, at which she looked utterly appalled. Killing Edi-lo would restore the Demonbane's honor, since she was the cause of its loss in the first place, and he would probably give up his crusade against the kitsune at that point. Reiko, however, seemed to consider this and reject it as a possibility. So she either sacrifices her life, sacrifices her immortality and loses all of her spells as well as all of her spirits, or does nothing and dies anyway.
It's not a situation I envy. She looks haunted these days, does the kitsune.
We decided to load everyone into the mirror, tell the ships to sail around the north end of the island and meet us on the other side, and use Gryphon Air to fly to Kanazawa, almost due east of Tokyo.
Funitsu's orb turned up several interesting things, by the way. General Omura was nailed to a wall, upside down, and men were preparing to torture him. Muriko, who I've never met but I believe you have, was lying on some sort of hard surface, the sign of the Covenant burned into his chest. Everything else seemed to be more or less status quo.
We arrived in Kanazawa on the fourth of September. All things considered, it was a bustling town with little obvious civil unrest, and the Unicorn Clan for some reason had a compound quite near the Lion Clan's compound. The librarian wanted to go speak to his semi-adopted clan, and he went off, while my husband contacted his own factors in town.
The librarian came back, and his eyes were grave. He gathered all of us around and told us that all of the Battle Maidens guarding the Unicorn compound were dressed in mourning white, and Storming Bear is dead, assassinated. The deed was done by someone with a dimension door sword--much like ours.
Storming Bear's two daughters are here, and in negotiations with Ryoto. Knowing that Ryoto is controlled by the twilight spirit, we knew that the girls were in trouble.
The other very troubling thing is that it appears that Storming Bear left instructions to the effect that if he died, the Unicorn Clan would fall under the control of Lord Soshi. You know, the one who travels with us. Funitsu returned and said that his people knew about the assassination, but it hadn't been their work--though it had been set up to look like it.
All put together, it smelled very much like a setup. If nothing else, it was a tangled knot of intrigue to unravel.
Funitsu scried on Ryoto, and requested Reiko's assistance. She said that Ryoto (who was badly wounded a number of months ago) was being healed by Sachiko--but was being harmed by him at the same time, with magics designed to thin his blood and hamper healing. And Naoko, the mage who has been tracking our reality-door wakizashis, was somewhere near the city, as well. Another thread around the knot, indeed.
We set about untangling the knot. Haku left to go speak with Storming Bear's daughters--Thunderstorm and Sun Bear, who we met last time we were in Aomori--about Usagi, to warn them that she was not actually representing his clan. Panda and Gryphon went to speak to Ryoto, as Panda is officially a member of the Lion clan.
[At this point, Yukiko, I am pulling things together from the various reports of your retinue. Many things happened in very short order here.]
Haku explained about Usagi to the Unicorn daughters, and then established the fact that Funitsu, at the time that Storming Bear had been killed, was with all of us together at Skyhome. Panda, on the other hand, established a pretext for Ryoto and gave him a drink of the true source. She, ah, stretched the truth a little bit, and said that what was in the vial was Gryphon's tears, which she claimed had a healing power to them. (I suppose samurai can lie when they want to. Good to know.) After the true source took effect, she explained quickly about Sachiko, and the fact that he was surrounded by a web of lies and vipers.
He then asked Panda to take over the Lion Clan for the moment, while his mind and body recovered. He also asked for some warriors to use as guards, as he no longer trusted anyone close to him.
The rest of us had gone to talk to the Unicorn daughters, when Tadaki recieved a message from Panda, requesting immediate assistance. Usagi was evidently walking to the door of the Lion compound, and once she realized that Ryoto was no longer under control, she was likely to kill him. Haku, Tadaki, Jeron and the Thrykreen we had with us went to help Panda and Gryphon. The librarian, said, "Naoko is approaching--I don't know why, but it can't be good."
So we put the Unicorn daughters into the mirror, and the librarian, Funitsu, Reiko, and I waited for Naoko to walk into the room.
When she did, she recieved a very unwelcome surprise in the form of the librarian's sword in her side. We had a brief yet interesting battle; there was an acid fog and a prismatic spray, a spell I've never seen used in combat. (Must learn it! Most effective.) When the smoke cleared and the librarian cut off Naoko's head, Funitsu was a statue. The rest of us had been badly shocked with electricity, but would live.
(Ssssh, Yukiko, don't tell, but my heart twisted when I saw him like that.)
I rapped on his head with my knuckles and remarked, "This is the hardest I've seen him in months."
Reiko replied, "We could leave him like that, you know. How would you like control of Clan Scorpion?"
I hemmed and hawed and finally declined. She and I laughed about it, a little. Sometimes, we are kindred spirits. She knew exactly what I meant by my remark--and I knew exactly what she meant. We have something in common, she and I: an affection for a man who isn't interested in either of us.
Assured that Tadaki could probably do something about my husband, we bundled the statue into the mirror.
At the same time, the others were fighting their own battle. Tadaki turned Usagi into a mouse, which Haku killed and is going to have stuffed and mounted as an example to those who wish to misrepresent themselves as part of his clan. An explosion near Ryoto's quarters alerted them to the fact that Sachiko was present and pissed as hell, and they turned their attention to that battle. Sachiko had very little chance against even a bit more than half of the retinue, but managed to get in a Harm on Gryphon, a spell he was unacquainted with and I presume never wants to have cast on him again.
Naoko had the other two reality-door wakizashis on her--the Crane and the Lion. Reiko picked up the Crane sword and experimentally held it to her leg. There was a flash, and the most extraordinary thing happened. Reiko's hair was no longer a lightless black, but the pure silver-white that is so common among my clan. It looks very odd on her, and I'm afraid that scarlet is no longer going to be her best color--nor is gold, her other favorite color. We gave the Lion wakizashi to Panda, since she was actually a member of the clan.
We all met up at the quarters we had rented, and patched each other up, Reiko draining herself dry of healing spells. We discussed amongst ourselves possibilities for resolving the knot we'd only partially untangled, but decided to leave most of the discussion for the morrow.
The next morning, after Tadaki had unstoned my husband (after asking me if there were any modifications to, ah, his natural equipment that I wanted. After a moment of deliberation in which I recognized that the change I desire is one he could not effect, I declined), we went to talk with Ryoto, and then the Unicorn girls.
Ryoto was easy, after gathering a number of healers to him that Reiko made sure weren't going to harm him. He did more or less force Panda to accept permanent leadership of the Lion Clan, so now Panda is Lady Morimoto.
The girls were a bit more difficult to settle. Neither of them were really suited to clan leadership; Thunderstorm is a warrior at heart, a bit limited in her intelligence but fearsome in battle, and did not really want the responsibilities of leadership, and Sun Bear (whose nickname is Sunny), though intelligent, is only fourteen. They had been here in Kanazawa to see if one of them could marry Ryoto; they had realized that he wasn't the best choice, but he was the best they could think of.
Sun Bear will be a good leader in five or six years, as long as she has some guidance along the way. Panda took the girls aside and asked them if they had anyone among their clan that they liked and who would make a good leader. Both of them immediately named, of all people, the librarian.
(I had to leave the room briefly, as I was in danger of losing my composure to a fit of the giggles. I returned in good time, however. It's just that the librarian, when I met him, seemed the last person who would be pursued by women, and now he's attracted a kitsune and these two girls.)
Panda posed the question to Hiroshi, and said he had the option of marrying either--or both--of them, if he wanted. After some pondering, he chose to marry them both.
A state wedding is in order, and in contrast to all of the weddings we have performed in the past few months, this one could be public--and, in fact, needed to be public. We have too many people to take by mirror (and the Unicorns are notoriously intolerant of magic), so we will be caravaning up the coast with the Unicorn detachment. It should be about three weeks; we will be traveling slowly.
Reiko is beside herself with excitement. Evidently, the kitsune adores organizing parties. Go figure. We'll be dropping by to visit while we're traveling, I'm sure.
So, let me sum up here.
We are now traveling with the leaders of the Scorpion, Lion, Dragon, and Unicorn clans. We have a strong alliance with the Crab and a shakier one with the Phoenix. My own clan, the Crane, has evidently been decimated. (I hope my father is still alive. I am afraid I don't have a lot of optimism that he's escaped Arenro's clutches.)
I think, Yukiko, that we might be winning.
Pray we have a quiet three weeks. It would do us all some good to have a rest.
With greatest affection,
Tomika
9/25/1583
the road to Aomori
Dearest Yukiko,
So many letters have I started and then torn up. Without battles, I seem to have a lack of things to tell you, and I am terrible at poetry. We are nearing Aomori, caravan in tow, and I have finally become used to sitting a horse though I still have no interest in learning to fire a bow from horseback. Much as several of the Unicorn men seemed to be interested in teaching me.
It has been a strange and quiet time. Hiroshi has been acquainting himself with his fiancees in the time-honored tradition of going out hunting with the two of them. (They are occasionally accompanied by our two kitsune; along with her hair color change, Reiko's fur color has changed to a stark white, without even shading towards the tips of her tails. And she seems to have gained another tail from somewhere, as she now has three.) Oddly enough, I think all of them may be well-suited, in different ways. Panda and Nibori are still acting, when they're off-duty, for all the world like lovesick teenagers. It's very sweet and I have been telling myself that I mustn't be envious.
It seems Reiko and Jeron have taken up again; evidently her anger at the Thrykreen was short-lived. I don't think I've ever seen the kitsune as happy as she has been for the last little while. She has been in her element, planning a state wedding, and perhaps the strangest thing of all is that she seems to be sleeping with nobody but the Thrykreen general. These days, she is rarely seen out of the company of either Jeron or Gryphon, and though she is still odd, her grip on reality seems to be more certain than it has been. She still talks to people none of the rest of us can see, but perhaps I have grown used to that.
It as if something has been settled in her mind, lately. I think she has made her decision about what she's going to do about her father's persecution of her people, though she has told nobody. (I realize that you love him, Yukiko, but...genocide seems to be an overreaction to one's wife sleeping with other men.) I have been trying to tell her that with her white hair, she'll look better in clear blues and greens, but she refuses to give up her scarlet kimonos. It's very easy to tell her and her mother apart now, even to the untrained eye, which is likely a blessing.
Tadaki has been being Tadaki, contacting the hengenyokai in every territory that we pass through. Haku has been much busied with messages from his Clan, as well as finding a taxidermist who will preserve the body of the mouse that was Usagi.
And so the time has passed, slowly.
Tomorrow we reach Aomori, and we will hold a pair of weddings. We have been scrying on those that remain of our enemies. Hideyoshi seems to be moving north in some sort of wagon, healers bent over him; he has been gravely wounded in some battle recently. Arenro was alone, perhaps outside of Tokyo. The mage looked tired and worn, and there was a blue haze outside his window.
Amaya, the mage who has been trying to capture the Demonbane, was in Sapporo. Oddly enough, she was looking for Edi-lo. And when Reiko and Funitsu scried on the Demonbane, they saw him, looking at us, looking at him, looking at us...
The Demonbane waved.
Reiko muttered, "I knew it."
Sakura, the mage who is tracking hengenyokai, was examining a map that seemed to be showing Tadaki's current whereabouts. Hitomi, the mage who was assigned to track down Lao-tzu, was in a place that looked much like Aomori. Her head was shaved and her scalp had been tattooed. She was begging for scraps in the street, her eyes empty of thought.
It looks like she found him, and he got the better of her.
I will burn a prayer to the kami that your delivery goes smoothly. I am sure you are tired of being pregnant, and the fact that your child seems to be somewhat reluctant to emerge from the womb cannot be reassuring. It will be soon, I promise, and with any luck the delay in your delivery means that we will be able to attend the birth.
All wishes for your health and happiness, Yukiko.
With great affection,
Tomika
9/26/1583
Aomori
Dearest Yukiko,
The weddings went off without a hitch, and Hiroshi has embarked on what will be the first of two wedding nights. Sun Bear will spend the night among us, as her turn is tomorrow night. I do like her, as I like both of the girls. Thunderstorm is quite pleasant company, especially since she and I can swap tales of battles fought. And it is easy to forget that Sunny is so young; sometimes, she seems very adult in her outlook on things.
All of us now are Clan Leaders except the kitsune. Reiko seems to be perfectly happy with her relative unimportance, however.
Earlier today, on our way into town, we located Hitomi and gave her a drink of the true source. We elected to leave her as is, with the belief that she is a beggar tattooed into her skin.
I find myself becoming rather fond of the company of the Unicorns. They are barbarians, it is true, almost as bad as gaijin. But there is a certain rough honesty to them, and their politics are very simple. Quite a change from either of my clans--the one I was born into, and the one I married into.
You are in all of our thoughts as we wait. Do have Akechi send a message the moment you go into labor.
All my love, Tomika
9/28/1583
Aomori
A member of the Black Hand came to us and requested audience yesterday, we granted it, and it was noted that the man looked quite glazed. Reiko murmured, "He has some sort of mind control on him."
The man said that he had been contacted by someone who wanted him to carry a message to us, asking for a meeting. He was to carry a message back from us, three hours hence, with a time and location. He told us where he was supposed to meet the man who had contacted him, and then Haku asked Reiko to dispel the control on him.
She accomplished this, and it turned out that the Black Hand member had no idea about being asked to carry a message, seeming to wake and saying, "I'm sorry, lords, I hadn't realized I was walking into a meeting."
We sent him off with a return message for the mysterious whoever-it-was to meet us at Storming Bear's tomb, as soon as possible.
When we arrived, there was one person in front of the tomb, cloaked against the sun. Reiko observed that he was glowing with great magics that were contained within him somehow. He was dressed in armor that seemed to almost be peeling away from him.
He man pulled his hood back. It was Hideyoshi.
He told us that he--the twilight spirit--was done. He had spent the past three weeks traveling and collecting the rest of the fragments who were scattered among the generals, and it was time for him to be finished with this fight. He asked, "Tadaki, may I see your orb?"
Tadaki argued, and Hideyoshi managed to convince him that all he wanted to do was to release the entirety of his spirit into the orb. Finally, the Sparrow consented, and held out his orb.
Hideyoshi laid his hand on the orb, which began to glow brightly, and then fell to his knees. He shook his head and asked, "What's happened? Where am I?"
The last thing he remembered was being present at Emperor Nobunga's execution. He has missed the last four months, the war, the blood that has been spilled at his orders--everything. We told him that months had passed, and then said, "Well, what's happened...is a long story."
Hideyoshi marveled at Hiroshi's transformation and Reiko's newly white hair, wondered at the fact that all of us seemed to have been turned into leaders of clans, was introduced to me, Jeron, and Nibori, and was shocked that Gryphon has become so large.
We will be bringing him through the mirror tonight to Akechi, and let him explain everything that's gone on.
Tomorrow, we go to Sapporo, to track down Amaya, and let Funitsu try to bargain with the Demonbane. Akechi told Reiko to ask the Demonbane about Jeron, and my husband, I think, hopes to bring about an end to the standoff between the Demonbane and Reiko without killing either one of them. If nothing else, we hope to find out if there are any more original Thrykreen still in the world. Reiko believes that with even a few more Thrykreen, the two halves of the race would eventually balance out, and the kitsune would no longer be a menace to the world.
I asked her, tonight, "Are you afraid?"
She shrugged. "I am a very small fox in a world filled with things that have sharper teeth than I do. Of course I'm afraid. But it doesn't matter what happens to me, Tomika. If I die tomorrow, I will have small regrets. But if I end the persecution of my people in the process, then my life will have had meaning. That's something few foxes can ever say about our lives. I've lived more lifetimes than any one being has any right to. This last one, at least, has the potential to redeem all the rest."
There was nothing I could say to that, Yukiko.
With greatest affection,
Tomika.
Quotes:
"There was a recap?"
"It was in Kris' livejournal."
"Kris has a livejournal?"
"Yes...."
"Who is Kris? Oh, you're Kris!"
--Ray and Storm
"This donut has fish on it!"
--Graham
"I am old, Lady Panda..."
"Oh, CRAP."
--Ryoto and Panda, who correctly sensed that Ryoto was about to try to stick her with leadership of the Lion Clan
"You now have two hit points."
"I don't feel so good. I'm moulting!"
--Storm and Laura
"That's the hardest I've seen him for months."
"We could leave him like that if you want. You want Clan Scorpion?"
"Well...hm."
("REIKO!" cries Panda, OOC because she wasn't there)
--Tomika and Reiko, about the petrified Funitsu
"She PINCHED me! HARD!"
--Gryphon, about the first Harm spell we've seen this campaign
Meta:
Good god. Two battles, two different locations, one half of the retinue each, at the same time. We're definitely in wrapping things up mode; the week after next should see the end of Reiko's storyline, we have a few more Big Bad battles to fight, and then we get to go up against the Biggest Bad of them all.