From Lady Yukiko's journal, 9/30/1583: Shade to Light
9/30/1583
Skyhome
My husband, a few days ago, came to me, bringing a mirror wrapped in silk. "A gift," he said. "Lord Akazawa, Tomika's father, procured this for me. I think it is better left in your hands, Yukiko. I hope that it will help with the restlessness."
"What does it do?" I was running my fingers along the edge, curious.
"It is a scrying mirror. It will only focus on people you know well--but as that includes your retinue, I thought it would be better in your hands than mine."
I kissed him as ardently as I was capable of. Such a gift! I have been so very bored, cooped up with only visits from my retinue and Tomika's letters to amuse me. I am assured that one cannot stay pregnant forever, that my time is approaching swiftly, but I am so very, very tired of being pregnant! The child has been spending his time kicking my backbone and lungs, and I am looking forward to finally meeting this being who has been taking up so much space for the past several months.
So, eagerly, I sat down to find out what my retinue was up to. They were (as usual) arguing. On the floor was Taura, the kitsune who used to be Ito, crouched on the floor, shivering and muttering to herself. Reiko was standing nearby, her eyes wide, not speaking. From the conversation which followed, I gathered that Taura had not been quite right since a few weeks before, when she started having nightmares. She was now possessed by a spirit, a fragment of the dark son, and the kitsune that Taura had been was no longer.
Finally, Panda touched her with the dark orb, and Taura fell to the ground, dead. On the body of the kitsune (as I watched, I discovered that my retinue were all gathered in Reiko's small cabin) they found a ring that was strongly magical; under the floorboards, there was another, that would, it seemed, interlock with the one on the kitsune's body.
Reiko was sifting through the spirit box, and said, seemingly to the air, "That's odd. Everything connected with Tsuyoshi is gone..."
Panda flew off, fit the ring together, and nearly fell out of the sky as an image of Arenro appeared before her. "Amaya, report!...Oh. Well, hello, Panda..."
Panda dropped the ring into the ocean, a disgusted look on her face.
Back on the ship, Reiko was saying in a worried voice, "I can't find him! I--Panda, could you look at me with your orb?"
Panda did, and reported that the sigils in Reiko's skin, the bindings that keep her spirits with her and her memories and powers bound, had started to change. The ones that signified Tsuyoshi, her spirit who had helped create the orbs, were changed to binding him so tightly that he could not manifest at all, much less speak.
The retinue decided to go find Lao-tzu, on the off chance that the Chinese tattoo magician might be able to help Reiko. The other possibility was that my father might be talked into helping, but that, obviously, was a last resort.
Lao-tzu was as helpful as one might imagine, but he told Reiko that the perversion of her bindings was spreading, and that she had no more than two days before all of her spirits were so bound--and she would be left without spirits, and without magical powers. He slowed it down so that the deadline was now a week or two out.
Reluctantly, my retinue decided to go speak with the Demonbane, my father. (Odd how I now think of him as the Demonbane, as well.)
A day later, in the Phoenix palace in Sapporo, my retinue (with the addition of Tomika, Jeron, and Edi-lo, Reiko's mother) were ushered into my father's receiving chamber. My father said, "Ah, I see all of my demons have come to visit me today. This is the second such visit I've had."
Funitsu started out with some pleasantries and then got down to the business of seeing if the impasse between Reiko and he could be resolved. Reiko was struggling to keep her mouth shut, but finally took an active hand in talking to him. My father was, though not exactly kind to her, seemingly more well-disposed towards her now than he had been.
Reiko asked, "All right. Akechi told me the last time I saw him that there was something I needed to know about Jeron. What is it?"
He shook his head. "No, Reiko. It will only bring you more pain to know the truth."
"I need to know. Please."
He shrugged. I saw Jeron stepping back, away from the kitsune. My father said, "You have met Jeron a number of times before. He has killed more kitsune than anyone, and has been instrumental in reducing their numbers to what they are today. He bedded Lin to ensure she would do anything for him--including being willing to capture you and take your body. He captured you in Akita. He was the one who held you after I told the villagers they could do whatever they wanted with you."
The kitsune closed her eyes. Jeron was pale, shaking, his eyes on the kitsune. I have known Jeron for my whole life, and I had never seen him show fear. But now, suddenly, he looked terrified. In that moment, I was certain that Jeron loved Reiko, and had been fearing this moment for some time.
Reiko turned to look at Jeron, her eyes unreadable. "You and I need to have a conversation. But later."
Tadaki interrupted. "What do you mean, this is the second visit from your demons you've had today?"
My father smiled. Such a smile I had never seen on his face, so very bleak. "Arenro is here. And in the minutes we have been talking, there has been a slow poison coursing through each of your bodies. It should take effect about...now."
All except Tadaki and Haku folded bonelessly to the floor. Haku was struggling for consciousness, and Tadaki was shaking his head, crouched on the floor, fighting the poison. The Demonbane--for now, I could think of him as nothing but--strode quickly over to Tadaki, crouched beside him, and said, "Remember, Tadaki. You are the staff."
Then all faded.
The next I saw of them, they were waking up in cells, the bars spelled to shock anyone who touched them. Missing were Edi-lo and Jeron. After a bit of muttering, Tadaki simply grasped the bars and was instantly killed by the lightning bolt that was loosed in his cell.
He woke within the staff. The staff was in a room where the rest of the retinue's equipment and weapons were being kept. Arenro was studying the dark orb, attempting to pry some of the spirit fragments out of it, but having no luck. The wu jen looked tired and worn, seemingly decades older than he had been three months ago. Having no luck with the orb, he put it down in disgust and walked away, out the door.
Slowly, Tadaki's body reformed next to the staff. Ensuring that Arenro wasn't about to return, he barred the door and sat down to study his spells. An hour or so later, he found the others, an aerial servant hauling the retinue's equipment behind him. A few dispels and Hiroshi's skill at bending bars later, and the retinue was free.
The question was, what next? Funitsu scried on Arenro and the Demonbane. The former was asleep, and the latter had Edi-lo and Jeron chained to a wall somewhere in the palace.
My father was sitting, waiting.
Much discussion ensued. In the end, it was decided that Reiko would simply go and ask for them back, and if my retinue needed to fight him, they would.
And so it happened that Reiko knocked on the door of the room her mother and lover were held in, and asked for them back.
The Demonbane asked her why she had come, and she answered, "Because I thought it more honorable to come by myself, and ask politely."
"But why? What was the emotion behind it?"
She looked at the captives, and a small smile spread touched her lips. She replied, "Because I love them, Father. Why else would I walk knowingly into a trap?"
"Then they are yours." A wave of his hand, and the chains released, and the captives rejoined the retinue. The Demonbane said, "You should go. Arenro is awake, and coming this way. Soon enough, the palace will explode, and I will do my best to kill him. Stay close by; there should be three spirit fragments coming your way, as he has some of his minions with him."
My retinue all looked at each other, understanding dawning. Panda said, "It's an impossible battle to win."
He smiled, and this time it was a smile I recognized. My father lived somewhere in that smile, the determination to see this through. He said, "I will regain my honor by fighting the only enemy who can give me a fair battle. I may die. I may live. Either way, this will be done."
Reiko said, in a small, sorrowful voice, "For what it's worth, Father, I'm sorry."
The Demonbane replied, "As am I. Daughter." He paused, and looked at her, tiny white-haired kitsune standing alone, apart from the others. "By the way, in a cell beneath the castle are the remaining kitsune, and the few original Thrykreen that there are left. You'll want to go find them, after this is over."
Her eyes were shining with tears as Reiko, and the rest, filed into the mirror. Edi-lo volunteered to carry the mirror and ride Gryphon. But Edi-lo tied the mirror to Gryphon's back, and said, "Go, Gryphon. I'm much more use here, fighting beside my husband."
Gryphon squawked, "What? You aren't coming? But--Reiko will be angry!"
"Just tell her that this is what I chose. And that I may see her again some day."
Gryphon hung his head briefly, and said, "I suppose she'd be madder if I bit you in half to make you stay. Bye, fox lady." And he spread his wings and flew into the sky, and Edi-lo ran back to rejoin my father.
About ninety seconds later, my childhood home exploded.
Out of the flames strode Arenro, and then my father and Edi-lo. And the battle began.
It is impossible to describe the battle that followed, the spells that were cast, the battering that both sides took. My retinue, I knew, were watching on Funitsu's orb.
Arenro disappeared and reappeared behind Edi-lo, and used a razor-thin wire to take her head as she chanted the words to yet another spell. I saw Reiko bury her face in Jeron's shoulder, weeping. My father was definitely losing this battle, but managed to produce a scythe out of the air and take off the mage's leg, and then his head.
Time stopped.
I thought, for one moment, that we had won. But Heaven is not nearly so kind.
Arenro glowed briefly, flashed with a bright light, and then stood, once again whole. And my father was out of spells.
The battle ended swiftly after that, as before my disbelieving eyes Arenro, with the same wire that he'd killed Edi-lo, took off my father's head.
My scream brought Akechi running, as well as all of my attendants. I clung to my husband and cried, all of the difficulties of the past month forgotten as the grief of my father's passing overwhelmed me.
The next thing I knew was Akechi shaking my shoulders gently and saying, "Yukiko, love. Please. There is more to see. This isn't over yet, and we may still lose here. Your retinue is about to do something very brave--and very foolish."
The kitsune was sitting on the floor, holding her head, moaning. Panda was crouched by her, asking, "What's wrong?"
She looked up, those amber eyes glittering. "They're gone. Setto, Miss M, Kei, Tsuyoshi, Jane. They're all gone. And I remember--oh, kami. I remember. Everything--Father?"
I have never been gifted with the spirit sight, but I saw my father standing beside her, the light shining through his translucent body. "Hello, daughter."
Nothing more seemed to need to be said.
And there was a brief but heated discussion, which ended with the decision that my retinue would go after Arenro, under the theory that there would be no better time than now to kill him, when he was running low on spells.
I gasped, "Akechi, we have to stop them! They'll all be killed!"
He shook his head. "There are some things that are fated. This is one of them. Win or lose, the course is set now."
So we watched, as quick preparations were made. I saw Reiko holding Jeron's hands, looking up at him. She said, quietly, "Jeron. I forgive you. And I love you. Remember that."
Looking back, I find it hard to believe that the kitsune did not know somehow what was in store for her. Perhaps she had known it all along.
Around the kitsune and the Thrykreen, others were murmuring the things one does when one is about to go into battle. Panda and Nibori stood for a long minute with their foreheads touching, not speaking, seeming to be communicating without words.
And Tomika, perhaps thinking that this might be her last chance to do so, kissed Funitsu quite soundly, leaving my handsome shugenja looking stunned.
Everyone knew that there was a good chance they would not be leaving the battlefield alive. Still they were determined to go, for the chance that it might work, that we might win here. I had never been so proud of my people as that moment, so convinced that these were the right people to defend us. Win or lose, this would be a battle worth the fighting.
So with one defiant shriek, Gryphon stooped on Arenro, dropping the mirror as he did so and letting it shatter on the ground, spilling out my retinue, who set themselves for battle.
And a battle it was. Many of my retinue fell, some were returned to life, Panda, Hiroshi and Reiko among them. Tadaki became a Celestial T'ien Lung dragon, and a more splendid sight you never saw. Arenro was nowhere near out of spells, which he demonstrated quite amply, and the battle went on for long minutes. Adding to the battle was a thing-- an animated skeleton of some hideous creature, like a dragon but not, that could cast spells!
Haku demonstrated a skill I had never seen before, where he split himself into four copies of himself, each of the copies with a different attack. I saw Tomika fall, I saw Reiko give Jeron a healing potion, I saw Gryphon be killed by a swarm of fire, I saw Arenro falter and then cast a spell I recognized, having taught what that particular one looked like by my father--
A wave of power rippled out from Arenro. Three of four of Haku disappeared. Tomika fell, quite dead. And Reiko, who had been killed and brought back so recently, fell again.
She'd had one life left in her. This battle had taken it. The kitsune was dead, and there was no bringing her back. My eyes stung with tears for my kitsune half-sister.
After that, Arenro fell, Panda and Nibori dealing the final blows together, in perfect synchronicity.
And it was done.
"We've won," I whispered. "Akechi. We've won!"
Quotes:
"I don't usually get to have daft ideas. Can I have a daft idea for once?"
--Panda
"You were sleeping with your nemesis!"
"I always am."
--Haku and Reiko
"You needed double-position floating-point numbers to tell, but leaving him alive has been more advantageous than killing him."
--Ray
"I'm bored! Let's go kill something."
"That's my line."
--Ray and Graham
"I'm going to go rifle my father's...headless...corpse...eeeeeeeugh."
--Reiko
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry, Father."
"And it's taken you how many millennia to say that?"
"About half a one."
--Reiko and Haku
"With the thunder and the critical and the slicing and the dicing and everything...87. Don't piss off the pregnant samurai."
--Laura