High in the Dragon mountains, the lovelorn Agasha Kyoso struggles to come to terms with her inner demons, even as the Phoenix petition her jailors for her immediate execution.
Love & Madness
By Rusty Priske & Shawn Carman
Edited by Fred Wan
Togashi Kyoshi smiled in the cold, stone chamber, seemingly oblivious to the quaking servant who delicately placed an ornate platter of tea between him and the woman sitting opposite him. “How are you this morning, my dear?”
Agasha Kyoso nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, I suppose. Thank you for asking.”
“You seem ill at ease, if I may say so,” Kyoshi said. He reached out and began to pour the tea. Steam drifted up lazily from the cups as he did so. “Is something amiss?”
Kyoso glanced at the doorway, but shook her head wordlessly.
The monk turned to glance over his shoulder at the two sentries who stood on either side of the door. They were so heavily armored that they might be statues, with no hint of their actual selves visible through the layered and lacquered armor. Both carried more than one weapon. “Do they still make you nervous?”
“Somewhat,” she admitted. “But I am at least accustomed to their presence. That is not it.”
“Please, enlighten me,” Kyoshi said.
“You do not see it, do you?” she whispered.
The monk finished pouring the tea and placed the pot back on the tray. “Perhaps I simply want you to say it,” he said, lifting his cup to his lips and breathing in the rich, earthy aroma.
“That girl,” Kyoso said, “the one who brought the tea? She was terrified of me.”
“Oh, is that all?” the monk said with a chuckle. “Of course she was.”
Kyoso looked up and met his eyes. “What?”
“It is natural for her to fear you,” Kyoshi continued. “You fear yourself, after all. You radiate that fear like a lantern on a moonless night.”
The young woman, beautiful but haggard and beleaguered in appearance, frowned. “Should I not?” she demanded.
“I cannot answer that question,” Kyoshi said calmly. “You must answer it. After almost a year of captivity here, do you not feel closer to the answer?”
Kyoso sighed heavily and picked up her tea. “I am guilty of many things,” she said before sipping, “but I never meant to betray anyone. I never meant to unleash evil on the world. If I had known what would happen, if I had known what would be unleashed because of my actions…”
“None of us can know that,” Kyoshi warned. “Even those with the gift of prophecy cannot see their own fates, at least as far as I know.” Kyoshi drank heavily. “You have ventured very far from your path, to be sure. Perhaps farther than anyone else has ever wandered. The question that we must answer is, have you wandered too far to return?”
“Is that why I have not been executed?” Kyoso asked. “It has been so long, and I do not understand why I have not already been killed. It seems so strange to me, although I am grateful.”
Kyoshi sat his cup down with a serious expression. “Make no mistake, virtually everyone who knows of your presence here has been quite clear that you should be executed for your crimes. The Phoenix are foremost among these, of course, but then they are the only ones with extensive knowledge of your presence here. There are many within the clan who believe you should die as well.”
“I see,” she said, her voice a hoarse whisper.
Kyoshi lifted a finger. “However, there are many more of us who believe that you must understand where you are and where you might go before we can make a judgment concerning your fate. The Dragon pride themselves on permitting each of us to follow our own path. How can we condemn yours when no one, not even you, understand it.”
She blinked several times, her eyes wet, then looked down and nodded. “Thank you.”
Kyoshi smiled again. “Are you ready to talk about it? If you are not, we can do it another time. I do not wish to pressure you into anything you do not feel…”
“No,” she interrupted. “No, I think… I think I would like to speak of it today, if that is alright.”
“Of course,” he said, obviously delighted. “I will be happy to listen to whatever you feel comfortable in sharing.”
Kyoso looked away and was silent for a long time. “I never wanted to do anything hurtful,” she finally said. “I only wanted… to make him love me again. We had been so happy together, so completely in love. When he chose to become betrothed to another, I… I lost all sense of who I was and what I was doing. Everything was confused, nothing made sense.”
Kyoshi nodded. “Young love is very powerful.”
“I did not know what to do,” Kyoso continued. “There was a cache of confiscated materials in the castle. I did not know what they did, only that they were forbidden magics. There was a rumor among the young women, silly gossip in retrospect, that there was a spell that would make someone love you forever. I only wanted to find it, to make him love me the way I loved him.” She shook he head, tears running down her cheeks. “I did not know what it would do. What I would unleash.” She looked at him earnestly. “What I would become!”
“Secrets are a dangerous thing,” Kyoshi said seriously. “The temptation that surrounds such things is a danger in and of itself, to say nothing of whatever dangers they may conceal.” He nodded appreciatively. “There is much that we could learn from you. Unfortunately, there are many who have not learned the dangers of secrets.”
“What do you mean?”
“There was a time not so long ago when our clan became convinced of the evils of dark magics. We were misled by information we gained from the Burning Sands and sought to destroy as many impure nemuranai as possible by casting them into the volcano. The process has been largely discarded but there are some who still adhere to it.” He shook his head. “Only this week a cache of corrupt items was secured from a successful magistrate’s investigation into a maho outbreak. They have been brought here for cataloguing before being destroyed, but the matter is being kept largely quiet.”
Kyoso’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth. “Oh no! No, the must not keep them! They are too dangerous!”
“I agree completely,” Kyoshi said. “Would I be out of line if I attempted to secure the cooperation of the castle lords, based on our conversations today? I would not wish to do so without your consent.”
“Oh, of course!” Kyoso said. “Yes, please, if there is anything I can do to convince them that they tread upon dangerous ground, I would be happy to do so!”
“Thank you,” Kyoshi said. He glanced out the window toward the sun. “Our time today is at an end, and there are other things to which I must attend. I thank you, however. I think our time together is ever more productive, do you not agree?”
She smiled warmly. “I do, master Kyoshi.”
* * * * *
Asako Serizawa smiled as if enjoying a private joke despite that he was not speaking to anyone. He was in fact standing near one of the windows that allowed the cool mountain breeze into the castle. Anywhere else, such a thing would make the castle unbearable cold, but the heat from the mountain beneath it generally countered the winds and made the chamber quite comfortable. The Dragon were nothing if not practical.
Isawa Mitsuko did not ask after Serizawa’s apparently amusement. He had accompanied her on many of these visits, enough so that she had grown to appreciate his unique talents. So much so, in fact, that she had arranged for him to join the group of inquisitors that answered to her directly. Serizawa was a shugenja whose particular emphasis was on air magic, much as was hers. He was not particularly strong in that respect, but he also had a subtle and inexplicable affinity for the Void. If he had been any stronger in that regard, he might have been chosen to study as one of the ishiken. His unique talents made him an exceptional inquisitor, and manifested in such a way as to make his sense seem almost superhuman; certainly he was the equal of any Hiruma, Kitsuki, or Tsuruchi scout.
The door to the chamber opened and the now-familiar form of Shimura’s assistant appeared, drawing Serizawa’s attention and bringing a smile to his face. Tamori Kuroko’s expression changed only slightly, but the swirl of the air kami around her made it obvious to Mitsuko that she, too, was pleased to see Serizawa. Mitsuko made a mental note to later consider if there was a way for this mutual attraction to benefit their endeavors in this forsaken place somehow. “Greetings, honored guests,” Kuroko said.
“Greetings, Kuroko-san,” Serizawa said politely. “We are tremendously grateful for your hospitality once again.”
“The Tamori are delighted to host such distinguished guests,” she returned. Mitsuko marveled at her sincerity, given the obvious disposition of her lord. “Is there anything I can offer you?”
“You are kind to offer,” Mitsuko cut in, eliminating any pleasantries Serizawa might offer, “but all we wish is to speak to your lord, assuming that he will receive us.”
“Lord Shimura has been informed of your presence, my lady,” Kuroko said. “He informed me that he would receive you whenever you were ready.”
Mitsuko could not keep the surprise from her face. “At once?” she said. “He said nothing else?”
Kuroko looked mildly uncomfortable. “There was some… profanity,” she admitted. “Which he afterwards informed me I could repeat to you precisely, if you wished it. I would prefer not to, however.”
Serizawa smiled and waved the comment away. “I am quite sure lady Mitsuko would be satisfied without it, Kuroko-san, thank you.”
“Indeed,” Mitsuko agreed. “Please, take us to your lord Shimura.”
* * * * *
Kyoso had never seen herself as a villain. She had never intended that, not in any way. That much of what she had told the monk was true, at least. What she had not told him, the secret that she had kept, was that she remembered some of what the demon Kyoso had done, particularly in the days and weeks immediately following her creation. Despite her better understanding of the process by which Kyoso no Oni had been created, and of what she actually was, Kyoso could not think of the demon as anything but a separate entity from herself. To do otherwise was madness.
No one knew more than she how deadly secrets were. That Kyoshi had explained it to her was just one of the ways in which he demonstrated his kind and generous soul. He was so gentle, so patient, and so generous with his praise, even with someone as clearly unworthy as she was. How could she help but love him? He was not like her former lover, whose name she would not even think if she could avoid it. He was the source of her pain, the cause of her downfall, but Kyoshi was the path to her salvation.
There was another secret that she had been keeping from her love, despite that it caused her such pain to do so: she could speak to the kami again. For so long after her recovery, she could not hear them, or perhaps they would not answer. But now she could hear the quiet song of the wind, the stony silence of the mountains, and all the others. It was a sign that she was destined for recovery. She knew this, and she knew that when the time was right, Kyoshi would understand it as well. But there were many who would not, and that was the difficulty before her.
No matter how she considered the matter of her life, she felt certain that it was only a matter of time before she was executed. The others simply could never understand what she had experienced, or how she had been consumed and driven beyond her control by a simple mistake. Mistakes were not something that could be tolerated, and even the Dragon would not allow a mistake of that magnitude to endure. Based on some snippets of conversation she had overheard, she believed that she still lived only because Tamori Shimura wished to offend the Phoenix for whatever reason, but that would not endure forever.
If only there was some way she could show them! If only she could make them see that she could do things differently! If only Kyoshi could love her the way she loved him. But such a thing would require something truly amazing, beyond her abilities at this point. It would require something so grandiose as to capture the attention of the Empire as a whole. Only the Empress could forgive her at this point, she felt strongly, and what reason would she have for doing so? It was not as if she could save the Empire from the Destroyers, after all.
For a moment, she sat very still. The thought of the metal animals the other clans were busily fighting in the south was a terrible one, but even more terrible was the thought of how easy it would be to defeat them if she had the power she had possessed right after she had cast that dark spell so many years ago. She had been driven mad, out of her mind, but the sheer power she had possessed… the memories had not left her. She dreamed of it sometimes. She had been lost, adrift in a sea of instinct and bloodlust, but she was not that person any more. She was stronger, wiser, and more self-aware. Kyoshi had told her so! If she lost control then, she could maintain it now, she was certain of it.
It was madness, but it was madness born of love. Love for her clan, for the Empire, for Kyoshi. If she were to do this thing, she could save them all, and show them that she was not the criminal and madwoman that they believed her to be. It could be so simple! It was the only way for her to live, and to prove her worth to them all, Kyoshi most of all!
Kyoso looked toward the doorway, outside of which two sentries stood quietly. With a prayer, she closed her eyes and began whispering to the kami.
* * * * *
The meeting with Tamori Shimura was going roughly as well as all the previous such meetings had gone, which is to say that the Dragon lord was savoring the opportunity to be as grotesquely rude and disrespectful as possible while refusing their every attempt to convince him of the danger of his actions, when Asako Serizawa stood up suddenly with a look of tremendous alarm on his face.
Shimura looked at him with contempt. “Your servant seems to have had a cramp.”
“Be silent!” Serizawa barked.
Shimura’s face was a mask of indignation. “How dare you…”
“I smell blood,” Serizawa said sharply. “Lady Mitsuko, I must get you out of here immediately.”
“What is the meaning of this?” Shimura roared.
Mitsuko opened her mouth to reply, but the distant sound of a panicked scream cut her off. She gave Shimura a look of exasperation, as if to convey the notion that she had been right all along, then nodded to Serizawa. Both of them tucked their robes into a position better suited to combat, and the younger Inquisitor moved toward the door.
“Stop!” Shimura ordered, his voice full of authority. “I will not have guests in my home endangered.” He brushed past Serizawa and stepped out into the hallway. “Remain here,” he commanded. “I will send someone for you once I have determined what is taking place.” He disappeared into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
Serizawa glanced at her. “Forgive me, Lady Mitsuko, but I do not feel it is prudent to remain here. Something is very wrong.”
Mitsuko nodded. The air kami throughout the castle were shrieking and flitting about in a panic. She had never seen the like, and it unsettled her. She had little doubt, however, that Agasha Kyoso was at the center of whatever chaos had been unleashed. She had been traveling to Shiro Tamori regularly for the better part of a year, each time attempting to convince the Tamori daimyo that the woman represented an ongoing threat to not only the Dragon and Phoenix clans, but the Empire as a whole. Either due to ignorance or, more likely, his hate of the Phoenix, Shimura had refused to listen. Now, she was certain that the Dragon were paying the price. “Serizawa,” she said quietly, “we must investigate.”
“My lady,” he began to protest.
“You heard my command,” she said firmly. “Move forward.”
Together, the two inquisitors moved into the corridor. As they moved northeast toward the increasingly frequent sounds of destruction, the stench of blood on the air grew more pungent. Mitsuko wondered how should could have missed it before, but of course Shimura had not detected it either. Likely no one could have, until they grew closer. The two passed an open door with two armored samurai lying outside it, stones from the ceiling seemingly having fallen to knock them unconscious. They were wounded badly, but not dead. Only a short distance down the corridor, however, there was a crumpled form that might be a person, surrounded by a spectacularly large pool of blood. The sight of it caused Mitsuko to pale slightly, but she was sadly accustomed to such carnage due to the nature of her duties. A particularly loud crash from the chamber beyond, followed by panicked shouts and at least one scream of pain. Sharing another nod, the two advanced more quickly.
One of the larger central chambers of the castle opened before the two, one through which they had only walked before on their visits to the castle. The chamber was quite stark in ornamentation, but now it was ruined. Huge gouges were present in the walls and at least one column had been shattered, leaving large chunks of stone scattered around with broken furniture and a tattered tapestry. Serizawa gasped as he saw Kuroko’s battered form lying unmoving on the floor. Tamori Shimura stood over her, his mouth open in a silent scream of rage, his arms wreathed in fire.
Standing opposite Shimura was something that might have been human, but increasingly less so with each passing moment. It loomed above everything, at least twenty feet tall and clothed only in a few scraps of what appeared to be a Dragon kimono. Its long, black hair was patchy and in strings, while its head was open, baring all manner of fangs. “I can stop her!” it screamed, its voice a terrible mockery of a person’s. “I can stop her! I can save us all!” In a blind rage, it lashed out again and smashed part of the wall, showering everyone in the chamber with more flecks of stone. “Why won’t you get out of the way and let me do it?”
Shimura threw his hands up, catching many of the stones in midair and sending them at the demon in a torrent that ripped at its flesh even as large tears opened up as it increased in size. “We have to stop it!” Mitsuko hissed. “Do you understand?”
“I follow you, my lady!” Serizawa shouted.
Mitsuko leapt into the fray, using her air to blast away the gout of flame that leapt from the creature’s mouth toward Shimura. The flame frayed apart and spared him, drawing an angry but marginally appreciative glare from the Tamori lord. “It grows more powerful with each passing moment!” he shouted. “We must bind it or it will destroy the entire castle and everything beyond!”
“Agreed!” Mitsuko shouted. She summoned the strongest winds she could, the force of which were comparable to the hurricanes that periodically ravaged her homeland’s coasts. She clenched her teeth and planted her feet in an attempt to put as much force as possible behind the spell. Still, despite all her power, the beast stepped forward, resisting the winds. “I cannot stop it!” she shouted, pouring her very soul into the winds against it and seeing it only move faster.
“We shall see,” Shimura snarled, and threw up both his hands. At his command, the stone of the castle shuddered and moved like a living thing, reaching out and grabbing each of its four limbs. She struggled, tearing at the stone, but for the moment the combination of stone and wind immobilized it. “This will not be enough!”
“Serizawa!” Mitsuko shouted. “Do something! We cannot hold it!”
The young inquisitor crouched into what appeared to be a martial arts stance, then leapt up into the air, buffeted by the winds coursing through the chamber. In mid-air, he delivered a punch and a fierce kiai. From his fist shot a narrow jet of air, visible only because it shot through the debris filled storm within the chamber, straight as a sword blade. With the force of a bolt of lightning, the blow was true and punched through the creature’s chest, cleaving its heart in two instantly.
The creature that had been a woman shuddered and slumped to its knees, the stone releasing it and the wind abating at last. “I could have stopped it,” the beast rasped, and then collapsed face first onto the cold stone floor.
There was a long moment of silence. Finally, Tamori Shimura turned to the two Phoenix. “Please leave my home at once,” he said.
“As you wish, my lord,” Mitsuko said. “We no longer have any reason to be here.”
