The beast crouched in its cave, oblivious to the storm outside. Its meal, the tattered remains of a goblin
it had killed, lay forgotten and untouched off to the side. The creature held its head in its hands,
tugging at its own hair while rocking on its haunches, desperately wracking its
feeble mind for an elusive truth it could not seem to recall.
What had its name been?
Once, it had a pack. There were
many others like it, and they had called it by name. But that had been long ago, before it had fallen. Now there was so little it could remember,
and it became harder each day.
Movement from the mouth of the cave caught its eye, causing the beast to
leap backwards into the shadows, snarling and baring its teeth. A female stood in the cave’s mouth, her
black robes whipping around her in the storm-driven winds. She regarded the beast for a few long
moments, then chanted softly and raised her hand toward him.
A sudden jolt ran through the beast, sending it sprawling to the rock
floor writhing in pain. “The pain will
pass,” she said. “Can you understand me
now?”
“Yes,” he gasped. He struggled
to his feet, glancing sidelong at the carcass he had been about to
consume. By the Fortunes, had he killed
the thing with his bare hands and teeth?
A wave of revulsion washed over him.
He brought his hands to his face, feeling his cold, clammy skin and the
fine sheen of perspiration that covered it.
“You must listen to me now,” the woman sounded urgent, “because I have
no way of knowing how long you will be able to remember. My magic is different now.” The winds blew harder, again stirring the
edges of her blackened kimono. She
stared into space for a moment until the winds subsided, then returned her
attention to the man before her. “Do
you remember who I am?”
He nodded. “Jomyako,” he
whispered hoarsely. “We met during the
battle to reach Volturnum. We…”
“We offered each other comfort in this place of damnation,” she
finished. “Now, things are much
different. You are what you are, and
I…I am changing. I do not know what I
shall become, but I know what I must do.”
For the first time, the samurai noticed the bundle Jomyako held in her
hands. A bundle that moved of its own
accord. She held it out to him.
“What is that?” he rasped.
Jomyako smiled sadly. “Perhaps
the last remaining trace of our humanity,” she replied. “I cannot keep him. Whatever it is that I am becoming,” she
winced in pain as the winds outside roared in sudden fury, “he will never
survive it if he remains with me. You
must take him.”
He shook his head. “I
cannot. You saw what I have become,
what I was going to do if you had not shown yourself when you did.” He tried desperately not to think of the
rotten flesh lying cold on the stone behind him.
“You must. You were,” she
stopped for a moment, then began again.
“You are a good and decent man.
If the child has any hope to survive in this place, none but you can
realize it.” She approached him,
holding the infant out before her.
“Take him, please,” she whispered.
“I can stay no longer.”
The samurai reached out and took the tiny bundle in his hands. As he did so, a powerful gust of wind tore
through the cave, pushing him back several steps and forching him to close his
eyes against it. When he opened them,
Jomyako was gone. He gazed down at the
tiny form clad in filthy rags.
“I will remember,” he promised.
“I will remember who and what I was, and who and what I still am.” He stroked the infant’s cheek with his
blackened fingers. “And I remember my
name now,” he whispered.
In the darkness, the samurai clutched the bundle, rocking it and
repeating his name over and over again.
Although definitely impressive, Otosan Uchi was not all that Katsu had
imagined. His father’s tales had evoked
images of a vast, impenetrable city, flawless in every respect. This city had a crumbling wall around its
perimeter. It was hardly flawless by
any stretch of the imagination.
Perhaps he had gotten lost, and this was not actually Otosan Uchi.
No, that could not be. The bay
was just as his father had described it, with the ruined remains of the Sunset
Tower cluttering one of the twin peninsulas that guarded the entrance to the
city’s waters. During his youth,
Katsu’s father had served with the Imperial Guardsmen of Rokugan. For part of his tenure in Otosan Uchi, his
post had been on the Sunset Tower, overlooking the vast seas beyond in search
of incoming vessels. Both Katsu and his
father had clung to the images those tales summoned in order to resist the
corruption of the Taint. The struggle had
been incredible, but it was a success.
Tainted they there, but they were not Lost. The two had survived for many long years, wandering through the
northern Shadowlands and the Twilight Mountains. His father’s blade and cunning had protected them while Katsu was
a child, and as he grew older he used his own powerful fire magic to protect
his ailing father.
Pain shot through Katsu’s body suddenly, causing his breath to catch in
his throat and his legs to give way. He
collapsed in a heap, blood streaming from his nose and mouth. The constant struggle against the Taint
exacted a horrible toll on his body. It
was the same price his father had paid.
The battle had consumed him years ago.
The old man had died broken, but not defeated.
“Give me strength, father,” Katsu whispered. “I cannot go on much longer.”
Indeed, many days Katsu contemplated simply surrendering to the
corruption that had claimed his mother, or even the simple act of suicide. Now that he had fled the Shadowlands, he was
fairly certain he would not rise again as an undead minion of Daigotsu.
The image of his father sprang unbidden into Katsu’s mind. To a warrior, surrender would never be an
option. In the final days, the pain
wracking his father’s body had terrified Katsu. But the old man would not cry out, would not surrender to it even
in death. He died in triumph.
Katsu knew he would never be able to achieve such a victory. He had but two choices: death or
corruption. And he knew that he was not
brave enough for one of them.
With dread and resignation in his heart, he rose from the ground. He reached into the satchel he carried with
him at all times and withdrew a large, black diamond. To those who knew nothing of its purpose, the diamond would be a
valuable treasure. To those who did
know its purpose, it would be both invaluable and insidious, a thing to be
feared and destroyed if at all possible.
For a long time, Katsu stood on the hill overlooking the bay, the
diamond held in his hand. He waited until
the sun had fallen to the horizon. It
was just as beautiful as his father had always described. It was time.
“By the power of the Dark Covenant of Earth,” he spoke in the dark
language of the Shadowlands, “I command you to appear before me.”
A low rumbling noise filled the air.
Below, he could see the wall surrounding the city shake and start to
crumble in places. Peasants ran out of
their houses and dashed frantically through the fields, apparently to no
purpose whatsoever. At Katsu’s feet,
the ground boiled like water, rocks spewing forth from deep inside the earth. With surprisingly little fanfare, a huge man
suddenly burst forth from the ground.
The newcomer was gigantic in size, nearly as huge as an ogre. His skin was an ashen color, and his left
arm was completely gone, a deadly claw in its place. His face was contorted with rage. “Who dares summon me?” he rumbled in a voice that sounded like
boulders crashing down a mountain. The
gigantic claw snapped and tore at the air furiously, as if angry at its
master’s disturbance.
“I summon you, Nokatsu,” Katsu said simply.
The man once called Yasuki Nokatsu regarded him with an equal mixture of
surprise and disgust. “You are
Jomyako’s son. The one who refuses to
accept his fate.” The Dark Oracle
snarled with hate-filled laughter.
“Spare yourself the pain, boy.
Embrace it.”
Ignoring him, Katsu held out the diamond. “The Dark Covenant of Earth compels you to undertake any one task
at my command.” He paused for a moment,
allowing Nokatsu to chafe at his words.
To his surprise, the Dark Oracle only bared his teeth.
“Get on with it. I am needed
elsewhere and have little time for your folly, fool.”
Taken aback by Nokatsu’s acquiescence, Katsu paused for a moment,
regarding the monster carefully. His
scrutiny revealing nothing, the young man shrugged and continued. “I command you to rebuild the Sunset Tower,
exactly as it was prior to its destruction, with no trace of the Taint marring
it.”
Nokatsu looked at the young man, momentarily stunned. “What are you playing at, boy? You summoned me for this?”
Katsu nodded. “I did. It is a last gift for my father, a monument
to his memory and strength.”
The massive man shook his head.
“You know that the Covenant allows you one favor only, and when it is
done you will no longer have its protection from my power.” Katsu nodded wordlessly. The Oracle grinned a feral, predatory
smile. “Then when my task is finished,
you will either accompany me willingly to the Shadowlands, where you will use
your magic in the service of Daigotsu…or you will die by my hand here and
now.” The gruesome metal claw opened
and shut repeatedly as if hungry for his flesh.
Katsu closed his eyes. He had
known this would be the choice he would be given. He had prayed that when the time came, he would have the strength
to choose death. But he found that he
still did not. “I will accompany you,”
he whispered.
With a laugh that echoed throughout the hills, Nokatsu waved his hand
toward the peninsula. In an instant,
the aged ruins of the Sunset Tower leapt from the ground and began reassembling
themselves. After only seconds, the
majestic tower once again stood over the bay, its long shadow crossing the
water to grace the docks of Otosan Uchi.
Even from here, Katsu could see the dockworkers pointing and running to
get the guardsmen. “For you, father,”
he said softly.
Nokatsu laughed again. “Your
mother will be most pleased to see you, Katsu.
She has often regretted leaving you with that fool many years ago. Perhaps it is not too late to see to it that
you have a proper upbringing with your true family.”
Katsu did not speak, but suddenly whirled on his heel and hurled the
blackened diamond, sending it hurtling through the air until it disappeared in
the bay. Nokatsu growled at him
ferociously. “You will pay for that,
whelp.”
“The price has been paid tenfold already,” Katsu said. He did not speak again as the earth rose up and swallowed both men, taking them far from the capital and deep into the twisted realm of the Shadowlands.