The Last Oracle


by
Shawn Carman



“It soon became evident that not even the mighty Oracles of Light could stand against the Emperor’s Legions. Those blasphemous worshipers of the Elemental Dragons soon met the Dark Lord’s wrath!” –Miya Satoshi, Imperial Herald, 1131 by the Isawa Calendar, the Ninth Year of the Glorious Reign of Hantei XXXIX




The sky was black now. Even during the day, the smoke from ten thousand fires raging across the face of the Empire nearly blotted out the light of day. Isawa Kaede could not remember the last time she had truly felt the warmth of the Lady Amaterasu. Not so long ago she had gone to the lands of the Moshi family in search of any insight they could offer. Perhaps with their knowledge of the Lady Sun, Kaede could contact the Dragon that shared her soul. She had not felt the Dragon of the Void’s presence in far too long, and she feared that something truly dreadful had happened.


The horror of what she had found in the Centipede lands was something that remained with her even now. With so much horror and death in the world, Kaede often marveled that she had yet to become numb to it. She wept over the burned and twisted carcass of each child she came across, and mourned the loss of all those who had been destroyed by Fu Leng’s rule. Still, it was better this way. If she ever lost so much of her humanity that meaningless slaughter did not affect her, perhaps it was time to leave the mortal world behind.


The mortal world. Mortal was an appropriate word, for no living being was too aware of his or her mortality in this dark time. Sinister, inhuman creatures scoured the face of the Empire, enslaving or destroying all who opposed them. Only by acquiescing to the tyrannical rule of the despotic god Fu Leng could anyone hope to survive. And even then, survival consisted of slaving one’s life away in the service of a corrupted Emperor while desperately trying to avoid attracting the attention of the murderous beasts that served him.


Isawa Kaede halted her reverie and took note of her surroundings. She was no longer in the vast, burning plains of the northern Empire, but instead she found herself in the blackened peaks of the Twilight Mountains. At one time, such a transitions had been normal for her. The essence of the Void Dragon that permeated her being would occasionally take her places without warning. It was one of the small prices one paid to be an Oracle. But Kaede had not felt the Void Dragon’s presence in so long that the sudden movement surprised her.


Taking stock of the peaks around her, Kaede quickly recognized her position. This particular section of the Twilight Mountains was once the home of the poor, doomed Boar Clan. More importantly, the last remaining vestige of that clan’s existence, an ancient stone tower, was home to one of her kind, Hiruma Osuno, the Oracle of Earth.


With an all-too-human eagerness, Kaede moved herself through the Void, traveling instantly to the site of the Tower of Vines her brother called his home. Her eagerness was instantly snuffed at the sight that greeted her: the proud tower was a smoldering ruin, collapsed into a meaningless pile of stone and wood. Struggling with despair, she reached out with her senses to try to find some sign of life. She sighed with relief. There was something there; it was faint. Someone lived yet in the ruins.


Kaede ran across the hillside to the base of the collapsed tower, scanning the wreckage for any movement or sign of life. There was a soft clattering of stones to her right. She started to move in that direction, then stopped as a gigantic beast rose from the rubble.


The creature was at least fifteen feet tall, perhaps more. Its skin was covered with rough green scales and festering red boils. Long mandibles surrounded its mouth and rows of spiked tentacles lined its underbelly. From its appearance, it could very well have destroyed the tower on its own, but because of its massive bulk, the beast was apparently trapped in the rubble when the tower fell. It chattered excitedly and reached for Kaede with one gigantic claw. As it grew closer, she felt another emotion that had long been absent from her mind.


Rage.

With clenched teeth, Kaede stepped forward and made a short, slashing motion with her hand. A gaping wound ripped open in the body of the creature, its thick carapace parting as easily as water. Blue ichor fountained from its body. The monstrous beast shrieked in surprise and agony, reeling from the sheer shock of the strike. Kaede did not relent, reaching out and shredding the thing’s essence again and again, tearing it to pieces. As she tore it apart, the chunks of meat and bone were rendered into nothing by the power of Void. In moments, she had reduced the beast to a memory. It was as if it had never existed.


“Kaede...” came a weak voice from the rubble.


She rushed to the source of the voice. There, lying in the shattered remnants of the tower was the broken and dying form of her counterpart, the Oracle of Earth. One look at his ruined body told her that he was dying. Not even an Oracle could survive the wounds he had endured. “Do not try to speak,” she whispered. It occurred to her that she had never truly met this man before, though she felt an instant kinship with him.


“You must listen,” he croaked. “There is very little time. When the beast came, I tried to summon the power of the Earth Dragon, and I failed.” He coughed violently, and it was obvious that he was bleeding inside. “Have... have you noticed it as well?”


“Yes,” she admitted. “The Dragons are distant now.”


“No, not distant,” he corrected weakly. “They have abandoned us, Kaede. The mortal realm is lost, and the Heavens have sealed their gates to avoid the same fate.” His one remaining hand clutched at Kaede. “Can you feel it?” he whispered. “Can you feel them leaving?”


She only nodded, a single tear rolling down her cheek. “We are lost.”


“No,” he said again, with surprising force. His eyes blazed with sudden fury. “The elements have abandoned us, but there is still a chance. As long as humanity still exists, there is a chance for victory. You must be that chance, Kaede.”


“I do not understand,” she protested.


“One Dragon remains,” he said. “The Dragon of Thunder. The Dragon of courage, protector of heroes. So long as it remains with us, we have a chance. But it cannot act against Fu Leng on its own. It must have an agent. It must have an Oracle.” The dying Oracle slumped back against the stones, his strength fading rapidly. “I had hoped to help you, but it is too late for that. You are the only one left, Kaede. You are the Oracle of Thunder,” he whispered.


The Oracle said no more. It took Kaede several moments to realize that Hiruma Osuno had died.


Kaede wept then, stroking the dead man’s cheek. The thought that his flesh was dead did not matter to her at the time, because the flesh was pure and uncorrupt. The touch of another human seemed so inconsequential when the threat of being torn asunder by an oni was a daily reality.


A cold sensation rippled through Kaede’s being, so suddenly and harshly that she gasped with the severity of the feeling. She felt the Void recede from her as suddenly as the wind shifting from one direction to another. For the first time in decades, she could not sense the Void. In an instant, she was human again, robbed of all her strongest magic. She felt as defenseless as a newborn.


Before she could react to the sudden loss, a new feeling welled forth inside her, a blossoming fire within her soul that filled her with a sense of confidence the likes of which she had never known. She was suddenly aware of thousands of humans across Rokugan, each struggling against the forces of Fu Leng in their own way, to the best of their abilities. Each bore within them the embers that could be fanned into a raging inferno. And some already possessed such fire.


A voice resonated throughout her mind and soul, echoing in the deepest recesses of her being. “Even in the darkest storm, thunder lights the way. I am with you, Isawa Kaede,” the Dragon of Thunder said. “Now and forever. You know what you must do.”


Kaede knew. She was the guardian of heroes, the protector of humanity’s last chance. She was the seed that must endure this dark time until the forces of darkness were banished and the enemies of darkness returned to their rightful place. She must counsel the heroes that remained and ensure that the light of humanity was not extinguished forever.


And she knew where she must begin.

 



At the second Day of Thunder, the Emerald Empire of Rokugan fell to the dark power of Fu Leng. The greatest heroes of the land marshaled their forces to kill the Dark Emperor. They had failed. Laughing, the dark god summoned forth demons known as Ashura from the deepest pits of Jigoku. They descended upon the forces of Rokugan like locusts, destroying everything they touched.


Kaede knew when she stepped forth to save the heroes of Rokugan that she had defied the rules that governed the Oracles of Light. Normally, such an act would have had terrible consequences, but with the Empire already consumed by chaos she hoped it would make little difference. Now, as she faced the leader of those heroes three years later, she knew she had made the right decision.


Akodo Toturi had changed very little, but the lines around his face were deeper and the look of his eyes spoke of a fatigue no man should endure. To her, however, his spirit shone as brilliantly as the sun. The flames within his soul burned so brightly that it seemed a miracle his flesh could contain them.


“It is good to see you once more, Kaede-san,” Toturi said, a faint smile upon his lips. “I had thought perhaps you were lost to us.”


“I was lost,” she replied, “but not in the sense you mean. And now I have new purpose. You are the key to my quest.”


Toturi shook his head. His dark eyes were like steel. “Now is not the time for riddles, Kaede. Are you here to aid us or not?”


“I have come to aid you, Toturi. But again, not in the way you think. You have spent the past two years leading your army through the mountains of Rokugan’s western border, taking supplies where you can and striking out at whatever enemies are available. It is a meager existence, one unworthy of a man such as yourself.”


“I have nothing,” Toturi hissed. “If I attack with what I have, the only thing I achieve is a violent death for myself and my men. We shall end up serving Fu Leng as undead abominations, like Hoturi and Kamoko, or a slave to his influence like Kachiko. Such a fate is no better than surrender and surrender is unacceptable.”


“I have brought you all you will need to fight,” Kaede said.


Toturi frowned. “Weapons?”


Kaede smiled. “Of a sort yes.” She gestured to the entrance to Toturi’s ramshackle tent. The flap whipped aside as if by a strong wind and three figures strode in.


The first was by far the largest. As broad as two men a single fist glowing faintly with the luminescence of supernatural jade the powerful warrior lay down a tetsubo the length of a normal man’s entire body. The second was small and rail thin. His armor was blackened by soot and grease. His face was covered by an iron mempo.


“Toturi,” the first man rumbled. “Still alive, neh?”


“Hida Yakamo,” Toturi had risen from his seat. A grin slowly spread across his weathered features. “I thought you were dead my friend!”


“Bah!” roared Yakamo. “You didn’t think Fu Leng could stop me did you?”


“And you,” Toturi turned to second figure. “You seem familiar...”


“I look much different, I suppose.”


“Daidoji Uji!” exclaimed Toturi. “I thought there were no more Crane.”


“You were right,” Uji whispered. “My clan is dead. I live only to kill Doji Hoturi.”


“I cannot believe this,” Toturi said slumping back into his seat. “I thought all of you dead.”


“There are many flames still burning within Rokugan,” Kaede answered. “We must gather the flames together if we are to survive this winter. The Crane and Phoenix are dead, the Crab nearly so. The Naga are being exterminated. The Dragon are gone. The Unicorn have fled and the Lion and Scorpion serve Fu Leng willingly.”


There was silence in the tent for a moment. Then Yakamo laughed.


“I do like a challenge!” he exclaimed. “When do we begin?”