Ryojin- the Bonded Blade

by Noah Ward

  The sphere dented the bridge and spat up chips beside him. His body demanded he stop; will alone forced him to stand. He rushed forwards, kept enough distance so that he stone man would wind up another attack and create and opening. The creature obliged with an arcing horizontal swipe. Saito rolled under it, calling on a spear as he did so. Upon rising, he drove it into the stone man’s krystallis heart.

  The flail crashed to the ground and the creature swiftly followed.

  Finally, it was done. Now he had to find--

  Breath caught in his throat. An icy hand placed itself across his chest. Strength began trickling from him, starting in his shoulders until it reached his quivering knees. Saito peered down and understood.

  A kunai protruded from his chest. Blood had already soaked into his robes. He attempted to swallow the boulder in his throat but found he lacked the strength for even the simplest of tasks. His knees buckled and left him staring at the stalagmites of krystallis in the ceiling.

  “You did well, Saito,” came Asami’s voice from a short distance away.

  It required great fortitude to crane his head up and see the woman approaching. She stopped a few feet away from him.

  Asami looked around the destruction. “I’m sorry I had to sacrifice you like this.”

  Saito growled as blood burbled from his mouth. He conjured a blade, but it evaporated before he had chance to use it.

  “You should be proud of all that you achieved,” she said with a solemn nod.

  “Why?” he spat.

  Asami sighed. “Because I’m tired of following those I don’t believe in. I despise myself for Retsudan’s and my experiments but I knew they were necessary--despite your protests. Because you can lead an army of sworn but cannot lead people. You obtain the ur-krystallis and then what? You do not know its power nor could you raise an army of people you helped oppressed for summers. Your coup was doomed to fail. I and the others went along for so long because we believed in you. However, unlike the rest, I could not follow through with this. Not when there was another way…”

  Saito coughed and spluttered in response.

  “What is it?” Asami looked beyond him and into the chamber. “Unfortunately, you would not have consented. It’s much easier to steal the mind than it is to win the heart, Saito. It’s better this way. No violence, no death, just...acceptance. The sacrifices I made so far have been necessary. You will be the last. Thank you.” She bowed deeply and then began walking past him.

  “Sh--Shay…” he croaked.

  Asami stopped. “The girl has served her purpose. I do not care what your kamen does with her.” She peered over her shoulder. “But I will not let them stand in my way.”

  Despite all the rage swelling inside, he could not utilise it. Only tired resignation remained. Why couldn’t she speak to him? He would have heard her out, wouldn’t he? But what if she were right? All those he held close, his friends, had died, not by his hand but on his word. They’d trusted him and paid the price for their loyalty. Now, he would not even have his own flesh and blood at the end of this bloody road.

  Saito blinked away tears. When he opened his eyes, Asami was nowhere to be seen. He did not have the strength to find her.

  56

  Too Little, Too Late

  Mei brought the keval to a skidding halt outside the steps of Daikameda. The beast, foaming at the mouth, nearly collapsed in the snow. The blizzard had become fiercer, swirling angrily above, and had threatened to conceal the entrance completely. She sprung off the keval and held out her hand to Shay.

  “C’mon, girl, we need to move,” said Mei. Shay looked as if she were about to question her, but conceded and grasped Mei’s hand. “Up the steps. Be quick, but it’s treacherous.”

  Shay stopped before the first step. “Why is my father up there?”

  Mei suppressed a shudder of rage. She understood the girl’s concern--she’d be pushed and pulled in every direction--but now was not the time to question. Shay simply had to follow orders.

  “He has something to do, but he may be in danger,” said Mei. That got the girl’s attention. While she hoped it was not true, that it was her paranoia, she had never trusted Asami. Who knew what the woman had planned, and what awaited them in the temple itself. There had been no opportunity to scout the location due to its distance and the fact she had been busy trying to watch over the others. Now all those problems had vanished…

  Mei ushered Shay up the steps and spared a glance behind her after the first flight. She cursed but continued onwards.

  The journey was tiring and the freezing cold did its best to sap the energy from their limbs. About half way up, Shay slipped and could not muster the strength to forge ahead alone. Mei took the girl’s arm and practically dragged her the rest of the way.

  After what seemed like an age of wandering through the White Wastes, the steps abruptly stopped. Ahead, just barely visible, was the hazy outline of a temple.

  “We’re here!” Mei shouted against the blizzard. Shay was either too tired or the weather had stolen Mei’s voice.

  Onwards they went, until the two could slink through a gap in the temple’s thick doors.

  Inside was mostly black, save for the flickering lights ahead. The stench of blood clung to her nose. Her eyes began to adjust to the room. Shay screamed. Mei clamped a hand over her mouth, though she could not blame her reaction. It was a massacre. The bodies, over a dozen bosan, lay bloody on the ground. Despite the relatively fresh nature of the kills, the blood that had ebbed or sprayed from their corpses had frozen. The eyes of the dead all appeared utterly devoid of life, which felt oxymoronic given their state--until she realised why.

  “Asami…” Mei whispered. She swallowed, looked at the girl, drew her tanto. “Stay here.”

  Shay frowned, then followed the woman’s gaze to the softly illuminated passageway ahead. “Is--”

  “--Don’t think, just do as I say. When it’s safe, I’ll come for you.”

  “But--”

  Mei gripped the girl’s shoulders. “This is what your father wants, Shay. Do you understand?”

  Shay gulped but nodded. Mei prayed to the shogens she was not already too late as she ventured further underground.

  ◆◆◆

  The stalkers tore through the snow and worsening blizzard as if they were deer prancing through a field during a southern summer. Unfortunately, its speed made it almost impossible for Kaz to keep her eyes open. The blizzard, however, was kind enough to offer them a slither of a dark outline marking their destination.

  While her wounds had not fully healed by any means, Gin’s salve did just enough to numb the pain, or perhaps that was her frostbitten skin, or hypothermia. She silently prayed that she would make it in time to reach Shay, but had given up all hope of avoiding a confrontation with Saito. The stalkers were quick, but could only lessen the gap between the keval they pursued, not erase it.

  By the time the two of them burst through the maw-like opening in the mountains, night had fully settled in and the weather had worsened. Thoughts of encountering Saito and Asami dominated her mind, tried to instill dread in her like how so many adults still feared monsters in the dark even though they were old enough to know better. The primal part of her mind still begged her to flee, but she could not. She had come too far.

  Kaz brought her stalker to stop at the bottom of a set of stairs that stretched into the blizzard. There was a tired-looking keval collapsed off to one side. Snow had dusted its thick coat, and the beast looked to be deep in sleep. A few other beasts roamed the area. Faint tracks were still visible climbing the steps. The kamen and Shay had only arrived a short time ago.

  Kaz considered dismounting and tackling the stairs, but who knew how long it would take the two of them to traverse the path, and what state they would be in by the time they reached its end.

  She snapped her head to Gin and caught his attention. She pointed to the stalker and then at the steps. He considered the idea for a moment then n
odded. Kaz directed the machine towards the steps and began climbing them in earnest until she was comfortable leaping up several at a time.

  Finally, the two of them reached the end and ran towards the temple of Daikameda. After leaving the stalkers, they slunk into the building and confronted the massacre.

  “Let me scout ahead,” Gin said, grabbing her arm as she was about to run towards the set of stairs heading deeper into the temple. “We could well be walking into a trap.”

  The kamen was right, but when a scream--Shay’s scream--echoed up through the opening, she abandoned any hope of surprise and bolted.

  ◆◆◆

  Asami let Saito splutter through his dying breaths in peace as she left him on the bridge and approached the krytallis chamber. One would think the black shading to the giant krystallis would steal all light from the chamber, but its dark glow somehow illuminated the space. Taking into account the sheer surfeit of the precious mineral in the place, any fool could appreciate how closely it had been guarded. While Saito had believed Mundan’s ur-krystallis would have been enough to buy an army, the value of Shizanagi’s black krystallis was beyond measure. Asami almost laughed: the tiny fistfuls she had so sparingly harnessed summers ago incited the rage of Retsudan himself. Until he saw the results, of course. But none of that mattered now. None of them mattered anymore.

  Asami passed giant’s fingers of black krystallis jutting from the ground, walls and ceiling as she ventured deeper into the chamber. In the centre of them all, no more than a snowflake in an avalanche compared to the rest, was the ur-krystallis. It appeared hewn into a pedestal of rock, a chunk larger than a man’s hand. Dark light pulsed from its surface. If her affinity was not to Shizanagi, she might have doubted the ur-krystallis’s veracity, but something stirred deep within that bolstered her confidence. It called out to her.

  Heart beating wildly in her chest, Asami stood before the ur-krystallis. Her shaky hand stretched out to grasp the hunk of mineral. She held her breath.

  First, there was nothing. Not a lack of feeling or action, but a pure void that devoured the world and everything in it. Asami was suspended in nothingness. For how long, she could not fathom. It was only when she discovered she could open her eyes once again that the world had continued turning.

  The ur-krystallis had vanished, leaving an empty pit on the pedestal.

  Had it worked? She felt no different. She studied her hands, touched her face, stared at her reflection in the massive slabs of krystallis.

  A voice reached her ears from beyond the chamber. It seemed she would have no choice but to put her theories into practice.

  ◆◆◆

  Shay had watched Mei dash down the steps and out of sight, leaving her alone in a room full of fresh corpses. How in the world the woman thought she would deign to stay here, she hadn’t a clue.

  Well, Shay, you can head outside into a blizzard, wait in a room full of death, or finally take charge of your own life and find out what’s going on.

  It was only the thought of Kaz and Gin that stopped her following Mei right away. The blizzard had only worsened in her journey, so it could well be almost impossible for the two to get here in time.

  No, no. You can’t constantly rely on them. This is your chance to get answers, help them.

  Shay drew the blade from within her robes and stuffed it into the belt that had held her thick cloak closed. She swallowed the lump in her throat, made sure she didn’t trip over bodies or slip on frozen blood, and began descending the stairs.

  The air was musty, but at least it didn’t stink of blood and gore, and was a tad warmer than the cold temple. As she nipped down the steps, she did her best to suppress the growing terror of what she might find at the bottom. If Mei did not trust Asami, she still had her father to help deal with her. How powerful could one person be?

  You’ve seen how powerful, Shay.

  Undeterred, Shay forced herself onwards. Thankfully, it did not sound like anyone was fighting down there. In fact, all she could hear were the faint rumblings of people speaking. The possible lack of violence gave her hope, and she bounded down the last few steps and into the underground.

  Her heart caught in her throat. A man--the one from the shrine in Akimaru--stood upright, back to her, though his shoulders were slumped. Her father. He was wounded, that was plain to see. Had he slaughtered those men and women above? And what were these strange, stone figures scattered near him on the bridge?

  Saito was not alone, however. Mei stood beside him. The two did not turn to her. They appeared frozen in place.

  Shay was about to cry out to him, but found she did not know what she should say. Father felt too raw and unfamiliar. Saito just felt...strange. Her mouth opened and a jumble of syllables fell out instead. However, it garnered no response.

  She hopped over one of the statues on the floor and skidded to a stop by the two. It was only then she took in the space itself. At first, her mind could not comprehend what she saw--krystallis had been no more than a vague description, a small shard glimpsed in guarded palms. The giant shards, so abundant in the room, verged on unreal.

  Was that the reason why Saito and Mei were not moving? Were they so enraptured, too?

  “Mei,” Shay asked, shying away from her father. She had not anticipated meeting him like this. In truth, she had fantasised about a more intimate moment, not after a battle.

  She tugged at the woman’s arm but she did not move or even acknowledge her. Shay turned to Saito and gasped. Up close, he was bloodier than she imagined. A dagger protruded from his chest. Shay brought a hand to her mouth and began backing off.

  “I wager you took more after your mother than father,” said a voice behind her.

  Shay spun around and instinctively drew her blade. Her mouth was dry; a lump had formed in her throat.

  “I am sorry you had to see your father in this state, Shay,” said Asami. “I will, however, let you live. Although, I’m afraid it’s too late for Saito. I know how much he looked forward to seeing you. He can live the rest of his short life safe in the knowledge you are very much alive.”

  Saito...her father was dying?

  The dagger in his chest didn’t give you that clue, Shay?

  But he was standing. He was okay, wasn’t he?

  Shay flicked her gaze between the woman and her father.

  “I will let you bid you father goodbye, girl, but then you must leave this place,” said Asami. She said it with no love or hate in her voice, just resignation. “Be quick about it. For his sake, not yours.”

  “You...did that to him?” Shay squeaked. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Her journey, all the hardships she’d endured, had been for nothing. She’d failed, so close to the end. This woman was the reason why.

  Shay screamed and launched herself at Asami. The woman did not move. Shay raised her sword, aiming straight for the woman’s heart. Though she had never killed a person, it seemed such an inconsequential matter.

  She brought the blade down with all her might.

  Its edge stopped an inch from Asami’s heart.

  The woman sighed. “Toss the weapon over the edge of the bridge, Shay.”

  What? She would not--

  Her muscles moved independently and flung the sword over the bridge into its cavernous depths.

  “You are angry and confused, I understand that. If I were you, it would have eaten at my insides for some time. While I will admit to indirectly causing the death of your mother and Senzen.”

  “You...killed them?” Shay whimpered.

  “It was unavoidable to get you moving. Saito required a distraction. Sacrifices had to be made. I should be thanking your ryojin, too. She is quite the warrior.”

  Shay was unable to process what this woman was saying. All the misery in her life in the recent past was just a means for this woman to occupy her father’s attention. That’s all she was to Asami--a tool to be used and then discarded?

  “Now, go stand with your father,�
�� said Asami.

  No. She didn’t want to comply. But as her legs began moving, it appeared she didn’t have a say in the matter. Shay stiffly wandered towards Saito. The man placed his hands on her shoulders.

  “You may say your goodbyes, if you like,” she said.

  “I...I…”

  Shay looked up into her father’s impassive, empty eyes. She’d be talking to a statue. Was he even there?

  “Hurry up--” Asami began.

  A shadow emerged from the darkness and had its blade touching the woman’s neck.

  “Gin…” said Shay with relief.

  “Sorry I’m late,” said the kamen with a smile.

  57

  Rule-Breaker

  Asami did not balk when the cold steel of the kamen’s blade tickled her neck. It was in his best interests to simply kill her on the spot, but he had abandoned that advantage the second he appeared. He had no idea how her ability worked--it may end up killing Shay and Mei if he slaughtered Asami.

  The face of Saito’s daughter lit up. “Gin…”

  “Sorry I’m late,” said the kamen. Despite his smile, she could sense the tenseness in his voice hiding possibly injury. He turned his focus on her. “I would not move, if I were you.”

  “You must be the kamen that Mei was once acquainted with,” said Asami. “You two are from the same village, are you not?”

  Gin pressed the blade closer to her neck, drawing a trickle of blood. “I’m not quite sure how you think this dynamic works, Asami.”

  Her eyes looked askance. “The one with the power makes the rules,” she said.

  “Very good.”

  “Then why don’t you behave yourself and remove that blade from my neck?”

  He scoffed. “I’d rather shove it--”

  Gin’s arm armed was yanked off to the side and into the air, like an invisible hand had accosted an unruly child. Asami faced him and then placed a hand on his forehead. A flood of images--memories--cycled through his mind and passed into hers.