The sun was shining brightly the next morning when the Champions awoke.
Even those who’d been troubled by nightmares felt rested after sleeping in the
soft beds. Yukiiae entered shortly after they woke up, and scurried back and
forth for a few moments, bringing in trays laden with breakfast.
“Good morning!” she said brightly. She spread a linen tablecloth
right on the floor and said, “I thought we could have a little indoor
picnic.”
“Wow!” breathed Chieko, her face alight with joy. The food looked
fantastic… and,
“There’s coffee!” both Chi and Mina said in unison.
Yukiiae grinned at them.
Within moments the Champions were gathered on the floor, even Kat. There
was a time when the Empirian would have refused to do such a thing. However, she
was very hungry, and aside from that she’d already been sleeping in the dirt
every night. What’s become of me? She wondered despairingly.
Harata noticed Keisuke staring at the Decameron. There was a look on his
face that might have been rage, or perhaps an intense hatred. She avoided
looking at him- if anything, she seemed to look around him. At one point,
their eyes locked. Yukiiae trembled as the Commander grinned evilly at her. It
was a sick, psychopath’s smile he shot her, as though he’d like nothing
better than to tear her limb from limb. Her breath caught in her throat and she
turned her face away.
Chieko and Kazuki were having an animated discussion on breakfast in
their respective homes. Most of the others were quiet, intent on eating, or lost
in worlds of their own.
When they’d finished, Yukiiae informed them that
she’d take them all to the bathhouse.
“It’s a beautiful day, so you might want to check out the grounds. Be
careful, though. We have a lot of Clans here, but they don’t really mingle.
It’d be weird to see you all hanging around together. If you need to talk, you
should all come back here.”
They nodded collectively, then rose and followed her out of the room. She
led them across the green, sun drenched grounds. It was truly a beautiful place,
one that naturally instilled peace. Yukiiae waved and greeted the people that
they met along the way- a collection of convalescent patients and other
Decameron.
The bathhouse was enormous, full of steam and sunlight. It was divided
into two sections. “Ladies, this way. Gentlemen, over there,” the Decameron
instructed. “You’ll find everything you need inside.” As the Champions
filed past, she tugged the sleeve of Harata’s robe. “I need to talk to you,
okay?”
They walked a bit away from the bathhouse. Before Yukiiae could say a
word, Harata asked,
“How’s Takaeyama?”
“Pretty rough. I need to ask you a couple of questions. If I get a
better idea of what led up to this, I might be able to do more about it.”
“I thought you knew everything.”
“Nobody knows everything,” she answered with a smile, but caught the
meaningful look in his eyes. “I’ll answer your questions- right after you
answer mine.”
“Deal.”
“Ok, so… He used the Gift last night, right?”
“Gift? What gift?”
“Each Clan has a gift. The Corduran Gift is pretty hard to pin down, as
they’re forbidden to use it before other Clans.”
“You mean that thing he did… where he shot fire.” Harata was
thinking about the night outside Mina’s cabin, when Kat had used what Blue
called the “Gift of the Empirian”.
“Yeah. How long has he been with you guys?”
“About a week and a half.”
“What was he like before?”
“Well… weird.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t eat or sleep. And it was like… like he wasn’t really
there, you know? Like nothing was going on inside. He just stared at stuff,
didn’t really speak.”
“Ahhhh…” Yukiiae sounded as though some piece of a puzzle had been
popped into place.
“Is he going to die?”
“No. It was lucky that he exerted himself last night. Going on much
longer like that might have done him in pretty soon. He went into shock, yeah,
but it doesn’t look like any permanent damage has been done. He’s been
really lucky, but it’ll be for naught if we don’t fix the underlying
problem.”
“Which is?”
“I’ve only got an idea right now… I can tell you with more
conviction later on.”
“Ok.”
“You can ask me your questions now, if you want.”
Harata looked hard at Yukiiae, wondering how far he could delve.
“What was that last night?” He asked. “How did you know where to
find us? How did you know about Blue getting shot and all?”
“That is the Gift of my Clan,” she answered with a
devilish grin. He looked at her blankly. “A little bird told me.” She held
out her hand, and a sparrow landed there. Harata just kept looking, hoping she
would elaborate. Still grinning, she went on. “We can commune with nature.”
“You can talk to animals?”
“Put simply, yes. There’s a bit more to it, but I think you get the
picture.”
“So, how much do you know, exactly? Do you know about the Task?”
“Yeah… I was told of that a- a long time ago.” Her eyes shifted so
she was no longer looking at him, and the grin slipped from her face. There was
a quiver in her voice.
Does she know? Harata’s mind burst into panic. Does she know
about me? He searched for a way to ask without hinting that there was
something wrong in the first place. If she had no idea, he didn’t want to
arouse her suspicions. Finally, he asked, somewhat hesitantly,
“Can you find out whatever you want? Like, about anyone?”
“In theory, yeah, but there’s a great deal of responsibility that
comes with this Gift. Human beings like their ‘secrets’. If we come into any
knowledge of a sensitive nature, it must be guarded carefully. Those who seek to
abuse the Gift are stripped of it. It’s one of the Rules.”
Harata remained silent.
“It’s natural for you to feel some mistrust,” the Decameron said in
a gentle voice, “but you will come to see that we are not granted any
information that isn’t of utmost importance. The natural world has no love for
gossip.”
“Ok… I guess you’ll really come in handy, huh?”
“I hope so.” She smiled again. “Look, I gotta get back to Takaeyama.
See you this afternoon, ok?”
“Ok.”
“Enjoy your bath,” she said with a wave as she turned and walked down
the path.
For the remainder of the morning, the Champions were left to their own
devices. They all spent a long time in the bathhouse, everyone happy to be
scrubbed clean for a change. Each was slowly infused with the peace of the
place. All around them was a gentle calm, one that somehow eased their weary
spirits and cleared their cluttered minds.
After they were clean and dressed in spotless white linen pants and
shirts, the Champions scattered around the grounds. Blue found a moss-covered
boulder bordering the woods, upon which he seated himself. He relaxed almost
instantaneously into a deep meditation.
Kazuki returned to their room and took a nap, a luxury he’d never have
at home. Kat walked back to the room with him, and spent ages brushing her hair.
In the bathroom, she fished what makeup she had out of her bag. Standing before
the mirror, she transformed herself back into a person that she could recognize.
Chieko went for a long walk around the grounds, exploring every
interesting nook. She wandering into the woods and amused herself for a long
while at a stream, floating acorn caps through the water.
Mina decided to catch up on her reading, and went back to the room to
retrieve her books. Outside, she settled under a tree and plunged into her texts
with abandon. With all the hiking, and her duty of rationing food, she rarely
had time to even peek at her books lately. As she read, her mind lit up with
ideas, things she’d just have to try in the future.
Not far from Mina’s tree, on a grass-covered plot, Keisuke practiced
with his swords. His motions looked almost like a dance. As he did exercises,
his mind cleared. He was empty- pure potential. It was only as he moved that he
could forget everything. He was no longer awash in shame, burning with rage, or
drowning in disappointment. He was nothing but a pair of swords glinting in the
sun.
Ayame stretched out in the grass and watched Keisuke practicing from
afar, admiring his motion. She felt free. It had always been the other way- she
would move, and some man would be watching her. As she thought that the
movements he made transformed him into something beautiful, she wondered if all
those men had thought the same of her. It had never been important in the past.
Yukiiae collected the Champions and brought them to lunch at a longhouse
which served as a huge cafeteria. Like all the other buildings, it was filled
with sunlight and peace. With a reminder not to get too chatty, she led them to
a long wooden table laden with food. Chieko felt as though she’d gone to
Elysium… but only wished she could tell someone about it.
After lunch, they all returned to their room. Harata addressed them
calmly, his nerves no longer feeling quite so rattled.
“We need to decide what to do from here. We’re all together now, so
the first part of the Task is complete. In order to help the world, to ease some
of the negativity that’s built up, I was told we need to ‘consult the
Guardians’. Problem is, I’m not too sure what that means.”
“The Guardians of QianRa,” Yukiiae said, as though this was the
obvious answer.
“But what are the Guardians? And where?”
“They watch over the world. They were gods who agreed to leave Elysium
and live on QianRa to protect the world from harm.”
“How do we know they’re not just a myth?” asked Mina, skeptically.
“We Decameron make a pilgrimage to meet the Guardians. It’s a
tradition that’s gone on for centuries.”
“So you know where they are?” asked Harata with some urgency in his
voice.
“I don’t. I’ve never been on that pilgrimage myself.” For some
reason, the quaver had returned to Yukiiae’s voice, and she shook a little as
she spoke.
“But other Decameron here have been on it, right? They can tell us.”
“We’re forbidden to speak of it. One Decameron cannot teach another
the Way.”
“Then, how do you know how to get there?” Chieko asked, echoing the
question in everyone’s mind.
“We have to ask permission. If we are deemed worthy, we are granted the
knowledge we need to get to the Guardian’s lair.”
“If no one here can tell you, who do you ask?”
“There is a ritual. No human voice can speak of the Way.”
“This sounds awfully fishy,” Mina stated, her voice sounding aloof.
“How do you know people didn’t just make this all up?”
“How do you know the Legend isn’t made up?” countered Yukiiae.
“I don’t.” Mina’s voice was flat.
“Well, you don’t have any chance to back out now,” Harata cut in,
impatiently, “and unless you have a better idea, we’ll just have to put our
trust in Yukiiae for now.”
“Fine with me,” the Sabian said coldly.
The others remained silent. Not everyone agreed with Mina, but a few of
them did. It was simply too difficult to imagine that they’d be able to find
the Guardians, if the Guardians did truly exist. Something about the entire Task
just seemed too fantastic, not that which could truly happen. But what were they
to say? Harata was right. There really wasn’t much else they could do. Soon,
everyone was squirming uncomfortably in the quiet.
“Okay, moving on,” the Clanless addressed them all once more. “We
have other problems.”
Eight pairs of eyes stared at him.
“Namely, the HeadHunters.”
“I thought we took care of the HeadHunters,” Chieko piped innocently.
Keisuke snickered.
“It may be a little while before they’re back on our trail, but after
they find out what happened, there’ll be another patrol out looking for us.
Maybe two.”
“Try five or six,” Keisuke said with a grin.
“My point is,” continued Harata, “that everyone is going to
need to know how to defend themselves.”
“Everyone?” Chieko asked tentatively.
“Yes, all of you. So those of you who don’t know
how will learn from those of us that do.”
Everyone looked a little shocked. They glanced around uncomfortably,
their eyes shifty. What was he saying?
“Every day, we’ll practice together. Blue, you know some
hand-to-hand, right?”
“That’s correct.” Blue was the only one not wearing a look of
discomfort or distress.
“Mina, you know firearms, of course.”
“Naturally.”
“Keisuke-“
“No.”
“No, what?”
“I refuse to be used this way. I am not some low-class teacher.”
Keisuke’s voice was full of contempt.
“You’ll do what I tell you.”
“No. This is unnatural. It’s against the Law of Clans, and I refuse
to have anything to do with it.”
“It’s the god-forsaken ‘Law of Clans’ that got us in this mess in
the first place. Screw the Law of Clans! If we want to have any hope of
succeeding, we all need to protect ourselves. If any of us dies, we
can’t complete the Task.”
“It doesn’t matter to me. Let the world die. I’m only here because
you bound me to you… but that’s the Law of Clans, too. If you want to
ignore the Codes, then I suppose I’m not longer bound to you. So, I’ll just
leave, shall I? But not without killing you first.” There was a flash of
reflected sunlight as Keisuke drew one of his swords. The rest of the Champions
scattered away, cringing. Harata stood alone, the sword point at his throat.
“You have no Honor,” he said, his voice full of hatred.
“What would you know about Honor? Who the hell are you anyway?
Why should I follow you? Why should I save the world I despise? To negate
myself, oh Clanless One, is the highest dishonor. To do that which I
abhor is the vilest of deeds. To kill you now and wear your blood on my skin, that
would be my Glory.”
The others looked aghast, a group of pale faces with open mouths. All but
Blue, who broke from the rest, striding confidently to Keisuke’s side.
“Enough.” The voice of the Night’s Herald might have been the steel
of Keisuke’s blade, so hard and sharp and utterly emotionless it was. That
voice could have stilled the very oceans, or caused the air to fall heavy to the
ground. They’d never heard him speak that way before, and even the Angemal’s
eyes strayed to him. Blue returned his gaze, and went on speaking to Keisuke
alone.
“You know you are bound to this man.” He gestured at Harata. “When
his blade was against your skin, you gave yourself up. You had no choice. You
lost, and you are bound to live out whatever penalties that entails. You are not
a coward. You should not cringe from you duties, however vile they may seem. You
are a brave man, one who has strived to uphold his Honor. To give up now, that
would be the true negation of yourself. Is he worth that? Worth having your name
forever tarnished? I think not.”
Keisuke didn’t answer. His face was a mask of determination. He looked
coldly at Blue, hating him for making sense. The three remained frozen for some
time. Finally, Keisuke spat in fury and said,
“You will die, you bastard.”
He lowered his sword. There was a collective sigh as the other Champions
let out their breath. The Commander turned and left the room. For a long time,
no one moved or spoke, until finally Yukiiae, shaking from head to foot,
stumbled out of the room. As she walked away, her voice could be heard choking
out the words,
“God damned Angemal. Why do they gotta kill everything they see?”
Her head was full of the sound of screaming voices. She knew all of them
by name.
