CHAPTER 95

As far as Sasaki was concerned, the city of Aston hadn’t changed since she left. The same muddy streets that smelled of charcoal, metalworks, and animal shit. The streets were crammed full of the same people that were just as filthy as the clothes they wore. The metalworkers all glared, the lumberjacks glowered, the shopkeepers each tried to out-shout their competitors, the dock workers thumbed knives and eyed each other like they were sizing up a potential target. Exactly the same she'd seen last time; exactly the same as she'd seen in Einsamkeit and Begierde a year ago, when she'd stowed away on a ship from Yamato to get away from some unpleasantness.

While the soot-stained and mud-splashed peasants toiled in the city, the Church rose like a bastion of civilization, forcefully imposing its bulk everywhere. The low stone wall between the city and the Church was a silent demarcation between the rabble of the city and the will of the Empire.

"It’s the same everywhere, Sasaki." Araya offered helpfully. Sasaki shook her head. "Not in Yamato. Not like this." she replied dismissively.

Araya snorted. "Would you find a fishmonger walking the streets in front of your estate, then?" She asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Certainly not." Sasaki replied immediately. "Any fool that stupid deserves the flogging they’d earned-" She cut herself off as she realized how effectively she’d been baited. Araya smiled smugly at this response, but made a small dismissive gesture with her hand.

"If you look out the carriage window on the left, you’ll see the people you’re meant to protect from the terror of the Witch and the Mutant." She offered helpfully. Sasaki didn’t bother looking. She knew what she’d see. The throngs of huddled masses, each trying in some small way to live, clinging to the hope that perhaps their children, or their children’s children would be at least slightly better off.

"If you look out the carriage to the right," Araya was continuing, "You’ll see the people who would empower you to do that job." She offered.

"Katarina didn’t see it that way." Sasaki offered, and Araya smiled again. "Are you trying to be the next Blessed Katarina?" She asked mockingly.

"The thought... has occurred to me." Sasaki offered in a moment of honesty.

"Impossible. You can’t be her." Araya chided gently. "You can follow in her footsteps, but you can’t be her."

Sasaki bit back an angry retort. She knew that.

"Witch Hunters are born in two ways." Araya began by raising her finger as if lecturing. "The first way is the obvious way: They attend the training in Darnell and begin as neophytes. The second way is that they’re apprenticed to their Master, and are guided to the skills they need in order to become proper Witch Hunters on their own."

Sasaki nodded at that.

"You want to claim apprenticeship to Blessed Katarina." Araya began. "To that end, you have some problems. Her Radiance would have to provide you with a Writ and Warrant. Your powers as a Witch Hunter would be limited. An invested Witch Hunter is empowered by the Church to requisition anything they like, whenever they like, and have unrestricted access anywhere they like, but an Apprentice is a leashed Witch Hunter. There are significant restrictions. A Witch Hunter is empowered by the Church of Angland. An Apprentice is empowered by their Master."

"This... sounds like a warning." Sasaki noted. Araya nodded in agreement.

"Blessed Katarina is dead. Therefore she cannot provide you with an Apprentices’ Writ and Warrant. You have no authority to invoke." Araya offered gently.

"I’m fucked." Sasaki spat.

"Not necessarily." Araya chimed. "Technically- administratively- the Witch Hunters are part of the Arm of the Sword, the militant arm of the Church of Angland."

"That’s why you suggested Gared." Sasaki put in, and Araya nodded.

"Exactly. He can be induced to issue you a provisional Witch Hunter license. Understand it will not give you the authority of a Witch Hunter. It would, at best, be considered a provisional Writ that allows the operation of mercenaries on Anglish soil."

"That doesn’t seem..." Sasaki began, and Araya nodded.

"Indeed. You would not be an official Witch Hunter Apprentice. Not here in Aston, at any rate. The authority we can grant you is shamefully small. But there are advantages in your favor, if played right."

"...go on." Sasaki encouraged, feeling the enormity of the task before her.

"An auxiliary- a kind word for ‘mercenary’, has sanction to carry out bounties. Combined with a holy symbol and a gun, of which we can provide you with, and your own unswerving dedication to become an apprentice, should allow you the freedom to hunt the Witch." The albino girl let out a breath. "Really though, after we’ve done these things, your first priority should be to make your way to Darnell and be appropriately trained."

Sasaki closed her eyes in thought as the carriage rolled through the streets and up the ramps that led up from the dock-town to the city proper. As the carriage rolled to a halt, Sasaki opened her eyes.

"You seem to know an awful lot about a lot of things you shouldn’t." She offered, and Araya tinkled laughter.

"Forgive me; you just reminded me of her." Araya raised her hand, forestalling Sasaki’s rebuttal. "I am a seer, Sasaki. It’s both my curse and blessing that I can see possibilities. I foresaw you returning to Aston, and from there, I began meditating on the things you would need in order to achieve your goal."

"Why?" Sasaki asked suspiciously, but there was a short rap on the carriage door.

Araya raised her voice. "Forgive me guardsman, please give me just a minute more privacy with my guests. We will disembark shortly."

A muffled "As you wish, my lady." was heard, and the sound of booted feet moving away.

"Witches are a real threat, Sasaki." Araya stated flatly, and her eyes slid to Kuroyuki and then back to Sasaki’s face. "There are no active Witch Hunters on the continent. You are needed." She paused, and then added, "And Blessed Katarina was my friend, Sasaki."

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The Chapel of the Arm of the Sword had a simplistic, militaristic feel to it. Lining the walls were shields embossed with the crossed swords of the Defender, etched with scripture and each bearing the name of a soldier that died bearing the Golden Lady's will against the Urthan to the north, or beastman incursions.

Hanging from the balconies were oxblood-red banners depcting the Shield of the Defender, and racks of weapons stood in strategic points along the walls leading up to the pulpit. The Cathedral looked like a garrison, ready to arm soldiers and deploy them for war at a moment's notice.

Gared Grimaldus was a short, muscular man, scarred and ugly. His salt-and-pepper hair was cropped short, as was his beard. He moved like a soldier, confident and sure of each of his movements as he got up from his desk and approached Sasaki, Araya, and Kuroyuki. The sword on his hip was like him- short, businesslike, and brutal in its simplistic lethality. Sasaki decided that he'd last less than a minute against her. A soldier was trained to fight in a way that befit soldiers- working in a unit, with simplistic training on the value of thust, parry, stab, slash, recover, block with a shield.

Sasaki was a duelist, her own combat style revlolved around flexibility, leverage, and a elegant brutality that'd seperate limbs and head from the body before her opponent realized it'd happen. She might not have the fortitude to wage war, sto stand with a company of soldiers on a battlefield, but agianst a single target, or even a number of targets, she reasoned herself an elite. After that moment of watching how he carried himself, she immediately dismissed him as someone worthy of her sword.

"Seer." He greeted the woman with a short bow. his eyes flicked to Sasaki, to Kuroyuki. Sasaki's mouth twitched at his reaction. Sasaki was dangerous, Kuroyuki a curiosity, and Araya... Araya he seemed guarded against.

"You know the rules about weapons and the Church, Seer, so why is she-" He began, but Araya raised her hand.

"She's a Witch Hunter's Apprentice, Gared. The law applies to her." She responded smoothly.

Gared took a breath, held it, and let it out. "There aren't any Witch Hunters on Hesperia." He replied, finally. "You heard the news, the same as the rest of us."

Araya closed her eyes; the normal daytime light was painful for her sensitive vision. "Before Her Radiance Katarina arrived in Aston last year, she made the offer to Sasaki." She began. "However, Sasaki had unresolved matters she needed to tend to in Yamato before she could accept." She paused. "Unfortunately, she's only now just returned from Yamato."

Gared folded his arms across his chest and eyed Sasaki skeptically. "Nah." He decided after a moment. "I don't buy it."

"Of course you don't." Araya admonished gently. "Between what happened here the last time Blessed Katarina was here, and the news of her... announcement in Darnell, it's quite difficult to accept that only just now, after her passing, that an Apprentice would show up." She agreed. "Especially in the light of the Churches' announcement of her Annointing and Beatification. No doubt there are those everywhere who are even now, as we speak, crawling out of the woodwork, trying to claim some bit of her Radiance's blessing for themselves."

"Pffft." Gared replied, brows lowering angrily. "You don't know the half of it. The Militia has arrested plenty of grifters offering to sell bits of Blessed Katarina's cloak- I reckon there's enough "bits" to make twenty cloaks. So when you bring a woman before me and say-"

Araya raised her hand, interrupting him. "She never wore a cloak." He nodded at that impatiently, and Araya continued, "but she did make the offer to Sasaki."

Gared clenched his jaw at this. "Let's stop with the manipulation, Seer. You have an agenda, and you expect me to give a fuck. Stop prevaricating and just tell me what you want."

Araya nodded. "So shall it be: Sasaki didn't have the opportunity to receive an Apprentices' Writ and Warrant from Her Radiance. I would like for you to issue Sasaki an Auxiliary Mandate, which will allow her to act as a mercenary employed by the Arm of the Sword. I would like you to allow her to purchase a gun. Give Sasaki the opportunity to collect a few bounties to establish credibility, after which, she will be dispatched straightaway to Darnell, where she will be able to be officially present her case before the Witch Hunters and receive legitimate sanction."

"You're mad if you think I'd let someone who wasn't a Witch Hunter possess a gun, Seer. I don't care how legitimate her claim is. She's not a Witch Hunter. The moment I put a gun in her hands is the moment I put my head on the chopping block. Yours, too."

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"Would you like an incentive?" Araya asked, and Gared barked a laugh.

"You think to bribe me? What possible leverage can you have that would defy Anglish law and the Witch Hunters? What could you possibly award me that would mitigate a death sentence?"

Araya turned and looked first to Sasaki, and then to Kuroyuki. She turned back to Gared. "We'll have that conversation between the two of us. Let me tend to my guests, and I will offer you with an accommodation that I hope you'll find acceptable."

She turned back to the other two women. "would you prefer a meal, or a bath first?" She offered, and Sasaki immediately replied "Food", while Kuroyuki immediately replied "A bath, please."

The two women looked at each other for a moment.

"A bath wouldn't be amiss, I suppose." Sasaki finally admitted. "It was a very long trip from Yamato."

"A well-prepared meal would not go unappreciated." Kuroyuki replied. "The food on the boat could hardly to be said to be palatable."

Sasaki smirked, and Kuroyuki gave her a tiny smile in return, and they as one turned to look at Araya.

"Both is good." Sasaki announced, and Araya tinkled laughter. "Come this way. You'll be guests in my quarters."

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Over dinner, Sasaki tried probing Araya for information.

"So what is it that Gared wants?" She offered, carefully selecting a dish of steamed and seasoned vegetables.

"Gared wants something very badly." Araya replied, ladling some soup into a small bowl, "And I have the ability to give him what he wants."

"That tells me nothing." Sasaki replied irritably.

"Of course." Araya replied. "but it should give him sufficient motivation to give you what you want."

"Shouldn't I know?" Sasaki asked, confused. Araya simply shook her head. Sasaki fumed at this while tweezing vegetables into her mouth.

After their bath, Araya escorted them to the door of her quarters. "Were circumstances different," she offered, looking directly at Kuroyuki, "I would invite the both of you to stay the night. I get so few visitors and so few chances to entertain company." She paused, and then added, "I recall you stayed at an inn here before you left for the homeland. They have adequate lodgings. Please come to the church by the morning bell, and we will provide you with what you require."

She tucked her hand into the sleeve of her robe, and withdrew a holy symbol of the Golden Lady, a palm-sized shield with two crossed swords behind, and the fleur-de-lys on the front. She offered it to Sasaki, and gave Kuroyuki another inscrutable look, and then withdrew, leaving them to stare at a closed door.

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"What do you think, Kuroyuki?" Sasaki asked curiously, after they’d purchased rooms for the night.

"The Diviner does not like me." Kuroyuki replied, seating herself properly, back straight. "But her plan seems sound, assuming she can give you what you need."

"Kuro-" Sasaki began, and then paused. "Are you-" She began, but Kuroyuki lifted her hand and made a slight dismissive wave.

"I am not dangerous, Mother." She replied stiffly, and then smiled warmly. "That’s your job."

Sasaki let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, undressed for bed, and fell asleep. Kuroyuki simply sat on the edge of her own bed near the window and stared out into the night.

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Sasaki's pursuers were relentless. They’d chased her halfway across the capital, through several districts and across three checkpoints. Whomever they were, they didn’t seem to understand or at least respect jurisdiction. That likely meant hunters dispatched from someone in the Imperial Court.

Sasaki had been known to be a troublemaker amongst the lower nobility, where her family kept their holdings, but her tumultuous antics should never have reached the Imperial Court, leaving whomever commanded them an absolute mystery to her.

She’d seen her family, requested and received a renouncement of her family and titles, and then, as if by magic, the hunters had come looking for her scarcely half an hour after leaving the estate.

Finally, after several long months hiding, moving from township to township, sleeping in barns and animal pens, she finally begged sanctuary from a Shrine Maiden temple.

If she chafed at living under her parents’ rules, she burned at the Temple. They lived rigid, structured, organized lives. Lives she couldn’t lead. They were abstemious ascetics that didn’t drink, carouse, or seem to have fun under any circumstances.

At first she thought to try herself against their swordmasters, but her training and theirs were too widely dissimilar. Her techniques were forbidden; they could not countenance such a vulgar and ostentatious rejection of proper, accepted sword-forms. As someone seeking sanctuary, there was very little for her to do except eat at scheduled mealtimes, avail herself of their meditation rooms, and walk the grounds.

The Yamato islands were volcanic, and so she was quite familiar with earthquakes. Yet, during one of her aggressive walks through the forest paths, when the earthquake hit, she was catapulted off her feet and smacked the side of her head into the wooden railing that edged the mountain paths, knocking her out.

When she awoke, a young girl stood before her, naked and shivering in the evening cold, hair as black as a raven’s wing, eyes gleaming gold. Sasaki wrapped her up in her haori, intending to take her to the temple, but by the time she’d reached the temple, the girl had grown and aged over the intervening hours from a girl approximately the age of six to that of sixteen.

At the temple, the young woman was examined, poked, prodded, and prayed over. For all their diviniations, she was a normal sixteen-year-old girl. However, she referred to Sasaki as her mother. For Sasaki, that was simply impossible. In fact, there were a great many impossibilities surrounding Kuroyuki, but in the end, Sasaki had accepted her.

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Sasaki pushed herself up from her mattress and eyed it wearily. Her dreams had been unusually vivid, and her body felt like she'd been running all night.

"Fuck it." She muttered, and let herself drop back onto the mattress.

"Mother." Kuroyuki's voice called from the other side of the room.

"Lemme 'lone." Sasaki complained, and rolled over onto her back. "As far as I know, we're no longer being chased by whomever it was that was hunting me." She ticked off a finger. "Lady Araya seems inclined to help me, so that's a good thing." She ticked off another finger. "I have a clear goal, an objective." She ticked off another finger. "I should be happy." she wiggled the lone finger on her hand and shook her head. "Katarina is dead." She muttered.

That was the worst blow she'd felt since she'd been she'd been forced to realize that because of her fuckup, her sister would have to marry a fat bastard in her place. A sister she loved and adored.

"Mother," Kuroyuki began, but Sasaki sat up and angrily swept her tears aside. "you don't get it, do you?" She demanded of her strange daughter. The young woman shook her head.

"I gave up my family for her. I gave up my homeland for her. My inheritance. My life." She struggled against crying, but the tears came anyway. "I was going to do it, Kuro! I was going to stand at her shoulder. Fight Witches. Kill mutants. Beastmen. Monsters. Abominations. Whatever. I would have done it. I gave up everything to do it, and now she's fucking dead, dead, dead!"

Kuroyuki blinked. It wasn't the first time she'd seen her mother so emotional; Sasaki was prone to losing her temper, but this was different. She got up and embraced her mother.

"I have been listening to people talk, Mother." Kuroyuki murmured. "Your Witch Hunter friend seems to have a problem staying dead. You still have a goal. You have a chance to fulfill that goal."

"What?" Sasaki mumbled. "What are you talking about?"

"You might find more accurate information at the Church, Mother, but from what I have heard, she died here in Aston at some point, and was resurrected apparently in the crematorium."

Sasaki’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. Finally, she forced out, "The Church?"

Kuroyuki nodded. Sasaki shook her head, baffled. "What could possibly be in this city so dangerous that it could kill Katarina?" She asked, but raised her hands in a warding gesture.

"Fine, fine. I’m awake. And miserable. Can you have some water sent up, Kuro? I’d like to wash my face before I eat."

Wordlessly, Kuro pointed to a bucket of water by the door.

"You’re everything I’m not." Sasaki complained. "You’re the perfect daughter my mother never had."

Kuroyuki bowed her head respectfully as a proper daughter should. Sasaki glanced at her, shook her head, and eased out of bed. As she washed her face and hands, Kuroyuki solicitously handed her a towel.

"Since we’re speaking of mothers and daughters, I thought you might finally tell me what you are." Sasaki probed. Kuroyuki eyed her in return.

"Very well, I will tell you what you need to know." Kuroyuki began as they sat down at the small table in their room to break their fast.

Sasaki broke a chunk of bread off from the loaf and took a bite and eyed her strange daughter speculatively, and then offered her the loaf. The young woman pulled off a small piece and eyed it carefully before eating it. She grimaced slightly at the bitter taste.

"Not the best bread." Sasaki answered the unspoken complaint.

"Quite." Kuroyuki replied. She eyed Sasaki a couple of times, and then she reached up to her neck and withdrew a fine chain that looked to be silver. She unhooked it, and as she took it away from her neck, a purple gem as long and as thin as Sasaki’s pinky finger popped up out of Kuroyuki’s kimono.

She cupped the gem in her hand and spooled the chain on it and handed it to Sasaki, who eyed it curiously. She’d seen emeralds and diamonds, rubies and sapphires, but she couldn’t recall ever seeing a purple gemstone before. It seemed to catch the light and glow in her hands.

"That’s my soul, Mother. As for the rest; I was born from your flesh; I am your daughter." Kuroyuki stated, and took another small bite of bread.

"That doesn’t explain anything." Sasaki insisted. "You’re less than a year old, and yet you have the body and mind of a sixteen year old girl."

"That certainly seems to be the case." Kuroyuki agreed, and pulled a larger piece of bread off the loaf and passed it back to her mother.

"Why didn’t Araya..." Sasaki began, and struggled with the words- "Why did she ask what you were? Why was she so suspicious of you? What are you?"

Kuroyuki sighed. "I do not wish to foster a sense of mistrust between us, mother." Kuroyuki stated firmly. "There are things I can explain, just as there are things I cannot. I told you that I would tell you what you needed to know." She paused, and added, "What you need to know is that I am your daughter. Lady Araya’s abilities operate within a specific area. I exist outside that area, and so that makes her nervous."

Sasaki took a moment to think as she eyed the chain and the gem in her hands. "What abilities?" She asked, and Kuroyuki raised an eyebrow.

"She said she was a seer, mother. A Diviner. She can see the future. She can sense the minds around her and how they thread together into the future." She paused. "She looks at me, and she cannot see me, and that makes her uncomfortable."

Sasaki shook her head. "I’m not sure I understand."

Kuroyuki’s brow furrowed as she ate another piece of bread. "Imagine for a moment that you are you, mother." She offered. "And this you is capable of sensing the movement of people downstairs in the common room." Sasaki rolled her eyes at this, but gestured for her strange daughter to continue. "If someone were to come up the stairs and approach the door, you would sense them. The vibration of their feet on the floor. The sound of their footsteps. Since they’re Anglish, they probably don’t bathe nearly as often as they should, so perhaps you can smell them. So you can hear them, feel the floor’s vibration, you can smell them. There is someone right outside the door of this room with a knife in their hand right now, and they are ready to kill you."

Sasaki rolled out of her chair without thinking, her hand snatching at her sword. She threw open the door to their room, and was greeted with an empty hallway. She peeked out left, right, and left again, and turned to face Kuroyuki, smiling at her from the table.

"There is nothing there, correct?" She offered with a smile. Sasaki glared at her and shoved her sword at her bed, where it clattered against the bedpost.

"Araya sees me with her eyes, hears me with her ears. She can smell me. Taste me. Touch me. But she also relies on senses beyond that, and to those senses, I am simply not there." She gave her mother a curious look. "Does that make sense to you? I upset her because although she can see me, in another way, she can’t see me at all."

"Upsetting, indeed." Sasaki replied with a dour look at Kuroyuki, who giggled a little.

"I bring no harm to you. I am curious about this world, and I would like to see it. I would like to see it with you. You are my mother: where you lead, I will follow." She gestured to the food. "Now you know what you need to know."

"But there’s more." Sasaki prodded, and Kuroyuki nodded. "There is." She paused in thought. "But I don’t have the words to explain to you. As you say, I am less than a year old. My knowledge comes from you, and what I have learned observing the people around you. The more I learn, the better equipped I will be to explain things as they become necessary."

"I can’t help but think you’re being evasive, Kuro." Sasaki argued.

"Can you explain blue to a blind man?" Kuroyuki replied curiously.

"What-? No? How would you-" She started and stopped several times, and shook her head.

"Exactly." Kuroyuki stated with a sense of satisfaction. "To make Lady Araya more comfortable, I suggest that I remain here while you attend to whatever you need to attend to at the temple."

"Church." Sasaki corrected, and Kuroyuki nodded.

Sasaki took a long breath and let it out slowly. "All right. I’ll go to the church and do... whatever it is that Araya expects me to do, and then we’ll meet up here, after."

Kuroyuki bowed from her seat in thanks.