His heart just about stopped in his chest.
Lukas closed down every doorway and window in his head, to shut out the gale that was suddenly whipping up in his heart. He had to stay focussed. He couldn’t afford to let the sudden tide of emotion drown his ability to think clearly.
“... say that again?”
Solana suddenly looked like someone who had just realized they were sitting near a hornet’s nest and was desperately trying not to run away screaming. It was a far cry from the confident, composed yokai leader he knew. She licked her lips again and said. “It was me. He knew Tanya was out because I… I told him.”
It probably said something about him that his first reaction wasn’t to slam his hand on the table and verbally lash at her, but to grab Tanya’s right hand and pull her towards him, grabbing her tightly as she relentlessly tried to escape his grip.
“No.” he asserted.
Tanya struggled briefly, savagely and silently, her eyes shining a pale white, relentlessly trying to raise her other hand, but his kinetomancy held her locked in place. When the struggle finally ceased, she turned towards him, cold and still and eyes full of disbelief. She might as well be a statue, rather than an actual near-human being. Only her eyes moved, tracking my own gaze. The playfulness of the morning had vanished, replaced by something feral.
“No,” Lukas repeated.
“Why?”
“Do not forget, your attacks won’t faze her. She’ll regenerate. She always does. And remember, she could have not mentioned it. But she did.”
“She deserves everything that’s coming to her. If she’ll regenerate, I’ll kill her again and again and again until there’s nothing left.”
“She took my best shot to the face and regenerated without a scratch,” he shot back.
“I don’t care!” said Tanya, leveling him with an even look. Her voice was cold and ugly with rage and pain. “Don’t you see what she did? After all this time, I had gotten some peace in my life. I have you, and a normal life at Haviskali, and this bitch just destroyed any chance of that. She — after everything she did —”
“She deserves much worse than death,” Lukas whispered. The venom in his voice actually made Tanya flinch. “But not now.”
He closed his eyes and ran his head through his messy hair in frustration. The Lukas of old burned hot. His anger was passionate, and quick. Now? When he was truly infuriated, truly moved past outrage and indignation, past fury and rage, he still burned.
He just burned cold.
Turning to Solana, he made an impatient gesture.
“Explain.”
The ancient skinwalker met his eyes, her voice measured. “I have, over the past several hundred years, dealt in information with various groups in the Empire under many disguises and identities. Clan lords, Sacred Eight, Shoguns, Warlords, Overseers, business people wanting to profit, assassin groups, pirates… it's been one thing after another.” She tapped her fingers on her desk. “The Asukans have food, mezals, and precious resources. I deal with them in information, and in return, seek out the location of their warehouses, their secret dealings, their mines. Places where my kind can requisition resources for our survival. It helps us direct attacks, sometimes directly, other times through proxy.”
Lukas stared at her, expressionless. “You are telling me that the Asukan Empire gets its spy network fed by the leader of the yokai?”
“They do not know who I am.”
“Then what do they call you?”
“Over the last few decades, I’ve gone by Lady Kandra. Ultaf Shimizu is actually one of Lady Kandra’s most valuable customers.”
“And Ultaf trusts you enough to attack Zuken despite him claiming otherwise?”
She nodded.
“This is ridiculous!” said Tanya.
Solana’s eyes tracked Tanya’s, and she nodded sharply. “It was… necessary. At first, they were simply the closest Sacred Eight Clan. But after Tsurara’s encounter with the Wind King, it was to figure out what happened to her.”
“You’ve mentioned that yokai’s name before,” said Lukas. “Who’s she? This… Tsurara?”
Solana looked at Tanya wistfully. “Tsurara was one of the leaders that ruled the yokai. She was my friend, my trusted ally, and my political opposite. I was following the Empress’s command and playing the long game, but Tsurara was headstrong, impulsive. As Meynte’s descendant, she was extremely powerful, far stronger than anything you saw the Empress perform using the brat’s frail form. The extremists gravitated to her ideas and she became the Leader of the Extremist faction.”
Lukas briefly remembered Maude talking about the different factions of yokai, and how Solana held them all in place by ruling with an iron will. She had, skillfully, arranged the fight between him and Quonnan — an extremist, and removed her from the picture without any heavy handedness. But if this Tsurara was their Leader back then…
“I always knew that Tsurara’s penchant for destruction and war would cost yokai lives. And it did. She and her army had attacked Shogun Straff, wanting to capture the city of Cyffnar for us yokai. She nearly ended the man, but before they could take over the city, the Wind King entered the battle. The place where she fought the Wind King is a barren wasteland even to this date.”
‘The Western Expanse…” murmured Tanya.
“That’s right,” said Solana. “Everyone knows what happened. The Wind King fought the yokai and decimated Tsurara’s forces. Whoever survived claimed that Tsurara was dead. But she wasn’t. I was sure of that. Meynte had taught me to trace the appearance of Everfrost through the Haze. I waited and waited and waited for an entire decade, but there was no trace of Everfrost to be seen. I knew Tsurara had to be alive, and so I traded with the Shimizu while trying to infiltrate them.”
Lukas sat down on the chair, annoyed. “That must not have been easy.”
Solana exhaled. “Sometimes it was through bribery, at other times, information trade. The Shimizu wards are some of the strongest I’ve ever faced, and the Eternal Light entrapped within them is very potent. Just passing through the outer barrier is enough to burn a yokai alive — possessed or not. It took me a long time, but I found out that Wakamura had left a secret experiment running, which his son Mujin took over after the Wind King’s demise. Nobody could tell me what it was, but it involved bringing females — countless women, of various races — elf, svartalfar, jotunn, himthursar and of course, bremetan, in high numbers. I even worked for the Shimizu, using my people to bring in captures, just to know what it was about. They would bring in women of various ages, and then, nobody would hear from them again.”
Lukas inhaled. “You mean—”
Solana paid him no acknowledgement. “It took me several years to spot one captive I had sent in. A dökkálfar, her body hacked from within, her blood frozen and erupting out of her body in shards of crimson.”
She met Tanya’s eyes. “That’s when I knew for sure. Tsurara was alive. The bastards were experimenting on her. Trying to get her to possess them. Turn her into an —”
“Oni,” said Lukas.
“Yes.”
Lukas stood up. “That’s why you thought Tanya was an Oni. You thought she was part of the experiment.”
“I did. It was hardly the first time Mujin Shimizu had used women of his own clan for the experiment. It was weird that he’d use the heiress for the experiment, but that man has a head full of cats. But no, I didn’t know that Tanya was experimented on, or that she had Everfrost powers. That I didn’t know until you fought her in this very anomaly.”
She looked… ragged. Exhausted. Like someone that had held someone’s vigil for years and couldn’t wait to give up, holding herself up through sheer will despite the futility of it all.
“I was getting nowhere. The yokai factions were getting unruly. All these efforts and I was still nowhere close to getting Tsurara out. I knew I had to act. So I did. My manipulation had failed, and it was time to try something direct.”
And right then, it clicked. Lukas knew what Solana was about to say. And given the growing horror in Tanya’s face, she did as well.
“You kidnapped me,” said Tanya. Her entire body was shaking. “Those abductors, they wanted to sell me to people from the Desert. They were… they were talking about you.”
For the first time, Solana smiled. “Yes. Those useless stains were hired to abduct you for us. The idea was to possess you constantly until your mind and soul shattered, and twist you into my willing slave. As heiress, you’d have a higher access than others, and with you, we could find where they were hiding Tsurara.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
She snorted. “Fat lot of good that did. We later heard that you escaped her shackles and killed them all. I was impressed. A girl just in her teens, bereft of lifeforce, unable to use mana, yet killed a squad of abductors with pure skill, a true heir to the Wind King’s legacy.”
“I was right, and yet, so very wrong.” Her dark eyes met Tanya’s wide blue ones. “You killed them with Everfrost, didn’t you?”
“It was the first time I used it,” Tanya murmured.
Solana stood up. “Tell me the truth, girl. Do you truly not remember meeting a yuki-onna in the secured vaults? Maybe a sudden attack, or an otherworldly reaction? Something that scared you so much that you forced yourself to ignore that it even happened in the first place?”
Tanya shook her head vehemently. “I keep telling you. I have not met this Tsurara, or any yuki-onna for that matter. Why wouldn’t you believe me?”
“And yet you have Everfrost.” Solana murmured. “An Asukan, born to Mujin Shimizu’s son, wielder of Everfrost. Could it be… your mother —”
“No…” Tanya whispered. “That can’t be true.”
“Why not?” Solana pressed. “In all my reports, I have yet to get anything about your mother. Not even her name. Just that you’re the second-eldest child and your father is Yanric Shimizu.”
“I told you!” Tanya snapped, shaking. “That — that can’t be true. Just, just shut up about this!”
But Solana was relentless. “You have Meynte’s lineage, girl. Unless you think your father is a—” she paused, and then her eyes lit up with a malicious sheen. “Ah, I see now. It’s not about your mother. It’s about the fact that your father raped a possessed victim just to breed Tsurara’s powers into the Shimizu bloodline.”
“Shut up. Shut up! Shut up!”
Your great father, who probably raped multiple possessed victims again and again until you were born. I wonder what happened to the other unfortunate new-borns. Wonder if he dropped the others in an orphanage or just had them fed to your—”
“Enough!” said Lukas.
Solana was wrestling against invisible bindings, but not a word came out of her mouth. Finally, she settled with impotently glaring at Lukas.
“I told you,” he said softly. “Enough.”
He pulled Tanya into his arms, and held her tight. Tanya was shivering. She had always looked strong, healthy, confident. Now she looked like an absolute wreck. Just like when he had woken her up from her nightmares. Her fingers dug into his back as she sobbed into his shirt, her face twisted with pain.
“Aguilar,” muttered Maude, her own fists clenched. “Get her out of here.”
Tanya just sobbed.
Lukas closed his eyes. To say that he was pissed was like saying kinetomancy was a good skill to have.
His fists clenched. He did not even meet Solana’s eyes, or anyone’s. He just held Tanya against his chest and let her cry her heart out. For the second time since leaving the borderland, a raw hatred was stirring within him. A blind wrath that would do more harm than good if he was left to his own devices. Solana, Maude, Meynte and even Frost had seen exactly what he could pull off, what boundaries he could tear apart when operating from that clouded state of judgment.
He turned towards Solana. The ancient skinwalker met his eyes. There was a strange defiance in them. Not cockiness, but something tempered with resolve. He knew that Solana knew exactly what she was saying, and she led the entire thing to the conclusion she desired, breaking Tanya in a new way once again. Only this time, she had attacked her past, her one, standing relationship.
Her connection to her father.
It was like this every single time. Solana had promised that she’d come for him. He might have trapped her into helping him and Tanya, but the willy skinwalker still had cards to play. No doubt she had arranged for the attack with similar intentions in mind.
Exhaling, he freed from the kinetomancy trap.
“You planned this, didn’t you?”
Solana’s eyes were remorseless. “Not really. It was one of my older, discarded plans. When you entered my domain with her, I realized the opportunity you had inadvertently given me. I had already informed Ultaf about Tanya’s involvement with the anomaly outside, so I saw a shot and took it.”
“You wanted Zuken Banksi out of the picture.”
“Yes,” came the effortless reply.
“Why?”
“He’s a wildcard,” Solana admitted. “I could eventually get to you and her, but removing Banksi through Ultaf seemed… neater.”
Smart. Lukas thought. He’d have done the same. Zuken was his sole contact in Haviskali. He was also the one keeping the Cobalt Army from coming for Tanya. If the Shimizu attacked and killed him, it’d drive Tanya further into Solana’s arms. Blinded by her wrath, armed with the knowledge of her heritage, Tanya would have willingly sat on the Throne, and just like that, Meynte would have him.
And if she failed, Solana would twist her rage towards the Shimizu, transforming her into a potent weapon like Tsurara.
Either way, she’d win.
“It was a good plan,” he said, surprising the skinwalker. Lukas wasn’t even being sarcastic. Regardless of whether Meynte succeeded or not, Solana would gain something out of it.
She had just forgotten to prepare for one major issue.
Him.
“Fat lot of good it did,” the skinwalker muttered darkly.
“Except for soiling Tanya’s memory of her father.” Maude muttered.
Tanya flinched in his arms.
“What are you looking for?” asked Solana defiantly. “An apology? You aren’t getting it. Nothing I’ve said is a lie. Her Asukan heritage is dripping with the blood of innocents. Countless women were killed in the most horrendous fashion because her ancestors wanted Tsurara’s power so badly. And when they finally succeeded, her own father fucked that unfortunate posessed victim to give birth to her. That’s why she has Everfrost. She isn’t Tsurara. She’s her daughter.”
Tanya struggled in his arms, but Lukas held her still.
“I’ll repeat what I have always said, girl. You’re weak. Pathetic. Just like your father!”
Tanya spun around, breaking through Lukas’s grip, and stormed at her. “My father —”
“Raped an innocent woman possessed by a yokai. All because he wanted her power to undo his shortcomings. You think I’ve destroyed your father’s memory? No girl, I’ve merely unveiled it, showing him as the animal he was.”
Lukas would have interfered, but he chose not to. Tanya needed to face Solana’s words and the truth in them. Only then would she be able to truly face her fears. It helped that if she felt like a naked blade before, now she was half-sheathed. A far cry from harmless, but at least not something that was openly hostile.
“Life is hardly fair,” said Solana. “You want pity, look somewhere else.”
“Leader!” Maude snapped. “That’s enough!”
“No,” said Tanya, surprising her. “She’s… right. All this is pointless.”
Lukas would argue that being so pissed that she felt like a sharp blade was not simply a pointless matter, but so long as things got moving again, it didn’t really matter.
Tanya glared at the skinwalker, her body still shaking. “You’ll make Ultaf release Zuken Banksi.”
“Can’t,” Solana freely admitted. “If I demand his release, he will suspect me.”
“And if you don’t, then I’ll kill you.”
The skinwalker stomped both hands on the table and met her frosty gaze. “Go ahead, try it. The Outsider said it himself. Even his most devastating attack did nothing to me. I’ll survive. I always do.”
“He tried to kill you,” Tanya whispered. “I won’t. I’ll freeze every inch of you in Everfrost, and leave you like that, draining every single bit of lifeforce. You won’t die, Solana. You’ll pray for death but death will evade you. And that's how I’ll get my vengeance.”
“You do that and you won’t have anyone to teach you to hone your powers,” she shot back.
Lukas narrowed his eyes. He had just seen something akin to victory flash in Solana’s gaze. But why? What was she scheming again?
“This is getting us nowhere,” he intervened. He met Solana’s dark gaze. “You’re right. I can’t kill you, and freezing you to an inch of your life will get us nothing, but it will also get you nothing in return. But you need to compensate for what you did.”
“I told you,” said Solana, “I cannot free Banksi.”
“No, but I can,” said Lukas. “And you will help me get there.”
She seemed to consider it. “They are holding him captive at the Peak.”
“Then we’ll free him from there.”
Tanya whirled at him. “Have you lost your mind? The Peak is Grandfather’s stronghold. Whoever faces him, dies. That’s always how it has been.”
“I think I can manage.”
“NO!” she snarled. “You won’t! He’s a full-fledged Warlord. Just one of his skills is equal to ten of your Level-3 skills. And you don’t even have that many.”
She was right. He didn’t. He could though. If he had the chance to level-up fairly quickly…
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe facing him is suicide. But trust me, when the time comes, I’m not gonna be the one to face him. You are.”
“...me?” She croaked. “No, no, I can’t. He’s — he’s too —”
“He’s nothing but a feral beast,” Lukas promised, grabbing her shoulders and holding her firmly. He stared into her blue eyes. “That monster has taken so much from you. He’s responsible for everything wrong that’s ever happened to you. And you will have your vengeance.”
“I — I can’t — Even with Everfrost —”
“You can,” he asserted. “And you don’t have just Everfrost, do you? You are the Wind King’s descendant. You wield Ezzeron, not your grandfather. For all his power, for all his violence, he wasn’t the one that tamed the Level-5 kami. You did. Your Everfrost is a power that’s as old as the universe itself, someone that could fight Amaterasu. You have Meynte’s skills. You’re not Asukan, not yokai, but the best of both worlds, and you’re only getting better.” He held her chin up. “What is Mujin Shimizu before you?”
Tanya said nothing.
He stood quiet for a moment. Tanya did not need any platitudes like ‘I can only imagine how you feel’ or ‘forgiveness is divine’ or ‘nothing comes from revenge’ or something similarly trite.
Not all forgiveness was good. Especially when it came to people that weren’t even remorseful. Oftentimes, vengeance was justified.
Besides, he wasn’t lying. Tanya was strong, and she’d grow even stronger under Solana’s tutelage. Inanna had said that he’d be attracting far deadlier opponents, and if Tanya was to be with him, she needed to become stronger and far more cunning with experience. It would be foolish not to rely on that strength. Even if it meant playing nice with Solana.
For now.
“What are you planning, Lukas Aguilar?” asked Solana.
He looked at her. “I need Lady Kandra’s help. This… Lord Naowa, Shogun of Llaisy Kingdom. Exactly what can you tell me about him?”
Solana’s lips twisted into a soft smirk. “Darling, what do you want to know?”