“Sou! Sou!”

He was dreaming. A beautiful dream. Was it a dream? He was standing upon a cliffside, looking out over the ocean. Waves crashed on the rocks below, and the sky was a grey-green. A storm was rolling in and yet he felt peaceful. Content. Someone stood by his side, someone important. A woman, yes. He looked down to smile at her, but he couldn’t see her face. Why couldn’t he see her face? Lightning flashed in the distance, followed shortly by the accompanying boom. This is how things were supposed to be. Everything was as it should be. The woman looked up…

“Sou!”

Sou opened his eyes. Ayane’s face slowly came into focus above him. She was shaking him.

“Oh thank god,” she cried. “I thought you were dead!”

Sou sat up, groaning in pain. Fire. He was on fire. His entire body was both hot and itchy at the same time.

“Be careful, you’ve lost a lot of blood,” Ayane warned him. “Are you okay?”

Sou held his head in pain and looked at her. “Do I look okay?”

“Well you still possess your sarcasm, so it can’t be that bad.” She smiled weakly. “What happened? When you didn’t come back I got worried.”

“She wanted me to join her.” The world was spinning. His head ached. He felt nauseous.

“Join her?! Why would she want that?”

Sou flinched. It was like she was screaming into a horn placed directly against his ear. He propped himself against a nearby tree to stand up.

“Seems to think we could rule all of Yashima together.”

Ayane laughed and then bit her tongue. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like… Why would she think that you’d just agree to join her?”

“Who knows how she thinks,” Sou replied. “When I didn’t agree with her plans she attacked me, then stabbed me with this before she ran off.” He was still holding the dart she had stuck in his neck. He sniffed it. It didn’t smell poisonous. Guess they would soon find out.

“We should get you back to the camp,” Ayane told him. She positioned himself under one of his arms and looked up at him. “Come on, I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’m not gonna let you die here.”

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The sight seemed familiar somehow. She gave him a reassuring smile. Thunder boomed in the distance.

“Come on, we should hurry, it’s gonna rain soon.”

By the time they reached camp Sou’s head had begun to clear, but at the same time the pain burning in his arms and face raged ferociously. They sent men to find Riko, and she came running to help before they had even reached Sou’s tent. Rain began to fall.

“You should have told me what you were doing,” she chastised Sou as she covered some of his more serious cuts with an awful smelling poultice. “That was stupid.”

She was one of the very few people who could get away with telling Sou off, the only other person being his sister, Yuki. He sat in silence, quietly accepting her painful bedside manner.

“And you too!” She pointed at Ayane, who was already watching the scene in fear. “What if she had killed him, huh? Then what?!”

Sou placed a hand on Riko’s arm. “It was my decision.”

Riko sighed and continued her work. “This one on your eyebrow is going to need stitched up. Will be quite a nice scar once it’s healed. Sit tight.”

Sou let out a growl of pain as she began threading it up. Ayane turned around so she wouldn’t have to see.

“Get Toshio for me,” Sou said through clenched teeth. Ayane nodded and left so she wouldn’t have to watch any longer.

“I had a dream,” he told Riko once Ayane was out of earshot.

“So did I. I was being chased by a cat. A really big cat. So big, just-”

“No, not like that. This one felt… different.”

Riko tied off the stitching and put the thread and needle down.

“Do you think it was the witch?”

“I don’t know. There was… a storm was coming. There was someone with me. A woman. But… I couldn’t see her face. But it felt like despite the coming storm I was in the right place, you know? Everything was how it was supposed to be.”

Riko pondered it for a moment.

“Could be a warning. Could be nothing. Could just be your mind’s way of dealing with whatever toxin was on that dart she hit you with.”

“Yeah, maybe…” So why couldn’t he shake this strange feeling? Thunder echoed again outside and the wind picked up. They were going to be in for a rough night. The rains were coming, Izue said. Your men are going to get sick and die and eventually start abandoning you. Would they? Would they really?

“My lord,” Kazu suddenly appeared at the door, bowing deeply. “I’ve been looking for- oh my. Are you okay, sir?”

The look on his face was comical, but Sou couldn’t bring himself to laugh. “I’ll live. Just some cuts and bruises.”

Kazu’s eyes were the size of saucers, but he said nothing more. He shook his head and returned to what he had come for.

“Sir, the men camped near the east forest have been complaining of onibi appearing at night. Some men followed them out into the woods last night and didn’t return. This morning we found their bodies. Well… what was left of their bodies. It was like their life force itself had been sucked dry.”

Sou rubbed his pounding head. Sure, why not? What else could go wrong? Nurikabe, witches, men who could appear from thin air, an incoming storm, now onibi. What next?

“Some of the men have deserted, sir…” Kazu’s voice trailed off and he flinched, unsure if he was about to take a beating or not.

“Thank you, Kazu,” Sou replied with a sigh, rubbing his forehead. “I’ll look into it.” Perhaps the witch had been right.

When he realised a beating wasn’t coming Kazu stood up straight again, relief evident on his face.

“One more thing, sir.”

“What’s that, Kazu?”

“I think I have a way into the castle.”