Discussions were short and Tome’s tour was even shorter. They made briskly from the front gate along a walled dirt path to a second gate which opened into the castle grounds. A straight road cut through the centre of the grounds with white clay walls at either side sectioning off the castle’s garrison and several small clusters of homes with farming plots. Standing proudly side by side at the end of the road were the two white towers of Araji, each four storeys tall and lined at each level with kawara tiles shaded as the blue-green ocean’s surge. Their roofs fanned outward, bold and broad.
Early beginnings of flower buds sprouted upon the knobbled branches of sakura trees over a chain of serene ponds and scattered slate within the gardens at the base of the towers. It was there that the head of the castle, Daimyō Rie Araji, sat upon a smoothly carved bench in a state of blissful peace.
“Is that you, Kanmaru? Did you find out who approached our gates?”
“I did indeed,” Tome announced. “It would appear you have visitors, young Lady.” His voice was softer, even warm in the girl’s presence.
“Visitors for me? Who?” she asked, turning in their direction. Sightless pale eyes gazed expectantly into Lin’s abdomen. Lin shifted uncomfortably. The child was thirteen or so, dressed in a floral white dress and woollen cloak. Slipping past the others, Toku kneeled before the young girl and lay his hand gently atop her short locks of black hair.
“You shoot up like a stalk of bamboo each time we meet, little Miss Rie. By now you must need to warn the birds in the sky whenever you pass by,” he said with feigned amazement.
“Toku!” Rie exclaimed giddily, then shoved his arm in annoyance. “How rude. I am not some lumbering she-giant.”
“Future days come. There’s time for it yet,” he grinned. “It’s good to see you again.”
Rie laughed haughtily, “Really? Do you think it's good to be so rude when meeting the all-powerful lady of Araji Castle? I should have you thrown back out into the boulder field from whence you came.”
“Ah, apologies, Your Eminence. Should I prostrate myself before you?”
“Please do not do any such thing,” the girl waved her hand frantically. “I am honoured to have you visit our home. Make yourself comfortable however you wish, I shall have Kanmaru arrange you a warm dinner and whatever else you would like. Will you be staying long?”
“Only for the night. Chiaki and I have business in Keisato and Solong, but it would be greatly appreciated if you would allow this companion of mine to stay with you until she is ready to make the journey to Ei Yōsai.”
“A companion? Who...?”
“My name is Lin Ko,” answered Lin. “It is good to meet you, Daimyō Araji.”
Rie bore an elegant smile, “A most beautiful voice. You are welcome in our home, Miss Ko, as any friend of the Emperor would be. A guest room shall be arranged for you.”
“You’ve my thanks, Miss Rie. It's important that she's kept safe.”
“Not as important to you as I,” Rie protested.
Toku huffed, “Of course not. Who could ever hope to replace the lofty Lady Araji?” Taking her head in his hand, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead. Rie’s frown shifted into an amused smirk and she turned her sightless gaze upon Lin.
“Worry not. These walls will protect you from whatever the boulders cannot. Your night terrors will not reach you here.”
“Night terrors?” Lin echoed.
“Toku seems to think you are in some sort of danger. Is it brigands, I wonder? Have the Jian pirates made it this far south? No matter, Kanmaru will be sure to vanquish them. These lands are safe because he makes them so.”
A pang of annoyance played on Lin’s mind, and she quickly decided that Rie Araji was not someone she was going to get along with. The girl was no more than a baby bird hidden within the comforts of her nest, raised by flowers and feasts and nursed by the adoration of her subjects.
“No, Lady Araji, these lands aren’t safe at all. The enemy is countless, deathless, their presence alone would seize your heart and freeze the blood within your veins- that is, if they aren’t stripped from your flesh to feed their hellish devil machines. These lands, this castle, none of them are safe, and when you finally come to understand our enemies in the Dark, you won’t make such stupid statements again.”
“Did that make you feel strong, girl? This young lady is the daimyō of the Araji Prefecture, not some lesser for you to mistreat. I would advise you to think twice about insulting her again,” warned Tome. The ferocity of his glare was matched by the disappointment of Toku’s inscrutable stare.
Rie’s warm smile that rivalled the sunshine faltered but for only a moment. “Forgive me, Miss Ko, it wasn’t my intention to undermine your hardships.”
“There’s no need for an apology, Miss Rie, it’s Lin who is at fault here, and I dearly hope she knows it,” Toku cut in. His voice was hard. “Regardless of how tired our journey has left you, Lin, speaking that way to one of my Daimyō is unacceptable. There will not be another outburst. Am I understood?”
Suppressing the scowl from her face, Lin nodded meekly.
Awkward pleasantries continued on until darkness, at which point a piercing chill flooded the gardens and the castle grounds grew cold and empty. The last of the drills sounded among the shivering soldiers training shirtless in the gravel yard at dusk, leaving an eerie silence when the time came to retire indoors. Lin passed on the offer of a cooked meal. Her earlier meal of dirty grubs and beetles was refusing to go into the dark of night without putting up a fight. It felt so unpleasant that it wouldn’t have been a surprise to hear that the creatures were still alive and crawling in her stomach. She retired to a room somewhere in the upper floors of the southern tower. Politely thanking her escort whose face was an unrecognisable blur and then clumsily trying to figure out the intricately complicated mechanics of a sliding door, she eventually managed to make her way to her prepared futon and slip under its lavishly warm duvet; the fine hairs upon her body prickled at the touch of the expensive silks, but still she closed her eyes and gave herself to the comfortably numb sensation of sleep.
Tokugawa Naga had left by the morning.
Lin felt bitter. Exasperatingly so. She had awoken in an unfamiliar room and dined among unfamiliar company, only to be told that her travelling companions had already departed before dawn. The news came from Lady Rie. The Emperor had stolen away without so much as a farewell to anyone except his favourite Daimyō, the Araji girl, and had handed off the sole responsibility that Sio had charged him with.
“He marches for Keisato before the end of winter, and he will seize Solong before the peak of spring. He will definitely win. Toku is strong and smart. The Han are weak and scattered on this side of the Hangu Mountains. I know he will come and see me again,” Rie had said, to which Lin had scoffed and sneered.
“And just what do you think you know about war, or anything else outside of these walls? He’s irresponsible. I’m surprised he can even raise an army to march against Han when one half of his people are busy fighting the other. Whatever he faces is a problem of his own making, and neither Han nor Sen will forget his betrayals.”
Rie’s face had creased slightly with concern, and her pale eyes had lowered to Lin’s chest, “I know very little, but I trust in our Emperor. He’s more kind than you know. Perhaps more than even he knows.”
“Kind, is he? He severed a man’s finger just so that he could take back this ring,” said Lin, displaying her rosewood ring. She realised her mistake after a moment’s pause and snatched the Daimyō’s hand from her side, placing it against her own. Rie’s face softened when she felt the ring’s crude yet comfortable form, but Lin’s grew hard at the unexpected sight before her.
“He must care for you very deeply,” Rie smiled. She shifted her hand slightly to show clearly the carved wooden ring that sat upon her smallest finger. Lin broke away from her touch.
Despite Lady Araji’s repeated offer of an escort to Ei Yōsai, more than a week passed without Lin leaving the confines of the castle grounds. She spent the seventh and eighth day of her stay flicking through old maps from Araji’s room of records, and on the ninth began drawing one of her own, voiding areas of perilous terrain with thick lines of ink. From the castle, she marked a staggered route toward one destination of interest: Izuka Village. The ruins of Rosethorn.
She fell onto her futon on her tenth night at Araji Castle with a mind split by uncertainty and indecision, tossing and turning until her eyes eventually drifted shut. But sleep did not come. Not within minutes. Not within hours. Each and every sensation seemed to drag her further and further from the promise of rest. Her body became painfully hot and the air grew so thick that she imagined she was laid in the sweltering heat of a sauna. She wiped the beading droplets of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. The touch of her own skin was agonisingly unfamiliar. Upon her heavy eyelids shone a beam of piercingly bright moonlight from the looming white crescent in the night sky; her ears were deafened by a high-pitch ringing as constant and pronounced as her loudly beating heart. Lin knew she could endure no more, yet endure she did. Countless scenarios were conjured with the last of her sanity that pushed her ever further from rest, and a visceral fear filled her very soul. Her mind spiralled within that sickening cycle, alternating back and forth between hallucinations and a discomforting reality.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
When Lin finally came to, it was by the good grace of somebody’s unsolicited knocking. At first she tried to ignore the unusual sound, fearing another trick of the mind. After all, who would stand upon a balcony in the dead of night? After a second set of repeated knocks however, there was no further denying of the situation. Company awaited.
Her limbs moved like they had been filled with cement as she groggily crawled out of bed and to her feet. Even behind blinds, shafts of light filtered through thin window panes and illuminated the room nearly as brightly as a morning sun. Taking a few sobering breaths, Lin slid the door’s wooden lock aside with shivering hands and stepped tentatively out into the night.
Frost coated the floor of the balcony underfoot. Crystalline cold chilled the bare soles of her feet, then began to burn. She winced.
“Would you care to tell me exactly what you’re doing out here in the dead of night, Lady Araji? It's dark, and this balcony is dangerously slippery.”
Wrapped in only a thin nightdress embroidered with the same shoreline rocks and drifting clouds that decorated much of the castle, Rie stood timidly. A guard accompanied her, observing from further along the balcony.
“Something tells me I’d be no better off in the sunlight,” the Daimyō said with a slight smile. “I should also mention that there are only a few steps along the balcony between your room and my own. Thank you for your concern, though.”
“So what is it that you want from me?”
Rie began to fidget with her fingers. “I couldn't sleep. From the sounds I heard you making, I thought you were having trouble too.”
“Sounds?” Lin echoed.
“Just moans and broken words at first, but then the things you were saying became a little more clear. You sounded so terribly afraid.”
Lin rubbed the side of her head, “Bad dreams. The more I remember, the more they replace the good.”
“What were you dreaming about?” There was a shimmer of wonder in the girl’s misty eyes.
“I don’t know. I didn’t even realise I was asleep,” Lin admitted. “Sometimes it’s faces, sometimes monsters, it doesn't matter if they’re already dead. There are some things I still can’t recognise. Bodies broken and intertwined in some kind of sick contraption. A sky of black ink that blots out the sun. A village of thorns in flames.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
Lin closed her eyes. “I'm not entirely sure I have.” When she looked upon the Daimyō once more, she noticed the trembling of her shoulders, and the chattering of her teeth. The girl was small against the infinite reaches of the starlit night. She's so fragile.
Lin stepped to the side of her doorway, “You're shivering. You can come into my room if there's something you want to talk about.”
Rie's brows piqued. “I had actually hoped to invite you into my room, but I wouldn’t be so rude as to refuse your offer.” She shuffled clumsily past in her fur slippers. Reaching out instinctively, Lin took her hand and led her out of the cold.
The night was long and drawn out to a painful degree by a near hour of shallow talk. The topics bounced back and forth between mundane observations of the weather and chattering of castle life until finally being broken by the arrival of tea, courtesy of Rie’s personal guard. Though it couldn’t rouse her from her heavy, mind-numbing tiredness, it helped at least to clear the fog from her eyes and brought her a little closer to the realm of the living. And then finally, the talk between the two girls shifted to something more resembling a conversation shared by friends rather than uneasy strangers.
“I remember you saying you couldn't sleep when you called. Something keeping you awake?” Lin asked. She lay by a burning candle that shakily lit the room. Rie was spread out across the tatami mats like a starfish basking on a sunkissed beach.
“The news from Mizūmi Prefecture was worse than I could have ever imagined. More terrible than something conjured from a nightmare. For a town rife with hidden enemies to suddenly be seized in such means, for so many to suffer such a cruel fate, it all seems so very wrong. As though the world should not have allowed it to pass.”
“So you're afraid something similar might happen here? Don't be. Lord Inutani knew for a long time about the enemies at his doorstep. He failed to protect his own, but Lord Tome wouldn't allow anyone to threaten you or this castle. Tome cherishes you. The Emperor adores you. Your home is an armoured cradle guarded by those who love you.”
“If that is what you think, Miss Ko, then I’ll believe you,” Rie replied. “You’ve been away from home for a long time, haven’t you? Out there, in the wilderness.”
Lin knew the girl’s angle. “If you’re curious about the wonders that lie outside these walls, then allow me to tell you, young Rie.” She rolled over as she talked, spreading out onto her back. “The first memory I have after crossing the Hangu is of stumbling into a dark, deeply infested forest. All I found after trudging through rot and mould for miles were groping hands and gnashing teeth in the shadows of Mogu. I was bitten by a ghoul I couldn't see, and then twice more by villagers that had been warped by a family of living meigui. I've seen things I wish I never had. Done things… Each and every one of them has left a mark on me. You can't remain innocent in the face of true terror. The simple act of doing so would stain you with guilt.”
Rie lay silent for some time. “Araji Castle was under siege by Daishun Jie himself on the day I was born. It lasted less than a day. The castle was stormed and the Araji line was put to the sword. I don’t know exactly what happened, but Toku was there that day. He saved my life. After the Cataclysm, we lived together for some time in the new capital until he began his war for freedom. On my fifth birthday, he gifted me several things; my ancestral home, advisors to guide me, and a life free of any particular threat. After spending so long in safety while dreaming of the world beyond my walls, I had hoped there was excitement in that danger outside. You’re incredible to be able to survive out there, to brave the hostile beauty of our world, but I’m beginning to think that all I’ve been is naïve. Tell me Lin, was I wrong?”
“No, Rie, you weren’t wrong,” Lin replied. She pushed herself upright and looked about the lowly-lit room, scanning everywhere but where the small girl lay without really seeing anything. The truth was, she didn’t know where to look. A reluctant realisation had begun to creep up on her throughout their conversation, and was only now beginning to emerge. She reached out and extinguished the wax candle with her wetted forefinger and thumb. The room fell once again into darkness. “Ever since I strolled into your home, I’ve treated you unfairly. I scorned and avoided you, and spoke at you, the Daimyō of Araji, as if you were a spoiled moron. You get that, right?”
Rie propped herself upon an elbow. Though the candle’s flame had gone, Lin’s sight soon adjusted to the thin slices of moonlight that peered through her window. The warmth from the girl’s smile seemed to ward away the cool night.
“Because I am one. If anyone could recognise that, it would be you,” she replied.
Lin took the girl gently by the shoulders, “You’ve treated me with nothing but kindness, and I’ve been an arrogant snob. I couldn’t even recognise the way I was treating you. There’s no mistaking that you’re soft and live in comfort, but that’s no reason to treat you the way I did. You aren’t less than me just because you haven’t had the same hardships.”
Neither spoke for a while after Lin had finished talking. Even though it had been the right thing to do, it had left her skin strangely clammy and there was a nervous pit in her stomach; she dared not say another word. Without the candle, the harsh glare of the moon was once again discomforting. She still hadn’t shaken the feverish feeling that had troubled her sleep. Lin rose from the girl’s side and stumbled in the dark to close the window’s wooden blinds. You aren’t safe here, something whispered in the back of her mind, they are countless, deathless. The fine hairs bristled upon her skin.
“Where are you going?” Rie asked.
“Just… to close the blinds,” Lin replied breathily. Her body was awash with the moon’s silver glow. She felt warmer now, and as she reached for the window, her fingers grew uncomfortably hot. You’ll join those bodies, your flesh ravaged and mangled, your soul disturbed but unable to die. Resist and bite or fly into the night. You cannot hide from them now.
“Are you sure you’re alright, Lin? You sound exhausted.”
Lin peered out at the lonely stillness that occupied the castle grounds. Cold sweat spotted her hands like condensation. “I’m fine. I’m fine, only…” she paused to think of something more to say, but nothing would come. Her attention was fixed in the distance.
A sleek black shape drifted over the glistening field of boulders and streams. It seemed to move slowly, though it must have advanced quicker than any man could have scrambled across. Hefty stones shifted and sank, grinding against one another at either side of the spectre as it advanced. Even behind those wooden blinds, Lin could still feel its familiar stare.
Lin inhaled deeply. “No. No, I’m not okay. We aren’t. I don’t think any of us-” she started, but recoiled before she could finish. A deep, sharp pain shot along her left thumb and forefinger. Her gritted teeth could not subdue the scream that escaped them. She cried out again upon examining her fingers in the moonlight, but this time her voice was laced with fear. Thin trickles of blood streamed from where the skin of her fingertips had split open. Stringy red wires burst from beneath, slithering towards the inhuman visitor of their own accord. Hearing her cries, the Daimyō’s guard rushed in through the sliding door. Ignoring his and Rie’s alarmed questions, Lin cast a searching glance across her bedroom. It was far too dark to see.
“My sword?” she called out frantically, although she knew well that it was a wasted effort. Finding that blade wouldn’t save her, only prolong what had to be done. She held her fingers to the light and spoke as calmly as she could manage. “Wake your every available hand and have them prepare for a coming attack; everyone else must escape however they can. Those who stay might not die, but they’ll certainly wish they had. There’s an enemy at your gates that doesn’t fear fire or sword, and it has come to torment us. The Demon of Solace holds Castle Araji under siege.”
After an uncertain pause, Rie nodded at her guard. “I do not understand, but… as she says.”
Lin smiled weakly. She returned her attention to her squirming fingertips as the girl and her guard disappeared into the hallway. Capillaries and nerves wriggled like living wires nearly an inch from the end of her finger and thumb. Her stomach turned. She slipped her index finger into her mouth, pinning it between her teeth at the second joint down. Like a carrot, Lin thought to herself. And then, she began to bite.