...Enormous fields of three-meter-tall sunflowers. Each with a head bigger than a buckler. The endless hedges of Zindagee flowers stretched out as far as Shisoka's vision enhanced to the seventh level of Spherical Attunement could see. Row after row, after repetitive row of golden yellow manes surrounding brown Life Essence saturated faces, bobbed in a rhythm all their own. They seemed to dance in the air currents that passed through this outermost zone of the Leviathan. Each Zindagee, an item of power capable of Attuning a spirit being to Life Essence... It was still a miracle to Shisoka, and he had long ago found that just being near these stands, taking in their colors and the vibrant living-green scents of their stalks, uplifted his spirits. The stretching fields were a priceless treasure more than fifty-thousand cycles in the making. One Utsuki, and many others, had sacrificed so much for...
Shisoka looked to his right, his face growing somber as he saw the empty space to his side where his wife should be. Would we do it again, knowing what it would cost her?
Utsuki's thoughts came from his Core. Burning abyssal skies, Shisoka! I bet they can hear you whining a sector away! Look around you! We have changed the stars of the Kaizuko! It was one thousand percent worth it! I would do it again in a micro if I had to, and you know it!
Shisoka smiled warmly. Yes, you would. I do know that.
Still, this treasure had cost more than he would ever have agreed to pay upfront. And he couldn't keep his thoughts from drifting back to the start of it all...
...Shisoka, bastard heir of Daibosu, had been a rapidly rising Kaizuko battle commander. Acknowledged by all to be slotted as the empire's next Kotei. The world was his to take, and he had been taking it!... But, as they often will when men make plans, the fates had laughed. Leaving him with no options but to take the role of renegade, steal the Zindagee Flowers from the squandering hands of his father, and leave his aspiring cousin Stuado to assume the Kaizuko throne. All thanks to Handa Otoko, obsessed botanist and patriot, whose undeniable arguments had forced Shisoka into a corner his conscience would allow no escape from.
Handa, the Zindagee's discovery-seeking botanist, had hatched a fifty-thousand-cycle plot, and Shisoka had been idealistic and foolish enough to go along with it.
Utsuki's thoughts rose to Shisoka again. That's not fair, love. I was right there with you. When we finally understood what Hanada was so worked up about, you were scheming right along with him.
Shisoka chucked to himself, and he felt Utsuki's spirits rise as well as he remembered their first run-in with the red-faced botanist.
Handa, in a fit of indignation at having been rejected out of hand by Shisoka's father, short, stocky, and with dirt still on his hands and coveralls, had stormed up to Shisoka and Utsuki on their first date at the Wicked Wench. The tavern adjoining Daibosu's fortress. Flushed and waving his hands in agitation, Handa had gotten so close to Shisoka that the botanist had needed to turn his neck straight up to look the taller man in the eyes. Handa had sprayed spittle into Shisoka's face, shouting for all the world to hear,
"The unbelievable man has chosen to squander the few precious stalks I risked m' hide for! He'd dole them out to his cronies and yes-men! Instead of taking this ONE OPPORTUNITY to turn the Kaizuko from a harried one-Attunement rabble to a dominating doubly-Attuned force of undeniable strength... I swear to you, lad! We can accomplish miracles if y'be willing to take the necessary time and measures!"
Shisoka and Utsuki, two cups of silk rum into their night, were so surprised at Handa's direct and fearless verbal confrontation that they both burst out in laughter. Utsuki, with a cup already raised to her lips, had sprayed the silver spirit in the faces of Shisoka and the scholar.
Shisoka assaulted fore and aft, and sure his one shot with the beautiful Danshaku he'd been chasing for the last two months was lost, wiped the rum from his eyes and stared incredulously at the stout intruder.
"...Um... Master Botanist I presume..." Shisoka eyed Handa's rolled up and dirt-smeared cuffs, "...How can I be of service this fine evening."
Handa, now dripping rum and starting to realize the position he had put himself in against the finest swordsman in the Kaizuko fleet, took a step back. He raised his hand to the soaked Shisoka and bowed to them both, keeping a wary and nervous eye on Shisoka's sword arm, "Ahh...Sincere apologies, m'lord... Aye, I'll tell you... I'll tell you how you can help us all..."
And Handa explained.
He spoke of how Daibosu, instead of accepting the botanist's strenuously argued plan to grow the Life Attunement items of power and ‘change to the stars to all in the Kaizuko empire,’ had rather shortsightedly decided to simply 'share the yellow blips’ with his strongest leaders. The Cudgel had then dismissed Handa with an enhanced boot to his bottom and sent him flying out of the doors of the royal chamber to roll down the citadel's winding staircase. At that point, the stocky scholar had sought out Shisoka with nothing less than sedition on his mind.
If Shisoka's actions were to be measured, Handa had argued quite convincingly towards treason. By the end of their discussion, two Danshaku were moving against their Kotei for the betterment of all the Kaizuko Clans.
Following Shisoka's internal thoughts, Utsuki confirmed, Yes, my love. That is exactly as I remember it as well. Your tone was... frosty... but you didn't reach for your rapier. You didn't even raise a clenched fist against Handa's disrespect. Your control and willingness to respect your lessers was the beginning of my love for you.
Shisoka spoke aloud. He felt closer to her when he used words instead of thoughts. "I always suspected that...But now I'm doubly glad I didn't go with my first instinct and box the little troll's ears!"
Hush! Don't speak ill of the dead.
"As always, my dear, you are right." Shisoka bowed his head to Handa's memory. And Utsuki was right. At this point in their plans, disturbing Balance's weight with ill karma wouldn't be wise, even if they were only violating old wives' tales.
Shisoka waved a hand to the rows of dipping yellow heads as he soared above them. "Even now, looking directly at what we have accomplished...I still can't believe what ridiculous ambition we all had!" It had been the height of arrogance for them to have acted with so thin a plan. The broad strokes required taking the stalks from Daibosu and planting them for "...nary a relative short nascent period a'time" in their native soil of Noha-3. All in the hopes that the Zindagee would not only grow but thrive. Shisoka would only later learn that his and Hanada's opinions differed significantly on what a relatively short time was... But Handa had been adamant about the 'thriving' aspect. "Lad, the stalks will grow and flourish there! Of that, I have n'doubt! Flourish to the point that there would be enough to give one to each and every Kaizuko Clansman!"
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And it did work... we have gone beyond success! Utsuki interjected into Shisoka's thoughts, and he heard his wife's crooked smile of pride in their accomplishment.
"Yes, it has," Shisoka whispered and nodded as he flew. The loss of the Zindagee flowers was the start of the avalanche that ended his father's brutish rule. Shisoka didn't regret their choices. Daibosu had a stranglehold on the Kaizuko, had needed to be eliminated. He and his father had not had a close or nurturing relationship. In fact, Daibosu hadn't even acknowledged his paternity until Shisoka was declared battle admiral of the Kaizuko fleets. Daibosu had only don it then to bolster his flagging loyalty with patriots.
My father was a fool, wasn't he? Utsuki sent a thought picture of her with a tight grin, nose wrinkled as she nodded up and down in complete agreement. It could not be denied that a doubly Attuned empire would vastly increase the Kaizuko's galactic standing. Daibosu's refusal to even consider Hanada's recommendation also made his father a myopic thug, frittering away the little standing the Kaizuko had. Daibosu had indiscriminately killed with his cudgel any Clan leaders who had run afoul of his temper. Especially those with forward-thinking agendas of reform that would hinder his ability to burn all the Empire's resources for his personal comfort. Sitting in the Wicked Wench that night, it had been Shisoka who admitted the reality of needing to eliminate Daibosu for their plan to succeed. With a steel reserve, he had just said it, "My father has to go. This is certain." Then he took a deep drink from his cup.
Shisoka's utterance of absolute treason. But, instead of reeling back in shock at his treacherous words, Utsuki had only nodded affirmatively in a way that said she had been thinking the same thoughts. Handa had looked deep into his cup as well, raised his eyebrows, and nodded silently in agreement.
It had been through fear of his violence and the support of like-minded Kaizuko commanders that Daibosu had claimed and held the Kaizuko throne. But with the three of them taking the Zindagee flowers from the Kotei, long after he had promised them to his war chiefs, Daibosu would be proven weak. Those he controlled with fear and those he relied on to generate that fear would turn on him in a feeding frenzy fueled by his waning dominance. However, if left undirected, Daibosu's fall from power wouldn't be quick enough. And when the dust settled, his replacement would likely pursue them until they were wrapped in chains and brought to a quick end. They all agreed that Daibosu needed to be replaced by someone friendly to their cause. Even if only covertly. So, the three radicals had turned to Shisoka's younger cousin Stuado, a popular, natural, and benevolent leader, as the correct choice to oust Daibosu.
Shisoka flew low to the rocking flower heads and let the pads of his fingers graze their petals. “It was no easy task we left my cousin with! Stuado had to defeat my father and his loyal diehards to sit the throne. Just to prevent internal and external enemies both from discovering the Zindagee.”
Utsuki only raised an internal eyebrow and replied, I doubt he would have been willing to trade with us for our part of the plot.
Shisoka snorted. “No, my dear, I'm sure he would not! It is good to be Kotei!”
Now, after their conspiracy, treason, and flight into exile as renegades for fifty-thousand cycles, they finally stood at the threshold of delivery.
As I already pointed out... It worked, my love! Utsuki agreed with his thoughts.
...But not without your unimaginable sacrifice... Shisoka sent mentally. Not wanting to voice the words, he still couldn't prevent the thought from surfacing in his mind and reminding them how everything had almost come crashing down twenty-four thousand cycles ago.
It occurred while Shisoka was away commanding the Leviathan to support Stuado in cleaning up the remainder of Daibosu's former followers. While Shisoka and the bulk of the Talan fleet were gone, Noha-6's moons had been pushed out of orbit by a rogue comment and were brought to a cataclysmic collision. Shards from the lunar detonation had rained destruction on all the Noha system's planets. Only through Utsuki and Handa uniting all the available Clansmen’s Essence to enhance their Earth and Force Attunement skills had they been able to absorb the fragmentary impacts. Keeping the immature fields of Zindagee from obliteration.
It had been an unbelievably advanced piece of Cultivation synergy that should have been impossible for anyone below the level of a Tetrahedral Core. Even so, it had only been accomplished with the most terrible price. All had died and were lost, including Handa. Only Utsuki, at the sixth level of Spherical Attunement, had remained by converting all her previously dedicated Core Attuned Essence.
Shisoka's thoughts were barely a whisper in their minds. I honestly don't know if I would have been able to make the sacrifice if confronted with your choice...
Utsuki chose to verbalize her reply to emphasize her seriousness. Her harsh undead voice was stringent in his ears but rang in his heart. "But, I do know. You would do it even now. Of that, I have no doubts, my love."
When Shisoka and the fleet had returned to Noha-3, the growing fields of one-meter-tall Zindagee flowers still waved under the Noha system's sun. But all who had been left behind for their safekeeping were gone and Utsuki had been converted into a spiritually risen undead wraith.
She had remained only to watch over their flowers until his arrival back. Upon seeing him, she had moved to end herself there and then with a flight into the Noha system's sun. Unable to grasp her incorporeal form, Shisoka had dropped to his knees before her, "...Please remain... I will not blame you if you cannot stay. But I will not let you go alone, everything else be damned!"
Utsuki's glowing ice-white Essence form had flickered at the resonance of his truth. There was no question of his sincerity. He would follow, and everything would end here and now if she chose the path of a quick end.
Not yet having her mind and soul fouled with feeding on a living spirit being unto its death, Utsuki wanted nothing more than the rest of death. She could feel the hunger even then, drawing her to her friends and family. Still, she had acquiesced to Shisoka’s plea. Too much had already been sacrificed. She agreed to stay and continue. If for no other reason than to honor the choice of those who had died at her command to protect the flowers.
However, the reality of Utsuki's situation couldn’t be denied. She needed to consume a living being's Essence, or she would rapidly fall into ravenous hunger that would consume her. When Utsuki explained this, Shisoka, on the verge of Tetrahedral Cultivation, closed off the Meridians that would have generated his new Core and made a unique space for her spirit to reside. A hollow place for her to draw off his Essence.
Reluctantly, Utsuki had filled the space. Though unspoken, they both knew they would continue only until they could hand over the Zindagee harvest along with the Talan Clan's portion of the Kaizuko fleet back to Stuado. Restoring the Kaizuko and making everything they had sacrificed for the empire worth it in their eyes.
Given the continuing instability from what remained of Noha-6's twin moons, the flowers, and necessary Noha-3 soil had been transferred to the refitted Leviathan. The Leviathan itself relocated near the freshly formed terrain ring around Noha-6 to keep a close eye on rogue asteroids and away from accelerating gravity wells.
Utsuki spoke for them both. Ancient histories, my love. It is time to hand everything over to Stuado's new Danshaku.
“After that, we have a long overdue date with Noha”
And they both planned on keeping it.