Pilgrim 4, p.23
Pilgrim 4, page 23
“Together. I’m calling… I’m calling a truce.”
“And then what?” he asked the female assassin.
“I don’t know yet. But you and I both have a common enemy here, do we not?”
Penumbra was going to make what Danzen hoped to do in the Outer Region much more difficult. They were already abusing remnants, but so was Soko, and so were some of the other assassins that associated themselves with the Diyu Brotherhood. Even if he stopped them, this didn’t mean that another organization wouldn’t simply take their place.
Still, it was something that needed to be done.
“Please, Danzen.” Soko looked up at him, her cracked mask slightly illuminated in the pale blue morning light. “What do you say? We can do this together. Like… like old times. All you have to do is help me get out from under this tree. I won’t attack you,” she said, a hint of desperation in her voice. “What do you say? Like old times…”
.Chapter Two.
Danzen Ravja cleared away some of the brush. He began arranging wood, much of it gathered from his earlier attacks against Soko. Soon, he had a fire started, the former assassin hunched before it, his Blade of Darkness close by, Nomin’s replica sword sheathed at his waist, his gauntleted weapons also an option.
“You are going to need to rest at some point.”
Danzen glanced to his left to see Sansar hopping before the fire, the flames reflecting off the raven’s beady black eyes. It was chilly out, and even though they were about an hour away from the sun rising, Danzen could tell that it was going to be a cool day.
It wasn’t quite autumn, but it would be soon.
“When I do rest, I’m going to… I’m going to need you to watch her.”
“I have a better idea.”
“Oh?”
“Once Soko returns with food, the two of you can place your weapons over there.” Sansar nodded his head to a natural recess in the ground about twenty feet away. “You can both rest, and I will keep guard over your weapons.”
“Thank you.”
“It is quite risky what you have proposed.”
“I know.”
“She may betray you.”
“Likely so.” Danzen watched the fire for a moment, the wood crackling, tiny embers dancing into the air and swirling. He had friends, people that cared for him, yet after what he had gone through with Ginza, he felt incredibly far away from them. He knew it would be in his best interest to kill Soko, to end it once and for all, but he was also aware that this would create new problems for him.
Then there was the other issue: what would his brother do once Soko arrived in Diyu? Surely Nomtoi, or perhaps his father, knew something of the female assassin. What then? Oddly enough, keeping her alive might be a better option for him in the long run.
This led Danzen to thinking about what his father had said, how he had offered to unlock some portion of his blood. Had he been a fool in turning him down? Seeing what he was up against now, knowing that if he was able to beat Ginza, that there would be even more powerful opponents gunning for him in the future, had Danzen made a mistake?
He knew he could summon his father.
By just saying his name, Danzen was sure that Tengir Gantulga would appear, and if he did, his father would certainly be able to explain what he meant by his statement on the day that he had warned Danzen of his brother’s new strategy. Tengir Gantulga told him that he wanted to level the playing field to some degree, yet Danzen couldn’t find it in his heart to go this route.
If he relied on his father, things would only get worse in the future. This was why he needed to come at this from a new strategy, new weapon.
“The Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds…” he whispered to himself.
“Yes,” said Sansar. “I’m assuming that is where we will head next, after your little sojourn.”
“Do you think the sword will be able to help me stop Ginza?”
“You have a better chance with it than you do with your current weapons. While the short sword you have is incredibly strong, I have a feeling it may be difficult to get a death strike with it. The shadows likely will affect someone like Ginza, but I could be wrong. He would destroy your gauntleted blades if given the chance. It amazes me he hasn’t already done so; he must not have known.”
“They didn’t have weapons like this when he was alive.”
“Perhaps.”
“That sword…” Danzen felt his heart skip a beat as he remembered Astra, what it had been able to do. “I need to… I hope to reforge it. There is no other sword like that.”
“That likely isn’t possible, but you may be surprised what the Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds can do.”
“Is it a boomerang sword?”
“I don’t know. I have heard of it, though, and I can tell you getting it would be your best option forward. If I may suggest, doing what you’re doing now, staying here with Soko, only puts you in harm’s way.”
“I know.”
“But I do understand why you are doing this, and the Penumbra clansmen would add complications to our plans once the northern passages opened. You should remember in your heart and your mind the reason you have decided to take on this task. Sunyata is alive within you, Pilgrim, and it is alive within everything in this kingdom, in our entire world. It is natural to want heaven to exist again, and the balance has been out of order for three hundred years. Don’t lose focus.” Sansar tilted his head toward the south. “She’s coming. Prepare yourself.”
Danzen shifted to the other side of the fire, making it so Soko wouldn’t be able to approach him from behind. She floated in his direction, dragging a deer by its antlers, her cracked mask offering a touch of theatrical tragedy to her visage. She dropped the deer and finally removed her mask, which she slipped into an inner pocket of her robes.
“Am I ugly?”
Danzen didn’t expect the question as he looked up at the pale-faced woman, black veins running up her chin and toward her eyes, her lips dark, a stark coldness to a face that was once vibrant. Danzen saw her as a child, the ironic smile that she had given him from time to time, the single dimple on her right cheek that was now obscured by a black vein.
He remembered how it had started, her abuse of remnants, Soko stealing a small shard from one of her early marks which she later had ground into powder. For a while, she snorted remnants, Danzen remembering the bloody noses she would have from time to time, how they began to slowly change her complexion.
He hated watching her slip.
“I don’t think you’re ugly,” he said, noticing something else in the way that she floated before him. She was always Soko, always with a hint of aggression to her, but there was something different about her at the moment, something remorseful, a subtle change in her demeanor that Danzen wasn’t expecting.
Then again, it could be a trap.
“What do you really think of me?” Soko lowered before the deer and began skinning it. She did this quickly, and Danzen would have helped her had he not been also wary of interacting too much with her, especially when she had a blade drawn. While she looked frail, the woman was quite strong, able to lift the deer by its antlers and float higher into the air as she went about doing what needed to be done.
“Why are you asking me these questions?”
“Because we are joining forces. That tree hurt, you know.”
Danzen didn’t say anything.
“I likely could have gotten out from beneath it myself. It wasn’t as bad as what your yokai friend did. That took some time to heal…”
“Jelmay?”
Soko was referring to when Jelmay threw Danzen’s sword at Soko, injuring her.
“Where is he now?” she asked, a hint of malice to her voice.
“Somewhere. It doesn’t matter.”
“I suppose it doesn’t.”
The deer skin dropped to the meadow, red and slimed with viscera. Danzen felt his stomach twist again. He was hungry.
“Do you remember how we used to hunt?”
Danzen nodded.
“Do you miss that?”
“I don’t miss killing for a living.”
“Yet you kill now to survive. Isn’t that essentially the same thing?”
“It’s not the same,” Danzen said, even though he knew the lines were blurred.
“Are you still with the white fox?”
“She is a friend, yes.”
“All of your new friends leave much to be desired.”
As he observed her, Danzen caught yet another glimpse of the woman that reminded him of who she used to be. The years had stacked on, Soko pushing things to the extreme, to a point that she was no longer human, a ghost in her own flesh.
Danzen recalled what his brother had said about the Seven Evils, how they were beings that transcended demons, something in between. Not all would be like Ginza, but all had a story similar to what Soko would one day have, someone who would have used remnants to the point that humanity had left her.
Would she be treated the same way in Diyu? Locked away in the depths, treated like an animal?
Danzen had to think that this was the case, yet another reason why he felt for her in some strange way. Their past linked them, their troubled stories tethered together, twisting toward an unknown future. Perhaps in teaming up with her he would be able to stop Soko and her mad pursuit to kill him, and maybe she would even come to see the light.
Danzen shook his head. He couldn’t think this way. It was not only dangerous, it was also unlikely to ever take place. The best he could do was join her for now, deal with the common enemy they shared, and move on from there by any means necessary.
Soon, Soko had devised a way to cook the meat, which she cut into strips and wrapped around a stick. She had a limited amount of supplies with her, the female assassin informing Danzen that most of her stash was back in Arsi, including a new mask.
“You saw what I took from the Witch of Diyu, right?” she asked once they started eating, Danzen as cautious as ever, his body constantly prepared for her to attack him. She was just a few feet away now; if she moved on him, he would have to stop her before she could draw blood.
“The retractable claws,” Soko said once he didn’t answer. She finished the piece of meat she was eating and removed one of the prosthetics from her belt. She placed it on her hand, showing Danzen how they elongated. “There is also a contraption here for small canisters of poison. I could poison you right now, if I wanted.”
“I think we are beyond that point. Why are you telling me this?”
“About the claws?” She curled her fingers. “To be honest, I prefer a sword. I’m not an animal that would rely on something as primitive as this. I’m telling you because…”
Danzen waited for her to finish her sentence and she didn’t.
“Yes?”
“Aside from those that I hold power over due to information I possess, or those I pay, I don’t really have many people to talk to. Imagine that. Is that what you want to hear? Most of the assassins from our class are all dead. The newer ones don’t associate with me. Perhaps I’m too ghoulish.”
“Do you want them to associate with you?”
“Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. Not trying to be forward here when I say this, but I miss the sort of companionship you and I had. And don’t get that statement twisted. What I’m saying is that we could simply exist around one another, both aware of what the other was capable of, both with a similar goal in mind. Then you had to go and change all of that by becoming soft.”
Danzen didn’t take the bait.
“The sun is coming up soon, which means I will need to rest. How do you propose we do this? I’m assuming you don’t trust me.”
“I have a solution for that…” Danzen explained what Sansar had suggested, Soko playing with her prosthetics while he did so.
“I suppose that could work. I know you don’t believe me, but as for right now, until we deal with Penumbra, I have no desire to try to kill you, especially in your weakened state. Afterwards remains to be seen.”
****
It was hard to rest with Soko so close by, Danzen waking up every twenty or thirty minutes to make sure that she hadn’t moved, and then falling back asleep. Still, it was some semblance of slumber, and after what he’d been through with Ginza, he desperately needed it.
Danzen didn’t normally have lapses in energy levels, but he experienced this recently with Onuma and Mayji, mostly due to some sort of sapping ability that they had. With Ginza, it had been the sheer pummeling, and lack of food. The human side of him needed rest, yet he could sense a hotness for revenge in his demon blood, the side of him that he generally tried to ignore. This aspect of his blood allowed him to go for days on end, the feeling akin to a surge of adrenaline whenever he needed to call upon his strength.
In that sense, it was a notion of self-preservation, which was why he constantly woke up to check on the female assassin, ready to move into action even if his weapons weren’t by his side. Yet Soko never stirred, the woman resting in a strange, curled-up way that almost reminded him of a sleeping kitten. She remained in the shade of a tree as the sun reached its apex in the sky, her mask removed, a peaceful look on her face.
What she was, what she was capable of, what she had been through—all of this saddened Danzen to no end. But as much as he had sympathy for her, he knew that how she continued to act was inexcusable. She had money now, she did not need the Diyu Brotherhood, she could turn her back on it entirely and just live out the rest of her life. There would be consequences, there always were, but this was to be expected.
Her behavior was her choice, and Danzen knew that he needed to continue to remind himself of this.
She awoke at one point well past midday, her long eyelashes opening as she looked over at Danzen. As much as he had psyched himself up over the last several hours, reminding himself that she didn’t deserve sympathy, he couldn’t help but see her as the girl he had been raised alongside, the teenager he had come to know, the woman he’d been intimate with.
Why had she pushed it so far? Was it because of him? There had been an argument that he remembered in that moment, one that they had years ago before their final separation. He had challenged Soko about her remnant abuse, and she had flown into a fit of Sunyata-induced rage, telling Danzen that it was all his fault, that she had only exploited the power of remnants to match his own abilities.
“Sleep…” she told him, a softness to her eyes now that did little to hide who she really was. It was a stark contrast with her form, the missing legs, the wraith-like robes, the black veins crawling up her face, her strange pale glow.
Danzen tried yet again to get some sleep. He knew that he would need rest for what they planned to do later that night, especially if Jinkai was there.
He finally was able to rest more than a few hours, Soko’s single word having a soporific effect on the former assassin. No dreams this time, no memories of the steps of the Diyu Brotherhood, simply slumber. He awoke after the sun had gone down, Sansar squawking, Danzen blinking his eyes open immediately and finding Soko floating over him.
She wore her white mask once again, cracks tracing across its surface, hair streaming in the air behind her.
Danzen moved immediately, his hand instinctively going for a sword that wasn’t sheathed at his waist.
“Relax,” Soko said as she floated a few feet back. “And tell your bird to be quiet. I just wanted to see you.”
It was dark now, the moon and many of the stars obscured by dark clouds. A perfect night for infiltration.
She lifted away from him. “Did you finally get some rest?”
Danzen nodded.
“You should eat something before we go. There’s a stream nearby, we can get water there.”
He nodded again.
“You still don’t trust me?”
Something akin to a smirk took shape on Danzen’s face. “What do you think?”
“That’s… that’s too bad. I told you I wouldn’t attack you for now.”
“You’ve been at my throat for two years.”
“There were contracts…”
“You didn’t have to take them.”
“I didn’t want someone else to kill you. If it had been reversed, I… I hope you would have acted in the same way.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I had gone rogue, I would have wanted it to be you who killed me, Danzen. Don’t you want the same?”
“You don’t understand what I’m trying to do. There’s only one place for us to go when we pass, and that is Diyu. And it is not a good place. I have been there. There is an imbalance,” he said, using Sansar’s words.
“I don’t care about the imbalance between Sunyata and Diyu. I suppose… I suppose it makes sense that you would care considering who your father is, but why would you turn away that kind of power? Why do what it is you are doing? Why throw away your training and your skill set?”
As carefully as possible, without giving away any key details, Danzen explained to Soko what he wanted to do. She gave no indication of her feelings on the matter, only speaking once he was done telling her how he hoped to rebuild Sunyata.
“And then what? You think that’s where you will go, Sunyata?”
Danzen shook his head.
“We will both end up in Diyu, together once again, which is why I would have wanted you to be the one who killed me had our situation been reversed.”
“I know that you don’t quite believe me, or maybe you can’t…” Danzen searched for the right word. “Maybe you can’t comprehend what they would do to you in Diyu, but you would be even more exploited there than you are here. Especially with what you have done to yourself.”
Looking at her now, Danzen didn’t see much difference between the female assassin and Onuma and Mayji, the three sharing similar looks aside from the lack of legs on Soko’s part. He could imagine her as one of these demonic beings that was later exploited by whoever would become the ruler of Diyu. Yet he knew that if he was able to accomplish his goal, if he could truly rebuild Sunyata, that there likely wouldn’t be a place for her there.
