War priest the complete.., p.91
War Priest: The Complete Series, page 91
****
Master Nankai was certainly intrigued by the illusionist, evident in the questions he had for her and the way he watched her move about. Yet again, Tayaura proved to Arik that she was full of surprises. As they spoke, she accessed hidden compartments in the cellar that they’d been staying in, Tayaura revealing not only her father’s writings, but also the things she had stowed away.
They were here all along, Arik thought as he watched her go about setting up her things, the illusionist also able to find another sleeping mat. By the end, Arik was left wondering what else was hidden in the retreat. He wouldn’t have been surprised to find an entire weapons cache.
“Then all is set,” Master Nankai said after the two had compared notes. “We leave in the morning and we prepare for our assault. It will take some time to reach there.”
“Less than two if we move quickly.”
Meosa scoffed at Tayaura’s statement. “How are you supposed to move quickly without me, shinobi-ess? Aren’t you planning to send me ahead to get hammer boy and his mountainous lover?”
Mountainous lover? Arik gave Meosa a funny look, one that quickly morphed as he thought about the relationship between Nyoko and Istvan. From what he’d seen, they were merely cordial sparring partners. Are they really in a relationship?
“I’ve arranged everything, kami,” Tayaura assured him. “You should expect nothing less from me by this point. A carriage will be here in the morning. Well, not here exactly, but at a gate about a mile away. It will take us to Avarga. From Avarga, we can take a caravan toward Omoto and get off along the way.”
“Won’t that raise suspicion?”
“It will,” she told Arik, “But by this point, I don’t think we need to be too worried about being spotted. We are on a timeline. We need to get there around the same time as the Jadean forces. If it is our intention to kill Nobunaga—”
“That is without question,” said Master Nankai. “And I will handle that part. Both of you should be keenly aware of this by now.”
Arik hadn’t discussed this part with Master Nankai yet. Hearing the man’s desire made sense to the disciple, yet revenge was also something, for his family, for his school, his peers, and his country. His thirst for revenge was a cancer. Arik recognized this, but up until now, his entire mode of operation had been one designed around growing strong enough to fight Nobunaga and rescue his sister.
In verbalizing what he planned to do, Master Nankai had left Arik scrambling for purpose, at least for the next few moments. As the conversation continued, the disciple reminded himself that he could be very instrumental in helping Nankai, and that there was always the chance for other complications to come along that would make swift action necessary. The focus needs to be on stopping the Crimsonian advance, and rescuing my sister, Arik concluded. This was the goal; this was what he would work towards.
The rest of the night consisted of a quick meal that Arik helped Tayaura prepare, one of local grains and seaweed that had been salted and dried, as well as the fish and the riceballs he had picked up on the way over. It was good, much better than Arik would have thought such a simple meal could be.
Master Nankai snored through the night, keeping Arik up. Eventually, he transitioned outside, where he found Tayaura seated in meditation. At least that was what he thought she was doing. It was only after he whispered her name and she blinked awake that Arik realized that she’d been sleeping.
“That was cruel, disciple,” said Meosa in a mocking tone. “She was resting so peacefully.”
Tayaura pushed her hood off her head as Arik sat next to her. “Your master snores.”
“Yes, he does. Sorry about that.”
“How is he supposed to fight with just one arm?” she asked in a quieter voice. “I’ve been wondering about that.”
“Did you see his staff?”
She yawned. “He fights with a staff?”
“No. It’s an odachi, a large sword. It is hidden in the wood. He said he picked it up in Avarga.”
“Ah, makes sense. If there was a place in the realm to find a sword such as that, it would be Avarga. Can he wield it? Odachi are heavy.”
“He can,” Arik told her.
“He’s much stronger than he looks,” Meosa said. “If we were closer to the moon, I wouldn’t be surprised if Master Nankai was able to cut it in half with that sword of his. Don’t let the illusion of frailty fool you; he uses it to his advantage.”
“I was waiting for you out here, you know,” Tayaura said, changing subjects.
“You were?” Arik asked, even as Meosa cackled quietly in his ear.
“I thought we could try to summon my father together.” Tayaura opened her palm to show Arik the crystal kunai. “I figured this would help.”
“I keep trying.”
“I know you do; I’m here to help. We’re supposed to help each other.”
Arik nodded. Something about Tayaura’s tone was confusing him at that moment. There was a sweetness to it he didn’t recognize unless she was putting on an act, like the time she had pretended to be his fiancee.
When Arik didn’t say anything, she continued: “I want to see you transform your face. Then, I can practice healing and maybe we can do what we did before we separated, how we shared energy in a way.”
“Certainly. We can do that.”
“And wait for sunrise.”
“Sure.”
Arik took a deep breath and relaxed into his seated position. He closed his eyes and slowly began to see his own chi aura. From experience, he knew it merely started with visualization. While there was an aspect to what he was doing that fell in the realm of imagination, it was much more than that, and what he was seeing was actually the chi that stuck to him like an outer shell.
Soon, he had a strong enough sense of his own chi aura to begin to modify the portion over his face. He chose Master Nankai, mostly because he didn’t want Tayaura to see just how good he’d gotten at using her father’s features. The combat master’s visage took shape, and as it did Arik heard a noise of appreciation from Tayaura.
“You’ve improved in ways I would have never imagined,” she told him as he released the image.
Not used to being complimented in this way by the illusionist, Arik skipped ahead. “Thanks, I mean, what about you? How has yours improved?”
Once again, Meosa laughed at Arik.
I’m not trying to be awkward yet everything I say—
Arik’s thoughts were interrupted by Tayaura as she turned the crystal kunai to its sharp edge and brought a cut down the side of her arm. “It’s hurting less and less; I’ve noticed that,” she said as the cut began to bleed. The wound moved in a way that almost looked like a muscle twitching as Tayaura tried to heal it.
Blood dripped to the ground, Arik watching in the pale light as the wound halfway healed. There was still a scar and a line of blood by the time Tayaura let out a deep breath and lifted her arm to Arik. “Can you?”
“Let’s try together.” Arik moved closer to Tayaura and took her arm. Rather than heal what was left of her cut, he shifted his chi forward, similar to what Tayaura had done the last time they’d shared their powers. “Take it, and use it.”
“Take it…” Tayaura lowered her head, her eyes shutting and opening as she locked onto what Arik was doing.
The disciple felt a sudden vacuum feeling in his chest, as if his energy had been zapped from him. This produced a shock of smoke-like Chimaura all around the wound, one that smoothed as if a wave had traced over it. The wound was gone, but Arik’s energy levels were still low.
He lowered her arm, the two of them close for a moment as Arik gathered his wits. “That’s still so strange, transmuting power like that.”
“It is,” Tayaura said as she lay on her back. “Rest with me for a moment. We’ll be up before the sunrise.”
“Yes, good idea.” Arik got onto his back, his arm pressed against Tayaura’s healed arm, which was still covered in dried blood. He expected Meosa to say something about it, but the kami never did, and soon, as an ocean breeze lightly moved through the trees, Arik drifted away.
Eventually, Tayaura did the same.
****
Master Nankai woke the two the following morning, the older man raring to go, evident in the single bag slung across his body and his sheathed odachi, which he leaned on like it was a staff. He merely smiled at the pair and stepped away from the retreat, where he waited by the dirt road for Arik and Tayaura to get their things.
The disciple hurried downstairs and packed, Tayaura doing the same.
“What about Hojo’s writings?” he asked her.
“Solongo will look after them. It’s another thing I arranged on my way back yesterday. She should be here shortly.”
As Arik approached the exit of the cellar, he heard Nankai’s voice. He found the man conversing with Solongo, whose features had been disguised. The bookseller looked like a different woman entirely, Arik yet again impressed with how well she had perfected the illusionist art. As he had before, he found himself wondering where she had learned the skill in the first place. Hojo had said she was a friend of Tayaura’s mother, yet in their brief interaction, Tayaura had been quite standoffish with Solongo.
“Disciple,” the woman said as Arik approached. Within moments, Solongo seemed to be closer to Arik than she needed to be, leaning into him even. He took a step back, yet she was there again. “You look… just like him.”
Arik watched as her eyes softened, her morphed features twisting away until they resettled.
Solongo hadn’t seen him without a disguise, and considering he was wearing Hojo’s conical hat, not to mention the dark purple nature of his new robes as well as the master illusionist’s sword sheathed at his side, it was no wonder she felt this way.
“Here they are,” Tayaura said as she approached, interrupting their strange moment. She carefully gave Solongo the two volumes, the bookseller placing them in a leather satchel.
“I will protect these until you return.”
Tayaura nodded and turned away from the woman.
“You’ve got to figure out why she hates her so much,” Meosa told Arik after they bid farewell to Solongo. “If you don’t, I will, disciple. Don’t make me torture someone for a little bit of gossip.”
“Relax,” Arik told the kami.
Tayaura led the way from that point forward, Master Nankai keeping to the back of their small group, Meosa and Arik in the middle as the kami continued to bother him about Solongo. They reached a dirt road, one that led to an even larger road that Arik recognized as part of the Runesung Passage. It was here that they found a carriage waiting for them, the driver standing out front with a gray blindfold over his eyes.
“Now that’s one way to do it,” Meosa said as they approached the carriage. Tayaura changed her voice to that of a man as she spoke to the driver, who responded curtly and respectfully.
“How is he going to do his job if he can’t see?” Arik asked Tayaura once they were inside the carriage. Blindness was something he could heal, yet it would take some time.
Tayaura shifted her conical hat off her head and gave Arik a funny look, the illusionist now seated across from him. “Easy. He’ll take the blindfold off before he goes. This is a common thing in the Jade Realm, or at least it has become so. People like their privacy.”
“And he’ll put it back on once we arrive in Avarga?”
Meosa laughed. “You catch on quick, disciple, you really do.”
Master Nankai, who sat next to Tayaura, kept quiet as the carriage started up. The size of his weapon made it so he had to keep the piece between his legs the entire trip, which didn’t seem to bother him. Nothing about the transport of weapons bothered the older man. It was as if he’d grown up sleeping next to a sword. As time passed, Master Nankai eventually wrapped his arm around the large scabbard and leaned into the nook of his elbow so he could sleep.
“Let’s hope he doesn’t snore,” Meosa told Arik so only the disciple could hear.
“We will have to return to Minami in the future,” Tayaura said in a quiet voice, which didn’t seem to disturb the resting combat master.
“To get the two volumes,” said Arik.
“Exactly. It’s also a good starting point for what my father asked us to do.”
“You really think we should?” he asked, referring to a joint academy that taught Revivaura and Chimaura.
“I do. But we have other things to attend to first.”
“What… happened between you and Solongo? Why don’t you like her?” Arik asked, figuring he’d just go for it.
“You picked up on that?”
Meosa nearly burst out laughing. “If looks could kill, shinobi-ess, that bookseller would have been gutted the first time we met her. For someone good at hiding their emotions, you’re very bad at hiding them around her.”
“That’s because I don’t need to hide them around her,” she shot back.
“Is she an illusionist?” Arik asked.
“She wishes. She conned my father into showing her a few things but she’s no illusionist.”
She was pretty good at disguising her features, Arik thought, the disciple knowing better than to give voice to this, as Tayaura continued.
“As for why I don’t like her, she…” Tayaura rolled her eyes. It was another minute or so before she spoke again. “My mother died giving birth to me. Solongo was around at that time and tried to be my mother for a while. Even lied to me about it. We never got along after I learned the truth.”
“The truth—?”
“It sounds like she was trying to help you,” Meosa said, interrupting Arik.
“Maybe, but we haven’t been close ever since. I just felt lied to. She’s not my mother. I killed my mother.”
“You can’t blame yourself for that.”
“I can, disciple. To think that if someone like you had been around, this wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place. Amazing, really. Maybe that’s why I want to study and better understand Revivaura. Maybe I’ll be able to help someone in the future.”
Arik didn’t say anything. He knew her grudge against Solongo was irrational, yet he understood how something like that would be possible, how hope and desire for a different future drove the illusionist. She wasn’t the only one that wished that they could somehow change the past.
.Chapter Five.
“Success in life flows from the willingness to seize what one wants.”
–A quote attributed to Combat Master Yob Nur Murakami, told to a graduating class of blades, Year 272.
They arrived in Avarga, the human-yokai city where Arik had first trained with Hojo. While a small part of him would have liked to explore the well-designed capital of the Jade Realm—Arik was never without this desire upon arriving at a new or familiar place—there was little time for sightseeing.
They needed to get to the border. Specifically, they needed to get about twenty miles west of Omoto, where Nobunaga had set up camp.
They exited the carriage to find the driver blindfolded again, the man seated on his perch, his head bent forward. The driver didn’t say anything as Tayaura turned to a smattering of merchants, their faces lit by lamps that hung from the poles of their tents. There were also food vendors, the smell of grilled meat heavy in the air. By the activity in the area, and the way it looked as if the merchants would be set up late into the night, Arik assumed other carriages were coming.
Tayaura grabbed the disciple’s wrist before he could take another step forward. “Hat. Hide your face. Leave nothing to chance, disciple.”
“Right,” he said as he adjusted his conical hat over his head. In turning back to Master Nankai, he found the older man wearing his hood, chiseled features obscured. Rather than walk with Tayaura at the front, especially as he didn’t quite know where they were going, Arik joined Nankai and stood off to his right, waiting for the illusionist to grab the items she needed.
Tayaura perused merchant tents, her movement casual, certainly not that of a Hidden Warrior’s daughter. She stopped at a tent at the end of the long row, the merchant’s wares mostly obscured by shadows, where she began purchasing items rapidly and placing them in a gunny sack.
As she continued shopping, Meosa bid farewell to Arik.
“I’ll get Istvan and Nyoko, and I’ll be there in a day or so,” he told the disciple, the kami aware of the location now based on the maps that Tayaura had gone over during the carriage ride. “Try not to get into too much trouble while I’m gone.”
Arik nodded.
“And don’t start the assault without me.”
Arik noticed the tingling sensation he felt when Meosa separated from him. “We have a limited time frame.”
“I know, and I will be there, I assure you, my boy. Don’t start without me. I will see you soon.”
At just about the point that Meosa was gone, Tayaura returned with the items she had procured, her gunny sack bulging. She motioned for them to follow her. Arik caught one last glimpse of Avarga as they continued on, the city lit by paper lanterns which accented the many ways that the Jadean capital had been built into the environment.
