“Shugo Seishin, The light of Amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami”, tales Pre-Unification War Part One. (TAC)

[Garith Darkhold]

[SIZE=9pt]Atrisian Past Thread taken place sometime roughly around 22,000 BBY[/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=9pt]The Kami Garden [/SIZE]​

[SIZE=9pt]Moon light reached through the canopy of trees illuminating some areas and casting shadows in others. The young woman gingerly stepped forward. Alone in the darkness it was no place for the young princess of Clan Doji. As frightened as she looked she continued to slowly walk the path into the garden. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]Reaching the stairs she stopped to take look. Peering down into the shadows and the lighted area she could see alters, pillars, and brook below. Slightly overwhelmed she clutch to the satchel of items to her chest. She was not supposed to be here alone in the middle of the night. In fact she could hardly every recall ever being alone.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“Remember Seo”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] tempting to try to encourage herself, she reminded herself why she was here. “There would be no way they would let you try this if they was here or if you came here during the day”, she hinted at why she was here. Why would the daughter of a Lord be here?[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Step by step she slowly took each step. It appeared as if she did not wish to take the risk to slip and fall. The stone steps were covered in moss in some locations and looked like it could be slippery. “Just keep going Seo”, she said trying to keep up the courage. It was dark and she was alone. “There is no one here but the Kami. There is no monster just the ancestors”[/SIZE], she said with conviction but still looked terrified.

[SIZE=9pt]“You know there is darkness coming”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] she took another step…her words hinting at why she was so desperate. “You’ve seen the visions”, she claimed to be seeing things. She did seem a little peculiar. Maybe she was just seeing things and wondered out of her home in the middle of the night. Then again she would not be the first Kital Phard that had seen a Force Vision. Those visions could be just as dangerous as a young lady traveling in t dark alone.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“You must seek her help and guidance”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] she claimed. “To pass through the coming darkness we will all need her light”, Seo made it to the last step. She was close. A smile came to her face as she seen the place by the small pool of water. Reflecting upon the surface was the light of the moon. She could not help but think it was pretty. Her brief moment of respite was over though as she heard a nightingale starting to sing. It was hauntingly beautiful. Still it had snapped her out of her revelry of thoughts and back into realty.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“Stay focused”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] demanding more of herself she started to walk over to the spot near the pool of water. Laying her satchel down, she briefly looked over to the pool of water. In the proton of the pool where light touched, she could see movement. She did not show surprise or fear. Just a smile had returned again as she watched the brightly colored fish swimming in the pool. Reaching into the bag pulled out a small round case upon opening it she started to sing.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]It was a lovely tune and sun very well. It was a tune known very well by her people and all across the land. As she continued to sing to the ancestors she pulled out some of the fish food and tossed it into the poll of water. Seo was praying, singing to the goddess of light. In the middle of the night you ask? Everything was connected. Even is the goddess maybe stronger during the day, it does not mean she can’t hear your prayers in the middle of the night.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]As she had started to sing the song birds in the night started to sing in tune with the princess. Little glow bugs started to glow as they flew around. The garden came to life as the song continued. It was if nature and the Kami were listening.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]She had run out of fish food but continued the song. The first item she pulled out was a fancy ceramic tea pot then a tea cup. Other items were produced out of the sack. Various herbs, some being crushed tea leaves. There was a small brazier also. She placed some of the herbs on the brazier. Mysteriously as soon as the herbs touched the brazier it caught aflame and then calmed down to a light smoke. The pretty smells of lighted incense filled the garden. She was not done yet though. She started to place the crushed tea leaves into the pot. Then steam started to come out of the tea pot. She had placed no water into the pot nor did she start a fire. The tea was ready though.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]The sing was close to an end. Trying to complete the ritual she poured the tea into the cup. As the cup was filled the song was over. This was not an end. It was a beginning. The song birds still sang. The glowing bugs floated around. The Kami was still listening.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“Please, I beseech you Amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] the young lady bowed while still in a sitting position. She called upon the lady who Jedi call Ashla. [/SIZE]

“I know there is great darkness is coming. I feel the imbalance that is corrupting the land”, tears came to her eyes as she thought of her people and the land that gave them life. She feared for them. She was desperate. She was so desperate she crushed a rare herb into the hot tea. As it touch the liquid the tea boiled and a light fog rolled off of it.

[SIZE=9pt]She had poisoned it and she picked up the cup. The determination in her eyes was true. “I give you the only thing of true worth I have”, she started to bring the cup to her lips.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]A flash of bright light erupted in the darkness. Pushing back the shadows it was pure. It gave warmth and peace but seemed not enough to change the young lady’s mood.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Within the light was a woman…reaching out through the light, she reaching for the cup? There was a frantic look upon the Lady of Light’s face. It was too late and the Lady knew it. She still cried out no and attempted to take the cup away.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Seo placed the cup to her lips and drank. Frantically she gulped as much as she could down. Desperate, she drank every bit as if it somehow was going to change everything for the better. Adriea Cullaswen the last Kashi Mystic slapped the cup out of Seo’s hands.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“Why”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] she screamed out with tears coming to her eyes. Adriea still glowed from the dimensional rift the Force had brought her through. She radiated with a golden hue. “Amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami”, the poor confused Doji Seo said weakly to Adreia. The poison had already taken hold. Blood veins could be seen in her perfect porcelain skin. Blood began to trickle out of her eyes and mouth. The young woman was in a great deal of pain but smiled anyways. Her faith made her strong. It was a misplaced faith though as the woman she was seeing was not a goddess.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Adriea was reaching out with the Force but found she could not reverse the damage. The poison was rare, a poison that prevented the use of the Force to counter the effects. There was nothing Adreia could do to stop this. “Why” she asked while tears still feel.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“The great imbalance”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Seo said weakly as life was fading from her. “Please protect”, she failed to say the rest of her last words. The sparkle of life fully faded from her eyes and she feel over.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Adriea moved closer catching the other woman in her arms, reefing to let Seo fall upon the ground. “I promise”, the last Kashi watched as Seo’s body disappeared and returned to the Force. Only the cloths and jewelry was left. Seo was gone. Adriea was left alone in the garden. She looked down at the cloths and around her.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Adriea moved her hand from the garments and placed it upon the ground. Reaching through the ground and through the Force she extended her feelings outward. “There is a sickness upon this land”, she knew she was summoned here by the Living Force. It was her duty as a Kashi Mystic to correct in-balances.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“I guess, I should blend in the find this sickness”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] she looked at the cloths once more.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Still a glow Adriea started to convert that energy. She let it flow into her. As it did the glow faded. The energy shifted and became [/SIZE]re-purposed[SIZE=9pt]. It flowed into the very core of her being and then through the outer portions of her body.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Her flesh changed. The fleshed moved like ripples within a lake. As it moved her features changed. Her bones and cartilage made popping noises as they to change. Even her hair changed color. In a fraction of a breath her appearance changed. Looking down at her reflection in the pound, staring back at her was Seo’s image. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]For now Adreia was to be known as Doji Seo princess of Clan Doji. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]The Very Next day, the Festival Begins.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=9pt]Doji Castle [/SIZE]​

​

[SIZE=9pt]“Move it more to the left”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Doji Nagori, Seo’s cousin commanded a group of men on a roof to move a Clan banner a little more to the left. The entire castle was finishing putting the last touched before the guests would arrive. Everything had to be perfect. There was to be no excuses as this was about honor. To not place their own Clan banner correctly could be a very embarrassing mistake that could change how the other Lords would look at him. Such small mistakes have cause wars.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Nagori was not going to let neither his uncle nor his people down. There was too much at risk. Treat of war loomed and this event could take the edge off the politics and could prevent unneeded deaths.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“That is it”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Nagori called out to those men again. “It is now straight and sits perfectly in the middle of that wall”, it sounded silly such as a miss placed banner could start a war. It has happened though.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Things were starting to move fast though. Up on the outer castle walls a single female warrior stood watch. Across the distance of the green grassy plans she could see the first banner of a visiting Lord. She took a blue flag in her hands and moved to the edge of the wall that faced the inner court yard. Waving the flag many looked up to see. They knew what it meant.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“The first as arrived”, Lord Doji stood on a balcony on the second floor of the main portion of the castle. The Lord turned around and looked into the room. Sitting there was his pride, his daughter Seo.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“Yes, my Lord”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Seo stood up and gave a respectful bow. Although it was not really Seo, it was the Last Kashi Mystic Adreia Cullaswen.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“Tell your mother and let her know our first guest will be here soon”[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt],[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] the Lord asked his daughter and look back out over the castle grounds. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Seo did as asked. She said nothing else and left the room. Out of the room she turned left and walked down the hall. Three doors down she took a right. Passing through the doorway she can into another type of living room.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Bowing to her mother Seo did not speak but rather waited for her mother to speak.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]Doji Rinshi was in fact born of another Clan but married Lord Doji out of an arrangement their parents had set up when they were just kids. It has been a good marriage and had brought them both a daughter they both were very proud of. “Yes, my beautiful baby girl”, Rinshi came over to her daughter and hugged her. No one else was here and proper decorum could be over looked.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“Mother, dad has sent me to tell you are first guest will be here shortly. They just have been spotted”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] yes, Seo hugged her mother back. Or Adreia did. Adreia knew by now this family loved each other very much. This is what Seo would have done and she would risk her cover being blown if she did not hugged Rinshi.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=9pt]“Well that would mean we better go catch up with your father. We would not wish to dishonor him by not being there with him when he greats his guest”,[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Rinshi pulled away from the hug. “Come on”, she smiled then led her daughter down to the main court yard where the three of them and the rest of Clan Doji would great their guests.[/SIZE]



[member="Junko Ike"] [member="Shoma Ike"] [member="Nine Lives"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

Unaga stood on the battlements of Seito palace. THe construction of it had finished becoming a place that few armies were large enough to try and assault. She had been looking down at it and their villagers were within the mines for now. THis far up in the clouds it allowed them to see over everything here. She was checking out parts of it though while walking along the bridge itself to peer down. THere were rumors, tales of someone uniting the clans, trying to make an empire. Interesting prospects no doubt but one could not be certain of rumors. Communications across the planet still took time but Unaga was certain of them. No one attacked Bei Xi, no one could match or come here. The other clans they were meeting with would prove something as she touched the hilt of Musashi her ancestral sword. The milky white blade and gleaming jewels in the hilt gave it a look but Unaga was certain about plentyu here.

 

[Nine Lives]

Theme: Beethoven: "Fur Elise."

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/Lkcvrxj0eLY

The dream always started out the same.

He would be floating face down in the water, wreckage floating past him. The day of his recruitment.

Those same faces would always float past him. He'd see a face, a young man's with dark hair and green eyes and a woman's face. Alien. Didn't know the species. Strange striped headtails. They caused him pain to see them for reasons he did not understand. Especially the Woman's.

He would always feel the breeze on his neck first as he floated, not breathing. That would always be what woke him up first. What let him taste the salt of the sea rushing into his mouth as his body finally hit beach sand in the early morning hours. The touch of wet sand between his fingers.

Kain Li rose in the dream as he had in real life, but back in real life he'd just been known as Kain. He pulled himself further onto the beach, clad in dark red biker leathers, his black hair riddled with sand grains, but cleanly cut, not going past his ears and deep, brown eyes scanning the beach. He looked behind him, watching the vessel, spitting and hissing flames, sink deeper and deeper into the water. He had never told anyone what had happened...what he had been doing that day, how he had ended up on this continent and who he had been before that. He never would. He would take it to his grave. But his final grave was currently a long ways off.

A ring of flaming wreckage and a shattered sword greeted him as he walked onto the beach, his deeply tanned skin caked with sand and dirt, just like his wispy, black goatee, his square jaw with a cleft in the chin marred by a few long scars on the right of it, and stared at the shattered ship as it finally sank into the water. He felt a strange sense of finality in the dream as he stared at that sight. He turned and began walking down the beach, seeing the first of the Maidens of Clan Li running up to him on the beach, their white cloth gowns flowing in the early morning breeze of a still dark blue sky, the sun just starting to rise in the distance. He saw beyond the beach endless fields of grass and a city of jade and ivory resting in the middle of it, its towers having a ziggurat-like design.

He looked back to the ocean, saw the alien woman with the slightly red skin and the strange, striped head tails. She was beautiful, an athlete in strange, tight fitting lightly colored robes with blue eyes. Only he saw her. She was standing out on top of the water.

She stared, gave a sad smile, waved, and vanished with the next surge of ocean water and Kain knew he was on his own at this point in the dream, just like he had known that day in the real world, as the curious maidens ran up to him on the lonely, empty beach.

They were lovely women, all with fine, straight dark hair and blue eyes.

"Sir? Are you alright?!" One of the Li women asked. "We saw the wreckage on the water and came out to see if any had survived the explosion."

Kain turned to the ocean one last time, saw the flaming pieces of wreckage that had floated ashore with him get washed out to sea, taking the last of whatever he had been doing before he had come to this part of Atrisia to the bottom of its seas. He turned back to the lovely maidens, having no weapon with him except a small, jade hilted tanto of durasteel.

"I'm perfectly fine." Kain answered in the dream, like he had when he first appeared. "I'm new here..."

...and he woke from the dream.

It had been ten years since that day. Ten years since some no name castaway had been welcomed into the clan after his...talant...became apparent and irrefutable. Kain wasn't a violent man...at least, he did not consider himself one. But violence was often something he came across in his duties. His feelings had always been uncertain in regards to that.

The thirty-three year old man, his short cut hair and goatee starting to gray at the sides, a black patch covering the left eye, rose from his bed, alone. He had taken no wife. Not for lack of options. He didn't even date. Only one woman held his interest. He knew he would never see her again. He did not know who she was. He would never try to find out.

His chamber was full of books and scrolls, exercise equipment, and his armor. The floor, walls, and ceiling were polished slabs of blood red wood. The banner of The Li Clan, a white flag depicting an orange Tiger in the grass, balancing a katana on an outstretched paw, an orange butterfly landing on the middle of the blade, was draped over an elaborate, stained glass window showing an orange tiger face with a white butterfly resting comfortably in its open jaws.

First it was an hour of exercise, than a shower. Then an hour of meditation with his sword, a magnificent katana with a wood ring pattern to its edge, Its hilt ivory and its pommel a dragon head. It was not his originally. He'd found it in its sheath, impaled in grass near a rode close to the palace. He had looked for the owner everywhere. He had never found them and had eventually laid claim to it for himself. No one knew the sword's name except him.

After meditation he had dressed in his clan armor, a sky blue ashigaru armor of leather and durasteel, The image on the left armplate the same as the design on the window, the gloves and boots white as mountain snow. He took his sword and fastened it to his side, testing the garrote wire built into his left wrist gauntlet He then went to his nightstand and pulled out a double barreled pistol, its wood furniture in bloody red like the rest of his sparsely decorated room. Its barrels were engraved with a repeating pattern of tiger faces. He didn't trust the strange weapons of light the men from the sky sometimes wielded. Two armor piercing small rifle rounds and he was good. He took a white belt holding rifle rounds and threw it diagonally over his shoulder, placing the cut down rifle-pistol in a holster on his left leg, placing the two barreled suppressor in a pouch next to it.

It was morning, and he had been trusted to be part of a special delegation with his Lord, Toshiro Li, the man that had sponsored his membership into Clan Li. No one had thought an outsider like him could rise so high. But he was too good at what he did to shun him. Can't ask a guy to do what he'd been asked to and then not offer him a place at the table to eat with the others.

He heard snide remarks on occasion. But he knew that look of fear he'd see in their eyes every time he slinked by them so quietly and they were not aware he'd been there until he passed right by them. He was that quiet. He had to be.

He exited out of his room in the family palace, his sky blue and white armor matching the color scheme of the rest of the palace halls, decorated with murals of the ancient gods and elder beings hiding in the deep, smithing the dark secrets of this world. The gods in the light, directing mortals to those secrets, for good or ill.

He soon ran into one of the palace servants, Miyazaki, dressed in the sky blue and white colors of the clan like everyone else. He wore a sky blue tunic with long sleeves and slacks, wearing white boots and gloves. He was shorter than Kain, with longer hair in a ponytail, and with a much darker, thicker beard that was heavily braided. His skin was much lighter than Kain's. His eyes were the color of a leaf slowly turning orange in fall. Miyazaki had been carrying important documents hurrying quickly down the hall when he spotted Kain.

"Kain! So fortunate! I was just coming to get you. Lord Toshiro requests your presence in the tea room."

"Greetings, Miyazaki. What'cha got there?" Kain asked in a rough country tone. It indicated he was from the valleys of the black wild horses in the far east islands. He'd never confirmed that one way or the other. Plausible deniability and all that.

"Maps."

"For what?"

"You've heard the rumors. Someone is trying to get all the clans to unite."

"We don't need the other clans. We never have."

"Change is coming Kain. Unification could bring a lot of wealth, real development to Atrisia." Miyazaki explained.

"Or bring us all under the thumb of one tyrannical creep after another. 'Somebody' will have to run it. You know that, Miyazaki. I been up against some of the clans--I know enough about 'em to know sharing power ain't their strong point."

"Nevertheless, change will occur, Kain. Can't stop the future."

"But you can delay it a little while."

"And why would you want to, Kain?" Miyazaki asked pointedly. "If you're doomed, you're doomed. Holding the possibility of that doom off only increases the dread, if you ask me."

"Huh. Maybe." Kain conceded.

"A wise man put it best, Kain: We must all hang together. For we all shall surely hang seperately."

"Whoever said that never had to hang with the clans of Atrisia." he remarked cynically. "See 'ya, 'Zaki."

Miyazaki bowed and Kain proceeded down to the tea room in the lower levels of the palace, the darker, stone levels that were untouched by the bright gilding above it.

Kain paused in front of the delicate, wood slat doors with lattice framework in black, sticking out in the stoney lower levels. He entered and breathed in the scent of tea leaves in a spherical chamber of white jade tiles, each tile bearing a simplistic symbol of a green eye.

Lord Toshiro sat in a lotus position atop a gigantic blue cushion, in a dip at the center the chamber. He was in his eighties, rail thin, blue and white robes fashioned like a scholars. His hair was short cut and his beard was white, puffy, massive. God-like. Skin wrinkled like a mountain.

Hazel eyes, patient and calculating stared at Kain, who immediately went to one knee.

"What is thy bidding, My Master?" Kain asked.

"We will meet with the Doji clan soon, First of my killers. Many of this clan's most dangerous rivals will be present..." Toshiro answered, his voice a deep, rumbling baritone. "But today we must eliminate an internal threat in the process of our visit."

"In the process?" Kain inquired.

"One of our engineers working at the dig site has made plans to defect to our most dangerous rivals, The Singing Cicada clan, and deliver to them schematics from our next-generation arsenal."

"Do we know what he stole?"

Toshiro sighed.

"The sensitive stuff."

"That bad, huh? I told you that stuff from the dig was trouble."

"We have come too far to abandon it now. Though its proving troublesome, keeping our projects a secret, it is well worth the effort. If we succeed we could secure our dominance in all our territories for the next hundred years. Maybe more. But it is not wise to coun't one's chickens before they are hatched."

"How'd we find out?" Kain asked.

"A courtesan who reports to me told me of his plan. I had suspected his disloyalty for months, so I set up a honey-trap."

"How do you want this handled? Standard double-tap?"

Toshiro shook his head. "Your task will be more complex than that. He is meeting his contact at Doji's castle. I want you to find where he has hidden the master blue prints, switch them out with fakes, allow him to deliver the fakes, and 'then' feed him a poison that simulates the effects of a brain hemmorage. His death must look natural."

"It will be done, my Lord."

Toshiro handed him the false documents and a poison pill, as well as a box. Kain opened it, taking out a strange pistol with almost a flintlock like aesthetic. It felt heavier than other pistols he had used. Its metal was a dull blue, with a mother of pearl grip.

"Is it based off the dig-site technologies?"

Toshiro nodded. "Four shots. Fires a long thin beam of red light. For unexpected difficulties."

Kain nodded. "The Engineer?"

"Gun Li."

"Our top researcher?!"

"He felt he was not being paid enough."

Kain knew the implication. How bad for morale it would be. Now keeping it looking natural made sense."

"They'll never think it was anything but natural, my Lord."

Toshiro nodded politely. "Best wishes, Sea Dreaming Kain."

Kain rose and departed from the chamber.

[member="Garith Darkhold"]

[member="Matsu Ike"].