Tasakeru

BOOK II, CHAPTER 5

01 Aug 2009 3 Comments

by BHS in 1st Volume: Sword and Flower, Book II: Eternity Awakes Tags: adventure, animal, anthro, drama, egyptian culture, eternity awakes, exile, fantasy, fiction, forest, furry, hanami, japanese culture, kemono, mammals, outcast, religion, samurai, Tasakeru, web fiction, web serial novel, zero

CHAPTER 5

Old one of the sands

When all that you know is gone

Where will you wander?

“At this point, I feel I should explain something about the fox species as a whole. It is an aspect of the culture of which I am not fond in the slightest, but I shall make every attempt to remain objective in my description. Dear reader, please have patience.

“Any todd or vixen would be happy to tell you of the admirable qualities of their species, and tell you at great length. (As most of them see themselves as superior to all other species, they would not consider this boastful, merely the statement of facts.) They might mention their striking natural beauty, artistic creativity, unmatched strategic prowess, or even their widespread acceptance of even the most unusual courtship practices. However, they are also apt to mention the foxes’ characteristic sharp wit, a quality that only the foxes themselves seem to appreciate.

“When a fox is trapped in a hopeless situation with no chance of escape, their typical course of action will be to rely on ‘witty’ banter, in hopes that this will stall or distract his or her opponent. Of course, whenever a fox talks at great length, their words will invariably begin to sound insulting. The listener will become annoyed, then offended, and as naturally as night follows day, they will wish to inflict grievous harm upon the fox, if only to force them to stop talking.

“In this regard, Faun Reinaka is one of the cleverest and sharpest-witted foxes I have ever known. Make of that what you will.”

[From Ashpaw's personal journal]

“Now, look… obviously there’s been a big misunderstanding here!” Faun forced a smile at the jackal, who did not reciprocate in the slightest. She tried to lift her head a bit, unsure if he could actually see her expression, but the action made her vision swim. She quickly shut her eyes until the feeling passed. The vixen hung suspended in the air, dangling upside down from a set of golden manacles attached to a chain in the tower’s ceiling. Her hands were similarly shackled behind her, and her bandolier lay discarded on the floor on the far side of the room where Renubis had tossed it aside after tearing it from the vixen’s shoulders. For the last half-hour or so, Faun had been talking to the jackal in hopes he would become angered enough to at least break the chain, but he simply stood there, still as a statue, the only reaction to her words being a quiet but slowly building growl. Faun began again, trying a new approach. “I mean, really, I can sympathize. Even I get cranky without a little intimate companionship now and then. I can understand why you’d want me to be, er, your mate… Who could blame you? But the whole immortal thing is kinda sketchy, you know? Besides, I already told you, we don’t cross-mate, it’s just not done. Anyway, there are much better ways of solving this problem…”

At last the jackal spoke, his voice as even as he could manage. “Such as?”

“Well, for one thing,” said Faun, wriggling in her chains, “I wouldn’t try bondage until at least the seventh date. That’s the kind of thing you really want to save until you’re officially ‘a couple’. And until then, well, have you ever tried indulging yourself? Honest to the Gods, it really doesn’t make you go bli-”

Renubis lashed out and grasped a hank of Faun’s auburn hair, slowly pulling her upward and leaning down until his golden mask filled her entire field of vision. Her eyes began to water as he spoke, very quietly, but with an undertone like fire. “Know this, vixen. If I wished, I could simply force you to drink the potion. I am quite strong enough to do so, I assure you.” He gestured around the room. “At this elevation, I very much doubt that anyone would hear you scream.”

Faun swallowed heavily and shuddered in his grip.

“However, I will not lower myself to such a base act. All I shall do is wait. I have no need of food or water. You have no such advantage. Eventually, you will drink… until then I shall tolerate your babble, inane as it is.”

Releasing his grip, he let her swing backward on the chain, making Faun’s senses reel from the vertigo. The vixen shut her eyes tight until she stopped moving, her mind searching furiously for some kind of escape plan. “Well,” she said weakly, praying that her voice wouldn’t betray her nervousness, “It doesn’t have to be babble! We could just have a nice conversation in the meantime. How about this, have you got any hobbies? You know, painting, sculpture, collecting bird feathers?”

Renubis closed his eyes behind his mask and tried very hard to ignore the slowly growing suspicion that this entire venture was spiraling rapidly out of control.

That night, anyone out walking through the Outer Rim district of the squirrel territory in Shinboku would probably be keeping their eyes on their destination. Should such a person have looked up in the area of the great outer wall’s battlements, they likely would have noticed a young doe squirrel leaning out her window in a most curious manner. She appeared to be leaning backward over the windowsill, halfway in and halfway out of her tiny little home, scanning the outermost branches of the Great Tree above her with rapt concentration. The girl had remained in that odd position for most of the last twenty minutes, only disappearing back inside for a few seconds at a time, presumably to stretch the kinks out of her back.

Naole leaned out the window again, nervously chewing on her lower lip. He said he was just going to take a look, he would be right back. What’s taking him so long?! Finally, her eyes caught a slight movement among the leaves, and she breathed a sigh of relief as her brother’s silhouette dropped down onto her roof with only a slight bump to indicate his presence.

She withdrew herself just in time, for Zero was already clambering in through the window, balancing himself on the sill until he was safely inside. “I found it,” he said before Naole could ask. “It’s a tower, somewhere in the forest’s southern quarter. I could just make it out from the top branches.”

Her eyes widened. “If you can see it from here, it must be enormous!”

Zero plucked a stray leaf from his tail and nodded. “Yeah. That has to be what caused the tremor… I’m damned sure it wasn’t there when I left this afternoon. I’m sorry, imouto-chan, but whatever that thing is, I have to assume it’s not good. I need to go.”

“I know,” said Naole, trying to ignore the small, selfish inner voice that was demanding that he stay with her. “I checked my message scroll a minute ago. Ashpaw says he needs you to come right away. Something about Hanami losing her flower…” Her face brightened and her ears perked up. “Wait a minute, I just remembered! I have something that’ll help!” Swiftly crossing the room, she opened a chest of drawers and dove into it, rummaging through the contents.

Zero’s mind wandered in the meantime. “Towers springing up in the forest,” he muttered darkly. “Somehow I know Faun’s involved with this…”

“Aha! Gotcha!” The triumphant cry from within the drawer was a bit muffled. Naole extracted herself and held out her hand, her hazel eyes shining happily.

In the palm of her hand rested a small stone, filed smooth enough to skip over the waters of a lake. Delicately carved into its center was a pattern of intricate curving lines forming a basic pictogram of New Standard script, each groove in the rock having been paintstakingly painted a cheery yellow. A very faint, sharp smell emanated from the stone, rather like the scent of the air after a powerful storm.

Zero’s eyes widened as he stared at the script, recognizing the word it represented. “Lightning… Naole, that’s a boltpath stone! How?!”

Naole grinned. “I asked the elders at the healing temple to raise my pay. I bought it for an emergency, just in case I needed to see you in a hurry… but it’ll work just as well going one way as another.” She placed the stone into Zero’s hand, wrapping his fingers around it.

“Naole…” Zero was stunned at the gesture. “I can’t take this! Even with extra pay it must have cost a month’s wages!”

With a sigh, she shook her head. “Onii-chan, I just told you. I bought it for emergencies. If Faun’s involved, this qualifies. Now go on, they need you back in Tasakeru!”

Zero clutched the spellstone in his fist. “Thank you, imouto-chan. I owe you one.”

“I’ll add it to the list. Go! And be careful!”

He nodded and closed his eyes as she stepped backward. In his mind, he pictured the place he wanted to go. Ashpaw’s den… books, scrolls, the forge, the pleasant warmth of the fire, the faint tang of molten metal and ore that hung in the air… Concentrating on that image with all his might, he raised the stone high and thought a single word, a command to activate the stone’s power. Release.

There was a tremendous crack as the spell erupted and took effect. A sudden wind blew past Naole as air rushed in to fill the void where Zero had been standing an instant before. The sharp odor of singed air washed over her senses, coupled with the quickly fading echoes of the initial thunderous noise. In a moment, her house had settled and was quiet again, only a faint wisp of smoke showing that Zero had been there at all, and even that quickly dissipated on the wind. Naole’s tail drooped behind her as she walked slowly to her bedroom door, wistfully looking back at the empty space where her brother had vanished. “Good luck…”

Zero had travelled by boltpath before, but it was never a sensation one got used to. Though the journey from place to place took only a second or two in reality, it was still a harrowing, disorienting experience which felt significantly longer to the user. Most elected to keep their eyes closed during the process; out of curiosity, Zero had chanced a peek once. That time, his landing had been immediately followed by his violently losing his breakfast. The sight of the world speeding by faster than the eye was meant to perceive it was not one for the faint of heart, or stomach. It wasn’t just the visual effect, either. There was the extremely unsettling feeling of one’s body being stretched out like a piece of taffy, farther and farther and farther still until your endpoint felt no larger than the head of a pin, while the rest of your mass felt huge and disproportionate until it was pulled along for the ride as well with a hard snap.

This method of travel was the fastest known to sentientkind, yes, but so potentially dangerous that few were courageous enough to try it. In addition, mages who had enough proficiency in lightning magic to carve the boltpath spellstones in the first place were few and far between; as a result they were some of the most expensive spellstones in existence, and typically only the very rich used them with any frequency. The only other regular boltpath users were a small group of very eccentric ferrets with more money than sense, who enjoyed the physical sensation of the transport enough to make it into a competitive sport. Many of the group’s boltpath races ended with the participants embedded in trees, walls, or large rocks, so the pastime had yet to catch on with anyone else. Personally, Zero couldn’t fathom doing this for fun…

He was abruptly jolted out of transport with another thunderous clap of displaced air, stumbling forward from the inertia. As the room spun around him, someone lunged forward to support his weight, someone who smelled of flowers and fertile soil. He smiled in recognition, though his vision hadn’t completely cleared yet. “Hello, Hanami…”

“Zero!” The doe squirrel braced herself against the floor, trying to keep him upright. “We knew you were coming, but – what in the Gods’ names was that?!”

“Boltpath,” Zero grimaced. “Naole bought a spellstone. Honestly, I don’t recommend it.” He passed the stone to Hanami, which was steaming a little bit from its release of power.

Ashpaw’s baritone came from somewhere to his left. “Did she tell you the situation? Faun has-”

Zero chuckled and shook his head as the den finally came into focus. “I knew it. I knew it! Come on, lead me to the tower, I assume that’s where she is.” Then his eyes fell upon Hanami, resplendent in a beautiful red kimono he had never seen her wear before. Zero felt his jaw drop open, but he paid it no mind. “Hanami… you look…”

To his surprise, she looked embarrassed. “Oh, this? It’s nothing, I should go back home and -”

“… amazing,” Zero finished over her.

“Th-thank you,” she said, giving a very shaky bow and trying hard not to overbalance on her sandals. “I’m glad you like it.”

From his position at the doorway, Ashpaw tried to hide a smile. “Ahem… perhaps we can wait a few moments while the lady changes into something more appropriate. Go ahead, Hanami. I’ll fill Zero in on the details.”

Bowing to the badger as well, Hanami hurried out the door and down the darkened path that led back to Woodhaven. Zero found himself watching the spot where she had vanished into the night, his mind a total blank.

Ashpaw gently cleared his throat. “Zero?”

He shook his head as if waking up from a dream. “I’m all right. What was that about?”

“Hmm,” said the badger, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “Perhaps the vixen’s plan was a success after all.” Then he gently steered Zero into a chair, before the squirrel could ask what that meant.

Hanami had never imagined something so tall. The great black tower was intimidating enough from the outside, but finding the inside empty save for one long, seemingly endless staircase, spiraling upward far higher than the eye could make out… it made her fur stand on end. Initially the Outcasts took the stairs at a run, but eventually the climb wore on to the point that they elected to take it slowly and save their energy for whatever waited at the top. Ashpaw had taken the lead, with Zero behind and Hanami bringing up the rear. With little else to occupy her mind save getting back the Mage Flower (and making Faun regret her deception, of course) she found herself looking up at the back of Zero’s jacket. There was a thin, crimson ring design in the center of the otherwise solid black fabric, something that struck her as slightly odd, yet vaguely familiar.

“Zero?” she asked, breaking the silence. “Is… is it true that you used to be a samurai?”

Zero looked back over his shoulder, his eyes haunted, but not surprised. “Yes, it’s true. All my forefathers were.”

Hanami swallowed, building up her courage. “Then, if you don’t mind my asking… What happened?”

Zero stopped and let out a sigh, one of equal parts sadness and relief. “I suppose I owe it to you to tell you. Ashpaw, it’s best that you hear this too.”

Ahead of them, the badger nodded his agreement. “Of course, my friend.”

They continued up the endless staircase as Zero spoke. “Have either of you ever heard of the Demon Fangs…?”

Ashpaw growled, and Hanami let out a gasp…

“No sentient species is entirely good or evil. Be it badger, squirrel, fox, or any other, in each one there are as many examples of virtue as there are of vice. However, if there were ever any group that could be justifiably described as ‘evil’, it would have to be the Demon Fangs.

“The date of their founding, the reasons for it, who their leaders are… all these are unknown. What is known is that every species fears them. There is no crime too base for their ranks; they have engaged in kidnapping, rape, murder, ritual sacrifice, random acts of pointless destruction, desecration of their flesh. All this is done to glorify the God of Death, with a religious zeal perhaps unequaled in all of Sankami.

“It is true that of the very few Demon Fangs that the Order and Militia have been able to capture, all of them have been ferrets. This has unfortunately cast an undeserved blight on their entire species, but I am quite sure that the Fangs accept deranged sentients of all kinds. We may never know for sure, as captured Fangs invariably commit suicide rather than stand trial for their actions. This is not out of cowardice, as it may appear to the untrained eye. It is purely one last act of spite to torment the survivors of the rampage, depriving them of the satisfaction of due justice. Sentients who have witnessed the Demon Fangs or the aftermath of their presence can never forget it; those poor souls have my deepest sympathy.”

[From The Past, the Present, and What Lies Beyond, by Ashpaw Longstripe]

“I was thirteen, and it was my first month in the Milita,” said Zero, his voice haunted. There was an almost physical sadness to him; a grief that could have cut to the bone as easily as a blade. “My father took me to the academy the day I came of age. Despite all he did to train me, despite that I wanted more than anything to make him proud… I was scared. Something just didn’t feel right to me. But I went on anyway, if only for my father’s sake.

“As a squad of sprigs… foot soldiers; new recruits,” he said, noting Hanami’s look of confusion at the term and answering the question before she could ask. “As sprigs, we were forbidden to participate in real battles. So at that time, most of our duties involved cleaning up after the higher ranks, that and general peacekeeping. This was during the Week of Blood, so we… had a lot to clean up.”

“The Week of Blood?” Hanami’s eyes widened. “Wasn’t that-”

“The territory dispute between the raccoons and ferrets,” Zero said sadly. “Yes, that was it. There was a minor battle between factions out in the farmlands, a mile or so away from the city. A minor one in terms of that conflict, anyway. Only a few injuries and scared civilians. We got there and began to help out when…

“The Demon Fangs came out of nowhere. They knew we would come if there were enough people injured to draw our attention. They didn’t care about the territory; they just wanted a fight… a massacre.” Zero closed his eyes. “We held them off as long as we could, but… we were just sprigs.”

“I read about that,” said Ashpaw, his voice much softer than normal. “Over a dozen samurai killed, many more injured.”

“Did they-” Hanami started to speak, but Zero was already answering.

“I… wasn’t hurt. At all. All around me was blood and death, but… somehow I got through it with nothing more than damaged armor. I was the only one who came out of it clean, and I couldn’t understand why… Why everyone else got hurt, but I didn’t… I wasn’t any more deserving than the rest of my squad. I didn’t do anything that should have spared me. But my friends, my brothers-in-arms… Seventeen of them died. Some of the survivors lost their arms; at least one never walked again. All of them just young kits, all my age. Just sprigs…” His voice dropped to a whisper, echoing eerily in the stairwell.

“I left that night. I took our family sword, ran for Tasakeru and never looked back. I abandoned my squad, my father, Naole… I broke the first and greatest of the Seven Laws: ‘Be always loyal.’ So, that’s how I became an Outcast, a ronin. And even though I have this sword…” Here he drew his blade and glared at it. “I’m not a samurai. I’m not a true warrior or a hero like in the stories. I’m just… nothing.”

Hanami gazed at the ring design on his back, finally recognizing what it was. Each squad in the Militia wore a mon, an elaborate seal within a circle that they displayed proudly, one which identified their group to all who looked upon them. But Zero’s mon was empty… a simple red circle, and nothing more. For the first time, she understood the true meaning of the name he called himself, and her heart broke for him.

“You are not ‘nothing,’” said Hanami, her voice quiet but firm, breaking the silence that had descended over the group. “You’ve proven to me more than once that you’re a warrior, no matter what anyone says. You saved my life, Zero. You accepted me for what I am without any hesitation at all. Never mind the Militia, you’re…” She swallowed. “You’re the bravest, most loyal sentient that I know. If that doesn’t make you a hero, I don’t know what does.”

Ashpaw stepped back for a moment, placing his huge hand on Zero’s shoulder. “The lady is wise beyond her years, I think. I concur with everything she said.”

Zero was about to speak, when there came a feminine cry and a roar of rage from the top of the tower. Looking upward in alarm, he began taking the steps two at a time, Ashpaw and Hanami following suit. As he ran, he tried to think of something brave and heroic to say to rally the others, but his mind was empty of everything but pure, blessed relief. Besides, at the moment he didn’t think he would be able to talk; there was a large lump in his throat.

“ARGH! Contemptible harlot!” Renubis snarled and clawed at the eye of his mask to clear it. For a moment, it had appeared the vixen was finally going to take the potion… but she had spit the fluid back at him when he was off his guard. “How dare you!”

“For the last time, I said no!” Faun wriggled in her chains as much as she was able, in an act of pointless defiance. “I don’t want a mate, especially not if it means being stuck with you until the end of time! Now let me go, you mangy, flea-bitten goat!”

“I confess, I am reconsidering my offer as well,” said the jackal with as much venom as he could muster. “Instead of being my mate, perhaps it would be preferable to kill you and throw your body from this tower, not necessarily in that order!”

“Hey!” called a voice from the stairwell. “I’ll admit Faun’s pain in the tail, but that’s taking it too far!”

Faun looked past Renubis, scarcely daring to believe it. Her heart gave a mighty leap as she saw Zero standing there, sword drawn, with Ashpaw flanking him. To the left of the badger was Hanami, who fixed the vixen with a glare that could have bored through a steel plate. “Er, hi everyone,” she said with a weak chuckle. “Glad you finally made it…”

“Now,” said Zero, tightening his grip on the hilt. “Let her down and back away, and we won’t have a problem, will we, Ashpaw?” Hearing no answer, he cast a glance at the badger. “Ashpaw?”

The badger was staring at Renubis with something akin to delight, his jaw open in astonishment. He had just come to Zero’s side and gotten his first clear look at Faun’s captor. “Fascinating! Faun, how in Lord Alder’s name did you manage to find an actual jackal? This is an event… He looks just as the ancient carvings depicted!”

Zero shifted out of his stance to nudge the badger with his foot. “Ashpaw, sorry to interrupt you, but do you think we could possibly save the history lesson for a bit later?”

Ashpaw blinked. “My apologies, I was merely distracted.” He reached over his shoulder to unsling his morning star from the harness on his back.

Renubis clenched his fists, his lips curling into a savage grin. “Your arrival is fortuitous indeed. Perhaps making the three of you suffer will change the vixen’s mind!”

“You obviously do not know our Faunelle,” said Ashpaw evenly. He began to swing his weapon in a vicious circle, the massive iron ball straining at the end of its chain and thrumming in anticipation. “Changing her mind usually requires an act of the Gods, or several kegs of Firewater. I suggest you release her now, and spare yourself the headache.”

“‘Faunelle…?’” Renubis looked back over his shoulder at the vixen.

Faun bristled. “Thanks a lot, Stripehead.”

Adjusting his foot, Zero’s hands tightened around the hilt. “So that’s our offer. Let her go, and we can end this here and now.”

The jackal laughed scornfully. “And if I refuse?”

“BANZAI!” Zero howled his battle cry by way of reply, hurtling forward with his sword raised. The jackal made no attempt to move at all, not even to take a defensive posture. His hand lashed out a mere instant before impact… and grasped the blade’s razor edge without even a twitch of discomfort, stopping Zero in his tracks. The squirrel had only a moment to goggle in disbelief before Renubis flung him across the room with savage strength, slamming him painfully into the far wall.

Faun swallowed. “Oh, mange.”

“Idiots!” roared Renubis. “I am immortal! No weapon or magic can -”

Ashpaw didn’t wait for him to finish. Charging the jackal at an angle, he swung the studded iron hammer with all his might into the side of the jackal’s head. There was a resounding clang like the tolling of a great bell as a hundred pounds of force collided with the golden headdress…

Renubis didn’t flinch in the slightest. In a moment, the badger was hurled backward to collide painfully with Zero, who was just picking himself up off the stone floor.

“I do not feel!” shouted Renubis over the echoes of the impact. “I do not eat, or drink, or bleed! I never sleep, never tire, never breathe! What hope do any of you have against me?” His voice rising with madness and frustration, he lifted his head and shouted to the heavens. “What hope does this world have?!”

Zero spat out a fragment of a tooth and smiled lopsidedly. “Well, I can’t speak for the world, but I guess we’re just stupid that way.”

Hanami hung back as the battle raged on, knowing there was nothing she could do to stop the jackal without her flower. Even with it, it was quickly becoming apparent that Renubis truly was as invincible as he claimed… Each time Zero and Ashpaw attacked him, he swatted them aside like insects. She watched horrorstruck until Faun’s voice cut through her thoughts.

“Flowers! Some help would be nice!”

Her words snapped Hanami out of her trance as she remembered exactly why she was here in the first place. Her anger at the vixen steeling her courage, she ran to Faun’s side, dodging flying kunai as Zero tried a different tactic. Quickly she snatched the vixen’s bomb belt and the Mage Flower from where they lay discarded on the floor. Curling her fingers around the flower’s stem, she tried to concentrate over the clamor of blows and angry shouts, picturing what she wanted.

“H-Hey there,” said Faun, smiling hopefully up at her. “Er, I’m sorry for lying about that meeting with Zero… and for stealing your flower too, I guess. Honest, I was going to give it back once he was done with it! You’re not still mad, are you?”

Hanami opened one eye. “Some time this year, you’re going to find poison sumac growing in your wardrobe.”

Faun swallowed. “Is that a ‘yes’, then?”

Thin, threadlike vines extended in a flurry from the center of the blossom, springing upward into the manacles around Faun’s ankles and wrists. In a few seconds, the vines burst outward, having found each tiny crack and flaw in the metal and burrowed through it. Faun landed in an undignified heap on the floor, blowing her hair out of her eyes. “Thanks, I think. Duck!”

“What duck? Whe-” Hanami caught on just in time and threw herself to the floor, just as Ashpaw’s morning star flew over their heads, missing them by a hairsbreadth. The heavy weapon crashed into the black stone wall behind them with a resounding boom and stuck there, held in place by its spikes.

Hanami gingerly touched the top of her skull, making sure it was still all there. “This is getting out of hand…”

“Oh, we’re past that,” growled Faun, rising to her feet and brushing herself off. “Nobody propositions me unless I want them to!”

“Wait! Faun, what are you doing?! He’ll kill you!” She watched in horror as the vixen stomped forward toward Renubis.

“Improvising! Stay there!”

Renubis stood over the battered bodies of the squirrel and badger. Both had been thoroughly disarmed, and now he closed in for the kill. However, against all common sense, still they struggled to stand, their eyes set with defiance. Their weapons had done nothing; why would they not yield?

“Hey!”

The vixen’s shout caused him to glance upward. She strode up to him, her face set with determination. Renubis raised his hand to swat her away like a rag doll. Before he could bring it down on her, she ducked under his arm. He only had time to marvel at her agility as she took a stance, bent her knee… and lashed upward with her other foot, driving it straight up between his legs.

The jackal’s mouth fell open in utter astonishment.

No one moved, not even an inch. A moment of perfect silence gripped the top floor, as if the tower were holding its breath. Then…

Renubis smiled. Then he chuckled. Then he laughed aloud, and continued laughing to the puzzlement and frustration of the vixen before him. For the first time in three thousand years, he did not laugh in scorn or madness, but in genuine amusement.

Faun angrily placed her hands on her hips. “What… the hell. You must be cracked. Not even an immortal would laugh after that…”

“Thank you, Faun,” the jackal chortled, trying to control himself. “Truthfully, that may have been just what I needed.”

“What?!” said Faun.

He was grinning now, staring at Faun in wonder. “The sheer audacity of you, the very nerve! I have finally realized what I should have known all along… I cannot be your mate, Faun. I do not deserve you.”

“Well, obviously!” Faun stamped her foot. “If you would have listened to me in the first place, we could have avoided all this! I still don’t see what’s so funny!”

Shaking his head, Renubis walked to the tower window, staring out at the Sankami nightscape spread out below. “What is funny is that I have finally realized how futile my actions have been. All my people are long dead… perhaps my actions caused their downfall. I may never know for sure. Because of my own greed and arrogance, I took the immortality potion, thinking I could be a better ruler than the Farao. Because of that arrogance, I was imprisoned. Obviously, I learned nothing from the three millenia I spent trapped in the crypt. No sooner did you release me than I began to plot conquest once again… And in my arrogance I assumed that you would want to be my mate, not giving you a say in the matter.” He sighed, shaking his head. “There is no point in trying to restore what once was. The world has changed. I do not belong in it anymore.”

Ashpaw stood with some difficulty, limping to the jackal’s side. “Perhaps you have changed more than you think, my friend.”

Faun raised her eyebrow, half expecting a trap. “So… it’s off, then? No more chasing after me? No more forced immortality?”

Renubis did not answer. Instead he took the tiny crystal vial of shimmering gold liquid between his fingers, its contents now half empty. With only a moment’s hesitation, he upended it, the potion sparkling like a metallic waterfall as it poured out, quickly becoming lost to view as it dropped to the forest floor far below. The vial then dissolved into dust, blowing away in the wind.

Zero staggered forward, leaning on Hanami for support. “I don’t know, Faun. It seems you didn’t meet such a bad guy after all. So, Renubis, what happens now?”

“Now? Now I shall go.” He pointed outward, past dark grasslands to the waters of the western shore. “I wish to see if there is anything beyond that ocean, beyond Sankami… Perhaps if there is, there is also a way to break my curse.” The jackal let out a long sigh, one that told of each and every one of his countless years. “That shall be my quest: to die, and join my people in the next world.”

Hesitantly, Faun laid a hand on his shoulder. “Well, if you ever get tired of looking… You can always come back here. As long as you don’t try to kill us again.”

Renubis smiled at her, took her hand and gently kissed it, making Faun’s ears turn back in embarassment. “Milady, I would not dream of it.”

Some time later, at the edge of Tasakeru Forest, Lady Lily stood ready with a contingent of the Silver Order’s best knights, males and females of multiple species whom she trusted with her life. Her snow-white armor shone brightly even in the pale moonlight, her massive broadsword polished and gleaming. The skunk turned to face her faithful knights, her face set with determination. “Knights, to attention! This is the hour we have prepared for! We shall proceed to the black tower and investigate its origins and purpose. Its creation is surely an omen of the blackest magics, so be on your guard! If you encounter any Outcasts who attempt to bar your way, you have full authority to place them under arrest. You are not to harm them unless attacked first, is that clear?”

Two dozen voices shouted back at her. “Aye, Mistress!”

Lily smiled grimly and raised the great broadsword. “For the Goddess of Life, and the purity of all Sankami!”

The knights began to raise their weapons in reply, but then they stopped, staring at something over Lily’s shoulders. Frowning, she turned to see what the matter was… and her heart dropped down into the pit of her stomach.

Standing mere inches from her was a figure that towered over her, a male of no species she knew. His head was adorned with an elaborate golden headdress that covered all but his sharp, angular muzzle and his upswept ears. His powerful frame was muscled like a statue. The stranger wore what were clearly ancient clothes, but they looked as pristine as Lily’s own armor. She couldn’t see his eyes behind the black, opaque slits in the mask, but somehow she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he could see her every move.

“Your pardon,” said Renubis, trying to sound pleasant. “I was about to depart.”

In an instant, the edge of Lily’s broadsword was hovering at his neck. “S-Stay where you are!” barked Lily, trying to resist the urge to panic. “Whatever you are, demon or natural, I forbid you to take another step!”

“Very well then,” said the jackal. “I shall not.” He placed his hands together, lowered his head as if in prayer… and his entire body turned to sand and blew away in the night breeze.

Lily stared at the spot where he had been standing. The type of magic he had used was of a level not seen in Sankami for centuries… but more important than that, he was a sentient. Only eight sentient species were supposed to exist, but he had been here, talking… Lily felt the world spinning out from underneath her.

One of the knights stepped forward, pulling off her helmet. She was a much younger skunk, with piercing green eyes identical to Lily’s, her silver-colored hair drawn into a tight braid. “Mothe- Milady, are you all right? What was that creature?”

“I do not know, Nadeshiko,” Lily whispered, her mind far away. “We must scatter the knights, try to trace where it went…”

A low chuckle came from behind an ancient oak. “Sorry, Milady. You’ll never find that one, not where he’s headed.”

Nadeshiko’s expression of astonishment nearly matched Lily’s as an ancient, decrepit wolf emerged from the shadows. He was the oldest sentient either had ever laid eyes on… His back was stooped, his tail dragged behind him, and his flesh hung loosely off his bones. His mottled fur was as white as Lily’s armor, lacking any of the tribal markings wolves usually bore. Clearly he had once been a powerful figure, but his body had long since wasted away. Curiously, his eyes seemed much too young for the rest of his face; they shone russet-brown in the darkness with vitality utterly at odds with his appearance. The wolf chuckled at the shocked reactions of the two females. “Evening, Lady Lily,” he said. Casting an eye at the younger skunk, his tattered ears perked up with surprise. “This can’t be your daughter… has it really been that long?”

Lily’s voice became very quiet. “Hello, Drake. Nadeshiko, take the knights back to Shinboku.”

Nadeshiko stared at Lily as if she had been slapped. “Milady, you can’t be serious!”

“I am quite serious. That’s an order.”

With a hateful look at the wolf, Nadeshiko turned around and began leading the other knights back in the direction they had come.

“She has your eyes,” Drake commented with some amusement. “And your attitude.”

“Enough,” said Lily, her voice hard as steel. “I am doing you a considerable courtesy by not dragging you in for interrogation. You have earned that much. However, you will tell me everything you know about that creature, the black tower, and the relation between the two. Mind that you speak truly; you are well aware that the Silver Order does not tolerate liars…”

“Ouch! Hanami, that hurts!”

“It would hurt a lot less if you’d stop fidgeting! Hold still, it’ll be done in a minute.”

Zero grimaced as Hanami fretted over him. She was applying a healing poultice to his sore shoulder, and the strong herbs within it stung to the touch. To keep his mind off it, he cast his gaze over Woodhaven’s sitting room, illuminated by cheerily glowing paper lanterns. Over in the armchair across the room, Ashpaw sat with his eyes closed, his wounds having already been dressed. Faun lay sprawled on the couch opposite him, idly flipping a San coin between her fingers, seemingly lost in thought.

“All that gold and treasure Renubis had in his crypt, and now it’s going to be hauled off by the rabbits for their historical gallery,” she sighed, breaking the silence. “I could have been rich, but I missed out on all of it because I thought he had something better in store. Some reward.”

Ashpaw opened one eye. “Well then, Faunelle. Perhaps this could teach you a few things about the dangers of greed…”

“And stealing,” said Zero.

“And lying,” Hanami chimed in, gripping the poultice tighter than was really necessary.

“There, you see?” Ashpaw smiled broadly. “Haven’t you learned something valuable?”

“Not a thing,” said Faun without missing a beat.

END OF BOOK II

NEXT…

BOOK III: SOULSNATCHER

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