Sklerdras Project

Dressed in fine silk kimonos, slippers, and their hair up in top-knots, three persons of apparent rank are announced in the audience chamber of King Hiderion. Three additional persons, clearly servants, trail behind them bearing a medium-sized chest bearing jewels, a fine ceramic tea set and other sundry goods showing the mark of culture and craftsmanship. Another wields a large jewel-embedded incense brazier, and the third a small cart. On the cart is a cage containing a juvenile black bear. It would later be explained the black bear is sacred in Sunokawa, an honored animal spirit and the only animal prohibited from being hunted or killed.

They stop at the designated distance before the Vathi king and one of them, apparently the spokesman for the group, takes one additional step and bows sincerely to Hiderion. He speaks in highly accented, but understandable, Vathi,

"Lord King, my name is Ishikawa Kosami. I come from a land known as Sunokawa, in the direction of the setting sun, across the harsh waters. I bear greeting and gifts from my master, Kuma Yoritomo, Shogun of Sunokawa. Should it please your majesty, my master bids us to stay in Yvresse, to be at your disposal and to learn what you would have us know of yourself and your noble realm. He would also like us to help your merchants to find routes to our lands and seek an exchange of goods. If such an enterprise should please you, of course."

The throne room was a little more empty than normal. Hiderion feared that one of the many nobles might offend the diplomats before he had even received them and had thus ordered a more closed session today. There was some slight confusion and unease among the Phoenix Guard as to why a junior bear has been brought into the courtroom but they remain still, almost like statues. Hiderion stood from his throne and gave his diplomatic welcome.

“Welcome to Yvresse, envoys of the Shogun. I greatly appreciate the gifts that you brought across the harsh waters of the Wailing Seas. As envoys you’ll be treated with respect so long as you give it to the royal court. We can discuss the more private diplomatic matters in the audience room but first please present your gifts. I’m most curious.”

“Of course, your highness” Kosami replied with a bow, then motioned for the servants to come forward and present their treasures before the Vathi king, the other two officials looking on satisfactorily, although Kosami had not bothered to interpret any of the conversation yet.

The first servant set the chest upon the floor and opened it. Kosami removed items from the chest one by one, passing them to one of the elven officials who then handed it directly to Hiderion after a quick inspection. He described each item in detail, Hiderion occasionally asking questions. Various pieces of Sunokawan jewelry, a porcelain framed hand mirror with intricate engravings on the back, a ceramic tea set and a pouch of Sunokawan herbs to brew, ornately carved and polished kanzashi (hair ornaments) worthy of Sunokawan nobles, a pair of silk kimonos, a fine utility knife in a decorated leather sheath showing the quality of Sunokawan steelwork, a kokiu (small stringed musical instrument), a rolled watercolor painting of the Sunokawan landscape, a shogi game set, and some food items Kosami knew were not known in Alylnor like dried fruits and nuts from Sunokawa, a bag of fine rice, and a jar of plum sauce.

The second servant came forth with the large bronze brazier with silver inlay in a pleasing design of gently curving arcs. Kosami explained, “We use such devices with these incense sticks to create a sacred smoke our kannushi, or priests, use to communicate with the kami. We Sunokawans are a very spiritual people, your majesty. We revere our ancestors and the spirits that inhabit the world.”

With that we beckoned forth the third servant, who wheeled the caged black bear closer to the base of Hiderion’s dias. The animal looked about the room curiously, sniffed the air and made a low, apprehensive growling noise. Kosami explained, “The kuroi kuma, or black bear, is a sacred animal for us. It is the only creature we are forbidden to hunt or kill. My Shogun’s House in even named for it. I do not think such animals live in your lands. This one was orphaned as a cub and now the Shogun offers its care to you as a sign of his trust in your benevolence.”

Hiderion looked on with curiosity. These humans were nothing like those that maim, kill and destroy along the border regions of Alylnor. He had expected to be disappointed but was now rather surprised. When Kosami finished presenting the gifts one by one, Hiderion smiled and spoke.

“Thank you for these most excellent gifts. All shall know the generosity of the Shogun. My trusted captain here will carefully handle the gifts and add them to the court’s collection. Now, please come so we may discuss the sensitive matters of diplomacy in the safety of the audience room.”

Well connected to the main throne room, the audience room was a highly decorated room filled with Vathi arts. Tapestries documented some of the greatest feats accomplished by Hiderion’s ancestors. However there was none more important than the painting of the head of the Vathi pantheon, Asuryan, who’s fires test every Vathi king upon accession to the throne. There was a long table made out of some of the finest woods in the Finu forests with an extravagant chair at one end raised above all others, clearly for the Vathi monarch. Hiderion sat first however he could sense some awkwardness among the delegation, the chairs perhaps? Eventually all were seated and Hiderion spoke.

“My merchants travel all over Alylnor with the finest Vathi goods, however few are so bold to travel away from land across the Wailing sea and rumors are vague. I wish to send envoys bearing only the finest of Vathi works but we know little about your realm. How may our merchants find your great lands so we may have fruitful relations?”

It was unseasonably warm this far after the harvest and so close to when the first snows were expected. The lantern festival held in the fairgrounds near Kuminouchi Keep was better attended than in any years past, with the number of merchant stands nearly doubled from the previous festival. Many sold rare goods and oddities from Alylnor and the few elven merchants who ventured this far upriver garnered curious, but wary, attention. Old, almost forgotten tales of the yosei betrayal were being retold although the Shogun assured these were not the dark ones of legend. Still, an unsettled atmosphere could be felt at all the rapid changes in Sunokawa, although most of the changes brought greater prosperity and peace.

No one felt the unsettling vibes more than Lady Nene, wife of the powerful and now unrivaled Kuma Yoritomo, Shogun and effective ruler of all Sunokawa and its surrounding lands. On this particular day, the Lady Nene was kneeling on her zabuton across a low chabudai from her youngest son, Kuma Tanosuke, now four years of age. The pair were situated in a pagoda in the main courtyard of Kuminouchi Keep, taking advantage of the pleasant weather in the open-air wooden structure, painted a dark burgundy. Several attendants stood at a distance, perfectly still with hands folded and heads bowed, waiting to be summoned by the great Lady of the House.

Nene sat sternly and with seemingly infinite patience as she instructed Tanosuke in his calligraphy, having him write the kanji of the important persons and places she believed he should know. She insisted young Tanosuke would have the highest literacy training, thinking he perhaps might be suited some day to take a position as a key administrator in the Imperial Court. His aunt, her sister, could help see that happens.

But as she oversaw her young son’s instruction, Nene’s thoughts wandered to the other great concerns on her mind. Her husband, the mighty Shogun, was currently in the expanding village of Kuminouchi, a short distance away, overseeing the final stages of the construction of the city. Soon, there would be an inauguration ceremony marking the formal opening of the city and the new Imperial palace for the Emperor and his Court.

Yoritomo had wanted to continue the expansion, to make Kuminouchi into a larger, major city, but Nene had convinced him instead to use those resources to begin construction of a second city, Tomoyuro, high in the Hofuna mountains. She had argued for the need of greater control and administration over the important mining region. For Nene, there was an additional reason she did not voice. Her eldest son, Kuma Yoritaga, would be appointed Shugo, Marshal Governor, of Tomoyuro. For Nene, that meant her son would have a strong power base of his own and better secure his position to succeed his father as Shogun when the time eventually came. There had not been a dynasty of rulers, aside from the Emperor, of course, in 200 years. Nene would do all she could to ensure her son’s success to become the next Shogun…. a ruler she may be better able to control as Yoritaga was far more ready to heed his mother’s advice and follow her guidance. It could not be denied that her relationship and influence with her husband had slipped somewhat in the recent years as Yoritomo solidified his control of Sunokawa and his popularity grew with the lesser lords and merchant guilds. He sought her advice less frequently, as well as her bed, preferring to spend most nights with his disgusting Ainu barbarian concubines.

Where they disagreed, Yoritomo was increasingly more likely to follow his own advice than not. Yoritomo had opened Sunokawa to the yosei of Alylnor, despite her strong protest that they should keep the elves out of the land and to be prepared to defend against them, convinced ambassador Kosami was being deceived and that they could not be trusted.

And then there were the disturbing reports of the ‘dragon’ people to the north. Sunokawan hunters who followed the elk herds in their migrations between the close-by expansive Lake Biwa and the smaller, remote lake valley of Kuttara far to the north had reportedly encountered a strange, pale and bearded people settling in the region. According to their tales, the strange race was building houses, shops, temples and odd stone-lined pits in the ground where by which they kept a perpetual fire burning and constructed a stone guardian to watch over it in the form of a great, winged lizard…a ‘dragon’ it was said to be called. When the reports reached the Keep, Lady Nene was adamant that the newcomers must be driven off, pushed back to wherever they came from and destroyed if need be. But the Shogun insisted there was no immediate threat, and they should learn more about these people. If they were as industrious and civilized as it seemed, but in need of protection, perhaps they could be incorporated as a new daimyo in the realm by invitation, or, if need be, subjugation.

In private, Lady Nene implored her husband to take swift action and see the yosei and the dragon people as the threats they were. Yoritomo only assured her he would not hesitate to wage war if needed, but the need was not evident. He seemed to be adopting some of the new philosophy circulating about the careful cultivation of allies and study of enemies instead of rash action. He justified his stance by pointing to the rapid climb in wealth and flourishing of the people and that this was born out of the unification wars he led and his willingness to fight to preserve it would not be questioned. He was still Shogun, warlord of Sunokawa.

Nene could not deny the boon the last couple of years of peace had brought. The land was quelled. Still, there was some discontent remaining in the realm. In particular, there was a great deal of animosity under the surface in the lands under the Yagi daimyo. It nagged and bothered Nene that so much acrimony remained. Surely, they were being treated fairly. Surely, they too were prospering. Surely, they had no other alternatives, as Lord Hokichi and his sons had been slain in the Battle of Azami Glen. Even the daughter, the Lady Yoko, is said to have drowned herself and Nene had no reason to doubt that. But then…..she had no reason to believe it, either. At first the story was Yoko’s body had never been found. But her secret inquiry through the head housekeeper at Yagi Manor turned up a different story. Apparently, Yoko’s body had been recovered, a week later; the remains burned on a funeral pyre and her bones and ashes laid in the ground in a grove near the river. All the villagers and household attested to it. If they could be trusted. Nene’s suspicious mind worked overtime. Why the change in story?

Suddenly, she recalled something her sister once mentioned to her about the Lady Yoko. She summoned an attendant to take Tanosuke to the stables for a riding lesson and she herself made her way back to her chambers. She removed from a chest a rather bare wooden box containing letters received from her sister in Court. She began reviewing them until she found the one she was looking for. A few years ago, when Nene was complaining to her sister about a toothache she had, her sister replied back that there was a physician in court she would have sent that was very good working with teeth. In fact, her sister’s letter stated, this physician had recently treated the daughter of Lord Hokichi, replacing an abscessed molar with a silver stud shaped to resemble the replaced tooth.

Nene sat back on her haunches and considered. Interesting. She had to know. She had to be sure. With marked resolve, Nene made her way to her writing table and wetted an elegant brush in the inkwell and began to compose a letter, instructing her agent, the housekeeper at Yagi Manor, to take the trusted messenger of the letter and when she could do so unseen, to exhume the body of Lady Yoko, remove the skull in its entirety, and have the messenger return with it. An additional money purse for her efforts…and discretion, would accompany the letter. Nene re-read her letter, considering it with the tip of the brush on her lips, anticipating what objections night arise. Then she added that the housekeeper need not be fearful of the kami. Nene would work with her kannushi to appease them for this important task.

THWACK! The arrow hit the target just to the right of the heart painted on the straw mannequin. Further down the field from the direction in which the arrow flew, a solemn figure dressed in the robes of a Shinto acolyte lowered her bow and sighed. Well, the young woman thought to herself, at least she is consistently hitting the mannequin, even if her aim still needs some work. It’s progress. And if she could procure a horse, she could begin to practice her yabusame, the art of horse archery, thinking it both good training for her martial skills and the ritualistic aspects of the practice an honor to the spirits.

Despite her humble visage and pious surroundings, the Lady Yoko was determined to maintain her noble birthright. With her father, the beloved Lord Hokichi, dead as well as her brothers, as far as she was concerned she was now the head of the Yagi clan, not the pretender sitting in her father’s manor house, appointed by Lord Yoritomo, cursed be his name.

Living in near anonymity, Yoko was known by all in the temple compound, save few, only as Sashi, a humble peasant girl dedicating her life to the temple. In reality she was doing her best to keep her skills sharp, listening attentively, but unobtrusively, to the gossip from visitors making pilgrimage to the temple. Waiting. And waiting more. Waiting for what? She was not sure. For the right time. To do what? She was not sure. Assassinate the Shogun? What would that accomplish except her certain death and likely one of his sons to take over? Challenge the pretender to House Yagi? Why, only to take his place as a subject of the tyrant? She thought maybe to gather an army; with the lasting peace in the realm, there were plenty of ronin, released from duty to their lords, wandering the land looking for employment. Still, there were far too few of them to make an effective stand against the immense power of the Shogun. And besides, they were not likely to follow her, a woman. She was simply…frustrated. She needed a sign.

Later in the day, in the midday respite when most of the dwellers were busy with daily chores, Yoko approached her cousin, Fuse, one of the kannushi, or high priests, of the temple complex. Her cousin had helped her when she first arrived and although he promised to conceal and protect her, he was not particularly bothered by the turn of events and would likely not help her achieve her aim, remaining distant in the ethereal world between the earthly and the spirit planes.

She asked him if we would consult the spirits for her, asking for guidance on what she should do. Fuse smiled and gave his usual response that there was nothing she has to do but the question was what she would choose to do. Was not honoring the spirits through the ritual day at the temple not enough? No, no it was not, she replied frankly. Very well, they would consult the spirits together.

He led her up the wide, carved stone steps and into the main temple. In one of the many altar rooms, Fuse began preparing the brazier by placing different types of wood chips in its concave bottom. He then added a couple types of powder, all the while chanting and making arcane gesticulations. Yoko noticed her cousin getting deeper and deeper into a trance. He made some sort of token offering at the altar, continuing his chanting in an arcane dialect she could not understand, but felt a shiver when he gestured in her direction. Fuse lit a taper from the rushlight on the altar and cast it into the brazier causing the wood chips inside to ignite with a large whoosh. Fuse placed a large, handled dome over the brazier, blocking the smoke from all but the narrow space near the rim where the fire still breathed. After about a minute or so of incantations, Fuse deftly removed the dome and the thick mass of gathering smoke, greenish in hue, bellowed up and around in all directions, ghostly shapes dancing in the swirls. Fuse peered into the haze in a knowing trance, but what he could see Yoko had no idea. It was just a mess of nothing to her. She was startled when Fuse made a quiet gasp, then a low whispered, “oooh”, and he was coming out of trance just as the thick green smoke was spent and the normal, thin dirty white smoke of a normal fire took over.

Fuse sat still for a long while, not saying anything, just staring at the empty air, deep in his own thoughts, apparently. When she could bear it no longer, Yoko sat herself in front of him, giving him an imploring look.

“So? What do the spirits say?”

The sound of her voice seemed to shake Fuse to his senses and he glanced about briefly, as if to reassure himself of his location. He turned his gaze to her and replied earnestly, “The spirits say you walk a path of danger. But if you proceed, then help will arrive.... from the East.”

“The East?” Yoko replied in disbelief, “There is nothing to the East but wilderness. I don’t understand.”

“This is what they say. Help from the East, but….” And he shook his head.

“But what?”

“But the price will be very high. And the outcome…uncertain”

Yoko sat back momentarily but was unperturbed. Of course there would be sacrifices to make along the way, she was ready to accept that. “Did the spirits say what this price that must be paid is?”

“No”

“Or what this help will be?”

Fuse looked at her, almost accusingly, a deep look of worry on his face. “They did not say, but…they are afraid”

“They are afraid for me?”

“No… the spirits fear what may be coming to aid you.”

Yoko gave a perplexed look at Fuse, “What can a kami be afraid of?”

Fuse, in a rare moment of excitation, reached out and grabbed Yoko on her arm, alarming the girl, “Yoko,” he said in a low voice, “be careful that you do not find yourself in league with the dark forces.”

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