1Twilight of the Soul – Take Two
Chapter One – The Hand That Feeds
Kigai peered up into the haze. What time was it again? His watch had quit days ago, and the sky was so dark...
He used to be able to tell the time by looking for the sun, measuring its distance to the horizon. Lately, that had become a much more difficult and less reliable technique. Well, he'd never been punctual a day in his life anyway. What good would knowing the time do him now?
He continued his trek downhill, walking towards the wisps of smoke that told of a village located among the massive trees ahead. Even someone like him who was entirely capable of hunting and preparing his own food needed to get in touch with civilization every now and again. Besides, it wasn't as if he disliked people, it was just that the places he went to train were by tradition difficult to reach and very remote.
Kigai shifted his heavy pack easily across his shoulders, leaping from one boulder to the next down a particularly steep slope. As a matter of fact, he could really use some company. He'd actually gotten used to crowds of people when he'd been living in the city up until recently, and the solitude of his old lifestyle grated on him. Who would have thought that he'd actually miss the fights and the inevitable complications that always seemed to arise among his group of 'friends'?
The rocks, gravel and brush gave way to a narrow but well maintained dirt road. Kigai could hear the sounds of people chatting in the distance, and caught the scents of roasting meats and simmering stews. It must be near dinner time then. Hopefully this town would have an inn where he could find a meal, a bed and maybe some booze to spend the night with. No women though, he'd had enough of them to last him for the next ten years.
He finally emerged into the cleft in the trees that housed the village. Trees made up two boundaries of the open space, and a small river defined the third, distant edge of town. Across the river, Kigai could see several small fields of growing crops lining a wider dirt road. Kigai knew that farther in that direction lay a much larger town that served as a jumping off point into the wilds on the edge of this country.
The first of the villagers spotted him as Kigai wandered into the main street. After giving the somewhat disheveled and dirty man a fairly critical once over, the man apparently decided that Kigai wasn't a bandit and should therefore be given some courtesy as a visitor. Kigai stopped walking and waited for the man to approach patiently.
"Just out of the mountains, are you?"
"Yep. Been training on Mount Lichi."
The man's eyebrows went up. All the locals had heard of the advanced training fields of that secluded mountain, and had some respect for those who spent time there. "Well, it's getting' late now, so I guess I'll see you on to the tavern rather than makin' you find it yourself in the dark."
"I'd appreciate that." Kigai grinned disarmingly at his guide.
Shortly thereafter, Kigai was seated at a heavily polished hardwood bar in the respectably furnished Woodsman's Axe. As he enjoyed his dinner and the occasional curious questions from the locals and other travelers, he found himself relaxing into human companionship again. He'd been so angry and stubborn when he'd left the city that he'd never thought people would appeal to him again. Maybe it was time to start writing a few letters back home.
He was finishing a short tale about one of his minor adventures to a group of enraptured young men when the barkeep tapped him on the shoulder. "Say, your name is Nagano, right?"
Kigai twisted around on his stool to face the man. "That's right."
"Good timing! Someone left a letter here for you yesterday. I just recalled it now." The man hurried off to get the note as Kigai's brow creased in confusion. Who knew he was here? Certainly no one who'd want to write him a letter. The man returned shortly with the folded, off white paper. A wax seal held the edges together, and his name, Kigai Nagano, was carefully and artistically brushed onto the opposite side in blue ink.
People actually still use this stuff? Kigai was perplexed as he inspected the impressed crest. A three headed beast of some sort, perhaps. With a shrug, he slipped it into his pocket and returned to entertaining his audience. He'd forgotten how much he liked being the center of attention.
He didn't think of the mysterious letter until much later that night, or rather very early the next morning, as he was preparing for bed in his rented room. The distinct crinkling of the paper reminded him of its presence as he took off his jacket. Flopping down on the room's lone chair, he pulled it out, inspected it once more, and carelessly tore open the seal.
Damn. It more'n half kanji. Shoulda figured with all the fancy shit on the outside...Hey, does my name really have that many strokes in it? A few minutes later, he finally kicked his rusty brain into gear and started deciphering the message.
Kigai Nagano:
Greetings! We do not know each other, but we shall be formally acquainted soon. I have heard of your many exploits and of your prowess as a warrior. It is due to this well earned fame that I request your presence at my Keep in one week. For you see, I have a problem that I would like you to deal with...
I am prepared to offer you a generous salary for as long as you are in my service to deal with this issue. The details may be found below.
-Shih Mein Duon, Keeper of the Stone
Well, the numbers at the bottom of the page were certainly easy enough to read. Kigai's eyes widened. That was an immense amount of money. What exactly would be worth this kind of payment? Something very dangerous and difficult no doubt.
Well, no matter. Kigai flopped out on his bed, already planning his trip to Western Keep. There was no evil in this world that he wasn't strong enough to take care of. He had never been defeated before, and he wasn't planning on starting now.
He drifted off to sleep more easily than he had in months. Perhaps this was what he needed, a purpose in his life. A distraction.
The next morning dawned just as early as it ever did for Kigai. He thanked his strong constitution for the ability to shake off his late night so easily as we performed his morning katas in the dim haze of the early hour.
The air was hot and humid on his bare chest, the dirt cold and hard beneath his feet. Kigai tuned it all out. He had a potentially dangerous venture before him, and he needed to be in top shape.
The katas were second nature and required no concentration on his part. Normally, this allowed his mind to go blissfully blank and let him simply enjoy being the master of such a perfect machine as his own body. However, today he was left with excessive time to simply think, which was not an activity he liked to extensively engage in. Thinking accomplishes nothing. Action moves mountains. But recent events, especially this call to action he had received, were bringing back memories. Recollections of times when he wouldn't be going off to fight this evil alone. Not that he doubted his ability to handle it, but having the others there had always made the trip seem shorter, the battles more exciting, the victory so much sweeter...
In perfect silence, Kigai flowed from one form to another. As a fighter, he had to be strong. As one without all but the merest touch of magic, he had to be even stronger. And as Kigai, he had to be invincible.
Weakness was death to the body and soul. Kigai hated nothing more than feeling weak, so he had dedicated his life to defeating all comers, always improving and always becoming stronger. Seek out the skills and knowledge, abandon the things that weighed you down.
Why, then, did his thoughts turn to that one person who made him feel weak? And why did he long to have that feeling back again?
Several days of hard travel across the gradually decreasing slopes was nothing to someone so experienced as Kigai. He arrived at his destination with a day to spare before the deadline recorded in the letter. Out of the grassy plain, broken by the occasional copse of trees or the sad, lone bush rose an immense spire of black and grey stone. A perfect fortress, Western Keep had been inhabited for hundreds of years. People very literally carved out a living in the vertical cliffs, with the city extending deep into carefully crafted tunnels and caverns. These were lit by magic in the more prosperous areas and mere torchlight in the poorer sections. There were four entrances, one in each of the cardinal directions and all guarded by highly trained and heavily armored warriors. Kigai wandered in through the East Gate, a three story high monstrosity of gaudily carved stonework.
Kigai had been here before, so he didn't waste time gawking at the scenery. He headed directly for the inn that had been recommended to him before his first visit. Service there had always been excellent, so he was disinclined to take his chances with any other establishment. As he ducked through the granite archway into the main area of the inn, he noticed that the same ancient, shriveled old man was still in place behind the counter. As he had since Kigai first visited, the man looked about thirty years past his coffin, but apparently was never going to die. Kigai had his suspicions as to whether the man was in fact human at all, but kept them to himself.
As he walked up to the desk and dropped his pack at his feet, the ancient one stirred himself with a disturbing popping and cracking of what were hopefully only aged joints, rather than bone or something worse.
"Ah, Master Nagano." He grated out, "We have been expecting you. Your room, he has already arranged it."
"Oh. Uh, thanks." Perplexed, Kigai accepted the worn key from the withered and shaking hand. "Who're you talking about, though?"
There was a slight flicker from among the wrinkles that may have been a rare glimpse of an eye. "Why, the Keeper of the Stone, of course! He told us days ago that you'd be coming, and to hold rooms for all of you."
"Huh. That's confidence." Kigai snorted. He hadn't sent any word that he'd accepted the man's contract, but he'd assumed that Kigai would come just because he was summoned anyway. Kigai slouched away from the counter and headed up the stairs. His room was on the third story of the establishment, and it appeared that all the rooms he passed were occupied. The Keeper of the Stone must have paid an arm and a legs to keep a room empty and reserved for days.
At this point, Kigai's brain finally won its petition to be heard. "Hey, he said 'all of you'. I wonder what he meant by that?"
The next morning followed a similar pattern to all the previous. Kigai had a little less room for his katas, being indoors and all, but he knew how to manage. Breakfast went quickly, accompanied by a small note on that familiar slightly non-white paper informing him of the time he would be expected at Shih Mein's residence.
He had a couple of hours left until the meeting, so he decided a bath was absolutely required. He'd had one before he went to bed the night before, but they'd been few and far between on his days on the road, so he would enjoy the luxury while the inn's baths were available to him. There was nothing like a nice long soak in steaming hot water to relax the body and soul.
Luckily enough, his room was only a short distance from the bathing area, in a prime spot along the hallway for easy passage and a limited trek. However, as he was about to step into the tiled bath room, he collided with another young man hurriedly leaving. Clad only in a white towel, the striking black tattoos across the man's chest were impossible to miss. In addition, they were extremely familiar to Kigai.
"Shinzou! What the hell are you doing here?!"