Meida,

I understand that you have requested the services of a midwife in order to carry Takahiro’s child safely to term. Let me be the first to say to you: Congratulations! It’s a boy!

It’s unlikely that I can get myself hired for that role, so instead I have imposed upon the services of someone who can in order to deliver this message, as your pregnancy poses a significant risk to your health.

You are no doubt asking yourself, how do I know? It is a good question, and one that I will answer.

It is at risk because you have made assumptions both about the nature of your child’s father and his commitment to you. It is no small matter starting a family, and relationships such as these should be founded in honesty and truth. I am afraid to say that in this matter you have been short-changed. Even though you are going to great lengths to conceal both your pregnancy and your child’s birth, he his hiding a great many secrets that are, to put it bluntly, significantly more dangerous.

Your lover and, I can only assume, groom-to-be, is not entirely human. His grandfather is, in fact, an oni: an evil spirit given flesh in our world. More specifically, his grandfather is Anamurumon, the man he actually calls “grandfather”. It is ironic that he uses that title without understanding how accurate it really is.

Alas, this means that Takahiro’s father was a half-fiend, and that, in turn, makes Takahiro a tiefling. I am sure you have noticed something odd about his eyes, assuming he ever removes that ridiculous mask (I have to wonder, was he wearing it when your child was conceived?) But what I worry about is not his fashion sense, but rather your health. Where I come from, there are more than a few tieflings and it is not uncommon for certain…features to manifest in later generations. You should make sure that you inform your midwife, as they will need to know. You do not want to give birth to a baby that has claws or horns without warning them first. (I would go so far to say that you would not want to do this at all, but alas, that seed has germinated.)

You should also be aware that Anamurumon killed both of Takahiro’s parents, presumably so he could have sole influence over the child’s upbringing. I admit I don’t know when, exactly, he murdered Takahiro’s father, but I do know that his mother was poisoned just a few minutes after giving birth. If I were in your position I would be considerably alarmed about my long-term prospects. If Anamurumon were to ever become dissatisfied with Takahiro’s rule over Minkai, he might view his great grandson as an opportunity to, say, start again with a clean slate.

You should also be aware that your lover does not appear to be in a monogamous relationship with you. Perhaps you have discussed these matters and are planning on an open marriage—I am not one to judge, so if that is your desire then good for you—though even then he seems to have opened it, among other things, rather enthusiastically wide. Enclosed is a partial accounting of his concubine. I say “partial” because we’ve only been here a couple of weeks. That, and he seems to be staying in more now that we are here.

I am sure he will try to destroy this list if you confront him with it, and that would be both rude and unfair. As such, I have taken the liberty of making copies. Verbal copies, because where I come from we value the oral tradition. So if something does happen to it, and you need to refer to it, you can probably just ask anyone. And I do mean, literally, anyone. Because we’re making sure as many people receive a copy as possible.

If you need further assistance in this matter, just wait. We’ll be there soon.

 

Kali

P.S. I am sorry, but I lied earlier. I was not afraid to say it at all.

---

Takahiro,

Enclosed you will find the story of your birth, and the truth about your mother and her fate. I am told you have been seeking answers to these questions, and so I have taken the liberty of providing them.

Your first reaction will, of course, be to assume that I am either lying or have been lied to, myself. And you are, of course, right to be skeptical. Though I could tell you how I know these events are true, that would require me to reveal both the extent and nature of my power and it would be unwise for me to do so. But, you very reasonably require proof of my claims, and so I shall give it to you.

I know these events to be true in the same way that I know that the man you affectionately call your grandfather is, in fact, your grandfather. You think the term is merely an honorific, but it is instead a literal truth. One could go so far as to say that you have your grandfather’s eyes.

I know them to be true in the same way that I know that your lover, Renshii Meida, is hiding her pregnancy from both you and your grandfather, and that the child she carries is your son. (Congratulations! It’s a boy!) She intends to hire a midwife in secret, and to carry the child completely to term without ever revealing either her pregnancy or your son’s birth. You are no doubt aware she commands considerable magic, and is more than capable of hiding her state, even from you. Unless, of course, you knew otherwise.

I know them to be true in the same way that I know that your unfaithfulness to her far exceeds even her wildest speculation. While she may be willing to quietly tolerate the occasional liaison as an acceptable price for her own designs for the Jade Throne, the extent of your reckless philandering, along with an accounting of its frequency, is becoming public knowledge as you read this. It will almost certainly test her limits.

These are difficult times for the regent of Minkai, and I realize that these revelations merely compound your problems. Normally, I hate being the one who delivers such terrible news. But in your case? I found it quite satisfying. My only regret is that I could not do so in person, but I am sure you understand.

 

Kali

Sarenith 25th, 4713 (mid-morning, Kasai)

Hatsue, Ivan and I popped into the middle of a field of ash and rubble. This was, at one time, the village where Soto Takahiro was born. I expected it to still be here, but I guess that was too much to ask. We took in our surroundings. Whatever happened here? It happened some time ago.

It was Hatsue that spoke first, breaking the long silence. “I have not been to this village before, but it seems to be in the general region we were patrolling. From the looks of it, the bandits and probably not a few oni-led terror troops laid it to ruins.” I had no reason to doubt her assessment.

I sent Nihali up to keep an eye on us just in case, but there wasn’t a living soul in sight, and barely enough standing ruins for one to hide behind. My teleportation spell had brought us to what seemed to be the center of town, perhaps a marketplace with shops. We picked a direction and walked until we found what looked like the remains of peoples’ homes.

I was frustrated, and I let it show as I pulled out the specially crafted incense. “Unless someone has some insight into which pile of rubble is the right one, here is as good a place as any other. Whenever you’re ready, Ivan.”

He cast a spell, and I felt good fortune flow through me. I soaked it in for a moment, then cast my spell: the one that was our whole reason for coming here. The incense was consumed in a brilliant flash, leaving only an aromatic smoke behind.

The world around me faded to darkness.

A woman lies abed in the throes of labor, attended by a midwife and her assistant. A middle-aged man stands nearby, intently watching, occasionally pacing impatiently. He has a forceful, commanding presence, but the two women pay him no mind as they focus on their task.

The mother is clearly exhausted and in pain as though she has been struggling to birth her baby for several hours. Each contraction is accompanied by an almost desperate lament, wordless pleading for it to be over. The midwife does her best to keep her comfortable, but there is little that can be done.

At last the child is delivered. He cries he takes his first breath, and the assistant cuts the umbilical cord as the midwife inspects him and wraps him in linens. “It is a…healthy boy. Congratulations to you,” she says to the mother. The midwife’s smile and happy demeanor don’t quite cover the slight falter in her speech. This escapes the notice of the exhausted mother, but not the watchful man. The midwife suddenly remembers him and looks up into his face, fear clearly in her eyes.

The man walks over to the midwife, eyes locked on the her until he is so close she can feel his breath on her skin. He takes the baby and says, without looking away, “He looks perfect to me. The very best any parent could want in a normal, healthy, human child. Don’t you agree, midwife?” She shrinks visibly under the weight of his glare. “Y-yes, of course, m’lord, absolutely, as you said. Never in my years have I seen such a beautiful baby boy born to any woman in Minkai.”

Finally, after a painful few seconds that feel like an eternity, the man turns, still holding the child in one arm. He walks over to a table, hands the infant to the assistant, and pours a small cup of herbal tea. The two women are busy attending to the newborn baby, and neither sees him remove a pouch from his belt and sprinkle additional herbs into the water. He carries the cup over to the mother as he speaks some encouraging words. “Well, Yuriko, You have a perfect, wonderful son who will bring joy to you the rest of your days. That was quite a difficult labor, though, one that easily could have taken your life. You are fortunate to have survived such an ordeal.” He hands her the cup of steaming tea and says, “Your midwife has prepared this medicinal tea. It will help you regain your strength.”

He takes the baby back from the assistant again, looking closely at the boy as the mother drinks. There is something unusual about the child’s eyes, but it is subtle. “Yes, you will do fine, my grandson. Very fine, indeed. You shall be named Takahiro.”

He looks up again at the sound of a tea cup shattering. The midwife’s assistant cries out in alarm as the young mother convulses on the bed before going still. A trickle of blood runs from her mouth and nose.

Without emotion, the man says, “It seems I spoke too soon.”

I was lying on the ground. At first, I thought I was on the beach in Sandpoint, Jefy Theern looming over me. But my hands were covered in dirt and ash, not sand. Ivan and Hatsue helped me to my feet, and my confusion faded as my strength returned. One of them had cast spell to help me recover.

“Well?” Ivan asked, expectantly.

I nodded. “We have what we need.”

(early afternoon, Kasai)

My meeting with Meida’s handmaiden went well after a somewhat rocky start: her idea of a discreet meeting place was the gardens on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. This was a questionable decision since it’s difficult to have privacy in a space that is open to the public with people walking through it. I had to insist that we get out of earshot to discuss a matter as sensitive as Meida’s secret pregnancy. For reasons only the gods understand she found this suspicious. It’s hard to believe she has survived for any length of time in her position with so few candles burning in the attic.

Once we got away from bystanders, however, her attitude changed dramatically. I put on the ring Isao had found for me, and which I had prepared in advance with potent persuasive magic, and from that point on I could do no wrong. The fact that I actually knew what I was talking about became largely irrelevant.

The whole point of the meeting was to slip a message to Meida without someone else seeing it (the plan to actually kidnap her never got past the “crazy idea” stage because there were just too many factors outside our control). For that, I had to trust that the handmaiden would accept and deliver a sealed package and ensure it remained sealed until then. Magical compulsion was my best bet for pulling it off. We’ll know later tonight whether or not that worked.

Preparing for this little visit was something of an ordeal. Because I was walking into the lion’s den, I had to not only not look like me but also not be lit like a bonfire if examined with magic. That meant no magical disguises, and also stripping myself of most of my magical gear. Zosi was able to alchemically darken my skin and whiten my hair so that, with the help of silver and purple robes from Koya, I looked like a servant of Pharasma: exactly the sort of look you’d expect in a professional midwife. Once my hair was tied up in a bun to hide its length, even I didn’t recognize myself.

I am actually a little bit worried that Pharasma will find this deception more than a little offensive. Logically, I can tell myself that it’s all for the greater good, but my gut also knows that the greater good is used to justify any number of terrible acts by well-intentioned people. Ultimately, I want Meida out of this fight, or her role in it diminished, so that her baby won’t suffer for her mother’s sins. Hopefully that motive is pure enough.

We also have some light reading for Takahiro. Getting that to him was a more daunting task, so I took a chance on the Raven Prince and asked Ivan to send to him.

Have a story for Takahiro. He’ll love it. You will too. Willing to deliver? I promise there’s no trickery, no magic. Just words.

He didn’t even hesitate.

Sounds intriguing. Deliver it to the place gate. I’ll make sure it’s received.

It’s been an eventful day. This morning saw Takahiro’s first real retaliation for the mayhem we’ve been causing. Since he doesn’t have hostages to threaten and doesn’t know where we are, he simply made some up. The homes and businesses of two, prominent merchant families were completely gutted sometime before sunrise. The heads of the two merchants were found impaled on pikes, and their families have vanished. Each was accompanied by a public notice, accusing them of having raided the palace, and thus they were executed for treason.

Olmas spent the morning doing damage control, and even left a similarly public response at one of the scenes: The Amatatsu brought you food. The Jade Regent brings you death. Which do you support? I thought it was as nice touch.

I am actually surprised this sort of thing hasn’t happened sooner. It serves as a reminder that, the longer this drags on, the harder it will be for us to keep the momentum. And also that time is not on our side: there are a lot of people in Kasai that Anamurumon can kill out of spite. We can’t protect the whole city. The only way to put a stop to it is to go straight to the people in charge.

Sarenith 23, 4713 (late afternoon, Imperial Shrine)

Paranoid? Me? Maybe just a little. Occupational hazard, I suppose. I was thinking about Ito as we climbed out of the well; if he did have a phylactery of some sort here on the island, where would he hide it? Somewhere out of sight. Somewhere difficult to reach. Somewhere most people wouldn’t think to look.

Somewhere that we were actively discouraged from going earlier by Amatatsu Onoko. If that’s who she really was.

OK. That’s who she really was. But at the time I wasn’t trusting anyone but us.

We weren’t out five minutes when Koya came up to Dasi. “Do you know, there is not one single urn with the remains of the Shojinawa clan anywhere to be found? Isn’t that peculiar, don’t you think?”

“Peculiar”? That’s not the word I would choose. I’d probably settle on: “suspicious”.

Then she asked, “Do you know of anything in this country’s history to account for such a thing?”

Do we ever. And that’s when my thoughts turned to the lake, and “Onoko’s” insistence that we not mess with the water level. What was she hiding?

OK. That was just a coincidence. But. We weren’t wrong about the lake. For generations, it seems that the other royal families of Minkai expressed their opinions of Shojinawa Ito by tossing the remains of the entire Shojinawa family into the water. And one of the sealed urns we found down there was lined with lead, and just happened to contain Ito’s phylactery.

Olmas and Hatsue hacked at it until the wooden box was reduced to splinters, then Ivan burned it to ash. So, no more Ito.

Ameiko is interring Sigure’s remains as I write this. Hopefully he will be more agreeable—and considerably less choleric—after that’s done.

I am not holding my breath.

(later afternoon, Imperial Shrine)

I had this crazy idea as Ameiko was wrapping up with her relatives.

“What if we were to kidnap Renshii Meida?”

Everyone looked at me like I was out of my mind.

“I’m serious. Hear me out. If…if I get that meeting with her handmaiden—the one that’s looking for a midwife—what if I do more than just try to get information from her? What if I can actually get a meeting with Meida?”

I am not above using magic to pull this off. As distasteful as it is, it’s less so than killing a pregnant woman. It’s what mom would call situational ethics. That, and Shelyn gave me this ability for a reason.

“All I need is a piece of extravagant jewelry. A brooch, a ring, a necklace…something I can keep hidden until I meet with Meida’s handmaiden.” Then I reveal it. Put it on, uncover it, whatever. At that point, she would find me fairly persuasive without questioning why. And, it wouldn’t require me to do something as obvious as cast a spell in her presence.

“If I could get alone with Meida, and if Radella was close by, and Ivan was with her and keeping tabs on me with that spell of his…I could suppress her magic, and Radella could jump to us using the coin. We could capture her, and then use the coin again to get away.”

It is a lot of “if’s”. And the timing would have to be perfect. But we could do it. We could knock one of the pieces off the board (a metaphor Ivan and Hatsue would appreciate). Why bother trying to sow discord when we can just divide them up directly?

I’d need to go there in disguise. A mundane disguise, because I have to assume that Meida can see through magic, or at least detect it in her presence. I’d have to darken my skin, whiten my hair; basically look like someone who trained in Pharasma’s church and dresses accordingly. And I’d have to do it without any of my magical protections or enhancements. I’d need to look the part of someone that is not me well enough that even Meida wouldn’t suspect.

The others think I’m crazy. They point out it’s dangerous not just for me, but for Radella, too. And that if it goes wrong, we weaken ourselves considerably. And it depends on several factors that are outside our control.

These are all excellent points. But, part of me really, really wants to try it. Sometimes you just have to aim big.

(evening, Imperial Shrine)

We met the Raven Prince tonight. He was waiting for us at the docks of the Imperial Shrine.

So I guess he read our letter.

He didn’t have a family Seal with him, so he was just a ghostly image at first. We had to circle around the island in the boat and dock again, something he seemed to expect as he was not the least surprised. He came alone, and was just sitting there, waiting patiently. So this was apparently a temporary truce.

Dasi and I approached.

“You’ve been causing quite a bit of trouble.”

I answered in Tengu. “We’re going to keep causing it. I didn’t expect to see you here, but I suppose I am not surprised.”

“I wanted to see for myself the ones responsible. She is the last of the Amatatsu heirs?”

“The Amatatsu family survived the journey across the Crown. It is possible there are others we aren’t aware of, but as far as we know? She is the last.”

That he was here talking to us at all, almost certainly without Anamurumon’s or Takahiro’s knowledge, implied there was some angle we could work with him. So I decided to show him some of our cards. “Soto Takahiro has the other families’ Seals in the vault below the palace. They can be used to start new family lines.”

“I see. Interesting.”

“How much do you know about Anamurumon’s history?”

“Enough.”

“Would you agree that information has value?”

“It does. But I will not betray my employers.” Another hypothesis confirmed: his relationship with Anamurumon is strictly business. And, the Emerald Branch was right about him having his own code of honor.

“I assume you care about the future of Minkai. I don’t think the same can be said about your employers.”

“I do. Loyalties and allegiances can change, of course, but I will not violate my contract. And what do you know of this Amatatsu? Is she a good leader?”

And there’s the rub. We certainly did all of this for her because we know her, trust her, and value her as a friend. Mom once called this a crusade, and I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s right. It may have started as something else, but the farther we’ve come the more glimpses we’ve been given into Minkai’s future. This isn’t some hack’s play about a noble-born child, hidden away for their safety, growing up in a foreign land only to return to their ancestral home as an adult, and fight to restore their birthright. The future the people are facing here is bleak and terrifying in the way only real life can be. We’ve rallied behind Ameiko because we know her and believe in her, but…can we prove that she’s a good leader in absolute, not relative, terms?

“We are being honest with one another here, so…I don’t know. I can only tell you what I believe. I have seen true leadership from her. She cares about her empire. She has heart, strength, wisdom, and cunning. I don’t think Soto Takahiro can say the same.”

And, finally, he got to the heart of this conversation; perhaps the real reason he was here. “But would she be willing to…employ someone like myself?”

That’s when I knew our letter had gotten through to him.

“Only she can answer that. Would you like to meet her?”

They had a brief exchange, with Olmas nervously watching from a polite, but not foolish, distance. I wasn’t worried, though: if he intended to move against her, or us, he wouldn’t have announced his presence. Especially so brazenly.

He clearly liked what he heard from her. Both of them, in fact, seemed satisfied as she walked back to the boat. Maybe, just maybe, we had accomplished something here. Obviously, given what he said we don’t expect him to turn on Anamurumon, and we will likely still be facing him in battle, but he can certainly choose the manner and means of his support without breaking the terms of his contract or tarnishing his honor. Note to self: if Ameiko does employ him after taking the throne, remind her to be very specific.

“One more thing,” he said, as we were preparing to leave. “I would like the rest of the play.”

This actually took me by surprise. “The whole thing? But…there are thousands of pages. There are stacks and stacks of revisions!”

“I would like to burn it.”

Well. That explained that.

It was hard to give it up, of course. But it helped to know that it was being donated to a worthy cause.

Sarenith 24, 4713 (morning, Imperial Shrine)

We stayed the night. This wasn’t the original plan but our unexpected meeting with the Raven Prince put us behind schedule. We were already going to be tempting fate by putting in to port at dusk, but the delay meant arriving well after dark, and according to Isao, after the newly imposed curfew as well. So here we are.

We’ve been given another task. Because what we need right now is another thing to do.

What we told the Raven Prince yesterday about the Seals? That was all true. Ameiko learned about them while communing with the spirits of the Five Families. “We can still feel their presence, somewhere deep under the Palace in Kasai,” one of them said. “The burden lies with you to find four worthy families to be elevated in our places. The Seals have the divine power to establish new ruling families in such a case as this, by Shizuru’s infinite wisdom.” The future of Minkai is in your hands; you’re our only hope. And so on.

So all we have to do is raid the palace and recover the Seals. I guess I’ll add that to our list.

We’re not stupid. It has occurred to us that we could just go for the throne right now and put an end to the whole thing (or try to, at any rate). In solving the one problem we more or less solve the others. In theory. What has been holding us back has been the hostages: as long as they are there, it only takes a single alarm or message to kill them all faster than we can intervene. So as tempting as it is to just go for broke, it would do us no good to put Ameiko on a throne that’s sitting in a pool of blood…blood from the people she is supposedly liberating.

And now we’ve added this. We don’t know if he can destroy the Seals, but we have to assume that he can. We have to assume that Anamurumon wants Minkai badly enough that he’s willing to torch its future if it’s taken from him.

Of those two problems, the hostages are the more immediate and best defined. Can Anamurumon destroy the Seals? It seems unlikely, though we have to assume the worst. But there’s no question about what he can do to prisoners. We need to get them out, and we need for them to come out unharmed. That will eliminate much of his leverage over Kasai, and in the process boost confidence in Ameiko as a liberator and the rebellion in general. Of course, there are other things Anamurumon can do about the former, but his options will be more limited, more costly, and narrower in scope.

Sarenith 25, 4713 (small hours, Kasai)

The hostages are home safe but it was a harrowing raid that almost left two of them dead. Normally we are a lot more careful than this, but we had only a few moments to observe the floor of the palace where they were being held which meant we had to fill in the gaps with guesswork. And by and large we guessed wrong. A few sloppy tactics on our part, combined with a gross misunderstanding of the guards’ sense of duty, nearly cost the women their lives.

Fortunately, we had agreed early on that getting them out, not fighting their jailers, was the goal. As soon as I had the opportunity, I teleported the prisoners to freedom, four at a time. This meant leaving my friends to handle the fighting with only limited magical support, but considering how many close calls we had this strategy was almost certainly the difference between life and death for the captives.

Itsuru has moved quickly. He mobilized his army and built support in central Kasai much faster than any of us anticipated. Rumor is that an army is marching on the province and is just a few days away from Kasai. Since his own men didn’t cover 1,000 miles in a week and a half, that means that he’s got the support of Akafuto as well. The approaching force is reportedly large enough that Takahiro has committed much of his Typhoon Guard to meet them in the field.

Their absence from Kasai is visible. The city was on tight lock-down before, and in theory that hasn’t changed,0 but there are fewer guards to man checkpoints, enforce the curfew, and of course carry out arrests. According to the Emerald Branch, this thinning of Takahiro’s forces extends to the palace as well: they are operating with a skeletal garrison. All of this is, of course, good news for us, and probably why we had such an easy time sneaking our way in. That being said, we have learned first-hand that the ones who are left are not necessarily flunkies. The fight has been made easier, but it certainly hasn’t been made easy.

Sarenith 23, 4713 (morning, Well of Demons)

Sokai had warned us that Maemi’s handmaiden—that would make her the handmaiden’s handmaiden, a level of recursion that I can appreciate—was a trained assassin when she was alive. Now that she’s dead, and trapped in here along with Maemi and everyone else, she had little to do but hone her skills. Quoting Sokai again, “Death gives her time to practice.”

Most of that practice seems to be done on hezrous. I base that on how quickly the first two of them died. While this does make our job easier long-term, we were hoping they would contribute more directly to the proceedings.

Not that I should be complaining too much. The erinyes could see those of us who were hiding behind invisibility (which was inconvenient, to say the least), but the handmaiden could not. So, the hezrou were her only obvious targets when the assault began. Sometimes, things just go your way. After she killed the second one with a single blow, we figured out where she was hiding—which was, astonishingly, in plain sight—and I lit her up with some magical glitter. It was an appalling fashion statement, but sometimes you have to go with what works.

The key to defeating an opponent is to play your strengths against their weaknesses. In the assassin’s case, she bet it all on not being seen, and once we deprived her of that advantage her options were limited to which one of us would kill her. She had a few tricks left, sure, but none of them played well against a barrage of arrows. By the time Ivan was done with her she looked like a hawthorn tree.

The third of our hezrou “allies” had administered a severe beating to the remaining erinyes so their defensive line, if you want to call it that, shattered as soon as we hit it. Maemi, herself, seemed to realize early on that she was in trouble, and she tried in vain to strike some bargain that would keep her alive. Sorry, lady. Not interested. Are there any scenarios where making a deal with a literal devil works out in your favor?

If I’m being honest here—and what’s the point of writing in this thing if I’m not being honest—I have to admit I don’t understand the whole tizzy around Maemi’s presence in the Well. Amatatsu Onoko played her up as this horrible figure, but really, what did she do? According to Dasi, she struck a bargain with Hell to extend her life. Big fucking deal. Yeah, okay, back when she was on the throne maybe those 200 years were something of a bummer, but even the worst Suishen had to say about her was that she put herself ahead of throne and empire. So what? That just makes her a crappy leader. Compare that to her next-door neighbor, Teikoku Sokai, who instituted a eugenics program and forced the lesser nobles of Minkai into slavery. On that scale, Maemi doesn’t even register.

(mid-morning, Well of Demons)

There’s this spell that impairs your mental functioning to the point where you’re not capable of rational thought or reasoning. That spell is basically my worst nightmare since rational thought and reasoning is pretty much all I do, and it’s why I’ve been wearing this ring for the past several months. It has that spell inside of it, and if that same spell is cast on me then the one stored in the ring immediately counters it.

Today it finally happened, and I have never been so grateful to have planned ahead.

From that, you might gather that Sokai was less than thrilled with our betrayal. And you would be correct. My only regret is that he didn’t survive long enough to really bask in it.

We’ve searched everywhere and there’s no sign of Shigure’s body, and that tells us that it probably washed downstream into the caverns below. What’s down there? No idea. We can see an underground lake and not much else. I’m taking bets though. Our experience up here was almost literally going through Hell and the Abyss, so I am putting my money on Abaddon to round out the set. Though that does leave us one or two royal families short, assuming that the Well is a whole thing.

(late morning)

Instead of daemons we got undead, though there’s still more to do here so my theory may yet pan out. And undead does seem to fit the theme of “things that happen to vile people after they die.”

And speaking of vile, allow me to introduce Shojinawa Ito. According to Dase, as emperor he bolstered Minkai’s army by creating undead from the soldiers who died in battle, and then disguised them behind illusions so that they looked like normal people. Eventually, his military commanders noticed that something was off, and he addressed their concerns by giving them the same treatment. The only thing he couldn’t hide was his unnaturally long life, courtesy of becoming a lich. His reign was finally ended by a sovereign dragon who had apparently had enough of his antics.

If that charming personality wasn’t enough, he was also holding on to Shigure’s corpse because why not. I guess that obsession with death and bodies has really stuck.

We didn’t even bother talking to him. I mean, what would have been the point? It was already a long morning and there was no reason to drag it out.

He also seemed unconcerned about his eventual destruction, going so far as to announce to us that he’d be back. That’s not how this works, ghost or not. But, on the other hand, he did seem pretty sure of himself so I don’t think we can rule it out. Assuming the lich story is true, his phylactery must have been destroyed or he wouldn’t be here at all, but maybe he has something else that ties his spirit to the Well, or to the shrine or island in general.

Of course, that is easy to say. The real trick would be finding it.

(even later morning)

I am lucky to be alive. Extraordinarily lucky.

There was this moment in Nobinuro’s cave where he did something, and I saw a flash of light through the cloud of fog around me. There was this sudden chill, and…I am not sure how to describe this, but it felt like tug at my soul. As if it were being ripped from my body.

I didn’t even have time to panic. Out of sheer instinct, I held on to it with…I don’t even know what. My will? My sense of being? Whatever it is that anchors us to this existence, it held. But only just.

Later, we deduced that Nobinoru was a thanadaemon. They trap the souls of others in gemstones, which they can crush to restore their life force. This is when I felt the bottom drop out, and a horrible wave of sickness washed over me. There are some deaths that cannot be undone.

In life, Nobinoru was the last emperor from the Sugimatu family. So great was his ego that he ordered the end of his family line so that his achievements would never be surpassed. His most loyal samurai set out on this task, exterminating each and every descendant and relative until almost none remained. Only the intervention of the other four families stopped this senseless slaughter, but so many had been killed that the family line never recovered. And, of course, the Five Storms later finished what he had started.

But it’s done. We have scoured the Well of every trace of demon, devil, daemon, and undead, and in the process have prevented the worst of the royal families from offering their counsel or blessing to future emperors. Something that the world simply does not need.

Sarenith 23, 4713 (morning, Well of Demons)

Our second run at the well was considerably more successful than our first. This time we could prepare our defenses and devise a strategy before finding ourselves dodging blobs of acid, resisting telekinetic shoves, and worrying about who was suffocating. This is the sort of pertinent combat advice that I like to share here, as your time is valuable and you should get value for it in return.

This was about the perfect setup for omoxes: water everywhere, a one-hundred-and-fifty-foot drop to get to it, and a waterfall so loud you can’t think with no way to turn it off. Whoever put them here knew what they were doing. We generally deal with oni, so that’s not something we see a lot of.

So far, the Well of Demons has not disappointed when it comes to names but that is about all it has going for it. Unless your tastes for interior decorating run towards dark and dank. According to Onoko, this is where the less savory emperors of Minkai are allowed to manifest, just in case some future degenerate feels the need to commune with them. Though, personally, I think allowing that is an extraordinarily bad idea. It should really be the acid test for claiming the throne. Like, if you feel the need to come down here for advice, maybe you shouldn’t be on it. But no one asked me for input when they set this whole thing up.

Onoko wasn’t exaggerating when she said something is amiss down here; the omoxes were not mere manifestations, and neither were their hezrou buddies. The obvious question is, how did they get here? Followed closely by, who are “they”? Last time I checked, demons and devils don’t have a strong working relationship. If Maemi is in here, and she’s one of the latter, then who brought the former?

(slightly later morning, Well of Demons)

I have to write quickly as we are moving soon.

The answer to at least one of my questions is “Teikoku Sokai”. According to Dasi, he was one of the first and worst autocrats of Minkai, who preferred the title “shogun” over “emperor”. I am sure that says quite a lot about his management style. It’s certainly in line with his charming personality. He had enough ego for all of us.

We’ve allied with him temporarily because his narcissism is exceeded only by his hatred of Maemi. Why does he hate Maemi? Who knows? Who cares?

The situation is this: she holds the north end of the cavern, and he holds the south. Gids, it’s the damned House of Withered Blossoms all over again, only this time the warring sides are fire-retardant.

The idiot thinks we’re here because his family has finally risen to power and we’re here to pay deference to him. Sometimes it’s like we don’t even have to try. When we told him we were here to kill Maemi, he naturally assumed that was the whole truth. We conveniently left out the part where he’s next on the list.

He’s lending us three hezrou for the assault. I am sure they’ll turn on us as soon as Maemi and her erinyes are evicted, so it’s in our best interest to ensure they die for the cause.

It’s time to go.

Sarenith 23, 4713 (early morning, Imperial Shrine)

Amatatsu Onoko is here. Why she wasn’t here yesterday when we needed more timely information about what we are getting into is anyone’s guess. Maybe Shigure’s temper tantrum scared her away. I don’t know if she had children in life, but if I was a mother and was granted immortality as an archon, the last thing I’d want is a front seat to the Terrible Two’s for basically all of eternity. Your reward in heaven for a devoted, pious life is not supposed to double as punishment.

Ameiko spent some time communing with her in private and then opened up the conversation to the rest of us. I took the opportunity to ask her my new favorite question. “Why is there something called ‘The Well of Demons’ in the Imperial Shrine?”

Her answer was as unsatisfying as it was uninformative. “It doesn’t have a name. That’s just what Shigure calls it.” Which is not what I was asking. I don’t care about the name; I want to know why it’s here. But bickering with an archon didn’t seem like a healthy plan so I let it drop. And, to be fair, she did shed some light on what is down there, and what we have to do.

“The handmaiden devil Amatatsu Meimei and her handmaiden have infested this place. I can’t bestow my blessing until she is dealt with.” One guess as to what she means by “dealt with”. Also, apparently the Well of Demons contains devils. Note to self: Correct Shigure on his terminology.

Who was emperor Amatatsu Meimei? It’s a given that she was not a very good person if she was a petitioner to Hell, and if given form as a greater devil it’s a fair bet that she was especially vile. Suishen confirmed as much, giving us a fairly pointed review of her tenure as emperor. “She was unnecessarily cruel and selfish, seeking her own power over what was best for the empire and its people.” And she’s had plenty of time to refine her personality since then.

Who is Meimei’s handmaiden? No clue. Though I appreciate the recursion. Whoever she is, she has to go, too.

And, of course, we have to do this one thing in order for Ameiko to get Onoko’s blessing. On top of the other thing that we have to do for Shigure. Maybe its a blessing of it’s own that the spirits from the other families are blocked from communing in the Shrine until this business with the Well is resolved. I don’t think I can handle each of them asking us to do yet another “just this one thing”, too.

(still early morning, still the Imperial Shrine)

Our first descent into the Well of Demons went poorly. This is the problem of not knowing what you are getting into and not knowing what to expect when you arrive: you can’t plan for everything. You can only be so flexible, and if you get caught reacting instead of acting then odds are good you aren’t going to recover.

This is particularly dangerous when dealing with beings that can teleport at will. The force that contains the demons and devils within the Well almost certainly saved our lives as there is generally no such thing as running away from something that can instantaneously appear at your side across any distance at any time. When you start this kind of fight, it needs to be one that you are sure you can finish unless you have similar powers of your own.

It’s been less than 10 minutes and Amatatsu Onoko has already gotten on my list. We went to stop the water from dumping into the Well because it was so loud we could barely hear ourselves think much less communicate, and she appeared and blasted us with her trumpet. Just in case it wasn’t clear what kind of archon she was. Branding is important.

I had what many might consider to be a reasonable question: “What the shit, lady?!”

This was probably not the most respectful way of addressing a herald of Shizuru, but the whole thing caught us by surprise. Also, I was feeling kind of cranky.

“Why would you halt the flow of water into the well? The lake sends the cleansing water that contains the evil within!”

Uh…how about because, no one fucking told us? Like, when we were asking about it? What is it with celestial beings treating information like caviar? Is there some divine rule that crucial knowledge pertaining to saving the world can only be fed in small bites? If it’s not a game of twenty questions, it’s riddles and metaphor. No one can be direct about anything until it’s smiting time, and then it’s all, “How dare you disobey this rule I’m just now telling you about!” This is no way to run an organization.

“Because it’s so loud down there we can’t hear ourselves think. And because we just got our asses handed to us. And also because we didn’t know! How would we know?!”

Gods, I am just not in the mood.

But at least now we know what we’re up against, and what we can (and can’t) do about it.

Sarenith 22nd, 4713 (evening, Imperial Shrine)

We met Emperor Shigure today. What remains of him, that is, which is mostly an angry, impotent spirit raging at the living world. Thrust into a role he never expected to take, manipulated by the woman he thought he loved, then betrayed and murdered by his childhood friend. His reign was short and tragic, exactly as engineered by Anamurumon, and this half-mad ghost was the result.

He was barely rational when he appeared before us, verbally abusing everyone and accusing us of various crimes. Conspiring with his killers. Usurping the throne. Taking what was rightfully his. And on and on. I tuned it out because I just couldn’t even. His portrait was painted in fury and self-pity. We let Dasi do most of the talking since he’s good at that sort of thing, and because we were dealing with a petulant child.

“I will not give my blessing while my body remains dishonored!” he bellowed, acknowledging Ameiko’s status as heir but denying her the means to act on it. He demanded that we descend into the Well of Demons and bring it back, cremate it, and lay it to rest. Are you for real? This is what’s important right now? Yes, his anger was justified. But he was willing to sink the entire empire out of spite. Such a small, petty man.

Still, we agreed because—wait for it—we have no choice. Because nothing is ever simple or easy.

It’s not really his fault at any rate. Takahiro’s crime corrupted this place utterly and thoroughly: as Shigure’s body rots, so does the Shrine. This is almost certainly why the entire island is trying to kill us, but that is the smaller of our concerns. Until the Shrine is cleansed, the conduit between here and the spirits of the past is closed. No spirits; no blessing. Which means Ameiko’s path to the throne is blocked until we sort it out.

Why in the name of the gods is there something called The Well of Demons in the Imperial Shrine? I thought it was a pretty good question, so I asked Shigure during one of his moments of lucidity, but what I got for an answer was a nigh-incomprehensible tirade that boiled down to “some name I made up”. Whatever purpose the well originally served is a mystery, but it clearly wasn’t intended to be a dumping ground for the decaying bodies of former emperors, murdered in cold blood. Hence, the current state of affairs.

Shigure says he can feel the influence of whatever is down there, and more importantly, he can feel it spreading. It’s only a matter of time before it reaches the material world and infests Minkai.

That fool Takahiro has no idea what he’s done.

Sarenith 23rd, 4713 (small hours, Imperial Shrine)

When I left Magnimar over a year ago I never imagined I’d be spending my nights studying the finer points of childbirth and prenatal care. The turns my life has taken since then have been so bizarre that they seem to defy logic much less prediction. When I see my reflection I wonder who it is that’s looking back at me. I want to know what she’s like. Where she calls home. Where our lives diverged. What became of her dreams.

Meida’s pregnancy is both an opportunity and a complication.

The complication, of course, is that she’s pregnant. Taking the Jade Throne from Takahiro and Anamurumon is almost certainly going to mean taking it by force, and using lethal force against a pregnant woman is just not a thing that’s going to happen. That is a hard stop. I will not take part in any such plan. And that immediately puts us at a disadvantage, because they certainly won’t be holding back.

Since we don’t have a good solution to that problem at the moment, I am instead choosing to focus on the opportunity. The Emerald Branch says she is secretly looking for a midwife, so why not give her one?

This is not as ridiculous as it sounds. When you study the arcane you end up learning a little about everything, and humanoid physiology kind of comes with the territory. As you continue your studies you end up gravitating to things that interest you, and…well…there’s a reason why seeing Sefa again, and holding her baby, had the effect on me that it did. (You also can’t spend any amount of time around an acolyte of Pharasma without learning a thing or two about obstetrics. Even when that acolyte was Qatana.) To the others this seemed like it came from out of the blue, but in reality? I just never talked about it. I mean, it’s not like the subject ever came up before now. When, exactly, would it have been relevant conversation?

I am being realistic about this gambit. I don’t even think I’ll get invited into the palace much less hired by Meida, but I am pretty sure I can get an interview with the handmaiden that was tasked with the search and that’s good enough. To date, we know almost nothing about Meida and even less about the inner workings of the palace. A conversation with her handmaiden is the closest thing we’ll get to insider information, and it could prove fruitful. I just need to be credible enough to not raise any suspicions (and I’m also not above a little cheating, if necessary.)

All of that is moot, though, if we don’t succeed here at the Shrine first.

We descend into the Well tomorrow. We have no idea what we’ll find there, what we’re up against, how extensive this growing corruption is, or even what the nature of it is, and that makes it hard to prepare. Normally one would assume that something called a “Well of Demons” contains, well, demons, but given that this is just some name Shigure made up? Gods only know. I took some time yesterday to extend magical sight down to the bottom, but what I saw wasn’t particularly helpful: a dark hole in the ground, filled with water. Pretty much what you would expect from a well, only larger in scale.

Obviously there’s more to it than that, but there’s only so much divination magic can do in one sitting. If we did this again tomorrow I’d be cutting into spells we might actually need, and with no guarantee of getting better answers at that. And, really, at some point we’re just going to have to go in, anyway. So, as Ivan would say, save the spell.

Gods, it’s going to be a long day.

Sarenith 22, 4713 (morning, Kasai)

Communing with a deity is like being cured of cataracts. All the haze and uncertainty and guesswork is replaced with this abject clarity, a change that is so stark that it is practically painful.

“Is Renshii Meida pregnant?”

YES.

“Is it Takahiro’s child?”

YES.

“Is she keeping this a secret?”

YES.

Again and again the answers came, each one a lightning strike of divine truth.

“Is Takahiro’s mother still alive?”

NO.

“Did Anamurumon have her killed?”

YES.

Koya was straining against her contact with Desna, or whichever servitor had answered in her place.

“Is Takahiro’s father still alive?”

NO.

“Did Anamurumon have him killed?”

YES.

I was practically shaking, feeling the weight of what we were learning. Answers from a deity come with a permanency and surety that makes them more real, more absolute than anything you know or have experienced. Like, you could come to question everything about your life, your place in the world, even who you are, but these truths would endure.

“Is Takahiro a descendant of Anamurumon?”

YES.

Does Takahiro know this?

NO.

After her spell ended, we sat in stunned silence.

When we first met with the Emerald Branch here in the city, we gave them a list of questions around Takahiro, Anamurumon, and Meida. Mostly, they were shots in the dark.

From the journals, we knew Anamurumon was obsessed with fathering an offspring that could pass as human. A half-fiend would likely be bound by the same divine laws as an oni, but a half-fiend that appeared human could mate with a human, and produce a child of their own. That would result in a tiefling, and being of mostly human blood the child could, in theory, fall outside the divine restrictions. If Anamurumon stayed close to this child, exerted influence over them, he could essentially take the throne by proxy.

Soto Takahiro refers to Anamurumon as his “grandfather”. In Minkai, this can be a term of affection just  like “aunt” and “uncle” back in Varisia, but…could they actually be related? We didn’t know. But, according to the Emerald Branch, Takahiro didn’t know, either. “Takahiro has made inquiries in the past about his parentage, but we do not know what, if anything, he discovered. This at least suggests that his grandfather also did not know, or was not forthcoming to young Takahiro with that information.”

Another question for them was how faithful Takahiro and Meida were to one another. They told us Takahiro is something of a philanderer, which we were more or less expecting to hear. Meida is significantly more faithful, though there was still a big surprise to be had: “One of our contacts is a samurai whose daughter is employed as one of Meida’s handmaidens. She recently asked her father about the possibility of quietly securing the services of a midwife who could be trusted for her loyalty to Minkai and willingness to be discreet.” You do not “quietly” hire a midwife who can be trusted to be “discreet” unless you are trying to hide a pregnancy.

Before this morning, all we had were these suspicions, but now? Now we have some idea of just how fragile the Jade Regent’s grip on power really is. How much does he really know about Anamurumon? Obviously, not very much, because his “grandfather” has been keeping a lot of secrets from him. Some very significant secrets, which include the murder of his parents. To say that is huge would be a ridiculous understatement. This is the sort of thing that makes enemies out of friends, lovers, family. And how much does he know about his lover? Again the answer seems to be, “Not as much as he should”.

As for Meida, herself, we don’t know what game she’s playing. Obviously, you can’t hide a pregnancy forever, but trying to hide one at all suggests a lack of trust between her and, well, everyone. Whatever her angle is, it depends on that staying a secret for as long as possible.

We met with the Emerald Branch again this morning and asked them straight out if this was information they could work with. You might say that their response was an emphatic “Yes”.

Which is good, because we’re going to need their help again. We’re taking Ameiko to the Shrine today and we don’t know how long we’ll be gone, mostly because we don’t know how big of a trap we’ll be walking in to. That means the Emerald Branch will have to keep the rebellion and the Amatatsu heir visible both in name and in spirit while we’re away.

It also means that the situation with the kidnapped daughters, also known as the hostages, is going to have to wait. Though we are pretty sure we know where they are being held, thanks to the posthumous interrogation of a Typhoon Guard commander, it’s deep in the palace and that’s not a raid we can just pull off without significant planning. If we can pull it off at all; we may have to take the throne first, or at least commit ourselves to that path, which is something we can’t do until Ameiko receives her blessings from her ancestors. However that works.

I am resigned to the notion that there will probably be casualties among the hostages. While there are no executions scheduled for today that we know of—the one that was seems to have been cancelled because the two prisoners escaped over night—that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any last-minute changes. And if we aren’t back before tomorrow…

Well, I don’t really want to think about that.

(afternoon, Imperial Shrine)

We did find a trap waiting for us here, but like all things Five Storms it was so poorly organized and so obvious that they may as well have put up signs. I am not kidding: what gave it away was that we actually heard bickering. But I guess there’s not much else to do when you’re stuck on an island waiting in case, and I quote, “one of the other families shows up. How likely is that?”

How likely, indeed?

From the sounds of their adolescent squabbling, this was another one of Anamurumon’s famous “The Five Storms is known to keep their word” deals, where he promised to marry one of them or father their child or gods know what else and like idiots they believed him. They were even fighting over him in advance. Where does he find people this gullible?

Not that they were “people”. They were, in fact, what Dasi called rokurokubi, which is apparently Tien for “woman with a 20-foot-long neck”. It was creepy and disgusting, watching them stretch out and snake their heads around the room, like naga with a human torso. Anamurumon sure can pick them.

The rest of the shrine has been…disturbing. I don’t think it’s Anamurumon’s doing—not directly, anyway—but something here is definitely amiss, as we’ve been attacked by shadows and a giant construct made from gravestones. Somehow, I don’t think this is how visits to the Imperial Shrine are supposed to go. When the heir comes to receive blessings from their ancestors, I don’t think the island is supposed to try and kill them.

We were so desperate for information that we actually consulted Suishen. Yeah, I know. Don’t judge us. Not only did he not know anything about the Imperial Shrine, he literally had never even paid attention during the few times he was brought here. Why? Because there was “no fighting” and that made it “boring”. Ironically, this non-answer was an answer in itself, as it confirmed that none of this is supposed to be happening.

I hate shadows. We were walking through a cemetery for the advisors of past emperors and other notable figures when they emerged from the graves to attack. We were completely surrounded from the start, which gave us nowhere to go. When one of them descended on Koya, I knew I had to do something but there was a shadow on top of me as well which limited my options. So I choose a radical and dangerous tactic: I cast a spell that suppressed magic and supernatural phenomenon. At which point I promptly fell 30′ to the ground. But it put me close enough to Koya to protect her from their touch, so mission accomplished.

It’s a good thing I’ve learned a thing or two about how to fall without dying.

Sarenith 20, 4713 (Kasai, early morning)

Ivan, Radella and Dasi scouted the granary last night so that we’d have a better idea about what we are getting in to. So far, it doesn’t look like anything we can’t handle; it’s what comes after that will present the real challenge.

The granary itself is this enormous, marble building sitting along one of the canals on the north end of town. The front of it has massive double doors that face an open lot the size of several city blocks. Dasi says that four large statues depicting some sort of tiger stand next to them, two on either side, and they radiate magic. We put our heads together, having seen enough magical constructs in the past year, and in keeping with the local culture we are pretty sure they are taotiehs: large stone golems that swallow victims whole and trap them in an extradimensional space. These were apparently recent additions to the neighborhood, appearing about the time the Jade Regent took a direct hand in the distribution of food inside the city. To the average person this is a significant threat, though to us it’s just a matter of applying the right tool to the job.

Alas, we don’t have the right tools. Mighty though Suishen is, which is not nearly as mighty as he would lead you to believe, he is not quite up to this task so we’ve sent Isao in search of adamantine weapons. We’re not being picky: we’ll accept an adamantine anything at this point, though blades would be preferred since that’s what Olmas and Radella are used to. At first, Suishen objected to the idea that Olmas might need to use some “substandard thing” for pulling off this raid, but we have long since had enough of his hissy fits and just pointedly asked, “How do you feel about hacking into magical stone?” And that shut him up.

We’ve learned to enjoy these moments of relative peace when they come, as they are so few.

But the constructs aren’t really the problem. With the right weapons and the right spells (there aren’t many that will work on them, but I have a few tricks) we can reduce them to rubble. No, the problem will be what comes after: a warehouse full of rice is not something we can just walk away with. It will have to be loaded and distributed, and that is not a small task nor is it one that can be effectively enhanced by magic. It will require manpower and time, two things we do not have a lot of.

Our best bet is to organize a wagon brigade. One that can send in a steady stream of wagons to be loaded with as much rice as rapidly as possible, with each wagon disappearing into the night as quickly as it comes. Each of them will have to escape detection both before and after the attack. It is not a trivial order, which means we’re turning to the Emerald Branch for help. After all, we’ve paid a heavy price to put them on retainer, and by the Gods we are going to make them earn every damned copper of it.

Our long term plans are a bit murkier. There is still the Shrine, of course, but I am thinking even beyond that. What will we be facing when we stroll into the palace?

According to Isao, this whole mess started because the Jade Regent employs a Diviner, and she foresaw a daughter of the Amatatsu clan taking possession of her family’s Seal. The one Seal that he does not, in fact, already have. With all five Seals they can force the Jade Throne to accept him as a ruler, presumably because that blocks any true heirs from claiming it themselves: no Seal, no claim.

So who is the Diviner? A woman by the name of Renshii Meida. Dasi used the samisen to find out a little about her, and she comes from a long line of troublemakers. The family goes back centuries, and at one point they were loyal allies of a human warload named—surpise!—Anamurumon. He attempted to take the throne in a failed coup a few hundred years ago, and when his forces were defeated, and he was killed, the Renshii family scattered like roaches in the light. A few of the survivors went on to become geisha, some of them notable, and Meida is one of their descendants.

I checked in the journals from the House of Withered Blossoms, and the dates line up. It’s not a perfect fit from the death of Anamurumon-the-Tian-warlord to the appearance of Anamurumon-the-oni in the House of Withered Blossoms, but it’s in sequence and that’s good enough for me.

So. This is not Anamurumon’s first dance.

(evening)

But wait! There’s more! Meida is the Jade Regent’s lover! Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up. I can’t help but think back to the journals and notes we recovered from the House of Withered Blossoms. From the day the Five Storms was first conceived, it has been plagued by infighting and backstabbing, all the way until the day they escaped. Because, of course it was, because they are oni. It’s in their nature to feud with one another and scheme and backstab. And, it took place on a grand scale, far beyond what you see even in the human lands. It was pervasive enough, and overt enough, and violent enough that it kept coming up. And this is what we cleaned from journals. What happened that was never recorded by their annalists?

Here’s the kicker, though: Anamurumon has always been their leader, which means he either doesn’t care what happens beneath him as long as it doesn’t affect him directly, chocks it up as a cost of doing business, or is simply unable to stop it.

I’d like to think that we can use this somehow; that we can take the pettiness and jealousy and self-centered nature of the Five Storms and get them to undermine each other. Though Meida is probably not an oni, she must know what she has gotten into and that means she is playing the same game and is cut from the same cloth. And whether or not Takahiro is aware of his heritage, he is still descended from one.

We asked Isao who else sits in the Jade Regent’s inner circle, and were surprised to learn of a fourth: the royal assassin, known as The Raven Prince. From the name, one can infer that he is a Tengu, but could he be an oni, too? Like Kikonu was, only, you know, less of a lunatic. I added it to my list of questions for the Emerald Branch, along with whether he works for any of the clans.

When we met with them, I didn’t even have to wait to get an answer.

“Oni? Oni… In the various tales of the Raven Prince I’ve never heard a hint of that. Tengu, yes, hence the name.”

“Is he affiliated with any of the clans? Does he have a code of honor?”

“He is known to all the clans, worked for most of them at one point or another, but never joined any. He’s been sought after for years by the highest and most powerful when debts or scores needed to be settled. I can’t speak for him directly, of course, or have personal knowledge of his state or honor, but I have no reason to doubt he holds to his sense of honor.”

“Can you get a message to him?”

“It would be easier if he was allied with us, but…there are still ways. What is your message? We will see to it and advise you of the answer. It just may take a little longer in his case.”

“I don’t have one yet,” I said. “I am just trying to understand what is possible.”

I have turned this information over in my head several times. Here’s what I’ve come to: of the four in this inner circle, he’s the odd one out. He must know who he’s dealing with, sure, but…what if this is just a job to him? What if he’s literally just hired help? That would mean he doesn’t have a personal commitment to the Five Storms. The Emerald Branch says he has a code of honor. Maybe he’s not beyond influence. Especially if he knows the honorable ninja clans of Minkai—the Oni’s Mask does not count—have either stepped aside or are actively backing us.

Isn’t that worth pursuing?

Sarenith 21, 4713 (Kasai, morning)

We go tonight. Isao has arranged the wagon brigade; the Emerald Branch will help run interference, both before and after. We’ll signal both using fireworks. The same fireworks we picked up in the Brinestump Marsh almost exactly a year ago. Like, nearly to the day. It’s strange how we’ve come full circle. Fireworks from Minkai are how this all started. Now they are the beginning of the end.

Sarenith 22, 4713 (Kasai, small hours)

Not only did we strike at the heart of the Jade Regent’s empire of fear and control, Ivan and I also managed to spoil an abduction attempt by pulling off a daring rescue mission. I wrote the other day that this sort of thing sounds like bad community theater, but believe you me, I am beginning to understand the appeal.

It took some effort, but we crushed the constructs. The others reduced three to rubble; I turned the fourth to dust. Beyond that there is no trace of its existence; it is simply gone.

We were also lucky enough to have a patrol of Typhoon Guard stumble on the scene because destroying constructs simply did not provide the same sense of satisfaction as killing oni. As soon as they stepped into the square, hilarity ensued: the commander actually asked us to halt because we were out past curfew. Where do they come up with this stuff?

It was towards the end of the fight, as the taotieh were gone and the Typhoon Guard patrol was being hammered into paste, that Ivan came towards me and called up, “Hatsue is injured!”

He’s been using a spell to track her location and physical state; the same one he and Dasi use to monitor all of us (I assume that’s with her permission as that would be creepy otherwise; this was not the time to ask). “Tell me where to!” I said, and descended to the ground next to him. I watched him cast a spell that made his skin harden like stone.

He gave me a direction and a distance—about a half-mile and change to the northwest, I forget the exact bearing—and I said, “We’re going, now!” And by the Gods, I teleported us in the blind, aiming just 10 feet shy and hoping we wouldn’t appear on the wrong side of some wall. (In retrospect, this should not have been possible at all, but it worked. Neither of us stopped to think it wouldn’t, or wonder how and why it did, until much later.)¹

We popped into the middle of a street. In the midst of three Typhoon Guard who were watching a fourth load Hatsue’s limp body into a prison wagon of sorts where a second woman lay motionless. The three Typhoon Guard around us moved to engage, but Ivan got the first shot off, sinking an arrow into the driver. Two of the oni closed in to strike but my spells protected me. Between their swings, I saw the driver pull on the reins, and the horse took off pulling the cart behind it.

Not on my watch. I maneuvered away from the Typhoon Guards and threw a wall of ice in front of the retreating cart; the horse quickly came to a halt. The two oni advanced on me again, their strikes finding my mirror images instead of me. Then the driver turned and pointed a bow and arrow at Hatsue’s head. “Leave now, or they die!”

So I left…by popping behind him where he couldn’t see me. The driver paused just for a moment, thinking he had won the upper hand with this stunt. Ivan, though, had other plans and sent five arrows into his chest before he could react. The oni collapsed over his seat, his nocked arrow releasing harmlessly into the ground.

“Reach in and grab one of their hands!” I called to Ivan as the remaining guards advanced on him. I popped into the cage with the prisoners; Ivan threw up a wall of stone to block the remaining guards off. Then I reached deep into myself and found the strength to cast a teleportation spell that I did not have prepared.² We vanished and reappeared in the square in front of the granary that we had left only seconds before, Hatsue and the other liberated prisoner in tow.

Dead oni littered the ground. Zosimus had already set off the fireworks and the carts were on their way.

After all that had happened, I wanted to send a fairly pointed message to the Typhoon Guard. I looked at the remains in the street and suggested writing a message of defiance with their entrails. It’s more practical than you think because you can say a lot in Tien with just a couple of characters. Dasi, however, objected to the idea. Somewhat strenuously.

“No! We don’t want people thinking we are as bad as, or worse than, the oni.”

Worse than evil spirits manifested in flesh? What, this is something we’re actually worried about?

“It’s not like they’re real people. Slaughtering oni is something the city will understand.”

The others were not convinced. So instead we burned their bodies to ash and etched the Amatatsu family seal in the stone walls of the granary. Sure, it’s still a statement, but it just doesn’t deliver the same punch.

---

¹This was totally a goof on everyone’s part, including the GM, as the spell was Teleport and not Greater Teleport. I offered to spend a Hero Point on it after-the-fact to make the impossible possible, but the GM graciously waved it aside. Which is good, because of #2.
²This is Kali spending a Hero Point.

Sarenith 16, 4713 (night, Seinaru Heikiko)

We’ve put our trip to Kasai off a day so that we could celebrate tonight with Jiro’s army. I was a little too anxious for a party, but we needed to be seen along with Ameiko so I stuck it out until people stopped caring about who was where and then called it a night. Of course privacy is close to impossible here especially with half the countryside still living in the back yard, but any change from throngs of people was a big improvement.

This whole celebration thing feels premature to me. Yes, we repelled a fairly significant attack, but all the Jade Regent has to do is send another oni or two up here after we’re gone and Jiro will be doing more than repairing the gate. Of course, the theory everyone is working under is that the Jade Regent cares about the more immediate problem which is us, not this place—the ramblings of the atamahuta oni implied as much (there are so many kinds of oni it’s like bird watching; someone should write a book)—and it’s not like he has an unlimited supply of heavyweights to throw at it, but I can’t help but worry. One skirmish is not the war. It’s not wise to celebrate too much until after it’s over and you know you’ve won. Gods know plenty of the villains in this saga have gloated to our faces only to learn that they were horribly, terribly, and fatally wrong.

This business in Kasai seems premature, too. Everything we’ve done up here in the north has been about building Ameiko’s support slowly and carefully, allowing the rebellion to grow organically. What’s the point of all that if we end up racing towards a confrontation with the Jade Regent now? Yes, I know the goal here is to get some blessing from the past emperors of Minkai, however that works, but Kasai is right there. Once we’re in the city, will it be so easy to leave if it is as bad off as we’ve been led to believe? And if my suspicions are correct and the Jade Regent has laid a trap for us on the island, what then? Our arrival is not going to be something we can hide.

I realize we don’t have unlimited time, but the Enganoka province is still in turmoil, and Sakakabe isn’t faring much better. Wouldn’t it make sense to wait for things to settle down?

Sarenith 17, 4713 (night, Kurozawa)

We spent the day sailing on the wind over Minkai, the rippling hills, farms, and lush grasslands of the north giving way to the forest and marshes along the Tagiryu River. The Kyojin Mountains grew taller and more rugged with every mile. One could almost mistake this place for Elysium. All problems vanish given enough distance.

We haven’t traveled in this manner since Qatana left. I can’t help but wonder how she is doing, and what journey she is on with her new companions. I also can’t help but wonder how they are coping, as she is so much worse now than she was when we began and they don’t have the benefit of experience to help them out. Almost reflexively, I tried to imagine what it must be like for them to be…contained to a ship with her at sea, and then I realized I more or less already knew: the caravan across the Crown was little different, just longer, colder, and almost certainly less comfortable.

She said she would check in from time to time, and that I was welcome to do the same. I eventually will, assuming we live long enough, but it’s too soon to do it now. For one, she needs time to adjust and settle (as do we), and for two, with our accelerated schedule we can’t really afford to engage in personal indulgences. So that will have to wait. The stories will be more interesting later, anyway.

We’re not far from Akafuto, which is tomorrow’s port of call. We couldn’t travel that far in one day, so we needed a layover and chose the first substantial village we saw as we passed into the heart of the province.

Hatsue is traveling with us. She’s been to Kasai before and is pretty sure she can help us make contact with the resistance movement. And I can’t believe I actually wrote those words; it reads like something from bad community theater. But regardless of how paltry it sounds, that is what it is and it is help we can use.

We’re taking a slower route from this point on—visiting Akafuto for sure, and possibly another village or two in order to get a feel for the people and the politics—so Hatsue and Ivan are headed directly to Kasai tomorrow morning. Why her and Ivan? She needs him for the spell we used to travel here today, and also because I think he has a crush on her.

And I can’t believe I actually wrote those words, either.

Sarenith 18, 4713 (Kurozawa, late afternoon)

Kurozawa is close enough to Akafuto not be insular but far enough away to have its own identity, and that made it nearly perfect for getting a little information on what people know of events both up north and down south. That being said, no one was particularly forthcoming when it came to the subject of Kasai so it took a bit of gentle coaxing from Dasi. The most telling comment of the day was, “At least we are up north where we’re free.”

To warm the village up to us, Dasi and I put on a few performances, mostly music and dancing inspired by stories of the old emperors. It’s the sort of thing that people love; the old stories are always the best stories (which is obstensibly why they have endured for centuries). It is also a subtle way of reminding people how the empire used to be, and how different it is now.

Rumors of an heir up north—the real north, not the relative-to-Kasai north—have made it this far but, in what was far from a surprise, no one really believes them. So Olmas chose to make a bit of a splash by calling attention to Suishen and its status as an Amatatsu ancestral weapon. (As a side point, we need to talk to him about the best way to start this sort of conversation. Talking to a young child then asking them if they wanted to “see his sword” lacked prudence.) Suishen, for once, actually supported that by calling attention to himself. (As another side point, we need to talk to Suishen about that, too. Scaring the shit of a young child that isn’t expecting a talking sword lacked common sense.)

I had to go pick up Ivan at, of all places, the fortress. The plan was for him to meet us in Akafuto, but that plan did not survive even five minutes in Kasai. He and Hatsue were both okay, but to quote Ivan, “Wind walking into Kasai is a bad idea.” After dropping Hatsue off so that she could enter the city on two feet like a normal person, he tried to keep an eye on her from above. He was spotted right away, and the very organized response included marking his position with magical lights so that the archers on the ground knew where to shoot.

We got hints of this sort of thing from the villagers here. Not Ivan specifically, but on the regimented, militaristic lifestyle that has enveloped Kasai. The other quote of the day was, “The emperor loves order.”

Sarenith 19, 4713 (Akafuto, noon)

Akafuto is the second largest port city in Minkai, a major trade hub, and home to a number of shipyards. It reminds me a lot of Magnimar that way, though of course it is much larger and significantly less…diverse.

So far, what we’ve heard from the people here doesn’t differ much from Kurozawa, though the conversations about Kasai were a bit more pointed. Today’s quote was, “Go there, keep to your business, and come back fast.” Something about large cities like this makes people more willing to speak their minds. I suppose that’s because a sense of anonymity comes from being one grain of sand in the desert.

Dasi and I repeated our performances last night at the inn where are staying. That went well, but not exceptionally so. Connecting with people who aren’t looking for one is always a challenge.

We head to Kasai this afternoon. From both Hatsue and the few people here that we talked to at length, we’ve learned that soldiers there—almost certainly the Typhoon Guard—are searching everyone who enters and that they are paying particularly close attention to women. Which normally would just be creepy and uncomfortable, but now is those things plus unsettling. All that means we need to enter in disguise, and specifically in mundane disguise since we don’t want to be lit up like a signal tower under a cursory inspection with magic.

The problem with mundane disguises is that they are hard to pull off, so there is quite a bit of risk here. What if one of us gets caught? Or even just taken aside for questioning? What if that happens to more than one of us? It’s that last one that worries me the most, as I’m not confident I’d be able to get to everyone to pull them out. And it would be absolutely suicidal to try and fight a bunch of guards in their own city.  So quite a lot is riding on what amounts to makeup and wigs.

(Kasai, evening)

Obviously, we made it here, though it was not without incident. We were waiting in line to enter the city when two Typhoon guards descended on a woman and interrogated her right there in the middle of the street. Through magic they either compelled or falsified her confession, and took her away. This brought back fairly ugly memories of the market in Enganoka. I don’t know what’s worse: not being able to intervene in time, or knowing that you can’t intervene at all and are forced to watch it play out.

In Akafuto they described Kasai as being under martial law. “There is heightened security there,” they said. “If you’re about peaceful, lawful business, you’re fine.” These accounts are either magical thinking or willful ignorance as Kasai is nothing short of a police state. People are questioned indiscriminately for the crime of existing. The guards rule through fear and intimidation. Punishment seems to be summary and brutal. And I don’t doubt that many or most of the people here would sell one another out to avoid having the lens turned on them.

One glance up confirmed what I suspected ever since Ivan returned: there were Typhoon Guard patrolling the skies under cover of invisibility, and probably watching the watchers. There weren’t a lot of them, but enough to form a regular patrol. It is yet one more thing to have to keep track of. It helps quite a bit that I can see them, though, and we can use this to our advantage.

Our contact for the resistance movement is Asachi Isao. He is not just an old friend of the Amatatsu family: he actually knew Ameiko’s great grandfather, and was entrusted with the bulk of the family’s wealth when they fled over the Crown of the World. Suishen actually recognized him and was practically giddy to the point where I thought maybe Olmas had brought in the wrong sword. But then Suishen made some backhanded compliment to which Isao replied, “I see you haven’t changed” and I relaxed. (It’s also nice to know that it’s not just us.)

As the footcab-in-residence, it was my job to teleport to the fortress and bring Ameiko and company back with me. As soon as she was here, Isao got down to the business of explaining just how bad the situation in Kasai really was. Because what we needed was more gods-be-damned challenges.

He broke it down thusly:

• The city is experiencing food shortages, which means most of the common folk are starving. One of the primary sources of food is rice, but the Typhoon Guard has appropriated the main granary in the city and is keeping the bulk of it for themselves.
• People are questioned on the street and accused of being supportive of the rebellion. We, of course, witnessed this first-hand. The “guilty” are dragged away, interrogated, and the really unlucky ones are publicly executed.
• Daughters of several of the noble families, including Isao’s, have been taken prisoner, presumably to be used as hostages. The goal is obviously to keep the nobility in line.

So just those problems, then.

Ameiko is itching to take action. I was pretty dumbfounded by that given how she reacted to my little stunt in Enganoka, but maybe something has changed in her. Either that, or there are just too many indignities here to ignore. Either way, this translates to yet another change in plans: instead of walking into the ambush at the shrine on the island, she wants to raid the granary and liberate the rice.

I’m all for it. I reached my breaking point long ago, so any opportunity to tear down pieces of the Jade Regent’s empire is more than welcome.