A/N: To all my new readers, I'm afraid I have to say everything that goes on in this story has some reference made to one of my other fics 'Broken' in one manner or another and it won't make much sense unless you've read that so you might want to go check that out first.
To everyone who followed me here from there, you finally know what the Shaman physically appears to look like. While writing the latest chapter, I came to the realization that even though I had mention a millennium long feud going on between the humans and the magicians and the hunters had been coming after the Essence for just that long, I never quite delved into the history of how the Shaman came into being or how the Essence was created in the first place. Sadly, if I were to go into those details in the fic itself, I might as well have resigned myself to writing four more chapters worth of back-story stuff and honestly speaking I am just about ready to finally finish this story. It might still reach up to sixty chapters though I'm trying to end it on fifty-nine. ^_^;
After a brief discussion with my beta, who is totally awesome but kinda mad at me right now, I figured I could do a little spin-off oneshot instead. This takes place one thousand years before the events of the Broken and is actually the mega event that started the feud in the first place. It won't perfectly fit in with the legend I told in Broken and the reason for that is that history has a tendency of getting distorted over time as it is retold. So yes, things changed and no one truly knows what really happened anymore. All they have is the stories they were told and that's it.
This spin-off will also shed light on how a few things in the coming chapters can actually work out though making the connections between these is something I shall leave up to you my lovely readers. ;) ;)
Now that my long rambly note is done and over with, please, go ahead and enjoy~
Gritting her teeth, she fought back the tears that spilled down her cheeks as she shoveled more earth over the hole she had dug in the ground. She was a priestess. It was her duty to protect the secret entrusted to her family, but those…those monsters had taken him away from her! They had killed him! Her beloved Youou was dead. to hold her or touch her or kiss her again. And all because they had been too hungry for power and had wanted the man she loved to tell them her whereabouts. After all, he had been a human and not a witch like her. He would have understood and taken their side, right? Only, the father of her child had been too much in love with her to betray her trust and had chosen death over letting them take her.
She felt like crying tears of blood as she remembered laying eyes on his handsome face, frozen in an expression of grim determination even in death. The gashes running down his chest and the coal-black skin of his feet had told her his death had not been swift and neither had it been painless. He had been tortured for information on her whereabouts, all because she knew a spell that could summon the very forces of nature and give them a physical form that could be harnessed like weapon. Those monsters had wanted to use the magic of nature to further their own goals and for that they had taken him away from her. All because… all because of the secrets that had been passed down through her family.
The spells were forbidden, for an ominous prophecy was to be triggered at their use. No one knew how the spell and the prophecy that accompanied it had come into being, but the words of wisdom had been passed down through generations and generations and no one had ever dared to perform the spells. No one…until today, that was. She would destroy the monsters that had taken her beloved Youou from her with the very thing they desired. It was only fitting, after all. They had all heard of the incredible power one would possess upon performing the ritual, but they had no idea that only the priestess or priest protecting the spell could perform the sealing.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well, her anger was much, much worse. She would tear them apart, limb from limb, make them beg for mercy as she killed them slowly and painfully and she would do it with the very power they had desired. Once her dear father had lain down for sleep in his shack a little ways from hers, having asked him to take care of her son for the night, she snuck off to the sacred ritual grounds, calling upon the ancient, forbidden magic to exact her revenge. Winds howled in rage, fire roared like vicious beasts, the earth rumbled and lightning crackled through the sky like restless snakes, the forest slowly dying as its very life source was sucked out, trees withering, leaves crumbling and turning to dust in the blink of an eye-and while a part of her was saddened to end so much life, she refused to stop just then. She had to do this. Those monsters deserved this.
Slowly-oh, so slowly, magic was beginning to gather before her, pulsing and beating and growing and spreading and…it was growing out of control! She tried to end the spell but…it was spiraling out of control and the power was too much and the soft pulsating magic had suddenly turned to wild, hammering beats that tore her apart on the inside, summoning a loud wail from her throat as she was lifted into the air. Too much. Too much. Too much. She was dying and burning and oh, kami, she couldn't take it! It was too much. Make it stop! Make it stop!
Her screams must have been bloodcurdling and extremely loud, for she was distantly aware of her father running through the dying forest towards the sacred grounds, her precious son cradled in his arms. They were still very far away but all of a sudden she knew exactly where they both were. She wanted to tell them to turn away. To leave. To save themselves. She had brought this hell upon everyone, but they could still save themselves. They had to turn around and leave!
Another scream tore from her mouth and her body twisted and contorted and it was like she was being pulled apart and burnt and put back together only for the entire process to repeat itself and she was losing her sense of being and who she was and…it was too much. It could not fit in this tiny body and it needed more space. More space to occupy. The avatar for the Essence was not enough. It was too small. Too tiny… too weak.
"Tomoyo!" An old man was screaming a name that meant nothing. Oh, and he had a little boy. Three bodies… that would be enough for an avatar. Yes. It would be enough but… NO! They had to leave! They had to run away and never come back! Nononono! They had to turn around! Run away. Save themselves. They were going to…be a part of the avatar. The perfect face to move around in this world of petty, barbaric humans and creatures, these mortals. They all thought they could play with powers that were beyond their understanding. Well, they would see the havoc their foolish attempts would wreak on their precious little world.
The old man cast a spell, a tiny little thing that was meant to pull the avatar back to the ground. The avatar slowly touched the ash-covered land and the man raced forward to catch the limp body, but the minute the old fool touched it, power began to seep into the man, making him scream in unison with the avatar, the little child fearfully crying and looking on from behind a blackened stump that used to be a magnificent tree. Nothing but destruction followed wherever these fools went, and now the world would be plunged into untold chaos and these three fools…they would instigate it all and- no! Not her precious son! It could not get its hands on her precious little boy. He was so much like his father, tan skin, red-eyes, a strong sense of morality and- it was going to be a perfect addition to the avatar!
Her voice coaxed the boy on just as the old man completely vanished inside the avatar, it was one but the avatar was still incomplete. It needed one more. Just one more and there it was. The perfect little addition and now the boy was reaching out for the avatar and-her little boy was screaming and crying and begging for her to make the pain stop and then- the human child was silent and slowly becoming one with the avatar.
Its hair floated in the air as magic crackled and surrounded it like a cocoon, but maybe all the magical activity had drawn more humans to these sacred ground for there were noises and the sounds of horses and feet and yells and weapons and soon there were men in the clearing, surrounding the avatar.
"Well, Priestess, we meet at last." The foolish mortal with dark hair jumped off his horse, slowly pulling out its useless weapon as to appear more threatening. "Your lover refused to tell us where you were, but it appears as though the gods are favoring us over you. We were in the vicinity when you used that spell. We could not help but come and take a peek. And it appears as though you have done half the work for us already. Really, now, you had no need to summon the Essence for us. We would have been okay with the spell but I suppose this is better. If you want, we could spare the rest of your worthless family in return."
"Foolish mortal," the avatar murmured so softly it was nothing more than a hiss but the words rang out in the silence that followed the raging winds. "Thinking someone like you could actually tame the Essence."
Power and magic, ancient and magnificent, rolled off the avatar in waves. Since the woman that used to reside in this body had summoned the Essence for the purpose of avenging her lover, avenged he would be. He would be avenged in the manner he deserved to be avenged. These mortals, monsters the woman had called them, they would be made an example of. A warning, for the rest of their race.
"You shall all pay for what you did to her lover and the Shaman will make your end a thing to be feared by all who hear."
"Please," the man scoffed in response, "my brother was a fool to fall in love with you, wretched wench. He deserved what he got for preferring someone like you over his own family and kin."
"Youou was far more an honorable man and much more wise than a pitiful monster like you could ever hope to be!" the woman spat, taking over the avatar for a brief moment. "You will regret what you did to him!"
"Kurogane was nothing more than a lovesick fool. He was making talks about marriage." The man snorted derisively, "As if our tribe would allow someone like you to become a part of us."
The woman howled in rage, the avatar completely pushed to the side as she called on the power of the Essence. For a small moment of time, she was worse than all the furies of hell combined as she called on all the magic in her possession. The tiniest of threads of magic shot out from her in every direction, piercing and impaling whatever was in its way. Liquid fire, white hot and vicious, burned the monsters from the insides, the man who had killed her lover screaming the loudest as the threads pierced him everywhere. Grinning like a creature possessed, she slowly walked over to the monster, dipping a finger in the blood that trickled down from everywhere on his body. The connection of the thread-like spells allowed her to know exactly how each and everything in his body worked and the woman…she began to pick it all apart, one tiny piece by one tiny piece, relishing in every cry of pain the man made.
The woman spared only one of the warriors, slaughtering all his companions right in front of his eyes in the most agonizing and brutal of manners. The avatar was allowed this much freedom because that was the reason behind the spell, but now that the reason had been fulfilled and her dead lover had been avenged, the Essence took back control of the body.
"Leave, you foolish mortal. Tell your fellow humans to never try and come for the Essence again, because what happened to your comrades might just happen to the rest of the world."
The man ran as though the hounds of hell were at his heels. Crushing a corpse's skull under the heel of its foot, the avatar tore off their leader's travelling cloak before fastening it to its neck and casting a careless glance around. Throwing the hood over its face, the avatar faded into the night, knowing full well that this incident would trigger a blood feud between the two factions that would go on for a millennium.
And this woman, this priestess who corrupted that which was entrusted to her and summoned the power of the world for her selfish reasons, she would be forever serve the role of the avatar for the Essence.
A/N: And that is the sad story of how the Shaman came into being. Tomoyo's personality still lives on inside the Shaman but it has been regressed to almost complete nothingness. The Shaman is more or less and extension of the Essence. The Guardians in Broken pretty much have the same job as the priests and priestesses a thousand years back i.e. protecting the Essence from falling into evil hands. Before it had been something that was passed down a family but now it's a position appointed by the Shaman. The reason why the Shaman appeared to help the people of Magihidusi when all other magical cities were wiped out was mainly because the Essence was more protected around people with magic since they put more faith in warnings and omens and prophesies and would respect the words of the avatar of the Essence.
In relation to chapter fifty-seven for Broken, the reason why Kuro was actually able to beat the Shaman the way he did was because of his uncanny resemblance to this Tomoyo's Youou. Before you ask, yes, they're both the same person only from different world. Tomoyo is still somewhere inside the Shaman and no matter what, she does not want to hurt the man she loves and has been actively holding the Shaman back from letting out its full power against Kuro, lest it kills him. that and the fact that Kurogane has been repeatedly using pretty much all his family techniques in quick sucession for almost the entire fight and I have never actually seen him do that in the manga. So it's kinda like the Shaman is powered down and Kurogane is going all out.
But this does not mean that I am undermining his strength or power, since Kurogane is a very powerful man in his own right. But since I made out the Shaman to be stronger than Nixon who is on the same level of power as Yuuko, it would be inconsistent for Kuro to beat the Shaman while Nixon was pressed hard to hold his own in the earlier chapters. Soooo yeah. ^_^; so anyways, drop me a review and lemme know what you think.