"And so the tale begins...as a tragedy."

MOTHER 3

~0~

The first lesson in war that Ren Hakuyuu ever learns is taught to him by his mother.

In the earlier years of Emperor Hakutoku's reign, the palace's guards are not as numerous and its fortifications not as strong as they would someday be, and one night when Hakuyuu is four years old, they both fall. While Hakutoku is on campaign in Gou, a band of insurgents from Gai storm in to hunt down his wife and sons, determined to end the conqueror's bloodline before it can truly begin. But Hakuyuu is aware of none of this at first. He only knows that something must be horribly wrong, because for the first time in his life, he is seeing his mother afraid.

If she had known earlier what was going on, if she had had more time to find a place that was both safe to hide her older son and advantageous to fight in, she would surely have handled this situation in her usual calm and collected manner. But though she has eyes and ears everywhere in the palace and beyond, somehow none of them had been able to catch this attack until it's already upon them, and the only thing she can do is grab her child by the hand and run down into the passages below the palace, around the royal tomb, and hope that it will be a half-decent refuge. On top of that, said child is not exactly making things easy for her.

"Mother! Mother, where are we going? What happened? Where are we? Mother!"

"Shh, darling," Gyokuen mutters, her eyes flicking from Hakuyuu to the space in front of and behind them. "There's something dangerous loose on the upper levels, so we're going to stay down here until it's all gone."

"What's dangerous? Why can't it come down here?"

"You know how there are many, many people that your father fights when he leaves? Some of them came here to fight instead."

"But he's not here!"

"They know that. They can't defeat your father, so they want to hurt him by getting rid of his family instead."

She is about to explain further, but Hakuyuu, his heart jumping at the sudden realization that they are the targets this time, shouts, "Why us?! Where's Hakuren?!"

"Hakuyuu, hush. Hakuren is going to be fine, and so are we," she assures him as they start to turn another corner. "The soldiers stationed above ground will get rid of them all before they can come anywhere near us, so we should be safe down here unti - !" She breaks off into a startled gasp, when around the corner lay four of the palace guards, their throats slashed and chests impaled and bodies left in a pile like trash on the stone floor.

The first thing Hakuyuu sees is one of the corpses' eyes, still stretched wide open and staring, right at him, and he recoils with a shriek. Their freshly flowing blood is mixing and pooling at his and his mother's feet, and its heavy metallic odor fills his nose, sending a wave of nausea over him. "Mother," he whimpers, shaking and sick, gripping her hand like a lifeline. "What happened?"

"It seems I was wrong. Our unwelcome guests must be stronger than I assumed." The calmness of her voice stuns him, and he looks up to see no trace of disgust or horror on her face, only calculation. "Poor them," she goes on lightly, gently pulling her hand out of Hakuyuu's and stepping closer to the bodies. "But lucky us."

The closest one to her still has a broadsword buried in his ribs, and Gyokuen takes the hilt in one hand, braces her other hand against the man's armored shoulder, and yanks the sword out with a wet cracking sound that makes Hakuyuu's stomach twist. "Not exactly what I'm used to," she muses, examining the dripping blade. "It's a crudely made thing...But it will do."

"Are you going to fight them? Are they here?! You said they couldn't come down here!"

"I never said that, Hakuyuu, you need to - " The sudden clatter of many heavy footsteps in the distance, coming closer with every second, makes her stop, and remark wryly, "Well, I suppose it does no good to tell you to be quiet now."

"M-Mother...They found us, are they going to kill us?" Hakuyuu asks frantically, tears welling up in his eyes. "I-I don't want to die, I - !"

"No, my darling boy, you have nothing to be afraid of," she says softly, soothingly, turning her head to look her terrified son in the face. "Always remember, you're never safer than when you're with me."

He's about to say something else, ask her what she means to do, but at that moment the troop of Gai soldiers tear around the corner in front of them, stopping short and howling with triumphant laughter when they see the empress and her son. The sight of them makes Hakuyuu's heart skip a beat before it starts pounding again. They look more like dogs than men: massive, with broad shoulders and wide jaws full of mismatched teeth, their blades and flails like long black claws, practically frothing with excitement as they leer at their prey.

These are the ones who are going to kill me! he realizes, and without thinking about it he's shrieking again. "Mother! Mother!"

That only makes the soldiers laugh harder. "Aww, look at the little warrior, hiding behind his mother's skirts! You think she's going to save you?!" one of them shouts as he brandishes his sickle.

"We tore your brother's guts out, pup!" roars another, grinning widely when Hakuyuu bursts into frightened tears. "And you and your bitch mother are next!"

"You're not strong enough for that," Gyokuen replies conversationally, sounding as if she'd like to laugh. "I was told that there were fifty of you that initially broke in...The ten of you are all that's left of that, aren't you?"

Some of them grimace, but the first soldier just yells even louder, showing off his sword. "And what good is that going to do you?! You're just Hakutoku's whore - I'll chop your head off, fuck your corpse, and send your brats to Hakutoku in pieces!"

While the other soldiers yell assent and Hakuyuu sobs even harder, Gyokuen doesn't even flinch, just grips the hilt of the sword tighter. "Hakuyuu," she says in a voice like steel, and her lips curve up into a wolf's smile. "Whatever happens, don't look away."

He can't think to do anything but obey as she lunges, almost too fast to see, and slices off the head of the soldier who had insulted her in one clean swing. Hakuyuu's shock freezes him in place, but the other soldiers' only shows on their faces for a second before it's replaced by rage, and before their comrade's head has even hit the floor they fall on the empress with everything they have, snarling and baying. Like rabid dogs, Hakuyuu thinks again, frozen with fear, certain that they're both about to be killed and that they only have another moment -

But he's only half right. The fight - if he can really call it that - is over so quickly that he almost doesn't realize what's happening until it's done. All he can see in front of him is a blur of bright color moving through the dark-armored soldiers, who drop to the group one by one - in halves, missing heads and limbs - so fast that none of them can even scream. But their blood spatters the walls and runs on the floor and sprays Hakuyuu's face and front, hot and sticky, and before he knows it he's staring in horror at his mother standing there with the soldiers in pieces at her feet, spattered in their blood, that smile still plastered to her face. For a moment, she stays that way as if in a trance, as if she's forgotten where she is, while he is too frightened to make a sound. Then the smile drops from her face and the sword from her hand, and she turns to look at her son.

"Hakuyuu? Are you all right?"

He wants so badly to run to her, to bury himself in her arms, but he can't. "M-Mother," he whimpers again, not knowing what to do. She just got rid of the ones who wanted to kill them, who said that they had killed his baby brother, but even so...even so...

Gyokuen starts to approach him, but stops when he stumbles back away from her. "Hakuyuu," she says, surprised. "It's all right now. Don't be afraid of your mother." She crouches down and extends a hand to him. "Come on..."

Her sweet voice makes his nerve break. He tries to sprint the short distance to her, but in his haste he slips on the blood running over the flat stone, and she reaches quickly out and catches him before he can fall, pulling him safely into her arms. "There, now, I've got you," she coos, holding him closer as she stands up. "You're safe, I promise."

Hakuyuu tries to find a spot on her shoulder that isn't soaked, but gives up and presses his cheek into it anyway. His face is just as wet, it doesn't matter much. "Th-they said they killed Hakuren..."

"I told you, Hakuren is fine. I'm sure of it. I'll take you to him right now, if you want. We ought to go get cleaned up, anyway; we both look a mess," she says with a light laugh, as if she had just been playing in the grass with him instead of murdering ten people in cold blood.

"Okay," he murmurs, clinging onto her dress as she starts carrying him back the way they had come. There's no need to hide anymore.

~0~

The scent of blood doesn't fade as they go - the closer they get to their destination, the more slaughtered bodies they pass, and Hakuyuu hides his face against his mother's shoulder to keep from seeing them. (She doesn't object, so he guesses it's okay to look away now.) Soon enough, they come to one of the nondescript buildings at the very edge of the palace grounds, and she sets him down as they pass through the entrance.

He looks around the dim room, confused: it's entirely bare, just flat gray stone walls and floor. It's nowhere near big enough to make up the entire building. He turns to his mother for an explanation, but she is occupied. Gyokuen runs her hand over the wall until stopping on a square of stone that's (as far as he can see) no different than any of the others.

When she notices him staring, she explains, "There's no way of knowing when the royal family will be in danger, so this palace has all sorts of hidden safe places. I've come to know all of them quite well." With that, she smacks the stone with her palm, calling, "I know you two are in there. Come out now, I took care of everything, and I'd like my son back."

Hakuyuu is only confused for a moment more, and then jumps back with a yelp of surprise when that narrow section of the wall pulls back from the rest with a low grinding sound, revealing a small chamber hidden within, its near-complete darkness broken only by soft patches of light from the candles on the wall. He recognizes the man who steps out of it, but it just confuses him even more.

"Well," Ithnan says, looking Gyokuen up and down. "You've had some fun, haven't you?"

Gyokuen laughs, hiding her mouth behind her sleeve. "Oh, I don't know; in hindsight, it didn't last long enough to be much fun at all."

"I'm sure." With how flat his voice is and how unreadable his eyes are, it's hard to tell whether he approves or not. He glances at Hakuyuu, who is still staring at them with wide eyes and trying to remember how to work his mouth, and then back at Gyokuen. "You couldn't take a minute to get some of that off?"

"I thought I'd better check on all of you first. Does it really matter?"

Ithnan rolls his eyes, and then pulls a cloth from the pocket of his robes and tosses it to Hakuyuu. "Prince Hakuyuu, here, wipe the blood away before it starts to dry," he says, and then addresses his friend again. "Now, we got rid of most of the intruders, and you polished off the rest. What do you propose we tell your husband?"

"I think that's something all three of us should discuss. Speaking of which..." Gyokuen leans over towards the doorway, calling into the darkness. "Falan, what are you still doing in there? Did you forget that he's not yours?"

Hakuyuu pauses in vigorously scrubbing his face (the blood is too warm and too sticky and caked on too thick, he just wants it off) to look up as his mother's other friend steps reluctantly out of the room.

Falan doesn't look very happy, but then again, she rarely does. Cradled protectively in her arms is Hakuren, with puffy eyes and a tearstained face. For a moment, he's still and quiet, if whimpering softly. But the second he spots Gyokuen, he bursts into tears again, screaming and struggling in Falan's arms to try and reach his mother.

Falan rolls her eyes and tries to adjust her grip. "Thank you so much, I just got him calmed down," she complains.

Gyokuen ignores her at first, stepping forward to take her baby son and cuddle him close. "Shh, shhh, sweetheart, Mama's here. It's all right, Mama's here now." Hakuren clings to her tightly, not caring at all that she's covered in blood, and soon enough, his wails subside into soft mewling. She looks back up at Falan, and if Hakuyuu didn't know better, he would think there was a taunting edge to his mother's smile. "I see that Ithnan was doing all the heavy work, then."

Falan narrows her eyes. "I kept your son safe. Doesn't that at least warrant a 'thank you?'"

"Mm, I suppose," Gyokuen concedes, but changes the subject back immediately. "In any case, this shouldn't be hard to explain away. Toku might be a little wary of you and the other priests right now, but he can't deny that we just fought to protect the palace and the family."

Ithnan snorts. "It wasn't much of a fight. Common soldiers really are worthless. But I think this will get His Majesty to trust us a bit more. And he'll certainly take all this better if it's coming from his darling little wife, right?"

"Oh, not just me." Gyokuen looks down at Hakuyuu, who pauses to listen. "Hakuyuu? When your father comes back home, what are you going to tell him?"

Hakuyuu blinks. Shouldn't that be obvious? He knows perfectly well what's going on here. "Mother kept me safe. Mother's friends kept everyone safe."

"Very good," Gyokuen laughs, shifting Hakuren to one arm so she can pet Hakuyuu's hair. "You've been very brave today, darling boy. I'm proud of you."

Feeling ignored, Hakuren starts whimpering, pawing at his mother's face until she pays attention to him again. "Oh, and of course you too, sweetheart," she coos, kissing the top of his head.

"Mother?" Hakuyuu asks hesitantly. "What if...What will happen if more of them come back when Father's home?"

"Then both your parents can grab a sword and give you one hell of a show, little prince," Ithnan says dryly.

"Ithnan, stop talking," Gyokuen says curtly, without looking at him or letting her smile falter. "Hakuyuu, don't worry about a thing. This isn't going to happen again. I won't let anyone hurt your father and I won't let anyone hurt you boys."

"You...You promise?"

Her hand trails down to cup his cheek. "Of course. There's nothing I won't do to protect this family."

~0~

His father returns home a week later.

Hakuyuu first notices from his bedroom window, where he can see the courtyard below and, if he listens very hard, hear some of what's going on down there. He notices his mother walking into view and perks up, and he's about to wave and call down to her, but a louder voice shouts her name first.

Before she has time to fully turn around, Hakutoku sprints across the courtyard and hugs his wife so hard she's lifted off the ground for a moment. "My jewel," he murmurs, holding her close. "They just told me what happened...Are you all right? Are the boys all right?"

Gyokuen smiles contentedly, closing her eyes as she lays her head on her husband's chest. "Don't worry, Toku, everything's fine. Don't think about it any more."

"I thought the palace's defenses were strong, but an entire troop broke through so easily..." Hakuyuu's surprised to see his father's hands shake slightly. "You could have...All three of you could have been killed. Jewel, I'm so sorry. I should have noticed the weak spots, I should have been here to protect you."

"I said, don't think about it. What's happened, happened, and it's over now; no sense worrying about what we should have done," Gyokuen points out, not unkindly. She leans back to look her husband in the face. "Besides, we were never in any real danger. I'm strong enough to take care of myself, and to keep our family safe."

"I know, jewel. But my soldiers are strong as well, and I've lost too many of them. I can't help but worry about you."

"That's true; I didn't think of it that way. But still, I have friends on our side too. The priests were strong enough to fend even this many invaders off, and it was all over in barely ten minutes."

Hakutoku raises his eyebrows. "Is that so?"

"Oh, yes!" Gyokuen says happily. She steps back, taking her husband's hand. "Come, it'll be more comfortable in my room. And I'll tell you how everything happened."

"You're oddly comfortable with that," Hakutoku remarks, allowing his wife to lead him away.

It takes Hakuyuu a moment to realize it, but a touch of sadness comes into his mother's smile. "It's strange, I know. But we both know that this isn't the worst thing that's ever befallen my family."

His father's mouth presses into a tight line, but his voice is gentle. "Yes, jewel. I know."

As they leave his line of sight, Hakuyuu is confused. What could have happened, what haven't his parents told him that could be worse than what they went through last week?

He makes a mental note to ask about it at some point, but as it happens, the conversation that gives him the answer comes just that night, when Hakutoku stops by his bedroom to check on him, sitting beside him on his bed and asking him to explain his version of what had happened to them down in the tunnels.

~0~

"There were so many of them...I thought they'd kill us. I didn't want to die, I didn't know what to do," he murmurs, thinking that he'd start to cry if not for his father's arm around his shoulders. "I was crying so hard, and I couldn't move, I was so scared. But...it was like Mother didn't think that anything scary was going on at all. She just p-picked up that sword, and, and smiled, a-and..."

Hakuyuu swallows and blinks hard, and Hakutoku gently finishes for him. "She killed them. You didn't expect her to do that, and it frightened you."

Hakuyuu nods. "She...She was scary. Like a different person. H-How could she do that?"

"If you mean that as in, why did she kill them all, then that should be obvious: she had to protect you. In the moment, your life was the only thing that mattered to her. But if you mean that as in, how was she strong enough to do that? Your mother was trained in basic swordplay, but strength like that from a woman of her stature..." Hakutoku stops to think for a moment. "I remember I was out on the edges of Rakushou once, years ago, and a cart ran off the road and pinned a little girl underneath it. Her mother was even smaller than yours, but she rushed over and was able to lift that heavy cart up all on her own, long enough for her daughter to escape. When I saw what was going on, I'd thought to help, but that woman was so fast that it was all over before I could even move. The heat of the moment, combined with a parent's instinct to protect, apparently can grant one great strength."

"Really?"

"I assume that's what happened." A shadow passes over Hakutoku's face. "Hakuyuu...I don't know if anyone else would have told you, but not too long ago, your mother had two younger sisters and a younger brother, that lived in the palace with us."

Hakuyuu blinks, confused. He's never seen any of those people. "No, she didn't."

"Yes, she did, but this was before you were born. You never knew them. Just a few months before your mother had you, her sisters - your aunts Ankoku and Kuroko - disappeared out of nowhere. We never found them, we're...At this point, we have to assume they're both dead. Her brother Enshan couldn't handle losing them, and killed himself not long after. And your mother..." Hakutoku heaves a deep and tired sigh. "I've never seen anyone break down sobbing like that, and I never wanted to see her so devastated again, but then - "

"Grandmother Shuuen disappeared, too," Hakuyuu catches on, his eyes widening. It had been a whole year ago, right after Hakuren was born, and his memories are a little fuzzy. But he can still remember the beautiful, long-haired woman, who used to hold him in her lap and stroke his hair and sing to him. One day she'd been there, and the next, she was just gone. "Mother told me she wasn't coming back...She looked like she was going to cry, but she didn't."

"She doesn't like to upset you, so she tries to keep her feelings to herself around you. But that's how it was. Her siblings' deaths were bad enough, but her mother...Well. Shuuen never seemed to care much for anyone else - not even her other children, for that matter - but the two of them were incredibly close. And after she died, your mother was never the same." His father isn't looking at him, and Hakuyuu can't figure out his expression. "You said she seemed like a different person for a minute? I can understand that."

In the few moments of silence that follow those words, for the first time Hakuyuu wonders - really wonders - what would happen if one of his family were to die.

His father is powerful and brave, and the man he needs to become like if he's going to be a good king one day. He's never gone a day of his life without seeing his mother at least once, without hearing her voice or feeling her arms around him. He has no idea, he realizes, what he'd do without either of them. Even Hakuren...His baby brother can be more annoying than anything else, constantly trying to get into his things and follow him around everywhere. But still, he always smiles when he sees Hakuyuu and laughs when Hakuyuu (reluctantly) hugs him, and his mother insists that this means he loves his big brother. He'd miss that, he thinks. He'd miss their family so much. If his parents weren't strong enough to protect them all...

"I want to be different, too," Hakuyuu declares, and his father looks at him in surprise. "You say when you go, you're going to fight to protect everybody in our country, right? And Mother and her friends protected us here. I want to grow up like that!"

Hakutoku smiles, patting his son's shoulder encouragingly. "If that's the thing you're going to take away from this whole debacle, then I suppose you'll be all right. Your mother assured me you would be, but I had to be sure." He gets up and starts to leave. "Sleep well tonight, Hakuyuu. If anything else is troubling you, come to me or your mother about it."

"Okay, Father."

"And before I forget..." Hakutoku stops in the doorway and looks back at him one more time. "I had quite a long talk with your mother before, and something came up. Tomorrow when you go for sword training, you'll have a new teacher."

Hakuyuu perks up at that. "Really? Who?"

"Oh, I think I'll keep that a surprise," Hakutoku says with a small smile. "But I have a feeling that you'll learn well together."

~0~

With the constant threats of invasion by and skirmishes on the borders with Gou and Gai, Kou had been a severely militaristic kingdom even before Hakutoku decided to push further into conquest, and its royal family has held the centuries-long tradition of beginning their children's combat training very early on. As such, Hakuyuu has been learning to fight unarmed and to wield a sword for a year now. His trainers are all right, he supposes, but he hasn't become particularly close with any of them. So despite his father's reassurance, he isn't expecting very much from whoever's supposed to be teaching him now.

But, when he is escorted onto the dusty court by one of the servants and left to introduce himself alone, he finds that he doesn't need to wonder.

"Surprised, Hakuyuu?" Gyokuen asks with a smile, testing the weight of a jian in her hand.

For a few seconds, he stares. He's not used to seeing his mother in just plain white training clothes, and more importantly, he had been under the impression that her sword-wielding would be a one-time occurrence. "You're teaching me now?"

"Yes, I've thought about it, and I've decided that you'll be better off learning swordplay from me from now on. I told you once that I learned from my mother, didn't I?"

Now that she mentions it, she had, right when he'd been starting out a year ago. "You said you thought it was boring," he reminds her, raising an eyebrow.

Gyokuen looks somewhat puzzled, but her smile doesn't falter. "Well, if I did say something like that, I must have changed my mind. You don't mind me replacing your old trainers, do you?"

He shakes his head. "Do you know where to start?"

"Oh, there's very little I don't know," she laughs. "But I talked it over with your father, just to be certain. As of your last lesson, you were stuck on that new set of parrying techniques, weren't you?"

"Yeah."

"All right. Shall I demonstrate for you first?" When he nods, she continues, "Step back a little bit."

He obeys. But when he sees his mother once again take her stance and raise the sword, the sunlight glinting harshly off the steel blade, a part of him is thrown back to those dark catacombs. His stomach churns, a musty taste fills his mouth, and he lets out a small, fearful noise despite himself.

Noticing his discomfort, Gyokuen pauses and turns to him. "What's wrong?" she asks, and when he's silent, she guesses. "Ah, I see. Did I leave a bad first impression back then?"

"...Maybe."

"That's all right. Take a deep breath and relax. Are you afraid I'll hurt you, the way I hurt them?"

He swallows, trying to figure out how to explain that it's not the idea of his mother turning on him that scares him, but the idea of her turning so violent at all, out of absolutely nowhere. "I...I don't know."

"There's nothing to be afraid of," she says gently, and holds the sword out in front of her. "This isn't a tool for pointless slaughter, Hakuyuu. I would never raise my blade to hurt you. All my life, I have only ever fought to protect what I love. And you told your father last night that that's what you wanted, didn't you?"

That's right, he did. All at once, Hakuyuu feels ashamed that he was scared, and he swallows hard and raises his sword in imitation of his mother. "Yes."

"Perfect. If that is your intention, then nothing you do with this sword can be wrong. Forget doubt and fear, and remember what you want. Can you do that?"

"Yes!"

She smiles. "That's my good boy. Now, you watch closely, and do exactly as I do."

~0~