The Castle of Edo
Prologue
A rainbow erupted through the early morning sky of the Sengoku Jedai. Reds and oranges brightened the atmosphere as the golden sun rose from its slumber. The brilliant glow cast beams across the verdant landscape, highlighting the now gleaming green oak leaves and pine needles. The glow glimmered on the blue, indigo, and purple waters of ponds and lakes dotting the earth below.
Hidden in the thick forest of pine trees, from all but the all-knowing eyes of the sun, lay an enormous and elegantly constructed castle. Its extensive moats shimmered in the morning sunlight, the sparkling waters surrounding the fortress' entirety. Four long walls of coal gray stones stacked to form formidable protective barriers. The same stone made up the narrow bridge over the moat leading to the front gate. At each corner of the edifice rose a white, two-story traditional tower, the matching gray irimoya gently sloping upward at the ends.
In the farthest courtyards of the castle grounds stood an intricate Shinto shrine. White marble lined a straight path to the shrine doors. The shrine itself resembled the small towers at the fortress' corners, the same architectural design as the castle itself: white with charcoal gray rooftops.
Life – light, foliage, animals – surrounded the castle. But inside, it was abandoned. The castle's creator had suffered profound loss, of love, identity, home, and eventually his life. His castle had seen it all. In fact, it was in death that the castle creator remained in his magnificent home, as the structure's ghostly keeper.
A spirit such as he was bound to the Earth for one reason: he had a purpose he had yet to fulfill, business he had yet to finish, a destiny he had yet to meet. He just hoped that fate would play out soon and release him from the monotonous misery of his undead life.
As swiftly as the sun shone across the grand palace, a stagnant and suffocating smog drifted towards the castle. The hovering haze shrouded the clear spring sky, stripping the atmosphere of life and color. It settled over the castle, a thicker stream of mist wafting along the castle grounds towards the lonely shrine. It twisted and curled along the pearly white stones leading to the shrine doors. It paused at the entrance, plotting its next move, and began to roll under the door, entering the holy structure.
Inside the shrine, the mist grew thicker, the iridescent silvery hue darkening into violet, until the heavy miasma was nearly black. The fog rose along the edges of an untouched cherry wood altar, coiling around a sheet shrouded object that stood in the center of the holy table.
The smoke erupted, causing the sheet to slip from the object and waft delicately to the ground. The exposed object radiated blinding light from the inside out, illuminating the windowless shrine as if the sun were shining inside the structure.
As the miasma mixed with the growing glow, it curled into a large sphere. An unseen force filled the translucent orb, the miasmic mixture hurling itself inside of the object, illuminating the shrine interior with an ominous purple sheen.
The object, splendorous and fully visible to the naked eye, was an ornately designed mirror, intricate but ordinary for the time period. Now, it was only a mirror superficially, a cover for the prison that now housed a malevolent essence and a captured soul. The smoke continued to rotate within the mirror as a devilish chuckle echoed within the relic.
At that moment, a face appeared within the looking glass. His hair as black as midnight, his eyes as blue as day, he emerged only for a moment. His eyes bulged with terror and anxiety, as if he were witness to a burgeoning plot that he had no power to impede.
As the image began to fade, those questioning eyes were the last to dissolve. They remained transfixed in the looking glass, burning their likeness into the mirror's reflection like foreshadowing imagery of what was to come, haunting the shrine with deadly questions and lingering wickedness to greet any visitors who happened upon the hidden Castle of Edo…