"You could have obeyed me."
—"I could have, but I didn't."
"It would have been better for you. You know it. I don't understand. Why didn't you obey me?"
—"To obey just like that, for the sake of obeying, without questioning… That's something only people like you can do, Captain."
- Captain Vidal and Dr. Ferreiro, Pan's Labyrinth
"Why don't you just get me a crash dummy? At least he'll do what I tell him."
- Julian Wilkes, Viper
"What is there to forgive? You didn't take the child away from us. The gods fell in love with him and wanted him back. That's all."
- Kail Mursili, Red River
"Do you remember the way to the Great Valley?"
- Littlefoot's mom, The Land Before Time
"DAMN IT. DAMN IT. DAMN IT."
- Theodor Eberbach, Muv-Luv Alternative: Schwarzesmarken episode 8
Yumiko prayed dutifully under the statue of Genbu. The three wise women of the royal temple knelt around her in a triangle to help lift her faith.
Uruki was away on a mission in the Kutou province that could take several weeks. The Priestess desperately longed to be riding beside him in the fields, but she had more pressing matters to attend to at the palace. Everything had gone well during their journeys together in Sairou and Konan. Sairou's hostility toward Hokkan had been spurred by a desperate search to find a cure for a desert plague that was killing their people, but they only needed to be shown the basics of running a clean hospital and sterilizing their food and medical equipment before the pandemic ended and Yumiko gained their trust. The sickness itself was something Yumiko figured out she was immune to thanks to bringing a few minor miracles of 20th century medicine with her to the past. And just after Sairou needed her help, Konan had been facing a spy crisis that could have toppled the entire South into chaos. Yumiko and her Celestial Protectors scouted out the traitors and saved the country's leadership before leaving on peaceful terms.
But Yumiko's separation from Uruki now left her with a lingering sense of heartbreak and fear. They had been together for over a year and they had never been this far apart. All of her thoughts went into a silent incantation for the prince's safety.
Suddenly, the temple doors behind the four women burst open like exploding fireworks. Black-suited Hokkan soldiers rushed through the doorway and clustered around Yumiko like a swarm of moths. Two of them grabbed the Priestess by her wrists and yanked her off her knees, sending her into a panic as she looked back and forth in bewilderment. The three elderly shrine servants stood up from their own places, clearly infuriated.
"What is the meaning of this?" the first servant shouted. "You're treading on Genbu's most sacred ground! Your very presence desecrates this temple!"
The captain of the private palace guard was already drawing his sword from its black scabbard.
"This witch from the demon world desecrates the entire country!" he spit back at them. "Your false preachings will no longer be tolerated!"
Yumiko was terrified for her life. The captain turned his callous eyes on hers and spoke coldly.
"Priestess Yumiko, you have been accused of betraying His Highness Lord Tegil and conspiring against the kingdom. You are hereby sentenced to be put to the sword and have your body burnt as an offering to Genbu. You will foul these lands no further."
Yumiko tried to defy him with every ounce of courage in her heart. What came out of her mouth was only a tiny whimper.
"This is nonsense!" one of the shrine servants objected. "The only thing the Priestess knows how to betray is her own arrogance!"
"The only thing she conspires over is how to show her love for Hokkan's people!" said the second.
"Her only sin is annoying the chefs because she can never decide what food she likes best here!" said the third. "Even if you had any serious evidence against her, you know she needs to stand trial first!"
"The order comes directly from King Tegil himself," the lead guardsman said as he shook his head in foreboding. "There can be no trial. We know what she's capable of. The Priestess would just use her wiles to seduce the jury to her side."
"You'll never be forgiven for this!" the first servant exclaimed. "Everyone in the kingdom adores her! They'll see right through your scheme and start a revolution against you!"
"Nothing can stop that now," the elite captain replied. "They'll just have to learn worshipping a false idol will only lead to their ruin. They'll have to accept their faith belongs to those who hold power. They'll try to revolt, and they'll lose dearly. Everything was so much simpler before this woman fell out of the sky and started convincing the peasants they're more powerful than the king."
The trio of old servants growled under their breath and twisted their faces into scowls like it was a new form of zen.
"I advise you to withhold your grievances," said the captain. "Lord Tegil holds nothing ill against you three. Allow us to deal with this devil and you can return to your peaceful sermon."
"You filthy little heathens…" the head matron muttered back.
The three old women jumped into action a hundred times faster than their creaking legs and their huddled bodies should have been able. In the blink of an eye, all three were wielding ceremonial guandao poles that were longer than them. Yumiko would have laughed at how silly they looked if she wasn't held by her wrists awaiting the executioner's block.
"Okay, girls!" the lead servant said. "Nobody starts trouble for the Priestess on our watch! Let's teach these youngsters some respect!"
Curved spearheads crashed against swords. Yumiko was forced to watch as the countless guards and the three old servants struggled to decide her fate. Seeing her friendly attendants overwhelmed, she finally gathered her wits and shouted.
"Wait!"
The battle came to an abrupt stop. Heavily armored soldiers and elegantly dressed clerics turned their heads toward her with the same surprised expressions.
"If this is how it has to end for me, I won't put up a fight," Yumiko said softly. Her eyes fell on the leader of the guards with a look of mercy.
"Just promise me someone will take care of Zalbiral after I'm gone. I'll let you do whatever you want as long as he's safe."
The captain glanced back at her with a growing smirk.
"I'm sorry, Priestess, but I don't have the authority to make those arrangements. An armed contingent was already sent to the nursery. We couldn't risk letting your co-conspirator walk free."
Yumiko's gentle and serene face contorted with a look of bitter agony. Her heavy breathing turned into a sickened whining sound, and then the whining broke into a wail of torment. The Priestess threw away the two guards grasping her wrists with an explosion of motherly strength. She charged for the guard captain with no weapons in her hands and no idea what she was going to do other than make him pay. Her senses lapsed as she ran screaming into her own demise, blinded to the fact the elite soldiers were wielding dozens of blades and her only defense was her flimsy green robes.
A giant black spider web caught Yumiko before she did something stupid.
Another, smaller blast came through the wall above the temple doors as a screaming guardsman hurtled through the air. Everyone in the temple turned to see a female fighter standing by herself in the entrance. Her hair stretched for miles like wet black ropes, acting with a mind of its own as it lashed around the soldiers.
Her name was Inami, and she was one of Genbu's seven Celestial Warriors. In her right hand, she wielded a long lead pipe that proved useful for toppling palace guards in waves. In her left arm, she was cradling a small white bundle.
Inami jumped on to one guard's shoulders and cleared the others with an aerial flip. She landed beside the Priestess and quickly pushed back the attackers with a swirl of metal and magic. Three of the soldiers went sailing like bowling pins as she struck their faces with her pipe. Four more were bound to the temple walls in her tangled hair.
"I just finished up with about a dozen of your pals upstairs," she taunted the soldiers. "Would any of you other guys like to try taking me for a spin?"
Her menacing words held off the attackers for a time.
Inami turned toward her Priestess. She extended her left arm to show the younger woman the tiny weeping bundle she had rescued.
"Lady Yumiko," Inami said with a playful grin, "I believe this belongs to you?"
The Priestess was ready to burst into tears as she pulled the baby close to her chest. She rocked her shoulders gently and whispered "Shhh" in his ear to calm him down, wrapping him in the long green sleeves of her robe to surround him in her scent. His frightened crying soon changed to soft babbling. Inami watched the reunion with a reserved sense of achievement.
Yumiko was holding the six-month-old Prince Zalbiral safe and sound in her arms. She didn't yet know she was also holding a tiny daughter safe and sound in her womb.
"Inami, thank you," Yumiko said through quiet tearful laughter. "I really thought he was gone. How did you even know…?"
"I told you I always make sure my girls are treated well, royal concubines included." The Celestial Warrior offered a sympathetic smile, hinting at her profession as a brothel proprietress. "As for your little one… I lost my child when Genbu decided I wasn't ready to become a mother yet. I guess I just couldn't stop myself from looking after him like he was my own."
While Yumiko was distracted by her bliss, a single black guard charged behind her with his sword held out. He attacked too suddenly for Yumiko to dodge and too quickly for Inami to disarm with her hair strands. He was inches away from piercing his blade all the way through the Priestess's back.
He ended up piercing his blade between the ribs of one of the shrine matrons.
"Madoka!" the other two screamed in unison.
The old woman stood defiantly with the sword sticking through her, shielding her beloved Priestess's life with her own. Inami recovered from her initial shock and launched the soldier backwards with another web of hair.
The servant staggered forward a few steps. She slowly pulled the sword out of her chest, studied the red gleam painting its edges, and carelessly tossed it to the shrine floor. She collapsed to her knees, expressing her pain with little more than a disappointed groan.
Madoka closed her eyes and cleared her mind. She silently projected her thoughts to the other matrons, whispering to them through a special wavelength only the three of them shared.
Misaki, Mariko. You two are running the show now. You'll have to get the Priestess and her Guardian out of here. You better not have forgotten how to use the passage behind the altar.
Then she opened her eyes and spoke with her natural voice so Yumiko and Inami could hear.
"Now you kids get going. Follow Genbu's will before these fools destroy everything with theirs. Restore the dynasty. Put our true king where he belongs."
Madoka finished her final homily and crumpled to the floor.
Mariko and Misaki pulled the Priestess by her sleeves. They quickly led her and the tiny prince to the front of the temple. Inami followed only a few paces behind them, throwing out her hair as a smokescreen to keep the soldiers off their trail. She spoke to the Priestess as they were both running.
"Yumiko, don't let yourself think you're giving up. This isn't retreat. This is isn't surrender. This is just something we soldiers call 'tactical regrouping.' The Genbu Warriors still need you to lead us against these frauds. Uruki needs you the most."
Yumiko nodded in understanding, squeezing her tear-soaked eyes shut and holding her baby son to her heart while she fled.
The Priestess, her Guardian, and the two temple servants stopped and huddled close together. One second they were crouching in the shadow of Genbu's protective stone shell. The next, they were simply gone. All that remained in the room were the battalion of black-suited guards and a single temple attendant.
A crimson pool spread under Madoka's robes and soaked into the temple grounds. The enraged captain of the guard loomed over the helpless old woman as he raised his sword into the air. Madoka rolled on her back and chuckled weakly as blood seeped down the wrinkles around her mouth.
"I'm getting too old for this anyway," she muttered in a final wisecrack.
Just as the soldier's sword descended over her head, her pain was taken away and her vision was basked in a thankful green glow.