Chapter Nine

Well, so she had survived the night.

Washu opened her eyes cautiously, stifling a shiver as a cold wind whipped through the cracks in the stonework and then wincing as she jarred her stiff, cramped muscles. She struggled into a sitting position, rubbing her arms absently as she cast a glance across her cell to where she had discarded her cuffs the night before.

"Noone's been here since then, because they'd have noticed that, I'm sure." She murmured. "Interesting. They've got guards outside, no doubt - but they don't like to spend time with the prisoners? Do they think that visitors from other worlds are demons? Although considering that Yuzuha woman - she's a pretty good example of how they can be. Maybe they have a point after all."

She sighed, getting slowly and awkwardly to her feet. At the very top of her restricted cell, light glistened through and as she gazed up at it, she realised that she must be beneath the surface of the planet, in some kind of lower basement. She pursed her lips, making doubly sure that she was not being observed, and then lifted herself up off the ground, hovering towards the chink of light. It was a small, barely adequate window, barred and grilled across the front, but there was enough of a ledge for her to rest her hands on, and as she settled herself there, struggling to see her location from behind the smoky, dusty glass, she heard the sound of voices.

Instinctively she stiffened, prepared to drop to the ground the moment she heard the wooden door at the end of the prison corridor creak open, but then she realised that the voices came from outside of the dungeon, not within it. Curiosity now piqued, she abandoned all attempts at discretion, pushing herself up against the window as closely as she could manage as she strained to pick up snippets of the conversation.

"Lady Yuzuha says she's an outsider, and potentially dangerous." She heard one man say. "She's had men searching all night for her devil-ship, but they haven't found it yet. The lady thinks its best we dispose of her before she threatens our whole planet. We're to prepare the fire, as usual."

"The fire?" Washu's eyes narrowed. "What do they mean, fire? What kind of fire?"

"As the Lady wishes." There was the sound of rustling clothing, and Washu deduced the second speaker had made some kind of fervent gesture against demonic possession. "A devil craft is bad enough, but if she had come here without such a thing..."

"Well, that won't be a problem for us, once the outlander is put to death." The first man said flatly. "We must gather fuel and herbs for the purification fire. That is the only way to make sure this stranger can't hurt us."

The two men moved out of earshot at this point, and realising she wasn't going to overhear anything else, Washu lowered herself to the ground, uttering a sigh as she sank down against the wall.

"Oh, great." She muttered. "So it sounds like they're putting on a barbeque, and I'm first course. That's not very nice...or very Kii."

She frowned, rubbing her temples as she ran over the brief conversation in her mind once more.

"If they knew I could understand them, I'm sure they wouldn't talk so casually near where I'm being held." She decided. "But it's nice to have had some advance warning, anyway. I suppose that I should think about escaping from this place, if they're really keen on burning me to death. It's so rude of them. This early in the morning - what a way to be woken up! And I'm hungry, too. They haven't fed me anything yet. Maybe I should see whether or not they bring breakfast before the main event...although, given that they were talking about herbs, maybe I'd be better off finding my own food. After all, I don't know anything about this planet, not really, or what is or isn't poison. Yuzuha may say the people are Kii, but so far they're not exactly living up to it."

She glanced at her hands, rubbing absently at the dirt that still clung to her fingers.

"I'm such a mess." She mused. "Maybe I could ask for a bath. Although they might not see the point, if they're going to fritter me alive. No, I think the best move all round is to try and get out of here and then think about what to do next. I hope Ryo Ohki got to the Earth safely, and told Ryoko and Tenchi what's happened. I know my daughter's flighty, but I could use her help."

She moved towards the black-steel bars of the cell door, faltering for a moment as a sudden realisation dawned on her.

"Fire." She murmured. "Oh, now I see...is that what they intend to do? A fire of purification - that is what he said, isn't it? Your brain is so slow, Washu, you should remember. Even if you did always try and find excuses to get out of helping Father cremate the town dead. I wish I could remember which tribes it was that committed their ashes to the Eagle through the fire that way. Not mine - that was all I needed to know. But it would be helpful, now. At least I'd have a bit more information to work with."

She frowned, clenching her fists.

"Although someone should tell these people that if they want to adhere to Kii funeral rites, they should at least make sure the person in question is dead before they light the bonfire." She added darkly. "I'll bet anything you like that it was that Yuzuha who added this particular perversion to a fairly innocent - if creepy and macabre - ritual."

She glanced over the cell door carefully, then flexed her fingers, nodding her head.

"Easy enough." She decided. "Well, thanks for the hospitality, but no thanks. I'm going to take a walk around this planet and so long as I steer clear of people with that strange paralysing magic, I should be all right. I'm on my guard this time, at least. I know what to expect, so they won't take me so easily a second time. I was fooled by the simple appearance of the planet, but now I know better."

She took a purposeful step forward, pushing her hands and then her arms and full body through the bars of the cage door, stepping fully onto the cold slabs that flanked the walkway between her cell and the wall. Idly she traced her finger against the dusty stone, approaching the big wood-panel door that she had been dragged through when she had first been imprisoned. On the other side, she knew, guards were probably on duty.

"But I have to take my chances with them, and hope I don't hurt them too much." She decided. "Whether Ryo Ohki got to the Earth or not, I don't know. But I'm not going to be someone's charcoal producing experiment, and there's plenty I don't know about all of this yet."

She set her teeth, raising her hands as light crackled across her palms. Narrowing her eyes, she focused her energy on the sturdy wooden door, sending out a strong barrage of orange light as the panels buckled and split, bursting open. There was the sound of exclamations and alarm from beyond, and as the smoke began to clear, Washu found herself facing two or three Kii guardsmen, their uniform singed and their bladed weapons in their hands. Although they were recogniseable as swords, Washu was struck by the ancient design of the hilt, and her eyes widened as another memory stirred deep within her.

"Father had one like that, hanging over the hearth." She whispered. "Carved like the tail feather of Kihaku's eagle."

"Where do you think you are going? Stop there, Prisoner of Yuzuha!" The tallest man stepped forward, brandishing his blade, and Washu forced herself back to the matter at hand, spreading her arms as a whiteish glow enveloped her body.

"I'm going for a little walk, if it's all the same to you." She said cheerfully, talking slowly and deliberately in Galactic Tongue. "Thanks for putting me up. You'll have to send me the tab, though - I'm afraid I left my cash in my other spaceship."

Before any of the men could react, she hazed herself out of view, re-materialising in the corridor behind them and hurrying along the hallway, taking the first and then the next turning as she sought to throw off the guards she knew would follow her.

"It would be easy to teleport myself back to the place Ryo Ohki and I landed, but I'm sure now that that wouldn't be a good plan." She murmured. "I have a feeling that that's where they want this little bonfire. Judging by what happened, it wasn't so much a village as a military encampment. I was foolish not to spot the difference - I'm feeling foolish a lot lately. Has it really been so long since I thought about Kii culture? Or was I just too stuck up to absorb the nuances and shades of grey before?"

The sound of a clanging bell jerked her back to the matter at hand and she frowned, glancing around her as she heard the sound of heavy footsteps thundering in her direction. With a little shrug of her shoulders she gazed upwards, then made up her mind, launching herself up through the timbers of the wood-based floor to the level above. Fortunately the room in which she found herself was empty, and she took a moment to catch her breath, taking in her surroundings anew.

It was, at a glance, a regulation military chamber, with simple fittings and in proper, neat order. A narrow pallet bed lay beneath a small slitted window, and a wood chest by the furthest wall soon revealed several hanging uniforms in the style of the ones worn by the other guards. An aged bronze basin leant up against the wall, a ragged cloth tossed over the side as if ready for morning ablutions, and candles stood in sconces around the wall, providing light when the nights were early to fall.

"Not much." Washu murmured, moving across to the window as she gazed out across the uneven landscape. "But I suppose you don't need much, if you're a guard in a place like this. Still, it's a wretched place to call home. Not even a fire to warm it, in the winter. I can't imagine that it's easy to live like this."

She sat down on the end of the bed, catching sight of something that lay beneath it and she bent to scoop it up, smoothing it out as she realised it was a crumpled sheet of wood-based parchment. The quality and lie of the paper reminded her with a jolt of the material her father had scribed prayers and blessings onto, and she glanced at the text, half expecting to see blessed words jumping out at her.

Instead, however, the note was simple and brief.

"'Tonight, by the old tree, when the moon is highest'." She read slowly, tracing her fingers alongside the smudged Kii characters as she did so. "'I'll be waiting for your news'. Well, so this is interesting. Does this indicate something more is going on here than simple, mindless obedience to a demon?"

She frowned, examining the sheet of paper more closely, and her eyes widened in triumph as she spotted the sloping characters inked in the corner of the parchment, blurry and damaged by the dust of the floor, but still clearly visible.

"Suki." She murmured. "The Kii symbol for love. Well well. A secret assignation? Have I underestimated these guards and their free will – or over-estimated Yuzuha's spell over them?"

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

A voice from the doorway startled her and she was on her feet in a second, loosing the letter and cursing her inattention as she did so. Her first instinct to flee, something about the expression of the man who stood before her made her hesitate and she frowned, eying him more closely. He was dressed in the same attire as the other guards, smart and impeccably tied at the waist with a gold-thread sash. But there was something different in his expression, and as Washu pursed her lips, she realised that his eyes lacked the dull, lustreless appearance of his colleagues. On the contrary, his gaze was bright and wary, eying her in suspicion as one hand hovered over his sword, the other reaching for the discarded sheet of paper. He glanced at it briefly, then pushed it into the folds of his sash.

"I asked you a question." He said softly, in pure, if accented Kii. "Who are you, where did you come from, and why are you in my chamber?"

Washu hesitated, gauging her opponent carefully. Then, slowly, she raised her hands in a gesture of submission.

"Just a traveller, passing through." She said quietly, speaking in her native tongue so as to assure his comprehension. At this, his eyes widened in disbelief, and his grip on his sword tightened.

"You…are the outsider? The one Yuzuha-sama has imprisoned in this place?" He whispered. Washu nodded.

"I suppose that's me." She agreed carefully. "Although as you can see, I'm not imprisoned any more."

"But…but how is it you speak our language?" The man blinked. "You are from outside – noone from outside speaks our tongue."

"Maybe I'm not from outside. At least, I'd like to reason that out, too." Washu admitted. "You don't seem like the other guards…for some reason, I don't have the same feeling when I look at you."

"I don't know what you mean." The man's eyes narrowed. "Are you a test? Have you been sent to test my loyalty to Lady Yuzuha – is that why you speak my language?"

"Believe me, I have nothing to do with your honourable Priestess." Washu said candidly. "And I'm quite happy for things to stay that way, too. She and I, we didn't exactly become bosom friends on our initial acquaintance."

The man faltered for a moment, as if assessing her appearance, and Washu glanced down at her soiled, grubby attire, a rueful expression touching her face as she registered how shabby she must look. She was still dressed in the casual clothes she had lately taken to wearing whilst on planet Earth, in order to better fit in with the local population, and she realised that to his eyes, she must seem a strange creature indeed.

At length he raised his hands in front of his face, making a sweeping gesture of protection.

"I don't know what you are." He said softly. "But you can't stay here. Yuzuha-sama…"

"She wants to burn me alive." Washu said evenly. "At least, I'm guessing that's what all the talk of holy fire is about. I'm not really that keen on the idea, as I'm sure you can imagine. So your best bet would be to turn around and pretend you didn't see me. I don't intend to hurt you – or anyone, if I can help it. But I'm not going back to that cell, and if you try to make me, I'll fight you all the way."

The man pursed his lips, then slipped his body fully into the chamber, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

"That wasn't my intention." He said quietly. "I had decided already to help free you, before Yuzuha-sama's orders could be carried out. Whether you are outsider or not, I don't believe in the sacrificing of innocent lives."

"You don't?" Washu eyed the man keenly, pleased to see that his words were backed by the sincerity in his eyes. The guard shook his head.

"No, but if you're found here, it won't just be you who's for the fires." He said grimly. "So we need to get out of here, and fast. I don't know how you escaped from the cells, but they'll be looking for you once they know you're gone."

Washu glanced down at her fingers.

"I think they already know." She reflected absently. "I may have…surprised them, when I left."

"Then that's even more reason to get you out of my quarters and somewhere more secure. At least until we can get you back to whatever craft brought you here." The man seemed to make up his mind, holding out his hand to his companion. "I think I can hear voices on the stairs – will you trust me, traveller? I give you my word that I don't mean you any harm."

"I don't need your word. Honesty shines from you like a beacon." Washu said softly, and the man started, drawing back his hand momentarily as he eyed her uncertainly. Washu frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." The man seemed to get a grip on himself. "Just you…sounded like someone else, when you said that. That's all. Someone I know who…who sees into people's hearts somehow."

"Someone with Kii sight, perhaps?" Washu's heart skipped a beat, and the man's eyes widened. He nodded.

"Yes." He agreed, bewildered. "But how did you…?"

"Never mind. We don't have time, you said so yourself." Washu shook her head, gripping him tightly by the hand. "Take me wherever it is you think I'll be safe. There'll be time to talk later, if we don't get caught."

"Right." The look of determination returned to the guardsman's eyes and he nodded, kicking the basin aside as he pressed his boot against a section of the wall. Before Washu's startled eyes, the stones slid back, revealing a passageway, and he met her disbelieving gaze with a rueful smile.

"Now you know why I prefer this chamber over any better in the complex." He said, by way of explanation. "Come on. The door will close behind us, and they will not be able to find it."

"All right." Washu gathered herself. "By the way, guardsman, what am I to call you? My name is Washu – what is yours? We can't keep referring to one another as guard and traveller."

"Tadashi." The man sent her a fleeting smile. "My name is Tadashi. Now follow me. It's a long and winding passage, but I know where it leads and we'll be quite safe once we reach our destination."

"I'm right behind you." Washu gritted her teeth, as she too began to hear the pounding of feet on the stone outside. "Let's go."

---------------------

"I can't believe you even suggested such a thing to the Emperor! Seiryo, what were you thinking of! What do you want to do to the poor girl – do you realise how little Tokimi knows about the world outside of Jurai?"

"Tokimi is the only one who speaks Kii, other than Washu. What did you expect me to do?"

"But even simply boarding a spaceship like the Unko is bound to terrify her – did you even think about that, when you volunteered her for this mission of yours?"

Tokimi sighed, closing her bedroom door with a soft click as she leant up against it, closing her eyes. Ever since she and Seiryo had returned from their audience with Azusa, he and Suki had been arguing the matter out in the hallways below, and the sound of their raised voices had troubled her. She had withdrawn to the security of her chamber as soon as she had been able, but the sound still penetrated through her senses, and try as she might she could not shut it out.

"Suki is angry." She murmured, sinking down onto the end of her bed as she considered the matter carefully. "Angry with Nii-chan…but why? Because of…because of Tokimi? Has Tokimi done something wrong, then? I…I don't remember doing anything bad. I was polite to the King of Jurai and I was not rude. I remembered to bow…Tokimi did not do anything wrong…did she?"

She sighed, burying her head in her hands. It was all so confusing, and over all of this, the fleeting uncertainty about her sister's safety kept on tweaking at the back of her thoughts.

"Washu-neechan is in trouble. She is not on her Earth planet, so she is in danger now?" She mused slowly. "Sasami…the Kii prayer…for Washu?"

She bit her lip, fluttering her fingers instinctively in a gesture of fervent protection, and then she sighed, dropping back onto her pillows.

"Washu-neechan." She whispered. "You've gone again. Gone away. Gone from Tokimi and I can't find you. Why can't I find you? And Suki…Suki is angry because Nii-chan…Suki is shouting at Nii-chan. I don't like it. I don't like it! They should stop…they should stop this, now!"

Tears pricked at the back of her eyes and she grabbed at her pillow, hugging it to her tightly for comfort as she closed her eyes against her ruffled emotions.

"I don't like fighting." She whispered. "I…I want to help Washu-neechan, but I…I don't want people to shout. I hate it. I hate it! Stop it…please, Nii-chan. Please, Suki…stop shouting. I don't want you to be cross because of Tokimi."

As she lay there, eyes screwed shut against the still-quarrelling siblings that paced the floors beneath her, other images came unbidden to her mind. Memories of another argument, so many generations before began to swirl through her senses, seeming as real and fresh as if it had occurred only days earlier, and she bit her lip as the sensation overwhelmed her. She was back on Kihaku, plunged deep into her recollections in an instant, as she recalled another fight between siblings. One that filled her with cold dread, even though she did not understand why.

"Washu?"

Tokimi shivered, pulling her shawl more tightly around her shoulders as she stepped cautiously between cracked seams of glittering rock. Above her, the sky thundered and raged with the start of a storm, and she gritted her teeth, renewing her resolve as she hurried deeper and deeper into the ground, following the abandoned mining pathways left there by the settlers. As she reached a particularly narrow bend, she brushed her hand against the glowing surface of the rock and she gasped as a sudden rush of pain and anguish rushed through her. Stumbling, she clutched her hands to her chest, trying to draw air in to quell the panic that threatened to take over her entire body. All around her, the rocks themselves seemed to be crying, and Tokimi realised that the sensation was the wounded call of the World, whose core had been split apart by the greed of the Settlers.

"But Washu will come. Washu will help." She murmured to herself, forcing the rising hysteria back as she pushed onwards towards the deepest, darkest section of the old mining territory. "I never told Father where she was - I kept my promise to her. But now the World needs her. It's in pain, and Father...Father..."

She trailed off, tears touching her lashes as she remembered the events of the previous day. It had been a fierce fought battle, where the suspicions of settler and native had bubbled over into outright conflict, and in the heat of the fight, the Priest had been struck down.

Tokimi had never encountered death so directly before, although she had always known that her tribe had died of famine and war when she had been just a small child. To see someone she loved so stricken had pierced right through to the core of her being, and for the first time since the ships had loomed over the Kii horizon, she had felt a true and bitter hatred for the Settlers.

This thought chilled her to the bone and she shook her head as if to clear it. Resentment and hate were not her way, she reminded herself. And with Washu's help, surely peace could be reached? With a new Priestess - one who understood the ways of the Settler - perhaps the pain of the World could at last be placated. At least, Tokimi dearly hoped so. She had ultimate faith in her lost sister, hidden deep within the heart of Kihaku's world.

At length she reached a steel doorway, new and strange looking in the sea of blue-black rock and she hesitated, then pounded on the hard metal, calling her sister's name over and over again. At length the door slid back, as if conjured by magic, and Tokimi jerked her hands away, somewhat alarmed by the nature of her Washu's odd technology.

"Washu?" She murmured, stepping cautiously forward and taking in for the first time the secret home that her sister had constructed for herself beneath the surface of their world. Surrounded by unfamiliar creations, with texts in foreign script scattered around, Tokimi felt distinctly out of place. For the first time, she wondered if she had truly understood her sister, after all.

"Tokimi?" The voice from the shadows startled her back to herself, and Tokimi turned, a relieved smile touching her lips as she recognised the speaker. Washu's hair was pulled back out of her face in a rough, casual ponytail, and her clothing was soiled with the singe-marks of failed experiments and long hours surrounded by the rock, but she was still Washu, and Tokimi hurried forward, flinging her arms around her companion.

"Washu-neechan!" She exclaimed. "Oh Washu, I'm so glad to see you. I'm so glad..."

"You've been crying, imoto-chan." Washu held her companion at arm's length, consternation in her eyes. "What's wrong? Has something happened? Does Father know where I am?"

"Father...Father doesn't know anything any more." Tokimi choked out, unable to keep the emotion from her voice now. "Didn't you sense it? As I came down here, I felt the World's grief as much as my own. The entire planet cries out for him, Washu...don't you know that Father is dead?"

"Dead?" Washu stared, disbelief flooding her green eyes, then, "I see. No. I didn't know. Down here, it's possible for anything to happen and for me to not know about it, Tokimi. It's sort of the nature of my lab, if you like."

"But the walls...you're so close to Kihaku's heart." Tokimi protested. "Did you not sense its pain?"

"I didn't." Washu shook her head. "But then, I never was a very good Hakubi, now was I? It doesn't surprise me that you should feel it, sister. You always did have enough compassion for the two of us."

"Don't you...don't you care that Father is gone?" Tokimi stared at her companion in consternation, and Washu sighed, rubbing her temples.

"Yes, I care." She said at length. "I'm sad that his life has ended. Especially for this planet...Kihaku had a lot of faith in him, after all."

"And as your father?" Tokimi murmured. "Do you not feel that, as well?"

"I don't know." Washu admitted. "Truthfully, Tokimi, we were never as close as you and he have always been."

"He was killed by the Settlers." Tokimi sighed, sinking down onto a vacant unit as she regarded her sister hesitantly. "There was a great battle, and they came at Father and his men with weapons like nothing I have ever seen. Machines from hell, nothing less. I have never been so afraid, Washu. You said that the Settlers came here and that we could learn from them. But last night...last night..."

"Were many people killed, Tokimi-chan?" Washu asked softly. Tokimi shook her head.

"No." She responded. "Because Father did not allow it. He shielded his people so they could escape...but in the end, the Settler's weaponry was too much for him. He could not hold his shield...their Tsunami power took his life."

"Tokimi, have you ever even seen this Goddess of theirs?" Washu asked impatiently. Tokimi looked startled, shaking her head.

"No, only in pictures." She responded. "Why? What does that matter?"

"Just that for someone who has complete faith in Kihaku's Eagle, you seem certain that a foreign deity - for whose actual existance you have no proof - was strong enough to kill the Priest of this World." Washu said frankly. "Isn't the Priest the Eagle's chosen one?"

"Washu, don't." Tokimi begged. "Now isn't the time for one of your debates, and I didn't come here for that reason. I came...I came because..."

She trailed off, and Washu sighed.

"You came because Kihaku is missing its leader." She said quietly. "And by blood, I am the Hakubi heiress. Isn't that right?"

Tokimi nodded her head mutely, and for a moment Washu did not respond, crossing the floor of her lab and gazing up at the ornate characters that decorated the far wall. Then, she turned back to face her companion.

"I am not Priestess of Kihaku." She said gently. "You know that and so did Father. I doubt he would have handed the crown of the Eagle to me, Tokimi. Not considering how little attention I paid to his instructions and will."

"But Washu!" Horror flooded Tokimi's expression and she got to her feet, gripping her sister around the wrists in her desperation. "Washu, there is noone else! You are the heiress! You are Father's blood daughter! Think of your name - why did Father name you what he did, if he didn't intend you to wear the crown of Kihaku, one day?"

"It doesn't matter." Washu carefully disentangled her sister's fingers. "Listen, Tokimi. I love you more than anything...that's the truth. And I don't like to let you down. But if I was to become Priestess, this world would soon capitulate and far quicker than it has under Father. I have no interest in the Eagle. I don't even fully believe in all the things that you and the others take for granted. Maybe I am a Hakubi, but I'm not interested in serving this world as a would be goddess in a gilded cage."

"Washu, you must! You have to!" Tokimi exclaimed. "Who else can be Priestess, if not you? You haven't felt the World's pain! You haven't sensed what it's going through! The World needs you! It needs you!"

"If I can't sense the World's pain here, surrounded, as you say, by Kihaku's core, then I will never feel it, Tokimi." Washu shook her head. "I'm a scientist - that's what my time underground has taught me. That there are so many things in the universe beyond the practices of this planet, and I want to see and experience every one of them for myself. I want to know why things happen, and how they work. I want to learn about other places and understand how they live their lives. Kihaku is not my destiny. I decided that when I left home. And I'm sorry, imoto-chan. I don't like to upset you. But this isn't the life I choose. And noone - not even you - will compel me to become a slave to this planet's whims the way Father always was."

Tokimi stared at her sister, seeing her as if for the first time. The other girl's bright green eyes, the legacy of her Hakubi father glittered with obstinacy and resolution, and her normally cheeky expression had given way to a sober, almost grim look as she made up her mind what she must do. Tokimi drew breath into her lungs, her heart aching with grief and anger, and as she stood there, gazing at the one in whom she had always had faith, the pain and anguish of the World's call washed through her thoughts once again. With a flash of sudden rage, she brought her hand out across Washu's cheek, causing her sister to stumble back against her equipment.

"Father was right." She said darkly, her heart pounding in her ears as she let the strange lure of the World's aura tease at her senses. "You are not the Heiress to Kihaku. You are just a selfish girl who cares nothing for your people. You have not grown up, Washu. You are still a child who plays with her toys and avoids the ones who need her."

"Tokimi?" Washu put a ginger finger to her cheek, gazing at her companion in surprise. "I know you loved Father, but..."

"It's not about Father!" Tokimi exclaimed, banging her hand down on the computer unit as the strange, resentful anger intoxicated her senses. "It's about Kihaku! It's about your own kind, Washu! What kind of a person are you, when people are suffering and you won't come to their aid!"

"It isn't that simple..."

"Maybe it is that simple." Tokimi shook her head. "I have always considered you sister, but Father was right. He said, when you left, that I should think of you as dead. That I should forget about you, because none of us could put faith in someone so inconstant and deceitful. But I believed that you'd do the right thing, if the time came. Well, I trusted you too much. I was wrong. I won't be wrong again. You can stay in your little prison, oneesama. I won't be coming back again."

With that she turned on her heel, hurrying out of the lab and back up the carved stepways towards the uncertain darkness of the surface world. Behind her, she heard Washu call her name, but she paid it no heed, anger still coursing through her as she sought to break through to the woodland above. Once she had escaped the seam, however, grief and despair took the place of rage in her heart and she sank to her knees, tears coursing down her cheeks as she relived the argument over again.

"We have never fought so. Never." She whispered. "Washu, the sister I love so much...Father, she has betrayed us all. She has betrayed Kihaku, and now...and now there is no Priest or Priestess. Kihaku will rage out of control, without someone to wear the Eagle's coronet. What shall we do? What can we do?"

"Lady Tokimi?"

The voice of her father's scribe alerted her to the fact she had company and she raised her gaze to him, hopelessness in her sapphire eyes.

"Lady Tokimi, are you well?" The man sounded anxious, at her side in a moment, and Tokimi nodded her head, dashing away her tears.

"Did you find the Lady Washu, like you said you could?"

"Washu is dead." Tokimi said softly. "She is dead to this world, Ojisama, and she won't be coming back here. She will not be Kihaku's Priestess. Father spoke true."

"So his daughter really did perish." The scribe sighed. "She really was consumed by wolves that night? And I hoped he had been mistaken."

"No, not by wolves." Tokimi shook her head, allowing him to help her to her feet. "By something worse, Ojisama. By heresy. She was seduced by the dark magic that pervades the Settler's technology. She has betrayed her world, and she is dead."

"Then Kihaku has no Priestess."

Tokimi hesitated for a moment, then resolution flickered across her senses.

"Kihaku has a Priestess." She said quietly. "It has me."

"Lady Tokimi?" The scribe looked startled. "But surely..."

"Father taught me in all the rituals, everything." Tokimi said simply. "And he taught me far better than he ever taught Washu. I may have been born an Inoue, but I was raised by a Hakubi and I am ready to honour Father's memory in the only way I can. Washu may not be Priestess of Kihaku, but I can be. And I will be, Ojisama. I will answer the call of this World. I will wear the Eagle's crown. In the absence of others, that duty falls to me."

"Tokimi is…Priestess?" Tokimi's eyes snapped open in horror and alarm, and she pulled herself into a sitting position, shaking with fear as she tried to make sense of what she had remembered. "But that…Tokimi can't…Washu is…Father is dead! Father is killed by…by Jurai? And Washu…Washu and Tokimi…stop it! Stop being in my head! I don't like it. I don't like it!"

"Tokimi?"

Suki's voice from the doorway penetrated her panicked state and she raised her head, tears flowing down her cheeks as she scrambled to her feet, hurrying to fling herself on her adoptive sister. Suki let out an exclamation, hugging the distressed girl tightly, and something in the gentle way her companion stroked her hair soothed Tokimi's wrenched spirits.

"You see, Seiryo?" She heard the girl say. "She's not up to this. You've been rash – and now look."

"Tokimi, are you all right?" That was Seiryo's voice, and Tokimi could hear the worry in his tones as he approached them. She turned to meet his gaze, offering him a feeble smile.

"Nii-chan…and Suki…are friends?" She whispered. "I don't like it. I don't like…like fighting."

"She heard us." Suki sounded stricken at this, glancing down at her charge. "Tokimi, could you hear what we were saying, all the way up here?"

Tokimi nodded dolefully, and despite herself, Suki bit her lip.

"I'm sorry." She murmured. "I don't think either of us realised how loud we got."

"Suki and I are always friends, Tokimi." Seiryo added, leaning up against the bedroom wall. "Brothers and sisters are always friends, you know. We fight sometimes, but it doesn't mean we don't like one another. It just means we don't always agree. That's all."

"Don't always…agree." Tokimi mused over this point for a while, then she sighed. "Washu and Tokimi don't always agree." She said unsteadily. "I remember…"

"Tokimi, if you don't want to leave Jurai, I'll understand." Seiryo grasped her hands gently, meeting her gaze with a serious one of his own, and for a moment, Tokimi was dimly aware that he had stopped her from telling him what she had remembered. "I shouldn't have volunteered you to come, not without thinking it over. If you want to stay here with Suki, it's okay. I'll go find Washu. You don't have to be involved."

"No…Tokimi has to help Washu. Washu can't be gone away from Tokimi again." Tokimi said sadly, fixing him with a melancholic look. "Washu went away before. Went away and left Tokimi all alone. Tokimi…must find Washu. So…so I will help Nii-chan. I…I have to."

"Are you sure about that, Toki-chan?" Suki sounded doubtful, but Tokimi nodded.

"I must." She repeated. "Tokimi loves Washu-neechan. Tokimi must help."

"Then I guess we're leaving first thing in the morning." Seiryo set a gentle hand on her shoulder, and despite her upset, Tokimi glowed as she saw the approval in his malachite eyes. "I knew you were tougher than that, Tokimi – good girl. I didn't think a sister of Washu's would do anything less than come along."

"All right." Suki sounded reluctant, but she nodded her head. "If it's that way, I can see I have to back down. Tokimi, I'll help you pack some things to take with you, all right? And you make sure you do what Seiryo tells you…we don't want anything happening to you, you know."

"Tokimi will be all right." Tokimi disentangled herself from her companion's embrace, moving to the window of her chamber. "Washu is up there, somewhere. In space. Where Kihaku was. Isn't she?"

"Yes, we think so." Seiryo agreed softly. "And we'll find her, Tokimi. Don't you worry."

"Yes." Tokimi sighed, then nodded her head. "We will."

"You should get some rest. I'll worry about what you need to pack, don't worry." Suki said decidedly. "You look all in, and it will be a long trip, I imagine."

"All right." Tokimi nodded absently. "Tokimi will rest. Then Tokimi will help Nii-chan find Washu. And everything will be right again."

"That's the plan." Seiryo agreed easily. "Come on, Suki. Let's leave the girl to herself."

Suki frowned, but made no demur, allowing her brother to lead her out of the bedroom. He closed the door behind him, but as they walked away, Tokimi could still hear their voices.

"I didn't realise she heard us yelling. I should have known that would upset her as much as anything else." Suki sounded penitent, and Tokimi bit her lip, wondering if she really had done something wrong to make her adoptive sister sound so sad.

"I'm more concerned with something else she said." That was Seiryo, and somehow his words chilled Tokimi more than his sister's had. "About remembering. For now, Suki, let's just let her choose what she does. If she's worried about Washu, she must come help find her. And I'll make sure she sticks to me like glue, don't you worry. But the last thing we want is for her to start putting the pieces of the past back together. It would hurt her. We can't let that happen."

"No, you're right." Suki sounded wistful. "I don't like it, Seiryo, but I'll go along with it. After all, as you say, we can't fight her when she wants to help her sister. It's just…I really worry what might happen to Tokimi after all of this. That's all."

"Me too." Seiryo sighed. "But even so, I believe in her. Now come on, we have plenty to do if I'm going to leave at first light. I want to make sure there's a chamber aboard the Unko that's habitable for her, at the very least."

At this point their voices faded out of earshot, and Tokimi bit her lip, trying to make sense of the muddled phrases.

"What should Tokimi not remember?" She murmured. "What did Nii-chan mean? Has Tokimi done something terrible? Something that would make Nii-chan and Suki never speak to her ever, ever again? Was that why Washu-neechan left Tokimi? Did Tokimi do something…unforgiveable?"