Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit. - R.E. Shay
Ch9: Fortuitous Accident
It was quite by accident Asen discovered his greatest weapon.
He had returned flushed from victory and dumped the cloth containing the powdered horn on a nearby table, then went to bed content. He'd left men monitoring the deserted areas just in case, but he was sure the horn was broken beyond any hope. He dreamed peacefully that night, certain Gyousou was worse than dead.
The next morning his handmaiden came in to find him still asleep for once, and went about her duties in a sense of relief. Originally Asen had been a charming man to wait upon, but ever since the king's death he had become moody and unpredictable. Not a week ago he had thrown the teacup she had tried to present to him at her and screamed at her to leave, one hand clutching his robes. He did that quite often, and one time she peeked in to see him throw an oven mit to the ground and crazily stomp on it, swearing violently, before yanking his foot away with a howl and snarl. His emotional instability made her jumpy, and she was glad that he was for once not watching her every move. The girl was filling a decorative basin with the morning face wash water when she noticed a strange package by the pitcher. Opening it revealed a strange white powdery substance which she sniffed, then ran the grains of through her fingers. It felt like bath salt, so she added it to the basin of water.
The tiny pieces didn't dissolve like she expected, instead the specs floated at the top in swirls. She stuck her finger in and started to stir when she jerked it out with a hiss like she had been burned. The pieces began to shine like snow reflecting the sunlight and the water gave off a diffused golden glow. She screamed and dropped the basin onto the table, sloshing the water up the sides but not spilling any. Asen was beside her in seconds.
"What have you done!"
"I just… I didn't… the salt…" the girl cried incoherently. Asen threw her into his closet and barricaded the door with a heavy chair, ignoring the muffled cries and banging she made. She would be dealt with once he ascertained the damage she had caused.
It seemed to him the golden hue of the water swirled into shapes. Shapes of landscapes, of people, of places in the palace. None stayed more than a second. He saw Risai standing outside the burnt cottage of the old hermit, he saw Sougen pouring tiredly over maps, people gathered in huddles at court while glancing over their shoulders, a roomful of short trimmed black haired preteen boys all dressed identically sitting in neat rows while an adult drew on a board at the front, and many things he didn't recognize or understand. His eyes widening at a brief glimpse of Tansui – one of the loyalists who had eluded him – standing at the charred gates of Saku County.
Asen ran out to the room of the court he had seen and peering in through the door crack he saw the same people as in the basin of water huddling and glancing over their shoulders as they whispered urgently.
Asen hurried back to his room and sent orders to those loyal to him in I Province to go to Saku and arrest Tansui. They found him there, and it was done.
The water showed the present.
Asen was so excited about his discovery and its promises that he didn't notice that the chair barricading his closet had been moved back to its original location and the servant girl was missing.
He threatened the family of the greatest glass blower in the realm and forced her to make him a container for the water. Afterwards he blocked the doors and burned her house to the ground with everyone still inside.
The seamless container of transparent glass was in the shape of a globe and a little bigger than a baby's head. When settled it looked like an empty snow globe with the pieces at the top instead of the bottom, but shake it and it looked completely different. At the beginning as the pieces swirled rapidly the images would change one from another quickly, but as they began to slow so too did rate of the changing projections, until at last there would be just one dragging on slowly until it faded away as the flecs of kirin horn completely settled. There was no way to control what it showed, so he needed peeled eyes to discern the information relevant to him amidst the countless incomprehensible images. But his patience was greatly rewarded.
He put down the secret gatherings of loyalists that the globe showed him and found his enemies in their most secure hiding places. No one knew how he did it. Those who evaded him grew paranoid of double agents, unable to understand any other reason for their plans always falling apart at the last minute other than betrayal. They called it a sickness, one that infected people and changed their loyalties. And it did start to happen. He sent letters to the provincial lords sending detailed descriptions of their day-to-day lives, and his inexplicably acquired intelligence scared some and awed others into joining him. After all, the true king had only lasted a year, and Asen was clearly the king in all but name. Even among those who knew the hakuchi's foot was fake, it had been so long since the hakuchi had been seen that no one was sure whether it was still alive. Gyousou must be dead by now, they justified, look at all the youma swarming! And since the king was already dead, why not join the new one, the one who seemed to be omniscient?
This only further solidified the notion in his enemies' minds that their defeats were due to their trusted comrades. Those that opposed him were too afraid of traitors to join forces, and they scattered over the realm seeking to save their own skins. He slowly was shown the whereabouts of these remnants, and was gradually apprehending them. Very few of the leaders the people might rally around remained, and all the strongholds and safe places they might have gathered at he burned.
With the weapon made from Taiki's horn at his disposal, Asen was invincible.