No Word For It

The ride back to the zone of danger gave Sarevok an ample opportunity to observe the wolfish khan. All the time she held her head erect and proud, all the time there was this passionate fierceness in her eyes. In that she resembled him. Right now she was balancing the magical katana in her hands.

- "Exquisite," she said approvingly.

- "Well, it should be. It is forged for the emperor of Kozakura," Peri said.

Yun-Men shrugged.

- "A true weaponsmith always forges exquisite blade," she said.

- "Oh yes," Winski said. "Excellence, a notch above mere competence, is a reward in itself."

Sarevok agreed with that. He wondered if this woman mourned for the dead of her quest of conquest, if she ever asked herself if her way was the right one. Somehow he doubted it. She was born at the arid plains, her people once scattered nomads whose survival depended on harshness and skill at weaponry.

- "A spirit of warrior lives in you two," Yun-Men said, her steel grey eyes relentless on Peri and Sarevok. "I do not know of magic, but I know a warrior when I see one. A warrior is more than someone who uses a blade. It takes spirit."

- "Aye," Sarevok agreed. "You certainly seem to inspire it in your followers."

The Khan smiled.

- "They were not so when I claimed my clan. They were rabbits - scared and scattered grasseaters. I awoke the wolf in them. Now they are predators, as they are meant to be," she said.

- "But rabbits are cute," Imoen objected.

Yun-Men looked blankly at her.

- "What does that mean?" she asked.

- "Er... I don't think you have a word for it," Peri said, shooting Imoen a pointed look.

They arrived at their destination, the last outpost before the destroyed wasteland left after Kusatte Iru. The Khan's guardsmen saluted her as she left, an expression of reverence and pride on their face.

- "Where did this... oni come from?" Yun-Men wanted to know.

- "It has slept in the bottom of the ocean for centuries. Unfortunately some madmen have deliberately awoken it," Jelena replied.

- "Why?" the Khan frowned.

- "They seek to destroy the world by awakening magical beasts, and, from a magical sanctuary, create it anew from the floating raw magic," Jelena said. She wondered how the woman would react to this. It was, after all, an ambitious quest as well.

But it didn't seem to please Yun-Men.

- "Madmen," she said. "There is no honor in that. True steel and fighting battle on ground - that is the way of things. Stirring the realms of spirits - that is not."

Her mere presence unnerved Jelena. She could feel in her bones that this was a woman who thought nothing of slaughtering thousands to achieve her vision of an empire. She didn't feel the slightest bit guilty either - her moral code centered around the idea of the honor and pride of a warrior. Fearlessness was the highest moral imperative for her, and the rabbits of the world only served as food. Still, she could feel the ferocity and passion both Sarevok and Peri were drawn to. She, a gentle woman, had learned to live with the fact that the two children she loved were true born warriors, and would always be.

- "I wonder if the beast ever rests," Yun-Men said. She was taking stances with the katana, and Peri and Sarevok, to their relief, could see that she was more familiar with the weapon than either of them.

- "We don't know if it needs to," Winski said. "But I wouldn't count on it. So, we will follow its trail, and once we are near we will launch the enhancing spells on you."

- "Just keep well out of the way," Sarevok warned.

- "So we will go," Yun-Men said, laughing. "Let our arms be strong!" Her eyes shone. She felt so very alive, the pride of a warrior elating her spirit.