Chapter Four—The Beast Within and Without
Blackness of the deepest kind surrounded Rowen. He felt transparent, naked, bared. He had no control of his emotions, and despair, usually kept hidden in the pit of his stomach, rose like bile in his throat. It spilled out of his mouth and overtook his body.
Was he dead? Alive? Or both? What was this place, and who was that beautifully evil woman from before? AND HOW DID THEY ALL TIE IN?
Rowen's head throbbed with the pain, the fear, the raw emotion. His heart stammered when the vision appeared before him. Akemi…
How remarkable. So flawless, so young, and yet so aged. Her hands covered her eyes as she huddled in a fold in the darkness. "One, two, three, four…" Her counting was monotonous—slow and childlike—like she was playing a game of hide-and-go-seek. "Five, six, seven, eight…" Akemi's body trembled with excitement and youthful delight. Strands of vaguely violet hair tickled the backs of her hands. But she kept pace. "Nine, TEN! Ready or not—"
"Here I come!" roared a raging beast from the edge of the nothingness. Rowen recognized the form instantly as that of his dream stalker. Her luminous amethyst trinkets screamed against the satiny night. Akemi howled in revulsion, but her terror was soon gobbled up the hungry beast woman.
Silence drummed in Rowen's head. Not one sound was heard. Not the beating of a heart; not a breath; not a noise of life. Deadness all around him. Rowen wondered to where she had disappeared.
Then out of a ghostly fog materialized the sorceress. Her face strangely resembled that of Akemi's, and her body was shaped with the same femininity. But the eyes were radically different. They held a barely contained rage within their smoky depths. The blackness of her pupils was deeper than that which surrounded Rowen, a thought almost too frightening to think. Evil possessed her, seeped from her pores, pervaded the air around her. Ebony talons sprouted from her deceivingly fragile fingers, wicked instruments of torture, Rowen was sure. And Rowen also noticed a pair of vampire fangs protruding suggestively over her bottom lip.
Beautiful but deadly the Ronin reminded himself, sizing her up.
"See something you like?" the witch cackled with glee.
"Something I'd like to destroy, more like." He fired a look of hatred in her direction, but she seemed to feed off his anger.
The intensity of the darkness swelled, pressing intimately against Rowen's shackled body. "Isn't it wonderful?" the woman queried, motioning around the nothingness. "So real, and yet not here at all. You can see the darkness, but you cannot touch it. Like a fantasy." Her voice was soft with twisted love. She stroked the blackness, and it responded, unbelievably, it RESPONDED! Ebony fingers intertwined with her own. A grim smile lit her face.
"What is this place?"
She breathed deep the aroma of terror laced with intrigue. It stimulated her blood, excited her molecules. Home… "This, Celestial Warrior, is my humble abode."
"But there's nothing here! How can an impossibility be your home? It isn't tangible."
She grinned, her fangs slipping over her lip again. "It doesn't need to be, not for me. For you see, I am an impossibility. I shouldn't be here, but magically I am. The key word it magically. Strata, for a Celestial Warrior you lack imagination.
"But let's not talk about this anymore," she ordered with a firm stomp of her foot. "I grow weary of philosophical conversation, day in day out. Perhaps I should take this time to introduce myself. I am the incomparable Lady Morin, key advisor to His Highness Lord Yusaki as well as court sorceress." She bowed emphatically, sweeping a feathery hand through the air. Pride and overconfidence drifted on an imagined breeze.
Rowen remained unimpressed. "Where's Akemi? What have you done with her?" he demanded with ferocity.
Casually, the Lady shrugged. "She's within me, she's without me. Depends on the day. But I tell you, boy, what a struggle it is to keep her caged. You'd think after 5000 plus years of training her, she'd pick up something, but I suppose she'll never learn her place, eh?"
Rowen wanted to spit in her face, watch it ooze down over her lips and stain the purple satin lining of her gown. But he knew he couldn't, for it would only worsen his situation. As it were, prospects of escape seemed non-existent, and doom came synonymously with the sure rising of the sun. He had to bide his time. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, nor do I give a damn. Now, just give me Akemi and let us go, and we'll go about our merry, separate ways."
Lady Morin laughed hysterically. She doubled over from the pain in her stomach. She hadn't laughed like this in eons. "You're kidding me, right? You're hardly in any position to be making threats. You don't know where you are; you don't know who or what I am; you don't have any comprehension of the power I control; why, you don't even know who YOU are." She split with laughter again. "Ah, youth… I'll be back for you in a little while, Warrior. Have a nice nap."
With a snap of her fingers, Lady Morin disappeared and Rowen was left in utter darkness, as if his eyes were closed, though he knew they were not. So he had no choice but to listen to the lavender lady and rest for a bit. Sleep overtook him before he could count one sheep.
@~~`~~~
Lady Kayura slouched against hall outside Sage and Rowen's apartment. Her mind ached with a pressure that would not be relieved until this mess was concluded. She felt stupid, like she was fumbling around in the dark for a light switch but to no avail.
No answers would come to her. And now she may just have sent Ryo of the Wildfire off to his own demise. Countless times in the last hour she had racked her brains for other options; however, none would reveal themselves. Lady Kayura was left without any other choice but to send the Ronin leader into Fantasia Forest, a desolate and foreboding place despite its charming title. Would he return? Only time would tell. Same thing went with Rowen's condition. Would he get better? She didn't know.
Her shoulders sagged. Kayura's brain was truly overloaded. With so many possibilities floating up in the air and with her trying to grasp at even one, it left her mind scrambled.
"God…" the Lady mumbled, pressing a hand to her forehead. She slumped to the floor.
With all her mystical power, she could not foresee an end to this. Desperately, with every passing moment, she wished she might, but there was merely gray hanging on the horizon. A cornucopia of turnouts. Anubis had once told Kayura, on the morning of his "resurrection," that "the future is not determined by a roll of the dice, but by the conscious decisions of you and me." As she sat there huddled in a little ball, she pondered this.
If Ryo could pull off this momentous task, if he could gain the trust of the ever-suspicious Empress Haleigha, and if by some divine miracle he could bring back Rowen's soul, then perhaps Lady Kayura had made the right choice. But if, on the same token, he failed on his quest—worse case scenario being his own untimely death—then she had failed twice, both Ryo and Rowen, and possibly on a larger scale, the world.
Sometimes the Lady wished her Fate was controlled by the toss of some dice. Life would be so much simpler, easier to manage.
For one of the first times in her life, Kayura needed help, more specifically Anubis'. He was her mentor, and perhaps only he could offer some answers to her puzzlements.
@~~`~~~
Twilight fell upon the entrance to Fantasia Forest, a bizarre clash of innocence and perversion. The sky melted into hues of gold and amber and crimson while the woods remained a bleak abode for the forsaken creatures of the world. Rose-colored fingers plucked at the leaves of cherry blossom trees, forcing them to tremble with anger at the disturbance. Light embraced the woods in its nightly farewell though the forest seemed to shy away from the illuminating contact. Evening sounds of frogs and crickets did not emanate from these woods as they did from so many others; instead there was the low growl of predators on the hunt. Lightning bugs refused to fly near the rim of the trees, as though they sensed the evil that veiled the forest. Like high beams on a car, forest creatures' eyes flickered on with eerie luminescence; staring, scanning, preying.
Although the air washing upon him from the Pacific remained warm from the summery day, Ryo shivered under the animals' hungry glares. He suspected a number of the eyes belonged to carnivorous beasts, sizing him up for a late dinner. He wondered how large a "root weasel"—one of the roaming dangers of the forest Kayura spoke of—was anyway.
Shifting his supply pack on his back, the Ronin proceeded into the dimly lit realm of the Moonlighter Faeries. Immediately he felt watched by a thousand pairs of eyes. Though he could see nothing in the fifteen-foot radius around him, Ryo remained on alert. With every couple steps he took, he checked his back then above and beside him. Inside he felt isolated and utterly alone, but he knew that in reality this was definitely not the case.
Darkness shadowed nearly the entire floor of the forest by now. The trees were oddly silent even for a magical forest like this one, a fact that chilled Ryo's bones. The quiet was of no more comfort than a snarl of a lurking beast. But he pressed onward, using a compass to guide his way through the woods. With no path or map to follow, his only choice was to fumble through the underbrush on an eastward course for the expansive Faerie Heath. With a little luck, Ryo would reach the place in less than two full days.
The guts of Fantasia Forest hung from its dark canopy, great looping intestine-like vines dripping down in a gory display. Not a single slash of color brightened the interior; nothing but deep green and charcoal gray created the landscape. The steady plip-plop of water resounded inside the confines of the woods, and shortly thereafter the sound began to grate on Ryo's nerves.
Something to his right scurried uncomfortably near Ryo. His sword flashed into his hands in seconds, its gleaming metal searing the surroundings. Nothing. Probably just a ground snake. Probably. Hopefully. But there was no way to tell in the extreme darkness.
Replacing the sword in its holster, Ryo stopped for a little while to gather his bearings. He couldn't continue on this tense, not if he hoped to get to the heath anytime soon. His reflexes were spring-loaded, waiting for the tiniest sound to trigger the release. Getting through to the Empress would take double the time if Ryo had to jump at everything that crossed his path. As long as he stayed alert but remained cool, all would run smoothly. At least, that was Ryo's hope. On that note, the Ronin Warrior trudged forward, an air of confidence lighting his way like a lantern.
Before complete nightfall was upon Japan, Ryo had ventured over three miles into the woodland without difficulty. Satisfied that his fearlessness was warding off unwanted confrontation with the forest creatures, he decided to stop for a quick drink and a bag of Kento's chips, which Ryo had pilfered from the Fuan household. Indulging himself for but a snippet of time, he did not notice the approaching enemy.
The obnoxious crinkle of the chip bag drowned out the shuffle of slippered feet. The exaggerated slurping sound muffled the rustle of a dagger being unsheathed. However, the contented sigh of fulfillment was no match for the insane giggle of approaching evil.
In seconds, Ryo had leaped off his stump and snapped on his subarmor. He waited for the monster to emerge from the swelling blackness, his breath caught in his throat. "Come out, come out, wherever you are…" Ryo chanted under the maniacal laughing, scanning the ebony terrain at the same time.
The thing persisted in giggling from all sides. "Who be you, strange creature?" a nasal voice echoed throughout the treetops.
"Just that: a strange creature you don't want to mess with."
More laughter. "You fetch fine price at market, strange creature! Nah, maybe just head and armor. Who care bout rest, right?" Giggles erupted again, and Ryo felt the shadow creep closer. His heart rate increased. Remember Kale, he thought. Work the darkness to your advantage. For a second, Ryo thought he saw a pair of golden eyes blink in front of him, and he swung his blade forward. "Yes, yes!" the thing cheered excitedly. "Battle gear worth much gold! I be rich gnome when I get home!"
A thieving gnome. "Well I'll be damned," Ryo muttered in awe. It was one of the critters Kayura warned Ryo about. Often times these gnomes went simply for material possessions and supplies, but if the carrier interested them too, they were known to abduct him, selling all or parts of him in the magical equivalent of the black market. Okay, Ryo, draw him out. "And what makes you think you'll get money for an ugly head like mine?" Ryo gave the gnome time to consider this while he constructed a battle plan. "Who or what would want a big, nasty human head like this one anyway? Why, you couldn't even get flake of gold for this head of mine, it's so hideous!"
"You think so?" the gnome inquired, approaching Ryo blatantly now.
"Oh, I know so. The only thing I own of real worth is this sword here. Its ancient and powerful, said to be charmed with magic spells and talismans. See, an immortal sorcerer crafted the handle. It's probably worth my weight in gold." The Ronin extended the grip of the sword toward the warty monster, displaying the beautiful stones and ornate workmanship.
The gnome stepped into Ryo's view. "Amaz—" Before its word was completed, Ryo had grabbed the creature by its stubby, mottled arm, twisted it behind its back and brought his sword to the gnome's throat. A giggle issued from its throat pressed the blade even closer to the gnome's soft skin. "You smarter than look, strange creature. I give you credit."
"If you think a lame compliment like that is going to save your life, you're sadly mistaken." Ryo angled the blade sharper, enough to draw a thin line of blood. "Nobody threatens the life of a soldier like me."
The gnome blinked twice in surprise. "That explain a lot. Why you so fast and alert. I shoulda known that armor was battle armor. Worth three times if used. More if user wearing it when sold."
"Shut-up," Ryo insisted, annoyance evident in his voice. "You know how the Arabs treat thieves? They cut off their hands, leaving them with useless stumps so they can never steal again. How well would those sell in your little marketplace?"
Silence. Obviously, the gnome was getting worried. The situation was changing every moment for the worse. Ryo's anger festered within him, and he had never felt so much rage in his life nor had he experience this insistent need to release it on this gnome. Another byproduct of Fantasia Forest, he supposed. Fighting the evil back with all his strength, Ryo released the creature and watched it scatter into the throbbing scenery.
His peace dashed away by an unfortunate encounter, the Ronin decided it was time to move on anyway. There was much more he had to deal with in the upcoming hours, and Ryo needed time to mull over the changes his new environment created within him. Besides, sitting innocently in a forest infested with terrible things probably wasn't such a good idea…
@~~`~~~
Once again in the dimly lit hallway of Sage and Rowen's apartment complex, Lady Kayura paced impatiently as she waited for Anubis to appear before her. Several minutes had passed since she came in contact with the spirit's soul and left a message for him to meet up with her—the otherworldly answering machine. Usually it took less than twenty seconds for Anubis to receive the message and present himself before the Lady. But as those seconds stretched into a fourth minute, Kayura began to worry unlike she usually did.
Time was quickly running out for all of the Ronin Warriors, especially Rowen. With Ryo off in Fantasia Forest, there was no way to tell how he was faring until he returned home. Mia was nowhere to be found, so Cye had reported. Sage fell deeper into depression with each passing moment he spent with his dying best friend. The Warlords and the remaining two Ronins had ventured off in search of clues to their mysterious new enemy. And Lady Kayura was about to spiral into insanity underneath all this undiluted pressure.
She squeezed her eyes shut, taking note of all the colored dots that flashed with such vibrancy. Pressing two fingers to each temple, Kayura attempted to work out some of the pain. Unfortunately for her, the sorceress' spells did not work on her own body. "Where the hell are you, Anubis?" the Lady snapped anxiously, tapping her foot loudly.
Finally, he appeared before her, amazingly pale even for a specter. "I'm sorry, m'lady, that I've kept you waiting so long," Anubis apologized, a bizarre hollowness in the depths of his voice. "I was on a personal mission to uncover the source of Kento's strange attack when I stumbled across some information. Some disturbing information," he corrected.
"Well?" Lady Kayura spat angrily with a flutter of her hand. "What did you find out?"
Anubis bit his lip as he surveyed their surroundings. The hallway, though heavily shadowed, was warmed with human emotions such as love and friendship. There was a certain peace to the mellow peach walls and gray tiled floors. Brand new gold numbers embellished every door, and inviting "Welcome" mats softened the atmosphere. It felt wrong to Anubis to destroy the comfort of this place with his frightening information. "Perhaps we can go somewhere else to discuss this…"
Lady Kayura tilted her head in annoyance. "What's wrong with right here?"
"Nothing really, but—"
"Fine then. Proceed."
Anubis sighed. Sometimes working with this woman was worse than working under Talpa. "Very well…
"It began when I returned to your home in the Great Mountains. I was hoping to stumble across some sort of clue that would lead me to the source of Kento's discomfort. And boy did I find it." To Kayura, Anubis appeared to be trembling, and suddenly she had a new perspective on the situation. This was bad. This was very bad. "God, Kayura, I wish you could have seen the size of this thing. Everything makes sense now, everything."
"I'm not following your ramblings here, Anubis. You have to explain to me exactly what you saw that's gotten you so upset."
"Yes, yes, of course," he mumbled, flying back and forth in the hallway. His ethereal hands shook and his eyes widened with delayed shock. "A footprint, Kayura, a footprint's what I saw. Big! As long as I am. Three toes with claws. And there was a claw on the heel of the foot, too. My god, I thought to myself. This has to be a dragon. No escaping the truth here. And I know it was looking for me. My energy scent is incredibly strong; therefore, it leaves this residue in its wake. I guess that's how it found your lair, Kayura. It was looking for me…"
"But why?" the Lady questioned, her attention being drawn further and further into Anubis' frantic synopsis of events.
"That was the next thing I asked myself. Why me? Who would know of the powers I hold? Who would know of my connections with the Ronin Warriors? Certainly not a dragon! For heaven's sake, everyone knows dragons don't have much in the way of intelligence. They're good for two things: following orders and massive destruction. Aside from that, the last of the dragon species in Japan was obliterated about 1000 years ago!"
Kayura pondered what Anubis was saying. If all the dragons in Japan were butchered a millennium ago, where did this one come from? China perhaps. But it was doubtful that someone would be keeping tabs on Anubis all the way in China.
"Then a strange revelation hit me as I stared at that footprint. There was something different about it, something awfully familiar. I took a closer look." Anubis drifted toward the Lady, his ghostly face inches from her own. He snapped his fingers, and Kayura was pulled from her trance. "I see it…" His voice quieted, as though he knew the walls had ears. "The Mark of Yusaki."
"The Mark of Who?"
"Yusaki. Ancient god of Japan. Five thousand years ago, Lord Yusaki fell from the sky and into a human body. He assumed control of all of Japan by the end of his first year on Earth. He ruled with an iron fist, and with the help of his dragon army, he kept perfect order. The entire country lived in fear of Lord Yusaki, until, that is, he was dethroned, his body mutilated, and his spirit sent to Hell."
A sudden silence fell upon the two. Kayura had know idea where Anubis was directing this conversation. She remembered none of this legend. "But what does Lord Yusaki have anything to do with this?" she cried with exasperation.
Apparently startled, Anubis went even whiter than he was. He floated backwards out of caution. "If you had just listened to what I said about the footprint, you'd make the connection." The Lady thought back to what he'd said about the mark, but nothing came to mind. Anubis sighed. "That mark is the key. Lord Yusaki seared his royal insignia into the feet of every dragon in his army. This tells us that the dragon is over 5000 years old, and it also reveals to me one other important thing."
"And what is that?"
"He's not alone. He's traveling with a Dualar."
Kayura noticeably shuttered. The flesh on her scalp prickled. Of course! she thought. This explains Rowen's state. "Why didn't I see it before?" the sorceress exclaimed. "I should have noticed it before in the style in which Rowen's soul was taken. God, I even went over that option in my head, but I dismissed it in a flash! A Dualar, huh? Of course…"
"Kayura," the spirit whispered, taking her hands in his translucent ones. "There is one other bit of information I have about this pair." The Lady looked at the way in which he held her hands. It was tender, a desperate measure Anubis took to convey the importance on the message. "The dragon's name is Rantach. The Dualar's name is Morin. And they have the Necronomicon."
And suddenly the waves crashed over Kayura's head, sucking her under and down into the abyssal realms of utter fear.
@~~`~~~
Sage waited patiently within his living room, anticipating the moment Ryo would burst through his door and declare his success in Fantasia Forest. He hummed a soft melody in hopes that Rowen could hear him and know that he wasn't alone. Occasionally, Sage would lean over Rowen's body to check for a pulse. The second before he touched Strata's flesh, goosebumps would emerge on his skin, his fear manifesting itself in the physical. And so far, every time he'd pulled away, he came back with the relief of knowing Rowen was still alive. He wondered how many more times that would happen before the relief became tremendous loss.
The door exploded inward, and Sage's dream suddenly became reality. Ryo stood in the doorframe with a long something in his arms. A triumphant grin sparkled on his face. Rowen was saved! Sage leapt from his seat and raced to the entrance, squealing with joy. His best friend would live! His best friend would live!
As he approached Ryo, he became aware of his surroundings. He was not at the door, but rather still in his leather armchair. "How…" he began, then his eyes lifted to the doorway. There was indeed a figure standing in the archway; however, it was not Ryo but Anubis. And the long something was Lady Kayura, who had evidently fainted in the hallway. "Lady Kayura!" Sage yelped, scurrying from one end of the room to the other.
"She wasn't ready," Anubis murmured, handing the woman's body over to the Ronin. "She wasn't ready."
"Ready for what?" Sage asked as he carried Lady Kayura into Rowen's bedroom. He gently laid her down on the mattress and covered her with a blanket. As he cared for her expeditiously, he repeated his query. "Ready for what, Anubis?"
"For the truth. I knew I should have fed the information to her slower. God, she's been working so hard today. First Kento and then Rowen. Those two used up most of her strength. I should have waited. I knew I should have waited." The spirit flew angrily across the room, banging a hollow fist against the wall. "I'm such a fool."
As Sage tried to calm Anubis, he did not notice Rowen stirring out on the living room sofa. He did not even hear him speak.
"Sage, where are you…"