The Armor of the Soul

By Dixxy

Chapter Twenty: A Warlady's Past

Over four hundred years ago, Japan. . .

"You look absolutely beautiful!" chirped Kasumi. "Oh, I can't believe you're finally getting married! Today, everything changes. You and Rinji are going to be so happy! You're going to have lots of kids and grow old together and never be sad or lonely again! I'm so jealous!"

Cara just smiled weakly, her large blue eyes accented by her deep maroon hair. "Thank you, Kasumi-chan, I appreciate it," she said. She looked down at her wedding kimono, smiling to herself. "Today I am to be married. Is it. . . worth it?"

"I find that it is," said Kasumi. "It's a beautiful day, and Rinji is one of the nicest, best looking men in the village! You're lucky he's going to be your husband. Remember how unlucky Kioko was with Benjiro."

The smaller of the two women shuddered. "Don't remind me, please. Her father just sold her off to that dishonorable pig because he offered a hefty weight in gold, and now look at what happened. His daughter is dead because of his foolishness."

Kasumi sighed. "So's Benjiro, after Jiro went after him."

"He's lucky the daimyo didn't have his head for that," said Cara.

"Ah, but Benjiro did a dishonorable thing and Jiro took Benjiro's life in the name of the one that he took," said Kasumi. "How can the daimyo try to argue whether it's right or wrong according to the rules of Bushido?"

"I suppose so," said Cara, looking down as she continued to think about it. "I'm going to go outside for a walk before the wedding."

"Why?"

"Fresh air," said Cara. She smiled, waving. "I'll see you at the reception." She stepped outside into the cool spring air and took in a breath of fresh air before heading into the forest.

~

The forest was eerily quiet. Cara sat on a rock and looked around. She loved the world around her. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I'm getting married. . . she thought aimlessly. She liked the idea of being with Rinji forever and a day. She wanted to have children with him. She wanted to spend every waking moment with him.

"My dearest bride, what are you doing here, this morning?"

Cara looked up and smiled to see Rinji take a seat beside her in his own black wedding kimono. Rinji took her hands and kissed them. "Oh Rinji, today is the start of the rest of our lives together."

"Yes, my love," he said. Rinji was a tall, handsome man with smooth, silky teal hair and sharp violet eyes. But more importantly, he was her love. He was an honorable samurai, but unlike most of the other samurai that Cara knew, he had a slight sense of humor and treated women as his equals.

"Why should I care if someone is a woman? Do we not all shed the same blood?" he would say to anyone who asked him about his strange views.

Cara rested her head on his shoulder as the two began to talk about the wedding.

Hiss. . .

Cara looked around. "Rinji? What was that?"

"I don't know," he said. "Sounds like some kind of a snake."

"I don't like the sound of it," said the young woman, clinging to her fiancé. "Where is it?"

"I don't- AHH!" screamed Rinji. Out of the bushes came a snarling, drooling, and malicious looking lizard of some sort. Rinji, being the brave, protective, and loving fiancé he was, got up, drew his sword, and tried to fight the beast. Cara watched as he tried to kill the beast, only to watch the beats pin him to the ground.

"RINJI!" she screamed. The creature reared its head back, hissed, and dove down to rip his throat. Cara watched in shock and horror as her fiancé was killed before her very eyes. "NOO!"

The beast looked up from his recent kill to look at Cara, the man's lifeblood dripping from the corners of its mouth. She froze, too scared to move. In return the creature sprayed a strange, purple saliva into her eyes. Cara screamed and she covered her now very, very pain-filled eyes. They hurt so bad! I'm going to die, today. . . I'm sure of it!

"Down, you beast! Leave Darkness alone!"

Cara didn't look up to see her savior, but she did hear a strange crackling sound as the beast breathed its last breath. "Who, who are you?"

"I am Lady Trulpa. I have an, offer, to make you," she said. Cara felt a hand with long nails gently touch her shoulder. She still kept her hands over her eyes, the venom still stinging badly. "What is your name?"
"Cara," she said. "Why do you ask?"

Lady Trulpa laughed. "Ah, I know something that you don't know."

"What?" asked Cara. "My fiancé is dead, I think that creature has made me blind, and you insist on playing mind games with me!?"

"No, no, no! Not at all, my dear. I happen to know you have a great destiny," she said. "You, my dear, have an armor."

"An, an armor?" asked Cara, taking slight interest in what the woman was saying.

"Yes. A mystical, magical armor. Cara, you have been given a special gift. You have the ability to use magic. A dark, cold magic. If you wanted to plunge an entire village into darkness, you can do it. Freeze an entire meadow over, you can do it."

"How can I do the impossible?" asked Cara. "And why would I want to?"

"Don't you get it? I can help you, Cara. I can give you power. . ."

~

The present. . .

~

Cara sat on her bed, running her hands over the goggle-like glasses Trulpa had given her after the beast, a Smitheren, had spit into her eyes. The venomous spit had taken her sight, leaving Cara blinder than the blindest bat. It was truly a wonder she mastered using her sword and armor, even with her handicap.

The Warlady sighed. She still missed Rinji to a certain extent, but he was a distant memory, now. She was a part of another world, another order. Cara was the Warlady of Darkness, Corruption, and Decay.

She hated her title. While she was somewhat good at it, she longed for one thing she wanted desperately. Sight. Something that the brat Samantha, Halo of the Senshi had that she didn't. She wished for nothing more than to hear that little witch scream from the inside one of Trulpa's torture chambers.

But was that really the revenge she sought?