Chapter 12: Fallen From Heaven
"Yasha! Yasha! Wake up!"
Yasha started violently, his body convulsing. His eye flew open wildly. He lay flat on his back in a sunlit meadow. Above him, Zenmijou floated majestically bright in a clear sky.
Ashura's beautiful face came into his range of vision. He reached without thinking, pulling the other to him by the hair so their lips met in rough kisses. For several minutes they lay devouring one another, but at last he let go of Ashura's hair and sat up. "What...?"
"I said to trust me!" Ashura sat back on slim haunches.
Yasha looked around. There was no sign of this ever having been a battlefield. The tall grass waved in the breeze and flowers grew in profusion. Yasha glanced down. He was naked. The wound in his gut had wholly disappeared.
A cloak was suddenly dropped around his shoulders and Tenou leaned over him. "I've had a watch kept over you," he said, smiling. "Ashura woke first and told them to bring me here. Welcome back, Yasha-ou! It's been ten years!"
"Ten years?" Yasha blinked. Though ten years were nothing compared to the two thousand he had spent patiently waiting for Ashura's return to life, it seemed strange to have had a short sleep last for so long.
Ashura smiled up at Tenou, who was already turning back from brother and friend to Emporer. "I will escort you to shelter and provide you with food. We have matters to discuss as soon as possible."
* * *
That afternoon Yasha, shadowed by something that he could not name, was seated with Ashura and Tenou on the cushions of a dining-couch in a rich home which Tenou had procured for them in Lower Zenmijou. The house was in a fair, secluded place, overhung with wisteria and surrounded by high walls enclosing a pleasant garden. Guards were unobtrusively posted. In the eating area, Tenou had poured glasses of wine in despite of the brahmanic prohibition, and Ashura was trying a sample with delight. Tenou did not wear the same expression. "You cannot stay here," he said without preamble.
Ashura set down the glass, but did not reply. Neither did Yasha. The conclusion was foregone.
Tenou looked away from them and down at the table. "I bear sole responsibility of the lives lost in the rebellion," he said. "Ashura, you do understand that this was not your doing?"
"Yes. I understand." Ashura's voice was very soft. "I was living in the jungle happily before I was called here."
"Very good." Tenou reached to touch the fair face. "Don't let yourself slip back into your old way of thinking. My people rebelled against my decision. I chastised them.
"You cannot stay here, but where can you go? Yasha?"
Yasha sighed. "We cannot go back north to Alaka. As much as I would like to see my homeland again, Ashura does not belong there."
"That is not true! I could--"
"Hush, Ashura," said Yasha, continuing over the other's protests and his own inner pain which was becoming an inexplicable torment. He forced the strange sensations below the level of his consciousness. "Let us go back into the jungle by the Great River and live peacefully."
"Your life would be anything but peaceful." Tenou shook his head slowly. "There are those who would suspect you had returned, and hunt you out for worship-- or war. You know it in your heart. And you cannot go southward, near the Ryuu clan..."
"Seiryuu!" Ashura exclaimed, standing up suddenly. "What happened to Seiryuu?"
"I executed him," Tenou said.
"Oh-- Oh no..." Ashura sank back onto the cushions.
"Peace, Ashura. The clan survived, though many were killed." Ashura winced under the gentle sting of the Emporer's words. "Seiryuu led a massive rebellion against me. What do you think should have happened?"
"You could have pardoned him!"
"Not for that kind of offense." Tenou took a small sip of wine. "Tenkai would be splintered into factions were my rule to be overthrown, and the world would be at war. Therefore I must maintain my position even if it means ordering executions. Do you forget what happened at your own 'sacrifice?'"
A sudden sharp shriek of child's laughter startled them and all three jumped as one before looking out through the window. Yasha stood up as Tenou said, "Ah, Shuki. I was wondering how long she would take..."
Shukidevi had entered the courtyard outside and was playing with a golden ball, her garments trailing in the dust as she tossed it to a boy. The child had pale hair, but otherwise possessed all the marks of the Yama bloodline-- tall for his age, strong, the same brow as Yasha's, the same eyes that Ashura had once described as like the night sky. His voice reminded Yasha of his young brother's voice, an eerie echo, and he knew this was his child. Suddenly something shattered in him, and all the anguish and even the broken promise seemed worth it in that instant.
Shuki glanced up directly at him with a brilliant smile. As her son ran to her side, she turned him around and pointed to Yasha in the window. The boy froze like a startled deer. Yasha smiled more broadly than he was used to, but he could not tell what his son was feeling. There was almost a look of horror on his face. Perhaps it was Yasha's missing eye and the terrible scar that went with it.
Tenou's voice was soft by Yasha's ear, the Emporer turning once again into a friend. "Behold Yama, your son. Heir to Heaven, Prince of the Yasha clan."
"Yama..." whispered Yasha. "The next Yasha-ou! ...Ashura, Ashura, do you see? Do you? It's the next Yasha-ou! Kujaku was wrong!"
Ashura did not reply. Yasha glanced back. His beloved had taken refuge in Tenou's arms as if waiting for some terrible but inevitable announcement.
"Ashura," said Yasha very gently, reaching out just as if talking to the little child in the courtyard. "May I go see Yama?"
After a very long moment, Ashura nodded stiffly. The golden eyes were huge, hurt, loving. Yasha leaned forward, ignoring Tenou's presence to tenderly kiss Ashura's forehead, then the wine-stained lips. "Thank you," he whispered, and turned away, walking out into the courtyard.
Ashura also turned away, trembling, resting on Tenou's broad breast. "Don't worry," Tenou said softly, stroking the long black hair. "You will always come first with your Yasha."
"Brother...? I feel strange..."
"How so, dear one?"
"I don't know... Lighter, somehow."
Tenou smiled. "Perhaps it was the wine."
* * *
"Shukidevi," Yasha said formally.
She greeted him with folded palms as Yama clung to her sari. Yasha dropped to one knee. "What's this?" he said. "A Yama never acts afraid, even if he is really terrified. This cannot be a Yama!"
That got the desired reaction. "I am too a Yama!" the boy said, releasing his mother's sari and taking a step away from her. "I'm only the second Yama left, and I'm going to be Emporer. Are you really my father?"
"Yes, I am," said Yasha, with an intense feeling of satisfaction. A burden he did not know he had been still bearing was lifted from his shoulders-- the burden of a great bloodline extinguished by his own actions long ago.
"Is that Yamato? Show me the Heavenly Wolf!"
Yasha chuckled. "If I brought down Yamato's Heavenly Wolf here in this garden, it would destroy it! Now look only. Don't touch, for the light itself will cut you." Slowly he unsheathed the gleaming blade.
"Show me something it can do!"
Yasha glanced around. There was a grove of trees at one end of the garden. They were not too large. One would suit his purposes. He levelled the sword at it with all the panache he could still muster, and whispered the softest command. A pale flash of his Ki shot through the blade and in the next moment the tree came crashing down. Startled parrots and monkeys erupted from its falling crown.
Yama's eyes gleamed as the tree came to rest only a few feet from them. "Let me try!"
Yasha smiled again and sheathed the sword firmly. "Ask me again in five years' time," he said-- and was brought up short by his own words.
Shuki watched him sadly. "You will no longer be here then," she said.
"I know."
"What?!" cried Yama.
Yasha bent and hefted Yama up onto one shoulder, as he had carried child- Ashura thousands of years before. The weight felt good, familiar. "I have to leave this place," he said quietly.
"No--! No, I just met you!" Then: "It's the Ashura, isn't it?"
Yasha looked reproachfully at Shuki, who colored a little, before replying. "It is my duty to leave."
"Yasha," Shuki said urgently as she recovered herself. "There is something I must tell you."
Yama had brushed away the forelock Yasha tried to keep over his scar, and was examining the site of the missing eye with a child's fascination for the grotesque. Yasha allowed it.
"You've changed," Shuki said. "You carry the Ashuric blood now. You feel it within you."
Yasha caught his breath. Was that the reason...?
"Yes, you feel it. You should know this means you also carry the seed. Should you have another child, it would be an Ashura, and the clan would continue despite itself. I saw this in my mirror. Even Ashura does not know it!"
Yasha stared at her, dumbstruck. She nodded once, emphatically.
Slowly Yasha set Yama back down on the ground. "You hate my Ashura," he said. "Why should you wish to bear another?"
"Because you love them."
Yama was tugging on Yasha's robe. "I don't want an Ashura for a brother!"
"Yama," said Yasha gently, "None of us can choose our brothers. Shuki, you would care for this Ashura?"
"I am not what they say Shashi was. I will care for this Ashura, for your sake..." Her eyes had softened. "And I would not abandon a child."
"I will bring this news to my Ashura, then."
"And I will be staying here in Lower Zenmijou for three nights. At the Golden Temple, with the devisasis there."
Yasha returned to the house as Shuki left with their son, and there he took Ashura from Tenou's arms into his own, lifting the slim body up against his steady shoulder where Yama had rested only moments before. "Tenou," he said to the Emporer, "Did you know what Shuki would say to me out there?"
Tenou looked a little surprised. "No!" he said. "That's none of my business!"
"Hm."
* * *
That evening, in the privacy of the garden, Yasha told the news to Ashura, holding his love's hand tightly. "... I carry not only your blood," he finished, looking down at the fine fingers entwined in his own. "I carry the Ashuric seed now. Though you have none yourself, you gave me your bloodline when we were in the kekkai." Then he glanced up, allowing the doubt and uncertainty he felt to touch his usually stoic visage. "Ashura. Is this a gift for us to use? Or is it... an accident of Fate? Even your brother does not know about this... And, Ashura... I would not tell him if I were you. I know it will be hard, as he is staying with us... but you should not tell Tenou."
Ashura was stunned. "There can be Ashuras again?"
"Yes!"
"Do you think she spoke the truth... Or does she only want more of you?" Golden eyes narrowed, glittering dangerously.
Yasha sighed heavily. "She is quite honest. I believe she is telling the truth, not only from her words, but from my own... feelings... Ashura, since you healed me I have been different. I cannot explain how."
Silence. Ashura stroked Yasha's arm thoughtfully. "So have I. I feel strange, Yasha. As though something were missing. But it's a good feeling. I like it. Tenou says it is the wine, but I know it's not."
"Ashura. We must decide about the child. Mahadeva deliberately made you sexless. But was it to control your procreation or your passion? Or did it really have anything to do with you at all? Your father--"
"--I know! Oh, Yasha! It is so difficult, this life! It is so difficult to know what to do!"
Yasha leaned to kiss the tender cheek. "Remember-- should you wish to use me to resurrect your clan, any willing woman can be your vessel. It does not have to be Shukidevi."
"But what other woman would be willing to bear an Ashura...?"
* * *
Yasha was walking alone that night in the garden, where his son had been playing, when Ashura came to him.
"Yasha, I have decided. You must go to her."
Yasha noted Ashura's tear-reddened eyes, and that there were no bangles on the slender wrists, no jewelry, just a plain white silk tunic. Ashura continued after a moment. "It is what my father would have wanted. This is for the survival of a clan. It is not that you love her..."
The last was a question. Yasha spoke suddenly, breaking his stillness. "Ashura, you must understand that only you mean love to me. Only you. I will go only if you command me to do so."
"Then I command you." Ashura's voice became stronger, sterner. "Go to her, Yasha!"
* * *
Yasha arrived at the Golden Temple uninvited, but certainly not unexpected, ushered in by a temple prostitute. Shuki schooled herself carefully calm, though inwardly she was already weeping. This second time would be the last. This was the last time she would ever hold Yasha-ou, her only love; the last time she would drink in his thick scent, feel his hair cascading over her, feel his body covering hers.
He was both rough and thorough, but she did not complain. His breath sobbed with a passion she had not heard from him before, and it thrilled her even as it frightened her. This was not the same Yasha she had watched for all those years. He kissed and licked her hungrily, like a beast, and, beastlike, he entered her with something bordering on violence so that she bit her lip until it bled. Again and again he took her, until both were exhausted.
She lay quiet beneath him and gazed steadily into his one dark eye, and shuddered at the things she saw there. There were shadows best unseen, crawling at the bottom of a fathomless pond. But there was something else there, too. He had seen the hopelessness in her, listened to her silence. Perhaps he had realized a little of her endless pain.
He rested with her part of the night, but did not linger until dawn. When he left, it was with unexpected words. "Shuki," he said. "I had cursed you, but now I thank you. Yama means more to me than you can know. So will your next child. And you are a brave woman, for you have courted Death."
* * *
Next day was the beginning of the Autumn Festival. If there was a general restlessness to the air of Lower Zenmijou at the rumours of Ashura alive in their midst, Tenou's presence there stabilized things. The people had learned to respect him in an entirely new way. Shuki brought Yama anonymously to compete with the children in their games, and he outshone every other child there like the sun outshone the moon. Yasha nodded his approval, and Yama beamed with pride.
There seemed no end to the feasting and music, which lasted well into the evening, but at last Yasha and Ashura were able to retire to their room, and Tenou to his. These quarters were not half as grand as the palatial residence Ashura and Yasha had enjoyed as guests of the Emporer in Upper Zenmijou, but somehow that made it all the more comfortable. The two gladly sought the warm softness of their bed, extinguishing every lamp but one.
"Ashura. Did you see my child in the games today? Did you see Yasha's child?!"
Ashura rolled over to face him in the darkness. Yasha felt Ashura's warm breath lightly touch his brow. "Yes. He looks just like you, and he has those same beautiful eyes. But the hair... The hair is Taishakuten's. Tenou seems to treasure him very much."
"Ashura. Did Kama take you first, because I would not?"
"Yasha?" Ashura sat up suddenly, considering Yasha's odd question. "You have never asked me such a thing before! Are you all right? Kama loved me indeed, but he never trespassed my body! That secret is for you alone!"
Yasha nuzzled those silken strands of hair. Whatever strange emotions were disturbing him lurked at the very periphery of his mental vision, but he could not force them down this time. As he pulled away to gaze into those golden eyes, it seemed to him that duplicity lingered in their depths.
"I'm sorry...! Yasha...? What is wrong? Please tell me!"
"Hush, love." Yasha rolled over and rose from the bed. "I am restless and cannot sleep, thinking about my son and thinking about Tenou... And so many other things..."
* * *
Yasha paced back and forth, from room to room, well into the hot and humid night. It was something Ashura had never known him to do before. For a long time Ashura lay alone in the bed, listening to his quiet footsteps and slowly pondering the cause. Then they stopped; but Yasha had not returned.
At last Ashura arose, pausing in the darkness to put on a thin silk robe. "Yasha?"
No answer.
Ashura's skin was crawling. Golden eyes strained to see past the shadows enveloping everything. The room was empty. Both Ashura's hands clenched as Shurato stirred restlessly within. Her voice was dark, heavy with a vague warning Ashura could not place, and somehow sounding hollow. Ashura reached automatically to catch her hilt as she materialized out of thin air, then stepped through the door into the outer rooms, turned-- and was abruptly seized.
"Yasha!" Ashura struggled to get free of Yasha's viselike grip. His big hands were clamped painfully around Ashura's thin waist, fingertips almost meeting. Half-turning, Ashura saw Yasha's good eye blazing red as a wolf's. That was what he looked like: a great black demon-wolf, a creature beyond love. Ashura froze. "Yasha! Yasha...?"
Without a word Yasha grasped Ashura's robe at the collar with one hand, still crushing Ashura's waist with the other, and ripped it violently off. The silk fluttered to the floor like a wounded butterfly, leaving only white skin in its wake. Shurato clattered to the floor.
"Ashura!" said Yasha, in a voice not his own. "Did you lie to me?"
"Yasha--! Yasha, please, I did not lie, I did not! Yasha-- you're hurting me! YASHA--!!" Ashura writhed in Yasha's iron grip, then pulled free in a rush of golden flame and plunged outside, darting through the night garden. Fetching up against a large stone, Ashura called Shurato to hand again as Yasha drew near once more. But it was not Yasha at all. It was his new blood, his Ashuric blood, surging out of control.
Better to endure any other pain that that of Yasha's death. Ashura dropped Shurato a second time and stood bravely waiting for what might come, back to the silent stone.
"Yasha! Yasha! Wake up!"
Yasha started violently, his body convulsing. His eye flew open wildly. He lay flat on his back in a sunlit meadow. Above him, Zenmijou floated majestically bright in a clear sky.
Ashura's beautiful face came into his range of vision. He reached without thinking, pulling the other to him by the hair so their lips met in rough kisses. For several minutes they lay devouring one another, but at last he let go of Ashura's hair and sat up. "What...?"
"I said to trust me!" Ashura sat back on slim haunches.
Yasha looked around. There was no sign of this ever having been a battlefield. The tall grass waved in the breeze and flowers grew in profusion. Yasha glanced down. He was naked. The wound in his gut had wholly disappeared.
A cloak was suddenly dropped around his shoulders and Tenou leaned over him. "I've had a watch kept over you," he said, smiling. "Ashura woke first and told them to bring me here. Welcome back, Yasha-ou! It's been ten years!"
"Ten years?" Yasha blinked. Though ten years were nothing compared to the two thousand he had spent patiently waiting for Ashura's return to life, it seemed strange to have had a short sleep last for so long.
Ashura smiled up at Tenou, who was already turning back from brother and friend to Emporer. "I will escort you to shelter and provide you with food. We have matters to discuss as soon as possible."
* * *
That afternoon Yasha, shadowed by something that he could not name, was seated with Ashura and Tenou on the cushions of a dining-couch in a rich home which Tenou had procured for them in Lower Zenmijou. The house was in a fair, secluded place, overhung with wisteria and surrounded by high walls enclosing a pleasant garden. Guards were unobtrusively posted. In the eating area, Tenou had poured glasses of wine in despite of the brahmanic prohibition, and Ashura was trying a sample with delight. Tenou did not wear the same expression. "You cannot stay here," he said without preamble.
Ashura set down the glass, but did not reply. Neither did Yasha. The conclusion was foregone.
Tenou looked away from them and down at the table. "I bear sole responsibility of the lives lost in the rebellion," he said. "Ashura, you do understand that this was not your doing?"
"Yes. I understand." Ashura's voice was very soft. "I was living in the jungle happily before I was called here."
"Very good." Tenou reached to touch the fair face. "Don't let yourself slip back into your old way of thinking. My people rebelled against my decision. I chastised them.
"You cannot stay here, but where can you go? Yasha?"
Yasha sighed. "We cannot go back north to Alaka. As much as I would like to see my homeland again, Ashura does not belong there."
"That is not true! I could--"
"Hush, Ashura," said Yasha, continuing over the other's protests and his own inner pain which was becoming an inexplicable torment. He forced the strange sensations below the level of his consciousness. "Let us go back into the jungle by the Great River and live peacefully."
"Your life would be anything but peaceful." Tenou shook his head slowly. "There are those who would suspect you had returned, and hunt you out for worship-- or war. You know it in your heart. And you cannot go southward, near the Ryuu clan..."
"Seiryuu!" Ashura exclaimed, standing up suddenly. "What happened to Seiryuu?"
"I executed him," Tenou said.
"Oh-- Oh no..." Ashura sank back onto the cushions.
"Peace, Ashura. The clan survived, though many were killed." Ashura winced under the gentle sting of the Emporer's words. "Seiryuu led a massive rebellion against me. What do you think should have happened?"
"You could have pardoned him!"
"Not for that kind of offense." Tenou took a small sip of wine. "Tenkai would be splintered into factions were my rule to be overthrown, and the world would be at war. Therefore I must maintain my position even if it means ordering executions. Do you forget what happened at your own 'sacrifice?'"
A sudden sharp shriek of child's laughter startled them and all three jumped as one before looking out through the window. Yasha stood up as Tenou said, "Ah, Shuki. I was wondering how long she would take..."
Shukidevi had entered the courtyard outside and was playing with a golden ball, her garments trailing in the dust as she tossed it to a boy. The child had pale hair, but otherwise possessed all the marks of the Yama bloodline-- tall for his age, strong, the same brow as Yasha's, the same eyes that Ashura had once described as like the night sky. His voice reminded Yasha of his young brother's voice, an eerie echo, and he knew this was his child. Suddenly something shattered in him, and all the anguish and even the broken promise seemed worth it in that instant.
Shuki glanced up directly at him with a brilliant smile. As her son ran to her side, she turned him around and pointed to Yasha in the window. The boy froze like a startled deer. Yasha smiled more broadly than he was used to, but he could not tell what his son was feeling. There was almost a look of horror on his face. Perhaps it was Yasha's missing eye and the terrible scar that went with it.
Tenou's voice was soft by Yasha's ear, the Emporer turning once again into a friend. "Behold Yama, your son. Heir to Heaven, Prince of the Yasha clan."
"Yama..." whispered Yasha. "The next Yasha-ou! ...Ashura, Ashura, do you see? Do you? It's the next Yasha-ou! Kujaku was wrong!"
Ashura did not reply. Yasha glanced back. His beloved had taken refuge in Tenou's arms as if waiting for some terrible but inevitable announcement.
"Ashura," said Yasha very gently, reaching out just as if talking to the little child in the courtyard. "May I go see Yama?"
After a very long moment, Ashura nodded stiffly. The golden eyes were huge, hurt, loving. Yasha leaned forward, ignoring Tenou's presence to tenderly kiss Ashura's forehead, then the wine-stained lips. "Thank you," he whispered, and turned away, walking out into the courtyard.
Ashura also turned away, trembling, resting on Tenou's broad breast. "Don't worry," Tenou said softly, stroking the long black hair. "You will always come first with your Yasha."
"Brother...? I feel strange..."
"How so, dear one?"
"I don't know... Lighter, somehow."
Tenou smiled. "Perhaps it was the wine."
* * *
"Shukidevi," Yasha said formally.
She greeted him with folded palms as Yama clung to her sari. Yasha dropped to one knee. "What's this?" he said. "A Yama never acts afraid, even if he is really terrified. This cannot be a Yama!"
That got the desired reaction. "I am too a Yama!" the boy said, releasing his mother's sari and taking a step away from her. "I'm only the second Yama left, and I'm going to be Emporer. Are you really my father?"
"Yes, I am," said Yasha, with an intense feeling of satisfaction. A burden he did not know he had been still bearing was lifted from his shoulders-- the burden of a great bloodline extinguished by his own actions long ago.
"Is that Yamato? Show me the Heavenly Wolf!"
Yasha chuckled. "If I brought down Yamato's Heavenly Wolf here in this garden, it would destroy it! Now look only. Don't touch, for the light itself will cut you." Slowly he unsheathed the gleaming blade.
"Show me something it can do!"
Yasha glanced around. There was a grove of trees at one end of the garden. They were not too large. One would suit his purposes. He levelled the sword at it with all the panache he could still muster, and whispered the softest command. A pale flash of his Ki shot through the blade and in the next moment the tree came crashing down. Startled parrots and monkeys erupted from its falling crown.
Yama's eyes gleamed as the tree came to rest only a few feet from them. "Let me try!"
Yasha smiled again and sheathed the sword firmly. "Ask me again in five years' time," he said-- and was brought up short by his own words.
Shuki watched him sadly. "You will no longer be here then," she said.
"I know."
"What?!" cried Yama.
Yasha bent and hefted Yama up onto one shoulder, as he had carried child- Ashura thousands of years before. The weight felt good, familiar. "I have to leave this place," he said quietly.
"No--! No, I just met you!" Then: "It's the Ashura, isn't it?"
Yasha looked reproachfully at Shuki, who colored a little, before replying. "It is my duty to leave."
"Yasha," Shuki said urgently as she recovered herself. "There is something I must tell you."
Yama had brushed away the forelock Yasha tried to keep over his scar, and was examining the site of the missing eye with a child's fascination for the grotesque. Yasha allowed it.
"You've changed," Shuki said. "You carry the Ashuric blood now. You feel it within you."
Yasha caught his breath. Was that the reason...?
"Yes, you feel it. You should know this means you also carry the seed. Should you have another child, it would be an Ashura, and the clan would continue despite itself. I saw this in my mirror. Even Ashura does not know it!"
Yasha stared at her, dumbstruck. She nodded once, emphatically.
Slowly Yasha set Yama back down on the ground. "You hate my Ashura," he said. "Why should you wish to bear another?"
"Because you love them."
Yama was tugging on Yasha's robe. "I don't want an Ashura for a brother!"
"Yama," said Yasha gently, "None of us can choose our brothers. Shuki, you would care for this Ashura?"
"I am not what they say Shashi was. I will care for this Ashura, for your sake..." Her eyes had softened. "And I would not abandon a child."
"I will bring this news to my Ashura, then."
"And I will be staying here in Lower Zenmijou for three nights. At the Golden Temple, with the devisasis there."
Yasha returned to the house as Shuki left with their son, and there he took Ashura from Tenou's arms into his own, lifting the slim body up against his steady shoulder where Yama had rested only moments before. "Tenou," he said to the Emporer, "Did you know what Shuki would say to me out there?"
Tenou looked a little surprised. "No!" he said. "That's none of my business!"
"Hm."
* * *
That evening, in the privacy of the garden, Yasha told the news to Ashura, holding his love's hand tightly. "... I carry not only your blood," he finished, looking down at the fine fingers entwined in his own. "I carry the Ashuric seed now. Though you have none yourself, you gave me your bloodline when we were in the kekkai." Then he glanced up, allowing the doubt and uncertainty he felt to touch his usually stoic visage. "Ashura. Is this a gift for us to use? Or is it... an accident of Fate? Even your brother does not know about this... And, Ashura... I would not tell him if I were you. I know it will be hard, as he is staying with us... but you should not tell Tenou."
Ashura was stunned. "There can be Ashuras again?"
"Yes!"
"Do you think she spoke the truth... Or does she only want more of you?" Golden eyes narrowed, glittering dangerously.
Yasha sighed heavily. "She is quite honest. I believe she is telling the truth, not only from her words, but from my own... feelings... Ashura, since you healed me I have been different. I cannot explain how."
Silence. Ashura stroked Yasha's arm thoughtfully. "So have I. I feel strange, Yasha. As though something were missing. But it's a good feeling. I like it. Tenou says it is the wine, but I know it's not."
"Ashura. We must decide about the child. Mahadeva deliberately made you sexless. But was it to control your procreation or your passion? Or did it really have anything to do with you at all? Your father--"
"--I know! Oh, Yasha! It is so difficult, this life! It is so difficult to know what to do!"
Yasha leaned to kiss the tender cheek. "Remember-- should you wish to use me to resurrect your clan, any willing woman can be your vessel. It does not have to be Shukidevi."
"But what other woman would be willing to bear an Ashura...?"
* * *
Yasha was walking alone that night in the garden, where his son had been playing, when Ashura came to him.
"Yasha, I have decided. You must go to her."
Yasha noted Ashura's tear-reddened eyes, and that there were no bangles on the slender wrists, no jewelry, just a plain white silk tunic. Ashura continued after a moment. "It is what my father would have wanted. This is for the survival of a clan. It is not that you love her..."
The last was a question. Yasha spoke suddenly, breaking his stillness. "Ashura, you must understand that only you mean love to me. Only you. I will go only if you command me to do so."
"Then I command you." Ashura's voice became stronger, sterner. "Go to her, Yasha!"
* * *
Yasha arrived at the Golden Temple uninvited, but certainly not unexpected, ushered in by a temple prostitute. Shuki schooled herself carefully calm, though inwardly she was already weeping. This second time would be the last. This was the last time she would ever hold Yasha-ou, her only love; the last time she would drink in his thick scent, feel his hair cascading over her, feel his body covering hers.
He was both rough and thorough, but she did not complain. His breath sobbed with a passion she had not heard from him before, and it thrilled her even as it frightened her. This was not the same Yasha she had watched for all those years. He kissed and licked her hungrily, like a beast, and, beastlike, he entered her with something bordering on violence so that she bit her lip until it bled. Again and again he took her, until both were exhausted.
She lay quiet beneath him and gazed steadily into his one dark eye, and shuddered at the things she saw there. There were shadows best unseen, crawling at the bottom of a fathomless pond. But there was something else there, too. He had seen the hopelessness in her, listened to her silence. Perhaps he had realized a little of her endless pain.
He rested with her part of the night, but did not linger until dawn. When he left, it was with unexpected words. "Shuki," he said. "I had cursed you, but now I thank you. Yama means more to me than you can know. So will your next child. And you are a brave woman, for you have courted Death."
* * *
Next day was the beginning of the Autumn Festival. If there was a general restlessness to the air of Lower Zenmijou at the rumours of Ashura alive in their midst, Tenou's presence there stabilized things. The people had learned to respect him in an entirely new way. Shuki brought Yama anonymously to compete with the children in their games, and he outshone every other child there like the sun outshone the moon. Yasha nodded his approval, and Yama beamed with pride.
There seemed no end to the feasting and music, which lasted well into the evening, but at last Yasha and Ashura were able to retire to their room, and Tenou to his. These quarters were not half as grand as the palatial residence Ashura and Yasha had enjoyed as guests of the Emporer in Upper Zenmijou, but somehow that made it all the more comfortable. The two gladly sought the warm softness of their bed, extinguishing every lamp but one.
"Ashura. Did you see my child in the games today? Did you see Yasha's child?!"
Ashura rolled over to face him in the darkness. Yasha felt Ashura's warm breath lightly touch his brow. "Yes. He looks just like you, and he has those same beautiful eyes. But the hair... The hair is Taishakuten's. Tenou seems to treasure him very much."
"Ashura. Did Kama take you first, because I would not?"
"Yasha?" Ashura sat up suddenly, considering Yasha's odd question. "You have never asked me such a thing before! Are you all right? Kama loved me indeed, but he never trespassed my body! That secret is for you alone!"
Yasha nuzzled those silken strands of hair. Whatever strange emotions were disturbing him lurked at the very periphery of his mental vision, but he could not force them down this time. As he pulled away to gaze into those golden eyes, it seemed to him that duplicity lingered in their depths.
"I'm sorry...! Yasha...? What is wrong? Please tell me!"
"Hush, love." Yasha rolled over and rose from the bed. "I am restless and cannot sleep, thinking about my son and thinking about Tenou... And so many other things..."
* * *
Yasha paced back and forth, from room to room, well into the hot and humid night. It was something Ashura had never known him to do before. For a long time Ashura lay alone in the bed, listening to his quiet footsteps and slowly pondering the cause. Then they stopped; but Yasha had not returned.
At last Ashura arose, pausing in the darkness to put on a thin silk robe. "Yasha?"
No answer.
Ashura's skin was crawling. Golden eyes strained to see past the shadows enveloping everything. The room was empty. Both Ashura's hands clenched as Shurato stirred restlessly within. Her voice was dark, heavy with a vague warning Ashura could not place, and somehow sounding hollow. Ashura reached automatically to catch her hilt as she materialized out of thin air, then stepped through the door into the outer rooms, turned-- and was abruptly seized.
"Yasha!" Ashura struggled to get free of Yasha's viselike grip. His big hands were clamped painfully around Ashura's thin waist, fingertips almost meeting. Half-turning, Ashura saw Yasha's good eye blazing red as a wolf's. That was what he looked like: a great black demon-wolf, a creature beyond love. Ashura froze. "Yasha! Yasha...?"
Without a word Yasha grasped Ashura's robe at the collar with one hand, still crushing Ashura's waist with the other, and ripped it violently off. The silk fluttered to the floor like a wounded butterfly, leaving only white skin in its wake. Shurato clattered to the floor.
"Ashura!" said Yasha, in a voice not his own. "Did you lie to me?"
"Yasha--! Yasha, please, I did not lie, I did not! Yasha-- you're hurting me! YASHA--!!" Ashura writhed in Yasha's iron grip, then pulled free in a rush of golden flame and plunged outside, darting through the night garden. Fetching up against a large stone, Ashura called Shurato to hand again as Yasha drew near once more. But it was not Yasha at all. It was his new blood, his Ashuric blood, surging out of control.
Better to endure any other pain that that of Yasha's death. Ashura dropped Shurato a second time and stood bravely waiting for what might come, back to the silent stone.