Disclaimer: Please see the Prologue of Suzaku's Oracle for a blanket disclaimer.

.

Warnings: Rated PG-13 or Fiction T.

.

Notes: 8-13-13 When I first began to write the character of Empress Houki, I knew I had to think about her role as Empress in the Konan Empire and how she felt about it. As Emperor Saihitei's widow, surely she would have inherited an enormous amount of responsibility. When Hotohori died, Houki had not yet given birth to Prince Boushin. She must have been under constant pressure to produce a son, though there wasn't anything she could do about it one way or the other. Her baby's sex had already been determined by nature. Once Boushin was born, she must have been relieved. It would have been short-lived, though. Now she was faced with the task of being a single mother, as well as being custodian of Konan for her son. Hotohori would have left this responsibility to her. He once said his mother had been the one to ensure his own rule. More in the End Notes. ~Sapphire

.

.

.

Oracles of the Four Gods

"Suzaku's Oracle"

By: Sapphire

.

Part Eleven ~ …Finding Questions

.

…...

.

"You're from Tokyo?" Tasuki was incredulous. He looked as though someone had hit him over the head, Aneko's answer had been so unexpected to him.

"So I was right," Chichiri said. His suspicions were beginning to prove correct.

"You know Tokyo?" Aneko asked him hopefully.

"We've been to Tokyo. But you're a long way from home, no da," Chichiri replied, exchanging a glance with Tasuki. "How did you get here?" he asked. There was really only one way to get from that world to this, and that was if a god's power brought her. But which god? He had a fairly good idea, but he had to be certain.

Aneko seemed uncomfortable under the scrutinizing gazes of the Empress, Tasuki, and himself. He watched her as she looked down nervously at the ground. Chichiri suspected her answer would involve the holy light of a god, more specifically, the red light of Suzaku.

"I don't know," she answered finally. "It's very strange. One moment I was one place, and the next I was another. I'm so confused."

"Whaddaya mean by that?" Tasuki demanded with a glare in the woman's direction. Aneko looked up at him, almost meekly, but not quite. Tasuki did not relent. He hated it when people gave answers that didn't answer anything at all.

"Just what I said. One minute I was in one place, and the next I was somewhere entirely different," she repeated. Tasuki wasn't convinced. She was being awfully vague. Too vague for his liking.

"Perhaps you should be more specific," the Empress said carefully.

"Da!" Chichiri agreed. "Tell us everything you can remember. Every detail you can recall."

"Be honest," the Empress said, "This is very important."

Something about Chichiri's expression made an impression upon Tasuki. He seemed so sure of himself, as if he already knew what the woman, Aneko, was going to say. This business screamed of the foreordained. Tasuki hated that feeling. Aneko looked as uncertain as he felt. That predestined feeling sat in the pit of his stomach like a stone. He didn't like it. Fate had a funny way of asking the impossible of him. As his eyes locked with Aneko's gaze, he could see fear there. He wondered what she could possibly have to be afraid of. Unless she was lying. She didn't look away until he did first. Tasuki doubted she was lying, if she could look him in the eye as boldly as that. But still...

"It's going to sound crazy," Aneko warned him, the Empress, and Chichiri. "And I don't half believe it myself."

"That is quite all right," the Empress told her. "We have seen a fair amount of unbelievable things in our lives."

"We've been around." Tasuki had to work very hard not to choke over the empress' statement. Unbelievable was an understatement.

"All right," Aneko agreed reluctantly. Empress Houki watched the woman carefully, noting how she held herself, the set of her shoulders, where her eyes rested, what she did with her hands; all were clues as to whether she spoke truth or falsehood. "What I know is really very little. I was near a place called the Shizuku Ichi Village. It's outside of a city called Morioka. I don't know why I was there, but I know I was walking along the narrow paths of the woods there."

"You don't know why?" Tasuki asked incredulously. He had managed to recover from his choking fit, Houki noticed. "You don't know, or you can't remember?" Aneko gave no sign of untruth, and the Empress felt Tasuki was being a little too harsh on her. Memory was a curious thing, as curious a thing as emotions could be. Often times they were connected, and she knew all too well what emotions and memory could do to a person.

"I can't remember," Aneko clarified. "I try, but all I see is the shape of a person, and then there's nothing except this feeling of sadness." Houki noticed how difficult it was for Aneko to speak so candidly about things so personal. But Houki could understand overwhelming sadness. She had to fight off it's grip every time she thought of her beloved husband. "Sometimes I even cry," Aneko admitted after a long pause. "But I don't know why I feel that way."

"How convenient," Tasuki grumbled rolling his eyes. "Amnesia."

"I told you it would be hard to believe, and we haven't gotten to the strangest part yet," Aneko reminded, defensively.

"Go on, Miss Mitsu," the Empress directed, giving Tasuki a silencing glance. She thought he could afford to be a little more sensitive. They needed to be objective, but he was bordering on rude and cruel. Tasuki glared back at her insolently, then looked away when she gave him another piercing glare. She was the Empress after all, so he was forced to give in and keep further comments to himself.

"It was autumn there," Aneko reluctantly continued. Chichiri listened intently, listening for specific details. "The leaves were falling from the trees, and it was cold, damp, and misty. I don't think I was paying particular attention to where I was going until I came across this strange cave." Aneko paused, and Chichiri waited patiently, unlike Tasuki who had already decided to discount everything she said. "The area around it was blackened, like something had exploded or burned there. It scared me, that place." Now that was strange. Blackened ground as though something had burned there. "Even more strange," Aneko continued, "it felt like something was drawing me there, but I don't know what." Chichiri looked up quickly at Tasuki, and Tasuki met his gaze readily. They knew that feeling well. Now they were getting somewhere.

"I think the place was called...it was called Genbu Grotto," she said with conviction.

"Genbu!" Tasuki, Chichiri, and the Empress exclaimed in unison. Their abrupt reaction startled Aneko. She hadn't been finished yet.

"You're from Houkan, aren't you?!" Tasuki accused her wildly. "A spy!"

"No!" Aneko denied vehemently, turning to face Tasuki. "I'm from Tokyo." She didn't know why he was attacking her words. She didn't know what she had said to turn him against her. "I've never heard of this 'Houkan' before now."

"I'll bet," Tasuki cut in sarcastically.

"I'm telling you the truth," Aneko retorted passionately. "I didn't ask for the red light to come out of the ground and bring me to this strange world. All I want is to go home!"

"Great Suzaku," the Empress breathed in shock. Aneko started at the sound of that word. The moment the Empress had uttered it, Aneko felt a strange comforting warmth reach out to her very soul. She felt something like a touch in her mind, like the soft caress of downy feathers. In moments, a sense of peaceful calm and serenity blanketed her. Her fears and anxieties faded. Calmly, she focused her attention back on the Empress, Chichiri, and Tasuki. They were no longer paying any attention to her. Instead, they were in the midst of an argument.

"What are ya thinkin'?!" Tasuki threw at Chichiri. "Do you want ta bring the wrath of Suzaku down on the entire Konan Empire? Only Suzaku's chosen are allowed there. Are you crazy?" Tasuki was staring at Chichiri as though he had suddenly sprouted an extra head. The Empress herself had gone wide-eyed in surprise. Chichiri, however, was calm and collected. Aneko had the sneaking suspicion he'd anticipated such reactions to whatever he'd said.

"No, I'm not crazy," Chichiri assured Tasuki and the Empress. "And I don't think Suzaku will be angry, no da. I think this woman is one of Suzaku's chosen." Tasuki stared at him in disbelief.

"Explain yourself," the Empress demanded. It was clear she was angry. "We just heard her say she was in a place dedicated to Genbu. How could she be of the Suzaku?"

"I would never, ever, dishonor Suzaku," Chichiri declared, removing his mask, revealing his face. Aneko's mouth dropped open. She stared at Chichiri. This man, with the scar on his face, was the one who'd come to help when she'd been attacked. She had known it had been Chichiri, of course, but she had felt that he wasn't quite the same person then as she knew now. No wonder she had thought he was hiding something from her. She had never thought the reason could be as simple as a mask. "I have good reason to believe she's chosen of Suzaku."

"We already found the seven warriors and the Priestess," Tasuki argued.

"The Universe of the Four Gods was burned. We don't know what else it might have prophesized, no da," Chichiri reminded. "There could be a second person from another world-"

"What do you mean another world!" Aneko exclaimed, interrupting. The others suddenly seemed to notice she was still there. "Is that why everything is so different here?" They remained silent. A gnawing fear was forming in the pit of her stomach. "Is there a way for me to get home?"

"It's hard to say," Chichiri replied gently. "The Priestess of Suzaku was returned to your world. Maybe you will be, too, no da." Aneko stared at him wide-eyed. Was he saying she may not be able to go home where the world around her was familiar and comfortable? Didn't they understand that was all she wanted? She couldn't believe it was impossible.

"How do we know she isn't an agent of an enemy?" Empress Houki asked, deciding to turn matters back to the situation at hand. Houki noticed the color drain from Aneko's face. She really did feel sorry for the girl, but if she was the enemy...

"The shrine is for anyone seeking guidance or protection," Chichiri said, picking up where the conversation had been left off. "Taking her to the Shrine is the only way to know for sure. We can ask Suzaku's guidance, no da. Suzaku would know his own chosen." The Empress had to admit, to herself at least, that Chichiri had a point. Suzaku would recognize his own.

"I don't think we should," Tasuki reiterated his original opinion. "I don't trust her." The Empress had to agree with the trust issue, but...

"Red light surrounded Aneko when the slavers were attacking her," Chichiri reminded them both. "The symbol for 'oni' appeared on her forehead." Empress Houki deliberated over her possible decisions. Chichiri wasn't one to lie, or embellish upon the truth. If he said he'd seen the mark of Tamahome on that woman's forehead, then he had. But was it real, or a hoax? Chichiri seemed to think it was legitimately real. He was a Celestial Warrior. He would know the difference, she thought. She was inclined to trust his opinion. She glanced at Aneko a moment to see if something about the woman would set her mind ill at ease over her decision.

Aneko seemed as though she were fed up with being ignored. Houki didn't blame her, considering they were ignoring her. Houki wasn't surprised when Aneko stood up and put one hand on her hip sternly, then proceeded to glare at all of them. Her actions commanded everyone's attention.

"I don't appreciate being talked about as though I wasn't here," she said evenly. "Now, I don't know what this 'Suzaku' is, or why this shrine is so important. But it seems to me that if visiting this shrine will give you answers and lay aside all doubts, then that is what should be done," she said. Houki had to smile. Aneko was right.

"That is the wisest thing to do," the Empress agreed. "And that is exactly the conclusion that we have come to."

.

…...

.

.

To be continued…

.

End Note: Its understandable how overwhelming all of these things must have been for Houki. In this chapter, when Houki is thinking how memories and emotions are curious things, she is referring to herself and the depression she'd fallen into after Boushin's birth. I think that seeing Hotohori again in the OAV brought the closure she and her son needed to go forward with their lives. After that, I think Houki would have thrown herself into her roles as Empress Regent and mother. With the support of Hotohori's loyal advisers, ministers, and retainers, and the occasional guidance from Chichiri, I think Empress Houki would do her job beautifully. ~Sapphire

.