Nearly five hundred
years ago . . . "There Is No
Stay of Execution. Your son's offense is inexcusable. For questioning
my judgment, you will join him. Guards"--the Imperial Hantei
motioned lazily--"remove the Crane Champion's head." The years are unimportant.
Only the Eternal Sun and Moon circling in the sky above the Empire
are important. Only the Hantei, whose word is law, is above all
else. My duty is to serve.
My name is Hida Tsuneo, and I am Champion of the Crab. I stand
now upon the wall at my Hantei's side, bowing before him as he
delivers immortal words.
I remember his voice from the past: "Never before, Mother,
have you so disappointed me." Hantei XVI was a tall, slender
man with shoulders too wide for his wiry frame. His beak-like
nose hovered over a thin moustache and beard delicately shaped
by a hundred courtesans who waited upon him. "Never before,
Otomo-san, have you allowed me to catch you this way," he
continued, running thin fingers through the folds of his golden
kimono. "I had thought you more clever than this. After
all, did you not give birth to me?"
"And four others." The hiss came from between the woman's
broken teeth. She turned her face from his to escape his glare
and the foul stench that was his life. Blood trickled to the
floor before the Hantei's throne. "Four . . . whom you killed."
"Yes, of course." The Hantei smiled almost soothingly,
motioning to the Seppun guardsman to remove another finger from
the courtier's hand.
She did not scream as it was done--only shivered. Blood streaked
her white face-paint. A Scorpion's mask, I thought, fit
for an Empress. The guards backed
away, and several of the assembled courtiers in the room seemed
paler than before. I did not know why. This was not the first
of the Imperial Hantei's "punishments" to his family
members. The others had all died after similar treatment, killed
for treasons both real and imagined. The Hantei had never allowed
treason--not even treason of thought.
Even at that time, ten times ten Seppun corpses hung upon high
stakes up and down Otosan Uchi's Imperial Road. Their crime had
been to follow a man who did not respect them. The Emperor had
ordered them to destroy every samurai in the Chokai province
of the Mirumoto lands. But they failed, and they died. Two Mirumoto
escaped to tell the tale.
Hantei continued, "You tried to poison me, Mother."
"I tried to save the Empire from you," she coughed,
broken ribs jutting soft points through her elaborate kimono.
This had been the first time her son had called her into his
presence for more than three years. Her maids said that she had
painted each golden sparrow on her kimono with a brush made of
her own hair. Now, blood and spittle covered the sparrows, and
her elderly bones were no more than broken wings. "I curse
you, Hantei Okucheo, that you will suffer for each death you
have caused and the Empire will never again bear your weight."
Hantei XVI smiled faintly. "Kill the dowager Empress, Tsuneo-san.
She serves no further purpose."
I am a Crab. I do not question.
Otomo Kaoichihime looked up at me with weary eyes as I raised
my sword.
"No, Tsumeo-san," Hantei murmured--a mere whisper as
he straightened the hem of his robe, "with your hands. She
deserves no better than the goblins you fight on the wall."
I felt her hair between my callused palms, felt the flesh twitch
once as the skull began to crack.
She whispered to me before she died.
Her blood trailed from my fingers.
And now I am unclean. I remember the foul feeling of grease upon
my hands when she fell to the floor, the thick paste that stained
my clothes. I will never forget it--the Kami will not let me.
I died unclean.
The guards swarmed through the throne room and destroyed the
Steel Chrysanthemum. Crane guards. Lion guards. Phoenix and Scorpion--and
Seppun--guards. My Emperor was betrayed, destroyed. And I did
not fight to save him.
I stood over his mother's brutalized corpse, my hands shaking.
Ten times ten hundred samurai with empty eyes staring down from
spikes, with flesh rotting on Seven Hundred Soldier Plain, with
bodies that are rubble at the base of the Phoenix cliffs--they
whisper to me in Jigoku.
I died in seconds.
It took the Emperor ten days.
Who did I fail: the Emperor or the Empire?
Now Toturi sits upon his throne of jade, but the throne room
is the same. I remember each detail; I still see the blood of
Kaoichihime staining her own sparrow-cloak. I see her bones spread
across the floor.
Death did not change me. Jigoku did not change me. Returning
from the grave in this new body has not changed me. I stand at
my Emperor's side, and I still hear his commands. The magic of
a powerful gate that led to the land of the dead--a gate now
destroyed--has brought our rebirth into the Empire. We cannot
return, save to die once more. I remember Kaoichihime's voice
as I listen to Hantei.
"You will return the throne to me and to my lineage, Toturi-san,
or I will cast you from it." His words are smooth, silk--but
I remember the dagger thrust into his throat by his own son.
"You will obey the commands of the Imperial Hantei."
"No," says the man on the Jade Throne. "I cannot
return to you what the Fortunes and the Kami have given me. I
will not betray their trust."
"Then you sentence your people to death," Hantei XVI
purrs.
"If I give you the throne, I sentence the entire Empire
to death. I have made my choice, and I will stand by it."
Toturi is impassive. There sits an Emperor worthy of respect.
I only wish that I could join him.
Hantei does not bow as he leaves the audience chamber, but I
remain long enough to lower my eyes before the man upon the throne.
I believe he understands. I must obey my Emperor. If there is
to be a battle, I will fight with every ounce of my being and
turn the weight of my legions as Hantei XVI commands. But this
war of spirits is not of my choosing.
This life is not of my choosing.
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"Tsuneo," Toturi says, "why do you follow him?"
I look up, and I know my eyes betray my soul. "I have always
followed him."
"This is a new Empire, Tsuneo. Return to your family. How
can you abandon them?"
"I have served him for five hundred years," I whisper.
"How can I not?"
Kaoichihime's whisper returns to me as I follow Hantei XVI across
the golden plains, back to our troops in the distant south: "My
curse on you, Tsuneo, is that you will follow him to death .
. . and beyond."
The Span of a Generation
has begun to pass, and the spirits set free through Oblivion's
Gate have come to rest within the Empire. But they are not peaceful,
malleable spirits whose only desire is to retire and spend their
new lives pondering the meaning of death. Rather, they are memories
of more violent times--times when they ruled the Empire and when
Rokugan shook at their command.
At their head stands the reborn shade of Hantei XVI, called the
Steel Chrysanthemum.
The most feared tyrant in the history of the Empire.
He leads an army of ancient spirits who died in wars long forgotten,
who spilled their blood in feuds and dishonor, and of those who
died for an Empire that no longer wants them. The Empire no longer
needs them.
But they cannot forget.
The returned Hantei Emperor has challenged Toturi for the Jade
Throne, sparking a war between the reborn and the living. Toturi
has commanded that all spirits either join the monasteries or
remove themselves from the Empire -- the latter either by traveling
to other lands or by leaping from the high cliffs of Otosan Uchi.
Those who choose death return to Jigoku with full honor.
But from the lands of the Crab an army rises, made of the spirit
samurai who refuse to allow Toturi to cast them out so soon after
their rebirth. They march behind a fearsome general, Hida Tsuneo,
who claims to be the Champion of the Crab. Some few of the living
have joined his command, and even those who resist him respect
his ability and his honor.
Six of the Seven Clans stand unified behind Toturi, their banners
under his command. Only the Phoenix withdraw their troops: the
spirits threaten them; Tsuneo's samurai have captured their children.
Tsukune must choose: either she must betray Toturi, or the future
of her clan will die.
The Spirit Wars rage throughout ten summers, culminating at the
Battle of Drowned Honor, the Battle of Quiet Winds, and other
fronts. Tsuneo is cunning and has spirits at his command with
nothing to live for. If they fail, Toturi will force them to
leave the Empire proper or return to death. They believe that
they fight for the truth of the Hantei line, never seeing the
insane gleam in the eyes of Hantei XVI.
They have destroyed the Asahina lands. The Unicorn have lost
Shiro Iuchi. The spirits have forced the Lion, badly depleted
in the Battle at Oblivion's Gate, to retreat to Beiden Pass,
stand at the shoulder of Bayushi Yojiro's Scorpion, and prepare
for one final battle. If they fail, Tsuneo will break through
to Otosan Uchi and place a tyrant on the throne.
If they succeed, the Empire will change forever . . . .
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