It happened twelve years ago.

Back then, she believed she knew what it meant to be the heiress of the Shimizu Clan, one of the Sacred Eight of the Asukan Empire. She had thought she understood.

Then one day, her father told her everything.

And Tanya realized how truly little she knew.

She remembered it like it was yesterday. A medley of emotions danced across Yanric Shimizu’s face, twisting his features into something she couldn’t recognize. Even in the illumination of the Eternal Light, it was like peering through a foggy window, despite them sitting right next to one another.

She had passed her apprenticeship from the Susanoo Shrine in Cyffnar, and her results had shown her to be a promising candidate for spiritist training. Her lifeforce was above average, and her Soul Capacity was head and shoulders above what most bremetans of her level could boast of. She had a solid grasp of holy theory, and demonstrated a perfect execution of the Shikigami Ritual to her examiners.

Tanya was ready for more. Her teachers had trained her in a fighting style best suited to rapid, fluidic movements used to set up sharp lethal attacks. She had picked it up like a fish to water. There was no doubt that a water-type kami would complement her perfectly. She’d been elated about it. And as a Shimizu, it was now her birthright to be taken to the Shimizu Well and granted the opportunity to choose her familiar. Her kami.

But they did not go to the well.

Instead, her father brought her to a solitary room in the heart of the compound, with nothing but worn tatami mats beneath their feet and wards to protect them from prying eyes and ears.

And he had many secrets to share. Not one or two, but many. Dozens. Hundreds. In a room where no one else would ever learn of the words spoken between them, her father told her all the secrets of their clan.

Asukans were not good people.

Not honest. Not kind. Not fair. One did not get to the top of the food chain by having those virtues. One did that by ambition, ruthlessness, and betrayal, and the Shimizu Clan was no different. They had their own skeletons in their closet, both literal and metaphorical. An entire clan of Asukans that was centuries old, whose secrets could have filled a graveyard. And yet, they could not allow them to be forgotten.

As the daughter of the current Clan-Lord, that meant Tanya would one day carry the burden of all those secrets. Graduation from the Shrine was the perfect opportunity to be inducted into the dirtier aspects of becoming an heiress.

Yanric, her father, chose to begin with the most relevant of them all.

Kami.

Elements made manifest in an ethereal body, granted consciousness by the blessing of the Great Goddess. And it was only thanks to the Goddess that an Asukan learned to wield their powers. That was what she was taught at the Shrine.

Wrong, her father had said. Kami were apparitions, creatures of consciousness and perception that no Asukan would ever be able to comprehend. Creatures from the Ikai Realm—the World of the Other. A world that ran parallel to their own, a world where the yokai dwelt.

“But that can’t be true,” she had stressed. Vehemently so. “The yokai are all gone. No spirit can possibly enter the land of Eternal Light freely.”

Her father had laughed.

“What do you think the well is?”

It was when he had told her the truth.

“The well is nothing more than a hole, a tear in reality itself that connects our territory with a place that’s neither in this world, nor in the Other, yet seamlessly fits into both. A borderland.”

“Borderland…”

“These are places where reality meets fantasy.” Nostalgia shone from her father’s eyes. “A place so saturated with mana that most bremetans would suffocate within an hour. It’s where these kami are from. Their zone of power, their dominion.”

“And…you’ve been there?”

Yanric laughed. “Every ambitious adventurer has tried to enter into borderlands at least once in their lifetime. The idea of catching a wild kami is a dream that’s hard to ditch, even for the staunchest Asukan.”

“Then the well—”

“It is a trap. Once the kami has your attention, you lure it out, through the well into the real world where the Eternal Light can weaken them, make them vulnerable, susceptible to their control.”

“That feels like cheating!”

Yanric laughed at that answer. “My little princess! What would you have us do? Fight a kami inside its own dominion? No one but the kings can even think of making that attempt.”

“But then—” Tanya had scrunched her face. “Why did they lie to me at the Shrine?”

Yanric had sighed at that. “Because the truth is a dangerous thing, daughter. Can you imagine what would happen if every bremetan out there tried to enter into wild borderlands in hopes of capturing kami?”

Tanya swallowed.

“It’d be a massacre. Doubly so if the kami came out and there was no one to bind it. That is why the kami binding is performed at the Shrines, under supervision. Or in private wells, like ours.”

Tanya understood it that night. It had nothing to do with truth and deception. It was about control. And control was the lifeblood of the Empire. And what greater control than having a powerful kami under one’s command?

“You will not be performing the Shikigami Ritual,” Yanric told his distraught daughter, “because you are born for greatness. I can’t have you wasting your Potential behind a newborn kami.”

“But Father—”

“No, Tanya. You will achieve what I could not. What my father could not. Come with me.”

Yanric stood up and folded one of the tatami mats, revealing a secret door beneath with stairs that went downward. Silently, Tanya descended behind her father until they were standing in front of a cubicle made of what appeared to be glass. And inside it was…

Something.

It seemed to have been crafted out of air, only thicker. Like someone had gathered all the air in the compound and forced it together. Gelatinous in appearance, the thing had blackened, metallic constructs placed upon it. Though, it was more apt to say that the thing was wearing those constructs like a soldier wore armor.

“This is Ezzeron,” her father explained at her confused look.

“Who?”

He smiled indulgently. “Do you not remember your great-grandfather Wakamura?”

Tanya arched an eyebrow. “Really? You’re asking if I don’t remember the legendary Wind King? He’s made our Clan what it is.”

Yanric gestured back to the cube. “This is the source of his power. His kami, Ezzeron.”

Tanya’s eyes widened to saucers. She couldn’t believe her father’s words. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing with her own eyes. This—this was the Wind King’s kami?

“You—you can’t be serious!” she exclaimed. “This is—this is just—”

“Unbelievable?” Yanric suggested. “I assure you. Ezzeron is very real.”

“But it’s—”

“After your grandfather’s demise, the emperor allowed our Clan to retain the kami for ourselves. An incentive for Wakamura’s descendants to rise up and meet the requirements to tame the untamable Ezzeron. Whoever did that would have a chance to become the next Wind King.”

Tanya studied her father for several seconds, trying to appraise the man. She knew that there existed five titles in the Empire, and their holders were unparalleled in the manipulation of their respective elements. The positions of Wind King and Ether King were lying dormant, with the death of her great grandfather close to a century ago, and the Ether King’s far before that—patiently waiting for the next claimant to take their place.

“What does that have to do with me?” she asked.

Yanric knelt down and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Neither I nor your grandfather were strong enough to come even close to taming Ezzeron. My father had been…devastated when he failed to take up his father’s title. A burden that then fell upon me when I came of age. But I too, like my father, failed. You, on the other hand…”

Tanya stood still, waiting. She knew what was about to come.

“I know your potential. Every single elder of our Clan does. We know that someday, you will rise to become a Pathforger just like your great-grandfather. It is in your blood. It is in your soul.”

“But Father—”

“Tanya!” her father asserted. “You are my greatest joy, and my greatest hope. The Shimizu Clan has failed to rise up to the challenge for two consecutive generations. If we fail a third, the Empire might not look at us favorably. The status of being one of the Sacred Eight is at stake, and only you can keep it from being taken away. You must tame Ezzeron.”

Tanya flinched. Her father’s blind faith in her was touching, but this was Ezzeron. It was at least several centuries old, and had been in the family for at least three generations now. Shikigami Rituals were about domination. About balance. About being the immovable object against the overwhelming force that were kami. Trying to tame this nigh-invincible spirit was not just foolhardy. It was madness.

“Obviously you cannot do that now,” Yanric admitted. “But you will someday. Until then, I wish for you to train yourself in lifeforce, make yourself indomitable in mind, body, and spirit until you can match Ezzeron’s might. That is the destiny I see for you, my daughter. You will fulfill my wish, won’t you? You will make sure we don’t lose our pride?”

“…Undoubtedly,” Tanya replied, an unmistakable tightness in her voice. She could feel her dreams of being an aquamancer go down the drain. Her fighting style, her perfected skills—all of them would no longer matter. She’d have to renew her training, develop a combat style in Aeromancy, no matter how difficult it might be.

Because that was what the Clan expected of her.

“I’ll…” Her heart broke, even as her visage stayed firm. “I’ll do my best.”

Yanric hugged her gently. “I know you will, my child. I know you will.”

He never noticed the small tear that trickled down her cheek.