Chapter 119

Kuroyuki approached the perfectly round stone sphere calmly. Not hurrying, but not dallying, either. She had learned from Sasaki that in all things one must have appropriate grace and patience. While she was certain Sasaki hadn’t meant to instill these behaviors in her, she had picked them up, nevertheless.

The thrumming of power that radiated out from the stone died by degrees as she approached. A bemused expression flickered across Kuroyuki’s face.

"You do not have words for me?" She asked curiously, and lightly touched the stone with her fingertips. "You know who-" She caught herself, "what I am." She corrected. "I had expected that you would have a great deal to say to me."

A throb of power from the stone, but no other response. Not surprising, considering what she was, considering what she represented to the Elemental King. Kuroyuki smiled kindly.

"The Guardian still slumbers beneath the hill." She advised, and another throb of power radiated out from the stone. "I am not here for you." She continued, and then smirked. "I am here for you, but not for the way you think." She added. "The ley lines are poisoned, " She continued, "And I need your help." The stone began to pulse with power again, and Kuroyuki nodded.

"Thank you." She whispered, and settled herself to rest. As soon as the toxins she’d accumulated within her were cleansed, she’d rejoin her mother, wherever she was.

After some indeterminate length of time, there was a footstep near her, but Kuroyuki decided to ignore it and kept her eyes closed, working to isolate and contain the toxins that had accumulated within her.

"An elf?" A familiar voice asked curiously. "No, a Yamato?" the voice confirmed. The voice was melodious and smooth, the sort of voice you would expect to hear in a choir, and maddeningly familiar. The intonation and inflection with words was unfamiliar, but the voice itself resonated in her memory.

Kuroyuki opened her eyes and her eyebrows twitched in shock. It was late afternoon, just deepening into evening. How had so much time passed? She cursed her mortal body for succumbing to fatigue so quickly.

"...Katarina?" She asked curiously, and then corrected herself. Katarina wore trousers like a man. This woman looked like Katarina, but she wore a robe and reeked of magic.

The woman recoiled as if stung. "Her?" She demanded, and glanced about furtively. "Is she here?"

Kuroyuki shook her head. "She left some hours ago, to some place I know not. ‘Landeck’, she called it." She replied helpfully.

The woman nodded and relaxed. "How should I address you?" She asked warily.

The corners of Kuroyuki’s mouth quirked up in a smile, quickly suppressed.

"If I don’t want to be addressed at all?" She asked, and the woman that looked like Katarina grimaced. "I’ll take my leave." She remarked petulantly.

This time, Kuroyuki allowed the smile to surface on her face. "Good. Tell me what you want, girl. Despite how I look, I am very busy." She invited, and closed her eyes again.

"I need you to teach me the Rune of Translation."

Kuroyuki’s eyes opened, and she eyed the other person. "You have the audacity to stand taller than I and demand that I teach you something?" She asked rhetorically, and closed her eyes. "It is offensive to me that you were born so tall. Shorten yourself before me and maybe I will listen to a humbly stated request." She added loftily.

Sasaki would no doubt be upset with her for this display of arrogance, and she vowed to contritely apologize to her as quickly as was possible.

She opened her eyes again, and the woman still stood there uncertainly. Kuroyuki sighed.

"Kneel before me, girl. Grovel. Feel the earth on your cheeks. Lick it. You should come to me with the taste of dirt in your mouth if you want something from me." She declared imperiously, snapping her finger and pointing at the dirt in front of her. Emotions were interesting things, and she intended to explore them to their extent.

The woman clenched her fists in defiance and refused to budge. "Do you know how far I’ve had to come to get here?" She asked angrily and Kuroyuki shrugged indifferently. "How am I supposed to know this? Moreover, why should I care?" She remarked, and the girl grimaced. I should probably stop referring to her as ‘girl’. Kuroyuki mused. After all I’m little more than a year old, technically.

"If we got off on the wrong foot, I’m sorry." The Katarina-lookalike apologized contritely after a moment. "Can we start over?" She asked, and Kuroyuki closed her eyes again. She really didn’t have any desires one way or the other towards this girl. There was a mild curiosity as to how she came to look so much like Sasaki’s Katarina, but there was a more pressing desire to cleanse herself of the toxic effects from the poisoned ley lines she’d encountered, and a need to return to Sasaki’s side.

"Certainly. As soon as I see the smudges of dirt on your cheeks." She replied smoothly. "If you’re unwilling to go this far..." She let the statement hang.

The girl lowered herself to the ground in a series of reluctant jerks.

A curious thing; Kuroyuki could, by tasting the girl’s magic, sense the whirling turmoil of thoughts and emotions that boiled in the girl’s head. Up until this point she had no idea this ability existed.

"Ah, you are Alsabet, her twin." Kuroyuki mused, and Alsabet froze. Kuroyuki spoke up, then. "The sooner you rub your face in the dirt, the sooner I’ll listen to whatever it is you want to ask me." She repeated, and Alsabet grimaced and knelt in the dirt.

Kuroyuki eyed the girl speculatively, inwardly she was considering the sludge-like toxic magic that dwelled inside her. It swirled and congealed and refused to budge. Was it because of Kuroyuki’s nature as the Catalyst? Or was it because she inhabited a mortal body? At Kuroyuki’s lack of response, Alsabet lowered herself further, towards the ground.

Perhaps she could coalesce it into the physical, and eject it from her body? She raised an eyebrow as she considered the mechanics of the activity. Alsabet, grimacing, abased herself completely, rubbing her face in the dirt at Kuroyuki’s feet. Kuroyuki came back to herself with a blink.

"So you want to learn the Rune of Translation." Kuroyuki stated, and Alsabet propped herself up with her hands. Kuroyuki giggled at the dirt on her lips.

"Yes, please." Alsabet urged. "I want to be away from this land, and away from her."

"Ah. Your sister is hunting you." Kuroyuki replied, and Alsabet nodded, sitting up.

"Probably. Even if she wasn’t hunting me, once she hears that I’ve left the church she’ll hunt me anyway." She replied, fists on hips. "I’ve heard all sorts of stories about her, from the believable to the utterly fantastic, and the one thing that’s absolutely consistent through them all, whether it’s flying on a dragon or it’s charging into a summoning ritual is her utter relentlessness. I absolutely refuse to be chased by her for the rest of my life. I want to Translate myself off this continent and so far away from her that she won’t catch me in twenty lifetimes."

"I have never used a Rune of Translation." Kuroyuki replied easily. She switched conversation tracks suddenly. "Do you have tea?" She asked, and Alsabet nodded. "In my pack, yes. It’s not very good."

"Good." Kuroyuki gestured indifferently. "Share it with me."

When Alsabet returned, Kuroyuki had produced cups and had kindled a small fire away from the spherical "Nameless Stone", and smiled at Alsabet’s kettle. "Good. I had wondered how we might steep it."

She took the tea from Alsabet and sniffed it. As the human had said, it wasn’t particularly good. Using magic, she shaved away the bits of useless or fouled herb. The remaining amount would be palatable, at least.

"How did you do that?" Alsabet breathed in unaffected amazement. "I’ve never seen control so fine." Kuroyuki gave her a long look.

"Right, sorry." Alsabet finally surrendered, and Kuroyuki added the herbs to the kettle.

"Now, tell me about this spell you want so badly. What it is, what it does and the like."

Alsabet sighed. "Was I wrong about you?" She asked. "You’re not natural. I doubt you’re even human, not really." She added. "I don’t know what you are, but I can at least tell that much."

Kuroyuki smiled benignly. "Have you been beyond the Bones of the World?" She asked, and Alsabet shook her head. "Not for lack of trying. The people of Nauders keep a tight eye on the comings and goings through Timwaite Pass, and the Winged Elves of the Eyrie do a fine job picking out the others." She grimaced.

"Until you have seen what sleeps in the Caverns of Y’quaa under Mount Voormithadreth, beyond the Bones of the World where no mortal dare tread, you do not have the right to question me." Kuroyuki replied confidently. It was fun, she discovered, to needle the woman from a position of superiority. Is this how an Empress would behave? She wondered to herself.

Alsabet sighed. "Fine. A Rune of Translation is an especially potent apport spell." She picked up her empty cup. "The common apport spell allows you to send something from one place to another." She gathered her magic, and the cup disappeared from her right hand and appeared in her left. "There are drawbacks." She added, and set the cup down. "First, an apport spell is something that can only be done to something else. You cannot apport yourself. Second, an apport has a limited range. Usually line of sight, but this can be subverted, like the way the Anglish use apport spells for correspondence: You scry the person you want to send your letter to, and then when you find them, you push and the letter is teleported to them almost instantly. Also, it’s one-way. You can always push, but you can never pull." She rolled her eyes and gestured at the kettle. "If it were a pull, thievery would go through the roof."

"Ah, the practice of taking things that do not belong to you." Kuroyuki replied, picking the definition out of Alsabet’s head and pouring tea into the cups.

"Just so." Alsabet replied. "Finally, only small things, inconsequential things may be sent. A letter. A necklace. A token of affection. A knife. But a Rune of Translation subverts all of these: You can Translate yourself. You can Translate anywhere. A Rune of Translation doesn’t have to be a push. You could theoretically pull with a Rune of Translation from anywhere...and you can translate anything, of any size, as long as it fits into the spell circle."

Alsabet sighed. "It’s an extremely closely guarded secret. I haven’t found any way of recreating it, and the pacts I have made with the various powers I have tried to ally with haven’t yielded anything."

Kuroyuki drank her tea. Once she’d drank what she believed to be a sufficient amount, she stood up, took a few steps away as Alsabet looked on curiously, and cast her magics.

Suddenly she vomited up a gelatinous blob of matter that looked inherently wrong no matter how you looked at it. The grass it splattered over mutated wildly, growing broad leaves, bark and twigs, and then stilted, insectile legs that forced it up and out of the soil. It staggered around, mutating as it did, flowers, grassy blades, bulbous, woody knots that sizzled with boiling sap. The thing was the size of a chipmunk and grotesque, bark fissuring to bleed sap as wooden bones erupted, became cancerous, split and fissured and flowered and bloomed in a riot of growth. It evolved and mutated as it grew even larger, more grotesque.

Alsabet let out a shriek of pure horror at the ting as it assumed its form, constantly growing, evolving, mutating, trying out thousands of differing evolutionary paths simultaneously.

Kuroyuki flicked out a finger and the plant-things erupted into flames that consumed it as quickly as it evolved, until there was nothing but ash. She turned back to Alsabet. "Sorry, I had been plagued of late by the corruption of some ley lines i had become exposed to."

Alsabet’s jaw dropped. "How did you-" She blurted.

Kuroyuki gestured at the tea. "I took the ingested liquid and dumped the toxins into it while adding restorative and protective layers to my body. The rest was a simple vomiting." She explained, as if it were a simple task.

Alsabet shook her head in mute wonder. She would not be able to duplicate Kuroyuki’s effortless expulsions. It was an utter impossibility. It seemed she was right in assuming the Yamato woman was something more, someting other than human.

Kuroyuki considered Alsabet’s request. Kuroyuki was capable of moving herself to any conceivable location with very few exceptions, and it was obvious that what she accomplished through will could be replicated with what Alsabet considered "spells", though Kuroyuki simply manipulated the power to do what she wanted with a thought, while Alsabet relied on pouring magic into the required shapes to force it to work. Kuroyuki plucked the theory of magic that Alsabet had been taught from the woman's thoughts and considered its rudimentary laws and principles. Apparently, Mortal understanding of magic was sorely lacking. Kuroyuki fetched a sigh thatseemed drawn from the soles of her feet. It could take decades to teach the woman properly, and even then, the stupid human would only keel over and die from old age, anyway.

Kuroyuki waved indifferently towards one of the trees and sectioned off a large branch. Using a simple replication, she grew the branch, while simultaneously pulling tea from the kettle, stripping everything but the water, replicating the water, bifuricating the wood into chunks, into shards, chips, splinters, individual fibers. She combined the water and powdered wood, raising the temperature of the water so that it boiled, adding in the tea mixture as a bleaching agent whilst drawing the pulp into a spooled paper that was indifferently stained. Alsabet was agape with awe. The Yamato woman’s mastery of magic was beyond unparalleled, and Alsabet herself couldn’t hope to replicate what she did with unrelenting simplicity.

Kuroyuki continued, drawing charcoal from the fire and inscribing texts, both anglish and yamato, with spellforms and formulae.

"This... may help you to ... replicate ..." She paused, "construct a spell that will transport you. You will need to use the proper precautions, of course. You will not enjoy the experience of transporting yourself into a mountain." She advised, and held out the scroll. Alsabet reached for it, but Kuroyuki lifted it out of her reach.

"There is still the matter of payment." She reminded. "There are various things I wish to learn about this body of mine, and you are convenient to experiment with." She smiled predatorily, her yellow eyes gleaming. "Do not worry. You will probably survive the experience."

Sasaki was sleeping on a small cot in an equally tiny room when Kuroyuki found her. She stepped away from the shadows with a frown, flicking her hands as if they’d been dipped in something foul.

"Well!" She remarked brightly, "that was surprisingly unpleasant." She scrubbed at her arms as if something unpleasant clung to them, and sneezed abruptly. She looked around. "So this is Landeck?" She asked the air wonderingly as Sasaki rolled out her cot gracefully, landing lightly on her feet.

"Kuroyuki!" She greeted, and embraced the girl, who affectionately returned the embrace and repeated her question.

"No... No. this is Darnell." Sasaki replied carefully. "We were Translated here from Landeck. How did you find me here?"

Kuro smiled warmly at her. "I looked for where you were, and came to you." She replied simply.

Sasaki shook her head. "That’s not really an explanation, Kuroyuki." She admonished, and Kuroyuki bowed her head. "My apologies, Sasaki-sama, for many things. I beg your forgiveness for this impertinent girl." She replied contritely, fulfilling her promise to herself to apologize for her behavior towards Alsabet.

Sasaki let out a short explosive breath that might’ve been a sigh. Kuroyuki was more than a touch strange. In Yamato, Sasaki had encountered an artifact that had been exposed after one of the frequent earthquakes that rocked the islands of Yamato had split a mountain near the Shrine that Sasaki had taken sanctuary in.

The artifact had been a great metallic book half Sasaki’s size, with metal pages stamped with line after line of incomprehensible text. On the cover of the book had been a purplish gem, a gem she now wore around her neck.

Kuroyuki had been birthed from her body in what had to be the quickest, most problem-free pregnancy to grace humankind, from nothing to full-term in a matter of hours, progressing from infant to toddler, to child by the time Sasaki reached the bottom of the mountain. By the time Sasaki reached the Shrine, Kuroyuki was a young woman. Sasaki discovered she didn’t have to teach the girl anything; she seemingly understood everything from birth.

Sasaki also knew she wasn’t really Kuroyuki’s mother, just as much as Kuroyuki likely knew she was not really Sasaki’s daughter, but Kuroyuki still behaved as a proper daughter would to her mother.

"You are wrong, Sasaki-sama." Kuroyuki stated calmly, intruding into her thoughts. "You are definitely my mother, and I am definitely your daughter." She declared.

Sasaki tapped the crystal under her kimono. "You and I both know that you came from here." She replied, and Kuroyuki made a seesaw gesture with her hand. "My soul comes from the gem, but this body came from yours, Sasaki-sama." She replied, and embraced her comfortingly again.

"You’re well again?" Sasaki asked when they separated, and Kuroyuki nodded.

"There are no problems." She reported brightly. "I am once again ready to adventure at your side."

"Katarina is still ill." Sasaki remarked. Kuroyuki nodded. "It will take time for her to recover." she agreed.

Sasaki’s mouth twisted. "And I’m in a bit of a pickle myself, right now."

Kuroyuki blinked a couple of times, and Sasaki rolled her eyes.

"You know this already, but I came back to these lands to be..." She sighed. "To be Katarina’s apprentice. Officially it’s an apprenticeship." She added with a meaningless obscene gesture. "Really it’s just her and I wandering around catching Witches and doing Goddess knows what else." She sighed. "Well, that’s how it was supposed to be, anyway. She had to get herself Sainted. And an actual apprentice, though as far as I can tell her actual apprentice is about as useful as nipples on a breastplate."

Kuroyuki absorbed this all with interest. "A change of plans?" She asked.

Sasaki nodded. "Now I fight to convince the great bloody Book of the Golden Lady that my claim to apprenticeship supercedes Armilla's. That I’m more qualified and skilled than she is." She sighed. "One of the members of the Book is a Yamato woman."

"Yamato?" Kuroyuki inquired, and Sasaki nodded. "She knows."

"She-" She started, and then caught herself. Naturally this Yamato official would know of Sasaki’s banishment from the homeland. Criminal behavior, or in some respects, even disrespect towards the family, or the clan, or to the Court of the Sun, to the Guild of Blood, or to the Shrines was typically punished in varying degrees from flogging, to imprisonment, or execution. It was extremely rare indeed to be disowned and banished from the Yamato homeland.

"That should not interfere with your case here." Kuroyuki replied comfortingly.

Sasaki shook her head. "She’ll probably use it as a ‘vote of no confidence’ or something." She grumbled.

"Sasaki-sama, forgive your daughter for saying this, but perhaps it may be prudent to abandon your desire to adventure with Katarina. She is Sainted, now." She remarked carefully, and regretted the words as soon as she spoke them.

Sasaki shook her head. "My only concern is you, Kuroyuki. Surely she will recognize you?" She asked, but Kuroyuki returned Sasaki's negation with one of her own.

"Katarina’s fights are with the Ele-" She paused and corrected herself, "The Elder Gods of magic and their servants. She should have no quarrel with me, nor I with her." Kuroyuki offered.

Sasaki sighed. She knew as much of Kuroyuki’s origins as she had shared, which was extremely little. For the pragmatic Sasaki, simple was best and she preferred it that way, and Kuroyuki responded to that well, though when conversations like this started, Sasaki occasionally wished she’d asked more of her daughter.

She eyed Kuroyuki briefly. "You could return to the homeland, you know." Her face softened with a touch of sadness. "You could likely even take my family name. My mother would adore you." her mouth twisted. "You’re every bit the honorable daughter that I was not."

Kuroyuki smiled at that. "And I shall ever strive to be so, as long as you walk this world." She replied with a hint of pride, but then added, "Were I to be accepted into the Kojiro clan, I would be immediately married off. A woman’s authority comes not from her own flesh, but from her ancestors, from the house she weds herself to, and the children she births, is this not correct?" She asked, and Sasaki scrunched her face in dislike, nose wrinkling. Now her own daughter was reciting the values of the Five Rings.

Kuroyuki continued, "And you know that to redeem themselves, your family would most likely offer me to the one you were expected to wed, no?" She added. "Would you ask of your daughter what you were unwilling to do yourself?" She asked, but let out a sigh. "I apologize again for my impertinent tongue, Sasaki-sama. That was inappropriate."

Sasaki nodded. "Forgiven." She replied easily. It was easy to forgive Kuroyuki; she accepted the bonds and boundaries of duty and obligation easily and moved comfortably within them.

"Tell me the nature of your ... claim and our position." Kuroyuki encouraged. "I cannot support you properly without a clear understanding of the situation."

Sasaki’s mouth twisted. Another uncomfortable subject. "You have at times behaved as though you can pluck the thoughts from my head, no? Wouldn’t that be simpler?" She asked, eyeing the strange girl she’d birthed.

Kuroyuki nodded, but shook her head a moment later. "I prefer not to intrude upon my mother’s domain." She replied respectfully. "In the past I have done so unknowingly so that I could learn of the world and the meanings of the things you say." She replied. "I have done so only the once today, when you doubted that I was your daughter." she remarked. "It is not my desire that you should feel worried that I would trample your privacy."

Sasaki nodded. "They will likely test my aptitude in various ways for the responsibilities of a Witch Hunter." She replied. "Maybe firearms. Katarina once told me I asked the right questions; maybe some sort of aptitude test?" She wondered. "Also my devotion to the Golden Lady, and probably my magical resistance."

"There was never a question about that, Sasaki-sama." Kuroyuki replied, her eyes glowing in the dim light. "Your magical resistance is without peer."