Midnite's Daughter

by Rick Gualtieri

  “Your buddy ain’t here,” the third man snapped. “I am, and I don’t like what I was hearing.”

  “C’mon, sir. It’s not like it would matter. You know how these Nips are. I’d sooner kick one than a dog.”

  Midnite stayed her hand. The once boring discourse had become interesting again.

  The third man, obviously some sort of superior, stepped up and glared at the first two. “It matters because we’re better than that.”

  “You know they’d do it to one of ours.”

  “So you’re saying you’re not any better than they are? Get your asses back to your squad before I have them handed to you.”

  The second saluted, but the first looked reluctant to do so. He said, “With all due respect, sir, you army grunts can’t just...”

  “Do you want to test that, soldier? Because, if so, I will look forward to seeing your ass in irons before the day is out.”

  The threat was enough to cause the first to back down. He lowered his gaze and shook his head.

  “What was that?” the newcomer asked.

  “I said no, sir.”

  “That’s what I thought. Now double time it and maybe I’ll forget what you two look like.”

  The two men immediately broke off and ran back in the direction they’d come from. Once they were gone, the third turned to her. When he spoke, it was in a different dialect ... somewhat similar to the language she had heard the local population use in centuries past. “My apologies if those men frightened you.”

  His voice was choppy, broken. Obviously, he was attempting to speak in a tongue not entirely familiar to him. Midnite was not surprised. She knew the humans possessed myriad dialects even within the blessed isles. Outside, the differences only grew, and his look told her he was definitely from elsewhere. Nevertheless, she was impressed. She was familiar with the concept of chivalry, although many humans ignored it – even those who professed to be champions of it. For a human warrior, for that was what this man obviously was, to rise above his base impulses was rare indeed.

  She decided to honor him by answering in the language he had originally used. “My thanks to you.”

  The man’s eyes opened wide. “Wait, you speak English?”

  So that was what they called it. Such an odd name. Regardless, it was an uncomplicated tongue for one such as her to master. “Yes.” His surprise was evident, so Midnite thought it best to keep up her guise with a simple lie. “I speak many languages. My ... father was a learned man. A scholar.” Hopefully, the humans still had such a concept after all this time.

  The man’s eyes grew suspicious. “Could be. Or could be you’re a spy.”

  Midnite repressed a chuckle. This human was far less brutish than his peers had been, but he was still a warrior. If pushed the wrong way, he would certainly revert to his baser instincts. It normally wouldn’t matter to her. It wasn’t like he could even hope to harm her. Yet, oddly enough, she found him intriguing. Perhaps it was his behavior. Or maybe it was his appearance, with hair and eyes much lighter in appearance than those native to this blessed land.

  Whatever the cause, she attempted to diffuse the situation. Looking around at the bodies lying all about, she said, “Were I a spy, who would be left to report my findings to?”

  “Fair enough. But then, what are you doing here?”

  An apt question. This human had the spark of intelligence about him. Midnite found herself growing more intrigued by the moment.

  The rain had started to slacken, so she turned to the ocean, again marveling at the armada before her, like nothing she had ever seen before. “I used to come here during more peaceful times. It was a place of comfort for me.”

  The man raised an eyebrow questioningly but nodded all the same. “I can understand better times. There’s a lake back where I live. The fishing is lousy, but there’s nothing like casting a line and letting the current take it while you relax under a tree.” He shook his head, as if not wishing to succumb to the memory. “That’s far away, though, and nobody ever took a shot at me there. You’re taking a hell of a risk just for a view.”

  “Some things are worth the risk.”

  “I have to ask, are you with the Jap ... imperial army?”

  Midnite turned to face him, locking her eyes with his. They were the windows to one’s soul and she could see a strong spirit in his – brave and bold, yet lacking the petty brutishness of Ichitiro. “I serve no army and I acknowledge no emperor upon this plane.”

  “Do you live here, have family close by?”

  Midnite contemplated telling the truth or a form of it that this human might understand, but she didn’t want to arouse his suspicions more than they already were. However, in the back of her mind, that word arouse stuck for a moment longer than it should have. How odd. She normally considered humans to be sub-creatures. Despite it being common for youkai or mazoku to take human lovers, and even her siblings occasionally doing so, she’d never found them more interesting than perhaps as pets.

  After a moment, she realized he was staring hard at her, so she answered a half truth. “I live in a village not too far from here, but I have no family left there.”

  “Are they dead?” he asked. “Or conscripted?”

  Midnite simply stared, allowing him to form his own conclusion lest she say too much. The longer she spoke to this man, the more she found herself losing her calm demeanor. How very unbecoming of her.

  “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “My name is Steve ... err ... lieutenant Stephen Fuller. I’m with the 77th.”

  “Stephen Fuller,” she said, tasting the words on her tongue. “My name is ... it translates to Midnite in your language.”

  “Midnight? Like the time of day?”

  “So I have heard.”

  “That’s very unusual. Not particularly Japanese.”

  “Japanese?” she asked softly. She couldn’t recall hearing that word before. Perhaps it was one of the many names the humans used for these islands. “No,” she replied, hoping her lie was adequate, “as I mentioned, my father was a scholar. He was a man of ... unusual tastes.”

  “So it would seem,” he replied, staring intently into Midnite’s eyes as if he were as transfixed by her, as she by him. “Err, listen. I’m sorry about this, but I need you to come with me back to camp. Standing orders are to detain all non-hostile locals.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “Don’t worry,” he added. “Those jackasses back there won’t try anything. I promise you’ll be fine. Don’t believe everything you’ve been told about us. You’ll be fed and well cared for.”

  “Detained,” she repeated. Was this human actually suggesting she accompany him as his prisoner? It would seem so. But it was being done in a way unlike what she had come to expect from humans. Prisoners of war were typically the lowest of the low, their lives only allowed to continue at the grace of whatever general was in charge. Typically, if one did not have a wealthy family to pay ransom, the best one could hope for was to be worked to death. The lives of their females were worth even less.

  Stephen’s promise, however, caught her attention. An offer to be treated fairly. That was not often heard from captors because it was not something they needed to care about offering. To have it put out there as an enticement against fighting or fleeing was unusual.

  Midnite considered things. She had nothing to fear from this or any other human. They could only imprison her for so long as she allowed. Compared to them, she was as the wind, the sky, the sea. Such things could not be contained or mastered. Had she wished, she could have walked away, and there was nothing this man could do to stop her.

  However, she found herself oddly loath to leave his company so soon. Shitoro wouldn’t start fretting over her absence for some time, thus she was free to do as she pleased without interruption.

  Midnite smiled at the man before her. “I will offer you no resistance.”

  She was surprised to rea
lize she was only partially talking about being taken prisoner.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Though many of the soldiers in the vast encampment looked upon her with a mix of emotions ranging from raw hatred to lust, Stephen Fuller kept them at bay, barking orders for them to return to their posts.

  Despite being told his presence was no longer needed, he stayed with her as she suffered the indignity of being searched. True to his word, her treatment was fair, if not entirely kind. Finally, as she was led away to join the other prisoners, he left her. She reached out and touched his hand before he walked away, earning a sad smile from him. By then, Midnite had made up her mind.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  She waited until the fall of darkness to act. It gave her time to observe, not only the forlorn faces of the others held prisoner, but also the new art of war that seemed to have blossomed while she and her siblings slept. Explosions rang out constantly – some from the ships at sea, others from giant metal carriages that moved on their own with no horses or oxen to pull them. She spied many more of those strange flying objects she had originally mistaken as a form of oni. They were impressive. No wonder she and the others were roused.

  Finally, when she had observed her fill, she closed her eyes and summoned a small fragment of her power, allowing it to coalesce around her. She had marked Stephen Fuller with her touch and now was reaching out, past the guard towers into the camp beyond, searching for his essence.

  There! She felt him, the troubles of the day seemingly gone from his spirit, a sense of temporary serenity about him. He was asleep.

  Midnite slipped mostly unseen from the prison camp. A small, wide-eyed boy spied her as she gathered her power and turned translucent. She smiled at him but was otherwise unconcerned. Let the child have some hope that greater forces than himself were at play in this world.

  Neither the barbed wire fence nor the many guards manning it proved to be an obstacle. Midnite moved past them all as if she were one with the very wind itself. A sharp-eyed human might have sensed her passing as a minor disturbance, but these men were all exhausted from days of battle.

  She followed her senses while, at the same time, reaching out to the sea and drawing upon the cold waters within it.

  As she neared where Stephen Fuller lay sleeping, she drew those energies around her, causing a thick ground fog to rise up. A few guards noted the odd change in weather but laughed it off, making comments about what a godforsaken land this was. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

  There. She glided into the flimsy structure – a tent, if she recalled the human name for such things. It couldn’t have been more different from the celestial palace had they tried. Such a covering might keep out the rain, but that was all. A strong wind, a fierce predator, an enemy, the walls would stop none of it. She marveled at the humans’ ability to sleep in such a weak structure. Considering how frail they were, Midnite would have thought them incapable of rest knowing that only the barest of fabrics stood between them and the harsh world beyond.

  She pushed that thought aside for now. It, along with nearly everything else the humans worried about, were of no matter to a being such as her.

  The irony was not lost upon Midnite, that she found herself looking down upon the sleeping form of Stephen Fuller. He wasn’t alone. Many others shared this structure with him, all of them asleep on uncomfortable-looking cots, but she wasn’t worried about rousing them. She could make it so that he and he alone heard her voice. To the others, it would be nothing more than a whisper upon the wind.

  Never before had a human intrigued her as he had. So different from the others, so ... handsome, too. Yes, she thought, he is indeed handsome. Considering the reason for her visit, it was foolish to deny such base thoughts. Her heart fluttered as she watched the peaceful look upon his face. After a few moments, she reached out and caressed his cheek.

  He stirred, breathed deep, then opened his eyes wide as she allowed herself to become visible to him. He opened his mouth, seemingly to cry out in surprise, but she placed a finger against his lips to silence him. “Shhhh.”

  She smiled down upon him, hoping to ease his alarm, although she could understand his confusion. There she was, standing in his tent, glowing in a cool divine light while fog rolled in through the opening and seemed to coalesce around them.

  He turned and looked around, noting his sleeping fellows. “Is this a dream?” he whispered.

  “The dreams of men are but another state of what you call reality.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  She smiled again and placed her hand upon his, gently taking it and guiding him to his feet. “You need not understand. Merely follow.”

  “Follow?”

  “I wish to show you something.”

  “What?”

  “Follow and learn.”

  The mist from the ocean swallowed them up as they walked out. None were aware of their passage as she led him away from the camp. His eventual return might cause a stir among his fellows, but that was a concern for later.

  The ground fog followed, growing thick a few steps before them, then thinning out following their passage. To anyone observing, it would have seemed as if a cloud had descended from the sky to take a leisurely stroll before assuming its proper place high in the heavens once again.

  She led him away, to a place she used to know well. Once, tall grass had grown there. It would move with the wind as the crickets serenaded her, but now there was nothing but desolation. Blackened and pitted by the war that had descended upon this land, this place of peace was now a field of death.

  For one such as Midnite, though, the ravages of both time and men were but minor inconveniences.

  “It’s just an empty battlefield,” Stephen said once she stopped moving.

  “Now. But once, it was so much more. Allow me to show you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You will.”

  Midnite gathered the energy of the ocean and added to it that of the earth and sky. It required an effort even from one such as she, but it was worth it.

  The mist which had concealed them now spread out, encircling them in what looked to be a wall of fog fifty feet in diameter.

  Midnite noted the incredulous stare from Stephen Fuller. If he thought this was impressive, he would certainly enjoy what happened next.

  A light shone down upon them from above. He looked up and shielded his eyes, perhaps wary of an attack, but then he relaxed when he realized it was the clouds above parting to reveal the moon, full and strong. A shaft of light seemed to reach down from it, illuminating them and the area around.

  Midnite willed the moonlight to show them not the present, but things as they once were, during the more peaceful times when she would visit these lands.

  He let out a gasp as the light revealed not the dead earth they’d been standing upon, but tall green grass. The sound of crickets chirping suddenly filled the air. Where death once held sway, life again reigned supreme.

  “This is how this place used to be in days past.”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “It was,” she replied, a touch of sadness in her voice.

  “It will be again.” He approached her from behind and put his hands upon her shoulders. “Once we win.”

  She had to stifle a laugh. Special he might be, but he was still a warrior. Likewise, as much as she enjoyed peace and beauty, she also couldn’t deny what she was at her core.

  Even so, now, in a place like this, one could be allowed their illusions. For a time, one could pretend to be someone or something else, a whole other life.

  She turned and put her arms around him. “Let us speak no more of war. This is a place of life.”

  “Life,” he repeated as if in a dream.

  “Yes,” she said, drawing him down with her to the soft grass. “And we should celebrate that life in the short time we have.”

  He made to say something in respo
nse, but it was lost as she pulled him into her embrace.

  PRESENT DAY

  4

  “Kisaki! Lady Kisaki, where are you?”

  Shitoro stopped in the hall, feeling quite exasperated. Where in heaven’s name was that ungrateful whelp of a child? She was late for her lessons again and if her mother found out, he would share in the scolding.

  Late, that one. Always late and always up to no good. Why, if he had his way, he would have long ago taken a switch to her backside. He would have taught her the true meaning of resp...

  The diminutive tiger demon sniffed the air and sensed something behind him a moment too late.

  The attack came without warning. He was thrown off his feet and went sliding across the exquisitely carved but damnably slippery floor. Before he could push himself up, he was pinned as a weight fell upon his back.

  “Gotcha!” a cheerful voice said into his ear. His attacker reached down and pinched his cheek playfully.

  Shitoro’s teeth were as small as he, but they were sharp. He turned his head and bit the hand of his harasser before he could think better of it.

  “Ouch!” Kisaki cried, jumping away. “You bit me.”

  Shitoro pulled himself to his feet and dusted off the regal red of his robe. He rounded on the girl, his teeth bared. He’d hoped to teach her a lesson, but upon looking up at her face, he saw only mischievous good cheer. “Impudent whelp!”

  “You’re just mad because you’re getting slow in your old age,” she chided.

  “Old age is meaningless to ones such as us. We’re immortal.”

  She bent down and poked him in the stomach. “Too much good food, then.”

  Shitoro swatted her hand away. Yes, he thought, definitely in need of a switch to the backside. “I’ll have you know I have fit into these same robes for at least five centuries, long before I was charged with dealing with your childish antics.”

  “Oh, don’t be grumpy, Shitoro,” Kisaki said, her face turning serious. “I was just having some fun. I’m bored.”

  “Then you should study more so as to keep your simple mind occupied. In fact, that’s why I was calling for you. It’s time to...”