Midnite's Daughter

by Rick Gualtieri

  “But how?”

  “I don’t know. Only you can answer that.”

  “And how will that help us even if I can?”

  “Think about it, child,” Shitoro replied, once again talking to her as a tutor to a pupil. “Your father was a human warrior and, from what I have seen of you in action, he was a formidable one at that. But his experience was limited, both by years and the fact that the only foes he ever faced were human. As such, there is a limit to how much his skills can help you against otherworldly beings. Consider this. You performed admirably against Crag but, if not for the Taiyosori, he very well might have won.”

  She nodded ruefully.

  “But therein lies the key, I believe. Your mother is a daimao. Her experience is far richer. I do not know if it can help us against Ichitiro, but if you can tap into her memories as well, then perhaps you will find something there of use.”

  “But how do I do that?”

  “As I said, I don’t know. Perhaps you need a longing for her as deep as that for your father. Or maybe it’s something else entirely. Whatever it is, you need to dig down deep inside of you and try to find it.” She made to protest, but he held up a paw. “I fear it might be our only chance.”

  Kisaki considered his words. They made sense, in theory anyway. She had no way of knowing if she was actually capable of it. Then again, barely a day ago she would have sworn she didn’t know how to fight at all. Who was to say what revelations the future held for her?

  She looked up, seeing Ichitiro raining death upon this town, upon a people who did not deserve it. She owed it to them to at least try.

  Perhaps it was time to let go of the doubt. She’d needed to stop doubting in the Taiyosori for it to work for her. Maybe it was time for her to stop doubting in herself as well. She was the daughter of two beings she should be proud of – one a human warrior, the other an ageless divinity.

  It was time to live up to her heritage.

  “I will try my best,” she said, pulling herself to her feet. “But on one condition.”

  “Yes, my lady?” he asked in a tone that suggested he knew what was coming.

  “Run. Find shelter. I cannot do this if I know you are in danger, too.”

  Shitoro nodded once, then transformed back into his tiger form. “Very well. But know that I will not be far.”

  She smiled after him. “You never are.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  “Ichitiro! You have no quarrel with the people of this world.”

  The daimao ceased raining fireballs down onto the humans and turned to look upon Kisaki, a malevolent grin on his face visible even from behind the curtain of power around him. “They are ants beneath my boot. Who dares tell me I should not crush them?”

  “I do.”

  “So the gnat seeks to defend the ants? How quaint.”

  “I am no gnat. And I seek only to protect my people against a coward who knows no honor.”

  The grin faltered. “Hanyou filth. You would question me about honor? Dare question one who has faced the entropic chaos?! Without me, there would be no mudball of a planet for you to defend. I have faced enemies that would paralyze you with but a glance. I have...”

  “And yet here you are bravely stepping on ants. Spare me your words. They fall upon deaf ears.”

  “Deaf ... and soon to be dead,” he growled, flinging a fireball her way.

  Mother, if you are listening, I need your help.

  The ball of flame loomed large before her, as if Ichitiro had thrown the very sun her way.

  I forgive you for everything. I know now you were only protecting me.

  She held the Taiyosori up in front of her, hoping it was as good at fending off fire as it had been his force blast.

  Know that I love you. I always have – love you and miss you dearly.

  The giant ball of flame slammed into her. For a moment, she felt terrible heat, enough to char her skin, but then it passed as the mighty blade of the Taiyosori parted the flames as if it were a solid thing to be cut in two.

  Kisaki was still alive, if somewhat singed around the edges. Nothing else happened, though, no revelation, no vision ... nothing.

  “Die!” Ichitiro threw another at her, this one larger than the first.

  Again, she just barely managed to parry it but, despite the mighty Taiyosori deflecting the spell, the air was beginning to heat up around her. She was already breathing hard, sweat running down her face.

  Ichitiro saw this and laughed. He raised both hands and began to rain fire down upon her, blast after blast. Kisaki understood what he was doing and realized she could not survive such an onslaught for long.

  Shitoro was wrong about her powers, her visions. Sadly, there was nothing within them to help her now.

  The first of the many gouts of flame hit her, and still she stood true with the blade of heaven, doing all she could. At the very least, her sacrifice would allow any human warriors still remaining to retreat to safety. It was a consolation, however small, that she could save a few lives even as hers was snuffed out one painful breath at a time.

  Another blast hit and Kisaki cried out in pain, feeling her arms blister.

  Fear began to take hold. She didn’t want to die. She was sorry for everything she had done, everything she’d brought upon herself, her friends, and this world. If she could only take it all back, she would have.

  Fire surrounded her on all sides. The smell of burning hair, asphalt, and clothing assaulted her nose.

  She wished she could go back, but she couldn’t. If only her mother were here, she’d drop to her knees before her and beg forgiveness.

  I am so sorry, Mother. I just wish I could see you one more time to tell you that!

  Time abruptly slowed down around her, each wisp of flame easily visible as it flickered and sputtered.

  What the?!

  Before, when her visions came, the world greyed out around her, the vision superimposing itself over reality. This time, though, reality simply winked out as if someone had flipped a light switch.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Kisaki was assaulted on all sides by color, sound, and sensation. She was in space, but also somehow outside of it. She watched wide-eyed as galaxies were born, aged, and then died ... billions of years seeming to pass within moments. Stars exploded, black holes formed, and then the cycle would begin anew.

  The scene before her was both marvelous and terrible to behold, making her realize just how very small she was.

  It seemed to go on for hours, the very universe changing before her, but then it ended and she was whisked away to somewhere else. She found herself on a battlefield, but like none she’d ever seen. Triple moons shone in the sky and alien creatures several meters tall raged around her.

  Again the scene shifted, and now she beheld a battle between youkai and human wizards, fierce magic flying between them as they attempted to wipe one another out.

  Kisaki was confused. Whatever was happening to her, it seemed to make no sense whatsoever. It was as if she’d been transported to a world of chaos, one in which she didn’t even seem to have a body. Where is this? What is going on?

  “Midnite.”

  The voice whispered at her, faintly as if from nowhere, yet from everywhere at once.

  “Midnite.”

  Louder this time, more insistent.

  “MIDNITE!”

  The chaos around her ceased and she found herself floating formless in a grey void.

  Was she dead? Was this the afterlife?

  “Midnite, favored daughter of the cosmos. Stop dreaming and come to me.”

  Dreaming?!

  “Who calls me?” The voice that answered wasn’t hers, but it was as familiar as her own. Her mother’s.

  All at once, she realized she had a body again, albeit one that was still floating in a grey void. She looked down at herself and saw graceful hands clad in flawless porcelain skin.

  “Co
me to me, child.”

  The voice beckoned again, strong, insistent, undeniable. After a moment, she felt as if she were being drawn somewhere. No, that was too easy of a word. She was being quite literally pulled toward it and, all at once, Kisaki understood.

  This was another vision, but she’d arrived as her mother was asleep and dreaming. Shitoro had told her that the daimao spent eons doing such, slumbering as time moved ever onward in the unending celestial cycle.

  It had worked! Just as the faithful tiger had predicted, but different all the same.

  Someone was now calling to her, but something was off. The voice that rang out in her mind wasn’t that of a servant, but of a master. She wasn’t being gently shaken awake by some minor youkai. She was being summoned by a power far greater than her own.

  But who would dare summon a daimao?

  That feeling of being pulled increased to an almost mind-boggling speed but then, just as abruptly, it stopped.

  She was in space again, floating above a massive seething ball of energy. Not a star, but something that felt almost alive.

  And then that something winked at her.

  No, it can’t be.

  The ball pulled back. How far, it was impossible to say, but as it did, she realized it was actually an eye. Another joined it upon an impossibly large face. Soon, whatever it was towered over her – a massive humanoid figure draped in darkness, visible more by the void it caused against the stars behind it than anything else.

  Kisaki suddenly felt very small. Even more amazing, she got that same sense from her mother, whose body, or astral form anyway, she seemed to be inhabiting. If anything, her mother was feeling much the same way as she herself felt when facing off against Ichitiro. Before her was a power that dwarfed her own and against which victory was surely an impossibility.

  “Welcome, child.”

  Kisaki was at an utter loss of words. Her mother, however, seemed to take things in stride. She bowed deeply. “I thank you for the honor.”

  “You know who I am?”

  “You are one of the elder gods, those who sleep eternal under our care.”

  “Oh?” The voice seemed surprised to be recognized, although Kisaki thought that was silly. Who else would be talking down to a daimao?

  “We have not heard your voices in many eons,” her mother continued, “but some of us still remember.”

  “I am pleased to hear that, child. We, too, do not forget. Though we sleep so as to protect the reality we fought so hard to birth, we see all through our dreams, such as that where you are now.”

  “I am in your dream?”

  “Yes, as I am within yours. It is how one such as I might converse with thee without wreaking havoc throughout the cosmos.”

  “To what do I owe such an honor?” her mother asked.

  “Midnite, you stand unique among your brethren. Powerful, yet not overly proud. Fearsome when called to action, yet never seeking combat. Kind to those beneath you, despite needing not ever fear their hand.”

  “I thank you.”

  “There is no need, for I merely state fact, not flattery.”

  “Nevertheless.”

  “It is because of these unique traits that I have chosen you to be the bearer of a great gift.”

  Before her mother could question what that was, something appeared in the giant’s hands. It was a great blade, a sword hundreds of feet tall, dark as the giant, but with a gleaming hilt of pure white energy.

  “The Taiyosori,” Midnite said simultaneously as Kisaki thought it.

  Images flashed in her, their mind. They saw the elder god in the flesh battling horrific monsters, nightmare creatures that made even the ugliest of oni seem palatable by comparison. Though the god was vastly outnumbered, the blade kept the abominations at bay, power flashing out from it that cut them to ribbons both near and far. Many more battles were then shown, all of them appearing at the speed of thought, far too quickly for Kisaki to take note of, yet somehow leaving an impression upon her, albeit one she didn’t quite understand.

  “You are showing me the blade of heaven, a deciding factor in the defeat of the entropic chaos,” Midnite said, as if reciting a historical fact.

  “Yes, and it is now yours.”

  “What?!”

  Kisaki had never seen her mother lose her composure as she did just then. Though she had no control over the body she was currently in, she found herself attempting to smile nevertheless. Somehow, that one word ... humanized her mother.

  “You find this amusing, do you not?”

  If Kisaki could have jumped, she would have. It was almost as if the elder god were speaking to her. But then her mother responded, “Amused? Never, my lord. I am merely surprised. I am not worthy of such a gift. It belongs to the gods.”

  “The gods sleep forevermore. The blade is a force for order in the multiverse. It should not slumber alongside us.”

  “Another of my brothers perhaps...”

  “No. You.”

  “But why?”

  “Because it is my will.”

  Her mother bowed her head in subservience, but the god wasn’t finished.

  “It is because you will not misuse its power. It is because others shall lust after it, but you will keep them at bay. And it is because of what is yet to come.”

  “I do not understand.”

  “There will come a time when the Taiyosori is once again needed, needed by hands far different from my own. The unworthiest of the unworthy shall rise above their station, and the blade of a thousand cuts will once again be brought forth to battle. Alas, we cannot see all. To protect or to destroy, it is still to be seen what fate holds for the sword. All we know is that it will all depend upon the strength of your blood.”

  “My blood?” Midnite asked, confusion evident in her voice. “I cannot accept such a thing, it is...”

  “Enough! It is done.”

  Kisaki’s eyes popped opened and she realized her mother had just woken up. She recognized her bed chambers. Multiple servant youkai raced in at that moment. Some asked if she were okay, others immediately began preparing her robes for her. However, after a moment, they all stopped what they were doing and stared wide-eyed at her.

  She looked down and saw why.

  Though Kisaki hadn’t been inhabiting her mother’s body when she fell asleep, she was willing to bet the Taiyosori hadn’t been by her side at that moment. But it was now.

  Midnite reached a tentative hand down to the weapon then, seeing the youkai watching her, took more decisive action and grasped hold of it. Kisaki could sense her mother’s amazement at holding the weapon, being accepted by it, but accompanying that was also a strange feeling that took Kisaki a moment to recognize.

  Her mother was feeling relief, relief tinged with nervousness.

  Midnite, one of the daimao, amongst the most influential beings in the multiverse, actually feared the blade’s power.

  44

  The vision dissolved as quickly as it had overtaken her, and Kisaki once again found herself surrounded by flames.

  The world was still moving in slow motion, though, giving her an added moment to regain her bearings, but it didn’t look good. She’d witnessed the moment her mother had been gifted the blade. It was awe inspiring, both to be inside her dream and then to actually witness the essence of an elder god. Yet, she wasn’t sure how that was supposed to help her.

  Had Shitoro been wrong after all? Perhaps her mother didn’t have any insight that could help her. The history of knowing how she had acquired the weapon was interesting – fascinating, even – but it would all be useless in the next few minutes if Kisaki was burned alive.

  Ichitiro, for his part, seemed intent on just that. She could hear his laughter above the roar of the flames being just barely kept at bay by the Taiyosori. Should it falter, she would be instantly cooked.

  But in that same instant, she also realized it would not.

&n
bsp; It seemed insane. To think that this sword, wicked and sharp though it might be, was the same massive weapon she’d seen in the hands of the god. It was hard to believe.

  Yet it was true. She felt it, knew it in her bones.

  And it was then she realized that was not all she knew. What the god had shown her mother – all of those battles – somehow remained with her. It was all there in her mind. She was able to recall every detail, despite it being shown to her at the speed of thought itself. It was as if an encyclopedia of alien knowledge had been deposited inside her. She couldn’t hope to decipher it all, especially not now, but she was able to understand enough of it.

  It will all depend upon the strength of your blood.

  The words of the elder god rang out loudly in her mind, almost deafeningly so, and she sensed that it was no mere memory this time. Whatever had happened in her mother’s past, the god had somehow known she was there watching.

  Known she would one day wield the Taiyosori.

  It was almost too much for her to handle at once. Her mind felt full, almost to bursting. She needed a way to let it out, to vent before she exploded.

  Kisaki screamed, a battle cry that seemed to echo around her. She focused her attention onto the sword – visions of past battles continuing to play out in her head – and then, without quite knowing why, she twisted the blade and sliced it horizontally through the air.

  Almost at once, the fire from Ichitiro’s attack was snuffed out around her. She was wounded, bloodied, and covered in blisters from the flames, but she felt better almost immediately upon taking a breath and inhaling the much cooler air that followed.

  “What is this?” Ichitiro asked from far above her. Amusement tinged his voice. He no doubt seemed to think that perhaps this was some sort of fluke ... one he was apparently resolved to correct.

  He threw another ball of flame at her and Kisaki again used the Taiyosori to counter the spell, extinguishing it in its entirety before it could touch her.

  She looked up at him and, insane as it might have been, actually smiled. “Is that the best you have, godling?”

  Ichitiro bared his teeth at her. “Oh, it is not. Not at all.”