The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight

by Fuyumi Ono

  Of course they would have no idea, but--quite unbeknownst to himself as well--he began losing himself. He did not realize that for every day he spent here, another day there was swept away. Not only that, but he was not conscious that the "beast" imprinted on his soul, that defined who he was, was being harmed day by day.

  The shoku and the pressing demands of recuperation used up his life force. And there was yet more healing that his body required. After many months and years had passed, his horn might lose the ability to recover, even in the proper environment.

  "What's the matter?" his father asked. "You're not hungry?"

  His father watched as his son's chopsticks stopped moving. Sitting at the table, his son stared at the dinner meal in bewilderment. As if to intervene on his behalf, his mother patted him on the head and said, "Now that you mention it, he never liked meat. I completely forgot. I'm sorry about that."

  "You should stop pampering him," his father said coldly. "Your mother prepared the food that she believes is best for you. There are little children like you starving in Africa, you know. Being a picky eater makes it twice as bad. You need to eat a balanced diet."

  "So much has happened to you. You must be exhausted." His mother put her arms around his shoulders and earnestly tried to bury their differences. "That fatty food is really spicy. It's okay. You can just leave it on the plate."

  "No, it's not," his father said in an even colder voice. "You can't go around treating him like he's special. He's going to have plenty more than food on his plate to deal with. He won't be able to count on people feeling sorry for him. After this, we're going to be hearing all kinds of gossip from all quarters. Better to toughen him up before it's too late."

  "But--" his mother started to say.

  His father ignored her and turned his attention on his son. "You understand?"

  "Y-yes. I'm sorry." He nodded and picked up the chopsticks and soldiered on with the meal.

  Of course, he had no idea that doing so only held back his recovery all the more.

  Sanshi's shoulders jerked in the midst of her slumber. Still half asleep, she lifted her head slightly. Engulfed by the golden darkness, the faint smell of blood trailed past her.

  What is this? she puzzled in a partially-aware corner of her consciousness. This unpleasant trace of the foreign. This something that called forth feelings of unease. Sanshi momentarily lifted her head, trying to look beyond the hard shell, but gave up in frustration.

  I guess it was nothing.

  It may have only been her imagination. She was worrying too much. A big emergency was unlikely to come at them out of nowhere. Or so she tried to convince herself.

  Sanshi understood that, in moment of crisis, Taiki had instinctually brought about a shoku. Fleeing his attacker, he had called down a shoku and made his escape. He passed through the gate, and at the other end of the gate was this alien world. The same alien world Taiki had been swept away to when he was inside the golden fruit.

  When the unexpected threat had presented itself, his subconscious had, in extremis, made the correct decision. Taiki instinctively fled to the world he had once been, to a place populated by people he knew. The mother whose womb he had once borrowed and her husband. And their children. Among what might be called his "substitute" parents and his "substitute" siblings, he was certainly beyond the reach of his assailants. Taiki had selected the place where his safety would be assured.

  Which is why she should expected nothing bad to happen here.

  Taiki's enemies would doubtlessly pursue him. Yet Sanshi knew to the core of her being how difficult finding him would be, having lost him before while he was in his shell. Even divining his location would take time, and if Sanshi could concern herself only about an external attack, then they should be fine.

  She dropped back off to sleep, telling herself that everything was okay. After an indefinite amount of time had passed, she was again awaked by a strange sensation. This happened repeatedly, to the extent that Sanshi was incapable of ignoring these unpleasant attacks on her senses.

  What is going on? she asked herself, raising her head. She roamed about the saffron dusk, trying to ferret out the source of the unpleasantness.

  "It's poison--" came Gouran's voice from somewhere in the darkness.

  Sanshi finally grasped this as well. This was not poison, but he was being served food so contaminated as to resemble poison.

  "Why?" she asked herself. It couldn't be his substitute parents, could it? Taiki chose to come here because here he was safe. But they seemed to be harming him further. If it could not be made to stop--Sanshi broke her self-imposed prohibition and was about to try and jump out of the shell--

  Echoing from places unknown, a voice checked her actions. "Are you saying he is being held against his will? That they are his jailers?"

  Gouran's words struck Sanshi as one possible explanation. "It doesn't seem possible. How could have our enemies have foreseen all this?"

  Knowing that Taiki would flee here, had they somehow won over his substitute parents? Was such a thing even possible?

  "Still, I don't get the feeling that he is being harmed to an extreme degree."

  "But he is being served contaminated food."

  "I sense no enemies about. Perhaps they are simply intimidated by Taiki's power and are trying to keep him in check."

  That did seem likely, conceded Gouran from the depths of the darkness. "If so, as long as they are gentle jailers, his life would not seem to be in danger."

  "If he resists, they might hand him over to his enemies."

  Perhaps, Gouran muttered.

  Sanshi was at a complete loss. Should they continue on in this captive state, or try to overwhelm his jailors and free Taiki? But doing so would greatly weaken Taiki's life-force. And besides that, he did not have his horn and the inflowing psychic streams were very thin. It was probably best to hold out here, conserve their energy, and prepare for an eventual attack.

  Even if they slipped away from their jailers, Taiki had no place to run to, and Sanshi hadn't the slightest idea where such a place might be found. Of course they couldn't return to Tai in its dangerous state. The only safe place in the world was at its center, on Mt. Hourai. But neither Taiki nor Sanshi and Gouran were capable of triggering another shoku.

  Even if they could, the effort would at the very least eat away at Taiki's fleeting life-force. Beyond their ability to return was the lack of a destination to return to. If attacked a second or third time while searching for a place of refuge, Sanshi did not know if they could endure. And if they did endure, their life-force exhausted, it was inevitable that they would do damage to Taiki's body.

  As long as Taiki was being held prisoner "compassionately," things may conclude without a further assault. If the poison was not enough to kill him, perhaps they should let it pass.

  "Taiki still requires sanctuary in this world," came Gouran's voice, as if from far away. "Something other than the refuge of a prison or the asylum provided by the jailers would be better. You witnessed all that commotion the other day."

  Sanshi nodded. The people surrounding Taiki. Bearing down on him mentally and physically. In the name of "investigation," turning the screws on him with suspicious-looking instruments. As long as he could be kept away from the people called "police" or "doctors," he could probably bear being kept captive. Even so, something other than this sort of "sanctuary" would be preferable.

  "Let's persevere as best we can, as long as the enemy doesn't make a move."

  Rest, but be on your guard. His furtive voice died away, and she sensed Gouran drifting off to sleep.

  Part Three

  hat day, following her morning meeting with the privy council, Youko returned to the Inner Palace to find a bird waiting for her in her living quarters. The bird was a Ran, used to communicate messages among the ministers.

  Messenger pigeons bore letters back and forth, but a Ran memorized human speech and communicated it verbally. Like the Hou'ou (ph
oenix) and Hakuchi, the Ran resided in Godou Palace and could be used only by the Empress and the person she was communicating with.

  In other words, the Ran was the equivalent of a person letter from the Empress. The kingdom that a Ran came from could be identified by the color of its tail feathers.

  Youko was a tad surprised by the sight of the Ran. She gave it a grain of silver and in a cheerful, male voice, the bird said to open the Forbidden Gate at noon. And then closed its beak.

  Grinning, Youko went down to the Forbidden Gate exactly at noon and waited in front of the gate. The two suugu arrived right on schedule.

  "Thank you for coming so far to see me on so short a notice," she said, greeting the two with an amused smile as they dismounted.

  The taller of the two men raised an eyebrow. "You asked to let you know if I knew anything regarding the matter, and that sounded like Kei had a job for me to do."

  "Not even the Chousai imagined that the Royal En would be delivering the report in person. Thanks to you, the welcoming committee is running around all in a tizzy." Youko laughed and turned to the golden-haired youngster accompanying him. "We haven't seen each other in a long time either, En Taiho."

  "Yep," said Enki Rokuta, already heading for the Forbidden Gate. "About that Tai general, is she up to seeing visitors?"

  "More or less."

  As Youko guided her two guests of honor into the Imperial Palace, she addressed their questions about Risai's tumultuous arrival. Risai still could not move and was confined to her bedroom in a corner of the Seishin where her needs were being attended to.

  "The doctors have said that it's okay to move her now, so I think we'll move her to more accessible facilities. As long as she's awake, she should be up for conversation, but don't expect anything long and drawn out. The other day, she faded quite badly in the middle of our discussion."

  "But what have you heard of conditions in Tai?"

  "Only the bare minimum so far, but-- Ah, Koukan."

  Koukan was waiting for them at the entrance to the Inner Palace. She could see Keiki and the Taishi Enho behind him. After exchanging greetings, they headed together to the Sekisui-dai in the back quarter of the Imperial Library.

  "According to Risai, it seems that both the Royal Tai and Taiki have gone missing."

  "So it seems," agreed Shouryuu, the Royal En, as he sat down. "We have made repeated searches, but there is no Taika on Mt. Hou. That means Taiki is not dead. Seeing that the Phoenix has not cried out, I believe the Royal Tai is still alive as well. The general opinion, according to the refugees from Tai, is that there was a coup d'etat. That certainly seems the most likely possibility."

  "That would agree with Risai's explanations. The Royal Tai left the capital to suppress an uprising and wasn't heard from again. But the details are still up in the air."

  "Something happened as he departed for the front. He's not dead, but neither is he safe. Perhaps he was taken captive, or was being stalked by assassins and had to lie low. In any case, the rebels have Tai under their thumb and the Royal Tai is not in the position to strike back at them and reclaim the throne. But what about Taiki?"

  "The details are similarly unclear, but his whereabouts are also unknown. For some reason, a shoku--a meishoku--is said to have occurred in the vicinity of the Royal Palace. Hakkei Palace reportedly sustained heavy damage."

  "A meishoku?" Rokuta said in a startled voice. A grave expression clouded his face.

  "Yes, and afterwards Taiki disappeared. Risai says that the rubble was repeatedly searched, but no trace of him could be found."

  "That really leaves me with a bad feeling."

  "A bad feeling?"

  Rokuta nodded. "The occurrence of a shoku must mean that something calamitous happened to Taiki's body. Unless the damage is grievous, a shoku is not likely to happen."

  "You really think so."

  Rokuta nodded again. "A meishoku occurred and Taiki disappeared. More than that, some accident or disaster took place. Reacting to the emergency at that moment, Taiki triggered a meishoku. That'd be a better way of putting it. Worse case scenario, Taiki isn't even in this world anymore."

  "You mean, over there?"

  Illustration

  "I can't say decisively, but something catastrophic occurred. In order to escape, Taiki caused a shoku and fled to the other world. That strikes me as the likely explanation. If that's all there was to it, then returning wouldn't be a problem. Normally, considering that he's been gone now for six years, I'd have to wonder if something else was going on."

  Youko nodded and looked at Shouryuu. "Given these circumstances, what do you make of this situation?"

  "By which you mean?"

  "I mean, if the Royal Tai had died, then Taiki would choose the next king, right? And even if the Royal Tai is okay, if Taiki died then the Royal Tai would soon follow him, in which case a new taika would be born on Mt. Hou. The new kirin of Tai would choose the new king of Tai."

  "That is indeed the case."

  "However, Taiki is not dead. So there's no reason for the next kirin to be born, right? But we don't believe the Royal Tai is dead either. So even if Taiki is alive and well, there's no need to chose a new king."

  Shouryuu agreed. "That is the sum of it. Because both the Royal Tai and Taiki continue to live, it stands to reason that there should be no change of government in Tai."

  "But large numbers of refugees are leaving the shores of Tai. Tai is currently in a terrible state of affairs."

  "Yes it is. Youma are flocking to the coasts in no small numbers. The once numerous flow of refugees has dwindled considerably."

  "A pretender sits on the throne. The appropriate enthronement rites and rituals have not taken place. The kingdom is still in chaos. Don't we have any way of correcting these injustices?"

  "As long as the true king lives, the term pretender doesn't technically apply. But it's close enough. In situations like this, the only recourse is for the people of Tai to rise up. We don't know what has become of the Royal Tai and Taiki, but the province lords and the people must unite their strength and strike back against the pretender. Doing so remains true to the rule of law."

  "But it's been six years since the Imperial Rescript stating that the Royal Tai was dead. If all that was needed to strike at the pretender was a call to action, then it would have happened already. Didn't Risai risk life and limb to come here and petition me because that was not possible?"

  "Probably."

  "At any rate, even after having you come all the way here, we haven't gotten hold of any really useful information. In the final analysis, things in Tai are the way they are. Even a shoku occurring on the grounds of the Inner Palace and causing a great deal of damage was news to us. All evidence indicates that the chief government officials and senior statesman who would know the most about the situation--not to mention the citizens of the capital--haven't been able to escape. Risai is the sole exception. It's from her account alone that we know about the dire straits Tai is in."

  Shouryuu and Rokuta fell silent.

  "Risai has no means to save the people of Tai by herself. Even if we could dispatch people solely to search for the Royal Tai and Taiki--"

  Youko hadn't finished her thought when Shouryuu raised his voice. "That is as much as we understand about Tai. But that is not what we came here to tell you. I came here to put a stop to that."

  "To what?"

  "Listen. No matter what happens, you cannot send the Imperial Army to Tai."

  Youko blinked. "Why not?"

  "Because you can't. That's what it comes down to."

  "Didn't I return to Kei with your backing?"

  "That was different," he replied fiercely. "You came and asked for my assistance. The Royal Kei was driven from her kingdom and sought refuge in En. I did nothing more than lend her the use of my Imperial Army."

  "Splitting hairs, as far as I'm concerned."

  "So it may be, but that doesn't change anything. It's the Law of Heaven. The
sin of leading troops into another kingdom for any reason brings down immediate consequences. A violation so severe that both the king and kirin will succumb in days."

  When Youko cast a bewildered look around the room, Taishi Enho nodded. "Are you familiar with the Jun Tei incident?"

  "No."

  "Long ago, in the kingdom of Sai, there was a king by the name of Jun Tei. During his reign, the king of the neighboring kingdom of Han strayed from the Way. Many of his subjects suffered great privations. Feeling pity for the people of Han, he dispatched the Imperial Army. To be precise, he had not intent of striking against the head of another kingdom. He stationed troops in villages close to the borders of Han to assist people from Han wishing to cross the border into Sai. He was doing nothing more than trying to effect an evacuation, but a scant few days after the Imperial Guard crossed into Han, the kirin died. Jun Tei soon followed him. This was not something Heaven would allow under any circumstances."

  "But that--"

  Shouryuu shook his head. "Even if you say that you are doing the will of Heaven, there are no allowances. Even if you invade nothing, usurp nothing, and do it all for the welfare of the people, the armies of one kingdom cannot encroach upon another. However pure the motives, Providence has declared this the sin of all sins. Moreover, after the Jun Tei incident, the kokushi was changed from Sai, meaning: purification, to Sai, meaning: command or dice."

  With a look taking them all in, Shouryuu said, "When Jun Tei died, the engraved characters disappeared from the Imperial Seal as they usually do. But when the new king ascended to the throne, the characters on the seal changed to the latter reading of Sai. The actions of the king themselves changed the Imperial Seal. That was how grave his sin was. The kokushi of a kingdom rarely changes, which should indicate the seriousness of this matter."

  "So we just abandon them to their own devices?"

  "I didn't say that. There are people there in distress and it is right to do what we can to help them. However, that is definitely not so simple a task as it sounds. The fortunes of Kei weight in the balance. You must not act rashly."