by Ryan Kirk
When Asa and her companions turned the corner of the river and River’s End came into view for the first time, they saw a village in confusion. Blades ran back and forth, disorganized as a group could be. As Asa watched, one group of blades rushed forward to defend the docks but then ran away toward Koji’s line of movement. No one seemed to be in charge of organizing the defenses.
Asa shook her head in amazement. It had only been a few days since Koji had killed Akane and rescued her. In that time, the entire collection of blades seemed to have fallen apart without a strong hand to guide them. Had their discipline been so lax to begin with?
Jun decided they should ground just outside the village. They could land at the docks, but Jun didn’t want to give the defenders a natural choke point.
They grounded the boat on an uncontested section of land a few hundred paces from the outskirts of River’s End. Mari commanded eleven blades. With herself, Asa, and Takahiro, that made fourteen people total.
In preparing for the battle, they had decided to shed tradition. The idea had been Jun’s. Despite being a dayblade, he had been a part of enough skirmishes to have a solid grasp on basic battlefield strategy. Asa had been dubious, but Jun had the most experience in battles. The others had followed and contributed what expertise they could.
Blades most often fought in pairs, but Jun had organized them in groups of four. Takahiro and Mari made their own two-person group, protected by the other three squads. Asa hadn’t been sure how she felt about the idea, especially coming from a dayblade, but as the blades from the village attacked, the older man’s wisdom immediately became apparent.
The village’s defense wasn’t coordinated. Blades came out, seemingly at random, attacking in the pairs they were no doubt used to. As each pair met a group of four, the battle was already decided.
Asa had taken the point for her group, and their first conflict was over almost before it began. A pair of blades charged them. Asa stepped toward the first of the two, her short sword easily blocking the cut. Behind her, another blade stepped in, his steel sliding between the ribs of Asa’s opponent. The remaining blade, now alone against all four of Asa’s group, died quickly.
With a few moments to breathe, Asa threw out her sense and felt another pair of blades die on the other side of the village. Koji couldn’t be stopped. Their assault was going better than they could have imagined.
But the enterprise was going to get more difficult. The remaining defenders had figured out that running out to meet their attackers wasn’t working. Whoever was in command was rallying them in the center of the village, the same small clearing where Asa had been forced to kill Daiki and Ayano.
After regrouping, Mari, Jun, Asa, and the other blades approached the village. Each group distanced itself from the others, attempting to assault the center from different directions. They moved slowly, ensuring that they didn’t walk into any traps. It was difficult to fight against the impulse to charge now that their blood was crashing through their bodies, the familiar surge of energy that came from combat. They outnumbered their opponents now, and all Asa wanted to do was wade into the thick of battle and be done with it. Looking at her companions, she knew they felt the same. Still, their discipline held.
Before the two sides could meet, Koji tore into the center of River’s End, a force of nature. Though outnumbered seven to one, he didn’t seem to mind in the least. Even having seen him fight multiple opponents before, Asa realized she still underestimated his true skill.
He was so fast. His sword was a blur, and even gifted with the sense, Asa could barely keep up with Koji. Against seven he still might have lost, but the rest of his companions were close enough to seize on the advantage his arrival provided.
The battle was ferocious. The rogue blades seemed to know they would be shown no quarter and fought with unflinching fury. Without Koji, the battle might have turned out differently. But he was a force, a power that couldn’t be contained. The blade was everywhere, his steel slashing in the early morning sunlight.
Asa found herself in a one-on-one fight with a rogue nightblade. Her opponent had already been wounded and wasn’t moving fast, but he was putting all his strength into every attack. Asa dodged once but couldn’t respond as another enemy stabbed weakly at her. She kept backpedaling, forced to block her opponent’s next strike.
She blocked the cut a little later than she would have liked. The power put into the attack knocked her sword off to the side, leaving her completely vulnerable. Time seemed to slow down. She saw the gleam of satisfaction in her enemy’s eyes.
The moment was only a heartbeat long, but the flood of emotions Asa felt made it seem like a lifetime. Anger quickly replaced despair. Anger that once again, she hadn’t been strong enough to make a difference.
Koji’s blade seemed to come from nowhere, snaking in from the corner of Asa’s vision. His blade pierced her opponent’s neck, a cut that even in the moment seemed impossible to Asa. Koji gave her a look of disdain, and then he was gone, a blur of death on the battlefield.
The battle was over moments later. The outcome had not been in question, but Asa was surprised by how successful they had been. One of their party had received a deep cut, but Jun and another dayblade were already busy healing the wound. Beyond that, they hadn’t suffered anything beyond a few scratches. She couldn’t believe it.
The reason was obvious, and everyone understood. Koji had shown them a talent none of them could have imagined. Asa was still in shock. To think she had one time tried to duel him single-handedly. Soft congratulations were passed around, but everyone gave Koji space, scared of an ally with such power.
Asa exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
That night Mari and her warriors made the decision to set up camp outside the village. After the battle, they had given the bodies of the rogues a proper ceremony, but still, none felt comfortable spending the night in the houses of River’s End.
Their fire was burning brightly, wood from the village providing the companions more heat than they had enjoyed in several days. Despite their victory, the mood around the campfire was grim. Justice satisfied the blades but brought them no joy. Each would have much rather avoided the killing of their brothers and sisters.
For Asa, the emptiness was especially deep, reopening the same void she felt after her own personal revenge had been accomplished.
She couldn’t help but think that everything was completely meaningless. She had spent her life trying to find and kill the man who had murdered her father and destroyed her family. That was done, yet she felt no peace. She had avenged the death of the couple who had welcomed her into their home and still felt no better.
As her thoughts dwelled on the past, Asa grew more frustrated. Memories of Koji’s sword saving her replayed themselves in an endless loop. Eventually the scenes playing through her mind changed. She saw Juro dying at Koji’s hand. She saw her sword as she took the lives of those who had offered her shelter.
As the memories played, she ground her teeth, anger surging. She hated being the one who needed to be saved, hated not being able to do more.
Koji had no such problems. After the battle, which he had won almost single-handedly, he had thrown himself into the task of cleaning up the village and helping dispose of the bodies. No one had done more to win the fight, and no one had done more to clean up afterward. The awe and fear the other blades had shown gradually turned to respect. Jun was still the voice of the party and Mari was the leader, but Koji had become the heart, a role he fell into naturally.
Asa had no such convictions. She had agreed to join the party for the raid on River’s End, but that was only because she had needed to see justice served. Now, though, she wasn’t certain about what she should do next.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Koji as he came and sat down next to her, a look of earnest concern on his face. He spoke softly so that their conversation could not be overheard. “Asa, are you all right?”
> She gave him what she considered to be a very unconvincing smile. “No.”
Koji didn’t respond, giving her the space to explain herself further if she so wished. She tried to summarize her thoughts.
“Koji, after everything we’ve done here today, I still don’t feel better. There’s no joy in what we did, not even any satisfaction over an accomplished task. Part of me is glad that we brought justice to the villagers, but they’ve passed on to the Great Cycle, and I’m not sure they care. What do we do next?”
There was a prolonged silence as Koji thought through his answer. Asa was reminded of the first time they had met, and she had thought that perhaps he was stupid. Now, as before, she realized just how wrong that impression could be.
“I do not know about you, Asa, but I do not fight for the dead. I fight for the living.”
The simple statement rocked Asa to her core. Her life flashed before her eyes: the day that she received the news of her father’s death, her training as a nightblade, her evenings spent awake imagining the face of her father’s killer. Could life be so simple?
As confused as Asa was, she wasn’t able to reach a conclusion as Mari came and sat next to them.
She was direct and to the point. “I don’t know what you two have planned next, but on behalf of all of us here, it would be my pleasure to invite you to join us.”
Asa glanced over at the lady. Mari moved with grace and confidence, showing none of the hesitation she had the night before. Looking over at her, Asa couldn’t tell Mari had just been part of a vicious battle. But how would she react if she knew that the man she was sitting next to had killed her brother, the lord of her house, and the woman next to him had failed to protect him? Would she still have the air of command she did now?
Asa pushed the thought aside. She needed to stop living in the past and think about the present. “Where will you go?”
Mari’s voice was more certain than Asa had anticipated.
“We’ll head to the south and west. I have an extensive network of shadows, and there are places I may go to get more information. My plan is to continue traveling through the Kingdom, trying to help however I’m able. With dayblades and nightblades, we can both heal and bring force to bear. I hope to do more of the former, but if the latter is necessary, so be it.”
Asa had already liked Mari, but the determination in her voice was just the trigger that she needed to make her own decision.
Koji answered first. “It would be my pleasure to join you.”
Mari nodded. If she was half the leader that Asa assumed she was, Koji’s answer would come as no surprise.
Asa’s answer was equally certain. “I have nothing but respect for what you are doing, Lady Mari, but I cannot join you at this time.”
A raised eyebrow was Mari’s only reaction.
Asa felt the need to explain herself. “You know little about me, my lady, but for most of my life, I was driven by revenge. Not long ago, I accomplished that revenge, but it brought me no peace. If anything, it has only brought me more doubt about who I am. In River’s End, for the first time, I felt a measure of contentment I’ve not remembered in a long time. I don’t know who I am without revenge, and until I decide that, I am more of a hindrance than a help to you. I must respectfully decline, although I hope the invitation remains open so that I may join you later.”
Mari nodded. “I will not pretend to understand your reasons, but on my part, yes, the offer will remain open. We would always be delighted to have you.”
With that, Mari stood up and left the two alone.
Koji looked at Asa. “I’m surprised. I thought that for sure you would join as well. Would you like me to join you?”
Asa felt nothing but heartfelt gratitude for Koji in that moment. Perhaps he didn’t understand himself, but Asa recognized the importance of the question and the depth of the feelings it contained. She shook her head sadly. “While I would love nothing more than your company, I believe it’s best if you continue with Mari. She’s walking the same path that you wish to follow, and I would not have that taken away from you. Know that I will find you if and when I am able.”
Koji didn’t seem satisfied with the answer, but he accepted her reply. “Where will you go?”
Asa grinned at the foolishness of her decision. “I have a friend whom I need to see.”
Chapter 12
Asa departed early the next morning. Mari would miss the nightblade, but she had other, more pressing concerns. Many days had passed since she’d left Hiromi to his war, and she needed information.
Mari hadn’t lied when she spoke to Asa about her plans for the future, but she hadn’t uttered the entire truth. She wouldn’t admit it to any of the warriors who traveled at her side, but Mari maintained a secret hope that their force could be used to her brother’s benefit. She understood she was biased, but if Hiromi could become the next king, she felt the Kingdom’s future would be more secure.
She did plan to continue heading southwest, toward the ruins of Haven and the last location her brother had occupied. There were places she could stay where her network of shadows would get information to her. She had a weapon now, a group of blades willing to follow her. With information, she could wield that weapon with deadly precision, striking at the targets that would change the course of the war.
Her blades broke camp and traveled in the direction of an inn where Mari would find the news she sought. Most of her blades elected to set up a new camp about a league away from the inn, more comfortable in the plains than among people. Jun, Takahiro, and Koji accompanied her to the inn.
They remained there for two days while information made its way to her. Mari studied each piece of correspondence with a renewed focus. Most were small, square pieces of paper with the sealing wax broken, but some were notes of her own conversations and thoughts. She wasn’t just collecting information anymore. She had a purpose and a design.
The news was both good and bad. Hiromi had won the first engagement with Katashi. Although reports were varied, Katashi had apparently pushed his troops too hard too fast. Hiromi’s forces hadn’t been as organized, but they’d been well rested and fed. Their father had always said an army fought better on a full stomach.
She should have been overjoyed by the news. A victory for their house was to be celebrated, but her heart refused. She told herself it was because she mourned the loss of so many lives, unwilling to admit she was entertaining the thought that if Katashi had won, the war might have ended almost as quickly as it started.
The bad news, which was bad no matter how one looked at it, was that the victory hadn’t been decisive. The accounts Mari read, written in the dry, observational tones of professional shadows, could never do justice to the field of battle. But the numbers in front of her spoke volumes. Thousands dead on both sides. Katashi’s forces had been reduced by more than two-thirds, but the story wasn’t much better for Hiromi.
Her brother had lost more than half his men in the battle. They had driven Katashi back, but the price had been far too steep. Mari thought of the number of families who had lost a son or a husband in the past moon. If Hiromi wasn’t careful, he would damage generations of families.
Mari considered all the information about the battle carefully, but none held her interest the way a short note did, written on an unremarkable square of paper of poor quality. The note was written in a small, precise hand, the writing of one of Hiromi’s aides and one of Mari’s most important shadows.
The note told her that her brother and his generals were considering retreating to their house lands for the winter. It was only early autumn, and in most cycles past, there would still be time to finish a campaign. But this autumn had remained cold. While snow this time of season wasn’t unheard of, it never remained on the ground. A note from another of her contacts in their own lands reported that many of the mountain passes were already closed with snow. It seemed that winterlike weather had arrived early, and Hiromi and his generals recognized
this.
Retreating for the season was the correct decision. Even though she hadn’t been trained in warfare, Mari knew that well enough. Their army wasn’t equipped for a winter campaign, and families needed their men back to finish whatever harvest hadn’t been killed by the frost.
The tragedy was that because they would retreat, they were in for a longer war. With no decisive victor, the houses would each have the winter to regroup and plan strategies for the coming spring. Instead of an army from each house meeting haphazardly, each contingent would be able to bring its full strength to bear.
Mari wrote down all the information she deemed pertinent in her own hand in the code she had created for herself. The originals were thrown in the small fireplace in her room.
She didn’t have a plan. From everything she had learned, there was no way for her small band to somehow alter the course of the Kingdom in a single stroke. But she needed to speak to her brother. Together, perhaps, they could plan for the upcoming war.
When Hiromi entered the tavern, Mari smiled. She and her blades had been on the road for another two days catching up with his army, and she had made sure that her letter got to him. All the same, she wasn’t sure he would come. She didn’t dare enter his camp, and convincing him to leave the protection of his army was no small risk. His guards would be outside, ensuring this secret rendezvous was protected.
Her smile was returned by looks of outrage and concern. Hiromi rushed to her table and sat down. “Mari! Where have you been?”
Mari opened her mouth to answer, but his series of questions continued, not giving her the space to answer. “Did you know that I’ve been worried sick about you? Do you know how terrifying it is to have your sister leave on the eve of battle with a cryptic note that may or may not be real? I feared that you had been taken hostage to be used against me. Please don’t ever do anything like that ever again. You are the only family that I have left.”
