Pilgrim 2, p.31
Pilgrim 2, page 31
“Kudzu?” he asked as he looked over his shoulder.
The fox woman awoke, her eyes widening as she took in all the scars across Danzen’s chiseled back.
“What happened to you?” she whispered.
“It doesn’t matter.”
They reached the harbor of Tudan, where Danzen reminded the fisherman to forget about them and gave the fisherman most of the money he had on his person. He saved the kip he owed Khamdo and Selden, plus a little extra for a hotel and a hot meal, as Kudzu had instructed.
Before Danzen collected his things, he dipped his head into the water and washed the blood away. He’d changed robes and discarded his broken mask after the fiasco last night but had failed to clean his face, the former assassin in a serious hurry to get out of Arsi.
Dipping his head under had a calming effect, the cool water around his hot skin practically sizzling as he brought his head back out, the water smoothing down his neck and to his chest. The fisherman gave him a funny look, but didn’t say anything.
Danzen and Kudzu made their way through the market that lined the docks, the sellers calling out to them, a few actually teasing the former assassin and his wet hair as they tried to get him to step into their shop.
If they only knew.
The two came to the nearest place to rest, the Sakai Inn, and took the only available room, which happened to have a nice view of the market from its windows. It was a quaint room, cleaner than Danzen expected from the place, the sheets smelling fresh enough that he noticed the scent at the door.
“You really need to rest,” Kudzu told Danzen.
Rather than respond, he simply removed his weapons and sat with his back against the bed, the former assassin out cold in a matter of minutes.
He vaguely recalled Kudzu coming to help him into the bed, something that was confirmed when he awoke several hours later. Danzen assumed by the sun coming through the windows that it was late afternoon, pushing evening. He felt a surge of energy, like he should be somewhere, but all of that settled as he looked up to the fox woman.
“I thought you would never wake,” Kudzu said, smiling over to him.
Danzen slowly sat up, his stomach grumbling.
“Are you hungry?” she asked almost rhetorically.
“I am, but first, I want to bend my echo.”
****
For a relatively large outpost, there weren’t many restaurants in Tudan, and the ones that were available had shut down early in observation of the local Floating Lantern Festival. This left Kudzu and Danzen with only one option, the tavern.
The place didn’t have a stew for the evening as usual, but they did have a flavorful roast that Danzen could smell as soon as they entered the establishment. They were each given quite a helping of the roast, which was garnished with sweet carrots and potatoes, both of them going without ale for the evening.
If Kudzu was still upset with him for leaving her behind, she hadn’t said anything since they left Arsi. He kept expecting her to, and he was almost relieved when she finally broached the subject after their meal.
“You know that was wrong of you, right?” she asked, not even giving name to what he had done.
“I’m sorry,” Danzen told her, and he meant it. It felt terrible to betray her.
“She could have killed you.”
“Perhaps.”
“No, she could have, you know it.”
“She would have killed me if she wanted to.” Danzen ran his hand along his jawline, where Soko had pierced his flesh.
“And now she is still out there, and you are back to having to hunt her down once again. This entire trip was for nothing.”
Danzen nodded.
“Or, perhaps she will come after you this time.”
“Let’s hope not.”
Kudzu placed her hand on his arm and squeezed it. “Never do that to me again,” she said, her gray eyes quivering. “Never again. I’m serious.”
They retired to their room, Danzen wishing it had a private space for him to bathe. There was a public bath available to them, but that would leave Danzen in a situation where he was vulnerable, and he wasn’t too keen on sitting in a heated room with a bunch of other naked men, especially without his famed blade.
“What are you thinking?” Kudzu asked him as he looked toward the balcony. “You are quieter than you normally are.”
“I feel dirty.”
“Then bathe.”
“The public bath isn’t a great option for me,” he told her. “Last time I went to a place like that, I was attacked by a yokai.”
“I thought you went looking for yokai…”
He grinned at her, offering the woman one of his rare smiles. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Let’s head down to the water then,” she said. “You can bathe there. Maybe I will as well, as a fox. It has been a while…”
“We could just head back to the Valley tonight,” Danzen offered.
“Absolutely not. We will head back in the morning after rest and a proper breakfast. Knowing you, there is no telling what we will encounter if we head to Chutham now. It would be best for us to be ready for anything. So feel free to figure out a way to clean up, because we’re staying in Tudan for the night.”
“I don’t have any spare robes,” Danzen told her.
He had left his bloodstained robes behind in Arsi, realizing that it would be easier to travel without them. His current set, the purple ones he had received as a gift from Jelmay, also had a little blood on them, but they were in much better shape. “The sooner we get back to the Valley, the sooner I can bathe in the stream near my monastery.”
“Agreed, but this is something that can happen tomorrow,” Kudzu said with a long yawn. She morphed down into her fox form and stepped out of her robes. She yawned again, her tongue curling out of her mouth this time.
After opening the window to let in a cool breeze, Danzen sat on the floor with his legs crossed beneath him. Kudzu settled in next to him, and together they watched paper lanterns float by.
“People are going to be talking about what happened in Arsi for the next hundred years,” she said at some point, her eyes starting to glaze over. “What a tragedy.”
“They are. It may be best never to go back there again.”
“In an ideal world, sure, but it seems to be a popular access point to the west. Maybe give it some time.”
“Maybe.”
Kudzu eventually fell asleep on the floor, and once she was out, Danzen scooped her into his arms and took the fox over to her bed. He tucked her in and then returned to where he had been sitting, the former assassin falling into a meditative state as he imagined bending his echo.
He awoke the next morning lying on the ground and curled to his side, gripping Astra’s scabbard. He had been having a dream about the Asura Forest, climbing a tree, something chasing him.
He shuddered.
Once he was up, Danzen let Kudzu rest while he practiced his bending techniques. He noticed that the sensation was stronger now, the power coursing through him. Something was definitely happening; at first, he could have sworn he was imagining it, but now after several days of concentrated practice, there was something else there.
Danzen slowly pressed his sword forward. He closed his eyes and did the same, noticing energy radiating off the blade, the power cycling back toward his core.
He was starting to notice more and more that bending his echo felt like moving underwater, resistance all around, yet resistance he could almost latch onto, move and command. Become one with. There was something very fluid about it, as if he were tapping into aether and commanding. Perhaps this was what he had utilized when Danzen had almost stopped his demons from advancing last night.
Maybe it was further evidence that they truly were all connected, no matter the origin of the species.
Once Kudzu was up, he waited for her to dress and the two headed downstairs together, his weapons and armor with them, Kudzu with her sword and wearing her armor.
They ate a quick meal of fried eggs that the inn provided and set off toward Chutham, passing the fields of now-dying flowers outside of the outpost. Heavy rain had forced the plant life to move to their next incarnations, be it a vegetable, fruit, or hopeful tree.
Change was in the air, and it was invigorating.
The walk was gorgeous, a sweet smell ever present, some of the fallen flower petals still swept up by the occasional zephyr. Once no one was around, they picked up their pace, but Kudzu wasn’t able to travel as quickly as she could in her fox form, which was something she noted several times as Danzen moved ahead of her.
It was just past noon that they reached the outskirts of Chutham, where they headed to Selden’s Emporium. Realizing that Kudzu could be sensitive to what she saw inside, Danzen asked her to wait out front.
“Why can’t I come in, again?”
The former assassin took a look around, the crowds moving through the streets of Chutham, children chasing one another, three men carrying construction materials to the northern side of the city, which pressed against the Asura Forest. It was still busy because of the festival, and Danzen could only imagine what it would be like at night.
“This will only take me a moment; I need to retrieve my helmet.”
Kudzu crossed her arms over her chest.
“Can’t do that as a fox, can you?” Danzen asked.
Rather than stick around for her response, he entered Selden’s Emporium to find the bushy-eyebrowed seller behind the counter, hunched over as he examined something with a jeweler’s eyepiece.
He glanced up at the former assassin, a toothy grin forming on his leathered face. “Pilgrim.”
Danzen bowed his head slightly. “I’ve come to retrieve my helmet.”
“I was wondering when you would be back,” Selden said as he set down what he was examining. He cleared his throat, and cracked his knuckles. “I have good news for you.”
“You do?”
“Are you familiar with Eva Yin? She said you would be.”
“I am,” Danzen said, recalling the mysterious madame who ran the pleasure house and her unique power to morph her body.
“Eva has already paid for your helmet and bought the two books that you wanted. She also had one of her pillowers deliver the money to Khamdo in Suja Village. You’re squared away, everything has been taken care of.”
“It has?”
“What Eva wants, Eva gets. You didn’t hear that from me, but that generally is the case. There aren’t many people who wield more power than the woman who runs all the pleasure houses in the Valley. It’s a lucrative position, to say the very least. Anyway, she has the books and your helmet at her establishment. You know where it is?”
“I do.”
“I figured you might,” Selden said, barely masking a devilish grin on his face, one that was wide enough that it made the corners of his eyes twitch. “She wants to have tea with you.”
“Thanks.”
Danzen was just turning away when Selden called out to him. “How did your trip to the west go? Did you take care of everything you were hoping to take care of?”
“No.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“I’ve come to expect these kinds of things.”
With that, the former assassin stepped outside to find Kudzu still waiting with her arms crossed over her chest, strands of her white hair beating in the subtle breeze.
“Where’s your helmet?”
“At Eva Yin’s pleasure house. This may get strange.”
“See? I told you it was better that we take a hotel last night. Trouble always seems to find you.”
“Not by choice,” he said, motioning for her to follow him.
.Chapter Two.
Danzen was glad that Kudzu was finally going to meet Eva Yin. He suspected that the woman had abused a remnant in some way or another, or perhaps she was wearing a talisman, and he hoped that Kudzu would be able to tell the difference. As they walked alongside one another, he let Kudzu know this, and asked that she pay close attention to the mysterious Eva Yin.
“Whatever she has done, it has greatly affected her appearance. You’ll see what I mean. She seems to be able to shift forms, but not like you or Jelmay. There’s something different about it.”
“I’m just wondering why she paid for your items,” Kudzu told him as she kept up with the former assassin. Compared to their last trip west, Kudzu had really gotten better at appearing human, nothing odd about her gait, a naturalness to her movement now that wasn’t quite the case before.
“I can only imagine that it is going to cost me to get them back,” Danzen mumbled.
“I guess you will just have to see what she has to say. Who knows? Maybe she just bought the items to be kind.”
“I doubt it.”
A long building signaled the start of Eva Yin’s expansive pleasure house. The pleasure house blended into the surrounding homes and business establishments better than it should have, the only thing indicating that it was a brothel being the red door and the hint of perfume in the air, which offset the seemingly innocuous look of the building.
Danzen was just about to knock on the door when it opened on its own.
Eva Yin stood before him in a tight corset, her skirt made from pink silk and covered in butterflies and hummingbirds. Her eye makeup was elaborate and sharp, and the madame’s lips were the color of drying blood, her hair up in a tight bun, a sheen to it, a floral scent wafting all around her person the next thing to meet Danzen’s nostrils.
“Pilgrim.” Eva Yin brought a hand fan up to her face and covered her lips for a moment as she took him in. The fan featured an image of a crane with golden wings lifting into the air, and as she held it in place, she turned her focus to Kudzu. “And who are you?”
“I’m with him,” said the white fox.
“You have wonderful ears,” Eva Yin told her in a tone that told Danzen that she knew more than she was letting on.
Once again, Danzen found himself semi-enchanted by the woman. He recalled how she had changed forms before his very eyes to that of another woman, how there was something eerily enchanting about her demeanor.
“Please, come in,” Eva said as she motioned them inside.
A large man with a sword sheathed at his waist and a hood over his head stood guard before the door that led to the pillower’s rooms. There were only two seats in the small lobby to the right; Eva took one, Danzen gesturing for Kudzu to sit.
“No, I think I’ll stand,” she said.
“This won’t be long,” Eva assured both of them. “You wouldn’t be here if Selden hadn’t said something, so I suppose we should cut to the point: I decided to help you by purchasing the items you were indebted for,” she said before turning to another room. “I’ll be right back with them.” She stepped out, Kudzu immediately looking at Danzen.
“I don’t like this place.”
“It’s not for me either,” he said.
“And I see what you are saying about her. Something is certainly off.”
“Do you think she has bent her echo, or is it something else?” he whispered, but by that point Eva was stepping back into the room.
“Both,” the mysterious woman said as she sat, the two yokai books in her possession along with Danzen’s sugawara helmet. “I spent quite a bit of time bending my echo when I was a girl,” she explained. “You live in the monastery outside of Suja Village, correct?”
Danzen nodded.
“That’s where I studied. I learned quite a bit there, but then I found that there were faster ways to get the power that I desired. It doesn’t always work out that there is a faster way to get what one desires, but in this case it did. Sunyata talismans and remnants are a much better way to gain more power, if that is your goal. What is your goal, Pilgrim?”
“Why did you buy my things?” he asked, changing the subject.
“I also paid off your carpenter friend. And to answer your question, I bought them because I can afford to; I figured that if I did you a favor, you would be inclined to do me a favor.”
“And if he doesn’t agree?” asked Kudzu.
“If he doesn’t agree, then I will simply give your things back and we can end our partnership permanently. But I wouldn’t suggest that, there may come a point where you need me in the future. I’m quite influential in the Valley.”
“What would you like me to do?” Danzen asked.
“It isn’t a very difficult task, nothing like last time, when I had you go after Harsha. I simply need you to deliver something to my brother, a letter to be exact. Sadly, we have become estranged over the years, and I would like to speak with him, to let him know of my…” Eva Yin hesitated. “It’s a personal matter, but I would like him to know about it, to treat me. If anyone in the Valley can do something about it, it’s him.”
“And where is your brother?”
“In the Panchen Mountains. He’s a hermit there.”
“Dalan?” Kudzu asked.
“Why, yes, that’s him. Have you met my younger brother?” Before either of them could answer, Eva began fanning herself again. “I assume that you would have, considering you live so close to his home. My request is that…”
“Danzen Ravja!” a voice screamed from outside.
Eva paused and looked to the door of her pleasure house. “That doesn’t sound like a very kind invitation to speak.” She pinched her pointer finger and thumb together; her security guard withdrew his sword, and ran out.
The three of them heard a garbled cry, Danzen immediately going for his famed blade.
“Danzen Ravja!” the voice shouted again, and it was then that he recognized who the voice belonged to.
****
Danzen stepped outside to find an armored man standing in the street, a red mask over his face, demonic in nature, with a single sharp horn on the forehead. Extending from the man’s arms were two retractable blades. Lying before him was Eva’s security guard, the guard disemboweled, his body twitching, mouth agape, eyes rolled into the back of his head.
