“You know, for as famed as many claim that I am.” Lady Yukimura touched her face, as though wishing to recall that she still existed. “I had lived quite an ordinary life. I was born to ordinary parents, myself as plain as most girls in my village. My prospects were to marry some farm boy and bear him children be the dutiful wife as my mother was, and her mother before her and her mother before her. To be quite honest, it I did not much care that my life had already been decided for me. My only ask, at the very least I wanted him to be pleasing to the eye. I still remember my father telling me I had no choice in the matter. I was too ordinary to have any agency of my own and whatever boy that came my way and paid enough he would accept and send me away with him.”

  She laughed with such a cold expression that even Salok Yn remained silent.

  “But my mother was different. All my life she rarely said anything, as ordinary and as plain as a blade of grass in a field of flowers. One night she awoke me from my sleep, handed me three pieces of gold, more than I had ever seen in my life and sent me on my way without much word.” She leaned back against the wall as her eyes looked to the ceiling. “I left my little village, too small to be even given a name at the age of eleven. Truth be told I was sure I was going to be raped or killed or both, somewhere along the way being on my own like that. A whirlwind of a time later fending for myself–along the way learning that I had a talent for killing and an incredible aptitude in wielding flames. I found myself returning back to my little village at the age of twenty. A candidate to become a Lunar General.”

  Lady Yukimura could still recall her trek home through the wilds of Ichika atop her horse. Through off beaten paths, across streams and up and over hills without markers or names. Like a specter drawn to the only place she had ever called home. Her request for time away from the imperial palace was begrudgingly approved. Such a rare thing for a commoner who had been elevated to noble status, to desire to return to a world where they had not mattered. The bewildered look of the nobles of Ichi who could not comprehend why she would want to do something like that mad her laugh. However despite her best intentions to forget her early life, it tugged at her. That plain village and the plain life she left behind, also included a plain mother who had made the life she currently lived possible. There was a debt she felt she needed to repay, and to her mother she went.

  “When I returned, many could scarcely recognize me behind my fancy clothes and the beautiful horse I rode on. It was as though in their eyes I had now become a goddess of some sort and they began to worship me. But as I asked about my parents, specifically my mother they had all gone silent, robbed of voice and prayer, unable to meet my gaze.” Her face twisted into a cold and off-putting expression. “I shall spare you the details but it turns out the money my mother gave me belonged to my father. When he found out what she had done, he beat her. He beat her so badly, that her wails of mercy slowly turned into whimpers until it was silence. She died of her wounds for our village was too poor to afford a healer. While he knelt before me begging for forgiveness and absolution, I dropped several bags of gold at his feet and left without saying a word. Resigned to never coming back to that village again. Years later I found out he hung himself that same day, would you believe? What a fucking coward.” Lady Yukimura exhaled deeply. “From that day onward I swore to myself that I would never follow in my mothers footsteps, I would never sacrifice myself like that nor show that kind of weakness.”

  “What changed?” Salok Yn asked, earnestly.

  Lady Yukimura’s face softened, “my little Takara.”

  She wished to stop herself from speaking, divulging such intimate details about herself that she had shared with none before. But found it increasingly difficult to do so as the memories of her daughter continued to spill out of her.

  “Years later, after I had become a Lunar General and eventually had reached the rank of the Thirteenth. After what had happened at Miyata, I was closer to a living weapon than a human being and I was quite fine with it. ”She recalled the sight of nobles from houses that had stood for thousands of years, lowering themselves to their knees in her presence. A mere commoner supplanting their delicately built hierarchy with brute force. “But one day as I patrolled on my own far from the capital city, I happened upon this little baby wailing in the wilderness, blood soaked and all alone. It was rare, but not entirely uncommon to find Stygian babes discarded in the wild. Young Night Lords often snuck into Ichika and conducted themselves in less than savory moods. Knowing that here they were free of judgment or the watchful gaze of their fellow noble-kin. They would woo unsuspecting Ichikan women and leave them saddled with their mistake knowing that these women could neither come back with them to Iliad, or truly claim the child as their own for fear of retribution were the imperial palace to find out, or worse, Iliad.”

  Anger built in her words but slowly they softened again.

  “I should have left her there, it was the right thing to do. In time some animal would have found her and made a quick meal of her. It was the nature of our world, those who could not protect themselves were at the mercy of those who could take. She was not my responsibility. I was a butcher and a monster by all regards. If even her own birth mother could not bother to care for her then why would I? What did I–who knew only death and killing–know about raising a daughter?” She looked at her hands as she recalled the sensation of lifting her up. “But she just would not relent in her wailing, out of anger I picked her up and just like that she stopped. I could not believe it. Surely it was not that easy? I laughed, a genuine laugh. For the first time in years and took her back with me to Ichi.”

  The uproar that came with the Thirteenth Lunar General of Ichika returning with a Stygian babe in her arms shook not just the capital, but several other cities within Ichika as well. Rumors swirled around Tsuru like a torrential storm. Ceaseless debate was had about the origins of the infant she carried. Had the famed general laid with a Stygian? Who was the father? What would happen if Iliad were to find out? All these questions and more were asked of her day and night as the Imperial Court demanded answers from the woman who had been tasked to protect them. While rocking Takara in her arms she answered their demands honestly, much to this dismay of the wise nobles who made up the Imperial Court. In truth she would have handed the girl over to them, either she would be returned to Iliad to a Stygian family or be kept as a ward to the Sugawara clan or any number of prominent noble families. Better alternatives than to be in the care of the Butcher of Miyata.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  But the longer Lady Yukimura answered their questions, the more she saw the desire in their eyes as they slowly stopped seeing this infant who had no mother, no father. Abandoned like unwanted rags as a tool for them to exploit. To further their ambitions in their constant games for power and status. This babe that she had decided to name Takara after her own mother on her way back with her. Just like how she once was, watched as the little girls future was being decided for her in front of her eyes. Without warning or explanation, grown bored by the spectacle on offer of men salivating at the prospects of their future. The Thirteenth Lunar General, Tsuru Yukimura left the great hall of the Imperial Court with her daughter. Royal and noble faces stunned alike, the decision made without a word uttered. None would stop her, or even make an attempt to halt her. For her action had stated this infant was now hers and any foolishness enough to object would meet a face worse than death. Once again the matter closed for good with another letter from the Sugawara clan.

  “You know the first time she called me ‘mama’, I cried all day. I had never done so before, not when I was left to fend for myself, or at the death of my mother. Or even at what happened at Miyata, no. It was not until this girl had grown to about two or three and one day she called to me and I just could not believe it. Me, who all I believed I was capable of was wanton violence on a scale that most people could not even begin to conceive. In my wake I have left countless corpses selfishly for my own desires as well as in the protection of Ichika. But in the eyes of this little girl, who could barely walk and liked to crawl underneath my clothes when it thundered and always begged me to carry her at every opportunity. To her I was her entire world, her protector, her mother. I was more than a butcher, I could be more. That kind of love changes you in ways you can never prepare for.”

  “So you are right Salok Yn,” Takara's mother wiped away her tears. “I did pick my daughter over my realm, and I would do it again. Which is why if so much as a single hair is harmed on her head, I will slaughter you all without impunity. As I have done before. As I did eighty thousand in Miyata.”

  Salok Yn rose to his feet satisfied with his conversation with the famed general before him. “My, my it has been quite a while since I had such a refreshing conversation.”

  “Forgive me, I did not mean to speak so casually.” Lady Yukimura reddened at the realization of her candidness.

  He shook his head, “there is no need general. As I said, it was I who sought you for conversation and you have delivered.” He placed his hood back over his head obscuring himself in darkness again.

  It startled her how easy it was to talk to this man, who was no doubt her enemy. This man who assisted Hideyoshi in his foolish ambitions.. This man who did not care if her realm, or the nine realms burned. Yet for the moment they shared, the conversation they had, was as though none of that mattered. As though the realm was not on the brink of collapse. Lady Yukimura had far more questions about this strange Stygian before her, in fact despite seeing what he looked like a thought gnawed at the back of her mind that he was not a Stygian as she understood. That he was something entirely different, something more. In an attempt to gain further insight about what was truly going on, all she had managed to do was reveal more about herself in the process.

  Salok Yn approached her cell and Lady Yukimura braced for whatever happened next. She watched the man take off his right glove and placed a hand on one of the wooden bars wrapped around with a great amount of seals on it. She saw as the magic weakened ever so slightly as one of the seals peeled off, in the process burning his hand significantly to the point even bone was visible. And yet he did not make a sound. A terrible burn appeared on his palm and moments later it began to heal as steam rose from where the wound had been inflicted. He picked up the burnt seal and placed it within his cloak.

  “I designed this cell specifically to hold you... or Lady Huli Jing. Each seal is purposely placed with extreme care, not even the Kuroi Inu will be able to tell that one is missing. As inconsequential as it is to lose one seal, I know you are talented enough to obliterate this cell in time.” The man turned to walk away, “you can escape now if you like. But then I will be forced to kill you. Or you could wait, until a moment presents itself days from now when all attention is diverted somewhere else. What that means is that you will have to trust your daughter to not only stay alive but somehow make it here, as she will no doubt come for you. As you would for her.”

  Tsuru did not understand what was happening, or why this man was now showing her kindness. She called out to him to ask him why but he did not respond. As he raised his hand, one by one the candles had gone out until one remained. This strange Stygian who conversed with her, who had her injured and sealed. Now gave her the means to escape. She had thought him under Hideyoshi this whole time but more likely it was accurate to say that this man’s motivations and true power were beyond what the rebellious prince could grasp. Was he the true mastermind, or did he also dance in the palm of another? The Lunar General was left in shock and with more questions than answers, but she found herself amazingly trusting his words. She would wait, she would recoup her energy and believe that Taka would come for her; when the moment arose she would break free.

  Salok Yn opened the door and stopped his march, turning back to face the famed Lunar General once more. “May I ask you one last question, Lady Yukimura? There is no need to respond if you do not desire to, it is a personal curiosity of mine really.”

  “Y-yes, what is it?” she responded slightly flustered.

  For the first time Tsuru saw the smallest hints of hesitation in the mysterious man before her.

  “Do you think if your daughter–as she is now–truly knew who you were and the countless corpses you have left in your wake. Too many to recall, those you have no doubt butchered, deserving and otherwise all for the protection of her and Ichika by extension. An ocean's worth of blood. Do you think if she knew, she would still look at you as she did when she could barely walk? Still love you as she did all those years ago, as she does now?”

  Lady Yukimura reasoned for a moment, her surprise was not in the question asked, but that there was another who had thought the same as she did. “I…I do, I believe she would still love me.”

  Salok Yn laughed sincerely, surprised by her answer but not entirely shocked by it. “You are a terrible liar Tsuru Yukimura. But I suppose it doesn’t matter if she did or didn’t. Perhaps that is the meaning of a mother’s love, that we would plunge this world into chaos to protect them, even if they hated us for it.”

  With that he closed the door leaving the fearsome former Thirteenth Lunar General of Ichika and mother of Takara Yukimura, in complete darkness.