Starlit Reflections: Dark Quarter

Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics, Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment, Viz Communications and other interested parties. The characters and situation are used without permission for personal entertainment only, and no copyright infringements are intended. No profit is being made from this fic; if there was, Tasuki and Tamahome would lighten me of it, as soon as they could.

Chapter One: In The Great Khan's Shadow - Uruki

    When I was born, my nurse told me in my childhood, the doctor looked at me and declared, "This girl will live in interesting times."
    My mother cried aloud, "Oh sir, say that will not be so!"
    The doctor turned then to my mother and said, "Then speak, not to I, but to your daughter. She will make them so."

To understand my actions, I believe it best if I share a little of the history of our people.

Hokkan is a country of wild, beautiful mountains and wide, glorious valleys. Ours is not a nation of farmers; only in the south and the east is there land that can be tilled. The rest of our land is beautiful pasture for the cattle, sheep and buffalo our people have herded for generations, with slopes to strengthen the legs and sharpen the grace of the horses that are the pride of our armies.

We do not have the rains and unrelieved heat of Konan, where it only snows rarely, nor the sweeping winds that scour Sairou, nor the typhoons that sweep the eastern coasts of Koutou. Our mountain peaks are never without snow, and our valleys are lush and green.

I am not the least bemused by the avarice of the Emperor of the East. Our Hokkan is truly a jewel among nations, so the attempts of the Koutou Emperor to invade and conquer it is in no wise a shock to myself or any true child of my land.

If all that the Koutou Emperor desired was land, it might well be that we would have simply withdrawn before him. But what the eastern Emperor wanted was nothing less than our greatest treasures; our horses. Alone of all the peoples of the Four Gods, we have bred up herds of horses, enough to mount our people. We are herdsmen, after all, and we must be able to follow our herds.

And so the Koutou Emperor sat upon our eastern flank, making curvetting raids into our territory, in a vain attempt to steal our herds without committing too much of his people to a war, just yet.

Still, it must be remembered that the God of Koutou was Seiryuu, the God of War; and the weight of the army arrayed against us was growing greater and greater, every day. The Great Khan was considering several courses of action placed before him, and he was no believer in the prophecy of deliverance by the hand of the Priestess of Genbu, though he did burn incense at the Shrine of the Snake-Turtle. Though he was no believer, he was aware that many within the nation were, and he could not afford to lose their trust.

This anticipated invasion was the sole topic of conversation in the court of the Great Khan for several months before the cool, early-winter day, on which I begin my story.

My name is Mei Ling, a not uncommon name among the people of Hokkan. That it is mine is a thing most unusual. For without boasting I may say that I was not a common child. My mother was a concubine of the Great Khan, and I was born to her after she was lifted from among his wife's ladies and into his harem.

Ironically, after he had done so and my mother was his, he lost interest in her, returning to his wife and his more favoured concubines. My mother never forgave him that, and spent her time involving herself in the harem's intrigues. To my mind, that was a better occupation than any other, which might have spared her attention enough to notice me. The Great Khan did not notice me at all.

The only person who saw me as more than yet another of the Great Khan's offspring was my nurse, Chiu Yuen, who loved me dearly, and whom I took shameless advantage of, as children do. I loved her very much, but that didn't stop me disobeying her at almost every opportunity.

As a daughter of the Great Khan, I had been educated beyond the rote recitation of the sagas that the common child learnt - I could read and write, and had been shown copies of poetry and stories. Of course, I was not educated nearly as well as my brothers were. Among my people, too much learning in a woman is a sign of immorality.

Which will explain why I was in the Temple of Genbu that day.

Nobody knew what I was or what I could do. The Great Khan did not believe in the legend of the Priestess of Genbu, my mother did not notice, I trusted neither my half-siblings nor the court eunuchs and it was too much fun to use my abilities to hide under poor Chiu Yuen's nose.

I was a very sly and secretive child. I liked keeping secrets and hiding away from others. My Shichiseishi talent assisted me tremendously and I exploited it.

If the Priests had known I was there they would have had an absolute fit. As it was, when I sneaked into the Temple of Genbu to read the copy of The Four Gods Sky And Earth that Taiitsukun had given to the Priests, I drew the shadows down around me, hiding me from view.

I always enjoyed reading the scroll. It made me feel important, as if I wasn't a disregarded daughter, who didn't even have the title of 'Lady'. Genbu Shichiseishi Uruki didn't need a title - the honour of being herself was more than enough.

I was settling down into the descriptions of the Shichiseishi when I felt the burning on my ankle. I glanced down, and sure enough, there it was: the jie glowing blackly against my fair skin. The symbol 'nu', Woman, shone dark into the darkness of the Temple.

I've always felt like Genbuseikun was having a wonderful laugh when He chose me, with that symbol. Most times, I share the joke.

"Hello," a soft voice called at the door. I didn't uncloak myself as I turned to look.

A girl stood there. She was wearing the oddest clothes - a dress, much thinner than the padded overtunic, overskirt and trousers that I and every other Hokkan maiden wore. Her garment was a thin, summery wrapped jacket and wrapped skirt that overlapped and were bound by a contrasting length of cloth that stretched from her breasts (and I could see the curve of her bosom under her garment - her maid should be severely reprimanded!) to her hips, which was itself bound with a cord. She was very pretty - her hair was long, the colour of a raven's wing, and her skin was pale, even for a person of Hokkan. Her eyes were too wide for true beauty, but there was something both cool and welcoming about her.

She stepped into the sanctuary - a place that was only comfortable for Genbu's servants, such as myself. Even the Great Khan was unsettled there and sought to leave almost as soon as he entered.

She moved within the sanctuary quietly and easily. "Please," she said softly. "I know you're there. Please come out. I won't tell, I promise." Her voice wavered, and so I slowly released my cloak of shadows.

Her eyes widened. "How did you do that?"

I smiled and shrugged, as I knew her for who she really was.

"My name is Uruki," I told her.

"I am Okuda Takiko," she replied.

And that clinched it. Only one person would wear foreign garments, have a foreign name, make my Shichiseishi symbol glow, detect me in my shadow cloak, arrive right at this time in our history and be comfortable in Genbu's sanctuary.

I knelt down before her and performed the obeisance to the Great Khan to her. She seemed shocked as I rose up from bowing so deeply that my forehead touched the flagstones of the Temple.

"Please don't be shocked," I said quietly. "Please let me explain. I've been waiting such a long time for you, my Lady...."

She accepted the explanation I gave her quietly, and frowned thoughtfully.

"I know it sounds fantastic -" I started, only to have her impatiently wave a hand at me.

"I believe you," she replied calmly. "He appeared to me as I fell into this world. So I believe you." She nodded at the statue of Genbu. "The thing is that I have to find seven people - six, actually - with special powers, and I shall tell them by the fact that they have a mark somewhere on their bodies." She sighed. "It isn't the sort of thing one can simply go up and ask!"

"They will know you, my Lady," I said positively. "I did."

Lady Takiko sighed. "Very well," she replied. "I'll take your word on it. But, what will the King here say-"

"He shall say nothing," I interjected quickly, "because he shall know nothing. Believe me, please, Lady Takiko - if you speak to the Great Khan, he will not believe you, at best, and assume you are a girl attempting to curry royal favour, at worst. Either way, your quest shall end here, in the court of Tolan. Come away with me, and we'll search for the other six Shichiseishi together."

Lady Takiko looked at me. "But it's obvious that the legend you've told me about is true. I'm here, and you're here - it's not a question of belief."

I thought hard. How to convince her? "It's not just a question of belief, Lady Takiko," I said seriously. "You're a very lovely girl. The Great Khan doesn't pay the respect to Genbu that he should, so I don't think he'd respect the person of Genbu's Priestess either."

Lady Takiko's eyes flickered, as if remembering something from her own past. "All right," she said slowly. "And, Miss Uruki, please just call me 'Takiko'."

"As you wish, Takiko, if you'll just call me 'Uruki'."

I cloaked us both in my shadows - it was a good thing I'd practiced so much - and let us both back to my chambers.

"Why did we come here?" Takiko asked me.

"Because we are about the same size, and if you have nothing to wear but that silky dress, you will die of the cold!"

"I'm glad I came by in time."

Both of us turned around. "Chiu Yuen!" I gasped.

Chiu Yuen gave us both a sad smile. "I don't blame you, Little Miss," she said, pulling out a half-packed bag and beginning to fill it up. "And the Priestess of Genbu too.... I'm very glad I have the chance to meet Your Grace," she said to Takiko.

"You - you knew?" I asked, stupidly. Obviously she knew.

"Whenever you were upset or sick when you were a baby, your symbol would shine, Little Miss," she said heavily. "And often, when I sent you off for lessons you did not like, I would see you duck into a shadow, and the shadow grow darker and you disappear. And I worship Genbu, not the foreigner's Buddha. I've always known, my Little Miss."

Spontaneously, I embraced her. "I'll miss you, Chiu Yuen," I told her, blinking away tears that I hadn't known I was shedding.

"Go well, Little Miss... but can you tell me something, please?"

"Anything," I promised. I saw Lady Takiko smiling wistfully from the corner of my eye, as if she were wishing for something similar for herself.

"Tell me, please... which Shichiseishi are you?"

I giggled. "Uruki. I'm Uruki."

Chiu Yuen looked thoughtful. "Lady Uruki... no, Little Miss, it doesn't suit you at all. I'll have to keep calling you Little Miss."

I hugged her again, because there were no words to say.

I had never been out of the Imperial Court before in my life.

Takiko took it much better than I did. Where I was coughing and wheezing from the dust and stained and dirty from where I had not dodged a cart rumbling past through a puddle, she seemed to glide over the effluvium of the streets. I was almost jealous.

Before we had stepped out, though, Takiko had said to me, "I was born and raised in a city like this, Uruki. I know how to move in it; so don't worry about me."

So I comforted myself with the thought that if I had been a child of the city, I too would have glided over the dirt and known when to step to avoid a splashing. I still, however, felt very sorry for myself as I dragged myself along in my Priestess' wake.

I was so busy feeling sorry for myself that I didn't notice Takiko stop and turn away from the path we had planned on as we left the Palace. I almost bumped into her as she stood stock-still on the roadway.

"This way," she said briefly, turning onto a side street.

I was too out-of-breath to do anything but follow her.
 

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