“He has allies. He’s a friend – and advisor – to the retired-emperor. Goshira has said as much. He wants our help.”
Yora stirred. “The monks say, ‘One spirit, two souls.’ And as it is within each of us, so too is it with the realm. Our lands have always had a dual system of power, Kai, going back all the way to Sora’in, and before. Some say the early emperors ruled as brother and sister, sharing duties, alternating between religious rites and the path of governance.”
“Is that true?”
“I believe it could be. One spirit, two souls. Such is the nature of our world. Calm, and tempestuous, both. Wise, and foolish, both.”
“Dead and alive,” Kai said, breathing the words. “Both.”
“Two hearts,” said Yora. “The empire always defines itself by what it is, and what it isnot. Civilized, against the barbarians in the east and south. Emperor the religious leader, regent chancellor the political. Two powers. There have been, ever since Sora’in banished the gods and monsters from our realm.”
The story of the Sora’in had always been Kai’s favorite: ruler of the Eight Islands, the shaman empress Sora’in was born the first child of Emperor Kotake, descendant of the god Hirume Kotaijin. When she came of age, she was crowned Ten’in, and as she mastered her powers, she was able to manifest both souls within her spirit and transformed into her true form.
Kai remembered details of the story now: how Sora’in was the most powerful human to have lived, how her power rivalled that of the eight million gods; how, after conquering the dragonfly islands, she met the god of the earth to forge a peace between the spirit-world and her own. She married the god of the earth and had a daughter, but after years of peace, Orochi, the serpent-god, arrived, and soon he killed the god of the earth with Sora’in’s own weapon, the sacred spear of heaven, and took her husband’s skin to get into her bed.
When the night came and they lay naked together, he revealed himself in his true nature. She threw him out in fury, but they had already coupled, and the serpent-in-god-skin claimed that marrying her was the price of her powers. “You are for ever married to me now.”
Instead, she killed him, and in her rage cast a spell that banished all gods and monsters from the realm, at the cost of her life, and the spirit-world and the world of the earth were separated for evermore. Sora’in’s daughter took her place and continued the imperial line.
But that was a thousand years ago, Kai thought,and we’re still paying the price.
Ever since, matriarchal rule had been pushed further and further away. Now most emperors were men. Now, the court looked at the untamed houses beyond the mountains and called them barbarians. In winter, they dwell in holes, it was said; in summer, they live in nests. They drink blood. The court dismissed them; colonized them; assimilated them into itself.
Because they need us, Kai thought.
She watched the falling snow. Already it was piling up; some children – noble-boys from the court – dashed into the yard to play beneath the pines. She watched, while the boys, who could not be more than five or six, tumbled and tussled each other into the snow, throwing clumpsat each other and running around the trees. It would still be a cold winter, but for now the snow was light, nearly weightless. A breeze flurried about, the pines swayed, and she thought,It’s like they’re dancing.Feather-tufts drifted from the trees.But the pines don’t have leaves, Kai thought,some thin needles never fall.Unlike the rest, stripped naked in the cold and left with empty branches, frozen, bitter, frail.
“There is a curse in the imperial line,” Yora said. “The royals. It infects the city like a sickness, coming and going…”
“Like Emperor Sutoh,” she said.
“The demon-emperor. Yes.”
“You knew him.”
“I met the exiled prince,” he said, after a pause.
She fought the pressure rising in her chest. “What really happened, uncle? In the war?”
“He challenged Goshira for the throne,” Yora said, simply. “We stopped him.”
“You and my father?”
“Both of us.AndSeikiyo. We used to make fun of him, you know. Because his name sounds like the capital – ‘Seikiyo of Saikyo’. We joked it meant he was destined to rule us all. If only we knew how true that was.”
“The Chiten doesn’t like him.”
“Goshira still wields immense influence from his cloistered court. His precedence as head of the house has let him outflank the Hara regents. A retired-emperor will always stand above the regent body, so he took the retirement, as his father did, so he could rule unfettered. But I am worried… As chancellor, Seikiyo is now essentially considered the emperor’s teacher. Traditionally, he would take no part in court affairs, and defer to the regents, but it’s no secret Seikiyo has no love for the Hara clan. Whatever ceremonial duties he might have, they vanished the same time your father died.” He held a leaf loosely in his palm. “When Seikiyo took what he thought was his.”
“The Hara have been regents for two hundred years, how could they just let that happen?”
“Because for two hundred years they’ve been losing money. And in that time, the families – our families – gained strength. The regents are nobles, not warriors, and they’ve been in decline for years. This is why they call the houses of Keishi and Gensei the ‘fallen leaves’ of the royal family: because we have scattered and divided ourselves around the realm, leaving our home – the emperor’s tree – in ruins.”
“That’s what Goshira told me,” she said softly.
“I know what the retired-emperor has told you. And I know there is some truth in his words.”
“Then we should help him.”
