Leviathan 2

Intro | Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

His meditations were filled with the face of a woman. As a monk he wasn't forbidden to be with women, even to marry, but he had always considered people a distraction. She was a distraction, he could think of little else. What began as curiosity became a wondering of what the touch of her skin would be like and how her eyes would look filled with passion. When he thought those things he grew angry at the one who gave her the child. He wasn't angry because of the child but because someone else had what he couldn't, what he wanted more than anything. He had to deny his urges, stay away from her until his sword was done but he couldn't set his mind on the doing. Takashi was ready in understanding but not in spirit, he could make a great sword but it wouldn't live like a true Nishimura sword. His spirit was troubled and he needed peace, he needed to return to the monastery.

Takashi didn't admit to himself that he wanted to see her but when he did he spoke of nothing and kept his pleasure hidden. Even there in his sanctuary he couldn't find what he sought, finally he went to the monks and asked how he could find the peace he had lost. "Come to terms with your distractions." they told him and he jumped at the chance to have all that he wanted.

She hated the child, it almost died during birth and she wished it had. "Diminished capacity" they pronounced but that wasn't what made her hate it, the child was a constant reminder of what she had lost when she left Torajiro. She could have married him, he was samurai but he was from a fallen house, she could disgrace him no further. She was too proud, though, because he was samurai and she low born she would be despised in his society. The thought of eyes looking down on her all the time made her flee her only love. She'd been a fool, she would gladly pay any price to be with him but it was too late, she could never go back to him carrying the fool of a child she bore him. As if mocking her, it never stopped laughing, "Damere, Baka!" she would scream and wish it dead.

She was going to kill it that night then she saw her rescuer. He took her from the inn and when he stopped to talk she could see he would take her away again. Miya wasn't surprised when he came to her a few nights later and asked her to marry him. He had one condition, the child had to be left with the monks, she didn't need to think about it, she was prepared to accept. She asked no questions and it came as a complete shock that the quiet-spoken monk was a samurai of a great house. She left the man she loved for that reason and ended up marrying someone she didn't love only to live the life she ran from.

His distractions had been dealt with, the child was with the monks so he wouldn't have to think of the father and Miya was with him so he wouldn't have to think of her. Takashi turned his mind to his sword, during the day he worked the steel, bringing out its shape, at night, after a brief time with her, he meditated. He could shape the steel, find its inner shape and bring it out, but he didn't know how to give it life. One night his meditation was interrupted by the announcement that he had a son. The thought that his wife carried his child had been a minor distraction but when his son was born Takashi realized just how important it was. His son was heir to the Nishimura name, one day Takashi could lay down his responsibilities and return to the monastery. As baby Masami grew Takashi finished shaping the sword, it only awaited the breath of life. It was a beautiful blade and when it lived it would be the finest Nishimura sword ever made.

Before his son could understand Takashi told him stories of the family, mainly he told a story of betrayal and revenge. It was to be Masami who avenged the family name, he was heir now, he would be young and Takashi was getting old but mainly Takashi had his own life to think of. He had always resented being taken from the monastery and as soon as Masami came of age he would go back, it never crossed his mind that he was running away. He wasn't a warrior, he wasn't a killer, he never learned those things from the monks, he was a man of peace and study. He had no purpose for making swords except obligation to the family name and he knew that was why he couldn't finish the sword. He had given the blade shape but no purpose, it couldn't live without a reason and he knew the reason, the life he would breath into it. He polished his purpose into it and sharpened its edge with meaning, when the sword was done it sang with life, it only needed a name and he called it Fukushu, Vengeance.

When Masami was strong enough his father placed the sword in his hands, "Fukushu." he said. Masami held the weapon, not understanding, but he learned the meaning soon enough. When Masami was old enough his father sent him to the Gaxtix monastery to be trained by the monks there. The Gaxtix was an order of assassins renowned throughout the universe as having never been seen, all their dealings were done through holo avatars in sim chambers linked to a busy net. A hacker once tracked the location of their net, his dead body was marked as a Gaxtix kill and dumped in the middle of the busiest spaceport on Trader's Hand, no one saw how it got there. Before Masami left his father placed Fukushu in his hands, "When you return," the old man said, "you will take this sword and use it as was intended, to avenge our name and destroy our enemy."

~|~

As he figured they found the ghjo but they didn't look any further and he got through the checkpoint with a weapon, he kept his eyes open for a way out. At first he didn't know why but he passed up more than one possible escape route, then he realized he was looking for something, someone, Bastard. He didn't understand the reason he risked his freedom to go after him, he owed Bastard nothing but he was risking his life for him anyway. Draven followed turnings and branchings and knew he would come to Bastard's cell eventually. His partner was inside when he found the cell, Draven left three dead getting there and picked up three blasters doing it. The longer he'd been in those tunnels the less chance he had of getting out, picking up Bastard made the odds of their escape near impossible. Draven liked a gamble.

They ran through tunnels looking for a way out, the sound of running feet in the distance. Bastard hadn't stood up to the schooling as well as Draven and he began falling behind, Draven wasn't even winded. Finally Bastard fell and as Draven waited for him to get up the pounding of feet drew nearer, Draven picked him up and ran. He began slowing down and one of the runners got in a shot that took Draven in the back, he stumbled and nearly went down but a rush of adrenaline got him moving again. The strangeness of his mind, the mutated part of him, kept him moving but the pain was incredible and he began losing focus. He ran in a dream, turning and firing on shadowy figures chasing him, others ran with him, others who'd run with him before, who'd run with him again and again. A voice came to him, "We made it out?" and without knowing if it were true the Snail said, "Yeah..." as he felt himself falling.

"Get up, boy!" the monk rebuked, he wanted to cry but that would only get him a beating. The lessons were hard and punishment for failure was harsh, Masami was punished often. His life was misery and he barely understood why, his father wanted him to be an assassin, he knew the family story but it had no meaning to him. He had no interest in dealing death, no interest in the family name, he only wanted one thing and that was to make swords. That wasn't exactly true, he also wanted Kei Kaoin. It didn't matter that he wasn't a man yet and she nearly a woman, she was the most beautiful, most powerful girl he'd ever seen and at the age of nine he made it a life purpose to have her. She was the top student in his class at the monastery and she barely knew he existed except as another weak opponent. Masami knew he could never have her until he proved himself and when everyone else slept he studied and practiced, when they rested he worked. The Gaxtix were specialists in arcane techniques of stealth and killing and Masami, not a powerful person, knew that through those studies he would make himself known.

Tranos Griutik, he found it in a forgotten volume, a technique he'd never heard of and, from the amount of dust on the book, he supposed no one living had either. Tranos Griutik is the ability to instill purpose into something inanimate, give it a short life, one long enough to complete a task. Masami practiced the technique in secret and by the time he was twelve he'd mastered it. It was his last year at the monastery and he had yet to distinquish himself in the eyes of Kei but he would change that the next time they were tested. He would be given a target to assassinate and he was to do it without leaving a trace that he was there, when he passed this test he would be a Gaxtix assassin with the right to mark his kills with his new name. His test began on Trader's Hand.

He followed signs only a Gaxtix would know to a bar near a spaceport. It seemed like a typical spacer bar, loud, rowdy, full of gambling and fighting drunks but more Gaxtix signs led him to a sim chamber. He loaded his avatar and waited for his client to contact him. Clients are required to show their true selves when dealing with a Gaxtix, one look at a person and they are remembered for life, it never pays to cross a Gaxtix assassin. A K'Lj'Nk stepped into the chamber, clearly afraid to be dealing with someone so deadly. Masami waited in silence, Gaxtix never spoke, there was no need, the price was always the same no matter the importance of the target. The K'Lj'Nk showed Masami an image of the target, another K'Lj'Nk, and the deal was done without a word passing between them.

Masami found his target on Kol Hage. Tranos Griutik is invoked by a long, complex incantation that Masami spent a year learning and another year mastering, it took an hour to say and he had to keep the object he was animating in sight the whole time. He followed his target to a restaurant and pretended to drink at the bar while muttering the incantation. He'd watched his victim long enough to know his habits, he ate the same meal at the same restaurant every day while working on his personal. He was always working or talking on his personal, usually both, and it was the personal that Masami chose to animate. The man would finish his meal and go back to his office, Masami would be on the way back to the monastery when the personal overloaded its power cells, the explosion would be small but enough to blow the busy man's face to pieces.

"You have a responsibility to the family!" the old monk was furious when Masami came home with a woman, "You have no right to distractions until it's fulfilled." he pronounced but Masami wouldn't be denied. "You'll have your vengeance, old man, and then you can run away to your monastery. This is my house, I'll do as I please." he stated as a matter of fact, the next day he married Kei and the day after he began the hunt.

~|~

Arleen didn't know where she was, some world, somewhere, they were always on the move and she quit asking the names of the places they went. It was all the same to her, some city, always walking until it was time to run. The shaman taught them a waking sleep and a way of using their energies so they never had to stop. It was the only life she knew, her past life a dim memory overwritten by the endless walking. The nights were the worst, watching the darkness, waiting for the hands or the running feet. They were always found, maybe it took days, maybe months but eventually they had to run and then her life became a nightmare. Sometimes she knew when they were coming and had time to move on before the shadows came but sometimes she didn't see them coming and they had to run, sometimes fight. Worse were the grasping hands that sometimes came out of the shadows, without warning he would be caught and pulled in and they would have to go in after him. That dark land littered with dead was the worst nightmare of all and when she dreamed it was always of dead, staring eyes.

~|~

His life had been given to a single purpose and he'd been relentless in pursuing it but he made the mistake of wanting something more and it destroyed him. He sat alone and yearned for another time, a time when he had something in his life besides vengeance, a time when he loved and was loved. He never left his room but sat all day drinking tea and staring out at the mountains, at night he stared at the lights from the monastery. Torajiro knew he'd thrown his life away, he should have devoted it to a noble purpose, he should have sought a higher existence, instead he did his mother's bidding. Only once in his life he lived for himself, allowed himself pleasure, but it was ripped away and he never knew why. She seemed so happy that night, gave herself willingly, eagerly, but in the morning she was gone without a word. He searched for her but at the end of a year he gave up and went into seclusion. He saw no one but a trusted servant who knew better than to speak in his presence so Torajiro was surprised one day to receive a package. He couldn't understand why he'd be getting anything, the outside world was no longer a part of his life and there was no indication of who it came from.

When he opened the box and saw the exquisite sword he understood. It was an act of defiance, his mother wanted the whole Nishimura family dead but Torajiro left one alive. The blade sang with life, he knew the purpose that quickened it and with his own hand he fulfilled it.

~|~

Masami lost interest in Kei when she couldn't give him a male heir. Several died in childbirth, all that did live was a sickly girl Kei called Takako. Masami wanted nothing to do with the child and sent her to his father's monastery, Kei, devastated at the loss of yet another child, killed herself. The monks had no time for a sick child so they turned her over to the care of their young servant. The boy had no idea what to do with the crying child so he tied her to his back and went about his life. The child quieted down after a time and they became inseparable. When she could walk she followed him everywhere, helping with his duties and his collection. She loved finding interesting things to put in the boxes and they spent many nights looking through them. Many times Takako would ask, "Why do you keep these things, Baka?", and he would always answer, "Do something.", but never said what. He never said much, when he did speak it was only to her. The simple, hearty life they led strengthened Takako and by the time she was fifteen she was ready to leave the monastery, Baka was twenty-three. The monks were sending Takako to a school in another prefecture and it was meant that she wouldn't be returning. A week before she was to leave Baka went to his room and didn't come out, whenever she came to the door he would shout, "Busy!", and not let her in. She tried every day to see him with no success, finally on the night before she was to go the door opened. She stepped into mad beauty, a dream, a nightmare, a mobile that filled the room. "For you." he said and folded the entire thing into a box, the floor was littered with empty boxes, Baka's entire collection.

~|~

When the warning came it was late, she had time to yell, "Run!" and moments later she heard their pursuers. He turned and fired on them, silver shot to slow them down, and then they ran like hell. He showed them how to use their adrenaline, control it so they could stay ahead of the swift shadows. Running down strange streets, staying in the light as much as possible, avoiding the dark at all costs, they pushed on until dawn showed in the sky, they were safe for another day.

~|~

When Jestr awoke he was still in the med ward, the medic had explained the extent of the wound and said he was lucky to be alive. The plasma had burned deep and there was still more reconstructive work to be done on his leg, he'd be there for another two weeks. It was still night and while the ward slept he lay back in his bunk and thought of his dreams. Dark as they were the one that disturbed him the most was being swept down the river in the shadowy land. It seemed like something from the river had attached itself to him and followed him into the waking world, he felt like he wasn't alone, that someone else was in his mind.

~|~

He awoke in a med ward and wondered what he was doing there, then it all came back, the fight, the shot and the shadowy land. He wondered how long he'd been out.

~|~

When he awoke, she awoke.

Excerpt from Shadow Stalkers by S.E.Estes