Chapter 34 - Dirty Laundry (Patreon)

Olfric stared at the two of them, too stunned to speak, his heart lurching in his chest. He stared at the slender woman before him, all graceful curves and poised reserve. A silver pendant with the symbol of the forgotten god Eir gleamed above her breasts. She was pale, paler than what he remembered, with her hair now turned chestnut dark, her plum-shaped face looking thinner, and her eyes the color of storm clouds. Her mouth twitched in dark amusement, as she lifted her elegant, long-fingered hands to show him her empty palms.

Olfric clenched his fists.

“Are you going to attack me again, Olfric?” Maude asked, “I hope you remember how the last time turned out.”

“He does look shell shocked,” said Tanya.

“Maude,” Olfric choked out, unable to believe his eyes “You’re… still you?”

“A little less of a compliment than I’d have hoped for, but I guess it’ll have to do,” said Maude. Her features flickered with a slight tinge of apprehension. “But yes, I’m alive and in the flesh. Would you like me to prove it?”

The vanir, or whatever she was now,lifted her hand and pulled the snow-white glove she was wearing and came forward to touch his cheek, but he staggered back before she could touch him.

“No, you— you just stay right there.”

“What’s going on?” Elena demanded with a ferocity that felt out of place on her otherwise timid demeanor. He knew she could be forceful, but he had never seen her demonstrate a cold assertion like this before.  “Tanya, explain!”

“Oh hello, Elena,” Tanya gushed, her tone overflowing with sweetness. “It’s good to see you again, too. It’s been so long. Oh, everything’s fine, fine. And yourself?”

Elena scowled.

Olfric just kept staring. Even to this date, he remembered that fateful day when he had attacked the Outsider, and the yokai had come after him and Maude. He remembered how the ethereal demon had possessed Maude, twisting her, and then the other yokai had come for him and —

He shut his eyes. The demon was no longer in control. He had gotten free. He was himself.

“Overseer,” he said, the shock and confusion strangulating him. “Do you know for certain that the two can be trusted?”

Tatun Kinosu arched an eyebrow, and eyed the two of them as if for the first time. “They passed all the security tests if that is what you’re asking. Is there something I need to know?”

“Oh yes, Olfric,” said Maude, the glint in her eyes stopping him in his tracks, her expression daring him to keep talking. “Tell him, is there something he needs to know?”

Olfric stiffened. He knew what she was doing. If he tried anything, she’d likely spill the news of his own demonic possession. And just like that, he’d lose his sole chance of trying to get Zuken out. Plus, he reasoned, they were there for Zuken. Whoever this Lady Kandra was, Maude knew her well enough to be her representative.

That left a single question.

How did Tanya escape the borderland?

Last he knew, she and the Outsider had been stranded. But if she was here, where was Aguilar? And how did she meet Maude, or acquire connections with this mysterious Lady Kandra? All of this was too quick, too soon and it was freaking him out.

“No,” he said at last. “There’s nothing. I — My apologies.”

“In that case,” said the Overseer, eyeing all of them curiously, “If you ladies would kindly take a seat? Now that I think of it, I have met you before. Are you not one of Zuken’s? The one that was charged with —”

“Killing an anomaly and committing sin,” said Tanya without the slightest inflection. “And then I was hired by Zuken Banksi to kill the anomaly in the desert, but we aren’t here to trade stories about Asukan duplicity, are we?”

Olfric winced.

“Miss Tanya —” The Overseer began.

Tanya raised a hand, cutting the man off with a confidence that Olfric simply could not place. For as long as he remembered, Tanya was always the silent, calculating type that was always on the outlook for potential predators. She spoke softly, as if apologizing for being present, perfectly content to remain a wallflower in the room, unnoticed by all. She never met anyone’s eyes for more than a flickering  second, always choosing to sit in a corner of the room, close to the door but not enough to give her a blind spot. Again, like a cat that knew it would need to sprint any moment.

But when the bets were off, she’d turn into a terrifying thing. Her blue eyes would get paler, and something about her mana patterns would grow frigid and sharp, like a naked blade pointing at you, and her whole stance widened. She instantly took charge, becoming more aggressive and confident, and given how much was allowed, she’d turn into anything ranging from silent assassin to savage slaughterer without blinking an eye.

As a person growing up in a reputed Clan household, Olfric was no stranger to seeing powerful players. His own father was as close to a Warlord as one could get without being one. Olfric himself was given a powerful marid just so he could rise up to become the first Warlord of his Clan after four generations. His father had often taken him to the courts of the Kings and ensured that he developed solid, political connections. But despite all that, something about Tanya scared him.

He still remembered the day he had seen her take down the entire battalion in the desert. Watching her maintain that whirlwind for hours while they were traveling on shkroi hawks had given him a good estimate of her reserves, but that fight, no, that massacre was something else. Watching her in action was like watching something far larger and infinitely more dangerous than himself, and he knew that if she really ever truly went hostile, his best chance of surviving was to kill her before she even made the conscious decision to attack, or else he’d be crushed by a power greater than he’d ever know.

What was worse was that Tanya knew exactly what she was capable of. Olfric knew that if she really decided to kill him, she’d do so with the same ease with which one put away the trash. She did not boast about it. She did not threaten anyone with it. What she did do, however, was claim that the Outsider was stronger than her.

Far stronger than her.

Olfric really did not know how to compute that. He had seen the guy in action, and while he’d acknowledge that he had power — tons of it, but his skills were mediocre at best. He reminded him of one of those dullards with too much power but very little skill.

It just didn’t add up.

“Please, Overseer,” said the object of his interest, “We both know exactly who hired Zuken Banksi for that anomaly mission. Who funded it, and who arranged the key players for that sham of a mission.”

Olfric flinched.

As if things needed to get any worse. Swallowing, he sat down on his chair, carefully watching her. Tanya was standing in the middle of the room, completely trapped between him and Elena on one end, and the Overseer on the other.

And yet, there  was not a single trace of wariness in her body language. She was utterly, utterly comfortable, like she truly believed that she was in no danger here. It made him wonder, exactly what  transpired in that borderland mission to transform the quirky adventurer he knew into this?

Somehow, he was sure the Outsider had something to do with it.

Tatun Kinosu gave Tanya an even look, one that mixed wariness with resignation. “I’d ask how you uncovered a state secret, but given who you represent, I fear it would be redundant.”

Tanya gave him a look that was part challenge and part apology, and took a seat next to Maude.

“Tanya,” Elena barked. “Explain.”

“Wait for your turn,” Tanya dismissed the changeling, her eyes never leaving the Overseer. Olfric couldn’t help but feel that  he was missing something. No, a lot of things. Including Elena’s strange hostility against her. Then again, Elena had always been a little hostile towards her ever since…

Ever since the Outsider woke up from his death-sleep.

“Lady Kandra assured us you’d help us.”

“Within my capacity as Overseer, yes,” said the man tiredly. “Though I am not sure exactly what a Sinner can bring to the table. Unless, you are here to blackmail me about the anomaly mission?”

Tanya gave him a predatory look. “I wasn’t born yesterday, Overseer. I know perfectly well that I wouldn’t get out of this place alive if I tried to blackmail you. Or Lord Naowa for that matter. No, what I, what we offer is something that might convince Lord Naowa to take Zuken’s side in this matter and help us get him back, no matter the cost.”

“No matter the cost…” murmured the man. “That is a dangerous word you are throwing around me, Miss…”

“Call me Tanya.” There was that look again. “And it should. Why else would we arrange all of this? I assure you, with the right context, everything will make sense.”

Tatun Kinosu relaxed back into his chair and crossed his fingers against his chest. “Fine. I’ll bite.”

“Perhaps,” Maude intervened, “We should set up a warded perimeter around us first? You know what they say, words are like the wind.”

The Overseer raised a single finger above his head, and whirled it around, a tendril of crimson lagging behind as his finger completed the circle. Olfric felt a flicker of the man’s will as he released a tiny bit of power into the circle, which expanded outward, raising a thin, enclosed  barrier around all of them, a sudden, silent tension that was almost entirely impregnable to eavesdropping.

He waited in the pregnant silence, until Tanya spoke up again. “Around two hundred years ago, there was a massive battle fought in the outskirts of Cyffnar, a place that is now known as the Western Expanse. Are you familiar with it?”

“Absolutely,” said the Overseer with a nod. “The fight with the Winter Witch. It is what cemented the legend of the Wind King and established his dominion in the Eaborid Kingdom. Everyone knows that.”

The Winter Witch? Olfric narrowed his eyes. He had always thought of her as  a folktale, devised by bremetan women to frighten their children when they became unruly. A boogeyman of folklore, a fictional demoness destroyed by the heroes of the land, in this case, supposedly by the Wind King himself.

“And do you know exactly what the Winter Witch was?”

“Nothing more than rumors, I’m afraid,” said Tatun Kinosu. “To some, she was a fallen yokai King that had risen after a millennium to seek vengeance. For others, she was a nightmare that had emerged from the Endless Sea. And then there were those that claimed that she was a demoness born out of the mists, like the deadly Ryujin of folklore.”

Olfric watched Tanya intently,noting the multitude of emotions flashing across her demeanor as the Overseer put forward his theories. At one point, he thought he had even registered anger.

“She was real,” said Tanya quietly. “As real as you and I. The Wind King realized that he couldn’t kill her, so he captured her, weakened to the point where she was less than the meanest shade, barely existing and utterly powerless. And that continued to be her existence for the next six or so decades until his unexpected demise. Then, his son, Mujin rose to the throne.”

Olfric blinked, curious at the picture she was painting.

“Mujin Shimizu, then a Level-3 aeromancer, realized that there was no way he would be able to fill in his father’s shoes. His son Yanric also shared that same fate. As you well know, the Empire grants every Sacred Eight Clan a total of two hundred years or three generations’ worth of time, whichever is greater, to Ascend to the King’s mantle. And if not, they risk losing their Sacred Eight status as well as the King’s Kami.”

Olfric knew all that. It was a policy that ensured that power and authority was not limited to a specific few , but instead, changed hands from person to person, clan to clan, after every few centuries. It  kept the Clans on their feet, constantly growing, constantly striving to reach greater and greater feats, either to achieve the Sacred Eight status or fear losing it.

It was why he had come to meet the Overseer with high hopes after all.

“In his desperation, Mujin Shimizu began experimenting upon the Winter Witch, trying to extract her powers, her skills in hope to fuse it with the Shimizu bloodline.”

“I’d say that is preposterous,” said the Overseer softly. “But I do not wish to insult Lady Kandra’s reputation, so I’m hoping you have proof to back your statements. Cross-breeding and polluting our soul is regarded as one of the greatest Sins…” he paused, realizing the faux-pas he had just made. “Well, unless the other person is a ljósálfar, I suppose.”

Maude snorted.

“What’s so funny?” Olfric demanded.

“Oh, nothing,” said Tanya. “Just classic Asukan hypocrisy. Let me tell you a little secret. I’ve spent over three years in the Baramunz Kingdom. I’ve seen the truth. Dalliances with other races are hardly uncommon in the Empire, so long as Asukans clean up after their messes. The Empire’s policy is rather convenient like that.”

“Though Llaisy Kingdom is rather nicer,” said Maude. “Had this been Luthar, there’d be bodies of young vanir boys and girls floating downstream after Asukan lords have had their way with them.”

The Overseer cleared his throat.

“But I digress,” said Tanya. “Mujin experimented on the Winter Witch with everything he had. First through the Eternal Light, then through Incarneum, and other forbidden disciplines, each of them worse than the one preceding it. When everything failed, they resorted to kidnapping hundreds of female victims across different races — bremetan, jotunn, orc, svartalfar, ljosalfar, dökkálfar, vanir, you name it.”

“So the mass disappearances in the Eaborid Kingdom, and the kidnappings in Haviskali…”

“Done by the Shimizu themselves, and conveniently blamed on terrorists, which were hired by them in the first place. All in hope of fusing the Winter Witch’s soul with the victim through the forbidden arts of Hemomancy and Spiritual Possession, to create the anathema we know and fear as Oni.”

“You speak of atrocious things, Miss… Tanya,” said the Overseer. Olfric noticed the small bead of sweat forming on his temples.

“Good,” said Tanya. “It’s about time I started saying atrocious things instead of the other way around.”

She shared an amused look with Maude.

Weird, Olfric thought.

“The Shimizu failed, of course. They failed every single time, until some twenty-two years ago, and Mujin made his son Yanric impregnate one of the more successful test subjects — a bremetan woman in fact, and out of this unholy union, a child was born. A child with potential to ultimately rival the Wind King’s prowess,  a child who’d be a permanent solution to their own shortcomings. A  descendant of the Wind King and the Winter Witch.”

Tanya suddenly whirled to meet Olfric in the eye, and a shudder ran down his spine. And he knew that he wasn’t going to like what would follow.

“That child was me. Tanya Shimizu. Half-sister of Ultaf, beloved daughter of Yanric, and the original heiress of the Shimizu clan. I am Tanya, the wielder of the Wind King’s wrath, his King-class wind-kami, Ezzeron.”

…

…

Olfric stared at Tanya for a second.

“That’s a joke,” he said. “Right?”

She gave him a brief, bitter look. “My entire life has been a joke. But unfortunately for you, this isn't.”

“You are Tanya Shimizu.”

“That was my name, yes.”

Olfric did not need to look at the Overseer to realize the look he was giving her. Tanya, on the other hand, looked perfectly at home. Olfric wondered exactly what kind of information gave her that level of confidence. Also, where was Lukas Aguilar again?

“Miss… Shimizu,” said the Overseer, staring at her with hard, judgmental eyes. “Can you give me some proof… what you say is…”

“I could always unveil Ezzeron before you,” she offered casually. “But I doubt this citadel would stay standing, so I will just say this. I have eighty-seven percent ECR. Go ahead, check it out. I’m certain you know how.”

Olfric choked. ECR, or Experience-Conversion-Ratio, was more often than not, a secret to power. It represented how much experience was converted to soul capacity when leveling up. Unlike skills or Levels, a person’s ECR was fixed from birth, and for most bremetans, that did not cross the thirty-five mark. Occasionally there would  be someone with ECR within the lower forties and more often than not, the person would become a strong spiritist and end up becoming the Overseer of a town or an army general. The only people Olfric knew boasted of ECR in their fifties or maybe in the lower sixties were Warlords and Kings.

But eighty-seven percent?

“Mujin Shimizu wanted me to be his puppet. My father rescued me and helped me escape, which cost him his life. All these years, I have been hunted by the Shimizu across different kingdoms, and now, they attacked Zuken just to get to me.”

Tatun grimaced, his dark eyes concerned. He started to speak, but then stopped, several times.

“If you are telling the truth, then you are a deviant.”

“I am.”

“And you just revealed it in front of a political figure.”

“I did.”

He shook his head. “Are you not afraid of what can happen to you?”

“A lot of things could happen to a lot of us, Overseer Kinosu,” Tanya said dismissively. “For instance, you could choose to attack me or get me arrested. I could choose to unleash Ezzeron, and check if this citadel, no, if there is a Haviskali around after that. You could also ponder on exactly why Lady Kandra had sent us, and what exactly could I, or rather, we could offer that might convince you to overlook the dark past of my ancestry.”

Tanya smiled. She might as well have pointed wind blades at everyone’s throat. “In case it wasn’t clear, that was a threat. In the next ten seconds, all predators inside this building could become the prey. Or, you could hear our terms, and maybe we’d all stand to benefit from it.”

“You are either too sure of yourself or too stupid to commit such brazen tactics,” warned the Overseer.

“I learnt it from my dear grandfather, Overseer Kinosu,” said Tanya, revealing her white teeth. “If violence doesn’t solve your problem, you’re not using enough of it. Question is, what are you going to do?”

It was a stalemate, Olfric realized. Well, a stalemate where one side held all the cards. The false calmness before the storm. He noticed the deep, worry lines form between the Overseer’s  hard, steady eyes. His hands, large and blunt-fingered, lay on the table, and Olfric could see the scars on them — the graffiti of violence. Whatever Tatun Kinosu did, the results would be sudden, precipitous and damning.

The man exhaled. “What do you want?”

“Three things,” Tanya chirped. “One simple invitation, one simple favor, and one simple treaty.”

“Which are?”

Tanya began counting off her fingers. “The invitation, first. I’d request Lord Naowa to engage Mujin Shimizu for a day, or at least, several hours. The date can be of his own choosing, provided we know of it beforehand. That is unconditional.”

Tatun cocked his head. “I cannot confirm that without talking to the Shogun myself. But I think it can be arranged.”

“The favor next. We’d request that the Cobalt Army stationed at the Desert be relocated for a single day of our own choosing.”

“That might be a bit difficult, after all—”

“That is non-negotiable, Overseer. Believe me, this is me trying to limit the casualties, not declare a war on Haviskali’s boundaries.”

The man grunted. “And the treaty?”

“Lord Naowa pledges a treaty of mutual support with the next Lady of Shimizu, and second my appeal as Ezzeron’s wielder before the Emperor.”

“None of them are simple, Miss Shimizu,” he murmured. “And I sincerely hope you realize the  gravity of your demands. Lord Naowa will be most displeased if you do not give him something else in return.”

And then Tanya did something absolutely frightening. She smiled. And suddenly, Olfric felt a lot more afraid.

“You have got it backwards, Overseer,” said Tanya, as she got up from her chair. “This is not me requesting anything from Lord Naowa. When you meet him next, tell him, and tell him exactly this.” That smile resurfaced again. “The reason he hired Zuken all those years ago? One that he had failed to achieve? I can make it come true.”

She stood up, and Maude followed.

“I expect to hear from you soon, Overseer. Please do not make me wait.”