A/N: Notice. I split the chapters now, because chapter "2" is torn apart on the app thanks to its length. So I will from now on split the chapters into two parts. I am not a big fan of short chapters, because they interrupt the pacing ,but it seems like Wattpad works better with shorter chapters, although they are more fit for quick paced thrillers or multiperspective novels... Anyhow...
Changes on the update schedule: Because I am publishing this story on fanfiction.net and AO3 as well, I will publish the first part here mere hours before they appear on those platforms. The second part will follow here soon. I'll post a new chapter every two weeks.^^
A legend was told among the people of Tsuchimikado and Narukami, that one day a falling star would appear at the firmament, announcing the end of the raging war among both of the kingdoms. It would fall down on earth and split the Crystal of Stars into two. Two pieces of one form and shape would be shared between the kingdoms, ending their battle for the source of power at the feet of its pedestal.
So it was told for a thousand of years with the war going on relentlessly.
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The thunder of hoes, frequently crashing into the solid ground, could be heard from afar. The air smelled like rain.
Excited she stood in front of her home, waiting for the arrival of the riders.
So long had he been gone.
Years had passed by since he left her mother and her to go on his mission.
They had expected him to be gone a few months. Instead many winters crossed their land, until they finally heard word from him.
She couldn't wait to hear his stories about the land behind the horizon. A land that many stories were told about, painting the ugliest images of its inhabitants. She doubted, that Tsuchimikado people really had two eyes of a different color that would rotten you with darkness and pull your soul into the pits of hell, if you'd gazed into them too long.
These were stories to scare of children and antagonize the people of Tsuchimikado. She was sure of that. Having studied all these years, since her father had left, Mayura had different ideas about the hostility between those people and the people of Narukami. It was all thanks to the Crystal in the legend, that this war was going on as it had for a thousand of years now. She was pretty sure of that. And she guessed that not one of Tsuchimikado's inhabitants looked like the monsters, they were described to be.
Folding her hands in front of her, she waited as the wind pushed the long cloth of her kimono against her legs and gently caressed over her pinned up hair, which people called to be the one of an angel, since it was a sunny blond fading of into a freshly green.
The thundering noise grew louder as the riders got closer. Soon they would break through the small forest hiding the estate and dividing it from the main city.
Her father had left their city to her mother's reign. All those years Mayura had learned and trained herself, never knowing when she would have to rule herself. So she'd studied politics, economics, rhetoric and warfare everyday for hours until her eyes hurt and her sight blurred.
She couldn't wait to show her father the new skills and knowledge, she'd obtained.
"You will catch the death, if you stand in the wind like," she heard her mother's soft voice from behind her, as she walked towards her with a cape.
With a grateful smile Mayura turned around and helped her mother placing the cape over her shoulders of her brightly colored kimono. Her mother was a kind soul, always thinking about others. She could have sent a servant to bring Mayura her cape but instead the feudal lady of Narukami lowered herself to bring her daughter something to shield herself against the cold, heartless wind. That was why people of Narukami loved her and looked up to her. Nobody questioned the current lordship of the Amawaka's. Even with their lord having been gone for so long. "Thank you, Okaasama. (1)"
With only a kimono and a cape shielding her mother as well, she stood beside Mayura, both waiting for the riders to arrive.
And then finally Mayura noticed a motion behind the branches. A troupe of five riders broke cover and became visible on the path leading towards the house of the feudal lord.
Her father rode at its front, instead of being flanked to be shielded from all sides like royals were usually escorted. An indifferent and bored look was adorning his face.
Mayura couldn't help but smile seeing her father after so many years being stubborn as ever.
At a trot the riders lead their horses over the court towards the main house. Mayura looked at the companions of her father. One she had known for a while.
Inanaki Arata-san had dark hair that looked blue, at the spots the sun kissed. He had been an old comrade of her father's at the front. But Mayura had gotten to know him differently. When she was smaller, he would always read out tales to her from his books, which he cherished so much. Silly, trivial literature her father had called it with a snarl. Yet, Mayura enjoyed the beautiful fairy tales of lone samurai and unrequited love. Back then, when her father had left Narukami, Arata-san rode out at the side of her father. She imagined, he would be missing his books brutally by now, since he hadn't been able to take them along with him.
Her eyes skipped over the other riders. Two in the row were soldiers of the Narukami force, she didn't know the name of. They probably joined the other three, when they arrived at the coast.
And then there was one of the riders that stroke her attention. He wore white, oddly short hair and had skin so dark like she'd never seen it before. Was this a Tsuchimikado inhabitant? Intrigued she wondered, if they all had dark skin as his.
The riders stopped at the signal of her father, a few feet away from her mother and her.
Nobody said a thing, as both parties stared at each other. That was until her father drawled in a monotone voice, "Oi, missed me?"
A bubbly laughter broke out of her and her feet moved on her own, as she moved to the side of her father's horse and softly grazed a hand over its head.
When she had seen him off, her height had barely reached the stomach of the animal. Now six years later she had grown the body of a woman at normal height and could easily climb the horse's back.
She looked up at the man most people knew as Amawaka Seigen, the ninth lord of the Amawaka dynasty. Of course she held a lot of respect for the man, who ruled a nation so flawless, his people would trust him to leave for a mission with unforeseeable results and without a fixed term. But mostly she held gentle feelings for the man with dark, tired eyes and long dark hair, which was wrapped up in a ponytail crossing the whole of his back. Gentle feelings, that now broke through the surface.
"Otoosama, welcome back," she mumbled, while tears rose to her eyes.
She knew, he had never been the person to show his emotions. So when he faced her with a glint in his eyes, it was enough for her to understand, that he felt the same way she did.
Dismounting the animal, her father dropped to the ground. After stretching his neck, he nodded for the other riders to follow him. "It's good to be home. I couldn't stand the sight of the palm trees and sand any longer."
"Palm trees? I think, I've read about them. Don't they bear fruits with a skin as thick as stone?", Mayura asked curiously. She wished, she could see them someday. Maybe, if this war would end, one day, she could.
"They do," a dark, unfamiliar voice joined in, "and they conceal the most refreshing juice and delicious flesh." She looked over the horses back at the foreigner. It had been him talking.
With a risen eyebrow she watched him. He didn't have two colored eyes. He was a normal man speaking the same language as her. The only difference was the darker shade of his skin.
After staring a while his face broke out into a grin. He bawled out, "Oh, forgive me, you must be Hime-sama. (2)"
She blinked in wonder at him. He was so straightforward and loud. She liked it. A smile broke on her face and she nodded at him. "Mayura would be enough."
"I heard so much about you. I am Ioroi Narumi, warrior of a tribe of Tsuchimikado."
Eager to learn more, Mayura inquired, "Warrior? It's that what you call your soldiers?"
He grinned at her fully now. "If that's what you call them here, then it is."
"Good to see you again, Mayura-sama." Turning around Mayura spotted Arata-san, who smiled at her friendly.
She was grateful to see him again safely returned. Again tears started to flood her eyes and speechlessly she nodded at him.
Like always he squeezed his shut. Never had she seen them fully opened. "You have grown into a fine lady."
Her face grew warm at the compliment. Sometimes she was insecure about her figure being too womanly. Once she was told, she had a body many women would die for, thanks to her broad hips and large breasts. Most of the times she would find them rather annoyingly in the way. Receiving now a kind compliment without any suggestions, made her feel good. With a light voice she thanked him.
" Oi, enough with the greetings," she heard her father say from behind her and she needed to turn around to look at him.
He stood beside her mother, who was in tears of joy at the return of her long gone husband.
Suddenly his eyes changed. In a much darker voice he told her, "We need to talk.
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"You can't expect me to do this," she yelled at her father, while kneeling on the ground. She believed it to be a bad joke. He couldn't possibly be serious. After being absent for six year, he couldn't actually come back and command her to get married.
"I do~," he slowly replied, watching her from his standing point, looking down on her. His arms hanging down loosely at his side within the wide arms of his blue kimono. His armor had been taken off by the servants on their way inside.
When he had told her, they needed to talk, she wouldn't have thought, it was something like this. All of a sudden she was on the brim of loosing everything, she had known. And all thanks to her father and the feudal lord of Tsuchimikado, who plotted their children to marry, for the sake of ending the war. Aggravated she inquired, "What about the legend? What about the falling star ending the war?"
Her father sighed obviously unnerved and shook his shoulders. "That's just an ancient legend. Nothing but a fairy tale, that had been around for ages. Nothing happened so far and probably never will."
She shook her head in disbelief. Looking down on the mats covering the floor of the main room, she asked herself, why people had fought for so long under the lead of a legend, that wouldn't come true anyway. And this now, an arranged marriage, was supposed to be the solution to a senseless war? "I don't even understand, why we're in this war in the first place."
"You know, it's because of the Crystal," he drawled.
Of course she'd known. It didn't mean she understood it. She had read so many stories about the Crystal and its powers, which affected the two kingdoms equally. Yet, despite all her studies, she could not comprehend the reason, why people had started to spill their blood over it. "Doesn't the Crystal serve both Tsuchimikado and Narukami? Doesn't it give life to the flowers in spring in both kingdoms? Doesn't it rule the sun's course for both our kingdoms to be bathed in light at day? Doesn't it let rivers flow and lend us the air we breathe in the west as well as in the east?"
"It does." Her father's gaze skimmed to the side. In a low voice he murmured, "Thing is, people always want things for their own."
She didn't believe this was her fate, being forced to marry a man, she'd never seen and not once spoke to. There had to be another way. "But you've been there! You've been in Tsuchimikado for so long, negotiating peace, haven't you?"
"I have~."
"So why is the war still going on, when both kings want to end it?" she inquired harshly.
"It's not easy," he said rather quickly for his usual slow drawl, "Listen, you can't just end a war that has been going on for so long on a whim. People are used to fighting for generations. How could they understand?"
Tears were clouding her eyes. Angry and disappointed tears. "And you want to do that by setting me up?"
Her father put a hand on his hips and looked at her with an unwavering gaze, "You will do that by making an example. If both kingdoms are joined in heritage, they'll both be joined in heart."
She wiped her head to the side and grumbled, "This is foolish."
"It may be so to you. I'd hope, you understand and spare the next generation of soldiers any more pain," he said in a sigh. After closing his eyes once, he tore them open again with a glare, directed at her and continued, "But until you do, you will do as I say."
Blinking the tears, that were threatening to fall, away, she buried her fingers in the silky material of her kimono. She muttered, "As the returned ruler of Narukami?"
"As your father."
"As my father, you shouldn't set me up to marry against my wishes." She raised her voice against her father. The man she always looked up to, who she had always believed was giving his best as a lord, as a leader and as a husband and father.
He looked taken aback. His gaze dropped to the ground and in low voice he replied, "I wish for you to find love in your marriage. It doesn't mean, you won't. I've got to know your fiance pretty well. He is kindhearted, a bit too soft on the inside, but a good man with pure beliefs."
"Even if he is. It doesn't say, I will fall for him," she exclaimed.
"I am sorry, I couldn't be the father, you needed. Not even now."
She couldn't bear it anymore, the sadness in her father's eyes and voice. The regret breaking through the surface. She couldn't stand the need to comfort him, while she wanted to stay angry.
In one swift motion she stood up and turned away. "I'm not angry at you for not being there. I understand, why you weren't. I am angry for you forcing this onto me, because you weren't capable of ending the war yourself."
Without a second thought, she went straight to her room. As she shut the shoji (3) behind her, she felt desperation pushing her down, making her slip to the floor. A deep sigh pushed its way out of her lungs through her lips.
What was she going to do? What could she possibly do?
She didn't want to marry a stranger. It wasn't that she didn't want to marry at all. She had just turned sixteen, just arrived at the age suitable to marry and had not put one thought to it. Because of the stories Arata-san had told her all these years ago, she had imagined her future husband to be virtuous and kind, strong and fearless like the lone samurais. Right now she would be happy, if she just could choose herself.
Was it truly hopeless to end the war just like that? Did the people really need a symbol to lead them to peace?
No, she couldn't, wouldn't believe that.
Rising to her feet, a plan formed itself in her head.
This time she would go and make the negotiations.
She wanted to have a word with the feudal lord of Tsuchimikado himself. What was the house called again? She had read it somewhere. Was it Ikruga? Ikaga?... Ikaruga. That was right.
If her own father wouldn't listen to her, would he?
It was a low chance, she got, but it was all she had to save herself from getting trapped in a marriage, she didn't want.
Walking to her table, she grabbed for a piece of paper and ink, after she knelt down.
She would at least have him know, where she was going.
Mayura knew, she could trust her best friend to keep her whereabouts a secret. After all she was doing this for him in some ways, too.
If she succeeded, she would spare him a life as a soldier at the front. Something Rokuro had signed up for in a foolish moment of heroic ideals. When he'd told her, what he had done, she had given him a speech. He wasn't cut out for being a soldier.
Resolution formed in her heart and words on the paper.
It was time to end this infinite war for good.
Putting away the letter, she grabbed things, she would need on her quest, recalling the things she learned thanks to Arata-san's stories. On her way out she would grab some books about the wildlife, too.
After leaving her room, she first walked to the wash house, picking up a yukata, garments and bindings of the maids, that were spread out to dry. There was no way she would make it far, dressed in the colorful kimono of a princess.
Having collected all things needed, some food, a dagger, a part of her savings, books and clothing, she sneaked through the main house to the back.
When she came across the tea room, she spotted her mother there, hopefully smiling and sitting in front of a table, on which three cups were placed. Two of those were neglected.
Mayura's heart ached and tears started to constrict her throat. The pressure on her chest was painful. She knew, she would see her mother again, but leaving her for an unknown period of time and without a notice, felt so cruel, it made her want to drop her pack and the plans of adventure, run up to her mother and hug her.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she pushed out these thoughts and went on with her plans.
Luckily she made it fast out of the building and through the back of the estate to the small forest shielding her home, knowing the positions of the guards by heart.
Quickly she hid the letter in the trunk of the tree, she and Rokuro had chosen years ago for their correspondence.
A heavy sigh left her, when she looked back one last time at the estate, that was now mostly hidden behind a wall of trees.
'I'm sorry, Okaasama and Otoosama,' she thought and turned her back on her home, facing the start of her journey.
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(1) Okaasama – This is one of the suffix changes I hinted on in the preface. Since it is a feudal-like time and Yukari is the royal lady, Mayura would address her more formally.
(2) Hime-sama – princess / daughter of a nobleman
(3) shoji – Japanese screen door with wooden frame
I figured, I won't explain yukata and kimono, because that's a common thing in most mangas and animes. If you want an explanation though, don't be shy and ask.^^
A/N: That's it for now. Are you excited? I literally couldn't hold my horses down, after this chapter. I love feudal/medieval times as well as quest literature (sucker for role playing games). And I love angry Shimon. hehe
Ah and there was something I wanted to say to about the characters. I had to make Shimon and Mayura both very educated. Since they are nobles, they are able to speak very eloquently, if they want to. I kinda figured by giving Mayura a trait like being well-read she has something to put to use and that would also fit her character, since we know she was diligent at school. Again, you are welcomed to disagree. ;)
Last but not least, in this story, Shimon is truly a biological sibling of Sayo and Keiji (otherwise the whole arrangement prompt wouldn't make sense in a feudal-like setting). In my point of view they are siblings in the manga as well, blood related or not.
Don't forget to vote.^^