Saya - XIV Write 2023

You reach for something to hold onto. The only thing you find is pain. It'll have to do. The pain is a language without words. It comes from somewhere deeper than words, deeper than your mind. The pain is the old animal instinct, the last desperate scrap of life still inside you. As long as you're hurting, you're alive. Where does it hurt? (transition-time:5s)[[`(LOVE) "My heart. I wanted to defend mother. I let her down."` |Expo1]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(COURAGE) "My soul. I could have beaten the Tengu--but I flinched."` |Expo2]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(PRIDE) "My head. Am I really going to die to some clown in a mask?"` |Expo3]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(DESPAIR) "Everywhere."` |BadEnd1]]

You're not alone in the darkness anymore. You've found a purpose, and it's enough to keep you alive. Purpose is a rope swaying in the water, and you're clinging onto it until your palms bleed. Somewhere high above you is the world. Cold, clean air. Moonlight glitters against the water's surface, high above you. It may as well be a thousand miles away. Your limbs may as well be lead. Purpose keeps you alive, but you're going to need air in your lungs. You need to move. You need to find your strength. Where is it? (transition-time:5s)[[`(PRIDE) "It never left me."` |NorthA1]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(LOVE)` "In other people." |CenterA1]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(COURAGE) "I don't have to be strong. I just have to keep going." `|SouthA1]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(DESPAIR) "Bleeding out of me."` |BadEnd1]]

You emerge gasping out of the water. Your hair lies matted to your face. Waves crash against your shoulders, but you're alive and breathing. You've never been so grateful to taste the air before, to breathe. When this is all over, you'll light incense on the altar to the kami and thank them for filling the world with so much air. But it isn't over. You're still lost in the middle of the ocean. The surf rolls against jagged rocks jutting out of the cliff. Lifting your eyes, you see the silhouette of the lighthouse cliff perched high above you. The sea churns around you. You're cold and wet. Not drowning was your first problem. Surviving is your next one. It's you against the sea. What are your tools? (transition-time:5s)[[`(INSTINCT) "Don't think. Pick a direction and swim."` |North2A1]] (transition-time:5s)[[(STRATEGY) "Is there any sign of the Tengu's men?" |Center2A1]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(PRIDE)` "Contempt. I have unfinished business at the top of this cliff." |South2A1]]

The smuggler's sailboat rocks on the waves, timbers groaning like troubled ghosts. You run your hand along the hull, lean in, and listen. Footsteps on the deck. The slow, steady thump of heavy boots. The smuggler was the only woman in Limsa who'd recognized the name "Black Mountain." She'd asked you why you wanted to go there, and you'd paid her not to ask any questions. Perhaps you should've asked a few questions of your own. The Tengu's men are gone. No sign of their boats. She's still here, though. The smuggler and her sad little sailboat bouncing on the waves. You grab hold of the anchor rope and climb onto the deck. The smuggler has her back to you. She's searching for something on the horizon. From the long kiseru in her mouth, she breathes out a plume. Your mother's kiseru. (transition-time:5s)[[(INSTINCT) Draw your sword. |DrawSword]] (transition-time:5s)[["That's not yours." |KiseruConfront]]

The smuggler retreats until the railing presses against the back. She's trapped between a raen woman in a soaked kimono and the ocean. For a moment, she seems to consider taking her chances with the sea. "Your mother's still alive. The Tengu's prisoner, but alive and unharmed. More or less." She sees the look in your eyes. Wrong choice of words. She spreads her fingers in a feeble gesture of an apology. "I'll take you to him. Right to his doorstep." (transition-time:5s)[["Why would I ever trust you?" |FinaleA]] (transition-time:5s)[["Tell me what happened to her." |FinaleB]]

You step through the doorway. The moon passes through a cloud. The moonlight shifts, passing over the length of a sword. Your mother's sword lies on the ground. The scabbard is missing. Your mother threw her sword away. She surrendered. Why? (transition-time:5s)[[(LOVE) "She lost her will to fight." |FinaleC]] (transition-time:5s)[[(PRIDE) "She left me a message. She wants me to return it to her." |FinaleC]] (transition-time:5s)[[(COURAGE) "When I find her, I'll ask her myself." |FinaleC]] (transition-time:5s)[[(SAMURAI) "A sword must never return to its scabbard..." |FinaleD]]

Why? The ego is an illusion. The person named Kiyohara no Saya never existed. You were just a collection of memories, ambitions, experiences, regrets. All your life you wanted to find out who you are. And now you know. No one. Nothing. The world is an ocean. A life is a wave emerging out of that ocean. It has a shape and a direction and moves for a time, but then it crashes against the shore and returns to the ocean again. The void is calling you. All you have to do is let go. (transition-time:5s)[[`"I can't. I can't let go."`|Intro]] (transition-time:8s)[[`(DESPAIR) "Letting go has always been easy."`|BadEnd1]]

You've been holding yourself together with both hands all your life. Letting go is the easiest thing in the world. The abyss calls to you. All you have to do is say yes. You open your mouth. The word leaves your lips in a bubble of air. It's the last burden you'll ever carry. You watch it float up into a beam of moonlight. (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[山] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[(b4r:"ridge","none","none")+(b4r-colour:white)[(transition-time:5s)[[`(Start Over`)|Splash Screen]]]]

// "My heart. I wanted to defend mother. I let her down."// Sunlight filters through the trees. On a branch a sparrow is singing. You're looking up at it from the grass. Your body aches. Your ribs hurt. You're seventeen and you want to be a samurai. Your mother is your teacher. Her first lesson is pain. You're sparring--but she doesn't hold back. "You'd better get used to pain, Saya. A samurai's life is pain." She tosses you the wooden sword. It falls in the grass beside your fingers. "Again," she says. "Pick up your sword." Your sword hits the water a moment later, plunging like a diving bird. You see it by the moonlight on its edge, a long rippling line of silver descending into the ocean, if you could only reach it. (transition-time:5s)[[`(Reach for your sword.)`|Sword]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(DESPAIR) "It's too far away. I can't." `|BadEnd1]]

//"My soul. I could have beaten the Tengu--but I flinched."// You try to recall the memory. The last few moments of that duel. The mud against your heels, the sword in your hand, the shadow of the Tengu enveloping you. The shadow's still there, on your soul. The Tengu is still there. You're carrying him with you into the abyss. He's dragging you down into the cold, into the darkness. When you die, the last flicker of your consciousnessmind will illuminate the cold iron of his mask, the hard green eyes, the black feathers. It's said the path to wisdom is guarded by the face of a demon. The Tengu's face gazes back at you. It's asking you a question. "Why couldn't you beat me?" (transition-time:5s)[[`"I can. I will."` |Courage]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(DESPAIR) "It's not worth finding out. This is the end."` |BadEnd1]]

//"Am I really going to die to some clown in a mask?"// You were always like this. Ever since you were a child. Whenever you were hurt, your pride rushed to your aid. The deeper the pain, the greater your pride. You did stupid things just to prove you could. You never listened to warnings. You never listened to sense. Pride comes before the fall. Pride was the name of the enemy's sword. You fell, and now you're here, sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Look what pride got you. (transition-time:5s)[[`"I'm not going to die feeling sorry for myself."` |Pride]] (transition-time:9s)[[`"I can't do this anymore."`|BadEnd1]]

//"It never left me."// That's it. You don't have to go searching for your strength. You are strength. You could carry the skies on your shoulders and still hold your head high. You lift your arms above your head and push. Your legs sway, then kick. The water lifts you. It wants to lift you. Your shoulders ache. The wound on your shoulder is screaming at you. But you're moving. You're rising. The water's going to lift you all the way to the surface. Moonlight reaches down into the water in glittering fingers. You reach out your hand to touch it. (transition-time:5s)[[`(PRIDE) "This may be the worst bath I've had after a duel."` |NorthA2]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(LOVE) "I have promises to keep."` |NorthB2]]

//"I don't have to be strong. I just have to keep going."// You're sinking. Your legs are lead. Your arms are iron. Your body is an anchor falling into the ocean. If you struggle, you'll fall faster. If you try to find your strength, you'll drown. You need to let go of something, so you let go of resistance. Courage is what's left behind when you stop trying to fight your own fear. It's there, like a mass of hands grabbing at your limbs and pulling you into the dark. You don't fight it. Your eyes settle on the long fingers of moonlight reaching down from the water's surface. The water churns around you and you realize it's because you're moving. You kick. You push. You rise. (transition-time:5s)[[`(PRIDE) "Can you imagine my story ending here? Ridiculous." ` |SouthA2]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(COURAGE) "Just don't look down."` |SouthB2]]

//"In other people."// You don't need to find your strength. Your strength is out there, on the other side of the ocean. You borrowed your strength from the people you love. You've always shown your love in oblique ways. Living is another expression of love. Moonlight's fingers reach down beneath the water's surface. You reach up and swim. (transition-time:5s)[[`(LOVE) "I carry your heart in my heart." `|CenterA2]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(COURAGE) "I can do this. I can do this." `|CenterB2]]

//"This may be the worst bath I've had after a duel."// Even bleeding out in the middle of the ocean, you find a way to keep to your traditions. When the god of death judges you at the end of your life, surely your consistency will weigh in your favor. But this isn't the end of your life. Your legs ache, but you kick, and swim. You can hear the ocean. The sound of the waves, the churning water. Your lungs are burning, but the moonlight shines on your face. [[`"Up you go, Saya."` |Crit Path 2]]

"I have promises to keep." That's right. A sword, once drawn, must never return to its scabbard without fulfilling its purpose. Your mother named you Saya--scabbard--so that you'd always remember to live with purpose. When you drew your sword, that was a promise to your mother. "I'll protect you," it said. You let your determination carry you. Your lungs burn and your arms ache, but you're nearly there. You can hear the ocean. Moonlight falls on your face. (transition-time:5s)[[`"Wait for me."` |Crit Path 2]]

//"I carry your heart in my heart."// So long as you live, they live. Love is not a feeling. It is an act. It must be practiced. Living is a way to love. Finding your way in the dark is a way to love. You're carrying cargo in your heart. Promises you want to keep. Words you want to speak. Memories you want to hold onto. Your heart is a barge on a storm-tossed sea. The moonlight through the water's surface--there's your lighthouse. (transition-time:5s)[[`"Thank you."` |Crit Path 2]]

//"I can do this. I can do this."// Yes you can. Courage is a living thing. Nurture it and it grows. The courage in your heart grows toward the sky and you ride it. The ocean bears down on you. You push through the water. You can hear the waves. The roar of the surf. You feel moonlight on your face. You're so close. (transition-time:5s)[[`"Almost there..."` |Crit Path 2]]

//"Can you imagine my story ending here? Ridiculous."// It //is// ridiculous. And if you die here, the world will become a little more ridiculous. That's right, Saya. The integrity of the moral universe requires you to live. You're not just swimming to the surface. You're carrying the notion of a sane and righteous world on your shoulders. So move. (transition-time:5s)[[`"I'm trying."` |Crit Path 2]]

"Just don't look down." And just like that, fear coils up in your stomach. The ocean is so vast, and you're so very small. The ocean itself is the mouth of a beast that encompasses the world. Underneath you the black abyss stretches out so far you'll go dizzy just looking at it. Things live down there. Great pelagic beasts that move in absolute silence like underwater dreadnaughts. If something rose out of the water with its jaws open-- -- don't look down. Don't think about it. The fear propels you. Courage is just fear turned into a propellant. You kick and swim, carving you way up, up, up to... (transition-time:5s)[[`"Up to the water's surface."` |Crit Path 2]]

//"Pick a direction and swim."// If you follow your instincts, you never have to worry about failure. Failure and success don't matter. There's just the feeling in your heart, and the total certainty that if you follow that feeling, in the end, you'll arrive where you were meant to go. One way or another. You turn in the water and swim in the direction of the moon. The ocean is rough tonight, churned up by the storms. The waves don't make it easy. You're buffetted and shoved and tossed, but you've endured worse. There's a moon in the sky half-hidden by clouds over a horizon. The shadow of the cliff falls in a great dark bar across the sea. You circle the cliff, swimming around the ring of jagged rocks around its base until you find a dark, wet sandbar with something long and red washed up against it shore. A dull yellow lamplight gleams in the distance behind the sandbar. (transition-time:5s)[[(INSTINCT) "I'll find myself on that sandbar." |North2A2]] (transition-time:5s)[[(STRATEGY) "I've seen that yellow lamplight on the prow of a sailboat." |North2B2]]

//Is there any sign of the Tengu's men?// The Tengu's men advanced up the lighthouse in a mass of figures. You never saw their faces--just their shapes. The red lanterns in one fist. The katana in the other. The conical shape of the kasa hat, the rain dripping off the edge. Looking up, you see the bottom of the cliff, the place you fell from. You scan the edge of the cliff, searching for the glint of a red lantern, a shadow, a voice on the wind. There's nothing but the sound of the sea, and the shadows of grass swaying on the breeze. (transition-time:5s)[[(STRATEGY) "I should swim for the pier. Their boats might still be moored. " |Center2A2]] (transition-time:5s)[[(COURAGE) "I need to know if mother's hurt. She was at the lighthouse." |Center2A2]]

//"I have unfinished business with the Tengu."// You fought him and he tossed you over the edge of that cliff. What do you plan to do, Saya? Climb up the cliff with your bare hands? (transition-time:5s)[[(CONTRARIAN) "Yes." |South2A2]] (transition-time:5s)[[(STRATEGY) "No, I'm going to beat some answers out of his men, obviously." |South2B2]]

//"I'll find myself on that sandbar."// You swim toward the sandbar. The ocean begins to recede and you feel wet sand under your feet. It isn't much--a great wet heap slowly dissolving into the water. When the tides come it'll be gone. A long, red shape lies buried in the sand, caressed by the surf. You kneel down and wipe the sand away. Your scabbard--scratched and dirty, but whole. Laying your hand on its familiar surface centers you, as if a part of you had gone missing and you hadn't realized what it was, until now. You slip the scabbard into your robes. In the distance, past the waves, the shape of a sailboat rocks against the silhouette of a broken pier. A yellow lamplight hangs from the prow, spilling a long oval of light sizzling against the ocean. (transition-time:5s)[[(INSTINCT) "I want to take a closer look." |Crit Path 3]] (transition-time:5s)[[(LOVE) "Mother might still be at the lighthouse. I need to find her first." |LighthousePath]]

//"I've seen that yellow lamp on the prow of a sailboat."// Yes, you have. You were standing on the deck of that sailboat a few hours ago, watching the ocean unroll underneath the light of that lamp. Your mother had warned you not to trust the captain of that boat. If you didn't trust her, then why were you surprised when she betrayed you? The yellow lamplight swings on the prow. A shadow moves on the deck. You cut quietly across the water. (transition-time:5s)[[(COURAGE) "It's time I had some answers." |Crit Path 3]] (transition-time:5s)[[(LOVE) "Mother might still be at the lighthouse. I need to find her first." |LighthousePath]]

//To the pier// The water beats at your back. Spears of pain rip through your shoulders as you swim, cutting through dark waves. The tide is strong around the cliffs. You're buffetted and shoved, dragged under the water more than once, but you carry on. A samurai always carries on. Your hair clings to your face. Your legs ache with every kick. You pass under the shadow of the cliff, along its eastern face. The coast rises to meet you, and eventually, mercifully, you're wading instead of swimming, and your feet touch something solid enough to call ground. The pier is a shadow in the mist. A long black bar with the shape of a sailboat bobbing on the waves nearby. A hazy yellow lamplight flickers on the sailboat, swinging in the wind. Over your shoulder, the rain-soaked trail leading up to the lighthouse, too dark to see footprints. Too dark to see anyone. (transition-time:5s)[[(STRATEGY) "That yellow lamp. I've seen it on the prow of a sailboat." |North2B2]] (transition-time:5s)[[(COURAGE) "The lighthouse. Mother--please be alive." |LighthousePath]]

Fine. You latch onto the side of a cliff. Your fingers dig into wet, slick stone and your feet scrabble for purchase. The surf beats against you. The ocean's trying to give you a warning, but you won't listen. Through sheer dogged determination, you haul yourself up ten, twenty--possibly even thirty fulms before your strength fails and you fall, dashing your skull against the rocks. The world loses one stubbornly contrarian woman who enjoys arguing with herself. Is that what you want? (transition-time:5s)[[(INSTINCT) "I'm wasting time. Pick a direction, Saya, and start swimming." |North2A1]] (transition-time:5s)[[(STRATEGY) "The Tengu's men carried red lanterns. Is there any sign of them?" |Center2A1]]

//I'm going to beat some answers out of his men, obviously.// The Tengu's men advanced up the lighthouse in a mass of figures. You never saw their faces--just their shapes. The red lanterns in one fist. The katana in the other. The conical shape of the kasa hat, the rain dripping off the edge. Looking up, you see the bottom of the cliff, the place you fell from. It's impossible to tell if anyone's still up there. If you swim to the other side of the cliff, you'll find the pier--and a path to the lighthouse. (transition-time:5s)[[(STRATEGY) "The pier. They came by boat." |Center2A2]] (transition-time:5s)[[(LOVE) "Mother. I need to know if you're all right." |Center2A2]]

It's a long, wet road up the lighthouse path. The rain churned the earth to mud. Bodies lie in the grass, exactly where you left them. You trudge up along the road, climbing, climbing. Your breath burns in your chest. You've been pushing yourself to exhaustion. The lighthouse is a tall, unlit tower of old masonry, pockmarked here and there with bullet holes. The mud has preserved the impression of your mother, kneeling there. Her hands, her knees. The Tengu and his soldiers are gone. Dirty beams of moonlight pour through broken masonry into an empty lighthouse. (transition-time:5s)[[(STRATEGY) Look for footprints. |Footprints]] (transition-time:5s)[[(DESPAIR) Look inside the lighthouse. |Inside]]

Your sword whispers out of its scabbard like a steel serpent rearing out of its nest. The smuggler glances over her shoulder. Her eye follows the shape of your sword. Tension in her shoulder. Movement on her hip. Her fingers drift toward a dagger tucked at her belt, and then she comes to her senses and realizes, with a long sigh of smoke, that she doesn't stand a chance. "Put the sword away, please. I'm not your enemy." (transition-time:5s)[["How much did the Tengu pay you?" |Finale 1]] (transition-time:5s)[[(INSTINCT) Approach her without a word. |Finale 1]]

//"That's not yours."// Your words cut through the silence. The smuggler leans her head back, as if she's just heard her cue. The sound of your voice doesn't surprise her in the least. She's been waiting for you. She breathes out one last plume of smoke, puts the kiseru down on the handrail. The slightest flicker of movement in her wrist. The flex of her shoulder. The rustle of her leather coat. You spot the gleam of a dagger at her hip, her fingers brushing toward its grip. If she'd turned to look at you, she would've realized you were armed. (transition-time:5s)[[(INSTINCT) Act. |ThirdEye]] (transition-time:5s)[[(PRIDE) Show off. |Disarm]]

You kneel beside the place your mother knelt. The impression of her body is still in the mud. There, where her palm pressed against the mud. There, her footprints. She was kneeling, then, stood. Retreated. You close your eyes, filling the footprints with the phantoms of your memories. Two pairs of footprints. You and the Tengu. //Your heel scraping against the mud. The grass, scythed by the swing of his blade. Your blood on the ground. Your feet at the cliff's edge. // //Natsume screams as you fall. She tries to crawl toward you. His blade stops at her neck. She rises to her feet. They surround her. She doesn't move--and when she does, she has an escort. They're taking her away, down the lighthouse path.// You open your eyes. The lighthouse door lies open like a dark pit. You're too tired to cry. A weight settles in the pit of your stomach. You're going to have to carry that, too. (transition-time:5s)[[(DESPAIR) Go inside the lighthouse. |Inside]]

There's nothing inside the lighthouse. There's nothing outside the lighthouse. The Tengu is gone and so is your mother. You're stranded on a narrow cliff rising out of the ocean like a gallows. You lay your hand on the doorframe. The wooden frame is cracked, pockmarked here and there with rifle shots. Dust hangs suspended in beams of moonlight pouring through broken masonry. The moonlight gleams on something lying on the dirty floor. You don't want to know what it is. (transition-time:5s)[[(DESPAIR) "Yes, I do." |Finale 2]]

"Because you'll have your sword against my back for the whole trip." She lowers her hands. Her eyes soften. She's searching for the words to explain herself, but all she can manage is a quiet, "I'm sorry about your mother. I really am. She seems like a decent woman. But if you want to save her, you're going to need my vessel, and I don't imagine a refined lady knows much about pulling a sail." [["Fine. Take me to Black Mountain." |Epilogue1]] [["What happened to her?" |FinaleB]]

The woman looks away. She might be searching her memory, or just avoiding your eyes. She struggles with her words. "Your mother thought you were dead. When the Tengu demanded her surrender, she just... gave up, like the fight had drained out of her." The ocean laps against the boat. The timbers creak above the waves. The wind grows still. "They took her away. Up to Black Mountain. She's still alive, though. You can be sure of that." [["How do you know?" |FollowUpFinale]]

You pick up the sword. The weight, the grip, the balance, the shape of it. Familiar and alien all. The white corded braid. The pattern of its edge. The sound of its swing. You haven't held this sword in six years. (transition-time:10s)[["I'll find you. I promise." |Epilogue]]

(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[山] (This story was written for FFXIV Write 2023. This story is a sequel to [[Prompt 16|https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g_UW2nV0ESpcNrNuOdqAkCSrD911fSC7WrvvfU9kZ1Y/edit?usp=sharing]]) He was so quick. Pain burst through your shoulder. There was nothing else but that pain, a screaming, white hot agony that ripped through muscle and exploded through your back. Your feet left the ground. He lifted you off the grass like a speared butterfly, and then threw you. ... ... ... (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[山] You see the edge of the cliff rushing away from you. There's a sound in your horns, a rushing, roaring sound, the crash of waves against the rocks, the fading sound of your mother's voice screaming after you. The sleeves of your robes are wet with blood, rippling in the wind like the broken wing of a bird. The moment of weightlessness drags on for an eternity. Everything is clear to you. Everything makes sense. You fought. You lost. Now you're going to die. The last thing you hear before you hit the water is absolute silence. The last thing you feel is nothing. Saltwater rushes down your throat. You come apart, piece by piece, like a capsized ship. The water drags you down, piece by piece. You were Kiyohara no Saya. Death pulls your ego apart, piece by piece. Love. Courage. Pride. Despair.. You're in a place darker than you've ever known. You don't know where to go. You can't find your way out. Can you find yourself? (transition-time:5s)[[`"..."`|Intro]] (transition-time:5s)[[`(DESPAIR) "I can't."`|WantOut_1]]

The familiar shape of the sword in your hand. The weight of it. The braided grip, frayed and wet against your fingers. Your hand is stiff, your fingers numb. You push through the pain, wrap your hand around the blade. There it is. (transition-time:5s)[[`"If I'm going to die, I'll die with a sword in my hand."`|Crit Path 1]]

You open your eyes in the dark. The last beams of moonlight dip into the ocean's waters, conjuring strange shapes out of the shadows. A face gazes down at you. An iron mask with a crow's beak. Black feathers and a scarlet mane. Cold, green eyes in the abyss. The face is your own fear. (transition-time:5s)[[`"I'm afraid--but I won't look away."`|Crit Path 1]]

This is ridiculous, even for you. You always had a melancholy streak. But it was mostly an affectation. You never intended to take it to your grave. Everything looks good on you, except self-pity. Pride always came to your aid when you were in pain. You feel it now, lifting you from under the water. Your head moves first. Chin up, just like that. Eyes to the sky. Then your legs move. You're moving, swimming up. The moonlight glitters on the water's surface, far above you, like a distant beacon. (transition-time:5s)[[`"Pull yourself together, Kiyohara."` |Crit Path 1]]

The wind changes direction when you step out of the lighthouse. You feel it in your hair, in your clothes. The breeze rushes through the grass. The ocean churns. You've never really known where to go in your life. You've never had to know. You've followed your heart. You've never had to worry about getting lost. You know that, somehow, in the end, you'll go where you need to be. The moon slips out from behind a veil of clouds, and for a moment, the moonlight carves a pale silver road across the ocean. You follow the road with your eyes, toward a horizon wreathed in mist. The mist hides the face of a mountain. 山

You see the strike before it happens. The subtle shift in posture, the way she moves her back leg, the slight intake of breath. Her dagger slithers into her palm. Whirling on her heel, she stabs-- --your sword flashes. The dagger wheels across the deck and disappears into the water. There's a moment of stunned silence, and the woman staggers back into the railing. "Alright," she says, showing her hands. "You've made your point. That was stupid. You win." (transition-time:5s)[["You work for the Tengu." |Finale 1]]

You see the strike before it happens. The subtle shift in posture, the way she moves her back leg, the slight intake of breath. Her dagger slithers into her palm. Whirling on her heel, she stabs. The point of steel catches the moonlight, passing so close to your lips that your breath fogs its edge. You turn and the dagger cuts the air. You grab her wrist, twist. The dagger tumbles from her fingers and into yours. You look at the dagger for a moment. Then you look at her. "Alright, alright!" The woman grimaces, twisting on the other end of your grip. You let her wrist go and she steps back, showing her palms. "You made your point. You win." (transition-time:5s)[["You work for the Tengu." |Finale 1]]

The lighthouse recedes into the mist. The sails open. The ocean rushes by. You watch it all go. A helpless feeling settles into you and stays there. There's nothing you can do but wait, sitting on the deck of an old fishing boat, now and again exchanging suspicious glances with the woman at the helm. Neither of you have anything left to say. Pain is a samurai's companion. The wound at your shoulder throbs. You're grateful for the pain. It's keeping you awake. The moonlight carves a steel-gray road across the ocean. Your eyes follow the road to the horizon. A white moon looks back at you, its face half-hidden behind the shadow of a mountain. 山

"Because you're alive." Her eyes meet yours. She nods, slowly, as if reminded herself of something. "He knows you're alive. As long as you live, she lives." "The Tengu likes playing games. He doesn't want to make an example out of her. He wants to make an example out of you..." "...In front of her." (transition-time:10s)[["I should hate to keep him waiting. Take me to Black Mountain." |Epilogue1]]