Heretic, Betrayers of Kamigawa

CHAPTER 17

Headmaster Hisoka had prepared a regal reception for the kitsune delegation. As awe-inspiring as the exterior of Minamo was, the entrance hall was even more impressive. The entire school had to be taken in from a distance, but standing on the massive marble staircase beneath the towering silver gate, it was nearly impossible not to feel humbled. Each of the hundred steps was more than thirty feet wide, and the open metal gate was at least one hundred feet tall. They gleamed in the late afternoon sun, thin veins of vibrant blue twinkling against the white marble.

A platoon of twenty student archers stood proudly on the brief courtyard that linked the stairs to the docks, where the geyser delivered incoming visitors. Above the archers on the staircase were a dozen of the academy’s top students, mages and adepts from all manner of arcane disciplines. A few stairs above them were the senior staff, the dean of students, the head librarian, and the masters of each individual school of instruction.

At the very top of the staircase stood Hisoka himself, a prim and dapper man with a neat, white mustache and a long, thin beard. He wore radiant blue-and-gold academy robes. Though his face was open and friendly, his eyes were keen and probing. He smiled warmly as Pearl-Ear led her retinue onto the dock.

Hisoka signaled, and three student wizards with long, ornamental horns blew a triumphal note. All the assembled students bowed deeply, archers and wizards alike. The headmaster raised his hands.

“Greetings to you, Lady Pearl-Ear of the kitsune. You are all most welcome guests at Minamo academy.”

Pearl-Ear bowed, as did her brother, the three fox samurai, and Pearl-Ear’s two “ladies in waiting.” Riko looked less conspicuous in her concealing robes than Michiko did, as she was far closer in size to the kitsune. They stayed close enough behind Pearl-Ear to hear her instructions, but not so close that they’d invite attention or comment.

“Many thanks for your warm welcome, Headmaster. You honor us with your hospitality.”

Hisoka waved for them to approach. “Please, please,” he said. “Enter, and be safe. We have much to discuss. Your soldiers may please wait here-I’m afraid there isn’t room enough in my offices for such a large group.” Hisoka smiled warmly.

Pearl-Ear straightened. “Of course, Headmaster.” She started up the stairs, exchanging a quick glance with Sharp-Ear. They had already decided to leave behind the brothers, Captains Silver-Foot and Nagao, and all the soldiers and rangers. Their job was to escort her to the school, which they had now completed. It would be indecorous to bring armed soldiers into the academy, especially before they had a chance to sound out Hisoka.

Pearl-Ear, Sharp-Ear, Riko, and Michiko mounted the stairs, bowed to students, and exchanged warm pleasantries with the wizards. At the top, Hisoka beckoned them in and bowed deeply from the waist.

“I am glad you are here, Lady Pearl-Ear.”

“As am I, Headmaster. This is my brother, Sharp-Ear, and my attendants. They are human, brought here to shore up any deficiencies I may be harboring when it comes to your culture. Sharp-Ear will serve in a similar capacity for the kitsune. I represent all the elders of the great tribes from eastern Jukai, and I have spent decades at Daimyo Konda’s court. I am hopeful that among we five-” she bowed to Hisoka-“we will be able to make ourselves understood.”

Hisoka nodded. “These are trying times,” he said. “It is important that the peaceful tribes of Kamigawa work together.”

“Well said, sir. Now, as you say, we have much to discuss. I trust you have no objection to beginning immediately?”

Pearl-Ear kept her large eyes fixed on Hisoka. He returned her stare without any outward sign of concern, his face still open and warm.

“None at all. Follow me to my offices, and we can begin sharing information.”

Hisoka turned and clamped his hands together behind his back. “If you will walk with me, Lady,” he said, “I will point out some of the more interesting artifacts the school has acquired. If mechanisms don’t interest you, we also have a large collection of fine art.”

Pearl-Ear hurried for a few paces then fell into Hisoka’s rhythm alongside him. “I would be delighted,” she said. “That sculpture, there, is that glass, ice, or some sort of enchanted fluid?”

“Ahh,” Hisoka said. “That was created by one of my former students. He was quite gifted at the manipulation of …”

“He seems friendly,” Michiko whispered to Riko. “Can he be trusted?”

They had fallen several paces behind, as appropriate for attendants and convenient for the impostors.

“I think so,” Riko replied. “But don’t relax. I know he’s hiding something, even if he desperately wants to share it. I don’t think he’s in control here anymore.”

“Pearl-Ear said to stay back, stay quiet, and listen,” Michiko said. “Do you think we can slip away and do some exploring on our own? You know the layout of the library well enough, don’t you?”

“I do,” Riko replied, “but we’ll have trouble getting in dressed like this. The library here is only for faculty. Students are only allowed in under strict supervision.”

“Well, let’s stay alert,” Michiko said. “If we get the opportunity, I’d like a chance to examine that library.”

“I’ll be ready,” Riko said, “but my hopes aren’t high. Shh, we’re almost at his offices.”

Ahead, Hisoka was extolling the virtues of a new kind of sculpture one of his prize students had invented. Pearl-Ear listened attentively, nodding in all the right places, but she kept looking back to make sure her attendants didn’t lag too far behind.

Hisoka’s private offices were lined with scroll racks that covered the walls from the floor to the edge of the fifteen-foot ceiling. Every available surface was filled with strange crystalline structures or artistic displays of water and light. The wizard himself sat behind a great wooden desk.

“Headmaster,” Pearl-Ear said, “we would like to talk to you about Daimyo Konda.”

Hisoka frowned. “Oh? I understood you were here to explore a new level of cooperation between the great tribes and the academy.”

“Of course,” Sharp-Ear said, “but we must agree that our mutual concerns cannot be addressed without a discussion of the daimyo. His is the largest territory with the most powerful army. He has been at the front of the Kami War since it began.”

“As have we.” Hisoka stood, pacing as he talked. “The academy was particularly hard hit when the war began. Spirits manifested here before anywhere else nearby. They came in greater numbers and in greater fury. Without the soratami’s protection, most of us who live here would be dead by now.”

“We honor the sacrifices you’ve made,” Pearl-Ear said. “Nonetheless, all Kamigawa makes similar sacrifices. The answer does not lie in comparing who has shed more blood but rather in discovering the enemy’s motivation. Why are the kami attacking us? Why are they so focused here, and on Eiganjo?”

Hisoka shook his head. “This is not a conversation I am willing to have, Lady Pearl-Ear. I am loyal to the daimyo and will not plot against him.”

“Plot?” Sharp-Ear shrugged. “Who said plot? We simply wish to explore what connects Konda’s tower to this waterfall, where the kami intrusions are most violent.”

“Minamo has been a trusted ally of Eiganjo for many years.”

“No one is questioning that, Headmaster.” Pearl-Ear bowed. “We’ve no wish to offend or upset you, sir, but we do have information that indicates Daimyo Konda may know exactly why the spirits of the kakuriyo have turned against us. We are merely seeking to know it ourselves. If any place has the resources to decipher our mystery, it is Minamo.

“This is how the kitsune elders have chosen to act: by attacking the root of the problem. We do not have the martial resources to battle kami for the rest of our lives. Many of us are not even certain we should be battling the kami. Perhaps we should instead seek their guidance, ask them what has stirred their ire, and offer atonement.”

Sharp-Ear bowed, then locked his eyes on Hisoka’s. “What will Minamo do, Headmaster? While Konda’s army fights and the kitsune pray, how will the wizards meet this danger that threatens us all? Will you rely on the goodwill of your soratami guardians and continue to train warrior mages for the conflict? Or will you open your archives to us and tell us what you and your learned colleagues know?”

Pearl-Ear dropped to one knee. “You may do both, Headmaster. We are not asking you to betray Konda but to confide in us. This is a place of learning, sir, not a training camp. Help us resolve the spiritual conflict, and you can return to mentoring gifted sculptors and magical prodigies.”

Hisoka’s eyes were anguished, but his face hung slack like all the muscles had been cut. He looked at Pearl-Ear, then at Sharp-Ear, and he leaned heavily on his desk.

“I cannot help you,” he said. “We are willing to begin a more regular exchange between the academy and the kitsune nation. Your knowledge of spiritual magic would make you excellent instructors. We would be proud to enroll your children in whatever course of study appeals to them. And we would love to have your rangers show us the mysteries of Eastern Jukai.

“But that is all I have to offer you now. Perhaps someday, if the situation changes …”

“If it does, Headmaster, I fear it will change for the worse,” Pearl-Ear said.

“Headmaster,” Sharp-Ear said casually. “Why haven’t you asked to see our evidence?”

The wizard blinked. “What?”

“We told you we had information that pointed to daimyo Konda. You didn’t even ask to see it, or what it was. That’s strange behavior for an academic.”

Hisoka rose to his full height and said haughtily, “I am loyal to the daimyo. I would not even entertain the idea-”

“I saw you there, Headmaster.” Michiko swept forward, pulling her hood back as she came. “On the night I was born. My father did something terrible in the tower of Eiganjo. You were there.”

Sharp-Ear’s expression did not change, but his ears twitched. Pearl-Ear simply stared, frozen in place, unable to breathe and unwilling to move.

“Michiko-hime.” Hisoka paled and staggered. He caught the arm of his desk chair and steadied himself. “Go, all of you go. You have no idea how dangerous it is for you here.”

“No, sir, I will not. My father is lord of the nation, but I speak for her people. I am princess of the realm and I demand that you explain yourself. Whatever you did that night has drawn the wrath of the spirit world down upon my people as well as your students. And you will answer for it, now, and help us to undo what you and my father have done.”

Hisoka’s face reddened and he began to sputter foamy saliva.

“You don’t,” he choked. “They watch-not safe-go …”

Pearl-Ear and Sharp-Ear stepped forward to assist Hisoka. As they took hold of the headmaster’s arms and guided him into his chair, the pressure in the room suddenly dropped.

“Sister, dear,” Sharp-Ear said. “This is not going well.”

Pearl-Ear only nodded. She beckoned Michiko and Riko to come behind Hisoka’s heavy desk.

The girls reacted quickly. At this stage everyone in Kamigawa was familiar with the signs of a spirit manifestation. As the kitsune brought the humans down behind the solid shelter of the desk, the air in the room began to swirl, churning countless pieces of paper from Hisoka’s files like leaves in a cyclone.

A brilliant arc of light tore through the center of the vortex. It glowed silver-white and thickened, growing wider as each end curled up. The light was almost blinding as the upward curving line parted, revealing a twin row of clean, dazzling teeth.

The light exploded, and everyone behind the desk squeezed their eyes shut as tightly as possible. It burned past the oaken drawers, past their eyelids, and dazzle-blinded them all. For a few moments, all anyone could do was blink and cling to each other.

A cheerful, boyish voice said, “There you are, Princess! I had no idea where you’d gone, but I think I know who took you.”

Pearl-Ear and Sharp-Ear recovered more quickly than the humans. They could make out fuzzy shapes and some colors, but for the most part they could only see the world through a bleached white film.

“And to think, after I told you specifically not to come here. I may be a little closer to understanding how the daimyo feels. You never do what he tells you, either.”

Sharp-Ear stepped forward. He was unarmed, but his body was tense.

“Who are you?” he said.

The little blue man smiled broadly, his teeth flashing much less violently.

“I am the Smiling Kami of the Crescent Moon,” he said. “You can call me Mochi.

“Princess,” he said, hopping up on the desk and bowing to Michiko, “I wanted to spare you this experience. But now you’re here, and you’re asking all the wrong questions. I’m going to have to do something I never wanted to do.”

Pearl-Ear slid in beside Sharp-Ear, blocking both the girls and Hisoka from the strange chubby figure perched on the desktop.

Mochi folded his hands behind his back and rocked back on one foot. “You came for answers, didn’t you? Well, Hisoka is not in a position to answer. You can see he’d like to be open with you, his new allies, but he physically can’t answer you, and I can’t let you keep upsetting him in the meantime.

The blue man lifted his arms. Sharp-Ear and Pearl-Ear both growled.

“So. I must step in on his behalf. I’m at your service,” the little kami said. “What do you want to know?”