First off, sometimes I just get inspired to write. I've done fan-fiction in the past, but this turned out to be something different, but that's kind of where it spawned from. Also, it's not my normal style of writing and not my best, but I decided that it doesn't really matter. I just felt like writing, so it's mainly just for myself, but I hope that you may enjoy it as well... to some degree There will be more coming in the future, so these pages are what I have typed up..
__________________________________________________ ______________
Kashato
Introduction
“I beg your pardon, sir. I did not mean to interrupt.” She bowed, hoping she would be well received.
“Your apology is accepted, seta. Please allow me a few moments before we speak.”
Her bow deepened slightly in response before she left. Out of the hall she looked at the various people going about their business, all of them wearing the insignia of the Kashato in its various forms depending on which sect each person belonged. The lady envied them in their activity and hoped that fate would smile on her and she, too, would be qualified to bear the Kashato. She had a unique ability, but was not certain that it would be enough to be accepted at such an age. Such a thing was unheard of.
The door behind her opened silently and she stepped back into the room. Once again she bowed to the Nachaga, showing him the proper respect.
“What is your name, seta?”
Before lifting her eyes from the floor she stated, “My name is Taislea Uchóto.”
“And what is your business here, Taislea Uchóto?”
“I wish to train to become a Kashato.”
“How old are you?”
“I am twenty-four.”
“When did you desire to become Kashato?”
“When I was twelve.”
“Why did you not join at that age?”
“My parents would not give me permission at that age. Then I was taken from them at thirteen and was unable to escape until I was twenty. Now I wish to join.”
“Do you actually think that at your age you can become a true Kashato?”
“Yes.”
The Nachaga looked at her severely. Taislea was instantly startled when his eyes suddenly turned from a soft brown to a soul-piercing metallic blue. At first it was a pole stabbed violently into her chest, and then a chain holding her in place, immobilized by his eyes. Her very spirit struggled against it, wishing against all odds to be free of this hold. Without meaning to she reached up with her ring in her hand and quickly pressed it to her chest.
At the same time she was frozen, she vaguely sensed the Nachaga’s presence behind her as well as in front of her, as if his eyes had remained fixed on her but the rest of him had moved. A hand was swiftly descending to strike her in the back and reflexively, the other half of Taislea turned and reached up to block him. She did so weakly, but it was enough to startle him when he saw someone else now on one knee before him.
“What is this?” he exclaimed. “I’ve never seen this kind of jitsu before!”
Taislea looked down at herself, shocked at what she had done. She had revealed herself in a manner that she wished had not taken place but she could not go back now. “This is not a jitsu, Nachaga. I do not fully know what this is, but it is my solid spirit form, the real me.”
The Nachaga looked at her, then down at the body, which was now lying prone on the floor before him. In all honesty it appeared dead, unmoving and unbreathing. He reached down and touched it, finding that it did not move at all. Then he stood up and touched Taislea’s arm, finding it perfectly solid. “What is this?” he asked her, unsure of what to think.
“Please allow me to show you.”
She bent down toward her own body and turned it over, revealing a knife in its chest, sunk all the way up to the hilt. Grasping the handle she quickly pulled it out, revealing to the man that there was no blood whatsoever. Then she stepped onto the body, the position of her feet matching, and took another brief glance at the Nagache before she let herself fall backwards. She fell into it, holding the knife over herself as she went, and eventually appeared to fall through it. However, the knife stayed, somehow in the same place as it was before she had pulled it out.
To the Nagache’s surprise, Taislea’s eyes opened and she sat up. As soon as she could look up at the man she said, “I don’t know what this is. I only ask that you take it into consideration as I desire to become Kashato.”
Not one to be easily startled, the Nagache quickly regained his nerves and moved to sit once more in his chair. “Be seated,” he told Taislea. He watched as she quickly grabbed a chair and pulled it to a spot in front of him and sat down. “Taislea Uchóto, tell me who you are.”
Chapter 1
I was born in the city of Sulao where the River Usa divides. My father’s name was Zhen-sa of the house of Esco and my mother was Yuka-sa of the house of Tama. I am the younger of my parents’ two children. My father, worked as an attendant in he stables of a man named Yenja-sa. One day when my father was at work, men were sent to our home, sent by an enemy of Yenja, and captured me. They hoped that my father would be able to influence his employer in return for me.
My father refused, though, choosing to give up one of his children and retain his honor in the eyes of Yenja-sa. I was thirteen and the men that took me sold me to a group of travelers whom I was then to entertain. I would dance for them and sing for them, and as long as I danced and sang they did not harm me. On nights I could not dance or sing they would beat me or starve me, or put me out where wild animals could get to me. I had to learn how to defend myself from the animals, though they rarely came near the camp.
However, they did not let me become very strong. I was to always remain thin and graceful. At times if they though I was growing larger they would not feed me until I grew faint. For several years I was very sick, but could not complain. I never knew when other travelers would come by and I always had to entertain them. Many of them were worse to me than the travelers I was with, but they were never allowed to do any more than beat me.
Then one day, they came across a rich man who saw me. He wanted to take me and told the travelers that he would give them a great deal of money for me. I was nineteen and was forced to marry him as soon as we returned to the rich man’s city. There was nothing else I could do, but that night he brought me to a small room and I was frightened by what he began to do and tried running away. He beat me as well, but after a time grew tired of me and locked me in that room. I heard him outside of the door talking with one of his men.
“Bring me a knife,” he ordered.
When the man returned, they spoke for a short time. I did not recognize his voice as one of the men who had been traveling with him, and guessed it was one of his house attendants. “Use this knife. It has served me well,” the man said. His voice was somehow familiar to me but I never saw him, nor have I heard his voice to this day.
I heard the lock click and the rich man entered, one of his female attendants with him, a girl slightly younger than myself. “I will show you how simple this is,” he stated.
But I saw that the girl was scared as well. She saw me and tried to hide behind me. Angry, the rich man grabbed at her and lifted the knife to hit her, but as the knife was coming down I tried to grab it but ended up grabbing the blade.
Something happened, but I don’t know what. Somehow my spirit traveled along with the knife and as it continued towards the other girl I went along with it. The knife went across the girl’s throat and I went with it, horrified at what I was seeing. He continued to slash at the girl and at the last plunged it into her chest. At that time I was stuck to the knife and ended up being stuck to the body of the girl, entering her.
All I felt then was pain and… death. The wounds of the girl were now mine, and the blood that was now falling on the floor was mine, too. Over the roar of the pain, I could faintly hear the rich man’s shouts as he noticed that my body was dead as well. I could hear him dragging it out of the room, but as soon as that had happened I thought I heard him enter the room. But I could tell it was someone else when they began to wrap bandages quickly and firmly around the gashes to stem the bleeding as quickly as possible. Then I felt myself being lifted off of the ground, carried in this person’s arms out of the rich man’s home.
I was taken to another house away from the rich man. I was now at a family’s house, lying on a mat in a warm room. I felt a gentle, fatherly kiss and a brief brush of cool metal on my forehead and knew that it wasn’t the same man who had been outside of the rich man’s door, but the quality of his voice and the gentleness in it was the same. But now he had to leave. “You are free,” he whispered into my ear. But then he said with a more forceful voice, “Breathe.”
I gasped as I was given control over this body, finally able to move it, though any movement I made left me in pain. The family took care of me and after a day I opened my eyes, not remembering anything since that first initial breath.
“Her fever’s broken,” I heard a woman say. She placed a hand on my foot, one of the places that had not been harmed and said, “We will care for you. Rest and heal.”
Each day they cared for me, giving me food and water, and within a week I was beginning to feel strong enough to walk. Each day, though, the bandages needed to be changed and at first when they removed the one from my neck I began to bleed again. It was quickly replaced, though, and soon I was able to go without them and walk around the house. I could not go outside, in case any of the rich man’s attendants saw me.
I was allowed to look in a mirror after two weeks and saw the body of the younger girl who had died first. It was her eyes that looked at me, but my spirit was the light behind them, and it made me sad to see that. I touched the scars that ran across my face and neck and recalled seeing the knife that had made those scars. Then I remembered seeing the knife go into… my chest.
Alone, I looked closely for a sign of that wound, but was surprised to find none. I knew that it hadn’t been my imagination, but I was perplexed that I couldn’t find it. I knew that the rich man hadn’t taken it out. He left it when he found my first body dead. I tried asking the family I was with, but they did not understand where it could have gone. However, when I brought it up, the father left and came back with a ring in his hand. He gave it to me, saying that it was from the man who had brought me here and that he was supposed to give it to me if I asked about the knife. He didn’t know what it was for, though.
Later that day I was thinking about that man and held the ring to my chest. Something happened and it closed in on what seemed like nothing, but when I pulled my hands away I saw the knife sticking out of my chest. I stood up very quickly, frightened by the sight, but I became even more frightened when I saw that the body of the girl who had recently been killed did not stand up as well, but fell over as if dead again. I ran over to the mirror but did not see myself at first. However, after a short time I began to see me, only now it was the body of the me that I had lost, whole and appearing as I had before, clothes and all.
I ran towards the door, but when I tried to push it aside my hands just went through the wood rather than touch it. I walked through the door and ran to the people who were caring for me. At first they didn’t see or hear me, but eventually they could and were scared when they saw the real me. But the man who had been here before had given them more instructions for when this happened. “It’s the knife. It keeps your spirit in the body,” I was told, but I did not understand at first. We all went back to the body that was lying on the floor and the father turned it over. There was no breath coming from it, nor was the heart beating, but it still felt warm somehow; just empty.
I ran my hand through one of the arms, and from that felt the connection that now bound me to it. “What do I do?” I asked the father.
“You need to re-enter the body.”
Not sure what was going on, I layed down and felt myself to be in line with the body of the other girl. Then I felt the knife going back into both of our chests, binding me once again to it. It took a little while, though, before I had complete control and for a few moments I was not able to breathe. The family was able to revive me and I was once more this other person. The ring had fallen off once the knife was in place, so I placed it on my hand so I wouldn’t lose it, in case I needed it again.
It frightened me to know that this was possible, but I also knew that this had been done on purpose, that that man had given me a second chance. I would occasionally return to myself in my spirit form and found that eventually I was able to regain a semblance of my physical form and could be solid once more. Actually, the more I was solid, the more difficult it became to retain my intangible form. But I continued to practice.
Eventually it was time for me to leave. The wounds on the body had healed enough to be traveled with, though I continued to wear a bandage around my neck covered by a high-collared shirt. The man had supplied me with money as well, and the family gave me food enough to last several days on the road until I could find a place where I could buy more. I have thanked them in my prayers each day since.
I managed to return to Sulao after several weeks of walking. At first it was difficult and my body was weak, but eventually I grew much stronger and was able to cover many miles each day. I hid by night so that I would not be seen by anyone who may have known me, though I eventually realized that the people I had lived with would not recognize me now. I still did not take chances.
Sulao had changed much in seven years. I went back to go and find my family and many of the streets had become confusing after all of this time. I finally made it to my home, but did not enter, preferring to just see them before I did anything else. I waited outside of the gate for an hour or so before I saw my mother walk out of the house. A young man walked behind her and I soon recognized him as my older brother, and I realized how much he had changed over the years.
It was then I realized that I had changed, too, and my family wouldn’t not recognize me, let alone invite me back. It took a while for me to come to grips with that, but I eventually left.
I went to the only other family I had once had ties to, and asked Yenja-sa for a job and a place to stay. I was given the position as an attendant, maintaining the rooms for his guests and staying out of sight when they arrived. I was given a small room with an older woman, but it was hard for me, because she always asked me questions about my past and where I came from. She kept starting at my neck. Also, I no longer had much time as my real self because I never knew when my services would be required.
Occasionally I would peer through the fence and see the Kashato walking down the street and my dream to become one returned to me. I gazed at them jealously, sure that I was too old to join them, but eventually I began to wonder if they would grant me permission when I showed them what I was. I left after three years, hoping to find this place. It took me a year of wandering and I had to ask a great many people to help me, but I finally arrived.
|
|
Bookmarks