Shizuka couldn’t sleep.
The “peace” of the temple felt like the heavy pressure before a thunderstorm.
She moved through the darkened corridors with the silent tread of a hunter, her silver katana a comforting weight at her hip.
As she approached the main hall, she saw Nogi and Masaru slumped against the massive doors, deep in a wine-induced slumber, their snores echoing the rhythm of the man inside.
She pushed the doors open just an inch and froze.
The hall was filled with a soft, pulsing azure light.
It wasn’t coming from the torches, but from Jee-shahn himself.
He lay sprawled across the roses, his massive frame silhouetted against the golden statue of the Gilded Rose.As Shizuka watched, the statue seemed to shimmer.
A faint, ghostly image of a woman—tall, radiant, and covered in golden scales—seemed to lean out from the marble.
She wasn’t attacking; she was stroking Jee-shahn’s messy silver hair with a look of infinite, pained longing.
“Too…
many…
thorns,” Jee-shahn mumbled in his sleep, his voice a deep, gravelly vibration that made the floor tiles hum.
The ghostly figure of Virellia leaned closer, her lips moving in a silent whisper that Shizuka felt in her very marrow.
“My Lord…
you have returned to me so late…
and so lazy.” The Accidental Observer Shizuka’s breath hitched.
She had seen the “Monster” kill at the border, but seeing him now—surrounded by the literal love of a Goddess—made her realize that the man she was following was something far beyond a mere warrior or even an Emperor.
Suddenly, the azure light flared.
Jee-shahn’s eyes didn’t open, but he reached out a hand in his sleep, catching the “ghost’s” wrist.
“Vire…” he muttered, the name slipping out of his mouth like a fragment of a lost world.
“Stop…
the light.
I’m trying…
to cultivate…
the void.” The ghostly image of the Goddess let out a sound that was half-laugh, half-sob, before dissolving back into the cold marble of the statue.
The azure light faded, leaving the room in shadows once more.
The Morning After When the sun finally rose, the “divine” atmosphere had been replaced by the smell of high-grade tea and the sound of Aiko chasing the Azure Lizard around a sacred fountain.
Emiko stepped out of the side chamber, her hair perfectly groomed despite the night in a temple.
She found Shizuka standing near the altar, staring up at the statue of the Gilded Rose with a confused, blunt expression.
“You saw it, didn’t you?” Emiko asked softly, her voice like silk.
Shizuka didn’t turn around.
“He talks to statues.
And the statues…
They talk back.
Sora said he has an interest in ‘women like me.’ Is he going to try and turn me into a ghost too?” Emiko let out a serene chuckle, walking over to where Jee-shahn was just beginning to stir.
“He doesn’t turn women into ghosts, Shizuka.
He reminds them why they wanted to be alive in the first place.
But be careful—once you start listening to his ‘noise,’ the rest of the world starts to sound very quiet.” Jee-shahn sat up, a rose petal stuck to his forehead.
He looked at Shizuka, his azure eyes sharp for a split second before the usual mask of boredom settled over his face.
“You,” he rumbled, pointing at Shizuka.
“You’re still here.
If you’re going to stand there and stare, at least make yourself useful.
Go find the High Priest and tell him I want a bath.
A big one.
With bubbles.
If the water isn’t the perfect temperature, I’m going to use his ‘holy staf’ to stir the tea.” Shizuka stifened, her pride clashing with the memory of the golden light she saw last night.
She looked at her brothers, who were waking up and already laughing at the High Priest’s renewed misery.
“I am a Rurouni, not a maid,” Shizuka said bluntly, though she didn’t move to leave.
“In this house,” Lupa remarked, walking in with Shin on her hip, “we’re all whatever the Monster needs us to be so he stays quiet.
Now go.
The sooner he gets his bath, the sooner we can get some breakfast.