A Song for the Devil

Spirit of Fire

My sisters and I would walk through our village, visiting the bakers, and the various shops that are just opening in the mornings. This was what we did every day, or at least I did every day. If the weather wasn't favorable, my younger sisters would stay home and when I returned from my trip they would sneer and make little jokes about how foolish I was for risking my health on particularly harsh days. It didn't matter to me though, and it was always on the coldest, windiest, and least relenting days I would be invited into a home and offered hot tea or soup by a fire.

I knew all of them. I visited all of them. I knew some of them since they were in their mother's bellies. More than once I stayed with women when their husbands were away, fishing or fighting, and they were laboring for their child to be born. I will never forget the look in those women's faces as they pushed through the worst parts of labor with so much strength and watched as they fell in love with their children. I will never forget the way those newborns, who only weighed a few pounds, felt so heavy in my arms as I looked into the faces of the future.

Every year our village sent out lanterns on the water with letters written on them to our lost loved ones to read. Every year I wrote the same letters. One to my ancestors, thanking them for their hard work. A letter for my twin brother who was too frail to survive past our third birthday, telling him how I think of him often and like to pretend that he's with me when I play go with our father. My third letter goes to the children who were lost to the world before they could truly know it and the mothers who lost their lives during childbirth, promising them I will think of them as I raise my children and be grateful for the time I get with with my family. My fourth letter goes to the men who's lives have been lost while protecting our village, thanking them for the sacrifices they made, promising them I will honor what they gave up with my own life if need be.

Their faces, their names, the smell of the food and life that used to fill this village have all been decimated by the Dragon of Echigo. His piercing blue eyes saw my homeland and decided to make a meal of it, swallowing all of its life in one large bite.

When I awake I find myself in my parent's chambers. The red and purple silks hanging from the ceiling are pushed by the night air as I begin to remember why I fainted before. My guards have been increased, there are now two at the door that leads to the rest of the house and two by the door that leads to the balcony that looks out over the city and stairs that lead to the path down to the gazebo where father and I would play go on the water.

"Where is my husband?" I ask as I stand from the futon and realize that my clothes have been changed. I'm no longer in the black riding kimono I had on before, someone has put me in a many layered red sleeping gown. As the lead guard informs me that the warlords are in council in the audience chambers of this building I find one of my mothers robes and pull it on. The white robe with peacock feather embroidery smell like my mother and brings me a small sense of comfort as I walk towards the door and the guards stop me.

I restrain myself from slapping him, he's only doing as he's been ordered by either Nobunaga or most likely by Hideyoshi. "Let me through." I demand and he doesn't budge he only informs me that he's been given orders to keep me in this room until they return. "They?"

He swallows awkwardly. "Lord Oda and Toyotomi were very unified on this my lady." The way he speaks, the slight blush in this man's cheeks. My best guess is that other than this current council session "they" have been by my side the whole time, together, in bed, caring more about staying close to each other than who sees.

I take advantage of his moment of their awkwardness to kick the doors behind him open, and before he has a chance I slip into the shadows of the hallways I know much better than anyone else here. I quickly find a spot in the shadows to hide and wait for my guards to pass by as they attempt to pursue me. Once it's clear I head towards the audience chamber.