Red River Fan Fiction ❯ A SHINTO PRIESTESS IN THE ANCIEN HITTITE EMPIRE ❯ V2 C4 At the feet of the God of Death ( Chapter 9 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
A SHINTO PRIESTESS IN THE ANCIEN HITTITE EMPIRE
OR
WHERE THE RED FIRE AND RED RIVER MEET
Disclaimer: I own nothing except Miyuki Kanzaki.
Notes: First real departure from the manga (At last!).
Vol 2 Chap 4: At the feet of the God of Death.
Miyuki felt her organism completely overwhelmed by the substance she was forced to absorb.
`My throat burns!' Her hands were grasping for something she couldn't reach. `My chest burns!' A dark veil began to obscure her vision. `What's happening!?' With terror, she could feel her heartbeat slowing. `I…can't…breathe…' Darkness submerged her consciousness and she knew no more.
“MIYUKI!” Kail held the inert body in his arms and shivered as he saw no sign of respiration. “Is there no one here…!? KIKKURI!” He yelled to his door. “KIKKURI!”
His best servant rapidly entered his bedroom. “I'm here, Lord Kail. What's hap…”
“KIKKURI, CALL A DOCTOR QUICKLY! A SHAMAN AS WELL!”
Kikkuri gasped as he remarked the pale-looking and inert Miko in the arms of his master. “What… What happened to Lady Miyuki!?”
“GO QUICKLY!”
“Y…Yes, right away!”
Kail tried to gather his wits. “Hadi, you made her drink poison, right? What kind was it!?”
The terrified poor girl could only shake her head. “I…I don't know…!”
The Hittite Prince felt his despair growing as he held a body that was so full of life just a few moments ago. `Her heartbeat is stopping… My heart grows cold with fear faster than her body.' He squeezed her to him, in an attempt to lend her his own body heat. `This cannot be! Miyuki will open her eyes again any moment!' He was falling in pieces. `Open your eyes…!'
Kikkuri ran back with an old man and a mature woman. “Lord Kail, the doctor and the shaman are here!”
“HERE! QUICKLY!” Kail put the young girl down on the bed. “She drank poison! There's no time!”
The doctor examined his patient and frowned. A poison that active wasn't a good thing. He searched for her respiration.
Kail looked anxiously. “…well?”
The doctor internally winced as he perceived no sign of respiration. But there was still a hope and he moved to listen to her heart.
The amber-eyed young man was freaking now. “WELL!?”
With sorrow, the doctor closed his eyes and get up from listening to the heartbeat. He bowed to the Prince. “…we are too late…”
No! He couldn't have heard that! “What…did you say…?”
With reverence, the old doctor crossed the delicate hands on the chest of the long black-haired teenager. “Her breathing and heartbeat have already stopped… There is nothing we can do.”
A lightning bolt hit the heart of Kail as the doctor delivered his last sentence. “She has passed away.”
Kikkuri couldn't believe it. What happened!? The three sisters could only contemplate the innocent they killed.
`This… It can't be…' Kail's scream of denial ripped through the night. “MIYUKI!?”
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The rumours about the death of Miyuki ran quickly through the city of Arinna. The people couldn't believe that their heroine was already dead.
“Hey, did you hear?”
“What?”
“It seems that Lady Miyuki passed away.”
“What did you say?!”
“Is it true!?”
“I heard her body was moved from Lord Kail's palace to the great temple a while ago.”
“How awful. And just when Ishtar had allied with the Hittites.”
“In this age of war, every country wants the divine protection of Ishtar.”
“That's for sure.”
“It was too good to last. A goddess cannot dwell long among men.”
Kail was sitting amorph and listless at the feet of the altar of the temple.
One of the priests looked dismayed to the shadow of a great man and turned to Kikkuri. “Has his highness been like that since morning?”
Kikkuri sighed. “Yes.” He turned to his Lord. “I've served Lord Kail since childhood, and never have I seen him like this…” He sighed again and took on himself the right to shake his Prince out of his fugue. “Lord Kail, not eating is like poison to the body.”
Kail jerked back in the reality at the use of `that' word. “…Kikkuri?” The Prince sighed and tried to focus on what he should do now. He looked back to his best servant and confidant. “If I'd known this would happen.” He turned back to the altar: Under a thin, almost transparent veil, the body of Miyuki Kanzaki rested for all eternity. Her natural beauty seemed only enhanced in death. The ivory taint of her skin, the blue-black reflects in her long hair, the delicate features of the visage and the marvellous proportions of her body. And he dared to tell her that she needed to fatten. Even the simple tunics she preferred to wear did her justice. “Even in the impossibility of it, I would have found a way to send Miyuki back to her home.”
“You can't blame yourself! Miyuki stayed behind of her own will…”
“You're wrong!” Kail was angered by…himself. “…You're wrong, Kikkuri.” `I didn't want to send her back.' He could still feel the warmth of her body as he held her before. `In truth, I wished to keep her by my side always.'
A servant entered and bowed to Kail. “Pardon the intrusion, your highness. The interrogation of the three sisters Hadi, Ryui and Shalla is about to begin.”
Kail sighed: Another thing that he must force himself to do now. “…I see. Let us go then.”
After the Prince and his servants departed, only the sun witnessed what happened.
On the right side of the main back wall of the temple, a secret door opened. Uruhi, clad in his black cloak, entered silently the altar room. He then took up the inert body of Miyuki.
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In the audience room, Hadi, Ryui and Shalla were kowtowing. “We have acted unforgivably, and can make no excuse. Punish us as you will…!”
Kikkuri left his anger exploded. “YOU FOOLS! Lady Miyuki was someone for whom Tito gave his own life to protect.” He trembled as he tried to master his emotions but… “TITO LOVED LADY MIYUKI DEARLY! To do that…”
“You may stop, Kikkuri.” Kail had managed to control himself. He will grieve later, when the true culprits will be unmasked. “The one who professed to be my servant and who wanted to kill Miyuki. You did not see this person's face, did you?”
Still on her knees, Hadi shook her head. “Forgive us. Always, the person was covered with a black shawl.”
Kikkuri turned to Kail. “It must have been Uruhi! The Queen's attendant!”
“…Probably.” Kail sighed. “However, having not seen the face, there is not enough to determine that.” The only things they have was an empty vial and three manipulated dupes. “There is no poison left, and there is nothing to tie the vial to the Queen.” The Prince sighed again in frustration. “She's covered her tracks well.”
A guard ran into the audience room and knelt. “Your highness, forgive me, but Princess Miyuki's body has been stolen from the great temple!”
“WHAT…!?”
It was true. In the altar room, Kail and everybody could only acknowledge that the body of the Japanese priestess had disappeared.
The Overseer bowed. “We are truly sorry. Guards were posted at every entrance, but they saw nothing.”
Kikkuri shook his head. “So then how could someone have…”
The acute intelligence of Kail was running full steam. “They used a secret door.”
Kikkuri blinked. “Prince Kail?”
Kail nodded to himself. “The Imperial palace and high-status temples have secret doors prepared in case there is an emergency.” He turned to Kikkuri. “The one who holds the layout map of each temple is the temple's high priest. This temple worships the Sun Goddess Hebat, wife of Teshub, meaning the high priest is…”
Kikkuri's eyes widened. “The Queen!” He looked down the empty altar. “Then the Queen is the one after all… But why would she want the body…?”
Kail's eyes narrowed. `Yes, indeed. Why steal the body. Let see… Queen Nakia's plan is not to simply kill Miyuki, but to use her as a living sacrifice to Teshub.' Kail blinked. `There would be no meaning in killing her with poison.' His eyes widened as a sudden hope surged in his heart. `…could it be?'
Meanwhile in the house of the three sisters.
“AAAAAAHHH!”
A matron entered and sighed as she saw her stupid husband. “What's wrong with you?”
The poor man was sweating as he held his knife for protection. “It… Hadi said it was okay for me to skin this goat…”
The woman sighed again. Without a firm feminine hand, those men were good for nothing. “Yes, she said it died from poison so the meat was no good, but the skin was fine.”
The man could only point. “Y-Yeah. But… It's… It came back to life.”
On the floor, the goat was trying to stay erect: A living and breathing goat.
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“Miyuki Kanzaki! Miko! Member of the Circle! Protector of the Nexus! Wielder of the Red Flame! Awaken!”
The Japanese priestess opened her eyes and jerked up abruptly under the whip of the powerful voice.
She felt disoriented. Where was she? What happened to her? She gasped in surprise as she first examined herself.
She was clad in her red and white Miko robes. A costume she thought she wouldn't see for at least one year. She sighed in relief as she hugged herself.
The teenager blinked as she remarked the light silver glow around her skin. The last time she saw that was when… “I'm in my Astral Form!”
“Correct!”
The powerful voice made her whirled around and she almost screamed as she remarked where she was.
She was in a colossal ancient temple that was mainly composed of black granite, obsidian and others dark rocks. Stairs connected the floor where she was to a giant dais of basalt. Four gigantic urn containing fire lighted the scene.
But everything was secondary to the massive humanoid form sitting on a throne made of one sculpted giant sapphire. He was, apparently, a tall and powerful man dark-skinned with a well-trimmed beard and black hair. His eyes seemed to absorb the ambient light, so black they were. He was clad in a rich warrior garb that looked like the one worn by Prince Kail. To his feet was a round jet black shield and a sword was in his sash.
The Miko immediately kowtowed, trembling as her senses were almost saturated by the energies around her.
“Good! You know humility!”
Miyuki bit her lips to prevent her questions to escape. She was absolutely NOT in a good situation. She feared… No, she was frightened by the nature of the entity above her and terrorized by his probable name.
“Do you know why you are here, priestess!”
“N-No, O m-mighty God.”
“You have been summoned to my domain, because the drug you absorb had taken you in a state between life and death. For all to look, you are apparently dead!”
“I-I thank y-you for en-enlightening me, your divinity.”
“Do not thank me yet! Your trial has just begun!”
The Japanese teenager paled and shivered. `A trial! I'm going to be judged by the Gods of this time period?!'
“No! You are here to see if you are worthy of the current attention of our pantheon!”
The emerald eyes widened. `He's reading my very soul! I'm naked in front of him!'
“Name me, lost priestess!”
Miyuki took her courage in two hands and gazed up the entity on the throne. “Y-You are Nergal, God of the Underworld and ruler over all things that are dead.” At least, her lessons about all the pantheons during the history of humanity were useful.
“Some time ago, I collected the soul of Tito of the Hatti tribe. His soul was troubled by the cause of his death and he is now incapable to reach the place he earned!”
The fists of the young girl tightened at the confirmation that Tito couldn't passed away in peace because of his horrible death.
“Confronted to the mortal remains of Tito, you swore an oath, a blood oath that you asked all of our pantheon to bear witness!”
The black-haired girl silently bowed her head to acknowledge the fact.
“You swore to avenge his death or to do what is required to appease his soul! This is why you are here in front of me!”
Miyuki gulped. “What is required of me?”
“My test will be a test of personal combat! Return to your mortal body, priestess!”
Miyuki blinked. “But…? I…! AAAAAAAAHHHHH!”
Nergal waved away literally the Astral Form of the Japanese student back to the mortal plane and smiled.
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It was a drop of water that first awoke her. The cold sensation of the liquid enabled her to focus on her mundane senses. `…My body…feels heavy…' A succession of drops of water made her conscious that she was…conscious. `It's like a haze is hanging in my head.'
“…I say… Let me.”
Slowly, her brain was rebooting. `I feel I'm forgetting something… Something very important.'
“Wouldn't that be okay…? You know.”
After her sense of touch, her sense of hearing was coming online. `I hear someone's voice speaking… Whose…?'
Miyuki opened her eyes to water dripping from a rock ceiling on her forehead. The voices came sharply in contrast.
“No! The girl shall be taken to the Queen, and there will her throat be slit!”
She perceived a source of light on her right and slowly turned a little her head. A bald giant was talking with a form in a black cloak holding a torch.
Well, the tall and powerful man was more yelling than talking. “To curse, all the Queen needs is for the blood to flow from the girl's neck, so it makes no difference if we do it here!”
His companion sighed. “Though that may be, my Queen wishes the ritual to be carried out precisely, and so will see to slicing her neck! It will be done after we return to Hattusa!”
She now recognized them. `Uh oh! No good! The Queen's attendant and Zuwa…!' The drug that Hadi forced on her was still sapping her energy. `I… What am I doing here…'
Zuwa's voice dripped with anticipated glee. “We can settle it here. Give me her body and I will peel off her skin.”
Adrenalin suddenly flowed through her organism. There was nothing better than a good fear to evacuate nasty drugs. `Oookay... Doesn't matter that I'm here. Matters that I run! And quick!'
She managed to gather enough energy to stand up and began to walk away. Unfortunately, her coordination was still shot to hell and the wall of the tunnel weren't very well built. A rock crumbled under her fingers, alerting the two evil men.
Zuwa turned and his eyes widened. This stupid little man told him that she should still be unconscious for hours. “Little girl, awake are you?”
`Damn it!' She whirled to the blade of Zuwa rushing to her neck. She let the gravity did its job and dropped to the ground. The bronze blade missed her head and cut a wood pillar and a portion of the tunnel crumbled.
“ZUWA!” Uruhi was dismayed: Their prey was on the other side of the crumbled section. “I told you not to draw your sword recklessly!”
Miyuki ran. Adrenalin and physical activity were purging her organism of the side-effects of the cataleptic drug. `A cataleptic drug? How do I know that it was such drug and not a poison? Wha…What is this underground passage? What does it connect to!? Where is Prince Kail!?' At last, she began to perceive a natural source of light. `Over there! Light!'
She came to a wall where a small fissure let the silvery light of the moon filtered. She searched and pushed the bricks until they crumbled. A passage revealed itself. “It's the outside!”
As she extracted herself of the tunnel, she stopped as a well built and sharp-looking bronze axe shone in front of her face.
A tall man, holding the weapon, was in front of her. Although he looked old, he had an impressive built and long hair and beard of a white colour. His black eyes searched in her emerald ones. “Who are you?” He narrowed his eyes. “This is a secret exit from the temple of the Sun Goddess Hebat. What are you doing here?”
She gulped. This man looked very serious. “I…I'm Miyuki… I'd also like to know what I'm doing here…”
The man blinked in surprise. “Miyuki!? The one who is said to be the first concubine accepted by Lord Kail?”
“Yes? Excuse me, but…Who are you!?”
Meanwhile, in the temple of Hebat, Kikkuri attempted to find a solution. “Prince Kail, have you no clue as to where the secret passage leads?”
Kail turned to the Overseer. “I do not know. Hazannu, (Hazannu meaning something close to Mayor or Overseer.) are there no notes regarding the layout?”
The man wasn't very optimist. “Ah…Yes. Perhaps in the record store-house…”
Shyly, Hadi tried to help. “Um…If I may…”
“What is it, Hadi?”
“I've heard from our father, that's there's a secret exit from the great temple behind where he works…”
Kikkuri grinned. “Of course! The Hatti make their living from metallurgy and blacksmithing. Since they make weapons, it makes sense that they'd be beside the emergency escape!” he turned to Kail. “Let's go, Prince Kail! It'll be all right! She's Princess Miyuki after all. So if she's alive, she may have already sought Talos' help on her own…”
Kail paled as he suddenly understood something. “…Hadi? How does Talos perceive Miyuki?”
The long-haired girl blinked. “Huh?”
Now, Kail was worried. “Does he not believe as you did that Miyuki is Tito's enemy?”
At the secret exit of the temple of Hebat, the white-haired man raised an eyebrow. “…my name? My name is Talos.”
Miyuki frowned and scratched her head. “Talos…?” `Talos… I know I've heard that name somewhere before…'
“Humph. So you've heard of me.”
The angry voice of the chieftain of the Kaska clan erupted from the tunnel. “Little girl! Where are you!? You won't get away!”
Miyuki was startled. “Zuwa!” `Stupid! Stupid! I need to go elsewhere and quick! At least he's still a long way to find me.'
The teenager began to run. “I'm sorry, but please forget you saw me! I'm being chased by a madman! Hide yourself, he kill for pleasure!” She stopped abruptly as she felt the edge of the axe on her throat.
The Miko was flabbergasted. “Wha…What?” `My sixth sense…didn't react?'
Talos maintained his axe on the white vulnerable throat. “If you are the one called Miyuki, then I cannot forget that I have seen you.”
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Notes: End of the second volume.
Wow! I didn't know that my muse would be so quick. I hope that the quality of the story didn't suffer.
Send me your comment, ideas and reviews.
Please and thank you.