34 – On the Righteous Path
I sat in the witch’s hut, scowling down at the tea she had poured for me, while Smoke glared daggers across the rounded table at the younger witch. I wasn’t sure why I had agreed to come inside, but... I suppose I was still a little dumbstruck by being attacked that her honeyed apologies had worked wonders on me.
She had come at a good time, at least, distracting me before my anger had boiled over.
“I can only apologies for my student’s foolishness, truly. She is perhaps a little... overzealous when it comes to our safety,” Daji said, smiling politely at me.
She didn’t look that old, maybe a woman in her thirties or early forties. But the thing about witches and wizards, the really wise ones, was that even if they made themselves physically young... there was something in the eye that gave them away if you knew what to look for.
“I...” Sakura shifted in her seat, “the negative karma hanging around him-”
“Yes yes, the karma,” Daji said, rolling her eyes. “Honestly. If he had ill intentions he could have carved a bloody track across the entire forest. Would have killed you as soon as he laid eyes on you, before you could pull your stupid stunt.”
I stared at them. “What in damnation is karma?” I asked.
“Your... sins,” Daji said. “All the evil you have ever done.”
“Ah,” I replied, shifting just a little in my chair. Well, my karma must have stood out like a forest fire in that case. Maybe I couldn’t blame the other one for being so wary.
Daji sighed. “All this, and you didn’t even get the damn mushrooms. Really, Sakura. Maybe I can’t trust you outside the hut anymore,” she mused.
Sakura glowered at her. “I’m a grown woman,” she said.
“A foolish one,” Smoke growled.
“Calm yourself, noble spirit beast. I will admit that my student was a touch reckless. Though... I’m nearly 300 years old, and I can’t even recall the last time I saw a man who radiated a presence such as yours.” Daji was watching me, the intensity of her gaze in sharp contrast to her carefree little smile.
“Can you also see my sins, then?” I asked, lifting one brow.
“Indeed. It’s a trait we witches seek out in apprentices. Not a necessity to be a witch, but we like those of our ranks to have that insight.” And Daji focused back on her apprentice, a newfound annoyance in her expression. “It’s not an excuse to try and kill people with wicked karma on sight.”
“So even knowing that this blackness follows me around, you’re not worried?”
“Should I be?” That irritating smile didn’t falter as she tilted her head. “We’re still alive, are we not? If you meant us harm, you’d have more than enough justification to lash out. And yet you restrain yourself. I’m nearly three hundred years old, I have met many breeds of men in all that time. And you, Amon, strike me as a man who is trying to... better himself. To leave his wicked ways behind.”
“Smart woman,” I eventually admitted.
“Possibly dangerous woman too,” Smoke murmured, his slitted eyes glancing between both witches.
The hellcat may well have been right. I was no stranger to fighting those blessed with magic, but even I had never fought a witch. They tended to avoid getting into the affairs of kingdoms, preferring to be isolated.
But, certainly, there were many tales of how dangerous witches could be.
“Go out and fetch those mushrooms, Sakura. And kindly refrain from picking any more fights while you’re out.”
The young witch grumbled, glaring at her mentor. Yet she rose to her feet all the same, and filed silently out of the hut. The door shut noisily behind her, leaving the three of us alone.
“You’re also a rare breed of undead, aren’t you?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Another facet of your ‘third eye’, I take it?” I asked warily.
“Something like that.” Daji sipped her tea briefly. “A revenant... or, onryo as people in Tsukio call them. One who stands in the twilight of life and death, their fading form infused with a rush of magic to revive them, then fuelled into immortality so long as their hatred persists. Who could you possibly hate enough to fuel that fire in your chest?” A knowing smile briefly touched upon her lips.
Yeah. She and I both knew the answer to that one.
Well, I’d be damned if I was going to admit as much to her. I wasn’t even in a hurry to admit my self-loathing to myself.
“A revenant all the way in Tsukio. Truly, we live in unprecedented times. Not much news from the west reaches here, and many of the locals lack any sort of interest in what happens across the sea to start with. But, from my understanding there’s some great big war still raging out that way. Same old story of a fool with too much power and too much ambition, right?”
I huffed, taking a long and measured sip of my tea. It was... admittedly damn good tea. And Smoke seemed to share my enthusiasm, lapping from the small wooden bowl holding his serving.
“You’re not wrong. That’s the long and short of it.” People followed Novos for all sorts of reasons. Greed, ambition, vengeance, loyalty... but Novos himself was driven almost entirely by vanity and an ambition that would probably never be fully sated, even if he did take all of Endres. “I got fed up with it. Fed up with the... thing I had become. But I’m not the type of person who wants to take his own life, nor do I have interest in facing ‘justice’ back across the sea. A new life here was the best option I had to hand. Only one, really.”
She nodded along to my explanation. “Mm. While the specifics are different, I am no stranger to men who seek to run from their pasts, rebuilding their lives anew. Whatever you did before, I suppose it’s no bones to me. And I’m not foolish enough to want to throw myself in the path of a man with qi like yours. Unlike a certain apprentice of mine. But if you do seek to be a better man, I suppose you have taken a good first step in the right direction.”
“I don’t need your approval,” I said, glaring across the table at her.
“Father is a virtuous man. The wisest and most noble of warriors,” Smoke said, his voice low and rich with his own excitement.
Daji chuckled. “Somehow,” she said, “I think even you would think twice if you heard some of the tales of your ‘father’s past life. There is a lot of murder in those eyes of his.”
“Enough,” I said, rising from my chair. “You’ve said your piece. I thank you for your hospitality, but we’ve wasted enough time here.”
“Of course, of course,” Daji said, waving us off. “Stay on the righteous path. And know that if you ever need the aid of a witch, my door is always open to paying patrons.”