A Fell Christening

Life, Birth

Albeit not without cost, Hashinara Yoshitakatomo had succeeded in escorting Phiruna the Navigator to Queen's Landing. Now the Black Galleon that listed outside their bay would have its captain. More, Yoshitakatomo could move on to the next step of her* grand design.

Promptly, the aged Daimyō left Phiruna to descend upon the beach. She* found Ashiya Dōman there and hailed him, but not about whatever suspicious activities he'd been up to before her* arrival. Instead, Yoshitakatomo wished to know if the onmyōji had skill enough to summon a Sheele. Of course Dōman asserted that he did. Anything that Abe no Seimei could accomplish would be well within his grasp as well.   Reassured that she* was moving in the correct direction, Yoshitakatomo then turned her* attention to the Black Galleon a hundred meters out in the water. This would be the vessel into which she* would pour life. A crowd gathered, then, drawn by the rumbling earth and twisting sand in the air. Arcane energies crackled across the ground and up through Yoshitakatomo's raised soles into her* body. Even the air itself seemed to thrum with barely-restrained power. Then, it shot forward.   Like a giant's blade, the Daimyō's mighty spell cleaved through the waves and cut a furrow all the way out to the ship beyond. There was no physical change, as the spell took hold, and yet... Something about the vessel seemed different. The shape of its prow now suggested some ill-defined sentience dwelling within. Its body rocked with more intent than it had just a moment ago. Yoshitakatomo found herself* thinking of the thing not as an "it," but as a "she."   A voice rang out over the heaving bay as water crashed back into the furrow magic had left in its wake. It was Ganzo Sada, the Named Man. His voice brimming with pride and fellowship, he beseeched Yoshitakatomo to grant this newborn vessel a gift: a new name.   This had not been within the aged Daimyō's expectations. She* paused for a moment, turning characters and meanings around in her* head. After a ponderous length, Yoshitakatomo indeed gave the ship a name: Hashinara Kurayume. It was a title bearing the honor of the Hashinara family name, while also evoking thoughts of dark dreams and depthless seas. The watching peasants drank in this momentous naming with only respectful silence.   Then, Yoshitakatomo's part was done. The next step would be by the Wraithmaster, Ashiya Dōman. Yet, as he took to the shoals, a problem arose. The soul Yoshitakatomo had indwelled within the vessel was too powerful. Far greater than most of the lowly humans present, it would require an equally vast supply of magic in order to produce a sheele. When Dōman named an approximate number, Yoshitakatomo's heart nearly stopped. Or it would have, had it not ceased its beating some time ago.   Still, it was a staggering sum, and not something which the Daimyō could safely produce then and there. After considering her* options, a solution was not far from her* mind. Elsewhere, in a castle on Earth, a masked man stood from his work and engaged transport to Ise Grand Shrine. There, he passed through the portal and arrived, not but minutes later, in the presence of his true body. This avatar of Yoshitakatomo's power, named Katsusada Shishauezaemon in honor of a previous life, would provide a shard of the power they needed.   It was settled. Shishauezaemon invested two-thirds of what was needed, while Yoshitakatomo gave up the final third. Dōman, too, did his part. Nearly all of the masked man's own energy went into the conjuring which followed. To Yoshitakatomo's eyes, it was like a twisting serpent of raw energy. Rising from the man on the beach, it struck out to the ship and buried itself within her hull. There came a creaking then, as though the vessel herself was in great pain. Then that sound itself was overwhelmed by a great curtain of water bursting out from around Kurayume and hiding her from view.   All gathered watched in muted awe, but the spectacle was not to last. Too soon, the veil crashed down and revealed Kurayume looking much as she had before. The only difference, this time, was the petite figure resting atop her bow. Its features were indistinct from here, so Yoshitakatomo approached. None spoke as the Daimyō crossed the waves, walking upon them as if they were sand, then to climb Kurayume's hull in the same manner.   Upon the ship, Yoshitakatomo found a confused and wary girl formed from a shard of the ship's soul. This was a sheele created from a soul that had only been birthed mere moments before. And yet she was no infant. When granting the vessel life, Yoshitakatomo had weaved into her* spell the memories of all those who had crewed its decks. Beyond a healthy dose of imbued loyalty to the Hashinara Clan, she* had little idea of what to expect from this amalgam of the exotic before her.*   A few side effects immediately became apparent as the sheele spoke in a language Yoshitakatomo could not decipher. It sounded dark and guttural; perhaps not quite human. That was fixed with another spell of memory, granting this creation a working memory of the Japanese language. With that done, Yoshitakatomo took a moment to admire the work she* and Dōman had wrought.   Small-bodied, as many sheele were, this could pass for a human girl were it not for the great claws on her hands and the blunted points her legs tapered into; dark clusters of keratin devoid of feet. Perhaps the sheele's form as well as its memories had been influenced by those goat-footed Men of Leng who had once crewed these decks. All-in-all, Yoshitakatomo was quite satisfied.   The same could not be said for the sheele, who demanded to know what had happened, why she was now alone on this ship, and where her "brood" had gone. Yoshitakatomo filled her in as well as she* could. There was a cultural divide here, or perhaps something greater, that could not be so easily bridged, however. The sheele continued to ask about the brood, the Faceless God, and the rubies which formed its eyes. That was not as expected. Perhaps a Moonbeast's memories, too, had been introduced to the mix?   In the end, it hardly mattered. Indeed, the sheele's strange amalgam of knowledge could work to Yoshitakatomo's benefit. After all, alien as this Kurayume was, she could not fight her inborn loyalty to the clan.