Tutelage of a Named Man

Life, Education

Ganzo Sada, the Named Man, stood upon the deck of Hashinara Kurayume and watched a brilliant tapestry of unfamiliar stars wheel over his head. He was on sea watch duty tonight. In truth, anything which came from those black depths, arisen perhaps from the rotting Sunken City far below, would be too dangerous for him to handle alone. In such a case, he could at least perhaps send warning to the rest of Queen's Landing before being devoured or worse.   However, Ganzo Sada was not about to let the bleak reality of this dangerous place get to him. The stars were so very beautiful, and he loved to watch the mysterious lights which flickered across the Dreamsea's horizon, hinting at places and people yet unknown.

The sound of leathery wings softly filled the air, and Ganzo Sada realized too late that a Night-gaunt was upon him. He closed his eyes and hung his head. This was it, then. His journey cut short, dropped by a fell messenger into the infinite darkness that was whispered to lie beneath Mount Ngranek. Yet the Named Man could not bring himself to be bitter. He had received honor unmatched from the Daimyō of his great clan, and stories of his adventures in the Dreamlands would no doubt be told for generations by his many children back home.   He turned to meet his end, but saw that this was no night-gaunt hunter. Instead, it was a pair of the creatures, swooping all-but-silently upon the deck to deposit Hashinara Yoshiyuki and her strange retainer, Carmilla, upon the deck. Ganzo Sada wiped any trace of fear from his face and bowed deeply to honor the presence of the great Princess. "You're back, Lady Hashinara! I'm on sea watch tonight, and there's nothing to report so far."   "Let us hope the night stays calm," the Sorceress-Daimyō said as she floated across the ship to join him at the rail. "How do you find the Dreamlands so far? Terrifying?"   Ganzo Sada looked at that expressionless white mask and could glean nothing from it. He decided to answer the question honestly, if with a little positive spin. "As long as I don't pay too much attention to the fish, it's not so bad." Something large and scaled slipped by under the ship, a deeper shadow in the dark water. "It's exciting, even! In Japan, most of the wilderness has been staked out, already explored. Here, anything might happen!" He leaned on the rail and looked out at the horizon, grinning at the ghostly lights far beyond.   "I doubt this realm will ever be fully explored like our own. There will always be something new to discover." She turned her mask to look at him. There were eyes there, beneath its porcelain surface, but they were as flat and unreadable as the rest of her façade. "This realm, however, is much more dangerous."   As she spoke, Princess Yoshiyuki turned toward Carmilla. The woman in red was standing a few feet distant on the deck. Her eyes were fixed on something in the middle-distance, clouded and wavering, and her mouth moved as though reciting some unheard mantra. "Take her, for example," the Daimyō continued. "The more I learn of her truth, the more terrifying a simple mistake becomes." A pause. "While the night is calm, let us take advantage of it and train you. Perhaps you might learn a trick that will help you survive longer in this hellish dream."   Ganzo Sada had to admit that went over his head. "Dangerous, perhaps, but that's the appeal of it." Was he speaking of the Dreamlands or Carmilla herself? Perhaps both. Regardless, he couldn't hide his excitement at a chance to be trained by Hashinara Yoshiyuki. This name she'd bestowed had already elevated him so much. "What's this trick?"   "The only trick I know would be...magic." A sphere of unearthly green fire appeared in the Princess' upturned palm. It twisted and licked at the air, but gave off no heat. "But I could also conjure an entity at a level you could stand a chance of surviving." The greenish flame sprouted legs and arms. Suddenly, a tiny green imp made of flame was dancing in the Daimyō's palm. She closed her fingers, snuffing its antics out in an instant. "But for now, let us see if you have the knack for casting spells."   As great an honor as this was, the sheer enormity of what the Daimyō was saying nearly crushed Ganzo Sada where he stood. Magic was the domain of sorcerors and generals, great figures who toyed with the fates of men and wore history like a cloak. Not for lowly ashigaru like himself, even if he did have a name of power.   "To cast a spell, you must accumulate an energy called zeon. Most creatures do not have enough of it or none at all, but intelligent creatures tend to have enough to cast a simple spell."   "Unh?" The Named Man was still reeling at the unseen line between mundane and supernatural he was asked so casually to cross. "I can't say I've ever heard of anything like this, Lady Daimyō," he managed.   "'Zeon' is a common word for it, but we Japanese understand it as seiryoku (精力). The power of our own spirit."   With a culmination of energy Ganzo Sada hadn't felt until it was there, a simple white mask coalesced in the Princess' hand. She'd created it as though by magic. No, it was magic. This item had been formed from seiryoku by Yoshiyuki's will, as she said.   "Like that stuff martial artists use?" He cursed himself for the banality of the question, but he truly had no idea what else to ask. Ganzo Sada was flailing around for some familiar concept to connect this to and landed on the tales of martial artists who could deflect blows with the energy of their own spirit.   "I believe they call it Ki," Yoshiyuki confirmed. "In practice they are the same, but their foci are different."   With that, the Princess-Daimyō touched a slender hand to Ganzo Sada's arm. It felt as though a spark from a fire had landed on his bare skin, gooseflesh running up and down the limb as some unseen energy earthed itself there. "Hey, that tickled," he said before he could stop himself.   Despite the simplicity of his statement, the Princess seemed pleased. "Oho," she drawled, "You felt that?"   Hashinara Yoshitakatomo focused her seiryoku into a weave which she drew through the Named Man's being, scanning his body and soul in equal measure. As she suspected, Ganzo possessed only slightly more spiritual power than an average human. Before the vast sea of zeon which fueled the Princess-Daimyō's own magics, he was as an insect. And yet, "slightly more" was a greater sum than "none at all." She felt it as the Named Man called up all of the strength of his soul and attempted to focus it into a spell. The attempt was clumsy and he failed to accumulate even a single measure of zeon. Still, that he was able to make the attempt at all represented something.   All of this was lost on Ganzo Sada himself, who merely saw Princess Yoshiyuki staring at him wordlessly.   "Hmm," she mused at last. "You are average in terms of spiritual power, which means you have the potential to make use of spells." With pale fingers, she grasped his arm and moved his own digits into a precise position. "Follow my gestures and say these incantations."    What followed seemed needlessly morbid to Ganzo Sada, but he tried anyway. "周りの精霊よ、私の願いを叶えてください。 マイナー アイテムを作成します!" He suddenly felt drained, as though some vital essence had been drawn out of him by the attempt. Yet no "minor item" materialized in his hand or anywhere else.   "Good, good. Let's try the spell a few more times. I will transfer my spiritual power to replace what was used." As she promised, warmth seemed to spread out from Yoshiyuki's oddly cool touch. The Named Man felt revitalized, as though what he spent had been renewed.   He nodded, screwed his eyes up, and tried again. "周りの精霊よ、私の願いを叶えてください。 マイナー アイテムを作成します!"