The Haunted Lands

The Haunted Lands
As the Empire continues to recover from the shocking events at the Imperial Palace, the Mantis fleet in the distant realm once known as the Ivory Kingdoms makes a terrible discovery.

By Rusty Priske

Edited by Fred Wan

Komori stepped into the largest tent, set up just in the shade of the jungle so it was protected from the elements but still had quick access to the beach. The Bat Clan champion stretched out his left arm, feeling that satisfying pop that relieved his aching muscles.

“Well, this place has no shortage of supplies. Food gathering and construction both proceed apace, as usual. In fact, we have had no real hardships at all. This land is amazing.”

Moshi Kalani looked up from where he sat. “The reports are all the same. The wood in this jungle is well suited for building. The food is plentiful and requires no tending. There is no competition for resources at all. It is all ours.”

Komori grinned. “A Mantis dream come true.”

Kalani said nothing and Komori ignored his slightly pensive expression. “So, Kalani, if we are staying here for winter, and longer, when will you let your people build you an actual building to sleep in? This tent does not give you any more room or comfort than you had aboard the Blade’s Edge. Rank has its privileges, you know.”

“It also has its responsibilities. I will not divert resources from more important matters. We may have no shortage of building materials but it still takes time and effort to extract those resources and build the facilities we need. My comfort does not take precedence over our new port. Is that what becoming a Clan Champion meant to you, Komori-sama? Luxury and privilege?” Kalani said the last with a smirk, knowing how far that was from Komori’s true nature.

“Absolutely. I just count my blessings every day that I was born into a clan that values such things.” Both men laughed before Komori continued. “What are the reports from Gidayu?”

“Well, after I reassigned perimeter defense to Aranai his mood improved considerably. I think the opportunity to explore this place has been scratching at him since we got here. His patrols have been going out further and further, and he goes on as many of them personally as he can.”

“I think he has a found a new place to call home.”

Kalani shook his head. “It isn’t that. I just think he likes finding something new. If he was able to see every inch of this land he would probably start looking for a new assignment to see what lies beyond the next peninsula or across the next sea.”

Komori nodded. “So, what has our great explorer found?”

“Nothing to explain what happened here, that is for sure. I haven’t been able to pry anything out of Anshu, either. He has referred to his people but is evasive when I ask where they are and what happened to them. He speaks about them in both present and past tense fluidly and I can’t figure out whether he is hiding something or whether he is just confused.”

“What about Singh?”

“He hasn’t been the same since he returned on the Fire Blossom. It is clear that he was not expecting to find his homeland in such a state. He wanders a lot. I try to get him to stay with Gidayu’s patrols, but I know he roams off by himself at times. I think he is trying to find something, but I don’t know what it is.”

Komori shook his head. “I don’t think he is looking for anything specific. Rather he wants to find anything that reminds him of what this place once was.” He paused. “At least that is my read on him. I could be wrong. He is somewhat inscrutable.”

Kalani nodded. “True. One thing is certain, and that is that nobody would abandon a place like this voluntarily.”

* * * * *

Some time later, Moshi Kalani found himself walking along the edge of the jungle, switching his attention between the construction and the sea itself. As he watched the waves crash onto distant breakers he was approached by a smiling Tsuruchi Gidayu. “Good afternoon Kalani-sama. A pleasant day for a stroll, is it not?”

“Good day Gidayu-san. It is certainly pleasant, but have we had an unpleasant day since we have been here?”

“If so, I have not noticed. The climate here is exceedingly agreeable.”

“That it is.”

“Do you believe that Naizen-sama will order a permanent settlement to be built here? We will certainly have a head start if he does.”

Kalani nodded. “That may have more to do with the Empress than our champion. Expansion beyond the borders of Rokugan has always been a tricky subject. We have come here under her orders, but that is not to say that she will permit us to stay. She may, though. The natural resources alone are worth some effort.”

Gidayu’s eyes positively sparkled when he said, “Not to mention what else we may find.”

As they spoke another Tsuruchi approached, though he kept a respectable distance. Kalani looked up over and said, “You may approach Shisuken-san.”

He bowed and then said, “My apologies for interrupting but I felt that this was important enough to not wait any longer.”

Gidayu said, “What is it? Have you found something?”

Shisuken shook his head, “It is what we have not found. Tsuruchi Akinori’s patrol is overdue.”

Gidayu shrugged. “The terrain is unknown and we have been traveling further afield. You cannot expect them to follow a perfect timetable.”

Shisuken shook his head again. “My apologies but it was a morning patrol. She is overdue by four hours.”

Kalani’s eyebrow shot up and Gidayu’s face hardened. “I see.” He thought for a moment then said, “Is Arishia’s unit fresh?”

“Yes, Gidayu-san. They patrolled last night.”

“Good. Tell her to mount a search party. I will accompany her. You are responsible for the patrols while I am gone, but only send out area sweeps. Cancel all of the deep searches.” Gidayu stopped for a moment and looked to Kalani. “With your permission, of course.”

“Granted.”

Gidayu and Shisuken both bowed to Kalani and departed, with urgency in their gaits. Kalani watched them walk away for a moment before turning back to the sea.

* * * * *

“How much of their destination do we know?” Gidayu balanced his serious tone with the spark of adventure in his eye.

“We have their planned direction and route, but they were going past our furthest marker, so we will have to track them at that point.” Arishia paused and then said, “That will not be a problem.”

“These are not our usual environs.”

“True, but Akinori would not have had them trying to cover their tracks. They might as well have been leaving directional markers in each passing tree trunk.”

Gidayu nodded. “Make sure you pack some light sources. Ask Yuriko to provide something. It will still be light for some time, but we can not be sure that we will be back before the sun sets.”

Arishia nodded curtly, slightly annoyed that he felt the need to tell her something that was so obvious. As she left Gidayu was approached by another.

“Gidayu-san?”

He recognized the dark skinned native of this area who had joined the Mantis some time back. “Ah, yes. How can I help you Singh?”

The former Rama Singh bowed slightly. “I understand one of your patrols has not returned and that you are going to go looking for them.”

“This is true.”

“I wish to accompany you.”

Gidayu’s eyebrow shot up. “Yes? It is not unusual for you to ask to join one of our patrols, but why this one in particular?”

Singh’s face held a level of concern that he tried in vain to hide. “Since I have returned to these lands things have not felt right. I recognize the trees and rocks and surf, but not the kingdom. A city where I once walked amongst my people, through the stalls of the markets and the main thoroughfares and alleys, lays empty. It was teeming with people. The kingdom was not these jungles and that abandoned city, it was the people who made the air vibrate with life. Now it just seems vacant. I would give anything to know what happened. I need to know where everyone has gone.”

Gidayu nodded. “I understand, but that does not answer my question. Why this patrol?”

Singh sighed. “Since we arrived, everyone has been acting like this is just another deserted island to annex and exploit. We fall into normalcy so quickly and completely that it is as if my people were never here at all, or have been gone for so long that they are delegated to dusty historical scrolls in the Ikoma libraries. This is the first thing to happen since I returned on the Fire Blossom that does not fit. Anything out of the ordinary could lead me to what I need to know.”

Gidayu nodded again. “Well, I expect we will find something mundane to explain the patrol’s delay, but I am more than willing to have you along. We can use your expertise on the region, Singh-san. We leave in ten minutes. Make sure you are ready.”

* * * * *

The small squad of Tsuruchi picked their way through the jungle, following the lead set by Arishia, but giving her sufficient room to not interfere with her tracking efforts.

Gidayu spoke to Yoritomo Singh in an off-hand manner, trying to break the mood of unease that was written on his face. “We are making good time. Arishia was right that the trail would be easy to follow. Even if Akinori had been trying to cover her tracks, which she had to no reason to do, Arishia would still be able to pick up their trail.”

Singh said nothing.

Gidayu gamely continued. “We are well past our final marker. We are now walking in places that no Rokugani has ever seen before the patrol this morning.”

“No Rokugani-born.” Singh corrected him softly. “I have been here. I remember it. Soon, if our bearing does not change, we will come across a break in the land – a chasm. There was a bridge across it when I was here, but that was some time ago.”

Gidayu’s brow knit as he listened. “Then we may have found our answer. If Akinori and her squad tried to cross the bridge and it was in poor repair, maybe they have fallen. How deep is this chasm? Could they have survived such a fall?”

“Unlikely. It would take favorable intervention from the gods of the land to allow it.”

Gidayu then noticed Arishia standing still, with her back to the rest of the group. “Arishia-san? What is it?”

The scout turned and said, “It is gone. It does not make any sense, but there it is.” Her face made it clear that she was clearly annoyed with this unexplained event.”

“Gone?” asked Gidayu. “What is gone?”

“The trail! They were traveling this way, making no attempts to cover their tracks and then nothing. It is as if they suddenly gained the power of flight though if they had, I am sure I find even some signs of that. Instead there is nothing. It is more like they just ceased to exist.”

“Could you have just lost the” Gidayu trailed off as Arishia glared at him. He then looked at Singh who was slowly shaking his head.

“Singh-san? How far are we from this chasm you were talking about?” Singh acted as if he had not heard the question. Gidayu spoke again, louder this time. “Singh-san!”

Singh shook his head as if startled. “Oh. It is about 800 yards straight ahead.”

“Then lead on. You will be our scout for the next leg of our journey.”

Singh nodded and moved past Arishia. After he moved away from immediate earshot, Arishia spoke to Gidayu quietly, “I do not know what is going on here, but what I have just described could not happen. What is this chasm you are talking about?”

“I am following a hunch. Let’s see where it leads.”

When they came up behind Singh, he was standing at the edge of a large clearing in the jungle. The clearing was barren of any growth and looked more like the ground had been turned by an ambitious farmer. Gidayu saw the look of puzzlement on Singh’s face.

“Singh-san? What is it? What is this place?”

“This is this was”

“What is it?”

Singh looked at the Tsuruchi with a face of shock mixed with disbelief. “This was the chasm. It is gone.”

Gidayu saw the look from Arishia. He could see what she was thinking and his thoughts matched, though he tried not to show it. “Singh-san, it has been a long time since you were here. You must be misremembering the exact location of the chasm.”

“No!” Singh spoke forcefully. “It was here!” He then turned and strode out into the clearing. He stopped a few steps out and looked at the ground. He then looked over his shoulder at the other Mantis and then walked a few more paces away from the tree line.

Gidayu said, “Arishia-san?” This was all the order she needed. The scout stepped into the clearing much as Singh had. The way she walked made it clear to Gidayu that something was wrong.

“The ground,” said Arishia, “Does not feel as solid as it looks. It feels both like it could collapse under our weight at any moment and still as stable as well, the Mantis islands. It almost feels like being shipboard.”

Gidayu looked back to Singh who had dropped to his knees and was digging frantically at the earth. “Singh-san? What are you?”

He was cut off as Yoritomo Singh, once known as Rama Singh, began a keening wail that cut through the air. The sound sent shivers down Gidayu’s spine.

* * * * *

The sun was setting as the party returned to the beach where their makeshift settlement was taking shape. The sun seemed to set late here, despite the season, though Kalani thought it may be a trick of the way the light reflected off the water there.

Yoritomo Singh was the first to emerge from the jungle and his face was drawn and wan. Kalani would describe it as haunted.

“Singh-san, what did you?” Kalani trailed off as Singh walked right past him without even acknowledging his presence. For a moment Kalani was shocked and then he started to get angry. As he saw Singh walk to his tent, Kalani began to call him back to demand an explanation, but he was once again cut off.

“Let him go.”

Kalani turned to see Gidayu approach, though it was not the Gidayu who had left that afternoon. One by one, the other members of the party filtered out of the jungle, each with tired and beaten looks that Kalani had never seen. “Gidayu, what is going on? What happened?”

“I think that wait.” Gidayu turned and called Arishia to come with them. He then turned back to Kalani. “You need to hear this from more than one person. If I heard it from only one I am not sure I would believe it myself. Actually, I am not sure I do believe it, and I was there.”

“You need to explain this, and quickly.”

“In your tent. The rest from the squad have orders not to discuss what we saw, but I don’t think you can hide their faces. It feels like I have it tattooed on my skin like one of the Dragon monks. I may not ever be able to wash it clean.”

Kalani’s mouth hung open slightly. The Gidayu he knew was an adventurer who always wanted to see what was beyond the horizon. The thought that something could steal that spark from him was inconceivable. “All right. Both of you, in my tent. Right now.”

When the three Mantis had reconvened away from other ears and eyes Kalani ordered them to explain what had happened.

Gidayu nodded. “Since we have been here there has been one question that has hung over the entire mission. What happened to the people here? Where did they go?”

“Yes.”

“We followed the trail of Akinori and her patrol past the final marker as expected. We followed until we lost the trail.”

“We did not lose the trail.” Arishia interjected. “The trail ceased to exist.”

“So you did not find the patrol?”

Gidayu shook his head. “We found something else. Once we lost once we no longer could track Akinori, Singh told me of a chasm nearby from when he was younger. He said it had a bridge and I thought that maybe they had gone there and there had been an accident. Maybe they had fallen in or been trapped on the wrong side and could not find their way back.” Kalani nodded but said nothing. “He led us to the chasm or where the chasm had been.”

“Where it had been?” Kalani looked at Arishia but she showed no disagreement with Gidayu’s narrative.

“I thought he was mistaken. Actually I thought he had gone mad, but if he has, so have we all. The chasm was filled with it was covered over with dirt, but first it was filled with” Gidayu started to shake slightly.

Kalani snapped at him, “Tsuruchi Gidayu! This is not the way a samurai of the Mantis clan behaves. Show some pride! Pull yourself together and finish your report!”

Gidayu reacted as if struck. His back straightened and his face stiffened. Kalani could see Arishia’s eyes flash with anger. That surprised him. He had not realized that there was any connection between the two Tsuruchi beyond their familial ties. Yet she looked like she was ready to defend Gidayu to the death against Kalani himself!

Gidayu continued speaking, but this time it was in a calmer, more measured voice. “My apologies, Kalani-sama. I have to report that we found the former inhabitants of this kingdom. Or some of them, at least.”

“What?”

“The bodies were dumped into the chasm. When it was full they dumped dirt over all of it. It was the largest mass grave that you can ever imagine and then more.”

Kalani’s mouth hung open slightly as he tried to process this information. Even the word chasm seemed too large for such a thing. “How large? How many?”

“Singh could not give a precise idea of the depth of the chasm, but it was deep, and wide, and long.”

“Thousands.”

Gidayu shook his head. “Tens of thousands.”

Kalani could not wrap his mind around the number “How?”

“Every body we saw died at the end of a knife or sword of some sort.”

Arishia spoke for the first time, her voice creaky and tired. “A knife. Each body had three cuts, almost like our three cuts, but different. The cuts were here here and here.” She pointed at her right side, her heart, and her throat. “Each one we saw was exactly the same.”

“But what would that” Kalani still struggled with the idea.

Gidayu, still standing as stiff as a board, said a single word that led to minutes of absolute silence in the tent.

“Ritual.”

* * * * *

Deep in the jungle, far from the beach where the Mantis ponder the implications of the death of so many, and far from a chasm where a Kingdom lay to rest, sat a building of stone, carved with designs that would cause the former Rama Singh to shake with anger.

As the night passed, sounds came from within.

The sound was chanting in a language unheard in Rokugan.

The voices dripped with venom and blood.

Inside there was fire and blood.

Faces contorted in rage and ecstasy.

The inhabitants were overcome with blood and death and their voices sang together in a hymn of darkness.

In the center of the temple was a stone table and chained to it was Tsuruchi Akinori, though the chains may have been superfluous as her stare was glassy and she made no attempts to free herself.

Through her haze she saw one figure separate from the others. As the chanting continued she saw him brandish a dagger that shone red. She watched as he used it to cut first her right side. Pain lanced through her but she was unable to make a sound. Her screams were forced inward as the knife was brought to her throat.

As she gasped what was her last breath, the dagger was plunged into her heart.

The cultists watched as a cloud of red emerged from Akinori’s body. It floated above her for a moment while they continued to chant.

Then it was gone, not as if it had dissipated, but rather as if it had been drawn away.

If any could hear the chanting that echoed through the jungle, and if any could understand the strange words, they would have heard the cultists offer up the soul of the sacrificed to Yuna, Child of the Gods, Vassal of the Destroyer.

And they promised more.