Kesuan slept, worn by the ordeal and the pain from the tattooing. Mikoto knelt by him, watching his breathing with a watchful, contemplative gaze. His mind was empty; no stirring of premonition touched him as he watched over the small form. He touched the Void in his mind, which was like, yet unlike, sleep.
Then HE was there. There was no sound in the room; no creak of floorboard, rustle of silk, or sigh of breath, but Mikoto knew, with an absolute certainty, that the Lord had entered this room, and was standing nearby.
"Lord Togashi" the monk acknowledged, Mikoto indicated the sleeping youth. "His mind seems to be healing; he shows no indications of the Raving. His spirit is strong, but strange." Mikoto fell silent, thinking of the boy's wonder, his absorption of the new realm of wonder that had opened for him.
The champion of the Dragon Clan moved with an absolute silence, that seemed to seep from him as water from melting ice. His motions were simply perfect - no motion save what was required, no spare gesture, no wasted effort. And yet he was graceful; he moved with the precision and exquisite beauty of the greatest Noh dancer. He was a compact, powerful man, a man rarely seen but immediately recognized, and his presence was tremendous.
Togashi knelt by the boy's side, across from where Mikoto knelt, and the firey eyes behind the ancient helm seemed subdued in the chilled night. His hands moved over the boys skin, tracing the lines of the new tattoos as though smoothing their rough plumage. When his fingers found the crow on the youth's crown, he nodded, and his eyes turned to Mikoto.
"It has been long since Shinsei's companion has been seen among us. Its coming portends tremendous things. This you know."
"Yes, Master." Mikoto answered. Yokuni's words filled him with the ancient longing; the Dragon Champion seldom spoke, and Mikoto was never able to remember what the Champion's voice sounded like. It was as the brush of leaves, the timbre of a hawk's diving screech, the mournful howl of the solitary wolf. All of nature moved through Yokuni's voice, and Mikoto's mind could not hold it's memory.
"My blood gave you my vision. What has it given to this one?"
"Your knowledge, I think." Mikoto stretched his arm out, touched the youth's face lightly. "The birds of the air speak to him, and he learns from them. His spirit moves as the birds, and the Crow which leads them. It is a rare gift," he added, "and one not easy to comprehend."
Lord Togashi stood, looked out over the Vale of the Dragon, his hands at his sides, his head high and proud. "I have seen a dark time approaching, for many years; the sliding of pebbles which presages the avalanche even now rings in my ears, and I see the hill begin to slide. Mountains will be cast down, and even I cannot see the end of it. What do you see, Mikoto?"
Mikoto closed the eyes of his body, and opened the eyes of his mind. "My vision does not reach so far, Lord. I see armies gather, their banners before the wind. There is a standard I do not recognize, led by a general of great reknown. I see the Dragon descend from the mountains, and stride across the plains of Rokugan. I see the serpents writhe in their sleep, a quest for a samurai of the Mirumoto, and an egg which becomes a man. My vision is clouded, and uncertain."
"Your vision is true. Truth itself has become uncertain."
"And what of Kesuan?" Mikoto asked. "How do these visions touch upon him?
The Champion was silent. "Watch over him, Mikoto. I charge you." A shift of shadow, as if a bird passed across the moon, and the Champion was gone.
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Kesuan gained in strength over the next days, and Mikoto, in obedience to his lord, stood in attendance to the youth always, watching over him. Kesuan needed this, for so absorbed did he become in the doings of the birds that he often neglected the world through which he himself moved. He would find himself, at a word from Mikoto, precariously teetering on the edge of a stairway, or calmly striding into the midst of a cooking fire. Kesuan felt foolish at these moments, but Mikoto never smiled, never caused Kesuan to lose face; he merely set Kesuan's feet on good, stable ground, and fell back into silence himself.
It was after saving Kesuan the embarrasment of stumbling into a muddied pool that Kesuan tried to explain. "It is a suddenly wondrous world that I have found myself in! It is as if I have spent my entire life in a world without sound, deaf and alone. Now, the world speaks to me, and I am lost in a world of song!"
He gazed up into the trees. "They sing of so much, the birds. They praise the sun at its rising and mourn it's passing in the evening. They sing of the secrets of the earth and the gossip of the sky. They sing of the sorrows of life, always."
"Are the birds so mournful then?" Mikoto asked.
"No. They are joyous always. They sing of sorrow, and make that beauty. From the beauty is born joy. Even in the midst of sorrow, they bring forth joy."
"It is a rare gift that you have then, for it brings wisdom," Mikoto replied.
"May I ask you a question?" Kesuan asked shyly.
"Of course."
"What was it like to receive the Dragon? I do not wish to intrude, but these birds have brought me so much, that I am curious as to what the Dragon brings to those marked by it."
Mikoto's blank face turned to him, and Kesuan was surprised by the lines of tension which marked his eyes. Mikoto made no other sign, save for that hardening, and Kesuan almost spoke again, to withdraw his request, when Mikoto replied.
"A Tattoo such as Gaijutsu gives is not born of his choice or whim, in the way that a painter decides to paint a Crane or a Heron, but a thing born of the spirit of the one he is to tattoo. In this, he is more like the woodcarver, who must draw his inspiration from the shape and flow of the wood, rather than the painter who has but a clear paper."
"I was young for my tattooing, young even among those who are selected for their gempukku, for I was a prodigious child, early come to ripening and swift of mind and body. I was proud, and full of ambition for the future. I had been selected by Yokuni himself to attain gempukku in my ninth year, and I was prideful that I would be so marked.
"I was brought before Gaijutsu, and I did not know that he was blind. He seemed to gaze on me in an approving manner, and my pride grew again. 'You have a firey spirit, Mikoto,' he said to me, 'and the Dragon stands out on you so that I may see it, even now. The Dragon is a thing of wisdom, a thing of fire, a thing of wild nature. It is bound by the Celestial Order, as all things are, but tightly, so tightly that it has little choice in the Wheel of Fate.'"
"He was warning me, but in my folly I did not hear his words as warning, but as praise. I felt myself honored above men to bear the emblem of my Clan upon my body, to be resplendent with the fierce, beautiful coilings of the Dragon.
"I was brought before Gaijutsu, and I drank the elixir he had prepared. He began the rite of tattooing, and it was then I learned wisdom, for his instruments were as lances of fire, and my skin blazed under his fingers. The Dragon that is in me loosed its coils, came alive under his hands, writhed in my spirit, for it was being born anew. The strictures of the Dragon were seared into my being, and I struggled against them. I wrestled with the Dragon, as Gaijutsu brought it out on my body, while my limbs were wracked with agony and the Dragon consumed me in its jaws.
"When I awoke that evening, I was still ablaze, and the Dragon restless in me. I confess to you that I was in the grip of the Raving, for I battled the Dragon, which was in me. The Dragon gave me visions of what was to be, and I saw myself consumed in madness, consumed by pain and fire, consumed by the Dragon. I abandoned reason, and sank into despair.
Kesuan was aghast at the tale of Mikoto, who told his story dispassionately, as though speaking a legend of long ago. "I was fortunate that I had with me, watching over me, another man marked by the Dragon. He knew the burning nature of it, the wild, restless, passionate longings I felt, and he drew me through those first days. Many had argued that I had gone mad indeed, and ought to be given the mercy stroke," he looked down at the wakizashi he wore, "but this man argued against it.
"When I fell, exhausted by my Raving, he came to me, bore me up and out of the grounds, into the wild. He laid me in the snow, where the fire of my skin was cooled. Reason returned to my eyes, but despair rose in me, and I too pleaded to be slain. His eyes, alight with fire, were hard, but he laughed at my agony, and declared that all had believed me stronger than that. His laughter reached the sky, and the Dragons of his body lashed across his limbs. I grew angry at his laughter, believing him to be mocking me, and I stood to defy him. I had it in my mind to assault him, to grapple him into the snow; but in that moment the Dragon in me showed me that if I were to strike him thus, he would smite me down with flame and wrath, that there was no hope of defeating him.
"I was startled, and the vision faded with my intention. 'You would strike me down?' I demanded, forgetting that I had pleaded with him to destroy me but moments before. He looked pleased then, and replied, 'Had you dared raise your hand against me, I would have destroyed you, for I do not know your strength, and I dared not put you to the test. So you have decided to live?'
"I nodded then, for the Dragon had ceased it's assault for the moment. The tattooed man grinned at me again, and said, 'This pleases me. The Dragon is not easily tamed, but we shall do it together. It is written among the Dragon that the key to success is to know that you have already won.'
"'But I have seen that it will fail.' I said despairingly." "'You have seen that I would destroy you, but you still live.' he pointed out.
"'How can this be?' I said, frightened despite all my former pride and arrogance. In response, he began to laugh, loudly, with no fear or anger, but a great defiance of Fate, of Doom, and of Destiny. His laughter shook in the mountains, until it seemed that the Vale rang with the laughter of the Ise Zumi. And I too, learned to laugh at that time."
Kesuan looked at Mikoto's somber face. "Why do you not laugh now, Mikoto?"
Mikoto gazed at the boy seriously. "Laughter is an answer, but not the answer to all things. It was right for that man to laugh at that time. I do not laugh now, because it is not right to do so."
Kesuan nodded, and returned to his walk among the birdsong.