ON THE EXCRESCENCE
Komaru Mikomi releases "On the Excrescence" in the theater season of 230. This play is ostensibly set in the Age immediately before the present Age, covering a span from 80 to 50 years before Paraceln's Dream. The title is not announced beforehand, nor the content, and guards protect the rehearsals.
The play has four Acts and focuses on the moral evolution of the principal character, Gitany Celestino. The text below is not a set of excerpts, but rather a condensed and representative form of the full work.
NOTES
(1) The word "damnation", in this play, translates a compound word that could read as either "the death of moral character" or "poison".
(2) For those keeping track, Wind from the North was released in 228, not 229 as its text claims. In 229, Mikomi released a short comedy of no particular note.
CHARACTER INDEX
Maxim Tavernier as Gitany Celestino, "of the stars"
Hiroji Hachirobei as Gitany Hotokegi, "of compassionate heart"
Artemis Gery as Bellatrix Jinchiko, "benevolent wisdom"
Tomoe Riensi as Gitany Futoji, "a bold face"
Hokusai Ducat as Bellatrix Keikoku, "beauty"
Lance Desjardins as Gitany Gouka, "valor"
Leila Ardant as Gitany Yaezaki, "double blossom"
SCENE 1: COMPASSION
JINCHIKO walks out in front of the curtain.
JINCHIKO: Certain misconceptions have come to my attention about the legendary C-sama. I stood at his side little more than an Age ago, when the Gitany did not wander but rather warred against the Issorat --- or sometimes the Touraine, or the Bellatrix, or the family in black; it was a warlike time. I fear that some may not understand the forces that drove him to become what he became or to do the things he did. I fear that some may believe the scurrilous lies told about him, in my day, and his.
JINCHIKO: I have no answer to those who say that my own veracity is in doubt. I do not deny that I would lie for him, kill for him, or salt the earth for him. Yet my loyalty comes from his greatness, a spark reflected from a vaster fire, and I would not feel the way I do if he did not earn my last devotion up until the day he broke the world.
JINCHIKO slips back behind the curtain.
Open on a wooden building. The audience can see into one room, wherein GITANY CELESTINO sleeps. A window in the back of the room shows night. GITANY HOTOKEGI stands guard in the corridor outside. BELLATRIX JINCHIKO approaches.
JINCHIKO: I can relieve you, if you wish.
HOTOKEGI: I would gladly stand here through the night.
JINCHIKO: It is my philosophy that one should temper loyalty with sleep.
HOTOKEGI: Behind me rests a man perfect in accomplishment and virtue. There is no occult art or human passion that he has not mastered. No taint has ever fallen on his honor. How can I give him less than the fullest measure of my service? How can I give myself to rest when he may need me in the night?
JINCHIKO: In a simple fashion; you stretch your legs to limber them and then retire to your room. The task does involve both balance and navigation, but you will find that you have mastered the necessary skills.
HOTOKEGI: Please, Jinchiko, leave me be. I will sleep when he rises.
JINCHIKO: Your loyalty does not surprise me, but still I am puzzled. I have seen you sleep at night before.
HOTOKEGI: Circumstances have changed.
HOTOKEGI surveys the immediate area, looking for listeners, then drops his voice low.
HOTOKEGI: He has begun to murmur strange things in his sleep. I fear that others, less loyal than you or I, might take this ill; and even you might find them strange.
JINCHIKO: For thirty years, I have served at his side. What could he say that I would question?
HOTOKEGI studies JINCHIKO for a long moment. Then CELESTINO shouts, sitting up.
CELESTINO: Full of bones and blood!
HOTOKEGI winces.
JINCHIKO: Things, I take it, after that fashion?
CELESTINO looks around, as if in a panic, and then slowly lies back down.
HOTOKEGI: Well, now you know; and you should help me keep this secret. I do not know what nightmares descend upon him, but such he shouts: "Full of bones and blood!" or "It swallows me!" And sometimes he chokes, and I must shake him till he comes awake again.
JINCHIKO: Perhaps some power seeks to contact him through his dreams. Or perhaps this is an occult affliction, requiring the efforts of savants to unmake.
HOTOKEGI: In day, he tells me to keep silent. If such things are true, I can do nothing. Still, they are better than the alternative.
JINCHIKO: Which is?
HOTOKEGI: That he has seen too much; that years of war and struggle have cracked his mind and let these nightmares in. You know the mutterings that start when a man dreams too vigorously. He could lose the respect he has rightly earned as a pillar of our realm.
JINCHIKO: I understand.
CELESTINO begins to choke; HOTOKEGI and JINCHIKO move efficiently into the room and wake him. CELESTINO flails for a moment and then relaxes.
CELESTINO: I must be sleeping very soundly if it takes two people to wake me up.
HOTOKEGI: My apologies, C-sama. Jinchiko came to relieve me and heard the shouts.
CELESTINO: Clearly I should have her killed, to protect my secret.
HOTOKEGI: That would be dishonorable, C-sama.
CELESTINO sits up.
CELESTINO: Once again, honor stands in the way of an efficient solution. How are you, Jinchiko? I apologize for involving you, asleep though I was at the time.
JINCHIKO: I am concerned for you, C-sama.
CELESTINO: It is a matter of no moment. I have dealt with supernatural threats before.
JINCHIKO: Then you are convinced that this is such?
CELESTINO: Tonight, I remember my dream with greater clarity. A monstrous shape drew ever closer. A thing --- I cannot describe it. A horror.
JINCHIKO: I shall research the matter.
GITANY GOUKA enters, walks up to the door, looks about, and then speaks softly.
CELESTINO: Enter.
GOUKA enters the room.
GOUKA: Kien's fever grows fiercer, my lord. He cries out for you.
CELESTINO: My son does not need me, Gouka-san. He needs physicians.
GOUKA turns up his hands.
GOUKA: They fight the tides of the poison, C-sama, but they do not triumph.
CELESTINO: A grim reflection of this war. I should like to carve a price for his life from the Issorat lords.
GOUKA: A wise ambition.
JINCHIKO: Milord, he is not dead.
CELESTINO: . . . of course, you are right, Jinchiko. I will see him later.
The figures in the room still, and the stage goes dark. GOUKA leaves the stage, and both HOTOKEGI and JINCHIKO move outside the door. Then the image of night in the window lightens, turns to sun --- illuminating CELESTINO's room --- and fades to dark again. The lights on the stage return.
HOTOKEGI: He should not sleep alone at a time like this.
JINCHIKO: I hope you are not looking at me.
HOTOKEGI: No. He is Gitany, and should be with a Gitany. These nightmares are taking too much from him.
JINCHIKO: Perhaps so. He has not seen Kien yet.
HOTOKEGI: It is hard, Jinchiko, to see one's child in such suffering.
JINCHIKO: The Celestino I know would not let such concerns restrain him; nor would any father. I do not understand his lapse.
HOTOKEGI: Perhaps he fears that Kien has damned himself, and cannot look upon it.
JINCHIKO: You make things too complicated. Kien will live, or he will die.
HOTOKEGI: Have they made progress in understanding the poison?
JINCHIKO: Crystals grow within his skin. His eyes have turned pallid gray. A rational woman thinks immediately of the occult. Beyond that, our studies remain inconclusive. Who profits from the destruction of C-sama's heir? If the Issorat truly had such a poison, they would use it on Celestino himself.
HOTOKEGI: And of the assault on Celestino?
JINCHIKO: Many powers have names evocative of bones and blood; but none yet leap to mind as the source of his affliction. As an attack from a mortal, it is even more puzzling: what mortal has the puissance to invade another's dreams?
HOTOKEGI: Mortals have often troubled my dreams. Particularly women, although sometimes I dream of Lord Keikoku.
JINCHIKO: And who has not? But I rule out erotic dreams on the basis of the shout, "Full of bones and blood", which I devoutly hope does not capture C-sama's attitude towards sex.
HOTOKEGI: A premonition, then? Once I dreamed that Gouka would distinguish himself in the next day's battle; that was the day he claimed Issorat Aitou's head.
JINCHIKO: I point out that Gouka distinguishes himself in more battles than not.
HOTOKEGI: Granted; who is more heroic than our Gouka? But there was only that once where he distinguished himself that I had dreamed of it beforehand!
JINCHIKO: I do not know quite how to reply.
CELESTINO sits up, shouting.
CELESTINO: Marrow and the cracks of splitting bone!
JINCHIKO: A reply I had not considered.
JINCHIKO and HOTOKEGI hurry into CELESTINO's room.
CELESTINO: This grows harder, I think.
HOTOKEGI: Please tell me that you know how I can help, C-sama. I will give you any effort within my power.
CELESTINO: I do not think I nee ---
CELESTINO slumps back. HOTOKEGI leaps forward to catch his back.
HOTOKEGI: Milord!
CELESTINO: A sudden dizziness. I am certain it shall pass.
HOTOKEGI: You woke up too quickly, milord. You should attempt to ease from sleep slowly, and it will not try and claim you again.
CELESTINO: Sage advice. Jinchiko, have you made progress?
JINCHIKO: Almost none. Were there razors in your vision? Did you have any desire to drink the blood?
JINCHIKO: I must ask these things.
CELESTINO: No, Jinchiko, and no.
CELESTINO sits up again
JINCHIKO: Then I have eliminated the powers I know, but made no positive progress.
CELESTINO: It is coming.
JINCHIKO: Do you have a clearer vision yet, milord?
CELESTINO: Something . . . it lives inside a bonepile. The ribs of dead soldiers form its claws. The skulls of the dead give it sight. It crawls on the jutting bones of arms and legs and rattles its spines to warn me of its coming. It wants to devour me. It has, already, in my dreams.
JINCHIKO: This frightens me, C-sama, for in all my lore nothing speaks of such a beast.
CELESTINO: It is new, Jinchiko. It is new to this Age.
JINCHIKO: That is, at least, more knowledge than I had.
CELESTINO slumps back again. HOTOKEGI expertly catches him.
CELESTINO: Damnation. Put me down, Hotokegi. I'll sleep this off.
HOTOKEGI nods, and HOTOKEGI and JINCHIKO return to their posts outside the door. Then the image of night in the window lightens, turns to sun --- illuminating CELESTINO's room --- and fades to dark again. CELESTINO coughs. The lights on the stage return. CELESTINO coughs again.
HOTOKEGI: Listen to him. He is not well, Jinchiko. He must see a physician.
JINCHIKO: He will not. He says they must tend his son. There is a fire in his eyes when he says this, and no one argues.
HOTOKEGI: If he should die, Jinchiko, a light of the world shall go out with him. The Naga in the north shall cry out at the passing of his wisdom; the Merru in the west shall weep. The Aten will birth a Pharaoh with the Name of Sorrow. The Kitsune shall stop their games and stare unmoving at the sun. Even the Issorat, Jinchiko, who have fought my family and his for most of this Age, will bow their heads and bite their lips to keep from tears. We cannot leave him to this fate.
JINCHIKO: I believe that you are projecting your own emotions onto others, Hotokegi, but I agree with your point.
HOTOKEGI: He weakens. He coughs. He cannot sleep. He cannot dream, save of this monstrosity. You must find the answer.
JINCHIKO: Indeed so. I have given him a sleeping draught.
HOTOKEGI: You have done what?
JINCHIKO: When his dread at the approach of the monster grows too great, he starts awake with a cry. But it is my feeling that the vision does not end there. In essence, I theorize that he terminates his dream before he sees all the truths it has to give him. I have guaranteed that he will not awaken until morning; in this fashion, I give us more information to work with.
HOTOKEGI: That is abominable, Jinchiko.
JINCHIKO: You do not sound overly condemnatory.
HOTOKEGI: Yes, well. I find the notion monstrous and cruel, to inflict this on him, but if it ultimately serves his survival --- I only hope that you asked his permission first.
JINCHIKO: Of course.
HOTOKEGI: I am relieved.
JINCHIKO: He said that he could not afford to sleep that soundly, as many affairs of the family could require his attention in the middle of the night; and we left the matter there.
HOTOKEGI: I am now less sanguine.
JINCHIKO: Have cheer, Hotokegi! Perhaps it will not work, and he will simply have a long and dreamless rest.
CELESTINO turns over, mumbling something incomprehensible vigorously.
JINCHIKO: Then again.
The image of night in the window lightens, turns to sun --- illuminating CELESTINO's room.
CELESTINO stirs.
CELESTINO: Didn't I have you killed, Jinchiko?
JINCHIKO: I believe so, Celestino. This is simply a hallucination in which you may make your peace with the dear departed memory of me.
CELESTINO: Make my peace? It was good riddance.
JINCHIKO: Milord, you sting me to the quick.
CELESTINO: Next time, Jinchiko, if you are not going to heed my wishes, do not bother to ask.
JINCHIKO: I did not care whether you said "yes" or "no", C-sama, but whether you would issue an objection I would find convincing.
CELESTINO: I sometimes wonder if I have made a mistake in surrounding myself with the loyal.
JINCHIKO: C-sama, please; the dream.
CELESTINO: It lives in Kien. In his bones.
JINCHIKO: A power?
CELESTINO: I do not know. A living embodiment of --- sickness, death, despair. I could not bear to see it there, buried in his bones, jutting from his skin as hard and dark as crystal, pouring its gray hatred into his eyes.
JINCHIKO: C-sama, you confuse me. Is this creature of crystal or of bone? I cannot fight it without knowledge.
CELESTINO: You ask me for precision in my dreams? It is poison. It is death. It is the bodies of men left lying on the battlefield. It is the tortured body of my son. It clashes its jaws and breaks me in two.
HOTOKEGI: You must go and roust it forth! Slay it! Free your son from this plague!
CELESTINO flinches back.
HOTOKEGI: Milord?
CELESTINO: I cannot slay it.
HOTOKEGI: Of course you may!
CELESTINO: I cannot face it.
HOTOKEGI: Do not say such things. You would test your blade against the Naga King himself. I have seen you in battle, C-sama; you shine like the sun, and no monster can oppose you. And Kien is your son, milord! You cannot let him suffer!
CELESTINO: That is all, Hotokegi!
HOTOKEGI: I am sorry, milord.
Short pause.
CELESTINO: Hotokegi-san, of course I would go to him if I could. But I cannot! It has its hooks in my heart. It fills my dreams so that I cannot oppose it. It weakens me and I cannot fight it.
HOTOKEGI: Milord, I do not accept this; you could lose your life's blood and still fight on, if there were a need.
CELESTINO: Hotokegi, dream of it for a month and tell me the same.
HOTOKEGI: I would if I could, C-sama.
Short pause.
CELESTINO: I need your help, Hotokegi. You must face it for me.
JINCHIKO: Milord, surely Gouka would be the better choice.
CELESTINO: Jinchiko, that is all.
JINCHIKO: Milord, I must observe ---
CELESTINO: Jinchiko-san, you are one of the jewels of the world. I would not have you leave my side for any price in gold or power. Please shut up or I will have your tongue removed.
HOTOKEGI: I will face it if you wish, milord, though I am no swordsman.
CELESTINO: I know.
HOTOKEGI: How do I call it forth?
CELESTINO: You must stab Kien through the heart.
HOTOKEGI: I love Kien as if he were my own.
CELESTINO: No. You do not. I do. Go.
The curtains fall. JINCHIKO emerges to stand in front of them.
JINCHIKO: It is recorded that Hotokegi died in combat with a strange monster of bone and blood. I know, for I recorded it. Some rumor, instead, that Celestino had Hotokegi killed. I deny this. These were still the days of his glory. He was still the master that I knew.
JINCHIKO: I did not know what the creature was. No one I knew had seen its body; but the expression on Hotokegi's face was one of uttermost despair.
. . .
SCENE 2: VALOR
Open on a practice yard, where CELESTINO spars with the beautiful lord BELLATRIX KEIKOKU. GOUKA leans against a wall. JINCHIKO emerges from offstage, pauses a moment to watch them spar, and then walks over to GOUKA.
JINCHIKO: You sent for me?
GOUKA: I have begged milord Celestino to let me speak with you for some time. He has refused me until today.
JINCHIKO: What happened today?
GOUKA: I won one of our matches. While I had my sword against his stomach I told him I'd spit him like a pig if he didn't let me talk to you.
JINCHIKO: An effective if unorthodox ploy.
GOUKA: On the contrary, I consider it a classic political maneuver.
JINCHIKO: Why did you need me?
GOUKA: Watch for a while. Perhaps talk to me of your studies.
CELESTINO finishes his match, knocking away KEIKOKU's blade and setting his own against KEIKOKU's throat. After a moment, they back apart. GITANY FUTOJI emerges from offstage and begins to spar with CELESTINO; KEIKOKU retreats offstage.
JINCHIKO: I have begun to unravel the riddle of Kien's sickness.
GOUKA flinches.
GOUKA: Is that still relevant?
JINCHIKO: I was not sure until recently. But I think it is. He was not poisoned by an external agency, as originally believed, or directly by the intrusion of a monster into his flesh. It appears he was experimenting with some new occult art or ritual for use against the enemies of the Gitany, and failed rather spectacularly. The ritual drew the very life from his body, poisoning him.
GOUKA: And the creature?
JINCHIKO: I am not sure. Perhaps he tried to summon it with the ritual, although this seems a peculiar desire.
GOUKA: A creature of death and despair would make a powerful ally in war.
JINCHIKO: In summoning and creating smaller monsters, I have found that one can usually choose a creature that is simply deadly, and perhaps even honorable about it, instead of one that embodies mindless death. In this manner, I minimize the risk to myself. I do not know why Kien would do otherwise.
CELESTINO's swordplay suddenly grows more intent. His blade clashes more and more ferociously against FUTOJI's, soon striking it from the woman's hand; then it continues to lash after FUTOJI as FUTOJI madly scrambles away, leaving long bloody marks along her arms and legs. CELESTINO shouts furiously and incomprehensibly with every few strokes.
GOUKA: A moment.
GOUKA dashes out into the court, stabbing at CELESTINO's back; CELESTINO spins, parries, and they clash. Unlike FUTOJI, GOUKA holds his own against the furiously quick CELESTINO; then, after about thirty seconds, CELESTINO drops his sword and staggers back. FUTOJI, looking horrified, scurries offstage.
JINCHIKO cautiously approaches the other two.
JINCHIKO: Milord?
CELESTINO: Tell him, Gouka. This weakness sickens me.
GOUKA: It is like so. Milord Celestino spars regularly, for such is his habit and he will not change it. Of late . . . sometimes . . .
CELESTINO: They change.
JINCHIKO: Pardon?
CELESTINO: The people I am fighting. They turn into a tide of faceless flesh. Not just the body I am fighting, though its features melt. It is everywhere. They are everywhere. They clog the streams and fill the meadows until nothing is left of Mourn but their blank pale skin and the cold dark sea.
JINCHIKO: Milord.
CELESTINO: Jinchiko-san, once I would have said that I could stand among the powers in the sky and none would dare to face my blade or my skill. How foolish I was! They plague me with these visions and I can do nothing. I see the tide and I must kill: nothing else suffices! They are the doom of my world and I must exert every measure of effort against them. Even knowing that I have felt this before, even knowing that the person I face is Futoji or Keikoku or Gouka here, I must strike, for to do anything else is treason.
JINCHIKO: Inaction is not always treason, C-sama.
CELESTINO: There is nothing but treason in standing aside while a horror threatens to swallow Mourn. Even if it were Komaru . . . even if it were just the smallest part of Komaru . . . I could not countenance it. But poor Futoji! I fear I will kill her, if this goes on.
JINCHIKO: You should have let Gouka call me sooner, milord. I have helped you face such horrors before.
CELESTINO: I know your books near as well as you, Jinchiko-san. The horrid masses that I see are found nowhere within them.
JINCHIKO: Then I will write a new chapter. If I must, I will demand an answer from the stars.
CELESTINO: I fear you would not like the answer the stars give this year.
JINCHIKO: I cannot let you suffer, C-sama.
CELESTINO: If you are so loyal as that, then speak to the Merru; for in my vision the sea alone remained unmarred.
JINCHIKO: I go.
JINCHIKO walks offstage.
The stage lights dim. KEIKOKU returns to face CELESTINO and they begin to spar. GOUKA adjusts his position. The lights rise again, and JINCHIKO walks back on stage, her hair wet and a strand of fake seaweed over her shoulder.
CELESTINO holds up a hand, and KEIKOKU lowers his sword. CELESTINO walks over to JINCHIKO, as does GOUKA.
CELESTINO: Jinchiko-san! Didn't I send you off to drown?
JINCHIKO: I misunderstood your instructions, milord, and emerged unscathed.
CELESTINO: I must be more precise in the future. Did you learn anything of use from the Merru?
JINCHIKO: They told me this, C-sama: "The accomplishments of your lord Celestino humble us, as does his valor. Yet these are his flaws, for while he stands against it and does not waver, the tide of flesh will visit him forever."
CELESTINO: They counsel defeatism? That I relax my guard and let the abominations stand?
JINCHIKO: I asked them this, milord, but they only chuckled in the voices of the sea and said, "We do not see your philosophical objection to despair."
CELESTINO: I see. I will . . .
JINCHIKO: Milord?
CELESTINO: I must attempt this. I must set aside my heart and follow my mind; embrace this false treason, this imaginary evil of leaving alive Keikoku, or Futoji, or whomever I fight when the dream-tide comes. I will say to myself: look! This is only my friend! I do not need to kill him!
GOUKA: One might even go so far as to say, "It is actively bad to kill my friend."
CELESTINO: One step at a time, Gouka-san.
CELESTINO steps back out to KEIKOKU. They spar. Then CELESTINO's expression changes. He snarls something and shouts at KEIKOKU, who begins rapidly backing away. CELESTINO trembles for a moment, as GOUKA moves towards him. Then CELESTINO's resistance collapses and he goes after KEIKOKU with his sword. Only GOUKA's intervention draws him off again and holds him at bay until he recovers himself. KEIKOKU, trembling, marches offstage.
JINCHIKO: C-sama! I will give myself to the powers in the sky if they but give me the answer to your need.
CELESTINO and GOUKA return to JINCHIKO.
CELESTINO: I do not need such action from you. If you must risk yourself again for me, Jinchiko, seek the counsel of the Kitsune.
JINCHIKO: I do not understand, milord. The mindwalkers have no counsel to give; they will see only the wisdom that already lies within me.
CELESTINO: Bring one here. I will show it my heart. Perhaps it will see why I am thus afflicted.
GOUKA: Milord! You cannot ask this of her.
GOUKA: It is not right. You should go yourself. It does not matter that she would do this for you, that I would do this for you, that there are children who would throw themselves into the mouths of lions to be remembered as doing service to you. You cannot ask it. It is not right.
CELESTINO: Gouka-san, you must trust in my wisdom.
GOUKA: Milord Celestino, you make yourself less!
CELESTINO: That is all.
GOUKA opens his mouth, then closes it.
JINCHIKO: I go.
The stage lights dim. FUTOJI returns to face CELESTINO and they begin to spar. GOUKA adjusts his position. The lights rise again, and JINCHIKO walks back on stage, the seaweed gone and an orange scarf around her shoulders.
CELESTINO holds up a hand, and FUTOJI lowers her sword. CELESTINO and GOUKA walk to JINCHIKO.
CELESTINO: You walk like a woman possessed.
JINCHIKO: Milord C-sama, to have a Kitsune ride my body is not possession; it is ecstasy. I have lived too many years without it, without the power and the passion that I know in this instant; and for this gift I thank you.
GOUKA looks horrified.
CELESTINO: Was it hard, to surrender yourself to it?
JINCHIKO: Not in your name, C-sama.
CELESTINO: I reward those who enter my service well.
CELESTINO: Tell me, Kitsune, of the faceless tide.
JINCHIKO looks in CELESTINO's eyes.
JINCHIKO: It is already here.
CELESTINO: I do not see it.
JINCHIKO: I dispute your assertion. You have glimpsed it. You have seen it. It clogs the streams and covers the mountains. It pollutes the bodies of the men and women you duel. It is a thing that can end the world, but it has not learned the trick yet of entering it. It walks Mourn only as a ghost. You see the traces of its passage and the omens of its coming, but never its face; for it has none. This is your vision, milord. Why would you need me to speak it to you?
CELESTINO: Give me its name, that I can kill it.
CELESTINO goes still. GOUKA's hand falls to his blade.
CELESTINO: That is enough.
JINCHIKO: I will return to my books.
CELESTINO: You will release Jinchiko now or I will flense your spirit. I will make myself into the knives that even the Kitsune fear and I will turn you to dust.
JINCHIKO: This treatment is unfair.
CELESTINO: The last thing you will know is agony beyond any joy that you have ever given.
JINCHIKO: I assert my innocence! I am a helpful spirit, and Jinchiko is glad of my presence! We are better together than we were apart! You cannot imagine how well I can serve you, C-sama, now that a warden creature lives within my soul!
CELESTINO: Gouka, if the Kitsune does not release Jinchiko within the next ten seconds, cut her throat. I will deal with the spirit that remains.
JINCHIKO: I depart!
There is a flash, followed by a pause. JINCHIKO, unhappily, removes the orange scarf from her shoulders.
JINCHIKO: That was an experience, milord.
CELESTINO: I am sorry that you had to endure it.
JINCHIKO: I believe that a woman should have many experiences in her life.
CELESTINO: And yet I have never tasted your charms.
JINCHIKO: It would pollute our sacred bond, C-sama.
CELESTINO sighs.
CELESTINO: There is nowhere left to send you. The Naga have no answers for such things. I am not in favor with those few sorcerers who know things we do not. And I do not think the Kitsune spoke truth when it gave the monster my name.
JINCHIKO: I do not precisely recall, milord.
CELESTINO: I resume my battle with Futoji.
CELESTINO walks out and does so.
JINCHIKO: In truth, the Kitsune sensed something in him akin to this vision he sees. But I do not know what.
GOUKA: I am already disturbed, Jinchiko. You do not need to frighten me further. I thought that I would have to kill you.
JINCHIKO: I am pleased that you did not.
GOUKA: Why? Why did he send you? It shames him.
JINCHIKO: He no longer loves us, Gouka-san. He lost something in his soul when Kien died; and again when Hotokegi died, though it was the same day. He tries to act like the same Celestino, but he is not. Not quite. Not any more.
GOUKA: You say this with the Kitsune's insight?
JINCHIKO: It saw into his soul. But I do not know for sure. Maybe he simply thinks he has lost his ability to love. If he believed it hard enough, perhaps the mindwalker would be fooled.
CELESTINO defeats FUTOJI, who retires offstage. KEIKOKU emerges and squares off against him.
GOUKA: I do not care what he feels for me. It is only my feelings for him that matter.
CELESTINO snarls.
JINCHIKO: Truly?
GOUKA: I judge my life by my own conduct. The feelings of others are immaterial. How else could I survive as a warrior?
CELESTINO shouts and skewers KEIKOKU through the chest; blood trickles from KEIKOKU's mouth. GOUKA's head snaps up.
GOUKA: Get a physician!
GOUKA darts towards CELESTINO, blade held low. JINCHIKO rushes offstage. GOUKA and CELESTINO clash, again and again. KEIKOKU's body falls to the side.
JINCHIKO returns dragging GITANY YAEZAKI behind her. YAEZAKI kneels over KEIKOKU. Light begins to play about YAEZAKI. CELESTINO shouts something again. The light dies.
YAEZAKI: I cannot heal him! Occult power wards him against the physician's arts!
CELESTINO's fury suddenly comes to a halt. He drops his sword.
GOUKA: Pick that up.
GOUKA: I won't watch this any more. I can't. If you have to kill someone, kill me.
CELESTINO: Gouka-san, you're speaking nonsense.
GOUKA: I will skewer you, C-sama.
JINCHIKO and YAEZAKI look on in horror.
CELESTINO slowly reaches down and picks up his sword. The two begin to spar. Both of them move carefully, gently. Then the fury hits CELESTINO. He begins to tremble.
GOUKA: Do it, milord. I am a faceless tide of flesh. Kill me.
GOUKA lowers his sword.
CELESTINO shouts, but his blade does not move.
CELESTINO slashes his blade across GOUKA's chest, and GOUKA falls. Then CELESTINO carefully puts his sword down again.
CELESTINO: Jinchiko. Yaezaki. You will speak nothing of this. It is over.
JINCHIKO: If the visions come again?
CELESTINO: It will not matter. If you ever see me wear a sword again, or carry so much as a knife, you will know I have lost myself forever.
The curtains fall. JINCHIKO emerges to stand in front of them.
JINCHIKO: It is recorded that Keikoku died accidentally, and that Gouka slew himself for reasons unknown. I know, for I recorded it. Some rumors claim, instead, that Celestino killed them. This is not true. Celestino saw a little farther than most. He knew dimly what the future held. No man, confronted with that vision, would have comported himself better. To the end, C-sama fought not because he wished to but because honor demanded it.
JINCHIKO: Keikoku died accidentally. Gouka slew himself for reasons I do not wholly understand.
. . .
SCENE 3: WISDOM
The curtains rise to reveal a barren room with several chairs and a "lit" fireplace. CELESTINO and JINCHIKO sit therein.
CELESTINO: It begins to seem futile to me. An endless round of wars; today, the Bellatrix --- your own family, Jinchiko! How it must tear at you to remain at my side! Tomorrow, the Issorat, or the Touraine, or perhaps a new Aten threat from the east. So much blood shed without resolution.
JINCHIKO: The old books say that a resolution will come.
CELESTINO: They do. Fifty years from now, the world will change; some visionary will place his hand on the rudder of the world and remake it in his image. I will not live to see it.
JINCHIKO: A grim perspective, C-sama. You need not see the new Age to play your part in its creation. Make your family strong! Make them wise! Help them stand at the side of virtue when the Ages turn!
CELESTINO: What is this virtue you speak of? Men and women are sordid creatures all.
JINCHIKO: Perhaps some great, moral, and just leader will create the new Age, with righteous servants and followers at his or her side. Someone after your own image, C-sama, even if it cannot be you.
CELESTINO: Perhaps.
JINCHIKO: C-sama, you know that there must be war. If the families did not test themselves one against the other, their children would grow up weak and ineffectual. If the Great Families of Komaru set down their arms and lived in happy peace with one another, they would have no armies when the Aten came. They would have no skill or magics of war. And without armies, skill, and magic, they would have no hope of defending the people against the horrors that live beyond. No. I articulate my objection further. Without such wars as this, the families would not be worthy of the title "Great". We must forge ourselves; we must claim our greatness amidst the fires of war, or we will be as nothing when the new Age comes.
CELESTINO: I grant the wisdom of your words, but I sense a strand of danger in them. When we temper ourselves in the fires of war, as you put it, we make ourselves better weapons. We make ourselves deadlier, and fiercer, and stronger, but where do we learn gentler things?
JINCHIKO: In the bedchamber, C-sama.
CELESTINO, caught by surprise, laughs.
CELESTINO: I had not thought you knew the word.
JINCHIKO: My monthly schedule contains many erotic events, C-sama. They simply do not take place during my discussions with you.
CELESTINO: An unfortunate scheduling error! You should redress this at once.
JINCHIKO: Milord! I have spent many years carefully developing and optimizing my schedule for efficiency and merit; surely you cannot so cavalierly expect me to rearrange it on your whim.
CELESTINO: Perhaps not.
JINCHIKO: To give you a better answer, C-sama, strength is the central element of all human virtue. By strength, I mean the ability to make hard choices and stand by them. This is something that war teaches, and it informs all of the subtler virtues. She who can stand by hard choices has deeper compassion, more profound wisdom, and a greater capacity for self-sacrifice. The strong can give more love and offer truer friendship. I am a scholar, milord, but I nevertheless wear a blade; and I have learned somewhat to use it; for I would be a smaller woman if I refused to risk myself in battle.
CELESTINO: I have not seen you fight.
JINCHIKO: You have not seen me need to.
CELESTINO: And what of victory?
JINCHIKO: It does not matter as much to me who wins our families' petty squabbles. If it did, I would find this current war intolerable. To choose between you, milord, and my family --- that would be hard. But as I do not consider it relevant who emerges triumphant and who in shame, I have no qualms about remaining here and studying the mysteries on your behalf.
CELESTINO: I wish I could feel the same. I have a duty to my family; I must lead them to a favorable outcome. This gives rise to a dilemma; every outcome seems increasingly less favorable.
JINCHIKO: What would you consider a favorable outcome, milord?
CELESTINO: I would wish to erase those fifty years. I would wish to seize the new Age for myself and my family, and make a resolution to all wars.
JINCHIKO: It might be possible, C-sama.
CELESTINO: I do not see how.
JINCHIKO: I continue to study Kien's experiments, and I understand more of their nature.
CELESTINO: Speak quickly; I do not like to hear his name.
JINCHIKO: Piecing together his various notes --- for he burned most of them before he began --- I believe he sought to tap fully into the life of Mourn. He sought to draw upon the vitality of the world, the vigor of the soil, the power of human blood --- to drain off just a little, and use it to fuel great enchantments.
CELESTINO: And instead he ended up drawing on his own, and polluting his flesh with crystal protuberances.
JINCHIKO: And the beast.
CELESTINO: And the beast.
JINCHIKO: Nevertheless, his basic ideas were sound; and success would open up an effectively unlimited well of power --- enough to lay waste to the Aten, smash the power of the Issorat, or turn the Age 50 years before its end.
CELESTINO: Smash the power of the Issorat?
JINCHIKO: By the time we have worked out the details, the Gitany will no doubt have ceased their pointless war with the Bellatrix and returned to their ancient feud with the Issorat. I mean, honestly, C-sama, you fight them practically every other year.
CELESTINO: They are everything in their nature that the Gitany are not. They are the eternal rallying point against us. But even so, I will hold off on smashing them until we are actually at odds with them again. If you do not mind.
CELESTINO: Well, go, then, and see what you can learn.
JINCHIKO: Some lives may be lost --- given to the same pain as Kien's.
CELESTINO: I should care about that, shouldn't I.
JINCHIKO winces.
JINCHIKO: Yes, milord.
CELESTINO: It grows harder every year. Reward those who succeed, or even survive. That is all I can do.
JINCHIKO: I go.
JINCHIKO rises and leaves the room. The firelight and stage lights dim to nothing, then slowly return.
JINCHIKO enters.
JINCHIKO: I have progress to report, milord.
CELESTINO: Speak.
JINCHIKO: We have refined our efforts and at last found success: we can draw on the life of Mourn and fuel effects both arcane and efficacious.
CELESTINO: Then we stand on the verge of achieving our every ambition.
JINCHIKO: Perhaps.
CELESTINO: 'Perhaps'?
JINCHIKO: As a source of power, it meets my every expectation. However, there are certain side effects that I had not accounted for. I had hoped to drain some tiny portion of the life of the world. Instead, the process took all the life from the field where we tested it. It killed several of my assistants and blasted the earth. Twisted, poisonous crystals burst through the dirt and jutted towards the sky.
CELESTINO: And if we used it to turn the Age?
JINCHIKO: We cannot, milord. It would poison a quarter part of Komaru, or more. It would drain the life's blood from the family Gitany, and break the spirits of those who escaped its touch.
CELESTINO: So we have the power to change the course of the stars and remake the world, but we dare not use it.
JINCHIKO: Yes, milord.
CELESTINO turns his chair to face the fire.
CELESTINO: But what will come if we do not?
CELESTINO: For all my life, it seems, I have seen the horror coming. The bonepile thing. The faceless tide.
JINCHIKO: The bonepile thing is dead; and the faceless tide ---
CELESTINO: Hotokegi did not kill it. He only killed my son.
JINCHIKO: Still, these things have not much troubled the realm. Perhaps your visions have been enough to avert them.
CELESTINO: Lately, in the fire, I have seen something else. A grave deeper than the sea, full of shifting shapes, monsters and men, each trying to climb atop the others to reach the ground. Darkness and paralysis, so that we of Komaru can do nothing but stand and watch while they come ever closer to the surface. A horror that cannot end until ---
Short pause.
JINCHIKO: Until Komaru lies barren?
CELESTINO: It will not end until the moon vanishes and the sun dies, until a black wind sweeps across the land with rains of blood at its heels.
Short pause.
JINCHIKO: At least it will end.
CELESTINO: As always, you reassure me, Jinchiko.
JINCHIKO: Whereas I am disturbed. Celestino, do you truly believe in such things? Is this really our land's fate?
CELESTINO: I am seeing the end of our Age, Jinchiko. I am seeing things that will come to break the world.
JINCHIKO: And you will not live to fight them.
CELESTINO: Unless I bring the next Age to me.
JINCHIKO: And break the world yourself.
CELESTINO: That is all, Jinchiko! How am I to decide? How am I to choose between letting horror ravage our land and ravaging it myself? The world asks too much of me! It has eaten my heart. It has stolen my sword. Now it asks me to go to my grave knowing that I leave the world to die, or to shatter our land in the hopes I can fight it! There is no sanity in this.
JINCHIKO: The common wisdom holds that it is better to permit horror than to enact it.
CELESTINO: The common wisdom lies. You should know better, Jinchiko. If a man breaks into a home and seeks to force a woman, and her husband stands aside, who is the monster? If he breaks into a home and seeks to kill a child, and his father stands aside, who is the monster? The one who simply watches, Jinchiko. The one who simply lies in his bed and lets his son be killed ---
JINCHIKO stands, puts a hand on CELESTINO's shoulder.
CELESTINO: I loathe those who do nothing. I loathe them.
CELESTINO: I must break the world.
JINCHIKO: I cannot stand by you if you do, C-sama. I will strive to find a better way --- to work this miracle without blasting our land barren --- but I cannot stand by you if you do this thing.
CELESTINO: I understand, Jinchiko.
JINCHIKO: Do you?
CELESTINO: If I do this, it will be the shame of our Age. People will remember me not for my accomplishments but as the man who filled the south with an excrescence. People will curse every man and woman who let it happen. The name Gitany will be as honorable as mud, and spit as readily from every noble and peasant's lips.
JINCHIKO: Then do not act, C-sama. There will be other heroes.
CELESTINO: You are all I have left, Jinchiko. Shame does not matter to me any longer. Do you understand? I must do this because I must. I must claim the end of the world as my own because I am I. If one excrescence does not suffice, I will do it again. I will come out of my castle Spillspire and lay the realm barren again and again until it is enough, until I have risen to the stars and slain the powers that inflict such cruelty on our world.
JINCHIKO: C-sama, you are distraught. I will go, and strive to find an answer that does not require such measures.
CELESTINO: Yes. Go.
JINCHIKO walks offstage. The firelight and stage lights dim to nothing, then slowly return.
JINCHIKO enters.
CELESTINO: Jinchiko-san. You do not have crystals growing from your ears.
JINCHIKO: My fashion, as always, lags behind the court's.
CELESTINO: What news do you have for me?
JINCHIKO: None that is well. If you do this thing, it will bring endless death.
CELESTINO: Can one shield against this effect?
CELESTINO: You will answer me.
JINCHIKO: It is possible to shield Spillspire against it. You could cut yourself off from the world, and drift in dreams until the ritual completes.
CELESTINO: Thank you.
JINCHIKO: Once again, lord, I beg you not to do this.
CELESTINO: You have not destroyed your notes on the process?
JINCHIKO: I could not.
CELESTINO: You are pragmatic and callous, Jinchiko. You disobey me at your whim and exalt your own opinions above any other's. If you felt my course unwise, you would have destroyed the knowledge of Kien's work.
JINCHIKO: C-sama, I could not so displease you.
CELESTINO: You have never feared that before.
JINCHIKO: I have always feared it, C-sama. That I would come up short in your eyes, or weak. If I have disobeyed you, it is only in the hopes that you would love me better for it; though it has been years since you loved me at all.
CELESTINO stands, pushes aside the chair, and sits on the floor.
CELESTINO: Come here.
CELESTINO: I wish to brush your hair.
JINCHIKO: I have no witty reply today, milord. I am too much pained.
CELESTINO: I do not expect a witty reply. You have held yourself separate from me for too long.
JINCHIKO: Please, C-sama. I will have nothing left.
CELESTINO: You will have me.
JINCHIKO moves, slowly, very reluctantly, as if pushed by an unseen force, to his side.
The curtains fall.
Short pause.
JINCHIKO emerges to stand in front of them, looking both devastated and mussed.
JINCHIKO: It is recorded that the Excrescence came of a monstrous error. That the Gitany killed their land, and the land of the Issorat, and most of the Gitany family, attempting a ritual that went horribly awry. That the remaining Gitany were so horrified they renounced their titles and began to wander. I know, for I recorded it. I did not write what the error was. I did not write that Celestino knew he would create the crystal plains, that he failed only in his ultimate ambition --- to shift the stars, to break the world, to conquer Komaru and all else besides. I did not write these things, for I knew him lost --- cut off from the world in the castle named Spillspire, dreaming forever. Why speak ill of a dead man's name?
JINCHIKO: I could not have known that the moon would vanish, that the sun would die, that a black wind would blow across the realm and rains of blood follow. I could not have known that this would wake him up and set him loose to repeat his folly again.
JINCHIKO: I ask only that you understand that he was not always a monster. I beg only that you remember, as I remember, the pillar of virtue he was before he went astray. I hated him, at the end, but I loved him too, for he was milord Gitany Celestino, and once no brighter creature walked upon this world.