Stories Our Mothers Told Us

[Ace Trainer]

Two hundred people was a lot. That was what Sakaze was alleging she was going to bring to the temple under her protection. In truth it made Indra nervous, even in the initial moments of their meeting it was clear Sakaze and Indra did not align philosophically. As he began to clear out the pathway to the room which he'd understood to be more dormitories, he couldn't help be wonder if all the people Sakaze was bringing with her would share her perspective. Silence hung between them as he carefully maneuvered stone and sand out of the collapsed pathway to ensure the hallway didn't fall from on top of them. What if they did, if they viewed it in the same light she did, that vengence was necessary to gain back what was theirs? He'd be a single voice in a sea of anger and while he felt committed to being a beacon in these moments, he couldn't help but feel some doubt in his heart. Despite barely knowing her, she felt almost like an existential threat to his belief system.

He wondered if she felt the same. They were two individuals that worshipped the same god, studied the same scripture, yet interpreted this moment in history in vastly different ways. Was there even a right way? Did she feel as challenged by his perspective as he did by hers? It had been only a day since she arrived and he'd spent most of that preparing on his own for her entourage. Now that they were here together clearing out the last space, he couldn't help but feel awkward. Despite being overjoyed by having an ally, Sakaze felt complicated.

Pushing against a stone, he'd find no leverage for it. It appeared to be part of the archway that made up the doorway to the room, Indra supposed it was likely the last one needing ot be removed to gain entry into the dorm. Turning to Sakaze, he'd cough, "You think you can grind this one down?", he asked with a laugh.

[Throniv]

Sakaze of the Red Sands

---

Sakaze stepped forward, her eyes narrowing as she assessed the stubborn stone. She didn’t respond immediately, letting the silence stretch as her hands brushed over its rough surface. The air was thick with dust, and the faint echo of their movements against the rock filled the space between them as she regarded the rough-hewn door that blocked their way. Indra was a complicated boy, one who preached a peaceful revolution that Sakaze viewed as little more than the naïve dream of a particularly hopeful child--but then, it was enough to make her remember the lessons she'd learned as a girl from the sermons and stories.

Stories that were told in a time when people didn't live under the oppressive rule of an authoritarian regime that abused the land and its people "for their own good."

His version of a revolution would be nice, but it made no mention of a redress for the grievous hurts done to their people, nor justice for those who had attacked unprovoked and unwarranted. It didn't take into account that the Sun's chosen people had been violated and debased by a man who had corrupted the flesh the Sun had given him and lived, along with most of his ilk, in a hole in the ground, hiding them all from Her light

Still, he was marked by the Soul Genma, and his word would carry weight with both her followers and others that arrived here, if for no other reason than what possessed him. She would need to be careful in how she handled him.

"Yes, I can," she said simply as a stream of sand began to pour from her robes and climb up the frame of the door. As she did so the stone began to simply erode away, the hard granite sublimating under the scorching heat of her Desert Release. The sand began to spin around the edge of the archway, creating a sound very similar to a buzzsaw, and it quite effeciently separated the rock from the frame it had been set in. Once the sand had cut all the way through the rock, the grains flowed back under her robes to the pockets therein, allowing the white-robed woman to push against the slab with her palm and cause it to fall inward towards the new room.

A billowing cloud of dust kicked up momentarily, causing the kunoichi to cover her mouth and nose with one sleeve as she waved a hand to clear the dust.

"Well, Indra, I believe we're the first ones here in a long time," she said curiously as the dust settled, revealing a room that somehow seemed more undisturbed than the rest of the temple--the dust was thicker, the air more stale, and not a single book to be found in the room. Only scrolls of some kind of papyrus or animal hide on brass rollers that were nearly blackened from age, and the ruins of several wooden tables that had long-since dry rotted to pieces. Sun motifs covered the walls, their paint faded from age but still recognizable--likely due to the fact that the room had been nearly hermetically sealed.

"I wonder why this room was sealed like this," she ruminated as she stepped in, careful to keep her mouth and nose covered with her sleeve lest a stray bit of dust cause her to sneeze and possibly damage any of the scrolls in the room.

OOCShow

*[Sandkinesis]
A-rank Ninjutsu
Having achieved notable mastery over Sand, the user is capable of shaping, directing, and manipulating existing bodies of the element without the need of hand seals or an existing technique. The range at which the user can manipulate the element is equal to the user's control times 2 metres. While the user can freely manipulate this element, they cannot produce the element naturally.

[Ace Trainer]

She was a precision tool, able to quickly cut into the ancient stone and saw through it to make it easy to move out of place. He watched her curiously as she did - she was an attractive woman, albeit a bit plain. Likely double his age, if not more, she looked younger than her soul felt, not that it was an exact science. Undeniable about her, though, was the soft vibrance that came from her soul that he was certain was blessing from the Sun. It was hard to dispute that. As the stone gave way, he would nod, following her in through the room as the dust settled. "It seems as much.", he said, moving past her to go deeper into the room.

It was indeed another dormatory, as he expected. Large enough for 50 or so people, beds and wardrobes lined the walls, with desks and chairs through the middle of the room arranged in an unusual fashion. He hadn't considered the room had been intentionally sealed until she had said something, causing him to pause for a moment. Instead of using his eyes, he'd wait to feel the room and sense it. Indra had taken quite naturally to sensing living souls around him, his instincts seemingly adapted to the sound of the living rather quickly. Dead souls, however, had not been as easy to pick up on. While he had noticed them at first in Suna, they had quickly faded away into the background noise, and Indra was happy for it not to resume.

Here in the temple, the feeling of dead souls lurking around the corner had quietly become more noticeable, but still something he had to focus on. Taking this moment, he'd allow his focus to come into place. The room didn't appear to be a tomb, there weren't any dead bodies about or anything like that. When he focused, he could hear them, however, whispering about in the corners of the rooms and other sides of the walls. "People had died here, but it wasn't why it had been sealed, so we have that at least.", he said. Despite having not explained to her that he was the host of the soul genma, Indra was confident Sakaze was an ally so he didn't feel a strong need to try and keep the secret, "I'm getting the sense these weren't just normal dorms though...", he'd walk up to one of the desks and begin pulling open drawers to inspect the contents, seemingly less concerned with the risk of disturbing things than Sakaze was.

[Throniv]

Sakaze of the Red Sands

---

Sakaze stepped into the room with deliberate caution, her presence measured as she moved through the settled dust. Her sharp amber gaze swept across the space, taking in the strange arrangement of furniture and the faint, oppressive stillness lingering in the air. This was not merely a room--it felt like a space that had once been alive with purpose, now long forgotten. Her fingers trailed over the edge of one of the beds, lingering for a moment before she glanced at Indra as he rummaged through the desk drawers. His confidence in disturbing the room’s remnants stood in stark contrast to her own instincts. She felt the weight of something intangible, not entirely hostile but certainly watchful, and a strange... Pull.

She'd felt a similar pull the first time she'd began to wander the desert, and that sensation never failed to lead her exactly where she needed to go.

"Good to know," she murmured in response to Indra's comment, sounding mostly distracted as she walked past him to examine several cubbies that were set into the wall on the right side. They were diamond shaped, and most of them were full of the remnants of desiccated scrolls that perhaps once contained knowledge, but the ink had long since bled from the fibrous papyrus and left only the faintest traces of what was once there. Still, the pull persisted, and she followed it further into the room. Her fingertips trailed along the wood of a ruined bedframe, tucked up against a wall beneath a cubby, and paused as the pull intensified.

Her hand lifted from the rotted wood and moved slowly as she scanned the dark alcoves for whatever it was that had caught her Lady's attention, until a dark piece of wood in an upper cubbyhole caught her attention, merely by virtue of the fact that it wasn't rotten. Sakaze reached in and touched the wood, expecting the rough texture of pitted polish and shellac that often accompanied old cases like this, and was surprised to find the surface smooth and lacquered, as if it had only been finished the day before. As she pulled the case from the hole it was revealed to be octagonal in shape, just bigger than one of the unprotected scrolls that lined the walls, and was Sealed shut with a bit of fuiinjutsu painted onto a paper that covered what was obviously a seam to open the case. It was large enough that she had to use two hands to hold it, and her dark eyes widened as she pulled it out and turned to face the young man she was exploring with.

"Indra, look at this," she called as she turned, holding up the large case so that he could see the seal that had apparently protected it and, presumably, its contents from the ravages of time. "I haven't seen anything like this in the library," she muttered as she walked over to the most intact desk and set it down, careful to not drop it too harshly lest the table fall apart.

[Ace Trainer]

"Mm!", the sound Indra made was clearly one of excitement as Sakaze called his attention to the strange box in her hands. He bounded across the room quickly, still showing the apparent disregard he had for disturbing the room. As dust came up from around him, he'd had a wide, exciteable smile as he looked at it, his eyes inspecting it curiously. There was an bright twinkle in Indra's eyes, brushing hair out of his face as he reached for it. He'd follow her to the desk, looking at what she was putting down.

From inside the box he could hear a soft, sweet hum, almost like a song. Inside this box there was...a soul

His smile would subside into a softer smile. "Someone gave their life to seal this tome.", he would explain to her. He could tell this, intuitively almost. Yes, whatever jutsu had been used to seal it had cost the user their life. He could just..tell. This was the power of the soul genma after all. He wondered for a moment what it could mean, why it would be the case that someone would need to do that. He wondered for a moment what Sakaze would think of him telling her this, would she be less inclined to open it if she knew that? Better yet, would she even believe him that that was the case. How would he know such a thing after all?

Chakra would form around his hand, a soft glow to it indicating it was not normal chakra, "Want me to try to open it?"

[Throniv]

Sakaze glanced at the ornate box in her hands, its weight heavier than it should have been, as though the very air around it thickened with unseen consequence. Indra’s excitement was palpable, his energy reckless as he bounded across the room, kicking up dust that had settled for untold years. She did not chastise him, though her own movements remained measured and reverent as she moved over to the nearest flat surface. She set the box upon a worn desk, her fingers lingering on the surface of the lacquered wood. The hum was faint, yet unmistakable. It resonated with something deeper than sound—it thrummed in her bones, in the very core of her being. Indra’s presence beside her barely registered as she traced the edges of the ancient seal.

His voice pulled her from her thoughts.

“Someone gave their life to seal this tome.”

She looked up at him sharply, his sudden sobriety an uncharacteristic shift. There was no hesitation in his tone--he knew this for a fact, and he could feel it. She was sure now, this had to be the host for the Soul Genma... which was good to know. If nothing else, knowledge was power.

Sakaze’s lips pressed into a thin line, absorbing the weight of his statement. A soul had been bound to this--an offering, a sacrifice. For what purpose? To preserve? To protect? Or to curse those who sought to uncover what lay within? She had seen seals meant to imprison knowledge before, but nothing like this. She stepped back from the seal, gesturing for Indra to take her place and see what he could do.

“Do it,” she murmured. “But be careful. If a soul was given to seal this, then it may guard something truly dangerous.”

[Ace Trainer]

Indra's eyes broke from the ornate box when Sakaze responded, staring at her for a beat as she responded to him, "A life.", he corrected coyly, returning his eyes to the box. Indra had not said a soul had been given, so it was interesting that that was where Sakaze had gone with it. He was relatively sure she had sorted out the mystery on her own, which while good for their alliance, did not bode well for his own undercover operation. Though perhaps the fact that he'd done so little to hide it would be why Sakaze had picked it up so quickly, she was smart, certainly. He took in a deep breath, focusing back on the box in front of them.

Reaching forward, he'd glance at Sakaze again then press his palm against the seal on the box. The box would respond, a bright golden glow coming from it as the seal released. And then Indra would feel it, the soul within the box coming out out the ties that bound it. He'd smile softly, the glowing radiance from the box didn't compare at all to the radiance coming from the soul, not that Sakaze would be able to notice it. Though maybe she would? She was devout, perhaps she'd be able to sense something like this, he couldn't be sure.

Regardless, he listened intently to the rising soul, distracted from the box that he'd opened and focused instead on the intangible essence that had been locked inside. This soul was stronger than any he'd sensed before, that much was for sure. Wishing you peace., he'd silently call out to it.

The soul would call back, resonating with Indra's own. It was the soul of a priest. Information flooded his brain, the life of a priest living in this temple, his time studying their tenants and becoming a master of the craft. Then his time in this room that they stood in, the intense studying, and....something. Something he couldn't see. A prognostication? Something? He snapped from the trance, looking to Sakaze to follow her lead in inspecting the box.

[Throniv]

"A life, yes. I apologize," she said, nodding her head in solemnity as the young man stepped forward. He had good reason to hide who--to hide what--he was, and Sakaze would not press him about the issue. She knew, and she could guess that he now knew she knew, and that would have to be enough.

Sakaze watched Indra with sharp, nearly black eyes as he pressed his palm against the seal on the ornate box. The golden glow that erupted from it was mesmerizing, but she couldn't sense anything coming from it beyond some kind of energy as Indra's chakra transmuted into something that she couldn't identify or even really feel. Still, something in her said that this was a sacred thing, and that what she was watching was something holy. She bowed her head and muttered a prayer to the spirits as Indra's focus seemed to move beyond the physical, and then...

It wasn't a vision. It wasn't the flashes of images and sounds that normally accompanied her lady speaking to her directly, but something stirred in her soul as the box was finally opened and the scroll within was revealed. Never one to question the feelings that she got, as they had never led her astray, the mad prophet reached down and reverently removed the scroll from the now-open case as Indra seemed to be somewhere else. Her hands delicately unrolled the scroll, and she was met with some of the most beautiful artwork she'd ever seen--it was like someone had captured the golden rays of the sun and laid them down in ink, interspersed with silver and opaline shimmers that laid out a landscape on parchment.

Sakaze’s breath caught in her throat as she unfurled the scroll further, her fingers trembling slightly despite her usual composure. The artwork was breathtaking, each stroke of ink and shimmer of pigment telling a story of Wind Country under siege. Shadowy figures loomed over the land, their forms twisted and malevolent, consuming everything in their path. Villages burned, dunes were stained black, and the people--her people, she somehow knew instinctually--were depicted in anguish, their faces etched with despair. But amidst the darkness, there was light. Golden rays broke through the shadows, illuminating a single figure at the center of the chaos. The figure was indistinct, their features blurred, but they radiated an aura of hope and defiance. Sakaze’s heart quickened as she traced the lines of the artwork, her mind racing to interpret the symbolism.

Then her eyes fell on the writing. At first, the symbols were foreign, a jumble of shapes and lines that made no sense. But as she stared, they began to shift and resolve, as if the scroll itself were alive, revealing its message to her.

“When darkness consumes the land, and hope flickers like a dying flame, a child of the sun will emerge. Destined to lead the faithful back to the light, their path will be paved with trials and sacrifice, but their spirit will shine brighter than the harshest desert sun.”

She read it just loud enough that Indra would be able to hear if he wasn't still enraptured by whatever had come out of the box, her dark eyes scanning the artwork almost obsessively to try and garner any more clues about what this could mean. The prophecy--for that was what it was, no doubt--was older than Wind Country, older than the Daimyos and the ninja villages, and yet... the figures in the art clearly were not spirits. Artistic renditions of men and women, no doubt, but still humans that were causing the people's faces to be twisted in anguish.

Iwagakure. There was no one else it could be, and yet they had no way of knowing what was coming in those days...

"Indra, look at this," she said almost reverently, turning the parchment so that he could get a better look at its contents.

[Ace Trainer]

Perhaps the scroll spoke to Sakaze in the same way the soul spoke to Indra, perhaps that was why while Sakaze was captured and entranced by the contents of the scroll, Indra looked at it and felt nothing. Whatever was resonating with Sakaze did nothing to resonate with Indra, and as he listened to her explanation of the text he looked at it intently, expecting to see something but only reading the same text she was speaking out loud. She was beckon for him to look (not that he wasn't already) and he would peer over her reach, looking closer at the scroll. Indeed, it was quite a nice drawing but it was nothing exceptional about it to Indra.

'She's chosen.' a voice would resonate from the soul that had drifted from the box.

Indra's ears would twitch, his lips coming together tightly. He was right about Sakaze, she was something exceptional when it came to their faith. Indra was not a selfish boy, and as much as he loved being in the spotlight, he did not fear sharing it. This felt like confirmation though, that Sakaze was something special.

'Ones like her. Like me. They come here to seal away the pathways shown to us by the Sun.'

Indra's eyebrows came together.

'For?", he asked back.

No answer would come to him. Instead he'd look to Sakaze and nod, "What do you think it means?", he'd asked her.

'She knows.'

[Throniv]

---

Sakaze’s fingers lingered on the scroll’s edge, the opaline shimmers catching the dim light like fractured starlight. For a moment, she said nothing, her gaze fixed on the prophecy’s final lines, “…their spirit will shine brighter than the harshest desert sun.” The silence between them thickened, weighted by the soul’s echo and the dust of centuries settling around their feet. There was something important about this moment, the here and now, that demanded that Sakaze take a breath and make sure that what she was about to say was correct.

When she finally looked up, her eyes were alight with the fervor of a woman who had just had her faith reaffirmed.

“It’s hope,” she said, her voice low but unyielding, as if carving the words into stone. “The Sun is not merely promising dawn. She is demanding it,” she continued, her voice growing more sure with each syllable she uttered. The prophecy she held seemed to grow depth and scale as she spoke the words, allowing her to see images--the burning village, the tormented people, and the dawn breaking over the horizon, hearalded by this mystery figure.

"One of us will bring the dawn back to the Land of Wind, and help Her cast out these shadows. When our task is done, Iwagakure will be banished from these lands evermore," she uttered with finality before she set the scroll down on the bench, suddenly feeling drained, as if something larger than herself had just spoke through her. She reached up and touched her forehead, surprised to find a clammy sweat beading at her brow.

"She led us here, She meant for you and I both to find this place," Sakaze said in a low voice, awe tinging her tone as she felt her Lady's hands in these events. Sakaze would not have been able to undo that seal on her own, and Indra would not have been able to decipher the text, she knew it for certain. "Just when I think I understand, I find myself blinded to Her radiance. What subtle plots must she weave while we toil below?" she asked no one in particular as a smile tugged at the edge of her lips.

[Ace Trainer]

Indra couldn’t help but find himself enamored with Sakaze, not in a romantic way but more with the way she brought herself into this. It was clear as day that she was chosen, she’d found the temple on her own, she found and brought in followers and believers, and the soul sealed into the scroll had virtually told him as much. As she read out the prophecy and seemingly processed what it meant, Indra had found himself skipping far ahead. What if Sakaze was right? What if her vision for their future was the right vision to have? His brow came together even further, was he wrong to question her? Or was her wrong to question himself?

One of us

Her words lingered in his head as she spoke, the rest of what she was saying disappearing at static in the background of his thoughts. It was just the two of them, Who?, he called out to the soul that had lead them to this. Which of us is the one, his thoughts weren’t quite begging, but his heart did yearn for an answer to the doubts he was having now.

He could feel the soul hovering around them, observing this moment unfold, or perhaps awaiting an outcome? ”Its not clear. That much was not shown”, it would explain to him. Indeed, it was waiting for an outcome. It had foreseen this moment and the many moments that would come from it, but whoever this chosen person would be was shrouded in mystery. ”One will lead a new Dawn. One will be a solitary light at Dusk. Who it will be…well. Time will tell.”

”Are we ever meant to understand, Sakaze?”, he said, coming back to reality and answering her question, hoping she wouldn’t notice his lapse in concentration, ”She illuminates a path, and we follow. Simply rays of her Light.”, he said with a slow shrug.

”I don’t think we should have people in this dorm. Perhaps we can use this room for operations.”, he said, hesitant to use a room that was clearly for special purpose just to house people. But, in truth he simply wanted to move forward. His mind swam in the comments from the priest’s soul, we he a herald of dawn? Or a pillar in darkness? Looking to Sakaze, he'd scan the room once more and with a shudder, close the door behind them as they exited. They need to finish the excavation.