The Tiger's Daughter

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Lascaille's Shroud

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Born on the eighth of an eighth
Two pine needles fell upon Empress' brow
Two months later in a place of no pines
Two more would fall upon another's too

Tested by a broken string, a zither like a tiger
Straining the Empress like a wound, these were her days
Passing by like the years lost to tempests winds
Drowning in the rain, but always one more breath

A book inked in a tongue, in a hand only she'd know
Widens the Empress' gaze when the messenger arrives
The weight of paper in her hand feels like a bar of gold
She hesitates before she reads, afraid of what it says

The first words she reads makes her heart sing
Her name written in that unsteady hand
If Grandmother Sky is good, it reads
Then this will find you sitting on your throne
It's been so long for me, so long in the dark
That my eyes might mistake a candle for the sun

The first time they met their mothers knew
Entangled fates, their destinies entwined
They were but children who did not know
Shefali of the steppes, Shizuka the Empress

Too many years apart, far too long to bear
A flower she'd never seen, so the Empress would take
Her whole garden and move, every flower for her
And for Shizuka, she'd see the world from the stride of horse

An arrowhead that night cut across their palms
A bonding of blood, a promise
The Empress slides a finger 'cross the scar
At least she has the sweetness of a memory

The night beneath the moon, by embers of dying flames
Would forever change the course of their lives
Waking to the dawn as something more
In the light they'd seen the tiger approach

The Empress reads with a tear and a smile
Remembering the day that they'd earned their names
Paintings still depict and the legends tell
Of the girls of eight and the tiger they'd fell

Too many are the years, so tenuous their hearts
Distance and time, parchment and ink
A tether for their souls

The Empress stops, unable to read
Pained by memories
Pained that they're just memories anymore
Time does not heal, time only hurts

O-Shizuru, O-Itsuki, The warrior and the poet dead
The Empress' parents slain by her uncle's disdain

She would ride against her mother's wish
Shefali would never leave Shizuka to mourn
Day and night she'd never stop
No rest until she was with her again

Reunited once more, so long apart
Shefali inhales the sweetness of her scent

Shizuka embraces, afraid to let go
And the fated once more entwine
Until she mourned, Shefali would not go
And the Empress weeps-another memory

Plagued and blessed by her divinity
And heirless emperor would marry off his niece
For the flowers and the sun they followed her
But in a duel the suitor must win

Dancing around her suitor's blade
Shizuka a child, but an unmatched sword
One single stroke, out of the sheath and in
Her suitor's face cut, the duel is hers

Their mothers' fates entwined like them
With Shizuka's now dead, just Shefali's left
And she arrived, silent and god-like
Claiming the Emperor' niece as her own

Out on the steppes with Shefali's clan
Day and night she trained, Shizuka persists
Her blade must be sharp, her strikes must be swift
Determined to never be caged again

Beneath the moon, wailed in its light
Shefali watched her train, simply entranced
The way she moved, an elegant dance
Only she could make death such an art

Even the fated have their limits
And sickness would take Shizuka that night
The Empress takes a breath, pausing on the page
For it wasn't the sickness that she remembered

She carried her in furs, Shizuka in her arms
Shefali refused, for gods could not die
Feverish and weak, unwilling to yield
She demanded of her, a kiss before death

A million stars in the sky
A million lives lived before ours
Yet none would love as deep as we do
The heavens would envy us

I worshiped your body as you worshiped mine
Like the lick of flame our lips had met
A taste I long for even now
I yearn for your soul to be in me again

And so they ran, an unaccepted love
As one had left their home, so too would the other

Across the steppes, across the hills
For a brief part of time they had been free
The Empress smears the ink, a tear on the page
If only she had known what was to come

Gods, Shizuka said, they had always been
And if gods they were then demons there were too
In the lands they walked, stalking them in guise

In their clash with the first demon Leng
Shizuka would face him, fearless
And in one single stroke the demon would fall

Spraying from the wound the black blood swept
Across the air Shefali's lips
The infection sets as the blood dripped in
And their eyes become locked in a horrified gaze
Now Shefali would learn if she too could survive death

The Empress feels a pain just behind her eyes
A headache from the words, of the bottle she's dried
The black infection, it had always been her fault
What else was she to do, but risk her life too

Gods do not die like this, Shizuka refused
Shefali would not succumb, and she had always known
That the woman she loved had always been divine
How could she ever be anything else

Though she had lived, Shefali was cursed
By the keenest urge, the sweetest taste for her blood
And when they had slain men worthy of the sword
She had ravaged them with her hands

Indulging in them, enlivened by their deaths
Shefali couldn't see her hands around her neck
Squeezing the life from the woman she loved
Ashamed she fled, afraid of what she'd done

Once she had returned, Shizuka embraced her
Without hate or judgment
For Shizuka truly knew, what her lover didn't see
That she'd never hurt her again
The path they took was long, but the pain was well endured
And to her brother's palace Shefali would lead them
To the bronze home of her kin
And there they might have peace

But time never heals, it only hurts
The Empress knew her greatest joy was but a portent
Of her greatest pain

The emperor would arrive and demand Shefali gone
He'd demand his niece again to be caged with a man
To be under this thumb, so again she would duel

But he was not divine, the heirless emperor
And he could not see the beast at his side
Stalking the fated, again in human guise
Shizuka, blind, would face the demon Kailon

An ear taken from her, Shizuka realized
A demon hidden he'd been all along
And demon's blood in her, Shefali would devour
At the cost of her eye, she would take its life

Her true nature seen, her sickness unveiled
Shefali would soon be sentenced to death
Shizuka takes her lovers hand, marry me, she says
A member of Imperial blood he can never kill

Shizuka declared her love in the court
Spat at her uncle's feet and challenged his divinity
The emperor roared, If I cannot kill her
Then out of these lands, she will be exiled

Only by the impossible, only for the flame
Of a Phoenix feather, may she return
And eight years she wept for her exiled love
The Empress still yearns to see her return
The emperor now tarnished, removed from the throne
Yet still she is incomplete, her soul in two

The Empress for days, had read her wife's words
Now she must know who had brought her this
The messenger is unknown, but they carry one thing
The feather taken from a phoenix's flame

The Empress runs, it cannot be true
The sight of her wife has stolen her breath
The feather held aloft, a smile on her face
And for now they embrace, the rest can wait

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