Otherworld 3: Tala
Chapter 15 - Jaal
After spending over two years in hiding, the male Tala's left their human hosts and were moving into the mountains that stood between Byakko and the Northern Lands of Raizen. These borders once were guarded by powerful wards created by the mages bound by Aratha, one of the sisters of Princess Aara, but after the Three Worlds War and the claiming of Suzaku by Vara, there was no need for these boundaries. All the lands along that border were allied. Aratha moved her residence along with her ten males to the borders between Otherworld and the Human World which immensely helped the overtaxed males of her sister, Athara.
At the beginning of their trek, they had to worry about eluding the Bobcat demons that patrolled the borders, but after a few days, there were fewer and fewer patrols until there were none. This was a inhospitable and unpopulated part of Byakko. The plans that had been embedded inside of the brothers since their birth were now useless. They had lost two of their brothers and their sister was no longer producing more males. The remaining brothers simply did not have the power to carry out Naraku's plan of revenge. The brothers were traveling to this forbidding part of the mountains in an effort to find an ally. They needed power -- they needed a mage, but with the death of Jodah five years ago, there were no longer any mages more powerful that Bakura. But the brothers had heard rumors of a power that lived far in the mountains, living on the northern-most peak in a Black Tower, and if the rumor was true, they would ally themselves to this power.Although they were far away from Otherworld, they were aware of was happening in the Castle, in Kaede's Village, and in the palace at Suzaku. Naraku had hidden a small hive of his insects, dormant for these long years. The brothers awoke them and sent several insects to each place to spy. Hidden in the foliage of the gardens, the insects watched and everything they saw, the brothers also saw. Inside the hive was the queen insect and now that she was awake, she was busy producing hundreds of offspring. The brothers carefully hid the hive at the root of the mountain far from the Bobcat patrols so that when they returned from their journey, over a thousand of the deadly insects would be waiting for them.
There was no path or trail through the mountains and the whereabouts of the Black Tower was nebulous at best. They weren't even sure if it even existed. For months they had searched the mountains, doggedly persisting in their quest. Finally they found their prize. Carved into the mountain itself was a Black Tower. It was about 200 feet tall, a three-quarters round building with the back attached to the mountain. There were narrow slits of windows along the walls, spiraling up until the very top of the Tower.
To their great dismay, when the brothers got closer, they saw that the Black Tower seemed to be abandoned. There were no guards and no lights in any of the windows and the tall, heavy door stood wide open. They went to the door and peered inside, but there was nothing but a yawning blackness. They called out that they came in peace and wanted to speak to the keeper of the Tower, but only silence answered them. Even though it was still afternoon, the sun was pale in this desolate land, so they lit torches before entering.
Cautiously they walked inside, the light from their torches was not the way it should have been and only a small circle around them was dimly lit. A black stone floor showed beneath their feet and nothing else. Their voices echoed inside the Tower. Was it truly empty?
As if in answer to their unspoken question, the door slammed shut and their torches went out at the exact same time, plunging them into utter darkness.
The brothers froze, afraid to move. They reached out to touch the other and moved closer to each other, but were paralyzed to move beyond that. They could see nothing and had no idea what lay in front of them. They were no longer sure in which direction the door was so they couldn't go backward. The first Tala knelt down, carefully to keep near his brother and dug out flint from his pack by feel alone. He moved the torch to the flint and struck it repeatedly, trying to light the torch, but the flint didn't even give off sparks.
"A fire master?" The other Tala asked.
"Seems like it. Nothing involving fire works as it should." He sighed. "I guess we just stay here until we are allowed to either leave or enter further inside."
The brothers sat down on the cold floor and waited in the dark. There was complete silence around them. There was not even a scrabble of mice or a chirp of an insect. Silence clung to the Tower like the darkness, heavy and oppressive. If it was meant to unnerve, it was having a good effect. The brothers were afraid to move. For hours they sat there, their muscles cramping from the cold, hard floor. They had water and a little food which they shared, blindly searching through their packs for the items.
Without warning, a torch flared awake, startling them. They jumped to their feet and looked around the dimly lit area. This torch worked as it should and they could see that they were in a small room with a long dark hallway opposite the front door. They put their torches to the lit one, but they did not ignite. Shrugging their shoulders in unison, they walked to the corridor. Instantly another torch lit, this one further down the corridor, and at the same time, the first torch went out. They continued down the long passage, following the torches, one by one, until they reached a spiral staircase which wound like a tight corkscrew around a stone pillar. A single torch was at its base, beckoning them. The staircase must be in the center of the Tower.
Slowly they climbed, only one torch in back of them and one in front lit at any one time. As soon as they passed, the torch in back would go out and a new one in front would light. There was no railing on the outer stairway, only pitch black. A fall on these steps would surely kill them. Over two hundred steps they climbed, seeing nothing but more steps; hearing nothing but their own labored breathing. They had to be at the top by now!
Around one more curve and a ceiling appeared, with the stairs going through a narrow opening. The brothers climbed through the opening and stepped out into a large round room that must have encompassed the entire Tower. While the rest of the Tower was in uttered darkness, in this room there was faint light. On the other side of the room stood a tall woman framed by the night stars that shone through a large open window. She was dressed in armor and silk and her long black hair was braided. On either side of her were two oval paintings propped against the back wall, which were nearly seven feet tall and three feet wide. They were draped in black cloth, hiding all but a small part of an ornate gilded frame.
"Who are you to disturb the peace of my tower?"
"My Lady Jaal," the first Tala said, after they both bowed to her, "We come seeking your help."
"Who are you to ask my help?"
"We are the sons of Naraku."
"Your names?"
"We are both named Tala."
"That seems rather inconvenient."
"The circumstances of our birth are rather odd. You can call me Tala 1 and my brother, Tala 2, if you like."
"Why do you seek my help? Few are those that know of my existence. And even fewer are those who know where the Black Tower is. "
"We learned of your birth from my father, My Lady, who learned of it from your father. And we heard that a great power had taken up residence in a Black Tower in the northern mountains. We have been searching for months."
"My father? What do you know of my father?"
"We know that he was murdered only a few years ago, by the same people who murdered our father. The Protectors of Otherworld and Suzaku. We offer you a chance to avenge your father's death."
"This is the reason you came to see me? This is the help you wish from me? Avenging my father's death?"
"It is."
She moved closer to them, "Why would I be interested in avenging Jodah's death? Do you think he ever thought about me when he was alive? He lay with my mother only to produce a son. But I was born the wrong sex! He wanted nothing to do with either my mother or me. Perhaps if I had been born a male, I would have had his love; although I think if I had been born a boy, I would have had too much of his love. I'm sure you know that my father's taste ran to young boys."
"Lady Jaal, no matter what the circumstances of your birth were, Jodah did not deserve to die at the hands of Otherworld. You do not know what happened."
"I know exactly what happened!" And with a wave of her hand, the covering came off the frame to her right, revealing not a painting, but a mirror with golden stars and moons circling the frame. Jaal made a small gesture, the mirror darkened for a few moments, and then scenes appeared on its surface, one at a time: the Castle of Otherworld, then the palace of Suzaku, the village of Kaede, the three portals, the four kingdoms of the Demon World. "I know exactly how and why Jodah died. And he deserved death and so much more! My father was an evil man! I will not avenge his death!"
For a fleeting moment, it looked as if her eyes had flared with flames and the brothers dropped to their knees before her. "Please, Lady Jaal, we did not mean to offend you in any way. If you don't want revenge, we can offer you a kingdom."
"What kingdom can you offer me?"
"The kingdom of Suzaku! We can help you get it! It will work out to both our benefit. We will get our revenge while you get a beautiful sunlit land for your own." Tala 1 exclaimed.
"Exactly how can you help me? The people of Suzaku seem content with Vara as their queen."
"Not all of them, especially the soldiers. Many of them believe that the son of Emperor Hotohori should be on the throne and would gladly follow him. Our power is to merge into another body, a host if you will, and take the body over. The widow of Emperor Hotohori has abdicated in her son's name, but if one of us were to take over her body and rescind the abdication, we could mount a campaign against Vara and retake the throne of Suzaku in the Boushin's name. When the throne is won, the other of us would simply take over Boushin's body and make you our advisor or our Queen, whichever you want. We do not want power, only revenge."
"You make it sound so simple." Jaal said, "But Suzaku is not helpless. It is protected by the Bobcat Clan and the Red Phoenix. And the Red Dragon lives in its halls."
"The Red Dragon grows bored easily and is away from the palace of Suzaku more than he is in residence. And the Red Phoenix can only be called by the usurper queen, Vara."
"You still need more power. What if Vara calls the Red Phoenix for help? And the Red Dragon will also come if called."
Tala 1 rose up from his knees, "There is a story of a Black Tower and a sleeping power. That is the other reason why we were searching these lands for the Black Tower, and I think perhaps it is the reason why you are here.
"It is merely a fable for gullible fools."
"Is it?" Tala 2 asked, also coming to his feet, "Why are you living here, Lady, in such a desolate land? Did you find the power?"
Jaal sighed unhappily. These two would search and probe until they found what they were looking for. "Follow me."
Jaal turned and moved aside a large tapestry hanging on the wall behind her, opening a hidden door in the tower wall. She led them down a passage that had been carved deep into the mountain. After walking for over an hour, they began to hear a strange sound, something like the wind rushing through the crevices. A short while later, Jaal stopped and made a gesture in the air. Torches sprang to life along the walls of a huge cavern. In the center of the cavern was the cause of the sound. It was not wind, but breathing. A huge blue dragon lay sleeping. Another one of the Great Dragons had been found.