CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
His eyes slowly closing with a smile on his face he strained out a single sentence shedding a single tear which ran down his right cheek.
"LONG LIVE OUR GODDESS AND DEAREST EMPEROR." he muttered under his breath while the Princess clearly heard and his heart finally ceasing to beat and his lungs out of air, his hand collapsed and he was entirely lifeless at once a mild wind rushed about the place outside and the torches and flames that were burning were instantly extinguished.
Everyone looked around the whole place and at that moment, Princess Toyomike unable to believe her eyes she shook Iname violently.
"Grandfather, Grandfather." She loudly called by to no avail, at that point, Iname was nothing more than the winds that howled and roamed the earth.
"Grandfather." she called once again and at that moment trying to stay strong she shed a couple of years before she walked out of the doors a very destitute woman.
Consort Katashishime, the Emperor and Umako all rushed over to her aid but Princess Toyomike just stood there so lifeless.
"Is everything alright?" Consort Katashishime asked.
"What happened?" Umako added.
"Grandfather." Princess Toyomike replied.
"What's wrong with him?" The Emperor asked.
"Grandfather has shuffled off this mortal coil." Princess Toyomike replied and at once Consort Katashishime fainted as the Emperor supported her while Soga no Umako hurriedly rushed into the very room his father had lay before he had succumbed.
There he saw him already very pale and getting closer to touch his body he was as cold as I've.
The blood in his body around the skin left there purple bruises and a part of it had already spilled out of his mouth.
Umako fell on his knees to honour the soul of he who had departed.
"I am so sorry father." He said as he held his father's hand at least hoping that he could get up again.
It hadn't been before, it certainly wouldn't.
Princess Toyomike who was already traumatized walked through the courtyard as many honouring her presence they bowed their heads as they watched her pass.
Eventually, Princess Toyomike halted when she saw at a nearby tree a monarch butterfly that emerged from it's cocoon and flew right above her head.
She slowly watched it go and at that point Sina right next to her spine up.
"Your Highness." She said, "Why have we stopped?" She asked.
"Isn't it amazing?" Princess Toyomike asked.
"What Your Highness?" Sina asked.
"This life as it is given it is taken away, It us so sad at one point we bury one and another is born." Princess Toyomike replied.
"Please don't grieve so hard your Highness." Kabane pleaded.
"Do I even have that chance?" Princess Toyomike asked.
"At this point a pillar of Nippon has fallen and on this day I shall forever mourn for it, now the era of peace has fallen, war is gracing the very corners of Nara and shall soon shake the country." Princess Toyomike added.
"Please your Highness, if someone else were to hear you it wouldn't be taken in good faith." Sina pleaded.
"Do not plead for me but instead you should cry for Nara, as Iname has carried with himself the very rugs of our stability, this war shall break from the Inner court itself." Princess Toyomike said as she continued towards her Palanquin.
The Emperor still standing there he looked at the manor and then admiring the garden on its side he suddenly lost an interest.
The mood was already sombre and Umako walked out of the building as well looking nearly the same way that Princess Toyomike had looked before he had walked in.
"This is to the whole of Nara and everyone in this courtyard should make it known.
I have confirmed without doubt at all that my father the Imperial Chieftain Soga no Iname no Sukune has ceased to exist." Umako said.
Everyone present started to grieve and the Emperor walked up to Umako who seeing him was very quick to go onto his knees and he bowed his head to the Emperor.
"Your Majesty." Umako said. "My father has forsaken both you and me." He added.
"He is as he as always been a flower that is eternal, his name shall live long in the minds of men and none in the generations to come shall ever be in the position to compare with him in the service of this our great nation." The Emperor replied.
"He is honored to have had you see him off into the next life." Umako said.
"And I shall bestow upon him the posthumous title of NARA'S PATRON OF PEACE." The Emperor said.
"Your Grace is Immeasurable your Majesty, Long Live his Majesty." Umako said and the rest of the household going down in their knees repeated after him.
"He shall be paraded throughout the streets of Nara before he is laid and I promise you that in the pages of History he shall have his own place.
This is the least that I can do to make his spirit immortal as it has returned to heaven for the great favour he did of seeing this country through great peace." The Emperor added.
"We are very grateful Your Majesty." Umako said as he bowed his head again and again while the Emperor turned around and walked away.
Empress Ishi Hime was seated in the Inner shrine of the Imperial Palace.
There along with herself was the candle stand that Iname had gifted her in her youth and fir the first time ever it was bearing a red candle that she had set up right beside the altar.
At that point as she closed her eyes and meditated, she felt a mild wind rushing through the sanctum which forced her to open her eyes and then look at the candle that was positioned right in front of her.
The wind persisting the flame on the candle danced in resistance for a very short while and then like one surprising blow, it was immediately extinguished at once.
All that she could see was a thin cloud of smoke that rose from the candle and eventually disappeared in thin air and at that point she heard the doors behind her open.
It was like a sign which compelled her to bow her head before the altar as she stood up and turned around to face whoever it was within the vicinity.
"What happened?" Empress Ishi Hime asked, "Has he...?" She asked as she looked at the High Priestess.
"The word has spread out very fast Your Highness." The High Priestess replied. "For the case of Iname it has been confirmed, Shinigami has claimed him as his own." She added.
"At last." Empress Ishi Hime said as she let out a sigh of relief.
"Your Highness." The High Priestess called.
"Against Iname I have certainly prevailed." Empress Ishi Hime said as she took a very deep breath and then opened her eyes her whole self feeling renewed.
"Congratulations Your Highness, Iname who once towered as a very strong mountain that hampered your path is now no more." The High Priestess said.
"Saio." Empress Ishi Hime called.
"Yes Milady?" The High Priestess replied.
"Prepare everything there is that needs to be done." Empress Ishi Hime said.
"As one victory can not decide the winner of a battle." The High Priestess said.
"So has the battle for the reins of the Inner court began." Empress Ishi Hime added.
"Do You mean her Highness the Imperial Princess Toyomike?" The High Priestess asked.
"She is the last that is left before I can compose my ultimate Victory." Empress Ishi Hime replied as she turned around and she walked towards the candle stand that was positioned at the altar.
"I had you as a memento to remind me of the joyous days that Iname and I once heard in the dawn of our youth." Empress Ishi Hime said as she possessed it in her hands and then she pulled it closer to her face.
"Now that even he has failed me and departed on my will I can no longer imagine trying to remember even his name because on this very day I have clearly defined it that you are of no use to me anymore." She added as she dropped the stand into the heartb that was right next to the altar.
Turning around, she walked out of the room with a ghastly smile on her face while the flames in consuming what was the ugly iron stand, it eventually melted.
It was a matter of time and everyone else was caught up in so much grief even the palace itself looked so lifeless.
Consort Katashishime along with her sister Consort Ōane no Kimi were in her Chambers and they were all so lowly.
"I have long devoted myself to the prayers that could at least keep father, I feel horrible that I couldn't share the very last of his days with him in the comfort of my company." Ōane no Kimi said.
"Who knew?" Consider Katashishime asked. "His demise came much quicker than the both of us had expected." She added.
"I am more pitiful towards Umako, he has now to take the burden of the Soga clan on his shoulders." Ōane no Kimi said.
"No." Consort Katashishime said. "I am rather more sorry for Father, he died and his murdering being known to us as the very woman he once loved and cherished with all his life we can not bring her to Justice." She added.
"Perhaps you are right sister." Ōane no Kimi said.
"In deed father was a successful but a very pitiful man in the end that he was no different from the Emperor Senka himself who uniting to bring Nippon into one died and was nearly forgotten as a dream." Consort Katashishime replied.
"Nevertheless." Ōane no Kimi said.
"What?" Consort Katashishime asked.
"We might not be able to bring father's murderer to justice but at least I believe that there is someone that we can all look up to and at a time like this someone that we can trust can do that for us." Ōane no Kimi replied.
"Who?" Consort Katashishime asked. "Umako?" She added.
"Don't let your eyes wander father, after everything that has happened the Empress could have frightened many bur she has as well provoked our daughter." Ōane no Kimi replied.
"You mean to say...?" Consort Katashishime asked.
"Yes." Ōane no Kimi replied. "It's Princess Toyomike." She confirmed.
"She too is as destitute as we are." Consort Katashishime said.
"She'll need our favour and our support to do that." Ōane no Kimi replied.
"She ran towards the danger in the first place and given what has happened it is now of all times that I am most reluctant to keep pushing her as she could end up the same way as our father and nothing shall hurt me more than the experience of having to bury my own daughter." Consort Katashishime said.
"She possesed the one thing that the both of us along with all the other women in the inner court could not." Ōane no Kimi said.
"You are starting to sound like father when he was alive." Consort Katashishime said.
"We have no choice." Ōane no Kimi said.
"Either we support her or we get killed." Consort Katashishime said.
"Yes." Ōane no Kimi replied, "And given the fact that she was courageous enough to rise up against the Empress in rebellion, she must rule the Inner court for all of us to survive and become free." She added.
"When everything has happened, there is nothing in this world that shall give me the satisfaction of the Empress having a taste of her own medicine." Consort Katashishime said.
"Infamous as she is, she'll in a more painful way follow our father into the embrace of Shinigami as well." Ōane no Kimi added.
"Your Highness." Miwa no Sakau said as he bowed his head to the Crown Prince who stood and admired the beautiful chrysanthemums that adorned his backyard.
"You don't have to say so much to me because I already heard everything you're here to say to me." The Crown Prince said.
"Everyone is griefstriken." Miwa no Sakau said.
"It's expected considering the fact that he was the pillar of the State." The Crown Prince said.
"Won't you see her Highness the Imperial Princess Toyomike?" Miwa no Sakau asked.
"She needs some time to grieve because I can feel it in my soul that she is quite uneasy given the unfavourable turn of events." The Crown Prince said.
"Perhaps you are right Your Highness, His Majesty the Emperor organised for His body to be carried around all the streets of Nara prior to his funeral." Miwa no Sakau said.
"What are the Courtiers saying?" The Crown Prince asked.
"Many of them believe that days of turbulence lie ahead of us now and they are knocking at our doors." Miwa no Sakau replied.
"To live is a choice that we make but as usual the grim reaper is the one thing that we can never outrun and the eternal fate of us all." The Crown Prince said.
"Surprisingly Umako still grieving refused to hand over this matter to the officials in charge of investigations, as it is that Iname was poisoned a number of people are concerned." Miwa no Sakau said.
"Finding his real culprit and even the most stern punishment shall not bring Iname back to us.
Additionally it is possible that Umako knows his father's murderers but he can't just point at other Courtiers without conclusive evidence against them.
Investigations shall only cause more if the truths to be buried and it could also endanger him in the end given that the very powerful people behind such a treacherous plot could corrupt all the necessary findings." The Crown Prince replied.
"What shall we do Your Highness?" Miwa no Sakau asked.
"Everyone is choosing a side that they belong to and I know that following Iname's demise most of the Sogas have nowhere left to run to.
Rather at a time like this when they grieve and they are most destitute, I must become their aid and at least convert them into my people." The Crown Prince replied.
"But Your Highness I am very much concerned." Miwa no Sakau said.
"About what?" The Crown Prince asked.
"Why not join forces with the other privileged Courtiers and aristocrats given the fact that now or in the near future the Sogas are bound to decline from their power?" Miwa no Sakau asked.
"That won't happen at all." The Crown Prince replied, "You might not notice but if initially powerful people side with me, when the time comes for them to abandon me they will with one heart because they have nothing much to lose.
But if you raise a dog from the very moment it is nothing more than a puppy, seeing you like a parent in it's eyes even in the face of demise it shall still remain faithful because it knows it can only survive as long as you are alive." He added.
"I understand Your Highness." Miwa no Sakau said as he bowed his head.
"It's going to be a very sombre say tomorrow, all the necessary preparations should be made because I must honour the man who was like a teacher to me and whose death I can eventually turn into an eternal blessing for myself." The Crown Prince said.
"Yes Your Highness." Miwa no Sakau replied.
Princess Toyomike was seated in her Chambers and she was dressed in a an all white attire.
She was seated in her bed and all the people around that were tending to her were dressed all the same.
At that point she seemed to recalled everything that had happened in the earlier days of her childhood when she was still very young and unable to mourn loudly all that she could do was to shed tears.
Sina looking at her Mistress's expression was very much concerned and walking up the her she sat down right by her bed.
"Your Highness." Sina said.
"For once don't call me by my title." Princess Toyomike said, "Call me Toyomike." She added.
"Toyomike." Sina said as she still felt quite uncomfortable.
"All I had were sixteen years to myself in which I could see him, Sadly at this moment he was unable to see his great grandchild." Princess Toyomike said.
"I am so sorry Toyomike, death is a part of life." Sina said as she comforted her Mistress by holding her hands.
"You above all people bat least had him for a refuge, I never got to see my father all my life given the fact that he died before I was even born and my mother followed three months prior to my third birthday so to remember how she looked like is an impossibility." She added.
At that moment, the doors of the Princess Toyomike's room were flung open and turning around to look into that direction she saw the Empress and the Crown Princess walking through them towards her.
The Empress herself was overwhelmed by sadness and at that point, walking up to Princess Toyomike, she bowed her head.
"Your Highness." She said.
"Your guards entirely failed the duty that they were entrusted with along with all your servants, father had everything returned to normal so I hope that you are not here at this moment to plead their case." Princess Toyomike said.
"They failed their duty in deed Your Highness but I am not here in their behalf." Empress Ishi Hime said.
"Then what brings you, are you here to offer condolences to me upon my grandfather's demise?" Princess Toyomike asked.
"It was quite untimely Your Highness." Empress Ishi Hime said.
"Why ever could we recall the very people that we loved yet we were once betrayed?" Princess Toyomike asked.
"I don't understand Your Highness." The Empress replied.
"All these years I tried to devote myself to an understanding that perhaps contending with you was all I needed, taking everything there is in the world that you possessed and held so dear." Princess Toyomike said.
Raising her hand, the Empress signalled to all her servants to get out of the room leaving her alone with the Crown Princess and the Imperial Princess Toyomike.
"Your Highness." Empress Ishi Hime said.
"Clearly as long as the both of us live then one way or another we are determined to fight one another." Princess Toyomike said.
"Your Highness, in your hopeless and destitute situation, I have already destroyed the greatest pillar that could aid you in the Imperial Court.
You know better than anyone else that marrying the Crown Prince shall never be enough, even if you tried all your life marrying Emperor after Emperor, you shall always be a Consort and never an Empress.
You Your Highness can never rule the Inner court no matter how you tried with inadequate support and a number of people following me I shall bury you and your followers one by one and I shall see to it that you are the last to feel the pain of watching everyone die before you." Empress Ishi Hime said.
Princess Toyomike laughed.
"I command the will of the heavens from this day and you are about to see what I am about to do, I shall make sure that as long as you are alive I never bury any other person that I care about." Princess Toyomike said.
"It is always easier to say something than do it, can you be certain that I am not the very nightmare that haunts you and the very person that you fear?" Empress Ishi Hime asked.
"Fear?" Princess Toyomike asked as she sighed, "What is fear?" she asked.
"I am fear." Empress Ishi Hime replied.
"No." Princess Toyomike replied, "I am the very person that you fear." She added.
"Hahahaha." The Empress laughed. "Me, to fear you?" She asked.
"You know it very well however much you try to deny it Your Highness, why would you devote your all to see to it that you robbed me of the things that I tried to hold dear.
First you wanted to claim the life of my child, now you have taken my Grandfather, next it could be my uncle, then it shall be my mother and my aunt." Princess Toyomike said.
"Only until I can force you to bend can you learn to fear me, only if I can harm you and put the life of each and everyone that you care about in these hands of mine shall you learn to worship me." Empress Ishi Hime said. "You have staked everything that you have so that you can contend with me and that alone has become the biggest bargain of your life." She added.
"I am saddened to know that even people like you have the heart to call Yourselves human." Princess Toyomike said.
"Politicians are not human, if this is the path that you wish to tread you can be prepared to bury each and Everytime because this is my promise that the bodies you'll see shall always be ten times more than one and quieten some moles from revealing your secrets you'll have to see to it that they never walk the face of this earth again." Empress Ishi Hime replied.
"Then I am prepared of it means to face the same fate, one thing is certain though Your Highness, if it is to die, you shall meet Shinigami's embrace before me." Princess Toyomike said.
"I'll consider it that your mind is made up, I warned you as the daughter of my husband and that was the last shred of Mercy that I ever possesed towards you." Empress Ishi Hime said.
"Moriya, Suke, Morae, and very many others are your people, Sina and Kabane are mine, should this be the very path that you have chosen Your Highness, I am certainly going to follow mine." Princess Toyomike said.
"I look forward your Highness." Empress Ishi Hime said.
"You should." Princess Toyomike replied. "Because I shall raise with me the dust of hell you won't even notice too soon. as it shall be too late, I shall have spelt the walls hampering you." She added.
The two fiercely looked at each other before the Empress eventually walked out of the Princess' Quarters.
"Mother, there is no degree of persuasion that could ever Change Princess Toyomike's mind." The Crown Princess said.
"Of course." The Empress replied, "She must be poised to know that very soon upon marrying the Crown Prince she is going to become his favourite.
Sadly for her just like her mother she is but dedicating her life to entirely become a Royal Mistress." She added.
"She didn't seem to fear you." The Crown Princess said.
"I thought that perhaps what had happened to Iname would change her mind but I am in deed awed by the fact that it only increased the friction and the antagonism between the both of us." Empress Ishi Hime replied.
"What shall we do to her mother, as it is right now, she could be powerless but because of the Emperor and the Crown Prince's favour she is untouchable." The Crown Princess said.
"I suppose this was what she was guarding against from the beginning." Empress Ishi Hime said.
"It must be." The Crown Princess replied.
"Then we have to wait for the right opportunity to kill her." Empress Ishi Hime replied.
"Is she that much of a threat to us mother?" The Crown Princess asked and at that point the Empress remembered the last words that Iname had told her while she was still alive.
"Whatever you do try everything that you possibly can to kill Princess Toyomike." Iname had said.
"Remember what I told you because one day when I am not around it shall be you Yourself to run the Inner court, Do not stoop so low to complete for the favour of your husband with other cheap concubines of his.
Rather, the last thing that you should do is to submit and treat them all with patience because once you give them the opportunity to step on you then they shall use it themselves to conjure up more and more troubled until they have humiliated you.
You have grown and become secretive, you must wear benevolence and innocence in front of of Your Husband and you must embrace cruelty and coldness to the others as well.
You must kill to survive, if that is the law of the jungle and it is the law of the politicians it is the law for all Imperial housewives and in general the law of survival within the inner court." Empress Ishi Hime replied.
"Yes Your Highness." The Crown Princess said as the two continued.
The Emperor was seated in his room and he was lost in his own thoughts.
He too was dressed in the morning attire like everyone else and he thought constantly about Iname's untimely demise.
"Your Majesty." Sato walked up to his presence and he bowed his head.
"What is it?" The Emperor asked.
"Who better than myself Your Majesty can notice when you are curious and not tell the difference between sombrousness and itself?" Sato asked.
"You've read my mind very well." The Emperor replied.
"Do you wish to talk about it Your Majesty?" Sato asked.
"What do you think happens after One has been buried?" The Emperor asked, "You must have heard what everyone has said that his death has marked the beginning of a very turbulent time in Nippon." He asked.
"Yes Your Majesty." Sato replied.
"Right now I am caught at crossroads." The Emperor said.
"Initially, what the Courtiers are doing to act out of courtesy is nothing but an illusion, they are the most desperate people to meet you and together they hope that this time around their claim is justified." Sato said.
"Yes." The Emperor said, "With Soga no Iname out of the picture, it is now clear that the country needs another Imperial Chieftain to run his previous tasks.
If it is a vote of popularity, the most likely candidate to win is Mononobe no Moriya and considering that he is influential in the court and the son of a former Chieftain, he is a General at that and is older and more enlightened in politics having been there longer than Iname's son Umako doesn't stand a Chance." He added.
"You can not bear to make Moriya that powerful yet at the same time you can not lose Umako who is the only worthy contender for him." Sato said.
"You know better than anyone else, that shrewd personality that Moriya possesses I find myself to fear the most, I could try to calm it as long as I am the Emperor but I am not confident that the Crown Prince will since after what happened to Iname, I was also reminded that I am old and ago aging on the throne, I don't have that much time left either." The Emperor said.
"Your Highness, may I suggest something?" Sato asked.
"Yes You may.' The Emperor replied.
"Always if you can not get what you want at a good price then you must be willing to trade it with something that you hold valuable." Sato said.
"What do you mean?" The Emperor asked.
"They want to make Moriya the Imperial Chieftain and it doesn't matter how they do it, they know it very well that the Sogas supporting their candidate the process might be more and more difficult but if you were to give it to them and claim something in return then they would be more than pleased to have met your acquaintance." Sato replied.
"You are asking me to make Moriya the Imperial Chieftain?" Emperor Kinmei asked.
"Your Majesty, it's all you must do, but since you can not afford to lose Soga no Umako considering the meritorious service that his father has done for this our country and he is an aristocrat by blood, he could be qualified to be the second Chieftain with Mononobe no Suke." Sato replied.
"Yes." The Emperor replied a smirk appearing on his face.
"That way I can not only protect Umako but I can consolidate him in power long enough to challenge their might." He added.
"No one will call you impartial, as usual, no one will suspect that you are on the other's side because if you can award benevolence to both, it is a sign that you are an enemy to none." Sato said.
"Perhaps all that time that you have spent right next to me you have in deed become like a courtier in your visage." The Emperor said.
"Nothing gives me peace Your Majesty like knowing that I can be a very big help in your Majesty to make your burdens and worries very light." Sato replied.
"You can accept my gratitude." The Emperor said.
"Your Majesty." Sato called.
"What else?" The Emperor asked.
"According to Umako, he is firm that his father having been a Buddhist and not a Shinto throughout his last year's he wishes to prepare a Buddhist funeral for him so all customs and rituals for the funeral shall be according to the Buddhist religion." Sato said.
"It is alright." The Emperor said, "After his coffin is paraded throughout the streets of Nara tomorrow, he shall be buried the next day and by then, everyone that's a member of the Imperial family shall gather at the Sogas' manor and we'll see him off." The Emperor replied.
"Yes Your Majesty." Sato said as he bowed his head and then withdrew from the room leaving the Emperor behind.
"It is sad that you are departed from this world Iname, but you don't have to worry because as I promised you I won't fail your son and I won't fail Nippon either." The Emperor said to himself as he clenched his right fist.