Daughter of Dragons

Daughter of Dragons is a short fiction.

Annotated Story


Isawa Ijime was raised by a large, poor family that had found her among the fields near their village. She grew up without love or attention, and would create imaginary places in her mind to escape. One day, while alone in her hut her dreams became true and the images danced around on the ground. Ijime hid her talent fearing scorn, but was eventually discovered and sentance to be stoned to death for using evil magic. The intervention of an Imperial Magistrate saved her life, but the spirits in her mind continued to plaque her.

At the age of sixteen, just prior to her gempukku, the Celestial Dragon appeared to her in her dreams offering her a place among the stars. Before following the Dragon, her actual father, Ijime opened the portal to her mind and released seventy evil spirits. Each one was a horror that had been visited upon her, and Ijime wanted mankind to know the evil they had brought upon themselves. Among the spirits of greed, lechery and dishonor rose a sinle spirit of Hope. The single virtue that had been inspired by the magistrate who saved her, and from Ijime's hands was goodness and faith created. With that, Ijime died and her body was found by the Phoenix Clan.

In honor of her death, the brightest star in the dawn is rumored to be Ijime. Each morning the people of Rokugan pray to that small, bright light, remembering how without the hope that magistrate had brought the world would be a darker place.

Characters

 * Isawa Ijime
 * Celestial Dragon

Not Present, But Mentioned
n/a