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annwfynFirst, there was a monster.
That is how it began. Later on, when Tchurako Li Halan was sometimes known as ‘the Pure’ and more often as ‘the monster hunter’, she would say that this was how it always began.
First, there was a monster.
In most of the stories you will hear, you will be told that the monster took the form of a great daggertooth cat, corrupted by a strange gene engineered disease that House Decados had sown on Midian in the dog days of the Emperor Wars. You will be told the story of how this thing roamed through fields and villages, and took caribou from their fields and children from their beds. You will be told that none could kill it, until a girl – scarce more than a child – declared that this monster would harm her people no more, and took her dead father’s sword (for he had been killed in the Emperor Wars) and set out to slay it.
The girl killed it, of course, for how else would there be a story, and when the news of this deed reached the Emperor himself, he declared that if this child could kill a monster, then just think of what the woman would be able to do and made her one of his Questing Knights. And under the phoenix banner, the girlchild grew to become Tchurako the Pure, filled with the holy fire of the Pancreator, who would summon angels to her side to drive forth the Dark Whisperer from the Void at the Battle of Sutek.
That is the story you will be told. But Tchurako herself told it to me a little differently, and this is how I shall tell it to you.
There was a monster. That is true. In fact, Tchurako tells me, there were three.
First there was the dagger tooth. But the dagger tooth was not truly a terrible beast. Rather, Tchurako said, it was a sickly thing, driven mad with hunger. She did take her father’s sword, for he had fallen in the Emperor Wars, but she did not need to use it. Rather, she shot the thing with arrows, for she was, and is, an excellent shot. She had used that bow often before when hunting for food for her mother and sisters. After the Emperor Wars, you see, more than half the men from their village had not come home, and those that did were broken and crooked from years of war, so she was used to looking after herself.
That, she says, was never the challenge.
But there was a second monster. The second monster was the man who had let the monster rampage in the first place. He was the Lord of the Land in those places, and he was a small and fat fingered man, who loved his wealth. He took taxes from the people, and then locked them away in his palace where they could pay for silks and velvets. He prayed to the Pancreator, but he prayed while kneeling on swan feather stuffed cushions and he chose his knights for their beauty and grace and did not send them out into the villages where they could get muddy.
This monster could not be killed by Tchurako’s arrows. And so she went to his palace and stood in the courtyard and called him out to fight her, for she was angry that he had not helped her people.
“You dishonor us all,” she cried and he was ashamed for he did not think a child should have the right to challenge him and sent out the least of his knights to beat her and send her away. But Tchurako drew forth her father’s sword then, and slew the least of the knights.
“You dishonor your knights,” she called again, and the corrupt Lord sent out the greatest of his knights to kill this impudent girl. But Tchurako was strong and determined and had practiced with her father’s sword for many months, and she slew this knight too.
“You dishonor yourself,” she cried at last, and this time the Lord sent out his guards with guns and bows to shoot her down where she stood, but Tchurako was swift and graceful and she danced between the bullets and arrows as if she had been touched by the Pancreator (and perhaps she was) and she ran up the side of the wall of the corrupt Lord’s house to the balcony where he stood and challenged him, and when he tried to shoot her with an illegal neural disruptor, she struck the gun from his hand and cut him down where he stood.
But there was still a third monster. Some might say that the third monster was the Decados who had poisoned her land. Some might say it was the threat of greater Lords, no less corrupt, who might come and punish Tchurako for the death of the old Lord. Tchurako herself said it was none of those things. The last monster, she said, was the stain of the War. For that monster had eaten the heart and hopes of men. It had swallowed the good harvests and proper prayers. Worst of all, it had devoured the spirit of the good lords who had grown used to neglecting their lands, and that was the monster she had to slay.
So Tchurako set off to see the Emperor. And it took her many months and many more adventures (including an adventure where she met the Decados who had created the gene plague, and her purity of purpose was such that she inspired his own page boy to leave his Lord and follow her, which is another story) but at last she came to the Emperor where he sat on his Throne and said “I am Tchurako Li Halan, and I am come to slay a monster. I would like to kill it in your name,”
And Emperor Alexius looked down on the girl before him and bowed his head.
“And what if I do not give you my name to slay this monster in?”
Tchurako lifted her head very high.
“Then I shall do it anyway. And when it is slain, and I am become the monster who defies the right order and disobeys her rightful Lord, the holy Emperor, I shall turn the sword upon myself and slay that monster too. “
The Emperor looked at Tchurako and saw that her heart was pure.
“I will give you a monster to slay,” he said and smiled. “But I am afraid it is greater than any monster you have slain before.”
“I am not afraid,” she said and held herself as straight as she could.
The Emperor inclined his head.
“You should be,” he said. “For the monster I give you spans all of the Known Worlds, and worse yet, the dark beyond. Many have fought it but none have returned to tell the tale.”
Tchurako lifted her hand on her sword.
“I kill monsters,” she said with glorious certainty. “Wherever they are. I am Tchurako the Monster Hunter.”
“And so you are,” said the Emperor. “But I shall also call you Tchurako the Pure for I have never met anyone like you. There is a light in your soul that I have not seen before. You shall be my Questing Knight for I have need of that light, for the greatest monster dwells in the dark, and that is fear and doubt from which all corruption stems.”
Tchurako bowed very low. For a moment, she was afraid, and she had never been afraid before, but she did not show it and instead when she looked up, she smiled.
“I shall do this,” she said. “Until the very end,”
And so the Lady has done, and so she fights until this very day.
That is how it began. Later on, when Tchurako Li Halan was sometimes known as ‘the Pure’ and more often as ‘the monster hunter’, she would say that this was how it always began.
First, there was a monster.
In most of the stories you will hear, you will be told that the monster took the form of a great daggertooth cat, corrupted by a strange gene engineered disease that House Decados had sown on Midian in the dog days of the Emperor Wars. You will be told the story of how this thing roamed through fields and villages, and took caribou from their fields and children from their beds. You will be told that none could kill it, until a girl – scarce more than a child – declared that this monster would harm her people no more, and took her dead father’s sword (for he had been killed in the Emperor Wars) and set out to slay it.
The girl killed it, of course, for how else would there be a story, and when the news of this deed reached the Emperor himself, he declared that if this child could kill a monster, then just think of what the woman would be able to do and made her one of his Questing Knights. And under the phoenix banner, the girlchild grew to become Tchurako the Pure, filled with the holy fire of the Pancreator, who would summon angels to her side to drive forth the Dark Whisperer from the Void at the Battle of Sutek.
That is the story you will be told. But Tchurako herself told it to me a little differently, and this is how I shall tell it to you.
There was a monster. That is true. In fact, Tchurako tells me, there were three.
First there was the dagger tooth. But the dagger tooth was not truly a terrible beast. Rather, Tchurako said, it was a sickly thing, driven mad with hunger. She did take her father’s sword, for he had fallen in the Emperor Wars, but she did not need to use it. Rather, she shot the thing with arrows, for she was, and is, an excellent shot. She had used that bow often before when hunting for food for her mother and sisters. After the Emperor Wars, you see, more than half the men from their village had not come home, and those that did were broken and crooked from years of war, so she was used to looking after herself.
That, she says, was never the challenge.
But there was a second monster. The second monster was the man who had let the monster rampage in the first place. He was the Lord of the Land in those places, and he was a small and fat fingered man, who loved his wealth. He took taxes from the people, and then locked them away in his palace where they could pay for silks and velvets. He prayed to the Pancreator, but he prayed while kneeling on swan feather stuffed cushions and he chose his knights for their beauty and grace and did not send them out into the villages where they could get muddy.
This monster could not be killed by Tchurako’s arrows. And so she went to his palace and stood in the courtyard and called him out to fight her, for she was angry that he had not helped her people.
“You dishonor us all,” she cried and he was ashamed for he did not think a child should have the right to challenge him and sent out the least of his knights to beat her and send her away. But Tchurako drew forth her father’s sword then, and slew the least of the knights.
“You dishonor your knights,” she called again, and the corrupt Lord sent out the greatest of his knights to kill this impudent girl. But Tchurako was strong and determined and had practiced with her father’s sword for many months, and she slew this knight too.
“You dishonor yourself,” she cried at last, and this time the Lord sent out his guards with guns and bows to shoot her down where she stood, but Tchurako was swift and graceful and she danced between the bullets and arrows as if she had been touched by the Pancreator (and perhaps she was) and she ran up the side of the wall of the corrupt Lord’s house to the balcony where he stood and challenged him, and when he tried to shoot her with an illegal neural disruptor, she struck the gun from his hand and cut him down where he stood.
But there was still a third monster. Some might say that the third monster was the Decados who had poisoned her land. Some might say it was the threat of greater Lords, no less corrupt, who might come and punish Tchurako for the death of the old Lord. Tchurako herself said it was none of those things. The last monster, she said, was the stain of the War. For that monster had eaten the heart and hopes of men. It had swallowed the good harvests and proper prayers. Worst of all, it had devoured the spirit of the good lords who had grown used to neglecting their lands, and that was the monster she had to slay.
So Tchurako set off to see the Emperor. And it took her many months and many more adventures (including an adventure where she met the Decados who had created the gene plague, and her purity of purpose was such that she inspired his own page boy to leave his Lord and follow her, which is another story) but at last she came to the Emperor where he sat on his Throne and said “I am Tchurako Li Halan, and I am come to slay a monster. I would like to kill it in your name,”
And Emperor Alexius looked down on the girl before him and bowed his head.
“And what if I do not give you my name to slay this monster in?”
Tchurako lifted her head very high.
“Then I shall do it anyway. And when it is slain, and I am become the monster who defies the right order and disobeys her rightful Lord, the holy Emperor, I shall turn the sword upon myself and slay that monster too. “
The Emperor looked at Tchurako and saw that her heart was pure.
“I will give you a monster to slay,” he said and smiled. “But I am afraid it is greater than any monster you have slain before.”
“I am not afraid,” she said and held herself as straight as she could.
The Emperor inclined his head.
“You should be,” he said. “For the monster I give you spans all of the Known Worlds, and worse yet, the dark beyond. Many have fought it but none have returned to tell the tale.”
Tchurako lifted her hand on her sword.
“I kill monsters,” she said with glorious certainty. “Wherever they are. I am Tchurako the Monster Hunter.”
“And so you are,” said the Emperor. “But I shall also call you Tchurako the Pure for I have never met anyone like you. There is a light in your soul that I have not seen before. You shall be my Questing Knight for I have need of that light, for the greatest monster dwells in the dark, and that is fear and doubt from which all corruption stems.”
Tchurako bowed very low. For a moment, she was afraid, and she had never been afraid before, but she did not show it and instead when she looked up, she smiled.
“I shall do this,” she said. “Until the very end,”
And so the Lady has done, and so she fights until this very day.
