A Thousand Steps into Night

On her way back from the potter, Miuko encounters children harassing an azure-tipped magpie. Miuko tries to chase the children away, injures her ankle, and swats one child with her umbrella. When the children run away, the bird disappears, and she realizes one of the new teacups has broken. Fog emerges and thickens, and as she hurries across the bridge back to the village, she encounters a woman in priest robes with vivid blue skin. Miuko calls the woman a yagra, a demon or evil spirit. The woman captures Miuko and tells her that “it must be so,” before pressing her mouth to Miuko’s.

Miuko believes that she is being kissed by a demon because of yazai, the belief that one is experiencing the compounded effect of one’s evil thoughts and deeds a hundredfold. She feels a seed taking root in her—something that feels like rot spreading. The demon then lets her go, and Miuko stumbles back and tries to make her way back home, only for the doro, the sole heir and future ruler of Awara, to cross her path. As she tries to avoid him by climbing the baluster of a dilapidated bridge, she sees a second face in the doro—one with blazing pits for eyes and ridged horns—and knows the doro is possessed. She is thrown to the other side of the balustrade, and as she falls to the river, she and the doro share a look, both surprised at what they see in the other.

Miuko wakes on the riverbank and as she stumbles back to her village, Laido, a lugubrious priest, finds her. He tells her that the whole village is looking for her, save her father, who is injured and attending the doro. When she slides on wet leaves, the priest discovers a brilliantly blue spot on her foot, and where it has touched the ground, the flora has died. The priest screams that she is a yagra as Miuko runs for her village.

When she arrives home, Miuko is greeted by her father, who is happy to have her return safe and sound. She worries about the blue dot on her foot as her father draws her a bath. She falls asleep, and when she wakes, something near her is burning.

Miuko’s family’s inn is on fire. As her father begs people to help put out the fire, Laido and the other priests in the village demand he turn over Miuko. Her father desperately tries to put out the flames, and Miuko follows him inside the burning building. She finds him fallen under the blaze, and when he looks at her, it is with horror. He tells her she is not his daughter and casts her out, calling her a shaoha, or Death Woman. Heartbroken, Miuko is driven out of the village by the priests, and she runs away, leaving everything behind her.

Miuko runs to the Kotskisiu-maru, or Stone Spine Wood, and when she sits, four men find her. Their intentions are predatory in nature, and as Miuko tries to run away and scream, they catch her. There is an explosion overhead, and a reptilian giant bursts through the trees and threatens them. The men run, and so does Miuko—only to slam headfirst into the doro yagra.

The doro yagra tells her that he found her because he could sense her, and he confirms that Miuko can see him as he is with his demon face. She is the only one who can do so. He requests her name, and though her mother had told her never to give it, as names have power, she complies. He discovers the blue spot on her foot and tells her that she is becoming a malevolence demon, but she hasn’t fully shifted into one yet. Miuko does not want to be a demon, but the doro yagra questions her logic, as being a shaoha would give her greatness. He tells her to call him Tujiyazai, or Vengeance, and that he wants her by his side as his other half. She refuses, and he leaves, giving her the nickname Ishao, or Little Death.

When he is gone, another young man finds her. His name is Geiki, and he is the magpie spirit she saved and the reptilian giant who tried to protect her in the forest.

Geiki recounts the events that led to their meeting. When she demands proof that he is the magpie, he tells her that spirits cannot shapeshift when someone is watching. Miuko is overwhelmed and begins to laugh. She tells Geiki what has happened with her, her village, and with Tujiyazai. She also tells him of the shaoha’s curse and how the spot on her foot withers anything it touches. Geiki convinces Miuko to go to Udaiwa, the capital, to visit Keivoweicha-kaedo, the capital library, to find information about her curse. When she suspects his intentions, he tells her they are friends and that he has a good feeling about her. His acceptance warms her heart. Though women are not allowed in the library, Miuko assents to going, and they set off.

The next day, Miuko and Geiki arrive in the city. Geiki is surprised to find that women aren’t allowed into the library. Instead of using the front door, Geiki helps Miuko through a window. Quietly, they look through the shelves of scrolls. When Miuko mentions how long it would take to go through everything, Geiki tells her he has an idea and asks if she’s ever wondered what it’s like to be a man.

Geiki disguises Miuko with his illusions, and they ask a librarian to find the section that pertains to shaoha curses. The librarian brings back several documents, and as Miuko is irritated that a man could easily ask for this information while she, as a woman, could never do so. She eventually finds a lengthy poem that explains that only followers of Amyunasa, the December God, can remove the curse. Their House is located at the northern tip of Awara and would mean a two-week journey on the Ochiirokai, or Thousand Step Way, for Miuko. When Geiki enthusiastically says they should go, Miuko initially refuses his company, thinking he would miss his family. But Geiki disagrees, telling her he’s looking forward to the peace and quiet, and they go back to the city streets to get food.

After eating, Geiki guides Miuko in the opposite direction of the Ochiirokai toward the owner of a boat, a demon named Sidrisine. Geiki admits that he stole from her once, so they aren’t on the best of terms, but he hopes she will be in a good mood to help them. Sidrisine lives in the heart of an opulent manor. She impresses Miuko with her unapologetic and powerful appearance, and when they explain Miuko’s quest, she agrees to give them passage on her boat if they help her catch a cheater in her monthly card game. Geiki and Sidrisine hash out the details, and Miuko learns that spirits, or nasu, gamble in favors rather than money.

That night, six players play at Sidrisine’s parlor: Sidrisine herself; Geiki; a hornbeam spirit; Beikai, the cloud spirit; a human man; and an odoshoya, a demon who kills travelers with frost. Miuko does her best to try and blend in so that she might notice any cheating. Miuko learns that Beikai is a hei, an individual with a gender that is neither male nor female, and whom she thought were no longer common, as the heisu have known a history of persecution. The game begins, and Miuko worries, as she cannot find out anything useful. She accidentally bumps into someone and many teacups are broken. Geiki encourages Miuko to cause more disturbances while he keeps losing more tokens in the game. She tumbles into the odoshoya, and an extra set of cards falls from his robes. Silence reigns in the room.

In the parlor, chaos breaks out. Miuko loses sight of Geiki and finds Beikai caught beneath a table. Geiki reappears and helps her lift the table from Beikai. Once freed, Beikai sends the odoshoya flying into a beam in the ceiling. Everyone moves back to the corners of the parlor, and Sidrisine advances to handle the cheater. Beikai whisks Miuko and Geiki out of the parlor and tells them that they owe Miuko and Geiki a favor. Since Beikai is a high spirit, Miuko believes they can take her and Geiki to the House of December right away. Beikai tells her that, Miuko, as a human, is too heavy to carry. Beikai leaves, giving directions on how to find them once Miuko and Geiki wish to claim their favor.

Sidrisine provides Miuko and Geiki passage on her ship. On the boat, Miuko contemplates how much her life has changed in the last few days. She falls asleep, and when she wakes, they see a fire in the mountains where the House of November is located. When the boat’s stevedore yells at her for nearing the railing of the boat, Miuko falls and feels an irrational desire to attack the man. A voice in her head, which sounds like the shaoha on the road, asks her whether attacking him would have been so bad. Though she can silence the voice, Miuko wonders if the curse is slowly changing her heart.