01x06 - Merugen no tami

[bunniefuu]

My lady!

My lady!

Gosh. What are you doing out here?

It's time for you to get ready to leave.

I'll be right there.

Farewell, Naiman.

As a member of the Naimans,
a nation far to the west of here,

I was to marry into the Merkits,
with whom we shared an alliance.

I wonder what the Merkit tribes are like.

They live in the woods to the north,
and many are skilled bowmen called Mergen.

Mergen?

They're the Mergen people,
thus the name: Merkits.

In other words, barbaric hunters.

Well, it matters not.

I am no more than a valuable gift.

No different from a precious gemstone
or a fine fur pelt.

That's fine by me.

I take pride in that fact.

So this is where the Merkits live?

It's much drearier than I expected.

Why are there so few men?

Töregene.

I see you made it here safely.
I'm sorry this isn't much of a welcome.

Taken aback at learning
your husband is so senile?

Oh, no.

Well, so be it.

Marrying a much older man
is by no means a rare occurrence.

However, Dayir made no advances
after we were wed.

On the contrary...

You're away again today?

I'm sorry for always leaving you behind.

And we're moving camp again?

We only just arrived here.

We can't stay in one place for very long.

You'd best get going.

Chuu!

Let me know if you ever need anything.

Y-Yes.

Um—

Mistress. What shall I do with these?

Oh, for those...

Do all of the other tribes
relocate at such short intervals?

No, there's something strange
going on here.

It's as if we're fleeing from something.

Well, I suppose there's no use
in me worrying about it.

My only role is to be a gemstone.

What good would it do
for a gemstone to worry?

I want to return to Naiman.

No one will notice if I go missing.

Chieftain Dayir won't.
Nor will anyone else.

Wait!

Don't move!

That was a close one.

Are you unhurt?

Qultuqan, you live up
to your title of Mergen.

Not really. Anyone could've done that.

Oh?

You must be Töregene...

my new mother!

I'm Khulan, Dayir's daughter.

Qultuqan. My name, I mean.

Khulan was Dayir's child, and Qultuqan
was the child of another chieftain.

Look.

If you go down this river,
it splits into the Qara and Dal Rivers.

Go further downstream still,
and they feed into the Selenge River.

That's where both Qultuqan
and I were born.

Oh?

And if you go all the way down the rivers,
do you know where they end up?

You know the star to the north
that doesn't move?

Underneath it, there's a great big hole,
into which all of the world's rivers flow.

Wow, I never knew that.

It's not like you've seen it for yourself.

Hey, Qultuqan.

Is that right?

Neither of us have the power of kams
to converse with spirits.

Father's a kam, and he's been
to where the rivers end many times.

His soul turns into a bird
and flies there.

A kam?

I wish I had kam powers, too.

Or I was more skilled with a bow.

You really are a dreadful shot.

Hey, hold your tongue!

You said it yourself!

Hey!

"Hey!" What?

You're laughing.

Oh, pardon me.

Something changed within me that day.

It felt as though the very world
around me now stirred my soul.

I experienced laughter and joy.

Discontent and sorrow, too.

I came to love the days I spent here.

Then I understood for the first time.

Wake up, everyone!

Extinguish your hearths!

We need to flee at once!

What's happened?

Our chieftains' armies have been bested!

The enemy will be here soon!

Into the forest!

Khulan! Töregene! This way!

Qultuqan!

How much did they plunder?

Qudu's family is gone,
as are Chilaun's wife and children.

Töregene!

Father!

You must have been scared.

Thank you for protecting Khulan.

She was the one who protected me.

What exactly is going on?

So the Naimans told you nothing after all?

I suppose I don't blame them.

Our people have an enemy.

Temüjin of the Mongols.

The man they now call Genghis Khan.

Genghis Khan?

We Merkits have long skirmished
with the Mongols.

They've deprived us
of many of our family and riches,

as we have done the same in kind.

But that changed with Temüjin as leader,
and the balance of the steppe was lost.

The reason you were given away
to become the wife of an old man like me

was for the sake of our alliance
against the Mongols.

However...

The end may finally be near.

Say, Brother. What will become of us
if we lose to the Mongols?

You need to ask? They'll slaughter the men
and take the women and children.

I'm scared. I don't want to die.

Fool. And you call yourself a Merkit man?

Usun.

Usun.

Usun. The word for the "flowing river."

The title bestowed by the earth
upon Father in his role as a kam.

Listen well. No one is to intrude
until I have finished.

I shall beseech the spirits
to tell me our future.

Spirits, lift me up to the heavens.

Show me what lies in our future.

Usun!

Khulan, are you there?

I'm right here, Father.

I saw a lush steppe.

A river branching and feeding into many.

And when I followed the river
to its source,

atop a mountain as tall as the heavens,
I found a pure riverhead.

The rivers are bloodlines
of the steppe people.

This signifies that Mongol progeny
will spread across the land.

You mean...

We will lose to the Mongols.

Does that mean we'll all be k*lled?

No, I won't let that happen.

This is what the spirits say.

The Merkit blood will live on
even after we surrender to the Mongols.

Will Genghis Khan really show us mercy?

We'll have to give appropriate tribute
in exchange, of course.

A pure riverhead.

I shall offer my daughter to Genghis Khan.

Khulan.

You mustn't!

I won't allow you to offer up
Khulan as sacrifice!

She's a human with her own mind and will!

Not a gemstone or a fur pelt!

She's not like me.

Töregene.

Thank you, but I'll be fine.

Khulan?

I'm happy, Father.

I've always resented my womanhood,
requiring others to protect me.

But now I can serve as the arrow
that will protect all of you.

You're...

We Merkits are masters of the bow.

Watch as a daughter of the Mergen people
takes down a wolf.

And so, we surrendered to the Mongols.

Khulan severed the long chains of enmity
that had bound the Mongols and Merkits,

saving many Merkit lives.

Qultuqan and the other Merkit tribes,
however, chose defiance to the very end,

fleeing westwards.

That should be everyone.

Why did you summon us all?

There are only young girls here.

Are you Dayir Usun?

We serve Prince Ögedei,
the third son of the Khan.

Our role is at the rear of the army,
keeping watch over the supplies.

Sounds like I can rest assured, then.

These women are in your hands now.

Chieftain Dayir?

We've decided to hand all of you
over to Mongol nobles.

No!

Töregene.

Listen up, all of you.

The Mongols have spared us
our lives, and no more.

They haven't forgiven us
for our past confrontations.

We are sure to be reduced to sl*ves.

But you girls are different.

Life is just beginning for you.

Go and find happiness.

You there.

Make sure you tell your prince
and your Khan this:

These women are no longer Merkits
from here on out.

Now and forevermore.

I-I'll pass it on.

Töregene.

Open your hand.

It's a jada stone.

You can call forth storms with it.

This is all I have to offer you
as a parting gift.

I really enjoyed having you in my home.

Farewell.

Live on with a smile on your face.

It was eerily quiet that night.

Ready the horses! Hurry!

R-Right away!

The sky was burning. Soaked in blood.

An unearthly sight the likes of which
I had never seen before.

What's happening?

A rebellion. The captives
have dug in on the mountain.

Prince Ögedei's army
is moving in now to subdue them.

That accursed Dayir Usun.

You can never take Merkits at their word.

Out of my way!

Chuu!

H-Hey! Wait!

Yes, even when the Mongols
had shown them forgiveness...

They had never once forgiven the Mongols.

We are hunters of the forest.

We will never be the sl*ves
of lowly sheep herders.

Go and find happiness.

Were those words a lie as well?

No, I'm certain he'd truly meant them.

Which is why he hadn't told me anything.

However, Chieftain Dayir
made one grave oversight.

He failed to see just
how much I loved him.

Oh, I see.

I'd forgotten a kam's soul
can rise to the heavens.

I only aided its escape
by puncturing his body.

A red river in the sky, huh?

Who are you?

What are you doing here?

The rebellion was put down all too easily.

I later found out they'd k*lled Qultuqan
and all the others.

And upon Genghis Khan's return,
Khulan learned of the rebellion as well.

When she heard the news...

My father brought his fate
upon himself with his folly.

None can tarnish the majesty of the Khan.

Khulan, how could you
wear a smile back then?

After that, I was made Ögedei's wife
and allowed to live.

I gave birth to his children as well.

Time passed by peacefully.

Yet all that time...

I've been waiting for a storm
that will ravage this empire.

I saved you earlier because of your smile.

I saw Khulan from that day in you.

After all this time, I now understand.

How sad and powerless
she must have felt underneath it.

But she fully understood
what her own role was.

Back then, I should've known exactly
how she was feeling, and yet...

So?

Who are you, really?

I'm...

It matters not.

Regardless of who you may be, you can't—

Princess Sorghaghtani told me...

Prince Tolui and the Great Kha'an.

The imbalance between military power
and authority is sure to bring misfortune.

In other words, the empire
has never been frailer than it is now.

You're...

My name is Sitara. I'm a sl*ve.

The Mongol army k*lled my mistress
and stole her precious book.

My final duty to her should have been
to get her book back, and yet...

The thought that blind resistance
could cause further tragedy...

That fear has caused me
to lead a life without purpose.

But this must be the moment
I've been waiting for.

What could we possibly
hope to accomplish?

I have knowledge.

Let me serve you
as your new jada stone, Highness.

Please lend me your power.

Let the two of us summon a storm.

Next time: "Brothers."