Jaadugar
25 Years Ago
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.
The Mergen People
So this is where the Merkits live?
It's much drearier than I expected.
Why are there so few men?
Töregene.
Merkit Tribe Chieftain Dayir
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. 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 killed?
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 slaves.
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 slaves 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 killed 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 slave.
The Mongol army killed 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.
Translation: John K. Timing: Andy Ellis Editing: SMR
Quality Control: Alicia Ashby Translation Check: Sriram Gurunathan
Brothers
Next time: "Brothers."