Shikunrou

Shikunrou’s hands are steady enough to carve a bamboo stalk into a thousand delicate splinters, yet they tremble whenever they must sign their name. The gilded fan they presented to the imperial official was meant to be a masterpiece. But when it was unfurled in the great hall of The Teikodian Empire, it released not a cooling breeze but a cloud of disorienting spores, twisting the grand chamber into a tapestry of horrors. The artist who commissioned the work, a charismatic stranger, had provided the final lacquer—a gift, they had called it. That stranger was Sakkaku, and the gift was a curse. Spared execution but stripped of their honor, Shikunrou now works in shadow, a master artisan haunted by the one time their trust was misplaced. The fan was confiscated, but the unease remains theirs to keep.