You take a deep breath, shifting your stance slightly, the sword lowering to a half guard. Your instinct, your heart, tells you that you dare not do anything to hurt the woman you love. Yet your mind tells you that the first thing to do when someone takes a hostage is to kill the hostage. It was, admittedly not great for the hostage. But, better they die then allow the hostage taker to escape and take more hostages. It was a simple horrifying pragmatic logic, the kind of logic that the Crab used every day. While the blood of Toturi flows through you, so does the Kaiu, leaving you taking deep breaths as you try to fight down your heart in order to make the cut.
The sword swings and you stop just at Shahai's neck, the blade pressing into her skin drawing a thin trickle of blood from your wife's neck, a slight miscalculation either way and nothing would have happened. It takes skill to do this, and you hope she gets the message. You aren't stopping for your wife, you're stopping because knowing her demands means you can begin planning to stop her.
Shahai looks at the sword with widening eyes.
"I admit, I had not thought you a swordsman."
"I was trained by a Kenku, you wretch. Speak tell me what you want, then I'll finish the job."
Shahai's dark eyes flash with something potent, dangerous.
"You do know how to flatter a woman. I wish my son on the throne as his right..."
You cut her off.
"The pure Hantei lost their claim, and your corrupted bloodline--"
Only to be cut off in turn
"Let me finish Usurper, another war suits no one. Thus I proposed we end this feud between our families in the traditional way."
"I'm not marrying my daughter to your son, you absolute madwoman"
That felt too mild for the utter insanity she had proposed, but it would suit.
"Oh no, you never would, Toturi IV the Iron, Toturi IV the Steel Willed, Toturi IV the blessed, would never make such a compromise. Hence proposed...that plan has changed. I am all too aware that your mother's vaunted Clan is out of Jade."
"Even without jade we can fight you." you say.
Shahai laughs and empties her cup.
"True, you can fight me with everything you have, I fully expect you too. But...let me ask you a question oh Toturi, can you fight another Horde on the level of the Maw...and then fight the Yodotai?"
Your hands tighten their grip as you stare her down. Truthfully you didn't know the answer to that. All your heart said yes, that the Emerald Empire was the strongest in the world.
But your mind remembered the reports, of just how much you had needed the other great nations to buy into your pact to keep the Yodotai from attacking you then and there.
The Maw had nearly shattered the Empire, it had only been by the protection of the Heavens that it had been stopped, and even then, It wasn't for two centuries that the Empire had really recovered.
The Yodotai wouldn't wait two centuries.
But, they were mortal...and you would have to trust the outsiders...with them yes, you could. You had to.
"Hai, if we must." You say at last.
Shahai laughs.
"No you can't, I applaud your bravado, but let's dispense with that. The Gaijin, you can't trust them, you don't trust them. And if the Emerald Empire must be sacrificed so that they can get along, they would do it in a heart beat. You would do the same"
"Unlike you my word means something." You say.
"Indeed, but your word to the Empire means rather more." She says.
"Enough of your games. You want your son on the throne that isn't going to happen so long as I or any of my line draw breath." You say.
"Careful, I do know where your daughter is, and if I can get to your wife, I can get to her. I understand your reluctance to wed my son. But I offer you a choice, either agree to a peaceful settlement that sees my son on the throne, or watch the Empire fall, as I shatter the Carpenter Wall, and take everything up to the Spine of the World." Shahai says.
Another sip from the cup apparently refilled.
"Your daughters will die, you will die, I offer you a chance to---"
Shahai grimaces and she reaches for Kaname, it almost looks as if Shai had been punched. A strange interplay appears on the faces of the two women a battle of wills, that Kaname seems to win for a moment.
Kaname sits up and looks at you with deep eyes, eyes that you love.
Her arms tremble as she takes her wakizashi out and plunges it into her chest. Her mouth working in a silent scream as the illusion begins to shimmer and fail.
Blood flows on to the tatami mat as Kaname works the wakizashi carefully, a fleshy nodule falls on to the floor as she collapses, and you can see the tiniest of grains begin to slither toward you. Your sword moves like lightning crushing it before it can do anymore harm.
You run to Kaname trying to stop the bleeding you hear someone screaming for healers. Distantly you realize it's you. Hands fumble against the sucking wound, stained with red that you don't think will ever get clean.
A smooth familiar hand reaches up to caress your face, dark brown eyes filled with love meet yours.
In a cracking, wheezing voice Kaname speaks.
"I'm sorry Hisao...I don't know if I can stay"
"You have to" You whisper.
"I'll try" she says.
"Kaname, I need you"
"Hisao, I need you to promise me something." she rasps.
"Don't talk like this, the healers can fix this." you say.
Indeed you can hear the Seppun and Iuchi barreling through.
"Promise me Hisao, that you'll keep our daughters safe."
"Kaname..."
"Promise me!" she hisses.
"I promise." the words drop from your lips.
You're pulled away by the healers as they begin to work frantically. Distantly you can hear Kotaro asking questions like what happened, and something about how everyone saw your talk with Shahai, but all you can do is look towards the room where Kaname is. Nothing in the world seems to quite matter in this moment.
[] ???? (Unicorn interlude)
[] ???? (Phoenix interlude)
[] ???? (Crab Interlude
[] ???? (Lion interlude)
[] ???? (Crane interlude)
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