Post by The Blue Ronin on Jun 6, 2012 21:55:09 GMT -5
Ryumon's expression was stoic as he met his wife's eyes. Silently, he bowed, deeply, as was his place - she was the sister of the Daidoji Daimyo and thus outranked him. Then she, in turn, bowed deeply - since he was her husband, he was her lord.
But not much longer.
Ryumon had rehearsed things to say in his head, but the confidence and social grace that he had struggled so hard to learn deserted him. Swallowing, he simply handed his wife the letter he had spent the last evening composing, after he had completed a similar letter to the Regent.
The young Crane woman, her white hair straying across her features thanks to a few pregnant gusts of summer wind, reached for the letter and began to read it aloud.
"Dear wife"
"While I owe you deep gratitude and fealty for all that you have provided me in the last year, I am afraid that our ways must now part. Even though our child now grows in your belly, I will not be there to see him born"
"I have consulted with the kami and studied the laws of the Empire. My duty is to do battle with the Emperor's enemies, something I could not do without dishonouring our Clan and our treaty with the Lion. It would be poor service indeed for me to repay with treachery the largesse the Clan of Lady Doji has extended to me. Were I to take arms against the Emperor's enemies, I would ruin the Crane's ability to negotiate at least until my lifetime ended. Some have argued that seppuku is the only honourable choice, but I fear that seppuku would deprive the Emperor of my sword when he needs it the most"
"So I have asked, and received from your brother, my Daimyo and Regent of the Crane, for permission to leave our Clan and become a Ronin. I have been given 48 hours to leave the Crane lands. While I realise I am unworthy of such a consideration I humbly beg that I might be allowed to take my personal equipment and enough supplies to reach the Lion-Dragon borders, where I will offer my services to any Lord who fights against the Shogun"
Keiko stared at the letter, folded it, then refolded it. She met her husband's eyes, her lips trembling, but nodded with a stern dignity that showed that, despite her slight frame and non-martial demeanour, she was a true Daidoji.
"I understand, Ryumon-san. I will tell our child of his father's deeds, and I hope that, when this war is over, you may know him, if not as a Crane, then as a father"
Ryumon bowed once more, deeply, to his wife. He hovered for a moment, but able to think of nothing to say, turned and, his armour clanking, ducked under the gable of the small hut's door and stepped outside to address his men.
As Hatamoto of the Daidoji and Taisa of the Crane Armies, Ryumon had commanded upwards of thousands of men, but those who stood before him were but eighty in number. They were members of the group of the Daidoji House Guard assigned to protect he and his wife in their personal capacity, but they had fought alongside him on many battlefields, from Toshi Ranbo to Earthquake Bay, and even in the Shadowlands.
"Men" Ryumon drew their attention with a bellow that rung across the rice paddies, stirring the hot summer air and causing a flock of crows to burst from nearby trees in shock. "Men, I stand before you no longer your Taisa, your Hatamoto, your Lord or even of your Clan. You swore oaths to me as a Crane but as of this moment my Lord and wife have released me from my oaths"
Ryumon drew from his belt a tanto and stabbed it into the Daidoji mon emblazoned onto the breast of his armour. He was a powerful man, but the tanto still screeched and protested as steel met steel. When he was done, the mon was an unrecognisable mess of scratches, the shape of a Crane only faintly visible as if through fog. The tanto was wrecked with notches and bends. Ryumon threw it to the ground, and reached for his kabuto. Gritting his teeth, reminded of his service to a Yoritomo weaponsmith at Broken Wave City, he gripped the heavy plates that secured the cheekplates, each also bearing the Crane-and-yari mon of the Daidoji. With a grunt of effort he tore the plates and cheekpieces free, letting them also fall into the trampled mud.
"I was born Yoritomo Ryumon, then through the grace of Lady Doji's house I became Daidoji Ryumon. Now I am simply Ryumon. I am a Ronin. But while I know no Clan, I still know duty. As a Samurai it is my duty to serve the Emperor and to fight his enemies. So, I intend to leave the Crane lands and ride for Drowned Merchant River, where the Emerald Champion does battle with the enemies of the Emperor"
"I am no longer your lord, I am no longer a Crane, so I have no right to speak to you of oaths. You must look to your Clan now, and be as mindful of your duty and honour as you always have"
The House Guard looked at him impassively. One of them met his eyes. Ryumon recognised Daidoji Hirai, a stern veteran who had survived the expedition into the Shadowlands with him. Hirai said nothing - a stoic man with a gravely voice, it had always been his way to act rather than to speak. But as always, his actions spoke volumes. Hirai drew his own tanto and, the muscles standing out beneath the thin blue cloth of his armour sleeve, drew it across the mon on his own armour.
As the other House Guard, one by one, followed suit, the paddies filled with the screeches and cracks of steel mashing against steel, like tortured sparrows being crushed beneath iron boots. When the hideous cacophany had ceased, eighty-one tanto lay mangled, eighty-one mon had been erased, and where only moments ago stood eighty-one Crane, now there were eighty-one Ronin.
"Wave men!" Ryumon cried. "I have no right to command you, but I tell you now, I ride for Drowned Merchant River, where I will find glory, honour, and if the kami will it, death for the true Emperor, Hantei the 40th!"
"The True Emperor!" The fists of the former Daidoji punched at the sky. Then, disciplined still, they stowed their weapons, mounted their steeds, and, hooves briefly churning the mud into a stew, were gone, leaving only the shreds of their former life as men of the Crane.
But not much longer.
Ryumon had rehearsed things to say in his head, but the confidence and social grace that he had struggled so hard to learn deserted him. Swallowing, he simply handed his wife the letter he had spent the last evening composing, after he had completed a similar letter to the Regent.
The young Crane woman, her white hair straying across her features thanks to a few pregnant gusts of summer wind, reached for the letter and began to read it aloud.
"Dear wife"
"While I owe you deep gratitude and fealty for all that you have provided me in the last year, I am afraid that our ways must now part. Even though our child now grows in your belly, I will not be there to see him born"
"I have consulted with the kami and studied the laws of the Empire. My duty is to do battle with the Emperor's enemies, something I could not do without dishonouring our Clan and our treaty with the Lion. It would be poor service indeed for me to repay with treachery the largesse the Clan of Lady Doji has extended to me. Were I to take arms against the Emperor's enemies, I would ruin the Crane's ability to negotiate at least until my lifetime ended. Some have argued that seppuku is the only honourable choice, but I fear that seppuku would deprive the Emperor of my sword when he needs it the most"
"So I have asked, and received from your brother, my Daimyo and Regent of the Crane, for permission to leave our Clan and become a Ronin. I have been given 48 hours to leave the Crane lands. While I realise I am unworthy of such a consideration I humbly beg that I might be allowed to take my personal equipment and enough supplies to reach the Lion-Dragon borders, where I will offer my services to any Lord who fights against the Shogun"
Keiko stared at the letter, folded it, then refolded it. She met her husband's eyes, her lips trembling, but nodded with a stern dignity that showed that, despite her slight frame and non-martial demeanour, she was a true Daidoji.
"I understand, Ryumon-san. I will tell our child of his father's deeds, and I hope that, when this war is over, you may know him, if not as a Crane, then as a father"
Ryumon bowed once more, deeply, to his wife. He hovered for a moment, but able to think of nothing to say, turned and, his armour clanking, ducked under the gable of the small hut's door and stepped outside to address his men.
As Hatamoto of the Daidoji and Taisa of the Crane Armies, Ryumon had commanded upwards of thousands of men, but those who stood before him were but eighty in number. They were members of the group of the Daidoji House Guard assigned to protect he and his wife in their personal capacity, but they had fought alongside him on many battlefields, from Toshi Ranbo to Earthquake Bay, and even in the Shadowlands.
"Men" Ryumon drew their attention with a bellow that rung across the rice paddies, stirring the hot summer air and causing a flock of crows to burst from nearby trees in shock. "Men, I stand before you no longer your Taisa, your Hatamoto, your Lord or even of your Clan. You swore oaths to me as a Crane but as of this moment my Lord and wife have released me from my oaths"
Ryumon drew from his belt a tanto and stabbed it into the Daidoji mon emblazoned onto the breast of his armour. He was a powerful man, but the tanto still screeched and protested as steel met steel. When he was done, the mon was an unrecognisable mess of scratches, the shape of a Crane only faintly visible as if through fog. The tanto was wrecked with notches and bends. Ryumon threw it to the ground, and reached for his kabuto. Gritting his teeth, reminded of his service to a Yoritomo weaponsmith at Broken Wave City, he gripped the heavy plates that secured the cheekplates, each also bearing the Crane-and-yari mon of the Daidoji. With a grunt of effort he tore the plates and cheekpieces free, letting them also fall into the trampled mud.
"I was born Yoritomo Ryumon, then through the grace of Lady Doji's house I became Daidoji Ryumon. Now I am simply Ryumon. I am a Ronin. But while I know no Clan, I still know duty. As a Samurai it is my duty to serve the Emperor and to fight his enemies. So, I intend to leave the Crane lands and ride for Drowned Merchant River, where the Emerald Champion does battle with the enemies of the Emperor"
"I am no longer your lord, I am no longer a Crane, so I have no right to speak to you of oaths. You must look to your Clan now, and be as mindful of your duty and honour as you always have"
The House Guard looked at him impassively. One of them met his eyes. Ryumon recognised Daidoji Hirai, a stern veteran who had survived the expedition into the Shadowlands with him. Hirai said nothing - a stoic man with a gravely voice, it had always been his way to act rather than to speak. But as always, his actions spoke volumes. Hirai drew his own tanto and, the muscles standing out beneath the thin blue cloth of his armour sleeve, drew it across the mon on his own armour.
As the other House Guard, one by one, followed suit, the paddies filled with the screeches and cracks of steel mashing against steel, like tortured sparrows being crushed beneath iron boots. When the hideous cacophany had ceased, eighty-one tanto lay mangled, eighty-one mon had been erased, and where only moments ago stood eighty-one Crane, now there were eighty-one Ronin.
"Wave men!" Ryumon cried. "I have no right to command you, but I tell you now, I ride for Drowned Merchant River, where I will find glory, honour, and if the kami will it, death for the true Emperor, Hantei the 40th!"
"The True Emperor!" The fists of the former Daidoji punched at the sky. Then, disciplined still, they stowed their weapons, mounted their steeds, and, hooves briefly churning the mud into a stew, were gone, leaving only the shreds of their former life as men of the Crane.