Dark Edge Village

It was a warm afternoon, Batul rested in one of the tea places that the village had. The Tea House was not busy, so she could glance at everyone inside, it was mostly occupied by older courtiers who had come to the miai to make deals between clans, and had little to no patience for the young ones.

She moved her cup in circles as she observed and rested, sighing from time to time from the busy last 3 days.

Tomonaga had gone into the tea room hoping to make a connection or two. He hadn't counted, however, on just how much younger than the rest of the inhabitants he would be. Yikes, I think when I walked in, I made the average age drop from fifty to forty-nine. None of them seemed especially interested in talking to him, either.

His eyes lit up when he spotted a familiar face. Ah, much better. He made his way easily through the crowd to Batul, bowing to her with a smile. "Iuchi-san." He said, his voice soft. "I hope I'm not disturbing you. You look very... contemplative right now."

Batul looked up as she recognized her name in the air. Her face lit up as she saw the Crab samurai show up in the tea house. "Tomonaga-san!" She said almost too excited as she saw him close in. "Blease, join me for some tea." She added as she asked for the tender to bring an extra cup for her guest. "Tell me all about your bast days."

Tomonaga smiled at the young woman's enthusiasm. "Thank you, Batul-san. That sounds great." He moved to join her at her table, accepting the cup of tea with a nod.

"My... past days, hmmm." He smiled. Her pronunciation quirk seemed rather charming, really. "I've been enjoying myself, I suppose. Your Clan gives us interesting challenges. That one with the mathematical language was certainly interesting. And it's been a while since I ever held a bow. Besides that, well, meeting lots of interesting people, both in the Unicorn, and in the other clans." His smile grew a touch wider. "And you, Batul-san?"

The tender arrives with the cup for Tomonaga, as well as some wagashi on a dish. The samurai-ko pours the tea in the cup of the Yasuki before answering, paying special attention on not spilling the tea from the pot. When she sets the pot back on the table, the samurai-ko sighs before answering. "I tried the language test as well, although I was not one to deal with languages before, and struggled a bit. I have also been dedicated to my clan duties." There was a bit of preoccupation in her words as she wondered. "There was fire in my yurts area, you might heard, so I was worried for that too." She took a sip of the tea, letting the aromas fill her softly as she gazed into the cup.

"Thank you, Iuchi-san." Tomonaga murmured as she poured the tea. As she spoke, he gave a sympathetic nod, acknowledging her words, lifting his own teacup to take a sip.

When she mentioned the fires, though, he frowned, lowering the teacup. The expression on his handsome features grew concerned, worry lines appearing on his forehead. "I'd heard about that." He said. "It sounded like an accident. I... you weren't hurt, were you?" His eyes flickered over her, looking for signs of injury.

"I was lucky to find out next day." She replied with worrisome as well. How could she had slept through something like that, she wondered. "When I left my yurt, I found many congregated looking into the fire. So I just listened and then went back to my daily duties. But this made me think that we know very little on the Embire still. Like, where does Tomonaga live?"

"Oh." Tomonaga let out his breath, relieved. Fire was serious business, after all.

"Oh, ok." Tomonaga's expression brightened. He set his tea cup on the edge of the table to his side. "Okay, let's say this is Rokugan." With both hands, he traced out a square area on the table. "So we're here, kinda, I think." He made a circle a bit northwest of the center; he was flipping the 'map', so this was closer to him.

From there, his finger traced downward, passing to near the bottom of the border he'd outlined, close to Batul's side of the table. "Here's the wall..." He traced another squiggly line, before moving back northeast. And then, right before you get to Crane lands, that's where my family has their lands, in the Sunda Mizu provence." He gave her a smile. "They're very nice, really. Right next to the river, small, but fertile."

Batul paid attention to the explanation of Tomonaga, she gazed at the traced map, and up to the man. South, south was were the dark ones were, she recalled, so she made a face when he mentioned that. Then she heard about the Wall, there had been no Wall when they had left the Empire, the Crab had created that defense afterwards, so she sighed in relief. And then he explained the position of the Yasuki, such an advantaged one.

"So the Yasuki are the traders of the Crab, and they have a brivileged bosition since they have land travel, river and sea... the sea of Amaterasu no kami... I have not seen it, what does it look like?" There was a passion in her voice, a curious sentiment after having lived in the Sands all her life, and now in the Empire. She had seen mountains, she had seen plains, rivers and oasis, deserts of sand, of rock; but the sea? a moving world... she had not seen that.

"Hmmm." Tomonaga said, sitting back, folding his hands around his teacup, and letting them rest on the table. "That's a tricky one." He is silent for a few moments as he considers.

"Well, you've probably seen rivers, and lakes. Those don't really compare. They're all water, yeah, but this goes as far as the eye can see, in every direction. If you go out in it a little, you can see water in every direction... although I haven't been so far that I've been unable to see the shore."

He leaned forward a little, growing more animated. "And it moves, too! A steady rise and fall, or a push and pull. The water crests to a peak, and then crashes down. It's amazing. Like a living thing."

"Oh, and it's really cold." He added with a smile.

"Such beauty, maybe Tomonaga can show me the ocean sometime." She added with a childlike flirty intention. She started to flush, so she hid behind her cup as she drank slowly from it until she felt the heat from her face settle down. "It is like the desert, but the sands barely move, only during strong winds you can see the sand create huge storms that blind you and hide the great Kami of the sky. Maybe this why the desert has little life, and the sea has so much life."

Tomonaga gave her a smile. "Maybe I will, Iuchi-san." He glanced around, then leaned forward just a bit. "Batul-san." He said in a lower voice.

"Huh." His gaze went distant as he tried to imagine. "That sounds a little, I don't know, intimidating maybe? It's hard for me to imagine." He brought his gaze back to the young woman's face. "What was it like, traveling through that, all the time?"

The proximity of the samurai brings comfort to the samurai-ko, she feels protected, cared for, as if there were no worries to go through. "I was born on the ride back. We were bushed to our limit. I was taught magic to enhance the horses into being faster, stronger, to endure the ride over fatigue. It was an exhausting time that only was dealt with in the short resting beriods." There was tiredness in the words of the samurai-ko as she remembered the tough times through the desert as a little girl learning her first uses of meishodo. "After that we went through an even tougher ride through a land of darkness and insanity. We barely made it through, reaching the Embire thanks to our great Chambion." Her eyes did not look at anything, they gazed at the nothingness as she trembled and reached for his hand. "I never want to go through that again."

Tomonaga gave a quick guilty glance around as the young woman placed her hand in his. Right, this is something the Unicorn do. He gave her a slightly pained smile. "Batul-san. I'm sorry. But we can't... it's not proper for us to be holding hands like this." He gave a significant look around at the other teahouse patrons. "I'm sorry." He says again. Gently he disengages his hand from hers... but not before he gives her hand a covert, comforting squeeze.

"I... perhaps I shouldn't have asked about that. It sounds really hard." Tomonaga said, his brown eyes sympathetic. "And you won't have to. The Unicorn are home now, and, well... you're safe." His tone was confident, as was the firm nod he gave her.

The samurai-ko separated her hand from that of the Yasuki. In her grief, she had forgotten that they were still in Rokugan, not in the sands. "Sumimasen, Tomonaga-san." She shyly replied.

"No, it is normal for Tomonaga-san to ask about the time of the Unicorn away. Curiosity is not a sin, it is what drove Shinjo no kami out to the world." The samurai-ko looked about, paying attention to the people and their distracted attention. Most everyone was looking about, dedicated to the courtly deals and alliances of the time. None were paying attention to two teenagers chatting over food. Nonetheless she reduced her volume. She took out her unicorn fan to muffle the noise so that it would only reach the Yasuki. "Actually we were told to come back to the Embire because of a brofecy of danger coming to the Embire. We are here because our helb will be required in some way we do not know yet. Safety is still not at our reach, Tomonaga-san."