Dark Edge Village

Hirase had been meaning to meet with Butaj even before the rumors had come out this morning. Their content only served to spur the man on and so, when the long days business of meetings had finished, he made his way to the tents of the Unicorn. If they seemed a bit subdued here, he accredited that to the sudden coolness of the nakodo to the group as a whole, blissfully ignorant of the dark discussion planned for that very night.

Finding the man's tent at last, he rapped on one of the support poles in lieu of knocking.

Butaj is playing with sheep knucklebones, thinking. He has decided it's safer to not go out at this hour so that incessant rumor spreaders have less feed. At the sound he hops up and stirs embers in the hearth to give more light to the yurt.

"Guest in the yurt, blessing in the yurt. Come in, whoever you are."

He checks with a glance where the kumis skin in.

Hirase obediently came in, carefully securing the flap behind himself. It was no more soundproof than any other part of the tent, but it would at least inform those with even a modicum of courtly awareness that this was to be a private discussion.

Turning to his host, Hirase said, quietly, "Konbanwa, Butaj-san. How have you been?"

"Si Hirase, good evening, hello." A quick battle of emotions rolls through Butaj's features. It settles around solemnity. "Come, join Butaj by the hearth. Kumis?" He pauses. "This has been a strange day for Butaj. Butaj can't really say how he has been. A bit of this and a bit of that. Strange." Then he remembers. "But Butaj won't complain. How are you?"

Taking the place he'd been offered, Hirase settled himself in a much more casual sprawl than he would have dared with anyone outside of the Moto.

"I've been rather busy. It's helpful to be distracted, I find, when one's mind is heavy." These people were, he'd observed, open with their thoughts and feelings, and so he felt safe in admitting, "I did not take the loss easily. It's part of why I wanted to see you...you and Chi-Pu were friends, it seemed to me, and you must miss her too."

Butaj sits as well, and nods. "Not as close as Sayyedas Khulun or Kitakuhime, and both of them have taken it hard, especially Khulun, or she was just letting on more. Butaj tried to turn her thoughts from gloom for most of the evening. But yes, Butaj feels Chi-pu's absence among us. She was the quiet leader, the most mature. We are lessened now, though not in the way you are. Butaj can more or less guess how you feel and he knows it is different a bit." He leans in to pat Hirase on the arm.

The Phoenix was a bit surprised by the gesture but not put off by it. Instead, he smiled sadly.

"I didn't love her...perhaps I am too old, or too Water-hearted, to fall so easily and quickly as some. But I think I could have, given time. It is a hazard of favoring warrior women, neh?" He glanced over at Butaj. "An appreciation you seem to share?" The question was let to linger, inviting Butaj to discuss, or not, the rumors of the day.

It takes Butaj a moment to connect the dots where it is going. He frowns a little. "Butaj likes when women know what they want. Their self-confidence endears Butaj, and he likes to have such a woman in his arms. But Butaj is not the kind of man rumors tell about. Butaj does not recognise himself in those rumors. It's strange. It's neither true nor untrue, but some twisted and soiled both. The Unicorn don't do such things to each other, to ridicule and defile bonds. This is not how community works." He shrugs.

"The Empire delights in such word games. It is something every courtier learns, even if not all of us use the skill in that fashion. " Hirase felt a certain degree of sympathy, even pity, for Butaj at this moment. How hard it must be to have to absorb so much foreign culture so quickly as a man grown, no longer a child with the associated flexible mind. "I take it that no one warned you that free affection would be frowned upon?"

"What happens behind tied flap stays behind tied flap?" Butaj kicks a stone into the fire, which then flares as the embers scatter around the ring. "If they frown upon, why are they so curious and peek and eavesdrop? It disgusts Butaj." He pauses to compose. "It's not careless-free. It's always about something, and does not leave lovers the same. But Butaj suspects it's all upside down in this land."

"Having care behind your trysts might actually make it worse." The older man watched as Butaj vented his temper with a slight wince but didn't move out of the danger zone. "There are several schools of training which focus on discerning what, or who, a samurai desires so that it can be exploited in some fashion. And then, of course, there is the current situation to account for..."

He looked up at the furious Moto.

"I didn't actually come here to give a lecture, my friend. Rumors aside, I think you and your kin have worth and much to teach us. You will still honor any matches made. But if you want a lesson, I'll answer any questions that you have about how more traditional samurai handle these things."

Butaj nods. "Butaj wants to know. Butaj does not like being surprised this way." He chuckles bitterly. "Of all people, Butaj knows well that bringing a bastard to the world brings a problem, and it's better to have children in marriage. Butaj has been always careful not to sire a child by accident. But even then, Butaj does not blame his mother that she loved someone enough to bring his child to this world. Butaj likes his life, and prefers to have it rather than to never have been born. The Unicorn Clan is stronger with Butaj than without him, Butaj thinks he has proven as much during lancing." He suddenly smiles fondly, offering Hirase kumis. "Yuki handled her mare so well, even though she rode her for the first time."

Ah, yes, Yuki. That was going to be another discussion, one that Hirase wasn't looking forward to. He took the offer readily, even eagerly, and drew a long pull of the stuff before passing it along.

"I'll start with 'why you shouldn't take a lover at a miai'." His smile flashed, looking a bit crooked. "Part of the point of a marriage is to mix bloodlines for alliances' sake. It looks very poorly on a nakodo if she arranges a match between a pair only to have the woman birth an 'early child', mixing in a bloodline that wasn't intended. Because of that, bedding before hand is frowned on. Just how far in advance they want bedding to not happen varies by how traditional the Clan is or how prestigious the client is. Some go so far as to only accept virgins as clientele."

"Butaj thought it's Clans that make alliances, not nakodo? And here, don't those who prove themselves have the right to take a spouse they want? Butaj is confused." He shakes head in disbelief at the mention of virgins.

"Nakodo are generally courtiers. They do serve the Clans, hai, but their role makes them slightly more objective and worldly than other courtiers need to be. Here, nakodo were involved in the initial vetting. The ones on your side had requirements; the ones on ours sent dossiers of the ones they would send. That is why some of us..." And here, he shared a look of sympathy with the other man, "...were found less ideal than others from the start. They are always judging our actions, looking for the qualities that they think will best serve the Unicorn Clan going forward."

Hirase frowned, slightly.

"I'm not certain about the choices, mind. Does your Clan have a history of favoring love matches when they occur? It might be the reason choices are being permitted, within boundaries at least. I know for a fact that we of the other Clans aren't permitted to marry any other than Unicorn. I assumed it was the same for you?"