"A dispute between siblings is one thingand the Empire has laws to allow such to be adjudicated," says Kayou. "But to return from a spiritual realm and try to reclaim what has passed to your decendant by violence, what sort of ancestor would do such a things? Especially when this one knows that Hantei XXII-Heika would have surrendered the throne to his ancestor if asked. It was the use of unrestrained and unjustified violence that stains the Celestial Order and breaks with the Tao."

"As the Tao says:
'When man interferes with the Tao,
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatures become extinct.'"

"It falls to use to set the Empire back upon its proper Tao."

"I hadn't been as prepared for the amount of paperwork as I should have been. I'd kind of expected more scribes to be there, but apparently there's a certain expectation of bringing some scribes of your own or already prepared reports. It didn't stop me from my other duties, but it certainly kept me more busy with writing than I had expected."

He shrugs at that. "But duty demands. I suspect that more than likely it wasn't all strictly necessary. I likely got boxed into a few things by courtiers that wanted to keep me from certain things. But I also learned quite a bit about the realities and will be far more prepared for such in the future."

"It certainly is chaotic in here," Baatar agreed ruefully. "Though - for a minute there, I definitely felt like I was getting heard."

"Though, you helped, Togashi-san!" he acknowledged. "With what you said about fighting. Thanks for that. We might need all the fighters we can get, soon."

"My apologies for not warning you ahead of time, but if I Had known last Winter, what this one would hold then I think I would've been warning you of a LOT. Alas we can't see the future, but now, armed with knowledge and experience, you will return home and prepare the next year's envoys for what lies before them. I hope that your Clan will have grown even more since then with more students of Ryuuta-dono and Nishiko-sama to fill the Empire's courts with."

Indeed, one of the returned Children of Shinjo, proud in purple, shouted like the wind of his Clan's following, horn sounding in the Lion court notes that others had surely blown before, as those attending gave heed. And the wind fluttered the leaves of the trees of those gathered, though how the branches shook might not always have been easy to see.

If they shook, though, they shook in increasing unison, a steady drum-beat to follow the horn-call, gaining in clarity and strength.

For my own part, being out of my depth--I have been a sea-borne Tortoise, after all, accustomed to a different swelling and pitching--I could but observe as those better versed in the ways of courts handled themselves, and, as I had been bidden by my better, I fixed as much as I could in my memory and in the work of my pen-hand.

Indeed, as we who were gathered there, those who had been in the city before and those who had fled to it that very morning, we began to realize that we would be at the front of such battle as would come. We began to realize that we would be the focus of an attack we were increasingly certain would come. And it would be at a poor time to endure such a thing, at the end of winter with the leaves not yet green here, with the stores of provisions nearing their end. For who could anticipate such a happening, such a usurpation of the order inherited from our ancestors--and occasioned by an ancestor.

But that occasion is what gave some pause. Others, more learned than I, might well think it thus that one returned from beyond--and an Emperor, no less--who acted so could not but be an emissary of the worlds beyond this. Some of those others might well think that a returned Emperor could not but act as the Heavens will. And that might be why it is that so much discussion had to follow.

All true samurai seek to serve the right, and they do it as their lords command. But when their lord can say no more, what then? Vengeance, yes, but against an Emperor? What true samurai could consider turning a hand against the blood of the Shining Prince?

In the aftermath of the rather heated debate on the floor of the court four perfectly serviceable origami animals were arranged on the floor in front of the Daidoji. A Lion, a Scorpion, a Tortoise, and a rather nicely stylized Naga.

Nodding in satisfaction she replaced the extra sheets of paper in her satchel. As expected, no-one was particularly interested in engaging a yojimbo in conversation. Sometimes she passed the time with other bodyguards, but she was just as happy to keep watch and make note of likely sources of future trouble.

Mirumoto Wasako was in attendance but probably a bit tardy to the party.

He doesn't approach, but the Scorpion surprisingly takes a gander at the mountain girl holding his gaze for some steady ten or so heart beats, and though he doesn't seem to mind if he's caught, he doesn't make a fuss either.

Eventually he goes back to the window to have a seat on the sill and took his pipe out again. He, like everyone in the entire Empire, had more things to worry about than all the pretty faces he'd seen at court.

"... I hope your kin that were at the Emperor's Winter Court made out of it alright, Moto-san."

Approaching Norikami at the window, she bowed politely. "Konnichiwa, Bayushi-san," she said as she gave him two looks to make sure she got that right. "This one is Mirumoto Wasako."

'' Hmmm i don't fully get it, but i think i might understand the point.'' Nagiko tries to follow the conversation, thought there was a part that was very interesting to her, at least.

'' So, you think that ancestors' , or rather true ancestors, can't do harm to us? '' She asked. '' Or rather don't cause unjustified harm to us?''

"I've recently arrived just yesterday and I found myself a bit surprised by the tide people here. Unfortunately, I think the occasion is anything but joyous. Often events with Emperors involved are, or so I'm told."

"The honored Ancestors, this one believes, only seek what is best for their families," says Kayou. "This one does not fully understand what realm of spirits the form of Hantei XVI emerged from, but it was not a place or honor or balance."

"The Ancestors to us, us to our descendants, all of us to the Ancestors, forms an every growing and changing tree," says Kayou. "The tree, the greatest tree in the Empire, that of the Hantei, this Hantei XVI, has taken an axe and torch to. Destroying his legacy and his descendants and placing, to expand the metaphor, all of the forest of the Empire at risk."