Complete Unknown [Day 8 LA, Dragon House]

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

Myo-en sits crosslegged in "her" room, a small space of only a few tatami mats' size on the ground floor of the Dragon embassy. It's defined only by sliding panels that could be moved around to make more space for a more important person--or a bunkroom for a group of even less important persons--but at the moment it' hers, the most space and privacy she's had since the first wave of refugees arrived in Toshi no Omoidoso.

It's a weird feeling!

At the moment, she has slid open both the door on one side that leads to the interior corridor, and the shutters on the opposite side that open onto the building's verandah. Damp, chilly breaths of wind trickle into the room, though the deep eaves keep the actual rain well at bay. Myo-en sits facing the courtyard, rolling three antique-looking bronze coins around in the palm of her right hand.

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:06 pm

Tsukimi had not spent too much time at the "embassy", but she had left a note to let the others know she had made it to the city unharmed.

But after a day like today, and the heavy weight of the past days as well, not even the shrines was a place she wanted to retreat to now to find her center. Only among her own kin did she feel enough at peace now.

Her eyes were half-closed as she sat cross-legged at the veranda, the Jade Hand resting in her lap with a protective hand placed over it. At last today, her breath was peaceful and in balance with the elements. There was only the Void and the moment - the past and future did not exist at the moment in her meditations.

As she became more aware of her surroundings again, she sensed the presence of another. "Myo-en-san. It's good to see you're well."

--------

D8 LA Activating Touch of the Void Dragon (Void). Meditation/Void TN 15: 5d10o10k3 36

D8 LA Meditations for Void recovery. TN 20: 6d10o10k4 48

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

Already sitting straight with her habitually disciplined neat posture, Myo-en doesn't exactly perk up when Tsukimi emerges from her reverie, but she does lean forward slightly, shifting her focus as her sister Togashi transforms from a quiet part of the scenery to an active interlocutor.

"Hello, Tsukimi-san. It was a relief learning you made it safely also." A smile takes shape at the corners of her eyes for a few moments.

"I have been thinking often about the relic you're guarding. Has it given you any signs?"

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:42 pm

"Hmmm... no supernatural clues or divine insights no," she said, smirking slightly as she gave the item a curious look. "There is not much known about it - I worried about showing it to the nun at the Temple of the Seven Dragons in Toshi no Omoidoso, but she was very forthcoming about sharing what she knew about it. Which seemed to be more or less the same that you and Agasha-san knew."

Thoughtfully Tsukimi looked up to the sky. She hoped that nun was safe in Toshi no Omoidoso... she'd have to return there at some point with a painting, after all.

"Osano-wo did not bestow it upon the young Crab until he had resolved to defeat the enemy with his own strength himself. So there is probably some wisdom there we must take to heart, of proving our own mettle first before wishing to claim its power."

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"I think that is probably right." Myo-en closes her fingers over the coins. She flows to her feet and covers the few paces' distance separating her from Tsukimi, then folds down to a new seat with one leg hanging off the edge of the veranda and the other crossed over it. Rainwater streaming off the tiled eaves above them splashes down onto the gravel of the yard, and a a few drops bounce back high enough to wet her bare toes where they dangle several inches above the ground.

"Lord Togashi has left us a riddle. Our question isn't what this relic is, or how it can be used... it's when. And who, maybe." Intent dark eyes search Tsukimi curiously.

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Sun Apr 19, 2020 6:14 pm

Tsukimi likewise shifted her position, to be able to face Myo-en more as her fellow Togashi sister sat down beside her.

"Hmm..." she considered the woman's words for a moment, looking out at the rain-soaked ground, and the clouds above heavy with even more rain. "Yes. You are right. All along, I guess I have not been asking the right questions."

It wasn't the first time, but it was a failing she knew she had to do better at overcoming. "I don't think it was chance that it came to us in these times though. But, perhaps you're able to divine more of what the future might hold?"

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"I have no special insight, but I study the Changes." Myo-en opens her hand again to show the three coins resting in her palm. "Sometimes the signs bring some clarity. Only if one's mind is already clear, though." A shadow passes over her expression for a few moments. "Without the right question, without openness to the answer you do not expect... it's easy to go astray instead."

She looks from the coins to Tsukimi again. "The right question is the starting point. What do you think, Tsukimi-san? What do we most want to know?"

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:27 am

"Yet you understand their signs, I do not," she said, smiling slightly. Divination was never her strongest forte or pursuit.

As for what they most wanted to know... "perhaps... when. When, is what I'd like to know the most, as I feel that all else will be clear when the moment comes."

"Hopefully," she added in sheepishly.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"When." Myo-en nods slowly. "How will we know the moment has arrived?" That feels right, yes.

Myo-en brushes a palm across the smooth, slightly worn plank flooring between the two Togashi, sweeping away invisible dust. "Have you seen a hexagram cast before?" Her other hand holds the coins reverently in its cupped palm.

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:36 am

Her posture straightened as she settled in to witness the divination. "A few times," she admitted, "not too often though. I see many use sticks, or spoken with some who read the stars as well."

Tsukimi wondered what made Myo-en choose the coins as her medium, but she felt that question could wait.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"The stars speak mostly about great matters. This one might be grand enough, but..." Myo-en glances sidelong out at the rainy prospect of the embassy yard, "I have not seen a single star since Toshi no Omoidoso, so coins will have to do." The corners of her mouth turn up a bit.

Then her eyes slip half-closed and her expression becomes intent as she starts to cast the coins. She makes six tosses in all, slowly and deliberately. After each cast she marks a line on the floorboards with a fingertip wetted in a tiny puddle of rainwater that has formed just at the edge of the decking near where she sits, beneath what must be a slightly cracked roof tile.

Broken and unbroken, the lines take shape from the bottom of the hexagram to the top. The water marks are transient but will stay long enough for the purpose.

When will the time be right to use the Jade Hand?

D8 LA--Divination.... Jade Hand?!?!? Base TN 15, two raises for clarity/detail, Void because why not.: 6d10o10k4 49

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

When Myo-en has recorded the final toss, a square pattern formed of six lines shimmers wetly on the boards:

Myo-en studies it for a time, head tilted to one side a little.

"Hexagram Four," she says, finally. "Water beneath mountain. It means Inexperience. But the changing lines suggest Inexperience can find a teacher. 'The Sage does not recruit students; the students seek him.' Teachers and students are complements and companions." ((PM sent.))

She stacks the three coins gently one atop the other, then picks them up and returns them to her pocket before glancing back up at the other Togashi.

"What do you think, Tsukimi-san?"

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2020 6:00 pm

Tsukimi observed the ritual with great interest. Divination had never been something she was much good at, except for the small things, like with many things she could do.

"Water beneath mountain," she echoed Myo-en's words softly. Hexagrams were mostly unknown to her, but she could remember some if she stared at it long enough.

"... I am concerned of what the Sage could mean, in this reading." They had wondered about the time for when the Jade Hand would be used, so this was certainly something that seemed troubling to her. "You don't think... it could mean Togashi-dono? Or is there someone else you think might be the Sage?"

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

“So much about teachers...” Myo-en sits up straighter, rolling back her densely patterned shoulders and rubbing a palm over her scalp. “Togashi-dono is that, along with many other things. But he gave this to you and left. Is he then meant to come back again for it?”

She shakes her head, her expression indicating her focus is turned intensely inward, dark eyes unfocusing. “The Shinseists trace themselves to the Little Teacher. If Kayou-sensei...? Or, perhaps it’s a student we are waiting for...”

A clatter of wings and a hoarse cawing break the rainy calm out on the veranda. A very large black crow has stooped down from the roof and is pecking at something in the soil under one of the plantings out in the yard.

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2020 3:34 am

"Teachers..." she echoed the word again, lost in thought for a moment. "That is certainly a possibility too."

A calloused hand reached up, touching the marred side of her face, and from her going back to her neck to rub the tension building up there. "Hmmm... I had hoped for answers, but I feel this is giving me more questions."

Hearing the caw, her thoughts took a different turn, and she looked at the black bird. "... How long as your avian companion with you, Myo-en-san?"

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"Hm?" Myo-en's dark eyes blink as she regathers and redirects her focus. She glances sideways out at the yard--where the crow has seized its prey, a half-drowned earthworm, and is tilting its glossy beak upward in preparation for snapping the unfortunate invertebrate down its gullet--and one corner of her mouth curls upward a little.

"Nearly two years. Karasu-san has followed me everywhere since I was in Ryoko Owari that spring it half-burned. I have never been certain why, except that I was kind to her in some small ways..." She trails off for a few beats. "Though sometimes I think she is too intelligent for that to explain it all."

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:37 pm

"They do say that Shinsei had a crow companion," she commented as she wondered if the crow was heralding of something to come.

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"They do say that." Myo-en smiles at her bird friend's antics for a moment longer. "They are irreverent, but perhaps the only birds clever enough to keep up with the Little Teacher." She sobers as she turns her attention back to Tsukimi. "Ryoko Owari was full of talk about Shinsei that spring, too. That city was where the madman murdered one of the monks staying in Daikoku's temple, and claimed that his poor victim had been Shinsei's descendant."

Her voice drops lower as she recalls this; it's a grim story, and not a kind one to put into the Dragon servants' ears if any have the misfortune to overhear it.

"He may have been mad or lying, for my friend Kayou, who would know, believed the abilities he was said to have came from trafficking with demons. But it was a dark thing, followed shortly by many other dark things. Perhaps Karasu-san did not want to linger in Ryoko Owari after that." The line of Myo-en's mouth and the tension in her shoulders both soften a little as she adds, "When she first found me, she was collecting sacred omamori. Not the only resident of the town who felt the need for protection that year."

Togashi Tsukimi · **Posted:** Wed Apr 22, 2020 3:04 am

Her expression is stoic and serious as she listens to the details her sister shares, and there is another moment of silence following.

"It is a little troubling..." but she wasn't sure if they were looking in the right direction. "I see no more than you do; you just look the wrong way" the teachers would say, Tsukimi reminded herself of the many different sayings that would circulate in the High House of Light.

"Do you think, we could trust outsiders with the information about this? The Hand, this reading? Such as Kayou? Or anyone else you trust?"

Togashi Myo-en · **Joined:** Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:27 am **Posts:** 418

"I would trust Kayou-sensei, yes." Myo-en taps a finger against her lips, thinking. "Who else...? I have heard Asako Kashiwagi is here. He knows a great deal, he might..." She trails off, considers for a beat or two longer, and shakes her head firmly. "No, I think it is better not to let him learn of this until we understand more. He's clever and learned, but not temperate, and likes to control the things he takes an interest in. I wonder if any of the other Phoenix scholars would be trustworthy..."

She stretches and shifts position fluidly, crossing both legs under herself. "Hmm. We talk as though we want to keep asking and asking. I have been thinking often, 'who else might know something? Who else can tell us what to do?' But what do we actually hope to gain from telling others about this?" She cocks her head and casts an inquisitive dark glance at Tsukimi.

"Do you think it is likely that someone else holds a missing piece that will make us understand the whole puzzle? Or are we exerting ourselves by trying to force an answer, when we should be quietly waiting for one to appear in its natural time?"

Complete Unknown [Day 8 LA, Dragon House]

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