Year of the Boar, Tenth Month, Day 2.
In a sense it is a relief when the worst happens. One can send oneself quite mad lying awake into the small hours of the morning worrying over what might be. The scouts brought news this morning of movement at the border. I must say that Shigeru has been much cleverer about his insurgence than I imagined he would. Rather than simply crossing the border where his Lands meet mine, he has sent his troops over the border his Lands share with the Seventh Kingdom, up the border and along the border I share with the Seventh.
If I were Lord Fallen Sakura, I would send troops across the border we share too, creating a pincer movement so that my prey were trapped between two evils with no way out except the sea. And I would not leave me time to get to the coast … If I do flee to the coast, I am leaving my House to the mercy of soldiers who think only of death and think nothing of destroying relics hundreds of years old in the name of winning a battle; they would raise the entire House to the ground if it meant burning Fallen Sakura's army with it. I do not think I can command my army from the sea and if I could, would I not simply be postponing the inevitable? It would be far better for me to die at the hand of a marauding infantryman than succumb to whatever Shigeru has in mind for me. I have no doubt that he has given orders that I am not to be harmed -too much- rather, I will be captured; bound and paraded through the streets until he comes to meet out my punishment for refusing him.
I must ask Seira to find me some quinine or similar; I simply cannot allow myself to be captured by Fallen Sakura's soldiers. I will die at my own hand before I give Shigeru the satisfaction of laying so much as his little finger on me again. I must decide what to do sooner rather than later. If I am to mount my defence from my House then I must make sure that I have supplies and defences in place before the soldiers arrive.
On the other hand, if I am to flee to the coast, then I must have a ship waiting for me and I must make decisions about who will come with me; which of my people I leave to the mercy of Fallen Sakura and who I will try to save. Those are not decisions I wish to make.
If I were Lord Fallen Sakura, I would send troops across the border we share too, creating a pincer movement so that my prey were trapped between two evils with no way out except the sea. And I would not leave me time to get to the coast … If I do flee to the coast, I am leaving my House to the mercy of soldiers who think only of death and think nothing of destroying relics hundreds of years old in the name of winning a battle; they would raise the entire House to the ground if it meant burning Fallen Sakura's army with it. I do not think I can command my army from the sea and if I could, would I not simply be postponing the inevitable? It would be far better for me to die at the hand of a marauding infantryman than succumb to whatever Shigeru has in mind for me. I have no doubt that he has given orders that I am not to be harmed -too much- rather, I will be captured; bound and paraded through the streets until he comes to meet out my punishment for refusing him.
I must ask Seira to find me some quinine or similar; I simply cannot allow myself to be captured by Fallen Sakura's soldiers. I will die at my own hand before I give Shigeru the satisfaction of laying so much as his little finger on me again. I must decide what to do sooner rather than later. If I am to mount my defence from my House then I must make sure that I have supplies and defences in place before the soldiers arrive.
On the other hand, if I am to flee to the coast, then I must have a ship waiting for me and I must make decisions about who will come with me; which of my people I leave to the mercy of Fallen Sakura and who I will try to save. Those are not decisions I wish to make.
posted by Lady Yuika | 22:39
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