Heavenfall

"You're not wrong, though I was trying to compliment your fierceness, Kinsen-sama," she said, offering her a little wink. "But I heard about the ... thing they fought down there today. I'm glad I didn't face it. Wood weapons? Bad idea. No, no pity. They're things to destroy before they destroy us all."

"Yes. I think Shinsei likes to talk in riddles, but deep down there is part of him that is very down to earth." A breath in and she nodded. "I trust your husband, Kinsen-sama. I want you to know that. Shinsei trusts him. I trust him. I know things have been said in the heat of the moment, but I want you to hear that. I... would have difficulty actually speaking to him. He's very foreign to the world I know. But I trust him to be a good man." And to her, that felt like one of the most important things. That he be a good person.

Kinsen pouts her lips again with a frown, a bit skeptical of the wink. Then, she chuckles. "Thank you for the enormous amount of compliments, Phi-san~"

Her ego allows a genuine blush to form up.

She leaned back and relaxed a little. "I won't be going down into that awful place, but deep down I knew that I wouldn't. When he started looking, I knew what he'd find in my eyes. I've learned a lot about myself out here. But I'm going to be praying for your husband to come back safely tomorrow to you. Next time Shinsei visits your lands, if I'm still studying with him, I'd like to hear about another child perhaps." She got the feeling Kinsen took a great deal of pride in the children she could bring into this world, and train to be examples of the Stag. It... wasn't quite her way, but she could appreciate a proud mother bear just fine.

"I will admit, though... I intend to cave into creature comforts when we're back and use those baths the Seidou have. I'm already getting soft like a lowlander that way."

With narrowed eyes, Kinsen remembers much of the scenes she saw when Shinsei looked at her eyes. Taking a better glimpse of Phi up close, the images finally connect.

With a gasp, she covers her mouth.

"Oh come on, Kinsen-sama, don't make fun of me. I had every reason to be nervous about getting in that water with everything you and I have seen," she pouted with a grunt and a grumble when the woman gasped right then. She had no idea that it was not because of the last thing she'd said. "Me taking a bath in a hot tub is not that shocking, I assure you."

Said the hobo who'd been staying in a tent down by the river instead of the Seidou house.

"That's why you're so interested and talkative about Shinsei-sensei!" Kinsen leans forward, pointing a finger and then taking it away since she remembers it is rude.

She stared gape-mouthed and paused before holding up her hands and shaking her head. "Alright, we are obviously talking about something different. One second. 'What' exactly is why I am talking about Shinsei?" she managed to get out, though she was starting to get red-faced. She had a tiny guess that someone might have suddenly noticed or figured something out. She ... kind of assumed the kami knew. It wasn't like his tent was far from theirs and ... well, they had TRIED to be quiet two days ago.

Try had been the operative word there. Thank god for greater distances to the rest of the camp, though. That was a small miracle.

"Above all people. I can't believe it." She widens her eyes, commenting with a hint of indignation, "If you're still studying with him, you say, hmmm?"

Kinsen narrows her eyes, asking seriously, "What are your intentions with him, young lady?"

Fortunes blasted. She's talking around the issue. God, I'd prefer it if she was direct as she looked sometimes.

She breathed in and out. Ok, she was on the same page with this woman. Another breath and her eyes opened and she looked her dead in the eye. "To dedicate my life and soul to his work and to walk beside him on the path that he walks, so long as he will have me. I will not leave that man alone again if the fortunes are my witness. I have found where I belong, and it is at his side."

"And to be very clear, he has been teaching me meditation. It's been... very helpful to me." Ok, he'd been teaching her a few things, but meditation was among them.

"Meditation..."

Kinsen's golden eyes keep fixated and narrowed, measuring Phi's words and sincerity.

"If he has a child without a wife, Doji-kami-sama would never approve. You know that, don't you?" Kinsen drops the bomb. "He's a dear friend of the family, and all the Kami listen to him. Specially dear husband."

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Investigation (Notice)/Perception + VP for Skill: 3d10o10k2 23

"Meditation," she said with surprising firmness. She might act like someone with little care for social niceties, but she did pick up things from the passing merchants and the little time she'd spent among the Seidou. And, after Nanzi... she was mindful of how these people spoke. "The Lotus Position, specifically and breathing exercises to center my sense of self."

"And believe me when I say that I am intensely aware of what might be said if Shinsei were to have a child outside of wedlock, and so he won't." She said it clearly. And, admittedly? Her intention this moment was to fulfill this by marrying him, but when the awful truth of exactly how serious it was that Shinsei should have a child in the first place became? It would become a very different solution to the problem. The child? Simply wouldn't be Shinsei's, and it was the holy man's right to protect a mother in need. "But for as little time as I have known him, I know that he is precious to me."

(OOC: Clarification - correct total is 26. Disturbing Countenance)

Kinsen's fierce eyes are dismissed, and she finally smiles back. "Good. Then you'll be always welcomed at our household."

She had to be certain of Phi's intentions for some odd reason even herself could not recall. Why would she be protective of Shinsei, after all?

It was going to be a complicated year to come, if they both survived this. Neither of them knew just how important his bloodline could be. To Phi, he was just a wise man, and someone she had fallen in love with. Those truths... they weren't things known yet. For now, they could just be two women.

Phi relaxed visibly. "I would be pleased to visit. I am sure he will travel back to see good friends, and I have never been to your lands. I don't think I've ever even seen the coast, Kinsen-sama."

"The coast is a wonderful view. Should be specially good to... meditate... hearing the sound of the waves." Kinsen mentions, nonchalantly. "I am content you have faith in dear husband. I'll make sure I mention how sure I am his friend might have found true companionship."

"I'm sure it would be." She didn't exactly sound sure. The ocean was a lot of water, and she wasn't used to anything bigger than that lake by the pass, and that... was a lot. But people said it was nice, and that salt air was good for you. So maybe? She looked down at the tea and sighed to herself. "I think... he has few friends. Most come to him for his wisdom. And he is that, has that in plentiful quantity. But to be only that, sometimes it can be lonely."

“He just says things the way he sees it. He see things in an odd fashion, by the way. People get too creative with whatever they hear that is a bit different from what they are used to.”

Kinsen scoffs.

“As I said before. I don’t think he’s this... prophet... everyone talks about. He’s just a man trying to be as best as he can for himself and others. And as any man, has his needs.”

"I don't think you're wrong, Kinsen-sama." That was something she could freely admit. "He's a very wise man, and an impressive one. I've neve met anyone quite like him, even having met these kami now. There is something both very worldly and other worldly about him, but I think people have created an image of him in their minds that is more of a role than a person. I suspect the kami are the same way too. It makes it hard to know the real person behind the image."

"But I think what is important to me is that I finally found someone I can trust, and a place to be, a purpose." she had no clue about the details of that purpose, but she was sure that it existed.