Heavenfall

He smiled. Nodded.

"Just so. And yet they make inroads. Did you know that Nanzi has written about rules for how to use swordfighting to settle disputes? As if being fast on the draw with a sword somehow makes you right?"

"What nonsense is that? So, if I claim you stole from me, we would have to fight and if you won, you suddenly didn't steal?"

"Assuming we both had equal standing- which, to the mindset behind this writing, we don't- but it's not a fight. It ends the second someone lands the first hit. Now. Who do you suppose that might benefit?"

"That's the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard."

"Well, it's up to Nanzi's usual standard. He thinks that literally everything they did in Tengoku is how things should be here. People born into castes. Farmers who 'know their place.' There's a reason he's married to Doji. Of course... he came to the Seppun lands as a wanderer who had already left his tribe, so he risks and loses nothing by throwing his lot in with them wholesale."

Satone growls and tightens her hands into fists.

"I will not sit by and let my old friends be turned into slaves. I don't care if a god says it's for the best. If a god says that, then they arn't a god."

"That's why I backed Shiba. Why some of my friends and much of my tribe followed Shinjo. Why I deeply respect the followers of Togashi. Because those three understand that they're not in the heavens anymore. That this world is new to them, and that its ways exist for reasons- and that what they have to offer should be weighed against what we have to offer."

He paused.

"And Ryoshun's bunch are... well. Their Kami is actually dead. Reiko, lady of the Spider, is a friend of mine, and I owe her a great deal more than I can ever repay, but Fu Leng is imprisoned."

The half-smile was back.

"The other reason I'm here, actually. It seems that Fu Leng needs our help. And what a thing that would be, to show the Kami who think of us as backwards primitives, to free their brother when they didn't know he had survived his fall until Reiko told them."

“I just hope he is still something we can save. Don’t take me wrong, I know seers are powerful, after all I’ve given my life to one. But it does make me a bit uneasy that this whole expedition is going on the words of someone who hears things only in their head,”

“I have heard some of Togashi, he interests me greatly. After speaking with you, Shinjo as well. The bat, if only because they have somehow been recognized as a clan, but do not have a god leading them are also an intrigue”

"Well, if you'd like to know more about Togashi, Wu knows a fair bit, but I'd probably go with Togashi Saruko, since she married him- and is also easy to talk to. The Bat... I honestly haven't had many dealings with them, but they seem to a pleasant enough bunch. They sent an artisan who's impressed with Nezumi weaponry to an... alarming degree, but that's as may be."

"Hopefully they will find time for me then. I appreciate all of your thoughts. It is good to speak with someone who shared my concerns and is actually doing something about it. Almost everyone I have spoken to about them is too infatuated by the fact that gods now walk the land to listen to anything I have to say."

"Well... context is everything. You're on a mission to rescue a Kami, embarked upon by their loyalists and those drawn by the words of the Kami and their supporters. Those with misgivings are not likely to come on this sort of endeavor."

"True, true. I suppose I am an oddity. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Haruyo. But I cannot leave her side for more than a few hours or I worry myself sick. We have been together since childhood and I am her eyes to the world."

"And what does she make of all of this?"

"She has been silent mostly. Just that this expedition is something that she feels a great calling to, and something we must undertake."

"You might want to discuss this. If you're bound to her, to go where she goes, then she needs to know your misgivings in full."

"I certainly will. We keep nothing from each other. We are very close."

Satone's eyes light up a little, and a faint redness comes to her cheeks.

So it's like that...

Must be nice.

"Then she is fortunate to have so loyal a companion."

"Companion" is such a nicely nuanced word.

"Sometimes I think I am the lucky one. She may be blind, but I feel she can see so much more than all of us."

"It's easy to get that impression, because it's... broadly true. People who can speak with the spirits interact with things that you and I are barely even aware of."

"Scary thought, at times. I prefer things I can touch, see, or hear. Invisible and silent make it hard to know what's real"