A Guard's Tale

By Joel Spontak

The sky was clear tonight. You could tell because there were actually stars visible. Hiruma Kage stood his ever vigilant watch, gazing out across the barren wastes which began just yards beyond the Great Wall. It's amazing how much things change, even when they stay the same. His family had followed the great Hida for over a thousand years. They had fought alongside the great Kuni shugenja and Hida warriors against the evil of the Shadowlands and his ancestors had vanquished innumerable oni, ogres and goblins.

The Hiruma had been there when their lands fell to the Maw, had poured their blood and sweat into building the Wall, they were there alongside their Champion, Yakamo when Hiruma castle was retaken, at the cost of his own life. And now, he was here now. Hiruma was again in the hands of the Shadowlands horde, but that would not last much longer.

He peered out across the empty lands, straining his eyes for even the slightest hint of movement but nothing moved. This might actually be a quiet night. They were few and far between, but they were certainly welcome to the sentries on the Wall. "This is the life of a Crab," he thought and turned his eyes upward once again to steal another long-full look at the peaceful and silent stars...

"The stars are out tonight" thought Mirumoto Hanshin. Togashi winked down from the Heavens, the constellation of the great dragon seeming to shift before his very eyes. For many years he had stood upon this overlook, gazing down at the mountains of the Dragon. No one in his right mind would even think of trying to assault the mountain keeps of the Dragon Clan, but then history was rife with madmen. He had been trained in the ways of the daisho and would stand his ground, defending the lands and lord with his life, if need be.

But tonight had no need for fighting or sacrifice. He listened as the winds whistled softly through the peaks both below and above him. The dark, serene landscape of rocks jutting this way and that as they slowly spread down until the leveled off thousands of feet below to run out across the plains of the Empire until the stretched so far they touched the sky which was filled with thousands upon thousands of stars....

"How peaceful and beautiful are the Heavens this night," Daidoji Kurai said aloud. He glanced back over his shoulder at the lit room where his lord entertained the Lion and Crab emissaries. If things went well then a new alliance would bolster the economies of three great clans and bring about a union that few would dare to question, and the noises coming from inside sounded like things were going well.

The Crane had seen hard times, but they were the left hand of the Emperor, descendants of Kakita, first Emerald Champion; personal bodyguards of the Emperor and the greatest swordsmen in the Empire. Kurai turned and once again looked out into the cloudless night. He was glad for the full moonlight, it made his job a thousand-fold easier. He could see for miles, and it was his job to see anyone approaching Shiryo no Suzame.

"Who better than the Crane to bring men together?" he thought as he once again turned his eyes to the blaze of Lady Moon as she loomed over all below her....

Yoritomo Kanbe stared at the moon briefly. He would never neglect his duties, especially one so highly prized as guarding the main port of the most beautiful bay in all of creation set just below the hill upon which Kyuden Yoritomo sat. As he gazed out across the open waters, watching the hypnotic rise and fall of the waves, listening to the tranquil lapping of the water against the docks he thought about all that was transpiring across the Empire.

The Mantis, a minor clan since very nearly the founding of the Empire itself, were finally a major clan. The descendant of a Matsu bushi and the Son of Storms himself, Hida Osano-Wo, stood ever vigilant, never forgetting their duty despite having never received a charge from the original Hantei. They have been the naval strength of the Empire for countless generations, born to ride the waves, and bring the wealth and power of merchants to the ports of the Empire. The Wasp, Centipede and various other minor clans still held strong ties, if not alliances, with the Mantis and from that vast diversity flowed great strength.

Even now, in the early hours of the morning there were still lights on in the port district. "We Mantis never sleep," he thought, and he wouldn't, not until the next shift arrived to relieve him. "Just my two eyes and ten-thousand twinkling eyes in the Heavens will ever the serenity of this night across the waves" he thought, drinking in the view of the stars as the glimmer across the surface of the waters....

Otako Kamiko sat astride her warhorse and her eyes briefly shifted up to the crystal sky above. "How many stars there are tonight." She had been patrolling the border of the Unicorn and Lion lands for weeks, but she could not remember having ever seen so many stars.

The Unicorn had returned from their journeys through the Burning Wastes barely three centuries ago. They were the outsiders of Rokugan, even now still strangers to the lands and culture of their fellow great clans. She thought back to the battles she had ridden in, fighting against armies who fought on foot. They had never really had a chance, not against the thundering hooves of the Unicorn cavalry and certainly not before the fury of the Otako Battle Maidens.

"How quiet things have been tonight" she thought again to herself. Good for her because she had no desire to fight tonight, and good for her enemy because they would not have to die beneath her blade tonight. She wheeled her mount around, having reached the edge of her patrol area and began her slow ride back again, the pure white of her steed nearly glowing beneath the light of a sky filled with stars....

"May I live up to the Glory of my ancestors" thought Akodo Tsurai. He stood perfectly still, his pike pointed straight to the sky. His eyes, however strayed upward every few minutes to take in the majestic gaze of his ancestors, visible to the Lion sentry in the multitude of stars overhead. His duty was an honor, as was any duty bestowed upon a Lion, but to be a guard of the mysterous Pridelord, the great general who had appeared just a month ago... that was a dream, the envy of every other member of his troop. He could feel the power flowing from the assembled army behind him, the hundreds of Lion warriors, each one a match for any two bushi of any other clan.

The army had been massed over the past week, platoons, divisions and companies of men slowly filtering in from lost Lion provinces across the lands. Akodo, Matsu, Ikoma and Kitsu standing alongside each other as they always had, ready to defend Lion and Imperial honor. Anyone watching would have sworn that Tsurai grew at least two inches as thoughts of standing alongside these great warriors of honor flooded through him.

Soon the blood of their enemies would coat both the blades of those behind him and the ground upon which he now stood. Then his ancestors in the Heavens could once again look down upon him with pride. His eyes flickered upward one more time to catch the full glory of their eyes in the stars....

"Is this what he sees?" Shiba Ido wondered as she gazed up at the billions of stars overhead. They twinkled brightly, tiny, shining beacons amongst an enormous expanse of black. She looked over at the diminutive frame of Isawa Hoshi. "Such a small man for such great power." She had grown up with him, at least until the Ishiken had arrived to take him as a student. Hoshi had returned to visit her when he could, but each time there was something more a little bit different. She always recognized him, yet something inside him seemed to grow each time she saw him.

Now here she was, reunited with him again, but this time as the bodyguard of the Master of Void himself. She reached out with her senses; hearing, smelling, tasting, even feeling the woods around them. There was no danger to them here, not in Phoenix land but she would not sleep. It was her duty to protect him, but she would have done so even if she were not appointed as his bodyguard. "Ha" she chuckled. As if he even needed a bodyguard. He could reach out and touch the void, could rearrange creation to suit his whim, could alter fate itself. But he was still a man, a man who needed rest and she would make sure that he got his rest, peacefully.

She turned back to the night sky and her eyes flickered back and forth between individual pricks of light and she wondered again.

Bayushi Shuriko slipped between the shadows and quickly stole a glance upward at the stars. "Such a clear night. It will not be easy to slip through shadows that do not exist, but the light should expose anyone trying to sneak in." One does not Ôsneak in' on the Scorpion. She stopped in the shadow of a tree and held perfectly still, her trained eyes not moving allowing her peripheral vision to discern any movement quicker than any direct gaze. She also knew that a properly trained infiltrator could feel the eyes of a sentry because she had been trained in exactly that way.

When she was satisfied that there was no other movement she again slipped quickly and carefully on to the next shadowed vantage point. She allowed her thoughts to drift briefly to the affairs of the Empire. The Lion warring, the Crane negotiating, the Crab defending the Wall, the Phoenix researching, the Unicorn riding, the Mantis trading and the Dragon sitting upon their fence. Nothing ever changed no matter how much the Champions of each age tried to, especially not the Scorpion. She knew what the Scorpion plans were, she knew exactly what she was told, and that was exactly what she would tell anyone who captured her. She also knew that it was exactly these plans that she was told that the Scorpion would not be doing and her quick and speculative mind thought that she knew what the Scorpion were really doing.

Only Shinsei himself was clever enough know that what a Scorpion's words told and what a Scorpion's eyes told you were different. But that was why Hantei had asked Bayushi to fulfill the most important duty, that which not even Hida was strong enough to do, not Akodo brave enough to do, nor Doji honorable enough to do, not Togashi decisive enough to do, nor Shinjo swift enough to do, nor Shiba wise enough to do. "She would do it" and she looked to the sky one last time. "Too many stars...."

Seppun Kurai stood beneath the field of stars. He did not look up, nor did he look down. Not the either side did he look. The Emperor was sick, near death, but he was the Son of Heaven, and would not fall so easily to a foreigner's plague. The Seppun had defended the Emperor for over one thousand years and only once had they failed to protect him, when Bayushi Shoju had lead the Scorpion Clan coup and killed Hantei XXXVIII. He had, however failed to kill his son, the next and final Hantei Emperor and the Scorpion had paid dearly for their lord's betrayal, but never again. Never again would the Seppun fail in their duty to protect their lord. Kurai became the de-facto Captain of the Imperial guards and had served as temporary captain of the Emerald Legions for many months until Ide Morimoto won the position at the recent championship. Kurai hoped that Morimoto was indeed up to the enormous task now laid before him, and did not envy the Unicorn in the slightest. So many gone. The cursed plague had killed so many across the Empire. Otomo Wampei quietly walked up behind Kurai.

"Kurai-san, you do not have to be here. The other Seppun, Tsurano, and the Kakita honor guard can more than adequately protect his lordship." Kurai did not turn, he did not move, he did not even blink.

"I will remain here, Wampei-sama for as long as I deem my lord to be in danger." Wampei slowly stepped up to stand directly beside Kurai, looked out across the Forbidden City at the vast expanse of civilization and glanced upward to the clear sparkling sky above. Slowly Wampei placed his hand on Kurai's shoulder next to him.

"He is getting better. The Son of Heaven himself is too great for even such a plague as this." Wampei's hand slowly slid form Kurai's shoulder as he turned and left the Seppun standing in the still night air.

Kurai's stern expression slowly softened into a smile and he turned his face toward the Heavens. "It is a good night, and for tonight all is right in the Empire."