A War of the Heart
-Night-of-the-Angel-
"Hime," a raven haired maiden called.
Sakura stopped the fierce sparring taking place at the mention of her title.
"Your Otou-san requests your presence in his office right away," she said in her soft, tranquil voice while handing her a towel.
The auburn haired girl quickly wiped the perspiration forming on her brow.
"What's the sudden rush? He knows I'm training with kana-sensei."
"Who's training who?" the chibi girl asked looking past Sakura to the young man standing behind her, his hands on his knees, panting for air. His long blank hair was coming free of its tie, and sticking to his forehead.
"Well obviously he's training me," Sakura said oblivious to the meaning of her words, "I better not keep Otou-san waiting. Bye Tomoyo."
Sakura started off in the direction of her Otou-san's office. The knock on his door echoed down the empty corridor.
"Come in," said a voice from inside.
She opened the door and stepped inside. Her otou-san was sitting at his desk in the middle of the large room reading a letter all creased as if he kept folding and unfolding it. In the corner of the room was a couch, Sakura guessed incase he got too weary, that was the exact shade of gold from the wall. A table with come tea on it was pushed off to one side. A large window was the only other accessory in the room. There wasn't much in there probably because he was such a simple guy.
"You called for me, Otou-san?"
He finally looked up as if surprised to find her there, but eventually he said, "Ah, yes. Come and sit down for a while," while gesturing towards the couch.
Sakura swiftly sat and he soon followed.
"You may leave," he said speaking to a shaded corner.
She thought he was going crazy until someone stepped into the light. A young man with long wheat colored hair flowing out freely and soft gray-blue eyes walked to the door quickly. Sakura saw him walking swiftly out the door and instantly knew that he was powerful with a sword. Everything pointed that out, from the way he walked cautiously, as if something would suddenly jump out at him, to his broad shoulders, possible to hold hundreds of pounds.
Sakura wondered why she didn't sense him earlier but her otou-san explained it to her before her mind could wander.
"He's new, but very powerful. After a few weeks of training he was able to beat his own sensei, one on one. I saw him while at the market. There was a tournament there and he was beating everyone no matter how skilled they were. I knew I just had to have him. He's going to be my personal body guard."
He seemed to be babbling on non-stop so Sakura finally asked what was wrong.
"We'll the thing is, is that I got a letter from a carrier today."
"Okay? Then why do you need me here?"
"Because, I think the whole family should give their own view on this specific subject."
"What's the subject on?" she asked cautiously.
He started to fidget in his seat. Ruffling his collar, searching in his pocket for something that was never there.
"Father?" she said wanting him to tell her the reason he was so nervous.
"We'll I just got a letter from a particular family so…" He said trailing off.
"Which family?" Sakura asked getting agitated at her father's subtle interpretation.
"The Li's," The king said quietly.
Sakura's face turned red with anger. No wonder her father was so discreet about this subject. She hated the Li's with a passion after what happened with her Okaa-san, best friend, and almost her onii-chan.
"What do they want now? More souls?" She said angrily.
"No," he said in the same tone as before, "They want to form a treaty."
Before Sakura could speak again he thrust the letter into her hands and said, "Just read this, please."
Sakura slowly opened the creased paper and started reading aloud:
"Dear Mr. Kinomoto," she read quietly, "I hope this receives you well. Please do not be alarmed. This is meant as a friendly letter. I have sent this as a request of thought. My husband has recently died and my son is next as king, but as he is not eighteen he is yet to receive the title. I have taken the crown in his absence until the time he comes of age, but before he takes the thrown he has had but one request. He wishes to end this futile war by any means possible. In order to meet his request I wish to hold a meeting where it all began, Barons Meadow. There we can discuss a treaty that will suit both of us. If you wish to proceed with the meeting, one week from now at sunset meet us at the entrance of Baron's Temple. The animals want to keep the peace so only bring your family and two guards and we will do the same.
A Sincere farewell,
Queen Yelan."
Sakura laid down the letter and looked up to meet her father's troubled eyes, "So what do you think we should do?" she asked him.
"I don't know," he replied running his hand over his eyes tiredly.
The door gave a squeak and Sakura and the king glanced up sharply at the sudden noise. Their eyes landed on Toya. He greeted his family members and took a seat next to Sakura.
"Okay, getting to business. Toya, I called you here for a family meeting, because this affects us all. Your sister and I have been discussing this letter," he said while handing him the letter. Toya quickly read through it and looked up showing the obvious shock written across his face.
"They want to forget this whole thing happened just like that?"
"Now that you've both read it what do you think we should do? Should we go to the meeting or are we just going to act like we didn't see it at all."
The king turned to Sakura, "What do you think we should do?"
"No," she said fiercely, "They've killed too many of our people. I won't forgive them."
King Kinomoto kept his face composed he turned to his son.
"Toya?"
Toya seemed to think for a while before answering with a simple "Yes."
"What how can you do that?" Sakura screamed at Toya, "After what they did to Okaa-san? How could you do that to her?"
"Sakura, I know very well what they did to our Okaa-san but that was in the past. It's time to look into the future. Think about all the people that might die if we keep up this war. There are family, friends, lovers. All of them might die because we chose to go ignore this letter," he said, waving the letter in front of her face, "She wouldn't want you to spill your hands with blood like we have," his face showing the pain he held inside all these years, "You don't want to do that. Trust me," he said quietly.
The king was watching their argument quietly and saw Sakura's anger slipping. He took his moment in the silence to think.
The siblings were silent waiting for the answer.
Finally the king looked up with determined eyes and said, "We're going to the meeting,"
