To Remember Her By

Chisato led the party away from the military grounds, toward a garden where large rocks were in a seeming disarray and moss grew over some of them. There were also sand dunes as if gathered by winds, and a summerhouse made of bamboo poles with a leaven roof. They sat next to a very low table, Sarevok having considerable trouble arranging his massive bulk so that he wouldn't knock anything over. Chisato called for a servant, apparently ordering tea.

- "Lady Chisato," Sarevok said. "Please tell me what Tamoko was like. As a child."

- "It is not for me to tell, bushi... I already talked too much," the woman answered. Sarevok was haunted by how much she looked like his lost love.

- "Please, tell him," Mei urged. "He is here to make peace with the dead. A noble bushi, who slew Kusatte Iru."

- "...yoroshii. I am already in trouble, probably," she smirked. "She feared nothing, Tamoko. We both knew from an early age that we would be trained to be samurai. We rode, shooted arrows, fenced. Tamoko would do forbidden things, ask too many questions... she always had too much of a mind of her own for her own good."

Again Chisato looked like she would cry any moment.

- "But Akita-sama was very fond of her... often left her unpunished for her mischief. He thought that Tamoko could, later, put that quality of hers in good use as a field commander. And Yoshi... his brother, my cousin... Tamoko loved him very much. Always protected him when he ended up in trouble. She never was insincere, she despised games like that."

Sarevok could no longer hold the tear he had been fighting. He rubbed his eye violently with his fist, for it would not do to weep when the old daimyo arrived.

- "She was my soulmate, lover and comrade in arms, Chisato," he said in a choked voice. "She was the woman you describe, and indeed her nature was the death of her."

- "I always thought... that she didn't lose honor. Ronin or not, much that is noble remained in her soul," Chisato whispered. Sarevok shortly squeezed her hand.

The reminiscence was interrupted when an old man appeared in the doorway of the summerhouse. Chisato stood up and bowed politely.

- "Akita-sama. Perorate Sarevok, Tamoko's daimyo from far away West. And his convoy."

Sarevok stood up too and advanced. Tamoko's father's gait was already stiff, but one could still see the training of a warrior in it. His back was very straight, and he had an aura of a person who is used to command. His face was expressionless, his eyes glittering dark, sharp and focused.

- "Indeed. Tamoko was my lieutenant, most trusted of the warriors working for me." Sarevok said.

- "You are saying she was no longer a ronin?" Daidoji Akita said. His voice was not loud, but it didn't waver.

- "She had a lord - I suppose that means she was no ronin. She was much more to me than a lieutenant, however. She was my soul. She was the one who I should have spent my mortal life with... but it was not to be. I promised to her to get her buried in her ancestors' soil."

- "She lost the right to that place when she defied my order and brought shame upon the clan and family," Akita said.

Sarevok's eyes flashed and he swallowed.

- "I... I will not argue your concept of honor. But in the time I knew her, she never was anything but a woman of courage, soul and honor, loyal to and beyond death. She died... a warrior's death."

The old man seemed to consider this.

- "I would hear the story of her death."

- "Then let me tell it, for I was there," Peri said. "At the time I was the enemy of my brother..."

When she finished the tale, the silence was so thick that the shuffling of Akita's feet sounded like a thunderstorm.

- "Strange are the ways of things," the old samurai then mused. "It seems that my daughter... knew honor in her death. Sister and brother... enemies now united. A lone ronin... her honor restored in death. Everything... full circle. Very well, it will be as she wished. I will welcome her back home."

Sarevok just nodded.

- "She also wanted you to have these," he said, holding Tamoko's katana and wakizashi out for Akita.

The old man took the weapons, running his fingers lightly on them.

- "Thank you, gaijin. These have belonged to the Daidoji for centuries. The katana I will place in our family shrine after her ashes have been buried. I will order it to be given to the next Daidoji worthy of carrying it. But this..." he held the wakizashi, "I will give to you, her daimyo and a man who loved her. To remember her by. To have it in your family shrine, if you have such in your gaijin lands."

Sarevok took the weapon and nodded his thanks.

- "You had a son too, and please don't say that you don't know anyone by the name Yoshimo," Peri said, trying to keep her voice neutral. "In case you care, he is now in a place called Meido."

For a moment Daidoji Akita looked surprised.

- "Indeed? So he is dead then, too."

He turned his back and beckoned the others to follow. Then he turned to gaze at Peri.

- "I do care," he quietly said, then turned his head away again.

- "Tamoko said - well, her ghost said - that we should contact a shukenja loyal to the Cranes," Sarevok said.

- "Yes, Eiko will be with us and recite the prayers. She is our family shukenja," the old man replied. "Now, let us go to the burial grounds."