Chapter 519:

The Long Game

Shift


They had been partly still putting together what happened before that they had no time to properly process the next statement. Yuki almost immediately replied, but stammered on his words for a moment before getting it out. “Master, alliance? What’s going on?”

A bit of a grumble came from him for a brief second before he spoke. “Lord Matsushina has agreed to follow the plan that Aya suggested. Given the importance of the plan, he will be sending an envoy along with Aya to the meeting.

“This will take her beyond the protection of the Lord and me. A small group of soldiers will be going for protection, but I want someone nearby her at all times. I was against what you suggested before because it was unnecessary with her being in the city. She’s always at my side. However, things have changed and I need to know that she makes it to the meeting safely. Do I make myself understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

“We’ll protect Mistress Aya with our lives!”

“See that you do.”

Chapter 519 – The Long Game

Two days passed for the messenger to be sent and received. Lord Kumasaka arranged the travel plans for Aya and the envoy. The best horses in his stable were given to her and her personal guard. Enough supplies for two days were put together and everyone gathered outside the Matsushina estate.

A brief ceremony of delivering the orders by the Lord preceded the best wishes before they readied themselves to depart. Most in the city only knew of the rumors of an alliance, but nothing more concrete than that for this small group leaving. They only watched the careful march steadily leave the city and to the open fields.

The trip out to the meeting site provided little other than a scenic view. It had been the first time in several years that Yuki or Saki had been outside the city. While Kumasaka was a Lord, he didn’t make many trips out of the city. So city life was mostly what they had been used to seeing. They kept on high alert for any attacks and couldn’t enjoy the countryside.

Even though they were within the safety of the Matsushina Clan’s territory, they didn’t take that for granted. The world that they lived in had many enemies and most of them were almost impossible to see or know about. Fate so far hadn’t given them much challenge in that regard, but they didn’t let that put them at ease.

It was late afternoon that they arrived at the site for the talks. Since this was just first introductions, neither of the Lords would be present at this meeting. Representatives from both sides with approval to speak on behalf of their Lord would sit. The meeting would be a discussion of conditions for the alliance and work out a potential agreement to be taken back to their Lords. If agreed upon, they would meet to seal the alliance. Both men were cautious as anyone would be in the era that they lived.

A temporary tent was set up for Aya for the evening and Yuki and Saki remained at her side as they brought in supplies from the journey. As they were half way through the unloading, Aya interrupted them. “Juro, tell the envoy to set up the meeting for one hour from now.”

“Yes, Mistress!”

Saki watched him leave and looked back over at Aya not sure why she changed the plans. She paused in moving the bag over to the corner of the tent for a moment.

“You seem confused.”

“No, Mistress!” Resuming walking, she placed the bag down and started back towards the opening before Aya called out to her.

“You can speak your mind.”

Pausing again, Saki turned about to look at the woman. The look in her eyes told her enough. She couldn’t get out of it. “The intention was to have the meeting tomorrow.”

“Yes, but it wasn’t agreed upon.”

“Won’t they be bothered by you changing the meeting time?”

“It’ll work out in our favor. The Okamoto only have their military and some modest trade as negotiating options at the table. Their position is very weak and they know that. They’ve been concerned about fighting with Lord Matsushina for a while as any conflict would weaken them for their neighbors. So they need this alliance, but don’t want to feel like they’re going to be crushed.

“Moving up the time says that we’re in a hurry. And they know that I’m a woman and a new face in the court coming to negotiate. They’re going to see my move as an effort to show off by completing the talks quickly. I’ll be looking like I’m making a mistake and in a hurry be prone to making more. Those combination of factors will give them confidence at the table thinking that they'll be able to come out ahead making it easier for me to clear our goals for this alliance.”

It was a lot to take in and definitely the most straightforward answer that she had ever gotten from Aya before. There was something off about it that Saki felt like she was missing. ‘Why did she explain all that to me? She’s not normally this forthcoming with anything. It’s a game for her…’ The honesty, if it was truthful, ended up making Aya look more suspicious, oddly, in Saki’s eyes. She really didn’t know what to make of it all. “You make it all sound so simple.”

“People are simple to understand.”

‘I don’t know about that…’

As explained by Aya, the speaker for the Okamoto Clan agreed to the change in time. The meeting went ahead and they all gathered together at a makeshift table of crates and boards. Only the representatives and personal guards stood present at the meeting.

Once introductions finished, Aya opened the meeting by pulling out a regional map of Japan, but fumbled it making a brief noise that pierced through the quiet meeting. The Okamoto representative played a poor poker face and smirked a little while watching her.

Aya put things back together and flattened out the map, swallowing hard. “Um…yes. I thought that this would make it easier to discuss what we want. We both have threats from neighbors that we need to deal with.” She pointed out on the map to nearby clans to them.

“Yes, conflicts have been increasing lately. Open war is inevitable at this point.”

“Which is why I proposed the idea of an alliance to my Lord, sir. The Okamoto and Matsushina have been long neighbors. So we shouldn’t look to fight when we can together bring the region under our Lords’ banners.”

“We have little interest in a war with the Komagata.”

“We would help each other out. But more than that we have fertile land and food that we can offer you.”

“You would just give up land to us?” he asked with understandable skepticism.

“Uh-yes! I have support from my Lord. We want to show our commitment to this alliance.”

The representative crossed his arms in thought for a moment. “That is very generous of your Lord to offer. Something like that would be good news that I can bring to my Lord.”

“I’m glad to hear it! So you think these will be terms that you can deliver to your Lord? In exchange for farm land and food, you aid us in our war with the Komagata and we will support you in your conflicts.”

“My Lord is a cautious and calculating man, but I have his ear. I think I can convince him this will be a good alliance for him.”

“Great! I’ll relay the good news to my Lord and we can formalize the alliance.” Both parties stood up and politely bowed before departing company to their respective tents. Yuki and Saki followed behind Aya, a little surprised at how quickly the meeting went, but it wasn’t a complicated arrangement. But they were mostly confused with the conditions.

Once they entered the tent, Saki had to ask, “Did Lord Matsushina really agree to those terms?”

“Of course.”

“But it’s so disadvantageous to him.”

“It’s a long play, dear. In the end, we’ll own everything of the Okamoto’s.”

They looked back and forth at each other, not understanding what Aya’s plan was at the time. She had a foreboding that made it certain it would turn out exactly as she described. Her confidence was a little unnerving to witness.

With the meeting concluded all they had left was to return home, but that had to wait until the next day. Out in the middle of nowhere left them with few options to kill time until night fell. Aya sat at a makeshift desk created from a couple of bags and canvas. She poured over papers that she had with her, seemingly keeping herself busy the whole time.

Yuki and Saki had less opportunities to kill their boredom besides remaining alert. They kept to shifts with Yuki on the first watch until Aya planned to sleep and they would alternate. Late afternoon into evening had little eventful occur. Yuki doubted anything would happen, but in a way he hoped something would just to break up the routine. In the end, it was nothing but disappointment for him.

At the changing of guard shift, Saki found herself a meal before Yuki went to sleep. It was already deep into night and their camp only had torch light and campfires to keep the area safe to walk around. There was a stillness in the air and quiet that she had sort of missed from being outside of civilization. She paused, taking it in for the moment.

Around her the men spread light chatter, some laughing or grimly recollecting a past. It was a light air that surrounded them. The mission was a relatively safe one considering what soldiers faced. They likely knew that they would eventually be going to war in time. Rumors of the coming conflict weren’t well hidden. Everyone seemed to know to some degree.

She sighed a bit thinking back to the last battle she faced. It was nothing like what they would be dealing with. In a way it was more comforting not to have to worry about things getting to that extreme. On the other hand, she felt more vulnerable than ever before. After fifteen years of normal human life again, she got used to not having her superhuman abilities, but she still missed what that afforded her. She had to focus on other skills to hone.

Reminiscing about the past made her smile a little before she turned to go back to the tent. A refocused eye returned her senses to alert. Her eyes narrowed quickly when she spotted a shadow that had an odd position to the tent. ‘Something doesn’t feel right…’ Saki immediately placed her bowl of food down quietly not wanting to spook whoever it was, if it was even someone.

Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword at her hip. She slowly began her approach towards the shadow keeping an eye on the tent. With her free hand, she removed a small object from her hand and quickly threw it through the tent flaps.

Inside, Aya remained quiet as Yuki watched carefully while waiting for Saki. His senses sharpened immediately when he heard the whiff of the cloth of the tent before something fell on the ground. He glanced down and recognized it on sight. “Mistress…” he whispered as his hand went to his sword hilt.

She barely heard him, but picked up the urgency in his voice and turned to see his defensive stance. Quickly, she hurried over to his side as Yuki tried to detect where the danger was. Aya noticed on the ground a shogi piece and casually picked it up. “A Lance?”

“A signal, it means suspicious activity, going to investigate. Confidence in a real threat.” Yuki snapped his gaze to his left hearing a subtle sound of a metal. “Stay behind me, Mistress.” Before he could make another action, he heard the metal again and immediately shifted his stance around to meet it. In a flash, a kunai tore through the tent deflecting off Yuki’s katana as he drew it free from its sheath. ‘Aiming middle for a grazing wound…’

He swept his left leg behind him catching Aya in the back of the knee and unprepared. As she fell over, he saw the hint of a face as they charged through the canvas. Metal sparked in the air as Yuki blocked the assassin. “Stay down, Mistress! I’ll protect you!”

Eytha
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