Dawn of the Third Age/IC Logs/Bright Snow visits Sanken

Nomoe_Hideaki: The dusty road carries Bright Snow past fields stretching far and wide on both sides toward the small town of Sailian. A town like hundreds of others across Sanken - except perhaps that a familiar banner flies over one of the houses, visible to her sharp eyes from afar although mortals might easily miss it.

Nomoe_Hideaki: The Crowned White Crane Hideaki has chosen as his personal symbol, for once without flying the Mon of Nomoe at the same time. Apparently he has chosen to visit this little town for some reason and he and his retinue are the sole guests at Sailian's best tea house.

Bright_Snow: Having spent nearly a month visiting the various cities of her mates now large nation, Snow smiles at the sight of the familiar banner, her companions on the road none the wiser for her improvement of mood. All they see is a Deliberative courier, a sight now becoming more and more common amongst even the more distant enclaves of the New Deliberative.

Bright_Snow: As she arrives in Sailan, she questions a few people about the banner, making it clear she has a message to be delivered to Lord Hideaki of the House Nomoe.

Bright_Snow: Directed to the Tea House, she presents herself to a set of guards. One of dozens she has experienced within this nation both when inspecting the nobility of the other Houses and the Soldiers of the nation as a cultural aspect as well.

Nomoe_Hideaki: A Deliberative uniform commands respect even if few of the townspeople recognize its precise meaning and Snow is quickly given directions. There is a slight air of tension as well, people wondering why a Nomoe lord would visit their town.

Nomoe_Hideaki: The Nomoe soldiers and servants at the tea house naturally recognize the meaning of the insignia on Snow's uniform and after the usual check of papers allow her through. Servants lead her in and up the stairs to the upper floor where another soldier awaits her. This one is a familiar face, having been Hideaki's adjutant during the Autochthonian adventure, and he either recognizes Snow or has been briefed judging from the recognition in his eyes.

Nomoe_Hideaki: Bowing deeply he gestures for her to go on.

Nomoe_Hideaki: Nomoe sits at a small table on a balcony overseeing the tea house's garden. A second stool has been prepared as well.

Bright_Snow: returns his gesture of respect with her own, keeping the pretense of her appearances station rather than her own.

Nomoe_Hideaki: Hearing Bright Snow approach Hideaki rises and turns to greet her, smiling.

Bright_Snow: glances at the table, an eyebrow raised. "So am I the reason you are in an area not normally graced by the presence of the noble houses?"

Bright_Snow: */Though her voice sounds mock annoyance, the bond presents only slight amusement and that she feels honoured."/*

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Bright Snow." He bows slightly, a greeting to a peer. "There are always good reasons for me to go where I go." Hideaki inclines his head slightly. "But yes, I thought-" */hoped/* "-that you might visit and it was a factor."

Nomoe_Hideaki: *One factor out of a list of one and a half, perhaps.*

Nomoe_Hideaki: He gestures. "Will you sit? They brew a quite passable tea here."

Bright_Snow: smiles, her shape flucking, her height growing and the colour fading from her as she does. With one hand she reaches off and pulls off the leather cap and goggles she wears as part of the Courier's uniform, letting her hair fall loose. It is a sign of the comfort she takes in Hideaki's presence that she does so so easily.

Nomoe_Hideaki: "No visit to Sanken would be complete without sampling its teas after all, now would it?"

Bright_Snow: Obviously she trusts him to have kept this private.

Nomoe_Hideaki: There is indeed no one on the upper level besides the two and the adjutant at the stairs. The tea house seems to have been taken over entirely.

Bright_Snow: Again she smiles, sitting down across from him comfortably. Making sure the heavy leather jacket is handed to his Ajutant to be stowed somewhere for the moment before closing the door and leaving them alone together.

Bright_Snow: falls silent, sipping the tea as ceremony dictates and awaits Nomoe to break the comfortable silence that has settled between them.

Nomoe_Hideaki: inclines his head in a complimenting manner at the change and sits as well, pouring tea for Snow at her nod of assent. "Glorious Willow Guardian," he says after a quiet minute. "My favourite ever since I was a child."

Nomoe_Hideaki: Hideaki takes another sip, allowing a bit of nostalgia to touch his expression.

Bright_Snow: "The Willow Guardian will be fine." She says quietly. "It has been awhile since we have been allowed to meet in such... peace."

Bright_Snow: */ The realisation is profound. This is perhaps the most alone the two have ever been together / She carries some fear and little joy at such a realisation./*

Nomoe_Hideaki: "I am glad you like it." Hideaki looks around, taking in the secluded balcony overlooking the peaceful and artfully arranged garden. "It is true, conflict and trials always seem to hound us."

Nomoe_Hideaki: *Hideaki does enjoy the moment of privacy, away from the many concerns pressing in on him, and the company. It's rare that he can feel free to speak his thoughts like this.*

Nomoe_Hideaki: "It makes moments of peace all the more precious."

Bright_Snow: nods taking a sip from her cup, examining Nomoe for the moment.

Nomoe_Hideaki: takes another sip of tea, then tilts his head slightly. "You haven't visited me at home before, maybe that is why."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "So I'm happy that you did come to Sanken."

Bright_Snow: She looks up her gaze having slipped off him and onto the tea as he has spoken. "Perhaps." There is no conviction in her voice, she has long been a magnet for trouble. "Perhaps it is that Brazen is not here." She says with a smile, attempting to use the joke to brighten the melancholoy that has settled on her. "It is truly an interesting nation."

Nomoe_Hideaki: laughs and sighs at the same time. "Ah, but he means well." More seriously he continues: "As Exalted we chose to live through 'interesting times' as the saying goes precisely so oases of peace like this can exist, don't we? There is a point to all the trouble."

Nomoe_Hideaki: Hideaki gestures all around. "For me it is Sanken. If my days are filled with conflict and danger but my family and my country can live in peace as a result, I have no regrets."

Nomoe_Hideaki: *Indeed this is the center around which all of Hideaki's efforts revolve, the reason he fights.*

Bright_Snow: "And when places like this are safe? When they have no more use for you?" She says, "Or worse still rubble and ruin because it was connected to you?"

Bright_Snow: */ Both the only cases in her experience. /*

Nomoe_Hideaki: is quiet for a moment. *Sympathy, its expression restrained by respect for the privacy he knows Bright Snow values.*

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Once my home is safe and certain to turn away any threat that might arise ... my family will still be here. It will still be my home. I suppose I'll have to see about finding something else to dedicate my time to at that point." He smiles slightly, it is not an unhappy thought.

Bright_Snow: "And it cannot now?" She says knowing Sanken at least in part would begin to fold in on itself without his presence. "What more is there to do?"

Nomoe_Hideaki: "The other ..." *flickering imagination, scenarios of ruin and destruction. Even having the deaths of family as comparison he cannot imagine how he would feel. Did Bright Snow have to suffer like that? He wouldn't wish something like that on anyone* "I don't know," he says finally. "But I would do anything to prevent it."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Besides my esteemed fellow Deliberators?" Heavy irony. "There are the hordes of the Raksha, among them in particular the host of the Diamond Sage. There are the Infernals who want to return everyone to Yozi slavery, there are the Deathlords who would see Creation murdered." Hideaki sighs. "None of which my people would be prepared to handle, nor am I certain they could be."

Bright_Snow: "But if it cannot stand on its own, in your absence is it worthy of survival? The past shows that you cannot be here all the time. You cannot even be sure you will be here when you must be. What of beautiful Sanken then?"

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Worthy of survival? How do you objectively measure that worth? To me it certainly is." Nomoe refills his cup. "In my absence I trust my family and all the others to do their very best defending Sanken. Perhaps overly optimistically I hope that Deliberative intelligence and forces will help prevent such a situation - that is after all why I joined them."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Sanken has defied the hordes of Chaos for ten long years. And it will grow stronger yet." After a moment's pause Nomoe sighs and turns his hands palm up. "Of course, there are threats that it likely will never be able to face despite all our efforts. Beyond trying my best I can only hope."

Bright_Snow: "Worth? It is whether the society can stand on its own. Stand the crushing power of Time. After all look at the remains of the First Age, little if anything remains, so much for our glorious works." She glances up fire in her eyes, the iris' red and dancing like little flames.

Bright_Snow: "All you hope to accomplish will likely not survive your absence, or if it does so will not survive the Deliberative's absence. The perfect society is the one that adapts and holds and does not fall, whatever may befall it."

Bright_Snow: "And I hold unlike you that such a society should never be in the position to fail against any threat, should it be crafted well enough."

Nomoe_Hideaki: leans forward, enjoying the debate despite the rather serious subject. "Rather than worth I would call that strength or resiliency. But either way, yes from the lesson of the Usurpation we must learn that the Age of Dreams was not built to last without Celestials. Our predecessors certainly didn't plan on dying like that. Frankly, neither do I."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Of course, with that lesson in mind I would be a fool not to consider the possibility." Nomoe stands, taking a few steps to the edge of the balcony to gesture to encompass Sanken, before looking back at Bright Snow. "You have traveled this country. You have seen or heard about what I'm doing to strengthen it."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "If what I'm doing is not enough, what would you do? How would you build a Sanken that can withstand the return of the Yozis or the Deathlords, their knights and their endless armies?" Hideaki looks at her frankly, genuinely wanting to hear her opinion and apparently less concerned with appearances when alone with her.

Bright_Snow: She is quiet for a long moment. In the end she shrugs. "I have no answer. Not yet anyway. I travel, I record, compare and hope I get a little closer to my goal."

Bright_Snow: "Still it is unfair to ask those we leave behind to deal with our mistakes. The Yozi seek to return because we bound them and the Neverborn seek the end of all that is because we wakened them from their long dreamless slumber."

Bright_Snow: "But to deal with those threats we need not rule. We need not be part of society at all, rather we must right the wrongs of the past." She says with conviction. "But as to how we do that is anyone guess."

Bright_Snow: "Though I would suppose Cerise would have an idea on the latter and Brazen may well hold the key to serving the former."

Bright_Snow: "As to living forever Nomoe, I would not count on it. There is to much death in the world to make any such presumption and even then age catches us eventually. The only winner in this is time but then it always has been."

Nomoe_Hideaki: nods slowly. "Once you do have an answer I would dearly love to learn of it," he says seriously, then sits once more, looking a little embarrassed by his previous outburst.

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Be it to deal with our predecessors' mistakes or to spare our people the burden, it seems we fully agree that it is we who need to eradicate those largest of all threats." He smiles, confidently. "I'm sure together we can something about those."

Nomoe_Hideaki: Hideaki turns up his palm in a gesture of concession. "And no, while I certainly plan to avoid Saturn's Scissors for a long time yet, my point was that if I do die unlike our predecessors I don't plan to have civilization crash down after me."

Nomoe_Hideaki: He grimaces. "I understand some of them actively worked to make it so their deaths would bring ruin to all they felt they owned."

Bright_Snow: "An entirely reasonable goal." She says with a shy smile. The nerves which had thus far suffused the conversation dissapating.

Bright_Snow: "And yes, they did. There are reasons vast swaths of their age does not survive to the present day." She shudders, "Some stories tell of entire continents disappearing."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "I wonder if they'd have thought they might do such a thing when they were young. Sid ... some accounts do speak of their actions becoming more and more extreme with the millenia." Nomoe sighs.

Nomoe_Hideaki: "That said ..." Hideaki hesitates. *uncertainty, is he asking too much?* "If I should die and you survive, could you look out for my people a little?"

Bright_Snow: Her eyes narrow though she does not act. "I imagine they did not, that level of arrogance requires time to develop. Imagine what lunacy you may attempt in the centuries to come and act try to recall the horror you feel now. Creation will be better for it." She gives a feral grin, "At least that is what I tell myself."

Bright_Snow: She falls silent at his request. Considering.

Nomoe_Hideaki: inclines his head to concede a point well made.

Bright_Snow: After a moment or so she breaks the silence a compromise... a decision made. "I can promise you that I will attempt to aid them survive on their own. And if they fail that I will make certain they are remembered for as long as Creation ceases to be." She says quietly. "Anything else would be a violation of my own principles."

Nomoe_Hideaki: *Deep gratefulness* Hideaki lightly touches Bright Snow's hand. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."

Nomoe_Hideaki: *Having someone he trusts to look after his family and his people if he should die ... there are few promises that could be more precious to Hideaki*

Bright_Snow: nods her understanding. "Were I still to possess such things I imagine I would share your view." */A memory, pain, shock, horror/*

Bright_Snow: */Then again.../ a trickle of old anger/*

Bright_Snow: She shakes her head, dispelling the past. Her head staring stright at the remains of her tea. "Let us talk of something else."

Nomoe_Hideaki: is quiet for a moment. *Uncertainty, how should he ask ...* But then Bright Snow shakes her head and the moment passes. "I'm sorry if speaking of it opened old wounds."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Have you heard of Brazen Sand and Wandering Drunken Scholar's daughter's birth yet?" He changes the subject.

Nomoe_Hideaki: "It was just six weeks ago."

Bright_Snow: "No..." She looks sceptical for a moment. "Really?" She manages when Nomoe confirms, " I had no idea Wandering was even pregnant?"

Bright_Snow: "What is the child like?"

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Neither did I. Truthfully I wouldn't even have thought it possible." Hideaki shrugs. "But apparently she was and it is, and their daughter is healthy and strong, or so Lord Brazen Sand has told me."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "I haven't met the child yet - it is a long way south to Gem - but they said they'd visit in a few months' time. You would be welcome at the Palace Tranquiline as well, naturally."

Bright_Snow: "Alas I intend to spend the time exploring the West, it has been my intention to do so for some time."

Bright_Snow: "Perhaps when I return?"

Nomoe_Hideaki: nods. "If you have an estimate for when you will return already I will suggest it to them."

Bright_Snow: She nods. "I agreed to return before Calibration. There is a friend I have to visit." She says no more about that. "But yes sometime in the winter."

Nomoe_Hideaki: "Let's make it winter then. I'll send messengers as the season comes closer."