Editing Three Visits For the Brass Lady (section)

==The Second Visit: The Red Queen==
It is the privilege of royalty to travel in state, and [[Red the Sage's Roots]] took full advantage.  Five great wolves, their coats heavy for winter, preceded her, announcing her approach every few hundred feet with throaty howls.  Behind her, stick people marched in rank or rode atop eight-legged wood spiders the size of horses; spirit-foxes romped through the dry winter grass, their bushy red tails playing relay in the crisp air; and hawks, each with wings as broad as a man is tall, soared overhead.  In the midst of this parade, the Queen of the [[The Marukan Alliance|Marukan]] Wood rode side-saddle on a great white stag.

When they arrived at the [[House of Courage]], the [[Sweet Voice of Brass and Glory]] was ready.  She had not drawn her blade, but she had hung her banner and [[Storm of Amber|Storm's]] from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torii torii] that marked the shrine's entrance and tuned her Essence to the ebb and flow of war; she did not expect violence from the Red Root Sage, but after her visit from Stanewald, weeks earlier, she held nothing certain.  She bowed respectfully, her hands clasped before her.  "Greetings, Wood Queen.  Strange to see you come across the miles and far from your domain."

The Red Root Sage did not bow so much as nod her head.  "Greetings in turn, war goddess.  I would not have come, but I ride on a mission of state; I have need of my father.  My hawks tell me he stands in the valley behind you."

"Your father?"

"[[Storm of Amber]] planted the seed of me, watered me with strategy, sang me tactics as I grew and, most of all, shed on me the sunlight of logistics.  Could I call him else but father?"

Sweet Brass could barely keep the twist from her lip.  "You call him 'Storm' often enough, I think."

The Wood Queen bristled.  "I'll forgive you that, Sweet Brass; no woman can easily hear that her man has a daughter not hers.  Whatever you wish I should call him, I must speak with Storm of Amber.  Will you step aside?"

"Sad to say, I cannot.  Storm of Amber now seeks to unlock the fifth gate of his Essence and must remain undisturbed, or his training is for nothing."

"He will want to speak with me.  I have a complaint to make over his recent treatment of my woods, and he would not want me to take my complaint to another."

Sweet Brass shook her head.  "I'm sorry, Red Root Sage.  Though he counts you as an ally, I cannot let you pass to see Storm of Amber."

"Though ''he'' counts me as an ally?"  The elemental looked imperiously up from the back of her mount.  Her next words came laced with Essence as she tried to Instill Obedience from the goddess.  "Tell me, oh Sweet Voice of Brass and Glory, how do ''you'' count me?"

Sweet Brass looked down from the top of the stairs, defiant.  An elemental thought to command her?  She, who could have had a home in the celestial city?  Sweet Brass shrugged off the power of the command with a song from within, but as she watched the great beasts and elementals arrayed in rank behind the Wood Queen, she decided to answer, anyway.  "I count you as over-proud, Red Sage.  It's not often enough that someone tells you 'no.'  You're a powerful woman, too used to having your own way, and that makes you too dangerous to be an ally."

"Too dangerous?  I came here in peace, with a grievance to redress in private before I sought out more official channels.  Is that a woman who is over-proud?"  The Wood Queen gestured and she held a wooden spear in her hand, her staff of office.  "A part of my woods have been torn asunder at my father's call; three of my people have died.  Will you let me past to ask my father to make amends?"

"Again, I cannot."  Sweet Brass was silent for a time.  At last, she bit her lip and said, "you're right, though; as an ally, Storm of Amber should answer you himself for what has happened.  Put away your spear, wait another season, and I will deliver your message when his training is done.  I'm sure he'll come to see you then."

Red the Sage's Roots shook her head.  "Justice does not wait.  If I cannot speak to Storm now, I must take my complaint to Heaven.  If a censor comes to call, do not say I didn't warn you."

The Wood Queen's stag turned and walked away, but the Red Root Sage looked back.  "Justice must be done, but I hold no grudge; I am still my father's ally, and will prove it when the time comes.  

"I hold no special love for you, though, goddess.  You have made an enemy of me this day; we will come to blows before the world is done."

Sweet Brass watched the Wood Queen ride away, surrounded by her entourage, and she sighed.  "That makes two."