Post by Seek on Jan 1, 2015 7:44:34 GMT 10
Title: Ajikuro
Rating: PG
For: Rachy
Prompt: 4. Tortall or Emelan ladies being awesome in quiet moments
Summary: Lady Haname noh Ajikuro makes a choice.
Notes: I chose one of the ladies in Shinko's retinue. Hope that's ok, since you did say 'Tortall ladies' and I assumed you meant the universe. Hope you enjoy it! Happy Wishing Tree!
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i.
The Ajikuro lands are coastal, and thus often under threat from pirate raids. The last time word of a pirate raid reaches her, Haname noh Ajikuro is practising her calligraphy (one of the genteel arts a lady of fine breeding must be proficient in) and gazes up in time to hear the retainer announce the news.
She stands up, sets down the brush carefully. The piece cannot be saved, she thinks with regret. Her hand has jerked and turned the last stroke into a smudge. A pity, that.
“How many men are in the household?” she wants to know.
Sato noh Kitaro, one of the lesser noble families in service to Ajikuro presses his forehead to the floor and recites the numbers. Haname winces, inside. They aren’t particularly good—her father has gone to the capital to speak with the Emperor, and taken some of the men with him as an honour guard. The rest are away on a training exercise.
Haname noh Ajikuro, however, is a daughter of one of the most ancient and respected families in the Yamani Islands; a family of lineage older than even the Emperor’s. She knows how to draw a bow, how to wield the glaive, how to strike so as to inflict pain and deter an attacker.
She scoops up her bow now, and tests her glaive for balance.
It will suffice. “Come,” she says, and Sato noh Kitaro follows.
ii.
She shoots the pirate captain. It’s a difficult shot, and a fine one—her arrow whistling downwind from the castle walls to take the woman in the eye.
They scatter, after that. The remaining Ajikuro guardsmen are seasoned and ready to deal with pirate attacks. They send a volley of shafts from the walls, until the air is dark with them.
iii.
A princess needs ladies-in-waiting. Especially a princess, sent far away from her homeland to marry one of the barbarian-princes of the Eastern Lands.
Haname knows what her father is trying to say.
She touches his arm.
He looks at her. It is a thankless task, Haname thinks, and in a way, an exile, to be sent far away from one’s home and family, perhaps never to see them again. Poets have written verses to break the heart about the pain of exile, of home-longing.
She is, after all, the eldest daughter of Asano noh Ajikuro. She understands duty and difficult decisions.
“I will go,” Haname says, because princesses, too, can be lonely. And because this is what her duty demands, as the scion of one of the most ancient families in the Islands.
Her father says, in a low voice, “I don’t want to pressure you…”
“It is my choice,” she says.
He bows his head; mingled relief and acceptance. She sees it in his eyes, in the way he carries himself, because she knows how to read the many different tells that indicate his mood. It must be the Emperor, Haname thinks. The game of politics in the Islands is often a dangerous one, and this will not be the first time a noble has been asked to demonstrate his loyalties by providing a daughter or a son to serve the Emperor or his relatives.
“So be it,” Asano says. His shoulders slump. “I will miss you.”
“It will be what it must,” Haname says, quietly. “We have always done our duty.”
“We have.”
Rating: PG
For: Rachy
Prompt: 4. Tortall or Emelan ladies being awesome in quiet moments
Summary: Lady Haname noh Ajikuro makes a choice.
Notes: I chose one of the ladies in Shinko's retinue. Hope that's ok, since you did say 'Tortall ladies' and I assumed you meant the universe. Hope you enjoy it! Happy Wishing Tree!
-
i.
The Ajikuro lands are coastal, and thus often under threat from pirate raids. The last time word of a pirate raid reaches her, Haname noh Ajikuro is practising her calligraphy (one of the genteel arts a lady of fine breeding must be proficient in) and gazes up in time to hear the retainer announce the news.
She stands up, sets down the brush carefully. The piece cannot be saved, she thinks with regret. Her hand has jerked and turned the last stroke into a smudge. A pity, that.
“How many men are in the household?” she wants to know.
Sato noh Kitaro, one of the lesser noble families in service to Ajikuro presses his forehead to the floor and recites the numbers. Haname winces, inside. They aren’t particularly good—her father has gone to the capital to speak with the Emperor, and taken some of the men with him as an honour guard. The rest are away on a training exercise.
Haname noh Ajikuro, however, is a daughter of one of the most ancient and respected families in the Yamani Islands; a family of lineage older than even the Emperor’s. She knows how to draw a bow, how to wield the glaive, how to strike so as to inflict pain and deter an attacker.
She scoops up her bow now, and tests her glaive for balance.
It will suffice. “Come,” she says, and Sato noh Kitaro follows.
ii.
She shoots the pirate captain. It’s a difficult shot, and a fine one—her arrow whistling downwind from the castle walls to take the woman in the eye.
They scatter, after that. The remaining Ajikuro guardsmen are seasoned and ready to deal with pirate attacks. They send a volley of shafts from the walls, until the air is dark with them.
iii.
A princess needs ladies-in-waiting. Especially a princess, sent far away from her homeland to marry one of the barbarian-princes of the Eastern Lands.
Haname knows what her father is trying to say.
She touches his arm.
He looks at her. It is a thankless task, Haname thinks, and in a way, an exile, to be sent far away from one’s home and family, perhaps never to see them again. Poets have written verses to break the heart about the pain of exile, of home-longing.
She is, after all, the eldest daughter of Asano noh Ajikuro. She understands duty and difficult decisions.
“I will go,” Haname says, because princesses, too, can be lonely. And because this is what her duty demands, as the scion of one of the most ancient families in the Islands.
Her father says, in a low voice, “I don’t want to pressure you…”
“It is my choice,” she says.
He bows his head; mingled relief and acceptance. She sees it in his eyes, in the way he carries himself, because she knows how to read the many different tells that indicate his mood. It must be the Emperor, Haname thinks. The game of politics in the Islands is often a dangerous one, and this will not be the first time a noble has been asked to demonstrate his loyalties by providing a daughter or a son to serve the Emperor or his relatives.
“So be it,” Asano says. His shoulders slump. “I will miss you.”
“It will be what it must,” Haname says, quietly. “We have always done our duty.”
“We have.”