Despair and Wisdom: Imperial March

Yoshiko considered the odd questions that the Kuni asked her. She was a young woman who she was told that was kind and beautiful. The young lady looked at the fox charm in her hand and smiled sadly. "I lucked out huh... " The tower of Hida looked down on her. "Doesn't matter right..." She shook her head. "Maybe...Yoshi san was right..." The Hida sighed.

She will find Undomiei looking up, making notes on a scroll ready to hand.

"Hida-san," he says, nodding to her. "It is a good night, is it not?"

"Huh?" She looked down to see who was talking to her. She saw the small Isawa who tends to the legion's wounded. "Hai, Isawa sama. It is... would be better if I was in but." She sighed and looked up and smiled. "I guess the fortunes have me lucked out."

"Your own kin exclude you, Hida-san?" Undomiei asks. "Should I be worried for my safety with you, then?"

The Hida shook her head. "I think they want me to find a nakodo to marry myself off." She looked down a the shugenja. "No need to worry Isawa sama."

"I admit, Hida-san, that I would not be much help for that," Undomiei replies. "That said, assuming we survive this tour, I can refer you to Miya Ugemi. If he is not skilled in that way, himself, he will certainly know who is thus skilled and be able to direct you thence."

"No need for favors Isawa sama." She looked up at the stars. "I just wonder why is so important for me to get myself married?"

"Hida-san is hardly the first to ask such a question," Undomiei replies. "Several answers are typically given. The first is that marriage solemnizes bonds between families no less than between people. That is, your family and another's arrive at an accord and give their children as pledges to observe that agreement, staking their blood on its maintenance.

"The second is that your lord--and, ultimately, the Throne we all serve--requires servants in the future, and marriage allows for the creation of legitimate servants. The Heavens do value bloodlines, after all.

"And on the topic of the Heavens: it is widely held, and correctly, that the mortal world does best the more closely it approximates the Heavens themselves. Marriage is solemnized even there; to mimic the Heavens, we must solemnize it here."

Undomiei shrugs.

"I am certain Hida-san has been told all of this, however, if perhaps in other words."

"Hai... I am still young." She looked up. "Sometimes, I think Benten no kami wants to play with me." Yoshiko looked down to the Isawa and decided to sit. " Isawa sama how am I to serve my family if I barely remember what I ate last night? I doubt I am marriage material." The Hida explained.

"There are some as assert we are but toys or tools of the Heavens," Undomiei agrees. "And there are many ways to serve, in the event."

He shrugs.

"None of us knows the full fate assigned to us. Some of us can glimpse it, from time to time, or feel it when we move fully in accord with divine will. And sometimes, that fate is to atone for deeds in a previous incarnation; that is also a thing that must be considered."