Through the Cracks Ch4 bit – Puzzle

~ crossovercreativechaos

:Sano?: Megumi, hovering at the edge of his mind. :What’s wrong?:

Besides everything? Sano picked up his feet, heading for the dojo on his way to Companion’s Field. :I need to talk to Rolan.:

:And here I thought you were going to keep pestering Kenshin until it was too dark to see a white cat underfoot.: Her tone was teasing, but he could feel the worry under it.

:No, Fox-lady. I’m not pestering Kenshin any more today.: Not when he had a kid to pepper with questions, and then a Queen’s Own Companion to yell at.

Kenshin’s hanyou, Sano thought grimly. Hanyou look like Changechildren.

And if anybody’s warned the Heralds, I haven’t heard about it.

Gods, I hate politics!

Supply lists. Troop movements. Spy reports from half a dozen sources, everything from far-ranging Heralds to traders to King Tremane’s own people keeping watch on Hardorn’s border with the Empire.

Kerowyn stared at her paperwork, and firmly squashed a desire to throw lit candles at the whole mess. Join the Mercenaries’ Guild. Find honor, blood, and glory. Ha.

:What, you didn’t get enough of all three?: Sayvel snickered from Companion’s Field. :You’ve got a visitor.:

A four-footed one, from that tone. Perfect excuse to go outside. Freedom!

Freedom that came with an angry, scarred Companion attached, pawing back grass as if it’d jumped up and tried to strangle him for eating it. “Sano?”

The Companion looked at her. Snorted, and turned his attention back to the bared spot of soil. Scraped a few more lines with a casual hoof. Stared at her.

And, with one annoyed swish of a ragged white tail, stalked away.

What the heck? Kerowyn frowned at departing silver hooves, shook her head as she looked to see how much damage the Palace gardeners were going to have to put right-

“Letters,” the swordswoman muttered, stalking around to view them as Sano had. Yamato letters; which weren’t exactly letters as Valdemar knew them, more like symbols for syllables. Hiragana, she thought Eldan called them. :Got a minute? Someone just scuffed me a puzzle.:

13 thoughts on “Through the Cracks Ch4 bit – Puzzle”

  1. Hm. Why do I get the feeling Rolan told Sano not to “talk” to anyone about hanyou? After all, Companions aren’t used to writing anymore, that makes an interesting loophole.

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    2. I can’t wait to hear the justifications that Rolan tried to use on Sano. Because the whole Hanyou topic is something that the Heralds should know about.

      I mean why would Rolan tell Sano to keep his mouth shut? Well unless Rolan is of the opinion that Hanyou and Youkai are no better than Changechildren and should be ‘dealt with’ the same way.

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  4. Sano has never been very impressed by politics. Or politicians. Usually because no matter what universe he is in, they have screwed him over.

    He also gets very disgusted when you show more concern for your politics than for people’s lives. Yes, he does realize that sometimes sharing certain information needs to be handled carefully to make sure everyone is on the same page and you don’t start a panic.

    However, if this is another round of playing “Who will confess to having knowledge of X first?” – I can understand and support Sano wanting to give everyone handling the politics a solid smack to the back of their heads. More than one if they are being especially idiotic.

    If hanyou look Changechildren and nobody besides Yamato and people like Sano know that, someone is going to see those claws and those fangs and do something drastic first and ask questions later. Probably while thinking that since they are a Changechild, you are doing them and their families a favor by killing them before they kill too many people. But the family, know full well what their child or brother or sister or parent or friend, etc was, will kill the person who killed them.

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      1. True that.

        Think my frustration – and Sano’s – for this particular Face contest is that feels like the involved parities are more concerned with saving face and their own pride than protecting the lives they were entrusted with.

        You want to risk your own neck or die for your pride, go right ahead. That’s your decision. But if you are political leader, you aren’t risking just your life. You are risking your peoples. And I don’t think anyone has the right to sacrifice anyone else for the sake of their own pride.

        Plus many Eastern cultures DO have a concept of someone sacrificing their dignity / pride / face so the necessary thing can be done.

        Maybe Yamamoto and Selenay can’t do some of this without losing face but maybe people like Kenshin and Kerowyn can. Or can be seen as the doing the unpleasant but necessary sacrifice of their dignity / pride for the good of all.

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