Perfection

Shiro Ide, Final Day of Winter Court 1197,

Susumu Kuroko smiled. It had been an arduous winter but the Spider had been successful. The honour gained from this would help to keep the Spider secure in the Empire and across the board, there had been no major incidents. She knew that was due in no small part to her clan and their allies the Unicorn.

She filled scroll after scroll in a lengthy and detailed report to Kanpeki all those miles away in the Colonies. Some of the scrolls she laid in a simple black lacquered box. Those ones would be delivered in secret while the other scrolls she knew would be intercepted and read by any number of different parties. “Scorpion, Daidoji, the Emerald Observers, the Otomo…” she whispered their names in part to remind herself that there were enemies of the Spider all around her. “The Inquisitors, the Witch Hunters, the Kuroiban.” All of them waiting for the clan to make a mistake. “But Perfection is one of the tenets of Shourido. And I am nothing if not meticulous.”

From behind her there was a sound like silk moving on silk. Kuroko stiffened for a moment before turning around. The box was open, empty. In place of the scrolls was a Spider mon in silver and black lacquer. She nodded. “And so a new chapter in the fortunes of the Spider” she smiled and poured herself a celebratory sake. It was shaping up to be an interesting year.