Kazu

Shiro Ide, 27th Day of Winter Court 1197,

Kazu sipped the warm tea and sighed as its heat spread through her old bones. It was far too cold for her liking, preferring as she did the warmer climate of Otomo lands. She savoured the reaminder of the tea in silence before turning to the scrolls beside her.

"Let me see, how are my little firefly larvae coming along?" Each scroll was a carefully worded missive from her contacts across the empire, seeking out the best and brightest to serve the Otomo as their agents and where necessary, be sacrificed. Espionage was a difficult duty, balancing honour and duty. It had been many years since Kazu had felt the sting of conscience and she was not about to change in the twilight of her life.

The Scorpion, the Crane even the Lion. Not to mention the Spider, the Kolat, the Tortoise...and any number of smaller, pettier conspiracies. Keeping them chasing eachother's tails was hard enough without also keeping the Great Clans at loggerheads. Sometimes she wondered whether it was time to fully retire, but a life of meditation and endless boredom was not her idea of a just reward for a life of service.

Her current crop of budding fireflies were coming along nicely. She briefly considered recruiting them now to save time and effort, but you don't become the Keeper of Fireflies and keep the role for as long as she had without exercising caution and care.

She poured another cup of tea. She penned a carefully coded missive to her agents urging vigilance and caution as there were enemy influences in play.

She finished the cup in quiet contemplation then with a tired sigh, she got up to move the body of the Kolat assassin. She would place it in a location that would not draw attention for at least a few hours. "Ah me! A woman's work is never done."