Mithral Scarab

Sera Aki-Kirei's page

5 posts. Alias of downrightamazed.


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@Imuri: Aki-chan's face is troubled, but only just for a moment. Slyly using her fan to direct her words, she whispers to you; "Very well, Imuri-san. Meet me in the Park of the Suihan Sanyou one hour after midnight. I will do what I must to slip away and meet with you. There is a large fir tree by the abandoned fountain. I will find you there." With a light step, she walks over by two of Captain Takagami's men, to give them her statement.


Aki-chan steps away from the wounded after they are healed, and makes her way softly to Imuri. She snaps open her fan and looks at him coquettishly.

Imuri only:
Though her look is that of a typical noble girl, her voice is deadly serious as she whispers to you. "Noble Imuri-san, I told you we would meet tonight, but to my shame, I can no longer honor that agreement. There is...business I must attend to with my sister. Family Business. I trust you understand.

Via Bluff (secret message) she is telling you that she and her sister are having an enormous disagreement and it must be settled before anything else can happen.

"[b]Please, do me the honor of accepting my humble invitation to join me for morning tea in Madame Daiyu's tea house, where we may speak privately." She brushes by you and there is the clink of bottles. She has hung your two potions, now tied together at the neck by a delicate cord -- This is also a message; she feels the two of you are in a similar situation; hung by your necks with a delicate cord, joined in danger and death -- over the handle of your katana. "My sister could not accept these. Her pride..." the younger Sera swallows whatever she was going to say and gives you a veiled, but sad look, her celadon eyes clouded.

In the dining hall Zhongyi is barking orders at someone.


Aki-chan steps forward and helps comfort the wounded, telling them little stories to take their minds off the pain, her beauty a distraction all by itself.


@Imuri: Sera Aki pulls back and covers her face with her fan, exposing only her eyes to you. It is a gentle rebuff, like one gives a favored courtier, but it is a rebuff nonetheless. A moment hangs heavily between you, and a thousand lifetimes pass in the time it takes the next grain of sand to fall from the top of an hourglass to the bottom.

Aki-chan angles her fan subtly to render her voice audible to you only, and speaks quietly. "Did you see Queen Llirrianna's dress, Imuri-san? It is most lovely, like soft night fallen in summer, when the winds still blow clear and fragrant, and winter is far away. She would challenge even Oda Kazue and myself in matters of style and beauty. But she is a very skilled sorceress, you know, and my only sorcery is being myself." She smiles mischievously and lets her point sink in. "The gaijin and akuma and monsutā of the Black Dragonflight appear many ways, and the powerful sorceress that leads them gives them many guises and boons. Clan Sera saw what you saw, and reacted...appropriately. But there is more. Like any true master of go, the real threat, the real opponent we are playing, is skilled in feints and ruses. The Black Dragonflight does not know it, but they are a feint. They are the largest feint. You know of the disappeared Erodal woman? The gaijin researcher? Her disappearance was not an accident. Nor was that of the Sifu."

The greatest beauty in the empire seems to consider for a moment. Something catches her eye, and she speaks again. "I must be away. My sister needs me. Meet me at Madame Chen Daiyu's tea shop, at midnight. Bring no one with you. If it is truly the will of the Shoto to end the true threat to the empire, then there are things you must know that I cannot speak of here." She gives you an insouciant little curtsey that will tell all those watching that you are still in her favor but she must attend House duties, and walks delicately back towards the main room, where you can see her older sister is locked in conversation with the Erinyes, the tall and lethal devil looking like she may eat the elder Sera for dinner, or make love to her. It's often difficult to differentiate these things.

Result of your Sense Motive check:
You are certain the younger Sera is telling you the truth, but you are also certain of another thing that gives you pause; she is terrified. Of what you do not know, but the fear is there, visible only to masters of diplomacy and communication.

Wong Tsai is making his way around the room, speaking with various art lovers, courtiers, nobles, and visitors. If he is at all aware of what has happened to him or his namesake at the Shoto City House, he gives no indication.


Her elegant features betray nothing to any casual onlooker, but you can tell Aki-san is agitated. "Imuri-san, whatever are you speaking of? The black dragonflight...win? Win what? Already they have been victorious on the field of battle this day, it is true, but what else is at stake? Their war in the west they have no doubt come to speak to us about? If..." She pauses to bow to a noble of House Motomo, the depth of her bow a silent and subtle jab at the bourgeois, nouveau-riche noble. "...if we are to work together, I would know what we work towards. What do you know?"