“They only want to divide us. The real fighting is in the Circle,” Elder Hana said. The elder was a tall woman with sharp cheekbones and even sharper eyes. She scanned the room, her gaze dancing over Ryu and the others before landing on Haru. “My lord, I say we deploy the Bound and High Elders and shatter this siege.”

Daisuke shook his head. “No, Hana, we don’t have the numbers. Not here. My lord, I believe the plan I have discussed with you is our only real chance of ending this stalemate. Abandoning our defenses right now is the last thing we want. If this were a single battle, I might agree with Elder Hana, but it isn’t. After this, our forces will be needed elsewhere to counter this invasion.”

Haru raised a hand, silencing the arguments. They all sat in the fort’s large council room, the arched, ribbed ceilings high above echoing their arguments back down to them. Light shone through the high stained glass windows around, and Ryu could hear the hellish sounds of fighting through the gray stone.

“I understand Elder Hana’s remarks,” Haru said, looking up from the checkered stone floor. “But Elder Daisuke brings up a valid point. This is not a battle but a war.” He seemed to linger on the last word, savoring it like one might a favored meal. “Which means we must keep our people ready for the fights ahead. This also means this current battle of attrition cannot continue any longer. I want this siege ended. To that extent, I would like to coordinate with outside forces and trap these damn Bugs between their swords and our walls.”

A few echoed their agreement, but Ryu noticed the frown on Daisuke’s face. “But who, milord? Many of our allies are tied up in their own battles.”

Haru smiled. “Then I guess coordinate was the wrong word. I will command the forces of the Red Sun Faction to come. The Aristocracy’s forty border districts have been divided into eight martial territories. The Red Sun Faction was assigned to the fourth, of which the most notable fortification is this fort. Now, House Takeda has already retreated, but the Asakura are steady. House Hojo and House Yamana hold as well, though I suspect much of their success has been through mutual support.

“So I will go to the forces of House Takeda and lead them to break the siege at Asakura. Then we will break the siege here, and with all of my forces, we will save House Hojo and House Yamana. Provided they fall to their knees and name me Shogun of course,” he said.

The room sat in silence for a moment as the elders digested his words. For his part, Ryu kept his expression flat. An increase in House Ishida’s power meant an increase in his own, but he would not openly support Haru’s ambition.

“And House Takeda will march at your command?” an elder asked.

“Their lord retreated, and his heir has died. I imagine they will surrender to me quite easily, and if not…” He shrugged. “A show of force will be necessary. One performed by my very own bloodline.”

Dozens of eyes shifted to Ryu, who stood to the right of Haru’s chair. He had already agreed to the plan, of course. He detested his biological father, but the man’s plan would save lives. Being a decent person had little to do with what you enjoyed and everything with what helped others, and though Ryu was far from decent, his child deserved a good father. So once more, he would give into the games of violence. Perhaps peace would mop away the blood he’d spilled, scrub the stains from his soul, and bury his sins with two pats of the shovel for good measure.

He, however, doubted it. He did what he did because it had to be done. With a son on the way, what had to be done took on a whole new meaning, and Ryu’s feelings had no place in it. Onward, always.

“I stand with Lord Ishida,” an elder said, standing to his feet with trembling jowls. “Bless the shogun and his family.” He bowed deeply.

The others leapt to do the same, though some like Daisuke and Hana seemed lost in thoughts, strategies on holding the fort until Haru’s return no doubt bouncing around in their minds. Ryu kept the slack, flat expression on his face. The elders would notice a small frown, a smile, or a smirk and make all sorts of deductions from it, and though Ryu had never been an adept socialite, he had learned long ago how to fake apathy.

“I will take Bound Ryu and another Master with me. A larger party will not make it through the horde unnoticed. In turn, my brother Ishida Jinn will head the elder council during my absence. Elder Daisuke, the walls of the fort are yours.”

“It would be my honor, my lord,” the taciturn soldier said.

“Then that is all. Dismissed,” Haru said with a wave of his hand. The powerful members of the house wandered out in one’s and two’s, while Haru reclined in his chair, Ryu unmoving at his side.

After some time, Haru spoke. “Wonder why I put old Jinn in charge while I’m gone?”

“I would not think to question my lord’s words,” Ryu said through gritted teeth.

He laughed. “Worry not,” he said. “I would not threaten my own brother, though I suspect there is little love lost between us. No, Jinn was our father’s favorite. Honorable, steadfast, charming. In other words, the perfect heir. And so he was. While he trained to become lord, I dueled and fought and studied war, too young yet to gain my Class. When the trials to become the Sword Candidate rolled around, my path was clear; win the trials, become the Sword, and support my brother.

“And so I did. The two young prodigies of House Ishida. We were the talk of the whole faction. I fought, grew stronger, and fought some more, and then one day, the candidate was dropped from my title. I was Sword, in truth. And my father brought me into his chambers, looked down his nose at me like a proper lord, and commanded me to insult the heir of House Hojo at the time. He wanted me to kill their Sword, you see.

“I was affronted. What of honor? What of the House’s traditions? It is not the lord’s duty to command the Sword. The Sword is a separate entity of the House, the guardian of its honor and people. I thought it rather heroic. But it was my father, and how could I deny the man who had held me when I fell down and wept, the man who dusted my shoulders and told me everything would be alright. So I did as I was told, and the Sword of House Hojo died. A good, honorable man.

“I learned then that honor only existed to start problems, not finish them. It does not patch wounds. It does not heal rivalries. And it does not bring back the dead. It only gives bad men the opportunity to exploit the mistakes of the weak. My mother, gods rest her soul, would have been horrified to see me then, her poor boy clad in blood, mud, and all the pieces of a man best left underneath the skin.

“Life changed that day, and I returned home, made the formal declaration to the elders of my father’s request, provided the evidence, and killed him there, fat and old in his tall chair. A weak man. This would be my brother some day? I decided no. Not out of love for him or the desire to keep him safe, but because the man without a sword should never order the man with. I took the throne as my own, and any who tried to stop me fell as my father had.

“And you know what? Jinn never said a word about it after. Almost think he was relieved not to take the chair. I gave him land and a manor and left him to his own devices. When you were conceived and I stepped away from your mother, he stepped in and offered to take you. I allowed him to under the condition he raise you to be the Sword. Because in the end, the Sword must be his own man and not his father’s. And Jinn agreed, the honest bastard. He’s a better man than you or I could ever be, so in the end, I can leave him to stand in while I’m gone and know he won’t take my position. The same can’t be said for the rest.”

Ryu grunted. “Aye, he is a better man, but in the end, I am not the Sword. Emiko will be, however, and you know she cannot say no to your will.”

Haru smiled and tilted his head upwards. “She will not have to be, for the Sword checks the lord, not the shogun. Ryu, I will force the other houses to their knees, ascend to shogun, and break with House Ishida. Jinn will take my place as lord as he was always meant to. I will leave the Houses most of their autonomy and identity, but make them subservient to a greater name. A Clan. Not a house, for that implies they are equal. A Clan of my own name, and you will be my heir. You will be my check. When I grow old and corrupt, you will kill me.”

“I would rather not.”

“But you will. I know of your child and your woman. I say this not to threaten them but because I know the type of man you are. The type of man we are. You will never be able to be there for them the traditional way. You will never be able to hold them close and whisper sweet nothings in their ears. You are not that sort of man. Power alone drives you, and you will forever shift your motives to chase it. When your child is born, be it son or daughter, you will realize the only thing you have to give it besides hardship is whatever legacy the strength of your arms can build.”

Ryu heard the words and clenched his teeth. A reflection of his own thoughts. Too monstrous to be a father, too stained to live a normal, happy life. A better world. That was what he wanted, wasn’t it? To build a better life for his family, so they could live on without him. As Haru was trying to do for him.

Onward, always. Perhaps he would make it his creed, for the moment Ryu stopped, the burden of his sins might drop him to his knees. Onward because forward was the only direction he knew to go, the only life a man like him could have. Onward into the fight, into war, into pain and hope he came out the other side strong enough to make things right.

His goal was a better world and the power to forge it. That he would have one way or another. “If I help you become Shogun, will you have the power to turn the Aristocracy against the Lord’s Flock?”

Haru smiled. “Where is this coming from?”

“The High Priestess is the one who organized my capture by the Bugs. She wants me dead. For… For the death of her friend.” He understood her feelings, but he would not fall on his sword for her. She would die like the rest. She had to. Their worlds could not coexist.

“If I were Shogun, then yes, I imagine I could.” Haru touched a hand to his sword. “And I will, given the opportunity. An attack against my heir is an attack on my person. Become my heir, Ryu, and I will tear this woman from her twisted cultists.”

“I want the whole bloody thing dead and buried, if I’m honest, but that’s as good a start as any. Fine, I agree,” Ryu said. Hate seemed an awfully thin thing in the face of understanding, and he was eager to escape its dying struggles to think things over.

“Leave me then and prepare for the journey ahead.” Haru waved. “Say nothing of this to Jinn or the others. It is our secret alone to bear, Ryu.”

He nodded. “Agreed.”

In truth, he knew Haru did not care for him. He cared only for his own legacy. He had replaced his lust for battle with one for power, and his current attitude served his goals better than the uncaring, mad one of before. His words were a truth sprinkled with lies. He had seen Ryu’s power and wanted it tied to his house. His clan. Haru needed Ryu to swing the balance in his favor, but it was fine. Ryu would use him, too.

With his position in the Red Sun Faction, Ryu would destroy those who stood in the way of his better world. The Bugs. Keira. All of them. He would help Haru now to get his way and then onto the Spire and the Circle it would be, for the only direction Ryu knew was forward.