“We need to do something with her.”

“What do you mean, ‘do something with her’?”

The ‘her’ in question was Bitou Ayane. Heir of the neighbouring Bitou clan and hostage of the Yashiro for the last 14 months. She had been captured over a year prior in the hopes of forcing her father to abandon his alliance with the Kuroda, who had been increasingly threatening Yashiro lands. However, despite Ayane being his first born and heir to his lands, Bitou Noboru had refused to betray his allies and had called the Yashiro on their bluff. ‘Go ahead, kill my daughter. That will only strengthen our alliance with the Kuroda and prove our loyalty to them, and fully bring both their and my wrath down upon you.’

And so she remained, a guest slash hostage in Yashiro lands, nobody quite sure what to do with her.

“We should just kill her.”

Yashiro Ryobe. Current head of the Yashiro clan, and getting on in years.

“We can’t just kill her, father. We don’t need the trouble that’s going to bring.”

Yashiro Sou. Ryobe’s only living son and heir and most trusted adviser.

“Trouble? What trouble? You mean the Kuroda ransacking our villages to the south, the Bitou raids on our supply lines in the east, or the Wada pushing down on us from the north? Those troubles?”

“Father, if you kill Ayane that’s just going to bring the full forces of both the Kuroda and Bitou upon us at once. We can’t hold off both clans while we’re still trying to deal with the Wada in the north. That’s suicide.”

“Bah, they’re already raiding our lands as it is, what difference would it make?”

Sou placed a black stone on the Go board before him, capturing one of his father’s chains. His father was truly skilled in battle and an intelligent warrior, but endless years of war with other clans was beginning to take its toll on him. He was getting older, less patient and more aggressive.

“The difference is that we’re already spread thin enough as it is. We can handle their raids, father, we can’t handle a full scale war on all sides.”

Ryobe took a sip of his tea, contemplating. He placed a white stone on the board, seemingly ambivalent to the large territory he had just lost to his son.

“Well what do you suggest then, son? They haven’t even made any attempts at getting her back. Bitou has other children, he can just as easily make one of them the next in line. She’s just here consuming our food, drinking our water, learning from our tutors, taking up space…”

When Bitou Noboru had refused the Yashiro’s demands, nobody had any idea what to do with Ayane. She was too important to kill, so they had simply treated her as a kind of ‘forced guest.’ She lived, trained, ate and studied with Sou like his own little sister, and he had grown fond of her.

“Ayane has lived here for over a year now,” Sou began, placing another black stone on the board to cut off one of his father’s chains. “In that time she has been treated honourably, as one of our own.”

Ryobe nodded, taking another sip of tea.

“We have proven ourselves to be more than hospitable. We cannot be faulted by the other clans for our treatment of this important hostage.”

“Get to the point, son.”

“The point, father, is that as long as she remains with us, and as long as we treat her well, the more the other clans will see that we stand by our word. We are not savages like others would suggest we are. We are honourable. We treat those captured with dignity and respect, and we do not discard when something appears to have lost its usefulness.”

Ryobe pondered his son’s words. There was nowhere left for him to go on the board. Sou had won.

“And if all else fails, we can still use her as a bargaining chip in the future. If not with the Bitou directly, then with other clans. There is undoubtedly no shortage of takers who would appreciate access to the Bitou heir.”

Ryobe smiled. Sou knew that would convince him. He cared a little less about honour and what others thought of them than Sou himself did, but having a hostage that may still prove useful in future negotiations, well that was something he couldn’t pass up.

“Surely that’s worth three meals a day and a bed in one of our many guest rooms?”

The men stood up and Ryobe grabbed his much larger son by the shoulder, smiling. Sou looked down at the man who had always seemed so much larger than life to him and put a hand upon his. He looked so much smaller now, weaker, more fragile.

“We’ll keep her a while longer,” he agreed. “I’d also like you to keep an eye on her. Learn what you can about what she knows, what she suspects, what she expects. There has to be some useful information left in her yet.”

“Yes, father.”

The game forgotten, Ryobe walked over to the window and stared outside. Beyond the mountains to the north stood the Wada clan, lead by Wada Kuniaki. Kuniaki had started out as a simple oil merchant, or so the story had gone, and fought his way to the top, personally killing the former daimyo of Bijo province and taking over his lands. Now he was pressing south through Yashiro territory, hoping to ride the wave of victory before anyone realised what was happening and could mount a defense.

“I’m sending you north to deal with the Wada forces,” Ryobe said from the window.

Sou was surprised by his father’s sudden words, but lowered his head in thanks.

“Yes, father.”

“Choose your men. However many you think you may need.”

“Yes, father.”

Ryobe turned around. “I want him destroyed.”

“Yes, father.”

This was the first time Ryobe was sending him out to battle alone. He’d taken part in many battles and even a few smaller campaigns, but always at his father’s side, never alone.

“We need to send a message. Do you understand? This upstart thinks that just because he got lucky and defeated that useless, decrepit old Saito that he can now come and take our lands out from under our noses, well he’s got another thing coming. I’m taking your sister to the Itami, I want you to deal with this before I return.”

It was unspoken. This is your test. The Wada would be expecting the Yashiro to be busy with the Kuroda and Bitou forces, and of course his sister Yuki’s upcoming wedding to Itami Motoki, son of the neighbouring daimyo. A successful surprise attack directly against their army should be more than enough to discourage them for a while, if not destroy them outright. They were still a small clan, but they sat on important lands close to the capital. Even if the Yashiro simply waited them out, another clan would attack and they would lose the advantage. It would be a small, yet highly important battle.

“I’ll take care of it, father.”

“I know you will. Show them what we Yashiro are made of. Even beset from all sides, we will not fall, will not fail. Remind them of why the Yashiro are among the most feared clans in all of Yashima!”