I found myself seated at a desk, a large map held down from curling by several books. The sheer artistic quality was breathtaking; it was so magnificent I hesitated to touch it. The written symbols on it were meaningless to me, despite their beauty, but I guessed it was of Kai Province.

A deep chuckle came from above me at my stunned reaction, and Lord Shingen leant over me, extending his right hand to the map.

"We are here." I noticed his finger landed beside the exquisitely painted small image of the castle gates. "See how much you can work out of Kai Province on your own."

His body was too close to me, I wanted to squirm.

As if sensing my discomfort he moved around to the other side of the desk, leaning in from the other side. "There are other maps here." He pointed to a holder on the floor next to me, it was stuffed full of scrolls.

A sharp rap on the door and a male voice announcing an arrival broke his concentration, his long hair swung dramatically as he turned his head to answer.

"Come in Kansuke." He commanded.

The door slid to reveal several of his generals, they hesitated as they saw me, but Shingen beckoned them in. I fought to hide a smile, they would think me safely out of range of their conversation, and I coughed to mask my expression.

Instant concern crossed Shingen's face, but I shook my hand at him to signal I was okay, and by the time I looked up again he was handing me a cup of water.

"Thank you Lord Shingen, I'm fine." He nodded and moved to sit with his men.

I zoned my focus into the image of the castle gates, the map revealed more and more details the closer I looked, the hand that produced this was truly masterful. My ears however, stayed glued to the conversation on the other side of the room.

"Lord Shingen, how can we talk freely..."

"We are out of range of her understanding" The first voice was cut off. I again fought not to smile and re-focused on the map, seeing the training grounds, and tracing the path from the castle where Shingen and I had raced our horses.

I felt my face relax once more.

"How is she able to be recovered .."

"She is not." Again Shingen cut off the voice, his tone was beginning to sound irritated. "We are not here to discuss Lady Tamara, there will be no more talk on the subject." His voice growled a warning and there was silence accompanied by some uncomfortable shifting. "Kansuke, outpost report."

"We have seen movement of small groups of Imagawa near our border, raiding parties mostly, but they could be looking for an inroad. Several of the outlying villages have suffered in their wake."

"Two regiments are within a day's ride of where they were last seen" Another deep voice spoke, "We could ..." He was cut off.

"Send one, have them appear as a raiding party of their own, I would rather not announce the strength of our presence just yet, help the villagers and avoid a full scale confrontation."

"Yes milord, it will be done."

I looked up briefly as I heard the owners of the two voices make ready to leave, having to then swiftly return to the map as Lord Shingen almost caught my eye. Their conversation wasn't all that interesting to me, so I zoned out the voices and put my attention to learning about Kai Province.

As I found the winding trail that led to the cave outpost and traced it with my finger, my hand started to shake as it rested near the outpost image. It was further from the castle than I had thought.

The howling images and memories that sought to flood my mind were more easily held at bay now, and I let my finger find a connecting thread of outposts around the map. There were so many villages, so many towns, so many lives under the Tiger's protection.

I saw my finger wobble again, even though my mind and heart were clear of emotion.

It was confusing.

I sat up and took a sip of water, the men's voices on the other side of the room sounded like a deep buzzing in my ears.

As I dropped my head to the map, the artwork seemed to move under my eyes. I found it thoroughly annoying. My body was sabotaging me and I fought it back fiercely. I was starting to feel cold and grey and as I set the cup back down I had to really concentrate on it not spilling, my damned hand seemed unable to keep a grip.

The buzzing noise stopped from across the room, so I raised my head, but didn't seem to be able to see beyond the map.

"Lady Tamara!" I heard a voice and saw a shape come towards me, then a sharp image of the map just before my head hit the desk.