Kingdom of Power, of Courage, and of Wisdom

Dragmire's War - Shorlin's Daughter

-The Secret in which Abhdan and Impa Explained-

Long ago, Qin knew war inside and out. There was endless war on the border as King Shorlin expanded the kingdom of Qin two fold. There was endless war in the palace, as this newly obtained land and the power that came with it was fought over by every minister. And there was endless war in the Royal Harem, as favor of the king was highly sought after by every girl, and this was further encouraged by pressure from the houses they entered the harem under.

A girl from the Ki family would enter with Ki's support, and would be expected, nay required, to bring them favor from the king, and with Ki support would assassinate rival girls. Every house in Qin used the Royal Harem as one of its many arenas with the lives of young girls and woman every day. The Queen Mother did not rule in such a way as to instill order or discipline and may have actually profited from the bloodbath that surrounded her each day. Every woman to go to King Shorlin and bed him most likely died. To be bedded twice was practically a certainty of death. Woman would be poisoned, be stabbed in their sleep, choked, or simply disappeared. They would be found rolled up in rugs and thrown in a water ditch or trampled by horses. The violence reached such a crescendo that girls were being targeted for even being in rival houses outside of the harem, as they could be future rivals within the harem. Then within each house, favor would be fought over by rivals who wanted to earn favor. Ki would kill Ki as much as any other house, if it gave her benefit.

And that went for each house, not just the Ki family. In fact, the Ki family was so large it could be considered many families, and the infighting within the harem was one source of its split across many branch families.

In this wildly violent time a girl found she was pregnant.

Suffice to say, she feared for her life and the life of her child, but whether by luck, skill, or divinity, she managed to hide her pregnancy and have a child. Even as a newborn babe it was a feisty thing that refused to be still, and the girl knew she could not hide her for long. She went to the Sheikah that very day and implored them to take the child away and keep her a secret. The Sheikah agreed and the child disappeared. The next morning the woman was found dead, her throat cut in a violent attack, and the body was dumped.

The Sheikah spirited the child away to the Mitagi. With their close ties to the Mitagi, it was an easy arrangement. The mother had been of the bloodline of Mitagi, and so the child was accepted as one of them as well. To accept the secret, the girl was adopted, and in order to ensure there was no link to the past, lest any recognize her as the daughter of the concubine, the girl was raised to be as a boy servant.

Being raised in the Mitagi, the girl was hardened. She saw the men train and fight, and fell in love with the blade. She did not want a broom, she wanted a sword. The heads of the family tried to discourage her, but she would have none of it, and trained even in secret, until they accepted she would be a soldier or officer. They had men train her who were sworn to absolute secrecy.

Before long, she was on her first battlefield as an officer. It was a low position, merely of a hundred men. The battlefield was one that would be joined between the Mitagi, the Ki family, and several other clans and families. Kyou Mitagi was sent to skirmish on behalf of the Mitagi. And Ou was sent to skirmish on behalf of the Ki.

Ou was a prodigy of war. Like any prodigy of Ki he had cunning, but he also had great strength and charisma and understanding. He had an eye that made others compare him to a bird who could see all, even matters beyond his sight, and he had a way of reading people that was purely uncanny. He looked at the thin man, Kyou, and he perceived a woman. He fell hard.

Ou went to the Mitagi to ask for Kyou's hand in marriage. He was turned away. He was a stubborn one and stood at the door to the Mitagi elder's estate for a full year. He would not pitch a tent. He left only to survive on what he needed and otherwise sat outside the door, whether under rain or sun, cold or hot, for a year. At last the elder gave in and brought Ou to a meeting to discuss the matter.