Kyuden Shika

"I leave believing in me to other people."

Sip.

"Frees me up. And keeps me from disappointing myself. And let me tell you, this miai has vindicated my self-doubt far more than my self-confidence."

"Well know that there are many who DO believe in you Shiba Raizo. We believe in you and love you each in our own way." tears of honest sincerity welled in his eyes but they did not fall, sparing them both.

"Yes, well. I try not to let my friends down, hm?"

"If we can all do that I think we an make a better empire." he raised his cup in toast and then drained it before refilling both their cups. "So...have you two talked details yet? Number of kids and all that? When Bai brought it up to me it almost knocked me down. I knew she loved me before but that felt like another level."

"Actually, no. We're both.... trying to leave some room to cushion any... disappointment, I think. Besides... a lot of what we talk about is simply getting to know each other better. Little things, like favorite foods, or our favorite places we've traveled."

He paused.

"And sharing my hilariously dreadful poetry I wrote about her while drunk."

"Oh?" He had a mischievous glint in his eyes but resisted the temptation to ask for more details. "Well I've done my fair share of bad poetry during the miai, and leaving it out for all to see. And it must be awful because no one, including Bai, has said a word about it to or near me."

"At least yours were presumably recognized poetic forms."

Raizo made a face.

"Mine rhymed."

"That's different."

Sip

"So wait, you were posting poems out in the gardens? Sheesh."

"Are you familiar with the game of letters? The tradition of leaving letters anonymously for all to see but with a specific person in mind when you write it? You have to have seen some of them while here. Well many of those are me writing to Bai. Interestingly I believe that all three of the poems found today were to Bai. One was me, I am certain another was from Murato and I suspect the third is from Yuzu though I can't be certain it is about Bai but I highly suspect it is. It's a way to make a statement publicly yet for the most part safely. In winter courts there is a game within the game of trying to figure out who wrote what to who."