[D2ME] Milk moon

[Moto Mitsuki]

Mitsuki returned to the clearing where she had performed the libation the previous day. It was unsurprisingly as she had left it, a rocky, tree-void opening in the heights of the forest, from where one could contemplate the sky and the earth without human interference.

She dismounted her horse just before entering it, removed her coat, fixed her white dress and make-up, grabbed a bottle, a bowl and bones from her saddlebag, took a deep breath, and finally moved forward into the sacred.

Nothing special had happened, just grass and rock. Well, the signs would come eventually, she just had to be patient and attentive. She sat, poured what appeared to be milk into the bowl, and looked at the reflection of the moon in the liquid, fiddling with the dice bone in one hand.

---

Passion: Fortune-Telling (Void)... eventually

[Seppun Unsei]

What better to be than in the woods by yourself at night as a shugenja that had no knowledge of fighting? Nowhere. That was certain.

With a bag containing a folding table and an armful of star charts, Unsei was slowly making their way through the forest. Not too quickly of course. They didn't want to fall and crush the charts, nor dirty up their kimono. So focused on just walking was Unsei that they nearly passed up the other shugenja.

In fact, they had, but then realized their folly and walked backwards until the Moto was back in their sight.

"Uh. Hello." They said, unsure. Could be a specter of some kind. She was pale enough and her hair was black, which was usually how specters looked... at least how they thought

Their confusion was clear as day on their face, however, as they tried to figure out for certain.

[Moto Mitsuki]

Mitsuki snapped out of her trance. A newcomer, and likely not a spirit. At least not one of her owns, unless the Lords of Death last recruitment drive was a bit wilder than expected.

With another person, she could have wondered what they were doing in the woods and took precautions of a military nature. But in that case the answered likely lied in the starcharts they were holding.

"Seppun-sama."

She unfolded her stiff legs and stood up, only to bow properly. The bone dice were still clinking in her hand.

"This one is Moto Mitsuki, of the ten thousand blades of the Khan. How does the evening find you? Would you happen to be looking for a place to gaze at the stars far from the concealing lights of the city?"

[Seppun Unsei]

"Moto-san." They said politely before bowing. The bow took a bit longer than it should have as they had to shuffle the various charts around, as well as their bag so they wouldn't fall over or wrinkle the charts.

"Seppun Unsei, of no special titles." It was a surprise that they didn't have any large titles, given their ego, but they felt their name should be enough.

Then to answer the Moto's questions in order. "The evening finds me well, and I am trying to find a decent area to gaze this evening. It seems like a pretty evening for it, plus I haven't done it recently. It looks as though you are doing something similar. Must mean the areas good, eh?"

[Moto Mitsuki]

"The best I could find. Not to say it's the best that can be found – the forest is vast – but my horse is quick and I had a good guide. So I'm relatively confident there are none better in the immediate vicinity.

And I'm indeed going through the motions to receive my ancestors' guidance: Catching the signs in the stars, deciphering the sound of the wind, feeling the vibrations of the earth, the whole package."

[Seppun Unsei]

They nodded as the Moto spoke, following along with her words.

"That sounds about right and I hope it's going well for you so far. The stars seem to be in a good position tonight. Auspicious time to be born, which likely means that tomorrow will be less great. Not bad, but not as good as tonight for what it matters." They looked up to the stars and looked them over a bit.

"This is a nice spot though. Your guide was correct."

[Moto Mitsuki]

"I've heard that one of the first exercises a student in astrology must perform is to double check the portents of their own birth. My teachers, the Ujik people of the desert, have a far grimmer tradition: On the day the student becomes the master, they must gaze into the future until they see their own death.

They view it as a necessary lesson in humility, a reminder that there are some things that no prediction, no matter how accurate, will allow oneself to escape forever."

She tried a smile to break up the tension:

"Thankfully I'm not nearly advanced enough in my own training to have gone through that trial yet, so I can still enjoy my blissful ignorance for now. Would you like something to drink? I have... Well, a gourd of milk and one of beer."

[Seppun Unsei]

Unsei... wasn't quite sure where that came from, but brushed it off, assuming they just wanted to show off and that was okay with them.

"Ah, fair enough. Everybody has different ways of.doing it and in the end, we all do similar things. Granted, for different purposes, but we can all agree that it's useful to be able to see into the future and attempt to learn what will happen there." They nodded and smiled a bit, giving the impression that there was nothing going on in that head of theirs. Because there wasn't.

"You haven't passed your gempukku though? Or is it rather the mastery of the school before going further? There are some places that do it differently and require different things for that sort of stuff."

[Moto Mitsuki]

Mitsuki smiled.

"I think there has been a misunderstanding.

I am a Moto warrior, trained in the way of the horse and the blade. My gempukku was several years ago, and I now serve my clan as a military commander, me and my soldiers riding into battle wherever our lord needs us.

And I also happen, through complex family ties, to have receive irregular training in the divinatory arts, a science in which I am still but a novice. Hence my fragmentary, and sometimes overly focused on the spectacular instead of the significant, knowledge of it.

However, a priest of the kami I am not."

[Seppun Unsei]

They stood there a moment, more than a bit confused, but then ultimately shrugged again. "Fair enough. Again." They chuckled slightly and then began to set their stuff down. With them standing around and talking, it was starting to get pretty heavy.

"That's pretty cool though. There's a lot of stuff that divination can help with and a lot you can still do, even if you can't talk to the kami." They paused. "Actually, most of it you can do without talking to the kami. They aren't... really a big part of trying to see parts of the future. Sure, there's a few spells that could be considered divination that the kami do help with, but not too many."

They furrowed their brows, pondering on that for a moment. "I think Ishiken might touch on that a bit more, but not too sure. I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been an ishiken running around here. Stars above know they probably wouldn't shut up about it."