I Don't Need Your Pity, But I Do Need Your Help

There had been death and fire, betrayal and justice. All of it ended in heartbreak and mourning. The end of an era and the beginning of a new time. Ochitsuki wished that things could have remained as they had been, but that was not the way of fate. Life was like a flower petal on the waves of the ocean. There was no fighting those waves and you would go under eventually. One just had to wait until that time, but it would come. For the royal Ishii, it would come. It had come.

In the dead of night the invaders had come. Treachery had let the enemy enter the palace with ease and before anyone knew it, her father, the Shogun, had been murdered in his rooms. Her mother had followed moments later. Both died silently and in their sleep which, she supposed was a blessing. Ochi was a realist and she wasn't hampered by the excess emotion that most females were subject to. Better to have died in their sleep than on a battlefield, or in the dungeon of a conqueror's palace. It never should have happened, but the woman was thankful that it was fast.

As the castle woke and chaos ensued, the shogun's daughter who had been asleep in the livestock area as she had been attending to the oncoming birth of her favorite akita, escaped death. Had Ochi been in her rooms, she would have perished just like her family. Instead, she had been the only one to live. One of the many servants found the woman and told her hurriedly that her parents had been killed and that they were looking for her. When Ochi asked of her brother, the servant had shaken her head and ran off. The monochromatic fae hadn't known what that meant, but she soon found out.

As the royal fae made her way through the dark palace, she rounded a corner, coming face to face with her younger brother, Saiki. He smiled wide at her, oblivious of what had happened.  "I let my friends in," he informed her, his tail wagging happily. "They said that they wanted to wake father so we could all play a game together!" Ochitsuki's insides ran cold. Her sweet brother... Everything clicked into place within the woman's mind and she forced a smile, pulling Saiki into her embrace. Saiki had suffered damage to his brain before he was born. The healers had believed that he wouldn't live, but he had proved them wrong. His mind was addled, however. He remained an eternal child. Children were easy to manipulate and it seemed as though this tactic had worked perfectly on Saiki. The boy had no idea what he'd done. He'd made new friends and was just excited to share them with his family. Though he hadn't intended it to be so, there would be no denial that this was treason. Even if Ochitsuki ignored it, the province had loved her father. They would not let Saiki stay alive. With a kiss to his brow, the patchwork lady held him tight. Removing the shortsword from her waist, Ochi sank it deeply into her younger brother's back. It slid expertly between his ribs, piercing hsi heart. She held him against her until his struggles ceased. Tears formed in the fae's wide eyes but she didn't let them spill. There wasn't time. She allowed Saiki to slide to the floor and she left the blade with him. She had done this and wanted there to be no doubt that she'd done so. They would know by the sword. Saiki had not been killed by the enemy. He had been killed by his sister. Whether they decided that she was the traitor that had let the enemy in because of it, she didn't care. The cause of his death and the perpetrator would be known. He deserved that.

Ochi fled her family's province under cover of night and booked passage on the first ship that she could find. The woman took very few belongings, having no time to gather anything. She had grabbed a thick grey cloak and her katana that was supposed to be for decoration only, but was actually a very sharp, very deadly weapon. That weapon kept her safe on the ships that she traveled upon. A pretty female though she may be, the look in the fae's eye and the way that she grasped the hilt of the katana with her dexterous digits made them think twice about touching her.

Hattori Hanzo. The man's father was friends with her own father. They'd met at least once, she was sure. It was no secret that the man had fled his homeland and had settled elsewhere. News traveled and it traveled well to the highborn. There were few left who might remember the transport of Hattori, so the quest was long and hard. Eventually, someone said that they recognized the description and pointed Ochi in a direction. The ship that was taking her to her destination wasn't that great, however. A sudden storm thrashed the vessel to pieces. Ochitsuki clung to the shattered mast for as long as she could, holding onto consciousness as the rough waves battered her about. Eventually, it was all too much and the runaway fae would finally succumb to oblivion.

"Ochitsuki Ishii"