Day 18 - Ryoko Owari

"I'm sorry, Lady Hitomi-sama." The guardsman bows at the shining green gates of the Scorpion city. "But you cannot enter Ryoko Owari."

She stares at him, stoic and unafraid. "You would stand in my way?"

"No, great one." The guard bows again. "And when you have done as I ask, you may take my head to repay you for your trouble. But the walls of Ryoko Owari do not hold the one you seek. You must follow me, to the north. She is waiting there for you."

"How do you know what I seek, and what I do not wish to find?"

"Your forgiveness, my lady." The Bayushi smiles, lowering his hands to bow again. "But I am Scorpion."

The dark lady of the Dragon smiles. Perhaps he knows her path, after all.

Source: posted to www.wizards.com/l5r on 2/8/00