The sound of gunfire brought Shoko’s warriors, racing from the treeline, to join the battle. The gunmen turned and several more shots were fired, each glancing off armor, carapace or just flying wide. Two shots was the most any of them managed to get off, before the hornets were on them.

Only a handful had had the presence of mind to draw their sidearms in the meantime, which was to no avail. Between the highly skilled warriors and mandibles of the hornets, the defenders soon were little more than red remains, bleeding out on the parapets.

Meanwhile, foot soldiers were either trying to get to their lord, or attacking the three women that protected the dying Gunari.

Nana casually blocked a spear that came at her face, used her secondary blade to topple another opponent and ducked under a third strike.

“Shoko!” she called, blocking another jab from a spear, “Do the honors please.”

Shoko stepped back from defending herself and raised her face plate, put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. A shrill sound that cut over the din of battle.

Nana took out another enemy then sighed in relief when she saw reprieve coming.

The hornets cut into the enemy line, continuing the massacre they had started and the enemy quickly broke, running to join their other comrades or helping them to carry the lord Dekamu to safety.

Nana knelt down, looking as the Dekamu domain soldiers formed a traditional circle of spears against the oncoming enemies. One with the spears pointing outward, the next with the spears sideways to the sky and the center of the column with their weapons straight up, prepared to take the brunt of an attacking aerial enemy.

At this, the hornet mounted Giya took to the air and some words were exchanged, then bows drawn from the holster at their saddles, calmly loaded and then used to pepper the spearmen with arrows.

It did not take long for them to throw down their weapons and them themselves at the riders’ mercies.

Nana did not watch the spectacle. She dropped down next to Rei, who was looking into the wounds on the Gunari.

She had torn the man’s armor off him, which had been a terrible decision. The bullets had shattered the carapace, part of which now stuck deep in the man’s lung.

“Can you stabilize him?”

“Do I look like a tantuo medic! I have no clue!”

“Did the Gunari have a medic in his train?”

“Didn’t see one,” Rei sighed, then looked at the enemy soldiers, “They were prepared. They must have one. Shoko!”

“On it!” was the response and the rough interrogation to find a single medic started, though only a few minutes later they learned that the medical crew had fled almost as soon as Dekamu died.

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The Gunari rasped a deep breath, pawing at Nana’s wrist.

“Nana…I’m… not going to…”

“Sir…”

“Quiet, girl,” he snapped, with some of the authority he had in his prime, “I’m dying. My heir is…”

“Who?”

The man silenced.

“Sir! Who!”

Nana sighed, then slowly closed his eyes with her fingers.

Lady Nidekamu, formerly known as Shirosato, had been lounging in a warm steam bath, when she was interrupted in her ponders by a bedraggled looking soldier.

She was in no mood to chastise the man, instead letting her long slender leg dangling over the tub and sticking out a pale arm to gesture him to speak.

“My lady,” the man breathed heavily, “Grave tidings…”

An eyebrow went up, prompting him to continue.

“What is it?”

“Your husband-to-be, the lord Dekamu…”

“...Has been slain.”

Nidekamu remained stone faced as she processed the news, then without replying, waved the messenger out.

“Wait,” she called when the man was at the door.

“Have you told his son?”

“Not yet, lady…”

“Please leave that to me then,” she replied calmly, “I’ll bring it with a little more tact than you did…”

The soldier nodded his understanding then retreated from the bathroom.

When he left, Nidekamu produced a long knife from the folds of her clothes, left nearby in the case of trouble. She studied the blade, slowly contemplating how Dekamu would no longer have a male heir to inherit.

Nana, Shoko, and Rei stood around the Gunari’s corpse, undecided what to do and uneasy at the coming decisions.

They had been silent for a time, praying for the Gunari’s soul, before Nana finally spoke.

“Let them go,” she said to Shoko.

“Who?”

“The prisoners.”

“But lady Hoshitentou…”

“They were only following their lord. Commendable in itself. Release them.”

“You’d let an insurrectionist army return home?”

“Our lord and Dekamu can decide their issues in the afterlife, Shoko. Let them go.”

“...Understood,” Shoko mumbled, then left to inform the prisoners of their fate.

“Nana…?”

“Yes, Rei?”

“Who will be Gunari?”

Nana drummed her fingers on her thigh, “That’s up to the Empress.”

“She’s five years old.”

“And her council will never get to an agreement,” Nana sighed, already seeing the oncoming storm.

“How long did he rule?”

“Ten years,” Nana replied, “Ten sweet years of peace. It was nice while it lasted.”

“Can we stop it?” Rei asked, not daring to voice the words on her mind. Another civil war.

“Not unless we kill every noble in the land. Which we couldn’t even do if we wanted too…”

“Why not?”

“With the Gunari dead, we’ve lost our position. We’re Emubo at best, Rei…”

Rei, dejected, looked at the dead man and closed her eyes to hide tears.

Almost unnoticed, a storm rolled in from the east…