The Midday Meal

Yoso was still at her window when a knock sounded at the door to her residence. It sounded a second time before she remembered that there were no servants around to announce guests. Rolling her eyes, she answered the visitor herself.

Tsubo was on the other side of the sliding door, accompanied by someone Yoso was less pleased to see - Hirakiyo. Despite dishonourable removal from his station years ago, Daimyo Tadasada had restored the man to the rank of samurai. Yoso held great respect for her daimyo, but it was an affront to hold equal standing with the likes of Hirakiyo. She had abandoned any hope of enjoying this trip when she had learned that she would spend it in the company of him as well as the barbarians.

"Have you finished unpacking?" Tsubo asked, knowing full well that it was the servants whom had done so. "Join us at the dining hall." Yoso normally found Tsubo's sanguine attitude and propensity for inclusiveness to be appealing attributes, but they had the regrettable side effect of failing to recognize which people to keep a distance from.

At the dining hall, Yoso's prediction was validated. At the peak of the meal time, she imagined she'd find greater tranquility in a typhoon. The Knights hollered, the Vikings roared, and everyone else could only try to talk over them.

The tables were all stocked with food that, although exotic, looked enticing - most of them anyway. Yoso spied some Knights stuffing their faces with things that made her stomach churn. Servants came and went, replacing platters and refilling drinks.

Yoso and her associates found Tadasada seated with two other daimyo, and some of their lieutenants. They took open seats on the other side of the table. From there they were close enough to listen to the conversation but far enough to sneak in some private exchanges.

Untrusting of the food's origin and handling, Yoso avoided the more interesting dishes. For now, she contented herself with a simple bowl of rice. Hm, tastes right enough. She was nearly through with her bowl when something across the hall caught her eye. "Psst, Tsubo. Do you see those two over there?"

They combed the room with their gaze. "Do you mean the executioner and his friend?"

Yoso was puzzled until she found what they were referring to. A Hitokiri and a Knight in a hood sat at a table, just the two of them. Neither ate nor spoke. They didn't even look at one another. Based on their expressions, they were not enjoying themselves.

"What? No, those two over there." She quieted herself midway through the sentence, remembering that there was already a conversation at the table. She indicated in the direction she was referring to.

Now Tsubo saw them - a man and a woman seated near the head of a table, conversing with some Vikings. By their dress, they were not Samurai, Knights, nor Vikings. The woman was of average size and build; for this camp, anyway. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail. The man was hearty, barrel-chested, and large. His white hair and beard aged him.

"Yes, I see them. Where are they from? I cannot place them," Tsubo admitted.

"Me neither. I will ask when the chance presents itself." It took some time, but eventually the conversation lulled enough for Yoso to raise the matter to the rest of the table.

"I am told they are Wu Lin emissaries," one of the daimyo stated in answer to her question.

"Wu Lin?" a subordinate of a different daimyo said, stealing another look at the duo. "What do they want?"

"What could emissaries from another nation want at a camp that's sole purpose is to quash millennium-old animosity?" Tadasada asked rhetorically. "Hm, I wonder."

A question entered Yoso's mind. "If they were to seek inclusion in the Camp, do you believe that the Empress would allow them?"

"It is not my place to speak speculatively for the Empress," Tadasada responded with paced words. "What I can say is that if she were to welcome them, I would think it a wise decision."

"With respect, I would humbly disagree."

Tadasada stared straight at Yoso for a moment, his expression forbidding. "And why would you find it unwise to include the Wu Lin?"

Out of deference, Yoso kept her gaze at the table as she answered. "To invite one old enemy to your dinner is to invite risk with them. To invite _two _old enemies to your dinner is to invite danger with them. To invite two old enemies and a new one is to invite with them."

The awkward silence at the table that ensued prompted Yoso to briefly look up to see if Tadasada was still staring her down. He was.

"Such hostility is exactly the foe this camp was created to defeat," Tadasada said with a commanding tone. Yoso hung her head obediently, but she was not so timid that her posture might falter. "If you are to come away from this camp with the lessons it hopes to impart, then we must redouble our efforts. I am making this a proper order to you; all of you," the daimyo swept his arm to indicate all those under his command. "You are to take every opportunity, make every effort to understand these foreigners and help them to understand us. Do not let me find you in the exclusive company of your fellow Samurai. We begin right now - all of you, find somewhere new to take your meal. Find novel company. Go, now!" Tadasada waved them away as if they were impatient children crowding a cook in his kitchen.

"Go and do what?" Yoso protested, pushing her lord's patience. "We are not diplomats."

"Our Empress leads us towards a world with more kindness than our ancestors knew. Reaching it demands that we settle our contentions. We're all diplomats now."

The other daimyos nodded their agreement. With humility, those at Tadasada's command rose from their places a the table and bowed to depart.

"Gracefully done, kensei," Hirakiyo muttered as he passed Yoso. Neither he, nor the others were happy about being exiled from their daimyo's table. None except Tsubo, that was. They did not seem to mind so much.

As the others distributed themselves around the dining hall, Yoso looked about. For her, sharing a dining venue with these barbarians was already more than enough. Now it was the will of her daimyo that she share a table... She became thankful that she had gotten some eating in before being to relocate.