Push I

It was our first night of business, now that we were acclimated. We were in the great meeting-hall of the Ginga on the fourth floor. It was a little larger than the guest hall, well over a hundred mats in area, but that should have gone without saying.

The room was set up to be symmetrical, with each side possessing a dais of light raised mats with tables set upon them, and a cloth banner stretched between poles bearing each fief's crest- moths, branches, and flowers in Ginga green and the stylized cormorant of Utani silver- standing behind the heads of fief. There were nine seats upon each dais, occupied by the heads of fief and the most senior lords. Family members and knights of of lesser importance were seated in two front of the dais - I counted sixteen Ginga and twelve Utani. We pages were in less conspicuous positions - at the foot of each side of the dais. I'd had the chance to meet my counterpart on this side of the room, a sharp-looking boy with a ponytail named Nozomu, but we'd only had a few moments to ourselves before we were rushed into lessons of etiquette.

A dour-looking man with a mountain of wrinkles, probably all earned, rapped a clapper against its mated block, making bright pon-pon-pons all through the hall and probably well out into the outside passages. As per etiquette, we hadn't been speaking, but I guess they had to mark the start of the meeting all the same. The dour man, who I guessed was the majordomo, called out in a hoarse voice, "Alright. May may we begin."

I had before me a table similar to the ones on the dais, and upon it was paper, ink, and pen. Pretty much my only job while I was here was to copy down all that was said. Was I supposed to copy that? I did it anyway, before anybody could say anything else.

Lord Ginga went first. "If I may begin by being frank, Sir Utani, when I was young I often heard from my late and honorable father that you were a lord of business, not one of ceremony. If it would please you, may we dispense with the pleasantries and begin straight away?"

I couldn't see Lord Utani from my vantage, but his voice was clear. "Your late and honorable father taught you well, Sir Ginga, and I am pleased that you have taken me into your consideration. That said, let us begin. Sir Suginaga, would you please read off the list of raids from along our western border?"

After Lord Suginaga finished, his counterpart, a hardly-shaved man with the voice of a bear, read off the raids from the Ginga borders, which I could not help but notice was three times the length of ours. The meeting plodded along for the rest of the night, but I suppose that we each had to get acquainted with all that's happened since we were last here.

As I copied, watching ink spray in spots and spatters across the page, I began to wonder if my sloppy handwriting was up to the task.