A new day and a new challenge from Irori. This new challenge goes by the name of Hatsue .Of course this could be a common name in Minki so it may not be a unique name but I have a feeling that if Irori wants me to interact with her then she is probably a unique person. The fact that she didn’t say anything when Omlas butchered the language tells me she may be forgiving of strangers so there is hope that she won’t get too mad when I ask her about Iroir.

All through the conversation with the Ronin I watch Hatsue so that I could make my decision on her. Her passionate outburst claiming unquestioning respect for her master made my decision easy. She is someone worth knowing.

I still don’t know what Irori expects of me but I have decided that killing her is something that I will not do.  Didn’t Kali dress as a follower of Irori when her and Dasi teleported to town to sell stuff? The fact that Kali was willing to impersonate a follower of Irori probably means that she irori would likely not be the type of god to have someone killed. Is Irori a female or a male god? People tend to think knowing the gender of there gods is important but either way they are still a god. At least for today I can avoid that “are you stupid” look from Kali by putting off the question until another day. Hopefully Dasi or kali will refer to Iroir as he or she and thus I won’t have to ask.

So now I have to figure out how to talk with Hatsue about Irori or talk with her to figure out what Irori wants. The direct approach is the simplest but I wouldn’t be surprised if she thought that the whole idea was crazy. It would be for the best if I wait until we return from the fort. Maybe then there will be some good will and she will be willing to at least listen.  I wouldn’t blame her for ignoring something coming from some seemingly random goddess.

I wanted to go adventuring to meet interesting people and whether she likes it or not Hatsue is next. I don’t think she would try to kill me over this but it still could be painful. Building the bonds of trust with Hatsue likely will not be easy and we may each need to demonstrate we are worthy through actions. I don’t yet know what action will make her worthy in my eyes but then again I am also not sure what will make me worthy.  So help me if she wants to do I Kali type discussion on the topic I may just not help her. I have faith that this will be settled in a more physical or brutal manner.

I have to tell the others about the mission from the god Irori even if they don’t believe me. I will leave out the discussion that testing our faith could be brutal, don’t want Kali to have a brain aneurysm.

I have some thoughts about Hatsue that may explain why I am supposed to be connected with her but I need to talk with Jiro first. I don’t want to risk these pages falling into the wrong hands so I will keep my theories to myself. I suspect that I am completely wrong but it might explain some things.

Jiro provided us with a test questioning the honor of a Daimyo. I let the knowledgeable ones take the question because it didn’t make since to me. How could it be honorable to follow such an order from the Daimyo if this goes against your god. Maybe the point was for the Daimyo to feel like a god. I am not sure I fully understand the whole kill yourself for honor thing. But if it saves retribution against the family then I guess that makes some since. The problem again is that those in power are abusing it.

Jiro told us about a special room that holds his family sword that can only be open by a member of the royal family. This brings up so many question such as why was it locked up? Is this one of the royal ancestral weapons? Do have to give it back? Is Jiro planning to cut someone in half with the sword? Is Jiro the kind of honorable man that Amieko would be interested in? I wonder if the kids would look more like her or like him? Is Jiro already romantically involved with Hatsue? Somewhere in the back of my mind I could since that Sparna is listening to my thoughts and rolling his eyes.  I am sure that Sparna wasn’t really listening but he surely would have told me to keep this to myself.

Finally I was able to experience windwalk. Not a bad spell but may not be good in bad weather.  I think there is a different spell that works like teleport that would be better for me. I just have to wait to see if the gods decide to give it to me.  Although he gods tend to give me what I need instead of what I think I want.

We hurried to arrive at the fort and scouted out the area around the fort. Looks like the ability to fly greatly simplifies attacking the fort.

After spending a day scouting we finally proceeded to capture the fort.. With sneaking I worked to improve my skill so that someone could always sneak forward with Radella. Zosi clearly demonstrated that his natural skill with sneaking is far better than mine. If we can make it better with enchantments than it may be time for me to hand over protecting Radella’s back to Zosi on sneaky missions where more than two is not reasonable.

With the guard in the makeshift tower dead we were able to move forward. Apparently Olmas decided that sneaking wasn’t necessary any more. Down the stairs we came to a room with 3 sleeping guards. I suggested that we slit their throats expecting to get objections to attacking helpless people but Olmas charged into the room and started beating on one of the helpless guards. The others followed suit and soon all the helpless guards were dead. All I had to do was just watch as they massacre the once sleeping guards.