The New Winds

Miya Wyn finds himself in the dining hall eating quietly at a long table, he is dressed in his student robes and seems ready for the day, if a little unsure of himself.

Unfortunately for Wyn, the quiet is soon disturbed by the clack of a wooden tray hitting the table nearby.

"Ohayo samurai-sama, may Togashi Dao share proximity with you for inari's blessing this morning?"

Wyn nods, bowing his head slightly, "Hai Togashi san... please join me... you are one of the tattooed order from the mountains yes?"

"Yes and no." Dao replies as he accepts the offered place. "I have yet to earn my tattoo yet, although my sensei told me that a respectable performance in this crucible should prove me worthy of them."

"Are you familiar with the mountains Miya-sama?"

Wyn nods, "Yes, they are tall, made of rock, and triangular. We have some in the North and the West, oh and some of the Islands off the coast are really mountains, but we can only see their tips." He smiles.

"They're not ALL triangular." Dao corrects as he sips at the cup of water that came with his breakfast.

"Very hard to build on top of a pointed surface." He grumbles, his good mood soured slightly by the Imperial's teasing.

"Some of them are little carrots right? Like up and down at a sharp angle, that is how my Cartography Sensei said to draw them, I've never actually seen one, this is the farthest I've ever been from Otosan Uchi I am afraid."

A light flipped on in Dao's brain as he realized the mistaken assumption he had made and he bowed his head slightly.

"To assume that all mountains are the same is like assuming all trees, or even all samurai are the same. If you are looking to follow in the foootsteps of your sensei, I hope one day you get the chance to see that distinction for your self Miya-sama."

The Miya smiled and bowed back from his seated position, "Hai Dragon-San I am sure I will, once my training is complete. My school requires much travel, in some ways more then the Heralds do, so I will eventually get to see the Mountains of Rokugan in person, and not just on paper, and see how each is different."

"I have already been blessed in this journey to travel a large distance," Dao comments sticking on theme. "But I think I'd like to see the Mantis Isles if I could go anywhere else. The Ocean seems so vast and impressive."

"Hai according to the maps the ocean extends for all eternity"

"So no one has reached the other side? I mean there has to be another side right? Nothing is really completely forever?"

He nods, "Gaijin come from somewhere in the ocean, but our maps don't show their lands"

"And does that frustrate you? Or intrigue you, as a mapmaker and servant of the Emperor?"

"There are gaijin up north as well. My people tell of tribes called the Yobanjin, have you heard tell of them?"

"I've seen that word on maps, but no details, just that they exist on the northern borders of the Pheonix lands, across the mountain wall. " He pauses and thinks, "Most of our maps are of the Empire, that is the most important part, since it is what our duty is tied to. I am not sure how useful the areas outside the Empire are in terms of mapping them, if we never plan to go there."

"True." Dao admits with a nod of his head. "I had never thought of it that way. But surely, eventually, we will have mapped our Empire completely?"

"What will the Imperial Cartographers do then?"

"Map it again, because the Kami are chaotic and always changing the land"