Arishikage started, seeing the face in the mirror. Had it been so long since she had seen her darker twin that she had forgotten the similarities? Here, in this world of Law and Court, where everything was veiled behind ten layers of politeness yet where every word could be more deadly than a serpent's sting, here was Arishikage's home.

This face, it did not belong in her mirror. Arishikage had been dressing for the occasion, some noble's festival or another, when the face appeared.

Turning from the mirror, she caught the silent head shake out of the corner of her eye. Willing her shaking hands to stillness, she turned her gaze back to the mirror. Of course the face was there, had Arishikage not just arranged for this marriage?

Political, of course, yet the Lion at least understood Bushido, something so few could grasp in this mercantile age.

Sighing, Arishikage met the eyes in her mirror with a frank gaze. "What do you wish of me, Miyakashi-chan?" she said, heart heavy at what she had done, yet knowing it was for the good of the Empire.

Miyakashi shrugged, an eloquent liquid movement that betrayed years of dance lessons even as it conveyed a mixture of pain and acceptance. She knew who she was. Shosuro, born and bred, she would do whatever it took to protect the Empire, her Clan, and her Family. In that order. She, herself, was of no consequence. The Ancestors saw, they would know. Emma-O would judge her, and after many rebirths perhaps she could once again take her place in the glorious Empire she was working to preserve.

Arishikage lowered her eyes, tears burning at the corners. Could she sacrifice so much? She prayed daily to be worthy, but she knew that every mortal is at once the hope and the damnation of the world. Sighing, she signed the paper giving patronage to the theatre troupe.

Miyakashi smiled, holding the paper delicately. With this, she could travel throughout the Empire, safe in her patron's graces. With this, she could safely smuggle promising young Scorpion away from the looming war and place them deep within the safety of Lion lands, in an obscure town with an obscure lord, far away from the crazed Crab daimyo. Far away from the weak Bayushi and, perhaps, almost far enough away from the terrible influences at the Imperial court.

Arishikage envied Miyakashi. One was weighed down by commitments, Imperial office, and various (sometimes conflicting) loyalties. The other, free to travel, burdened by no office of Law, reporting only to her daimyo and her patron.

Miyakashi envied Arishikage. After all, she was forced to endure the hardships of the road instead of languishing in court. She had to see that the young Scorpion became Lion overnight, without ever losing their true Loyalty.

As one, the face she knew so well and the face in the mirror smiled, images of one another in so many ways.

In the end, they were what they were. They served the Empire, did these faces in the mirror, and they prayed for an end to the fall and the return of glory.

In the end, they knew that their role was most likely a footnote, only important to history and (if they were lucky) the ancestors. Would they ever be welcomed in Yomi, these faces? If the Empire was saved, what cost their damnation?

The grin trailed off, reality once again taking hold. The difference between the Scorpion and all other Clans was that the Scorpion accepted their damnation if it meant the survival of the Empire, even when the Empire reviled them for it.

What shall be shall be. Only the Kami can judge for sure.

With this thought, the face in the mirror turned away, paper in hand.

Arishikage turned inward as the face receded from the mirror. All is mirrors and smoke she thought illusions creating reality until all is illusion and reality.

With a sigh she turned outward again, staring at the papers that littered her desk. She returned to work, making sure not to look in the mirror.