With that, Daidoji Uji turned, and without looking back was gone from the room. Doji Kuwanan summoned one of his guardsmen from the hall outside. "Bring me paper and brush."

The Doji guardsman bowed, and set off upon his Lord's errand. Alone in the chamber, Doji Kuwanan looked out of the window toward the sea, lost in thought. In his right hand was a crumpled letter, only the Unicorn mon legible in the corner.

"Betrayal!!" Yoritomo Masasue's shout echoed across the gathered army. Ten feet from where he stood, the ground parted like a mist, and a dozen Daidoji archers rose up from the soil, arrows ready. "Betrayal!!" His no-dachi reached the first before their volley let fly into the ranks of the Mantis Bushi behind him.

Two thousand men, surrounded. The very ground was boiling with Crane. They surged up from nowhere, taking Yoritomo's army unawares.

Pikemen arose from the midst of Mantis units. Spearmen appeared from the very air and lay waste to the army's caravan.

"Betrayal!!" The ground beneath their feet turned upon them, becoming swamp where seconds ago lay dry land. The world became blood. Yoritomo Masasue led his men to the edge of the conflict, tearing a way through the surrounding Crane. Peasants. Ashigaru. Commoners led by Samurai. They died by the hundreds as the Mantis tore themselves free. The Wasp and Fox lands were a half-day's march through forest and mountain. The Scorpion lands were a plain of glass. The decision was easy.

Pausing for breath, a world of blood to his back, Yoritomo Masasue looked into the distance, across the blasted waste of the Scorpion. He saw horsemen. In the far distance, a plume of dust told of the arrival of the Unicorn. Hours away, at most. The Unicorn.

"Betrayal!!"

Yoritomo Yukue stared from her battlements out into the night. Somewhere out there, far below the walls of Shiro Beiden, the Crane still sought to drive them out of the Pass. Doji Kuwanan thought himself to be Toturi the Black, come to drive the Crab from these hills. Somewhere out there, the Unicorn lorded over their stolen city, speaking the words that the Crane wished to hear.

Six months gone since that ill-fated battle. She had killed dozens that day, but they were all but a few, ashigaru. Those samurai she saw amongst the enemy were scarcely old enough for the gempukku. They were children leading peasants, under the Doji's command.

Within these walls, Lord Yoritomo-sama met with Tsuruchi-sama over some secret business. Talk amongst the bushi was that fully two-thirds of them would be heading North within the week, buut none could say why. In the War they had known why - they fought because the Great Clans had failed the Empire. They fought to prove their worth. Now they fought because their allies attacked them without warning. They fought because if they did not they would be slain.

They would not die so easily.

Five Clans, within this Alliance. What could the Crane do, with their farmers? What could the Unicorn do, with their horses?

This fortress would stand. Should Lord Yoritomo-sama choose to march, Beiden Pass would remain secure. Somewhere out there the Crane Daimyo sought to provoke a war. Perhaps he would get one.

Daidoji Uji looked up from the campfire and gazed into the darkness which was the Spine of the World. Somewhere up there, beyond the Crane encampment, the Mantis Daimyo planned his next move. Behind him, his Lord planned how to counter it. Uji did not know why this game had begun, but he knew that it could end only in a sea of blood.