Silent Grace 1: A Dame to Kill

Her ladyship's name is Shizuka, she once sang the best songs in Harima, and we all loved her, especially when she married into our clan.

She was our little lord's first, the first of his father's woman he tasted while his father was away.

The first of his father's woman he shamed behind his father's throne. The first woman his little gang ruined again and again. Now that his father died, she was the first of his father's leftover to discard. He...had always wanted to outdo his father. So he admitted nearly thirty concubines into our household despite the disgusted looks from nobles and lowly folks alike.

Once a month his forced himself into her chambers, dismissed his ladies with a wave of his hand, and forced himself upon her, teared her fine gowns and bruised her delicate skin while he planted his abominable seed in her womb. The servants gossiped that he invited his lovers in to watch him rape "his father's best," even said that he forced her to accept them into her bed as well. I hope for Shizuka- Hime's sake that it was all just shameful gossip, but from the dead haunted look in her eyes after being visited by her step- son I feared them to be all too true.

Today she was to die in our eyes, and the eyes of his little gang that became new officers, our new "equals."

The cold was sharp, the morning light was hard.

She made no sound, neither did our lowered heads.


Only the mocking birds dared to lament her fate.