Tamura

It has come to my attention that a brash agent of Isawa Sezaru has come to accuse the seer, Agasha Hamanari, of harboring a secret alliance with the Bloodspeakers. It was this man’s belief that Hamanari knew of the Rain of Blood and other events due to his connection with Iuchiban, and only revealed these events to his clan so that they might be spared his true master’s wrath. This Inquisitor brought forth evidence and testimony that supported his beliefs, and drawing upon authority given to him by the Emperor, removed the Agasha daimyo from his home and unjustly executed him.

I realize this news may come to you as a shock. Please, read on.

Shocked that a lord of the Phoenix might actually be a Bloodspeaker, I sent my own agents to investigate.

The evidence was false, though expertly crafted. The testimony was spurious, only seemingly logical when paired with the false evidence. The Inquisitor was outraged, denying he had falsified his investigation. Whether he was guilty of manipulating the law to his advantage or simply incompetent, the result was the same -- the death of one of our Empire’s finest shugenja and most experienced leaders. My agents insured that this Inquisitor, whose name has been stricken from the Phoenix histories, shared Hamanari’s fate.

In other times one might accuse politics to be the motivation for such a travesty of justice, but the Inquisitor who performed the deed was himself a Phoenix, as was his master, Sezaru. I fear that our enemies among the Bloodspeakers manipulated our own paranoia against us, destroying our greatest weapon against them. As much as it saddens me to say, I believe there can only be one man to blame for Hamanari’s death -- the Emperor himself.

I would not accuse the Emperor of murder -- the lives of his subjects are his own to take, if he wishes, so such an arrangement would be impossible. Rather, I believe that the current crises that have befallen the Empire might have grown beyond one inexperienced leader’s ability to control, however capable that man may be under normal circumstances.

The time is coming when something must be done, Tamura. The time is coming swiftly.

Doji Akiko