Homecoming

[Rixy]

The choice to leave Lanka by cover of night and the confusion of battle proved wise, though not without cost.

As feared, an enemy flotilla attempted to blockade the harbor, seeking to ensure that not a single man, woman, or child not of the faithful survived Kali-Ma's conquest of the Ivory Kingdoms. The Fourth Flotilla, aided largely by the weather magic of the Ray's Yoritomo shugenja, managed to use control of weather and their own weapons to win free, though the Rampant Ray was lost in the combat, holding the way so the less battle-worthy ships could return home.

Nor was this the only encounter the fleet would have with the dark forces coming to assail Rokugan. In the days of sailing homeward, the fleet narrowly escaped encounters with other Destroyer ships, largely thanks to the far-seeing eyes of the scouts and the uncanny instincts of the wily Uminushi. Even this luck could not hold forever, however, and the three remaining ships entered the Sea of Shadows under heavy attack. The knowledge of the safe path was all that saved the Rokugani from destruction, for the madness of those dark waters swept over the beasts of the dark goddess at once upon entering that dark sea and the enemy soon fell to the teeth and claw of their own 'allies'.

Once back at the Isles of Silk and Spice, the members of the Flotilla were at once ushered to Kyuden Gotei where they were kept as 'guests' for nearly a month while each and every one, down to the ship's eta, were questioned by the local Legion shereikan about what they had seen and learned. It was determined in the end to be a tribal matter and the news of a 'new kind of oni' dismissed, for if the ships could not make it through the Sea of Shadows they would certainly never reach the Empire in enough numbers to threaten the people of Rokugan.

That shereikan's sepukku, in the fullness of time, would be offered and accepted months later when the Wall was breached by those same forces.

After another few weeks, Captain Uminushi and his first gunso Moshi Kaimenko once again shipped out with a new load of recruits, this time sailing around the Empire's eastern border. Only Isawa O-washi failed to return to sea, instead accompanying those members of his crew who might have been Tainted by the experience in the southlands north to be tested by the Inquisitors. It also fell to the youngest of the ship's officers to pass word of the fallen along with their daishos to the families of Hida Musasha, Akodo Jishaku, and Bayushi Hoshi.

The remaining members of the Flotilla were soon shuffled into other companies as planned and their stories became their own, no longer that of a misfit crew.