The wind is brutal. It wraps around the trees and strips color off of bark. There are pockets in the woods that warns it to be quiet and it tip toes around. It is in one of those that he is there, outside a house that had more light and life in it in the past, whose unlit windows look standoffish and whose door stays locked, always, these days. He was standing in front of the house, his former house, with a sign in his hand. When he knelled it was to shove the pointy end of it into the flesh of the ground. It read For Sale.

Li found himself leaning against a fence post, watching this with a silent sorrow. He couldn't even imagine what it would be like if Yoshiro left him, let alone never wed him. Both eyes watched the occasion with a sense of dreading. Did this mean his hunt would have to be started all over again? He had kept quiet all this time, worked through the awkward moments, but now he had to speak up," Where will you go?"

He stood up, looking down at the sign as though something monumental had occurred. When he heard the voice his head turned, only slightly. But he didn't have to look to know who it was. It was more of an acknowledgment, the tilting motion of his head. Eyebrows lowered and he spoke to the face of his house, "I don't know."

Both eyes were on him," I insist that you stay in Rhy'din." Where I can find you. He was still watching him like a hawk, worried he might lose his prey. He started towards him," You can stay with me.." It was necessary for him to blend, so he took up living in an apartment on the west side of town. There was nothing that was gonna give himself away, it was in many ways, something that would let him blend in.

He turned to look at Liang, his expression one which wasn't easy to read. His eyes could have swallowed him. "Stay..." and he looked away and the air about him that had seemed so strict went like an exhale into the wind. "Does it bother you so much?" his eyes focused on Liang, "My being alone?"

"It bothers me to see my friend leaving when we've just met." Liang was doing his best to sugar coat the situation," Perhaps staying is what is best needed at the moment. With friends and those who care about you."

There was a sound in the pasture that distracted him from Liang. He turned to look towards it and when he did he noticed a creature he didn't expect. Hope, the cream colored Arabian pony, was suddenly at the fence, whining at him. Tag blinked and stepped over to her. He had thought, well, he had thought Rona would have taken her engagement gift with her when she left. They had both left Hope behind for the other and in doing so, the poor pony had been briefly abandoned by them. He reached over to reassure her with a brush of his hand down her face. He looked back to Liang, "I suppose I should stay until I find her a home, first." It was like a reluctant agreement. He didn't know why it bothered Liang so that he was intending to leave. Perhaps Tag made the man feel more at home since they shared the same country.

He felt more at home with the man than he had come to realize. Both his eyes turned to the mare as he nodded in agreement. That horse was now on his list of best things that belonged in the world. He approached Tag, placing a hand on his shoulder while he spoke," We are brothers of the same world Tag, I am here. As a brother should be." He wasn't sure if he was just saying things to be polite or if he had really come to mean it. He found himself oddly confused by his words, for more than a few seconds of time. It would bother him more than he thought in the next few days.

Many times Tag was dismissed. For his quiet, for his wallflower ways. All of the things that encouraged others to excuse and overlook him. With the hand on his shoulder his eyes stayed on Liang. If Liang had wanted his full attention, he succeeded. Standing that way, straight and still. In the dark with severe thoughts roaming, it was like stepping back in time for just a moment. Peeling off the years to a more impulsive version of him. The version that was a general, that invoked something in another to follow because the torch of what was right was so certainly held. Like his eyes held it now, a solid truth for Liang, "Did you leave family behind to come here?"

That question was something that hung in the air over his head like a dead weight. His lips formed a straight line while deep breaths were pulled into his lungs. His eyes locked on Tag, lingered like his father's did when one of his sons were in trouble," I have a wife, a son, a brother, four sisters, a father, and a mother." His answer was something that he swore he wouldn't give. He wasn't going to give the man who had tore away their honor any more information than his name, but honesty held a certain quality in this matter," I have not seen my wife and son since he was born five years ago. I am searching for a better way of life for them." Desperately searching.

"So I am to stay for those who love me, at the request of a man that does not do the same?" He side stepped, stroking the young pony along the flash of her broad throat. Then he stepped away, a motion which may have been suspicious, or guarded. It was hard to tell if he was expecting to anger Li with what he said or if he had simply adjusted for the horse. His curiosity had only been pressed by Li's insistence. But his eyes were patient, what he said was not an accusation or blame. It had been a statement, one to sway Li to see that perhaps man is without that which he loves for a reason.

"They have no honor there. No means of life. Doing this gives them food on their able. My reasons are keeping them fed and alive. My profit is their gain." He said a bit guarded. His temper was not quite in check, more or less he was suddenly the fool. His brow was furrowed, his eyes glistening with a bit of insult. His words came again as he spoke," I would rather not have them suffer in a world with no honor. When I find a home for them I will send for them."

"No honor" According to who?" Like an absent commentary. Then his hand brushed the air in a way that signaled Li to follow him, if he wished. Tag was walking now, deeper into the mouth of the woods. Leaves, old, dried, dead, and broke like cheap paper.

"Them, the people around them. The nobles and the honored of our country." He answered him bluntly, "All because of the actions of one of my kin." Now he was saying too much. Could he keep his mouth shut to keep himself from being discovered" He could only hope at this point," He insulted the emperor....Put his family to shame and ripped the honor from us when I was just a boy."

Tag did not seem disturbed by this, but listened like it were instructions Li was passing onto him. He stopped to sit on a decaying log not far from the road, "I have thought much about this subject." He talked to the trees, the wind, to the elements that faced him, "It has come to feel more like puppet strings."

How could he comprehend all of this in a sane manner, without letting things that shouldn't be said out' He found himself at a hard crossing point when Tag said those words. They required thought that he couldn't give at that moment. It was rough to say where Liang would go in his life, if he would live through the ordeal if he would meet his goal or surrender entirely. More or less, he wished to go home to his wife and son, and the only way to do that was sitting right before him. His silence came deep, full of thought and some resentment, but eventually he managed to sigh out a few words," When your family needs honor to live, what do you do?"

"Family was different for me," he remarked, getting back to his feet and looking towards Liang, "My father and siblings were strangers to me." Noticing how the conversation weighed so upon Liang he offered then, "I will stay longer, then. I did not mean..." and he was referring to the way Liang's air had tightened.

"I should not have reacted as I did. I should not have let you see me like this.." Both fingers rubbed at his skull while he sighed out," My family has been lost to me for five years. It has been good for me to be around someone of my home." Despite how much of a foe Tag was, he was right about the brother part. Tag was the closest thing he had to family, these days.

"Then I wish you luck," he said it in such a way that it was an understood farewell. He didn't tell Liang where he was going, just that he was going and by the horse, or perhaps Liang's fever, he was compelled to stay longer in Rhydin. There were still some strings which gathered up, kept him here.

He nodded, praying that Tag would not stray further than needed. If he did, then this would all start over again, he couldn't have that at all. He needed this mission to be done, if he had to tell his family he had lost the man he had found they would be heartbroken.

That did not bode well for him.