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Six lanterns hung unlit beneath a growing tree. Under its shade in moonlight she stood and gazed around. It was truly a magnificent garden. Beautiful and well maintained.
But it wasn't the freedom she craved.
Young saplings and budding flower bushes were planted in beds of pebbles beside a stream where three round stones served as a bridge.
There was a wall also and an opening where the stream ran from her garden and out of the palace. The opening was blocked with wooden bars which barred any hope for escape.
The trees were too young and fragile to climb and the walls were too tall to jump.
A cage, she thought in dismay, I've built myself another cage.
But at least in this cage she wasn't stared at like something strange and shiny. In this cage she wasn't the plaything of the Lord.
She could be alone in this cage.
(Though she hated it all the same.)
Hana looked to the moon and wept and after that she wept no more.
"Strong, Hana," she murmured to herself, "Be strong, stay steady... only then can we be free. Keep our mind sharp and ready because escape may come at any moment."
Soothed, she returned inside and isolated herself in her chambers.
She would be free.
One day.
༆
She peered over her canvas and counted five guards in total. When they glanced at her, she merely smiled and dipped her brush in her pallet. It was best to simply be a thoughtless woman with a talent for art than to be considered a threat. Being underestimated was better than overestimated in this case.
She peeked up again then back at her painting. She was to paint the full splendour daimyo's estate. The building was beautifully built and she loved how several weeping cherry trees stood above it and blew petals around it like falling snow.
It was a truly beautiful prison.
She knew it would be difficult to escape, though not impossible.
She was a cunning woman after all.
To paint the estate she was required to be in a position where she could see it and this place happened to be in the heart of the market. From there, she could see the daimyo's mansion... but not in it's entirety.
Hana sighed and shook her head in dismay.
"What is it, eshi-san?" A guard asked and she turned to him in distress.
