Stepping closer, he examined them all with cautious interest.  Some were written in the characters of the mainland, some in a more familiar script, still others in a strange alphabet he knew nothing about.  He picked up one of the scrolls and unbound it with shaking hands.  If the man returned and thought Shion meant to steal it-

He stared down at the meticulous lines of text, feeling his trepidation displaced with a sense of mute surprise. Poetry? Why in the world would such a man carry something like this around as though it was one of his prized possessions?

His eyes followed the neat characters, written in a careful hand, while his fingers drifted down lovingly along the ink. He shouldn't be lingering here, reading this, when what he'd been told to do was very nearly opposite. He realized that, only-

His master hadn't permitted him to read anything but the medical texts necessary to his profession, certainly not anything so beautiful as this. He lost himself in the sound of the words and the cadences between them.

The sound of the screen sliding open brought him crashing back into reality. Shion stared up into Lord Teru's face, his body gone absolutely chill in an instant, as the man's expressionless eyes watched him, unknown and unknowable. He laid the scroll quietly aside and lowered his head.

The samurai approached him with slow, relentless footsteps.

"Did you not hear my command?"

"I- heard, my lord."

"Then you must think you can ignore it." The steps suddenly stopped. “Why risk your life for the sake of some words on a scroll?" These words were accompanied by the sharp sound of a blade being drawn.