[A beloved younger sister. Brothers who vy for position in their father's eyes. The political duels and machinations of the nobility... it is a tale she knows well. Not necessarily because she herself lived anything like it, birthed from an armless broodmare into the hay of a master's stables and raised as property, but because all the great tales of her world and culture speak of such things. The scheming of women in the palace halls to have their sons made crown prince, the whispers of men to other men in order to elevate or tear down political rivals-

But the feeling she knows. Watching armed jinba less skilled than she earn appreciative comments and stares from the courtiers who came to appraise them, while she was always dismissed for her womanly nature. The cascading fear of failure, of shame, or worthlessness beyond use to that person-

She flinches only slightly beneath the rough press on the cut across her cheek, her gaze growing wet with weakness and emotion more easily overflown in exhaustion.]

I just did not want to be bought for breeding... to spend my life bearing foals. I did everything I could to be a warrior, to be-

[To be unlike her mother, some broken thing valued for her beauty and obedience, raising her tail and pressing her armless torso into the stable wall for support each breeding season to be mounted by whichever male jinba had their master's favor that year. But he says such kind, such wonderful things that she can't even believe she's hearing him correctly. Perhaps she's gone soft in the head, or exhaustion or blood loss has addled her brain-]

But Yuugiri is kind, my lord- like you are. Too good for this place and these people, these missions-

[And too good for the likes of her... even though she wants it and needs it more than ever or anything.]