The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah

Prelude:
Dawn
Thirty-Six Years Before MKI

A piercing scream echoed through the dark house. Then, as suddenly as the person had cried out, her shriek of pure terror was silenced.

"Mama?" whispered a ten-year-old boy, sitting up in his bed. Cautiously and silently, he lit a candle, slipping out of bed. He crept toward his parents' bedroom, the apparent source of the clashing noises he had heard since he had been awakened by his mother's cry. Unsure of what he would find, the small boy peeked around the doorjamb.

The first thing he noticed was his father fighting for his life. His opponent was a most imposing figure, dressed completely in black and nearly twice the size of the boy's father. It had to be a ninja. Their swords rang, further disturbing the normal midnight calm. The boy searched the room, finding two others looting through his mother's jewelry, but that was not the only thing he saw.

His mother was lying dead in a pool of her own blood, her throat slit, a dagger protruding from her chest. The child glanced away from his mother's body in shock, only to see his father disarmed and struck down by the tall ninja. Dropping his candle in fright, the boy ran, sobbing, down the hallway to the back door.

The elder of the other two ninjas heard the noise and dashed into the hallway. He cursed as he beat out the beginnings of a fire on the rug and alerted his companion. "Their son! Tempest, don't let him get away!"

The other low-ranking ninja ran down the hallway chasing after the boy. Vendetta followed as soon as the fire was out.

Inside the parents' bedroom, the head ninja flipped a medallion onto the fallen man's chest. The small crescent and its characters glittered in the moonlight. Rebel Silencers, it declared, two words that struck fear into the hearts of all not strictly loyal to the emperor.

Outside, the boy struggled to run faster, farther away from the ninjas, heading for his neighbor's house. He never had a chance. Two strong hands grabbed him from behind and lifted him up, as Tempest carried him, kicking and screaming, to the ninjas' horses. They bound his hands and feet, gagging and blindfolding him, before they threw him over the front of Vendetta's horse.

"Be still, child," commanded the head ninja.

Three black shapes rode off into the night.

"Be still, child," ordered the nanny. "How am I to braid your hair when you are dancing in your seat?"

Ming sullenly slumped down into her seat. How could they expect her to stand these incredibly long dressing routines when she could be outside romping about in the sweet smelling grass of the gardens? "Why are you taking so long?" she griped. "Can't I go yet?"

"Be patient. I could have been done five minutes ago if you would just be still. Your father is coming home today, from fighting the rebels, so you must look extra-special. There will be no running outside today, princess." The nanny gave one last tug to Ming's hair. "There. All finished. Now turn around, look at yourself in the mirror."

Ming glanced at herself and stuck out her tongue at the image of the dainty little lady, an image that completely clashed with her nature. She was wearing a lavender dress that was far too frilly, matching shoes that were far too hard to walk in, and her hair was braided in a far too elaborate design. "Why doesn't Jer Rod have to do this?" she complained.

"Jer Rod is not a girl. Now come on, out the door. No skipping! You're a lady. You should be very graceful."

Contrarily, Ming tore her hand away from the nanny's and darted out the door. The nanny called after her. "Do you want me to be killed for your insolent behavior? Ming!"

The petite girl ran down the hallway, kicking off her shoes and ignoring the protests of her nanny far behind her. She ran out the door, heading for a place she'd always wanted to go. She watched a section of the beach out her window almost constantly, whenever the army practiced, for it was their training field. Secretly, she practiced the things they did, as best as she could see, as her nursery was a few stories up from the beach. She was to move to her suite upstairs as soon as she turned ten, in a little over half a year, and while she would not miss her nanny one bit, she would miss watching the training sessions. While her suite was in the same tower as her nursery, it was many more stories up, and the guards would look like small insects from that height.

She halted at the water's edge and plopped down on the coastline, burying her bare toes in the wet sand and inhaling the salty scent of the sea. The sun began to rise behind her, wrapping the marble palace in a warm orange aura.

The area was deserted, the trainees having finished their morning exercises, were now preparing for the emperor's arrival. Deserted, except for one small dark spot, quite a distance from Ming. There were no rocks on this beach. Intrigued, she stood and raced toward the figure, leaving indentations in the white, nearly silver, sand.

The horses raced down the beach, leaving indentations in the white, nearly silver, sand. Having reached their midpoint, three hours into the trip, the ninjas finally stopped. They dismounted their horses, setting the trembling boy on the ground, and removing his gag and blindfold.

The sun's glow was beginning to creep over the trees of the distant rainforest, reflecting on the sand of the beach and the gentle waves of the ocean. For the first time, the boy viewed his captors in enough light to take in the details. The three ninjas were dressed entirely in black. Between their strangely designed hoods and masks, and the two-toed boots they wore, the boy thought that they looked like some kind of alien beast, maybe a little like the raptors, from the planet Chiss, he had heard about at school. But when the head ninja removed his mask, the boy was amazed to see that he had a perfectly normal Mandalorian face, not at all like the monsters his mother had threatened would snatch him out of his bed one night if he misbehaved too much. A perfectly normal face, except for the cruel, sadistic smile it held.

The ninja who had killed the boy's father looked down at him. "Be aware, child, that I am not only the leader of the entire Lin Kuei clan of enforcers," he said without preamble, "I am also Emperor Yuen, ruler and creator of this entire Empire the you live in. And I am a man that you do not want on your bad side, as you parents have just discovered."

"W-what do you want with m-me, sir?" asked the boy, nearly crying from fright after witnessing his parents deaths and being kidnapped and threatened by a person whose arm weighed more than he did.

"Your name will suffice for now."

"Hua Quy Ling, sir."

"Hua Quy Ling, you must be wondering why you are not dead. You should have been properly disposed of hours ago. Except that I sense your exceptional talent with your element, therefore you shall be my servant. As of now, you are not yet old enough to become a Lin Kuei ninja like Tempest and Vendetta, but that will change in a year or so." Yuen gestured to the others and quickly remounted his horse, yet again.

Tempest pulled the boy up behind him, feeling pity. He had joined the Lin Kuei three years ago, thinking that they were honorable warriors. He had lived clear out on Opal Coast, far away from the capital of Silver Coast, or even where the rebellion had been taking place—Amethyst Coast. Becoming a ninja had been Tempest's plan to bring recognition, wealth, and honor to his farm family. But when he'd arrived, he had discovered that the emperor was not an honorable leader, but a vicious mercenary. Tempest really wasn't that much older than Quy Ling was. There wasn't even ten years between them. He wished the boy hadn't gone through everything he had, especially not in one night.

The ninjas rode off again, pounding hooves breaking the calm morning silence.

Li Wei Yong sat on the beach, his sniffling breaking the calm morning silence.

"Hello," came a girl's voice out of nowhere. "Have you been crying?"

The boy started, and despite the fact that her tone conveyed only curiosity and compassion, not the scorn his father's would have, he tried to cover up the evidence of his crying. "No." Wei Yong turned and looked at her. She was much shorter than he, some of the frills of her purple dress were torn, her hair looked as though it hadn't been combed in months, her feet were bare, and her entire body was covered with sand.

"You looked like you were crying. And you sounded like you were crying. Are you sure you weren't?"

"I wasn't crying."

The girl crouched down next to him. "Why were you crying?" she asked, as though she had never heard his protest.

"I wasn't crying!" The boy turned away from and discreetly wiped his eyes. He tried to ignore the girl, hoping she would leave. He sat, unmoving, for several minutes, before he turned to see if she was still there.

She sat in the sand, oblivious to the ruining of her silk dress, drawing in the sand with a small stick.

"Do you want to know why I was crying?"

She drew a very large circle in the sand before looking up at him. "Oh, you're still here. I thought you had gone." Not even acknowledging that she had won, the child searched through the sand near her, picking out five smooth stones and five shells. "Do you want to play?"

"My father expects too much of me."

"That's nothing to cry about. My father doesn't even love me." The girl placed the stones on Wei Yong's side of the circle, and the shells on hers. "You can go first."

"My father's General Li. He thinks I should be better than his other students even though they're older. It's not fair!"

"Nothing's fair. My father makes me dress up and doesn't let me run or do anything unladylike. I just have to see there and be pretty, like a decoration."

The girl didn't sound sad, or upset. She stated these things as unemotionally as if she was stating the amount of Hithron imported from Edenia. Wei Yong looked at the girl incredulously. "Aren't you mad?"

"Aren't you going to play?" She tapped her tiny foot on the ground impatiently.

"What's your name?"

"Princess Yuen Ming!" came a screech, not from the girl. The boy turned to the palace. A very disgruntled looking woman ran toward them. "What do you think you're doing? Now I have to clean and dress you again." The woman unceremoniously hauled the dirty girl to her feet.

Hua Quy Ling slid off Tempest's horse; his foot caught in the stirrup and he fell. Vendetta unceremoniously hauled him to his feet. Quy stared at the gargantuan structure in front of him in awe.

"Isn't it amazing?" whispered Tempest. "I must have had the exact same expression on my face the first time I saw it. Can you believe it's completely made out of marble?"

Quy shook his head in response to the assassin's question, not taking his eyes off the palace for even a split second.

The four marched through the open wooden doors, held by two male slaves, their heads bowed in reverence to their ruler. A huge group of servants was gathered in the grand hall by the entrance to the palace. They were all kneeled down, bending over so their faces almost touched the floor. In front of all the servants were three people who were not kneeling. One was an ancient-looking woman. The other two were a small boy and girl, who looked to be twins, and were maybe even a year younger than Quy Ling was. They were dressed in very nice clothing, and the girl's shining ebony hair was elaborately done, though it looked slightly damp. As the emperor approached them, the children swiftly bowed in unison.

"Hua Quy Ling," said Yuen, gesturing for him to come forward, "this is my great-grandmother, Yuen Po, the eldest Mandalorian in the entire palace, and my children, Jer Rod, and Ming."

Emperor Yuen turned to the congregation and shouted, "Ning Sa! Where are you?" A petite woman dressed in white stood up and ran to the emperor, keeping her head bowed the entire time.

"Take this boy to the slave's quarters and get him outfitted with some clothing. Begin training him in the garden outside of slave quarters."

In the garden outside of slave quarters, the little slave girl called Kei Sa cried.

She should have been happy. Out of the hundreds of slave girls, she was one of the only five who were being considered for the role of Princess Yuen Ming's handmaiden. But her mother had just been 'disposed of' and Kei Sa couldn't care less about the princess.

She was still crying when an older slave named Lyn Sa ran by. Unlike most female slaves, Lyn Sa wore loose pants under her kimono top, the type of pants that appeared to be skirts when one stood still. She was tall and lanky, very little fat left on her body due to poor feeding and constant running. She was going very fast, carrying a message to the cook, and she overshot Kei Sa by a few yards before backtracking, a worried expression on her face.

"What are you still doing here?" She reached down and dragged Kei Sa to her feet. "You are supposed to be in the test at this very moment!" She picked up the smaller girl. "And you've smudged your face with your tears, and you've dirtied your hands, and your dress is dusty, and your hair is crooked. What are we going to do with you?"

Lyn Sa sprinted to the nearest well, washing Kei Sa's hands and face as fast as was mortally possible. She brushed off the nine-year-old's dress, then picked her up again. Running swiftly, as any messenger could, Lyn Sa carried Kei Sa to the doorway in front of the auditorium. She stopped just in front of the door, setting the girl down and straightening her hair. "Remember all you've learned. Make your mother proud." The elder girl departed with a quick hug, needing to get her message to the cook and the cook's acknowledgement of the request back to General Li before very much more time had passed, so that she might not be punished as badly.

Kei Sa took one deep breath, gathering her confidence, and strode into the room, using the smooth gait her mother had taught her. Nearly floating along, she saw the envy on the other girl's faces. She stepped up to the emperor, dropping to her knees and leaning over, nearly touched her forehead to the ground.

"Why are you late?" growled Yuen. "Get up." Kei Sa rose to meet an open-handed slap to the face. The envy on the other four's faces disappeared.

Without a sound, Kei Sa stood again and joined the other girls in their perfect line.

Most of the tests consisted of simple knowledge of how the princess, or any lady, should behave. All five girls excelled at the tests, though anything that involved physical coordination, Kei Sa did better. She even painted the elder slave girl's face more quickly and covered it more evenly with the white makeup. But even doing her best at these things, she was still behind for being late.

The final step of the testing process was not at all related to anything ladylike. "If somehow the princess is ambushed when she is without a bodyguard," explained Yuen, "someone must hold off the attacker until help can arrive. Since the handmaiden is going to always be with her anyway, she might as well be able to protect herself and the queen. But women are not allowed to learn to fight, so the handmaiden must be proficient in using her element."

The girls were lined up in the order that they arrived; therefore, Kei Sa would be last. She was extremely nervous. Her mother had tested her so many times in preparation for this test, trying to find her element. She had never succeeded.

The goal of this last test was to somehow raise a small ball Yuen placed on the ground in front of them. Water elementals could create a fountain to support it; Wind elementals could propel it upward. Earth elementals could create a pile of soil to keep it off the ground. And while there was no way a Fire elemental could succeed, Emperor Yuen didn't mind because he didn't really want one to be his daughter's handmaiden. They were completely unreliable and angered far too easily.

The first girl was Wind, and managed to raise the ball a couple of centimeters. The second was Earth, but she could not even directly call up her element. The third was Water, but she didn't succeed in lifting the ball at all. The fourth was also Water, and she raised the ball almost a foot, raising a good-natured cheer from the spectators as well.

Yuen finally stepped in front of Kei Sa. By this time, the little girl was nearly trembling with fear.

"What is your element, late child?" he addressed her.

"I-I d-don't know, sir," she stuttered, her teeth chattering from fright.

"You don't know." The emperor glared down at the tiny misfit. She was late, she didn't know her element, and above all, her eyes didn't match. "So lift the ball anyway," he instructed, placing it on the ground in front of her.

Kei Sa stared at the ball. It was fairly small, and very shiny, made out of a silver metal. She thought the ball looked very pretty, and she vainly wondered if the handmaiden would get earrings made of the same metal as the ball, as she really wanted some herself. Unsure of what she should do, she closed her eyes as she'd seen the wise men in town do. Silently, she willed the ball to rise. Please, she asked it, you must move for me. I don't know what my element is, so I cannot summon it. You must move on your own. If you don't, I'll probably be killed for being a late, unskilled, misfit, maybe in the same room as my mother was. Move. Up. In her head she envisioned the ball. She started to notice small dents on the ball from being dropped on the ground by the other girls, though she hadn't noticed this when she actually looked at it. She felt the ball, as if she had it tied to a string, one which was in turn somehow connected to her brain, allowing her to freely move the ball. Kei Sa was surprised to find that she imagined it to be many times heavier than one would have thought. Rise, she commanded the ball on last time.

A gasp swept through the audience. Kei Sa opened her eyes. The silver ball was absolutely stationary.

Two feet above the ground.

Emperor Yuen looked as though he had seen the ghost of his dead wife. Kei Sa bit down the laugh that threatened to rise at his appearance and concentrated on the ball again, this time keeping her eyes open and finding it didn't really matter, nothing was gained except for the external image of things, rarely any more helpful than their presences. The little silver ball began to spin in the air. It rose more, until it was level with Yuen's head, still spinning, like a planet. Then the ball began to orbit the emperor's head, at nose level, even still spinning.

It's Viri! Kei Sa laughed to herself, orbiting close to the big mean sun that boils it.

She made the mistake of looking up at Emperor Yuen's face again, and couldn't help but start giggling.

He raised his hand high, preparing to swing it down into the side of her face that didn't already have a red hand print on it.

The silver ball clattered to the ground.