The long mask fell down around her, shielding her in royal mystery.
The soon to be queen, Izumo, sat tall with all that was clear of her eyes sparkling dangerously and viciously as the upcoming queen.
She was not ashamed of this fact and was less ashamed of how she'd rule though she'd watched her mother crumble in love and marriage; she wasn't afraid of the future, but still she chose, had made that choice already, to never marry, to never go through what her mother had.
The future queen Izumo stood up though when the merchants and other travelers entered the room; she'd taken to balancing what she had to do for her mother over what was expected of her, so she practically felt like the queen already.
"Your highness," One of the men easily spoke, bowing when it was right to do so, and she smiled at him, not minding the fact that he couldn't see her smile beyond the mask.
"Yes?" Her question was simple yet it held the world at its fingertips, eager to hear just what he'd say.
"We brought an unknown 'merchant' group that we thought you might want to see." She turned at his statement to glance over at the man standing there that looked to be about her age, wearing some strange clothing attire and standing beside an older man in robes.
"Your names, please." She had to be formal regardless of whether she wanted to be or not; it had been beaten into her along with her lessons after all.
"Ryuuji Suguro." The man closest to her age spit out though the older man just smiled as he went to respond.
"Tatsuma Suguro." She smiled faintly at seeing his ready joy even before her.
"You are in the Kamiki Palace." Izumo spoke, watching them.
"We know." The man closest to her age, Ryuuji, looked angry as he looked at her.
"Why have our people decided that you are a threat?" Izumo hissed, eyes locked on them, unyieldingly.
Ryuuji's eyes glared long and hard at her, "Because they don't understand that we have a mission." Tatsuma's hand came to rest on his son's shoulder, and Izumo wondered about why the older man didn't cut his son off to correct him if he chose to silence and calm him down now.
"Mission?" Izumo asked, eyes drawn to the men with curiosity in their depths.
"They say that they are priests, monks, and that they have a religious mission to accomplish." She could see the doubt in her headmerchant's face, and she was thankful for the way that her mask hid her emotions so cleverly.
"Let them speak then." Her curiosity came in waves, but she really, really wanted to know why they'd chance everything for some religious mission.
The younger one looked lost and angry, so his father spoke up, "We are here to find an artifact that our grandfather and great grandfather sworn by the religious significance of, and we are here to ensure that no one unjustly gets hurt by its influence."
She stared down at him, trying to call to mind an artifact of great importance in her kingdom, but greatly failing as to what could hold so much significance that priests would chance coming out this far to find it.
"You must show me the artifact if you ever find it." She leaned forward, curiosity a driving weight in her stomach.
"We will." Tatsuma easily spoke though his son looked none too pleased about this fact.
"You are dismissed then." She stood up, just to make it clear that no one could defy her and that they definitely had to leave.
"Thank you, your majesty." Tatsuma grinned as if there was some secret out there that he'd just uncovered.
Izumo watched them leave, watched as they were escorted out, and as her servants nervously did not outwardly defy her, scared of punishment; she was always much more fearsome than her mother's wrath once she'd started speaking up on her behalf.
Her days swung by to a steady tempo until finally her mother passed, and her 'father' was forced to step down from his throne as was the way of her people.
Izumo took the crown, and it was three days after that lengthy ceremony when the merchants drug the two men from before back in with another priest and two young boys around her age.
She wondered about the determined and unyielding look in the new priest's eyes even as he bowed to her.
"What is it now?" She stood tall, refusing to let the emotional downturn of the past few days affect her in the least now that she had company to attend to and figure out.
"We've brought the Suguros back, your majesty, and with them these men, Father Fujimoto, and his two sons, Rin and Yukio Okumura." The man spoke clearly, and her eyes were drawn easily to the newcomers.
"You see, the Suguros want our family sword that's been kept in our family for some time now and carefully stored away to avoid harming anyone." Father Fujimoto smirked as he spoke and Izumo wondered how this man was even allowed to become a priest.
"It's a religious artifact, miss, of great importance." Tatsuma smiled up at her, that same old teasing glint in his eyes.
"Okay, bring me the sword." Izumo wondered if there was a better way to handle this as the newcomer priest stepped forward delicately handing it to her with a faint warning look.
She carefully brushed her fingers across its encasing not minding at all the many stares directed at her before she smoothly unsheathed the sword and the room lit up with heat and what looked like blue flame from one of the new teenagers brought to her presence.
Queen Izumo sighed and resheathed the sword, "We cannot leave a sword that has this effect on any of our citizens in the hands of one group." She wondered if this would be allowed as she stepped down, feeling her white robes twirl around her with their gold encasing and the animal fur that fell around her from her mask in four evenly long, twisted, orange bands.
She moved towards Tatsuma before ushering him and Father Fujimoto to her side, not minding at all the cautious looks that her merchants sent her way.
Queen Izumo directed them both to come with her and find a storage space for the sword that will not harm her citizens with the repercussions it had on the one Okumura child.
Ryuuji was the one to question her once he heard that, "You can't be serious! We just found the sword." His words irritated and irked her.
"Ryuuji Suguro, you cannot question the Queen's ruling. Come with me for a moment." Her guards stepped forward following her as she carried the sword and led Ryuuji away, placing him in her best jail cell for the night. "I'm looking out for my people, and while you don't realize the good that it will bring, I do and you must trust that." She nudged him into the cell, slamming and locking the cell easily enough.
She was furious though she did her best to keep that and her worry over her decision down.
Queen Izumo left his cell to gather the other two men and store away the sword which went successfully as both men were very agreeable though she could see the nervousness in each of their eyes.
The night grew long and Queen Izumo found that she could not sleep, so she made the long walk back to Ryuuji's cell and wondered as she watched him try to break away and fail, what made that sword so religiously profound.
When he noticed her, his eyes were leveled on her with a glare so fierce that she almost trembled at the look of it.
"I'll have you know that that sword can save my mother's life." Ryuuji was adamant on this thought and this thought alone.
"I highly doubt it." Izumo shrugged, "And it is too dangerous to leave in my kingdom or an adjacent one."
"My mother's sick with the plague, and I know that is how she'll be saved." He didn't seem eager to admit this, but Izumo knew that it must have hurt.
"I can send a highly trained, royal medic to take care of her and your people." She wondered if she was overstepping her royal boundaries with even so much as this thought.
"It won't work. Our doctors can't help her." Ryuuji glared away from her, looking as if he could see something besides the bars separating them as his eyes filled up with tears.
"We can at least try." Izumo knew that she'd felt helpless when her mother was dying, but she knew that they'd did everything that they could, "That sword causes destruction." This Queen Izumo could feel with her whole being.
"How do you know? You just saw it for the first time today." She saw the way the pain made the tears drip down from his eyes and yet that wounded her in a strange way.
"Just trust me, I know." Izumo sat down just outside of the cell; her mask still over her face though she was wearing a white night gown that fit her frame so perfectly.
"How can I trust you?" His words didn't feel like ice and they definitely weren't sugarcoated.
"Just trust me." She pressed closer, "I can promise you a lot, whatever you want if that will help you believe me."
"Would you promise me your hand in marriage?" He was cynical she was sure, but she knew what she had to do, felt it in her whole being.
"I would and I can." It was a risk, she knew, especially when she didn't believe in romantic love or marriage in the least.
"So you're confident." She was sure based off the smirk growing on his face that he'd heard about her mother and her mother's marriage.
Izumo sighed, but she sat by his side throughout the night and sent him away with his father in the morning and a trained royal medic, the best that they had.
Three months later, the medic came back with bright news; Ryuuji's mother had made it, and he was sent to be her groom.
She sighed, but tried her best at a smile, knowing that this would be the outcome even months before.
Queen Izumo sent her servants off to create a feast, a gallant celebration, and even informed her sister of why she was getting married.
She saw Tsukumo's nervous frown, but could not deny the fact that she knew that she had to go through this.
Her fashion designer was already designing a wedding dress and even a special robe themed suit for the future king of Izumo's kingdom.
Queen Izumo only felt nervous when her future husband arrived and looked just as gloomy as she did despite his mother making it through the plague and his people surviving it as well.
She met his mother on this somewhat glum day though she looked sort of excited, and Queen Izumo couldn't blame her for that even as the wedding became a reality, and Queen Izumo took a king for her kingdom.
It was weird to see this man again and even weirder that their wedding went off without a hitch, and that she came to see a future in him just a few short weeks later.
The feeling in the air however was sweet, trustworthy, and she just knew that they'd make it through together even under the weird circumstances of them being united by marriage.
Her intuition as the fox queen had never been wrong before; it was in her blood and only grew stronger and more accurate as she became queen. Izumo had known of this most of her life yet wondered why now she was nervous to trust it and why she wasn't even sure she trusted herself anymore.