Do All Honor

By Maria Szabo

Disclaimer: These are not my characters. This is a work of fanfiction and the only profit being made is that of enjoyment.

Sometimes, for Youko, it all became a bit too much. The names, the titles, the officials who consulted her and then refused to listen to what she has to say, the generals who strode manfully towards her in their best armor that still smelled a little like sweat, bowed before her, and then argued with her about every little thing, and oh, the customs and etiquette and manners of address…and she did them wrongly, and her courtiers knew it, and she knew it. She wondered if the previous Queen had felt the same way. Surely not. She had been a native of Kei, not a stranger to the world itself.

"Keiki," she asked one evening of her Kirin, who thankfully had no other name for her to remember, although he had a title she forgot to use, "Shouldn't this be easier? Being Queen, I mean." They were seated together at a table, piled high with scrolls and documents and other urgent things, and it had been a long day.

He looked at her with his usual solemn expression, lifting his brush from the document that he was writing. "Why should it be?"

"It's just…if the gods meant for me to rule, why aren't things falling into place? Why is this so difficult?" Rebellions, betrayals, and intrigue seemed to be meat and mead to the Courtiers of Kei, and Youko had no taste for it.

"Is ruling a land so much easier where you came from?" He had a way of making her feel very simple sometimes.

"Probably not. But if I'm supposed to be ruling here, shouldn't fate be helping me out?"

"The transfer between monarchs has never been easy, so I've been told."

"Yes, but…are we succeeding here? Is this kingdom improving?" Youko ran an impatient ink-stained hand through her hair. "I don't feel like a Queen at all. It just seems like maybe you picked the wrong person."

The Kirin hesitated a moment, and then left his chair to kneel before her, bowing his head to the ground. "It is not in me to choose incorrectly."

"That's not an answer."

He made no reply, but head remained pressed to the floor, as if by his actions he was trying to express something that his words could not convey.

It was noted that in the following days, the Queen of Kei began to speak more in her audiences. She held her head higher, and if some courtier was suddenly given a less-than-desirable assignment, any complaint to be had was no longer made in her presence.

The Kirin, it was also said, seemed to stand a least a foot nearer to the throne than before.

Ein Ende