The Northern Kingdom

Part Two: The Secrets of Women


Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all related characters and such, is not mine. Plot, however, is. Don't steal, don't sue, don't forget to moo.

Moo.


"Well," Mimi observed with a knowing sort of smile, "that didn't take long at all, did it?"

Briefly, Hikari was aware that some color had risen to her cheeks, and she shook her head. "It's not what you think," she said in a near whisper.

"Oh?" Mimi questioned, looking past her, an even wider grin appearing on her face. She had focused this strange, slightly disturbing expression, on Daisuke now, who stared back at her, confused. "How disappointing!"

"I said it's not what you think!" Hikari repeated in a slightly more tense voice. "I didn't even…."

"You didn't?" Mimi echoed, obviously distressed by this information.

"It's amazing," Shijo murmured, looking around him at the large entrance hall with wide eyes. "No matter how many times I come here, I'm still amazed."

Turning away from Mimi and Hikari, who were now engaged in a rather tense, whispered conversation the likes of which he didn't feel safe involving himself in, Daisuke said in response, "Tell me again why you did come?"

"To see my brother, of course," Shijo answered in a slightly indignant sort of voice. "Mama's written several long letters to him, and so I have to deliver them. That and I thought I'd tag along with you for a while – make sure you stay out of trouble."

Daisuke glanced briefly toward the girls, who were almost arguing now in hushed whispers, and then toward Shijo, who was looking up at him with an odd expression in his eyes. He sighed heavily and turned away, heading out of the entranceway to turn down a long corridor. After a few seconds more of staring around him in awe, Shijo hurried to follow him.

"It was either me or your sister, you know," he continued. "Would you really have preferred that she come along?"

Daisuke glanced down at him briefly and then appeared to be considering the question with some seriousness. "It's all the same, really," he answered then, which did not make Shijo the least bit happy. "She would have followed me around worrying, and you follow me around…."

"Helping!" Shijo insisted. "Don't tell me that you don't find me at least a bit useful!"

"Useful?" he echoed. "Useful at what? What have you done this entire trip that's been helpful? You didn't drive here! You didn't carry the luggage in!"

"I would have," the boy answered indignantly, "if there weren't others to do those things!"

"There is no point in working him to the bone," came a voice from nearby, sounding amused. Yamato stood in the hall, having recently emerged from his room, which was a few steps away. "You'll have trouble finding help if you do that."

Daisuke sighed again. "I don't need help," he replied.

"Hmm," Yamato answered with a shrug, frowning. "You may not think you do, but it wouldn't be a bad idea. Of course, he's probably not particularly qualified…."

"Qualified?"

"…but he could learn, I'm sure," Yamato finished.

"Learn what?" Daisuke questioned skeptically.

"I could learn!" Shijo put in, greatly cheered by this idea.

Yamato shrugged casually, now grinning in much the way Mimi had earlier. Daisuke began to get the feeling that something was going on that he had missed. "If you're going to pursue a life as a servant, then it's necessary to know a few things more than I think he's bothered to teach you," he said, speaking to Shijo now.

"I said I don't need…," Daisuke put in, feeling ignored.

"So you think," Yamato answered, interrupting him before he'd even begun to finish speaking, "but you may find that you're wrong." Grinning toward Shijo, he said, "Come with me, and I'll find someone who can teach you."


"I understand it's best to take it slowly," Miyako said with a sigh, "but it's ordinarily only a day or two's journey to the palace – not four days."

"It's better safe than sorry," Mimi replied in an uncharacteristically serious tone of voice as she helped her remove the warm cloak she'd worn on the journey. "No one is eager to see you fall ill again. We were all terribly worried while you were sick. Perhaps it would have been better to stay at home?"

For a brief moment, Miyako appeared as though she was seriously entertaining thoughts of murder. Mimi, handing off the cloak to a waiting servant, was oblivious. Ken, however, had noticed, and placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head slowly. Miyako sighed, collecting herself, and answered, in a calmer voice than she felt, "Maybe."

"Ah well," Mimi said, turning back. "You're here now, and there's no turning back time, right? Sora's been eager to see you – something she wants to tell you, but she won't say what. If I were you, I'd come along quickly before she bursts. Not too quickly, of course…we wouldn't want to trigger a relapse."

Miyako clenched the fingers of her right hand briefly and forced herself to keep silent. Once again, Mimi seemed oblivious to her near-death experience.

"As for you," she said, then, turning to Ken, "you ought to go and talk some sense into Daisuke!"

"Sense?" he echoed, confused. Mimi shook her head.

"Idiots, the lot of them," she muttered, and turned back to Miyako. "Come along, then. Unless you'd like to rest first, of course?"

"No!" Miyako answered a little too loudly, and took a few purposeful steps in the correct direction.


"If it is possible," Hikari was saying, "then maybe the solution can be found somewhere in the north. Certainly there hasn't been any success looking around here – but in the north, where they still use similar spells, it might be possible to find some way of breaking it."

"Perhaps," Taichi answered. He was lounging in an overstuffed armchair, his legs thrown over one arm, his head over the other. It was a rather undignified posture, but he didn't seem to care. Instead, he was studying the ceiling with a bit more intensity than was usually given to ceilings.

"That's not the only reason you want him to go with you, is it?" Sora questioned. Like Mimi, she had a certain knowing smile and look in her eyes, to which Hikari once more felt heat rising in her cheeks. Sora was seated in an overstuffed armchair in the conventional manner. To Hikari, she had seemed slightly paler than before, but it might only have been because she had chosen to wear a dark green dress.

Taichi turned his head toward his sister for the answer to this question. Though his pose was undoubtedly calm, and his expression was one of casual interest, his eyes were focused on her face. Thankfully, before the question could be answered, there was a light tap on the door, and Mimi entered with Miyako behind her.

"Look who's arrived!" Mimi announced cheerfully. "Alive and well, despite rumors to the contrary!"

"Rumors?" Miyako echoed, confused, but the others took no notice.

"Miyako! Oh, you didn't need to rush here on my behalf," Sora said, getting to her feet. "It's no hurry – you could rest for a bit more if you need to…."

"I'm through with resting!" Miyako half-shouted, obviously rather exasperated. "I am completely recovered and quite capable of making a single day's journey in four days."

"Four days?" Hikari echoed after a moment of stunned silence. "Why on earth did it take you four days?"

Miyako sighed. "My mother's insistence that I stop for a rest every two hours or so," she replied. "She told the driver that, and he refused to speed up at all, but followed her instructions to the letter."

"She's only worried," Sora told her, and took her hand in her own. "Come, I have much to tell you."

A moment later, they were gone. Hikari sighed and sat down in the armchair that Sora had vacated. Taichi turned and peered up at the ceiling again, watching his sister out of the corner of his eye, saying nothing.


Mid-afternoon, the sun high in the sky, found Daisuke in the gardens, doing nothing. To be precise, he was lying on a low stone wall, feeling the cool late-summer breeze, peering up at the blue sky, through which a parade of white, fluffy clouds was floating, but really this amounted to nothing substantial. He could hear distant conversation between other people who were wandering in the gardens, but he didn't feel in the mood to join in any of them, so he lay still, hoping he wouldn't be noticed. It wouldn't be long before most of the young lords and ladies who came to the palace for the summer months returned home to their families for the long winter, leaving the gardens and corridors barren.

Jun had protested a great deal about the idea of Daisuke traveling north for the winter. It went completely against conventional wisdom, for the kingdom of the north was considered to be a barren, frozen land. Even Hida, at the northern edges of Yagami, had bitterly cold winters during which huge snowstorms were not uncommon. Truthfully, he could think of no real reason why he should go. Hikari, too, had admitted that it was not entirely necessary for him to come along, but some how her mumbled, hesitant answer to this question had convinced him of the opposite. So it was that he had told his sister that, one way or another, he was going, and Jun had responded with the statement that they were both insane.

If Hikari's real reason for heading north was to seek out a possible counter-spells, then it was true that he didn't precisely need to come. Certainly it would be helpful to know immediately if a possible spell worked, but even with this reasoning, a trip could wait until spring or even next summer. If she had some other purpose for heading north, he didn't know it, and although his mind occasionally wandered in that direction, he pushed the thought away.

"Working hard, I see," said a voice then, startling him from his thoughts so much that he nearly fell off the wall. It was Ken, who had approached and sat down on the stones beside him without making any sound at all. He was now grinning a rather smug-looking smirk.

Daisuke sat up, frowning toward him. "And you?" he returned. "I see you're busy…touring the gardens?"

Ken had no response to this but another smug smirk, so Daisuke frowned even harder, upset now that his thoughts had been interrupted. "I was told to come find you and talk sense into you," Ken said instead. "I don't know what that means, so I don't know how to do that…but if Mimi asks, I did."

Forgetting his frown, Daisuke blinked at him for a moment and then shook his head. "I think someone ought to talk sense into Mimi," he replied grumpily and lay back down on the stone wall. The white clouds were floating peacefully overhead. A cool breeze danced through the flowers. "She acts stranger and stranger every time I see her."

Ken didn't say anything to this. It wasn't necessary. Instead, he yawned and shrugged. "Miyako might kill her," he commented casually. "She was looking at her with this very dangerous, scary expression."

Daisuke laughed, a short burst. "Miyako's here?" he asked. "I thought she was in bed with a horribly bad cold and might die herself at any moment."

"So the rumors said," answered Ken. "She seems fine now, though I can't say the same for anyone else if they suggest she get some rest."

The only appropriate response to this was a grin, and then they both lapsed into silence for a few moments. Daisuke watched a cloud gently float overhead, momentarily blocking the sun. Ken watched a small insect buzz around one of the daisies. It landed on an outer petal and began to make its way inward along the bright yellow surface.

"So…," Daisuke began with the air of someone who has something to ask but doesn't know quite how to say it. "How was Hida when you went?"

This was such an odd question to ask that Ken was taken off guard for a few moments. "Hida?" he echoed dumbly, distracted from the insect on the daisy. "It was…a very small village…friendly people, mountains all around it, Airdramon soaring all over the skies."

"Hmm."

The insect had reached the center of the daisy. For a few minutes, it walked around, and then it flew off again in search of other flowers of more interest. No longer able to contain his curiosity, Ken gave in and asked, "Are you going to Hida?"

"I don't know," he answered, and yawned. "Maybe. Probably we'll pass through it. Is that the farthest north you've ever been?"

"So far as I can remember," Ken answered. "Why are you going to pass through Hida? Are you heading further north?"

"Yeah," Daisuke answered, and then waited for the inevitable question that would follow – the why? Once again his thoughts veered toward his sister and the argument they'd had before he'd left home. Why? The truth was, he wasn't quite sure why he was going.


In an empty, bright room with tall windows, Sora took a seat in another plush armchair. Miyako noted the sigh of relief she breathed when she sat down, and noted the slightly paler tint of her skin.

"Don't tell me you're getting sick, too," she said, taking a seat across from Sora. "I hope you haven't got what I had…."

"Do I look sick?" Sora questioned with some alarm. Her eyes grew wide and she sat up a bit straighter.

"A bit pale," Miyako answered. "You seem tired."

Sora sighed and leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes. "I'm not sick," she answered. "Actually…I'm doing pretty well."

Worries abated for the moment, Miyako fell silent, sensing that there was more to be said, and waited. Outside, a gentle but cooling breeze blew through the trees and the curtains rustled. For a moment, the room grew slightly colder, but then the wind passed and the chill went with it.

"Actually," Sora began again, and sat up straight once more, "I think…no…I know, I'm certain…that… I'm pregnant."

A stronger breeze ruffled the curtains and caused the flame in the fireplace to flicker. Miyako's eyes grew slowly wider and her mouth fell open. There was no sound but the beating of her heart. "You're certain?" she found herself saying.

Sora nodded. "I'm certain," she answered. "The doctors know, of course. Jyou is positively sick over it because I told them all not to tell Taichi yet."

"H-he doesn't know?" Miyako echoed, eyes growing even wider.

She shook her head. "No. I didn't want anyone to know yet."

"Why not?" the younger girl demanded, sitting forward in her chair. "Don't – don't you want to have a child?"

"Of course I do," Sora replied, and then sighed. "As soon as everyone discovers the truth, they'll be wanting me to stay in bed – they'll treat me as though I'm sick or dying! I want to put that off as long as possible."

"Wouldn't staying in bed be a wise idea, though?" Miyako questioned.

"I'm not going to keep it a secret forever," she returned. "Eventually, the truth would be discovered. I don't want to have to spend the whole time in bed, though."

Having spent much of the last month in bed herself, Miyako found that it was not impossible for her to sympathize, both with Sora and with those who had wanted her to stay in bed. She leaned back in her seat again.

"That and…I wanted you to be the first to know," Sora added. "Now that you're here…I suppose I can't put it off any longer."


Sorry, but no action in this chapter. I promise there will be some later in the story. There's a bit of confusion in this chapter, but it will make more sense later on. For anyone who's confused or simply wondering, this story takes place about two years after the last story (the crystal gate).