Game of Touhou
Chapter 10
Yuyuko
Yesterday had been a productive day. Lady Yuyuko had finally been able to put that wretched Seiga Kaku in her place with the help of Lady Tewi and her little rabbits, and like a great Cyvasse board, she had been moving other pieces into place, strategically aligning people to serve her plans...
Upon waking up, the first thing she saw with her morning-blurred eyes was Lady Ichirin Kumoi and her loyal, caring crone friend sleeping on the floor next to each other. Though she had provided them with bedding, she felt it unfair to keep them in such undignified conditions, but until the pieces were in the right place, she would not be able to reveal the pair and get them a better room.
Getting up, Yuyuko began her regular regime of bathing, the clatter of the bathtub being brought to her chambers, along with the conspicuous nudity of the woman, had stirred Lady Ichirin and her crone from their sleep. While Ichirin was able to look at Yuyuko without much trouble, the crone seemed... embarrassed at the prospect, although Yuyuko knew the man would steal the occasional glance when he thought she wasn't looking.
Just as she was becoming immersed within the aromas of her current flower-bath, a voice broke her immersion.
"Lady Saigyouji, I do not mean to be ungrateful or impatient, but how long must we linger?" Ichirin asked, "I would gladly forsake my place to the royal succession you promised if I would return home unharmed..."
Yuyuko opened her eyes, and smiled with contentment, rising a little from her bath so as to subtly force Ichirin to tentatively look towards her chest, "Oh, you are a confused petal. I am plotting all this to get your honourable house into power. And the rise to power is a complex game. Like Cyvasse, if you rush into an attack head-on, you leave yourself open and the enemy destroys you as soon as you hoped to destroy them. A good Cyvasse player waits for the enemy to open itself to them. You'll be glad to hear one of Seiga's... knights was tried and punished yesterday. The Queen is beginning to mistrust her. Who knows, the time may be soon."
With that, Yuyuko felt it necessary to make the girl feel a little more uncomfortable, and rose from her bath, walking to her, dripping wet and smelling of flowers. Ichirin's crone turned around in shame as she put her hand onto Ichirin's face gently, "Don't worry, my girl. Your time will come, and you shall be the most kind queen this realm has had for generations."
After that was said, she dried herself off, put her flower-patterned kimono on and combed her pale hair, smirking to herself. The crone had finally brought himself to look at her again, eyeing her suspiciously as if he had never seen a woman strip in front of him before.
Putting on her cherry-tree sigil necklace, Yuyuko decided to end her little talk with Ichirin by saying, "Tell the crone he can look all he likes. I know he wouldn't try any more than look. He has gentle eyes."
Ichirin became indignant at that, and said a little too loudly, "Unzan can hear! I don't have to speak to him for you!"
Yuyuko looked to Ichirin with a gaze that could have been apologetic, but could just as easily have been condescending, "My apologies. Crone, you can look at me. You're a man, men have their desires, even in old age."
The old man's cheeks flushed, and once again, he looked away from her. Yuyuko twisted a lock of her hair around her fingers, thinking that she may have been having a little too much fun at the expense of her guests. Finally departing, Yuyuko opened her bedchamber door, and with a wag of her finger, the Prismrivers moved aside to let her past.
Today was yet another day of dealing with the Queen's various judgements, but Yuyuko had risen early and decided to spend a little time in the courtyard, knowing a certain rabbit keeper would be haunting the area.
Her instincts were correct, and lo and behold, Lady Tewi was sitting on a marble chair in the flower-filled courtyard, a raven perched upon her arm.
Yuyuko couldn't help but laugh a little, "Oh my, have you changed your profession from rabbit keeper to bird tamer?"
Tewi giggled herself to match her fellow courtier, "Ah, there is a Master of Whisperers in the Royal Court of Westeros who keeps little birds. A plump fellow, I recall. A eunuch, pleasant of nature. I aim to be as great as he some day. Birds can fly over seas, but rabbits can only jump, and cannot swim the seas."
"I do enjoy your riddles so..." Yuyuko mused, although she knew the context did not classify such a set of words as a riddle, "...so, what of this bird?"
"It is merely an unusually tame raven. Queer eyes. It seems to like your bedchamber a lot. It was staring at the Prismrivers from afar yesterday." Tewi mused, "However, those are only some interesting notes about a pretty bird. You may want to know of some news of what happened to another... pretty bird."
Yuyuko stroked the raven underneath the beak, who crowed with contentment, "Oh... do tell."
"One law was changed by Grand Maester Satsuki due to the strange knight of Seiga's. She did not bleed any blood. Not only that, but Lady Seiga visited the Queen early this morning. A little rabbit of mine tells me that the Queen has decided to keep her in her palace. She seems to mistrust her after all that terrible business with the errant knight. A shame, given the poor woman had nothing to do with it..." Tewi moved, and let the raven perch on top of her shoulder, "...I also hear that she requested that she would be guarded by someone she chose herself. She did not choose her disgraced, errant knight, needless to say, but instead a strange whore some name Yoshika. Some of my rabbits, I'm ashamed to say, have found their way into Lady Seiga's whorehouse. Yoshika keeps herself well-covered, especially given her... profession. Seiga does keep odd company, would you agree?"
"Indeed." Yuyuko remarked, stilling her tongue for thought.
This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to strike. Seiga would be poorly protected, and in an easily accessible location, with very little witnesses. The palace was a desolate place in which only the Queen and her hand slept, and both were exceptionally deep sleepers. The situation was perfect... almost too perfect. The smile upon Tewi's face seemed to invite Yuyuko to doubt her loyalty.
"Say, your rabbits do speak true, do they not?" Yuyuko asked.
"My rabbits speak as they see it." Tewi calmly replied, "Of course, I would not be a Master of Whisperers if I divulged all of my secrets. But all I have fed you is what my rabbits have seen, for true."
Yuyuko still doubted the urchin-like woman, "And what of this conversation? With whom shall you share this with?"
"That is of no concern to you." Tewi said, with a grin, "I serve who I wish to serve, and at the moment, you are quite promising. If you lose that promise... well, you will know that my loyalties, like little rabbits, shall scurry away from the dangerous friend."
Yuyuko couldn't help but admire the girl. She looked little older than thirteen, yet seemed to see and hear all, and even knew of what occurred in Westeros, or so it seemed. Standing up and bowing, she said, "Very well, rabbit master. You are a great help... I should hope to stay your promising friend."
Tewi held out her arm, and let the raven perch itself back upon it, "Goodbye, my friend."
Yuyuko knew what to do next. Confirm Tewi's story. Seiga loved to give an air of confidence and superiority that implied she was the perfect liar, but in reality, her moods were as easy to read as a Maester's works on the higher mysteries. The apparent sophistication was there, but the falsehood shone through in-between the lines.
Reaching the throne room, she had found Seiga Kaku standing by her Queen's throne, hovering over it like a crow above a rotting corpse. Sitting like a corpse upon the throne was Queen Eiki, her eyes as dead as ever.
"Oh my, your grace, are you sick?" Yuyuko asked, her voice dripping with false concern.
Hunching and supporting herself by propping her arm between her head and legs like a flimsy scaffold, she mumbled, "I did not sleep well, I fear. I will require you to ask Maester Satsuki to give me essence of nightshade when the proceedings are done..."
Yuyuko tried her best not to smile. This made it even easier... with the Queen in a nightshade sleep, she'd not stir even if she killed Seiga with a great, fire-breathing dragon. Komachi was the only complication left.
"Where is Ser Komachi, your grace?" Yuyuko asked.
Seiga answered this for the Queen, "She is still sleeping, but will arrive for the court proceedings. Why is that such a concern? The Hand does not usually matter so to you, Lady Saigyouji..."
"It is merely disconcerting to see the Queen without her hand, and you breathing down her neck." Yuyuko said with a smile, "What are you doing here so early in the morrow?"
"I could ask of you the same question..." Seiga parried, however, the Queen had heard enough.
"Silence, both of you." the sleep-deprived, greying woman said with a grim scowl, "Lady Seiga and I had a private conversation, between the Queen and her third-in-line. It does not concern you."
"I am your advisor, your grace. Would seeking my advise have been a choice?" Yuyuko asked.
"No." the Queen bluntly replied.
Yuyuko smirked. Their secretive nature all but confirmed it. Lady Tewi... devious, knowledgeable, and, at least for the time being, on her side. This was a good day. The hours flew by, with Ser Komachi gracing the court with her presence, or lack thereof given the exhausted expression on her face, and the court proceedings going as expected.
Once the day was over, Yuyuko remembered to obey the Queen's one command for the day, and walked into the Maester's Chamber in the side of the Royal Court. The yellow-haired, soft-faced woman in hanging red and white robes was sitting on a half-rotted chair, squinting at a large, incomprehensible book.
"Ah, Lady Saigyouji." Maester Rin Satsuki said, "You rarely visit the Maester's Chamber. What appears to be the issue?"
"The Queen asked for me to acquire essence of nightshade for her sleep..." Lady Yuyuko answered, before adding a little request of her own, "...in two bottles, if you can. The Hand is also in dire need of dreamless sleep..."
Maester Satsuki looked at Yuyuko for a moment, before getting up and taking two bottles from one of her shelves, one full with a colourless liquid and the other empty.
Pouring half of the fluid into the empty bottle and handing both to Yuyuko, she said, "Her grace is oft plagued by night terrors. She dreams of rebels cutting her head off... she rather likes the juices of nightshade, although the Hand... she appears to sleep well enough. I hope for her swift recovery. The Queen knows of doses, but be sure to tell the Hand that three drops is the dose she needs. One stills nerves, three gives a dreamless sleep, but ten gives only death. It is a frightful drink..."
Yuyuko did her best to simply remain courteous despite knowing the doses well enough herself, "I shall tell the Hand. Thank you, Grand Maester."
"The pleasure is mine." Maester Rin replied, and with that, Yuyuko bowed and left.
Walking back to the throne room, she was pleased to see Seiga had left while she had retrieved the nightshade. Yuyuko handed the Queen a bottle, and said, "Here, your grace. I also retrieved a second bottle, in case that the Hand may wish to sleep well tonight."
The Queen looked at Yuyuko, as if she was trying to read her herself. However, Ser Komachi simply took the second bottle from Yuyuko's hands, and said, "Thanks, I was feeling like a little of the shade today."
"I was told to remind you that you must take three drops only, Ser Komachi." Yuyuko obediently stated to Komachi.
Komachi laughed, "I know this! The Maester has so many facts in her head she forgets I've asked her for the shade too..."
Yuyuko smirked, but not at the jest. This was perfect. It seemed too easy, too good to be true. The pieces were in place, and all she needed to do was strike. As she walked away from the royal court, towards her bedchamber, she decided to whistle a little tune, a catchy song which was the anthem of a distant Noble House- House Fujiwara of the Woodlands. Soon enough, there would be yet another sacrifice to the God of Renewal...