Warning: AU, Fantasy, PG-13, Ran/Ken.

Disclaimer: Weiss belongs to Takehito Koyasu and Project Weiss.

City of Steps

Chapter 26

Their morning began as it always did, with bathes, getting dressed, and breakfast. But that morning before they left their room Ran asked Nalsa and Chi to select their most formal afternoon clothes and to have them ready by lunch. Nalsa, who was on top of everything, said they were already being pressed and aired. Then they were off to breakfast, where the conversation was forced, followed by the house, where some of the changes Aya had wanted were taking longer than they should.

Ken let Ran do all the talking, his husband could be very polite yet pointedly stern when he was pressed. They both wanted the house finished and as soon as possible.

Ken was convinced that Omi was watching Ran for some reason. Watching him and waiting for some sort of sign. And the red-head's dreams had something to do with whatever it was. When the Fall storms had started Ken remembered the night of the fire, the stillness followed by the wave of energy, and he knew that Ran had done something. Ran had done magic. Ran was capable of doing magic and that was why Yuushi had wanted him back. Yuushi had somehow guessed, or had seen and felt it like Ken had. And Omi, he knew it too somehow.

They needed to get out of his house. Ken watched Omi, and he watched Ran, and he fretted every time there was a storm that somehow Ran had caused it and he'd be found out. If he was Ken had no illusions about what would happen. Ran would be taken away from him and he would be alone without a place to belong. He had no clear idea what would happen to Ran, but he imagined that they would probably imprison or kill him. He couldn't believe they'd ever let a magic user live. Not free at any rate. So he fretted and he clung and he couldn't stop even though he knew it annoyed Ran. And he wouldn't explain because any mention of magic made Ran tense and angry, and he knew Ran had no idea that he'd done anything at all.

So they spent that morning at the house. Ken spent it watching Ran handle the carpenters and the architects as he'd been handling them for months, and he prayed it wouldn't be their last day together.

"You're very quiet today," Ran said to him at one point when they found themselves alone in what would be the front parlor. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yes. I'm just nervous about the tea," Ken said.

"Yes," Ran agreed. "So am I."

At that moment their conversation was interrupted and they never got back to it, but it made Ken think. He knew that Ran didn't trust Omi absolutely either, so maybe they could avoid the tea somehow.

On their way back for lunch he broached the subject again.

"Ran, what if we skipped the tea?" Ken asked, keeping one eye on his husband's profile.

"Skipped it? You mean, we just don't attend?" Ran asked looking and sounding credulous.

"Yeah," Ken nodded. "Do you think she'd be so offended we'd never be invited back again?"

"I think we'd be summoned to the Palace to explain ourselves and have to formally apologize. I think Omi would be so offended we'd be asked to leave his house."

Even better, Ken thought, but Ran wasn't finished.

"I think we'd embarrass Aya and she'd lose her standing and possibly her betrothal."

"Oh," Ken said with a pout.

"Skipping is not an option," Ran finished.

"Yeah, I see that."

"Look, I'm not particularly excited by the idea myself," his husband continued. "Especially since it probably means they're going to give up the search for the assassins."

"Hunh?!" Ken said, startled.

"What else could it mean?" Ran asked. "Omi's admitted that the trail is cold and there's no new information coming in. Every land holder outside the City has increased their personal security and locked down their estates. We're under guard every minute of everyday, as are Aya and Omi himself. What are the chances of another attack? The Empress has made moves to further solidify her base and is practically untouchable now. Why continue the search?"

Ken hadn't thought of that, mainly because he'd been so convinced of the other. But could it be true? More than twenty people dead in four households, two of those households ruined, and they'd just give up? Ken didn't think so.

"Maybe they have some new information to tell us, but it has to come from the Empress herself," he suggested.

Ran nodded.

"That could be too," he agreed then sighed. "Or it is as Omi said and she just wants to meet us. In that case we are worrying about nothing and deserve to be disappointed."

Ran cast him a fond smile and Ken tried his best to reciprocate, but all their conversation had done was convince him that his original idea was probably the right one. Because even if Ran did feel like his dreams meant something he'd never associated them with magic, but Ken had and so, Ken believed, had Omi. And two nights ago Ran had received the unlocked box. He just hadn't opened it yet.

Not for the first time Ken regretted that he hadn't confessed his theories to Ran. But his husband's opposition to any mention of magic had him constantly second guessing himself. Until now.

They returned to Omi's and lunch. Ken tried to force himself to eat normally but was only mildly successful. Meanwhile Ran tried to weedle information out of Omi without any success at all, and only managed to entertain the Prince with his attempts. Well, Ken supposed he was glad someone was enjoying themselves.

"Ken are you alright?" Omi asked him as lunch came to an end. "You've hardly eaten a thing and you look as though you're going to a funeral."

"I'm just nervous," Ken replied trying in vain not to pout.

"It's only tea," Omi said, looking a little stunned. "You'll be fine."

"Let's go get washed and dressed," Ran said offering Ken his hand.

Ken grasped it eagerly, grateful for the contact. He had to admit that Omi's bearing during their meal had served to reassure him a bit. Even if the Prince was accustomed to hiding information and doing the Empress's bidding, Ken didn't think he'd be quite so calm about sending a friend off to die. He was fairly certain Omi wouldn't be quite so cheery about Ran's possible imprisonment either, so perhaps they were just being summoned to tea.

He tried to relax and enjoy their bath, which was private, and their dressing, which wasn't. Their afternoon formal wear, though less extravagant than their formal evening wear, was still pretty impressive. Their coats were Fujimiya red, which matched perfectly with Ran's hair and complemented the colors of the changing leaves in the parks around the City. The coat-of-arms embroidered at the top of their left sleeves were done in a combination of black and gold thread and the design was mimicked around their collar and cuffs. With their normal daily attire only a hint of their shirt collars would show once their coats were buttoned, but with the formal attire large ruffled cravats hung down their chests. The color of rich harvest gold which somehow didn't clash with Ran's coloring and did show off the highlights in his hair from their time at the beach. Their pants and shoes were of deepest black and disappeared neatly under their coattails.

They stood shoulder to shoulder before the long mirror watching as Nalsa and Chi finished brushing their hair and adjusting their clothes.

"We are quite the striking couple, aren't we?" Ran commented and Ken met his eyes in the mirror.

"We are," he agreed and gave his husband what felt like his first genuine smile in weeks. "I think the Empress will be suitably impressed."

"Heh. Well, I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I feel certain we'll at least make a fair showing," Ran said with a chuckle. "Aya shouldn't suffer too badly from this."

"Do you think it's strange that she's not going to be there?" Ken asked forcibly repressing his anxiety.

"Yes. I admit that that did worry me at first," Ran answered, a slight frown marring his features. "But then when I considered how busy she's been, and they did share the whole of the return trip together on the royal yacht."

Ken watched Ran debate with himself before looking to him for his opinion, and he forced his face to relax and he nodded.

A knock at the door signaled that Omi was ready for them and waiting.

"Good luck, Sirs," Nalsa said stepping back so that they could pass.

"I know you'll do brilliantly," Chi added with an excited smile.

Ken watched as Ran returned an easy smile of his own and thanked the two servants. He did his best to follow suit and then they were through the door and heading down the hall.

"Ah, you look splendid," Omi called up to them from the hall as they descended the stairs. "I told Aya I couldn't see that the red would work when she described it to me, but now I have to admit she was right."

"She has my mother's sense of style," Ran said as they came off the stairs. "She always handled the tailors and fabric merchants."

"Then I see I can entrust my future wardrobe to her," Omi smiled.

He was dressed entirely in gray which looked more silver depending on the light, and he neither complimented nor fought with their apparel. He'll blend in and we'll stand out, Ken realized as they faced the door.

"Let us go," Omi said and led the way out.

His personal guard had arranged themselves as unobtrusively as possible in the front hall and silently took up positions around them as they passed through to exit the house. Ken thought that he was starting to get used to them, except there seemed to be an even larger number of them than usual.

Ran caught up his hand and squeezed it. They were on their way.

The walk up the steps to the top of the plateau did not take them as long as Ken was expecting it to. Ran had taken him up there before to show him the exterior from the public walk which circled the edge of the entire plateau. Naturally not much could be seen beyond the high spiked wall that ran along side it, but what Ken could see was the same four spires that they'd seen from the harbor.

Today they walked straight across the public walk and up to the large open gate where several groups of guards in royal livery stood, some at attention, along with lots of men and women in the solid black of servants garb. Unlike their staff the royal servants each had a different colored armband attached to their left sleeves below the coat-of-arms, some of them had different symbols on them as well. As they approached the guards stepped aside and a tall servant with a pearl-white armband stepped forward and bowed to them. Omi returned the bow and they began following the tall man, their personal guards still in tow.

Ken took a good look at the palace. He'd seen the facade that they were approaching through the gate on their previous visit, but he'd assumed that marked the front of the structure. What he realized now was that he'd been mistaken. The long brick building, fronted by row upon row of large windows wasn't the palace at all, or at least was only part of it. Two large stone staircases led up into the building and many people were hurrying up and down them, but their party was headed toward an arched tunnel placed between the two staircases and that led through the first floor of the building. On the other side Ken could just make out what appeared to be a court yard with a large fountain in the middle.

"Everyone thinks this is the Palace proper the first time they see it," Omi volunteered as they entered the tunnel, which proved to be wider and taller than Ken had thought. "The truth is the Palace isn't just one building, but many. They are joined by an elaborate system of hallways, passages, and even smaller buildings. Even some tunnels," he said with a wink, his voice echoing.

They came out of the tunnel and Ken saw that they were indeed in a court yard, one surrounded on all four sides by windows and archways and doors. The design of the architecture changed gradually from the brick of the front structure to a gray stone. The back building, which was the one they were headed towards, looked much older and more substantial than the others. It had one large door at the top of three stone steps which were flanked by at least twenty armed guards, each standing stiffly at attention.

They walked past the ornate, three tiered fountain that sprayed its water cheerily into the air above a circular pond and Ken thought it was the only happy thing in the court yard. As he looked around at the tall imposing structures he began to feel claustrophobic. Even the spires were out of his sight, hidden back behind the ancient fortress before him.

"This is where the Empress conducts all of her official business," Omi said, indicating the gray stones in front of them. "So, I guess it could be called the Palace proper, but inside it's known as the Court of State, or C.o.S. Anyone who is invited to the Palace is invited here."

Ken wasn't sure what he was expecting but when they went through the door, and down a short hallway, paneled in white wood, that branched off onto other hallways and had some closed doors and nice furniture along its length, they stepped out into a wide open central room. Not a throne room, he saw, but more like the one spot where any number of hallways and rooms connected. It was open to the ceiling, four floors above, which was arched and painted to look like the sky and filled with people with wings and creatures that looked mythical in nature. Each floor below it had open balconies that looked down onto the mosaic floor that encompassed the middle of the room and was interrupted only by a grand staircase that swept up only as far as the second story.

Ken thought the space would seem enormous except that it was filled with very busy, hurrying people that paid them absolutely no mind, and casually conversing people that took in their party with curious glances and studied them with cold disinterest. That is until they noticed the color of Ran's hair. A pause in the steady flow of conversation and general noise rippled through the room as they stopped momentarily just inside it, and Ken caught a satisfied smirk play across Omi's face before the servant led them forward again. They crossed the intricate mosaic floor, under the beautifully painted ceiling, and started up the center of the grand staircase. Behind them Ken felt more than one pair of eyes following.

"Was that strictly necessary?" Ran asked softly as they ascended the stairs.

"I couldn't help it," Omi said with a giggle.

Beside him Ken heard Ran sigh.

When they reached the head of the stairs they were led around to the left where another hallway led toward the back of the Palace. Their tall guide led them along it, its slightly darker more quiet length a welcome respite from the bustle they'd just come through. Doors were evenly spaced along the hall and their guide paused outside one to their right and opened it, ushering them inside.

Omi said something to one of his guards and as a body they turned and left the three of them alone. The servant followed, shutting the door behind him.

Omi sighed and strolled into the room as Ken and Ran looked around. It wasn't very large, Ken noticed, about the size of the sitting room he and Ran used that was next to their bedroom. It was papered in a deep rich red which eerily matched their coats and had no windows, but did have two other doors leading presumably into the rooms beyond. The center of the room was dominated by two cream colored settees placed facing each other, a small low table between them. Besides that the rest of the furniture consisted of long tables set against the walls, either topped by enormous sprays of flowers or holding lit candles that flanked large mirrors. The exception was the one near the door which contained a silver tea service. The tables themselves were flanked by uncomfortable looking chairs which Ken assumed were meant only as decoration and not as a serious attempt to increase the number of seats.

"Please, be seated," Omi said indicating the rest of the empty settee beside him.

Ran tugged on his hand and Ken allowed himself to be directed to a seat between his husband and the Prince. But their backsides had barely touched the cushion when the door swung open and they were rising to bow before the Empress Kikuno Takatori.

"Welcome to the Palace," she said.

Author's note: I'm so sorry! I meant to post the new chapter last week, but with the holiday everything got ahead of me. I hope everyone in the US had a lovely Thanksgiving, and if you didn't like the company I hope you at least enjoyed the food.

Well, here we are at the Palace and I'd like to advise everyone who hasn't already to please fasten their seatbelts. :D

Thanks to nukiuchi for your review! Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying it! And Ken is always super cute, isn't he? ;)

Thanks to noir_dravenwood for your review! It's very true. I have many stories in need of repair. Some of them have already been posted. I always read mine with a red pen handy. :) Well, this story certainly is tangled and I'm about to tangle it further. Please enjoy! :D