Sai-Li sat on her bed pondering her options as the sunset brushed the sky with brilliant strokes of gold and crimson and bright orange outside her window. There came a polite knock on the door to her "guest quarters" as the sun sank below the horizon.
"Lady Sai-Li," came a defferential masculine voice outside her chamber door. She could hear the maliciousness under the defference in the man's tone, and was under no illusions about her condition. All hands were raised against her.
I could understand, to a degree, if I'd come back home pregnant and unmarried, she thought in irritation. That would at least give them a solid cause to base their contempt upon, but it appears that they all want to dislike me on sheer principle. Backward sticks; the lot of them.
"What is it?" she called as if she didn't already know. There were appearances to keep after all.
"The Grand High Council has convened and it is ready to see you now," he said. "The escort your father has ordered for you has arrived to convey you there."
Escort?! Oy! My father really doesn't trust me not to escape does he?
"I'll be right out," she said. Sally gave herself one last look over in the mirror, adjusted her jacket, straightened her blouse, tightened her tie and gave a final smoothing pat to her hair. She really didn't need it, but she figured it couldn't hurt. Her appearance was going to shock and scandalize them all anyway, she might as well give them her best.
Sai-Li opened her door to reveal the shocked faces of six guards, who stood staring at her in her outlander's garb with expressions akin to landed fish on their faces. Well, six guards… boy her father and the Council weren't taking any chances, were they?
"Well gentlemen?" she queried. "It's best not to keep the Grand High Council waiting. We should be on our way."
"Lady Sai-Li…surely you don't intend to go before the Grand High Council dressed like that do you?" blurted out one of the guards before he could stop himself.
"That is exactly what I intend and since neither of you are in any position to argue with me about it, we should get going before the Council gets impatient and comes looking for us," she said and with that just strode right out the door without looking back to see if her guards were escorting her or not.
She was escorted inside the building by her six armed guards (who had swiftly caught up with her) and when she reached the Council chamber she was told to wait outside while the Herald announced her arrival. There was a gong, then her name was called. The doors opened slowly to reveal a long, wide chamber with a ceiling so high that the top of it was lost in shadow supported by traditional stout wooden pillars. The floor was of stone polished to a mirror like shine with a huge motif carved into it of different polished stone tiles. It was a compass rose with the Four main Clans at the end of each point dividing the floor into quarters. Then on either side of the four main points were two minor points that formed a triangle. Each point had the crest of one of the Clans on it, made in polished stone, in each Clan's own emblemic colors.
Sai-Li proceeded over the stonework of the entrance and into the room itself. At the end of the room, rested a huge stone table that was polished as shiny as the stone floor. It curved a little towards the back of the room so that Sai-Li could see all of the faces ranged against her. Behind the table were hung suspended banners of fine silk down from the ceiling, each lit by a skylight, and each carried the crest of one of the Clans. Obviously each man seated in front of each banner was the one who represented that Clan. The seat to the fore of the banner marked for Dragon Clan lay empty, and something nagged at the edge of Sally's memory. Her father stood off to one side, his face red with anger at her outright defiance of him in front of his important visitors. Sally was concerned as a doctor, she feared he might suffer and attack of apoplexy.
"Good evening Honorable sirs" Sally said with a respectful bow at the waist, it wasn't a proper bow for a woman to make but Sally couldn't bring herself to touch her forehead to the ground. "You wished to speak with me?"
The eleven men arrayed before her, each dressed in elaborate robes of silk in the colors of their respective Clans and decked out to the nines in jewelry, each carrying a sacred relic of their Clan, sat there still as statues with expressions as sober as judges. Sally waited for one of them to speak.
"Po Sai-Li, First Daughter of the House of Po, Third House of Phoenix Clan, it has come to our attention that you have chosen to live outside the protection of your Clan, that you live alone and unchaperoned in the Outlands. Is this true?" said the representative from Unicorn Clan.
"Yes I-"
"Answer only yes or no and do not elaborate unless we ask it of you," he said. "You, a woman of the Clans, disobeyed the edicts of your Honorable Father by refusing to marry as he willed it. You defied tradition and made a mockery of the sacred rights of handfasting by holding that…display every year for five years."
"I was within my rights. There is a law that says so."
"There is no law that authorizes you to speak out of turn," continued the representative from the Snake Clan, a withered old prune of a man with an expression as sour as a lemon pickle. "And you are to address the leaders at this body as Honored Councilor, Disrespectful One."
"At the end of your five years of continual defiance of your Familial Duties," continued the one from Unicorn Clan. "You chose to leave your Home, your House, your Family and your Clan behind to live in the Outlands. Is that quite correct thus far?"
"Yes Honored Councilor."
"And while in the Outlands, what did you there?"
"I studied hard to become a medical doctor and entered into the Alliance to continue my education and training," she answered. "Then when the war of 195 blew in I came back here to China as a rebel freedom fighter so that I could protect my homeland from the depredations of OZ and the Alliance. Then I went up to space for the final battle and assisted the Peacemillion Crew. After the war ended I joined with the Preventors led by Lady Une and worked on missions to keep peace here on Earth and up in Space. At the end of 196, I helped to defeat the Barton Army. I've been working with the Preventors since. Honorable Councilors."
Sally noted with a growing feeling of unease in the pit of her stomach that a few of the "Honorable Councilors" had gotten a predatory gleam in their eyes at this last statement. Sally didn't like it one bit.
"Ah. I see. And were you alone on any or all of these missions?" asked the Councilor from Snake Clan. Sally understood it all now and had no choice but to answer with the truth.
"No. Honored Councilor."
"Who did you work with at this Preventors place?" he questioned.
"I worked first with Lucretzia Noin, my best friend. Then she reassigned herself to another partner; her husband now, Honored Councilor."
"Our sources say that there has been another you've worked with."
"Yes, Honored Councilor." Sally was determined to make them work for every answer they dragged out of her.
"And you've worked with this person for how long?"
"Six years Honored Councilor."
"Six years. That is quite a lot of time to work alongside someone…"
Sally said nothing.
"For the purposes of clarity, was this person you spent so much time around a man or another woman?"
"Irrelevant Honored Councilor," she said, frowning. She didn't care what the Council did to her, but she didn't want her partner dragged in to all of this.
"Po Sai-Li, the Council will decide what is and is not relevant, not you. Answer us. Was the person a man or a woman?"
"He is male, Honored Councilor."
"In-ter-rest-ing," said the Councilor from the Snake Clan. "You've spent every day for the past six years alone with a man outside of Clan Grounds unchaperoned."
"He's my partner. It's part of my job."
"But our sources say that many of the missions you two are sent on are quite hazardous, dangerous, deadly even. In your estimation, how much time do the two of you spend together?"
"I don't know."
"Guess."
"Most of it, except the time we require for sleeping. We have our meals together usually, when we aren't in our separate offices filling out our reports we sometimes do them together anyway just so we can get the details correct. We usually see to our other duties together. When we're on missions most of our time is spent conferring with one another, except when we have to split up and research things separately," she was forced to admit. This really wasn't going well, and it didn't help that she could not lie and say she didn't enjoy his company. She did… too much. It was all too easy to blur the line between good working relationship and implied intimate relationship.
"And your partner, do you feel he trusts you?" asked the representative from the Tiger Clan. Sally was a bit surprised at the change of topic, but answered the question warily.
"I feel he trusts me…as much as he trusts anyone," she answered honestly. Wufei wasn't really big on the whole trust idea, being the solitary sort. He seemed to trust her well enough.
"And how about yourself? Do you trust this man you've been working with for six years?" the Councilor pursued.
"With my life," she said. That much she was certain of. She'd trusted in Wufei practically since the day she'd first met him.
"Is he married?" asked the representative from Snake Clan, who was glared at by the Councilor of Tiger Clan.
Sally saw where the line of questioning was going now and didn't like it, but again she had no choice but to answer honestly.
"No. Honored Councilor."
"To the best of your knowledge is he currently with anyone?" pursued the Snake Clan Councilor.
" 'With someone,' Honored Councilor? I'm not sure what you mean," she said stalling for time.
"Is your partner, the man you spend so much of your time alone with in the Outlands without proper supervision, currently romantically and or intimately involve with anyone else of the opposite or same gender?" demanded the Councilor from Snake Clan.
"I've never asked him Honored Councilor," she said.
"You said you spend a lot of time with him, most of your waking hours. Surely the subject has come up."
"It's rude to pry into people's private affairs, Honored Councilor."
"Are you telling that to me or answering the question, young woman?"
"Both; Honored Councilor."
"You are more impertinent that your reputation gives you credit for," grumbled the Councilor from Tiger Clan. However Sai-Li sensed the faintest undertones of amusement towards her in his voice. Perhaps he was not entirely against her.
"I would say truthful. I am not afraid of the truth, and I am not afraid to speak it," she said forthrightly.
"The what, pray tell, in your own words, is the truth?" asked the Snake Clan Councilor belligerently.
Sally decided to throw all caution to the winds and ram the truth right into their teeth. Perhaps then they would be forced to sit up and actually listen to her.
"Alright. The truth is that this entire meeting is based on one large steamy pile of bullshit. This isn't about whether or not I have had sex with a man in the Outlands, this is about my father wishing to trap a fish back in his nets that swam off a long time ago. This is about my father wanting to use me like chattel for the sake of an alliance with another Noble House in one of the other Clans. I haven't fucked anyone!" (There were gasps of surprise and shock at this, But Sally was just getting started.) "And even if I had it wouldn't be any of your business. I'm a fully grown woman with a life and career of my own. I don't need to be married to a man to have security or a place to live. I make enough money on my own merits and using skills I learned on my own to provide for myself. I pay for my own house, my own transportation, food, clothing and other expenses. I know it's not the way things are done in my Clan, but I don't live among the Clans anymore and I haven't for years. Father just can't seem to let me go off on my own and walk my own life path. I still love my family very much but I'm about as suited to traditional life among the Twelve Clans as a fish is fit for flying. Yes I spend a lot of time with my partner, and no, neither of us are involved with anyone else but it does not logically follow that we are sleeping together. Let's at least discuss what this is really about. Father doesn't like the fact that I'm strong enough and brave enough to flout his authority by standing on my own two feet, and the rest of you "Honored Councilors" are concerned that once they see how successful I was at making it on my own, some of your younger wives or daughters will get the idea that they can actually accomplish something in this world without the help of a man and that scares you. This meeting isn't about me or my personal life. This meeting is about you and your power, and how you can keep it by the suppression of the female gender in your Clans."
"That's enough!" said Councilor from Unicorn Clan. "Dishonorable halfbreed! You should be thankful that your Honorable Father did not leave you to die on his doorstep and yet you repay his generosity with such contempt."
"It's no more than the contempt he has shown me all my life," she shouted back. "I have never committed any crime save that of wishing to live freely and I have been treated as if I were a lower being not even worthy of breathing the same air as some of those fat fools and rude, supercilious, conniving, backstabbing, pigs who call themselves Nobles! They should spend a year cleaning out stables so they know what real work is like."
"You wretched snipe of a girl, you should have been drowned at birth!" yelled the Councilor from Snake Clan. "But that situation can be easily remedied. For you continual defiance of the True Path of Nobility of the Twelve Clans, I move that the Council sentence this lowly dishonorable Child to death for her behavior."
"You go right ahead and try it! I'll come back and kick your ass!" Sally shouted, past all caring. She truly didn't care if they executed her; she was tired of their bullshit. She could at least go out with her head held high. She intended to give them all a fight they'd all remember too. Perhaps Wufei was right and she was weak, too weak to change anything, but she could at least die with her dignity intact.
"I second the motion," agreed the Councilor from Unicorn Clan. "We vote, Councilors. All in favor…?"
Ten other hands shot up into the air. The one from Tiger Clan rose slowly, but rose just the same.
"By Unanimous Vote of the Council on this day May 17th, fourth year of the Dog Era, we, the Grand High Council of the Twelve Clans does hereby sentence you, Po Sai-Li, dishonored daughter of Po Tzu; to d-"
"Wait!" called a voice from the entrance. All heads snapped up or whipped around to see who dared interrupt the Great Council like that.
"Wufei!" Sally gasped, then hissed "Are you crazy, what are you doing here?!"
Wufei ignored her and walked down the columnway into the room to stand before the Grand High Council in his Outlander Preventors uniform with the jacket that was an exact match to her own, without the barest trace of fear.
"You are not allowed to sentence her to death," he said implacably. The Councilors were just looking at him in shock, one recovered enough to say
"Outlander! Who allowed you in here?!" demanded the Councilor from Snake Clan. "Guards! Escort this piece of rubbish out of our presence."
"I'm not an Outlander, any more than any of you are," he said calmly. "And your guards won't be able to answer your summons for quite some time yet."
"Wufei! You are not helping," Sally gritted.
"Well I can't possibly be hurting you any either Sally, I believe they were about to sentence you to death," he pointed out humorously. Sally shot him a black look for his joke.
"Outlander, I demand that you remove yourself from this Council Chamber at once or you too shall join your lover in her grave," said The Snake Clan Councilor.
"For one thing, Sally and I aren't lovers, for a second thing I am not an Outlander, and for a third thing, this Council does not have the authority necessary to sentence a person to death," said Wufei, unperturbed by the sight of so many red-faced Councilors glaring at him. "By ancient law, only the unanimous vote of the entire Grand High Council can sentence a person of the Clans, even a woman, to death. As you all can see," and here he gestured to the empty chair sitting in front of the banner with the crest of the Dragon over it. "The Grand High Council is incomplete."
"It does not matter," persisted the snake Clan Councilor. "Dragon Clan has had no representative here on the Council for years."
"Well it does now." And with that Wufei revealed the Dragonsword, sacred symbol of all of Dragon Clan, and calmly as you please took the seat on the Council to the fore of the Crest of his Clan. The Councilors spluttered for a moment, all save one, the Councilor for Tiger Clan.
"Welcome Brother," he said. "It is good to see all twelve Clans together at last. It grieved my Clan to watch yours be sent into exile, but at the time there was nothing to be done except to save your lands. When you are ready to reclaim them and start your Clan anew, come and see me and I will give you back the lands which are rightfully yours."
"Thank-you," said Wufei, surprised and touched. He abruptly turned back to the rest of the Council and said
"You can take it as read that you do not have my support for the beheading of my partner Sally here. I can also attest on my own word of honor that she has not acted dishonorably while away from your Clan Grounds. Drop your charges and let us have an end to this ridiculous mess."
"Motion sustained!" called out the Councilor from Tiger Clan.
"What about my Marriage-Alliance Contract!" protested Po Tzu. "Whether she lives in the Outlands or not, Sai-Li is still my daughter by blood and I have the right to distribute her hand in marriage to a man of my choosing according to most ancient and sacred of our traditions. She will marry Yo-Kin of Unicorn Clan if I must have her chained to the marriage altar!"
"Um, you tried that once already Father," said Sally, with a small smirk. "I don't think it will be any more successful this time around than it was the last time you tried it. Recall that I still have the right to challenge any suitor for my hand and I will do so if you force me to. I have yet to be defeated by anyone, so unless you want a repeat of that five-year free-for-all I suggest you find a way out of that particular contract. Furthermore, if you attempt to marry my sister Ming off to that horrible man who has already worked three other women into their graves with childbirth and chores you can be damned well certain that I'm going to champion her against that piece of ambulatory offal."
"You intransigent, unmannered, disobedient daughter!" said an outraged Po Tzu. "It will serve you right when you finally do meet a man who can best you in combat, and you must marry him. I hope he is as ugly as a three eyed oni with the temper to match it."
"Don't think the thought doesn't keep me awake at nights," Sally muttered under her breath. Wufei caught it, and chuckled.
"Indeed," said Wufei,. "You aren't allowed to marry Sally off anyway, she's well past the age of being young and malleable."
Sally glared at him in insult and growled "I'll settle with you later."
Pretending he hadn't heard Sally's comment, Wufei continued. "Furthermore, she's under the protection of Dragon Clan. See the bracelet?"
Sally looked down at it in surprise. Now that she looked at it, she realized what it had reminded her of; a dragon! The bead that had the teeth biting into something was the mouth biting into the tail.
"It means she's earned respect and gratitude for her kindness and bravery. It was given freely as a token of high esteem."
The Councilor from Tiger Clan coughed as if choking on something, and Sai-Li could have sworn that something was a laugh. She didn't really want to inquire too closely, she was just glad she wasn't going to have to fight for her freedom anymore. She just wanted to get back to the Outlands where she belonged.
"I am still her father, no matter what trinket you care to give her," said Po Tzu stonily. "I am Po Tzu, head of the Third House of Phoenix Clan, and I order that my daughter be married to Yo-Kin of Unicorn Clan at dawn tomorrow!"
"Well I'm on the Council and I outrank you," Wufei retorted, clearly losing his patience with the man. "Sally doesn't want to marry that worthless nobleman you've picked for her and I'm inclined to agree with the assessment that she would be wasted on that kind of life. She belongs with me in the Outlands."
Sally saw it coming and only had time to think Uh-Oh! before her father pounced.
"Very well then, you may have my daughter with you. In fact you may keep her," said Po Tzu with a smile like that of a shark eying a bloody carcass. "Her Marriage Alliance with Yo-Kin is annulled. She will be married to you instead, Councilor."
Before Wufei could even begin to form a protest; Po Tzu swept out of the room, double doors clanging shut behind him. Sally sighed and put a head in her hand, the things he got them both into for speaking without thinking. But then she thought about how she'd very nearly gotten sentenced to death that very same day and decided it was the case of the pot calling the kettle black. Well she couldn't imagine that her partner would actually want to marry her, given what he'd said about his previous marriage; so she'd just have to figure out another way around it.
* * *
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. The show and its characters are the sole creative property of Sunrise, Bandai and Sotsu Agency as well as its creators Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Matate. The Twelve Clans and all of its affiliated work is the sole creative property of me.