"What are we going to do, Sang Yung?" Aska asked desperately, wringing her small, white hands in her lap as she sat on her bed. "What am I going to do?! You can't hide something like this forever!"
"I...I don't know Hime-chan," Sang Yung answered uncertainly. "We'll think of something."
"We'd better do it fast," Aska said, leaning against the ebony headboard behind her, the right strap of her night-shift slipping off her shoulder.
Reaching out in a small form of affection, Sang Yung gently tugged the strap back into place, smiling at her. As he pulled away she lunged forward into his arms as quickly as her dress would allow, nearly knocking him off the end of her bed in her haste to be near him.
"What are we going to do?" she asked again, trying not to let the tears in her eyes spill over onto her cheeks as she buried her head in his shoulder. "You know what will happen if anyone finds out. I'll be locked away for life, and you...I won't let it happen. I won't!"
He sighed, holding her close and stroking her hair, which was pulled back into an intricate pleat that hung down well past her hips. "Little more than a year ago ," he said softly, "I promised that I would take care, come hell or high water. And even if I have to face all the gods in heaven, I'm going to watch over you until the day I die."
Her grip tightened around his waist. Then, wiping the back of her hand across her eyes, she pulled back at look up at him. "I'm not sure how we are going to deal with this," she said. "But I think I know the perfect person to ask for advice."
Sang Yung nodded, knowing exactly who she had in mind.
*****
Chang Ang sat back in his chair, looking over steepled fingers at the young empress and her personal advisor.
"This is quite a problem you have on your hands , young ones," he said gravely. "I'm not too sure if there IS anything you could do short of disappearing." Then he added with a slight smile, "I must admit, I didn't think you had it in you Sang Yung!"
"Elder..." Aska chided slightly, glancing at Sang Yung. Like her, he was blushing and suddenly seemed to find the carpet very interesting.
Chang Ang went on as if he hadn't heard her. "And how did you ever find time, or indeed a place to-"
"Elder!" Aska cut him off sharply. "We didn't come here so you could inquire about it! We came here for help in finding a solution to it! Besides, if we had wanted you to know every single detail, we would've told you."
Sobering immediately, Chang Ang sighed again. "I'm sorry Aska-sama. As I said earlier, there seems to be no solution short of disappearing. And for you to disappear so close to your eighteenth birthday would be disastrous for Fahren. We would be thrown into civil war between your family house and the House of Shing To, each contending for the throne. Our country would sink so deep into depression we might never recover."
"Don't you think I know that!" Aska snapped, shooting to her feet. "I am very aware of what would happen to my country were I to disappear!"
Folding her arms under her breasts, she stalked to the fireplace, staring into the roaring flames. "And for once," she continued, "I don't really care...I'm sick and tired of thinking of everyone else but myself and the one I love. If I can't live happily, why should anyone else get to?"
"Aska-chan," Sang Yung said, walking over to stand next to her, "Maybe you should go back to your room and get some sleep. You're already up much later than you're used to and-"
"No!" Aska said, stamping her foot and whirling around to glare at him. "This is more my problem than anyone else's, even yours Sang Yung, and no one is going to decide how to solve it without me!"
"Yes Aska-sama," Sang Yung said, bowing slightly in aquiscience. "As you wish, my lady."
"Oh, stop it Sang Yung," Aska said, rolling her eyes and pulling him back to sit down in the chairs with her. "I think we passed that stage a LONG time ago!"
"As my lady says..." Sang Yung said, smiling slightly as she gave him a look that would have shredded steal and pulled her red-silk dressing gown tighter around her body.
"I'm not sure what to tell you," Chang Ang continued. "You wish to keep the child?"
"Yes," Aska answered, laying a hand against her stomach. "As long as it will be safe to do so."
"That may not be long, young one," Chang Ang said gravely.
"They won't take my child from me!" Aska said hotly, standing again. "I'm the Empress! I should be able to decide whom I marry and procreate with!!!"
"You may be our matriarch," the elder continued, "But Fahren is not ruled through monarchy, my dear. The Council will-"
"Never hear of this!" Aska interrupted. "Nothing concerning this matter will leave the three of us without my say-so and Sang Yung's second. Am I understood?"
"Yes, your Highness," Chang Ang intoned, nodding his head as he agreed.
"Sang Yung?" Aska prompted, turning in her chair to face him.
"Absolutely," he answered, reaching over to give her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Aska-sama, may I ask u something?" Chang Ang said, leaning forward in his arm-chair.
Looking away from Sang Yung, Aska answered, "Of course, elder."
"How much are you willing to sacrifice for your lover and for the child you now carry?"
A grave silence settled over the room as the young empress sat up straighter in her chair, her gaze sharpening as she looked at Sang Yung and then at Chang Ang. She opened her mouth as if to answer, before immediately snapping it shut again. She repeated the action three times before managing to speak.
"Well," she began softly, "If it meant I could spend the rest of my life with Sang Yung and our baby, I would sacrifice my whole world without a second thought. But...it's not just his life at stake. Abdicating the throne would be the most selfish thing I've ever done." Aska stood, turning toward the fire as she felt tears welling in her eyes. "I have a whole country riding on my shoulders. As much as I want to, I c-can't just leave my-- my people." To her annoyance and anger, her voice was riddled with small hiccups and sobs as she tried to choke back her tears. She had never been much of a crier. Crying was a silly, childish thing an empress could never find time for. And so when the tears spilled down her cheeks she was ashamed of them.
"Aska-chan," Sang Yung began, standing up and making as if to walk over and embrace her.
"No," Aska said, viciously scrubbing away the salt water on her cheeks. "Sit Down Sang Yung. I'm all right."
Sang Yung complied, remembering from previous experience that going against Aska when she was in this sort of mood could be disastrous.
"Moving on then," Chang Ang broke in suddenly, motioning Aska to sit down again as she turned to gaze at him. Indeed, seeing her cry was a rare occasion and it broke the elder's heart to see the redness in her eyes, pleading with him to help. Clearing his throat, he continued. "Because you've decided that abdication is out of the question, why not take a vacation, of sorts?"
Returning to her chair, Aska gazed steadily at him, listening carefully. "Go on," she urged.
"You haven't been out of the country in three years, which means that in all that time you have only spoken once with Fuu-sama, through the Portal Mirror. And because it is a well-known fact that you and the queen are close friends, a long visit to Cephiro would seem plausible. It would buy you time enough to think of how to further deal with the situation. And while you're there you could ask the queen's advice, and indeed her help, and I'm sure she'd be more than glad to-"
"It's so simple, it's brilliant!" Aska exclaimed, her eyes, dark and forlorn moments before, now alight and alive at the thought of hope. "Why I didn't think of it myself... But...I can't stay for more than half a year. It would be nearly impossible to keep the country under control while away. Why, I'd be up to my ears in-
"Quite the contrary," Sang Yung broke in, an almost invisible smile gracing his face. "If I remember my history correctly, your great-great-grandmother spent nearly four years traveling the other countries, only returning once for the twenty-fifth anniversary of her coronation. All that truly needs to be done is to choose someone with whom you could correspond your wishes for the country. They would be charged with all your minor duties and most of your major ones."
Aska still seemed troubled about leaving her country for so long, but all she had to do was place a hand on her soon-to-be swollen belly and her mind was made up for her. The life of her unborn child already held more weight in her heart than the safety and well-being of her country. It shamed her to think that she could be so fickle. She had been brought up as an empress from birth, trained to be just, fair, and above all, loyal, to her people. One night of guilty, indulgent passion had thrown all her sense out the window.
Climbing from her chair, Aska knelt in front of Chang Ang, resting her folded arms on his knees as she had done when she was a child. The position had always made the old scholar uncomfortable; the empress knelt to no one, and to have her on her knees at his feet had always seemed a gross breach of etiquette. Still, if Aska did not mind he saw no reason why he should mind either.
"You told me once," Aska began. "that before he died, my father used to say to you that I reminded him of my mother, that I trusted my heart when I should my mind." She glanced up at Chang Ang, a bittersweet look in her amethyst eyes. "I don't think I ever understood what he was talking about until the morning after we..." She looked at Sang Yung, a slight blush crossing her cheeks.
A sudden knock on the door had Aska on her feet, and Sang Yung soon after.
"Ah," Chang Ang said. "My tea."
"Elder, I can't be seen here!" Ask began in a fierce whisper, a slightly panicked look on her face. "I should be sleeping now! If I'm found here, my aunts will-"
"Well then don't just stand their gawking child!" Chang Ang interrupted. "Go stand on the verandah, off to the side. Lum-lum won't notice you."
Hiking her night dress to her knees, Aska sprinted across the room and had to grab one of the verandah's columns, her momentum propelling her around it and out of sight. She could hear the click of the door handle.
Sang Yung stood watching his lover's mad-dash for the balcony until Chang Ang motioned that he should join her. He too ran toward the open double doors, swinging around the column in much the same way Aska had done seconds earlier.
Lum-lum poked her head through the door, looking around in suspicion. She was a rather pretty young woman, with large, dark eyes and coal-black hair pulled back into a messy braid that reached her waist. She had a somewhat hard disposition, and an air of fake cheerfulness surrounded her constantly.
"Is something amiss?" Chang Ang asked as Lum-lum bustled into the room carrying a kettle and teacup on a brass tray.
"Not a thing sir," she answered curtly. "Though I think it may be time for me to retire for the night. I could have sworn I heard the Empress...Oh, it must have been my imagination!
Clearing books of the desk in the corner, Lum-lum set the tray down and poured hot water from the kettle into the teacup. Chang Ang tensed as Lum-lum walked to the balcony doors, studying them as if they were the cause of her confusion. Sighing, she reached for the door handles, pulling the doors closed and locking them.
"You really shouldn't leave these open, sir," she said, walking back across the room to pick up the teacup and hand it to Chang Ang. "You might catch a chill, what with the cold season coming on."
"Of course," Chang Ang commented, slumping slightly in his chair as he exhaled. "How silly of me."
"It's all right sir. Do you require anything else for the night?" Lum-lum asked, a smile on her face that did not quite reach her eyes.
"No, thank you," Chang Ang said. "I will be quite all right."
Bowing, Lum-lum backed out of the room, the door clicking shut behind her.
Hauling himself out of his seat, Chang Ang walked to the verandah doors. Opening them again, he ushered Aska and Sang Yung back into the room. The empress had a fierce grip on Sang Yung's hand, her knuckles nearly white in the ebbing adrenaline that nearly being found had provided.
"I think I should walk you back to your room now," Sang Yung said to Aska, pulling her toward the door. She opened her mouth as if to argue, but Sang Yung cut her off. "No hime-chan," he said gently. "Now."
Aska nodded in consent, her protests quelled. Chang Ang chuckled at that. Sang Yung was taming a tigress, but to do so he would have to come within reach of her claws. Let us hope he does not end up as her dinner, the old scholar thought fondly.
"Begin preparations for my trip first thing in the morning." Aska said, turning toward Chang Ang as she was practically dragged out of the room by Sang Yung. "I want to leave within the week, as soon as possible. And I plan to stay for a while. Make that clear when you inform my aunts."
Chang Ang looked up sharply. Had she not been halfway out the door he would have objected.
"Fine, child," he mumbled. "Throw your elder to the dogs and save your own skin."
"Age before beauty!" He heard her call back through the door.
Sighing in apprehension, Chang Ang rose, extinguishing the lamp on the desk and, after a second's thought, leaving the verandah doors open. He preferred a breeze when he slept.
*****
Lum-lum's smile vanished as soon as the door clicked shut. It was replaced by a bitter scowl, and she rubbed her hands together as if to cleanse them of something foul. She always felt so dirty after conversing with any of the nobles. Her father was most displeased at the turn events had taken after her mother's beheading.
A servant! The very thought brought incredible shame to Lum-lum. She found herself trembling with rage. If all had gone as planned, she would be the one sitting on the Dragon throne, not that twit of an empress Fahren had now.
But all that was soon to change. Lum-lum had suspicions long before tonight but now they were confirmed. The empress was having an affair! And with her personal advisor, of all people! And now Aska was with child! She felt like giggling. This was perfect! All she had to do was inform the Council. They would have Sang Yung beheaded and lock Aska away from the sunlight for the rest of her life. They would have no choice but to turn to the closest blood relative of the empress, and though Aska had no idea, that would be Lum-lum.
She stopped suddenly in her tracks as she heard the door down the hallway open. Darting behind a large marble column, Lum-lum watched as SangYung and Aska walked down the hall hand-in-hand. They walked past Lum-lum's hiding place, and on to where the hallway branched right and left. This was were they would part ways. Aska would go right, and Sang Yung left. The empress' chamber door was at the end of the corridor, and the rooms behind it took up nearly one third of this wing of the palace.
Lum-lum watched in mild fascination as Aska looked back the way they had come, then over Sang Yung's shoulder at the corridor behind him. Standing on her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to his in a warm yet chaste kiss. When she finally stepped away, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back to him, planting his lips firmly to hers. Lum-lum looked on as Aska reached up to stroke Sang Yung's cheek in a fond manner, his grip on her waist growing almost unbearably tight. His right hand trailed up to her neck, pulling loose the button that held closed the collar of her night dress. He felt Aska tremble as he kissed the hollow of her throat and slipped the next button loose.
"You know," Aska commented in a breathy tone. "This is what got us into this mess in the first place."
Sang Yung pulled back suddenly, turning away from her. The very sight of her was too much for his nerves. She looked so pretty bathed in the faint light of the lanterns overhead, her lips swollen from his kisses and her cheeks flushed in excitement.
"You're absolutely right," he said, his voice shaking slightly. "I think we should-"
He was cut off Aska grabbed his arm, turning him around. Fisting her hand in the front of his jacket, she kissed him hotly.
"Did I tell you to stop?" she asked against his mouth, backing toward her door and pulling him with her.
As soon as Aska managed to open the door, Sang Yung swept her off her feet without breaking the kiss and carried her into the room, closing the door behind them.
Yes, Lum-lum thought to herself. I'll be sitting on that throne quicker than a fox after a rabbit!
End chapter one
