The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah
Postlude
Dusk
1 Day Before MK1
Li Yuen Ming rode a sleek, dark brown horse to a little enclave of the village cemetery. As small a town as Yanxubin was, it had its own memorial, the Mandalorian village's humble remembrance to a world and people long since lost. It consisted solely of a cherry blossom tree and a glass case on a stone bench. Every so often the glass would break, and Yen Sa would order another one.
The glass case kept Rah Cai Yue's sword from rusting.
Ming approached it, watching her reflection blurred in the weathered surface. She was still dressed in her house clothes, a simple, sturdy white dress. She had left her house so rarely in the past years that she didn't have much besides house clothes left. Her hair was as long and black as ever, tied in a braid, so that when she looked at her distorted reflection she looked to herself like the child she had been when the monument was constructed. The glass didn't reflect the signs of age in her face.
The cherry blossom tree was a little stunted, and its flowers wilted.
Ming fought back tears. She knelt by the case, and before she could begin to feel too foolish, began to speak softly.
"I'm sorry I haven't ever come here, Cai Yue," she said. "I don't think I've been myself since we found out Mandalore was gone. It's funny, because I thought I was back to myself years ago. But I've never come here, and I've never noticed how awful your tree looks.
"You saved a lot of people, Cai Yue. The Edenians left for South America immediately, afterward, though. You know how they prefer to live there rather than China like us. Climate. We had quite a time burying the ship without them, though. We wondered at the time about how determined Vendetta was to have it done his way. Once it became the Lin Kuei headquarters, it made a lot more sense.
"Yes, that's right. Vendetta restarted the Lin Kuei. Isn't it terrible? He had a surprising amount of support. And then even some of the men who didn't support it joined. Hua Quy Ling was most surprising of all. Everything really did hit him hard. And I don't think he knew what to do with himself. It was something familiar, something he knew he was good at, in a completely unfamiliar place, in completely unfamiliar circumstances.
"I helped to raise his daughters. They were sweet, and beautiful, but they were taken away. People never really got over everything that happened with the war, and they blamed the Honor Guard for it. There were Mandalorian prophecy-hunters roaming China, historians who came to Earth before the rest of us, and one of them found Tung and Ching. None of the villagers showed any sympathy for Quy, taking the girls away from him to give to this stranger. I haven't seen them since.
"I have another child, though. A son. His name is Yuan, and he was born five years after Mandalore was destroyed. Nine years younger than—" She faltered, and in the silence her cheeks began to flush from embarrassment. But no one was around, so what did it matter if she was talking to a sword?
"I really thought that having Yuan woke me up again. There was a time when he was so sick he almost died, and I sank back again, but when he got better, I thought I was even better than before. I guess I was wrong, though. My eyes were open again, but only to Yuan. I didn't even notice about your tree. And I think I may have ignored Nei Jen.
"He's a Lin Kuei now, too. Vendetta takes one son from every family. It's almost as though he's emperor. Or, he'd like to think he is. Luckily, he's not the only power in our town. Yen Sa knew exactly what to do to continue living. He really is an electronics wizard. He got into one of the big companies, and now I think he spends more time in Japan than he does at home. And he's very rich. If someone here isn't Lin Kuei, most likely they work for Yen Sa. And his daughter Mulan is wonderful, too. She's one of Yuan's best friends.
"So if you want to see the head figures of Yanxubin, you look for Vendetta or Yen Sa. If you want to find the lowest, you look for me or Wei Yong. Remember how I said the Honor Guard are blamed for the war? We're blamed even more, and we're hated even more. Wei Yong has trouble even getting people to work in his stables—he breeds horses. I think they're all descended from the three he rescued from Edenia." She sighed.
"It's all my fault, too, you know. Poor Wei Yong, and Quy Ling, having to put up with everything that I've caused. Vendetta and Yen Sa have avoided it because they made our survival possible. And I'm the only one who deserves that shame. I've been terrible. I don't know that it's possible to be any colder than I was. I was cold to even Nei Jen, Cai Yue. And now he's gone off on to fight in the Mortal Kombat tournament as part of an assassination mission, and I'm terrified that he's not going to come back. I'm awake now, but if he doesn't come back, then I'll always have been cold to him."
She sniffed, and wrapped her arms around herself for warmth.
"Kei Sa knew what she was talking about. I wish I had known to listen."
She stood, and looked again at the cherry blossom tree. "I'll plant a better one—I'll take care of it, and it will be better."
The sun set over Yanxubin, China, the Final Coast.