Part Five – Everything has a time

I was sitting under the gazebo in the back gardens of the newly christened Imperial Palace, enjoying the sounds of the rain coming down on the glass, the fresh scent of the rain putting a smile on my face. It was hard to believe that just over a year ago now I met Zara and move to the Empire for my job. I thankfully had at least twenty full minutes to myself this morning before meeting with someone from the Sakura Empire this morning. Speaking of Zara, I feel a little bad; morning sickness has been hitting her hard, mostly in the late afternoon of all times, but to think that she is already sixteen weeks along, it left me wondering if we were going to have a son or a daughter.

My attention is taken off the rain as I hear the sounds of someone approaching, it sounded like wooden sandals on the wet stone. Opening my eyes and looking in the direction, I couldn't help but blink and rub my eyes a little. She had white fox ears on top of her head of long white hair, nine white fox tails behind her too. The kimono she wore looked like it was getting slick in the rain, I felt myself gulp a little as in an instant I knew she was kansen. I stood and waited for her to enter the gazebo and she bowed a little as she said in flawless English, "Your Imperial Majesty, thank you for meeting with me." She paused and looked up from her bow as she added, "I am Shinano, sister to Yamato and Musashi."

I offer a bow in return as I gesture to the chairs and say, "Thank you for being willing to meet with me on this."

I watch as she takes a seat and reaches into one of her sleeves to take out a sealed letter and places it on the table as she says, "Under my advice to my sisters and the Emperor, please read the offered terms for an alliance."

I blink a couple of times and lift the letter, breaking the seal and starting to read it as I ask, "How did you know I'd be asking about this?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her shift in her chair a little, likely trying to get comfortable with her tails as she said, "I am gifted to see different timelines at once, just as my adviser is gifted to see glimpses of the future."

I nod slowly as I read through this offer, it looks really, really good. Free trade between our Empires, exchanges of some technologies, and the offer of a pair of their heavy cruiser kansen to help bolster my fleet. After a moment I look over the paper at her and say, "That must be a bit of a burden to know that information."

She smiles at me before looking out the window at the rain as she says, "Without Amagi, my gifts would be harder to make use of." She pauses and reaches into her other sleeve and takes out a package as she says to me, "For your daughter."

"My what?" I ask in a stunned tone of voice.

Shinano gives me a sad smile as she says, "She will be a great Empress of your Empire and will see your work to completion, and your son will go on to do great things for this alliance."

I'm going to have a daughter and a son?

After a moment I recover and ask, "How? When?"

"Your daughter will be born first, then your son several years later." She pauses and reaches over to touch my shoulder as she says, "You will live long enough to see your labors complete, but it will be her that brings them to fruition."

I nod as I whisper, "Change takes time."

"It does." She says to me as I take out a pen and sign my name to the letter she brought as I add, "I'll send this down to the ministry as soon as I can."

She nods and gets out of her chair as she says, "Then I bid you a good day, Your Imperial Majesty, there are things I wish to see and do before that treaty is accepted by the ministry and returning home."

I get out of my chair to stand when she stands and I look off to the side and start to ask, "Do you know, if?" I stop myself as I'm not sure I want to know the answer about Yorktown.

Shinano bows a little as she says, "Sometimes, knowing too much about the future isn't a good thing, but everything will work out."

I bow again and watch as she turns and heads back into the rain. Once she's gone I sit back in my chair and whisper to myself, "I'm going to have a daughter."

I don't know how long I sat there, but I almost jump out of my skin as I feel arms slip along my shoulders just as Zara speaks up behind me, "Do you want to know what we're having?"

I rub her left arm with my right hand as I ask, "Is it a girl?"

Zara moves around from behind me to sit across my lap and she rubs her belly and leans her head against my shoulder as she says, "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess." I say to her as I look at the box that Shinano had left for my daughter.

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Later that week I was walking through the palace late at night and I found myself in the library, I had found it hard to sleep with knowing that everything I'm working towards will come to fruition, but it won't be my hand that sees it finally happen. As I wander the library I find that I'm standing in front of a book that has to do with my genealogy, the same book I remember looking at with my grandfather before he was killed in that air raid. I take the book off the shelf and start going through it, starting at myself. As I start working backward, I come to my grandfather's entry and I say, "I wish I could still talk to you about what's going on now."

With a sigh I keep moving back in time through this book, I come across an Empress of the Empire during the late Middle Ages, Sofia the First. Looking at her accomplishments I see that she had put forth civil reforms, she had reduced the power of the nobility and given more power to the people that worked the lands, instituted a minimal day's wage for the presents and she encouraged the arts. The words of Shinano come back to my mind, my daughter will do great things for the Empire, I look around and take a strip of paper and use it mark this page in the book before I close it and go and take down another book, one about Sofia the First.

As I start going through the chronicle of her time, she ruled over the Empire for nearly thirty years before handing off the crown to her son, Mario. Before I know it my eyes are getting heavy and I take a seat on a comfy-looking couch and lay my head down, letting my eyes close.

I'm startled out of my sleep as I feel a hand rubbing my shoulder, looking around I see Zara kneeling beside me in her housecoat, she's smiling at me as she says to me, "There you are, I woke up and you weren't in bed."

"Sorry, I was having a hard time sleeping." I say as I rub the back of my head and look down at my book.

Zara looks at the page I was on, her head tilting to the side as she says, "That's a pretty name."

I look down to where her golden eyes were locked on to and I nod as I ask, "Do you think we should name her Sofia?"

Zara gets up and sits down beside me and starts to rub her slowly expanding belly, looking down at it and smiling as she says, "I think it's a good name."

I adjust how I'm sitting to place my arms around Zara and pull her into lean against me and place a hand on her belly, causing Zara to place a hand over mine and weaving out fingers together as I whisper, "To Sofia, long may she reign."

"Long may she reign." Zara whispers back.

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Later that day I had taken to working in my study, looking over various things that the Senate wants my signature on, even if it has already passed and is about to become law, it still needs my scribble. I had just finished with one of the documents when my door opened and I saw my aunt Littorio standing there, her head tilting to the side as she asked, "Senator Ricci is here, would you like to see her?"

Putting down the pen I nod and get out of my chair to move to the window and watch the rain coming down. I hear the door close behind me and the clicking of heels on the marble floor, turning slightly to look at her over my shoulder I feel myself frown a little, this was the same woman that informed me of my limited power. She stops a respectful distance back and curtesy as she says, "Your Imperial Majesty, thank you for taking the time to meet with me."

I gesture to the chair across from a couch I had in this study as I say with a degree of false pleasantry that I'm sure we both felt and knew, "It isn't a problem, what is it that I can help with?"

She moves and takes a seat just after I sit, crossing her knees she started off by saying, "Firstly, let me offer my congratulations on the pregnancy, it's good news and will help the people feel like everything will continue."

Again, a fake smile as I say to her, "Thank you."

She reaches over to her bag and takes out the document from Shinano as she says to me, "We've agreed to the provisions in this, it's too good not to take, it also helps put things in place for an alliance later."

"It does, Shinano said as much herself when she delivered it to me." I say as I take the document and check it over for alterations.

"Do have a name for the baby yet?" she asks clearly trying to get information that hasn't been released yet to the public.

"We do, Umberto if it is a boy, Sofia if it is a girl." I answer as I fold the document back up and put it down beside me.

"Good, strong names with good history behind them." She says nodding her head back and forth.

"If there is anything else?" I ask, trying to get out of this meeting.

"Just one last thing, Your Imperial Majesty." She says and again goes into her bag and pulls out another document and hands it to me as she says, "I felt you would want to present this, yourself."

I take the rolled document as I hear her stand and start to walk away, once I hear the door close I unroll the document and smile from ear to ear just as I feel a massive weight lift off of my shoulders. I reach for my mobile and scroll through the contacts until I see three little letters, and hit dial. It doesn't take long before they pick up and ask, "Hello?"

"Hi Mom, are you busy tonight?" I ask.

"I'd just planned on a nice bath, but why?" Yorktown answers.

"I'd like you to come over for dinner tonight; I've gotten some good news today." I say to her as I roll up the document again.

"I'll be there." She says in a happy tone.

"Good." I say before we say pleasantries before hanging up. Once I'm off the line I go to the door and open it, looking to my left I see my Aunt standing there, filing her nails and I say to her, "Aunt Littorio, can arrange with the kitchen staff for pizza tonight for you, Mamma, Zara, Yorktown, and myself tonight? I've got some good news and I want everyone together for this."

She tilts her green-haired head at me before shrugging and asks, "Must be good, you never ask me to do that."

"It is." I say with a grin.

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Once dinner had been finished and we had gathered in the main hall, my family seemed rather curious as to why I brought us all to the main hall. Clearing my throat I spoke in my official voice, "Yorktown of Virginia, please step forward."

I watch as Yorktown looks more puzzled and take a step forward, I smile at her and take out the document from where I had stashed it and unrolled it, taking a deep breath as I continued, "With this document and the signature of His Imperial Majesty, Yorktown of Virginia's request for asylum is granted."

I turn slightly to place the document down on a table as I take a pen out of my jacket and sign the paper before I look to Zara and ask, "Zara, would you mind signing as well?"

Zara blinks a couple of times before coming over and taking the pen from me to add her signature beside mine before handing the pen back to me. I roll the document back up before I melt some wax to affix the seal of the Imperial Household to it. With that done I cross the floor to Yorktown and hand her the document and pen before I say to her, "Welcome home."

I see tears well up in Yorktown's eyes as she hugs the document close to her chest and I reach out to give her a hug, which Zara joins in on. Much to my surprise, however, my mother even joins it as she says, "You may not be family by blood, Yorktown, but you are family now, more than ever."

"Thank you." Yorktown says as she wipes her eyes before adding, "You don't know what this means to me."

"It means you will be around to see your granddaughter." Zara says with a supportive smile.

From everyone else I heard a collective, "What?"

Zara steps back from the embrace and I put a hand on her belly and say, "Sofia will be blessed to know her grandmothers."

Littorio grins from ear to ear as she says, "A good strong name, and I'm sure she will grow to be a well-known and loved member of the Imperial line."

"I hope so; everything I'm doing now is for her." I say, careful to avoid mentioning what Shinano had said to me, that Sofia would be the one to see everything I'm doing bear fruit.

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When everyone had left for the evening I went to my study and to an empty book that I knew was really a storage box. Opening the lid I took out the box that Shinano had given me to give to Sofia when she was of age. I flip over the tag that was on it, it still surprised me that it had been addressed to 'Sofia Princess of Napoli', it was like Shinano had known what her name would be before I did.

I move to the couch in the study and just look at the box, it's just big enough to look like it holds a rolled-up document of some kind. I give it a little shake, but I can't hear anything move inside, part of me wants to open it, just to see what's in there and not wait almost twenty years to see it. I look up just as I hear soft footsteps in the study seconds before Zara asks, "What's that?"

"I honestly don't know." I say as I put down the box and look to Zara.

She smiles at me and comes over to sit across my lap in just her green silk housecoat and fuzzy green slippers. Once she was seated she picks up the box and reads the tag, her head tilting to the side as she asks, "That's not your handwriting, who gave this to you?"

"Shinano of the Sakura Empire," I answer as I lock my arms around Zara and continue, "She told me I would be having a daughter and told me this box was for her when she was of age."

Zara looks even more puzzled as she says, "But that was a full day before I found you in here with that book."

I nod and say, "I didn't read the name on the tag at the time; I simply put it away then. Tonight was the first time I looked at the tag."

Zara senses something off with my tone and she asks, "Cristiano, what are you not telling me?"

I look off to the side and sigh out, "She said that I would live long enough to see everything I'm doing come together in the end, but it will be Sofia that makes it bear fruit." I pause to kiss her arm and add, "And that our son would go on to lead the alliance that will be formed while Sofia rules the Empire as a great Empress."

Zara groans as she teases, "You mean you are going to do this to me again?"

I laugh and rub her hip as I say, "Sounds like we are going to have at least two children, so yes."

Zara places her hands on either side of my face before whispering in my ear, "I hope for more, and that you live a long, happy life."

"Me too." I say to her as I smile at her.

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A/N: We are nearing the end now folks!