I have a few announcements before we get started!
The first one is most exciting, for me at least. As many of you may know, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have recently been called to serve a mission for the Church in the New England area of the United States. I will serve for a year and a half, and while I am on my mission I will not be accessing the internet or paying attention to fandoms.
So this is an announcement for a year and a half long hiatus… not that I've honestly been doing much here lately anyway. But this time it's announced rather than just happening!
Because of this however, I am really hoping to get things a bit more tied up before I leave. I will be leaving and officially going AWOL on Jan 24, 2017, so in the next 20ish days, I am going to be trying to blitz through some of my unfinished fics and my absolute priority is this story. It was one of my New Year's Resolutions to finish it last year and I failed. But I really want to try to get it finished off completely before I leave so there's some closure.
So wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed!
When Al woke the first thing he noticed was the weight of something on top of him.
He frowned slightly before cracking open a single eye. He couldn't make sense of the black spread across his chest or why it would be that heavy. And that noise… He opened the other eye when he finally realized what exactly it was putting pressure on his chest.
He and Mei must have fallen asleep on the couch last night talking about their wedding—
A smile immediately stretched across the Ambassador's face.
Their wedding.
Wedding.
He was going to marry the amazing woman who was softly snoring on his chest. Al had of course known for some time now that that was what he wanted. That was what he wanted more than just about anything in his life. But it had never seemed like it could ever actually happen.
Last night however…
He still almost wasn't sure if it was real. It had seemed too good to be true. She had told him that she would make the sacrifices she needed to to make it happen. She would let the Elders have some of their pet projects. She'd go along with some of their moves. If that wasn't enough, she would act without their approval. They had both been trying to be so cautious about their whole relationship, and now she was throwing caution to the wind.
A part of him was still reeling in shock. But he didn't care. He knew that it would be heartbreaking if things fell apart. It was one of the reasons why he had never really entertained it as a real possibility, because he knew if it didn't happen… he would be crushed.
But as she shifted slightly and took a deep breath, a sign he had come to recognize as her about to work, he dedicated himself fully to it. It would hurt like crazy if it didn't work out, but he didn't want to taint the joy of this moment for cynicism.
Wedding. Marriage. He was going to spend the rest of his life with Mei Chang, the woman he had loved for years. They could have children. Their children might not ever have a chance at the throne, in fact it might even be the smartest choice to say that they could never be heirs, but they could have them and they wouldn't be cause for Mei's entire reign being called into question and her getting kicked off the throne.
Mei shifted again, rubbing her nose and then sleepily blinking her eyes a few times. She seemed to stare at his chest for a while as if confused as to why her pillow was moving, then shifted her head up to look at him.
"Al?"
"Empress," he said with a smile. "Good morning."
"But…"
"We must have fallen asleep last night talking about our wedding."
She blinked once in confusion, but then her face immediately broke into a wide smile. "Our wedding. I was afraid that was a dream."
"So was I, honestly," he confessed, raising a hand to run his fingers through the hair at the base of her neck. "So I'm quite relieved you knew what I was talking about. It would have been terrible if you had said you had no idea what I was talking about."
Mei smiled again, then pulled herself up higher so her head was over his instead of resting on his chest.
"It was real," she assured him. "And I meant every word."
She bent down and pressed her lips against his. It was gentle, almost relaxed. Assured in the promise that there would be many more to come. Al had just reached up to grip her waist when there was a knock on the door and they broke apart with a jerk, both looking towards the door.
"Your Highness."
Mei quickly rolled off of Al, landing on her hands and knees on the ground.
"Hide," she hissed at Al. "They can't know yet or they'll think I'm trying to marry you for different reasons."
Al didn't waste any time nodding or making a different form of acknowledgement, just flipped over the couch and crouched there, waiting.
"What is it, Hai?"
Al recognized the sound of the doors opening, the sound of feet and accompanying silence as the man bowed before speaking.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid the Elders have called a very urgent meeting with you. They would not tell me the full extent of what they were worried about, but they seem very frightened."
"Of course. I will be there as soon as I dress."
"No, Your Majesty, they are all outside the door. It is a very pressing matter."
"They're here?"
"They needed to speak with you immediately. Half of them did not have time to dress themselves."
There was a pause, and Al knew Mei was considering her options.
"Alright. Let them in."
Hai must have turned around to walk back to the door, because Mei walked around the couch under the pretense of picking up her crown, but hissed to Al, "Get under my bed."
He glanced quickly out from the edge of the couch and quickly dove under her bed, not too far away from the couch that they had slept on. It might have been possible for someone to see his foot as he wiggled the rest of the way under the bed, but he wasn't too worried because the Elders would be focused on Mei rather than her bed. He had to lay completely flat to fit, but all the same he managed to position himself behind the red banner that fell from the bed to the floor. It meant he couldn't see anything other than the swirling gold pattern, but it was better than being seen.
There was the patter of feet and then a chorus of "Your Majesty"s as the Elders filed in.
"What is this urgent business?"
"The railroad protests, Your Majesty. They have escalated into armed conflict."
"Armed conflict?"
"It was discovered that several of the protesters were planning an uprising, Your Majesty, and when Imperial Troops discovered this and began making arrests, it became a full confrontation. The managed to take the garrison where the Imperial Troops were stationed; they obtained all of the weapons there. They have more weapons beside, we're not sure where they got them, but they are very heavily armed and last we received intelligence, they were moving on the capitol of the Wuli Clan."
"When was this?" Mei asked sharply. Al couldn't see her, but he was sure her eyebrows were nearly touching with the strength of her frown.
"That was about three hours ago, Your Majesty. They also cut telephone lines, so the news took several hours to get here. We cannot contact them and give directions unless by slower means."
"Is the capitol prepared for such an attack?"
"The Wuli Clan is one of the poorer clans, Your Majesty. They will likely fall."
"And if they ask for support from the surrounding clans, they will likely receive it. Even though the surrounding clans have not been as upset about the railroad, they have been badly hit by famine and are looking for a way to strike back. They will find support Your Majesty, I'm certain of it."
Al caught a glimpse of Mei's feet walking past the bed, which meant she was heading for a table she had in her room covered with documents and maps. Several other pairs of feet moved after her.
"But if the Wuli Clan falls to revolutionaries, then the Chin and the Song will likely support them. And the Song have always been close with the Xian, so they will join them as well. The Huang, Jiang, Yan, Erxi, Sun, Ma… they're all likely to support an uprising like that. That's a fifth of the clans, we can't afford that many turning against us. Especially not in armed conflict."
"Exactly why we came to you Your Majesty."
"I suggest we marshal the army, and quickly. The forces in all of the clans likely to revolt need to be notified immediately. The clans close to Wuli that aren't likely to turn revolutionary, we need to tell them to march on the clan and secure it. If we can contain it at the beginning before it gets out of hand, there will be less bloodshed," one of the Elders said, quickly inputting his opinion.
"I agree with Xiong, Your Majesty, except that I feel we should pull the forces from all of the nearby clans so they can get there immediately. We can send reinforcements to the other clans in case they try to revolt themselves."
"We need to send reinforcements directly to Wuli."
"That may be too late!"
Al wished he knew the Elders by their voices better. He couldn't tell which one was saying what because he couldn't see them. Lien-ti had a distinctive voice, so he knew that he had spoken yet, but the rest of them he got easily confused simply because for as long as he had been speaking Xingese, he still had problems telling voices apart until he had listened to them for a very long time.
"Quiet!" Mei snapped at all of them, and they all fell silent. The silence stretched on for nearly a full minute before Mei spoke quietly.
"Fuan, contact Pi-ling Pho and have him send his to Wuli. Also speak with Wie Liang and tell him to send his troops to the outlying clans. We reinforce both."
"That will leave the Palace nearly defenseless, Your Majesty."
"We are far enough from the uprising that doesn't concern me. If we are successful then the troops return to us without any further harm. If they do not, then we pull troops from the Northern clans."
"Your Majesty," one of the elders who hadn't spoken yet said, almost sheepishly. "I'm afraid to report that things in the North are devolving too. Even if they themselves have not already reacted to the news of the Uprising, they will be cracking, Your Highness. It is likely that if Wuli falls to rebels and we do nothing about it that the northern clans will likely join them in some form of revolt."
"Why were we not notified of this earlier!"
"It is my fault, Your Highness. I thought I could contain the issues on my own. The northern clans have always been so much more prosperous, I thought that it would be a simple matter."
"In that case, it is our priority to keep this contained. If we can keep it contained in Wuli, then the odds of it growing in to a full revolution are slim. Mobilization is priority. Contact the army in the surrounding clans and send them there. We'll send our reinforcements to those clans to keep the other clans from rebelling in protest."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
There were other choruses of agreement. "What do we tell the other courtiers?"
"The truth," Mei said firmly. "They need to be prepared in case it does spread, especially those from clans that are at risk. A few of them any be implicit in these revolts, but the majority would probably end up being victims just like the Baos. We don't need any more of them being killed. I will announce it myself in court. Hold an emergency session."
"Very well, Your Highness."
"I will get dressed and be in the throne room as soon as possible."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Al saw the feet walk past the bed again, heard the murmured farewells of the Elders, and then the close of the door behind them. He waited a few moments just in case one of them had stayed behind but there was silence so he pulled himself out from under the bed.
Mei had disappeared into her dressing room where she had to be be pulling on some court robes. Al waited patiently for her, and sure enough, when she emerged she was dressed in full Imperial regalia, crown seated on her head. She didn't have her usual army of hair dressers with her, so she had simply braided her hair in one long braid that fell down her back. Her crown was seated on her head.
"Al. I forgot you were here."
"Mei…"
"I don't know," she said, anticipating his thoughts. "If we can keep it contained, it shouldn't be too big of a problem. My fear is it not staying contained."
"If it doesn't?"
"… I don't know."