Author's Note: This is another of the series set in Majo and my O Si Sic Omnia Alternate Universe. Please do look up the other stories for greater context. There are two further chapters to this story, which will be posted later on. Enjoy!

The tension hanging over the palace simmered in the air, as if it were trying to overmatch the oppressive heat. The normal bustle of the courts was subdued, almost furtive, and conversation between officials had become sullen and short. The mechanics of running the Empire had slowed to a snail's pace with the onset of the Emperor's illness, and the consequences were far-reaching but largely ignored.

Everyone's thoughts were on the Emperor, and the issue of his health weighed heavily on the minds of all the palace officials, high and low. It was whispered, soft as the nonexistent summer wind, that the Emperor might not return to his duties at all. It was pointedly not whispered that perhaps his long and tumultuous reign was coming to an end-- but the thought didn't need to be spoken. It floated in the air like the shimmer of heat, and reflected in the eyes of everyone in the palace.

Already the great families were moving. Their shifting was like the restlessness of sleeping lions on the cusp of waking, sluggish but brimming with potential danger. They wanted only for a trigger to bring them to perilous alertness-- and that trigger lay in the hands of the royal princes.

The princes knew it, too; there was no lethargy there despite the heat. Where they walked, eyes followed constantly. The sense of danger was the most concentrated in the presence of the Shi family members, electricity that gathered and prickled in the air. When any two of the princes met, conflicting fields rubbed and sparked.

It was only a matter of time, Seien knew, before lightning would crackle through the air, and the storm would break on them all.

No one had moved overtly yet, but he knew that under the veneer of inactivity lay a frenetic hive of secret meetings, bribes and counter-bribes, promises and lies. He felt people watching him at all times, no matter his activity, judging and weighing his every action. And behind every gaze lurked a threat. The company of others was dangerous, but then so was privacy. Privacy meant an opportunity for his enemies to take advantage of, and his enemies were everywhere. Even the food that the servants brought him was untrustworthy. He'd long since grown used to being hungry.

His one consolation was that Ryuuki seemed to be below anyone's notice. He had yet to even hear his brother's name brought up, even in the most casual-seeming conversations (very few conversations around the palace were casual anymore). He was desperate to keep it that way, desperate to avoid hearing his brother's name spoken in anyone's voice other than his own. He had encouraged Ryuuki to spend the majority of his time in the archives, among the dust and the books, since it was the most out-of-the-way place he could think of. Ryuuki was not a target, since no one else gave the sixth and youngest of the princes a second thought, but Seien knew that his own prominence was more a threat to his younger brother than Ryuuki's own status. The thought of Ryuuki drawing attention due to his connection to Seien broke the second prince's already light sleep with nightmares, and the worry that Ryuuki might end up taking poison meant for his older brother was enough to quiet the twinges of his stomach. He was torn constantly between the need to keep Ryuuki close, where he could be protected, and the need to distance himself from his brother so that Ryuuki would continue to escape interest.

That he himself should manage to go unnoticed was impossible. Even before his father's illness he had been approached by numerous officials and members of the various families, trying to sound out his plans and learn his intentions. He knew the calculation that lay behind their falseness and flattery, and it felt slimy and putrid to him. He refused to play to it, refused to dirty himself with it as he knew his brothers did. He wondered if the other princes understood what they were doing, if they knew the horror that could and likely would result from the stupid games they played. He did, only too well: knew the monsters that men could become with the right provocation. He knew that since his father his father had fallen sick he was teetering on a razor-thin edge, performing a desperate balancing act to maintain the fragile peace around him. The fear of what would happen when that peace was lost kept him there despite the constant danger. As long as nothing changed, maybe there was a chance to avoid what was coming.

Never had he felt the perils of maintaining his careful neutrality more than he had at that evening's banquet. It had been rumored beforehand that the Emperor might be well enough to attend, and the whispers had prompted a flurry of excited speculation. When Shou Taishi had come with the announcement that the Emperor had taken a turn for the worse and would not be coming after all the tension had been thick enough to cut with a knife. Seien ate next to nothing at the feast, and drank not at all. It hadn't been hard to continuously empty his cup of wine into the succession of soup bowls that were placed before him and then taken away. Time had passed with interminable slowness, and every forced smile felt like a crack in the pottery shell of his face. He had found himself wondering if the meal would ever end, or if he were trapped in some sort of eternal hell where he would be continuously be served excellent food that was too dangerous to eat.

But finally he was released from that too-close, stifling hall into the still summer night. Even outside the air felt thick and viscous as heated tar. His underrobe stuck to his back, and he could feel his hair separating into strands. At least the darkness was a relief, even if nothing else was. A relief, but a threat as well: nothing was without danger. Not even the sound of footsteps whispering rapidly over the stone, not even the soft voice that called to him. "Aniue?"

He was glancing around even as he turned towards his younger brother. The roofed paths that connected the courts to the imperial residences were too open, too vulnerable. They must not be seen together unless it was safe. He fully intended to tell Ryuuki that, but the sight of his brother standing uncertainly in the adjoining hall banished the thought from his head. At eleven his brother was still small for his age, but his childhood roundness was dropping away to reveal an underlying sharpness to his developing features, bones that promised years of gangliness when he hit his growth. Seien tried to remember what he himself had looked like at that age, tried to judge by the now-adult breadth of his own shoulders how Ryuuki would grow. The exercise was impossible, trying to visualize a future when the present was so hard to get through.

He saw Ryuuki falter at the lack of welcome and gave him a small, reassuring smile. It was his first genuine one for the evening, and his brother overmatched it with wholehearted exuberance. Even the heat was no deterrent to his happy hug. "Is the banquet all over with, Aniue?"

"Yes, it's finished." Seien freed his brother's arms from around his waist and crouched down a little so that they were at eye level. "Did you stay in the archives like I told you to?"

"Shouka-san stayed with me. But he seemed very tired. I asked him, and he said that things are getting hard in the city. There isn't enough food and people are hungry and sick. I was worried, so I gave him some of what I took from the kitchens."

"That was very kind of you." Seien straightened his brother's somewhat bedraggled robe without thinking about it, then caught up with what Ryuuki was saying. "Wait, Ryuuki, you snuck into the kitchens tonight?"

"No one saw me! I was very careful. And everybody was busy anyway. I remember you said that the banquet food wasn't safe, so I took it directly from the pots. I didn't touch anything that went out to the hall, or anything that came back." Ryuuki was ticking off the points that Seien had warned him of on his fingers. "I only took things that were too done, that weren't going to be served, and some of the servants' food, and some from the stores-- I didn't take it all from one place, like you told me. But I got a lot! Enough for Shouka and for us! It's in the archives. We can have our own banquet!"

"You did very well," Ryuuki glowed under the praise. His brother's happiness made Seien smile again, but that simple joy came hand-in-hand with fear. "But Ryuuki, remember, sneaking around the kitchens and storehouses is dangerous, too. Somebody might notice and think there's a thief. You have to be careful not to take too much, or too often."

"I know." Ryuuki's eyes slid away from his, guilty, and his smile disappeared. It felt like a pall had come over the sky to Seien. "I know I have to be careful. I am careful."

He forced himself to continue despite it. "It's good that you managed to get a lot, Ryuuki. But we shouldn't eat too much at once. If we eat it a little bit at a time, it will last longer." He wondered as he always did if Ryuuki's recent growth was responsible for his increasingly bony frame, or if it was because of the meager amounts of food they could verify as safe.

"But . . ." Ryuuki glanced upwards again, completely earnest. "But Aniue, aren't you hungry? It seems like you used to eat more. You got thinner, and you always look tired . . ."

Ryuuki's concern felt like a longed-for breeze shifting the still air. It warmed him inside even as he berated himself for making his brother anxious. "It's all right, Ryuuki, you don't need to worry. I'm strong enough to keep us both safe. Come on, have you ever seen me lose a sword fight?"

Ryuuki considered him carefully. "Against Sou-shogun . . ."

That startled an outright laugh out of Seien. "Sou-shogun doesn't count. You'd need an army to beat him; one man could never do it. Against anyone else, have you seen me lose?"

The youngest prince perked up a little. "No, Aniue never loses."

"You see?" Seien grasped Ryuuki by the waist and lifted him high. It cost him in effort, but the expression on Ryuuki's face was worth it and more. "I can lift you just like when you were five, and you're much bigger now!"

Ryuuki wiggled, delighted, until Seien set him back on his feet. "Aniue is bigger, too!"

"That's true." Seien ruffled his hair. "So I can protect us both. Even better than before."

"But that's not fair. Aniue shouldn't have to do everything by himself. I can protect you, too!" Ryuuki drew himself up as tall as he could and tried to puff out his thin chest; the results were comical and Seien had to smother another laugh. "I'm eleven now, so I can help."

"You do a lot already, Ryuuki." Seien reached for his brother's hand. "Remember, you have to take care of yourself first."

Determination shone like a beacon from behind the youngest prince's eyes. "Aniue is always taking care of me. So I should take care of Aniue."

"All right," Seien curled his fingers around Ryuuki's, wondering. Just a few minutes spent with his brother and an entire day's merciless tension seemed to fall away. The danger was no less, but if it was for this everything was worthwhile. He could bear it until Ryuuki was safe again, and much more easily than he could bear denying his brother anything. "I'll be depending on you, then."

"Okay!" Ryuuki started off down the path, tugging his older brother along behind him. "Then first, Aniue needs to eat!"

Seien let himself be pulled. "Ryuuki, why don't we walk through the gardens? There won't be anyone out this late, it would be safer--"

"SEIEN!"

That too-familiar bellow halted him in his tracks. He drew himself up, back tensed, and his fingers tightened spasmodically on Ryuuki's. Ryuuki had stopped too, his glance darting down the corridor behind them, the gold in his eyes darkened by sudden fear. It was not fear that touched Seien, though.

"Yes, I'm talking to you, you bastard upstart. Turn around!"

Seien turned slowly, and pulled Ryuuki close behind him. Shouten stood in the corridor, his broad shoulders heaving from the force of his words. The first and eldest prince was sweating even through the material of his outer robe, and his face was flushed with wine. He moved closer, his steps heavy, swaying slightly. "There you are. I've been looking for you."

Seien's mind registered small details: the alcohol haze in his older brother's muddy green eyes, the straight grey hair so like their father's that fell across his high forehead, lank with sweat. He could smell the sickly-sweet fumes that draped Shouten like a cloak. "Here I am."

Shouten eyed him arrogantly, and Seien noted the way the eldest prince had to tilt his head back in order to look down at him. Once Shouten had been taller, but no longer. Seien tensed again when Shouten's eyes drifted down and caught on Ryuuki, who had shifted to stand so close to Seien's side that he was practically pressed up against him. "Did you pick up a pet somewhere, Seien?" he sneered, and his patrician features twisted into something ugly. "Looks like you found some dirty cur on the street."

It felt like ice was spreading through Seien's limbs, canceling out the summer heat. Anger crept slowly outward from his chest. "Ryuuki is not a dog."

"Is that so? He certainly yelps like one." Shouten moved another step forward, and Ryuuki gripped Seien's arm tightly. Seien could feel him shaking, though he didn't make a sound. "Dogs are only good for beating, didn't anyone tell you that?"

"Ryuuki." Seien wanted to comfort his younger brother, wanted to wipe the smug hatefulness from Shouten's face. He wanted to do anything other than what he was doing: standing as still as stone, with Ryuuki cowered behind him. He felt more than saw when Ryuuki stopped staring at his dangerous eldest brother and turned his eyes up to Seien's face. The second prince couldn't manage a smile for him, not this time: he couldn't take his gaze off of Shouten for so much as a moment. "Go back to your room, Ryuuki."

"But--" Ryuuki hesitated, and Seien's peripheral vision showed him the look that Ryuuki darted at Shouten.

"Quickly, Ryuuki. Go and stay there." Seien shifted slightly to guide his brother behind him and gave Ryuuki's back a gentle but firm shove. Ryuuki gulped, then skittered fast and wide as the hallway would allow around Shouten. The eldest prince swatted at him as he passed, a backhanded cuff that looked deceptively clumsy, but Seien was faster. He caught Shouten's arm, although the force required to stop the blow rocked him and took him off balance.

"Get off me!" Shouten's bearlike shake broke his grip and sent him back a step. "How dare you lay a hand on your elder brother? You think I want to smell like a dog the way you do?"

Seien glared and brushed his hand along his robe as if he had touched something dirty. "Better to smell like a dog than a rotten wine sack," he said, lacing his words with scorn. "And better to be a man who takes care of a dog than a stupid boy who beats one."

"Are you calling me a stupid boy? You think you're clever, don't you?" Shouten's voice, already loud in the quiet, heated air, rose further. "You think you're better than me?"

"I don't think I'm better than you," Seien said, but Shouten was too angry or too drunk to pick up on the implied meaning of Seien's rejoinder.

"You think you're better than me! I've seen you, dammit. Do you think I don't know? Just this morning you contradicted me. In the middle of court, contradicted me!"

"Because you were wrong." Seien felt his breath become increasingly shallow. "You should be thanking me. I stopped you before you made an utter ass of yourself. Maybe now you can conceal the extent of your incompetence for a while longer."

Shouten's face darkened like a thundercloud. "You forget yourself!" he roared. "You think you're smart, but I am the first prince! I am above you, and I always will be! You think you can hide behind your pretty face, you manipulative little snot? I know you've been sneaking around, spreading lies and rumors about me! I'm no fool!"

"Why would I bother?" Seien let some of the ice inside him out to his voice. "It seems like a waste to tell lies about you when the truth is so repulsive already."

"You know what's repulsive? I'll tell you what's repulsive. Everywhere I go, all I hear is Prince Seien! Prince Seien is so accomplished. Prince Seien is so clever. Prince Seien is so perfect. It makes me sick!"

"Well-earned merit is obviously poisonous to your system. Shouldn't you be glad it's my name you hear and not your own? Since you've done nothing to merit praise, you should be glad to escape attention."

Shouten's eyes narrowed. "You simper around the palace and pretend you're so great, playing your stupid lying games. But you're not so perfect, are you? Under that pretty face you're rotten to the core. I remember, you bottom-feeding snake! Five years ago you disappeared-- where were you, eh? Why don't you tell anyone what you were doing?"

The ice in Seien disappeared in a flash of elemental fire. "Don't you dare--"

"I know!" Shouten shouted back. "I know the truth about you, what you were doing in Sa Province! I know that you spent a year bathing in filth and corruption, I know that the perfect Prince Seien is just a lie over a cesspool of murder and deceit. I know you ran like a wolf with the Satsu--"

"You know nothing!" Seien's voice was far beyond his control. "You misbegotten coward, you pathetic excuse for a human being! I could live my life in a pit ten years deep in horse shit and I would still be better than you!" Rage blazed through him as if an inferno roared beneath his skin. It consumed his mind utterly, and his vision narrowed so that all he could see was Shouten's twisted, hate-filled face. "The only thing that has ever been impressive about you is your stupidity! You call yourself a prince? You have to abuse a child just to make yourself feel like a man! And yet you strut around as if you had something to be proud of-- when the only thing you've proven is your cowardice! You, above me? Even hearing me speak your name would be an honor beyond your deserving!"

Shouten roared, his fury at the succession of insults taking him beyond words. He shifted, his hand going under his voluminous sleeve and grabbing the hilt of--

He has a sword. The thought moved with perfect clarity through Seien's head, cool and complete over his anger in an instant. He has a sword. Why did I not notice? He has a sword.

Shouten's arm whipped back, the edge of the blade catching the light, and there was no time to react, the corridor was too narrow for him to dodge, and Shouten's arm came forward--

"Aniue!" A small body, a blur of lavender robes, flew from behind one of the red columns and latched on to Shouten's sword arm, stopping his lunge. Seien got one glimpse of Ryuuki's face under his thatch of sandy hair, childish features drawn into a fierce grimace of determination.

Shouten staggered under the force of the impact, his face ugly with frustrated rage. "You worthless brat!"

Seien was trying to run forward, his anger lost to impending horror, but he couldn't seem to move fast enough. Shouten half-turned and whipped his arm backwards, and Ryuuki came loose, staggering backwards along the corridor. Shouten was between them, and Seien couldn't see Ryuuki. But he could see the sword as it came up, wicked point scraping along a beam, and then descended in an instant--

Ryuuki screamed, high and sharp, and Seien's world ended.

Shouten had gone still, staring, dripping sword still in hand. Seien shoved him aside as he scrambled past, terrible fear twisting in his stomach, and the eldest prince didn't protest the insult. A line had been crossed, and even Shouten knew it.

"Ryuuki!"

Ryuuki had fallen against a column, and Seien was by him in an instant. He was hunched forward, his face horribly pale and drawn. Both of his small hands were clutching his left thigh tightly, on either side of the long, straight rent that ran from his hip practically to his knee. Already the cloth around the wound was wetly crimson, the stain spreading with every passing second. Ryuuki was crying; helpless, hiccupping sobs that shook his small shoulders.

"Oh, gods, Ryuuki, Ryuuki--" Seien dropped to his knees, not even feeling the shock of hitting the stone. "Let me see, let me see--"

"I'm okay." Ryuuki's voice was tight with pain, each sentence a tiny gasp. "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay."

"It was his own fault!" Shouten was standing over them both, the red-tinged sword still in his hand. His face had also gone pale, the realization of what he'd done banishing his anger and returning him instantly to sobriety. "He interfered! It wasn't my fault!"

"Go and get help, you idiot!" Seien felt his voice rise and break. "Bandages. I need bandages." He tore at his own robe, heedless of the fine cloth. "Ryuuki, you have to let go, you have to let go of your leg. Oh gods, someone help. I can't bandage it, Ryuuki, you have to let go."

Seien gently pried Ryuuki's hands free, desperate words coming and going heedlessly. At some point he knew that Shouten left, but his leaving was utterly unimportant. The only important thing was Ryuuki's red-stained hands clutching at his arms when he freed them. His brother's blood-sodden robe was in the way: he ripped that, too, despite the wet stubbornness of the fabric. He couldn't bear to look at gaping rent in his brother's leg, but he couldn't not look. Ryuuki cried out when Seien lifted his leg to wrap the wound, and the high sound tore at Seien like a claw.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Ryuuki's breathing was ragged, his voice softer, but that was almost worse. "I'm okay."

"I'm going to bring you to the doctor, okay Ryuuki? I'm going to lift you up now. I'm going to bring you to the doctor." Seien swiped at his eyes with one bloody hand; the tears pouring down his cheeks were clouding his vision, and he needed to see. "Just hold on, Ryuuki, hold on."

Ryuuki's fingers fisted on a handful of his brother's robe as Seien cradled the youngest prince to his chest, and ran.