Gyousou looked down at the form of his sleeping kirin, curled up against his chest peacefully and sighed a bit. He looked over at the soft grey light of dawn brightening the sky outside of his window with a hazy feeling of disbelief overcoming him.

:It seems so unreal,: he reflected to himself with sorrow. :So much time has passed, and so much has happened to my kingdom without me.:

His kirin had been sparing on the details, saying that Gyousou was still recovering from the ravages of the youma that had inhabitted him and that there was plenty of time to go over the details later. But he had hit the high points, fifty years of sleep had passed and Tai was stable but still teetered on the edge without its rightful king on the throne. Taiki was definitely older than when he had left, and Asen's final words to him before he had loosed the Choukyoku on him had been that he would be the kingdom's never-ending downfall, that Gyousou would not age, would not die and neither would his kirin, but likewise Tai would never again know the protection of Heaven.

:Madness,: Gyousou thought.

Even though he was angry at the man, and enraged that Asen would do this to the innocent people of Tai, let alone sweet Taiki who had never harmed anyone, in private Gyousou Saku still mourned for Asen, ever so slightly. They had grown up together, attended academy together, been brothers in arms for many years. Asen was the closest thing that Gyousou had had to a brother, it saddened him to loose him, even though he knew he'd lost the brother he cared for long ago.

:I had not thought that her death would ruin him. We were both hurt by her loss, and it is not as though I felt the pain of it any less keenly, but he could have come to me and we would have grieved together.:

Sadly, he knew such a thing was and had been impossible. Asen would never have mourned with the man he blamed for her death. He blamed Gyousou, he blamed Tai, and he blamed Heaven for not preserving her.

:In his mind, both myself and Tentei should be made to pay, and the kingdom that required her sacrifice be made to suffer, I suppose.:

Gyousou allowed himself one last sigh of sorrow rather than allow his thoughts to become bitter, then turned his attention to his kirin. In his sleep, no sign of anything that had passed in the interim that Gyousou had been under the spell showed. He did not look worn or weary, but still peaceful and innocent, though a few years older than when Gyousou had last seen him.

:That may take some getting used to,: Gyousou thought.

Next he tested out his own limbs and found that the girl's assessment of him the night previous was quite correct. He could move but he was incredibly wearied. He had fought battles that lasted for days and waged campaigns that had taken weeks of constant skirmishing that had not left him feeling so drained as he did then.

:The girl was right about that much at least, and it worries me greatly about what else she had to say.:

Gyousou knew that there had been long interregnums in the past while the kirin searched for a suitable person, but most of those had been with a stable provisional government in hand. Gyousou himself had had a large hand in stabilizing the last provisional government personally. Most of them, even if they followed a civil war or insurrection, at least had all of the officials in all of the right places (whether they were corrupt or virtuous officials was another matter entirely). He dreaded to think of what his kingdom must be like now, with a king technically enthroned but out of commission and the court unable to move forward. Added on to that, he knew that Asen had usurped the throne and ruined the court, making certain to knock every capable military and civilian official out of place. The beams that Gyousou had so meticulously put into place to shore up the rotting pillars from the previous kings reign had all been taken out so that Asen could watch the whole thing crumble.

:Except that, by the sounds of things, it hasn't,: he thought with profound relief.

Gyousou Saku truly loved his kingdom. Tai was a hard, harsh and often unforgiving land, but he loved it. He had always felt that it was his duty to protect his people, to safeguard them and look out for their welfare. It hurt him deeply that he had failed in that. He had assumed the throne with the promise of a stable and effective rule, had had everything in place for a smooth and successful transition of power, but in the course of a single day and night it seemed all of that promise had turned to ash. Now he awoke in the morning to a land he did not know and that did not know him.

:I have let my land and people down,: he thought to himself.

Taiki moved and snuggled closer to his master.

:And Taiki, what have you suffered because of my weakness?:

Gyousou's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of the doord that led to his inner courtyard garden, the garden he shared with Taiki's Meiden Palace, snapping open without a request for entry.

"I thought I'd find you here and it looks like you're thinking about things," the girl from the previous evening said briskly, looking sharply at him.

She was dressed in an under-robe for a court function and in her arms she had a very large stack of books and a few scrolls (maps by the looks of them) balanced on top of the books. She walked right over, without even a bow or an obeisance to him, and deposited the books next to him.

"It's probably not what you want to hear, but I've been told I'm the queen of uncomfortable truths," the girl said, her tone still brisk and businesslike with him. "We're all in a bad way, and your being asleep for decades hasn't helped matters any. Whether it your fault or his doesn't matter, it is what it is and there's no sense wishing otherwise. But-"

Here she contrived to look sort of cheerful, but didn't really.

"We knew you'd have to wake up some time, so we took notes for you. These volumes cover everything we've been doing for the last while, the diagrams are to help you get a better understanding of the population shifts, the new trade routes, the infrastructure improvements and the resource-redistributions and all of that. If you have any questions, taiki and Risai will be right there. Study hard!"

"Wait!" he commanded when it looked like she was simply going to turn around on her heel and march out without even a by-your-leave-your-majesty.

The girl looked back over her shoulder at him, eyebrows raised in question.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

She had to be some sort of official, but Gyousou was certain he would have remembered appointing someone like her to a seat. She looked young, but in order to have been involved from the beginning as she implied, she would have to be an immortal. The girl turned and looked back at him, hesitated and gave a small, soft, not-smile.

"I am... Taiki's friend. I'm here to save him."

With that, she left.

:Save him? What does she mean by that?: he wondered.

She had specifically said save and not help. It seemed sort of odd. Gyousou had the discomforting feeling that, before the week was out, he was gong to be feeling a lot more disoriented. A few minutes later his friend and fellow general Risai all but burst in on him. She knelt quickly to her knees and bowed, but there was no doubt that she was overjoyed. Still she tried to maintain her customary dignity though there were signs o tears running down her face.

"Your Majesty!" she all but gasped out.

"General Risai," he rumbled in acknowledgement.

Taiki stirred and stretched, opened his eyes and blinked up at him. At the sight of him awake, the young man's (well, not really so young anymore) features transformed with joy to that smiling face that he remembered so well. Gyousou could not help smiling back at him. No matter what else had occurred, at least there was this.

"Your majesty, I am overcome with joy to see you well at last," Risai said.

"Mostly well," he acknowledged with a pang of annoyance.

He could feel his own energy starting to trickle back into place and though it was probably even more quickly than the girl had thought, he knew that getting him ready to re-assume his throne would take some time anyway, so there really was no point in rushing things just yet. He should make certain he was fully ready.