Abusus Non Tollit Usum (misuse does not remove use)

Taiki slept soundly on a long, soft couch at the foot of Gyousou's bed, apparently it was a place where he had often slept while Gyousou had been unconscious. He and Risai were currently in his office, reviewing possible military maneuvers that could be made if the northern province's refused to settle down quietly. Examining the map carefully and reviewing the information that Risai and the spies under the Royal Consort's command, Gyousou found his soldiers instincts warning him about something.

"Something's not right," he said with disquiet as he continued to study the map of forts and recent northern troop deployment.

"Forgive me, your majesty," Risai replied. "But there is a great deal in Tai that is not right."

"I meant about the troop positioning. Look at them all, these are not the deployments of the provincial armies of several provinces working separately. There is one unifying strategy here."

"The four northern shuukou are all working together against the consort," Risai pointed out.

"Even acting cooperatively, they would not have agreed on such a unified strategy. These northern provincial armies are acting like the arms of one singular army. There is a defense skeleton in place that makes equal use of all points of terrain, but with the shuukou being as greedy and self-interested as they are, there should be some of those troops being held back to protect individual interests. But there are none. And see here..."

Gyousou pointed to a place on the map, and abandoned trade post right beside a major east-west artery.

"This place should be crawling with suspicious soldiers of both of those provinces under the guise of "keeping the peace" but in actuality making sure that their own province's interests are secured, and yet it is all but abandoned by the military in order to man the border posts along the south. If the idea is to defend against southern incursion then that is the correct move to make, but I can't believe that the self-interested shuukou would not look after the trade routes that bring them the luxuries they crave. Most especially when Lady Yuka has put such an effective economic stranglehold on them."

Risai examined the map and saw what he was talking about.

"That is... interesting. It does look like there's a unified strategy. I had not seen it before now."

Gyousou frowned at the map, a thought clearly occurring to him.

"Those lords were put into place by Asen, who, I have just found out, is still alive. Had it not occurred to anyone that he could be running an army from his cell using the four northern shuukou as puppets?"

"No form of word, no messages or letters, get out of the Isle of Nen," Risai said. "The lady Yuka has forbidden him to even have paper."

"Unless he has an agent on the inside," Gyousou countered.

"I do not think that is possible. The contingent set to guard him was carefully chosen just for that reason."

"I know the way he strategizes inside and out," Gyousou said flatly. "This is his work."

Risai continued to study the map, then slowly, reluctantly nodded.

"I do not know how such a thing is possible, but I must defer to your knowledge in such a case."

:This is why kirin do not rule kingdoms,: Gyousou thought grimly to himself.

He loved Taiki, and there was never a more gentle or compassionate kirin in all of the twelve kingdoms, but at the same time, Tai was not a kingdom that could be ruled by being gentle. The girl was well-meaning to acquiesce to the Taiho in many matters (and he could sense that she often did so against what she felt might have been a better decision if some of the acerbic comments in her notes were anything to go by) but sometimes being too gentle, especially when dealing with a clear threat, was worse than being too hard.

Risai turned to a nearby servant, a trustworthy one who had been in the palace during the reigns of the last five emperors.

"I know it is just past dawn, but go to the Royal Consort's chambers and see if she will attend here," the lady general said.

Gyousou looked a dubious question over at her and said

"I had thought that Lady Yuka relied on you for all military matters."

"For the most part yes," Risai said. "But her ability to discern intents from very few clues often leaves me surprised. I think she would be of help in this matter."

A few minutes later Yuka appeared in the doorway, clearly having been roused from her bed for she wore nothing more than a hou to cover herself and her long, dark hair was still rumpled from sleep instead of neatly brushed.

"General? What is-?" Yuka cut herself off after she caught sight of Gyousou awake and fully dressed. Her cheeks pinkened in embarrassment.

"Ah, forgive me, I was not expecting you," she said turning and ducking back through the doorway in embarrassment.

"Forget so soon that I was awake, did you?" he questioned dryly with some amusement.

There was the whisper of soft footsteps and a few minutes later the girl re-emerged more fully clothed and with her hair brushed and put up in a simple braid.

"It may take some time to adjust, your majesty," she replied.

"Risai and I were just reviewing the northern troop movements and I've come to an apparently startling conclusion. The armies of the north are being secretly commanded by Asen from his prison on the Isle of Nen."

"Hmm..." Yuka said, giving his statement careful consideration as she poured herself a cup of tea offered by a nearby servant and put honey in it. "Not impossible I suppose. After all, Napoleon managed a come-back once. But Asen receives no visitors, and the guard posted there is switched out regularly and with people loyal to crown authority. Still, with traitors infesting the woodwork of Tai like termites I suppose it's entirely possible."

The calm, matter-of-fact way she simply accepted his statement was in itself a bit disconcerting.

"That's all?" Gyousou questioned, a little irritated. "You hear my greatest enemy possibly has martial control over half of the kingdom and you're not concerned by that?"

"I said he was cunning as a snake, didn't I? And nearly all of the problems I have had have been with people he has put into place that I cannot get rid of without violating the Laws of Heaven," Yuka replied. "So yes. I'd suggest you refrain from allowing him to draw you out this time."

"It is a sad fact, your majesty," Risai interjected as Gyousou sent a scowling glare in Yuka's direction for her levity. "But we have had to grow accustomed to both a government and a military that works against us. We must begin every plan with the assumption that it will be compromised."

"I find it is usually best to layer my strategies if I must move at all," Yuka recommended. "Or to do several things at once that seem to have nothing to do with one another, and have at lest two of those things be decoys leading eyes away from my real goals. It's a pain in the neck but one fights with the weapons one has on hand."

"The armies of the north must be dealt with regardless," Gyousou said.

Yuka must have been adept at reading even a stranger's face for the next words out of her mouth surprised him.

"You think that he has been using my economic proxy wars to keep me distracted while he plans something else."

"What does the map tell you?" Gyousou said by way of answer.

"Nothing," Yuka replied. "I don't understand army-type stuff. If you ask me to discern the lucrative capabilities of a certain trade route, or to expand an already well known good into a new market, there I can help you. If you ask me about moving an army from one place to another I'm afraid it's not going to happen."

"Think of an army like a trade route then," he said patiently.

"Armies are not profitable," Yuka said flatly. "All they do is consume resources. I would have cut them off for running too many years in the red."

Gyousou was surprised into a snort of laughter and regarded her for another long moment. Finally he said

"Very well, I shall explain it to you. Asen possesses superior numbers and a defensible stronghold in the north but is limited by how and at what times he can deploy his forces. Your armies here to the south of what you seem to have come to call the northern line are more mobile due to the mechanical infrastructure you have put into place to get around the dangers of winter travel. Ingenious by the way, very well thought-out and executed."

"And it pays for itself too," Yuka preened a bit at that.

"He knows as well as you do that fielding an army is an expensive undertaking. However, much of the kingdoms former wealth came from the multitude of gem and gold springs that dot the northern terrain."

"Which is why I've been limiting the amount he can trade, even on the black market," Yuka protested. "I had hoped to limit the size of the armies that way."

"And I believe you were partly successful," Gyousou replied. "The positions of his troops are good, but they are not optimal. Simply put, I believe he is making the best of a situation that is not as stable as he would like it to be. There are numerous holes, especially if he plans to attack any time soon."

"Well why now then, if you're right and he does plan to attack soon?" Yuka asked. "The northern shuukou and I have been in a cold war-"

At Gyousou's questioning look Yuka explained that a cold war was essentially a fight were both sides were so powerful that actually engaging in combat would be undesirable, so a great deal of sabre rattling and espionage went on. She and the northern shuukou had been like two war-dogs on either side of a yard growling at each other, but not quite daring to attack.

"For decades," she continued after her brief explanation. "Why would he attack now? Especially if he does not realize you are awake and able to take the throne. Besides, even if that were not true, attacking would be foolish. He knows I can still command the imperial army, attacking me would destroy him."

"I do not believe that this is truly about a desire to seize power," Gyousou replied gravely. "He still wishes revenge. In the end, he wants to watch it all burn."

"How would he convince his troops to fight their own people in the first place..."

Yuka looked at the map again and her face drained of color as a realization hit her.

"The economic war," she said. "The south is far more wealthy now than the north and that's how he's getting them to attack their own people. He's been creating resentment not just against the crown but against their fellow countrymen based on the divide in wealth and prosperity. The armies that Asen and his followers lead no doubt think they will sweep down, loot the prosperous cities and ports then retreat to their northern stronghold like vikings!"

"Like what?" he asked, then shook his head. "Either way, for a woman who claims not to understand military strategy, you certainly grasp that well enough."

"Sheesh, this is why I dislike military affairs," Yuka grumbled to herself, sipping her now-tepid tea. "It's so inelegant and unprofitable!"

Risai and Gyousou exchanged an amused glance. It seemed the interim ruler disliked getting her hands dirty.

"If what you say really is so, what are you planning to do about it?" Yuka asked next.

"Get rid of the source of the threat, first of all," Gyousou muttered darkly.

He straightened decisively and said

"General Risai, I want you to pull all available troops from their stationed posts in the towns and ports and patrolling along the major roads, you may keep a skeleton guard in place but the majority of the troops I want have assembled in Zui Province along the south west border. I'll tell you how I want the troops divided later when I have a little more information to go on and can perfect my strategies."

"Sir!" she said, snapping to attention.

"Have Special Response Teams assembled for skirmishing activities on the east coast and to prevent the enemy from either taking in or exporting supplies."

"I'll call out the new ships in our navy, it's time to field test them anyway," Risai said.

"I will deal with the Provinicial Governors of the northern Provinces later this evening, losing their leadership should throw enough chaos into the works for us to begin our campaign effectively. With any luck, the true mastermind will be caught off-guard and we will have forced him to move up his plans, thus disrupting them. As for announcing that I've returned, attempting to hide the fact here in the royal palace is most likely useless, so directly handling matters as quickly as possible would be the better strategy in this situation. If we catch them off guard they will not have time to make for their boltholes and ready their defenses. Also, I believe it will draw out the enemy."

"You're the military genius," Yuka said getting up to leave. "I leave it to you. I'm going back to my rooms and taking a good long nap."

Gyousou looked at her, taken aback.

"Are you not coming to court?" he questioned curiously. Yuka looked back at him.

"No way! You just said you're taking over. As far as I'm concerned that means I'm relieved of duty. I haven't had a single break in decades, so I'm going to take full advantage of this and play hooky. I think I'll lounge around in bed all day and read manga, Enki just dropped off a new series that I've been dying to get the chance to read. Maybe I'll have the kitchens send up a tray of sweets, I love those little mousse and berry cakes they make with the honey glaze."

"I am preparing to retake my kingdom, something which you have not gotten to do in all the time you have been supporting crown authority here in Tai, and the first thing you think to do is laze around eating cake?"

"Can you blame me? I'm exhausted!" Yuka snapped.

She pivoted on a heel and pointed her finger right in his face, setting a hand on a hip to give him a good scold.

"Its been years dealing with the same grinding problems that just get worse and worse no matter what I do, and there's never any way to truly fix it. Do you have any idea how discouraging it is to know that even if things are stable, no matter how hard I work I'll never bring true prosperity? Things will be good but they'll never be great, and no matter what people will always wish deep in their hearts that it wasn't me standing there. So yes, I'm going to go laze around and eat cake, and if you or anyone else has anything to say about it, they'd better prepare themselves first!"

Gyousou looked at her, amused, slightly pitying and also slightly guilty. However, he could not resist teasing her a little bit because she had such an attitude.

"Perhaps I should prepare a mild sedative for you instead," he said dryly. "You look like you could use one."

Yuka gave him a look that was all attitude, like a cat, and sniffed, before she could make a reply however, they were interrupted by the voice of one of the palace maids calling urgently and sounding slightly panicked.

"Your Grace! Royal Consort! The diplomatic envoy's from Kei, En, Han, Hou and Ryuu have arrived with their New Years greetings and we are not set up to receive them!"

Risai, knowing she might be dragooned into it if she didn't act quickly, hurriedly gathered up her scrolls and maps with her orders sketched a quick bow and beat a hasty retreat. Yuk looked next over at the rightful king, who would ordinarily be expected to receive the envoys, but he pointed back to his strategy maps, signaling that he intended to be busy for the next long while. Yuka looked dismayed and then resigned. She sighed a long sigh, slumping forward a bit as if in defeat.

"Place Ryuu in the tapestry room," she said resignedly. "And En in the glass room, Kei can go to the aviary and Han can be placed in the clockwork suite and Hou can have the mirror room. Of course have refreshments prepared for them. Tell my room maids to ready the amber ensemble and I will be there shortly."

Yuka turned and looked over at Gyousou.

"You're busy with your strategy, so I'll handle this for now," then she grumbled. "I should have known it was too good to be true. Keh!"

With that she bowed politely and took herself off to deal with the diplomatic envoys.

"When did we have diplomatic ties with Ryuu and Hou?" Gyousou questioned curiously when he caught up to Risai.

"The Royal Consort has expanded and diversified our trade markets. We export water-silk to Hou, whose winters are nearly as bad as ours, as well as a slight fur trade and some lumber. Ryuu consumes that strange confection that her grace has developed at an alarming rate, seems it's quite the craze there. They also buy books and sap-glass from us."

"Books?" Gyousou said, surprised.

Books were ruinously expensive because each one had to be copied by hand, exactly. A good scribe might take a year to copy in perfect penmanship, a single manuscript.

"Her Grace has sponsored a great library in the trade-city of Sen, and uses some kind of device to make many copies of a book very quickly. It is a state secret how it is done. Other nations loan her their books with the agreement that she will produce copies for them and then we sell the extras for a large sum. She has some kind of literacy campaign, among other things. Sen has become quite the culture center."

"That's... unexpected. Where is Sen?"

"Do you remember the River Yi?"

"Next thing to a swamp, runs east-west between the Kairi range and the Sora Range," he replied. "Not really useful for anything but breeding Youma, what about it?"

"It's a major canal-way now," Risai said. "About thirty years ago when the skyways were finished, she moved the engineers on to draining off the still water, creating more farmland while simultaneously making better flood failsafes. The engineers bottomed out a channel between the ranges to create an artificial riverbed. That became the Sen Canal which flows along the border separating Chou and Ki provinces and out through the harbor at Ran. The idea was to connect the north-south arteries of the skyways in Zui, Ki, Chou and Sui and the far east side of Tai with international trade harbors along the western and southern seaboards. A lot of new towns and trade cities have sprung up along its banks in recent decades."

"Oh..." Gyousou said. Part of him was a little irked at the reconstruction. He understood that it was all probably a good and necessary change, but he hadn't authorized any of it and it was sort of irritating to have someone step in and just start changing things.

Gyousou and Risai spent a good deal of the rest of the morning hammering out thier strategies for the upcoming combat. It was agreed that it was past time to put a decisive end to things, and the more quickly they moved, the greater chance they had of catching and keeping the enemy off guard.

The assemblage of the troops, they decided, would be disguised as concession to the Minister of Spring and his request for an enormous new years parade. Gyousou would have the shuukou of Ba, Bun, Jou and Ie provinces and their entourages arrested and their immortality revoked as soon as he was ready to move. Risai already had her people in place for it. The actual arrest of the governors would take place publicly, in court, as soon as he sat down. There were already recommendations for replacements from both Risai and Yuka. Taiki joined them halfway through, although he didn't say much; just being near his master seemed to content him just fine.

:The Taiki I remember was always so painfully self-effacing, as though just him breathing the air was sure to burden someone,: Gyousou thought, watching his kirin out of the corner of one eye. :I wonder how he has handled having to nearly rule outright for the last several decades.:

Having a co-rulership (and with a foreign kaikyaku no less) with a kirin essentially on the throne just sounded weird to him. He had dealt with an interregnum for a decade, waiting for the Tai kirin to be found and the flag for Shouzan to be raised, so he knew how difficult it could be to deal with various difficulties. However this political and military mire that the kingdom was in was about ten times worse than anything he had ever had to deal with. In his day, the court was only partly filled with corrupt officials. The Provincial governors at least did their jobs (except for Bun Province). The Ministries kept order in their bailiwicks and did not waste time on... Gyousou glanced down at the current political snarl he was trying to understand so that he could unravel...

"Why in the world would the Ministry of Fall demand that the ministry of earth hand over the taking of the census for taxation purposes?"Gyousou wondered aloud. "Taxes have nothing to do with the judiciary! And the Ministry of Heaven has nothing to do with the Ministry of Earth's ability to keep records, why in the world are they even trying to interfere?"

On the surface the strange tangle made absolutely no sense. The six ministries were ordained by heaven with certain and specific duties and only those duties, unless assigned otherwise by the king, and even the king had better clear it with Tentei first. Why they should suddenly take it into their heads to ignore this was, he felt an unnecessary mystery. He turned to his kirin and asked him about the matter.

Taiki looked at him with wide, liquid-grey eyes and said

"I don't think it's really anyone's fault..." he said hesitantly, clearly uncomfortable about naming names and placing blame.

"The report in my hand would suggest otherwise," Gyousou pressed gently.

"Yuka and the Daishikou, Soushikou and Choushi don't really get along, I mean, not as well as she gets along with the heads of Heaven and Earth. Part of it is that many of the imperial laws in place make no sense to her, or me for that matter. She keeps trying to repeal the land-tie laws or at least have them lessened. To her, and to both of us, they sound too far akin to slavery or serfdom. Her latest sortie caused a counter-strike by the Minister of Fall. He said that if she disagreed with the law so much, that he should be allowed to handle the land and tax responsibilities since they were so closely tied with the judiciary anyway."

"Oh," Gyousou said with a head shake.

"But in truth it wasn't the first time the Daishikou has tried to expand his area of authority. Fifty years ago he tried to take over the military courts. A few years after Risai shot him down on that one he moved on to the Ministry of Spring saying that the laws and rites of heaven should be handled in court the same as the kingdoms laws."

"So you're saying that the Daishikou is making a nuisance of himself?"

"Not... not exactly," Taiki said hesitantly. "He... he just doesn't like the impropriety of a court run by a Royal Consort and a kirin. He thinks that I... that I am too kind-hearted to lead the land in the state that it is in, and he outright dislikes Yuka for many of the choices she has made."

"Such as?"

"He doesn't like many of her cultural campaigns, and the way she has caused a population shift to the south gives him hives. He hates the skyways, though I don't see why since it had cut down on banditry along the roads by thirty percent. He really, really hates her hunter-warrior's guilds for the killing of youma since the sort of men and women who generally sign up for that sort of lifestyle are usually troublemakers who like to thumb their noses at the law in the first place. He's not a big fan of her policy of economic sanctions either since many of the sanctions she and I have put into place have tread on his toes. He likes to use technicalities of the law to get around her whenever he can."

Gyousou gave what his kirin said and what his kirin did not say about the minister some thought.

"So, not entirely a bad minister," he concluded. "But you feel he is a little on the inflexible side."

"They don't take bribes, but it bothers me a little that Choushi doesn't faithfully report the goings on of the ministers," Taiki added. "Oddly though, Yuka seems to think that this isn't a bad thing. She said that she'd rather have him in place reporting the major infractions and letting the minor ones slide. She seems to think that court officials will be more likely to trust him if he doesn't go reporting every little thing. That doesn't make sense to me."

"Allow me to ask you this, in each case where the Daishikou has encroached on another's authority has it had anything to do with movements made by the two of you to steer the laws?"

"The time when he tried to take over military courts was right after I asked Yuka to send general Asen into exile rather than have him executed," Taiki said with a nod. "We won, but the Ministry of Fall hasn't been an ally of ours ever since that time. I think he doesn't like the way we work. He often accuses Yuka of doing too much, and me of not doing enough."

Gyousou nodded and set the report aside, then picked up the next. It was going to be a long afternoon.