A Caelo Usque Ad Centrum (from the sky to the center)
Dressed in an ensemble of amber-colored silk embroidered with crysanthemums in scarlet thread and trimmed with brown fur (for the floors were cold even in the royal palace), Yuka mentally reviewed the gifts she had ordered sent to each foreign palace for New Years and partly dreaded what gifts some of them might think to send to her.
Kei was never a problem, she and Youko exchanged gifts like two friends exchanging presents for christmasu. Ryuu's new king sent gifts sort of by-the-book, Yuka thought that he probably had one of the officials in his Ministry of Heaven pick out something appropriate. Likewise with Hou, though the new queen picked by Houki was a bit eccentric, and sent her some odd presents sometimes. (Yuka's personal theory was that Tentei reacted to its/His prior mistakes by swinging directly in the opposite direction and hoping for the best.) However, En and Han, two nations with old kings that she didn't dare offend, were the ones she was most concerned about.
"Let's just hope that there are no more kimono's from the Ever-letch!" Yuka muttered to herself.
Ever-letch was Yuka's personal nickname for the troublesome and slightly letcherous Ever-king of En. En-ou just seemed to delight in dancing along the edge of what could be considered scandalous and offensive behavior.
:I mean, he knows I'm technically married for heaven's sake, he was there when the proxy ceremony took place and he still has the very nerve to send suggestive presents to me, is he trying to start a diplomatic incident?!:
He'd actually been the stand-in at the wedding for the absent and unconscious king of Tai (and he'd used his stand-in status to try to get away with stealing a kiss from her to "seal the deal" which Yuka had rebuffed). Ever since then he'd taken every opportunity to act like a pervy womanizer with her. Yuka wasn't fooled for a second into thinking he actually had feelings for her, Naotaka Komatsu just reveled in being utterly inappropriate. He was that sort of person. And the longer the lecture she wrote him in reply to his shenanigans, the more he seemed to like it. Weirdo. A few years ago he had actually sent her a lovely kimono, complete with underkimono. The note he'd attached said something along the lines of "hoping she enjoyed the nostalgic reminder of their shared homeland" but Yuka had seen right through it to the very grave impropriety of such a gift. In their "shared homeland," a man only dressed a woman from head to toe because he wanted to undress her later! He knew it was inappropriate when he'd sent it to her, which was precisely why he did it.
:That ever-letch and his damned sly sense of humor,: Yuka thought irritatedly, feeling a headache coming on already.
Aside of En, there was also Han to worry about. Yuka wasn't quite sure how that had become a worry. For the first decade or so of Yuka and Taiki taking the reigns in Tai, their diplomatic relations with Han had gone as well as they had ever seemed to previously. After a few small initial gifts to break the ice, trade relations between them went swimmingly, even better when Yuka's engineers finished redesigning the ports to run more efficiently and safely. She'd exchanged polite notes with the reportedly somewhat eccentric king, and diplomacy between the two nations went well, though of course they were not on the same intimate level as Kei or even the inappropriate En.
Then one year, Taiki had seemed to think it a fine idea that Han-ou should have a picture of the two of them since the kirin had visited that court while on his diplomatic mission to Ren the first time Taiki had been in this realm. So the little artist had sketched one of Yuka in one of her finest hanfuu along with one of himself in court zhishen and sent it along with the usual greeting-present. Ever since that time the emperor of Han had sent personal greetings to her, in particular. It seemed that whatever Taiki had painted of her had made an impression on the man. Yuka wasn't so certain she shouldn't be weirded out by it. She was still finding diplomatic excuses to refuse his numerous requests to come and visit her face to face. The impropriety of the man coming to visit while her husband, the king of Tai, was out of commission was holding him off quite well. Still, she was never certain if the presents he sent were going to be acceptable or if she was going to have to find a politely diplomatic way to refuse the gift and then spend weeks smoothing over ruffled feathers.
:Well, if the present is inappropriate this time I can at least hand it off to someone else. Let the real king worry about soothing Han-ou's slighted feelings or taking the Ever-letch to task about his behavior!: Yuka thought with a small smile at the thought that it would be only just a little while longer until she could be free of all of this nonsense.
There was a smaller audience chamber in the southern section of the outer palace that Yuka used to receive foreign envoys, it was a little more intimate without loosing any royal dignity, and it took the servants less time to set up than the grand audience chamber where she and Taiki would have assemble the full court before the empty throne and go through the usual rigamrole with the gong and all of that. This chamber had a smaller floor, only one small step up, barely a dais at all, and a simple, pretty chair instead of an actual throne. Even so, Yuka was seated on a small, scarlet cushion embroidered with golden phoenixes next to the empty chair, signifying her acting as what she would have called a regent (though this world had no real concept for regents in precise terms) for the king.
The first envoy to walk across the chamber and bow politely to the empty throne and then to her was from Ryuu and they presented a very lovely tea service with the compliments of the ruler of Ryuu and the hope of a felicitous New Year. Yuka thanked them according to ceremony. They drank a cup of tea together and discussed poetry, then the envoy bowed out, duty done. The next envoy was from Hou with a lovely set of fine furs and a beautiful calligraphy set. The gift was accepted and gratitude expressed, tea was drank and on to the next. In addition to the lovely new violin that Youko had sent her in reply to the hand-wound music box that Yuka had ordered made for her, the envoy sent a messenger bird from Youko, probably with a reply from her last "letter." More tea and greetings. Then came En.
"Ohh..." Yuka said, having to rely on decades of training her facial expressions when presented the present from the Ever-king by the hapless envoy, who was sweating bullets. "How... nice..." she finally managed.
The gifts were fans, which in and of themselves were quite appropriate. However, these fans were of the calligraphers variety, and the messages that the King of En had chosen to scawl on them in his best penmanship were pick up lines. Bad ones.
"Send a call up to Mt. Ka, because they've lost one of their Tenyo?" Yuka read aloud. She picked up another one and opened it. "You must be exhausted from running through my mind all night?" And a third. "Do you believe in love at first sight or should I come visit again?" They got steadily worse from there. The poor sucker that the Ever-king had dragooned into service had this despairing panicked look, like he could literally see his career or his life ending right before him.
"I would normally thank you on my husband's behalf," she said as she gestured that the poor man be seated to share tea. "But I honestly cannot say what he might think about them."
The envoy swallowed nervously, clearly having heard of the emperor of Tai's martial prowess and clearly took comfort in the fact that it was a known fact among royals that the Peace-king could not take offense for someone coming on to his wife because he was out of commission.
"Please convey to your king Tai's greetings and well-wishes," Yuka said, calmly. "And also that the kimono he sent the other year was quite the wrong size for his majesty."
All of this was said with a perfectly straight face and a calm sip of tea. The envoy tried unsuccessfully to disguise his relief.
:I wonder what this poor fellow has done to irk that man. Maybe he has a daughter and Shouryuu is trying to get at her. I wouldn't put it past the old letch!:
The king of Han's gift was not so outrageous, but was still slightly inappropriate in its own way. Hair combs. Beautiful hair combs of carved jade and pearls with a bevy of hair pins (the kind that were decorative and not useful in combat). It was a gift that was clearly aimed at Yuka personally and thus it strayed dangerously close to courtship territory. Yuka wasn't sure if it was true in this world, but in the world she had come from, historically haircombs could be given as a gift to signify intent to marry. To refuse the present outright would cause offense, but Yuka did not accept it right away either, instead she asked the very beautiful lady that Han-ou had sent as an envoy to sit down and have tea and listened with half an ear to the poetry while she ruminated on what to do with the situation. The poor lady had clearly been left with orders to recite love poetry to Yuka, and seemed to be taking up her duty with an enthusiasm that made Yuka think that perhaps everyone in the kingdom of Han was as eccentric as their king was rumored to be.
:I may have to start being more firm with the Emperor of Han, otherwise he'll become just as wildly inappropriate, in a different way, as the Emperor of En. I can't allow the shuukou to even hint that there might be anything untoward in our diplomatic relations or it will open up whole new troubles...:
Her thoughts trailed off for a moment, caught on a snag.
:Ah! that's right, I'm not going to have to worry about this for much longer. King Gyousou will be back on his throne in a day or two, and he can deal with this stuff however he wants to. I doubt he'll be much interested in any of the courts insinuations one way or the other since he's an actual anointed king rather than a mere Consort and he can rule outright.:
After a long pause, Yuka eventually accepted the greetings of the king of Han but requested the emissary wait for her to write a scroll in reply. The naughty thought that she ought to have the real king write back to Han-ou in his masculine handwriting thanking him for the haircombs made her smile a little. She'd have to figure out a reply that was cautiously grateful but at the same time slightly chiding about the present he'd sent her.
The early afternoon string of diplomatic receptions was over with and Yuka arranged a dinner in the west dining room for the envoys, with herself and Taiki if it could be managed. As the palace staff was handling that matter, Yuka requested to meet with Risai to go over the plans for security during the minor affair. It was little more than dinner, but it was important that nothing happen to her important guests, it would reflect badly if the diplomatic envoys were killed inside Whitejewel Palace, and the last thing she needed at the end of her tenure was the kind of diplomatic mess that something like that would bring.
:What to wear?: she wondered to herself.
Though Yuka was the Royal Consort, she didn't actually have much in the way of nice clothes. Certainly she did not have the entire closets full of silk robes and jewels she had heard of in other kingdoms like Kyou. Tai was still very poor (despite her work on stabilizing the economy!) and she always felt guilty spending money on clothing when there were people who were worried about boots for the winter. She had a very modest clothing budget, and (under the table of course) Youko helped her out by giving her a discount on cotton cloth from her kingdom.
:Not the yellow, that makes me look sallow.: she decided.
The color was supposed to be lucky but it looked terrible on Yuka's winter complexion. She couldn't wear black because that was reserved for the emperor and court officials. Yuka looked her clothing rack up and down, as a maid pulled out for her to view the different ensembles she owned.
:It's New Years, so something festive perhaps. I just wore the emerald green one the other day, the purple is being washed, that mauve is not season-appropriate nor is the teal. The cut of the that one is not appropriate for the occasion.:
"Milady, if I may," the servant said with a bow.
She pulled out a beautiful deep blue and white hanfu with an indigo overskirt and cranes embroidered in silver. It was also real silk and satin, instead of the fine cotton-silk Yuka usually wore. It was very beautiful, and clearly special even for a court occasion with the Royal Consort. The last time Yuka had worn it had been during a State Visit from the Queen of Hou.
"It's beautiful," she acknowledged to her servant. "But not quite appropriate for the occasion, just a little too fancy. We don't want me to look like I'm trying too hard. No, the apricot silk, I think, will be just fine, with the matching peach colored jade hair ornaments."
"Yes, milady," the girl said, clearly disappointed.
The ensemble she'd chosen was completely appropriate but a little boring. It had only a little trim and was brocaded in white rather than embroidered. It was lovely in its own way, but a little on the prim and stuffy side. It was one of those ensembles she wore when Yuka wanted to play up that, despite her young appearance she was, in fact, a married woman. Yuka attended to paperwork in her office until it was an hour before the early dinner reception. Then her maids made up her face and helped her dress in the clothes she'd picked out, put up her hair. Her one concession to vanity was a particularly lovely set of hair pins with peach-jade beads that hung down and clicked softly together next to her face. Her battlemaids fell into step around her, dressed as ever in their courtly attire.
Yuka both liked and disliked these "social" occasions. On the one hand, it was the closest she got to a real party, one where half of the people on the guest list weren't secretly wishing she'd choke on a fishbone. On the other hand, she was the Royal Consort and had unfortunately gained a reputation for wit, so at all times she had to be both graceful, without relying too much on her beauty or flaunting it, and witty without making it seem like she was being forward. In the give and take of conversation, even between sycophants, Yuka still had certain lines to walk.
In the apartment next to hers, Taiki dressed in his charcoal-black imperial robe, the ceremonial one he wore on special occasions when he was acting as Taiho. She thought he always looked so cute in his imperial robes with his long hair left loose to flow down his back. He had one clip with a black-gem butterfly sparkling above his right ear and a pin with a rose of light purple jade and a tassle to match dangling from above the row of frog-and-toggle fastenings that held his black zhishen closed. His folded-over cuffs were of grey brocade silk to match his eyes.
"You're wearing that to dinner?" he asked, dubiously as he spied the ensemble she'd chosen to wear. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just a bit..."
"Dowdy, I know," Yuka agreed with him, showing him a one of her rare, genuine smiles. That one came with dimples, and they didn't show up often. "But it seems that Han-ou is at it again, and the Ever-letch is worse than ever!"
"Don't tell me he sent you a yukata this time," Taiki said, his voice clearly conveying his dread that the man might have actually tried it.
"Nothing like that, thank Tentei, and his gift would have made me laugh, if I hadn't been so dismayed. He is utterly terrible, it's no wonder the man doesn't have a wife if he has to rely on his wit to capture a woman's attention. I mean really. "If I said you had a gorgeous body would you hold it against me?" That's sexual harassment!"
"What really concerns me is the fact that you always accept them on Gyousou-sama's behalf..." Taiki said, with rare amusement.
"What is accepted on my behalf?" the man himself inquired curiously, clearly having just walked out to stretch from being cooped up in the office all day for he still had a small stack of forms in one hand.
"You've received a set of hair combs from Han-ou," Yuka said with a teasing smile, her earlier good humor making the dimples more pronounced. "Shall we put them on you? I'm sure they'll look lovely."
"Why am I receiving hair combs from the King of Han?" he inquired with a raised brow.
Apparently the gift of hair combs had a similar meaning in this world to what they had once had in her homeland.
"I drew him a picture of Yuka and I a few years ago and he's been sending weird presents ever since," Taiki replied with a wincing smile.
"You should be glad it was just hair combs this year and not that one diplomatic hairball six years ago," Yuka closed her eyes in pained remembrance of the headache.
"Oh?" Gyousou asked, clearly curious.
"Han-ou returned Taiki's favor of a picture, with a life sized portrait of himself. Fortunately for everyone concerned it was not au naturale."
"Yeah, he was only half naked!" Taiki teased her.
Gyousou's reaction was somewhere between a surprised gape, and a sudden laugh.
"It's not funny!" Yuka protested hotly, scolding the both of them for their levity at her expense. "You try finding a diplomatic way to scold a foreign king about his inappropriate gift while keeping in mind that he's one of your single biggest and most lucrative trading contributors!"
"I can see where you might have some difficulties," Gyousou said, still chuckling.
"Perhaps I should pass on the King of En's well wishes to you too, your majesty," Yuka said with sharp politeness. "I do not have any of his fans on me at present, but he did say-"
"Now now, Yuka, you know that Shouryuu was just trying to stir things up," Taiki said hastily. "I don't think Gyousou-sama should be sexually harassed by a foreign power."
"Implying that it's just fine for me..." Yuka grumbled. The she smiled her sharp smile again. "I think I will have knives engraved with my replies to his little witticisms."
"And this is why he keeps at it," Taiki replied. "Enki says your responses make him laugh for days every time he sends you something."
"On second thought, it would be a waste of perfectly good steel," Yuka replied, nodding sagely. "It won't be my lookout anymore anyway, I'll just leave it for your king to deal with."
The amused little smile she sent in the direction of said king spoke louder than words to the fact that she was rather enjoying the thought of his future discomfort in having to deal with the Ever-king and his notorious sense of humor.
"If some inappropriate fans and a few hair combs are all I have to deal with in the next few days I shall count myself most fortunate," Gyousou replied with his usual seriousness, but then a certain glint of amusement entered his eyes as he added.
"However, it would be a shame to waste such a wit as Tai's Royal Consort is rumored to be when it could be put to a most productive use for crown and country. I believe that there are diplomatic positions in both kingdoms that currently stand open. I sounds to me as though Han-ou would be particularly appreciative of closer diplomatic relations with Tai."
"It's not the diplomatic relations he wishes to deepen," Yuka muttered darkly with a frown in his direction.
"Be at peace," Tai-ou soothed her. "Even though the king of Han is rumored to be an eccentric sort of man, I very much doubt he would jeopardize the good relations these kingdoms share by pursuing the matter."
"You're right of course," Yika relented with good grace. "Eccentric he may be, but Han-ou is reportedly a good king, he would not risk upsetting foreign affairs with Tai by taking any truly objectionable actions."
"It is a pity you will not join us for dinner Gyousou-sama," Taiki said wistfully. "It would be wonderful to have you at the table with us."
"Patience," Gyousou replied gently, holding up the sheaf of notes he was currently studying. "I will be at the helm of state soon enough, my kirin."
"And when he is, I can cut and run!" Yuka said cheerfully.
She turned to Gyousou.
"Study hard tonight while we're at dinner, then you can rescue me from all this work that much sooner."
"What work?" Taiki demanded. "This is the most fun you get all year!"
"Yes, but even this fun is work," Yuka replied. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to be sparkling and witty and charming non-stop for hours?"
"And you do it all stuffed into a hanfu that looks like something my granny would have worn to terrify my little brother's marriage prospect with her intimidating demeanor," Taiki teased.
"I say again" Yuka said firmly. "That is the point of the ensemble. I don't want any shuukou or those foreign dignitaries getting any funny ideas about me just because I'm all smiles and wit to them for an evening."
"I'll bet Han-ou would like to give you something to smile over," Taiki said with a rare form of teasing for him as they walked on together to attend the State Dinner.
Gyousou watched the two partners wander off to their State Dinner with a feeling of wistful envy. It wasn't that he wanted to attend the dinner with them, but the sense of the long-standing, easy camaraderie between them left him feeling a little left out. He had always intended that he should be the one at his kirin's side, running the kingdom and bringing prosperity to Tai, it made him feel sad that things had turned out so differently.
:I suppose I must content myself with going from here,: he reminded himself.
It would not be long before Taiki turned his attention back to his rightful king, after all it was they who were destined to be partners. The young-looking Royal Consort was a matter to be settled with at another day.
:Though truthfully, she is beginning to grow on me just a little bit,: he admitted to himself.
She was sensible, and frugal (which he highly approved of) and she cared deeply about Taiki and had made every attempt to understand her adopted land and its people. What he had read of the notes she'd made for him were full of observations and astute coments about the way people acted or how they lived with their environment and situations in life. If he had to be saddled with an unexpected bride, he could think of a number of examples of women that he would have disliked to have around him.
:Such as any of the previous kings concubines,: Gyousou thought with a grimace of remembered distaste.
To a woman, all of them had been frivolous, obsessed with clothing and jewelry, and forever involved with petty power games to increase their status as ornaments to the crown. Not a one of them concerned themselves with where the money for their ridiculously elaborate silk and satin and clothing jeweled accessories had come from (or which hard-working farmer or fisher might be doing without so that they could wear it). They had all been able to read and recite poetry and play instruments but not a single one of them would ever have concerned themselves with matters of finance… to them, budgets had been things that happened to other people.
:There are certainly worse options than Lady Yuka to have propping up the throne,: he thought with amusement.
"A copper kan for your thoughts, my king?" General Risai Ryuushi said, as she stepped from around the corner with a rolled up scroll (which he discovered after she handed it to him and he glanced over it contained the security protocols she had put into place for the dinner that night).
"My Kouri seems all grown up, dining on his own with the Royal Consort," he said instead, letting a small trace of melancholy slip into his voice.
"This is the happiest we've seen him in decades," Risai replied with a small smile. "Like the rest of us, he waits eagerly for you to take your place on the throne soon."
"Do you think the Royal Consort is as eager as she makes herself out to be?" he asked next.
It was one thing to hear her joke about being freed from the burdens of rule, but there were many, many people who had sacrificed and killed and died in pursuit of a power that was not theirs to claim. Asen himself had pretended to be pleased for Gyousou on his ascension even while he had plotted behind his back to bring him down. It was possible that Lady Yuka might have grown comfortable in her position of power and influence in Court and might not be as pleased as she claimed to be to give it up. He felt a small stab of concern when his trusted General Risai hesitated.
"Perhaps it is not my place to say…" she began. "While among a certain circle it is not great secret, and I happened to have overheard the entire matter but it was not told to me directly you understand… it is a matter that is intensely private, but at the same time it is pertinent to the question, and a matter of concern to me as well."
Gyousou raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"It is very unusual for you to be so circumspect General," he prompted.
He couldn't really come right out and say 'put with it' for the decision to speak on what she felt was a matter of discretion was hers to make, but he did feel a small pang of impatience.
"Lady Yuka, as you have heard and can see for yourself, was a school-aged child on her world when she crossed over to help her school-mate, whom she had known as Kaname Takasoto. You may have also heard that she and Youko Nakajima, who is called Sekishi the Regnant Queen of Kei, have a long history together. However, what you may not know is that part of that history involved Kei-ou's ascension to the throne."
Intrigued, in spite of the fact that what he was hearing was clearly private information (and private information that was acquired without the subjects consent at that). Gyousou leaned in to listen.
"Kei-ou was a Taika like Taiki and the pair from En," Risai explained. "Keiki, as the story was related to me, appeared before her one day and got her to accept his oath of loyalty without her ever knowing what it was at the time she accepted it. Lady Yuka was her school mate at this time and was swept along with her when the former Kou-ou released the shirei of his Kourin upon them into this world. I am not aware of the particulars, but somehow Lady Yuka wound up on the opposite side of Kei-ou. She worked for Kou-ou, who ordered her to destroy her friend before she could ascend to the throne of Kei. It is a fact that Lady Yuka took up the sword against her friend because Kou-ou told her that if she slayed Kei-ou, Yuka would ascend the throne instead."
There was a long appalled moment where Gyousou was too surprised to speak. It took a moment for his brain to process the statement but immediately afterwards, all of the various incongruities took precedence in his mind, starting with
"But that's not how it works."
He should know, Asen had tried very nearly the same thing with him to have Tai's throne as his own.
"The world they come from is very very different, Your Majesty," Risai replied. "I am given to understand that in the long history of their world, such a way of coming into power may actually be the norm for them. It stands to reason that, given this, it would be not unexpected that Yuka would accept the information as a matter of course."
"She saw no problem with… with murdering a rival to power?" Gyousou said, surprised.
"In her defense," Risai said in an even tone. "Lady Yuka was very young, and as a kaikyaku she did not even have the ability that a taika would of understanding the language spoken to her by any but a sage, thus, she would have had no way of sorting out truth from lies. The former Kou-ou was clever enough to keep her isolated from anyone who might tell her differently, so that she would have been forced to accept whatever he told her at face value."
"It seems a great deal to take on faith," Gyousou said. "Did you not say they were friends? She saw no trouble with taking arms against her friend?"
"From what I gather," Risai replied. "They were associates but not close until after their altercation. I believe they were also rivals over a fellow schoolmate's affection though I do not know that last for certain."
"Was it Kouri?" Gyousou asked curiously and looking almost amused as she'd ever seen him. "I know that he come from their world as well."
Risai too though the notion to be a vaguely amusing one, but more along the lines of 'it would have been hilarious if it had happened that way' but had to reply in the negative.
"No, it was someone else they both knew. Seikishi did not come to know our kirin until after she had brought him back to this world. The details are still a bit fuzzy but I am under the impression that Lady Yuka returned to hourai after the altercation between herself and the Royal Kei then came back here to help Kouri and subsequently became Royal Consort in the process."
"Everything she has said to me indicates that he is eager to be quit of her post," Gyousou said. "You have known her for a long time, do you think she is as eager to be gone as she claims, General?"
"Even after so long an association with her, I… I often have a hard time reading her well Your Majesty," Risai said honestly. "Her alien background often makes her react to things she learns or discovers of this world in unpredictable ways. That, combined with the inscrutable face that she's developed over decades of political maneuvering, has made it very difficult for me to know what she's thinking or feeling on anything at any given time. Part of me wants to excuse it as youthful naiveté, but on the other hand I cannot quite bring myself to discount the fact that she was ruthless and ambitious enough to raise a sword against her own schoolmate."
The was a long silence while Gyousou ruminated on what she had said. Finally, he pronounced
"I do not believe that it will be a matter to be overly concerned with right now. First things first is restoring the throne and cleaning house. The Royal Consort and any ambitions she may or may not have will simply have to wait."
"Don't you think you're taking this too lightly your majesty? Lady Yuka's hold over the court is a strong one, if she chose to manipulate a way to retaining her power there is a chance she could do it. There is a precedent in her past behavior for ruthless pursuit of a throne."
"To be honest, there is a precedent in my own past for the same thing, otherwise I would not have organized the court to my liking and then went on Shouzan," he said with a slightly rueful shrug.
"You would not have betrayed a comrade for it sir," Risai rebutted immediately.
Gyousou looked her over with a weighty look, measuring all she had said, and what she did not say. Finally he said
"You do not favor the Royal Consort, do you General?"
There was another long silence as Risai gave his question real consideration. At last she said
"I am not sure of her, even after all of this time. I have worked alongside her, and along side her battlemaids, for decades; I have seen how she works, and though she works hard, there is something in the way of her mind that never quite ceases to make me worry. She's… she's cunning sir; crafty, devious. She has spies everywhere. Did you know she makes a regular habit of blackmailing officials who can't be bribed into doing what she wants?! Granted, they're all corrupt and sort of have it coming anyway, but— She's disconcertingly good at manipulating people to do what needs doing."
"So in other words, an able politician and not a warrior," he said with some wry humor.
"She's been on the battlefield a time or two," Risai corrected. "And I can't fault her behavior on or off it, but I couldn't fault Asen's either before he betrayed us all. I want to like the Royal Consort, and after all this time she has to have more than earned my trust, but I just can't seem to shake my worry that things are going to end badly with her."
"There is one question that no-one has ever answered or even, it seems, thought to ask," Gyousou said, a little hesitantly.
"What is that, sir?"
"Why choose her?" he asked. "It seems strange to me. Even if they were desperate, there had to have been options other than a half-trained kaikyaku-child who probably couldn't read or speak the language on her own. You, for example would have been a more sensible choice; you're older, more experienced in the world, a native and—"
But Risai seemed to be smothering her laughter for some reason.
"Sir!" she said, nearly giggling into her hand, cheeks turning pink for suppressed mirth. "Your Majesty, while it honors me greatly that you would see me as a more compatible choice for your illustrious self as a Royal Consort… I am afraid that everyone with any input into the matter already knew that I am not a viable option."
"Oh?" Gyousou said, taken aback. This was news to him. "How is that?"
"I am already life-bonded, Your Majesty," General Risai informed him. "And I am quite content with she who awaits me at home."
"Ohh," Gyousou said, comprehension dawning.
It was not at all uncommon in the military. In fact, it almost seemed more like the norm than the exception to have such life pairings among the soldiery. Tentei blessed such pairings equally when it came time to tie a branch on a ribouku so there was nothing terribly unusual about it to his eyes (though he had heard that down in Kou the former king had forbidden such marriages by law, but they had a lot of stupid laws in Kou, like Hanjuu not owning land or attending school).
Authors Note: Yes, Kou is the Alabamaof the Twelve Kingdoms (no offense to anyone who lives in Alabama).
"So you see, I was sadly not an option, for much as I love Tai and Taiki, I could not bring myself to set aside the woman I love in order to give the pretense the full commitment it would have required. Furthermore, I know myself well, Your Majesty," she said. "I am effective enough on a battlefield, but dealing with the politics of the court is another matter entirely. I would have suited that aspect of rule not as well as what would be needed."
Risai frowned, then slowly added
"Now that I think on it, when myself and the other rulers met to discuss candidates for the post, Lady Yuka's name came up for precisely those reasons."
Gyousou looked curious.
"Explain," he commanded politely.
"Lady Yuka had been a pawn to a man of great power who had known how to manipulate her, she had been exposed to her own ruthless side as well as the former Royal Kou's ruthless manipulations. She would know better than anyone when someone is making moves on their own agenda, and when someone is trying to maneuver her for their own ends. Her Majesty, the Royal Kei, felt that the knowledge of herself and of the sort of ruthless manipulations that Lady Yuka had already been exposed to at that point would do more than anything to prepare her for the power games of the Royal Court. The Royal Kei said then that self-knowledge in one who would rule was more important than anything except knowledge of others, and she added that even knowledge of others begins with being able to see past oneself."
"A wise woman, the Royal Kei," Gyousou nodded.
"Given that Lady Yuka's half-a-reign has lasted longer than the last three anointed kings of the kingdom of Shun put together, I suppose I will have to agree with the recommendation."
Her tone said that she did not have to like it.
"Why the sudden curiosity, Your Majesty?" Risia asked curiously. "Do you feel her to pose a threat?"
"No," Gyousou replied bluntly. "But I have been considering a number of strategies for my upcoming re-conquering of Tai's northern provinces, and the one I have that I feel would be best would rely on keeping the Royal Consort into place for some small time yet. I needed to know whether she might make a play of her own and whether I might have to find some way to deal with her or not."
"You want to keep her in place?" Risai said, not sounding like she liked the notion.
"For a small time," Gyousou allowed. "As I said, it's only one strategy I am considering, but looking at it from many angles it seems to be the best so far. After all, if Ansen must be given his choice of targets, I would prefer to present him with one that will at least be ale to fight back."