Volo Defendo (I will defend)
Gyousou looked after her retreating form, surprised to find himself feeling disappointed that she chose to leave them so soon. He understood that she was preparing herself to step aside, but he found, to his surprise, that he rather enjoyed her presence.
"Gyousou-sama," Taiki said sleepily from where he lay, sprawled out on the ground beside his master.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Yuka and I have been partners for fifty years," he said, a bit hesitantly. "She wasn't a real replacement for you, but with her around I never felt lonely. I know it's selfish, but since she's already agreed to sit on the throne in your stead for now, do you think you could ask her to stay? I'd miss her if she went away."
Gyousou looked down with sad fondness at his brave kirin.
"I wish I could grant your request Kouri," he said gently. "Your friend has served loyally but only out of loyalty to you and because she cares about you. She's earned her rest. When I am finished bringing the rebel provinces to heel and restoring peace to Tai, I do not believe it would be fair of me to ask her to remain beyond that point. I am sure she will always be your friend."
"But..." Taiki protested a little.
Taiki had always disliked change, it seemed. He clearly disliked loosing people that were close to him. He did have, as Consort Yuka had put it, separation anxiety. His king was leaving him in the morning, and he would be going away to another land shortly after. For the first time in many decades, not even Yuka would be by his side and it clearly bothered him that everything as happening so fast. Gyousou could do little else than pet his kirin's hair and reassure Taiki of his king's devotion to him and to their kingdom.
"I have every intention of cleaning up quickly so that I can return quickly, Kouri" Gyousou said. "Your friend is a very strong woman, I'm sure that she will be able to handle matters here in the palace until I can return from my battles. I am also certain that it is very important to her that she feels you will be in a safer lace during these dangerous times."
Gyousou hadn't mentioned the fact that he intended to put Yuka in the rather difficult position of ruling over a soon-to be-besieged city. She was to be (as she had so succinctly and perceptively put it) bait in a trap to draw out Asen and the main bulk of his forces to a place where Gyousou would have the advantages of terrain. Risai had said she'd handled herself well many decades ago when she had been placed at the head of the armies of Kei and En to eradicate Asen's main forces, he had to hope that in all of that time of politicking, she had not lost her fighters edge.
"And I have every faith that you will be able to handle yourself well in both Han and Hou," Gyousou adeptly steered the subject away from Yuka before Kouri might put two and two together.
"I'm to go to Hou now?" Taiki protested.
"I've drawn up a new trade agreement with them, and I need you to act as my emissary for a time. I understand that relations between our nations have been nurtured in recent decades," he smiled a little.
"Yuka likes to gossip with the new queen of Hou," Taiki mumbled. "Both of them like to wear nice perfume and drink tea, plus it seems like Yuka thinks she's funny. The letters she sends always make her laugh anyway. They aren't friends the same way Yuka and Youko are, but they seem to like each other."
"Oh dear," Gyousou said, pulling a long face. "Perfume and tea, you say? It seems that I have nothing in common with this new ruler then. As soon as Lady Yuka leaves the throne relations between our two kingdoms might fall apart. I'll have to count on you to make sure they stick."
"Alright, Gyousou-sama," Taiki said, sighing a bit heavily at the thought of being parted from his king for even a day longer than he absolutely had to be.
"You'll make a fine envoy," the king encouraged. "They'll love you in Hou, and I'm sure Han will be happy to receive you again."
"He'll probably be disappointed that I was sent and not Yuka," Taiki said with unusual frankness. "Even though he knows she's supposedly bad luck, I think he's still smitten with her."
"I heard that the last time he visited, during the reign of the old king, all they did was talk art and fashion," Gyousou replied. "I was only a captain in the royal army at that point so I don't know for certain that that's how it was but I heard Han-ou spent a lot of time either praising the decorations, or demanding different quarters. Strange fellow."
"I think the only reason he likes Yuka so much is that she somehow fits his strange sense of aesthetic," Taiki said with a small smile. "I sent him a portrait of her, and in Yuka's words, he's made a pest of himself ever since."
"That's probably it," Gyousou agreed humorously.
"Do you think she's pretty Gyousou-sama?" Taiki asked next.
:He sounds a little like a child wanting to know that their doll or toy is the very best one in the whole world and that all other children's toys cannot possibly match up to theirs,: Gyousou thought a bit humorously.
"Yes, Lady Yuka is very pretty," he said indulgently.
He was surprised however to note that if he was honest with himself, he didn't disagree with the statement he'd just said to his kirin. She wasn't a Beauty in the conventional sense, in a crowd she might attract a glance or two, but she wouldn't turn heads. It would be closer to say that she was pretty in a striking sort of way. A small, slender woman with a heart-shaped face and dark, sharp eyes wouldn't normally attract attention but there was an appeal about her. She wasn't the sort of court beauty that the old king would have collected for his harem, the sort where anyone looking at them would have unarguably said that she was a specimen of pure physical attractiveness, but there was something about her sharp gaze and the aura of self-possession she had. Her face had a great deal of personality to it. She was confident and witty. Her sharp eyes possessed a great deal of intelligence, and he imagined she'd probably needed every bit of it to navigate the treacherous waters that Tai had become in the last several decades.
"I'm happy you're awake, Gyousou-sama, but I still wish she'd stay too."
"After fifty years by your side, Taiki, I doubt that she's going to be gone forever," his king predicted. "She'll go for a while but then she'll probably come back to see you. She really cares about you after all."
Taiki hesitated for a long moment, then finally said
"Gyousou-sama..."
"What is it?" he asked softly.
"Yuka says she wants to get married, but I don't actually think that's quite true. At least... I mean, it seems more likes it's in the abstract sense. I don't think she's ever actually given any real thought to what her future spouse would be like."
"She hasn't been on the market," Gyousou pointed out. "I'm sure it would have looked very odd if a supposedly very devoted spouse went about shopping for a husband while her current one was out of commission."
Certainly it would have cost her, in terms of political power, seeing as nearly all of her authority to act came from her supposed devotion to her incapacitated husband.
"It just doesn't seem..." taiki hesitated. "It's just that... she fits here, Gyousou-sama."
Gyousou watched in part-sympathy as his kirin tried to articulate what was on his mind.
"I mean, she really fits here. Even if its been stressful, I always got the feeling that she was happy on a deeper level here. She was vitally important, she helped people, none of her intelligence went to waste. It required courage, fire and intelligence to lead an empty throne, and I think deep down she likes the fact that she has what it takes to hold things together. She could be everything that it was inside of her to be because there was a situation that required what she was inside."
"But, my dear Kouri, the situation will change," Gyousou reminded him gently. "I have returned, and Tai will be peaceful. Tell me truthfully, your Yuka is not a sort of woman who handles idleness very well, is she?"
"She's a really good economist," Taiki said instead. "She always makes off the with better end of a bargain. She's very shrewd, you saw how she created that new market for gems in Han, those stone will be worth ten times what she could have gotten as a base-price for them if she's just introduced them to an ordinary old merchant, or even a noble. Introducing them on the world market adorning the emperor of Han will ensure that everyone knows that they're worth top-price and they will pay for it. And even if it's been a war involving prices and population... Yuka has been fighting a war, and she's every bit as good at it as Risai is on a battlefield."
"I am sure she is," Gyousou replied.
Truth to tell, he felt more than a little bit envious that his kirin would speak so very highly of someone else to him. That is, he felt a little bit jealous that Taiki would speak so highly of someone who was not him. He knew it was silly, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel that way. He loved Taiki, he hoped, every bit as much as Taiki adored him...
Taiki sighed and looked a bit frustrated with his kings apparent density.
"Gyousou-sama," the kirin said with what sounded like belabored patience. "I am saying that she has been useful in times of "not-war" and would be even more useful to you in times of peace. She lives for the challenge; as long as the game is fascinating for her, she will want to play. All you have to do is present her with something that will catch and hold her interest."
"She has earned the rest she so clearly desires," Gyousou felt obliged to argue. "I am already asking more of her than I want to. Do you see me as so weak that I cannot rule without her?"
"It's not about weakness. Part of why I brought it up is that I'm worried about her."
"Worried about her?" Gyousou questioned, curious.
"She's done a lot, and for all the right reasons this time, but deep down I know she still worries what she could become if she doesn't have me around. I think that this wanting to break away is just her way of removing herself from what she perceives as real temptation. She still feels that deep down that she's a bad person who chases power for its own sake and will use it just because she can."
"If she worries about it, then I'd say she doesn't have anything to worry about," Gyousou said kindly.
"I want to keep her close because I know she's still afraid she'll make the wrong choice."
"If you keep her close then she'll never have the chance to prove to herself that when offered the wrong choice, she can make the right one."
Taiki sighed a bit, and ceded the argument to his kings clear-sighted wisdom.
"I wish you were not so clearly right," he grumbled a bit.
"I know you care about her, it is natural you should worry. Any good friend would worry about another," gyousou paused, and then reluctantly asked.
"Do you think that I am too weak to rule without her?"
"Of course not," Taiki said, as though Gyousou had asked him whether he thought that water might flow uphill tomorrow.
"That's good then," he said. "I think we have talked enough of your friend for now. Tell me about what you did while I was asleep..."
For the next hour, Taiki filled his kings ears with some more of the things that he had done while they had been separated. It was clear that he had missed Gyousou while he'd been away and some small envious part of Gyousou was quieted when he heard that despite everything that he and Yuka had accomplished together, Taiki had missed him more than anything.
Taiki went off to bed after a little while and Gyousou felt a bit of fatherly sadness that his kirin was no longer so small that he could be carried to his chamber and put to bed like a young son. Still there was some other business that he had to attend to. There were last-minute arrangements for the upcoming campaign of course, but more than that.
"Your majesty, I have brought what you requested," Risai said with a sharp relishing smile.
"Thank-you general," the king said with an acknowledging nod of his head.
He examined the edge of the sword she presented him. It was a well-balanced blade, plain, but serviceable. He could feel the spell on the touki hum ever so softly in his hands, it was set at maximum. The sword would not kill his opponent, but Risai had assured him that a kill strike using the non-lethal weapon was going to hurt... a lot.
:Certainly, this short punishment is much better than he deserves for his offenses,: Gyousou thought irritatedly.
"We've still time for you to change your mind, Your Majesty. There are plenty of true blades here about that beg to be used on him. There's n need to show such mercy to a man like this," General Risai said, clearly feeling that punishing that shuukou's addresses to the Royal Consort with the leniency of a non-lethal strike was being too generous, but she was loyal enough to Gyousou that she wasn't going to argue with him over what punishment he might feel was fitting to the crime.
Gyousou had not forgotten about the behavior he had seen from the Shuukou of Ba Province. Likely he was not the only shuukou that had insulted the Royal Consort over the years, but he was the only one that Gyousou had witnessed, and certainly the worst offender. Insults on a woman's character, and particularly upon the character of the Royal Consort, was considered an indirect slander on him, and he was obliged to answer the insult. In this case it was an obligation he would see to with some small pleasure.
"In a few hours time, General, I will be at war with the Northern Provinces. My blade will taste plenty of blood then. My heart is already heavy enough with having to fight against my own people. Even if he is a worthless man, I do not feel it is neccessary to shed more blood before the hour comes," Gyousou replied.
The shuukou of Ba was escorted (none too gently for he was not well-liked by the Palace Guard) to the practice salle that they would be using to house their bout. Korosai saw his king, standing within the ring wearing simple garb and testing the edge of his blade, and the color drained right from the man's face. Gyousou's prowess as a fighter in single combat was nearly legendary. He had held his own against the king of En, the second oldest ruler in the world, one match out of three.
:And if I'd had even three hundred years to study the blade, I would not loose!: Gyousou thought to himself.
The guards prevented Ba-shuukou from escaping when he turned to bolt. Likely he thought that he was looking at his execution. If it had been even the previous king, he would have been looking at his execution, and he would not have even gotten a fighting chance. Gyousou knew that some of the guards were privately wondering if thier king was being merciful or indulging in a secret sadistic streak by pretending to give the man a fighting chance.
"Pick up the blade," Gyousou commanded him.
Shaking, the province lord did so.
"You know why we are here," the king continued steadily. "I am aware that the others have likely insulted her over the time I have been away, but I have not heard them do so. I have heard you. So, fairly or not, you are the one who will be made to answer. Your invitations to sexual congress with my Royal Consort are demeaning and I am not amused."
"S-sire! I-!"
"I would save your breath to defend yourself."
Gyousou attacked. Despite the man having been chosen by Asen as the shuukou of Ba Province for his prowess with the military as well as his self-interested bribability, he was not, in Gyousou's opinion much of a fighter. Gyousou was partly tempted to draw the fight out the way a cat might toy with a mouse, it had been a long time since he'd gotten to fight, but he had other things that needed doing that night, so he had to make it quick. With a charge, a wrench, a twist and a spin-strike his opponent was disarmed, with his blade stuck point down in the dust three feet away, and "dead" from having been "decapitated." Of course he wasn't actually dead because the weapon that Gyousou had chosen to use was one of the winter blades that did no lasting harm. Korosai's head was still on his shoulders but the long scream of pain as the spell on the touki told him of the deathblow made it sound like he was wishing that that wasn't the case. He was on his back, writhing and screaming in agony. He looked like a man undergoing excruciating torture. After a short time, Gyousou asked Risai in an aside
"Does it normally take this long for a deathblow-warning to subside?"
If so, it seemed like much of the training time would be wasted writhing in agony. Risai smiled sharply.
"I may have modified the spell on your blade just a bit for the occasion."
Gyousou tried not to feel a little amused by that as he shook his head a bit ruefully. He did feel a bit bad about the man's very obvious pain, (Taiki would certainly never approve of such treatment, but what the kirin didn't know wouldn't hurt him) but he also felt that he fully deserved it. If Gyousou had been the previous king, that man would have been dead.
Gyousou left him there on the ground to wait out the end of the deathblow-shock in agony while he went on to the other matters that needed to be attended to before he left in the morning.