For days, the Palace was a mad scramble. Of course it was never exactly a settled place, with officials busy with their duties, walking from place to place. But these last few days were different. There was a new urgency to everyone's movements, especially those among the Ministries of Fall and Summer and Winter.
The cause of the determination among Fall and Winter were the same. There had been an assassination attempt on Touke herself. Touke had easily fought them off all on her own, before her guards had even closed on them. But she had spared one. And had him tortured until he gave up everything he had to give. But, unfortunately, to her great frustration, this sad excuse for a soldier had no idea where the Taiho was. His orders were not from whoever had captured her.
They were from the Taisai. Touke had immediately had him arrested. Officials in the Ministry of Winter were trying to prove their dedication and loyalty, prove they were not part of the conspiracy, so they were taking to their duties with new zeal. Fall was preparing for the trial of the century. But before the Taisai could be put on trial, Touke had some more torturing to get done. She knew the Taisai knew where Aku was. But he seemed strangely resistant to their methods. But that didn't matter. She had ordered the Palace Guard to keep on him like the shine on her sword until he squealed. His cell was under tight guard by her most trusted soldiers, so his conspirators couldn't kill him before he talked.
The Ministry of Summer was on the move. Touke had given the order to mobilize her armies. The Forbidden Armies of the Left and Right and the same from Ten Provincial were preparing to march. They still had no destination pinpointed, but they may as well be ready for when they did. They had many people working on finding the Taiho, after all.
It had been a week since Aku disappeared, and Touke was starting to get really nervous. Then it happened, though not in quite the way Touke had expected.
She had been meeting with her generals, going through logistics. Feeding an army on the move was a daunting proposition, and it was especially difficult when the destination was unknown. Then the door noisily crashed open, making some of the gathered jump. Touke just sighed. "This is a closed meeting, and we're a little busy here, so if you would just—" She broke off the moment she looked up. The person in the door was a servant. His face was red, and he was panting, as though he had run all the way across the palace. Her first thought was that some other disaster had happened. How much more were they supposed to deal with? "Yes? What is it?"
The servant collected his breath for a moment, bowed low. Without rising, he said, "Your Highness, the Taiho has been found."
Oh, thank Tentei. She felt the most intense feeling of relief. So they had only had to wait for a week before Aku returned to them. "Where is she? I'd like to have a word."
"Well," the servant said, a little uneasily, "she's in Ouhan. Imprisoned."
Her relief vanished. Aku hadn't come back at all. She was yet being held captive. "How do we know this?"
"A servant from the prefectural castle came on a stolen kijuu and—"
"Take me to him."
The servant straightened, led the way off through the palace. They rushed through the gardens, and eventually arrived in one of the halls meant to accept foreign dignitaries. Touke couldn't remember what this one was called. Inside was a man, bent slightly with age, a slight cataract in one orange eye. As she entered he prostrated himself, said something obsequious.
Touke had no time for that. "What do you know of the Taiho?"
"She is being held by Governor Fun in the prefectural castle in Ouhan."
"How do you know this?"
So the man went on a long explanation about how he was a servant in the castle, one tasked with serving meals to the various people lower on the social food chain, including the prisoners. One prisoner was a young woman with crimson hair, her cell fixtured with various containers filled with blood. It had taken him a couple days of confusion to realize this was the Taiho. As soon as he found out, he had tried to rescue her, but he couldn't get his hands on the keys to her cell. So instead he had stolen a kijuu and ran off for Soufuu.
Well. At least they knew where she was now. "How would you describe her condition?" she decided to ask.
The man hesitated a moment. "Not well. She seemed very, very weak. She didn't eat the food I brought. She didn't even drink the water. There were bruises and cuts all over her skin. I suspect they've been torturing her. Every time I came, she just stared at the ceiling, barely noticing I was there."
Touke took in and out a long breath, resisting the urge to put a hand over her chest. Her heart ached with the news of how her little Kirin was being treated, but she had to appear strong and immovable in front of her subjects. She would personally murder whoever had done this to her. Slowly. "Alright. I sincerely thank you for coming forward. You will remain in the guest palace, and we will protect you from retribution."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
Without another word, Touke turned on her heel, and ran off for her generals. They knew where to go now. And it was only a prefectural castle. She took another short breath of relief. Soon she was back in the hall with the generals. The place was alive with excited chatter. On entering, Touke immediately said, "The Taiho is in Ouhan. Send the armies."
With a frown, one of the generals—Touke was too excited and relieved to really notice which—said, "All four?"
"Yes, all four."
"I think all four armies against a prefectural guard is overkill. We should leave some behind. It will be easier on our resources."
A little annoyed, Touke said, "We send all four." While the objection hung on his lips, "I hope when they see the array of forces summoned against them, they will quaver and surrender, so less lives will be lost. The more soldiers we can spare the better."
The generals glanced at each other, shrugged. "Yes, Your Highness."
Touke turned on her heel again, moving to prepare herself. She would send Kokumei off to lead the armies for the moment, then, when it came time for battle, she would fly off herself to head their forces. The government couldn't be without a leader the whole march.
She allowed a small smile to grace her lips. They had found Aku. In bare weeks, she would be home again, and they could put this whole disaster behind her. And she would finally do what she should have done eighty-three years ago.
Kill the governor of Ouhan with her own two hands.
Aku couldn't believe she wasn't dead.
She knew blood sickness could be fatal, had been warned so by the nyosen. Yet here she was, still alive. To be fair, she had no idea how much time had passed. But assuming they tried to force her to bow to the governor every day, which she suspected they had, it had to have been weeks. Months. So long, being coerced every way her captors could imagine to get her to submit. Nothing worked. They shoved her down, to no effect. They beat her, they cut her. They came up with a couple creative tortures that never would have worked on anyone who wasn't immortal, as they would have died too fast.
By now, from blood and torture, she was so weak she could hardly move a finger. She was so hungry, so thirsty, she couldn't stand it, yet she couldn't get herself to move for food or water. There was simply no energy left in her. But yet she lived.
Every few times she met with the governor, they sprinkled more blood on her, to ensure she stayed placid. Completely unnecessary, she was sure. And every time, after the torture was complete, Youyou would wash her, change her robe. It was during one of these ceremonies that Aku said, "Tell me about yourself." It took immense effort for her to speak, and her voice was faltering even to her own ears, but she managed it.
Youyou froze in her scrubbing motion. "What?"
"It's been so long since I've talked to anyone who wasn't shouting at me. I want to hear a kind human voice."
For a long moment, Youyou hesitated. Then, reluctantly, she said, "I was born in Muni. That's a village in this prefecture. I'm not sure where." She paused for a moment, as if considering that. "I had parents, two sisters and a brother."
"Past tense?"
"I was sold to governor Fun to pay a debt."
Aku felt herself frown, despite the effort it took, and the pain that it raised. "Slavery is illegal."
"It's called indentured servitude," Youyou said, taking great care to pronounce the words, as though not used to saying them. "Not slavery on paper."
"But it is slavery."
"Yeah. My parents were paid for me. I'm not paid, and I'm not allowed to leave."
"What would happen if you tried to leave?"
"They would hunt me down. If they caught me, I would be either flogged or executed. Or both."
Aku winced. The most horrible sensation of guilt washed through her. It seemed she wasn't too tired to feel miserable. "I'm sorry."
Youyou frowned at her. "For what?"
"It's my job to stop this kind of thing from happening."
"This isn't your province," Youyou said with a verbal shrug. "This kind of thing is Her Highness's responsibility, not yours."
"It's still my duty to alleviate the suffering of the people in the Kingdom."
Youyou frowned again. "You can't be everywhere. You can't do everything. Stop beating yourself up about it. Worry about yourself for once."
"I worry for Kyou."
With a sigh, Youyou said, "That's not yourself. You said you're going to die. Don't you fear for your life?"
"I can't separate my life from that of Kyou." At Youyou's confused look, Aku said, "As I die, so does the Queen, and as the Queen dies, so does Kyou. My death is the death of Kyou."
"Surely things aren't that bad without a Queen."
Aku tried to make a sad little smile, but it probably didn't make it to her face. "You are too young to remember. Floods, earthquakes, locusts, youma. After ten years, if no monarch is chosen, the land will be reduced to a burned-out husk."
"The Governor would risk that just to become King?" asked Youyou with a terrified look.
"Apparently."
For a long moment, there was silence. Then Youyou said, "Why would Tentei do that?"
"Do what?"
"Make the world this way. Make it so the actions of one person, one person falling from the Way, results in bad things for everyone."
"Terrible things. Starvation and death."
Youyou winced. "Yes, that."
With a slight sigh, all that she had breath for, Aku said, "I wondered the same thing as a child. There are no answers. Only Tentei knows. I like to think of it as mercy."
"How is that mercy?" said Youyou, frowning deeply again.
"A stable government is a strong government. The longer a reign lasts, the richer the kingdom, the happier the people. That is why the monarch is immortal, to anchor the kingdom, keep the government stable. And the consequences are there to deter people from regicide, so the monarch may theoretically rule forever."
"But what about shitsudou?"
"A benevolent, eternal monarch may be a beautiful thing, but an eternal despot is many times worse than a mortal one. Shitsudou actually shortens the reign of such despots. And a new king can be selected in as little as five to seven years. Not a long time, considering." Aku sighed again. "If everything goes well, it's a good system. But humans are naturally flawed, and the system has holes, as does any. Like, what if the monarch doesn't go on the shouzan? I waited fifteen years for my Queen, and she never came. I had to go find her. We could have saved eight years of disaster for the people, prevented the war with Geimei, if my Queen had come to me. But she was living as a servant at the time, and was not free to go on a shouzan, even if the thought would ever occur to her, which it never would have."
Youyou blinked at her. "Queen Meirei was a servant?"
With a smile, Aku said, "Yes. One of the posthumous names they're considering for her is Hi-Ou." During their reign, the convention for naming monarchs had changed. They used to pick a two character name for both names, but now the posthumous one was one character followed by ou. Kyou had decided to follow the other kingdoms' lead.
"Wow." For a few moments of silence, Youyou scrubbed at a particularly stubborn blood stain. "Queens come from all walks of life, I guess."
"Yes." With an imagined smile, she said, "But we're supposed to be talking about you."
Youyou let out a long sigh. "There's not much to say. I started working here very young, and have ever since."
"How is governor Fun as a master?"
"He's okay, if you avoid him in certain moods."
Aku frowned. "Certain moods?"
With another, painful sigh, Youyou said, "Taiho, it's not uncommon for people to rape their servants."
Now that powerful emotion she was feeling was anger. She couldn't believe this. "I'll put a stop to that, when I get out of here. I swear. I won't allow it."
"Taiho, it's really—"
"Rape is the worst thing one person can do to another. It is a total violation of all a person is. I will not allow the practice of it in my Kingdom. I promise you."
Youyou gave her a little flickering smile. "Thank you, Taiho."
"Has he ever, um…" Aku broke off, not sure of exactly how or if she should ask the question.
Youyou silently met her eyes. After a long moment, she returned to her scrubbing.
Aku wasn't sure if she had ever felt hate before. But she did now. It was a boiling hot feeling of rage deep in her chest, stronger than the blood sickness that held her, that at once felt very good and extremely wrong. Kirin aren't supposed to hate. It was against everything they stood for, everything they were. But she couldn't help it. She knew that when Touke killed that monster, as she surely would, Aku wouldn't mourn for a second.
Was the world better off if certain people didn't exist?
The thought horrified her, but she couldn't help but think it.
Muni: 嫵荽
Hi-Ou: 婢王 ("maidservant king")
