Hakuryuu is puzzled by his new educator and escort, by her mannerisms and particularly by the words that fall effortlessly from her lips. By his judgment, which is premature in every which way possible, Tairin is a soft-spoken girl, demure, exuding the same air of timidity as the servant girls who skulk about his palace. She is an odd one, shy, speaking to him only when he feels curiosity creeping up his back and ventures to ask a question either about the customs of Karkor or what happens to be on the menu for dinner.
Taking into account her mildly unkempt appearance of often disheveled hair, frequently rosy cheeks, less than tidy clothing, and noticeably subservient gestures, the young prince comes to a certain conclusion about the girl. It is strange; he had thought the plains people were too scarce to have servants and class systems but the persona Hakuryuu is becoming increasingly familiar with seems to argue the opposite.
He sits with folded hands outside his sleeping quarters, a rather ornate tent which (to his dismay) the two of them share, icy blue eyes counting individual blades of lush green grass. It is her tent, a bit flashy for a servant. He should not complain not does he dare to voice his opinion on the familiarity of the sleeping arrangements as he may end up on the business end of a broadsword with one misspoken word.
It is a nice night, he muses while tossing a glance upward, stars gleaming as far as the eye could see, a crescent moon illuminating the dark.
She sits down next to him, looking off into the distance with a faraway gleam in her eyes. He wonders what she could be thinking about, if she has some heart-wrenching and painful history that drives one to do the craziest things-like he does. He wonders what could be running through the head of a comely servant girl to create the pensive crinkle in her brow, the nervous biting of her bottom lips, and the rhythmic twitch of her fingers.
His confusion abates little by little with his silent musings and he decides to try to strike up a conversation.
"You were staring at me during the discussion," he states absentmindedly.
Tairin catches the unspoken 'why' and answers promptly without a shred of shame.
"Yes, you are quite the handsome one, aren't you?"
He blinks, once then twice, snapping his head towards her to see if it is an ill-told joke, lips parting but unsure of how to respond. He, in fact intends on receiving clarification on that statement, wondering if she truly means what she says. Her face is completely calm and all but jovial. "Excuse me?"
She scans him thoroughly, chin pressed between her thumb and forefinger and gives a decisive nod to punctuate her previous and upcoming declarations. "I find you to be absolutely stunning."
The bewilderment returns with a vengeance and Hakuryuu comes to the realization that he hasn't the foggiest idea on how to deal with the alien thing sitting beside him. "You're lying," he blurts out, half-joking with a flat chuckle. Differing customs is one thing, but poor taste is another debatable topic altogether.
She turns her head to him, smiles for a brief second, and then looks back at the starry sky-a scene she sees every night without fail. "I'm not."
He does not argue it further, beauty being in the eye of the beholder and such, graciously and awkwardly taking the compliment in the typical princely, overtly polite manner. "Ah, well, thank you." Hakuryuu smiles as a courtesy but they way his dart from her to the ground tells her that he is more than uncomfortable. "Uh, for the compliment, I mean," he chuckles softly while rubbing the back of his neck. "You flatter me. I can safely say that no one has ever said that to me before," he says while he stands and stretches.
It is about time he retire for the night.
After throwing her own puzzled look his way, Tairin stands as well, kindly dangling in front of his face that she is a good two inches taller than he is. She asks with a tilt of her head as if she had been pondering for hours, "Lord Ren, would you like to go for a walk?"
Again, he is taken aback but agrees nonetheless.
They sit side by side underneath a rather skinny looking tree, branches spreading out widely, bits of green foliage decorating the skeletal limbs. One could see patches of the starry sky through varying undulating shades of dark, mildly dark, and extremely dark.
"Not to sound callous but why are we here?"
Tairin shrugs and sighs.
"I wanted to talk. We will be spending a few months together and I think it's a bit unfair that I haven't even asked about your home yet. Won't you tell me about Kou?"
Hakuryuu is instantly on guard.
"I'd really rather not…" He murmurs underneath his breath in such a soft, low voice that most would have suspected he had said nothing at all.
It is not his responsibility to get to know these people on a personal level nor does he exactly have the overwhelming desire to. The young prince has much more important things to set his concentration on. These people would either be dead or serving beneath his country's flag within half a year, when his visit is set to end.
And in the end, Hakuryuu assumes that Tairin has not heard him.
"What is like in Kou?" She inquires, reclining back onto the soft summer grass with arms nestled behind her head.
Suffocating.
His lips purse together as he formulates a suitable answer for her, something that would satiate her curiosity as quickly as possible. The farthest thing from the truth should suffice. "It's a lovely place."
She scoffs and with a playful roll of the eyes replies, "Aren't they all, in one way or another?"
Touché.
"…the Kou Empire, for all its faults and difficulties, it is my home and I will give my life to defend it."
"That's nice."
She shows her vanishing smile once more, eyelids falling shut, forming her next question.
"What kind of flowers grow in Kou?"
Of course she would ask about flowers. He takes comfort in finding something normal about the girl.
Hakuryuu assumes that Tairin likes flowers.
"...well, spider lilies tend to grow especially well given the climate..."
"Spider lily?"
It is clear by the incredulous expression coloring her features and the mixture of disgust and mild intrigue that she is picturing an abominable hybrid of nature in full detail.
"It's not nearly as terrifying as it sounds," Hakuryuu clarifies as he fails miserably at repressing a light laugh. "The petals are thin, like the legs of a spider and curve in all different directions. The red ones are most common and it looks as if entire fields have been bathed in blood during the summertime, when they are in bloom."
Tairin remains silent and he takes it as a mistake on his part and starts the damage control protocol, if only to dissuade her that he isn't someone she should fear as a murderous sociopath.
"Ah, my apologies," he flails. "I didn't mean to sound morbid. Blood isn't quite the right word, it's actually quite beautiful to see-especially at sunset."
Tairin shifts uncomfortably, weighing the pros and cons of lessening the gravity of his verbal faux pas. It is merely due to the shameful memories of her own missteps that she says, "...blood can be beautiful...in a tragic sense." Really, the lengths she goes to defuse an awkward situation. The fact she has the mental fortitude to speak the word blood boggles her own mind.
It raises all the hair on her body, sends creeping shivers down her spine, and makes her stomach ache with the rise of bitter memories.
"…I agree," he murmurs.
In all honesty, Tairin hates the color red in general. Ironic, in many senses, given that the name of the massive militaristic empire threatening to eat her quaint little village alive roughly equates to a deep, crimson, red.
"What is the weather like in Kou?"
"Humid all year round," he deadpans. "Summers are unbearable."
"How does the typical day for a commoner work out?"
"I'm not absolutely sure. All I know is what I've been told and who knows how warped that information is."
"Do you use slaves in Kou?"
"Unfortunately, we do. Although slaves are released after five years of service and mistreatment is prohibited by law. But yes, slaves and servants."
"Ah, but tautology, my little prince!" She says jolting upright and wagging her finger as if chiding a child, clearly about to impart some form of mind-blowing wisdom upon the little prince.
"I don't follow."
Hakuryuu states blandly, blinking, lacking the enthusiasm of his companion on the shifting direction of the conversation. Slavery is not the best topic for getting to know new people.
"You can call it whatever you want but slaves and servants are, in essence, the same thing. Are they not?"
"I suppose."
Her lips give a spastic twitch upward. "Can these servants of yours leave the palace whenever they please?"
"No, not exactly. They need permission first."
"And can these 'servants' return to their families every night after their work is done?"
"They have sleeping quarters within the palace."
"Isn't it tradition for entire family lines to be bonded into indentured servitude?"
His eyes narrow and he wonders as to what this girl's endgame is. What is the point of her incessant questions? Hakuryuu assumes that her purpose is to analyze him and report back to her king any valuable information he lets slip, any flaws in his personality that could give them the upper hand.
He assumes that she is up to no good.
His jaw clenches. The only ones capable of matching Kou in strength are the Reim Empire, lasting through the ages with dignity and grace and the relatively newborn Seven Seas Alliance, as deadly as an adolescent pit viper. As to why the tiny coalition villages who call themselves a nation would fight back, he know the answer.
"I understand, it's all the same," he flippantly snaps back. Tairin seems surprised, brows raised as if she has discovered a particularly interesting bit of information. Her eyes fix onto him, studying his expression and waiting expectantly for a follow up.
Hakuryuu sighs and folds his hands in his lap and decides to give her a vague truth that he prays will end the dialogue. Rudeness is not his intention but becomes inevitable with the time that continually slips away. "The current state of Kou, of my home, disgusts me. The issue of slavery cannot even qualify as a part of the main problem with how twisted things are," he says.
"You can do something about it can't you? You are a prince after all.
Pale blue eyes that hold an uncanny resemblance to the midday sky in early spring make a unconvincing glare. "Why don't you tell me what the fourth prince can do against the combined will of the third, second, and first princes?"
She hums with mild intrigue, face still serene and just as he wishes, the conversation runs its course, dying out with his unanswered question.
"I didn't mean to make you angry."
"I'm not angry."
"You raised your voice. You're angry."
"...not angry, frustrated...and tired."
"...frustrated, of course. I'm sure you have a lot on your mind."
"Lord Ren?"
"Yes."
"Can people from your home do…strange things?"
"It depends. What is your opinion of strange?"
She touches his shoulder forcing his attention to be totally on her. "I want to show you something."
Tairin brings her hands together and mutters something underneath her breath which fails to reach his ears. Light abruptly sparks between her fingertips with audible crackles and as she pulls her hands apart, it forms squirming lines of whitish blue. The ethereal glow illuminates her face in the midnight gloom.
"Can people from Kou do things like this?"
Hakuryuu recognizes it as a combination of various commands made to the moving force of the world, unable to be seen by the jaded eyes of normal human beings. Seemingly out of thin air, she creates lightning.
"You're a magician."
One could color the young prince a lovely mixture of genuine surprise and astonishment. He cracks a discrete smile with furtive pleasure as a thought occurs to him. He would need all the help he could get his hands on for the upcoming war of national liberation and divine retribution which is still in its vulnerable infancy. She could never become a member of his household but it may prove to be in his best interest to learn this girl like the back of his hand, to learn what she fears most and loves the least, to learn every minuscule idiosyncrasy that exists with the girl known as Tairin.
Compared to what lies ahead, Hakuryuu assumes that it will be the easiest thing in the world.
So, here we have our dearest Hakuryuu...he, uh, he's making a lot of assumptions here. And, well, you know how that song n' dance goes.