35x03
Lady Akiko-san was nearing fifty years old, and she radiated vigor and intellect. She wore a simple Inquisitorial robe and a narrow, plain headdress that Nyoko nonetheless recognized instantly as the symbol of her office as heir to the Lord High Regent.
Nyoko noticed all this in a swift glance as she bowed deeply, cutting her eyes to one side to check that her comrades were making serviceable bows as well. Lady Akiko-san graced them with a magnanimous nod of her head in return.
“You are late,” she said, not unpleasantly.
Nyoko was unsurprised that Unsuku was the fastest to reply: the ambitious Adept had, in a sense, been practicing all her life for this audience… and, to be fair, letting her take credit was part of the deal they’d struck with her. “We faced unavoidable delays, my Lady,” she replied. “Thus we were forced to remember that there is an order higher than ours.”
Lady Akiko-san gestured toward a row of pillows in front of the raised platform on which she stood, and then knelt on a pillow of her own. The party--with varying degrees of grace (“Kneel, don’t sit cross-legged, Honored Justicar,” Nyoko murmured)--settled onto their pillows facing her.
“Report on your work with the Inquisition this past summer,” Lady Akiko-san said then.
“I will describe the events as I Witnessed them,” Unsuku said. “For certain incidents I did not personally observe, I will request your indulgence as my assistant--” she nodded to Nyoko-- “testifies to them instead.” Nyoko kept her face impassive despite the waves of outrage she sensed from Twiggy, Dame Mena, and the others on her behalf.
With that, Unsuku began her recitation, describing--with Nyoko’s help--the entire investigation of the Tide in Cauldron. Nyoko noted that Unsuku elegantly shaded the events to imply the necessity of her own presence to an otherwise barely competent investigation without ever including a word of untruth: it was equivocation of such subtlety that Justicar Kormick probably envied it.
Two hours and forty-seven minutes later, Unsuku’s Witness concluded.
Lady Akiko-san sighed. “I commend you all for your service. It has been hard to carry out the Affirmation, and I am disappointed by Mother Kawazu’s treachery. It is heartening to hear in person of your efforts to resolve this matter: I thank you for coming all this way to share it with me. Few heathens would have done any of this.”
“The honor is ours,” Unsuku said, bowing. Nyoko suspected she was disgruntled that the heathens were getting any credit at all.
“I am not alone in wishing to express my gratitude,” Lady Akiko-san continued. “I invite you all to join me tonight at dinner.”
“Again, the honor would be entirely ours,” Unsuku said. “I would, in addition, be honored all the more if you would permit me to dance as a humble part of the evening’s entertainment.”
Of course you would, Nyoko thought, squelching an urge to roll her eyes. And I’m going to count that word “humble” as a lie, because that is a terribly inaccurate description of your attitude.
Lady Akiko-san was nodding graciously and Unsuku was smiling. With another round of bowing, the group was preparing to rise when, suddenly, Tavi spoke up.
“Lady Akiko-san,” he said in his careful, most formal voice, “I am Signor Octavian of Pol Henna, and I must speak to you about another matter before this meeting concludes.”
Nyoko was startled by his Peninsular bluntness, but more than that, she was gratified to see a quick flash of disgusted shock on Unsuku’s face: Unsuku didn’t know what this was about, and she didn’t like that one bit.
“Speak,” said Lady Akiko-san, herself apparently unperturbed.
“This is a matter of greatest confidentiality, as well as of greatest importance,” said Tavi. “We need to request your help in solving a mystery that surrounds my sister, and that appears to involve divinities as well as mortals.”
With that, he began to tell Rose’s story, from the time before her birth when she became her mother’s Sacrifice of Death, through the prophecy at the spring, through the research Twiggy and others had conducted about the Sheh, through Sister Orchid’s information about the Agent of Destruction. “And so,” he concluded, “we would be grateful for any history you could share with us about these matters, perhaps especially about the Sheh. And… I’m not sure how to say this with as much diplomatic sensitivity as I could wish, but we wonder--we fear--if the Lord High Regent might be the ‘dying king’ the prophecy describes.”
At last, he fell silent.
A small smile crossed Akiko-san’s face.
“One puzzle I had not yet solved,” she said, “was exactly why a troupe of heathens would be willing to work so very hard to aid the Inquisition in its time of need, and why they would come to see me in person afterward. I now have my answer.”
“Don’t mistake us,” said Savina. “We wanted to help support the Affirmation, too--”
Akiko-san gently waved away Savina’s concern. “Of course. I did not mean to imply that your motives were in any way base. You desired to support the Affirmation, and you desire to save this young woman…”
She looked at Rose. Rose looked back. A moment passed.
“The Lord High Regent is dying,” Akiko-san said then. Nyoko, who had suspected as much, felt a jolt of sadness anyway. “He must be considered a candidate to suit your prophecy,” Akiko-san continued. “Foreign intelligence brings us word of no monarch who can more accurately be described as a dying king. I trust your information is similar.”
Tavi nodded. “May we meet with him?”
“Unlikely in the extreme,” said Akiko-san. “The Lord High Regent seldom meets with heathens, and then only those of the utmost rank. But the matter will be considered. As for the rest, I commend you to the Military librarians. They should have records of the various armed expeditions into Sheh lands, and you may find answers there.”
“Thank you,” said Tavi.
“I do not envy the challenge Kettenek has placed before you,” Akiko-san said, then caught herself. “I suppose you would say: the challenge that Ehkt has placed before you… but in all honesty, it seems to me that whether Kettenek has placed the mountain in your path or Ehkt is spurring you to the top, it is a hard road regardless. The rest is semantics. I will see you for dinner this evening.”
As they left the room, Nyoko overheard Kormick say to Mena, “She could come to the cabin.”
“Yes,” said Mena. “And you could go fishing that day.”
Lady Akiko-san was nearing fifty years old, and she radiated vigor and intellect. She wore a simple Inquisitorial robe and a narrow, plain headdress that Nyoko nonetheless recognized instantly as the symbol of her office as heir to the Lord High Regent.
Nyoko noticed all this in a swift glance as she bowed deeply, cutting her eyes to one side to check that her comrades were making serviceable bows as well. Lady Akiko-san graced them with a magnanimous nod of her head in return.
“You are late,” she said, not unpleasantly.
Nyoko was unsurprised that Unsuku was the fastest to reply: the ambitious Adept had, in a sense, been practicing all her life for this audience… and, to be fair, letting her take credit was part of the deal they’d struck with her. “We faced unavoidable delays, my Lady,” she replied. “Thus we were forced to remember that there is an order higher than ours.”
Lady Akiko-san gestured toward a row of pillows in front of the raised platform on which she stood, and then knelt on a pillow of her own. The party--with varying degrees of grace (“Kneel, don’t sit cross-legged, Honored Justicar,” Nyoko murmured)--settled onto their pillows facing her.
“Report on your work with the Inquisition this past summer,” Lady Akiko-san said then.
“I will describe the events as I Witnessed them,” Unsuku said. “For certain incidents I did not personally observe, I will request your indulgence as my assistant--” she nodded to Nyoko-- “testifies to them instead.” Nyoko kept her face impassive despite the waves of outrage she sensed from Twiggy, Dame Mena, and the others on her behalf.
With that, Unsuku began her recitation, describing--with Nyoko’s help--the entire investigation of the Tide in Cauldron. Nyoko noted that Unsuku elegantly shaded the events to imply the necessity of her own presence to an otherwise barely competent investigation without ever including a word of untruth: it was equivocation of such subtlety that Justicar Kormick probably envied it.
Two hours and forty-seven minutes later, Unsuku’s Witness concluded.
Lady Akiko-san sighed. “I commend you all for your service. It has been hard to carry out the Affirmation, and I am disappointed by Mother Kawazu’s treachery. It is heartening to hear in person of your efforts to resolve this matter: I thank you for coming all this way to share it with me. Few heathens would have done any of this.”
“The honor is ours,” Unsuku said, bowing. Nyoko suspected she was disgruntled that the heathens were getting any credit at all.
“I am not alone in wishing to express my gratitude,” Lady Akiko-san continued. “I invite you all to join me tonight at dinner.”
“Again, the honor would be entirely ours,” Unsuku said. “I would, in addition, be honored all the more if you would permit me to dance as a humble part of the evening’s entertainment.”
Of course you would, Nyoko thought, squelching an urge to roll her eyes. And I’m going to count that word “humble” as a lie, because that is a terribly inaccurate description of your attitude.
Lady Akiko-san was nodding graciously and Unsuku was smiling. With another round of bowing, the group was preparing to rise when, suddenly, Tavi spoke up.
“Lady Akiko-san,” he said in his careful, most formal voice, “I am Signor Octavian of Pol Henna, and I must speak to you about another matter before this meeting concludes.”
Nyoko was startled by his Peninsular bluntness, but more than that, she was gratified to see a quick flash of disgusted shock on Unsuku’s face: Unsuku didn’t know what this was about, and she didn’t like that one bit.
“Speak,” said Lady Akiko-san, herself apparently unperturbed.
“This is a matter of greatest confidentiality, as well as of greatest importance,” said Tavi. “We need to request your help in solving a mystery that surrounds my sister, and that appears to involve divinities as well as mortals.”
With that, he began to tell Rose’s story, from the time before her birth when she became her mother’s Sacrifice of Death, through the prophecy at the spring, through the research Twiggy and others had conducted about the Sheh, through Sister Orchid’s information about the Agent of Destruction. “And so,” he concluded, “we would be grateful for any history you could share with us about these matters, perhaps especially about the Sheh. And… I’m not sure how to say this with as much diplomatic sensitivity as I could wish, but we wonder--we fear--if the Lord High Regent might be the ‘dying king’ the prophecy describes.”
At last, he fell silent.
A small smile crossed Akiko-san’s face.
“One puzzle I had not yet solved,” she said, “was exactly why a troupe of heathens would be willing to work so very hard to aid the Inquisition in its time of need, and why they would come to see me in person afterward. I now have my answer.”
“Don’t mistake us,” said Savina. “We wanted to help support the Affirmation, too--”
Akiko-san gently waved away Savina’s concern. “Of course. I did not mean to imply that your motives were in any way base. You desired to support the Affirmation, and you desire to save this young woman…”
She looked at Rose. Rose looked back. A moment passed.
“The Lord High Regent is dying,” Akiko-san said then. Nyoko, who had suspected as much, felt a jolt of sadness anyway. “He must be considered a candidate to suit your prophecy,” Akiko-san continued. “Foreign intelligence brings us word of no monarch who can more accurately be described as a dying king. I trust your information is similar.”
Tavi nodded. “May we meet with him?”
“Unlikely in the extreme,” said Akiko-san. “The Lord High Regent seldom meets with heathens, and then only those of the utmost rank. But the matter will be considered. As for the rest, I commend you to the Military librarians. They should have records of the various armed expeditions into Sheh lands, and you may find answers there.”
“Thank you,” said Tavi.
“I do not envy the challenge Kettenek has placed before you,” Akiko-san said, then caught herself. “I suppose you would say: the challenge that Ehkt has placed before you… but in all honesty, it seems to me that whether Kettenek has placed the mountain in your path or Ehkt is spurring you to the top, it is a hard road regardless. The rest is semantics. I will see you for dinner this evening.”
As they left the room, Nyoko overheard Kormick say to Mena, “She could come to the cabin.”
“Yes,” said Mena. “And you could go fishing that day.”