The Twelve Kingdoms: Dreaming of Paradise

encourage our civil service."
    Losing its king had isolated the Imperial Court of Hou as well. Recognition from Kei would greatly set the ministers' minds at ease.
    "But—"
    "Besides, I think I should be moving residences. To the north wing of the Imperial Palace."
    A smile creased Sei's lips. He nodded and said, "In that case, I'll gladly take you up on your offer."

Chapter 9
    T he communiqué was delivered by air to Kyou, accompanied by an ambassador pro tem. The ambassador returned three days later. He entered the Naiden, shoulders slumped, in an obviously dejected mood.
    The shuttered Naiden had been reopened, and Gekkei had relocated there with a small number of his personal effects. He'd apologized for his bouts of indecision, and stated that the position of Kei Province Lord needed filling. The ministers enthusiastically set to the task. Two days later, Gekkei was formally installed as provisional head of state.
    "How did it go?" he asked the ambassador, pushing aside the document he was working on and getting to his feet.
    The ambassador bowed low. "Well—ah—the Royal Kyou made it clear that no leniency would be shown. She granted me a personal audience, but was clearly upset."
    "I'm not surprised."
    "Even the Royal Kei's petition asking for leniency on behalf of the Princess Royal—"
    The Royal Kyou, he explained, had not disguised the fact that she considered the Royal Kei and Gekkei to be meddling in the internal affairs of her kingdom.
    "She said that only the Kyou Ministry of Fall was authorized to judge criminals in Kyou. It was not within the purview of the Royal Kyou, let alone representatives from other kingdoms, to bend the law to their benefit."
    "I see," Gekkei said with a dejected sigh. He knew asking for a reduction of sentence had been presumptuous. Neither was the Royal Kyou's anger a surprise. But he hadn't been able to deny his gut reaction to try and help Shoukei.
    Perhaps doing the right thing by Chuutatsu's daughter was Gekkei's way of repaying the Royal Hou for his disloyalty. Or perhaps it was because Gekkei could sympathize with another person also wracked by her own personal demons. There was no way to wipe the slate clean now, but he wanted to believe that through self-awareness and repentance a person could earn absolution.
    As if grasping the weight of Gekkei's disappointment, the ambassador bowed his head lower. "I'm afraid she lectured me quite severely. With the future of both Kei and Hou hanging in the balance, she said there was no call whatsoever for so many hands to be wrung over the fate of a mere girl, and a petty criminal at that."
    "Yes, well, I'm sorry about that."
    The ambassador nodded and continued, his head still lowered. "As punishment, the Princess Royal was ordered banished. Should she ever be observed within the borders of the Kingdom of Kyou again, no mercy would be shown."
    Startled, Gekkei's urged the ambassador to continue. "And then what?"
    "The word was that she was expeditiously deported." He pressed his lips together in consternation.
    A slight smile came to Gekkei's face. "So that was the word."
    "I apologize for not having made myself more useful in this regard." The ambassador head slumped even further.
    "Not at all," Gekkei said with heartfelt appreciation. "It was the Royal Kyou's way of telling Shoukei that such apologies were beneath her."
    "But—"
    "And her way of telling Shoukei not to let the door hit her on the way out."
    Because the Royal Kyou wouldn't countenance meddling in their internal affairs, apologies weren't going to cut it either way. Refusing to muster any sympathy in response to the petitions sent by the Royal Kei and Gekkei—forever reserving the right to sanction crimes committed under her watch—may have been a reflection of her pride as Empress. But it may also been her way of rebuking them for diverting the resources of their kingdoms from more pressing matters in order to address what she saw as trivialities.
    Probably the latter.
    He was already a regicide. It wasn't as if she needed to take Gekkei to task personally. Rather, she was telling him to get over himself, to seize the reins of power, rush into the breach, and stop his kingdom's downward spiral.
    "Let's find a diplomatic back channel through which we can express our thanks to the Royal Kyou—"
    Gekkei again commended the ambassador. Then he dismissed him and returned to his desk and the letter he'd been working on. Rereading what he'd already written, he