The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight

badly, and wanted to go there." He looked at Keiki. "I wonder if I made it in time."
    "Taiki--"
    "I frittered away so much time. I feel like I've lost so much. But we made it in time, didn't we? I feel there is still so much left for me to do."
    "Of course," Keiki said, with as much conviction as he could muster. "That's why we brought you home. The two of us speaking here and now is testimony enough that hope remains alive. Don't worry about it."
    "Yes," he said very thoughtfully, and closed his eyes.

Chapter 46
    " T aiki?"
    "Yes," he said with a nod.
    Sitting this close to him, he looked quite haggard. Nevertheless, he managed to come to a half-sitting position, and put on a brave front.
    "You are the Royal Kei?"
    "My name is Youko Nakajima."
    A smile flitted across his lips. "My surname is Takasato."
    Youko took a long breath. She was seized by an unexpected sensation that left her almost flustered. "It does feel quite strange, meeting somebody from my same generation in a place like this."
    "Same here. You have done so much for me. I am very grateful."
    "Nothing you need thank me for," Youko said reluctantly, casting her eyes down. "We haven't done anything worth being commended for. Tai still remains in the same sad straits as before."
    "I am thankful that you came to retrieve me."
    "Yes, we can both agree on that."
    Illustration
    Youko found herself at a loss for words. There were so many things she had planned on talking about when they met. Their old home town. This, that and the other thing. But when Taiki was right in front of her, she couldn't think of what to say.
    Their old "home town" was a country they could never return to. It had become for Youko a place entirely unrelated to her. Yet touch upon some silly topic and in that sense of poignancy was a still profound sense of loss. The thought of being seized by homesickness and nostalgia if the conversation turned in the wrong direction frightened her.
    She had the feeling that until all her friends and family still waiting for her over there had died and gone away, she wouldn't be able to talk about old times simply for old times' sake.
    "I don't suppose things have changed all that much over there."
    They should be doing well, all those people she once knew.
    "No, not at all. The more things change, the more they stay the same."
    "Indeed." And all the better that they do. Youko sighed and smiled. "We're currently discussing what can be done for Tai. Naturally, we're doing what we can for the refugees, and trying to come up with the means of helping those still in country. It'd be best to go there and help out, but that doesn't look like a possibility right now."
    "I'm really thankful to you."
    "No, we still haven't actually done anything for Tai, nothing that will really make a difference. Kei is still poor. We have too many refugees of our own, and we can hardly come to their aid." She added with a smile, "Still, your return is most heartening. In fact, I've been looking forward to it. So get well as quickly as possible."
    "Looking forward to it?"
    "Yes. I say a lot of things, but most of it seems to fly over people's heads. For example, in order to help the Tai refugees, shouldn't we open an embassy or something like it--that sort of thing. All my ministers, and the Royal En, and Enki, thought I was nuts."
    "An embassy?" Taiki said with a surprised look.
    "Ah, yeah," Youko answered with a chagrined shrug. "It seems a quite reasonable suggestion to me. There ought to be an organization that speaks on behalf of the refugees. Countless refugees have washed up on the shores of Kei and En, and their disposition is left up to conditions and circumstances. But I think that it'd be a good idea if they could negotiate with the government--articulate what they needed or what kind of expectations they had. After all, I'd think refugees would know the needs of refugees better than anybody. In the final analysis, in preparation against the time when a kingdom falls into disorder and starts generating refugees, I think everybody could sleep a lot easier if every kingdom had embassies in every other kingdom. But these seem such foreign concepts that nobody can grasp what I'm getting at."
    Youko sighed and lifted her head. Taiki gave her a long look. "Pretty weird, huh?" she said.
    "Not at all. I think the Royal Kei is a quite impressive Empress."
    "Well, 'impressive' isn't a word I would use. And could you drop the 'Royal Kei' business? Considering that we're