The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight

what would become of Taiki?

Part Four
    isai awoke in the dead of night. When she opened her eyes, someone was sitting in the shadows at the side of her bed. Moonlight spilled through the doorway from the adjoining room. The sounds of cicada flowed through the windows.
    "Your Highness?" said Risai.
    The shadow raised her head and nodded. "Sorry. Did I awaken you?"
    "Not at all," Risai murmured. "You know, everybody's been looking for you."
    "Yes. I ran away and hid, you see."
    "Ran away and hid?" Risai queried.
    The Royal Kei did not elaborate. The room once again fell into silence. The sounds of the night floated on the cool breezes. At length, the Empress spoke again from the shadows.
    "What kind of person is Taiki?"
    Risai started a bit. Coming from her same home town, Taiki's existence must hold a special place in her heart.
    "He's kind of small," Risai said.
    Soft laughter answered from the cloaking darkness. "Keiki said the same thing. And I told him such descriptions are not really helpful."
    There was humor in her voice. Risai had to smile. "That's really what he's like. Small and innocent. Guileless in the extreme. Yet with enormous reservoirs of empathy."
    "He certainly is a kirin, then."
    "He does resemble Your Highness in some ways."
    "Me?"
    Risai nodded. "He's very laid back. From the perspective of my class and rank, Taiki is a person of very high social status, and yet does not act that way in the slightest. Gyousou-sama says that Taiki is quite unaware of his social position. It's not that he doesn't misuse his rank and authority, but rather that he pays it no mind. Your Highness seems to deport herself after a similar fashion. The first time I heard your ladies-in-waiting address you by your given name, I was quite taken aback. But then I thought, ah, the Taiho is like that, too."
    "I see." Risai sensed a wry smile on her shadowed face. "There's no such thing as social class in Yamato. Well, no, it does exist, but more as a state of mind than anything else. My ladies in waiting, Suzu and Shoukei, are more my friends than my retainers. Surmounting class doesn't seem something easily done here."
    "And the Daiboku? He addresses you informally as well."
    "Yes. I don't know that I would call him a friend. More a colleague."
    "A colleague?"
    "A colleague who helps me hold up the kingdom. Once upon a time, he was a member of a rebel gang."
    "A rebel--" said Risai dubiously.
    The shadowed girl nodded with great air of sincerity. "Not long ago, there was a terrible governor in Kei. He ruled with an iron fist and exploited the people. I had just acceded to the throne, and lacked the power to drive him from his seat of power. So instead I gave my support to Koshou. To strike down the governor, he chose compatriots from among the people--many who so feared the governor's despotic rule that they feared even criticizing him--and together they spent many long months planning the revolt."
    Youko leaned forward. The moonlight illuminated the side of her face. She had a severe look on her face, as if steeling herself against a deeper pain. "I wonder if that sort of thing would be possible in Tai."
    Risai caught her breath. So this was the subject she wished to broach. "I don't think that it is," she said. Youko seemed on the verge of saying something further, and Risai cut her off. "I understand what you are trying to say. If the people were so inspired, there should be nothing to hold them back. I know how foolish it sounds--how much like an excuse it sounds--to say that such a thing is impossible. But I must insist that it is."
    Risai stared up at the ceiling. Though the summer night air filled the room, Risai felt a block of ice in her heart. Her ears had stopped ringing. Yet she could still hear that cold wind blowing through her.
    "I escaped Asen's clutches together with only a few troops of my own. I heard that they were caught and taken back to Kouki. Not only my soldiers, but the commanders serving the other generals as well. Many civil servants fled from Asen's presence, and all of them ended up on the lam, accused of assassinating Gyousou-sama and Taiki, and plotting to usurp the throne."
    At first, Risai had interpreted this turn of events in a straightforward manner. "The King and Saiho having died, and Asen offered himself forward as the man to take charge of the kingdom in their stead. But not everyone went along with his version of things. Doubts about Asen gradually mounted, and in time a significant