“Jio ru Caoshun Huiya,” the Dionese man—Caoshun Huiya—finally introduced himself as he and Emilia blinked at one another, each ignoring the venom spilling off of Olivier behind her.
Seriously, what was the man’s problem? Caoshun Huiya had been nothing but nice to her, and Emilia didn’t think the lawyer had enough experience with the often insular Dionese Inner Court to know what the man’s eyes indicated—that was the sort of secret the Inner Court hoarded to itself. It was actually a little funny, how secretive the ryohua deviation was to outsiders, and it was always hilarious to hear about the reactions of newcomers to the Inner Court—people who had been lucky enough to be born with abilities that would allow them to marry themselves and their family in, mostly. Seriously, half her correspondence with Yujao was just him relating Inner Court gossip to her, and stories of first run-ins with the ryohua were always the highlight of her day.
So, no way Olivier knew what the man was capable of. Maybe he just didn’t like someone with an unknown irregular deviation—to him, anyways; odd eye colours almost always indicated an irregular deviation, even if it was often just in the colouring itself—interacting with her? Who knew. It was an interesting question, but Emilia was more interested in whether Caoshun Huiya knew who she was.
“Jio ru Emilia Starrberg,” she replied.
Did her name usually come out so massacred on Dionese tongues that most people knew her a Mi—or occasionally Milia—Staberg? Even more Inner Court members only knowing her as one of the Blood Rain General’s senior disciples, only lomin’kyung ever slipping off their tongues when they referred to her? Or worse, lomin’taiyung ri’kiar—seriously, while she knew rules of etiquette made them all leery of referring to her too familiarly, it was just so rude to refer to her as
the Blood Rain General’s First Disciple’s First-Youngest Junior!
Yes to all of the above being far more common in Dion, but she wasn’t going to give this man an extra push towards her identity.
A few pleasantries passed between the pair of them, a mixture of Baalphorian and Dionese, Emilia looking all the while for any sign that the man knew who she was. Oddly, she didn’t think he did. Actually, as far as she could tell, he hadn’t even recognized the Starrberg name, and while that was perfectly normal among the general population of every Free Colony, it wasn’t common in the upper echelons that this man
should
have been a part of.
So odd. Emilia wanted to ask him about it, but at the same time, something held her tongue. Her jaw flexed, relaxed.
Not the time for questions about why this man knew nothing of the hierarchy of power that had such a stronghold on the Dionese Inner Court, about why he had been apart from it for at least the last two decades because there wasn’t a single ryohua who didn’t know who she was. Not only was she, rarely unfortunately, an inadvertently important person in the Inner Court, but even without that—even if she’d just been another random child of a diplomat, wandering the palace corridors with guards trailing behind her, lest some Inner Court member decide to use her to leverage their own power in the court—she’d also never been rude to the ryohua, the way so many others were.
The ryohua all knew her because she was just as friendly with them as she was with the Hyrat clones. They were, to many, pariah who she had set about to befriend, something that had accidentally caused a power imbalance within the Inner Court and oh.
Emilia analyzed the man again as he turned towards a voice calling his name. She had heard of ryohua being assigned to work in other nations before. Usually they stayed away, focused on their mission until the day death took them.
What were the chances this man was being called back to fill the recently opened position of ryohuang’taiung—the First Keeper of Secrets of the Inner Court—or perhaps to join the soon-to-be chosen ryohuang’taiung’s inner circle? It was one of the most powerful positions in the Inner Court, many ryohuang’taiung known for being ruthless in their effort to
protect
the crown; just as many known for their desire to protect and expand the power of themselves and their allies alike, while snuffing out the lives of their enemies with so much ease and subterfuge that even their eyes would never give them away.
The young person who pulled to a stop beside Caoshun Huiya was also a ryohua, Emilia noted, another two in their mid-to-late 100s stepping up behind them as well. None of them were people Emilia recognized, her Censor slipping into The Black Knot’s system to run their faces against its records as well, in case she’d somehow forgotten them.
Nothing came back but a system query asking if she’d like it to dig deeper into Black Knot's records, to which she agreed. While she would personally watch any ryohua she came across in the wild, The Black Knot’s system didn’t actively monitor for them due to various agreements between their nations—and Baalphorian diplomats would never be allowed back into the walls of the Inner Court if they were found to be using the secrets they learned there to monitor Dion’s actions abroad. If the system had seen any of the four ryohua standing in front of her, the youngest member chastising Caoshun Huiya for disappearing and not even bothering to send a message about his whereabouts, it had never seen any other reason—like their committing a crime—to note their presence down. It could still scan archives manually, looking for them, but that may come back with nothing—it wasn’t like The Black Knot had eyes the entire continent over, despite what some people claimed.
Still, it was fascinating to meet several ryohua who didn’t know her and were, presumably, heading back to Dion.
“Kutai~” the youngest member whined, leaning in towards Caoshun Huiya and giving Olivier a wary look. “Tio motune jio— Ah! ‘po lijio?”
Emilia's couldn’t help but laugh, turning to smile at Olivier. “Olivier~ stop staring at Caoshun Huiya like you want to kill him! You’re making his kid nervous!”
Olivier
may
have glowered a bit harder before finally turning away to properly deal with the crew member who was now organizing with the brig—and while it made sense for the airship to have a small containment area for problem passengers, it was still a little off-putting—to hold Stewart on the off chance he woke and started causing problems. Emilia didn’t think he would—the guy was so panicked his teacher had seen him being an ass to her that he’d passed out, and she doubted he’d risk another hit to his education or reputation—but it was good to have a backup plan. Just in case.
“Ah. You speak Dionese?” the younger member asked, oddly not in Dionese but a crisp, nearly unaccented Baalphorian.
“Yeah,” she agreed, smiling at the young ryohua. Apparently, despite their Baalphorian, they weren’t aware that Censors could translate Dionese?
They were probably about the same age as she was, maybe a few years younger, and despite referring to Caoshun Huiya as their father, Emilia doubted they were more than distantly related. Not all parents and their children looked alike, but usually there was a bit of… something. Between these two, there was nothing.
Where Caoshun Huiya had all the elegance of someone specifically bred to have the features that had been popular in the Inner Court for several generations—fine bone structure, large eyes, thin lips, skin that appeared perfectly sun-kissed, and legs for days—this girl, who introduced herself as Ruesha Huiya and made it very clear she were a girl, so there was no misunderstanding, was barely taller than Emilia was herself. While she wasn’t exactly stocky, she was certainly far more muscular than most Inner Court Dionese, with full lips and deep brown skin more common in the general Dionese population—or maybe even someone from another Free Colony, something in the shape of their eyes and the bridge of their nose suggesting… Zironia, maybe? Deeper set eyes and a wider nose than was common west of the Twintides, but nothing definitive.
Still, Emilia poked at The Black Knot’s system once again, pushing it to search through the somewhat sparse records out of Zironia first.
The other two ryohua politely introduced themselves as well, although they were clearly confused about
why
they were talking to her. So what if Caoshun Huiya had helped clean her clothes, they had dinner to get, and it wasn’t long before the woman among them began to drag both
Ruesha-kiar
—the girl had insisted Emilia refer to her familiarly despite the fact that they may never see one another again—and her father off, the older man gently teasing the woman for being so brusque and unpersonable as they went.
It was only because she was watching them go that Emilia noticed a fifth member of their group, and unless they were wearing contacts, this one wasn’t a ryohua. The woman must have been barely 100 at the most, and something about her seemed familiar. Something in her mannerisms, perhaps, scratching at Emilia’s brain and bringing up images of the Inner Court members who so flawlessly fell into the politics, catching bits of gossip in places where their patrons would never be allowed, all so they could return that information back to them through secret messages, subtle nods and taps.
It was only because she was watching that Emilia saw the barest glance between Ruesha and the woman, so small it was almost unnoticeable, save the slight blink of Ruesha when she realized she shouldn’t be looking at the woman. The woman was meant to just be another passenger, on their way back to Dion after a trip abroad, or perhaps after living abroad for a few years. If she was what Emilia assumed her to be, however, it was more likely the former—some brief trip in which she could cross paths with a member of this group, with her new patron.
The woman, however, wasn’t someone Emilia recognized either, and when their eyes met across the hallway, the group of ryohua passing her by like they were nothing more than another passenger who shared the same Dionese heritage, there was no recognition in her eyes either—not that Emilia expected a chittering bird like her to be so transparent as to reveal if she recognized her.
Another woman popped up beside the Dionese woman, and then their arms were linking together and off they were going, the new woman—and this one was definitely dressed for the Inner Court, her style screaming of new entry through marriage—talking all the while about how terrible Seer’ik’tine had been. Apparently, she would
never forgive Sharyo-jimei for leaving her all alone on that horrid water restaurant.
Then, the pair were gone, and Emilia was back to actually focusing on what was happening behind her. Stewart—who had finally been forcibly woken by a Baalphorian medic who happened to be on board and had heard about some sort of commotion—was being told he was a rude idiot by Olivier—although in much nicer terms—and would be returning to Baalphoria the moment they landed in their next destination. There would be a Hyrat clone waiting to escort him home. It was not likely to be a fun return.
[
Grenner:
They were… interesting.
]
[
Emilia:
ya
]
[
Emilia:
interesting is one way to put it
]
[
Grenner:
Are you going to do anything about it?
]
Ah~ to have had the same kinda-sorta bodyguard for so much of her life! Grenner might not know all her secrets, nor understand the workings of the Inner Court the way she—unfortunately—did, but he knew enough to know that whatever they’d just witnessed was weird. Emilia didn’t even think he kept up on Dionese Inner Court drama enough to know the previous ryohuang’taiung had recently died—poisoned, most likely.
It truly was a terrible position, to be the First Keeper of Secrets for the Inner Court. It was power and danger. It was a position that was rarely left without bloodshed. To be the ryohuang’taiung was to be forever making enemies as they and the ryohua under them read the lies that slipped so freely through the Inner Court, keeping what they liked for future blackmail, ing what they liked to the guard, their allies, and royal family as their loyalty and the power dynamics of the Inner Court demanded. Of course, sometimes individual ryohua would be loyal to the ryohuang’taiung, sometimes to the crown, sometimes to whichever patron had sparked their interest… or found dirt on them, keeping them beholden to their whims.
The last ryohuang’taiung had liked her. All the ryohua—the majority of whom were currently a mix of people loyal to the ryohuang’taiung and those loyal to the Princess Supreme, as it was increasingly common knowledge that her father’s mental state was deteriorating—had liked her.
Generally, the next ryohuang’taiung was chosen from the current ryohua.
What were the chances a few ryohua who had seemingly had no connection, nor even knowledge, of her were being called back to Dion when such a vacuum of power existed? Emilia didn’t usually place so much importance on herself, yet, something about this situation was weird—a collision of too many coincidences that she wasn’t sure what to do with.
On top of all that, if they hadn’t been in Dion for two decades, they wouldn’t have a connection to Hurinren either, nor to Yujao—who had become startlingly powerful in the Inner Court despite the odd circumstances of his entrance—nor possibly even the Princess Supreme.
The four of them together held the majority of the Inner Court’s power, despite their age and strange origins. If someone wanted to take shatter that power—and the power that by extension the Blood Rain General and the crown itself held—and the relative peace of the Inner Court, what better time to do so than when a new ryohuang’taiung could come in and turn the Inner Court on its head?
.
!
Arc 9 | Chapter 329: Have I Mentioned I Hate Inner Court Drama (at least when it involves me; otherwise, give me the tea)
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