Eui sighed, interrupting Jianmo in the middle of recounting a particularly raunchy anecdote about an elemental’s increasingly bizarre attempts to couple with inanimate objects—apparently with the intent to breed new elementals.

“Sorry Jianmo, as fascinating—and disturbing—as this story is, something’s come up. I’ve got to go.”

Jung frowned as Eui stood to leave.

“Anything we should be concerned about?”

“No, though you might want to get ready for your first official meeting as our minister of foreign affairs.”

“Oh my! So soon?”

Eui chuckled.

“They won’t be here for a couple of weeks yet, but don’t worry, it’s an easy one. You remember Lady Tennin right? She’s brought her entire village over.”

“Oh dear, it sounds like you’re going to be quite busy. Well then, I won’t keep you.”

Jianmo floated aimlessly over the edge of the couch.

“It doesn’t sound like there’s going to be any fighting, but shall I come with you anyway?”

Eui shrugged.

“Up to you, but I’m not even leaving town. Jia’s already meeting with them, and Kaede’s split between helping her and watching the kids with Meili, so I need to handle a few things here.”

“Good enough for me.”

Jianmo’s spirit form withdrew into the nearby sword, which then flew over to Eui and settled into place at her hip. Jung cocked her head curiously.

“Didn’t you say they were two weeks away? Jia hasn’t even been gone an hour.”

Eui smirked.

“Two weeks for them, maybe. I don’t want to tempt fate, but Jia’s movement technique might actually be peerless.”

“Ah.”

With that, Eui left her sister behind and headed off to work. Not that she had to go far—Yue’s estate was quite close by, and she was the first person Eui needed to meet with. By lucky coincidence, Dae was already there as well—though knowing her friends it probably wasn’t a coincidence at all.

She walked right up to Yue’s door and let herself in. Yue was her best friend, and their doors were always open to each other—much like how Jung was welcome in her home. Eui found the two of them waiting for her in the sitting room.

Yan Yue had decorated her home with the fashions of her homeland—with each piece of furniture artfully arranged to promote the flow of mana through the space. She had a particular soft spot for flowers and painted artwork, though Eui wasn’t sure where she’d gotten the latter from.

“Ah, come in, Eui, we were just discussing our visitor.”

Eui took a seat as Yue served her a cup of tea.

“I take it you heard from Ja Yun?”

Dae nodded.

“Secretary Ja Yun informed me that Jia took off at all speed to meet with the visitor, and I came to report the matter to Prime Minister Yan.”

Yue scoffed.

“Forget about the titles, Hyeong, we’re among friends.”

“I think it’s best that we get used to our titles when discussing state affairs—our successors won’t necessarily have the relationships we do, and they’ll only have the standards we establish to guide them.”

“I notice you didn’t call Jia ‘High Arbiter.’ Just relax, already.”

He sighed, but didn’t argue any further. Eui thought they both had good points, but she was inclined to side with Yue—stuffy titles were for strangers, not friends.

“I’ll skip to the important bit, then. Lady Tennin is coming here, and she’s bringing her entire village with her. They aren’t formally calling themselves as such, but they are refugees fleeing Yamato.”

Yue furrowed her brows and bit her thumbnail.

“Refugees? What’s happening in Yamato?”

“We don’t know, but there are rumors that Kaede is dead and Master Ienaga is being blamed for it. That means a lot of tension between the Hayakawa and Ienaga clans. They are gathering forces near the border, but we don’t know if that’s a defensive move, or if they are preparing to attack.”

Yue nodded.

“It could be either, but don’t fall into the trap of assuming the world revolves around us. Obviously this involves us, but we might have a smaller part than you think.”

Eui cocked her head.

“What do you mean?”

Dae stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“Shogun Hayakawa surely realizes that he’s lost control of his heir. His plan to send her to Goryeo as a hostage while he focused his efforts on Qin backfired significantly. In his name, Hayakawa Kaede established an alliance with both Goryeo and Qin—undermining his war plans—and then used his soldiers to stage a coalition assault on the demonic enclave.”

“Those are some pretty big wins in his name that he didn’t have to lift a finger for.”

Yue sighed.

“That’s exactly the problem. Yamato’s not a monolith—the provincial lords follow Hayakawa because he’s proven himself to be the most powerful among them. It would be one thing if Kaede’s accomplishments aligned with his goals, but they ran directly against them and even worse, worked closely alongside a rival clan in the process.”

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Eui grimaced. Kaede was confirming everything Dae and Yue said.

“So because Kaede succeeded too hard at the mission he gave her, and worked with Ienaga in the process, he looks bad in the eyes of the other lords. And he can’t just disown us, because that would make him look weak. So instead, he spins it as a plot by his rivals to undermine him. With me dead and Ienaga having formed close ties with Jiaguo and Goryeo, he can accuse them of conspiring with foreign powers to undermine him, and rally the other lords to join him in a campaign to crush the Ienaga clan once and for all.”

Dae blinked.

“Erm, yes. In fact, I hadn’t considered some of that, but you would know better than I, Miss Yoshika. If your conjecture holds true, then the forces on the border are in part a show of force to lend weight to the idea that Goryeo is allied with Ienaga.”

Yoshika frowned. They didn’t know enough, yet. Too many assumptions—too many variables.

“We need spies. I think we’ve probably got plenty of time before things come to a head, but I don’t want to be caught unawares when it does. I also want to establish a line of communication with Ienaga and our allies in Goryeo.”

Yue pursed her lips, regarding Yoshika archly.

“Are you certain? Naturally if Jiaguo lends its support in any way, it will be in favor of Ienaga, but it’s a bit early to be butting our heads into international affairs.”

“If Shogun Hayakawa eliminates the Ienaga clan, there will be nobody left to keep his ambitions in check. He will turn his sights outward, and we will be the first target. If he really has announced my death, then I am no longer a part of the Hayakawa clan—just a loose end that he needs to get rid of.”

Dae scratched his head.

“We’re working on developing a reflecting pool for long distance communication. Yamato’s communication network is one of their greatest strategic advantages, but they’ve kept the formations secret.”

Not secret—lost. Yamato’s original reflecting pools were created by ancient priests in concert with great spirits from a bygone age. Although...

“Your former master was able to replicate them. He was commissioned by the Ienaga clan to create several of them in important places throughout Yamato.”

“Really? He never told me—not that I’m surprised. He would have gotten in enormous trouble if anyone back home learned about it. I’ll try consulting some of my old notes—it’s frustrating that I can solve teleportation, but not long-distance communication.”

“In the worst case, we can always just teleport there and communicate face-to-face.”

Dae choked on his tea.

“I don’t know what’s worse—the fact that you consider that a viable alternative, or the fact that for you it actually might be.”

Yoshika shrugged. What was the point of unlimited essence if she wasn’t going to make use of it?

“In the meantime, I’m going to go consult with Rika about gathering intelligence from Yamato the old fashioned way.”

Yue raised her glass and smirked.

“Give her my regards, will you?”

----------------------------------------

Takeda Rika had always been good at going with the flow and adapting to anything life could throw at her. She’d stepped up to take the mantle as the clan heir after her father had died, learned everything her Grandfather had to teach her, and rather than waste her life fighting for a Shogun that was obviously on his way out she’d won the right to train abroad at the Grand Academy of Spiritual, Martial, and Arcane Arts.

She made a note to talk to Dae about changing the name once they started it up again—that was a mouthful.

Still, since then her life had taken so many turns that even she had a hard time keeping up. She had not just one but two amazing women in her life, one of whom was a princess and the other an incredibly talented mage, no matter how much she put herself down.

Ja Yun had really grown into her role as Jiaguo’s Secretary of the Treasury. She always said that she’d been at her best in academics, and the bureaucratic role suited her. Plus, she somehow managed to make doing paperwork look sexy—though maybe that was just Rika’s bias.

Rika herself felt a little less comfortable in her new role. She was technically the highest ranking member of Jiaguo’s rather tiny military—not counting Hayakawa Kaede, who was also Yoshika and therefore the head of the entire country in addition to her official title of High General.

That said, the ‘military’ consisted entirely of her small team of scouts and the demon Yang Qiu, who spent most of her time following up on monster sightings in order to collect their cores. At least Rika’s team had familiar faces on it. Harada Jun and Ishihara Nao had been part of Dae’s covert investigation team, and had been well suited to join her as scouts.

Then there was the last member of the squad—who was also the majority of it.

“Yoshi went bang-poof! Then she talked to the boy who wanted to mate with her, then she went pop-fwoosh and disappeared!”

Rika rubbed her temples as the wasp-like fiend woman, Melati, gave her report.

“Mel, it’s great that you can cover such a big area by yourself and deliver swift reports, but you’ve really got to work on your descriptions.”

Melati’s wings and antenna drooped sadly.

“Sorry...Melati will try harder.”

“It’s fine—anything else to report?”

“No—wait, yes! Yoshi—er, we mean Eui is on her way here right now.”

Rika frowned. Whatever news that guy from Urayama brought must have been pretty big if Yoshika was in such a hurry. She was a bit curious to hear about what was going on back home, herself.

“Alright, thanks. Tell Jun and Nao to head back and keep an eye on that Ito guy. It might be nothing, but I want to be ready to move if we need to.”

Melati stood up straight and gave her a sharp salute.

“Yes ma’am!”

Rika chuckled as Mel zipped out of the office. Melati was a hive consciousness that had around a dozen bodies at any given moment, all of them sharing one mind. It was great for scouting and communication, but she could be a little bit scatterbrained, and struggled to fit in with most normal people.

She’d been very excited to meet ‘fellow hives’ like Yoshika and Rika—though Rika had tried in vain to explain that her duplicates were just constructs that she could control. She’d thought that her Hundred Mirrors technique would one day become the basis for a new era of the Takeda dojo, but far from inheriting the dojo, Rika wasn’t even sure she’d ever be returning home to see her family again.

She hoped that they were doing alright.

Eui strode into Rika’s office like she owned the place—which she basically did—and got straight to the point, skipping the usual greetings and pleasantries.

“How much have you heard about the situation in Yamato?”

“Nothing. Though you’re a little more Kaedeish than usual, so I’m guessing it’s not great.”

Eui crossed her arms and huffed. Rika smiled at that—Yan Yue might be Yoshika’s closest friend, but Rika was their first. She’d been the one to name them, and she prided herself on being able to read them, even now that they’d achieved such lofty heights.

“That’s one way to put it. We think that Hayakawa might be preparing for a war with Ienaga, if he doesn’t just march directly on us first.”

Rika grimaced, sucking air in through her teeth.

“That is bad news. What are we going to do about it?”

“Nothing, for now. It will take them time to rally their troops and get all their vassals in line. But we need more information—what are their plans, how are Ienaga and their allies reacting, is our master alright?”

“Alright. Let me rephrase, then—what would you like me to do about it? Not that you need a reason to talk to me, but this obviously isn’t just a friendly visit.”

Eui sighed.

“I know you’ve just gotten settled in here with Ja Yun, but how do you feel about traveling back home, for a while?”

Rika grinned—there was never a dull moment with Yoshika.

“I have been meaning to see how gramps and Chiyo are doing.”