It took a little while to gather the family again, and when they were all present everyone rose and faced Moriko, smiling or looking eager, or in Gou’s case looking a little nervous. Moriko had to keep herself from fidgeting under all that attention, finding it harder to stay calm than when she was performing a demonstration for a master. But out on the sands, she knew what she was doing at an almost instinctive level. This was all new.
“Ambassador Moriko of The Azeria Mountain Dungeon,” King Yoshihiro began, “my wife and I would like to present you with a personal gift. We would be honored if at the end of this evening, you were to keep the opal necklace you currently wear.”
A sharp thrill went through her at the words. She knew that it had been possible, but hadn’t wanted to assume or to be greedy. Moriko truly adored this necklace, but she also had been coached about this sort of verbal dance. “Oh, your majesties, I appreciate the gesture, truly, but I couldn’t possibly accept such a precious piece of jewelry.”
Queen Phaedra tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes. “Hmm, the words are right, but the flow isn’t quite there. Being advised by voices in your head dear?” She smiled and leaned closer to briefly put a finger on Moriko’s lips. “Let’s skip that ritual, you need a bit more practice, and it’s clearly making you uncomfortable. We can see that you mean well, and you even almost managed to keep that light of desire from your eyes when you were offered the necklace. We are glad to see that you will appreciate it however. And you will be keeping it.”
“Yes Ma’am, er, Your Majesty.” However gentle it had been, Moriko had recognized an order and slipped slightly in her habits.
Yoshihiro chuckled softly, his voice deep and rich. “You’ll find my wife quite perceptive as well as strong-willed. I’m just glad she puts up with the formalities of court as much as she does.” The king eyed his children with faux severity. “And it’s clear that she’s influenced the attitudes of our children.” The royals in question looked back at their father with varying degrees of pure innocence, not one of which was to be believed. “Hah, incorrigible kids.” He waved a hand toward Princess Kagami. “Your turn, my dear.”
Princess Kagami curtsied toward her father in an extremely formal manner before breaking the charade with a grin as she looked back to Moriko. “Well, I have been able to do even better than I hoped for you and yours. As eldest, I am presenting this gift to our newly allied Dungeon on behalf of our Kingdom.” She opened a cupboard under one of the sideboards to pull out an old-fashioned gyosho bako, a wooden box backpack. “This was the only spatially-expanded container we could spare that also had the capacity we needed.” Kagami’s grin widened. “I think your husband and wife will find the container to be a decent gift as well, but it contains a lot of books and scrolls. It turns out the archivists were very excited at the prospect of preserving all their oldest materials in perpetuity at a reasonably distant but secure location, and have carefully crammed this full of every single work of knowledge or fiction that they have at least two more clean copies of.” She paused for a moment. “Well, I suspect there are works they have not included. The leadership of the archivists belongs to a branch family that keeps a bit of distance from the throne.”
“Mmm, I forgot to bring them up earlier.” King Yoshihiro rumbled. “Your family has expressed interest in the details of the origin of our kingdom, and I expect that despite all the written works we have available, they will not quite be satisfied. While one might blame the fog of time for the lack of certain details, there are too many clear records from the same period. It has become obvious that something has been obfuscated, and my family has been certain for a long time that the branch family has the knowledge that was obfuscated, but we are also fairly certain that the separation of knowledge from the ruling power was deliberately done early on. People, including other royals, marry into the archivist family, but they take oaths when they do so, and only the archivists know exactly what those oaths are.”
“It’s a shame too.” Princess Bridgette sighed. “Whatever secrets they hold are only revealed to those who have taken the oaths, which generally only means people leave the family before they have accepted duties as an archivist. And, well, I am not certain I feel like marrying into them.”
Princess Tiriana smiled at her younger sister. “Bridgette thinks a particular young archivist is cute and charming, and he seems to be having trouble keeping his eyes off of her. But he’s already taken his oaths, so that complicates matters.”
Moriko chose to not notice a young princess making a face at her older sister and focused back on Kagami. “Thank you for helping with this, Your Highness,” she said, then hesitated, uncertain if she should take the box right now.
The princess noticed her hesitation and shook her head slightly. “We’ll have everything put on the carriage when you leave. Now, my sisters and I have already put our personal touches on gifts the other day, but our brothers have a couple more gifts for you as well. Ailwin?”
The older prince had moved to a covered side table and now motioned Moriko over before revealing what was under the covering. There were three unglazed but elegantly crafted off-white clay teapots and a dragon sculpture of vermilion-red clay, though the dragon was sitting in a small bowl of water. “I thought you and your family might enjoy this particular tea pet.” He said as he moved the dragon out of the bowl, shaking it briefly to empty some water out of the hole in its mouth, and onto a tray. “This style is certainly one of mine.” The prince then lifted one of the teapots, which had still steaming water in it, and poured it over the clay dragon.
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As the hot water poured over the little dragon, a stream of water jetted out of its mouth. In Moriko’s head, Kazue squealed. The monk couldn’t help but laugh at the sudden joy in Kazue’s emotions. “I think my wife already loves it. They are a beautiful set. My master has a similar set, though his choice of tea pet is a touch more, well, juvenile. I guess he’s old enough to not worry about what people think of his little entertainments.”
Prince Ailwin smiled as he continued his demonstration by pouring a small stream of water into the bowl the dragon had come out of. The water flowed so smoothly that there was no splash, only a light ripple across the surface. While magic could easily make either of these things happen, it was more impressive to create the effects with pure craftsmanship. “I believe that is part of why my father is looking forward to retiring after his sixtieth Birthday, once he abdicates and I have been running things for a few years, the public eye won’t be on him so much and he can run off and do as he likes. I do believe grandfather is currently running a shop somewhere on the eastern coast, in one of the merchant states. He seems to move about the Alliance Nations a fair amount, so it's hard to keep track.”
Moriko wasn’t sure of the previous king’s exact age, but he had to be at least in his 90s. And this line of conversation caught Mordecai’s interest, prompting her to ask the prince, “How did the tradition of our Kings abdicating early begin? I never gave it much thought, but I don’t think it’s common anywhere else that has a kingship.”
“Ah, it’s not so much tradition as part of our laws, though there is little reason to bring it up. The legal requirement is seventy, but the recommendation is sixty, and most do choose to do so then. This is part of the balance of power; where the eldest son inherits the throne, the clan claims a portion of the daughters, who eventually return as advisors.” While they talked, Ailwin emptied the teapot and laid everything out to dry so it could be packed later. There was a velvet-lined box nearby that also held a tea brush for taking care of the tea pet. “And should it be required, they are authorized to ensure the restrictions on the royal family are adhered to, by any means they find necessary. Such actions have only proven necessary a few times, as far as I know.”
A few things fell into place then, when including the observations Mordecai had made about Orchid. The clan representative was an advisor to the throne, tutor and bodyguard to the children, and potential assassin of the king should the corruption of power settle in. An assassin who would probably be able to bypass any wards protecting the king. “Ah. Um,” Moriko said thoughtfully, “what if it’s not clear who should inherit the throne?” It hadn’t seemed odd to her before now that she’d never heard of any sort of succession war in Kuiccihan before.
Ailwin gave a slight shrug. “The power to make a decision lies in the hands of the current Matriarch. It has been a long time since the clan has had to intervene.” He smiled at her then. “The details are all in the works my sister has arranged. It’s all technically public knowledge, but few care to look that information up. Now, let us see what my little brother has for you.”
Prince Gou had approached with a small box in his hands, which he now held toward her. “I hope you like this.” Moriko took the box and opened it curiously. Inside was a large brooch in the form of a five-inch tall crystal vase. She lifted it out carefully and held it up to watch the multitude of tiny facets scintillate in the light.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.” She said, though Moriko thought Kazue might appreciate it more. She certainly wasn’t going to say anything about re-gifting it to her wife however.
“It was crafted from a gifted scale, given by a visiting crystal dragon. It bears a minor enchantment, enabling it to keep one cut flower alive without need for water. For you, I was thinking it might do well in your hair. May I?” Gou asked, and Moriko nodded, handing the brooch to him. The prince might be young, but he was still taller than her, making it easy for him to find a place to carefully clip it into her hair. “There. It will look better with a flower of course, but I thought it might be better to let you or one of your spouses decide on a flower.”
Oh, she was definitely going to give it to Kazue, but Moriko would happily wear it for now. That was quite a delightful gift. “That’s wonderful. If I ever get a chance, I’d love to give thanks to that dragon as well.”
“Well, if I ever have a chance to introduce you, I will, but honestly I was rather young when he came visiting, so I don’t know if it will be possible,” Gou responded.
“We will see if we can at least pass on your thanks.” Queen Phaedra said. “However, it is now time to wrap up for the evening. It was a delight having you here Lady Moriko, but we do have a bit of a schedule to maintain and can not be rising too late in the morning. Would you like a chance to change before you get into the carriage?”
“Yes, I would appreciate that a lot, Your Majesty.” Moriko wasn’t going to try and carry everything while wearing her fancy dress through the compound. Nor was she going to ask for any help getting everything to her room if she could help it. Fortunately, the simpler dress she’d worn to the clothier would fit over her underlayers, so only the outermost layers would need to be packed into the carriage. Though if that backpack still had more room … by the time her ride had gotten her back to the compound, Moriko had found that she could indeed fit the rest of her presents into the gyosho bako, though there did not seem to be a lot more room in the expanded space. There were a lot of books and scrolls in there. Her nerds were going to be in heaven when she got home.