The East Palace Gate had been imposing, the wait in the guard room harrowing. There had been a great throng of wagons and labourers and plenty of guards in Imperial regalia. The stream of wagons had not ceased as Sai waited, and he had followed this same stream up the wide paved road to the East Gate, passing estates from all the great families on the way.

“May I see?” An older man walking instep with Sai asked, he was pinching his fingers, indicating the token Sai was now wearing around his neck. The Official at the gate had strung fine red thread through a little hole bored into the top. Sai handed the man with greying hair and leather wrinkles his token.

“Mmm, very lucky.”

“I do not understand,” Sai said.

“It's a light duty. As light as they come here, I think. It will still be hard, but better. Much better than those poor souls down at the kilns. Better than my job even, more breaks.”

They were part of a large group of commoners being escorted by a dozen soldiers in immaculate armour. Initially the group had been blindfolded, it was a grave offence to look at the interior of the Palace grounds without the Emperors consent. They were instructed to grab onto a rope and to trust, and so they did. Now they found themselves in the outer gardens, tracing a path through the trees. It was hard to believe that they were still firmly in the heart of the city for all the green. Along one side of the path men were busy chopping trees, leveling ground best they could.

“What happens at the kilns?”

“That's where they break down the lime. The smoke can make a man blind.” The old man shook his head. “But one must work, mustn't one?”

Sai nodded and took back his token, placing it around his neck. “I... I don't know what it means,” he said, examining the nonsensical writing.

“Water, the writing says water. I suppose that is a barrel there, in case you, or your superiors can't read. It means you'll be carrying water for the mortar.”

“How do you know?”

The old man smiled, he was missing several teeth but his eyes were very kind. “I can't read either. I know a disgraced clerk whose working on the wall as a penance, he told me that's what that character means, 'water', and I've seen the porters carrying it wearing the same token, so...” The old man shrugged.

“Wall?”

The old man looked aghast. “You don't even know what we're doing?”

Sai shook his head.

“The Emperor would like a new wall to edify his gardens,” the old man looked at the nearest escort, judged him out of earshot and leaned in, “to keep us out, I would suspect. As though the cliffs, wardens, fence, and threat of execution were not enough.” He was smiling, Sai smiled too.

The terrain was all up and down hill, hardly any level ground. The garden itself was as untouched as possible, at least here in the outer edges. Close to the palace itself, in the space the Emperor and his court might actually be expected to walk, things were much more manicured.

Cresting one rather steep hill Sai glimpsed the lake.

It was off some distance, miles, and further from that the Palace itself was erect in glory. Many tiers and towers and colours. Towards the distant shore the land was cleared of trees, swaths of blue and purple where beds of flowers had been allowed to grow wide and long contrasted sharp with off brown square of trampled grass. Even from this distance Sai could see it was very busy, great tents had been erected, and there were men in uniform blocks marching in step.

Sai was hit on the shoulder. He turned to see one of the snarling masks of the guards looking down at him. “Eyes on the trail,” the man said simply and continued his patrol.

“It's best to listen to them, this is far from the worst press gang – Minister be praised, but you can still go missing.” The man whispered. Sai took the words to heart.

Their destination was a rather cramped clearing where a half finished section of grey stone was being erected. A finished portion further along was not as uniform or tall as the palace curtain, but it would be hard to get over. There were great stacks of cut stone in this clearing, sheets draped across the ground where men appeared to be adding water to grey dirt and mixing it with sticks, others ladling the sludge this made into buckets, bringing it to the men on the wall, stacking stones.

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“This, I think, is where we part. Pace yourself,” the old man patted Sai on the shoulder, and then he walked over to one of the piles of stone. He helped another man pick one up.

As he was wondering just what it was he was expected to do, a man wearing almost the same token as Sai approached him and frowned. “They're sending me boys now, can you even work?”

Sai met the mans eyes, he was expressionless, but smouldered inside. The man sighed.

“Who am I to questions his Divinity's wisdom? So he sends me a boy, so I send him to work. Come along now. On the next hill there is a depot for us.”

The walk was not long, but it was down and then up hill on a rather uneven path. Here at the crest of this second hill another clearing had been made, and great stacks of barrels were waiting along with some dozen odd men, lounging in pairs with a long pole somewhere close by.

The man leading Sai motioned someone over.

“This is your new partner.”

The new man looked unsure.

“I can do it,” Sai said, and the man shrugged, also unsure.

“Your task is to wait here, and when you're called for, you bring one of those barrels to wherever it is needed. Are we clear?”

Sai bowed. The man with the slightly different token laughed and walked off to sit in the shade.

“Yoshi,” the man called over said, offering his hand. He looked young, just on the cusp of manhood proper.

“Sai,” and Sai shook Yoshi's hand.

“Are you sure you're up to this?”

Sai was not.

“Come over here, lets see if you can lift your end. See, we take the pole and...”

It was hard going, the barrel was very heavy even with the leverage, and the footing was often treacherous. It sloshed, often coming close to tipping over. But with great effort Sai had managed to keep it up right. They were not called on so frequently, though by the third barrel transported Sai's body burned, his breath came ragged, and his vision was muddy. On their way uphill Yoshi was kind enough to call for a break.

Sai all but fell into the undergrowth.

“Tougher than you look,” Yoshi said, sitting down, trying to hide his own exhaustion, his own flushed cheeks and sharp breath.

“No.” But he could be, one day. Sai closed his eyes, thinking of Fujin and the Ogre. Of the battle in the cave, of how his Father used to tell it when things had been happier. Father's face red from drink and mirth across the nights cook-fire, making monster faces, monster noises, pretending to stomp around. As he used to tell it the gallant prince went into the cave four times before killing the monster, each time returning to replace his broken sword, saying the monsters red skin was hard as stone, but he could get through Here Father would often flex, grit his teeth.

Sai was broken from his reverie by the rustle of Yoshi quickly standing to attention. The young man kicked Sai as he rose, hard, in the ribs. Sai grunted and stood up too, wondering what the alarm was.

There on the path a man in Official robes was carefully choosing his footing though moving quick, casting glances behind him. He noticed the pair and looked embarrassed.

“Taking a break are we?” He said with an affable tone, stopping before them. He had a sharp looking goatee, black without a hint of grey.

“No sir, not at all sir, I mean eminence I mean-” All the blood from the exercise had fled from Yoshi's face, he stammered.

“Minister of the Masses, I don't get a title fancier than that. Kintaro when I'm not in the court.”

“Forgive me, Minister!” Yoshi bowed low, Sai, wide eyed, mimicked him.

Kintaro waited a proper moment, and then beckoned them to rise.

“I'm not in the court, now, am I?” Kintaro winked. Yoshi began to shake and Kintaro raised his arms as if to offer comfort, stopped. “Are they treating you well then? Getting your pay, no whipping?”

“No sir, I mean yes sir. We are getting paid sir, and there is no whipping. None that I've seen sir.”

“Good, good. I had hoped, but one can only do so much...” Kintaro's gaze fell on Sai. “By Our Guiding Star, how old are you?”

Sai shrugged. “I am old enough to work.”

“But you shouldn't. You should be studying.”

Sai began to fidget, he kept his eyes firmly set on a patch of deep brown earth, watched a beetle scurrying around some leaves.

More movement on the path caught Sai's attention, and he looked up to see two armoured men picking their way passed the branches, down the path Kintaro had just come.

“Minister, there you are. You mustn't run off.” One of them yelled down. He had a flower imprinted on his obsidian breastplate, white with three petals.

“Then you must keep up!” Kintaro shouted back and looked at Sai and Yoshi. “Well, best of luck in everything. If something goes wrong, you must report it to an official wearing this sigil.” He tapped a pin in his robes, it was golden, a flock of little birds in flight – the very same emblem Taku had been wearing, just more expensive. “Never that one there, in fact, keep clear of those sons of bitches.” He pointed to the decoration on the breast plate of the guard, and said this last under his breath. At once he was off again, plucking his robes up at the waist to avoid tripping.

The two guards passed Sai and Yoshi in a huff.

The shock of meeting a member of the High Court provided enough fuel for the pair to continue their delivery, and each one after that. The sun was starting to set when their shift was over, and they repeated the same blindfold walk to leave, picking up two little coins at the gate on their way out, and were instructed to return in the morning.

Sai could scarcely walk home, but he did so, and then further, all the way to Miyo's dojo.