Till The Ryu Tree Blossoms

**** (Circle Room)

Crown Prince's Chambers, the Palace

"THE BANGLE IS MISSING?"

A slight frown creased the eyebrows of the Crown Prince. For the shortest of seconds he looked like a little lost child, standing there in the voluminous robes of his status, in a room that seemed to have been upturned by a tornado.

"It wasn't on my wrist since a few days ago, but I thought it was just somewhere in my chambers . . . "

Eunuch Jo wrung his hands in distress. "Your Highness! That bangle symbolizes your position as the heir of the throne! It is the token of your inheritance! Without it, you will lose credibility in the eyes of the people!"

"Ah, then perhaps I am not fit for the throne after all." The Crown Prince's voice was light and his smile, gentle.

"Your Highness! How can you even begin to say that!"

Eunuch Jo paced around for half a minute. Then he turned, sudden, and asked,

"Your Highness . . . could this be an act of ill will? That someone wishes to sabotage your chances for the throne, and hence has stolen the bangle?" The more Eunuch Jo spoke, the more convinced he sounded. "It is, isn't it? It's an act of hostility, Crown Prince!"

"Hush, Eunuch Jo. You know better than I do how unwise it is to jump into unfound conclusions. " Crown Prince Kang Hoseok crouched down and began rifling through the pile of manuscripts that he was supposed to have completed reading by lunch time. It was a scholar thesis on Sansuri economy, and there were eighty-five essays in total. "I'm certain it's just lost somewhere. The baths, maybe. Or perhaps I dropped it at the funeral pyre. Or maybe . . . even before?"

The Crown Prince frowned. "I really can't remember when I had it last. Ah well."

"How ever could you be so calm, Your Highness? That is a very important emblem of your birthright!"

"Panicking will do us no help. All we can do is search for it as hard as we possibly can."

The eunuch snapped to attention. "I shall get my best men on it, Your Highness! I will strive to obtain and return the bangle to you as soon as possible!"

Hoseok nodded, looking up. Once again he smiled. "That sounds like a sensible idea. Thank you. I'll do my part by searching my room. This is the most likely place for it to be."

"Yes! At once, Your Highness!"

The sliding doors slammed open and the eunuch took off like a shot. Then the doors closed, and the Crown Prince's chambers returned to silence.

Hoseok lifted a single sheet of paper. The way he moved was almost reluctant. He stared at the door. Then he stood up, crossed over to his satin bed and laid down.

Sighing, he placed an arm over his eyes and promptly fell asleep.

☯

Ryu watched, nervous, as Faye cracked her spear against the flagstones. They were in the palace gardens, the same place where she had snuck out of the courtyard to the other day, the place where it seemed all her recent troubles had begun. Today, the gardens were filled with the idling and loitering soldiers of the army, some wrestling, some sword-fighting, and some just sitting around talking.

Just their luck, Ryu thought, to have caught the army in their break-time.

The King had decreed that the hunters were to train the army beginning from today, but Taehyung had not been seen since his earlier confrontation with Yoon-ki, and No-mu was accompanying the Royal Magistrate in a cabinet meeting, where they were discussing their strategies on how best to tackle both the demons and the people. So only Ryu and Faye were left to make their way to the palace gardens, and in the end it was just Faye standing in front of the army that was a hundred men strong, because Ryu still her arm swinging in a sling.

Faye cracked her spear again, and Ryu watched how the army simply did not look her way. Those who noticed actually did stand to attention, nudging their friends, but the majority remained oblivious. She didn't think it was a deliberate action on their part, they were just too used to having a rough, burly instructor standing at the front screaming for them to get their asses in line. But now that it was Faye, quiet and dignified, and a woman no less, her presence had just flown over their heads.

Faye was patient. She stood there for another moment, watching, and then slammed the spear again, louder. That caught the attention of the men in front, who hurriedly pulled themselves to their feet, and the movement slowly gained traction and rippled all the way to the back. In five minutes the entire army was lined up in front of Faye, looking unsure and slightly taken aback.

Ryu let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. She was sitting on a stone bench in a nearby gazebo and just the sight of Faye standing up there alone was enough to make her palms sweat. Faye was a brilliant swordswoman, there was no doubt about that, but there were so many men . . .

Faye eyed the army for a moment, then spoke. He voice was clear and strong as it rang out across the open space.

"The Royal Army! Listen up! I am Ding Faye, eldest child in my family and a swordswoman of the royal hunting party! My father is Ding Yao Wei, swordsman and swordsmaker, retired from the same army you all are training to be in now. On a shelf in our house there is a line of medals - an Imperial Cross, two Flying Crescents, a Rose Sigil, and a Merit Star given by His Majesty himself, for my father's excellent service. And in your weapons store there is a rack of swords all the way down the end, reserved only for your generals in battle. Those, are my father's creations."

Faye's eyes swept the crowd.

"But I - am not my father."

In one fluid motion she pulled her sword out from the scabbard at her hip, and the steel flashed. Ryu held her breath.

"I have never fought in the army. Instead I have went up against the mountain clan of Asa'nara, to retrieve the Sword of Excalibur, a Sansuri relic they stole from us a little more than fifty years ago. Alone, I spied and reconnoitered, figured out their hideout, then went in and defeated every last one of their soldiers. All this to prove to my father that I was worthy of our name.

"I have never won any medals. Instead in our home there is an emerald coronet, given to the winner of the Rashad Tournament. A tournament held annually in Sansuri, welcoming all warriors of the sword to challenge and fight each other, in a bid to be champion. For the past four years many people have tried to take away the crown from me. For the past four years all these people have failed."

Ryu could feel the goosebumps shivering awake in her skin.

"I have not made any swords. In fact, I have only just begun to learn the art of the blacksmith. You can say that though my father and I share the same last name, and the same love for the craft, we have each taken a different path. But that does not mean that I am less, nor does it mean that I am more. It only means that I have worth, that I am to be respected in my own stead, and I'll be damned if you all do not bear that in mind. His Majesty has commanded me to be in command, and I will have your absolute obedience."

Faye's voice rose and so did her sword.

"I am Ding Faye, swordswoman of the royal hunting party, and together - we will fight back the night!"

The men whooped, Ryu cheered, and Faye's eyes glittered with pride as she looked out into the afternoon light.

☯

It was evening, and the sun was setting.

On the docks, fishermen were hauling in their catch of the day, yelling and hollering. Boats knocked into one another as they jostled for space on the sands. Already the chimneys of the village houses were smoking, puffing away diligently as their mistresses made dinner within. Children ran shrieking on the roads, playing tag and hide and seek, pretending they couldn't hear their mothers calling them home.

Amidst the gray and brown landscape of the common-folk, a blot of green hurried past.

The figure darted down the back alleys, back bent and footsteps hurried, the black hat on his head nearly falling over in his haste. Taking a right, he suddenly stopped as he looked down a long desolate alley. Here the windows were all shuttered tight, and not even a whisper of wind could go through. Trash littered the road, and for all intents and purposes this alley looked completely deserted.

Eunuch Jo looked over his shoulder nervously.

Light was leaving the kingdom, and the slums of Sansuri were not a nice place to be.

Taking a deep breath and muttering a prayer, the eunuch dove headlong into the alley, heading straight for the end. He stopped when he reached the blank wall, then knocked on it with his knuckles.

Tap. Tap tap. Tap.

No sound.

Then a brick shifted, and a beady eye peeked out.

"Password?"

The eunuch's head swiveled around his shoulders as he looked around, anxious. Looking back he spoke in hushed tones,

"No one knows about the mildew, till it brings down the rose."

The beady eye traveled sharply over him, up and down, and then disappeared, the brick slamming back into place. Next to the eunuch, a door in one of the abandoned houses began to creak open. He stepped inside, soles of his shoes on carpet, yellow light spilling on him from an oil lamp overhead. Ahead the corridor was warm and inviting, with picturesque wall paintings and a vase of flowers. Instead of moving forward however, he stepped to his right, and using a foot, began pressing down repeatedly on the wooden boards, like a masseuse searching for pressure points. There was an audible click, and then the entire wall section swung open. Eunuch Jo slipped inside.

Unlike outside, this corridor was narrow and dark. Through the slits in the left wall he could see rows of dart guns, c****d and loaded. They were rigged up to a pressure-detecting mechanism in the floor, which was triggered once anyone walked through that oh-so-delightful corridor outside. Absent-mindedly the eunuch's hand came up to rub at his neck. He'd made that mistake only once, and it hadn't been a pleasant experience.

Through the corridor he walked, until he reached a fork. Ignoring the left fork - which he knew led to a giant swinging axe - he took the right until he came to another blank wall. One brick was more discolored than the rest, from years of sweaty palms and rough touch - that one led to the gamblers' den. Which was not his target. Instead he opted for the brick on the farthest right but one, and pushed that. It fell out to the other side, and through that small square opening he could hear a change in sound. As if the stillness of the corridor had been permeated by the noise of the living, but it was not loud enough to be certain of yet.

A door opened in the right and a gnarly-looking man beckoned him through. The eunuch thanked him and tried not to shudder in disgust as one of the gatekeeper's grubby hands brushed against his imperial robes.

Hinan. "Asylum". A myth, a rumor, a secret place. Embedded in the poverty-infested hovels of Sansuri, it was a sprawling labyrinth built mostly underground. What started off as a gambling den or two quickly spread and grew like a disease to include brothels and opium dens, creating a heaven of sins for lowlife and noblemen alike. In Hinan, it didn't matter who you were or where you were from - what mattered was knowledge. And to get that knowledge, you needed to have something to pay for it.

Hinan was divided into many, many levels, and each level provided a greater, more wicked source of entertainment than the last. Which in turn meant that the deeper you went, the harder the level was to find. In this mess of pathways and tunnels laid many secret doors and hidden traps, and one had to know how to navigate it well to get to the object of one's desire. The eunuch remembered it clearly, how a year ago, when news had leaked out about a brothel on the second level, many of the eager customers with empty wallets and bodies of lust had tried to guess its location by wandering around the corridors. It was a terrible mistake. The eunuch had never seen so many decapitated limbs in his life.

The more you could offer, the more knowledge you could gain. And the more knowledge you could gain, the more you knew about which door led to treasure and which door led to misery; which tunnel to take and which tunnel to avoid; which brick to push and which nail to pull. In Hinan, the main form of payment was money. But in the eunuch's case, it was all about influence.

Deeper and deeper into Hinan he went. Past the brothel, the second gambling den, the parlors of pleasure, on and on and on. Until finally he reached a single, wooden door. There was nothing eye-catching about it, saved for the fact that it had a keyhole but no door knob. From under the sleeves of his robe the eunuch drew out a key, plain copper, and inserted it into the hole. He twisted it to the right, then immediately ducked.

There was a flash of steel, as the blade of a scythe cut through the space where his head had been. Groaning, it slowed at the peak of its arc and then swung backward, gaining momentum until it disappeared back into whichever hidey-hole it came out from.

The eunuch re-inserted the key again, twisting it to the left this time, and then immediately jumped back, away from the door. He caught sight of a row of jagged spikes, gleaming and waiting below as the floor suddenly opened in two, the two flaps hovering for a moment. Then the flaps slammed back into place, and the floor turned seamless as if the opening had never existed. The door with the keyhole but no handle opened inward of its own accord, and the eunuch stepped inside.

Right into a room of amber.

The walls had been either papered over or painted in muted shades of orange, and the paintings had gilt frames of gold. Light from oil lamps above shone through a filter of tempered glass, casting a hushed yellow ambiance over the room. All around the eunuch men and women lounged, on rosewood couches and satin divans, all of them in several stages of intoxication, whether from the drug-laden cigars in their lips, or the cups of alcohol carelessly dangling from their fingers. The eunuch watched a man giggled as he tried to grab the shadow of his finger on the wall.

Eunuch Jo squeezed his eyes shut and made a gesture of fervent prayer.

Forgive me, Soyou, for entering this city of sin. Know only that I am here for the goodness of Sansuri, and the goodness of my prince. Forgive me.

It took him three turns to reach the room he was looking for. A burly guard standing outside frisked him all over, even going so far as to remove his boots before letting him enter. The door shut behind him and the eunuch found himself completely cut off from the noise of the addicts indulging outside.

"Pathetic creatures, aren't they?"

There was a large window at one side of the room, and the eunuch watched the man watch the addicts. The scene shifted, and now the window was showing an image of two women clawing over each other to get at a last piece of cannabis.

The eunuch rubbed his hands in discomfort. This was not the natural order of a window. Images through a window were supposed to be relatively similar, not changing by the second. He didn't understand how this contraption could possibly work. In fact, there were a lot of things he did not understand about this man and this amber room, but he had wisely gone down the path of keeping his mouth shut and his nose out of things that were not his business.

The man turned around and the window dimmed to darkness. The lack of light in the room meant the eunuch could not see much of the man, but what he did notice was the vivid, intricate tattoo of a black rose running up one side of the man's neck.

Standing, the man leaned against a tall chair and crossed his legs, his posture arrogantly casual.

"So. On what urgent matters have you bid me to a meeting, dear Eunuch Jo?"

The eunuch wasted no time on pleasantries, so nerve-wracked was he. "The Crown Prince's bangle is missing! The symbol of his right to the throne! What if - what if this is sabotage - ?"

"On whose part? Not the King, surely. The Crown Prince is a fine candidate for the throne."

The man's voice was only slightly mocking.

"No - I do not believe His Majesty has changed his mind. Perhaps - another one of the princes - ?"

"Any suspects?"

"Oh well, everyone wants the throne. I would wager to say all of them would have motive to steal the bangle. You know as well as I do that without the bangle - without that emblem - there can be no official ceremony. No passing down of the crown! And without that - "

" - no new King," the man finished.

"Yes. Indeed. We must find it back, immediately, with haste!"

The man moved, walking to a small high table at the side of the room. For a brief moment his face flashed into sight before disappearing again, too quickly to be properly seen. The eunuch heard more than he saw the tea pouring, out of a porcelain teapot into a porcelain cup.

"Care for some duan ru tea?"

The eunuch hesitated. "That has opium in it."

"And your problem is?"

"I - I'll pass, thank you."

"Suit yourself." The man took a sip, swallowed then spoke. "It's already entering your body through the tea fragrance as we speak."

The eunuch's eyes widened, and a sleeve quickly came up to cover his nose. The man laughed.

"My dear eunuch. Spare yourself the naivety. Mankind is born in vice, and in vice we revel. You may think yourself above those addicts, perhaps, yes, even above me, but that is where you are wrong. We are all on the same stage, in the same rank, stinking and steeping in vice. What only matters is that those who chose to embrace it, to understand and manipulate his deepest desire to sin, those are the people who will win."

The cup clattered as it sat back down on the table.

"Find the bangle. And if it is sabotage, find out who it is."

"Of course," the eunuch hastily said. "I'll see to that immediately. I just thought you should know . . . what happens after I find the culprit? Do I hand him over to the law?"

The man's eyes glittered. And he said,

"No. Give him to me, and let me take care of it."