“I can,” said Nioh. “So: you’re hunting. As is your like. What matter to me? I have no role in politics. I’m not in line for the throne. I would much rather live in my manor and have peace.”
“You’ve been speaking with the retired-emperor,” Yora said.
“He’s myfather.” Nioh laughed. “Am I under investigation, poet? Should I call you the Watchman now, instead?”
“‘The lotus leaves, unstained and glimmering with dew –’” Yora quoted. “‘Yet floating, they hide the silt below.’ Forgive me, but they call your fatherthe windswept emperor for a reason. He has his hands in the game at all times. So if you are meeting with him, that means you’re either a player now, or you are a piece.”
“I’m a scholar.”
“You have a claim to the succession if your brother dies. I must have an answer.”
But it is dangerous to accost the sons of kings. Nioh remained unmoved. “To discuss poetry. And I have no claim; you made sure of that. My mother wasn’t high-ranking enough. Ashihara was always the heir.”
“I’m trying to protect you,” Yora said.
Nioh looked to the trees, where a hawk circled a far point in the sky. “Something has died,” he said. “Forget about the east. It doesn’t matter.Ryaku’inis what my father cares about, he’s coming back. You know, you spoke, I remember. In the courts, what was it, two years ago? Against me, in the line of succession, on account of my mother. And you come to me now.”
“Your brother the emperor was about to be married.”
“Half-brother.”
“Yes.”
“He was seventeen.”
“And adding your name to the succession would have done more harm than good,” Yora said. “We needed a union in the families…”
The prince cut him off. “The Keishi family. You’re ever their pet.”
“Regardless. The moment has passed. Stability is stability for all.”
“Ah. ‘If you seek shelter, always find a bigger tree’,” the prince clucked his tongue. “‘To hide beneath.’”
There was no point in trying to evade. “A war within the family almost tore this empire apart, a generation ago. Do you not remember?”
The mirror prince had slowed, his veneer slipping away. Now, he gave Yora a thin look, as if searching for motive.
“I was a child then. In more ways than one. You’d prefer I stayed quiet, in my mansion and my far estates. Farming oats. Idling away. What of my life, lord poet? What of a future? A road goes nowhere without its destination: you would have me waste my days in leisure. You’d have me speak nothing to the court about the succession again.”
“From the wider point of view, Prince, for the court, it would be…”
“What?”
“Preferable. Especially now.”
The prince gave another sigh. “Suppose you told me why?”
“The emperor is to have a son. The diviners have seen it.”
“And so: succession. You do not wish to stir the pot. You do not want a challenge to the throne.”
“Peace has always been my goal.”
“The Keishi,” Nioh allowed, “tied themselves to my family the moment Seikiyo married his daughter to my brother. Have you no thoughts on that?”
Yora held his tongue.
“So: we are at an impasse. Perhaps the bridge has broken under us. If that is indeed the case, then, Yora Shijin, one cannot blame you for being the man they told to stand upon it – and one cannot blame me for wishing to cross. We’re both victims, you and I. Do you truly have no wish to see your family restored? Your lands, your titles.”
