Please enjoy!

Raye

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

Starlit Reflections: Dark Quarter 

by Raye Johnsen
raye_j@yahoo.com

*****
	Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics,
Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment, Viz
Communications and other interested parties.  The
characters and situation are used without permission
for personal entertainment only, and no copyright
infringements are intended.  No profit is being made
from this fic; if there was, Tasuki and Tamahome would
lighten me of it, as soon as they could.
*****

Chapter Six: Toward Destiny - Iname


	Iname was often given to quiet contemplation, and was
the only one of us to make a hobby of stargazing.  One
night, as we lay beside the road, he pointed out the
stars of our seishuku.  I was more interested in the
way our constellations lay side by side than any
abstract beauty they presented.

	Iname laughed as I told him that, but sobered
quickly.  He remained silent a long time, lying on his
back, staring at the sky.  Jealous of his attention, I
demanded to know what he found so fascinating about
the sky.

	"They go on forever, Uruki," he replied.  "The stones
are eternal, but they are below our feet.  The stars
beckon us up to join them, now and for always."

	"Will you go?" I demanded petulantly.

	He glanced over at me and chuckled.  "I will always
reach up to them," he assured me, "but my feet will
always remain safely here."

*****

	A week after we had met Hikitsu and Tomite, I was
regretting my impulsive tongue.
	
	"Now that we *are* together," I had said brightly,
"there's only two to go!  I wonder what Iname and
Urumiya are like?"

	After seven days of riding from dawn to dusk and
long, hard riding lessons - Tomite was a patient
teacher, but he was also an implacable one - I was not
a happy person.

	We had ridden halfway up the country and
three-quarters of the way across.  I had met garrulous
shopkeepers, closemouthed herdsmen, foreign traders,
and delinquent youths.

	Namame had taken great delight in recounting how,
after Takiko had come running into the main tent and
blurted out my situation, the men of the tribe had
come charging out to my rescue just a little too late
and had to settle for soundly thrashing the three
youths instead.  He also said that they would suffer
consequences, beyond the night.  I didn't want to
think about that.  Intellectually, I knew that the
tribes of the central plains practiced slavery, but
the idea that someone would be enslaved because of
*me* was uncomfortable.  The ringleader *had* been the
chieftain's son, but a younger son, not the youngest
nor the eldest, which was an uncomfortable place to
be.

	I still couldn't really accept that, as a Genbu
shichiseishi, in the eyes of many of Hokkan's people I
was far more important than the Great Khan.  I was too
used to being Mei Ling, the more-or-less ignored
not-quite-princess.

	The mountains were no longer misty blue clouds on the
horizon - now we could see Genbu's hands as they
cupped the plain of His people.  The thick rocky
fingers of mountains thrust up against the sky, almost
a line across the western border.  The only real break
in the Western mountains was the Pass of Tolan, named
for the city built in and across it.  Or perhaps the
city was named for the pass.  It didn't really matter.

	The city of Tolan is the largest city in Hokkan.  It
is the capital of our country, and the residence of
the Great Khan.

	It was the place I could no longer call home.

*****

	Hatsui had been acting oddly ever since Tomite and
Hikitsu had joined us.  He shared a tent with them,
but he didn't seem to be resentful of them.  I must
admit that I didn't try to understand his feelings - I
sensed that if I did, it would bring me nothing but
pain.  So, in my childish selfishness, I deliberately
did not think about them.  

	Perhaps this was wise of me, though.  As long as
Hatsui could look at me and know that I did not know,
he was not rejected.  However, considering all that
next happened... perhaps he would have been better to
declare himself.  Perhaps I should have looked deeper
and given him an answer before the question was asked.

	It would have hurt, but the pain was inevitable, and
perhaps it might have been lessened a little.

	Perhaps.

*****

	I imagine that it was at approximately this time that
the Emperor of Koutou finally responded to the news
that had swept all around Hokkan.  Certainly I can
think of no reason why the Koutou soldiers should have
delayed their progress, and the location of the High
Temple of Genbu, in the centre of Tolan, was no
secret.

	So it is likely that it was around this time that the
army of Koutou sent out its assassination squad, with
orders to find and kill the Genbu Shichiseishi, by
whatever means necessary.

*****

	We were going back to Tolan.

	The city was and yet was not my childhood home.  I
had spent my childhood sequestered in the Women's
Quarter of the Palace of the Great Khan; in truth, I
was as innocent of Tolan's streets as any child of the
steppe tribes.  Yet it was the place I was born.

	I couldn't go back.  I had journeyed, chaperoned only
by Takiko, in the company of several young men.  Never
mind that two were far more interested in each other
than any girl, one was madly in love with my companion
and the fourth treated me like a rather annoying
younger sister.  Rumour was not aware of any of
*that*.

	So I was no longer marriageable, which is about the
only value any princess has, which meant that the
Great Khan would not welcome me back.  The only person
who would, would be my old nurse, Chui Yuen, who I
missed terribly.  

	That was the only good thing about it; I would see
her again.  If, that is, I could get past the gate.

	I felt myself grinning.  That last, at least, was
definitely *not* a problem.

*****

	Hatsui was not pleased with my plan.

	"Are you *insane*?" he demanded harshly, after I
outlined my plan over the breakfast fire.

	"No," I replied archly.  "You of *all* people should
know I can be inconspicuous if I want to be.  I want
to see Chiu Yuen.  I'm *going* to see her."

	"You've heard all the rumours!  You'll be mobbed!"

	"The descriptions aren't even *accurate*.  Nobody's
going to recognise me."

	"Give up, Hatsui," Hikitsu advised.  "When she gets
*that* look in her eyes, all we can do is get out of
the way."

	I glared at him.  *What* look?  

	Hikitsu clutched dramatically at his chest and
toppled over backwards.  "Dear, oh dear," Tomite
murmured.  "Hikitsu, are you still alive?"

	"Barely," my fellow shichiseishi replied cheerfully,
still lying in the grass at his lover's feet. 
"Perhaps you should check?"

	Tomite glanced around the circle, his eyes flicking
over Takiko and Namame's blushing faces.  "I will,
later," he promised, in a tone as bland as if he were
discussing the weather.

	I gave up to the giggles.

*****

	Nobody wanted to go with me.  Hikitsu and Tomite were
not comfortable in large crowds, and Takiko wished to
rest.  Namame would not leave her behind, and Hatsui,
possibly in retaliation for my refusal to take his
advice and remain, declared mulishly that *he* was not
going into the main city either.  He was perfectly
content, he stated, to remain in the common room of
the trader's inn on the outskirts of the cattle yards
outside Tolan.  I could go see my nurse if I wanted
to, but *he* wasn't going.

	So I cloaked myself in shadows once again and set out
alone, in an action I now recognise as the height of
foolishness.  But at the time I could not imagine many
of the dangers that might befall me.  

	And so, if a watcher had been paying attention, he
would have been able to see a moving patch of shadow
that afternoon, darting along the city streets,
slipping between passersby and traffic, moving towards
the Palace.  I was wise enough with the ways of
traffic by now to move with rather than against the
flow.  

	There were a *lot* of people on the street.  I
wondered why until a loud voice ahead of me yelled
"Make way!  Make way for the Great Khan!"

	I fled for the wall, but I was too late.  I did make
it to the side of a buttress that jutted out onto the
street, where a patch of shadow as big as a girl would
not be remarkable.  I was still far too close to the
street, and the royal procession, for my liking.

	First the eunuch, announcing the procession, walked
past, followed by a group of boys, dressed in royal
yellow, scattering sweet yellow roses over the street
to perfume the air and hide the foul scent of the road
from royal nostrils.  Then, mounted on an expensive,
over-pampered horse, rode the Great Khan.  

	I couldn't help it.  I had to look up at the man who
had sired me.

	The Great Khan, I concluded rather clinically, was a
handsome man.  His black hair was streaked with
silver, not an unusual thing in a man aged over fifty.
 His body was still well-muscled and he had not let
those muscles go to fat as so many large, well-muscled
men tend to do when they enter middle age.  His jaw
was squared and jutted out as if he was setting it
against some distasteful yet necessary task, and his
brown eyes scanned the horizon, taking great care to
never actually touch upon the street around him.

	Following his horse came the four carriages that
carried his First Wife, his current favourite, his
lesser wives, and his more-favoured concubines.  The
Great Khan's First Wife was a woman of around his age,
and handsome, with strong bones in her face and long,
raven's-wing-black hair.  His favourite, however, was
a girl no older than I was, from the south.  Her hair
was long, the colour of fire, and her bright eyes were
pale, almost colourless.  Her mouth was set in a
petulant pout, that men doubtless found adorable.

	The three lesser wives sat in their carriage, as calm
and composed as if they were still in their quarters
at the Palace, obviously taking their behaviour from
the First Wife.

	In marked contrast was the behaviour of the favoured
concubines in the fourth and final carriage.  Singing
and playing with toys, they amused themselves as they
were carried to wherever the Great Khan was going. 
The truly amazing thing, though, was that, in the
centre of the favoured concubines, in the place
reserved for the Emperor's secondary favourite - she
who, while not *quite* as important as his *most*
favoured concubine, is preferred to all his other
concubines - was my *mother*!

	I stared in shock as I watched Li Jiang smile and
chirp at a woman who she had spoken of with hate only
a month before, and then turn to bestow a comment on
another she had envied desperately.  She was clearly
loving this new - and, I could see from the clenched
teeth and stiff demeanour of those around her, quite
genuine - status.

	The carriage moved down the street, and I watched it
go, followed by a virtual army of serving maids and
eunuchs.  Some part of me could not believe my eyes. 
What had happened, to so lift my mother's status?

	I had to get to the Palace, and talk with Chui Yuen.

*****

	The gate guards, predictably enough, did not notice a
small shadow floating gently through their midst, and
so I found myself within the Palace of the Great Khan
once more.

	I did not linger over my old haunts, for I had no
idea how long the Great Khan, his coterie of
concubines and his army of servants would be gone.  I
definitely *didn't* want to be there when they
returned.

	Looking for her first in her little cubby in the
servant's quarters, I tried my old rooms next, and
there I found her - in her little chair drawn up to
the window, busy sewing something.  I shut the door
behind me, uncloaked myself and sighed with relief.

	She heard me, and looked up.  The sewing was flung to
one side as she sprang up, as sprightly as if she were
my age instead of twice it.  "Little Miss!"

	The next few minutes were lost in a frenzy of
hugging.  I had missed Chiu Yuen, but I had not
realized how much.  The past two weeks had been an
eternity.

	Admidst tears and laughter, I told her of what they
had been like; of my brothers, the land, and riding
lessons.  I shared with her the amazement I'd felt at
the market and my terror on that wild ride on the
steppe.  Finally, I broached the subject that had been
pulling at me hardest.

	"What has happened here, Chiu Yuen?  What happened to
change my mother so?"

	Chiu Yuen sighed.  "You did, Little Miss."

	I felt my eyes widen.  "*I* did?"

	"I told you, didn't I, how long I had known of your
destiny, my Little Miss?  It turned out that I was not
the only one with their eyes upon you.  It appears
that half the eunuchs used to watch for you, and most
of the maids."

	I swallowed as I remembered childish pranks, such as
snowballs lobbed from within the shadows.  "They -
they did?"

	"Yes, Little Miss.  So when you did not reappear for
dinner, the day you left, I was asked about it."  Chiu
Yuen rubbed her wrist, and I felt a sudden chill.  My
eyes narrowed as I saw the bruise.

	"Don't look like that, Little Miss!  This bruise was
just an accident, from when I was made to sit down. 
Long stopped them before they could do anything more
to me."

	"Long?" Now *that* was a surprise to me.  Long was
one of the most senior eunuchs in the Palace.  He was
also about the only senior eunuch who ever behaved as
if he noticed me, and had always treated me with
respect.  Still, there is a great difference between a
daughter of the Great Khan and her nursemaid; that he
would protect a woman of Chui Yuen's status was a
highly unusual act for an eunuch of his rank.

	For some reason, a brush of colour suddenly swept
along Chiu Yuen's cheekbones.  "Long and I have
been... friends for several years," she replied
diffidently, "and he has always been very... kind to
me."

	Two weeks before, I would not have heard those
pauses.  Now, I could only wonder at what I wasn't
hearing.  "I'm glad to hear that," I replied lightly,
so as not to let her know what I'd heard.

	"So they sat me down and asked me where you were, and
did not let me leave the servant's dining room until I
had told them all about Lady Takiko and how you and
she had left.  Among them was Zhong, who is -"

	"The Great Khan's confidant," I whispered.

	"Yes, Little Miss.  So he undoubtedly carried the
story straight to the Great Khan."

	"I still don't see why that would affect Li Jiang's
rank," I said quietly.

	"With the whole Palace abuzz with the fact that the
First Shichiseishi had been a daughter of the Great
Khan, he could not ignore your disappearance, Little
Miss.  You were not here to heap honours upon, so he
had to give recognition to your mother, for bearing
you."

	"I heard a lot of rumours in the marketplaces," I
said thoughtfully.  "They all said I was a great
beauty and the treasured daughter of the Great Khan. 
I almost died laughing."

	"That isn't such a joke anymore, Little Miss," Chiu
Yuen replied slowly.  "The Great Khan *has* named you
a High Princess, and in the last proclamation to the
people, you were spoken of as 'the fair flower of
Hokkan'."

	I blinked.  Then, I said slowly, "Why?"

	Chiu Yuen shrugged.  "Things are looking bad, Little
Miss.  We have a threatened war on our border, and
traders don't come when there's war.  We've all been
praying for the Priestess of Genbu, and when she
appears, the first person to follow her is the Great
Khan's own daughter.  If he makes it look like you
left with his blessings, then it looks like he's
backing her.  And if it doesn't work, he can say he
sacrificed his beloved daughter to the good of the
country."

	I felt my lips twist.  "That sounds like him."

	"Don't make that face, Little Miss! Your face might
freeze that way!"

	That restored my good humour.  "Why, Chiu Yuen," I
teased, "I thought you knew that only happens when the
wind blows south-south-west!"

	And that, in turn, restored hers.  "Mayhap so, and
mayhap no, and mayhap we will never know," she replied
cheerfully, one of her favourite sayings.  "But tell
me more of your star-brothers - you say you have found
four of the six?"

*****

	I stayed for an hour, but after that time, I dared
not remain.

	Chiu Yuen agreed with me.  "The Great Khan has only
gone to the High Temple to burn incense for the
Priestess of Genbu's success," she told me.  "We can
expect him back within an hour.  And I do not think
you wish to be found here, do you, Little Miss?"

	So I bade her a second farewell, cloaked myself in
shadows once more, and ghosted out of the gate.

	I was almost too late.  No sooner was I outside the
gate than the scent of roses assaulted my nose and I
heard the cry, "Make way!  Make way!"

	So I did.  I fled down the nearest alley and ran
until I was out of breath.  And thoroughly, completely
lost.

	I *really* had to start *thinking* before I acted, I
decided, as I found myself wandering the streets of
Tolan.  The afternoon sunlight washed the street and
there were no patched of shadow, so I had to
reluctantly release my shadow and venture out, clad
only in my clothing.  Which was perfectly respectable,
but still, no protection from eyes.

	"Hey, pretty lady...."

	Or street boys who were bored.  I ignored them.

	"We're *talkin'* to ya, girl!"  My shoulder was
roughly grasped and I was spun around.  I didn't
hesitate, but simply continued the spin, letting the
momentum wrench me out of the boy's hand and away from
him.  I took the opportunity and ducked away from the
group, running into an alley....

	.... Which turned out to be a dead end.

	I spun on my heel, turning to face the three (/Do
these sort of boys always gang up in threes?/ I
thought wildly) who were blocking off the end of the
alley.

	Drawing in a deep breath, I was trying desperately to
think of a way out of *this* one when the sound of
hoofbeats came thudding down the street outside.  I
expected them to go past, but instead the rider came
galloping into the alley.  One of the street toughs
got kicked as he tried to dive out of the way.  The
young man on the back of the horse wheeled his mount
around, holding his hand out to me.  I didn't reject
this gift of luck and flung myself up onto the horse. 
Then we were thundering down the street.

	The rider definitely had a destination in mind, and I
wasn't sure it was a place I wanted to be.  "Where are
we going?" I asked, over the hoofbeats.

	The young man tilted his head down to look at me, and
I immediately lost all my thoughts.  Some strands of
his long black hair had come undone from the tie at
the nape of his neck, falling across his face and his
strong, hawklike features.  His eyes were dark, dark
green, richest beryl, darkest jade.  I could have
stared at him forever.

	"My house,"  he replied.

	His house?  That was more sobering than a pail of
cold water.  I stiffened in his arms.

	"My family will be delighted to meet you, Uruki," he
added.

	Family?  And....

	"How do you know who I am?" I demanded suspiciously.

	He smiled, a heartbreaker's smile, and transferred
the reins to his right hand.  Then he used the left to
roll up his right sleeve, displaying the symbol 'Niu'
on his right bicep.  "The stones told me," he said
simply.

	"You're Iname?" I asked disbelievingly.

	"So I am.  It must be your lucky day!"

*****

Author's Notes

	1. Mongolian tribes practiced a form of reverse
primogeniture that remains unique among Asian and
European cultures.  As each chieftain's son attained
adulthood, he would take an allotted portion of the
tribe and the tribe's herds and head off to claim his
own territory - the further away the better.  Each son
would do this in turn, until only the youngest was
left with his father's tribe; he remained and when his
father died, he would become the next chieftain,
unless one of his brothers or uncles returned to take
it from him.  This didn't happen very often.  So,
while each son could look forward to leading his own
tribe, the youngest son was always the primary heir.

	2. In Imperial China, it was considered incredibly
disrespectful for a commoner to even look upon the
carriages that carried the Imperial Family as they
journeyed, and even the presence of one in the street
when the procession came by would lead to a
punishment, ranging from a severe beating to
beheading, for the unfortunate peasant, if caught.
	It's unclear whether it was a Chinese or Manchurian
custom, but as it seems to have been enacted under
several Chinese dynasties, I have decided to treat it
as a Chinese custom, rather than a Manchurian one, and
so not include it in the Hokkan of Dark Quarter.

	3. Although it is generally held that an eunuch is
incapable of sexual intercourse, this is not
*necessarily* true.
	If a man who has become an eunuch was in the later
stages of puberty or had passed it when he became an
eunuch, he is physically capable of sex.  The factor
preventing him from doing so is the fact that male
physical arousal is dependent upon the presence of
testosterone in the bloodstream.  The testicles are
the major source of this hormone, but they are not the
only source.  It is also manufactured in minute
amounts by the liver and spleen, and in cases where
the testicles are incapable of providing enough, this
amount may increase.  It is also possible for a man to
absorb testosterone through food (such as other
animals' testicles, and other testoserone-rich
substances).
	It *is* possible for an eunuch to be active sexually.
 It is only impossible for him to sire children.

=====
raye_j@yahoo.com
http://www.thejohnsens.com/index.html

"It went away? 'I dwell in darkness without you'
and it WENT AWAY?!"
   - Sorcha, 'Willow'

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