“Ah, Virtuoso, I was wondering what was taking you so long. What do you have to report?”
Hana was confused only momentarily before she remembered that she’d made herself invisible in the middle of the war council meeting because she’d seen Wolf and Fairy hovering outside. She hadn’t said anything about it then, but the emperor knew that she would only vanish like that if it were important.
“I wanted to ask you a question, Your Majesty—”
“And I want your report first.” His gaze was steely and stern.
“Um, right, of course,” she said, years of military obedience kicking in, even though she desperately wanted to discuss Wolf’s theory. So she spilled her report as quickly as possible. “Your Majesty, I went invisible because two of Spirit’s friends were hovering outside the study. I’m certain they couldn’t hear through the castle walls, which is why I didn’t sound the alarm right away. Instead I waited to see what they’d do. They broke in after your meeting dispersed.”
Emperor Gin sat taller in his throne and looked down at Hana. “You let them break into my study?”
“I—I thought I might be able to learn something from eavesdropping. We haven’t known what they were up to since we defeated them and took over the capital.”
He frowned, and Hana felt it overtake her like a shadow. She’d always been his star student, and she hated feeling like she’d failed him.
Finally, he motioned with his hand for her to continue.
“It turns out, Your Majesty, that my sister’s team has been actively trying to sabotage us. They did something in our shipyard that will delay our plans to attack Thoma. As soon as I’m done here, I’ll give the order for the ryuu to investigate and fix the warships.”
The emperor huffed. “Those taigas are like an infestation I just can’t get rid of.”
“There’s more, Your Majesty. They copied down the map on the wall.”
Emperor Gin’s nostrils flared as he sat at full attention. “They can’t have a copy of our plans; you shouldn’t have let them escape.”
“But I—”
“Take Firebrand and Menagerie and find them. Destroy the map; kill the taigas.”
“Your Majesty—”
“That’s an order.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“If there’s nothing else, you’re dismissed.” He tilted his head back and looked at the mural painted on the ceiling. It was a scene of his near death after the Blood Rift Rebellion, when he’d crossed almost to the afterlife and took its magic to bring back to the living. Emperor Gin had believed his ability to do so was a gift from the gods. Now, Hana wasn’t so sure.
“Actually, Your Majesty, I still have a question. While Wolf and Fairy were in the study, they read a story about a girl named Kitari, and they said they thought . . . Well, this is probably a stupid leap to conclusions, but Wolf thought you’d dog-eared those pages because they were an analogy to our situation.”
Emperor Gin raised a brow, but he didn’t comment. Hana stumbled on awkwardly. “Um, they thought you were like the warrior in the legend of Dassu, and by gifting us with ryuu magic, it was like the father gifting his daughter with devilfire, and that meant we were all damned.” Hana laughed nervously. “But that’s nonsense, right? Gods, I’m sorry I even brought it up.”
The emperor’s face softened. “Come here, Virtuoso.” He beckoned with a wave of his hand. “You’re so competent as a soldier, sometimes I forget that you are still a child.”
Hana hurried to the throne and knelt at Emperor Gin’s feet.
“All I want,” he said gently, “is the best for Kichona. That means uniting all seven of the mainland kingdoms under our gods, with Zomuri as our patron, rather than continuing to let those pagan kingdoms worship their own heathen deities.
“When we have done this, we will achieve the Evermore and bring paradise to earth. You and I and all Kichonans, including our new subjects on the mainland, will live forever.
“But in order to do so, I needed a drastic change. Just being taigas wasn’t enough; you saw how we were defeated by my sister ten years ago. And so, when I had the opportunity to take the knowledge of more powerful magic from the afterlife, I did it. And I shared the new powers with all my warriors, even if it costs us, because it was the means to the Evermore. Do you understand?”
Hana’s mouth hung open. The emperor had done the opposite of what she’d expected—he’d confirmed Wolf’s reading of Kitari’s story. “B-but . . . you damned us to the hells. Why would you do that to someone? To me, when I was just a child?”
“I didn’t know,” he faltered. “I found out about the consequences later. But don’t you see that it’s still worth it?” Emperor Gin stroked her cheek like she really was still a child. “I love you and all my ryuu. I want the Evermore for you, and when we achieve that goal, it won’t matter that we were marked for the hells, because we’ll never die. We will be immortal in paradise.”
She wanted to pull away, but she was in too much shock. “What about the ryuu who died in the last battle, though? They don’t get to live in the Evermore, and they don’t get to rest in the afterlife either.”
Emperor Gin merely shrugged. “There’s always a price to pay. Weren’t you the one who told Aki that? You said that leaders who were truly great weren’t afraid of paying it. And that is what I did. I know you understand.”
Hana looked up at him and the jeweled flames above his head. They no longer seemed beautiful. They were only a promise of her future in the hells if she died while fighting these wars against the mainland.
And yet she’d always known that fighting for a cause came with sacrifices. The Evermore was worth it, right?
“Now it’s time to get back to work,” the emperor said, patting her cheek affectionately, like a proud father. “But let’s keep this Kitari story between you and me, all right? The other warriors are not as wise as you, Virtuoso, and may not take to it as well. I’d prefer not to have to hypnotize my original ryuu if possible. I like having a loyal, passionate contingent of visionary warriors who understand, of their own accord, the need for the Evermore. But I will take their minds if necessary. Understood?”
Hana, schooled to be obedient, bowed her head as if in complete agreement, even though she was rattled by what was clearly a threat to control her mind if she didn’t do what he wanted. The emperor only ever used his powers on people he considered his enemies, or on unreliable, ordinary people, like when he’d hypnotized the subjects in Paro Village during the ryuu’s initial campaign into Kichona.
But now he considers me a potential enemy? She was his second-in-command, the most loyal of the loyal. Was it that easy for him to turn on the ones who were ready to give their lives for him and his pursuit of the Evermore?
“Get a team to inspect and fix my new warships,” Emperor Gin said, his voice no longer kind but back to business now. “And take Firebrand and Menagerie to smoke out those taigas.”
Hana rose slowly. She wasn’t sure how she felt or what she was going to do, but she needed time to sort through all this new information. At least if she had an excuse to go after Wolf and Fairy, she could interrogate them to see if they’d gotten in touch with this Liga person, whoever he was, and learned anything more about the damnation or a way out of it.