Month of the Rat, 23rd Day (Early Winter)
You wish that you were back in Toshi Ranbo, back with Kana as she nurses your newest daughter. Little Hanako was a greedy little girl, strong in the water kami according to your wife, but for now just a baby with the immense need to scream, eat, and defecate. While you were glad that the labor had been extremely easy for Kana, you still wanted to be with her instead of here.
But Kyuden Isawa was too far away for you not to leave early, too far away for you to have not already been a week out of Toshi Ranbo when news came that your wife had gone into labor, along with her command that you not turn around.
So here you were with Doji Yoriko and Tsuruchi Etsuko beside you while watching an Asako monk tend to the stone garden in intricate colours. The sight of the shifting patterns being wiped out and reformed was soothing in it's own way, and it helped to distract you from the somewhat annoying man before you.
In principle there was nothing wrong with Shiba Norio, Voice of the Elemental Council. A functionary meant to keep peace between the often fractious Elemental Masters and the Phoenix Champion. You were sure he did that task well, but you were also sure that you hadn't met a man more boring in your life.
It wasn't any one thing, it was the dull monotone of his voice, his insistence on speaking in a slow cadence that lulled you to sleep, and a complete inability to stay on topic longer than a few sentences. One would think that would make it interesting, if he somehow didn't manage to connect something like oban festival to the dull principles of silk worm gathering. Important work to be sure, but you trusted the people whose actual job it was to do it, and did not care to learn.
Norio cared though, and thought you should too.
So as you enjoyed the garden presentation, you listen with half of one ear to Norio's drone. Etsuko seems to be using this to train her meditative abilities while Yuriko has gamely tried to keep the conversation going, but her energy is waning. If only you had an explosion or something to break the monotony.
At some point you have to wonder when you decided to embrace the near death experiences you accumulated.
You couldn't just get rid of him either as he was your guide in Kyuden Isawa and thus to dismiss him would insult the Isawa and it was just...bleh.
There's a soft clap behind you, Norio stops as the four of you turn around to see a slender young woman, dark eyes conveyed a deep sense of knowledge even as fair skin and dark hair showed that her name wasn't chosen entirely out of vanity.
Agasha Naomi, the youngest member of the Elemental Council Mistress of Water, and the first Agasha to gain a Council seat. In many ways she represented the future of the Phoenix clan, no longer did the Isawa reign supreme in magical matters, the Agasha lineage was nearly as old as theirs and just as skilled.
Norio bows deeply, you and your own council members bow a bit more politely for the matter.
"My Emperor, if I might trouble you for a moment?" she asks.
You nod slowly. Norio seems about to ask if he should get refreshments when Naomi just gives a small smile and the Shiba disappears.
In the background you can still hear the steady sound of stone scraping along stone as the monk continues their work.
Idly wishing for tea, you focus on Naomi and wait for her to speak. She watches the monk for a few moments before saying.
"The Elemental Council is going to request that you make Horiuchi-sama the last Jade Champion." She says, it's blunt, but too the point.
"And why would I want do that, the notable failure of Okura aside, the Jade Champions have served well and ably even when all the Empire was burning down around them, they fought and kept the darkness at bay." You say.
"The Phoenix were brought low by the Wars, we were unable to do our duty, and in that light the Jade Champion was the best solution there was. However, due to your ability Mikado, the Phoenix have recovered, and we can resume our duties to the Empire properly now. It is not that we consider Horiuchi-sama unskilled or unworthy of his post, but that we feel the post is redundant now."
"A generation is not enough time to recover from the losses the Phoenix took" Etsuko says bluntly.
"The Wasp became a great family in but a generation should we not then be able to do more with a greater beginning?" Naomi asks snidely.
Yuriko shakes her head. "The Jade Champion is to be above the politics of the Realm. While the Phoenix are indeed most knowledgeable on matters of magic and spirits, surely letting the Heavens decide things is better for the chief Inquisitor of the Empire?"
"The Phoenix were given the charter to rediscover their lost magic and rebuild by the Emperor's Grandfather, we have done that, perhaps not to Tsuruchi-san's satisfaction, but we have done that. Even now the Inferno Legion marches with Shiba-sama to support the war against the gaijin. The Phoenix have fulfilled their charter, and the Council believes that it is time to resume our duties as the Empire's stewards of Magic. If the Emperor disagrees, then he will have to define what his Grandfather's Charter means so that we can fulfill it and take back our purpose. The Phoenix adore the Emperor, and we would never harm him, but we chafe at not being able to help to our fullest now."
Ugh, the Jade Champion position was useful to you, it would be useful to your descendants, and whatever the Phoenix might claim; making Horiuchi Shem-Zhe the last would sit poorly with the Unicorn. The Scorpion had for generations considered Yogo Yoshi to be a mark of personal failure for the family of the Yogo. Yogo Junzo had handily taken that title of 'great failure' away from the man, but the point remained. The Unicorn would take it as an implicit rebuke that you considered the position tainted by Shem-Zhe. Unlike the Scorpion who were used to being rebuked due to their actions, the Unicorn would not forget it, and likely blame the Phoenix for it, adding yet more tension between the two clans.
The Elemental Council did have a point though. The Phoenix had recovered, if not to the full strength they held in their hey day of the Hantei centuries ago, enough that they felt secure to send one of their Elemental Legions far away, they had fulfilled the charter that your grandfather had given them by a reasonable argument. Not giving the Phoenix some new duty or task to bend themselves towards would see them resuming their intrigues towards the Jade Championship. And you hardly needed more reasons for the clans to pick at each other.
Naomi looks at you expectantly, not for an immediate answer but at least some indication of where your thoughts are, so you marshal yourself, and say...
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