A Wuxia Tale: Blades and Flowers

Demand

(DAYU)

"Give my son ultimate immunity. Pardon every crime you think he committed by coming here stealthily. Erase every record of disobedience. Give him a clean slate and clear permission to stay here. In short, make my son pure and golden, Your Majesty." I uttered every letter of every word in that statement with clarity and sans hesitation.

"His crime you think I think he committed?" The Shah gave me an incredulously amused look. "Master Dayu, your son stabbed a royal blood in a market place filled with people who witnessed his crime." The Mughal Shah said with emphasis on the word "witnessed".

I stopped an eyebrow from shooting up. "And you are the ever powerful Shah. Whats the problem?" I said, sounding a tad confuse.

"Is this how you manage the Master General? By stroking his ego with his title and then ordering him about?"

"I've never called General Wang "ever powerful" before." I said. "But maybe, I do that to him from time to time. Order him around. But my thought in that is that I am his lover. If anyone has rights to order the man around, its me. And its not like I have to force the issue. He is willing enough to do anything to make me happy. Thats what he claimed he is doing."

"Making you happy..."

"He loves me." I said, a little smugly.

The Shah's amusement melted. "I think we should establish some rules in this talk, Master Dayu. I am the Shah. I make the law here. My will will prevail. Not yours..."

I sighed. "I love rules. I think in that we agree, Your Majesty. But I also love facts. And one of those facts is the truth that your son is marching close to your capital to start a civil war for your throne and crown. Now, if someone will ask me, I would gladly leave this place with my partner and son to avoid getting tangled with your tug of war game with your son. And I am sure General Wang will agree with me..."

I stopped talking when the Shah raised a hand to halt me. He sighed. "Is this also another tactic of yours? Talk the other person's ear off. Why do you have so much to say...?"

"Because I am angry, Your Majesty." I said with a small smile on my lips. "Its either I talk until your ears fall off or I will start killing people around and I will start with your precious hostage..."

"You will kill your First Prince..."

"No. I mean your brother in law," I clarified. "Without HaRon as a bargaining chip, do you think your son will stay amicable? Lets admit it, HaRon is a catalyst that could ignite this war."

"That is why I am keeping him alive." The Shah growled a little.

"Good. We all want him alive. But still the question remains, if a civil war does happen, who has the upper hand?"

The Shah didn't reply. I think we are both aware that the one who will most benefit if a civil war in his kingdom happens is the Middle Kingdom. My Captain and a good number of his soldiers are already in the capital. Not to mention the manpower Captain Jiang and I both brought with us in this journey to stand guard for our families. Also there is Captan Wei waiting in the Southern border with his own batallion of warriors.

Once chaos broke out here in Agra, whoever wins between the Shah and his Crown Prince, the Middle Kingdom Army could easily overpower them with the force we have. Truly, a civil war here is to our advantage.

"Maybe instead of thinking of ways to twist everything in your mind to conjure a delusion that you somehow could get out of this sticky situation in one piece, you could start using the tools you have in your arsenal, Your Majesty." I said to the Shah.