The Wandering God

49 Grow Old And Die Without Ever Crossing Paths 1/3

老死不相往來
Lǎo sǐ bù xiāng wǎnglái
Grow old and die without ever meeting.
Live life without ever having had any dealings with each other.

*~*~*~*~*~*

It rained all through the springing season, for which I was glad. I do not think I could have stood a sunny spring.

I had decided to leave the prince at the end of the rainy season. It was my favorite of the seasons, of course, but even I could admit it was much better enjoyed with the comfort of a roof over one's head.

I had promised Zakhar I would return to the Valley, and to Sanli. I had not promised him I would stay.

The little prince did not beg me not to go, as I had thought he would. However, he seemed determined to make my last month at Wo You Nai as happy as possible. Perhaps in an attempt to dissuade me from leaving.

"I have brought you your favorite breakfast yet again, my goddess!" chimed Sanli early one morning, his voice like the bell that rouses monks from sleep for morning prayer.

I sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes with a palm. The rain had stopped briefly, and something like morning sun came in the open doors, though it was washed thin by the clouds.

Sanli stood at the door to my room, a tray piled high with dishes of all sorts in his arms. I thought it charming he had brought it himself, instead of having a servant do it.

I bade him put the tray on the bed and join me in eating the many treats on it.

"Ermi is leaving later this week," Sanli said, popping a hot cake filled with berries into his mouth. "She will come by later, and we will have a celebration."

"Where will she go?"

"She is going to stay with my brother in his estate in the Central Regions," Sanli explained.

"Your brother is regent of this kingdom. Why does he spend so much of his time in another?" I asked. Lu had kept an estate near the capital, but had visited infrequently.

"A good question!" said Sanli, popping another cake into his mouth. "And one which many ministers have brought up. Why maintain a costly residence in another kingdom, when most of his duties are here?"

Sanli raised his eyebrows at me, and I quickly figured it out.

"Your brother's wife. Lady Wang. She is of the Dashu clan. Their Clan home is in the Capital," I said. Those rats.

Sanli nodded. "That's right. Aunt Wang is human, adopted into a mu'ren clan for the purpose of marriage to other humans."

The rats want them close by. To keep a finger on the regent.

"Aunt Wang insists she cannot live anywhere but the Central Regions. So my brother Xiangli splits his time between there and here."

"But what of his duties?" I said, incredulous. "He is the regent!"

Sanli shrugged. "Xiangwu has long since taken over most of the regent's duties. And more recently Zhangyu. That besides, my father gave a fair amount of the Green throne's power away to his ministers. Not that they know what to do with it. Or care. Most have been bought by wealthy merchants with only their own interests in mind."

I stopped and thought. Politics, the cold silent wars for power that lingered between actual wars, had never much interested me. But I knew from my time with Lu and the others that they were complex. A never ending struggle for prestige and the ability to do as you wished.