CC3 -CH17- (Patreon)

“First, we need to change the audience,” Ash said and then looked to everyone else present. There were far too many people here to casually question the queen without revealing what they learned.

“I can seal the area with Qi and prevent outsiders from hearing, like Master Li-Yong did,” Locke offered. “Or you just send everyone away. I would suggest the latter, as it would hide the ability to silence an area.”

“Everyone, leave,” Ash said decissively. “Royal guards, guard the doors from the outside. Let no one enter, except the commander of the royal guard. Gather up everyone who was in the queen’s house hold. Servants, slaves, employees, family, everyone. We’ll need to question them all as well.”

There was an immediate response from everyone present.

A mad scramble to get out of the room with alacrity. No one wanted to be in here it seemed and less so for anyone who might be attached to the queen.

All those who weren’t royal guards in the room were also being quickly rounded up. They’d no doubt be taken elsewhere and sat down to await their fate.

It only took a minute or two, but everyone was gone quickly. Leaving the queen alone with Ash and his people.

“Now, we’ll begin with the obvious question,” Ash said, looking down at once queen. “Who promised you these things? Who’s the opposing party here that set up the death of the king?”

“I don’t know who they are. I only knew Wen,” grumbled the woman beneath Na’s boot. She didn’t seem to be resisting in any way. She lay there meekly, unmoving. “I only ever communicated with the servant you… you killed. That was Wen. They were my point of contact with the group. They never told me who they were or their names or anything.”

Ash raised his eyebrows at that admission.

“Are you stupid?” asked Tala as if she absolutely dumbfounded. “You were working with a group of people you didn’t even know? Not only didn’t know, but their names? Their faces?

“How could you even figure out what their agendas were? If they weren’t going to just kill you after they dealt with your husband? For all you knew, they were going to turn you into a puppet as soon as you’d done as they’d asked!”

“I could’ve handled them,” groused the queen. “They have no real power that I didn’t give them. Without me they couldn’t have even gotten close to the king and I could’ve just as easily had the royal security forces run them down.”

“Foolish,” muttered Chunhua. “Foolish and prideful. She doesn’t even realize how bad this situation is. She seems to think this is perhaps nothing more than a squabble between noble families.”

“I’m afraid, this is far more than something you could’ve handled,” said Ash, looking at the queen’s face. She wasn’t meeting his eyes but she was clearly listening. “You were working with Cultivators. Not citizens.

“If you didn’t notice it… Wen tried to kill you with a Qi attack. Once they realized you were exposed and could provide some information they deemed you a risk. I wouldn’t doubt for an instant that this Wen would have turned around and killed themselves if they couldn’t escape after that.”

“No, that was clearly an—”

Na leaned forward putting more weight down on the woman’s back, causing her to groan suddenly.

“You were working with cultivators,” Na hissed and then shook her head.

It was obvious to Ash that Na seemed frustrated and angry at this woman.

“Tyan-yu and Hou were working with the very same cultivators,” she continued in a more normal voice. “They killed your husband, his uncle, and more than likely would have tried to kill your son and daughter as well.

“Their goal wasn’t to put you on the throne, but Hou. He would sit on the throne and govern. His family name is Langye, yours is not. You’re not of the royal family.

“More than likely with his father assisting him a great deal all while sentencing what remained of the royal family to death. You damned your entire family for nothing but a petty ambition that wouldn’t get you very far.”

“So,” Ash said, setting up to redirect the conversation back to where he needed it. “What exactly did you do to help them kill your husband? Because it didn’t seem as if Tyan-yu and Hou were really ready for this to happen.”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen yet,” agreed the queen in a low voice. It sounded to Ash that Na’s words had struck her deeply. “They were going to kill him on the trip back to the Imperial City. In the middle of nowhere.

“Blame it on bandits and a few cultivators. Make it seem like the carriage was just completely over-run. I’ve been hiring people to go out and act as bandits on the trade routes. Make it look more plausible. I was also the one who talked the king into going. To leave his place of power.”

“What of Hu and Ju? Would your children have been killed as well?” Ash asked.

“Yes,” the queen said simply. “They’re not my children. Just little parasites that were forced on me by that beast that was my husband.

“Wen… Wen promised me they could give me back my youth. I could be a young queen and have my own king. That I could have my own children that I wanted. I could cast off the cuffs of slavery that’d been put on me in a marriage I wanted no part of. To start a family I actually wanted.”

Well, her feelings make sense. A forced marriage sounds like it was the starting event here.

So… take Ju, multiply it, turn it bitter, and add in a few other things like a not so kind husband, and boom.

There you go.

Home grown problems in your own bed just waiting for a catalyst to blow it up. I can’t even imagine how this went so far without anyone even noticing.

“— your duty,” Chunhua said without any pity. “You could have run away and lived your life on your own before your marriage. You didn’t want to lose out in the warm things in life that your family gave you, so you stayed.

“That means you accepted what they wanted to do. This world has millions of people in it and you’d just be one more in the mass. No, you chose to enjoy the privileges given to you, then balked when someone asked you to pay the price.”

I guess… that’s a valid view point, too.

At least for this place.

“Is there anything else you could add that might help us put this all to rest? To figure out who was really behind it all?” Ash asked, not wanting to go to what Chunhua had been talking about. He wasn’t really sure he could hold his mother-in-law to the same convictions his people did.

“No. Wen was all I knew,” grumbled the once queen.

“Fine,” Ash said and then sighed, looking up to the ceiling above him. Coming to a fairly easy decision he looked back down to the woman at his feet. “We’ll need to confine her to quarters and let Hu and Ju deal with her. This isn’t something I can just rule on.

“Anything below the royal family level and I can do what’s best for Hu and the kingdom based on my own feelings.”

“That seems fair,” Tala said with a nod of her head. “As an in-law it isn’t your place to decide family dynamics like that either. You’re making the right choice.”

There were several head nods in agreement at that.

“Now we just wait for the commander of the royal guard,” Ash said and folded his hands in his lap. “Locke, would you mind going back and working on things?”

Which really was just Ash asking if she wouldn’t mind going back into the Hall and working on Wen and the others. They had answers that they were going to need now more than ever.

Time was no longer in their favor and they needed to know what they were dealing with.

“Of course, my Chosen One,” purred Locke who then promptly vanished.

Tala let out a slow breath and then her head turned toward Chunhua.

“I vastly underestimated her. Did you as well?” asked the long-eared warrior.

“Yes. Yes I did. But I don’t think it’s a concern,” replied Chunhua with an odd tone but she didn’t explain any further.

Na ignored it all and just stood where she was. Her hat and veil tilted in such a way that it was obvious she was staring down at the back of the dowager-queen.

Ash suspected Na’s extreme dislike for the woman also involved her own dedication toward him.

But that was a question for another time.

When he wasn’t trying to pull a fraying canvas back together.

Deciding he needed an immediate break, Ash went and opened one of the doors leading out. There was a pair of royal guards right there who both looked to him.

“Please have whatever meal-time it is sent in,” Ash requested. “Settings for five, assuming the royal guard commander deigns to join us. Thank you.”

Closing the door, Ash went back to the large chair and sat himself down.

And waited.

***

A sudden clack at the door drew Ash’s attention away from the board game he was playing with Chunhua. Looking toward the doorframe he was surprised when an older man walked in, causing the women in the room to grab their veiled hats and put them back on.

He was dressed in a uniform that was very similar to the royal guards though this one was much more richly made. With fabrics that were probably ten times the value in cost alone.

He was at least six foot, a frame that had mostly muscle to it, and looked like an outlander to Ash. He didn’t fit the racial norm of the veil. His eyes were a hazel color though his hair matched the veil in a hue of brown that’d fit in.

“I’m sorry for my late arrival, Lord Sheng,” said the man, closing the door behind himself. “I received your missive and then found myself with a great deal of work to do.

“A number of squadrons suddenly started attacking everyone and anything around. They seemed to be trying to fight their way to the throne room. For what purpose I don’t know since there was no one there.”

The man’s eyes drifted over to where the dowager-queen was in the corner of the room. She was bound, gagged, and tied wrist to ankle.

Forgotten and left alone as if she were a bit of discarded furniture.

“Ah, that would be one of the reasons I’d wanted to talk to you,” Ash said with a slow nod of his head. Glancing back to Chunhua, Ash gestured at the game of go between them. “I concede this match. You had me dead to rights.”

Chunhua had put her hat and veil back on by this point but he knew she was grinning at him from behind it. Grinning and likely looking as if she were the cat that caught the canary.

Standing up, Ash went over to the commander.

“Lord Sheng, I am Stephen Heter,” said the commander, bowing deeply to Ash as he approached. His name confirmed the fact to Ash that this man wasn’t a natural inhabitant of this veil. “I’ve gone ahead and begun working on having all squadrons rearranged and reorganized. I’m sure theres some who are attempting to lay low rather than break out their swords.

“Unfortunately there were… there were notable casualties before anyone could truly act. A force of men also attempted to break the closure of the gates you ordered, though there’s no reports of any forces beyond.”

“I’m sure they’ll show up today, tonight, or early tomorrow. It’s very possible they could be cultivators so you might want to keep your own cultivators available,” said Ash with a shake of his head. He didn’t doubt in the least that Hou, or someone from his camp, was on the way. They would be trying to do the same thing Ash had done.

“Cultivators?” asked Stephen in a concerned voice. “Why… why would Cultivators be involved in these royal matters?”

Ash understood the question behind that question as well. The commander was attempting to ask why Ash was here, as well.

“Because Tyan-yu and Hou aligned themselves with cultivators to try and overpower the king. Unfortunately… the king didn’t put any limits to that,” explained Ash. “In fact, the man didn’t even seem able to to much of anything other than take up space. I was there when he was killed by a cultivator employed by Tyan-yu.

“The prior king had about as much royal command as a monkey trying to steal lunch from someone. He had absolutely no control over anyone there.”

The commander winced at that but didn’t disagree. He didn’t even shake his head.

He just stood there, as if he were of the same opinion.

“So, Tyan-yu employed cultivators,” Ash continued. “Hu and Ju approached me to marry Ju. To become her husband and ally Hu and his close family member’s with my Sheng family and alliance.

“I’m here as Hu’s entrusted messenger and servant, I’m married to his sister, and she’s now the crowned princess since Hu has no heir’s at this time.”

Ash summoned the seal of the king and held it out to Stephen.

Staring at it, there was no argument in the man. He’d apparently seen the seal on a previous occasion and didn’t seem impressed by it.

“That’s the situation in a nutshell,” finished Ash, dismissing the seal back into the Hall. “Well, that and apparently the queen was in on it. She was attempting to dispose of her children, her husband, and more or less everyone.

“She was working with the cultivators who killed the king and indirectly with Tyan-yu. I’m going to turn her over to Hu and Ju so they can deal with her. She’s their mother after all.”

“Yes, I… I see,” said Stephen who then let out a short huff. “How can I assist you, lord Sheng?”

“We need to put in a call to assembly. All the noble heads across the kingdom must come and witness Hu’s formal coronation,” Ash said. “On top of that, until Hu arrives, I need to work with whoever’s managing what. I expect you to help guide me to the correct people so that I can get on with keeping everything moving in the right direction here.

“Then we turn it all over to Hu once he gets here in a few days. I plan on respecting the will of the High Lord, the Emperor of the Heavens. A cultivator shall not sit on the throne, and the Realm Lord shall not have domain over citizens.”

There was an intense relief in the commander’s eyes at that statement. It was obvious the man was curious if Ash was in the middle of usurping the throne, or would remain once Hu arrived.

“I’ll of course be on hand if needed, as Ju’s husband,” said Ash to remind the man that he wasn’t exactly out of the picture. “As it was I and my people who defended and saved his majesty while the royal guard fought itself.”

“Completely understandable,” agreed Stephen.

“Now, you said there were notable casualties. Do you mean numerically or specific people,” said Ash. “If the latter, who, if the former, how many?”

“The… the latter, lord Sheng,” confirmed Stephen who then promptly bowed at the waist to him. “The Langye family was completely exterminated by traitorous guards. Only… only Hu, Ju, Tyan-yu, and Hou remain of their line.”

Ash clicked his tongue at that.

That was rather unfortunate news and on oversight on his part. He should have sent someone to round up the royal family while he was dealing with the queen and the commander.

“Tyan-yu is very likely dead,” Ash said. “Which means it’s only Hu, Ju, and Hou. Hu will need to get busy with the child making.”

“And… and Ju, lord Sheng,” added Stephen. “Lady Ju will need to produce children as quickly as possible. There must be a second line in case the main line fails. The Langye family has been in power for thousands of years and their bloodline has remained unbroken.

“It’s a command by the Emperor himself. Lady Ju will need to bear children to insure there is no break in the bloodline.”

Ah… hm.

Guess I’ll be getting divorced much sooner than I thought. There’s no way she can have the children of a cultivator as the crowned princess.

That’s fine. I didn’t have much more than a fleeting relationship with her.

“Thank you for informing me, Stephen, “ Ash said with gratitude. It was a political mine he hadn’t known of and likely would have stepped on it at a later time. “For now, how about we have a quick meal, discuss who I need to speak with, and go from there. Because once we figure that out, we’ll need to have all the royal guards, all the city guards, every single person in service to the palace be they maid, slave, minister, or otherwise, all lined up.

“One gigantic standing formation so that I can tour them all. That literally means everyone in an exact spot where they should be with full attendance, while I walk from one end, all the way to the other. Where I can see and inspect every single person if I decided I needed to.”

“I… I… that is a significant ask, lord Sheng,” stammered Stephen. “The earliest possible would be tomorrow so we can make sure everyone is there.”

“That’s fine. I know it’ll be a tough ask but I’m sure you can do it. I can also provide limited assistance to you as I’ve brought a few powerful and talented people with me to make sure everyone complies with the order. They’re as capable as I am, if not more.”

Ash gestured to Tala, Na, and Chunhua who weren’t far off. They’d been watching and listening the entire time.

“More will likely be on the way as well to assist us,” Na stated sharply. “I made sure to inform Mei and Ying-Yue of our situation and where we were going by cultivator carried letter. I think we’ll have reinforcements sooner rather than later.”

Damnit.

Knowing the two of them, there’s the strong possibility they might do more than just send reinforcements.

It’s quite possible they could end up bringing the entirety of Sheng alliance here.

That or asking Gen to intervene.

I’m not sure what would be worse.

The Sheng alliance being that visible, or Gen showing up with likely a sour disposition about the situation.