Jijing (Present Day Tianping) - March 4, 1649
The Palace of Perpetual Joy - Capitol of the Jizhou Emperor
冀京 - 長樂宮
The Palace of Perpetual Joy - Capitol of the Jizhou Emperor
冀京 - 長樂宮
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In the year of the second earthly branch of the sixth heavenly stem, the Year of the Ox, the end of the world began. In a quiet corner of the Empire's heartland, a power unlike that ever before faced by the Son of Heaven had been activated. A threat simultaneously from within and from without, it was a force against which the Jade Emperor had no weapon. It was a blinding yellow light. And it would destroy the world.
But the Second Prince of Ji was unaware of his family's doom awakening in the provinces as he himself was roused from sleep by the clang of an enormous gong in the palace courtyard. The priests of Dao would start their morning ritual soon, the throaty sound of which irked Prince Hao to no end. He prodded the young lady next to him, she was still fighting the notion of opening her eyes. “A Mei,” the Prince called his favorite concubine's name, immediately catching her attention, “Leave me.” She was fantastically beautiful, he was reminded as she stood and stretched, considered perfect in all measures of traditional Chinese physical beauty. A Mei would have belonged to the Crown Prince, but Prince Hao was a luckier horseman that day, and his elder brother was apparently in a generous mood.
“Of course, Your Highness,” she answered, quickly throwing a silk robe over herself and bowing her head modestly, “Thank you, Your Highness, for the bed.”
“Out!” Hao yelled with feigned anger atop and a hidden smile beneath his face. He loved A Mei dearly; she would be his wife if not for her unfortunately low birth. The Prince had determined long ago that she would remain his concubine forever. But as a concubine, he had a responsibility to treat her this way. That was tradition.
Everything in Prince Hao's life was tradition. He wore traditional purple silk robes, wrapped his hair in a traditional knot, cut his beard into traditional lines. Eight hundred years of rule by his family had made Jizhou, the Land of the Ji, into the most powerful Empire on the planet. No single potentate governed more people, guided more vassals, guarded more treasure, commanded more soldiers or controlled more land than Hao's father. He was the Emperor of Tianxia, 'All Under Heaven.'
The Prince's attendants finished dressing him and the young man was on his way. Nearly twenty years old, Hao was considered the most classically handsome of the royal Princes of Ji. His elder brother, the Crown Prince Meng was learning governance as an executive in the provinces. The Third Prince, Wei, was studying law in the South. The Fourth, a mere boy, was to be a priest and found himself sequestered in the mountains at the time. Only Hao was left to tend to his father and battle the eunuchs.
The mournful dirge of the Dao masters swelled up over the courtyard along with the morning sun. Over the centuries, the Palace of Eternal Joy had been carefully adjusted, redesigned and rebuilt to more perfectly suit the tenets of Feng Shui, the traditional science of Wind and Water that directed all planning initiatives in the Empire. It had reached the point now that sunlight passed directly through a series of sacred arches that ran from the palace all the way out to the Temple of the Sun at the city's eastern gate. It was an architectural and engineering marvel, but Hao found the intense light of the morning sun to be a nuisance.
He entered the Jade Emperor's Throne Room, a chamber just as architecturally marvelous as the city of Jijing itself. It was enormous, monumental and cavernous. Its walls of perfectly lacquered wood were inlaid with precious stones from across the Empire. Images of past emperors and events from the House of Ji's glorious past made their way around the room until finally arriving at the Jade Throne itself. The room had been designed to be magnificent and beautiful in itself, but the architecture was also carefully planned such that the glory of the room would not dwarf the man himself. The throne was ornate, but sized in such a way that the Emperor would appear larger than life. The curvature of the room and the unique path of its walls likewise drew the eye toward and complimented the Son of Heaven.
But the seat was empty at the moment. The Emperor was still performing his morning rituals. The Second Prince of Ji had to arrive early in preparation. Only the Chancellor was present, taking fire from the Eternal Flame of the Dragon, a colossal brazier in the center of the room, to light torches throughout the chamber. “Lord Chancellor,” the Prince nodded.
“Your Highness,” the eunuch's voice was as high as his office, the snide squeaking accent a mark of great virtue and honor in Ji society.
“Any special appointments today?” the Prince avoided looking directly at Chancellor Wu. Hao considered all of the eunuchs, the highest-ranked imperial bureaucrats, his enemies. In his view, the eunuchs were too close to the Emperor; the slightest inconsistency or eccentricity in the Jade Emperor could result in Jizhou being ruled by a eunuch regency. It had happened before, and Hao thought the Chancellor especially suspicious.
“His Imperial Majesty has been taken with a curious illness, I'm afraid,” Wu answered, not turning away from his candle lighting duties, “The physicians are tending to the Emperor in His apartments. He will not be holding court today.”
An uncomfortable feeling rose in Hao's gut. A stricken Emperor was never a good sign, but something else was wrong, “Then why are you preparing the chamber?”
“Whether or not the Son of Heaven rises from his bed, the Empire must be governed,” Wu said with a muffled cackle, “The Empress will take Her throne today. And Her Imperial Majesty has certain expectations for the Jade Emperor's Throne Room that must not be neglected.” As if on cue, four other eunuch ministers arrived with baskets of chrysanthemums and a tightly leashed tiger.
“My mother? She hasn't taken her throne in years...” the Prince trailed off in memory,
“Fear not, Your Highness. The Empress will be well-advised. I will personally stand at her side the entire day.”
Of course.
“She is particularly excited to meet emissaries of the Aren King.”
“The Gold-hairs are coming today?” Hao became determined to uncover the recipe for Wu's palace intrigue soup, “Surely they should wait to visit the palace until the Emperor has recovered.”
“It seems they are operating on a very tight schedule. They must pay their tribute today and return to Shangdu immediately.” The Chancellor was briefly distracted by the Minister of Finance, struggling to make the Empress's tiger behave, “They will no doubt be disappointed they cannot make their offering to the Son of Heaven personally, but such is life. There is always next year.”
“For such a significant appointment, I will certainly do my best to make an appearance,” the Prince offered with feigned graciousness.
“That would certainly be an honor,” Wu collected a pile of scrolls from the Minister of Commerce, “But if I recall correctly, Your Highness has been appointed today to officiate the establishment of the new Friendship University at the west gate.”
“The ceremony will be delayed,” Hao declared authoritatively, briefly breaking Wu's straight face with a small flicker of irritation, “Or perhaps the Gold-hairs would like to see the new university. It is based on their academic methods, after all.”
“The paying of tribute is a centuries' old ceremony, steeped in tradition,” the Chancellor unraveled the scrolls and checked them one by one, “We cannot and will not simply relocate it to suit the schedule of a wayward Second Prince. You may open the court as per tradition, but we will here no more of your deviant proposals.”
The Prince shrugged. Sparring words with the Chancellor wouldn't get him anywhere. First and foremost, he had to make sure his father wasn't being murdered conniving eunuchs. “Of course, Lord Chancellor,” he said, dripping with irony, “Forgive my negligent lapse of tradition. Finish the preliminaries, I'll return shortly.”
He gave the Chancellor a royal nod and made for the imperial apartments.