Starlit Reflections

Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics, Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment and Viz Communications. This fanfic is for personal entertainment only and not for profit in any way. If there was any, Tasuki would probably insist on a donation to his next pub crawl.

Chapter Twelve: Dinner and Discussion

 Every eye fixed on Yui as she entered the dining hall, an entirely unexpected barrage of interest making her feel as exposed as if she were naked - which was an entirely silly thing to feel, in the long trousers and high-necked, full-sleeved tunic she was wearing.  She glanced quickly from one side of the hall to the other, taking in the hall at a glance.

 Priests and priestesses sat at long tables, where they had been eating and talking quietly amongst themselves.  Some still were; others had looked at her, apparently decided that she wasn't that interesting, and gone back to their meals.  Many, however, were watching her, waiting for her next action.

 Several novice priests and priestesses were standing around the hall.  The dishes in their hands indicated that they had been serving their elders' meals, but now they were just standing, watching her.

 Soi stepped forward from behind her.  "It's best to just smile, Lady Yui," she said, very softly.  "They won't do anything until the three of us sit down.  Our seats are up there, at the head table."

 Yui swallowed, smiled woodenly at the room, and walked as quickly as she could to the table Soi indicated.

 Four people were already sitting there.  One was an old man, wearing his silvered hair and beard long, dressed in a midnight-blue robe.  He looked intelligent, slightly dyspeptic and thoroughly bored.  The woman sitting beside him looked to be of a similar age, but her robe was sky-blue.  Her snow-white hair was tied up in a no-nonsense bun speared through with six metal hairpins that looked as if they could very easily be daggers, and her dark eyes gleamed with good humour as she watched the small procession cross the room.  Beside her sat a man.  Yui felt her eyes widen as she took in the tall feathered headdress, the stripes of black, blue and red makeup on the bone-whitened face, framed by the long beaded tails of hair.  His golden eyes stared at her, blank, without any emotion.  Then he glanced at Soi, and Yui shivered in the reflection of the icy animosity that shimmered between them.  The fourth was a boy, who looked a little older than her.  His grey-blue eyes were very serious as he watched Yui walk up to the table.

 She sat down beside the boy, and glanced at him again, then glanced to her left, where Suboshi was taking his seat.  She looked back at the boy on her right.  He caught her glance and smiled.  "Your eyes are fine," he smiled.  "I am Amiboshi, Suboshi's older brother."

 "We're twins," Suboshi informed her quickly.

 Yui blinked and nodded.  She waited as the novices were cajoled into action once more, and she, Suboshi and Soi were served.  The meal consisted of some slivers of roast pork, various types of vegetables cooked in rice, miso broth, plain rice and bamboo shoots fried in sesame oil.  It smelled delicious, and she picked up her chopsticks with a good will.

 "That 'Emperor' has less respect for the Temple every year," the old man grumbled.  "Look at this!"

 "I know," the old woman commiserated.  "But what can you do?  He thinks that he doesn't need Lord Seiryuu's support, the foolish boy."

 After a few mouthfuls, Yui's curiosity was no longer suborned by her hunger, and she decided to try to get the answers she needed.  "Excuse me," Yui said to Amiboshi, "but will you tell me what is going on?"

 Amiboshi hastily swallowed a mouthful of vegetables.  "What exactly do you want to know?" he asked politely.

 "Well - everything, really.  Who is Seiryuu?  Why do Soi and Suboshi say I'm their Priestess?  What's going on, and where do I fit in?"

 Amiboshi shot a sour look down the table.  Soi and Suboshi blinked at him innocently.  "Well," he began, "Seiryuu is the Azure Dragon, represented by the Lightning that shoots from the Heavens to the Earth.  Some say He is as a tree that reaches from the Earth to the Heavens -"

 "He is the Holy Tree, young man," the old woman interrupted him.  "No 'some say' about it!"

 Amiboshi sighed.  "Very well, my Lady High Priestess," he said in a long-suffering tone.  "He is the Holy Tree."

 The older woman nodded decidedly.  "My Lady, Our Lord Seiryuu knew there would come a time when we would need to call upon His power more directly.  To that end, He gave to us a prophecy - that there would be born seven warriors who would bear His mark and His strength, and in their time a Priestess would come from another world, who would combine the seven into one and use their power to call upon Lord Seiryuu, whereupon she would become the vessel of His power and her wishes would become reality."  She stopped and took a mouthful of her dinner.

 The old man sitting at the end of the table sniffed his tea suspiciously.  "Three wishes."

 Yui craned her neck.  "I'm sorry, sir?"

 "The Priestess of Seiryuu gets three wishes, and that's it."  The old man sipped as delicately as a girl at his china cup.  "She can remould reality with those wishes, but she's only got three chances."  He fixed her with a beady stare.  "So don't waste them, my Lady."

 She blinked at him.  "I don't understand what you mean, sir."

 "Don't play dumb, my Lady," the old man snapped.  "Four of the seven Shichiseishi are here in this room, and you suddenly appear out of nowhere, wearing the most outlandish, not to mention immodest, garments and with the aura of Lord Seiryuu's power turning the air blue around you.  If you're not the Priestess of Seiryuu then I haven't been the High Priest of X'ientu for the past thirty years."

 "Kang Li!" the High Priestess hissed.  "You shouldn't talk like that to the Priestess of Seiryuu!"

 "It's all right," Yui hastened to reassure the woman.

 The painted man began to laugh.  Amiboshi, Suboshi, Yui and the two Heads of the Temple all looked at him questioningly, but he merely shook his head and continued to eat his dinner.

 Miaka bit her lip as she bent over her History text.  Dates and names danced around in her mind, constantly rushing off to hide behind visions of food, Yui... and Tamahome....

It's over, she told herself. I couldn't be their Priestess, I have responsibilities here.

But you wanted to be, a treacherous little voice reminded her.  You could've stayed....

But I didn't, she retorted.  I'm here, where I belong....

Do you? another voice from within asked.  Do you really?

 "Of course I do!" she snapped, out loud.

 "'Of course you do' what?" a baritone voice asked quizzically from the doorway.  Miaka looked up to see a young man with a shock of spiky blond-brown hair and green eyes, similar to her own, leaning on her bedroom doorjamb, holding a steaming cup of instant noodles in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other.

 "ELDER BROTHER!" she shouted, jumping up and running over to glomp him.

 Keisuke managed not to spill the hot broth or lose any noodles as he was suddenly embraced by his younger sister, but he would be the first to admit it was due more to good luck than to good management.  The chopsticks went flying and a sad crunch told him they were gone to wherever good chopsticks go when they die.  He sighed; they had been a nice, enamelled pair, too.  "Hey, Miaka," he said, patting her awkwardly with his right hand.  "What happened?"

 Miaka pulled him over her bed and set him down on it.  "It's a long story...."

 "I need some new chopsticks...."

 She fished a pair out of her desk drawer and handed them to him.  He inspected them, polished them on his sleeve, and then started to use them, as Miaka began to tell him what had happened in the National Library that afternoon.

 There was a loud fanfare of trumpets outside the door of the dining hall, and the large doors were flung open.  Outside it stood a cavalcade of courtiers, dressed in fine silks

 "His Majesty, Tsu Rin, August Emperor of the Koutou Empire!" the herald at the door cried into the sudden silence.  He stepped back, to reveal a man who looked like he was about thirty.  His mouth was set into petulant lines and his eyes were hard and greedy.  He looked like when he was younger he had been heavily muscled, but idleness and rich living had turned muscle to fat, and all the silk and embroidery in the world couldn't give it back.  That hadn't stopped his tailor from trying.

 This vision of dissipation advanced into the room.  He glanced from side to side at the silent ranks of the priesthood of Seiryuu, and then up at the high table, where Yui sat.  He glanced at her, and the hard eyes brightened with avarice.  He gestured at his escort, and an older man stepped forward.  He glanced at the Emperor, who nodded.

 "We have heard," the courtier began smoothly, "that a great and long-awaited personage has presented herself to the Temple this day."  He glanced at the Emperor, who frowned at him.  The courtier swallowed and continued  "His Majesty the Emperor was most startled and disappointed not to be offered the chance to extend to her his most heartfelt welcome and hospitality."

 Yui had been watching the Emperor, bile rising in her throat, as the courtier had spoken.  She recognised the look in his eyes as they crawled over her face and body; the street ruffians had worn a similar expression.  At least they had been open and honest about their desires.

 Yui stood up suddenly, cutting off the rest of the courtier's speech.  "Please convey to his Imperial Majesty my sincere thanks for his good wishes, and my apologies," she said loudly, her voice carrying out into the corridor.  "However, I may not accept his hospitality.  I am a Priestess, and thus my proper place is here, in the Temple of my Lord Seiryuu.  I truly appreciate the great honour his Majesty is prepared to do me, but I am not of the Court and I will not be joining it, and so it is most inappropriate for me to accept it."

 The courtier stared at her, shocked.  "But you can't!" he burst out.

 Yui felt her lips set in a grim line.  'Can't'?  What I can't do is go off alone with a man who wants to make me have sex with him!  "I am sorry to say that I must.  As you may see, my lord, only four of the Seven Shichiseishi of Seiryuu are seated here with me.  I must find the other three as soon as possible."  She bowed.  "Please convey my thanks to the Emperor for his invitation, but as you can see, I may not accept it."  She sat down again, firmly, and gripped Suboshi's arm under the table.

 The Emperor looked as if he were suddenly sucking a lemon, while the courtier looked downright scared.  "I must ask that her Grace reconsider...."

 Suboshi flung his Taisuisen out at the man.  He whirled it about the room, breaking empty cups and strangling innocent curtains, before sending it to spin menacingly in front of the Emperor.  "Her Grace the Priestess of Seiryuu has given you her answer!  As a Shichiseishi of Seiryuu, it's my duty to ensure she is not distressed in any way - such as by having to refuse you repeatedly!"

 Yui smiled at Suboshi, and the boy almost began to glow under her approval.  Soi sighed almost inaudibly and looked at her plate rather than anything else.

 The Emperor's lips set in a thin line, and he gestured sharply at the door.  Mumbling apologies, the courtiers withdrew from the dining hall.  There was dead silence for almost a full minute.

 Then, Soi said, "We'll leave in an hour."

 "Huh?" Suboshi said intelligently.

 "The Emperor will not take no for an answer," she explained patiently.  "He's withdrawn to prepare for his next move.  So we have to move first, and I suggest a strategic retreat."

 "To where, Miss Soi?" the painted man drawled.  "We're at the Temple of Seiryuu already."

 "Why, Tomo," Soi purred venomously, "I should have thought it was obvious.  Her Grace has already said that we have to search for our remaining three Shichiseishi.  I suggest we leave on that journey - immediately."

 "I agree," Amiboshi said heavily.

 Yui looked down.  "I'm sorry," she said quietly.  "I didn't mean to make you all have to leave like this."

 "Don't worry about it," Suboshi told her.  "I don't blame you at all.  The Emperor is not a nice person!"

 "And you were right not to want to go with him," Soi added.  "I would have stopped him if Suboshi hadn't.  It's just that now we have to deal with the consequences."

 "The resources of the Temple are yours, of course," the High Priestess said firmly.

 "Hn," the High Priest grunted in affirmation.  "That boy needs to be taken down a peg or two.  Trying to steal our Priestess out of our own Temple!  Get away, that'll give him one in the eye.  It would never have happened in his uncle's day - whatever else you say about him -"

 "And there was plenty that was said about him," the acolyte taking Yui's plate away muttered under his breath.

 "- he respected the Temple and honoured Seiryuu properly!"

 Yui bowed as she left the hall, and followed Soi.  She didn't have much to pack, but there was no rule that said she couldn't help.

 After Keisuke finished choking, and Miaka had finished hitting him on the back, he sat back and looked at his younger sister.  "So, you're telling me that you fell into a book."

 "Yes."

 "And you had lots of adventures."

 "Pretty much, yes."

 "And you came back."

 "You can see that."

 "Miaka, I have only one thing to say," Keisuke said.

 "What's that, Elder Brother?"

 "Get rid of the drugs immediately."

 "YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME?!?"

 "Miaka," Keisuke said in a long-suffering tone of voice, "people don't 'fall into' books and have adventures.  In fact, books are noted for their solidity.  I know you're under a lot of stress right now and it feels like everyone's against you, but believe me, no pill, no matter how good it makes you feel, is the answer."

 "I'm NOT on drugs!" Miaka snapped.

 "All right, all right," Keisuke said, "you must have fallen asleep and had a very vivid dream."

 "A vivid dream?" Miaka repeated incredulously.  She took a deep breath, trying to think of something to convince Keisuke with, and shoved her hand in her pocket.  She felt her finger slide over the edge of something soft and silky.  She pulled it out, glanced at it, and then threw it at him.  "I dreamed this?"

 Keisuke caught Nuriko's chemise, held it up, and blushed bright red.  "Err... I guess not."

 "So you believe me now?!" she said triumphantly.

 "Let's just say I'm suspending my disbelief."  Keisuke laid the silken undergarment down.  "Miaka, this worries me.  I want you to promise me that you won't try to re-enter that world."

 "Elder Brother, I thought you didn't believe me."

 "I'm serious, Miaka.  You're under a lot of stress right now.  Going into that world - if you can - could be very dangerous.  Miaka, promise me."

 Miaka frowned.  Making this promise was easy, right?  It wasn't like she ever intended to go back.  But somehow it felt wrong.  "I won't go into the book to escape from my problems, Elder Brother."

 Keisuke frowned at her odd wording, but let it go.  "All right.  Hey, you want something to eat?"

 Miaka was out of the room and heading towards the kitchen so fast her desk chair fell over.

 Nuriko sighed.  Hotohori was staring out the window and humming under his breath.  The melody was sweet and slow and she could almost fit words to it.

 The last councillor was winding up his speech and it was amazing how Hotohori suddenly became Emperor Saiheitei as the man launched into the closing cadences of his speech.

 She managed to sit up and manufacture a reasonable facsimile of respectful attention as Hotohori graciously accepted the man's speech as though he had been paying close attention to every word.

 Hotohori caught her elbow as the two of them walked toward the exit, stretching slowly.  "I will be inviting Lady Houki to take tea with me this afternoon," he said softly.  "I trust this acceptable?"

 Nuriko glanced around and saw three councillors lingering in earshot, including Lord Yukino.  "Of course it is," she said calmly, trying to ignore the way her heart was suddenly beating far too fast.  It was entirely due to the prospect of the run to her rooms, she decided.

 "Good," Hotohori said, with a smile.  She bowed to him respectfully, and sauntered out of the room.

 Once outside the room, though, she slumped against the wall for a few moments.  Why do I feel like this? she asked herself.  Nothing's changed.  He's smiled at me before, and we've drunk tea together before.  Why am I suddenly so... so aware of him?  I don't understand myself at all anymore....

 She stood and began to walk towards the seraglio - but a quiet saunter, not her usual dash, and she was thinking the entire way.