^^ Go Board ^^

--- Arashi-Kumo ---

I gazed at the wooden sword on my desk, and then looked at Lee-Kahn. "Am I to learn the sword, now?" I asked him.

He nodded, brandishing his own wooden sword, just as artfully crafted as mine.

I picked up the wood, and hummed at its weight, much more than I'd thought it would be. "An iron core?" I asked.

He nodded.

I stood in front of him, and held it as best I could, copying him. He tapped my knuckles with his fingers, and showed me the color of his own, darker than mine.

"I'm gripping too tight?"

He nodded again, and stood across from me once more as I loosened my grip a bit.

His sword snaked out suddenly, towards my head, and I ducked, darting to his left side, in his nearly-blind spot, and swung at him clumsily.

He disappeared, and his foot swept my ankles out from under me.

I yelped and crashed to the floor, confused. "How'd you move so fast?" I asked.

He tapped his feet, and then moved again, when I was watching his ankles.

I raised my sword above me, just in time for his own to slam into it.

He permitted me to rise, nodding his silent praise.

I decided to try his technique, and shuffled forward at a pitiful copy of his movements, regardless of his apparent surprise when I did it.

He moved again, making me lose sight of him, and I simply closed my eyes, and waited for the whistle of the tip of his sword.

I ducked, and his sword went over my head, then I lashed out backwards, tagging his thigh.

He chuckled, and patted my head, then tapped my eyes gently.

I opened them, and he shook his head, once he saw me looking at him.

"I shouldn't close my eyes?" I asked.

He shook his head again.

"But my ears are better than my eyes." I protested.

He nodded, and shrugged, then suddenly his sword was against my throat.

I blinked at the soundlessness of the move, and grinned. "Will I learn that?"

He nodded, and then stepped back, readying himself again.

---

I collapsed finally, almost six hours later, by the progress of the sun, and groaned at my stuff muscles.

Lee-Kahn chuckled again, and patted my sweaty hair, pointing at the bathtub in one corner of the recently expanded tower. Instead of a perfect cylinder, it was now a cone, on the last two floors, almost five times as big.

The architects and masons had managed, (very ingeniously, according to Lord Ran,) to support the weight of the additions upon beams which set themselves into the foundation of the Tower almost a hundred feet.

Finding trees that were 200 feet tall had been a challenge, but one we were ready for, apparently, as we had to thin a local Redwood, which seemed like fate, to me.

The architect had commented just so to mother, who had actually smiled at the man at the insinuation I was the cause of that good fate.

The bottom floor had been converted into Lee-Kahn's own room, though he had to share with the Ravens, which he didn't mind.

The top floor had been made into my 'apartments'. An entrance had been walled off by paper screens, and the rest was open, and large enough for most anything, though I usually used it to draw the characters I learned from Lee-Kahn and Lord Ran.

I stepped towards the bath easily, removing my tunic.

--- 2 years later ---

I settled into the warm bath, and scrubbed the sweat from my body, then was surprised by a loud crashing sound, from Lee-Kahn's room.

I jumped out of the bath, wrapping a cloth around my waist, and took my metal sword (Unsharpened, for training purposes,) from the armoire, darting down the stairs.

I brandished the heavy blade at the tall man in Lee-Kahn's room, and he turned, surprised.

"Ah! My apologies, I see I've interrupted your bath." He nodded.

The crashing noise was coming from the gong, it would seem, and Lee-Kahn was kowtowing, his eyes upon the floor.

I did not lower the sword just yet, feeling out the situation. "Lord Arashi-Kumo of the honorable Kumo Clan greets you, stranger... who are you, to trespass here?"

He blinked slowly. "Ahh, you've never met me, have you? I am Nihitsu-Tama, father of Lord Ran-Tama, your mentor. And, your mother tells me, your father as well."

I dropped the sword with a crash and knelt, immediately. "Your unworthy son's greetings to the Great Jade Emperor." I breathed, shocked beyond anything I'd ever felt.

He nodded slowly. "Greetings. Now stand, and go dress, so we may speak like civilized men." He smiled teasingly.

I bowed my head and backed away slowly, up the stairs as carefully as I could, and once I was out of his sight, I dried myself with magic, and dressed in the red robes that Ran had given me for just this occasion.

I was back downstairs in less than three minutes, and I bowed again. "My apologies for the wait, Great Jade Emperor." I said clearly, getting my bearings.

He nodded. "You dressed very quickly. Impressive. Now sit with me. Your servant has been rather unforthcoming with conversation." He laughed softly.

I blinked, unsure if I was allowed to laugh, and he sighed. "This is no formal setting, child. Sit, drink, laugh. I wish to know my youngest son." He said softly.

I carefully sat at the small table that Lee-Kahn had built for himself and the guards who visited, and he set two bowls of sake on the table, then bowed, and backed away.

I cleared my throat gingerly, after drinking what I'd been served. "I confess, sake quite often gets to my head more quickly than I'd like." I said gingerly.

"Ahh, yes. You are only 6 summers of age, though, so that doesn't surprise me. Then, some sweet water?" He asked Lee-Kahn, who gulped.

He slowly shook his head, bowing deeply.

"Oh, I see. Yes, your personal sake would be all you had, of course. And regular water?" The emperor asked kindly.

Lee-Kahn immediately drew up some water from the pump that went all the way through the tower, connected to the lake all the castle water came from.

I smiled and accepted the large clay cup, sipping on the water to dull the taste of sake in my mouth.

"Very cold, I approve... now, Ran has been telling me that your studies accelerate at a rate he finds promising. Do you also believe your studies to be promising?" The emperor asked.

I blinked. "Promising? Well... I'd like to learn more, and Ran- excuse me, Lord Tama, is always ready to teach me anything I ask him, but I wonder at what I am not thinking of asking?" I said honestly.

He hummed, sipping the water, but keeping his sharp black eyes upon me. "Expand upon that?" He said simply.

"Well, I have asked him about the sun and moon and stars, but what about the earth beneath me? Does it, too, hold vast secrets? Of course this is only an example, I have asked him about the earth... but things I cannot know to ask bother me. Things I have never encountered, and therefore would know nothing of to even ask. Does the fish, after all, know of the moon?" I sighed softly.

He smiled widely. "And you are the fish?"

"Yes... metaphorically." I smiled.

"Indeed... and so, like the fish, you are curious about your surroundings, but what fish would know of mountains?" He surmised.

"Exactly. Eloquently put, Emperor." I bowed my head.

He chuckled. "Indeed. I understand. When I was a boy, my tutors only wanted to teach me about economy, politics. I wanted to learn science, and geometry! They, of course, taught me anything I asked, but, like you, if I didn't ask..." he shook his head sadly.

"So how did you learn all you know?" I asked.

"I commanded them to teach me everything they could. Not what I asked for, no. Everything." He smiled. "Of course, I tempered this after the first day, and focused on one subject at a time, and later developed a schedule."

I hummed. "That must have been very tiring."

"Perhaps it used to be... Did you know, I still receive lessons, even today? I am learning to chart the stars, and navigate by them at sea, right now." He smiled proudly.

I blinked. "You can navigate by the stars?" I asked, incredulous.

He nodded. "Indeed. Well, I am learning, at least." He amended his statement honestly.

I grinned. "I want to learn medicine, like the Royal Physician, but I won't be old and mean." I said just as honestly.

He raised an eyebrow slowly. "You don't like the royal physician?"

"He pronounced me cursed, when I was born, and I lived away from my family for four years, then later said he was mistaken, and there was no reason to separate us at all. And he's old, and mean, and stinky!" I grumbled.

He laughed loudly, and the note of falseness about it confused me. "I see, yes, that would make anyone dislike someone else... well, it's an honorable profession, medicine."

"No, not as a profession! I'm going to be a general!!! Lee-Kahn says that I have a good mind for strategy, 'cause I always beat him at Go, but no one else does, not even the physician! And I'm learning sword-play, and soon I'm going to be able to beat him at that, to! And, I'm going to learn more Magic from Lord Ran, and be a War-Mage!!!" I grinned proudly, and sat back down, where I'd jumped up in excitement.

He smiled genuinely. "I see. I would be honored to have you as my general, young one." He patted my hair, and chuckled. "But to be honest, War-Mages usually serve as the counselors of magical warfare, not militant."

I blinked slowly.

"Militant warfare is-"

"They're one and the same, aren't they?" I asked simply, interrupting him on accident.

He blinked. "... Explain?"

I set the Go board on the table, and began creating a battle, using white marbles for the foot soldiers, blue for cavalry, black for siege engines, green for archers, and red for mages, with a wall marked in yellow between his yellow ballista, along the wall.

"See, if the siege engines are out of range of the ballista, then, instead of moving forward, I send two mages to the front lines, protected by two more mages, who will focus on defense, not offense." I marked the moves.

He hummed and tapped his chin, then set two red pieces on his wall. "What if I have mages, as well?"

"Then I use magic arrows from my archers to kill your mages." I demonstrated, taking his two pieces off the board.

He blinked. "Is that possible?"

I nodded and picked up an arrow from Lee-Kahn's quiver, then his bow, and handed the bow to Lee-Kahn. "Shoot the target." I quickly enchanted the arrow with a defense-breaker, a highly-specialized spell only the members of the royal family learned, and threw a visible ward over the target.

He nodded and drew the arrow back, shooting the target with a deafening crash, though the arrow pierced the target normally.

I grinned and sat back down at the table as the emperor's personal guard rushed in.

He raised a hand, and they bowed, retreating swiftly. Then he nodded slowly. "I see... continue?"

I nodded. "Well, I use my mages to enchant the siege engines, perhaps the wall has a shield we can't see? So I break through the shields, and then begin concentrating attack on five different points of the wall."

"Why five?" He asked.

"If there's only one, the mages on your side can focus on shielding that one place. If there's five, there's less chance of them shielding the right one in time, as I'm randomly hitting these five points." I explained.

He nodded slowly. "Alright... true. But what if I start targeting your mages?"

"Then I pull them into the shield wall, and my mages, each in groups of two, protect the shield Wall, while another group of two attacks from behind safety, and out of your mages' lines of sight." I nodded.

"And that helps? Them not being able to see?" He asked.

"Only Grand-Master mages can use magic on things they cannot see, or so Lord Ran tells me, and there's only about a dozen of those in Japan, and maybe 30 in China and India." I answered.

He nodded slowly. "I see... indeed. So, you break my wall. What then?"

"I send foot soldiers, in groups of 500, 100 cavalry to 400 foot soldiers, each with a pair of mages, to both protect the soldiers and attack enemy mages, into the five breaches in the wall, and my siege engines work on removing the ballista." I pushed my pieces through his wall, and into his capital.

He blinked. "25,000 soldiers, 5000 Cavalry, 20,000 Foot soldiers... and you think to take the capital of Japan?"

I smirked. "Oh no. Those are bait for the Mages protecting the Enemy Leader. Once I know where they are, I send in assassins, equipped with anti-Magic armor, and then the rest of my soldiers take the wall, and then hunt down the rest of your soldiers." I moved the bulk of my army suddenly, and he laughed incredulously as his entire wall and city were conquered.

"I see... yes, well done. Well, you do not boast of your tactical skill wrongfully... now, it is, in a few months, your 7th summer of Birth." He said simply, moving the board aside.

I blinked slowly. "Yes, it is."

"As your father, I want to give you a gift. As your Emperor, I am not allowed to show such favoritism... it's infuriating, but that is how it is." He hummed.

"Unless I gifted you something first? Then you would be free to return the favor without favoritism." I smiled.

He blinked slowly. "Oh!... indeed... well, I look forward to your Gift." He winked, and then stood up.

I knelt immediately, and he nodded. "Good day, Lord Arashi-Kumo. And give your mother my love, I have not the time to visit her, we spoke for too long."

I nodded. "Of course, Great Jade Emperor."

He smiled. "You're getting good at realizing when to be formal with me. Well done! And I hope for updates on your swordplay. Perhaps a demonstration of your skill, on your Day of Birth?"

I bowed even deeper. "As you wish."

He left with a sweep of his many silken layers, and I collapsed onto my back, suddenly conscious of my aching muscles. "That went well." I chuckled.

Lee-Kahn chuckled, then laughed full-heartedly, patting my shoulder.