Part 1, Chapter 4

Mothers are the same everywhere. Some background on the Emperor’s family

Ch 4

The Emperor, Jianyu, sat in his mother’s study and sipped his tea. In the corner on a golden perch the blue bird preened looking very graceful and demure. Jianyu’s mouth twitched as he remembered it’s undignified escape from the courtyard the other day. 

“Yu’er!” his mother scolded. “Pay attention! This is about your marriage!”

Jianyu sat up, suddenly on alert. His mother had been pressing him to get married since he had taken the throne after his father had fallen in the last great battle with the Chaos Beast and so far he had managed to avoid her manipulations.

“Your younger brother has already wed and is securing his power in the Western Seas. It is time you wed and brought stability to the realm. Your cousin, Fa Rong of the Bird Tribe would be an excellent choice, although of course there are also several powerful families among the Immortal tribes which would do just as well.”

Jianyu listened patiently as his mother spoke of all the excellent marriage propositions she had found, but he wasn’t truly interested. Instead his mind drifted to the last report from the God of War, who was living in the south east corner of the realm at the border of the Shanlin tribe and the Red Desert. Recently the number of reports of monster attacks from the tribe had been rising, but the God of War, Xia Lu, hadn’t been able to find the source of the disturbance. His brother had also reported issues in the Western Sea between the Immortals and the King of the Merfolk, but Jianyu wasn’t sure how much to believe of his brother’s reports, which worried him. 

They had never been close, their mothers wouldn’t allow it and their father had been at war for much of his reign, so Jianyu had never spent much time with his younger brother. Still, until his recent marriage the Lord of Storms, Jiangou, had never been openly at odds with him. Jianyu wondered if it was time to start watching his brother more closely. 

He rubbed at his temple. It seemed the only thing that made him smile these days was the little bird that cleaned his room. At least she was relatively uncomplicated and their letters gave him something to look forward to each day. He had over heard her singing in his room several times since their encounter, but he had never tried to approach her again. He didn’t want to scare her off. He smiled slightly as his hand drifted to the little embroidered scent pouch that he had found a few evenings ago. She had embroidered a blue bird that looked remarkably like his mother’s on it in the most awkward flight position he had ever seen. It looked almost exactly the way his mother’s bird had when she had scared it on the first day they met. 

In return he had given her a carved hair pin with a plump phoenix carved on the end of it holding a chain of delicate bells in its beak. He had seen her wearing it every time he had seen her in his room after that and it had warmed his heart knowing how much she had valued his small gift.

“You are interested in the daughter of the Song tribe?” his mother asked, jolting him back to the present.

He cleared his throat, “No, mother. With the trouble increasing at the boarders I don’t think it is the time to be contemplating marriage.”

“It is exactly the time to be contemplating marriage!” His mother harangued. “You need to strengthen your connections among the tribes as soon as possible! Do you want that son of the merfolk to take over the realms while you are fighting on the boarder lands somewhere?”

Jianyu stood, “Enough. Father would not have approved of you referring to his son in such a way.” He bowed to his mother and added, “Thank you for your wisdom, but I have urgent matters that I must attend.”