Moonstones and Madness

Twenty-six

     The healer begrudgingly re-bandaged Junseo's hand before releasing him for the extra match. The boys all took their time navigating through the extra layer of security between the venues.

"I wish Knight-Master Lei could have found a way to turn down this match," Junseo muttered to his friends.

"I hate politics almost as much as gangs," Chenhui said.

"They are pretty much the same thing, aren't they?" Xuiyang whispered back. Song-hee snorted trying to hold back his laugh. Junseo's frown caused the boys to settle down.

Getting his Moon Temple dobak back cheered Junseo and he smiled fondly at its intricate design and felt his tiger's eye stone warming again. The boys had to pull his attention back to the ring where Park Sen Dou was finishing the final match. Junseo's occasional training partner lost points for breaking form but still managed to win against an academy favorite. The Prince's training master seemed stingy with his acknowledgements as he pushed for the extra match to get underway. Junseo looked around to see if other members of the prince's training yard had noticed this lapse and gestured for them to join in a loud cheer for the new champion. Sen Dou recognized the efforts with a quick salute before stepping up as a volunteer guard for the extra match.

Knight-Master Lei stood between the Prince's training yard master and the captain of the city guards just behind the judges' bench. His discomfort was obvious.

"Cheer up," the other training master said. "If there is an attack, we will have a clearer trail to follow."

"So, you are using our students as bait?" Knight-Master Lei scowled at the men beside him and was ready to step forward to stop the match. Then he noticed the strong contingent, including Xuiyang, Chenhui, Song-hee, and In-Yeon, at the corners of the mats. "It would be foolish for anyone to try something now," he said but still signaled to Brother Kuin and Scout Jia to stay on alert.

The two young men in the ring cautiously took each other's measure. Junseo's opponent was heavier set with confident moves. He tried switching up the pattern moves to get Junseo to step out of the prescribed set. He then slid in an illegal move out of sight of the referee. Junseo was annoyed enough to speed up and soon had covered his opponent in chalk marks. The referee whistled to stop the match and conferred with the judges. It was a technical knockout but they asked Junseo to demonstrate the sequence again.

"Same speed?" Junseo asked before starting. He spotted the missile heading towards the ring and managed to kick it high enough to explode harmlessly above the small crowd gathered to for the extra match. Two crystal adepts converged at the ring and sent energy tracers across the onlookers. The guards moved quickly to capture anyone illuminated in this process. There was considerable confusion when a loudly protesting Choi Me San was dragged out of the crowd along with a couple of the other leading competitors.

"That can't be right," Junseo looked for support from his team members but they just closed ranks around him and hustled to the exit where an extra contingent of palace guards took charge of seeing the team back to the forge.

When the Crown Prince heard of yet another incident at the championships it took almost and hour for him to calm down enough to parse through the information from his advisors. They all agreed the cumulative actions seemed far too extreme to be the result of gangs trying to manipulate results for their betting pool. Presuming the boy from Ilidan was the primary target, the traditionalist faction who wanted to control access to the higher ranks in the military and civil service topped the list of suspects. An alternative, but similarly conservative motivation might have come from a temple faction. This seemed less plausible given the injuries to their own members and their withdrawal from the competition leaving no clear premise for the later attacks. The discussion then turned to different northern factions but became far too speculative.

The senior protocol officer brought up the boy's genealogy, saying, "I know it may be a stretch but Park Il-don was the court physician in charge when your sister-in-law passed. Maybe the boy's tournament success sparked someone to seek revenge on the family."

"It would seem more likely if the attacks were more direct. The energy bursts and flash-bombs appeared to be more attention-grabbing disruptions without real deadly intentions." The captain of the guards looked around the circle for support.

"But there were assassination attempts," Minister Go reminded them, "It's a miracle nobody died on the racetrack and if the teams hadn't shielded during the last energy attack, what then? I'm not saying this on my son's account but jostling among the heirs to the former principalities should not be entirely discounted."

The Crown Prince nodded slowly. "It may not be just one group, or motive. First, and foremost, disrupting an event I sponsored is an affront to my reputation. My cousin failing to fully protect his trainees is another assault on our family's status. The nephew of one of my regular councilors being detained also undermines this court so we can only hope more evidence will help uncover our enemies."

At the forge, the trainees were testing their own theories. The boys kept looking over at Junseo hoping he might have more answers for them.

"Honestly, I don't get it. Especially not Choi Me San. He is just not the type," Junseo hoped they would believe him.

"Yeah, well I didn't think Bang Sie Woo would be tangled up with the Slack-harbor boys either," Chenhui said.

Song hee sighed heavily, "It can be hard to protect your family from themselves."

"Maybe you shouldn't try. Not if it is dishonorable." Chenhui put his hands on his hips.

"Woah. Take a breath. Both of you." Junseo stood between the two who were trying to stare each other down. "But that gives me an idea. Your Dad might be able to tell us more about what the gang was up to."

He beckoned Scout Jia over and made his request. Scout Jia asked Chenhui to come to the student clinic but the boy refused saying, "I don't want to listen to his excuses. Besides you'll probably get more of the truth if I am not there."

Junseo could see Chenhui needed time to collect himself so asked the others for their thoughts.

"I don't think it was just one group. Today could have been a copy-cat move of some kind." Xuiyang said slowly.

"The flash didn't have nearly the force of the other one, did it?" Song hee asked Junseo.

"Probably not as big, but it had a similar vibration, otherwise the tracers wouldn't have worked," he answered.

"But why bother? And why hit on matches that weren't even on the schedule? If you wanted to disrupt everything, wouldn't you hit earlier in the day when there were bigger crowds?" Chenhui joined the discussion.

"Unless that was the only time they could sneak into the venue," Song hee said.

"Maybe. Or maybe they just wanted to test Junseo in some way." Xuiyang stared intently at the other team leader.

"But why me?" Junseo kicked at the dirt.

"Bro, like you can't guess?" In-Yeon spun up a breeze and danced the dust away from their feet and said, "Besides worrying at it isn't going to give you an answer," before turned his spinner into a game of tag.