A marriage written in the stars

The first test

Just a bit of a warning that I'll be using historical information alongside the KOEI version so there'll be a LOT of mature topics coming up. Won't bump up the rating but still, mature. Also, I'm only really writing this when I have the time so I'll TRY and keep this on a weekly schedule but especially in the coming weeks, don't expect it to be AS frequent. Doesn't help that I'm writing a lot more, huh...

Anyway, that's the gab. I don't own KOEI, Liu Shan, or the Kingdom of Shu.

Chapter 3: The first test

Xingcai was surprised to find that after the rather rocky start to her lessons with Liu Shan she did not encounter any other problems. His teaching method changed. Complex concepts he explained in such a fashion that would at times stupefy her at how simple he makes it sound. Even just trying to explain it to herself later, she is amazed at how many more words she requires to explain what took her lord so little. And in the event these complex concepts could not be explained normally then he would use analogies related to her understanding of combat and war. Body language was likened to feints, attacks and blocking maneuvers. Pick up lines and icebreakers are taunts designed to leave the enemy vulnerable. His words were the tactics and her actions, the choreographed sequence of battle.

These lessons were little more than advanced etiquette lessons in Xingcai's mind but regardless they were more than helpful. One day she sees two servants, a maid and a steward, courting each other and she pays attention to the way the girl acts. These actions which, mere days before would make little sense to her, she now realizes are tactics designed to ensnare her target. She stopped observing when she saw the lady suddenly take the man's hand and pull him away, the two in giggling fits, and Xingcai, with a blush on her face, decides is an apt time to walk away and perform her duties. It was at this time that Xingcai made a discovery two-fold: that what she has been taught definitely had practical and sensible use and that she most definitely was neither of the skill or desire to seduce a man into her bedroom in mere minutes.

A week passes in a flash and she hears nothing from her mother about the future plans for her betrothal party. She is sure her mother is coordinating with other well-to-do mothers in acquiring information about any known suitors that meet her standards. When her mother puts her mind to it, Xingcai thinks, she is far more capable at extracting information than a torturer and a scout combined. In some part she is relieved that there is no other talk about suitors to rattle her but there is a part of her that is anxious to find out the impending date in which she must announce she becomes betrothed to someone. But the passing of a week had little by little quelled the anxiety of the impending betrothal and soon this slow rhythm of hers, of performing her duties followed by Liu Shan's lesson, is becoming ritual. What was not commonplace however was the arrival of the palace messenger with a scroll for her.

To Zhang Xingcai

Please dress up nicely for today's lesson. Something comfortable but fashionable would be preferable.

She didn't need to look at the imperial seal on the scroll nor the distinctive handwriting (equal parts regal and messy) to know her lord wrote this. She is taken aback by the need for him to write to her like this but she thinks he must have his reasons and the message is stored inside the calendar inside her mind, crossed and underlined and circled.

Today, she is not to train Liu Shan (as he had made it very much clear to her that he has an important meeting, one of the few excuses she allows) and in that time that she is normally to help him practice his rapier technique, she recalls the words stained on the scroll and instead she prepares for this unknown occassion.

She does not know the formality of 'the lesson' so she wears something slightly more formal, a rather girly but simple dress. Her makeup is reapplied and her hair is brushed but otherwise she looks rather much the same. She stares at herself in the reflective glass and, deciding that this is probably the appropriate amount of fashionable that the emperor had asked for, made her way to the storage room, the room that has now become the meeting point for her courtship lessons.