by C. L. Stone
I thought Ryuu was handsome in a better fitting kimono, with his dark hair combed back away from his face, making his cheekbones appear higher, and onyx eyes sparkled.
We entered the building and Ryuu and I were immediately split as boys and girls registered in different parts of the building. Sota was told to wait in the main hall. I was to go on alone.
Sota rubbed my arm in a calm, soothing way. “This is only registration,” he said. “You’ll do fine. Just do what you’re told.”
I wanted to believe him, and I tried to calm my nerves. I couldn’t help picturing that they’d see me as a little peasant girl and would eliminate me on sight.
I was ushered by royal guards to the second floor. There a bearded, rotund man, the largest I’d ever seen in my life, sat behind a dark wood desk. He scratched at a sheet of paper with the point of a dry pen, and appeared bored.
I moved to stand in front of him, and he raised his eyes to me, his boredom depleting, and his cheeks bunched up in a smile. “I haven’t seen a beautiful face in days,” he said.
I smiled pleasantly, lowering my eyes diminutively like I’d been taught, to show respect, before looking at him dead on, to steal his heart. “You must work so hard,” I said softly. “That’s admirable.”
He clutched at his chest like I’d struck him, and his cheeks turned red. His grin broadened. “Don’t torture me so,” he said with a laugh in his voice. “You’ll make me wish I was younger, and not a married old man with many children.” He tapped his pen at an ink stone near him, already filled with ink. “I’m not the one you need to sweet talk, you see. I’m just the records keeper. Tell me your name and your parents, and where you’re from.”
I couldn’t believe it worked. Apricot had warned me pleasing the registration official would ensure he didn’t put displeasing notes on my documents.
He asked me a series of questions, very similar to what Mrs. Satsu asked me in the beginning. He went through my charts, already delivered by Mrs. Satsu, and step by step, filled out a formal registration document.
He looked over the details. “All here,” he said and picked up a stick of wax. He warmed it at a candle nearby until the tip liquefied. He splattered the page with the wax and then stamped it with a golden seal. “You’re approved for inspection. It’ll be held tomorrow.” He told me the time. “You were just in time. Today was the last day.”
It was simpler than I thought, but as Sota said, it wasn’t to be the worst of it. Inspection would eliminate many people.
I left the office, finding Sota waiting for me.
“I’m approved,” I said.
“Of course you were,” he said. “And I have a feeling Mrs. Satsu will be applying her seal to it. If she had any sense…”
“Don’t talk like that,” I said. “She’s done us all a great favor taking in complete strangers, and trusting us.” Now that we had gotten to this point, I was aware of how much I’d learned over the couple of weeks, and was glad I decided to join her. I felt more prepared, even if I wasn’t schooled in etiquette and politics since birth. I had a lot more to learn, but it felt better to at least have gotten this far. I would have been way out of my depth had I registered as I was a couple of weeks ago.
“I know,” he said to me in a softer tone.
Ryuu returned, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t think he likes me,” he said. “He asked me three times how to spell my full name and I’m pretty sure he still got it wrong.”
“You should have flirted with him a little,” I said, reciting what Apricot had told me. “To ease his tension.”
“I’m not so sure he’d be interested.”
We walked again the long way back. No matter what happened now, we were registered officially. That took some weight off my mind. This would all soon be over. Whether or not I was selected for anything, I’d be grateful for the feeling of competition lurking over my shoulder to be over.
When we returned, royal guards were posted outside of Mrs. Satsu’s home.
Sota slowed us, waiting to see what happened. I hadn’t thought anything of it, recalling Apricot was due for an inspection soon, and wondered if they were there to escort her to the emperor.
Two men exited the front door, carrying a stretcher between them.
The dead body of Mrs. Satsu was on top. Her eyes were open, staring at nothing. Her body was covered with a thin blanket. Her tongue was swollen, poking out of her mouth and black.
I cried out at the sight. Dead. Earlier that morning, she had wished me luck as I had dressed for registration. It seemed impossible to see her like this. I’d never seen a dead person, but it was obvious her spirit was gone.
Ryuu walked ahead of us toward the guard, but Sota grabbed his arm.
“Wait,” he said.
“We need to know what happened.”
“We need to approach delicately,” Sota said and then gazed at me. “Keep your heads high and stay silent. I will guide you.”
My heart thundered, still broken at seeing Mrs. Satsu in her dead state. I realized then that after all of this work, after all the effort, there would be no stamp of her approval for anyone. Someone had made sure none of us would register for the secret position designated by the emperor.
I thought of this as we approached.
The royal guard stopped us before we could go inside. “If you are visiting, please come back later.”
“We live here,” Sota said. “We’ve just come from registration. What happened?”
The guard lowered his hand. “We were called in for a murder. Mrs. Satsu was found dead in her bedroom by one of the maids. Someone had put something poisonous in her tea.”
Suddenly there was a loud commotion from the courtyard. The guards led the way inside to find out what was going on.
Apricot was being held by the arm by another guard, and spoke angrily to her.
“You’re going before the court to figure out the truth,” the guard said.
“I would never!” Apricot cried. Her kimono was rumpled. Her cheeks that had been painted were now streaked with tears. She looked toward the walkway, where the other students huddled together in a group, looking upon the scene. “I have been with each of you this morning,” she said. “I could not have done this.”
“We saw him,” one of them said in a soft voice. “Your escort brought her tea this morning.”
Her eyes widened. “I never told him to do this.”
I couldn’t believe what was happening. Apricot wouldn’t kill her own mother. It didn’t make any sense. I felt so helpless, wishing I could do anything.
And then I looked at those students, and wondered why they would accuse her.
Jealousy? Apricot being accused of murder may dissuade the emperor from choosing her. There would be a position open.
Suddenly, I felt myself stepping forward, and raising a hand toward the guard holding Apricot. Before I could really think of what I was going to do, I was doing it. “Please take your hands off of His Majesty’s betrothed,” I said in the steadiest voice I could.
As I did, the Taka appeared, alighting on my shoulder. I hadn’t summoned him, but the commotion must have caught his attention enough to come inspect what was going on.
The guard holding Apricot released her wrist to gaze at me, his mouth open, tongue darting behind his lips, but without words.
“We have to take her in,” one of the other guards behind me said.
“Shouldn’t you be looking for the escort?” I asked. I did my best to draw some power into my voice. “She would never kill her own mother. You’ve no proof, and your accusations are weak.” I couldn’t believe what I was doing, but I couldn’t help remembering how Apricot showed me how to use your looks and confidence in order to make others believe you were royal, and worth listening to.
To tremble and show fear now may have meant I’d be taken in along with Apricot. We looked like conspirators if the truth came out that she’d actually had killed her. I was taking a risk of my own.
The guards looked puzzled at one another.
“We are searching for him,” they said.
“Then isn’t it strange that you’re having to look for him,” Ryuu said, mimicking me by standing tall beside me. “It seems to me if Apricot had done this, then she’d be hiding with him.”
There was a murmur among the students, a grumbling displeasure, but no one challenged us.
Apricot kept herself erect and tidied her clothes after being yanked around. “The last I saw of him was this morning before breakfast when he left my room.” Her eyebrows lifted, her eyes wide. “He left me tea. I never touched it.”
A guard went to her room, and retrieved a cup. He showed it to the guards and they smelled it between them. “Smells the same as Mrs. Satsu’s tea.”
Apricot stiffened, but I had a feeling she was keeping herself together. This was proof. She had been targeted, and had narrowly escaped death herself.
It was proof enough for the moment. Apricot was innocent.
11
INSPECTION
The investigation continued into the night. Eventually, her escort was finally found and questioned.
Sota told me that evening that he confessed to have been paid by the same student who had been dismissed.
“It was an obvious case of revenge,” Sota said. “She, too, had been passed by the emperor as a wife. She was then paid to get in and dismantle Mrs. Satsu’s students. She refused to identify her supporter. They’re still looking for who paid her.”
I was relieved for Apricot, but at the same time sorrowful.
One word from me to Sota. One letter sent to authorities, had not only disqualified someone, but had also brought destruction and death. It drained me to think of how my actions influenced so much around me.
Apricot was selected, and it turned everyone around her jealous. She didn’t even have much of a choice. She wasn’t the one who picked herself. Yet, she suffered for it.
Would I ever be able to make decisions in the future without thinking of this? How would my registering now affect anyone else?
What if helping Apricot had been a mistake? The other students had clearly been displeased. Helping her made additional enemies for me.
Sota needed to wash me again before the inspection the next day, and had me bathe in the pink berry and sugar bath he made from the tub in the bedroom.
I hummed absently as I soaked. The Taka sung with me, repeating words I had sang at the wall.
Somewhere deep in the city came an echo.
The sound of the wall singing.
Or perhaps it was just a memory of a hallucination. It had been a long, stressful day.
I was going crazy, I thought.
Despite wishing to grieve, Apricot was forced the next morning to rise, and dress, and I helped her as she was without an escort at the moment. She remained stiff.
“I have my own final inspection today,” she said. “I meet with the emperor. My heart isn’t in it, but I have to fulfill my promise to my mother.”
“You’ll do well,” I said, hoping to instill in her the same confidence she provided for me.
She said nothing, and I continued to apply her makeup until she was perfect.
After she left with a royal guard to escort her, I had to get to work on myself.
I dressed in the same practice kimono as the day before, wearing my hair down around my shoulders. This was necessary, as today I would be examined by doctors and astrologers for any reason to dismiss me.
Ryuu and I approached the same red building again, this time in silence. Neither one of us had a chance of getting Mrs. Satsu’s seal now. We were just like everyone else, only a little better than before since we’d taken time to learn what we knew.
On the steps just outside the door, Ryuu paused and reached for my hand.
“Mizuki,” he said quietly, looking at my kimono.
“Yes?”
He squeezed my hand gently. “You still want me to be your supporter, right?”
I looked at him, confused. “Of course.”
“I feel like you got the bad end of the deal we made,” he said. “I think you’ll get a great position, and I don’t know how I could help you. I don’t want you to feel like you have to bring me along just because you promised.”
I smiled, leaned in and kissed his cheek. He looked at me in surprise.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t be here without you,” I said. “Please join me, wherever I end up.”
This seemed to lighten his mood. He nodded, and headed inside.
I did, too. Sota was told to wait in the hall again. I walked up to the registration desk. There was a line. Women identified themselves, and were ushered into one of three doors.
After I gave my name, I was immediately taken into a large room where two hundred girls also waited to be inspected. I had been surprised to see them all. I’d been twenty minutes early, and some of them appeared to have been waiting for a long time.
Is this all there were? Even if the other two rooms had as many women, that was still far fewer than who had been summoned to register.
We sat in a long windowless room with a hardwood floor, without any comfort. It was unusually warm for a late autumn day. A servant gave us only water, but some women were hungry.
I remained silent as Sota had suggested making friends at this point might be dangerous. The other girls occasionally asked the same question to the servant. “How much longer do we need to stay here?”
“As long as it takes,” the servant said quietly, without looking at our faces.
The other girls were also dressed in delicate kimono, with clean faces and hair combed down normally. They had gotten word as well about how to prepare themselves for this examination.
I stared at the wall in silence, waiting, and then overhead two of the women talking behind me.
“I can’t believe we got the seals,” one of them said. “We did it!”
“Even if we aren’t picked to be the one, we’ll still get positions, right?”
“We’ve been selected especially by who the emperor trusts. I don’t think we’d walk away empty-handed.”
My heart sank. I imagined they worked with someone like Mrs. Satsu. Only I had no seal.
How could I be compared with one of them?
I dismissed the thought of being selected for that special position. It was a lost cause now. I had to be grateful that Mrs. Satsu taught me anything. Maybe I could at least be called upon for some small position.
It surprised me there were no males in this room. Ryuu had been told to go to another room, like before. I wondered if they’d join us, or if they were standing around like we were, waiting to be inspected.
Hours later, a male court minister arrived, wearing a black kimono with a golden rope to tie it off. He was followed by a female assistant. They seemed ancient to me, him with a long white beard and bald head, and her with a delicate frame and covered in wrinkles.
We were told to undress and the minister and assistant walked the floor in front of where we stood, looking over our bodies and making comments, to which the assistant wrote down on paper.
If I hadn’t been prepared for this, I would have been horrified. I stood as still as I could, and kept my eyes open, trying to focus on something that made me happy to keep myself calm.
The minister went from one girl to the next, looking them over, and only speaking when he saw a flaw. “Too tall. Too dark. Eyes too close together. Crooked knees. Too fat. Feet too big.” His comments went on and on, and the assistant wrote line after line after each of our names.
Those girls he made comments on were ushered by the servant to the door and disappeared.
Was that it for them? Was beauty what the emperor was looking for? Did he seek more wives?
The ones that remained were girls who he had not said a word about. This group included me, and when he was finished, we were told to put our kimono back on and t
o follow him.
We were escorted to another room where doctors took their turns looking over our charts, measuring our height, weight, heartbeats, and other vital signs. They even checked our teeth.
Those with imperfections were immediately dismissed.
This disheartened me. I was sure at some point a flaw would be identified. Sota had sworn to me that beauty wasn’t why we were here, yet it was clearly the first priority.
As we finished with the doctors and astrologers, one at a time, girls were taken to other rooms within the building.
When it was my turn, I found myself in a room with a long table, and asked to lay on it.
Women surrounded me, looking over my body, lifting my arms. I imagined they were checking for cleanliness. Some of them even sniffed different parts of me, including my hair and my breath.
I had no idea what to make of this. I closed my eyes when it seemed appropriate, and tried endure the inspection.
Once this was over, I was left alone. At this point, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, and waited for someone to tell me. I knew there was more to this, and kept thinking of things that made me happy to calm my nerves.
I thought of Sota washing my hair and body.
I thought of Ryuu’s humor and escorting me on a walk.
Again and again, my thoughts turned to them for happiness. With them, everything had turned out okay. I was safe, and at inspection, and so far doing well. If I didn’t earn a position, I would still be forever grateful to them.
Eventually, Sota appeared. He carried with him the finest kimono, one I hadn’t seen before. I’d expected him to bring the one Apricot had given me before.
Instead, the kimono he brought seemed to have been spun from pure silver, and on it were pink swirls of clouds, and birds that looked like my Taka.
My heart soared at seeing it. “Where did you get it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said with a smile. “It arrived via a courier just as I was about to come back here. He told me to give him the other one and he ran off with it.”
There was a box as well, and a note inside.
Use the black coal mask for two minutes and wash it off before applying your makeup. – Apricot
