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"Would you tell me about life on the islands?" His Royal Highness Crown Prince Roald, current heir to the throne of Tortall, asked his betrothed, Her Imperial Highness Princess Shinkokami noh Nakuji, at one of the stops on the progression about the kingdom of Tortall.
"Why should I tell you about my past?" she replied, her voice suffused with a gentle amusement that her face did not reflect. "I should be asking you about Tortall, since that is my future, and what I must get accustomed to, rather than tell you tales of my past."
Roald, used to women who were more expressive than Shinkokami, had learned to listen to her to understand the general tenor of her moods rather than trying to seek them out in her expressions. He'd thought he understood the Yamani tendencies against open expression of emotion through his association with Keladry of Mindelan. Seeing her endure the bullying and unfairness of her page years without allowing it to show, except when she wanted it to, had prepared him for the possibility that his betrothed, an Imperial Princess, might not let her mood show at all during their interactions. He'd misjudged Shinkokami's ability to hold entire conversations without moving a muscle in her face or body beyond what she needed to form the words she was using. When he mentioned this in Keladry's hearing, she'd reminded him that an Imperial Princess would have been trained even more than she had, and then suggested that the Imperial Princess was telling him all he needed to know about her mood, if he was willing to pay enough attention to her to discern it. It was impossible for Shinkokami to not have noticed his attempts to pay better attention to him, so Roald felt grateful that she thought she could express this much to him while they were both acting as the holders of their offices.
Away from their official duties and roles, as he had discovered at last Midwinter's celebrations, Princess Shinkokami had a mind for both tactics and strategy, asking pointed questions of Daine the Wildmage, Lord Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, and Baroness Sir Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau as they described some of the battles they had fought, sieges endured, and operations completed over the last few years of war with immortals, Scanrans, rebels, conspirators, and others who threatened the sovereignty and people of Tortall. Upon seeing that her betrothed was also interested in such subjects and did not reprimand or insist that as his soon-to-be-wife, she should be ornamental and silent, Princess Shinkokami had opened up much more to him.
Only in private or selected company, however, had this change occurred. In public, on progression, or in any place where she might be seen first as Princess, she remained Her Imperial Highness, a model of Yamani virtues and practices, whose first duty was to her husband and to making them appear as a perfectly-matched couple. Roald knew that his mother, Queen Thayet, had been trying to convince her future daughter-in-law that she did not need to appear distant and aloof, and that the Tortallan people would love her much more the first time they saw her take Roald to task in a public setting or otherwise publicly disagreed with him about a matter of importance to her, even if it was the most polite disagreement the two of them could have about it. Thayet had told Roald that the Conté line had always chosen to marry fearless women with strong opinions, and Tortall and the Conté line were always made better for having done so.
Having properly distracted himself from trying to consciously think of a proper response to Shinkokami's deflection, one of the Yamani poems Master Oakbridge had tried to instill in all the pages in anticipation of the Imperial visit slipped into his head and presented itself.
"The temple bell stopped,
but the blooms and trees
still ring on and on."
Roald said in Yamani. "At least, I think that's how it's supposed to be pronounced."
"Lady Haname noh Akijuro could say better than I," Shinkokami replied. "I am afraid that no matter how hard my tutors tried, they could not suppress my regional accent sufficiently that I could sound like I belonged at the court."
"We used to have that problem. People who wanted to sound sophisticated would try to adopt the Corus accent to imply they had friends in high places, or at least that they were sophisticated and well above the common folk they were surrounded by. Then P—King Jonathan married Thayet, and her and Commander Buri both didn't even bother to try learning the Corus accent. I wouldn't be surprised if we all sound a little more K'miri each additional year Queen Thayet's reign is. Our past influences us now and in the future. So what was life in Yaman like for you?"
"Is it customary in Tortall to return to a subject after you have been politely steered away from it?" Shinkokami asked, voice still even-paced, eyes staring forward. Roald was certain the chill he felt was metaphorical, rather than magical, but he felt it all the same. When she was feeling more like talking about her past, he'd ask her who taught her how to convey so much meaning using just her voice.
"It can be, when it's someone who would like to know more about his bride-to-be, or for all kinds of other reasons. But we also can learn when someone doesn't want to talk about it, and respect that." They continued on in a companionable silence for a little while before Roald spoke again.
"Which region is supposedly the 'uncultured' one? In Tortall, we've had the Bazhir in the desert, the north border near Scanra, the Copper Isles influences in the west, and I've heard the lords near Galla complaining that their children have to become fluent in Gallan pronunciations as much as the supposedly 'correct' Tortallan ones."
Shinkokami's eyes crinkled, the possibility of a laugh. Lord Wyldon of Cavall, the page training master while he was learning, had once said to King Jonathan that Roald had "a retriever's earnestness, boundless energy, curiosity, and propensity to get into trouble by following that curiosity." Perhaps Shinkokami was seeing him the same way now, and wondering what god had blessed (or cursed) her with him.
"The accent of the previous Imperial capital's region has fallen out of favor with the current dynasty, including His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Yaman, who also is my uncle. Our family still spent significant time in that region when I was young, as I had been betrothed to a monstrous household there, and so I still heard much of the 'wrong' accent. Even with explicit instructions to ensure that Keladry and her family learned the 'correct' way to speak, once they had come into favor with the Emperor, I fear I still taught her some phrases that were not to be used at court."
"I don't think I've heard Keladry swear all that much," Roald said, deliberately taking the other meaning of Shinkokami's statement. Her eyes retained their crinkle, suggesting he many have been more right than he thought about the other meaning he'd joked about.
"I doubt you would," Shinkokami said, still very politely. "A man who hears a Yamani lady swear likely does so the moment before she kills him."
"It must be a grave offense on the Islands, indeed, if hearing a lady swear heralds someone's death."
"More than just on the Islands," Lord Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak remarked, having drawn his horse close to theirs for some other message than that one. "In most places in the world, if you hear a woman cursing, a man is about to be grievously harmed. Either at that moment, or later, when he is brought before the Court of the Goddess and the truth of the matter is revealed to all present."
"Very true," Roald said. "I doubt Sir Raoul has come just to confirm your excellent point, my betrothed. What news?"
"Your father the king intends for us to stop at Fief Mindelan tonight, and hopes that you and Princess Shinkokami will join him, his wife, the Yamani delegation, and Baron Piers and Baroness Ilane for dinner."
"We'd be delighted to," Roald said, trying to make the formal response sound more genuine and desired. He hoped that Shinkokami might feel more relaxed around more people who spoke Yamani relatively fluently.
Having given Lord Raoul their answer, he withdrew back toward where the king was, and Roald made lighter conversation with Shinkokami, pointing out some of the features of the roads and the surrounding areas as they passed, inquiring whether the roads of the Islands were similarly next to abundances of nature. Shinkokami indulged him by painting a vivid picture of standing on one of the viewing platforms at the Imperial capital and seeing cherry trees in bloom as far as the eye could perceive, in all directions. Blizzards of blossoms swept on the wind, swirling and darting, before carpeting the soil around them in pink as well. Before he'd realized it, they were stopped for the day's ride, and the camps were being pitched.
When they arrived to dinner in the house of Mindelan, however, Prince Roald and Princess Shinkokami were surprised to find only Baron Piers and Baroness Ilane at the table welcoming them.
"I was under the impression that there would be more guests here," Roald said to Baron Piers.
"Akijuro-san? Nakuji-heika?" Shinkokami said, her own confusion mirroring Roald's.
"Lord Raoul, Lady Haname, Prince Nakuji, and Their Majesties send their regrets that they are not able to attend the table tonight," Baron Piers said to Prince Roald. Baroness Ilane was likely providing the same explanation for Shinkokami in Yamani, so each of them could understand. The two of them made an excellent team, Roald noted. Even though an act of protecting Imperial artifacts from raiders had accelerated the good relations between Tortall and the Yamani Islands, Roald believed that the Baron and Baroness of Fief Mindelan might have well managed this situation for Tortall on their own in due time.
"Please, sit, eat," Baron Piers said, bowing in sync with his wife. "There is food, and we would not want it to be wasted."
"It will also be an apt time for conversation topics that may or may not have been possible in the presence of Their Majesties and His Highness the Imperial Prince," Baroness Ilane added.
Roald's face twisted, and Baron Piers shook his head. "Too much, Ilane, my beloved. I think both the Prince and Princess realize they've been set up." Both Roald and Shinkokami nodded.
Baroness Ilane didn't appear to be apologetic in any way for what she had said. "Think of it as time to ask those questions that you would have wanted to ask your parents, but were too embarrassed to articulate."
"Being fluent in Yamani makes this an easier task for us," Baron Piers added, shrugging. "Their Majesties wanted to offer you the opportunity to get your questions answered without judgment or suspicion."
Roald sighed. Before he could talk about how premature it was for them to be thinking about these kinds of questions, with their wedding night so far off, and how having the Baron and Baroness giving them information about things like marital relations was likely to be more awkward than if the King and Queen had tried to do this themselves, his betrothed unleashed a flood of Yamani, speaking with a significantly faster pace than he'd ever heard from her. The speed of her diction made him realize just how much she was slowing down to let him practice his listening to the Yamani language, in the hope that he might become more fluent in it. As he listened, he began to understand what Shinkokami had meant earlier about her accent coming through despite her best efforts, even though he would have said he didn't understand more than one word in seven of what she said.
Baroness Ilane, for her part, seemed to be responding to the Princess's deluge with one or two-word responses, mostly "Yes." or "No." Judging by the way Baron Piers's eyebrows seemed to be climbing up his forehead, it seemed that Princess Shinkokami had many questions on subjects that were not fit to be discussed at court or with Prince Nakuji or Lady Akijuro. Or possibly anyone where it might get back to the Emperor that the Imperial Princess had such concerns or questions. Prince Roald again found himself wondering at the economy of the Yamani language and thought. Shinkokami had told him that Prince Nakuji had advised her that Roald would want a more "conventional" wife, and it seemed, perhaps, that "conventional" meant much more than being quiet and demure.
After several minutes of rapid-fire questions at Baroness Ilane, Shinkokami subsided. Roald opened his mouth to ask a question, but Baron Piers indicated to him to wait. Whatever Shinkokami had started, it hadn't completed yet. Into the silence, Baroness Ilane took her turn at explanation to Princess Shinkokami. It wasn't quite as quick as the Princess's opening salvo, but as best as he could tell, it sounded like an older woman addressing a younger one, rather than something to do with their differences in official rank. At one point in the story, Baron Piers's eyes widened and he turned scarlet with embarrassment. Baroness Ilane marched onward, either in ignorance of the effect she was having or because she didn't particularly care what her husband felt about her explanation. Given Keladry's legendary stubbornness, and the interactions he remembered having with her brothers and sisters, Roald was rapidly constructing a theory that the House of Mindelan's strategic intransigence originated in Baroness Ilane.
After the Baroness finished her explanation, Roald asked Baron Piers quietly,"Should we have adjourned to separate rooms?"
"No," he replied. "My wife is often thorough in her explanations, including to our daughters, and nothing covered so far would be out of the ordinary for a young man on his first visit to the brothels. She chose an…illustrative example for one of her topics. Her Imperial Highness seems unaffected, at least."
"She's still thinking," Baroness Ilane said.
To illustrate the point, Shinkokami turned to Roald and studied him thoroughly. before asking another question in Yamani.
"Don't know,"—no, "Wouldn't know," Baroness Ilane responded.
Roald looked at Baron Piers inquiringly, but the Baron only shook his head. "Her Imperial Highness has not been well-informed about…many things," he said. "If you have any questions…?"
"Ah, no," Roald said. "I am…reasonably well-acquainted with the matters of what goes on at the brothels. From stories I have heard in entirely too much detail from my peers," he added quickly afterward. "And…" He trailed off.
"Vinson of Genlith, and then Joren of Stone Mountain," Baron Piers finished for him. "If those are the stories you have heard and witnessed, then you have heard and witnessed the worst of what relationships can be between people." Recognizing he had Princess Shinkokami's attention as well as Roald's, Baron Piers raised his volume to carry to her. "Marriages between nobles are often not as marriage between commoners are. Commoners may marry for love. Nobles must often marry for status, alliance, and so many more reasons that love barely makes the list. Some marriages remain loveless through their entirety. Others have the couple grow to appreciate each other, and some even grow into love between each other, even with all of the other reasons in front of them."
Roald nodded. He'd heard as much from his parents at his first arranged marriage to Chikasami. What was familiar to him, however, seemed new to Shinkokami.
"I was told by everyone around me that my duty was to produce children until I could not any more. And that my husband would do whatever he wanted to do, and I was to support him and never do anything that might shame him," she said.
Roald blinked. Perhaps he did not know as much about matters of marriage and relationships as he believed. "Does the Empress follow this custom as well?"
Baroness Ilane smothered a laugh, to Shinkokami's look of polite confusion. "Her Imperial Majesty is much like our Queen Thayet. She has the Emperor's ear, and the two of them bicker like siblings about which reforms to implement and how quickly."
Shinkokami seemed to consider this. "Perhaps Prince Nakuji's advice to me about being a more conventional wife was based more on the Empress than Queen Thayet."
"Likely both," Baroness Ilane replied. "Much like the traditionalists in Tortall, too much change tends to upset the delicate digestions of the Court of Yaman."
Shinkokami took this with the usual politeness of any Yamani, before she began to laugh. Not a delicate, musical laugh meant to be polite or to reward a well-told story, but full and hearty. Tears formed in her eyes as she continued, until finally she ran out of air to continue. Roald had never heard this before, and he resolved to try and make her laugh like this as often as he could.
"Forgive me," Shinkokami said. "I was reminded of the family I was betrothed to before this one. The grandmother in charge, whenever I did or said something she disliked, would complain about how disobedient daughters upset her stomach so and make such a fuss about it that I once thought I should give her a nō-men so that we could properly appreciate her skills. Oh, how she would have scolded me for it." She followed this with a yawn.
"Ah, we have talked for too long," Baroness Ilane said. "If you have further questions while you are visiting Fief Mindelan, we will try to answer them."
Shortly afterward, Prince Roald and Princess Shinkokami were walking back toward the royal pavilions assembled, their public selves firmly back in place after the time they had spent away from them.
"I like them," Shinkokami said. "Do you think we will be like them at that age?"
"I don't know," Roald replied. "We might turn out worse."
"Are you worried that if we have a daughter, she will turn out like Keladry?"
"I think that would be a blessing…for everyone else," Roald said. Shinkokami hid her smile behind her fan, but her eyes still glittered.
"Well, that's certainly one of the stranger formal dinners we've been to," Roald said. "I hope you found it informative, at least, my betrothed."
"I will have more questions later," Shinkokami said. "But for now, I am satisfied."
Roald took her hand and kissed it in the Tortallan custom. "Then good night, Princess. We will try to find you answers in the morning."