Axis Powers Hetalia

Esen found himself without anything to say. Up until this moment he had truly believed that if Baoxiang would just try, he could still be the son Chaghan wanted. But now he knew it had always been impossible.

As if reading his mind, Baoxiang said simply, "See?"

Lord Wang met his eyes, pale and defiant. "So am I to find out by happenstance, from the servants, that my own father has disowned me?"

Chaghan said coldly, "Your father? I thought I had made it clear that you've lost any right you had to use that name. Would that my sister had died before getting you! Get out of my sight! Get out!"

"Father!" Lord Wang's voice was shrill with horror as he threw himself lengthwise into the dirt at the edge, heedless of his silks...He saw the two reaching hands grasp. The cords in Lord Wang's neck stood out with the effort as he shouted, "General, help!"

He [Esen] strode to the doors and flung them open, stepping out into the diffuse brightness of the hot pearl sky. The empty courtyard echoed with the memory of those hundreds of people in white. But today there was only one figure there. From a distance Wang Baoxiang's elaborate white drapery and drained face had all the humanity of a carved piece of jade.

His [Baoxiang's] fine-boned Manji features seemed more prominent, and there were shadows under his eyes. Under his familiar brittle smirk, there was something as pale and secretive as a mushroom.

Esen slammed back his chair. "You dare speak of him to me!"

"Why?" asked Baoxiang, advancing. His voice rose. "Why can't I speak of our father? Do tell, is there something you think I did?"

...

"I don't admit anything! I don't need to! You've already made up your mind." Baoxiang grabbed the desk and held on..."No matter what I say, no matter what I do, both of you would think the worst of me. You slander me with ill thoughts I've never had--no, not even when he had me on my knees, and was cursing my very existence. You think I murdered him!"

Esen slammed his hands against the desk with such ferocity that it dealt a blow to Baoxiang and sent him stumbling...Esen heard the ugliness of his voice: it was his father's voice. "He was right about you. You're worthless. Worse than that: a curse. Rue the day this house took you in! Even if I have not the authority of the Great Khan, then at least my ancestors should witness the truth of my words in disowning your name. Get out!"

"You are a Kel, aren't you? You usually are." He [Jedao] added: "It's so easy to forget what colors look like."

His [the Nirai's] speech was plain, despite his beautiful voice, his verb forms almost disparaging.

"Should formation instinct have taken her so strongly?" Jedao said. He sounded deferential.

"Jedao," the Nirai said, "I trust she's satisfactory?"

"I'm your gun," Jedao said.

Cheris was nonplussed. A Kel might say that ceremonially to a superior, and even then only on the highest of occasions, but the irony in Jedao's voice suggested that something else was going on.

"Besides," Jedao added, "if she's like the others, she never had a substantive choice, and I didn't have one either."

"What defenses does the general have, sir?"

"He can talk to you," the Nirai said sardonically.

But the formation instinct was ebbing. She could think more clearly now.

"That's better," Jedao said. Was that genuine relief?

"'My attention wandered'?" Cheris said, remembering his smile when she had fallen off the treadmill.

"The Nirai has peculiar ideas about entertainment," Jedao said without any particular inflection.

Cheris frowned. Something didn't add up. "I appreciate the concern, sir." The word slipped out: habit.

"You weren't at the Siege of Hellspin Fortress," Jedao said. For the first time, his voice went completely flat.

"We're going to have to confront the Fortress sooner or later," Cheris said. "It might as well be sooner. With any luck, fewer people will die this way."

"Good," Jedao said crisply. "I'm glad we care about the same things."

In an emergency, if the general withholds necessary information, the carrion glass remnants can be ingested by a volunteer. Although this procedure is experimental, this will give the general a body so he can be tortured.

"Alright," Jedao said. "Setup...We're going to have to ask the Nirai to loan us a mathematical analyst--"

"I can handle that," Cheris said.

Sharp interest: "You're Nirai-trained?"

"I can request my profile for your perusal," she said.

"I'd like that, yes, but I want to hear it from you as well."

Cheris brought up her profile--the part of it she was allowed to see, anyway--and wondered which sections were inviting particular scrutiny...

"Fine," Jedao said after a disquieting silence. "Fourth display, review of available resources."

"If the Pale Fracture weren't a calendrical dead zone, they would almost be good enough to fuel a whole new wave of expansion."

"Don't get cocky," said the Nirai without looking up, "you have enough problems already."

"One could hope for some variety in opponents," Jedao said.

Cheris blinked. She didn't think she had imagined the chill in his voice. But the Nirai's expression was serene, as if he hadn't heard it at all.

"Breaking the enemy has always been important." Yes, Cheris thought, but who is your enemy?