-Ryo-

Ryo's attention to the scroll was interrupted by a sound as quiet as a whisper. It was faint, but the sound continued on a few times in repetition, in a pattern.

Ryo looked briefly at the door. He heard no one, save the Royal Guard, so he quietly placed his scroll down and, without a sound made his way to the window. With another glance to be sure no one was entering, Ryo tapped in the window frame in response to the before mentioned pattern. He then stuck a rupee in. The rupee disappeared.

A piece of paper slipped through the cracks beneath the window. Quick as a snake he snatched it, stuck it in his robe sleeve, and returned to his seat. He inscrolled it by the candlelight.

With a turn of his hand the edge of the paper touched the fire. He watched, with a smile and gleam in his eye as bright as the candlelight, as the fire spread across its surface. The clay seal of Ouki Mitagi being all that was left of the message. He stuck the round seal into his purse along with his coins and rupees.

Ryo resumed his work as if nothing had happened. In truth, he did not have to pretend to have moved on. He had a great deal of work to do and he held his work in too high of a regard to slacken.

The next day, Ryo rose and gathered his things. The meeting with Zelda's ministers would not be for many hours and he wanted some perspective. He understood the animosity the court held for him, and from Zelda specifically, and believed him to be capable of dealing with it despite being the only one from his own court in attendance. Ryo would handle them all as smoothly as he always did.

Ryo would defeat Zelda. He held all the pieces, he held the Queen piece, the King piece, and all the other pieces as well. Even the checkmate piece, if there was one. It was unfortunate to lose his Bishop, but it was a worthy sacrifice to stay in the game. The game was moving on its way as both sides rethought how to move forward. Ryo would allow Zelda her reprieve, and in the meantime he would see his legacy, his Qin, prosper.

Ryo requested to know where Abhdan was, and after questioning several he finally tracked the slippery man down to the king's study.

Ryo entered and to his surprise, Zelda was there as well. He did not show his surprise but kept his composure genuine. Didn't this girl ever relax? It was before dawn and she was already deep in her studies. If the number of scrolls around her was any indication, she had not.

Abhdan stirred from where he was reclining in a chair as Ryo approached, and Zelda visibly stiffed. Under her gaze, the air around Ryo felt frigid. It would have made him fear for his life if he was a lesser man. His mere existence seemed to be an insult to her.

"Teacher." Ryo greeted. He brought his hands together and bowed to him slightly.

"Ah! Oh-ho! Ryo! It is good to see you this fine morning!"

"You as well, teacher. If I may impose, I wished for some perspective on a matter."

"Oh?" Abhdan asked, his curiosity piqued.

Ryo reached into his outer robes and handed him one of the scrolls he kept on his person. Zelda's eyes widened slightly at the sight of how many scrolls Ryo had hidden on him.

"See something curious, princess?" Ryo asked with a smirk. Zelda blushed in embarrassment at being caught. She looked away.

"I have never seen anyone with so many documents on them all the time." Zelda furrowed her brows. "Didn't one of them just now bear the mark of the king?" She accused lightly.

Abhdan looked up from his reading to watch them. Ryo continued to smirk.

"You have a good eye. Indeed, it is a scroll of the king. If you recall, you gave it to me when my men returned you from Zhao. You allowed me any wish, and I wished for this scroll."

Ryo patted his robe where the scroll was beneath. Zelda nodded. She remembered it. It was a scroll from her father's collection.

"And I have kept it on my person since. It is a good reminder of old times, and an old friend. As for the other scrolls... let's just say I believe in a merchant's luck."

Zelda scoffed, "Luck. There is no such thing. Fate is weaved by the Goddesses and moulded by the work of our hands. There is only design, not chaos."

"Agreed."

"Then there is no luck."

"Wrong." Ryo said simply, yet with a smile as if talking to an ignorant child. With Zelda's age, she more or less was compared to him.

"Are you mad?" Zelda asked. "You say there is luck yet no luck? Which is it."

"Then you are hearing what you wish to hear, and are putting words in my mouth I have not said. There is luck, but there is also design."

"Even though they directly contradict? Are you dumb?"

Ryo did not take to the brazen insult. At most he raised an eyebrow. "You disappoint me, princess. I thought you above petty childish insults."

"That's a laugh coming from you! You insult me with every breath! Your every thought is an attack on me! Your every action is a sin unto me! Your game of Qin is narcissistic!"

Ryo felt the veins in his forehead pulse. Now he was getting aggravated. But then what better to have expected from a girl just reaching puberty? He scoffed sarcastically, "Go ahead, princess. Why don't you tell me what you truly think."

"I hate you!" Zelda yelled.

"I was being sarcastic, brat!" Ryo exclaimed.

Abhdan's uproarious laughter interrupted their argument. The old man laughed until he cried, and then some. Ryo cast Zelda another annoyed glance before straightening him and composing himself.

"Her immature behaviour is hardly worth being amused by." Ryo chastised. Zelda gave him a withering look.

"It is not that!" Abhdan panted amidst lingering chuckles. "It is how karma has returned upon your head! Princess, he too was as mouthy at your age and said such things to me. I called him brat many times!" Zelda smiled in amusement.

"Hey now..." Ryo growled. "That is uncalled for."

"But all that aside, Ryo, I think it is good you are here. I have been teaching the high princess my 'Game of Nations'."

Ryo nodded. He knew the game well. Abhdan had invented it as a teaching practice tool. "Is she doing well?"

"She is!" Abhdan said proudly. Zelda smiled lightly at the praise.

"Good, good."

"But I was hoping you would join us for a game." Abhdan continued.

"Pardon?" Zelda's smile fell to a frown.

"Now now, princess. You can learn much from your fellow student."

"As if..." Zelda scoffed. She wanted nothing to do with Ryo. The man had already rudely interrupted her lesson. And this was after insulting her in open court. And he had tried to have her assassinated!

Now thoroughly annoyed, Ryo said, "Very well. I will play."

"What? No!" Zelda protested.

"Princess... you may be my liege, but I am your teacher and this room is my kingdom and my lessons are my laws. The only way you can overpower me here is to kill me." Abhdan smiled widely, with a deceivingly light tone.

"Don't try it." Ryo sighed. "I've been trying to kill him for thirty-five years... Bastard refuses to die."

Zelda looked at him in disbelief. She didn't want to think he had actually tried, but then again Ryo had tried to kill her... so did he really try for thirty-five years or not? She could not say. Abhdan merely laughed.

The game in question was a simulation of a nation. Every turn was a season, and you started with one-hundred people at a place on the map. Every person had needs and could be tasked to work single tasks. You had to survive winter, starvation, disease, overpopulation, feral animals, random accidents, and the occasional disaster or attack. You had to keep your people happy, lest they rebel; and you had to keep them weak enough, lest they take the kingdom out from under you. You had to keep the church happy, lest you be declared a heretic, and you had to keep the merchants guild happy, lest they rebel. In like manner to allow them to become too strong will allow them to decide they don't need you any longer. At some point the mafia arises, and you have to balance yourself between being too harsh, lest your people suffer under you, and too lenient, lest the mafia grow.

And you had to deal with every possible profession and resource known, from the resource gatherers, to the ones who moved them, to the ones who processed resources to make other products, to the builders, to the judges and guards who kept the peace, and finally the full military.

And that was one city.

Very quickly Zelda realized she was fighting someone who was far her superior at this. Ryo's decisions turn from turn confused her, but before long she realized he was thinking not merely one step ahead, or even ten steps ahead. Ryo's thoughts were entire generations ahead. To make her humiliation greater, Abhdan inflicted disasters upon Ryo many times, while inflicting none on her, and he calmly, methodically, worked his way through them all, balancing every facet of the game like an instrument.

Ryo had expanded to form a dozen cities ten times her population before finally buying her own city out from under her.

"You did well." Ryo complimented as he put away pieces. "Much better than I expected. Abhdan's words does not do your sharp mind justice."

"You just won because you already knew the game." Zelda complained. "I will improve."

"If you must know Abhdan invented rules he had never used on me before, all for the purpose of holding me back. You did not have to handle mafia. I did. You did not have to handle inner court corruption. I did." Ryo directed his words to his teacher. "And just how did you invent rules and events to simulate it so well?"

Abhdan merely smiled. This secret, like so many others, would die with him.

"Face the truth princess, you are good. Far better than your brother. He had potential but never applied himself. Your father was much the same, intelligent but never once stepped up or put effort into his role. However while you are not lacking in born talent, and not lacking in hard work, you will never... ever... beat me. For one reason: you refuse to see me as anything but an enemy. For that you fail at politics at the most base level."

"You...!" Zelda growled. "You do what you have done to me and think you are anything but?!"

"Princess. Recall the game." Ryo said patiently. "You had the option to trade with me and you refused. You let your people suffer over your own personal vices. You played, not to secure the prosperity of your people, but to defeat me. In the end I took your city out from under you not because you were my lesser, but because your obsession with turtling yourself within your grudge led to suffering. And now consider the governor I took over? I did not kill your pawn, Princess. The governor merely works for me now. I did not kill him, and he governs the same land as before. Destruction of resources is a waste. No one has suffered. No war. Only progress. Now look to yourself. I make no mistake in wondering why you hate me, but allow me to give you some advice: so long as you prove this easy to manipulate, influence, and stir up, you will always be my lesser."

Zelda could not speak. His words had struck her silent. He spoke softly but so accurately into her heart she was left numb. Not the painful numbness that thinking of her mother gave her, but the humiliation of chastisement. She had been angry, increasingly angry each day; and who could blame her? But she now felt the anger whisk away as a mist and in its absence was... nothing.

Ryo turned to Abhdan and bowed. "Thank you, great teacher. The game proved enlightening."

Ryo left. As he departed Zelda stood and asked, "Why would you give me advice? What profit is it to you that I learn and grow?!"

Ryo stopped long enough to say, "Because you have always been an investment. I created your parents. I created you. I destroyed your parents in the end. I can destroy you without a second thought just as well, but you are proving to be worth the investment. Because despite it all, we have one thing in common: we both serve Qin."

Zelda was left speechless in the wake of Ryo's departure. Much as she wanted to argue against it, or refute him, she found she could not. He was right. Her emotions were getting the best of her, and so long as he could so easily influence her emotions, he effectively would control her. This was a lesson worth taking to heart.

But could she trust him to put Qin first and their rivalry second?

Abhdan watched her process what had happened, and chose to say nothing as he saw she was not merely brushing off the lesson.

"Teacher," Zelda said. "What does he mean by merchant's luck?"

Abhdan stroked his beard. "Ryo has always seen luck as an equation... he described to me as 'the culmination of man's preparation for divine opportunity'."

"In other words... always being prepared."

"Yes, but with the acknowledgement that it is the divine that test us. They provide us events of good and ill, and when man is not prepared we often call it bad luck, while a man that is prepared will call it good luck. Sometimes the preparation is merely being at the right place at the right time, while ill preparation is being at the wrong place. Man suffers, but how they choose to take the suffering is up to them. Same things for blessings. Some men reject blessings as evil, while others good."

Zelda tried to wrap such a concept around in her head, and what she found baffled her. "Who taught this to him?"

"No one. He came up with it on his own." Abhdan replied.

"Surely he does not think that all acts are provided by the divine? The divine do not orchestrate evil, but evil still happens because there is sin as the rejection of the divine. The Goddesses weave fate for good to protect us."

"And I think he would agree. But ultimately this world is both one of good and one of evil for a reason: To show this realm is not the heavens nor the hells, but to give us a taste so that we may know which life thereafter we wish to strive for."

Zelda nodded. She did not know whether to agree with that, but it was easy for her to understand. She would have to talk with the Fae and newly elected priests later to get their understanding. Abhdan ended the lesson there and departed for the day, and Zelda realized that in all of that, Abhdan had not laughed. This was the most serious he had ever taken anything. This evidence left her feeling it was more important that she come to understand something from this lesson than before, that she take it more seriously.

So she sat in meditation up until it was time for the meeting. She considered her relationship with Ryo, and how it would affect all of Qin. She considered the options before her, and while it was impossible to rationalize the idea that she would ever be anything less than his obstacle, she realized that she had made a fundamental error. He was a politician like any other. He was the most dangerous one of all, but she had come to see him as something far more than that. She had come to see him as inhuman, as a monster. He had his good traits and he had many flaws, and she had lost sight of that.

This was not a reality where anyone could be clearly defined as a hero or villain. This was not some fairy tale. He was a man. He most likely loved someone (his own narcissistic self being an option) and had been loved. He had been born to a mother and father, and perhaps even raised by them. He could even have had a pet and doted on it.

If it was, then what did that make her and her friends? She was intent on war. Ganondorf was by no means a righteous man. Even Link, the most innocent of them, was motivated by revenge at one point. By her own standards all of them would be villains. The only true hero was long dead.

She needed to grow up. Ryo was a man who commanded respect and gave it in turn, and were she to take a hard look at herself, she had been... quite obstinate with him.

It was her destiny to defeat him, and that was ever more assured by the calm acknowledgement she needed to return to that he was but a man. No man could stand in the way of destiny.

So when the time came Zelda rose, joined the meeting, and observed when needed and participated when needed. Despite her distaste for him, Ryo was still her Chancellor. So long as she treated him with respect due his station perhaps he would allow her to use him; and to her surprise he did. He did not make any verbal jabs. He did not play any twisted games (this time).

Qin would face war inside and out. These were the times they lived in; but it was up to them to ensure Qin not only survive, but prosper.