"I think in the times before, the regent was someone who overlooked civil matters the king was too busy to handle," he said slowly, frowning a little. Bits and pieces of conversations from half-remembered people who drifted by the Sky Pillar. Murky green and orange appeared and spread out before the darker purple swallowed both. "The Throne though, it started going bad, taking away the life and everything of the king... I think that was when the Hallows disappeared."
When they started waking up, he didn't add, glancing over at Shen Wei. "I know they weren't just forgotten or lost, not the way he said they were. The Hallows were too... independent to be easily taken away like that. I could feel them at times even when I slept."
"They were already gone when I awoke, but the Regent's claims that they were lost and he had no idea what had happened to them-" He shakes his head- "I couldn't disprove them, I... I wouldn't have had any idea how to go about trying. And by the time I found my feet-" He sighs and lowers his gaze again- "Whatever evidence there might have been was long gone." The admission clearly pains him. "But the Regent's claims never rang true."
He takes a sip of his tea and turns his focus back to Taylor mei. "As for the Dijun throne, t is not simply a designation, or an ornamental seat, it is an artifact imbued with a great deal of dark energy. I believe it was initially designed to connect the monarch to his people, and to aid in fairly administering Dixing's laws with both justice and mercy. But during the time we slept it was somehow perverted from that purpose, whether by accident or design, and it now ties the king to it in sleepless servitude to administrative trivia until his life force is completely drained." He has little doubt as to whether it was accident or design, or as to who was the corrupting influence, but, as with the disappearance of the Hallows, he has never found any proof.
"And this Regent's left in charge while the king is made useless?" she asks, but it's not really a question. "Sounds like a fantastic way to be king while everyone thinks you aren't."
"He is a slippery devil playing all the sides against each other with a very healthy interest in the smugglers. I wouldn't put it past him if he had handed them the Hallows over the years; he's at least a couple centuries old."
Quite possibly older than that. He remembered during the brief moments of awareness of the man being talked about, of people exchanging things in the shadows of his prison.
"The Throne was made from a fragment of the ship, gege. Like the Hallows. And no one knows how it works completely without the ship or the creators' notes."
"He's done a great deal to make himself indispensable, including, no doubt, making himself the hub for all smuggling between Haixing and Dixing." He takes a long, slow, frustrated breath. "I should have taken more of an interest in Dixing affairs," he admits, "Instead of allowing myself to be shuffled above to search for the Hallows." But it had been so easy to accept, when what he most wanted had been to be above, searching for Kunlun as diligently as the Hallows themselves.
He reaches up, as if to adjust a mask or glasses he's no longer wearing, then drops his hand back to his knee again. "I remember the stories, a little, from when we were small. That the heart of the Throne was the Captain's command chair, and I've felt it... reaching out, sometimes, when I was near to it. But no-" He shakes his head- "So much was lost when the meteor destroyed Dixing. Not just technology, but the knowledge required to reproduce it, or to understand what little remained."
"That would be someone else to target, or a later one. The deal I want is pointed at the Hallows."
Because they did not work right. They did not seem right. Why would they need a human soul to burn now? They worked before, sealing him away and sending the human through time a couple times. Or maybe they didn't have the understanding of them? No matter, he wanted them working like they should which should also free Zhao Yunlan in the proc4ess.
"As didi said, we need the Hallows working properly first, to provide Dixing with light and to free Zhao Yunlan."
The deal he should have been working towards if he hadn't ruined everything. He looks down at his hands, feeling the burn of shame rising up his neck and pinking his ears, but chooses not to acknowledge it as he continues. "And... I am not sure that the knowledge we lost is something that should be handed to our people, and the world, as it is now. Even didi and I do not remember much of how the world was before the meteor, we were so young when it happened, and I hesitate to simply ask for the advanced knowledge of an ancient spacefaring people to simply be presented as a gift to people who have no memory of it and no context for it."
"That's all in how you ask for it, then, isn't it? I'd ask for a library of what was lost, arranged in the order it needs to be learned." She looks at Shen Wei, sitting a little straighter. "You're a teacher. You know how to put together a curriculum. This is fully within your wheelhouse, Shen ge, even if it takes a generation or two to teach it."
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When they started waking up, he didn't add, glancing over at Shen Wei. "I know they weren't just forgotten or lost, not the way he said they were. The Hallows were too... independent to be easily taken away like that. I could feel them at times even when I slept."
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He takes a sip of his tea and turns his focus back to Taylor mei. "As for the Dijun throne, t is not simply a designation, or an ornamental seat, it is an artifact imbued with a great deal of dark energy. I believe it was initially designed to connect the monarch to his people, and to aid in fairly administering Dixing's laws with both justice and mercy. But during the time we slept it was somehow perverted from that purpose, whether by accident or design, and it now ties the king to it in sleepless servitude to administrative trivia until his life force is completely drained." He has little doubt as to whether it was accident or design, or as to who was the corrupting influence, but, as with the disappearance of the Hallows, he has never found any proof.
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Quite possibly older than that. He remembered during the brief moments of awareness of the man being talked about, of people exchanging things in the shadows of his prison.
"The Throne was made from a fragment of the ship, gege. Like the Hallows. And no one knows how it works completely without the ship or the creators' notes."
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He reaches up, as if to adjust a mask or glasses he's no longer wearing, then drops his hand back to his knee again. "I remember the stories, a little, from when we were small. That the heart of the Throne was the Captain's command chair, and I've felt it... reaching out, sometimes, when I was near to it. But no-" He shakes his head- "So much was lost when the meteor destroyed Dixing. Not just technology, but the knowledge required to reproduce it, or to understand what little remained."
no subject
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Because they did not work right. They did not seem right. Why would they need a human soul to burn now? They worked before, sealing him away and sending the human through time a couple times. Or maybe they didn't have the understanding of them? No matter, he wanted them working like they should which should also free Zhao Yunlan in the proc4ess.
no subject
The deal he should have been working towards if he hadn't ruined everything. He looks down at his hands, feeling the burn of shame rising up his neck and pinking his ears, but chooses not to acknowledge it as he continues. "And... I am not sure that the knowledge we lost is something that should be handed to our people, and the world, as it is now. Even didi and I do not remember much of how the world was before the meteor, we were so young when it happened, and I hesitate to simply ask for the advanced knowledge of an ancient spacefaring people to simply be presented as a gift to people who have no memory of it and no context for it."
no subject