Moments in Transition II - Jiyo Sora

[Canary]

The amount of pomp and circumstance surrounding the Emperor had, naturally, grown, although to Sora it would never measure up to the absolute splendor of the visions that had caused him to swear fealty to Shiba.

No amount of well-trained Jiyo guardsmen, no collection of songbirds free to fly about the room, none of it matched the visions he had told no one of.

He would have knelt to save the world. He would have died to save mortals.

Knowing that Shiba would have done so, gladly and willingly, made Sora determined to keep it from happening if at all possible.

He supposed that was love.

Oh, not like what Shiba and Yuzuru shared, although he had to admit, the blind Ayakashi seer and the Emperor seemed to partake of a happiness he could only envy, but love all the same.

But very much like what he felt when the Emperor's five children were able to escape their other minders and just go fishing with him.

It simply felt... right, and in Sora's life that sensation was still a new one.

He had suggested family fishing trips to Shiba and Yuzuru once or twice, but they had such a hard time getting away from the business of the Empire, he hated to intrude upon what few moments they could steal with his crass suggestions.

Which was why he was going to make this crass suggestion at a formal audience.

Or as formal an audience as he could arrange while wearing a wreath of flowers the emperor's youngest daughter, second of two sets of twins, had fashioned for him. One time, two years prior, a man on the road had made fun of Sora for wearing a flower the firstborn of Shiba and Jiyo had given him, threaded behind his ear. Sora wondered if the fool had stopped running yet.

He stopped at the requisite distance for petitioners, and bowed low, although he still addressed the Emperor with what he'd heard a Crane visitor call "appalling informality." Which was funny to Sora, because he generally spoke to the Imperial Family more respectfully than to anyone else he had ever met.

"Shiba-sama. With your permission, I am going to go south to help Reiko of the Spider Clan try to free your brother."

He glanced up, looking from the Emperor to Yuzuru to Jiyo. To Han-Han.

"I know you would go, Shiba-sama. I know that you wish to see your brother freed. But I also know that Yuzuru-sama has advised you of the dangers, of the terrible peril. I echo his warnings, and also wish to remind you that as Emperor, you best serve us all by remaining safe when you can, and only running risks when you must."

He bowed again, lower than he had ever done.

"So I ask that you let me run the risk this time. I know also that you have other servants, more capable servants, certainly... but they are also needed here. And I, personally, owe you more than I can ever repay. So I ask that you send me, let me go, however it pleases you to phrase it. It pains me to take leave of your children, but... I want to bring another uncle back for them."