bestest boi needs some justice on this blog because i’ll be damned if i write a better character than him
“The Sahai were a complete waste of time,” Dauguzhu growls to nobody in particular, shoving his sword into the hands of one of his attendants. “Where’s Yuju?”
“His Excellency is with the Prince.”
He clicks his tongue in annoyance. “Anything new about my sister?”
The attendant who spoke before hesitates, so another speaks up instead, saying, “Sixth Master, Princess Beyiha wishes to dine with you tonight.”
That sours his mood entirely. Beyiha...it’s all her fault his dear sister was sent away to that miserable land of Asyu’er. If she never married Fourth Brother, then dear Suru wouldn’t have to leave to appease the Kazynis, and they’d never have been separated.
It’s irrational -- he knows that very clearly -- to blame it solely on his late brother’s wife. She’s suffered just as much, being forced to marry into a faraway clan, being widowed with no children, and surviving only because her father-in-law is a benevolent man. She had no say in the matter, and the only ones at fault were his own father, the High King, and the Prince Asyu’er.
“Leave.”
Once the door slides shut, Dauguzhu lets out a sigh as he sits on a stool, wearily resting his chin on his hand and closing his eyes in want of peace. His head is throbbing from suppressed anger -- Asyu’er sent him on a wild goose chase for the sole purpose of trying to kill him.
The bastard prince told him three years ago that if he wanted to get Suru back, he’d have to placate the north for him. The first year, it was to destroy the Motaidan clan, allegedly because they were raiding the border they shared with Asyu’er. Then, it was to eradicate the vestiges of the nomadic clans under the proclamation that they were insubordinate, and so forth. At first, the requests were petty ones, but when it became evident that Dauguzhu just would not die, they started getting more and more dangerous, and quite obviously in favour of Asyu’er amassing power.
This time, he was sent to force the Sahai clan into submission. They used to be high nobility, but ever since the the Essenian subjugation all those centuries ago, they’ve fallen and become little more than mere shadows of their glorious past. They boasted to take his head, but two rounds of fire lances shut them up rather quickly. A shame though, had they surrendered earlier, he would have been merciful and not sought their complete decimation. But it’s just as well, since surely the Lord Sahai’s corpse would invoke some kind of fear in Asyu’er, and perhaps that will persuade him to let Suru go.
Does he enjoy it? No, Dauguzhu finds it distasteful, but he doesn’t care. If it means he’s closer to getting Suru back, he’ll do it all again and then some more. It doesn’t matter if Asyu’er demands he fight the High King’s army himself -- he won’t die, won’t give up before bringing her back home.
His hand goes to his neck, tracing the shape of his pendant. It was half of a pair gifted to him during his Naming Ceremony. He was given the onyx stallion, and Suru was given the pearl butterfly. Did Asyu’er let her keep it? Is she still free enough to look at it and reminisce?
He doesn’t trust the bland letters that arrive every moon. That’s not how Suru writes, but he holds his tongue in front of his father. He doesn’t trust anyone in Asyu’er -- not the Fourth Master of Asyu’er, not the Prince Asyu’er, and most certainly not that Fifth Master of theirs. What was his name again...Tuko’er? All of them leave a sour taste in his mouth.
Dauguzhu sighs once more, absently scratching off some dried blood on his cheek. What would Suru think of him now? Would she laud his battles and praise his stratagems? Or would she be disgusted at his becoming an Asyu’er lapdog out of desperation?
It doesn’t matter very much, does it? It doesn’t matter if the price of her freedom is to slaughter thousands, to destroy the entire continent, or even to bow down to the wretched Essenian swines. Nothing else matters to Dauguzhu if she isn’t freed from that gilded cage and by his side.