Xiang Kai's Audience Hall - Dingtao

[Freefall]

A small group approached the city of Dingtao, they bore the banner of Jiang Sei of Huainan along with a white banner of peace. At the head of the small column of 10 men was a grizzled soldier and a diplomat of some kind. As they approached the audience hall the grizzled solider spoke to his unit.

Captian: Keep your cool men, we are here to protect the envoy and nothing more.

The men in the column voiced their acknowledgement and the captian nodded to teh envoy who approached the soldiers on duty.

Envoy: Excuse me sirs, we are a detachment of men from the province of Huianan under teh command of Jiang Sei. Though we recently shared the field of battle my lord bid us to seek out your Duke on a mission of diplomacy. We will turn over whatever you deem as needed in order to meet with your liege.

[Rayne]

Kai looks to Sun Lian, "Yes? Tell me, what does your lord wish? What does he see in this?"

Sun Lian took a deep breath before answering.
"An alliance between two kingdoms as powerful as ours would have great benefit. Together, we could consolidate the east and wipe out any foe standing in our way. In the north, Fei Lak is already our ally, and to the west, the Brotherhood as well. With these powerful forces allied together, all other nations will fall."
She paused for a moment, building dramatic tension.
"Of course, in the end, that would leave us to battle it out for utter control or else merge under one flag. But I think you'll find that route makes more sense than to take the risk of being eliminated much earlier. What say you?"

[R-Void]

Ba and the Duke of Liang enganged conversation for a while before before Ba step back and excuse himself.

As they stepped out the Audience Hall gate Xiu cannot contain his curiousity anymore.

"Teacher I am sorry being so dense, but I cannot really understood your conversation with the Duke just now. I cannot really draw any conclusion to it."

Ba smiled, "You don't have to draw anything from it Xiu, It didn't really have any meaning."

Ba's vague answer confused Xiu, "You had so much conversation going with the Duke, but without any meaning? Why bother with such nonsense..."

Ba cuts Xiu's rant, "That, Xiu, was not a nonsense. I was diplomacy...."

Ba mounted his horse and ride back to Yan, with Xiu escorting faithfully beside him.

[Naxr]

Freefall

The guard answered the envoy, "You may come in to see the Duke, but your men must wait here for the duration of your visit. Will you follow me?"

Rayne

Kai frowned. "Your threats mean little here in Liang. I recommend that you leave immediately."

Several of the guards, led by Dan Ro, moved forward to escort the visitor out of the hall.

[jritch]

Soto was taken by the way the situation had turned so fast and quickly spoke up

Soto: Master Kai I assure you my loyalties are with you and which ever decision you make, although I honestly don't believe Sun Lian meant any offenses or threats in her proposal, she was mearly saying the possiblitlies of a distant tomarrow if nothingelse this could be viewed as a business deal for greater advancement for many including Liang.

[Swashbuckler]

Gao Liang walked through the streets of Dingtao, muttering to himself and growling at children. 'Spare the rod, spoil the child,' he thought. 'But these people take it to a new extreme.' One bumped into him and he glared daggers at the child, then walked on, murmuring about the moral deficiency of today's youths and how he hated seeing a child go unwhipped.

He moved slowly towards the center of the city, and finally reached the audience hall of Xiang Kai. Pulling a scrollish-letterish-thingy out of a satchel, he looked into the eyes of one of the guards and said, in a somewhat-inappropriately loud, harsh tone that old people use when their hearing starts to go and they don't realize how loud they are and how annoying their voice is, "Hey, sonny. Your lord's seen fit to waste perfectly good ink on a message to a retired old bag of bones. Mind showing me in? I figured I might as well at least oblige him and pay my respects."

[Naxr]

jritch

Kai spoke to his general with a deep, serious voice, "Do not worry, I know where your loyalties lie. You are a good man. As for this proposal, this envoy suggests that we renounce our friendships and alliances with the friends we currently have. Their ally Fei Lak is at war with our friends Tian Dan of Qi and Li Zhu of Yin. Bandits are said to plague the ranks of both Yue and Yan. And here they come, to Dingtao, requesting that we join them in plundering the land, destroying nations? This is simply unacceptable. As long as they carry themselves with such contempt for that which is good, they will find no friend here in Liang."

Swashbuckler

"Uhhh... Sure. Come with me," the guard said as he walked up the steps towards the entrance, motioning for the man to follow.

Assuming he does, he is led inside the building, and after a short walk they find themselves in a hallway outside a door outside of which stood several guards. The guard who had led the visitor spoke to one of the guards who carried with him a large spear, "Lieutenant General Dan, a visitor for King Xiang Kai."

"Very well," the man answered, after having looked the guest up and down, "go in."

The guard led him into the small, lightly furnished office. Xiang Kai was sitting down behind his desk, busily writing something or another on a scroll. Before his desk several chairs waited to be filled by visitors. He looked up when he noticed the two enter the room. "Yes?"

The young guard opened his mouth but hesitated to speak for a moment. "King Xiang, a visitor is here to see you," he said, stopping so as to avoid mentioning that he had not gotten the man's name.

[Swashbuckler]

"You're not even going to make me wait for a couple hours only to see some minor functionary instead? Require three forms of identification or verification of identity from persons trusted by the state before I see someone? Threaten me with horrific torture if I turn out to be a charlatan of some sort or a trickster who has indeed not been invited by your lord? Wow, you people are trusting," he said to the guard as he was led onwards. Indeed, the dotard was not sure what he ought be more surprised by: the lack of arrogance in the guards; the lack of emphasis on security; or that these people weren't just plain jerks to a useless broken-down old man. If there was one thing he had learned in life it's that if you made a habit of expecting the worst in people, you were usually right and never disappointed, after all.

As he was led into Xiang Kai's audience chamber, he took a moment to look around the office - using his peripheral vision of course. He didn't care to look like a gawking fool, after all. His left eyebrow moved upwards a few micrometers in surprise that the office was not furnished with rich gold embroidery or gold urns or other such useless and extravagant fripperies and trinkets as he might have expected a man of such power to use to decorate his office, but otherwise his face betrayed nothing. Instead, he bowed to the extremely limited extent that his aching, arthritic neck and back would allow him to without leaving him looking and feeling crippled, and spoke.

"King Xiang, allow me to introduce myself. I am Gao Liang, with whom you requested a meeting. What can this crippled old husk of a man do for you?" He coughed - no, hacked - after speaking, and when he inhaled afterwards a noise not unlike the wind whistling between two tall buildings escaped his throat. He could not help but smile cynically, wondering what a wretched geriatric such as himself could offer to anyone.

[Naxr]

"Yes, our philosophy here is to not treat others like thieves, murderers and the like, unless of course we know they are," he chuckled to himself. "We find that it can become somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy."

He motioned something to the guard who had brought the man in. The guard walked out of the room. He straightened himself up in his chair and took on a stoic demeanor. "Yes, I remember writing to you. I have been told that you are a skilled man when it comes to governance from some of my civil officials here in Dingtao. In addition, a general has told me of your talent for horse breeding. So when I had men coming from every part of Liang speaking so highly of you, it would have been unthinkable not to write."

After he said this he paused, which the guard at the doorway who had left only moments before took as a sign to enter. He brought with him a tray which held on top of it a cup of water. After placing the tray with the water before Gao Liang, he walked out of the room to stand with the other guards as Kai nodded to him. "So, I will be straightforward and say that I asked you to come here in hopes that you would lend your knowledge and skill to the peoples of Liang and Jiaoxi. Would this interest you?"

[Swashbuckler]

Gao Liang blinked twice, and his eyebrow rose a couple more micrometers. He took two breaths to compose his thoughts, then said, "You certainly are bold. And straightforward." He looked the king right in the eye, nodded to himself, and said, "I like that in a man. If I may be so bold as to say so," he said, tacking on the last bit almost as an afterthought. "Though I can't imagine how anyone has heard of me."

"What feels like a lifetime ago, I was a minor clerk in a minor town." He paused, considering whether or not to discuss how he probably never got ahead because his superior and he butted heads almost constantly. Deciding it was irrelevant, he continued. "Since then, the only thing I have administered is the family farm. It is true that I breed horses. More mules than horses, really, or so it seems to me. Makes a nice little bit of pocket change, doing work like that for villagers. Even pays the bills from time to time," he said with a chuckle, which ended with another hack, this time a much wetter-sounding one, and more rattling from his chest. He quickly pulled out a handkerchief and covered his mouth. The edges were decorated with red dots, making it difficult to determine what, if anything, he had hacked up.

He briefly bent over, supporting himself with his hands on his knees. He rose again, breathed deeply, and took a sip from the cup of water. Though his throat desperately needed to be wetted, he showed only the most graceful and delicate manners, polished over decades. Softly setting the cup back down, cushioning it slightly with his pinky finger as he did so, he once again rose to his fully-erect height and pierced Xiang Kai with his gaze.

"Tell me, if you will, of the men under your command. How would you describe them? Aside from their personal loyalty to you, is there any sort of common thread between them? And what about them would you say stands out?" His expression changed, becoming almost pensive. His head declined ever-so-slightly, and his eyes took on a half-lidded look. "I assure you, I would not ask without reason, however irrelevant the question may sound," he said softly, almost whispering. Though his face again betrayed nothing, as usual, his curiosity and eagerness were almost apparent from his slightly rapid breathing. Or that could have been the aftereffects of his last coughing fit. It would have been difficult to tell.