With the immediate source of potential tension between them at least nominally resolved, Sen and the prince settled into a more relaxed conversation that focused on the reason that Sen had actually been meant to visit. The prince started by giving Sen a general overview of the local political scene.

“Should I assume that your working knowledge of the government in general is thin?”

“You should. You might even say that it's nonexistent. I knew that this was a kingdom and that there was theoretically a government. That’s as far as it goes.”

“Theoretically?”

“I grew up on the streets,” said Sen. “There wasn’t much interaction with the government. I have some working knowledge about types of governments, but my teachers warned me that the reality is always a fundamentally different thing.”

“That is certainly true. Very well. There is a lot happening in the kingdom at any given time, so I’ll stick with what you need to know to survive here.”

“That sounds practical.”

“In theory, the royal family, my family, has uncontested authority over the kingdom. That is largely a fiction. There are a number of powerful noble houses that control a wide range of territories and resources that the kingdom needs to survive. That means that the royal house must often negotiate with these houses in order to keep the kingdom from simply collapsing. While there are dozens of minor noble houses that are little more than merchants with titles, there are perhaps a dozen major houses that hold substantial sway, and what you might call four great houses. For your purposes, you need to know about those four houses, because you’re about to infuriate one of them.”

“The house of Choi,” said Sen, nodding in understanding.

“Precisely. The house of Choi has always been problematic. They ruled briefly and badly for a short time early in the kingdom’s history. They were removed from the throne and replaced by my family. They’ve never forgotten that they once ruled, and unsurprisingly yearn to return their house to that position. In retrospect, we should have simply destroyed them at the time, but my ancestors feared the chaos that would ensue, so most of them were spared. Ever since, they have been a source of plots, insurrections, assassination attempts, successful assassinations, and general discord, but always at just enough of a remove that we cannot move against them.”

“Why?”

“Evidence. Politics is a game and a lethal game for those who play it. Yet, it's also a sad kind of farcical theater, where we must put on a show to placate lesser houses. Without evidence, irrefutable proof, of their involvement, destroying the house of Choi truly would create the chaos my ancestors feared. It could ignite a civil war.”

“And even I know that those are bad for everyone.”

“Very much so. While your experience stands as evidence of a certain level of neglect on the part of the government, the situation as it stands is better than civil war or pure anarchy.”

“The neglected might not see it that way,” said Sen, his voice going a little cold.

The prince gave Sen a considering look before he nodded. “No, I don’t imagine they do. Yet, no government thinks in terms of the individual. It can’t. Governments think in terms of overall security, borders, and, when the time and resources can be spared, what will benefit the most people. For someone who grew up without a home or family, you would likely see charitable donations of food as an important and worthwhile investment. You’d even be right, at some level. Yet, if the choice is between making the donations or building and repairing the roads that connect our cities, where should the money go? Ensuring that goods and people can move from place to place helps more people. It lets us get soldiers where they need to be. It allows food to move from places where harvests were good to places where harvests were poor. Those might seem unimportant to a homeless child, but they prevent invasion and much greater starvation.”

Sen ground his teeth. “I won’t pretend that I understand all of the intricacies or that I think I’d do better, in principle. However, none of that helps the starving child on the streets.”

“I know,” said the prince. “And that is the burden. We know that our choices save some and condemn others, and then we must make the choices anyway. Can you truly tell me that you’ve never made choices where there was no best outcome, only less terrible outcomes?”

“No,” admitted Sen. “And I’ll admit that I’d prefer rulers who are at least troubled by those matters to those who simply don’t care.”

“A practical position, I suspect. We’ve drifted off the main topic. The house of Choi is problematic, and they hate my family. A feeling that we return in kind and depth.”

“This is what I don’t understand. If you hate them, why would your family ever agree to marry Chan Yu Ming to one of them? Setting aside the hate, she’s a cultivator. She was as removed from all of this as a person can be.”

The prince bought himself a few moments by sipping at his tea. He frowned down at it.

“Cold,” he muttered.

Sen cycled for fire qi and waved a hand at the cup. Steam started rising from the liquid.

“Better?” asked Sen.

Sen had to resist the urge to laugh at the startled look on the prince’s face. The prince lifted the cup to his lips and took another sip.

“Much better. Thank you. I’d never really considered that cultivators could use their powers for anything so mundane.”

“No one likes cold tea,” said Sen.

The prince nodded. “In answer to your question, I don’t know. And it wasn’t for a lack of trying to find out. My father made the decision, and now he refused to discuss it.”

“Is that unusual?”

“It is. I’m the most likely to succeed him. So, he shares his thoughts on most decisions with me, if for no other reason than to help prepare me for the role. Yet, on this topic, he remains adamantly mute.”

“If that’s the case, do you really think Chan Yu Ming’s plan can work?”

“It can. I know that Chan Yu Ming would never truly consider it, but she can always simply decide to walk away.”

“The price is too high for her,” said Sen. “I suggested as much to her. She’d rather go through with the marriage than pay that price.”

“You may know that, and I may know that, but the possibility exists. As long as the possibility exists, it’s leverage.”

Sen considered his next words with much greater care than he usually would before he said them. “Wouldn’t life be easier for everyone if this Choi Zhi Peng just died?”

“It would,” said the prince. “Yet, it’s not enough that he die. If that were enough, I’d have invented an excuse to have him cut down in the streets by well-paid cultivator mercenaries. He’d need to disappear without a witness and, in doing so, abandon the wedding. That would become an affront to the royal family, and we could forever close the door to any future prospects of a marriage between their house and ours.”

“Do you think that’s what your father intends?”

“I’ve considered the possibility.”

Sen leaned back in this chair and closed his eyes for a moment. He’d been right. He was in over his head. He didn’t envy the prince the chore of trying to decipher the king’s intentions. While Sen could just cut his way out of most problems, the prince was swimming in deeper and murkier waters. Sen had no clue what a wrong choice in this situation would cost the prince. Sen supposed it would probably derail any plan for the prince to take the throne. Yet, Sen suspected that the consequences could be far worse.

“So, tell me about these other great houses I need to know about.”

The other three houses, the house of Xie, the house of Wu, and the house of Fong, were less actively hostile to the royal family. From what the prince told him the house of Fong was more often an ally than an enemy, while the house of Wu and Xie were decidedly neutral about the current situation. Sen didn’t immediately comment, just considered what that might mean in practice.

“Are they actually neutral, or are they just biding their time, hoping that you and the house of Choi destroy each other?”

“Oh, I’m sure they’re just biding their time. If my family fell, I’m sure one or both would challenge for control of the country. For the moment, though, they’re content to leave things as they stand.”

“I guess that’s better than open hostility.”

“It actually is. The house of Choi has tried to enlist help from both at various points and been rebuffed in no uncertain terms. While they might take advantage of the situation if the throne were up for grabs, they’re no more interested in seeing the Choi on the throne than my family is.”

“Makes sense.”

The prince glanced out the window and sighed. “That will have to be enough for today. I have duties that, sadly, require my personal attention.”

Sen rose from his chair and gave the prince a bow. “Thank you for your instruction.”

The prince rose and gave Sen a similar bow. “Until tomorrow.”