Seol marches out right after their tea, not quite in the mood for dinner or company. She was instead inclined to head to the scribblers, or the imperial library.
"An interesting thought," her father had said, his chin perched on clasped fingers. She had seen him ponder upon petitions with that very expression which he surveyed her with. "One your mother would whole - heartedly sponsor. In fact, you would be able to find several noblewomen ready to support a law like that. But that brings us to the circle -" he moved his cup away and drew on the polished wood with a finger. "Would they manage to persuade their husbands to support such a law at court? If the men stand to lose so much of their authority over it - will they ever agree? If they don't agree, will such a law stand for a long time?"
"I don't understand," Seol frowned. "Could you not just pass an edict and make it a law?"
It is Seo who answers her.
"There are two kinds of edicts, the imperial mandate and the imperial prerogative. A mandate calls someone to perform a duty - like those that grants a position or a title. Sends troops to battle. Prerogative passes laws. A law doesn't become a law because the ruler says so - it becomes a law if the subjects abide. Here - people follow the lead of their lords. If the law is not received well by the scholars and the courtiers - if it is criticized by the ministers and the academics, it falls into disgrace and disuse."
"Scholars - ministers - courtiers - academics! All men!" Seol huffs.
"Not just men," the emperor points out. "Men who stand to gain from marriages and wealthy wives as you said. So to pass a law like that - you'd first have to change the composition of the court and academia. Maybe bring in more broad minded people. Maybe persuade women to give up on their feminine pursuits to take up those mantals themselves."
"Lord father," Seol pipes. "Is this your way of delicately refusing?"
"Of cause not. It is my way of opening up your horizons dear one. You see you and I have the same thought structure on this matter. But the changes we want to bring cannot be brought up abruptly. Politics is a delicate work - it takes time and patience. To make the move you want, you need to drag your pieces in a certain way over time."
"Like how you've been replacing courtiers - or opened up the state service for non titular individuals?"
"Yes." The emperor nods. "So if you wish to someday reach your goal - you need to start making smaller changes now. Could you think of something of a bit smaller scale - first?"
"Your highness," the voice that calls after her makes her pause involuntarily. Seo doesn't wait for Seol to question his motive in calling after her. He simply seizes her by the wrist, pulling her out of the popular path through the spring pavilion often littered with court ladies into the shadows of a lower level tea room.
"Don't do this mama." He says without preamble.
"Pray do what?" She challenges his tone, her nose upturned.
"Legitimize children and include them in family registries? Allow them to inherit property? Are you even aware what sort of a storm you are brewing?" He hisses.
"Why - Kang Seo, someone might mistake you for being concerned!"
When he takes a step though, she finds herself backing off. Seol presses herself into a wooden pillar artistically half obscured from view with ivy swathed around it, and trumpet flowers in all their red glory hanging from the vines.
He doesn't touch her, doesn't cage her with his arms. In fact he does nothing more than pin her with a gaze of molting silver.
"And someone might accuse you of being biased - or better yet, being a puppet."
A delirious laughter bubbles from her mouth.
"As I thought," she says accusingly. "Little lord Kang is worried about his reputation. Least the right honorable court thinks he is feeding the naive airheaded princess with lines to persuade his majesty!"
Seo's palm lands beside her head with a thump and echoes in the beat that her heart misses. Outwardly though, she remains unmoved. Her eyes narrow in a way that is dangerously similar to her imperial father. But the burning silver is already upon their starless darkness, with a fury barely contained.
"Are you calling me a coward?" His voice had dropped into a whisper. Its icy sharpness sends a shiver down her spine and her toes curl within her stockings. The knowledge that he could hurt her so easily and yet the absolute trust that he wouldn't reel her in.
"I cannot think of a better term for a man who wouldn't dare to take what he rightfully deserves," Seol says, unblinkingly staring straight into those burning silver orbs. "Who isn't willing to fight for himself - who wouldn't let -" she stops abruptly, acutely aware of how close he had drawn during their conversation - or rather her accusations. Pupils of his eyes were blown wide, their dark slashes swallowing most of the iridescent silver of his irises. She could feel his breath on her face, fanning her in short angry puffs as he clenches his jaw and exhales through his mouth.
"Go on," he says in a dangerously smooth tone. No honorifics, no formality - none of his usual deference.
"Who wouldn't let me fight for him," she finishes, suddenly caught in the thrall of that moment. Suddenly, as abruptly as she had become aware of their proximity, Seol is aware of Seo's arm slung around her waist - pulling her closer against him. She is suddenly aware that the pillar no longer supported her and that instead it was his frame that anchored her upright.
"You will not fight for me." His breath burns her face, Seol blinks. Something about those narrowed silver eyes is hauntingly ancient - as if a memory from another time. "Do I make myself clear? You will do no such thing."
"Who do you think you are talking to Kang Seo?"
His nostrils flare and the corners of his mouth twitch.
"I'm talking to my impudent ward," he says. "My impudent ward, who hasn't yet learned that her life is too precious to be staked over the likes of me."
"I'm not a child Kang Seo…"
"You have a funny way of showing that," he growls. "Listen here young lady, and listen well. You have no right to fight my battles. I have never given you that right. Never. And I never shall."
*