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A Little Less Counselor, A Little More Concubine

Part 15

For FyacinTia

By Draconicon

For all that Fyacin was pissed that he needed to go and deal with another army, he had to admit that he had been looking forward to getting out of the palace. Alys had told him that this was likely a bad idea, that they were wasting resources on a situation that could deal with a messenger just as well. She was wrong, of course, and this time, the Emperor was more than willing to back him on this. After all, his skills with people were good, but he needed to know them well, or at least passingly, to wield them. Trying to send a message to a general that he had never seen, not even scried, would be useless and pointless.

Thus, the escort, the horses...and the mantle that was doing absolutely nothing to keep the high-mountain cold off of him.

The lion shivered as they passed through the southern gates of the fortress, making their way down and through the castle down around the palace-fortress. The people of Dol-Ma, obviously aware of the threats that were coming from either direction, hounded him relentlessly as he rode through the streets. Fyacin channeled his irritation at the cold into a sneer that kept them at a distance, but inside he was mostly complaining about the chill in the air.

Couldn't Alys and Kisari find some spirit that could keep the mountains warm at all times?

Probably, but that was hardly a priority for the Emperor, he was sure. There were other things that needed to be handled, like war and security. The lion sighed, his tail twitching like mad behind him as his ears flattened over his head in irritation.

"Sir?"

One of the soldiers, one of the dogs, called to him from behind, and Fyacin looked over his shoulder. The mastiff cleared his throat.

"Um, your tail..."

"What about it?"

"It's...lifting."

The lion hissed, pulling it back down and under the mantle. For all that he had been sent out of the palace, he had not been given any real clothing. The mantle cloak that he wore was the only thing that kept the cold off of him and offered him any sense of modesty. If he raised his tail too far, or allowed it to rise any more than a slight amount, he would quickly lose even that small amount.

The fact that he was naked on horseback was bad enough. The idea of letting anyone else see what he was hiding...what had been for the Emperor's eyes alone, at one point...

No. He wasn't going to do that, no matter what vile potion Alys still had coursing through his veins.

They reached the gates out of the city itself, and the mastiffs behind him called up to the guards on the wall. Fyacin, however, kept his eyes locked on the great skymetal gate. It was one of the most ancient forms of the metal, and something that even Master Wuan wouldn't be able to manufacture in this day and age. Most of a mine had gone into creating it, and the gate was arguably stronger than the stone walls on either side, despite being of far lesser thickness. Nothing, nothing in all the life of the Dol-Ma Empire, had ever come close to scratching it.

He hoped that would stay the case.

As the door split down the middle, giving the illusion of the single fox tail on the gate splitting into two, a tent was revealed on the far side. Standing outside it was a red panda, of all things, something small and lean, but with a tail that was long and broad, fluffy enough to catch attention even at over a hundred yards away.

Fyacin smiled slightly to himself, shaking his head as he gestured back at the guards.

"I can handle this."

"Our orders are to -"

"Consider them countermanded," the lion said, his ears flicking irritably. "I am tasked to speak with him, and I will."

"..."

"Remain at the walls, outside them if you must, but grant us privacy."

"...As you command, Counselor-Concubine."

They had to add that second part. They just had to. He shook his head, pulling at the reins of the animal and taking it forward, further from the walls and deeper down the snowy slopes. The discomfort of the cold was already starting to seep into his bones, and he had no idea how long he would be able to take it.

However, he would have to try. For his master.

The tent was smaller than he thought, capable of fitting only two people, at most, and even that would be a rather intimate squeeze. The red panda that stood outside it wore a robe rather than armor, something that was obviously light and silky from the way that it blew about in the snowy gusts. Oddly, there were weights that hung from his waist, great balls of iron that dangled from either side of his hips. They had to have weighed at least twenty pounds each, and he cocked his head as he approached.

The red panda chuckled.

"Forgive my attire, regal one," the enemy said. "They keep me from blowing away like so much wind."

"Are you so light, then, that a mere breeze would take you away?"

"I have learned the paths of the Sky Roads. Those who walk them for too long forget what ties them to the ground."

He would have to check how right that was with Alys and Kisari, but in either case, it was a reminder of the different sort of worries that they had with the other army. While the force descending from the north was dependent on great machines, the one that advanced from the south claimed its power from the magic and spirits that it drew from the ground and the air. They would be a different force...a very different force.

But the lion knew that spirits had desires much as mortals did, and they could be turned, twisted, convinced to try different things. He smiled down at the red panda, nodding in understanding that he didn't have, and descended from the horse.

Unfortunately, he had forgotten, once more, that he was naked, and the ground was covered in snow. The stifled hiss that followed was almost too comedic for his dignity to take, and the lion barely kept himself from hopping right back up on the horse.

Thankfully, the bulk of the beast kept his 'Restriction' from being seen by the red panda. Pulling the cloak about himself once more, he stepped around the horse, leading it by the reins to the tent posts. Tying it down, he turned back to the enemy officer.

"I am Fyacin, Counselor-Concubine to the great Emperor of Dol-Ma. May I ask your name, oh weightless one?"

"I am General Masaru, second in command of the Horde of Ghosts."

"You bring the spirits of the dead with you, then?"

"And the living, and the plants, the rocks, the skies. Only the spirit of the mountain itself has defied us. It loves you, for reasons that we cannot tell."

"Well, I am loveable."

"You are desirable, of that, there is no question."

"Ah, then you are a keen judge of character, General."

"Please, call me Masaru."

Fyacin hid a smile as the red panda gestured for the tent, nodding his agreement to come inside. This was a dance that he knew well. The movements of flirtation, the gentle back and forth between two men that both knew what they wanted. Oh, he had not missed the way that the red panda had given him a good look when he had bent over to tie his horse down, nor had he missed the glint in the other man's eyes as he walked. There were always glances towards his legs, towards the hint of flesh that could not quite be hidden.

Yes, this was his arena, and he planned on fighting well. He followed the red panda -

Squish. Hiss. Gritting teeth against the cold between his toes.

At least we'll be out of this!

The interior of the tent was quite a bit warmer than he expected, lit by a brazier in the corner. A quick, curious sniff of the air confirmed that there weren't any drugs in play, nothing that he needed to worry about stifling his mind or causing him issues. All he had to do was talk.

The tent itself was also rather sparse, not having a bed, but rather a table and the brazier with nothing else. If he had not known better, he would have assumed that Masaru had come here on wings of magic and intended to leave the same way. Then again, perhaps that was possible. Another question for the other counselors.

As the red panda took his position on the far side of the table, Fyacin looked down at it. The main thing it held was a map, laid down and anchored by four knives. Weighted figures, armies and battalions and squads, were placed in different areas throughout the land, none particularly well-concentrated, but all of them on some path or other that led up to the southern gate.

It was a game of time, he realized, where any of the individual armies could be shattered if the forces of Dol-Ma could find them, but once they all came together, they would smother the Emperor's forces beneath their combined weights. To fight them, one would need to erase more than half of the total force before they could come together, or the Emperor's men would be completely overwhelmed by numbers alone.

However, he also saw something that might have been a weakness in the southern force that they couldn't so easily defend against. A glance at the different markers showed just what units they had, yes, spirits and powers and wagons and shrines, but there was something else. A smaller marker, one that might have been an officer in another army, but one that he would guess stood for the summoner, shaman, or other spiritualist that had been assigned to bring all these spirits to bear.

Capture the summoner, capture the force, he thought. Or at least, keep it from joining them...

The Emperor had assassins, he knew. He had never made use of them himself - nor had the Emperor, for that matter - but they had given him certain skills, trained him in more...direct solutions than Alys and Kisari knew to use, and they had been fond of his father when the older lion was still around. It would be simple to have them dispatched and deal with the summoners individually. It would not solve the problem of the large army coming to their doorstep, but it would slow them down, force them to find more summoners and make their payments and bribes to the spirits once more.

And this time, they might have competition, at least if Alys and Kisari knew anyone of their sort that might be able to make offers standing in for Dol-Ma.

All of this he saw in the space of a second, and then he looked up at Masaru once more. The red panda had opened his robe slightly, allowing it to split down to his waist. Soft white fur mixed with a brown-black further out, with red past that. He was fit enough, though not so slender as one might have imagined. The iron balls and the weightlessness must have made him more dependent on his magic than his muscles, and it showed in the slight food-curves that had begun creeping in.

Fyacin took the first move, leaning his hip against the table and sitting on the edge.

"Should I assume that you wish to sue for our surrender?" he asked.

"I should sue for you. Certainly, you would make a greater personal prize than the city as a whole."

"I am spoken for, I am afraid. And besides, I have yet to be tempted."

"I'm sure that you are, for who could resist someone so fine and attractive as your own good self?"

"You flatter me, General."

"I told you, please, call me Masaru. And perhaps, when we know each other better, you can call me something else."

"Ah, you wish to have me so badly? Then perhaps we can speak of terms. A little bit for you, a little bit for me."

"Mmm, I am sure that you have much to offer, but my own superiors have their desires...though they might change their minds, should they lay their eyes on you for but a moment."

The game had begun, and Fyacin could feel the flattery going right to his groin. For once, he felt thankful for the Restriction cage around his cock. It made it that much easier for him to focus on what he needed to do rather than what he wanted to do, since thinking of the more pleasurable activities tended to bring a fair bit of discomfort.

However...there was still the hunger under his tail, and that could become a problem. He cleared his throat, forcing his mind to stay in the game.

"Ah, but to leave would be to deprive my Emperor of my services. Surely, someone that respected me so much would not ask me to flee my duties."

"I could give you greater duties, if you feel the need to be devoted. One man can have multiple...masters."

"Ah, but to serve many would be to deprive them of quality. To serve one is to give them the greatest gift."

"A gift that I would be happy to return, oh golden one. A gift that I would be more than willing to...bargain for."

They were dancing now, indeed, for the red panda had started to walk down the other side of the table, his eyes half-closed, his voice slower and sultrier as he approached. Fingers traced lines across the table, and Fyacin smiled as he did the same, circling around the map and keeping the table between them.

Oh, it had been too long since he had danced this game properly, and he had missed it. His fingers found the hilt of one of the map-knives, and he pulled it free. The red panda did the same, and the scraping sound of metal on wood undercut their words.

"You could not afford me, Masaru. My loyalty is more expensive than you know."

"For a lifetime, perhaps, but for an hour?"

"Ah, you would find it difficult to persuade me you could afford that."

"Try me, oh golden one...try me..."

A hook, then. Now, to see how much line this general would need to properly hang himself...

The End

Summary: Fyacin leaves the palace to negotiate with the second army, and finds himself in a more familiar game than usual.

Tags: M/solo, red panda, lion, series, fantasy, nudity, chastity cage, ice, snow, flirting, negotiations, espionage, knives, eastern mysticism,