“Intention”: War for the Han Frontier sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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“Forgive me for asking this, esteemed Nephew,” the elder Yuan Cheng
said, “but aren’t you being pessimistic…?”
“Isn’t Lady Zhen a sight to behold…?” Yuan Shao asked. “She has the
grace and beauty of an Empress, and a heart unblemished by the wicked,
unquenchable, self-destructive desire that consumes the rest of us.”
Yuan Cheng sighed and said, “You’re dodging my questions.”
“She will make a good match for Xi, since he lacks ambition… which I do
not mean as an insult,” Yuan Shao continued as he watched the post-wedding
activities from the host seat. “Her generosity towards the common folk with the
wealth that her late father left her is, I have to say, highly commendable… I
was idealistic like her, once, long ago, before I inherited this burden I now
bear…”
“Please answer me,” Yuan Cheng prompted.
“She has probably done more to feed the poor during that awful famine than
a single one of the men that I assigned, paid and allocated resources to do
it,” Yuan Shao sighed wistfully. “To see such beauty and such kindness paired…
almost makes one believe that there is an inhabited heaven and not just a
netherworld full to bursting. Lady Liu, my principal spouse… now there’s
another story… that woman has a gaze that can cut through-”
“Can you please answer me,
Nephew???” Yuan Cheng hissed. “My heart is burning with anguish as I watch you
plan for your death!”
Yuan Shao laughed and said, “Everyone else plans for my death, Uncle… my
wife, my heir, my cronies… so why shouldn’t I…?”
Yuan Cheng looked at the wedding guests and analysed each group with
weary old eyes: Yuan Shao’s advisers - Guo Tu, Shen Pei, Pang Ji, Xun Chen and
the Xin brothers - were canvassing wealthy invitees and ingratiating themselves
with Lady Liu, Yuan Tan or Yuan Shang;
Yuan Xi and Lady Zhen were actually
enjoying far less attention than the people that were likely to have influence
in the years ahead, but it did not seem to be bothering either of them.
“Lady Zhen will have to ask her husband how she should spend her
considerable wealth from now on,” Yuan Shao continued. “She has been used to an
unusually high level of financial autonomy, but reality now bites her and wakes
her from a long dream. In a way, it is a shame and I pity her… but it is better
than being married to a Wuhuan chieftain.”
“Some of your words remind me of the Shao of old,” Yuan Cheng noted.
“When you were young, carefree, and driven to protect the ‘Partisans’ from
those wicked eunuchs; you were an inspiring lad.”
“And now, I am a grey-haired fool with bilious cysts for bodily organs,”
Yuan Shao chuckled miserably. “I am a master of a quarter of the country, and
yet I cannot hold onto that power… hate, humiliation and regret consume me bit
by bit, like diseases, and my life shortens with every thought that enters my
head.”
“But you’re better than that!” Yuan Cheng pleaded. “When Dong Zhuo
slaughtered our kin, yes you cried and got drunk, but-!”