Chapter Text
In an easy instance, Obi rearranged his face. Sweeping his emotions under a rug and putting a different face on was something he had long considered a skill, one that he knew no one here but him would consider it so.
Well, maybe save for one. “What is it that you’re asking me to do?” Obi asked Izana.
“I am not asking you to do anything, I am merely suggesting that you put forward an idea.” He dodged smoothly.
Fine. He could parry just as well.“Then, let me merely suggest that I receive a direct order. I do not work on suggestions.”
“I thought you did not work for me, either.”
“But you dismissed your own brother from your meeting with him, and had me stay behind to discuss the matter with me privately. Clearly you have something to gain from me, regardless of who I work for.”
Izana leaned back against the wall, a heavy curtain brushing his side. The day being so bright beyond the window made the suffocating office pain him that much more. “I have something to gain from everyone in this castle. You are not unique in that respect, nor in losing custody of your charge.”
Something snapped, and for just a moment he let go. “I-” But he faltered, because, didn’t he?
Didn’t he lose her?
Izana, of course, found the ripple and caught on perfectly. “Now, Obi, I would not want you think I am being actively hostile and unsympathetic about the matter at hand.”
It takes a monumental force of will to not spit laughter or slip out a knife.
“And I asked Zen to leave because…” he levered off the wall and strode towards a tall brown cabinet on the adjacent wall to search through. It looked far too much like real home decor for this castle, this room, this person. “Consider that I asked him to join because I wanted to be sure of his standing. I do trust him, but he is too close to Miss Shirayuki to act the way he needs to.”
“And I’m not?”
Finished with his rummaging, he pulled out a large metal basin and began to pour something from a full pitcher into it. The scent of cloves tinged the air.
Considering the basin’s volume, he responded. “Your distance is what you might call a happy coincidence. Your position is what I would say is advantageous.”
Obi’s favorite classic political position, where the right thing must be done the convenient way, or it’s not worth doing at all. “But as we already established,” he said, pressing a hand to his chest such that Mitsuhide would roll his eyes and Miss Kiki would sigh in disapproval - if they were here. “I do not work for you. Your convenience is not my problem.”
Izana began dipping the edge of a small towel into the basin and delicately wiping down each wide leaf of the other out-of-place object in the room, a towering green plant. Miss would surely know its name and care-needs - if she was here.
Izana paused to look into Obi.
He hadn’t felt so naked since he decided to stay in Wistal with everyone - not that anyone was here now. “You work for my brother, and my brother works under me. It is not difficult for me to steer your reigns one way or the other. That is the price of your choice for staying here.”
He turned away again, back to the plant that looked more ridiculous the longer he looked at it. “That door was unlocked this whole time, you were free to leave if you were so sure you did not work for me. But you stayed, because you wanted to hear what I had to say, and you wanted to save that girl.”
Obi said nothing, because there was nothing he could say. It’s checkmate, and he knew a lost cause when he saw it.
“You care for her don’t you? Or perhaps asking if you are fond of her is more concise?”
He had wanted to stay. He just wanted to stay. It wasn’t supposed to become the noose that dragged him further into the web politics he had no interest or business in.
He had moved around his whole life, never bothering to even entertain the idea of something like building a life somewhere. With anyone.
“She is my charge, so what happens to her is my business.”
“She was your charge, you mean,” Izana said twisting the knife he dug in when Obi first stepped in this room.
Something felt different here - a hunch, or better yet a gamble - that gave him the thought he couldn’t get rid of that this time would be different.
That’s right. He did this. These were his choices. His mistakes.
“As you say,” he managed through gritted teeth.
Izana sighed. “Don’t look so down. I, too, have a personal interest in Miss Shirayuki returning safely.” He gestured to his plant with a smile that might sour milk. “My plant, you see, is infested with spider mites. I need it returned to health for it to flower and fruit. With the assistance of your favorite pharmacist in training.”
Obi blinked. It took a lot to stun him into silence. Leave it to Izana. There wasn’t much that could have prepared him for that.
“I am kidding, of course,” he continued.
It didn’t seem like a joke, but maybe even he could be embarrassed. “I’m more interested in when you’ll tell me what game you intend on playing with the Miss?”
“A question someone like you should think twice before asking, as a mere messenger to the prince,” he said before placing the basin and towel carefully on a short table, and returning to his desk like a puzzle piece fitting into place. “As you know, Clarines shares a border with Tanbarun, and both share a coastline to the southern sea. However, Tanbarun has been having problems with a group of sea-faring pirates. I have received reports that they engage in the usual activities of illegally boarding ships, interrupting trade routes, skirmishes at sea, and the occasional kidnapping for black market dealings.”
Obi paused to consider, and tried his best to keep an accusatory tone out of his mouth. It would do his Miss no good to be beheaded for treason now. “It seems like you have been keeping very close tabs considering Clarines has not taken a formal stance on the problems of a neighboring country.”
Izana caught his eye. “I keep close tabs on neighbors, enemies, and allies. That is what it means to lead a country.”
Obi swallowed. It was a far drop out the window, but maybe-
“In any case,” he continued, “these problems of theirs are starting to affect our business here in Clarines. Before their problem becomes fully ours, I intend to snuff it out.”
“Using me.” A sick feeling began to bloom in Obi’s stomach.
“With your help, yes.”
“And the Miss is involved in this because…?”
“By claiming a former citizen of Tanbarun has been wrongly removed by the Tanbarun royal family, you will have the opportunity to find the source of their pirate problems and take care of it for me.”
The missing piece weighed heavier on Obi with each passing moment. Talking in circles was making him nearly dizzy. “And?”
“And in return for that favor to them, you will be allowed to return with Miss Shirayuki,” he said, nodding with terrible satisfaction.
“Wasn’t this whole mess started when they claimed she was still a Tanbarun citizen living in Clarines? They would still be able to claim her back as their own.”
He opened a drawer beside him in his desk, the sound of papers making him sweat. This man was going to be the death of him. “That is true, but that leads me to the part I think you will enjoy the most, if I may say.” He laid a small stack of papers on the edge of his desk and tapped them.
Obi quickly remembered how to work his legs forward, but before he had a chance to even skim the text, Izana summarized it aloud. “I offer my congratulations on your citizenship, seeing as you are a messenger to the crown, and congratulations on your recent marriage to Miss Shirayuki, a former citizen of Tanbarun.”