“I’ll take that under advisement,” Ahkio said, and walked back through the massive banquet hall, past drudges and novices and the occasional Ora sitting down to the midday meal. He considered Yisaoh kin. Her brother Lohin had married Kirana. But the link that decided him was her kinship to Rhin and Hadaoh. She could not contest her own family marrying him; with Meyna came Rhin and Hadaoh. He thought of the spill of Meyna’s hair and her broad smile. He wanted her here beside him more than anything. Even she could not argue the logic of it.

Ahkio went up to the Assembly Chamber. Two militia flanked the archway leading into the waiting room outside the Kai study. But the waiting room was empty.

The door to the Kai’s study stood open. Ahkio saw Yisaoh sitting on one of the padded chairs in front of his sister’s desk. Well, he thought, at least she had the decency not to sit in Kirana’s chair.

Yisaoh rose at his appearance. She was solidly built, wide in the hips. Her long blue-green skirt and tunic were plainly made, unfrivolous. She had a long face and heavy brow. He found her crooked nose endearing. She took him in with a steely gaze.

“Yisaoh Alais Garika,” he said.

“Li Kai Ahkio Javia Garika, kin,” she said.

It was, indeed, a mouthful.

His sister's portrait gazed at him from the far wall, one of eight to stare back at him from the portraits of five hundred years of Kais. His mother’s most contentious action as Kai had been to break the line of succession. For five hundred years, the line of the Kais had followed that of the most gifted male or female. But his mother’s older sister had been gifted to the point of madness, and his mother had taken it upon herself to change the rules. His mother, not his Aunt Etena, took the title of Kai. And now he was left with it. Though Kais throughout history had been a variety of genders, he would be the first unable to bear an heir to term from his own womb, as he didn’t have one. And that difference wasn’t going to sit well with some people.

Ahkio sat in the guest chair opposite Yisaoh. Moving behind the big desk reminded him too much of Nasaka. Yisaoh was already formal and defensive. More hierarchy among Dhai rarely resulted in anything but increased defensiveness.

She resumed her seat.

He had forgotten to order tea. Had Nasaka thought to send someone for it? She would take it as an affront. He had lived in a proper house with Meyna and her family for so long that he had no idea how anything got done inside a temple.