“You honor us, Lord Kuo.”

“Not really. I need you, so I’m here.”

“Uhm?” Shih-ka’i considered his visitor. Almost feminine features. Smaller than the run of Tervola from the older lines. Attractive, but in a female sort of way. He reminded Shih-ka’i of the Demon Princess, Mist, whom he had encountered occasionally during her brief reign.

“You know what I represent. Change. New blood. A clean sweep of associations with Ko Feng’s ill-starred ventures.”

“Don’t forget that Lord Feng’s group brought us annexations of epic scale.”

Kuo waved one of those delicate hands. “Nevertheless… There’s Western Army. Twice defeated. Once under the Dragon Prince, again during the Pracchia gambit.” In this empire, an empire unaccustomed to defeat, even an appearance of defeat was unpardonable.

“Ko Feng could have won at Palmisano. He withdrew rather than risk losses which might have damaged the stability of the legions. He was a methodical man. He would have anticipated the cost to himself. He withdrew anyway.”

Kuo looked irritated. He took a moment to control himself. “We can’t, of course, know what would have happened had he chosen to stand. Lord Ssu-ma, I didn’t come here to argue. I don’t want to exhume our yesterdays.”

No, Shih-ka’i thought. You want to bury them deep, and with them everyone who made them. And with them all the good of them, lest someone remember and compare. “Tomorrows. Those interest us all, don’t they? Speak to me of tomorrows, Lord Kuo.”

Kuo brightened. He smiled an effeminate smile. “You mis-estimate me. I’m not here to dismiss you. I do want to rusticate you, though. To Eastern Army.”

Shih-ka’i’s stomach dropped a hundred feet. So. The purge had burst its political bounds. “I’m not a political creature, Lord. My business is the creation of soldiers. I do that quite well.”

“I know. I did my Candidacy with the Fourth Demonstration. I’m sure you don’t remember me. You were a brigade leader at the time. But I remembered you. You impressed me.”

“Uhm?” Shih-ka’i kept his feelings concealed. He did not remember Candidate Kuo. Was the man about to requite some slight?

“Lord Ssu-ma, I want you to command Eastern Army.”

The world fell away again. “Lord! I… I’ve never held a field command.”

“You’ve directed the Fourth in field exercises. It’s been at corps strength because of our replacement demands. I think you can handle it. You’re the man I want. You have the stubbornness of Ko Feng without his limitations. You think on your feet. You get jobs done. More, you’re an older Tervola. You have no discernible political bias. You’ll fit into the gap between myself and the recidivists I rashly banished to what looked like a sessile frontier army.”

Kuo’s brief rule had bewitched Shinsan with its amazements and marvels and unpredictable decisions. Here was another of the same.

“But my background…”

“Irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. You’re Tervola. You’re trained to command. If I set you to command, none will deny me. Lord Ssu-ma, will you accept Eastern Army?”