(Collab [@PyroDash888] [@Darkspleen])

[center][h3][b][u]The Imperial Palace, Bushu, Musashi System, The Musashi Empire[/u][/b][/h3][/center]

The diplomatic party from Cheongsang had, upon arrival at the Imperial Palace, been led through a seeming maze of hallways and corridors till they reached what their escort had told them was a holo-room. The holo-room was supposedly a fairly small sized room located in the heart of the palace, but once inside the diplomatic party was greeted not by a small circular room but a forest of cherry blossom trees that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Directly in front of them stood a woman dressed in a dark purple hanfu. Her back was too them as they entered. The woman slowly turned to look at her guests, revealing the mask she wore, as she said “I hear that you have arrived from a far away country. On behalf of the Empire of Musashi allow me to welcome you. I am Yamamoto Saeko, second princess of the Empire.”

The man who was in the lead of the delegation bowed and flashed a friendly and honest smile.
“You honour us with your presence, princess. I am Yang Ji Han, first royal diplomat of the Cheonsang Kingdom. My companions here are Sang Na Mi”, he pointed at the cream scaled Tatara, “and Yeo Ae Ri” he motioned to the Nyali who was proudly presenting her green plumage.

After both had bowed as well, Ji Han continued: “Let me cut right to the chase, princess. I come to you in dire times for our country. Our entire nation is shocked over the Dominion’s conquest of Earth. When we left our capital, there were protests everywhere, in every major city on every planet condemning that conquest.” He paused to take a breath and waved his arm making clear for one of his companions to continue for him.

The Tatara Sang Na Mi took it upon herself to do so. “Ah, we have not come here to complain to you about that conquest. Earth is simply a planet most of our citizens adore as the symbol of our culture. No, the reason why we come to you now is a lot more dire and threatening to our very existence and, for non-humans, like me and Ae Ri, our life.” From her head, a cloth covering her head tumbled to the ground revealing her two horns and her white hair.

“Our navy might be strong and powerful, but we cannot dream of measuring up against the power of the Dominion, which we believe is plotting to invade us and, once again, throw our peaceful nation into chaos and death.” Once more, Na Mi bowed and took a step back, her face clearly distorted with worry and a little bit of sorrow.

Saeko quietly listened to the three diplomats from Cheonsang, her eyes lingering on Sang Na Mi and Yeo Ae Ri. When they had finished speaking she remained silent for a moment, taking in what they had said. She could follow what they had said to its logical conclusion, but decided it would be for the best to not jump to conclusions.

“And what would you have Musashi do Yang-dono?” She simply asked. She shifted her gaze to Na Mi, her eyes roaming over the Tatara’s exotic, as far as Saeko was concerned, features. “Are you asking us to fight a war for you?” She now shifted her gaze to Yeo Ae Ri “Or are you asking Musashi to intervene diplomatically?” Now she faced Yang again. “Or is there something else you desire?”

This time, Yeo Ae Ri spoke up. “Ah, of course we would not dare ask of you to declare a war, jeoha. We know that you have signed a defensive pact with the Dominion and a war would violate that treaty, naturally. We merely wish for your nation to assure our independence. In return”, a slight smirk formed on the corners of her mouth, “we might be able to assist your… crusade that you are preparing at the moment. You shouldn’t really be surprised that we know this, it is quite obvious for people from a country that has been constantly preparing for war for about twenty years now.”

“Is that so?” Saeko seemed to ponder what Yeo had said, though given that her face was hidden from view it was hard to tell what she might be thinking. After a moment she said “I am interested in what sort of aid you would be willing to provide Yeo-dono.” She shifted her gaze to Sang. “And I must confess that I am even more interested in your species. Are you two really not humans? Despite some of your… features you two look distinctly human.” Her tone possessed not a hint of disgust as she spoke. She took a few steps towards Sang and leaned towards her slightly to peer at her wings. After a moment she looked down at Sang’s clothes. “If I am not mistaken Sang-dono,” She said, “your clothes looks somewhat similar to the traditional clothing of ancient Korea.” 

Sang Na Mi chuckled and spread out her wings to allow the princess to take a better, closer look. “You are not all too wrong to assume such. Our scientists are currently hard at work going after a hypothesis where both of our races are related to bronze age, or earlier, humans. It has not been proven yet, but it seems highly likely that we are related to each other.
And concerning the clothing. Yes, they are a modified version of traditional Korean clothing. Although we do not wear it all the time, we do wear this form of it for formal occasions such as this or national celebrations.”

Yang Ji Han smiled at the young diplomat’s exchange. He was a veteran of his craft, but for his two companions, this was the first official diplomatic trip and he was quite happy about their performance so far.
“Jeoha, we would be able to afford transferring the First Fleet to your space, however, our warp drives are very slow, so I propose something, so far, only we have been able to use, which would also prove invaluable for bilateral trade. A hyperspace gate that connects to our capital, Silla. We will provide the blueprints for your engineers to fabricate it and our side is already standing. How does this sound?” He pulled out a datapad and holo-projected said blueprint above the device.

Saeko glanced at the blueprint but for a second before locking her eyes onto Yeo’s green plumage. “I understand.” She stated. “You wish to establish a highway of sorts between our two countries. And are willing to aid us in our own upcoming war. I am… intrigued by your proposal.” At last she shifted her attention back to Yang and the blueprint he was displaying.

“We may be able to work out a trade deal,” Saeko continued, “but that would have to be negotiated at a later date. Hmmm….. At the very least I can offer you some territory by the Imperial palace in which you can establish a permanent embassy.”

Saeko’s eyes were inevitably drawn back to Sang’s wings. For a moment she tilted her chin up, revealing some bruising on her neck, but they were only visible for a moment. “Where exactly is your homeland?”

“I thank you for that.” Yang bowed before Sang Na Mi took it upon herself to answer the princess’ question. She reached into a pouch she was carrying on the belt and took out an old fashioned paper map, rolled it out in front of herself and pointed at a tiny yellow area almost completely enveloped by the Dominion.
“This is the Cheonsang Kingdom, the Heavenly Kingdom, our home. We only have a tiny area, but we have a lot of resources. A lot, a lot of resources. We have three beautiful nebulae, who are our goddesses for saving us when the Imperium annexed us. As such, we love our homeland and would give everything to keep it intact.”

It took Saeko just a moment to realize the possible importance of Cheonsang’s position. “I believe I can understand some of your… concern given your homelands location” Saeko said. “If you are willing to grant Musashi armed forces and civilian merchants transit rights from your… gate to Dominion space I will ensure that Musashi guarantee your country’s independence. Would that be acceptable to your… pardon me for asking, but what is the title of your country’s ruler?”

“This is more than acceptable, this is absolutely perfect, for both of us.” Yeo was positively gleaming when exclaiming this and her eyes were shining with joy. For her it meant, her family would be able to live in peace and safely without having to worry about the threat of genocidal extinction. “Ah, our country is a Triarchy. The King, the Queen and the heir, our beloved and ever popular princess Mi Ran; All three rule with the same amount of power and say in governmental matters and important actions have to be decided upon by all three unanimously.”  

“Here my uncle, the Emperor, rules alone” Saeko commented. “Although his daughter, my brother, and I have been increasingly helping him with the administration of the Imperial government.” She paused for a moment, something seemingly occurred to her. “Your journey here certainly must have been a long one, especially if your warp drives are slow. You must be exhausted from your travels. If you’d like I offer you three some rooms to stay in here in the Imperial palace until the construction of your embassy is completed.”

Ji Han cast a questioning glance to his partners who both nodded acknowledgingly. “We would be honoured to be your guests. And we might be able to guide your engineers in their quest to build our connecting gate as well. Otherwise it will be quite difficult for our fleet to get here, I figure.”

“I am certain that can be arranged.” Saeko said. She looked at each of the Cheonsang diplomats in turn before stating “I must be honest, the dynamics of your relationship with each other eludes me. Which one of you is the superior?”

“That, jeoha, would be me.” Yang Ji Han exclaimed smiling. “I am fairly experienced in diplomatic matters, whereas for the two ladies, this is their first actual diplomatic mission. They are performing marvelously for that fact, are they not?”

With a graceful and playful bow Yeo Ae Ri replied. “For all intents and purposes Yang Ji Han-nim is our teacher. However, when you spend two months on a cramped ship with two other people, you do tend to grow closer… especially when you have to share a bathroom and sleeping quarters. Or you start to hate each other… which luckily never happened. Na Mi and I, though, were friends already back in school, but we still got to know about each other more than we thought we would.” Meanwhile, Sang Na Mi buried her face in her clawed hand with a slight red tinge colouring her cheeks. “Yeah… more or less...”, she muttered.

“Your students are performing excellently Yang-dono” Saeko said after letting out a laugh. “Though I suspect you’ll be stuck with them for a bit longer.” She sounded genuinely amused by Sang and Yeo’s interaction. “Your ship must have been quite small if you were sharing sleeping quarters. That will not be an issue here. You each will be given your own room to stay in, unless you wish to share accommodations.” She paused for a moment. “Is such… proximity the norm in Cheonsang?”

All three bowed politely once more. “We thank you a lot for this.”, Yang said while his head was down. After their heads were upright again, Na Mi giggled a bit. “No, no. Not everywhere. There are groups who practice a very tight bonding of communities and apparently both the Tatara and the Nyali once lived in such close communities more often, which would explain why we can adjust to it quite well. However, in our normal lives, we live like humans do and the humans in Cheonsang live pretty similar to your people.”
“And the palace is pretty empty most of the time and feels inhumanly big, so it was a nice change for a while.”, Ae Ri jumped in. “Also…”, she tilted her head curiously. “If I am allowed to ask, jeoha, is there a certain reason why you are wearing that mask? If I am out of place to ask such, please reprimand me…”


“Oh course not Yeo-dono” Saeko said. She reached up and tapped her mask with a single finger. “We are very… particular about our social hierarchy here.” She said. “And it would not do to show one’s face to a member of a lower class.” She paused for a moment before adding “A soldier is not obligated to show his face to a commoner, just as a noble need not reveal his face to a soldier. And I, being a member of the Imperial family, need not reveal my face to members of the aristocracy. I hope that sufficiently answers your question.”

Sang put a claw onto Ae Ri’s head to sort of tell her that her question was not something a diplomat should ask. But she still responded to the princess. “In the past, we used to have such a strong system of social statuses. But around the time when we managed to reestablish ourselves in our homesystems after we managed to push the falling Imperium out, our reigning royal family thought, such a rigid social system was not necessary anymore. 
So we phased it out. We still have a system of high respect amongst each other, though, such as calling somebody you esteem to be socially higher than you ‘nim’, like I do with Yang Ji Han-nim, instead of ‘ssi’, which I did call Ae Ri before we were friends. There are also some more things, but they are more or less formality between citizens of our country and not relevant to any foreigners wanting to visit.” Na Mi smiled again as she, a little bit upset, glared Ae Ri right into the eyes, who flinched and returned an apologetic look, before glancing up to the princess again, pretty much grinning now.

“That is… interesting” Saeko allowed. “I would be most interested in hearing more about your homeland, but I am afraid that I have some duties I must attend to soon. Hmmm…. If you would like I could have some local clothing procured for you. A gift from me to each of you.”

“That won’t be necessary. We appreciate your offer, though, jeoha. We are thankful for the deal we made. Our country and Yeo Ae Ri and Sang Na Mi’s races owe their survival to you” Yang Ji Han bowed one final time before his two companions did the same thing. Then all three were led outside and to their rooms.