A soft knock at the door alerted the Crown Prince to his visitor. The youthful looking demon sat cross legged on the floor, the room filled with the smoke from a burning herb in his pipe.
He hid his annoyance at being disturbed, and set the pipe on the low table in front of him.
"You may enter of your own free will" he recited the ancient phrase
In the doorway stood a tall messenger, a human courier with the lean build of a runner. The simple travel robes were dirty and looked unkempt, his wooden sandals looked splintered at the edges
"Come sit. Judging by your appearance I'd guess that you've had a long journey." The man bowed low to the floor and, while on his knees, slowly made his way across the room. None were to have their head higher than the prince, and although Ling was not as militant as his father about enforcing the rule he expected his subjects to try and adhere to the rule as much as was reasonable.
The human, tall as he was tried slouching to stay low but a disapproving look from the prince sent him upright. He waited silently as Ling patiently poured a second cup of tea, and had more sweet bread brought by a servant. Although the man was anxious he knew better than to push the Prince, time had little meaning to an immortal and he wasn't about to go to the dungeon to speed things up a few minutes. He was already on thin ice having interrupted the demon's smoking session.
"Now that you are properly relaxed, what pray tell, is so important human?" Prince Ling asked calmly, taking a hit from his pipe before offering it to the guest who took a hit
"Your highness, à dispatch from beyond the mountains has been received. It seems the trolls have learned about your intention to divert the Yellow River, and are very upset." He said, struggling to keep his thoughts straight as the drug hit his system.
Ling lay back on the floor, helping himself to some bread as he thought things over. Xi'an, the world's ceiling, was the head of no less than a dozen of the great rivers. This meant that downstream countries would often send scouts to monitor them, and ensure their own water supplies were secured.
The Yellow River was one of the smaller ones in the kingdom, traveling east to west it was fed by glaciers high in the mountains. It had also never been utilized by Xi'an because of its remote location. But last year, before he'd taken control, his father had ordered a series of dams constructed to create a large training camp for water demons.
"Tell them, if they wish to talk they must tell me personally" Ling said with finality "for now tell them to only dam the Shinshu tributary. We'll leave the main river alone until I sort this out."
His orders received, the messenger bowed out. His head spinning from the smoke filled room, the skunky smell clinging to his clothes.
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