"I see that Tai-shoZangi has accorded that honor to you. You should thank him before he leaves for Brihuega and his new command there."

Theodore was surprised and shocked. "That is ridiculous. He would not request an assignment to such an outpost world. Training warriors is his life."

"He did." Takashi waved a hand toward the desk where lay a pile of papers topped by a DCMS request for transfer form. "He found it preferable to the alternative."

Theodore realized suddenly that something was wrong, but he didn't know what. Zangi had been judged guilty of some crime and offered the usual "alternative." The injustice rankled him. "Tai-shoZangi is an honorable man."

Takashi spun around and crossed his arms over his chest. His face was granite. "He has disobeyed me by showing favoritism to my son. I have been lenient in permitting him this recourse."

"He does not deserve this treatment. He showed me no favoritism."

Takashi dismissed his son's defense of Zangi with a slashing motion of his hand.

"Do not demean yourself with lies to defend the false honor he has accorded you. It is unbecoming to a Kurita." Takashi's voice softened. "You shall retain the rank. The people must see my son as an outstanding MechWarrior."

"That is all you care about, isn't it? Appearances!" Theodore spat out the words in disgust.

Takashi turned a cold, hard stare on him.

"We are Kurita. Across the stars, what we appear to be, we are.Appearances are all-important. That is something you seem unwilling or unable to learn." After a pause, Takashi added quietly, "Your mother is disappointed, too."

Theodore clenched his jaw to keep from flinging a sarcastic retort at his father. He hated it when Takashi brought Jasmine into arguments to cover his own feelings. In as calm a voice as he could muster, he said, "If you have no further need of me today?"

Takashi looked at his son with calculating eyes, sifting and weighing the effects of the day's confrontation.

"You may go."

Theodore turned and walked slowly from the chamber, controlling the desire to rush out, to be free of his father's suffocating presence. He walked through the building, ignoring the greetings and congratulations of all he passed. On the steps outside the Agate Pavilion, however, he was confronted by someone he could not ignore. Subhash Indrahar clapped him on the shoulder.

"O-medeto, Sho-sa,"the man said with a smile full of approval.

Theodore looked at the ISF Director with no thanks in his eyes. "The ISF has informed me," he quoted in a voice filled with the pain of his father's continued rejection. He shook off Subhash's hand, overwhelmed by the need to escape. He ran down the steps.

Shoving his way through the celebrating crowd, Theodore could hear Indrahar calling his name.

6

Wisdom of the Dragon School, Kuroda, Kagoshima

Pesht District, Draconis Combine

18 May 3018

They found Theodore sitting on a bench in a quiet garden. At his feet lay a crumpled sheet of white rice paper, tightly covered with calligraphic characters.

Even in his despair, Constance thought him romantically handsome. The slightly tousled dark hair and the rumpled uniform added just the right touch of pathos to his tall, lanky frame. Lover and child at once. What woman could resist? If only he were not my cousin,she mused.

Great-Aunt Florimel had noted Theodore's abrupt departure from the Agate Pavilion and sent aides to follow him and report where he stopped. When that message came, she had ordered Constance to print a hardcopy of a certain computer file, all the while criticizing Takashi's treatment of his son. From her earliest childhood, Constance remembered Florimel's loving concern for Theodore. Florimel believed that it was her karma to assist and guide him toward his destiny, for he had been born on her estate at the outskirts of the Imperial City. Constance had been born there, too, and that seemed to link her somehow to Theodore as much as their shared childhood at the court on Luthien.

Constance had been there when Theodore was born. She had been only seven years old at the time and remembered little of the event that had so racked Jasmine with agony. At the time, Constance had not understood the whisperings that Jasmine could bear no more children.

That had made her only child all the more precious to Jasmine, and she had protected and pampered him beyond the time proper for a Kuritan boy-child. His mother had not always been able to shield Theodore from his father, however. Constance remembered too many occasions when she had held her sobbing young cousin in her arms while he choked out a story of Takashi's coldness or unthinking cruelty.

Now Theodore was here alone on a day when he should be rejoicing with his family, with his friends. Once more his father had rejected him. Constance thought it intolerable, but she had no power to change it. Even Florimel could do little. She never confronted Takashi about his treatment of Theodore, but protested it in her own way. Through subtle manipulation of his environment and well-timed encouragements, she worked to sustain Theodore's spirit.

Constance knew from the printout she carried that Florimel had a good one today. She sneaked a glance at her great-aunt. Florimel's concern for Theodore showed clearly, but beneath that concern was strength and confidence. Constance was relieved, her own confidence bolstered. Great-Aunt Florimel would save this day.

Theodore stood as the two women entered the garden and pretended surprise at finding him there. Florimel dismissed his attempts at formal courtesy, reminding him that they were all family. Then Theodore helped her to a seat on the granite bench he had just vacated. Heedless of the damp ground, Constance settled at Florimel's knee in a rustle of fine dai-gumosilk. After a pause, Theodore joined her, seating himself cross-legged directly in front of his great-aunt.

Florimel's manner suggested that nothing existed outside the garden where they sat. Caught in her spell, the two younger Kuritas found themselves immersed in the moment. The smell of the shower-soaked earth. A tatsugonchuflitting and hovering over a puddle. The cool air in the shade.

Florimel herself broke the enchantment, nudging the crumpled rice paper with her toe. "There is a problem with your orders," she said.

Theodore looked down at the ground as though ashamed.

"It is unworthy, but I am unhappy with the BattleMech that Father has assigned for me."

"And what is it?" Florimel asked, though Constance was quite sure she already knew. Theodore's quick glance at his cousin showed that he thought the same. "A DRG-1N Dragon."

"A noble choice and most symbolic. The Dragon is the symbol of our House and of the whole Combine."

"And Father is very keen on symbols," Theodore said, shifting uncomfortably where he sat. "A Dragonis at the bottom of the heavy class of BattleMechs. I have little doubt that it was the least he felt he could give me and still maintain appearances. He probably wished he could have given me a light 'Mech, perhaps a Locust.After all, I am such a plague to him. Never good enough."

Florimel quietly cut off Theodore's increasingly bitter speech. "You don't have to fight in it."

Thrown off stride, Theodore paused with his mouth open.

"Of course I do," he said, recovering a little.

"Nonsense! A Kurita samurai has the privilege of fighting in any BattleMech he owns."