Ankūro

16

**Warning: This chapter contains scenes of humiliation, degradation and abuse that some may find upsetting.**

16

Within cruelty,
Are humans shown the lowest,
They can ever be.
- Osokan.

There were many things that Apé despised, too many for her to count, but to be before this man would count as one of those she despised the most. To kneel, subservient to the corpulent creature devouring her food and drinking her finest Tasak, almost made her vomit. A flush-faced bean-counter. A man so disagreeable, she would feel no pity at all if he choked upon her food and died gasping for breath before her.

She gave him her most engaging smile as he droned on about the problems of a Haūdo's tax collector. How life was so harsh towards him, he almost had to set himself a prohibitive clothing budget for his wife. He sat, in a position of honour, thrusting the raw fish wrapped in the most exquisite seaweed, into his mouth as if having to chew would be the most egregious delay.

"Of course, the Haūdo expects me to find him more of everything. War is never cheap, after all." With fingers held in a gross impression of daintiness, he picked through the food on offer, grimacing at several of her most treasured recipes. "And I tell him, every time, these peasants hide their yields too well. Some of the villages could use a swift shock to bring them into line. Not your village, of course."

"Of course." She giggled into her hand, glancing away in just the correct amount of humble shyness.

"And then we get these ... people demanding the Haūdo protect them against bandits. Demanding!" He roared the last word, leaning forward, a scrap of seaweed clogging the front of his teeth. "Well, I say, if they paid their full share of taxes, perhaps the Haūdo would be able to afford to protect them! My commiserations on the last bandit raid, by the way. We heard about it far too late to help, of course."

"Of course." She gave him an understanding bow of the head, picking up a bowl of dumplings for him that he waved away.

He continued to talk, constantly and with little time to draw breath and she continued to pretend she cared about his self-pitying ramblings. Instead, she thought back to the night before, when Kimū returned from his evening walk in an even more foul mood than usual. Stomping to his room, she later heard him howling as he began to throw things around, breaking things. That continued for more than a few hours.

"I said, what do you think?" He held his hands upon his thick thighs, looking at her as if he expected her to be angry.

"I'm sure I could not make a more eloquent case than yourself, Ihiro-Sē. I think you said what everyone thinks." She had no idea what he said, but she always felt that agreeing with their assessment would be the wisest course, instead of asking them to repeat their statements.

"Quite right! War it should be! The Haūdo, however, listens to weak advisors that say war would be long and costly." He slapped his thigh. "Why, I can always ferret out some more taxes for him, given a few more soldiers!"

"I'm certain the Haūdo welcomes your counsel, Ihiro-Sē." Lifting the Tasak flask, she poured him another cup full, which he grabbed and drank in one movement

The door to the room slid open and one of the tax collector's guards shuffled in, bowing low and then leaned in to whisper into Ihiro's ear. Apé tried to listen in, but could not hear the heated conversation. After a little back and forth, Ihiro sent the guard away with the wave of a hand.

Apé didn't worry. In other seasons, she would have felt a churning fear inside, wondering if they had found the secret store of rice. This season, after the bandit raid, they would find nothing more than what she had reported for the harvest. Although, the tax collector would always demand more.