Daishoga was never at peace during the night. He exercised a strong sense of control over everything while he was awake, but he had never learned to control his dreams. He didn't even know if such a thing was possible. His dreams made him just like everyone else. He often dreamed of the day his mother died. That had been far worse than anything he had endured since then. At least, this was what happened normally. For the first time in quite a long time, he slept peacefully. He wasn't perturbed by mightmares and he didn't shake, shiver, and sweat in his sleep.<br/><br/>When her fingers had slipped between his, his had closed against her hand gently.<br/><br/>But he continued to sleep for a little while. Though he was gradually starting to wake up. The sun was already bright and brilliant and now it played across his face. Daishoga yawned and opened his eyes. His eyes fell upon her own immediately and he could feel his heart skip a beat. In the morning like, she was absolutely radiant.<br/><br/>The emperor started to reach out to her, but he heistated. The memories of yesterday came rushing in like a river that had been blocked but had finally broken through. He remembered how she had smacked his face when he had kissed her. It was surprising how bothersome such a thing had been. It wasn't as if the slap had been particularly painful. Perhaps it was merely the surprise of such a thing happening at all.<br/><br/>Shaking himself mentally, his hand moved further and rested against her warm cheek. He stroked it softly. "You have a beauty that I could admire all day long," Daishoga whispered softly. He wasn't sure what he felt when he looked at her. It wasn't typical of him at all. These weren't things he was used to experiencing. Part of him wondered if he was simply being foolish.<br/><br/>There was suddenly a loud knock on the door. Daishoga paused and took his hand away from Sage's cheek.<br/><br/>"Come in!"<br/><br/>The door opened and in walked the court magician, Gando. Whatever he felt about seeing the two of them laying together was not displayed upon his face. He bowed deeply to the emperor.<br/><br/>"My lord, I come bearing good news," Gando said. "There is an envoy from Reltica on their way to meet with you here in the capital city. By our estimation they shall arrive tomorrow. Our men allowed them to pass through the border this morning about five hours ago."<br/><br/>Daishoga was interested. An envoy from Reltica. He could only wonder what such a thing meant. Assuredly, he doubted it was going to end the war. Zusa and Reltica had been rivals on this continent for a very long time. They had fought countless battles against each other, but this current war was easily one of the worst. Neither side was behaving with any level of decency and Vaandom was caught up in the middle of their conflict.<br/><br/>"Very well," Daishoga said, nodding. He had sat up and stretched lightly. "Thank you for giving me this information. I want you to to tell the soldiers to keep on alert at all border forts and keep on a lookout for anything suspicious."<br/><br/>"This envoy is indeed questionable," Gando said, nodding. "But perhaps our complete destruction of that village in Vaandom has opened their eyes. I shall be going. Have a pleasant morning."<br/><br/>Gando then slipped out of the bedroom. Gando was one of the few people that spoke casually to the emperor. He was one of the few people that didn't fear him either. He had been in the family for a long time and had been his mother's most trusted advisor. During Valiscor's brief stint as an emperor, Gando had tried to assassinate him. The attempt had failed and Gando had been exiled from the empire. One of the first things Daishoga did was bring him back home.<br/><br/>Daishoga sat there quietly for a moment and then turned to face Sage once again. "Were you surprised to find me laying beside you this morning?" He figured he might as welll make conversation with her. The emperor got to his feet and stretched once again. He walked over to the large door leading to his bath chambers and paused. "Come with me. We're both in need of a bath, and as you're my personal servant, I see no reason why we can't do it together."<br/><br/>The emperor pulled open the door and walked inside. He made his way over to the bath and turned on the taps. He adjusted them so that the water was hot. Then he held his hand over the faucet. Suddenly the water gushed out incredibly fast. It was obviously going a lot faster than it was supposed to. But the large bath filled up a lot faster as a result. Once the tub was filled to a satisfactory level, Daishoga began to strip himself of his clothes. Before long he was standing there in nothing. Whatever could be said about Daishoga, shyness was definitely not among them.<br/><br/>He slowly stepped into the bath and sat down. The hot water felt incredible against his muscles. He then waited for Sage. He wondered how she would react to such a request. Of course it wasn't unusual for servants to get in the bath with those they served so they could help wash them. And it shouldn't have been strange to Daishoga either, but it was. There was something strikingly different about this scenario with Sage.