"In the many centuries the Aqwa Emirate and the Huan Confederacy had united to form the Al-Shan Empire, much of the culture from both sides had blended with each other. Traditions from one side were colored by those of the other side's, so were customs, and often, the people itself.

Outside the high nobles, many of which still maintained pure Aqwa lineage, marriages between the two groups were increasingly common, even when tradition frowned upon it. Even amongst the nobles it had seeped in, as some Huan nobles sought out wifes from Aqwa clans to further solidify their claims to nobility.

Sadly, not only the good parts of the cultures were mixed together. The less pleasant prejudices and discrimination also mixed themselves into the new culture. Until very recently, it was common to discriminate against others based on their birth, and women who had lost their purity were treated as worse than trash, if they were unmarried at the time.

Theirs was a fascinating culture to study, with all its good and bad like any other culture out there." - Leigh Wainwrought, Sociologist from Levain.

"Milord, report from team thirty-seven. They had apprehended Magistrate Shareef of Tang-Waleed and his fellow conspirators. Two were killed for resisting," reported a young soldier to Mustafa.

"At ease, soldier, and pass them my compliments on the excellent work," he replied from behind his desk. Many similar reports had arrived in the past three days, all with similar contents. A net cast since half a year ago being pulled for a long awaited harvest.

Mustafa bey Leung, Marshal of the Army for the Al-Shan Empire, had to give it to the young Emperor. His plan to eradicate the traditionalist faction in court by giving them the rope to hang themselves with had worked.

He himself was first brought into confidence around the autumn of last year, shortly before rumors of a certain recently-promoted peasant girl being frequently summoned to "attend" the emperor began to spread.

It was a surprise for him to learn about the girl's true identity and reason for being there. Not her checkered past - that part one could find out with just some searching - but how she was a blood mage, and had trained under the Blood Demon herself.

It made sense to him why the Emperor would entrust her with the burden of being the locus of the plan in general, and as someone raised in a less than progressive household himself, he could see the reasoning.

Had he said to his late father that he wished to take a daughter of a Huan whore as consort, his father would have likely skinned him alive. He could very well see how the traditionalists - who shared that view - would find it an inexcusable affront if the emperor took the girl in as Empress.

In the end, however, they had not reached that step of the plan before an incident involving the girl took place which sparked off the current situation.

The incident took place a month ago, during the spring celebrations. His youngest daughter Ayesha had received an invitation for a party at a noble's house, delivered by one of her friends, the daughter of a rich merchant in town.

Mustafa had noticed how the girl seemed forced to give Ayesha the invitation, a discrepancy his clever daughter had also caught on. As a precaution, they asked for his second daughter, Rafiqa, to accompany Ayesha to the event, as the military had a customary off day at that date.

By sheer coincidence, Rafiqa had asked her friend, Ying Xiao - the very girl part of the Emperor's plans - if she wanted to come along, and the girl had agreed. None of them had expected this little whimsy to spark off the current volatile situation.

It turned out that Ayesha's suspicions were correct. While the party had started off normally, Ying Xiao had quickly told the girls not to imbibe the drinks provided, and only pretend to do so. The drinks had been spiked with paralyzing drugs and aphrodisiacs.

Mustafa had read the reports of that night. Had his girls been alone, he felt that Rafiqa would at least be able to get herself and her sister out without making too much of a fuss, but they wouldn't be able to do much else either.

Most of the girls in the party were from merchant families, commoners, not nobles. None of them would have dared to speak out about the indignities they suffered had the incident not happened before their very eyes.

Ying Xiao proved far less accepting of the fact that such unsavory things were happening. Many of the girls had clearly suffered before, while a few others were there for the first time and had no idea what was planned for them.

When the young nobles who had held the party showed their true faces, so had Ying Xiao. She was not gentle. The first man who tried to reach towards her found his arm twisted, his joints dislocated, and the limb itself broken in three places.

His screaming sobered the others from their lewd intents. A couple of them confronted her, while another called the guards. By the time the guards came, all the young nobles were on the ground, nursing broken bones and shattered limbs.

The guards made the mistake of drawing out their weapons. Ying Xiao had responded in kind, and mercilessly cut them down, turning the party into a scene of bloodbath and screams of agony.

By then, Rafiqa and Ayesha had rounded up the other girls and learned the full story. This was indeed not the first time for many of them. The nobles had threatened to disseminate the rumors if they refused to obey, and made them invite their friends, thus constantly expanding the number of girls who fell into their clutches.

They also learned that several girls had committed suicide after such incidents, as Ayesha's friend confided to her in tears, as she sobbed pitifully on her knees. All their stories further stoked Ying Xiao's anger at the young nobles who were squirming in pain on the floor.

When the city guards arrived, Ying Xiao had already finished with her work, as she had stomped on and ground the family jewels of every single rapist present into mush under her feet.

Quite naturally, the incident had sparked a massive scandal as the victims - emboldened by seeing how another girl younger than them manhandled their tormentors - told their stories. Even the court was debating about it.

Many of those in the traditionalist factions had called for Ying Xiao to be punished. Some of the young men she castrated brutally had been the young heirs to their families. One of them was even a grandson of High Magistrate Wang's. He had been less fortunate and had directly perished from shock and the pain that night.

The Emperor's reaction had been one that further infuriated them instead.

He had publicly praised Ying Xiao and ordered the assets of the involved young nobles confiscated, to be distributed to their victims. High Magistrate Wang had looked as if he was about to have an aneurysm that day, and left the court session ahead of time with an angry huff.

It turned out that he had absconded from the capital city that very night, along with many other core figures amongst the traditionalists, and escaped to their home island of Tian-Mao. Mustafa had allowed them to escape because the Emperor told him to do so.

Two weeks later, pamphlets and rumors slandering the Emperor for being a "puppet" controlled by the Prime Minister and his faction spread around the Empire, along with a call to arms, to return the Empire to a proper course.

Most nobles who received such letters tore it up and threw it in the trash. The peasants had a more practical approach, as they used it as kindling instead. Even so, a few nobles here and there, on various islands, moved to answer the call.

Mustafa's people had long been watching those nobles, and quickly apprehended them once they showed signs of taking up arms. Around half of those on his watch list had instead reported the matter themselves, even, and were thus left alone.

The only island in the archipelago Mustafa had no access to was Tian-Mao, the traditionalists' home island, and he knew they would have likely hunkered down in their natural fort of an island by now, prepared for war.

It was just to be expected. Mustafa had expected it, and so had the Emperor himself. Their next move had long been prepared.

******************************

"Rise, Jiāngjūn Ying Xiao. For your first task, We name you commander of the expeditionary force to subdue the rebels in Tian-Mao Island," said the Emperor before the entirety of the court that remained - the traditionalist faction was obviously absent - the next day.

"This subject shall strive to fulfill Your Imperial Majesty's commands to the utmost," replied Ying Xiao from where she knelt before the throne. She wore a more ornate suit of armor that day, as befit her new rank.

"Very good. You shall have eighteen thousand soldiers and the second royal cadre at your disposal. We hereby name Shàngxiàos Rafiqa bey Leung and Faizal al-Baqheri as your lieutenants," said the Emperor, at which point Rafiqa and Faizal also knelt and pledged their willingness. "Do us proud."

"Your will shall be done," said the three with a respectful salute before they were dismissed.

"Jiāngjūn Zhang," said the Emperor as he looked towards Hu-Lao, who came forward and knelt as he was summoned. "Take two thousand men with you and observe their performance. You may advise, but try not to interfere directly unless it is an emergency."

"Your will be done, sire," said Zhang Hu-Lao as he knelt before the young emperor and saluted.