Miao (mēˈau̇)

"I just love all those hair nets..."   "Those aren't hair nets, they're Tsubami, a major cultural tradition here in Lai Dang."   "Look at big brain on the prince of peace!" Mama Loma said, the two having rented rooms on her upper floor, rather than brave the crime filled city nights. "I thought you'd never been here before?"   "My parents were big on showing me travel photos and videos of everywhere they've gone... I probably spent more time doing that than in actual class at this point. They had these pictures of five different models..."   "Ok, you're in possession of state secrets, and will have to come with me now." She had been joking, but couldn't hold back tears of laughter when Linni's eyed widened, as if he had believed her.   "Now, now Zim, you can't be causing trouble, the new job says you can't."   "Oh, a promotion?"   "I won't bore you with the details, but he is on a first-name basis with the secretary of state."   Mama Loma showed just how much homework she'd done on her visitors, when she quoted a formal, perhaps staid, Kagomine news program and said: "She-who-is-Nameihomei? Such an honour."   "Oh, by the way, she's in town, and might drop in."   "What?"   "Your 'auntie', she asked me to set up a detail to come here and say hi during the lunch period."   "I haven't been away that long..."   "And you don't have official duties, so you're not missing something anyone expects you to do, but she seems to think you slept in, and might be sick..."   "Whaa...?"   "I think this is the first time you were a no-show for an official event, despite the fact that as 'not a voice of meihomei' you're not expected to attend every one."   "Kill me now."   "That brings to mind a question though, Mama Loma, you're of the Miao people?"   "Yes, you can't tell?"   "I'm hardly an expert, my skills and training are at identifying threats, not ethnicities."   "Well, I am, and so is almost 80 per cent of all Lai Danese residents. The proportion rises to ninety if you only consider citizens."   "Oh?"   "Temporary workers tend to be Moniqan, Tsou, Kagomine, Abendinian, Pinay, Koalimakau..."   "Kagomine?"   "The broadcast mentioned Ea Island Kagomine tended to work here more than other years..." Linni chimed in, it was on an official memo...   "Don't insult my intelligence, most broadcasts couldn't find Ea Island on a map, that was in the briefing, wasn't it?"   Linni sighed. "Yes, that was in the briefing, it's a concern of Meihomei's that they're not finding enough opportunities, outside of fishing."   "The Eans? They weren't Moniqans initially... They were Miao, many of them are just using their family networks to work here."   "So we shouldn't crackdown on such activity?"   "Well, if you want to depopulate the island, maybe. Helping Eans build link with the Kagomine subcontinent would work much better, but I am not an expert."   "I will see you credentialed as Kagomine's expert on the Miao, if that's your wish? You've been so helpful."   "What, thank you, oh, who is that?"   "Mikhala Veneer, she-who-is-Nameihomei, Domei of Garay, by the grace of the elements Aumhava of Garay, Benevento Res-claimant, Electoral Princess of Saer-Natthingham, Mastarneir Benevento, Princess of the third rank of the Nisei, Lucair of Ferrare, Baroness of Czarny-Las, Baroness of Sottofumo-Tagliare, Baegjag Bu-In Naeh-inchon, by the grace of the Elements Second Duty and Eleventh of The Twenty-Five."   "Just how many nations did you just encompass, naming her?"   "Kagomei, Benevent, Saer, Nisei, Gogur and the Kautanissian Conclave."   "Wars have started over less than half the titles you named, in Eurani, who made a pact to prevent such from ever happening again..."   "The Eurani Pact was signed to prevent wars over Ferrare, it is known."   "What, so Ferrare is the Keystone Nations of Eurani?"   "One of them, Eurani has three, Ferrare, Sarnath and Lolland."   "I'm hardly good at Eurani geography, but even I know Sarnath and Sarn's border is drawn along Saer-Nattingham's borders."   "And Ferrare is on the border between Brescia and Benevent, I've retained that much from my classes..."   "How good of you to remember." Mikhala Veneer's precise, clipped tones rang like a Kon's over a parade ground. Shibue's own father had taught her how. Colourful greywhiskers the cats called him, she missed him, and not just because he'd saved her life, and that of everyone dear to her, or near enough. Linni and Luci had managed not to need his help, they were the only ones.   "Miau." That was Robyn, the cat, so close to Mikhala in precedence, she outranked everyone but Mikhala in this assemblage, and was usually styled Nameita Robyn, literally q.v. 'Princess Robyn' in formal settings.   "My, what a clever person, you of course are nearly as important as our stately guest, and so will get the very finest river gaigang I can get my hands on today."   "Mew. PurrPurrPurrPurrPUrrPURrPURRpURR." Linni, who had a spell to understand the cat's meaning for the most important occasions, didn't need it this time: Robyn was being recognized as the regal cat she was born to be, and was about to be waited hand and foot. And would relish every moment of it.   "Please do be mindful, Kagomine rulers have been known to throw people who offend their royal cat princesses into a dungeon from time to time." That was Mikhala, who'd gotten the playful vibe of the gathering the moment their hostess had put her hands on the cat so familiarly.   "She is a royal cat?"   "She is next to myself in the line of succession, ex-aequo with my own flesh and blood."   "And this one?" She pointed to Linni, who'd been trying to avoid notice.   "He is my nephew, he is perhaps fifteenth in the line of succession."   "I would be, if the Kingmakers have their way, I am seventh, after the Domeis of Didina and Lavali, and before the Domei of Jannet."   "So high!"   "Mew." Robyn laid her head against his chest, as if to say, you're the most sensible of them, you should go after me.   "Liar, you like Amarat even more than you do me."   "Mew. Purr. Mew. Purr." Upon hearing the name of Mikhala's son, the cat certainly had no reservations.   "Who is this Amarat?"   "Linni's cousin, Nameihomei's son, the Bameimeito of Kagomei."   "The Bameimeito?" Loma's eyes went as wide as plates.   "My brother-in-law spoke highly of this establishment, is it true none may sing-sync before they've bathed and had a meal?"   "Err, yes."   "That sounds so lovely, I seldom have time to bathe during the day." Truth be told, the bath was closer to a spa, with a relaxing amount of steam, as Laidanese tended to like such things. "What is on the menu?"   "The chef, who happens to be me, today, has Laidanese buckwheat longthins with orange and lemons and peppers over olive oil, followed by Shiva Stew, Laidanese-style. Dessert will be pear-slice cake over plums."   "Oh, my, that sounds absolutely scrumptious, I may have to ask my bodyguards to insist I get the recipe too, that sounds that delish."   "I gave it to your brother-in-law, it would be no imposition to share it with you too.."   "This is that 'pear-slice cake over plums'? I've made it in my family for three decades now!"   "Then the student shall taste the one from the master!" Mama Loma's own eyes were shining, she'd heard of Mikhala before, but never met her in person.   "I am sure I will be impressed, neither my brother in law nor his wife were given to hyperbole, and both said this was a highlight of any stay in Lai Dang."   "I'm sure it's because they met here, and wooed each other singing here..."   "Oh, this is where they fell in love?"   "I'm just a poor establishment owner, but I certainly got that impression, just watching them going all lovey dovey at each other..."   "I wish my sister-in-law was still around to tease her..."   "Oh, she has passed?"   "No one has told you?"   "I do not get the Kagomine social page here, I am in Lai Dang."   "Both my brother in law and his wife passed before Linni was 18 arnds."   "How old is he now?"   "He's thirty-three, don't let his youthful good looks fool you."   "Oh, my."   "What?" Linni eyed her, she'd been his lifeguard for years, the chances of her this being new information were kinda small...   "You don't look thirty-three."   "What age do I look like?"   "Hmm, twenty-six?"   "Are you being a suck-up, or just bad at telling people's ages now, I can't really tell..."   "Nephew, when a lady pays you a compliment, don't tell her she is bad at anything... It could just be an honest mistake, or she could be cute."   "She is cute."   "Why do you tell her what she's doing wrong then?"   "Hmm, so you're saying women are like cats?"   "What?"   "Maybe..."   "How am I like a cat, please?"   "You're likely to claw my eyes out unless I tell you what you want to hear."   "Hmm, I smiled at that one, I keep the claws in, but you have a point, I do have some things I expect in a response."   "Like how pretty you are, and strong and lithe and full of life."   "Hmm, purr?"   "I'm not here trying to get my nephew laid, but I guess I should have expected feminine wiles was what kept him away..."   "What, my feminine wiles?"   "I never argue with self-apportioned responsiblity." Mikhala's tart tone was incisive.   "You are onto something, just because he's getting a second date, where his betters failed to."   "Well, maybe not so much betters, as likelier to get a second date."   "I was unlikely to get a second date?"   "Yes, yet you did get one, and a third date."   "Oh, this prince of peace isn't swooning all the ladies all the time?"   "No, not all the time, although, he's courted a princess of the Eurani at one point..."   "Why would he bother, they're so snotty!"   "Oh, they consider him part-eurani himself..."   "How is that possible?"   "To you, the dress, the manner of speech, that is important yes?"   "Yes."   "The Eurani, the Brescians especially, consider lineage to be quite more important."   "How would a kagomine namei have lineage..."   "Easy, he's not only a kagomine namei... But a prince of the Lollandese, the Brunswicki, the Bresciani and the Saer, because I am a princess of all these places, and he's one of my heirs, and due to how inheritance works in Eurani, personal unions are usually avoided. It's a good thing my brother in law had multiple children too."   "Really?"   "Well, I'm counting you as one of them, as you should inherit something nice from Sally and Charles."   "Who, me?"   "I can't give you many places in Kagomei, at least, not while Amalthea's alive."   "And should she pass, what then?"   "Amarat becomes Meihomei, and is ineligible for Starkastar, Veneer, a few other places, he'll need the support of well-intentioned aristocrats."   "People who don't hate his guts for him being a priest, you mean?"   "Well anyone who hates my son for being like his mother won't get the label 'well-intentioned' from me, not anytime soon."