Now I am relieved of that crushing anxiety, my mind is taking off and considering female dragons. As with hawks, the female dragon is larger than the male. In royal circles the female rulers of the continents are subtly higher statused than the tempestuous rulers of the ocean. I please myself mightily considering the etiquette of sex under these circumstances, as well as what the female rulers look like to my dragon kings. The pictorial image I have is of the ladies in late Renaissance or early Tudor courts- cold-faced, watchful, flat-mouthed, viewing the viewer from their own incomprehensible standards: vaguely alien in feel, as indeed are their menfolk. What on earth could go on in their heads, one wonders, and how could one begin to recommend oneself to such a person?
And the rest of the time I read Second Taiki, where the King and the general are currently discussing theology, as female kings and female generals naturally will-- at least in that world, which has more than a few unexpected twists in it. They might even be historical twists, since what I'm seeing is Heaven and the Jade Emperor requiring people to follow the path of virtue, which means showing obedience to Heaven's laws that actively discourage what we consider virtuous action as in, oh, relieving oppressed people from genocidal tyrants. The general is outraged because this attitude of Heaven makes no sense: but I have the impression that not a few Imperial decrees in China made no sense either, and/or flatly contradicted the Confucianist party line. But the Emperor is the Emperor and right, even when he's wrong, and it's not your place to question that.
