Silk and Ashes
Copyright© 2026 by Komiko Yakamura
Chapter 1
Guanzhong Region, Jin Empire, Spring, 304 AD
The war camp stank of smoke and unwashed men. Sima Yong stood over the map table, his fingers pressed against the yellowed silk that showed an empire tearing itself apart. Red markers indicated his nephew’s forces. Black marked his brothers’. The spaces between grew larger each week.
His Shìzhōng waited in silence.
“The Romans,” Sima Yong said finally, not looking up. “Galerius Caesar. The one in Thessalonica.”
“My lord?”
“He has a daughter a year and a half old.”
The Shìzhōng’s expression didn’t change. In the Year of the Dragon, with half the empire in flames and the Emperor a drooling puppet, stranger orders had been given.
“You want her brought here.”
“I want proof,” Sima Yong said, “that Heaven favors my claim. I want the world to see that I command from sea to sea.” He looked up then, his eyes flat. “Bring me a Roman princess.”
“The distance—”
“Is irrelevant. Send Xiào Wèi.”
A runner was dispatched. The Shìzhōng remained standing, calculating logistics in his head. Five thousand miles. A year each direction, if the weather held. If the Persians didn’t interfere. If—
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