The posthouse keeper thought back carefully for a while.
"Your Majesty."
"The Imperial Younger Brother has dignified features and courteous manners. He is truly a man of the great celestial empire, a figure from China in Southern Jambudvipa."
Having finished, she bowed again and said:
"Your Majesty, may we endorse his travel documents and let him pass?"
The queen did not answer immediately.
She lowered her gaze to the register beside her royal desk.
Xuanzang's name was written at the very top.
The queen lightly pressed her fingertips against the corner of the page.
After a while, she suddenly smiled.
"There is no hurry to endorse his travel documents."
The officials below the steps all raised their heads.
The queen leaned back against her throne. "Last night, I had a dream."
The hall fell silent.
An elderly female official stepped out of the ranks and asked, "What did Your Majesty dream of last night?"
A smile still lingered in the queen's eyes.
"I dreamed that the Golden Screen in my bedchamber suddenly shone with five-colored radiance."
"The Jade Mirror before my table also began to glow."
"The whole room was filled with light."
"I walked up to the mirror, and there, reflected within it, was a red sun."
She raised a hand and touched the edge of her royal desk.
"After I woke, I kept thinking about it."
"The Golden Screen shone with color, and the Jade Mirror gave off light."
"Surely this was an auspicious omen."
A female official below the steps asked:
"Your Majesty, what makes you think it foretold good fortune today?"
The queen's gaze returned to the register.
"I had that dream only last night, and today, the Imperial Younger Brother of the Great Tang in the Eastern Land arrived in our kingdom."
She slowly rose,