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She too smelt him before she saw him, just as he had. The empress slowed her pursuit into something less flighty; her limbs now gliding, burgeoned by the knowledge that the Emperor was, indeed, here. His surprise at seeing her was mild, as was hers – they gazed at one another and they smiled fervently. Shenlei’s presence often overwhelmed her, and kept her restrained. He was holy, a vicar of the heavens themselves.

Compared to that, she was nothing.

He was to make the first move, in all things. She was not afraid to lead the Dynasty, but in their marriage, she was entirely submissive. What he wanted, she became. Yue poised herself as the perfect picture of piety, and he was her god. This made it somewhat more difficult to accept that, in the end, his eye would always drift to another.

In the moment that she saw him, she felt the same sentiment that she felt when she saw him across the diplomatic table: at least it is I that am here with you now.

It was very much like him to laugh in the face of disaster. It made Yue laugh too, a small twist of a smile appearing unbidden on her lips before she lifted a wrist, and fully chuckled from behind it. The Empress bowed before him, shoulders held a little looser, when he greeted her formally.

To bow was something she always did, but it did feel silly and profane to do it here. It was as if their dynasty and all its clans had been laid to waste at the end of some long and futile war. Only a few survived. The ones too weak?

They perished.

He castigated her for even potentially traveling alone, and she shook her head to indicate that she had not – though it was something outside of her realm of control. About it, the Empress said nothing more.

Shenlei’s halfhearted quips about the fervency in which she sought him – in which she always sought him – brought her fully into the fold. Yue wasn’t sure what had yielded within her, but something had. He seemed tired, upset underneath that exterior of strength. She, too, was tired, but she was like a newborn in this world. While she had been growing up, he had been left to carry the burden alone.

Yue wilted innocently, waving her tail like a banner. If I remember correctly, the first time we met, it was you who found me, the empress corrected gently, voice held low though she was indeed trying to make light, referring to one of several prolific legends that surrounded their union. But yes, the tables have quite turned since then.

Then, The Empress did something unprecedented – she approached him, appealing to him as a woman, a gentle creature needing his yang energy to spin their beautiful reality. She pressed the fine, concave bone of her cheek against him and attempted to hold him there with words, spoken quietly to his ear. I’m sorry it took me so long. and she was. The Empress lamented greatly for any moments that the Emperor may have suffered duress in her absence.

Yue lowered her chin to her chest, but did not remove herself from him entirely unless he bade it. Her next questioned seemed somehow more important than the topic of the reunion, more needing of closeness. The dynasty... is it gone? She once again spoke again in a whisper, as if this something that could scarcely be spoken aloud.

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