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He remained, and Yue relished the closeness. For all of their touching, the expanses between the atoms of their bodies still felt like miles. She melted; he was lukewarm. There was no other way of it – it had been like this for so long now, that the dynamic felt familiar – and it was not a bad thing, not as the empress saw it.

She watched him as he spoke. She always did; she noticed the bouncing of his gaze, unable to be still. The way he held his breath, only for a moment. If she could not identify this by sight, then she assuredly did so by feeling. Shenlei was potent; his actions more than deserving to be noticed.

It did not matter if she could not reach him, because he could reach her so easily. Even things such as the steadying of their wrists against one another was exactly the anchor they both wished it to be. Yue hooked her own slight wrist around his, at first holding his own in place, but then she drew it close to her chest. The resplendent crown of her head leant down, and she pressed her nose against the bone of his shin.

A kiss.

Passion renewed, she felt as though she was once again strolling beside him in the gardens with her parasol, in the nascence of their relationship. Yue, born a princess and bargaining tool, knew she would never marry for true love, but her ancestors bestowed her with a future so stalwart. Oh, Emperor, she breathed, feeling the cloak of him now.

Shenlei offered a promise; one of safety, and of a better world.

The orchid no longer spoke into his ear, for she could not reach as she strummed her cheek against his jaw. Still, she spoke the exact words she wished the crystal dragon to spin into reality; a sort of spoken, lived prayer. We shall give the historians far more to fill their songs with. She breathed his scent, just as she had the day before within the aged walls of the dynasty, suddenly unable to forget about the things that might have been so easily lost.

Tianlong shall be made even greater, in the vision of the Crystal Dragon itself. It is only through trials such as these that the truly strong shine their brightest.

Shenlei had never reflected this need to praise the Gods; for he was one of them, a God and a mortal combined.

Perhaps he found it superfluous, but Yue could not. It is a great fortune that the heavens have borne us together, to weave it exactly so. The pale woman began to press against him, wondering if he could feel her heart as it fluttered beneath her ribs. She wondered, if she moved her face closer to his, if he might be able to glimpse her mind. If any permission had been needed, she had silently granted it so.

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