༻❁༺
The man had earned her attention.
Quiet laughter faded on her ambrosial lips, but the inquisitive look remained. Her tongue filled the void within her mouth, blocking any words that might come out unbidden. Like this, she looked at him and allowed herself to steep in his words, summoning to mind a thousand things that mattered in decisions such as these – and a thousand other things that did not.
The Emperor himself liked to helm decisions surrounding the royal family and their personal guards. Decisions to a lesser degree, like those of the court, fell to Yue – but the safety of the Golden Kin was of the utmost importance. The princesses had been assigned their escorts. Despite this, the Empress’s ranks remained woefully undecorated, and so did such ranks for the entire harem. It might have been a statement from Shenlei, positing that he was the true protector of all in his harem...
but Yue knew that the Emperor was a practical and objective man, who would not gamble with his legacy to make a statement before the dragon itself. Therefore, he must have just been preoccupied.
The refined edges of her skull angled to the left as she reshifted her gaze, turning over Batu in her mind as a true option for this role. He interested her greatly, by virtue of his vocation and his verbosity; the way he regarded fine things as more than the sum of their parts. Still, his allegiance to Tianlong satisfied her in a way that somehow still left her wanting. It was difficult for her to understand, at that moment.
She had dealt with complex creatures for all her life, and she suspected there was far more to the hound before her; something concealed neatly behind the stretched panels of hide. A being that lived and breathed and made choices left a trail of dazzling complexities in its wake. In this way, the Orchid could easily admit that most she met left her wanting, for there was no way she could know everything about everyone.
She wanted to know more about the rogue, the Empress supposed rather simply.
"To my Emperor husband, you had returned one of his wayward consorts," came her measured response, similarly wondering how he would respond to being pressed. "Do you not then wish to seek his holy employ?"
༻❁༺
