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The Empress was not used to this. There was only one man in the world who commanded her, and his pelt was of a stark contract between ebony and ivory, not the many shades of agouti tan that stood before her now – the hues of which seemed to bleed outward past the boundary of his being, mostly in part to his surroundings being entirely leathered, but also because an aura of deep, dusky brown radiated from him.

Yue could see it, as if she were a heat-seeking viper and he were her prey, if she tightened her lids and unfocused her gaze but for a moment.

but this was not about the shades of sable that delighted her, nor the brazen and open way in which he shared himself with her. It was not the accent, which she had only heard on the rarest of occasions. He sought something from Heaven’s Mercy, and those who wanted could rarely be trusted in their entirety.

They could, however, be powerful allies.

Yue was now determined to find a way to proceed forward, using her line of questioning as a guide.

Do not misinterpret my curiosities, mongolian swiftly surrendered to the imperial language, and her blazing eyes watched his, holding his gaze strongly, already aware how it has a penchant to wander. for I am inclined to fulfill this wish, for the cost of one fine sarlag hide, she thought with no small amount of mirth, hiking the pelt higher on her shoulders and drawing it close.

Still, the man must understand that she was not like the other concubines and consorts Batu might have interacted with. She was the Imperial Emperor Teng Shenlei’s first wife, and bore the weight of legend upon her featherbone shoulders. Everything in her life was high-stakes, and for her guard, that left little time for other pursuits. He must be adept in the ways that others were not.

Thus, this was no ordinary stewardship – but it might be something similar to that of a Khan. Experience such as this weighed heavily. It begs the question, why are you not still within your Khaan’s strata? She punctuated her question with a tilt of the head, so that he knew it was his turn to speak, in case he did not speak a lick of Mandarin. This was a factor to consider indeed, as her tongue was already tired from carrying the heaviness of his language, and she so missed tasting the refined syllables of her own.

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