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Yue elected to take a long walk after she left the birthing den. She didn’t want to return to her own rooms, which felt as vast and empty as a fortress. Her desire to visit Shenlei waned greatly as she moved, instead replaced with a desire to breathe the cold, fresh air and let it invigorate her.
While she walked, she thought of Kexin.
There might have been other children born, or perhaps not. The only one that mattered was the one she had heard announced. Maybe Shenlei was not the boy’s father, and the healer had lain with someone more kin to a mongrel.
It was possible, and if it was true, that meant nothing good for Lady Kexin. The opposite, however, meant nothing good for Yue.
There were many possibilities, and each one overwhelmed her. She, who did not so easily become overwhelmed! Between two boughs of hanging verdant vines, the Empress stopped to hang her head. It felt no good to hate a child.
Wei Jun appeared before her. He spoke all the words that her mind also had – was she so easy to read? It was more likely that the situation was so apparent that all who saw it could see it for what it was. Maybe they watched eagerly, waiting for the brilliant entertainment of her downfall.
Breathe.
“It is nothing.” The ivory woman looked at Batu then, clarifying for him what she knew to be true about the hierarchy of the Dynasty. Even if it was a son of Shenlei's, Yue was fairly confident that the bastard would not be legitimized. Dynasties rarely tolerated orphans and bastards, and were often less than kind to them despite Yue's best efforts.
It equally distressed her that Kexin's child should grow up impoverished, but the truth was that: “The Son of Heaven would never commit such dishonor.” To sow children outside of marriage was an insult to every wife Shenlei had into his harem. It was unreasonable to think that men potent enough to become Emperors would not take every woman that was owed to them, but to create infighting within one's own dynasty?
The Empress held Batu's gaze, daring him to challenge the idea to that she may wrestle with it. It was nothing, or it was everything.
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