---

Her eyes are waiting. Admit it. Unspoken. Admit it. Admit it. Let him say it. Let him give her cause. A single breath of confirmation, and Tianlong could have him noosed for the insult of speaking such treachery aloud.

Is this how the empress means to soothe the wound: with lies repeated by her court so faithfully and often that they become real?

Once, on the wind-bitten moorlands she had wanted more from him than he yet dared give.

Now she is beneath his protection. His.

“Empress. We both know that is untrue.” No yielding of the lie Teng Yué craves.

And yet his mercy does not know who stands before her: another bastard foundling raised in the margins. One now with the power to right things.