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Yue was cursed with a soul that could not rest. Even if she had the time, she would deny to understand the benefit that rest could provide her. Her sole interest, which was perhaps reflected in the Batu’s deepest intention, was to create a world more palatable to those weakest, those unable to care for themselves, because they could not fight a dynastic system that was a thousand years in the making.
Even now, the true reason the Empress struggled is that her intuition told her, with a strength she could not deny, that Lady Kexin was a friend. The responsibility she felt toward Kexin’s child was, itself, motherly. Amongst Tianlong, the Empress was mother to all.
But she also felt betrayal – the shards of bone that had entered her heart, knowing that her two closest confidants had acted, together, without her. Shenlei had a requirement that he no longer asked his Empress to fulfill. Kexin would no longer align her success as a healer with her success in procuring an heir from Yue.
Heaven's Mercy was convinced that Kexin had figured out another way to give Tianlong what it needed, superseding the Empress itself.
The Empress, forgetting herself for the merest of moments, shook her head from side to side to rid herself of the unwanted internal commentary. Shenlei hadn’t. Kexin wouldn’t. They would never leave her like that, alone on a proverbial island. They had been those closest to her in the world.
With a contraction of her diaphragm, she forced an indignant snort through her coal-black nares.
You speak of the Son of Heaven.It was a cold sentence, said as if she had not sought out the exact challenge he now offered – but if Batu could look beneath the shortness of her implied command, he would find gratitude.
If they were now verbally sparring, then Yue assessed her Imperial Guard to muster up some kind of advantageous position.
You mustn't dishonor the great Crystal Dragon himself,she jabbed, certain he knew it could be treason to speak against the Emperor. He was in no danger here – she was certain of that, too.
There was a very close circle of court members who were granted Yue’s ear and immunity for their unending honesty. Even if that honesty hurt to hear. Even if that honesty might be treasonous to others.
It is nothing.she posited once more, with a lash of her tail. Let that be it! was written all over her frame, from an arched tail to the lift of the fur on her shoulders. But she waited, giving Batu silence to fill with the thick, throaty sounds of his voice.
She attempted to pull those words forth, with nothing more than her desire to hear them.
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