Batu offered her a golden explanation; that such things preoccupied her conscious mind because it was akin to pleasure. Yue could not deny the truth of his position, but she did not want to acknowledge it.

Was a beautiful life not enough? Was it within her own nature, and the nature of all wolfkind, to tear down what they had once so wanted? Were they always destined to be unhappy, and to sour any opportunity through the sheer desire of wanting more?

Yue was determined to be the single, solitary wolf who did not succumb to such a fate. Especially since the first step towards any goal was awareness of the problem, and the orchid was more than aware of it. She lived it. It was everywhere.

Their propensity towards pleasure affected her every moment – she saw it in the eyes of Shenlei when he looked at his harem, and she also saw it in the gaze of Batu as he looked upon her.

She, however, would not be its victim. Not when the crystal Dragon had given her everything she had ever wanted – except for one thing.

In this regard, Yue was certain her piety and obeisance would one day be rewarded.

You work, she restated his own words, her gaze heavy and weighted, as do I. The Empress turned back around, prepared to meet him should he advance further.

But you don’t dream? she questioned, breathless by the question itself.

He imagined, but he did not dream.
The difference between the two was subtle, but palpable.

I don’t believe that.

Yue looked at the man before her, assessing him openly. He may think himself astute, but she was more astute. She saw that the dusky Mongolian was a welcome complexity in her life, though he wanted for nothing more than most men wished for. As he had said in his own soul-bearing words, he wished for the opposite of her: power and a lineage. To know that, once upon a time, he had mattered – and to know that he would still matter after he had died, as an ancestor. To perpetuate oneself as a part of a larger whole...

not as nothing. With a family, one was never nothing.

The Empress lifted a brow of solid alabaster. The evidence of his dreaming was right here.

You stand beside an Empress, after all.

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