empressliu

"He took them out himself?" Liu Mingyan demands. She'd assumed there had been some other force at play; some foreign magic of this strange world that had temporarily robbed the parasites of their power. Such things were unusual, but not unheard-of. She reigns in her surprise and makes her play, with slightly less aggressive confidence. "This is nearly as surprising as his turn away from the arms of women. In some ways, perhaps moreso. If we were speaking of someone else, one might call it an admission of wrongdoing." She takes a moment to survey the board. "Was this Shen Yuan's doing?"