open post: Empress Liu Mingyan

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan has a lot on her mind.

In the three months since Luo Binghe vanished into thin air, Xin Mo abandoned at the foot of his throne, his Empire—her Empire—has... changed. The throne remains empty, of course—to have anyone else claim it, even temporarily, would be conceding that his absence is unintentional, either accidental or, more likely, a malicious coup. Whoever did the claiming would be the prime suspect for mal intent, including Mingyan herself. So it sits, empty, at the center of his great hall, Mobei-Jun standing sentinel beside it, never to be looked at directly by any visiting dignitary or sniveling demonic petitioner.

She's been redirecting all audiences to her wing of the palace instead. Her hall is not quite so grand, but it is nearly as imposing, and her own throne no less terrible and beautiful. When Luo Binghe is in residence, she primarily uses this hall for meetings with her network of all-female spies—not because Luo Binghe doesn't know about them, in his vague and uninterested way, but because Liu Mingyan has learned from experience that if they encounter him they turn very quickly from useful and competent agents to fawning and lovestruck young maidens, and then it's only a matter of time before they join the ranks of the harem. Liu Mingyan does not resent this; there would be no point. But she prefers to conduct her business in private nonetheless.

Now, of course, even from her own throne many of her edicts must be delivered as if they're orders that Luo Binghe left for her to give. Ning Yingying has been surprisingly useful on this front; despite Liu Mingyan's disdain for what she believed a naive and trusting heart who had given up her sect loyalty to marry for love, Ning Yinging does know Luo Binghe, perhaps better even than Liu Mingyan does, offering insight into what Luo Binghe would have said, if he had in fact instructed Mingyan on how to handle this matter. Liu Mingyan does not always take this advice—she does not always want to do what Luo Binghe would have done, especially as his absence stretches from days into weeks into months, but she does not resent it, either.

In truth, what Liu Mingyan resents is the idea that Luo Binghe will return, and she will be expected to relinquish rule back to him, and everything she has built—the tenuous and confusing peace between herself and Sha Hualing, and thus the quelling of the constant threat of southern rebellion; the ease with which she receives the other wives and soothes their fears, rather than holding herself above them;¹ the shifted tenor of court itself, with fewer public displays of violence²—all of it will go back to normal, and Liu Mingyan finds she has less taste for normal every day. It's not that she doesn't want Luo Binghe to return—of course she does—but she wishes that somehow he might return different. It's a futile thought, and a disloyal one to think about a man who created this life for her, a man she cares deeply about, but she cannot deny that she thinks it.

So when she steps down a secret stairway into a corridor that should lead to her chambers and ends up in an unfamiliar hallway instead—the light entirely wrong, the architecture unfamiliar—her first thoughts are uncharitable. It seems obvious that this is the same trap that ensnared Luo Binghe. It also seems unfair to make her the one to bring him home, and be the agent of her own undoing. She'll do it—he is her husband, and while that doesn't mean the same thing to her as it does many of his wives, it does mean something significant, as undeniable as it is ill-defined—and her Emperor. But—

She sets her jaw behind her veil and wraps her fingers around Cheng Luan's hilt, proceeding silently down the hallway.

[NSFW: Susan's thread, Janet's thread]

¹ Well, sometimes she's still above them. If you know what I mean.
² Not that there has been no violence—it's just generally conducted elsewhere. Her floors are harder to clean than Luo Binghe's.

Comments

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan steps forward and sideways as Janet's axes come down, so that rather than hitting her blade straight on and threatening to jar it from her hands the blow slides down the blade and behind Liu Mingyan, hopefully overbalancing Janet with her own momentum. As Liu Mingyan completes the motion, stepping past her opponent, Cheng Luan's tip slices clean through the shoulder-seam of Janet's jacket and the blouse beneath, leaving her skin untouched. Liu Mingyan spins to face her again, eyes lingering on that slice of pale shoulder.

[sorrowandsorrow]

The move basically works, and Janet has to catch herself; it helps that she's levitating just a tiny bit as the ice keeps creeping up her arms toward her elbows. "Hey!" she says with one of those adrenaline-fueled laughs. "Watch the jacket!" She has to toss Sorrow (as usual, not to be confused with Sorrow) into the air and let it spin for a second so she can tug her jacket off her shoulder, switching hands on the other axe in order to toss the whole thing off to the side.

[empressliu]

"My apologies," calls Liu Mingyan, entirely insincere and not trying to hide it at all—after all, not watching the jacket had yielded such high rewards. The people here wear so scandalously few layers; one motion and Janet is nearly undressed.

She is a sportswoman, so she waits until Janet is fully armed again before she leaps forward, aiming a blow at her side.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Shit," Janet says under her breath, although she manages to just twist away and dodge that one. How is Liu Mingyan even doing this? There's another slice taken out of her blouse, with absolutely zero damage to her actual person.

Well, whatever. Janet recovers pretty fast, skidding back on the grass for a split second before she's off the ground again, coming back toward Liu Mingyan with axes crossed in hopes of trapping her blade.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan sees the move for what it is--a snare, and then perhaps a disarm--but she's interested to see if Janet actually has the strength to pull it off. She swings Cheng Luan down into the trap of her axes, pressing close. Her veil flutters away from her mouth, letting Janet see just a glimpse of her own fierce smile.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Well, shit -- the smile is more effective than the move. The air's gone from Janet's lungs for just a fraction of a second, and she bites back another laugh. The longer this goes on, the more she legitimately wants to impress Liu Mingyan.

At first they're locked like that, the axes around Liu Mingyan's blade, then Janet says, "Hey. Let me show you something." Since they're not actually trying to kill each other, she figures Liu Mingyan might grant her the time for her favorite trick: she mutters under her breath, quick and fluid, and then Woven Strength settles around her, and suddenly she's a lot better-positioned to try and wrench that sword out of Liu Mingyan's grasp.

[empressliu]

The sudden surge of strength genuinely takes Liu Mingyan by surprise; she is used to a vast array of demonic and cultivator trickery, but she knows of no talisman that can change an opponent's abilities in the thick of battle. She could try to resist, and may even succeed, but it would sorely tax her, and she's not sure she could free her blade rather than just refusing to relinquish it.

So she doesn't. She lets go of Cheng Luan's hilt and ducks under Janet's arms, grappling her around the waist and bearing her backward onto the grass.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oof," Janet gets out as she's tackled onto the ground. "Hey!" But the good thing about Woven Strength is how easy it is to plant her axes in the grass on either side of herself and grab Liu Mingyan by the wrists in order to flip her so that Janet's the one on top, straddling her waist.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan has not been knocked flat on her back by a human with no golden core since she was a child, and that had been nothing like this. Janet has her pinned down by the wrists, her strong thighs bracketing her hips. Their chests heave in unison, the slashes Liu Mingyan inflicted earlier on Janet's clothing allowing tantalizing glimpses through to the skin beneath: the swell of her breasts, the curve of her stomach. Liu Mingyan's lips part, only half obscured by her veil, which has come askew. She presses up into Janet's hold; not truly attempting to break it, just testing, and enjoying the strength she is testing against.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I'm cheating," Janet tells her happily, bright-eyed. It's obvious how much she's enjoying herself. She squeezes Liu Mingyan's wrists for a second, just to demonstrate the extent of her enhanced strength. "It'll wear off eventually." She licks her lips, looking down at what she can see of Liu Mingyan's face. "But this is one of the spells I'm best at. As you can see."

[empressliu]

"Skilled indeed," agrees Liu Mingyan. "You have me at your mercy."

It isn't quite true, and she suspects Janet knows it; Janet likely is physically stronger than her until her spell ends, but Cheng Luan is only a thought away. If this were a real fight--if she had been up against Sha Hualing, even--she would not even think of conceding. But this is a strange place, and a strange and beautiful woman sits astride Liu Mingyan's hips, beautiful and triumphant. She raises an eyebrow. "You had best make your demands, your majesty, before your spell runs its course."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Hmm." Affecting imperiousness, Janet pretends to think about her options. She rubs her thumbs against the insides of Liu Mingyan's wrists, a light touch there if nowhere else, and tosses her head to fling her hair back over her shoulder. "What if my demands are inside demands?"

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan is not disappointed, but she is a little surprised--if Janet is Queen, even if it is not Queen of this place, does she not simply take her pleasure wherever she sees fit? But, again, this is not her world, and she hardly knows this woman; perhaps there are those here she does not wish to reveal her dalliances to. She inclines her head wriggles her hips, just a little. "Then I suppose you must let me stand, so we may move inside."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet smiles down at her, intent. For a second, she doesn't move. This is one of those feelings she likes to savor, when she's in control and the power is in her hands. Then she stands and, to keep showing off, pulls Liu Mingyan easily to her feet instead of letting her stand under her own power. "I'd ask who won, but I guess this can count as a tie."

[empressliu]

"A draw," Liu Mingyan agrees, summoning Cheng Luan back to its sheath and then back to the hand that Janet did not use to so easily pluck her from the ground, which she will not drop until Janet does. She cocks an eyebrow at her, just the tiniest bit challenging. "The least satisfying outcome, in most dueling scenarios, but I hope we will see some satisfaction from it today."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh, sure. Call this round one." Janet watches with interest as Liu Mingyan's sword moves of what seems like its own volition, then remembers herself and shoots her another easy smirk. Hand half in hers, half curled around her wrist, she tugs Liu Mingyan right back toward the mansion.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan allows herself to be lead. "I have an associate who can control shadow," she says. "It allows him to teleport from place to place--it has always seemed to me it would be a convenient way to skip the part where one must move to a new location, when everyone involved would very much like to already be--fulfilling inside demands." She sighs, lightly. "Unfortunately I believe this potential is lost on him."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet makes a kind of huh! sound of interest as they're making their way up the stairs and toward her bedroom. "Sounds like pretty powerful magic to me," she says, "like, almost impossibly powerful. But I get that things are probably different where you're from."

[empressliu]

"He is powerful," Liu Mingyan concedes. "He is Luo Binghe's lieutenant, his most trusted." She decides to make another concession to Janet's bluntness. It's surprisingly fun, to dispense entirely with insinuation and simply state what one means. She wonders if Janet keeps this same tone in her royal council meetings. "If I am honest, I only brought him up intending to insult his lack of bedfellows, and ideally make you laugh."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Where the first attempt didn't land, the explanation does: Janet laughs¹. "Got it. So he has powerful magic but no game." Something a little mischievous flickers in her smile as she opens the door to her bedroom with her free hand. It's slightly more lived-in now, as she's had to accept more and more that this really is a long-term stop, but at least she made her bed this morning. She's not an animal. "Maybe I come out on top in this comparison after all."

¹A rare instance where 'explaining the joke' actually enhances the humor.

[empressliu]

"Oh, in many ways," says Liu Mingyan, archly. Janet's axes are a more intriguing use of ice than Mobei-Jun's blades, too, but she prefers to let the double entendre hang in the air rather than divert Janet's attentions back to magic. She'll be happy to explain all sorts of cultivation and demonic tricks--after she finds out what that fierce little smile feels like pressed into her skin.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet gives her a little look, like gee, good one, although it's not really as withering as it could be. Once the door shuts behind them, she has one last trick up her sleeve before Woven Strength starts to wear off: she kicks off her boots, one and then the other across the room, and then picks Liu Mingyan up clean off the ground to carry her over and deposit her on the bed.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan laughs, a little breathlessly. She toes her own boots off so they drop off the end of the bed onto the floor, but makes no other move to undress. It is novel, ceding control to someone so strong—the only person who could handle Liu Mingyan like this at home is Sha Hualing, and Liu Mingyan does not cede control to Sha Hualing. She lifts her wrists, placing them on either side of her head. "Are picking up where we left off, then?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I did say that was only round one," Janet answers lightly. She takes a second to throw her hair into a hasty ponytail with an elastic off her wrist, then she's bearing down on Liu Mingyan, knees planted on the bed to sit astride her again. This is the most weirdly nervous to make a move she's been in a while -- which means she pushes through it extra hard, summoning up all her poise as she takes Liu Mingyan's robes in her hands and yanks her into a kiss.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan takes a sharp breath in through her nose. Only the boldest of her lovers dare kiss her through the veil, rather than waiting for her to allow them access to her lips; she likes that Janet will now be among them. She kisses back, hotly, the thin, gauzy fabric growing damp between their mouths, and slips a hand through a slash she'd made in Janet's shirt to touch her waist, gripping the softness and muscle there.