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

[sorrowandsorrow]

Not that Janet was putting much effort into the queenly act, but that breaks through entirely. She grins, a little fierce and completely delighted. "I think you and I are going to get along just fine, Liu Mingyan."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan inclines her head. She likes that smile, and she makes no effort to hide it. "I'm delighted you think so, your majesty." She gestures to the Mansion around them. "Is this your Fillory, then? I would extoll its virtues, but so far all I have seen of it is endless hallways and strange sitting rooms."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Fuck, I wish this was Fillory. I'd give you a tour of the castle and crack a bottle of Fillorian wine for the occasion." Also, Eliot would probably think Liu Mingyan was incredibly cool, too. "No, it's just some stupid pocket dimension I haven't managed to escape yet. There has to be some insanely powerful master magician behind it, but I have no clue what the motive could be. We're all just milling around getting into interpersonal drama and occasionally killing zombies."

[empressliu]

"Pocket dimension," Liu Mingyan repeats, turning the concept over in her mind. "You mean--a small, enclosed realm, separate from the human and the demonic? I thought at first it was a dream bubble, but Susan told me otherwise." It seems Janet is a prisoner here, too, and perhaps less sanguine about it. She frowns lightly.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Seems like it. Usually, where I'm from, if you want to travel between worlds, you have to go through this horrible place called the Neitherlands." Janet makes a disgusted face about it. "You find the fountain you want, you jump in, you're in a different world. But I just walked my way into the Queenswood one day and then I was here, and I've been here ever since."

[empressliu]

"My husband has a sword which allows him to travel between realms," says Liu Mingyan thoughtfully, and then wonders if she should have referred to Luo Binghe in some other way. In her own world, everyone knew who she is, and being married to the Emperor is hardly an obstacle to her flirtations--often, in fact, it helps smooth the way. Ah well--if it comes to it, she will clarify. "I assume it was left behind when he was brought here because he would have been able to cut himself free of this place otherwise." She shakes her head. "A powerful sorcerer indeed, to take an Emperor without his blade."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Oh, Janet thinks she might know the emperor in question. Unless there's more than one Chinese emperor with at least one wife walking around the place. She raises her eyebrows; she's not sure what she expected of one of Luo Binghe's wives, but this probably wasn't it. "Luo Binghe?" she asks. "Yeah, I don't think he was very happy about that at first."

[empressliu]

"No, I imagine he wasn't," says Liu Mingyan, raising an eyebrow. "I'm shocked to see this house still standing. You've met, then?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Yep. He made a horrible first impression," Janet says cheerfully. "I really hated him. Arrogant asshole. But he's turning it around. Turning out to be gay helped with his overall audience appeal, I think."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan cocks her head, curious; this is not a term she knows. "Gay?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Ooh." Janet grimaces. "Sorry. Wait, before I tell you... you're his wife, right? One of several. How's that going?"

[empressliu]

"One of--" Liu Mingyan stops, and considers. She had developed a method for estimating the size of Luo Binghe's harem, over the years, but he's been gone for three months, and she has to remember not to add the wives who would normally be added in that time. The exact number--and all of their names, families, and circumstances of courtship--is of course recorded in her archives. "Approximately one hundred and five," she finishes. "But--our relationship is... unique, among them."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh my God," Janet says. Like, she knew there were multiple wives. She and Luo Binghe have talked about that. But one hundred and five? This is a Warren Jeffs situation. Worse, actually! He didn't even crack a hundred! "He's that outnumbered?"

Jesus. Okay. Wait. Focus. "Unique? What's that about?"

[empressliu]

"We do not share a bed," says Liu Mingyan coolly. "I cultivate a chaste path, and thus choose not to lay with men." She raises an eyebrow. "'He'?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Thank God. That was still kind of a faux pas, but at least this incredibly hot woman isn't going to be sad about Luo Binghe not fucking her anymore. It's weird, actually -- the first thing Luo Binghe ever did with Janet was to try and put the moves on her, but now it's almost impossible to imagine him with a woman.

"So, gay means... he's not interested in women like that. At all, I'm pretty sure."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan's eyebrows quirk. This would, actually, explain some things--the difficulty, expressed in whispers in the dead of night, that some of the wives had bringing him to completion--not to hardness, never to hardness, but--they confessed--sometimes that made it worse, as if he were a jade pillar in truth, giving pleasure automatically without the engagement of his head or heart, without the wives' efforts touching anything true. But--she struggled to understand it then, and she struggles to understand it now. "How is such a thing possible?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"How is it possible to be gay?" Janet asks incredulously. "I mean, that's a matter of debate. Maybe it's genetic. Or not." She pauses. "Or are you asking how it's possible for him specifically to be gay? That I couldn't tell you. It seems like after wife number ninety-nine, he should have started noticing women weren't doing it for him."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan laughs, a tiny thing, mostly air, that shifts her veil so it sways. "Guo Tanglang would have mixed feelings about being the final straw, I'm sure. That's his ninety-ninth wife—she's marvelously tall." And one of the newest additions to Liu Mingyan's nocturnal social calendar. She shakes her head. "I meant—" adopting Janet's bluntness, "—how it is possible for anyone with a pulse not to be interested in women."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh." Janet grins, the grin of someone realizing a situation they're in is even better than they thought it was. She uncrosses her arms and puts them on her hips instead. "That's a stumper, actually. Totally beats me."

[empressliu]

"I suspected we might be in accord." Liu Mingyan eyes the odd sticks strapped to Janet's back with interest. "You are a woman of battle?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Sometimes." Janet plucks the staves out of their bindings and weighs one in each hand, giving Liu Mingyan another little smile. "These can turn into axes with my magic. Honestly, I don't actually have to use them that often. The visual is pretty effective."

[empressliu]

Axes! Liu Mingyan's eyes sparkle with interest. "I'm sure it is impressive indeed. Might I beg you for a demonstration?" Her own grip shifts on Cheng Luan; she hopes it might be an interactive one. "Perhaps outside?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet's smile widens, turning a little on the feral side again. "I won't say no to that, as long as it's mutual." She cocks her head down the hall in the direction of the closest exit.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan sets off that way immediately. She hadn't been entirely convinced there was an outside, when she'd made the suggestion, and she's surprisingly relieved to step out into golden autumnal sunlight.

The grounds here are odd; the grass cropped too short, leaving vast swathes of empty lawn that look neither like they could support crops nor like a proper training yard. She shrugs—one must be adaptable—and turns back to Janet, bowing fluidly to her as one duelist to another.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Huh. Sure. Janet summons up all the queenly poise she can, which is a reasonable amount, and returns the bow as best she can. It's probably not perfect, but she does okay.

Then she focuses on Sorrow and Sorrow, heavy and comforting in her hands. This is the easiest kind of magic for her, and it flows easily -- for once, she doesn't even need words or gestures, just intent, and the axe-heads form out of pure ice on the ends of each stave, the frost spangling her hands and up her forearms.