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 frowns, slightly. It is clear from the dream, and the kiss, that this Claudius holds at least some of Luo Binghe's regard, but she is struggling, right now, to imagine why. "Is there something you hope to gain, with this flattery? I am only a visitor here, I can offer you no favors."

[wickedwit]

No, I just spend an inordinate amount of time being pleasant to people who'd sooner draw swords on me, or threaten me with parasitic blood, or torture me with said parasites when I stop being pleasant.. It's a good thing he isn't truth-spelled right now. But it is, he realizes, a blessing. If Luo Binghe sent him that dream to taunt him with the idea that the harem was a pleasant place to be with women Claudius could befriend, that's gone. He didn't even have to be a mean girl about it. "Nor would I ask for any," he says, even more pleasant than before. "I hope you enjoy your visit."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan nearly lets him go. He reminds her of her least favorite kind of politician; always with a ready word and never a clear intent. But—she sighs. "Wait," she says. "You offered a fresh start, and I refused it; it was—unkind." She can almost hear Sha Hualing laughing at her; since when has she been kind? Gracious, yes, and occasionally merciful. She doubts that's the same. "I am struggling to socialize in a place where the power dynamics seem so—flattened, and I disliked the idea that you had some knowledge of me that I did not grant. I apologize."

[wickedwit]

Oh. An apology's the last thing he expects, and it steals the silver lining Claudius was reaching for, along with the rest of the raincloud. He looks uncertain, like someone not dressed for sudden changes in weather. "Well, I did make a fool of myself. I said that, but ... I did not apologize for it." He sighs. "It's never a pleasant thing, finding your reputation precedes you and not knowing how it spread. Even worse when it makes people treat as little more than a figment. Let me offer my own apologies, accepting yours."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan gives him another bow, slightly deeper this time. "Liu Mingyan," she says, "Empress of the Three Realms. I have only recently arrived, I can see my eventual method of departure clearly, and I find things with my husband--not as I expected." She straightens up. "There. An introduction I have control over."

[wickedwit]

"That makes you rather unique, if you can see your way out. Even more like a guest than the other guests who find their way here." But Claudius isn't inclined to doubt her. She wouldn't say such a thing, he thinks, without certainty. "Well, I shouldn't neglect hospitality. Would you care for food or drink? We've a café here for both, and a game room for entertainments."

[empressliu]

"I have been introduced to strange, dark wine by Sagramore, and a heavily spiced noodle soup by lovely Nina," says Liu Mingyan, "but no one has yet thought to offer me games." Unless you count her sparring with Janet. "Lead on."

[wickedwit]

"Ah, if you've seen Nina and Sagramore, I know you've been given the best of welcomes. Sagramore is the soul of charm, and Nina a talented woman at making friends." He speaks with fondness for them both, though his fondness for Nina is tinged with some wonder at the friends she's made. Once more, Claudius reminds himself how dangerous it is for him to be invested in Luo Binghe's relationships -- but here he is leading Luo Binghe's wife and empress to the game room, curious what she'll make of it.

Claudius finds the way easily, well-acquainted with it now. Even without the pleasant victory, playing billiards with Grantaire reminded him much he enjoyed shifting calculations and assessing angles, during a time where he needed to keep his mind occupied, or else spiral into grief. Learning new entertainments, and devising new strategies, served the purpose. It also meant Claudius had many more hustles in his pocket, if he ever wanted to pretend complete ignorance of pinball.

[empressliu]

Perhaps it is how much she has been discussing Shen Qingqiu that has brought her disciple days to the front of her mind, but when Liu Mingyan sees the game room she misses her shizun with a sudden and startling ache. Qi Qingqi had gone missing after the siege in Cang Qiong, and Liu Mingyan sometimes imagines she sees her face in strangers that pass her in the street when she is out on night hunts, or in wandering cultivators drinking alone at inns. How wonderful it would be if instead she had been taken here, allowed to take up any of these strange and dazzling games and enjoy these strange and dazzling people. What joy it would have brought her gambler's heart.

Liu Mingyan's heart is somewhat less enamored of games of chance, but she has an equal love of games of strategy. She notices a go board arrayed on a table at the back, and nods to it. "Do you play?"

[wickedwit]

"I recognize the board for weiqi -- I'm somewhere beneath a novice at it. A friend of mine is teaching me to play, and he's merciless teacher." And he likes already the idea of playing it with Liu Mingyan. "Perhaps you can show me your skills?"

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan inclines her head, and leads him over to the board, kneeling at the table. She slides the little bowl of black stones toward Claudius. "I play mostly with Luo Binghe," she says—a further olive branch, if Claudius enjoys hearing of him. "It settles his mind."

[wickedwit]

It is something of a consolation, and an amusing thought. "His is a mind not easily settled ... but neither is mine, I suppose. Strategy tends to distract it sufficiently." Lan Wangji told him black stones begin, so Claudius considers his first move. All games seem to start in taking the corners, though he did try once to start in the center just to see how he'd handled defending multiple fronts. Not well. Politely and practically, he places his first stone more towards the upper right.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan begins in the upper left. She will begin defensively, building her own connections, but such that she can extend easily to stop her opponent's breath. "Is there much here you need distraction from?" she asks, mildly. So far her experience has been shockingly, even suspiciously pleasant, the beginning of this encounter notwithstanding.

[wickedwit]

Claudius laughs, and decides to tell an illustrative story, but tell it in a different way. "In the world I came from, I had just executed the first step in a plan to take over a kingdom. Naturally, I'm uneasy leaving work unfinished, and I soon started looking for other objectives to distract myself. I had a very dramatic misunderstanding with Luo Binghe, early on, because we both share the same ambitious mindset. We both intended to become leaders of the mansion ... yet somehow never directly made it known to each other. So when Luo Binghe found out, he was not best-pleased." As he speaks, he builds his own defenses on the board. He keeps his plays gentle, testing, sticking to uncontested territory before conflict becomes inevitable. When he strays closer to Liu Mingyan's side, it feels like a deliberate probe to see if Liu Mingyan will switch from defensive tactics, rather than a sincere attempt at offense.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan takes the bait, more because she'd like to see what he does about it rather than because she doesn't recognize she's being baited. Her offense is as systematic as her defense, and as she places a stone to cut the breath from one of his she raises a brow. "You contested his rule, yet remain both alive and unmarried? He has changed."

[wickedwit]

"This place tends to be a catalyst for changes. But if I’m alive, it’s only because his intention was to torture to rather than kill, and torture didn’t yield the results he hoped for.” Claudius can, he thinks, say that bluntly. Under the influence of a truth spell, Luo Binghe confirmed that he had no intention of apologizing or making amends, no regrets except that he proved Claudius right. Claudius turns that thought around as he considers the board, and the changing nature of the game, looking past individual skirmishes and losses.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan shakes her head, turning her little white stone over and over in her fingers. "If your conflict had taken place in the world he and I call home, and he had failed to produce the result he wanted through torture--" already incredibly unlikely, "--he would have achieved a different, but still desired result through your death. The fact that you live, and the parasites are dormant within you, is evidence of his mercy." She inclines her head and lets her voice turn rueful. "I understand, however, if it does not feel as you expect mercy to feel. This place has... a different tenor to it than home."

[wickedwit]

"The word mercy has quite the specific tenor in my home, I'm afraid. I'll put it down to a cultural difference, and not hold Luo Binghe to a Christlike standard." He speaks with wry humor, but there's an insult he's choosing not to take, after assessing whether or not an insult's been offered. Yes, Christian mercy is defined by pity and compassion -- two feelings Claudius knows Binghe doesn't have for him -- but it's also given to the undeserving. It brings Claudius back to pacing the parlor, all but begging Crowley to reassure him that he didn't deserve to die, at least not for this. Well. "The parasites are more than dormant, at least," he says, lightly. "They're gone. I've checked."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan's hand hovers in the act of making a rather confident offensive play. "They're gone? How?"

[wickedwit]

"I studied their effects, but admit I don't know the mechanism that well," he responds with a wry, self-effacing smirk. "And Luo Binghe never told me how he removed them. By some exertion of his will, perhaps? I sent as a friend as an emissary to Luo Binghe. He brought back the message that Luo Binghe had removed the blood parasites on his own, so negotiations were no longer necessary. A very cordial cessation to hostilities, all things considered." In a way, Claudius thinks, he calmed another potential conflict by arranging a match for Luo Binghe, like he might for a foreign power seeking better alliances. Politically speaking, things stand very well with Luo Binghe. Personally is another matter.

[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?"

[wickedwit]

"Shen Yuan was my doing, more or less," Claudius says drolly. He likewise surveys the board -- now that Liu Mingyan's made more aggressive moves, he can better evaluate where the threats are, and which threats are opportunities. "He loved Luo Binghe from the beginning, of course -- but he would've denied it if asked, and denied it to me as soon as I spied love's signs in him. I offered it to Luo Binghe as a piece of intelligence, and had other parties confirm it, in case Shen Yuan still demurred. It seems to have gone well for them."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan is reevaluating the entire board—not the one in front of her, it is relatively straightforward, but the one she walked into. Claudius is no spurned lover, but a matchmaker—and a talented one, clearly; she has never seen Luo Binghe so enamored of anyone. She also finds, despite herself, she is beginning to enjoy his company. "If they were married in the demonic style, you would have a place of honor at their wedding," she says.

[wickedwit]

"Oh, if only," Claudius says with a laugh, imagining what a social event that would be. Such a source of drama and interest. "But I'll keep that in mind. It doesn't hurt to familiarize one's self with demonic traditions."

[empressliu]

"Indeed," says Liu Mingyan. "There is often ritual sacrifice—sometimes of the bride's foes; sometimes of her family. Each carry different connotations, though of course there is occasional crossover." She captures several of Claudius' stones.