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]

"You may remove it," Liu Mingyan allows, looking up at Janet through her lashes. "It is only men I forbid from seeing me fully."

[sorrowandsorrow]

God, that's -- Janet doesn't even know. She smiles, feeling a little wild with it, with having this insane assignation with a beautiful mostly-stranger, and reaches to, as instructed, remove the veil. That gives her a minute to take in Liu Mingyan's face, the carved-statue beauty of her, and to laugh in something like disbelief. Holy shit, she thinks, but she can't psych herself out, so she leans down without hesitation for another kiss, this time with nothing in the way.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan returns this kiss with just as much enthusiasm, arching up, a little, into Janet's weight, and letting her lips part to entice Janet's tongue. She is playing into a helplessness, a subservience, primarily because it is so novel, to be physically overpowered this way. It's exciting; a game, unthreatening because she and Janet both know the power she has over Liu Mingyan is halfway granted as well as won.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Liu Mingyan opens up under her so beautifully, and it's so obviously an invitation instead of an acquiescence. Janet kisses her deeper, open-mouthed and purposeful, as she works her hands under the collars of her robes, fanning out her fingers once she finds bare skin: collarbones, shoulders, the beginnings of the swells of her breasts.

[empressliu]

Janet will discover—as Susan did before her—exactly how easily Liu Mingyan's robes part for roving hands, and how few undergarments she's wearing. Liu Mingyan lets her eyes slip closed, concentrating on the sweeping warmth of strong hands on her skin, her own hands continuing to wander—one up under Janet's tatters of a shirt, the other curling around her hip, toying with interest with the belt loop on her jeans.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Can someone have getting naked as their magical discipline? Janet guesses it must theoretically be possible. Like, minor mending is pretty lame, but it's still a real thing.

Not that she's complaining. She lets her hands slide lower, cupping Liu Mingyan's breasts in both hands to enjoy the weight and softness of them. "You can, uh," she starts, then laughs a little again, "there's a button on these. Just pop it open."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan opens her eyes and locates the button. She does, in fact, pop it open, and find a little tab that she can pull down—carefully—to loosen the rough trousers around Janet's hips. She does so, and then slips both hands into them to take firm, appreciative handfuls of her ass. Janet is wearing underwear similar to what Susan was wearing; she wonders briefly if they are from the same world, but it is an idle thought she discards in favor of staring up at Janet, her teeth catching her lower lip.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Hi," Janet says, just this side of breathless. She brushes her thumb across Liu Mingyan's nipple, smiling a little as it stiffens under her touch, then lifts the other hand to brush Liu Mingyan's hair back so she can lean down to press her mouth, with a scrape of teeth, to the side of her neck.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan moans softly, encouraging both the bite and the hand on her breast. She rolls her hips, using her hands on Janet's ass to keep her still so she can grind up into her.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet lets out a little bitten-off hiss, pleasantly surprised by the onslaught of friction. She takes Liu Mingyan's encouragement seriously and applies herself to sucking a bruise into the side of her neck, sliding that other hand into her hair, cradling the back of her head and then tipping it slightly for a better angle on what she's doing.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan hisses, arching up into her. Rare is the partner who dares to mark her, even though she can remove such things with a single thought. It is the psychological weight, the idea of laying claim to the Empress, and it is dizzying that Janet does not care.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet tucks a smile into Liu Mingyan's neck, but there's a fresh heat of urgency in her at the way Liu Mingyan is moving beneath her. "Okay," she says, "just--" She scrambles back to her feet, not even half as elegant as the way Liu Mingyan moves and not even caring. Her blouse practically falls apart the second she goes to take it off, which is weird, but not unwelcome, and she slips out of her jeans easily too. For a second, she hesitates -- but really only a second, and then she's reaching behind herself to unclasp her bra, too.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan sits up to watch her hungrily, her gaze sliding down Janet's body. Her bra is a different kind than Susan's, but just as intriguing. "I've never had a drawn match yield such rewards," she murmurs. She reaches out--to beckon Janet back to the bed or touch the perfect swell of her breast, whichever Janet allows.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Maybe it goes without saying, but Janet's more than happy to allow both. She climbs back onto Liu Mingyan's lap, shutting her eyes for a second and breathing out to enjoy the touch. "Honestly," she says, slightly rough, "neither have I. Usually I'm just making some man cry. Or yelling at enemy forces." She did come back here with a goal, though, and she's happy to find how little effort it takes to get Liu Mingyan's robes even more open, the way they fall away under her hands until she's stripped to the waist and Janet can skim her fingertips up her bare sides.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan leans in to sigh against Janet's chest, nuzzling into her cleavage and pressing an open-mouthed kiss to her sternum. Her other hand comes up to join the first, cupping her breasts in her palms.

"If you defeat men in the manner you defeated me and then do not allow them to touch you this way, no wonder they cry," she murmurs, voice approving.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet laughs, in appreciation of Liu Mingyan's hands on her and the sentiment. "Mmhmm. Usually if we're at that stage, touching is no longer on the fucking table." There's a little tingle in her palms that tells her Woven Strength really is about to wear off -- she could cast it again, but she's got better things to do now. So she uses the last of its power to put her hands at Liu Mingyan's shoulders and bear her down against the mattress.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan lets out a huff of surprise as she is knocked onto her back once again, effectively and deliciously pinned. She wriggles, a little, putting no strength into it at all. "Well," she says, her breathlessness only slightly exaggerated. "I am delighted to be unusual, then."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh, yeah." Janet grins, a little sharp thing, peeling Liu Mingyan's robes away further. There's the curve of her hip, the shape of her thigh. "You're special. Congrats."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan arches up, trying to kiss that smile without moving too much from where Janet has so authoritatively placed her.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet's more than amenable; she leans down to make the half-kiss a real one, hotter and hungrier about it this time, keenly aware of the moment that Woven Strength finally drains out of her and of the way Liu Mingyan remains arrayed beneath her despite that. She lifts a hand to cup between Liu Mingyan's legs, the warmth there and what wetness she can feel through the remaining fabric left in the way, and that makes her grin into that kiss.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan moans into this kiss, pressing up into her mouth, into her hand. She returns her hands to Janet's breasts, tugging at her nipples, rolling them between her fingers.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet's really not vocal in bed -- it's kind of hard to let loose like that. But Liu Mingyan manages to make it come across genuinely sexy, and Janet shudders. She lets her hand stay there for a moment, stroking lightly with her fingertips while they kiss, and then she figures, fuck it: Liu Mingyan obviously liked being pushed around a little, even if only because of the circumstances. She can't physically do it to that same extent without using more magic, but she can stay in charge. She sits up for a second, enough to work her panties off her hips and then kick them across the room -- then she pulls herself up to kneel with Liu Mingyan's face between her thighs, to cup the back of her head in a hand and direct her mouth where she wants it.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan's eyes slip closed in pleasure immediately. She lifts her hands, running them all over Janet's thighs, her hips, her ass—squeezing and scraping her nails over skin, just luxuriating in the softness and muscle and warmth of her. She cranes her neck upward, eager, opening her mouth; she can smell her, sweat and musk, and everything in her yearns to taste.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Fuck," Janet hisses, just between her teeth, a little concession to a loss of control as Liu Mingyan's tongue makes contact with her clit and she shivers in its wake. It's not surprising at all that Liu Mingyan is good at this, her mouth warm and open and talented immediately, and Janet curls her hand harder into her hair, nails just pricking against her scalp beneath it. Her breath is coming quick and rough already.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan presses a sucking kiss to Janet's clit, then starts working her tongue over her in earnest. She feels shockingly eager, some of her usual strategy lost to just the idea of tasting her, gathering as much of her wetness as she can. The scrape of nails against her scalp makes her moan a little again, her own hands clutching at the place where Janet's ass meets her thighs.