empressliu: (Default)
[personal profile] 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.

Date: 2023-12-14 02:09 am (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (royalty moment)
From: [personal profile] sorrowandsorrow
"Liu Mingyan," Janet repeats. She's subdued for maybe half a second, but then she's smiling her best queenly smile. "I'm Janet. Queen of Fillory. By the way, I hate to break it to you, but this place is probably a lot more boring than wherever you came from."

Date: 2023-12-14 03:27 am (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (profile)
From: [personal profile] sorrowandsorrow
"Wow," Janet says, interested and a little impressed. "You must be the ruler of some kind of bizarre fantasy kingdom, too. I mostly get petitions from talking animals and complaints from the dwarves about people not leaving them alone." She makes an eloquently irritated face. "I did, anyway. Now I'm here."

Date: 2023-12-14 03:31 pm (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (actual smile)
From: [personal profile] 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."

Date: 2023-12-14 06:16 pm (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (eyeroll)
From: [personal profile] 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."

Date: 2023-12-14 06:46 pm (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (oh come on.)
From: [personal profile] 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."

Date: 2023-12-14 10:21 pm (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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."

Date: 2023-12-15 03:52 am (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (eyeroll)
From: [personal profile] 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."

Date: 2023-12-15 04:00 am (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (welllllllll)
From: [personal profile] sorrowandsorrow
"Ooh." Janet grimaces. "Sorry. Wait, before I tell you... you're his wife, right? One of several. How's that going?"

Date: 2023-12-15 04:16 am (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (welters)
From: [personal profile] 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?"

Date: 2023-12-15 04:34 am (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 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."

Date: 2023-12-15 03:21 pm (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (eyeroll)
From: [personal profile] 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."

Date: 2023-12-15 03:55 pm (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (actual smile)
From: [personal profile] 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."

Date: 2023-12-15 07:54 pm (UTC)
sorrowandsorrow: (magic time)
From: [personal profile] 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."

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