eyes fluttered open to see her staring at him, victory in her eyes.
"Your father wore that same startled expression in his eyes when he realized I had poisoned him." Chien's jaw clenched hard against the pain, determined not to give her the satisfaction of a single sound. "I have plotted, planned, and killed to acquire this throne. It is mine, no matter what some ancient belief claims."
"It will never be yours." He fought the urge to loosen his grip on the hilt, shifting his hand subtly while she continued to stand close to him, so sure of her victory.
"And who will stop me? You? How are we so different? You've murdered my sons, you've killed."
"Only in vengeance."
"What makes you so different from me? What makes you better?"
"I don't let my guard down because I think I've already won." He thrust upward, the sword at an angle. For a moment, just a terrible second, he thought he had missed. That he had lost his opportunity and now she would rise like some mythological monster.
But she gurgled something unintelligible and stumbled backward. There were arms around him, warm and familiar. He turned his face into Bao's neck, letting him take the sword from him and fell back against him. Bao kept saying his name, and Chien wanted to explain to him just how bothersome that was when he was trying to sleep.
Mai was dead at last. His mother and sister would rest peacefully. And maybe, finally, he could dream without the nightmare. The questions, the demands, the confusion, it all faded away into sweet, comforting black.
Odd how everything seemed brighter, more intense, after touching heaven. The doctor had ordered rest, but what did rest mean in the face of cleaning up the mess Mai had made of the country. There were questions to answer, governors to see to.
Chien ran court from his bed, keeping both the doctor and courtiers reasonably pleased. He refused to sleep in the Hall of Dragon's Rest, not while Mai's things were still there, not while her presence still lingered. The first matter to tend to had been Mai's body. The moment he had regained consciousness, they had expected him to deal with the matter.
When his mother had died, Mai had hung her body in the pavilion so that all could see the absolute power she held. Chien had ordered them to give the former Empress and her children a proper burial, however. Let the Dragon sort it out. He wouldn't damn his soul along with hers. After that came the question of the famine, and Chien had learned the cause of it. Mai had mismanaged the agricultural areas, causing the majority of crops to die out. It would take years to undo the mess she had caused.
At the very least, Chien could begin by sharing what resources the palace had and encouraging those provinces that still flourished to share with their neighbors.
Ruling was different than the ambition to rule. In his head, everything had come easily because he had known the answer to every question. In reality, he found that too often there were questions he did not know the answers to. Regiments of the army were dispatched to assist in efforts to distribute resources. Bao had been among the first to volunteer, and though Chien had worried that perhaps Bao wanted the distance from him, he had not said a word.
Early one morning after he had dismissed the courtiers and governors, he received a visitor. For a moment, he didn't recognize her. Her eyes were swollen, mouth trembling as she desperately begged him for forgiveness. It took a few minutes for him to calm her down enough that he could understand what she said.
"For the part I played in Prince Minh's deception. You were nice to me, and I am the reason that you are hurting." She looked down toward the wound and Chien self-consciously tightened his robe around himself.
The doctor believed he'd been lucky. Her blade had been clean and sharp. But it ached even now since Chien had refused the drugs that would have rid him of the ache for the price of sending him into sweet oblivion. "I am fine. And it is not your fault; you did not know what would come of it."
"He promised to leave my sister alone if I listened to him, if I did this one thing." Tears leaked from her eyes, but she stood, head high and back stiff, "I am glad that he is dead."
"I am as well." He'd known Bao was not behind it. He had known nothing of the poison Minh had given him after all, but the servant's confession made him feel all the more foolish. If only he could rewind to a few weeks before and tell his past self to appreciate the time he'd had a bit more. For one startling moment he'd known what it meant not to be alone.
He might have considered it the cruelest punishment of all, but he could only imagine what might have happened had he never found what it felt like. Perhaps he might have turned into Mai after all. With a sigh, he resigned himself to staring out at his garden, studying the browned leaves of the trees.
"That is a very full sigh for such a busy man. Perhaps you need more work to sustain you."
Chien thought at first that he had conjured Bao as some feverish, depressed fantasy. But there was no way it was possible. Bao was there, taking up the whole of the room with his presence. Chien moved forward, not truly sure what he was attempting to accomplish, but the sharp pain of his stomach reminded him to stay put.
It didn't matter, because Bao moved closer, taking a seat beside him after a pause. "The doctor says you would be doing better if you took his advice."
"I am fine."
"I see." Bao looked amused and it was at once so familiar that Chien wanted to take hold of him and order him to never leave again. "Would you like to know how your Empire fares?"
It was to be business then. Fair enough. "Of course."
Bao talked and Chien was happy to let the familiarity of his voice pull him closer and closer to an easy sleep, something that had been eluding him since the night he had awoken to hear that his general had left him. "Have you fallen asleep?"
Chien's eyes popped open, denial already on his lips as he looked toward the window and noticed that the sun had begun to set. "Perhaps."
"If you are tired, Emperor, I can return another time." Bao made to stand.
"Why do you choose now to call me by a title? You never did before."
"I did. Near the end." Bao's hand drifted closer to his, "I would hate to be accused of being too familiar with our emperor."
Chien moved that last little distance between their hands, grasping Bao's hand tightly, "Stay."
"For how long? The sun has nearly set."
"There is an Empire to be run. A famine to end. Traitors to weed out." His hand tightened on Bao's, "Forever may be long enough."
Bio
Isabella has been torturing her players for years with character breaking plot twists and loving reminders of suffering to come. Now that she had retired from her illustrious career as a GM, she’s turned to making her characters suffer just as much. The time she isn’t writing she spends at her job as a computer technician wishing she was right back at home, writing.
Despite this, Isabella continues to be a self-proclaimed romantic. A childhood of Disney movies has taught her that there is no ending as satisfying as a happily ever after.
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