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Su Mucheng’s neck prickles under the scrutiny of the court. She can feel their eyes on her, but while this is nothing new, the weight of their gaze feels different. She’s long used to the anger, the bitterness, the burning resentment aimed at her back, but their eyes hold triumph and it makes her worry, her eyes scanning the room, searching for reassurance.
She can’t find her brother’s eyes, can’t find that familiar casual gaze and it makes something in her chest flutter, something close to panic worming its way into her heart. She pushes down the reflex to shove through the crowd, knowing that revealing her fear, her worry would only make her position more precarious. She searches for Tao Xuan, the advisor who’d been with them for years, standing beside Ye Xiu’s side since the beginning.
Su Mucheng spots him across the court, nearly turns to walk towards him before she stops cold, her instincts sending sharp goosebumps across her skin and she changes her course smoothly, slipping into a discrete corner, keeping herself out of view of someone she believed she could trust.
Tao Xuan’s voice was unnerving, full of sharp glee and triumph, something that twists the knot of worry in Su Mucheng’s chest tighter. He’s standing beside someone, a young man, barely more than a child and despite his low volume, Su Mucheng still catches his words.
“He knows that staying here will be detrimental to his health. We will be able to announce it soon, your majesty.” Su Mucheng feels her eyes widen and she leaves the throne room as quietly as she can, keeping her movements calm and collected.
The moment the doors swing shut behind her she breaks into a run, the panic in her chest rising ever higher, clawing its way into her throat and nearly choking her.
Please please please please-! The words run over in her head, a silent mantra even as she has little idea what she’s pleading for.
She bursts into Ye Xiu’s room and falls deathly still.
The room is emptied of everything her brother owns. Despite his clothes, his documents and other belongings still easily seen scattered around, the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella is gone. Her brother’s final triumph, a gift to Ye Xiu, is gone and Ye Xiu has disappeared along with it. Coupled with the conversation she’d overheard, the picture was clear to Su Mucheng. The efforts of the court to oust Ye Xiu had finally succeeded and her brother had vanished.
Despite the fact she’d been aware of the growing discontentment, she’d never suspected Tao Xuan as the one who’d been trying to remove her brother and the sting of betrayal hurts more than she’d like to admit.
A letter catches her eye, her name written in a familiar scrawling hand and she grabs it, retreating to her own room to read it in peace.
Mucheng,
Do not try and find me. I want you to stay, to protect our people as you always have done. For our glory.
Ye Xiu
Su Mucheng lays the letter to one side, feeling oddly numb, fury and sorrow waging war within her until she’s unable to cry nor summon up any rage at what has transpired. Her brother, the king she’d chosen to follow is gone. Forced out by the court turning against him and Su Mucheng curses herself for not noticing how Tao Xuan had been swaying advisors, using whatever he could to secure their support.
Ye Xiu gone and his final request- his final order to her is for her to stay. Not to fight and claim the new king’s head for daring to oppose her brother. To obey her new king, to bow before him and pledge her loyalty, to protect their people.
The thought, the thought of kneeling before him- the king Tao Xuan had chosen- Sun Xiang, leaves an ashy taste in her mouth. Her fingers itched for her cannon, itched to drag Sun Xiang off the throne and bring her brother back.
But Ye Xiu asked her to stay. And so she forces down the urge to grab her weapon in favour of preparing herself for Sun Xiang’s coronation.
She can feel their smugness, it radiates off them, like a thick noxious cloud. She would guess that they like the sight of this, Ye Xiu’s most loyal commander, walking into the throne room to pledge allegiance to the one who usurped him. She’d fought beside Ye Xiu for over four years, ever since she’d seen him as one worth following and if he wanted her to stay, to bow before Sun Xiang she’d trust him.
Even if her fury still churned within her, molten with heat and setting her features into blankness to hide her anger.
She dressed herself in full armour, her cannon strapped to her back and the sight of her makes some of the court, those who seem unsure of their decision, or are just cowards, to avert their gaze. Out of fear or guilt, Su Mucheng cannot tell but it makes her lips quirk up in a smile, hidden by the way she keeps her eyes on the ground, deceptively deferential.
Su Mucheng arrives at the dais and Sun Xiang is sat upon the throne, Evil Annihilation in his hand, the symbol that proved that he was now the king. Su Mucheng swallowed her rage at the weapon, crafted so carefully by her brother for Ye Xiu, now in the clutches of a greedy, undeserving child.
She keeps her face blank, calm, to hide the storm raging within her and Sun Xiang’s hand flicks out, lazy and disrespectful and her jaw clenches. She refuses to glance at Tao Xuan, stood at Sun Xiang’s side for she knows her temper would snap.
“I pledge my loyalty to my new king. I shall serve him faithfully and to the best of my ability.” Su Mucheng lets the words fall from her lips as she sinks to one knee before the new king. Her hair swings forward, hiding the poison in her gaze, the ire written across her face.
She may be forced to bow before Sun Xiang, to paste a smile on her face and listen to his orders. But he is not her king and Su Mucheng refuses to accept that Ye Xiu is truly gone, she knows him too well to believe he’d just abandon their home without a second thought. If he asked her to stay, she knows he will return.
Until then, Su Mucheng is willing to be obedient, willing to be forced to her knees before Sun Xiang and Tao Xuan. She knows she cannot oppose them alone and she knows her people will suffer if she tries.
So Su Mucheng kneels before the boy whose throne is built on betrayal and lies, content to wait until the right moment to strike.
Knowing her chance will come and knowing that she will have her true king back once more.
Until then, she smiles through gritted teeth and kneels.