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Loulan studied the Filial Consort out of the corner of her eye. The sole Concubine of the Moon Prince was a petite woman, green hair pulled back into two buns while the remaining was gathered in twin tails draped down her front. Her dress was a soft green not unlike the stripes on a Green Dragontail butterfly embroidered with bamboo stalks and cut at her bust. Her slight tan made the pale colors seem even more bright making her seem to glow bright and otherworldly. Her white shawl added a cloud-like quality as it was near translucent, an incredibly expensive fabric her father had gifted her before she entered the palace. The Filial Consort had worn it when she’d arrived and not long after there had been a clamoring for this “Woven Air”. Along with many a lady getting manicures to fit in after she’d popularized them. Despite her avoidant nature the Filial Consort was quite the trendsetter, Loulan could only assume it was because of her stunning beauty.
Her deep blue eyes were luminous enough to put the skies and seas to shame. Her lips were painted a deep red like a Crimson Marsh Dragonfly. Her eyes were lined with thin kohl, just enough to make her doe eyes even larger and more innocent. She looked so delicate with her small frame, soft flowing clothing, and tiny intricate jewelry. Her hair sticks looked to be silver each with strings of small pearls that swayed with her movements. Her earrings were much the same, silver carved to look like flowers with tiny white pearls dangling from them.
The Filial Consort was truly an emerald beyond compare. And Loulan knew she shouldn’t keep admiring, she was here to do her job but still. She’d heard of the Filial Consort’s kindness, how she’d saved Lady Gyokuyou’s daughter and Lady Lihua from death. And here she sat next to Loulan doing her best to make polite small talk with a woman who refused to say more than a few words all the while admiring her. Loulan had always known she preferred feminine company, the sky was blue, her mother was cruel, and she had always found woman more appealing than men. The Filial Consort was so painfully her type it wasn’t fair, kind, intelligent, headstrong, and stunning to boot.
The Moon’s Only Star had been nothing but cordial but Loulan knew the risks of saying too much about anything so resulting in tension she pretended not to notice. She had just been promoted, The Filial Consort was the last woman to receive a title anywhere near that of Pure Consort and they’d both been added or promoted in the last year. Even if the Filial Consort served a different royal she was only behind Loulan and the other high consorts, along with the Dowager Empress, in her position. There had been controversy about the Princess of the La clan entering the Rear Palace not as a high consort to the Emperor but as a consort to his younger brother. Many believed the La Princess not replacing Ah-Duo as the Pure Consort was a sign that the Emperor believed he was cursed.
The Filial Consort remained the gracious host as the meeting came to a close. Her lady-in-waiting however, mostly young sweet seeming girls, had glared at her for not engaging their mistress at all. None more so than one with mousy brown hair tied into braided loops who had seemed mortally offended on behalf of the Filial Consort. As the tea came to a close the ladies-in-waiting seemed all too happy to remove her from the Emerald Pavilion with its dark wood beams and deep green roof so that she couldn’t sit in their mistress’s home and ignore her attempts at conversation. The woman herself seemed uneffected by Loulan’s refusal to engage her and when she thought no one was looking Loulan watched as the Filial Consort pressed a hand to her stomach almost cradling it. Loulan pretended not to have seen as she left, it was easier that way.
It wasn’t a surprise when not long after the Filial Consort’s pregnancy was announced. The next possible heir of the royal family wouldn’t come from the emperor but his brother and the most radiant figure Loulan had ever seen. With Lady Lihua’s son’s recent demise the thought of any other heir should’ve brought relief to the people around her yet Loulan noticed the rising tension that the Filial Consort may provide the Moon Prince an heir before any of the concubines of the Emperor himself, despite only being visited a handful of times by the Prince.
She only sees the Filial Consort one more time before her due date. The other woman was out walking one day with a few of her ladies. Floating along like a fairy who deigned to lower herself among mere mortals. Her dress was a soft spring green embroidered with water lilies peaking out from behind her sweet pink coat. A spirit of spring gracing the palace during the height of winter. Golden sunlight peaking through the dark grey clouds as she walked flanked by her ladies. The Filial Consort’s ladies were still mostly younger, dressed in deeper greens as they followed her. The curve of the Filial Consort’s stomach was visible under the loose dress, such a small woman so heavily pregnant with such a large baby. The poor woman was forced to waddle to handle the added weight. Moon Prince was certainly a brute to do such a thing to someone like that.
During the night in early spring not long before the Garden Party a commotion was heard throughout the Rear Palace. And within a week all knew that the Filial Consort had delivered a pair of twins for the Moon Prince, both a girl and a boy. The crown had another male heir, and it changed nothing for her. The Moon Prince had survived his assassination attempt, Suirei should be sneaking back into the palace as a eunuch if she hadn’t already, and her mother’s plans were marching ever onward. And the most wonderful woman she’d ever met besides her sister was nursing another complication to everything she was here to achieve.
She remembered the first time she’d met the the Filial Consort, not as Loulan but as Shisui. The Filial Consort had been is disguise as well, with freckles painted across her nose and servants clothing along with her hair tied back as simply as possible, she was gathering herbs for her experiments as she’d happily tell with just a little prompting. Even more ethereal than when in her fancy gowns, Maomao had dirt under her fingernails and the gleam of passion in her eyes. A dream she held so very close, to share her love of insects while Maomao spoke of poisons back and forth and back and forth no politics or planned rebellion just them and their passions. Of course she hadn’t given her name but Loulan could see the same gleam of passion, though tempered, in Maomao’s eyes when she had looked closer at some of the flowers around the Garden Parties. Loulan could never mistake Maomao for someone else. She could admit to being jealous of the Moon Prince or even the Filial Consort’s ladies-in-waiting, to be that close to Maomao again. It was a fanciful dream she knew, one that had no chance of ever happening, but Loulan didn’t want to escape it. She wanted to live in a world where she could see those sapphire eyes sparkle with emotion again, even if it was a fairytale. Even if she could never truly be so close to the woman she longed for.