Work Text:
She is both an afterthought and an enemy in the palace.
The Noble Consort, finest of musicians, stares at her with narrowed eyes.
The wife of the Chief Eunuch seems at first frightened, and then angry.
The Imperial Noble Consort, known for her kind and benevolent ways, is polite but carefully distant.
She is a Second Attendant.
Chosen only recently, casually, by the Emperor.
While he was looking elsewhere.
She is nobody.
The two poetesses look at her warily.
Only the most motherly of the consorts deigns to speak to her.
Counselling her to be content with her lot.
Eating only vegetarian food and spending her days chanting Buddhist sutras.
She even tries to follow that advice.
Then, unexpectedly, she is sent to Yuanmingyuan Garden.
To live out the rest of her days.
Without the demands of filial duty.
Without letters giving her the responsibility of restoring the lost glory of the Fuca clan.
Because once, long ago, there was an Empress and a son who died before he could ascend a Dragon Throne.
Here,
Looking out across the water,
At the water lilies in the sun,
And the reflection of the moon at night,
Her life is finally peaceful.