Part 4, Chapter 31

Ch 31

Xun watched Jianyu hungrily. She had missed him. More than she had realized. She was so busy studying the minute changes in his face that she almost missed it when he spoke.

“Why?” He asked. She knew what he wanted to know, it wasn’t that hard to figure out.

“I wasn’t ready. You wanted me to be something I couldn’t.”

“And now?”

Xun was silent. She had been trying to find the answer to that question since they had left their village. She still wasn’t sure. Managing the village had been… fun. She had enjoyed building the trade with the outside world and helping her squabbling neighbors work out their difficulties, but being the Empress of the Heavenly Realm would be different. 

Would it? Asked a little internal voice. The outside world is bigger and there are more neighbors, but isn’t it a little similar?

She looked at Jianyu, who was watching her with his impassive Emperor face on. The face he used when he was bracing himself to deal with some difficult problem.

“I might be,” she hedged. “I’m still not sure.”

He took three long steps so he stood directly in front of her. “I’m sure,” he said kissing her with the emotions that had been building inside him since before he had left for the battle with the Merfolk. “I’m sure that I don’t want to be without you. I don’t care if you are the Empress or you go back to work in the kitchen. Just don’t leave me. Please.”

He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face in his neck, feeling as if she had finally come home. 

“What if…”

He cut her off, “We can hide our marriage, if that’s what you need to do. You can live where you like and do what you like, just please, please stay where I can find you.”

“What if I’m ready?” She asked him, pulling back so she could look him in the eye. 

“Then I will make you my Empress tomorrow,” he said, picking her up and swinging her around.

She laughed, hanging onto his shoulders. “There are some conditions first,” she said laughing. “Put me down!”

 

He complied, but didn’t let her move away from him. “Speak,” he commanded.

She looked down, her fingers dancing over the subtle embroidery on his robes. “The first thing is I can’t leave my village until I know it is being taken care of. Renping, Jingyi, Taiwu, and I have been watching over the place for so long that if we leave I don’t know what will happen to the people we’ve been caring for.”

Jianyu placed his chin on her head. “I don’t know your village,” he said. “But we can make provisions for the place, and you can always go to visit, but things change quickly in the human world.”

He couldn’t see her smile, but he felt it against his skin before she said, “You might be surprised.”

“What else,” he asked.

“You must make peace with the Red Desert Tribes. Jingyi is my friend. He gave us a place when we had been driven out of almost everywhere. I don’t want war with his people.”

“That’s up to them,” Jianyu said, his voice was cold, even though his arms were still gentle. “We didn’t start this war. They invaded our lands. Reparations must be made.”

“Yes,” Xun said simply. “But the fighting stops. The killing stops.”

“I can’t make that promise by myself,” Jianyu replied.

“The Master of the Red Desert has agreed, but…” she hesitated. “He wants his granddaughter.”

“No!” Jianyu said, pushing her back so he could look into her face. “She is my brother’s daughter and will stay with him.”

Xun nodded, “Yes, but she is the Fire Lord’s granddaughter and she will need training. She’s already lit the wolf cub’s tail on fire. Twice. She didn’t mean it, but she needs to learn control and there is no one but the Fire Lord to teach her.”

“Wolf cub?” Jianyu asked, derailed for the moment.

“Yeah, but to be fair he started it. She did tell him to stop trying to steal her snack.”

Jianyu looked baffled.

“I’m not saying she has to live with the Fire Lord, but they need each other. Meet with him and come to terms.”

Jianyu relented, “I will meet with him.”

She beamed up at him, “I knew you could be sensible,” she said, kissing him lightly. “The best place to discuss the peace treaty would be our village, it’s neutral ground since it is in the Mortal Realm and safe from outside threats thanks to Jingyi’s magic. There is one more thing you need to know about however.” Xun took a deep breath. “Your children are there and they want to meet you.”