The Vermilion Queen didn’t really notice the lack of citizenry, or the strange absence of servants in her precious little palace. She just told us to take “the brat” and leave her to her peace while she recovered from her arduous ordeal.
Oh yes, you bitch. You broke a nail, how harrowing. Meanwhile I’ve seen women with less than a thousandth of your cultivation give birth and go straight back to working because they were afraid of their families starving to death if they didn’t give more than their all.
Still, I let the others reach the escape tunnels, then Song took over and demanded I not go back to finish this until I’d had my own child. I’d argued that Xiang hadn’t been stopped, but she countered that it was still a bad idea, especially if I broke through to Elder mid-fight.
Personally I didn’t see the problem, Guiyang was a total sweetheart, and I loved her curiosity and unusual approach to communicating. But Song was every bit as adamant as her namesake, and had a fiery temper to boot.
So I relented, and stopped ignoring the contractions I’d been having. Within an hour, Song’s newest twin sisters were swaddled in her arms.
Finally. I was annoyed that Xiang kept having multiples when I didn’t. I knew it was a species difference, but still.
“Mother.”
I sighed. Song never took that tone unless she was annoyed with me.
“Yes, my darling girl?”
“Name your daughters before you risk your life. You owe it to them.”
Ah, right. I mean, I wasn’t going to risk myself that much, the Vermilion Queen would get to see firsthand how a real predator hunted their prey. But it was horrible luck not to name a child soon after it was born. Supposedly demons could inhabit those without names.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
I didn’t believe that, but it was rather rude to leave a baby unnamed.
“Hm… How about Tora and Usagi?”
“Tiger and Rabbit? Try again mother.”
Hmph. I thought they were cute names. But fine, anything to stop her glaring at me and have her leaving this area as fast as wagonloads of pregnant women could travel.
“Aki and Atsuko, then. Satisfied?”
She nodded, then muttered about my stupid made-up language as she fled.
“It’s not made up! It’s the ancient language of all foxes, and you should put more energy into learning it!”
No response that I could see or hear, but I decided to let her have the rude gesture I knew she gave me when she’d turned the bend. I waited until the tunnels collapsed, signaling that everyone was clear. Then I stretched out, reached into my cultivation, and got to work.
Scattered through the whole of the Vermilion Palace were thousands of tiny glass windchimes. The queen hated them, so had them declared a heretical artifact and destroyed any that she found.
A lot of my best pieces got destroyed in the central lands, along with the very nice people I’d sold them to. I’d make her pay for every last one, with sharp intrest.
It took a couple hours until the Vermilion Queen awoke, hungry after her nap and still groggy. She casually tossed flames at the chimes she could hear… and they just resonated and became louder.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I bother you?” The chiming grew louder yet, and the queen got irate. Suddenly there was a blackened furnace where her opulent bedroom had been, lit by hundreds of glowing glass chimes. I kinda went overboard in there.
“Now now, mind your temper. Honestly, you lecture people on how they should behave and this is your choice when something mildly inconveniences you? I certainly don’t let my children destroy property in a tantrum, so I can only imagine your own parents must have been ashamed. Well, before you killed them. Just guessing on that part, but I’ve got the sense you like to get back at anyone who tries to discipline you.”
More flames, turning walls of beautifully-carved white marble into molten glass and stone, surrounded by ash. Yet still, my beautiful chimes were unaffected. Even the glow was just my own qi coursing through them.
“Aww, poor little Vermilion Queen, can’t get her way all the time. Don’t worry, you can fight me all you want.”
And now the chimes shattered, leaving thousands of tiny flames in countless hues across her palace.
“All you have to do is find me.”