Princess Seong Eunae was nearly as busy as Yoshika most of the time, but without the advantage of multiple bodies with which to attend her appointments. As Goryeo’s ambassador to Jiaguo, she was in charge of the academic exchange programs, and as those programs increased in popularity, her job grew as well.

Still, despite their busy schedules, Yoshika tried to make time for regular visits. They’d been good friends ever since attending the predecessor to Jiaguo’s academy together as young women.

Eunae’s bright blue eyes lit up as Yoshika entered her office, and she welcomed her with a smile.

“Yoshika! So good to see you! Please, come in. I’m afraid I can’t offer you tea at the moment, but I should have some snacks around, if you like.”

Yoshika shook her head and smiled.

“Tempting, but no thank you. We’ve been eating a lot more than usual while we look after Yue’s recovery.”

“Oh! I had heard about that. Please offer her my congratulations!”

“Of course. Have you made any new breakthroughs yourself?”

Eunae’s ears drooped slightly as she averted her eyes.

“I think I’m probably quite close, but the idea of it makes me a bit nervous. I can control my power now, thanks to your help, but what if ascending makes my inner spirit even stronger? I’d hate to end up like my ancestor...”

Like all of Eunae’s clan, she carried a tiny fragment of an ancient great spirit within her soul. As half-spirits, the Seong family took on the fox-like appearance of the legendary Kumiho—an ancient trickster spirit of great power. The greater their affinity with the spirit fragment within them, the more tails they developed.

Eunhee, the Queen of Goryeo and Eunae’s aunt, had eight, while Eunae’s mother and cousin had seven each. Her older sister Misun had six, and the clan’s youngest, Haeun, had already grown four while she was still a child. Haeun’s spiritual affinity had stalled while she focused on her divination, but she was still the favorite to succeed Queen Eunhee as the next clan mother.

Eunae, on the other hand, was something of a special case. When she was sixteen, she still only had two—the worst of any in the clan’s history—and it was only after awakening in spiritual cultivation that she finally developed a third. Her apparent lack of talent made her something of a pariah among her clan, but she had a unique ability that had appeared in the clan only once before.

Anyone who looked into Eunae’s eye would be bewitched by her gaze, twisting their hearts and minds to her will. It was a dangerous and terrible power, and Eunae hated it. Her predecessor, Seong Heiran, had been a ruthless tyrant, wielding the power of her gaze with malicious impunity before disappearing over a century ago.

Though Eunae had quelled the Kumiho fragment within her and learned to control her gaze, she still worried that further cultivation might empower it beyond her ability to restrain. Worse, Yoshika had a hard time arguing against that—since unifying her cultivation and reaching the peak of houtian, Eunae had grown to five tails plus four ghostly Soulfire apparitions giving her the appearance of a full nine. The same number of tails as the Kumiho herself.

Yoshika scratched her cheek, smiling awkwardly.

“We don’t have to talk about that, if you don’t want to. Sorry...”

“It’s fine. I’ll have to address it eventually, but not today. How is my little sister doing? I heard she got into trouble recently.”

Grateful for the change in topic, Yoshika chuckled and shook her head.

“More like Narae dragged her into trouble. The two of them tried to sneak up the mountain to spy on Yue’s ascension.”

“Oh dear. Was everything alright?”

“Yeah, nobody got hurt, but it sets a bad example, you know?”

Eunae nodded thoughtfully.

“I can speak to her, if you like. I don’t blame her, but I think she’s forgetting how she should conduct herself as a princess.”

“No, it’s fine. It was my sister’s fault, anyway, and I don’t want to deprive Haeun of the opportunity to act like a kid while she’s still got the chance.”

“They’re almost adults now, Yoshika. They have to grow up eventually.”

Yoshika shrugged.

“Maybe, but not today.”

“Tch, that’s not fair, using my own words against me.”

“I’ve never had a habit of fighting fair.”

The two laughed together for a moment before Eunae composed herself.

“So what brings you here? Not that I don’t appreciate the visit, but if you’re meeting me here, in that body, I usually assume it’s work related.”

Yoshika sighed.

“Sort of. I was wondering if you’d heard anything about Do Hye’s execution.”

Eunae blinked.

“No. In fact, this is the first I’m hearing of it. Does Dae know?”

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“I don’t think so. Despite everything he put us through, I’m a little disappointed to hear that he’s dead. He was an ass about it, but he was trying to save our world from the divine seal too.”

“Hmm, maybe so, but on a political level one can’t very well leave a known traitor to the crown unpunished. Despite our good relations, Hyeong Daesung is still officially considered an enemy of the state by Goryeo.”

Yoshika grumbled irritably. Dae had been instrumental in helping her found Jiaguo as a nation, but he’d done so at the cost of almost everything he’d worked for. She’d done her best to make it up to him, but it still weighed on her.

Do Hye had been his mentor and father figure, and while his betrayal had been painful, Yoshika was sure that Dae would be upset about his death. Yoshika was a little annoyed herself. Though he was slippery and deceitful, Do Hye had been their best source of information about the divine seal—a grand formation isolating their world from the heavens, which would inevitably lead to its destruction if they couldn’t find a way to break it. Killing him to maintain political power seemed heinously shortsighted for someone that Yoshika respected as a leader.

She sighed again, just another line on her endless list of things to think about later.

“I think we’d all be a lot better off if people were less caught up on appearances. Do you think you could arrange for your older sister to visit? If anybody knows how they managed to stop The Snake from reincarnating, it will be her.”

Eunae frowned.

“Misun is a busy woman, and as irresponsible as she can be, I highly doubt she’d be willing to casually divulge state secrets to you.”

“It’s either that or I visit the queen myself, and I just don’t have the time right now.”

“Oh yes, you’re so busy pampering Yue that you don’t have time to spare for the sovereign ruler of an important ally.”

Yoshika nodded.

“Right. I’m glad you understand.”

Eunae covered her mouth and giggled.

“Oh, you are incorrigible!”

“Jokes aside, we really do have a full plate. Helping Yue’s recovery isn’t just fun—it’s an investment. We’re going to need her at her best once the Qin Empire starts taking an interest in us again. Kaede has her hands full with Yamato, and even Meili has had to get involved, dealing with Jiaying’s parents.”

Jiaguo City’s council had developed rather powerful factions, and Pan Zixin was one of the leaders. In a surprisingly canny move, his pro-Qin faction had not resisted Yoshika’s popular support as Empress, and had instead pivoted to a platform advocating for a union of the two empires.

It was an ambitious and lofty goal for what was essentially just a group of advocates representing the population of a single city, but even though Yan Yue was the ultimate arbiter of city policy, and Yoshika the absolute ruler, the city councilors had significant influence.

Nearly all of Jiaguo's former Qin immigrants supported Pan Zixin, and Pan himself was heavily influenced by his wife, Shi Jinghua. While Zixin was generally an affable man and easy to get along with, Shi Jinghua was an extremely strict traditionalist. She still didn’t support Pan Jiaying’s relationship with Li Meili, and her influence could be directly felt in the Qin faction’s extremely conservative ideology.

Even most of Lin Xiulan’s faction had been absorbed, despite her own progressive attitude and the persecution her people had faced under Qin’s rule.

Eunae smiled apologetically and inclined her head.

“I understand. But you still have the wherewithal to visit me using that convenient avatar of yours.”

“Sure, but this body can’t leave Jiaguo, which is why I’d prefer to have Misun come here.”

“When you say Jiaguo, do you mean the city, or...?”

Yoshika averted her eyes and cleared her throat, ignoring the knowing smile slowly spreading across her friend’s face.

“It’s, um, probably best that we don’t discuss important state secrets here.”

In fact, Yoshika’s domain had expanded very rapidly in the last five years. As more and more of Yamato’s people came to accept her as their ultimate ruler, it spread across the land until her domain covered most of the empire. If one of her bodies left the empire, she could still project her domain through that body, but within it? She could sense nearly a third of the entire continent while relaxing.

“Right. I suppose I can send word—I should probably update my family about Yan Yue’s breakthrough and my own approaching ascension anyway.”

“You’re welcome to use the reflecting pool.”

One of Jiaguo’s greatest treasures was the universal reflecting pool, developed almost entirely by Hyeong Daesung, but with critical contributions from all over the place—including Seong Haeun, Qin Zhao, and Yoshika herself. Over the years, it had been refined and optimized, and while it was still somewhat expensive to use, they had the invaluable ability to instantly contact nearly anybody in the world.

Unfortunately, only two people on the planet were skilled enough in divination to operate it—Yoshika and Haeun. Between that and the incredibly difficult to produce spirit crystals that powered it, widespread replication and adoption was still a distant dream.

“That’s kind of you to offer, but I wouldn’t want to waste national resources on something like this. We do have spells for magically delivering letters, you know.”

“I suppose so. I’m just a bit anxious, I guess. Things have been quiet lately, but once word of Yue’s ascension starts to get out, I think it’s going to get hectic. I just want to be ready.”

Eunae cocked her head curiously.

“For what?”

Yoshika bit her lip and shook her head.

“I wish I knew. I just have a feeling, and I’ve learned not to ignore that sort of premonition.”

“I see. Well, if you need anything, you always know where to find me. Perhaps you should take the chance to relax a little—when was the last time you visited your older sister?”

“Um...I’m not sure. A few days ago?”

Eunae gave her a flat look.

“How many is a few?”

Yoshika stopped to think about it, her face going pale as her count rose into the double digits.

“Oh crap! I’ve really lost track of time lately!”

“Tsk, you’re too young to start thinking like an immortal. Go spend time with your family! It always makes me feel better.”

Eunae wasn’t talking about her clan—aside from her little sister, she didn’t get along with any of them. Yoshika grinned at that.

“Your family, huh? How are the girls, anyway?”

She blushed and cleared her throat.

“Yun and Rika are fine. Rika’s been bored out of her mind looking for new ways to enjoy her early retirement, but Yun doesn’t seem to mind being the subject of her experimentation. Iseul is both more and less of a handful now that she’s decided to stop being a child. She’s been helping Dae with his research, but I’ve gotten a number of complaints from Goryeon professors about her habit of testing their formations with her body.”

“I don’t imagine most of them were built to channel the essence of a Mud elemental.”

“No, and apparently Iseul considers that to be an unacceptable flaw in any spell. Honestly, what a troublesome daughter she is. What about you? How are things going with Heian?”

Yoshika put on a strained smile and chuckled mirthlessly.

“Let’s just say that she really takes after her mothers...”