As the maid started to set the teapot and pour the tea, Samaya waited for a response from the Empress. Her eyes absently roamed over the beautiful porcelain cups. She noticed something. All of them had floral designs. And while that was hardly unusual, she realized each of those cups had only a single large flower painted onto them. Some sets had different flowers, but none of them had more than a single flower on each cup. The bowls, however, had two flowers, on either side.

The Empress must have had those designed and made herself because she knew that no sets had such specific designs without being custom-made.

“I see you are admiring my porcelain,” the Empress’s voice pulled her attention.

She smiled at her. “Well, they are beautiful, Empress. I have never seen such a design.”

“Oh, tone it down.” The Empress scoffed. “That flattering voice does not suit you, Lady Qing.”

She chuckled and was about to retort when she suddenly saw something move in her peripherals. She reached out and quickly grabbed the plate that was about to fall off due to the carelessness of the maid who had just put down the teapot after pouring Samaya’s tea, her hand accidentally bumping against the plate.

The maid yelped before she knelt and bowed deeply. “Deepest apologies, Your Majesty, My Lady. This incompetent servant deserves death!”

The Empress was clearly annoyed but since no harm was done, she waved her off. “It is no issue. Call the other maids. I shall have you assigned to the waste disposal tomorrow and the day after as punishment. Now, get up.”

The young girl did get up, her hands were trembling as she clasped them tightly. Poor thing. She was probably used to walking on eggshells around here.

“Do not feel pity for her,” the Empress said as the maid went out to call the other maids. “This is the Imperial Harem. The Imperial Harem demands competence and perfection.”

“It was an honest mistake, Your Majesty,” she replied. “I find it unnecessary and cruel to punish someone for a mistake like that.”

“She has been trained since she was a child,” the Empress retorted. “She has had plenty of time to make mistakes and learn from them. I have never tolerated carelessness, especially in front of guests. She knows better than that. In fact, I am surprised she has made such a mistake. She usually has steadier hands than most. It is one of the reasons I have kept her here despite her young age. She is a diligent and loyal servant.”

“If she does not usually make mistakes, then is it not all the more reason to be lenient?”

The Empress sent a cold smile. “I was lenient.”

Okay, yeah. She would have killed as a part of the agency and climbed up the ladder pretty fast. Their relationship was strained right now but she did not want outright enmity with this woman. She would give her a very, very, hard time.

She held up her hands in surrender. “As you say. As long as they are not being harmed unfairly, it is not my place to speak on how you discipline your servants.”

The Empress raised an eyebrow and let out an amused smile at her words. Saaya could tell that the Empress did not miss the loophole she gave herself but it was surprising that she let it slide.

“Please do start eating, Lady Qing. I am not quite hungry at the moment, so I will take my time.”

The Empress gave her permission to start eating and it would be rude to deny. So she grabbed a small snack and nibbled on it as the maids filed in and took their place around the table, the young girl being closest to Samaya.

“Your Majesty, was talking about children the only reason you called me here?” She asked as she took a sip from her tea. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl tense up slightly and frowned. She licked her lip but didn’t taste anything weird. She was almost certain the tea was not poisoned. But still, she would go back and gulp down some water with ox bezoar in it.

“I am afraid so,” the woman sighed. “I have always believed that it is my duty to bring the heir of the Emperor to this world. I was content knowing that I would fulfil my duty. But the longer I look at you, at the other concubines who have given the Emperor children, I find myself … wondering if I would be a good mother.”

Oh wow. That was a huge confession to make, especially in front of a potential enemy. At this point, Samaya knew that this thing was really bothering her.

“I am sure you will be,” she said softly. “These doubts are natural for a new mother.”

“Did you have these doubts?”

She paused. “I suppose so,” she said, frowning. If you counted all the times she would talk about creating a family with her lover in the past. She had always doubted herself, and her ability to be a mother. Her own childhood and experience with her mother left her thinking she too would become a clone of her absentee mother who later abandoned her. She had been terrified that she would fail her own children. Some of those nights, she would curl up against him. There would be no tears, she rarely ever cried back then or even now. But she would tremble as those anxieties overwhelmed her and he would gently run his hand down her back until she calmed down and fell asleep.

“My apologies.” The Empress’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “It seems my question has brought up unpleasant memories.”

She must have zoned out for a bit. Still, this woman’s ability to read a person was terrifying. She might even be better at it than the Emperor. Dealing with her this closely as often as she dealt with the Emperor with the Emperor would have been exhausting. Thank God for small mercies.

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“It is no matter.” She shrugged it off. “I had feared if I would be a good mother. I do not how well I have succeeded at motherhood but Manu is growing up well. And that is all I can ever hope for.”

“I supposed that is all a mother should hope for.” The woman said as she moved her teacup almost subconsciously, spinning it slightly so that the single flower sat perfectly in the middle of her palm. Did the Empress have some sort of OCD with that?

Before she could contemplate on the woman’s words, she heard a sharp but almost inaudible breath to her side. She glanced to the side and saw the young maid staring intently at the Empress’s hands holding the cup. She must have felt Samaya looking at her because she turned towards her. Their eyes met for a moment before panic flashed in the young maid’s eyes for a moment and she quickly dropped her gaze.

That definitely was not usual. She frowned and turned around to see if anyone else had noticed their interaction. No one did. The Empress was still frowning thoughtfully down at her cup while the maids had their attention solely on the Empress.

The Empress looked like she was about to raise the cup. She was keeping an eye on the girl and saw that she tensed, tightening the grip one of her hands had on the other.

She decided to try something and spoke to the Empress. “Your Majesty, do you mean to say that you will not wish for your child to grow up well.”

The Empress paused and looked up at her. With one eye on the girl, she noticed that her grip relaxed ever so slightly.

“Well, I am the Empress,” she said softly. “I can only wish for my son to be Emperor. Nothing less would do.”

“Growing up well and growing up to be an Emperor do not have to be mutually exclusive, Your Majesty.”

“And, yet, oftentimes, they are.”

She could not protest that. The position of Emperor had to be headache-inducing for anyone who was not drunk on its power.

The Empress sighed and finally raised the cup. And … there it was. The girl’s hands tightened once again. Samaya took a proper glance and she knew immediately that she was holding her breath. Her suspicion grew into an almost certainty.

She turned around. “Your Majesty. Please stop. Do not drink that.”

The woman paused, the cup almost to her lips. The moment Samaya said those words, her eyes turned wary and she put down the cup. She must be very cautious about what she was consuming, to comply so easily with her request.

“Why?” The Empress asked her, raising her eyebrow in a silent question.

Instead of answering directly, she turned to the girl. “You.” The girl almost jumped out of her skin and turned to look at her with an almost innocent expression. She might have been fooled if not for the panic in her eyes that she was trying so hard to conceal. “Yes. you. Drink that tea.” She pointed at the Empress’s cup.

Her eyes widened and she turned to the Empress, who looked at Samaya in askance.

“I believe your tea is poisoned, Your Majesty, and the girl knows something about it.”

Said girl let out a dramatic gasp. “I… I would never, Your Majesty! I have served you loyally for the past three years. I would never betray you!”

“Then you should have no problem drinking the tea, right?”

“Your Majesty…” the girl said pitifully.

There was a long pause before the Empress nodded. “Go ahead. If you are speaking the truth, you have nothing to be afraid of.”

“Then, excuse me,” the girl said and slowly took the cup after a moment of pause. She was clearly reluctant. There was a little hesitance in her movement and there were slight tremors in her hands. But she did not refuse to drink. Instead, she brought the cup to her mouth.

“Wait.” She held up a hand and the girl paused. “Hold the cup the way Her Majesty likes to hold it. You know it, don’t you?”

The pause this time was longer but she ultimately complied. She put the flower right in the middle of her right palm and sipped the tea.

“Have you cleared whatever suspicions you had, Your Majesty?” The Empress spoke, her tone half annoyed. Well, she could understand that, since she stopped her from drinking tea and then gave it to the young girl to drink to see if it was poisoned and if she had anything to do with it. And it was all for nothing. The fact that the girl had drunk the tea meant that there was no poison or if there was, she knew nothing about it.

Samaya glanced at the girl. She could not hide the sigh of relief she let out. Samaya’s gut feeling only got stronger. If there was some sort of poison, it probably wasn’t something that could kill. No, it had some other function. She had a sneaking suspicion of what it was.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she replied and smiled. “I apologise. I was merely being cautious. Since that particular cup of tea can no longer be served, the maid can drink it.” She sent a disarming smile the girl’s way. “Think of it as my apology for now. I will send you a token of my sincerity later.”

Samaya then turned to the Empress. “Is that alright, Your Majesty?”

The Empress nodded and looked at the girl. “Go ahead.”

The maid turned her head to the side out of respect and kept drinking while Samaya took up a new but related topic of conversation. “Do you know, Your Majesty, different poisons have different functionalities? Some can kill you instantly and some can be so slow that it would only work after weeks or even months of poisoning. Some can paralyze you for life, some can take your eyesight away, and some others can even make pregnant women miscarry!”

She heard a cough from the side and knew she’d hit the jackpot. She did not let the Empress get a word in, continuing with her own explanation. “In fact, there is something interesting about the kind that makes women miscarry. If you are not pregnant, depending on the potency, it may permanently destroy your womb if you take it. You would never be able to have children again if that happens.”

The moment those worlds slipped past her lips, she heard the sound of a cup crashing onto the ground. She turned to see the girl kneeling on the ground over the shattered cup, two fingers shoved up her mouth as she tried to throw up what she had just consumed.

Samaya smirked and turned to the Empress.

“I believe my suspicions have been confirmed, Your Majesty.”