Unintended Cultivator

The walk back into the palace was just as silent as the walk out had been, but the feeling was entirely different. Before, the nobles and even the cultivators had an air of uncertainty about them. Now, there was a palpable sense of dread around all of them. The nobles seemed keenly aware that it was Lai Dongmei’s presence alone that had prevented a mass execution and only just. More to the point, there was no guarantee that she would prove so magnanimous in the future. Sen knew that she had a reputation for being fickle and that worked for his purposes. The near-execution had also seemingly fixed the cultivators’ perceptions of him in more or less the place he wanted. Their expressions were wary, like he was a beast that they imagined was tame just to discover that he was merely patient.

Lai Dongmei walked next to him with a look of airy unconcern on her face. They might have been taking a leisurely walk through a park or wandering through a market. Her attitude contrasted with Sen’s fixed expression of cold nothingness. A fact that also seemed to unsettle both noble and cultivator alike. When they reached the doors to the throne room, Sen opened them and looked at Lai Dongmei.

“If you’ll join me for a moment,” he said to her.

“Of course,” answered the sect matriarch.

Turning his gaze to the rest of the group, he said, “Return to the meeting room. We’ll join you shortly.”

He watched them start to leave before he closed the gently closed the doors. He left one hand on the doors and lifted the other hand in a wait-a-moment gesture when Lai Dongmei started to speak. He didn’t look around when spoke.

“Leave us,” he ordered.

He didn’t know if it was the same servants and guards as earlier or if word of his killing intent had simply spread, but the throne room swiftly emptied. It was only after the last of them vanished from his spiritual sense that Sen put his other hand on the doors and leaned his head against the old, polished oak. He took shuddering breaths and tried to keep the contents of his stomach in place even as the nausea threatened to overwhelm him. He couldn’t let any of the others see this vulnerability. For all intents and purposes, he was emotionally naked. It would have been catastrophic to expose such weakness to all of those scheming nobles and ruthless cultivators, but Lai Dongmei was an ally who had recognized what he needed and come to his aid. He didn’t believe she would use this against him. He might be wrong, but he had to have at least a few people he trusted.

“I wondered,” said Lai Dongmei, her tone sympathetic. “Those old monsters have been very unkind to you, Sen.”

He let his head rest against the door for a few moments longer as he took another deep breath. Feeling somewhat steadier, he straightened up.

“Someone had to do it,” said Sen.

“Agreed. I’m just not sure that making you do it will be for the best in the long run. At least, I don’t think it will be for your best.”

“It had to be someone and someone that they trusted. That meant it was either me or one of them,” answered Sen as he turned to look at her. “Would you prefer Fate’s Razor take charge? Or, the Living Spear?”

Lai Dongmei shuddered at those words and said, “No. Feng Ming has a few admirable qualities, but his ruthlessness makes what you were going to do out there look like a child’s playacting. Kho Jaw-Long likes fighting but leadership doesn’t suit him. He’s as likely to get distracted in a library for a decade as he is to issue orders. Alchemy’s Handmaiden could have done it, but I doubt she would have. There are too many people we’ll probably need that she’d simply kill out of hand for old grievances. A fact that I have no doubt she’s aware of. No, she’ll choose her battlegrounds on her own.”

Sen nodded along and then pointed at himself.

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“Which leaves us with me.”

Lai Dongmei rolled her eyes and said, “I think Feng Bai had planned to style himself as the cultivator king. At least, he did right up until your master showed up and all but killed the man.”

Sen frowned. Feng Bai worried him. Sen could hold his own against a lot of people, but Master Feng’s brother wasn’t one of them.

“What became of him?” Sen asked.

“No one knows for sure. I don’t think he’s dead, but there hasn’t been any sign of him in the city recently either. I think he fled before the spirit beast numbers got too large.”

“I don’t suppose anyone thought to snatch Tang Ehuang in the chaos?” asked Sen without much hope.

“Not that I’m aware of,” admitted Lai Dongmei. “I expect she fled at the very first opportunity.”

Sen futilely pinched the bridge of his nose. Two more things to add to his monumental list of worries. Then again, he thought, they’re only real problems if I live long enough to see them again. I need to keep my mind on the present. He smiled at Lai Dongmei.

“Thank you,” he said.

She gave him a thoughtful look and said, “You seemed like you could use another option. I was happy to provide one for you.”

Sen smirked a little.

“And I’m sure it never once occurred to you that it would be hugely advantageous for you to be seen as having the tyrant’s ear.”

Lai Dongmei put on a demure expression and pressed a hand to her chest.

“Of course not, my good Lord Tyrant. I am but a meek and humble servant.”

“The one meek and humble servant who can turn aside my homicidal rage,” observed Sen. “I imagine you’ll be able to do something useful with that.”

“Yes,” said Lai Dongmei, tapping a finger against her lips. “I expect that someone clever could do something with that perceived influence.”

“Someone as clever as the Matriarch of the Golden Phoenix Sect?”

“Perhaps,” she said with a laugh. “I did notice how you just went along with it, though. I thought you might push back a little harder.”

Sen sighed and offered a shrug. This had been one possible plan of many that he’d concocted before leaving to come to the capital.

“I need them to fear me. But I can’t have it be completely unreasoning fear. Having them know that there is at least one person who can temper my wrath is useful. It suggests that I’m not simply a mindless killer bent on slaughter.”

“So, I’m to be your imperial conscience?” she asked while lifting an eyebrow.

Sen considered that before he barked out a short laugh.

“I wouldn’t have described it quite that way, but I guess it’s accurate enough,” he told her.

“I think I’d have preferred imperial concubine, to be honest. It’d be more fun if nothing else.”

“Not empress?”

“Gods, no. Too much work. I already have too much work.”

“That’s fair. Still, I’m not sure that it’s an either-or kind of choice.”

“Hmmm. Perhaps not,” she agreed before giving him a concerned, searching look.

“What?” he asked.

“Do you truly understand the magnitude of what you’re taking on? What it will mean? What it will cost?”

Sen immediately shook his head and said, “Of course, I don’t. How could I? How could anyone? When was the last time something like a spirit beast uprising happened? Master Feng said it was a thing of myth and legend even when he was young.”

“I see your point,” murmured Lai Dongmei. “Be careful not to lose yourself behind that tyrant’s mask you mean to wear. Don’t get me wrong, there is a kind of savage animal appeal to that domineering persona, but I prefer you the way you are.”

“Timid?” joked Sen, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Is that what you are?” she asked as she glided toward him with superhuman grace.

She reached out and ran a finger down his chest.

“No. I don’t think that timid describes you very well at all,” she said as she leaned in to whisper in his ear. “I like you the way you are because you’re just savage enough.”

With all the emotional upheaval in the day, everything was very close to the surface. Her proximity and that breathy whisper in his ear were more than enough to bring out plenty of savage or at least savage-adjacent things in him. He wanted to take her right then and there. She’d probably let him. In fact, a piece of him suspected that’s what she’d intended. There was a sudden battle for control between his base instincts and his better judgment. He doubted anyone would dare to say anything to him about it after the fact. That didn’t make it a good idea, just an appealing one. However, he’d had years and years of practice at controlling those kinds of impulses. It wasn’t easy, but he managed to push down the lust. Lai Dongmei recognized the change in him and gave him a pouty look.

“That self-discipline of yours is irritating sometimes,” she complained.

“People are waiting,” he countered. “A good imperial conscience would have reminded me about that.”

“You clearly weren’t paying attention. I wasn’t trying to be a good conscience. I was trying to be a satisfied concubine.”

Sen reconsidered if maybe they did have time before he shook his head. She caught the hesitation and smirked.

“Well, at least you thought about it. Alright, Lord Tyrant, let’s go scare the minions.”