Nanowrimo 2022 - Day 2 Word Count and Best Bit (Patreon)

Today I added 1660 words, bringing my total word count to 3,386!

She stepped out onto the covered walkway, inhaling deeply. The spring breeze pulled petals from blooming trees and made them dance in the air. Pink and orange hibiscus flowers bloomed in the heavily curated gardens that made up the Pearl Palace’s outdoor spaces. The white and gold scales of koi fish glimmered in the light just beneath the water’s surface. Any visitor would call Jin Xia’s home beautiful, and she would agree.

But anything can be beautiful with enough polish. Even a cage.

She wandered aimlessly through the Pearl Palace’s grounds, greeting those that passed her with uninterested poise. She made note of those who were unfamiliar, so as to ask one of her more trusted handmaidens to do some digging later. Being unaware of your servants and their faces was a dangerous way to live in the palace. Even kindly women like the Winter Sun Consort knew to keep watchful eyes on all that passed through their halls.

She passed through the gate into the main courtyard that connected the four consort’s palaces. The official title was Garden of the Stars’ Passing, but Jin Xia often heard the servants call it the Great Crossroads. She looked to the south, down the long, stone walkway that connected the consort’s palaces with the rest of the imperial compound. She could see the pink lacquered wood of the gate to the Perfume Palace, where the Spring Cloud Consort resided.

The four consort’s palaces were arranged in order of the seasons’ passing, alternating sides of the walkway so no consort would have to directly face her competition should they come meet the emperor at their gate. Someone apparently thought lack of direct eye contact would lessen conflicts between the four highest-ranked concubines. And while perhaps there was no physical fighting between consorts, conflict was not avoided just because they were not forced to look each other in the eye.

The emperor made sure of that when he promised to make whoever gave him an heir his empress.

Jin Xia forced back a noise of disgust. Even now, the emperor refused to make a decision. Instead, he let her mother and the Autumn Rain Consort wait with bated breath for twenty years. There were no true promises with the emperor, only empty words.