Nanowrimo 2022 - Day 10 Word Count and Best Bit (Patreon)

Today I wrote 1,867 words, bringing my current total to 18,096!

Jin Xia nodded. This was where the real negotiations began. “I can offer you a significant level of autonomy within your own lands when it comes to policies that directly affect your people. I can offer you economic and scholarly recourses to raise your nation up from a mere farmer’s kingdom. I have seen the poor of your city, Wei Jun, and you clearly are not as rich as you like to make yourself out to be. I suppose that’s why you’ve never actually cut anyone off from your trade routes, even with how often your ministers like to threaten it.”

“Do you think we are some pack of whores that can be bought with money like your mother?” Minister Bo snapped, leaping from his seat. Jin Xia met his insults with a cold glare, but that only seemed to encourage him. “Oh yes, I’ve heard of your mother. A lowly common-born concubine plucked off the streets with nothing but her beauty to earn her favors. Even if she did give birth to the emperor’s heir, she’d never be fit to be empress. And neither would her half-baked spawn!”

“Hold your tongue, Minister Bo!”

Wei Jun’s warning came a moment too late. Something in Jin Xia snapped, like the lock on the cage she kept her spirit in finally broke. Her body tensed, as if preparing to jump across the table to remove the minister’s tongue with her very hands. Wind of some unknown origin whipped around the room, buffeting those who sat on the king’s side. It brought the smell of rain and the sound of rolling thunder with it.

“Minister,” Jin Xia spoke with an unnatural growl to her voice. “I don’t care for your tone.”

Minister Bo stumbled back, fear turning his skin paper white. “M-my apologies, Your Highness! I didn’t mean it, I swear!”

“If you did not mean the insults you just hurled at my own mother, how can I trust you to mean anything you say?” Jin Xia asked, slowly standing from her seat as the winds grew more violent. “Perhaps it would be better if you did not speak at all.”

“Your Highness, please,” Wei Jun pleaded. “I shall send him from this hall, and you need not see him again. There is no need for violence, not after you promised none upon my people.”

Jin Xia inhaled deeply, seemingly pulling the stormy winds into her lungs. Her hands clenched into fists upon the table as she forced down her anger, her nails digging deep scores in the lacquered wood. She forced the beast back into its cage, sealing it tight with fear. What exactly was that just now? What madness had her rage conjured? What power lived inside her, just waiting for her to lose control of her emotions? Research would need to be done.

But first, she had negotiations to finish.

“Get him out of my sight,” she demanded, a lingering growl in her voice.