Alone in the great hall of jade and gold, she gazed at the ceiling as if peering at the stars.

  Past the blood-soaked veil that protected her long dark hair and loose black robe, a free hand withdrew a seal from inside. Though shaped similarly, it wasn’t the jade Imperial Seal, but one made of black stone.

  Above the palace, the stars shone brighter. The black sky shimmered as if a layer of pure water reflected the moonlight inward, trapping everything within.

  The light forced a man to step down from the ceiling onto the opposite side of the hall. Wrapped in a brown coat, he appeared to be an amiable middle-aged laborer. However, no laborer had gray skin, or the four small antlers that protruded from his sparse white hair. “So, the keystone of the Taiping Formation wasn’t lost after all.” The man sighed heavily. “I was perfectly concealed, you know?”

  The woman shook her head. “No one needs to sense you. I calculated you were nearby,”

  “Yet you only used the formation against me now? After this bloodbath? I wonder if you let this all occur just to catch me.” His eyes drifted to the human bodies littering the floor.

  “This is the same as that year when Taizong retreated from his eastern campaign, but now you’re on the other end of the scheme.”

  “Would you believe me if I say I had nothing to do with this rebellion?”

  “I believe you. It is because this wasn’t your plan that you thought no one could predict you would come. But, you still came looking for advantages. You can’t resist, can you? Therefore, I’ve won.” The woman’s form blurred. A shadow swept across the candlelit ground towards the man.

  The man raised his frail hand. Light warped. The world distorted its shape.

  Two strands of nothingness wrapped the air around the man, partially erasing him from sight. Then everything reverted back. Returned to normal, with the exception of the woman who now stood before him. He had been countered.

  The woman’s sword drew forward. No longer able to escape through warping space, the man took a step backward, fracturing the ground as he did. Yet, the sword was arriving faster than he could fall back.

  His eyes glimpsed at the fire of the chandeliers above him. The candle flames burned with unnatural flares, flickering in quick succession. The woman wasn’t just fast, he was trapped within slowness. The man could think of a thousand methods to escape, yet none were instantaneous.

  So, the man attacked.

  Without stopping his backward momentum, his entire being exerted to raise his hand forward. He did not need the time to strike. After all, the woman was already headed towards him.

  The frail hand pointed its taloned nails towards the woman. The flesh of his entire arm twisted and extended to a length that matched the woman’s sword reach.

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  The distance closed to nothing.

  The man’s claw contacted first. Yet it stopped, unable to move forward. The woman’s veil ripped to reveal an undamaged stone seal, the keystone, held by the woman’s hand, blocking his own like an insurmountable wall.

  The sword contacted. It plunged into his chest.

  Behind the man, the palace buildings split into two. A ravine divided the earth across the palace grounds. The windstorm, which parted the nearby clouds in two, swept away the fires on the charred buildings outside.

  The man thought that the sword shouldn’t have been enough to break his flesh, yet he was now agonized by the extreme coldness of the sword. He saw, then, the new trick. The entire sword was fixed in place, frozen in time. A sword without cause and effect was unbreakable. “You were not this strong the last time.”

  “I did not feel well then.” The woman answered as she would in any common conversation. "It's also been longer for me than it has for you."

  “How did you prevent my warping of space?”

  “Idiot. Time and space are relative.”

  The man couldn’t answer back. Yet, at the thought of his death, his teeth clenched. “I am not the strongest.”

  “Neither am I, but you are the strongest of your kind still in our world, so why not leave already?”

  “You never cared about such things before! All worlds exist together in reality, just as your states, kingdoms, and tribes, exist together on this continent. A world belongs to no one, not even its first inhabitants.”

  “Something changed.”

  The man knew what changed the woman and why she was weaker during their meeting at that mountain peak in the Great Expanse. It was family. Yet, that made it worse. “Just like the bloodshed this night, it won’t be my kind to kill you, it will be your own. They will avenge me, and my children will avenge you.”

  The coldness which seeped the man’s entire being erupted into heat. If stillness brought upon the cold, then the opposite was also true.

  At first, the woman did not know what to think when she looked down at the burning corpse. It felt like experiencing the end of a story and the start of the epilogue.

  Few knew the man's existence, yet everyone who should know will know that he died here tonight. It was a single name on a long list of those that needed to die after today. She wondered who among them was the most important.

  The woman took her relaxed stroll to the end of the hall before the only chair in the room. She rested her palm on it before sitting down, letting out a small laugh as she did.

  As the night passed, hagrid faces and shivering bodies appeared from the side halls. Maids, eunuchs, consorts, concubines, imperial guards, and officials. All unlucky enough to have been within the Palace, but lucky enough to have survived. The gathering, all of whom stumbled their way through the stained hall, had varying degrees of shock and fear when they saw the scene of the woman. Or rather, her choice of seating.

  “I always did want to try sitting on this thing at least once.” The woman turned to the various groups around the hall that watched her. “Which one of you is Zhangsun Guanzi?”

  A grey-bearded official slowly walked forward with trembling legs yet a steady step. “I am,” he solemnly said before he caught an object thrown towards him. It was the stone seal.

  “The next emperor will be Taizong’s ninth son. It seems he was the filial one after all.” As the Emperor had just died tonight, he had yet to receive a posthumous name. So she simply referred to his youngest brother as Taizong’s ninth son.

  The official held the seal as if it was the most valuable thing in the world before his eyes shook once he registered what he just heard. Yet, he couldn't think of a remaining son of the House of Li that had remained loyal either. In fact, he couldn't be sure which of the rebelling imperial princes was still alive.

  The woman rose from her seat. A smile as bright as the moon on this night blossomed.

  “If anyone else tries sitting on this chair, they will die like all the other fools.”

  She exited the hall and no one was insane enough to stop her.

  There was finally silence as even a nearby wailing had disappeared.