With spring came the arrival of Pollen Lady Hayun's child, a tiny boy she named Arata. The prince seemed to have been greeted by the fresh green scenery.
Empress Miseo held the child for a time, cooing down at him and telling him he was already so clever. Then, she handed the child over to the Emperor, who was stupidly grinning, not that anybody would've dared to tell him that he looked stupid.
After tapping his son's nose with his fingertip a few times, the Emperor suddenly said to Min Ji, "Spread my decree. Hayun will be promoted to Wood Consort. She'll be sent to the Cinnamon Aroma Palace. Promote Yanlin to Pollen Lady. She'll be the Madam of the Moonbeam Palace."
Empress Miseo smiled at this news. Then she watched the Emperor carefully hand Arata back to his tired mother.
***
Wen was in her underclothes, looking at a lovely outfit Yanlin had made for her back when she was still the maid named Yuwei. Lien was the one to hang it on a rack for the examination. Until then, Wen hadn't really thought much about it, but now that Yanlin was a part of her worries, she found herself wondering about the outfit.
It was a spring set. Bright pinks and pale greens. Silver and gold threads. Images of flowers and bees. There had been quite a bit of care put into it.
But ... the more Wen examined it, the more she decided she didn't want to wear it just yet. No matter how many times she silently asked herself why, she couldn't imagine a satisfactory reason.
She was trying to choose a pretty outfit for a little visit to the Moonbeam Palace, where Yanlin was now the Madam. Wood Consort Hayun was going to visit too. Tea and rice cakes. Music and board games. Harmless activities such as those were meant to be enjoyed.
Eventually, Wen chose an outfit with creams and blues. Then she affectionately gave her sons soft goodbyes and left for the Moonbeam Palace.
Hayun greeted Wen with a half-kneel at the palace's gate. Wen did the same. While they were the same rank, Hayun had served the Emperor for longer than her, and it was generally believed that Wen should defer to her. Still, Wen wasn't required to kneel to her.
Inside the palace's reception room, Yanlin knelt down to them very politely, and Hayun told her to get up. Wen happened to look at Yanlin's silver fingernail guards. They were pretty, inlaid with small onyx stones and sections of nacre.
There was a little bit of blood under a each point of the guards on one hand.
But that could mean anything. Yanlin could've scratched herself.
A few moments into the visit, Wen suddenly felt unwell. Her stomach and lower belly felt bloated and she wanted to vomit. As she rushed off to a patio, holding the back of her hand to her mouth, Lien hurried after her. Wen ended up vomiting in a bush. Lien asked a maid to go apologize on Wen's behalf.
Lien found a cup of mint water for Wen to rinse her mouth out with.
That was when they heard the sniffling.
And a eunuch's hushed voice.
"I'll try to keep you working different chores so you don't have to face Madam so often."
"Why," a young woman's agonized voice whined, "oh why must Madam Pollen be so cruel? All I did was ask if she was feeling well. I only wanted to know if I needed to brew any medicinal teas. Is she allergic to any of those teas?"
Wen peeked around a column, past another hedge, and she saw a eunuch trying to comfort a maid. That maid's face had two bloody lines on one cheek.
Straightening up, taking a heavy, cleansing breath, Wen decided not to say anything. That would be the wisest thing to do.
Later that night, Wen rested in bed. Her brain was too busy clicking and cranking for her to sleep.
***
A few days later, a new pregnancy was discovered. Wen would have another child.
The Emperor was highly delighted. He spent a long time with her, sitting beside her on a bench on a patio. His hand went over her stomach, and he whispered gentle things.
"Your Majesty," Wen had whispered as a wind chime was disturbed by the sweet breezes, "I'm truly a fortunate woman in this world."
As if he wanted to dream, his eyes were closed and his voice was lazy. He rested the back of his head on an exterior wall. "Your gratitude has been noted."
"Forgive this concubine for her prying attitude," Wen said in an unusually casual tone, "but I'd like to ask these questions. Would the Empress Dowager ever renew her lost affections towards me? Or am I forever doomed to be a blemish under her sight?"
After a heavy breath, the Emperor opened his eyes and blinked a few times. "I can't say. She's a stubborn woman, but I won't let her do anything extreme."
"Regardless of her feelings towards me, she's very civil to the other women. The Empress Consort has been respected by the Dowager for years."
Sitting up a bit straighter, putting his hands in his lap, the Emperor looked ahead. "I heard a rumor. Miseo had to punish two lower ranked concubines that had been fighting. The same day, she had to resolve a misunderstanding over some jewelry seeming to disappear. When I last visited her, Miseo seemed much more exasperated than normal."
Nodding, Wen said, "Also, she has the princesses in her palace. The Empress is working very diligently."
Suddenly, the Emperor leaned against her, putting his cheek on the top of her head. It was uncomfortable, especially since he was so much taller than her, but Wen giggled anyway.
"I don't want to talk about those difficult things right now," he said. "I want to rest my mind with my companion. It's the best way to find comfort."
Wen giggled again, hiding her lips with her sleeve. But after a few more moments, a thought sparked in her mind.
A hard working ruler needed comfort, which was often found in companionship.
Empress Miseo ...
And Yanlin.
***
For the next few weeks, the Emperor continued to spend time with Yanlin. Wen thought it was a matter of time for that young concubine to become pregnant. It simply had to be.
But, as far as Wen knew, Yanlin was bare. She'd even done some sneaky bribery with some of Yanlin's maids to find out as much information as possible. It turned out that when a Madam's servants were treated badly they were more likely to work against her. Wen was glad to know her investment in gentle treatment of her servants turned out to be a wise one.
It was a nearly obvious assumption that Yanlin wanted to become pregnant as soon as possible, to fly higher and higher to glory. This was engraved even deeper in Wen's mind when Yanlin visited one morning.
At first, it seemed to be a normal, cordial, everyday sort of visit. Yanlin was deceitfully polite and modest. She even praised Wen for her "natural, intelligent sort of beauty" and her "enviable fertility." But then, Yanlin abruptly went to her knees, her eyes wide and full of something Wen wanted to call recklessness.
"Oh pity this junior," Yanlin said with a sad, wiggling voice. "Won't this Wood Consort kindly share her secret to her fertility? You have your sons and now you'll have another child. All this little Pollen needs to be happy is a single child of her own."
Wen stared down at Yanlin's exquisite, white painted face. For a moment, her thoughts mixed around in the cyan irises as she wondered about her. Yanlin had always been able to hide her true personality while she was still the maid called Yuwei. And for a time she'd been able to hide it as a concubine.
Yet now, as Wen pondered the hints of anger and barbarism she'd seen, she wondered if this little blonde woman had ever been satisfied. Had she truly served Wen in earnest? When she'd been a seamstress, had she been content? Or was Yanlin the type of woman who always wanted more, no matter how much she received?
"The truth is," Wen said after a time, "that I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I didn't even take any fertility medicine."
Her painted, dark blonde eyebrows rising, Yanlin repeated the phrase as if she only had an idea right then. "Fertility medicine?"
Nodding, Wen pulled Yanlin up to her feet. "I've heard some women try such a thing, but I didn't. I was blessed with excellent fortune. Perhaps you'll be blessed too."
Smiling, Yanlin said she understood.
After Yanlin eventually left, Wen told Lien to send a secret message to Wood Consort Hayun.
***
Hayun had to put on a friendly face before the kneeling Pollen Lady Yanlin.
Taking a cup of tea from a maid, Hayun said, "Dear Little Pollen, I'm no physician. I don't have an expansive knowledge of medicine."
"With respect, Wood Consort," Yanlin said with her tiny, adorable voice, "among all the women in the harem, you have the most knowledge. If anyone can help this poor, lonely concubine, it would be you."
"Lonely?" Hayun said after a small draught of tea. "You have the Empress Consort and the Emperor fawning over you. It's in everyone's best interest to be kind to you."
Her lower lip sticking out, Yanlin asked, "Is it greedy for a concubine to hope for a child?"
Shaking her head, grimacing a little. "I suppose it's not. If I don't tell you something the Empress Consort will be quite angry with me. She'll assume I'm bullying you, and the Emperor will listen to her."
Putting a hand close to her mouth, Yanlin said with widened eyes, "I'd never give anyone any falsehoods, and I certainly wouldn't try to harm your pure reputation."
Her eyes rolling, Hayun put her cup down. "I'll tell you what I did. I took a special pill just before lying down with the Emperor."
