The first thing I noticed was warmth.
Not the feverish burn of battle, nor the restless heat of campfires with soldiers pressed too close. This was steady warmth, the kind that seeped into my skin and softened my edges until I almost forgot I had edges at all.
The silk canopy above me stirred faintly with the draft of dawn. Someone must have opened the shutters, because thin light cut across the room, striking sparks against the gold inlay of the carved beams. I blinked against it, letting my mind catch up with where I was.
Mingyu's chambers. His bed. My bed now, I supposed.
The weight of the crown was not on my head, but I felt it in my chest. I had chosen this. Not just the marriage, not just the bed, but the life that came with it. An Empress. A wife. A woman who belonged to someone else and yet, somehow, belonged to herself more fiercely than ever before.
