IN A BIT
EMPEROR LIANWEI POINT OF VIEW:
It had been a month since Huan received that fox figurine, and in that time, he'd become an expert at keeping it exactly three feet away from anyone else's hands. He carried it from his bed to the study to the gardens and back again, and Heaven help the poor servant who accidentally touched it while dusting. So when another letter arrived, not from the princess, but from the Mountain kingdom, I was already wary.
The courier bowed low as he presented the sealed scroll. The wax stamp bore the royal crest, and beneath it… three different signatures pressed into the edges, like each man had insisted his mark be first. That was my first warning. I broke the seal and unrolled the parchment.
'To His Imperial Majesty, Lianwei,
