Chapter 1: The Selection
Autumn 738 AF // Midmorning // The House of Duke Yù, Duke of the Jade Peaks, Nán TiānGuó
It was the day of the selection. Yù Měishé sat staring into the polished silvery surface of the mirror, her back an iron rod. The mirror was a large upright piece whose edges were chased with intricate engravings of yúnzhǔ - the great feathered reptiles which soared over the crumbling peaks of their ancient mountain home. The mirror was likely worth more than everything her father earned in the first nine years of her life. It was the least of the opulence which now surrounded them. Her mother Bái Chànyè sat behind her, endlessly dragging an ornate jade comb through the silky black tresses of her long hair. Bái Chànyè wept. Her sobbing, the swish of the comb, even its repetitive tug at the back of Měishé’s scalp all could do little to distract her from her racing thoughts.
The girl Měishé saw reflected in the mirror was nearly perfect. At least by the way the people of TiānGuó, the Heavenly Kingdoms, reckoned beauty. Her skin was as pale and white as winter’s first virgin snow. Her black, almond shaped eyes were large, set in deeply folded eyelids crested with impossibly long ebon lashes. Her demure lips were as naturally lush and red as a ripe strawberry grown under the southern sun. Her oval face was a perfect balance of round and thin. Though she had only known thirteen winters, Měishé’s body already looked like that of a woman. Her pear shaped breasts filled out the embroidered emerald silk of the dress her mother had commissioned for the occasion. They seemed to float effortlessly above the impossibly narrow spire of her waist, which sat upon into hips and legs curved and endless as the Long River. She knew well the way most men saw her. How could she not?
She thought back to the day which had first set her on this path. She was nine years old. She was a well educated girl, a rarity in the Kingdoms, and innocent. Her father was drunk, and angry. They were eating dinner in a much more modest house than the palace-fort they lived in now. It was just Měishé, her mother and her father, Yù Cántān. The family didn’t have servants then. Yù Cántān was a merchant of middling success at the time, with no titles to his name. The clan of Yù had once been great, as her father had often told her. Generations of drink-addled greed and gambling had ruined that, and lost them their ancestral home in the Jade Peaks to boot. The bitterness of his lost legacy and stifled ambition had poisoned Yù Cántān long before Měishé was born. His only child being a girl just drove the blade deeper. Měishé stood terrified before him that night as he waved his cup towards her, sloshing wine onto the straw covering the floor.
“The gods have not seen fit to grant me a son and heir, so you will have to serve in his place. A woman’s strength lies not in iron, but between her legs and in her cunning heart.” He gestured towards her crotch and chest with his goblet, spilling more wine. “I named you Beautiful Serpent for a reason, and likewise have paid more than your worth in tutor’s fees. Now the time has come for me to take a return on my investment. You begin to look fine of late, and there are more than enough men who like girls not yet visited by Auntie Blood.” Měishé’s father drained his cup, and held it out for her mother to refill. Her mother hobbled forward a step on her bound ‘lotus’ feet, leaning over Cántān’s shoulder to pour the wine, her eyes kept low. Měishé’s lip quivered, she could not believe nor really understand what she was hearing. Tears welled in her perfect eyes as her father continued.
“You will learn to please men and play them the way you do your gǔzhēng, or I will sell you to recoup the debt you owe me. Do not look to me for love, I have none to give you. I will give you instead something far more useful in this world...the keys to power.” She had tried to run to her mother, only to be cuffed across the head by the bottom her father’s goblet.
From that day forward Cántān took Měishé with him to each meeting with potential clients. As a jade merchant, his clientele were the nobility of TiānGuó. She would serve them tea as she had been taught, all grace and poise. She would play the gǔzhēng for them, its strings ringing out the silver peals of the classical music of Heaven’s children. She would sing for them as the men drank strong báijiǔ wine, wheedling over prices. The leering gazes of the fat, silk wrapped noblemen became her constant vista. Gazes were the least of it. Her father made her available for the use of his clients, an exclusive treat for his most loyal customers. She was used in ways that she dare not recall. Used so much and so often that the pain went straight from overwhelming to numb. But still, it could have been worse. She did as her father said. She learned. The more she learned, the easier it got. She didn’t do it for her father’s love or approval, because he had none. She did it because being the prostitute daughter of a suddenly wealthy merchant was better than being a slave whore ridden thirty times a day by every lousy peasant passing by with a copper piece. She did it because a woman’s strength lies not in iron, but between her legs and in her cunning heart. Her mother did nothing to help her. Her mother was as useless as the trembling leaves she was named after. Hobbling about the house on her bound lotus feet, she was the mere fearful shadow of a woman. Chànyè’s only offerings were tears and useless natterings. Her father was right, love was useless. Her mother’s was anyway.
Měishé snapped back to the present. Thinking of the past was a recipe for failure, another of her father’s harsh lessons. Today was the culmination of her young life. With her as his secret weapon, her father had regained the Yù fortune. When war with the barbarian kingdoms left Emperor Jīnzhǔ’s treasury empty the Kingdom of Heaven divided, the Son of Heaven sold Cántān back the Yù ancestral home in the Jade Peaks, and the title of Duke along with it. After that Yù Cántān bought, blackmailed or murdered every man who knew that his Beautiful Snake was not a virgin. It was mainly murdered to be honest. Yù Měishé must appear in public as a perfect noble maiden. He secretly hired poets to sing her beauty and grace, and in one of his rare visits to the imperial court Duke Yù let slip to the Emperor’s Hands that he had a daughter of marriageable age, renowned for her beauty and education. Always seeking the finest girls in the Heavenly Kingdom for the emperor’s harem, the Hands requested to meet with Měishé during their next tour of collection. Yù Cántān informed them that there could be no greater honor to the house of Yù than for his only daughter to serve as the Son of Heaven’s concubine, his heart filled with satisfied greed. Today was the day. Today one of the Emperor’s own Hands would arrive in Cloudcroft, the ancestral home of the clan of Yù, proud crown jewel of the Jade Peaks. Today Měishé’s beauty and character would be judged by an emissary of the divine Son of Heaven himself, and she swore a silent oath on her lost innocence that she would not be found wanting. “Why do you cry mother?” she asked, hoping to silence the weak old woman.
“You will leave me alone, my dearest beloved,” Chànyè managed between sobs.
Měishé reached one pale hand back and rested it softly on her mother’s knee. She met the eyes of the older woman over her shoulder in the reflection of the mirror. She let her iron core show in her gaze, and be felt in her grip. “Do not weep for me, Mother. I go to meet my destiny. It is my fate to meet the Son of Heaven.”
Chànyè met her daughter’s iron gaze, and saw the depths of her ambition. Chànyè shivered at the intensity of the prophecy. With great effort Chànyè stilled her tears, and bowed her head in silence.