Post by devilinthedetails on Dec 2, 2021 0:35:27 GMT 10
Title: Great Empress
Rating: PG-13 for references to sexism.
For: mistrali
Prompt: Isha and Berenene.
Summary: Isha, Berenene, and a sleigh ride through a Namornese winter.
Notes: Happy Holidays, mistrali! I hope that you will enjoy my take on two of the most fascinating characters from Will of the Empress and that this fic can help get you in a festive spirit during this special time of the year
Great Empress
“I have been a great empress.” Berenene seemed to be in a rare mood as reflective as the silver snow glinting in the wintry sunlight that she and Isha were riding through on a sleigh pulled by four horses. They were pressed against each other for warmth and bundled beneath thick ermine furs.
Isha wondered if it was the ice crystals hanging like shiny spun-glass ornaments from the evergreens or the frozen lakes that would have been a beautiful blue in Namorn’s brief, glorious summer that was making her beloved empress contemplate the vastness of this land with its cold climate, harsh geography, and indomitable people that they were trying to rule together.
Trying to forge into an empire that could endure and be remembered. That would live after they were long dead and buried beneath marble monuments that could never sum up their accomplishments. That would be their legacy. Their gift to the world and to each other.
Perhaps the weight of building that legacy was resting heavy on Berenene’s mind because she added with an uncharacteristic hint of hesitation in her tone, “Haven’t I?”
It was unlike Berenene to show uncertainty even around her most trusted friend and advisor.
“You have.” Isha nodded solemnly. “Your many improvements to Namorn have transformed it from a wealthy empre that had the potential to be great into a truly great empire. The only one in all the world capable of rivaling Yanjing at the peak of its glory. One worthy of being celebrated and studied by future generations. Your reforms in education alone are deserving of praise and imitation by lesser countries.”
Being an academic and scholar above all else, it was unsurprising that Isha valued the advances she and Berenene had made to education in Namorn beyond any other spectacular achievement of Berenene’s reign.
“It wasn’t easy being empress at first.” Berenene gazed out at the wide, open landscape. In Namorn, it was said that those who were kind, compassionate, and sensitive to the needs of others had wide souls--souls open and all encompassing as the famed Sea of Grass at the edge of the empire. But why was Isha thinking of souls now?
Isha shook her head at her own flightiness as Berenene went on in a voice barely audible over the clopping of horse hooves over snow and ice, “The people of Namorn want a strong leader, and they associate frailty, not strength, with women.”
“I know.” Isha gave a twisted grin. She had been beside Berenene for all the years the empress had struggled to subdue and rule this land that could be challenging and complex as it was rich beyond imagining and stunning to behold. This land with all its contradictions and mysteries that both baffled and entranced outsiders. “The Namornese expression for fool--that somebody is without an emperor in his head--dates back centuries. In Namorn, there is a long tradition of everyone from the highest nobles to the lowest peasants expecting an emperor to be like an autocratic father to his country. Someone who will provide strict discipline and severe punishment to corrupt civil servants and thieving oligarchs. Who will not be crossed. Who will not tolerate their will being defied.”
Isha had been the iron will of this great empress. The one who would not be crossed or defied. The one with the power to insist the empress be obeyed in all things. The one with the magic to punish when the empress wasn’t obeyed or was frustrated in any way.
“You have been my will.” Berenene seemed to sense Isha’s thoughts. “You have given me the freedom to be something softer when I wish to be. Something more beautiful and flirtatious.”
“It’s an honor to be your will.” Isha inclined her head, blaming her blushing cheeks on the wind whipping at her face. “To do your will.”
“I have been a great empress because of you.” All of Berenene’s doubts appeared to fade away, melting like snow and ice in spring, as she favored Isha with the smile that had stolen the hearts and souls of a hundred young noblemen. “Now you must tell me what I would have been if I hadn’t been a great empress?”
“You would have been a great legislator.” Isha slipped into flattery as if it were a silk gown for an elegant banquet because Berenene loved flattery. After flirtation, it was her favorite indulgence, and flattery and flirtation often went together like bread and butter.
“I am that already.” Berenene pouted as she would when charming the young, hot-blooded noble lads of her court. The lads that were always so infatuated with her that it was hard to encourage them to turn their attentions elsewhere so they could make marriages suitable to their ranks. Marriages that would create alliances that would strengthen the empire and children to give birth to its future. “Try again.”
“You would be a great scholar.” Isha felt snowflakes collecting on her eyelashes and blinked them away.
“No.” Berenene’s laughter tinkled like the bells on harnesses of the horses hitched to their sleigh. “That’s you. Not me.”
“You’d be a great diplomat then.” Isha was torn between exasperation and admiration for her empress now.
“I would not.” Berenene laughed again. “I hate compromise and cannot stomach it when I fail to get my way.”
“You are frightfully headstrong,” Isha agreed, cracking a smile like thin ice breaking on a lake. “Well, then, you might have been a famous commander of armies.”
“I would not have been that either.” Berenene tossed her hair as if it were a mare’s mane. “My passionate nature would never have allowed that. I would’ve risked everything for glory and got killed in my very first battle!”
“Then we are very lucky that you became an empress and nothing less,” Isha remarked quietly. Gravely. Unable to offer witticisms about this as her incomparable empress was. “A great empress who has earned enduring glory for herself and her people.”
Rating: PG-13 for references to sexism.
For: mistrali
Prompt: Isha and Berenene.
Summary: Isha, Berenene, and a sleigh ride through a Namornese winter.
Notes: Happy Holidays, mistrali! I hope that you will enjoy my take on two of the most fascinating characters from Will of the Empress and that this fic can help get you in a festive spirit during this special time of the year
Great Empress
“I have been a great empress.” Berenene seemed to be in a rare mood as reflective as the silver snow glinting in the wintry sunlight that she and Isha were riding through on a sleigh pulled by four horses. They were pressed against each other for warmth and bundled beneath thick ermine furs.
Isha wondered if it was the ice crystals hanging like shiny spun-glass ornaments from the evergreens or the frozen lakes that would have been a beautiful blue in Namorn’s brief, glorious summer that was making her beloved empress contemplate the vastness of this land with its cold climate, harsh geography, and indomitable people that they were trying to rule together.
Trying to forge into an empire that could endure and be remembered. That would live after they were long dead and buried beneath marble monuments that could never sum up their accomplishments. That would be their legacy. Their gift to the world and to each other.
Perhaps the weight of building that legacy was resting heavy on Berenene’s mind because she added with an uncharacteristic hint of hesitation in her tone, “Haven’t I?”
It was unlike Berenene to show uncertainty even around her most trusted friend and advisor.
“You have.” Isha nodded solemnly. “Your many improvements to Namorn have transformed it from a wealthy empre that had the potential to be great into a truly great empire. The only one in all the world capable of rivaling Yanjing at the peak of its glory. One worthy of being celebrated and studied by future generations. Your reforms in education alone are deserving of praise and imitation by lesser countries.”
Being an academic and scholar above all else, it was unsurprising that Isha valued the advances she and Berenene had made to education in Namorn beyond any other spectacular achievement of Berenene’s reign.
“It wasn’t easy being empress at first.” Berenene gazed out at the wide, open landscape. In Namorn, it was said that those who were kind, compassionate, and sensitive to the needs of others had wide souls--souls open and all encompassing as the famed Sea of Grass at the edge of the empire. But why was Isha thinking of souls now?
Isha shook her head at her own flightiness as Berenene went on in a voice barely audible over the clopping of horse hooves over snow and ice, “The people of Namorn want a strong leader, and they associate frailty, not strength, with women.”
“I know.” Isha gave a twisted grin. She had been beside Berenene for all the years the empress had struggled to subdue and rule this land that could be challenging and complex as it was rich beyond imagining and stunning to behold. This land with all its contradictions and mysteries that both baffled and entranced outsiders. “The Namornese expression for fool--that somebody is without an emperor in his head--dates back centuries. In Namorn, there is a long tradition of everyone from the highest nobles to the lowest peasants expecting an emperor to be like an autocratic father to his country. Someone who will provide strict discipline and severe punishment to corrupt civil servants and thieving oligarchs. Who will not be crossed. Who will not tolerate their will being defied.”
Isha had been the iron will of this great empress. The one who would not be crossed or defied. The one with the power to insist the empress be obeyed in all things. The one with the magic to punish when the empress wasn’t obeyed or was frustrated in any way.
“You have been my will.” Berenene seemed to sense Isha’s thoughts. “You have given me the freedom to be something softer when I wish to be. Something more beautiful and flirtatious.”
“It’s an honor to be your will.” Isha inclined her head, blaming her blushing cheeks on the wind whipping at her face. “To do your will.”
“I have been a great empress because of you.” All of Berenene’s doubts appeared to fade away, melting like snow and ice in spring, as she favored Isha with the smile that had stolen the hearts and souls of a hundred young noblemen. “Now you must tell me what I would have been if I hadn’t been a great empress?”
“You would have been a great legislator.” Isha slipped into flattery as if it were a silk gown for an elegant banquet because Berenene loved flattery. After flirtation, it was her favorite indulgence, and flattery and flirtation often went together like bread and butter.
“I am that already.” Berenene pouted as she would when charming the young, hot-blooded noble lads of her court. The lads that were always so infatuated with her that it was hard to encourage them to turn their attentions elsewhere so they could make marriages suitable to their ranks. Marriages that would create alliances that would strengthen the empire and children to give birth to its future. “Try again.”
“You would be a great scholar.” Isha felt snowflakes collecting on her eyelashes and blinked them away.
“No.” Berenene’s laughter tinkled like the bells on harnesses of the horses hitched to their sleigh. “That’s you. Not me.”
“You’d be a great diplomat then.” Isha was torn between exasperation and admiration for her empress now.
“I would not.” Berenene laughed again. “I hate compromise and cannot stomach it when I fail to get my way.”
“You are frightfully headstrong,” Isha agreed, cracking a smile like thin ice breaking on a lake. “Well, then, you might have been a famous commander of armies.”
“I would not have been that either.” Berenene tossed her hair as if it were a mare’s mane. “My passionate nature would never have allowed that. I would’ve risked everything for glory and got killed in my very first battle!”
“Then we are very lucky that you became an empress and nothing less,” Isha remarked quietly. Gravely. Unable to offer witticisms about this as her incomparable empress was. “A great empress who has earned enduring glory for herself and her people.”