Epilogue

EPILOGUE

When Qin Zheng startles awake, for a moment he believes he’s back in the lab, hooked up to devices meant to measure and study him. He nearly rips the tubing out of his chest before remembering he now needs it to stay alive. It connects to a machine beside his bed, pumping his blood through a spinning component that resupplies it with oxygen before streaming it back into his body. He no longer has a heartbeat. Until they can find him a compatible transplant, this is how he has to live.

It’s more tolerable, at least, than hanging on to the edge of existence with nothing but a conscious effort to sustain every beat of his heart, as he had to do during his entire return journey to Huaxia. He tasked two of the tribute girls with jolting him awake if they felt no pulse for more than five seconds.

He ought to reward them lavishly. According to them, after witnessing the Heavenly Court’s destruction, they allied with tributes from other regions and overpowered the false gods on their evacuation ship. They then sent the Hive Queen a trans-mission in Hanyu, surrendering to him, because the Huaxia tributes trusted him as their ruler. He hardly had the mental capacity to observe the foreign tributes closely once they docked aboard, but they were a curious sight, with hair and skin colors in a wider range than he had ever seen.

Landing the Hive Queen in Chang’an with them, along with their heavenly prisoners, caused quite the commotion.

“The gods are not gods but subjugators as human as ourselves,” he told the nearest cameras in the crowd that amassed on that mountaintop. “The Heavenly Court is no more. I destroyed it. More information to come. Now leave my presence and bring me a heart surgeon.”

He remembers little of the rush to the operating table, only squeaking wheels and blinding lights. Huaxia must be ablaze with speculation. He has to gather his wits soon to give his people answers.

By habit, he reaches for the other side of the bed for comfort. Then he curses himself.

How dare she?

She is a prideful, arrogant creature, he knows. So is he. They had not begun on the best terms, but did they not reach an understanding over the nearly full year they had known each other? Together, they overthrew gods.

And yet. And yet .

The dragon half-pendant he’s still wearing slips to his shoulder. He grasps it, about to tear it off his neck and throw it against the wall, but thinks better of it. He will not accept defeat so easily. He remembers how she would push him away when conscious but curl up to him when deep asleep. How accomplished he felt when she unconsciously clung to him as he left for morning assemblies, forcing him to pry her arms off himself to not be late. Knowing her true feelings, he remains baffled by her dedication to self-deception. All because she can’t accept the idea of submitting to a man? If she refuses to see reason, he shall do it for her. He has been far too lenient with her, too tolerant of her insolence. He should never have linked into a dream realm with her night after night, knowing the dependency it would create. Sentiment weakened him. For the first time in his life, he understands the logic behind binding the feet of a woman. This nonsense is intolerable.

He is not entirely sure how she slipped away when the Hunduns overwhelmed him. He thought he saw a flying Chrysalis, yet why would that have been in the ocean? The situation was much too chaotic, and he was under much too dire a strain to retain many details. It is a mystery he will have to find her again to solve.

He feels for her spirit signature. She is not the only one who has trained to sense one particular signature over a tremendous distance. Every time she headed to the war front, he honed it. If he knows her as he knows himself, she will not cower beyond the bounds of Huaxia. She will find her way back, and when she does, he will sense her.

He calls for a staffer to summon Secretary Shangguan and Minister Gao. Her precious lady friends. So long as he holds their lives in his hands, she is bound to return to him. She’ll come home, even if he has to break her legs and drag her.

After all, his son cannot grow up without a mother.

To be continued…