Choices

20 - Interference

A/N: The white lotus* makes a move. Also, a peek into Fengjiu's painful memories of the past, and the misunderstandings that were borne out of it.

Angst, lots of it, up ahead. You've been warned (runs away and hides).

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When Fengjiu was a baby fox living the life of luxury as Donghua Dijun's pet, she had the privilege of going in and out of his private chambers and sleeping on his bed, beside him almost all the time. It was because of this that she came upon a scene that would scar her heart for the rest of her life.

It had been a few days since Princess Ji Heng, half-sister of the Red Demon Lord Xu Yang, arrived in Dijun's palace. Fengjiu did not know how the princess came to be here, only heard some of the maids talking about it, most with surprise at Dijun's decision to take the princess in despite being known far and wide as a heartless, unsympathetic being.

Had Dijun been moved by such delicate and melancholic beauty, peerless in the Southern realms?

Fengjiu was by no means vain, but found herself wishing, not for the first time, that she could regain her fox skin and once again take human form, just to see how she would fare against the famed beauty of the demon lands.

That night was nothing special, just another moonlit evening shrouded in the darkness that was peculiar to the Southern realms. Fengjiu the fox had just finished with her usual after-dinner stroll through the gardens, and was on the way back to Dijun's rooms to sleep when she saw Princess Ji Heng tiptoeing her way down the corridor, clad in a thin night robe.

Curiosity piqued, Fengjiu hid in the shadows and followed the princess as the latter made her way to Dijun's room. There was a ward on the doors (it had always been there, as far as Fengjiu was aware, though Dijun had given her special privilege to bypass it), and for several minutes Ji Heng fumbled, trying out this spell and that in an attempt to break it.

After a few minutes of watching the princess (curiosity killed the cat, or in this case, the fox), Fengjiu, still in the shadows, moved a bit closer so that the tip of her paw touched the ward. It went down at once, granting both her and the princess entrance.

Fengjiu watched as Ji Heng crossed the expansive room and went straight for Dijun's bed, hidden behind gauzy curtains. Fengjiu may be a fairly young fairy, but she was from Qingqiu, and the nine-tailed foxes are known for, among others, their liberal attitude towards relationships of the sexual kind. She knew at once what the princess is trying to do, and gave an inner eye roll.

Three years she have been with Dijun as a fox, but had yet to see a shadow of a woman in his bedchambers. She knew very well of his reputation -- tales were replete of how numerous demonesses, and later on goddesses and women from every clan, competed to share his bed for the night, to spend several hours of bliss before being thrown out the day after. But the time she'd spent with him, including that period that she served as his maid, seemed to refute those tales.

With that in mind, Fengjiu waited for Ji Heng to get kicked out so she can climb onto the bed and sleep.

Several minutes passed, but nothing happened. Fengjiu wondered if Dijun was not in bed like she thought, and so took a step forward so she can see what the princess is doing -- and was met with a sight that would stay in her mind's eye for the years to come.