The dialogue she participated in was like a dance, for this was the only way that another could touch her, through the sound of their voice or by the brushing of auras. He had noticed the subtlety of her openness. How, only energetically, she posited that she would accept another into her realm.

Batu, however, pushed past that and into her sphere.

At first it was the brutish curvature of his mouth, close enough that the vapors of his breath were a worthy prelude to the strumming of a long, solid forelimb. It traveled from dainty ankle to bent knee, achingly hovering in a half-step position, as if she could pull away from this at any moment.

The press of his body eventually made her plant her foot, to better bolster her frame against the force of another. Whether she had intended to or not, it conveyed a message that she would not shy away from this.

There was no reason to, not when his touch felt welcome. Not when the rogue’s exhales hovered just beyond her fur tips, like how a warm zephyr could stir one’s sense of groundedness and tranquility.

It was strange, how in one moment, she could feel so exasperated by the enormity of the situation she, alone, faced. Now, on the other side, it felt so small. As if Shenlei and his bastards could not affect her – in fact, she was so intimately reminded the Emperor, though a God incarnate, just wanted what anyone wanted: closeness, affection, and to not feel so alone in the drudgery of their duties.

Everyone wanted this, including she; an empress, an orchid, and everything in between.

If he was a beast, then it was a beast who received a brush of her nose; the barest touch on his shoulder. So you have, she affirmed, realizing with a heart-flutter that she had so-willingly played the fool to his verbal machinations. Again, Batu was nothing but honest. However, it was not a curse to be someone’s fool.

Both had their place and their value.

Some might say a jester was the stark opposite of the Empress, though both played their role. It was a relationship that took an absurd amount of trust – the jester trusted the Empress not to take it personally, and the Empress needed to trust that the jester knew boundaries.

and for this dynamic to exist within one soul?

Well, it felt luxuriously nice to allow another to lead, if but only for this moment.

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