Chapter Text
POV: Lanhua, the Orchid, aspiring Fairy
Orchid woke up gradually to the feeling of being cradled and carried. She could smell her lover’s sweet scent, feel his firm muscles and the hard bands of his arms encircling her. For a moment, she drifted in and out of consciousness, snuggling deeper into his arms, and looping her own arms around his neck. His long smooth strands of hair slid against her forearm, and she started to blink and open her eyes.
Then she remembered… Her lover was DONGFANG QINGCANG, THE MOON SUPREME?! She let go of his neck with a yelp, almost toppling out of his arms. Her eyes had shot open and she started kicking her heels as he reeled back and almost dropped her.
“Xiao Lanhua, STOP MOVING! Think about the baby’s safety, if not your own,” he scolded. He sounded the same as before. He looked the same. He felt the same. He smelled the same. But he looked alien all of a sudden. How had she fallen asleep, and why was she so hungry and uncomfortable? And why was Da Qiang, who was actually the boogeyman from all the Fairy stories, carrying her?
“I’m sorry!” she squeaked. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please don’t kill me!” She had her hands together, rubbing her palms in a pleading motion.
“Oh, so you remember the insults and wounds you dealt out to me? Is that all I am to you, little flower? A stinky goblin from your children’s tales?”
Orchid threw herself into a prone position, bowing and rubbing her hands together. The terror of knowing that she had known almost nothing about Da Qiang while she fell madly in love with him, gave herself to him, and placed her life in his hands… She was crying, thinking only of how to keep herself and her new little life safe, if he was the evil overlord of the Moon Tribe, the savage, brutal group of warriors and warlords bent on the utter destruction of the Fairy Immortals. What did he really want with her? Why was he really hiding at the Arbiter’s Hall?
“Please, Da Qia--Please your lordship The Moon Supreme, spare me, please spare me, I never meant to insult you--”
“Xiao. Lan. Hua. Stand up. You’re shaking the baby, and he’s gonna fall right out,” he said, his voice too dry for humor, yet his words too silly to be serious. She blinked and cautiously rubbed at her eyes and sat up.
“You’re not…angry?” she asked cautiously. He was much less responsive than before. Something was colder, more remote, and he was closed off. It frightened her, but he had done nothing threatening. Was he really the ruthless, bloodthirsty ruler of their enemies? Was he really that old and powerful? She sniffled and flinched only a little when he grasped her upper arm and gently helped her up. The strength in his hand was the same as it was before.
“I’m not angry, I am trying my best to be patient,” he replied, again in that much more distant than usual.
“Have you fooled me on purpose? Are you here to gather intelligence and launch an internal attack on the Fairy Immortals? Have I caused the downfall of my own people…ahh!” Her voice wobbled and then she burst into tears again. For the past almost month and a half, he had never before let her go a whole day without feeding her, making sure she was watered properly, and fucked to satisfaction every day, several times a day, until she was filled with his essence and limp with pleasure and exhaustion. But now she had been made to sleep a whole day with his magical interference, and had felt the coldness and emptiness of the bed when he woke her. Her body was too tender, she was hungry, her mouth was dry, and she just wanted Da Qiang to hold her. She just wanted him to be her escaped convict again.
Seeming to read her mind, he asked, “Was it easier to be a loyal citizen when you were just hiding an escaped prisoner? And now you suspect me of grander things? But you would know, wouldn’t you? Have I done anything that seems remotely strategic in the past month, little flower, or have WE been keeping occupied…” He stepped closer, putting a finger under her chin and lifting so she would look at his face, right into his eyes. “...with other TYPES of activities?”
Orchid felt herself blushing, her insides already liquid hot like magma. All it took was one touch from him, and she was on fire. She wanted. She needed. And she was fighting it. She bit her lip and jerked her face to the side, taking away the one point of contact between her chin and his finger. Her averted gaze caught on a large jade ring seen circling the same finger that had been in her mouth, in her channel, stroking her tight buds. The finger she knew; the ring she had never seen before.
“But you are right to be wary. I’m actually proud that you even thought about the implications of my identity and your country. You might be young and naive, but you’re not truly lacking. I am indeed an enemy to your people and your country. With just myself and my lieutenant, I am unlikely to wage an entire war, especially not while surrounded by enemies on all sides. But I am The Moon Supreme, little flower. If I wanted to destroy as much of your corrupt, pretty Fairy Immortal army and forces as I wanted to and escape this place, no one currently alive could stop me or imprison me again.”
Orchid shuddered at the cold, precise tone of his voice as he declared his ability to withstand any of the strongest warriors alive in the Fairy Immortal kingdom. She was trembling now, still hungry and thirsty, and she had not realized how dependent on his almost precognitive doting, his mind reading when it came to meeting her needs. To feel the distinct absence of that connection was chilling. So many times even before she realized she was cold or uncomfortable, he had shifted her, wrapped her in his cloak, provided what she needed during the time they had become lovers.
“Da Qi--Your Lordship,” she corrected herself, “...if you’re not going to kill me, what is it that you want?” She asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep the tremble out of her voice and off her lower lip.
“Before anything else, let me ask you one very important question, Xiao Lanhua: Do you still love our child?”
Orchid gasped, wrapped her arms protectively around her middle and stepped back. “W--what do you mean?”
“Answer the question, little fairy,” he said, louder, almost barking his command.
“Please, MY LORD, you’re not going to--I don’t even know! Please don’t…” Orchid felt her breathing catch in sobs that shook her shoulders.
“Do you still want the baby, knowing who I am now?” His voice was louder. She was still panicked, and not sure what to say. Orchid backed up a little further until the wood paneling of the wall pressed into her back.
“ANSWER THE QUESTION!” he roared this time. She was shaking. Orchid turned her head to the side, squeezing tears out as she closed her eyes so tightly.
“YES!” she shouted back, still with her eyes closed, head turned to the side. “I LOVE THE BABY; PLEASE DON’T TAKE MY BABY! PLEASE DON’T HURT THE BABY!” She was screaming back at him, tears streaming down her face, arms still wrapped around her stomach. When she darted a glance through tear soaked lashes, he almost looked…hurt. But she was too terrified to truly register or guess at any of his emotions. She closed her eyes again, flinching away slightly.
“Good. Then you’ll do whatever it takes to protect my heir, the next supreme ruler of the Moon Tribe. And you’ll do everything I say from now on. Is that clear?”
Orchid opened her eyes and looked at the father of her child again. He was only a few feet away from her, but she felt like he had distanced himself by hundreds of miles. His eyes were not warm anymore, and the gentleness in his voice was completely gone now. What had she gotten herself into?
“I asked if I made myself clear, Xiao Lanhua. You will answer. You will do as I say, and I will keep you safe from all our enemies--including your own people. I will keep our child safe.”
“Yes, I will follow your orders, My Lord,” she said. “But why did you make me love you?” She couldn’t hold back that desperate cry because she wanted to know from the soul, why had he loved her, made love to her, and made her love him? He was over ten thousand times her age, the only person alive who could wield Hellfire, a commander of armies, and yet…He had been hers for a short time, only hers. Her heart cried out for him, and where he usually met her before she could want for anything, there was a silence and a hollow echo.
“I cannot command a heart to love, like I command a soldier to follow--or any more than I could command the sun to rise or set. You must have done that by yourself,” he said casually, as if he hadn’t just shattered her heart into a million pieces.
“But you know now who I am, and how ruthless I must be to keep my place, so you should know now that I wanted you to carry my child. I planned it.”
“What? What do you me--”
“I wanted you pregnant. I planned it. I made it happen.” The way he declared that the child was his plan in the first place was like a slap in the face. He was a devil. He was devious beyond her comprehension.
Orchid felt herself sliding with her back against the wall, until she was crouched on the floor. She felt terror, anger, and so many feelings that she was overwhelmed and her body settled into a numb shock.
“You’ll stay here in this room until I send for you. Then we begin your training.” His voice sounded like it was far away and coming from underwater. She had no time to process that he had gotten her pregnant on purpose, much less whatever he had just said about training.
“Shang Que! Get her some dew water, the way I showed you, and some food. Now. She’s hungry. Don’t leave her unattended. Guard the room. Make her drink and eat,” he ordered in rapid fire, sounding angry as he stalked away.
Shang Que came to pick her gently up, walk her to the bed. Hours might have passed as he kept trying to feed her. She managed a few bites of porridge at a time, drank water, and kept her hand over the softness of her low belly. Shang Que eventually tucked her under the blanket, and went to stand guard at her closed door, leaving her alone in her room.
“Don’t worry, littlest one,” she whispered to the small life inside her. “Mama will keep you safe. Baba…Baba wants you still, just like mama wants you. Don’t listen to bad things. I’m sorry I was crying--You were probably startled. Your Baba is a very powerful warrior and leader, and he wanted you to exist. That’s good, my sweet little seedling. It has to be good.”
Lanhua turned onto her side and curled her knees up.
“Your baba wanted you to exist, and so did I. No matter what happens, at least we know this. It’ll be alright, my bright one. But maybe we should tell Baba to be nicer next time.”
Her whispers faded into a room that was too empty. She had slept too much lately, but she was still growing a little one inside her, and though she would normally have been unable to sleep again, she still fell deeply asleep.
In her dreams, she called out for Da Qiang, who had somehow fallen down a deep well and couldn’t climb out.