MatHaz
patreon
Interlude: Her Name II
🕑 Added 2021-10-30 01:01:00 +0000 UTC~~~
The Palace of the Storm Dragon is wrong.
Most would not think so. Despite the state of the country, the palace still looks like a place fit for royalty. Long marble halls with black banners lined with gold hanging from the walls. Lushly decorated rooms with priceless antiques. Multiple floors and several adjacent buildings for court officials and servants. It is not as well kept as it should be due to a lack of personnel, but that is ultimately of little consequence. This is not a place that receives many visitors, and trying to maintain the palace grounds in any way is a fool’s errand.
The Grand Storm outside makes sure of that.
The palace is under a never-ending storm that stretches for several miles. The flash of lightning and the roar of thunder are constant companions to the people living here. Many would find it nerve-wracking, but that is not the case for her. The Grand Storm is merely an oddity. Its manifestation should happen only during emergencies as opposed to being constantly present, but it does belong here.
The Grand Storm is not what is wrong.
The Palace of the Storm Dragon is wrong at a fundamental level. It is not simply a matter of the palace having deteriorated since the Black Storm Dragon vanished (or so they tell her). Rather, the palace, down to its very foundations, should be larger and more majestic than the one she currently inhabits.
Su Daji does not know how she knows this, yet the certainty with which she feels it cannot be denied.
A frown mars her beautiful face. A passing-by servant, likely having heard the stories, quickly moves out of her way and rushes down the hallway.
What a stupid girl.
If Su Daji were in the mood for it, she could consider that an insult. However, she merely keeps walking, her steps echoing across the empty halls. She is not in the mood for that type of fun. She rarely is nowadays.
Her frown deepens.
It is all the transfer’s fault.
She was too eager. That much, she can admit. This body is compatible with her, but it is not natural compatibility. Not through bloodline and talent but rather through-
Boss!
… other means. Still, is there anyone who can blame her for seizing the opportunity presented before her? Who knows how much more she’d have to wait for someone else to appear? That had been her thinking, but...
Who even is she now?
Su Daji.
The name comes naturally to her. She is Su Daji. She can be no one else.
She is unsure if Su Daji is a name she has ever used before.
Su Daji knows things. She understands things. However, her actual memories are like water constantly slipping through her fingers. Nothing but flashes, sounds, and blurred images. There will be times when she can see them clearly only to forget them in mere seconds.
It is maddening.
With all her memories, she’d have already regained her glory. She is sure of it. Even in her diminished state, she has gained access to the Storm Dragon Palace. This is where she needs to be because… because…
She is Su Daji.
She will rise again.
“Lady Su, I did not expect to see you in this part of the palace.”
The voice roots her to the spot. A single breath passes before she turns around.
“Good Morning, General He,” she says. Her bow is without flaw as it rightly should be.
Shouldn’t it?
“This little miss was merely taking a walk. Should she not have?” She asks, well aware there are not many people in this wing of the palace. The one servant who crossed her path is doubtlessly far away now. She might have even warned the other servants to stay away.
It is only her and General He here.
General He is a man with pale skin and green eyes that match the color of his hair. His face is rugged but not overly so. His build is properly heroic. Many of the women at court swoon over him, and not just for his looks. The black and gold armor he wears marks him as one of the Three Heavenly Generals of the Storm Dragon Empire.
“It is not forbidden,” the general replies. “However, Lady Su may lose her way exploring this area on her own.” He sighs with sadness. “I am afraid the palace is not what it once was. These halls were once filled with life, but many areas now go unused.”
It is amazing.
His tone. His posture. Even his Qi. All of them are perfectly chosen to make him seem trustworthy. To make her forget this man is in the Emperor Realm.
The loyal general, they call General He. He is a hero in the eyes of the Emperor’s court. However, something about him has always unsettled Su Daji. From the moment she first laid eyes on him, she knew she couldn’t trust him no matter what.
The scent lingering on him is disgustingly familiar.
“How sad,” she says with the right amount of sorrow in her voice. “Still, this little miss has no need to worry about getting lost now that General He is here. A lady could hardly ask for a better bodyguard.”
He laughs. “You flatter me, Lady Su.”
“However,” she adds at just the right time, “this little miss is surprised. I thought for sure General He would still be out pacifying the border territories. What is he doing here instead?”
Border territories. A misleading name for an unfortunate problem. The term refers not to the Storm Dragon Empire’s borders with other countries but to the areas in between the territories controlled by the Three Heavenly Generals. They are lawless zones where bandits roam. When a bandit group grows too powerful, the generals take time out of their constant fighting to pacify them.
General He frowns. A lesser lady would have thought he looked handsome like that as well. The perfect image of a hero burdened by duty.
“Unfortunately, it seems that wild beast got there before us.”
There is no need for him to elaborate. Who else but Murong Bang is worthy of such a name?
“General Murong has been rather successful lately,” Su Daji points out. “Too successful.”
“Lady Su should not worry about such things,” General He reassures her. “Murong Bang is a wild beast and little more. His ambition is of small consequence.”
And yet, Murong Bang is one of the three major powers in the empire.
“Dealing with beasts like him is my duty and that of the army. Lady Su simply has to soothe the court with her music. The prince quite enjoys it. I thought for sure Lady Su would be at his side right now.”
Soothe the court with her music. Something about that strikes her as darkly funny, yet there is no denying she is the court musician of the Storm Dragon Palace.
Su Daji came out of that cave with two goals in mind: power and luxury. She wandered the wilderness for weeks before she came across a populated area. From there, it was all too simple. Men could never deny her anything.
This body was pretty enough before she got a hold of it, but the merge brought it to another level. The plain hair from before is now long, lustrous, and violet. Her eyes are alluring purple orbs that men find themselves helplessly drawn into. Her figure, which was already quite shapely, is now nothing short of divine.
She is Su Daji. A more perfect beauty than her cannot exist. The path she took to the Palace of the Storm Dragon is lined by the bodies of foolish men. Once she gained an audience with the imperial court, her skill with music and dance did the rest. She was made court musician on the spot.
“The prince does not need me by his side all the time,” she replies with ease. “In fact, he wishes to be alone right now.”
A lie. The prince is besotted with her.
The father is too busy jumping at ghosts to risk becoming involved with her, and Su Daji is not so foolish as to try to enthrall him. The son, however, requires no such effort or risk. She can feel his eyes on her while she plays. It would be so easy to become princess. She knows she has done it before, yet she has not even deigned to let him lay a single finger on her.
The prince is wrong too.
The eyes are the wrong shade of red. The hair is not dark enough. His smile is too wide. His brain is not quick enough. His judgment is lacking. His daring is lacking. Everything about him is lacking. It is all wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrong-
“Lady Su?”
“Forgive me,” she says. There is no need to fake the affliction in her voice. She turns away and covers her face with one hand. “It seems this part of the palace does not agree with me.”
“Allow me to escort you back to your quarters then. It is no good for a woman to be alone in such an empty place.”
Su Daji is glad she is not looking at him when he says that. It makes it easier to hide her displeased expression.
“There is no need for that.”
A deep and rumbling voice echoes throughout the hallway. Dark clouds full of lightning manifest between them, making Su Daji and General He take a step back. Thunder echoes as the clouds take on the shape of a dragon with long horns and red eyes.
The eyes are the right shade of red.
“Great Old One!” The general immediately drops to his knees. Su Daji does the same. “You grace us with your presence.”
“Stand,” the deep voice says. “General He, you have yet to report to the Emperor. That should be your priority.”
“Of course, Great Old One,” General He says as he stands up. He glances at Su Daji.
The dragon snorts. The sound is the rumbling of a coming storm.
“You believe she could come to harm in my presence?”
“Of course not!” The general bows his head. “Forgive my insolence! I shall do as you command and present myself before the Emperor, Great Old One.”
He gives Su Daji a slight nod before leaving. The girl and the dragon stare at each other until even the echoes of the general’s footsteps have faded away.
“Fox, you wander in where you are not wanted.”
Fox. Su Daj shivers. The name feels right. It feels proper.
It feels Divine.
“I apologize for causing you undue trouble, Great Old One,” she says with reverent submission. In front of this creature, there is nothing else left to do.
Why have the various powers within the empire not deposed the Emperor?
Why does the Grand Storm exist?
Why is it not one of the Three Heavenly Generals who sit on the throne?
The answer to those questions is one and the same. Because the Divine Storm Dragon exists. The shadow of the Divine Progenitor of the Qing Dynasty lingers within the palace. He is the Fist of the Emperor. The Guardian of the Dynasty. So long as he exists, no one without Qing blood can move against the Emperor.
The power of the Divine Storm Dragon is not absolute. It can only act on places covered by the Grand Storm. Outside of that, it is the Three Heavenly Generals who rule. Not that it matters to Su Daji. She lives within the palace.
It is the Divine Storm Dragon who rules over her.
“An apology. From you. How novel.”
Su Daji flinches. From the moment the Divine Storm Dragon first appeared before her, he has made it clear he knows who she is. He knows and is content to hold the knowledge over her head.
“If you find me so objectionable,” she says, “Why not throw me out of the palace?”
The Divine Storm Dragon laughs.
“This is not a henhouse, Fox. To catch a young dragon, bait of a proper sort is required. You shall do.”
~~~
AN:
For Inner and eventually Outer Disciples, the two remaining Interludes will be unlocked for you on Thursday and Friday respectively.
Comments
token
Was kinda dreading this interlude after I saw the title a month back. I’m still heated about that chapter, especially considering what happened before. This’ll complicate everything getting Su An back about as much as possible but at least it works to move the Storm Dragon empire plot along
David Wei
To be fair, feelings can change over time. Su An probably would have fallen in love with Lui Jin over time naturally anyways, though it may have ended up as an older sibling style love instead of romantic if they hadn't been separated. But yeah Su An is going to have to fight to show that she's actually interested in Lui Jin now.
Guy Incognito
Pretty worried about how Su Daji's memories/confusion related to Liu Jin are going to end. Since if this were just 'a cliche xianxia harem story' you'd think this would be a fairly predictable storyline, and probably something along the lines of what the DSD is thinking (if he is aware of Liu Jin at least). LJ comes looking and finds SD increasing his connection and commitment to the Storm Dragon Empire as he goes to try and rescue her. SD falls for the Jin she so obviously has feelings for and the throne ends up with a strong emperor with a powerful foxy waifu. Everyone wins! ...except SD is a conjoined person resulting from an ancient fox spirit bodyjacking the original Su. Someone who made clear her lack of interest in Liu Jin and who very much was interested in someone else. And Liu Jin is aware of this and almost certainly isn't going to take advantage of a mindfucked friend.
MasterofNova
I can only interpret this as the dragon knowing that Liu Jin is a thing that exists and wanting the fox lady to lure him to the palace because of the lackluster successors to the throne after the black dragon.
Gavriel
How did I not see this chapter earlier?! This is good stuff! It's clear whom she is thinking of to.the readers (Liu Jin 😂)
Mat Haz
Thanks! Fixed!
Desidia
This Interlude doesn't have the Ave Xia Rem Y tag.
Pipeman
So time for some speculation on what's going on: If this Daji roughly matches the historical/mythical Daji, her MO is basically to seduce the emperor, live in luxury and convince him to let her indulge in all kinds of heinous cruelties for basic amusement. If we assume those impulses have been vaguely tempered by Su An's influence that sorta works, but I'm not sure that's quite right either. It's probably correct in vague generalities (we get enough on Daji's predelictions from her internal monologue and from the Dragon's comments on her character to make that assessment), but the fact that Su An seems to apparently have been a viable vessel due to her attittude towards her "Boss" kinda implies that Daji herself was also loyal to her own "Boss", which doesn't outright contradict the assumptions so far, but puts a neat spin on things. Moving on to the palace feeling wrong to Daji, there's two different ways we could take to explain this: Either Daji was associated with the ancient dynastic forerunner of the current Storm Dragon empire and at some point the gigantic ancient palace got flattened and replaced with a puny modern imitation or she wasn't associated with the ancient Storm Dragon forerunner and just expected a bigger palace because that's the level of extravagance she had grown used to. I'm leaning towards the first explanation, because Daji being Storm Dragon forerunner associated does a lot to explain the Dragon's familiarity with her and how Su An's dedication to Liu Jin was enough to enable the faulty possession. Final piece of speculaton for the day: How does the old Dragon even know about Liu Jin or that Su Daji would make suitable bait for him, when his only source of information has massive amnesia? Well, probably because he knows Daji's MO. He can tell that the current vessel shouldn't have sufficed for her needs, because otherwise she wouldn't have all the memory issues, and he's probably knowledgable enough that must be because the vessel lacked bloodline and talent, but had some sort of other resonance. It's even possible that he can use the areas Daji is particularly confused about to deduce what areas the vessel and Daji were very different in. But the important thing is that he can probably tell that for the vessel to work as a vessel at all, they needed to be a loyal follower of a legitimate heir to the storm dragon bloodline who had enough strength of character that Daji wouldn't have despised him. Which means he doesn't know about Liu Jin per se (though he can probably guess whose son he is, given that the disappearance of his dad lines up with a likely timeline of events), but he knows there's a worthy heir around who used to know Daji's vessel and probably was close enough to her to want her back at some point. At the moment signs point towards him wanting to make Liu Jin be emperor, though Liu Jin probably wouldn't want that and things never go that smoothly, so I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to eat Liu Jin for the sins of his father instead or something, but I'm looking forward to where this goes regardless.
burning_the_paper
Not a fox spirit. He calls her a fox because she's a schemer. As for what drew her, it's obvious she was someone that was alive during the reign of the first ruler of the Storm Dragon Empire, and she associates the palace with luxury and power. But yes, subconsciously it's likely both the Su An portion of the personality, as well as the imperfect transfer and lack of memories that made her seek a familiar location. And yes, the Dragon obviously is aware of Liu Jin - hence why he lets Su Daji do as she pleases, she's bait to draw a more fitting heir to the throne and get him involved in the politics of the empire, since it's obvious the uncle and cousin are not up to the job.
Maniac000
Hm so Su An was taken over by a fox spirit? I wonder what drew Su Daji to the Storm Dragon Empire. Perhaps a subconscious desire for revenge against General Murong from An? Does the dragon know about Liu? I bet the Great Old One was able to sense Liu’s royal Qi on her. It’s also interesting she finds that Liu’s eyes and Great Old One’s are the right color red. Points to Liu being a “dragon” so to speak.
Wyv
That was Su An getting her mind shattered and stitched with someone else's
David Wei
Huh, so Su Daji/Su An is the waifu in the storm dragon empire. Also neet dragon grandpa.
Nikron
Wait, what was "Her Name I"?
Ethan Dowie
Love the dragon, can't wait for Qing Jin to start moving forward.
Kyle Reese
Qing Jin is about to get another wife
GloryHound
Holy shit so great grandpa storm dragon is watching over his grand kiddies; and he knows about Jin! He wants a real dragon on the throne… Hazard, please don’t bait and switch I def expect emperor of storm empire Qing Jin.
Amelgar
Huh... didn't expect her to rock up there
