~Even the sun casts frost when it looks upon its own reflection.~
-*-
The dawn bell rang three times and the palace breathed awake. Frost silvered the jade walkways; lanterns bobbed like small moons in servants' hands. In the Hall of Radiant Harmony, incense climbed into the high dark, a thin thread against the morning.
Doctor Wen knelt at the base of the dais.
"Your Majesty, His Highness's pulse remains steady. The cold within his veins has not advanced since last month."
The Emperor's fingers paused on the armrest. "Not advanced," he said, "is not improved."
"This servant reports what Heaven allows him to see."
"Continue," the Emperor replied.
"The Empire may lack many things; it does not lack physicians."
His tone was even, but the jade ring on his hand clicked once against wood and the sound carried.
***
The herald's cry cut the quiet: ministers of the Six Departments were summoned. Robes rustled; jade pendants chimed. Reports followed—grain, drills, repairs—thin voices swallowed by the hall.
When the Minister of Rites rose, his words wavered.
"Your Majesty, permission to rebuild the southern shrine—last winter's snow—"
The Emperor's gaze settled on him. "The southern shrine falls under your household's care. Your sister is still confined?"
A hollow thud as the minister's knees met stone.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Then rebuild it," the Emperor said. "She will need a place to pray."
No one mentioned the Phoenix Palace. No one needed to.
Court dismissed, the Emperor remained looking through the carved window lattice at a hard, clean sky.
"Frost again," he murmured. "Even Heaven mimics him."
In the East Palace, thin sunlight sifted through cypress shadows. Murong Jing sat with a scroll open and unattended. Wei Lanyin set a tray beside him, steam veiling her face for a breath.
"You have not eaten," she said. "At least drink before your thoughts sour the tea."
He lifted the cup. "News travels faster than sense. You heard about the Phoenix Palace."
"I have ears," she answered. "And a husband who hides storms under courtesy."
A corner of his mouth moved.
"Father says nothing. So the court will say everything."
"Let them," she said. "Your brother's silence will drown them."
"You defend him more fiercely than Mother."
"I owe him more," she replied simply. "Once he could have spoken and did not. My father's name remained untouched."
"You never told me."
"It would have embarrassed him." She refilled his cup. "And added weight you do not need. If I place gratitude on the bridge between you, it may crack."
He covered her hand for a moment. "You speak like my mother."
"She taught me. A Lin woman steadies men who do not know they are falling."
A eunuch called from outside the screen: the Emperor summoned the Crown Prince. Jing rose, and Lanyin straightened his collar.
"If frost falls on me today," he said lightly, "he will carry half."
She did not ask which he. "And if fire lights?" she asked.
"Then I will," Jing said, and went.
***
When Murong Chen entered the Hall of Radiant Harmony, the incense had thinned to a memory. Marble held the morning cold like a blade holds light.
He bowed. "This son greets the Emperor."
"You are late," the Emperor said.
"My horse slipped on the frost."
Neither apology nor excuse. The Emperor's mouth curved faintly. "Then the heavens disapprove of your pace. Your brother waits."
Murong Jing stepped from behind a column, already robed. "Father, I was clarifying the matter of the Yancheng drills—"
"I have heard enough of drills," the Emperor cut in.
"Princes drill soldiers, ministers count grain, and still the capital gossips about hairpins."
Silence.
The Emperor descended the dais. "Jing. What do you make of yesterday's commotion?"
"The court whispers loudly," Jing said. "Consort Lin has learned a lesson."
"And you?" The Emperor turned to Chen.
"It was unsightly," Murong Chen said.
A twitch passed through a servant's throat, half laugh, half choke; the Emperor's eyes silenced it.
"You cut a woman's hair because an ornament displeased you?"
"It was her words that weighed more than her worth," Chen replied. "The hair was lighter."
"You talk as if beauty is a debt."
"Perhaps it is. Some pay with silence; others with fear."
Jing shifted forward. "Father, he meant no—"
"I know what he meant," the Emperor said mildly. "You two think alike. One hides his heart behind courtesy; the other behind calm."
He turned to the wall map, rivers painted like veins. "When I am gone, who will hide the Empire itself?"
Neither son spoke. The Emperor's gaze softened by a breath. "The world is not built on love—but it cannot stand without it. Remember that."
He lifted a hand, ending the audience. "See that the Empress's courtyard remains undisturbed in the coming days. And, Chen—"
Murong Chen paused at the threshold.
"Next time you strike," the Emperor said, "make certain the court deserves the wound."
Chen bowed and left.
***
Frost glittered on cypress needles; the sun was more light than heat. Murong Jing caught up with his brother along the eastern colonnade.
"He tests us again," Jing said.
"He always does."
"You might try speaking less like a sword."
"You might try speaking more like one."
They looked at each other—warmth and cold, two faces of the same steel—and then Jing laughed under his breath. "Mother will scold us both."
"She already knows," Chen said.
They separated at the turning of the path. The Crown Prince's crimson caught sunlight; the Ninth Prince's dark mantle absorbed it. Two shadows moving in opposite directions, pulled by the same center.
From a balcony of the Phoenix Palace, Empress Lin Rouxi watched their figures diminish beneath flowering lattices. Yin Deng approached and bowed.
"Your Majesty, the princes have left the hall. Doctor Wen also says His Highness's pulse is quiet."
"Quiet," the Empress said, eyes still on the courtyard, "is not the same as peace."
She turned back to a cooling teapot and poured anyway. Outside, the princes disappeared under the long roofline, their paths parted by duty, joined by something harder to break.
"Frost and fire," she murmured. "May neither consume the other."
She drank the tea cold.
-*-