Her lips peeled back into a snarl. As much as she detested me, it was clear she hated Wugang more. “Wugang once endangered himself, performing a great service for my husband. Since then, honors have been showered upon him. My husband treasures loyalty above all, and Wugang was ever compliant, fulfilling his every command. I favored him, too, until his ambition grew clear: his desire to rule instead of serve.”

“Why would Wugang serve your husband after the humiliation heaped upon him?” I probed.

“Would not any mortal be eternally grateful for the gift of immortality?” she asked scathingly.

As the empress glanced at the doorway impatiently, I stifled my curiosity. The answers I most wanted were for myself. “Why did the emperor send his soldiers to the moon? What does he want with my home?” The official reason—that my mother had slighted the emperor’s pride—felt hollow, incomplete. There was little reason nor justice in this, beyond the fact he wanted us gone. It would not have changed our decision to flee, but I wanted to learn what else we might have to fear.

The corners around the empress’s mouth creased. “What does it matter, now that it’s done? You do not need to know,” she replied harshly, yet I caught the crack in her tone. She did not know, and that unnerved me, for the emperor’s ambitions were a mystery even to those closest to him.

“It does matter,” I ground out. “My home was destroyed, my loved one killed. It means nothing to you, but it is everything to me.”

“Blame yourself for all that happened.”

“This was not my fault.” I had done all I could to steer clear of court politics; I wanted no part of it.

“You disrupted our peace. The army bowed to you. General Jianyun came to your defense. Liwei defied his father’s command before the court, as he had never done before. One by one, you destroyed my husband’s pillars of support until just Wugang remained—and now that ambitious pretender is the only one he will listen to.”

My gut twisted yet I did not look away; to show her any weakness was to invite retaliation. “None of this was intended as a challenge. When greatness runs deep, it need not fear such shallow ripples.”

Her eyes narrowed to slivers of loathing. “Ripples turn into waves.”

“Sweeping them away will only create more. No power is absolute, nor is obedience.”

She drew herself up, her movements taut with fury. “I did not come here to listen to your foolishness. You say you want to help my son. How?”

“Liwei can’t remain at the Jade Palace. Wugang will kill him to secure his position.” Speaking these words sickened me, but I laid them bare in hopes of convincing her.