Vivian
Bitch!!!!!
The word cut through her thoughts the mont she stepped into the room.
I cannot believe you are in here touching my husband. I should co over there and stab you. Not just stab you. Cut you into little pieces. Make you scream. How dare you put your hands on my husband when I haven't even touched him?
Vivian froze within her own internal monologue. Touch him? She was complaining about soone else touching him? What the hell was wrong with her? She didn't actually have the right to say any of this. It was a good thing she wasn't saying it, only thinking it. She could picture her husband's, Sophie's, Nathan's, and Ani's faces if she expressed such pettiness.
She struggled to get her impulses under control. She was Vivian Li, the Crane of the Li House, the Greatest of the Four Beauties of the Empire. She was not so jealous bar maid and she would not have such emotions cloud her judgnt.
Her gaze fixed on Ani, sharp and unyielding.
She was not going to stab Ani. She was NOT going to stab Ani. She WAS NOT going to STAB Lu Ani.
Ethan Zhou is your husband, but it's political. He is not your lover, he is not courting you, hell he is not really even your friend.
Ok that one hurt.
Vivian closed her eyes.
You have an agreent. You have... had Jun. It is not fair for you to act like this. You are not allowed to simply change the rules and act all possessive. He is your husband in na. And you are the heir to the Li household. Start acting like it.
She took a deep breath and looked at Ani's face.
She still wanted to stab her. Not like KILL her, they were technically friends, just make her bleed a little bit. Make her understand her place, which was BEHIND Vivian Li.
Vivian took another deep breath.
The lanterns had been turned low. Maps still covered the central table, marked with the sa careful notations from that morning's session, but the working atmosphere had shifted into sothing slower, looser. Ethan sat at the head of the table with his eyes closed, his shoulders dropped in a way she had not seen since before the battle. Ani stood behind his chair, her fingers threaded through his hair, both thumbs moving in slow, deliberate arcs at the base of his skull.
Vivian set the folder down on the nearest clear surface.
She could tell that Nathan was trying very hard not to be noticed. He was still upset about his earlier comnt, she could tell. Vivian did not look at him either.
"Ani," she said. Her voice ca out level, which was what she had intended, but still surprising.
Ani glanced up without removing her hands. Her expression brightened. Not the brightening of a person caught doing sothing they shouldn't, but the genuine warmth of soone pleased by the company. That was the part Vivian found hardest to work with. There was nothing to push against when the warmth was real.
"Lady Vivian," Ani said, her voice conversational and amused. "Princess and the little Li. Up so late? What brings you to the war room at this hour? Scholar Man and I were just discussing magic."
Ethan looked between them with the mild focus of a man returning from a significant distance. Then he straightened slightly, though not all the way, as if his body was still negotiating with the past hour.
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"Lady Li. Princess." He glanced toward the doorway. "I thought you'd retired. I would have thought you were asleep."
The smile softened his eyes. "Not that I am sad to see you."
"I had sothing to bring you, and I didn't think it could wait." Vivian nodded toward the folder. That was a lie but it was as good a reason as any. "The confirmation ca through. The delegation has departed from the Capital. We can expect them within the week."
That pulled him the rest of the way upright. "The week? So long. Why aren't they flying? This is sowhat important."
Vivian, despite herself, gave her husband a warm smile. "Not everyone has carriages that can fly that far and fast with altered magic arrays that change the nature of travel, dear husband. Most of the carriages rely on mana stones, which are in short supply right now. Rumor has it that there is sothing wrong with the mana stone quarry in the Latolla. Apparently, that was why Father has been out of touch."
Vivian saw her husband consider this. "Since we know that we aren't going to be attacked, we should send our carriages, Nathan."
Nathan stood straighter. "Yes, brother-in-law."
"Let's inform the pilots that they will leave first thing in the morning. We will have a destination for them before or as they leave. We will have the carriages bring in the main delegation. Anyone else can co through the old northern paths."
Nathan saluted. Ethan rolled his eyes but smiled.
"Any chance we got a report from Karguk and the rest of his delegation in the last couple of hours?"
Sophie caught this one. "Yes, actually. Apparently, he is still trying to get information from his father. This Karguk fellow is surprisingly adept at political nuance, and from what I can tell, he is really interested in this alliance. We think his group will be here within the next two days."
The room settled into the particular stillness of people recalculating. Ethan's attention had sharpened entirely now, whatever ease he had been experiencing at Ani's hands receding behind whatever he was already mapping in his head. Vivian had watched him do this enough tis to recognize the shift, the mont he stopped being present in a room and started being present in the problem.
Behind him, Ani's hands had slowed. She did not withdraw them imdiately. She finished what she was doing with the sa unhurried composure she had started with, her fingers sliding once more through his hair before she let her hands fall and stepped back to rest one palm lightly against the edge of the table instead.
Vivian watched the withdrawal, not for what it was, but for what it ant that it was unhurried.
"We'll need to prepare separate briefings," Ethan said. "The delegation and the Iron Tide are going to want different things, and giving them the sa information risks one side learning what we've offered the other before we're ready."
"Agreed," Sophie said. "The question is how much we tell the Capital at all. If they don't understand the situation, they'll make decisions based on assumptions."
"They'll do that anyway," Nathan said. "Especially if Prince Alaric the buttlick cos."
Nathan seed to rember who the princess was. "Oh, no offense, Your Highness."
Sophie considered Nathan. "How could that NOT be offensive, Young Master Li? And I thought you and Alaric were friends."
Nathan shrugged. "We are. He is my friend. Doesn't an he couldn't use a good stabbing from ti to ti."
Sophie considered this. Then said, seemingly without thinking, "Yeah, to be fair... he is sowhat of a buttlick."
Sophie paused. She clapped her hands over her mouth.
Ethan snorted. It was clear he was trying very hard not to laugh.
Vivian let the discussion run for another few minutes, tracking it without participating, noting where the gaps were. When the thread began to circle, she cut across it cleanly.
"We'll go over positioning in the morning when everyone is rested. The ssages will keep until then."
No one objected. Nathan stretched with boredom and amusent. Sophie lingered a mont, her gaze moving briefly to Ani, then to Vivian, then to neither of them as she turned toward the door with the careful neutrality of soone declining to have an opinion.
Ani remained where she was, relaxed, her expression unhurried and open. She t Vivian's gaze with the sa warmth she had offered at the beginning of the scene. There was nothing in it that could be called a challenge, which was the challenge.
Vivian turned toward the door.
Her route took her behind Ethan's chair. She did not alter her pace. As she passed, her hand dropped to brush the carved back of it. Her fingers rested there for just a mont, light enough that it required no acknowledgnt, deliberate enough that it could not be mistaken for accident.
She continued without looking back.
In the corridor, the sound of the room receded behind her. She walked at her usual pace, the folder tucked under her arm, her breathing even.
She was his legal wife.
This was a legal and political fact with structural weight, and right now the structure around it was not as clearly defined as it needed to be. That was a problem she intended to address. Probably not tonight, and maybe not with words, but with sothing more defining.
She needed to have a conversation with her husband.
She just had to figure out what she wanted to say.
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