This is the synopsis of a story I didn’t write or a series of messages I sent to a coworker
Check out part 1.
New characters are introduced:
- Ben – the head Eunuch, a very clever fellow
- Carson – a corrupt captain of the palace guards
- David – a palace guard
The story continues from the Emperors poisoning and the fall of Karen:
Isolde is promoted to Noble Consort. Lydia seethes.
HOWEVER
Because of the Emperors recent poisoning, Lydia has gotten him to live with her for the last 10 days (because she basically controls the palace doctors) AND he’s supposed to stay with her for the next 20, which is when the doctors say he’ll be fully recovered. Knowing how completely fickle the Emperor is Jane worries that he’ll forget all about Isolde, which will just ruin all their plans. Isolde is not worried.
In Lydia’s palace, the Emperor enters her living room and whines that he’s bored. He doesn’t want any more medical treatments and would rather have [insert inuendo here]. Lydia slyly smiles and says, “Let me clean myself first, Your Majesty.” Then goes to take a bath. Her loss.
While Lydia baths, Eunuch Ben enters and tells the Emperor that there’s a new doctor come to see him. The Emperor, annoyed, says that he doesn’t want to see any new doctor, he’s done with new treatments. Ben says, “No, no, sir, you should really see this guy. Total genius.”
The Emperor, reluctantly, relents.
Enter Isolde in doctor drag – which basically looks like Isolde everyday but with less diaphanous robes and a hat. Also she’s carrying a large medical box. The Emperor, falling for the doctor drag and thinking Isolde is a man (because he’s not the most perceptive guy), waves Dr. Isolde over. S/he places the box on the table then, when the Emperor looks away (because why would he look at a man), s/he “accidentally” knocks the box on the floor.
Emperor: “WTF, dude?! Be careful!”
Dr. Isolde, looking away coyly: “I’m sorry, my bad.”
Emperor: “…”
Dr. Isolde looks away harder
Emperor: “…”
Dr. Isolde looks away even harder
Emperor: “… hey …”
Dr. Isolde is basically an owl at this point, the Emperor forcibly turns Dr Isolde’s head towards him, knocking the coy doctor’s hat off.
Suddenly Isolde is revealed! Her long, womanly hair floats seductively down around her shoulders as she looks up at the Emperor through her eyelashes and pouts a little.
Emperor, utterly shocked: “Isolde!”
Isolde, throwing herself at the Emperors chest and clinging to him like a baby monkey: “Emperor! Forgive me! I know I’m not supposed to be here but I just missed you so much! I guess I’ve been naughty. You probably need to punish me again.“
Cue vigorous make out session. In full view of Lydia’s bath because she’s literally just behind a barely opaque screen. If she just turned her head to the left she could see this, but she’s too involved in her bath to notice. The Emperor and Isolde run away to Isolde’s bedroom in the consort’s palace.
Lydia gets out of the bath, finds Dr. Isolde’s abandoned hat, deduces what happened, and is pissed. Vows revenge.
Isolde meets with Mary alone and they have a veiled conversation where Mary indicates that she will support Isolde against Lydia because Lydia is an aggressive hornet of a woman.
Walking back to the consort’s palace, Jane warns Isolde that Mary may not be as simple as she seems. Isolde doesn’t care. Mary is backing her up against Lydia and Lydia is her target. Right now. Besides, Isolde is always careful anymore. She’s not going to make the same mistakes again. She’s not going to let what happened to George happen again.
Mary is pregnant! Lydia is the first to know! Mary is sure the baby’s going to be a boy this time. Congratulations all around.
It’s Kevin’s birthday! He’s 1 years old! The adults throw a very tense party without him with all the consorts (noble and noble imperial included) snipe at each other. Mary, the Empress, gives Lydia a special made locket to give to her son. Isolde sees the locket, remembers when Mary gave her a similar locket for George, and is sad.
Lydia invites all the ladies of the harem to go for a walk in her back yard to look at the flowering trees. When Mary shows up she leads because she’s the Empress and by the rules the Empress always walks first. Mary should be followed by Lydia who is a Noble Imperial Consort, but Lydia’s not feeling well so tells Isolde, “Go ahead, forget about the rules, we’re all sisters here and this is an informal celebration.” Isolde goes ahead.
The people at the front are promptly attacked by hundreds of scorpions.
Isolde helps the Empress. Everyone gets inside away from the swarming scorpions and a doctor is called to check on Mary and the baby in her belly. They’re fine, but how did scorpions attack everyone? And in such numbers?
Lydia accuses Isolde’s birthday, saying that astrologically Isolde is a curse to the Empress. Isolde scoffs. To prove her theory, Lydia has the Emperor call the head astrologer. The head astrologer says that Isolde and Mary share May 5th as a birthday and that is unlucky for any child Mary wants to have because the child will be confused as to who it’s mom is or something?
Lydia: “See?! I told you!”
Isolde: “Sounds like some grade-A BS to me.”
Lydia: “Nah-uh! The Emperor’s official astrologer backed me up.”
Isolde: “I think you’re setting me up. How’d you even know my birthday?”
Lydia: “Because I’m a Noble Imperial Consort I assist the Empress in managing the harem and I just happened to see it while reading through everyone’s paperwork a while back. I’m smarter than you so I actually remember what I read.”
Isolde: “Huh. Well, there’s something you didn’t know that will exonerate me…”
Lydia: “Yeah, right. What?”
The Emperor: “Yes, what? I need any excuse to exonerate my current favorite plaything so I can keep playing with her.”
Isolde: “I lied on my intake form.”
Lydia: “It’s illegal to lie to the Emperor. That’s an automatic death sentence.”
Isolde: “I didn’t mean to lie! It’s just that my younger sister was the one who was supposed to come to the palace but then she got sick and couldn’t come and I was sent in her stead. We changed everything else, but forgot to change the birthday. I was born in September so there’s no conflict with the Empress.”
The Emperor: “That’s great! I get to keep my favorite toy!”
Isolde: “Hooray! I’m so happy for you, you Majesty!”
Lydia seethes.
But how did all these nocturnal scorpions come out during the day and seem to attack the Empress specifically?
Jane speaks up and says that she’s heard of an herb that will attract scorpions. Has the Empress started wearing a new scent or anything?
Mary can’t think of anything, except… Well, Lydia gave her a sachet recently. Could that be it?
The doctor examines it and, sure enough, the sachet is filled with the angry scorpion attracting herb. Everyone is SHOCKED! How dare Lydia try to kill the Empress and her baby?! No! No! Lydia protests! She didn’t know it was the angry scorpion attracting herb! She just thought it smelled nice and that Mary would like it!
Well, the Emperor is not pleased. He demotes Lydia to Noble Consort and sends her to Spring Palace for one month where she needs to think about what she did and read Buddhist scriptures.
Isolde passes out! The doctor checks her out and announces that she’s fine, just pregnant. The Emperor is overjoyed! He promotes Isolde on the spot to Noble Imperial Consort.
Lydia seethes.
Time passes. Both the Empress and Isolde have baby bumps. One day Isolde and Jane are walking back to Isolde’s palace where they see Guard Captain Carson bullying Guard David. Carson is demanding that David pay him money to keep his job. David is like, “Dude, no! I need money to live.”
Carson: “Too bad! Give me the money!”
Isolde and Jane intervene. Isolde hands David his money pouch back personally. David thanks her and Isolde smiles saying she’s just returning a favor.
Flashback! George is dying in Isolde’s arms. They’re outside Lydia’s palace, Karen having just kicked George down the stairs. It’s raining heavily and Isolde is inconsolable. David comes and stands over Isolde, George, and Isolde’s not-Jane maid, holding an umbrella.
Back to the present! Carson reports to Lydia that Isolde was nice to David and that many maids had to see her speaking kindly to him. Perfect! Lydia can use this. The Emperor’s women aren’t allowed to speak to any men other than the eunuchs (and they should really limit their interactions with them too!). Speaking kindly to a man is basically having an affair!
Lydia goes to see the Emperor. He’s not terribly thrilled to see her, but she’s been sprung from the Spring Palace so it’s probably fine. Lydia apologizes to the Emperor saying that her jealousy made her target Isolde. She, Lydia, just loves the Emperor so much! Lydia’s maid mumbles something just loudly enough for the Emperor to hear about how Isolde was seen speaking gently with a palace guard.
THE EMPEROR FREAKS.
Isolde is arrested and dragged before him, the Empress, Lydia, and the rest of the harem. Oh no! So is David! Isolde admits to speaking to David. But she didn’t cheat! David desperately pleads his innocence. The Emperor orders David to be removed from his sight and tortured to death. David screams that he’s innocent. He breaks free from the guards and drops his pants. The ladies all look away. Oop. David was injured in battle and is missing the bits required to cheat. That means Isolde is innocent too! The Emperor is relieved.
Lydia seethes.
Isolde is pissed. She accuses Lydia of trying to set her up and mentions that she’s noticed that Guard Carson smells like the inside of Lydia’s palace. Oh no! Is Lydia actually the cheater? Is Kevin even his Majesty’s son? Time for a blood test!
Kevin is brough in and the cup of water is set up. (In ancient China it was thought that the blood of related people would merge in water and the blood of unrelated people would stay separate.) The Emperor’s finger is pricked and a single drop of his blood is added to the cup. Kevin is taken to the cup. Lydia starts freaking out. Is she feeling maternal and not wanting her baby to be pricked? There’s a scuffle. Lydia looks like she’s giving in, but wait! She knocks the blood cup on the floor. It shatters.
Lydia: “It only happened once! I only slept with Carson once! You were so wrapped up with [insert other woman’s name] and I got drunk and it just happened!”
Carson is arrested and sent for torture and execution. Lydia is arrested and sent to the (newly rebuilt?) Abandoned Palace, she’s to be executed too, but gets to stay out of the jail/torture chambers until her execution. Baby Kevin is kept but will no longer get the care he once did since he’s not the Emperor’s son.
Isolde visits Lydia. Lydia mocks her saying that at least she’ll be joining her son soon since he’ll be dead too. Isolde will have to live in this hellhole without her George, pathetic boy that he was. But wait! Isolde tells Lydia that Kevin is the Emperors son. She did the blood test herself, but she’s not going to tell anybody and just let the kid get neglected to death. He’ll be dead with his first asthma attack after Lydia’s revelation. Lydia might as well have killed him herself. NO! Lydia screams, begging for mercy, but the only mercy Isolde has is the cup of poison Jane is holding. She forces it down Lydia’s throat and watches her die. Then walks away.
Two down. How many to go?
End part 2.
Knotting the Wind 