This is the synopsis of a story I didn’t write or a series of messages I sent to a coworker
Who still lives?
- The Emperor – the Emperor, very fickle, very horny
- Mary – the Empress, currently pregnant, has 3 daughters
- Isolde – our MC on a quest for vengeance, very smart, (un)surprisingly murderous, currently pregnant
- George – Isolde’s son who died at the age of 5 about 2.5 years ago
- Jane – the former personal maid of the mad, seductive, opera singer, Ophelia; Isolde’s current maid; would probably be a doctor/medical expert if not for the fact that she was born a woman.
- Ben – head eunuch, knows where his bread is buttered, may or may not come up in this part
- Kevin – the son of Lydia (an extremely unpleasant consort of the Emperor that Isolde recently murdered for reasons and those reasons are George) and the Emperor
- Nancy – Isolde’s younger sister, a favorite of their father, very spoiled
- Patricia – the Emperor’s mother & current Dowager Empress
Our story continues…
Lydia recently died by drinking poison Isolde and Jane brought to her. Isolde is troubled, she should be feeling at peace since she’s finally gotten revenge on the people most directly related to George’s death, and she’s also been promoted to Noble Imperial Consort and gotten her own palace, but something isn’t sitting right. A maid comes hurrying in and reports that baby Kevin has just died.
What?! That’s not right. For all her threats when talking to Lydia, Isolde wasn’t about to let the boy just die. He was innocent in all this. She ordered the doctors to save him during his recent asthma attack. Yes, the maid tells her, the doctors did indeed save him during his asthma attack, but he got suddenly sick in the night and was dead before morning, the doctors don’t know why, only that his sudden illness is unrelated to his asthma and there was nothing they could do. Whatever it was was too fast and too severe. Would Isolde like his belongings?
Sure, sure, bring them here.
The maid presents Isolde with a tray that has Kevin’s baby blanket and the locket that Mary gave him on it. Isolde moves to pick up the locket but is suddenly stopped by Jane who brings the tray up closer to her face and sniffs. She looks horrified. “It’s poison,” she tells Isolde in a sudden, inexplicable change in accent, “baby touches it, puts hand in mouth and dies. Painful. Very deadly. No antidote.” (There is no explanation for Janes sudden change in accent and it never happens again so it’s best we don’t focus too much on it. Even if it is incredibly distracting.)
Isolde remembers George, the locket Mary gave to him, and his sudden and very painful death. By the gods! It was Mary! Mary killed him! There are still targets for Isolde’s vengeance. She looks very, very angry.
Meanwhile, in Mary’s palace, Mary and her maid discuss what’s to be done about Isolde – she’s too favored by the Emperor and she too is pregnant. What if Isolde has a son? What if Mary doesn’t? No, no, Mary’s been taking all kinds of drugs to, first, get pregnant and, second guarantee, the birth of a boy child. Mary’s definitely going to give birth to a boy this time.
Still, Isolde and her unborn are problems that need to be solved.
“I’m not worried,” Mary tells her maid, “After all, pregnancy is delicate this early on. Why a pregnancy in the early months can be ended by the mother getting too upset. I’ve got a line on someone who is basically guaranteed to upset Isolde into a spontaneous abortion.”
She smiles evilly and it fades to black.
Isolde and the Emperor are walking through the imperial gardens, servants trailing in their wake. The couple are very lovey-dovey. Innuendoes abound. They are descending peak of one of those arched bridges that show up in a lot of Chinese gardens when a girl in a super creepy mask jumps out of the bushes incoherently growl-yelling. This startles Isolde and she almost falls. Thankfully, the Emperor catches her. He yells at the masked girl for scaring his woman. “What are you trying to do? Give her an abortion?”
Yes, you dumb, stupid, oblivious man, that is exactly what the masked girl was aiming for. But the girl removes the mask, revealing that she is cute and petite and playful and says, “I’m sorry! The Empress invited me to visit and told me that my sister was strolling the gardens and I only wanted to surprise her*!”
*unsaid: “into an abortion”
“Hello, Nancy,” Isolde deadpans, “You’re speaking a bit to casually to the Emperor, please correct that.”
Nancy obviously feigns surprise and bounds over to the Emperor and almost but not quite plasters herself against him, offering her hand, “You’re the Emperor?! Oh my, you’re so handsome! I’m Nancy, Isolde’s younger and much prettier sister! It’s real nice to meet you!”
Isolde: “Nancy! That’s inappropriate.”
The Emperor, hornily: “How you doing?”
Nancy wiggles.
The Emperor, taking Nancy’s arm: “Let’s continue on our walk.”
The Emperor and Nancy walk on, servants following in their wake. Isolde and Jane remain behind. “What are we going to do?” Jane asks.
“It’s fine,” Isolde answers, “I was going to ignore my family, but if she wants to play we’ll play. I never did like her much anyway.”
Flashback. Isolde is still living at her father’s house. It’s Nancy’s birthday. Nancy corners Isolde and demands the jade bracelet that Isolde’s mother left her. Isolde refuses. Nancy says that Isolde is just a concubine’s daughter and nothing but trash to her, she doesn’t deserve anything as nice as that jade bracelet. Isolde still refuses. Nancy says she can get their father to force Isolde to give it to her. No she can’t. Yes she can. No she can’t. Yes she can. Nancy makes to pull the bracelet off Isolde’s arm, Isolde fights back. Nancy pretends that Isolde pushed her and falls dramatically to the floor, crying out, just as their father enters the room. She whines that she just wanted to see Isolde’s bracelet and Isolde got violent with her like she always does. It just proves the inferior bloodline of her trash mother. Father should punish Isolde by forcing her to give Nancy the bracelet as recompense. Father agrees. Isolde is such a bad daughter and terrible big sister. She should do something nice for once and give her little sister the bracelet. Isolde takes off the bracelet says that she’d rather die than let Nancy have it and then throws the bracelet to the floor shattering it into a million pieces. End flashback.
Isolde and The Emperor are playing go in Isolde’s living room while Nancy prances around making fun of Isolde for not knowing how to play. Isolde is annoyed but you can hardly tell. The Emperor is indulgent of the adorable interloper. Inuendoes fly.
“Isolde is so uneducated,’ Nancy tells the Emperor, “It must be so boring playing with her since you have to instruct her every move!”
“I enjoy instructing,” says the Emperor.
“But wouldn’t it be more fun to play with someone on your level?!”
“And are you on my level?”
“Well, maybe not, but at least I know how to play!”
Tired of their flirting, Isolde says, “It seems pregnancy is tiring. I need to sleep. Nancy, why don’t you take my place and play with his Majesty?”
“Gladly!” Nancy says.
Isolde goes to her bed which is literally on the other side of a semi-sheer screen in the same room and lays down, turning her back to Nancy and the Emperor. Nancy takes Isolde’s seat, but quickly changes her mind and moves to the Emperor’s lap while trying to convince him to throw the game and let her win. The Emperor refuses and they both choose to indulge themselves in a different game and within moments they’re removing their robes and rolling around on the floor.
Isolde, from her bed, rolls her eyes. So obvious.
Later, the Emperor, presumably satisfied, has left. Nancy finishes dressing and then tells Isolde that she knows Isolde is not asleep.
Isolde: “What of it?”
Nancy: “I know you’re jealous! The Emperor likes me better than you!”
Isolde: “I’m literally not. You want to ruin yourself for that man, go ahead.”
Nancy: “See?! Jealous! If I hadn’t gotten sick back then, I’d be in your position and you’d be married to some poor slob!”
Isolde: “If only. Look, Nancy, I know you think we’re in some kind of competition but we’re really not. I know you think you want the Emperor and you want to live in the palace, but you really don’t. The palace is nothing but rules and formalities, and you’ve never been one for either. And the Emperor is a degenerate who will sleep with any woman with a pulse (and maybe some without if they’re pretty enough), not to mention that he has the attention span of a squirrel on amphetamines. You really should’ve left while you had the chance because you’re going to fail so spectacularly. Just remember when you do, everything that happens to you from here on out is because of the choices you made. Don’t blame me.”
Nancy, oblivious: “I’m younger than you! I’m smarter than you! I’m prettier than you! I’m more talented than you! Against me you are nothing! I’m going to have the love of the Emperor! I’m going to live in the palace! I’m going to take everything that you have and leave you with what you deserve: nothing!”
Nancy angrily bounces off.
Isolde: “Well, I warned you.”
Isolde goes to the go board, briefly looks at it and places a single piece. Jane sees this and says, “You could have turned the game and won with a single move. Why do you hide your skills?”
“Because it’s better if people underestimate you.”
Nancy has tea with Mary and promises to grind Isolde into nothing. Silly, silly girl.
The Emperor, Isolde, and Mary meet to discuss what’s to be done with Nancy. Because she slept with the Emperor, she can no longer leave the palace area (Forbidden City or whatever), but because she’s Isolde’s sister Isolde needs a say in where Nancy will be cast in the Emperor’s harem. Isolde tells Mary and the Emperor that she loves her sister and that she would be honored to share the Emperor with her. She believe that she and Nancy are fated to love the Emperor together as sisters.
“Okay,” says Mary, “then Nancy should become a consort.”
“No!” shouts Isolde.
“Isolde,” the Emperor admonishes, “Jealousy is unattractive.”
“You misunderstand me, your Majesty,” Isolde says, “I love my sister and she deserves the best. You should make her no less than a concubine.”
Mary and the Emperor stare at Isolde in shock, but ultimately agree to do so.
Nancy is made the Emperor’s concubine, her status puts her just under Mary. She gets her own palace and a wedding! She goes to brag about this to Isolde and Isolde tells her, “Yeah, you idiot, I set this up.” Nancy doesn’t believe her and leaves in a huff to continue celebrating her honeymoon with the Emperor.
When Nancy is gone Jane askes Isolde why she asked the Emperor to make Nancy his concubine, especially since Nancy’s higher status will make it harder for Isolde and Jane to continue with their plans. Isolde answers her with an ominous, “Because the higher your enemies rise the harder the fall.”
It’s the Dowager Empress’s birthday! All the ladies of the harem have to present gifts. Isolde presents Patricia, the Dowager Empress, with a lovely hand-embroidered night gown. Everyone oohs and ahs, but ultimately are not super impressed since presents like this are expected. Next it’s Nancy’s turn to present her present. She has a blank sheet of paper set up on an easel and a ridiculously oversized calligraphy brush. The whole court is abuzz with excitement. They’ve all heard rumors of Nancy’s talent and can’t wait to see it for themselves. Nancy makes an elaborate statement of her wishes for Patricia of wealth and longevity and good fortune et cetera, et cetera and then paints a large
Several of the court ladies and start whispering to each other:
“It’s nice, I guess, but so pedestrian.”
“Nothing special, not even fancy calligraphy. She literally just wrote a word on a sheet of paper.”
“I’m so disappointed.”
“Yeah, not very impressive.”
“Hmm. I expected more.”
Even Patricia, the Dowager Empress, grumbles her disappointment. Just then several butterflies fly into the room and settle on the character. Nancy says something poetic about butterflies carrying wishes to the gods. Patricia asked her how she got the butterflies to do that and Nancy proudly tells her, “I noticed they like a particular flower in the gardens, so I gathered some blooms and ground them into a fine powder which I then mixed with the ink! I hope you like your gift, your Majesty!”
Patricia: “Very impressive.”
SUDDENLY BATS!!! A great many bats fly in through every window and attack Nancy’s painting, the guests, and. worst of all, the Dowager Empress! EVERYONE FREAKS OUT!
Eunuch Ben starts screaming, “They’re blood bats! BLOOD BATS! EVERYONE RUN! BLOOD BATS!”
Everyone runs. Several people are probably trampled to death, but none of them have names in our story so it’s not a problem. What’s important is that the Dowager Empress has been at best embarrassed and at worst cursed. AND IT’S ALL NANCY’S FAULT. The Emperor demotes Nancy to commoner and has her exiled to Spring Palace.
Isolde visits Nancy to tell her two things:
- Because of Nancy’s condemnation and loss of honor, their father, in order to cut ties with her completely and maybe save his political career, has divorced Nancy’s mother. She’s probably already starving on the streets. He’s also, it almost goes without saying, condemned Nancy as a jinx.
- Isolde was the one who arranged for the blood bats. How? She mixed pigs blood in Nancy’s flower ink.
Nancy should remember what Isolde told her earlier. Everything that’s happened to her is a direct result of the choices Nancy made. You can’t blame Isolde for taking advantage of the options offered her. Nancy wanted to live in the palace and now she will. She’ll live in this beautiful palace for the rest of her life. Alone. With only her own thoughts as company.
“But the Emperor!” Nancy protests before Isolde cuts her off.
“The Emperor has the attention span of a fruit fly and the memory of a kumquat. He’ll have forgotten you even exist by the end of the week.”
Isolde leaves with Nancy, trapped in the Spring Palace for-probably-ever, yelling curses after her.
Later Mary visits Nancy in secret with her maid. Nancy, on her knees, begs Mary to help her, to give her another chance, she’ll surely crush Isolde next time. It’s just that Isolde is craftier than she expected, she was never like this at home! Please, your Majesty, you have to help! Nancy swears she can fix this. It’s just a setback, nothing more.
“You harmed the Emperor’s mother,” Mary hisses, “You’re useless to me now.”
“No! Your Majesty! I can fix this! I swear it! I can turn this around!”
She’s still begging when Mary’s maid moves behind her and strangles her with a walking stick. She and Mary leave Nancy’s body on the ground with a silk rope to make it look like Nancy strangled herself.
Isolde is informed of Nancy’s apparent suicide.
“I didn’t want her to die,” she tells Jane, “I wanted her to spend her remaining years alone and hopeless, maybe driven insane by loneliness, but I didn’t want her to die.”
End part 3. The 4th and final part is coming soon!
Knotting the Wind 