Scions of Heaven - Calamity

Chapter 4

"What would you do if your thread of fate with her worsened after you asked? In my humble opinion, it would be better...if you didn't ask." – Stone of Destiny fairy, Pillow Book 2, chapter 16

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She only had a few minutes to mull over what sort of tasks or official position would be interesting and challenging enough for Gungun. She was mulling over the idea of throwing the throne of this Eastern Realm she ruled to Gungun, but soon discarded it.

Her son, and soon her daughter's, official rank and positions were complicated. As the son of Dong Hua Dijun, by the laws of Jiuchongtian Gungun was an Imperial Prince, and addressed as such. But he was also her son, a prince of Qing Qiu and thus eligible to rule the throne of the Eastern Realm, which she often forgot was unofficially the Imperial seat of the Kingdom of Qing Qiu.

As a result she really could not throw the position of Ruler of the Eastern Wilderness to Gungun so easily, not without causing a mess with her sons official rank and position in Jiuchongtian, and probably a major diplomatic problem. She'd just finished sighing loudly about the whole mess when Mi Hu entered the room.

"Young Hi-," Mi Gi began to say before he self corrected, "Ah! I mean my Queen, your meal and medicine is ready.", Mi Gu finished speaking as he came over to the table she was sitting at.

She was sure Mi Gu would be rubbing the back of his head awkwardly at his slip of the tongue if he hadn't been carrying the tray. Secretly, she enjoyed that Mi Gu still thought of her as 'Young Highness', it was endearing.

Gungun had vehemently disliked being referred to as 'young highness' and ten thousand years ago started to ask everyone to call him 'highness'. He thought himself much too old and mature to be referred to as such. Little did he realise that his request to be referred to in a more adult manner only made it more obvious how young he was. But still, everyone indulged him and did not appellate 'young' onto his title when addressing him.

Mi Gu came over to place the meal and medicine on the table; she thanked him and moved to start eating. But there was something very strange about this scene; she paused midway from removing the soup lid. It took her a few moments to figure out and she nearly dropped the lid in surprise.

"Since when did you go anywhere near a cooking fire?", she asked, confused.

"Ah, Dijun made this for me, the fire does not burn me now." Mi Gu replied as he took something off from around his neck.

She put the soup lid down and took the proffered pendant.

It was grey, cool to the touch and lighter than she expected. She looked more closely and realised it was a leaf from one of Mi Gu's branches, turned into stone. Well, almost stone, she saw that the veins on the leaf were red and glowing ever so softly, like banked coals. She rubbed her thumb over the veins, half expecting heat, but it was as cold as the rest of the leaf. Curious she used her power to probe the leaf. She was no artificer, and she could only tell that it was complex, a confusing jumble of spells, intent and power she could not begin to make sense of. Dong Hua always did enjoy making things are horrifically complicated as he could, just because it gave him something to do and it passed the time.

What she did feel was its purpose, and it was as Mi Gu said, it protected against flame and heat, but was so powerful that it likely rendered the wearer immune to all forms of flame, including ones produced by extremely powerful divine beings. She thought it was a bit scandalous that it was being used to protect against mundane cooking flames.