@heartpiercd
Yang had no desire to see the Imperial Concubine, but duty did not always align with desire. It was only proper, that upon her arrival, she would call the younger woman to her audience. A sheer curtain hung from the ceiling of the pavilion tent, and stood a physical barrier between Yang and all others (except, of course, for her servants that tended to her). A barrier that remained even as Xinning arrived. She felt no need to show her face to the other. “Do sit, Xinning,” Not a request, as the facade of her words may allow such to be perceived, but an order. A servant poured tea for the Imperial Concubine. “It angers me viciously to hear about the death of our ambassador. I have sent notice and condolences to his family, though it will take months for them to receive it. The tragedy is reprehensible. Such wanton negligence cannot be tolerated, not when it has taken and may yet take lives of my subjects.” The thought came to her, of course, of the thought that the calamitous occasion had chanced upon the life of a different subject — and she would still be enraged, it would still be an act against her country, but... well. How much easier her life would be. (Easy. It had never been easy, not for her. She thrived in adversity, and the universe has never and still now does not give her the leeway to rust in complacency.) “How fare you and your children? Do you wish to continue your stay in this country?”