The days that followed their return were a strange, delicate dance of creating a new normal. The Imperial Court, cowed by their Empress's authority and Lan Yue's irrefutable logic, had settled into a tense, watchful peace. Archduke Jin and his faction were quiet, their plans thrown into disarray by this unexpected new power dynamic. This temporary calm gave the newly reunited family the one thing they needed most: time.
They spent it in the quiet seclusion of the imperial family's private gardens, a beautiful, sprawling sanctuary within the Silent Palace. The celestial moon dragon, whom Xue Hua had affectionately nicknamed "An An," was usually there, a shimmering, panther sized sentinel curled up asleep in the sun.
It was here, amidst the crimson grasses and glowing flora of the Netherworld, that Xue Hua finally found the courage to ask the question that had been burning in her heart. She approached Lan Yue, who was sitting in quiet meditation by a bubbling spring.
"Lady Lan Yue?" the princess began, her voice small but clear. She looked from the powerful, serene woman before her to her mother, who was watching from a nearby pavilion with a gentle, encouraging smile. "Mother Lian… she said… Are you really my other mother?"
The innocent, direct question was a prayer answered, a wound healed. Lan Yue opened her eyes, and the serene, untouchable Saint vanished, leaving only a woman with a decade of love and sorrow in her gaze. She held out a hand.
"Yes, Xue Hua," she said, her voice thick with an emotion she no longer tried to hide. "I am."
A brilliant, radiant smile, a perfect fusion of her mothers' own, bloomed on Xue Hua's face. "I knew it," she said with the simple, profound certainty of a child. "I can feel it. It's like your light matches the light inside of me."
She didn't wait for a response. She threw her small arms around Lan Yue's neck, hugging her with all her might. Lan Yue froze for a moment, stunned, before her own arms came up, tentatively at first, then wrapping securely around her daughter in their first, true embrace.
After a long moment, Xue Hua pulled back, her dark eyes now sparkling with a mischievous, commanding light she had clearly inherited from Xue Lian. "Well," she declared, "if you're really my mother, then you have to play with me! Mother Lian is a terrible horse. She says galloping is 'beneath the dignity of the throne'."
"I do not!" Xue Lian protested from the pavilion, her voice full of laughter.
Before Lan Yue could even process the request, Xue Hua was already attempting to clamber onto her back. "Giddy up, Mother Yue!" she giggled. "To the Crystal Caves!"
And so it was that the revered Saint Yue, the legendary Ashen Sword, a celestial being of almost god like power, found herself on her hands and knees in the grass, giving her delighted, giggling daughter a ride. The mighty An An lifted his head, watching the scene with a tilted, curious expression, before letting out a playful puff of silver mist.
Xue Lian watched them, her heart so full of a fierce, aching joy it felt like it might burst.
*You look ridiculous, my dear Saint,* she sent through their Soul Bond, her thought dripping with amusement.
Lan Yue, who was trying to navigate a tricky patch of glowing mushrooms without dislodging the small princess, sent a wave of fond exasperation back. *This is entirely your fault. You have raised a tiny, adorable tyrant.*
*She is perfect,* Xue Lian replied, her thought full of a warmth that wrapped around Lan Yue's soul. *And you look wonderful.*
The idyllic, perfect afternoon was shattered by a flicker of shadow. Vex'aal materialized at the edge of the garden, her form more agitated than usual, her presence a jarring intrusion on their peaceful sanctuary. The laughter died on Xue Lian's lips. She stood, her expression instantly shifting from a loving mother to the Iron Empress.
"What is it?" she demanded.
"Your Majesties," Vex'aal whispered, her gaze flickering to include Lan Yue, acknowledging her new, official status. "Urgent news from the mortal realm. Our spies within the righteous sects have confirmed the success of Elder Feng's secondary plan."
"What plan?" Lan Yue asked, her own voice sharp with alarm as she helped a now quiet Xue Hua from her back.
Vex'aal's shadowy face turned towards her. "He used the rogue demonic sect not as an army, Your Grace, but as a sacrifice. A blood offering on a colossal scale. They have performed a forbidden, world scarring ritual at a place of great natural power. They have successfully summoned… a Bakunawa."
Lan Yue went pale. The name was a chilling echo from the deepest, most forbidden texts she had ever studied.
Xue Lian's mind, however, flashed not to an ancient text, but to the cheap, pixelated screen of a web novel from a past life. The Bakunawa… the Void Snake. Oh, you have got to be kidding me. That was the final boss of the second major arc. The legendary Moon Eater, a primordial beast of the Void whose entire existence is antithetical to all forms of celestial energy. The author made it a huge, cosmic deal… a predator fated to hunt the Celestial Moon… which is Yue.
Her gaze snapped from Lan Yue's horrified face, to the celestial moon dragon now standing alert beside them, and then to their ten year old daughter, who possessed the bloodline and the fated role of them both.
So, that traitor Feng didn't just summon a monster, her 21st century brain supplied, the thought a moment of absurd, hysterical clarity in the face of an apocalypse. He summoned my wife's fated arch nemesis, which is now technically also my daughter's fated arch nemesis.
She looked at the assembled power in her garden: a celestial saint, a celestial dragon, and a ten year old princess with the inherited plot armor of a protagonist.
I guess we will have a legendary Pokemon battle soon. Lol. Ugh.