To think that our new lord would even be capable of something like this.

The thought was accompanied by a soft groan of pleasure as Yuyan stretched, letting the hot water of the bath wash away her tension.

That she had it all to herself only made it that much better. While bathing was often a communal activity in fox society, Yuyan was glad for the quiet. The other foxes, she felt sure, would have filled the place with endless chatter about their new lord, as well as his relationship with Mei Li. But while Yuyan could absolutely sympathize with that, she welcomed the chance to reflect on things in peace and quiet.

No sooner had she thought that, however, than the door to the bath opened, causing Yuyan’s ears to twitch as she heard footsteps approaching.

“May I join you?”

Resisting the urge to grimace at the sound of Teumessia’s voice, Yuyan didn’t spare the silver fox so much as a glance. “If you wish.”

It wasn’t what she wanted to say; had she been honest, she would have told Teumessia to leave immediately. But their lord had only created so many bathing areas for them, and Yuyan knew that the rest of the clan – including her daughters – were using the others. Sending Teumessia away now meant inflicting her presence on someone else, and even if she wasn’t the matriarch of the Pimao Jingzhi anymore, Yuyan still had no desire to trouble others for her own benefit.

“You’re too kind,” murmured the silver fox, and Yuyan could hear her moving to one of the nearby stools arranged outside of the spacious bathtub. Each one was set beneath a sort of overhead sprinkler, making it easy to lather up and wash off before entering the bath.

“Our new lord is truly amazing, isn’t he?” continued Teumessia. “I thought The View From the Heavenly Mountain Gate could only be used on physical structures, and yet he was able to reshape this pocket realm with it, merely so that we could bathe ourselves like this.”

“He is a xianxia, with powers far surpassing even those of a nine-tails,” replied Yuyan. “I imagine that there is very little that he cannot do.”

“Indeed.” Teumessia’s voice was accompanied by the rain-like sound of water falling over her. “I knew he wouldn’t be tempted by the prospect of eternal life, but to make a sacred vow that he would never let the yeu ho vixens come to harm...Mei Li was correct about him being all yang, wasn’t she?”

Yuyan frowned inwardly at the casual way Teumessia referred to her niece. As a nine-tails, Mei Li was now the head of their clan, and should always be referred to with respect among the rest of the Pimao Jingzhi. Only her blood relatives could refer to her casually, and even then only in an informal setting.

But to harp on such a thing now, when there was no one else around to have overheard the silver fox’s breach of etiquette, would have been petty.

Which is why she did it, Yuyan knew.

“Yes,” she replied with an inward sigh, “she was.”

The silver fox’s reply was a satisfied grunt.

It was no coincidence, Yuyan knew, that Teumessia had chosen this particular bath out of all of those that their lord had created. That the silver fox had come here – she would have been accepted as a bathing companion by any of the others, even if only begrudgingly – meant that she wanted to talk in private.

That she’d then made such an obvious, but minor, breach of protocol by referring to Mei Li so familiarly had been her seeing if Yuyan was open to doing so.

If the six-tails had rebuked her, Teumessia would have known that Yuyan was more interested in spiting her than in conversing. Letting the affront go, by contrast, showed a willingness to overlook petty details in favor of more important matters.

Fox society was built on such protocols and codes of conduct, which every fox – regardless of their breed or social standing – started learning from an early age. Those protocols not only governed behavior in virtually every context imaginable, from meeting with dignitaries to what happened in the bedroom, but varied wildly depending on a given fox’s social standing.

More than that, however, was how a clever fox could communicate all sorts of nuances by introducing various twists, distortions, and deviations into those protocols.

And Teumessia, Yuyan knew, was a master of that sort of subtlety.

The sound of falling water ceased then, being replaced by footsteps approaching the bath. A moment later, Yuyan felt ripples as the werefox stepped into the water, followed by Teumessia’s low moan of appreciation.

Protocol dictated that, as the person who’d entered first, Yuyan ask if the temperature was to Teumessia’s liking. Which was why Yuyan instead remained silent, snubbing the silver fox; whereas refusing to call her out about speaking Mei Li’s name casually meant that she was open to whatever it was Teumessia wanted to talk about, not being solicitous sent the message that she still didn’t like her.

Teumessia clearly understood that, because after several seconds she spoke up.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time you and I have shared a bath, isn’t it?”

That was enough to make Yuyan look at the werefox at last.

Concubines were a fact of life among the great houses of fox society – and many other societies that followed the Celestial Bureaucracy or the Yaoyorozu – and there were numerous protocols regarding how they were supposed to interact with their lord’s wives. Most of which ultimately came down to the concubines staying out of the wives’ way as much as possible. Particularly in the bath.

The reason for that was self-evident as Yuyan took in the sight of Teumessia’s naked body for the first time.

As much as she hated to admit it, the werefox was a beautiful creature. Long and thin legs which accentuated her shapely bottom. A trim middle which only made her ample bosom – itself a rarity among vixens, given how petite most foxes were – seem that much bigger. And her face, for once not hidden behind her folding fans, was no less appealing, having high cheekbones and full lips that were a perfect match for how the outer corners of her eyes were slightly higher than the inner ones.

Even so...

Six tails, a noble lineage that can be traced back to one of Lady Huxian’s personal servants, and a fertile womb that had already borne my husband three children before he ever met her, as well as vixenly charms of my own, scowled Yuyan inwardly. Yet he still preferred her bed to mine.

“Ah, that’s right.” Teumessia put one hand to her cheek as a look of mock-realization slid across her face. “It’s because we’re both concubines now, instead of concubine and wife.”

Yuyan drew in a long breath, pushing away the desire to respond with a barb of her own. She’d signaled that she was open to talking, and the sooner she heard what the werefox wanted, the sooner she could send her away and get back to enjoying her bath. “Right now I find myself preoccupied with thoughts of the future rather than the past.”

It was an inelegant way to bring things back around, but Yuyan didn’t care.

Fortunately, Teumessia didn’t seem to either. “My thoughts are that the latter informs the former. For instance, how many concubines is Gaozu said to have?”

The question made Yuyan blink, the only external symbol of the confusion she felt. Gaozu was a minor xianxia in service to Lu Xing, himself a god of the Celestial Bureaucracy who oversaw fiscal prosperity and civic renumeration.

“One hundred seventeen,” she replied after a moment’s thought. “He divided them into the Nine Ladies of Beauty, the Nine Ladies of Talent, the-”

“What of Sui Yang?” interrupted Teumessia. “How many concubines does he have?”

Tempted to rebuke the werefox for cutting her off, Yuyan huffed. Sui Yang was another xianxia of little status or importance in the Celestial Bureaucracy, being a functionary who worked for Dakui Fuzi, the god of literature, examination, and analysis.

“One hundred eleven,” she replied curtly, this time not bothering to list the various titles and divisions they’d been grouped into.

“And Zuan Song?”

Even for Yuyan, that one required some hard thinking, as Zuan Song was an obscure xianxia who worked for Shen Nong, the god of grains. “Seventy-six, including those he set aside for his heir but later claimed after his son died in battle.”

Teumessia nodded. “And how many does our lord have?”

Yuyan, who knew where this was going, sighed.

“The twenty-two of us. Mei Li said he had seven others, all of them beings from other planes, and she thinks he has four or five others from the pony kingdom he’s trying to return to.”

“So less than forty concubines altogether,” concluded Teumessia.

She didn’t say anything else, letting that statement hang in the air.

It was, Yuyan knew, a ridiculously small number for a xianxia of Lex Legis’s stature. From what Mei Li had told her, he had founded his own kingdom while still mortal, fighting off dragons, devils, and minor immortals in the process. And in the short time since he’d become a xianxia, he’d slain multiple gods, and become a figure of great importance within his own pantheon.

Even if he wasn’t a being of total yang, it would have been foolish in the extreme to expect someone so accomplished to keep such a small coterie of female attendants.

Which meant that the Pimao Jingzhi had a short time – perhaps very short – in which to solidify their position in his eyes. After all, concubines were as prone to infighting for influence with their lord as courtiers were with their sovereign. Even if Teumessia had cut her off before she could properly name them, Yuyan was still very aware that even the concubines of those minor xianxia had their own factions.

But while having one of their clan’s vixens as Lex Legis’s wife would be a lasting advantage, and turning over their treasures – meager though they were – had doubtlessly helped, Teumessia was clearly of the opinion that more needed to be done, and soon.

Worse, Yuyan couldn’t say that she was wrong.

As much as she hated the silver fox on a personal level, Yuyan knew that Teumessia was intensely loyal to the Pimao Jingzhi. Being a legitimate member of a recognized clan gave her status and protections that were unheard of for a werefox; normally, her kind were fit only to be persecuted, lest they continue spreading their curse. As such, Teumessia was more dedicated than anyone to reversing their clan’s continued decline.

Which, to Yuyan, was as ironic as it was galling, since it was the werefox’s presence which had caused that decline in the first place.

But that bothered her less than how Teumessia’s loyalty was purely to the clan as a whole, rather than to any of the individuals in it, herself notwithstanding.

That was why, Yuyan knew, the silver fox had brought up the plight of the yeu ho so casually before, despite how upset it had made those four vixens. Teumessia wouldn’t have batted an eye if Lex Legis had slaughtered them and taken their livers. Her only concern would have been if he used them to benefit the clan’s welfare, either directly or otherwise.

That was also why Yuyan couldn’t help but be wary of what Teumessia was saying now. The werefox clearly had a plan in mind – she wouldn’t have raised the issue in the first place if she hadn’t – but as far as Yuyan was concerned that was reason enough to be on guard.

“What do you propose?”

In response, Teumessia smiled just enough to flash her teeth, one hand coming up to rub her fingers along her bottom lip.

Yuyan understood the gesture in an instant, and Teumessia’s intentions made her sickened and furious in equal measure. “No.”

The werefox’s smile vanished, replaced with a scowl. “It doesn’t have to be other vixens. I can turn a female of any race-”

“I said no.” Sitting up straight, Yuyan fixed the silver fox with a cold stare. “You will honor the vow you made to my husband when he made you one of us, and refrain from making more werefoxes.”

“Your husband is no longer the head of the Pimao Jingzhi,” retorted Teumessia, knowing that the time for subtle signals and double entendres had passed. “Or alive, for that matter. Now that the whole of our clan is part of Lex Legis’ household, any new vixens that join the Pimao Jingzhi will become his concubines by default. If I make more werefoxes, we can rapidly swell our numbers-”

“Absolutely not!” Leaping to her feet, the water lapped at her knees as Yuyan fanned out her tails, appalled by what Teumessia was saying. “We just finished telling our lord how your foul goddess brought the wrath of two pantheons down on our people for trying to spread her curse far and wide, and now you’re proposing to do the same thing?!”

Unlike herself, Teumessia stayed reclining, an irritated expression crossing her face. “Our lord has his own goddess, who is part of her own pantheon. A pantheon which, from what I’m given to understand, does not exalt the Mandate of Heaven.”

“I have already spoken to Mei Li about that,” countered Yuyan, hiding the burst of satisfaction she felt as one of Teumessia’s silver eyebrows rose at that.

You’re not the only one who can plan ahead.

“She will formally petition the Celestial Bureaucracy to open diplomatic relations with the Night Mare-”

“You mean like how you petitioned them to bring her parents, and your husband, back to life?”

It took every ounce of Yuyan’s discipline not to kill Teumessia where she stood for that remark. Hearing her speak so disdainfully of her husband – who had loved her more than his own wife, and brought her into their clan despite the incredible loss of status it had inflicted on them – was almost more than she could bear.

“Mei Li is a nine-tails, and so commands greater status than I do.”

Teumessia rolled her eyes. “Nayao already pointed out that she doesn’t have the adornments that a nine-tails should have, which is all the excuse the Celestial Bureaucracy will need to deny her petition. When will you realize that they’re prejudiced against our kind-”

“Your kind,” corrected Yuyan, her voice colder than ice. “Not mine.”

“Really? Is that why Huxian is still in ‘secluded meditation’ over what happened with Inari and Eshebala? And here I was thinking that it was house arrest.”

“Don’t pretend that an unnatural creature such as yourself understands anything about the workings of an enlightened pantheon.”

“Maybe I don’t.”

Slowly, Teumessia stood up, the movement slow and lithe. “But I understand how males think. And the same way I knew how badly your husband wanted me, I know that Lex Legis will take more concubines, probably sooner rather than later.”

Turning around, she stepped out of the tub, grabbing a nearby towel and wrapping it around herself as she strode toward the exit, silver tail swishing behind her. “And if those concubines aren’t part of the Pimao Jingzhi, then you’ll need to start wondering what else our clan’s vixens can do to keep his interest.”

Opening the door, she paused after stepping through the threshold. “Which reminds me...”

Casting a glance back at Yuyan, a mocking smile crossed Teumessia’s face.

“Do you think our lord is the type to enjoy taking a mother and daughter to bed at the same time?”

She ducked out of the doorway just as Yuyan breathed lightning at her, missing the silver fox by millimeters and leaving a scorch mark on the wall, Teumessia’s laughter hanging in the air as she fled.

Slowly, Yuyan sank back down into the bath, hoping that the hot water would manage to relieve her tension again.

But although she stayed there for a long time, she didn’t feel any better when she finally got out.

Author's Note

In the wake of their introductory meeting with Lex, Yuyan and Teumessia spar over their clan’s future!

Are they right about Lex taking more concubines soon? Will he approve of Teumessia's plan to create more werefoxes for the Pimao Jingzhi?