The night was endless. Lan Yue tossed and turned, the silken sheets tangling around her legs, feeling less like luxury and more like a trap. The calming tea had done little against the inferno raging within her. Rational thought was dissolving into a hazy soup of heat and frustration. This was undignified. This was maddening.
At some point in the deepest part of the night, a particularly powerful wave of feverish heat washed over her. A small, pathetic sound, something between a whimper and a groan, escaped her lips before she could stifle it. It was a sound of pure, miserable surrender.
She thought she was alone. She was wrong.
There was a soft, almost imperceptible shift in the air of her room. A presence that hadn't been there a moment before. Lan Yue froze, every muscle tensing, her fever addled mind screaming in alarm.
"Shhh," a voice murmured from the darkness near the window. It was low, melodic, and utterly familiar. "It's just me. Don't try to get up. You'll make yourself dizzy."
Xue Lian.
The Empress was a silhouette against the twilight coming through the window. She wasn't in her regalia. She was wearing simple, dark sleeping robes, her magnificent white hair loose around her shoulders, cascading like a waterfall of moonlight. She looked… soft. Approachable. And she was holding a small basin and a cloth.
"What… what are you doing here?" Lan Yue croaked, her voice rough. She tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness forced her back down onto the pillows. The movement made her acutely aware of how damp her own sleeping robes were with sweat.
"You're broadcasting distress signals loud enough to wake the dead. And I'm a light sleeper," Xue Lian said matter of factly, as if breaking into a prisoner's room in the middle of the night was a perfectly normal occurrence. She set the basin down on the bedside table with a soft click. "Also, the collar dampens your power, not your… other emissions. Your spiritual energy is all over the place. It feels like a small sun is trying to ignite in here."
Lan Yue flushed, which only made the heat worse. Other emissions. She wanted to sink through the bed and disappear.
Xue Lian paid her embarrassment no mind. She dipped the cloth in the basin Lan Yue heard the slosh of water and the clink of ice wringed it out, and then, with a surprising lack of ceremony, folded it and placed it on Lan Yue's forehead.
The effect was instantaneous and blissful. The coolness was a shock to her overheated system, a moment of pure, blessed relief. Lan Yue couldn't stop a sigh of pure pleasure from escaping her lips.
"See? Better," Xue Lian said, her voice laced with a hint of smug satisfaction. She pulled up a chair and sat down, watching her. "I had a feeling the suppression might… complicate your usual methods of dealing with this. Should have anticipated it sooner. My bad."
"You… you knew?" Lan Yue asked, mortification warring with gratitude.
"Please. I'm an Omega, defective or not. I know the signs. The restless energy, the fever, the general aura of 'I want to punch the moon.'" Xue Lian reached out and adjusted the compress. Her fingers, cool and precise, brushed against Lan Yue's temple, and another shiver this one entirely unrelated to the fever raced down Lan Yue's spine. "It's a real pain, isn't it? Nature's most inconvenient practical joke."
The sheer, absurd normality of the statement, coming from the Demon Empress while she administered a cool compress, was too much. Lan Yue let out a weak, watery laugh. "A practical joke," she repeated. "Yes. That's one way to put it."
"Here," Xue Lian said, her tone becoming brisk and practical, cutting through the awkwardness. "The goofy part is usually the best remedy. Scoot over."
Bewildered, Lan Yue shifted on the bed. Xue Lian didn't join her. Instead, she dipped another cloth in the icy water, wrung it out, and then… draped it over the back of Lan Yue's neck.
Lan Yue jolted at the new sensation, then melted into the pillows with another helpless sigh. "Oh… that's…"
"Genius, I know," Xue Lian finished for her. "Wrists and ankles are good too, but the neck is the command center for overheating. Basic thermodynamics." She said it with the air of a seasoned mechanic explaining an engine.
She proceeded to tend to Lan Yue with a efficiency that was both clinical and oddly tender. She refreshed the compresses without being asked, her movements sure and gentle. She poured a glass of cool water from a pitcher Lan Yue hadn't even noticed and held it to her lips, helping her drink.
"Small sips," she instructed. "Hydration is key. Unless you want to add 'dehydration headache' to your list of problems tomorrow."
Lan Yue obeyed, feeling like a child being cared for, but she was too exhausted and too relieved by the cooling sensation to protest. The overwhelming, frustrating heat was finally being managed by a series of chilled cloths and a demon empress who apparently moonlighted as a very bossy nurse.
After a long moment of comfortable silence, broken only by the drip of water and Lan Yue's slowing breaths, Xue Lian spoke again, her voice quieter.
"You know, for a Enigma on the verge of ascension, you're kind of a mess right now."
The comment was so unexpected, so blunt, and so utterly true that Lan Yue let out another weak laugh. "Thank you for that assessment, Your Majesty."
"Anytime." Xue Lian's smile was audible in her voice. "It's nice to see you're not perfect. Makes you more… relatable."
She stood up, checking the temperature of the cloth on Lan Yue's forehead one more time. "The worst of it should pass by morning. The body can only sustain that level of dramatic fervor for so long. Try to get some sleep. I'll have Gleeb bring you a bland breakfast. And more tea."
She moved to leave, a pale ghost in the dark room.
"Wait," Lan Yue said, the word leaving her mouth before she could think.
Xue Lian paused at the door.
"Thank you," Lan Yue whispered, the words feeling inadequate for the bizarre, wholesome, and deeply embarrassing rescue.
Xue Lian looked back, her features softened in the dim light. "Don't mention it. Really. If word gets out that the mighty Empress Xue Lian's secret weakness is playing nurse with cool washcloths, my intimidating reputation will be utterly ruined."
With that final, goofy threat, she slipped out the door, leaving Lan Yue in the dark, cool, and comfortable for the first time all night. The heat was receding, both the physical and the emotional. In its place was a bewildering, warm confusion.
The Empress of the Netherworld, the brilliant strategist, the ruthless ruler, had a secret talent for treating fevers and a heart hidden under layers of sarcasm and power. And Lan Yue was no longer sure which version of her was more dangerous to her resolve.