100women Ficlet: Two Cups of Medicine
Title: Two Cups of Medicine
Fandom: Curse of the Golden Flower
Characters: Empress Phoenix
Rating: G
Word Count: 300+
Summary: Every two waking hours for ten years, Empress Phoenix has dutifully taken her medicine.
Two Cups of Medicine
***
Every two waking hours for ten years, Empress Phoenix has dutifully taken her medicine. She knows its taste and texture intimately - the lightness almost like tea, the sweetness the Imperial Doctor seems to feel she needs in order to drink, the aftertaste that she has to spit out or fall to wretching.
The few times the formula has changed over the years, she has always been informed beforehand. One cannot lie to the Empress about her medicine.
When she drinks today, there is a strange taste in her medicine. She swirls it in her mouth longer than she might otherwise, wondering what has changed. A new ingredient, she thinks; no new doctors have come to the palace to advise the Emperor on new methods of preparation.
The servant-girl holding out the tray trembles. The one behind her with the spitting cup shows whites all around her eyes. They have done this task every two hours for years; they know how long it takes the Empress to take her medicine.
Empress Phoenix beckons the one with the spitting cup forward. The servants relax almost invisibly as she returns to the proper steps in the ritual of her medicine-taking.
They depart, and she returns to her quarters. The Emperor will leave tomorrow; she must prepare for that ritual. Too, she has many more golden chrysanthemums to embroider before the Chrysanthemum Festival.
Two hours later, the servants with her medicine return again. It tastes as it should not; Empress Phoenix considers refusing it until she has an answer as to what has changed. But it is only twelve days until the Chrysanthemum Festival; she cannot afford the Emperor taking an interest in the affairs of the palace now.
That night, she goes to bed with a pounding headache.
Four days later, her fingers begin to tremble. Little ripples run through her medicine as she picks it up.
Empress Phoenix is no fool. When she is done with her medicine, she calls one of her eunuchs over and whispers in his ear. Her medicine tastes strange, and she will know what has changed.
When she finds out, it's more terrible than she feared.
She must finish her golden chrysanthemums before the Chrysanthemum Festival.
-End-
Fandom: Curse of the Golden Flower
Characters: Empress Phoenix
Rating: G
Word Count: 300+
Summary: Every two waking hours for ten years, Empress Phoenix has dutifully taken her medicine.
Two Cups of Medicine
***
Every two waking hours for ten years, Empress Phoenix has dutifully taken her medicine. She knows its taste and texture intimately - the lightness almost like tea, the sweetness the Imperial Doctor seems to feel she needs in order to drink, the aftertaste that she has to spit out or fall to wretching.
The few times the formula has changed over the years, she has always been informed beforehand. One cannot lie to the Empress about her medicine.
When she drinks today, there is a strange taste in her medicine. She swirls it in her mouth longer than she might otherwise, wondering what has changed. A new ingredient, she thinks; no new doctors have come to the palace to advise the Emperor on new methods of preparation.
The servant-girl holding out the tray trembles. The one behind her with the spitting cup shows whites all around her eyes. They have done this task every two hours for years; they know how long it takes the Empress to take her medicine.
Empress Phoenix beckons the one with the spitting cup forward. The servants relax almost invisibly as she returns to the proper steps in the ritual of her medicine-taking.
They depart, and she returns to her quarters. The Emperor will leave tomorrow; she must prepare for that ritual. Too, she has many more golden chrysanthemums to embroider before the Chrysanthemum Festival.
Two hours later, the servants with her medicine return again. It tastes as it should not; Empress Phoenix considers refusing it until she has an answer as to what has changed. But it is only twelve days until the Chrysanthemum Festival; she cannot afford the Emperor taking an interest in the affairs of the palace now.
That night, she goes to bed with a pounding headache.
Four days later, her fingers begin to tremble. Little ripples run through her medicine as she picks it up.
Empress Phoenix is no fool. When she is done with her medicine, she calls one of her eunuchs over and whispers in his ear. Her medicine tastes strange, and she will know what has changed.
When she finds out, it's more terrible than she feared.
She must finish her golden chrysanthemums before the Chrysanthemum Festival.
-End-