"Call Kai."
The emperor, face wrinkled, pale as paper, hair and beard white, eyes cloudy, suddenly grew clear, his voice sharp with authority, cutting through the heavy air of the palace.
Kai, an old eunuch with a slight limp, stepped lightly over the threshold and across the hall's worn carpet without a sound, moving fast to the dragon bed. He knelt, bowing nine times fully, pressing his forehead to the cold stone floor, still as a statue. The air smelled of bitter herbs and wax from flickering lamps.
"Do one last thing for me…" Ming said weakly, his eyes clear and sharp, flashing with a hint of his youthful strength. But everyone in the room – physicians, guards, silent maids – knew this was just a final spark. The emperor who once ruled everything wouldn't live past tonight.
"Your servant obeys," Kai replied, voice cracking with a sob. He backed away, forehead still low, until the dragon bed, heavy with the stench of medicine and rot, faded from view. Then he stood, his hands shaking under his wide sleeves.
"Go… I won't last," Ming said calmly, his voice barely above a whisper.
Kai staggered as if struck, his thin frame trembling, but he forced himself upright. With a handful of loyal eunuchs and blade-wielding guards, he hurried out, his steps echoing in the dim corridors. They moved toward Yong Row, the palace's forgotten corner, where the air grew cold and damp.
Yong Row was a maze of narrow, crumbling alleys where old palace servants were sent – eunuchs and maids over forty, without rank or favor, left to fade away. The walls were stained with mold, and the ground was slick with mud. Some, if lucky, could leave after years of service to return to far-off homes. Most died in these grim alleys, forgotten like stray dogs, their stench the only notice before guards dragged their bodies away. The place felt heavy, filled with faint coughs and the drip of water on stone.
Kai didn't know why Ming sent him to Yong Row or what his final order meant. He only knew this was his last duty as the emperor's servant, a task that weighed on his heart. His boots sank into the muck as he walked, his robes brushing against damp walls. He frowned and called for Yong Row's overseer, a hunched man in faded robes who shuffled forward nervously.
"Is there a eunuch here named Mu?" Kai asked, his voice low but firm.
The overseer bowed, his face uneasy. "Lord Kai, this place has many named Mu. Even I'm a Mu. It's… hard to know which one," he said, his voice shaking slightly. Yong Row was a place for discarded servants – why was the emperor's top eunuch here, asking such a vague question?
Kai's frown deepened. Ming had ordered him to kill a Mu in Yong Row, but no other name was given. Was this a mistake? A test? This was the emperor's dying wish, his final task as a loyal servant. He couldn't fail, not now.
A fierce look crossed Kai's eyes. He glanced at his men, their hands on sword hilts, then fixed his gaze on the overseer. "You say you're a Mu?"
The overseer, confused, nodded. "Yes, I am."
"Good enough."
Those were the overseer's last words. A guard's blade flashed, and a sharp pain struck the man's neck. The world spun, and darkness took him. Blood poured as his head rolled across the mossy bricks, his body twitching before collapsing, staining the ground red.
"Lord Kai!" the guard who struck the blow asked, his voice tight.
"Kill them all," Kai said coldly, his heart heavy but his voice steady. "The emperor's will."
The guards nodded, drawing their blades and stepping quietly into Yong Row's shadows. The air filled with the soft clink of armor and the squish of boots in mud.
"What are you doing?"
"Don't kill me!"
"Help! Help!"
"I'm innocent!"
Cries and the sound of blades echoed through the alleys, sharp and sudden, like the rain that had fallen earlier. In the depths of Yong Row, in a rotting, stinking room, an old eunuch, Elder Mu, lay on a sagging bed. His clothes were rags, his skin covered in sores, hair white and thin, body frail as a twig, with dark, corpse-like spots on his arms. He looked over seventy, closer to death than life. The bed reeked of waste, and the walls around him dripped with damp.
"Killing… they're killing?" Elder Mu clutched his tattered blanket, shaking and whimpering, his voice barely a croak. "I don't want to die!"
[No use thinking. You're done for.] A voice rang in his mind.