Desire

While she was on her way to the apothecary, the dowager empress reminisced her past time using the same route for her evening walk in the garden. It was one of the loneliest time she had ever been. Her only son had his schedule filled with lessons and her husband spent his entire time in his study.

When she was first selected by the emperor to be made the empress, she had prepared for adversity in the future.

Who would have thought that the most harrowing moment she had as the empress was facing severe loneliness that she had never shared with anyone else.

Concubine Xi had subtly taken over her role managing the inner palace like a tyrant although she remained loyal and humbled in front of her - the empress. The concubine's existence had made her days as the empress , stress-free from having to control a bunch of consorts quarreling for the emperor's affection. However, it made her even lonelier as she had nothing to distract her from realizing that she had to face her days alone without her kin by her side.

Suddenly, the sounds of women laughing and jesting caught the dowager empress' attention.

She aggressively scanning her entire surrounding before spotting Concubine Xi and the other two concubines sitting in the pavilion in the middle of the Palace's lake.

"Er…Mr. eunuch, I think I can go to the apothecary by myself. Why don't you leave me and resume your job as usual. I promised you I can take care of myself" The empress dowager tried to coax the eunuch to leave her so that she could detoured toward the pavilion.

The eunuch was pondering for a mere second before agreeing to the proposal. After all, he had many other things to attend to for the day. Leaving this maid to go to the apothecary alone would not hurt anyone right? He immediately left the empress dowager to attend his numerous works that were waiting for him.

After she was convince that the eunuch was gone, the empress dowager bolted aggressively toward the pavilion.

"Concubine Xi! No ! the oracle of the north!" She shouted loudly at the women that were sipping tea in the middle of the lake. Ignoring protocol and manners that been embedded within her since her younger days, the dowager empress prowled like a tiger toward the woman who had ruined her plan!

When she had gotten closer to the concubines, the empress dowager pointed her finger right at the oracle's face.

"why did you transfer my soul into this maid's body? How can I seduce my husband if I were in this body? What did go wrong? Are you really the mighty oracle?"

"My, my …... Your majesty!" Concubine Xi rose from the chair and greet the empress dowager. "I never thought you can be as harsh as this. You are always all kind and polite toward everyone. Ahhh..this is really a refreshing sight." The oracle cluck her tongue, mirroring how the other noble's ladies would do to disapprove one's behaviour.

The empress dowager began to scrutinize the beautiful face of the woman who was standing in front of her. It had been a long time, she had forgotten how beautiful the Concubine was despite being blind. The blind woman had the most beautiful and unique silver hair that surprisingly did not make her look old. Her complexion was a little paler than other people but the hint of blush on her cheek made her appeared stunning!

How long has it been since she saw this woman in this young appearance? 40 years? After the death of the late emperor, Concubine Xi and the other two concubine moved out of the palace to reside far away from them.

Huh? The other two concubine?! The empress dowager turned to her side and saw the other two concubine were calmly sipping tea in their respective places.

Ahh….the other two concubines were actually the oracle's maids. No wonder they look so familiar when they visited her while she was the sick- old- empress dowager the other day!

" All three of you are actually not mortals. No wonder you guys stick to yourselves!" She exclaimed!

"Correct! Concubine Fei and Concubine Jing are my two maids that had been following me for thousand years already"

" How old are you oracle?"

"Your majesty, I am giving you a friendly reminder here. Never, ever ask a woman her actual age" the oracle was giving her the most malicious smile she had ever seen.

"Er…of course. Of course" The smile sent a shiver right down the empress dowager's spine.

She took one step back to form a gap between both of them. All her wrath suddenly vanished while she was musing about the three beautiful immortals in front of her.

"But, Your Majesty, why are you mad at me?" Concubine Xi directed the question with innocent look on her face. This woman could change the entire atmosphere like sudden rain in the middle of afternoon!

As if she was poke out of floating bubble, the dowager empress suddenly remembered her real objective taking the detour to confront the oracle.

"Look at me?!" The empress dowager patted her chest multiple time aggressively. "I'm a maid! When I said I would like to go back to the past, I meant going back in my actual body, not someone else's ! Now, how am I going to seduce my husband in this body?!"

" I don't see any problem there. The maid worked directly under the emperor. You might have bigger chance to seduce him in this body" Concubine Xi winked cheekily.

"It is a big problem! I wanted to play with the emperor's heart by using my own body not this maid's body!"

"Your Majesty may I say something that I have not disclosed to you before ,about this chance I'm giving you?" Concubine Xi's tone of voice changed into a more serious one. She was looking at the empress dowager with a sharp eye. Her white eye were sharper than any other people that the empress dowager had ever came across.

"Er..alright"

"It is under my power as the oracle to grant someone on her/his deathbed a wish that they wanted to realized the most. Once I cast the spell, it would do its own thing on identifying the person's real desire and working on it. Now, pray tell me Your Majesty, is seducing the late emperor was your actual wish?"

The empress dowager was taken aback when she was unsuspectingly being interrogated by the oracle.

"I…I…" She was at lost of words. Her real desire? What was her real desire? All the empress dowager wanted was to seduce and enjoy being intimate with the emperor because that was one thing that she barely got from her husband!

"You are not obligated to answer the question. What you have to do is to explore your own thoughts and rethink on what you actually wants from this deal. Remember, you don't have much time. We only have three days on this timeline. Do not waste my effort"

With that, Concubine Xi resumed sipping on her tea pretending that the maid which was standing in front of her did not exist. Seeing how the oracle have no desire to prolong the discussion, the bewildered empress dowager forcefully dragged herself away from the pavilion.