Chapter 21: New World Order

The first week in the conquered palace was surreal.

Wei woke each morning in chambers that had once belonged to imperial concubines—women of rank and privilege. Now she occupied them as a slave. The irony wasn’t lost on her.

Nara would already be awake, usually standing by the window looking out at the training yards below where Mongol warriors drilled. She’d turn when Wei stirred, her expression softening in a way it never did around others.

“Good morning,” Nara would say in Mongolian. They’d agreed to speak only Mongolian in private now—it was safer, and Wei needed the practice.

“Good morning.” Wei would rise and begin her duties—laying out Nara’s clothes, preparing tea, playing the role even when no one was watching. Nara hated it, but Wei insisted. “If I’m going to do this convincingly, I need to do it always. I can’t slip.”

The hardest part was leaving their chambers.

The moment they stepped into the corridor, everything changed. Wei walked three paces behind Nara, eyes downcast, hands folded. Nara’s posture shifted—became more formal, more distant. They became princess and slave, and the performance had to be flawless.

Other Mongol nobles barely acknowledged Wei’s existence. Some would speak about her as if she weren’t there.

“Your Jin prize is well-trained, Princess Nara. Does she please you?”

“She serves adequately,” Nara would reply, her voice neutral.

Wei would keep her expression blank, but inside she’d burn with humiliation. This was survival. This was the price. But knowing that didn’t make it easier.

The palace had been transformed. What had been the Emperor’s court was now the Khan’s military headquarters. Maps covered every wall. Warriors came and went constantly, reporting on the continuing conquest of Jin territories. The south was still resisting, but the north was secure.

Nara was pulled into councils and strategy sessions. The Khan wanted her perspective—she knew Jin territory, understood their tactics. She was valuable.

Wei, meanwhile, had nothing to do.

She couldn’t attend the councils. She wasn’t allowed in the war rooms. She existed in a strange limbo—too educated and refined to work with the serving staff, too lowly to participate in anything meaningful.

So she waited. In the chambers, in the gardens when Nara gave her permission to walk there, in the margins of a world she no longer belonged to.