The night air was stuffy and uncomfortably hot. The moon hung too low in the sky, and darkness overcast the sky. The regular night crickets were too quiet, and despite the hotness,, the servants shivered for reasons they couldn't name.
Mei sat upright in bed, hands curved over her belly and Leonara stirred inside her.
They felt that something was coming. Even Ling'er, usually teasing and mischievous, hovered near the doorway, eyes locked on the shadows beyond the silk screens.
"Jiejie," she whispered. "She's here."
It began with silence, both the leading getting mentally prepared for a fight to protect their baby and the smell of rot filling their nostrils.
The curtains fluttered despite there being no wind, and then she appeared.
No longer shaped like a woman. Smoke for limbs. Talons for fingers. Her eyes fixed on Mei's womb and dripping with malice.
"No son will live," she hissed. "This palace is a graveyard. I am its keeper."
Leonara surged forward, Not this one.
Mei rose, trembling, as a contraction slammed through her.
She did not fall.
"Ling'er!" she cried.
The little ghost dove, her body blurring, cutting through the shadow and bypassing Ling'er, thirsty for the blood of the baby as it screamed and gurgled.
Leonara bared her will. You won't take him.
The room erupted in chaos unseen by the mortal eyes, and Ling'er was thrown across the air like a paper doll while the ghost slammed into them.
They fell down.
Pain came like fire but it didn't bring the child.
The first contraction knocked the breath out of their lungs as they doubled over and gasped, fingers clawing at the floor. But nothing followed. No fluid. No movement. Just pain, and stillness.
Despite sharing the body, Mei was feeling the pain more than Leonara.
Leonara tried to steady her from inside.
Breathe. Focus. We're okay.
But Mei knew something was wrong.
Her belly was too tight. The baby wasn't moving. Her hips felt frozen like her body refused to open.
Blood began to pool beneath her, too dark, too fast.
Servants ran, shouting down the corridor. Somewhere, the midwife was being dragged from sleep. But Mei was already past help.
The spirit was still there, circling just outside the light. Hissing. Laughing.
"You bleed too much," it whispered. "He's already mine."
"Shut up," Mei shouted, voice shaking. "You don't get him."
A second contraction slammed through her sharper this time, but wrong. She pushed, sobbed, and strained nothing.
Something's stuck, Leonara said, panic rising in her tone.
He's not coming.
Mei's vision swam. Sweat poured from her skin. Her arms trembled under her own weight. She was slipping.
Then Ling'er darted forward, her glow flaring.
"She's twisting him!" she cried. "She's holding him in!"
Leonara snapped, No. Not today.
Mei screamed, low and long, as her whole body turned into a battlefield. Her pelvis shifted, bones grinding. Her spine arched so violently it cracked.
The third contraction came like a knife. Her knees slid apart. She bore down again, everything inside her tearing.
This time—fluid burst. A gush of red.
The baby turned.
The Midwives busted through the door shouting orders and then they laid the consort on the bed.
Now!
"Push!" someone shouted again.
Mei's roar was no longer human.
The pain was blinding and then something tore loose inside her.
And then a cry a sharp and beautiful cry.
The sound of a baby who wanted to live.
The midwife was holding the baby, still slick with blood and already wailing in her arms. Her robes were soaked. Her hands shook. But she held on.
"He's alive," she said, her voice hoarse, barely audible. "He's alive."
Afterwards
Everything blurred. The pain receded, and her eyes felt heavy.
Alive.
Leonara sobbed inside. We did it. He's safe.
For now.
Ling'er hovered above the infant, grinning wide. "A prince with powerful lungs."
The hurried footsteps were heard from the outside as the emperor and his entourage rushed into the birth chambers.
The eunuch behind him tried to deter him from entering the birthing chamber as it was dirty, but the emperor paid no attention to him and busted through the doors.
He walked hurriedly over the bed and knelt his hand shaking as he touched the child's fingers. Silenced by awe.
Outside, the evil spirit screamed once more, then vanished.
But she was not gone.
She had tasted the child's spirit.
She would return.
But for now, there was a life in the palace, and a prince was born alive for the first time in years.