Pyun put out a hand to stop himself falling further with his face downward. One hand on the cold floor and the other clung to his heart, he looked up in dawning horror at Yū Miko and heard his voice, feeble and lost in the presence of the immobile Empress towering over him as he begged for mercy.
With a swoop of her arm she flicked her voluminous sleeve and wagged her finger at him. "Ungrateful brother! You rose to be Chancellor only because I granted you that position, and you became a powerful official able to control court and the Emperor only because I allowed it!
"The tit builds its nest in the mighty forest and occupies but a single branch. To me, belongs the mighty empire; to you, belongs that one single branch. You sealed your fate the moment you desired the whole forest, brother!"
