"How do I call you?" Shuyin asked instead, changing tack. "What’s your na? I can’t just keep thinking of you as ’the jade-haired girl’ in my head."
The girl straightened, pressing her fist to her heart in that formal gesture again.
"My na is Yu Shou, my Queen," she said, bowing her head respectfully.
"All right, all right..." Shuyin waved her hand quickly, uncomfortable with the formality. "Don’t bow. And don’t call Queen. Not yet. Not until I understand what’s actually happening here."
She gestured between them.
"Just call Shuyin. It’s better that way. Less... overwhelming."
Yu Shou hesitated, clearly torn between obedience and protocol, then nodded slowly. "As you wish... Shuyin."
The na ca out careful, deliberate, as if she were handling sothing precious and breakable.
Lu Yuze, who’d been standing silently near the door this entire ti, watching, processing, calculating, finally spoke.
"Where did you co from?" he asked, his voice asured. "You appeared out of nowhere as a jade stone. Before that, you were..." He gestured vaguely. "What? Where were you?"
Shuyin nodded quickly. "Yes. That. Explain that. Where were you before you beca a glowing rock and crashed through my window?"
Yu Shou’s expression shifted, beca almost... frustrated.
"I had to be reborn through your closest kin," she said, her youthful features scrunching with visible annoyance. "Your bloodline. Your family. The magical connection had to be there for my soul to anchor properly in this realm."
She crossed her arms, looking distinctly put out.
"Your stepsister worked better for than anyone else available. I chose her womb as my vessel for rebirth. I was the baby she was carrying...." Her frustration deepened. "But I didn’t know she was so *weak!* Her body couldn’t handle my essence. I thought I’d have at least nine months to properly form, to stabilize, to....."
She gestured at herself with clear dissatisfaction.
"I could have turned out *bigger!* Stronger! More physically imposing! But no, six months and her body gave out. Six months! Do you know how insufficient that is for a proper rebirth?"
Silence fell over the room.
Shuyin stared at her.
Lu Yuze’s eyes had gone very wide.
"Wait," Shuyin said slowly. "Wait. Repeat that. Say that again.
Yu Shou blinked, confused by the reaction, what was so difficult to understand? "I said I needed more ti to....."
"No. Before that." Shuyin’s voice had gone very low. "You said you were... You were the *baby* Lin Yueling was carrying?"
"Yes." Yu Shou nodded as if this were obvious. "I told you, I had to be reborn through your bloodline. Your stepsister was pregnant. I took the opportunity. My soul entered the forming fetus that had gone still and...."
"Hehe..."
The sound escaped Shuyin’s lips, a sharp, slightly hysterical laugh.
"Hehe... hehe..."
She pressed her hand to her mouth, trying to contain it.
"I don’t...." She shook her head. "I don’t think I understand anything anymore. Repeat that again. Slowly. Very slowly."
Yu Shou frowned, clearly not understanding what was so complicated about her words and they were using the sa language.
"I am... *was*...the infant your stepsister Lin Yueling was pregnant with," she said carefully, enunciating each word. "I incarnated into that still-unborn child six months ago when the pregnancy began. My essence rged with the dying fetus. For six months, I gestated in her womb, preparing for rebirth into this realm so I could find you and resu my duties as your Guardian."
She paused.
"But her body was too weak to carry to full term. The strain of housing my soul caused complications. She went into premature labor. The doctors perford ergency surgery. She chose to save , the baby, instead of herself."
Yu Shou’s expression softened slightly, grudging respect flickering across her features.
"That was... honorable of her. Foolish, perhaps, but honorable." Even without her sacrifice, she could have survived.
Shuyin felt the world tilt sideways.
"You an to say..." Her voice ca out strangled. "You’re telling that you.... *you* ...are the baby Lin Yueling just gave birth to? The premature infant? The one she *died* trying to save?"
"She’s not dead yet," Yu Shou corrected. "Her vital signs are weak but stable. She might survive. She will survive....."
"That’s not the point!" Shuyin’s voice rose. "The point is, you’re saying you *are* the baby! So grown! So... not a baby!"
She gestured at Yu Shou’s fourteen-year-old appearance, her fully ford body, her articulate speech.
"What happened to.... where’s the *actual* baby?! Lin Yueling gave birth to an infant! A tiny premature infant with tubes and machines and....." Because, that’s what a six-month-old baby should be.
"That *was* ," Yu Shou said patiently. "I was born as an infant. Six months premature. Extrely underdeveloped. It was... unpleasant."
She shuddered slightly at the mory.
"But the mont I was separated from the mother’s body, the mont I took my first breath of mortal air, my true nature began to assert itself. I couldn’t maintain that fragile infant form. My soul is too old, too powerful. So I transford."
She gestured at herself.
"I condensed my essence into the Heartstone, the jade stone you caught, and traveled across the city to find you. Once in your presence, I could finally manifest in a form more... appropriate to my actual age and purpose."
Shuyin sank down onto the edge of her mother’s hospital bed, her legs suddenly unable to support her weight.
"So you’re telling ," she said slowly, numbly, "that Lin Yueling sacrificed her life to give birth to a baby... and that baby doesn’t exist anymore. There is no baby. There’s just... you."
"Correct," Yu Shou confird.
"And you’re not actually a newborn. You’re an ancient guardian spirit who just happened to use her womb as a convenient rebirth vessel."
"Also correct... Yes"
"So she died... or is dying... for *nothing.*" Shuyin’s voice cracked. "She gave up her life to save a child that was never really a child at all."
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