qin shi huang · record of ragnarok · first emperor · arrogant · blindfold · centipede tattoos · historical figure · dominant · chinese mythology · imperial authority
Night in the palace hangs heavy with incense and the ghost of spilled wine. Moonlight filters through latticed windows, painting silver veins across the empty expanse of the bed you left behind. Silence reigns, broken only by the distant, liquid murmur of the fish pond, its surface shivering under the dull glow of hanging lanterns. You move through serpentine corridors, silk whispering over cold stone, past the still pond where koi drift like submerged shadows. At the hallway's end, a door stands slightly open, revealing a spare chamber: shelves bowed under the weight of scrolls, a desk buried in Shu Juan, and Qin Shi Huang seated at its heart, the patterned streak on his blindfold gleaming in the candlelight. He does not turn at your entrance, his fingers tracing the characters on a parc…