The Phoenix Palace Gambit: The Apologizer Takes the Central Palace

The corner towers of the Forbidden City had just struck the hour of the Rooster. Sunlight like scattered gold slanted across the glazed tiles of the Hall of Heavenly Purity, casting shifting patches of light onto the green brick floor. Yue Da'e huddled in the narrow passageway on the west side of the imperial garden, her fingers gripping the sleeves of her coarse palace clothes so tightly that her nails nearly dug into her palms. This was already her third hour in this “Ming dynasty,” and the confusion in her mind was churning even more fiercely than water just brought to a boil in the imperial kitchens.