The Celestial Dragon Hall floated five hundred feet above the highest peaks of the Upper Cloud Ring.
Suspended upon a permanent anti-gravity leyline matrix, the palace had been assembled from solid blocks of semi-clear mutton-fat jade and golden nanmu timber, its roof edges tiled in royal gold. Inside the throne room, three-hundred-foot rows of stone pillars carved with nine-clawed dragons supported a vaulted ceiling painted with star-patterns of the First Epoch.
Incense of thousand-year dragon-spit drifted through the cool air, bathing the forty royal ministers and High Court judges in a solemn air of dynastic dread.
At the far northern end of the hall, raised atop nine tiers of white jade stairs, sat the Nine-Dragon Imperial Throne.
Resting upon the throne behind a curtain of strung dragon-pearls was an ancient, frail figure.
Emperor Yan Jiuzhou.
Clad in gold-stitched robes of royal purple that seemed three sizes too large for his withered frame, the four-hundred-year-old monarch was the undisputed ruler of thirty mortal principalities. His hair was sparse and white as cobwebs. His skin was mottled with liver spots, and from his sunken chest came a shallow, rattling breath that sounded like dry autumn leaves scraping across stone.
Kneeling at the base of the jade stairs was Crown Prince Yan Wuji, his face bruised and streaked with dried sewer soot, his eyes burning with vengeful malice.
