The Mammoth Book of Short Erotic Novels

THE EMPEROR OF NIGHT by Marilyn Jaye-Lewis

It happened that in olden times, in a land far, far away, an ancient people looked up lazily toward the approaching evening.

These were such ancient times that the stars were not yet born and the full-bellied moon was the sole celestial body in the nighttime sky. But on this evening, as twilight crept slowly toward the west, the startled people watched in awe as the sun began to rise again. Along the far horizon of the sea, it sprang up boldly and hid behind the full-bellied moon and all the land fell into sudden night.

The Earth was remarkably still, then, for this was a sacred darkness.

On the far side of the moon, under cover of night, the mighty sun caressed the moon’s fat belly with his eager fire, emptying his rays into her hidden crevices and filling her with his power until, it is said, she began to glow.

The glowing moon, unable to withstand her fullness, surrendered to the penetrating flames of the mighty sun so completely that his flames burst through her swollen craters, and together, as the frightened people fled in all directions, the sun and moon exploded in a multitude of stars across the vast, unending sky.

The force of this explosion caused the land to shake and rock; it tugged at the swirling waves of the ocean waters, sending them leaping and curling upward, eddying in great swells until, from the depths of the far-off South China Sea, there emerged from the water a land of splendour, covered in a cloud of sea mist, whose centre burned so gloriously that its proud inhabitants took no notice of the sunless sky. They knew that the sun now walked among them as a sacred man of fire.

This man of walking fire, this falling sun from heaven, came to be called affectionately, the Emperor of Night.

The great emperor was loved by all his people. They basked in his bright fire and were nurtured by his light. Though the emperor taught his people the secret of making fire, none among the mere mortal subjects could ever build a fire whose flames outshone the great falling sun from heaven. For in the emperor’s heart there burned an eternal flame; a flame of longing; the seed of heaven itself.

In an effort to ease the daily burdens of his people, to give them a time of rest, when the sands ran through the hourglass twelve times, the emperor draped his regal body in a robe of black silk, Covering the essence of heaven, he shielded his land from the eternal burning flame of his heart while his people gently slept. And it was in this way that the emperor created night.

The emperor’s grand palace was hidden on three sides by a shimmering, impenetrable cinnamon forest. Its courtyards were still more hidden behind the shade of mountain plum and wild pear trees, whose clustering blossoms the ladies of the palace had adorned with tiny silver chimes that tinkled in the delicate evening breezes and filled the nights with sounds of trembling music.

The palace itself had been intricately carved from mighty teaks and cedars. The sacred room where the emperor slept extended along the length of the grand palace’s fourth side, where it was buttressed against the power of the tossing sea by a huge wall of carved granite. A granite so smooth it glistened, it formed a majestic lagoon of fresh seawater for the emperor alone. Here the cranes and herons, the crested kingfishers and loons, nested in the protruding rocks amid the rarest night-blooming orchids and magnolia blossoms.

When the emperor adorned himself in his black silk robe and thus brought on the night, he retreated in a sacred solitude, surrounded by the graceful calm of the nesting birds, visited only occasionally by the harmless sea creatures who might swim under the great stone wall where the lagoon emptied into the waterway of the South China Sea.

The ladies of the palace were numerous and each was as fair and sturdy as the emperor himself. Like him, their supple forms were lean, their delicate faces appointed with fine high cheekbones and dark almond-shaped eyes. In the daylight, they wore their straight black hair in elaborate braids – sometimes adorned with tender peach blossoms, or lilies-of-the-valley. At night, they let their hair hang free, and exchanged their bright red robes for robes of black silk, so that each palace lady resembled the emperor in every respect save for what remained hidden beneath the folds of the austere black robes.

It was his custom that the emperor rarely slept, even though he’d created night, for great was the longing inside the eternal burning of his royal heart. He seldom passed the unending hours alone, though, sending for the various ladies of the palace for companionship in the darkness.

None was to enter the emperor’s sacred room, however. Each lady met him instead on the teakwood verandah, opening onto the majestic lagoon. The verandah was gently illuminated by the tiny flickering flames of a hundred burning candles, each candle ensconced in an elaborately carved shade of ivory. The flickering flames produced tiny dancing shadows all along the granite wall: shadows in the shapes of flying dragons, miniature salamanders, or scattering wild geese. It was on this peaceful verandah, opening onto the majestic lagoon, that the emperor shared his pillow and mat with whichever lady he fancied, being mindful, as he lifted her robe and led her through the many royal positions of tenderness and sharing, not to be wanton about the condition of his own robe, lest it loosen to reveal his heart and cause morning to arrive too quickly.

It is said that the emperor’s eternal flame could be depleted only through the expulsion of his seed into a woman who was not his bride, and though the burden of his eternally burning heart was great, the emperor was careful to preserve the power of his fire. The ladies of the palace were entrusted with a temper of restraint when arousing the emperor’s pleasure. They were well schooled in the art of pleasing him without bringing his royal seed to the point of expulsion.

The rare few among the palace ladies who took him past the brink of danger, who, knowing they could never be the emperor’s bride, for the emperor’s bride would not be mortal and would come in the form of a treasure offered up from the depths of the sea, who still longed greedily to fill their barren wombs with the emperor’s eternal fire; these few were punished swiftly and with severity. Taken by the palace guards to the hillside in the early morning, the offender was stripped bare of her protective robe and staked openly to an elevated cedar plank, her trembling legs forcibly raised and spread.

While the rest of the palace ladies were commanded to bear witness without lowering their eyes, the rare offender was subjected to the terrible Sixth Punishment, the punishment by horse cock, her wrenching screams ignored until the mounting stallion’s bulging shaft had rended the offender’s canal completely, making her no longer suitable for pleasuring the emperor.

Only then was the offender released and cast out from the palace walls. Only then were the palace ladies permitted to hide their faces in their sleeves.

It is said that on these bitter days, the emperor fasted alone and did penance in the royal chamber of his inner sanctum.

A great thing happened every twenty-eight nights.

The emperor was permitted to expel his longing in the manner of an ancient ceremonial sacrifice.

Two ladies of the palace would be summoned to the teakwood verandah, where they assumed the Royal Position of the Gobbling Fishes, one lying atop the other in the posture of intercourse, their robes raised for the eyes of the emperor, their naked genitals rubbing together until their aroused labia swelled to resemble the mouths of gobbling fishes.

When they were close to orgasm, the emperor parted his robe and, kneeling between the spread thighs of the palace ladies, separated their swollen vulvas by easing his stiffening member between the engorged netherlips. The head of his royal shaft would pleasure their erect clitorises as it slipped in and out, until he himself was ready to discharge a burst of his eternal fire.

Then the emperor withdrew his member carefully, and discharged himself into a golden chalice, held ready by a third lady of the palace.

This third lady was the most revered. Adorned in a ceremonial robe of luminescent silver, she and the emperor carried the golden chalice into the calm lagoon together, to the spot where the oysters gathered. Here, the emperor would select the most shimmering oysters. He would lovingly stroke his finger along the seam of their glistening shells and, with the tenderest of words, the emperor coaxed the oysters to reveal to him their secret pearls.

One by one, the emperor would pluck the delicate pearls and drop them into the golden chalice that held his royal sperm.

After the pearls were selected and plucked and a ceremonial prayer recited, the golden chalice was emptied faithfully onto a sacred spot of jagged rock protruding from the waters of the quiet lagoon. For it was believed that in this way, the sea would be appeased and offer up to the emperor his long-awaited bride.

And here, at the sacred rock every twenty-eight nights, the emperor performed the supreme sacrifice: he removed the robe of luminescent silver from the lady of the palace, and while the two remaining ladies lay prone on the verandah and hid their faces obediently in their sleeves, the emperor prepared to teach his chosen lady the most secret of the royal positions.

“Soon you will learn the Position of Stealing Fire”, the emperor announced tenderly. “In return, in gratitude for joining me in this supreme sacrifice, the emperor wishes to pleasure you.”

The palace lady, now naked, her back steadied against the sacred rock, would assume the favoured Royal Position of the Standing Heron, expecting to be pleasured by the emperor’s stiff member, but on this ceremonial occasion, the emperor would kneel in the salty seawater and place his mouth to the lady’s tender netherlips.

A whimper of confusion and bliss would issue from the lady, as the sight of her emperor kneeling before her in the water, his royal mouth pleasuring her in an unexpected manner, was usually very troubling to a delicate lady of the palace. But the arousing pressure of the emperor’s mouth exploring her tender secrets would cause the lady to surrender, until, within the tiny stiffening hood at the very tip of her mound, her pleasure peaked and she could endure no more of the sweetness. Her modesty then returned.

“Now I will teach you the Position of Stealing Fire”, the emperor would instruct her solemnly as he rose from the water and parted the folds of his robe. “Come, kneel before me.”

The naked lady trembled before her emperor and knelt in the water, respectfully lowering her eyes as he revealed himself. Taking her chin in his hand, he pressed his stiff member to the lady’s quivering lips and commanded her quietly to open her mouth. So strange was the manner in which the emperor chose to pleasure himself that it was not uncommon for the chosen lady to lose her repose.

“Open your mouth”, he would command her again, all the while keeping a mindful eye on the ladies lying prone on the verandah, lest they become too curious and lift their faces from their sleeves.

“You love your emperor, don’t you?” he would entreat her. “You don’t wish to see me lonely all my days?”

“No, my liege”, came her heartfelt answer.

“Then you must help me to appease the sea, or it will never offer up my bride.”

Confused but ever faithful, the lady would be persuaded to part her reluctant lips and take the length of her emperor’s thick shaft fully into her mouth. Then, as in the act of intercourse, he pleasured himself in her.

It was in this manner that the emperor discharged a second time, willingly sacrificing some of his fire, emptying it deep into the mouth of the chosen lady, a lady who was not his bride. The eagerness with which the emperor surrendered his fire, and the helpless state to which he sank as it issued from his loins, was why this royal position was regarded as the most secret position of all.

It was because this secret was so treasured by the palace, lest it be known among the ladies who would seek to drain the emperor of his power, that the emperor, having sacrificed himself in her, regretfully closed his hands around the chosen lady’s throat. As a sacrificial appeasement to the mighty sea, he held her pretty face beneath the salty water until she was thoroughly drowned.

The two remaining palace ladies were permitted then to lift their faces from their sleeves, and they assisted in silent ignorance as the emperor sent the lifeless body of the sacrificed third under the carved granite wall to be carried out to sea.

It was on those nights that the emperor slept and the following morning would dawn late on the land, as was the customary fashion.

After nearly twelve thousand days of longing, in the great emperor’s thirty-second year, when he ached beyond reason to ease the burden of his burning heart, he donned his black robe and made it night. It was a sacred twenty-eighth night, and he prepared to send for three ladies of the palace who would assume the Position of the Gobbling Fishes and hold the golden chalice ready to receive the royal seed, when suddenly the emperor noticed an eerie glow coming from the sacred spot on the jagged rock protruding from the majestic lagoon.

“At last,” the emperor cried, but not too loudly, for he feared that the sound of his own voice might break some precarious spell.

Anxiously, he waded into the lagoon, being careless with the condition of his black silk robe.

“For many years I have been faithful,” he exclaimed aloud. “I have spilled my royal seed every twenty-eighth night. I have offered the precious pearls, and selected a palace lady for the supreme sacrifice. I have prayed that the eternal burning in my heart will come to peace. And now I see that the hour for rejoicing has indeed arrived.”

The great emperor beheld that the eerie glow on the sacred rock issued from a membranous sac that contained a gestating female form. It was only a question of hours before the salty seawater would yield her, fully formed.

The emperor was so elated, so exalted in his joy that at long last the sea was responding to his tireless yearning and offering him up his bride, that he was tempted to hurry her progress by summoning more semen from within himself; tempted to shower her with pearls; even tempted to loosen his black robe and let the power of his fiery heart shine into her developing face and bring her more rapidly into being. But she was in a fragile stage and patience was of the utmost importance.

The palace ladies, having not received the customary summons, had gathered curiously on the teakwood verandah, watching their emperor in awed silence as he stood waist-deep in the salty lagoon, his black robe soaking and his beautiful black hair blowing free in the gentle breeze.

More and more the sacred spot glowed before their very eyes, slowly transforming the membranous sac into a discernible female form.

“She’s come!” he announced at last, turning to address the palace ladies and weeping openly as the quickening wind showered his beautiful hair with falling petals, the clustered blossoms trembling on the trees and filling the air with the delicate music of the tiny silver chimes. “She has eyes!” he continued at last, gaining control of himself. “I’ve seen them glowing. She’s opened her eyes!”

The ladies of the palace gasped and made haste in sending for the court magician to cut the delicate woman from the membranous sac and release her supple form to the Earth’s atmosphere.

“It’s happening very quickly now!” the emperor shouted, returning his attention to his creature. “She’s moving rapidly along. We must begin. Where is my magician?”

The magician came at once in a cloud of jasmine smoke and a burst of iridescent light. Reciting a secret incantation that has long been forgotten by the palace ladies who witnessed the event, the magician set to work on the treasure from the sea. With his terrifyingly long, sharp fingernails, cultivated for just this occasion, he carefully tore the membranous sac free from the female creature.

With a sharp yelp, she cried as she encountered the open air, then slid from the sac into the warm seawater.

It is said that when the emperor, to prevent her from slipping away from him and drifting out to sea, grabbed her in the water by one of her tender ankles and pulled her to him, she glowed all the more. At first, it seemed that his robe had perhaps loosened, but this was not the case. The female creature contained a fire of her own.

The emperor lifted her carefully out of the water and into his arms. She was round-eyed and golden-haired, although covered in a viscous fluid. She was round-bellied, too, and round-bottomed. She was so round and golden that the ladies of the palace were said to be reminded of the fabled fat-bellied moon that had existed long ago, the moon that had waxed full as the mighty sun filled her to bursting, scattering them forever in a multitude of stars across the unending sky.

“You there!” the emperor pointed, as he set his treasured creature on the crowded verandah, “and you: take her to the sacred chamber and ready her to be my bride. And you,” he added, pointing to a third palace lady, “fetch my high priest from the inner sanctum and tell him of my great good fortune.”

The ladies who had not been chosen bowed their heads in disappointment, stealing glances at the strange round-bottomed creature as she was escorted, on unsteady legs, to the sacred chamber.

“Disperse!” the emperor commanded.

In a flurry of black robes and flying hair, the ladies of the palace disappeared.

The emperor, masking his sudden royal terror with a dignified calm, beseeched his court magician, “What becomes of me now?”

“What becomes of you?” the magician roared with delight as he disappeared in a cloud of jasmine smoke. “What becomes of you? You administer the royal touch, you coax her lips to part. If she releases a pearl, she is indeed your bride. Then she will steal your fire and you will die.”

“Steal it?!” he emperor cried out to the vanishing smoke. “But I thought we were destined to share my fire, throughout eternity!”

“You will,” a voice thundered on the scattering wind, “but the nature of everlasting love is first to surrender!”

When the high priest was summoned from the inner sanctum and told of the great good fortune, he cautioned the palace ladies sternly, announcing that he would not be hurried.

“Preparing the emperor’s bride – if she is, indeed, his bride – is a task that requires diligence and patience.”

He entered the sacred room with a ceremonial demeanour. Like the emperor, the high priest was regal. He, too, wore a flowing robe of fine, black silk. His face was appointed with the same high cheekbones, set off by piercing black, almond-shaped eyes.

If he felt at all aroused by the sight of the treasured creature, if his heartbeat quickened, he showed no signs of it. He approached the trembling female, whose watery round eyes blinked painfully in the candle-lit chamber, and said quietly to her: “So you are the long-awaited treasure of semen and pearls, nourished on seawater and fire.”

The female creature could not yet respond, though it seemed to those present that she understood his meaning.

“Tonight, my dear,” he continued, “you will feel a burning sensation. This is natural, as you’re adjusting to the surface of your own skin. Later, if the emperor can coax your lips to open and you release a pearl, then you are indeed his bride and will be forever. If you fail to produce a pearl, then it’s simply not your time. You will dissolve once again into the sea and we will resume our vigil. Come,” he entreated her. “We will make you ready. We will start with the ceremonial ablution.”

As the ladies readied the shallow basin, the high priest from the inner sanctum explained: “We don’t want to shock the surface of her skin. We must proceed with precision and care. She has been nurtured on salty seawater until now. She will fight us if we don’t introduce her to the purified water in increments.”

The creature was helped to stand in the enamelled basin and was held firmly by either arm by the palace ladies.

“I’ll begin with your enchanting face,” the high priest announced quietly. As he pressed the soaked sea sponge to the creature’s delicate cheek, she resisted only slightly, for his touch was light. As he carefully washed the traces of the membranous sac from her unusual face, the high priest studied her thoughtfully. Though he’d never actually seen a round-eyed creature, he’d heard about them in fabled myths and legends, as he’d prepared his whole life for just this moment of readying the emperor’s bride.

“That wasn’t so bad”, he encouraged her as he completed the cleansing of the creature’s face and began on her pale shoulders. Her skin was still so new, so delicate, it was verily translucent, like gleaming pearls.

The priest dipped the sea sponge once again into the purified water and rinsed it lightly over the creature’s arms. “You see,” he directed the attention of the palace ladies, “how her skin is blanketed in golden hairs which weren’t perceptible at first? She seems to be undergoing the final completion process right before our eyes.”

The palace ladies marvelled at the female with respectful awe.

“You see how the quality of her skin is changing?” he continued excitedly, bathing the beauty’s arms. “How it is covered with downy hair? This is a very good sign.”

When it seemed the female was steady enough on her feet, one of the palace ladies attended to the creature’s hair. It was long and tangled and still slippery with the viscous fluid from the sac. The palace lady lathered the long golden strands with a mild soap normally reserved for bathing infants. Carelessly, however, the palace lady ascended a small stool and poured purified water over the top of the creature’s head to rinse away the suds.

“No, no, no!” the high priest cried.

But it was too late. A terrible whimpering ensued that was of such a high pitch it pierced all their hearts and chilled their spines. The creature attempted to flee the basin but the high priest grabbed her and steadied her back in the bowl.

“We’ll try to be a little more careful”, he assured her, glancing sternly at the palace ladies.

The creature blinked at him, seemingly terrified.

“That was probably the worst of it,” he encouraged her again.

The lady culprit, in turn, stepped timidly from her stool and retreated quietly to a chair in the corner.

The high priest continued his steady, meticulous cleansing of the creature, washing her round breasts and her full, round belly. When he came to that delicate spot between the creature’s legs, he carefully washed the membranous residue from her tightly curled golden hairs.

And then, to the surprise of all those present, the creature released her water, sending a stream of it in a great splash down into the basin. It was so sudden, even the dignified high priest couldn’t hide his surprise.

The two palace ladies glanced gleefully at each other, while the creature rapidly blinked her round eyes and smiled.

“You’re pleased with yourself, is that it?” the high priest sighed.

The creature’s eyes shone all the more.

“Well, as reluctant as I am to admit it, that was an extremely good sign. Come,” he said, urning to the palace ladies, “we can’t let her just stand in it. One of you empty this basin and we’ll attend to her feet.”

At last the creature was washed and dried, her hair hanging in fluffy golden curls. The ladies helped her into an embroidered robe of crimson and, following the high priest, led her through an intricately carved passageway, deep into the sacred chamber where the great emperor anxiously waited.

No one but the high priest had ever entered this level of the emperor’s sacred chamber.

It was ablaze with flickering candles, and the palace ladies gazed in wonder at the splendid secret room, at the vibrant murals that lined its walls, depicting the distant mountains as they shimmered in an endless vista, rising beyond the mystical clouds.

The room itself was alive with flowers and smelled faintly of heaven, as an aroma of dizzying fragrance scented the air.

Along one wall a towering waterfall trickled and splashed lightly over jagged layers of flat stones, adorned on either side by velvety moss and wild ferns. The water, which seemed to the palace ladies to originate somehow from the majestic lagoon, splashed endlessly into a deep but contained pool, where fat goldfish with billowy fins darted among the sunken rocks and underwater greenery.

The emperor himself was seated rather tentatively on a huge carved throne of teakwood in the centre of the chamber, set grandly on a raised platform of graduated marble, each platform carved by hand to form ornate and opulent steps.

Beyond the throne, and mostly hidden from view by carved ivory screens depicting the fable of the sun and moon in their coital embrace in heaven before they burst into the multitude of stars, stood the royal bed. All the ladies could discern from where they stood was that a beautiful lace netting, suspended from a delicate fixture in the ceiling, draped over the royal resting place like a heavenly veil. The palace ladies recognized this exquisite lace as the type made by the ancient ladies of the distant palisades; the cliff-dwelling ancients who lived so high in the peaks that even in the scorching days of mid-summer, they could not be reached without first traversing for many days deep gorges of ice and snow.

When the great emperor realized the palace ladies were too curious for his comfort, he dispersed them. His high priest, though, remained behind.

“Tell me,” the emperor beseeched him, “how do I live through this night? If she won’t produce a pearl, she will dissolve into salty water and I will die from the pain of losing her. If she does produce a pearl, I am told she will steal my fire. Either way, I will die.”

The high priest chose his words carefully. “There is much I do not know. I only know we have prepared for this throughout our entire existences. If the time has not yet come for her to be your bride – and let me add that the signs do not seem to point to this outcome – rest assured she will come again, at a more propitious time, for that is the nature of all that exists; that is the ebb and flow of life, and that is the law of the sea. If, however, her time has come and she is ready to accept your fire, look on it as a release. You will not die, not in the mortal sense; you will transmogrify into something grander, for you are an energy that never ends.”

The emperor tried to take comfort in the high priest’s words, but he could not overlook the hint of sorrow creeping into the high priest’s face.

“I’ve been lonely far too long”, the emperor began. But then he saw that mere words were useless in the face of destiny and so he bid his high priest to take leave of the sacred chamber.

The emperor parted the lace netting and helped his bride onto the conjugal bed. It was a fine, large bed of carved cedar, padded with a thick mat of embroidered silk over a layer of down.

The emperor could not help but marvel at his creature. Her fine limbs and well-appointed face made her seem quite human, but her curling tresses and translucent skin were much softer than anything he’d known.

He propped her tender back against a pile of soft pillows and then climbed onto the bed himself. He knelt next to her and studied the perfect roundness of her form.

Her eyes, in particular, intrigued him and seemed brimming with understanding. She regarded him with a curious, penetrating gaze.

He loosened her crimson robe and examined her more closely. Such full breasts and the roundest belly – like he had never seen. She seemed an odd mixture of virginity and fecundity.

“You look like you’re going to have a child”, he whispered to her playfully.

Of course she said nothing in reply, as she had not yet learned to speak.

“You look soft enough to sleep on”, he continued, then reached out to stroke her belly. He thought increasingly of lying on top of her, of removing his robe completely, to feel, for the first time in his life, what it might be like to couple completely with a naked female form.

The more he imagined himself coupling with her, the more he stroked her fat belly, until he realized she was entranced by his touch and beginning to respond.

Her legs parted to reveal her netherlips, covered in tiny golden curls. These were the lips that would part completely, and produce the treasured pearl if she was in her season.

The emperor, intrigued but no less afraid, pushed aside her robe completely. Braving what he did not know, he resolved to examine her tender secrets.

“Very human-like”, he thought at first. He caressed the tip of her mound to see if she would respond.

Respond, she did. As the emperor had never witnessed.

She moaned sweetly and offered her secret parts to him completely. She knew no modesty. The more he stroked her there, the more aroused she got. Her netherlips became engorged, separating more like the petals of orchids than like any human female sex. And the tip of her mound seemed to please her so thoroughly that the emperor lost himself in caressing her there.

She undulated and moaned so, and her lips grew so enticingly ripe, that he couldn’t help but want to pleasure her there completely. He pressed his mouth to her tender flesh and was overwhelmed by his own excitement. Caught up in her cries and whimpers, and the strange rhythms that flowed from her, the emperor was no longer aware of the time, of whether he should make it day or night. Paying no mind to the condition of his robe, he set aside the cares of his people. So entranced was he by her delight, that all his senses focused on pleasuring his creature.

The more fervently his mouth explored her, the more eager were her cries.

The more her cries entranced him, the more fervently he desired to please her, unaware that the strange rhythms swelling in her were setting his destiny in motion.

In ignorance, he licked and sucked at her delicate petals, his tongue caressing every tender fold, until the urges of his pounding manhood overtook him. He knew his moment had arrived; he would lay on top of her, with no fear of dying, and receive the blessings of heaven.

The emperor tossed aside his robe. His creature glowed all the more profoundly in the presence of his fiery heart.

He raised her legs to mount her, to guide his stiff member into the folds of her tender flower, when he observed, with shock and awe, a tiny perfect pearl push through her sacred opening!

The emperor’s consternation was great. “No”, he cried, at the same time feeling elated that she was, indeed, his bride – his for eternity – that she would not dissolve into sea water.

Still the sight of the pearl chilled him. “How will you steal my fire?” he demanded. “How is it that I will die?”

But the creature only stared at him, round-eyed, and smiled; pleased with her pearl, delighted with what her aroused body had created for him.

The emperor picked up the pearl and examined it closely. He knew what was expected of him. He was to send for his high priest and offer the pearl to the mighty sea with a prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving.

“And then what?” he said quietly, searching the face of his bride.

The shaken emperor clutched the tiny pearl tightly in his fist, knowing that somehow it was his doom. “If only it could have remained inside!”

He gathered his robe around him and prepared to send for his high priest. “If only it could have remained inside”, he repeated morosely.

And it was at this moment, it is said, that the great Emperor of Night resolved to betray the will of heaven.

“Drink this”, the emperor urged his bride.

He held the wine chalice to her lips, having placed the sacred pearl on her trusting tongue.

“It’s wine from the Azure Mountain. It will help the pearl slide down.”

The emperor’s bride drank the wine and found it quite pleasing, holding out her empty goblet for more.

“No”, the emperor replied. “Now is the time for tenderness and sharing.”

Outside the palace walls, the emperor’s weary subjects rose, groggy and overly tired, surprised to discover daylight had arrived so quickly. They dragged their heavy ploughs through the fields, milked their startled cows, and poked at the sleeping sheep to herd them out to the meadows. It wasn’t long, though, before news of the arrival of the emperor’s bride reached even the farthest hamlets. With knowing sighs, the weary people retreated back to their bedchambers for it was, in fact, the middle of the night.

The robe of crimson lay in a gentle heap atop the robe of black silk on the floor of the emperor’s sacred chamber.

The fine lace netting draped over the conjugal bed as if it were indeed a veil from heaven, protecting the lovers from the cares of the outside world.

Though the emperor knew many royal positions for tenderness and sharing, he soon found he was most content when merely lying atop his bride. For in this way, he discovered – as many lovers have discovered since the beginning of time – he could lie with his bride filling his strong arms while their secret parts entwined in a coital union. Their mouths could exchange deep kisses while the emperor ran his fingers through her soft, golden hair. But what thrilled the emperor most of all, was that while they assumed this entwining embrace – belly to belly, mouth against mouth, his stiff member penetrating deep into her secret flower as her legs wrapped around his waist – the soft, round breasts of his bride could press full against the emperor’s fiery heart. How long had he waited for a night like this to ease his torment? The emperor no longer knew. The years of loneliness, of yearning in his loins, seemed as remote now as if they had never been part of his experience.

Many times the sands slipped through the hourglass that night, and many times the emperor discharged his fiery seed into the flower of his eagerly responsive bride. The more he shared his fire with her, the more his creature seemed to glow. The emperor was delighted with the passion of his manhood, how it never seemed to wane; no sooner would he discharge his royal seed in her than his member would grow thick and he would penetrate her flower again.

So lost in each other’s arms were they, so entranced with all their senses, that the emperor did not notice the high priest enter the sacred chamber until he was readily perceived to be standing just beyond the heavenly veil.

Angered by the intrusion, and protective of the modesty of his bride, the emperor displayed a temper previously unknown to the high priest.

“Your Majesty will forgive me, I’m sure,” he apologized, “but there’s the matter of the sacred pearl -”

The emperor, stricken by a raw sensation of guilt over having induced his innocent bride to betray heaven with him and swallow the sacred pearl, answered haltingly, “What about it?”

“Your Majesty, the sands have slipped through the hourglass twenty-four times; surely she has released a pearl by now.”

“Of course she’s released a pearl! She’s my bride, mine for eternity.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, but – ”

“But what?!”

“You never sent for me. We must offer the pearl back to the sea as a gesture of gratitude and thanksgiving.”

The emperor was more guilt-stricken still. “I’ve seen to the matter already”, he declared.

The high priest tried hard to hide his feelings of alarm.

“I told you, the matter’s been seen to!” the emperor insisted. “I saw no reason to part from my bride for even a moment longer than was necessary, so I tossed the pearl into the lagoon myself and gave a prayer of thanks. I assure you, it was heartfelt. No doubt, Your Grace will understand my sense of urgency.”

The high priest could not hide his dismay; still, he approached his emperor with caution. “I dare say, that’s not the manner in which those things are usually done, but I suppose what matters is that the ritual was carried out, so that heaven and the mighty sea will be appeased.”

The emperor replied hotly, “They’re appeased.”

“I beg Your Majesty to suffer me just a moment longer.”

“What is it?!” the emperor shouted.

“It’s the matter of your people, Your Majesty. They tire from the constant day. Might you consider donning your robe for a time, if only for the sake of your people?”

“I have lived my whole life for the sake of my people. Surely they can grant me a little patience in this instance!”

And that was all the emperor deigned to offer on the subject.

Finally, it came to pass that the emperor grew tired. He slipped into his robe and lay with his head on a pillow next to his bride and closed his weary eyes. But it seemed his eyes had only been closed a moment when he felt his member stiffen and again become thick.

He opened his eyes in time to see his beautiful bride climb astride him, burying his protruding shaft deep within her hot flower.

And, indeed, it was hot. It was so hot and so deep that the emperor wished to lose himself completely in her warmth, be absorbed into her body and drift to a never-ending sleep. His eyes closed at last, filled with the vision of her nakedness, her full breasts gently sloping down, and her round golden belly undulating enticingly as she pleasured herself on his royal member.

When the emperor awoke, he feared he was dying. He did not know how long he had slept, but he sensed it had been an inordinately lengthy period.

He was chilled to the bone. He reached down to the floor for a coverlet, but it did little to warm him.

His bride was awake and lying cheerfully beside him. A heat came from her radiant glow that beckoned the emperor close. He took her in his arms and kissed her and, without even knowing it, drifted back into a deep sleep.

“Your Majesty will forgive the intrusion.”

It was the high priest again, shaking the emperor gently by the sleeve of his black silk robe.

“Your Majesty, wake up.”

“Yes, what is it?” The emperor tried to focus on the high pries, but his brain longed for more sleep.

“Your Majesty, we have some sort of crisis. The land has been stuck in what can best be described as a grey half-twilight for many days. The people grow restless and cold. They threaten to chop down the entire forest for fire.”

The emperor went to great lengths to understand the high priest’s words, but all he really understood was the direness of his tone.

“Surely the blissful sleep after the wedding night has gone on long enough”, the high priest entreated him. “The robe, Your Highness. Your people could use some sun.”

“Fine,” the emperor managed to reply, and with a tremendous physical effort he stripped away his black robe and fell dead asleep.

In a moment, the troubled high priest had returned. “Your Majesty, it didn’t help. The grey twilight remains.”

The emperor’s powerful will aroused him from his deep need for sleep. He pulled his bride to him, as he suffered now from an extreme chill, but she was so fiery hot, he sprang away from her.

“Your Majesty! What is it?” The high priest made no pretence to mask his alarm. “You look so ashen and pale.”

“It’s her!” he cried, fearing for the wellness of his bride. “She positively burns with fever!”

The emperor’s bride lay happily among the royal pillows.

“She seems quite well to me. She’s glowing and rounder than ever.”

“No”, the emperor spluttered wearily. “She’s on fire. Touch her.”

When the high priest laid his hand on the bride’s arm, he pulled it sharply away, as if he had been burned. “You’re right! She burns with fever. Yet you are the one who looks ill.”

“I’ve made a grave error in judgment, Your Grace”, the emperor struggled to confess. “I tried to prolong my happiness and still I am dying. You see how she steals my fire? Only now she will perish, too; my fire is consuming her.”

The high priest urged the emperor to explain.

“The pearl”, he managed to say. “I cheated heaven. I made her swallow the sacred pearl. I tried to hide from my fate by making her consume the product of our passion. I fear now that it is burning her alive.”

The high priest ran from the chamber to summon the nearest palace ladies. “You must fetch the magician. There’s been a tragic accident. The emperor and his bride are quite ill.”

Amid great weeping and hysteria, the emperor and his bride were draped in ceremonial robes and gingerly transported to the teakwood verandah, where they were placed on a sacred mat.

The magician was summoned and he arrived in a burst of iridescent light and a cloud of jasmine smoke.

When it was revealed to the magician how the emperor had attempted to betray the will of heaven, he demanded that the court disperse, even the high priest, and gather in the inner sanctum to pray for the emperor’s soul.

When the magician was alone with the emperor and his bride, he gently shook the emperor, who had once again drifted into a deep sleep.

“You have been a fool”, the magician declared quietly. “You had all that heaven allowed and still you wanted more.”

“I know”, the emperor confided. “I’ve seen my mistakes played out behind my eyes in quite vivid and remorseful dreams. I have an unbearable burden in my heart. I no longer mind that I am dying, but I have sealed the fate of my innocent bride, and who will look after my people when I am gone? See how the stars are forever approaching from the East, yet they never arrive? It is not day, it is not night; will my people be forever trapped in this twilight? And my poor bride. She burns with enough fire to light an empire, yet she cannot shine and save my kingdom.”

“I know what must be done”, the magician replied, seemingly unmoved by the emperor’s plight. “How, may I ask, is the condition of your heart? Have you left anything undone? Have you said your prayers for your people?”

The emperor nodded gravely. “But what about my bride? I will never be ready to tell her good-bye.”

“Your Majesty,” the magician scolded him, “you are such a foolish man! Your destiny has never been anything but that: your destiny. I told you your love was ordained by fate to last throughout eternity, but love requires you first to surrender. Nothing you do can exert your will over the will of heaven. All you’ve managed to create in the meantime is human misery and delay.”

The emperor’s eyes edged with tears. He summoned great strength within himself, braved his creature’s hot fire, kissed her tender mouth one last time and surrendered to the will of heaven.

He tried to contain his tears as he watched his court magician conjure an incantation over his blissfully ignorant bride. And then, with not even a moment to prepare, a mighty gale of wind swept across the teakwood verandah and the emperor’s treasured creature shot up to the sky as a crackling ball of fire.

Day dawned instantly on the land and all that was left behind for the emperor to cling to was his creature’s sacred pearl; the treasure their joy had created had withstood the powerful fire.

It is said that in his profound grief the emperor swallowed his creature’s pearl. And as the magician disappeared in a cloud of jasmine smoke, and a gentle breeze tinkled the tiny silver chimes in the tender plum blossoms, the emperor wept bitter tears, and did not stop weeping, even after the sands had slipped through the hourglass twelve more times.

And it is further said that so great was the emperor’s remorse, as he could no longer provide night for his tired people who toiled in constant daylight, so bitter were his tears, that he finally dissolved into salty water that trickled down into his majestic lagoon and was carried out to sea.

It was then that the mighty waves leaped and swirled and tossed a sacred glowing pearl far into the western sky, at last bringing on the gentle evening. And it was this sacred pearl, which we’ve come to call our moon, that was loved in ancient times by a tender, tired people, who came to call it, affectionately, the Emperor of Night.