" In truth, we were similar. Like two sides of a fan, we were at odds with each other, we competed with each other, but our fates similarly rested in the hands of the Emperor—the holder, the commander, the manipulator of our destinies.
And there was nothing we could do about it, because we were simply a whim in his mind, a fancy in his bed, an accessory beside his pillow, nothing more. We provided threads for his rapture but never the fabric of his happiness. "

― Weina Dai Randel , The Moon in the Palace (Empress of Bright Moon, #1)