Night of the Hats

  Lotus Dew For The Emperor’s Tea by Vanessa Fogg in Lightspeed The First Emperor was immortal and death and old age could not enter his realm. Every morning he would drink a cup of tea brewed from the water that had condensed as dew on the lotus flowers. Yet even here change could not be prevented. A maiden who collected the dew made a choice and drank one drop of the water. And mortal time entered the Emperor’s realm. Since then Emperors have tried to discover the secret of immortality, to find the tea that the First Emperor drank. There is a tea master who wanders the world, perhaps a pupil of the maiden, or a pupil of the pupil. The current Emperor sent all his sons across the world to find the tea. And in the end, now, dying, his daughter returns to him, with knowledge of tea thought lost. A story of tea, of missing out on life in avoiding death, of children and of betrayal. All bound up wonderfully in what is revealed not to be a folk tale, but a specific story, told...