You try to read her pulse? You try to sense the truth through the flow of blood? You try to see her heart?

Oh, Piripiri. Desire has nothing to do with the [i]heart[/i].

Desire is a manic thing, fiery and wandering and intensely, viscerally [i]cerebral[/i]. Desire is imagination. Desire is something that burns at the forelobes of the brain. Desire is something that is written in the stars themselves. Desire is sky-blue, silk-blue, the blue of eyes and destiny. Once there was a maiden and she tore her heart out for love and not for a moment did it stop her loving. Your power comes from blood, child of the dragons, the lineage from those great divine serpents, so no wonder you trust in blood. But it was not [i]blood[/i] that made the dragons bend humanity over and give them queens. 

"You do?" said Zhaojun. "One would have thought my work in the Otherworld was sufficient to mark me as a graduate of the Heptagram Imperial Academy of Sorcery, but I understand. [i]Anyone[/i] might work Imperial Magic against a lord of the netherworld, but a piece of paper with the Domina's signature - now that's something you can [i]trust[/i]."

You read the blood then, Piripiri. And in the blood you read faultless confidence. An arrogance so sublime and refined it is a work of beauty. Her blood speaks of power refined over the generations of dynasties, for what else could be so great? And you see, too, ambitions that would be simple were they not held at such a lofty height: To seize the reins of power that administer the world itself. High Dominion politics must be a terrible place indeed. The kind of place that makes or breaks kingdoms.

It is coincidence not worth remarking on that all the colours in the room seem blue in this strange light.

"No," she said with a pleasant patter, "either I am who I say I am, or I am not. If I am, then I am positioned to wield power and influence in the heart of Imperial politics. If I am not, then I am an enormously powerful sorceress who has decided to, rather than use her enormous magical powers, ask for your opinion about your boss. Consider which is more likely on your own time, because whichever it is, I am busy."

"So," she tapped the parchment with her quill, "Cathak Agata. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest, how would you rate her performance in the Flower Kingdoms?"