In the final portion of the book, Vo’s narrative tone shifts as In-Yo and Rabbit’s simmering rage erupts into actualized vengeance and In-Yo enacts her plans to overthrow the emperor—the climax of the narrative’s past timeline. In the present, Rabbit summarizes the trajectory of the story she’s recounted to Chih, noting that Thriving Fortune “was a prison at first [and] also a refuge […] Finally, Thriving Fortune became a war camp, and the general sat on the porch late into the night, looking north towards home and east towards vengeance” (82-83). Vo parallels this moment in In-Yo’s past with the one in Chapter 6, during the procession to Thriving Fortune, when In-Yo peers out from behind the curtain of the palanquin to look north. The progression of her journey from subjugated wife to political mastermind and agent of vengeful reckoning highlights the novella’s thematic interest in Feminine Political Agency Within a Patriarchal System.

In the novella’s conclusion, Vo subverts traditional Power Dynamics in the Recording of History by connecting the plot’s final reveals to the growing solidarity between two characters from marginalized communities—Chih and Rabbit. Rabbit’s willingness to reveal the full truth about In-Yo to Chih suggests that Chih has earned Rabbit’s trust over the course of the narrative. Having kept her cards close to her chest for the duration of the novel, Vo puts In-Yo’s political ambition as well as her rage on full display in the novella’s past timeline, mirroring the growing respect between Rabbit and Chih in the present. When recounting how Sukai brought reports back from his expedition, Rabbit recalls In-Yo’s bloodlust for those who had harmed her family, saying, “[W]hen it came to Erh Shi Kon, she did not want to conquer. She wanted nothing less than a slaughter” (86). Rabbit’s decision to tell Chih the truth of In-Yo’s rise to power ensures that she will get the last word in the historical record, not In-Yo nor any of the other nobles. She tells Chih, “I want time to get the words right. To do proper honor to those that died. I don’t want them to be ashamed when others speak of them” (90), underscoring how seriously she takes this subversive act of entering herself and other previously unknown figures into the historical record.

In-Yo’s deference to Rabbit regarding the Minister of the Left’s execution underscores the loyalty between the two women and the responsibility inherent in autonomy. As Rabbit notes, “It was a terrible gift […] but in it I could see her heart, broken when she left the north and then reforged and made hard by the capital of Anh and the waters of Lake Scarlet” (111). Despite all the suffering that political violence has caused in her own life, In-Yo does not hesitate to wield it as a tool for achieving her own goals, indicating violence as the preferred language of the ruling class in Anh—one that In-Yo has had to learn in order to survive. As Rabbit tells Chih, “For them, the way down matters, whether you are skewered by a dozen guardsmen […] or allowed to remove your robe and walk down to the shores of the lake before you gut yourself” (111).

Vo nuances her exploration of feminine agency by highlighting the differences in the ways Rabbit and In-Yo’s rage manifests itself. For example, Rabbit’s decision to allow the Minister of the Left an “honorable” death by suicide represents the ultimate expression of a more passive anger. Vo suggests that while Rabbit, too, is filled with anger at the Empire, especially after the unjust death of Sukai, she comes from a lower-class background, and her rage takes a different form. In contrast to In-Yo and the other nobles, Rabbit asserts, “Peasants understand that dead is dead” (111). While Rabbit doesn’t express her anger in an overtly violent fashion, she channels her rage into a powerful legacy that will outlive her by giving her daughter to In-Yo to raise as the new empress. 

Yet, for all the anger that informs the tone of these closing chapters, the novella ends with a sense of peace and triumph. In particular, the ascension of Rabbit into the heavens with Sukai represents a serene moment, conveying the sense of closure and resolution that Rabbit feels as she enters her own version of events into the historic record. That triumph is also evident in the book’s final lines, when Chih imagines seeing the new empress at her coronation: “[E]ven from the crowd, they would see in her face the trace of a migratory bird, a rabbit, and the empress from the north, fierce enough to fight wolves” (118). This fantasy highlights the equal share of influence that Sukai, Rabbit, and In-Yo have had in shaping Anh’s future, even if In-Yo received all the credit up until that point.