The Sylvan Crest Swap

Sylvan Crest is the seat of the Nine-Tails Clan. Sylvia and Rowena were born twins of the same blood. Sylvia came out with nine tails and took the throne as Empress. Rowena had three, which left her a noblewoman living inside her sister's court. Rowena began an affair with the Empress's favored consort, a prince of the rabbit clan who had come down in the world. Both sisters bore daughters around the same time. Sylvia's child carried the nine-tailed line and was received as the heir, and Rowena's child had no immortal power at all. On the night of the births Rowena exchanged the two infants. Sylvia knew about the exchange from the beginning and worked around it, so the daughter left in Rowena's hands was Rowena's own. For five hundred years the girl in Rowena's house was beaten, sworn at, and used for whatever her mother had to put somewhere, and she grew up with a grudge in her. The other girl was taught by the Empress at close quarters and began to look like a successor. Both of them come up at the selection of the heavenly consort and the climb of the heavenly stairs.