Choosing A Brew The Empress of Heaven, the Fateful Prosperity Ruler of Bình Hải, stares at the teas. There’s what feels like a myriad of them before her, so many different leaves held in porcelain scoops, a sample of the best that her storehouses have to offer, taken from tight lacquered boxes and displayed for her approval. Teas. An audience with foreign envoys is a careful thing–not a matter of ritual, but of messages that must be sent. Of reminders of strength, all the more important when Bình Hải is small and beleaguered, and about to enter negotiations for its very survival in a position of weakness.