The Last Dahlia

034

"Your Highness, you need to come to a decision soon or else we're going to have a mutiny on our hands! The ministers are getting increasingly impatient and they won't want to wait any longer. Feng and Hwa have begun increasing their military presence along their borders, which means that we'll have a much tougher battle on our hands the longer we drag this out. The ministers think we should strike while the new prince of Feng has yet to gain his footing, else when the White Scorpion and the Phoenix join hands we could be at a disadvantage."

"I know."

That was all Baixun had in response, as he set down the wooden piece he had been toying with in his hand. After a moment's thought, he picked it up again and shifted its position on the map. And again. And again. This was all he had been doing for the past few weeks while he locked himself up in his study.

"If we hope to unite the five kingdoms under our banner, then there is no way she can escape unscathed, Your Highness," Maroo said quietly. He had been by the prince's side long enough to know the reason behind why Baixun had been wearing a frown on his face all this time. "She is not only the regent of Hwa, but also the Phoenix, and she will not go down without a fight."

"Is there really no way?" Baixun muttered, gripping the wooden piece tightly in his hand.

Maroo sighed quietly. The ministers were right to be worried and anxious, because for the first time in his life, their prince was hesitating. He reached into his sleeve and withdrew a black silk scroll from within. He placed the scroll on the table and said, "This has been sitting in the royal archives for tens of years. I heard about it briefly from my mentor many years back, but I didn't think much about it until a couple of days ago when I was analysing the situation across the kingdoms. It's an ancient prophecy that was foretold by the soothsayers back in the day, before the late king decided to eradicate all forms of what he considered to be the 'occult'."

Baixun picked up the scroll and slowly unfurled it, revealing the faded lettering on the yellow parchment within. "On a day when darkness descends upon the kingdom and the light of the sun is extinguished, the end of the kingdom will be born," he read. "What is this?"

"While I was checking the background of the White Scorpion, something interesting turned up. According to some of the old servants in the palace of Feng, Hwang Minjun was born to the sister of the current queen on a day when there was a solar eclipse and the sun was obscured in the sky right at midday. The historical records of Feng state that such a birth has only ever happened one other time, and that was when the first king of Feng was born."

"Are you telling me that the subject of this so-called prophecy could be the White Scorpion?" Baixun asked, arching his eyebrows sceptically.

Maroo nodded his head. "Your Highness, I know you don't believe in these things, but sometimes it's difficult not to. You were born at midday, on a day where the sun was the brightest and most scorching that it had been in years, yet Hwang Minjun was born at the exact same hour in complete darkness. Word has it that the king of Feng ordered his son killed because of this very prophecy, so as to protect his kingdom, but what if the prophecy had never been about Feng in the first place?"

"What if it was about Gi?"

"Or Dahai? Jin? Or perhaps even Hwa?" Maroo added solemnly. "Your Highness, I know that you don't wish to hurt Princess Yue, but you mustn't forget that she has already picked her side. Hwang Minjun is someone who has been hiding in the shadows all these years, yet the moment he appeared he managed to overturn the status quo and become the next in line for the throne of Feng. If we don't make the first move while we still can, then who is to say that he won't turn the tables on us? You have worked too hard to lose it all now."