One Year

Trouble

Siri quickly settled into her new home and a new schedule. Everyday she would get new books on medicine and herbs. She would spend her mornings reading the new books that was delivered to her every morning by Steward Mo. If she had any books she was interested in, she would request them from Steward Mo and the next day they would deliver it to her.

In the afternoon to late evening, she would spend her time in the second building where Ryu had set up her refining station. She would make new elixirs and pills to help Ryu and his men. Whither it be to strengthen them physically, mentally, or internally. She had made several pills to help his soldiers cultivate qi faster into their bodies causing his whole onsite guards and soldiers to increase their cultivation by one martial class and begin helping them quickly gain and maintain more qi inside their bodies. Causing them to quickly move up in their martial class to soon break into their new martial class.

By the evening, she would take time for herself by painting or playing the guqin. If she painted, she would do it in silence, letting her feelings flow through from her imagination and onto the paper. If she was playing her guqin, she would bring it out to her balcony and play in the darkness with only the moon as her light. Her music would depend on her mood as well. At times she played up beat, happy songs. And other times, she would miss her old life and play slow, heartbreaking, longing songs that made her servants cry.

Her reputation within Prince Ryu's courtyards grew. Not only was their new Princess a beauty, but she was well versed in all the womanly arts as well as the healing arts. Their new Princess did not hold on to any petty grudges, once the servants who wronged her were punished, she moved on from the incident and treated everyone kindly. If they served her well, she would acknowledge their hard word with rewards. And if anyone slacked off, she would punish them accordingly to their crime.

Although most of the servants working with in Prince Ryu's courtyards found their new Princess favorable and kind. There was a small handful who did not recognize her as their new mistress. They usually did small things that would defy Siri, but it wasn't big enough for her to notice or big enough for it to cause concern. However, the leader of their small group, Anya, who have been working as a maid for Prince Ryu for six years, couldn't stand the new found love, respect and reputation that Siri was getting that she decided to take matters on to her own hands.

She had been planning the event for days. She would cause trouble for Princess Siri in front of Prince Ryu so he would see Siri's true colors and send her back to the small courtyard that she first came from.

Anya and her three maid friends who didn't like Siri were working on pruning the flower bushes that grew on the side of the pathway. The four of them all knew what to do and were just waiting on their Prince to come to the Flowing Lily Courtyard to check in on Princess Siri.

They have formulated the plan and rehearsed what they were going to do and say when they finally rip Princess Siri's mask off so Prince Ryu could see just how fake and ugly she truly is. On the fifth day that they waited, their chance finally came when Siri walked out with two of her maids. They came out of the second home that Princess Siri named the Narcissus House.

No maids or servants who worked within the courtyard knew what Princess Siri did in the second home. The only people who knew were her personal maids, Nurse Nancy, Nurse Mi, Steward Mo and Prince Ryu's soldiers.

There were several groups of soldiers who walked the courtyard grounds at all times of the day and night. Word started spreading that Prince Ryu had the soldiers walk the grounds of Flowing Lily Courtyard for Princess Siri's protection. He had truly come to favor Princess Siri and now had several of his men guard her in case of an assassin attack. And at times, several of them went inside Narcissus House and came out just fine.

So the maids and servants just thought that Princess Siri treated the soldiers of their ailment and sent them on their way when they finished. All they know was that she went in in the afternoon and didn't come out until the sunset. What ever she did, it stunk up the beautiful courtyard and made the servants avoid the courtyard from noon until dark.

From the gates of the courtyard, Prince Ryu was being pushed by Petra. Beside him was Jonas and Liam. The four of them came towards Siri and her two maids. The two maids were holding a large vase within their arms that seemed like it was heavy. Just when the two groups were about to meet, Anya and her three maid friends stopped what they were doing and walked out on to the pathway. They all bowed in the presence of their Master and Mistress.

However when Rose passed by Anya, Anya purposefully bowed lower with force knocking Rose's arm with her head. Rose knew how precious the pills in the vase was and turned her body as she was falling so she could land on her back instead of her side. Hoping to save the contents inside of the vase. Her arms tightened around the vase and held on to it against her chest. Her bones and cuts could heal. They could be patched up and with time, they would be fine, however the pills inside the vases was priceless.

Rose cried out in pain as she landed on something hard and felt her back begin to become wet. Within her arms, the vase was safe and sound, all of the contents inside were still inside and the vase did not shatter. There wasn't even a chip on the vase. Sighing in relief, Rose tried to get up, but her whole back side was in pain. Rose cried out louder in pain as she held on tightly to the vase in her arms, not letting it touch the ground.

Liam and Jonas had rushed to Rose's side, while one took the vase out of her hands, the other helped her stand up. When she stood up, the stone pathway that they just walked on was soaked red with Rose's blood.

"Are you alright?" Jonas asked as he helped Rose stand up. Her whole back of her dress was stained red with her blood.

"Forgive me Princess!" Rose said as she tried to bow in apology. But before she could even bend forward, Siri's hand pushed her shoulder back so she could stand straight.

"Go back into Narcissus House and take off your dress and lay on your front, I'll be there shortly." Siri said sternly.