Chapter 49
Wei Li Lian
Princess Elora
Her Highness Wei
Li Lian's palms were clammy and her stomach knotted in apprehension. All of it felt like a foreshadowing of the worst still to come.
The other times she had been threatened with the truth coming out, it was not as difficult. She was nobody to him then, but not anymore.
Wife.
She gave herself to him in the previous hour. Until death, not to part till heavens merged with the earth.
"Your Highness, it is I!" Ai called.
Li Lian heard Ai's footsteps nearing the shut sliding door.
"Do not enter, report from outside," she quickly instructed.
"Yes, Your Highness." Ai cleared her throat. "Reporting on what you asked of me: his Majesty is in the Hall of Festivals with his subjects. Scrolls and memorials were being distributed for private discussions on matters of the empire. Afterwards, they will have lunch."
"Th-the scrolls?" Words were stuck on her throat.
"Yes, Your Highness."
In her hands, Noble Consort Qi shook with laughter. The woman was more than cunning.
Angrily, Lian shoved her away, causing her to topple onto the floor.
"Despicable woman, what have you done?" Li Lian swore.
Heat washed her body and she felt her being lighten, she was losing her sanity. The room swirled around her as she took a few steps back and rested against the wall.
Not on her wedding day, this couldn't be the end of her. She squeezed the blade in her hands until she bled, gaining feeling. It was the only thing that could ground her.
Blade against skin, that was the pain she did not want on her neck as Yuwen Hong's dragon sword slashed her to death.
Noble Consort Qi rolled on the ground and lay on her back.
"I warned you, now we are to meet in death." Her eyes gazed at the roof. In them was what Li Lian did not have in herself: the acceptance of fate and destiny to die on this day.
Li Lian shook her head and thrust the knife on the floor. Mimicking the loudness of her mind, it aggressively clattered on the wooden floor.
Li Lian would not die easily, not when she had something to do about it.
She pushed the door open and ran out, knocking aside Ai who stood on her path by the entrance.
"Your Highness! Where are you off to?" Ai shouted after her.
Li Lian grabbed her skirts to run faster. She could hear her heart beating, and her fingers began trembling against the soft fabric she held.
"Isn't that Her Highness?" The people she passed pointed at her.
"Why is she running with her hair in disarray?"
"Your Highness!" Ai screamed from behind. "Please, wait! Where are you going?"
Tears brimmed in her eyes but the wind against her face wiped them off.
"Your Highness!" Her entourage as well, not just Ai, were now chasing her.
Sweat beaded on her forehead as she huffed and puffed. Her lungs could not take it anymore but her eyes were focused on the goal of reaching the Hall of Festivals.
The matchstick must be blown off before it lights an untamable fire.
"Your Highness!" The guards bowed their heads as she went up the steps into the Hall of Festivals.
The cold air maintained by the cold stones of the hall was a welcomed relief to her body drenched in sweat. She ran her hands through her tousled hair, though without a mirror there was no hope of correcting it.
Li Lian was met with scholars carrying empty wooden boxes that normally kept scrolls.
"You gave them the scrolls?"
"Greetings Your―"
"Where are the scrolls?" she screamed.
"We delivered them as requested by His Majesty."
Li Lian tumbled into the Hall of Festivals, the huge doors screeching open that the once noisy large room silenced. Everyone turned to look at her from their allocated seats.
She stood still, her heart up to her throat. There were too many of them in the large room, maybe between fifty and a hundred. She swallowed what felt like a ball of yarn in her throat, she dared not look at the throne ahead and catch the eyes of Yuwen Hong.
By the corner of her eye she spotted a subject read the opened scroll, whispered to someone and both of them then looked at her.
'Noble Consort Qi... even in death, I will kill you,' she thought.
In denial of the matter, she bent to collect the scrolls, snatching some from their hands. They grumbled to her and louder whispering persisted.
"Objection, Your Majesty!" An official stood and kowtowed on the front row. "Her Highness has presented herself with her hair untied. As the wife of the dragon, this is unacceptable! Nevoria has been ruled by His Majesty for the past five years that everyone must now tie their hair as law! How dare Her Highness go against this in public?"
Incoherent agreements came off from the others.
"She is wishing death upon His Majesty!"
Yuwen Hong having reigned for five years, the only time his people were to display untied hair was when the emperor died and they were in mourning.
Li Lian's arms were filled with scrolls. Who cared about little rules when a storm was about to bring lighting to strike her dead? She paused since she could not take anymore without spilling over what she already held.
The front rows had not opened their scrolls yet. However, the back brewed chaos, discussing what they were reading.
Li Lian felt the cold daggers of Yuwen Hong on her, but she dared not meet his eyes. She would crumble.
"Your Majesty! If your servant may speak," a king stood from the south west of the Hall, "This is nothing compared to the dire situation we are reading about."
Li Lian fell to her knees, scrolls scattering around her feet. It was the beginning of her end.
At that moment, her entourage barged and fell to the ground behind her.
"Your Majesty, it is our fault, we deserve to die! We let Her Highness wander with no proper apparel!"
"We deserve to die!" The rest of Li Lian's servants cried in unison to Yuwen Hong.
"Your Majesty―"
Ai did not get to finish her sentence as Li Lian hit her on the back.
"What are you doing here?" Li Lian scolded with a hushed tone, "Go away!"
It was no time for them to ask for death. With mayhem simmering at an unstoppable rate, Yuwen Hong would actually do it in his fit of anger.
Ai grabbed Li Lian's skirt to show her loyalty. She was not going to part from her mistress no matter what. Awfully so, they thought they were making her situation better, but they were throwing wood to the fire.
"Ridiculous!" Another king raged as he stood. "An empress from Huticah. How did this happen? Have Nevorian women all died that His Majesty took the princess of Huticah as his wife?"
The hall roared in agreement, those seated on the front rows catching on as they opened their scrolls. At this point, Yuwen Hong's silence was deafening. He did not usually waste time to bring order whenever cacophony arose.
"Your Majesty!" The huge doors opened in a rush. "Your Majesty, please serve your servants with the justice they deserve!" A stampede of an entourage ran past Li Lian and fell on the steps leading to the throne.
Spotting a few familiar faces, Li Lian realised they were the servants of Noble Consort Qi.
"Your Majesty! Our mistress was found dead in the dressing room of Her Highness Wei!"
Li Lian gasped in shock. A few minutes ago, she was with Noble Consort Qi who was in good health. How was she dead?
Impossible... It couldn't be!
But lifting her eyes to spot her hand bleeding away, scrolls stained with her blood, she regretted being born.
Chapter 7 of Emperor and I [Referral]
"How shameless! Your Highness, men grow their hair in this place," Ai said with a scowl. "And their women don't pin their hair up either."
Le-anne laughed with glee.
"It is tradition for the citizens to not tie their hair up until the new emperor's reign exceeds five years," she tried to explain while catching her breath. "This is their way of mourning their previous emperor for the next five years."
Author's Note
I mean... Li Lian waited this long, it was bound to come out.
S.V