Going for a swim with some rainbow-coloured fish and algae was never part of the plan. Yuehwa spat out a mouthful of water, fishing loose strands of pond weed from her hair as she picked herself up on her feet. The pond was not deep, but the fall was enough to drench her from head to toe. A hand reached out to her, offering to help her out of the water.
Glaring up at the person who had been responsible for giving her enough of a scare to topple into the water in the first place, Yuehwa's pride insisted that she reject his offer, clambering out of the pond on her own accord instead. The man who was standing there with an apologetic smile on his face looked like he was in his early twenties, with a handsome face and soft features that added just the right amount of gentleness to the masculinity. He looked like he could be a guard of sorts, yet he was not wearing the blue that was part of the Dahai guard attire; instead, he was dressed entirely in sombre black with the gleaming silver hilt of his sword hanging at his waist.
"You're not from the palace. Are you from Gi?" Yuehwa asked, arching an eyebrow curiously. She had come across some soldiers and guards from the kingdom of Gi back when she was traipsing about in Jin, and she knew that black was the colour of their uniform. What she really wanted to know was why a random guard from Gi was wandering around the Dahai palace on his own.
The man nodded his head. "Indeed. I'm surprised a young palace maid like yourself would recognise our uniform. The crown prince of Gi is currently having a private audience with the king and I happen to be part of his entourage. I apologise if I scared you earlier. Are you alright?"
Yuehwa rolled her eyes. She didn't need any sympathy or concern from a skiving guard, especially one who was now smiling at her even though he had absolutely no right to be smiling after what he had done. Clearly the crown prince of Gi trains all his subordinates to be annoying, she thought to herself as an image of Park Maroo popped into mind. The prince himself must be one annoying git.
Ignoring his question, Yuehwa sighed as she looked down at her drenched clothing. After all the trouble she had gone through to nick these clothes off the unsuspecting palace maid, now she needed to get herself yet another set.
She turned around and stormed away from the pond, leaving the bemused guard behind. Barely twenty steps in, she suddenly turned around and walked all the way back.
"Skiving are you?" she said to the man. "In that case, maybe I should help your prince teach you a lesson." Raising her right leg, she gave him a hard kick on the shin, smirking when she caught the look of surprise in his eyes as he went tumbling backwards. Into the pond.
Satisfied with what she had done, Yuehwa quipped, "That'll teach you not to scare people from behind the next time." Picking up the wet hem of her skirt, she turned and continued walking away in search of dry clothes.
#
Yuehwa found herself a fresh set of clothes from a chest of drawers in one of the palace maid's rooms. In return, she left the owner her original soggy set and a scruffy note to say thank you.
Right now, she didn't really know which part of the palace she was at. She had simply strolled into one of the palace compounds near the eastern perimeter of the gardens and entered what she thought looked like servants quarters. There were servants quarters littered all across the palace, but the room she had found appeared to belong to the palace maids who specifically served one of the members of the royal family. These quarters were typically adjoined to that of a larger, more extravagant palace building that housed whichever member of royalty that these servants looked after.
Still wearing the sea blue of an ordinary palace maid, Yuehwa slipped in through the back door of the main building and began looking around. There was no one in the vicinity, so she leisurely explored the place, toying with the various antiques and trinkets that were lying about.
"I wonder who lives here," she remarked to her feathered friend. "A concubine perhaps?" It was odd though, that there was not a single guard to be seen. The Dahai royal family seemed to be less concerned about palace security than some of the other kingdoms she had been to.
The interior of the building was elegantly designed, with the subtle scent of roses floating in the air. Even before she entered, Yuehwa already knew that the owner of these quarters loved roses. There were roses of all shades and colours planted in the garden outside, and there were little pots of roses placed at various parts of the room that she was standing in right now.
It was also obvious that whoever these quarters belonged to, she was very much in the king's favour. After all, Dahai hardly had the appropriate climate for growing roses given that it was exposed to the harsh, salty winds from the open sea. The amount of effort that was required to ensure that these roses were able to bloom was no mean feat.
As though in response to her question, the soft sounds of someone crying suddenly drifted into her ears.
Oh no, just turn around and walk away, Ember thought to himself, searching for the nearest exit. Any sane person who was breaking and entering would know to run away from strange noises, but his owner definitely qualified for the "not sane" category. Just as he was about to fly out through an open window, he caught sight of Yuehwa inching closer and closer towards the source of the crying.
Poking her head around an open doorway, she saw a girl crouched in one corner of the room, head buried against her knees as she sobbed to herself.
"Strange isn't it, that there's not a single soul in this entire place except that girl over there," Yuehwa whispered to Ember.
As if you care. Ember rolled his eyes.
He was right of course, she didn't care. Even if there was an obvious death trap lying within, Yuehwa would still have gone in simply because curiosity got the better of her.
Clearing her throat, she walked slowly into the room. "Are you alright?" she asked, a tinge of concern in her voice. Even though she was the fearsome Phoenix who could end a person's life without even blinking an eye, there was still some heart in her left. She especially didn't like seeing someone else cry, because it surfaced a sense of injustice within her that made her want to put an arrow through the person who brought about those tears.
"Who are you?" the crying girl suddenly looked up, alarmed that there was someone else in the room. She quickly wiped the tears from her face, as if afraid of being caught. "I thought I said no one was allowed to enter!"
The moment the girl lifted her head, Yuehwa's jaw dropped in awe.
Even though she had been crying, her tear-stained cheeks did nothing to dampen the beauty of her youth. Instead, her flushed countenance only served to emphasise her delicate features, reminiscent of the roses that were in bloom at all corners of the compound.
Such beauty does not belong on this earth, Yuehwa mused.
The girl scowled when she realised that Yuehwa was just staring. "I asked you a question!" she demanded. "What are you doing in here without permission? Are you new?"
The king of Dahai had fifteen children, a sizeable number compared to the other kingdoms, yet out of the fifteen he only had one daughter. Being the only rose among the thorns, the princess of Dahai—Naying—was the apple of her father and brothers' eyes, most treasured and carefully protected throughout the seventeen years of her life. That she was a rare beauty, unparalleled across the five kingdoms, only served to make her more precious to all of Dahai and earned her the nickname of the "Rose Princess".
Deciding to play along, Yuehwa nodded. "I'm sorry for intruding, Your Highness, I did not realise it was you!" she exclaimed in mock surprise. "My name is Yuehwa. Lady Kang sent me because she thought that you might need additional assistance in preparation for the annual sparring tournament."
Princess Naying frowned. "You're lying. Lady Kang would do no such thing. Who exactly are you?"
Yuehwa threw her head back and laughed, noting that the princess was a much sharper needle than she had expected. It was common knowledge that Lady Kang, the king's favourite concubine, had been taking charge of all matters in the palace ever since the queen passed on a few years back. The estranged relationship between the king's concubine and his favourite daughter was the lesser known fact.
"Just a passer-by who decided to drop in for a visit," she replied casually.
"Guar—"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." In the blink of an eye, Yuehwa was squatting right in front of the princess, placing a firm finger upon her lips to shut her up. "I'm not an enemy, though if you decide to start screaming, I don't guarantee that I'll remain friendly," she said with a wink.
The princess's eyes widened, staring suspiciously at the girl in front of her. As indignant as she was, she kept quiet.
"That's a good girl," Yuehwa said, straightening herself up. Walking over to an empty chair, she sat herself down and began fiddling with the ceramic teacups that were on the side table. "Now, why don't you tell me why the famous Rose Princess is crying all alone? Got cold feet before the royal wedding?" Everyone knew that the king intended to choose a suitable husband for his beloved daughter through the upcoming sparring tournament. As much as he couldn't bear to let his daughter leave his side, the princess would turn eighteen the following year and it was unimaginable that she should still be unmarried by then.
At the mention of the impending wedding to a groom that had not yet been identified, the tears began to well up in Naying's eyes once more and her fists clenched in indignation. "There is no royal wedding. I am not getting married to anyone!" she said.
To the rest of the world, the king was a doting father who wanted nothing but the best for his daughter, but before he was her father, he was first and foremost the king of Dahai. Her father had already made it clear to her that there were only two candidates she was allowed to consider, namely the crown princes of Gi and Feng, both of whom had much to inherit in the near future. What the king wanted was more than a son-in-law; he wanted an alliance, one that would be strong enough to help fulfil his ambitions of uniting the five kingdoms under one banner.
"Ah, a marriage of convenience. After all, with the most beautiful woman across the five kingdoms as bait, the king will have no difficulty getting whichever son-in-law he fancies," Yuehwa quipped after listening to Naying's story. "What's wrong with the crown princes of Gi and Feng?" she asked. "I've heard many good things about them, especially the prince of Gi." She chuckled as she thought of Maroo and the stories he told that made the crown prince of Gi sound more like a god than a human being.
"There's nothing wrong with either of them," Naying sniffled, "but I refuse to marry someone who only views me as an asset that can be used in exchange for power! Father promised me that he would let me choose the man that I would marry, yet now he tells me that I have to make a choice between these two regardless of whether I like them or not."
"Want me to give you a hand?"
Naying's eyes lit up. She picked herself off the ground and ran over to Yuehwa's side, eagerly tugging at her sleeve. "You have a solution? Is there a way for me not to marry any of them?"
"When there is a will, there is always a way. Except... it won't come cheap," she glanced sideways at Naying and said.
There she goes again, meddling in someone else's matters. The day she walks away and decides not to poke her nose into things is the day the world will end, Ember thought. Shaking his head, he lifted his wings and flew out of the window, unwilling to witness what nonsense would spew out of Yuehwa's mouth next.
"I'll give you anything you want! Any price, as long as you help me get out of this," Naying said eagerly.
"Even that jade pendant?" Yuehwa pointed at the pendant that was hanging from the princess's neck. She had noticed it ever since she stepped in, and immediately she was reminded of something that she had just seen not too long ago.
The pendant was made of white jade, carved into the intricate design of a snowflake. Just looking at it from afar, Yuehwa couldn't be sure whether or not the design was identical, but it sure looked similar to the symbol she had seen on the tapestry in the fabric store.
At the mention of her pendant, Princess Naying hesitated, her hand instinctively reaching up to grasp onto it. "This was given to me by my mother... Can't I give you something else in exchange?" She ran and brought back with her a sandalwood jewellery box, emptying its contents onto the table in front of Yuehwa. There were necklaces made of pearls, earrings made of red coral, hairpins of precious stones, and the princess was offering them all to a rather smug-looking Phoenix.
"I was only joking." Yuehwa laughed, although her gaze still remained fixed upon the snowflake pendant. "We can talk about payment later, when I've actually got the job done."
"What are you intending to do?"
"I don't know, maybe do away with the crown princes of Gi and Feng? Wouldn't that solve your problem?" Yuehwa replied with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. She watched in amusement as the blood suddenly drained from the princess's face, the girl's eyes enlarging in shock. "Just kidding. I'm not really in a mood for that sort of thing these days. Must be getting old. I'll tell you what you need to do when the time comes. In the meantime, don't tell anyone else about me. If someone asks, I'm a new palace maid that has been sent to wait upon you, alright?"
"Aren't you going to tell me who you actually are?" the princess asked, suddenly a little suspicious of this helpful intruder.
Yuehwa laughed as she walked towards the open door. Reaching into her sleeve, she retrieved a single red dahlia and tossed it backwards towards the princess. "Don't worry, like I said, I'm not an enemy." With that, she slipped out of the room and vanished from view.
Holding the dahlia in her trembling hand, the princess collapsed back into her seat. Everyone in the five kingdoms knew what the red dahlia meant and who it belonged to. If she hadn't realised it earlier, then she only had herself to blame. After all, how many random strangers were able to freely enter the grounds of the Dahai palace without triggering a single alarm? Her mysterious appearance, her debonair attitude and the way she spoke freely about matters concerning the various kingdoms, all of it had pointed towards her true identity, yet it took a red dahlia to make Naying realise who Yuehwa actually was.
Now, the princess of Dahai had now officially joined the ranks of a mere handful who had seen the Phoenix for what she actually looked like—and that could be both a blessing and a curse.