"Are you alright?" Yuehwa asked, slightly worried with Shoya's silence ever since they left the astrology building. "What did she say to you before we left?"
They were now back in their temple hide-out, after having made a rather uneventful escape from the Feng palace. She guessed that the chief astrologer likely had a hand in how they were allowed to simply walk away without encountering so much as a lone guard. Either that or the palace of Feng needed to seriously review the way it handled security.
Just before they left the chamber, Sheng Yun had called out to Shoya and whispered something into his ear.
After listening to what Sheng Yun had to say, Shoya had a persistent frown etched between his brows—one that was still there. Yuehwa was not surprised. She would be perturbed as well if someone told her that she was the living incarnation of someone who died hundreds of years ago, no matter how illustrious said person was. To know that that was the reason why Shoya had been callously abandoned by his family only served to deepen the hurt that they had already caused him. Yuehwa couldn't even begin to imagine how that must feel like.
She placed her hand over his and said, "We don't know whether or not that woman was speaking the truth. She could just have been making things up for her own agenda."
"But there's no other explanation. There's no other way to explain all the voices I've been hearing in my head. These flashes I've been having in my head, these memories... I have no other explanation for them." Sighing, Shoya poured himself some tea. "If what the chief astrologer said is true, then it's no wonder my father would view me as a threat. History has recorded incredible things about the first king of Feng, things that no other man dared dream of accomplishing. He defeated the Wudi empire. This kingdom's very existence depended upon this one man."
"Even if all that were true, there are still so many questions surrounding the entire matter. If another child had been killed in your place while you had been smuggled out of the palace, then who is going through such great pains to stop you from finding out the truth? Who would even know that you're still alive?"
"If Sheng Yun managed to track my whereabouts, then who knows who else might also have made the same deductions?" He took a sip of his tea, a thoughtful look on his face. Laying his sword on the table, he ran his fingers along its gleaming blade, saying, "This sword belonged to him—the first king. Since then, it's been passed down from one king to another, the one symbol that represents the highest authority in Feng."
Yuehwa placed her fingers over the crystal hilt, shuddering slightly at the icy sensation against her skin. The sword was nothing like anything she had ever seen, and looking at it again up close left her just as much in awe as she had been when she first laid eyes upon it down in the hidden cave in Dahai.
"What are you going to do now?"
"What do you think I should do?" Shoya looked up at Yuehwa, the corners of his lips tilting upwards slightly when he saw her furrow her brows in deep thought.
After a short while, she said, "I think you should do whatever you think is right." She watched as Shoya stood up and walked over to the window, silently contemplating the sky above. It was now the break of dawn, and the tiniest sliver of light had appeared through the darkness.
As he stood there in his usual white outfit, sleeves swaying slightly from the light morning breeze, Yuehwa felt it was almost impossible for her to imagine him any other way. This was how he had first appeared in front of her, and this was the only way he had ever been. She thought back to the crown prince of Feng, that arrogant excuse of a man they had met back in Dahai, and wondered how differently Shoya might have turned out had he not been sent away all those years back.
It didn't suit him, she thought, all the shackles that came together with a royal title.
She walked over and stood beside him, watching the sun slowly emerge above the rooftops, bathing the world in a warm morning glow.
"If you want to forget everything and leave it all behind, then just do it," she said. "Life is too short for regrets. I mean, life as it is isn't bad, is it? We are free to do whatever we want, go where ever we wish. Of course, if you decide that that's not want you want to do and you want to regain what was rightfully yours, then—" She turned to look at him, the words suddenly getting caught in her throat when she realised that he was now looking intently at her, a quiet bemusement in his eyes. "Sorry, I was just blabbering," she said quickly, lowering her gaze.
Shoya took a step forward, closing the gap between them. Alarmed, Yuehwa's first instinct was to move back, but before she could do that, a firm hand around her waist stopped her from doing anything.
Goodness, why is it suddenly so warm in here, she thought to herself, eyes darting everywhere except towards Shoya's face.
"No matter what I choose to do, will you support my decision?" he asked.
Yuehwa finally plucked up the courage to look up at him, and at that moment when their eyes met she wondered how they had ended up here. It didn't seem like all that long ago when she first met him, that intruder who was hanging off the ceiling beam in the ship's cabin. How had she felt then? A little amused, mostly annoyed—now she could feel her heart pounding rapidly in her chest, the blood rushing all the way up to her head.
She laughed, trying her best to disguise her awkwardness. Smacking him hard across the chest, she quickly pulled away and disrupted that moment of seriousness, saying, "Of course! We're friends, aren't we? That's what friends do, help each other out. Speaking of friends, do you think the golden chrysanthemum can really cure Naying?"
Perched on the window sill, Ember shook his head in embarrassment. Trust her to ruin a perfectly good moment by trying to change the topic, he thought. She's going to regret it later.
Shoya shrugged his shoulders. "You won't know unless you try. There are some old medical books that keep brief records of its antidote nature, but no one has seen the golden chrysanthemum in such a long time so no one knows if all those records are even reliable anymore," he said. "You took one from the underground chamber didn't you? Are you heading back to Gi soon then?"
Yuehwa tried to detect any hint of disappointment in his words—there was none.
"I suppose I should," she said casually. "The longer I drag my feet, the longer she'll be tormented by the poison."
Still no reaction. He was now pouring himself another cup of tea.
"So you haven't answered my question. What are you going to do now?" she asked, leaning her chin against the table as she waited for his reply. She was beginning to think that the tender moment they shared just minutes ago was an illusion, because he had gone back to being as emotionless and placid as he always was.
He took a slow sip and replied, "I really don't think it's up to me to decide." He put down his cup. "Someone always seems to be trying to make those decisions for me."
Suddenly, he grabbed Yuehwa by the arm and pushed her towards the bed, just as an arrow came flying in through the window. It impaled itself against a wooden chest of drawers. Minutes later, the entire chest was aflame.
"Why the hell does everyone think I need saving," Yuehwa grumbled as she quickly picked herself up, annoyed that Shoya had just gone and done what Baixun did before. Unsheathing her sword, she joined Shoya in deflecting the numerous flaming arrows that were continuing to come in through the windows.
Within seconds, the entire room was in flames.
The duo backed away slowly towards the nearest exit they could see, all the while still trying to keep the relentless arrows at bay. The smoke from the flames were beginning to suffocate, and Yuehwa broke out into a fit of coughs as she tried to keep her wits about her. Winding their way down the temple corridors through the flames, they suddenly heard cries of help coming from one of the rooms. Without thinking twice, they made a detour in search of the person who needed help, eventually finding a priest cowering in a corner of his room, the roof threatening to collapse on him at any minute as the flames licked away the wooden beams that were keeping it up.
"Help me!" the priest cried out in desperation when he caught sight of the two figures by the door. One of the fallen beams had landed on his right leg, preventing him from escape.
Shoya was about to dash into the room when Yuehwa grabbed hold of his arm. "The fire is too big, the roof isn't going to hold!" she said.
Giving her a wink, he said, "Stay here. I'll be right back."
Yuehwa felt a deep sense of unease as her fingers lost their grip on Shoya, leaving her with no choice but to watch him run into the room in order to rescue the trapped man. Hurry up, hurry up, she thought anxiously to herself as her eyes kept darting from the two men in the corner to the roof above. Even with Shoya's skill, it was no easy feat to shift the heavy wooden beam in order to get the priest out. With great difficulty, he lifted the beam just an inch, barely enough for the priest to extricate his bleeding leg from underneath.
The minute he could stand up, the frightened priest quickly made a run for the door, dragging his injured leg behind him. Ignoring anyone else around him, he pushed past Yuehwa and vanished from sight within mere seconds.
"Hurry up! The place is going to collapse!" Yuehwa shouted at Shoya, annoyed that he was risking his own life to save an ingrate.
Standing in the middle of the flames, Shoya dropped the beam and started heading back towards her, but just as he was halfway across the room, another beam came crashing down from the ceiling, landing heavily on his right shoulder before hitting the ground. Yuehwa's eyes widened in horror. The thick, billowing smoke made it difficult for her to see how Shoya's situation was. She was about to run in to get him, but before she even put her foot out, Shoya appeared in front of her, taking hold of her hand and leading her away from the collapsing room.
"Are you alright?" she asked, glancing worriedly at his right shoulder. A huge tear had appeared in his white outfit and an angry burn was visible on his shoulder, staining the white material with his blood.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Shoya replied nonchalantly. "Keep your guard up, it's not going to be over even when we get out of here."
Yuehwa would have asked him what exactly he meant by that, but she was a little too shaken by the thought that he might have died in that room back there that she wasn't thinking straight. The warmth of his fingers intertwined with hers was the only thing that could help calm her down.
The minute they stepped out through the back door of the temple and onto the street outside, what Shoya meant by things not being over suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks. The first thing she saw was a man sprawled dead in the middle of the street, a single arrow pierced right through his heart. It was the priest that Shoya had saved minutes ago. Beyond that stood a row of soldiers that had completely surrounded the temple compound, some of whom looked a little surprise to see them emerging.
"White Scorpion, you are under arrest for the murders of the royal librarians," one of the soldiers barked out.
Shoya simply laughed.
"What if I told you I didn't murder any of them? Razing down an entire building just to force me out, isn't that a little extreme?"
"You can save your explanations for the general," the soldier replied, tightening his grip around the hilt of his sword. He was visibly intimidated by Shoya, who was a picture of calm despite being vastly outnumbered and wearing an injury on his right shoulder. Everyone had heard of the infamous White Scorpion before and no one ever wanted to cross paths with him. What more, the White Scorpion was not alone. Glancing sideways at his men, he said, "Take them down."
"Should we force our way through?" Yuehwa whispered to Shoya. She wasn't entirely confident of breaking through the human barrier that the soldiers had formed, given the sheer numbers. Still, it was worth a shot.
Shaking his head, Shoya replied, "No. Whoever it is who wants me dead, I'd like to meet him. You don't need to be here though, I can help to create a diversion and you can make an escape."
Yuehwa held onto Shoya's hand a little more tightly.
"I'll come with you."
#
The soldiers chained their hands and legs, marching them down the streets like criminals until they reached the city prisons, a dark and grotty place that was overrun with vermin. Along the way, passers-by tossed them a mix of curious and judgmental glances, whispering and pointing.
Flying above, Ember sighed. If these two wanted to escape, those measly chains wouldn't be able to stop them. Looking at the soldiers who had their chests stuck out in front of them like proud peacocks, he wondered how some people could be so foolish, thinking they had accomplished some great achievement when it was hardly anything worth crowing about.
Throwing them into an empty prison cell with only a tiny window, the soldier said, "You can stay here and wait for the general's verdict. I don't think it'll take long. Enjoy the rest of your life while it lasts." He slammed the cell door shut and turned the key in the lock, smiling pompously at them before he turned and left.
When he was gone, Yuehwa walked over to the cell door and glanced around, saying, "Will the person behind all this really show up? Is it this 'general' that those soldiers keep mentioning?"
"I would be genuinely surprised if it were him. General Hong is in charge of maintaining order within the capital—he commands the city guards. As far as I'm aware, he's an extremely principled man, stiff and upright to a fault. He's offended many wealthy officials because of that. If it were him, he wouldn't have resorted to razing the temple down to have me killed before putting me on trial."
"If it's not him, then who could it be?"
Shoya sat himself down on the damp floor of the prison cell, leaning casually against the stone wall. "We won't have to wait long. Whoever it is will show himself soon," he said.
"What makes you so sure?"
"Because curiosity kills the cat. The mastermind hasn't shown up because he wasn't confident of being able to get rid of me that easily, which is why he kept jumping through hoops and trying to make use of someone else, in this case the general, to do the job for him. Now that we're stuck in here, he'll think he has the upper hand and he'll let his guard down."
The jarring red patch on Shoya's right shoulder suddenly caught Yuehwa's attention, and she squatted down beside him, looking around for what she could possibly use to help him treat his injury. Seeing that the prison cell was completely bare save for some straw mats, she ripped off a strip of cloth from her own trousers and reached out to help him bandage his burn.
"It's fine, I can do it myself," Shoya said, wanting to take the strip of cloth from her.
Yuehwa retracted her hand and frowned. "Stop trying to push me away!" she snapped. "How exactly are you planning to bandage your own shoulder? There's nothing wrong in needing to depend on someone else from time to time." Ignoring him, she continued what she was intending to do, quickly wrapping the strip of cloth round his injured shoulder and tying a tight knot to complete the bandage. Inside, she was fuming at his incorrigible attitude—always distant, always trying to keep her at arm's length.
Why do I even bother, she thought to herself. She was already beginning to regret her decision to follow him here to this dingy prison cell, when she could have been free as a bird and on her way back to Gi.
"I'm not a dependable sort of person, Yuehwa," Shoya said softly. "If you stick with me, I can't guarantee that you won't get hurt, that you won't regret all of this one day. You know that my background is complicated. Even if I wanted to lead an ordinary life and leave all of this behind, they won't let me. The White Scorpion can go from place to place and not care about anything, but the fact is that I'm not just the White Scorpion and there are some things that will leave me with no choice. I don't need you to bear any of these burdens with me or end up having to make decisions that you don't want to because—"
Yuehwa leaned over and placed her lips on his, abruptly cutting him off. She felt Shoya stiffen for a second, but this time he didn't push her away like he usually did. His lips felt warm against her own, a foreign sensation that she had never experienced before, yet beyond the physical experience, what was more important was the meaning behind it. He had delivered half a monologue, but despite everything he was telling her, this was her answer to him—that she didn't care.
That despite knowing all of that, she still chose him.
A tiny red canary sitting on the window ledge used his wing to cover his eyes.
Friends? The things '"friends" do these days.