"the princess is too young and far too spoiled to rule this kingdom... she'll destroy the entire kingdom if she receives the throne!" general Qin angrily yelled, bringing his fist down on the table.
"we are all aware of her situation...but it *was* king Zhen Xue's last wish so there is nothing we can do" the royal advisor said glancing over at the rooms door.
"Guwen...I had a nightmare" a voice could be heard from the small crack in the door. whoever was speaking had been there for sometime, listening to the conversation.
"young princess..." Guwen said standing up.
"forgive me general Qin, I have to go help the princess..." Guwen said glaring back at the general.
"!" upon noticing Guwen's glare general Qin froze.
"come on let's get you back to bed" Guwen said picking the young princess up.
"I'll be back soon" Guwen said looking back at general Qin before leaving the room with the princess in his arms.
"...say how much did you hear?" Guwen asked looking down at the young princess, her grey eyes looking away from him.
"as much as I needed....why does everyone in the kingdom hate me?" the young princess asked.
"hate...you? no! no! that's not possible...no one can hate you, you're a adorable little girl with such a big heart it be impossible to hate you..." Guwen said, avoiding eye contact with the princess.
"thanks for helping me Guwen..." the princess said as Guwen cradled her in his arms.
"think nothing of it...after all tomorrow is your big day" Guwen said before taking the princess back to her room...
"where...where the heck am I?" Xue Nushen asked looking around.
"it's so dark...I can't see anything" Xue Nushen said trying desperately to find something, anything familiar in the darkness.
"I-i can't move!" Xue Nushen yelled trying to stand up, but no matter what her body wouldn't move.
"something...cold is washing over my body? water!" Xue Nushen yelled opening her eyes, realizing her location almost instantly.
"ow...ow not here... damnit" Xue Nushen said looking down at her body, it had been hung from a tree next to a running river, at the end of the river was a giant waterfall surrounded by jagged rocks.
"why here...?" Xue Nushen thought looking around at the familiar mountain landscape.
"...why am I here...again" Xue Nushen said looking down at her old, tattered, robe, the black and red robe had faded to a light grey and pink, dirt covered the ripped edges of the bottom of the robe, the only thing keeping the robe on was the old vines wrapped around her, the same ones used to tether her to the tree.
*rip* the small sound of something being slowly ripped apart came from behind Xue.
"I will not be treated like this! I am your princess, I am the only one who can rule this kingdom you'd all die without me!" Xue Nushen yelled as the old vines began to slowly give out one by one.
"I refuse to die like this!" Xue Nushen let out a blood curdling scream before being dropped into the river, her robe coming apart, the rivers strong current dragging her under the water...
"I...Will...Not...Die..." Xue Nushen said taking her last breath before her body fell down the waterfall.
"princess?! princess?!" a young boy yelled from the top of the waterfall as Xue Nushen fell to her death.
"no!" the young boy yelled watching Xue Nushen's body plummet towards the sharp rocks at the bottom of the waterfall, that was until...
a bright white light appeared around Xue Nushen, her body disappearing from sight the moment the light appeared.
"s-second ascension?" the young boy muttered, watching the light disappear alongside Xue Nushen's body.
"long live the princess who reigns in heaven!" the young boy yelled up at the heavens...
"Xue Nushen!" a familiar voice called out to Xue.
"ngh...Ling Wen what're you doing here?" Xue Nushen asked sitting up.
"...it looked like you were having a bad dream so I wanted to wake you up just incase...forgive me" Ling Wen said bowing to her.
"it's fine...I didn't want to go through that dream again anyways" Xue Nushen said stumbling to her feet, still tired and confused because of the dream.
"where's Xiao-Ying?" Xue Nushen asked looking around for the girl.
"I sent her to go get some things from my temple." Ling Wen explained.
"my head is killing me..." Xue Nushen said making her way over to the table in the center of the shrine.
"I brought tea if you'd like some..." Ling Wen said placing a tray on the table.
"yeah that'd be great" Xue Nushen said staring at the busy street outside her temple.
"say what's going on?" Xue Nushen asked looking back at Ling Wen.
"you'll never believe it...you know that one god, Xie Lian?" Ling Wen asked, pouring tea for the both of them.
"yeah I've heard of that guy...what about him?" Xue Nushen asked grabbing the tea cup Infront of her.
"y'know how the banyue pass incident has been going on for over four maybe five hundred years? well he took care of it...or well that's what Mu Qing and Feng Xin said when they came back this morning..." Ling Wen whispered to Xue Nushen.
"no way! you're joking!? that bundle of misfortune took care of banyue pass? really?!" Xue Nushen asked sipping her tea.
"eh for all we know Mu Qing and Feng Xin could've been lying...but it doesn't exactly make sense" Ling Wen said glancing over at the door.
"miss Ling Wen, I'm back!" Xiao-Ying yelled running into the temple with a bunch of clutter in her hands.
"what's that?" Xue Nushen asked, setting her tea down on the table before standing up.
"every single offering you've been gifted this week..." Ling Wen replied.
"all of that came from this week alone?" Xue Nushen asked looking at everything in Xiao-Ying's arms.
"yep... at each of your shrines seventy five incenses were burned somewhere in between yesterday and two days ago, also you received multiple offering, so if we add that to your other merits you have... three thousand, eight hundred, thirty six merits... oh and yesterday someone offered you a bouquet of white lilies and a bottle of alcohol was left at a different shrine some time this morning." Ling Wen explained pointing out the different things in Xiao-Ying's hands.
"give me those flowers!" Xue Nushen yelled ripping the bouquet out of Xiao-Ying's hands.
"I knew it! there's something tucked inside the bouquet..." Xue Nushen said pulling a origami crane out of the flowers.
"that's a cute little crane" Xiao-Ying said staring at the tiny but lively paper crane.
"...*sigh* Ling Wen, go give that bottle of wine to some idiotic martial god, and find a vase to put these in...but be quick I plan to leave heaven as soon as possible" Xue Nushen said tossing the bouquet of flowers over to Ling Wen.
"got it! I'll be back in a few minutes..." Ling Wen said catching the bouquet before making her way over to Xiao-Ying.
"here you go..." Xiao-Ying said handing the bottle of alcohol to her.
"thank you" Ling Wen said taking the bottle from Xiao-Ying before leaving the temple.
"Xiao-Ying take this crane outside at release it..." Xue Nushen said giving her the tiny origami crane.
"uh...okay?" Xiao-Ying said before taking the crane outside.
"geez what's wrong with her?" Xiao-Ying said under her breath.
"goodbye little crane!" Xiao-Ying said throwing the tiny origami crane into the air, much to her surprise instead of floating away like a normal scrap of paper, the paper crane flew away using its small wings.
"...what?" Xiao-Ying said as her face went blank as she watched the scene unfold Infront of her.
"you highness?! the crane flew away!" Xiao-Ying yelled looking back at Xue Nushen who simply shook her head.
"....yeah, Cursed Origami do that" Xue Nushen said staring off into the distance.
"Cursed Origami?" Xiao-Ying asked looking back at Xue Nushen.
"that paper crane you just saw is a Origami creature, they're made of special cursed paper, a type of paper that when folded into animal's, makes them come alive as if they weren't paper at all..." Xue Nushen explained, crossing her arms.
"where do they come from?" Xiao-Ying asked, not completely understanding what she had just been told.
"a horrible man named Wanqu Jiantou...but forget about him we aren't going to be meeting him anytime soon... atleast I hope we're not" Xue Nushen said before somberly returning to the pile of pillows she slept in earlier.
"Wanqu Jiantou...a man who turns cursed paper into animals... 'The Cursed Origami Hidden In The Midst Of Arrows' is what I believe they called him" Xue Nushen said sitting down in the pile of pillows, Xiao-Ying sitting down beside her shortly after.
"...did she know him?" Xiao-Ying thought as she glanced over at Xue Nushen's face, the latter of which looked frozen in place.
"I hope miss Ghost Brides okay atleast..." Xiao-Ying thought before shaking off the idea of how strange this morning has been.