The tip of the embroidery needle that Zi-ning had been using pierced through the surface of her index finger.
"Ah!" she winced, raising her wounded finger to her lips.
It was barely noticeable, given that the fabric of her wedding robes were already a deep, vibrant shade of red, but she could still spy the tiny spot of blood that now stained the gold thread of the wing of the mandarin duck that she had been finishing up.
She set down the needle and sighed.
Not a good omen, she thought, to have spilled blood so close to the day of the wedding ceremony.
She looked out through the doorway, half expecting Hana or Shujin to come bearing a letter from Zhenghuan, but there was no movement but the gentle swaying of the branches of the gingko trees in her garden. It had been several days since she had last received news from Zhenghuan. While he had been away in Hua, he had written to her every other day. She had complained, in jest, about it being far too excessive, but when the letter did not arrive as expected, or for the next four days after that, a feeling of unease began to seep into her mind.
Getting up from her seat in front of the embroidery rack, she walked over to her writing desk and picked up the sheet of parchment that lay there. This was the last letter she had received from Zhenghuan, telling her that Princess Xuan's funeral rites were over and that he would be returning from Wulihe very soon.
Zi-ning ran her fingers across his lively brush strokes, a faint smile stretching across her face.
You're overthinking things. He'll probably climb in through the window to spring a surprise any moment now.
It took approximately a week to travel from Huangcheng to the capital of Hua, so if her calculations were right, then the Duan entourage should arrive back in the next day or two. After that, it would only be one more week before the wedding.
She gazed upon the crimson robes hanging upon the embroidery rack, with phoenixes, peonies and auspicious mandarin ducks dancing across the fabric in gold and silver. She had done all of the embroidering herself, so it was hardly of better quality than the wedding robes made by the imperial tailors she had worn in her previous life, yet she knew she liked this one much better. It was imperfect, but it had come from her own hands, and she would soon wear it to marry a man that she had chosen herself.
A man she had come to love.
"Miss! Miss!" Hana came running into her room, flustered and sweating.
"How many times must I remind you that there's no need to be so—"
"The crown prince is dead!"
Zi-ning swallowed, the rest of her words remaining stuck down her throat. "What did you just say?" she asked.
"The crown prince is dead. His body was brought back to Huangcheng this morning and now everyone's talking about it."
"How... That's not possible." Zi-ning immediately left her quarters and began heading toward her grandmother's. If this was indeed true, then her father would soon deliver the news to the old madam, as he always did.
But it couldn't be true.
Ru-quan could not be dead, because Zhenghuan was there to protect him. Unless...
She shoved the thought away, not willing to entertain that horrible possibility. Yet, as she walked, she remembered the letters that never arrived, and dread continued to pool at the base of her gut.
"How could something like this happen?" she heard Old Madam Song cry out, before she even stepped foot into the parlor.
"The imperial physicians have already examined the body and confirmed that it belongs to the crown prince. The king has collapsed from grief," Minister Han answered. He looked up when he heard Zi-ning enter, then simply sighed loudly and shook his head.
The old madam beckoned for Zi-ning to come to her side. Taking her granddaughter's hand in her own, she said, "Zi-ning, you must stay strong. The Shadow Lord is still missing, but that means that he may still be alive."
"Missing?"
Zi-ning's head reeled with this new piece of information. How could Zhenghuan have gone missing? And Ru-quan was dead?
She sank down into the empty chair beside her grandmother, shocked into silence.
"Thank goodness I didn't choose to stand on the crown prince's side when Queen Ci tried to pull me on board," the minister continued. "Who would have guessed that something like this would happen? If I had thrown my lot in with them, then we would have lost everything!" He glanced over at Zi-ning, pursing his lips together in displeasure. "What bad luck, to have something like this happen mere days before the wedding," he scolded, as if it were Zi-ning's fault that all this had happened. "Stay in your room until all this dies down. I don't want to hear people gossiping about how you cursed your own future husband to his death."
Zi-ning clenched her fingers around the mahogany armrests of her chair, saying nothing. She did not have the time nor energy to care about the callous, mercenary ways of her father right now. The man had always been a coward, always choosing to sit on the fence whenever he could.
"How did it happen?" she asked.
"Goodness knows. The cause of death was poison—a rare poison that contains ingredients only found from the Devil's Peaks. The king of Hua has issued a statement of condolence, claiming that the Eagle Warrior must be trying to frame him for the crime by committing it on Hua territory." The minister's upper lip curled in a sneer. "We'll have to see who exactly is framing who."
Zi-ning's brows knitted in deep thought. A poison made from ingredients found only from the Devil's Peaks—that could only be Wang Chuan. She had read about it in the River Immortal's secret manual. Wang Chuan was made from the petals of snowcap flowers and the spring water found near the peaks of that treacherous mountain range, water that had been contaminated by the roots of a poisonous bush that only grew in those frozen caves. Mixed with a dozen other herbs, Wang Chuan took the form of a fine white powder that would first cause confusion in its victim, before manifesting in the form of nightmarish hallucinations that would eventually force the victim to claw out their own throats.
It was one of the most cruel poisons known to the kingdoms.
But how did someone manage to administer Wang Chuan to the crown prince? And what exactly had happened to Zhenghuan?
Her mind was fraught with worry, trying desperately to piece together what had happened. In the end, Ru-quan had still died, despite her best efforts to keep him alive. Was it truly impossible to change someone's fate?
She sprung up from her chair and marched for the doors.
"Where are you going? Remember what I said about staying at home!" Minister Han shouted.
Zi-ning did not reply.
Her grandmother was right. As long as she had not yet laid eyes on Zhenghuan's corpse, then there was a chance that he was still alive. He was the Shadow Lord, and the Shadow Lord did not die so easily. Not dead, only missing.
Right?
#
"What? Zhang Mingshen isn't in the capital?"
Zi-ning stood in He's Jewellery, speaking with the shop's owner, He Jun. She had rushed here hoping to be able to locate Zhenghuan's deputy to find out more information about the situation, but according to He Jun, Mingshen had left Huangcheng two days ago and had not made his whereabouts known.
"Is there anyone else who might know more? Is the Shadow Lord really" –dead— "missing?"
He Jun shook his head, worry etched in his eyes. "We have not received any news through our networks, my lady," he said. "The last update we received was from Wulihe, and the report said that the crown prince's entourage had left safely after Princess Xuan's funeral."
That was exactly the same as what Zhenghuan had told her in his last letter.
"Was there anything noteworthy from the other reports of their stay in Wulihe?"
"Not in particular. Because of the coronation, there were many visitors from the different kingdoms present in Wulihe during that period of time, but we did not detect any suspicious activity. The princess's passing in itself was probably the most out-of-the-ordinary thing to happen, if you ask me."
"I see. Thank you. If you hear any news about Zhenghuan, or if Commander Zhang returns, please let me know."
Zi-ning hurriedly said goodbye and left the jewellery shop, with Lianyue and Lianxin trailing along behind her. She would typically have brought either Hana or Shujin on trips into town, but given the current circumstances, it was probably best to err on the side of caution.
What He Jun had said was in agreement with her own line of thought. The strangest thing about the entire trip to the kingdom of Hua had been the unexpected demise of Princess Xuan. Zhenghuan had only mentioned it briefly in one of his letters, insisting that there was nothing to worry about. On hindsight, perhaps that was all the more suspicious.
Did Ru-quan's assassination have something to do with the princess?
She was still lost in her own thoughts when her way forward was blocked by a row of imperial guards, led by Lady Ru, the queen's chief lady-in-waiting.
"Lady Ru, what is this about?" she asked.
Lianyue and Lianxin instinctively stepped forward, but Zi-ning held out her hand, indicating for them to stand down.
"Her Majesty would like to see you immediately," the lady said sternly.
"I see. In that case, I shall return to my home to get changed into more suitable attire before entering the palace." She had come out in a haste, and was only wearing a simple periwinkle purple cotton dress, far too plain for an audience with the queen.
"There will be no need for that." Lady Ru glanced sideways at the guards, and they immediately moved to surround Zi-ning. "Hurry up. Do not waste Her Majesty's time by making her wait for a jinx like you."
A jinx?
Zi-ning quickly followed along. It was clear that Queen Ci's invitation was not a friendly one, but there was no clear way to avoid it. She would just have to figure things out as she went along.