─ CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE SURVIVED THE MASSACRE. NOW LIVE WITH THE TRAUMA.  ──

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Liên looked out the round window, sitting on a seat beside the view as she wrung her hands together. Ahn departed earlier that morning and Liên didn't know if she would ever see him again.

Tuyến was folding away some of her dresses neatly and packing them into silver inlaid travelling chests before she stood. "Princess, I shall go check on the other preparations." She informed, bowing and taking her leave.

Lóng Qi was apparently to travel back to the southlands that day, Liên to accompany him as his future queen. 

Maids entered the room quietly and efficiently, getting her ready for the journey. As opposed to the mountainous, cool and misty climate of Tiên, Lóng was warm and had many rivers, stemming from the ocean along the coastline of the nation.

After they had finished their duties, the maids bowed and took their leave as well, leaving Liên alone to continue looking out over her once home but now simply a cold palace controlled by the iron grip of her parent's murderer. 

The sound of a door sliding open was heard from behind her but the white-haired princess didn't turn around, knowing who it was. 

"We'll be leaving in an hour. Though the trip will take roughly a week." He spoke curtly to the silenced girl. When she didn't answer after a few minutes, he sat down beside her and took a lock of her white hair, making her tense up as he played with it. 

"Why do you always have to be so stubborn?" Lóng Qi gave a long-suffering sigh, soft and pitying as Liên clenched her hands to keep herself from doing something she shouldn't to an Emperor. 

His finger twirled around the strand of white before bringing it up and kissing it gently. Liên felt like she was going to cry again. She hated it...she hated it so much. He acted so doting and caring just as he always did even though they both knew that he was her parent's murder and brother's exiler. 

"I take no pleasure in hurting you, you know." He wiped the tears from Liên's cheek. "I hate seeing you in pain."

"Then stop causing me pain." Her voice finally came out, raspy.

Lóng Qi stopped his hand on her face at those words, his golden eyes flaring for some reason before he closed them for a moment and stood to leave. 

━━━━

【 Five Years Ago】

"Whew." Liên sighed, placing a hand on her chest. 'That was close.'

"Miss Tiên?" A voice called from behind, making the white-haired girl startle. She noticed a rather handsome boy, a few years elder, sitting on a rock behind her, with faintly glowing golden eyes.

"You are Miss Liên Thu Tiên, aren't you?" He asked, as if examining her with something akin to interest or perhaps even...intimidation?

'Thank goodness he's not one of the maids.' Liên felt relieved seeing him, brushing her long, white hair over her shoulder. She did wonder over him calling her by name, though. It wasn't that she was offended, it was simply something that no one did.

"And who are you?" She asked.

"Princess!" Voices called from behind the peach blossom grove. The faint illumination of lanterns shone through the trees.

'I have to get further away from here.' Liên looked around for a place to hide or run to. However, she was stopped by the boy who placed his hand around her wrist, making her raise an eyebrow at the action.

"Shouldn't you be at the engagement banquet?'

Golden eyes watched blue as the two stared at each other for a moment before Liên slipped out of his grip and ducked under some bushes, the leaves rustling as she tried to leave.

"I don't think you can expect to stay hidden for long, Miss Tiên." The boy, while not laughing seemed terribly amused at her escape attempt.

Liên kept going and came out at one of the many pavilions in the palace. Called the blue mist pavilion, it was located on the mountain's edge, with the northern sea just below it. A cool mist swirled around the structure, as the girl walked into it, placing her arms on the ledge and looking down at the waves crashing against the mountain.

"Finally escaped." The princess sighed, relaxing as she watched the sea.

Now that she had some time to breathe, she wondered about the strange handsome boy. His golden eyes were the most striking feature, as most people aside from Tiênese royalty had brown eyes. Even foreign royals did not have the coloured irises as they did.

"Well, I suppose this isn't a bad distance." The very same boy's voice mused, walking onto the pavilion with his hands folded behind his back.

He stood in front of her, Liên having whirled around, and simply watched her reactions.

"Who...are you, anyways?" She asked, surprised at his sudden appearance. She hadn't even noticed he was following her.

"Hmm, why don't you make a guess?" He smiled.

"Why don't you just tell me?" Liên smiled back.

Looking at his clothing, he was obviously high nobility or perhaps a minister's son. But with the way he held himself and his aura, Liên wondered if he were royalty, even though there would be no reason for royalty to be here.

The boy laughed at that, as if pleasantly surprised by her. His expression changed from one of mocking to one of gentleness, which really suited him more, she thought.

"My name is Lóng Qi Gōngsūn." The boy introduced. "I'm four years older than you but I hope we'll get along."

"...Gōngsūn..." Liên repeated before her eyes widened comically. "The crown prince of the south? My fiancé?"

The boy looked like he was having trouble stopping his laughter, making Liên blush at being made fun of and also at how nice he looked happy. She figured it wasn't a common state of his.

"Humpf. If you keep laughing, I'm going to leave."

"Haha~ I'm sorry, don't be too mad, now."

━━━━

Servants loaded the horses and carriages as Liên quietly watched her belongings being put away. She would probably never return home again, to these quiet and high up mountain tops and misty grounds.

Turning her head, she saw a young boy, probably only a few years younger, sitting down on the ground and seemingly having trouble breathing. 

Liên assumed he must be one of the servants Lóng Qi brought from the southlands. People not from the northern kingdom of Tiên always had such difficulties with the air change. 

"Are you alright?" She placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, however, when he raised his head she startled at the familiar golden-eye and eyepatch.

"Yun Lóng?" 

"Fairy Elder Sister!" He cheered, throwing himself at her with a hug. Liên had no idea what he was doing here or when he came here as he rubbed his cheek against hers in happiness.

"Yun Lóng...why are you here?" She asked.

With his arms still wrapped around her waist, he beamed up at her. "I'm here to accompany you and Elder Brother back to the South." He explained.

Liên tensed and looked away at the mention of Lóng Qi. Even now, she wasn't sure how she felt about Yun either. He was always a nice boy, though mischevious whenever he visited with Lóng Qi but now she didn't know how to act around them both or treat him.

Yun seemed to sense this and unwrapped his arms from her, giving her a twisted sad look. "Fairy Elder Sister...do you hate me as well, now?"

Liên couldn't answer the boy.

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【Three Years Ago】

"Your younger brother's here as well?" The Princess asked Lóng Qi, the two of them sitting in the very pavilion they had met in. Lóng Qi was visiting again from the south Empire and mentioned that his younger brother had decided to tag along with him. 

"He likes to attach himself to people," Lóng Qi sighed, his hands folded on his hanfu and folded fan in one of them. "Though he's incredibly mischevious almost to the point of almost being cruel."

Blue eyes watched his worried expression. "You'd best go looking for him if you're worried he'll cause trouble."

Lóng Qi paused at that, gold eyes frowning but stood anyways. "I'll be back as soon as I find him." He promised before leaving the pavilion.

Liên watched him leave before turning around to look back towards the blossoming trees near the pavilion, close to the edge of the cliff. Two small hands popped up and clung to the rail of the pavilion, climbing up from the cliff, making her startle backwards.

"Oh ─? Hello, there! I'm Yun Lóng." A small boy, a bit older than her own younger brother waved cheerfully as he climbed up and into the pavilion. Liên wondered where exactly he was climbing up from.

"My Elder Brother's gone now, right?" He smiled innocently, looking around as Liên nodded, still surprised at the random appearance before it dawned on her.

"Wait...you're Lóng Qi'sbrother?" The Princess asked, making the boy burst out in laughter at her delayed reaction.

"You're funny." He breathed in air from laughing too much. Liên frowned and wondered why the Gōngsūn siblings seemed to find her the most amusing thing they'd ever seen. 

Paying attention to the boy, Liên's frown became worried as she noticed strange things about him. One of his eyes was covered in an eyepatch and his lip seemed to be split but healing over recently with a scab. 

"What happened to you?" She asked worriedly, making the boy still before laughing again, this time oddly. 

"Haha~ although my Elder Brother is serious, I have a funny father." He answered cryptically with a nonchalant toss of his shoulders, settling in a seat next to her and kicking his legs back and forth.

Liên listened quietly before taking a small tin out of her wide sleeve and dabbing his finger into the sweet-smelling ointment, dabbing some of the boy's cut. 

Tilting his head to look at her, almost inspecting he grinned up at her all wide and wrapped his arms around her, making her surprised at his act. "You have a younger heart than I do, don't you?" He asked. Liên noted that most of what he said was rather strange and had an equivoque quality. 

Jumping up off the seat, he gave a strange little laugh as he walked off, waving. "I decided that I like you. Anyways, I'm going to go hide again, Fairy Elder Sister. I'll lose if Elder Brother's finds me."

As the second brother walked away, Liên wondered if his eccentric nature was because he was lonely. 

━━━━

As the former princess entered the carriage, sitting down on one side while Lóng Qi entered to sit across, she turned her head to watch from out the window the last glimpses of her beloved home. Though the mountain-top palace was still intact, the emblem of the royal celestial Phoenix was no more to be seen, signifying the end of a dynasty.

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Author's Note: That's the end of Arc - 001. I'm in a writing slump, again...ugh. I wanted to at least finish this chapter before I took my break, which was a really bad idea becase I didn't give it much thought. 

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【Coming Up on Blue Gold:】

"I won't humiliate myself with such an action for you. I'd rather bite my tongue and die right here!"

"Don't even think about throwing your life away, or even worse, falling in love with another man."

"Try not to wake my bride with your pathetic, insipid whimpering."

"You are of celestial dragon's blood. Act like it."