*GuHai*

YiYang goes quiet all of a sudden. The many questions- technical and otherwise- that he wanted to ask the human, he shoves them at the back of his mind and asks his brother, "What is he to you? Why is father suddenly so interested in knowing what you are up to?" His brows knit. He grabs hold of the younger prince's shoulders, "Ah-Huang, this is you but not you."

"Your highness," Zhang calls, stepping closer, "Are you insinuating that I have performed some sort of witchcraft on him, addled his mind somehow!?" The hurt in his words bleeds through, prompting YiHuang to shift closer to the human and lace their fingers together.

YiYang doesn't notice the unconscious gesture, at least not initially; he scoffs, "Don't be ridiculous! There is no such thing as witchcraft. But yes, that is what I am hinting at. You have said or done something to affect his thinking. And I think you might have gotten him into trouble with father."

"Brother, you are misunderstanding us." YiHuang pleads, but the crown prince is in no mood to listen. YiHuang falls to his knees. He bows; with his forehead kissing the floor, the second prince speaks in a carefully measured tone, "Brother, I sorry for having kept things from you. It was my decision not to include you...I fear, the more you know, the more danger you will be in."

"Danger!? Ha! Do you not know who I am? I am the crown prince. Father won't lay a finger on me."

YiHuang sighs. He glances at Zhang with uncertain eyes. Zhang nods, gesturing  YiHuang to speak, "You are right, father won't lay a finger on you, but right now, he is obsessed with the words of the first. He has not interpreted them correctly. It has consumed him. Right now, he won't blink an eye before hurting you...or mother."

*****

*TengFei: Imperial Garden*

The Emperor sits facing the cascading waters of Mount Du; he turns to his Empress, whose eyes are looking past the falls. Sad smile tugs at the corners of her lips, "I had the same nightmare again. I saw the life on TengFei turn to dust. I saw all living things perish." She turns to her husband, "Ah-Lei, you have been telling me for the past two decades that these nightmares are a figment of my imagination, but today as I was strolling through the inner yard, I saw the leaves of the evergreen Gua Tree, the one planted by the first, turn yellow. It didn't even blossom this year. I know you have things on your mind, but the Gua Tree is the symbol of life for our race. I am afraid that my nightmare is manifesting."

"My Empress, do you trust me?" YiLei asks, taking the woman's hand in his. Her hazel almond eyes meet his inky doe-shaped ones. She nods, but the way she looks away indicates that her worries have not left her.

"Ah-Rou, your concerns are valid. Our sanctuary is dying. The life force that makes us who we are is diminishing. I know you are aware of the children in TengHo who were born without force. They were the first sign that our time here was nearing its end. But there is no need to worry. I have everything under control. As my wife, I will look to you to give our people hope and stand next to me."

The lady smiles. But the sadness in her eyes remains. She pats her husband's hand, "You and my sons are my whole world. I will always stand by your side."

"YiHuang too?" The Emperor asks, his eyes searching his wife's.

Once again, the empress nods, "Children are never at fault. YiHuang is not mine, and just because of that, I couldn't be the mother he deserved; nonetheless, he has never once disrespected me. He dots on me more than Ah-Yang does." She laughs softly, "I was foolish in my youth. I am glad that at least Ah-Yang stayed by his side every though they are nothing alike." Her eyes linger on her husband's face for a moment; she opens her mouth but closes them shut almost instantly. Then standing up, she inquiries, referring to her sons, "I heard you have sent for them. When you are done, please ask them to come to see me." Then with one last longing look at Mount Du, she leaves.

*****

*TengFei: Observatory Tower*

YiLei stands facing the rising sun with a content smile on his face. He is alone in the tower except for the masked assailant who had wreaked havoc on the Resistance's Facility less than 48 hours ago. He gestures the assailant to join him. "You did well." He turns; closing the distance between them, he pats the assailant's head fondly. "Does, YiYang suspect you?" He asks casually; the assailant shakes his head. The Emperor hums and continues on a much more serious note, "Do you suspect him?"

"Suspect him of what, your Majesty?" The assailant asks without meeting the Emperor's eyes.

"Is his behavior suspicious? I heard he has been to your place a few times in the past week. What did you talk about?"

The assailant shakes his head. "He looked preoccupied as if something was weighing down on his mind. He mentioned that he was reading up on land dwellers. Especially their physiology."

"Was there something specific he wanted to know?"

"He asked if the land dwellers could breathe our air."

YiLei's brows knit. "Don't return to your resistance. Stay here. I will need you." He looks out yet again, "I wonder why he is showing interested in land-dwellers all of a sudden." He wonders aloud. "Ah-Yang Yang seemed reluctant to disclose his brother's whereabouts to others. He said it's for security purposes, but I think he is deliberately trying to delay YiHuang from meeting me; he told me that he was in the outskirts of TengFei...He is in GuHai. That filthy place! He said he will personally escort YiHuang here."

The assailant stays with his head bowed. Listening obediently.

"When YiYang gets here, take him away. And keep him busy." YiLei orders. He knows that the faithful Yuanjian doesn't need to be told twice. He is almost at the door when he remembers something and beckons the assailant, "When was the last time you visited the Empress?"

"A month ago, your Majesty." The assailant replies, "She has started to develop resistance to me. I will have to stop sooner rather than later if you want to preserve her mental stability."

*****
*

GuHai*

YiYang's hands land on his brother's collar, "Ah-Huang, do you know what you are saying right now!? I am the firstborn, the crown prince of TengFei. And Mother...she is his most beloved person. He won't even dream of hurting us!"

YiHuang nods. He places his hands over his brother's. His calm pools lock with his brother's troubled ones. "I know. But that's how he has been conditioned to think."

YiYang's grip on his brother slacks. However, he doesn't let go. He steps closer, "Explain yourself." He demands, as if not speaking to his brother but his subordinate.

"He will, but first, you need to tell us what you told the Emperor." Zhang interrupts.

The crown prince lets go of his brother and plops down on the mattress. The other two follow suit. "I told him that I did not want to expose his whereabouts for security reasons and that I would personally escort Ah-Huang to meet him. I asked him if it was urgent and requested him to give us a few hours as I was with someone."

Zhang blinks, feeling confounded, "Did he not ask you who you were with?"
YiYang shrugs, "He hasn't bothered to keep up with my conquests. It won't bring the royal family any joy to know who I spend my time with. Moreover, he can track my signal. He already knows where I am. Lying to him is futile."

YiHuang unconsciously bobs his head agreeing with his brother. Then, looking at him expectantly, he asks, "Did he agree?"

"Yes." YiYang replies and looks between his brother and Zhang, "I have been nothing but understanding and accepting about this whole situation. As the crown prince and your brother, need you to tell me everything, now."

YiHuang glances at Zhang and takes his hand; intertwining their fingers, he takes a deep breath, "Brother, you know that I have been able to look into the future since young. In fact, you were the one who guessed it all those years ago when your chamber caught fire. At that time, I usually used to forget what I had seen."

YiYang nods, the nightmarish memory clear as day.

"I told you that I can heal the soil through my life force a few days ago. I was not born with it. It came to me around the same time I started dreaming about him...about Zhang."

YiYang quirks his brow.

"If you recall, when I turned fourteen, I started visiting the eastern grove and stayed there for days. For a few months, I stopped speaking to you as well. That's when I started dreaming about him-" YiHuang lowers his eyes, tips of his ears turn scarlet, "I saw us...together."

"This doesn't make any sense! You were fourteen, the times you caught a glimpse of the future you didn't see past a few hours. How could you have seen something that was going to happen..." He trails off. "So that's how you knew." He mutters under his breath.

Zhang understands what had occurred to the older prince without being told. "Your highness, it was Ah-Huang that told you about the hidden launch bay, am I right?"

Both pairs of Yuanjian eyes turn to Zhang, one surprised, the other confused.

The human smirks, "Ah-Huang must have mentioned about the launch bay when he was much younger. He must have seen it and told you and later forgotten about it."

"Wait, so I told you about it?" YiHuang asks to confirm; the older sibling nods, "Yes. I read up on GuHai; it's the oldest structure in TengFei. The First commissioned it to be built. But three hundred years ago, something happened, and it was sealed off. More than five hundred Yuanjians lost their lives that day. And the line of succession was broken. The then Emperor adopted our grandfather, his cousin's nephew, to be the next in line to the throne. The deposed crown prince was sent to Kynlun. General Hu Kwan is the son of that deposed prince."

A look of understanding crosses between YiHuang and Zhang as fragmented events both had seen happen start falling into place.
YiYang continues, "A hundred years later, the bridge was proposed, and the seal over this place was lifted. The building was then converted into Temporary Residence." YiYang shakes his head as if remembering that they had gotten off-track, "Anyway, you were telling me that you acquired your gift of healing soil at fourteen. What happened next?"

"I discovered the gift accidentally while trying to...calm myself down. As days passed, I kept seeing things that hadn't happened. But they were merely glimpses. I couldn't understand them. I was ashamed of the things I had...seen. But what I could tell for certain was that I would meet Zhang, who would be a human."

"When you finally went back, you immersed yourself in studying about land dwellers," YiYang adds. "I remember being surprised and worried about your obsession. But you told me that you were just curious, and I didn't push you for answers." This time YiYang doesn't get distracted; the gestures YiHuang to continue.

"I asked father permission to visit land dwellers." YiHuang's voice drops, his brows knit.

Zhang's eyes widen at the information, "Is that when he..."

"But he didn't give it." The younger prince interjects. He gives Zhang's hand a gentle squeeze: a plea asking him to hold his peace; Zhang falls silent, realizing that now was not the time to bring up how the Emperor had lost control over his emotions and given YiHuang lashes. Though it didn't leave any physical marks, it had left a mark on the younger prince's heart, distancing him from the Emperor.

YiYang misses the secret exchange. "After that, you retreated to the eastern grove again. When I did not see you for days on end, I got worried and came to see you even though you had begged me not to. You were burning up with fever..."

YiHuang doesn't let his brother continue, "Anyway, I realized that Zhang was not from this Earth. That's what prompted me to study dimensions. I decided that even if I couldn't travel, looking for the Earth that Zhang belonged to would be much better than doing nothing at all. I knew how much my father disliked the subject, so I decided to hide studying it from him. It was around this time that I saw the XudianJi invade our space through the wormhole. Of course, I told father, but..." he leaves the sentence hanging. "I had always been close to Professor Kwan. During my stay in Kynlun, we used to meet often. He allowed me access to the knowledge he had been acquiring over the years. I told him what I had seen, and he believed me."

"I have often wondered why Professor Kwan and father stopped being friends. I remember them being on good terms when I was a toddler. He visited us often. But around the time you were born, father forbade him to enter the imperial palace." YiYang thinks aloud. The question had always bothered him, but as time had gone by, he had just come to accept it as one of those things that just happened.

YiHuang's throat goes dry all of a sudden. It feels to him like the words he wants to say, the secret he wants to reveal is protesting to leave his mouth. His grip on Zhang's hand tightens, drawing courage and strength from the human who had become like an extension of him. Keeping his voice from shaking or breaking, he confesses, "Brother, there are things I need...we need to tell you."

YiYang shrugs, frustrated. "That's what I have been asking you to do. Go on, then."

{Author's Note:- Word count: 2401

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