Chapter 71

Bai Yang Liu
Drakko Palace

"Lord Liege! I am going insane and losing my mind being locked in this suffocating palace! Why will you not let me go see Li Lian?" Yang Liu screamed into the abyss of darkness. "No one will speak with me. They hate me."

Lord Liege abducted her a week after the woman who was betrothed to him had passed on. She was said to be a kind lady, though Lord Liege had not regarded her as his or acted upon the betrothal called upon by his father, who had also passed on. She had acted as Lordess Liege, taking on the duties of caring for the people and the palace. And that caused people to see her as their befitting Lordess, even though not officiated as one.

When the Lordess was befallen with sickness, the Lord Liege had the capacity to do something about it, or better yet, at least take her to the Furians where they had many specialties to heal people. However, he chose to watch her die.

"Death should not be cheated. We shall all die," he had dismissed the Lordess' plea for help.

The Drakko, instead of blaming it on their beloved leader, took their anger on the mistress brought in the week after their Lordess' death, which was her, Yang Liu.

Her maids offered assistance begrudgingly and responded to conversation with not more than a word. It came to a point that Yang Liu had never experienced immense loneliness more than in the previous two months.

"Lord Liege!" she begged.

Yang Liu had known from the first day she woke up that she was in Furia. How could she not? It was in the air, the sky, and the mood. Without a doubt, Furia was jovial and brighter than Nevoria.

"If you will not let me see Li Lian, then come out and keep me company!" Yang Liu vented, but no response came except the hooting of owls.

Yang Liu had never laid eyes on the Lord Liege. From the day she woke, he stayed cooped in the abyss of cultivation. She did not know what he wanted with her except what her maids had shared, "You are his mistress."

If she wanted to speak to him, she was to visit the abyss, the vault of endless darkness that lay two li (1km) from the Drakko Palace.

Yang Liu was only allowed to speak from the entrance, alongside the chaperone of one of the palace guards. A few feet into the abyss, it was said she would disappear and never be found again. Only those with enough power to make them worthy could enter and leave the deepness of the abyss.

Speaking into the abyss was not her first. When she did not like the clothes they put on her, she came and ranted about how she needed to be allowed to wear what she wanted. Thereafter did the maids let her instruct the seamstress on what to make for her.

Yang Liu had gone back to the abyss to ask for more over the past two months, treating the place like a wishing well. Some things were not granted as probably the person in the abyss, Lord Liege, was not in agreement. Seeing Li Lian had been one of them since it was the fourth time she was asking for it.

"All I need is a friend... please." Those were her last words before she departed.

Abduction was her curse. This was the second time some man was taking her away without her consent. All she could do was count her days, waiting for her brother to realize it and come for her. He always did.

"Congratulations, Mistress, you shall see your friend today," her maid stated the following morning as she woke up.

"I can?" Yang Liu squealed excitedly.

Anyone to talk to, just anyone to converse with could she take. Quickly, she bathed and dressed the fastest she had ever done and ran out to the carriage. Dozens of uniformed men surrounded the carriage but she did not care. They could give her all the security, but as long as she got to walk out of the stony cold palace, she could take it.

The Furian Palace was 20 li (10km) away, so it took them an hour to arrive. Her heart was beating fast and she could not wait to see Li Lian. Her maid did let her know that her visit was expected. All the arrangements were made last night.

The Furian Palace was identical to the Drakko Palace, both massive, tall, stony, and cold. They were different from the Nevorian palaces which only had one floor, and two at most.

"Welcome, Mistress." A lady in waiting at the Furian Palace bowed. "Her Highness is expecting you in the drawing room." What Nevoria called the welcoming room was a drawing room in Nevoria.

Whilst the Drakko Palace had muted colors, the Furian Palace had colors of majesty, gold, red, white, and sometimes green. Everything she passed was stunning and gorgeous but nothing could have prepared for Li Lian's appearance.

Donned in an elegant scarlet red dress with crystals hanging on it and a heavy gold crown, Li Lian was a skeleton of the previous her. Her skin was pale like death had ceased her, bones poking as if she had not eaten in the past year.

"Li Lian?"

When Li Lian lifted her head to look at her, Yang Liu forgot to breathe. Gorgeous blonde hair slid on her face and she was stunningly more elegant and beautiful than she remembered.

"Good to see you, Yang Liu." Li Lian subconsciously rubbed her swollen belly.

"You are with child?" Yang Liu couldn't help exclaiming.

Li Lian giggled. Poised and regal, she was absolutely captivating. It was as if the sun radiated from her. Though she had immensely lost weight, she was beyond still attractive and glowing happiness she had never seen on her. Ever.

The length of her satin skirt swirled around her feet making it seem more like she floated than actually walked. And once in front of Yang Liu, she carefully inspected her, gesturing for Yang Liu to turn so she could see all of her to ensure she was well.

"How has the Drakko been treating you?"

Yang Liu's eyes bulged. "I hate it! I want to go back home. Why have they abducted me?"

Li Lian frowned, "Go home, where?"

"Which other home would I have?"

"Well, you were betrothed for marriage. Weren't you abducted on your way to the lands in which the emperor pledge you to?"

Yang Liu was taken aback by these words. "Just because I had been given, does it make it right for that Evil Lord to abduct me?" Yang Liu shook her head. "Please help me escape, Li Lian, I cannot be the mistress of that man. I heard he is 100 years old."

Li Lian's eyes were unmoved. Where was the Li Lian she knew? Not only had she changed on the outside, but also on the inside. Outside for the better, inside for the worse.

"What happened to you? You do not seem to be the same. You insinuate that I should happily make home in this place I have been captured and made prisoner." Yang Liu continued to search her eyes, looking for the light she was used to. "The Li Lian I know will not stand for this. She believes in justice and fighting for the good."

Li Lian's eyebrows lifted in condescension and replied with chilling calmness. "Five months since you last saw me. I am sorry to displease you in this manner, but I am no longer the Li Lian who had herself to care for. Things have changed. I am to be a mother and queen. I dare not think for myself and principles I see as befitting."

"You can be a mother, queen, and righteous. You can be everything you want to be, and I do not see how being a mother and queen affects you in doing what is right."

"I shall let you know of what you are not aware of. The crown that rests on my head sits there due to you being here."

"Pardon?"

"The crown is heavy and only those who sit on the throne can understand its weight."

"Stop using parables, Li Lian!" Yang Liu was beginning to wish she had not come here, after all. "If I shall remind you of who my brother is and the temper he carries, surely, you acknowledge that he will not sit down and smile at the news of Furia having abducted me. Again."

Li Lian shrugged. "Your brother already has a reason to not smile at us."

Yang Liu's fist pronounced with agitation.

"You speak and make yourself victim before me," Li Lian chuckled, "As if you are not fully aware that your brother has long had intentions to come for Furia."

"I-I do not know what you speak of," she tried to act dumb.

"Nevoria thinks of herself as clever," Li Lian walked around her, "Forgetting that everything in life has a weakness. Nothing is strong and intact throughout, there will always be the weakest link."

Yang Liu turned to face Li Lian who was now behind her and watched her pick a little cat. "You see, Yuwen Hong pledged revenge the day my mother took me away. We know his character, possessive and domineering with all he considers his.

"You know I did not understand it in the beginning. Why would the man who was taken by me, viciously so, would let me go? It was unlike his character," Li Lian turned to glare at Yang Liu. "We both know him. He'd rather keep me and have me suffer at his hand than give me up."

Yang Liu took a step back, not liking where the conversation was heading.

"When my mother demanded my release, he knew it was something he could not win at. Furia is what he depends on for the supply of blood for his heart, and if he was to be stubborn and refuse my release, where would he go when he needed supplies for his heart?

"Right? Thus, he pretended to have the upper hand, but inside he knew he had lost and got pushed into a corner he could not come out of."

"You and my brother have nothing to do with me, Li Lian."

Regardless, Li Lian continued. "He settled for three things in exchange for me. The first being your release, which he got. The second and third, Nevorians being allowed to walk to and from Furia, and marriage between Furians and Nevorians. Those two were clauses left unfulfilled because they were matters postponed for discussion in the future. The discussions that did not take place and Nevoria seems to not care for it. Why?"

Yang Liu swallowed. "I... do not know."

But, oh yes she knew. Nevoria did not care to enact those clauses because they were going to be weaponized against Furia after winning the planned war. Her brother had planned all of it from the beginning.

Li Lian shook her head, appearing displeased with the pretense. "This cat reminds me of my rabbit, which I was fond of when I was a child before I left Furia."

It meowed as if in agreement.

"My mother kept my rabbit alive, though it suffered due to old age." Li Lian caressed the cat and held it up by its front legs. "But my father killed it."

"So you think I should suffer and be killed as well?"

Li Lian laughed before shaking her head. "Relax, I am no such villain." She placed the cat on the floor. "My point is to share how it goes against nature when things of the past live longer than allowed, because at some point, should we not let them go so the suffering stops?"

"I guess so." Yang Liu was relieved because for some reason she would not be surprised if Li Lian killed the cat, and her.

"Your brother has always lived for duty, I lived for love."

"He-"

"I will continue to live for love, even now. The love for my people, the love for my child." The firmness of her voice shook Yang Liu. "If I do not, they die. And I would rather die first than watch that happen."

"That has nothing to do with me, Li Lian!"

"It does, Yang Liu! Lord Liege is the fire around Furia, no one can touch my people as long as he is with us. And for that reason, what Lord Liege desires, he shall get!"

S.V