Thank you for waiting, I had a board exam stressing me out thus I disappeared for a month. Hopefully more regular updates will come up, now that I am done. Please comment and vote.

Chapter 42

Bai Yang Liu
Royal Princess Yang Liu
Furia

"Your Highness, please consider the wellbeing of your body. Without food, you will lose strength and fall sick." The maid-servant pushed the bowl of porridge before Yang Liu and lifted a spoonful of it for her to eat.

Yang Liu shook her head, sighed, and folded her hands on her chest in protest. She did not want to eat and had no intention to eat until these lowly people let her go.

"At least you do know how to address me," she muttered with malice.

It was a beautiful warm day, to say the least, in which they sat on the chairs behind the table in the garden of Lance's residence. Yang Liu was hoping to bathe under the rays of the sun in peace and tranquility, but that was not possible with the noisy birds chirping loudly from the trees. Furia seemed to have more birds than she had ever encountered in one moon of time in Nevoria.

"Your Highness, if you don't eat, My Lord will not be pleased."

"I do not care about what Lance thinks or feels. He is below me and a criminal while we are at that."

"If not for My Lord's sake, please eat for your good health. You have not eaten as much as a crumble since the day before yesterday."

"I do not care."

"Your Highness, please!" she practically begged.

"And you people of Furia dare dress me in these revealing clothes. It is shameful and inappropriate for a princess to be in these rugs." Yang Liu pulled the seam of her skirt which fell to her knees and would not go any further. To say she was embarrassed to leave the room she slept in was an understatement.

"These are the clothes that anyone in our royal family would be delighted to wear. It is not shameful but fashionable and of good taste."

"I want to go home."

"Your Highness, please eat," the servant continued to be a nuisance.

Yang Liu rolled her eyes. "I want to go home."

"Who has made 'the princess of Nevoria' upset?" A gravelly voice from ahead disturbed them.

Yang Liu's heart increased in pace at the sight of Lance approaching them. She had not seen him since the night she arrived. He wore black robes, a sword slung on his back with his wings shut. On his face was a small cut under his one eye, exposing red flesh.

Lance gave her a huge smile she did not expect. It reinforced the carefree aura she had observed on him from the beginning. His smile was the most heartwarming thing she had witnessed in a while, beautifully compounded by how it extended to his eyes and deep into soul.

What stole Yang Liu's attention from Lance was a servant behind him that carried a brown sack. It was weirdly held away from his body as if it was a bag of hot potatoes.

Lance waved off the maid who had been with Yang Liu, who quickly nodded and took his sword for keeping before excusing herself from them. Thereafter, he took the seat beside her and opened his legs in stature, hands crossing behind his head. It was a haggard way of sitting that she had never encountered, but that could be figured. She was a princess who was raised among the nobles who were taught good manners from birth.

Unlike him.

But Heavens, what was it about Lance that she found herself being the most vain and judgmental person around him? She was not like this, Yang Liu was free-spirited and uncaring about other people's businesses. However, when he was concerned, it was as if she was always hoping to find the smallest thing to patronize concerning who he was.

"You refuse to eat?" Lance observed her from under his heavy eyelashes.

"I want to go home."

"That could be organized after you have eaten."

Yang Liu scoffed to herself. "Who do you think I am? Only a child will fall for such words."

Lance grinned. "Only children refuse to eat their food."

"I want to go home."

"Here can be home," he winked. 

She rolled her eyes.

"What about this, Princess? You and I get married and this becomes your home."

Not with the jokes again. "I heard you have been bestowed to the Furian princess. You say this to every woman who will listen?"

"I have said it to only you two," he said it as if it was something to boast about. 

"Fantastic, you can go to her then."

"I don't want her anymore. She is a nightmare and comes with many problems, the man she loves made me lose my eye."

Yang Liu stared at his beautiful unmatched pair of orbs. "I thought you once said you are the best fighter in Furia?"

"I am," he shrugged, "but imagine I killed the princess' lover. She would hate me forever and moreover, I would be forced to be with her, a nightmare indeed."

Yang Liu couldn't help giggling. "Poor Lance."

Lance ignored her teasing and closed his eyes, as if he sought rest after a long day, though it was still morning.

"My Lord, what shall I do with what we brought?" The servant who came with him questioned concerning what he carried. It seemed to make him sweat in anxiety.

"Oh, leave her on the table. I'm sure our princess will enjoy her very much."

"Stop it, Lance." It was irritating how he liked to refer to her as 'the princess' in that mocking manner. Yes, it was understandable why he was doing it. She liked to emphasize to him that she was above him in status. However, as someone who was addressed as the prince all her life, it was kind of a sore spot for her.

The servant placed the sack on the table as instructed, then went on to guard them from a mere distance.

Yang Liu couldn't help passing an eye of suspicion towards Lance. What was he up to now? He could not be trusted.

Lance pushed his chair back to reposition himself into facing her. His legs were now opened towards her, hands still crossed behind his head, yet now watching her closely. It was intrusive and uncomfortable that she felt naked.

It was only a flash of the moment, but they accidentally locked eyes and this had her heart flipping in her chest. She was the first to look away, while he all the more intensely glared.

She knew the feelings that were beginning to manifest in the pit of her stomach. This was not the first time. They were the shivers of nervousness, red-blush crawling up her neck to her face, and her feeling hot, flustered, excited and unsure. All of it was familiar, those were the old pages burnt from the chapter between her and General Feng.

Yang Liu shifted wearily and made another failed attempt of pulling down the loose exposing clothing. It could not be ignored that air swirled with palpable physical attraction between them.

"You look beautiful in our clothing," his voice was raspy.

She shyly shook her head.

"Are you not happy in them?"

Obviously. They'd shame her if they saw her like this from her nation.

"If you are not happy in them, I am sure you can be happy without them," Lance smirked.

"Or I can be happy in something conservative," she rebutted his statement.

Lance nodded in understanding. "Don't worry, we won't force you, we will get you clothes in the likes of your nation's."

She wanted to say thank you, but she would rather not. Remember, she was the victim in the situation.

"In the meanwhile, I will busk under the view of those beautiful legs-"

"Lance, will you stop being barbaric!"

At that, he burst into laughter. He was clearly enjoying himself at her expense, but she couldn't help joining in a little.

"Furian women love bold men."

"I am not a Furian woman."

"Is that so?" he changed his dialect to one of Nevoria, "If done once: energy strong. If done two times: hearing/sight clears. If done three times: diseases gone. If done four times: soul is peaceful. If done five times: blood flows better. If done six times..."

Yang Liu laughed at the fact that he knew the famous poem in Nevoria that men used to court their wives into sleeping with them. "If done six times: loins become strong. If done seven times: bottom strengthens."

Lance guffawed, "How many do they reach?"

"Ten. If done ten times: you become immortal."

"Make me immortal then. I want to be immortal."

Yang Liu bit her lips, trying not to laugh, but unable to restrain herself.

After their shared moment, Lance turned to the sack on the table and pulled it open. He handled it with care, and it was only after she saw what was inside that her body froze.

Snakes. She hated snakes. The one time she saw one, she failed to sleep in the mire of nightmares.

The serpent was coyly and huge, scales of yellow under the bright sun. Its fangs were exposed below the slithering tongue that waved back and forth.

Lance sat back and cuddled the evil in his arms to himself. Watching the serpent adjust itself to be at comfort against his body was horrific. She wanted to disappear. Dare she not stay.

Her bewildered eyes met Lance's, who had an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "You don't like snakes?"

She again didn't speak, fully triggered in the shadows of fear and dread.

"Report for My Lord!" Another servant came from the direction Lance had earlier came through. "It is a message from the queen."

The man was sweating as if he had been running in a forest because leaves stuck to his hair and his clothes were dusted with soil. What proved her assumption to be wrong was the wild display of his wings with feathers in disarray. Whenever the man moved, his wings would shake off feathers into the air.

"You have traveled through the night," Lance remarked.

"Yes, My Lord, I flew, and in some cases ran. It is urgent to inform you what the queen stated."

Lance straightened up to attention. "Speak on."

The servant hesitated, giving the eye of suspicion towards Yang Liu.

Lance understood his hesitancy pretty quickly, thus he rose, ever so carefully not to drop the serpent twisting around his body.

"Follow me." He tilted his head towards the building in which they disappeared into. However, Yang Liu noted that on their way in, Lance managed to whisper some instructions to the servant he earlier came with.

Yang Liu did not think much of it, but that was before she saw the maid emerge carrying a bigger bowl of porridge, with an additional maid following her with Lance's snake. She did not get to wonder what they planned to do when the male servant abandoned his guarding position and came to seize her arms, twisting them behind her back.

A huge smile was planted on the maid holding the serpent as she happily deposited it onto Yang Liu's lap.

Yang Liu's body froze and fear gripped the very core of her being.

An attack of panic comes when your mind keeps sending messages of fear to your whole body. It is the signaling of danger faced that your being is not able to comprehend or cope with. Her thoughts scattered that the normalcy in responding to her situation became impossible.

So what Yang Liu did was become motionless. That is how she learnt to survive all of her life. When she witnessed the first head roll on the palace ground as her father killed someone with the swipe of his dragon sword, when her mother would push onto her that she was a prince and should live as that, when General Feng left her and rendered her unworthy of his love; she froze and floated alongside the waves pushing her into the direction of circumstances they wanted her to abide to.

Spoonful after spoonful was shoved into her mouth without mercy. The snake maid fixed Yang Liu's jaw to stay open as they filled her up. She had no chance to close her mouth to swallow, thus all she could do was choke on the gruel and miraculously swallow it in the mire of the abuse.

Some of the porridge started to trickle down her neck, amidst the tears that cascaded on her cheeks, and the heavy coughing of displeasure as she convulsed. The serpent was linguid on her legs, moving every bit slowly while threatening her life. The weight of it was unwelcome, just as the feeling of a sack of weighty grain placed on your chest to render you breathless.

Eternity passed before the bowl emptied and they took away the snake, let her arms go, and left her alone.

Yang Liu threw herself to the ground in bewilderment, coiled her body to herself, hands wrapping around her folded legs. She was hyperventilating and not able to breathe.

They almost killed her! She almost died!

They were heartless and uncaring for her. That was the reality.

In Furia, she was not the princess of Nevoria but an enslaved nobody, and that was what Lance was silently teaching her. It was either she did things his way or he had no problem placing death onto her lap for her to feast on. No one was bothered by who she was and the power her brother carried.

And that was life, in one place you could be the queen and in another you could be food at the disposal of your enemies. A shark could reign in the waters, but once it was on land, was it still as powerful and untouchable?

As she was still licking and nursing her wounds of emotional trauma, Lance came out. He casually ambled towards her, now dressed into a different set of fresh clothes.

Yang Liu pitifully looked up at him, feeling quite humbled, and he lowered himself to a crouch, leveling himself with her.

Silence crackled at length, before his hand rested on her head, patting her in the way a pet owner would caress his little kitten in adoration.

"They were harsh on you," he sadly remarked.

"At your instruction, yes." Yang Liu could not contain the bitterness from her tone of voice.

"It was the only way, you had to eat."

"I want to go home." A lone fresh tear trickled.

He smiled sadly, then carefully pulled her head to gift her with a gentle kiss.

His lips on her forehead were feathery. His scent was a wash of woodsy and muskiness.

"I know."

She shook her head, feeling disheartened. "No, you don't."

Her chest tightened and a lump grew on her throat. "You don't know how alone or scared I feel."

A nightmare is being locked up in a place you don't want to be. It is painful. It is frightening. And at such a moment a person needs the reassuring presence of warmth, calmness, and stability. The chance to co-regulate with an environment that is relaxed, safe, and comforting beyond measure.

In her situation, Lance was the only stability she had. Whether he was angry or displeased with her, he was the same. He addressed her warmly, smiled, and joked around. You'd never see him lash out due to her being unpleasant and disrespectful. Even if it was punishment, it did not come directly from him. It was through someone else.

Stability was his identity.

As she sobbed all the more into his arms, she finally understood the thing she never understood when it came to Li Lian. Why her friend never left the emperor, the horrible person he was, was because no matter how he would be vile with her, there was the stability of an offering Li Lian could expect to find in the emperor; the promise of undying love and protection. And for people like her and Li Lian, having grown up in a place lacking love, you could not help but gravitate towards that until it became a rat chase.

Thus Yang Liu decided not to be like Li Lian. She was not open for anything in the foreign land of Furia. It did not matter what she felt, be it an inkling feeling toward this man, her heart was ice. They could only be but, the captor and the slave.

"Don't cry now, don't cry," Lance cooed, proceeding to kiss away her tears affectionately. What should have felt foreign came off naturally between them, as if they had been lovers for years.

"I hate snakes," she heaved.

"Yes, you hate snakes. That is right, no more snakes."

Her face distorted in disapproval. He had known her weakness and then gone through to use it against her.

"Those servants are evil, how dare they harm you Princess?"

"You instructed them!"

"I know, I know. I am wrong," he consoled, "Where does it hurt? I will better it."

Yang Liu shook her head. In her life she had finally met a more delusional person than her brother.

S.V