My Father handed me a betrothal agreement that was then signed by him and me to the Emperor of Zheng Zhi, White Nine Tailed Fox Nai He Jun. When the stone of destined matches was presented our names appeared, I had promise of marriage where I wanted to be but not to who.
* * *
Cloud was so fast the glimpses I caught faded quickly from my mind. Cloud finally stopped besides a beautiful clear lake surrounded by trees very similar to the ones that surrounded the Bai mansion.
When we were getting off of Cloud a group of people came towards us. Kai Ren automatically went into a defensive position spooking them. They held their hands up in a gesture of coming in peace as he drew his sword. A man looking quite similar to me stepped forward.
"Young sister is that truly you?" he asked coming closer to us. I clutched my children close to me still confused about who I was let alone who they were. Seeing me hesitate he stopped and he called someone. A small boy came forward, he looked shockingly like me and held features similar to my sons.
"This is my Mother?" the small boy asked quietly observing the people before him, his eyes resting on my face. "She looks the same just less worried," the small boy commented.
"My sister, this is your first born son, Prince Nian Meng Yuan, it is all confusing now, but Uncle Ye has promise to help restore you," the first man said with a hopeful look on his face. I felt no danger from these people but the place where we were gave me pangs of emotional pain that I couldn't quite comprehend.
The man introduced himself as my second brother Heavenly Prince Nian Song Zhu. Another man came forward and I noticed slight tension between him and my second brother as he introduced himself as my eldest brother Prince Nian Xin Shen.
"Father left you in charge along with Bei Zhen," Xin Shen said pointing t ok Kai ren who looked just as confused as I felt. "but then you were both lost to the Demon Realms Kings of Hell," Xin Shen said with a look that showed he wasn't finished. He beckoned to have Meng Yuan taken to meet his brothers before he continued. "The Demon Realm wants to deny the Seventh King of Hells sons Immortal registers and they don't want them to be branded as a part of the Demon Realm. The King of the Demon Realm asks that this is off his hands and wants it out of Heavens hands. He suggested we kill your sons or send them to the Chasm of the First Heaven," Xin Shen explained with a pained expression. I was totally confused and I felt the confusion crossing my face drawing it blank.
"We really have no recollection of who we were, we only know that we are a family and that these are our sons, I am their father, she is their mother, and we will protect our family," Kai Ren/ Bei Zhen said squeezing my hand. My brothers observed the way we were and looked at each other more trouble spelled in their eyes as they seemed to be on agreement about something.
"Sister...we will wait until you are both healed to finish our discussions," Song Zhu said leading Xin Shen away with him. As my brothers went to meet my sons, another man came to us.
"My niece, I have prepared repairing tonics for you," the man I assumed to be Uncle Ye presented me with a small white medicine bottle and a similar one was given to Kai Ren. "Take the pill now, you should recover all memories in the hour but talks will resume tomorrow," Uncle Ye explained guiding us towards my brothers, Cloud, and my sons.
Kai Ren and I took the small pills from our bottles and ate them hoping they wouldn't do anything odd to us. I was shown to my palace in the Seventh Heaven and told that when I remembered where my palace was in the Ninth Heaven I could go there. In my palace in the Seventh Heaven it was in Zheng Zhi's Peach blossom forest. With my family in tow I began to explore my intricate palace.
In the time I spent exploring I deducted that the palace was a bit too big to explore in one day. When I finally decided to just stay with my room and the Restful Pavillion in the same courtyard I began to remember things.
First I felt a flood of power seep from inside me and then I was aware of Kai Ren who also seemed to have a surge of power release from inside of him. I began go register a few things away in my mind so that the flood of information could wash over me but not wash out my current memories.
I remembered everything but one moment stuck to the front of mind above everything else. I signed a marriage contract with the Emperor of Zheng Zhi, it was suggested by my parents the Heavenly Emperor and Empress that I get married so that I could continue to my own life after they returned from rebirth and the mortal realm.
I had only chosen to marry him became of Zheng Zhi and I thought it was a marriage in which I could be happy. The Emperor of Zheng Zhi is a kind, gentle, and loving man with no Empress but he found that I was suitable to be his Empress even though he did have a whole harem of men and women to chose from.
When I remembered, my Father handed me a betrothal agreement that was then signed by him and me to the Emperor of Zheng Zhi, White Nine Tailed Fox Nai He Jun. When the stone of destined matches was presented our names appeared, I had promise of marriage where I wanted to be but not to who.
I deliberated as I acknowledged the rest of my memories dealing with some of them as though they were happening all over again. I started to shudder when the memory of how Meng Yuan and Zhao Ren were created. I then relived the worst memory causing me to faint: I remember dropping Meng Yuan before I fell to the mortal realm.
Anguished I awoke crying and reaching. I remembered I had seen Meng Yuan and that he was fine and growing up. I was in my bed in the Seventh Heaven, laying next to me were Kai Ren... Bei Zhen, and our sons. Wait I reminded myself that only Ye Zheng was our son, Zhao Ren was our son but he was made by a cruel man.
I looked at them sleeping mostly peacefully and regretted telling myself that they weren't our sons. Without Kai Ren I thought to myself neither of them and maybe even I wouldn't be here. In this small moment we were still the Bai family, I was still Dai Yi and he was still Kai Ren and our sons were still his... for the moment.
As quietly as possible I snuck out of my room and attempted to shift into my phoenix form but I couldn't quite get it with the whirlwind state if my mind. Looking around the courtyard I admired the buildings of my palace. There was an open pavillion in the center of the courtyard that was surrounded by a pond all the way around and was teeming with life.
On the shores of the pond that weren't carved stone paths there where Buttergly Tea trees that had been made when peach blossoms were cross breeded with almond and then sakura trees. The mix giving them a mostly only floral use because the tree rarely produced fruit.
The rare fruit it would bear would have a delicate seed that usually broke when the fruit was opened. The broken seeds were very tasty, they were sweet, they smelled just as good as the flowers, and they were often juicy. There was a ring of seven in total trees around the pavillion, and three more in another garden of this palace and two in the Ninth Heaven in my palace courtyard. The tree of life I panicked as I realized I left the fruit of the tree of life in the Mortal Realm.