"Ah." It was bright; it was so bright that the fire of before seemed like an illusive dream. My throat no longer burned and my chest was no longer stuffy. It was strange; death had clearly touched me. I knew that I had died. My surroundings were overwhelmingly white, a great contrast to my dark cell. I was trapped in a room of white floors and white walls, I was the only thing that stuck out like a sore thumb. My skin was a warm shade of brown, my clothes were a tacky orange and my hands were cuffed. I was tainted by the vicissitudes of life.
Dying was scary. I had no control over my fate as if I were a puppet controlled on a string, dancing around in a god's hands as he sentenced me to death. It was scarier than the darkness that had always haunted me, it was terrifyingly bleak and hopeless. Nothing I could have done would have prevented it.
More than anything I loathed my weakness. Maybe if I were stronger, I wouldn't have been subjected to that kind of fate. I slowly clench and unclench my hands, and my lips quirk into a self deprecating grin. Well, there was nothing to be done, I was clearly dead. It was somewhat hard to accept that I had just been a living breathing human but now I was trapped in an unknown room, uncertain of where fate would lead me.
Seconds turned into minutes and minutes spanned into hours and days; I spent a long time trapped in the white room. My body no longer required sustenance to survive but my mind starved for something, anything to relieve me of this never-ending boredom. It was like the life of before was nothing but a dream buried deep into the tiniest crevices of my subconscious mind. Time spanned on for so long that I had forgotten who I was. I no longer knew my name. I had forgotten my mother's face.
Well, she wasn't really my mother, and that man wasn't really my father. Through the snippets of memories that occasionally flashed by, I had gathered that I was adopted. That would explain why my extended family was always so lukewarm towards me. That also explained why I had neither the features of my mother or father. That also explained why this lukewarmness had so quickly faded and turned into a fire of hate after I had killed them. Who could possibly love the person who had robbed them of their flesh and blood?
I had almost forgotten that blood had stained my hands. I was a murderer. Even death could not erase that I was stained in blood. The blood of my "parents."
What's that? A mysterious red liquid flows inside the room. It was peculiar. This room had no doors or any obvious holes; where did it come from? As the liquid rises, I'm able to identify it. It's blood, the crimson of blood. Despite supposedly being deceased, I can still smell it. It was metallic and especially pungent. There are no doors. Nowhere to escape to. As it continued to rise, I could feel it submerging my feet. It was scorchingly hot; my feet felt like they were on fire. If I died now, would my soul also die? Was this hell?
I guess I would never know. The blood continued to rise until I could no longer breathe.
***
The Jade Palace was quite elaborate. It was constructed with the blueprints of the west and furnished with the silks of the east. In the most ornate room lies a grand bed and a smell unique to the Tian Empire. The smell reeks of lilies. In the Tian Empire, lilies were quite rare. That was enough to tell that the lady in the Jade Palace was very much favored by the Emperor. Only one lady in the Tian Kingdom could occupy the Jade Palace. It was the Empress Shi. The Emperor was a man who lusted after beauty, but the one beauty that he favored over his hundred consorts and concubines was the Empress Shi. She loved lilies, so he had his troops search far and wide until they came across them in a distant land. Their tale was one told across the lands and seas. Who didn't know that the Emperor had pledged to stay by the Empress Shi's side for a millennia? While most knew that he would only remain until her beauty faded, their love tale was popular nonetheless. Besides, most men and women of this world lived for hundreds of thousands of years. A millennia wasn't farfetched in the lands of the immortals.
However, Empress Shi had one fatal flaw; she was unable to conceive. In childhood, having been poisoned by a jealous concubine mother while she was in her mother's womb, she was rendered unable to conceive since the moment of her birth. The poison was sinister indeed. It was undetectable and rendered its victims infertile. By the time the Shi household had realized, it was far too late to expel the poison. All they could do was flog the jealous concubine mother to death. While the Empress had power both from her maternal family and from the position of Empress, she would be unable to maintain this power after her death unless she gave birth to an heir. Boy or girl was fine. The Tian Empire had no gendered preferences for people in power. Female Emperors and generals had also increased over the years. But this obstacle of birthing an heir was unsurpassable; she was powerless against her bodily constitution.
The Emperor was heartbroken towards his wife's grievances, so he decreed that the firstborn child of Consort Yan would become the adopted child of the Empress. In simple terms, Consort Yan would have to sever all ties with her child and give it to the Empress. The news almost cost Consort Yan her entire pregnancy; once she had heard the news, she had fainted. Compared to the treatment of the Empress, Consort Yan was treated even worse than a servant. In the Imperial Palaces, she was the most scorned and hated, but also the second most beautiful. If it weren't for the blindfold that covered half her face, many argue that she would have been the most beautiful woman in the Tian Empire.
The daughter of a lowly merchant, she caught the Emperor's eye while she was running an errand. The Emperor had always been attracted to beauty and lusted for her once he first saw her up close. While she had tried to maneuver his advances, he eventually trapped her into his bed and forcibly took her as a concubine. This brought shame upon her and her adopted family and her family decisively severed ties. She was left in the Imperial Palaces without support or care and silently rotted away. One day while he was drunk, the Emperor supposedly visited her chambers and got her pregnant. How was she able to fight against this fate? She was blind, without familial support, and penniless. She quietly nursed her unborn child in her small house. It was decrepit and worn, a stark contrast to the grand palace of the Empress. The treatment had gotten a little better once she had gotten pregnant, but the Emperor had forgotten about her shortly after until he passed the decree.
While Consort Yan's birth was low, she was beautiful and had no family to support her. If the Emperor had tried to rob any other consort or concubine of their child, their powerful maternal families would have fought with him in court. In the Emperor's mind, it was easier to steal Consort Yan's child. Besides, his dragon blood would make up for her lowly birth, and this would satisfy Empress Shi. The most important thing was that the child was of Imperial blood.