The Last Dahlia

022

"Are you alright?" Yuehwa asked, slightly worried with Shoya's silence ever since they left the astrology building. "What did she say to you before we left?"

They were now back in their temple hide-out, after having made a rather uneventful escape from the Feng palace. She guessed that the chief astrologer likely had a hand in how they were allowed to simply walk away without encountering so much as a lone guard. Either that or the palace of Feng needed to seriously review the way it handled security.

Just before they left the chamber, Sheng Yun had called out to Shoya and whispered something into his ear.

After listening to what Sheng Yun had to say, Shoya had a persistent frown etched between his brows—one that was still there. Yuehwa was not surprised. She would be perturbed as well if someone told her that she was the living incarnation of someone who died hundreds of years ago, no matter how illustrious said person was. To know that that was the reason why Shoya had been callously abandoned by his family only served to deepen the hurt that they had already caused him. Yuehwa couldn't even begin to imagine how that must feel like.

She placed her hand over his and said, "We don't know whether or not that woman was speaking the truth. She could just have been making things up for her own agenda."

"But there's no other explanation. There's no other way to explain all the voices I've been hearing in my head. These flashes I've been having in my head, these memories... I have no other explanation for them." Sighing, Shoya poured himself some tea. "If what the chief astrologer said is true, then it's no wonder my father would view me as a threat. History has recorded incredible things about the first king of Feng, things that no other man dared dream of accomplishing. He defeated the Wudi empire. This kingdom's very existence depended upon this one man."

"Even if all that were true, there are still so many questions surrounding the entire matter. If another child had been killed in your place while you had been smuggled out of the palace, then who is going through such great pains to stop you from finding out the truth? Who would even know that you're still alive?"

"If Sheng Yun managed to track my whereabouts, then who knows who else might also have made the same deductions?" He took a sip of his tea, a thoughtful look on his face. Laying his sword on the table, he ran his fingers along its gleaming blade, saying, "This sword belonged to him—the first king. Since then, it's been passed down from one king to another, the one symbol that represents the highest authority in Feng."

Yuehwa placed her fingers over the crystal hilt, shuddering slightly at the icy sensation against her skin. The sword was nothing like anything she had ever seen, and looking at it again up close left her just as much in awe as she had been when she first laid eyes upon it down in the hidden cave in Dahai.

"What are you going to do now?"

"What do you think I should do?" Shoya looked up at Yuehwa, the corners of his lips tilting upwards slightly when he saw her furrow her brows in deep thought.

After a short while, she said, "I think you should do whatever you think is right." She watched as Shoya stood up and walked over to the window, silently contemplating the sky above. It was now the break of dawn, and the tiniest sliver of light had appeared through the darkness.

As he stood there in his usual white outfit, sleeves swaying slightly from the light morning breeze, Yuehwa felt it was almost impossible for her to imagine him any other way. This was how he had first appeared in front of her, and this was the only way he had ever been. She thought back to the crown prince of Feng, that arrogant excuse of a man they had met back in Dahai, and wondered how differently Shoya might have turned out had he not been sent away all those years back.