[OLD VERSION -- READ THE NEW ONE PLEASE] Crocodile Tears

Introduction

Note: This version is old and will be no longer updated. Please refer instead to my other novel of the same name!

Beneath the polished golden throne hides the rotting corpses of countless men. Behind the high palace walls echoes wails of regret and screams of revenge. But these lost souls will never see sunlight; for, they are nothing more than the empire's sacrifices to the heavens.

    Despite these horrors, men and women still fight to their deaths for ownership to this cage of bone, knowing very well that those who enter may never find the exit. The promise of wealth and power lures them in. Then the doors snap shut. When lucky, a remain or two may find its way out - a fragmented jade or two bloody teeth, a remembrance that this indeed was history.

If those who lost their lives can hope for rebirth, then those who lost themselves in the palace are destined for an eternity in hell. Trust. Friendship. Love. All so fragile. Like salt, they dissolve to no more than a wisp in a sea of memories - tears that are forever hidden by fate.

    The empire or the beauty? A question since the dawn of time. They all know that it's either one or the other, but no one has ever decided upon one. He knew that the throne was never accompanied by love. He knew that the dragon robe meant losing her. He thought that all women to him were simply pawns - ways to gain favors or vessels to bear him heirs. So he chose the empire. Or so he thought. But when he looked back, why did he only see death? His empire had crumbled to ashes, and his peach blossom was no longer his. In the end, he perhaps even forgot her name.

    And she no longer knew why she had even stayed. Revenge? Love? Or simply pride. When he forever left her life, what were the wet stains on her face? Were they really no more than crocodile tears? She had never even gotten the chance to ask why.

    In the palace, there is never a lack of flowers. They each have their chance to blossom and show their beauty to the world. No one would ever ask why they bloom when they know their fate is to waste away. But one thing is for certain - their flowering seasons are simply much too short. After winter, who said spring would come again? Peach blossoms, once wilted, would be of no more.