One Year

Seven Months

Seven months into Siri's wedding with Ryu and she has found herself in a routine that kept her busy.  Although Ryu told her that she didn't need to make anymore elixirs or pills for his army, Siri kept at it and delivered the elixirs and pills to Steward Mo and Ryu's guards on a daily basis.  

Siri wasn't one to stay still and be lazy.  She needed to keep her hands and mind busy.  With reading medical books and manuals, Siri had collected a wide variety of knowledge on medicinal plants and healing techniques.  

Siri's Narcissus House became a hospital to treat Ryu's guards, servants and maids.  Whatever ailment they had, they sought Princess Siri to help them.  Soon she became well liked by everyone for her giving and kind hearted nature.  

Since Yelona's wedding, she wasn't able to see or talk to her husband.  He would climb into her bed late at night and hold her, sometimes they would make love, but when she would wake up in the morning, he would already be gone.  Sometimes she would feel as if she didn't have a husband at all.  

Not wanting to face the feeling of being neglected by Ryu, because he did warn her about his busy schedule for the next couple of months and not being able to spend time with her, Siri kept herself busy. 

She read, made elixirs and pills, treated his people, taught her maids and the nurses about healing and medicine.  She painted and played her instruments.  She played chess with Steward Mo almost every other night.  And she let him win once in awhile. 

She kept herself busy during the day, so she wouldn't feel lonely.  Or feel neglected.  Or feel sad.  But when the sun set and her maids were sent away and it was just her.  Her loneliness would consume her.  Reading couldn't push the emptiness away.  Painting and playing on her instruments would help her relay her feelings, but afterwards she would sit outside on the balcony and look up at the stars and moon, under the cover of darkness.  She would think about her past life.  How full it was with laughter and love.  Her goals and independence.  Her freedom.  Her friends and family.  She would even go so far to miss the technology on Earth.  She would miss how fulfilling her life had been and how much she took advantage of the people and things around her.  

But she wouldn't have known about such magic that this current world has with their different medicinal plants that could cure the most unimaginable diseases and poisons.  From flying to qi cores, qi energy and cultivations.  There was so much in this world she didn't know about.  

Siri sighed heavily.  Why was she here?  Why her?  Why this body?  Why Siri Chen?  Questions upon unanswered questions piles on top of each other in her mind causing her to wince as a migraine starts to develop.  

A cold wind blows, but Siri doesn't feel it.  A cloud covers the stars and the moons, as the sky turns darker, yet Siri doesn't move.  A flash of lightning before a loud crack of thunder cries loudly, yet Siri doesn't flinch.  The rain falls and Siri closes her eyes and lets the rain fall over her.  The heavy rain drop soaks through her nightgown and it's plastered onto her body, yet Siri still doesn't stir.  

This storm, the rain, the wind.  Felt like her heart and all she could do was drown herself in it.  

Siri was lost in her own world when Ryu walked into her house through the front door.  He quickly went into Siri's room and quietly disrobed himself before opening up the curtains to her bed, but seeing it empty, his heart skips a beat. His wife is not in her bed.  Ryu  quickly listens to his surroundings and hears a faint heartbeat in the other room.  He quickly wears a robe and makes his way to Siri's painting and music room.  He finds his wife sitting on the balcony, under the cover of darkness.  The rain, pelting down on to her as her soaking wet dress clings to every curve and dip of her body.  

His heart lurches as he could feel her crying out in loneliness.  His wife that was locked inside her own courtyard for all her life, was now stuck in his.  Does she know she could go out without him?  Does she know that if she asked him to spend the day with her, he would.  Does she know that he has been working so hard, just so he could come home to her every night.  To hold her, to touch her, to smell her, to kiss her?  Does she know, that he misses her teasing him.  Bragging to him, reminding him just how amazing she is and how lucky he is to be married to her?  

This side of her, that she kept locked inside of herself, not willing to let him see, broke his heart.  Although she talked about her loneliness she felt while growing up, she talked about it as if it was a passing phase that she no longer put any meaning to, but deep down inside, she buried it and didn't want anyone to worry about her.  Because there was no one, ever in her life that would worry about her.  

Ryu quietly walked towards Siri and when he was directly behind her.  He pulled her up against him.  He pulled her inside the house, as her wet body soaked his robe.  His warm hands traces the side of her face and her neck as it pulls her wet nightgown off her body.  Her nightgown falls down to the ground with a wet thump as Ryu's hands warms up her body.  No matter how much the fire is built inside the brazer, or how much layers of clothes she wears, the Spirit of Coldness would always win.  She could never feel any heat from them.  

But with her husband's hands.  With his body. With his lips. His mouth.  Even his gaze.  He could light a fire within her and warm her body, her heart, and her soul.  Her husband who took her loneliness away with each touch, each kiss, each promise, each smile, each laughter.  Her husband that she made a one year promise with, just so she could continue living.  How was she going to let him go at the end of their agreement?