Prologue

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-Prologue-

The Great Tang dynasty, ruled by the blessed Emperor Xuan-Zhong. It is a prosperous time to live, the Han people are thriving, embassies from all foreign nations come to pay tribute, trade and knowledge flows in and out from the Empire's borders, and those who live inside are without fear.

We call this time, Kai-Yuan, a time of peace, a golden time for our people.

For my father's people.

My name is Zhao Jiayi, I am the fourth and middle daughter of merchant Zhao Ren-Yi. My mother was named Cheng by him; her real name was Eshfir, a Persian name for the daughter of a Persian prince and warrior.

She met my father, they fell in love, and she left her prestige to marry a lowly merchant. It raised my father's status in the eyes of T'ang, but they both decided to seclude themselves peacefully and raise a family.

Seven daughters they had, and when about to birth a son, God above decided it best to take them both to rest.

Father raised the seven of his daughters since I was eight.

He has no sons, only a nephew Liang-Jie who he adopted as his own when his parents died tragically before my own mother.

Liang-Jie's sister, Zhen-Ting, is the greatest friend I could ask for in this world, and we are the same age.

This was how I was raised in LuoYang Dongdu, the Eastern Capital of Great T'ang.

A loving family, filled with girls who my father never even dreamed of allowing to be married.

He didn't, but we did, oh yes, we did.

Especially our eldest sister Ai-Li.

And when she reached the age of twenty-one, we finally believed that Heaven had heard our prayers and granted us our wish.

Heaven did, but in its own way, and none of our lives were ever the same.

The peaceful state we as the Zhao family had enjoyed was shattered in a mere heartbeat, and I never would have thought that I would shed the tears of our own Kai-Yuan.

The heartbeat came in the form of two.

Two men, two generals, two people I and my family never thought would meet.

But we did, General Li Xiao, and General Li Wuji.

This is our story.

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