The Emperor's Rose

Chapter 66//The Truth Untold

The temple was full. Everyone was sitting close to each other on pillows that reflected their status. A purple pillow had been left next to the short steps leading to the altar. Fumi should have sat there.

Lady Tachikaba had slithered in the room by a secondary entrance, sitting down next to Hashimoto. Aiko's eyes flew to him. He was wonderful. Dressed in black and shimmering gold lacing. A sparkle twinkled in his eyes. Her heart swooned. The petal caressing her bare skin.

She stared at him maybe a moment too long before she shifted her gaze up, near the alter.

Her eyes widened. The Emperor was standing in his royal glory. He was beautiful. Maybe too much. All his concubines were drooling over him from afar. Their jealousy clear in their eyes as they caught sight of the bride-to-be.

The Emperor felt the room blur into nothing as his eyes locked with Aiko. She was fabulous. The white kimono contrasting with her red flecked eyes.
She looked so elegant, so gentle and pure.
If someone who didn't know her well would have seen her then, he would have certainly believed she was a gentle and soft lady.

The Emperor smiled with amusement. She wasn't. Underneath all those layers of candid white lay a fire that burned and crackled. Thorns ready to prick you if needed.

A rose in every way.

He could see the way the flames leaped behind her eyes. A flame lit by someone else. A hiss whispered in the Emperor's mind. His mood darkened instantly. Shifting his eyes away.

Aiko frowned. The Emperor had been glowing. He was somber and dark now. A soft melody filled the room. Aiko started walking.

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Full of loneliness
This garden bloomed
Full of thorns
I bind myself in this sand castle

Aiko took one step after the other. Her heart quaking. The small girl covered in dirt waves goodbye. Her laughter echoing in Aiko's mind as she slowly fades. Her childhood finished and long gone.

And I know
All of your warmth is real
The blue flower your hand was picking
I want to hold it but

The Emperor closed his eyes in anticipation. The memories flooding back. A small boy clothed in a heavy kimono, too heavy and rich for him, running around the palace. The way he was running in the garden, stopping as he catches sight of the bush of blue roses. His mother, the Empress standing before them.

The same blue as the rose Aiko was holding.

It's my fate
Don't smile to me
Lie to me
Because I can't get closer to you
There's no name you can call me

The two kids, very different, very far away, slowly start to grow up. Their fates still far from crossing. One of them starts to become a slave at a young age. Loosing her childhood to please others. The other starts to get educated so to run the country, pushed away from his toys. They are both fed lies. "It's your fault mother died!" "This is done for the best interest of the country, Your Royal Highness." They are both lost. One of the two manages to escape his prison, to run to the other's prison without knowing.

You know that I can't
Show you me
Give you me
I can't show you a ruined part of myself
Once again I put a mask on and go to see you
But I still want you

He's not meant to be here. She's meant to be working. But they've grown so used to laughing together, the knight and the rose, it's impossible to stop. One stops being a slave. The other covers his royalty with a mask. They both smile and find courage in each other. Hiding the most broken down parts of one another.

The Emperor perfectly remembered the day when he first saw Aiko. Just a countless servant in the midsts of the rest. The first time he looked at her in his room down at sundown. Seeing a nymph in her place.

Aiko saw the first time she had to dance for the Emperor. How hateful he had been. How he had tortured her. How he had been a god in his room. Both taking off their masks and revealing their true colors. A nymph and a god. Only to hastily cover each other again with them. Hiding their wounds in shame.

Bloomed in a garden of loneliness
A flower that resembles you
I wanted to give it to you
After I take off this foolish mask

The knight stops coming. The rose is left alone in her loneliness. She starts to yearn to find him, thinking he left to forget her. While the knight yearns to be back with his rose.

The time the Emperor tells her they have to get married, the world turns upside down. The way she cries herself to sleep. Every day an inch closer. The masks heavy on their faces. Hesitating, not knowing if they should reveal themselves. Deciding in the end to not do it and keep on playing this foolish play.

I am afraid
I am shattered
I'm so afraid
That you will leave me again in the end
Once again I put on a mask and go to see you

The Emperor and Aiko drift closer. By coincidences and by the fact they are both so broken no one else can understand them. Their masks have started coming off, but the day the Emperor turns cold once more destroys everything. She is scared, broken. He is afraid, furious. The masks set back in place. Heavier than ever.

The only thing I can do
In the garden
In this world
Is to bloom a pretty flower that resembles you
And to breathe as the me that you know
But I still want you
I still want you

They yearn to both yank their masks off but can't do it. The wounds they inflicted in each other to deep to recover so soon. Now, they just have to keep on going. Binding in marriage. The Emperor tries to distract himself with other flowers, but they all pale in comparison with his rose. He sends off the girls quickly. Aiko wants to be herself, to try and understand her feelings. Even through the anger, hate and sadness they both reach to each other. Too afraid to admit it.

But I still want you

Aiko stopped next to the Emperor. The walk to the altar laden with memories of the past. Their eyes both lost in them. Ready to start the future together. She turned around to face him. Lowering her eyes. The Emperor breathed in heavily.

The wedding ceremony started.