Aftermath (A series of ELOD one-shots)

XXII. Love Trial (Part 2)

A/N: A peek into the books that SM was not privy to, a look into some of Princess Zhihe's fate(s), and a short but sweet DongFeng at the end.

All fairy realm/Four Sea traditions are products of my imagination, and solely belongs to the Aftermath universe.

Disclaimer: Photo not mine.

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He first saw her a few hours after she was born, a piece of jade stuck in her mouth, inside the prison cell of a once-favored imperial consort awaiting her death.

The babe was supposed to be a princess, and her being born with such an auspicious sign should have been a cause of celebration for the empire. But her mother was caught in a plot to discredit the emperor's general shortly before her birth, and her paternity was thus thrown into doubt.

There is no excuse for betrayal, even if it was a frame up, and its repercussions extended even to an innocent child. And so, by the emperor's command, he who stood guard outside the concubine's prison was ordered to take the babe and kill her, then take the body and bury it outside the palace grounds.

But he was a superstitious man, and he would rather risk the emperor's anger than incur the wrath of the gods. Instead of killing her, he took the jade and tied it to her wrist with a string, then wrapped her in a quilt and left her by the roadside to her fate.

If she was meant for this life, someone will pass by, take pity, and save her. If she was not -- then he prayed that her death will be quick, and tomorrow he will come back to give her a proper burial.

However, her cries would not leave his ears, even when he had walked far enough from where he had left her for others to find. The guilt and pity weighed so much in his chest that, halfway to the palace, he turned around and retraced the path to the roadside. Perhaps he can bring her to a hermitage, or leave her with a kind-hearted couple to raise, he isn't quite sure yet -- but he will save her, repercussions be damned.

Only, she was gone by the time he returned. There was no blood, or any sign that she had been dragged away or feasted upon by animals, so there could only be one conclusion; someone had come and saved her.

For days on end he wondered on her fate, until he saw her again a year later, clutching at the robes of the owner of the largest teahouse on town. The jade she was born with was still tied to her wrist, although now it hung from a fine chain, like a bracelet charm.

She was meant for this life, after all, even if it was not with him.

He attributed it to guilt, but from that day onward, he made it his personal mission to visit the teahouse as often as he can just to see how she was doing. The teahouse master who found and raised her was kind, but laidback and a bit irresponsible, in his opinion; she was often left to her own devices as a young child, running in and out of the teahouse as she pleased. Often he had to covertly follow to make sure that she found her way back home safe and sound, and there were several times when she was almost hurt either by accident or by design of ill-intentioned people, if not for his intervention.

Watching over and protecting her from the shadows have become an instinct over the years, that he couldn't tell when it had morphed from guilt and pity to love of the romantic kind. He only found that his feelings had veered away from the platonic when jealousy stabbed, like a merciless knife, into his heart on that day he saw her with another man.