"You better start stretching. Soon it will be you bowing to me."
Fang Xun is known to all as the great dragon king and Emperor of Wuzhen. However, to the elemental mages, he is nothing more than an obstacle standing in their path. After the brutal a...
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The smell of burning trees was a memory ingrained in my mind. Surely it was punishment for my inability to protect my people. When I was crowned Emperor, I made a promise to the people that I would do everything in my power to make sure they would live peacefully and prosperously. I failed to live up to my oath and Meihui would certainly have plenty of things to say about that when it was my time to move on to the next life.
We weren't able to save Zhenyuan, all that was left were rubble and corpses. Xiaosheng managed to find his mate before her life was taken from her, but he didn't arrive in time to save her family. He requested some time away from the Council to put her mate's family to rest and I was grateful he was taking time at all. I didn't think I would be able to bear the guilt of seeing his sorrow-stricken gaze.
I kept replaying the moment in my mind, wondering if there was something different I could have done. Should I have reached out to the elves of Aivrena? Or even the fairies of the Vale? No, my cursed pride wouldn't let me. The pride of a dragon was a dangerous thing, it could cost a person everything that meant something to them. While I still had my pride, I lost the most important thing: the respect of the people.
I took a sip from my osmanthus tea, which was prescribed by Imperial Physician Ruogang, meant to counteract the effects of the ice magic. Part of me hoped it would free me of my crippling guilt and feelings of uselessness, but no magic was powerful enough to do such a thing.
I stood up from my chair and walked around the front of my mahogany desk. "I will be leaving to attend the Mid-Autumn Festival. Please see to it that my intentions are made known to the Council."
The Mid-Autumn Festival was an event held every autumn to give thanks to Meihui for bringing us bountiful harvests. Even though we were going through difficult times, I insisted that we continue to uphold centuries of tradition. It was not only a time dedicated to the Divine Meihui, but to the water dragons as well. Their ability to manipulate water became useful in times of drought and blistering heat waves.
Lanterns of a vast array of colors would be lit and released into the sky where Meihui was waiting to receive our gifts. Each lantern typically contained a single piece of paper with a note of gratitude. However, this was not what attracted most to Wuzhen. It was our canals and the water markets that floated within them. Merchants would be waiting in their boats to sell various foods such as mooncakes and cassia wine. Such a feast was enough to send its purchasers into blissful comas.
Eligible women, young and old, would be lined up in the roads, dressed in their finest silks and paints, listening to fortune tellers' never-ending tales of the future and the men they would marry one day. The Mid-Autumn Festival was not only a time of peace, but it gave people the opportunity to make their dreams a reality.
Despite all of the things the Festival had to offer, there was only one thing that I looked forward to every year and that was the dance of the dragons. Known for their graceful and fluid movements, it truly was a beauty to behold.
