When Peony Blooms #AMBW

Chapter 47: "Whispers Among the Silk Curtains"

Days turned into a blur for Ji-yun, each one indistinguishable from the last. She remained confined within the austere stone walls of her room, a self-imposed exile from the world outside. Her routine was mired in a desolate rhythm of solitude, her spirit lost amidst the heavy drapes and the oppressive silence that filled her chambers.

Each morning, a solitary servant would enter her room, her footsteps echoing softly on the cold stone floor. The girl was a young, doe-eyed, her features untouched by the harsh realities of the world. She'd look at Ji-yun, concern and apprehension flitting across her face, her gaze never quite meeting the older woman's.

The servant would spend a few minutes tending to Ji-yun, replenishing her water and food supply, straightening out her rumpled bedding, but her tasks were performed with an air of nervousness. Every fleeting glance she cast at Ji-yun was filled with a mix of curiosity and fear, as though she was uncertain whether she was tending to a mad woman or a consort.

Ji-yun, for her part, paid little attention to the girl. Her mind was a whirl of disjointed thoughts, her reality distorted. She was hardly aware of her surroundings, her eyes often distant and vacant. She was physically present, yes, but her mind was adrift, lost in a sea of confusion and denial.

Her days were largely spent by the window, her eyes fixed on the sprawling palace grounds beyond.

The chamber felt like a tomb, desolate and disquieting. The drawing of her words reverberated off the cold, harsh walls, finding their way back to her in distorted sounds and thoughts that mocked her plea for sanity. Ji-yun looked around, her eyes darting from one corner of the room to another, desperate and wild.

"Queen is dead, Queen is dead," she kept muttering to herself, trying to ground herself to the reality she knew, the reality she wanted to believe. But her own conviction was slowly slipping away, replaced by a gnawing fear and a burgeoning sense of horror.

Rising to her feet, Ji-yun began to throw about the objects scattered around the room. A brush clattered to the floor, its bristles splayed in disarray. A scroll of parchment, containing words of a poem she had once penned, was flung across the room, the ink smearing as it soaked up her falling tears. All the while, her frantic search for the poison vial continued, her fingers shaking as they rummaged through her belongings.

"Where is it, where is it?" she hissed to herself, her gaze flitting back and forth. Each item she upturned added to the chaos around her, a physical representation of her disintegrating psyche.

The more she looked, the less she found, the frustration intensifying within her like wildfire. Her breaths became uneven, her body trembling as her desperation grew. She was searching for concrete proof of her sanity, something that would prove her encounter with the queen was nothing but a cruel hallucination.

"Impossible...it's impossible..." she muttered as she overturned a small wooden box, its contents scattering across the stone floor. Among the scattered trinkets, the small vial was nowhere to be found.

Her thoughts turned back to the encounter with the ghostly figure of the queen.

A burst of a bitter laugh escaped her, the sound hollow and devoid of any joy. "Gone...it's all gone..." she whispered, her voice carrying a mixture of disbelief and despair. She sank to the floor, the chill of the stone seeping through her robes and chilling her to the bone.

A gust of wind blew through the chamber, carrying with it a whisper that seemed to laugh at her predicament. The moonlight streamed in through the window, casting an ethereal glow over the room. The specter of the queen seemed to be everywhere, haunting her from the shadows.

Ji-yun could almost hear the queen's chilling words replaying in her ears, "You should have known better."

Driven to the edge, Ji-yun screamed, her voice piercing the heavy silence of the night. But the only response she got was her own echo, a chilling reminder of her solitude and her unraveling sanity.