He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter Seventy Six - Broken Jade

After an afternoon of jelly babies and coffee, I've made a couple of chapters and a bit so I can fulfil the request of a double update! Praise me!

"Who are you?"

The woman beside him was as unclothed as he, her full figure hidden by the shared blanket but leaving little to the imagination.  She yawned like a small kitten and glanced at him through dew drenched eyes.  Blinking away the soft mist, her eyes suddenly widened revealing a beautiful deep green and dark pupils, one with its own moon.  She suddenly leapt from the bed, without thought to the cold causing her dark skin to turn to gooseflesh and knelt before him in bow.  "Your highness!" She exclaimed.

He uncomfortably looked away.  "Please show a little dignity," he requested.  He did not see her blush, but listened as rustling cloth indicating that she was dressing herself.  He waited until he heard no more and glanced back at her, noting that she had returned to prostrating before him once clothed.  "Now please answer my question.  Who are you?"

"I am a maid within the Imperial Palace," she replied.  He looked at her carefully.  She did seem to have a face he knew, but then he could not recall her working within his Palace.

"What am I doing here?" He asked.  From the crudeness of the building, he could only assume that it was a small shelter somewhere.  He could hear no dragon soaring, no tiger leaping so he believed they could not be in the Capital. 

"You were drugged by the Emperor," she whispered the last words as if she feared retribution.  "I tried to stop him! But... Your guard said to take care of you!  I took you away."  He noticed that the woman had a slight accent.  Did she come from the Heartlands?  If so why was she working as a maid in the Palace?

"Why take me away from the Palace?"

"The Emperor was stirring, even though the guard put him to sleep," she replied and shook her head.  "I am just a lowly maid, I wouldn't be able to stop the Emperor if he decided to take revenge, so it's best to hide."

The Prince shuddered and he had to swallow the bile rising in his throat.  "Then why am I naked?"

The woman's cheeks turned rosey.  "Aphrodisiac," she whispered.  Yu Long felt his blood run cold and questioned her words.  She repeated herself clearly and Yu Long couldn't help but think back to the wine that his... that man had poured him and the disgusting incense heavy in the air.  That was all he could recall before darkness had clouded his mind.  But though he remembered the horrible touches, the thick lust in that man's eyes, the sense of oppression, he didn't have any memory of his own body participating in bedroom activities.  Had he? With this woman? His mind felt dizzy as he wrapped the rough bed sheet about his waist.

"Where are my clothes?" he demanded, his voice a little broken.  Her eyes were drawn to a small stool where there was a folded red robe that was suggestive and sheer.  He made an odd sound, before suppressing the feelings threatening to overwhelm him, instead, he grabbed the cloak hanging upon a nail by the door.

As he threw it over his shoulders and tore open the door, the woman called after him; "Please, it's not your highness's fault!"  He coldly ignored her and took to the surrounding grasslands with a rapid pace.  Horses were tethered outside, but he paid them no heed as he walked without thought.  When he came to the rushing river, he understood a little about where he was, but that did not mean that he headed towards the Capital.  Instead, he stripped off both sheet and cloak and instead walked into the cold waters. 

He stood within the river against the current that somehow could not move him for sometime before he began to scoop the water into his palm and rinse his body.  It wasn't enough! He moved to the river edge, tore a strip of the blanket and soaked it before he used it to scrub himself.  The white skin began to redden, even drawing blood in one place upon his shoulder.  So immersed in his cleansing, he did not notice the approach of people.