"Please! Someone help me put out the fires! Please save my princess! Arghh!"
Soon afterward, screams turned into full guttural squeals as a new sound emerged; clashing metals.
Loud clashes of metals, followed by sickening sounds of slashing flesh.
As the new sounds registered in her ears, Tul Lai felt oddly calm. After she dabbed her wet eyes dry, she shifted around to survey her surroundings.
Instantly, her glance came upon Xiao Rong's bowed head. The maid had somewhat came to kneel down at her feet, crying quietly to herself.
"Xiao Rong!"
Tul Lai's voice was hoarse from her own bawling earlier.
"Why are you still here? I order you to leave this instance! Go quickly! Before it's too late!"
"Your highness, Xiao Rong will not leave you!"
Xiao Rong protested, her head now touching the floor at her mistress's feet.
"This servant's only wish is to remain by your side! From the beginning, this lowly one had sworn my life's oath to live and die at your hands!"
The pitiful girl had exclaimed her last statement so obstinately that further objection would deemed futile while tears ran down her cheeks.
"Fine, do as you wish. But, Xiao Rong, you're a foolish girl!"
Tul Lai admonished. As she stumbled to her feet, another series of grating cries broke the night air on the other side of the closed doors.
Outside, the daunting noises had risen more urgent and frantic, signaling the turn of a dire situation.
In response, Tul Lai barely spared a glance in the noise's direction.
"Xiao Rong, quickly bring over the farewell tea and the dragon candle."
She ordered sharply, swerving around and hastened toward the bed.
Sitting on the bed, she wept deeply as her heart trodden by regrets. Silently, she lamented to old memories of her beloved father and brother whom she had not seen for eleven years. In her mind, she begged for their forgiveness before bidding them farewells. When she finished, her crying also ceased.
A brief time later, the desolate servant girl returned with a tray containing a burning candle and two filled cups to where her mistress sat waiting on the bed. Kneeling on the floor, she put the tray on her lap before picking up one of the cups to give to her mistress. She did the same with the dragon candle.
For herself, she picked up the second cup before sliding the tray to her left on the floor. Her swollen eyes fixated on the china in her hands' tight grip.
"Your highness, Xiao Rong is useless to the end!" Xiao Rong hung her head in shame while hateful tears continued to fall from her eyes.
The high consort laughed drily at her maid's sudden outburst.
"No. The fact that you are here beside me now, proved that I am the useless one. Inarguably, I had failed to protect all of you in the end."
Toward her mistress's self-deprecation, Xiao Rong's head shot up to protest but Tul Lai dimissed her with a head-shake.
"Here. A farewell toast to our present lives. One to end all of our misgivings toward one another. So, that we may reborn like the heavenly phoenixes and be ready for our next lives."
With that said, Tul Lai gave her maid her most gentle smile prior to raising her sleeves and downed her poisoned tea in a single gulp.
Xiao Rong quickly drank hers as well, and waited for her mistress to finish hers.
YOU ARE READING
ROHLP (🔞)
Romance*Return Of His Lost Phoenix* She is the sole survivor of the fallen Xun Dynasty's royal bloodline. Half a decade ago, her entire clan was massacred with her barely escaped with life. Now safe within the borders of her mother's desert homeland, she v...
