"God gave us memories so that we might have roses in December."
~J. M. Barrie
* * * *
A lifetime of love, a lifetime of friendship, a lifetime of loathe. All remembered, all stashed away somewhere secret inside one's mind in the form of a memory. You remember the pain, the joy, the fear, the anguish, the love. There are some memories we wish we could forget, we yearn to forget the moment our whole world was turned upside down, the moment when we found out everything we'd ever known was a lie. Then there are others that stay with us forever--a wedding day, the birth of a child, the making of a lifelong friendship. Those are the happy memories that stay with us, but what about the horrific? The sights of a battlefield, coated in crimson, knowing that the blood once ran through a living body, a living body of someone you once knew. The way a mother's scream echoed off the walls as she clutched the corpse of her eldest son. The sacrifices that someone will make for the ones they love, even if it means their pain and anguish. These are the things you can never forget: the blood, the scream, the sacrifice. Then the happy: the wedding, the birth, the friendship. No matter what, our memories stay even if the moment itself is long since past. And all those stories of love? They can be forgotten in the hatred of a moment. And the name that gave the irresistible feeling of joy will someday make the person not smile, they won't ever smile or feel the same irresistible feeling they once did. And none of this could happen without one single component: memories.
Li Xiang is the Priestess of the Moon, she can see read the stars and fortune as well as misfortune to her people. However, the life of a Priestess consists of nothing but loneliness: she can neither leave the palace nor meet with anyone but the Emperor and his advisors.
One day a mysterious servant boy named Rui sneaks into her room, daring her to go outside if he wins against her in a game. Upon meeting him, she also befriends a female warrior and a scholar, and realizes life is much more than the palace. When the day comes she can either choose to go down the road her heart truly desires but bring ruin to the kingdom, or ignore the one chance she will ever have to leave this life?
***
"My fate has been decided for me."
"There's no such thing as that," he said. "We all make our own fate."
"But the stars tell me--" I stopped talking when he holds my face in his hands, warm hands cupping my cheeks, brown eyes looking into my eyes.
"Then stop looking at the stars. Look at me."
A love story about fate, finding one's identity, stepping out of your comfort zone, and, most of all, choosing between your happiness or the happiness of others...
[[Word Count: 80,000-90,000]]
Wattys Fantasy Winner 2021