Xue Feiyi was sitting in the Southern hall along with the other visiting kingdom and non-resident sects that involved themselves in politics.

On any other day perhaps a marriage announcement wouldn't have startled Xue Feiyi so thoroughly.

Maybe on a different day he would have rolled with it better.

Maybe on a different day at a different time it wouldn't have caught him so off guard.

A murmur rose through the crowd, the disciples behind Xue Feiyi even shuffled.

Xue Feiyi himself was silent, even as someone patted the apparently engaged couple on the back, neither the Eastern princess nor the Southern prince could look up from their distraught stares at the ground.

The Princess seemed displeased in a melancholic manner and that prince, Hong Keliang, could only be described as utterly devastated.

"What brought this on if I may ask." Xue Feiyi asked the Southern King, voice even as could be. He saw Hong Keliang quickly look up at him in response to the sound of his voice, but he didn't return the gaze.

He wasn't able to freely let on his concern...forced to ignore the wide watering eyes that stared him down.

"Keliang is of age, as is Imperial Princess Yang, alliances are very important." The Southern king stated sharply. "Perhaps you should consider an arrangement between your sister and our youngest son."

At this Hong Chunji made a horrible sound of complaint.

He was a child, he didn't need to worry about such things.

A seven year old boy shouldn't even be present at these talks if you asked Xue Feiyi.

Xue Feiyi scoffed. "I would never allow Xue Huayu to be entered into an arranged marriage. Moreover, she's seated to take over the Northern Kingdom upon my death or dethronement, she could not be moved to the South the way you require of your children's betrothed."

"Very well, that is your decision." The Southern king hummed with a great roll of his eyes. The man must have known full well that Xue Feiyi would refuse, yet the courtesy of asking was admirable.

"Hardly..." Xue Feiyi muttered, Xue Huayu wouldn't be entered into a marriage against her own volition while he was still above the ground.

"The alternative is always between yourself and one of my daughters, or perhaps you would prefer a prince?" The immortal Eastern king chuckled.

Xue Feiyi fought the urge to sneer at the man.

Was he so boldly trying to implant a part of his family into every nation?

Really now?

Could someone who wanted domination get any more obvious?

•••

"What am I supposed to do?" Hong Keliang sobbed the moment he closed the door behind him, slumping back against it. Xue Feiyi had never seen the teen so distraught and immediately stood and swept over to greet him, wrapping him up in the warmth of his cloaks, despite their needlessness in the Southern summer. "Feiyi, what do I do!?"

Xue Feiyi didn't have an answer, he swallowed and opened his mouth, only to shut it and swallow again.

"I could... argue the engagement... say you were already promised to me..."

"If you did that your character would be put on trial..."

"But it could be respected."

"I'm the crown prince, they can't let me go."

Xue Feiyi shook his head. "I can take you, or you could run away, or you could try to refuse the engagement yourself."

"That would only give them reason to spark war!"

"So I should argue the engagement." Xue Feiyi argued again. "They have to listen to me, they have no access to wares of Western Kingdoms without the mountain pass, they'd lose a major trade avenue."

"One they hardly access as is..."

"... you're right... it isn't a good idea." Xue Feiyi sighed lightly as he glanced at the door behind Hong Keliang. "But it is an idea." What choice did they have? "Are the consequences worth it?"

For a long few moments there was nothing.

Then finally. "Yes. If they don't listen you can take me and didi and I'll use all the social sway I have to keep the Southern civilians from donating to war."

"The public is fond of you..."

Hong Keliang nodded eagerly.

It was all the encouragement it took.

Xue Feiyi smiled softly and pulled a red paper lotus from his sleeve, gently setting it in Hong Keliang's hands. "Everything will be fine." He promised, pressing his forehead against the crown prince's, relishing in the way the prince heaved a long tension relieving sigh.

This was a stupid idea.

This was a childish idea.

And Xue Feiyi fell right for its allure.

The Queen exploded at Xue Feiyi's words.

He'd boldly demanded Hong Keliang as his own.

He refused to take no as any kind of answer when it had been bellowed out by the king.

And now the queen was calling for his head.

"If he will not be given to me I will take both your sons." Xue Feiyi said sharply as Hong Keliang grabbed Hong Chunji up in his arms and retreated behind the young king, glaring down the disdainful looks from different areas of the room.

Xue Feiyi pitied none of them, grabbing a tight hold of one of Hong Keliang's hands, as if to display his affections.

This was the last nail in Xue Feiyi's coffin according to the queen.

She ripped a crossbow from the hands of one of her guards.

Took aim.

And fired.

Everything moved.

Far too quickly and far too slow all at once.

Hong Keliang moved before Xue Feiyi could think to dodge, he was wrapped in protective, kind warmth.

Then it was gone.

There was still warm flesh against his form but it lacked familiarity.

Something had sharply pierced his chest, less than a full centimeter, but the pain was numbed out entirely. The arrow that had run Hong Keliang clean through had still hit him.

He'd never wished for death any more.

The crown prince slipped from his hands before he could tighten his grip.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

A child was sobbing.

Someone else was screaming.

And Xue Feiyi couldn't make a sound.

Couldn't breathe at all.

He was kneeling on the ground right now.

He could tell that at least.

That and Hong Chunji was holding onto his arm.

Hong Keliang was on the ground. Not a single sound slipping from his lips.

There were no last words.

There was no lasting touch or longing look.

There wasn't a single thing.

He had been alive and now he simply... was not.

Xue Feiyi couldn't bring himself to feel anything. His fingers were numb, icy even.

The ice felt for him.

All he was numb to.

It took on his wrath, took on his agony, his fury.

The frozen talisman flooded his body, a dam shattering and pouring freezing water over the land below. Once Xue Feiyi had had hope to control the monster tied to his skin. But in this moment he realized just how weak he really was to it.

The ice burst his meridians, he could feel them split as the energy grew exponentially in a matter of broken seconds.

Light and cold exploited the injury of their channels and blasted outward so violently that for a long few moments Xue Feiyi was entirely blinded.

The air slowly settled as the familiar feeling of snow landed in his eyelashes.

Silence echoed the sound of nothing but the soft weeping of a child, a warmth emanating from the sound.

Xue Feiyi, in a daze, stared at his destruction...

Ice consumed the room.

The entire palace encased, spires and all.

Beside him Hong Chunji, the sole survivor of this deconstructed dynasty, shook and sobbed, weakly grasping at Xue Feiyi's numb arm.

"Chunji..." Xue Feiyi whispered, carefully collecting the boy into his arms.

His survival made no sense at all.

Xue Feiyi shouldn't have survived.

Hong Chunji shouldn't have survived.

And Hong Keliang's body should be encased in ice, not a thin dusting of frost.

Yet around them danced a certain heat that warded away the ice.

A godly bloodline... that was the only thing that could have saved them... The child had saved him. And he had killed everyone that could have known this.

The child's father was no more mortal than the mountain dwellers that supplied the precious red stain.

Carefully, Xue Feiyi stood and swept the child into his cloak.

He took a running leap off the balcony of one of the many stoops.

Xuelu caught his weight and took them both into the sky.

Hong Chunji was kept wrapped in the warmth of his cloak as they flew. Heat emanated from him in waves in a way that enabled Xue Feiyi's crushed meridians to remain functional.

Even as Hong Chunji stared at the ground, tears drying on his face, he refused to speak.

In fact neither spoke.

Neither tried.

All Xue Feiyi could pray was that the child wouldn't remember this nightmare... That he would be too traumatized to internalize the night. That shock would wipe his mind clean.

Xue Feiyi nearly hit the ground when he stepped off of Xuelu multiple hours later. He caught his balance at the last moment, carrying Hong Chunji into the small farm house

The gentle warm light from within echoed a sense of security that was freshly obliterated. "A-yi!" He called, begging for the woman he'd once known so well.

His mother's sister.

It had been many years since he'd visited with his mother, but he'd been sending them provisions to keep their lives easy since he took power.

An apology for the loss of their beloved daughter.

"Xue Feiyi!" Yin Zhi jumped up at the sound of her nephew's panic.

"A-yi please- please-" The king looked awful. His skin was paler than usual, his eyes were stained with more tear tracks than xue xue hua paint and he was rumpled as if he'd run a thousand miles.

"What's wrong Zhizi?" The woman asked, looking all too like his mother when she moved to him and held his cheeks in her hands.

Carefully, Xue Feiyi unwrapped the cloak that was tucked around Hong Chunji.

Yin Zhi gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth. The child was fast asleep but he was obviously far too important, between the robes and the opal diadem.

The only prince now.

"Xue Feiyi! What did you do!?"

Xue Feiyi choked on his air as he carefully handed her the boy. "Please just take him, don't let anyone know where he came from, I'll send anything he needs I just- I can't be the one near him."

"Answer my question Zhizi, what did you do?"

Xue Feiyi shook his head. "The less you know the better. Please just take him and keep him safe until he's old enough to handle himself. Give him a new name. Give him a new life. Let him come after me when he's ready. I won't be hiding."

Yin Zhi sighed and gently petted her nephew's hair. "You won't be back will you?" Her 'precious little nephew' only shook his head.

"Then, I'm glad to have seen you again, just this once. Off you go, get home, it will be getting colder tonight."

Xue Feiyi nodded slowly, before turning on his heel.

He knew he didn't have long before he'd lose the use of the meridians in his legs and hands entirely, if he wanted to get back to the northern palace, he'd have to go fast, and go now.

Xuelu complained when he stepped onto it, it shuddered under his feet before carrying him into the air again, driving through the sky as snow slowly began to appear in the distance. For once the ice along his spine was silent, apparently the massacre was plenty satisfying. It didn't complain when the wind cooled into frost and sleet as his body began to feel the chill.

He was used to the burning freezing feeling of the ice bickering with his nature, but now, Xue Feiyi was cold.

Just cold.

The environment was cold and his meridians were too destabilized to run qi that might keep him heated. He was somewhere over the Northeastern Borderlands when his shattered meridians finally failed. He could hardly keep his eyes open when he fell, only vaguely recognizing the sound of air rushing in his ears before he met the snow coated ground with a heavy noise.

The king remained in a daze for a long while. The snow that had been displaced by his landing fell out of its cloud and floated slowly downward.

Resting onto his face and hair.

Joining that which fell from the sky in re-blanketing the streets and his body.

A small shape was moving for Xue Feiyi's exhausted form. He could see it, but it was blurred and his mind refused to acknowledge or register what it could be. His eyes fell shut, when they opened again there was a child near his face, a mousy child with big amber eyes and cheeks covered in smudges of dirt.

He could have sworn he'd only blinked, but his surroundings changed and his temperature improved. He seemed to be in a small burrow that was lit with candles, and wrapped in a number of thread bare blankets. He slowly lifted his head to look around the hollow.

If he didn't know any better he would assume it to be an old dug out badger den under a tree, there were visible roots on the dirt walls and piercing the ceiling.

There was a child crouched over the ground a few feet away, digging at the soil to uncover melted underground water. The child set a cloth over it to filter away the mud, and then took a few sips.

There was something dark coiled against the child's tiny undeveloped core, as though it had laid its claim there.

"Child." Xue Feiyi called, relatively softly.

The child jumped and nearly fell over into his little puddle, instantly holding up grubby little hands in defense. "I didn't take anything! I promise, just check! Your sword is right here!"

Xue Feiyi furrowed his brows. "I know, I'm not upset." He said as he slowly sat up, careful not to disturb the dirt. His limbs ached viciously.

The child very carefully lowered his hands to observe the king, unsure of him still. "Do you feel better? You were super cold..." He said quietly, trying to push back disastrous hair that seemed like it was trying to curl in every direction all at once. It seemed terribly tangled and the child had clearly given up keeping it neat a very long time ago.

"Do you live here?" Xue Feiyi asked as he looked over the boy.

The child shook his little head. "No, I just come here when the master doesn't want me." He said, giving a proud little smile that was far too bright and sweet for the dark words coming out of his mouth.

"Master?" Slavery had been illegal since Xue Feiyi took power and he had just passed a law to prevent indentures, it was difficult to properly ban indentures... But it was a work in progress...

"Mm, Master Hu Youyu." He nodded. "He's really gross but he lets me leave sometimes so it's okay I guess."

"What's your name?" The king asked, carefully folding the blankets that were laid across his lap.

With a shrug the child only said. "Master usually just calls me Shazi."

Xue Feiyi was entirely taken aback by each word this child said. The mousy boy just said he got called an idiot like it was his name with a smile on his face. "Would it be alright if you took me to meet your master?" He asked, keeping the blatant concern out of his tone.

"I guess. He'll probably eat you though. Or keep you. I think I'd rather get eaten, but no one else gets to move around like I do, so I think I'm lucky."

That's because he's too young to control through whatever channel the master tied to him. The older the victim, the easier. That had to be what that dark mark was.

Xuelu hummed beside his hip as if to agree with this assessment. Whatever was happening here was very much not normal. The idea that this might actually be a typical human slaver was effectively off the table.

"Take me there."

"Eh, if you say so." The little boy said with a shrug as he crawled from the hollow.

Xue Feiyi followed and quickly found that the boy was massively uncomfortable with the king behind him, so they walked side by side even though the boy was leading.

"It's a bit far out, which is kinda by design, so I hope you're ok with some walking." The boy mentioned.

The king narrowed his eyes at the child slightly while they walked. "How old are you?" He questioned, the boy had a decent vocabulary but he looked no bigger than Xue Huayu, who was only five and endlessly babbled nonsense.

"Master says I'm eight but he doesn't know my birthday. I turned four last time I had one of those but that was a long time ago."

Beside the child Xue Feiyi stopped walking and stared at the frail child. The boy surely couldn't be eight. Hong Chunji was only seven and was much larger and taller. The discrepancies in heights of Northern and Southern peoples were not enough to account for the difference.

This child lived on his own. Yet had a master that demanded his time. He lacked proper nutrition yet was expected to work in some manner.

Disgust flipped in Xue Feiyi's stomach, as though he hadn't dealt with enough difficult pills to swallow; this kind of arrangement was somehow floating about under his nose the whole time.

"What's wrong?" The child asked him, peering over his shoulder and turning so he wouldn't lose sight of the taller person.

"Apologies, you seem quite mature, I was just surprised."

Children love hearing that they're mature.

And oh how right he was, the child grinned so widely that dimples appeared in his little cheeks. "I hope the master doesn't eat you, you're so nice." The boy mentioned.

Xue Feiyi wouldn't give the beast a chance.

And a beast it was.

The stench of death and sweat permeated the entire cave that they had entered and made Xue Feiyi's stomach feel like vacating itself even more so.

It was no place for a child.

Especially not an eight-year-old.

•●•