Min Li was not a happy bunny.

In fact, she was the unhappiest bunny around.

This bunny didn’t want to jump, hop, eat, drink or rather dramatically, think.

Today was a day that she dreaded whenever it came around every year. And nothing had changed since she had become a servant at the Eastern palace, she still disliked it.

It was not her birthday. A lot of people disliked their birthdays, but Min Li was not one of them. She loved her birthday, although she was unsure of the real date of her birth, the queen had made sure every single one of her birthdays were a beautiful lavish event.

So, no, it was not her birthday. It was a completely different event day. It was that time of year again and it was a day that she alone disliked.

The power ceremony had come around yet again.

Everyone else loved it. All the other bunnies jumped, hopped, ate, drank and thought to their heart’s content on the day.

Min Li had never attended another power ceremony since the one on her fifteenth year had gone so wrong. But that hadn’t stopped anyone but her.

And now it wasn’t going to even be able to stop her.

The king had decreed that Min Li had to attend the power ceremony. All these years the queen had been complaining that only one of her children had been turning up and now her loving, adoring, doting husband had decided he was tired of his wife being upset and that he was going to do something about it.

Apparently, he did not care so much about the feelings of his foster ‘daughter’ compared to that of his wife.

Bunch of nonsense.

All the places in the palace and the streets of the kingdom were filled and decorated with beautiful things of the colour blue.

Min Li was sure that much of the same thing was happening in Nilin right now, but instead of the blue, white, which represented their power of air. If Yilin still celebrated their power ceremonies, Min Li knew not, then their own streets would be lined with vibrant red.

In all truthfulness the ceremony was always beautiful. The people were always beautiful wearing the finest of silk in any blue colour they could find. But Min Li’s face on the day, that wasn’t beautiful. She had a frown etched on her face and there was no chance that it was going to change. She didn’t want it to, she wanted everyone everywhere to know that she was mad that she had to attend.

The only good thing that Min Li could think of was that she was attending the event today not as a servant, but as a civilian, a noble, the foster daughter of the queen.

At least that meant that instead of serving food and drink, she could eat food and drink beverages straight away without the wait. The servants still had a great day; they were allowed to do anything they wanted, just after they served their nobles.

Min Li walked through the Eastern palace to get to the great hall. Lily had volunteered to be Min Li’s lady’s maid, so Lily was walking just behind Min Li the both of them not saying a word. Min Li’s silence in thought about whether she was going to be able to hold in her embarrassment when everyone lit their power up together. Lily’s silence, in respect for Min Li’s silence.

Although the look on her face was not a delight, Min Li sure did look extremely delightful. She was dressed up in an extremely pretty garment that she had found in her new wardrobe after she had refused to wear the dress the queen had sent her out of rebellion.

But not even the beautiful dress she was wearing could snap her out of her sorrow. Not even though intricate gold floral patterns were woven into the beautiful baby blue silk. Not even though it was said that this dress was made in Yilin before Yilin rebelled. Not even the beautiful, elegant jewellery that went with the dress could do that. Even the strappy baby blue and glistening gold shoes could not do that.

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The more she thought about what she was wearing, the happier she got. But alas, it wasn’t enough to get her out of her sorrow.

Min Li unknowingly did not reply to all the people who greeted her on the way. She walked past all the many people who were waiting to get into the palace hardly noticing them. She just marched past with one mission, to get into the hall and then as soon as she could to get out again.

There were enthusiastic looks painted on the faces of all the fifteen-year-olds. Fifteen-year-olds travelled from even the furthest places in the kingdom to go to the palace on the year of their very own power ceremony. It was undoubtedly most of their first time in the palace. They looked as happy as could be waiting for their turn when the king would greet them, and they could wield their power up to the great sky.

The kids were lined up in groups all the way down the steps of the great hall and inside the great hall. There were too many to count and more people joined the ceremony every year.

But even with the loud kids gathered around Min Li like a gaggle of geese, Min Li didn’t notice any of their presence. She simply skipped past them with Lily hot on her tails and made her way into the great hall.

All the other nobles had already gathered in the hall excited for the day’s event. The families of the head of the South, West and East were all there.

Min Li stepped into the hall and made her way to the very front where the royal family of Xilin had taken their seats.

The hall looked different from the last time when the royal family of Nilin were present. Most of the furniture had been replaced to furniture more befitting to a Xilin power ceremony.

The thrones that the king and queen were sitting on were certain to show their position at the very top of Xilin. On the back of the thrones were large palmettes made of gold. In between the two thrones was a perfectly spherical marble which seemed to be embedded with pieces of crystal blue gem. The marble itself was of different shades of blue with a couple streaks of gold mixed in.

Min Li, as a child, had always been oddly fascinated with the marble. It seemed to be in tune the presence of people, or maybe even with the presence of power. Often, Min Li had put her hands over the great big rock and had been happy to observe the movement her actions caused within it.

She bowed to the king and queen, who both smiled warmly at her and welcomed her in.

There she saw an empty table right next to Fenhua’s own. She nodded her head to him in greeting and plonked down in her seat in sorrow.

Fenhua cleared his throat gently and smiled at Min Li but even the warm look on his face couldn’t cause her to smile.

He then went a step further touching her lightly, putting his hand on her arm. Without even looking at his face a little bit of warmth flooded through Min Li going from the top of her body to the bottom.

But Min Li didn’t even want to be comforted, she didn’t want to be there at all. She shrugged the crown prince off and looked away into the distance.

Joe was gathered with his family, the heads of the East. He was the first one Min Li saw when Lily jammed her elbow in Min Li’s ribs, and she snapped had out of her daydream. His cheerful, cheeky face made her smile straight away.

Fenhua seeing them smiling idiotically at each other, straight away grunted in annoyance. He still didn’t seem too down for the idea of Min Li and his friend becoming a couple. It didn’t matter anyway, Min Li had moved on from Joe, she now simply saw him as a friend, as a comrade and as a sort of court jester.

Min Li tried to dampen her smile in respect of the beastly expression on Fenhua’s face, but it was harder said than done especially when Fenhua’s grunt had made Joe smile ten times harder at her.

Luckily for Min Li there was an easy fix. She sought out the family of the head West in the crowd. She found them easily as they were wearing more silver than blue as if they didn’t know how to stick to a theme. In their ranks, Min Li spotted Jess her retired bully and automatically her smile disappeared. Perfect.

Min Li went back to daydreaming staring into the distance.

Lily stepped on Min Li’s foot. Min Li looked at the girl in a start.

The audacity of servants these days, she thought with a shake of her head.

Someone threw something at the back of Min Li’s head this time. Min Li ignored Lily.

In my day servants looked down, they couldn’t even make eye contact and here this girl is forsaking propriety and all good conduct.

This time Lily flicked Min Li in the back. In return, Min Li turned back to stare the culprit right in the eye.

Lily was actually being the best of friend. Lily nodded towards the direction of the crown prince after she was sure that she had all Min Li’s attention. She had stepped on, flicked and bothered Min Li for good reason. She was alerting Min Li to the fact that she had forgotten something that she wanted to do. Min Li was grateful, but in the back of her head the thought, a whisper in the ear would suffice did pop up.

CRASSSHHH.

Min Li got up making sure to knock a cup over in her effort. She was now going to execute her plan to win all of Fenhua’s forgiveness.

With the sound that the cup had made when it clattered on the hard floor, everyone in the vicinity looked her way. That was just what Min Li needed, she needed an audience to get Fenhua’s forgiveness.