Julong wrapped me in a blanket and rushed me outside. The weather had been unfriendly, and the frost was unforgiving. The snow fell that evening reminding me of the time when my husband fell victim to the outbreak of sickness it carried over a year ago.

I paused to watch the beautiful evening, and for some reason, instead of the flow of adrenaline surging through my veins, I felt unusually calm tonight. 

This evening seemed so uncanny beautiful and so is Julong when he kissed my lips before he parted to a different direction.

He was angelic.

Julong signaled for one of his men. A man who wore a light garment of black and grey dashed through the halls. He'd been tucked in the shadow invisible to anyone's notice. I recognized him as soon as he came near.

He was the captain from Julong's army. The one Bailing dated or still dating. Bailing had stopped talking about him a year ago, right around when Julong took his army to the south to fight the influx of rebels. 

I was glad Julong chose him to escort me because I had been comfortable in his company. He used to spend a lot of time with me and Bailing as he continue to court my maidservant.

He grabbed my arm and rushed me to the hall passed the dead guardsmen that laid bloody on our path.

I gasped shocked at how much bodies lain scattered on the floor. The captain urged me not to scream and urged me to ignore them all.

"Try to calm down, princess. Those men are hardly dead. They're just unconscious." His reference of princess caught me off guard, no one called me princess in a while.

I knew he lied since I saw crusted pool of blood beneath their motionless bodies. Some of those guards are knocked unconscious and some who chose to fight met their death tonight. 

Had Julong laid in bed with me for half an hour as he waited for his men to kill everyone?

We ran towards the southern wing of the palace until we made to the area where Julong used to train with his army in the afternoons. The place had since been abandoned as the buildings stood dark and empty while the field overran by tall unkempt grass that took over this once very lively area.

Yuan had moved the entire army somewhere else with his cousin leading his imperial forces.

Someone else waited on the edge of the land where the field stopped and the forest started. It was dark a perfect place for him to hide. The man mounted on a horse bent over and offered his hand to me. I grabbed for it ushering myself behind him. I recognized him as well, he was one of Julong's personal guards that used to follow him everywhere.

It all came clear to me, Yuan must've lost half of his imperial forces to Julong when he declared his brother as a rebel. Most of the imperial army decided to stay loyal and faithful to their prince and I don't blame them.