Rain fell softly on the stones, silence between their cells now not so cold but infused with a tension unwilling to subside.
Su Shu shifted in her corner, her head against the wet stone, her singing rising into a mournful melody. It floated on the wind like dry leaves torn from their bushes.
"In the darkness when the stars lose their light"
A mother's voice runs through time.
Silver winds and shadows so deep
Sing my child, drift off to sleep
The ashes lie where flowers blossomed
I will always return to you.
Even when the night grows long…
You are light. You are strong."
The tune filtered through the gaps in the wall.
Yǔlín sat on the floor with his head thrown back and his eyes shut as the words encircled him like smoke.
He whispered in the silence, "I've never heard something so sorrowful. and so lovely."
Su Shu's response came through softly but clearly. "My mother sang it when the world began falling apart. When they burnt my village."
Silence fell before Yǔlín's words returned, his tone gritty from emotion.
"Su Shu
".don't call me 'prince' anymore
She blinked. but why ?
He delayed. Then:
"Because when you mention it, I remind myself I must be one."
She placed her hand flat against the chilly stone, breath suspended. Yǔlín did the same.
"If this wall weren't here," she whispered softly, "would you touch me?"
"Don't tempt me," he whispered softly.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm beginning to forget I ever wanted you dead."
"And I," he whispered softly, "am beginning to recall what it feels like to desire a person more than retribution."
Their words hung on the breeze as smoke and in silken threads—delicate, tabooed, blazing.
Elsewhere in the palace stood Wuji by the watchtower, arms folded.
Too perfect. The outfits, the bloodstains, the proof retrieved at just the right moment.
He squinted his eyes. "Someone put this."
He did not speak it out loud, but his instincts were saying: this was not happenstance. It was a setup.
Someone wished Yǔlín and the girl away well perhaps dead also, they knew yu Lin wouldn't do anything if it was the king's command
Supreme commander kongyun stood in front of his gilded mirror, playing nervously with a crimson comb.
he puckered up at his reflection.
"Let them burn. Let them beg. Provided the Crown Prince's reputation remains unsullied. the throne will be mine."
A maid entered quietly, setting down a tray. On it, a folded note.
From out of the prison's shadows came a fresh whisper.
Scene 4: A Message in the Dark
At dawn, Yǔlín awoke and found a piece of parchment slipped under his straw mat again. The handwriting on it was delicate and strange.
"You're not by yourself." From a person who still believes in you
He gazed at it silently, his fingers closing around the message.
One of his loyal maids had risked everything for this. Hope, fragile as breath, returned to his eyes.