The Night of Rebellion

I entered the palace looking weak and ill.

The emperor forced himself up to speak with me.

When he saw my haggard face, he asked why I looked so unwell.

My eyes reddened.

I acted as if I wished to speak but could not.

Pressed again and again, I wiped tears and said Prince Ling left early and returned late after marriage.

His neglect made me fall into illness.

That was why I failed to keep the child.

“Outrageous!”

The emperor choked on anger.

Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

I knew he might not survive until spring.

After I returned from the palace, rumors spread inside and outside:

The emperor was ill.

No crown prince had been named.

The foundation of the state was unstable.

The emperor had four sons.

All disappointing.

Someone suggested taking new consorts to bring fortune.

The ministers agreed.

The emperor, now muddled, agreed too.

Among that batch of noble ladies was my person.

A woman I found among the people.

Carefully raised.

She resembled me by five parts.

My final card.

I gambled correctly.

The emperor’s heart moved.

He summoned her that night.

He was truly old.

The medicine could only hollow him further.

But he refused to accept age.

One month later, the noble lady was pregnant.

The emperor sent physicians to care for her.

With my assistance outside the palace, she safely delivered a prince.

The emperor was delighted and promoted her to consort.

On the child’s hundred-day banquet, Prince Ling and I were invited to the palace.

The emperor was in rare good spirits and drank much wine.

During the banquet, he became tipsy and returned to rest.

I also held my forehead and said I felt drunk, wishing to go out for air.

Prince Ling came looking for me after I was gone too long.

He found me near the emperor’s hall.

I ran out crying.

“Princess, what happened?”

I covered my face and said nothing.

My clothes were disheveled.

On my neck were marks left by a man’s hand.

“I’ll kill him!”

“I’ll kill that beast who ignores human relations!”

I held him back and told him not to be impulsive.

He was still the emperor.

But Prince Ling had lost reason.

If he had once held back, today he could no longer suppress it.

To celebrate the fifth prince’s hundred days, the emperor had set banquets among the people.

Fireworks lit half the capital.

Everyone drowned in celebration.

Prince Ling brought me home and settled me.

Then he gathered his old troops in the courtyard.

They drank one cup of wine.

Took their weapons.

And charged toward the palace.

After he left, I put on armor and followed.

“Prince Ling has rebelled!”

Cries rang through the city.

The festive crowd scattered in panic.

Horses thundered through streets clogged with people.

Inside the palace, musicians still played for the prince’s banquet.

“Prince Ling has rebelled!”

The guard on the wall barely finished speaking before an arrow pierced his throat.

His dying body could not stop Prince Ling’s iron blood.