My mother was beautiful.
That was why she was imprisoned in the imperial city, kept there as my father’s possession.
I never imagined I would inherit her fate along with her face.
When the palace gates were breached, I dismissed my maids and guards, loosened my hair, and knelt in mourning clothes in the middle of the great hall.
With the fall of the dynasty, I would no longer be a princess.
But I was Fuling.
I had lived with dignity, and I would not submit to humiliation.
I raised the sword Mother had used to take her own life.
Before I could draw it across my throat, someone knocked it from my hand.
Blood stained the side of his face.
Still in his armor, he strode toward me and dropped to one knee.
“Your Highness.
Forgive me for being late.”