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Hurrying trough the corridors Yue felt an unusual chill seep into her bones.
The walls felt unusually freezing beneath her touch, something they hadn’t done in a long time.
Build way before even her distant forefathers walked the earth, the palace had stood as a pillar of everything the north was proud of. Maybe it was against their nature. Steadfast instead of adapting. But to her it was everything she needed.
Her silent scream caught in her throat, she noticed something in the corner of her eye.
Hidden behind one of the countless pillars littering the hallways Yue recognized a familiar robe. One she would recognize anywhere.
After the death of her mother her nurse had become her solace, having taken care of her like her own child. Running closer she felt the blood in her veins freezing, as if to warn her not to go further.
Her instincts had been warning her the entire day. Something was wrong. Something had been horribly wrong all along but she had been to preoccupied before.
Pooling around her feet something warm sickered into her shoes. A moment later Yue fell to her knees a ragged scream tearing itself from her lips. Her hands shivered in a desperate motion to reach for her nurse‘s face, stopping halfway. Lifeless eyes, barely a remnant of the spark that inhabitet them before stared up in her soul.
Tears running silently over her face Yue staggerd up. Her hands clenched as she moved her gaze away from the horrid sight in front of her.
Finally she heard laughter. Having left the scene Yue took in the corpses left on the floor. They looked almost innocent. Like the broken dolls she had tasked her maid with to dispose of. When she had still been young and hadnt known the horrible truth about how her sister tribe was being treated. Not like she could do anything against it. She was only a woman after all.
She was too late.
Destroyed beyond repair, the door to the council room was in shambles. The blood splashed upon them seeped into the cold ice, creating a grotesque tribute to life itself.
A manic laughter tore itself from the halls, echoing in the hallway and returning to it‘s source. In the ruins of a once glorious civilization a young woman stood, her tears having left stained streaks on her cheek.
Yue whimpered, the woman reacting to the sound like a wolf to fresh blood.
Seeing her stalk closer Yue noticed blood dripping from her hands, forming around them and glittering in the light, casting red shadows on the ruins of her fathers throne. It was beautiful, if beautiful meant her fathers corpse lying on the floor at an abnormal angle, a gaping hole in his chest.
An otherworldly force pulled her to her knees, her face pressed low into the floor, leaving her to take in the shoes of her opressor. Cut in an outdated fashion, although sporting the colors of her tibe they were something no northerner would ever wear. Torn and disheveled.
„Please“.
At first she herself didn’t even notice the sound that left her mouth. After all it was uncouth for a princess to beg.
„Please…“
A slight chuckle reverberated from above her, carrying a manic note and having awoken a primal fear in Yue she never even knew she owned.
Watching a tear fall on the floor before her, Yue felt a tender hand cupping her face, but then forcefully yanking her chin upwards.
Face to face Yue stared at the woman, the blood having left stains on her lips and nose, and her own pale skin a strong contrast to that of the person currently holding her life in their hands.