I slid my hand over the silk material of the white and yellow hanfu I wore. It was much finer than anything I had ever worn in my previous life before coming to the palace—before Daiyu was crowned the Empress. It hurt a little to feel the softness and luxury of the cloth, as if I was spitting in Father's face and telling him that he could have never amounted to the luxuries that Daiyu had attained for us, simply because she married a powerful man. I had seen how Father had broken his back to pay for every little thing. He sweated for us, he bled for us, and he worked himself to the bone to provide for us. I was happy, however, that he was finally freely living with money. Mother and Father were still not accustomed to it, but at least they didn't have to work so hard. At least they didn't have to cut their meals so that we could eat more. At least Mother didn't have to mend our clothing in the early hours of the morning, a needle in one hand and squinted eyes locked on the lacerated cloth. At least Father didn't have to deal with cheap merchants. At least they both were free of labor.

    Still, it was almost like an insult to all their hard work to be prancing around in such luxuries. I knew that we would never be able to repay them for the work they had done to raise their nine children.

    "Lady Lanfen, are you listening?" Chang, the scholar that the Emperor had assigned to teach me history, said in a stiff tone. He narrowed his dark eyes at me when I gave him a blank look. His arms were crossed over his chest. He was dressed in a dark green hanfu with draping sleeves. It was simple and elegant, matching his character perfectly. "Lady Lanfen?"

    I cleared my throat and bobbed my head. "Of course, sir."

    Chang was one of the youngest scholars in the palace at the moment. He was in his early to mid twenties, from what I could see. Apparently his father was a scholar, as was his father before him, and his father before him, and henceforth. Although he was young, he was much too stern over me. It was as if he wanted to prove that he was indeed good enough to teach me. A request from the Emperor was a huge thing, it seemed.

    He cleared his throat and bobbed his head curtly. "Anyhow, as I was explaining, the Fan dynasty was in disarray the moment the—"

    "Yu Chang," I interrupted him, my mind wandering elsewhere. I glanced over at the various scrolls open in front of me. I could only barely read a few of them, since my abilities were new and it was hard to read all the strokes and understand the characters. I pointed at one of the scrolls that had a very rough sketch of the empire. "Where exactly are we located on this map?"

    His brows came together. "It's quite simple. Can't you read it?"

    My lips pursed together as I stared at the various borders and chunks of land amassed on the parchment. After a moment, I lifted my eyes to meet his. "No, it's too complex and the writing is too hard for me to read."

    His lips thinned down and he leaned in over the table to peer at it. With one slender hand, he pointed to one of the areas. "We live in the State Xue, which is right here."

    "And . . . " I licked my lips nervously and shifted in my seat uncomfortably. "Where is Lebel?"

    Chang leaned back on the floor and stared at me levelly, his dark eyes, so full of knowledge, now masked with unreadable emotions. He assessed me for a moment before looking back down at the open scroll. "This is a map of the Huo Empire. If you want to know where Lebel is, you'll have to find a better scroll."

    "Oh." I thought back the red haired Nikator, so full of cheer and mischief. The land he hailed from, Lebel, was shrouded with rumors and mystery in our lands. To be honest, we didn't know much about foreigners since we never cared too much about them. Or maybe that was the commoner side to me that was speaking poorly, due to my lack of education. I was sure the nobility knew a bit about foreigners.

    As if reading my mind, Chang swiftly rose from the ground and strolled over to one of the bookshelves, which were stuffed with scrolls ranging from old to new. He plucked one out and came back to where I was at. With one hand, he unfurled it and rested it down on the table, before sitting back down across from me.

    This scroll was much more detailed and I could barely read it once again, though I recognized the Huo Empire on the side. My finger drifted over to it and I realized with a start, that though we were a big empire, there were kingdoms all around us that were just as large and formidable looking.

    "Lebel is over here." He placed his finger on the opposite side of the map to the Huo Empire. "It's the farthest from here, as you can see. Though, I will admit that this map only covers this land mass. There is still the Ice Lands and Darkkis that are not shown on here." At my puzzled expression, he continued, "The Ice Lands is the landmass to the east of us, a huge chunk of land that is larger than our own, I believe. It is completely tribal from the little knowledge we know of it, and it consists of various magic that we have never seen or heard about. The Wolf tribes live there. Darkkis, on the other hand, is north, south, and west of us. It is quite large and has even more mysteries than the Ice Lands. Though, both are very dangerous."

    I looked down at the area that was known as Lebel. It was quiet large, though it wasn't as large as our empire. There were two other kingdoms neighboring it. I raised my head to look at Chang once more. "Tell me about Lebel." I paused before quickly adding, "Please."

    He frowned, as if annoyed at being deterred from whatever history lesson he was giving me, before shrugging. It was rare for me to ask questions anyway. I was never attentive during any of my lessons. "Lebel is the land of the red haired people. They have different hair shades ranging from orange to blood red, to even maroon red. They are known to be extremely tall, some of the tallest people. They are very strong warriors and they are tribal. There is no monarchy. Various tribes occupy their lands. Some tribes are weak, while others are strong. Very similar to Awan.

    "Anyway, we don't know why, but they only have red hair. Their bloodline is strong, so much so that regardless of whose child they have, that child will have their red hair. It never grays either. It's odd, but because of that hair color, it easily marks them as a person of Lebel."

    "Thus making them slaves? All people from Lebel are slaves?"

    "No." He shook his head. "Some people, notably from Oriksum, have travelled to the outskirts of Lebel and have kidnapped people, taken advantage of weaker tribes, and brought them to the slave market. Lebel is actually a very scary place and if foreigners set foot in anything deeper than the outskirts, they will be killed by the inner tribes. The inner tribes are said to be the deadliest warriors known to this landmass. They can skin a baby alive with no remorse. So, no, the entire population of Lebel are not slaves. It's just that they are distinguishable, which some slave masters take advantage of and use them as slaves."

    I closed my eyes and thought about the legends I had heard from Lebel. The most famous of them was the story of Myskia, the villain of the world who had destroyed cities upon cities. He had left carnage in his wake. To this day, people hated Lebel for Myskia's actions. I wondered if Nikator sympathized with Myskia?

    "And . . . And demons?" I squeaked out.

    Chang's eyebrows pulled together as he frowned at me. His handsome face was contorted with confusion as he looked at me. When I didn't elaborate, he sighed. "What about demons?"

    "Where do they live?"

    "Everywhere."

    "Huh?"

    "Everywhere." He spread his arms out. "They're everywhere. They have no kingdom. They occupy whatever lands they want. They're strong enough to do so as well. We know next to nothing about the world of demons. The only thing I've heard about demons is that there are twelve clans. Other than that, we know nothing. They don't involve themselves with humans unless they want to enslave us. They are beings of magic."

    I shivered, thinking back to Remus and his red-black gaze. He terrified me more than he should have. What was it about him that was so scary? Was it because I had seen the blood bath he created? Was it because his aura was so powerful that I shook every time he came close to me? Was it because the air became heavy with his magic anytime he was nearby? What was it about him that made me so scared? There was too much, in fact.

    Chang tapped his finger over the scroll and jabbed a finger at one of the other kingdoms. "This is Sanguis, the kingdom of blood and violence. This is Kadios, the militaristic kingdom." He moved his finger to another area. "This is the Da'al Empire, the richest place in the world. This is Arile, the Golden Kingdom where the Hero Raia was from. This is Awan, a tribal land similar to Lebel, though its people look different. This is Oriksum, the trading city-kingdom. And this," he moved his finger over to an area across from the other kingdoms, suspended in what I assumed was the ocean, "is Attil, the kingdom of knowledge."

    "I see," I murmured.

    "Attil is—"

    "Are you seriously going to drone about Attil once more?" a sharp voice called from the doorway. I jumped in my seat at the sound of the voice, completely and harshly cutting off whatever track my mind was at. Even Chang stiffened and looked over at the doorway. Standing in the threshold was the notable Lu Duyi, with his arrogant smile plastered on his face and his dark eyes pinned on the both of us. His long hair was pulled up at the crown of his head and he was currently fiddling with the hilt of his blade, which was poking out from its scabbard that was strapped to his waist. His smile was handsome, of course, but it did nothing but twist my stomach in a nervous knot.

    I had never personally had a conversation with him, but I had been in his presence before. Arrogant and always with a mocking tilt to his words, he wasn't someone I wanted to be associated with.

    He pushed himself off the doorway and sauntered inside the room, his armor clinking with the motion. He glanced to his right and then to his left, his disinterested eyes hooded. He sighed before turning back to Chang, who was silently glaring at him. "Quite stuffy in there, isn't it?" he said smoothly.

    A thin smile stretched over Chang's face tautly. "Is there anything you need, Duyi?" There was steel in his tone, not a shred of politeness.

    Duyi plucked a random scroll from the bookshelf, unfurled it, and inspected the contents listlessly. He then tossed it to the side. "No reason, just looking around the palace, that's it."

    "Don't mindlessly throw scrolls around. They're valuable—"

    "You know, my family would own this entire palace if my uncle had decided to take the position as emperor. So, don't speak to me like that," he snapped at him. He was the nephew of Lu Hai, the revolutionary leader that had fought the Imperial army. Eventually, however, the title was given to Drakkon Meilin, who won the war and was eventually made the emperor. There was controversy over what had happened between Lu Hai and Drakkon Meilin, but Daiyu had explained to me that Lu Hai was supposed to take the throne but instead handed it to Drakkon Meilin, who didn't want it. In the end, however, Drakkon Meilin was crowned Emperor. Lu Hai was second commander in chief of the army, however, sharing the position with another man, Yao Bohai.

    Chang clamped his mouth shut as Duyi walked around the room, picking out scrolls and shoving them back in random places. I sat still as a rock, my eyes following Duyi's movements as he continuously angered Chang. After a few moments, I turned back to my instructor. "Was there ever a female hero? Or a female warrior?"

    Duyi glanced over at me and scoffed. "Female warrior? Of course not."

    "Not in Huo history that I know of," Chang answered. "But, there were various powerful women—"

    "Women can't do much but sleep around and seduce men. That's the only way they can prove to be useful on the battlefield. Just look at that foreigner. My uncle told me she's a seductress. The other is an assassin," Duyi cut in. He was, of course, referring to Thera and Vita, the two foreign women that were part of the Peccata. "Women don't belong on the battlefield. They can only kill people through tricks and deception."

    I stared down at my hands and wondered if that was true. Did women really not contribute anything other than being wives and daughters of powerful men? Did women not belong on the battlefield? Did we amount to nothing but being pretty? My fingers tightened over my each other and I knew that it couldn't be true.

    "Duyi, what do you want?" Chang interrupted him through his ramblings about women. I knew that Chang probably didn't hold women in high regards either—he probably held the same ideas as Duyi's, though probably not as harsh. Most likely he was sick of his prattling. "You can't barge in here while I'm teaching Lady Lanfen, the sister of the Empress, and have no valid reason for doing so."

    Duyi's eyes widened ever so slightly as he glanced at me, as if seeing me for the first time. His dark eyes raked over me while I stared at the ground, my fingers instinctively reaching for my sleeve and fiddling with it. Heat rose to my neck and cheeks under his scrutiny. "The Empress's sister," he murmured. "Well then, a pleasure to meet you, Yin Lanfen."

    "The pleasure is mine, Lu Duyi," I muttered.

    He gave a thin smile before getting to business. He thrust the scroll that was in his hand into one of the shelves. Clapping his hands together, he began, "I've been sent on a troublesome errand." His eyes narrowed. "While I'm a ranked soldier that is in charge of one-thousand men—not a small feat for someone my age, mind you—I've been sent on this inexcusably pathetic errand to run." He pointed at Chang, who was staring at him levelly, not at all fazed by his bitter laced words. "You know that seductress that the Emperor keeps as his . . . child? Whatever she is, she requires a scholar to teach her about powerful Huo Empire families, their influences, and history about them. I couldn't think of any young scholar who would want to assist her, except you."

    Chang sighed. "You could have gotten straight to the point earlier, you know. I'll assist her immediately."

    Duyi turned away his nose, his lips curled in disgust. "I've delivered the message so I'll be off."

    Good riddance.

    "Lady Lanfen," Chang said as he started rolling up the scrolls in front of me, "Apologies to cut our lesson short. Next week we shall discuss the important dynasties, notably the Fan dynasty."

    My lips thinned down to a straight line while he packed up and swiftly left the room. When I was completely alone in the tiny, cramped room full of scrolls, I allowed myself to stare up at the ceiling.

    What did it mean to be strong? Was it possible for a woman to be strong? As strong as a man?

    I could only ponder.