"It has been two days. Has the General recovered?" the King asked the Royal physician while he walked away.

"His heart is affecting his body my King. He is not well yet." The Royal Physician replied.

The King nodded and went out, thinking about the 4th Prince who too had collapsed suddenly when the news of the fire and the death of the General's brother and wife had reached the Palace. Still a little concerned over him, the King left the Royal Crystal House and went towards the Prince's chamber, taking the physician with him to visit the Prince.

Ha-Ru waited till the King and the Ministers left, then he alone entered the chamber where a lone man lay down silently on the bed. His sturdy frame lacked any vitality as he remained listless and quiet.

His eyes were open, staring up in the space. Twin streams to tears kept falling from the corner of his eyes, never stopping. Hoseok lay there, unresponsive to the world, not sleeping, not eating, not talking.

Just. . . . . breathing.

One hand clutched a bag containing two letters and a binyeo.

Ha-Ru sat on the stool beside him quietly as he had for the past two days. He too, could not speak. Little Tang had been taken back home to Arissa, who had fallen to bed after reading her letter and knowing what had taken place.

In the space of just one night, a happy family lay broken beyond repair, the wound inflicted on them a vital one from which they would never recover.

After two daysof silence, Ha-Ru cleared his throat. His voice hoarse, he spoke, "She sent me a letter too. What I did that night was because I needed to obey her."

Hoseok did not respond.

Ha-Ru swallowed, but still continued in a low voice, "I didn't want to. When she wrote to guard the doors until both of them died, every part of me rejected it, even though I knew what consequence you would face if she lived."

"Then. . . . . why . . . . did you?" a scratchy, barely audible voice asked.

Hanging his head down, for a long period of time, Ha-Ru did not reply.

When almost an hour had passed, his voice sounded again, "She said she wished to meet you again in her next life. But she held a belief that if she committed suicide, she wouldn't be able to. If you were charged with treason, she would have ended her life before your sentence would be carried out. And she would hold me responsible for the crime of making her lose you forever.

I knew by then that since that evening, both of you could not live to be together, no matter what happened. But she requested that she did not want to be given to another man, which would happen if her identity as a Princess Anya was discovered. She wanted to die being yours. Even if it was in name."

That made Hoseok look towards him. For a long time he kept his gaze on Ha-Ru, then he asked another question, "Then why did you stop me from going in that building?"

Unexpectedly, Ha-Ru's face hardened with rage, "Because I needed you to live." Standing up, he looked at Hoseok with eyes filled with extreme hate, "Because I cannot kill the Prince by myself, and I will not allow him to breathe the air after what he made me go through. I need you, to kill him. I could not let you die before I see his painful death."

Slowly, bit by bit, Hoseok's tears stopped.

Slowly, with difficulty, he sat up.

"Leave."

Ha-Ru nodded at once, "My men will be waiting your command." Then he left the chamber, his heart burning with vengeance at wanting to see the Prince butchered. He would not be satisfied with just a simple death. No. Ha-Ru needed the Prince to pay for what he had done to the General he admired. To the little boy he loved. To the Princess, he worshipped.

Hoseok saw him leave and waited till he was alone again.

His hands reflexively kept clutching at the letters. The General sat upright and gazed about, lost in a haze of unfeeling detachment. The attendants came to check on him, left him his dinner and went back, but he kept sitting on the bed, his thoughts blank.

When the Palace quietened down late in the night, Hoseok gathered his courage to open the bag again. He ignored the first letter where Anya had explained the conspiracy and directly opened the second one, his eyes tracing each word with care.

My General,

I promised you something when you came back, but it seems I will not be able to keep it. Will you forgive me for that?

I wished I could look in your eyes to see the happiness spread when I said those words but for now, I hope you hear my voice whisper it to you as I write them down instead.

I love you. I love you with all of my heart and even more.

Will you believe it when I say you were the reason why my life shone brighter? I lived more in the six months that I spent with you than the rest of my 19 years. I understood what being alive meant. You were the reason for that.

And I know, I was yours.

For you, I was the brightest day with the clearest sky who illuminated the constant storms of your life? Then you should know, that you were the night which showed me the dazzling stars in which I could rest without fear.

I wished to welcome you back again, I wished to be in your embrace. I am missing you Hoseok, you did not come back before it. I long to hear your whispers in my ears, I long to feel your warmth one more time, just once. It feels like a visceral need in me. . . . . but I know I will never get to experience it ever again.

Hoseok, you always said that I was your innocence. Did you know what you were to me? You are my honour. You, are the part of my soul which I will never let the world tarnish.

Then how could I stand by and watch while the world took from me the part of me which was my essence? How could I let them carelessly touch you with their filthy hands? Tell me Hoseok, could I be alive in the world where you would be executed falsely?

If I am the reason for you to suffer a fate unacceptable to me, then will you forgive me of being selfish enough to cause you the hurt of erasing my existence?

What can I do General, our identities make it difficult for us to be united. Us being who we are, were never meant to find a path where we could walk together. I am fully aware that you wont continue down the path anymore. You will stop where I vanished, will you not? But my satisfaction will be that your stop, will be yours to make. Not an abyss the world would push you into.

It seems, in this life, we were not meant to be. . . . we had the wings of a butterfly trying to reach high in the sky.

As I am the cause for your greatest pain in this life, I promise you Hoseok, I will be the reason for your utmost happiness in the next. Lets meet then?

In that life, you will make me the jewels you promised for me, and I will protect you. Seems I might do a better job at it than you, Love. . . . we will have our house, we will have our family. But this burden, we will leave behind.

I shall ask something of you because I know you will not continue for long. I know I cannot continue my selfishness by wanting you to live a life where you will be nothing more than a breathing corpse, so I will ask you something that you can do.

Memories are worse than death Hoseok. Death can only come once but memories have a way to live through the pain of death over and over again. It makes us addictive to the joy which can never be shared again but poisons us with the pain which becomes heavier every time you remember. I ask you to eradicate all that once held my name.

We lived through our lives. Did we not? And we laughed, we dreamt and we loved. Before you come to find me again, please put them to rest. Find your strength to complete this wish of mine.

But keep the Binyeo with you. . . . I want you not to be parted with it. Somehow, I believe the legend of that Goddess. That is what happened to me, right?

My destiny was to meet you, and I will again in the next. Wherever you are, whoever you might be, just like in this life, I will come to find you again.

Time is drawing to an end for us in this life. . . . . . I apologise for the pain I am going to gift you.

I will love you forever Hoseok. I will love you beyond time.

Forgive me for this.

I will be waiting for you. Till the end, I will not leave. . . . .

For now, this is goodbye.

I love you.

Anya.

"I wont forgive you." Hoseok whispered brokenly into the night, "I wont forgive you for hurting yourself for me. For-" he could not continue as the pain in his chest overwhelmed him completely making it difficult to breathe.

He clutched at his chest and bent in half, silent sobs wreaking him completely, but he held the letter carefully.

His mind went back to the door closing, when he said his goodbyes to her in happiness. That soft smile, those blue eyes. Her fragrant soft body wrapped in the robe.

Beautiful, His.
Alive.

He had not been aware, that was his last glimpse of her.

The hands holding each other had parted till the touch of warmth remained in the tip of their fingertips, when he had pulled his away.

He would give everything, to hold those soft warm hands again.

And this time, listen to his heart, never leave and take her far far away. . . .

If only.

"I-wont. Forgive you." He kept murmuring even as his body slid down on the floor, his voice choked in the torment which felt like death.

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INNER ROYAL LOTUS ROOM :

The Crown Prince woke up sluggishly. Sitting up on his bed, he glanced about his room wanting to know the reason of why his slumber had been disturbed.

"Eunuch?" he rumbled.

"There will be no one to answer your call."

Fully awake at once on hearing the voice of the General in the dark, the crown Prince jumped up from his bed, whirling in the direction from where the voice came from, "HOW DID YOU-"

"If your voice reaches outside, people will be allowed in just to see your corpse." Hoseok coldly said,

The Crown Prince closed his mouth instantly. Such was the fear of the General in his heart, he dared not disobey.

"In six days, I want you to bring your brother along with all of his guards combined with the men of the house of the Financial Minister to my house in the north. You will come with them. In return of this cooperation, I will allow you to remain outside while the others you bring will be slaughtered."

The Crown Prince gaped at the General, "You are asking me to bring my brother to be murdered by-"

"The last glass of water you drank before you slept had a poison in it. Your eunuch was kind enough to help me. You may have the physician confirm. However, the cure to it is only known by me. When you come, I shall give it to you."

Saying so, the presence of the General receded from his chambers, leaving the Crown Prince shivering in fright.

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NORTH ESTATE :

The last of the bags were packed. The maids took the little glum boy in their arms and left the gates to get on the wagon which would take them to a beautiful house in the next town.

The house they left now only had the General and his men.

Little Tang glanced at the gate he was being taken away from and saw Hoseok approach Nana. Tears welled in his eyes as he thought of his Aaya being gone and now being separated from Hoseok too. Closing his eyes as big fat tears rolled down his cheeks, he turned his head away.

"Arissa." Hoseok's tall frame draped in black robes approached the older woman who quietly stood gazing away from him, towards the courtyard where her child would laugh and play among the bright flowers.

"I was hugely responsible." Nana quietly whispered, "I thought she was naïve but so was I. When I knew she was an exceptional healer, I should have shielded her. I should have taught her the ugly in the society, should have broken her naivety. That way, maybe she could have seen it before. Would have perhaps never talked to the Prince-" her choked voice faded away.

Over the course of 9 days since the death of Anya, the older woman had visible aged. She lost her aura, her spark. Her frame had thinned out.

"I should have never been a healer. I should have been the opposite, should have taught her-"

Hoseok rested a palm on her shoulder, stopping her from repeating her words. Turning her towards him, he placed the Binyeo in her hand, "Take care of Guk and take care of this for me. When all ends, bury her ashes with mine. Let our story end with us Arissa. This is all I ask of you."

Her lips trembling uncontrollably, she gazed at the Binyeo and aid, "You will leave me too?"

"She is waiting for me. I cannot leave her alone." Hoseok steadily replied.

Nodding, Arissa's vision blurred under the force of tears, knowing that by the end of that night, Hoseok would be following her child and depart from this world.

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