It was almost dawn when the last of the refugees were settled into their temporary shelters. Families with larger homes and hence the adequate space to host the new settlers from the capital graciously opened their doors to welcome them. 

Needless to say, the new year's eve celebrations ended abruptly.

Ye An finally settled into her bed with Xi Chen during the first hours of the gloomy new year. She stared at the ceiling overhead and spoke, "I.." Her voice broke off but she trudged on. "I couldn't help but feel responsible for everyone. Even before the new refugees appeared, I watched the people who attended the feast and couldn't help but wonder how many of them lost their homes and loved ones and were forced to escape." Her uneven voice grated at the smooth onyx darkness of early dawn. "The arrival from the capital added to this heaviness pressing on my chest." Her breath hitched as she turned to look at Xi Chen with her hand clutching her chest. "I couldn't breathe, Xi Chen."

The guilt written on Ye An's face robbed Xi Chen of his own breath. He pulled Ye An into an embrace. "It's not your fault."

Ye An pushed away. "It is. I've always been taught that the only job of the emperor was to uphold the people's peace." She shuffled under the blanket that she shared with Xi Chen so that she's facing the ceiling once again. "I failed. If I was more powerful, if I was more influential, if I had the finesse and charm to sway the court from General Shao, if I had the eye to see that Sze Chang was the foe that he is instead of the friend I treated him to be, none of this would happen. None!" Ye An's increasing agitation caused her to step away from the bed entirely. She covered her eyes in the palm of her hand. "I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to be emperor. But I thought that if it was inevitable that I am shoved to the position, that at least I do a good job. But I didn't."

When she finally removed her hand from her face, Xi Chen's pained expression mirrored Ye An's. He sat up and watched her. For the first time ever, he was at a loss on how to console Ye An.

Ye An started pacing in circles, her hands waving in the air. "How many more children are out there who lost everyone and everything like Kang? How many parents lost their children? How many wives lost their husbands? How many people had to watch everything that they built crumble into dust?"

Her questions hung in the air like trapped smoke in a sealed room. Dense and suffocating and nowhere to escape. On the verge of choking on the words alongside Ye An, Xi Chen asked quietly, "Do you want to return to the capital?"

Ye An looked at him with eyes that were as lost as a drifter at sea.

Xi Chen sat up straighter. "Do you want to go back and fight?"

After a moment's deliberation, Ye An answered, her voice steadier than it had been all night, "I do."

"Then we fight." Xi Chen concluded. "We'll return to the capital tomorrow."

"Yes." Ye An started nodded slowly, her eyes focusing on the floor in front of her instead of Xi Chen, but at least their earlier dullness had dissipated. "Yes, we'll return to the capital tomorrow."

Xi Chen nodded in support. "For now, let's sleep. You'll need it for the upcoming days."

With that, Ye An returned to bed and into Xi Chen's arms. "Sleep, my night sky.", he said as he drew repeating whorls on her back to lull Ye An into a dreamless sleep.

The next day, Ye An jolted awake to Xi Chen's voice. "Ye An, wake up. There's someone waiting for you at the temple."

Rubbing away the sleep in her eyes, Ye An questioned, "Who?"

If Ye An was more awake, she could probably see the ominous expression on Xi Chen's face before he spoke. "Sze Chang."

After a quick wash up, Ye An walked by Xi Chen as they headed towards the temple.

"Why is he here?" Ye An questioned.

Xi Chen shook his head. "I don't know. There were voices when I went for my meditation and I saw him speaking with the head monk at the small gazebo just to the side of the temple. I almost headed straight for his throat for his hand in Ah Lin's death." His face scrunched up in displeasure.

"Is he here to capture me?" Ye An  mumbled in between the crunches of their boots. "Did he regret letting me go?"

Xi Chen halted his tracks. "What do you mean he let you go?"

Realizing that she had never told him about how she had escaped, Ye An took the rest of the walk to fill Xi Chen in, finally stating, "Even though he technically did help me escape but by all means, be my guest if you're looking for blood in Ah Lin's name. I could use some myself. It would be a tremendous payback of that scene that is now imprinted in my head."

Xi Chen's eyes glowered as they approached the temple. "Believe me, I would've killed him there and then if the head monk wasn't there and if he didn't come with Prince Adlai."

"Adlai!" Ye An exclaimed. It didn't strike her that they were even remotely close to one other to have travelled all the way to the temple together. "What is he doing here with him?"

"I guess that's for us to find out." Xi Chen declared darkly.

"Ah, Miss An!" The head monk greeted Ye An as he usually did when they approached. Ye An could see that the unlikely party was sitting on stools made of white marble around a table of a similar material. There were exactly another two empty stools, as if they were prepared specifically for her and Xi Chen. 

Ye An sat down on the stool that was closer to Sze Chang. Seeing the head monk's cheery face, she couldn't bear having him potentially witnessing any bloodshed. At least not now. "Good morning." Ye An bowed her head stiffly.

"Miss An, why didn't you mention that you're acquainted to Chang!" The head monk's face was flushed with excitement.

"I didn't think that our acquaintance was significant enough in Sze Chang's eyes." Ye An answered in a collected tone, but a coldness seeped from her eyes as she glared at the former minister who returned her gaze with a calm gaze of his own that didn't give out any hints of his thoughts. 

The head monk was too over the moon at Sze Chang's return that he was unable to sense the cold tension between them. "Well, Chang asked for you first thing when he entered the mountains. That certainly feels significant." The head monk laughed amiable then directed his next words to Sze Chang. "I must say that I feel slightly miffed that you didn't ask for me first thing when you entered."

"Apologies." Sze Chang returned his attention to the head monk and grinned with his palms rubbing against each other apologetically. Ever the charmer. Ye An thought as he said, "I just have a really important message to relay to the Emp-" His eyes roved over Ye An with a twinge of fear? And cleared his throat nervously. "Ye An." 

Ye An gritted her teeth and Xi Chen clenched his fists at Sze Chang's casual usage of Ye An's name.

The head monk nodded, "Alright, then I'll leave you young ones to talk." Turning towards Prince Adlai, he said, "I'm pleased to have met you, Adlai. It has been a while since a Northerner graced these halls."

Prince Adlai nodded a bow, his accent was evident as he spoke. "Nice to meet you too."

Once the head monk left, the tautness in the atmosphere reached an all time high. So much so that despite the cool morning air, it felt as if the air surrounding the four of them were like the waters that were on the verge of boiling.

"Why are you here?" Ye An asked Sze Chang abruptly, her question bursting the trapped air.

"I-" Gone was his earlier charm, his perfect wall dismantled completely with that single question. "I'm sorry to ask you of this. I know that I don't deserve it, but I need your help."

Ye An stood up and started pacing. A motion she had found eased the agitation broiling in her. "Look. I'm grateful for your help during my escape but it doesn't cancel everything else that you did."

"I know." Sze Chang admitted, his frame seemed to shrink into half his size with that acknowledgement. 

"Especially what you did to Ah Lin." Xi Chen finally spoke, his fists still clenched. 

Sze Chang's eyes darted towards Xi Chen's seething gaze and immediately looked away, as if in shame. "I know." 

"He was nothing but kind to you." Xi Chen's voice was gruff and thick with emotion. "Everyone was kind to you!"

"I know." By this point, Sze Chang's voice had petered out into a thin quietness.

Xi Chen stood up in one fluid motion and was gripping the collars of Sze Chang's robes in half a second. The veins on his hand bulged as his grip tightened, bringing Sze Chang close to his face as he hissed, "I'm going to kill you."

+* Thanks for reading! Please vote, comment, and follow if you like the story!*+

Writer's note: Ngl bloodthirsty XC is kinda hot lol