If the Phoenix was one of the most well-known figures across the five kingdoms, then the White Scorpion was a legend of the same standing.

There were some who would consider him a physician of sorts, roaming the lands and rescuing the occasional lucky soul from the brink of death, but mostly the people of the five kingdoms knew him as the king of poisons. Like his namesake, this was one deadly individual that you would hope never to meet, just in case you ended up with a body full of blisters and pustules like the poor young sailor who was now writhing in anguish in a corner of the ship's galley. That was already a considerably good outcome for someone who dared cross paths with the White Scorpion; in the worst case scenario your mother wouldn't even be able to identify your dead, festering body.

"Why do you always wear white?" That was the first question that Yuehwa asked Shoya, after they were done with the unnecessarily courteous introductions.

"Because I can."

"But you peddle poisons for a living. White gives people the impression of purity and goodness, yet your entire existence is the complete opposite of what the colour stands for. Did you ever think of trying a different colour? Black maybe?"

"Did you ever consider using a different coloured flower instead of always leaving behind a red dahlia when you've completed one of your jobs?" he retorted.

"I'm the Phoenix, and everyone knows that phoenixes are reborn in flames," Yuehwa explained patiently, "hence the colour red. At least my choice of colour makes some logical sense."

"Hmm," Shoya pondered upon her words for a second, before replying, "I suppose you're right, but white is still my favourite colour, so I don't see why I need to change it just to pander to people's stereotypes. Whoever decreed that white had to be the colour of purity and all things good and wonderful anyway? Don't people wear white when they're mourning? White could just as well be the colour of death."

"Good point."

Right now, Yuehwa was lying on her bed, her arms propped behind her head as she engaged in this pointless conversation with her newfound acquaintance. As for him, he was lying in a similar manner, except that he was balancing on top of one of the wooden beams above with the white fabric of his robes flowing neatly downwards. Yuehwa's companion Ember was observing the man suspiciously from his new position by the porthole ledge, since he had been rudely displaced by this intruder.

"What did the poor sailor steal from you that landed him with such a gruesome punishment?" Yuehwa asked, changing the topic.

"My lunch."

"And what were you going to have for lunch that warranted stealing?"

"Do you always ask so many questions?" Shoya raised an eyebrow and asked, though he still replied obligingly. "I was going to have amberjack stew with pickled jellyfish on the side. I only stepped out from the galley for two seconds to fetch some condiments but the fellow already managed to put two mouthfuls of stew and an extra mouth of jellyfish into his belly. If he had asked politely I would have warned him, but he didn't, so too bad."

Yuehwa peered curiously at the man on the beam. "You put poison into your own food? Are you thatmasochistic?"

"Poisons are not always poisons. It depends on the conditions, except few people understand what those conditions are," Shoya explained. "The essences of hyacinth, hogweed and poison ivy, when put together can indeed make a person explode in blisters and stinking pustules, but when you add in a dash of lily bulbs to the fray, all their individual toxic effects can be effectively neutralised. Also, it gives your stew a refreshing flavour, somewhat like the taste of morning dewdrops mixed with truffles." He licked his lips at the mention of the stew's flavour. "Most delicious."

Yuehwa subconsciously replicated his action and licked her own lips as she tried to imagine what the stew would have tasted like if it had been just as he described. Good food was her one weakness, and already she felt the urge to try a mouthful of this stew.

The canary rolled his eyes once more as he glanced derisively at his owner.

"Do you have anymore left?" Yuehwa asked, her eyes twinkling.

"Sorry," Shoya replied, patting his stomach, "all gone."

Slightly disappointed, Yuehwa flipped herself around so that she was no longer facing him, burying her face in her pillow as she griped about how hungry she was. She already had breakfast and lunch, but the mention of this delicious stew that she had never tasted before made her hungry once again, yet she had no way of satiating that hunger. "Are you going to get out of my room at any point?" she asked, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Are you going to throw me out onto the main deck? The sea breeze can get quite chilly at this time of year," Shoya remarked. That sounded like a "no".

"Don't you have your own room?"

"Unfortunately not," he replied. "The last room was taken by you, so the captain turned me down. I snuck on board when no one was watching, figured I could just be a stowaway for a couple of days. I reckon you should take responsibility for me, given that you were the one who took the last room."

Yuehwa flipped herself around again, glaring at the brazen man. She would have considered herself as one of the most thick-skinned individuals that ever existed in the five kingdoms, yet here she was having a conversation with someone who had hide as thick as an alligator. Take responsibility for him? Whatever for!

"I paid for this room fair and square, so how is it my fault that you were one step too slow?" she retorted. "If you think you're going to be able to scrounge a free ride off me, then I'm afraid you're sorely mistaken. The door is that way." She pointed straight at the exit, as if it weren't already obvious.

The Phoenix had never been of a charitable nature, and it was about time she made that known.

"It's only a three day journey. Surely you aren't such a miser?" the White Scorpion asked, a tiny smile toying on his lips. He let out a deep sigh. "For someone who probably has a tiny mountain of gold in her backyard from all those people that you've helped to—" he made a slicing motion across his throat, "you're definitely not what I expected. I was going to offer to cook you a portion of that fish stew if you agreed to put me up for these couple of days, with a couple of extra dishes thrown in along the side, but I suppose I'll have to make my offer to someone else now."

Stretching his arms in a lazy yawn, Shoya leapt off the beam and headed for the door.

She's definitely going to fall for his stupid trick, the canary thought to himself as he watched the entire scene unfold. One, two, three—

"Wait!"

Right on cue.

Shoya stopped in his tracks, his hand already on the door handle. Turning around, he raised an eyebrow and looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

"Alright alright," she said hastily. "I'll put up with you for the rest of the trip, on the condition that you'll make me that stew and cook all my meals for me for the rest of our time on this ship. If any single dish is sub-standard, I'm kicking you out into the open sea. If I get poisoned, you're also shark fodder. Lastly, you are not allowed to lay a finger on me, is that clear?" She wrapped her arms around her chest, staring at him as she would a pervert.

"Deal. Don't worry, there's nothing I would want to lay a finger on anyway." Shoya chuckled.

#

Shoya held up to his end of the bargain, and later that same evening the two of them perched themselves on top of the ship's mast, slurping on their bowls of stew in the midst of the cool sea breeze. Both of them were now dressed in ordinary men's robes, Shoya having exchanged his signature white for something less eye-catching.

"This is amazing!" Yuehwa exclaimed, gobbling down her food in a hurry. "I've never tasted anything like it! You've got to share the recipe with me."

"A chef never reveals his secrets," Shoya replied slyly. Ignoring the daggers shooting out from her eyes, he continued looking out towards the open sea, counting the number of ships that he could see under the dim glow of the setting sun. "I wonder if all these ships are also heading to Dahai? It's that time of year where the best exponents across the five kingdoms gather at one place."

"Why are you heading to Dahai? Are you also going for the annual sparring championships?" Yuehwa asked with her mouth full of stew.

Shoya shrugged his shoulders. "Yes and no," he said. "I'm going to Dahai because there's something I want that can only be found there, and since I'm headed that way, I might as well drop by the sparring championships just to see if any interesting crops up. What about you?"

"I just go wherever the wind takes me," Yuehwa replied, balancing her bowl on her lap and stretching out her arms to feel the wind against the palms of her hands. She decided that she liked sitting up on the masts like this, because it gave her the feeling of being far away from the rest of the world, and the illusion that she was flying up high like a bird. She had to admit that she was jealous of Ember from time to time, because the little feathered creature could fly high above the clouds if he wanted to, but she couldn't.

Neither of them asked each other if they were actually intending to participate in Dahai's annual sparring championships, because it would have been a pointless question. The number of people who were able to defeat either the Phoenix or the White Scorpion in direct combat could probably be counted with the fingers on one hand. To people like them, the competition was amateurish at best, even though it gathered some of the best exponents that worked for the various royal courts. The true champions bowed down to no one and answered only to themselves.

"They say that the princess of Dahai is the most beautiful woman across all five kingdoms," Yuehwa suddenly remarked, turning to look at Shoya. "Have you seen her before?"

Shrugging his shoulders again, he raised his bowl to his lips and finished up the last drops of stew that was left within. "Nope," he replied. "There are others who say that the princess of Hwa is the most beautiful one instead."

"And have you seen her then?" Yuehwa raised an eyebrow.

"No."

"Aren't you the least bit curious? Apparently the princess of Dahai is of a marriageable age and the king intends to find her a suitable groom from out of the many outstanding young men who will compete in the annual sparing championships. I wonder what kind of a man will be able to marry the princess..."

Shoya glanced over at her, looking slightly amused. "Why does it matter to you? It's not like an assassin like you could ever be a happy little wife," he snorted.

"I never said I wanted to get married anyway!" Yuehwa retorted. "Besides, I wouldn't even consider marrying anyone who can't defeat me."

"In that case perhaps you might want to consider planning for the rest of your life alone," Shoya replied with a chuckle.

Yuehwa glared at him, but couldn't find the words to counter him. He was right, if she wouldn't marry anyone who couldn't defeat her, that pretty much narrowed her options to only a handful of people across the five kingdoms. In that case, she might as well be resigned to her fate as a spinster for the rest of her life.

"Fine, nothing wrong with being alone," she huffed.

After that exchange, neither of them spoke for the longest time. They sat there side by side looking at the sun set in the horizon. Within half an hour, the sun had vanished entirely, and a sky full of stars now took its place to illuminate the night. Yuehwa placed her hands along the wooden mast, staring up at the stars and trying to identify the various constellations that she could see.

"Hey, that's you over there." She pointed at a group of stars to their left. "The Scorpion."

"That's not the Scorpion, that's the Ox."

"Oh?" Yuehwa frowned, not quite convinced that she was wrong. "That's definitely the Scorpion, you must have gotten it wrong. See, there's the Scorpion's tail right there." She pointed up at the four stars that appeared to be forming a curved line.

"In case you didn't realise, the Ox also has a tail." Shoya laughed. Taking hold of her outstretched hand, he shifted it towards the right, tracing out the correct constellation with her finger. "This is the Scorpion. You would think that I would recognise one of my own kind, no?"

Yuehwa quickly extricated her hand from his, her face flushing bright red at the contact that had been made between their bare skin. "Fine, maybe I was wrong. The stars are a little dim today and some of them are being obscured by clouds. On an ordinary night I'd be able to point them out without any problems."

Shoya ignored her and continued gazing up at the stars overhead. "Apparently you can read your fortune in the stars," he remarked.

"Why would anyone believe that kind of superstitious nonsense."

"A soothsayer once told my mother, back when she was still carrying me inside her, that I would be born under the darkness of a solar eclipse, where the sun, Earth and moon would be in perfect alignment and the moon would obscure the sun in its entirety. My birth was supposedly a bad omen for the kingdom, and if I was still alive at the moment of the next solar eclipse on my twenty-fifth birthday, then calamity would befall the entire kingdom."

"What bullshit is that! You believe that sort of thing?"

Shoya shook his head. "Not really, but there were many others who did," he said, "including my own mother. But she couldn't bring herself to kill her own child, so she had me smuggled out of town instead, hidden far away from those who would gladly see me die just so that the prophecy would never come true." Still looking up at the stars, he remarked sadly, "It's amazing how a few careless words can change a man's entire life, don't you think?"

Yuehwa opened her mouth to say something in response, but before the words left her lips, Shoya suddenly snapped his head downwards, placing a finger to her lips. "Shh, listen," he whispered.

Other than the sound of the waves and the sea breeze blowing across the sails, there was just the slightest anomaly that could be heard if you were listening carefully. The sound of footsteps hurrying across the floorboards, with a certain sense of urgency that betrayed the intentions of the people they belonged to.

Exchanging knowing glances, both Yuehwa and Shoya leapt down from the masts and back down to the main deck, following after the sound of the footsteps.

#

"Please, don't hurt me," a terrified voice squeaked from within one of the cabins. "What do you want from me? Gold? I can give you all the gold that I have! It's all over there in that trunk! Don't come any closer."

The intruders clad in black didn't utter a single word, inching closer and closer towards the frightened man who could do no more than retreat further and further into his little corner. Swords were raised, glinting dangerously as they took aim for the man's heart.

"Now now," Yuehwa suddenly interrupted this harrowing scene, "it's not very nice of you to be bullying a man who isn't armed, don't you agree?"

Her companion nodded. "Not very honourable indeed. What do you think we should do about it?"

The men in black had already spun around the minute they heard her, and were glaring menacingly at the two newcomers who seemed intent on interfering with their plans. "Get out of here and we won't hurt you," the leader of the pack said gruffly, his sword still poised for attack. There were about five of them in the room, Yuehwa counted. A little excessive. Along the way, they had already seen the corridor littered with the bodies of the man's bodyguards, who had unfortunately been disposed of by the attackers before they arrived.

Yuehwa wagged her finger at them disapprovingly. "If you had been a little quieter, perhaps we wouldn't have noticed, but I'm afraid you weren't discreet enough," she said casually. "Now, I'm afraid it's too late."

Her eyes suddenly narrowed, taking on an imposing sort of stare that made the men back away instinctively. In the blink of an eye, the red silk shot out from beneath her sleeves, wrapping itself around two of the men's weapons. With a quick yank, Yuehwa easily disarmed both of them, turning her attentions to the other three. As she dealt with another two, the last man tried to catch her unaware and launch an attack on her jugular, but with a subtle flick of his fingers, Shoya sent a silver needle flying right into the man's neck. He immediately collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain as his veins slowly began to turn a gruesome black, beginning from the point where the needle had entered his body.

The other men stared at their compatriot in horror, watching as he twisted and turned, crying out in pain as the poison slowly seeped through his blood to all parts of his body. Within seconds, the tips of his fingers had turned blue-black, as did the veins in his eyes.

"Anyone else still want to play?" Yuehwa called out.

The leader of the pack signalled to his men, and one by one they quickly leapt out of the room through the open porthole, disappearing with a splash into the sea below.

Dusting her hands, Yuehwa walked over to the corpse and said to Shoya, "This is gross. Did you have to use such a dastardly poison? Look at the poor man, no one should deserve to die in this sort of manner." Pulling down the mask that the assassin had been wearing over his face, she recoiled in disgust when she saw how the man's face had shrivelled up and turned almost entirely black.

"At least he died a quick death." Shoya shrugged nonchalantly. "I think I was being charitable here. I could have put him through a lot more pain."

Yuehwa rolled her eyes, annoyed at the man's arrogance. Turning towards the victim of the crime who had till now been cowering in his corner, she was about to ask him a couple of questions about why there were armed assassins after his life when she realised that the poor fellow had long passed out.

"Look what you did," she declared, glancing sideways at Shoya in disdain.

"What? Me?"

Yes you, of course it's your fault. It's always everyone else's fault, except her own. You'll learn soon ol' chap, the birdie who was sitting calmly on the roof beam thought to himself as he shook his little head.