Warning: Self harm and suicide.

He received monthly updates on the status of his twin. Gwangjong looked at the letters sent by his spy and skimmed over the letters.

The first few had been infuriating.

The prince is enjoying quietly reading in his solar and taking walks around the gardens. He has been studying the history of Shilla and has ordered two new manuscripts be sent.

So wondered if it was all in vain- of his efforts to punish Wook had been a mistake and he should have just cut the vicious snake's head off.

He told himself to wait. Some punishments took a bit longer than expected. In the meantime, So took it upon himself to undo every strange twist and knot Wook had created in the tapestry of the royal court. Bribes were accounted for, promises redacted, and all of Wook's former allies were forced to be on their best behavior.

Prince Wook has taken up cultivating flowers. He enjoys sitting in the sun and reading.

Flowers. Of all things, Wook had decided to grow flowers. So sat beneath a gazebo in the gardens and sighed out at the pink and purple blossoms that grew in abundance. Those were Soo's plants. The very ones she had watered as a maid.

So tossed the letter aside.

Prince Wook has completed an entire shelf of books and has taken up wrestling. Prince Jung has come to see him. He did not bring his wife.

So had ground his teeth at that letter. Did he have to confine Jung to his home as well? Was it not enough to bar the youngest from Songak? No. He would not further exile Jung. Jung was Soo's only protection in Chungju. As much as he despised the thought of Jung protecting Soo, So would never allow her to come to harm because of the Yoo family.

Prince Wook's wife has birthed a son. The prince is extremely pleased.

Wook held out for six years. So endured letters of Wook happily going about his life, growing angrier and angrier as his brother sired more children and raised them without a care in the world.

Prince Wook was present for his son's fourth birthday celebrations. He has stopped shaving and no longer wears belts. The servants say the belts are too constricting, but his clothes have been altered because he has lost weight. The prince eats less and less every day.

Then, the letter he had been waiting for arrived. So tore into the cloth envelope with bored hands, wondering if another report of Wook's fashion choices had arrived. He had ordered his spy to refrain from sending word if nothing had occurred. Wook was too stable to break easily and So doubted even torture could put a dent in his brother.

After finishing the last book in his study, Prince Wook went into a rage and set his study on fire. He was not injured in the resulting fire, but two servants were killed trying to put the flames out. The Prince showed no remorse at their deaths but fell to his knees before his burnt library and cried until he collapsed from exhaustion.

Finally.

It took six years for Wook to snap. So read the letter over and over again, imagining his twin flying into a rage and knocking candles over in the study he had treasured as a child. Wook had grown up amassing his collection of books and manuscripts that could rival even the royal library.

The next letter arrived two months later.

Prince Baek Ah came to see Prince Wook. The two spoke and the Eighth Prince expressed regret over many of his past actions. The Thirteenth Prince surveyed the burnt library and departed without a word. Later, Prince Wook untied his hair and held his children. He laid on the ground, staring up at the sky. Later, while his daughters braided and played with his hair, he wept.

Scoffing, So wondered why Baek Ah bothered to see Wook. It was because of their eighth brother that both of their loves were dead. Wook was the seed that had sprouted the hell they currently inhabited.

Prince Wook walks the perimeter of his property every day. He touches the wall that separates him from the outside world. Carrying a sword, he fights off imaginary monsters and blames His Majesty for sending troops to come and destroy him. His paranoia is rampant. His children avoid him.

So read the letter before gazing at his nephew as they shared his table, having dinner together. "How is your father?" So asked the son of Wang Wook. He had allowed the child into his home after Wook's mother had asked him not to place the blame of a father's crimes onto the son. Not only the former queen, but even Daemok had pleaded for So to allow Ju to have a friend.

"My father is unwell, Your Majesty," the boy replied. He was a quiet but brave child. So did not hate him, but he felt no familial love for the child that Wook had made. To him, Wang Chi was but a speck… but he did not ignore the speck. Like his father, there was no telling what the child was capable of. So did not lower his guard around the boy. He knew that their shared blood made the child eligible to win the throne. So had no plans to relinquish his seat to the spawn of wang Wook.

"He used to be kind, but now he cannot see my brothers and sisters," explained the child. "He shouts and keeps his hair untied."

"You must be afraid," So murmured, taking a sip of his tea. He rolled the hot liquid over his tongue and gazed at the boy. Chi stared at him with wide, imploring eyes. "Is there something you would like to say?"

The boy swallowed and So peered down at the child as he quivered. "P-Please release my father, Your Majesty," stammered the boy. Standing from his seat, Chi moved to stand beside the king and knelt to the floor, bending his little knees before his uncle. "Please release my father from his forced captivity. I beg of you."

So reached a hand out and touched the boy's head, patting his nephew. He was unmoved by the child's desire to aid the father that had abandoned him. So remembered a time when he would have given his world for a father that barely glanced his way.

"Rise, Wang Chi," he murmured.

When the boy stood, So looked into his hopeful eyes and shook his head. "Learn this well. When a king decrees something, his word is irreversible." A lie, but So did not care to release Wook from his misery. He doubted freedom would even bring Wook's sanity back. "I shall not free your father. He is being punished for crimes committed before your conception, little one. And though I will not blame you for the sins of your father, I also will not entertain your requests."

Months later, So opened another letter.

Day by day, the prince continues to act like a caged animal. He yearns to see the outside world and to breathe the air that is not polluted by his own property. He has bitten in fingernails into bloody stubs and each day, he lies on the grass and stares up at the sky, weeping. He only wears white and just four days ago, took a sword to his own hair and beard, and cut the strands in an offering to his ancestors. He begged them to tear down the walls of his home and allow him a sight of the outside world.

So found a perverse satisfaction in reading the accounts of Wook's crumbling mental state. Privy to the gruesome details of Wook's self harm, So sat in his bedroom and stared at the far wall, mulling over the latest piece of correspondence.

Prince Wook's hands shake and a cough has overtaken him. His self-starvation has left him gaunt and haggard. He drinks beneath the stars and cuts his wrists in shallow stripes, letting them bleed as he weeps. The prince does not cut deep enough to cut any veins.

Then, ten years after exiling Wook into oblivion, So opened the final piece of correspondence sent by his informant.

After walking around the border of his home, the prince climbed over the fence of his home. He gazed out at the world before losing his grip and falling into the moat. He was found dead, his neck snapped.

So gazed up from the letter and sighed, staring into the rain that poured around Songak.

"Alone in this world… yet I feel warmed at the news of your death, brother." Murmuring to the storm clouds, So reached for his teacup. "May we never cross paths in our next lives."