Yue finds the hard way that shaping a future is way tougher than it sounds. It also is immoral for a woman to try, if legends are to be believed.

She is striving to become one of those females, those seductive manipulating sharp and powerful women, the witches that snare men to do their biddings. The villains in all children stories. The hated wrenches little girls are taught to hate and never become.

(Yue would like to say it doesn't affect her and she doesn't waver after the realization. But that would be a lie.

She does.

Yue was always the good daughter, an exemplary princess and the role of a merciless witch is foreign and unwanted. Her morals must be sacrificed for her goals and she just...she doesn't agree, doesn't see how power could change her so much but leave all men untouched. Some would say it's a just price to pay for her greed.

Yue thinks there's nothing just in an unfair situation, to begin with)

She has to learn to manipulate, to hide true intentions behind emotional frailty, use deceptive weaknesses to her own concealed purposes. She has to submit her pride to the cause, becoming submissive and meek. She has to master words. Master body language. Master looks and mannerism and smiles. Master herself. Put a mask before her Tribe, mislead them every day, just so she can do something useful.

(She has to toe with treason every day, defying the role her father has wished of her. She has to take every single value her people are proud of, every Tradition that has shaped her and...just, disregard them. Ignore them. Shame her own beliefs for ambition.

Is she selfish enough, arrogant enough to do that?

Yue doesn't think so. However, she is desperate enough, spiteful enough behind her docility to try. Her birthright is to rule, her blood is those of leaders and chiefs. Even then, she is found unfit just because she is a she. That, she cannot accept.)

She must give orders in compliments and shallow comments, in contemplative little remarks that must be taken as the root of action, as the basis of a plan. She must lead behind the scenes, become the writer of the script she will play all her life. Above all, Yue must be informed. Of everything and anything. Information is power, Master Pakku said once.

(Not to her, of course. Master Pakku has always seen her as an ornament at best and an inconvenience at worst. Insignificant but there, easy to ignore and overlook. Yue must find a way to take advantage of this, too.)

Yue finds, surprised, that being a princess already covered more than half of the way. She is already all those, she has all the requirements needed. She is docile, quiet, overlooked and yet revered. She meets and talks with all the little figures who carelessly share with their kind princess and a secret kind smile the little secrets of her palace. Such a kind little girl, she almost can hear them thinking, so curious and worried about the well-being of her subjects. How can we not indulge her in this little thing? they ask themselves with fondness.

With a purpose in mind, all is so terrifyingly easy Yue almost despairs. She chooses to smile to herself, instead. Mysterious and coy, the smile of a kind ruler.

(Of a true Liar)