(AN: I'll probably end up re-writing this chapter…I think there are a few bits that needed some elaboration and edits…Thanks to all who have read thus far. )
-x-
Lin recalled how she had soon found herself plucked, like a ripe berry, out of her poverties and raised up in the court of a Queen.
The weight of the sword's bare blade alighted upon her white-cloaked shoulder as she knelt, head bowed before her Sovereign.
The white marbled floors of the high throne room were cool to the touch, and Lin's breath came in soft pants of excitement.
"Rise, Lin Siniang, most ennobled knight and Chief Royal Protectorate to her Majesty, the high Empress of all China." The proclamation tolled from Alena's throat with gravity and personal pride. Lin's fine lips turned up at the corners, though she fought to control her indecorous grin.
She stood, facing her friend that she now called her Queen. She had spent so many years growing to love and know this woman, finding in her a perfect confidante and companion. Lin knew she owed the Queen far more than a debt of fealty. She owed her the life of the knock-kneed teen she had rescued from the dirty grime of the slums. She owed her the body and soul and mind that had been nurtured through all the years and tutelage.
The hardened heart of the once-poor urchin fluttered and swelled with something she mistook for self-satisfaction, but was in fact much more. The early sparks of adoration and amour tittered gaily, dancing sprightly in her heart, and making her body shudder with eagerness as she gazed into Alena's eyes.
"Do you swear to always uphold the ideals of honor, justice, fortitude, and strength? Do you swear to protect the life of her Majesty even beyond death itself?"
This was the true test. This was how she would prove her worth and her love: Entrusted to guard the most precious life imaginable.
Loyalty above all.
"I do." The promise rumbled headily in her throat, and Lin's dark onyx eyes soon swam with tears.
-x-
She remembered that night hidden in the gardens. Whispering, hunched amongst the roses, for fear of prying eyes and ears. With only the stars gazing down as witnesses to the solemn oath they had made to each other.
The dying roses were coated in a thin layer of frost, and their breath puffed out in long runnels of steam billowing from their lips. No one was awake at this hour. The inhabitants of the castle were all huddled snuggly in their beds, huddling close to the last vestiges of fire that crackled in their hearths.
2 lone souls sat upon an artisan- carved granite bench, hunched together and speaking in hushed tones. Their bodies were hidden by the tall hedges of the perfectly trimmed rosebushes, but the glint of polished breastplate and a satin gown could still be seen beneath the hems of their woolen cloaks.
The moon cast a strange pall over the perfectly manicured grasses and cobblestone paths of the Imperial Gardens, its pearly touch coating everything with an ethereal glow.
"I love you." Alena murmured, brushing the back of her hand against Lin's dark cheek. Fair fingers caressed the soft skin, and the warrior leaned into the touch. She blew out a sigh, heavy with all the cares of the world. Her eyes were sad.
"But we have duties, dearest. Responsibilities. War lies heavily on the horizons. The Emperor's advisors say that the whole country may be torn asunder. My father's armies are pledged to this land as long as I am married to His Highness."
The moonlight was ghostly, turning Alena's auburn hair a lighter, silvery pallor. The Queen suddenly looked far older, and far wiser than her scant 30 years of age. Her blue eyes were sad and somber.
"We cannot risk it. If anyone were to catch us…together…it could risk the destruction of all we know here. All that we love." the word dropped from her lips like stones, each one slamming into Lin's fragile heart and cracking it like glass.
"I'm sorry, my dearest. I'm so sorry." Eyes of limpid blue welled with tears, and Lin could sense a brokenness in her Queen. The words were killing Alena too.
Lin cleared her throat, swallowing past the hard lump that sat there, her words came out hitching.
"I vowed to do whatever it took to protect you. Even if that means waiting until we are old and grey before we can be happy. I will gladly stay. Perhaps someday when the Emperor has passed into the world of the dead, we can slip quietly into the shadows of history. We can live quietly in the countryside, just as you always wished…I will wait as long as it takes. I will be true to you forever, my Queen. I give you my bond."
"And I give you my heart, dearest. It has always been yours." The soft pad of Alena's thumb swept away the tears that Lin refused to let fall. "Always."
Love, they agreed, was beyond the grasp of time.