Hwangbo Yeon Hwa bit her red lips – red not with makeup, but with blood. Her throat burned with anger, fear, and suppressed tears, and her perfectly dry eyes burned with rage. Rage at her situation, rage at the unfairness of it all – and rage at her brother that had ruined everything, but that she could not bring herself to hate, somehow. One moment she wanted to scream, 'How could you do this?! To me, to mother! To all of House Hwangbo! We all worked so hard, and you ruined it all – and you'll die for it!' The next, she wanted to be weeping and tear her hair out with worry for him, for he was still her brother, despite everything.

Wook would die. Yeon Hwa was sure of that. All he could do was to prolong his fate, but in the end, in a day or two – he would hang as a traitor. Yeon Hwa was not sure what would happen to herself and her mother. Would they be exiled, living in squalor and poverty as they had before? Or, as a traitor's family, possibly aiding and abetting Wook in his plot for the throne, would they hang as well? Would the king be merciful? Almost laughing, hysteria bubbling up inside of her, Yeon Hwa shook her head. Wang Yo didn't know the meaning of mercy. Queen Yoo had instilled that in him since birth, probably. Yeon Hwa would be lucky if she died – for she knew exactly the torture methods used in the palace's prisons. She had studied them, intending her enemies to suffer.

She should have known that Wook would not succeed in his plans. She should have bet on it.

Yeon Hwa was completely alone. Nobody would help her now, she could not coerce a single soul to do her bidding. Besides disorienting her and almost breaking her – it enraged her. Once again, she was made powerless, and now, there was no foreseeable future. Not for her, not for her house.

She had wanted stability, power – all she had not had as a child. She wore the richly embroidered robes she was not able to wear in exile. Every time she ate, she remembered the times when she could not. Every time her mother bowed to the passing Queen Yoo, bile rose in her throat and she wanted to stab that vindictive bitch until she bled out and stopped moving. Every time her brother looked down with that placating, ingratiating smile when he spoke to his brothers, she wanted to cry. These were the scars her family bore. Was it so wrong of her to make sure they did not have to suffer any more?

Wook's motives… At this point, she had no idea what they were. Yeon Hwa had always though her brother was the same as her, wanting a stability, a future where their family, their house came out on top. Wook had always been so careful, so patient and quietly strong, never drawing undue attention to himself. He had the reputation for being quiet and calm, marrying a sick, older woman from a high-ranking but weak family – a calm, caring man with no pretentions to power. Yeon Hwa always thought he would bide his time this way for the rest of his life, and she took her fate in her own hands, deciding to rise to the top in any way she could. Did she become greedy? No. There was always the chance that at the point where she was, she could once more be thrown away. 'But if I became more powerful, if I became the queen of Goryeo – no-one could touch me or my family ever again.'

Was this ambition? Maybe it was, for she never settled for less if she could have more. But did she care? As long as she got what she needed and wanted, it didn't matter what drove her, ambition or desperation.

She should have married Yo, even if he never became king. Even if Queen Yoo disapproved, she would have to be under the protection of the most powerful house of Goryeo. House Yoo of Shinju affiliated with the Hwangju Hwangbo… She would have had the power and stability she had always craved and coveted. So had never once loved her as anything but a sympathetic younger sister, before she had shown him her ambition, and she was foolish enough to expect anything different.

But now, she could do nothing but sit and wait until Wook was killed and Yo decided to do the same to her. What would become of their mother? Would she be thrown away into exile, yet again? Or would she hang alongside her children? Angry, sad tears rose to Yeon Hwa's eyes.

She had been sitting in this way for the longest time. It must have been hours, but it felt like years. When she had been escorted to her quarters, the open window was dark. Now, the sky was lightening with the pale pink of dawn. She felt angry even at the weather, at the beauty of the morning on which her fate would be decided.

Rather than suffer the indignity of the noose, she decided, she would slit her own throat with her hairpin. She would die on her own terms, and that would be her last satisfaction, because in the end, they could take her family, her rank and status, but they could not take her free will. It would be her most expensive hairpin, made from pure gold, with jadeite and ruby inlays, thin silver petals surrounding a large ruby on the end. 'It would be fitting,' she thought dryly.

Outside, she heard footsteps as if a procession was passing by, then stopping right at her door. She pulled the pin from her hair and slipped it into her sleeve, just as the door opened.

It was the king that stepped in.

Yo looked back to wave away the court maids and servants that followed him. "Bring us tea, then leave us." They stepped back, and the door closed with barely a sound. Yeon Hwa said nothing as Yo crossed the room, taking the chair across from her at the table. "Hello, Yeon Hwa," he said, his informal address very close to catching her off-guard.

Yeon Hwa knew how he worked. He would take his amusement where he could. And if she was to die this way, she would not give him any satisfaction. "Hwangbo Yeon Hwa greets the king," she said formally, rising and bowing from the hips, her hands folded in front of her waist. Inside her sleeve, she clutched the hairpin, her knuckles white, and the inlays cutting into her palm.

"You can sit," he said.

She sat, her face holding a blank smile, poison in her eyes. Yeon Hwa waited for him to speak, and seal her fate, but what he said caught her off-guard even further.

"I want to make a deal with you."

But she smiled anyway, lowering her head. "I did not realize I was in a position to bargain, Your Majesty," she said sweetly.

"You're not," he said with a crooked smirk that disappeared as soon as he made it. "But I want to give you a chance."

'Why?' She watched him carefully. 'What's in it for you?'

The door opened silently, and a court lady with a tray walked in, soundlessly gliding over the floor, pouring tea for both of them, then at a gesture from Yo, leaving her tray on the table between Yeon Hwa and the king. She glided backwards, and the door shut again, just as quietly. Yo took a sip of his tea and looked over at her. Yeon Hwa did not move towards the cup sitting across from her on the table, and Yo's jaw tightened.

He reached across and switched their cups out. "I'm not poisoning you. I'm offering you a way to survive this, and make sure your mother does not suffer." He sounded impatient, but he looked her in the eye, and drank from the cup she did not.

"What would Your Majesty have me do?" she asked, not even recognizing her own voice – realizing that she had spoken only after he nodded.

"Wook is still inside the palace grounds. But there is someone he trusts, someone hiding him from me," Yo said.

"It is not I, Your Majesty," Yeon Hwa said quickly, willing him to believe her.

"No," Yo agreed, "It isn't. As soon as I was told he escaped, I had you stay here, so that you would not be implicated in his disappearance and escape in any way."

Slowly, Yeon Hwa lifted the teacup to her lips and drank.

Yo faintly smiled before saying, "I need you to do something cruel, Yeon Hwa. I need you to find him. Wook is no fool, he will not believe anything I or my people tell him. But he will always believe his cute younger sister."

"If I find him for you… You'll kill him, right?" Yeon Hwa asked, biting her lip again, reopening the place where she had bitten it earlier, tasting blood. She tried to force away the vulnerability in her tone. "Why would I do that?"

"I will not pretend I will spare him," Yo said, his eyes cold. "But if he does not resist, his death will be painless. If you find him, your mother will live just as she always had, with every comfort at her disposal. I will send her away to Hwangju from the capital."

Yeon Hwa's voice shook, and she cursed herself again for that weakness. "And I?"

Yo took off a golden ring from his finger, with a ruby set into it, that looked so familiar- He set it sharply in front of her. "You could become a queen of Goryeo," he said, meeting her eyes.

Her throat was dry, and for a long time, she could say nothing, seeing the rising sun's rays glinting off the ring. "All to catch a traitor?" she asked. 'What's the catch?'

"To consolidate all the power in Goryeo. I will make every powerful noble house mine, so that no-one will dare stand against me. I have House Park of Suncheon, House Kim of Cheongju, House Hae – and now I will either have the Hwangbo, or I will destroy them. Moo failed in this, despite trying to follow in Father's footsteps and marrying a woman from every house he could. I will reign in the Songak elites – and strengthen the dynasty Father started, and Moo failed to uphold." His gaze was serious. "Think about it, Yeon Hwa," he said almost gently.

"Do you promise?" She knew she sounded childish, but she needed a confirmation that she could do this. Even if her house was powerless, her mother would be alive and well. And Wook-

She refused to think about it. It would be better this way, after all he had done; and maybe Yeon Hwa and her mother could have the peace that they so desired, that they deserved.

"Yeon Hwa," Yo said, almost amused, "If I make a promise, I will keep it. But if I promise you nothing, that is when you have to be wary. I always pay my debts." He stood, but she could not find the strength in her legs to do the same. The hairpin in her sleeve felt cold and heavy, a lock of hair that had been held in place tumbling down. "I give you my word, that if you do this for me, your mother will be well, and you will be Goryeo's fourth queen. …If you do nothing, everything will be forfeit. I will not be refused a second time."

She heard him walk away, and the door open, then close.

Tears began to stream down her face, and her arms fell weakly to her sides as she leaned back in her chair, the hairpin falling from her sleeve onto the floor with a clatter. The stability and power she had always wanted and her mother's comfort – for her brother's death.

Hwangbo Yeon Hwa knew better than anyone that everything came with a price. That simply the act of being in the palace required one to give something up, and that power cost more than anyone could imagine. In this case, she knew what she had to do, what she would do, even if she didn't want to. She could not sacrifice everything just for Wook. She would have to sacrifice Wook for everyone else. Her own blood brother for her house, her family, her mother, herself.

What would their mother think? Would she never look Yeon Hwa in the face again? 'But at least she'll be alive to hate me.'

She stared down at the glittering ring on the table in front of her, until her eyes hurt from how brightly the sun reflected off of it, and when she closed her eyes completely, she could still see it. It was a replica of the ring he had given her years ago, asking to marry her for the first time. Things had been so different then.

Passing a sleeve over her eyes to dry them, Yeon Hwa leaned down and picked the hairpin up from the ground, putting it back into her hair. She took the ring. It sat cold and oddly heavy in her palm, but as she turned it over and over, it began to grow warm.

Yeon Hwa stood, she checked her reflection in the mirror, and smiled widely, falsely, bitterly, just as she always had. She re-applied red to her lips.

Just before she left the room, she slipped the ring onto her finger.

/

She would do it. Yo knew that full well as he left Yeon Hwa's chambers, feeling the absence of the familiar ring on his finger and the taste of tea in his mouth. She was an immensely intelligent, ambitious woman – and she knew when to cut her losses. He just gave her a chance to do so. It wasn't anything as weak as mercy, nor as pathetic as old affections re-awakening; Yo dismissed that out of hand. He didn't want Yeon Hwa dead or exiled. She could be much more useful to him if she was on his side. He respected her, that was true. But anything more? Maybe it was an interest. But nothing more than that.

If she was not something, Hwangbo Yeon Hwa was not a fool. She was strong, and she was ruthless – all those qualities things that made her even more beautiful. 'A woman who can unflinchingly kill someone to secure her family's position, and smile all the while – what more could anyone want?'

What he was doing was not so different. The noble houses would either back him or be destroyed – because he was king, and he would stay that way – and he would make his mother happy. Yo hoped she was resting well at her temple in Chungju. She would return in a year and see his progress, and she would finally be able to rest easily as the Queen Mother.

Oddly enough, it was Hae Soo that his thoughts travelled to next. She would be asleep now, he knew. She would sleep, and sleep, and sleep – and still yawn and look tired every morning. Sometimes she would drink strong tea and complain that it was nothing like some drink from her hometown. 'Ka-pi? Ko-pi? Something like that.' Yo had his spies all keep him posted on his third wife's movements, and they would come back with ridiculous things like that to report. But there was something bothering him, and he needed to see her to confirm it. How was she taking the news about Wook?

He doubted she was happy about it, but he also doubted she was particularly shocked. She was a strange woman, taking that kind of news the way she did. Even though she was wronged by the eighth prince, she seemed distraught. It was as if she didn't hold grudges for longer than a day. At this point, she probably already knew of his escape. It was something odd abut Hae Soo. She seemed like a fool, and did countless foolish things, said hopelessly foolish things… But she was no fool. She was sharp. He didn't understand her at all, her motivations, her foolish ideals and her occasional slip-ups into her hometown's dialect.

The mint, however, did wonders for his headaches, he had to admit.

Hae Soo was not asleep, however, Yo found when he barged into his lady wife's chambers. She stood at the window, looking at the sun rising over the lake, fully dressed, her hands folded in front of herself, her smooth face holding an enigmatic expression, something like sadness, but not quite. She did not notice him at first, he waved his train of servants back, and she turned to face him, her smooth cheeks oddly pale.

"You're up early," he said dryly.

Hae Soo bowed. "Hae Soo greets the king," she said formally in her 'look at me I'm so quiet and polite, but I'm actually judging you really hard' voice.

Yo raised an eyebrow, saying nothing to that. He moved to stand beside her at the window. "You know Wook has escaped, then?"

She sighed almost inaudibly. "Yes, Your Majesty. The ninth prince and his guards came upon me in the library," she admitted.

'Good,' he thought with some satisfaction, 'She didn't try to lie.'

"Why has Your Majesty honored me with your presence?" Soo asked after a while, looking up at him.

'Honestly, there really wasn't any reason,' he thought. "I was curious," he said. "Will you watch the hanging?"

Hae Soo paled significantly, and he almost felt bad for needling her this far, as she looked deeply upset. "Only if Your Majesty orders me," she said in a brittle voice, not facing him, looking somewhere over his right shoulder.

"You are under no obligation, then," he said in a contrivedly bored tone. "I was simply curious."

She bowed again. "You are too gracious, Your Majesty. I have no stomach for such proceedings."

/

It was only half an hour before noon when Jung ran into her chambers, ignoring the protests of the court maids. "Soo!" he yelled. "Wook's in the palace gardens, and he's surrounded!"

Soo stared at him. "What?"

"Yeon Hwa's with him!"