Ten Years Earlier
Yara didn't even notice the knocking.
She was in their family shop room. She had been staring at the wall for some time. It had holes in the wood – termites? It needed fixing. Honestly, it needed replacing yesterday but her family had forgone the expense of maintaining the beautiful home that she had spent a lifetime building in lieu of keeping food on the table. It was a fair call.
Still – how long had this wood been at the whim of termites?
"Mother, the door!" Her daughter in-law called out. The sound of knocking suddenly came into her awareness. She could have been forgiven considering the low impact of the sound compared to the crying infant in her daughter in-law's arms.
Yara held out an arm to help stable herself. She rolled over to a kneeling position, the ache in her hands and arms shooting arrows through her being. Standing was hard these days.
"Mother, the door!" Her daughter in-law – Wan - wailed.
"I got it." A small voice whispered from another room. It was her grandson, Jun. Yara sighed in relief, but she could not sit down again to relax; not when there were customers at her door.
The little boy dashed across the room, tip-toing between the buckets of boiled water and rearing trays for silkworms. He knelt to the floor and slid open the door. The railings were rusting and caught before he could open it fully.
"I'm so sorry, sir." The boy bowed.
Yara had to squint to see the customer properly. He was a stout man, middle aged with rough, dark lines etched in his skin. His hair was greased back into a fine top knot. What struck Yara though were his clothes. Even at her age, Yara had an eye for fine clothing. His were striking. A black so clean that it reflected the little light that shone on them that cold, autumn day. His cloak was lined with fur, his boots made of leather, and monogrammed with flowers. He bore colorful ribbons. Ribbons, Yara understood, bestowed on Imperial Officials. He wore a terribly sour expression, no doubt impartial to waiting for service.
"Are you in the wrong place, sir?" Yara quipped.
"Mother!"
"We don't see too many fine men like yourself here."
The man's sour face contorted into a smile. Yara's wits won out this time. "You would do better to be more at haste in this market."
Yara smiled warmly. "Fashionably late, then? You could say I find punctuality just too ordinary in this market. I like a little chase."
The man went on smirking and took a seat. "Are you, I assume, Mrs Yu?"
"Depends on who is asking."
The man bowed – quite a shallow one, Yara thought, but she brushed it aside. "Koryo Lan." He said. "Master of Dragons at Huangling Palace."
Yara didn't move for a moment. It was her grandson, Jun, who spoke up. "Master of what?"
"Leave us." Yara said sternly.
Lan raised an eyebrow at the old woman. "Any chance of ridding that screaming infant, too?"
Yara pursed her lips together. She looked back over at Wan who glared at them but took her leave. Yara cursed herself for speaking so quickly. As the trio left the old woman and the man, Yara's mind flooded with the possibilities of why this 'Lan' character was here, and how he found her.
It had been only a few months since her secret meeting with Diao, the necromancer, in Mang. Whilst she did not regret at last seeking justice for Anh by having the Black Thunder – Hei Lei – and his cluster slaughtered, she realized in the following months that the superstitions of common folk may have been true. Dragons could bring luck – but they could also be a curse.
She couldn't be so sure, but it seemed too coincidental that after the mulberry trees grew sick. Their silkworms were no longer interested in their leaves. They had foraged only a small amount of silk this year – barely enough thread a few quilts together. They relied on wares that hadn't been sold previously, and were often in need of repair. The home also grew sick – the wood rotting or being eaten.
There was also less food now.
Yara had for years scoffed at the superstitions many thought dragons could bring, whether for better or worse. Now she wasn't so sure.
And of this Lan fellow – Master of Dragons? So soon after her meeting, what could he want from her?
Yara eyed Lan suspiciously, her wrinkled face etched with wariness. "Master of Dragons?" She mused. "That's an unusual title. And what business do you have in Lu Lin?"
A sly grin played on Lan's lips. "I've come seeking an Imperial Dragonkeeper," he said casually, as if discussing the weather.
Yara's eyes narrowed. "And why would I know anything about that?"
Lan's smirk widened. "Because, Mrs. Yu, the winds of rumour carry whispers of your involvement with the dragons, the very creatures the Emperor seeks to control."
Yara felt a chill run down her spine. Her suspicions seemed to be confirmed. She had indeed betrayed the dragons, but how could this man, Lan, know, and so soon? Was he cordial with necromancy as he was with the Emperor?
She had to play her cards cautiously.
"If I were involved, what makes you think I'd be of assistance to you?" Yara challenged.
Lan's eyes glinted with amusement. "Because, despite the rumours, I believe you may still hold the key to the dragons' future in your hands. I'm not here to accuse or condemn; I'm here to extend an offer." He waved his hand about. "I always wanted to visit the Silk Fields. I had heard of its charm, and its prosperity. But look around you. This place is a dump. You could smell the shit from a li away."
"Get to the point." Yara seethed, her pride bruised.
Lan leaned forward, his expression serious now. "Your family's fortunes are crumbling, and the dragons may hold the solution.
"I have no interest in dragons, and they have none in us." She added, "The Yu's were forfeited rights to some of the dragons many years ago." Yara thought on this. "Only the Huan family may have some right to claim guardianship; but you don't look like a Huan."
"I'm not." Lan nodded. "But the girl by the door is."
Yara's eyes narrowed. "I beg your pardon?"
Lan twisted in his seat and whistled as if calling a dog. "Come!" He boomed.
Now, Yara was terribly at a loss for words. The screen door etched ever so slightly open, and there stood a little girl – no older than 3 or 4, Yara guessed. The girl hesitated for a moment, looking at Yara with innocent eyes before cautiously approaching Lan. Yara's gaze flickered between the two, her concern growing.
"The grandchild of Huan Lao Longzi." He said suddenly in Qin.
Yara's eyes widened in disbelief. This girl, small and meek and certainly very ordinary, was supposedly a Dragon Keeper? The implications of this revelation unsettled Yara, and she couldn't shake off the feeling that something was amiss.
"Hello, little one." Yara said to the girl in Qin. "What is your name?" The girl met Yara's eyes with riddled confusion, and looked down again. "Don't be shy." Yara encouraged.
Lan shifted, looking rather uncomfortable. "She cannot speak Qin."
Yara shifted her gaze to Lan. "Why do you speak in Qin around her, then?"
"She must learn."
Yara was unconvinced. "You expect me to believe that a Huan descendant just happened to cross paths with you, and that she is a Dragon Keeper?" Yara's skepticism laced her words. "How could you even know without speaking with her?"
Lan chuckled, seemingly unruffled by Yara's doubt. "Coincidences can be curious, can't they? But her affinity with dragons is unmistakable. She is left-handed. She has Second Sight. Her mother claims the girl foresaw the death of their auntie, and the floods that swept through the East of Mang recently." He then added, though Yara was uncertain how he could have possibly known. "The dragons sensed her coming. That's why I'm here."
Yara eyed the girl, who stood by the sour man's side, her small hands fidgeting nervously. The child's innocent demeanour contrasted sharply with the weight of the responsibilities that supposedly rested upon her shoulders.
"Where is your mother?" Yara asked, switching to Qi.
The girl blinked, clearly understanding, then shook her head.
"Why do you not speak?" Yara asked, gently.
"She must learn that girls are to be seen, not heard." Lan growled.
Yara seethed in her seat. Her father used to lecture her in the same manner.
"What do you want from me in all this?" Yara asked in Qin, her suspicion evident.
Lan's gaze locked with hers, and for the first time, his smile faded into a more serious expression. "There are two dragons who need guidance, Mrs Yu. She is just one. Young, and a girl at that matter."
"And you are one, old and as flaky as the dandruff in your greasy hair. You are also not a Dragon Keeper., but still. What does that have to do with me?"
"I believe..." Lan queried as he scratched his moustache. It had crumbs in it which he combed out. "That your grandson may be a person of interest."
The words hung in the air between them. The expression on Lan was so determined, and Yara could see he genuinely serious. She tried to be respectful, but she couldn't help it. She began laughing. Hysterically! So much so that spit escaped from her tongue and landed on Lan's face. His grimace only made her keel over and laugh all that much more.
"I fail to see what is so funny about my enquiry!" Lan said, wiping the spit from his cheek.
Yara beat the floor with her hand, still laughing. "You…" She said between breaths. "You think…? Ahh haaahaa ha!"
She could feel the sour man's glower over her as she gave in. To any onlooker – even her family! – she must have looked maniacal. She began to calm, but still had a cackle in her as she explained, "Jun isn't a Dragon Keeper." The very thought made her chuckle.
Lan cocked his head. "He's a boy – "
"And that's where the traits end with him." Yara said, shaking her head with a smile. "He's right-handed. He has no extraordinary skill. And he has no Second Sight - he couldn't predict a sneeze on a pepper farm."
She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. She hadn't laughed like that in years.
Lan, meanwhile, twisted his face into a sneer as he continued in Qin. "It doesn't matter that he has no traits; the fact of the matter is, he is a boy, and the grandson of a Dragon Keeper."
"Oh, Lan." Yara tutted. "You and I both know how difficult it can be to be around creatures whom you don't understand. If he cannot comprehend a beast, then he is of no use to you."
"The Emperor wants only boys – "
"The Emperor is wasting his time." Yara snapped. The second she said those words, she wished she could take them back. To say the Emperor was wasting his time could be considered blasphemy, and Yara had no idea how connected this Lan fellow was to him.
Yara grappled with conflicting emotions. The girl's presence in the room may have explained some of the oddities in Lan's story, but doubts lingered. There was more to the story that Lan wasn't revealing, she just knew it.
Lan fingers curled into the ball of his palm. Yara could sense the cogs in his mind running on overdrive, scheming as he switched tactics. "Does it pain you to see the wealth your family spent years building, this home you created and this village you came to love, crumble before your eyes?"
Lan reached into his robe, producing a delicate parchment sealed with the imperial insignia. "People grow desperate as time goes on. Perhaps it won't be this year, perhaps not for many years. But eventually, those you thought you knew and loved turn and stab you in the back, and all for a single grain of rice. Savagery and chaos is the natural order of humans, but it is through governance that we keep peace. You have this opportunity now to keep that peace within your family, even if costs you a lie."
He laid out the sealed parchment on the floor space between them. "This is a royal decree, inviting your male kin to discuss the future of the dragons."
Yara's eyes widened at the parchment. It seemed there was some truth to this encounter. As she took the royal decree in her hands and read it, her mind raced with the possibilities of what could lay ahead - for her family and the dragons she had betrayed.
Yara remained silent for a moment, contemplating the offer. The weight of her family's troubles pressed on her shoulders, and the opportunity to regain control was tempting, even if it did force her grandson to lie… Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Lan's proposition than met the eye.
Then the realisation hit her like a force in the wind. "Which dragons are held at Huangling Palace…?"
"There are two Imperial Dragons." Lan offered. "A green and a purple."
Danzi – the green. He was once the leader of the Dragon Haven before Hei Lei, the Black Thunder, usurped him. Lao Longzi was his Keeper, once. It had been years, many, many years, since she had seen him, and he had taken their bond breaking painfully. Still, Lao Longzi would have never led Danzi into the hands of Imperial Soldiers.
And Lu Yu... the purple.
Yara's heart leapt slightly at the thought of the purple dragon. She had been Anh's second dragon. Though only for a short time, Anh loved Lu Yu, and she was a kind natured dragon compared to his first, Hei Lei. Lu Yu had been radically accepting of Anh and Yara's marriage – she even remarked once, according to Anh, how wonderful it would be if her and Danzi's egg were raised by their child.
Hold on. Their egg?
"Only two?" Yara confirmed, to which Lan nodded.
Yara turned her gaze down to parchment again, but only pretended to read it. The ink on the scroll blurred, forming ominous shapes.
Lu Yu swore she'd never returning to the Dragon Haven whilst it was under Hei Lei's control, and Danzi was too proud to come back after being ousted by his peers. Yara, despite her deliberate actions in ensuring the necromancer revealed her involvement to Hei Lei before the slaughter, had been convinced that Danzi and Lu Yu wouldn't have returned. In her heart of hearts, she was certain they had fled the Empire.
But still… a nagging doubt persisted, clawing at the edges of her consciousness like a persistent nightmare. What if...
What if… the necromancer discovered the whereabouts of their precious egg during his slaughter? There were still unanswered questions about how Danzi and Lu Yu ended up captive under his Imperial Majesty. Yara knew that dragon eggs held more value than fully grown dragons. Could he have exchanged them with the Emperor and kept the egg for himself?
Yara's pale fingers twisted the edges of the scroll a little harder. Her knuckles turned white as images of Lu Yu and Danzi descending upon Lu Lin flooded her mind.
What if… they knew it was all because of her? The mere thought sent shivers down her spine. Her eyes darted nervously around the room. The shadows from the sick mulberry trees outside danced in a sinister choreography. She couldn't be sure, but the shadows were whispering secrets… her secrets. And foretelling her family's doom.
Their wrath would be swift and merciless. Were it not for their chains, then Lu Yu and Danzi would rain destruction and fury to her kin. And if Jun, her grandson, were brought before them, he'd be the sacrificial lamb for their vengeance.
Vengeance…
Darkness consumed Yara, casting a dark veil over reason. Vengeance. No, this was not job offering, this was vengeance. They sent Lan here! They no longer trust Dragon Keepers, so they sent him out to eliminate them, one by one!
She glanced up from the parchment, her eyes wide with fear. The room, once familiar and comforting, even with its cracks and holes, now felt like a cage closing in on her.
"You…" she accused, pointing a shaky finger at Lan. "You work for them, don't you?" Her voice quivered, and beads of sweat formed across her forehead. The room seemed to close in, and the air grew heavy with the weight of her fears.
Lan's expression turned perplexed, and he raised an eyebrow in response. "Work for whom?"
Yara's breathing quickened, her voice growing louder and more desperate. "Lu Yu and Danzi! You work for them!"
"I haven't a clue who you are talking about – "
"-and you expect me to hand over my grandson - my only grandson - to feed their wrath!"
Lan leaned back, his calm demeanour giving way to genuine concern. "Mrs. Yu, I assure you—"
But Yara's paranoia had taken over completely. The weight of her past actions bore down on her, and she couldn't differentiate between reality and the fears that gripped her heart. "Even if Jun had the characteristics – I would never hand him over to you! Get out! Get out before you doom us all!" she shrieked, her voice cracking with hysteria. "I won't let them kill him!"
The havoc of raised voices led to Wen rushing into the room. She stood by the doorway, petrified, as Yara continued to scream in Qin, convinced that Lan was the harbinger of destruction. The scene unfolded into chaos as Yara demanded Lan's departure. He eventually grasped the little girl's wrists and left. Yara's panic did not end there, however. She splayed across the floor on all fours, despite the pain in her joints, and crawled for the door. She continued to yell obscenities and curses in Qin until the pain was all too much and she slipped into the darkness in her eyes.