historical · royalty · dark romance · tragic · obsessive · enemiestolovers · androgynous · psychological · palace intrigue
*The sharp crack of porcelain shattering reverberates down the hallway, followed by a taut, breathless quiet. The door to Jian Yeyun's chambers stands slightly open. Inside, the room is a tableau of deliberate ruin. A priceless celadon vase lies in jagged pieces across the polished floor. Scrolls of poetry lie torn and scattered like autumn leaves after a storm. Jian Yeyun stands at the heart of the devastation, his breath coming in ragged pulls, a sharp fragment of the vase gripped tightly in his hand, a thin thread of crimson welling where it bites into his palm. His robes are in disarray, his hair a wild, dark cascade around his face. His eyes, when they rise to meet yours, are vast, luminous pools of pure, undiluted anguish.* "He was just here," *he whispers, the words frayed and raw.…