1 Chapter 1

Cold.

One word to describe the weather. Eyrial had a different kind of cold than Arka. It was a wet cold, the rain that had fallen the night before was still in muddy puddles along the dirt road. While they walked the looming trees along the sides of the road let the droplets of water drip down, occasionally hitting one of the soldiers.

There were a total of 71 people, 13 horses, and 2 carts. There were 20 slaves, 5 women inside with the Princess and 5 more in the cart them with 10 other male eunuchs. There were 50 guards in total. All together they were a very large group but they were all tired and worn.

They had all started in Eyrial and have traveled 1,834 miles of their journey to Arka. They had 6 miles before they would reach the palace, their final destination.

Mei Lian had spent her weeks of travel in complete ignorance to the hardships outside of her cart. Her only consern was not getting there in time for the Emperor.

The princess had been invited to visit the Emperor to be one of the selected few to compete for the spot of the next empress. To Mei's knowledge, she would be the only one to be there for a whole week before the other women would arrive. She had only heard stories of the Emperor, that's all anyone ever really heard about the man.

"Are we almost there?" Mei opened one of the curtains to the cart. There was a black Horse riding right along side, it's rider the only person to be on a horse. They nodded their head.

"Yes, princess." The princess frowned.

"I told you not to call me that!"

"Yes Mei, we are almost there. About an hour more." The Princess smiled at her friend.

"Thank you Lei." The Princess always made sure to use manners, it had been drilled into her since birth.

The princess was born and raised in Eyrial her whole life. It was a large island where her ansestors

They again all traveled in silence. It had been that way for most of the trip. The horses started to get antsy. Lei even had to reign their own horse down. Something was off.

Lei looked around surveying the area, they wouldn't let anything slip, the princess would arrive safe and on time.

The horse knew to move as Lei's heel tapped his side. They broke off from the group and went towards the woods. Lei rememeberd every day of training, Lei's whole life was dedicated to preparing for this trip.

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"Push! Your enemy will never give up!" Lei jumped the katana in her hand feeling heavier than it should have. It was heavier than usual, to begin with since it was helping Lei build muscle, but after hours of training, it felt like she was holding an elephant. Lei did as instructed as the sword clashed with the opponents. Grunts of struggle could be heard from the man fighting Lei, the 12-year-old was a highly skilled fighter, one grown men had trouble fighting.

Even though Lei's strength wasn't as great as the full-grown man, Lei was faster and smarter than the average warrior for the Emperor. Using skills and the lesson Lei was taught by the Emperor himself, Lei was taught to fight smarter not harder.

"Finish it and move on!" The emperor was not very kind to Lei when he was teaching. Lei ducked quickly before kicking the man's sword out of his hands. Lei dug the tip of the sword into the man's neck only slicing slightly as to simulate the fatal blow.

Lei was breathing hard, even though it was meant to be training it was like a living hell to her. Lei had been chosen at birth to protect princess Mei, failure was not an option.

"Enough...." The Emperor was satisfied, Lei wouldn't stop until he was satisfied. Lei's life would only continue if the power above was satisfied.

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Lei knew it was too late as the screams of bandits filled the air.