Dreams

Niyan embraced her daughter who hadn't stopped sobbing ever since her meeting with the emperor, her father and her brothers. It was breaking her heart to see her daughter who had always been so strong, shed non stop tears.

Niyan understood Ninou's pain. She was the same when she first found out her daughter would be getting married to emperor. Even though as a young girl, she had admired the emperor of Dayu who was known for his great prowess , his wisdom and love of knowledge, it was even claimed that the emperor's library had enough books to fuel a fire that would keep the entire Dayu warm for ten years. Whether these were baseless rumours or not, it was an understatement to say that the emperor of Dayu was only a wise ruler. He was charitable and kind, but she couldn't help but feel wronged knowing that her only daughter would have to travel faraway to Dayu to get married to the emperor himself.

Hearing that the emperor had come in person to pick up Ninuo, Niyan had dressed herself up in a fine silk robe suitable enough for a meeting with an emperor and walked out her room to join the meeting.

At the meeting she looked only at her daughter.

Su Ninou sat still in her seat, her face expressionless as though the betrothal was not hers. Her eyes never leaving Su Aoming.

The emperor had wanted to leave with Ninuo immediately the discussion was over, but was swayed by Niyan's pleading. He agreed to send a carriage in a months time to pick up Ninuo. Their marriage will be set a week after her sixteenth birthday.

After the sultan had left with his entourage and Su Aoming had returned from seeing him off. Su Ninuo got up from her seat. Her eyes filled with pain and confusion.

"Father why?" Was all she said as she finally let the hot tears stream down her face. She turned away from Su Aoming, not waiting for a response and ran to embrace her mother as she sobbed.

It was the first time in years Su Aoming had seen Ninou behave like a child. He hadn't known how she would react to the news, but was even more troubled seeing her this way. A father shouldn't have favourite's, but she was his. He doted on her and loved her, but what could he do in the end. For the sake of everyone in the kingdom he could only sigh as Niyan led Su Ninuo out of the meeting room and into her own courtyard.

"Why the old emperor" Ninuo kept saying between her tears. "Why now?"

"He is a good man" was all Niyan could say, more to herself than to Ninou.

"He will take care of you, he will not let anything hurt you" she added, trying to hold back her own tears.

The days passed by really quickly and it was now time for Ninou to leave for Dayu. As she sat in the carriage she calmly looked out at her family. Aoru was not here to see her off, neither was her mother. Ever since Aoru had heard that she was to marry the old emperor. He was furious and had tried everything in his power to stop the marriage. Su Aoming sent him to the royal temple to reflect on himself which was just a pretext for holding him back from doing any further damage. Niyan had chosen to go with Aoru to keep him company and to hide away as she couldn't bare to watch Ninou leave.

Su Aomi and Su Aochi would be escorting her to Dayu.

Ninou asked one of her maids to let down the curtain. Su Aoming had explained everything to her. And though she wasn't resigned to her fate, there was nothing left for her to see.

Through out the journey Su Aochi had tried to cheer Ninou up, and Su Aomi had been silent. Whatever the case Su Ninou didn't care. There was something else on her mind.

The day she found out she was to marry the emperor. She had cried so much and passed out, slipping into a coma. While unconscious she had a dream of a godlike handsome figure and a woman that looked like an older more beautiful version of herself. They seemed to be so in love, but their fate was tragic. Even though the man had tried all he could to save the woman she still passed away tragically. Even though it was only a dream Ninou woke up feeling very sad. She felt like she was somehow related to the people in her dream, but couldn't understand why. It was like a long forgotten memory that troubled her mind. For every time she slept she would have a strange dream of the man and she would feel even more sad.

"who are you, and why do I feel so sad dreaming about you" Ninuo asked quietly under her breath as she closed her eyes to think.

It was still a long journey to Dayu and she needed to gather her strength.