Prologue

I still remember what happened that day, but the memories just get a little more unclear.

The incident was 10 years ago.

My elder sister, Feng Mi, was a prodigy in the elemental arts. She was particularly skilled in the element of air.

Perhaps she was even stronger than my father, the King of Feng. He was the embodiment of the Air and Thunder element. Many regard him as a messenger of the Jade Emperor.

She loved the outside, especially outside the palace. She would tell 4 year old me all about the interesting food and culture that I had never seen before.

From the Kingdom of Ping's long history to Zhang's unique garments. There was always something fascinating about what happened on the outside.

Unfortunately for the 4 year old me, I was never allowed to leave the palace due to my age. Maybe it was best I never left.

Feng Mi tried to sneak me out once. She had just turned 12 and I was 5. It was the Lantern Festival and the streets were even more packed than what Feng Mi would always talk about.

Eventually, I lost sight of her. Everyone looked the same to me. Feng Mi tried to dress in the same attire as them, but it only caused more confusion for me.

Since I was a child, the people on the street would move away from me, but no one would approach me. That was fine. I remember searching through every corner of the street we were in.

That was until I heard a familiar bloodcurdling scream.

Feng Mi was never afraid of talking about death, but it was a taboo topic as the elders believed it was bad luck. Still, I was aware of what death was. I just didn't understand the concept of it.

Maybe she thought it was because I was still very young that I would not understand, but she would always tell me how she felt 'as if her lifespan was slowly decreasing'. I didn't know what she meant at that time. Now I know.

I followed the group of people that rushed to find out the source of the scream, my legs were yelling at me to hurry up. What I saw would soon follow me till the end of my life.

But what is that sound I hear? Is it someone screaming? It sounds a lot like me…

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I opened my eyes, the familiar interior of my chambers were evident to me. The curtains, the pillow, the satin sheets. The sky was still dark, with guards patrolling the area with torches.

It was just a dream.

But it never was.

I looked at the candle next to my bedside. Three hours, that's a new record.

I stared back at the ceiling. I didn't want to leave my comfortable position on the bed, yet I was scared to go back to sleep, lest the dream repeats.

It was a never-ending cycle of torture.

In the end, I decided to light a candle and open up a history book about the 5 Kingdoms. It's name was 'Myths From the 5 Kingdoms'. It talked about each kingdom: Feng, Yan, Ping, Qi and Zhang.

It was a highly controversial book since the contents went against what many were taught in school, but the author's writing made it as entertaining as a fictional novel.

'In the early days of the world, there were only nine elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Thunder, Ice, Wood, Dark and Light. That was because they were what made up the entire world. You would always see at least one of them every time you look around.

Many say that Meng Lin, the Goddess of Visions, created these nine elements, but was killed before she could create a mysterious tenth element. It was said to be able to hold itself against the blazing flames of heat and conduct the thunderous lightning.

Humans eventually learned how to use these elements through evolution. They could manipulate their surroundings or generate their elements from their own hands. Some even more powerful could completely negate whatever environment they had or even absorb the energy of the nature around them. Hence, the term 'nature-born' came into existence.

But people eventually began seeing their differences. They began to separate slowly as those nature-born who grew plants could not co-exist with the nature-born that threw fire, so on and so forth. At the end, they soon were addressed as their element and -born at the end. Very rarely would you hear nature-born unless you were addressing everybody.

Though there were some elements could come together as a pair. Earth and Wood formed a symbiotic relationship through trees requiring fertile soil to grow and Ice needed Water in order to freeze. Without the Dark, no Light can shine through and without the Air, it was impossible to have any Thunder and Lightning.

This became the creation of the 5 Kingdoms, for every king had a queen as their pair. A Water King would always have an Ice Queen and vice versa. Very rarely would one take another of a different element, but it was not encouraged.

Only Fire was left alone. After all, it was the ninth element and didn't get along well with the other elements. It burnt wood, vaporised water and melted ice.

This however changed when Earth-born began to travel to the Realms of Fire to migrate, seeing as it was a city full of opportunity from high-paying jobs to good education. But, many soon grew to be unable to take the heat and died as a result.

Though some Earth-born managed to adapt to this new place. They began to transform slowly after having them and their descendants stay there for prolonged periods of time.

They began turning polished and gleamed in the light, something that had never been seen before from Earth-born as they were often dull, with few exceptions like flowers. Many suspected it was the mysterious tenth element that Meng Lin was never able to create: Metal.

The First Fire King eventually met a Metal-born girl, and after that the rest was said to be history as the ten elements came together in harmony.'

I closed the book. It was unknown whether or not Meng Lin had ever existed and it was impossible to know if Metal was an artificial creation as gold and steel had existed since the beginning as evidenced by the many ancient paintings where there were ten elements and not nine. Therefore, many people did not believe in the author's words.

But it does give a good example of how history may not always be truthful and can be changed to fit another person's narrative, or interpreted differently, though I wouldn't say we should believe it…

I let out a sigh. I was still unwilling to go back to bed, but my lessons cannot wait. I blew out the candle and closed my eyes, letting the night take me away. Perhaps tonight, there will be no nightmares.

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Feng Huan ("I"): Main Character; Second Princess of Feng Kingdom; Air-born.

Feng Mi: Feng Huan's eldest sister; First Princess of Feng Kingdom; Deceased.

Meng Lin: Goddess of Visions.