Feathered Memories -Prologue-

In a quiet corner of a large extravagant library sat a beautiful young Chinese woman. She was wearing traditional clothing of nobility from the Tang Dynasty. Her long black hair framed her delicate face. She had soft and expressive features which could never be read by anyone even her most trusted friends.1

“Mei I finished…” a male voice began to say but stopped mid sentence noticing the girl not paying any attention. “Mei, Your Majesty, snap out of it,” the man walked over to the girl putting the pile of papers he was holding down and nudged the girl slightly and she looked at him. He was a tall Asian and was wearing clothing from the same dynasty as the girl although he didn’t seem to be Chinese; rather, he looked of Korean and Japanese descent. He had hair on the longer side, almost reaching his shoulders. He was certainly one to keep on your good side for he seemed serious about everything he did but when with those he cared for it was as though he would do anything for them.2

“Oh…Shen…I’m sorry…I must have spaced out for a moment. What is it you were saying?” she smiled and came back to her senses. He sighed and looked at her.3

“I finished the work you assigned to me, are you alright?” she nodded and he gave her a questioning look knowing something was on her mind. He sat down on a chair next to her and continued to ask her if she was feeling alright until she finally told him what was on her mind.4

“Really I’m fine…it’s just…do you know what today is?” she asked him and he thought carefully for a moment but could not recall anything so he said the first thing that came to his mind.5

“The day you decide to throw all of your work on me?” he joked and she smiled slightly and shook her head. She pulled out a comb with amethyst stones and small flowers sculpted on it from her pocket. He looked at the comb and then back at her not realizing that it was that day. 6

“The day…the day we met and this all became real,” she responded “so real that now the memories are only similar to feathers that have fallen from a bird, beautiful…but now cannot be used…and in our case cannot be relived.” 7

“Mei…I didn’t realize…I know your birthday was yesterday but I forgot today was the day we met,” he felt guilty for not remembering the day he had met his princess and the day he became her partner. 8

“It’s alright don’t worry about it, but I would like to “relive” our memories,” Shen nodded, it had been a long time since the two had talked about the past, a past neither of them would soon forget. 9