Water Mirrored Moon - 水鏡月

Part V - Mistress of Hidden Night City: 103. Exile and Invalid

Sitting and rotting in the palace prison, Luo Yi Tian's stomach dropped as he heard the echo of booted footsteps coming down the stone stairs. After days had turned into weeks, he had not expected anyone, other than his steward and the guards, to come to see him. What alarmed him about the approaching sound was that there was no hesitation in the stride and the steps were deliberately loud for the person coming towards him had obviously had martial arts training.

Hmph...whoever it is, they're letting me know that they finally decided what to do. It must be time for my execution then...he thought bitterly.

He drew in his breath, feeling it come in ragged as he crumpled the paper in his hand. Although he had meant to write to his father, it would not matter whether the letter was sent or not. His father was lying in bed in the manor, and he had heard from the steward that his father had recently been sleeping longer and longer. It would not be long now before he died.

Even with all the effort of curing the poison, his father's body had been weakened to the point where he would never rise from his bed again. The person had just become an empty husk. Thus, Luo Yi Tian had thrown his entire life away to fulfill his promise, but in the end, he'd been left with nothing.

Men clattered to attention as the footsteps reach the front of his cell, but he did not look up as the keys jangled and the door swung open.

He felt, more than saw the boots that stepped around him and then a hand suddenly fell on his shoulder.

"A'Tian," said the Seventh Prince softly. Luo Yi Tian could not help flinching at the sound of his name, causing the shackles around his wrists to clank as the prince came around and settled in a chair in front of where he knelt.

"Your Highness," he acknowledged, closing his eyes in defeat.

For a moment there was only silence.

"You know why I'm here?" asked the Seventh Prince, almost kindly.

"Yes, and I'm relieved that it's you and not his Majesty," Luo Yi Tian sighed with irony.

"A'Wu's temper is better than mine," said the Seventh Prince, wryly.

"That is not so..." Luo Yi Tian muttered, trying not to remember back to the days when they were all students in the Grand Tutor's manor.

"What you did...giving information to Ashina Atil...what did you hope to gain?" asked the Seventh Prince, abruptly.

Luo Yi Tian sighed.

"Some of this was not of my own will. If you didn't already know, Zhao Ling Ye and I made an agreement between us...The supporters of the Crown Prince borrowed sums of money from me and then returned the amounts plus interest. The records were forged. The money was simple recorded as interest but in actuality the funds flowed entirely to traders who then "purchased" goods from Gao Daren. How the funds then made it to Xiyu you already know from the records seized from his manor. However,  more than half of it actually went back into the coffers of Zhao Ling Ye."