She unclasped the jade medallion from her waist, tossing it onto the table.
She began to strip away the heavy, suffocating layers of her formal court robes, desperate to wash the smell of the Imperial Palace off her skin.
As the heavy silk pooled on the floor, the quiet isolation of the room suddenly felt overwhelmingly oppressive.
It wasn't a peaceful quiet.
It was the quiet of an empty cage.
Ji'an paused, looking out the large, circular window toward the distant, darkened horizon where the northern mountain ranges lay hidden by the night.
A sudden, sharp pang of homesickness struck her right in the center of her chest.
She missed the Eternal Cloud Peak.
It was an entirely irrational feeling.
The Eternal Cloud Peak was a freezing, isolated fortress guarded by a man who had nearly frozen her blood because she spoke to a golden retriever.
