His voice was guttural and low. Lord Sun-ye dictated his words with slow, painful authority and the princes listened in austere, awkward silence.

“As you may have already heard, the court had formed a harem for your benefits to draw attention away from the Emperor’s affairs. Now, despite this ulterior motive, the harem is still for your leisure and convenience and can be accessed to you at any time.”

Chen shot Luhan a look and the latter cocked his head to the side and gestured with his chin towards Xiumin, who put a finger to his lips and furrowed his brows. “But we weren’t talking!” Luhan whispered and Lay nudged his elder brother in the rib.

The old man, noticing the commotion, cleared his throat and the boys froze and straightened up slowly. “Are you even listening to me?” he scowled.

“Yes, m’lord.” The boys chorused in unison.

“We don’t wish for any more rumours to spread around the palace, let alone the city, so entertain yourselves and predispose yourselves to remove the suspicions placed on your noble and unfortunate king.”

“Yes, m’lord.” Again, in harmony.

“When will we reach news of Father,” Chen spoke up, and the old man, not quite used to someone stepping out of the boundaries, shook his head a little.

“Soon enough.”

It was dark and the girls, after about an hour or so had been giggling non-stop and were sharing stories before bed. A maid had come in to usher all the girls to an early mark in due course that tomorrow would be full of activities that required the girls to have all 10 hours of their beauty sleep. You were still waiting for a chance to read the note but in a life shared with 9 others, it was difficult to have some private time. When you were two hundred per cent sure that they were all asleep, you snuck out of the sleeping chambers, en route to use the chamber pot as a pretense and along the corridor managed to find some moonlight.

“Meet me at Palace Gates, wait all night, have new info. Q” A shiver of expectation ran down your spine and it was for times like these that you existed in the world. You thanked god that your robes were a dark colour that could easily blend into the night and tip-toed down the hall, out of the various labyrinthine chambers. You remembered you'd been guided through the same passage when entering the quarters so it was easy to reverse the steps. You tried hard not to make a sound when you slid the doors open and after a series of empty rooms and corridors, you finally managed to reach the night sky.

“What do you think he even means?” Tao looked disapprovingly at Chen- annoyed that his brother once again brought up the minor details but curious as to what it would pertain.

“Doesn’t matter what it means. As long as we do as we’re told, things will go just fine.” Kris realised he’d been gripping at his sleeves and slowly relaxed his fingers as the 6 brothers walked out of the room, swept up and perplexed at what had just happened.

“It’s getting late, we should get some rest.” Xiumin stretched and put one hand on Luhan who was walking next to him and the other on Lay, patting them each on the back.

“I’m going to stay up a while.” Lay shrugged and rubbed his temples.

“I think I should get to bed too, Xiumin,” Chen looked at the eldest brother and the two walked together to their rooms on the other side of the hall. “Goodnight.” He said.

“Well, ‘night,” Luhan turned into his room and yawned, leaving the three still in the corridor.

“What are you going to do, Kris?” Tao and Lay stopped walking and looked at the remaining brother.

“Count up the rest of my taxes.” Wufan pursed his lips and with a careless wave of his hands, walked in the direction of his room.

Tao sighed, he always thought that Kris was too much of a workaholic. He looked back where Lay was and found the place empty. He muttered something undiscernible under his breath and then made for the stables again to resume brushing his horses.

 (imagine it at night~)

The palace looked more intimidating at night than ever and after finally being able to see the night sky, you felt more relaxed, yet at the same time, weary of your surroundings. Looking around you managed to scurry in the shadows to the gate entrance and all was dead silent, even the crickets weren’t chirping. You tried the gates, but they were bolted fast. It would take at least four men to unhinge the massive wooden plank that kept shut the doors to the royal fortress. Looking around you checked the note if this was indeed the correct rendezvous.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?”

In one swift turn, you attempted to slam the owner of the voice right in the chest as a reflex to being startled, but the shadow managed to jump back just in time.

“I see you still have it in you,” in the darkness, Qi-yan’s pearly teeth glowed and it lit up his face in a creepy sort of way.

You exhaled deeply. “Don’t ever, do that again.” You shoved the note into his chest and he took it and stuffed it into the pocket of his pants without question. His ebony hair was tousled and his sleeveless robes were open, revealing the expanse of his collarbone and the dip just before his chest.

“I congratulate you for getting in. I heard the selection process was quite rigorous.” He grinned and folded his arms, leaning back in arrogance.

“Yeah, yeah. Get to the point. I don’t want to be kicked out on the second day. You wrote about new info. Hurry up and tell me.”

“Sheesh, calm down.” He shifted his stance and then looking around, almost as if for effect, he closed the gap between the two of you and began to whisper, “reliable sources have informed me that the King is faking his bouts of insanity as a secret code for something. They have a hunch that he’s being manipulated by some Lord, high rank, but not clear who. Don’t think we just have you, there are others like you in the palace too so you’ll get updates from them as well.”

Before you could answer, an arrow shot right past your neck. The two of you, surprised, jumped away from each other like magnets of opposite poles.

“Looks like we’ve been found. I’ll get someone to arrange the next meeting. Till then, stay sharp.” Qi-yan lost his joking demeanour and the smile that tickled his face, left his lips. In one quick movement, he scaled the wall and jumped onto the roof of the gates, without a second look at you, he disappeared to the other side.

You cussed under your breath. ‘Damn, jerk.’ You thought, always leaving you to do the dirty work. Running into the shadows where the bushes were, a trail of arrows followed your path. Till the darkness completed masked you, did the arrows stop flying, but then you felt a kick to the chest.