The palace was celebrating the the Princess' birthday. Her birthday. All of KOSMO had been thrown into chaos, the frenzy of preparation. The city gates were open wide for the streams of travelers and merchants and vendors and festivalgoers from all corners of Kwangya. Minjeong didn’t even need to sneak in. As the sun began to set, the crowds growing ever thicker, she simply walked through the gates with everyone else.

Strings of lanterns swayed along the streets of KOSMO, a glowing path through the darkness, leading from the gates to the festival itself in the heart of the city. Minjeong was swept along by the crowd of revelers, the sea of gold and white ribbons, white roses, and white masks, some shaped like long, white beaks. Gold feathers fluttered everywhere: they were braided into long hair, woven into bright pluming crowns and shining, iridescent capes. Minjeong felt like she’d stumbled into the middle of a royal menagerie, a city of magnificent birds. 

The Queen’s palace lay at the southernmost point of the city. Minjeong heard it before she saw it: the roar of thousands of festivalgoers, all those rivers of people converging in the same place, laughing and singing and cheering; the wild rhythmic crash of what sounded like a hundred lutes, and drums, and horns. The buildings lining both sides of the street began to thin out the closer they got to the palace, granaries and cobblers and masonries and other little shops and sharehouses replaced by manor houses, the buildings becoming larger and more ornate. More people. Still, the streets were lit with lanterns signaling the way. 

The street start spitting out everyone into a massive square—a white stone courtyard that could've easily held an entirety of a sun apple orchard. The courtyard was filled to the brim with people, lanterns and firepits lighting the crowd with a flickering orange glow, banners emblazoned with the Phoenix and the Queendom's insignia, The Four Pillars — Justice, Courage, Loyalty, and Love.

To say the least, it's lavish, beautiful, overflowing with food and color and light despite the late hour. Without the guards noticing her absence from her short detour to the city, Minjeong sneak in to her bed chambers where Handmaiden Yizhou is waiting to prepare her for the feast.

"Lady Minjeong, you know it's not safe for you to wander in the city alone."

"You know Mother will never agree. Even if she does, she'll send a party of guards to follow me. That will only attract more attention. Besides I'm back in one piece, not need to tell the Queen."

"I will not tell, my lady. Only if you promise to at least bring me to accompany you next time."

"There will be no need Handmaiden Yizhou, my First Knight will be hailed tomorrow."

***

Minjeong stood in the center of her bedchamber, a dozen house servants and handmaidens scurrying all around her. There were two handmaidens twisting her hair into a crown of braids, another darkening her eyes and painting her lips in pink, and countless others flitting in and out of the room with velvet-lined boxes of jewelry, hair ribbons, flowers, and gold body paint that during the ceremony would be used to draw the symbols of the golden phoenix on her skin.

Two hours from now, Minjeong will be introduced to the nation. The heir to the throne, the next keeper of the Golden Phoenix.

Presently, she was staring at her reflection, motionless in the large full-length mirror, thinking of the announcement of the participants in the Conclave. Handmaiden Yizhou was at her back, hands working quickly to lace up the bodice of Minjeong’s royal gown, pulling it tight around her rib cage, so tight that if Minjeong had needed to breathe as often as she normally do, she would have been suffocating. 

Her dress is made of silk, the color of bright yellow and bodice lined with hundreds of pearls ㅡ yellow and white, the color of the Queen, cut closer to the shape of Minjeong’s body, the bottom of the skirt pooling on the flagstones at her feet. There were no sleeves, and she would wear no robe—nothing that would get in the way of the ceremonial markings on her arms, her forehead, her chest above the neckline of the gown. On her head, a delicate golden tiara.

She met her own eyes in the mirror. She thought maybe her face looked different than usual, not just because of the makeup. Minjeong’s expression was usually neutral, controlled, her emotions and reactions purposefully tamped down except when she's alone with her Handmaiden. Today, she didn’t just look blank. She looked nervous. 

Handmaiden Yizhou fastened the last pair of laces and took a step back, taking a look at Minjeong reflection in the mirror, "You are beautiful as always, my lady," she said.

A knock on the door. "Enter," said Minjeong and her mother, the Queen and Lady Miyoung slipped in.

"You really look like your Mother when she was young," said Lady Miyoung as soon as she reached her place in the mirror, evidently provoking the Queen.

"I am young," the Queen retorted before putting her hands on Minjeong's shoulder to get a closer look.

"You look really beautiful, daughter,"  Queen Taeyeon continued, smiling warmly as she looks at Minjeong and Lady Miyoung alternately. "You got your mother's dimple right here."

"I hope you don't mind having warm hugs as your birthday gift," Lady Miyoung said, stealing her from the Queen's hold.

***

The music produced by the band coming from the Grand Ballroom can be heard from half a league away. The Queen began walking on the velvet carpet leading to the heavy golden door and into a large high-ceilinged chamber. The walls were draped with more gold and white velvet. A long, narrow pool ran down the center of the room, white rose petals floating on the surface like on the moat outside. 

Minjeong's eyes traveled up the length of the pool to the far end of the room. The queen’s throne: a dais and a high raised chair carved from one giant piece of white stone. Two more unoccupied chairs for her mother and her.

And finally, it is her turn to enter. 

She didn't dare to look around her, Minjeong walked straight, face neutral, not sparing a glance to anyone until she reached the Queen. A long silence. A servant came in with trolleys of gold paint and brushes. The Queen began painting from the side of her face to her neck leading to her shoulders and the exposed part of her backㅡa picture of the Golden Phoenix covered her empty skin. The Queen made her face the crowd and from there she looked. All of them wearing the same solemn expression. She looked at them, taking them in... and then she looked again... and again. Her mother took the golden tiara and put it above her head.

Princess Minjeong, Heir to the Throne, Protector of the Mighty Golden Phoenix

And then the cheers and claps exploded, she swore her heart escaped her ribcage. The band began playing festive musics while dancers and jesters took the center of the hall with their dances. She had made it, she was able to breathe again as she settled to her own throne.

The colors of the noble houses filled the grand hall. House Kim dressed in white, House Hwang in their rose pink gowns, House An in gray, House Shin in green, House Lee towering in red, and lastly, House Yu in their blue armors. Some other members of influencial bloodlines along with the members of the Council are dressed in yellow to commerate her birth.

House Lee offered her lands and livestocks, House Shin brought golds and lavish jewelries while House Hwang offered beds of flowers of different varietiesㅡlilies among them, her favorite. Everyone halted in their chatters when every member of House Yu came forward. Among the sea of blue revealed a beautiful lady dressed in a bell-shaped pale silver tunic, carrying an instrument Minjeong had only seen in books. She walked towards the band and whispered them something. 

"Her Majesty, I am Jimin of House Yu," she paused.

"I wish to perform for her grace, Princess Minjeong. Please accept my humble gift." she continued. 

Lady Jimin fixed herself on the floor, clasping the huge instrument on her lap. She positioned her fingers on the keys and the handle of the wheel, then a sound so new yet familiar to Minjeong resonate within the walls of the ballroom. The band began playing along and created the most beautiful music she had ever heard before. Everyone fell in trance, halting from their own conversations and focused on the performance happening in front of them. Minjeong watched as Lady Jimin glides her fingers to the keys of her instrument, swaying as if she and the hurdy gurdy became one. Minjeong closed her eyes and feel the music with her whole body until the music begin to fade into nothingness. Minjeong wants more, of the music or of Lady Jimin, she is not sure.

Lady Jimin stood up and knelt in front of the throne, "Her Majesty, please accept my participation in the Conclave." 

Minjeong was surprised with the sudden announcement. So sudden she wasn't able to react when the other champions started gathering in front of the throne, all announcing their participation to the Conclave. She had made it clear with the Queen when they sent the invitations that she doesn't want to meet the official candidates prior the Conclaveㅡto deflect choosing favorites.

It is all Lady Jimin's fault that she now have one. 

***

The celebration had exhausted Minjeong, as if she's dragging weight, a shadow, alongside her throughout the night. Inside her bedchambers, she found herself unable to sleep. She head outside to the garden, it has been one of her skill ㅡ sneaking from the guards without getting caught. She is looking at the stars from the fountain waters when someone from behind took her attention.

"Isn't the Princess supposed to be resting like the Queen ordered everyone?," said the person, her shadow cutting the darkness of the night.

"I could say the same to you, Lady Yeji," she remarked.

"I guess mischievousness runs in the family. Is it the Conclave?"

"Maybe. I heard your brother, Lord Hyunjin, is participating in Lady Minju's Conclave."

"Ah, yes. As always you have ears within the walls. He had announced his participation long before Lord Heechul sent his invites." 

"It's not the only thing I heard, you and Lady Ryujin have grown close. Is that why you can't visit me anymore, cousin?"

"It's already late, we should head back before the guard sees us. Good night, Princess." said Yeji already walking away, dodging her question.

***

At dawn, Minjeong woke up when Handmaiden Yizhou and two other handmaidens swept into her room. One flung open the curtains, flooding the room with pale blue light; one, arms piled with dresses, started laying them out at the foot of the bed; the last yanked back the silk privacy screen that had been obscuring a corner of the room, revealing a sunken bath and a big copper wat