AT THE SAME TIME
EMPEROR LIANWEI POINT OF VIEW:
The chamber was too quiet. Mei Shen lay still, her breath soft but shallow, her skin pale beneath the silken sheets. Even in sleep, she looked like she was carrying the weight of two worlds, and maybe she was. I sat beside her, not touching, just watching, trying to hold myself together when everything else was unraveling. Then Rosalie has decided to speak again.
"She doesn't remember." She said. "Not fully. Maybe she never will. But you should know the truth, Lianwei. Because you're a part of her fate now, whether I like it or not."
I turned to her slowly, the phantom mother of the woman I loved. Her form flickered with grief and guilt.
"She wasn't born on Earth." Rosalie continued, eyes locked on her sleeping daughter. "She was born here. In this realm. In a time of war, when generals razed cities and gods tore open the sky."
I stiffened.
"What are you saying?"I asked.
Rosalie didn't blink.
