The Plagued Fate

Nora was awoken by hands on her throat, strangling her. Her survival instincts kicked in; she tried to get the hands of the person strangling her off her neck, but she could not. This body of hers was really too skinny and had no strength. She felt her vision getting blurry, and she thought maybe she would have a very short but sweet life in her second lifetime as her consciousness started drifting.

She was really reluctant to go, yet maybe because she had a handsome husband now, she felt it was a shame to just die without enjoying much, so she fought as hard as she could but was easily overpowered.

She thought this was the end of her, but she felt the person on top of her being kicked, and a rush of air rushed to her lungs, and she coughed desperately, trying to catch her breath.

She could hear the fighting on her side, and the guard assigned to her had the upper hand. Seeing being overpowered, the assailant fled while being chased by her guard, who returned a moment later to ask how she was. 

She answered that she was okay, vaguely still trembling, so very shaken by the incident. She was not here even a full day, and someone was already trying to kill her.

Her neck had a very glaring red mark and the clear print of the hands was visible she could hear the guard apologising and asking her to shower as she had brought a change of clothes and have breakfast although shaken by the experience she was hungry and tired so she went with the guard to direct her to the bathroom.

After having breakfast and shower, she felt much better as her body did not ache anymore sat alone, thinking about her past life and what she went through at the hands of a ruler and his mistress she remembered all the nights she spent in an empty chamber while he was frolicking with his mistresses and now she was here with a man she knew nothing about.

The palace-like appearance suggested her lover was also a ruler, leading her to question why her destiny always involved rulers and polygamous men; she preferred a peaceful existence in a riverside cabin, free from drama, responsibilities and betrayal.

The other thing she worried about was the memories she wished she at least had the memories of this host that way it would be easier for her to navigate in this place as she had zero history about the culture the only thing she knew were about the east in her former life were the things that arrived by sea which merchants claimed to be from this region.

 Surrounded by the thoughts of her former life. She felt her head pang with pain, which kept getting worse as she held her temples, causing her to curl into a ball, clutching at her head as if to ease the pain and then memories foreign to her flooded her consciousness, which made her shocked at her situation.

Nara tried to gather herself, but she felt despair. What she knew now was her life would not be smooth riding as she thought it would be, and she was not the handsome wife or even his favourite concubine, but just a mere maid, serving one of his many concubines.

Her mistress, a very dim-witted woman with high ambitions but very regular in terms of looks, talent or even family background but as much as her mediocre person she was ambitious, wanting to do anything she could to gain her place in the emperor's heart and palace and in this setting ambition without a brain was just death sentence but her mistress did not understand that.

Her mistress devised a plot she thought was a brilliant way to guarantee her easy ride through the power, which was to drug the emperor, sleep with him, and hope to get pregnant and give him a son.

What her brain couldn't really comprehend was the emperor was not short of women who could give birth. She didn't really think of the hundreds who had tried that before her, but the demon within the palace sucked the soul out of any son born within it, but she thought she was special enough to accomplish it.

 So started the long plot of looking to trap the emperor but it was difficult to do that with his attendance or with the women buzzing around him every time, but luck hit last night when they discovered him, drunk in the palace gardens without the usual convoy of attendants with him

 So she took action immediately and sent her nanny to prepare the special tea, and she went to the drunk emperor asking to help him and half-dragged him to her chambers to feed him sobering tea with a lot of aphrodisiacs.

The emperor, not aware of his surroundings, drank the tea, and she put him to bed, excusing her servants.

Zhao Lan, who was standing guard at the gate of the chambers, saw the hysterical and flustered concubine rushing from the chambers, gasping and immediately went to help her mistress, who told her to rush and get the nanny instead.

She ran to find the nanny and brought her and stood at the corner she could hear her mistress telling the nanny she just got her monthly cycle and rushed out of the room.

The nanny advised the concubine to get the emperor a woman because if she tried to spend the night with him in her condition, she would not only ruin herself but implicate her entire family as it was taboo to do anything during that time of the month and her chances of becoming pregnant were zero only then did the concubine agree to do that.

Now, the only problem was where to find some to relieve the emperor of the drugs.

 Zhao Lan stood at the corner looking at her feet but when the surroundings got quiet; she looked up only to find both the concubine and the nanny staring at her she felt a sense of impending doom and dread so she fell to her knees and crawled at her the concubine feet begging for mercy as she had a weak heart and did not want to get involved.

The concubine promised her she would take her place in the morning and pretend to be the one who spent the night with the emperor, so she should not be worried.

Zhao Lan told her mistress she didn't want to do it, but the nanny forced her to the grounds, forced liquids down her throat, and threw her into bed.

She had always had a weak heart since her childhood, and now she was frightened as she had never been a man before. She also loved a guard, and they promised each other to move to the palace in a few years to get married.

And now forced her into a bed; her heart pounded; it was drumming audible. She felt movement beside her, and the drugs, combined with her heart condition, she felt searing pain as the man above her mercilessly violated her.

 She started getting light-headed with to add with strenuous activity and she felt her consciousness fading. That is how Zhao Lan passed away at just eighteen years old to be replaced by Nara, the great queen of the Jurak empire.