Peace, Peace

Ancient political intrigue, with a touch of fantasy and an ensemble cast The skies were clear, yet the scene was bleak; the omens were inauspicious. Kyoto was plunged into mourning, and the Princess Consort of Prince Yu burned herself alive. In an instant, the city’s skies changed, and factions across the realm began to stir. Everyone knew Prince Yu had fought his way to power over the blood of his first wife’s family. The throne had been bought with the lives of the Jiang family and tens of thousands of soldiers. Jiang Fuzhu herself could not understand it. He was gone, she was about to become empress, and everything had returned to its proper course. Had becoming empress not been what she had always dreamed of? For that, she had been willing to sacrifice her entire clan. Yet, somehow, she had returned here once more without even realizing it. Looking back, she saw a husband who had betrayed her, a brother who had died in battle, a younger sister married off to a distant land, and a lifetime of tangled, foolish entanglements with that person. Alone in Lihen Pavilion, Jiang Fuzhu gazed out at the night over Kyoto, tears streaming down her face...